We’re all visual learners to some extent, and that’s exactly why we’re so excited to be able to present a LIVE Enhanced Campaigns migration as this week’s webinar. Watch as Hanapin PPC experts Eric Couch and Carrie Albright dig through …
Posted on 21 May 2013 | 2:01 am
We get it — migrating your AdWords account over to the new Enhanced Campaigns model isn’t always as easy as it sounds. That’s why we’re hosting a free webinar during which we’ll be migrating an account live, from start to …
Posted on 16 May 2013 | 11:54 am
We know you’re eager to start paid search; it can be a crucial way of bringing potential customers to your site. But there are a few things you should make sure you have in place to be successful. 1. Work … Continue reading →
Posted on 16 May 2013 | 5:00 am
It’s safe to say that Facebook.com and YouTube.com are the #2 and #3 most visited websites on the world wide web (behind only Google.com). No big secret there. It’s also pretty safe to assume that you or someone you know … Continue reading →
Posted on 14 May 2013 | 6:09 am
Account expansion can be a tricky business. That's why this week, we're all about teaching you some of the ways you can make your accounts (and profits) grow. Last week, we wrote about best practices for long tail keywords. Today, we're taking it one step further with an easy 4-step process to keyword research.
Posted on 13 May 2013 | 1:13 pm
A great long tail keyword is one of the prized possessions in PPC. If you've found an awesome keyword that no one else is using, you can make a lot profit in running unopposed. But there's a question I've always wondered: just how long should you let your keywords get?
Posted on 9 May 2013 | 1:52 pm
Yesterday, I was really taking a deep look at a client’s account – I was trying to find out why branded searches and conversions have decreased this year compared to last year. And while there were a number of conclusions … Continue reading →
Posted on 6 May 2013 | 6:28 am
We’ve heard the message loud and clear: Google’s Enhanced Campaigns were a hot topic when they were first announced, they were a hot topic during Hero Conf, and they are sure to be a hot topic now, as we slowly …
Posted on 29 April 2013 | 9:40 pm
A lot of folks come to us asking us to help them restore a decline in website traffic that occurred after a site migration or major update. Typically, most – if not all – of the traffic loss was preventable. … Continue reading →
Posted on 29 April 2013 | 5:32 am
Negative keywords are an essential part to any PPC campaign. Combing through Search Query Reports to exclude the irrelevant, poor-performing, and occasionally bizarre query is probably one of the highlights of my week.
Posted on 24 April 2013 | 11:50 am
In digital marketing, cannibalization occurs when a paid search ad “steals” traffic away from an organic listing. You’ll typically find questions associated to this topic like, why should I bid on my brand name keywords? Or, why should bid on … Continue reading →
Posted on 22 April 2013 | 6:10 am
This past week I was in Austin, TX for HeroConf 2013, the PPC Hero conference, and as I may have tweeted out during it (See Exhibit A below), it was a PPC haven for all of us PPC nerds out … Continue reading →
Posted on 15 April 2013 | 6:22 am
The PPC obsessed folks of the world received a bit of a win yesterday when Google announced that they will be releasing ad group level mobile bid adjustments soon. This comes on the heels of the release of enhanced campaigns …
Posted on 10 April 2013 | 9:30 am
As the avid users of AdWords know, Google Analytics has a great report that pulls in cost data from AdWords. If you have an ecommerce site or currency values assigned to your goal conversions, it’ll even calculate ROI. A while … Continue reading →
Posted on 9 April 2013 | 5:54 am
There’s a hidden side to the Display Network that we don’t often talk about. Contextual Keywords, Topics, Placements, and Interest Categories are all common Display Network tricks these days. However, you probably aren’t aware of your other option when it comes …
Posted on 4 April 2013 | 12:15 pm
You’re a paid search manager. You’ve optimized your campaigns’ settings for efficient use of the budget. You’ve spent countless hours conducting keyword research. You’ve built tightly themed campaigns and ad groups. You’re already on the fast track to success but … Continue reading →
Posted on 3 April 2013 | 6:05 am
Google AdWords gives advertisers a myriad of options to target and refine when, where and how their ads are shown on the Search network. And as Jonathan Weber talks about in his most recent blog post about the location report … Continue reading →
Posted on 25 March 2013 | 5:00 am
If you still need to make the jump to Enhanced Campaigns, then you’ve got a few surprises in store. Specifically, there are some new wrinkles in the way that we now bid on Display campaigns. You’re already keenly aware of …
Posted on 21 March 2013 | 3:16 pm
Editorial note: This guest post is a finalist in our Hero Conf scholarship event. Alex Dao is a Senior Manager of Client Services at DataPop in Los Angeles, California. Ever since Google’s Enhanced campaigns announcement, there has been an …
Posted on 17 March 2013 | 10:10 am
In Part 1 of the Demystifying Dynamic Search Ads series, we discussed the pros & cons of incorportating DSAs into your paid search strategy. Now that you’ve decided that Dynamic Search is something you would like to put to use, … Continue reading →
Posted on 11 March 2013 | 4:53 am
Hey Google: Instead of spamming the known universe with Adwords coupons for “new accounts only”, why don’t you let new advertisers actually run some ads for once? There’s something completely broken with the logic of doing everything in your power to bring new businesses to Adwords, then arbitrarily making them pay a “newbie tax” combination [...]
Posted on 29 November 2011 | 10:30 am
Eight months ago I wrote a post highlighting how Google was effectively telling Adwords advertisers they were now approving of the use of Adsense ads on Adwords landing pages. Some readers pointed out that the example they highlighted in that Inside Adwords blog post was only using Adsense blocks below the fold, and in some cases [...]
Posted on 12 September 2011 | 10:00 pm
About a year ago I chatted with David from Boost CTR about his new business, designed to get writers to compete in contests for their advertiser customers to see who could write the highest CTR ads. If the writers’ ads performed better than the customer’s control ads, Boost CTR gets a small commission. Pretty simple [...]
Posted on 30 August 2011 | 7:27 pm
I’ve been wanting to try out sensational headlines for a while now heh:) Based on data from their massive in-house keyword research database and Google’s Keyword Tool, the team at Wordstream compiled the top 10,000 most expensive English-language keywords over a three month period, and then sorted them by niche. Here’s how it breaks down, [...]
Posted on 19 July 2011 | 11:11 am
Perhaps you’ll find this scenario familiar: Your Adwords search campaign for “Vocal Lessons” features a fairly broad, say two-word keyword phrase like “can’t sing”. You notice that the conversion rate is OK on this keyword, but the cost-per-conversion is a bit high. You’ve tried tweaking the bids on it to get it more profitable, but it’s [...]
Posted on 5 July 2011 | 12:05 pm
When asked about future search ad growth on their Q1 2011 analyst conference call, Susan Wojcicki, VP of Product, Adwords & AdSense at Google, went to great pains to point out how “excited” Google is about “embedding movie trailers” into the search ads for the entertainment industry. Movie trailer ads? This is the key monetization area you’re pointing out [...]
Posted on 28 June 2011 | 9:34 am
Some clever eyes spotted this as early as late last week, and yesterday Google officially announced it: You can now see your “Relative CTR” compared to other content ads (text or display ads) shown in the same ad spots on the same content network pages. Google also now says that your ‘relative CTR’ is a [...]
Posted on 15 June 2011 | 11:28 am
I have to say I haven’t really been a fan of the appearance of the Adwords ads Google now shows in the above-the-SERPs positions that include the display URL in an “extended headline”. Personally I think it strongly detracts from the power of your headlines if you’re using great headline ad copy and overall looks [...]
Posted on 31 May 2011 | 2:09 pm
Starting yesterday, Google is requiring additional clarity and disclosure from Adwords advertisers who handle end user personal and payment information. Some of the changes are dead-obvious like using SSL on credit card processing, but the others point to something you might want to consider in a bigger context. The Larger Picture: Google’s Under Siege The [...]
Posted on 18 May 2011 | 4:01 pm
Many remarketing campaigns use discount offer banners to try and recapture visitors who abandon the shopping cart. For example they might ‘remarketing cookie’ bailout users and show them ads offering coupon codes or bundle offers – anything to get them back into a purchase. The only danger with this however is that you might end [...]
Posted on 16 May 2011 | 2:56 pm
Many business owners and marketers can agree the current economy is having an impact on marketing plans, making every dollar and click matter. As part of the TopRank Account Team, I am excited to learn a new perspective to help clients increase conversions for their marketing campaigns. Bryan Eisenberg, Co-founder of Future Now Inc., along [...]
Posted on 18 August 2008 | 7:15 pm
This was an open discussion session where users submitted their sites to get the Google ad copy critiqued and the landing page looked over for quality and usability. Tips included: Keep important information towards the top of the landing page. Be detailed and don’t just assume your visitors know your services. Simpler the better. Put [...]
Posted on 7 December 2006 | 11:21 am
The vendor spotlight session covered alternatives or additives to going with PPC campaigns from companies like Google and Yahoo. They discussed how pay per call was more effective and available in more areas like TV and print than pay per click was. It also doesn’t suffer click fraud and clients like it more as it’s [...]
Posted on 4 December 2006 | 10:46 am
Google Blogscoped posts an interesting explanation of the browse sites to target feature on Google AdWords that Inside AdWords announced on Friday. It provides categories of sites with an idea of the number of impressions each site gets per day. Besides  browsing sites by category, you can also target sites by describing the topic, list [...]
Posted on 16 July 2006 | 8:34 am
Many small and medium sized consumer products marketers strive for the biggest bang for the buck when allocating budgets. While our SEO firm specializes more in BtoB SEO, PR and blogs, there are some fundamental consumer product site promotion tactics we’ve found to be appropriate in many cases. Each is measurable to ROI and can [...]
Posted on 26 June 2006 | 8:10 am
The Google “Inside AdWords” blog has announced the addition of “ad scheduling” or as it is more often know as, “day parting”. “Ad scheduling can also help you improve your ROI by ensuring that your ads run when it makes the most business sense. For instance, a local business may only want to run their [...]
Posted on 16 June 2006 | 7:14 am
Yes dear friends, I’ve said it. Paid search can be a pain in the rear. But no worries, search engine marketing guru Andrew Goodman of Traffick and Page Zero Media promises to shed some light on the subject in conjunction with a Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA) seminar next week. Goodman’s presentation, “IT’S NOT JUST [...]
Posted on 8 June 2006 | 9:20 am
On the heels of MSN AdCenter’s demographic profiling aspirations, Google AdWords now offers demographic site selection with gender, age, and household income as the demographic categories available. The demographic information comes from ComScore. h/t Andy Additional info from: JenStar: “It will be interesting to see if advertisers find that the profiles are matching the resulting [...]
Posted on 9 March 2006 | 6:42 am
Hey, this is interesting. Google is testing some pay per call ads with a program called Click to Call . “Here’s how it works: When you click the phone icon, you can enter your phone number. Once you click ‘Connect For Free,’ Google calls the number you provided. When you pick up, you hear ringing [...]
Posted on 13 February 2006 | 7:36 pm
I just received a review copy of the new book, Google Advertising Tools: Cashing in with Adsense, AdWords and the Google APIs by Harold Davis, author of 20 books, (Googleplex Blog) and published by O’Reilly. Companion site here. Chapters range from SEO and affiliate programs to “Profiting from Adult Sites” (hmmm) and of course whole [...]
Posted on 10 February 2006 | 2:12 pm
A few things on Google today that I decided to roundup all in one post: Possible new Google interface. Anyone else seeing this? Via PC World David Utter from WPN posts about an offline Google AdWords Editor application that is in beta, “invite only” mode. “AdWords Editor is Google’s free, downloadable account management application for [...]
Posted on 25 January 2006 | 8:00 pm