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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?

New Google Features

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

Bags of Money - Large SEM Budgets

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.

Image of Bags of Money © iStockPhoto – lisegagne

Google Is Advertising On Yahoo!

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Aug 23 18

I was absolutely shocked to see Google advertise on the last Superbowl. Recently, I saw something that shocked me even more. I really can’t believe it! Google is advertising on Yahoo Search Marketing. I’ve got the screen shots below to prove it, just read on!

Google Shows Up On "Mortgage Rates" On Yahoo!

The other day, I noticed that the word "mortgage rates" was trending on Yahoo’s homepage. As someone who used to manage multimillion dollar campaigns in the mortgage vertical, I couldn’t help but click through to the search results to see what was happening in the category. Mortgage sure has changed since I was in that category: Google showed up in the first position on Yahoo Search (see screen shot below).

Google Advertising On Yahoo

Google’s Mortgage Tool

I wouldn’t want to be in the mortgage lead generation business right now. Why? Google now offers their own mortgage rate comparison tool. Whenever you search for a major mortgage keyword on Google, you’ll see Google advertising their tool at the top of the page. Honestly, it’s a really cool tool and provides some serious competition for mortgage lead generators.

Google Mortgage Comparison

Google Is Tracking Their Yahoo Search Marketing Campaign

My last screen shot for today is really neat! After I clicked Google’s ad on Yahoo Search, I took a close look at their tracking URL. You can see in the URL bar screen shot below that Google is definitely tracking their campaign. The two parameters that stand out to me are s=3 and kw=mortgage+rates+today.

I believe the first parameter indicates that Yahoo is identified by "s=3" (perhaps "s" stands for source?). In terms of the keyword parameter, it seems like Google is advertising via advanced match since they showed up for the keyword "mortgage rates". Moreover, "mortgage rates today" is a bit longer tail so it shows that Google is not just going after the top, obvious keywords.

Google Tracking URL

It’s funny: I’m really glad I took these screenshots when I did! Today, Google is no longer showing up on Yahoo for popular mortgage queries. One thing is for sure: I’m going to keep a very close eye. What’s even stranger about all of this: Yahoo Search Marketing is going away very soon. Shortly, Yahoo! search results will be powered by Microsoft adCenter via the Yahoo Microsoft Search Alliance. Perhaps Google will be advertising on adCenter next?

Images In This Post © Yahoo! and Google

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About PPC Ian

Ian Lopuch (PPC Ian)Hi, I'm Ian Lopuch, also known as PPC Ian. I'm an Idaho-based real estate developer and investor, with an incredible passion for dividend stocks (and investments that provide true passive income for the long-term). In fact, I have built a portfolio of 37 positions that will one day pay for all of my living expenses. I enjoy blogging here about my passion for cash flow investing, while also sharing some other business and digital marketing insights from time-to-time.

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