Wednesday (April 11):
The first session I attended was Getting Traffic from Contextual Ads.
What I Learned:
- Chris Bowler (I didn’t catch who he works for) said that content CPCs are more affordable. This may change over time, but if you’re looking for inexpensive, efficient clicks, it may be an option over expensive keywords.
- Anton E. Konikoff from Acronym Media had great bullet points in his presentation. He stressed the importance of your ads being in the top positions. Visitors may ignore ads that fall beneath the 3rd/4th position as opposed to search, because they are not actively looking for you.
- Don Steele from Comedy Central had some really cool examples of how they have successfully used contextual ads to drive traffic to their site. Contextual ads are great for branding–they bid on keywords surrounding key programs and internet buzz. For shows, they’ll bid on keywords pre-broadcast for branding purposes and post-broadcast to build traffic.
My Question:
Is there a standard conversion rate for contextual ads? What constitutes a successful conversion rate?
The second session I went to was Creating Compelling Ads. I think I arrived a bit late to this session, since I only have notes on two speakers’ presentations.
What I Learned:
- Vic Drabicky reminded us that the goal isn’t to get every click, but every profitable click.
- Darren Kuhn recommended testing your ads by creating 4-6 new creatives with different message types (official site language, capitalization and punctuation, price points, free shipping, product guarantees, etc), placing unique tracking on each creative so that the conversion and CTR can be traced, and disabling auto optimizers (currently not an option on MSN) in order to get an even sample. Track which ad outperforms the rest.
My Question:
I’m actually going to steal a question that someone from the audience asked: For the display URL, do you recommend having domain.com/item or item.yourdomain.com? I forgot who answered the question, but he recommended simply testing which one performs better. He also cautioned to make sure the page only has that item (specifically target that item; otherwise, you could get rejected and have relevance issues).
After this session wrapped up, I met up with Jane and we went to tape an interview with Michael McDonald for WebProNews. We talked about social media (or, rather, Jane talked about social media and I sat there like an idiot because she’s the social media guru at SEOmoz). I have no idea when it’ll be aired, so keep an eye out for it.
With the video completed, I dashed over to catch the last part of the Landing Page Testing and Tuning panel.
What I Learned:
- Tom Leung from Google said that 1st time tester pitfalls include too many combos, making your conversion goal too far out, making your variations too subtle, and stopping your tests too early.
- Scott Miller from Vertster recommended increasing page visibility to grab attention, which will decrease the bounce rate. If you increase the ability for your site to capture attention, you’ll increase your conversions.
- Jamie Roche from Offermatica said that for most companies, optimization doesn’t happen on one page, but across multiple pages/sessions; therefore, it’s essential to optimize for different user groups.
My Question:
What does Jamie mean when he said there is no single optimal page, only an average optimal page? I’m assuming he’s referring to a general set of guidelines that, on average, equate to an optimal page, but that there’s no single formula for success?
Hanging out at the Webmaster Radio booth
Anyway, the mozzers reunited at the MSN dinner, which was at an awesome Cuban restaurant (awesome because there was a dude at the bar whose sole role was to make mojitos all night long). When we got back from dinner, we ran into Neil and started making fun of him for being so lithe. And then I realized the following:
The three party mozzers hung out at the bar for the rest of the night. Jane and Scott called it a night while I hung out in the hotel lobby with several SEOs and watched Dax pick the lock on the lounge piano and start playing briefly before getting yelled at by security. The shit proceeded to hit the fan as every SEO in the lobby started arguing with two security guys and a hotel manager about our right to hang out in the lounge. It was amusing and crazy, and I’m sure the whole fracas is up on YouTube somewhere, as one SEO was keen enough to videotape the ordeal. After that, I hung out with some Best of the Web guys (Brian and Greg), Andrea Schoemaker, Cameron, and Guillaume until roughly 6:15 am.
Thursday (April 12):
Hey, guess which two female mozzers forgot to set their alarm? We did, and consequently missed the SEO Ladies who Lunch. Jane felt guilty and decided to attend a couple sessions, while Scott and I met Mystery Guest at the MOMA to get our modern art on. Oh, and WebProNews put up a video that quoted me from a phone interview they did with me a week ago. You could drive a truck through my pauses. Check it out if you want to hear me try and sound smart, and if you want to see WebProNews misspell my last name (two e’s, dudes!):
Afterwards, we spent an Evening with Danny Sullivan, then Scott had dinner with some folks in Chinatown while Jane and I met up with Rae Hoffman, Tamar Weinberg, and Lisa Barone for dinner, drinks, and debauchery.
The prettiest and smartest bloggers in SEO
Friday (April 13):
Sweet sassy molassy, the conference is almost over. Jane and I checked out of our room and caught the tail end of Rand’s presentation for the Link Bait session. I missed him referencing my super awesome Worst College Mascots linkbait for Drivl. The rest of the session was, per usual, fantastic. I’ve seen the Link Bait session three or four times, and even though I could practically recite everyone’s presentations, it’s one of my favorite sessions because the energy is high, the humor is great, and the audience has a great time.
Once the session wrapped up, Jane, Scott, and I got some lunch and hung around until it was time to fly out. Aaaaand, that about summarizes my week at SES NY.
I’d like to finish this absurdly long post (sorry folks, I’m long-winded) by making some shout outs to SEOmoz readers Risa Borsykowsky, Joe Whyte, Kevin Gleeson, and Sam, (whose last name I don’t remember, but she’s super awesome so Sam, if you’re reading this, bug me and I’ll give you a link). It was really cool meeting people who regularly participate and contribute to our blog, and they’re all great, fun people.
Anyway, that’s about it. The week was long, I got no sleep, my liver hates me, and I got a taste of what I want to learn about PPC and advertising…so basically, I had a great time.
