Why I Don't Care About (Not Provided)

WHY I DON’T CARE ABOUT (NOT PROVIDED) There’s way too much data out there for us to be crying over it.

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HISTORY OF KEYWORD DATA What’s this not provided thing all about?

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Iacquire.com @ipullrank

Keyword referrers

When a user searches the keyword is passed from Google in a the referral string in the q= variable to the website and

the site’s analytics strips this query and tracks it.

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In October 2011 Google Announced a move to secure Search

Using the Secure (HTTPS) protocol no referrer is passed. Head of WebSpam Matt Cutts said that there would only be a

single digit percentage of searches that would be affected.

As with many features and products Google has

rolled out over the years adoption is the main

barrier to usage.

@iPullRank

Google says it’s due to privacy. Really it’s to protect their monopoly. They are really obscuring keyword referrers to make Adwords more valuable from

both an explicit intent standpoint and to make it so no other service provider can

provide their Search Remarketing product. Seriously, if it’s an invasion of privacy

for Organic than it’s an invasion of privacy in Paid as well.

3/2012 FIREFOX WENT SECURE SEARCH The view of the Earth from the Moon fascinated me—a small disk, 240,000 miles away. It was hard to think that that little thing held so many problems, so many frustrations. Raging nationalistic interests, famines, wars, pestilence don't show from that distance.

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Iacquire.com @ipullrank

Googlers were incentivized to encourage more logins into Google+

It’s part of people’s job description to keep users logged in to Google. http://searchengineland.com/google-is-hiring-

someone-to-find-ways-to-make-you-want-to-search-while-signed-in-144523

As with many features and products Google has

rolled out over the years adoption is the main

barrier to usage.

1/2013 CHROME WENT SECURE SEARCH The view of the Earth from the Moon fascinated me—a small disk, 240,000 miles away. It was hard to think that that little thing held so many problems, so many frustrations. Raging nationalistic interests, famines, wars, pestilence don't show from that distance.

@iPullRank

Iacquire.com @ipullrank

September 2013 Google moved to secure Search for all users

Citing “privacy” in the wake of the NSA scandal Google announced a move to Secure Search for all users whether they

are logged in or not. Meanwhile Adwords advertisers still get keyword referrer data. http://iacq.co/19I0u15

As with many features and products Google has

rolled out over the years adoption is the main

barrier to usage.

THIS IS MY REACTION.

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WHAT ABOUT BRANDED VS. UNBRANDED?

@iPullRank iacquire.com

@iPullRank

WHAT ABOUT IDENTIFYING LONG TAIL SEARCHES?

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@iPullRank

WHAT ABOUT DYNAMIC TARGETING BASED ON KEYWORDS?

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@iPullRank

NONE OF THAT CHANGES MY ABILITY TO KNOW WHETHER SEARCH MADE US MONEY AND WHY

@iPullRank iacquire.com

WHY I DON’T CARE Roll with it.

@iPullRank

KEYWORDS WERE ALWAYS JUST A PROXY Granted they were an awesome proxy, but you could still be the wrong piece of content for that user. Consider the keyword “subway,” the search means something completely different to a 25 year old in new york city than it does to 40 year old in topeka, kansas. Just knowing the keyword you searched for does not necessarily tell me what you want. Knowing who you are helps a lot more.

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Iacquire.com @ipullrank

…And we have looked to understand the people behind the search

We leverage market segmentation from Experian and Nielsen in context with Social PPC APIs to build robust personas

with user stories, demographics, psychographics and engagement insights to drive our SEO programs.

As with many features and products Google has

rolled out over the years adoption is the main

barrier to usage.

Iacquire.com @ipullrank

Our keyword research methods are persona based

Rather than just putting together a list of keywords and search volumes we run surveys to understand where users are at

in the Consumer Decision Journey with their search. http://iacq.co/16a34zJ

As with many features and products Google has

rolled out over the years adoption is the main

barrier to usage.

Iacquire.com @ipullrank

our content strategy is kpi-driven

Certain content types work better for meeting certain business objectives. We’re already creating the right things to meet

what makes sense in the given stage of the consumer decision journey.

Iacquire.com @ipullrank

Our Messaging resonates with the audience and need state

Our content strategy includes messaging that is focused on the needs of the people and messaging is optimized for the

given need state to encourage conversion.

Awareness Version

Consideration Version Loyalty Version

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We’ve already developed methods for measuring people

I developed a methodology called Keyword-Level Demographics that leveraged keyword referrers in context of

demographic and psychographic data from Facebook to measure and validate personas http://iacq.co/11EED4u

As with many features and products Google has

rolled out over the years adoption is the main

barrier to usage.

Iacquire.com @ipullrank

Leverage user profiles for measuring segments

When sites have user profiles we can leverage them in context with analytics to understand which segments are

performing best and why.

As with many features and products Google has

rolled out over the years adoption is the main

barrier to usage.

Iacquire.com @ipullrank

I wrote about this on moz

I wrote an in-depth post about the insights that can be gained from user profiles and how they can be leveraged for

cohort analysis at Moz. http://iacq.co/1fLvCUj

As with many features and products Google has

rolled out over the years adoption is the main

barrier to usage.

Iacquire.com @ipullrank

We can already get plenty of data on the user

If you can get an email address or social login you can build a complete profile of a user using FullContact or RapLeaf.

Knowing what type of user goes you’re dealing with allows you to have the right messaging

As with many features and products Google has

rolled out over the years adoption is the main

barrier to usage.

Iacquire.com @ipullrank

We can already do awesome stuff.

We can already do a lot of great things with all this data about our users even though Google is killing the ability to do

keyword arbitrage through Organic Search.

Predictive Modeling Dynamic Targeting Keyword Arbitrage

IN OTHER WORDS… WE’RE ALREADY DOING MARKETING. And that’s what google is forcing everyone to do now.

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GOOGLE GIVETH MORE THAN IT TAKETH AWAY

New Data means new ways to measure users

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Iacquire.com @ipullrank

Cohorts in Google Analytics

Recently Google gave marketers the ability to set up cohorts in Google Analytics and therefore let us measure types of

people far more specifically. http://iacq.co/GR0S4u

As with many features and products Google has

rolled out over the years adoption is the main

barrier to usage.

Iacquire.com @ipullrank

Affinity segments

Google also jumped on the segmentation train a few months back offering what they are calling “affinity segments” where

they have identified 80 different personas for targeting in Display channels. http://iacq.co/1aoVg9k

As with many features and products Google has

rolled out over the years adoption is the main

barrier to usage.

Iacquire.com @ipullrank

Demographic data and affinity segments in google analytics!!!

This is brand new and is slowly rolling out to all sites. Google Analytics now has the ability to track demographic data

(Age, Gender, etc) and Affinity Segment type. http://online-behavior.com/analytics/demographics

As with many features and products Google has

rolled out over the years adoption is the main

barrier to usage.

Iacquire.com @ipullrank

Cohorts based on demographics & affinity segment

Now you can track and analyze personas directly in Google Analytics WITHOUT any other data sources.

As with many features and products Google has

rolled out over the years adoption is the main

barrier to usage.

@iPullRank

It’s time to move from explicit intent to implicit intent

You still know the page the user has landed on, you now know what type of user it

is, you know which keywords rank for your landing page so now the real question

is does my message fulfill a need and resonate with my target? Understand what

makes your audience tick and determine the best way to convince them your

product or service is right for them. Conversion is still the best measure of that.

WHAT YOU SHOULD DO RIGHT NOW The view of the earth from the moon!

@iPullRank

Iacquire.com @ipullrank

Understand and segment your audience

Build personas and use the affinity segments as your base and then set up filters and segments in GA so you can track

accordingly. Demographic options are still rolling out, enable them once you get it.

As with many features and products Google has

rolled out over the years adoption is the main

barrier to usage.

Iacquire.com @ipullrank

Measure Organic search as a channel

Organic Search is one channel of many. You should be reporting it as such, but in context of audience and conversion.

Optimizations should be made based on landing page performance.

As with many features and products Google has

rolled out over the years adoption is the main

barrier to usage.

Iacquire.com @ipullrank

Track your rankings and search volumes

STAT is my favorite rankings tool due to accuracy, search volume data and ability to tag keywords with the segmentation

we’ve developed in our keyword portfolio. http://www.getstat.com

As with many features and products Google has

rolled out over the years adoption is the main

barrier to usage.

Iacquire.com @ipullrank

Track internal search

On site search becomes your hyper-relevant source for long tail keywords in context with your audience where you can

determine what opportunities your missing out on.

As with many features and products Google has

rolled out over the years adoption is the main

barrier to usage.

Iacquire.com @ipullrank

Leverage google webmaster tools data

While its precision is questionable Google Webmaster Tools’ search queries section is a good way to get a sense of what

keywords are landing where if you still want to leverage explicit intent for optimization.

As with many features and products Google has

rolled out over the years adoption is the main

barrier to usage.

Iacquire.com @ipullrank

Understand your landing page conversion rates from Organic Search

Look at the conversion rates of your landing pages for traffic coming from Organic Search (Non-paid Search segment

and google filter) in context of your cohorts. This tells you where to A/B test your messaging.

As with many features and products Google has

rolled out over the years adoption is the main

barrier to usage.

Iacquire.com @ipullrank

Optimize against implicit intent and cohorts

There’s a tool called Nudgespot which allows you to easily setup dynamic targeting for different segments. A/B test to

improve conversion from Organic Search http://www.nudgespot.com

As with many features and products Google has

rolled out over the years adoption is the main

barrier to usage.

THIS DECK JUST NEEDED ANOTHER LOUIS CK PICTURE.

@iPullRank iacquire.com

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Thank you / Q&A Michael King Director of Inbound Marketing @iPullRank

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