As both an Account Manager and the Finance Manager at a prestigious online marketing firm, I thought I could offer some personal thought into two subjects that are very topical to me: the economy and search engine marketing. More to the point, how affected, if at all, is the search engine marketing industry by a down economy?
~JustinDynamic keyword insertion is an ad copy technique in which the actual keyword search becomes the title line if it fits within the 25-character limit. How much more dynamic can it get, right? Today I found two examples of Google getting goofy on me.
~SarahGoogle recently launched a new match type for Beta Testing called Automatic Matching. The basis for this new matching “opt-in” is to help advertisers with limited keyword lists, that struggle to spend their allotted daily budgets, more effectively reach their daily spend caps. The way it works is, Google will analyze your current keyword list over a period of time and determine keywords they believe are relevant and closely related to your current keyword theme to find additional traffic for your campaign. In theory, it will work in a similar fashion to Google’s Content Network in which Google determines based on your keyword lists where you should have your ads placed within the Google Content Network. The bidding will be determined based on your current bidding strategies and will not exceed your Ad Group Default Bid. In the interface, you will simply see a line item that shows you an overall number of clicks, spend, etc… that the Automatic Matching generated for your campaign, much like you would see if you opted into the content network for your keyword targeting campaigns.
~JaredThis week brought the SEM industry quite the Easter Egg when none other than Bill Gates himself announced MSN AdCenter’s new recipe for success… paying users to buy things! The program works like a cash back rebate system for a credit card, refunding some amount of money to buyers on completion of a sale by way of gift certificates redeemable with fine merchants such as “eBay, Barnes & Noble.com, Overstock.com, Sears, Zappos.com, and WPP.”
~PPC Handy ManTwo weeks ago Google began offering landing page load time evaluations per keyword on the Keyword Analysis Page, and in several weeks, load time will begin to affect your quality score. This latest addition is supposed to further enhance the searcher experience. This search marketing diva is skeptical. Sure, Google has policies for landing page content and stands firmly behind its belief that it wants to provide the searchers with quality ads, but, how is page load time more important than the actual time spent on the site? How does the fact that a page may take a little longer to load matter more than if the overall user experience is better on the site than a faster loading one. Just because a destination page is appealing by Google standards does not mean that the site as a whole provides a good user experience. I am also a little concerned about having clients change websites to appease Google’s advertising standards. To see if you meet Google’s standards, go to any ad group and click on the keyword tab. Choose the Keyword Diagnostics icon, choose Details and Recommendations for quality score, the Landing Page Load Time is on the bottom.
~Search Diva
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