A new PPC podcast on optimizing landing pages has been released. This highly informative podcast touches topics such as PPC ads, Landing Page Graphics, Landing Page Navigation and Landing Page Trust building. (more…)
MSN has launched a new ad preview tool for Bing.com. This tool allows you to see if your ads are showing without affecting the real search results, which is great news for advertisers as many were having trouble previewing their ads in results. So what exactly does this tool show you? (more…)
Ok folks, so Google Adwords has now introduced some interesting new interface features which include custom alerts, filter options and spreadsheet editing. SEM posted a great article on these new features and discussed their functions. Adwords users can now set up alerts for cost, average CPC, CTR, Average Position and Number of Clicks and Impressions. In addition to the ability to set up alerts, PPC marketers can now filter keyword reports based on factors such as impressions, cost and CTR. (more…)
Years ago if you would have asked the creators of “Pay per Click” if they think that PPC would expand into the rap industry, I’m sure they would say no; however, today there now exists the “Paid Search 101 Rap.” Check out the video here.
In addition to that new Paid Search 101 Rap, we’ve also been given the opportunity to be blessed with a complete song about Twitter. Yes folks, there is now a Twitter song! Wonder how much this guy’s getting paid for the record. Makes you wonder right? Check out the video.
Be Aware of Click Fraud!Believe it or not, but it does exist and is growing more and more each day. Since 2008, researchers have estimated that $1.6 billion were lost to click fraud. Click fraud occurs when a person or script clicks on ads in order to generate revenue or to damage advertisers while having no interest in the product being promoted. This is done for many reasons including web surfers trying to support charities by clicking on their ads, internet advertisers wanting to cause financial harm to competitors, or even the product owner clicking on the ad to drive up their own revenue. As the PPC Marketer, you can minimize click fraud against your account by keeping an eye on all of your clicks and conversions, setting up a daily click limit and constantly monitoring your click-through rates.
Cuil is a new search engine that has received critical press coverage regarding its claim to providing the world’s largest search engine index. The search engine boasts an index of 120 billion web pages; however, there have been complaints of irrelevant search results and slow response times. After searching various topics on Cuil.com, I noticed that the response time is pretty quick; however, the results are quite irrelevant. Check it out for yourself by clicking here.
Until next week…Keep on Searching!
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First there was Nintendo’s Duck Hunt featuring that oh so flattering orange gun and now there’s Bing’s Page Hunt. Page Hunt is a game created by Microsoft that asks players to submit search queries that they feel the site presented to them would show up for in Bing search results.
Once the player has typed in a search query that would land the page within the top 5 results, points are scored and a new page pops up allowing the player to continue on to the next. Oh and FYI, players get 3 minutes to get as many pages within the top 5 results as possible. Some are extremely easy and others are impossible!
Now, at this point one is probably questioning who exactly this “game” benefits. Firstly, you the search marketing professional will be able to practice coming up with really good keywords (based on Bing’s standard of what a good keyword is) while affectively killing off time in between projects and deadlines. Secondly, none other than the infamous Microsoft itself will be reaping the many benefits of this game. How? As more and more people play Page Hunt, Microsoft will be able to figure out what users are typing to land onto certain pages thus allowing the computer giant to identify trends and habits. As described by its creators, it’s a way of improving search engines by using human computation games.
I must say that when I first heard about Page Hunt, my initial reaction was “are you serious?” Sadly, I played Page Hunt and could not stop. My keyword creation skills have improved dramatically and my overall PPC walk with the PPC gods is stronger than ever! Ok maybe not but seriously; if you’re ever browsing the net and you say to yourself, “self, I’m in the mood for a game that helps me come up with better keywords today,” then click on the following link and you’re good to go: http://pagehunt.msrlivelabs.com/PlayPageHunt.aspx
The box outlined in red is the Quick Preview for the first search result. One can see this preview by simply scrolling the mouse over the yellow quick glance button. (more…)
