At SMX West last month, I spoke at length about what it means to manage PPC programs at large companies.  One of the topics I covered at some depth was using the various search engines’ targeting options to break keywords down into smaller bits of data to optimize them individually. This type of tactic can turn the ‘head’ of your portfolio into more of a ‘tail’ and makes it work more efficiently for you. But if you’re like us, and you have super-sized SEM programs, how do you tackle this in a manageable way that will drive incremental profit to your group or company, and make y [...]

Related Topics: Advanced | Channel: SEO | How To | How To: PPC | Industrial Strength

AdWords recently introduced a new feature to their Ad Rotation Settings called "Optimize for Conversions" (February, 2011). AdWords Advanced Settings Ad Rotation - Optimize for Conversions To find this go to: Campaign Tab | Settings | Advanced Settings | Ad Rotation (expand by clicking the "edit" link) Many advertisers may find this to be a marked improvement over the old "Optimize for Clicks" option. However, if you are already pursuing an ad optimization strategy, you might still find some advantages in your solution. This article covers both situations. This article is intend [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | How To | How To: PPC | Intermediate

It’s easy to increase brand presence in search... if you have the budget. But more often than not, search marketers feel trapped by their fixed budgets, and wonder how they can possibly increase branded reach without spending more money. However, it can be done. Online visibility is directly related to how many times your ads appear in the search results, which is directly related to your budget and bidding strategy. Usually, the more money you spend, the more often you appear. But there’s a way around this dynamic. One way to overcome this problem is through match types. Match types [...]

Related Topics: Beginner | Brand Aid | Channel: SEM | How To | How To: PPC

When you have two or more keywords that can be triggered in your AdWords account from a search query, Google tries to show the most restrictive option. The constraints go beyond just match type to include geography, time of day, etc. However, Google does not always show exact match over phrase match and phrase match over broad match. They also look at ad rank (max CPC x Quality Score). If you have an exact match term bid at $0.25 and the broad match bid at $1, Google will generally show the broad match term. As an advertiser, you will likely find that your exact match converts higher tha [...]

Related Topics: Beginner | Channel: SEM | How To | How To: PPC | Paid Search

A few weeks ago, we went over the pros and cons of using Phone Extensions and Location Extensions in your AdWords campaigns. This week, I’d like to finish up our AdWords Extension feature by running through the best practices for using Site Extensions and Product Extensions. Using Product Extensions In Adwords Being in the travel niche, product extensions are not available to us because vacation rentals or hotel rooms are not allowed in Google Products. I’ve done a few tests with various other non-travel products and think they work very well for a business that sells and ships merchandi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | How To: PPC | Intermediate | Search Marketing Toolbox

So, you think you created a campaign structure that covers all the bases. You added broad, phrase, and exact match keywords with distinct keyword roots defining meaningful AdGroups. You have ad copy that leverages those core words for that important boost in CTR and conversion rate, and targeted landing pages to match. And you have used broad match modifiers… right? Let’s take a look at some practical examples of using broad match modifiers in a how to format with an imaginary company, MallowMayhem. We will build on previous Search Engine Land contributions. If you are a regular S [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | How To: PPC | Intermediate

A good referral may still be the best way to find a consumer driven business. However, with more and more decisions being made online, it is increasingly important for marketers to manage their client’s images. Outside of reputation management, there's an opportunity for a first impression to be made in paid search ads; but advertisers must keep a couple of things in mind when delivering a first impression on behalf of their clients. Online businesses don't have the luxury of second chances. Today, ads are often the first impression a consumer may get of a business. It is important to beg [...]

Related Topics: Beginner | Channel: SEM | How To: PPC

Ad copy testing is essential for anyone running a paid search account. Testing ad copy in accounts in high traffic accounts is fairly easy, as you can add new ad copies to existing ad groups, wait, and then examine the metrics. However, in low volume accounts, testing is not nearly as easy, as it could take years to collect enough data to make statistical significant choices. Therefore, you need to employ specific testing methodologies to understand how aspects of ad copy behave across multiple ad groups at once. In today’s column, I’ll use video to show how to create, test, and meas [...]

Related Topics: Beginner | Channel: SEM | How To: PPC | Paid Search

Over the last year or so, Google has been steadily adding features to the AdWords interface that on the surface seem wonderful, unless managing and learning AdWords isn’t your full time job. It seems like just keeping up with what remains and what is gone and how to work the new stuff is a 40+ hour a week endeavor. I answer a lot of questions about Google Ad Extensions – when to use them, when not to use them, and how to use them effectively. I’m sure my clients are not the only ones searching for guidance, so I’m going to share what I’ve learned over the past few months in an eff [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | How To: PPC | Intermediate | Search Marketing Toolbox

It’s landing page testing time! In this article, I will outline five ways to test elements on your landing pages. Before getting started with landing page testing, it’s important to ensure the following: Identify testing goals. Are you trying to increase sales? Leads? Identify them. Test variables that have a direct impact on your goals. For example, if you are selling a product, test call to actions, headlines, etc. Testing the look and feel of your landing page may increase conversions but not as much as variables more directly related to your goals. Ensure when it’s [...]

Related Topics: Beginner | Channel: SEM | How To: PPC | Paid Search

Managing PPC campaigns became a little easier last year when the Yahoo platform was retired and replaced with Microsoft's adCenter. Now, instead of three sets of rules for keyword match-types, text ad rules, and so on, we now just have just two, with adCenter and AdWords, which, thankfully, share a lot of common characteristics. Of course, AdWords and adCenter are not 100% identical and it is good to understand what the differences are so you can decide how best to address them. Over the next few months, I will take a more detailed look at the important differences between these two network [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | How To: PPC | Paid Search

About a year ago, (October 2009) Google inked a $15 million Twitter deal to include tweets in search and finally, the day has come where AdWords advertisers can take advantage of real time Twitter feed access in their Google display ads. Google Twitter Ads Twitter ads follow a standard Google display template for all supported display sizes (though I think 300x250 is clearly the most popular in terms of getting the most impressions served and rendering best.) Advertisers can customize a default message, their username (e.g., Twitter.com/ViatorTravel) and some color components. The latest twe [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | How To: PPC | How To: Social Media Marketing | In House Search Marketing

Last spring, Google AdWords introduced Broad Match Modifier, an innovation that shows Google has been listening to its customers. For many years paid search experts have complained that broad match is too broad and phrase match is too narrow so I for one was pumped to hear about the modifier a few months back and couldn’t wait to start testing it. To start, let’s define the term "broad match." As the name suggests, broad match keywords generate relevant (right Google?) keyword variations for your campaign. Using broad match in a campaign is useful for a lot of reasons. It generat [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | How To: PPC

Balancing lead quality and lead quantity is a significant challenge for nearly all B2B marketers. How do you find the “sweet spot” for your company?

Related Topics: B2B Search Marketing | Channel: SEM | How To: PPC

Many advertisers use keyword level tracking in AdWords destination URLs. This allows your server to track the source of paid search traffic hitting the site. Recording this data with each inbound paid click allows you to collect your own data for analysis. It is possible to track the search engine, account, campaign, ad group, keyword, and so on, augmenting what is available from Google AdWords and Analytics reports. Why go to this additional effort? Maybe you have a local data warehouse, the ability to track the actual user search (from the referrer URL), or you want to watch for click [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Google: AdWords | Google: Analytics | How To: PPC

If you had the time and resources to personalize every sales pitch, every piece of marketing collateral, every special offer, how would that affect your bottom line? If your customers told you, "I don't want that, but if you offer me this in a different color, I'll buy three," you would listen, right? Onsite behavioral targeting enables you to customize your website to create the most welcoming, enticing destination for your visitors, ultimately engaging them more deeply in your site. So-called machine learning engines provide a means to automatically offer the most relevant content to [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | How To: PPC | How To: SEM

Google’s Export tool was developed to help businesses identify overseas market opportunities for expanding their business. While not perfect, it does allow companies new to international marketing to discover potential markets by leveraging multiple Google tools to translate keywords then weigh market potential based on search volume and average cost per click data.

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | How To: PPC | How To: SEM | Multinational Search

In paid search marketing, users searching on specific keywords will trigger ads by advertisers who have indicated those keywords are relevant to their business by participating in the auction on those terms. Beyond just bidding, though, there are many variables that come into play which you can use to tactically enhance the effectiveness of your online campaigns. One of the most important tactics to understand as a search engine marketer is how keyword match types work. Let’s say your advertiser is a bank who offers a special high-yield checking account that they’d like to let consu [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | How To: PPC | PPC Academy

When building out a successful campaign on the major search engines, there often comes a time when the influx of traffic hits a plateau. To continue growing results, advertisers need to extend their reach and resources elsewhere. There are a few different routes to take when it comes to acquiring new traffic—however, the path most traveled is alternative search engines. Tapping into the alternative engine resource pool gives a business access to unique and pretty large volumes of traffic, but only proves successful if the person managing the campaign knows how to effectively work the sou [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | How To: PPC

We are just so busy, busy, busy as search engine marketers on behalf of our advertisers!  There are the mission critical tasks such as managing budgets, getting tracking implemented, hitting CPA goals, and uploading new keywords/ads to the account. Then there are the things we definitely need to get to every week such as pacing, performance reports, testing, managing bids, etc. And then there's everything else. All of the other hundreds (if not thousands) of things we could be doing to help our accounts accomplish their goals like match type testing, landing page optimizing, keyword expans [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | How To: PPC | Search Marketing Toolbox