PPC | Internet Marketing Blog

Avinash Kaushik: When you're buying keywords, don't forget the long tail

Attendees at marketing conferences are often looking for concrete advice, and this morning at Search Engine Strategies New York, they got some.

Google's analytics evangelist Avinash Kaushik had some clear tips for PPC purchases: go after the long tail.

by Meghan Keane 24 March 2010 16:34pm 4 comments

PPC health-check through long-tail analysis

We have all heard about the long-tail of search marketing. And odds are that even if you have not intentionally implemented such a strategy, you are to some extent utilising broad or phrase match keywords, thus capturing a long tail of varyingly relevant searches.

Long-tail keywords are phrases that are not often searched for individually, but in aggregate can create a sizeable opportunity. And with increased user sophistication and complexity of queries, the opportunity grows larger.

by Magnus Nilsson 08 March 2010 08:52am 7 comments

How to control SEO spending post-recession

Remember back when the credit crunch was new? Every other blog post, including a fair few of mine, urged firms not to lose faith in online marketing, not to hack at their search engine marketing (SEM) budgets or lay off members of their online PR team.

I still think it’s important to hold marketing nerve. If you are to grow your business then a successful marketing strategy is essential and budget cuts are not going to help.

However, as the country shudders its way out of a historic recession, achieving an estimated 0.1% of growth in the last three months of 2009, it’s time to face facts. Your money need to work harder.

by Kevin Gibbons 09 February 2010 11:45am 10 comments

Q&A: Nick Carter of ValuePetSupplies.com on infinite email ROI

nick carter, ValuePetSupplies.com What's "infinite email ROI"? Nick Carter, marketing and sales manager for ValuePetSupplies.com says it's making tens of thousands of dollars in revenue from a email campaign that cost him nothing. Literally nothing.

So we caught up with Nick to learn how he's regularly squeezing up to 7,000 ROI from his email campaigns, and made them 451 percent more efficient than paid search marketing. He told us, and also shared some pretty provocative thoughts on how coop ad dollars could be better used if re-allocated to online marketers and the vendors that serve them.

by Rebecca Lieb 13 January 2010 22:46pm 1 comment

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