Mona Elesseily
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About Mona Elesseily

Mona Elesseily writes extensively and speaks internationally on search & online marketing. She is the Vice President of Online Marketing Strategy at Page Zero Media, where she focuses on search engine marketing strategy, landing page optimization (LPO) and conversion rate optimization (CRO).

Mona Elesseily's latest articles

Link building

4 Alternatives You Need To Consider Beyond AdWords

While there’s no arguing with the fact that Google’s Adwords program is the dominant player in the PPC industry, it’s by no means the only option when it comes to paying for website traffic. In fact, the size of the Google Adwords program creates a number of challenges for “small-time” webmasters. The service’s immense popularity […]

PPC

5 Highly Effective Landing Page Tips

For many years, I’ve been on panels where I comment on PPC landing pages volunteered by the audience. Given the wild popularity of these sessions, it’s safe to say that marketers are still way behind in their landing page improvement efforts. Often, they just need a push to get started down the right path. Here, […]

PPC

3 Common PPC Ad Copy Flops

For many years, I’ve been participating in sessions/panels where I comment on PPC ad copy volunteered by an audience. As crowds tend to go wild for this type of session, in this article, I’ve decided to focus on some bad PPC ad copy and provide several fixes to improve it. Ad #1 In this ad, […]

PPC

5 Ways To Give Your PPC Account A Kick In The Butt

So you’ve set up your PPC account, have been monitoring it for a while, and things are going swimmingly. But now what? You feel you’ve done everything you think you can do to the PPC account. Not so! There’s always more to do! In this article, I’ll discuss some ideas you can use to give […]

PPC

10 Form Optimization Tips For Landing Pages

Over the years, I’ve done a lot of work with form optimization. In this article, I’ll cover some tried and true form optimization tips. I’ve done most of my testing on the PPC side, but obviously, the information can also be used effectively to improve overall form conversions on websites. 1.  Include A Privacy Line […]

Apple

Thinking Beyond Typical PPC Landing Pages

Many paid search advertisers send visitors to landing pages that sell specific products and/or services. Landing pages are not the only option available to PPC advertisers – there are many more things paid search advertisers can do in order to generate leads, sales or just plain old allow people/prospects/visitors to obtain basic information about businesses. […]

PPC

7 Quick Wins For High Converting PPC Landing Pages

In paid search, it’s one thing to get a click but it’s completely something else to get a visitor to convert. To get a high enough ROI to make paid search profitable, practitioners need to be proficient not only in PPC optimization tactics, but also have ninja techniques on how to improve conversions. And where […]

Content

3 Steps To Combat Image Fatigue In Facebook

Image fatigue is a huge issue in Facebook. In general, people tire of seeing the same Facebook advertising images. Facebook also understands this and after 72 hours or so, they tend to decrease ad impressions to “old” ads. As a result, advertisers need solid strategies to help develop and “freshen” ads so they continue to […]

Facebook

3 Types Of Facebook Image Ads That Work

One of the major differences between Google and Facebook PPC advertising is the relative importance of images. In Facebook advertising, some experts say that certain elements of images in ads can make or break a campaign. In this article, I’ll cover images that convert well and various ways to effectively test Facebook images. Of course, […]

PPC

How To Take Advantage Of New Trends In Mobile Advertising

Until recently, the mobile space was associated with people seeking low consideration or immediate gratification products and services like movies, restaurants, ring tones, apps, etc. A recent survey by Ipsos OTX MediaCT (commissioned by Google) revealed that smartphone usage has changed. In this article, I’ll cover several recent trends highlighted in the report and discuss the […]

PPC

7 Google Quality Score PPC Myths

This month, I’ll cover 7 of the common myths related to PPC Quality Score. This article is a continuation of 5 Paid Search Marketing Myths Explained In Simple Terms from last month. 1.  There Is Only One Quality Score This is not true. There are actually three different quality scores. They are: a) Search Quality […]

PPC

5 Paid Search Marketing Myths Explained In Simple Terms

The industry is laden with silly and many times nonsensical paid search marketing myths. Some myths are insidious and can cost advertisers a fortune without them realizing it. In this article, I will highlight a handful of the more prevalent PPC myths (by no means all of them!), expose flawed logic and explain how things […]

PPC

5 Easy Landing Page Tests

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. […]

PPC

5 Bad Google Ads: What Were They Thinking?!

Ad copy is a significant factor in Quality Score which can impact the cost of PPC clicks. Why and how? It’s mostly about “relevance,” and that is measured primarily by clickthrough rate (CTR). While CTR isn’t the only factor you should focus on (since ROI is paramount), it’s way up there. Be wary of anyone […]

Google Ads

Is Google “Hiding” Crucial AdWord Options?

In the AdWords interface, hidden information and default opt-in settings work against the advertiser and make it hard for them to exert full control over paid search advertising campaigns. In fact, the interface sometimes feels like it’s designed in a way that it can appear to a casual observer that nothing is missing. Does that […]

PPC

Viral Video Marketing And YouTube Advertising: A One-Two Punch

In my opinion YouTube doesn’t get the attention is deserves from advertisers. Yet YouTube is the #2 search engine by query volume. More Americans watch YouTube than the Super Bowl and, for many viewers, YouTube is replacing time spent in front of the television. If you don’t have a strong marketing and advertising presence on […]

Google Analytics

Five Killer Paid Search Reports

If you’re a typical marketer, you probably spend three to four days per month reporting. You need to make the most of that time, or reduce it by a day, or your personal ROI—the contribution you make to your company’s or client’s results—goes down! Do everyone a favor and stop drowning yourself in meaningless data. […]

Apple

Mobile Paid Search Advertising Strategies

In my last article on mobile PPC called Getting Started with Mobile Paid Search Advertising, I covered some basic tips related to mobile paid search marketing. In this article, I’ll build on these and cover some strategies related to mobile PPC advertising. With mobile PPC advertising, opportunities are slightly more limited so it’s even more […]

Google Analytics

Five Signs Your Paid Search Manager Is An Imposter

You know the type, in any industry. Someone who talks a good game, but turns out not to be a professional? The ones who think a collection of tips from forums are equivalent to years of job experience? In my career, I’ve had the opportunity to look into many paid search marketing accounts. Lately, I’ve […]

Apple

Getting Started With Mobile Paid Search Advertising

After several years of lying in the weeds, mobile advertising has significantly picked up steam. It finally makes sense to understand how to effectively use and deploy mobile paid search marketing campaigns. In this article, I’ll provide some basic tips related to paid search mobile marketing. In my next article, I’ll suggest several ad copy […]

PPC

Supercharging Your Ads With Google Sitelinks

At SMX West last month, in a session called “Supercharging Your Descriptions With Sitelinks,” Google Senior Product Manager Jerry Dischler covered various strategies related to Sitelinks—specifically for the new Google AdWords ad unit that offers additional links below the main destination URL. (There’s a similar new listing format for organic search as well, which may […]

Google Shopping

Grab More Attention With Google’s New Search Ads

At SMX West Google Senior Product Manager for Ads Quality Nick Fox offered a detailed look at several new PPC product offerings: sitelinks, product extensions and comparison ads. If you’re considering rolling any of these out, here’s the lowdown on how they work, along with some tactical tips.

Google Ads

Five Quick Tips For Success On Google’s Content Network

According to Google’s recent quarterly earnings report, the company earns about 34% of its revenue from AdSense, placing contextual ads on its content network partner websites. This proportion has stayed steady year over year. It certainly reflects overall growth, but some might be surprised at how conservative the pace is. One of the reasons for […]

PPC

Bid Management Automation Basics: No Excuses!

Here, in the Paid Search column, there’s been a lot of talk of bid management tools and strategies for using them. Some of the uses of these tools can get pretty advanced. But in the real world you can do better with pretty basic bid automation strategies. Many people are afraid or skeptical of campaign […]

PPC

Coming Soon: Paid Search Without Keywords

Lately, there’s been a lot of talk about search without keywords. Recently, the topic came up again at SES San Jose in a keynote presentation from Nick Fox, Google’s business product management director for AdWords. In the presentation, Nick outlined where paid search could be in the next 5 to 10 years and covered two […]

PPC

5 Tips For Getting Good Paid Search Clients

There’s no shortage of criteria for choosing a good agency. Reports, ratings, opinions, and referrals are traded freely and openly as you might expect in any technical business where appropriate vendor selection is paramount. A lot of the information is published, so anyone can refer to it. By contrast, when talk turns to what makes […]

PPC

Gaining Buy-In for Your PPC Account Plans

In some cases, clients are not receptive to new PPC account ideas. It’s even possible for PPC ideas to be kiboshed before they’ve had a chance to make it into campaigns. In this article, I’ll discuss some client obstacles and some important factors involved in getting good ideas incorporated into PPC accounts. For the purposes […]

PPC

Tailor Your Ad Copy To Buy Cycle Stages

A couple of our paid search columnists have offered some great tips on generating ad copy. I’m going to build on this and talk about gearing ad copy to the consumer buy cycle. By targeting specific stages, advertisers can increase relevancy by delivering appropriate messages at the right time in the buy cycle. In this […]

PPC

Offline Conversions: How To Get SEM Credit!

Search marketers are pretty good at claiming credit for online sales, and they’re getting better at measuring phone sales as well. However, there’s a huge amount of activity in brick-and-mortar stores, in terms of walk-in sales in the offline world, which is not properly attributed to online search. How can we get some of the […]

Google Analytics

Paid Search – Tips On Closing The Loop

Although paid search is far more trackable than many media – even online display advertising – many paid search campaign managers have difficulty tying detailed paid search data to actual sales. This is particularly true with long-sales-cycle campaigns, high touch lead generation campaigns, and campaigns that are designed to drive phone sales. Often, such campaigns […]

PPC

Getting To Know International PPC Markets

We’re all pretty familiar with the well reported search landscape of the US/UK. But, in other parts of the world, the search engine landscape is very different. In this article, I’ll focus on China, Japan and Russia. The goal of this article is to present PPC opportunities in counties that are not Google-centric and provide […]

PPC

Pain Reliever Pages

I’ve been thinking a lot about landing pages lately. Last time, I talked about getting multivariate landing page testing straight. Today, I’ll look at a specialized offer technique that employs what I’ll call a Pain Reliever Page (PRP). A PRP is problem-based (or pain-specific). It addresses a specific consumer issue and attempts to alleviate a […]

PPC

Getting Multivariate Landing Page Testing Straight!

These days, you can’t go anywhere without hearing about multivariate testing so I thought I’d walk through a landing page test. Along the way, I’ll provide testing pointers and leave you with several testing considerations. I’ll highlight the importance of multivariate testing and show it can yield significant improvements in pay per click (PPC) accounts. […]

PPC

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 than tactics – envisioning the “endgame” […]

Bing

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 they’ll bypass the board and […]

Bing

Is Microhoo A Done Deal?

height=”100″ hspace=”5″ vspace=”3″ width=”100″> 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.

PPC

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 better insight into their specific strategies […]

PPC

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, I’ll review useful tools advertisers can […]

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