The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article:
March 2007, Volume 6, Issue 3

Michael Jordan: A Retailer’s Dream and a Paid Search Marketer’s Nightmare

by Christopher Wallace, Paid Search Specialist, iProspect

A Retailer’s Dream

A young, rising star began his professional basketball career in 1985 and soon became the franchise known as Michael Jordan. He helped Nike build one of the strongest retail brands ever and most basketball players can say that they have adorned themselves in his shoes – Air Jordan’s. Michael was at the forefront of marketing and he would soon make more money through endorsements than he did on the court. He became one of the largest franchises to ever play in sports: revenues skyrocketed, profit margins grew rapidly and sports equipment retailers were grabbing a larger share of the market.

A Paid Search Marketer’s Nightmare

One of my clients sells sporting goods, which include Air Jordan’s, and the brand that Michael helped to grow – Nike. These items sell like hotcakes and therefore, achieving visibility on them as keywords in online advertising spaces can be a nightmare. Items that include the terms “Jordan” and “Nike” will end up costing your company so much money that your ROI will become null. Your keywords will be showing up when people are looking for the history of Michael Jordan, information about the country of Jordan or Jordan Fashions (a women’s gown designer). The competition for these keywords is so strong that the cost is unthinkable.

What can you do to combat this and how do you get around the nightmare of diminishing returns? No one solution is best or will work in every case. “Jordan” and “Nike” are just two examples of many keywords out there that cost more than they are worth. My suggestion to my clients is to look into other options.

Work the Levers

We talk about the “four levers” in paid search a lot and this is the place to leverage three of them. The four levers are: keywords, creative, bidding, and landing page. Landing page doesn’t apply here because you are first trying to get users to click on your ad because they recognize that you have what they want. But the other three levers are big time players in making this happen.

Leverage your keywords by trying “phrase match” or “exact match,” and develop a “negative” keyword set. An example of phrase match is “Air Jordan D-Zero.” Your phrase will show up if someone queries the phrase “Michael Air Jordan D-Zero sneakers.” Exact match allows your ad to show up only when the user types in your exact keyword phrase. A negative keyword set is a group of keywords that prevents your ads from showing when the query includes one of the negative keywords. For example, if a user queries “Jordan gowns” and you have chosen the negative keyword, “gowns,” your ad will not show up.

Leverage your creative (ad copy) so that the user is not inclined to click on your ad unless it is exactly what he or she is looking for. Try using “keyword insertion” so that when the user searches for the term, “Air Jordan’s,” this keyword phrase will automatically appear as the title of the ad.

Leverage your bidding strategy so that your ad shows up on the second page of search results. Many companies believe that they need to be first on the list, but you will find that many more qualified users will search deeper within the results. A user that will continue to move deeper into the pages as s/he searches is more likely to convert. Showing up on the second page will greatly reduce the cost to you and will increase your return on investment.

By implementing the strategies above, you will be able to better segment your audience and avoid the nightmare of diminishing returns. Be creative in finding the most qualified user and you will find that selling Air Jordan’s online can be just as beneficial to your business’ success as being able to shoot a basketball was for Michael Jordan.

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The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article: March 2007, Volume 6, Issue 3

Michael Jordan: A Retailer’s Dream and a Paid Search Marketer’s Nightmare

The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article:
March 2007, Volume 6, Issue 3