One out of every 20 searches on Google is health-related. That means that many of us are heading to Dr. Google before heading to see our primary care physician. What the searchers do not see is the complex set of rules, regulations and processes that many pharmaceutical companies must go through to leverage paid search. Though most are familiar with the FDA’s role in deciding which medications are approved for use, many are not aware that it also oversees advertising for prescription drugs. The United States is one of the few countries that allow direct-to-consumer advertising for pharmaceutical drugs, and the FDA plays a key role in making sure any type of advertising by pharmaceutical brands is accurate and not deceptive. It also ensures that any claims made are backed up with information about the potential side effects or risks. For an SEM campaign to be launched, a strict set of rules must be followed. Many of the rules come from the FDA’s guidance on Reminder Ads, while others are set by legal and regulatory teams within the specific pharmaceutical companies. FDA guidance overviewThe FDA has extensive advertising guidance for prescription drugs, some of which is applicable to SEM. The issue is, some points within the guidance are interpreted differently by individual pharma companies because guidelines are general enough to apply to multiple forms of advertising (display creative, SEM creative). That means that, as new and innovative forms of advertising are created, the guidance from the FDA is often applied to these new opportunities, even if it does not fit exactly. (Editor’s Note: the legal information provided in this column is just that — legal information, and not legal advice.) Following are some FDA guidelines and how they apply to SEM. Fair balance FDA regulations require that pharmaceutical ads provide a “fair balance” of information on both a drug’s risks and its benefits. According to the FDA website, “This means that the content and presentation of a drug’s most important risks must be reasonably similar to the content and presentation of its benefits.” This is why, at the end of TV commercials for prescription drugs, you often hear that long list of side effects and risks. This is meant to counterbalance the information given about the drug’s effectiveness in treating a condition — because an ad cannot place greater emphasis on benefits than it does on risks. Reminder ads The FDA’s definition of reminder ads is as follows:
In other words, reminder ads avoid the need for “fair balance” of information because they contain neither benefits nor risks — just the name of the drug, which serves as a “reminder” for consumers who are already familiar with it. These ads cannot explain — or even suggest — what the drug does, what disease it treats, what the recommended dosage is, or how well the drug works; however, they do not have to include any risk information about the drug, either. These ads must mention the drug’s brand name (if applicable) and its generic name. Because of character limits in search text ads, this guidance is often applied. Here is an example of what a reminder ad would look like: As mentioned above, this ad falls under the reminder ad guidance because it contains the drug’s brand name but does not address the disease or condition it treats. If it did, “fair balance” would apply, and the risks would need to be disclosed. This obviously is not possible, as it would be significantly longer than standard text ad character limits. It is important to note that the reminder ad guidance is not directed solely at SEM efforts and is applicable to many forms of advertising. Space limitations The FDA has also published guidance regarding “Internet/Social Media Platforms With Character Space Limitations.” This guidance can also potentially be applied to search text ads and in some ways contradicts the reminder ad policy. This guidance restates that if a brand chooses to disclose a benefit, then the risk information must follow. However, it also explains that if there are not enough characters to allow the full set of risk information, then the risks must be listed in order of seriousness. Here is the specific section addressing this:
Throughout the document, the FDA states that if the pharmaceutical company feels they cannot accurately present risk information in the allotted space, they should reconsider showing their brand name and benefit information in that specific ad unit. When this guidance is applied to a text ad, it could potentially resemble the following: Many pharmaceutical companies are not comfortable leveraging this within paid search efforts and do not use this format. Almost all companies ensure text ads stay within the reminder ad guidance mentioned above. Paid search for ‘black box’ drugsA boxed warning appears on a prescription drug label for any drug that has a serious risk associated with it. If a drug happens to have a side effect that could cause death, addiction or serious injury, it is often labeled as “black box.” (Note: Advertisers are not allowed to use reminder ads for “black box” drugs.) For many years, Google and Bing both had specific ad formats for black box drugs. This included an additional line of text, similar to current call-out extensions, that said: “Click to see full safety and prescribing information, including boxed warning. More info.” The “more info” part of the ad would link to the important safety information (ISI) page on the brand website. This ad format was not accessible within the AdWords or Bing Ads interface and needed to be set up by Google or Bing reps. This ad format was done away with in mid-2015. Now many brands with boxed warnings utilize similar text within their description lines and drive users to a page that contains ISI information. An example of what a black box ad may look like is as follows: Changes to Vanity URL usage for pharma advertisersAs mentioned above, the FDA requires you to list risk information if you call out the disease or condition the drug treats within a text ad. This caused the pharmaceutical industry some problems with trying to make a text ad relevant to a search query. If someone searched for heart failure medication and you wanted to include the term “heart failure medication” within your ad, you wouldn’t be able to unless you either disclosed the risks or removed the drug’s brand name. With both Google and Bing showing the destination URL within ads — which was often branded — this caused a big issue for brand ads. To circumvent this issue, both Google and Bing previously allowed pharma brands to utilize Vanity URLs. These essentially were unbranded URLs that redirected to a brand website. For example, http://ift.tt/2jjmCJr would redirect to www.brand.com. This way, the ad would not show the brand name but would show http://ift.tt/2jjmCJr instead. This practice, of course, is against regulations for all advertisers outside of pharma. In early 2016, Google did away with this option, as they called out the practice as deceptive to searchers. Now, advertisers can utilize a select set of “display URL options.” Currently, pharma advertisers can choose from the following within AdWords: This was a hot topic within the SEM community in 2016, as many PPC experts were surprised Google was allowing advertisers to execute something that is not available to any other industry. The legal review processEvery pharmaceutical company has an internal legal and regulatory team responsible for reviewing myriad materials. From websites and in-office pamphlets to videos and SEM ads, all marketing materials go through a rigorous review process. One potential issue agencies run into is how different companies, and even different reviewers within the same company, interpret FDA guidance. A process or approach to text ads that works for one client may not be acceptable for another. As a best practice, working alongside legal and regulatory teams to ensure you understand their internal processes while also helping educate them on the specific channel you manage can help make the process as smooth as possible. Working with the enginesGetting a new pharma SEM campaign off the ground is tough enough when you have to jump through the legal and regulatory hoops, but there are extra steps that must be taken with the search engines as well. Unfortunately, you cannot just set up a new campaign and get it up and running right away. When flagged as a pharmaceutical brand, the website that traffic is driving to must be whitelisted internally at the engines to qualify for a campaign to go live. Without this, ads will be disapproved immediately. Thankfully, both Bing and Google have dedicated teams that fully understand the pharmaceutical rules and regulations. Similar to other industries, spend is a factor of receiving dedicated support. In some certain cases, smaller startup pharmaceutical companies with low or no historic spend will have to utilize the AdWords Hotline to get their campaigns up and running. The post The essential guide to pharma SEM appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2j8HY17
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High keyword rankings are the most sought-after achievement in the world of search engine optimization (SEO). Small businesses and brands alike strive to obtain the first organic listing in search results because of the lucrative traffic and lead opportunities that are associated with this position. But with the evolution of paid advertising and expansion of universal search, as well as Google’s continuous efforts to provide consumers with content that resolves their demands directly in search results, the opportunities attached to traditional keyword rankings are diminishing at an alarming rate. In today’s search landscape, SEOs and digital marketing specialists have to consider whether it’s worth the amount of time and resources it takes to achieve premier organic rankings, considering the click-through rates (CTR) associated with organic rankings that are positioned under PLAs, local results and other forms of content. Keyword rankings aren’t the only way to connect to online customersThere was a time not too long ago when achieving the first organic position on Google was one of the only ways to attract new online customers to a website without having to invest in paid advertising or e-mail marketing. Ten years ago, the world was just warming up to the power of social media and its influence on the World Wide Web. Back then, most consumers were just starting to become aware of YouTube’s marketing power, Facebook was starting to open itself up to audiences outside of college students, and blogging was just starting to become mainstream, as everyone from CNN to Mashable began investing in new, niche content in the form of top lists and how-to articles. Because of this boom in social connectivity, businesses and brands suddenly had access to free channels that were viable for attracting new business to their websites. In 2017, there are thousands of social media platforms to join, millions of user-generated content forums, and approximately 320 million blogs around the world (up from 260 million in 2015). Today, it’s rare to find a local business or brand that isn’t connected to an established directory host like Yelp or TripAdvisor, whose own online credibility is so impressive that it allows their less authoritative clients to rank well within organic results. New niche environments allow businesses to focus on conversions, not site trafficWhen companies and brands were only able to connect with new customers through organic rankings, it made sense to invest a significant amount of time and resources to build thousands of links and cram keywords into a particular website to increase visibility. Now that there are thousands of free channels that cater to niche demographics with specific interests, it’s easier than ever for brands to identify relevant environments that can be targeted for conversions. The online landscape of today allows businesses and brands to focus on maximizing qualified conversions, rather than trying to gain as much traffic as possible with the hopes that a particular portion is going to convert into a sale. One of the problems with keyword rankings is that any consumer can click through to a website and immediately leave because the title tag and meta description didn’t align with the content of its associated landing page. Ranking first on Google does not mean that every visitor is going to turn into a paying customer because of how limited keywords are for understanding granular details associated with online consumers. Social media and other niche online communities trump the value of keyword rankings because they serve as natural environments for like-minded users with specific interests to hang out in, consuming new forms of hyper-focused content that keep them returning. Because of how easy it is today for businesses to build strong social media followings, basic engagement can improve everything from brand awareness and online reputation to traffic and revenue. Keyword rankings lack the power of social media because they are not proactive means of engagement, and they don’t necessarily connect brands with the type of qualified traffic that exists and is readily available in communities like Reddit or Instagram. Google is crushing the desire to achieve premier keyword rankingsIt’s always important to keep in mind that Google is a business; they are not just a convenient means for finding information or purchasing products. Recognizing that Google is a business that competes in a free market where consumers have options, it is their goal to become an all-inclusive destination that provides an experience that is so fulfilling, it keeps consumers returning to their search engine. Local results bury traditional rankings Google’s focus on providing content that displays local options for consumers to consider has diminished the power of premier keyword rankings for some industries which were appearing at the very top of search listings, only to now be buried beneath the fold. Sponsored ads blend with organic results Product listing ads and the inclusion of a fourth paid search ad for certain highly commercial queries have pushed organic results down the page even further, which significantly reduces the CTR of each organic position. Considering that the first organic position on Google commanded a 31 percent CTR in 2014 and the fourth position garnered a 7 percent CTR, it’s clear that today’s blended search results pages may render top organic results that are not nearly as powerful for driving site traffic as they used to be. Free products, direct answers & featured snippets diminish consumers’ need to engage in site contentThe ability for Google to resolve consumer demands without having to enter a particular website continues to increase, as there are more free products, definitions and featured snippets appearing every day. Informational websites that depend on attracting a tremendous amount of traffic in order to maintain their ad rates are at the mercy of featured snippets, which provide users with immediate answers whenever they search with specific questions. Featured snippets also push traditional rankings below the fold, which may negatively affect CTR. Why keyword rankings are still important for successAlthough all of the points made against the effort it takes to build premier keyword rankings are valid, it is still important for businesses and brands to actively strive for premier organic rankings. Despite diminished visibility and CTR within particular types of search listings, organic rankings remain one of the most powerful entrances for brands to connect with new customers. SEOs and digital marketing specialists can maximize their traffic and conversion opportunities through keyword rankings by creating quality content around niche concepts and phrases that their target audience uses or searches for. This allows brands to increase their monthly traffic and receive qualified conversions based on the type of consumer research that guides their content development efforts. Like anything else with digital marketing, the formula for achieving success is to maintain a campaign that combines social media, paid advertising, SEO and other relevant channels. The post Do organic keyword rankings matter anymore? appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2jVrF4Y
Its been almost a month since I used Facebook...
via ShoeMoney http://ift.tt/2jVBcZG Traditionally, Valentine’s Day is a day for people in relationships to celebrate their love. But more and more, people who are not in committed relationships are making Valentine’s Day purchases. Clever marketers have caught on to this and are targeting other markets to boost overall Valentine’s Day sales. In this article, I’ll cover other audiences marketers can focus on to boost Valentine’s Day sales and provide marketing tips to help you come out swinging with your Valentine’s Day advertising. Data in this article is from two Bing Ads presentations: “Search Bing for Love: Valentine’s Day 2017 Insights for Digital Marketers” and “Valentine’s Day Insights to Woo Digital Marketers.” Before getting started, here are some overall statistics on Valentine’s Day:
There are a few interesting trends happening around Valentine’s Day. They are: 1. Wider Valentine’s Day scopeNow more than ever, people are purchasing Valentine’s Day gifts for a number of different people in their lives. Here’s a breakdown of who people are buying for: Here’s a breakdown of how much money people are planning to spend on each of the groups listed above in 2017:
Believe it or not, 19 percent give gifts to their pets, and $681 million was spent on pets last year. Yeah, you heard me right! My nieces buy for me, and I come up with special gifts (activity-based) for them. Valentine’s Day gift-giving is much broader than it used to be. The main takeaway here is to not get trapped into thinking the holiday is for a single specific group of people. 2. Singles on Valentine’s DayOver half of Americans are single, and many choose to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Now more than ever, singles are purchasing gifts for a whole variety of reasons, and for many different people. Furthermore, Singles Awareness Day was created as a reaction to Valentine’s Day and is celebrated on February 15. Some of the ways singles celebrate are getting together with single friends/family, treating themselves to special gifts or purchasing anti-Valentine’s Day gifts (see image below). 3. Relationships on Valentine’s DayAnd, of course, there are the folks in committed relationships. Here’s the most interesting information I came across on people in this segment:
Here are some useful Valentine’s Day advertising/marketing tips:
Happy Valentine’s Day! The post What’s love got to do with Valentine’s Day? appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2j8vHto Need a spinning wheel, but don’t have a Life board game nearby? Do a search for “spinner” on Google and you’ll get an interactive spinning wheel that lets you spin anywhere between two to twenty numbers. We’re not sure how new the Google Easter Egg is, but credit goes to @pkudel4 for first spotting it. Glenn Gabe shared the spinning wheel on Twitter yesterday with Search Engine Land editor Barry Schwartz. Here’s an image showing how the wheel works from the results page: The “Select a wheel size” drop down menu lets you choose how many numbers you want to spin – from 2 to 20. Google’s long list of search Easter Eggs includes games like solitaire and tic-tac-toe, as well as a leveling-tool, a metronome and a RGB-Hex color converter. You can find a full list of the Google Search Easter Eggs we’ve covered at: Google Easter Eggs. The post Google “spinner” Easter Egg returns interactive spinning wheel at top of results appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2jiTTo6 In its quarterly Paid Search Trends report, digital marketing agency, iProspect, says 2016 “the year of efficient growth” for paid search. It was a year in which click volume rose and cost-per-click (CPC) went down. Overall, impressions rose 19 percent, clicks were up 15 percent in 2016 among iProspect clients measured in the report. Click-through rates remained steady against 2015 for the first three quarters of the year, then fell with the increased holiday competition in Q4, bringing the overall CTR off 3 percent compared to 2015. For the first time, iProspect clients saw mobile ad clicks surpass desktop clicks in 2016 with 52 percent of clicks coming from mobile devices. Moible & Shopping Ads Drive Q4 TrendsiProspect says the largest impacts on Q4 performance were a 41 percent spend increase in Shopping ad CPCs and a 26 percent CPC increase on mobile ads year-over-year. iProspect expects to see these trends continue in 2017. ShoppingBetween Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, Shopping ad clicks jumped 55 percent and conversions from those ads increased 9 percent compared to 2015. Throughout the holiday shopping season, iProspect clients saw shopping ad impressions increased 76 percent year-over-year, clicks rose 44 percent. Interestingly, Shopping CPCs dipped slightly in Q4. iProspect does not expect that to hold, however, particularly as Amazon has entered the Google Shopping arena. In 2016, 61.3 percent of Shopping ad clicks among iProspect clients came from mobile devices, compared to 49.9 percent in 2015. MobileOn mobile, impressions increased by 80 percent while clicks were up 25 percent year-over-year. Mobile click-through rates fell by 31 percent compared to 2015. CPCs on mobile reached all time high in Q4. Mobile CPCs continued to close the gap with desktop and tablets, and in Q4 mobile click share reached 57 percent. Mobile click share and spend will continue to grow and click-through rates will dip as impression volume rises in 2017, expects iProspect. On the Shopping front, iProspects expects Google’s continued efforts to develop new features and formats for Product Listing Ads along with new measurement tools will lead to increased investment in Shopping and higher CPCs. With Amazon’s entry into PLAs in Q4, advertisers should regularly check Auction Insights reports to monitor whether the e-commerce giant is impacting campaign performance. The full report will be available for download here. The post iProspect: 2017 mobile CPCs up 26 percent, Shopping spend up 41 percent appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2k7xOgL Bessie Coleman Google doodle celebrates 125th birthday of the 1st African-American female aviator1/26/2017 Today’s Google doodle marks the 125th birthday of Bessie Coleman, the first female pilot of African-American and Native American descent. The doodle includes an animated image of Bessie – or “Queen Bessie” as she was known during her exhibition flying career – and links to a query for “Bessie Coleman.” After being denied admittance to an aviation school in the U.S. because she was an African-American woman, Coleman moved to Paris and earned an international pilot’s license from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. From the Google Doodle Blog:
Here is the animated image being displayed on Google’s homepage in the U.S., Canada and a handful of other countries around the world: Coleman’s life was cut short during a flight with William Willis, her mechanic and publicity agent. She was thrown from the plane piloted by Willis, who also died when their flight went down outside of Jacksonville, Florida. The post Bessie Coleman Google doodle celebrates 125th birthday of the 1st African-American female aviator appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2knIdlN Last week, we talked about how to really understand who is in your audience. This week, we’re shifting into what kind of message they want and need from you. Brian kicked off on Monday with a piece of classic marketing advice (exemplified by a classic American comic film):
That might sound impossibly idealistic — but in fact, it’s pure pragmatism. On Tuesday, Beth Hayden gave some specific thoughts on how to do it, by creating extraordinarily generous content that can open all kinds of doors for your business. The Copyblogger FM podcast this week talks about your customer’s path to purchase and how to make it a little more appealing (and effective). I talk about the right places to ask for a sale and how you can discover what kinds of content to create. In Wednesday’s post, I continued that theme of the content marketing path — taking a winding road through a new persuasion “formula” I’m calling ECUBED. I’d love your thoughts on how you’d tweak or add to that formula — drop by and leave a comment? Last chance to get an exceptional price on the Rainmaker PlatformBy the way, I wanted to remind you that this Friday (that’s tomorrow), January 27, 2017 at 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time, the price of the Rainmaker Platform is going to rise significantly. Sign up at the current lower price and we’ll lock that in for you as long as you keep your site on Rainmaker. In February, we’ll be holding a special series of educational webinars tailored to Rainmaker owners. So if you do decide to join us on the Platform, you’ll have some very specific, tactical business help to get traction and get your business moving. Catch you next week! Chief Content Officer, Rainmaker Digital Catch up on this week’s contentThe Art of Seductive Content Marketingby Brian Clark 3 Ways to Become More Generous and Grow Your Audienceby Beth Hayden Don’t Get Flattened on the Attention Superhighwayby Sonia Simone 3 Content Marketing Strategy Fails (and How to Fix Them)by Sonia Simone Enhance Your Freelance, with Jennifer Bournby Brian Clark How Screenwriter and ‘All Our Wrong Todays’ Author Elan Mastai Writes: Part Oneby Kelton Reid A Crash Course in Copyright for Creatorsby Brian Clark One Podcast, One Audience, or One Topic (Two Attempts)by Jerod Morris & Jon Nastor The post ‘What Kind of Content Should I Create?’ appeared first on Copyblogger. via Copyblogger http://ift.tt/2jVbPqP
I’m a little different than most folks building a part time business from home. I have a job that I actually love. In fact, I’ve been building by business online since 2009 with the intent of “retiring on my own terms” when the time comes. As such, I have a lot of experience with what […]
via BobandRosemary.com | Part Time Business Success Tips http://ift.tt/2j6sp9T Social media ROI is the topic that will not die because, like it or not, social media is still a bit of a jungle in a world of tidy marketing-tactic cities. It’s hard to navigate, let alone map and measure. This Social ROI Template from Tracx will give you advice on goal-driven analysis and which metrics matter, insight on how to tie social data to marketing investments, an easy-to-follow five-step process for determining ROI, and a downloadable Excel template to make calculations easy. Visit Digital Marketing Depot to get your copy. The post Can you prove social media is working? appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2j60eYU |
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