Articles by Michael Wiegand
Michael Wiegand // 20 Feb, 2013
AdWords Enhanced Campaigns – PPC Hangout
Portent PPC Google+ Hangouts This will serve as the pilot for Portent’s ongoing hangout series where we talk about paid search current events and give you our analysis and commentary. Today’s hangout topic: AdWords Enhanced Campaigns A new feature announced just recently by Google. It’s caused quite a hullabaloo in the industry, to say the… Read More
Michael Wiegand // 20 Dec, 2012
Mobile User Experience Hell & Toys”R”Us
My daughter just turned 3. And aside from wondering where the devil the last few years of my life went, I’ve been thinking a lot about how to make Christmas special for a girl whose birthday is in December. Charlie loves technology. My iPad 2 was instantly hers the moment I brought it home… Read More
Michael Wiegand // 15 Oct, 2012
Steal This Product Listing Ads Dashboard Before Wednesday
If you’ve followed my blog musings in the last year or so at Portent, you’ll know that I’m a bit of a dashboard nut. My Perfect Google Analytics Dashboard post took off in ways I never imagined. (Thanks guys!) But here’s the thing: I was lying to you all – or misleading you, anyway. There… Read More
Michael Wiegand // 19 Sep, 2012
Google Analytics Shortcuts I’m Saving Immediately
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few weeks, you’ve probably seen that Google Analytics (GA) announced a new beta called Shortcuts: The idea is you can save new report views you’ve just discovered or old report views that you revisit often. How Do I Make a Shortcut? Couldn’t be simpler, really.… Read More
Michael Wiegand // 16 Aug, 2012
Google Analytics Remarketing Lists Beta: Quick Start Guide
Google AdWords (AW) Remarketing has been a brilliant tool from the outset, but let’s not kid ourselves – it’s a bit of a chore to set up. You have to generate yet another tracking code, tag various pages on your site with it and wait for those pixels to gather precious user cookies. Google –… Read More
Michael Wiegand // 14 Jun, 2012
6 Vital Google AdWords Opportunities Tab Tips
Google provides a list of expansion ideas on a periodic basis right in your account under the Opportunities tab: Keyword suggestions, bid suggestions, potential volume – they provide the works: This seems like a slam dunk. It’s not. Google wants you to spend more money in AdWords. End of story. Their suggestions are only based… Read More
Michael Wiegand // 5 Apr, 2012
The Perfect Google Analytics Dashboard
Building dashboards is a big to-do for any marketing professional. The temptation is to cram it full of juicy data and a novel worth of narrative explaining said data. Well, you shouldn’t. Trust me. There is such a thing as the perfect dashboard. And I’ve already built it for you. The Anatomy of the Perfect… Read More
Michael Wiegand // 13 Mar, 2012
The New Yahoo Rich Ads in Search (RAIS) Beta
I can see the video before I click the ad! With Google seemingly rolling out ad extensions every month, the Bing/Yahoo Search Alliance has lagged frightfully behind in terms of ad innovation. Until now. Rich Ads in Search (RAIS) is a hybrid answer to Google’s Ad Sitelinks Extensions and Product Listing Ads. We’ll walk through… Read More
Michael Wiegand // 29 Sep, 2011
Opportunity Analysis using Multi-Channel Funnels
Multi-Channel Funnels (MCF) can provide a lot of valuable data about the entire multi-touch conversion process. But the most common question I’ve heard from people in this industry is – okay, but what do I do with this? Today I’m going to step through using MCF for opportunity analysis both in Paid Search and Organic… Read More
Michael Wiegand // 13 Jul, 2011
Ad Comparison Tool
A few weeks back, I wrote a guest post on PPC Hero about the Profit per Impression (PPI) metric. In the post, I talk about calculating PPI manually using an Excel Spreadsheet. To that end, I created a free spreadsheet to do just that: the Ad Comparison Tool! How does the Ad Comparison Tool work?… Read More
Michael Wiegand // 23 Jun, 2011
QR Codes: A Social Experiment at SMX
A few weeks ago at SMX, I wanted to try something. I was too busy to order business cards in the weeks leading up to the conference. And in lieu of taking generic company cards to the show, I figured I’d make a QR code for folks to scan. QR Code Destination At a conference… Read More
Michael Wiegand // 11 Feb, 2011
Studying for the Google Analytics IQ Exam
I cannot lie – The prospect of taking the Google Analytics Certification Test intimidated me. I know my way around Google Analytics well. I counsel clients. But Google has this way of concocting test questions that are just odd enough to make you question your answers. Would there be lots of questions on the code… Read More
Michael Wiegand // 17 Nov, 2010
Advanced Segment Tutorial #1 – Keyword Groups
I’m Michael Wiegand, resident Analytics nerd at Portent. Let’s be honest: With a slew of new Google Analytics features being launched every 6-12 months, it can make your head spin just keeping up, let alone finding a practical application for them. In this monthly series, I’ll tackle making sense of one of the more powerful… Read More
Michael Wiegand // 28 Sep, 2009
Shout-Out: Hanapin Marketing’s $16,000 SEM Sweepstakes
Our good friends over at Hanapin Marketing – you know, the folks who run the PPC Hero blog – are running a pretty amazing SEM Sweepstakes right now. They have some great prizes available, including: (3) Paid Subscriptions to SEOMoz (1) 3-Month Subscription to ClickEquations (a neat bid management tool that we use at Portent)… Read More
Michael Wiegand // 8 May, 2009
New Predictive PPC Tool: Paid Search Return Estimations
The Paid Search Problem Let’s be honest. All too often, starting or optimizing a paid search campaign is a guessing game. You make obvious changes to your keyword list, rewrite some ads, and setup a new landing page – but for the most part, it’s like a Jackson Pollock painting. You throw a bunch of… Read More