Archive for the ‘Pay Per Click / Paid Placement’ Category
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009
Just ran into a really odd problem with a client using Microsoft IIS to produce a Google Base XML feed. After a number of years with the feed working fine it seems that a little while back the feed stopped working for no obvious reason. The application was written in C# reading a SQL Server database and outputting a XML data stream that is then fetched by the Googlebase robot.
The problem symptoms were that the feed stopped outputting anything and the server closed the connection with the client.
I decided to update the application to use the XmlTextWriter class – perhaps IIS was changed to force the use of this new interface – but that didn’t help.
After much digging it turned out that adding attributes to the <rss> tag was causing the issue – remove the attributes and the application ran fine but then Google Base would not accept the feed as it didn’t declare the version or the namespaces required.
Some more digging and I found that the <rss> tag would allow attributes if the <channel> tag was missing.
Further digging showed that the <channel> tag would be acceptable if it had attributes. Now the Googlebase spec and the RSS 2.0 does not allow for the <channel> tag to have attributes. So to get around this I added a dummy attribute to the <channel> tag and that allowed the application to output the Googlebase feed without a hitch, would allow the feed to be rendered by Firefox. I have now resubmitted the feed to Googlebase and hopefully it will be accepted.
Posted in Pay Per Click / Paid Placement, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 9th, 2009
Adwords editor recently prompted me to upgrade so I did. Then the program stopped working and hasn’t worked in a week. I finally spent a few hours yesterday and today to troubleshoot the issue. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling. I tried uninstalling, cleaning the registry, and then reinstalling. Still no dice.
Finally I uninstalled and looked in the Google directory on my c: drive C:\Program Files\Google\ and sure enough there was a ‘Google AdWords Editor’ directory full of files. When I deleted this folder and reinstalled again the program started working.
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Friday, January 27th, 2006
Search engine marketing takes two main forms the free listings or organic listings and the paid listings. The strategy of improving organic listings is known as search engine optimization. The paid listings or paid placement allows you to pay to include your listing for a particular search term. Today we will look at how to integrate paid search placement into your search strategy. The paid search market was $2.9 billion in 2004. It is expected to double by 2009. Read more on our ?Insights into Search for Business? blog.
Paid Search Placement and Search Engine Optimization
Paid placement should be an integral part of your online marketing campaign to give your business an increased competitive advantage. Paid placement gives you complete control over where your site will appear in the search engine rankings. This is one of the major advantages of paid placement when compared to organic search engine optimization where the results are determined by the search engine and your site can be left nowhere – which paid placement you get instant high rankings for your search terms in the search engines of your choice.
Paid placement usually takes the form of Pay per Click (PPC). This requires you to pay only when someone clicks through to your site. PPC can be an effective addition to your overall search engine strategy as it can get you off and running quickly.
The main PPC providers, Yahoo!?s and Google Adwords use systems based on bidding. Whoever pays the most gets the highest ranking. Adwords differs from Yahoo in that they also use a click-through-rate which rewards high click through rates with better pricing.
As with ?organic? SEO you will need to define the keywords that your audience will use to find your product. Your keywords are an important part of your sales message. Bear in mind that popular keywords will be more competitive and may have higher bids associated with them. This means that you will have to pay more if you use common keywords or phrases. Remember that if you use the wrong keywords you will get visitors that do not respond to your message.
The great thing about PPC is that you can get information and modify your campaign in real time. You can check the effectiveness of your PPC campaign by using the reporting tools that are offered by your PPC provider. This tells you how much business the campaign is bringing you. You can get immediate return on investment information. You can monitor your PPC ads and if they are not effective you can quickly change them. The key is to watch how much you spend and change the ads if they are not working.
Paid placement can be an important part of your Internet marketing strategy. It is a great way to get it up and running very quickly. It also gives you a good insight into how effective your keywords are and an opportunity to try out different ones. ?Organic? search engine optimization is much more cost effective in the long term. (3 months+) SEO also benefits you by giving your site exposure for a wide variety of keyword phrases across many directories and search engines.
If you use PPC with SEO you will find that approximately 60% of your clicks will come from organic searches and 40% from PPC. Therefore neither option should be ignored especially in the field of e-commerce. The two systems can be used effectively together so that you can make full use of your Internet marketing options over a period of time. This will help your business maximize its online marketing efforts.
Contextual Advertising
Contextual advertising refers to a paid ad that is displayed on site page that contains related information. Yahoo!?s Content Match and Google?s AdSense are the two main programs. This type of advertising is useful in certain situations where your product is closely related to certain types of information. e.g.
Paid Inclusion
Paid inclusion refers to services which list your site in the organic listings for a fee. It does not guarantee high rankings however. You pay to be indexed and to have the spiders regularly visit your site. Paid inclusion is useful if you have a site that constantly updates its information.
Posted in Pay Per Click / Paid Placement, Search Engine Optimization | No Comments »
Thursday, December 1st, 2005
If you use Google’s Adwords program you know thatin the past you had no control over where yourtext ads were displayed. By adding “site tar-getting” Google has finally given control backto the advertisers.
Site Targeting allows you to pick and choosethe websites you would like your ads to appearon. Of course, the websites you get to choosefrom must be in the Google network and bedisplaying “Adsense Ads” on their pages.
Now don’t think that site targeted ads willbe replacing Google’s “Keyword Targeted Ads”.It’s simply another tool at the advertisersdisposal and is an option, not mandatory orrequired.
The program works differently then the normal”keyword targeted ads” where you only pay perclick. With site targeting you pay CPM (costper thousand impressions). The minimum bid perthousand is currently .25 but if you’re tryingto appear on high traffic sites you’ll need tobid higher to win top placement due to thecompetition for these spots.
Remember, you’ll pay for being shown whetheranyone clicks on your ad or not. To set upa “site targeted” campaign you’ll need tolog into your Adwords account and go toyour “campaign summary page” then select”create a new site targeted campaign”. Youcan name the sites where you want your adsto appear or type in a list of words thatdescribe your website and Google will takethat input and come back with sites you canchoose from.
Keep in mind that this type of ad campaigncan be expanded text ads and animated imageads. Giving you more flexibility and options.
If you’ve been waiting to pick your own audienceand hand pick the websites that display yourads, you’ll want to take a closer look atthis advertising option. For more informationsee …https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=342
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Monday, November 28th, 2005
Discover how using the right keywords in articles and
having Google Adsense ads on your content site is now one
of the most profitable ways of internet advertising.
Are you using this internet marketing strategy?
If not, you may be leaving thousands of dollars of extra
profits on the table by not utilizing this strategy.
This is one of the many reasons writing original quality
content articles is now the latest marketing buzz.
The two basics that you can combine to really power a
successful website. Content and links.
You already know that right?
Are you writing articles and submitting them using such
services as SubmitYourArticle?
Many internet marketing pro’s have been writing articles
for many years.
They already know the value of original quality content and
using keywords will drive targeted traffic to their
websites from the search engines such as Google.
So why don’t all internet marketing business owners write
and submit articles for their internet marketing strategy?
The simple answer is that it takes time to write articles,
submit them and get targeted traffic to their websites.
Another reason, is that writing articles reminds us of
school research papers, essays and reports that are a deep
negative anchor in the subconscious mind.
Did you enjoy writing when you were in school?
If your answer is yes, you have an advantage over the 95%
of internet marketing business owners that want to make
money online with a work at home opportunity.
Imagine how much opportunity there is for you because of
knowing this simple fact.
The other 5% are taking advantage of this internet
marketing strategy and internet advertising, by using
Google Adsense ads to make money online on the front and
backend writing articles.
Why do you think marketing sites want fresh, quality,
original keyword rich content?
The website owner can have an article with keywords that
relate to their website content. This helps their websites
page rank when indexed by the search engines. Which in
turn, gets more Google Adsense ads to show above, below and
or next to the article on their website with targeted
traffic.
Think about this for a moment. Imagine taking advantage of
a work at home opportunity, marketing from both sides of
the sales coin with 3 simple steps.
3 Simple Steps To Success With Content And Keywords
1.) You write quality original content, keyword/phrase rich
articles, with links to your website in the resource box.
2.) You build a website or web page with targeted
keyword/phrase rich original content for the targeted
traffic that originates from your articles.
3.) You have Google Adsense ads that are targeted to your
keyword/phrase rich original content site when visitors
looking for more information arrive.
If you did not get all that, you may want to read it again.
A Win-Win Situation For Everyone Involved.
The person looking for quality content and information.
The person writing the original content articles.
The person with the quality original content rich website.
And Yes, Google Adsense and their advertisers are getting
targeted traffic and sales, but so is everyone else.
Internet marketing business owners who incorporate Google
Adsense with writing articles, can make money online if
done properly with this internet marketing strategy.
An Overview Of Google Adsense And Writing
Articles.
There are 3 keys to internet marketing success writing
articles and using Google Adsense ads.
1.) Keyword Research. Find popular subjects and
keywords/phrases, using a keyword selector and suggestion
tool by Overture and 7Search.
2.) Writing Articles. Write original content with keywords
from your research.
3.) Quality Content Site. Build a quality content site
incorporated with Google Adsense ads that target the
subject and keywords of your article and website.
There are many marketing business ideas.
Starting an internet marketing business can be very
rewarding and at the same time challenging.
It’s best to take the time to research and develop an
internet marketing strategy.
You can find all the tools, information and resources
online by doing a Google search on any subject such as
Google Adsense.
Internet marketing opportunities are wide open for you.
Writing articles and using Google Adsense for your internet
marketing strategy is one way to get a piece of the action.
Are you going to take advantage of the greatest internet
marketing strategy online today to make money online with
Google Adsense and writing articles?
Just get started. Do whatever it takes to write something.
For building long term success, there’s very little you can
do that will give you near the same results online today.
Posted in Pay Per Click / Paid Placement | No Comments »
Monday, November 28th, 2005
1. One thing that appeals to everyone is ?free.? If it is free people will take it. Think of the samples of cheese given away at grocery stores. Do you really want a small piece of cheese? Of course not! But you take it simply because it is free and someone is nice enough to offer it to you. The same principle applies with information or services offered from your website. You can send out free newsletters or offer a free trail period. One popular thing that is being given away now are free credit reports or free PC scans. These freebies are what we in the marketing field like to call teasers. After running the free credit report or PC scan we alert the customer if there is something found on their credit record or PC and then offer to show them what it is or repair the problem for a price.
This can be an effective way to get information to your potential customers, create sales or to generate traffic to your site.
2. Your website contains information about a service or product that you are very knowledgeable about. You can use this knowledge to generate traffic to your site by writing articles in your area of expertise and having them published in an ezine or an article information site. The most effective way to use these articles is to write them for free and ask in return that the publisher allow you to include a byline. A byline is a very short summary of the author, their credentials and their website. Your byline is a way that readers will come to know you as an expert on the topic and will in turn come to trust your site as a source of credible information.
3. Some search engines will allow a website to purchase their ranking. This is an excellent Internet marketing technique in that it is effective and inexpensive. In the pay-per-click programs, website are only billed for those who actually visit the page, unlike banner ads which may be seen by millions but only used by a few. When using the pay-per-click program you are asked to choose keywords and when those are entered your site will appear and if the surfer chooses to view your site, you are billed for that click. Many pay-per-click programs will offer other benefits as well, such as updated lists of commonly used keywords.
4. You should remember that others are in the same boat as you. You can choose to network with those who have similar marketing ideas. When networking you will be able to share links and refer customers to each other. You should always be very cautious when choosing a networking partner as everything that you recommend is a reflection of yourself or your product and therefore, you should be certain that your networking partner is a reputable source of information.
5. Simply because your website is online, doesn?t mean that all your advertising should be. Advertise in newspapers, TV, the radio or you can even send out a press release to get your information to thousands of people all over the country.
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Monday, November 21st, 2005
When you qualify your AdWords leads, you can reduce the click-through rate (CTR) of browsers and help direct only those most interested in your offer to your site. How is it done? By inserting text that will purposely eliminate arbitrary visitors.
Qualifying Your PPC Leads
Purposely eliminating visitors sounds like an awful thing to do, doesn’t it? Perhaps, until you consider the fact that – once these visitors got to your site and found out the details of your offer – they’d most likely leave anyway.
Why not save yourself a click (and the money associated with that
click!) and prevent the visitor from running up your monthly AdWords bill? This is exactly what Steve Jackson of Conversion Chronicles and I discussed awhile back. Since that discussion, I’ve come up with a process that will allow you to easily write pre-qualifying ads when you use these simple steps.
Step One
Outline the specifications of your offer. Be precise. List all the details of the offer, the price, length of time, physical location, size, etc. For example, say you have luxury cruise packages available. You’d want to list the details such as:
packages depart from New York City and go to several destinations in Mexico including Cozumel, Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlán from December 5-15 for a cost of $2500 per person.
Step Two
Go back and highlight anything that would be a deal breaker.
This is a luxury cruise, so the cost of $2500 per person might be too much for most people. Quite often, cruisers are looking for the best deal possible.
Also, the cruise only leaves from New York City. The additional airfare cost might not be something your site visitors want to add to the cost of their trip. Or, it may be inconvenient to depart from New York City.
What about the dates? These cruises are only available on the dates of December 5-15. Your site visitors may not be able to take a holiday during that time.
Does the visitor want to sail to the locations on the itinerary?
Maybe they’ve already been to Cozumel, Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlán and are looking for a cruise to Cabo San Lucas.
Are there other factors that might force shoppers to decline the offer and move to another site? If so, list them here.
Step Three
Now, decide which bits of information you want to include in your AdWords ads. You’ll want to test and track to see which combination of details bring the lowest click-through rates along with the highest conversions. For example, your ad might read:
Luxury Mexico Cruise 12/5
Tour tropical Cozumel, Puerto
Vallarta & more. Leave NYC. $2500pp
www.whatever.com
That would give a lot of information that would keep unqualified visitors from clicking through to your site (and running up your AdWords bill). At the same time, the use of words like “luxury”
and “tropical” help the searcher visualize their wonderful vacation.
Another example could be a special shipment of microwave ovens.
Let’s go through the steps once again.
Step One
The specifications include: convection/microwave combination, built-in with light and vent features, 1200 watts, white, $900, available on the Internet only.
Step Two
Any of these could be used to weed out visitors. Someone may not want the convection feature. They want a countertop microwave rather than a built-in model. Twelve-hundred watts may be more powerful (and larger) than the visitor needs. Their kitchen may have stainless steel or black appliances, not white. Lastly, $900 could be more than they have budgeted for a microwave.
Step Three
Again, you’ll want to test and track to see which tidbits of information work best to bring qualified leads, reduce CTR and costs, and improve conversions.
Your ad might look like this:
Powerful Convec/Microwave
Special purchase. Attractive range
built-in with 1200w. Only $900.
www.whatever.com
Rather than using generic terms to describe high cost or frequently compared PPC items, get as specific as you can with “disqualifying” copy. By weeding out those who would likely take one look and leave, you can save yourself a lot of money in AdWords expenses while increasing conversions.
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