For some time, brick and mortar stores have complained about the fact that they have to pay sales tax while online retailers are released from this requirement, placing the burden on the purchaser to disclose their online purchase and pay the relevant sales tax, which many (if not most) purchasers don’t bother doing.  Bottom line – the cost for products from online-only (or out-of-state) retailers is less than brick and mortar stores.  Considering this advantage, many offline retailers are lobbying to change the current tax system. (more…)

Dayparting (as it relates to Paid Search) is a fairly simple concept, but one many companies have failed to utilize.  Simply, dayparting is the act of limiting or suspending part of your PPC program during certain periods (and running more advertising during your peak periods).  Today I will answer two main questions:

1. Who should be using dayparting (and why)?

2. How do I determine my peak periods? (more…)

Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become two of the most common phrases used during the holiday shopping season. Black Friday refers to the Friday after Thanksgiving, when stores offer unusual discounts, including so-called “doorbusters” that encourage shoppers to wait hours prior to the opening of stores. Cyber Monday, on the other hand, is the marketing term for the following Monday, when significant discounts are offered to persuade shoppers to shop online. The year-over-year trends for both shopping days point to some interesting changes. (more…)

***Rise Interactive is in the running for the People’s Choice Award given out by the Chicago Innovation Awards for FeedPro. We need your vote! http://bit.ly/dsHr7b***

One major challenge facing e-commerce clients, especially as we move into the holiday season, is managing product-based paid search campaigns as efficiently as possible. It is quite common for e-commerce retailers to bid on product-specific keywords, such as product name, model number and SKU. There are three scenarios of inefficiency that are unique to e-commerce retailers:

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We have analyzed some of the top E-Commerce Platforms, and created this matrix to easily see which platforms can be optimized for Search. Their ability to integrate with Google Analytics and Omniture is addressed as well. Take a look before you choose one for your online storefront to ensure you are giving yourself the best opportunity for SEO.

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If you do a search for a product in Amazon using their search bar, the results that are initially displayed are ranked by relevance across all of the departments. If you select a specific department then you can also choose to sort the results by best sellers, price, and user ratings.

How does Amazon determine relevance? According to Amazon, they rank relevance based on key terms found within the product feed in the following locations:

-          Search Terms

-          Title

-          Brand

-          Designer

-          Manufacturer

-          Manufacturer part number

-          Standard product ID (UPC, EAN, GTIN)

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For those agencies and marketers with a total focus on ROI, sometimes branding campaigns can be confounding.  How can I measure the effectiveness of my branding campaign to optimize performance?  The answer is something we call a “Brand Metrics Calculator”.  A Brand Metrics Calculator will convert all brand touch points into a common unit, and thus a common financial value.  This way the marketer can determine the effectiveness of multiple brand touch points and shift budget accordingly, as they would say in determining that a paid search campaign generates leads at a lower cost than say a banner campaign.   While this is not by any means an exact science, it allows the marketer to make data-driven decisions on how to invest marketing funds. (more…)

Webinar to Focus on Search Engine Marketing for eCommerce Retailers

Rise Interactive, and Lyons Consulting Group will be joining forces in a one hour webinar on March 17 titled “Just in Time Paid Search: Cutting Edge Secrets for Engaging—and Converting—Savvy Shoppers.” The two companies recently announced the launch of an alliance with the goal of providing eCommerce retailers with a cutting edge service that uses real time competitive intelligence and inventory management to cut paid search cost. This service is designed to attract and convert savvy Internet shoppers – shoppers who are using the web to research and compare products prior to making purchases. (more…)