Google Local Maps Pushing Down Paid Ads

Posted by: Comments: Be the first person to comment

Feb. 03

Check out the screenshot below of the Google search results for the ever competitive query, “auto insurance”. At the top of the right rail, you’ll see a map. If you click the title of the map (“Map for auto insurance”), you get taken to a local results page that includes local brokers. If you’re a local broker, this could be a great way to get more business. However, if you’re a paid search advertiser and show up on the right rail, this means lower CTRs.

The map pushes all ads on the right rail down. At the end of the day, this means it’s more important than ever to show up in the top yellow bar. Otherwise, your ad will get a significantly lower CTRs. Google is supposed to normalize CTRs for position for purposes of quality score, but I wonder if they are factoring in this new map feature. The lower CTRs of right rail advertisers could be a vicious cycle if Google is not taking this new map feature into account.

My advice: Work on your CTRs, landing pages, and overall account structure/efficiency to make sure you show up in that top yellow bar! It’s becoming more important than ever to avoid the right rail, if possible, and show up in the yellow bar.

Google Auto Insurance

Screenshot of Google search results © Google

Posted in: Search Engines | Tags: , | Comments: Be the first person to comment!

Check Out My Guest Post About SEM Agencies

Posted by: Comments: 2 comments so far

Jan. 31

PPC Associates Blog PostToday, I wrote a guest blog post on the PPC Associates Blog titled How To Choose The Right SEM Agency. Please check it out and let me know what you think!

It’s always exciting to do guest posts because it’s a great opportunity to get in front of new audiences. You may recall that I did a Guest Post on Acquisio’s Blog back in December. Today marks my first guest post of 2012, the first of many. I highly recommend heading on over to the PPC Associates Blog and checking out both my guest post and their other amazing posts. Thanks PPC Associates for the great opportunity!

Image in this post © PPCAssociates.com

Posted in: Networking | Tags: , | Comments: 2 comments so far, join the discussion!

Is The Print Industry Going Under?

Posted by: Comments: 5 comments so far

Jan. 31

I’m a huge fan of dividend-paying stocks. In fact, it’s part of my 2012 Goals to save as much money as possible and invest it wisely (in dividend-paying stocks and other income-yielding vehicles).

I’m always searching Yahoo! Finance looking for new opportunities. Recently, I found a stock called R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company. R.R. Donnelley (Ticker: RRD) provides printing and corporate communications services for businesses. They’ve been in business since 1864 and employ 58,700 employees. When it comes to print (newspapers, magazines, direct mail, and even investment materials), R.R. Donnelley does it all.

Over the last few weeks, RRD stock has taken quite a hit. There are a number of reasons the stock is going down, but one is certainly the belief that the printing industry is going under. It’s all about digital media these days. This is certainly good news for those of us in the pay per click search engine marketing career path. That said, it’s also sad to see an old company under such pressure.

When a dividend-paying stock goes down, dividend yield goes up (that is, assuming the dividend does not get cut). Right now, RRD is yielding an impressive 9%. It’s quite difficult to find any large cap companies yielding this amount. As such, RRD looks to many like quite the promising investment. That said, the dividend is only secure if the print industry is around for the long haul.

What do you think? Do you think that the print industry is going under? Do you think RRD could follow a similar fate to Eastman Kodak (recently filed for bankruptcy)? Or, do you feel that the print industry will always have a presence, despite the growing popularity of digital media? While the 9% dividend yield is enticing, I’m staying away for now. There’s enough uncertainty that this risk averse investor is going to wait and see. In any event, it’s quite interesting to see the trends we all know (more online media consumption) playing out in the stock market (both via the popularity of Internet stocks and the unpopularity of print stocks such as RRD).

Disclosure: I don’t own stock in R.R. Donnelley and do not anticipate opening a position in the next 72 hours.
Image of stock market © iStockPhoto – ahlobystov

Posted in: Offline Marketing | Tags: , | Comments: 5 comments so far, join the discussion!

My Weekend Musings (2nd Edition)

Posted by: Comments: 1 comment so far

Jan. 29

I had a lot of fun writing my last weekend musings post so I’m thrilled to write another one today. I actually skipped my weekend musings last weekend since I had a fun post about Google Instant Tricks. I really enjoy weekends because they allow me to take a break, take a step back, and ponder on the past week and future too. Here’s what I’m thinking about right now…

Break

  • I hit the 200 post milestone here on PPC Ian. This post is actually number 202. My post about Epik, The Most Comprehensive Registrar Around was number 200. Now that I’m blogging more frequently than ever, I’m going to hit 300 and then 400 posts before I know it!
  • Lending Club (affiliate link) is awesome. As you may know from my 2012 Goals, this is my year to save money, invest wisely, and also give back to others. Part of my savings and investing strategy involves Lending Club and I can’t wait to write an entire post about my strategy next week. Quick preview: I’m now invested in 140 notes with a net annualized return of 13.08%. Also, this is a great way to help and give back. I’m lending money to people who need it, and I’m offering a much better interest rate than they can get at the bank.
  • VaultPress is a really great WordPress plugin. I was reading about the best WordPress Plugins For 2012 over on my friend Morgan Linton’s blog, and noticed VaultPress on the list. I had been thinking about getting this plugin for a while, and finally went ahead and did it after reading Morgan’s post. My HostGator VPS Hosting already has me covered, they do regular backups of my site. However, I like the extra peace of mind VaultPress offers. For $15/month, it’s great to know that my blog is being backed up continuously.
  • When you think your pay per click accounts are fully optimized, think again! Even the oldest and most refined AdWords and adCenter accounts have more room for optimization. Sometimes I feel like I’ve looked at an account for so long that it’s perfect. However, when I take a step back I always end up finding more opportunity.
  • I got a lot done in the last week. My strategy: Focus on completing one major task each day. I have an overwhelming number of projects on my plate. By staying focused, I’m thankfully making some serious progress on my list.
  • I’m super excited about my Twitter Advertising Challenge. I’m basically challenging myself to take my Twitter account to the next level. I’ve already made great progress and can’t wait to finish this project. So far, I’ve reduced the number of people I’m following by 3,000+ and have been working with my designer on a new background (it looks amazing so far). After my Twitter Challenge, I’m going to do the same thing on Facebook. I already have some really great ideas to take my Facebook Fan Page to the next level.
  • It’s taking a lot of time to update the copyright notices on my 120+ websites to reflect the new year (2012). I haven’t gotten through all of them yet, but have updated my most important sites to include 2012 in the copyright notice.

Image of Break © shirhan

Posted in: Random | Tags: | Comments: 1 comment so far, join the discussion!

My Twitter Advertising Challenge

Posted by: Comments: 4 comments so far

Jan. 25

I got started with Twitter early on and leveraged smart strategies from day one. These strategies have propelled my following to over 17,000 on Twitter and have driven a significant amount of traffic to PPC Ian. That said, I’m always looking to improve and have set a challenge for myself. Twitter is hot right now so it’s the perfect time to revamp my Twitter account. Today, I’m going to outline the challenge I’m setting for myself and one month from now I’ll report back on the results!

Initiative One: Follow No More Than 200 People

PPC Ian Twitter

Right now, I have 17,060 followers but am following 16,826. My Twitter stream is basically unusable. I want to be able to log in to my Twitter account and make sense of things, only seeing tweets that are relevant and interesting to me. If I am following no more than 200 people, I’ll be able to use Twitter once again.

Why am I following so many people right now? It was actually part of my initial strategy. I went out there and followed a ton of people knowing that a certain portion would reciprocate and follow me back. I would then unfollow those who did not follow me back. I did this many times and was able to drive a significant number of followers with this strategy. It’s a great strategy I still recommend for building out your initial base of followers. More followers equals more social proof and brand equity.

How am I going to remove 16,500+ followers? I’m going to go through all my @ messages and find out who I’ve interacted with. Then, I’m going to put them on my Tweet Adder white list. (Tweet Adder is a really helpful Twitter utility that I recommend purchasing if you’re serious about advertising on Twitter.) After my white list is loaded with my favorite people, I’m going to remove 1,000 people each day (who are not on my white list) until I’m done. Sure, I’m going to remove some good people by accident, but I can always add them back later.

Will I lose followers with this strategy? Absolutely. That said, I don’t think I’m going to lose more than 5,000 followers. I’m ok with this, and believe that I’ll retain most followers.

Initiative Two: Redesign My Twitter Background

My Twitter background has not been updated in years. It still looks ok, but could be a lot better. I’ve decided to engage the same designer who designed and built IJL.net for me. I’m sure the results will be great. Also, I’m sure my new background will help drive even more followers in the future.

Initiative Three: Advertise and Gain More Followers

After I reduce the list of people I’m following, I’m sure to lose a few followers. I’m going to partially make up for this by running a paid advertising campaign on Twitter. I’ve had phenomenal results running Paid Like Campaigns on Facebook. I have not tried this yet on Twitter, but am quite excited. At the very least, I’ll get that cool “Verified Account” badge by signing up as an advertiser. Also, I hope to gain some serious experience that I can then leverage at my job. In my opinion, it’s critical for all PPC professionals to master Facebook and Twitter in addition to AdWords and adCenter.

Stay tuned, I’m hoping to have some interesting findings in my journey to optimize my Twitter account. Want to connect on Twitter? Please don’t hesitate to reach out, my Twitter handle is ianlopuch.

Image of PPC Ian’s Twitter Count © PPCIan.com and Twitter

Posted in: Blogging | Tags: , | Comments: 4 comments so far, join the discussion!