Articles by Ryan Moothart
Ryan Moothart // 20 Aug, 2015
Maximize Profitability on Your Branded PPC
Alternate Title: How I doubled Return on Ad Spend in branded PPC PPC 101 – Branded Search The first rule of PPC is to make sure you bid on your branded search terms. Actually, scratch that – the first rule of PPC is that all must bow down to Earth’s future overlords, Google. Or was… Read More
Ryan Moothart // 5 Sep, 2014
Getting Started with Mobile Bid Modifiers
Problem Ever since Google AdWords introduced enhanced campaigns, targeting mobile traffic effectively using mobile bid modifiers has been an important strategy for all PPC managers. Some of you may have mobile bid modifiers set in your campaigns already, but aren’t seeing very good results from mobile traffic. Others may have your mobile bid modifiers set… Read More
Ryan Moothart // 28 May, 2014
Leverage Attribution Modeling for PPC
Are you using attribution modeling or assisted conversion data in your PPC reports? If you’re not, you’re missing out on some golden opportunities to leverage data to your advantage. We all know the LNDC model (last non-direct click model—the default used by Google Analytics) is not comprehensive enough for us to see the big picture.… Read More
Ryan Moothart // 6 Feb, 2014
Google Shopping Campaigns Get Results
For the past few months, we at Portent have been trying out Google AdWords’ new Shopping Campaigns format for a couple of our clients. We had been eager to try it out and finally got the opportunity last November when one of our clients was accepted into the beta program. After 2 and half months,… Read More
Ryan Moothart // 25 Sep, 2013
5 Tips to Help You Work from Home Effectively and Efficiently
For three years, I got to work in an awesome professional setting at Portent. Sure, the office space wasn’t as nice when I first started in the outskirts of Seattle as it is now downtown. But that didn’t change the fact that I became part of a close-knit community which thrives in the office environment… Read More
Ryan Moothart // 29 Jul, 2013
Tell a Story – Making Reports Worth Everyone’s Time
Weekly and monthly reporting is one of the most important things I do as a PPC strategist. Clients invest a lot of money into paid search and need to be able to keep track of progress. More importantly though, clients need to understand the strategy and the reasoning behind what’s going on. That’s where I… Read More
Ryan Moothart // 19 Jun, 2013
Correlate, Damn it!
Identifying the Issue with Your PPC Account Have you ever caught yourself staring at data from AdWords, trying to find an explanation to why your conversions dropped x% month over month and y% year over year, and not even knowing where to start searching for an explanation? So many variables come into play on a… Read More
Ryan Moothart // 23 May, 2013
Meet the PPC Team (Star Trek: TNG Style)
Here at Portent, we have many Internet marketing teams: SEO, content, and design, just to name a few. But the best team, objectively speaking*, is the PPC team. *This is completely subjective as I am a member of the PPC team. That does not mean what I say is not the truth. We are a… Read More
Ryan Moothart // 19 Apr, 2013
Why Re-Organizing Your AdWords Account Can Fail in the Beginning
If you have ever re-organized an inherited AdWords account to get in line with best practices by moving keywords into new campaigns and creating new ad copy, you may have noticed how you don’t immediately get the results you were expecting. In fact, you may have concluded that all of the work just made your… Read More
Ryan Moothart // 12 Sep, 2012
Awesome Memes Explain the Basics of PPC
Sean Bean dies in just about every movie and television show he’s in, but that doesn’t mean he’s dumb. And when it comes to paid search, Bean’s Boromir is absolutely right: becoming an expert at PPC takes time, experience, and some good intuition. But before one can master PPC, one must learn the basics. This… Read More
Ryan Moothart // 17 May, 2012
Not Adding Up (Literally) – Google AdWords’ Glitch
This is one of those short posts that will make you squint your eyes slightly, furrow your brow, tilt your head, and say, “Wait, what? This doesn’t make sense.” Like this: I have an account in Google AdWords that has had a conversion metric calculation glitch. I first noticed it a few months ago when… Read More
Ryan Moothart // 16 Apr, 2012
The 3 Most Important Lessons I’ve Learned as a PPC Strategist
I started working at Portent a year and a half ago as an intern. I was fresh out of college and did not know any specifics of internet marketing. I was introduced to the world of paid search during my first few weeks and found it intriguing. As I starting to do more work in… Read More
Ryan Moothart // 19 Mar, 2012
Microsoft adCenter’s Illogical Ad Position Calculations
Not too long ago, Bing introduced text ads appearing at the bottom of the search results page in addition to the top and along the right side. However, what you may not know is that these ads can be duplicates with different ad positions. Yes – the same exact ads on a single results page… Read More
Ryan Moothart // 23 Feb, 2012
6 Tips to Increase Your Click-Through Rate
Click-through rates (or CTRs as we in the business call them) are an important indicator for both your keywords and your ads. It may not be a direct indicator of your conversion performance, but it is a direct indicator of how effectively you’re reaching your target audience. If you’re dissatisfied with the CTR levels in… Read More
Ryan Moothart // 7 Feb, 2012
The Idiot’s Guide to AdWords Extension Ads
You can say a lot of things about Google. You can praise them for setting the standard all search engines seek to meet. You can damn them for being the closest thing to a monopoly we’ve seen on the internet. But one thing you can’t do is chastise them for being boring. Have you seen… Read More