Paid Search Marketing Posts from the Internet Marketing Blog
Creating the Next Generation of PPC Superheroes
Our friends at Hanapin Marketing and PPC Hero need your help!Pat East, the CEO of Hanapin Marketing, teaches a summer workshop at Indiana University that covers all aspects of Internet marketing, including a core module in PPC. Their grades are dependent on demonstrating their PPC knowledge by successfully creating and managing an AdWords account for a real business.
How You Can HelpHanapin is looking for eight U.S.-based companies to participate in this program and help out the students. The companies must be willing to make a $250 investment in PPC to help a student out – as well as to see if PPC is a good fit for their business!How to Get StartedIf you want to do your part in building the future of PPC, contact Hanapin's Director of Paid Search Jeff Allen directly (Jeff.Allen@hanapinma... > Read more
PPC Campaign Structure Case Study: English Soccer & The 80-20 Rule
What’s your strategy for setting up your campaign budgets? One of our clients shared a case study with me about how he restructured his campaigns and budgeting strategy by combining the popular 80-20 Rule and the English soccer league system. Using this structure, he was able to improve his metrics across the board.
Let’s take a closer look at his account restructuring plan and execution to see what lessons we can learn.Background Info80-20 RuleThe 80-20 Rule (more formally named the Pareto principle) states that roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. Our client was seeing a similar ratio of cause to effect with the performance of his account: 20% of keywords and ad groups were bringing in about 80% of impressions, clicks, and conversions.Soccer League TiersOur client a... > Read more
Help, Viral Searches Killed My PPC! 5 Tips for Detecting Unrelated Search Queries Early
In the past, Erin covered how celebrity-related keywords can screw up your traffic: Help, My Search Query Report Has Bieber Fever! Now I would like to talk about new queries which can appear instantly because of new viral content and interfere with your existing PPC campaigns.Last year, a Denham Springs woman set up a “middle finger” made of Christmas lights on her roof to upset neighbors.
(NSFW?!) Of course the media attention as well as the offensive Christmas lights disappointed some residents in Denham Springs, but companies who sell Christmas lights and run PPC campaigns on Google and Bing were furious about unrelated queries popping up during the busiest time of the year.Those advertisers who worked hard on their negative keywords weren’t able to predict a query like “middle ... > Read more
What PPC Account Managers Say They Do vs. What They Really Do
Over 10 years ago I fell in love with PPC because it was the most measurable and optimizable marketing channel.If a keyword wasn’t working out, no problem! I could change the ad, or optimize the bids, or chose entirely different keywords. I could measure and optimize anything and everything, which enabled me to create very sophisticated and profitable paid search campaigns.
Yet as PPC has become more and powerful and thus more optimizable, sadly, the average AdWords account manager is optimizing less stuff in their account – to the point where I believe that today, most AdWords accounts are dying of neglect.Very low PPC account optimization activity means that many advertisers are missing out on what I believe to be the best part of PPC. Should you be concerned?Exhibit A: Self-Reported ... > Read more
What's the Best Ad Position in PPC? (Hint: Not Always #1)
#1 Is the Best Ad Position! … Or Is It?A common assumption about paid search is that position #1 is the ultimate goal. Advertisers clamber over each other to ensure their ads make it into the top position, because they think that’s what’s necessary to be successful for their campaigns.However, I’d like to go on the record and make a bold statement: Position #1 isn’t always going to be the best ad position for your business.
Yes, while position #1 certainly can’t hurt from an impression/visibility standpoint, it might not be the optimal position from a conversion/ROI standpoint. Google’s bid auction ensures that the higher you bid, the more likely you are to appear in a higher position. (Notice I said more likely, not guaranteed – the Quality Score system offers discounts fo... > Read more
Mobile Ad Format Pros and Cons: Where to Invest a Limited Ad Budget
As new digital ad formats surface in the industry, advertisers must adapt to the trends and evaluate new media channels to work into their budgets. The biggest issue with this is, what if there is no increase in budget quarter over quarter, year over year? Is there a way to still capture profitable traffic without breaking the bank?Mobile ads already have a handful of ad formats that can be tested out, but can they be optimized? How will mobile search ads perform over mobile display ads? Mobile in-app ad inventory is widely available, but will they work for your audience? How will an offer wall perform compared to an in-app banner ad?With so many mobile ad options to choose from, this blog post will focus on which mobile ad formats are best used for limited ad budgets.
All ad campaigns, in... > Read more
The PPC Toolbox, Part 2: Competitive Research, Landing Page Creation, & Other Helpful Tools
Yesterday, I shared a number of different PPC tools that will help with building and tracking performance in your account. This time around, I have a few new tools and sites that will help you check some performance statistics of your competition and see how you compare to them. I am also sharing a few tools that I have found myself needing quite a bit when managing my accounts and working with various clients.
PPC Competitor AnalysisSpyFu: SpyFu allows you to do in-depth research on competitors and see what keywords they are bidding on, as well as ad history, average position, and potential daily spend ranges. Whether you want to do in-depth research on a specific competitor or to see everyone that’s bidding on your top keywords, SpyFu lets you do it all. It offers a free version which a... > Read more
Five Reasons to Bid on Branded Terms in PPC
Anyone who manages a PPC account is perpetually on the lookout for a “secret weapon” to boost their performance. As a Customer Success Rep at WordStream, I have consulted for (what feels like) almost every type of account imaginable. Usually, my suggestions differ based on each individual client, but there is one foolproof recommendation that benefits just about everyone: bid on your branded terms.
OK, I know it sounds crazy. You’re probably thinking, why bother spending money on branded terms that are already triggering organic listings? (That’s what eBay recently decided, but we’re not sure their SEM managers are quite up to snuff...) Or you may be worried that paid search ads will cannibalize your organic traffic. However, Google has conducted studies that show this isn... > Read more
Why Your Click-Through Rates Suck
“Awesome! I have 300,000 impressions …. why is my CTR so low?”OK, the title of this post is a little harsh, but the importance of click-through rates to CPC campaigns has been well documented. So take a second and look at your account. Do you see that you have thousands of impressions and a few clicks with great conversion rates? I can assure you that you are not alone.
There are a few things you can do that can help you turn that frown upside down. :DSeparate Search vs. DisplayThe first thing I always look for when diagnosing why a campaign has a low CTR is network targeting. It is always a best practice to separate your campaigns by network. That means having one campaign set to search (and search partners) while having another set to target only display. I won’t go into detail o... > Read more
Five Big Ongoing/Upcoming Shifts in Paid Search for 2013
As a paid search account manager, you try to stay as ahead of the curve as much as possible. For full-time account managers, the fast-paced environment of paid search can be exciting, but for many people it can be exhausting trying to keep up. That being said, I wanted to share with you what I believe are five big upcoming changes in paid search in the upcoming year.
Shopping FeedsGoogle Shopping, originally known as Froogle, has taken on many updates since its inception in 2002, when Google began allowing e-commerce advertisers to link their database of inventory in an online marketplace alongside other advertisers. Froogle’s rise was swift as it was the first major comparison shopping network to offer placement for free. Froogle’s growth continued alongside Google AdWords until ... > Read more
