MarketingSherpa.com

#1. Fascinating Interview With eBay's VP Net Marketing on What Works in SEM + How to Meet a Sherpa

Last week while I was in San Francisco for our B-to-B Summit, I also grabbed the chance to meet two fascinating men -- Matt Ackley, eBay's VP of Net Marketing, and Chhiring Sherpa, owner of Taste of the Himalayas Restaurant. Here are my notes for you:

-> eBay's Matt Ackley

I chatted with Matt at a NorCal BMA luncheon. He's funny, honest and smart -- especially about search marketing. Highlights of what I learned from him:

o Why eBay buys the keyword 'eBay'

"We actually buy the word 'eBay,' which is very, very unintuitive. We've done numerous, numerous tests on this, because every time I go and say, 'We buy the keyword, eBay', people come back and say, 'You're an idiot. Why are you buying the keyword eBay? Everybody knows eBay. You don't need to buy the keyword eBay.'

"We have proven this through analytics ... over and over again that it is actually incremental to buy the keyword eBay.

"The reason we believe it is such that there are different types of users ... [who] use search in different ways. ... There's probably users who essentially, we say, 'Put their faith in Google. In Google we trust, and I'm just going to click on the organic search results because I trust the Google algorithm.' Then, there's the group of users who say, 'You know what? If somebody's willing to pay for something, they've probably got something of quality to sell."

"So, we've seen that by buying keyword eBay, we actually get incremental traffic. Now, of course, we cannibalize the natural search or the organic search results. We're paying for traffic that supposedly we would have gotten for free, and that's always the question internally, 'Why are you doing this?' But, we've run the data over and over again."

o Google's One-Box presents new challenges

Matt agreed that, as Sherpa's Search Benchmark Guide 2007 revealed, the fairly new Google One-Box (bulleted links often presented in the first organic search display) is presenting a considerable SEM challenge.

"Our site name is the same as our [stock] ticker symbol -- so when you do a search on eBay, actually, the ticker symbol and quote comes up at the top of the natural search listings, which effectively drops our first organic result down to what would be like the third position. ... I went to the CEO at one point and said, 'You know we could probably save a ton of money if you changed the ticker symbol.' That didn't go over too well."

o Why eBay buys weird terms (a.k.a. 'eBads')

Ackley noted there are several independent Web sites and blogs dedicated to tracking so-called 'eBads' -- Google ads bought by eBay under terms no one would reasonably think could sell a darn thing. Terms such as 'hole in the head' and 'dung' for example.

He explained his team has a database of 250 million possible keyterms to runs ads under -- and generally they're running campaigns for five to 15 million of these. To make this possible, everything is automated and analyzed like crazy.

"We evaluate whether we think that keyword is going to make us any money or not, and then we go out and we buy it on Google at the minimum CPC, which is often a penny."

Also, Google themselves sometimes complains about some of the terms -- so eBay has to prove they're relevant. In the case of "dung," it turns out there's quite a bit of dinosaur dung being bid on at the moment.

o Improving search conversions

You can't convert high-end products on seller reputation alone. eBay finds the more expertise (factoids, content, reviews, detailed product guides, etc.) a listing has, the better the conversion rate.

o Biggest conversion ever

eBay sells more than $5 billion in B-to-B each year. Biggest item sold was a corporate jet for about $4.9 million. The buyers used PayPal because, as many B-to-B online buyers prefer, it allowed credit terms.

o SEO improvement Ackley would like to see for 2007

He wishes the internal PR department would get SEO religion and more rigorously optimize releases for more search traffic. Plus, more releases for the purposes of SEO would be great too.

Note: You can download an MP3 of my entire interview with Matt and our fellow panel members Dean DeBiase of Fathom Online and Jack Jia of Baynote over at NorCal BMA's site at:
http://www.norcalbma.org/programs/November-2006-meeting-Moreinfo_html

-> Chhring Sherpa

After the NorCal meeting, I drove up to the Presidio neighborhood of San Francisco for dinner with a real-life Sherpa, Chhring Sherpa. (FYI: Sherpas are a native tribe of Nepal, some of whom earn their living by guiding climbers up Mount Everest. Very few live in the US. Our company name is meant as a tribute to their abilities.)

Chhring who came to the US a decade ago after meeting his wife (a nice girl from New Jersey) has just taken over ownership and management of Taste of the Himalayas restaurant on 2420 Lombard Street. They don't have a Web site (yet) but you can reach them at (415) 674-9898.

The food was great -- very similar to Indian food only with crisper vegetables. We also tasted the famed Sherpa beer, which is milky-white and slightly sweet with a heck of an after-kick.

You know a foreign restaurant is really a good one when actual natives eat there. Taste of the Himalayas is no exception. I spotted at least two other Sherpas. Chhring told me Monday nights are the big Sherpa night -- almost all of the Sherpas in the Bay area gather in the restaurant that night.

So, if you want to meet real live Sherpas en masse, now you know where to go!

In the meantime, have a great Thanksgiving,

Anne Holland, President
Feedback(at)marketingSherpa(dot)com
MarketingSherpa, Inc

P.S. As always, our Case Studies and articles are open access for about 10 days. Then they go into SherpaLibrary where you can research for a small fee. The links always remain the same.

#2. How Video, Viral Tactics Built Email Leads for Golf-Club Manufacturer

SUMMARY: Everyone's talking about all of the things you can do with online video -- and why not? Once production completes and the clips are on your site, it's essentially a 24/7 downloadable TV commercial.

But the space is becoming more competitive, and marketers will have to find ways to cut through the video clutter sooner rather than later as the medium matures.

See how one golf-club manufacturer used original programming in a blog and in merchandising to build their email database from scratch. Campaigns and results data:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=29781
(Open access until Nov. 27th)

#3. How to Simplify Shopping-Cart Features to Grow the Bottom Line

SUMMARY: Every marketer wants to uncomplicate the checkout process, especially since MarketingSherpa data puts the average ecommerce shopping-cart abandonment rate at 59.8%.

Discover how one company added something special to their shopping cart program to make it easy as pie. Plus, steps on how they let customers know about the innovations.
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=29776
(Open access until Nov. 25th)

#4. Special Report: B-to-B Manufacturing -- 6 Industry Challenges + 9 Strategies to Reach Buyers

SUMMARY: Business-to-business manufacturers face huge challenges -- from global competition and lack of skilled workers to dramatically shortened buying cycles and buyer/seller disconnect. Many companies have successfully adapted, but others have been slow to hear the wake-up call.

In this exclusive Special Report, we bring you the
nitty-gritty issues concerning B-to-B manufacturers, as well as:
- Industry facts and figures
- How the Internet has changed the cycle
- 9 key strategies, plus data for reaching buyers
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=29779
(Open access until Nov. 26th)

#5. Interview: How to Build Traffic Virally: 3 Buzzworthy Tips

SUMMARY: 'Tis the season for ecommerce and retail marketers to work 24x7 on getting every campaign, test and improvement online that they possibly can.

Here, just in time to inspire you for perhaps one last guerrilla test before the holiday window closes, is a classic Sherpa interview.

Discover how to launch a separately-branded microsite and gain shoppers fast (without paying for search or waiting for Google's spider to come along):
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=27530
(Open access until Nov. 23rd)

#8. New Book Offer: 'Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day'

An entertaining book on SEO sounds like an oxymoron, but in the case of this new book by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin, the description is true. The authors meticulously organized their book so it could be easily comprehended in digestible bits of information. They use everyday language to discuss all of the steps involved in implementing a successful SEO plan.

Grappone and Couzin begin with the foundation, or tasks, such as clarifying company's goals and understanding search engines. They proceed with elaboration on how to develop strategy and work with others to realize it. The entire process requires a 12-week period. The book suggests that the reader dedicate an hour a day to a specific task. It's this practicality that renders 'Search Engine Optimization' an easy read.

In addition, the authors offer pearls of wisdom on tactics learned from experience, steering clear of trendy techniques. Instead, they describe a time-tested fundamental approach to choosing the best keywords and optimizing meta tags.

Readers can take advantage of an excellent glossary, real-world case studies and suggested sources for further reading on the topic. If you want to know which optimization factors search engines pay attention to, check out this book.

Grappone and Couzin donated five copies for Sherpa to give away. Toss your name into the hat here to try for one.
http://sherpa.bookoffer.sgizmo.com
(Ends 11/26/06)

+ Last week's book offer:
These five lucky marketers will get their own copies of 'The Little Blue Book of Advertising' by Steve Lance and Jeff Woll:

Ruth Anderson, LeaseTeam Inc., Omaha, NE
Heather McGowen, Donald A. Gardner Architects Inc., Greenville, SC
Brendan Miles, The Scotsman Publications, Edinburgh, Scotland
Linda Napoli, CompuData Inc., Philadelphia, PA
Dave Trendler, VeloPress/VeloGear, Boulder, CO

P.S. Did a friend send you this? for your own copy - it's award-winning, useful, and complimentary.

P.P.S. Got questions, comments, or ideas for editorial?
Email Editorial Director Tad Clarke at TadC(at)marketingsherpa(dot)com
or call Customer Service at (877) 895-1717 -- thanks!

New! Search Marketing Benchmarks + Eyetracking 2007