The Rise Of Paid SEO Thru Advanced Targeting

For years, SEO professionals have been able to use PPC to further their goals. Be it in the form of keyword research or testing the projections of ROI gains from a particular keyword, it was a way to conduct real world field tests before launching a full-blown SEO strategy. With Google crushing the SEO schemes and easy tactics one by one via manual and algorithmic penalties, I believe that the time for SEOs to embrace new technologies and pay for content promotion and audience engagement is upon us.

The cost of doing retargeting or PPC for a content piece has always been daunting for an SEO due to the difficulty of procuring budget for it, until recently. With avenues such as modern content amplification and retargeting based on various data sources, a trend is forming to use PPC to further your outreach and SEO goals.

Below I will show you a quick overview of some of the advanced targeting options that we have available today to us.

Amplification Platforms

Content amplification platforms such as Outbrain, nRelate and Taboola provide targeting options and social layer of engagement that are just too good to ignore.

In essence, these services suggest your content along with the trusted and related content to an audience who is already engaged. They’re already interested in what they’re currently viewing, so they’re very likely to check out your article, infographic or video that’s well within eyeshot.

If your asset happens to be great, the magic will practically happen on its own. It will generate shares, links and possibly retweets from influencers, which is something we’d gladly pay for.

Compared to spending tens of thousands annually on someone to get links to get link juice so that you can be seen, but with no actual and measurable assurance of it, this is money well spent.

Best of all, these are “Google Approved” paid links; there’s no risk of getting penalized: You can read more about it here in a slideshare Will Reynolds wrote http://www.slideshare.net/wilreynolds/the-10000-paid-content-paid-linking-test-that-is-100-google-safe

These sites like Taboola have even integrated retargeting abilities to further add to the effectiveness of the platforms by targeting users who have been to your site already.

Creating a New Remarketing List (Beta) Using Analytics-based Retargeting

With Adwords remarketing, it is now possible to show the amazing new content piece you’ve made to people who have been on your site and have done micro conversions. SEOs can finally target users in such a way that justifies the fees associated to it. So time to learn PPC or make friends with someone on the PPC team.

Example use: Show content ads to people who have been on site over x amount of time and have not seen that content.

This can be setup in analytics in the admin panel -remarketing Follow the steps and run ads through adwords.

Furthermore, Analytics now has audience data that can be utilized for further targeting and research - Learn to setup this here.

This can be taken even further by building content based on the persona interests seen in the new analytics interest category and showing ads to promote the content to only those users with that interest.

This gives us the ability to show our clients that we know who our audience is made up of, strengthening our case for creation of content based on those interests and then targeting them using the new remarketing lists.

Facebook Targeting by ID, number, and email

Now while google requires you to be anonymous in your targeting social networks do not. You can use Facebook ads to deliver your content in an even more targeted manner to an individual. Have Facebook use your list of IDs, phone numbers or emails of competitor fans, top editors, top fans who share your content, or virtually anybody who has expressed interest in your product or service. This will make targeting via age group and gender pale in comparison. This will make your social media manager your best friend.

You can also get a user’s ID and name using this: http://graph.facebook.com/username

Read more on it here

http://blog.wishpond.com/post/64215441993/how-to-target-facebook-ads-based-on-email-address

Twitter Targeting by email

Twitter also follows suit by recently launching their Tailored Audiences program for ad retargeting. I think is a leaner and meaner way to retarget since it is now possible to show ads to say, editors, just by breaking out your email marketing list, while excluding those who are not on it. Retargeting via keywords might be nice, but it certainly isn’t this precise.

Read more on this here

Social Ad Platforms

Social platforms effectively segregate people by interests, and with most people active on social networks during the workday, it is not something to miss out on. For example, LinkedIn is the perfect place to do retargeting if you want to capture an audience of professionals movers and influencers. Another one would be a targeted ad placed in the appropriate subreddit, or using stumbleupon ads. This is a great way to get your content seen by thousands of people and give your content that viral boost it needs. Because even the best content won't attract attention if nobody sees it.

As you can see, PPC allows SEOs to target content with surgical precision. It is also able to generate links in less time and effort, with even lesser hands doing work. This is not to say that PPC is a must, but rather, anybody running an SEO campaign can benefit from teaming up with your ppc and social media departments. The future of SEO is obviously moving in this direction and those who recognize this will emerge winners. I would love to hear in the comments how you have gained wins mixing seo with ppc or social to hit multiple marketing goals at once.

David Konigsberg is the CEO of Optimal Targeting, a full service internet marketing agency based in New Jersey. He is an online marketing strategist who uses his expertise in Analytics, PPC, Link building, Social and Infographics in a holistic approach to marketing. As a person with an unending thirst for learning and improvement he's also speaker and presenter.