PPC

Google just introduced Adwords Remarketing, which lets you target content network ads based on previous audience behavior. Elizabeth Marsten of Portent (my company) just wrote a comprehensive tutorial on using remarketing. It’s a must-read, and I’m not just saying that because it’s one of my staff. Go check it out! [ Google Adwords Remarketing: Everything… Read More

It’s so new that there was bubble wrap on the account when I unwrapped the new “Audiences” tab. If you haven’t heard of it yet, it’s the newest toy being made available in AdWords- Remarketing on the Content Network. Remarketing is not a new concept, the idea of basically, trying again with a potential customer… Read More

Recently I was able to ask some more specific “PPC nerd” questions of an AdCenter rep and got to really drill down into match types, the way the keywords are “locked” together, ad position and how it’s been changed since Bing came online. For those that don’t know, AdCenter keywords are unique for match types… Read More

PPC

Once in awhile someone throws down the gauntlet and you just have to accept. In this case, a former Portentite went on to MarketFish, an email marketing list company in Seattle, claiming that in comparison, paid search is a lesser beast. While I would never throw away a marketing opportunity (we are a full service… Read More

Product Extension Ads isn’t the newest tool on the block from Google AdWords, but it most certainly is pretty cool. Especially if you have a Google Base Merchant Center account with product feed. The Help Center stuff at Google is a wall of explanatory text, but I still found myself emailing the reps asking for… Read More

Dear Yahoo, While I admit that I was pretty annoyed with the Google session based keyword searches, I have to say that Yahoo has them beat. Ever since they advanced “advanced” matching that’s been taking over in PPC accounts, keywords that used to see 3,000 impressions in a month are now seeing 3,000 within a… Read More

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

PPC

Dear Google, I was going through my search query reports the other day and noticed that more and more I am seeing these broad match (session based) results. Interesting. I know that there is no opt out button for this and like my fellow SEMs am in a bit of an annoyed snit, but since… Read More

PPC

And now, a comedic interlude courtesy of Google AdSense: That FOREX trading banner showed up at the top of yesterday’s post, 10 Surefire Ways To Burn Money. If I’m the advertiser, I’m clicking ‘exclude’ in AdSense right now. Of course, most folks never even check their reports. Which is yet another great way to burn… Read More

Periodically you’ll see a post where someone has collected “epic fail” (and not just on the Fail Blog) screenshots of ads gone wrong. The serious plane crash news article next to the banner ad for discount tickets on the same airline that crashed. The diet pill flash banner across a forum for recovering anorexics. A… Read More

After attending a Stratigent workshop with Jennifer Vessenmeyer called “Pimp your Reports” it got me thinking about PPC reporting and how I could be “pimping” my own reports. I don’t mean throwing so much data together that no one will ever read it like a house bill nor exporting something out of AdWords and handing… Read More

As we all already know Google AdWords has beta testing the AdWords Bid Simulator feature since late May/early June. So what’s new since then? I’ll show you: Previous screenshots of the new feature have not included this Cost versus Clicks graph, which gives you a nice visual on how your estimated stats will look like… Read More

PPC

As promised, my presentation from the SMX Advanced session Writing Killer Ad Copy. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. And you’ll completely re-think how you write ads. Keep in mind that this presentation was created for advanced paid search specialists. The purpose of the session was to get people thinking “outside the box.” My job was to… Read More

That’s right, yours truly is on one of many SMX Advanced panels this June 2 and 3rd in Seattle, dedicated to organic, paid search and internet marketing tactics. In particular my panel is on the paid search track for “Writing Killer Ad Copy- The Interactive Edition.” After the conference, I’ll post my presentation here (or… Read More

This week as part of the MSN AdCenter Spring Upgrade a new feature was released that’s been a long time coming: Content Network reports! Ever wonder what those mystery “Microsoft property sites” are? I sure have. I asked an AdCenter rep once and got a “we don’t know either” answer which I found pretty unsatisfactory.… Read More