paid search | Internet Marketing Blog

What are the important trends in bid management technology?

Following the release of our PPC Bid Management Technologies Buyer’s Guide, we’re continuing to share some of the insights that those working in the field provided us with in the run up to the guide.

Last time we shared 18 key tips for companies considering bid management technology from our contributors. For this post we share answers to the question, “What are the most important trends occurring in the bid management technology market?”

by Andrew Warren-Payne 15 August 2012 09:17am 1 comment

What are the biggest opportunities within paid search?

On the research team at Econsultancy, before we put together our guides we often seek the input of professionals working at the sharp end of their field.

This was no different for our Paid Search Agencies Buyer’s Guide, where we asked leading specialists from paid search agencies to contribute some of their thoughts as to what has been happening within the industry.

As is always the case, we received far more input than we could put in our report, so we would like to share some of it here.

by Andrew Warren-Payne 14 August 2012 09:06am 1 comment

18 key tips for companies considering bid management technology

In our recently published PPC Bid Management Technology Buyer’s Guide, we set out some of the issues that companies should consider when investing in bid management technology.

To provide the best advice, we approached people working at the coalface of paid search and bid management and offered them the opportunity to share their wisdom.

As usual, we received far more material than we could fit in the guide. Here are some of the expert tips to consider and pitfalls to avoid that will help you get the best possible success out of bid management technology.

by Andrew Warren-Payne 13 August 2012 09:51am 2 comments

New report: mobile and social boost growth in paid search technology

This week, Econsultancy published an update to its PPC Bid Management Technology Buyer's Guide. The report estimates that the market for PPC bid management technology will grow by 17% in 2012, in line with the overall North American search sector, which is predicted to grow from a value of $22.9 billion, to $26.8 billion in 2013.

The report shows that many areas of digital are increasingly integrated, with the biggest opportunities for growth in this sector coming from mobile paid search, a focus on multichannel retailing and the continuing forward march of social media.

by Aliya Zaidi 08 August 2012 13:14pm 1 comment

Paid search should be driven by goals not keywords

Setting goals for PPC I’ve often been asked the question, “What keywords should I target for paid search?”. I don’t think this is the right way to approach paid search investment.

Focusing on keywords first risks making your paid search program untargeted and alienating it from your overall business goals.

I prefer the question: “How can paid search support my business goals?”.

When I first looked at PPC (probably back in 2002), I thought in terms of keywords because I didn’t appreciate where paid search fitted in to the direct channel. Now I think in terms of goals. How can paid search support e-commerce goals and what do we want to achieve?

This blog is my explanation for why you should start your paid search project by defining goals and KPIs, and then let the keywords follow.

by James Gurd 07 August 2012 11:43am 15 comments

For travel, paid search works but email can be a drag: report

It may not be the sexiest digital marketing tool, but email can be a powerful driver of business on today's internet -- big business.

Travel firms using email, however, may want to reconsider their use of email marketing following a study conducted by digital marketing solutions vendor IgnitionOne which looked at the impact of exposure type and sequence on the the effectiveness of cross-channel digital marketing campaigns.

by Patricio Robles 18 July 2012 15:49pm 0 comments

Examining the paid search impact of the Microsoft Yahoo Search Alliance

With the Microsoft Yahoo Search Alliance having finally made it to Europe, we looked at whether companies and agencies would be considering spending more money on the platform, particularly given concerns about Google’s near-monopoly within the UK search engine market.

For our UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report, published in association with NetBooster, we asked companies how they had changed their paid search budgets across Google, Microsoft/Yahoo, and other search engines.

by Andrew Warren-Payne 10 July 2012 09:26am 1 comment

Getting to grips with creative testing for PPC

In the search industry, keywords are thought to be the crux of any campaign, defining the intent of the ad to the searcher, so the challenge of pulling together a compelling creative can be a daunting one.

It comes naturally to marketers to understand their audience and formulate a message, but getting that message across within the narrow limits of a 130 character creative can be a challenge.

For all sizes of paid search programs, creative optimisation is still one of the single most important strategies for increasing traffic, lowering costs and acquiring more revenue.

To make the most out of creative, search marketers have to rely on testing. This involves constantly generating, analysing and repeating new creative in order to deliver a noticeable improvement in keyword-to-creative relevancy.

by Ed Stevenson 27 June 2012 10:03am 1 comment

Mobile search and PPC: are finance brands missing an opportunity?

Mobile search is growing rapidly, increasing by 250% for Q1 year-on-year as traffic on mobile devices increased four-fold. It's also a trend that looks set to continue.

Mobile now accounts for 11% of all UK search spend compared to 8% in the US, yet many companies have been slow to wake up to the opportunities that it presents for increasing brand awareness and customer acquisition.

One such case in point is paid search. Brands are spending big bucks on some keywords, but are neglecting the mobile searcher. This not only reduces the opportunities for acquisition, but could also negatively impact Quality Score.

With this in mind, I looked at which brands are most visible for each of the three most valuable keywords (mortgages, insurance and loans), and whether they make the most of their prominence by linking users to a mobile site.

by David Moth 26 June 2012 10:28am 0 comments

UK paid search market worth more than £4bn – new report

The UK paid search market is expected to grow by 14% and reach a value of £4.19bn by the end of 2012, up from £3.68bn in 2011.

The figure, published today in our UK Paid Search Agencies Buyer’s Guide, includes media spend and money spent on agency services and consultancy.

by Andrew Warren-Payne 30 May 2012 12:09pm 7 comments