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Google Ads

Google Ads’ campaigns are a primary traffic and sales channel for many ecommerce businesses. Our vast library of Google Ads’ articles addresses setup, tag management, Google Shopping, structured data, automated bidding, and more.

  • Google Ads

    Paid Search: Can Anyone Challenge Google?

    October 12, 2011 •

    We can end the suspense right now. It's not likely that any other company is going to be a real contender in paid search anytime soon. The Search Alliance formed by Microsoft's adCenter and Yahoo! makes Bing the default search engine on Yahoo! pages. Although Microsoft has spent a good ...

  • Self portrait of mixed race friends : african, american, asian, caucasian, young smiling bearded men and beautiful women in red christmas hat showing peace symbol to the camera, celebrating new year in the office Google Ads

    Ramping Up Holiday Pay-per-click Advertising

    September 29, 2011 •

    The holidays are coming. For many online merchants, this means dramatically increased revenue and conversion rates. Start ramping up for holiday pay-per-click advertising now to ensure that you maximize your profits — and build momentum for 2012. Below I’ve provided six tips that shou...

  • Google Ads

    10 Pay-Per-Click Details You Cannot Delegate

    August 29, 2011 •

    Many ecommerce merchants manage their own pay-per-click advertising campaigns. Others use in-house PPC managers, or outsource to PPC consulting firms. Regardless of how pay-per-click advertising is managed, there are some aspects of it that need direct involvement from merchants — or t...

  • Google Ads

    Google Study Finds PPC Traffic ‘Incremental’ to Organic

    August 11, 2011 •

    A new Google study reports that pay-per-click ads tend to generate new site visitors and do not simply divert traffic from organic search result links, as some marketers have feared. PPC ...

  • Google Ads

    For Google AdWords, It Pays to be on Top

    July 27, 2011 •

    The new “Top vs. Side” segmentation report announced by Google has led my firm to valuable new AdWords’ insights. We confirmed just how important it is to ensure your ads ...

  • Google Ads

    How to Hire a Pay-Per-Click Manager; 10 Common Mistakes

    June 7, 2011 •

    My firm is in the pay-per-click advertising business. We've managed PPC accounts for hundreds of companies for roughly a decade, and we've developed strong opinions as to what makes for a good PPC manager, and what does not. To be sure, there are many terrific PPC management firms othe...

  • Google Ads

    5 Tips for Increasing Pay-Per-Click Conversion Rates

    May 27, 2011 •

    Google’s Farmer/Panda update serves as a reminder to online merchants that their non-paid search traffic is subject to an algorithm that constantly evolves. Pay-per-click advertising, on the other hand, allows ...

  • Google Ads

    Mobile Pay-per-click Advertising: 5 Ways to Improve Performance

    April 28, 2011 •

    “Mobile” and “social” have received a lot of hype over the past few years. To a large extent that hype has been warranted. Sales of smart phones are setting records, and according to Alexa — the web-traffic-ranking firm — socially driven websites account for five of the ten most popular...

  • Google Ads

    Using Pay-Per-Click Advertising to Sell High-Ticket Items

    March 29, 2011 •

    Online retailers often overlook the potential of pay-per-click advertising to drive sales of expensive products. Campaigns that target these items often bring the double whammy of low conversion rates and a high cost-per-click. There are several ways you can adjust your PPC advertising ...

  • Google Ads

    Comparing Facebook Ads to Search-Based Advertising

    March 2, 2011 •

    Could Facebook Ads become a viable alternative to traditional search-based pay-per-click advertising? Facebook’s investors seem to think so, given its reported $50 billion valuation. So far, however, Facebook Ads have not proven to be a scalable, controllable, or profitable source of ad...

  • Google Ads

    7 Pay-Per-Click Advertising Mistakes to Avoid in 2011

    February 1, 2011 •

    2010 was a big year for pay-per-click marketing. Google made significant changes to AdWords, and Bing integrated PPC advertising from Yahoo! into its adCenter. Now, much to the chagrin of advertisers who prefer a “set and forget” approach to their advertising campaigns, the bar for eff...

  • Google Ads

    Microsoft adCenter: An Initial Reaction

    December 1, 2010 •

    In late October, Microsoft’s Bing began powering all of the natural and paid search results in Yahoo!. Now, advertisers who wish to purchase sponsored search ads in either Yahoo! or Bing must do so through Microsoft adCenter. Given that the alliance has a combined market share of almost...

  • Google Ads

    Pay-Per-Click Advertising: 12 Tips to Boost Holiday Performance

    November 2, 2010 •

    A well optimized pay-per-click advertising campaign can lead to gigantic increases in both revenue and profits. Conversely, a campaign that is neglected can lead to missed opportunities or significant financial losses. To help you prepare for this holiday season, here are 12 tips that ...

  • Google Ads

    Google Instant and Pay-per-click Advertising

    September 30, 2010 •

    Many online retailers take the "ready, fire, aim" approach when structuring their PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns. However, as competition intensifies and search engines evolve, online retailers who fail to organize their campaigns in more thoughtful ways will be penalized. Those who “aim...

  • Google Ads

    Pay-Per-Click Advertising: Six Metrics that Drive Performance

    August 30, 2010 •

    Editor's Note: We welcome Scott Smigler as our new pay-per-click advertising contributor. Smigler is a pay-per-click expert, and he's the president of Exclusive Concepts, a prominent pay-per-click, search-engine-optimization and ecommerce-conversion consultancy. If you are committed to...

  • Google Ads

    Transitioning from Pay-Per-Click to Organic Search

    August 10, 2010 •

    If you are spending too much money for pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, then you likely have considered moving away from PPC and towards organic search results. After all, if you rank well in the organic, or natural, search results, you can spend a lot less money on PPC. But how do you ...

  • Google Ads

    Google’s AdWords Tool Helps with Both Pay-per-click and SEO

    February 9, 2010 •

    Keyword research is one of the pillars of both natural and paid search campaigns. By following the keyword choices used by consumers in the search engines, websites can focus on those terms to capture traffic. This tenet of online marketing and search engine optimization is fairly well ...

  • Google Ads

    Survey Results: Online Merchants Likely to Use Bing Pay-per-click Advertising

    July 17, 2009 •

    Two thirds of respondents to a June 2009 Practical eCommerce survey said they were either using or would use Microsoft's Bing search engine for pay-per-click advertising, and an additional 25.3 percent said they would consider Bing. Altogether, some 92 percent of survey respondents sai...

  • Google Ads

    The PeC Review: Google’s Search-Based Keyword Tool Lets You See What Spiders See

    April 24, 2009 •

    Google’s Search-Based Keyword Tool can help ecommerce merchants find pertinent keywords specific to a given URL, potentially improving search-engine-optimization and pay-per-click-advertising campaigns. Using URLs from your AdWords account, the Search Based Keyword Tool (SKTool) "dis...

  • Google Ads

    How to Expand Your PPC Keyword Portfolio

    February 3, 2009 •

    Paid search is all about keywords. The more targeted keywords you have in your accounts, the more sales you are likely to realize from pay-per-click advertising. Invest just 10-20 minutes per day reviewing new keyword ideas – it will pay off big time in the long run. Below is a list of...

  • Google Ads

    My Favorite Pay-per-click Blogs

    December 18, 2008 •

    It seems as though there are a million blogs. In fact, last time I checked, Technorati was reporting that over 120,000 new blogs are created every single day. That's about 1.4 new blogs every second. With so many blogs out there, which pay-per-click blogs are the most helpful? To help...

  • Google Ads

    Advertising in Recession Leads to Competitive Advantage

    December 3, 2008 •

    Economic anxiety and a lack of insight have prompted some online retailers to slash their advertising budgets. However, when fewer of your competitors are investing in advertising, you can step up and command a market, improving sales now and in the long term. In a notable study that i...

  • Google Ads

    Interview: Pay-per-click Expert On 2nd Tier Ad Sites

    October 8, 2008 •

    Recently I sat down with Jeremy Mayes, the author of PPCDiscussions.com. In addition to writing the PPCDiscussions.com blog, Mayes has used paid search to sell millions of dollars of products and has generated millions of leads for various industries. I asked him about 2nd tier pay-per-...

  • Google Ads

    Seven Tactics to Boost Online Banner-ad Response Rates

    September 26, 2008 •

    Ecommerce has been the great equalizer for retailers—a small book store in Iowa can oftentimes compete with Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Amazon for customers in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago or the world, but equality isn't always good. There are times when it's good to have a comp...

  • Google Ads

    Pay-per-click Advertising: The Top 100 Keyword Phrases

    July 22, 2008 •

    Last time I checked, Spyfu.com is reporting that someone is bidding $51.66 per click for phrase “conference calling companies.” Are you bidding on words like this, which is one of the most expensive keyword phrases? Let’s take a look at the most expensive pay-per-click keywords and wha...

  • Google Ads

    Paid Search With Online Yellow Pages

    June 17, 2008 •

    You are probably familiar with Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and MSN AdCenter, the three largest paid search advertising opportunities. However, have you considered running a paid search campaign using the online yellow pages? Even if you’re an online retailer that does not h...

  • Google Ads

    Pay-Per-Click Tools Improve Productivity

    May 19, 2008 •

    Daily pay-per-click management routine is not a lot of fun. Thankfully, there are a few tools out there that make the work much more efficient and allow search engine marketing professionals to look at the big picture. Below is a list of software tools that every pay-per-click account o...

  • Google Ads

    Alternative Pay-per-click Advertising

    April 9, 2008 •

    When should you consider advertising your products on sites other than on Google, Yahoo! and MSN? By properly identifying and evaluating various second-tier PPC advertising options, you may uncover a diamond in the rough. Investigate options Investigating your options is not as hard a...

  • Google Ads

    Negative Keywords For Your PPC Campaign

    January 9, 2008 •

    Keywords are an integral part of any online advertising campaign. However, what is sometimes overlooked is the equal importance of negative keywords, which are word filters that disqualify ads from being triggered by users’ search queries. For example, if the term “iPhone” is one of you...

  • Google Ads

    Pay-Per-Click Account Tools

    January 7, 2008 •

    A daily pay-per-click management routine can sometimes be a source of frustration. Thankfully, there are a few tools out there to streamline the process. What follows is a list of software that every pay-per-click account owner should consider. AdWords Editor AdWords Editor is Google’...

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