expertSEM

We all got up bright and early this morning, even after a somewhat late night out enjoying a few drinks and some delicious sushi (word to the wise, when they name a roll “Hotter Than Hell,” believe them). We headed over to the convention center, grabbed a quick breakfast then split off to attend different sessions. Tarla is focusing on the SEO tracks today; and Andrew headed to the “Social Media & Search Marketing: Not the Same Old Stuff” session first. Here’s a recap of first session I attended:

“Writing Killer Ad Copy: The Interactive Edition”

Sitting at he tables and on the chairs were small brown boxes. We were asked to open our boxes. Inside were several items: crayon, index cards, flashcard, fork, knife, Atomic Fireball, snickers, Flutter Flickers (I immediately unwrapped the Atomic Fireball!). They said that we would use these things to help us “think outside the box.” Below are the key takeaways from each speaker:

1. Craig Danuloff, ClickEquations, Inc. — Craig reminded us that ad groups are not keyword groups; don’t just focus on the keywords.

2. Matt Van Wagner, Find Me Faster — Matt was the moderator and took Mona Elesseily’s spot, who was not able to attend due to unexpected business obligations. He is an excellent speaker and even sang and played “When the Saints Go Marching In” on the trumpet. Very entertaining!

– DO NOT write ads in excel (thank you!)

– start with story telling, talk out loud, draw some doodles

– listen to your sales team at work (they know how to close deal in 30 secs)

3. Elizabeth Marsten, Portent Interactive — Elizabeth posed a disclaimer before her section; essentially, “don’t be offended by what I’m going to say.” My macabre sense of humor pays off again!

– Be more aggressive

– User reverse psychology

– Compliment them

– Use guilt

– Write ads that sound dirty but aren’t — spice it up; make them laugh; appeal to the gutter-minded

4. Shane Snow, semvironme — Shane taught us how The Matrix can help us write better text ads. I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I’ve never seen The Matrix; but he played a bunch of clips so I understood his analogies and wasn’t lost during the presentation.

– free your mind — there’s no spoon in PPC; brainstorm and have fun with them

– be creative with your features and benefits — Neo’s feature is stopping bullets in mid air, his benefit is pissing off the bad guys

– use sensational headlines like in infomercials

Stay tuned for more recaps of sessions and events.