I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your website may not be as pretty or user-friendly as you think. How you think users interact with your website can be very different from reality. Perhaps the differing viewpoints of your website aren't as...
Improving your conversion rate is one of the most important tactics in your SEM toolkit. The conversion optimization discussion focuses (and rightly so) on getting visitors to take an action on your website or landing page.
The Google Display Network is vast with abundant opportunity to generate great results. However, with this much impression inventory, it’s also possible to generate a lot of spend with a poor ROI. To avoid crashing and burning on the GDN you need...
Ongoing PPC campaign optimization requires focused persistence. Campaign managers know that there are few, "silver bullets," or, "magic beans," that boost performance with the flip of a switch. A mature, sustainable, profitable PPC account is a...
When managing PPC campaigns, specific trends and statistics can be in direct conflict. These polarizing trends often occur with stats that should be parallel or at least trending similarly. As disturbing as this discrepancy may be, it can also help...
Optimizing PPC campaigns with faulty data is like driving with an upside down map. You’ll end up in the exact opposite direction of your destination. Irregular performance data can be caused by technical glitches, seasonal fluctuations, other...
It has been an action-packed year for paid search advertisers. Seems like every month some new feature was released within AdWords or Bing Ads – some small, and some mega-important. In fact, you may have been feeling a bit overwhelmed with...
Managing paid search campaigns without specific objectives or goals is like driving a car with no destination. If you don’t have a map and a target, you’ll end up in the middle of nowhere. Establishing benchmarks and creating goals for your...
Jeremy Hull, Associate Director of Paid Search for iProspect, and Joseph Kerschbaum, Vice President for Clix Marketing, will be the guides on your path to profitability. Joseph Kerschbaum: I’ve been in the SEM industry for over seven years and I’ve...
Have you checked your sitelinks lately? You probably should. Google will soon be enforcing an existing policy regarding sitelink usage. The policy states that each sitelink within a campaign needs to link to a unique landing page/content on your site.
When managing PPC campaigns on a daily basis, there are hundreds of details that require close attention. As with any project that requires hair-splitting focus, it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture.
One of the reasons advertisers shy away from the Google Display Network (GDN) is a perceived lack of ad distribution control. People seem to think that the GDN is like drinking from a fire hose: turn it on and get a ton of traffic.
A major reason online marketers are attracted to Facebook advertising is the ability to segment audiences with razor-sharp accuracy. Wouldn’t it be great to create campaigns with a similar strategy on the Google Display Network (GDN)?
If you manage PPC campaigns appropriately, then you undoubtedly conduct a lot of tests. Many of these tests probably fail. One of the most important elements of conducting tests – especially ineffective tests – is communication.
Getting lost in the trenches of PPC warfare is a common but dangerous hazard. Sometimes you need to take a step back and review the battleground from afar. In other words, extract yourself from keyword-level analysis and take-in the bigger picture.
It’s a good feeling to know someone has your back; that someone is looking out for you. When managing PPC campaigns, we could all use someone who is watching out for us just in case something goes awry in a campaign.
Where do you start the analysis process when you detect an issue with your PPC account? How do you determine the root cause of a performance downturn? Answering these questions incorrectly could you lead down a rabbit hole of aimless stats that...
PPC managers, as a rule, are completely swamped. But that doesn’t mean we can’t also increase productivity when managing campaigns. One core tactic to get more done when managing PPC is to achieve a zen-like state of focus when analyzing data.
Most PPC managers have to report to someone. This could be clients, a direct supervisor, or upper management of their company. For many PPC professionals, these reports/updates take place over the phone.
Many of the resolution-focused articles that touch on PPC this time of year are geared toward specific account tactics. You may expect to see goals such as, “build out long-tail keywords,” or “conduct more/better landing page testing.
