Marketing on the Web Looks like the Yahoo Marketing to MSN AdCenter cut-over is now complete (I had several email notices to this effect this morning). With this change, customers will no longer be able to differentiate bids or ads between these platforms. To make this more clear in the reporting for my customers, I have updated the campaigns that previously read MSN (cpc) and Yahoo (cpc) to display as “Bing (cpc)” in their Google analytics traffic reports. Several in the industry are reporting wild gyrations...
MoreSearch Engine Marketing
Marketing on the Web discusses Search Engine Marketing and how it can improve your marketing efforts.
Differentiate Affiliate Clicks from Bounces
A bounce is a visit to your website that doesn't result in a second pageview or a desired action. If your site participates in affiliate marketing programs such as Google AdSense, an outbound click may very well be your desired action. To be able to properly optimize your website and your marketing campaigns, you need to differentiate someone clicking out on an affiliate link from someone who doesn't find what they are looking for and just leaves. The "proper" way to do that is to either trac...
MoreYahoo’s transition Bing Search and Ad results
It looks like the transition of Yahoo to Bing for it’s advertising platform (Micro-hoo) is finally happening. In case you were not aware, Yahoo has been testing the use of Bing for its search results for several weeks. Yahoo made the full-time switch to Bing results last week (if you search on Yahoo, you now get Bing results). The date for Yahoo to start using Bing's AdCenter platform has been less clear, but it appears now that the transition will start later this week. see: https://www.ysmblo...
MoreYahoo to Microsoft AdCenter Transition Update
I attended a seminar today that discussed the Microsoft (AdCenter) /Yahoo (Panama) transition. I have hit several preliminary discussions on this topic at conferences, but this was the first one that had any real information about the Microhoo transition. The seminar was lead by representatives from Microsoft and Yahoo and they set forth a time-line that showed the transition starting in August for completion by mid-October. They were careful to point out that this transition only effects sea...
MoreAdCenter Beta Says Thank You
I have assisted with a number of product beta’s over the years, but was flattered when Microsoft contacted me to do an interview about my involvement in the AdCenter beta program. see: Thank You for Helping Improve Microsoft adCenter
MoreNeed a Website, Hire a Design Professional
Your company website has the role of a sales person, working 24/7, representing your company, answering questions, educating the prospect. Many times it will be the first impression prospects will have of your business and should convey quality at every turn. Like any good sales rep, its appearance should be a reflection of its audience, wearing tennis shoes if it’s selling skateboards and a suit if it’s selling financial advice. A website is in many cases the first impression someone has of ...
MoreSearch Marketing Exposition West 2010
I am attending the search optimization and marketing conference SMX West in Santa Clara next week. If you will be at the conference and would like to get together, drop me a note. For my customers, this is one of the larger industry events. While I follow in the neighborhood of 20 blogs on marketing and optimization all year, this show does a lot to pull all the information together. Confirming trends and many times is the launching point for new techniques and information.
MoreGoogle AdWords Quality Score – Again
I have written several posts on Quality Score, but I recently found two articles on the subject that make it worth revisiting. Quality Score is Google’s way of assessing how relevant your paid search keywords are to the searchers you’re targeting. This article by by Craig Danuloff discusses in monetary terms what the real costs of a low-quality-score are and this recent article, also by by Danuloff suggests 5 Steps to Improve Your Quality Score.
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