KeywordTool, a New Web Marketing ROI Calculator

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In the beginning, search engine marketers were only concerned
about top 10 rankings. Do you remember those days? Then, as things progressed
and we began to work “smarter,” we began to take note of how those
top 10’s were actually converting to traffic and sales.

After all, in any marketing campaign, the true bottom line
should be your ROI, the return on your investment. That’s how you’ll
know if your marketing efforts are really working, or if you need to go back to
the drawing board and try something new.

Recently, I was introduced to a new ROI calculating service
called KeywordTool. It covers both pay-per-click engines and regular engine
results.

To write the article, I interviewed Chris Genge of
KeywordTool, and he took me on a tour
of the service itself.

Question:

Please explain what KeywordTool is and what it really does.

Chris:

“Deciding which keywords best suit each Web site and
which ones specifically will generate sales/conversions is perhaps the toughest
job in SEO. Tools like Word Tracker are a great help in narrowing down keyword
selection, but then what?

“In the past, decisions were not based on facts but
mostly speculation. This gave people no alternative but to promote or bid on
larger keyword groups. We used a shotgun approach in hopes of increasing sales,
with no way of telling which keywords were adding to our bottom line!

“A common saying in advertising is: ‘In any good
campaign, 50% of all advertising dollars are wasted, but which 50%?’
KeywordTool can answer this question for keyword promotion campaigns.

“KeywordTool’s tracking service tracks the conversion
or sales performance of keywords on search and pay-per-click engines, showing
which keyword phrases are actually converting into customers and from which
search engines. It is not a visitor tracker; instead, it determines keyword
performance.

“With this keyword referral/conversion rate
information, one can then fine tune their keyword choices and streamline
promotion and bidding expenses to increase efficiency, sales, and profits, or
in other words…the bottom line.

“KeywordTool is an online service that gathers
information about your Web site referrals and sales/conversions. Using your
private user name and password, you can then access the stats so you can review
the information and make informed decisions about how to continue your online
promotion.

“KeywordTool is designed for use with SEO and
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns. It’s well suited for both.”

Question:

Is there a way that we can see a demo of how the service really
works?

Chris:

“Go to http://www.keywordtool.net At the top of the
page, you will see the log in. Use the username of “keywordtool” and
password of “demo” to access the demo.

“The first page is the list of search engines that have
sent referrals to the specific Web site you wish to have monitored. Only search
engines that have sent a referral will appear on the listed sites. New search
engines will appear as referrals are sent.

“The ‘Create details’ or ‘Edit
details’ in the first column is where you would click to configure your
search engine settings. This is where you tell KeywordTool what your average
cost per click is for each search engine you want to calculate. This can be
filled out after some data has been gathered.

“The search engine column is the list of only those
search engines that have referred visitors to your Web site. You will notice
that KeywordTool will also differentiate between regions for those search
engines that are regionalized.

“The Column marked “Clicks” tells you the total number
of referrals sent by each SE.

“PPC is the average price per click you have set for
yourself. For those using this for SEO, this can be left blank. The PPC can be
changed or added at any time, allowing you to re-calculate your PPC using new
information.

“CONV is the number of conversions you have received
from that particular search engine. The details about the number of conversions
are at the next level.

“You can define what a conversion is:

-A “SALE”

-A subscription

-Downloading a file

-Filling out a form

-Or anything you consider to be an acquisition

“The CONV% is where KeywordTool calculates the
percentage of conversions based on the number of referrals received from that
search engine. It’s really just a performance guide of the search engine for
the keywords you have listings for.

“PPA is the ‘price per acquisition.’ It tells
you how much each new customer costs you for that particular search engine. The
number indicated is rounded to the closest dollar.

“ROI is your potential return on investment. It’s based
on the information provided and the referrals and conversion rates recorded.

“Some of the rows don’t have information, because we
haven’t defined the cost per click or estimated profit on that particular
search engine. This can be added or updated at any time.

“Start the next section by clicking on the column marked
‘Clicks’ to sort the SE’s from highest referrals to lowest.
Yahoo US has the highest number of referrals, so it comes to the top of the
list.

“Click on ‘Yahoo.US.’ It will then take you
to the next screen where there are 2 sections marked ‘search words’
and ‘categories.’ Search words are referrals from SE’, and
categories are from directories. Yahoo displays both so KeywordTool separates
the results.

“Click on ‘Search Words.’ The next screen
will display the exact results and performance for each keyword phrase. Click
on CONV to sort to the highest conversion keywords in this section. This is the
section where you can start seeing which keywords are working well for you and
which ones are not.

“The keywords that work well are ones that you can
focus on to ensure they are also listed on the other search engines. You can
quickly see which of your initial chosen keywords are working well and which
you might want to consider dropping or reviewing. You can then work to get
improved listings on other search engines for a small select group of keywords
that you are confident will give you the highest ROI. The numbers provided in
KeywordTool’s reports could be used to make better, informed decisions.

“If a keyword phrase is not working well, it might
either be the wrong keyword for the product offered or the sales presentation
is not working well on that page. Knowing that this keyword is not working
well, you can then start to make changes to improve performance. For anyone who
has tried tweaking your Google AdWords Select based on your copy and click
performance, this works in much the same way. With KeywordTool, it’s fairly
easy to know which keyword phrases to work on and which ones are working well
for you already.

“The information KeywordTool provides will tell you how
much potential a keyword phrase has, allowing you to know how much to invest in
SEO or PPC.

“All the information in KeywordTool sections can be
exported to Excel easily so you can manipulate the data and quickly determine
what your strategy should be for getting better returns from your work. If you
notice the Expert to Excel link at the top right of the page, it’s a very
handy little tool.”

Question:

What if you have a lot of clients?

Chris:

“Each client would have their own account. You would
want to keep the information separate and private. You can have multiple
accounts under your main account. There is no limit to the number of accounts
or the number of domains you monitor. Each account does require a separate
license though.”

Question:

What do you mean by a separate license?

Chris:

“Pricing for KeywordTool is based on a license fee and a
click-tracking fee.”

Question:

So if you use the tool for multiple domains/accounts, you’d have
to purchase it separately for each domain/account?

Chris,

“Yes, you can run all your accounts under your main
account, but they are purchased separately.”

Question:

Is there a special setup fee for the main account?

Chris:

“No setup fee. The set up takes about 20 minutes and
just requires adding a small JavaScript into the head of your entry pages and a
small piece of code into your conversion page. Then it goes live right away and
starts gathering info.”

Question:

How much does the service cost?

Chris:

“The service usually runs from about $200/month per
account and up depending on how many search engine related clicks you are
getting per month. There are several examples of pricing at:
http://keywordtool.net/pricing.asp.”

Question:

If I have 20 clients now, what would the cost be per month?

Chris:

“The first client is $150; 2-5 clients is $135 each up
to 20. All clients after 20 are $60 each. It’s progressive pricing.”

Question:

If I start with three clients, then add two more later on, does
the total subscription rate get adjusted to 5 clients, etc.?

Chris:

“Yes.”

Question:

If it uses JavaScript and someone has their JavaScript disabled,
they wouldn’t be counted? Is it a cookie? What if someone has cookies disabled?

Chris:

“Yes you are right about the JavaScript. There is also a
cookie place on their browser that keeps track of people that come take a look
and return later to buy.”

Question:

What if someone is using both PPC and SEO program. How is the
cost is distributed? Do we have to plug in the cost for each program to
calculate ROI?

Chris:

“If all you want to track is SEO, just don’t put the
code into the entry pages you use for PPC or use separate PPC entry pages. The
same is true for PPC. You can separate these by only placing the code into
unique pages you use for PPC.”

Question:

So for the conversion, we need to create two conversion pages:
one for PPC and one for SEO?

Chris:

“No, just differentiate the entry pages. You can use the
same conversion page.”

Question:

How do we know if it’s the right keyword that generated a
lead since people browse from page to page?

Chris:

“The entry code is placed in all pages the search
engines are referring visitors to. This way Keyword Tool will track the entry
and watch to see if it converts into a sale. You can place the code in just one
page or as many pages as required–there is no limit. You can even have the
same code in an include file in your template. This way KeywordTool watches
refers from all your pages.”

Question:

Do we need to do the data entry for keywords and PPC?

Chris:

“There is no data entry; KeywordTool looks for the
keywords as they are used on search engines, not how we think they should be
used. This way you can discover good keywords you got listings for and didn’t
know it.”

In Conclusion

If your ROI is important to you, which is should be!,
KeywordTool will certainly help you
determine your conversions rates and the return on your investment for any
traffic through the search engines, directories, and pay-per-click engines.
It’s a sharp program with a lot of handy features.

Robin Nobles is the Co-Director of Training of Search Engine Workshops, where they teach “hands on” search engine marketing workshops in locations across the globe. They also provide a networking community for SEOs called The World Resource Center for Search Engine Marketers and have expanded their workshops to Europe with Search Engine Workshops UK.

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