5 PPC Testing Myths & Mistakes: How To Avoid Them!
Columnist Mona Elesseily has run a lot of landing page tests over the course of her career -- and seen a lot of these mistakes repeated over and over again.
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).
Columnist Mona Elesseily has run a lot of landing page tests over the course of her career -- and seen a lot of these mistakes repeated over and over again.
Mona Elesseily | Mar 26, 2015 at 9:17 am ETIt's often overlooked in favor of the new new thing, but contributor Mona Elesseily argues that overhauling ad creative can have an incredibly significant impact on your search campaign.
Mona Elesseily | Jan 29, 2015 at 10:00 am ETColumnist Mona Elesseily explains why multi-device attribution is important and explores solutions for finding credible data on customers using two or three digital devices.
Mona Elesseily | Dec 10, 2014 at 11:00 am ETAs SERPs become more intuitive and in-app ads increase, the nature of paid search is changing. Columnist Mona Elesseily discusses how such shifts can shape the future of paid search.
Mona Elesseily | Nov 6, 2014 at 9:11 am ETAs we all know, the mobile environment is becoming more important, and mobile PPC is a topic companies are starting to pay more attention to. At this point, there’s still a lot of low-hanging fruit out there. In this article, I’ll share some mobile stats to begin with, and then provide some PPC tips and […]
Mona Elesseily | Jul 17, 2014 at 11:17 am ETRetargeting is an awesome way to reengage traffic that hasn’t converted. Over the years, it’s evolved, and the tools have become more robust. With this development, we’ve uncovered some effective remarketing strategies. In this article, I’ll cover some ideas related to engaging returning customers, obtaining new customers and remarketing related to specific search term queries. But […]
Mona Elesseily | Jun 19, 2014 at 9:29 am ETPeople often talk about including elements on a page to improve landing page conversions and user experience. I know I’ve personally written a lot on this particular topic. But, did you know that removing page elements can be just as effective at increasing conversions as adding or tweaking elements on a page? Both large and […]
Mona Elesseily | May 22, 2014 at 9:35 am ETWhen it comes to optimizing PPC landing pages, marketers often think about beefing up page copy, adding trust signals, or including eye-catching graphics. What they often neglect to consider are ways to reduce page clutter — ways to make the information on your landing page easier to read, or ways to visually enhance the most […]
Mona Elesseily | Mar 27, 2014 at 10:45 am ETThere are many ways in which PPC accounts can go astray. For example, wrong keywords, incorrect bidding, bad landing pages, etc… I think you get the picture. An often overlooked pitfall relates to basic marketing strategy/messaging. If basic marketing principles are overlooked, PPC goodness tends to fall off the rails. In this article, I’ll cover […]
Mona Elesseily | Feb 27, 2014 at 10:00 am ETYou know the song, so sing it with me people! I made some modifications to the lyrics below that demonstrate my point well: I don’t want no scrub (paid search practitioner) A scrub (PPC ) is a guy (PPC person) that can’t get no love from me Hanging out the passenger side Of his best […]
Mona Elesseily | Jan 30, 2014 at 9:40 am ETI’ve come to the conclusion that search marketing makes you super smart when you use it to its full potential. Obviously, one doesn’t get smart by being lazy, complacent or having campaigns run on autopilot. PPC smarts come from rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands dirty with data, analysis, and data-driven decisions. In […]
Mona Elesseily | Oct 10, 2013 at 9:31 am ETNow that you’ve had a chance to implement 7 Landing Page Tests You Can Run Tomorrow, I have a few more weapons you can add to your SEM testing arsenal to improve landing page performance. 1. Don’t Provide Too Many Options In the last 10 years, I’ve only seen a home page convert better than […]
Mona Elesseily | Jul 15, 2013 at 8:54 am ETFor many years, I’ve been participating in sessions/panels in which I critique PPC landing pages volunteered by audience members. As crowds go wild for this type of session, I’ve decided to use this space to focus on effective landing page elements and provide several examples thereof. #1 Use Credibility Indicators Include credibility indicators on your landing page […]
Mona Elesseily | Apr 22, 2013 at 10:15 am ETIn October 2012, Google Product Listing Ads (PLAs) became Google Shopping. With this, Google removed the Google Shopping listings from the organic side of the equation and made them a purely PPC play. Many people, including Danny Sullivan, have noted that Google has now embraced a paid inclusion model. Things have certainly changed, and advertisers […]
Mona Elesseily | Mar 25, 2013 at 10:21 am ETLast month, I attended a webinar by Tim Ash called “Understanding the Brain’s Need for Novelty & Shortcuts.” This made me think and realize that many of our PPC landing page strategies are “shortcuts” and relate directly to the field of neuromarketing. Neuromarketing is a relatively new field of marketing research that studies consumers’ cognitive […]
Mona Elesseily | Feb 25, 2013 at 11:39 am ETFive years ago, Avinash Kaushik famously described the sequence of the typical unsatisfied website visitor: “I came, I puked, I left.” There is a little less puking these days, but after clicking on an ad, far too many visitors are still squinting, yawning, shrugging their shoulders, or having trouble connecting their needs and wants with […]
Mona Elesseily | Dec 3, 2012 at 12:56 pm ETThere are a lot of levers to pull in PPC, and it can be confusing to prioritize them. One very good and often-overlooked area to focus on is the campaign settings tab in the Google AdWords interface. As you know, there are default settings in Google, and they can be calibrated too broadly or too […]
Mona Elesseily | Nov 5, 2012 at 12:14 pm ETThe Facebook Paid Ads program has tremendous potential if you know what trees to bark up. And if you’re willing to put effort into making your advertising as effective as possible, as with any other type of advertising. In this article, I’ll cover some tips to improve your Facebook advertising. 1. Take Advantage Of Facebook […]
Mona Elesseily | Oct 8, 2012 at 11:57 am ETOf all the communicating we humans do, it’s estimated that only 7% of our message is transmitted by the words we choose, while the rest of our meaning and intention comes from the tone, body language and other non-verbal cues we use. So what does this means for PPC advertisers, who communicate exclusively in short […]
Mona Elesseily | Jul 9, 2012 at 12:03 pm ETIn a previous article, I covered 3 Common PPC Ad Copy Flops. In this article, I’ll cover common landing page flops and discuss ways in which pages can be tweaked to improve conversions, overall marketing messages and various other factors. Some of my examples relate to common webpages but logic can obviously be applied to […]
Mona Elesseily | Jun 18, 2012 at 11:31 am ET