International paid search offers the unprecedented ability to break into new markets with low upfront costs. However, a common mistake made by marketers when expanding to a new country is that they only translate ad text without taking into consideration all of the additional complexities involved. An international campaign is not simply an extension of an existing local campaign. It has its own currency, language, culture and demographics. The campaign has to have the ability to customize parameters for local tastes and also to create common data that can be rolled up to a central loc [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | How To: PPC

A few months ago, I wrote an article titled Attribution: What It Is And Why It’s Important where I discussed two types of attribution: operational and project based attribution. For this post, I want to go one step further and explain how you can use several different types of technologies for operational and project-based attribution. The tables below should help you select the most appropriate technology based on your own attribution needs. Operational attribution allows an advertiser to see all the steps or clicks that led to conversion in real-time and continuously attributes conve [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Credit Is Due | How To: PPC

In this post I present some intermediate level landing page optimization tactics. I toss in a couple of real-world scenarios and we will work from some basic assumptions. This article is targeted for Google AdWords advertisers with direct marketing goals in mind, although the same principles apply to other search engines just as well. Landing page optimization has two main goals: Increase conversions for clicks that get to the page Increase Quality Score (Google only) so that you can lower your CPC for the same clicks As a secondary benefit, while more conversions and a bet [...]

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

Performance measure on a CPA basis is usually is a limitation of tracking – the advertiser cannot associate true revenue with the conversion. Managing to an ROI, and moreover, managing to maximize profit margin for each keyword will open up new doors for PPC efficiency.

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | How To: PPC

Are you valuing all keywords equally, assuming they all offer the same benefit to your paid search campaign? That may be a mistake. Here’s a cautionary tale that shows you how to assign appropriate values to keywords based on their role in the conversion funnel.

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | How To: PPC | Search Ads: Domaining

Five years ago, few people paid any attention to conversion rate optimization. Today, everyone is jumping on the conversion optimization bandwagon. I believe that there were two main factors that changed search marketers perceived value of conversion optimization: Google Website Optimizer. In October 2006 Google announced the release of its website testing tool, Google Website Optimizer. While the tool is not as powerful as some of its commercial counterparts, it allowed the average smaller to mid-size website to integrate some sort of A/B and multivariate testing into their marketing init [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Analytics | Google: Analytics | Google: Website Optimizer | How To: PPC

Google is going mobile in a big way. Following the announcement of Nexus One, the official Google phone, and the acquisition of adMob, Google is ready to make some serious moves on the small screen. Early days of mobile advertising Before smart phones hit the market, mobile advertisers were confined to the small screens of traditional mobile units. Web access on those phones was painful and expensive"web pages" on those phones often consisted of nothing more than several hyperlinks. Needless to say, the technology never really took off. The iPhone changed all of that in late 2007, by off [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Google: Mobile | How To: PPC | Search Ads: Mobile Search

The beauty of online marketing is transparency – there is no other medium in advertising within which a direct ROI or CPA can be associated without questioning a slew of externalities.

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

Sometimes the ideal AdWords strategies are counterintuitive. If you’re in a competitive market, you need every optimization you can get. The following tips will give you an edge in profitability.

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

The world of paid search has evolved from "all you need is five minutes and a credit card" to a complex ecosystem with lots of moving parts that and obstacles that can cause serious damage for the unwary. Here's a look at some of the best paid search books published in the past year. A roundup of 2009's best search advertising books Search Engine Advertising: Buying Your Way to the Top to Increase Sales (2nd edition) by Kevin Lee, with Catherine Seda New Riders, $34.99 ISBN-10: 0-321-49599-3 This was one of the first books about search advertising ever published, making its debut [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Features: Book Reviews | How To: PPC

Running effective PPC campaigns in B2B markets is a competitive task that can be extremely expensive. That’s why it is so important for search marketers to run efficient campaigns that create maximum value for those high-cost clicks. So what can you do to be more competitive and increase ROI even as these tough economic times are shredding your budgets?

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

There are two key factors crucial to assuring the success of any large SEM optimization process: First, tuning the campaign so that it is efficient and second, scaling the account while maintaining the efficiency you’ve gained. Your key goal should be to identify incremental opportunity without losing profitability.

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

Can you apply the spirit of social media to other marketing channels? At this year's SMX East, after my presentation on Landing Page Usefulness—emphasizing a "usefulness" mission over "usability" tactics—it struck me: great landing pages can bring many of the ideals of social media to paid search marketing campaigns. Here are five principles of social media marketing that can energize your landing page program: 1. Engage in specific conversations, not generic one-size-fits-all talk. When a company engages in social media, the worst thing it can do is echo canned, cut-an [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | How To: PPC | How To: SEM | Search Ads: General

The importance and impact of online testing on your conversion rates cannot be understated. Yet as powerful as testing can be, it is a double-edged sword that can actually set you back if you are not careful. Poorly designed tests can take years to complete, and even worse, they might not provide concrete insights to what elements will convert more visitors into customers. Here are six of the most common mistakes I see clients fall into while conducting online testing. Using the wrong type of test (A/B vs. multivariate test) A/B tests allow you to test two versions (or more) of an en [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | How To: PPC

Choosing appropriate match types for PPC campaigns is one of the most important decisions an advertiser can make, having an impact on such diverse factors as costs, quality scores and ultimately overall success. Advertisers may choose to set their keywords to either "broad," "phrase" or "exact" match types, each used for a different purpose. Generally, setting up an account with only phrase or exact matched keywords is a safer tactic than setting all keywords to broad match—broad match, as it implies, generally serves up far more keyword variations in an ad than the other two narrower [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | How To: PPC

Search advertising success is defined by relevance. The concept of relevance is broad, but logical: it's the relationships between advertiser, keyword, ad copy and the landing page/ post click experience. So, how do we know if our relationships are strong, and our account is relevant? Simple: Quality Score for Google, or Quality Index for Yahoo. There are several components of Quality Score, illustrated quite nicely below: Three of the six components are controllable (keyword relevance, ad relevance, and landing page content); two of the components are byproducts (clickthrough rat [...]

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

Account organization is the first and most important step in the optimization process – it’s the foundation for success.

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

Highly profitable PPC accounts aren’t for everyone. Here’s some tongue-in-cheek tips you can implement to play it safe with PPC.

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

Behavior is unique for these high volume/value keywords and as a result, steps need to be taken to make these terms more visible for daily account management and analysis. The first step is to identify and isolate these top terms in order to help prioritize where to focus.

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | How To: PPC | Search Marketing: Search Term Research

One of the toughest challenges facing pay-per-click marketers is keyword expansion. Marketers need to be adept at selecting keywords that will not only drive traffic, but more importantly, will drive conversions in a cost-effective manner. As competition intensifies, identifying unique, high quality keywords becomes increasingly important-and difficult. While basic keyword research remains important, search marketers need to look to other tools to gain an edge. Basic keyword research Keyword research generally begins with one of the popular keyword-research tools. These include-but are [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: Other | How To: PPC | Search Marketing: Search Term Research