PPC-Advice.com

I received an interesting plea for help recently via e-mail regarding tracking paid versus organic keywords in Omniture SiteCatalyst.  Although many functions are available within vanilla installations of SiteCatalyst, and several settings can be added to implementations after the fact – the little guy is often left holding the stick.  It’s easier for Omniture to say, just buy Search Center, because well, 9 times out of 10, they make money that way.  For simple keyword tracking without incurring any residual fees, get ready to roll-up your sleeves. Read more…

With the winter months dragging ever-so-slowly forward, and the markets showing very little signs of improvement in the foreseeable future, many online retailers are rethinking their strategies to weather the storm and continue a long-term drudge through this lousy economy.  Or are they?  Don’t be fooled!  While most stocks are plummeting to 25 year lows, online retailers are able to go further than ever before, with less than ever before.

What can you do to ensure your business stays afloat while all others sink like the Titanic? Read more…

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? Read more…

Many online marketers talk about how they’ve performed multivariate tests, assembled focus groups, brought in external consulting companies, and maybe even overhauled their e-commerce engines to maximize conversion, but few actually share insights about how they do it.  Perhaps they have their own insider methodology or patented design concepts, or perhaps they’re embarrassed to admit it’s easier than you think! Read more…

Many of us already know, the labor and attention SEO demands can be tough to justify in an organization, especially when advertising budgets for pay-per-click are available and bring instantaneous results.  Many online marketers already make a point to implement site-wide changes with conversion uplifting tricks gleaned from PPC campaigns to other sections or public-facing areas of a site.  What isn’t readily known is whether PPC campaigns can actually help your natural rankings in the search engine results pages (SERPs), until now. Read more…

I get asked about this topic almost each and every day, mainly because I’ve done a lot of testing on different landing page designs, content writing alternatives, and e-commerce conversion optimization projects.

Although different sites cater to different users, many themes hold true across varied landing pages, keywords, and search engines.  Let’s take a closer look at a few of them… Read more…

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post detailing how landing page speed can affect your Google Adwords Quality Score.  Although Google may penalize your Quality Score for poorly performing landing pages, the truth is that visitors make all the difference for conversion.  How many times have you gone to a website to wait ages for it to load?  Sometimes it’s just not pretty, and that’s a pity because slow load times are so easy to remedy. Read more…

Yes, it’s June, and with July fast approaching, the new Landing Page Speed factor will start (if it hasn’t already) affecting your Google Adwords Quality Score.  Last week I discussed single points of failure that could impact your Quality Score, but what about less common problems that will factor into landing page load time? Read more…

Many advertisers find it hard to compete amongst giants of their industries because of their long-running ads, high-bidding practices, over-hyped brand awareness, and impression share coverage.  How can you possibly win top spots and high converting clicks with the mega brands that continually out rank and out sell you on a daily basis?  Simple, leverage your best-in-class qualities and start using those powerful adjectives in your Adwords text ads.  Read more…

Landing page testing is important in determining your target market demographics and conversion bottlenecks, and has long been a realm for creative changes to text, images, and promotions, but what about video?  Some claim video on landing pages can have a dramatic effect on conversion rate, and it’s never been a better time to test that theory heading into slower months. Read more…