4 Surprising SEM Stats Every E-Commerce Marketer Should Know

Santa’s elves weren’t the only ones busy this past holiday season. Paid search was also working overtime to make sure shoppers ended up with perfect holiday gifts. The share of e-commerce transactions driven by SEM during November-December 2013 was 15%, up from 14% in 2012. And, organic…

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If Online Ad Targeting Works, Does More Targeting Work Better?

A former colleague at Forrester Research recently published a study that described his view of the future of online marketing. The study is available to Forrester clients only, but the crux of the argument is laid out in a blog post: Why Google – Not Facebook – Will Build The Database…

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Spotted: Google Knowledge Graph Ad Tests New Google Shopping PLA Display

Google keeps testing new ways to inject ads into its Knowledge Graph. SEOBook’s Aaron Wall spotted an ad appearing in a stand-alone panel that replicates the look of (and is shown above) the organic Knowledge Graph. so now Google moves some of the knowledge graph results down the page to…

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Marin & DoubleClick Search Partner With Boost Media To Scale Ad Optimization

Today, ad optimization solution Boost Media (formerly BoostCTR) announced new integration partnerships DoubleClick Search and Marin Software. Boost aims to help marketers scale the taxing process of creating, testing and reporting on search and social …

Google Shares Performance Stats On Search Network With Display Select Campaigns

Last fall, Google rolled out a new campaign type called Search Network with Display Select. The option was designed to make it easier for advertisers constrained by management resources to run both search and display ads, while shedding the waste adver…

Bing Ads Updates Reporting Capabilities, Chiefly Conversion Performance Insights

Today, Bing Ads announced the roll out of several new updates to the reporting capabilities. For advertisers with conversion tracking enabled, this will likely be the most welcome change announced today. At long last, Bing Ads has introduced the full s…

A Paid Search First? Olympic Sponsor Visa Opts To Advertise Its Tumblr On Google, Bing and Yahoo

YouTube and Facebook have long been the favored social accounts promoted by brands in paid search ads. Visa is cracking the mold. In what may be a first for a major brand, the Olympic sponsor is using paid search to drive visitors to its Tumblr account…

Who’s Tops? Bud Light Is Unseated As Number One Super Bowl Advertiser On Google And Bing

It looks like we have an upset. Bud Light appeared to be the clear front runner among Super Bowl advertisers running paid search ads on Google and Bing, It turns out the King of Beer’s less filling counterpart is merely the runner up on both search engines. Volkswagen has garnered the top…

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I Don’t Want No Scrub (Agency)

You know the song, so sing it with me people! I made some modifications to the lyrics below that demonstrate my point well: I don’t want no scrub (paid search practitioner) A scrub (PPC ) is a guy (PPC person) that can’t get no love from me Hanging out the passenger side Of his best…

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5 PPC Tactics Super Bowl Advertisers Are Using To Boost Their Campaigns

In the weeks leading up to game day, several Super Bowl advertisers have been employing paid search to help ensure their campaigns are found by the legions of users searching for “Super Bowl ads”. While the majority of Super Bowl advertisers still aren’t taking to PPC, those that…

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AdWords Cross-Device Conversions: How 1-800-FLOWERS Is Using The Data To Be More Customer Centric

Yesterday,  we got an early preview of the first case study Google will publish on the use of estimated cross-device conversions in AdWords. It features 1-800-Flowers and also addresses the company’s use of click-t0-call. When Google first announced the release of estimated cross-device…

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RKG Report: PLAs Fuel AdWords Growth, Bing Ads Spend Rises Sharply In Q4

RKG has released its Q4 2013 Digital Marketing Report, and as other reports have indicated, paid search saw solid year-over-year growth in the holiday quarter. Paid search spend among RKG’s retail-heavy client set rose 23 percent year-over-year. Overall click volume increased 19 percent, and…

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Start The New Year With A PPC Health Check: Part 1

As Group Head at a fast growing search agency, I’ve carried out hundreds of campaign checks over the years. In my contributions here, I’ll be sharing my top tips on things to look out for when reviewing your own campaigns. Some of these things are obvious, while others might have…

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Report: US Search Ad Spend Rises 12 Percent YoY In Q4 2013; Smartphone CPCs Drop

IgnitionOne released its fourth quarter Digital Marketing Report today, showing that the paid search market in the US continues to grow. Search ad spend rose 12 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2013. In part as a result of the later kick…

Now “Undo” Google AdWords Changes From Change History Reports

Taking action after a completing a test in Google AdWords may just have become a whole lot easier. An new “undo” button was spotted last night in the Change History reporting by Heather Cooan, director of client services at Clix Marketing. Here’s a screenshot from Heather’s…

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Google Trusted Stores Now Integrates With AdWords, Shows StellaService Ratings In US

Today Google formally announced several updates for Google Trusted Stores, the free ratings service Google launched in 2011, just ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. AdWords Seller Ratings Integration Google Trusted Stores is now among the services that help to power seller ratings, which show…

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Will Big Retail Rule Paid Search On Black Friday, Cyber Monday Again This Year?

Here we go, just over a week until Black Friday and Cyber Monday. All hands are on deck, budgets are ready to be unleashed. The big box retailers appear poised to yet again dominate paid search results for queries related to these all-important retail …