Pay Per Click AdCenter

Do Neilson Ratings Matter Anymore?

2007-07-17T06:02:00.000-07:00

According to an article on CIO-today Neilson/NetRatings is going to base web rankings on time spent on site rather than page views or visits.

Of course this is stirring up a huge controversy because many site with tons of visits and page views are now low on the rankings list and other sites that are sticky, have moved up tremendously.

My opinion, the web is too broad of a space to simply say this is a better measurement over another measurement. Ratings should be judged on verticles and goals. As an ecommerce site, I am looking at both time and traffic, but the bottom line is return on investment. If I am an information site, maybe time on site is more important. An affiliate or ad site may not care about time as long as the person clicks to the external shopping site and converts. Should an ecommerce site like Global Golf have the same ranking criteria as Wikipedia? I don't think so.

Looking For Even More Posts?

2006-09-21T19:32:00.000-07:00

I hope you have been enjoying, and learning from, my posts. I have moved from posting articles on Marketing Pilgrim to TheSEMzone Internet Marketing Blog

Click on over and check it out. Many specialists in the industry are posting there.

In The News For Google Headache Story

2006-07-15T21:55:00.000-07:00

Google Headache article by Al Scillitani on MarketingPilgrim.com

First Mr Scoble writes about it, next thing I know it is on Digg.com with 1000's of diggs. I think it hit over 4700 diggs and 170+ comments.

Not Posting Much Here

2006-07-05T16:21:00.000-07:00

I have been posting articles and paid search information on Marketing Pilgrim. I will continue to post articles there and post important paid search links and seo/ppc articles and info not appropriate for the Marketing Pilgrim Blog on pay per click adcenter.

2nd Tier Engines Revisited

2006-06-11T11:15:00.000-07:00

I wrote a few months ago about 2nd tier engines http://payperclickadcenter.blogspot.com/2006/03/second-tier-engines-should-you-use.html

Using these engines more and more, I am seeing a pattern. It seems if you are in an industry that has problems getting listed in the more common engines, you may have a better chance of succeeding in the 2nd tiers. For example, the sites I had in the pharmacy and adult industry seem to be very profitable in the 2nd tiers. Also, bidding on a clients name for branding seemed to work well. High conversions for pennies.

Other industries that are very common to the larger engines did not appear to do that well. I still suggest trying them all, but keep in mind, if you select to auto-replenish of funds in the 2nd tiers it can suck your overall budget dry without very good results. Set the accounts up without using auto-replenish and test it. If you are not in one of the industries listed above, maybe start with a branding campaign and expand from there. Good luck.

Ian Eisenberg Has Out Done Himself

2006-06-04T17:22:00.000-07:00

I usually write about paid search. Every once in a while I write about something off topic. This time it is about Ian Eisenberg and his new project Blue Frog Mobile .

This site is fantastic. Ian has helped develop this company to sell top notch cell phone ringtones, games, graphics, and more. The games are amazing. Every type of game you can think of is available on your cell phone.

Ian Eisenberg is the President of Blue Frog Mobile. Ian’s years of experience helped increase the sites traffic, products, and services. Some of the games on his favorites list:

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6
Alien Aggression
Alien Xenocide
Felix The Devil
And Splinter Cell

The ring tones seem to go on forever. Thousands of songs and voices (like Mr. T) to choose from. It almost appears to be an unlimited number of choices.

Ian has also announced that it has been chosen by OnHollywood as one of the Top 100 Private Company award winners. The OnHollywood 100 is a power list of the top private digital media and entertainment companies. Blue Frog Mobile was handpicked by the OnHollywood editorial team based on a set of five criteria – innovation, market potential, customer adoption, media buzz and investor value creation.

Blue Frog Mobile provides mobile content and services directly to wireless consumers' mobile devices. By developing the most innovative and compelling mobile content products and services, Blue Frog Mobile reaches a wide audience of wireless subscribers. From ringtones, wallpapers, games and SMS chat services to participatory television, Blue Frog Mobile distributes its content and services through a series of branded offerings and a network of media partnerships.

Yahoo Interface Change

2006-05-30T17:42:00.000-07:00

From Yahoo

New and Improved Sponsored Search
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.
It's an exciting time here at Yahoo! Search Marketing. On May 8, we announced to the world that our completely redesigned Sponsored Search platform is just a few short months away from its official launch in the Fall of this year. We also revealed all of the great new features and tools that will be at your disposal. We truly mobilized our entire business to plan, test and deliver these enhancements to you, and we think that you're going to love the results!
Our new, completely redesigned search ad platform will provide you with an easier, more powerful way to connect to Yahoo!'s vast and valuable audience. The new platform represents a major breakthrough for advertisers, because it's:
Easier and more effective: Yahoo! consulted hundreds of your fellow advertisers to develop a campaign management work flow that is more intuitive and will provide more effective controls and features than any other competitive product.
Action- and insight-oriented: Our new campaign management application will provide you with more visibility and insight into your performance, and more control over how to improve it. This also ultimately provides users with a better online experience.
Built for the future: With the launch of this new platform, in the future Yahoo! will be able to build in features that leverage our unique assets to provide you with many more targeting, format and distribution options.
Powerful New FeaturesIn case you missed the May 8 email or the massive press coverage that followed, the new features that will make advertising with Yahoo! better and more effective include:
Easy-to-Use Control PanelOur completely redesigned, easy-to-navigate control panel will help you see what's working and what's not--at the level of detail you choose--so you can take action and get even better results.
Fast Ad ActivationMost new ads will go online within minutes, allowing you to connect with customers quickly, and easily make changes to your ads whenever you need to.
Ad TestingYou'll be able to easily test multiple versions of an ad to find the message that works best for your customers and provides the greatest return on your advertising investment. You can then choose to shift impressions to the ad that performs best.
Geo-TargetingThe new platform enables you to display your ads broadly or narrow your geographic distribution to better target your customers, customize your ads and control your costs.
Campaign Budgeting, Forecasting and SchedulingYou'll be able to create, budget and schedule individual advertising campaigns for greater control over your advertising strategy and spending. The account interface provides an easy way to review forecasts of your potential clicks based on your bids and budget, and see how many clicks you're leaving to your competitors.
VisibilityWouldn't you like to understand how well your ads are performing relative to your competitors? After launch, a new Quality Index will be displayed for each ad. You'll also see the bid range that is necessary for premium placement at the top of the search results page.
Get Your Map OutThe geo-targeting feature in particular has attracted a lot of interest from your fellow advertisers this month. Geo-targeting will allow you to target your ads to potential customers located or interested in particular geographic areas within the market selected for your account. It looks at factors such as the user's search query or Internet Protocol (IP) address to determine when to display your ads.
For example, if your business sells real estate within the state of California you would want to select California as a geo-targeted region. Then, your ads will be shown to potential customers located in California, as well as to search users who may be located outside of California but who have entered search terms such as "California Real Estate."*
The Transition PlanTo help ensure a smooth transition for you and other advertisers, we're going to take a phased, measured approach to upgrading our large, global customer base into the new system. While each advertiser's formal transition into the new system will take only a short amount of time, the full transition of all Yahoo! Search Marketing advertisers will take place over the course of a couple of months, beginning in the Fall of this year.
During each phase of the upgrade, we will provide you with numerous tools, communications, internal and external training options, an online support center and other resources to help you prepare in advance, get familiar with the new system, and use the new tools and features to their fullest. We will be communicating with you many times over the coming weeks and months to introduce you to the new platform functionality, and offer recommendations on how to prepare your account in advance of the transition.

2006-05-25T18:46:00.000-07:00

This is a fantastic article by Chris Sherman on search behavior and branding.

http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3608456

Google Click Fraud Settlement

2006-05-22T12:24:00.002-07:00

You may get some extra funds in your account to be used for Google advertising?

Lane's Gifts v. Google settlement
As you may have heard, Google has reached a settlement of a lawsuit regarding click fraud. Here's Nicole Wong, Associate General Counsel, to discuss the latest developments:
Now that the preliminary settlement has been approved by the Court, all members of the class are being notified about the settlement.

On May 19 and 20, 2006 (PST), a settlement administration firm sent an email notification (from clicksettlement@xmr3.com and with the subject 'Important Legal Notice Regarding Your Google AdWords Account') to all advertisers who purchased online advertising from Google between January 1, 2002 and the present.I recommend that you carefully review the information in the email and visit the site provided by the administration firm: www.clicksettlement.com. On the site, you will find links to the official settlement notice and settlement FAQs, both of which are in .PDF format. To view these documents, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader.

As we have said in the past, we work hard to manage the issue of invalid clicks, and continue to be very effective in detecting and filtering them in order to deliver outstanding ROI to our advertisers. The vast majority of invalid clicks are detected and filtered out before they reach our advertisers' bills; if advertisers detect additional invalid clicks, our click quality team investigates and provides refunds as appropriate.

You can read more information about invalid clicks and how we manage them here and in the AdWords Help Center here."

Give Your Paid Search Tracking Some Cookies & Milk

2006-05-16T12:43:00.000-07:00

There are several different companies offering paid search tracking. Also, most of the paid search engines offer free tracking for your website, but how reliable are these stats?

In short, depending on your business cycle, these stats may be very unreliable. Why is it based on your business cycle? Cookies!

When someone clicks on your paid search ad a cookie is placed with that customer. If the customer clicks on the ad, goes to your site, buys your green widget for $29.99, it will show as a conversion and sale for $29.99. Now the next customer clicks on your ad, goes to your site, and does not buy today. He buys tomorrow, next Saturday, next month, 60 days from now. This sale will not show coming through paid search unless the tracking systems cookies are set that far out. Your stats will show a click, but no sale.

Google’s conversion tracking sets a 30 day cookie. If a majority of your customers buy in 45 days, your tracking will show your paid search campaign is not working for you because the sales will not show 31+ days past the time the click took place. You need to make sure your tracking system meets your business cycles demands. If not, you may be wasting your time.

Google tracking 30 day cookie
Yahoo tracking 30 day cookie
MSN tracking 30 day cookie

Many of the other more sophisticated and higher cost systems, like Yahoo Marketing Console, Atlas Search, and Coremetrics go up to a 60 or 90 day cookie.

Article written by Al Scillitani

Yahoo Getting Closer To Change

2006-05-08T17:11:00.000-07:00

On April 8, I worte about Yahoo PPC changing to more of a Google platform. Well the changes are coming. Press release was just sent out and here it is...
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?threadid=11476

Trademark Violations and Paid Search

2006-04-27T15:37:00.000-07:00

A competitor is using your company name in their paid search ads to steal your customers. How can this be stopped? Can this be stopped?

First, let me start off by saying all engines try to stay out of copyright issues as much as possible. The last thing they want is to get involved in a dispute between two of their advertisers and be involved in a law suit.

Also, keep in mind, you will have to be your own advocate. Type your trademarked names in each search engine. Also type in your url, www.yourcompanyname.com. Look at the sponsored links to see who is using your name. Some of you may have nothing to worry about, others will be amazed when you see the number of companies using your name to steal your customers.

How to protect yourself:

Google:

Google will allow other companies to bid on your name, but not use your name in the adtext of their ads. Google will not take the initiative in this. You will have to fill out appropriate Trademark forms (link below). Without this paperwork, they will not proceed with ad removals. Make sure you add variations of your trademarked name and add accounts that are allowed to use your name.

http://www.google.com/tm_complaint_adwords.html

Yahoo:

With Yahoo, others are allowed to bid and use your name in adtext as long as the link goes to a site that sells your products. If you have an affiliate program and you do not want affiliates to bid on your name or use it in their adtext, it is very important that in your affiliate agreement you have, in writing, all of those restrictions. If this in not in writing, all of your affiliates can have your trademarked name in their ads and bid on your name directly competing with you for top placements in Yahoo.

You will need to fill out required paperwork.

http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/legal/trademarks.php

MSN – I have never personally dealt with a trademark issue with MSN. I am sure issues will arise shortly as MSN serves only their Adcenter ads. According to MSN:

Advertisers sometimes bid on as keywords, or include within the text of their advertisements, words that are the trademarks of others.

Microsoft requires all advertisers to agree that they will not bid on keywords, or use in the text of their advertisements, any word whose use would infringe the trademark of any third party or would otherwise be unlawful or in violation of the rights of any third party.

An advertiser may use a third party's trademark as a keyword or under certain circumstances, where the use is truthful and lawful. Such uses may be appropriate under the following circumstances:
Reseller. The Advertiser's website sells authentic goods or services that are distributed under the trademark.
Information Site. The main purpose of the Advertiser's site is to provide information (for example, product reviews) about goods or services represented by the trademark, and the Advertiser does not sell or facilitate the sale of any product or service that competes with the goods or services represented by the trademark.
Dictionary Terms that are Trademarks. The Advertiser is clearly using the ordinary, dictionary use of a term, and the Advertiser's site does not sell, of facilitate the sale, of any product or service that competes with the owner of the trademark for such term.

Except for the above exceptions, an Advertiser should not bid on as keywords, or include within the text of their advertisements, words that are the trademarks of others, including trademarks of the Advertiser's competitor.

If you have a concern that your trademark is being used improperly, please contact MSN by completing the form on the Trademark Concerns Page.

Article written by Al Scillitani

New Google Tool?

2006-04-17T19:15:00.000-07:00

Have you heard about Google's new positioning/filtering tool? Are you as confused as everyone else?
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=10899

I would like to see how the quality index, cost per click, costs that you are actually paying per click, and your competitions costs, all come into play. More to come as it comes in.

Yahoo Changing to Google?

2006-04-08T06:51:00.000-07:00

Some time this year, Yahoo is is supposed to be changing their account structure to look like Googles (supposed to be even better).

Now all 3 will be very similar, Google, MSN, and Yahoo. Either Google just lucked out and got it right the first time or they put in the research that was needed before putting out their product? I am just glad that the management of the accounts should be easier now because you can have all the same named campaigns and adgroups. This was hard to do when Yahoo only had Categories and no sub-categories like Google.

The next quetion is, how smoothly will the transition go? Looks like they are taking the first step by creating similar lenght ads http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=9211

Let's keep our fingers crossed.

What is Keyword Matching

2006-03-25T06:45:00.000-08:00

Google and Yahoo both allow different keyword matching options. Of course, they do it differently (wouldn't want it to be easy, would you?). Make sure you are aware of the difference. When you upload keywords, unless otherwise stated, they will default to Broad and Advanced match. This little oversight may cost you big money.

According to Google Keyword matching options are four different methods of targeting your AdWords ads to users. With some options, you'll enjoy more ad impressions; with others, you'll get fewer impressions (but potentially more clicks). By applying more focused matching options to your keywords, you can reach the most appropriate prospects, reduce your cost-per-click (CPC), and increase your ROI. Your options are:
Broad Match - This is the default option. If you include general keyword or keyword phrases-such as tennis shoes-in your keyword list, your ads will appear when a user's query contains tennis and shoes, in any order, and possibly along with other terms. Your ads will also automatically show for expanded matches, including plurals and relevant variations. Because broad matches are sometimes less targeted than exact or phrase matches, you should create keyword phrases containing at least two descriptive words each. You can also try the keyword tool and the other three matching options to further refine your targeting. Finally, keep in mind that other advertisers may have bid for the same broad-matched keyword combinations that trigger your ads, increasing your actual CPC amounts. Using exact, phrase, or negative matches can help you keep your costs low.
Phrase Match - If you enter your keyword in quotation marks, as in "tennis shoes," your ad will appear when a user searches on the phrase tennis shoes, in this order, and possibly with other terms in the query. For example, your ad will appear for the query red tennis shoes but not for shoes for tennis. Phrase matching is more targeted than broad matching, but slightly more flexible than exact matching. To ensure your ads are as targeted as they can be, you may want to include at least two descriptive words in your keyword phrases.
Exact Match - If you surround your keywords in brackets-such as [tennis shoes]-your ads will appear when users search for the specific phrase tennis shoes, in this order, and without any other terms in the query. For example, your ad won't show for the query red tennis shoes. Exact matching is the most targeted option. Although you won't receive as many impressions with exact matching, you'll likely enjoy the most clicks, because users searching for terms in this manner typically want precisely what your business has to offer.
Negative Keyword - If your keyword is tennis shoes and you add the negative keyword -red, your ad will not appear when a user searches on red tennis shoes. You can apply this option for a keyword at both the Ad Group and campaign level. To learn more about the benefits of keyword matching options, view our brief online demo.

Yahoo engine, What is the Standard match type?
The Standard match type displays your listings for exact matches to your keywords, as well as for: singular/plural variations of your keywords common misspellings of your keywords topics that are highly relevant to your keywords topics that are highly relevant to your titles and descriptions What is the Advanced match type?
The Advanced match type drives additional targeted leads to your business from Overture’s high-quality partner network of sites. It helps you grow your business while saving you time and effort by displaying your listings for a broader range of searches relevant to your keywords, titles and descriptions and/or web content. And because you have the ability to track and refine your results specifically for this match type, you'll have the information necessary to keep your ROI on track. To block unwanted matches when using the Advanced match type, use Excluded Words.
Excluded Words will help you refine the matches you receive through the Advanced match type by blocking certain searches that you believe will not be relevant. The examples below illustrate how Excluded Words can help you refine your matches keyword 32 inch colour television excluded word Panasonic Does not sell Panasonic brand. Your ad will not appear if someone searches for "panasonic 32 inch colour television "

Using Yahoo's Daily Budget Tool? Watch Out!!

2006-03-19T13:08:00.000-08:00

When you start or make a change to your Yahoo "estimated daily budget," you may see a huge increase in your spend for the next day or two. Yahoo's budget feature is really a MONTHLY spend cap, not a daily spend cap.

When you add your daily spend, the Direct Traffic Center will run your ads almost wide open until it can figure out what the daily spend will be. If you put in $100 per day ($3000 per month), do not be suprised if you spend $500 in the first two days, then drop to almost nothing days 3 and 4. The Traffic Center is trying to figure what the average is. In most cases, it will eventually level out to the estimated daily spend. This increase and decrease of spend and traffic will most likely happen every time you make a budget change. If you change the budget again in the middle of the month, it may become even more volitale.

Try not to make too many changes. If you have to make a change, try to do it on the same day of every month (ie- on the 1st of every month).

Easy Search Engine Account Organization

2006-03-14T16:56:00.000-08:00

Wondering how to organize your new account?

The easiest and most effective thing to do is to set up your account based on your website’s navigation. Let’s assume you sell sneakers and have a home page, with links to pages: mens, womens, kids, walking. Name your categories accordingly: “General” for your home page broad terms like discount sneakers, buy sneakers, cheap sneakers, etc… “mens” mens sneakers, buy mens sneakers, discount mens sneakers, and all the different models of mens sneakers. You can even break this up into smaller categories based on brands if you have many different brands. Repeat for womens and others.

I would also add a “sale” category for your overstocks and/or for Holidays that you can turn on and off based on your needs.

If you even want to go a step further, when you find your top performing terms (usually an account has 5 to 10 terms that generate about 80% of your revenue), you can move them to a new campaign so you can manage these terms even more effectively. Make sure you set the budget for this campaign higher so the terms are active in the engines as much as possible.

Second Tier Engines, Should You Use Them?

2006-03-09T18:16:00.000-08:00

There are plenty of 2nd tier PPC engines to choose from. Ask.com, Miva (was findwhat), enhance, epilot, 7search, kanoodle, and more. Should you use these smaller engines?

I suggest testing your keywords on some of these smaller engines. Start with maybe a 15 to 20 keyword list. The advantage is lower cost traffic, a disadvantage may be no conversions. So add a few keywords with a very small portion of your total funds for a month as a test. Each engine attracts different types of clientele. I have seen these smaller engines work great for some and produce absolutely no results for others.

So go ahead and test them. If you do it right, you will not have much to lose and may have a lot to gain

Free Google and Yahoo Training

2006-03-05T17:53:00.000-08:00

Did you know Google and Yahoo have free training tools for you to use.

Here is the Google link http://www.google.com/adwords/learningcenter/

Here is Yahoo link http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/rc/srch/tutr.php

After you finish the Google training, you can take the Google Professional Exam. If you meet the other qualifications, you can become a Google Certified Professional. The exam is 104 questions and you need to get 75% or higher to pass. Be careful, some of the questions, I felt, had more than one answer.

What Defines a High Performing PPC Campaign?

2006-02-22T18:56:00.000-08:00

Conversions, Leads, Cost Per Acquisition (CPA), Return on Adspend (ROAS or ROI). There is no definite answer to this question, however too many people use conversions as the factor of their success. Conversions are great, but do NOT define a successful campaign. There is another factor involved that is needed before you decide the conversion was worth it. You need the revenue that conversion generated and the cost of the ad that brought the customer to your site.
For example, you normally get 100 conversions a week at a cost of $500. First question to ask is, how much revenue did the 100 conversions bring in? If you sold $300 worth of products and spent $500 on the ads, you are losing money. If you increase these types of conversions, you will keep increasing your losses. You can even bring it down to the keyword level and find out that out of the 100 conversions, only 3 keywords where converting. Word A cost $100 and brought in $400 in revenue, the other 2 words cost $200 and brought in $100 in revenue. Take Word A and expand upon it, find 2 and 3 keyword phrases and similar words to increase your ROI. Decrease position or remove the other 2 words.
Getting this information can be costly. Some programs, like Yahoo’s Marketing Console, cost around $150 per month for a smaller site, but well worth it.

Correct Paid Search Landing Pages

2006-02-20T19:10:00.000-08:00

Have your paid Search account all set up? You have all of your keywords going to your home page don't you?
If you are selling specific products, your keywords should go to that specific landing page. You sell cast iron mailboxes, your cast iron mailbox keyword should send customer directly to the cast iron mailbox page. The only time I have seen higher conversions going to a companies home page (and it is not consitent so feel free to test), is for informational lead generation sites. It appears customers want to find out more about you before they buy. They end up going to home page and researching other pages before filling out your forms.

Tracking Phone Calls in Paid Search

2006-02-19T09:58:00.000-08:00

Actually you can track the calls coming in. As a matter of fact, you can track the keyword someone used to make the call, the search engine the caller used, and record to the call to listen to later. A service called Who's Calling, http://www.whoscalling.com/ , can do all of that fo you. In one instance, a business records the calls on his iPod, listens on his way home and to work. He found customers asking the same questions, he listened to employees that had higher conversion rates and compared them to others. With this information he added to his training and placed more copy on his site to answer more questions. His conversions went up close to 30%.

You may have also heard that Google is testing a similar type service http://www.google.com/help/faq_clicktocall.html . I think they have a lot of work ahead of them. Google's service will bring up an ad (like a pay per click ad) in a listing where you add your phone number and the company will call you back. The problem I see with this already is with phoney phone calls. From what I have seen, there is nothing in place to prevent people from putting in someone else's phone number. At least it will keep the teenagers busy :)