Amazon holiday shopping outlook: A guide for advertisers
Amazon marketers should look into 2021 data as soon as possible to get a sense of when to hit the gas on advertising this year.
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Andy Taylor's latest articles
How DuckDuckGo (and Microsoft) benefit from Google’s sprawling advertising business
Smaller search engines are able to monetize their results with Google’s advertiser base to reach searchers on those properties with as few obstacles as possible.
2020 Google paid search trends that have nothing to do with the pandemic
With close variant taking the place of broad match, limiting keywords isn't enough for keeping query-to-keyword matches tight.
The importance of valuing latent orders to successful Amazon Sponsored Products management
Advertisers must consider the lag time between ad click and conversion as well as historic performance around key days to estimate shift.
How Google close variants brought broad match to every match type
Most of us won’t weep about the death of broad match but we will miss the days of total match type control.
The importance of building brand awareness through Amazon advertising
Marketers should be looking at the brand-building potential across both display and search ads because Amazon is not just about direct response anymore.
Paid search trends to watch for the 2019 holiday shopping season
Maps will play a larger role for retailers with physical stores and while Google Shopping will likely be the star, Amazon is poised to play the Grinch.
With loss of Yahoo and image search, Google Shopping search partner traffic nosedives
While it is a small fraction of Shopping traffic, the partner network can help advertisers currently excluding this traffic to grow moving forward, particularly in a competitive Q4 holiday season.
Search query reports show a huge increase in Google close variant traffic
Here's a look at research based on the past year and how advertisers should think about close variants moving forward.
Be smart, advertisers. Here’s how to approach rising Google brand CPC
While we are at the mercy of Google’s auction systems in determining CPC, we can install safeguards to ensure increases are controlled.
What the numbers tell us about the current voice search opportunity
Since we can't segment voice from typed interactions in performance reports easily, it's helpful optimization for voice search overlaps with traditional search.
Death of the keyword: What it is (and is not) for retail
Are keywords dead, or slowly dying? Columnist Andy Taylor believes that's up to Google as it controls keeping keyword negatives strumming.
Google Shopping is largest growth opportunity for most online retailers in 2019
Brands need to invest resources into feed management and utilize format variations to ensure they appear in as many relevant queries as possible.
Paid search trends to watch for the 2018 holiday shopping season
Shopping, local searches and audience optimizations are three of the biggest considerations to keep in mind.
State of the Google Shopping auction heading into the 2018 holiday season
The paid search results of the upcoming holiday season will be heavily dependent on Google Shopping performance for many retailers. But how will Google Express factor into it?
Loose match types, bid-caching, and getting what you pay for in digital marketing
When a lack of advertiser control -- whatever the platform's motives -- results in unintended purchases, trust inevitably erodes.
Google is right; click-through and conversion rates kinda don’t matter
Say what? Turns out you may be focusing on the wrong things if you're fixated on click-through and conversion rates. Here are a number of reasons why.
The Google expanded text ad CTR lift that never was
Contributor Andy Taylor shares his take on Google's expanded text ads (ETAs), drawing comparisons to the new responsive search ad (RSA) format.
The growing importance of remarketing audiences in Google paid search management
With the explosive growth of click share coming from remarketing audiences, contributor Andy Taylor feels it’s important to consider both incrementality and personalization when using audiences for paid search management.
The status of Google’s presence in Google Shopping Auctions
Google has long been visible in these auctions, not only through Express but also Play and Store. Contributor Andy Taylor evaluates its presence and assesses how it's changed over time.
Look Ma, no keywords! Phrase-free AdWords campaigns are here
Contributor Andy Taylor discusses Google's new Local Search Ads Experiment in AdWords, which uses address and location categories in lieu of keywords to trigger relevant local results.
Bing Ads brand CPC taking the elevator — up
Looking for options to hold down brand CPC on Bing Ads? Contributor Andy Taylor shares strategies for those programs observing significant increases.
Phrase, broad, or broad match modifier: After exact, what’s the next best match type?
Contributor Andy Taylor answers by sharing research that shows deploying multiple match types produces little difference between phrase and broad match options.
What’s going on with Google brand CPC?
Brands may be at Google’s mercy when it comes to the price of branded traffic, but Columnist Andy Taylor outlines steps they can take to reduce their CPC pain.
Holiday shoppers increasingly turned to Google Maps in the countdown to Christmas Day
Columnist Andy Taylor from Merkle shares data on how consumers engaged with Maps and Local Inventory Ads over the holiday shopping period.
Is holiday paid search more competitive in 2017 than 2016?
Columnist Andy Taylor explores year-over-year Auction Insights data from AdWords, revealing insights into this year's holiday paid search landscape.
Four key holiday paid search trends to keep an eye on
Columnist Andy Taylor shares data that can help predict trends in the e-commerce and retail space this holiday season. Advertisers, take note!
Google locally focused ads poised to play important holiday season role for brick-and-mortar brands
If 2016 trends are any indication, search ads aimed at driving offline traffic are likely to have a big impact this year. Contributor Andy Taylor explains how to take advantage of the opportunities.
The limitations of Google AdWords demographic targeting
Proper demographic targeting can improve your search ads' performance. Unfortunately, as columnist Andy Taylor points out, Google doesn't always make demographic targeting easy.
How important is Google Shopping for retailers?
Columnist Andy Taylor shares his views on the recent European Commission antitrust ruling against Google and how this might impact retailers that rely on Google Shopping for sales.
Amazon Prime Day’s surprising effects on Google AdWords performance
Columnist Andy Taylor dives into Merkle advertiser performance data to explore the impact of Amazon's recent Prime Day sale.
Early performance results from Google’s update to close variants
What impact has Google's latest update to close variants had on paid search performance? Columnist Andy Taylor reviews the data.
How to compare paid search and organic search without sounding foolish
Which search channel is better: paid or organic? Columnist Andy Taylor argues that there is no simple answer to this question, despite what some practitioners may want to believe.
What your paid search KPI says about you
Every advertiser measures success based on key performance indicators (KPIs) that they deem relevant. Columnist Andy Taylor asks, What do your chosen KPIs say about your priorities?
Google Maps ad traffic steadily growing
Columnist Andy Taylor of Merkle shares data on the growth of ad traffic from Google Maps, including conversion rate and CPC data by device.
Google’s location tracking is better now than ever before
Columnist Andy Taylor notes that Google has improved its ability to track search traffic at the ZIP code level, which is good news for advertisers who employ granular geographic targeting.
When should advertisers consider pausing Google Local Inventory Ads?
Retailers that sell online and in-store need to balance where to send users in their paid search efforts. Columnist Andy Taylor explores when advertisers might want to rely on local inventory versus regular product listing ads.
Three well-meaning paid search optimizations that might kill performance
That recent adjustment to your paid search campaign seemed like a good idea at the time, but now you're seeing a drop in performance. How could this happen? Columnist Andy Taylor notes some common issues that arise from well-intended optimization choices.
Google’s shaky pitch for why advertisers should let Dynamic Search Ads handle queries
The AdWords Help documentation recommends that advertisers not add top-performing queries from Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs) as keywords. Columnist Andy Taylor explores whether that recommendation makes sense.
What Google’s recent RLSA updates mean for advertisers
Columnist Andy Taylor discusses the impact of two recent changes to Remarketing List for Search Ads announced at SMX East 2016 -- expanded RLSA membership duration and cross-device retargeting.