PPC Advertising – Brand Name Bidding

Posted on Dec 29, 2008 by Rick to Pay Per Click

In the past, we’ve talked a little about the importance of running pay per click campaigns for searches related to your brand name. We’ve discussed several reasons why, even when your website ranks #1 organically for your brand name, you can still benefit from bidding on your brand name. Today, I want to talk about a couple more strategies that can be implemented when bidding on your and your competitors’ brand names.

Another reason to bid on your brand name

Pay per click ads are great for promoting specials. Having an end of season sale or trying to promote a new package or product discount? Try running pay per click ads promoting your specials and packages. When customers search for your brand, they will not only see the organic listing for your website, but also the ad promoting your most recent promotion. The advantage to running these ads is that you not only draw attention to your promotion sooner (at the point where customers are searching for you), you can also utilize a custom landing page better suited to promoting the special than your homepage might be. This may seem pretty obvious but many advertisers forget this method of promoting specials.

Bidding on your competitor’s brand name

Let’s say that your competitor has just launched a massive offline promotion aimed at driving people to their website. You can be pretty sure that searches related to your competitor’s brand name or their promotion will greatly increase in the upcoming days as consumers are exposed to the radio, TV, newspaper or other offline ads. Remember that the consumers searching during this campaign are more likely to be interested in your product or service because as they are motivated to search out the special offer they head about elsewhere. Consider running ads for your competitor’s brand name simultaneously as their promotion runs. In your ad, create a similar but better offer that will be likely to draw motivated buyers your way. In a sense, you’re piggybacking on your competitor’s ad which has attracted motivated buyers. Your main challenge will be swaying these searchers to purchase from you, instead. This strategy is most effective in situations where your product is a direct substitute and is considered to be ‘equal’ to your competitor’s.

Tags: brands, ppc tricks

You Too Can Advertise on Myspace

Posted on Nov 7, 2008 by Rick to Pay Per Click

For small and medium-sized advertisers interested in advertising on myspace, the time has finally come. Well, it really came a long time ago, but now it’s easier and more accessible for lower-budget advertisers to run campaigns through myspace’s new myAds Beta advertising platform. Finally, myspace has caught up to, and possibly surpassed, Facebook with an easy to use campaign management tool.

Here’s the lowdown on myspace advertising:
Myspace takes users through a step-by-step banner ad campaign creation process consisting of a few simple steps:

• Select a template: To begin with, myspace offers a number of pretty good-looking premade templates that require little more than quick text edits to create a clear and effective banner ad. At the time of this post, banner ads came in two sizes, 728×90 and 300×250. For the artistically-inclined, myspace allows users to upload images for their banner ad.

• Customize template: Next, you’re given a number of tools to customize the template you’ve chosen or the image you’ve uploaded. Customization options include adding and editing images and text to the template background.

• Target audience: Next, users determine the URL to point their ad to and they also select the targeted audience. Demographics can be targeted by gender, age, location and interests.

• Campaign budget: Lastly, advertisers set the campaign budget. Campaigns are spent on a cost per click (CPC) basis, allowing for a total campaign budget. The minimum CPC for any ad is $0.25 and the minimum campaign budget is $25.

Myspace’s myAds network will no doubt open up a world of opportunity for advertisers whose target audience is, well, just about anyone. As one of the largest social networks on the planet, myspace’s demographics cover consumers of all ages, locations and interests. In my opinion, it’s worth a try for just about any business.

Tags: banner advertising, myspace advertising, Pay Per Click

Geo-Targeting Your PPC Campaigns

Posted on Aug 13, 2008 by Rick to Pay Per Click

Google, MSN and Yahoo have offered location-targeted campaigns for as long as I can remember. This feature allows advertisers to select the zip codes, cities, states, countries and continents to show their ads in.

From the perspective of business that provide a good or service to the local population, the application of this feature is pretty straight forward. Local advertisers use geo-targeting to show ads to customers who are in their buying area. For example, a dry cleaning company in Miami would only show ads to users searching for dry cleaning from a computer in the Miami area.

Applications for national and international companies
The applications of geo-targeting for companies whose prospects span wider areas are often overlooked. Advertisers often think that, because they can service searchers in any area, they should run the same ads for all areas. Consider the following applications for geo-targeting:

* Manipulate ad copy based on location – Running ads personalized to a given location can increase click through rates, which will allow you to run your ad in lower positions at a lower cost. For years, marketers have found that personalizing ad copy increases response rate by grabbing the attention of potential customers. Why not spend a little more time setting up location-specific campaigns if it makes sense for your product? After all, it doesn’t hurt to test this strategy in a small area before applying it to all your campaigns.

* Test ads and promotions – There are many features that will allow you to test ads and geo-targeting is just one of them. Try different ads or promotions in different cities to see which tactics are most effective. This is especially effective for high-volume campaigns.

* Fool the competition – Ever have a competitor watching (and copying) your every online advertising move? Try running a dummy ad just so your competitor doesn’t know what you’re really up to. All you need to do is find out where your competitor is located and run a geo-targeted ad just for them. The rest of the country will still see your ‘real’ ads. This may be a good tactic for advertisers launching a large, national campaign who want to keep their competitors in the dark for a while. The con here is that potential customers in the same geographical region will see the same ad as your competitor.

Staying on top of your game requires creativity and lots of testing. Take a close look at your campaigns and see if you can think of new ways to run your campaigns more effectively and efficiently.

Tags: geo targeting, local search

Why You Should Bid on your Brand Name

Posted on Jul 28, 2008 by Rick to Pay Per Click

I’ve often suggested to clients that they run a pay per click campaign for their brand name. Usually, there’s resistance. After all, some of our clients already rank first in the organic results for their company name. Why would run a paid ad when they can get traffic from brand-related terms for free?

In rare situations, this point is valid. But here are only a few convincing reasons why you should, at a bare minimum, run pay per click campaigns for terms related to your brand name.

Bad Organic Ranking
Sometimes companies have trouble getting a top organic ranking for their name when their company name contains generic keyword phrases that are harder to rank for. For companies that don’t rank #1 for terms related to their brand name, it’s absolutely critical that they run a pay per click campaign for terms related to their brand name.

Imagine the frustration of a potential customer who saw an ad of yours (online or offline) and now can’t find your website to do business with you. Also, imagine their impression of your company if you’re that hard to find on the internet.

Aggressive Competitors
In situations where your competitors are bidding on your brand name, again, you definitely want to be there as well. What this means is that your competitors can run ads that appear any time your name is searched. Whether you rank first in the organic results or not, cleaver ad copy by your competitors could be just enough to distract a potential customer. If for example, the only product you sell is tennis sneakers, your competitor may run an ad offering 50% of all tennis sneakers when your name is searched, in hopes that they can pull your customer away. Marketers who have used this strategy can attest to its effectiveness.

Take a minute and search for your name and variation of your name. Are any of your competitors using this strategy?

Your Brand Name or Website Address is Hard to Spell, Say or Remember
That’s right, not everyone knows as much about your company as you do. If for example you’re one of the zillion law firms out there named after six different partners, you’ve got to make sure you’re bidding on a variety of keywords that searchers might use to find you.

If you’ve got a tough name to spell or a long website address, try to think of different ways that customers may try to spell it and run ads for those terms.

Offline Marketing Support
Let’s say you’re running a series of radio ads this week. Listeners may hear your ad, like the offer, and then want to go online to get more info. Of course, they were driving home from work when they heard the ad and won’t be able to get on the web until later. By the time they do get around to searching for you, it’s possible they misspell your company name, web address or just can’t remember your exact name. Consumers are force-fed advertisements all day which makes it hard to remember the specifics of any one ad. Compliment offline campaigns and ensure that potential customers find you by running complimentary PPC ads.

These are just a few of many reasons that you might want to consider starting a few small brand name keyword-specific pay per click ads. After all, you wouldn’t open a store in a local strip mall without putting a sign out with your name on it, would you? Then why run the risk of having potential customers look for you online and not find you. Besides, if it turns out that no one is searching for your brand name, it won’t cost you anything and may be a sign that you need to run pay per click ads for other reasons…

Google’s Video Adsense Coming to a TV Near You

Posted on Mar 13, 2008 by Jonathan to Pay Per Click

New York Times’ Brian Stelter begins his latest editorial with a list of demands; “Pick up the remote.” Simple enough. “Turn on the television.” Again, nothing too strenuous. “and watch YouTube.” Busted! Not Stelter or even the New York Times, but Google.

In my last blog, I mulled over Google’s latest targeted advertising campaign in which video is their delivery boy. I wasn’t a fan of the whole concept then, and they have yet to sell me on it. At least now, however, I understand how they’re planning to drive me further from my television.

I’ll admit I’m being overdramatic. I love Google and occasionally I’ll watch something on my TV that isn’t a DVD, but I believe that with all of this new functionality and “the future of television” talk comes a paradox of sorts. Sure, this may be the future of our TV-experience, but at what cost?

The NYT Headline, ‘YouTube Coming to TV, With TiVo the Gateway‘, answered my most concerning question; who is in bed with whom?

Like some bizarro polygamist sect, so many companies and services can be traced back or linked to one another. Google fathers Adsense. Google and YouTube’s progeny is targeted video advertising. YouTube becomes bored and partners with TiVo; but now, I have two new questions that need answering.

Does Google exist vicariously through TiVo’s YouTube service and, more importantly, will Google’s targeted video ads penetrate my TiVo?

Originally, I cited DVR as what the rest of us use to combat monotonous blocks of commercials, but if what I’ve suggested is fact and Google’s video Adsense extends to the realm of TiVo, then DVR is essentially compromised.

Let’s say all of that hypothetical becomes reality; will we be able to skip over our YouTube adverts, or will there be exceptions? Smart-money suggests just such a scenario.

Tags: adsense

How Google Plans to Pollute Your Web

Posted on Mar 10, 2008 by Jonathan to Pay Per Click

Google, please tell me, just what do you think you are doing? Peddling targeted video advertising. You, the king of information, functionality, simplicity, and monetization.

Adsense was a hit and you own Youtube; breeding the two only makes sense, right? Well, I am here to tell you, Google, brother, that as much as I would love to see this work for you, I just refuse to be a part of the shenanigans; and in all sincerity, I hope you one day come to the realization that not everything need be monetized.

Why this shouldn’t work

Firebrand.com. Anyone remember this pugnacious little scamp? Well, if you don’t, there is good reason; as bright and optimistic a prospect this claimed “advertainement” company seemed, it quickly folded under the weight of what is so painfully obvious—people value their time. The reason TV ads are in such trouble is because people don’t want to watch them, and their solution has come in the form of DVR.

Google, one of the reasons adsense worked was because text is unobtrusive. It doesn’t deter your focus or accost your senses. What the people want is information and now. By lacing results and content with “targeted, contextually relevant video graphical ads and text overlays,” you instead hinder the data-retrieval process.

Why this will probably work

Google has partnered up with Brightcove (whose customers include CBS Corp, Time Warner Inc, and Discovery Communications Inc), YuMe, the pre-existing video ad-service, and comedy site MyDamnChannel.

With this level of financial backing and, well, influence, we can only expect there to be a large sum of money thrown at its implementation.

Why does this really have the unfortunate chance of succeeding? Because Google is at the helm.

So I ask you Google, please reconsider, or at least carefully consider, the direction you take this. If not for us—the impatient but information-savvy—then for the sanctity of an already too-saturated web; corrupted by such similar greedy and offensive methods of turning a buck.

Tags: google

Yahoo! Launches new Search Marketing Ranking Model

Posted on Feb 23, 2007 by Michelle to Pay Per Click

As of Monday, February 5th, Yahoo! implemented a new Search Marketing Ranking Model to ensure that more qualified ads are being served to searches, and will now not necessarily show the ads that have the highest price tag assigned to them. Yahoo! hopes that this new ranking model will allow for a more relevant search experience to users, more valuable customer leads to advertisers and additional opportunities to its distribution partners.

Until now, Yahoo! ranked it ads solely on the bid price. Basically, the higher an advertiser bid, the higher the ad would appear within the search results. When the new ranking model took effect on February 5th, advertisers noticed that both bid price and ad quality combined would determine at what position an ad would appear within the search results. Yahoo! announced that quality of an ad will be determined by its historical performance in the new system and its expected performance relative to other ads displayed at the same time. Ads of better quality will more than likely receive higher placement within the search results.

By making this change, Yahoo! is hoping to provide advertisers with industry-leading marketplace visibility and features that will allow them to better understand their performance and make more informed marketing decisions.

What does this mean for existing Yahoo! advertisers?
Yahoo! has sent out, and will continue to send out, upgrade invitations to the advertisers in the U.S. throughout the first quarter, and anticipates that all U.S. advertisers will be upgraded by the end of the second quarter. Advertisers who have upgraded to the new system can gauge the quality of their ads by viewing the prominently displayed quality index within the application. Yahoo! also provides advertisers with an estimated average position and estimated forecast of clicks for their ad campaigns, based on budget allocation and ad quality.

Organic SEO vs Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Posted on Jan 8, 2007 by Michelle to Pay Per Click, SEO

There are two popular methods that people think of for Online Marketing: organic Search Engine Optimization and Pay-Per-Click Advertising. Most people would ideally want to use both methods strategically to maximize their site’s online presence, however each method has it’s distinct advantages and disadvantages.

Organic Search Engine Optimization:

Organic Search Engine Optimization offers distinct advantages over Pay-Per-Click Advertising, as many recent studies show. A majority of studies indicate that people are less likely to click on paid search ads, rather than search results that appear from organic search engine optimization. Studies have also shown that the overall conversion rate is higher for unpaid search results, than for paid search results. More and more people are becoming aware of the difference between paid search listings and those listings that are naturally occuring. One recent study shows that 54 percent of Google Search users are aware of the difference, and 66 percent of those users distrust paid advertising. While Pay-Per-Click Advertising may be popular for producing results more quickly, Organic Search Engine Optimization can give you the results that will last. If your Organic Search Engine Optimization Campaign is built from a solid foundation, the results will outlast and be more beneficial than any Pay-Per-Click Advertising Campaign.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising:

This is not a no brainer, even though it seem pretty cut and dry. Pay-Per-Click Advertising does benefit those people looking for fast results on a minimal budget. Pay-Per-Click Advertising provides user with immediate results. There is no down time for your site while it is being optimized for organic rankings. Additionally, some companies just do not have a budget that will allow for the expenditure for Organic Search Engine Optimization without seeing immediate results. With Pay-Per-Click Advertising, users can select the keywords they would like to target, and also dictate how much they are willing to spend to be ranked within the paid search. This allows users to control how and where their money is spent. Pay-Per-Click Advertising, as daunting as it may seem, is much easier to handle within your business, then Organic Search Engine Optimization, which almost always must be outsourced. And when you outsource your Organic Search Engine Optmization, there is almost always a contract of a certain length, due to the time it will take in order to see actual results. With Pay-Per-Click Advertising, you are not bound to any length of time, and you are able to start and stop as you see fit.

There are some very distinct positive and negatives to both Organic Search Engine Optmization and Pay-Per-Click Advertising. You must first determine what your overall goal for your online presence will be, and then determine what your budget will be. That should help you to figure out which solution is best for you. However, I most definitely feel that a combination of both (a.k.a a happy medium) will give you the best of both worlds!