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Will Impression Share be Google’s Next Big Revenue Contributor of 2012?

January 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Well, it’s official. Google will be releasing Ad Group Level Impression Share Metrics (IS) for both Search and Display networks, at the request of their many advertisers. However, there are some questions that arise to the overall value of the Impression Share Metric.

In a nutshell, Impression Share measures how frequently an advertisers Ads are showing, and if the percentage is LOW, it means that if the campaign is profitable, then the advertiser is losing potential business. However, Impression Share does pose a few questions of it’s overall value. For example, here are just a few.

  • Will advertisers feel “forced” to restructure their campaign and adgroups structures?
  • Will advertisers start to lose focus on ROAS% with these additional metrics?
  • Is this just another evil way for Google to increase their revenues? (ok, a little overboard I know)…
Filed Under: AdWords, PPC Tagged With: , , , ,

3 Surefire Ways to Become the Coolest Community Manager on the Block

January 18, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Credit: x-ray delta one

So… your company (or client) finally entered the 21stcentury and got “on the Facebook” and “started Twittering.” Or maybe in the spirit of New Year’s resolutions, reassessed its current goin’-nowhere social media campaign, and decided, “Yeeeah, time for a change.”

Most community managers will tell you that the initial jump or reentry into social media on behalf of a brand is kind of like moving to a new town: Fresh start, exciting possibilities, pools of new people to meet, and a weird, driving desire to be accepted, liked, befriended.

Most community managers (CMs) will also tell you that ain’t always easy. It’s one thing to be present on the social scene, whether your brand’s channel of choice is Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or a blended strategy spanning multiple platforms. It’s quite another to be accepted, liked, befriended… dare we say… evangelized….

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: , , , ,

Why Overreacting to PPC Data is a Bad Thing

January 9, 2012 By 2 Comments

It is in our PPC Marketing DNA to optimize based on what we are seeing in terms of ROAS% and ROI%. It’s always a “no-brainer” to perform text ad testing,  keyword matching options, adding of negatives and optimize landing pages in order to improve conversions. However, when it comes to “Non-Branded” campaigns/adgroups it’s an up-hill battle regardless of how much optimization has been done.

In this post, I will discuss the reasons why advertisers should not just TURN OFF “Non-Branded” campaigns/terms because they are actually doing most of the heavy lifting and making the Brand Campaign look like a cash register….

Filed Under: PPC Tagged With: , , , ,

Mobile Ad Opportunities in 2012

January 5, 2012 By 1 Comment

So every year since 1990-something, people have been predicting that the following year was going to be the year of mobile. Whether 2012 will turn out to be the year of mobile or not is anyone’s guess, but two things that are certain are (1) mobile has definitely gone mainstream and, as a result, (2) it’s therefore an ad medium that any serious marketer has to take, well, seriously.

This couldn’t be more truer than in the US. Indeed, if you consider some of the numbers release by Nielsen in their State of the Media: Mobile Media Report Q3 2011, there is a clear and present opportunity for advertisers to target mobile user through both mobile search and mobile app ad networks.

So it’s not a question of whether you should be investing in mobiles advertising. It’s a question of how much you should be investing in mobile (and maybe even whether you should be diverting budgets from other channels)….

Filed Under: Mobile, PPC Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

How PPC Can Support Organic SEO Rankings

December 28, 2011 By 3 Comments

One of the most obvious way that PPC can support SEO is with helping your brand show up in the SERPs for the most competitive searches. Now, I’m saying “show up” rather than “rank” because there is nothing PPC can do to directly increase your organic rankings.

What PPC can do, however, is offer you an opportunity to at least have your (branded) listing appear alongside the organic SERPs for keywords that you don’t yet rank on….

Filed Under: PPC, SEO Tagged With: , , , ,

Display is More Than Just Retargeting

December 22, 2011 By 1 Comment

Retargeting...

Most of us by now have heard the expression, “Retargeting is the lowest hanging fruit in online advertising.” It’s true, it’s a highly effective strategy and every advertiser should at least have a basic retargeting campaign on their media plan.

But sometimes retargeting isn’t enough. Just like Search is limited by the number of people searching for an advertiser’s keywords, retargeting is limited to the number of people going to an advertiser’s site. So what happens when you run out of low hanging fruit?

You get a ladder, that’s what.

If we think of retargeting (and Search) occurring towards the bottom of the sales funnel, there are a lot of other opportunities to be had by widening the sales funnel at the top. This is where the other forms of display buying come into play. While there are four core strategies to display, there are lots of other sub-strategies and countless variations and combinations of each….

Filed Under: Display Advertising Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Tips on How to Get the Most out of Google Adwords Ad SiteLinks

December 20, 2011 By 1 Comment

Google Sitelinks

Let’s face it: There are very few reasons why “NOT” to use the Sitelinks Ad Extension in Adwords. Some of the many obvious benefits are additional exposure, increased real-estate, overall competitive advantage and pushing additional products or services. However, just assuming the basic benefits mentioned above and then applying the “set it and forget it” mentality is simply not enough. For instance, keep in mind that Sitelinks have a very little effect on Quality Score, so do not consider a 20% CTR as part of the QS. In this post I will provide some additional tactics and strategies to take your Sitelinks to the next level….

Filed Under: AdWords, PPC Tagged With: , , ,

Why agencies need performance marketing

December 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I spoke on the critical role agencies increasingly have to play when it comes to performance media at iMedia Agency Summit in Arizona a couple weeks ago. It’s a huge opportunity and it’s happening now. iMedia Connection wrote a good summary of the presentation in case you missed it. It’s like a sweet Cliff ‘s Notes version of my talk. Thanks Gretchen!

To read the article: iMedia Connection: – Why agencies need performance marketing.

Filed Under: Display Advertising, PPC, Social Media Tagged With: , , ,

Bref. Je travaille chez Touché! PHD (en français!)

December 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Bref. Je travaille chez Touché! PHD – YouTube.

This made me laugh – featuring our infamous t-shirt, our friends at Touche! PHD in Montreal put together this brilliant video illustrating a day in the life of a media planner at PHD. Yes, they speak French… désolé! :-)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,
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