Posts from May 2011
Your SEM Bid Management Solution: it’s a ‘Turk’
By Rich Devine | May 31, 2011 4:41:58 PM
Image via Wikipedia
In 1770, Johann Wolfgang Ritter von Kempelen invented an automaton chess-playing machine affectionately known in modern times as "The Turk". For more than 80 years the 'machine' toured Europe and the Americas, defeating most of its opponents -- including Napoleon and Benjamin Franklin.
In 1820, Surprise! As if anyone didn't know, the chess-playing Turk was exposed as a hoax, a parlor trick, powered by humans stuffed inside the machine -- not automated by the machine itself.
Bid Management software is a 'Turk'. It's not that Bid Management isn't necessary, or helpful, or effective -- but if an agency is trying to sell you based on how awesome their 'proprietary' bid management software is, or how they've cracked some special code and have super-top-secret algorithms that make their bid management software smarter than Ken Jennings, take a pass.
Bid Management is a Turk, only as effective as the human being who is inside the box pulling the levers.
Don't misunderstand me. I am a big believer in bid management software. I recommend it for most of our clients, and there are some really, really good solutions in the marketplace -- some of them almost as smart as Ken Jennings.
Bid management is attractive for two reasons:
First it has the capability of processing information really fast, smartly predicting bids, and executing real-time optimization decisions that can result in added efficacy for your SEM campaigns.
Second, it offers tremendous efficiency. Multiple publishers can be managed from one single platform. Thousands of keywords, budgets, and bid decisions can be automated based on configured rules and parameters.
Clients get excited by the prospect of added value to their business and increased ROI from their ad dollar. Ad agencies get excited because they can provide services at some fraction of the human resourcing cost that SEM would otherwise demand.
The problem is that bid management is really just a Turk. In order for Wolfgang's chess robot to beat most of it's opponents like a robot should, he had to find world class chess players to sit inside the machine. So it is with bid-management software: while useful and even superior to humans for many automated functions, unless it's powered by a skilled human operator -- it just doesn't work very well.
Sometimes (actually lots of times) agencies get a little over-enthused by the prospect of profit margin and they skimp on the quality of human resourcing necessary to make it work. They buy into the myth of the Turk.
So when you're ready to hire an agency here are some things to look for:
1. They should have a bid-management solution. If they don't, I'd move on. At ZAAZ, I've had my team build familiarity with multiple tools -- some of which are better solutions for some clients than others. I really believe that there's an 80/20 rule here: without bid management you spend 80% of your time doing admin functions for paid search, and only 20% of your time doing strategy. With bid management, it can be the reverse. But the operative word is 'can'.
2. They should talk about their people. They should spend more time talking about the value and intelligence of their people than the magical value of the machine. If it's all about automation, algorithms, and predictive intelligence -- I'd take a pass. I can't tell you how often I'm in a new pitch, and the incumbent agency has deployed a great bid management solution; but they've thrown in a low-cost intern or a project manager with no time to spare and no real search experience. It just doesn't matter how awesome that machine is, without a good human to operate it, the venture always turns into a big mess.
I have a basic rule that surprisingly isn't always obeyed by others: I don't hire people to play chess unless they know how to play chess. Yes it costs me more to hire good people, but I have significantly lower churn on my clients, and my clients are happy.
3. Pricing should be transparent. If you can't tell what you're paying for between human contribution and software contribution -- take a pass. Bid Management software is usually priced at a percent-of-spend fee. At ZAAZ I've elected to take whatever volume discount we earn as an agency from bid management partners and I pass-through the discounted fee directly to my clients. Then I'm extremely transparent about what kind and how much human effort is required to make that Turk work.
this blog post originally appeared at RichDevine.me
Your SEO Guy: Expert or Business Partner?
By Rich Devine | May 26, 2011 5:14:32 PM
My team had a call with a prospective client the other day. I sat in and listened as the client made some frank observations about ‘SEO people’. In essence, she said her company’s progress with SEO always seems to miss the mark because consultants can never get past their own knowledge. They spend too much time bragging about their elite technical competency or secret strategies; and too little time understanding her business.
I’m not always the smartest dude, but I steered the remainder of our conversation toward questions and ideas about her business.
Her point is valid. Without question there is a tremendous amount of nuance, technical implication, and know-how required to do SEO right — it’s not a discipline for fakers, you’ve got to know your stuff. But is that really what sells SEO? It shouldn’t be.
SEO should be about about the promise of performance. I’m not talking about rankings or traffic — I don’t care about rankings, and I don’t care about traffic. You heard me. What I do care about is performance.
Too often SEO professionals equate rankings and traffic with performance. That’s a mistake. Certainly rank success and traffic contribute to performance, but rankings don’t make me money. Traffic…believe it or not…isn’t a recognized currency that can buy lunch.
SEO professionals can be really smart within their discipline, but it’s rarer to find SEO folks that also have strong business perspective. It’s the difference between the Expert and the Business Partner.
So what are you getting from your SEO person — an expert or a business partner? Hopefully both. Here’s some basic questions to help you determine what kind of SEO you’re talking to:
1. Does he spend lots of time talking SEO jargon — algorithms, robot.txt files, canonical redirects, etc., etc? EXPERT
2. Does she ask questions about your business and products? BUSINESS PARTNER
3. When you talk about success measurement, does he talk in terms of rankings and traffic? EXPERT
4. When you talk about success measurement, does she talk in terms of behaviors and goals tied to specifically to your business? BUSINESS PARTNER
5. Do you understand what he’s actually doing, and why it’s important for your business? No: EXPERT. Yes: BUSINESS PARTNER
7. Does she speak transparently about the process, and try to match unique strategies to very specific business objectives? BUSINESS PARTNER
8. Does he try to steer you away from other marketing efforts like paid media, creative & UX, or traditional advertising — in favor of just focusing on SEO? EXPERT
9. Does she want to coordinate SEO efforts with other marketing channels and stakeholders, including creative, paid search, display media, web analytics, traditional advertising? BUSINESS PARTNER
You get the idea.
Now don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with being an expert. But if you’re hiring an expert for SEO, be aware that strong business perspective isn’t always included.
this blog post originally appeared at RichDevine.me
