Pay Per Click Budgeting Tips

It’s Q4 and time to start thinking about 2011. If you’re at a large company, there’s no doubt that the financial budgeting process is in effect (or at least will be very soon). I really enjoy budgeting and forecasting: It’s the ideal time to start thinking about the big picture and all the amazing initiatives you and your team will accomplish during the next fiscal year. Also, it’s the perfect time to start securing the budget you need to accomplish your goals in 2011. I’ve been through the budgeting process many times and today would like to share some great ideas for 2011 strategic initiatives.

Initiative 1: Implement PPC Automation Software

Looking To The Future

Are you managing your campaigns manually? If so, that’s great! Why am I so excited? It’s easy: There’s a huge amount of upside on the table for you. Implement a paid search platform in 2011 and you’ll uncover major efficiencies, save time, make your team more productive, make more money via automated bidding, and much more!

I’m a huge fan of paid search software (but I bet you already knew that by now), and recommend checking out my FREE 12 page whitepaper about selecting the right paid search automation platform. Once you’re done with that, I highly recommend checking out the plethora of amazing platforms out there including Acquisio, WordStream, and Marin Software. I also discuss a few other amazing platforms in my post about SEM software. Finding the right SEM platform for your organization is a long and exciting journey. It’s also an endeavor which requires budget and buy-in during the budgeting process. Secure the budget for your SEM platform now, during budgeting season.

Initiative 2: Expand Your Team

Online marketing is growing rapidly. Many large companies are finally transferring budget from offline to online. What does this mean for you and the pay per click career path? Nothing but upside! However, it also means increased work. I’m here to say that no matter how much technology you have in place, it’s fundamental to have a team in place. It’s during the budgeting process that you can secure budget to hire additional resources in 2011. Get your request in there and start working with your recruiter as soon as it’s approved, it can take time to find the perfect match for your team!

Initiative 3: Think Big About Acquisitions

We’re in very interesting times. Cash is abundant for many successful companies, but cash definitely is not king with today’s ultra-low interest rates. Wouldn’t it be great if you could help your organization put all that cash to use? You can! Think big in terms of acquisitions. Any competitors in the PPC marketplace that stand out as particularly amazing? Why not buy them up, especially if they have an amazing SEO presence as well.

Initiative 4: Invest In The Yahoo! Microsoft Search Alliance

When it comes to pay per click search engine marketing, it’s all about leverage. Now that Yahoo! and Microsoft have joined forces, leverage is plentiful. It’s my firm belief that the Search Alliance will take online marketing to new heights. The innovation and opportunities will be unparalleled. My advice? Budget for at least one full time person managing your Unified Marketplace accounts!

Initiative 5: Invest In Landing Pages

Back in 2004, PPC was just like printing money! The marketplace lacked a lot of competition and it was easy to grow by simply adding keywords, refining ad copy, and exploring new channels such as contextual advertising. These days, however, things are quite different. Competition is abundant and the tricks of PPC are not enough on their own to put you in the lead, consistently. The difficult part of this all? It’s the pay per click campaign managers that own the numbers! This is why it’s so very important to secure resources NOW for landing pages. Landing pages are something that will most likely require resources from your design and engineering teams. If you can secure those resources for 2011, you’re definitely setting yourself and your company up for success!

Initiative 6: Don’t Forget About The Basics

To close out, I’d like to highlight that the basics of PPC are still absolutely fundamental. All this other stuff is great, but it won’t get you far if you don’t have a solid foundation in place. Start planning for some major keyword generation, ad copy testing, bidding refinement, campaign deployment, match type testing, negative keyword generation, beta testing, campaign monitoring, and more!

The best part of this PPC budgeting process: You have real world numbers that you can leverage for your projections. Do your best to accurately forecast the results of your PPC initiatives and you’ll be surprised just how accurate your budget turns out! And, don’t forget to set aside at least 20 or more hours for budgeting, it takes a lot of time.

Image of man looking to the future © iStockPhoto – olaser

Acquisio’s Awesome Display Advertising eBook

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Nov 7 13

I’ve been in search engine marketing since 2004, with a huge focus on pay per click. I’ve been very fortunate to round out my skillset in email marketing, blogging, SEO, display, and other marketing channels. You might be thinking, how could I possibly learn all these skills when pay per click is so crazy in its own right, managing multimillion dollar corporate budgets? Really, it comes down to a few simple strategies:

First, I got out there and went for it. I formed my own web publishing operation, IJL Productions LLC, and have since developed over 50 websites that benefit thousands of visitors each and every day. This has been my main method of learning all about SEO, email marketing, and blogging.
Second, I’ve spent a significant amount of time networking with the different teams at the companies I’ve worked for. This has been an amazing way to learn display, SEO, email, and so much more. Often times, simple networking has turned into collaborative projects where myself and my team have gotten a first hand opportunity to work on interdisciplinary projects!
Third, I spend a significant amount of time reading whitepapers and eBooks. It’s amazing these days the types of insights you can learn from eBooks.

In the spirit of my third strategy for building out a well rounded online marketing skillset, I’m very excited to share with you Acquisio’s FREE eBook about Why Display Matters to Search Marketers. I recently discovered this amazing eBook and have learned quite a bit about display marketing from it. The online marketing landscape is truly changing and it’s a very wise investment to learn all of the different online marketing channels. Check out Acquisio’s eBook and you’ll be well on your way to learning about display!

What is Acquisio?

I’m a huge fan of SEM automation. As you may know, I recently wrote a free 12 page whitepaper all about buying the right SEM automation application for your organization. It all makes perfect sense in my opinion: Without leverage and automation, you cannot possibly scale with efficiency.

That’s were Acquisio steps in. This cross channel performance marketing platform is one of the absolute best platforms out there for tracking your campaigns, reporting, day-to-day management, automation, optimization, and so much more. Whether you’re a large agency, small agency, or even direct advertiser, you’ve just got to investigate Acquisio as part of your SEM platform strategy. Acquisio’s executive team is comprised of well known SEM industry gurus such as Marc Poirier, co-founder and CMO, who are circuit speakers at industry events such as SMX (Search Marketing Expo) and SES (Seach Engine Strategies). I’m certainly a huge fan of this platform!

Why Download Acquisio’s Display Advertising eBook?

I highly recommend downloading Acquisio’s free eBook about why Display Matters To Search Marketers. I thoroughly enjoyed this eBook for many reasons. The following three are just a flavor of my takeaways:

I went away from this eBook knowing that I absolutely must continue to perfect my skills in display advertising. My career in online marketing relies on it! In many verticals, pay per click is becoming increasingly competitive. There are only so many keywords you can buy. You can’t bid higher than position number one. You can only optimize your ad copy and landing pages so much. I see a point where it may become difficult to grow paid search for certain established verticals/advertisers (beyond the overall growth rate of the Internet). Display offers an awesome complement to paid search and a brand new frontier for incremental growth. (As a side note, I highly recommend SEM platforms such as Acquisio if you’re facing a plateau in your own search marketing program. Online marketing platforms can unlock new efficiencies and opportunities that are not possible with manual campaign management!)
I really enjoyed learning all about recent improvements to Real Time Bidding (RTB). Basically, display is becoming more and more like paid search in terms of bidding (and in some respects even more complex and exciting). How cool is that? What a great frontier for pay per click professionals!
Last, I went away from this eBook with a structured plan (7 steps) on how I can get more involved in display. I’m going to take this plan with me to work tomorrow and start putting it into action. Currently, many organizations are planning for 2011. What a great time to leverage Acquisio’s tactical display plan for your company’s benefit!

Image of Acquisio homepage © Acquisio.com

Happy Birthday To PPC Ian!

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Oct 30 11

Hey Everyone,
Today’s an exciting day! Today marks PPC Ian’s 1 year birthday. It all started one year ago when Unique Blog Designs completed my slick custom blog design and I went live! My first post highlighted my passion for PPC and SEM. Now, 94 posts and 683 comments later, PPC Ian is growing quicker than ever! I wanted to take this opportunity to sincerely thank YOU for your support. It’s my readers like you that have made PPC Ian such a success. Today, I’ll be going through some of my favorite highlights from the past year. I hope you enjoy!
Sincerely,
Ian Lopuch (PPC Ian)

It’s All About The Online Marketing Community

Birthday Cake

When I look back on the past year, I’m extremely excited about the friendships I have developed with other bloggers and the online marketing community in general. How did I do it? Well, it honestly all came down to my blog commenting strategy. I got out there and commented on all the great online marketing blogs. Upon doing so, I met a lot of talented individuals and also ended up driving some serious traffic and quality comments on PPC Ian.

I even decided to launch my own blog commenting contest and the winners Profit Addiction, Dino Vedo, and My 4 Hour Workweek ended up getting their blogs reviewed for free as the prize! Even after the contest, Jeremy, Dino, and Eric have continued to comment like crazy on PPC Ian, I am truly thankful for that!

I also feel blessed that PPC Ian got serious press coverage on some of the top online marketing blogs around! Some of my favorite instances of PPC Ian in the press include: Super Affiliate Jonathan Volk, Celebrity Blogger John Chow, Teen Domainer, ZK’s Web Traffic ROI, Morgan Linton, and most recently my buddy D3so. A HUGE thank you to everyone out there in the online marketing community, I sincerely appreciate your support.

My Sponsors Rock!

I’d also like this opportunity to sincerely thank my sponsors, Marin Software, Acquisio, and WordStream. I have taken a truly unique approach to sponsorship on PPC Ian. Basically, I’m extremely picky and only include sponsors that offer products I personally champion. That’s right: I only include sponsorship from companies that offer killer products, the types of products that search marketers can’t live without! After all, I’m here to empower the search marketing industry. I’m proud to say that I can’t think of better products and companies than these three!

Want to learn more about Marin Software? I highly recommend checking out my exclusive interview with Marin’s Matt Lawson. How about WordStream? You just have to check out their free Quality Score Toolkit that I just reviewed in my last post. How about Acquisio? Stay tuned for my next post, I’m going to review their unparalleled display advertising whitepaper! Sponsors, my sincere thank you for partnering with me in making PPC Ian a big hit! My success wouldn’t have been possible without you!

Some of My Favorite PPC Ian Posts

I’d like to close out by highlighting three of my favorite PPC Ian blog posts from the last year. First and foremost, it was one of my 2010 goals to speak at a major event this year. That opportunity came up and I jumped all over it! What am I talking about? My two hour presentation about PPC, SEO, and Social Media at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

As you may know, another one of my big goals for 2010 is domaining and developing websites that drive passive income. I’m excited to announce that I’ve totally killed that goal. Along the way, I quickly learned that it’s super critical to scale your Bluehost and Host Gator accounts with add on domains. It’s no surprise that others have the exact same goals and are finding my post all about BlueHost Add On Domains extremely helpful. It’s actually the most visited post on my entire blog!

Last but not least, this just wouldn’t be PPC Ian if I didn’t mention my passion for PPC automation. I’m extremely proud of my SEM Automation Buyer’s Guide, my FREE 12 page whitepaper. I’m looking forward to writing more of these in the future!

To close out, I wanted to share a screenshot with you. Take a look below, PPC Ian’s organic listing on Google now has site links. This is a new development, one that I’m quite proud of. It basically means that Google is acknowledging PPC Ian as a blog that has authority. Sweet! Thanks again and here’s to another year of hockey stick growth!

PPC Ian Site Links

Image of Birthday Cake © iStockPhoto – skodonnell

WordStream’s Free Quality Score Toolkit

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Oct 23 10

I’m very excited about today’s post! I’m going to discuss one of my all time favorite Internet marketing systems, WordStream Moreover, I’m going to discuss their amazing quality score toolkit which can be yours absolutely free! It seems like more and more companies are giving away free whitepapers and eBooks these days (and I can’t get enough of it). Well, WordStream takes it a step further and offers an entire quality score toolkit – comprised of a whitepaper, cheat sheet, video, and quality score worksheet – all for free!

What Is WordStream?

If you’ve been following PPC Ian for a while there’s no doubt you’re aware of my SEM automation obsession. I have discussed a multitude of SEM tools in past posts and even wrote a free whitepaper about evaluating SEM applications for your organization. What is WordStream? WordStream is an Internet marketing application that automates and adds immense process to keyword generation, keyword review, keyword grouping, ad copy writing, and much more.

The tool has taken the industry by storm! From my perspective (someone who has used the vast majority of the SEM tools out there), WordStream tackles a truly unique and exciting problem, one which few other tools properly handle. Said another way, I recommend coupling WordStream with your other SEM bidding/management solution if you have one. Below are just a few of my favorite aspects of WordStream (definitely not a comprehensive list, just a few highlights):

Adding structure and workflow to keyword review and grouping, WordStream ensures you always have the right keywords in the best possible ad groups. In turn, this translates to optimal click through rates and therefore lower CPCs.
WordStream is all about workflow. It conveniently organizes the manual activities of keyword review, keyword grouping, and ad copy writing into prioritized queues. You can work through the queues yourself or easily delegate/outsource. Once you’re done, WordStream works wih search engine APIs to upload your work.
WordStream ensures you continuously improve your search engine accouts. Are you adding new, relevant keywords to your account daily? Are they in the right adgroups with the right ad copy? How about custom ads?
It seamlessly integrates with your site, leveraging organic traffic to generate PPC keywords.

What’s In WordStream’s Free Quality Score Toolkit?

As you can tell, I’m a huge fan of WordStream! I’m also a huge fan of their free quality score toolkit. So, what exactly do you get in the toolkit?

First and foremost, you get an amazing 18 page whitepaper all about Google’s quality score. The whitepaper explains the importance of quality score, how you can improve your quality score, and how you can leverage WordStream to improve your quality score. I recommend reading this first as a great introduction to WordStream.
Second, you get a one page quality score cheat sheet. This is a super one pager that you can pass around your organization. Its a great way to educate your management team, should they have any questions about quality score.
Third, you get an amazing mastering quality score video.
Last, you get a sophisticated quality score worksheet that analyzes your Google AdWords account.

I highly recommend downloading WordStream’s free quality score toolkit and learning all about how WordStream can take your SEM team’s game to the next level.

Image in this post © WordStream

Search Alliance Snail Mail

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Oct 19 13

The Yahoo! Microsoft Search Alliance is upon us! It’s October and the Alliance is happening, right on plan. I couldn’t be more excited and impressed with the Alliance happening on schedule (it’s one of the biggest events in the history of search engine marketing, after all). As you may remember, I wrote about preparing for the Yahoo! Microsoft Search Alliance. I also wrote about Marin Software’s amazing search alliance whitepaper. Today, I wanted to share an interesting story and a few last minute tips about the Alliance.

Are You Ready For The Yahoo! Microsoft Search Alliance?

Are you ready for the Search Alliance? If not, don’t worry, you’re not alone. PPC Ian is in the same boat as you, not all of my Yahoo! accounts have a transition plan. As you may know, I’m a huge fan of leverage. I work on the most important stuff and don’t give much time to the lower leverage activities. As such, I have a few smaller personal YSM accounts that I haven’t logged into for a while and I have absolutely no transition plan in place. It’s actually really crazy! About a month ago, Yahoo! started calling me and leaving messages on my phone to remind me about the Alliance! Most recently, they started sending me snail mail. Check out the images of the postcard at the bottom of this post. Click on them to view the full sized pictures. Can you believe it?

I’m Impressed With The Calls and Snail Mail

I’m actually really impressed with it all. Just think about it: These smaller accounts are ideal accounts for Yahoo! and Microsoft. I rarely log in, I let it spend money month after month, and I’m not really measuring the results. Again, it’s all about leverage for me and this stuff is just too small to look at regularly. These types of autopilot accounts are really like a dream come true for search engines. The money just keeps flowing in. When I think about it all through that lens, it totally makes sense why Yahoo! and Microsoft are going to such great lengths to move my smaller accounts over. I’m sure when you add up all the folks in the same bucket as me, we’re talking about some serious profit that could be lost for Yahoo! and Microsoft.

Last Minute Search Alliance Tips

Let’s say you have larger search engine accounts that aren’t yet prepared for the Alliance. I’d like to close out by offering a few tips. First and foremost, let’s start out and look at the root of the issue. Did you know about the Alliance and, if so, why did you wait? If you knew about the Alliance, I’m betting you’re just too strapped for time. You need more leverage.

How do you get more leverage? First, I highly recommend working closely with your Yahoo! reps to see how they can help. You’d be really surprised how much they can get done quickly. My Yahoo! reps have been truly invaluable in the entire process, they are working overtime to make sure the Alliance goes smoothly. Second, I recommend evaluating ppc management software such as Acquisio. I’m just about the biggest fan of SEM software around and can guarantee it will give you more leverage. PPC software will ensure that you’re always on top of your game, one step ahead of everyone else. Best of luck!

My Yahoo! Microsoft Search Alliance Postcard – Click To View Full Sized Images In New Window

Is Google Becoming Feature Rich?

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Oct 11 10

It seems like I’m finding a new feature on Google every other week! About a month ago, Google launched Google Instant, the algorithm that predicts your search query as you’re typing it in and serves up results in real time. Just in the last week, I noticed two other new features that are quite interesting. Today, I’d like to talk about my thoughts on Google Instant and also these two new features. It’s really crazy. I’d venture to say that the once minimalist Google experience is starting to become feature rich!

My Mixed Thoughts On Google Instant

From a user’s perspective, I have mixed feelings on the topic of Google instant. I’m a quick typist so it doesn’t save me too much time. Moreover, I’m really missing the search box at the bottom of the search results page. I like scrolling through all the search results and entering my next search query at the bottom of the page, but I now need to scroll back to the top before entering my next query.

From a search marketing perspective, it’s possible that Google Instant will shift more traffic to head terms while taking away from tail terms. This is something I am monitoring closely and only time will tell if this hypothesis materializes.

Google New Feature # 1: Annoying Arrow

So, now the fun part – Following are some new features you may have not heard about yet. Check out the screenshot below. You see that little arrow on the left of the search results? This arrow started appearing for me last week. When I move the down arrow on my keyboard, it goes down to the next result on the page. It starts in the premium sponsored results, then goes to organic, then goes to the right rail of paid ads if you keep going down. When you hit enter, it actually clicks the result and goes to that website!

Here’s why I think the new feature is annoying: I’m a big fan of scrolling up and down with my arrow keys. Now, when I scroll down, everything is slower because the rate at which the Google arrow goes down is slower than the normal scrolling of the page. Also, if you scroll back up after going down, the arrow disappears at the top of the page, the cursor goes in the search box, and now you’re prevented from scrolling up and down at all! In short, I find this new feature annoying.

Google New Feature # 2: Promotional Ads That Reference The User’s Search Query

I’m going to close out with a feature that I really like. In the screenshot below, you will notice that I search for site:www.ppcian.com. Basically, I’m trying to see how many pages of my site have been indexed by Google. Check out the Google promotion ad at the top. It references the exact search query I’m buying!

Now, you may argue, "It’s not referencing your search query, Ian. Google is buying your URL and using keyword insertion." I’ll argue back, that’s simply not true. How do I know this? If I type in site:www.ppcian.com/* the trailing slash and star are also included in Google’s promotional ad. If I do it without the star, but with the slash, my exact query gets inserted again.

I’m really excited about this technology. It would really open up a world of opportunity if I could leverage dynamic insertion of the user’s raw query in my search ads. You may be thinking, what does the second query above mean (the one with the trailing slash and star)? Whereas the first one shows how many pages are in Google’s index, the second one shows how many pages are in the "real" index (and not the supplemental one). Definitely useful stuff in the world of SEO. What do you think about Google’s new feature rich approach?

My Volatile eBay Partner Network Earnings

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Oct 4 14

I’m a big fan of SEO web publishing and have developed over 30 sites that drive pure margin to my bottom line. It’s refreshing as a pay per click professional to have SEO margins of nearly 100 percent in my personal portfolio of websites. I’m also a big fan of the eBay Partner Network. I’ve been in eBay’s affiliate program back since the days it was on Commission Junction and it’s always played an important part in my affiliate marketing strategy (although less so over time). Today, I wanted to take a moment to share my September earnings on the eBay Partner Network and in particular the very volatile nature of eBay’s affiliate program.

eBay Quality Click Pricing: Then and Now

Back in November, 2009 I wrote about eBay’s brand new quality click pricing. It has been almost a year now since eBay migrated from its old model of paying affiliates based on sales and leads to paying for each and every click.

Early on, I was a fan of eBay’s new model because my earnings skyrocketed and became much more consistent. While I’m still a fan of eBay, I have changed my opinion on quality click pricing. I like the old model better. Why? My earnings have trended down sharply in recent months and volatility has skyrocketed.

In addition to trending down, my earnings have been very volatile as of late. Case in point: The snapshot at the end of this article is from my eBay partner account. While my clicks are somewhat consistent, the chart shows my earnings per day coming in at only a few bucks per day and they skyrocketing at the end of the month.

I Have Been Diversifying My SEO Affiliate Business

Over time, my Google AdSense earnings have been trending up like crazy! They have been doing especially well since Google’s new leaderboard format. I have been doing well on Comission Junction as well. In August, I had a record month on Commission Junction with nearly $1,000 in pure SEO earnings. Excitingly, I exceeded my August earnings in September. I’m also not doing too bad on ClickBank these days. I’m now trying to make Amazon Associates work, but I have a long way to go.

In addition to diversifying my affiliate earnings by program, I have also been diversifying my portfolio of domain names. I’m proud to announce that I launched five new sites in September and am on track to do the same in October.

All of this diversification is really important in terms of risk mitigation and sustainability. It’s because of diversification that my decline in eBay earnings and volatility really doesn’t impact me. The two takeaways that I wanted to leave you with:

eBay’s partner network is great, but be prepared for some volatility.
Whether you’re managing corporate SEM campaigns, your affiliate marketing business, or your investment portfolio, diversification is key. The graph below is first hand proof that volatility exists even in a program that’s designed to pay you per click, in a relatively consistent fashion.

eBay Partner Network Earnings

Employee Performance Review Tips

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Sep 27 6

When it comes to the pay per click search engine marketing career path, it’s simply not enough to do great work. You need to do great work and get recognized. How can you get recognized? It’s all about dressing up for your job and creating the right search marketing perception. Now, what’s one of the premier ways to set everyone’s perception about your great work? Easy: Your employee self performance review! Today, I’m going to discuss some of my favorite tips for optimizing your annual self review.

Tip 1: Keep Detailed Search Marketing Records

Employee Performance Evaluation

I can’t stress this tip enough! In fact, I wrote an entire post about keeping detailed ppc records. Just think about it: Pay per click can get crazy! There are numbers we have to hit, fires we need to put out, and initiatives we need to complete. When we’re moving a mile a minute, it’s easy to move from one thing to the next without keeping good records.

However, resist the temptation and keep detailed records. When your annual self review comes around, leverage your records to your advantage. It’s time to go into painstaking detail listing out every single project you worked on. It’s time to leverage your records and shine!

Tip 2: Spend An Entire Day On Your Self Review

So now that you have detailed records, it’s time to work on your self review! Your schedule is crazy and you have limited time. As such, the natural tendency is to spend a few hours maximum on your self review. My advice: Spend an entire day on your employee self review. Block out all distractions. Go in a private conference room if you must. Turn off Outlook. There is no higher leverage event in the SEM career path than your self review. Remember, your boss may not know the true details of your accomplishments since you’re moving so quickly.

Tip 3: Go Above And Beyond In Your Self Review

What do I mean by going above and beyond? It’s probably easiest to illustrate this by example: I wrote a 15-page essay for my last self review! I included granular numbers and metrics, accomplishments and projects, successes in my team’s growth, and even pasted some of my recommendations from my LinkedIn (I have 58 recommendations on LinkedIn, after all)! Moreover, I spent some time seriously outlining my goals and aspirations for the next year. One thing is for sure: By going above and beyond in your employee self review:

You tell your manager that you’re really serious about your PPC job.
You know that you did everything in your power to ensure a positive outcome to your review!

Huge Search Marketing Spenders

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Sep 21 8

The corporate world of pay per click search engine marketing is very exciting. One of the reasons it’s so exciting is the budgets are unreal. When you’re managing the kind of money I am, there’s always a reason to be excited (and on your toes). I often get the question, "Ian, how much money do you spend on Google AdWords and other large search engines?" Unfortunately, I can’t answer that question. However, today I’ve got the next best thing for you, information about what the top advertisers spent on Google in the month of June. But, before we get started, I want to thank my pal Robby for sending me the idea (and article) behind this post!

AdAge Reveals What Top Advertisers Spend On AdWords

Recently, AdAge published a very exciting post. This post reveals what top advertisers spent on AdWords In June. I highly recommend reading this article, it’s a great read. Following are some of my favorite takeaways:

BP went crazy and ramped from minimal spend to $3.59 million in June. What really excites me about BP’s spend is the fact that it’s all about branding. Branding gets such a bad reputation in the world of online marketing, but I’m here to say that it’s the future. I’ll explain why a bit later!
AT&T Mobility spent $8.08 million in June, coming in as Google’s number one spender.
Apollo Group (the folks behind University of Phoenix) came in as number two with $6.67 million in spend. I was actually a bit surprised to see them that high on the list. I know a number of great people working at this company and can’t say enough good stuff about them!
It was interesting to see Living Social on the list with $2.29 million in spend. I haven’t heard much about these guys, they seem to have come out of nowhere, definitely a company to keep an eye on.
- My prediction: Many newer companies are growing like crazy in this market such as Inflection. In the coming years, I expect many more startups and newer names on the list. Join one of those startups now and you could be a corporate PPC millionaire. (As a side note, you may wish to check out my article about PPC career paths where I talk about the startup option.)
I do wonder about the accuracy of this list. There are some names I expected to see on the list which are not there. Nonetheless, the data for the companies listed does seem plausible based on my six years of corporate PPC experience. In any event, I think it’s useful in terms of being directional.

PPC Is Just Getting Started, Get Ready For Branding

One of my favorite parts of AdAge’s article: BP spent $3.59 million on AdWords in June. All of this spend was pure branding. In my opinion, PPC is all about direct advertising right now. Most savvy companies are making a positive margin on their PPC spend. This is a good thing and it’s what we get paid to do.

However, when you start looking at the statistics, online advertising is still a smaller percentage of most big company advertising budgets. As these budgets continue to shift online, margins for many advertisers will get thinner and thinner. (I’m talking in aggregate here, of course there will always be super profitable niches.) Online will become more about branding. It makes perfect sense to me: At least BP knows how many clicks they are getting on AdWords (a proactive activity) versus offline impressions (which is a passive activity).

Now, you could look at this in two ways. If you’re a direct advertiser with really high margins, you could see it as glass half empty and worry about evaporating margins. (I wouldn’t look at it this way. As long as you don’t sit still and remain savvy, you’ll find a way to continue to squeeze out margin. If you squeeze margin out of a difficult environment, you will be the rock star of your company.) If you’re a glass half full type of person, this creates a world of opportunity for continued success in the online marketing career path! More money spent online means more opportunity for all of us in the corporate PPC world. Moreover, it creates a world of opportunity for content publishers.

Yahoo Microsoft Search Alliance Whitepaper

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Sep 14 9

At the beginning of August, I shared my tips on preparing for the Yahoo Microsoft Search Alliance. Now that September is here, it’s really crunch time! I just got back from Maui and am really lucky I’m all rested up because we’re in the 11th hour here, the Search Alliance is upon us! With very high probability, Yahoo and Microsoft will complete the Alliance in October-November and Yahoo’s Panama platform will cease to exist.

Are you ready? If not, don’t worry! I just discovered an amazing whitepaper that will help you prepare fast. Today, I’d like to feature Marin Software’s The Yahoo!-Bing Search Alliance: 10 Secrets To A Smooth Transition. You’ll want to download it right away, this free 7 page whitepaper/checklist is truly invaluable.

Marin Software’s FREE Search Alliance Whitepaper Rocks

I’m a big fan of whitepapers! I just wrote a 12 page whitepaper all about SEM Automation. It took me nearly an entire day to write and edit this whitepaper. However, it was totally worth it based on all the positive feedback I have received.

Marin Software, one of my favorite SEM automation companies, is also a fan of whitepapers! In fact, I highlighted their awesome Optimization Beyond Bidding whitepaper just a few weeks ago. Well, they did it again! This time they released an amazing whitepaper all about the Yahoo Bing Search Alliance. And, they couldn’t have released this whitepaper at a better time!

What To Expect In The Yahoo Bing Whitepaper

Since the whitepaper is absolutely free and it’s a quick read, I’m going to save you some time and keep this post short. At the same time, I wanted to highlight some of my favorite aspects of Marin’s paper to pique your interest:

Marin offers 10 no-nonsense tips to make your transition as smooth as possible. These practical tips will immediately fuel your search organization’s October queue.
Have you performed a gap analysis before? Marin explains why this term will become one of your favorite words heading into the Yahoo Bing transition.
Yahoo and adCenter are very different platforms, especially when it comes to search engine specific tracking parameters. Marin discuses the differences between tracking parameters and also throws Google in the mix for good measure.

To close out, I’d like to offer a bonus tip for PPC Ian readers: Don’t forget to learn all about {param1}, {param2}, and {param3} on adCenter. These three simple keyword-specific parameters set adCenter apart from the other search engines with very powerful versatility. Used correctly, they will take your adCenter game to the next level. So, what are you waiting for? You can download the whitepaper here.