Paid Search (PPC), Items 1 to 50

"Paid Search (PPC)" includes 660 items
This page contains items 1 to 50

1. Is PPC More Important to a New Site Than SEO?, by Chris Crum, WebProNews, 12-29-2009 Crum describes a debate over what is better between search engine optimization and pay-per-click. The general consensus seems to be that you should use both when possible, but that SEO is better for the long term, and PPC is better for quick results.
2. CPM Pricing is Doomed, by David Koretz, Media Post, 12-11-2009 CPM pricing will eventually be relegated to a few hundred sites like WSJ, TechCrunch, and GQ where advertisers are willing to pay for the credibility that comes from associating with these publishing brands, Koretz predicts.
3. Using Paid Search for Organic Optimization, by Kevin Lee, ClickZ, 12-4-2009 Paid search has an important place in testing and improving organic search: testing keyword conversion rates, instant feedback, measure shift of clicks with a top-ranked organic search to a paid search channel to calculate true ROI.
4. Data Challenges for Small PPC Campaigns, by Kevin Lee, ClickZ, 11-13-2009 Small business PPC campaigns may not get enough click-throughs and conversions to get statistically valid data. Approaches are: wait it out, cluster "like keywords" together, cluster at the campaign level, try to attribute offline conversion behavior to the campaign at some level, use microconversions or proxy conversions, and use the click-forward rate (the opposite of a bounce rate).
5. Relevance Signals for PPC Search, by Kevin Lee, ClickZ, 10-2-2009 To keep PPC ads relevant for a lower Quality Score, you can: use a keyword in the ad, provide domain affinity to the search audience, keep a lower click-back or bounce rate, and a relevant landing page.
6. Weaning Off the Click, by Daisy Whitney, OMMA, 11-1-2009 Internet users are more apt to search for a product, brand or company, or even type the company’s name into a browser bar, than to click on a promotional ad. Other measurements are more important than measuring the actual click, Whitney writes.
7. Report: Top Keyword Price Nears $100 Per Click, by Laurie Sullivan, Media Post, 10-14-2009 Mesothelioma, the highest-priced keyword in the U.S. in September 2009 sold on Google for $99.44 per click, according to the AdGooroo Search Engine Advertising Update: Q309. The paid search ads direct people to lawyers affected by the disease.
8. The 6/90 Rule Part 2: Best Uses For The AdWords Keyword Report, by Brad Geddes, Search Engine Land, 10-12-2009 Part 2 of looking at 6 reports in AdWords that help you make 90% of your decisions: Setting Max CPC, Quality Score, First page bids. Discusses how to decide which keywords to pause, delete, or move.
9. How important Is Click Through Rate In Google’s Quality Score Formula?, by Siddharth Shah, Search Engine Land, 10-9-2009 Shows graphs of an experiment done to determine the relative importance of click through rate in Google's Quality Score algorithm. Concludes that CTR is the biggest factor in Quality Score and should be tackled first before other factors.
10. Is Paid-ad Rank Mostly Irrelevant?, by Christopher Hosford, B to B, 9-9-2009 Hosford reports expert saying that the higher up in the rankings a pay-per-click ad appears, the more clicks it tends to receive, but also that ad position offers “very little variation in conversion rates.”
11. Vital Questions to Ask when Choosing a PPC Agency, by Brian Easter, iMedia Connecton, 10-5-2009 Easter advises that past success is a good indication of future triumphs, so speak with current clients in addition to asking the right questions.
12. Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should: Why DIY SEM Isn’t The Answer, by Debra Northart, Search Engine Land, 9-21-2009 Here's the case against do-in-yourself search engine optimization. It's a rant about stupid client mistakes.
13. Organizing Your PPC Account For Maximum Success, by Benny Blum, Search Engine Land, 9-1-2009 Makes suggestions on a logical way to organize buckets or ad groups for PPC ads to make management easier.
14. Boost Quality Scores With These Simple Tips, by Niraj Shah, Search Engine Land, 8-31-2009 Discusses the formula for Quality Score. Then offers three tips to keep your score high. (1) Cut poorly targeted impressions, (2) expand use of phrase and exact matching, (3) speak to the user's intent, and (4) test, learn, apply, repeat.
15. Ten Reasons You'll Soon Spend 25% More On Search, by Kevin Lee, ClickZ, 8-28-2009 Explains how improved relevance, improved ad campaigns, keyword price escalation, conversion rate improvements, etc., will make search advertising more expensive in the coming 12 months.
16. Who's Your Search Marketing General Contractor?, by Kevin Lee, ClickZ, 8-21-2009 Explains the role of a general contractor in the construction world and explains that it is hard to find a vendor in marketing up on all the media. Determine which you should track, then outsource the rest. Suggests 3 possible options.
17. How Google's Caffeine Will Impact PPC, by Kevin Lee, ClickZ, 8-14-2009 Google's announcement of a change to its organic search algorithm ("Caffeine") will affect organic search, affecting index size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness, and personalization, making it harder to get and keep top spots. So PPC listings will be more important in driving traffic.
18. PPC Search Ads: Guilty Until Proven Innocent?, by Kevin Lee, ClickZ, 8-7-2009 If your ads are deemed guilty of having a poor Quality Score, you risk either having to overpay cost-per-clicks to remain in the search engine results page or face banishment. Explains how to keep Quality Score high.
19. 9 Problems With Paid Search, 9 Real Tactics To Solve Them, by Josh Dreller, Search Engine Land, 8-28-2009 Discusses problems and solutions with predictive spending, reach/lack of inventory, standing out in a crows, complex products/services, brand building, small budgets on high-cost terms, building credibility, and synergy with SEO.
20. Ad Position Doesn’t Affect Conversion, by , Marketing Pilgrim, 8-19-2009 According to new Google data, ad position doesn’t affect conversation rates for a single ad. However, lower position ads still receive fewer clicks and fewer conversions.
21. How To Maximize The Impact Of Your Top Performing Keywords, by Benny Blum, Search Engine Land, 8-3-2009 To get more out of your best-performing keywords, first identify them. Then isolate high volume terms into unique AdGroups, create relevant ad copy, and keep landing pages as relevant as possible.
22. 10 Tactics for Lowering Your Website's Bounce Rate, by Tom Shapiro, iMedia Connection, 8-19-2009 If your paid search campaign's bounce rate is high, it may be indicative of a few things: You might be targeting or attracting the wrong audience; your message might be missing the mark; or your product or service might need adjustments, Shapiro writes.
23. Trademark Policies: Google and Beyond, by Kevin Lee, ClickZ, 7-17-2009 Discusses the implications of Google's change in allowing both bidding on trademarked terms and using them in ad copy. Recommends including use of trademark restrictions in your umbrella contract with retailers, distributors, and affiliates and leave Google out.
24. Common Google AdWords Mistakes (And How to Fix Them), by Mark Baartse, Ecommerce-Guide.com, 7-20-2009 Discusses Google AdWords problems and fixes related to Quality Score, negative keywords, ad variations, pointing to relevant landing pages, and selecting the best keywords.
25. How To: Excel At Excel For SEM Applications, Part 4, by Josh Dreller, Search Engine Land, 7-10-2009 In part 4, the author discusses MS Excel features: Named ranges, secondary axis on charts, tab color, turning off annoying hyperlinks, keyboard shortcuts.
26. Automated Keyword Bidding? More Like Automated Money Sink, by Nick Abramovic, Search Engine Land, 7-6-2009 What are the flaws with rules-based automatic keyword bidding used by some agencies? A limited amount of data to draw on is one reason. Other areas to watch are when you have different cost-per-acquisitions for different products, campaigns, or keywords.
27. Are Your Analytics Causing You to Lose 30% of Your Sales?, by Jeff Sexton, FutureNow, 6-18-2009 If you're trimming non-performing PPC keywords to increase efficiency, be careful. Lots of people buy on their 2nd, 3rd, or umpteenth visit to your site. When the early and middle-buying stage keywords show up as non-converters, they get cut.
28. PPC Segmentation: 4 Tips To Better Target Customers, by Michelle Stern, Search Engine Land, 6-17-2009 In order to develop a PPC segmentation strategy: (1) segment your keywords, B2B or B2C, (2) let users segment themselves, (3) continue to speak in the searcher's language once on the site, and (4) enhance sales and branding for both audiences with site targeting.
29. PPC / SEM Analytics: 5 Actionable Tips To Improve ROI, by Avinash Kaushik, Occam's Razor, 6-15-2009 To improve search marketing ROI: (1) identify keyword "arbitrage" opportunities, (2) focus on "what's changed," (3) analyze visual impression share, compute lost revenue, (4) embrace the ROI distribution report, and (5) zero in on the actual user search query and match type.
30. How To: Excel At Excel For SEM Applications, Part 2, by Josh Dreller, Search Engine Land, 6-12-2009 More basics as well as tricks with MS Excel, a major tool in tracking and selecting PPC keywords.
31. How To: Excel at Excel for SEM Applications, Part 1, by Josh Dreller, Search Engine Land, 5-29-2009 Offers tips for using MS Excel 2007, a powerful tool in keyword research for SEO and PPC advertising.
32. PPC Recession Strategy: 7 Reasons To Keep Bidding On Your Brand Terms, by Kristen Bender, Search Engine Land, 6-3-2009 Offers 7 reasons to keep bidding on your brand terms through the recession, including: controlling the marketing message that searchers see, Google now allows non-trademark holders to bid on terms they don't own, you're competing with your affiliates.
33. Need to Know: How Fewer Links Generate More Revenue, by Tanya Irwin, OMMA, 7-1-2009 As Kontera, a ppc in-text ad delivery leader, refines its semantic delivery engine, publishers get paid more for having fewer words underlined on the page because they outperform other in-text models, Irwin writes.
34. Strategic SEM Planning for the Real World, by Mike Grehan, ClickZ, 5-4-2009 Discusses "Strategic Planning for the Real World, a free paper by Nicholine Hayward, which describes a research methodology in which the intelligence can be applied to every stage of business and marketing strategy.
35. Analyzing the Google Content Network, by Kevin Lee, ClickZ, 5-1-2009 The Google Content Network (GCN) can work for advertisers, but it takes a lot of work for most advertisers. The author criticizes a recent Google whitepaper as naïve. Consider: selection bias, nonstandard campaign settings, smart pricing and lower CPCs, campaign structure, use of site/placement targeting, day-parting, and geo-segmentation.
36. Paid Search Traffic Declines 26%; Who Really Knows Why?, by Andy Beal, Marketing Pilgrim, 5-13-2009 A graph from Hitwise shows that Paid Search traffic has declined 26% in the last four weeks (compared to 2008), but the reasons aren't clear. The author questions Hitwise's interpretation that it is due to recessionary cutbacks in marketing spend.
37. Pay-per-click Advertising: Top 6 Rookie Mistakes, by Greg Laptevsky, Practical eCommerce, 5-20-2009 Common PPC advertising mistakes involve strange keywords, destination URLs, negative keywords, geo settings, content network ads, and landing pages.
38. Is Automatic Matching a Mismatch?, by Dane Christensen, Lyris HQ, 5-18-2009 Google AdWords Automatic Matching is supposed to be a way to bid on relevant keywords you may have overlooked. The author explains why it is a potential hazard. Explains how it works and how it sometimes generates bogus matches. Use with great care.
39. Negative Keywords Improve Pay-per-click Performance, Save Money, by Greg Laptevsky, Practical eCommerce, 5-5-2009 Using negative keywords can improve PPC performance by allowing you to filter out unwanted traffic and only pay for clicks that have a higher probability of converting. Explains what negative keywords are and how to locate them.
40. Do We Need to Worry about Click Fraud?, by Kevin Ryan, iMedia Connection, 6-19-2009 Is click fraud a growing danger for marketers, or is it all just a myth? Recent estimates have placed fraudulent clicks at nearly 20%. But does that mean it's more of a problem, or just more easily detected? Ryan explains.
41. Beware the Rogue Markets: A Beginner's Guide to Navigating Paid Search, by Hamid Saify, Internet Search Engine Database, 6-16-2009 In the paid search world, one of the most overlooked elements of campaign success is geo-targeting, writes Saify. Explains why PPC geo-targeting is an absolute must for national advertisers, its ability to target two types of searchers.
42. New Research: Paid Search Builds Branding, by Kevin Lee, ClickZ, 4-17-2009 According to recent research, search lifts brand metrics, particularly when paired with other media. Post-click lift in search metrics is very strong. Overview of the Google/MetrixLab research findings.
43. Is The Hype Over Google AdWords Quality Score Justified?, by Craig Danuloff, Search Engine Land, 4-27-2009 How important is Quality Score and how much should it affect PPC campaigns? Answer: a lot! The author explains the Ad Rank formula: AdRank = MaxCPC x Quality Score. Click-through rate is the largest component of Quality Score, and that can affect words in one's whole account.
44. Why We're Content with the Google Content Network, by Dane Christensen, Lyris HQ, 4-20-2009 Many advise clients to avoid the Google Content Network, that is, PPC ads on non-search, private sites. Conversion rates were low, due to many junk sites. But Google has gotten rid of most of these. Now you can expect high volume, low PCP, and decent conversions. The author gives ranges of experience and explains how to get started.
45. Getting Core Paid Search Analytics Right (Part 1), by Andrew Goodman, Search Engine Land, 4-6-2009 Explains problems with CPA tunnel vision. Over cautious management to CPA targets will lower volume and may thwart experimentation using a tool like Google Website Conversion Optimizer. Ways to boost click through rates are to improve matching options, add negative keywords, test ads religiously, and find excuses to geotarget.
46. Thinking Beyond the Shopping Cart, by Kevin Lee, ClickZ, 3-13-2009 Most marketers with a sale as the goal optimize a campaign based on a Return On Ad Spending (ROAS) ratio. But ROAS can mask important issues such as lost cookies, lagged conversions, cross-computer use, brand lift, etc. Data may be incomplete, but can still influence your bidding strategy.
47. Pay-Per-Click Advertising: Bid Management Strategies, by Greg Laptevsky, Practical eCommerce, 3-19-2009 Ongoing bid management is necessary to improve performance to the point that Quality Score is higher. Explains the lingo: Cost Per Acquisition (CPA), average position, and impressions. Offers 6 bid management steps: (1) kill the waste, (2) realize efficiencies, (3) enjoy the spoils, (4) compensate for decrease in conversions, (5) get some additional exposure, (6) mark some keywords for 'further review.'
48. Paid Search Automation: Choosing A Vendor, by Andrew Goodman, Search Engine Land, 3-9-2009 Discusses criteria for choosing a bid management vendor: appropriateness; trust, independence, and privacy policies; total cost of ownership; momentum and standards; workflow, and sophistication where appropriate.
49. Bid Management Automation: Fraught with Questionable Assumptions, by Andrew Goodman, Search Engine Land, 1-12-2009 The author sees 50+ bid management vendors, but only a handful of good ones. Discusses assumptions behind third-party bid management systems: (1) attribution, (2) variability and unpredictability of order size, (3) purposes of campaigns, (4) offline and latent conversions.
50. Bid Management Automation: Three More Inconvenient Truths, by Andrew Goodman, Search Engine Land, 2-9-2009 Three inconvenient truths about bid management automation are: (1) frequent bid changes through the API cost money, (2) Google's system can provide greater accuracy based on Google data collected, and (3) Delivery control (or budget allocation mechanisms) might be superior, strategically to bid management.