- Search Engine Journal posted some screenshots indicating that Google is testing their results layout. The post, Sponsored Ads Get Closer to Organic Result in SERPs, shows screenshots of the paid results pushed a little to the left.
- Interested in more details on the Yahoo-Microsoft agreement? Search Engine Land’s post “Micro-Hoo: The Details Emerge With SEC Filing” highlights some of the specifics from the SEC filing. Interesting read if you can wade through some of the legal language.
- When was the last time you went into a store, filled your shopping cart, and then just decided to walk away – leaving your cart behind? This doesn’t happen much in brick-and-mortar stores, but in online retail, this happens with approximately 20% of shoppers. A post from the Yahoo Search Marketing Blog discusses the reasons shoppers abandon their carts and what can be done to change them.
- You might have been poking around in Google Analytics recently and noticed the “Advanced Segmentation” option. I personally love it, but it can be a little difficult to get started with in the beginning. Watch this video from the Google Analytics agency blog on Segmenting AdWords traffic: Google Analytics in 60 seconds. It will demystify this extremely useful tool.
- To help give us a little more insight into the “what ifs” of the AdWords world, Google launched its bid simulator earlier this week. This new feature shows you what could have happened – in impressions, clicks, and cost – if only you had set a different bid for your keywords. Pretty useful, if you don’t mind learning from the past.
- Here’s the start of a series that promises to be cool from David Sztela re: the science and art behind successful PPC advertising. This week he’s offered some resources to get you started learning about successful copywriting and using scientific methods in your advertising efforts!
- Yesterday, the AdWords crew posted on the new custom alerts feature as part of their New Interface Thursday series. Now you can customize alerts all the way down to the keyword level, allowing you to know exactly when important changes occur within your accounts. You can even set up email notifications! I’m going to add some of these right now!
- If you’re using Google’s Website Optimizer, I’m sure you’ll want to know that you can now auto-disable bad experiments. You can auto-disable your losing variations depending on the preferences. This can help if you have a variation that is doing terribly! Here is a good write-up at Search Engine Guide.
- Do you the difference between interest and intent when it comes to your landing pages? You should. Scott Brinker has written an interesting article over at MediaPost in regards to this topic. This could shed some light on how you view your landing pages.
PPC News Roundup for Friday 8/7/2009
