Archives for 2012

The Must Have Retargeting eBook of 2012

Hey everyone, I have a short but incredibly important post for you tonight! Acquisio has a brand new Retargeting eBook that totally rocks. If you’re like me, retargeting is a huge initiative on your to-do list for 2012. The leverage is really there, it’s the most cost effective way to advertise on display. However, when you’re coming from a search background and your organization does not have a ton of expertise in display, a lot of questions come up quickly. Want to demystify retargeting and get the tips you need for success? Look no further than Acquisio’s eBook. Acquisio’s eBook in a nutshell:

Learn about the market opportunity with some fascinating statistics.
Understand the synergies between search and display, a winning combination.
Learn about the different types of retargeting.
My favorite part: Get four specific and actionable tips to successfully launch your retargeting campaigns.
Check out a neat B2B remarketing case study.

Retargeting is one of the most important online marketing trends of 2012. Whether you are a retargeting pro or brand new to the opportunity, I highly recommend downloading (for FREE) Acquisio’s Retargeting eBook. Once you’re done with their remarketing eBook, I also recommend the other Acquisio eBook’s I’ve reviewed here on PPC Ian:

Building An Attribution Model That Works
Using Remarketing To Drive Increased Display Ad Results (This is Acquisio’s older Retargeting eBook, a great complementary one to their new eBook reviewed in this post.)
Facebook Advertising Tips and Tactics
Choosing A PPC Management Pricing Model
Why Display Matters To Search Marketers

Image in this post © Acquisio

Negotiating a Great Price on SEM Software

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Feb 5 0

Are you in the market for SEM Software? If you’re running a large paid search program, I certainly hope so. SEM Software produces great returns, but it certainly does not come cheap. Today, I’m going to share a few tips that will help you negotiate a super price on your SEM Software.

Tip 1: Compare Prices on SEM Software

Marketing Automation Flow Chart

There’s a lot of different, great SEM Software packages available these days. You can read about a few of them in my post titled, SEM Software – Four Amazing Tools. The beauty of all these options? SEM Software companies are fighting for your business! Audition all of the platforms out there. Make it known that you are doing your homework. Leverage the fact that you are comparing platforms to negotiate prices down.

It’s expensive to build search engine marketing software. That said, it is possible to negotiate prices. Don’t give up and hold your ground. If you’re not a super experienced negotiator, you may even want to include someone from your sales or business development team. They can get a great read on the situation and help you with your negotiations.

Tip 2: Offer Yourself As A Reference

SEM Software companies only make money if they sign up a huge number of clients who spend a large amount of money on paid search. There is no better way to sign up new business than via referral. Tell the SEM Software company that you are willing to be a reference if they offer you and your company a discounted price. Just remember: Once you’re on their platform, make good on your promise. It’s the right thing to do, and it’s a fun way to meet new people in our great industry.

Tip 3: Become An SEM Software Testimonial

This one really ties into the last point. Offer yourself and your company as a potential testimonial for the SEM Software company. SEM Automation companies are always looking for testimonials, case studies, and even video interviews with clients. These help their marketing team drive more new business. Before promising this one, make sure to check with your company’s legal team. Are you authorized to be a testimonial? What are your company’s policies on testimonials? What type of data can you share and what can you not? Testimonials are a win-win, they keep prices down and will even get you some media exposure!

Tip 4: Is a "Lite" Version Available?

These days, SEM Software companies realize that large, enterprise customers have different needs than smaller organizations. Assess your monthly spend and understand if a "Lite" version is available. Many search marketing platforms offer abridged versions (at a cheaper price) that are still incredibly powerful for smaller advertisers.

Best of luck in purchasing your pay per click software and I also recommend reading my SEM Automation Buyer’s Guide Whitepaper for more tips on your big purchase.

Image of SEM Software Flow Chart © iStockPhoto – Henrik5000

Google Local Maps Pushing Down Paid Ads

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Feb 3 6

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.

Screenshot of Google search results © Google

Check Out My Guest Post About SEM Agencies

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jan 31 7

Today, 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

Is The Print Industry Going Under?

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jan 31 7

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

My Weekend Musings (2nd Edition)

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jan 29 3

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. 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

My Twitter Advertising Challenge

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jan 25 7

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

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.

Uncover Hidden Tricks With Google Instant

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jan 21 11

It’s the weekend so it’s time to relax. It’s time to have a little fun and stop taking things so seriously. In that light, I wanted to share some really cool “hidden tricks” today with Google Instant. Some of my team members actually shared these with me on Friday and I was so excited about it. I absolutely can’t get enough of Google’s humor. For SEM geeks, like myself, this stuff is too funny.

Below, you will see two screenshots. The first is the search engine results on Google when I type in “askew”. As you can see, Google Instant technology actually makes the page go askew for the word askew, how cool is that!

The second screenshot shows the search results for the search term “do a barrel roll”. This one is so crazy, you just have to see it for yourself. Type in “do a barrel roll” on Google Instant and the entire page does a barrel roll. Obviously, my screenshot is just a moment in time during the barrel roll process.

Bring these into work on Monday and you’ll be the hero of your SEM team. Do you know any hidden tricks with Google Instant? There just have to be more. I have not yet taken the time to search for other Google tricks, but definitely looking forward to uncovering more of them!

Knowing Trends In Online Marketing

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jan 20 2

Are you in the corporate world of online marketing? Want to make a strong impression at work? My tip of the day: Get to know industry trends. Of course you first need to become an expert at your own business, and of course grow your numbers. Once those are on the right trajectory, however, your ability to effectively collect and communicate industry trends will help your business (especially senior management) dramatically. All companies want to benchmark themselves against others and project the future. A solid understanding of industry trends makes all of this possible.

When it comes to pay per click, how do you get solid benchmark data? You can gather some high level information from services like Compete, Hitwise, and Quantcast. Also, you can request benchmark data from your Google and Yahoo! account management teams. I highly recommend both of these strategies.

Now, there is a third way to get benchmark data, one that’s low work on your end but super high leverage. I’m talking about benchmark reports published by SEM platforms such as Marin Software. Today, I’m thrilled to share with you Marin Software’s Q4 US Online Advertising Report. I just downloaded this report (it’s free) and can say without a doubt that you do not want to pass this one up! Following are some of my favorite highlights…

Marin’s whitepaper offers 13 pages of outstanding data
Marin compiles data from over 1,000 advertisers and agencies who spend a collective 2.7 billion in annual spend
The whitepaper features some really interesting CPC and match type trends (we’re talking about specific and actionable PPC statistics)
It breaks down trends by industry: auto, B2B, education, finance, healthcare, retail, and travel
In addition to computers, Marin covers smartphones and tablets
In addition to discussing AdWords and adCenter, Marin covers Facebook trends too

Download Marin’s Q4 US Online Advertising Report tonight and go into work tomorrow as a PPC industry trend guru!

Don’t Check Email Right Before You Go To Bed

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Jan 18 3

Today, I wanted to share a quick tip that will help you in business and life: Don’t check your email right before you go to bed. If you’re already in bed and have your iPhone right near you on the nightstand, resist the temptation!

Last night, I made the mistake of checking my email right before bed. After a really long day at work and a long weekend (I worked most of last weekend), I was not in the frame of mind to deal with the email. However, I checked my email and found one that worried me. It was not a worked-related email, but rather a personal one. Upon reading this email, my mind went racing and I lost some serious sleep. Moreover, my day today got off to a rocky start. I missed out on sleep and more importantly had not “solved” the dilemma presented via the email.

However, after thinking about the email throughout the day today, the “solution” came to me. I’m really proud of the solution and feel like it’s a great one. At the end of the day, I think the solution would have come to me quicker and I would have gotten much more sleep had I not checked my email right before going to bed.

Going forward, I am going to resist checking my email right before going to bed. I hope to get more sleep this way and also make optimal decisions in life. Of course, this does not mean I will avoid checking my work and personal email at night. It just means I will have a cutoff time when I stop looking (probably around 9:00 pm or 10:00 pm at night). Today was definitely a learning lesson for me and I hope this tip helps you out too!