Posted by Andrew Nicholson in Content marketing, Marketing speak, Social Networking, Tech Talk | 0 Comments

The Fallacy of B2B Marketing

A look at the evolution of B2B Marketing and how it’s moving towards H2H (Human to human), with examples from IBM and Amex Open Forum.  Presentation was given to the Association of B2B Agencies at Google HQ on 25th April 2012  (apologies for the echo on the narration). 

The fallacy of B2B Marketing

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Download the Keynote version of this presentation without sound (but with some fancy animations) by clicking here.

Or download the Powerpoint presentation by clicking here.

Posted by Andrew Nicholson in Google, Social Networking | 3 Comments

What’s the big deal about Google’s search plus your world?

For the first time since they pulled out of China, Google really got down and dirty yesterday with the launch of Search plus your world.  SPYW (or Search+ as I’ve started referring to it as) is Google’s way of driving new users to their ailing social media site Google+ in a desperate attempt to usurp Facebook’s mantle.  The concept is really rather simple.  Rather that feeding you results based on the open web, Google are including results from your contacts on Google+ (only when you’re logged in mind).  This is optional at present (but it’s pretty much a sure thing that the default will be ‘on’) and will result in a search for ‘Bali’ (for example) bringing up friend’s pictures of their holiday in Bali, status updates mentioning Bali and such like.  Within minutes of Google going live with search+ in the US the blogs lit up (you can see my own to and fro’ing in the comments section of http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/8643-google-adds-social-content-from-google-into-search-results) as assorted techie types cried foul.  But why is this?  In short:

Posted by Andrew Nicholson in Google, Pay per click | 0 Comments

How qualified is a quality score?

For those in the PPC world a good quality score is something to be cherished and loved.  A quality score, for those not in the know, is applied by Google to every key word or phrase you bid on, with the score relating back to the page the advert links through to.  In the words of Google almighty “A keyword’s Quality Score for ad position is based on its clickthrough rate (CTR) on Google, the relevance of the ad and keyword to the search query, historical keyword performance, and other relevancy factors.”

Why do we love quality scores?  Simple really.  The higher the quality score, the less we have to pay for a click though; and the higher a position we gain in the paid for results.  The holy grail of quality score is obtained when it’s high enough to catapult your advert into the above organic (as opposed to side, and as of this week, below organic) search results.  Normally this only happens when you’re deep linking the advert into a specific key term geared page, or on brand name bidding.  In short.  Quality score x bid price = position.  And if you’re quality score is low, there’s just no way you’re going to be hitting the top spots on your paid for listings.

But just the other day this all came crashing down for me!

Posted by Andrew Nicholson in Brand, Google | 3 Comments

If you love your brand, set it free

Clicking on today’s Google doodle has just brought a huge smile to my face.  Today would have been Freddie Mercury’s 65 birthday (hard to believe, isn’t it?) and Google have celebrated this milestone in their own irrepressible fashion by creating an over the top, tiger roaring, space man shooting extravaganza of an animation, set to the tune of ‘Don’t stop me now’.

Posted by Andrew Nicholson in Google, Personal | 0 Comments

Google brings a friend to the party with +1

Fresh off the print, Google have today launched their very own Facebook like button with the introduction of Google +1, an FB doppelganger that will be available to all users that are logged into their Google accounts when browsing.

But what does this mean for the likes of us?

Well, for those Googlers that have made use of the friends feature within their Google account, it means that websites that their friends like will feature more heavilywithin their search results, and vice-verser.

Posted by Andrew Nicholson in Google | 1 Comment

Cheats don’t prosper

I’m often asked about the benefits of optimising a website for search engines other than Google. I’ve always responded that there’s very little point.

Aside from the fact that 90% of the Western world uses it as their primary search tool, I’ve always been of the opinion that Google sets the way in terms of search algorithm accuracy, and that doing things right in the eyes of Google will inevitably pay dividends as the laggards catch up.

Posted by Andrew Nicholson in Google, Pay per click | 0 Comments

PPC at TFM&A

Now, I’ve got to be honest here.  I meant to attend the PPC seminars, I really did.  But frankly, I spend at least an hour per day running PPC campaigns, and if I don’t know it all by now, I should be shot.  So, let’s pretend I did attend all the PPC seminars like a good little boy, in which case, this is what I learnt.

Posted by Andrew Nicholson in Search Engine Optimisation | Comments Off

SEO at TFM&A

So, I’m not the kind to plagarise anothers analogy (Cleraly I’m lying,  I’m in marketing after all!), but  just yesterday I read a rather neat one from Tanya Goodwin (Chief Exec at Tamar.com).  She compared PPC and SEO to the difference between a Volvo and a Bugatti Veyron.  One being fast, results driven, and expensive, the other being a slower, but more reliable long term investment.