Are you an awesome PPC manager who knows AdWords and adCenter like the back of your hand, AND can rock social PPC like Facebook and LinkedIn like nobody’s business? Then you may be a good fit!

Hold On! Being a PPC Rockstar is a requirement – but that’s not all we’re looking for! We need someone who loves project management and client interaction as much as they love PPC. Our dream candidate will be able to analyze PPC accounts, assign tasks to the Clix Team, and review the completion of these tasks for accuracy and awesomeness.

What’s in it for you? A chance to work with and learn from the best. A virtual job – no moving required. A flexible work schedule. Competitive pay. Platforms to express yourself through blog posts and speaking gigs.

To get a better idea of what we’re looking for, check out the list of criteria below.

If this list describes you – contact us by email at joe@clixmarketing.com. Send us your resume and three reasons why we must absolutely hire you for the job.

RESUME DEADLINE IS FRIDAY, MAY 4TH!

Tasks/Responsibilities

• Client communication: Communicate with clients on a daily basis via email and phone. Our objective is to provide excellent service and support through concise, timely correspondence.
• Account analysis: Determine opportunities and challenges within PPC accounts by closely analyzing data and discovering performance trends.
• Task implementation: Completing tactics within PPC accounts with a very high level of proficiency.
• Project management: Upon reviewing data within PPC accounts, determine the tactics that need to be implemented by PPC team members and prioritize these tasks in order of importance.
• Quality assurance: Review tasks completed by other PPC team members for accuracy and level of quality.
• Thought leadership: Consistently bring new ideas to the PPC team for implementation within client accounts. This involves keeping up with industry announcements and trends, and deciding which new tactics/strategies are best for each client.
• Ad copy writing: Write super-awesome PPC ad copy for clients. Review ads by other team members to make sure that their work is up to our high standards.
• Conversion optimization (landing page mock-ups): Work with clients to determine strategies to improve conversion rates (lead generation and ecommerce).

Personality/Character

• Data friendly: You need to be able to sift through the overwhelming haystack of data to find the needles, those actionable insights that are the guiding force to optimizing accounts.
• Creative thinking: Every client brings a swath of unique challenges and you need to think creatively in order to meet our monthly goals. This includes new ideas for accounts and creatively analyzing data in order to break new ground.
• Self-motivated: Clix is a virtual working environment so this means there is no boss/manager/executive sitting in the next room looking over your shoulder to get projects completed – you need to be responsible for your time and get your tasks completed in a timely manner. Clix is a much more flexible working environment than most places, but we are also laser-focused on doing great work and serving as an industry leader.
• Task focused: With a large stable of clients (and growing!) you need to be focused on accomplishing specific tactics, as well as making sure that other team members are accomplishing tasks, for each client every day.
• Detail oriented: Every task that we complete for clients is highly sensitive, especially because everything we do is geared toward improving the performance of our PPC campaigns. However, with this level of detailed work, there are plenty of margins for error.
• Inquisitive: You need to have a desire for continued self-development, and the development of others. You need to be the type of person who asks why and why not.
• Verbal/Written communication: For any successful venture, clear communication is key. You need to have elevated communication skills – especially since we work in a virtual environment it’s mission critical to make sure everyone is on the same page, even at great distances.
• Time management: As you can tell from the proceeding list, there is a lot going on with Clix and this position is mission critical. So, it’s extremely important that you have awesome time management capabilities in order to juggle the workload and not lose your mind

If this list describes you – contact us by email at joe@clixmarketing.com. Send us your resume and three reasons why we must absolutely hire you for the job.

One of the biggest differences between the B2B and B2C industries is the length of the average buying cycle. For instance, someone who deciding where they want to eat lunch (B2C) isn’t going to spend six months researching the restaurants in their neighborhood, taste-testing their dishes and worrying if the budget will support their decision. They’ll maybe spend six minutes reading a few reviews on Yelp before heading out the door. On the other hand, if a manufacturing company is looking into buying a new piece of equipment for their new factory, they probably will take 3-6 months researching their options and weighing the cost versus supposed value.

A great B2B SEO and content marketing campaign is going to recognize that the average B2B buying cycle involves a lot of steps before an actual sale is made. You want to create content that addresses the unique needs of each step as a potential customer moves through the sales cycle. These steps include: identifying the problem/need, outlining criteria of ideal solution, researching available options, testing top choices and finally choosing a vendor.

Step 1: Identifying the problem/need

What problems do your products/services solve? For instance, let’s say you’re a software company that sells business finance management software. A small business owner might be looking for a product like yours because they have to manage the company’s finances in-house. Their problem is that they don’t have a strong finance background. Your software is the solution because it is very user-friendly and walks users through the process step by step, prompting them for the right information as it’s needed.
You want to create content that speaks to their need for answers. For instance, you could write a blog post entitled “3 Ways to Better Manage Your Company’s Budget” or an article called “Budget Management Tips for Small Business Owners.” Each of these blog posts addresses the particular needs of your target audience that your company can help with.

Step 2: Outlining Criteria of Ideal Solution

Once your target customer realizes they have a problem, they usually start thinking about the perfect solution. What exactly do they want? How fast do they need to solve their problem? How much are they willing to spend? For the small business owner needing budget management help, they want to get their budget under control as quickly as possible, but they don’t have the funds to hire a financial consultant to do it for them. Their confident in their ability to learn a new software quickly, provided it’s easy to install and user-friendly.
You want to develop content that sets your brand up to be their ideal solution. For instance, you can create a series of “How To” videos that demonstrate the installation process for your software and how to set up initial budget reports. These videos show your target customer how easy your software is to use and how quickly it can start working for them.

Step 3: Researching Available Options  

Unless you exist in a very niche market, chances are you have a few competitors to contend with. Most B2B businesses aren’t going to purchase a product from the first company they come across without doing a little comparative shopping.
How can you use content marketing to set your company apart? The easiest thing would be to do a side-by-side comparison of your company and your top competitors. What does your product do that theirs doesn’t? What makes your product special and unique? How is your product better at solving your target audience’s problems? You can then develop an infographic that compares you and your competitor.  You could also write promotional blog posts for each of your products outlining the benefits or have an industry blogger review them.
You want to use content marketing to your advantage so that your brand dominates the online search space. What keywords are your target customers going to be using to search for your product? Incorporate those into your content so that your brand ranks well for each keyword. The more times your brand name pops up while a target customer is researching their available options the better.

Step 4: Testing top choices

This step might not apply for every B2B company. After all, most office supplies stores don’t let a company “test” out their printer paper before deciding to buy. However, a lot of B2B companies offer trial versions, demo packages, first month free subscriptions and so forth to their customers. Offering these “test drives” makes the customers feel much more confident in their decision, because they know there is still time to change their mind.
You want to create content that is exclusively for your trial period customers. This content could focus on other ways your product can help them, insider tips and best practice guidelines, invitations to webinars or discounts for upgrading. When a potential customer is testing out your product that means you have nearly earned the sale. What is the tipping point for your target audience? All the content you create for this step of the B2B buying cycle should focus on conversion.

Step 5: Choosing a vendor

Congratulations! You’ve got a new customer. But that doesn’t mean you can ease up on your B2B content marketing. You want to make sure that new customer becomes a repeat customer and brand ambassador. For instance, one the small business owner has had your software for a little while, how can you convince them to upgrade to the newest version? What advanced techniques can you teach them in your blog posts, articles and videos that makes them want to do more with your product?
This is the stage in the buying cycle where you can also use user generated content (UGC) to your advantage. Get testimonials and reviews from your happy customers. You can use these to supplement your own website content for each product or on 3rd party peer review sites. The B2B buying cycle is becoming an increasingly social experience. People want to know they are making the right purchase decision and turn to peers for opinions and recommendations.

About the Author

Nick Stamoulis is the President of Brick Marketing (http://www.brickmarketing.com), a white hat link building and SEO services company. With over 12 years of B2B SEO experience, Nick Stamoulis shares his knowledge by posting daily SEO tips to his blog, the Search Engine Optimization Journal (or SEO Journal) and publishing the Brick Marketing SEO Newsletter, read by over 150,000 opt-in subscribers.

Contact Nick Stamoulis at 781-999-1222 or nick@brickmarketing.com

Clix Marketing has been growing at an accelerated rate lately… and we’re only getting started! We need to beef up the team so that we can continue to provide super-awesome service and banging results for our amazing clients.

Are you an awesome PPC manager who can rock Social PPC like Facebook and LinkedIn like nobody’s business? Do you know AdWords and adCenter like the back of your hand? Then you may be a good fit!

What’s in it for you? A chance to work with and learn from the best. A virtual job – no moving required. A flexible work schedule. Competitive pay. A platform to express your deepest PPC thoughts (your deepest secrets and desires!) on the Clix Marketing blog.

To get a better idea of what we’re looking for, check out the list of criteria below.

This position is virtual/remote, and it is part-time with 20 hours per week. There is certainly opportunity for full-time employment down the line!

If this list describes you – contact us by email at HR@clixmarketing.com. Send us your resume and three reasons why we must absolutely hire you for the job.

Tasks/Responsibilities

• Social media PPC management: Successfully create/manage campaigns for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media channels.
• Account analysis: Determine opportunities and challenges within PPC (AdWords and adCenter) accounts by closely analyzing data and discovering performance trends.
• Task implementation: Completing tactics within PPC accounts with a very high level of proficiency.
• Project management: Upon reviewing data within PPC accounts, determine the tactics that need to be implemented by PPC team members and prioritize these tasks in order of importance.
• Thought leadership: Consistently bring new ideas to the PPC team for implementation within client accounts. This involves keeping up with industry announcements and trends, and deciding which new tactics/strategies are best for each client.
• Ad copy writing: Write super-awesome PPC ad copy for clients. Review ads by other team members to make sure that their work is up to our high standards.

Personality/Character

• Data friendly: You need to be able to sift through the overwhelming haystack of data to find the needles, those actionable insights that are the guiding force to optimizing accounts.
• Creative thinking: Every client brings a swath of unique challenges and you need to think creatively in order to meet our monthly goals. This includes new ideas for accounts and creatively analyzing data in order to break new ground.
• Self-motivated: Clix is a virtual working environment so this means there is no boss/manager/executive sitting in the next room looking over your shoulder to get projects completed – you need to be responsible for your time and get your tasks completed in a timely manner. Clix is a much more flexible working environment than most places, but we are also laser-focused on doing great work and serving as an industry leader.
• Task focused: With a large stable of clients (and growing!) you need to be focused on accomplishing specific tactics, as well as making sure that other team members are accomplishing tasks, for each client every day.
• Detail oriented: Every task that we complete for clients is highly sensitive, especially because everything we do is geared toward improving the performance of our PPC campaigns. However, with this level of detailed work, there are plenty of margins for error.
• Inquisitive: You need to have a desire for continued self-development, and the development of others. You need to be the type of person who asks why and why not.
• Verbal/Written communication: For any successful venture, clear communication is key. You need to have elevated communication skills – especially since we work in a virtual environment it’s mission critical to make sure everyone is on the same page, even at great distances.
• Time management: As you can tell from the proceeding list, there is a lot going on with this Clix and this position is mission critical. So, it’s extremely important that you have awesome time management capabilities in order to juggle the workload and not lose your mind.

If this list describes you – contact us by email at HR@clixmarketing.com. Send us your resume and three reasons why we must absolutely hire you for the job.

Today, I noticed a new section under the AdWords campaign Advanced Settings (as did a few folks on Twitter) labeled “Social Settings.” Not only is Google rolling out +1 on Display Network ads, but they are *shockingly* giving us the ability to opt in and out of this feature:

In my opinion, it is crystal clear that Google fully intends to marry their social utilities in +1 with AdWords both on Search and Display. We are still in the early stages, but I anticipate these developments to be permanent. Google +1 is very quickly changing the face of PPC as we know it. What is yet to be seen is how will +1 influence factors such as Quality Score? When will Google begin including social engagement stats in AdWords? Soon is my guess.

Are you ready to start managing your PPC to social engagement metrics? Perhaps that is not the right statement because at the end of the day, we as PPC managers will still be responsible to manage to conversion (revenue, ROI, etc.) metrics. But how will social engagement play into that? How big of a factor will it become? Leave me a comment with your predictions!

Google AdWords’ robust remarketing feature can enhance and expand your PPC campaign. This article will focus on seven high-level strategies that you can employ to bring users back to your website using remarketing after they’ve made their initial visit.

Remarketing: Definition & Basics

When someone visits your website, you can drop a tracking cookie onto their computer. Later, when that individual is viewing other websites that utilize Google AdSense, you can display your PPC ad in front of that user again via the Google AdWords Display Network (GDN).

The objective of this type of targeting is to encourage the user to return to your website – and hopefully convert!

Target Segment Strategies

Remarketing is extremely flexible and you can get tremendously precise with your targeting. You can target users who visit specific pages on your website.

For example, consider this list of targeting strategies:

1. Visits to your homepage: This is your broadest targeting method. You can deliver GDN ads to anyone who visits your homepage.
2. Visits to specific product pages: If you’re an ecommerce client, you can target users who visit specific products on your website. Or if you offer a variety of different services, you can target users for each service they visit.
3. Visits to your landing pages: More than likely, visitors to your landing page will come from PPC. You can retarget these individuals in an effort to gain more value from that initial click.
4. Visits to your shopping cart: If a visitor goes all the way through your website, looks at your products, and actually places one or more items in their shopping cart – they are pretty engaged. You can target users who use your shopping cart but don’t purchase.
5. Visits to your confirmation page: Does your product have a high propensity for reorders? You can target users who visit the purchase confirmation page. You can encourage your previous customers to purchase again by bringing them back to your website with remarketing.
6. Visits to your FAQ/Contact page: If a user looks for additional information on your site, such as your FAQ page or contact form, they have exhibited a high level of interest because they are actively looking for answers. However, if they have to search deep into your website’s content, they may not find what they’re looking for. You can bring these specific users back to your site and help them convert.
7. Visits to your free trial confirmation page: If you offer any type of pre-conversion action, such as a free trial or a whitepaper download, you can target users who complete this initial engagement action. For example, if you offer a 30-day free trial of your product, you can deliver ads to individual who are in this trial period and encourage them to purchase your product.

These are just a few strategies that work. Your remarketing options are as unique as the structure of your website.

How Can These Targeting Segmentations Apply to Your Website?

Ask yourself these questions:

• Why would someone leave your website before converting?
• What does it mean if a user leaves your website on a specific page?
• What would you say to these abandoned visitors to get them back, and how would you convince them to convert?

Mediate on these questions for now. Remember, you have numerous opportunities to make a second impression. But since your first impression didn’t pull the visitor in enough to convert – let’s make the second one count!

Next time: ad messaging tactics and landing page strategies that can help you get the most out of remarketing. See you then.

This article was originally posted on SearchEngineWatch.com on May 13, 2011.

What do I do next? Is this really all I can get out of my PPC campaign?

Even more startling are those PPC managers that never reach the wall due to stagnation. The “set it and forget it” crowd.

Today we’ll cover five common sense ways to push through the proverbial PPC wall so that you can truly maximize your PPC potential.

1. Leverage Existing Campaigns

When you think there is nothing left you can do to improve your PPC performance, the first thing you should do is take a deeper look at your existing campaigns. Hundreds, if not thousands, of articles have been written on this topic. But here are some of the high level ideas:

• Review your campaign settings.
• Analyze your current ad testing and pause losing ads.
• Find keywords with Quality Scores under 7 and break them out into smaller, tighter ad groups.
• Review search query reports and find new negative keywords.
• Test your landing pages.
• Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

It’s so easy to become blind to some of these mundane tasks when you’re entrenched in a PPC campaign, but all of these little tasks add up to big improvements in performance.

2. Don’t Neglect or Ignore Microsoft adCenter

While I still grumble about Microsoft adCenter from time to time, I’m becoming more of a fan with each passing day. As I spend more time managing my adCenter accounts I find that I’m achieving a proportionate level of increases in performance, too.

If you already manage an adCenter PPC account, don’t ignore it. While it may not drive as much traffic or as many conversions as AdWords, it’s still an important piece of the PPC puzzle.

Millions of people actively use Yahoo and Bing search every day and they want to do business with you, too. For those of you who still haven’t started advertising on Microsoft adCenter, well, if you’re looking to get past your PPC wall — look no further.

3. Display Advertising: Duh, Winning!

Cheesy Charlie Sheen references aside, display advertising is “where it’s at.” There is a tremendous potential for any PPC advertiser to discover new customers and dramatically improve PPC performance with Google’s (and Microsoft’s) Display Network.

Create some display campaigns and push some exciting, enticing text ads out and get the ball rolling. Create some image ads — animated if you can swing it — and get those out there, too.

For those of you already complaining because you don’t have the resources to create image ads, Google AdWords has the Display Ad Builder which you can use — for free.

And don’t forget about Microsoft adCenter. Microsoft has a large Content Network (different terminology, but is the same as “Display”). Just note that for now, you can only publish text ads to this network via adCenter.

4. The Art of Remarketing

Remarketing is a fun, exciting extension of Google’s Display Network. For the sake of an example, let’s pretend that you have exhausted all options in your Search Network campaigns, you have rocked your Microsoft adCenter account and dominated the Display Network (this work is never really done, but we’re pretending).

What is left? Start targeting those website visitors that did not convert.

Remarketing lets you place a cookie on a visitor’s computer. When that visitor leaves your website without converting, you can begin to show ads on Google’s Display Network to entice them to come back and complete their purchase.

You can fine tune remarketing to segment visitors by webpage, product, etc., so that you deliver the most targeted ad to them in the future. This is a powerful method of PPC advertising and one that you should consider using ASAP.

5. Social PPC

The new Wild West of PPC advertising is on the social networks. Facebook, LinkedIn, and now Twitter (to name a few) are all developing super-targeted PPC advertising platforms.

There is some learning curve to these platforms as they are considerably different from the comfort zones of Google AdWords and Microsoft adCenter. But don’t let that deter you. They are easy to learn and manage.

So when you’re feeling frustrated because you’ve hit the PPC wall, take a deep breath and open a Facebook Ads account and expand your PPC horizons!

Summary

There you have it — five common sense ways of pushing through the proverbial PPC wall. Or PPC brain block. Or whatever you call it.

My hope is that I have inspired a few of you to press on and find new and exciting ways to improve your PPC performance. Does anyone else have suggestions on ways to improve PPC performance when you feel there is nowhere else to go?

This article was originally posted April 1, 2010 on searchenginewatch.com.

There’s a dark secret that’s being discussed in hushed, desperate tones at Google, Microsoft and Yahoo!: the growth in the number of browser-based searches has slowed. A lot.

How can this be so? The growth in the number of personal computing devices – PCs, smartphones, tablets, netbooks – has accelerated over the past year. Shouldn’t the number of browser-based searches increase proportionately?

If you’re a site owner or online marketer, this is stuff you’d better start tracking – now. I think anyone would agree that developments in online media consumption, which includes Search, are driven by advances in personal computing technologies. New technologies are being deployed at a faster and faster rate. So marketers should pay close attention to upcoming technological advances, which will fundamentally change media consumption and marketing.

Here’s an example of how the pace of technological advances is accelerating. If you’re a science fiction fan you’ll probably remember the scene in Minority Report with Tom Cruise standing in front of a transparent screen, moving objects using hand gestures. Geeks liked me were thrilled to imagine ourselves using such an interface in the distant future.

Now fast-forward from that 2001 science fiction classic to five years later. At that year’s Ted conference Microsoft’s Jeff Han demonstrated the Surface technology, showing the movement of hand-gesture-manipulated objects on a horizontal screen – kind of a monitor table. The crowd clapped and whistled as Han drew squiggles and circles on the screen. But audience members, and the hundreds of thousands of people who watched the video of the event on YouTube, could only dream of someday actually getting their hands on such power.

That day came barely three years later, with the debut of the iPhone and the iOS operating system. Gesture-based manipulation of objects on a touch-sensitive screen was suddenly within the reach of millions of people. Many of these had never used a personal computer, or had tried and failed to use a keyboard- and-mouse-controlled PC, lacking the time or aptitude to learn. Even the real-world metaphor of the file folder is prohibitively difficult for most people to grasp. What is a file, anyway? How can a file be so many different things – a photo, a song or a book? And why do I need to navigate through folders to tuck my document in a safe place – one that I’m forced to remember or face the possibility I’ll lose it forever?

User interfaces featuring direct object manipulation have sparked a sharp increase in the number of people using personal computing devices. Sales of iPads in 2010, the year it was released, were reported to have negatively impacted sales of “traditional” desktop and laptop computers. I think this trend will continue, and the day will soon arrive when there are more gesture-based devices – powered by iOS, Android, Chrome and others – than there are devices that depend on an operating system controlled by a mouse and keyboard.

This has huge implications for website owners. It’s conceivable that many smartphone owners will never use a browser. Why should they, when applications can satisfy most of their needs? And “search” as we now know it may morph into “search in small spaces” – searching within an application.

For example, searching within a recipe application for the term “date” will lead the searcher directly to what she’s looking for: recipes made with dates. She won’t need to wade through pages of search results referring to all of the alternative meanings of the word “date” that are far afield of her objective.

More and more smartphone users will want and expect to conduct their lives and business in small, safe internet-enabled places. Present-day examples of this include Facebook, Xbox gaming, Skype sessions – and the list will grow.

How can you prepare for this shift? Start thinking about how the objectives of a website can be accomplished outside the website. Create an iOS or Android app that will allow customers to convert right inside the app. Experiment with in-game advertising (Google AdWords advertisers can do this now.)

And try to require a bare minimum of user input for the conversion. Easy, ubiquitous payment systems like the ones enriching the coffers of Apple and Amazon will facilitate this. And “off-browser conversions” will be even easier to implement after the next tipping point in the evolution of personal computing: voice input and output.

Yes, we’re about to enter the age foreseen by the Knowledge Navigator video created by John Sculley and others when I worked at Apple. We may not see the video’s anthropomorphic agent on the screen too soon, but the act of talking into a handheld device – and getting a vocal response from it – has already started, and may be in full swing by the time you read this.

Get a taste of this by using Google Voice Search. Or try the new iPhone iLingual application, which accomplishes real-time aural translation. For added comprehensibility, the app, having taken a photo of your mouth, will show a picture of your mouth moving – in the translated language!

You can prepare yourself and your business for this breakthrough by starting now to get experience with “unattended conversion processes.” Many site owners have gravitated to web-based transactions because, they rationalize, they’re more convenient for the customer – and cheaper for the site owner.

But with the growth of smartphones as the only computer device of the majority of people, consumers will more and more prefer or even demand transactions via a phone call. Can you afford to ignore them?

Wait – go back and re-read the first sentence of the last paragraph. Could that possibly be true?

My friend Alexis Gerard of Future Image told me several years ago that, for most people on the planet, their first camera was in their phone – and they would never own a camera. Likewise, we may already have passed the point where, for most people on the planet, their first personal computer was their phone – and they will never own a desktop or laptop computer.

You might find this far-fetched. After all, a US family of five might own 20, 25 or even 30 computer devices – laptops, desktops, phones, tablets, game machines and more

But when you realize that the vast majority of the world’s population holds a tiny fraction of the wealth of the average US citizen, you’ll understand why the “one person, one computer” phenomenon will be (or already is) very real. Example: according to Google, the average Hispanic smartphone user responds to mobile advertising at a rate that’s three times that of the rest of the US population. The reason is clear: many US Hispanics live below the poverty line, and couldn’t possibly afford more than one computer devices.

A few years ago, in response to a question about future directions for the company, then-CEO Eric Schmidt said “…mobile advertising will generate more revenue than advertising on today’s web.” At the time he was accused of hyperbole, but he was really talking about the phenomenon I just described. Even affluent people will find it more convenient to own and carry just one personal computer device. Why bother owning several when the CPU in your smartphone operates at a rate 500x the 1990’s-era Cray – and when storage is unnecessary since all data and documents are stored in “the cloud?”

Within the next year, many smartphones will be equipped with two cameras – one front-facing and the other rear-facing – and a front-facing projector. At that point we’ll see applications that act just like the crazy-futuristic ones Pattie Maes demonstrated at the 2009 Ted conference.

We might even see devices like this one, prototyped by Samsung in 2008: a pen that morphs into a tiny device that projects a screen onto a nearby vertical surface, and a working keyboard projected onto the horizontal surface on which it sits.

Excited? Apprehensive? Then remember the words of Apple Fellow Alan Kay: “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” Start moving your web-based business and marketing efforts in the directions I’ve described, and you’ll gain competitive advantages and first-mover advantages – instead of going the way of the dinosaur.

This is a longer version of an article I wrote for Media Magazine – thanks, Joe!

My Search Insider Summit presentation – no video

The full OMMA Future Advertising with video (>100mb)

Director of Client Services, Clix Marketing

New features are coming soon to Microsoft adCenter. One of the most interesting updates to the adCenter interface is the exposure of your individual keyword Quality Scores.

Let’s explore the attributes of the adCenter Quality Score, how these scores affect your performance, and how you can optimize your account for better rankings.

You may think: why focus on adCenter since AdWords drives the majority of my traffic? That’s a valid question, but your account management focus should shift proportionally as adCenter gains search market share.

Earlier this week Hitwise released their latest search engine rankings showing that Bing-powered search now accounts for 30 percent of search market share (including Bing and Yahoo). That’s nothing to sneeze at or disregard.

A little more anecdotally, Bing just released a pretty slick app for the iPad. Also, Bing was recently the most popular free app for the iPad. Does this mean that the general population is starting to pay a little more attention to Bing?

Ranking Scale

Your Quality Scores will be on a scale of 1 to 10. These scores are calculated at the keyword level.

We aren’t sure what will constitute a “good” score on this scale — for example, in AdWords an acceptable score is 7. It’s pretty safe to assume that a similar score will be applied to satisfactory keywords in adCenter, too.

Quality Score Attributes

In essence, the AdCenter Quality Score is an evaluation of your competitiveness in your keyword marketplace. These scores should help you understand the strength of your keywords when compared to your competitors.

There are three core attributions of the adCenter Quality Score:

• Keyword Relevance: How well your keyword competes against others buying the same keyword.
• Landing Page Relevance: How relevant your ad and landing page are to the search query.
• Landing Page User Experience: Whether the site meets adCenter editorial relevance and quality guidelines.

So, how does adCenter judge if your keyword is relevant to your landing page? According to adCenter, relevant keywords (in their editorial eyes) should do the following:

• Keywords should specifically describe the products and services that are sold on your site.
• Keywords should be supported by substantial information on your site.
• If keywords are trademarks, they should comply with adCenter’s Intellectual Property Guidelines.

How does adCenter determine if you have a great user experience from your ads to your landing pages? Here is a list of guidelines that adCenter will use to judge your landing page/website. You should review this list and see if you have any weak spots:

• Ad content should provide a clear and accurate description of your website content, products, or services.
• Ad content should be as specific as possible; include keywords, if possible.
• Geographically targeted ads should include the name of the targeted location within the ad.
• Ads should not mislead or create the wrong impression with the user.
• Ads should be accurate, truthful, and specific.

Effects on Your Performance

Your Quality Score will not have a direct effect on your performance. Quality Score in adCenter won’t positively or negatively affect your ad rank or cost-per-click (CPC). The objective of these scores is to show advertisers where they are falling behind their competitors in relation to keyword relevancy and landing page user experience.

Ad Rank on Bing will still be determined by your bid, click-through rate (CTR), and overall keyword relevance to the user search query.

Another way to look at this is, the adCenter Quality Score is really a Competitive Score. The Competitive Score is composed of everything outlined above and you’ll see this score in adCenter. The Quality Score is composed of CTR, bid, and overall keyword relevance — and this score influences your ad rank and how much you pay per click.

Optimization Suggestions

So, if Quality Score doesn’t directly impact your ad rank or CPC, what’s the point?

The point is that you can use the Quality Score (Competitive Score) to improve your actual Quality Score. Also, the tactics that you employ to improve one score will have an effect on the other. If you enhance the relevance of keywords, your CTR will improve and this will enhance your Quality Score and Competitive Score.

Here is a short list of suggestions that you can execute in your adCenter account now:

• Create smaller ad groups: adCenter is focused on keyword/ad/landing page relevance. The best way to make sure that all of these elements are harmony is to create small, tightly-themed ad groups.
• Write new PPC ads: Once you’ve broken your keywords into smaller ad groups, write new ads that highlight your core keywords in the headline, body copy, and even the display URL.
• Review your landing pages: Following the guidelines from this article, take another look at your landing pages to make sure they fit these standards.

The adCenter Quality Score differs from that of AdWords. However, when you take a step back and think about it, they are looking for the same thing: they want advertisers to create ad copy that is relevant to a user’s search query and they want the landing pages of these ads to be a relevant and provide a great user experience.

Sure, adCenter doesn’t have the impression volume of Google, but it’s slowly gaining. So, now is the time to get your account structure re-vamped just in case Bing continues to gain on Google.

This article was originally posted April 15, 2010 on searchenginewatch.com.

Are you an awesome PPC manager who knows AdWords and adCenter like the back of your hand, AND can rock Social PPC like Facebook and LinkedIn like nobody’s business? Then you may be a good fit!

Hold On! Being a PPC Rockstar is a requirement – but that’s not all we’re looking for! We need someone who loves project management and client interaction as much as they love PPC. Our dream candidate will be able to analyze PPC accounts, assign tasks to the Clix Team, and review the completion of these tasks for accuracy and awesomeness.

What’s in it for you? A chance to work with and learn from the best. A virtual job – no moving required. A flexible work schedule. Competitive pay. Platforms to express yourself through blog posts and speaking gigs.

To get a better idea of what we’re looking for, check out the list of criteria below.

If this list describes you – contact us by email at HR@clixmarketing.com. Send us your resume and three reasons why we must absolutely hire you for the job.

Tasks/Responsibilities

• Client communication: Communicate with clients on a daily basis via email and phone. Our objective is to provide excellent service and support through concise, timely correspondence.
• Account analysis: Determine opportunities and challenges within PPC accounts by closely analyzing data and discovering performance trends.
• Task implementation: Completing tactics within PPC accounts with a very high level of proficiency.
• Project management: Upon reviewing data within PPC accounts, determine the tactics that need to be implemented by PPC team members and prioritize these tasks in order of importance.
• Quality assurance: Review tasks completed by other PPC team members for accuracy and level of quality.
• Thought leadership: Consistently bring new ideas to the PPC team for implementation within client accounts. This involves keeping up with industry announcements and trends, and deciding which new tactics/strategies are best for each client.
• Ad copy writing: Write super-awesome PPC ad copy for clients. Review ads by other team members to make sure that their work is up to our high standards.
• Conversion optimization (landing page mock-ups): Work with clients to determine strategies to improve conversion rates (lead generation and ecommerce).
• Display ad mock up: Create concepts for image ads. These concepts include writing up descriptions for image ads including possible images to include, content of the ad, as well as animations displayed in the ad.

Personality/Character

• Data friendly: You need to be able to sift through the overwhelming haystack of data to find the needles, those actionable insights that are the guiding force to optimizing accounts.
• Creative thinking: Every client brings a swath of unique challenges and you need to think creatively in order to meet our monthly goals. This includes new ideas for accounts and creatively analyzing data in order to break new ground.
• Self-motivated: Clix is a virtual working environment so this means there is no boss/manager/executive sitting in the next room looking over your shoulder to get projects completed – you need to be responsible for your time and get your tasks completed in a timely manner. Clix is a much more flexible working environment than most places, but we are also laser-focused on doing great work and serving as an industry leader.
• Task focused: With a large stable of clients (and growing!) you need to be focused on accomplishing specific tactics, as well as making sure that other team members are accomplishing tasks, for each client every day.
• Detail oriented: Every task that we complete for clients is highly sensitive, especially because everything we do is geared toward improving the performance of our PPC campaigns. However, with this level of detailed work, there are plenty of margins for error.
• Inquisitive: You need to have a desire for continued self-development, and the development of others. You need to be the type of person who asks why and why not.
• Verbal/Written communication: For any successful venture, clear communication is key. You need to have elevated communication skills – especially since we work in a virtual environment it’s mission critical to make sure everyone is on the same page, even at great distances.
• Time management: As you can tell from the proceeding list, there is a lot going on with this Clix and this position is mission critical. So, it’s extremely important that you have awesome time management capabilities in order to juggle the workload and not lose your mind

If this list describes you – contact us by email at HR@clixmarketing.com. Send us your resume and three reasons why we must absolutely hire you for the job.

The process is super simple. Create an AdWords Master Client Center (MCC). Serendipitously, Google recently simplified this process so that anyone can create an MCC without the help of AdWords support. Just visit this website and follow the instructions. Once you have created the MCC, follow the instructions to add your AdWords account to your new MCC.

At this point, when logged into your AdWords MCC, you will magically (OK, so no magic was really involved) have access to the “old school” report center. Click on the “Client Reporting” tab and behold the glory of your reports.

Enjoy!