08.21.07
Must Read Pay Per Click RSS feeds
A few of my co-workers asked my which PPC blogs I read on a regular basis. I responded with this list.
08.07.07
LookSmart explores contextual advertising
LookSmart recently expanded into contextual advertising. They will be serving ads on their FindArticles pages. FindArticles is a database of articles which spans many different topics. The traffic on these articles is currently low, but they expect that within the up coming months that traffic will pick up. Currently Looksmart is only featuring select advertisers into this new program because of the limited traffic. Ask your Looksmart representative if you could participate.
contextual advertising Looksmart07.05.07
Pulse360-Kanoodle releases conversion tracking pixel
Pulse 360 formally known as Kanoodle finally released a conversion tracking tag. The tracking occurs at the sub account level, which is restricting, but there are ways around this. You can get more granular tracking by creating several sub accounts per campaign.
Pulse 360’s conversion tags come in there different flavors. sales/purchases, sign-ups/leads, and views of a particular page.
conversion tracking Kanoodle Pulse 36006.20.07
Google offers Complimentary Campaign Optimization
Google is handing complimentary campaign optimization request. A few of areas that Google optimizes includes:
- Keyword expansion
- ad optimization
- Bid Recommendations
- Ad Copy Recommendations
- Geo Target Optimization
This is a great opportunity. Don’t miss out sign up today.
Ad Copy Recommendations ad optimization Bid Recommendations Geo Target Optimization Google optimizes Keyword expansion05.26.07
Custom Targeting option can save you money
Google now allows advertisers to target their customers from any geographic location worldwide. Historically, Google has only allowed advertiser to target ads based on
Countries, Cities and Regions. As you know, this has many restrictions, because not all cities are included in their list. In addition, if you’re a regional company that only provides your services to a few select locations, then you might be paying for unqualified visitors.
Now, with Google’s customized targeting option, you have complete control of who sees your ads. You now have the ability to choose a custom location based on latitude and longitude. Google provides three different customized targeting options:
- Radius around an address - You can target customers in a circular area around any location.
- Multi point or polygon
- Radius around a longitude/latitude - Instead of specifying an address you can pick a longitude and latitude.
05.07.07
Is Microsoft really trying to buy Yahoo?
Apparently Microsoft and Yahoo have held negotiations for years about this possible takeover. The New York Post reported that the deal could be as much as $50 billion.
Although Microsoft and Yahoo are two of Google’s major competitors, both companies have much catching up to do. The two companies together conducted one-third of all U.S. searches in March, compared with 54% for Google, according to research firm Nielsen/NetRatings.
“Instead of getting bigger, these companies need to think about getting smarter,” said Scott Kessler, an Internet industry analyst with Standard & Poor’s.
microsoft purchases yahoo takeover yahoo takeover yahoo takeover05.03.07
Stay away from 2nd tier engines?
Gordon Choi wrote an interesting post about why not to advertise on 2nd tier pay per click engines. He explains a few strong reasons to stay away from them. To reinforce his point take a look at this chart. 
With a majority of users searching on Google, Yahoo, MSN, ASK and AOL the time you spend setting up and troubleshooting those smaller engines may have been better spent optimizing your engines that drive more qualified traffic. Also, most 2nd tier pay per click engines get their sponsored results from one of the bigger engines, so your ad will most likely already appear there.
04.27.07
Microsoft adCenter on the Road seminar
I recently attended the Microsoft adCenter on the Road seminar. I got to meet some very intelligent Search Media Strategists, Search Media Analysts and other experienced advertisers. A majority of the attendees were from Search Engine Optimization firms and a handful of the attendees were individual adCenter clients. The seminar was primarily focused on the new adCenter interface, best account performance practices, and efficient ways of optimizing your account. We also got advice from various Search Media Strategists on how to make your day to day account management more efficient. The best part of the session has the Q and A section. We had to opportunity to ask very specific questions regarding our account. In addition to adCenter’s new interface, Microsoft also showcased some of their newest technologies at adCenter Labs.
A few of the more exciting PPC tools are
- Search Funnel report
This is a very useful report that could help you isolate keywords that you possibly overlooked. - Keyword Mutation Detection
This report maps out all the misspelling of a keyword. This report is sorted by most searched to least searched. - Keyword Forecast
This is a very useful report that helps you plot seasonality and get relevant demographic information. - Keyword Price Estimation
This will similar to Yahoo’s old bid estimation tool
04.23.07
Adwords, Yahoo and adCenter CTR optimization tips
As we all know, click through rate (CTR) plays an important role for the major pay per click search engines including Adwords, Yahoo! And recently MSN adCenter.
Here are some good practices to follow when accessing your campaign performance.
- Ad rank is low and CTR is high - marketers should consider increasing spend to improve rank and drive more qualified traffic.
- Ad rank is low and CTR is low - marketers should consider reassessing keyword selection and creative.
- Ad rank is high and CTR is low - marketers should reduce bid price and emphasize better performing keywords and creative.
04.18.07
Google, the easiest pay per click advertising system
MSN and Yahoo Search Marketing have much catching up to do if they are going to put a dent on Google’s strong hold on the Pay Per Click search industry. Although MSN and Yahoo are working on enhancing their back end systems, they are not making updates as quickly as Google.
Here are just a few of the updates that Google has made in the past couple of month to adwords.
- Preferred cost bidding
- Reach and Frequency reporting
- Website Optimizer
- Pay-per-action beta
- Audio Ads
- AdWords Editor 3.0
- Pause your keywords, sites and ad creatives
- CPC Site Targeting
I can count on one hand the number of updates that Yahoo has made to Panama since their official launch in February. A superior system and Google’s quick response to customer feedback, is one of the main reasons why Google remains the top provider for Sponsored links. Good luck catching up, MSN, Yahoo.
adwords Pay Per Click Sponsored links
