Mastering PPC: Quality Score, Ad Rank and Why They Matter
Search engines are really, really good at extracting every last bit of revenue of every search. We’re never going to fully understand Google or Bing’s algorithm or everything that goes into PPC pricing. What we can do is explore the fundamentals of how the PPC marketplace works, what factors we can control and how we […]
Mastering PPC: Landing Conversions with Landing Pages
As summer comes to an end my thoughts wander to autumn which then ultimately wanders to the Philadelphia Arctic Tundra that is winter. I’m a planner so I start shopping for my winter jacket in August so I can walk with comfort from my car to the office while my other unprepared co-workers talk about […]
Mastering PPC: Ad Tips & Tricks Pt. 2 – Image Ads
Text ads may be the bread and butter of the paid search industry (and Jackie did a great job the other week breaking down the ins and outs of putting together great text ads), but there is another ad type that also pulls its weight around the paid search house, and can be used in […]
Mastering PPC: Ad Extension Basics, Part 2
Last week I provided an overview of ad extensions, how they work and their key benefits. Now let’s take a deeper dive into the most popular types of ad extensions currently available, and when you might want to use each format. Location Extensions Most people think of SiteLinks when they think of ad extensions, but […]
Mastering PPC: Ad Extension Basics, Part 1
What are Ad Extensions? Ad extensions are additional features that show with text ads on the SERPs. Ad Extensions are optional features on Google AdWords (google.com) and Bing Ads (bing.com and yahoo.com). Ad Extensions are not available on search partners. Ad Extensions are most often shown with ads in high positions (usually 1-3) but can […]
Mastering PPC: Red Alert! Search Engine Alerts & Notifications
Publishing this blog post the day before the release of the new Star Trek Into Darkness movie is pure coincidence totally planned from the start. In the Star Trek universe, if a crewman isn’t standing on the bridge, face to face with an enemy torpedo barrage, a red or yellow alert message coming over the comm […]
Mastering PPC: Tracking Conversions
As promised, here is the follow up to my post on defining conversions from last week! We’ll go through the basics of conversion tracking now. There are many methods and means of tracking conversions, but let’s take a look at the two most common, AdWords and Bing Ads conversion tracking. Both of these options are […]
Mastering PPC: What Is a Conversion?
One of the best questions I’ve been asked during a job interview is “How would you explain your job in PPC to your grandmother?” After the interview I called my actual grandmother (Shout out Jean!) and tried to explain my job using colorful real world examples and phone book analogies. At the end of my (completely unprompted […]