SES Chicago - December 7-11, 2009

January 30, 2009

SEW Experts: Best-Kept Secret in PPC? Part II

Last week's discussion of Google Conversion Optimizer generated a flood of user questions. It seems the promise of simplifying the time-consuming, complicated chore of regulating keyword bids is especially appealing to advertisers. In today's Profitable PPC column, "Best-Kept Secret in PPC? Part II," David Szetela responds to reader questions, and clarifies a few things.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 20, 2008

SEW Experts: Measuring a Text Ad's Effectiveness

Testing and improving ad copy is essential to optimizing overall PPC campaign performance. Improving ad text leads to better CTR and quality score, which means it can help drive your CPC down, and/or let you buy more clicks per dollar. In today's search advertising column, "Measuring a Text Ad's Effectiveness," David Szetela shows you how to make a direct impact on your campaign's ability to increase the number of profitable sales.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 29, 2008

SEW Experts: Judging PPC Performance: Focus on Conversions

Knowing how and when to make decisions about your PPC campaign's keyword and ad performance can make or break your campaign. In today's Profitable PPC column, "Judging PPC Performance: Focus on Conversions," David Szetela reminds you that almost every action you take to improve your PPC ad campaign should be based on conversion data.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 25, 2008

SEW Experts: Killer PPC Ads: The Fundamentals

Writing small, punchy ads requires plenty of art and science. In today's Profitable PPC column, "Killer PPC Ads: The Fundamentals," David Szetela offers some guidelines to help you get more clicks and stymie your competitors.

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Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

August 11, 2008

SEW Experts: Dynamic Keyword Insertion: Friend or Foe?

Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI) can sometimes help improve ad campaign results. But you'd be surprised how often it's a bad move.In today's Profitable PPC column, "Dynamic Keyword Insertion: Friend or Foe?," David Szetela shows that indiscriminate use of DKI can result in generic ad copy and diluted messages that fail to match the searcher's intent or need.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

July 28, 2008

SEW Experts: More Killer Keyword Techniques: Personas and Buckets

Successful PPC advertising campaigns are composed of perfect keyword lists, ads and landing pages. In today's Profitable PPC column, "More Killer Keyword Techniques: Personas and Buckets," David Szetela shows you how to create landing pages using keywords built around personas.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 16, 2008

SEW Experts: When Being First Isn't Worth It

A new report from AdGooroo shows that, generally speaking, for short keywords it's not profitable to bid your way into the high positions. These types of keywords actually lose money in the first and second positions, but longer keywords can do well near the top. In today's Web analytics and ROI column, "When Being First Isn't Worth It," Eric Enge shows that by testing this idea on your campaigns, you stand to create more profitable PPC campaigns.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 14, 2008

SEW Experts: Creating PPC Campaigns: the 'Live or Die' Settings

Think you know the right way to set up a new PPC campaign? In today's search advertising column, "Creating PPC Campaigns: the 'Live or Die' Settings ," David Szetela shows you how to pay close attention to the details many advertisers miss, which can position you for success and help you avoid common pitfalls.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 7, 2008

SEW Experts: PPC Advertising: Art or Science?

Pay-per-click advertising is 10 percent art, and 90 percent science. In today's debut Profitable PPC column, "PPC Advertising: Art or Science?," David Szetela begins showing you the fundamentals and secrets of successful PPC advertising in his new weekly search advertising series.

» Full story

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 25, 2008

SEW Experts: PPC 101 Writing Successful Creatives

Writing ads for search engine advertising is almost like writing headlines. It requires an ability to distill information into attention-grabbing, character-restricted words. In today's SEM Crossfire column, "PPC 101 Writing Successful Creatives," Frank Watson outlines a plan to write ads that will grab attention, and convert.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

November 27, 2007

Take Advantage of the Offline Rush

As an online advertiser, you can actually take advantage of the Offline Rush -- and maybe stretch your holiday ad budget as well. Especially if you are a multichannel or off-line retailer who's aiming to boost holiday sales, then it's possible to consider pacing your ad spends differently through Christmas Day and beyond. Take a look at these interesting findings from Microsoft's Atlas Institute, based on last year's holiday season. Atlas analyzed display ad consumption (red line below) versus online sales volume (green line below). The Online Crush period took place between Thanksgiving and December 11th, followed by the Offline Rush until Christmas.

Index: Middle bar equals average holiday sales Upper bar is 50% higher; Lower bar is 50% lower

Note that sales volume peaked right at the end of the Online Crush, at about 175% or so of average holiday sales levels. Yet that's just the beginning of the highest online ad consumption for the season, which seemed to top out and remain at 125% of average levels throughout the Offline Rush.

While these data are based on display ad impressions, the consumption trends seem quite relevant for text ads too. If you are finalizing search or contextual ad buys now, then don't taper too early in the season. Your customers are still actively shopping online before they head to the malls, and can be influenced during that last-minute frenzy.

Posted by at 11:30 PM | Permalink

November 26, 2007

SEW Experts: Knowledge Gap: CEOs, CMOs, VPs and SEM

When your CEO, CMO, or other decision-maker knows a little bit about SEM, you've got trouble. While knowledge sharing is a good thing, there's a problem when people consider themselves knowledgeable on a subject well before that's actually the case. In today's Search Ads column, "Knowledge Gap: CEOs, CMOs, VPs and SEM," Matt Spiegel discusses the need to help those decision-makers realize that because they now have more knowledge doesn't necessarily mean they are prepared to make key decisions with this information.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

October 31, 2007

SEW Experts: Achieving Brand and Affiliate Harmony in Search

Forget brand vs. brand brawls in the search engines. The new UFC: Affiliate vs. brand. In today's Searching for Meaning column, "Achieving Brand and Affiliate Harmony in Search," Kevin Ryan recaps last week's SES @ A4U event in London, and tells you when you have crossed the line between affiliate or brand advocate and brand adversary.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

October 15, 2007

SEW Experts: SEO SEM Budgets: Define Success Beyond Direct Response

If you're just now starting to think about how search and your organization (or internal search department) impact the 2008 planning process, you're a little late to the game. In today's Search Ads column, "SEO SEM Budgets: Define Success Beyond Direct Response," Matt Spiegel shows that it's not too late to expand search beyond direct response in the 2008 budget.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

October 9, 2007

SEW Experts: How to Avoid Seasonal Search Ranking Wreckage

Search engine traffic is always unpredictable. From algo updates playing havoc with organic rankings to quality score changes flummoxing your paid listings. The impact of these changes are especially critical around the holidays. In today's Big Biz column, "How to Avoid Seasonal Search Ranking Wreckage," Aaron Shear shares what to do when holiday dips in traffic threaten to dampen profits.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

September 24, 2007

SEW Experts: Branding Steers Search Beyond Direct Response

In today's Search Ads column, "Branding Steers Search Beyond Direct Response," Matt Spiegel discusses the myths of direct response advertising. If CMOs build brands, who does direct response? White mice, search marketers, and Pavlov's dogs?

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:53 AM | Permalink

September 10, 2007

SEW Experts: Everything You Assumed About Search Is About to Change

In today's Search Ads column, "Everything You Assumed About Search Is About to Change," Resolution Media's Matt Spiegel ponders the constant change in the world of search marketing. Sometimes it's as simple as a search engine algorithm update. More often, people drive change by challenging the assumptions we make about search ads: how they work, who sees them, and what they really mean to consumers, advertisers and search marketers.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

August 22, 2007

Can PPC Help Your Organic Rankings?

Often the question is asked "Do PPC listings affect your organic rankings?" or "Will Google apply bonus points to your organic rankings if you spend money on their paid listings?" The simple answer is no. Despite this, one of the best ways to increase your organic traffic is to start an aggressive PPC campaign.

In today's SearchDay, "Can PPC Listings Affect Organic Rankings?" Craig Paddock outlines some of the benefits a PPC campaign can bring to your organic SEO, including:

  • Generating Keyphrase Data
  • Increasing Link Popularity
  • Branding to Increase Organic Click-thru Rate

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 8:30 PM | Permalink

July 16, 2007

SEW Experts: Boosting CTRs in a Search Fragmenting World

In today's Search Ads column, "Boosting CTRs in a Search Fragmenting World," Tony Wright reports further on the fragmentation of search with reader-submitted tips and some of his own. Here's what you can do to keep your CTRs up.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 12:00 AM | Permalink

June 26, 2007

How Do You React to a Media Blitz?

Ups and downs in search activity and success metrics are often related to activity in other media channels, such as TV, radio, print, and online. One common finding is that as media activity increases, impressions and clicks go up as well. Does that mean that we should up our search budgets and add keywords during an external media blitz? Not always.

In today's SearchDay, "Coordinating Search with External Media: Can Less Be More?," Impaqt's VP of analysis & decision support Pat Stroh explains that lowering your bids may actually be a better plan. Doing so could increase conversions and ROI.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 4:53 PM | Permalink

May 31, 2007

Search's Place in the Marketing Mix

Are you giving search its due credit when you look at results of other marketing campaigns? Are you taking those campaigns into account when you plan your search activities? In today's SearchDay, In the Mix: Search in the Overall Marketing Mix, Impaqt's Pat Stroh explains that without knowing the full details of a client's media mix, an agency is limited in how well it can optimize a paid search campaign. But once an agency is armed with at least some of this historical data, it can begin to explain the mountains and valleys in those paid tracking reports.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 2:12 PM | Permalink

February 26, 2007

Niched Portals and Vertical Search: The Catch Phrases of 2007

Seems 2007 is going to be the year of niched portals and vertical search.

Microsoft is buying Medstory, a health information search engine, and furthering their move into niched portals and vertical search. In China they have started development on a job search engine.

Yahoo is doing the same thing: business search in China, community portals covering specific audiences like Pontiac owners, investors and health sites.

Yahoo seems to be using the portal, community model with search ads as part of the monetization. Though they are trying to develop a business search engine as their primary perspective for the Chinese market.

Yahoo has created entertainment community pages for the Oscars; car fan sites using the manufacturers as support and advertiser.

This seems to be a repeating theme in the two months so far of 2007. Let's see where this all ends up.

Posted by Frank Watson at 4:56 PM | Permalink

December 18, 2006

Keyword Research Best Practices

Barry pointed out a great response to thread at Search Engine Watch forums by Paid Search Guru Ian McAnerin. A member had asked Forum visitors which industries they "would not touch with a 10 foot SEO pole?"

Ian answers led to some additional excellent discussion at SEW and a couple of gems in the SER comments.

Keyword research is a topic that is considered to be very basic by many in the SEO and Paid Search fields. This is likely due to the fact that it has been one of the few constants since the early days of SEO, when tools began to appear that were geared towards finding the right keywords. Since, many writing about the subject have indicated the same core needs: relevancy and popularity, including Danny from way back when, Kevin Lee, Shari Thurow, and most recently Christine Churchill.

Ian's post at Search Engine Watch makes three main points: First that some industries may be too difficult to venture into without specialized experience; secondly, you may not want to venture into some industries due to business concerns (he cites Realtors as being especially “difficult” when it comes to payment or buying in to the value); and lastly that your personal belief set may be in conflict with the particular industry, such as Hate or Porn sites, for example.

Ian comment raised some good follow up questions, and he defends his opinion that one should “cut their teeth” by targeting more localized terms. The whole topic leads well to a discussion of the core competency of keyword research. When venturing into a new space, it is likely that many SEO's are at a slight disadvantage due to being unfamiliar with terms. When deciding on whether to accept a project, it actually takes a fair amount of diligence on the part of any SEO; otherwise they may be simply saying “sure we'll get you ranked.” This could be an alarm signal.

Using geo-modified keywords as the target can also prove to be difficult if not properly done. In some cases, there may be a majority of searchers using the city or town before the more general term (i.e.: Timbuktu hotel) while in others, people may use it more often after the term. The fact is that without excellent and trusted keyword research, only trial and error will lead to the required log files that report the actual activity. This trial and error period can be greatly eased by having an unlimited paid search budget to run all keywords on broad match across all engines for at least 2 or three months. Unfortunately not everyone has the budget to do that. However, running these types of campaigns on a local basis may be somewhat helpful.

One comment that was very insightful at the SER blog was that “generally the most competitive websites have the highest cost in PPC advertising. Find the biggest spenders and you have the stiffest competition.” Although this is a generalization, it holds fairly true. When making a decision as to whether to venture into an industry for SEO, a quick check of the results pages for Paid Search listings can save a good amount of time for small SEO/SEM shops.

Posted by Chris Boggs at 9:09 AM | Permalink

November 7, 2006

Use Of AdWords In US Senate Campaigns

The Rimm-Kaufman Group conducted a small study on how the US Senate candidates and campaigns used Google AdWords this weekend to "swing Senate races" in the last minute hustle and bustle. Here is a quick punch list of 'take aways' they sent me from the study:

* "Red" ads (pro-Republican or anti-Democrat) outnumbered "blue" Ads (pro-Democrat or anti-Republican) two-to-one.

* Blue ads were three times more likely to be negative than red ads.

* The most prevalent advertisers within this query set were Accoona (search engine ), Gather.com (social networking), CafePress (retailer), and GOPSenators.com (National Republican Senatorial Committee).

* No campaign ads referenced President Bush. Iraq and Al-Qaeda were only mentioned only twice (stopidioticforeignpolicy.com, against Jim Webb)

* Only two ads linked directly to videos (against George Allen: "macaca" and prescription drugs).

* Blue ads were more likely to include an exclamation point. Red ads were more likely to contain a question mark. * What struck Rimm-Kaufman Group most was how few political organizations are using Google.... And Yahoo, practically zip.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:11 AM | Permalink

October 28, 2006

Mazda 'Craves' Clicks From Honda

Pontiac had a much celebrated TV ad in which the viewer was invited to “Google” its then-new Solstice convertible, but an ad for Mazda came up among the sponsored links. Here's Danny's earlier post on that episode. Now Mazda is at it again with its new CX-7.

Honda has mounted a clever user-generated content campaign (from RPA) for the newly redesigned CR-V. It also involves search (as well as traditional media). The name of the campaign is "Crave."

I just discovered that when you plug in the word "Crave" into 'The Google', you see the Honda campaign ad at the top of the page, but also an ad on the right for the new Mazda CX-7, inviting comparison:

CRaVe Mazda CX-7 Discover the 2007 Mazda CX-7. The SUV You Never Saw Coming™! MazdaCX-7Info.com

This hasn't made its way yet to Yahoo. This tactic, intended to intercept and divert potential CR-V buyers, is identical to the Miata vs. Pontiac Solstice strategy used before.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 4:47 PM | Permalink

June 2, 2006

Reputation Management: How To Handle Saboteurs

The [failure] GoogleBomb had become well-known enough to have seen Marrissa Mayer post a response on the Google company blog last September. I first heard the phrase "Reputation Management" as applied to search from Heather Lloyd-Martin during a private conversation a long time before this. It was obvious Heather was on to something because we've all seen search results that produce unexpected listings. David Dalka recently posted his frustration that Googling his name could confuse searchers into thinking he is a millionaire. This may be a personal example, but what if you have a bona-fide saboteur?

Heather recently related to me her experience with a client where a saboteur took the client company name, mixed it with adult content, and auto-generated unsavory posts published across the Web in numerous blogs and forums. Needless to say, search results for that company started looking really bad, and at times, the whole set of results was flooded with what looked like adult listings.

Heather now regularly points out examples of big brands that could use reputation management as regards their search listings. She presents screen shots at conferences showing Google queries for uhaul and victorias secret having results at number 3 and number 2 respectively that read: "UHaul made my move a miserable and stressful experience" and "Victoria's Dirty Secret."

The dirty secret site has an image with an "angel" holding a chain saw. The site makes it sound as if whole forests are regularly depleted because the cataloger lacks environmental awareness. What can you do when this happens?

You certainly have little control over the natural rankings of saboteurs unless they spam. You can easily choose to hand spammers that polute your rankings over to search engine quality assurance teams when they use tactics that would have them removed. In the case of the dirty secret site, it appears the other extreme is occurring. The campaign for environmental change at Victorias Secret may be working. Perhaps Victorias Secret will establish more earth friendly contracts with their suppliers.

Other things you can do is publish pages telling your side of the story in the hopes to get natural rankings that counteract the negative spin. You needn't wait for natural rankings to appear either, you can purchase sponsored listings to drive users to the new pages straight away. At least in the meantime your presence can be felt on those most troubling queries should they begin to affect your image in search results.

Postscript: David's personal example caused him some grief. Consider the amount of grief an "eBay Avenger" causes the young fellow who it looks like fell victim to an angry buyer that decided to make an example of him. Even if the allegations later prove to be false, and although the eBay avenger has publicly offered to take down the site, SERPs for his name will likely be damaged for a long time to come, (Google, Microsoft and Ask too).

Posted by Detlev Johnson at 4:44 AM | Permalink

April 18, 2006

Search Ad Providers Gaze into their Crystal Balls

Is search advertising slowing down, or just getting started? What new distribution channels are likely to open up in the coming months? Will traditional ad agencies dominate the business? And just how big a problem is click fraud, anyway? Answers to these and many other questions from executives from Google, Yahoo, AOL, MSN and IAC in today's SearchDay article, Divining the Future of Search Advertising.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 12:24 PM | Permalink

March 10, 2006

'Drafting' and 'Hijacking' in Paid Search

A ClickZ article named Paid Search Spawns 'Drafting' and 'Hijacking' Strategies discusses the differences of 'drafting' and 'hikacking' tactics and its legal/ethical consequences. The article explains Peter Hershberg's, from Reprise Media, definition of the two. He defines hijacking "as when a competitor outranks an advertiser's campaign by outbidding them." And drafting he defines "as a case where an advertiser conducts a search marketing campaign and a competitor takes advantage of the traffic by bidding on related terms." The article gets into the ethics of using these tactics, I know I have seen discussion in the SEM world of people bidding on other people's names and most did not appreciate it (see past Search Engine Watch Thread). But soon after the "Mazda Taps Into Pontiac TV & Search Ads Again" topic, Yahoo Banned Bidding On Competitor Trademarks. For more on this, read the ClickZ article.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:49 AM | Permalink

February 8, 2006

Winners and Losers in Super Bowl Search Marketing

I find it hard to believe, but most of the advertisers who paid millions to have their ads shown during the Super Bowl completely neglected search marketing, squandering amazingly lucrative opportunities as search traffic related to their products, brands and services spiked during and after the game. For a fraction of what the TV ads cost to make and air, these companies could have captured some very valuable traffic. For some stats and a look at the winners and losers in this search marketing Bowl, check out today's SearchDay article, A Super Bowl Search Marketing Scorecard.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 2:08 AM | Permalink

January 30, 2006

Mazda Taps Into Pontiac TV & Search Ads Again

Remember the post earlier about Pontiac telling people to search for them on Google? What I loved especially about that was it reminded me of Gregory Markel over at Infuse Creative telling me how he helped Pontiac-competitor Mazda drive a benefit off a similar campaign that Pontiac did with Yahoo last year. Now history repeats once again.

Last year on The Apprentice, Pontiac used a programming tie-in to tell people to look them up on Yahoo, where Yahoo had inserted some type of Yahoo Shortcut-style link.

Gregory noticed this link came below the sponsored search results -- and if I recall correctly, Pontiac hadn't bought any of those. So he got Mazda into that space. For a few thousand dollars, he tapped into traffic from a product placement set-up that cost over a million, if I recall. He's actually got an awesome little video I want him to show publicly that explains it all very well with voiceovers, music and images.

Today, John Battelle notes that Mazda has bought a sponsored link on Google to come up for those Pontiac-driven searches.

Miata vs Pontiac Solstice Exclusive test-drive invitation for a New MX-5 Miata. Sign up now! MX5NoComparison.com

Mazda's bought Yahoo, as well

Compare MX-5 Miata to Solstice www.mx5nocomparison.com Sign up to receive an exclusive invitation to test-drive a new 2006 MX-5 Miata.

Andrew Goodman breaks down the comparative advertising campaign more here. Meanwhile, self-confessed data geek Bill Tancer over at Hitwise couldn't resist looking at traffic to the Pontiac site over time. You can see how the TV mentions to check Yahoo last year and Google this year drove traffic to Pontiac. He also shows how the site that received the most "pontiac" searches on search engines after Pontiac was -- yep, Mazda.

All this brings me back to something that came up at our Future Of Search Engine Marketing panel at SES Chicago last month. While several of the search marketers said that they were getting money formerly devoted to TV, none of them wanted TV spending to be cut entirely. TV drives search traffic, which in turn helps them.

That got me to wonder/observe to the audience if we'll see a change coming over the next year or so. Instead of people wondering how search can tie into other campaigns, maybe we'll see search become the primary target of a campaign. In other words, Pontiac someday might plan to do a big search buy and want to ensure they drive traffic to support that -- so television, radio, outdoors will all be purchases to push search.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 4:08 PM | Permalink

October 4, 2005

Mastering Google AdWords

Google likes everyone to believe that using AdWords is a snap, requiring no more than five minutes and a credit card to get going. Seasoned search marketers know otherwise, understanding that creating a sponsored link is just one small aspect of managing a successful AdWords campaign.

Now we've got an excellent guide to AdWords written by Andrew Goodman, who's both an expert with the program on behalf of his search marketing clients, but also an astute and acerbic observer of Google's business practices. His new book gives us a concentrated dose of experience and insights that make a fascinating and highly valuable read. I've got a review of Andrew's new book in today's SearchDay article, Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Google AdWords.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 10:00 AM | Permalink

July 5, 2005

Search Retailers Versus Search Marketers

Are you all about getting sales from search engines? If so, Kevin Lee in Search Engine Sales vs. Search Engine Marketing at ClickZ wonders if you really are a search marketer rather than engaging in what he calls "search engine sales." A better analogy is probably this. You run a store, and you're all about getting sales through the store. Everything you do revolves around whether you see an immediate impact on sales. In short, you're a savvy retailer. But are you a savvy marketer, pondering how over the long-term, you might build up your brand or visibility to bring in sales in a more strategic way? "Search retailers" generating traffic might find some bids and tactics that others are doing seem crazy. But if those people are long term "search marketers," they may have a plan that fits in with the costs being incurred.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:26 AM | Permalink

June 21, 2005

Tips On Capturing The Search Tail Via Paid Listings

I wrote about the long search tail of queries earlier. In Use PPC to Capture the Search Curve Tail from Kevin Lee at ClickZ, he takes a brief look at some things you can do to tap into that tail via paid listings.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:48 AM | Permalink

May 20, 2005

Customize Landing Pages For Paid Search

Create New Pages for PPC Search Landing Pages from Kevin Lee at ClickZ reminds that with paid search campaigns, you can change your landing pages without worry that your rankings might drop. He provides some tips and idea on getting more out of your tweaks.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 12:06 PM | Permalink

May 17, 2005

Bids Going Up? Boost Conversion To Compete!

PPC Advertising Connects to Conversion Rate at ClickZ from Fredrick Marckini looks at why understanding your conversion rate -- and getting it higher -- means you'll stand a fighting chance as bid rates for terms continue to go up. And you'll do even better if you can factor in some additional factors that justify higher costs, even if they don't happen directly from conversion. That's touched on at the end of the column, but also see Search Worth More Than The Clickthrough and Most Conversions Happen Offline; You Need To Measure These! for more on this.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:04 AM | Permalink

April 20, 2005

You Gotta Try To Succeed With Expanding Keywords

In Accelerated Keyword and Engine Testing from ClickZ, Kevin Lee looks at why every keyword you try is a gamble, but a necessary one if you're going to expand the audience you reach out to. He then provides tips to increase the odds of success, including key factors that should be considered. Part 2 continues on with more.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 1:51 PM | Permalink

March 24, 2005

Are Your TV Ads Tuned Into Search?

Integrating Search With TV Ads: The Next Generation from Gary Stein at ClickZ looks at how television marketers better have a search strategy in place, because those TV ads will be fueling searches. Those can be a barometer for success, plus a way to help connect to consumers who need to close the gap between what they saw and how they can get it.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 6:42 AM | Permalink

February 24, 2005

The Art of Forecasting Paid Search Budgets

Budgeting a paid search campaign can be challenging. First, you need to decide which terms to bid on, and then how aggressively you want to bid to maintain a desired position. Do you need to be #1 for all of your terms? Studies suggest that top rankings are important, but the evidence isn't conclusive. And bidding on lower cost terms in the "search tail" may actually lead to higher ROI in some cases.

In today's SearchDay article, Forecasting Paid Search Traffic, guest writer Heather Lloyd-Martin covers a recent Search Engine Strategies panel where a group of experts offered advice and tips on how best to optimize a paid search campaign, to get maximum results regardless of the size of your budget.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 9:28 AM | Permalink

February 22, 2005

New Guide To PPC Search Listings

If you're looking for another site dedicated to paid search, you might give Pay Per Click Universe a whirl. Up for a few months now, it gives you a rundown on what it considers the top ten paid listing services, with the ability to read through some reader reviews. There's a nice list of bid management tools, a section on local paid search, some articles on paid search and more. See also our Pay Per Click Search Engines (CPC/PPC) page that lists some similar long-standing resources.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 2:18 PM | Permalink

December 19, 2004

Second-Tier Engines Provide Low-Priced Leads

Brian Morrisey at DM News writes that although second-tier engines don't get the traffic Google and Yahoo offer, they do provide low-priced leads.

"As massive as Google and Overture are ... they have a finite amount of inventory," Peter Hershberg, managing partner at search marketing firm Reprise Media, New York, said during a Search Engine Strategies panel covering alternative search ad programs."

Posted by Gary Price at 4:04 PM | Permalink

December 7, 2004

Getting Beyond Managing Bids

Beyond Bid Management: Breaking Through the Search Volume Wall from Kevin Lee at ClickZ takes a look at the idea of hitting a "search volume wall," where you can't get more volume without hurting ROI. As a solution, he offers tips ranging from reevaluating metrics to calculate ROI, expanding terms, creative optimization and more.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:47 AM | Permalink

November 15, 2004

Moving Forward With Microsites

Running a paid listing campaign but feel maybe your existing site doesn't work well to convert? Rather than redo the entire thing, consider creating a new microsite to try out new ideas. More from Kevin Lee at ClickZ: Microsites and SEM: A Proof of Concept.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:44 AM | Permalink

November 4, 2004

Tier Two Alternatives for Search Marketing Campaigns

Google and Overture dominate the paid search marketplace, but there are hundreds of other PPC networks that offer compelling alternatives to the 900 pound gorillas. These so-called Tier Two networks may not offer the reach or scope of the major players, but they do distribute your ads to niche sites where your marketing message may have a better chance of being acted upon. As an added benefit, Tier Two campaigns tend to be less costly and offer comparable ROI to what you get with the larger networks.

In today's SearchDay article, Search Marketing Beyond Google and Overture, guest writer Dana Todd reports on a recent Search Engine Strategies conference panel that explored these PPC alternatives to Google and Overture, concluding that they're worth a look by most search marketers.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

October 5, 2004

New DoubleClick Search White Paper: Stats But Not Clarity

DoubleClick, in conjunction with its Performics subsidiary, has released a new Search Campaign Considerations white paper (link is to PDF file). Based on data from analyzing thousands of terms managed on behalf of more than 100 clients that Performics handles, the white paper seems to promise some actionable data that marketers can use to do the right thing in their own campaigns.

Seems to. Digging into it, there's no particular "right" answer but rather stuff that feels more like obvious wisdom. For example, low volume terms are deemed important because even if they don't individually produce a lot of traffic, collectively, they add up. That's no surprise. That's obvious to anyone who has reviewed basic data as provided by Overture's search term suggestion tool.

One interesting nugget is the idea that conversion rates diminish if CPC cost exceeds 50 cents. Interesting, but also a scary conclusion. Why does that rule of thumb emerge, when each particular client might have a completely different cost structure? It implies that if you spend more than 50 cents per click, you're on the path to failure. In reality, that might be perfectly fine, for your particular situation. Only your own metrics will give you the right answer.

More nuggets. A few high volume terms drive most conversion. More than half of "active" keywords in a campaign (those that get at least one click per month) generate less than 10 clicks per month. And high position is NOT seen as equating to high traffic. In other words, you can be lower in the results and still get plenty of traffic.

That contradicts the findings of a report from DoubleClick-rival Atlas DMT, released earlier this year. The Atlas "How Search Engine Rank Impacts Traffic" report (link is to PDF file) found high position should equal to higher traffic.

I did a long write-up of that report for our Search Engine Watch members: New Data On How Paid Ranking Translates Into Traffic. I came away scratching my head about some of the predictions on impressions were formed.

With this latest DoubleClick report, at least now I can see a trend. Expect more companies with lots of aggregate data to release further white papers. There will be lots of stats, some headlines but likely still no clear solution to how you should run your particular campaign.

Kevin Ryan takes a longer look at the report here: DoubleClick on Pay-for-Play.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 1:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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