I’ve come to believe that the essence of PPC management can be boiled down to two things: Never let one thing (keyword research, bid management, A/B testing ad copy and so on) take up so much of your attention that you let something else slip. What you did yesterday probably needs to be changed, and failing to adapt your methodology is as bad as having an empty “Change History” log. As you gain more experience in PPC, you start to develop patterns and favorite tactics out of necessity. Continue Reading ...
Posts Tagged ‘ Search Ads: General ’
Bing Ads opens pilot for device bidding
Bing Ads is testing changes to device bidding in the wake of Google’s move to revert back to distinct device bidding (though the bid adjustment structure remains) for desktop, tablet and mobile introduced in 2013 with Enhanced Campaigns. Even through the Enhanced Campaigns period, Bing Ads had always offered more control with a tablet bid adjustment that could range from -20 percent to +300 percent from desktop. Now, tablets will be separated entirely from desktop. The top range for both Continue Reading ...
Expand all your AdWords ads in 30 seconds flat
Just about a week ago, all AdWords advertisers got access to expanded text ads. Have you converted your whole account over to take advantage of the new format yet? If you haven’t because you’ve been too busy with the day-to-day of managing accounts (or because you took that well-earned summer vacation), read on for an easy to use AdWords Script that can help. The concept The goal is to leverage all the work already done by your SEO team to give the PPC team a head start with creating longer Continue Reading ...
Merkle’s early data on expanded text ad CTRs: Results are mixed
Merkle has released early results on click-through rates of expanded text ads relative to standard text ads in its Q2 Digital Marketing Report. The agency began participating in the expanded text ads beta in April and analyzed the longer ad format’s impact on click-through rate (CTR) across thousands of ad groups. When Google first announced that expanded text ads (ETAs) were coming, the company touted as much as a 20-percent lift in click-through rates on expanded text ads. Merkle Continue Reading ...
Influencing with ad copy: how to truly drive action
Persuasion. Influence. Psychology. The conversion rate optimization (CRO) crowd is adept at tapping into these to drive the actions of their audiences. When it comes to ad copy, there may not appear to be a lot we can do to actively influence our search audience. Short of a screaming headline (not allowed), all we have is a limited set of characters. We can make every one of those characters truly work by channeling our inner CRO expert. Before we jump into the words that work, let’s take a Continue Reading ...
Brand queries: the AdWords performance illusion
Experienced marketers know that where high-consideration purchases are concerned, it’s normal for customer journeys and purchase cycles to take weeks, or even months. But many AdWords practitioners still look at each search session as the entire relationship with a user when looking at performance reporting. These sessions are then analyzed and translated into bidding strategies and also influence campaign budget allocations. As a result, the sessions that are most highly valued are the ones Continue Reading ...