Search Marketing Sage

Google AdWords has introduced another exciting product in the long line of updates coming with the new Enhanced Campaigns rollout. One of the new, potentially phenomenal, features currently in a limited release is Offer Extensions. Offer Extensions allow businesses to add a promotion or offer at the end of their AdWords ads. Customers will click on the offer and be taken to a Google hosted landing page where they can either print the coupon or save it for later in Google Offers. Here’s what it will look like:

Cost & Benefits

Costs for Offer Extensions are the same as traditional clicks, so advertisers can look to Offers for a low-cost way to spread the word about certain promotions or sales. This could be potential competition for the likes of Groupon and LivingSocial, who have high cost for businesses as they take a large percentage of the revenue made with their deals. Offer Extensions provides simple, low cost alternative that could drive traffic, as Google so often reminds us, of people who are actually looking for related products. If advertisers start using Offer Extensions on a mass scale, it could be huge for businesses and customers!

In June of this year, Facebook finally revealed their new advertising format, Facebook Exchange (FBX), which is now out of the Beta stage. Facebook Exchange is a real-time bidding system where visitors to non-Facebook websites are marked with a cookie, and can subsequently be shown real-time ads related to their web browsing history when they get back onto Facebook. These ads are located on the right sidebar of the Facebook website, mixed in with Facebook’s other advertising offerings.

Remarketing is not a new concept for advertisers; Google has been doing it through their display network for years. So what makes the FBX any different? First, this is the first time Facebook’s “walled garden” of inventory and audience has been made available for remarketing and measurement.  According to Facebook, 955 mil+ people globally spend over 6 hours per month on Facebook’s site. The sheer scale of that is hard to comprehend! These users are loyal, spend a lot of time there, and come back often. Also, according to ComScore, Facebook serves up over 25% of all U.S. display ad impressions, and unlike other exchanges, FBX generally offers a more consistent and stable audience for targeting purposes.

This past month, Google launched its Trusted Stores Program, which helps shoppers feel confident in their online purchases.

Online merchants who want to enroll in the program must submit transaction data via a Google Merchant Center Account. Using this information, Google assigns the merchant a grade for its shipping and customer service based on the number of transactions it is able to evaluate.

Well, sadly this is my last post from SMX West — it’s been great! This session focused on ecommerce and retail sales, so if you sell online, this is the session for you! The panel featured Alex Edelstein of Servio, Everett Sizemore of seOverflow and Lisa Williams of MEDIA forte marketing.

Tom Funk & Reid Greenberg (Green Mountain Coffee Roasters) provide simple tips to boost conversion rates for your e-commerce site.

1.  Make Me Feel Safe

On average adding a VeriSign seal to the homepage yielded an average lift up to 20%.

2.  Near Miss Messaging on Cart

Green Mountain Coffee saw unit per order increases and conversion rate increases when implementing this strategy.

3.  Social Chiclets

Adding social sharing icons can boost conversion rates can drive new product adoption and boost conversion rates.