Google Insights for Search is a popular web trend tool, but it’s application to PPC is often overlooked. This post discusses three ways you can use the tool to increase the efficiency of your PPC accounts. Use Google Insights for problem solving and keyword identification Google insights can be used to help troubleshoot when a past performing keyword starts to do poorly, or starts doing very well. Simply type your query into insights and you’ll see if volume is trending up or down. For “Grocery Coupons” you can see a clear decline in volume. This tells you that you…
Paid Search
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Most Topular Stories
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Google Insights for Search for PPC
PPC Strategies & Pay Per Click News | PPC Hero14 May 2012 | 12:20 pm -
10 Dangerous Defaults in PPC
Portent » PPC blog posts – The Internet marketing blog by Portent4 May 2012 | 1:49 pmYou remember that episode where Homer Simpson goes into space as a NASA astronaut? He only got to go because Barney Gumble has an alcoholic relapse and Homer was the second runner up. Scientist: Well, Homer, I guess you’re the winner by default. Homer: Default? Woo hoo! The two sweetest words in the English language: de-fault! De-fault! De-fault! Welcome to my big post of de-faults in AdWords and adCenter that will trip you up, cost you money, cause confusion and eventually make you second runner up to an inanimate carbon rod. (And if you have not seen Deep Space Homer episode in the… -
This Week in Narcissism
Traffick: The Business of Search14 May 2012 | 3:55 pmIf you ever make the mistake, as I recently did, of reading Twenge and Campbell’s The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in an Age of Entitlement, you’ll have more than a few “whoa! that’s scary!” moments, when you begin recognizing vivid examples of the shift they’ve documented as they happen in slow motion in day-to-day life. Scary, as in “they really got that right.” This study of the rise in narcissistic qualities in the general (especially, youth) population is no casual observation. The authors actually document rises in self-reported and… -
Model bid changes at scale with campaign bid simulator
Inside AdWords11 May 2012 | 11:57 amWhen we launched bid simulator in 2009, we wanted to make it easy for you to understand the impact of bids on your advertising results. Until now, you’ve been able to access bid simulator at the keyword and ad group level.To allow you to more easily simulate and apply bid changes at scale, we’re pleased to announce the launch of campaign bid simulator.To access campaign bid simulator, go to the Opportunities tab and select “campaign bid simulator” from the left navigation tree. With campaign bid simulator, you can: View bid changes in aggregate and model changes even when keywords or… -
Piwik Open Source Analytics: A Primer
Search Engine Watch - Latest16 May 2012 | 4:00 amWith a focus on privacy and keeping data safe, Piwik is a web analytics package that aims to be a free software alternative to Google Analytics. Here are some of Piwik’s features and how it compares to other top-billing analytics packages.
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Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
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Google Launches Knowledge Graph To Provide Answers, Not Just Links
16 May 2012 | 12:00 pmHinted at for months, Google formally launched its “Knowledge Graph” today. The new technology is being used to provide popular facts about people, places and things alongside Google’s traditional results. It also allows Google to move toward a new way of searching not for pages... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article. -
With Fix In Place, Wolfram Alpha Explains How Siri “Recommended” The Lumia By Mistake
16 May 2012 | 10:15 amIt wasn’t Siri that was recommending the Lumia as the best smartphone to some last week; it was Wolfram Alpha. That won’t happen again, now that Wolfram Alpha has made changes to to fix problems it had dealing with customer reviews. Reviews Weren’t Weighted To Account For Number... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article. -
3 Guidelines To Scale Your SEM Team
16 May 2012 | 9:03 amThere is a phenomenon within organizations that causes productivity to decline as teams grow larger. This phenomenon is described in economics as a diseconomy of scale and is caused by at least three factors including increased communication costs, duplication of effort, and top-heavy management.... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article. -
Did Google Drop 100+ Small Directories
16 May 2012 | 8:44 amYesterday I covered a WebmasterWorld thread where SEOs were complaining that Google has been removing tons of free web directories from their index. I conducted some random tests and did notice some of these free web directories not coming up in Google. Later in the day, Terry Van Horne began... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article. -
Do Search & Display Really Belong Together?
16 May 2012 | 8:27 amThe premise is simple – PPC and display are both media buys trying to achieve similar outcomes; both are forms of ‘bought media’ and now with display moving to a biddable environment both now require quantitative skill sets to manage them. It’s not a tough sell to convince a budget holder that a... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
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Acquisio
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Quotable Quotes from Marc Poirier
16 May 2012 | 12:46 pmIt’s been a busy week for Marc Poirier. He’s in London right now, and has just finished wrapping up a session as a presenter at SMX London. And in the meantime, he’s had quite a few requests from the media asking him his expert opinion on a variety of issues. Never one to shy away from an opportunity to share his thoughts, he’s been quoted quite extensively this week in some great articles from some of our favorite publications. For starters, Paula Bernstein from AdWeek asked Marc about how Acquisio helps marketers respond to the need for in-depth analysis tools that help them to… -
Search, Analytics, Social Media and Acquisio at SASCon Event!
10 May 2012 | 9:44 amThe north of England is playing host to a fantastic conference this month. SASCon is all about search, analytics and social media, and will be bringing together the best digital marketing experts in the UK in Manchester on 17th and 18th May. It is being organised by a number of excellent agencies, with support from both SEMPO and Manchester Digital so is sure to be a superb event. I will be attending the conference along with my Acquisio colleagues, as well as giving my views as a panel member for the Cutting Edge Search Technology session, running from 14.15 to 15.15 on 18th May. Both… -
Google Breaks Down Quality Score – Opportunity for Automation and Alerts?
9 May 2012 | 5:56 pmI just finished reading another excellent blog post by Andrew Goodman from Page Zero Media Imagine my surprise when I discovered that apparently, a few days ago Google, announced they will implement a new way to report on Quality Score by breaking it down into 3 components: Expected CTR, Ad Creative, and Landing Page Quality. This has been a long time coming, and the implications for Acquisio and our customers are far reaching – finally advertisers will have direct feedback on which part of their ad strategy is causing issues with quality score, which as you probably know is an… -
The Healthy Consolidation in the SEM Landscape
9 May 2012 | 2:11 pmOriginally posted May 4th, 2012 by Andrew Goodman on his blog. Rock stars need to dance better than this or they'll get no respect, no respect at all. For years, SEO companies and “rock stars” have whined that they don’t get the respect they deserve. That’s been unsurprising, given that you trip over seven unethical SEO firms and two “cheesy borderline” SEO firms out of every group of ten. If only 10% of SEO firms are really “agencies” that adhere to some professional standards (including a degree of transparency, contemporary technology & practices, etc.), how can… -
What You Need to Know About Measuring Social Media
8 May 2012 | 8:07 amCredit: Social On Main So social media has gone mainstream. No seriously: MAINSTREAM. How do I know? Well, aside from the fact that every second piece of print or outdoor advertising seems to have a “Like” icon somewhere on it, Google has fully incorporated social tracking into Google Analytics. And that means that social media is so much more closer to being fully trackable and attributable as a source of traffic in the sales funnel. So what does this mean for your business (or your clients’)? Well, it means that you can now understand how social is affecting is affecting…
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PPC Strategies & Pay Per Click News | PPC Hero
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Google Insights for Search for PPC
14 May 2012 | 12:20 pmGoogle Insights for Search is a popular web trend tool, but it’s application to PPC is often overlooked. This post discusses three ways you can use the tool to increase the efficiency of your PPC accounts. Use Google Insights for problem solving and keyword identification Google insights can be used to help troubleshoot when a past performing keyword starts to do poorly, or starts doing very well. Simply type your query into insights and you’ll see if volume is trending up or down. For “Grocery Coupons” you can see a clear decline in volume. This tells you that you… -
Give Your In-House Team a Little Breather!
14 May 2012 | 8:00 amNot every company needs to employ an agency full-time to manage paid search. Yup, I said it and I work for an agency. Shhhh…no one tell! The truth is that sometimes keeping either a single individual or a small in-house team for PPC management fits certain corporate level business models much better than hiring an entire agency. But what happens when Google releases a new feature, Bing upgrades a targeting capability or the company in question opens up their market to a new product-line? (Remember when Bing changed phrase and broad match keyword behavior back in August of 2011 and many… -
Google Analytics Test Lab – Series Wrap-Up
11 May 2012 | 10:46 amWe hope you’ve found this month’s Google Analytics Test Lab series helpful. By now, it should be obvious that Analytics is a very complex and powerful tool that can be very beneficial for your own accounts if utilized properly. What’s better is the fact that it’s completely free to use! We’ve covered several Analytics topics this week, including: 10 Google Analytics Hot Spots Finding New Test Subjects Using Google Analytics for Lead Generation Google Analytics for Ecommerce Accounts So what do you like most about Google Analytics? We would love to hear about your favorites in the… -
Google Analytics Test Lab: Drive Your E-Commerce PPC Account
10 May 2012 | 12:22 pmWelcome to the third post in our Google Analytics Test Lab blog series. Today I’ll be walking you through using Google Analytics to get the most of you’re your e-commerce PPC account. If you’re running a PPC account for e-commerce, you likely already understand the importance of dynamic reporting capabilities, so I’ll try not to make this article sound like a sponsored plug for Google Analytics. But, as an Account Manager here at Hanapin, I can’t fathom running an e-commerce PPC account without the powerhouse that is Google Analytics. For e-commerce accounts, AdWords data and… -
Using Google Analytics for Lead Generation
10 May 2012 | 11:58 amThe best thing about Analytics is also the worst thing about Analytics. If utilized correctly, Analytics can open up a whole new world of possibilities within your accounts. On the other hand, trying to digest all of the different facets and capabilities can be a difficult and time-consuming process. This is why we decided to host the Analytics Test Lab this month in order to reveal its’ true power. For the purpose of this lab, we will review the basics of goal tracking in Analytics and then discuss some of the methods that I have found to be particularly useful. Goal Conversion…
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Search Engine Watch - Latest
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Life After Google Penguin – Going Beyond the Name
16 May 2012 | 8:00 amDon't try too hard to look for dates and names of updates. Rather, look more to the effects as Google’s algorithm evolves so you can adapt accordingly. What really matters is that Google is looking harder at link spam now, so you should be too. -
7 Time-Saving Google Analytics Custom Reports
16 May 2012 | 6:00 amThe right Custom Reports can be incredible time savers. Instead of spending time digging around for important metrics, you can find what you need separated neatly into columns for some analysis that will lead to some actionable insight. -
Piwik Open Source Analytics: A Primer
16 May 2012 | 4:00 amWith a focus on privacy and keeping data safe, Piwik is a web analytics package that aims to be a free software alternative to Google Analytics. Here are some of Piwik’s features and how it compares to other top-billing analytics packages. -
Make Second Tier Search Engines Part of Your Lead Generation Strategy
16 May 2012 | 2:00 amGoogle and Bing can only get you so far. If you work in an extremely competitive industry you may find yourself paying anywhere from $30 to $50+ per click. Working with second tier engine/networks can provide an abundance of traffic at a low cost. -
Social Media Ad Spending Forecast to Hit $9.8 Billion by 2016
16 May 2012 | 12:00 amSocial media advertising revenues in the U.S. will grow from $3.8 billion in 2011 to $9.8 billion in 2016, according to BIA/Kelsey’s U.S. Local Media Forecast (2011-2016). The leap would represent a compound annual growth rate of 21 percent.
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Inside AdWords
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Announcing the next series of Learn with Google webinars!
16 May 2012 | 12:00 pmEarlier this year, we introduced the Learn with Google webinar program, and we were delighted to see thousands of you show up to learn about a variety of Google advertising products and solutions. Today, we’re happy to announce the continuation of our series with 10 new webinars over the next few months. During each webinar we’ll share tips and how-to’s to help make the web work for your business. Check out our upcoming live webinars below: May 23 at 10am PDT: Getting Started with Google Analytics May 24 at 9am PDT: Building Blocks of Digital Attribution May 31 at 10am PDT: Introduction… -
Younger viewers say hello to online video in 2012
16 May 2012 | 11:11 amAs more consumers reach for their smartphones, tablets and laptops for news and entertainment, there’s a new segment of viewers that watch less than two hours of TV per day - the “light TV viewer.” Around 31% of adults 18 to 49 are light TV viewers. And this segment is growing - households that opted for broadband internet instead of cable TV grew 22.8 percent over the past year, according to the latest Cross Platform Report from Nielsen. To understand how this trend will impact advertisers in 2012, we partnered with Nielsen to conduct six cross-media studies looking at viewership… -
Celebrate the best in digital creativity with Google+ at Internet Week New York and the Webby Awards
15 May 2012 | 12:03 pmOnce again, Internet Week New York is in full force, and we hope that you'll come and join Google+ for some of the festivities as the city’s digital thinkers, from developers to ad agency execs, collaborate on a week of panels and parties: IAB Innovation Days: On Wednesday, May 16 at 1:45pm, Kate Stanford, Group Product Marketing Manager for Social Ads, will be giving a presentation at IAB Innovation Days at Skylight Soho about connecting with customers through a joint strategy across mobile and social platforms. The Webby Awards: On Monday, May 21 at 5:30 PM, celebrate with the whole… -
AdWords Editor users: Migrate to v9.7.1 before June 12, 2012
11 May 2012 | 3:30 pmAs of June 12, 2012, AdWords Editor versions 9.0 and prior will be sunset. After this date, changes made via these versions will not be implemented in your AdWords account. Please download the latest version (9.7.1.) at your earliest convenience, but no later than June 12, 2012.You can upgrade to version 9.7.1 through the auto-update prompt or download the latest version from the AdWords Editor website. After you install the new version, you’ll need to download your account again. To preserve your comments and unposted changes, select the ‘Backup then Upgrade’ option in the automatic… -
Model bid changes at scale with campaign bid simulator
11 May 2012 | 11:57 amWhen we launched bid simulator in 2009, we wanted to make it easy for you to understand the impact of bids on your advertising results. Until now, you’ve been able to access bid simulator at the keyword and ad group level.To allow you to more easily simulate and apply bid changes at scale, we’re pleased to announce the launch of campaign bid simulator.To access campaign bid simulator, go to the Opportunities tab and select “campaign bid simulator” from the left navigation tree. With campaign bid simulator, you can: View bid changes in aggregate and model changes even when keywords or…
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RKG Blog
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Bing’s Other Ideas: A Head Scratcher
16 May 2012 | 9:46 amThere is a new feature showing on Bing called Other Ideas, that, at first glance, appears to bring together Related Searches and Sitelinks all at once. This feature is only live on Bing, not Yahoo, and can be found under the ads in the promoted positions on Bing’s SERP. While the Other Ideas suggestions seem like they could hold value, they have a few of us here at RKG scratching our heads. Why? User Experience is Poor These Other Ideas often look very similar to Google Sitelinks, however, when the user clicks on one of the links it takes them back to a new Bing SERP, similar to how… -
SEO and the Flight To Quality
11 May 2012 | 4:01 amThe topic of negative SEO is a contentious one. Already, camps are forming. When experienced veterans like Danny Sullivan, John Andrews, and Aaron Wall debate hotly in threads like this one, you know it’s a subject that requires some attention. Google reports that the Penguin update is performing well, while many sites complain loudly that they’ve been unjustifiably penalized. It’s hard to find answers, yet, in all this noise. One thing is clear: the recent changes at Google have yet again raised the bar for SEO. SEO’s Flight to Quality David Brooks of the New York… -
Updates to Facebook’s Ad Creation Tool
8 May 2012 | 1:36 pmFacebook has quietly rolled out new changes to how ads are created through the Facebook Ad Creation Tool in Facebook’s user interface. The Ad Creation Tool is currently the primary method of creating Facebook ads outside of Facebook’s Power Editor or through Facebook’s API. We have noticed the changes have taken effect in new Facebook advertising accounts (or “grey accounts”) and have not yet rolled into accounts that were already active when these new changes went live. The new tool includes a step-by-step guide that customizes the input fields by what information you have… -
Device Specific SEM
1 May 2012 | 1:44 pmMy newest post from SEL in case you missed it there: Segmentation is the key to success in most marketing activities. Simply recognizing that how traffic gets to the site tells us a great deal about its value should prompt analysts to dive into data. Doing so often reveals big opportunities in device segmentation. Golden Tablets I’m not talking about Joseph Smith’s discovery, I’m talking about Apple’s. The traffic from iPads is more valuable than traffic from desktops for many in the eCommerce sector. Our data suggests the traffic from tablets as a class to be worth… -
More Affiliate Dirty Tricks: Device Targeting Brand PPC
27 Apr 2012 | 10:13 amThere’s a certain class of affiliate marketer that will go to any lengths to make a quick buck — short of providing any real value to the companies they are supposed to be supporting. One of the tried and true tactics of this type of affiliate is to run paid search ads on a company’s brand terms, trumping the company itself by utilizing their display URL and pocketing the difference in ad costs and affiliate commission. Generally, this behavior is expressly forbidden in the affiliate terms and conditions and monitored by the advertiser and/or its agency, so the black hat…
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Traffick: The Business of Search
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This Week in Narcissism
14 May 2012 | 3:55 pmIf you ever make the mistake, as I recently did, of reading Twenge and Campbell’s The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in an Age of Entitlement, you’ll have more than a few “whoa! that’s scary!” moments, when you begin recognizing vivid examples of the shift they’ve documented as they happen in slow motion in day-to-day life. Scary, as in “they really got that right.” This study of the rise in narcissistic qualities in the general (especially, youth) population is no casual observation. The authors actually document rises in self-reported and… -
Did the boss’s ad creative win? Don Draper can’t leave your idea in a cab anymore
14 May 2012 | 12:36 pmIn Mad Men Episode 509, “Dark Shadows,” Don longs to flex his old creative muscles on an account being worked on by the junior phenom, Ginsberg. In the review meetings for the Sno-Cone account, Don slips his “devil” ad concept into the mix. The team agrees that both Don’s idea and Ginsberg’s lighter “snowball in the face” campaign are both strong ideas. It’s agreed that the firm will bring both ideas in to pitch the client. Don’s idea wins because he leaves Ginsberg’s creative in the cab, so they only pitch Don’s idea. -
Unraveling Google’s New Three-Pronged Quality Score Reporting
9 May 2012 | 4:39 pmUnlike the average American 15-year-old, AdWords advertisers now have definitive proof that they can’t all be above average. This comes in the form of Google’s new breakdown format for keyword quality score reporting, by Expected CTR, Ad Creative, and Landing Page Quality. Most advertisers already know that Quality Score (which determines ad rank and eligibility in the auction, and ultimately, heavily influences CPC’s and ROI) derives from CTR and “other relevancy factors.” This new disclosure shows that Google continues to refine the formula to help some… -
Market Quietly: Unsolicited Advice for Research in Motion’s New CMO
9 May 2012 | 9:02 amWelcome, Frank Boulben, Research in Motion’s new CMO. You’re charged with making the Blackberry relevant again. No one expects you to succeed. You’ll be surrounded by the din of detractors, media hacks, and a few people cheering you on. There’s a chance you’ll try to hit a home run when it would be so easy for RIM to get back on track by hitting singles and doubles. My overarching hope is that you’ll see the importance of ignoring the deafening roar on all sides. That you’ll discover the power of marketing quietly. Of protecting your own company from… -
The Healthy Consolidation in the SEM Landscape
4 May 2012 | 9:35 amFor years, SEO companies and “rock stars” have whined that they don’t get the respect they deserve. That’s been unsurprising, given that you trip over seven unethical SEO firms and two “cheesy borderline” SEO firms out of every group of ten. If only 10% of SEO firms are really “agencies” that adhere to some professional standards (including a degree of transparency, contemporary technology & practices, etc.), how can clients figure out what to do and who to hire? It’s been a little better on the PPC side, but here too, it’s…
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The Clix Marketing Blog
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Are You An Awesome Search & Social PPC Expert? Clix Marketing Wants You!
27 Apr 2012 | 2:28 pmClix Marketing needs to beef up our Rockstar PPC management team so that we can continue to provide super-awesome service and banging results for our amazing clients. Are you an awesome PPC manager who knows AdWords and adCenter like the back of your hand, AND can rock social PPC like Facebook and LinkedIn like nobody’s business? Then you may be a good fit! Hold On! Being a PPC Rockstar is a requirement – but that’s not all we’re looking for! We need someone who loves project management and client interaction as much as they love PPC. Our dream candidate will be able to analyze PPC… -
Create Content for Each Step of the B2B Buying Cycle
29 Nov 2011 | 8:37 amThis is a guest post by Nick Stamoulis, President of Brick Marketing One of the biggest differences between the B2B and B2C industries is the length of the average buying cycle. For instance, someone who deciding where they want to eat lunch (B2C) isn’t going to spend six months researching the restaurants in their neighborhood, taste-testing their dishes and worrying if the budget will support their decision. They’ll maybe spend six minutes reading a few reviews on Yelp before heading out the door. On the other hand, if a manufacturing company is looking into buying a new piece of… -
Are You An Awesome Search & Social PPC Expert? Clix Marketing Wants You!
26 Sep 2011 | 7:47 amAre You An Awesome Search & Social PPC Expert? Clix Marketing Wants You! Clix Marketing has been growing at an accelerated rate lately… and we’re only getting started! We need to beef up the team so that we can continue to provide super-awesome service and banging results for our amazing clients. Are you an awesome PPC manager who can rock Social PPC like Facebook and LinkedIn like nobody’s business? Do you know AdWords and adCenter like the back of your hand? Then you may be a good fit! What’s in it for you? A chance to work with and learn from the best. A virtual job – no… -
Google +1 Is Changing the Face of PPC. Are You Ready?
21 Sep 2011 | 1:37 pmThe time has come for all PPC advertisers to pay attention to Google’s +1. Last week I wrote an article about how +1 is starting to change how we manage AdWords for Search due to its potential affect on CTR and the indirect influence on Quality Score. Yesterday, Google announced that +1 is going to be included with ads on the Display Network starting in October! Today, I noticed a new section under the AdWords campaign Advanced Settings (as did a few folks on Twitter) labeled “Social Settings.” Not only is Google rolling out +1 on Display Network ads, but they are… -
7 Winning Strategies for PPC Remarketing Success
11 Jul 2011 | 7:06 amGoogle recently mentioned that “97% of new visitors do not convert the first time they arrive at your site.” While you never get a second chance to make a first impression, you have limitless opportunities to make that critical second impression, thanks to remarketing in AdWords. Google AdWords’ robust remarketing feature can enhance and expand your PPC campaign. This article will focus on seven high-level strategies that you can employ to bring users back to your website using remarketing after they’ve made their initial visit. Remarketing: Definition & Basics When someone visits…
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WebProNews
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Mozilla Shows Off New Firefox For Android Design
16 May 2012 | 1:43 pmI love Firefox on my Android phone. It’s everything that I could hope for from a mobile Web browser. I will be the first to admit that it’s a little ugly though. It’s a mobile Web browser, all of them are ugly to some degree because the screen is too small. That’s not a good enough excuse and Mozilla completely agrees. That’s why they’re redesigning the mobile Firefox experience from the ground up. We got a look at the new Firefox Mobile look a few weeks ago, but it was just a few slides without any kind of explanation behind the design itself. Patryk… -
A Brits Guide To Avoiding The Olympics [Infographic]
16 May 2012 | 1:41 pmThe festivities for the summer Olympic games in London, England starts on July 21st with the torch carrying ceremonies, and ends August 9th with the closing ceremonies of the Paralympic games. As it turns out, the only people really excited about the games being in London are people who don’t live in England right now. In fact nearly 36% of all Brits that are traveling during that time period are leaving England just to avoid the games. That number equates to nearly 4 million people or about a third of the population of London. The people at Confused.com decided to create an infographic… -
Halo 4 Limited Edition Available For Pre-Order
16 May 2012 | 1:41 pmHalo 4 is now available for pre-order and Microsoft has just announced a limited edition version of the game that will be available on launch day, November 6. The limited edition will cost $100 and includes extra content not available to those who purchase the standard edition. The limited edition of Halo 4 will come in the packaging seen above. Included with the game is informational material detailing the armor, weapons, and ships of Halo 4. Also included is a special 90-minute extended edition of the web series Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, complete with featurettes and behind-the-scenes… -
Android and iOS Download 88% of all Apps [Nielsen Study]
16 May 2012 | 1:37 pmOnly about a year ago the number of cellular subscribers who owned smartphones was about 40%. Now the number has reached 50% and it is quickly growing larger. With that trend comes a growing popularity of applications for these mobile devices. Nielsen has been researching trends in mobile apps since we had mobile apps and today we have some interesting facts on the current state of app use and apps themselves. First of all, the average number of apps a smartphone has on their device has jumped from 32 to 41. If that doesn’t seem like a big difference, it is, it’s almost 30%. -
Kayak Shark Attack: California Man Bullied by Great White
16 May 2012 | 1:36 pmKayak shark attacks are apparently frequent enough to prompt someone to write an exceptionally helpful article about what you’re supposed to do should the situation present itself. I’m sure Joey Nocchi wished he had a copy handy when a 14-foot great white shark attempted to transform his afternoon into a light snack. Nocchi was having an enjoyable adventure in his kayak when, suddenly, he found himself rising out of the water. “My buddies said I came out of the water 4 to 5 feet—it flipped me over the side. The shark rolled the whole kayak over, rolled me out of it, and he…
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John Battelle's Search Blog
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Penner Ash Willamette Pinot 2009
15 May 2012 | 12:42 pmPenner-Ash Willamette Valley 2009 Pinot drank VERY well last week. -
New Feeds For Searchblog
15 May 2012 | 12:11 pmPardon the site-specific interruption, but as part of my ongoing quest to keep my content here on my own site, I’ve begun posting pictures of stuff here that I’d otherwise put on Instagram, Twitter or other services. Given that many of you read Searchblog for my trenchant commentary as opposed to my preferences in pinots, I promised you that I’d create new RSS feeds. Well, here they are! You’ve got a lot of choices – Everything (all photos and posts), Everything But Photos, Headlines Only, and Photos Only. Many thanks to the team at Blend for helping me make this… -
Get to Know Ross Levinsohn
13 May 2012 | 8:23 pmThe remarkable news today that, among other important board moves, Ross Levinsohn will take over as interim CEO at Yahoo may well mark the end of an era – should his tenure stick, perhaps we can stop talking about the web pioneer in past or conditional tenses. If you’d like to get to know him a bit better, here’s an interview I did with him at Web 2 last Fall. -
The Audacity of Diaspora
13 May 2012 | 8:13 pmLast Friday Businessweek ran a story on Diaspora, a social platform built from what might be called Facebook anti-matter. It’s a great read that chronicles the project’s extraordinary highs and lows, from Pebble-like Kickstarter success to the loss of a founder to suicide. Given the overwhelming hype around Facebook’s IPO this week, it’s worth remembering such a thing exists – and even though it’s in private beta, Diaspora is one of the largest open source projects going right now, and boasts around 600,000 beta testers. I’ve watched Diaspora from… -
Oh, MacROSTIE!
12 May 2012 | 12:48 amA very happy Friday night with my wife, mother in law, and kids (and tomatoes, kale, wild rice, et al), made round by this MacRostie Pinot, 2007. Yippee, it’s the weekend!
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Microsoft Advertising Community
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Reminder: Upgrade to Adintelligence v.8 Before the End of May
16 May 2012 | 1:10 pmIf you didn't see last month's post on enhancements to AdIntellignece for API users, there was some info in there about an action you'll need to take before this month is out. As we've hit the half-way mark in May, now is probably a good time to post this quick reminder: KSP 5.5 and 6.0 API Deprecation Please note that KSP 5.5 and 6.0 are being deprecated and API users need to move to AdIntelligence v8. As an adCenter API user, to continue to take advantage of Ad Intelligence make sure you code to API V8 as applications coded to earlier KSP API versions will not function after May… -
Insiders Tips for #Social and #SEO Success from #SMX London
16 May 2012 | 10:43 amGot up two mornings in a row at 6AM and it’s taken two strong coffees to appreciate that the sun is shining today. However (and how nerdy have I become!?) the first SMX session ‘Social shares, the new link building’ woke me up and cheered me up to no end. There must be many of you -tucked away in an office somewhere- that are the only one in their office dealing with PPC, SEO or social. Isn’t it nice to meet colleagues that a similar job to you at a conference & discuss...(read more) -
SMX London 2012: The New Behavioral Ads With Retargeting & Remarketing #SMX
16 May 2012 | 10:28 amWho hasn’t been a victim of retargeting or remarketing ads? Most of you must have had ads following your user journey and it works… As a marketer, it’s always good to learn about new techniques and not miss out on the opportunity to build stronger relationships with your customers and drive conversions. We are at the SMX event in the Famous Chelsea Football Club in one of the most modern conference centres in London and the first panelist on stage is Guy Levine, CEO, Return...(read more) -
Data Driven Marketing: Learn to Save Time and Resources in Upcoming Webinar
15 May 2012 | 3:27 pmHow much time do you spend pulling campaign reports, formatting them, and sharing them with your stakeholders? And how many data sources do you have to include? How quickly can you make time-sensitive creative or media optimization decisions for live campaigns?If you’re like many agency and advertisers we know, these are among the greatest challenges in our world of data driven marketing. That’s why we’ve partnered with Praxinet, a leading provider of Microsoft-based software solutions, to bring Business Intelligence to Atlas clients in a simple and scalable way, hosted for you in the… -
SMX London 2012: Complying and Coping In the New World of Regulated Global Marketing Environment
15 May 2012 | 11:28 amThe EU’s cookie and tracking legislation is an onerous policy that limits online marketing. US lawmakers are contemplating sweeping changes to intellectual property law that will stifle access and the flow of information. What’s a marketer to do? In this session, our panelists provided marketers some tips on how to comply to new and proposed regulations that limit relationships with your online customers and users. Our first panelist, Andy Atkins-Krueger, Group CEO, WebCertain ...(read more)
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Compete Blog
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What’s In A Name: Are We Really Naming Our Kids After Celebs?
15 May 2012 | 3:46 pmImage from: Baby Name Image / Shutterstock Yesterday, the U.S. Social Security Administration released the most popular baby names for 2011, and today, everyone is buzzing about the relation of said baby names to today’s celebrities. Female Names Sophia Isabella Emma Olivia Ava Emily Abigail Madison Mia Chloe Male Names Jacob Mason William Jayden Noah Michael Ethan Alexander Aiden Daniel The name “Sophia” was the most popular name for a girl, and “Jacob” was the most popular boy’s name. But what influence do Sofia Vergara and Jacob Black really have over… -
Publishers Clearing House: Giving away money to make money?!
15 May 2012 | 1:07 pmImage from: PCH We’ve all seen the videos online, where a TV crew pulls up to some lucky, unsuspecting household and they roll up to the doorstep with a bunch of balloons and a check the size of highway billboard to make someone rich. The first thing that always pops into my mind when I come across these clips is “can you cash those checks at the bank?” The second thought is always “those guys are STILL doing that?” The answer, most certainly, is definitely. Not only are they still doing it, the folks over at Publishers Clearing House seem to be doing it better than ever! I… -
April 2012 US Search Market Share Report: Bing up, Google up, Yahoo down
14 May 2012 | 10:19 pmFor the first time in months, the usual market share trends changed for Google and for Yahoo!. Google increased its share for the first time since December 2011 to 65.9% of the US core web search market. Yahoo! had been experiencing small increases in share steadily since December 2011, but saw a decline of 0.7ppt’s from March to April. Bing continues to gain monthly share since October 2011, and experienced a gain of 0.3ppt’s in April to represent 18.3% of the market. Google Powered engines now represent 2/3rd of the US search market, while Bing Powered engines represent the other 1/3rd. -
10 Photos from the DCMO Summit!
14 May 2012 | 3:19 pmThis time last week we were kicking off the 2012 Digital CMO Summit in Beverly Hills. Between speakers from AOL, Yahoo!, Funny or Die, and Vice, to views of the LA skyline and celeb sightings, we weren’t ready to leave. Below are just a few photos from our time in the 90210. Scott and Ryan are helping build bikes for the Boys and Girls Club of East LA, which is up for an award with the “Drops of Good” Project! Vote for this Boys and Girls Club here. Photo courtesy of @alyssamaine Setting up at the Beverly Wilshire- the ballroom is almost ready! Photo courtesy of @kristenrenda Spending… -
Sunday Series: Restaurants and Dining
13 May 2012 | 11:00 amImage from: My Pizza Brothers Our Sunday Series this week we are features 10 website with a large monthly increase in Unique Visitors from the Restaurants and Dining category. Bon appetit!
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Search Engine Journal
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A Keen Mind in Sheep’s Clothing
16 May 2012 | 1:00 pmZuckerberg moves almost as fast as you can say “hoodie.” While we were feasting our eyes on the media’s fascination regarding Mark’s choice in clothing, Facebook donned itself in two more acquisitions. I say ‘more,’ in reference to the few-week lapse in acquisitions; as we all have heard, Facebook acquired startup Instagram as of late. [...] -
‘Relevancy is King’ Says Google VP at SMX London
16 May 2012 | 11:00 amIn his opening keynote at SMX London, Amit Singhal, VP and Google Fellow, who rewrote the original Google algorithm upon his hire in 2000, said today that “Relevancy is King”. He added that Google looks at a combination of three signals (links, social, user actions) and how those signals support each other to build the [...] -
Facebook Update: Higher Target IPO Price Resulting in Stakeholder Liquidation
16 May 2012 | 9:51 amOn Tuesday, the world’s largest social network raised the target IPO price range to $34 to $38. If Facebook shares sell at the upper limit ($38), the social network will raise about $12.8 billion and its market value will be approximately $104 billion. As a result of the higher target price and rich valuation, a [...] -
Why Did GM Drop Facebook Advertising?
16 May 2012 | 7:33 amI am sure you heard yesterday that GM stopped investing in ad space on Facebook. New research on Facebook advertising performance from WordStream may offer a few clues as to why General Motors discontinued advertising on the massive social network. Wordstream’s research provides some important data such as: Ad Performance: Click through rates on Facebook [...] -
5 Local Resources to Boost Your Local Rankings
15 May 2012 | 1:00 pmLocal search engine optimization (SEO) is a specialized form of SEO focused on optimizing businesses and their websites for optimal visibility in local search engines. Local search takes into consideration not only the keyword the searcher entered, but also the location of the searcher, whether indicated through user settings, automatic detection, or a location in [...]
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AdWords Agency Blog
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Announcing the next series of Learn with Google webinars!
16 May 2012 | 1:31 pmEarlier this year, we introduced the Learn with Google webinar program, and we were delighted to see thousands of you show up to learn about a variety of Google advertising products and solutions. Today, we’re happy to announce the continuation of our series with 10 new webinars over the next few months. During each webinar we’ll share tips and how-to’s to help make the web work for your business. Check out our upcoming live webinars below: May 23 at 10am PDT: Getting Started with Google Analytics May 24 at 9am PDT: Building Blocks of Digital Attribution May 31 at 10am PDT: Introduction… -
Adopt a Mantra of Agile Creativity
4 May 2012 | 11:34 amSpeed and flexibility are key for agencies to gain an edge in the next decade of digital. By borrowing a page from the tech industry playbook, agencies can get even faster, smarter, and more efficient. Welcome to the age of Agile Creativity. To get the conversation started about Agile Creativity in the industry, we're hosting a panel at One Club's Creative Week in New York City. Google Managing Director Torrence Boone will be chatting with Rei Inamoto (CCO, AKQA), Greg Andersen (CEO, BBH NYC), and Michael Lebowitz (CEO & Founder, Big Spaceship) about how they've adopted an agile mantra… -
Build Brands with YouTube and Google
4 May 2012 | 11:29 amYouTube is home to some of the most creative, daring and talented content producers in the world. There’s something for every person and passion, which translates to hours of viewing pleasure -- 3 billion hours a month, in fact -- all at the push of the play button. The power of play isn’t just about compelling, on-demand entertainment, however. It’s also about precision, generating word-of-mouth, and business impact.As of today, there’s a new way to leverage the power of play -- the updated Advertise on YouTube Brand Channel. Think of it as a single destination for all of YouTube’s… -
Reaching your audience with online video
23 Apr 2012 | 8:08 amEach day, people are turning to online video for news, entertainment, and information. More than 800M unique users visit YouTube each month, and 60 hours of video are uploaded every minute. So it’s no wonder that video ads are one of the fastest growing online ad-formats this year. Many brands are already using video ads to reach their marketing objectives, from launching a product to building brand awareness. Video ads can not only increase brand recall, but can help your client reach niche or hard-to-reach audiences. In fact, research shows that YouTube and TV ads work better together. To… -
Making the Web Work for Brand Marketers
18 Apr 2012 | 6:21 amLearning from the pastIn the 1950s, brands slowly moved to TV, just as they have started to move online today. In both instances, buying and selling systems improved; audiences and new content quickly moved to the new medium; and the creative possibilities inspired great ad campaigns.However, a key moment for TV came in the 1950 with dramatic improvements in measurement—like ratings and quantitative market research. Once major brands could see who they were reaching and what impact their campaigns were having, they fully embraced the medium, creating a multi-billion dollar industry...and…
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QualityScores
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Truly Automated PPC Management Solutions
1 May 2012 | 9:16 pmI wrote a couple controversial posts a year or two ago. Then, like scumbag Steve, I didn’t tell you what I recommended for truly automated solutions in the bid management space even though I promised I would. A lot has changed since I wrote those blog posts. One thing that hasn’t is my opinion that certain things should be largely automated by machines. We just aren’t as smart or as fast as machines can be when managing thousands of keywords…there’s no way around that. Your argument is already invalid. A few of the changes that occurred since I promised to write… -
Ad Rotation Options in Google AdWords – Do NOT Choose ‘Rotate’
30 Apr 2012 | 9:11 pmYou have a few ad rotation settings to choose from in a Google AdWords campaign. 1) Optimize for clicks: show ads expected to provide more clicks (this is the default setting for new campaigns) 2) Optimize for conversions: Show ads expected to provide more conversions 3) Rotate: Show ads more evenly You can get to these settings in AdWords under any Campaign -> Settings -> Advanced Settings section -> Ad Delivery: Ad rotation, frequency capping -> Ad rotation (click “Edit” and you should see something similar to the picture below. Click the picture for a bigger… -
#EpicDinnerSJ at SMX West 2012
20 Feb 2012 | 11:37 pmEdit: Tweet me @jameszol or email me james@qualityw00tscores.com to get on the reservation list asap! Alan Bleiweiss gave me permission to put together an Epic Dinner at SMX West 2012 because he won’t make the show this season. We’ll miss him! We’ll try to make it EPIC w/out him! Here are the details that I have so far: We’re continuing the tradition started by Alan last year, holding the dinner at Morton’s The Steakhouse. 1.5 blocks away from the Convention Center. Time: 6:30pm Date: Wednesday, February 29, 2012 The price is $100. You get to choose 1 item from… -
What is Truly Automated, Adaptive PPC Bid Management Technology?
28 Jul 2010 | 1:47 pmIf you invested in bid management software within the past few years, chances are high that you were probably duped in one key area: automation. Now, before you think I’m about to split hairs here…let’s walk through a few basics to make sure we’re on the same page…and…wait…who am I kidding? This might make you mad – or it will make ppc software companies mad so I suppose it really might split a few hairs. Define:automation. <— This link takes you to google’s indexed list of definitions for the word ‘automation’ The… -
Manual PPC Bid Management is Dead
21 Jul 2010 | 7:31 amWhen I started QualityScores as an agency* several years ago, I was proud of the crazy results we were able to achieve with manual pay per click management techniques. We used massive custom spreadsheets (customized for each client! no ‘rubber stamp’ approach!) with rules that would tell us to move a bid up or down or change the ad copy or revise the ad group…it was really quite an amazing ppc management tool and I would often brag that we had tested a handful of ppc management software in the space only to outperform it manually every time! That was before most web-based or…
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SMS
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(Not Provided) Keywords Are On The Rise
16 May 2012 | 1:09 pmLast fall, Google launched encrypted search which was intended to make search results more secure for users. Users that conduct a search while signed in to a Google account are sent to a more secure version of the site when they perform a search. The websites that they land on will know that they came from organic search, but won’t be given information about each individual query, including the keywords that brought a visitor to the site. Google Analytics has always been the go-to for examining the success of an SEO campaign and entrance keywords have always provided insights into the… -
Make The Most Of Visual Elements In Marketing Campaigns
15 May 2012 | 12:29 pmThe challenge for marketers is to stand out from the pack by telling their stories in a compelling way. With many of the image-based tools now available online such as Pinterest and Instagram, it’s not only easy to tell your story visually, it’s also extremely easy for users to contribute their own images or to share your images and videos with their friends. Visual storytelling is an effective way to cut through the clutter of information overload online. Here are some tips on how to effectively incorporate these visual elements into your next marketing campaign: 1. Tell Stories… -
Avoid The Squint & Pinch: Improving Customer Experience With Mobile Landing Pages
14 May 2012 | 2:13 pmCustomer feedback is one of the most valuable ways we can stay in touch with our market, and to make sure we are meeting the expectations of the lifeblood of our businesses. In a world gone digital, with resources such as Marketing Automation tools, Email Service Providers, services offering pre-designed and programmed landing pages, the customer feedback survey is easier than ever to deploy. Recently, I received this email requesting feedback on a company’s Customer Service. A great example of how to connect with customers. The email was… Clear in its Purpose: The subject line… -
Five For Friday — May 7-11, 2012
11 May 2012 | 1:18 pmLots of grumbling this week all over about the Penguin update effects and much discussion about how Google’s emphasis on “over optimization” will change how online marketers do things. Still too early to really understand all the implications, but here’s five of the most interesting and informative news items from the week. 1. The Best and Worst Times to Share on Facebook, Twitter — Samantha Murphy blogs at Mashable about the good and bad times of the day to announce content on social media properties Twitter and Facebook. 2. Manage multiple locations more… -
Infographics And The Power Of Lists
10 May 2012 | 11:16 amHave I got a list for you – this week’s infographic column. Yes, it’s the old list format that’s already been played out in blogging for some time now. It’s time we address this commonly used blogging tactic in more of a visual format. I’m sure you’ve seen top 10 lists in your blog and content strategy for some time. But why not go one step further and visualize this? List infographics might be less data-heavy than traditional infographics, but they still generate quite a bit of interest in their own right. This infographic below shows how to brain hack the…
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aimClear® Blog
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Thanks GM, That Leaves More Facebook Ads Impressions For Me
16 May 2012 | 8:39 amGeneral Motors, in a widely reported Facebook-IPO-week #Fail bail, has quit their social media agency of record and abandoned Facebook Ads. We understand the former, but not the latter. The most common reason for Facebook Ads failure, or in any channel for that matter, is a serious misunderstanding of the channel. Hey there Mr. and Ms. online marketer. What would YOU do with about 24 billion paid Facebook Ads impressions, served to the largest sampling of humans on earth with the end goal of selling GM cars? Would you target social ads broadly, run promotions, attempt to drive users to… -
Sanibel Causeway From Captiva: aimClear Just For Fun Friday!
11 May 2012 | 1:30 pmToday we’re kicking off a new Friday afternoon feature, “Just For Fun Friday!” Being aimClear, we’re fortunate to have a ton of opportunities to experience life to it’s fullest. From Sydney to San Diego, New York to San Francisco, Toronto to Tampa, our team seems to be everywhere these days. Most weeks we’ll publish a few off-the-beaten-path pictures highlighting some tasty experience that lit up one of our iPhones, pocket cams’ or screen captures. Sometimes it’s the simplest things that delight me the most . The picture at the top of this… -
Email Marketing Hall Of Shame: 3 Classic #Fails To Avoid
8 May 2012 | 10:48 amEmail marketing is easy, right? It seems so simple. Yet some respected companies still make classic email marketing mistakes. Read on for an online marketing rant down memory lane. Before there were AdWords, Facebook or LinkedIn targeting, there was venerable email marketing. In this current (tricked out) demographic targeting era, where we regularly model and market to complex “Personas” and their sub- “Personalities,” it’s important to take a step back and remember the basics. Profile your customers by leveraging focused on-hand data. Tread softly. Treat… -
Community Manager Confessions: Why I’m Terrified Of Plasma Screen TVs (Or, How High-5s Saved My Sanity)
27 Apr 2012 | 11:58 amGather round, boys and girls, it’s time for another installment of Community Manager Confessions. If you’re unfamiliar with this social-media-secret-spilling series, it’s because we just created it today. Before we begin, let’s take a moment to exchange a high five with one another. Yes, high fives. Remember those? You know, you put your hand up – yep, yes, just like that, right – very good, and then I swoop in and slap your palm with my palm, but not too hard! Just a nice, even “Yeah, buddy!” high five to show you’re recognized, and… -
Mega CTR-Tastic Sponsored Stories, Live In A Facebook News Feed Near You!
26 Apr 2012 | 5:07 pmBy now, most Facebook users probably have not have noticed Page Post Like Sponsored Stories, FB’s paid organic amplification product, creeping into their news feeds. Facebook marketers, on the other hand, are jumping up and down for joy. CTRs (click through ratios) for Page Post Like stories are through the roof and, with clever second degree of separation targeting, there is obviously hay to be made. Sure, we’ve heard this was coming for months. In fact there has been reporting on the subject since last December. Still, not everyone has seen news feed stories. Now the feature…
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Evision Worldwide
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Industry News – April 2012
30 Apr 2012 | 7:00 amWe present you with some of the most important developments in the industry this month: Is TripAdvisor Site Tingo A Wake-up Call for Bad Revenue Management in Hotels? The 2012 HotelChatter Hotel WiFi Report If You Have a Smart Phone, Anyone Can Now Track Your Every Move Writing Fake Online Reviews? New Google Algorithm Will [...] -
Evision April 2012 Newsletter
30 Apr 2012 | 5:00 amIn This Issue: What’s New At Evision: • Our New Client Services Manager: Chris Messeroff • The Evision Social Media Strategy White Paper, Revisited Upcoming Events: • Keynote Speaker – Arabian Travel Market, Dubai – May 2 • Panel – HSMAI Revenue Management Conference, Baltimore – June 25 • Speaking – California Hotel & Lodging [...] -
Industry News – January 2012
30 Jan 2012 | 3:00 pmThe new year has brought some interesting news from the travel and hospitality market. We present you with some of the most important developments in the industry this month: Google Now Incorporating Google+ Data In Search Results Expedia Plans To Get More Social With Customers Six Largest Hotel Brands Come Together To Form Roomkey.com Google [...] -
Two Can Play At This Game: Hotel Brands Bite Back At Google with RoomKey.com
12 Jan 2012 | 12:12 pmIt turns out the major hotel brands aren’t taking Google encroaching on their territory lying down. If Google is going to create Google Hotel Finder, they’re going to create their own hotel booking search engine. Choice Hotels International, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International and Wyndham Hotel Group — normally intense [...] -
Evision December 2011 Newsletter | Happy New Year!
29 Dec 2011 | 7:05 amIn This Issue What’s New At Evision: • Happy New Year from Evision Worldwide! • Evision celebrated its fifth birthday on December 1 • We moved into our new headquarters in Chicago • A milestone year in review Upcoming Events: • Speaking: InnSpire 2012 – January 23, 2012 From the Learning Center: • Why your [...]
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www.PerryMarshall.com
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The Tipping Point of One Free Man
14 May 2012 | 9:01 amYesterday for Mother’s Day, I blogged a tribute to my long-suffering and faithful wife. David Rothwell, a marketing consultant in the UK, wrote back: “Laura’s unwavering support of Perry has touched even more lives than she knows, including my youngest Charlie (now 10). Although I had a 25 year career in IT before becoming a PPC Consultant, he’s only known me working from home doing this “advertising thang.” My wife has a full time career as a teacher, so I became the house-husband after the catastrophe of 2001 and 9/11. I’ve raised Charlie, and I do all the school runs,… -
Tribute to MamaLaura
13 May 2012 | 8:54 am“The world is held together by moms and duct tape.” A few months ago I sent a CD to Renaissance Club members, where Jack and Matt interviewed my wife Laura. Got more feedback from that than any other interview I’ve put out in years. Peoples’ favorite part was when she said, “Every time Perry would have yet another a massive failure I’d go in some other room and cry, and when I got done, I’d compose myself, go out and support him.” Ah, the joys of being an entrepreneur’s wife. For years we rented a basement apartment for $150/month to a guy… -
Dysfunctions, Addictions & the Financial Burning Bus – Part 8
10 May 2012 | 11:06 amToday I’d like to talk about some head trash I’ve had to clean out of my own brain. Very recently I got another Sozo session (I think this was my fifth one in 2 years) and something really interesting came up: Private Jets. I don’t know about you, but when somebody says “Private Jet” to me, my knee-jerk reaction is: “WAAAY too much money, too ostentatious, a total waste.” Now, what’s the truth about a private jet? The truth is, if your time is valuable enough – like $10,000 an hour – then a private jet is money very well spent. So… -
Rainmaker Head Trash part 2
9 May 2012 | 9:58 amTranscript of a conversation Matt Gillogly had with a customer last week: Matt: “How much do you need to make a month to live, really live. Not eat Alpo, not stress out about buying gas. Have peace of mind. How much each month?” Guy: I charge $200 an hour… Matt: No, what do you need/want a month. Guy: Ummmm……. long pause….. maybe $5,000 a month? Matt: Maybe? why don’t you tell me what you really want.. Guy: Okay… $8,000 a month Matt: So do you think you can get it from dry cleaners? Guy: no… Matt: They why are you focusing on the local market? Guy: Cuz no… -
Rainmaker Head Trash Part 1
8 May 2012 | 10:31 amYesterday I was talking to Matt Gillogly and he said to me, “If I have another conversation with a guy who thinks he’s gonna go out and do marketing for local plumbers and flower shops, I think I’m gonna scream! People are thinking WAY TOO SMALL.” Disqualifier Numero Uno for *any* business deal you ever get into is this: DO THEY HAVE THE MONEY? How much money does the local plumber or flower shop have? How much do they spend on marketing and advertising – right now? If you have this idea that you’re going to hopefully someday get them to $15,000/month and…
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Certified Knowledge
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Use AdWords Search Funnels to Gain Deeper Insights
16 May 2012 | 9:00 amThis is a guest post by Terry Whalen, Managing Director at CPC Search, a San Francisco PPC agency. CPC Search has managed PPC programs for consumer and B2B advertisers since 2006. You can follow CPC Search on Twitter @CPCSearch. We took on a new client in the automotive ecommerce space a couple months ago. We were tasked with increasing year-over-year conversions while driving CPA lower or at least keeping it steady. We did a pretty thorough audit of the mid-five-figures per month account, so we were ready to implement our optimizations on a multitude of fronts. A day or two out of the… -
How to Identify Google AdWords Quality Score Problems
15 May 2012 | 9:00 amQuality Score is such an important factor of AdWords that you need to examine it on a regular basis so that you can monitor it and increase it when necessary. However, if you have thousands or millions of keywords, then trying to find the best areas to improve quality score can be overly time consuming. By using a single AdWords report and a few pivot tables (which are very easy to create) you can identify: How healthy your account is based upon quality score Where you have the greatest financial benefits to increasing quality score Where you have the more impression improvement potential by… -
Attend SMX Advanced Google AdWords Training
14 May 2012 | 9:00 amSMX Advanced is completely sold out; but there are plenty of learning opportunities left. On Thursday, June 7th, I’ll be conducting a full day workshop on AdWords. The basics of the agenda can be seen below; but I try to leave a bit of ‘wiggle room’ for in-depth Q&A and/or to add a topic at the end of the day (favorites so far have been Remarketing, pivot tables, large scale organization, and team organization). The Workshop Agenda Comprehensive Keyword Research: The absolute center of every PPC campaign is keywords. Learn the effective methods to discover and research keywords. -
Does Quality Score Transparency Just Show More AdWords Data Problems?
10 May 2012 | 9:00 amGoogle recently changed how they displayed the Quality Score tips inside of AdWords. The biggest change is that some of the factors will now be relative to your competition. While this is a huge, and very welcome change, it also opens Pandora’s box to show where quality score might not make much sense. How Much Does Landing Page Matter? First off, landing page speed is no longer being displayed. That’s not really a huge issue as I’ve never seen a problem with landing page speed. They instead rolled the landing page issues into one single ‘landing page relevance’ score. For years, if… -
How Google’s New Match Types Can Actually Help You
9 May 2012 | 9:00 amGoogle recently announced that in May they will be adding certain queries to your current phrase and exact match keywords labeled "near phrase" and [near exact]. A lot of debate and frankly hysteria has ensued about what this will mean for advertisers. While each case is different, here’s a specific scenario in which Google’s new match types can actually help you and your account: Broad Match Reduction Advertisers have long struggled with the limitations of phrase and exact match vs. the unpredictability of broad match. While exact match is always the advertiser’s…
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The ROI Revolution Blog
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ROI Revolution has moved!
23 Apr 2012 | 9:07 amYour ROI Revolution team is excited to announce that after almost four years in our previous office building, we have outgrown our space and therefore moved on to a bigger and better office building this past weekend! Our new office is located on Six Forks Road in Raleigh, North Carolina, less than 5 miles from our previous office. Here's our new address: 5510 Six Forks Rd., Suite 200 Raleigh, NC 27609 We are pretty pumped about our new digs! We've moved from 8,100 square feet to 18,500 square feet, and have upgraded from 4 conference rooms to 7, with space to build more. On top of all the… -
Why You Need a Google+ Business Page
29 Mar 2012 | 9:30 amIt's hard to miss the cynicism associated with Google+, Google's social network. With all the commotion about its rivalry with Facebook, don't miss out on its integral role in your business and paid search ads. Google+ Business Pages are a must for online advertisers. With the new interaction Google+ has with paid search results, creating and maintaining a Google+ Business Page can give your company additional credibility with searchers. By taking a few extra steps after creating your page, you can link your Google+ Page with your website and your Google ads. Why would you want to link your… -
30 Day Countdown to the Urchin Software Retirement
28 Feb 2012 | 4:28 pmToday marks 30 days until Urchin's official retirement on Wednesday, March 28th, 2012. After March 28th, Urchin licenses and upgrades can no longer be sold and Google will not be producing any further releases or patches. (With this announcement they did release version 7.200, available for free 30-day trial now). Typical Urchin users include educational institutions, government departments and organizations who prefer to keep their data private. Once purchased Urchin licenses are permanent. Urchin users should be able to continue using the product unless or until their Urchin Software… -
Extend Your Best Season with Remarketing
13 Feb 2012 | 10:38 amRemarketing can extend your busy season by giving you access to your past website visitors after they leave your site. However, without a thoughtful implementation, your remarketing effectiveness is severely crippled. Here are three tips to get you started: Set up multiple remarketing lists With lists, you're able to target cohorts of your website visitors with the most relevant ads pointing to the most appropriate landing pages. Set long initial list durations Google supports remarketing up to 540 days from a visitor's last visit to your site. Use the maximum duration and then make sub lists… -
Urchin Software is Retiring! Sales End March 28, 2012
7 Feb 2012 | 8:24 amThe date has been officially announced for Urchin's retirement this year: March 28th, 2012. Once purchased, Urchin licenses are permanent. Existing users should be able to continue using the product unless or until their Urchin Software installation becomes unusable due to possible incompatible operating systems updates in the future. All of the available pertinent information about how the discontinuation will affect the software's functionality is covered on the Urchin Website FAQ. Urchin licenses and upgrades will only be sold until March 28th, 2012. After March, Google will not be…
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Black Hat PPC
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Google’s Quality Score update
15 May 2012 | 1:31 amGoogle announced the other week that they are providing more transparency for advertisers in regards to keyword Quality Score. They have updated the explanations for keywords when it shows if your ad is showing or not… [useful huh? QS 1/10 is average and QS 10/10 is above average!] So now you get to know whether [...] -
Google Drive – Privacy Policy Concerns
14 May 2012 | 2:19 amGoogle released another innovation this week, Google Drive, which is Google’s answer to Dropbox. Now we know that isn’t really anything to do with PPC but it really annoyed us, so we thought we’d write about it. Why? It’s to do with Google’s privacy statement about Google Drive… Basically anthing you send to your friends [...] -
New Google AdWords Graphs – Misleading Much????
24 Apr 2012 | 1:01 amGoogle have been innovating (again!!!) and this time they have been changing the colours of the Graphs that appear in AdWords. Previously Google’s Graphs used to look like this… Nice and easy to understand. Nice big lines that you can see. Numbers down the left hand side and a key telling you what you are [...] -
Black Hat PPC 2 Year Anniversary!
20 Apr 2012 | 2:11 amToday is Black Hat PPC’s two year anniversary!!! We’d just like to take some time to say thanks to all our readers and all those of you who have contributed to help keep the blog running. It amazes us that when we first started this blog 2 years ago, we had about 5 ideas for [...] -
New Google AdWords Match Types Being Rolled Out in May – Near Exact and Near Phrase, what do they mean?
18 Apr 2012 | 3:50 amThose of you who are logging in to your AdWords accounts today may well see the following notification from Google… New! Improvements coming to exact match and phrase matchTarget your ads better. In mid-May, our improved exact match and phrase match options will include misspellings, plurals and other close variants of your keywords. Google is rolling [...]
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PurePPC
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Writing Compelling Ad Text
26 Apr 2012 | 1:20 pmWriting Compelling Ad Text Sometimes writing ads can be the most intimidating part of running a PPC campaign. A lot of times, AdWords customers won’t know what to say in their ad text so they’ll either stuff their ad with as much information as they can without it really making sense, or they’ll write the bare minimum and leave plenty of useful space blank. Neither of these is ideal. Below are three important steps to take in order to write a great ad. Be Precise. Whatever industry is being marketed, the ads created for that AdWords campaign need to be specific to what’s being sold… -
Adwords Labels are Here at Last!
25 Apr 2012 | 12:29 pmGreat news for PPC managers: Google is rolling out account labels this week! This is very exciting because reporting just got easier. We can now see how certain keyword categories such as, top performing keywords, new keywords, non-brand keywords, etc. are performing on the fly. Right now, we’re limited to organizing keywords into adgroups. The challenge has been there are categories of keywords we need to track that are spread out across multiple adgroups. This includes new keywords we’ve added recently or top keywords that we like to keep an eye on daily. We can now create labels… -
When to Say Adios to Certain Keywords
6 Apr 2012 | 11:57 amHave you ever been attached to your keyword list, hanging on to certain keywords & thinking to yourself, “These keywords haven’t converted in the last six months, but I’m sure they will soon”? Have you ever not wanted to pause a keyword simply because it’s definitely relevant to your business even though the data is telling you that it’s not converting? These are common scenarios that we run into all the time. This begs the question, “When do I pause a keyword?” There are three main times you should always pause a keyword. When a keyword is irrelevant or too broad When a… -
Understanding PPC in Google Analytics
27 Mar 2012 | 12:12 pmWhy is Google Analytics important to PPC? It’s a great tool to help increase your revenue, improve your landing page and help guide your PPC strategy. Being able to understand PPC data in Analytics is the first step towards using it to drive these improvements. Drive Additional PPC Traffic & Revenue The traffic sources report shows the traffic driven to your site by your paid search campaign. To see how this compares to organic, go to: Traffic Sources ->Search->Overview. From here, you can then use the Goals and Ecommerce tab to determine the number of conversions and amount… -
PPC Landing Page Optimization Steps
28 Feb 2012 | 12:46 pmPPC is more than just driving traffic to a site. The success of a PPC campaign lies in what happens after the click. Even if you have a solid account build that follows all the best practices, those efforts will be in vain if the landing page doesn’t convert. A low conversion rate (less than 1%) is a sign the landing page needs improvement. Another sign is if you cost per conversion is really high. If you’d like to get more conversions, (and really, who doesn’t?) landing page optimizations will give them a boost. So, what are you waiting for? Let’s get started. 1. Analyze…
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WordStream
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Poll: Do You Use Facebook Advertising?
16 May 2012 | 9:46 amYesterday the news broke that General Motors (GM) is pulling its Facebook campaign, to the tune of $10 million, claiming the ads don't work. As Pamela Parker at Marketing Land said, "It couldn’t have happened at a worse time for Facebook, which has its initial public offering of stock later this week." According to the Guardian, this move, coming "days before stock market sale" is "seen as an embarrassment by analysts."The infographic we launched yesterday comparing the value of Facebook advertising to the Google Display Network goes some way toward explaining GM's move. We found that… -
How Much Is Facebook Really Worth? Facebook Advertising vs. Google Display Network [Infographic]
15 May 2012 | 8:28 amIs Facebook really worth +$100 billion?That's Facebook's market capitalization, based on where the stock is priced for its upcoming IPO – currently scheduled for this Friday, May 18.I’m no investment analyst, but here at WordStream, we are experts on online advertising. Facebook’s valuation of $100 billion puts it at half the worth of Google. Since both Google and Facebook generate most of their revenue through advertising (advertising accounts for 96% of Google’s revenue vs. 86% of Facebook’s), we can definitely weigh in on the worth question from an advertising perspective.So we… -
The New AdWords Rotation Settings: More Information from Google
14 May 2012 | 8:44 amOn the heels of Google’s sunsetting of ad rotation in AdWords I had some additional questions about how, exactly, the “new ad rotation” would work, so I connected with our Google AdWords rep to get answers to my questions.Here’s what Google had to say about the change:AdWords currently offers three ad rotation settings: optimize for clicks, optimize for conversions, and rotate evenly. Using the “rotate” setting for ad rotation is helpful for testing new creatives, but when run indefinitely can inhibit advertiser performance and deliver less relevant ads to our users.Starting next… -
Linkbait Case Study: Why Nate St. Pierre Claimed Abraham Lincoln Invented Facebook
11 May 2012 | 8:48 amDid y’all hear about Abraham Lincoln inventing the internet (or something like that)? It was the meme of the week, an owl in a box for our time – Nate St. Pierre, a blogger and consultant, told the (long-winded) story of his recent trip to Springfield, Illinois, and how he discovered a patent application filed by Abraham Lincoln in 1845 – for a product that looks and sounds a lot like an early version of Facebook:Lincoln was requesting a patent for “The Gazette,” a system to “keep People aware of Others in the Town.” He laid out a plan where every town would have its own… -
5 Quick Tips to Increase Referral Traffic
9 May 2012 | 9:05 amGenerally speaking there are three kinds of website traffic: direct traffic, search engine traffic, and referral traffic. All are valuable and serve different purposes, but this post focuses on the third kind, referral traffic.Referral traffic is valuable in online marketing because it sends interested readers and qualified potential customers to your site from new domains. It also provides added SEO benefits, since by definition referral traffic is driven either by an inbound link or social activity, both of which send positive signals to the search engines about your site.Need some of that…
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Portent » PPC blog posts – The Internet marketing blog by Portent
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10 Dangerous Defaults in PPC
4 May 2012 | 1:49 pmYou remember that episode where Homer Simpson goes into space as a NASA astronaut? He only got to go because Barney Gumble has an alcoholic relapse and Homer was the second runner up. Scientist: Well, Homer, I guess you’re the winner by default. Homer: Default? Woo hoo! The two sweetest words in the English language: de-fault! De-fault! De-fault! Welcome to my big post of de-faults in AdWords and adCenter that will trip you up, cost you money, cause confusion and eventually make you second runner up to an inanimate carbon rod. (And if you have not seen Deep Space Homer episode in the… -
Expert PPC Management Within Your Reach
26 Apr 2012 | 5:40 pmPay-Per-Click advertising is a beautiful thing. Set up an AdWords or adCenter account and your ads can target thousands of potential customers looking for a product just like yours. Mmm, that’s nice. But it can be complicated and difficult. Especially on a budget. And time consuming. PPC Essentials Package That’s why Portent is rolling out the PPC Essentials Package. PPC Essentials is Portent’s expertly managed PPC package for businesses with paid search budgets under $3,000 per month. The package allows businesses operating on a small budget to have an account set up or managed by a… -
Thurday’s Free Webinar: PPC for Cheapskates
23 Apr 2012 | 12:00 pmHey Everybody! Don’t forget about Portent’s free monthly webinar on Thursday, April 26 at 11am PST. This month, yours truly will be presenting: PPC for Cheapskates. Pick up great tips and tricks to maximize your PPC dollars, whatever your budget size might be. If you have not registered yet, don’t be shy, registration is quick and easy. And the best part is it’s free. Who doesn’t like free things? Join our Event page on Facebook, and don’t forget to tweet with us on Thursday using the hashtag #PortentU. -
The 3 Most Important Lessons I’ve Learned as a PPC Strategist
16 Apr 2012 | 11:43 amI started working at Portent a year and a half ago as an intern. I was fresh out of college and did not know any specifics of internet marketing. I was introduced to the world of paid search during my first few weeks and found it intriguing. As I starting to do more work in AdWords and adCenter, I came to see paid search accounts as a kind of game. The client had a set of metrics they were focused on and it was my job to win; beat last year’s metrics, last quarter’s, last month’s, and last week’s. To this day, the best moments are when I get a big win. It hasn’t always been fun… -
Microsoft adCenter’s Illogical Ad Position Calculations
19 Mar 2012 | 4:10 pmNot too long ago, Bing introduced text ads appearing at the bottom of the search results page in addition to the top and along the right side. However, what you may not know is that these ads can be duplicates with different ad positions. Yes – the same exact ads on a single results page in different positions. Or, as we in the business call it: double serving ads. Allow me to help you visualize: Notice that in my simple search for “clothes,” there are four ads at the top, eight on the right, and two at the bottom. The same ads for Oakland Apparel and Clothing at Freddy’s appear at…
