Google is doing an increasingly good job of reaching out to agencies through its Google Engage Program. Recently, Skunkworks was even assigned an agency representative to assist us with our clients’ campaigns. We really appreciate this new point of contact for two reasons 1) Google suffers from a Wizard of Oz corporate structure where it can be unclear that there are actual humans existing behind the corporate veil and 2) our agency rep has already been quite helpful.
Although we enjoyed speaking with a living, breathing, member of Google’s team, it was one of our rep’s recommendations that triggered a flurry of campaign adjustments as well as this post. Specifically, Google recommends that AdWords users create separate campaigns for mobile devices. Whereas previously we might have had one campaign servicing mobile devices, laptops, computers, and tablets, we now have created separate campaigns that specifically target high-end smartphones. (While we already had separate campaigns for the display network, we had yet to split our AdWords campaigns by device.)
Benefits of Splitting an AdWords Campaign By Device
The benefits of splitting a campaign are numerous. Not only can we adapt the language and extensions included in our ads to more effectively target the mobile market segment, but we can also easily customize our bidding strategy to more efficiently target mobile customers. The latter benefit is important in the management of a mobile AdWords campaign, as Google’s search results are not the same across devices.
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Posted in Agency News, Google, SEM/SEO | Add a Comment »
The Economics of Online Ads
How much does it cost to run an ad for your law firm in The New York Times?
This question elicits a spectrum of responses. Most people that I query guess that an ad-buy in one of the most circulated and respected newspapers would cost – at the very least – thousands of dollars. We are, after all, living in an era of Super Bowl advertising. However, after crunching the numbers, we can tell you that the cost for 440 impressions (the number of times your ad appears) on the nytimes.com website is a shocking $1.63.
We were able to achieve these results by accessing the Google Display Network. Display advertising allows companies to place ads on any website that is a part of the Google Display Network. While websites like the nytimes.com or theglobeandmail.com tend to sell their own ad space, they often use Google’s Display Network to fill gaps.
Thus far, we’ve had tremendous success placing banner ads for our law firm clients – commonly accumulating hundreds of thousands of ad impressions per week. Initially, we focused our efforts on placing ads on websites belonging to local BC news publications such as the Georgia Straight or The Tyee. However, we quickly realized that we could extend our clients reach and branding capabilities by targeting international newspapers like The New York Times and The Guardian.
This new strategy of targeting behemoth publications is where the phenomenal capabilities of the Google Display network become clear. Within only a few weeks of adding The New York Times to one of our client’s list of managed placements, this client received 440 impressions from the popular website.
New York Times – West Vancouver Edition
It’s important to note that these impressions are not being wasted on surly cab drivers in Queens or heiresses in the Upper East Side, as the Google Display network is able to tell where the people reading a particular website are located. In short, the ads that we ran for our client on The New York Times’ website are seen by individuals living and working in Vancouver and the surrounding region. The ads can be geo-targeted at a very granular level (including by neighborhood).
Social Media Banner Ads
While we can register even more ad impressions through social media, we have found that social channels have not been as effective for law firms in terms of ad placements. We do recommend that firms maintain a visible presence on social media, but that ad revenues be allocated elsewhere.
No Magic Bullet
Although the cost of the nytimes.com ads appears to be very low, these costs are based entirely on impressions. These ads did not generate any traffic from the New York Times to our clients websites. Costs rise on a pay-per-click basis as soon as traffic flows in greater quantities. In addition, the quality of traffic that we’ve seen through the Display Network has been far lower quality than through the Search Network. Visitors spend less time on the client’s site and tend to bounce away more often than not. The Display Network is not a marketing end unto itself. It requires parallel traffic through conventional means (whether a search campaign or through referral networks).
Conclusion
Although 440 impressions is a relatively small number when compared to the impressions that our clients accumulate on local websites (where the ad-buys are less competitive), it is very valuable to know that we can tie our clients’ brands to some of the most storied and esteemed publications in the Western World. We are very excited to see that the Google Display Network is living up to its potential.
Posted in Agency News, Google, Marketing Strategy, SEM/SEO, Things we like | Add a Comment »
Earlier today, Doug Jasinski and I gave a presentation on the topic of content marketing for law firms. The event was organized by Brian Mauch and his team at BMC Networks. Many thanks to BMC for the invite.
Content marketing is a fairly vast space and the presentation flew through some of the trends, platforms, and economics that have made “content” the hot topic in the marketing world. While law firms may adopt each emerging online platform, adoption itself does not answer the content question: “How can our firm find the time to produce high quality, timely, and relevant content?”
The demand for quality content relevant to the legal industry is one of the top requests from our clients. Considering that many lawyers lack the time to develop their own content, outsourced options are being considered. However, finding outsourced providers who can be trusted with nuanced practice-specific legal matters can be challenging.
For today’s presentation, we put together a Prezi that I have embedded below. While it lacks our witty banter and explanatory narrative, it does offer an overview of the topics covered.
Tags: linkedin
Posted in Agency News, Digital Marketing, Google, Law, Law firm websites, Marketing Strategy, Outsourcing, Technology | Add a Comment »
Recently we have been working with Megan Ellis Q.C. to develop a website for her firm Megan Ellis & Company. Ms. Ellis started the firm in 2002 and has since been joined by Shannon Aldinger and most recently Paula Kalsi – who came on board as Associate Counsel on March 1st of this year. Ms. Ellis is well known as one of the first lawyers in Canada to devote a significant part of her practice to representing adult survivors of sexual abuse and assault. As a result, her work in this complex area of personal injury law has led to significant developments in the law and legislation as it pertains to victims of abuse and assault.
Over the last 20 years, Ms. Ellis has developed an extensive family law practice and is well respected both for her focus on helping clients achieve negotiated settlements and for providing vigorous, cost-effective representation in court whenever that form of resolution is necessary. During the course of her personal injury and family law career, Ms. Ellis has taken on a wide variety of appeal work including those unusual situations where there is either little case law to guide the courts or where the existing case law, legislation, and policy have formerly led to perverse or unfair results for her clients.
Ms. Aldinger has an active family law practice and, like Ms. Ellis, commits herself to developing creative and practical solutions for clients dealing with the complex and often emotional issues that arise in this area. Ms. Aldinger has negotiated settlements and provided representation in court in various aspects of family law. A very brief selection of her considerable experience includes the resolution of custody issues and child and spousal support issues, the division and reapportionment of property, and the well-crafted arrangement of family law agreements.
The newest member of Megan Ellis & Company, Ms. Kalsi, has considerable experience dealing with issues arising in personal injury law and, like her colleagues, has worked on cases that involve sexual abuse and assault. For the past eight years, Ms. Kalsi has devoted a considerable amount of her time to the Public Guardian and Trustee of British Columbia (PGT). This is an entity that acts to protect and advance the legal and financial interests of children and vulnerable adults in BC. In addition to her focus on cases of sexual abuse and assault, Ms. Kalsi has developed a practice in electronic and document disclosure issues in large-scale litigation and has a great deal of experience analyzing the complex documentation that emanates from cases of this type.
These three women are exemplary litigators with a unique and necessary set of skills. They wanted a website that was modern and sophisticated in design but straight forward and to the point in terms of content and navigation. We have done our best to develop a site that works on both these levels. Take a look: www.ellisandcompany.ca.
Posted in Law firm websites, WordPress Websites | Add a Comment »
When our clients ask us why their competitors are ranking highly in Google’s organic search results, we tend to start by having a look at the competitor’s website. If the site design, content, history, notoriety and relevance can’t explain the ranking, we turn to a nifty tool called opensitexplorer.org run by SEOmoz to review link relationships. Amongst its various features is the ability to compare inbound links and their respective quality. One particular criminal law firm is doing particular well thanks to (amongst others) links from Marketing With Integrity.org. While I won’t link to the site (which would only help their rankings), it does make me wonder whether the word integrity is being properly used. Moreover, the use of .org as a top level domain seems to be fairly flexible these days.
This makes MarketingWithIntegrity.org our link farm of the week.
Tags: linkedin
Posted in Digital Marketing, Law firm websites, SEM/SEO, Things we don't like | Add a Comment »
