Columns > Paid Search
Paid
Search looks at
search advertising programs and how to most effectively
use them. Columnists cover topics such as bid management,
managing multiple campaigns, ad and landing page quality
issues and other subjects. The Paid Search column appears
Tuesdays at Search Engine Land.
To get this column via email or feed, visit our columns page.
Jun. 30, 2008 at 7:42am by George Michie
Don't Let Machines Write Your Keyword Lists
As anyone who has seen the Terminator or Matrix movies can attest, if machines rule the world humans are in deep trouble. Similarly, if you allow machines to control the PPC keyword creation process you are guaranteed to both leave opportunity on the table and flush money down the...
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Jun. 9, 2008 at 6:50pm by Andrew Goodman
Instant (Bad) Karma's Gonna Get Ya: AdWords Account Quality At Startup
This one's for all of you consultants, agencies, and in-house SEM's who find themselves "inheriting" a sloppily-built account started by someone else. It's also a cautionary tale for anyone thinking about "casually" starting out an AdWords account. Hopefully I'll save you some cash today, but in particular I hope...
See Related Stories In: Google: AdWords, Paid Search
May. 27, 2008 at 12:32pm by Brad Geddes
PPC Management Options – Are Your Fees Inline With The Advertiser’s Goals?
There are many ways to bill for PPC management and each has its own distinct characteristics. Some of these billing techniques align more with an agency, and others more with an advertiser. For agencies, the proper billing types can make the difference between being profitable and going out of...
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May. 19, 2008 at 4:38pm by Mona Elesseily
How To Solve Communication And Differentiation Problems
Last week, Page Zero Media held a seminar in Toronto called Winning the Paid Search Game. In the intensive half day seminar, we focused on tactical PPC issues like ad copy generation, landing page optimization, and the differences between the search engines. But strategy is possibly even more important...
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May. 13, 2008 at 9:39pm by George Michie
Bidding For Dollars - Margin Dollars, That Is
As the competition in search becomes more sophisticated, refining tactics becomes more important than ever. For online retailers, bidding by margin is all but essential. Every firm has a different marketing objective: some look for maximum ROI and some are willing to spend to break even in hopes that...
See Related Stories In: Paid Search, Search Ads: General
May. 5, 2008 at 12:05pm by Andrew Goodman
Make Your Ads Better: Three Powerful Techniques
Tomorrow I'm giving a talk at the eMetrics summit in San Francisco. A search marketing perspective can often seem "refreshing" in the context of the discipline of marketing in general; it even seems to go against the grain a bit. I'll be telling the eMetrics audience a bit about...
See Related Stories In: Paid Search, Search Ads: General
Apr. 28, 2008 at 1:35pm by Brad Geddes
What Yahoo's New Minimum Bid Means To You
Yahoo recently announced that they are moving away from a $0.10 fixed minimum CPC to a variable minimum bid. However, there are some differences in how Yahoo calculates minimum bids compared to AdWords. These differences are important to note as you switch between these PPC engines so that each...
See Related Stories In: Paid Search, Yahoo: Search Ads
Apr. 21, 2008 at 4:57pm by Mona Elesseily
Microsoft - Three Weeks Or Else!
Since Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo! for $44.6 billion, interesting times have been ours to enjoy here in the land of the search engines. On April 5 2008, Steve Ballmer stepped up the game by giving Yahoo! 3 weeks to make a decision on the 44.6 billion dollar offer or...
See Related Stories In: Microsoft & Yahoo Merger, Paid Search
Apr. 14, 2008 at 12:00am by Alan Rimm-Kaufman
Secrets Of Paid Search Success From 1930s Direct Mail Wizards
If you buy search ads to drive sales, you are a direct response advertiser. Welcome, today's short column is for you. If you buy search to increase awareness of your brand, you're a brand advertiser. Sorry, but this column is for the direct response gang, us red-headed step-kids of...
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Apr. 7, 2008 at 3:51pm by Andrew Goodman
Spy On Competitors, But Don't Copy Their Mistakes
Maybe it’s just me, because I’ve spent years ingesting the Purple Cow Kool-Aid. But I can never get over the number of cookie-cutter, copycat businesses that spring up online. Choosing the exact same business model as someone else almost appears to be a favorite pastime in North America these...
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Mar. 31, 2008 at 1:44pm by Brad Geddes
Will You Be Sued Over Your Ad Copy Usage?
Storus Corp just successfully sued another advertiser for use of a trademarked term in the ad copy. This is the first time that I have seen a company sue another advertiser directly without relying on Google as the intermediary for filing trademark exceptions. As PPC advertisers, this affects us...
See Related Stories In: Paid Search
Mar. 24, 2008 at 2:25pm by Mona Elesseily
Is Microhoo A Done Deal?
Lately, a merger between Yahoo! and Microsoft is looking more and more probable. Not only have reports been flying around that Yahoo! and Microsoft are in negotiations, but Yahoo!’s SEC filing last week (Tuesday March 18 2008) has added significantly more fuel to the merger fire....
See Related Stories In: Microsoft & Yahoo Merger, Paid Search
Mar. 16, 2008 at 11:59pm by Alan Rimm-Kaufman
How To Improve Site Conversion, Minimize Google Ad Cost, And Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
With Google's recent announcement about page load time influencing Quality Score, now is a good time to discuss site speed. Speed matters. People rate snappy, responsive sites as more usable, even when the user interface itself doesn't change. If your architecture or design aren't that great, your users will...
See Related Stories In: Paid Search, Search Ads: General
Mar. 10, 2008 at 3:02pm by Andrew Goodman
Keyword Intent: Tidy Campaigns Avoid the 'Dump and Chase'
Another bundle of advertising flyers just landed on my front porch, only to go straight into the recycle bin. Although I merely dream of the distant day when such lazy and wasteful advertising methods will be punishable by death or a day spent shopping with Paula Abdul, I hold...
See Related Stories In: Paid Search, Search Ads: General
Mar. 3, 2008 at 12:23pm by Andrew Goodman
Danny Sullivan Tackles Search 3.0 And 4.0 In SMX West Keynote
I thought I'd gracefully retired from the Danny Sullivan Keynote Review business. Comparing Danny to Edward R. Murrow, assessing how the attendance stretched the room capacity... ahh, they were good times. Then I awoke to find myself in a large hall at the Santa Clara Conference Center. It wasn't...
See Related Stories In: Paid Search, SEM Industry: Conferences, Search 3.0, Search 4.0
Feb. 25, 2008 at 12:01am by Alan Rimm-Kaufman
The Secret Of Large Term Lists (It's All In The Bidding)
Last Monday, in a SEL post discussing the click quality by engine, I mentioned in passing an 89% drop-off between ‘phrases tested’ and ‘phrases actively generating good clicks’. Specifically, we posted 176,903 terms en route to discovering 20,152 active good terms for a client. Today I’ll revisit that drop-off...
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Feb. 18, 2008 at 1:00am by Alan Rimm-Kaufman
All Clicks Aren't Created Equal: Q&A With Danny Sullivan
Earlier this month, in a blog post reporting our clients' aggregate ad spend across the major search engines, we noted that Google's slice of the pay-per-click pie increased across 2007. I wrote: "We never sat down and had meetings about moving budgets. Rather, our systems noticed that ever-so-slightly better...
See Related Stories In: Google: AdWords, Paid Search, Search Ads: General
Feb. 11, 2008 at 8:29am by Andrew Goodman
What, Exactly, Are Google AdSense "Other" Relevancy Factors?
It's been well established that a core—predominant, even—component of the Google AdWords quality-based bidding formula is historical CTR (clickthrough rate). New keywords get treated a bit differently, though; the algorithm must predict CTR based on the similarities of your ad group's characteristics to historical data in Google's vault. If...
See Related Stories In: Google: AdWords, Paid Search, Search Ads: General
Feb. 4, 2008 at 8:06am by Brad Geddes
Use Lifetime Visitor Values To Raise Bids While Increasing Profits
It's easy to set PPC bids based upon a direct response ROI. Using this simple metric makes it simple to base every keyword bid on its profit and conversion rate. However, are those bids accurately reflecting the entire revenue your PPC account generates? To get a complete picture of...
See Related Stories In: Paid Search, Search Ads: General
Jan. 28, 2008 at 3:25pm by Mona Elesseily
Spying On Your Paid Search Competitors
Last time around, I wrote about paid search planning and some cool tools to help you understand your customers and your target market (here). This time, I'll take a look at the competitive landscape and understanding competitors in general—and show you some excellent tools that can help you gain...
See Related Stories In: Paid Search, SEM Tools, Search Ads: General
Jan. 28, 2008 at 2:53pm by Chris Sherman
Search Engine Land Column Switcheroo
Heads-up to all of you faithful Link Week and Paid Search column readers: Today we're swapping days for the columns. Paid Search will now appear on Mondays and Link Week on Tuesdays. No worries if you've subscribed to the feed for either column—you'll still get the content you've asked...
