Google has made dramatic changes to their AdWords reporting infrastructure. The old reporting system is being retired, and users are being forced to pull reports from the interface. This change has left many unable to find their reports, or know how to extract data from AdWords. In this post, I’ll walk through how to pull […]
If you're a Google advertiser, or use Google Analytics, you may be inadvertently violating some of their privacy policies. When I examined more than 200 sites I found that more than 90% were violating at least one Google privacy policy. Are you?
Google is making changes that require agencies to be more "transparent" in their reports to advertisers. But will this change benefit advertisers—or is it a move by Google to build its own brand and assure customer loyalty? The answers aren't entirely... "transparent."
PPC ads are short—a maximum of 140 characters. Using that precious space to include a phone number usually has detrimental effects on an ad’s effectiveness. Rather than using a call to action that promotes the searcher to take action, a phone number is displayed at a point in the buying cycle when consumers might not […]
Are your branding campaigns effective? Are they wasting money? Is it possible for a campaign to have fifty thousand impressions, absolutely no clicks and yet be successful? It all depends on what you are measuring. If you are only measuring clicks, then the campaign looks like a failure. If you are looking at holistic metrics, […]
Google allows you to serve an ad across its content network to a someone who has previously visited your website. This powerful “retargeting” capability allows you multiple opportunities to reach consumers who:
There are times when you want to expand your keywords but you have run out of ideas and places to look. In this post I will examine some alternate tools to help you come up with new keywords. Always remember, just because a tool suggested a keyword does not mean you should use it. Consider […]
Finding new keywords usually involves examining some of your existing top performing keywords in all of the available tools and reports to find variations that you can use to increase the traffic your PPC ads generate. Conducting keyword research in this manner usually leads to choosing keywords that already have multitudes of advertisers. One of […]
Some retailers have great success persuading customers to buy after a single click on a paid search ad. The reality for most companies, however, is that single click-to-purchase transactions are rare. It can take several visits and multiple touch points before any revenue is generated from initial clicks. In cases like this, companies often end […]
It’s common to hear advice that you should use long tail keywords and that you should be careful when using broad match. After all, broad match keywords do not convert higher than either phrase or exact match. The problem is that often these two pieces of advice can be contradictory. If you start using keyword […]
New Years tradition is drinking Champagne, singing Auld Lang Syne, and making resolutions you try to follow in the new year. While the most common resolutions are losing weight and getting in better shape, the same principles can be applied to improving the health of your PPC accounts. Here are my PPC resolutions for the […]
Most people think software tools for paid search campaigns are big, complex suites of software that include everything but the kitchen sink. But there are other more focused tools that can help advertisers maximize the effectiveness of their paid search campaign. Here are seven really valuable free tools that are commonly overlooked. Tools to help […]
Google has a bidding methodology called Budget Optimizer that attempts to maximize the traffic you receive for the keywords in a campaign. This is useful for early buying cycle keywords. However, every keyword should be reaching some goal regardless of where it falls into the buying cycle. It was difficult to track the effectiveness of […]
Each report in your AdWords report helps you to extract data from your account so that you can make meaningful decisions to optimize your campaigns. In part one of this 6/90 series, I looked at six reports which will help you make ninety percent of the decisions you need to make on a day-to-day basis […]
Google offers numerous AdWords reports that allow you to view more data than most people have time to analyze. One of the tricks to working with PPC is to determine what data you need to look at every day or week, and then determine what data is useful to analyze when improving your AdWords account. […]
The fundamentals of a good pay-per-click campaign have not changed over the past six years. However, every single day, advertisers new to the world of PPC advertising are making the same mistakes as veterans made years ago. You can save yourself lots of time and money by examining the mistakes of others so that you […]
The web has given us the ability to track amazing amounts of data. However, that data is only easy to track when the actions take place online. When you conduct business via the phone, in-store, or other ways that cause the user to go offline, the reliability of data begins to suffer. There are several […]
The number of people who access the web from a mobile device is on the rise. However, those accessing the web from a mobile device with a full browser (such as an iPhone or Blackberry Storm) and those on a mobile browser (such as Blackberry Curve) see different sets of information, and, more importantly to […]
Google has recently made two big changes regarding trademark usage within AdWords. One is a shift in the number of countries where trademarked words are allowed as keywords. The other is how trademarked words are allowed in ad copy within the US. Google’s trademark policy has been rehashed in several large media outlets. Unfortunately, most […]
Search page views make up fewer than 5% of all page views on the web. By default, that means that content network impressions are the other 95%+ of all page view on the web. So why are so many people still shunning the content networks in favor of the comparatively tiny exposure offered by search […]
The display URL is an often overlooked element of ad copy. It’s most common usage is to signal to a searcher where the ad click leads. However, the display URL is also a quality score factor and has different editorial requirements than the rest of your ad. The display URL is also a prime candidate […]
The economy’s downturn has finally reached the online advertising world. Spends are dropping, advertisers and clients are reducing budgets, and many are confused as to the correct course of action. What do chief marketing officers think of marketing during a down economy? Marketing is more important than ever. 94 percent of CMOs believe that “a […]
The holidays are over. Clicks and conversion rates are dropping back to pre-holiday levels. Instead of mourning the loss of the holidays; it’s time to evaluate the success of last year’s campaigns and set new goals for this year. List your goals and primary metrics First, list your primary and secondary goals. Take stock of […]
Your landing page quality affects your AdWords quality score. and quality score has a large impact on the success of an AdWords account. So, it’s important to separate the fact from the fiction about what affects landing page quality score, and to understand what you can do to improve your landing page.
The holiday season is almost upon us. It’s time to start looking over the inventory, keywords, and offers to make sure you’re ready for Cyber Monday. In today’s column we offer several things to do and important don’ts that will help you have a successful holiday season. Don’t… Blindly test Traffic in December is unlike […]
Demographic targeting has long lived within the realm of CPM and banner buys. However, AdWords is becoming much more sophisticated in the ways that you can use demographics within your AdWords campaign. Below are a list of resources for using Demographic Information within AdWords. Find out how various demographics perform for Your account The first […]
There are several different payment options you can use to pay your ever-growing paid search bills. Each method has its own risk and reward, so it’s best to consider your options against your business model. Please note, Microsoft adCenter is similar to Yahoo in billing, but they also have many options, and it’s worth […]
When you think about the search buying cycle, you often start with a user’s keyword search. However, that’s not the entire buying cycle funnel. The first steps in the buying cycle are awareness and interest. It’s difficult to generate awareness in search as someone has to first know about a product or service before they […]
One of the biggest frustrations for an AdWords advertiser is when a minimum bid for highly relevant keywords jumps from a few cents to a few dollars without any seemingly reasonable explanation. The keyword, ad copy, and landing page can all be highly relevant. The CTR could be above 5%. The keyword converts well. Users […]
There are many ways to bill for PPC management and each has its own distinct characteristics. Some of these billing techniques align more with an agency, and others more with an advertiser. For agencies, the proper billing types can make the difference between being profitable and going out of business. In addition, if your goals […]
Yahoo recently announced that they are moving away from a $0.10 fixed minimum CPC to a variable minimum bid. However, there are some differences in how Yahoo calculates minimum bids compared to AdWords. These differences are important to note as you switch between these PPC engines so that each account is properly optimized for each […]
Storus Corp just successfully sued another advertiser for use of a trademarked term in the ad copy. This is the first time that I have seen a company sue another advertiser directly without relying on Google as the intermediary for filing trademark exceptions. As PPC advertisers, this affects us dramatically.
It’s easy to set PPC bids based upon a direct response ROI. Using this simple metric makes it simple to base every keyword bid on its profit and conversion rate. However, are those bids accurately reflecting the entire revenue your PPC account generates? To get a complete picture of revenue, and to make sure you […]
At the beginning of every year, many people take stock of the last year, their accomplishments, and plan for the upcoming year. PPC campaigns also have a life of their own. From creation to optimization to reaching your goals to more optimization, PPC campaigns have their own life which needs to be evaluated to determine […]
Consumer behavior changes based on the day and time an individual is searching. It’s common to see conversion rates increase for dating sites in the early to late evening, while service-based industries often see a decline in conversion rates during those times. Adjusting your bids by time of day or day of the week can […]
Each of the major search engines has a certification program that an individual or agency can use to show their accreditation status to prospective clients. While it takes a bit of time and effort to achieve accreditation with Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, there are several important ways in which these certifications can be used, and […]
Ad copy is the only part of your PPC campaign that a searcher actually sees. A searcher does not see your keyword list, bids, day parting settings, or daily budget. Those precious few words that make up your ad copy are the only insight into your offer that a searcher uses to make the decision […]
Click fraud is a major concern to most advertisers. While advertisers should monitor their PPC activity and be aware of any possibilities of click fraud, there are several tools within Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing accounts which can help to protect advertisers from potential click fraud.
The major pay per click engines, such as Google and Yahoo, include two different types of distribution: On their own search engine result pages, and on content pages elsewhere on the web. These two types of advertising, while often lumped together under the pay-per-click (PPC) label, are very different. Advertiser’s ability to control these networks […]
The major PPC engines offer the ability for advertisers to show their ads on both search and content networks. However, those networks are very different from a consumer engagement process, and they should be treated very differently. To provide a quick recap, with the search network, an advertiser bids on a keyword, and if the […]
