2017 growth hacks: Increase CTR by monitoring competitive offers
Are you showcasing your offers in your paid search and shopping ads? Columnist Lori Weiman explains why she believes this is a huge area of opportunity for paid search marketers.
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2017 growth hacks: Use affiliates to improve PPC reach
In this month's installment of her series on SEM growth hacks, columnist Lori Weiman explains how advertisers can utilize their affiliates to dominate the SERPs and increase the bottom line.
2017 SEM growth hacks: Grow ROI with cross-channel optimization
Columnist Lori Weiman explains how a holistic, cross-channel strategy can help search marketers direct their efforts towards the channel where they will have the greatest impact.
2017 growth hacks: Optimizing organic market share
Columnist Lori Weiman continues her series on search marketing growth hacks with an installment on improving organic search performance.
2017 SEM growth hacks: Gain monster paid search growth using competitive data
How can you use competitive data to improve your paid search campaigns? In Part 2 of her multipart series on SEM growth hacks, columnist Lori Weiman explains how competitive ad monitoring helps marketers make more informed strategic decisions.
2017 SEM growth hacks: Monster growth from brand protection
Are your competitors bidding on your branded terms and driving up your CPCs? If so, what can you do? In part 1 of her multi-part series on brand protection, columnist Lori Weiman provides some advice on how to make your brand terms work for you, even when the competition is fierce.
Using PPC brand protection to decrease campaign costs by 51%
Columnist Lori Weiman makes the case for why it's worth seriously focusing on -- and defending -- your own branded terms in paid search.
Brand bidding & PPC optimization: future of brand protection (part 8)
What's on the horizon for brand bidding in PPC? Columnist Lori Weiman wraps up her 8-part series on brand bidding by looking to the near future and discussing trends that search marketers can capitalize on.
Brand bidding & PPC optimization: effective bidding techniques (part 7 of 8)
How do you deal with a rival trying to steal a SERP spot where your brand belongs? In part 7 of her 8-part series on brand bidding, Lori Weiman shows some examples of companies who are doing it right.
Brand bidding & PPC optimization: enforcement options (Part 6 of 8)
In part 6 of her multi-part series on brand bidding for paid search, columnist Lori Weiman breaks down the legal issues surrounding trademark infringement in paid search ads.
Brand bidding & PPC optimization: Reducing your competition (Part 5 of 8)
In Part 5 of an 8-part series on PPC brand bidding, columnist Lori Weiman shares her tips on how to deal with competitors who are bidding on your brand name.
Brand Bidding & PPC Optimization: Partner Relationships (Part 4 of 8)
In this installment of her multi-part series on brand bidding, columnist Lori Weiman discusses how to use strategic partnerships to increase paid search performance.
Brand Bidding & PPC Optimization: Best Practices For Brand Bidding (Part 3 of 8)
Columnist Lori Weiman continues her series on brand bidding by discussing best practices for creating and optimizing successful branded PPC campaigns.
Brand Bidding & PPC Optimization: The Value Of Brand Keywords (Part 2 of 8)
Columnist Lori Weiman continues her series on brand bidding for PPC by discussing how brand terms improve the bottom line for advertisers.
Brand Bidding & PPC Optimization: How We Got Here (Part 1 of 8)
The biggest question facing paid search advertisers is how to get meaningful growth numbers out of PPC. Columnist Lori Weiman believes the answer lies with brand bidding.
4 Hidden Treasures In RLSA Campaigns
Contributor Lori Weiman shares some insights gleaned from analyzing thousands of remarketing ads over the course of several months.
How Travel Advertisers Should Actually Be Using Search Marketing Benchmarks
Contributor Lori Weiman of The Search Monitor shares data to help travel and hospitality marketers gauge their success.
How A PPC Fraud Ring Impersonated 300+ Advertisers In May 2014
Did you know that your paid search ads are susceptible to the same type of fraud that affects other forms of digital advertising? And we’re not just talking about click fraud here. The fraudulent tactic affecting PPC the most dramatically these days is a fairly insidious one that can be hard to detect. It’s called […]
Staying Competitive In PPC: Learning From Black Friday’s Most Popular Offers
The five-day Black Friday weekend from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday provided an insightful glimpse into how retailers are running their PPC strategies for the holidays. Particularly interesting are the variety of offer types run by retailers, ranging from the expected free shipping to 2-in-1 offers which include two offers in the same ad. Since shoppers […]
Why Affiliate Direct Linking Activity Has Doubled
Direct linking, sometimes also referred to as ‘URL Hijacking’, occurs on paid search when affiliate marketers assume the identity in paid ads of the represented merchant. Direct linking occurs when the affiliate uses the merchant’s website as the display URL, with an affiliate link as the destination URL. The effect of this tactic is that […]
Top 5 Ways To Use Search For Branding
Search is typically thought of exclusively as a direct response medium with the objectives of driving traffic and customer acquisition. Direct response channels are measured in terms of things like response rates, purchases, and consumer action. These metrics fit in neatly with search because it is measurable media that can be directly correlated to response […]
Brands Beware: Affiliate Tricks Used In Email
Less than two years ago, I wrote an article for Brand Aid about display URL tricks used by affiliates and other brand hijackers in paid search ads. In that article, one of the tactics discussed, ‘tactic # 2’, was a misdirected display URL – where the display URL of the paid ad shows one domain, […]
Putting Your Brand On A Diet
Dieting is one of the most popular new year’s resolutions for us humans. It should be. Nearly 34% of adults are considered to be overweight (source: CDC). After receiving the barrage of emails from brands this holiday season, some who I have done business with before and some I have not, I started to wonder: […]
Top 5 Reasons Why Affiliates Are Our “Dumb” Marketing Channel
Did I just say that affiliates are “dumb?” You bet I did. I am referring to the definition of “dumb” which means “lacking some usual attribute or accompaniment; especially having no means of self-propulsion like a dumb barge.” What I mean is that affiliate marketers do not have the same advantages that your other marketing […]
Is The “Last Click Wins” Model Best For Your Affiliates?
The “last click wins” method of awarding affiliate commissions means that whichever affiliate is responsible for placing the most recent cookie on a user’s machine is awarded 100% commission for the sale. In this model, affiliates responsible for earlier cookies or impressions do not prevail financially—they get nothing. The question is does the “last click […]
Brand Challenges & Opportunities With Social Media & Mobile
Headaches for brands—and the people who manage them—are increasingly common when it comes to search results. More are on the way thanks to social media and the proliferation of smart phones. You should be aware of the impact on your brand because both social media and the use of smart phones to express opinions are […]
A Battle To Avoid: Search Team Vs. Affiliate Team
Lack of coordination between your search and affiliate marketing efforts can create internal revenue wars. Keywords that contain your brand are extremely valuable both because conversion rates are typically higher due to the high relevance between queries using brand terms and search results, and costs-per-click are often less expensive than those for generic keywords. Your […]
Important Restrictions To Include In Your Affiliate Agreement
When working with affiliates, compliance begins with a well crafted and thought out agreement. Here are examples of restrictions that belong in an effective compliance strategy without putting a choke hold on your affiliates.
Are Your Competitors Purposely Bidding On Your Brand?
If you have agreements with advertisers who sponsor your brand on paid search, it’s important to monitor them to make sure they are using your brand or trademark terms according to your agreement. If they advertise using keywords containing no other words but your trademark or slogan, it’s easy to recognize that as a violation. […]
Watch Out For These Unsavory Affiliate Tactics
Many affiliates offer an honest additional marketing channel that is necessary for your marketing mix. However, there are affiliates who are looking for ways to beat your system, beat the search system and hide when you try to find them. Here are specific things you should watch out for: Direct linking. Direct linking in paid […]
Brand Bidding Techniques: Smart Ways To Use Typos & URLs As Keywords
Finding the right mix of keywords is as much science as it is good common sense. When it comes to your brand, there are typo and URL derivation techniques that you should consider as part of your overall brand bidding strategy, even when the science (search volumes) appear too low to matter.
Be Careful When Your Affiliates Practice Link Cloaking
If you run an affiliate program you may have noticed that some of your affiliates use a practice known as “link cloaking.” Link cloaking is a method used to make a long affiliate URL link into a shorter and prettier one—often to the detriment of a brand. One of the most common forms of link […]
A Novel Idea: Branding Your Search Ads With Your Brand Name
When a consumer does a search for your brand, shouldn’t you be branding? It may sound like an obvious question, but you might be surprised how many brand owners are squandering an incredibly valuable opportunity to connect with their customers.
Protecting Yourself From Your Affiliates’ Bad Actions
Many search marketers work with affiliates but fail to ask the question: Can your affiliates’ bad actions cause you legal trouble? The answer is probably. Among other things, your affiliates might get you into trouble for bidding on competitors’ brand name trademarks or making false offers, claims or endorsements without complying with FTC guidelines. Let’s […]
Using Affiliates To Protect Your Brand With Paid Search
If brand advertising using paid search is hotly competitive for you, think about using your affiliates to help you win in the market. To determine if this strategy is right for you, evaluate the competitive landscape on your brand terms. A quick test: Do any of these statements apply to you?
The 4 Most Siginficant Changes To Paid Search In 2009
I’m writing this on January 1, 2010, and I’m reminiscing about the changes to paid search that emerged in 2009 which will impact your brand and affect how you execute your brand strategies on paid search in 2010 and beyond. Here are the top four big changes, in my mind: Google changes its trademark policy […]
Protect Your Brand From Dead Affiliate Links
Direct linking is the practice where an affiliate buys paid search advertising using your URL as the display URL in an ad, yet actually linking from the ad to the affiliate’s own landing page. These links will often go through multiple levels of redirects before finally landing on your web site. The redirects may contain […]
Protecting Your Brand On The Online Yellow Pages
Why should you care about Online Yellow Pages when Google is most likely your primary source of traffic and ROI? The simple answer is because local search is on the rise, and with it so are opportunities for other advertisers to exploit your corporate name or brand, possibly to your detriment. Lets take a look […]
Managing Your Brand To Perform In Universal Search Results
Achieving and sustaining top ranking visibility for your brand on important organic terms is increasingly getting tougher. This is because natural text listings no longer rule on the search result page. There are many other elements that appear sometimes ahead of or intertwined with the natural results, including local listings with a map, shopping listings, […]
Search, Video & Your Brand: Hello YouTube!
I often write about what you can do to protect your brands when it comes to the major search engines: Google, Yahoo and Bing. But did you know that the second most popular search engine today is YouTube? (according to Hitwise, ranking ahead of Yahoo search). You can buy self-service advertising on YouTube through its […]