Another great search marketing session at ACCM 2008 was “Conversion is your secret weapon,” given by Wine Enthusiast’s VP of marketing Glenn Edelman and The Rimm-Kaufman Group’s Larry Becker. The first part of the session concentrated on in-depth ways of determining advertising ROI and effectiveness. The general advice that Web marketers get on this subject can be pretty lightweight, but these guys gave some really great advice:

• Track at both the keyword and the ad level
• Pay as close attention to your organic search results as you do to your PPC results
• Choose your tracking technology carefully; if possible, use multiple redundant solutions

The second half of the session concentrated on both landing page design and general site design — the other half of the search marketing equation (it’s not all about keyword research and ad copy!) The presenters offered tips and tricks for fine-tuning your ads, landing pages, and your entire site as a whole. Every page needs to serve one of three purposes: It should offer information, an opportunity to buy, or an opportunity to click deeper into the site. In essence, every page is an offer page.

The presenters spent the last portion of the session talking in depth about usability as it applies to conversions and sales. They gave some examples of good and bad sites, concentrating specifically on the level of hassle of signup pages (and the degree to which visitors are satisfied after they’ve completed them).

Overall it was quite an informative session for search marketers. I’m sure everyone in the audience got at least one actionable tip from it.