PPC | Internet Marketing Blog

Search marketing stats round up

Here's a selection of recent search stats, taken from a range of sources, including Econsultancy's Search Marketing Statistics document, which forms part of the Internet Statistics Compendium, and other reports...

by Graham Charlton 20 November 2009 09:37am 2 comments

Where should you spend your online budget?

The amount spent advertising online has finally exceeded that amount spent on TV promotions. So, if you're planning to dedicate more marketing money to the web platform, where should you spend that cash?

People are spending more online, both shoppers and advertisers. That means your customers are on the web but it also means your competitors have upped their game.

So you probably plan to increase the amount you spend, but where should you spend that cash? Should you boost your email marketing or ramp up your paid ads?

by Kevin Gibbons 05 October 2009 10:52am 12 comments

Q&A: Ed Stevenson of Marin Software on paid search

Ed Stevenson is the European MD of Marin Software, which provides paid search management technology for advertisers and agencies.

I've been talking to Ed, who is also a guest blogger for Econsultancy, about his predictions for the paid search market, and the impact of the Microsoft / Yahoo partnership...

by Graham Charlton 02 October 2009 09:36am 0 comments

Why you need relevant PPC landing pages

A good landing page is one that reinforces ‘conversion intent’ by providing enough information to persuade customers to convert, but most importantly it has to be relevant to the paid ad that the user has just clicked on.

When shoppers enter a very specific phrase, such as a make and model number of a product, it suggests a clear intention to purchase, and so the landing page has to send the searcher straight to the product page and make it easy to complete the purchase.

by Graham Charlton 29 September 2009 16:04pm 10 comments

Is your PPC agency under-performing? Some warning signs

Has your relationship with your paid search agency soured? Are you in denial about bad service and performance, hoping that things will suddenly change for the better?

To mark the release of Econsultancy’s new Paid Search Agencies Buyer’s Guide, here are some warning signs that it might be time to take your paid search accounts to a more deserving agency.

by Jake Hird 26 August 2009 10:35am 3 comments

Should I buy PPC ads if I rank organically?

Picture this, you've optimised your website and now rank in the top ten for all your major keywords, and first for several. Organic search engine optimisation (SEO) has really paid off.

So what now? Should you pack in the pay-per-click (PPC) adverts? After all, you probably only got them to increase visibility while you boosted the site's natural optimisation, didn’t you?

by Kevin Gibbons 27 July 2009 11:53am 24 comments

Case Study: How a small business more than doubled leads with local paid search

bedco stair lift wheelchair Think senior citizens aren't using the Web to research and buy products? Tim Pelton did. Tim is a sales manager for Bedco Mobility, a company that sells and services products such as wheelchair stair lifts in the Baltimore/Washington DC corridor. For close to 100 years, Bedco advertised in local newspapers and yellow pages.

But calls and leads were dropping precipitously.

Bedco has a website, but never attempted online marketing because the thinking at the company was that senior citizens just plain weren't online. Wrong. The 70-75 year old age bracket is one of the fastest-growing segments of the online population, according to the Pew Center for the Internet and American Life. In 2005, 25 percent of them used the Internet. Last year, 45 percent went online. Older surfers use the Web primarily for searches for things such as health information, e-mail, and buying products.

by Rebecca Lieb 21 July 2009 22:05pm 7 comments

Six 'I's' to help you create ingenious digital marketing campaigns

To loosely follow on from a previous post, it’s not necessarily advisable to ignore innovation and creativity under the current global economic conditions. However, when faced with this kind of negative environment, thinking up imaginative ways to engage with users through existing channels can sometimes become a bit stale.

Here, I’ve compiled a few different examples of relatively recent online campaigns that caught my attention through their resourcefulness and that follow six identifiable 'I's'.

by Jake Hird 17 July 2009 10:31am 0 comments

Gaining equity in your site through improved user experience

One of the benefits of usability improvements is that they keep on delivering long after they are implemented, a compelling proposition for companies trying to make the most of their online traffic and conversions.

I regularly need to discuss the benefits of usability in the context of a specific company’s online business goals.

by Chris Rourke 06 July 2009 11:30am 1 comment

Joining the SEO and PPC dots

Running PPC and SEO campaigns in isolation from each other often means many learnings and advanced SEM tactics and techniques are being missed. This post looks at some of the ways your PPC campaign can inform your SEO strategy and vice-versa.

by Andy Heaps 18 June 2009 10:31am 5 comments