Hi-
Are you wondering what qualifies me to be an SEM Auditor?
Even if you’re interested in an SEM Audit, chances are you’d like to know more about my professional qualifications to feel more comfortable with the prospect of working with me. And I get that!
So, in the next few paragraphs I’m going to tell you my story from the hey days of the Dot Com Era working for an Interactive Multimedia Agency to becoming the Assistant Director of Search Engine Marketing at Ogilvy. Or, you can skip all the reading and call me with any questions.
INTERACT MULTIMEDIA / DID-IT SEARCH MARKETING
I have been in the Search Industry since 1999. I left my post as 9th grade English teacher to join a Dot Com Era Interactive Agency where I took an interest in Search Engine Marketing, attending the 2nd ever Search Engine Strategies Conference (SES) in NYC, March 2000, and was mentored by Kevin Lee, a Pioneer in the field since 1996 and founder of Didit. While working with Kevin, I also edited his 2nd edition influential work on search strategy, Search Engine Secrets. There was no AdWords, and Google was just getting started. SEM was “black hat” SEO — aka Doorway pages and other tactics — for tricking the early unsophisticated search engines into high rankings so you could redirect the traffic to client sites for a big profit.
INDEPENDENT MARKETING CONSULTANT
After the Bubble burst, I founded a Marketing & Communications consultancy where I helped dozens of clients such as Conversagent (later acquired by Microsoft), Asset Point, and Reader’s Digest, launch online marketing initiatives including website development, content strategy, algorithmic search engine optimization (SEO), the newly emerging “white hat” pay-per-click (PPC) search engine marketing (SEM), and Acquisition Email.
CARAT
On the tails of multiple successful SEO projects, in 2004 I joined the global media giant Carat, an Aegis Group (AEGS:London Stock Exchange) company to head up SEO in their New York City office for the Pfizer account. Later that year I played a seminal role innovating SEO & SEM strategies for AOL as they emerged from the software subscriptions-based “Walled Garden” model to a web-based advertising-supported model in which traffic from search engines was pivotal. SEO recommendations for Moviefone, Music and Cityguide channels were adopted for all channels and resulted in a huge transformation for the company in the ensuing years. The Yahoo paid inclusion (now called Search Submit) program I launched for Moviefone and Music turned out to be one of the largest launched to-date, and kicked off a period of explosive ad revenue growth for AOL.
OGILVY
When a friend told me about a newly formed Search group at the legendary WPP (NYSE:WPP) owned global advertising firm Ogilvy & Mather, I could hardly wait to secure a position with them. David Ogilvy, a founding father of the American advertising industry and a true industry Legend, is the author of Ogilvy On Advertising, one of my favorite books of all time. I set up an informational interview, and several months later in 2005 they hired me as Assistant Director. I joined my boss, and two junior search planners; within a year we grew the Search Team to nearly 30 specialists, and by the time I left in late 2007 we soared above that. I wore all hats: client services, search strategist, client educator, training and development, product development, inter-diciplinary SEO/SEM evangelism, new business, knowledge management, and integration of Search with display media and website development teams under Ogilvy’s 360 Brand Stewardship, and more.
I worked on accounts such as Novartis, Lufthansa, Johnson & Johnson, DuPont, Six Flags, The Economist, Allstate, Investools, and United States Marine Corps, as well as ancillary involvement on IBM, TD Ameritrade, Sprint, and others. Working at Ogilvy was really amazing, and I loved working with so many amazing professionals at the top of their game in the ad world, but alas…
SEM AUDITOR
In late 2007, I left Ogilvy to work on “SEM Auditor” to help companies get more from their paid search. Sure, Search may have a good return, but are you maximizing your share of search? Is your CPA as low as it can be? Is you conversion rate as high as possible? If not, you’re leaving the door open for competitors to steal significant share of search online.
The complexities of Search make it difficult for marketers to stay on top of the latest strategies and best-practices: isn’t that why they hired someone else to do it in the first place? But the best success comes from a great partnership and that where SEM Auditor’s objective Campaign Report Card & Performance Booster Blueprint will come in to help you achieve a more productive partnership with your agency or in-house search team.
Give me a call or drop me an email to discuss how you can benefit from SEM Auditor.
Agency, Press, and Partner inquiries also welcome.
Cheers!
