01.15.07
5 Things you didn’t know about me
In response to Jeff Dempsey’s tag
01.14.07
Christmas for Million Dollar Advertisers
In case you’re wondering what a million dollar advertiser gets for Christmas from its vendors. Check out Chris Hooley’s Blog.
In addition to the above I’ve also received refrigerators, T- shirts, sweaters, iPods, brownies, gift cards and champagne. Here’s also another site about Chris Hooley
20 Reasons to Advertise with Google
I have advertised on all the major search engine platforms and most of the 2nd tier Pay Per Click Engines, and to date Google Adwords is the easiest and most robust system I’ve used. If you’re new to Pay Per Click advertising you should make your first PPC experience positive and choose Adwords. Here are a few reasons why you should advertise with Google Adwords. (By the way Google is not paying me for this)
- Easy, and intuitive interface - Organizes information in a logical order without cluttering the screen.
- Customized reporting - Ability add and remove information in certain reports
- Daily budget caps
- Organizes keywords into Groups and Subgroups - Also known as Campaigns and Adgroups. This is essential for large advertisers or advertisers that sell many different types of products.
- Ad Scheduling - You can specify what time of which days your ads are shown
- Almost real time reporting (about 3 hour delay). You know how many clicks, impressions and dollars you’ve spent in almost real time.
- Ability to pause all ads with a couple of clicks
- Conversion tracking tools - Almost every PPC Search Engineprovider has conversion tracking, but Google also allows you to track 3rd party conversions.
- Ad optimization - This is one of the most valuable features. Ad optimization allows you to do message testing, so you can find out what sells.
- Integrated Google Web Analytics
- Integrated Google Web site optimizer
- Customizable reporting
- Ability to Schedule reports
- Ability to Email reports
- Ability to make quick bid updates
- Ability to make mass bid updates without the need of a mass upload sheet.
- Instant ad approval
- API support - Ability to integrate inhouse reporting with Adwords
- Logs account changes
- Google has at least 60% share of the search market
01.11.07
Maximize PPC Traffic with Syndication
In Adwords, and Yahoo Search Engine Marketing the top bidders get more traffic not only because their ad placement is higher, but also because their ads are distributed across different networks. This process is called syndication. For example, Google supplies sponsored results for Ask, Hotbot, Lycos, MSN, I Won, AOL, Netscape and many more. Yahoo provides sponsored search results for CNN, Alltheweb, Juno, and Altavista. So, if you have the budget and you’re looking to get more coverage consider bidding to the top 3 positions in the major search engines. Check out the search engine relationship chart here and see which search engines depend on which search for natural and paid listings.
adwords alltheweb altavista major search engines search engine marketing sponsored search syndication01.09.07
Yahoo Purchases MyBlogLog for 10M
Yahoo recently made a noticeable effort to enter the social Internet realm by purchasing MyBlogLog. With over 45,000 blogs currently using MyBlogLog, this is a great investment in Yahoo’s part. The official offer was accepted today. MyBlogLog went for 10M. Bradley Horowitz, VP of product strategy at Yahoo, said that MyBlogLog would remain a separate entity, but there are plans to eventually allow you to login with your YahooID. Yahoo is yet to announce if they will place Pay Per click ads on MyBlogLog, but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time.
myBlogLog pay per click product strategy01.04.07
Click Fraud Rates that exceed 20%
The click fraud rate varies across industries as Andy Beal mentioned in his post Click Fraud Rate Higher for More Expensive Keywords. Some of my advertisers who exclusively advertise on the Google Search Network have received refunds that exceed 20% of their total ad spend. Other advertisers in a completely different vertical have received refunds of only 5% of their total ad spend.
The best way to determine what your click fraud rate for your specific industry is, is to check your credits on invalid clicks.
You can find this information by looking at your invoice billing statement in your billing account summary. Although Google doesn’t tell you the actual amount of clicks or campaigns that the invalid clicks originated from, you can detect it yourself by comparing your historical data with that months data. Remember to look at patterns on the keyword level as well as the adgroup level.
Yahoo Panama Startup Links
Ad groups, ad optimization, geo-targeting, scheduling and budgeting are a few of the things that I’m looking forward to in the new Yahoo Panama system.
Here are a few links to get you up to speed with the new system.
01.03.07
Few Different Bid Management Solutions
I’m currently researching for a new bid management solution. Below are a few solutions that I have experience with. There are many bid management software which may be suitable for one advertiser, but every advertiser has unique needs. Some of the factors that will influence your decision are costs, features, and usability.
KeywordMax
Pros
Low pricing
Web based
Manages both Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing accounts
Has performance based bid updates (CPA)
Bid jamming options
Cons
Inefficient way of downloading keywords from Pay per click engines, this is very inefficient for advertiser with hundred of keywords and complex campaign structures
Does bid updates hourly
Unfriendly interface and customer support
Really slow system
BidMaximizer
Pros
Very low pricing
Web based
Has performance based bid updates (CPA)
Bid jamming options
Mirrors campaign organization of keywords from Adwords and Overture
Does bid updates in half hour increments
Cons
Resides on local computer
Atlas OnePoint
Pros
One of the best solutions out there
Webbased
Has performance based bid updates (CPA)
Bid jamming options
Compatible with Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing and many other paid search engines
Cons
Too expensive
Yahoo Search Optimizer
Pros
Overture owned software
Webbased
Has performance based bid updates (CPA)
Free for select advertisers
Cons
Unreliable reporting
Only works for Yahoo Search Marketing
01.02.07
Setting up your Pay Per Click Advertising
The first step in creating your online advertising program is to select keywords that describe your business. Here are a few Pay Per Click tools that help you find relevant keywords that your customers will be searching for.
