In Online Reviews, How Much Negativity Do We Really Want? (Traffick)
Recently, I was pleased to see such extensive coverage of Nancy Peterson and HomeStars in a piece by Diane Jermyn in The Globe and Mail. One common misconception that cropped up, and you see it often with accounts of today’s online review sites, is an assumption that you should see about the same number of […]
Are Your PPC Campaign Results Better Than They Look? Or Worse? (The SEM Post)
At this time of year, the pressure is on to “be ready” for the upcoming hot season, and to “work with increased budgets.” Various cheerleaders and naysayers in your company (and especially, our friends at the search engines) may be pushing you and pulling you every which way, trying to find justifications in current profitability […]
What if the Mail Had a Quality Score?
Looking at the usual small pile of unwanted solicitations sitting on our dining room table, it made me think. “DO NOT BEND” in red caps, on a simple renewal notice for a women’s fashion magazine. Do not bend? Are you serious? “The favor of your reply is requested,” in a script font on mail from […]
Growing Together Can Be Disorienting (Traffick)
Earlier this year, we were sad to wind down a relationship with an eight-year client. It wasn’t unexpected. Few projects take eight years to complete, and despite the need for close and meticulous ongoing campaign management, sometimes when you’re in bed together for eight years, it’s perceived that you’ve run out of ideas. We were […]
SEM Conferences: Reflections at the Crossroads (The SEM Post)
It’s no secret that the state of digital marketing conferences is in flux. Some conference series have become long in the tooth; others are ascendant. How dire is the situation? Whoops, I might have let the cat out of the bag. “Flux” is usually a code word for “trouble.” The old logic may be unraveling. […]
Sculpting PPC Success
Building a successful pay-per-click (PPC) campaign can sometimes be viewed as “sculpting” in the sense that you need to chip away at the parts that won’t help you achieve your conversion goals until you are left with a strategy that works. Now, as ever, profitable pay-per-click (PPC) campaign structures lie waiting somewhere on the other […]
Why Marketers Should Have “CLIENTS” Vanity Plates (The SEM Post)
Weirdest. Client. Ever. Also, Great Client. Have you ever fantasized about your vanity plate? I have. For quite a while, I thought it would be cool to drive around with the plate ADWORDS. In Ontario, where they cram eight letters into a vanity plate, I could even go with PAGEZERO – following the logic of […]
Quality Score, We Hardly Knew Ye
There has been much confusion about the changes to Google’s Quality Score. Here’s a look at how things have changed, how they’ve stayed the same, and what marketers should do going forward. Recently, some clients and colleagues joined me for a custom seminar at Google Canada headquarters. While some of the group may have focused […]
Quality Score: 7 New Things You Don’t Have To Worry About (The SEM Post)
Recently, Google released a provocative new White Paper on AdWords Quality Score, setting the industry mildly abuzz. Google rarely releases supplementary information about its formula beyond the formal information in its core help files. Perhaps Google is simply “clarifying” how Quality Score works in order to cut through a sea of misinformation. It was a helpful intervention by […]
Page Zero Speaking Engagement: SMX East 2014
Page Zero founder Andrew Goodman will speak at the following session at SMX East in New York on October 2, 2014: Automating Your PPC Campagins. Come by and say hi to Andrew! See Full Agenda & Buy Tickets