Pay Per Click Helpers Blog

Biggest Search Geek Contest

info@payperclickhelpers.com (PayPerClickhelpers.com) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:58:00 +0000

All search Marketers should take this quiz. It will make you realize you know nothing and must continue in your quest for infinite ppc knowledge.

Search Geek Test

Google Quality Score - The Most Useful Video Ever

info@payperclickhelpers.com (PayPerClickhelpers.com) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 20:32:00 +0000

Quality Score Update on Google Adowrds

info@payperclickhelpers.com (PayPerClickhelpers.com) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 23:14:00 +0000

I wish I could have a pool going on how much money Google will make when the new quality score thing is pushed. I believe that in many PPC accounts out there inactive keywords have become the lazy mans pause. When the new quality score system takes effect you will most likely see spend on terms that have been dead. Be aware. Below is the post from Inside Adwords.

Keywords no longer marked 'inactive for search'

The new per-query evaluation of Quality Score affects you in that keywords will no longer appear as 'inactive for search' in your account. Instead, all keywords will have the chance to show ads on Google web search and the search network (unless you've paused or deleted them). Keep in mind, however, that keywords previously marked 'inactive for search' are not likely to accrue a great deal of traffic following this change. This is because their combined per-query Quality Score and bid probably isn't high enough to gain competitive placement.

YSM Editorial Sucks Worse than Death

info@payperclickhelpers.com (PayPerClickhelpers.com) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:26:00 +0000

I am hoping that someone at YSM comes across this. Yet again another barrier to YSM making more money with paid search and impeding the SEM workflow.

My task is simple. Update some URLs on Yahoo by adding a unique ID and the Yahoo {YSMADID} parameter.

Appending these to my URLS will not change any sort of mapping - this is strictly for my tracking. So when a submission like this is made why can't you scan the URL and figure out if the mapping will be changing or not.

If its just a situation like this where the URL mapping is not changing, just the tracking stuff, then you can push on through and save the poor editorial person a couple of hours. If you detect a change in mapping then you could put the listings through to editorial.

There solved.

Why PPC Managers Don't Care

info@payperclickhelpers.com (PayPerClickhelpers.com) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 20:16:00 +0000

I have moved away from the agency world and now manage my own clients under the corporate name Pay Per Click Helpers Inc. As a search manager in two different agencies I found myself doing just about everything to ensure the success of a new client. I managed the relationship as well as any sort of production that needed to happen on accounts. I did this across 15-20 accounts at any given time before moving into an Account Strategist role. A PPC account strategist would basically work with unmotivated Account Managers to try and build out accounts that were not maximized. I would provide ideas and help restructure the account to get them performing optimally. A question I would ask myself while at agencies was: Why are AM's not doing a good job?

As with most things in this world it comes down to money. PPC is an incredibly transparent form of advertising. Account managers are handling every piece of the relationship except the accounting. Once your at an agecny for a while you figure out the rate structure and realize the amount of revenue your managed accounts bring in, then you look at your salary and you confide with a cowo over IM with a WTF.

The worker bees read all the news, blogs, etc. They hear stories of how much affiliates are making selling ringtones, chat rooms, and anti snoring devices. A somewhat experienced PPC account manager would be foolish not to take on freelance work if an opportunity arises. A company could pay an employed freelancer a $500 dollar a month retainer and would get the same level of service they would at a PPC agency.

Bottom line is agencies and companies need to get the joke. Account managers know the revenue being brought in by their work. A salesperson will get a commission for bringing in a deal, yet the person responsible for the life of that client is not fairly compensated? The agency and sales guy gets paid oodles of money every month. However the clients success is dependent on the account manager.

I am too young to know old school business methods, but I feel as if the same old rules of business are being applied to an entirely new line of business. Some people chalk up low pay in this industry to it being in the advertising bubble. That is BS. To implement paid search across a website requires a skillset in many areas. This is not a dream job by any means, but for those who value seeing results in their work, it is a great place to be. After a while though of producing results it becomes discouraging to not be rewarded for your efforts.

My proposal? Treat PPC account managers like stock brokers. They make decisions that can make or break accounts and should be rewarded when the keywords, structure, and approach they take works. If they get paid on performance than it will most likely stop any wandering eyes or pent up resentment they may have. A byproduct of this would be improvement to the quality of their work, a happier employee, and a longer client life.

If you are an account manager think it over. If your a customer of an agency maybe you should ask how your account manager is compensated on your next monthly call.

My PPC Expert Mugshot

info@payperclickhelpers.com (PayPerClickhelpers.com) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 19:40:00 +0000

Paid search is a space that has been infiltrated by so called experts who will provide high level tips that at the end of the day really help no one. I would be lying if I did not say I am an aspiring PPC Guru. I hope someday I can be one of those recognizable figures that have graced this industry. People like Shoemoney, Danny Sullivan, and Marissa Mayer are recognizable celebrities in this space. I have observed that to be one of these so called experts you need a good Mugshot to give your self some credibility when on panels and writing articles. So this article is devoted to the introduction of my new Pay Per Click Helpers Inc Mug Shot.

Notice how my PPC mugshot captures the essence of a true PPC manager:
1) A five dollar bill, the largest in my wallet.
2) A mouse - the single most important factor in a click
3) A Beer T-Shirt - my favorite - Magic Hat from Vermont.
4) A pair of headphones because I hate talking to people.

An Expert is Born

Google may be slowing down.

info@payperclickhelpers.com (PayPerClickhelpers.com) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 06:10:00 +0000

I am no analyst; However I have interaction with large spenders on the web everyday so here is my take on this article:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/26/BU5VV9082.DTL

1. Spend is down 12%. Yes of course it is. The mortgage industry tanking can account for a huge chunk of this. Not just the lenders themselves, but all the affiliate partners as well are no longer advertising on these deals, and people are no longer looking for them.

2. Another thing that Google did recently was crack down on Ringtone advertisers, A piece of business that is the bread and butter for most affiliate marketers out there.

3. Regulation/Editorial Issues - It is not as easy to advertise on Google anymore. Search marketer Guerrilla tactics are becoming a thing of the past. In the end you need to be creating a targeted campaign that correlates with the messaging on your site. The affiliates are in an ever evolving war with the search engines as landing page quality, and site legitimacy become important factors. From a short term business standpoint Google is hurting themselves by negging people willing to spend money, however from a long term perspective they are trying to keep the customer happy by only showing the most relevant of ads. I think this is important as users can become rebellious when they are are being inundated with deceiving messages and are not finding what they are looking for on the engines.

4. Other Places on the Web - Its not all about text search on the engines anymore. Its about making your site a destination. As major companies start to get the picture on how to create a good web portal and engage the user folks are becoming brand loyal in a sense and know the URL to go to get what they need.
Examples:
1. When I need computer stuff i go to new egg
2. When I need plane tickets i go to Kayak and sidestep
3. When I need sports tix, craigslist or stub hub.
4. News - cnn
5. Search engine marketing news - I have my RSS portal and can see news from all my favorite blogs.

In a way the fascination with the web is over and the days of "surfing" the web are coming to an end. People have their favorite sites picked out and know where to go to find what they need. The may have clicked on ad 8 months ago for a retail site and now have mentally earmarked that site for future use.

5. Understanding Profitability - Companies are beginning to embrace the ability to measure ROI and profitability on search engines. People are no longer just throwing their whole budget into Google and three keywords without tracking. Search is being treated as a science and being approached thoughtfully.

My Theory on Yahoo-MSN Merger

info@payperclickhelpers.com (PayPerClickhelpers.com) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 02:42:00 +0000

I got this email from a client sort of Joking about a Google possibly buying yahoo. I don't think it would happen as it would be just as much of an anti-trust issue for Google to own MSN and therefore have 90% of the ad revenues online. But someone made the antitrust comment to me regarding MSN buying Yahoo. I don't buy this. MSN has 10% Market share of search, Google has 70. MSN going to Yahoo will once again level the playing field and maybe buy some Miracle the two can combine forces to create some pretty neat online features.

Case 1: Hotmail vs Yahoo Mail - Hotmail is the worst ever. Yahoo mail is pretty sweet since they released the new one. Gmail is cool for searching but organizationally can get sloppy. The Gmail craze is more or less a result of people pledging allegiance to the Google brand, much like MAC heads. Having a Gmail account is a sign of being an uber tech savvy type. Much like friendster met its demise by myspace, and myspace has met its demise to facebook. The same thing can happen with mail.

Case 2: I Google vs My Yahoo - Arguments can be made in favor of each as google calender is pretty sweet, but yahoo feeds and news seem to have more homey feel to their portal.

Yahoo Fantasy Sports - Anyone out there that is involved in this knows how great of a portal this is. Google has nothing like it and will never have it because people that work at Google don't like sports.

I encourage people to visit Yahoo.com and click on the stuff on the left. Those portals are pretty sweet, and very targeted, a great place for paid ads that are thoughtfully placed.

In the end when the Google hype dies down then there may be a chance for little old Yahoo to pick up the pieces. Below is the email i sent to my client in response to his Google buying Yahoo comment.

Talk around here is Google will not buy Yahoo. It is in Yahoo's best interest to side with MSN and take on Google. Google is moving into software development as well OS development. Basically they would offer free software and computer operating systems and pay for it by displaying ads. If Yahoo and MSN would combine they can gain some competitive advantage on Google and make for a stronger competitor and roll out the same free software type packages and make money by ads. As a search engine Yahoo has a chance as they have lots of neat portals and features people just need to start using them and MSN has millions of customers using their operating systems so could easily force people into viewing Yahoo ads. I really hope that MSN and Yahoo can make some stuff happen.

-p-

Microsoft offers to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion

info@payperclickhelpers.com (PayPerClickhelpers.com) — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 18:04:00 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) made a bid to buy Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) for $44.6 billion in cash and stock, seeking to join forces against Google Inc (GOOG.O) in what would be the biggest Internet deal since the Time Warner-AOL merger.
ADVERTISEMENT

In its boldest-ever acquisition move, Microsoft sent a letter to Yahoo's board on Thursday night, offering $31 per share for the Internet media company, a 62 percent premium over its Nasdaq closing stock price that day. The price is still below Yahoo's year-high of $34.08 in late October. Yahoo said on Friday its board will evaluate the offer.

Yahoo shares shot up 45.5 percent to $27.91.

The world's biggest software maker is seeking a joint stand against an ever more powerful Google, whose share of the global Web search market has reached 77 percent, according to Internet audience researcher comScore. Yahoo is second with 16 percent and Microsoft was a distant third with 3.7 percent.

Yahoo would give Microsoft dominance in Web banner ads used by corporate brand advertisers. Yahoo attracts more than 500 million people monthly to a network of sites devoted to news, finance and sports as well as Yahoo Mail, the No. 1 consumer e-mail service.

"Microsoft's wanted to do things that could build up its online business dramatically," said Brendan Barnicle, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities. "This is going to be a big bet for them. But I also think it's where they see the market going, so they really needed to get there.

"This is more than a shot across the bow at Google, because you put these two guys together who are basically two and three in search and makes them far more relevant," he added.

Yahoo said its board will evaluate the unsolicited bid. Microsoft shares, which have a market capitalization of about $300 billion, fell 5.5 percent to $30.82.

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told analysts on a conference call that the deal would transform its money-losing Internet division, which it sees as critical to growth, into a profitable pillar of its business.

"We have been losing money. Our plan here would be to not lose money in the future," Ballmer said.

Ballmer said Microsoft had held discussions with Yahoo "off and on for the last 18 months."

"A year ago, the management team told us it wasn't really the right time to discuss an acquisition," Ballmer said, in an apparent reference to then Chairman and Chief Executive Terry Semel, who was forced out as CEO in June. He resigned as chairman of Yahoo on Thursday, a day ahead of Microsoft's bid.

While speculation of such a tie-up has swirled in the markets for more than a year, critics say Microsoft and Yahoo have very different corporate cultures and many overlapping businesses, from instant messaging to email and advertising, as well as news, travel and finance sites.

"To me, the premium seems exorbitant, for what is a dwindling business. I personally don't see how the synergies of Microsoft-Yahoo is going to take on Google," said Tim Smalls, head of U.S. stock trading at brokerage firm Execution LLC.

Yahoo has been losing market share to Google in the increasingly strategic Web search market, and warned earlier this week that it faced "headwinds" in 2008, forecasting revenue below Wall Street estimates.

Microsoft said the online advertising market is growing rapidly and expected to reach nearly $80 billion by 2010 from over $40 billion in 2007. It added it is "increasingly dominated by one player," referring to Google. Microsoft paid $6 billion last year to buy online advertising services firm aQuantive as a bulwark against Google's growing position.

The software company said it had identified four areas that would generate at least $1 billion in annual synergies for the combined entity.

Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith acknowledged that rival bidders could emerge, but said any attempt by arch-rival Google to acquire Yahoo would face insurmountable antitrust hurdles.

"Any number of companies might take an interest. There's one company that cannot: That's Google itself. Given its superdominant market share, Google is clearly prevented by antitrust laws from buying Yahoo," the chief lawyer said.

Mark May, analyst at Needham & Co, said that while the price is a premium to Yahoo's recent trading price, it was in line with its average trading value over the last 2 years.

"I would not be surprised to see this bid have to be raised over time," he said. "I think there are companies out there like Comcast (Corp) (CMCSA.O) and Viacom (Inc) (VIAb.N) and others that still need to address the emergence of online media and haven't. So there are clearly other strategic companies out there."

Under the proposal, Yahoo shareholders can choose to get $31 cash, or 0.9509 of a share of Microsoft common stock. The deal in aggregate must consist of one-half cash and one-half Microsoft common stock, it said.

The Microsoft-Yahoo deal would be the largest in the Internet market since the $182 billion purchase of Time Warner Inc (TWX.N) by AOL in 2001, which was seen as the worst merger in recent corporate history, with clashing corporate cultures and many of the promised synergies never materializing.

(Additional reporting by Michele Gershberg, Franklin Paul, Peter Henderson; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn/Jeffrey Benkoe)

Zazzle: Customize Your Own Wardrobe

info@payperclickhelpers.com (PayPerClickhelpers.com) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 03:53:00 +0000

Very neat idea over at Zazzle where you can create your own gear and sell it online. Similar to CafePress but it seems a bit more hip. Anyway check it out:

YSM Dynamic URL Insertion Parameters

info@payperclickhelpers.com (PayPerClickhelpers.com) — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 23:07:00 +0000

OMG! Yahoo Dynamic Insertion Parameters. Rejoice.

These Kick ass and they are better then Google for exposing this type of feature. I sure hope Google can catch up to yahoo on this feature. Check it.

Insert them in your URL String with a curly bracket: They would look like this:

{YSMKEY}
{YSMRAW}
{YSMMTC:std:adv:cnt}
{YSMADID}
{YSMKWID}
{YSMCAMPGID}
{YSMADGRPID}

They still support the "OV" versions, but I would suggest using the YSM ones because knowing YSM they will change it it in three months, or phase it out. I will write a scathing blog post later about how google sucks for not exposing these types of parameters.

The help link for explaining how to do this is here:

http://help21.marketingsolutions.yahoo.com/helpui/resources/content/us.market/content.source/en.language/16897.html

10 Tips for Choosing Bid Management Software

info@payperclickhelpers.com (PayPerClickhelpers.com) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 01:26:00 +0000

Posted by David Rodnitzky of Search Marketing Standard, December 10, 2007

During the Q&A section of the panel I participated in this week at PubCon, we got a lot of questions about bid management software. In particular, it seems that everyone in the audience acknowledged the need for it, but no one knew which company to select, nor how to select a bid management software.

So without further ado, my ten tips for choosing bid management software:

1. Don’t even think about building it yourself. I speak from experience here. Building bid management software requires a full-time team, ongoing maintenance, and a lot of trial and error. It will take you at least a year to build a basic version, and at least two to three engineers to maintain and iterate it after that. And it won’t be as good as the software currently available on the market.

2. Assess your expertise and what you really need. Assuming you listened to my first tip, you next step is to understand how you are going to use the software. First, let’s talk about your level of expertise. If you are an expert, you may want to let the bid management software run your tail terms (the 98% of keywords that make up 2% of your revenue) and focus on optimizing the head yourself. If you aren’t an expert, you probably need software that can manage everything for you, with a very simple interface, and possibly the option of full-service bid management combined with the software. Either way, you need to know exactly what you want before you start talking to software providers. Otherwise, you might end up paying for a Ferrari when all you really needed was a station wagon.

3. Understand implementation and de-implementation effort and impact. A lot of bid management software only works if you install a snippet of code on your Web site and if you allow the bid management company to change your URLs on the search engines. This can require significant effort by your internal tech team and changing your URLs in your search campaigns can result in a loss of keyword history (i.e., you will need to pay more to get the same position). Moreover, you need to understand what happens if you end your relationship with the company - will they change your URLs back, or are you stuck with their tracking for the rest of your life?

4. Always do a trial first. I’ve seen some really great PowerPoint presentations from bid management companies. It turns out its easier to make a good PowerPoint than it is to make a good bid management software. Never sign up for anything until you have taken it for a test drive for at least one month and if possible three or four months.

5. Set benchmarks for initial and ongoing success. Before you start any trial, understand the status quo of your campaigns. What’s your current revenue? Profit? Margin? Tell the bid management company your actual metrics and tell them what you expect them to hit for them to win your business. Make sure you factor in the cost of their services. For example, if a bid management company wants to charge you 5% of your spend, and you currently have a 10% margin on your spend, you should demand that they at least bring you 15% margin (and probably higher). By the way, most bid management companies will thank you for this - it gives them something tangible to shoot for!

6. Look for hidden fees. Does the contract include API costs, or do you have to pay these? Is there a charge for consulting and implementation? Is there a minimum monthly bill? Read your contract carefully and ask a lawyer for help if you are at all confused.

7. Ask for performance pricing. I know my co-panelist Kevin Lee is going to kill me for saying this, but don’t be afraid to ask your bid management company to put some skin in the game. If a company’s bid management software is a good as they say it is, offer them 50% of the incremental profit they make you to prove it! More realistically, perhaps ask them to take a slightly lower percentage of spend in return for a performance bonus if they achieve certain goals (see Kevin, I’m not as unreasonable as I first seem!)

8. Get a short contract. If possible, try to get a month-to-month contract (though this will be hard to do). If you can’t make this happen, a six month contract is usual very doable.

9. Be hesitant about handing over your head keywords. For the 50 to 100 keywords that drive most of your revenue, I usually recommend good old human management. Why? Well I believe that a good search analyst just gets an almost intuitive feel for how to grow top keywords, something that computers just can’t do. And managing your top keywords in-house can save you a lot on bid management fees, especially if less than 50 keywords make up 20-30% of your ad spend.

10. Keep testing new competitors. The bid management world is ever-changing. I see new and exciting bid management companies popping up regularly. Always keep a campaign or two available for the next great thing.

What internet marketers can learn from a trucker

info@payperclickhelpers.com (PayPerClickhelpers.com) — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 22:24:00 +0000

I saw this on Shoemoney.com - I liked it. Enjoy.

This is a guest post from Tyler Smith of slybaldguys

I’ve spent a good amount of time around truck drivers and I’m always amazed at the things I learn from talking to them. Here are some of the things that I’ve learned over the years from talking to truck drivers that I think all internet marketers should learn.

1. Keep it simple

When I talk to truckers, I notice that if I try to impress them by throwing out really technical terms or dazzle them with my knowledge of the internet, then I can expect his eyes to glaze over faster than honey baked hams that he’s delivering. Though, when I hear him talk, he usually delivers his message in very simple terms that can could be understood by a 5th grader but be as profound as a world leader.

Many of us that write in our blogs or run our websites are very technical people compared to the rest of the population. We know about things like RSS, trackbacks, scripts and widgets and we’re not afraid to throw terms around expecting everyone to know them. Though, unless you run a website that is targeted directly at other website owners or tech savvy people then you have to remember that not everyone knows what you know. Try to keep your design, terminology, and the overall flow of your site simple. This will help the majority of the population be able to use your site without a having to know how to build a site. If the majority of the population can easily navigate your site, then they are more likely to gain pleasure from using your site and want to tell others about it.

2. Don’t pick up a load that ain’t going to cover your gas

You will never see a trucker take a job to pick up a load that will pay less than it will cost him to actually deliver the load.

When you’re looking to do some marketing for your site make sure you determine what you will get “paid” for doing the marketing and if it’s worth the effort that you have to put in. I often see people do things to market their website that takes way more effort than any reward (traffic) they are going to get from their work. For example, when I first started marketing my site SlyBaldGuys.com I would often spend hours looking for any blog posts that had to do with my subject matter and comment on that post. This is an idea that I read on several forums as a “great” way to market my website. The problem was, most of the blog posts on the subjects of going bald or head shaving were usually on blogs that would only get a couple visitors a day and those visitors were probably not reading the post I commented on. I know because I have yet to see a visitor get referred by any of those sites.

3. Always keep a spare or you may not make your delivery

I’m sure many of you have seen a huge semi-truck driving down the road with a trailer hitched to it. Well, if you look at the back of the trailer and the back of the truck you will often see multiple tires on each side of the axle of the truck and trailer. There is often a spare tire or two on the truck somewhere. These two things provide a backup plan should a tire go out while driving down the road. Without these backup plans the driver has the risk of being late on his delivery and thus having to deal with less or no pay at all when he does arrive with the delivery. This is especially true if a tire goes out and there isn’t another tire on the same side of the axle. This could cause him to wreck and damage the load.

So, what does this have to do with internet marketing? It means that you shouldn’t rely on just one tire, or method of marketing because you never know when one of your marketing methods is going to stop working. I don’t have to tell you that losing your only avenue of visitors ultimately kills your revenue stream.

4. Don’t agree to haul perishables if you don’t have a refrigerator truck

You’re not going to see a trucker agree to haul a truck full out of fresh meat without having the equipment to fulfill his agreement. He’ll show up to pick up the load and get laughed out of the docking bay and never be taken seriously by that company again You see the hiring company is not going to let their load spoil in his truck since they only get paid if their goods get to the recipient in good condition.

I often run by sites claiming they can do this and that, but when you look under the hood they can’t really do what they say they can do. This only causes me to leave the site instantly and to never mention that site to anyone or even return to that site. So, next time you are writing content for your site, say on your blog or your homepage, don’t make claims that you or your site can’t back up. It’s only going to fool people for a bit and then it will ultimately backfire on you as people will not want to waste their time on your site if it’s not going to benefit them in the way you claim it will.

5. Keep your eyes and ears open and communicate with other drivers

A truckers main duty is to get his load from point A to point B safely and on time. In order to do this, he needs to make sure that he avoids all obstacles that will prevent him from doing this. The two main things he can do to ensure a successful delivery are to keep is eyes on the road and to keep his ears open. By keeping his eyes on the road he’s going to be aware of all the other drivers and obstacles on the road that can hinder his delivery. By keeping his ears open, he’s going to hear the calls on the radio warning of potential obstacles up ahead that he can’t see with his own eyes. If he doesnt’ hear anything on the radio a trucker will often call out to other drivers to see if there’s anything he should look out for.

As an internet marketer, you should keep your eyes and ears open for the obstacles that will hinder you from attracting all of the customers that you can. Look at your stats and find out what your visitors are doing. Are they leaving right away or are they checking out multiple pages? What landing pages inspire visitors to look for more on your site? Which landing pages cause people to leave?
Listen to your peers. What are other sites or bloggers doing that is providing them success? What didn’t work for them? Make sure you communicate with others in your arena and see what they are doing. Bounce ideas off of each other and help each other out.

6. Know when to take a break

A trucker knows that if he falls asleep at the wheel then he’s not going to accomplish his task of delivering his load. Knowing that, he knows that it’s good to take a break when he just can’t drive any further without risking himself and others. This break will allow him to refresh and continue on successfully in the morning.

If you’re finding yourself in a rut and you just can’t come up with your next great marketing idea, then it’s time to take a break and refresh. Instead, focus on something else that will improve your site. This break will often help trigger a new idea that you can implement in your marketing efforts.

Next time you talk to a trucker, see what you can learn from him.

Utilize Publisher Account Limits & A little Bit on PPC account Structure

info@payperclickhelpers.com (PayPerClickhelpers.com) — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 02:01:00 +0000

Did you know that Google will allow a maximum of 25 Campaigns, 2000 Keywords per Adgroups, and a limit of 10,000 adgroups per campaign? I think many of us have found ourselves using Google sheepishly. Maybe you have 20 adgroups per campaign and a couple hundred keywords per adgroup. Recently I have been trying to use more adgroups on Google. I am currently setting up adgroups that contain one keyword per.

My thoughts are this will be better on quality score for the following reasons.

1. If the keyword has a good quality score there will be no other words in the group that could bring it down.
2. I can customize adtext direct to that keyword so once again more ability to positively influence my quality score.
3. Strong performers will quickly rise and when looking at adgroup performance I will know that it is only one word that is either making me or breaking me.

Any other ideas out there?

I have found this method more useful in the CPL or Offer marketing scenarios. Generally things that have one landing page where you send all traffic.

The Limits on Publishers is the Following:

On Ecommerce I still prefer the one adgroup per product. Once the exact product adgroups are built out I would build several adgroups for more general queries about the product.

So for Apples an ad group structure would look like this:

Apples General Terms
Red apples
Green apples
Yellow apples
Washington apples
New York apples
New Zealand Apples
(T) McIntosh
(T) Granny Smith
(T) Red Delicious
(T) Fuji
(T) Grapple

The (T) is for "Type" This will allow me to sort through data a bit quicker.

Why Google Owns the World

info@payperclickhelpers.com (PayPerClickhelpers.com) — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 01:06:00 +0000

Stolen From Shoemoney.com:

Why Google Owns The World & The Google PC For Under $200
What Say You?
66 responses..

When Google first went IPO I remember calling up my father-in-law and telling him I wanted to buy $250,000.00 worth of stock. He thought i was crazy… really crazy… He went on to explain to me how stocks worked and how overrated GOOG was even at its opening price of $100.01.

Well now its years later and I still have that stock and its up over $700 per share. I am holding tight. I still don’t know anything about stocks but one thing I do know

Google Gets It.

They learned by watching Microsoft just how far you can push before you are broken up by the government. Google knows where its bread is buttered… Its all about putting as many ads in front of people as possible.

Where Google is smart is they never actually own any of the products that make them the most money. For instance Firefox. Google makes a philanthropic donation to Mozilla for 200+ million dollars. Googles “donation” to Mozilla actually accounts for 80-90% of THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF MOZILLA’S funding (depending on what report you read).

So what does Google get for this philanthropic gesture? Well nothing “officially”. I have made the claim that the reason Google is the default search engine on Firefox is because Google is funding them so much but Firefox developers commented on my post saying they only use Google because “its what the users want”. I am sure they would switch to Yahoo “if the users wanted it”. Regardless of Yahoo’s zero donation to Mozilla compared to Googles 200m+… ya right ;)

So a while back when people said Google was coming out with the Google Computer I was like ya WHATEVER Google will never have their own branded PC. It does not make sense for Google to be in the hardware business. Remember where there bread is buttered? Ya from Advertising… not from making gadgets.

What would make sense and be Google’s style? Well making all the applications web based where people would be required to have a Google Account to use but keep them free. Basically make a office suite and a email program but throw ads at people instead of charging them for use.

Well now ladies and gents I present the unofficial Google PC at Walmart for only $200 It comes equiped with the G-OS with full integration for Google’s web based applications. It also is fully integrated with Google maps and Google411.

So now there is buzz about the Google telephone. IMO Google will not release the telephone. Its just not there style. BUT they might fund the operating system on the phone and build all the applications on the phone in order to control all the mobile advertising. Because after all Google is… A advertising company.

Google Adwords Quality Score

info@payperclickhelpers.com (PayPerClickhelpers.com) — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 01:01:00 +0000

IF you have never read the guidelines on Google Adowrds Quality Score theyn you do not know what you are missing! Check out the Latest Guidelines at this page:

Google Adwords Qaulity Score:

Adwords Embedded Match

info@payperclickhelpers.com (PayPerClickhelpers.com) — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 00:51:00 +0000

Another Useful Tip from Pay Per Click helpers.com(Stolen from E-whisper.net)

Negative Embedded Match | The least used feature of Google AdWords

Posted in: Blog, PPC Info, Google AdWords

Negative embedded match gives an advertiser the ability to show for every variation of a keyword, except for the keyword itself. This negative matching feature is only available on Google AdWords at present.

Why is it useful?

* Allows you to control ad serving for an ad group (resolve conflicts with other keywords triggering your ads).
* Allows your ads not be displayed for low ROI keywords, yet show for all their more specific variations.

How does negative embedded match work:

* Insert -[keyword] into your ad group.
* Insert “keyword” (you could also use broad match) into your ad group

An Example:

For this example, the scenario would be that you sold all types of laptop accessories. However, the keyword ‘laptop accessories’ has a low ROI, but every more specific (3+ word combo) has a good ROI. In this case, you would want your ad to show for all variations of ‘laptop accessories’ but not when the actual keyword ‘laptop accessories’ was searched.

* Insert -[laptop accessories] into your ad group
* Insert “laptop accessories” (you could also use broad match) into your ad group

You should have an ad group that looks like:

Take Control of Your Ad Serving

An advertisers desire should be to control ad serving to the point where their ads are only served on profitable keywords. It’s important to find negative keywords that are not helping you work towards that goal and filter out underpreforming keywords.

{KeyWords}{Creative}{Ifsearch:c}{ifcontent:s}

info@payperclickhelpers.com (PayPerClickhelpers.com) — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 21:34:00 +0000

Using AdWords Dynamic Parameters in Links - Stolen from Brad Geddes of Ewhisper. Excellent post Brad!

Google allows four different dynamic URL parameters to be added to any AdWords destination URL string to pass along information about that particular click. These parameters are replaced with actual data about the click so that your log files, or tracking system, contains additional data about your AdWords clicks enabling one to analyze more data about any campaign and individual click.

The four parameters pass along:

* If the click originated from search or the content network
* The keyword in your account that triggered the ad that was clicked
* The creative that was clicked
* The originating website (for Site Targeted campaigns)

In the URL illustrations, I’m going to be using this URL as a starting point:
http://www.example.com?
src=AdWords&medium=PPC&campaign=AdGroupName

In this URL, these are the current definitions (i.e. the minimum tracking I add to any URL for any paid traffic):

* src=AdWords - The traffic source
* medium=ppc - The medium for the traffic source (i.e. this could be banner, ppc, email, etc)
* campaign=AdGroupName - The ‘theme’ of the traffic. (For Yahoo Search Marketing, this would be the category name.)

The AdWords Dynamic Parameters:

Is the traffic from the search or content network?

This is the parameter to determine if the traffic is from the content or the search network:
{ifContent:Content}{ifSearch:Search}

AdWords allows one to replace the ‘Content’ or the ‘Search’ after the colon in the string to whatever you desire. If you only wanted to use a single letter to parse out the information, you would change the parameters to look like:
{ifContent:C}{ifSearch:S}.

This parameter is also known as ‘ValueTrack’. More information is available from the AdWords help section on ValueTrack.

The URL now looks like:
http://www.example.com?
src=AdWords&medium=PPC&campaign=AdGroupName
&Network={ifContent:Content}{ifSearch:Search}

What keyword triggered the ad?

With AdWords matching styles, it’s often possible for a variety of keywords within the same account to trigger an ad. The keyword parameter allows one to see which keyword triggered the ad. It’s a very simple parameter:
{keyword}

I generally add kw= in front of insertion to label what this parameter is showing. Thus, the URL now looks like:
http://www.example.com?
src=AdWords&medium=PPC&campaign=AdGroupName&
Network={ifContent:Content}{ifSearch:Search}&kw={keyword}

More Matching style definitions:

* Exact Match
* Phrase Match
* Broad Match

Which ad was clicked?

It is often useful in split testing or determining Profit by Click to know which ad was clicked for tracking sales or under preforming traffic back to the actual ad. This dynamic parameter adds the ‘ad id’ to the URL:
{creative}

The biggest issue with this is that it only shows the ad number (which usually looks like: 123653). It makes sense that Google isn’t going to pass the entire ad copy through the URL. To find which ad matches up with the ad id (which you’ll want to know when you line up the data to the ad) there are three ways to find the number:

1. In the AdGroup, view the source and line up the numbers (by far the most cumbersome)
2. Pull the information via the API (the easiest way when lining up numbers)
3. Run an ‘ad text’ report inside your AdWords account. When running this report, in the additional columns menu there is a check box for ‘ad id’. Click this box and it will display the ad id with the rest of your report.

I usually add ‘ad=’ before this parameter in the URL string for identification purposes. This now makes the URL look like:

http://www.example.com?
src=AdWords&medium=PPC&campaign=AdGroupName&
Network={ifContent:Content}{ifSearch:Search}&kw={keyword}
&ad={creative}

Which website triggered the click?

This parameter is only for site targeted campaigns. If the parameter has no data, then Google does not display the parameter. Therefore, it doesn’t hurt to add this to all URLs, however, just remember, many times it will be blank.

This will NOT show which website triggered the click in content targeting campaigns. For that level of tracking, you’ll have to choose an analytics package that reads past the ‘pagead2.googlesyndication.com’ in the referring URL.

The parameter insertion is pretty simple, just add:
{placement} to the URL.

This makes the URL now look like:
http://www.example.com?
src=AdWords&medium=PPC&campaign=AdGroupName&
Network={ifContent:Content}{ifSearch:Search}&kw={keyword}
&ad={creative}&SiteTarget={placement}

If you are using Google Analytics:

Each tracking system has it’s own set of parameters that it reads. Therefore, you might need to change ‘kw=’ or ‘medium’ etc in the URL string to something your tracking system will parse into appropriate categories.

It is important to also note that some analytic packages require the parameters to be in a specific order, while others just look for the identifying information and don’t care which order is utilized (i.e. one could add site target first, then keyword, then creative, then search vs content, etc).

If you are using Google Analytics, this is how the tracking string would look like with the proper parameters attached:
http://www.example.com/?utm_source=AdWords&utm_medium=PPC&utm_term={keyword}&
utm_content={creative}&utm_campaign=AdGroup&
Network={ifContent:Content}{ifSearch:Search}&SiteTarget={placement}

The only parameters that need to be adjusted in the above URL is the website (i.e. replace example.com with your website) and AdGroup (replace with your Actual AdGroup name).

Wrap Up

Google has done an excellent job with AdWords of allowing variable parameters to be passed to your website. It has made it easy to track just about anything, especially if you’re pulling information via the API and automatically generating reports based on both your log files and AdWords information.

Understanding the URL string, it’s parameters (AdWords or not) is very important to learn and master. It’s not just about tracking AdWords, it’s about tracking in general. Once you’ve lined up your tracking system with AdWords information, you’ll be very happy when you start using MSN adCenter which has it’s own set of parameters insertions.

If you’ve structured your medium, keyword, creative, etc identifiers in a standardized URL, when you start using other traffic generating campaigns, you’ll already have a default to just plug in the new information and off you go. This makes it easy to compare banner traffic versus email traffic versus PPC traffic.

Know all the variables. Choose the variables you want to compare. Analyze the data. Make decisions based on facts.

The internet gives you the capacity to track just about anything - use the available tools effectively.

Vote for Yamn

info@payperclickhelpers.com (PayPerClickhelpers.com) — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 03:43:00 +0000

My good Friend is in this band Yamn; and he has worked real hard to make Music a part of his life and its working... His band is competing in a contest and they need votes to win.

Please vote for Yamn at:

www.jambands.com/Jambands250/

Once again please vote for Yamm

Thanks-

Cap N Click

Steve Jobs at Yahoo

info@payperclickhelpers.com (PayPerClickhelpers.com) — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 22:41:00 +0000

Another insightful article from payperclickhelpers.com .

This was an interesting article I saw on search engine watch. Steve Jobs over at Yahoo to inspire. I always took jobs as more of a Google guy, but perhaps he likes a good underdog story. In some ways the yahoo Google wars are synonomous with the MAC PC war, that i know very little about, but I know that for long time PC's kicked Macs ass, and So maybe Google is the PC here. Although its a younger engine, but the starting line for paid search was about the same time. YSM has taken a pouncing but simply put; Yahoo has lots of cool shit. Their main page makes them look like a pack rat of a search engine, but all of those little portals have great content, fantasy sports, news, movies, top searches, video games, all great places for niche advertisers. They also have and Adsense type program and a fairly large chunk of the small business hosting on the web.

October 1, 2007
Yahoo Calls In Steve Jobs to Inspire VPs

Instead of the rumored mass firing expected to take place at last week's all-day meeting of top Yahoo execs in Sunnyvale, attendees were treated to real goals and concrete plans from company leadership, and a guest appearance from Apple CEO Steve Jobs to provide an extra burst of inspiration, according to Kara Swisher.

What do you do when you want to inject a little inspiration into a company that needs a lot of it? Do you hold an all-day meeting of top execs where you actually outline specific goals and exhibit better leadership? Do you admit your corporate culture is a little weak and promise to focus on strengthening it? Do you trot out all the senior execs and let them talk about their concrete plans (and, better still, actually prepare them to deliver their spiel with some level of quality)? Do you do some post-lunch touchy-feely group exercises to get people talking?

Best of all, if you really want to send things over the top, do you bring out an icon so beloved as to give goosebumps to explain to the troops how he managed to turn his once-beleaguered and now-soaring company around?

All that and more occurred on Friday at Yahoo HQ as CEO Jerry Yang and President Sue Decker really put on a show that seemed to resonate with the 300-plus top Yahoo executives (vice president and above) gathered there, capped by an appearance by Apple’s Steve Jobs, who is apparently now Silicon Valley’s equivalent of Oprah.

The company is 76 days into the return of Yang as CEO, following the departure of Terry Semel from that role in June. While Yang had promised a "100-day review," he has since backed off from a concrete timetable. Regardless of the timetable, it's clear that changes are already afoot, and more are planned at Yahoo, the perennial second-place search engine.

According to Swisher, much of the focus of Yang's plans revolve around an "ecosystem" that centers on the interplay of advertisers, publishers, and consumers. Plans include building out Yahoo's ad network, using its "consumer insights" to improve ad targeting, creating a corporate culture open to new ideas, and a more open developer network, Swisher said.

comScore Releases August U.S. Search Engine Rankings

info@payperclickhelpers.com (PayPerClickhelpers.com) — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 23:09:00 +0000

comScore Releases August U.S. Search Engine Rankings
Sep 21 08:19 AM US/Eastern

RESTON, Va., Sept. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the search marketplace. Among core search engines in August 2007, Google Sites remained the top search property with more than 5.5 billion core searches conducted, representing a 56.5 percent share of the search market. Time Warner Network was the only other core search engine property to increase share, up 0.1 share point to 4.5 percent, with 441 million searches.

In comScore's recently introduced expanded search report, the largest gains were recorded by YouTube and Craigslist, with 9.0-percent and 7.6-percent increases in their number of search queries.

August U.S. Core Search Rankings

In August, Google Sites maintained its position atop the core search rankings with 56.5 percent of U.S. searches, gaining 1.3 share points versus the previous month. Yahoo! Sites ranked second with 23.3 percent, followed by Microsoft Sites (11.3 percent), Time Warner Networks (4.5 percent) and Ask Network (4.5 percent). comScore Core Search Report* August 2007 Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore qSearch 2.0 Core Search Entity Share of Searches (%) Jul - 07 Aug -07 Point Change Aug-07 vs. Jul-07 Total Core Search 100.0% 100.0% N/A Google Sites 55.2% 56.5% 1.3 Yahoo! Sites 23.5% 23.3% -0.2 Microsoft Sites 12.3% 11.3% -1.0 Time Warner Network 4.4% 4.5% 0.1 Ask Network 4.7% 4.5% -0.2

*Based on the five major search engines including partner searches and cross-channel searches. Searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five search engines are not included in the core search numbers.

Nearly 5.5 billion core searches were conducted at Google Sites during the month, marking a 1.6 percent increase in volume versus July. Time Warner Network, assisted by gains at AOL, gained in query volume, with a 1.2-percent increase to 441 million searches. comScore Core Search Report* August 2007 Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore qSearch 2.0 Core Search Entity Search Queries (MM) Jul - 07 Aug -07 Percent Change Aug-07 vs. Jul-07 Total Core Search 9,896 9,820 -0.8% Google Sites 5,459 5,545 1.6% Yahoo! Sites 2,325 2,290 -1.5% Microsoft Sites 1,214 1,106 -8.9% Time Warner Network 436 441 1.2% Ask Network 462 438 -5.1%

*Based on the five major search engines including partner searches and cross-channel searches. Searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five search engines are not included in the core search numbers.

August U.S. Expanded Search Rankings

In the August 2007 analysis of the Top 50 properties worldwide where search activity is observed, Google Sites led the pack with 6.8 billion searches. Yahoo! Sites ranked second with nearly 2.5 billion searches, followed by Microsoft Sites (1.1 billion), Time Warner Network (937 million) and Fox Interactive Media (571 million). comScore Expanded Search Query Report August 2007 Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore qSearch 2.0 Search Queries (MM) Jul-07 Aug-07 Percent Change vs. Prior Month Total Expanded Search 13,692 13,703 0.1% Google Sites 6,614 6,809 2.9% Google 5,507 5,602 1.7% YouTube/All Other 1,107 1,207 9.0% Yahoo! Sites 2,524 2,473 -2.0% Yahoo! 2,493 2,438 -2.2% All Other 31 35 12.9% Microsoft Sites 1,251 1,144 -8.6% MSN-Windows Live 1,223 1,111 -9.2% Microsoft/All Other 28 33 17.9% Time Warner Network 959 937 -2.3% AOL 436 438 0.5% Mapquest/All Other 523 499 -4.6% Fox Interactive Media 587 571 -2.7% MySpace 575 560 -2.6% All Other 12 11 -8.3% eBay 472 457 -3.2% Ask Network 462 439 -5.0% Ask.com 214 205 -4.2% MyWebSearch.com/ All Other 248 234 -5.6% CRAIGSLIST.ORG 185 199 7.6% Amazon Sites 151 154 2.0% Comcast Corporation 71 73 2.8%

For more information on comScore qSearch 2.0, please visit http://www.comscore.com/contact

About comScore

comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world. This capability is based on a massive, global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given comScore permission to confidentially capture their browsing and transaction behavior, including online and offline purchasing. comScore panelists also participate in survey research that captures and integrates their attitudes and intentions. Through its proprietary technology, comScore measures what matters across a broad spectrum of behavior and attitudes. comScore analysts apply this deep knowledge of customers and competitors to help clients design powerful marketing strategies and tactics that deliver superior ROI. comScore services are used by more than 700 clients, including global leaders such as AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, BBC, Carat, Cyworld, Deutsche Bank, France Telecom, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Financial Times, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestle, Starcom, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Verizon, ViaMichelin, Merck and Expedia. For more information, please visit http://www.comscore.com

Britney Spears is Still Popular Among PPC Marketers

info@payperclickhelpers.com (PayPerClickhelpers.com) — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 18:50:00 +0000

Another helpful post from payperclickhelpers.com

Who knows how long this post will last as my adsense will most likely infiltrate my blog with ads about "OOps I Did it Again", so Buy a CD if you will.

As I write this post my co-worker is going on telling a client about the "Britney Spears" example. This is where someone says, I just need some volume and the paid search marketer says: I can get you traffic, I will put you on broad match on the keyword Britney Spears. My Cowo goes on to speak about impressions, CTR, quality score and all that jazz. the client learns about targeted traffic, not just traffic.

This is a critical moment in the relationship between the client and the PPC search marketer, as from this Britney Spears example the client begins to understand so much more, sometimes too much, and that is why only 23% of customers stay with Search Marketing agencies. People learn this stuff quick; click by click. (it rhymed)

if you are looking into SEO then someone will probably share with you the "miserable failure" Google bomb trick; although Google has killed it. Anyway, thanks Britney. I think you are swell, I still find you attractive, and am hoping that you learn to play acoustic guitar and have a singer songwriter comeback.

Cap'N Click

Yahoo Ad Generator: Not Quite There & Not Realy Useful

info@payperclickhelpers.com (PayPerClickhelpers.com) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 20:11:00 +0000

Some of you may have noticed that on your YSM PPC account you will see a feature when on the adgroup level called the ad generator. I attempted to use this tool today for one of my groups; I was unable to get it to work successfully. There were some general bugs including the inability for lines to save properly when using "&" Ampersands as well as the inability for me to push the ads I successfully created to use within my account. I will include some screenshots when i am not on the company clock. Over & Out.

Cap N' Click

More on PPC Keyword Generation by Cap'N Click

info@payperclickhelpers.com (PayPerClickhelpers.com) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 01:17:00 +0000

Another helpful ppc blog posting from Payperclickhelpers.com

More on Keyword Creation:
Keyword creation is an ongoing task. This blog post will review some techniques available for keyword creation and might provide you with some new ideas about where to get a new set of keywords:
There are two schools of thought I use when it comes to keyword creation:
1. Mass creation without organization – this is for the impulsive search marketer like myself who really does not want to put a lot of thought into structure and tying adtext back to terms – (this is not recommended for the meek) but, the approach is throw in all the terms you generate into a bank and look at volume on the words, you begin to get an idea of how to segment based on volume and performance, impression data etc… You then structure the ppc account as you go.
2. Structured Approach: This is where you structure the layout of the account first: you know the campaign names and adgroups within before creating keywords. This is a much better approach.
a. Segmentation of a campaign should be a logical parent child structure. For instance if your are selling Ford Cars, your campaign should be named Ford Cars and the adgroups within the campaign should be each model of car you are selling. This of course could be broken down even further if you so desire by creating adgroups for model colors, styles, features, etc.
Sources & Techniques
First thing: You will need some tools open:
1. Open an excel work book and name it some variation of Keyword Generation File.
2. Open This Page: http://www.sitemapbuilder.net/Default.aspx
3. Open this page Google URL Builder: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Competitors Sites
Go to the sites of your competitors: List each URL of competitors in a cell in excel: Name the tab competitor sites or something to that effect. The top 3 or four competitors will do. In the Google keyword tool tab over to the find keywords by URL. Enter each of the URLs into that field to and hit the Get Keywords button. You will retrieve a list of fairly targeted terms that pertain to your industry. Select which terms you like and hit the ADD button. When finished enter the next URL in the search box and repeat process.

Product feed or inventory list
Using an existing product feed or inventory list is a quick way to get lots of data into your search account. Usually the structure of your product feed will compliment that of a publisher and you will have things like Campaign, Category, already established. Using Excel you can remove the odd characters from a product feed and segment things following the original structure. For instance products might be listed with a “_” , instead of spaces, i.e. “Red_Stereo_Sony”; a simple find and replace could solve issues. Be resourceful is the bottom line. You have a huge ppc keyword list in front of you; figure out how to use it.
Sitemap builders:
Often the architecture of your own site can serve a good blue print for account structure and provide you with a keyword universe. By running a site map builder, an easy one that just shoot back links, like the one I recommended above (http://www.sitemapbuilder.net/Default.aspx) you will find a logical hierarchy and structure to your campaigns. Run the site map builder on a product category page and then figure out how to parse the term, category, and destination URL out of the link. One handy tool I have used is called Text pad, http://www.textpad.com/ it allows you take a text file and paste it into row format, it is a great method to take the data from the sitemap builder before putting it into formats in excel.
Source Code:
Using the Text pad tool mentioned above you can use it to extract useful data from source code. Often all the information you need for structuring a campaign and making keywords will be right on the page. It is just a matter of you figuring out how to get it from the web page onto and excel sheet.

If you have more questions oo want someone to build some keywords for you email us @ Info@payperclickhelpers.com

Search Marketing's Long Tail to Get Longer, Says Study

info@payperclickhelpers.com (PayPerClickhelpers.com) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 20:46:00 +0000

Taken from mediapost.com

Another helpful ppc blog posting from Payperclickhelpers.com

Search Marketing's Long Tail to Get Longer, Says Study
by Tameka Kee, Tuesday, Sep 11, 2007 6:00 AM ET
CHICAGO-BASED INVESTMENT FIRM WILLIAM BLAIR & Company partnered with AdGooroo for a keyword-based advertiser-side analysis of the global search industry, authoring a report that pegs the number of advertisers at more than 500,000 and growing--with 90% of them currently running search campaigns with Google.

The search giant didn't snag all available advertisers, however, as the report found that the 10% of marketers not using Google remained exclusive to either Yahoo or MSN. Analysts attributed this slice of market share to affiliate marketers and other companies whose business policies run afoul of Google's standards. According to the research, 30% of all search marketers run campaigns on Yahoo, while only 10% use MSN--with about half of each of their advertisers using Google as well.

The study was conducted between February and July of this year--and the number of search advertisers grew by 15-20% just in those five months, with Blair analysts noting that this points to a competitive, healthy search market overall with a long tail that continues to lengthen.

The success of Yahoo and MSN's paid search offerings hinges on both companies' abilities to snag these new advertisers with better algorithms, more streamlined interfaces and a more solid ROI--as illustrated by Microsoft's recent adCenter revamp and Yahoo's major Panama upgrade.

In March, Yahoo did see an increase in advertisers from the Panama rollout, but the numbers have since slipped steadily. The report notes that the decline had been expected, since Panama's algorithmic upgrades focused on increasing relevancy and improving the quality of the Yahoo search marketplace--which likely eliminated a number of low-quality ads and advertisers.

Yahoo's paid search improvements are promising, but the report still pegs Google as a better stock option than Yahoo: "While Yahoo is showing progress, this research is somewhat discouraging, as it illustrates the amount of work still required for Yahoo to close the gap with Google."

All three of the analyzed search engines were affected by seasonality, with 3-9% spikes in the number of advertisers during March and July, and a 1-7% dip in June. According to the report, these expected trends marked increased advertiser spending for spring and summer apparel, travel, Mother's Day (with the lone rogue factor being an uptick in real estate advertisers) and a decrease in advertisers during the industry-wide summer slowdown. "The return to growth in July was likely just a reflection of ongoing industry strength and a lengthening of the long tail," Blair analysts added.

Tameka Kee can be reached at tameka@mediapost.com