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While pay per click advertising can be a quick and easy way to drive traffic to your web site, it can also be a quick and easy way to drain your bank account. Christine Churchill, President of KeyRelevance reveals how to get the most bang for your buck from each of the major paid search engines by choosing the right keywords, writing relevant ads and optimizing your landing pages. She will share the simple tweaks you can make to dramatically cut your average cost per click while increasing your sales so you have the best chance against companies with much deeper pockets.
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The Dallas Business Journal recently ran a story on one of our clients, Wasp Barcode Technologies, describing how they went from spending enormous amounts of money on PPC (AdWords) to focusing more on traditional SEO and link building. The strategy paid off -- Wasp spent less and got better results. Their web traffic grew by 60%, topping 600,000 visits while they were able to cut external spending by 13% in the process.
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There are times where it can be difficult to almost impossible for small to medium sized businesses (SMBs) to compete in the paid search environment. As the cost of targeting keywords on venues such as Google AdWords continues to increase, many small businesses are finding it difficult to keep pace. They either have to accept the fact that they can afford only a very thin slice of the pie or abandon paid search marketing altogether.
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As promised last week, Yahoo! is rolling out their new ranking model today for its paid search advertisers. Gone is the highest price gets the highest position model and what is replacing it is a system that operates in much the same way as Google AdWords does. Read on for five tips Yahoo! provides advertisers in preparation of this new ranking model.
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Mark your calendars - as promised, February 5th is the date set that Yahoo! will switch over to a new ranking algorithm for their PPC ad platform. In the same way that Google's AdWords works, Yahoo! will now factor in the ad's quality as well as the bid amount. The old system awarded the highest position to whomever spent the most. Now they will consider how well the ad actually performs along with actual bid amount for each ad. This has been expected since Yahoo! started converting advertisers to their new platform but now has an actual date attached to it.
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In an interview with Andy Beal, Google’s business product manager for trust and safety, Shuman Ghosemajumder, has clarified that Google's click fraud rate is less than 2% of all "invalid clicks", which means the actual number is more likely just a fraction of one percent! This in contrast to the 20% or so that most click fraud agencies report. Andy was able to gain inside access to information never before seen outside of the walls of the Googleplex. Whether that was intention or not, it proves that the click fraud rate discovered by most AdWords advertisers is on average less than 2% of all clicks through Google’s system. Read on for link to article.
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As many Yahoo! Search Marketing advertisers continue to wait for the implementation of the new ad management platform dubbed Panama, some changes have been rolled in the way bids will be managed. This has been done in order to help prepare advertisers for the new platform. The changes will affect the Sponsored Search Manage Bids page so that all advertisers - both those who have upgraded and those who have not - will have equal access to the same relevant bidding information.
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The Inside AdWords Blog makes an announcement today that another update is coming in relation to the quality of advertiser's landing pages. Two changes will take place in how AdWords evaluates landing page quality. The first involves incorporating landing page quality into the Quality Score for your contextually-targeted ads, using the same evaluation process as they do for ads showing on Google and the search network. The second involves improving the algorithm for evaluating landing page quality and incorporating landing page content retrieved by the AdWords system.
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Yahoo adds another blog to their mix - the Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog. Why now? Yahoo! Search Marketing has been around since they originally acquired Overture, right? The reason they are just now launching a blog is to coincide with the launch of their new platform. Subscribe to the feed and you will be able to keep abreast with the latest news and developments surrounding their search marketing platform.
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Yahoo's much anticipated new pay per click advertising platform named Panama is now live. There were speculations that they would wait until after the holidays but Barry Schwartz who is currently visiting Yahoo along with other prominent bloggers has reported that Yahoo has officially released the new platform.
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Do you target specific geographical regions with your AdWords account? Have you wished for a way to test to see if those ads are actually showing for the regions you are targeting? Well now you can preview your ads related to specific regions and localities. Inside AdWords announces a tool that allows you to preview your ads no matter where they're targeted. The search results and ads displayed are not active, so you can preview at will without accruing impressions or accidental clicks. Additionally, you can refine the results page by adding location attributes and values manually to the URL of the ad preview page.
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At the recent Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose, I had the opportunity to see a live demo of the new ad platform that Yahoo! Search Marketing will replace with the old antiquated Overture platform. What is it like? A whole lot like Google's AdWords which is not a bad thing at all. Read on the see some of the features that will be coming in the fourth quarter.
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ClickZ reports that Yahoo is delaying the launch of its revamped ad system dubbed "Panama" after previously stating that it would be launched sometime during the third quarter. Now they are shooting for the fourth quarter. Yahoo blames the delay on previously unforeseen complications in the quality control and testing process. In the meantime, advertisers are left with a very outdated and poorly functioning system.
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Google has recently updated their landing page quality scoring system for AdWords in order to provide a better user experience for those who actually click the ads. This change will target advertisers whose ads lead to a poor user experience. The result is that their minimum bids will increase. What constitutes a poor user experience? Mostly landing pages that consist of nothing but ads or have very little content along with a bunch of ads. As a "quality publisher" (one who runs AdSense but has quality content to go along with the ads) I'll be watching closely to see how this affects profits.
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It's offical! As of July 1st, Yahoo! Sponsored Search (Overture) ads will no longer appear on MSN or Windows Live. They have been slowly phasing the ads out anyway but tomorrow is the official end to the agreement between the two companies. Now if you want PPC exposure on MSN, you'll have to us Microsoft's AdCenter itself.
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Google has release another feature into their AdWords controls - dayparting. You can now choose not only the days but the times that your campaigns run. Want to turn ads off on the weekend? No problem. Do you only want to serve ads a certain time of the day? No problem.
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Google is adding dayparting to AdWords. Advertisers have been asking for it and now they will get it - the ability to schedule ads to show on weekends or weekdays only, or on other set days the advertiser specifies. Dayparting is also included allowing advertisers to schedule their ads during specific hours, such as to run late at night or at lunchtime only.
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No sooner does the ink dry on my 10 Things I Hate About Yahoo! Search Marketing post that Yahoo! announces that they are finally going to revamp Sponsored Search (Yahoo!'s PPC program), at least by this fall anyways. "You've told us your needs and we've listened. A completely redesigned search marketing platform is on its way, full of advanced, easy-to-use features that will help you better connect with Yahoo!'s vast and valuable audience," the email states.
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Just about everytime I manage a Yahoo! Sponsored Search account, I am frustrated to no end. I have nothing against the traffic they bring. It is the antiquated toolset they have for managing your campaigns. It just plain sucks! I can find no better words for it. So, my list of 10 things I hate about Yahoo! Search Marketing.
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MSN adCenter has been in beta since early October, allowing a select few to test the system before going live. Well, it is finally out of beta and with a new name to boot - Microsoft adCenter. Now anyone can open an account with a deposit of $5. This news coincides with the fact that adCenter ads are now running 100% at MSN Search & Windows Live.com.
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ClickZ News reports on a new deal where Verizon's SuperPages.com will use its Yellow Page advertiser's surplus cash to buy Google AdWords.Google already has similar deals with BellSouth and Dex Media, however the SuperPages deal differs in that advertisers don't pay a flat fee for a guaranteed number of clicks.
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When you first read this headline, you might be thinking click fraud, right? But what I am referring to is the Google AdWords Jumpstart or Yahoo! Search Marketing Fast Start programs that essentially allow both PPC providers to set up your campaign for you. Aaron Wall of SEO Book provides some sound advice on whether you should let Google or Yahoo set up your PPC campaigns. The verdict is in that it is probably not the best idea. read on to discover why.
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A recent report by JupiterResearch seems to think so. The study, authored by Sapna Satagopan entitled "Engine Selection Strategies: Campaign Expansion Demands Management Tools" reveals that 40% of marketers are "missing the boat" by relying on only Google and Yahoo! for their paid search campaigns. On the flip side, marketers capitalizing on using a broader range of search engines are the same ones that have better management technologies.
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