PPC-Advice.com

In response to my coverage of previous Search Engine Strategies events last year, the organizers of the show reached out to ask me if I would interview a few of the speakers this year.  In the first of what I hope will be a three-part series of interviews, I sat down with Julie Batten, SES Toronto speaker and eMarketing Manager at Klick Communications for a little Q&A on a range of topics affecting our industry. Read more…

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…

Picking a winner can be hard.

No doubt, an internet marketer’s toughest job is finding the right mix of advertising cost, overall brand value for ad placements, and conveying value proposition to drive conversion.  We can collect all kinds of valuable information through web analytics including visitor pathways, conversion funnels, top content driving revenue, and even cool stuff like demographics and socio-economic indicators.  But finding sites that can supply us with our most valuable prospects can be tough.  Enter Behavioral Targeting from Google Adwords. Read more…

Are you a business owner, or indirectly responsible for your online advertising conversion funnel?  Have you ever wondered why your business might be getting decent traffic through online channels and programs such as Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing, but it doesn’t make an impact on your bottom line?  Position might be great, clicks coming through steadily each week and month, success events are pouring in but revenues are stagnant.  You might be turning your online ads into Amish Furniture… no finish! Read more…

It pains me to have to write this post, because anyone who’s willing to throw their money at online marketing shouldn’t have to bear the cross of sitting through boldface lies.  Unfortunately, I’m brought into meeting after meeting to consult for my clients in an effort to qualify online marketing vendors that promise the world.  Fortunately, I’m always up for a good show, and don’t mind playing the naive web analyst. Read more…

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. Read more…

Many people often ask me, what is a good click through rate for a campaign, or how can I get more people to click my ad on lower positions in Google Adwords?  The answer isn’t always obvious because the effect of greater CTR can hamper business objectives and budgets.  However, if you’re confident in your site’s ability to convert visitors, you want more eyeballs to really ramp up sales or lead generation.  If that’s the case, this post is for you. Read more…

Anyone who’s ever started a campaign using broad match keywords knows the pain of generating useless clicks on irrelevant fringe keyword combinations.  For instance, if you’re targeting a broad match keyword combination like “used car” you don’t necessarily want to get clicks from people searching for “used car salesmen suck”.  But how much is too much when it comes to negative keywords? Read more…

Google’s had a lid on this one for a while, with an extended beta program launched some time ago, but it looks like the features have finally gone public.  If you’ve ever questioned whether your content network or placement targeted ads found a good home due to poor ROI, it might be time for you to consider targeting keywords on the content network. Read more…

The latest Google project to hit the scene is dubbed “Knol” and is, quite frankly, the one project the guys over at Wikipedia, Mahalo, and Yahoo Answers should watch extremely closely.  From an SEO perspective, Google search algorithms have always favored Wikipedia articles because they are unbiased (arguable), comprehensive (when not edited to death), and more or less the best one-stop solution for most search users.  That’s about to change… Read more…