We’ll discuss what’s new and improved from Google, specifically custom intent audiences and better page speed insights. But first will you indulge an editorial note? Very high on my list of good advice for bloggers would be, “Don’t go two and a half years without blogging, if you want people to take you seriously.” I…
180fusion? Yes, Definitely!
If you’ll indulge me, I am inclined to be personal today. On one hand, this is not a particularly personal blog. On the other hand, it’s a blog. And in any case, perhaps my personal notes will somehow be a useful or interesting view inside the digital marketing world. Coming and Going Last summer I…
A Few Notes on HeroConf 2015 (and Portland)
Earlier this week, I had the good fortune to spend about 46 hours in Portland, Oregon — mostly downtown. In fact, I was entirely downtown, except for the airport and some travel between the airport and downtown on MAX, the light-rail system. I was there for HeroConf 2015, a useful and enjoyable PPC convention. Whoever…
Seven Popular Ways to Waste PPC Ad Money (Part 2)
Last time I began listing seven great ways to waste your PPC dollars. Here are the last four. 4. Use AdWords Express To use AdWords Express is to tell Google, “Here’s my site. Here’s my money. Advertise however you want.” AdWords Express isn’t even a good stepping stone to regular AdWords; you can’t convert from one…
Seven Popular Ways to Waste PPC Ad Money (Part 1)
I manage pay-per-click (PPC) advertising accounts for a living, so every month I audit or rebuild a few accounts for small-to-medium businesses (SMB). One of the first things I look for in an account is waste. I usually find some. Here are some recurring themes. I’ll speak specifically of Google AdWords, but several of these points…
Be Careful with Those Averages
When I began reporting PPC and other metrics to C-level corporate officers, I had the good fortune to be reporting to people who didn’t just want the numbers. They wanted to know what the numbers meant. If an average something-or-other went up from month to month, they wanted my best explanation — or my best…
Why You Should Use Brand Campaigns
Leave me to my own devices, when crafting PPC ad campaigns for gonculators.com — I hope I’m making that up, with a nod to Hogan’s Heroes — and I will make brand (or branded) campaigns for both search and display networks. The keywords in the search campaign will likely be: +gonculator (the + is for modified broad…
ELROI, My Favorite PPC Metric
When practiced intelligently, Internet advertising is driven by numbers. Get the right metrics, make sure they’re accurate, and manage your PPC accounts patiently and wisely, and you can scale some significant heights, in terms of traffic, revenue, and profitability. Every company in every market is different, of course. Metrics which are readily obtained in one…
Five Things You Need Before You Start PPC
Let’s be realistic. Google will be happy to take your money. So will Bing, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, iAd — whether you get anything in return that makes good business sense for you or not. Of course, it’s much better for Google and the rest if your business thrives and you give them even more money….
What Is PPC?
The short answer is, PPC is for Pay-per-Click. It’s part of search engine marketing, and you’ve already guessed there’s an acronym for that, too: SEM. But you don’t know much more than you did when you started reading this paragraph, do you? Allow me to explain. Every time you run a successful search using Google,…