I really enjoyed Andy Beal’s Competitive Intelligence presentation, which included a set of slides that are embedded below. The focus was on researching competition online and seizing opportunities for gaining an edge. Here are my notes from the presentation:

• Make sure you’re monitoring your competition in the news for new product releases, features, media spotlights, and opportunities for blog exposure. What new features can you implement that will beat your competition? Where are they getting quoted, and which bloggers are willing to praise their products or services? Try to take advantage of what they’re doing well, and do the same, or better.
• If you find your competitors’ customers ranting about them online, use it to your advantage. You can poach unhappy clients, promote better alternatives, or make improvements to your products or services that will serve this community better. And if they are satisfied, they might do positive word of mouth promoting for you, doubling the damage to your competitors.
• Follow what your competitors’ employees are saying online. One great tip is to create a private Twitter list for each of your competitors — this will ensure your competition won’t know you’re secretly spying on them. “Loose lips sink brands,” as Andy says. Keep an eye out for damaging evidence, or employees who brag unknowingly. You can also use it as a method for sniping your competition’s best and brightest!
• Is your competitor listing new jobs? If so, you can learn if they’re planning to relocate or expand, if they’re planning to launch new products, or if they have let any employees go. It also wouldn’t hurt to call in and inquire about the position for added specifics.
• So what tools and sites are recommended?
  • Google
    Sidewiki for finding information about individual web pages
    Google Alerts for being notified of competitors in the news
    Google Local Listings (for user reviews)
  • Twitter
    Profiling companies and employees
    Search.Twitter.com for locating rants and reviews
    Private Twitter Lists for following discreetly (you create)
  • Facebook
    Read competitor Fan pages for feedback and techniques
    Find out who their fans are and create relationships
    Search Posts by Everyone for rants and reviews

You’ll find additional tools recommended at the end of the slides, please make sure to check them out, and feel free to leave comments here or at Andy Beal’s blog for further information. Happy researching!

“How to scale to a million dollars a month”

Breaking Down the Metrics

Make sure that you understand the fundamentals of how to make a profit with PPC. It’s all about using your data and crunching numbers to ensure your campaign will be profitable. Here are some of my tips on PPC formulas and how to calculate your maximum CPA spend (part 2).

The Importance of Landing Page Optimization

Because CPC, CTR, CR, and CPA all affect each other, make sure to make tweaks to areas that will create the largest return. If your conversion rate is 5% with an average CPC of $.25, and you receive 500 clicks, then that means:

$.25 x 500 = $125 (cost)
500 x .05 = 25 (actions)
CPA = CPC/CR or cost/actions = $5

If you increase your conversion rate (CR) to 6%, then you receive 30 actions at $4.17 CPA; raise your conversion rate to 8% and your CPA drops to $3.13. Beyond just landing page optimization, if you’re able to drop your CPC from the original scenario down to .20, without changing anything else, then your new CPA becomes $4. Optimizing all of your metrics will have dramatic effects if done consistently.

Learn From Using Other People’s Money

This isn’t as bad as it sounds, but it’s a good way to learn. Work for someone else managing their campaigns, and you’ll learn a lot, without having to spend the money out of your pocket. My only warning is of course, make sure you know what you’re doing first before you play with someone else’s money!

Each Step is 10x More Important Than the Previous

This was an interesting train of thought. Your targeting is important, but your keywords are 10x more important. Your keywords are important, but your ad copy is 10x more important. Your ad copy is important, but your landing page is 10x more important. See?

I assume his statement refers to the conversion funnel, where at each step of the way you encounter “drop-offs” (people who drop out of the path to a completed conversion). It can take a lot more effort to get the clicks to convert, than it does to get the click, or figure out the target demographic.

Outsource Anything Non-Essential, Finish What You Start, and Run Your Business Like a Business

BlitzLocal sends its laundry out so programmers aren’t wasting valuable time doing laundry. Basically, if you have tasks that can be done by someone else that would be more detrimental for you to spend your time doing, then outsource it.

Furthermore, with any business venture, whether it’s brick and mortar or online, it should be run like a business. Ideally, if you have money to rent an office, it might help you be more productive to do so. When you’re running like a smooth, organized business, it can be easier to scale to that million dollars a month!

ad:tech Summary

I flew into San Francisco’s SFO airport from Long Beach for the first time. Little did I know, I could take the BART train from the airport to my hotel. And when I say “from the airport” I literally mean the BART station is inside the airport. How cool is that? And when I say “to my hotel” I mean that when I popped out from the station on Montgomery Street, I looked to my left to see my hotel doorway staring me back in the face. Sweet.

After dropping off my luggage I went to meet my friends Jasper and Nick at the conference hall, which was in Moscone West this year. I’m not sure if it’s because the main hall was already reserved for RSA, or if the conference itself was smaller, but it was still a large and busy expo hall regardless (on both floors).

I met my rep Eleah from AKMG for the first time, and she gave me a really cool skateboard which I’m not sure what I’ll do with. But it’s cool nonetheless and was by far the best on-the-floor buzz item at the show. However, for the women out there, I wouldn’t recommend picking up the board at the start of the walk if you’re in heels, especially if you’re going to be running around for five hours straight…. Just sayin…. But I was still able to make my rounds through the aisles of booths and scout for traffic sources. There were a few vendors there I haven’t yet worked with so that was good, but in all the expo hall was what I expected.

Day 1 of ad:tech ended with us party-hopping, beginning our night at Cat Club for the nickycakes party – a small venue with lots of guys and no air conditioner. There was jello wrestling, boobies, and an open bar. Too bad I’m not a guy because I would’ve appreciated it more, but the alcohol was great! Then we made our way over to Ruby Skye for ClickBooth’s party, which was a lot of fun. Thanks to all the sponsors who made the night a ton of fun!

The second day was much like Day 1, with the exception that I got to sleep in and have lunch with my friend Max. Once I caught up with the group it was back to networking at Moscone and planning the night’s events. The one great thing about these conferences is that there are a slew of people who are all of the same mind-set, and once you’ve met them in person, it makes all the difference in the world.

The guys at Tracking202 held a really cool Meetup202 at club Mighty. I’ll be posting videos from that event soon. We then ended up at Advertise.com’s AdverCircus party at 1015 Folsom, featuring a team of fire dancers and an open bar. I’d like to thank the organizers of ad:tech, as well as all the great account managers and affiliates. Keep an eye out for some photos and videos in the coming days!

Also just announced this past week is Tracking 202 Pro which is now out of beta testing. If you’re looking for a host of new PPC tracking tools, check them out. Let me know if you guys have any questions about third-party tracking software. I’m thinking of doing a post outline on how it works and why you need it. What do you think?

Anywho, if you’re going to be at the upcoming ad:tech conference this April in San Francisco, make sure to stop by the Market Leverage booth to chat. Thanks, Dina, and Market Leverage for the personalized threads. I hope 2009 kicks butt for you guys and all of your affiliates!

While topics included general discussions relating to findings, statistics, and testing, a couple pieces of information struck me that I wanted to share.

Actual Cost Per Click is Directly Related to Click Through Rate

Alex Schultz stated clearly that advertisers will pay a lower CPC in Facebook if they are able to boost their CTR. There is no mystical algorithm or “quality score” that advertisers need to achieve, like with Google AdWords. If you get users to click more often on your ad, your CPC will drop. This means testing various images, headlines and ad copy. If you’re wondering what a good CTR is, let’s just say that .03% is bad. If you’re able to achieve 1% then that wouldn’t be bad. (We all know “good” is subjective.) An average would be somewhere near .20-.25%.

However, since the Facebook system is still new, and the ad monitors are constantly pulling ads that either violate their TOS or are flagged as offensive, if you get an extremely high CTR, the ad will more likely undergo scrutiny. But they’re just making sure naughty ads have not infiltrated their system, and that it’s just a very enticing and effective advertisement that’s being displayed. In essense, don’t be surprised if your borderline shady ad that’s getting huge volume and high CTR suddenly gets pulled. You can always re-submit a similar ad until it gets approved.

There is a Massive Market Imbalance on Facebook – Take Advantage of It Now

Shoemoney made it clear that he still sees a massive market imbalance which favors advertisers. If there are campaigns that you’re thinking of testing, now is a great time to target your demographic and see if you can convert them.

The conclusion? Well, Alex stated that the Facebook ad system is still in its infancy. There are known issues, and many more features to come. However, it’s those marketers who take advantage of the system now (call them early adopters) while it’s still new that will reap the most benefit. Once the system is running smoothly, and a baby monkey can figure it out, the platform will be oversaturated with competition. So you have to submit the same ad 20 times to get approved? Whoever gets the ad up and running will get the clicks. Remember it’s a zero-sum game. If you’re not getting the clicks on Facebook, your competitor is.

The party of 28 sat nearly the length of Switch Restaurant inside the Encore hotel. Other guests included ShoeMoney, Zac Johnson, Andrew Wee, David Klein (aka DK), Nate Whitehill, Greg Morgan, Tim Schroeder (of Webmaster-Talk), and David Brim (of IZEA). There were many conversations flying around the table during the 4 1/2 hour meal. I ordered the stacked short ribs, in case you were wondering, which were fantastic.

During the dinner, Michael announced MarketLeverage’s newest product, GreenLink Videos. These concise video clips are designed to assist affiliates in navigating the affiliate space as well as through their network. Check them out!

Thanks again to Michael Jenkins of MarketLeverage for hosting an amazing dinner event. I think everybody brought back some awesome memories from it!

Now, for some really random video clips…

Switch! (Yea, the walls actually move UP and DOWN…hence the name…get it?)

Why I Should Buy an iPhone (No, I don’t have one yet)

Hopefully I’ll be able to catch as many sessions as I can. One I’m looking forward to is called Automating Websites and PPC Management presented by John Hasson, even though he’s stated that some of us may be leaving the session scratching our heads during his podcast with Andrew Wee. But it sounds intriguing right? Please check out the podcast if you’re interested in hearing an awesome discussion on keyword grouping and PPC management tips.

Anyway, stay tuned everyone!

L-R: Zac Johnson and girlfriend Reena, Gary Lee, Greg Morgan, Derek Semmler, me, Gary Ng, Matt Blancarte.

Nate and Josh were with clients, while some other bloggers were wandering around the exhibit hall, so this is the group that was hanging out at the moment just choppin it up. These are some of the best people a person can know. What’s better than hanging out with some really down to earth, intelligent, like-minded people…in Las Vegas? Exactly…nothing. What was really cool was meeting Derek, since he’s my blog birthday buddy! Alright, I’m taking off to hit up the strip now. Good night.

I’m posting some links to others who are attending BWE and who will most likely be posting updates later on. If you’re attending BWE, please say “Hi!” to me if you see me. Check out these blogs below to see who will be partying like rock stars this weekend.

Nate Whitehill – Co-founder of Unique Blog Designs and really awesome guy. His business partners, Josh Mullineaux and Matt Blancarte will also be pimpin it at the UBD booth.

Derek Semmler – Author of DerekSemmler dot com and Sparkplugging: The Man Page. Also, my blog birthday buddy!

Greg Morgan – Founder of BCMblog and my conference homey. Always good times when BCM is in the house!

Make Money Online Panel – Super Affiliate Zac Johnson (and all-around nice person) will be speaking on this super blogger panel, along with John Chow, Brian Clark, Jim Kukral, Darren Rowse, and Jeremy “Shoemoney” Schoemaker. Yowzers!!

Wendy Piersall – Everyone knows her as the original eMom and she’ll be back to deliver on a panel discussing how to sell direct advertising on your blog. Sweet.

and more! If you’re going to BWE, leave a comment here to let everyone know. Or leave links to your friends who will be attending. Hope to see you all there!

The Details

September 20 – 21 in Las Vegas at the Las Vegas Convention Center. If you visit the site, you can check the list of exhibitors as well as the conference schedule. You can check out which speakers will be attending and floating around the event.

The Benefits

One of the biggest benefits of attending industry conferences is the networking. Where else will so many top bloggers and blog related service providers convene in one location? If you’re really into blogging and social networking, it really is a great place to hang out with and socialize with some like-minded people.

Are any of you planning on going, or thinking about it? If you’re wondering what it was like for me, check out my BWE review.