Search Ads > 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
May. 5, 2008 at 11:29am by Matt Lester
Seven Tactics For Leveraging Paid Search To Build Brand Awareness
Everyone managing cost-per-click (CPC) campaigns lives by three magic letters that can make the difference between a friendly pat on the back and a hefty push on the back... out the door. Those letters are ROI (return on investment). Put another way, are you bringing in more money from your...
See Related Stories In: Search Ads: General, Search Marketing: Branding
Mar. 27, 2008 at 7:19pm by Danny Sullivan
Drilling Into Google's Decline In Paid Clicks
More doom and gloom on the paid search side for Google. comScore is once again reporting a drop in sponsored clicks, something that also happened last month. After last month's fallout, comScore did a lot of further analysis shared at the Searchscape panel at our SMX West conference and online...
See Related Stories In: Google: Business Issues, Search Ads: General, Stats: comScore
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. 11, 2008 at 7:25am by Matt Lester
10 Tips For A More Effective Paid Search Campaign
Chances are, if you're reading this you're either running a cost-per-click (CPC) advertising campaign or are considering it. You probably know that CPC advertising involves selecting a set of keywords and writing an ad to appear when someone searches for that keyword in the major search engines. And you're...
See Related Stories In: Back To Basics, 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
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. 13, 2008 at 9:01am by Barry Schwartz
Google Study: 1.3% Google Searches Return At Least One Malicious Result
Web Browsing, Search, And Online Ads Grow More Risky, Google Says from InformationWeek reports on a recent Google Study named All Your iFRAMEs Point to Us that shows 1.3% of Google searches returned at least one malicious result. Niels Provos, a security engineer at Google, lead the study that took...
See Related Stories In: Google: AdWords, Google: Security, Google: Web Search, Legal: Security, 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. 24, 2008 at 7:05am by Christine Churchill
Taking The Fear Factor Out Of Paid Search For Small Businesses
A friend recently presented me with a tiny kitten she and her daughter rescued from a busy intersection. This kitten was not particularly adept at walking and would occasionally fall over, but she kept trying, using her tail to keep her balance and become more skilled at walking. I...
See Related Stories In: Search Ads: General, Small Is Beautiful
Jan. 16, 2008 at 3:02pm by Jennifer Slegg
When Should You Outsource Your Pay-Per-Click Campaigns?
If you are a one-person show, you have to balance everything for your site -- from writing content, doing backend and technical work, research, promotions, advertising, and just about everything else that goes along with being a self-employed webmaster. Managing pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns is just one of the many...
See Related Stories In: Search Ads: General
Jan. 8, 2008 at 12:42pm by Brad Geddes
New Year's Resolutions For Your PPC Campaigns
At the beginning of every year, many people take stock of the last year, their accomplishments, and plan for the upcoming year. PPC campaigns also have a life of their own. From creation to optimization to reaching your goals to more optimization, PPC campaigns have their own life which...
See Related Stories In: Paid Search, Search Ads: General
Dec. 21, 2007 at 11:01am by John Ellis
If Paid Search Isn't Working Then You're Doing Something Wrong
The Nielsen Company recently completed a survey asking consumers their opinions on advertising, including offline and online. When asked “To What Extent Do You Trust the Following Forms of Advertising?”, paid search ads were ranked near the bottom compared to other forms of advertising. This should not come to...
See Related Stories In: Back To Basics, Search Ads: General
Dec. 18, 2007 at 6:41pm by Mona Elesseily
Paid Search Planning: Do You Really Know Your Customers & Your Market?
The season is upon us when marketers near and far are thinking about paid search planning, strategy, and implementation for the upcoming year. It's important to take some time out to plan your strategy for 2008 so you're not just reactive in your marketing efforts. So, in this article,...
See Related Stories In: Paid Search, SEM Tools, Search Ads: General, Search Marketing: Search Term Research
Nov. 30, 2007 at 9:29am by Barry Schwartz
Danny Sullivan & Rand Fishkin Talk About Search Ads Vs. Facebook Ads
Forget Facebook. Search Ads Are the Revolution from Danny Sullivan's monthly AdAge column talks about how search ads compare to Facebook's ads. That column is the topic in this week's SEOmoz's Whiteboard Friday. Danny sat down with Rand Fishkin at SEOmoz's office in Seattle to create the following video. Enjoy!...
See Related Stories In: Search Ads: Behavioral Targeting, Search Ads: General, Search Engines: Facebook, Search Engines: Social Search Engines
Nov. 27, 2007 at 7:32am by Brad Geddes
Optimizing Bids By Day & Time Can Dramatically Increase Your ROI
Consumer behavior changes based on the day and time an individual is searching. It's common to see conversion rates increase for dating sites in the early to late evening, while service-based industries often see a decline in conversion rates during those times. Adjusting your bids by time of day...
See Related Stories In: Paid Search, Search Ads: General
Nov. 13, 2007 at 7:09am by Alan Rimm-Kaufman
Paid Search Trends: 2006 vs. 2007
We're entering the home stretch: Christmas is about six weeks out. For many of our online retail clients, the next month and half of revenue will make or break their year. PPC impressions will soar. CPCs will rise. And SPCs (sales-per-click) will skyrocket. Most clients will see big profits...
See Related Stories In: Paid Search, Search Ads: General
Nov. 5, 2007 at 9:42am by Barry Schwartz
SelfServe HyperTargeting Ads From MySpace Launching Today
MySpace To Announce Self-Serve Hyper Targeted Advertising Network from TechCrunch reports MySpace is announcing a new ad platform today at adTech. The new ad platform will enable advertisers to target ads to users based on geography, demographics, and user interests. The ad platform seems to be named SelfServe HyperTargeting and...
See Related Stories In: Search Ads: General, Search Engines: Social Search Engines
Oct. 30, 2007 at 9:44am by Greg Sterling
Zillow Direct Ads Turn Site Into Dynamic Ad Platform
Zillow has always seen itself as a media company. The real estate site, which launched in early 2006, has continued to add features and listings that are very real-estate centric. But with the introduction of its "DirectAds" program it has become something else -- a site that uses its considerable...
