Part of my job is keeping up on all of the paid search news. It’s easy to get swept up in vast and generous search community only to realize that the general marketing public doesn’t obsess about paid search like we do.

Fortunately, I had a chance to take a step back and think about PPC from a non-search marketer’s point of view for my interview on Marketwire’s Ask The Expert. In their words, “the Ask the Expert interview series is Marketwire’s way of delving into the minds of industry leaders and experts, asking them the most salient and pertinent questions that affect PR, IR and marketing communications professionals.”

In the interview, I tackled 7 broad and tactical questions about PPC:

• Where does PPC fit in the overall marketing mix?
• What are some of the trends in paid search that marketers need to know about?
• What are some of the barriers that keep people from improving their PPC ROI?
• Could you briefly explain what Quality Score (QS) is and provide us with some tips on how people can improve QS?
• Explain the correlation between PPC, SEO and Social. How do you see the three working together?
• When it comes to paid search, it’s important to try to understand the thought process of the customer.  What are your top web analytics metrics that provides this insight?  Can you provide tips on improving these metrics?
• How do you see ClickEquations evolving within the next couple years now that companies and brands have so much focus on social media?

Read the interview here. Thanks to Nick Shin for the opportunity.

Ask The Expert: My Interview about PPC on Marketwire

We’re all trying to improve our paid search performance from our current profit to our potential profit by doing better research, optimizing our campaigns and improving our site. When does it make sense to invest in technology to help you with that process?

That’s the theme of my speech today on the Search Marketing Toolbox panel at Search Engine Strategies San Francisco. I shared the 4 types of problems that prevent you from improving your profit, 43 paid search marketing tools and my Paid Search Marketing Technology Curve.

I recommend when it makes sense to invest in education and which tools you should consider, depending on how important paid search is to your company.

The Paid Search Technology Maturity Curve

We’ve all had that moment. You know, the one where a friend leans across the table and discreetly whispers “You’ve got something in your teeth.” Instinctively, you cover your mouth and scurry off to the bathroom to fix the problem. A flipbook of social interactions races past and you wonder how many people you talked to while that piece of spinach stole the show and undermined your credibility.

As it turns out, while I’ve been yapping on about paid search and web analytics, there’s been a big, old piece of digital spinach stuck in my blog: malware.

Both Phil Pearce (blog) and Nick Stees contacted me to let me know they got a malware warning when from AVG, a security program, when they tried to read my site. Instead of my mildly entertaining insights, they were greeted by a big, ugly warning sign screaming: Run Away!

(click to enlarge)

Not exactly the welcome mat, right?

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Removing The Malware

Among his many useful tips, Phil pointed me in the direction of Sucuri. They bill themselves as a “provider of web-based integrity monitoring and malware detection solutions.” Or, more amusingly, “In simple terms, we clean up the mess. If your site got hacked, blacklisted or infected with malware, we fix it for you. If your site is clean, we monitor it to let you know if a problem ever happens.” I can personally back up their claim. My site was cleaned within 30 minutes of submitting my ticket, all for $10.

Until this incident, I never know Sucuri even existed and only had a vague familiarity with site monitoring and maintenance tools. It’s a bit like traveler’s insurance: you only really pay attention after you lose your luggage.

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Lessons Learned

I’ll leave the details of how my site got infected and the potential defenses to the long list of tips Phil generously shared (included below). The larger point here is that when we think of measurement, we usually focus on marketing and site experience. Most of our analysis includes metrics that are easily accessible in our web analytics tool and generally understood. Even qualitative data focuses on site level and page level surveys.

But what happens if someone can’t get to your site? You may notice a dip in traffic, but if the segment isn’t big enough, you may not. That was certainly the case with me. I only learned about the problem, because two kind souls followed me on Twitter and took the time to reach out. How many more had an issue before I discovered it? What was the hit to my credibility? I’ll never know.

I took away two lessons:

• If you own the site experience, as a marketer or web analyst, you’re also directly or indirectly responsible for site uptime and security. Typically, this belongs to the realm of IT or webmasters. But, we can empower ourselves with our own tools, like Sucuri, to get alerts before issues spread to epidemics.
• Being easily accessible is valuable. A small number of people would ever both to take the time to track me down and help me with my site. It would have been virtually impossible for them to do that if I wasn’t public (on Twitter as DigitalAlex), participating in the conversation and welcoming of contact (I put my phone number and email address on my profile).

On a final note: My apologies if anyone experienced issues after visiting my site. I’ll try to keep the damage to bad analogies.

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Phil’s Tips and Links
You can also try the malware scanner on this site – it can verify the WordPress install is secure – once you have restored from backup (requires login)

• http://www.UnmaskParasites.com/security-report/
• http://www.sitesecuritymonitor.com/unmask-parasites-offer

WordPress Malware & Media Temple

• http://www.uhleeka.com/blog/2010/07/johnnya-wordpress-malware-on-mediatemple/
• http://weblog.mediatemple.net/weblog/category/system-incidents/1378-information-about-compromised-sites/
• http://weblog.mediatemple.net/weblog/2010/07/02/1378-compromised-sites/

WordPress Maintenance

• Backing up and restoring a MySQL database: http://kb.mediatemple.net/questions/129/
• Hardening WordPress and checking for exploits: http://wiki.mediatemple.net/w/Hardening_Wordpress
• Working with a hacked or compromised server: http://kb.mediatemple.net/questions/1577/
• WordPress Backups: http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Backups
• Database Users on the (gs) Grid-Service: http://kb.mediatemple.net/questions/1650/
• WordPress support - http://wordpress.org/support/topic/421834

WordPress Invisibile Administrator Hack (aka JohnnyA)

• How To Fix WordPress Invisible Administrator Attack – http://www.thinkerati.com/whiterabbit/seo-and-online-marketing/wordpress-invisible-administrator-hack/
• WordPress Permalink Hack – http://www.studionashvegas.com/wordpress/latest-wordpress-hack-check-your-permalinks-people/

The Measurement Tool I Wish I Never Had to Use

Paul Adams is a user experience research at Google. He recently gave a speech outlining research by Google and others into how people connect with each other and what that means for the internet.

It’s easy to follow, persuasive and, most importantly, not about technology. It’s about persistent facts about how people behave and what that means for designers (his audience) and marketers (my audience).

It’s a long read, but well worth the time.

The Best Social Media Presentation I’ve Seen

This year, I was honored to be invited to present at SMX Advanced in London. I took the opportunity to vent all of my pent up anger at reports from years spent as a web analyst and Account Manager in a presentation called “4 Ways Reports Suck (And How To Fix Them).

Joking aside, I share 4 ways to make reporting more about optimization. Alex Minchin was kind enough to record my presentation for those who didn’t make it:

SMX London 2010 – Alex Cohen Tells Us Why Reports Are Useless from Alex Minchin on Vimeo.

Video: 4 Ways Reports Suck (And How To Fix Them)

Things have been quiet here on Digital Alex, because I’ve been spending a lot of time writing for Search Engine Watch and speaking at search conferences.

No rest for the weary, though, as I’m presenting a free webinar about keyword research. The webinar was organized by ClickEquations (my company) and Compete, the folks who have a great free competitive intelligence tool (and a pay one that’s much cheaper than Hitwise).

Keywords are the gateway in PPC advertising that connect your business to prospects. But, how do you find keyword niches that are profitable? I’ll talk about 2 unconventional techniques to finding the right keywords (or, rather, search queries):

1. Competitive Intelligence – Discover which words are driving traffic to your competitors sites and which ones drive engagement.
2. Search Query Mining – Uncover the real words people use before they click on your text ad and stop irrelevant clicks

You’ll leave with actionable tips and free tools  you can use immediately to improve your PPC campaigns. Space is limited. Register now!

I’m Presenting a Free Webinar on Keyword Research

Search marketing is 1% data and 99% action. But, we all spend a lot of time on reporting. This presentation, which I just delivered at SMX London, shows you 4 ways PPC reports suck and how you can fix them.

4 Ways Reports Suck (And How To Fix Them)

Google does not make money from organic search. It’s simply content they need to monetize like any publisher.

As with all publishers, their goal is to maximize revenue by:

• Increasing market share
• Improving user loyalty and product usage
• Monetizing users more effectively

In the past few years, Google has made significant improvements in the relevance of their organic search results (content) by introducing Universal Search – the integration of new types of content such as video and product listings directly into search results.

While those changes occurred, PPC ads have largely remained text only. It’s possible that as universal search has gone mainstream, clicks on paid search ads may have suffered. Something had to give.

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The Text Ad Revolution

As I noted in my post 2009: The Year AdWords Attacked Organic Search, Google made a series of changes, some rather dramatic, to their once staid text ads last year.

• February 20, 2009 – Updated Display URL Policy
• March 4, 2009 – Expandable Rich Media Ads on the Content Network (beta)
• March 11, 2009 – Interest Based User Targeting on the Content Network (beta)
• May 14, 2009 – Google Loosens Their Trademark Restrictions
• July 24, 2009 – Local Extensions for Local Business Ads
• August 6, 2009 – Google Moves Paid Ads Closer to Organic Listings
• September 17, 2009 – The DoubleClick Ad Exchange is Integrated on the Content Network
• October 29, 2009 – New AdWords Comparison Ads
• November 3, 2009 – Ad Sitelinks in AdWords
• November 11th and 24, 2009 – Product Extensions Open to All

These changes largely fall under Google’s AdWords New Ad Formats Initiative. When I was at SES Chicago, I asked Devin Sandoz, Product Marketing Manager for AdWords, about the guiding principles behind the initiative. He pointed to the evolution of organic search results as the model for the initiative.

Google is playing with the visual balance between organic and paid search to balance user satisfaction and the average revenue per click/SERP. Any combination of images, videos, PlusBoxes, icons, product listings and multiple text ad links can now appear mixed in with paid search ads.

And this is only the beginning.

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2010: The Year of Universal Paid Search

2010 will be the year of what I’m naming Universal Paid Search – the evolution of online advertising served to searchers on Google and across the web.

Universal Paid Search will be driven by 4 major trends:

1. Increased Ad Diversity
2. Moving Beyond Clickthrough Rate
3. Personalized Text Ads
4. Search Retargeting with Display

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Increased Ad Diversity

Text ads will continue to dominate most search results. However, we’ll see a greater percentage of SERPs with new ad formats and ad extensions blended into text ads, specifically:

• Product listings ads
• Product listing extensions
• Comparative Ads
• Ad sitelinks

The conditions that trigger comparative ad and ad sitelinks are somewhat limited. It’s more likely, then, that product listing ads and extensions will be the first step in increased ad diversity.

Click to Enlarge

New ad formats are more disruptive than ad extensions, so I expect that Google be more liberal with their beta tests for ad extensions. These often come in the form of their PlusBox. For example, rich media ads were introduced to the Content Network through the PlusBox earlier this year. As this analysis shows, the presence of PlusBox does increase clickthrough rates.

Click to Enlarge

I wouldn’t be surprised if we see video ads wade into the waters through the PlusBox. They’ve already tested these out in the entertainment area. PlusBox could also help recoup some of the massive drop in search spending within the pharmaceutical industry by adding a place for fair balance.

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Moving Beyond Clickthrough Rate

Universal Paid Search isn’t just about new ads, it’s also about new calls-to-action/conversion events and monetization models for Google.

Google is increasingly trying to move the customer experience from advertisers’ sites to the search results or other areas of Google.com. For example, Google is introducing ad formats to monetize ambiguous but high volume head terms in the loan industry with Comparative Ads. These ads lead users to a page where users give additional information about their query and advertisers pay if the user clicks through. These formats currently appear on a limited basis:

“At this time, Comparison Ads will only show to a small number of users in select U.S. states and is only available to a limited number of advertisers in the mortgage/refinance space. Over time, we’ll increase the number of users who see Comparison Ads offers as well as the number of advertisers able to participate”

Click to Enlarge

Other lead generation business models are probably within their sights. Similarly, new ad extensions are offering alternative actions for more specific queries:

• Form Extensions Beta allows users to fill out a form right on the SERP if the ad is in the preferred position (#1 spot above organic listings). Advertisers are charged the Max CPC for submissions.Click to Enlarge
  
• Click to Call with location extensions lets users browsing through smartphones click-to-call phone numbers in sponsored listings.

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Personalized Text Ads

As text ad change, so will the way Google serves them to individual users. Earlier this year personalized search moved mainstream with the decision to extend it to users who weren’t signed into Google.

That announcement was limited to organic search. When Google implements personalized results in organic search, they can measure the impact to customer satisfaction more directly and advertisers don’t really have a say in the process.

A similar evolution in search ads will occur, with some users more likely to see different ads or types of ads based on past interaction with search ads. However, paid search is much more complicated. Advertisers want to be target, measure and optimize variations in how their ads appear.

We’re already seeing personalized search ads with session based retargeting for broad match (here, here and here). Notably, Google introduced the feature, then reporting and still hasn’t given advertisers the explicit ability to opt into or out of this kind of advanced ad serving (with the exception of search query reports and negatives).

I expect Google will move most cautiously into personalized paid search and follow the same feature -> reporting -> control model.

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Search Retargeting with Display

Perhaps the biggest trend in Universal Paid Search isn’t about SERPs at all – Google’s move into display. In case you missed it, Google is putting a big emphasis on display in 2010:

“Our display business will give advertisers the opportunity to reach people with visual stories and narratives that they couldn’t with search-ad text,” Mr. Schmidt said on a call with analysts.

“We’ve been saying for a while that display is a big opportunity. One story you haven’t seen so far is how successful we’ve been in display, but that will come out in 2010.” (AllThingsD)

Display is an enormous component of online advertising spend and critical to Google’s continued revenue growth. Today, AdWords and display coexist primarily in the content network where advertisers can place image (and some rich media) through contextual targeting.

That model started to change when Google introduced behavioral targeting for audiences based on “interests” on the content network.

Google wants to monetize non-Google properties with their AdWords model of self-service and real-time bidding. They can accomplish this at scale through the eventual merging of AdSense and the Double Click Advertising Exchange.

There will be a mid-to-long term learning curve to get traditional performance advertisers who use search to migrate some of their budget to display whenever that integration occurs. Search retargeting, which I’m defining in this case as reaching people who’ve already visited your site from search with display ads, will bridge that gap in the short term. This isn’t news to search advertisers, since Yahoo already offers this feature.

The walls that divide search and display (and their budgets) will fall as the technology, data and training advance.

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Grappling with Universal Paid Search

Universal Paid Search will introduce more complexity and competition than ever before. Traditionally search exclusive advertisers and agencies are likely to be face pressure to test new advertising options and explore ways to integrate display into the mix.

I suggest you make friends with your Google rep to get advanced notice and access to betas.  Prepare yourselves; it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Alex Cohen is the Senior Marketing Manager at ClickEquations, a complete pay per click software platform for large advertisers and agencies.

The Rise of Universal Paid Search

This post originally appeared on SEOMoz.

Referenceable content is the holy grail of online communities. People talk about it, comment on it, link to it, tweet it and visit it over and over again. In a world full of chatter, it sets you apart as an authoritative voice.

Creating referenceable content is an art. Measuring it, however, can be more of a science.

Using the Google Analytics top content report, I’m going show you how two methods to identify content that your audience loves.

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What Behaviors Matter?

Referenceable content is addictive and it drives audience loyalty. Metrics wise, this means people who:

• Visit repeatedly
• Bookmark your content

You can get a quick snapshot of the top content for your returning visitors by visiting the Top Content report in Google Analytics and selecting “Returning Visitors” from the Advanced Segments drop down in the top right:

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Easier Analysis with Pivot Tables

It’s sometimes useful to compare how much a particular piece of content drives new vs. repeat visitation. You can do this by selecting the New Visitors segment as well, but this creates a difficult to read report.

Instead, try this:

1. Go to Top Content
2. Select the Pivot Table view (the last one on the right)
3. Pivot by Visitor Type
4. Pick “Unique Pageviews” from the “Showing” menu
5. Sort by Unique Pageviews in the Returning Visitor Column

The result will look like this (click to enlarge):

You can now clearly see the overall top content for Repeat Visitors next to New Visitors.

Segmenting Content by Source

You can further pivot the data by traffic source or medium (use the drop down next to Page), but I find the result difficult to interpret.

Instead, I think it’s easier to drill down into Top Content reports for individual mediums, in particular Direct Traffic and Organic Search.

Let’s take Direct Traffic to start:

1. Open Traffic Sources
2. Click on Direct Traffic
3. Select Landing Page from the drop down below the Site Usage tab
4. Choose the Pivot View
5. Pivot by Visitor Type

The report will look like this (click to enlarge):

You can follow the same steps to see the landing pages the drive repeat traffic from Organic Search. I recommend you also add the organic keyword into the mix. Pick the “Keyword” from the second drop down above the list of pages:

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Promote The Content People Love!

Now that you have a list of content that drives repeat visitors, promote this “best of” content across your site, Facebook pages, Twitter, etc. Raise the profile of your most important content to increase loyalty and attract links.

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A Note on Bookmark Tracking Google Analytics

Bookmarks are a common way for users to access your most useful content. Most people (myself included) think that Google Analytics tracks bookmark visits with Direct Traffic.

As Justin Cutroni points out in this video and companion post, they’re actually attributed to whatever traffic source is in the Google Analytics cookie (which I believe is always the last source).

Find the Content Your Readers Love with Analytics