Archive for October, 2008

ComScore rolls out Pay-Per-Click Search Ad Metrics

Oct 30, 2008 ComScore

It might be old news by now, but I haven’t seen much search industry reflection on ComScore’s attempt to enter the search measurement business.  Competing against established companies such as Hitwise, Compete.com, and research firms such as Nielson has got to be tough.  Does ComScore have what it takes to break into this market and make their mark?

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Google Analytics Soft-Launches Event Tracking + Tons More

Oct 30, 2008 Google Analytics

It’s always a nice surprise when Google releases new tools and features for free products such as Google Analytics, because it shows that they’re committed to innovation, even in a time of economic uncertainty.  Today I received an automated e-mail from Mountain View informing me that one of the websites under my management was slotted for a new feature called Event Tracking.

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Tightening belts and campaigns in an uncertain economy

Oct 28, 2008 Economics, Landing Pages, PPC Basics, Webmaster Tips

If there ever was a reason to tighten your budgets and increase campaign conversion, this worsening economic climate is forcing many to reconsider the “eyeballs over all” marketing objective.  It used to be that many companies threw caution to the wind (and many still do) just to drive traffic, not for any particular goal, “just cuz”.  While that may work for some, e-commerce and retail sites are feeling the pinch, but search users are hunting for bargains out there – do you have what it takes?

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Yahoo taking the word to the street

Oct 20, 2008 Yahoo Search Marketing

It seems that Yahoo is no longer resting on their second place laurels, as recent guerrilla marketing campaigns have seen the search engine take their word to the street.  Recently while out and about in Toronto, I happened across a handful of bright purple Mini Cooper’s, wrapped in Yahoo logos and surrounded by booth dudes and booth babes.  With my interest piqued, I stopped to take a look and try to discover what Yahoo was up to with this feet on the street move.

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Best Practices: Omniture SiteCatalyst Excel Client

Oct 13, 2008 Omniture

It seems that whenever I write about Omniture – either good or bad – people tune in en masse.  Love them or hate them, one product that continues to impress me is the SiteCatalyst Excel Client.  If you know your way around Omniture’s standard web-based reports, you can easily navigate the same data in their Excel plugin, and get really fancy with custom subrelations.  They really do a poor job of communicating best practices, so here’s an unofficial guide on the Site Catalyst Excel Client.

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Why you Ask? For cheaper CPC, that's why!

Oct 7, 2008 Ask Search Listings, Google Adwords

As online marketing properties become more popular to advertisers, the likelihood is that cost per click and therefore cost per acquisition may increase across the board.  Indeed, many advertisers look to expand their reach through the long-tail and higher quality scores, but another option is to diversify your portfolio.  Rather than putting all your eggs in one basket with Google Adwords, you may want to consider 2nd and 3rd tier search engines, like Ask.com for instance.

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Fresh new design for 2009

Oct 5, 2008 Uncategorized

We’re still kicking the tires on this one, but the new design will definitely enable us to support a lot more options and content on the same amount of real-estate.  For those of you that are bound to ask, the fish didn’t make the first cut, but they’ll be back sometime later this week when the header graphics are done.  In the meantime, feel free to kick the tires, and if there are any bugs that we’ve overlooked, please don’t hestitate to point them out.

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