1. Did-it.com 352 7 th Ave, Third Floor, New York, NY 10001 © 2004 Did-it.com, Inc. SES Toronto, May 2004 Perfecting Paid Listings By Kevin Lee CEO, Did-it.com, Inc.

2. Did-it.com 352 7 th Ave, Third Floor, New York, NY 10001 © 2004 Did-it.com, Inc. Nothing Less Than Perfection Will Do Paid placement SEM is a zero-sum game. In order to play that game, you need to be the absolute best you can be. Right Keywords Right Price Right Time Best Landing Pages Best Conversion Eliminate waste within a campaign Capitalize on every opportunity your competition leaves open

3. Did-it.com 352 7 th Ave, Third Floor, New York, NY 10001 © 2004 Did-it.com, Inc. Paid Placement Prices, Can You Afford? Some keywords are at very high CPC prices. Can you afford the cost to play in the high opportunity segments? Execute the best possible campaign strategy Learn what techniques and technology will allow you to execute a campaign that is nearly flawless. It’s the only way you can justify the high CPCs, particularly on competitive keywords. Eliminate waste: Is each listing delivering the absolute highest level possible? Where is your waste? Wrong price, wrong position, wrong time of day, wrong day of week, wrong listing copy, wrong landing page… Capitalize on opportunities: Are there opportunities to capture incremental volume at your target ROI.

4. Did-it.com 352 7 th Ave, Third Floor, New York, NY 10001 © 2004 Did-it.com, Inc. Top 12 SEM Mistakes: 1)Failure to go extremely broad in keyword selection 2)Failure to track and optimize at the keyword level giving each listing the appropriate level of attention (grouping keywords for tracking optimization) 3)Running too many broad match listings in Google (Ad Group breakouts) 4)Neglecting to use negative match when running broad listings 5)Setting daily caps or using insertion orders (throttling a campaign) 6)Using average data for campaign decisions (not going granular) 7)Failure to test landing pages for high opportunity keywords (coupling) 8)Missing offline conversions (phone, store, catalog) 9)Failure to consider lagged conversions or early buying cycle behavior 10)Tying to use gaming techniques in position based bid strategies 11)Failure to understand profit maximization and elasticity issues 12)Failure to understand how listing creative impacts each engine’s ROI

5. Did-it.com 352 7 th Ave, Third Floor, New York, NY 10001 © 2004 Did-it.com, Inc. Keyword Strategies, Best Practices: Go Broad: Keywords are the foundation of a campaign. 35-40% of searches are three words or longer Before you do any search engine marketing, develop a strong keyword strategy. Some tips: a)Inventory tool at Overture (based on a root word) b)Google keyword tool (includes synonyms, phrases and related terms) c)Wordtracker.com d)AlataVista “Refine Your Search” Teoma “Refine Suggestions to narrow your search” Other Engines with search refinements. e)Did-it.com’s keyword suggestion tool f)HitWise g)ComScore (a custom solution)

6. Did-it.com 352 7 th Ave, Third Floor, New York, NY 10001 © 2004 Did-it.com, Inc. Track AND Optimize at the keyword level: It’s not only about tracking. Over emphasis on tracking is like driving a car by looking in the rear view mirror: a)Track at the keyword level b)Act at the keyword level c)Know what your best opportunities are d)Give each segment of your campaign the right level of attention, based on 1)Volatility 2)Upside Potential 3)Potential for Waste

7. Did-it.com 352 7 th Ave, Third Floor, New York, NY 10001 © 2004 Did-it.com, Inc. Beware of Google’s Broad Match: Do NOT use Google’s Broad Match For Power Keywords indefinitely: a)Break down broad match listings into new AdGroups b)Hone the creative c)Change the landing pages d)Insert Negatives both after breaking out campaigns and before. Higher CTR, better position, lower cost. Your ROI will increase as listings get cheaper and more efficient.

8. Did-it.com 352 7 th Ave, Third Floor, New York, NY 10001 © 2004 Did-it.com, Inc. Insertion Orders and Budget Caps: DO NOT Set Budget Caps or ser Insertion orders at the price you really want to spend: a)Google or the engine will kill off your highest ROI keywords b)Take control through the use of technology that will cut back on poor ROI terms if the budget will be exceeded c)Inventory predictions are usually wrong 1)Assumed CTRs 2)Assumed search volume 3)Assumed levels of competition

9. Did-it.com 352 7 th Ave, Third Floor, New York, NY 10001 © 2004 Did-it.com, Inc. Averages will kill a campaign & your business: Using historical averages have little bearing on the current marketplace: a)Look at directional trends b)Drill down by time of day, and day of week c)Fine tune a campaign based on the latest granular data

10. Did-it.com 352 7 th Ave, Third Floor, New York, NY 10001 © 2004 Did-it.com, Inc. Creative Strategies: Landing Pages Always test landing pages as a lift in conversion Ambiguous listings could have multiple good landing pages. Which one works best? Category, Most Popular Product Change the offer (free shipping, flat rate shipping, no offer) Change image, navigation choices, merchandising, copy length, headline Small lift in landing page conversion is a huge lift in efficiency. The multiplier effect works both ways. CASE STUDY Dice.com: Significant double digit percentage improvement in ROI on campaign by testing landing page offers.

11. Did-it.com 352 7 th Ave, Third Floor, New York, NY 10001 © 2004 Did-it.com, Inc. The Big Picture, Offline Conversions For many businesses, 60-90 percent of conversion happens offline. Basing click price decisions purely on online behavior ingores the big picture

12. Did-it.com 352 7 th Ave, Third Floor, New York, NY 10001 © 2004 Did-it.com, Inc. SEM and the Buying Cycle Campaign Goals and Objectives should line up with the profile of the searcher.

13. Did-it.com 352 7 th Ave, Third Floor, New York, NY 10001 © 2004 Did-it.com, Inc. How To waste Everyone's Time, Games: Games with position only waste everyone’s time. Position-based Bidding Bid Jamming Gap Chicken Instead, develop strategies based on profit and ROI

14. Did-it.com 352 7 th Ave, Third Floor, New York, NY 10001 © 2004 Did-it.com, Inc. Profit Maximization: You always have a choice where to invest your budgets. With Overture and Google, you trade off incremental profit for order volume. However for most companies, total profit is more important ROI/profit per item. For example, pick one: 30 orders earn $10 / order after marketing cost ($300) 100 orders that make you $8 per order ($800).

15. Did-it.com 352 7 th Ave, Third Floor, New York, NY 10001 © 2004 Did-it.com, Inc. Know The Engine’s Creative Nuances: Google. Rewards CTR, but high CTR can sometimes dilute quality Test your ROI for different creative Overture. Lower CTR may be acceptable but low Click Index can result in ad cancellation Determine your volume, vs. prequal levels FindWhat, Kanoodle, Enhance, etc…. Read the editorial guidelines

16. Did-it.com 352 7 th Ave, Third Floor, New York, NY 10001 © 2004 Did-it.com, Inc. Conclusion: Paid Search Marketing is a zero-sum game. The best marketers will win and the others will lose. Education on best practices is critical. Don’t fool yourself with averages. In the end, the best marketer wins the search engine battle. Control risk through education, best practices, smart people, and appropriate use of effective technology. Do SEM right and you win, do it wrong and your competition wins. Questions? e-mail Kevin Lee CEO of Did-it.com. kevin@did-it.com