If you optimize highly targeted digital direct response campaigns, conversations, and other buy cycle functions, you are the future. The last of a four-part series. Previous columns in this series have argued that paid search is the most sophisticated current version of a true direct response “machine,” and that companies
Part 3 of a series on building marketing information assets. The “Chaos Scenario” is upon us. It’s not proving to be an orderly transition. On one side: “old, dead media” (and the advertising that assumed and furthered its continuation). On the other side: “something very different,” and possibly far less
Are companies doing what they can to identify, nurture, and maximize the paid search asset? Here are some things they should be doing. Can a well-honed advertising campaign be considered an asset? A mature paid search campaign is an asset, in the sense that it’s a complex, diversified portfolio of
The biggest sin in the marketplace isn’t asking questions and digging up data from people; it’s not asking, not digging, and getting it wrong. Can an advertising campaign be an asset? I don’t mean asset as in “Say, Biff, you’re a real asset to Norelco. Another quarterly sales increase, and
The difference between the newbies in AdWords Nation and the veterans. On a recent trip to Italy, I was struck by the pricing gap between “insider deals” you might get if you were a local, and the prices paid by harried newbies who just got off the plane. It’s price
You won’t necessarily find these techniques in a Google AdWords certification course. Second in a two-part series. In my previous column, I expressed skepticism that black hat techniques are relevant to the world of paid search. This time, let’s look at some aggressive techniques that are worth considering – and
Search marketers who use black hat techniques in paid search advertising are misjudging the guvernment of Google. Here’s how. With apologies to SNL’s Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler: this column is about black hat paid search advertising. Really. I’m a white hat. Really. So to you clever black hats out
In today’s paid search environment, there’s a myth that content targeting doesn’t convert measurably for advertisers. Let’s dispel that myth. I admit it. Along with about 90 percent of AdWords advertisers, I was once a card-carrying member of the “Content Targeting is Scary, Kind of Like a Toyota, Club.” At
A look at the results of a bid increase test to see if a slightly higher ad position justifies an aggressive bid. No wacky stories this week – just numbers. Below I share the result of a bid increase (ad position) test, with the goal being to find out whether
If you want to reach your potential in the landing page optimization world, follow these seven steps. In the landing page optimization world, only a small elite reach peak performance. Those are the multitalented practitioners who have the good fortune of being fueled with data from a decade’s worth of
