Google Adwords introduced negative keywords lists as an improvement over the previous platform. Negative keywords help control campaign spends and filter out undesirable traffic that results in low conversion rates. David Iwanow explains the benefits of these lists in his post on Search Engine Journal this week. David explains that agencies and consultants can now develop reusable lists of negatives specific to their industry, client type, or geographic location. He’s also included a list of potential list types you could choose from.
Due to recent controversy surrounding the practice of remarketing/behavioral marketing, Google and Mozilla have decided to give users the ability to opt out of behavioral marketing. This is not an all-encompassing solution, as only companies that have agreed with the Digital Advertising Alliance will be affected by this feature. Other marketing companies/websites that aren’t part of this self-regulatory body can still use behavioral marketing, as can sites that are part of the Digital Advertising Alliance if the plug-in isn’t user-enabled. Stay tuned as this debate unfolds.
Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, and with almost $14 billion in spending projected for the holiday, Microsoft Advertising reminds us of some Valentine’s Day advertising tips. There are four things they recommend in preparation for V-Day: keep the ad copy relevant to the holiday, expand your keyword list to capture holiday traffic, bid on phrase match keywords for lower CPC and watch your position as it may drop. If you do these things, Microsoft expects you to see quite a bit of click through love this Valentine’s Day season.
Retargeting, remessaging, remarketing…whatever you choose to call it, retargeting is a huge opportunity for PPC profits. As Marc Poirier explains on SearchEngineWatch, retargeting involves using online PPC platforms to find the viewers who have seen your ads and/or visited your sites, but chose not to convert. With the help of some handy cookies, you can then choose to bid higher whenever these viewers are searching again, and create specific marketing strategies to do better the second time around. It’s a creative way to use online tracking and analytics, and one that is worth considering for your PPC campaigns.
Remember that mysterious metric known as quality score? According to John Lee of Clix Marketing, quality score has not been receiving enough attention. Perhaps this is a result of the lack of understanding as to exactly how it is calculated, but nonetheless, he believes we need to revitalize our interest in the topic. In his article, Lee writes about the importance of discussing and optimizing your quality score. He explains why and how we should do this, since better scores result in lower spend. Take some of his suggestions and your ROI will likely look much more appealing.
