SearchInfluence

Yesterday, Google announced what might be the largest restructuring of the AdWords platform to date: Enhanced Campaigns. Building on (and some say attempting to boost) the influx of mobile advertisements on AdWords, Enhanced Campaigns are an attempt to simplify the mobile pay-per-click management process by removing barriers to ROI calculation for SMB advertisers. While many advertisers are less than enthused about the changes, Search Influence welcomes the new features, streamlined campaign creation process, and simpler campaign management and assessment that Enhanced Campaigns brings to the table.

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PPC Questions & Answers for Small Businesses

I get a lot of questions from clients about starting or maintaining a paid search or Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign. While we at SI are undoubtedly convinced of the positive impact a paid search campaign can have on a small business, others need more information before committing. Some of the most frequently asked questions about a paid search campaign include:

• “What are the advantages and disadvantages of a PPC campaign?”
• “Why should I do PPC if I rank in the first position organically?” in the same sense, “Should I start a PPC campaign until I start ranking organically?”

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I’ve been actively creating and managing Google AdWords campaigns for over five years. In that time, I’ve made a lot of mistakes with everything from keyword selection to match type to ad content. It happens — if no one ever made a mistake on AdWords, we would all be PPC success stories, and that’s certainly not the case. So when I typically see mistakes with sponsored ads, I take a screenshot, write a short heads-up email to the advertiser explaining their mistake, and keep it rollin’. However, over the weekend I came across what could possibly be the worst targeting and most confusing landing page I’ve ever seen on AdWords.

While I was searching for “delaware county oh plastic surgery” (before you start reading too much into this, no, I was not looking for a plastic surgeon. I am quite comfortable with my stout lil’ man-child body), I came across this gem of an ad…

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Organic and paid search are both, at the core, about the search queries. These queries are, of course, sought by optimizing for or bidding on certain keywords. These keywords, found using keyword research tools such as Google’s or Wordstream’s and then turned into a comprehensive list using your favorite keyword expansion tool.

Organic keyword research focuses on traffic, looking for quality descriptors for the products, service, or content offered to the visitor. These descriptors are filtered for the search phrases that are the best fitting and for “low-hanging fruit,” ones with low competition and high value to the business.

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As expected from page 21 of the May 10 quarterly report to the SEC, Google will pay for a Department of Justice investigation into the use of American ad space for illegal Canadian pharmaceuticals. Finding that from 2003 to 2009, Google “both allowed and helped” Canadian pharmacies that tried to sell to US patients, this DOJ settlement avoids criminal prosecution. It’s also one of the largest forfeitures in US history, according to Rhode Island U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha. Crimaldi argues that Google may see long-term reputation damage from the case, which butts heads with the mantra of “Don’t be Evil.”

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On August 11, Facebook was voted as the worst API for developers, in part due to “APIs that… break frequently.” Just the day before, a bug was reported regarding the function of landing pages on Facebook Fan Pages. Canvas Apps, the ones governing FBML and iFrame tabs, are becoming a common way to apply the same concepts as landing pages for PPC ad campaigns to your social media marketing toolset. These pages act as conversion funnels, acquiring social engagement through likes, which spread the brand through “organic” and “paid” social marketing — newsfeed stories and social reach for display of ads. However, highly desirable leads can come from these Facebook Canvas Apps because of a key function.

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Recently I tweeted a statistic from Google that 39% of searchers use their mobile devices while going to the bathroom. While it served the intended purpose of getting people to @ me (I’m incredibly thirsty for Internet attention), I didn’t think about what this statement really meant for SEO. Several days later a friend of mine posted the following on Facebook wall:

 

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Following advertisements for a contest where Facebook fans can enter to win a 60” 3D television, anchors’ guffaws at “The Facebook” and “The Twitter,” and the third run of a talk about how Facebook and social media peacefully brought down a dictator in 18 days, FOX8, our beloved Fox affiliate network channel, ran a special report on Facebook privacy which showed how confused people are about Facebook.

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The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has released the results for their 2010 Half- Year study on Internet Advertising Revenue.

Not surprising to many is that Internet Marketing Revenues for the 1^st half of 2010 alone totaled $12.13 billion dollars – an 11.3% increase over the same period in 2009.  If that number is surprising, it’s likely you haven’t yet had your eyes opened to the wonder that is Internet Marketing.

Obviously I’d be a champion for all businesses to hop on the online marketing train, but my beliefs are founded in the great results I’ve seen in my time working within the field, as well as the benefits that online marketing offers, particularly compared to traditional forms of advertising.

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Data.

This is the most fundamental building block when trying to determine the success of a Pay-Per-Click campaign.

Data tells you if that “iffy” ad copy you wrote is actually paying off and it also tells you when something’s gone belly up and is stinking up your cost per lead. But despite being extremely useful, data is also extremely problematic especially when you are using third party report tool with unrelated PPC platform.  The data gets well… unpleasant. This statement has been especially true for me using tools such as Analytics to track Facebook advertising performance.

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