Tried and true PPC trends you can take to the bank
Oct 15, 2009 Economics, Google Adwords, Google Analytics, Landing Pages, PPC Programs
At first, I thought it was curious that my paid search campaigns would show relatively consistent patterns on a monthly and yearly basis. Trends that I blogged about before some 2 years ago, still hold true today while others have become even more obvious. Needless to say, knowing about these trends gives you a significant leg up on the competition, and verifying which patterns exist for your industry is as easy as tuning your campaign reporting to historical dates in the past.
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Tags: Google Adwords, holiday phenomenon, paid search trends, ppc trends, seasonal search trends
The Google Content Network is a nice place, yet again
Sep 30, 2009 Google Adwords, PPC Programs
Every now and then I like to run a check-up on my contextual match content network campaigns, to make sure Google is doing it’s job in keeping Adsense partners in check. I’m happy to report that recent screening and higher scrutiny has gone a long way to clean up the Google Adwords Content Network. The whole point of contextual match campaigns is to find areas advertisers can generate impressions, and hopefully cheap clicks.
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Tags: ad impressions, adwords content network, Google Adwords, google content network, low cpc
SES San Jose 2009 Day 2 Recap: Google, Google, and more Google.
Aug 12, 2009 Analytics Tools, Bing, Google, Google Analytics, New Technology, SES Tour, Social Media, Yahoo
Day two started right where Day one left off, with tons of more informative sessions. Unfortunately, we only have two people from PPC-Advice.com covering the conference, which means we can only cover 2 of a possible 5 simultaneous tracks, hopefully next year we can get more people to come along.
Speaking of next year, the organizers of the show have already scheduled next year’s Silicon Valley show for outside of the valley, but within the bay Area. Next year, SES will be coming from San Francisco, and no one could be happier about that than me. Apparently, organizers, sponsors, speakers, and the engines themselves have all agreed – San Jose is hard to get to, has zero night-life, and is about the same distance from the major engine’s HQ’s in the valley. Sweeeeeet.
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Tags: Google Adwords, Google Analytics, google website optimizer, keynote failure, online marketing, ses san jose 2009, social media marketing, youtube
Google Adwords allows Trademark Usage in Search Ads
May 19, 2009 Economics, Google Adwords
Whoa, didn’t see this one coming. In a surprising move yesterday, Google announced that advertisers would be allowed to use trademarked terms in their search ads, making for quite the conversation piece admidst legal uncertainty surrounding rights-holders. The older rule allowed advertisers to request Google remove trademark and brand names from ad text, thereby providing some protection for owners. Is this good or bad? Depends which side of the fence you’re sitting on.
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Tags: brand protection, Google Adwords, keyword protection, legal issues, reserved keywords
Google's Search Based Keyword Tool: Finding Diamonds in the Long-tail
May 18, 2009 Analytics Tools, Google Adwords, Landing Pages, Search Engines, Webmaster Tips
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In marketing, vendor and partner transparency is king; more transparency equals better client relations. In the online marketing world, there’s the tendency for vendor relations to languish or stagnate by maintaining the status quo. After watching Google as an advertising vendor for many years, they simply aren’t that kind of company. With the web being what it is today, clients and agencies that use Google Adwords are very vocal about improvements they’d like to see made, including the improvement of transparency. Google’s new Search Based Keyword Tool is one such improvement: more better.
Tags: broad match, exact match, Google Adwords, Google Analytics, google search based keyword tool, other keyword matches, phrase match, roi
Tracking Paid versus Organic keywords in Omniture SiteCatalyst
Apr 3, 2009 Analytics Tools, Google Adwords, Landing Pages, Omniture, PPC Basics
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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.
Tags: data correlations, dynamic keyword insertion, Google Adwords, omniture sitecatalyst, paid search detection
New in Google Adwords: Behavioral Targeting
Mar 25, 2009 Google Adwords, Google Analytics, Search Engines, Web Browsers, Webmaster Tips
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.
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Tags: analytics, behavioral targeting, content network, demographic targeting, google adsense, Google Adwords, placement targeted campaigns, socioeconomic targeting
Turning Online Ads into Amish Furniture
Feb 2, 2009 Google Adwords, PPC Basics, Telemarketing, Webmaster Tips, Yahoo Search Marketing
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!
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Tags: amish furniture, Google Adwords, offline conversion, online advertising, true story
Pay-Per-Click Scams to Avoid like the Plague
Jan 12, 2009 Economics, Google Adwords, PPC Programs, SEO, Search Engines, Webmaster Tips
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.
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Tags: Google Adwords, guaranteed first page, guaranteed first position, ppc scams, register keywords, reserved keywords, unlimited clicks
Top PPC-Advice.com Content, Year in Review
Jan 2, 2009 Economics, PPC Basics, Webmaster Tips
Happy New Year to all my loyal readers and those of you finding my blog for the first time. This past year has been an overwhelming success for PPC-Advice, with a record amount of visitors, pagevies, and referrals. I’ve been lucky enough to meet several of you face-to-face in various conferences, and look forward to what 2009 has to offer. That being said, let’s have a quick look at my 2008 Year in Review, the best and most popular posts that made 2008 special.
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Tags: Google Adwords, omniture sitecatalyst, online marketing, online marketing 2008, sitecatalyst excel client, year in review
