The sky is falling! The Sky is falling!

ComScore released numbers stating that Google’s search marketing produced a 0% increase from the previous year. A complete article can be found at Silicon Alley Insider . What does this all mean? Well, it means that Google isn’t recession proof and they too feel the pain when consumers aren’t buying or clicking in their case. According to Alley Insider Google began seeing a decrease in growth starting in October of last year.

Read the full story

Leads2007 is currently under way! Discussions between lead sellers and buyers are plentiful and meaningful. Being that this is the first conference or “unconference” of its kind No one knew what to expect. We all only hoped that there would be something to take back to our own businesses and capitalize on and from the first day alone, this has far exceeded any expectation. Those of you who were on the fence and chose to stay home are unfortunately missing out on an industry and business changing event. I do, however want to recap today’s events and discussions for you.

The first discussion involved improving the consumer experience. Bill Rice spurred discussion by first presenting a large yellow square sheet of paper with a black dot in the middle and asked the audience to tell him what they saw. The exercise encourage the people to be more observant to the whole, complete process and not just the obvious. So many times lead buyers/brokers and lead-gen companies tend to focus strictly on what directly influences profits and do not review the complete picture. Have we been throwing the consumer experience to the way side and strictly focusing on what will make us a dollar today rather than executing practices that will not only generate a sale today but also tomorrow. I think we all have to admit that we all fall victim to this on one level or another. Currently there are buyers that will distribute a single lead to multiple LO’s within an organization in hopes have increasing the odds of a conversion. On the same token there are a number of lead sellers that are strictly focused on generating the highest volume of leads and sacrifice the consumers overall experience for an extra lead sale.

Discussions included standardizing the lead-gen process, matching the consumers with the appropriate buyers and at the same time informing the consumer who to expect phone calls from, a standardize lead grading scale based on analytics and feedback and lastly, lead providers gather consumer feedback regarding their experience. Proper loan officer training was also a popular discussion.

An interesting statistic from Forrester research, via Colleen of LowLender, stated that 70% of the people that went online did not intend to complete the process online. This bring up a number of questions and concerns as well and I would love to here your thoughts on the statistic.

The second session included discussions which detailed what technology’s currently in the market place help improve processes?

Loan Management Software was the voted the most influential. Unfortunately, many LMS users are not effectively using the software or know how to implement the software properly into the business. This was expressed by a number of different lead-gen companies. The crowd voiced a small wish list that would help improve many of the current LMS solutions in the marketplace. This included a wider array of analytical reports and closed looped sales reports from lead to funded. A few of the lead-gen companies requested standardized reports.

The 3rd session discussed different approaches to maximize relationships.

This included ideas about placing more ownership on the LO’s by mandating that they pay a portion of the lead cost or even rent seats within the sales organization. Most were agreed that this was a difficult model to incorporate and expressed that this may do more harm then good. Discussions included email marketing, remarketing, the request for referrals and customer service follow up teams.

Session 4 asked the question “does technology increase conversions?”

This included talks about automated pricing engines and the appropriate ways to implement the tool. The question was also asked, “are we simply implementing technology for our own ease or is it actually to improve the overall customer experience?”

A huge discussion broke off from this topic which include the industry wide standardization of date returns and feedback delivery from each of the LMS’s to each of the Lead-gen companies. Every one was in agreement that this could benefit all parties involved and many lead-gen companies pledged their allegiance to the idea. The question still remains who will actually follow through with the coordination of the integration.

Lastly, session 4 discussed the different points of views with the lead ecosystem and brought forth the need to be aware of the different views. It was interesting to see the polar opposite views of the lead-gen companies and the lead buyers. Each demanded the other party need to improve and in my opinion both are correct. The session encouraged partnerships between the two groups rather than working against each other.

Over all the first day was excellent and informative and I look forward to tomorrow.

We will be posting podcast of a the session recaps tomorrow so look out for those. I am exhausted from today and am about ready to fall over so please pardon any grammatical errors in the post. I think by now many of you have excepted the fact that I am a horrible writer anyway so you probably have not noticed any difference anyway.

Google finally releases the addition of Audio Ads to all Google Adwords users. There new radio ad platform is extremely simple to use and reveals a never before convenience in purchasing radio spots.

If you are already purchasing radio time on your own or have been brokering out the service, Google Audio Ads are going to be a major time and money savor.

Check out a demo here

It’s official, the Morinsight Forum is live today.

I am really excited to bring this new feature to you today. My hope is that it will be a place of open discussions about lead providers, lead management, Internet marketing, real estate and much more, without all the spam.

There are currently a number of mortgage and real estate forums on the Internet, but the problem with many of them is that they are not monitored for spam comments. My opinion is that the creditabilty of the forum is lost when the spam comments enter. So for this forum to be useful each registration will be reviewed and all comments on the forum will be monitored for spam. When signing up for the blog please use your company email address and also list your company website.

I encourage everyone to register. I think it will be beneficial to all.

 Register Now.

Adtech just released the podcasts of many of their session today. There are some excellent conversations mixed in there.

I suggest you take a look and listen.

Here they are>

In the last post I talked about the creation of a good ad. In this post I’m going to talk about keyword selection and the creation of a Landing Page. But first, I want to say one more thing about creating a good ad. Be sure to create multiple ads and test them. With Google Adwords you can create as many different ads as you want.

Test all your ideas!!

Once you have a created an ad it is now time to generate a keyword list. The easiest way to do this is to use Overtures ‘Search Suggestion Tool’ . This will get the blood flowing up in the old noggin. I don’t necessarily recommend coping and pasting the whole list into your Adwords account, but you can use most of them.

Here are some tips:

1. Get out the pad and pencil again and write down the top search terms that best describe your business. Write anything and everything! Be as creative as possible. You want to write down any combination of words that you think might lead consumer to your product.
2. Use a Keyword Suggestion Tool like I mentioned above. www.wordtracker.com has really good tool but there is an annual fee for this product. Also check out Spyfu. This is a great competitve intelligence tool. Microsoft Adlabs is  great source as well.
3. Once you have a list, add modifying words to the list: cheap, premium, free, best, etc.
4. I have found success from geo-targeting the keywords, so add states and cities to the list as well.

By now you will have a huge list and a really good base to start your campaign.

Now that you have created multiple ads and have strong keyword list it is now time to turn the impressions into conversions.

To do this you are going to need a good landing page. Here is what I have found to be successful.

The first key is to create multiple landing pages for each ad. It’s important to have cohesiveness between the ad and the landing page for a couple of reasons.

1. Google now ranks ads based on relevance of the page. If the landing page isn’t inline with the ad Google may force you to increase your bid for specific keywords.
2. The consumer is clicking on your ad for a reason. If you have an ad for a reverse mortgage and the landing page talks about Home Equity, it’s just not going to convert. I want to emphasize the importance of creating landing pages that match the ad. The more specific you are with the landing pages the more success you will see.

Here is a list of important factors that you will need to consider when creating a landing page:

1. Get to the point: Don’t make the person click to another page. Include your sales pitch or offerings and the form on the same page. Each time a person has to click a link you raise the likelihood of them not converting into a lead.
2. Include a prominent Call to Action
3. Don’t get greedy with the amount of information you want to collect. I know it would be nice to receive a full 1003 from your CPC campaign, but it is not going to happen. Keep it simple. Here is one of Countrywide’s landing pages. Here is Quickens. Here is a Low.com 3 part form. Low.com knows what they are doing, but I suggest keeping the form to one page. However, if you decide that the form is taking up most of the page, try the 3 part form. I have tried all different types of forms and I suggest that you experiment with them all too.
4. Create an attractive landing page: Don’t be afraid to use colors, greens and blues are good, but don’t stray to far away from your company colors. Use pictures of people and a testimonial or two.
5. Text and Form Placement: Studies carried out with eye tracking software show that a visitor’s eye is attracted to images first. Following the attraction of the images they then start scanning from left to right. I suggest having an image next to your call to action and pitch. You should have these placed on the left side of the page. Your form should be placed in the center right of the page. It seems simple but often left out of a page design.
6. Think about providing a freebie: Freebies work! Think about adding a free credit report and credit analysis or an appraisal.
7. Last but not least: DON’T GET LONG WINDED. Keep short and sweet. We know you have a lot to say about yourself and your business, but for this occasion, keep most of it to yourself.

Lastly, set up a Google analytics account for each of the pages. Tracking is everything.

I hope this helps many of you out and Good luck!

Over the past few months I have been asked a number of times about what my thoughts were on CPC or PPC campaigns and if I thought they were worth while.

Currently we allocate a percentage of marketing dollars to Cost per Click campaigns and we see results. So in short, yes I think CPC campaigns are worth while, but they take a lot of time and fiddling with to perfect. There are people out there that think opening an AdWords account and creating an ad will instantly generate leads. Huge misconception and can cost you big time. It is even tougher to see success with a CPC campaign in the mortgage and real estate industry. The market is extremely saturated by lead-gen companies with big $$$ that can monetize the lead 4 to 5 times. Along with the lead-gen companies there are 1000’s of real estate and mortgage companies with big $$$ you will be competing with as well. Some of you are already said to yourself that this is not for you and it very well may not be, but the ones that are still interested I am going to give you my 2 cents on the issue and also give you some tips that I have learned through trial and error.

Before I give away my opinions I want to tell you what Cost Per Lead (CPL) you can expect from a good CPC campaign. We have tested different campaigns and the good ones produce a CPL of around $60-$80, not bad for an exclusive lead, right. Well, the bad ones cost us $100 to $150 a lead, not good since we are not selling the leads 4-5 times. This is why it is extremely important to start out small and test different ad campaigns.

OK, first things first:

With all marketing strategies you need to know your audience. Some of you just rolled your eyes and said “No kidding”, but many people, especially in the Mortgage and Real Estate industry, assume that they should only advertise their services and think that’s what’s going to get the costumer.

Example:

I am a mortgage broker. My customer service is unparalleled. I can find you a loan. Call me today. (Of course I over simplified the ad, you get what I am saying though) 

The market is far too saturated for ads like that. If you create an ad like that you will be placing yourself into a competition with every mortgage broker under the sun. The key to success in a highly saturated market is to differentiate yourself as much as possible. Obviously this easier said than done, so you have your work cut out for you.

My suggestion is to get a pad a paper out and write a list of all the needs you think mortgage consumers have and rate them 1-10, in the order of importance.

Also, write down a list of the issues the consumer may be facing in the current market, rank them 1-10.

Then write a list of what you think the consumer really wants. This may be different then what you want to give them or sell them.

For example:

A consumer needs to have excellent customer service. They need to refi. They need a broker or a bank to find them the best rate or product.

A consumer is facing higher monthly expenses do to higher gas prices, their kid’s school tuition, medical issues, etc. They may be facing retirement without enough money in their 401k or retirement account.

A consumer wants the lowest rate possible. They want to save money each month. They want the lowest fees available.

You may want to sell them on their needs. Excellent service, diversity of 100’s of brokers. Great, but what is going to get them in the door is what they want, what they need is going to keep them coming back for more.

What I am trying to get at is know what the consumer wants and give it to them. I am not encouraging anyone to employ bait and switch tactics, this will not work. You simply have to realize that these people are going on-line to shop. They are not going on-line to find a broker or a bank. Trust me, someone in their family is probably a broker or they have neighbor or friend of a friend is a broker, so that is not what they are looking for. They are looking for price. Not to beat a dead horse but if you were shopping for something and you found two ads one had a price (and the price was right) and one didn’t, you would click one the one with price. You probably wouldn’t even waste your time clicking on the other ad or call the company to find out the price from the other ad.

After asking yourself these questions, go on-line and see what the successful companies are doing.  Here are the top placements for ‘mortgage refinance’ keyword.

Mortgage Refinance
$300,000 for $1,000/Month. Low Rate RefinanceOffers, Qualify Online.
www.LendingTree.com     

Countrywide® Home Loans
$300,000 for $1,000/Month. Low Rate RefinanceOffers, Qualify Online.
www.Countrywide.com     

Mortgage Refinance 
Refinance Your Mortgage & Save. No Lender Fee. Approval in Minutes.
www.eloan.com     

Refinance Under 6% Fixed
$300,000 Home Loan for $999/month.
See if You Qualify. Get 4 Quotes.
The-Best-Mortgage-Rate.comCalifornia

Mortgage Refinance
Get A Lower Rate On Your Mortgage
Refinance & Save Money Now!
www.MortgageRates.DollarBlvd.comCalifornia

See Todays Mortgage Rates
$310,000 Mortgage Under $999/mo
Featured on Oprah. Get Low Rates!
Refinance.LowerMyBills.com

Mortgage Refinance
Get the most out of your mortgage.
Refinancewith GMAC Mortgage
www.GMACMortgage.com

Mortgage Refinance
Lower Your Mortgage Payment 50% -
Secure Advantage – Quicken Loans®
www.QuickenLoans.com

 I think these are good examples all except one. Many of them are fulfilling what the consumer is wanting, low rate, price, no fees, a high likelihood of being approved, etc. One of them is missing the mark and probably doesn’t see a high click through rate (CTR).  Let’s go through these and speculate who they are marketing too:

From top to bottom:

Lending Tree: Payment sensitive shopper

CountryWide: Sub-Prime/ Alt A, someone who has possibly been turned down in the past

 eLoans: Fee’s shopper, someone who doesn’t want to come out of pocket for their Refi.

The Best Mortgage Rate:  Payment sensitive shopperMortgage Rates: Payment shopper

Lower My Bills: A Female payment shopper. (Female internet use is up, and so is female home ownership)

GMAC: Who knows? This is to deep for such a short ad, probably doesn’t get a high CTR. This pitch may be good for other ads where you can explain further, but not a CPC campaign. They get clicks based on their brand only.

Quicken: Payment shopper.  Take note, this is a huge advantage. You can see what the hand of all the other players are. Now you have to make your move.  

In the following posts I will discuss keywords strategies and the importance of a good landing page.