SEM | Internet Marketing Driver

Ghost Ads – How To Trigger Geotargeted Ads in the Google Ad Preview Tool When Using a Custom Shape

September 28, 2010 By Glenn Gabe

If you are running paid search campaigns via AdWords, then you might be familiar with Google’s Ad Preview Tool. If you’re not familiar with the Ad Preview Tool, it provides an easy way for you to conduct searches using a number of criteria to test your paid search ads. You can do this without impacting your impressions, click-through rate, or Quality Score. Using the Ad Preview Tool, you can enter your desired keywords and then select certain criteria, such as country, language, Google domain, location (such as state or province), etc. Google will then show you which ads are triggered, based on the settings you selected.

Tailoring Your Ad Preview Settings
The Ad Preview Tool is a valuable resource for search marketers, especially because it enables you to work in a safe environment instead of trying to trigger your ads in the wild where you can increase impressions and potentially impact your cost per click (CPC). There are a number of reasons you wouldn’t want to simply visit Google and search for your ads. As explained earlier, you can impact your impressions, click-through rate, and Quality Score (and QS is heavily influenced by click-through rate). If you negatively impact your Quality Score, you could actually end up increasing your cost per click (CPC). So, if you (or your clients) obsessively search Google for your ads every day, you could be increasing your costs. The good news is that you can use the Ad Preview Tool instead. Just make sure everyone involved (including clients) understand that it’s available and how to use it. In addition, personalized search could be impacting which ads show for your searches (being tailored based on your web history and by your previous search behavior). So, using the Ad Preview tool, you can safely and accurately test your paid search ads.

When Problems Arise (Geotargeting Using a Custom Shape)
Based on the title of my post, you might be wondering what they problem is. Well, there is an issue that arises sometimes when you use geotargeting with your campaigns. You can learn more about AdWords Geotargeting via a previous post of mine, but using this feature, you can tell Google where to show your ads. For example, you can tell Google to only show your ads to people in the United States, only in New York, maybe a certain mileage away from a map point, or via a custom targeting option (by using a custom shape). Geotargeting is extremely useful, especially for local businesses.

When you use Geotargeting and you want to test your ads, you need to set the location options in the Ad Preview Tool. For example, if you were targeting New York State, then you would select the United States, and then New York in the dropdown that shows up for State. This works well and you should see your ads trigger for the keywords you are targeting (if they qualify to show up on page 1).

Choosing a location in the Ad Preview Tool:

But, there is a problem when you use the custom targeting option (when you draw a custom shape to target a very specific location). For whatever reason, Google’s Ad Preview Tool has a hard time understanding when to show your ads when you utilize custom shapes (when you use the default state and city options in the Ad Preview Tool). Subsequently, search marketers (or clients) might think that their ads simply aren’t showing. But they actually are… It makes sense when you think about it. Let’s say you were targeting a specific area of Manhattan and not the entire island. How would Google understand when to trigger your ads if you simply select New York State, and then New York City? So, you can run into a problem when trying to find your ads via the ad preview tool if you use a custom shape to define your geotargeting. The good news is that there is a solution, and I’m going to cover that next.

Using a custom shape when setting geotargeting options in AdWords:

How to Trigger Geotargeted Ads When Using a Custom Shape
There is a simple solution for making sure you can test your geotargeted ads that use a custom shape. And, I bet there’s a chance you overlooked this option in the Ad Preview Tool (I know I did when I first started using the Tool). There is an option for “Coordinates” under state and location in the Ad Preview Tool. This will let you enter custom latitude and longitude coordinates.

The Coordinates Field enables you to enter a location’s latitude and longitude:

When you use a custom shape to define your geotargeting, you might notice that Google AdWords provides the lat/long coordinates. That’s what you can use to accurately trigger your ads when using a custom shape.

Below, I’ll walk you through the steps for using those coordinates to trigger your ads in the Ad Preview Tool:

1. Enter your keyword, choose your Google domain, and select your language (like you would normally do in the Ad Preview Tool):

Entering keywords, Google domain, and language in the Ad Preview Tool:

2. For location, select the radio button for “Coordinates” versus using “Country” and “State”. Note, you will need to copy one of the latitude and longitude coordinates that are provided in AdWords after you use a custom shape. For example, you might see something like this under your campaign settings for locations and languages:

[(40.859525,-73.907776), (40.833554,-73.856277),

You would want to select one of those coordinates to include in the “Coordinates” field in the Ad Preview Tool. For example, you could use 40.859525,-73.907776 from the example above. Once you do, you can conduct your test search.

Entering specific latitude and longitude coordinates in the Ad Preview Tool:

That’s it. You should be good to go.

Don’t Get Frustrated, Just Use Exact Coordinates
I hope this quick tutorial explained how to accurately test your geotargeted ads in the Ad Preview Tool when you use custom shapes to set location. If you end up using custom shapes, I can almost guarantee that you’ll get questions from your clients about ads not showing up when using the ad preview tool. Just make sure everyone involved uses the latitude and longitude coordinates when running test searches and you should be fine. :)

My Internet Marketing ebook is Now Available – Taking Control of Your Online Marketing: Small Business Edition

September 16, 2010 By Glenn Gabe

I’m proud to announce the release of my new ebook titled Taking Control of Your Online Marketing: Small Business Edition. The online marketing ebook is a 98 page tactical guide for small to medium sized businesses and covers Local Search, SEO, Web Analytics, Website Structure, and The Long Tail of SEO.

I wrote the book in priority order, so each lesson builds upon previous lessons. You’ll find that the book provides a hands-on, take-action approach. I wanted readers to be able to complete each chapter, implement important changes, and then move on to the next lesson. If you’re a small business just starting out, or one that’s not seeing results from your current online marketing efforts, then this book is perfect for you.

Why I Wrote The ebook
When I launched the Search a Small Business Holiday Giveaway last year, I explained how small businesses often end up getting a raw deal when it comes to online marketing. They want to launch campaigns, utilize the latest online marketing tactics, and gain new business, but simply don’t have the budget or resources to do so effectively. I always thought this was wrong. Once the contest was over, I decided to document the approach I’ve used numerous times when helping small businesses. The result was my ebook. It is based on a core aspect of online marketing that I’ve seen time and time again (over the past 15 years):

Businesses (both large and small) needed a solid foundation in online marketing in order to succeed. Without that solid foundation in place, companies had a much harder time gaining traction, acquiring new customers, and increasing sales.

My goal was to make sure readers could build a solid online marketing foundation that they can build upon in the future. I always want my clients and readers to get up and running quickly. The book is structured so that’s possible.

What’s Covered in the Book
The core sections of book cover the following online marketing topics:

1. Website Structure
I’ve come across so many small businesses that are handcuffed when it comes to adding, editing, and optimizing content on their websites. In today’s digital marketing environment, if you cannot easily add new content and tailor your site optimization, then you’re dead in the water. In the book, I explain the technology and process you can utilize to get your site in order.

2. Local Search Strategy
If you’re a local business, then it’s critically important to make sure you have a shot at ranking for searches that are deemed local in nature by the search engines. I’ll show you what to do and where to make changes to achieve strong results.

3. Web Analytics
It’s critically important to track your online marketing efforts at a granular level. I provide instructions for setting up Google Analytics, as well as how to track conversion properly on your site. Unfortunately, without a smart analytics strategy in place, you’ll be flying blind. And flying blind is a dangerous thing to do in online marketing.

4. SEO
Organic Search is one of the most powerful online marketing channels and should not be ignored. The book covers what you need to do in order optimize your site and content for organic search. SEO is a massive topic and I cover numerous aspects of organic search within the chapter.

5. The Long Tail of SEO
When I first start helping new clients with SEO, they often approach me about ranking for a handful of competitive keywords. That’s fine, but in reality, they should be targeting the thousands of keywords that stem off of those initial keywords. In the book, I cover the long tail in detail, including what it is, how powerful it can be for your business, and how to effectively target the tail.

Buy the Book Now
I’ve worked hard on making sure the book is extremely actionable. I want every reader to make changes quickly so they can improve their online marketing efforts. Again, the book is a 98 page tactical guide covering the core things that you need to do in order form a solid online marketing foundation. So, head over to the ebook section of my site to learn more. You can explore the chapters in greater detail, read the forewords, and of course, buy the book! :)

I look forward to helping you.

Web Server Monitoring – Give Your Online Marketing Campaigns a Fighting Chance With a Digital Scout

August 6, 2010 By Glenn Gabe

You’ve mapped out an incredible online marketing strategy. Your developers have been frantically working to meet your deadlines, the creative is approved, dates set, and your campaigns are almost ready to launch. Everyone is excited. But, are you missing one critical element that can literally save your campaigns? You just might be… One important thing I learned early in my career is that your online marketing campaigns are only as good as the servers they are run on. For example, imagine driving thousands of people per day to a site that is down 25% of the time. Imagine an e-commerce site that bombs during checkout 10% of the time. Or worse, imagine you receive so much attention and traffic that your site is down for days at a time (wasting significant amounts of budget and an opportunity to land new customers). This is the reality of online marketing, and unfortunately, many marketers learn the hard way how important hosting is to their success.

Enter Server Monitoring, Your Online Marketing Scout
I remember launching a large-scale campaign for a client after starting my own business. There was a critical decision I needed to make as we set up their hosting. I could go with dedicated hosting or go with a webfarm (where multiple servers work together to balance the load). The webfarm was more expensive and we didn’t know the exact amount of traffic the campaign would generate, so it was a hard decision. I decided to go with webfarm hosting, and I was lucky I did. The campaign drove over 950K visits to the site in just a few days (based on the viral nature of the video content). The webfarm didn’t even hiccup. We experienced no downtime, even though the site was getting hammered from all directions. How did I know that we didn’t experience downtime? I set up server monitoring so I would know immediately if one of the servers went down. It was relatively easy for my hosting provider to set up, cost me very little, and enabled me to know exactly how the webfarm was performing.

Ping It Baby
When server monitoring is set up, the web server in question is pinged at a certain frequency (like every second or minute) to ensure the server responds. If it doesn’t, an email gets immediately triggered to you and a ticket will be set up with technical support. Yes, this is brilliant and can save your campaign from technical failure. In addition to pinging your web server, you can also set up monitoring for your mail server. If you heavily rely on email for your business (which most business owners do), then this can also be an invaluable service. Similar to web server monitoring, the mail server can be pinged every x seconds or minutes to ensure uptime. If it’s down, an email will be triggered and a support ticket opened. Again, this is a smart thing to do for online marketers.

Understand Your Hosting Package and Provider
So, you’re sold on the idea of server monitoring, but don’t know where to start. No problem. First, you need to understand the hosting package you have set up and the various services that your hosting provider offers. For example, do you have a shared hosting package, dedicated package, virtual private server, etc? Is monitoring offered for certain packages and not others? Then you need to find out how much monitoring costs and what you need to do in order to have your provider set it up. I recommend giving technical support a call and speaking with them about the possibilities. Also keep in mind that monitoring will require that your hosting provider is fine with complete transparency. This could separate the great hosting providers from the good ones. You will know every time the server goes down and for how long. This could be somewhat uncomfortable for certain hosting providers, especially if they aren’t confident in their service.

The Cost of Server Monitoring
You might find that some hosting providers will set up monitoring for free and others that will charge a small monthly fee. For example, it might cost you $5-$10 per month per server (and per monitor). If you had a monitor set up for your web server and one for your email server, then it might cost you $10-$20 per month for monitoring. Needless to say, that’s a small price to pay for being confident in your hosting setup (especially if you or your clients are launching several online marketing campaigns). Imagine you were spending tens of thousands of dollars (or more) on the campaign. What’s $5 or $10 per month??

Points to Consider and Key Takeaways:

I recommend having monitoring set up for both your web server and mail server. Then you can be confident that your site is up and running and that you can receive email.
When setting up the email address for the monitor (the address that will be emailed if your server goes down), don’t use an email address at your domain. Use a gmail address or another web-based email account. If your mail server is run on the same machine that runs your web server, then you won’t get the email notification when your servers goes down… :) Find out from your hosting provider if your mail server and web server are on separate machines.
Make sure the monitor emails you when the sever goes down and when it’s back up. Then you can identify the true downtime that the site experienced.
Have your hosting provider test the monitor once it’s set up. Then you can make sure you are in fact emailed and that a support ticket is opened. Like everything else in technology, testing can save you from an embarrassing situation.

Monitoring Is Smart, Set It Up
As you can see, I believe server monitoring is extremely important for online marketers. Don’t let web server downtime ruin your online marketing campaigns. There’s nothing worse than doing your job well as an online marketer and then having a server fail. If that happens, your campaign fails along with the server. If visitors cannot get to the site in question, then you’re dead in the water. Think of your monitor as an online marketing scout that will watch over your servers. A scout that never sleeps, checks your servers continually, takes no sides, and can save your campaigns. Set monitoring up now.

How To Use Matched Search Query Reports in Google Analytics to Improve Your AdWords Campaigns

July 7, 2010 By Glenn Gabe

Last month, Google Analytics released a new version of AdWords reporting to all accounts. This was much-needed and Google did a great job with adding the new reporting functionality. There are some great additions to the reporting that can really save you a lot of time, while also helping you enhance your current AdWords campaigns. One of the new enhancements is the ability to dimension your AdWords reports by a number of options, including Matched Search Query. Viewing matched search queries essentially lets you see the actual keyword that someone entered in Google that triggered your ad. To clarify, it’s the query that someone entered that mapped to one of the keywords you are bidding on.

For some people new to paid search, this can be an eye-opening report to view. You basically get to see the actual keywords that are triggering your ads and generating click-through. A quick example would be if you are bidding on the keyword Callaway golf clubs and you see a Matched Search Query of where can I buy used Callaway golf clubs. Based on what you find in the Matched Search Query reporting, you might choose to make several modifications to your campaigns and ad groups. I’ll explain more about those modifications soon, but viewing this data can definitely help you enhance your campaigns. Let’s start by finding the reports in Google Analytics (via the new reporting that was released last month).

Side Note: Prior to the new AdWords reporting, you could always run a Search Query Performance Report in AdWords to view your keyword data. That said, there are many people that didn’t even know the report was available (since it was buried in the reporting tab within an AdWords account). You can also find this keyword information directly through the AdWords interface by clicking the “See Search Terms” button within a specific ad group. But, you won’t be able to analyze the various site performance metrics that are available in Google Analytics (including conversion metrics.)

Finding the Matched Search Query Report
When accessing your reporting in Google Analytics, you can click the Traffic Sources tab on the left side of the interface and then the AdWords tab (which has a “beta” label right now).

AdWords New Reporting in Google Analytics

Once you click the AdWords tab, you can click the Campaigns link to view a list of your AdWords campaigns. After you click a campaign, you will see the ad groups that are part of that campaign. Clicking through an ad group will show you the keywords that are part of that ad group. These are the keywords you are bidding on, and not the raw queries that are triggering your ads. There’s a big difference. You will see two dimension dropdowns in this view. The first dropdown will have “Keyword” selected already. The second dropdown is where you can further dimension your reporting. If you click that second dropdown, you will see “Matched Search Query” in the list. If you select that option, then Google Analytics will show you all of the raw queries that matched the keywords you are bidding on.

At this point, you should probably take some time and view the list of raw queries for the ad group at hand. My guess is that you will be surprised by some of the keywords that led to click-throughs… You might also be interested in reviewing the variations of keywords that led to click-through (the long tail keywords that are triggering your ads). Both topics will be covered below and can definitely help you enhance your campaigns.

Finding Negatives Via Matched Search Query
Many experienced search marketers already know the power of negative keywords. A thorough and detailed negative keyword list can greatly improve the performance of your campaigns. If you are unfamiliar with negatives, a negative keyword will tell Google not to show your ad if that keyword is part of the query. This is extremely useful, especially in a Quality Score-driven world.

For example, let’s review the query I used above (where can I buy used Callaway golf clubs). If you remember, the keyword you were bidding on was actually Callaway golf clubs, and not the longer tail keyword that triggered your ad. Now, let’s say you don’t sell used Callaway golf clubs. You only sell brand new sets. In this situation, you can use the negative keyword used to keep Google from showing your ad when someone uses that word in their query. For example, the following queries would not trigger your ad, “buy used Callaway golf clubs”, “where can I find used Callaway golf clubs”, etc. Since the word used is part of the query, Google should not show your ads.

Quality Score and Wasted Clicks
Finding negative keywords helps you on several levels. First and foremost, it saves you money. If you don’t sell used Callaway golf clubs, then people searching for used Callaway golf clubs will never buy from you. Every click that comes through from people searching for used golf clubs will be wasting your budget. So, using a thorough list of negative keywords saves you money.

In addition to saving wasted clicks, using negative keywords can help your Quality Score. If you’re not familiar with the concept, Google actually determines a Quality Score for each of your keywords. Your Quality Score is directly tied to the performance of your keywords (with a heavy focus on click through rate). There are several factors involved with determining Quality Score, including how relevant your keywords are to your ad text and the user’s query, the quality of your landing page, etc. Each keyword in your ad group is given a Quality Score from 1-10. In general, a higher quality score will yield ads that trigger in a higher position and at a lower cost per click. The lower your Quality Score and your ads will show up in lower positions and will cost you more per click.

Quality Score in Google AdWords

As I explained above, Quality Score is heavily impacted by click through rate. So, if your ads are showing up for queries that aren’t targeted (like if you don’t sell used Callaway golf clubs), then you run the risk of negatively impacting your Quality Score. And, if you negatively impact your Quality Score, you might have to pay more per click. So, using negative keywords to make sure your ads don’t show up for untargeted searches is very important. One way to find negative keywords is by analyzing matched search queries. As you scan the list of matched search queries, you will probably come across several words that can be used as negatives. It’s somewhat time-consuming to do this, but can pay off huge dividends in paid search.

For example, if your Callaway ads say “New Calloway Golf Clubs”, then people searching for used clubs will probably never click through to your site. This will lower your click through rate, which will lower your Quality Score. If you lower your Quality Score, then it could impact your campaign performance by increasing your cost per click (CPC) and lowering your return on investment (ROI). You want to avoid this situation, if possible.

I recommend running the report the way I explained above and then exporting that report as a csv for Excel file. Then you can work in Excel to analyze the data, pick and choose your negative keywords, and create a final list that can be uploaded to your AdWords account. I recommend starting with your core campaigns and ad groups, with the ultimate goal of completing this process for all of your active ad groups.

Quick Tip: Make sure you have the right timeframe selected in Google Analytics in order to view a good number of matched search queries. For example, if you only select one or two weeks, you might not have enough data in your matched search query reporting. If you haven’t run this report yet, then definitely try and view a few months of data, if possible.

Enhance Your Keyword List With Longer Tail Keywords
You can also use Matched Search Query reporting to find new keywords for your ad groups. For example, you might find dozens of quality keywords (or more) matching a single, broader keyword that you are bidding on. If you continually analyze matched search queries, then you can find longer tail keywords that you can add to your campaigns. These new keywords may very well be less expensive than the broader keywords you were originally targeting. It’s not uncommon to add numerous keywords to your campaigns on a regular basis by checking matched search queries.

As a simple example, let’s say you were bidding on a broad keyword like LCD HDTV. When you run matched search queries, you might find a long list of keywords that matched your broad keyword. You might find manufacturer names, model numbers, colors, features, etc. Depending on your specific business, you might want to include these keywords in your ads groups. You might even find ideas for creating new ad groups. In paid search, you typically want to create tightly-focused ad groups with highly-relevant ads. Your ad text could then address the specific queries that people are entering versus being more generic. Remember, Quality Score is heavily impacted by click through rate. High quality ads that are extremely relevant to searches help gain higher click-through. This can increase your Quality Score, which can lower your cost per click.

Similar to what I listed above in the section about negatives, I recommend exporting your matched search queries as a csv for Excel file. Then you can work in Excel to analyze and break down the reports. Once you have a new list of keywords, you can upload them to your AdWords account. Adding these new keywords can help you target less expensive, longer tail queries, which can help boost the ROI of your campaigns.

New AdWords Reporting = New Ways to Enhance Your Campaigns
As you can see, Matched Search Query reporting in Google Analytics can be a powerful way to enhance your campaigns. It’s a relatively simple way to help you find the right negatives for your ad groups, while also helping you find more targeted keywords to run. This can help increase your Quality Score, lower your CPC, and increase your ROI in paid search. And that’s a pretty darn good combination. So go ahead and run the reports. You won’t be disappointed.

The Strategy to Execution Gap™ (SEG) and Its Effect on SEO

May 24, 2010 By Glenn Gabe

The Strategy to Execution Gap (SEG) Over the past 15 years, I’ve had the opportunity to work on some incredible projects with some extremely talented people. Whenever I was about to launch a new initiative, I found it was helpful to look at the various challenges and obstacles to success (in order to minimize them as much as possible). When dealing with online marketing projects, there are several variables that can inhibit your progress, including technology, process, and people. All three categories of obstacles can throw a wrench into effectively completing tasks, which can then lead to missed deadlines and a slower path to success. That said, there are also times that a path has been cleared and you can execute very quickly. And in online marketing, efficient execution is critical. I’m a firm believer that you can build the best strategy in the world, but unless you can execute at a rapid pace (while maintaining high quality), you’re dead in the water. The outstanding strategy you created won’t be worth the paper it’s written on.

The Strategy to Execution Gap™ (SEG) and SEO
About 4 years ago, I created a metric to demonstrate how delays and obstacles can impact online marketing initiatives. The metric is called the Strategy to Execution Gap™, or SEG. The SEG is a metric that can help you identify how effective your team is for a given initiative or set of initiatives. If you’ve read some of my previous posts, you already know I am analytics nut. I love using data to back what I recommend (and I’m a big believer that opinion gets you nowhere while data is hard to ignore). This is part of the reason that the SEG can be so valuable.

The SEG provides a percentage, which can show you how effectively your team is executing projects. The lower the number, the more efficient your team is. The higher the number, and your team is not executing at an effective level. It can be used for any online marketing initiative, but I’ll focus on SEO for this post. The Strategy to Execution Gap™ fits SEO very well, since there are typically a number of projects that need to be completed during an engagement (and each usually has a weighted priority). I’ve written extensively about SEO technical audits and remediation plans in the past, and they help build an SEO roadmap, or the series of projects that need to be completed during the year. For example, in SEO it’s extremely important that technical barriers are removed before you move into projects like content optimization. A tangible example would be if you have a massive canonicalization problem or a serious domain strategy issue. If you do, then you better tackle those projects first before you simply optimize content on the site. If the search engines cannot effectively crawl and index your content, you can forget about content optimization… Also, SEO takes time before you see success. Typically, according to companies like Victorious, you need to build up SEO power over time before you see a big change in rankings and organic search traffic. Even if you fix all of the technical problems on your site, you still need to tackle several additional projects like content optimization, linkbuilding, etc. That’s why efficient execution is critically important. A delay in completing projects can impact months of SEO performance.

Based on what I’ve explained above, the Strategy to Execution Gap™ is a perfect fit for SEO initiatives. Presenting the metric before you get started and then giving periodic updates on a team’s SEG percentage can get key stakeholders involved and on-board with what you are trying to accomplish. And, they might even help you out by removing obstacles from your SEO path. More about that soon.

The Strategy to Execution Gap (SEG) Formula
When you map out a series of projects as part of your SEO roadmap, they become the foundation for your Strategy to Execution Gap™. Based on those projects, and the priority you give each project, you can explain to your team how the SEG will be calculated (and what the score means to their success). Below, I’ll first present the formula and then present an example so you can see how it works.

The Strategy to Execution Gap = (Sum of Weighted Projects – Sum of Weighted Projects Completed / Sum of Weighted Projects) * 100

Some notes about the SEG formula:

Each project should be weighted from 0-10 and will be based on your analysis of the current situation.
You can use all of the projects that are part of your roadmap, or just a subset for a given time period. i.e. You can do this quarterly, semi-annually, or for the entire year.
The SEG will end up being a percentage. The lower your percentage, the better the score (meaning the gap to execution is low). A higher percentage means your team is not executing at a high level (or there is a larger gap between strategy and execution).

An example:
Let’s say you had the following projects to complete (the weighted priority score is next to each project). I’ll keep the example simple, but keep in mind that might have several more projects to tackle as part of an actual SEO roadmap.

Domain Strategy 8
Fix Canonicalization Problems 8
Refine Internal Linking Structure 6
XML Sitemaps 5
Keyword Research 4
Content Optimization 4
Video SEO 3
Linkbuilding 7

Total Weighted Sum: 45

Let’s say you are a few months into the initiative and three items have been completed (domain strategy, internal linking structure, and keyword research). At your next meeting, you want to give the team an update on how things are progressing. The SEG for this project so far is 60%, meaning there is a relatively high strategy to execution gap (which is not great). The formula looks like this: (45-18/45) * 100 = 60%

At this point, you could discuss the various obstacles to execution to see why your SEG isn’t better. Depending on the size of your team and the number of departments involved, you might be surprised to hear some of the obstacles popping up.

To show you how the SEG can be impacted (especially by the weighting involved), let’s say your team completed two additional projects during this time period. For example, maybe canonicalization and xml sitemaps were taken care of (both with relatively high weighted scores). If that was the case, your SEG drops to 31% (almost in half) showing a lower strategy to execution gap (which is good). I find the SEG is a great metric for quickly showing an efficiency percentage, while also sparking conversation about potential obstacles involved.

How to Close the Gap (Decreasing the SEG)
Let’s face it, execution in online marketing is everything. Decreasing your SEG can have a massive impact on the success of your initiative (which can have an impact on targeted traffic, conversion, and revenue). So, how do you close the gap? As explained earlier, there are a number of obstacles that can inhibit your SEO projects, including technology, developers, egos, other initiatives, designers, branding, executives, legal, PR, etc. My recommendation is to meet with key stakeholders before your initiative begins. Explain what you are trying to accomplish and its potential impact on the bottom line. Take everyone through the SEG and tie percentages to success (and revenue). If everyone understands the big picture, you might be able to clear more paths, which can lower your SEG, and increase your chance of success. Whether this approach will be successful for you depends on a number of factors, including the details of the specific initiative, the people involved, and culture of the organization. One thing I’ve learned over the past 15 years is that data and metrics always help make a case. Opinions and finger pointing rarely work. The SEG can be one more metric that can help your cause.

Your Next Steps with the Strategy to Execution Gap™ (SEG)
The good news is that you can get moving with the SEG right now. Whether you’re just starting an initiative or if you’re in the middle of one now, start to think about the specific tasks involved. Then weight each project and explain the SEG to your team. After everyone on your team understands how the SEG works, then expand your communication to key stakeholders. As projects are completed, you can start to include the Strategy to Execution Gap™ in your presentations and progress reports. Make the SEG a quick visual that represents how effective your team is. Remember, using data and not opinion might end up winning over more people.

And who knows, maybe after the SEG has been used a few times to track efficiency, others in your organization might adopt the metric for their own initiatives. Wouldn’t it be great if you were the person that introduced and sparked the SEG metric throughout your organization? Just make sure you reference this post after you’re famous. :)