04.17.07

Microsoft pouts about recent Google purchase

Posted in New to PPC at 10:41 am by PPC Guy

According to the New York Times, Microsoft and AT&T are not too excited about Google’s recent purchase of DoubleClick. “We think antitrust authorities should take a hard look at this deal and the implications.”

Although and AT&T were both companies that were bidding for DoubleClick. Now that they lost the bid to , they are trying raise suspicion about Google’s intent.

is one of the most popular , however advertiser have many other choices when looking for a 3rd party ad server. Here are a few companies that rival DoubleClick’s .

  • 247realmedia
  • FastClick
  • Mediaplex
  • Tribal Fusion
  • Zedo


03.15.07

Adwords Ad Optimization should be based on CPA

Posted in New to PPC at 5:58 pm by PPC Guy

Adwords is a great tool that helps advertisers and get more for their spends. You can create hundreds of different ad variation to test different messages, at no extra cost. The way the system works is, Adwords rotates your ads and automatically picks the best performing ad based on click through rate. The winning ad is then shown more often. This brings more visitors to your site. Although tells you how well your visitors respond to your ad, a doesn’t always favor the advertiser.

For example, if you had an ad that said “Free Elmo dolls”, and another ad that read “Buy Elmo dolls”. You can assume that the first ad will get a higher click through rate, but fewer purchases. The would be even more useful if would allow advertisers to choose which metric to base optimization on. Google could easily base the optimization on cost per lead because they already keep track of . You can help convince Google to make this system enhancement by filling out the Adwords feeback form here.

02.23.07

Variables that effect your Adwords Ad Performance

Posted in New to PPC at 12:38 pm by PPC Guy

Many different variables effect your . A few of these variables are budget, cost-per-click, keyword, and targeting settings. has an interactive tool that help depict how all these variables interact. Check it out here.


  • Budget: The amount you’re willing to spend on an ad campaign over a period of time.
  • Cost-per-click: The amount you specify your willing to pay each time your ad is clicked on.
  • Keywords: Words or phrases related to your product, or service
  • Region/country targeting: The geographic area where you’d like your ads to appear

02.19.07

Yahoo Ad Optimization feature needs update

Posted in New to PPC at 6:43 am by PPC Guy

The ability to have in is one of the of the new Yahoo Panama, however Yahoo didn’t include into their ad statistics. The fields Yahoo currently reports on are:

  • Ad Name
  • Editorial Status
  • Display Rate (%)
  • Quality Index
  • Impressions
  • CTR (%)
  • Clicks

Although you can tell which message is more appealing to your audience, has a , you don’t know if that message is costing you more that another message with a lower click through rate. I would advise advertisers to test a similar message in first, prior to deleting the ads with a lower . Another work around would be to create a duplicate with all the same keywords and bids only changing the ads. This isn’t the most efficient method, but it will work.

I made this know to our Yahoo representative and hopefully Yahoo pushes into their next round of upgrades.

02.15.07

How to get a better quality score in Adwords

Posted in New to PPC at 11:00 pm by PPC Guy

Google is updating their for by the end of this month. This is part of a series of updates that Google has been slowly implementing for the past two years. The update this time around will not add new elements to the ad ranking score, as much as change the weight that each component receives in the scoring, said Nicholas Fox, a senior business product manager at Google.

Google’s Quality score was previously based on keyword (CTR), ad text relevance, the historical performance of the keyword. Now Google is introducing the user’s experience on the landing page as another factor of Quality score.

This means that Google is going to be placing more weight on . Many advertisers are upset because they don’t understand how this will impact their advertising efforts. What this simply means is that you’ll have to invest more time in creating quality messages and landing pages. Your ad will have to be relevant to the search term and your landing page will have to promote a positive user response. A few tips to accomplish this are:

  • Place keywords into the ad text
  • Use the same keywords and messages you used on your Google ad on your landing page.
  • Test messages to get a high Click through rate

You can check you quality score by enabling the for your adgroups. You can select this column by clicking ‘Customize Columns’ in one of your ad groups. The quality label will give you a general indicator of how well your keywords are performing. Remember, the better your , the less you’ll and the higher your will .

02.14.07

Google Site Targeting CPC Beta

Posted in New to PPC at 10:20 am by PPC Guy

is revamping their campaign pricing model to include both cost per click (CPC) and cost per impression (CPM). Google is currently accepting signups for their which their planning to roll out this March. was one of the first companies to signup. Make sure you signup early, because Google is limiting the number of participants. Here’s the signup form if you’re interested.

02.01.07

Adwords Training Seminars in your city

Posted in New to PPC at 6:10 am by PPC Guy

Google is having Adwords training seminars in the following cities below. Each day-long seminar is divided into two 4-hour sessions. Each seminar costs $249. Google will we handing out advertising credits, USB thumb drives, refreshments and other Google stuff during the seminars. Make sure you
Register in time. Additional training programs will soon be available in other cities. Check here for an email reminder http://services.google.com/ads_inquiry/awseminars

Thursday, February 1, 2007 Alexandria, VA Intermediate & Advanced
Monday, February 5, 2007 San Diego, CA Beginner & Intermediate
Wednesday, February 7 2007 Scottsdale, AZ Beginner & Intermediate