When should I be selling ads on a CPA basis? The simple answer is: when you have spare space on your site and it’s a good advertiser. A CPA deal is generally a great deal for the advertiser, but it can work out good for you too if you have space on your site you […]
When should I be buying ads on a CPA basis? The simple answer is: when you have the opportunity and the technology. Buying ads on a CPA basis seems like a no brainer: you only pay for ads when they make you money – what could be better! More so than even CPC campaigns, CPA ad […]
After a Google algorithm update boosted its rankings, e-commerce retailer Wayfair discovered that ranking #1 is even more crucial than previously thought. Wayfair's Alex Stein shares his findings.
The agency deployed a creative strategy that included RLSA, nuanced bid management and ongoing optimization to increase mobile sales during a competitive holiday season.
In mid-October, AdWords will be changing the "Conversions" columns & reporting to only include optimized conversion actions.
You know that a certain keyword is performing really well for you, but you're only getting so much traffic. Columnist Tom Demers shares tips for wringing more visitors out of a profitable keyword.
Jerry Dischler, the VP of Google AdWords, explained the Buy Now button is about improving conversions on mobile, to help advertisers help with earning more money across mobile devices.
US retailers saw on average 10 times more conversions from mobile search ads when accounting for store visits estimated conversions.
Tips for search marketers trying to turn mobile callers into customers.
It'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.
Desktop's influence, while still dominant, continued to wane in the fourth quarter.
Google announced today that conversion estimates have been added to the Keyword Planner tool in AdWords. Google will use an account’s historical conversion data, or users can enter their own conversion rates and conversion values to see how bid changes might impact metrics such as estimated conversion, conversion value, ROAS and Average CPA for mobile […]
SEM no longer lives in a vacuum, Columnist Susan Waldes argues. Do you have the resources to thrive in an increasingly complex future?
Day three of Search Marketing Expo East is now complete and below is some of the live blog coverage we found throughout the day. #SMX Liveblog Googler Talks HTTPS + Insights from SEO VIPs, BruceClay.com #SMX Liveblog: Conversion Rate Rock Stars, BruceClay.com #SMX Liveblog: Google Says Penguin May Come Next Week, BruceClay.com #SMX Liveblog: Pigeon, […]
Google Analytics announced today its new benchmark reports will be rolling out over the next few weeks, allowing users to compare their results to industry standard acquisition and engagement metrics. According to the announcement, users can select reports from among 1,600 industry categories, 1,250 markets and seven size-buckets, with metrics by channel, location, or device […]
AdWords advertisers that accept multiple currencies on their sites or apps can now track ad-driven conversion values in a single currency. The change means sales will be converted into the same currency as the billing settings in an AdWords account. Advertisers importing goals and transactions from Google Analytics can assign a currency to them, and […]
Google is rolling out a new Conversions for Optimization setting in AdWords over the next couple of weeks that isolates a conversion action for reporting and bid automation. With the Conversions for Optimization setting enabled, you’ll now be able to set bid strategies for specific conversion actions. For example, if you’re tracking catalog downloads and […]
Think you know everything about Google AdWords or Bing Ads? Have all the best practices nailed, are a master of match types, and have encyclopedic knowledge about gaining the upper hand when sparring with the quirky idiosyncrasies of bidding, scheduling and conversion optimization? Think again. As kung fu masters remind us, “the wise always remain […]
Advanced optimisation of a digital marketing campaign requires thinking on your feet. There are so many metrics available on any platform, that you need to pick and choose what’s most appropriate at any point for you specifically. For example… Does your site work best on tablets? Then perhaps optimising for devices is your best bet. […]
Setting up conversion tracking is vital to ensure that your ad campaign is performing as well as possible. This means tracking whether your ad is actually leading to the action you want it to, whether that be selling an item, gathering email addresses, or just sending a user to a certain page. How to implement […]
The CPC you pay is the amount you pay per click. As you probably want to spend your money as efficiently as possible, a lower CPC is generally a good thing. However to ensure the success of your site you will first and foremost want to encourage interested, repeat visitors to come to your site. […]
CTR is a generally accepted marker for how well a campaign is doing. The higher the CTR, the better the adverts are being responded to. What are the CTR benchmarks for different types of digital marketing though? This can depend on a myriad of factors. Where and when your ads are served, what they say, […]
Now when you enable AdWords conversion-based automated bid strategies in your Remarketing Lists For Search Ads campaigns, the predicted conversion performance of those remarketing lists will influence the bidding. Google announced on its Google+ page that remarketing list performance is now among the real-time signals such as location, browser, time of day that affect automated […]
The ability to import goals from Google Analytics into AdWords just got even more useful. Now you can tailor them to your paid search objectives by adjusting the conversion settings on each imported Analytics goal and transaction within AdWords. Flexible conversion counting, customized conversion window and editable conversion values can now be applied to any […]
When Google announced Enhanced Campaigns last year, like many marketers, the team at coupon deals site Savings.com was skeptical and surprised that they would be forced to adjust their approach to mobile. In a soon-to-be-released case study from Google, Savings.com shares how they quickly pivoted to embrace a mobile-first approach that has since trickled down […]
The August deadline for converting your Google product listing campaigns (PLA) to the new Shopping Campaigns structure — before Google does it for you — is just a few months away. A new study from CPC Strategy suggests it’s worth making the switch sooner rather than later. CPC Strategy expected to see management efficiencies, but […]
According to a new study from Marin Software, advertisers that leveraged integrated search and social ad campaigns experienced twice as many conversions, and doubled their revenue per click rates. Using data from its Global Online Advertising Index, Marin evaluated the performance of paid search campaigns integrated along with social advertising campaigns. The study found users […]
When 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 […]
The Top Movers report debuted in AdWords last June to help advertisers quickly see performance changes in their accounts. It was helpful, but somewhat rudimentary with reporting on just clicks and cost changes. Today, Google announced that conversion data will begin appearing in the Top Movers report as well as device-specific insights. Note that the […]
Today, Bing Ads announced the roll out of several new updates to the reporting capabilities. For advertisers with conversion tracking enabled, this will likely be the most welcome change announced today. At long last, Bing Ads has introduced the full set of conversion fields to all Performance reports. Segmentation by common dimensions such as Device […]
This morning, Google announced in an email to a number of advertisers that upcoming changes will give advertisers more flexibility in how they track conversions in AdWords. With the update comes a semantic change that ushers in new names for the Conversions one per-click and Conversions many-per-click columns. With the change, advertisers will be able […]
The AdWords Bid Simulator tool now offers conversion estimates in addition to impressions and clicks to show how bid changes may affect conversion volume and values. For each bid option shown in the simulator, the bid simulator provides the number of conversions — both 1-per click and many-per-click — and conversion values if assigned or […]
While pay-per-click marketing has become an integral part of many small businesses’ marketing plans, most SMBs struggle to find the time and resources to manage their PPC campaigns. A new study finds that, due to managerial and strategic errors, SMBs inadvertently waste a quarter of their paid search budgets. Paid search software firm, WordStream, conducted […]
Earlier this week, I attended the How To Do Click-To-Call In An Enhanced Campaign World session at SMX East. As a search usability professional, my primary interest is to understand not only how searchers locate and discover desired content, but also why searchers make specific choices. For example, when does a searcher prefer to use […]
It certainly isn’t the first look at the relationship between paid and organic search, but new a new study by Resolution Media and Kenshoo claims to put an end to the debate over whether paid search campaigns cannibalize organic revenue or add incremental value, even when organic visibility is substantial. Search agency Resolution Media and […]
In a small but significant change, Google is doing away with the 30-day conversion window in AdWords. Now advertisers can customize the conversion window from 7 to 90 days. Extending the window up to 90 days is good news for marketers whose sales cycles typically take longer than 30 days after an ad click or […]
Bid Simulator, the AdWords tool that shows click, impression and cost estimates, now includes conversion predictions. The Bid Simulator displays estimates for both 1-per-click and many-per-click conversions you might have received with different bids. As with the other estimated data, the conversion estimates are based on clicks from a recent seven day period. So far, […]
PPC & CRO are heavily report-driven and have excellent data visibility, and as a result are generally better understood to be a tool rather than an end in itself. SEO, however, has often fallen into the reporting-for-reporting's-sake trap and there have been some surprising stand-out reports that I think are generally underestimated by most SEOs.
In the past couple of weeks, the question of how Google calculates cost per conversion in AdWords has been percolating in the PPC community. Robert Brady wrote a post illustrating that the cost per conversion reported in AdWords does not always match the manual calculation of dividing reported spend by reported conversions. Mark Jensen at Get Found First followed […]
Hanapin Marketing has released its 2013 State of Paid Search report, revealing how PPC marketers are feeling about paid search marketing and where they plan to spend their money in 2014. A large majority, 83 percent of respondents, said they are feeling positive about the state of paid search. However, in a year in which enhanced […]