The main point of the Microsoft event I was at yesterday was around improving travel advertising. We started with a bunch of numbers about how things compare from adCenter to the other players in this space:

Conversions

Across the board, Nielsen Netratings have found that adCenter convert at a rate 81% higher than the average UK searcher. In particular, they see a conversion rate nearly twice as high as on Google: 5.8% vs 3%.

In the travel market specifically, these numbers change to: 9.4% for Live vs 6.3% for Google.

Engagement

In addition to higher conversion rates, they see greater engagement (I didn’t want to tell them Avinash’s view that engagement isn’t really that great a metric):

Average time spent on site = 4 minutes for Live vs. < 2.5 for Google. In travel, 11% more time is spent on the destination site vs. the rest of the market.

Spend

Apparently, not only do Live searchers engage more with your website and convert better, they also spend more. This was supported by one particular data point - that the average Windows Live customer spent £2k or more online in the past 6 months. Unfortunately, the other side of this coin wasn’t shared - we didn’t get data on average spend of other searchers.

Doing it better

After the ‘why use adCenter’ pitch, we got into quite a lot more detail about how to make the campaign more effective:

Structure

The account hierarchy is highly important. The advice given is to set up the account as follows:

• Campaigns for main geo areas (e.g. country-level), (splitting generic and brand keywords)
• Ad groups for more targeted geo areas (e.g. city-level)
• Keywords within ad groups very closely targeted

The primary reason for structuring the account in this way is to enable highly-targeted adverts. In addition, it allows better reporting and trend analysis - it is important to be able to split out the effects at highly-targeted levels.

Finally, demographic targeting is both applied and reported at the ad group level. In the same way as allowing detailed general reporting, this means that we can actually extract useful and usable demographic trends / differences between ad groups. By collecting this data about very targeted groups of keywords, it becomes actionable and any differences that we do spot can be targeted in the adverts.

Seasonality

In general strategies for big events should be set up around 90 days before the event - whether this involves having different keywords in the account (e.g. for Christmas) or incrementally bidding more for certain keywords at different times of year. As a guideline:

• Christmas and New Year keywords should be in by September
• January to March is the important time for winter skiing keywords, which means they need to be in place by October
• December needs January-peak keywords in (e.g. package holidays)
• June needs keywords for city breaks (and the associated flights / hotels / car hire) as these are primarily taken in October

Some of the smaller events have less of a lead time:

• January is the peak time for Valentine’s keywords
• March for is the busiest time for booking Easter breaks

Traffic

Here we should be thinking about the search funnel. The typical example given was:

Information gathering phase:

Generic / seasonal / cost searches (e.g. hotel, easter flight, cheap car hire)

Refinement and filtering:

Destination / modifiers (e.g. flight to athens, business class flight)

Purchase:

Often branded searches

CTR

No surprise here. Write great ads.

Although you can have up to 20 ads in an ad group, they recommend having 3-5 ads per ad group to enable auto-optimisation and also allow you to test multiple changes to your creatives at once without diluting the impressions too much (which means it takes too long to gather statistical data).

Some specific examples of creatives that work particularly well in the travel industry are:

• Include your brand in the title of the advert (if you have a distinctive / popular brand name)
• Use reassuring phrases such as: the specialists, experts because many people are nervous about booking travel
• If you are offering budget pricing, end with do you want to save on X?
• Alternatively, try ending the creative with: save now!

Conversions

The main advice given to improve conversions was:

• Deep linking - help people avoid getting lost by sending them to the exact right place on your website as far as possible (or pre-populate search fields if this isn’t possible)
• Report on demographics - then use this data to bid more for your perfect demographic target
• Day-parting - bid more for favoured times of day / day of week
• Geo-targeting - either only targeting people in certain geographies or bidding more for searchers in those geographies

One question that wasn’t answered particularly well for me was how to analyse the effects of both day-parting and demographic-targeting. It is easy enough to analyse when search volumes are high (and you can probably even tie this in to CTR) but it seems to me to be hard to analyse this in terms of conversion rates or on-site behaviour - at least until we get Gatineau to play with!

I am going to write more at some point about the difficulty of tracking the effects of day-parting, geo-targeting (and this also applies to demographic-targeting now this is offered by adCenter) - but that’s a post for another day. If anyone has any great tips, drop me a line and I will include it in the write-up of the current state of play of tracking this kind of thing.

I spent yesterday afternoon at Microsoft’s shiny London offices near Victoria (xboxes in reception - gotta love that). I was there for their focus on travel advertising. Since we represent a couple of search clients in both paid and natural search, it was very important for me to learn more about that from Microsoft’s perspective (along with most people in the industry, I think, we see some of the highest levels of conversions from Microsoft search - if only there was a little more volume).

As well as learning lots of things that will help our clients (some of which I’ve summarised in my update - coming soon), however, I was very interested in the advances in Live search (this is pretty relevant to the advertisers as well because these kind of improvements are going to be crucial in increasing the take-up and market share of the search engine).

The session on what Live is up to was delivered by Cynthia Crossey, the UK director of Live search. She started by telling us why they think there is still an opportunity for Microsoft to catch up and do well in the search space:

• 40% of queries remain unanswered
• 50% of queries require refinement

She then made the analogy between where Microsoft was 10 years ago with respect to the database market (with v3 of SQL Server) and where Live Search is now relative to the larger players (Oracle etc. in the database market - Google and Yahoo! in the search engine market). Although it is the head of UK live search saying this, it does seem pretty convincing when they say that they are heavily focussed on search (with basic stuff such as increasing the index size, and targeting their #1 problem of relevancy as well as advanced algorithm updates and cool new stuff in the verticals and video areas).

One thing that I found particularly interesting (given that we only see the traffic numbers from our analytics) is the market share that Live have in terms of users (which, if they can improve the quality of the results, means that they have a much better chance to ensure that these people stick around, rather than just searching for ‘google’):

• Live: 9 million users (5.4% queries)
• Yahoo!: 7 million users (6.1% queries)
• Google: 28 million users (81.2% queries)

The user numbers are much closer than you might expect, and Live is actually ahead of Yahoo!

Investments

The areas that Microsoft is investing heavily are:

• Quadrupled the size of the index (to over 20 billion).
• Query intent - advanced query analysis
• Query refinement (autospell, query suggestions)
• More intelligent algorithm (called RankNet)
• Extraction of structured information (e.g. product reviews / related people)
• ‘Rich answers’ (e.g. multi-media embedded in the results) - coming soon

RankNet

The MSN algorithm was always pretty simplistic - and for me, this would have been one of the biggest hurdles to thinking about using Microsoft’s search engine in the past. Renowned for their R&D, it isn’t that surprising Microsoft is investing heavily in this area. When I was at Cambridge, the science park was just being finished up (with the Gates building, Gates scholarships, etc.). Apparently a lot of what they have been working over there is improvements to search algorithm. There has been a lot of research into neural networks and the way that the human brain works. By incorporating this back into the algorithm, they hope to be able to answer your questions almost before you know you have questions…

There are also a number of basic things that have been improved - such as better stemming, better handling of stop words, and better understanding of query refinements.

Mobility

They say that mobile Live search is already a good experience - and with Microsoft powering so many of the mobile devices, it seems that there is a very good opportunity for them to at least get Live search in front of a lot of new mobile searchers. If they can deliver as well as they think they can, there is a great opportunity to own the mobile space.

Our customers are starting to talk about mobile as a genuine business platform, so it’s pretty crucial for us to stay ahead of the game here.

Verticals

Already launched in the US, and coming soon in the UK is far more advanced verticals - including rich answers for each of their target verticals, which are:

• local and mapping (they see 32% of queries having local intent)
• entertainment
• health
• shopping

Video

One of the biggest areas of ‘R&D’-type investment that Microsoft is making is around video - one thing that sounds particularly cool is some great previewing functionality. One thing they mentioned is automatically pulling out the bits where the audience ‘roars’ during a sports event in order to do automated highlights. By combining this with functionality whereby mousing-over a video thumbnail plays the preview, it will become orders of magnitude easier to find the video you want to watch.

Maps

One of the coolest things that was demoed was the maps functionality (by their own admission, they are far less good at branding than they are at technology - they have a whole load of names for their maps - I think the main name is virtual earth). I have read a little online about how good this is, but I was utterly amazed.

The thing that completely blew me away was what they call “bird’s eye”. This is high-resolution imagery taken from aeroplane at about 10,000 feet - which means you get multiple angles of real photo imagery at incredibly high zoom levels. I have seen a lot of cool technology, but it really is pretty inspiring when you get up close inside places like Microsoft and see what they are working on. Here is the scale of image they have for tower bridge - near our office.

They also have a similar product to Google Earth at 3dmaptour.com which integrates with user-generated content and lets people publish 3d tours which they can then integrate with some personal imagery and then share with their friends via Youtube.

The future (something a little different)

Just before the wine tasting part of the evening, we relaxed with a session on the future of digital advertising (which was really more about the future of everything):

By 2020, Microsoft’s predictions (some of which are trends, and pretty obvious, but some of which are thought-provoking) are:

• computers with processing power of human brain
• broadband as a utility
• global network - plug in anywhere you are
• autonomous technology (could be a problem e.g. surveillance etc.)
• privacy and transparency issues (redefine privacy?)
• reduce barriers - both geographical and social
• access to network for all
• rise of technological refuseniks - people living ‘off the grid’
• services like postage disappear from high street as no longer profitable
• rise of mobile device
• continuing globalisation
• rise of the huge metropolises - Edinburgh-Glasgow, Leeds-Manchester
• at the same time, the nation state becomes less important, and we will become ‘more local’
• daily newspapers (as physical paper products during the week) will die out
• news brands will remain (particularly online) and commentary will become more important
• weekend newspapers are more experiential and represent ‘me-time’ - these have a healthy future
• news magazines have uncertain futures as the web becomes the primary place to receive all information
• glossy magazines keep the experiential nature and have a better future
• TV has a good future - the power to build brands and excite people remain powerful
• clips viewed on mobile devices
• scheduling pretty much entirely gone
• cinema will segment into the really big ticket blockbusters which are great events and the very small, art-house cinemas. The middle will move to home cinema / the web
• rise of quality content vs. user-generated content - Youtube will still be around, but many people will seek out high-quality content
• teenagers will still trust unknown peers more than authority
• grown-ups will trust authority more than peers
• demand for open-ness of media - take anything to any device
• new teenagers in 2020 will never own a landline or read a daily paper newspaper

So I included Red Fly’s Google Global plugin in my recent post about essential SEO plugins for Firefox and while using it this morning I realised that it didn’t actually work quite how I thought it did.

At the moment, when you select a country to search in it simply does a search in Google.com with the “&gl=[country code]” spliced into the search string.

I would prefer that as well as splicing in the “&gl=” it also performs the search in the relevant Google site. So for example, if I select FR as my language - it performs the search in Google.fr and also appends “&gl=FR” into the search string. Simply searching Google.com with the “&gl=” in the query string doesn’t return the same results as searching in the actual language version of Google.

Yes I realise that I could have simply sent RedFly an email but that would be so Web 1.0 - if they don’t respond to this I’m going to go looking for them on Facebook

I’ve just reserved a place to go along to the Microsoft-organised afternoon for people advertising travel products and services on Microsoft AdCenter on Tuesday.

Are any of our readers going? One of the reasons I’m interested in going is that we are very excited by some of the things coming out of AdLabs at the moment and I’m looking forward to meeting up with some of the AdCenter guys. If you are planning to go, drop me a line…

I take a swing at the cloaking dragon with my Firefox +3

Sigh. I miss those days in my glorious youth when I used to battle dragons and demons. Leaping over ravines of burning lava to reach the treasure in the dungeons of some dark and dreary castle. Casting spells to thwart any who stood in my way - fireballs and incantations. Yes indeedy, those were the days of Dungeons & Dragons. I admit it, I used to be a role-player in my youth (although in truth I was always more of a white wolf fan than D&D). But that was before I discovered girls… and that was before I discovered the internet (as usual, all fanmail to the same address please!)

So instead, these days rather than slaying dragons and busting ogres with fireballs I’m chasing links for my sites, optimising content, engaging in social media and all the things an SEO ninja does day in day out. But just like back in the day when I’d pimp out my magic sword with all the most powerful spells and enchantments I could find, these days I like to pimp out my firefox with all the seo ninja tools I can find.

So here’s a list of the firefox extensions and hacks I have installed to make doing SEO online as optimised as possible:

Google Toolbar - Although pagerank is dead (it’s at the very least on it’s last legs) the google toolbar has a bunch of nifty features. The only one I use on a regular basis however (and the only one useful for SEO) is the pagerank toolbar - not for the little green pagerank bar but for the cached page link. Hitting the Google cache of a page can be fantastically useful.

Google Global - This one from Red Fly is very useful given we’re based in the UK. In fact, for anyone outside of the US this is an essential plugin. It allows you to search any regional Google as if you were from that country. So for example, you can search Google.com and pretend you’re in the US, or Google.ie as if you are in Ireland. Useful stuff. (Note: all it does is append “&gl=US” (with relevant country code) into the Google search string in the relevant Google site. I would imagine this doesn’t return 100% results as if you were searching with an IP address from that country since Google’s geolocation results are a bit skewif but it’s certainly a useful tool and gives a useful indication of foreign rankings)

Search Status - This is the stormtrooper utility belt of SEO tools if ever there was one. All manner of useful tools and stats rolled into one handy plugin. The main benefits of this one (although it has many) for me are the easy links to see link information in Yahoo/Msn/Google with one click and also it’s the best (and most reliable) no-follow highlighter that I’ve used. It also has handy links to view the robots.txt of a site and meta tags and all sorts. Recommended!

User Agent Switcher - Does what it says on the tin - it allows you to switch your browser agent. The basic install only allows a few different options which is why the updated list is recommended from here. The updated list allows you to change your user agent to be Googlebot for example - useful for detecting fancy cloaking (although I’ve never actually used it for that myself so I’m not sure how reliably it functions as a black-hat catcher)

Web Developers Toolbar - Although as the title suggests this is mainly of use for web developers it has plenty of value for SEOers too such as quickly turning off Javascript or highlighting all the headers on the page. It takes a little work to get used to it (and it takes up real estate on the screen) but worth it in the end.

SEO for Firefox - Another multi-use tool this one. The main reason I use this plugin is for the nifty data it pulls into a google search. Just google your keyword in question and it’ll pull up next to each result information on inbound links, age of domain etc etc. Also very easy to turn on and off so doesn’t get in my way when I don’t have my SEO hat on

Social Media for Firefox - For anyone playing in the social media scene this is a must-have. It allows you to see instantly how a web page is doing across the different social media sites. It also allows you to see how a page of topics on Digg or Reddit is performing at a glance. Much like the SEO for firefox plugin, only for social media.

Live HTTP Headers - Ever needed to check if those 301’s were actually 301s? Or ever wondered exactly what chain of URLs you get taken through when clicking on a tracking link? This is the tool for you. It lets you analyse your browser footprint to see where you’ve been and what header codes you’ve passed through. Pretty handy.

Sites On This IP - Ok, so this isn’t a plugin it’s just a bookmark but I find it fantastically useful for finding alternative domains for websites and finding out which other sites are registered to that IP address. Just drag this onto your bookmarks toolbar then browse to your site and click the link.

Anyone else got any plugins or extensions they’d like to share? People keep talking about greasemonkey - is it everything it’s cracked up to be?

And now for something a little different. I met Crispian Cuss and his colleague Nick Archer recently after an introduction by a friend. They run Pittacus - specialising in advising companies about threats to their reputations. In their words:

Pittacus has a simple proposition: to help organisations understand their reputation threats.

After some very interesting conversations, Crispian agreed to write an article for our blog. Here it is:

The Truth Will Out

One of Web 2.0’s biggest implications for the corporate world has been in the field of reputation. The ease with which both consumers and employees can communicate, and share issues, has meant it has become increasingly difficult for companies to keep problems under wraps.

In the ideal world none of this should change the way in which corporations safeguard their reputations. The best way to avoid reputational crises has always been to be open and honest. While it might at times be painful in the short term, it at least allows those involved to control the agenda and limit the damage to their integrity before moving forward with confidence. Of course this is only the advice; whether it is taken or not is another matter.

However, for those not inspired by such transparency there have always been other options; journalists can be bought lunch, favours called in, and, in extremis, the threat of legal action. That is at least until now; Web 2.0 has changed this. By empowering both consumers and employees it has made the traditional means of protecting corporate reputation increasingly impotent.

For companies and organisations struggling with this seismic shift there are two key rules when it comes to the web. One, you can’t fight it; two, you can’t control it. To react often only plays into the hands of your detractors and fuels the fire. After all when you are the biggest kid in the playground people will talk behind your back, and it is usually better just to take it in your stride.

So rather than reaction, the better option is to engage. While it might seem counter-intuitive to offer a platform to your fiercest critics, unless your company has Enron type problems and shouldn’t be trading, there are real benefits to be realised.

Just as Web 2.0 allows consumers to correspond with each other so it also allows business leaders to learn from them and communicate more effectively and directly. If someone wants to talk about your company it is better they involve you rather than someone else. So companies need to open the portal and give them the tools. At the very least they can only earn a reputation for openness and honesty. Further to this they can then build a better understanding about what people really feel and think about them. One has to remember reputation is, after all, what others think not what companies say or think about themselves.

Such openness and honesty will only work if it is truly reflected throughout the company. As such a bit of genuine soul searching, and tidying up of few loose ends, is often invaluable. Just as every family has issues to deal with, and benefits from confronting them, corporations too have issues that need to be addressed. So far better to do it when you at least control the agenda. After all with the arrival of Web 2.0 and its cohorts, the old adage that the truth will out isn’t just a cliché, it is a certainty.

Crispian Cuss
Director, Pittacus

So, I said before that I wasn’t going to make a habit of link posts. Well, that was before we got burgled and I ran out of time to write a proper post.

So, with no lolcats in sight:

• Jennifer Laycock at Search Engine Guide on Don’t Just Manage Your Reputation, Respond to your Competitor’s - an interesting look at reputational issues as a way of getting one up on your competitor - add this alongside some competitive reputation monitoring and aggressive reputation management and you have an arsenal of dangerous tools to play with
• Sonia Simone at Remarkable Communications on Seth Godin’s concept of the new transparency. All about the issues companies are facing as the world becomes more open (more on this in a guest post coming shortly)
• To make up for the lack of lolcats, some fantastic designs I found on stumbleupon - if you think you have everything you need, you haven’t spent enough time on this page!

So it’s not entirely the way I’d choose to spend a Saturday afternoon; sat outside our offices waiting for the police scene of crime officers to arrive to do their forensic stuff after some !*?!! smashed our lovely new front door and stole (at least) two 24″ iMacs.

Our front door at the moment:

We only moved in on Monday - I haven’t even been able to write about our move yet (you’ll have to be patient at least another day!). We love our office - it’s such an improvement over the old one in so many ways. Except security, apparently. While we have off-site backups of everything crucial, it would have been a pain if our office servers had been taken - just in terms of restoring etc. As far as I can tell from outside (sitting on the floor, connected to WiFi!) it’s only our two big expensive 24″ iMacs that have been stolen - and since they shouldn’t have too much on them in terms of data, they should be very easy to replace. Thankfully, they are insured (though I don’t know the excess yet).

There are a few things that are very annoying about this. The main one being that the premises are supposed to be protected by a security company, Anco Security, the security guard was on-site (we don’t employ the security guys directly, so it will be up to our landlord to look into this in more detail). I can’t believe it happened in broad daylight at 2pm on a Saturday!