The Road to Tomorrow (and Happy 2009!). Creative Commons license by Stuck in Customs.

While Twitter has become the perhaps single most important social site for marketers this year it’s time to reevaluate the ways to promote your business online in 2009.

Are the methods we used in 2008 still valid? Do they still work? Or do we have to adapt again in 2009 to a whole new Web? Moreover: Which ways outside the Google search moloch are there? Continue Reading »

I’ve found the content network is an excellent method of getting large quantities of cheap traffic converting at a positive ROI. But in my experience most pay per click campaigns I’ve taken over have not maximised their performance on the content network, below are the main reasons why I’ve found accounts seem to under perform.

• Disregarding the content network completely
  Many advertisers focus only on the search network, I think Anton Konikoff’s quote about getting traffic from contextual ads at SES San Jose yesterday sums up why it’s always worth trying to target this audience; “Provides access to everyone who reads online (not just those who search)”.
• Not setting individual content network bids
  Some people don’t check the “Let me set separate prices for content clicks” campaign setup box, the quality of traffic from the content network is never (or at least very rarely) as high as the search network so you should definitely be setting separate bids here.
• Targeting all worldwide locations
  Click fraud for contextual ads is a commonly discussed issue and is one of the main reasons people choose to stay away from the content network completely. I normally begin by selecting the main English speaking countries (US, UK, Canada, Ireland and Australia). For high budget account’s it also makes sense to separate countries and regions into individual campaigns so that it’s performance can be tracked and managed individually.
• Not splitting keywords into small ad groups
  This has obvious advantages for the search network as you can use more specifically targeted ad descriptions for each keyword, but it also helps to monitor the cost per conversion of content network clicks more closely.
• Failing to test, test, test
  This is probably the final rule in every search marketing list but trial and error testing is very important to monitor how new changes have affected the account. Keeping a close eye on the cost per conversion figure will help you to set bids based upon it’s performance to keep the campaign cost-effective.

These are all fairly basic tips but I’ve found these changes have a positive impact upon many account’s advertising on the content. To improve this further you could also exclude negative sites and setup pay per action (PPA) and site targeted campaigns.

Do Microsoft have a UK internet strategy? If you search for any of their products on Google.co.uk (with the UK filter applied) it certainly doesn’t look like it! Below are some fine examples of where Microsoft should be at the top for both natural and paid search listings but surprisingly appear in neither. This is happening because they use a .com domain suffix hosted in the US, making use of www.microsoft.co.uk would get them listed naturally for all of the below searches and very likely #1 for each term, saving them money on both AdWords clicks and the direct sales from retail websites!

Google UK search for Microsoft:

Google UK search for Microsoft adCenter:

Google UK search for Microsoft adCenter:

Google UK search for Microsoft Office:

Google UK search for Microsoft Windows:

And it doesn’t end here, Overture’s UK keyword research tool shows the huge popularity of Microsoft searches in the UK. But instead of seeing Microsoft.com listed, users are given the choice of review or e-commerce websites instead. In many cases Amazon ranks #1 (e.g. Microsoft Outlook) so people may choose to buy second-hand software from Amazon Marketplace or eBay instead, costing Microsoft thousands if not millions of income from new sales.

While generally it’s good practice to use one domain name (consolidating all inbound links) in this case using www.microsoft.co.uk could have a massive impact on the UK search market, redirecting to www.microsoft.com/en/gb does little for their UK search traffic as the domain is hosted in the US.

The UK search traffic is obviously converting sales, you just have to look at the sponsored links to see how many sites bid upon Microsoft keywords. Interestingly many of these use the trademarked term “Microsoft” within the ad title or description, this seems to be appearing because the ad’s are using dynamic keyword insertion to get around the Google AdWords trademark policy but if Microsoft aren’t even bidding on the keywords themselves they’re less likely to be concerned about the sites which are.

Perhaps Bill Gates has made far too much money by now to be worrying about Microsoft’s UK sales and search traffic! :)

Yesterday I attended the Internet World conference in Earls Court, London. I’ve never been to the event before but found many of the conferences and exhibitions very useful, below I’ve listed some of the main notes I took away from the day.

Microsoft adCenter
The first talk I attended was from Microsoft adCenter, this was basic but my experience of adCenter isn’t great so I found this useful.

Some information I found useful was:

• The Average MSN searcher spends £2,000 online in 6 months (I think this must be based upon adCenter conversion information).
• Over 11 million people in UK use MSN Messenger
• 8.8 million people in UK have an MSN Hotmail account
• Over 5 million people use Live search each month in the UK
• adCenter audience “is also more likely to convert than any other – 70% more than the average UK searcher and over twice as likely as Google searchers.”

This also talked about how Windows Live Passport details are used for demographic targeting, this allow you to bid upon keywords targeted to a specific age group or gender. An NNR Megaview Search report showed in May- July 2006 that Microsoft adCenter had a 4.5% conversion rate, compared to Google’s 2.1% and Yahoo’s 4.1, demographic targeting must help towards this and it sounds like it would work very well to increase conversion rates. This was highlighted by examples of the age groups searching for “Disney holidays” as opposed to “Saga holidays”, it was also interesting to find that a higher percentage of males searches for “lipstick” (for presents, I hope), while females will actually know what they are looking for more specifically and search for keywords such as “mac lipstick” far more frequently than men. If a Windows Live Passport cookie is not found the ad will run at the minimum bid level.

The Future of Blogging
This session was run by Loïc Le Meur, formerly of SixApart, talking about the history of blogging, why people like the reality and honesty of blogs (as highlighted by this look at the Burger King advertising) and how this has influenced people, explaining that the total coverage of all blogs in France outnumbers the amount of media attention. This moved on to look at the direction blogging is going, starting by making the point that the popularity of blogging has grown so much that people will have too many email/blog comments to possibly reply to and will end up paying attention to their friends first. Maybe monitoring where friends are traveling to on sites like Dopplr or reading messages on Twitter, even if it is “I’ve just tied my shoelaces”!

Google AdWords – Delivering ROI through a search marketing case study
Russ Cohn works for Google’s online team and he talked about his experience as a direct account manager for one Google’s larger AdWords advertisers in the UK, Hoovers. To be honest this was aimed more at businesses looking to learn more about improving their conversion rates, explaining about the importance of keyword research, ad copy testing, landing page quality and how an ad’s quality score, CTR and maximum bid can effect the final cost per click and postioning.

I also caught part of some other useful sessions which talked about Web 2.0, targeting multiple user platforms, B2B marketing, Pay-Per-Click and web usability, as well as gaining some useful information from some of the UK’s leading SEO companies which were exhibiting. Hopefully I’ll have some more updates during the year from further SEO conferences, I booked the ad:tech London event ages ago so they’ll be at least one.

I meant to post this on Friday but didn’t quite get round to it, anyway here’s a recap of the pay-per-click advertising news I found of interest during the last week.

Google AdWords

• On the Radio: more on Audio Ads – Inside AdWords
• Introducing preferred cost bidding – Inside AdWords
• Using Google Analytics with Website Optimizer – Google Analytics Blog
• Google AdWords Preferred Cost Bidding Not Welcomed – SERoundtable
• Google Pay Per Action First Results For Publishers & Advertisers – SERoundtable
• Does “GoogleClick” Spell The End For Bid Managers? – Search Engine Land
• New Google AdWords Dashboard Looks Like Yahoo Panama – Search Engine Journal
• Google Ads Tracking Mouse-Over – Google Blogoscoped
• How to lower your AdWords minimum bid – eWhisper.net

Yahoo! Search Marketing

• Faster, Simplified Online Customer Checkout – YSM Blog
• Upgrades and Enhancements – YSM Blog
• Punctilious Punctuation – YSM Blog
• Despite Panama, Yahoo Earnings Fall 11 Percent — Investments Blamed – Search Engine Land

Microsoft adCenter

• adCenter Quality-Based Ranking – adCenter Blog
• adCenter’s New Quality Based Ranking has Issues – PPC Discussions

General Pay Per Click

• Ad Copy that Increases Conversion or Click Through Rate – eWhisper.net
• PPC, the Classic Geo-Targeted Mix – aimClear
• Google, Yahoo Speaking More Freely on Click Fraud – Search Engine Watch

I’m not quite sure where to start this week as my FeedReader seems to have been overflowing with news from Search Engine Stategies over the last few days. I’ve picked out the main PPC stories from SES New York in addition to the rest of this weeks pay per click news.

Search Engine Strategies

• Meet the Search Ad Networks – Bruce Clay
• Advanced Paid Search Techniques – Bruce Clay
• Ads In A Quality Score World – SERoundtable
• In House Big PPC – SERoundtable
• Getting Traffic From Contextual Ads – SERoundtable
• Landing Page Testing & Tuning – SERoundtable
• Creating Compelling Ads – SERoundtable
• Auditing Paid Listings & Click Fraud Issues – Bruce Clay
• Web Analytics & Measuring Success – Bruce Clay
• Admitted: “We Do Arbitrage” – Traffick
• Microsoft adCenter: Today and Tomorrow – SERoundtable
• Video Recap and Reflections on SES – New York 2007 – Pepperjam Blog

This Weeks other PPC news:

Google AdWords

• The next step in Google advertising – Official Google Blog
• A new case study on botnet-based click fraud – Inside AdWords
• Improve your account performance with expert help – Inside AdWords
• Reach and Frequency reporting now available – Inside AdSense
• Using AdWords for Keyword Research – Link Building Blog
• Google Releases Detailed Content Network Reports – Marketing Pilgrim
• Use Google AdWords & AdSense Distribution Data to Broker Direct Ad Deals – SEO Book
• Increase Conversion Rates with the Google Website Optimizer? – Marketing Pilgrim
• There are Inconsistencies in Google Adwords Minimum Bid Prices – PPC Lab
• Will Similar Google AdWords Campaigns Affect Display of Ads? – SERoundtable
• Why Do Google AdSense and Google Analytics Impressions Differ So Much? – SERoundtable

Microsoft adCenter

• Microsoft adCenter and Superpages to use Quality Score – eWhisper.net
• MSN adCenter Update Coming Soon – Search Engine Watch

General PPC

• Turn Your PPC Advertising Campaign Into An Effective Search Marketing Machine – Search Engine Land
• The first 100 impressions: What your paid keywords can tell you – Marketing Pilgrim
• Thomson provides PPC buying to listings customers – e-consultancy

Here are the main stories from the world of PPC over the past 7 days:

Google AdWords

• Google confirm two changes to how top ads are displayed and make Website Optimizer available to all.
• Brad Geddes discusses what determines the ‘Account Quality Score’, ‘AdGroup Quality Score’ and ‘Keyword Quality Score’ for AdWords?
• John Battelle reports that AOL are to launch white label AOL-only AdWords system on Monday.
• Jennifer Slegg starts a new blog with some great early posts such as Targeting keyword variations for increased search & pay per click traffic, Using dynamic keyword insertion in AdWords URLs for higher click throughs and How to Brand with Google AdWords & Pay Per Click.
• Vinny Lingham posts about Google’s new metric: Impression Share.
• Search Engine Guide takes a look Inside Google’s New Pay Per Action for Advertisers.
• SERoundtable posts about Google entering TV market with TV commercial trial.
• And the Inside AdSense blog confirms some fresh, new look AdSense ads.

Yahoo! Search Marketing

• The YSM Blog confirm that short ad descriptions will be required from May, they also post an intro to finding your editorial status.

Microsoft adCenter

• The adCenter blog this week talks about capitalizing the display URL in adCenter, Integrating your offline marketing efforts with an online strategy and the release of a new Microsoft adCenter welcome guide.

General PPC

• Andrew Goodman takes a look at multivariate landing page testing.
• SERoundtable cover the launch of Yell’s own PPC advertising solution.

There may be a couple of items I missed as I’m catching up at the moment after getting back to the UK yesterday. After going back 17 hours from Sydney to LA and then forward another 8 hours to GMT I’m still trying to work out which timezone I’m in at the moment, up at 4.30am today so I probably should be somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic at the moment! :)

Here’s this weeks collection of PPC news:

Google AdWords
Pay-per-action beta — your questions answered – Inside AdWords
AdWords Editor’s “Top 10 Favorites” – Inside AdWords
The Guide to Creating AdWords Pay Per Action Campaigns – eWhisper.net
AdSense Publisher View Of Google Pay Per Action – Search Engine Land
Is There a Doman Wide Quality Score in Google AdWords? – Search Engine Roundtable

Yahoo! Search Marketing
Yahoo’s Panama ad platform will launch in UK / Europe in Q02 – JenSense
Judge Approves Yahoo Click Fraud Settlement – Search Engine Watch
You Complete Me – Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog

Microsoft adCenter
Ad Titles and Dynamic Text – adCenter Blog

PPC
E-Consultancy Offers Paid Search Briefing – Search Engine Land
PPC And Your Good Name: Sales From Brand Searches Aren’t Incremental – Search Engine Land
Does “Set It & Forget It” Still Work In The PPC Game? – Search Engine Roundtable
Things You Shouldn’t Care About in PPC – PPC Discussions
Yes, Co-managed PPC And SEO Campaigns Work – MediaPost Search Insider
Google & Yahoo Ranking Look at Domains Rather Than Individual Pages – Search Engine Journal

Here is this weeks roundup of pay per click news:

Google AdWords
Pay-Per-Click Beta Test – Inside AdWords
Google Launches Pay Per Action Ads – Search Engine Land
AdWords Optimization Tips: Part 3 – Account Structure – Inside AdWords
AdWords and AdSense: a perfect pair Inside AdSense
Google’s New Text Link Ad Unit – Search Engine Roundtable
Adsense to be Completely Replaced by Pay-Per-Action? – Search Engine Roundtable

Yahoo! Search Marketing
Panama Ad Ranking Algo Explained – Search Engine Watch
Yahoo Steps Up Click Fraud Efforts – Search Engine Watch
Quality is His New Job, For One – Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog

Microsoft adCenter
Get Help Uploading Your Campaigns into Microsoft adCenter with QuickLaunch – adCenter Blog
New adCenter tool for determining page sensitivity – JenSense

General PPC
Buy Branded Keywords? A Case Study on Traffic, Conversion and RPV – Jonathan Mendez

It’s quite possible I missed a couple of stories from the world of pay per click as I’ve been away for most of this week, so please feel free to post any links in the comments section.

Here’s a collection of this weeks PPC links from around the blogosphere:

Google AdWords

• Google AdWords are looking for more testers for audio ads.
• Google AdWords click-to-play ads are now available in the UK.
• Here are some instructions about how to export your Google AdWords campaign.
• Invites are being sent out to test CPC for site-targeting.
• SFGate.com write about how Google’s AdWords confuses transgender terms with teen porn.

Yahoo! Search Marketing

• The Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog talks about how you can assign different user roles using Panama.
• Search Engine Roundtable asks is a perfect quality score in Yahoo! Search Marketing possible?

Microsoft adCenter

• Microsoft adCenter released a Content Ads Webinar.

PPC

• Shoemoney posts some landing page tips.
• Andrew Goodman writes for Search Engine Land’s new paid search column, titled paid search back-checks, slays dragons, asks for little in return.
• Another Search Engine Land article looks at the 5 secret PPC agencies don’t want you to know.
• Jonathan Mendez posts 5 lessons from multivariate tests on Google PPC ads.
• And I asked should you pause PPC campaigns while on holiday?