adCenter Content All Hype, like Vista (or is it?)
Aug 29, 2007 Microsoft adCenter
If you’re like me and adopted Microsoft adCenter Content Network placements without resistance (to test the waters), you’ve probably noticed that the waters are pretty shallow. Not unlike PPC placements on SERPs, adCenter traffic just cannot contend with Google or even Yahoo. So here’s an interesting problem pointed out by Search Engine Watch forum members: how can one opt out of adCenter content placements? For those of you reading abstracts, click here to find out. For those of you that want to know why you should and shouldn’t consider opting out, continue on…
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Art of Conversion: Google Adwords Content Network
Aug 28, 2007 Google Adwords
Came across an interesting article today written by Tamar Weinberg entitled, “Do Google Adwords on Parked Pages convert for you?“. It’s interesting because there seems to be a marked divide between Adwords advertisers that either love parked domain ads, and those that hate them enough to opt out. It really does depend on the type of conversions you aim to achieve in your campaigns, but it also requires a well-written ad to be most effective.
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Google Adwords Widgets/Gadgets Coming Soon
Aug 24, 2007 Google Adwords
With all the buzz in the search engine marketing industry swirling around the Y2K-esque Adwords placement algorithm change (thus far nothing exciting), I’m going to shift gears and look at back and forward to new advertising placement opportunities. Google Adwords representatives confirmed what Marshall Sponder wrote about once upon a time – that Widgets and Gadgets will be a forthcoming placement option for Adwords advertisers with developers on staff. Although Google reps were hard pressed to give more details, we did learn that the beta should go public within the next few weeks. Now this is exciting stuff!
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Google Adwords Top Placement Cash Grab Live Today
Aug 23, 2007 Google Adwords
Well, it’s finally upon us, the Google Adwords Top Placement Formula goes into effect today. Technically, it went into effect late yesterday, but today is the first day you can measure what the change has on your bottom line. Several online marketers will be keeping a close eye on their campaigns, if not throttling them slowly to test top spots.
For those of us that watch PPC campaigns slowly, how has the change effected your campaigns? Drop me a comment.
Domain Names are Hugely Underrated in PPC
Aug 22, 2007 PPC Basics
What would you say if I told you that you could get another line of text in your display ad on Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCenter results pages? As I was reading Todd Crawford’s article entitled “Web 0.1″ it dawned on me: domain names are highly underrated in pay-per-click marketing. Let me tell you why…
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Can you say "Adwords Account Credit"?
Aug 21, 2007 Google Adwords
Upon logging into my Adwords account this afternoon, I was greeted with the somewhat ominous error message:
“Your billing information is temporarily unavailable. At this time, we are unable to provide information regarding your billing information or history on either the Billing Preferences or Billing Summary pages. However, please note that you can still access information unrelated to billing from the menu at the top of any page within your account. Thank you for your patience. Please check back soon for your updated billing information.”
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Bunk: Bidding on Trademarks a Waste
Aug 21, 2007 PPC Basics
I read an interesting post today written by Brad Waller at Revenews entitled “Billions Wasted on Trademark Bidding?” In the post, he writes about Brian Morrissey’s recent article posted on Adweek, stating that companies are wasting money on trademarked terms and branding. Most people that read my blog know it’s not as simple, but I like to prove some of my points through ridicule.
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Why Keyword Lawsuits Fail
Aug 17, 2007 Google Adwords
Barry Schwartz over at SearchEngineLand today commented on an article by Eric Goldman regarding American Airlines’ lawsuit against Google over the use of their trademarked names in competitor campaigns. Quite frankly, suing someone over targeting keywords that contain your trademark is a waste of time. Why? It has a little something to do with how Google matches search queries with ads.
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USA vs. Canada Part 3: Microsoft adCenter
Aug 17, 2007 Microsoft adCenter
The final part in our three part series on pay-per-click search share focuses on the little search engine that could. Could be bigger, could be better, could be badder — could buy most of the Eastern Seaboard. Microsoft adCenter has come quite a long way in recent months, with a heavy push back into the PPC advertising market. Whereas Google and Yahoo dominate the US markets, MSN seems to favor Canadian markets.
See how Microsoft adCenter’s traffic is divided along our country’s borders.
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USA vs. Canada Part 2: Yahoo Search Marketing
Aug 16, 2007 Yahoo Search Marketing
Part two in our three part series on geo-targeted search share analysis focuses on the multi-talented Yahoo. I’ve been a big fan of Yahoo over the years because of all the tools that are readily at an advertiser’s fingers. Despite their minuscule traffic numbers compared to Google, there is a place for Yahoo in your paid search portfolio. But what kind of numbers should you expect when comparing US and Canadian geo-targeted campaigns?
Read more to find out.
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