Chicago SES Day 3 Highlights

Top observations, tips, tricks, comments and things I heard while eavesdropping during Day 3 of the Chicago Search Engine Strategies and Expo:

• Do not think of yourself as a player on a team. You need to be the quarterback.
• If you don't become the quarterback and take charge you're missing out on some opportunities for your clients.
• Overall, 66% of search engine marketing firms and 84% of agencies say managing keyword price inflation is their biggest challenge.
• If you have 100 people come through the door and in your business and 20 become customers, then it's huge if you can increase that from 20 to 21 or to 22...10 percent increase...huge.
• There are lots of great tools available to make your SEM life easier.
• Monitor your competition.
• Pay Per Click is a process, not a task.
• AdCenter Desktop will be available in a couple of weeks in beta.
• Knowledge is going to be a key in a down economy.
• There are human capital challenges: a short supply of talented and experienced hires, and it's Expensive to add a new hire.
• Upgrade to Excel 2007. It's a great way to manage high volumes of data (Note: this tip was not from Microsoft!).
• Social media is more than Digg and Facebook. Much more.
• 29% in social media are watching videos
• Forums and message boards are not dead. 28% of all people in social media are using them.
• Log files are good for both paid and SEO search
• Share. Be social. Be part of the conversation.
• 5 tips for successful blogging: 1- practical uses; 2-optimize templates & content; 3-plan editorial and source your content; 4-socialize (be social and win!); 5-measure and promote success with blog metrics.
• Social media is the new Inbox. E-mail is old.
• Five primary components of Quality Score Optimization: 1.click through rate; 2. keyword bid; 3. ad group and campaign structure; 4. ad copy; 5.landing page quality
• Click Through Rate is the most important element of Quality Score.
• Keyword bid should be used as a last resort to improve ad position.
• Google AdWords allows you to add multiple advertisements for any given ad group, so take advantage of it. Optimize non-performing ads; do not change performing ads.
• Google is not putting more ads on pages. They actually pride themselves on white space.
• You can not put in every word in dictionary because Google is looking at what is relevant.
• Search is predicted to hold up better than display ads.
• There are only 2 kinds of marketers at the top of PPC search results: brilliant marketers and the idiots. Be the brilliant marketer that can afford a top position.
• You need to use negative keywords in your PPC campaigns to eliminate bad costly clicks; reduce ad impressions to improve Quality Score and to make sure the right ads are getting served.