Background
The Hilton San Diego Resort & Spa is a luxury resort in the beautiful vacation destination of San Diego, California. Although managed by Hilton, they desired to create a website to communicate their unique message beyond the Hilton (brand.com) website. The solution to this problem was the creation of a vanity site, sandiegohilton.com. On July 18, 2011 sandiegohilton.com was born into the crazy Google dominated world. With the birth of the captivating new site, Screen Pilot was given the opportunity to guide it through its infancy.

The Challenge
Screen Pilot was tasked with the challenge of introducing Google to sandiegohilton.com, and teaching Google to appreciate it, love it and rank it to compete with brand.com.

Results
First Page of Google – WooHoo! 

Within one year after launch, Screen Pilot took the baby fresh domain and landed it on the 1st Page in Google for highly competitive keywords, like “san diego resort”. Not only is it competing, it’s ranking above vanity.com!

In order to understand the impact of Screen Pilot’s search marketing efforts, we’re going to compare YoY data for 30 days post launch. (07/20/12 – 8/18/12 vs 07/20/11 vs 8/18/11) Organic Traffic Increased by 431%! Total Site Traffic Increased by 44%! Organic search traffic to the site increased by a staggering 431% YoY.

Why the massive increase in organic traffic? The prize for living on the 1st Page in Google.
This massive increase of 431% can be attributed to 1st page rankings in Google for all branded terms and highly competitive unbranded keywords like, “san diego resort”. Organic traffic skyrocketed across the 3 major search engines: Google organic traffic increased by 629% YoY, Bing organic traffic increased by 480% and Yahoo organic traffic increased by 467%. The icing on the proverbial Google cake – vanity.com outranks brand.com The vanity site also outranks brand.com on branded keywords like “hilton san diego resort” in Google and there was a 286% increase in organic traffic from that keyword.

We know you’re wondering – how did they achieve such great ranking success?
The answer is simple… strategic SEO optimization and dedicated SEO experts. This isn’t rocket science (of course, we hope you believe it’s that complicated), we established our primary keyword targets list then ensured that the on-page copy, page titles, meta descriptions, etc. were well-written to target these keywords. We also put together a detailed link building strategy and implemented it. The rest of our strategies…well, that’s confidential, but I will say that we pride ourselves on squeaky clean, white hat SEO.

Final Words  
By creatively using strong search marketing strategies, Screen Pilot took the fresh domain, sandiegohilton.com and achieved ranking above Hilton.com on the first page of Google. As a result, the property has experienced exponential increases in search traffic to the site. Even with a behemoth like Hilton.com, the little guy (sandiegohilton.com) can outrank it with a team of committed, passionate search marketing experts behind it.

Recently we started to use a brand new Google AdWords Beta that is appropriately called “Image Extensions”.  As a famous UK marketing slogan once said “it does exactly what it says on the tin”. Applying image extensions will add the image you select above your current PPC headline and ad copy. A bit like this:

The benefits for this AdWords extension are obvious. For any advertiser that has a physical end product like a shoe, blender or resort / hotel it allows them to showcase what the consumer can expect to receive and makes their ad stand out above the others. Initial data suggests these extensions increase CTR significantly. Any increase of course, theoretically can improve your quality score and therefore ad position and CPC.

Multiple images can be applied but there are restrictions to blatant branding usage.  When a user clicks on the images they are directed through to the same landing page as the regular destination URL. For now, the AdWords Image Extensions only appear when the ad appears in the top ad position (for obvious reasons) and can only be used within the new enhanced campaigns (which are being made mandatory in the coming weeks). Images won’t be displayed on certain devices also.

That about sums everything up for now. These new extensions are in Beta and only available through select digital marketing agencies – such as Screen Pilot – so, if you are interested in learning more please let us know.

In summer 2012 Google introduced the communication extensions to Adwords through a limited BETA. Around the time a host of other bloggers noted that they were seeing an email capture form within their SERP’s on a variety of different ads across various industries. These were single lines that were added to regular ads that contained a box to enter your email address, a submit button (with a variety of different phrases) and a privacy policy note.

The screen shot above is a great example of the communication extension when the ad appears as the top result – Please note none of the males here are a fan of UGG boots. It was just the first example we found… honestly! Being a curious bunch here at Screen Pilot we wanted to test out the extension ourselves and gauge whether it could be of use to our clients in the long term. After a phone call and an email or three to our Google team, the extensions began to appear on a few accounts that we used to test the format. That was last October and now we have a bevy of information from our testing. Rather than keep it to ourselves we decided to share our results with you. As far as we can tell we haven’t seen any articles that document others results but if you have then please let us know. We’d be interested in seeing if our experience was common.

Before examining the results a little background on what the set up involved:

1)   Requesting access to the beta.

2)   Compiling a list of the accounts and specific campaigns that the extension should run on and send to our rep. This included:

• Account ID
• Account Name
• Campaign Name
• Link to privacy policy page on accounts website.

3)   Select the appropriate ‘button text’. We had the following to choose from:

• Get Offers
• Get Updates
• Sign Up For Newsletter
• Subscribe
• Get Alerts

4)   Select the email address where the email leads CSV files were sent on a daily basis (note: this part actually changed later in the year when leads started being sent to Google Docs, now Drive.  And only to the accounts primary email address).

That’s everything. We would have preferred to work within the Adwords platform to have more hands on control over when and where the extensions were used but this is often the case with BETA’s.

We chose buttons text based on the ad copy, what the consumer would be receiving and the industry of the account. We aren’t at liberty to say which accounts used which, but the only 3 we were able to test were ‘Get Offers’, ‘Get Updates’ and ‘Subscribe’.

Results:

To help you understand our results we’ve put together a chart with 2 clients data. For obvious reasons we can’t give you any more information about the clients other than they are both hotels/ resorts.

As you can see the data is pretty negative across the board. Both saw a fall in CTR and a rise in avg. cpc over the time periods selected. Beyond that, the main supposed benefit of the extension was adding extremely cheap leads into the email database. With only 13 and 12 leads respectively over 30 days from ads that were mostly in 1^st position that is pretty disappointing.

Conclusion:

After testing for 3 months and seeing very similar data across the board we have decided to remove the communication extension from all of our clients. We certainly believe that is has massive potential but right now the system just doesn’t lend itself to make them useful to marketers.

We believe the extensions need to be added into the Ad Extensions tab of the Adwords UI. This would enable marketer’s greater control over a number of things:

• Ability to tailor ad copy around it – Right now we need to use the same regular copy on all – with or without extensions. This likely created some confusion for the searcher about what we were promoting.
• Who receives the email leads – The system right now is confusing and makes it difficult to add the leads into the database.
• Turning the extensions on and off at will – A client’s priority isn’t always to obtain more leads. Many times it will just be plain old direct sales promotions.
• Submit button copy – The selections offered by Google were satisfactory but we’d like to test other options.

As with a number of betas Google may sunset this extension or eventually make it available to the general public. If they do we hope it’s given a significant overhaul since it could be a really useful tool for search marketers.

What is your strategy to monitor your company’s online reputation?

One quick and easy way to keep an eye on your brand online (and your competitors) is to create Google Alerts.

This handy Google tool will Alert you via email or text when it finds a new online mention of the word or phrase that you define.

Use Google Alerts To: 

Manage New Mentions or Reviews
For every TripAdvisor and Yelp there are a dozen other review websites that people use to help them make informed decisions. Use Google Alerts to receive notifications when a review is posted nearly anywhere online so you can promptly act on it. Google Alerts is also an easy way to know when a press release is picked up and where  it is distributed.

Set Up Automated Competitive ResearchCreate Alerts for competitor’s names and websites to learn when a new online directory listing is created, if their name is mentioned in the news, or when they add a new page to their website.

Discover Marketing Opportunities
Receive an Alert when Google finds a website containing the phrase that you want to rank for, or a website that would be worth adding a directory listing to.

Create a Google Alert in 3 Quick Steps:

1. Go to Google.com/Alerts and login to your Google account.

2. Define your Alert:

Search Query: the word or phrase that you want to know about.

Result Type: the default search query result type is “everything” but there are options to narrow it down to news, videos, or blog results.

How Often: receive the Alert as soon as Google finds the search query with “as-it-happens” or a summary of new mentions either “weekly” or “daily.”

How Many: choose either “only the best results” or “all results.” I would suggest starting with “all results” until you get a handle on the type of results you receive for your phrase.

Deliver To: an email address or RSS feed. You will have the option to create a text alert after you create the alert.

3. Click “Create Alert” and you are done!

Go back to Google.com/Alerts anytime to update, add or delete existing alerts.

Who knows what opportunities you’ll find!

Every year brings something new in the digital marketing world.

2012 brought a large surge in mobile presence, social media channels, and more options to research and book online travel than ever before.

What will 2013 bring? We’ve compiled a list of some of the top marketing predictions below.

1. A focus on visual content

Videos, images, illustrations, info graphics, etc. will change from “its nice-to-have” to a key strategy in acquiring and increasing customer engagement and influence within target audiences.

Thanks to high-quality displays on computers and iPads, customers expect to see high-quality images and videos. Most people view photos and videos before booking a hotel, so make sure you outdo your competitors in this area.

2. Make sharing your businesses photos easy

Customers love to show their friends pictures of where they are going or where they have been. This is a great opportunity to grow your presence on the web visually. Include share buttons for your web visitors, or even craft an email promo to new guests with great pictures they can share.

3. Businesses will continue to build their presence on social media and blog platforms.

More people are engaging in social media than ever before. These people – trusted sources to friends and family – are sharing their opinions and feedback. This is a key element in advertising, and why social media is an ideal and very important way to reach and engage potential customers.

Social media and blogs are also great ways to make the most of visuals and capture travel opportunities. Engaging the visitor is very important, and travelers love to consume videos and read reviews before booking a reservation. 2012 brought a 15%* growth in referral traffic from YouTube, and 89%** of leisure travelers watch videos online.

4. Mobile marketing strategies will be key

Every Christmas season brings a surge in new tech gadgets. We can expect a significant increase in the number of customers using new smartphones and tablets. And new territory is always a new opportunity. Mobile will continue to be a core customer acquisition channel, especially for small and local businesses.

5. Ensure your content is optimized for a variety of platforms

Depending on the users device (desktop, laptop, tablet, smartphone, etc.), information may be viewed differently. The iPad and iPhone are by far the most used mobile device, but don’t forget about Android users too.

6. A focus on ‘context’ rather than ‘content’

Website visitors are more impatient than ever. It’s important that they are able to find what they are looking for, especially for search traffic. Google will lower the rank of a page when it sees that visitors quickly abandon. Make sure that your search traffic is able to quickly find what they came for.

There are sure to be many more exciting changes in the coming year, but being on top of the competition by enhancing your online initiatives will ensure a successful start to the New Year.

*Think with Google: Travel Video http://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/insights/library/studies/think-travel-video-one-sheet/

**Think with Google: The 2012 Traveler http://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/insights/library/studies/the-2012-traveler/