tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196297022008-04-09T23:17:12.931-05:00Jeremy Mayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505936588366618525noreply@blogger.comBlogger228125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19629702.post-80529905608899354982008-04-02T13:18:00.006-05:002008-04-02T16:54:18.770-05:00

In terms of paid search platforms AdWords is far and away the leader. Tools like the AdWords Editor and the incredible support section are just two of dozens of features and services that separate AdWords from the rest of the paid search crowd. That said, there are two things about AdWords that really bug me and I think AdWords should change to benefit their advertisers - which in turn will

Jeremy Mayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505936588366618525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19629702.post-74803241080440855432008-03-26T11:11:00.006-05:002008-03-26T11:30:51.832-05:00

Here's a screen shot of the cached text of YSM blog post entitled "New Guidelines for Questionable Products". No idea how long that link has been there, I just noticed a few days ago. I notice YSM uses Wordpress - did that link make it in via a vulnerability of some kind? If the YSM blog can't clean up there act I may have to pull them off my paid search resources list;-)

Jeremy Mayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505936588366618525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19629702.post-81672394720796140942008-03-24T13:27:00.024-05:002008-04-03T13:24:55.939-05:00

I get asked quite a bit about what paid search blogs, forums and other resources I read/recommend. I decided to put together this list of paid search resources which I will update from time to time. If you know of a resource that's primarily about paid search that I have not included please let me know in the comments and I will add it to the main list. I would like this list to include

Jeremy Mayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505936588366618525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19629702.post-83078938124436749342008-03-17T13:56:00.003-05:002008-03-17T14:07:22.188-05:00

"Search Relationship Organization (new concept?)– contact competitors to lower bids if you constantly can locate a competitor and hiking up each others bids." I'm not at SES NY. The above quote is from an article I just read, Creating Compelling Ads at SES NY. I have to assume that was greeted with a little laughter when presented. I mean really, does anyone think that's a good idea or

Jeremy Mayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505936588366618525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19629702.post-22425590856618064612008-03-06T11:25:00.004-06:002008-03-07T13:17:11.654-06:00

The AdWords quality score is a sore spot for some advertisers, a non issue to others and a mystery to others. I receive dozens of e-mails a week with paid search questions and more than half of them are in some way related to the AdWords quality score. Following is my own version of an AdWords quality score FAQ. Some of the answers are from Google documents or their help center and some are

Jeremy Mayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505936588366618525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19629702.post-31853561474557987132008-02-07T11:33:00.001-06:002008-02-21T18:01:44.341-06:00

Are you a paid search professional looking for a challenging opportunity? CEC is looking for 3 paid search professionals to join our growing search team. Responsibilities • Develop and manage paid search campaigns on platforms such as AdWords, adCenter and Panama with varied bidding strategies (PPC, CPM, PPA, etc), goals and objectives. • Test and analyze keywords, ad copy, landing pages and

Jeremy Mayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505936588366618525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19629702.post-87831128644033254592008-01-08T13:16:00.000-06:002008-01-08T14:42:33.223-06:00

Earlier today I came across what I will describe as the most uninformed, embarrassingly inaccurate description of AdWords I've ever seen that wasn't written as a joke. The title of the article linked to above is Tech Solutions Your Small Biz' Can't Use by Gene Marks. Based on the content of the article (among other ridiculous comments Mr. Marks states small businesses shouldn't use anti virus

Jeremy Mayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505936588366618525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19629702.post-30548167510924011282008-01-07T20:26:00.000-06:002008-01-08T08:42:56.261-06:00

If you've been in the paid search game for awhile you no doubt have an opinion of the AdWords Content Network. If you haven't used the content network in the past 12 months that opinion probably is something along the lines of "it sucks". I know a few years back, almost without exception, that was my opinion. One of the first things I told folks new to AdWords to do was to make sure they were

Jeremy Mayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505936588366618525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19629702.post-3484706764607939062007-12-26T13:44:00.000-06:002007-12-26T13:52:36.258-06:00

Just wanted to post a quick thanks for reading in 2007 and here's what's coming in 2008 post to wrap up the year. So, thanks:-) In 2008 a couple things are going to change here. In addition to the normal types of posts you see here there will be an increased focus on paid search programs besides AdWords. AdWords will still get the coverage it deserves as the market leader, but I plan to spend

Jeremy Mayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505936588366618525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19629702.post-27716119480253513762007-11-26T14:30:00.000-06:002007-11-26T15:48:33.772-06:00

I tend to focus a lot on AdWords in this blog. Why...AdWords, at least in most cases on the projects I'm involved in, delivers more conversions than Yahoo and adCenter combined. That may not be the case in all markets but it's common place in everything I'm involved in. Anyway, as search marketers most of us get a chance to really shine in Q4, especially as we move past Thanksgiving and into the

Jeremy Mayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505936588366618525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19629702.post-5914525297269254052007-10-15T12:58:00.000-05:002007-10-15T14:31:10.408-05:00

The "expanded" part of the AdWords broad match keyword match option has been getting a lot of attention recently, most of which would be described as negative. Back in 2003 when expanded broad match (EBM) was first announced it was described as follows: Expanded broad matching Broad keyword matching now includes expanded matches such as plurals and synonyms. Keyword matching options enable you

Jeremy Mayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505936588366618525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19629702.post-83836704324779963602007-10-11T12:23:00.000-05:002007-10-11T12:46:40.129-05:00

Was answering a question last night and went to reference a page I've pulled up many times in the past. At one point that page said: "Will participation in AdWords or AdSense affect my listing in Google's free search results?Google's advertising programs are independent of our search results. Search results display on the left side of our results page; ads appear on the right and in the

Jeremy Mayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505936588366618525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19629702.post-90265345299996869352007-10-11T11:36:00.001-05:002007-10-11T11:37:40.309-05:00

Couple new features coming to the AdWords Keyword Tool in the next week or so: Per-Keyword Match Type: The addition of a per-keyword pop-up menu allows you select the match type you wish to add for individual keywords. The addition of a Negative match type in the per-keyword pop-up lets advertisers add a keyword as a negative match. Consolidated View: Instead of having four separate views (

Jeremy Mayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505936588366618525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19629702.post-59956843704085777862007-09-24T16:42:00.000-05:002007-09-25T11:37:28.043-05:00

Earlier today Google announced a new AdWords service - the conversion optimizer. Here's a snippet from the AdWords blog explaining what the conversion optimizer will do: "Here's how Conversion Optimizer works: simply specify a maximum CPA bid and the Conversion Optimizer does the rest. It uses historical information about your campaign and automatically generates optimal CPC bids for each

Jeremy Mayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505936588366618525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19629702.post-30245908943766641192007-09-19T09:17:00.000-05:002007-09-19T10:12:31.923-05:00

Yesterday a new post was made to the AdWords Blog, websites that may merit a low landing page quality score. The post talks about two categories of sites - one set that will almost automatically receive a low landing page quality score and may even lead to AdWords account termination, and, another set of sites that will "likely" lead to a low landing page quality score. Here are the types of

Jeremy Mayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505936588366618525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19629702.post-46962840998698152862007-09-11T18:43:00.000-05:002007-09-12T11:27:38.295-05:00

I received this earlier today regarding a free trial of AdWords ads on Google mobile search results: "Hello XXXXXXXX, We are happy to announce a new feature that will allow you to easily reach additional qualified customers who are searching Google from their mobile phones. In the next few days, your search ads will be eligible to run on Google Mobile Search pages (like they currently do on

Jeremy Mayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505936588366618525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19629702.post-24894394742711641502007-09-07T10:21:00.001-05:002007-09-07T12:14:52.414-05:00

Back in late 2005 Marissa Mayer, VP of Search Products & User Experience at Google wrote; "There will be no banner ads on the Google homepage or web search results pages. There will not be crazy, flashy, graphical doodads flying and popping up all over the Google site. Ever." Fast forward to 2007... At the recent Citigroup Technology conference in New York Nick Fox & Sundar Pichai made some

Jeremy Mayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505936588366618525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19629702.post-60766832853397077022007-08-13T10:38:00.000-05:002007-08-13T15:19:21.884-05:00

From time to time I am asked how someone should go about finding (and hiring) a professional to manage their AdWords (and PPC in general) marketing. While there isn't a "one size fits all" approach I recommend there are a few places to look and things to ask a potential AdWords professional if you are considering using them to manage your AdWords account(s). In no particular order: - Check sites

Jeremy Mayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505936588366618525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19629702.post-71549446771901049152007-08-10T09:48:00.000-05:002007-08-10T10:41:00.087-05:00

Earlier this week Google announced they are changing the way ads are promoted to the top spot above the search results (not the top spot on the right of the results). Here's a snippet of the announcement: "Quality Score is the greatest determining factor in top ad placement, which means no one will ever be able to pay their way to the top. We have, however, been working on an improvement to the

Jeremy Mayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505936588366618525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19629702.post-23632129403513356362007-08-06T17:05:00.000-05:002007-08-06T16:35:13.102-05:00

In my last post about Google's PPA program I presented some metrics I found highly disappointing. Even while writing that post I realized the landing pages I am using will most likely have to undergo some changes to play nicely in the Google's PPA program. I'm ok with that, but wanted to see what I could do without tweaking the landing pages in order to increase valid conversions and filter out

Jeremy Mayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505936588366618525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19629702.post-46126972549093863632007-07-16T07:48:00.000-05:002007-07-16T07:58:17.954-05:00

I spent some time over the weekend evaluating a Google PPA campaign I've been running for a few weeks. I knew the potential for fraud, especially with high payouts available, would be an issue with Google PPA but honestly never expected to see results this poor. I have a lead generation form I've used with various affiliate networks and other programs over the past 24 months. It's always worked

Jeremy Mayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505936588366618525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19629702.post-1353888819861436982007-07-02T15:53:00.000-05:002007-07-02T16:05:17.906-05:00

A thread at DP got my attention earlier today regarding Assisted Yahoo Search Marketing accounts. Basically you pay $199 for Yahoo to set up an initial account for you. According to the promo page this is what you get: "With Assisted Set-Up, Yahoo! Search Marketing can help create a Sponsored Search campaign for you customized to your business goals and budget. We will help choose relevant

Jeremy Mayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505936588366618525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19629702.post-8936576582641759992007-06-27T10:45:00.000-05:002007-06-27T11:20:09.200-05:00

I posted about this at DP but figured I would mention here too to see if others are seeing the same thing. Basically, the daily budget I have set for one of my campaigns, despite having the option checked to show ads evenly over time, is being used up very early in the day. Someone else just posted that they are now seeing the same thing. I've literally checked hundreds of campaigns and don't

Jeremy Mayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505936588366618525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19629702.post-77065138579311813482007-06-26T10:09:00.000-05:002007-06-26T10:59:33.483-05:00

I'm sometimes amazed that people will immediately jump to conclusions and pass blame without doing any real research or significant statistical sampling to arrive at their conclusions. In this post, I'm referring to people who present wild theories as fact in relation to AdWords. The majority of the time the people making these claims have very limited experience and it's obvious they have spent

Jeremy Mayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505936588366618525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19629702.post-17326679296471954592007-06-13T15:10:00.000-05:002007-06-13T15:33:18.391-05:00

Received notification today of a new AdWords report called "Search Query Performance" report. According to the info I received the search query report "is a new report type that shows performance data for search queries which triggered your ads and received clicks. Search query performance data provides insight into how users find and react to your ads. " According to Google the purpose of this

Jeremy Mayeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14505936588366618525noreply@blogger.com