Sunday night (April 8):
Scott, Jane, and I flew into Newark and took a lovely sky train, train, and subway ride to the Hilton hotel. After checking in, we grabbed a bite to eat at a "moderately priced" restaurant (moderate according to the hotel; each entree averaged about $30) and met up with a couple friends of mine who were also visiting New York. We had some beers in an Irish pub, ate late night hot dogs at Gray's Papaya, and then headed back to the hotel, where we drank for a bit with Cameron and Neil before going to bed early (early being about 3:00 am--trust me when I say that this is the earliest I went to bed all week).
Monday (April 9):
The three of us met back up with my friends and did some sightseeing. We hopped on the subway and took it to Battery Park so we could see the Statue of Liberty.
We encourage you to get some NYC condoms.
After seeing the Statue of Liberty (and getting yelled at by a security guard ["Ma'am! Don't chug yer watuh!"]), we walked through the Financial District, saw Ground Zero, ate at a deli, walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and got cheesecake at a diner, took the subway to Central Park and explored a bit, poked our heads into the New York Museum of Natural History to see the dinosaurs in the lobby, and then headed back to the hotel.
From there, Scott, Jane, and I went to see Les Paul perform with Greg, Barb, Dax, and Cesar from WebGuerrilla and Todd Friesen and Phil from Range. The music was awesome and we had a kick ass time. Jane scored an autograph from the infamous Les Paul for her father-in-law.
After the concert, we went to the Old Castle and drank with various SEOs. On our way back to our rooms, we met Guillaume Bouchard, our sometime guest blogger on SEOmoz. We also ran into Jarrod Hunt and Neil, who was sporting some super sexy pajamas:
The K-Swiss shoes are a nice touch.
After seeing the Statue of Liberty (and getting yelled at by a security guard ["Ma'am! Don't chug yer watuh!"]), we walked through the Financial District, saw Ground Zero, ate at a deli, walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and got cheesecake at a diner, took the subway to Central Park and explored a bit, poked our heads into the New York Museum of Natural History to see the dinosaurs in the lobby, and then headed back to the hotel.
From there, Scott, Jane, and I went to see Les Paul perform with Greg, Barb, Dax, and Cesar from WebGuerrilla and Todd Friesen and Phil from Range. The music was awesome and we had a kick ass time. Jane scored an autograph from the infamous Les Paul for her father-in-law.
After the concert, we went to the Old Castle and drank with various SEOs. On our way back to our rooms, we met Guillaume Bouchard, our sometime guest blogger on SEOmoz. We also ran into Jarrod Hunt and Neil, who was sporting some super sexy pajamas:
The K-Swiss shoes are a nice touch.
We had a good laugh at Neil's expense, and then went to bed.
Tuesday (April 10):
Let the conference begin! I was a bad mozzer and only went to one session, which was Ads in a Quality Score World. I wanted to try and hit some PPC/advertising sessions at this conference because I sucked ass at our little moz experiment with AdWords, and I want to get more well-versed in the wily ways of PPC.
Per Rand's request, I'll share three things I learned from this session, and will present a question I have:
What I Learned:
Is there a specific time frame to test your ads? Is it recommended that I test ads for an entire month, and then compare them to other ads I'm running for the same amount of time to see which were more successful than others?
After the session, Scott, Jane, and I met up with several SEOs to attend a taping of The Late Show with David Letterman. We had a lot of fun--thanks to Scott Orth for organizing the group and getting the tickets.
When the taping was over, we went to the dinner hosted by Vintage Tub and Bath, Hitwise, Range, Pepperjam, BizResearch, and Performics. The dinner was a blast--combining good food, great drinks, champagne and cheese, and Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots is a recipe for success. The dinner was also the first time we reunited with Rand for more than five minutes, asGeraldine Mystery Guest and other SEOs had been keeping him from us all week.
You know you want to be a mozzer.
After dinner, we headed back to the Old Castle, where we met Chris Hooley and Graywolf in the flesh. Both guys are, as Hooley himself would say, wicked awesome (Graywolf taught me the correct way to say Long Island ["LonGuhEYEland"]). Several drinks later, we finally dragged our alcoholic asses to bed.
Wednesday (April 11):
The first session I attended was Getting Traffic from Contextual Ads.
What I Learned:
Is there a standard conversion rate for contextual ads? What constitutes a successful conversion rate?
The second session I went to was Creating Compelling Ads. I think I arrived a bit late to this session, since I only have notes on two speakers' presentations.
What I Learned:
I'm actually going to steal a question that someone from the audience asked: For the display URL, do you recommend having domain.com/item or item.yourdomain.com? I forgot who answered the question, but he recommended simply testing which one performs better. He also cautioned to make sure the page only has that item (specifically target that item; otherwise, you could get rejected and have relevance issues).
After this session wrapped up, I met up with Jane and we went to tape an interview with Michael McDonald for WebProNews. We talked about social media (or, rather, Jane talked about social media and I sat there like an idiot because she's the social media guru at SEOmoz). I have no idea when it'll be aired, so keep an eye out for it.
With the video completed, I dashed over to catch the last part of the Landing Page Testing and Tuning panel.
What I Learned:
What does Jamie mean when he said there is no single optimal page, only an average optimal page? I'm assuming he's referring to a general set of guidelines that, on average, equate to an optimal page, but that there's no single formula for success?
Anyway, the mozzers reunited at the MSN dinner, which was at an awesome Cuban restaurant (awesome because there was a dude at the bar whose sole role was to make mojitos all night long). When we got back from dinner, we ran into Neil and started making fun of him for being so lithe. And then I realized the following:
I can pick him up!
The three party mozzers hung out at the bar for the rest of the night. Jane and Scott called it a night while I hung out in the hotel lobby with several SEOs and watched Dax pick the lock on the lounge piano and start playing briefly before getting yelled at by security. The shit proceeded to hit the fan as every SEO in the lobby started arguing with two security guys and a hotel manager about our right to hang out in the lounge. It was amusing and crazy, and I'm sure the whole fracas is up on YouTube somewhere, as one SEO was keen enough to videotape the ordeal. After that, I hung out with some Best of the Web guys (Brian and Greg), Andrea Schoemaker, Cameron, and Guillaume until roughly 6:15 am.
Thursday (April 12):
Hey, guess which two female mozzers forgot to set their alarm? We did, and consequently missed the SEO Ladies who Lunch. Jane felt guilty and decided to attend a couple sessions, while Scott and I met Mystery Guest at the MOMA to get our modern art on. Oh, and WebProNews put up a video that quoted me from a phone interview they did with me a week ago. You could drive a truck through my pauses. Check it out if you want to hear me try and sound smart, and if you want to see WebProNews misspell my last name (two e's, dudes!):
Afterwards, we spent an Evening with Danny Sullivan, then Scott had dinner with some folks in Chinatown while Jane and I met up with Rae Hoffman, Tamar Weinberg, and Lisa Barone for dinner, drinks, and debauchery.
The prettiest and smartest bloggers in SEO
After dinner, we schmoozed in the Hilton bar, then moved over the the Old Castle for more drinking and mingling before dragging ourselves to bed at around 5:00.
Friday (April 13):
Sweet sassy molassy, the conference is almost over. Jane and I checked out of our room and caught the tail end of Rand's presentation for the Link Bait session. I missed him referencing my super awesome Worst College Mascots linkbait for Drivl. The rest of the session was, per usual, fantastic. I've seen the Link Bait session three or four times, and even though I could practically recite everyone's presentations, it's one of my favorite sessions because the energy is high, the humor is great, and the audience has a great time.
Once the session wrapped up, Jane, Scott, and I got some lunch and hung around until it was time to fly out. Aaaaand, that about summarizes my week at SES NY.
I'd like to finish this absurdly long post (sorry folks, I'm long-winded) by making some shout outs to SEOmoz readers Risa Borsykowsky, Joe Whyte, Kevin Gleeson, and Sam, (whose last name I don't remember, but she's super awesome so Sam, if you're reading this, bug me and I'll give you a link). It was really cool meeting people who regularly participate and contribute to our blog, and they're all great, fun people.
Anyway, that's about it. The week was long, I got no sleep, my liver hates me, and I got a taste of what I want to learn about PPC and advertising...so basically, I had a great time.
Tuesday (April 10):
Let the conference begin! I was a bad mozzer and only went to one session, which was Ads in a Quality Score World. I wanted to try and hit some PPC/advertising sessions at this conference because I sucked ass at our little moz experiment with AdWords, and I want to get more well-versed in the wily ways of PPC.
Per Rand's request, I'll share three things I learned from this session, and will present a question I have:
What I Learned:
- According to Joshua Stylman from Reprise Media, your quality score impacts your costs throughout the day. Google uses historical data to determine whether or not a kw is relevant, which impacts how much you pay for that keyword.
- Andrew Goodman from Page Zero Media said that Google assigns two quality scores: one affects your minimum bid (your keyword status), while the other affects where you rank.
- Jon Mendez from Otto Digital said that you need to craft your message according to the needs of your users and not your own. He stressed that you always need to be testing and optimizing.
Is there a specific time frame to test your ads? Is it recommended that I test ads for an entire month, and then compare them to other ads I'm running for the same amount of time to see which were more successful than others?
After the session, Scott, Jane, and I met up with several SEOs to attend a taping of The Late Show with David Letterman. We had a lot of fun--thanks to Scott Orth for organizing the group and getting the tickets.
When the taping was over, we went to the dinner hosted by Vintage Tub and Bath, Hitwise, Range, Pepperjam, BizResearch, and Performics. The dinner was a blast--combining good food, great drinks, champagne and cheese, and Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots is a recipe for success. The dinner was also the first time we reunited with Rand for more than five minutes, as
You know you want to be a mozzer.
After dinner, we headed back to the Old Castle, where we met Chris Hooley and Graywolf in the flesh. Both guys are, as Hooley himself would say, wicked awesome (Graywolf taught me the correct way to say Long Island ["LonGuhEYEland"]). Several drinks later, we finally dragged our alcoholic asses to bed.
Wednesday (April 11):
The first session I attended was Getting Traffic from Contextual Ads.
What I Learned:
- Chris Bowler (I didn't catch who he works for) said that content CPCs are more affordable. This may change over time, but if you're looking for inexpensive, efficient clicks, it may be an option over expensive keywords.
- Anton E. Konikoff from Acronym Media had great bullet points in his presentation. He stressed the importance of your ads being in the top positions. Visitors may ignore ads that fall beneath the 3rd/4th position as opposed to search, because they are not actively looking for you.
- Don Steele from Comedy Central had some really cool examples of how they have successfully used contextual ads to drive traffic to their site. Contextual ads are great for branding--they bid on keywords surrounding key programs and internet buzz. For shows, they'll bid on keywords pre-broadcast for branding purposes and post-broadcast to build traffic.
Is there a standard conversion rate for contextual ads? What constitutes a successful conversion rate?
The second session I went to was Creating Compelling Ads. I think I arrived a bit late to this session, since I only have notes on two speakers' presentations.
What I Learned:
- Vic Drabicky reminded us that the goal isn't to get every click, but every profitable click.
- Darren Kuhn recommended testing your ads by creating 4-6 new creatives with different message types (official site language, capitalization and punctuation, price points, free shipping, product guarantees, etc), placing unique tracking on each creative so that the conversion and CTR can be traced, and disabling auto optimizers (currently not an option on MSN) in order to get an even sample. Track which ad outperforms the rest.
I'm actually going to steal a question that someone from the audience asked: For the display URL, do you recommend having domain.com/item or item.yourdomain.com? I forgot who answered the question, but he recommended simply testing which one performs better. He also cautioned to make sure the page only has that item (specifically target that item; otherwise, you could get rejected and have relevance issues).
After this session wrapped up, I met up with Jane and we went to tape an interview with Michael McDonald for WebProNews. We talked about social media (or, rather, Jane talked about social media and I sat there like an idiot because she's the social media guru at SEOmoz). I have no idea when it'll be aired, so keep an eye out for it.
With the video completed, I dashed over to catch the last part of the Landing Page Testing and Tuning panel.
What I Learned:
- Tom Leung from Google said that 1st time tester pitfalls include too many combos, making your conversion goal too far out, making your variations too subtle, and stopping your tests too early.
- Scott Miller from Vertster recommended increasing page visibility to grab attention, which will decrease the bounce rate. If you increase the ability for your site to capture attention, you'll increase your conversions.
- Jamie Roche from Offermatica said that for most companies, optimization doesn't happen on one page, but across multiple pages/sessions; therefore, it's essential to optimize for different user groups.
What does Jamie mean when he said there is no single optimal page, only an average optimal page? I'm assuming he's referring to a general set of guidelines that, on average, equate to an optimal page, but that there's no single formula for success?
After this session, I headed to the Webmaster Radio booth in the exhibit hall to make a complete ass of myself. I was supposed to talk about the search engine ranking factors in Rand's place, because he was MIA. The only problem was that I had nothing to do with the ranking factors, so I wasn't sure what to say. I think I mentioned how it was a huge success and that Jeff made the factors look super sexy with his awesome design. That's what you get when you make me fill in for you, Rand. I say things like "super sexy." Ugh.
Hanging out at the Webmaster Radio booth
Hanging out at the Webmaster Radio booth
Anyway, the mozzers reunited at the MSN dinner, which was at an awesome Cuban restaurant (awesome because there was a dude at the bar whose sole role was to make mojitos all night long). When we got back from dinner, we ran into Neil and started making fun of him for being so lithe. And then I realized the following:
I can pick him up!
The three party mozzers hung out at the bar for the rest of the night. Jane and Scott called it a night while I hung out in the hotel lobby with several SEOs and watched Dax pick the lock on the lounge piano and start playing briefly before getting yelled at by security. The shit proceeded to hit the fan as every SEO in the lobby started arguing with two security guys and a hotel manager about our right to hang out in the lounge. It was amusing and crazy, and I'm sure the whole fracas is up on YouTube somewhere, as one SEO was keen enough to videotape the ordeal. After that, I hung out with some Best of the Web guys (Brian and Greg), Andrea Schoemaker, Cameron, and Guillaume until roughly 6:15 am.
Thursday (April 12):
Afterwards, we spent an Evening with Danny Sullivan, then Scott had dinner with some folks in Chinatown while Jane and I met up with Rae Hoffman, Tamar Weinberg, and Lisa Barone for dinner, drinks, and debauchery.
The prettiest and smartest bloggers in SEO
After dinner, we schmoozed in the Hilton bar, then moved over the the Old Castle for more drinking and mingling before dragging ourselves to bed at around 5:00.
Friday (April 13):
Sweet sassy molassy, the conference is almost over. Jane and I checked out of our room and caught the tail end of Rand's presentation for the Link Bait session. I missed him referencing my super awesome Worst College Mascots linkbait for Drivl. The rest of the session was, per usual, fantastic. I've seen the Link Bait session three or four times, and even though I could practically recite everyone's presentations, it's one of my favorite sessions because the energy is high, the humor is great, and the audience has a great time.
Once the session wrapped up, Jane, Scott, and I got some lunch and hung around until it was time to fly out. Aaaaand, that about summarizes my week at SES NY.
I'd like to finish this absurdly long post (sorry folks, I'm long-winded) by making some shout outs to SEOmoz readers Risa Borsykowsky, Joe Whyte, Kevin Gleeson, and Sam, (whose last name I don't remember, but she's super awesome so Sam, if you're reading this, bug me and I'll give you a link). It was really cool meeting people who regularly participate and contribute to our blog, and they're all great, fun people.
Anyway, that's about it. The week was long, I got no sleep, my liver hates me, and I got a taste of what I want to learn about PPC and advertising...so basically, I had a great time.
Hey Rebecca,
I just watched the telephone interview about blogging. It got me thinking.
When I first started reading the SEOmoz blog in early 2005, I was amazed by the level of participation in the comments. There was a great community of folks who posted truly great comments. The quality of the comments is what got me hooked on your blog.
After a while... I realized that about 3/4 of the people who were consistently posting the best comments were SEOmoz employees, not folks like me, who were in no way associated with the company. (I didn't care though, I genuinely liked everyone.)
Recently, you have added badges to better identify the employees. Providing full disclosure is always best.
I am advising a friend on how they should start a blog and have employees interact on the blog and in the online community. I'm using SEOmoz as a roll model for how to interact and behave. Everyone at SEOmoz posts comments, submits to Digg, posts on forums, and comments on others blogs, etc, the proper way.
My buddy is trying to build a community. I am suggesting he train people and pay them to socially interact. (Seed the community) My thinking is that even if the only people who are leaving comments on the blog are employees, it's better than zero interaction. Same with interacting in the online community. Paying people to be corporate evangelists is better than not having anyone reaching out to the community. (I don't see anything wrong with this as long as everything is disclosed and upfront)
I have seen corporations successfully build MySpace profiles with lots of friends, and comment on blogs, etc... However... if done improperly, this can be a disaster.
I know this stuff is second nature for you and your team but not so obvious to others. I'm sure every PR expert has a horror story to share about what happens when you get inexperienced and unauthorized employees speaking intentionally or unintentionally on a company's behalf or getting over zealous and cross the line into sock puppet and astroturfing territory, etc.
Could you post about best practices regarding how a company should interact online? I think it would be a great help to somehow document SEOmoz policies if any regarding online engagement.
Aloha, Dave.
Hey Rebecca,
its Joe Whyte!! I had a great time hangin with you guys and michigandars are the best. We rule in SEO ;-)
See ya all at SES San Jose
It is different for everyone, but it generally comes down to the experience you have with the industry & the account itself.
In my experience there are probably three ways of gauging the length of time to test a new ad.
1. The 'gut feel' method. Experienced operators know the optimum length of time for a new ad. That is, they've factored in the level of competition and the typical number of impressions such an ad will receive. Remember to factor in seasonality & timing. Usually the domain of niche PPC specialists.
2. A minimum number of impressions, clicks, conversions. Usually takes a statistically 'reliable' number of one of the above, eg. 1000 impressions, 1000 clicks or 1000 leads generated. The tried and trusted method for most managers.
3. A little more scientific: given an adgroup's historical clickthrough rate, we ask the question, 'How many impressions would have to be shown to be highly confident that the new ad will generate at least one click (or one conversion)?'
This test of statistical significance is more reliable than method two but is more suitable for extremely large, long-running accounts (from 10,000s to millions of keywords) as there is greater depth in the historical data and is also easier to derive economies of scale. I'm no maths whiz but I'll try to put our stat guru's results into layman's terms (all stats made up): "Based upon your adgroup conversion rate of 5.16%, there is a 2% chance that after 2000 impressions, your ad will still have zero conversions. Therefore, if your new ad does not have a conversion after 2000 impressions, you can be confident it is a dud. Delete.".
Tweak formula to your heart's content (oh, dont delete poor performers. You can pause ads now!)
I have seen each techinque used effectively, so my rule of thumb for test length is simply test, test, test & learn from experience (or if you have deep pockets, an advanced SEM management tool might help, but I never met a bid tool that could beat good ol' fashioned elbow grease).
Also, thanks for sharing '3 things you learned'. If I don't walk out of a session without at least one 'nugget of gold', I'm extremely disappointed. I console myself by networking extra hard during the session breaks :)
For the long tail keywords that don't get a lot of searches, waiting for 1000 leads, or clicks, or even impressions could be very time consuming. In that situation setting a time limit and then comparing number of leads/clicks/impressions could be a better tactic.
tough job for your liver!
You aint kiddin. My body still hates me from last week.
And FYI- the mozgirls are waaaaay hotter in person, and Great Scott looks like a better looking Dave Naylor with less eveil
Rebecca has a back up liver waiting in China.
Wow! what a post :) Looks like you guys actually got a chance to take in some of NY while you were there. I'm dreading my blog post tonight... It's almost impossible to wrap it up w/o going too long...
db / NeO
Great job Rebecca...you rock as usual. Thanks for the kind words about the Link baiting panel...I agree that is a fun one. Now why is it that I have the gangsta lean and eyes closed in the Pulse picture? :P
Love your conference recaps Rebecca!
It's like I'm actually there (wish I was).
Presenting and talking in front of a live audience is tough stuff so don't fret so much about it. It'll come with experience.
Hey Rebecca! It was great to see you again! :) Looking forward to seeing the comic!
Hahaha, love the avatar :)
Two impressive women of search.... gets my nod too!
I really like the three things I learned and a question... really really smart
No mention of the cannolis.....
Oh yeah...sorry Frank.
Everyone, Frank decided to further fatten me up by buying a whole box of canolis (cannolis?). They were delicious.
Did they all get eaten? We moved to the OC pretty soon after desert delivery
Ok. That does it!
I'm going to have to attend SES in San Jose just to hunt you guys down and show you how to really drink.
Now, if I can just get this expense approved so I have money for beer!
Great recap!
*groan* Great, I guess I'll have to get on an organ donor list...
your liver is evil...it must be punished. or i'm just jealous i didn't get to go. sounds like you got a lot of learnin' done, with a wee bit of fun squeezed in, or vice versa. ;)
I have one waiting for you in China.... guess Rand forget to mention that all mozzers get a free liver as part of their employment.
Why do you think we all want to hire mozzers away from Rand... we want the livers!!!
hey rebecca, it's sam. :)
i always enjoy reading your posts on what happened during your trips and this one was just as amusing. the first picture of you and jane is hilarious.
it was a pleasure to meet you!
FYI the first guy speaking at the Landing Page Testing session was Tom Leung of Google (PM of Website Optimizer).
It was great to meet more mozzers; I hope we can share another edge-of-your-seat van ride sometime soon! :-P
-Susan
Thanks Susan! I'll be practicing my packing skills for the next conference :D
Looks like fun. Thanks for the detailed write-up!
I haven't had this post yet in my feedreader (bloglines - which has updated other feeds) - anyone else having a similar problem? Luckily I headed over to the actual blog 'cos I knew you wouldn't have left me without an SES review ;)
Don't panic. Bloglines musta just been being slow. It's there now (along with Rand's more recent post).
Holy cow, that was lot to take in all at once and must have been quite a task for you to put together on Sunday night! Sounds like you learned a ton and had a super sexy time in NYC. By the look of things your job is safe. Nice work.
Was that your first time on WMR? Or Webpronews?
I thought you sounded good, so don't pick yourself to pieces too much about it.
Can't wait for the comic strip!!
I was interviewed by WebProNews in Chicago, but this was my first time on Webmaster Radio. If only I were as eloquent as Rand...
I think you did great. It's tough thinking on your feet - but don't worry, pauses make it seem like you're thinking about the answer (which is good - at least you know the answer!) rather than just saying the first thing that comes to mind. It'll get easier as you practice.
I'm sure we haven't heard the last of Ms Kelley on WMR.
This is why I like you, Will :D
I'm just after the 'thumbs-up' points ;)
Just keep at it, you'll be a natural too!
Perfect practice makes perfect!
[quote]Is there a standard conversion rate for contextual ads? What constitutes a successful conversion rate?[/quote]
Not really. With every capaign you run, you'll find an optimal level. I've got some where I'm on a good one if I'm hitting 30-35% conversions. At the same time, I've got others where I'm doing well with an ad at 3/4%.
It depends on the audience, the keywords and the subject.
The other thing you need to track and test is that your ad is pulling the right people. I've had ads in the same campaign that have pulled 30% that I've deleted over ones that pull 5%, because the 30% one's weren't interested in buying, and the 5% ones all bought.
It's not just how many, it's who.
You forgot to mention finally getting to meet me. You must have a special post waiting for me, right? (sniff, I'm so not worthy!)
Awww, sorry about that. It was a lot of new faces!
Hey everyone, I met evolver, too, and he kicks ass!
We never get any of the fun in London - people must be too jet-lagged.
I have to convince my employer to send me to PubCon - MUST MUST MUST!!!
I don't know I had a blast at SES London.... but you had to hang at the bar.
Thanks for the roundup Rebecca. Makes me sad I didn't make out to the conference, especially given that New York is my hometown.
Yep.. I live in Ny and didnt make it either ..guess its to for the furnace.
I live in Colorado right now, but I was born, raised, and have lived most of my life in NY. And like the saying goes you can take the boy out of Brooklyn, but you can't take Brooklyn out of the boy. I'll always be a New Yorker wherever I live.
You lucky Yanks! God, I wish we had this sort of thing in Northern Ireland. Either that or I need to score some huge international clients!!!
Top-notch overview as usual Rebecca.