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Overdrive Interactive Wants YOU...To Be an Intern!School’s out. Time to put away textbooks, pack up your laptops, and stash away your flashcards. And although the idea of going to the beach every day is tempting (almost too tempting), we all know it’s important to find that perfect internship instead. So where do you begin? You know you need to find something that will enable you to gain valuable work experience in the marketing industry, while at the same time providing you with the opportunity to expand your skill set and knowledge base...This is where Overdrive Interactive comes in.  Enjoy photo copying large documents? Want to increase your experience in staple removal? If so, this is not the internship for you. An internship at Overdrive could be your foot in the door to a full time position. Our interns are not going on coffee runs and sorting folders. Our interns are getting real-life experience by working on projects and tasks that are integral pieces to our business. As an intern at Overdrive you are viewed as a valuable team member and asset to the business. From the first day on the job you will be given projects that will allow you to show off your leadership, management and creative skills. Beyond the real life experience, our internships train you to become fully equipped with an arsenal of tools that an interactive marketer needs to connect with consumers in the digital age. Who are we looking for? If you’re hard working, motivated and dedicated to learning about interactive marketing and positively impacting a company, apply. We are looking for current undergraduate seniors, graduating seniors or graduate students who demonstrate a passion for online marketing, social media and search marketing technologies. Don’t worry; there is space in the interactive marketing world at Overdrive for your interests. We have internship positions available in the following departments.
We look forward to hearing from you soon! Labels: Overdrive News, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media Marketing Google-Yelp Deal Could Create Powerful Local Marketing ToolFor obvious reasons, local "mom and pop" businesses need to have different marketing tactics than large enterprises. What this means in the end, is that local businesses simply can't afford to advertise in the same places as their big-business counterparts. Even Google pay-per-click ads, which are low in cost, may be inefficient for some local businesses because the larger companies whom they compete against will inevitably show up in top positions and likely fill the first page, which is the most important place to be to generate impressions and clicks. Google already has the Local Business Center, which has helped local businesses with smaller budgets to show up atop search results based on users' geography. However, if Google's $500 million+ acquisition of local business and review site Yelp goes through, this could really open up the local search advertising market. It would also help to generate more data about local markets for advertisers. The benefit that Yelp would bring to Google is its hundreds of thousands of reviews on local businesses and services, across cities and towns large and small and every vertical you can imagine. According to Adam Bunn, head of SEO at Greenlight, the acquisition would give "direct access to structured data allowing them to reliably and accurately incorporate that data into their search results." Additionally, Yelp has been building a powerful mobile search platform. According to John Havens, VP of social media at Porter Novelli (via TechNewsWorld), "Right now, Yelp has a tool called 'Monocle' - a user holds up a phone using the app and pans it from left to right. Let's say you are in San Francisco and want to find a coffee shop. You start panning the phone around, and you can see the icons for coffee shops, along with consumers' comments about each shop." Combined with Google's capabilities, this could become a huge and influential tool for local marketing worldwide. According to MarketingVox, the Google/Yelp deal still has some kinks to work out and there are some doubts about its certainty. MarketingVox states, "...in fact, with its news made public participants reportedly fear that competitors may offer a higher bid for Yelp - a testament to the huge importance local business data has to the online search and ad community." To read more about the pending acquisition, click here. Source: MarketingVox Labels: Google, Local Search Marketing, Paid Search, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Yelp Taking Advantage of External Links?We know you’re always working on your SEO. Optimizing the title tags and creating new content for search engines to crawl. Of course you’re doing all that. But, are you also working on increasing the number of links to your website? It’s a primary area for improving search engine rankings and should be an important aspect of your overall strategy. Let’s take a look at some ways you can execute:
Labels: Search Engine Marketing (SEM), search marketing, seo Expanding Your Reach on the Google Content NetworkThe Google Content Network is a great place to expand upon standard paid search campaigns, especially if your campaigns are utilizing low frequency terms or promoting a niche product or service. When search campaigns approach 100% impression share, the average cost per click can increase substantially as more aggressive bidding is required to capture the extra traffic on your relevant terms. However, simply flipping the switch on the content network for your existing campaigns is not typically a good way to get started with Content Network campaigns. Here are a few tips get you started with successful PPC campaign management and expansion on the Google Content Network. The first thing you should always do when setting up a content campaign is to separate the content campaign from search campaigns. Search campaigns often perform quite differently than content campaigns, so it is not enough to simply turn the Google Content Network on in an existing campaign; it is critical to make sure you create a separate campaign within the AdWords management interface . Keeping a separate campaign allows you to set unique budget caps for your search and content campaigns, ensuring your content buy won’t cannibalize the performance of an existing search campaign. Separate campaigns allow for easier PPC management and optimization as well. Content campaigns will always have a much higher level of impressions and lower click through rates, and will typically require a different bidding structure (usually lower bids on content). For keyword targeted content campaigns, you also might need to trim back to a core list of tightly grouped buckets of terms for each AdGroup. Content AdGroups should typically contain no more than 10-15 terms, and Google will ignore more than 50, so keep the list short. Google looks at the theme of grouped terms, not individual keywords in an AdGroup, so make sure your groups contain highly related terms. By keeping campaigns separate, you can also avoid taking a quality score hit to the search campaign as the CTR won’t take a sharp dive once the content program is launched. Optimizations are different for search and content as well so keeping things separate makes it easier to improve both campaigns. In terms of targeting by keyword vs. placement- there is no right or wrong here, and the goals and objectives of the campaign would need to be considered; one approach would be to utilize both forms of targeting. Start with the keywords. Again, use small lists of tightly themed terms with relevant ads and destinations. Set your caps and bids and begin collecting data. After you have some data built up, run a placement report to review performance by each URL where your ads are being displayed. Optimize the keyword campaign not only at the big and conversion level, but at the placement level as well. Pause any sites that spend money on clicks that don’t convert (assuming you are tracking actions and not just driving traffic). Also pause any sites that generate lots of impressions, but few clicks to improve quality score and lower overall cost per click. In addition to pausing non-performing placements, you can further improve overall PPC performance by placement targeting sites that have shown solid performance in the keyword targeted content campaign. Run the placement campaigns at the same time as the keyword campaigns, continuing to expand reach on the sites that perform well on keyword campaigns through direct placement targeting. Consider adding different creative formats to the top performing placements that emerge, including image or video ads. Additional placements that might perform well can be discovered through Google’s natural search results. Instead of searching through the categories and available content placements in AdWords, consider the inverse approach- starting with a search on the most valuable terms in your campaign. Considering the scale of the Google Content Network, you might find several placements that rank high in natural results for your most critical terms. A quick look at the sites with page one and two listings on your key terms should reveal whether or not they are part of the Google Content Network- just look for the familiar “Ads By Google” box. Then, placement target the sites that already rank highly for the most relevant terms in your campaign. Labels: Google, online marketing, Paid Search, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Google AdWords Trademark Policy Change Goes Into Effect Next Week!If you’re an agency, you’re likely aware of the major Google AdWords trademark policy change that will be going into effect beginning June 4th-15th. This change will significantly impact the control we’re able to have over our client’s brand names within Google Paid Search. What you need to know: -Google will no longer investigate the use of trademarks as keywords in the US, UK and other countries as well. Anyone who wants to sponsor your brand name can, effective June 4th. -Previously, Google restricted the use of brand names in ad text and would take action to prevent such usage. Only authorized resellers were allowed to use you brand, which ensured that most were restricted. This policy is being lifted as of June 15th, so previously disapproved ad text may now be permitted to run in both Google and the Content Network. Google will judge whether the ads will be able to run, and the trademark owner will not be able to prevent people from using their trademark in ad text. It is likely however that Google will not allow direct competitors to include their competitor’s trademark within their ads. What you can do to protect your clients: 1. Ensure that their brand presence is strong- ensure you’re bidding on their branded terms, include their brand name within the ad copy, URL, etc. 2. Report display URL abuse to Google- if you find brand hijacking (causing traffic to be diverted to sites other than your client’s) Google will take action 3. Negotiate deals with competitors- agree to not bid on each others trademarked terms Clients frequently question the value of bidding on their branded terms, when they have natural search presence and often times are listed within first page results in Google. As search marketers we know that having our client’s brand name present in both natural search listings and paid search listings can result in a sort of ‘page domination’ and ensure that we stand out against competitors who’s ads are likely appearing under our branded terms when searched for. This recent trademark policy change stresses the importance of this ‘page domination’ now more than ever. For more on the Google AdWords Trademark policy changes, click here. Labels: Brand Awareness, Google, Paid Search, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) A New Pricing System for OnlineThere are a few pricing models for online advertising and we all know them well: CPM (define), CPC (define), and CPA (define) being the major ones. But recently, Ari Rosenberg brought me a very novel and intriguing pricing model. It's so unique that he patented it and has some pretty major advertisers and publishers using it. It's called IPC, or impressions per connections pricing. Maybe we'll all be buying media with this new pricing structure some day. Here's what Ari had to say about it. Harry Gold: Ari, please tell me a bit about your background and how you came up with IPC pricing. Ari Rosenberg: I used to be sales manager at Snowball.com (we changed our name to IGN in 2001). We had three "hub sites" at the time, including IGN.com, Chickclick.com, and Powerstudents.com. While on our sites, I had noticed how often we were running ads that didn't seem to fit. Our sales folks were great at pumping in ads that made very little sense for the audience our brands attracted (Ameritrade running on Chickclick.com, for example). At the same time, I also learned firsthand what it was like to have a campaign I sold get canceled because the ads did not perform well. This was a strange feeling coming from traditional media sales and I was resentful that revenue I booked would cancel because "their" creative didn't work on my site. I knew there had to be a better way to formulate a deal structure where everyone could benefit and performance on all sides was incentives. Read more... Labels: Advertising, ClickZ, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Social Media Expert Harry Gold to Present Social Media Marketing Series at NEDMA 2009 Annual ConferenceFrom Facebook to Twitter to blogs, social media marketing is quickly becoming the go-to solution for many businesses as a cost-effective and successful direct marketing and branding tool. Online marketing expert Harry Gold will explore the corporate social media marketing boom and how companies can effectively wade the online marketing waters at the New England Direct Marketing Association (NEDMA) 2009 Annual Conference. Gold is the leader of Boston-based online marketing agency Overdrive Interactive, the masterminds behind several online marketing programs for clients such as Harley-Davidson, John Hancock, EMC, Dow Jones and The Princeton Review. Drawing on his experience from developing these channels, Gold will address the importance and complexities of creating brand awareness in today’s economy and web environment. Gold’s full day “Search Engine, Blog, and Social Media Marketing” NEDMA workshop on May 6th is geared towards marketing professionals looking to familiarize themselves with and understand the latest online techniques to help stay in the forefront of their industries. Gold’s shorter, one hour session “Social Media is about Socializing” NEDMA seminar is on May 7th and provides a great introduction to social media for companies looking for an edge in the space. At the NEDMA conference, Gold will also discuss how social media marketing technologies can help lead to new business opportunities and partnerships, build a fan base, and create a direct business-consumer relationship by saturating the virtual play space. “The businesses that are growing in this financial climate are incorporating social media elements into their interactive marketing strategies,” says Gold. “If executed correctly, social media marketing can make both a measurable impact with leads and revenue as well as build brand loyalty over time.” To help spark conversation about the growing social media landscape, Overdrive Interactive created and released a social media map that contains live links in the PDF. To download the map, visit www.ovrdrv.com/social-media-map. NEDMA is one of the oldest and most well respected regional direct marketing associations providing networking and educational opportunities to marketing professionals. This year’s conference is held May 6-7, 2009 at Bentley University in Waltham, Mass. To learn how you register, please visit http://www.nedma.com/annual-conference/conference-overview.asp. About Overdrive Interactive Overdrive Interactive is a full-service online marketing agency based in Boston that helps clients grow their business with engaging and measurable online media, social media and search engine marketing campaigns and services. The agency specializes in creating genuine consumer connections that help companies build their brands, generate leads and drive revenue. Overdrive serves organizations that are seeking a high level of accountability from their marketing firms and advertising investments. For more information, please visit http://www.overdriveinteractive.com/. About New England Direct Marketing Association (NEDMA) The New England Direct Marketing Association is a regional, professional association for all those interested in direct marketing. NEDMA sponsors an extensive series of events, including business/dinner meetings with forums and networking immediately preceding the meetings. For more information, please visit http://www.nedma.com/. Labels: Events, Overdrive News, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media, Social Media Marketing Overdrive Interactive Unveils Search Marketing MapAs a follow up to its successful Social Media Map, Boston online marketing agency Overdrive Interactive today unveils its Search Marketing Map. This free resource provides online marketing professionals with a comprehensive, at-a-glance directory for the complicated world of search engine marketing. According to Overdrive CEO Harry Gold, the Search Marketing Map will help companies get their heads around the ever-expanding world of search marketing resources and can help widen their online marketing channels. “The map has both free and paid resources for SEM (paid search) and SEO (search engine optimization,” said Gold. The Search Engine Map is available for free download at www.OverdriveInteractive.com/search-map. Overdrive’s Search Marketing Map organizes and categorizes these sites and tools, which include: Search Industry Blogs, Campaign Management Tools, Trade Show/Events, Free SEO Tools and various types of search engines including Video, News, Shopping and Job Search Engines.  Overdrive Interactive is the online marketing agency behind highly successful search marketing campaigns for leading companies such as Harley-Davidson, Dow Jones, Zipcar and The Princeton Review. The company offers a wide array of online services to marketers who are interested in increasing the power of their online marketing channel. To learn more about Overdrive Interactive’s search marketing services, please www.ovrdrv.com/services/paid-search-management.asp. About Overdrive Interactive Overdrive Interactive is a full-service online marketing agency based in Boston that helps clients grow their business with engaging and measurable online marketing, social media marketing and search engine marketing campaigns and services. The agency specializes in creating genuine consumer connections that help companies build their brands, generate leads and drive revenue. Overdrive serves organizations that are seeking a high level of accountability from their marketing firms and advertising investments. For more information, please visit http://www.overdriveinteractive.com/. Labels: Overdrive News, Paid Search, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Paid Search Tips for Campaign OptimizationIf you've ever run a paid search campaign, chances are you've come across keywords that, while viable for your campaign, garner too much traffic and are just too expensive to bid on. However, what happens when the opposite is true? Some perfectly legitimate keywords carry such little frequency that Google may not show your ads consistently. I've highlighted some potential issues associated with low frequency keywords below and some tips on how to avoid this situation. When keywords carry an extremely low search frequency (by Google’s standards) paid search ads may not be displayed consistently. By increasing bids, this can counteract the low search frequency and increase the frequency of your ads being shown. The goal is to achieve a balance of ensuring your ads are being displayed while not increasing bids too high. Keywords Are Phrase Matched Normally for campaigns with a low cost per click you would want to broad match your terms, meaning that if someone entered any part of a keyword into a search query, your ads would show. This may not be possible though for a variety of reasons; maybe part of your keyword would not be relevant, maybe it would be too expensive broad matching certain terms Whatever the reason, a little elbow grease can help counteract this situation. Adding all variations of a term - misspellings, words in a different order, etc. - any variation you can think that would even remotely make sense, should be added to the campaign. This way you have a much better chance of bidding on the exact keyword a user entered, which in turn gives your ads a much better chance of showing up. While these tactics will definitely help, your ads still might not show up 100% of the time. The key is to closely monitor your campaign and find an acceptable balance of keyword bids and impression levels. If you would like Overdrive to help with your search engine marketing efforts, feel free to contact us anytime: 617-254-5000 x1100. Labels: Google, Paid Search, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Google Suggest Extension for Firefox displaying PPC Ads?This morning I discovered what appears to be partial paid search ad within the Google Suggest drop-down menu. It appears that the Firefox extension is pulling the 25 character ad headline and display URL right into the drop-down menu.  As an advertiser on Google, I was surprised not to have heard of this development. It has yet to be determined if these partial impressions are counted in the AdWords tally. What is more concerning is the fact that none of these paid ads actually appear to work. All of the paid partial ads point to the page below showing the page www.google.com/www.displayurl.com/ does not exist. I would assume that these "clicks" to the partial ads within the Suggest menu are not actually being counted since the user never hits the destination page, but this has yet to be confirmed. It looks like there are still some bugs to be worked out here obviously, but this is something advertisers should be aware of. Impressions on text ads might not be as valuable as impressions for other ad units, but they can still have a major impact, especially for users early in the decision making process that are compiling a short list of potential solutions or products. So, if 70 characters of your impression are missing, the value is undoubtedly decreased, as benefit statements and offers that most often influence click behavior are missing. Furthermore, as an advertiser I would be concerned about the partial impressions and how these partial impressions could bring down the click through rate, which in turn decreases the Quality Score and brings down the performance of the AdGroup and Campaign as a whole. Hopefully Google will allow for an option to block these impressions so that advertisers have the ability to save their limited funds for full ad impressions that don't dilute Quality Score overall campaign metrics. Labels: Advertising, Google, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Overdrive Interactive Secures Google Grant for First DescentsOverdrive Interactive is the online marketing agency behind highly successful search and online media campaigns for clients as diverse as Harley-Davidson, The Princeton Review, EMC, The Boston Globe and media giant Dow Jones. In support of First Descents, the agency will be deploying a search engine marketing program to generate awareness of the free trips and to drive registrations on the web site. The actual amount is not being disclosed; however it is six figures annually. The free advertising through Google AdWords™ will continue as long as the online campaign exists. Former high school classmates in Massachusetts and fellow cancer survivors, Shane Kelly, Account Executive for Overdrive Interactive, and Scott McDonald, Interim Executive Director for First Descents, partnered together to apply for and win the grant. “As a cancer survivor, I am thrilled to leverage Overdrive Interactive’s online marketing expertise to help such a fantastic organization achieve its goals,” said Kelly. “First Descents provides a life-changing experience for cancer patients and survivors, and we want everyone to know about it.” During the weeklong First Descents experience, young adults living with cancer are empowered through kayaking, team-building and other activities to push their limits and face the challenges associated with living with cancer. Emphasis is placed on daily goal setting, confidence workouts and teamwork exercises. Each program is limited to 15 participants, ensuring individualized care, medical attention and an intimate experience with fellow First Descents participants. All meals, accommodations and program activities are provided to participants free of charge. First Descents has just announced the dates for Summer 2009 programs, which can be applied for at www.firstdescents.org. “We are proud of Shane’s efforts on behalf of First Descents and happy to donate our services to such a worthy cause,” said Harry Gold, CEO of Overdrive Interactive. “Thanks to this Google Grant, we will really be able to help First Descents extend its reach online.” About First Descents First Descents was founded in 2001 by professional kayaker Brad Ludden. The mission of First Descents is to provide physical, emotional and psychological healing for young adults with cancer. The young adult cancer population (ages 18 - 40) is the most underserved demographic of survivors, with very few resources and limited support. First Descents’ week-long programs aim to kick-start young adult survivors back into life – regaining confidence, control, security and independence. For more information, please visit www.firstdescents.org. About Overdrive Interactive Overdrive Interactive is a full-service online marketing agency based in Boston that helps clients grow their business with engaging and measurable online media, social media and search engine marketing campaigns and services. The agency specializes in creating genuine consumer connections that help companies build their brands, generate leads and drive revenue. Overdrive serves organizations who are seeking a high level of accountability from their marketing firms and advertising investments. For more information, please visit www.OverdriveInteractive.com. Labels: Google, Overdrive News, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Google Unveils Flu TrendsOn Tuesday, Google unveiled its newest product, Flu Trends. Flu Trends is a part of Google.org- the non-profit arm of the search giant. This new tool is based on the finding by Google that there is a significant relationship between people’s searches on flu-related queries and people actually suffering from flu symptoms. Google states, “We compared our query counts with data from a surveillance system managed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and found that some search queries tend to be popular exactly when flu season is happening. By counting how often we see these search queries, we can estimate how much flu is circulating in various regions of the United States." Google Flu Trends site displays shows areas of the country labeled with flu activity anywhere from "minimal" to "intense.” Additionally, the site features an overall analysis of the United States flu activity level, a flu shot locator, a CDC flu prevention message, and links to recent news articles about the disease. The bottom line behind the emergence of Google Flu Trends as the latest in Google’s array of offerings is that it is further proof that when someone has a need- they search for the solution on Google. When someone has the flu, they search their symptoms on Google. And now Google is responding to that need, before the need is even identified, by using its research and knowledge to show areas where the flu is most prominent, in just about as close to real-time as you can get. Here at Overdrive, we have always stood by our feeling that when people have an immediate need for information or solutions to problems, their first instinct is to turn to Google.com and search for what it is they need. And usually, from that search, they’ll find the answers they’re looking for. Therein lies the value of search marketing- sending a message out to users exactly when they’re looking for you. Kudos to Google on the latest new tool! Labels: Google, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Twitter Tweets from the Google/TechTarget B2B RoadshowI got to attend an invitation-only Google/TechTarget event at Google's office in Cambridge, MA, and tweeted some of the more interesting tidbits of knowledge I picked up. (In all truthfulness, I added a couple to this column.) The event, "The Google/TechTarget Research Project: How IT Pros Search Online During the Purchase Process," was billed as "TechTarget and Google partnered to research the search behaviors and online interests of business technology buyers, including the relationship between brand and search activity." The research was compiled from a sample of 2,200 participants from North America, Europe, and Asia. Topics covered included search terms used at the various stages of the IT buying process, buyer attitudes toward lead-generation efforts, and more. There were some very interesting data offered, and the food was actually pretty darn good. However, I wish they gave more examples of practical applications for the data and findings they revealed. I guess it's up to us to figure out how to apply the data to what we do in the future. Read more...Labels: ClickZ, Events, Google, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Google's G1 Phone Launches Today Today Google took one more step towards complete world domination; October 22, 2008 marks the launch of the G1, Google's first foray into the mobile market. Built by HTC and distributed exclusively by T-Mobile, the G1 is the first mobile device to feature Android, Google's open source operating system. Android was developed by Google to be an open source operating system, meaning anyone can download the development kit and create applications that are downloadable through the Android marketplace. Combined with 3G mobile technology - allowing for fast wi-fi speeds - the G1 is set to make mobile internet much more accessible to everyone. So, what does this mean for marketers? Greater exposure across a wider range of media sources. In a March 2008 study by The Nielson Company, twenty-three percent (58 million) of all U.S. mobile subscribers say they were exposed to advertising on their phones in the past 30 days. Of those about half said they responded in some way. With the launch of the G1 and more phones on more providers on the way, it is becoming increasingly easier for users to access the internet via their mobile devices. This means more users online, seeing more ads, with a greater ability to interact with what they see. For more information on the G1, visit T-Mobile - Bill Holmes Labels: Google, Mobile Marketing, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) |
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