Archive for the 'Paid Search' Category
I have had a lot of conversations with Google Adwords support about difficulties with various quality scores. I was recently told that a 5 out of 10 should be considered good!? Try explaining that one to a client. Anyways I just noticed this so had to post (and enjoy) it!
There is a set of interesting quizes being published over at SEObook.com – the one below is very telling. I personally think it is OK if a company pushes its own products but Google and other search engines built their popularity on the basis of offering free and fair search results. Many average Joes’s (and Jane’s) don’t understand what is paid and what is organic, they just assume they are getting the best results on the first page….
OK, so who can answer this question…what search engine shows 11 sponsored results and only 4 organic results on the first page??
?
?
The answer is GOOGLE!!! These keywords are very expensive, so less organic results equals more clicks and more money in Google’s pockets.
I do realize this could just be some testing but if it is a sign of things to come, my feeling is it will translate into a very poor user experience…
As a follow-up to my last post about the cost effectiveness of FaceBook advertising I thought I would take a look at a relatevely identical ad on LinkedIn, ouch!
I have my CPM bid set to .35 on FaceBook and in actual fact isi it coming in much lower at only .08 and LinkedIn won’t even let me run my ad unless I bid a minimum of $3.10!! The quality of LinkedIn impressions might be higher but I don’t think they are eight times more valuable, maybe twice or even three times – my effective CPM on FB is .08 so my actual CPM might be 35x higher on LinkedIn. The trail won’t be that painful because of the $100 credit coupon LinkedIn sent me to try their ad network but if they intend me to keep on advertising they are going to have to lower their prices or I am going to have to see some crazy, spectacular results!!
FaceBook Ads
LinkedIn Ads
There was some numbers leaked from Google on the June 2010 spend of some Adwords customers and wow is there some major moola being spent!
Everyone knows you can pay cash in the form of Google Adwords to show up above the regular organic results but how about showing up above them for free!!
For the term ‘cool logos’ my site occupies the first two image spots, which show above the number one result!! The first one actually goes to my category page which is extra nice!
Here is a great simple pie chart showing how valuable SEO is in relation to PPC. This is not to say that PPC has no value but finding the right mix for your company can really help boost the quantity and quality of visitors you receive from the search engines.
If your website was getting a lot of visitors searching for the weather or sports scores then, YES!
As Google attempts to become stickier how many websites will it hurt? Or does the fact that they are actually helping the searchers make it a wash because that is their core business? But they make money off the advertisers to the tune of 95% – so are they really biting the hand that feeds them. Will they sell the branding for these type of results?
In 2008 it is interesting to see that paid search efforts outspent organic optimization 10-1, my thoughts are that this will drastically change over the course of the next 5 years because many competitive industries are hitting extremely high costs on a pay-per-click basis and even though SEO can be harder to measure and can take a longer time to show results. Those results are so impressive that they can mean the difference between ‘making-or-breaking’ a business.
I was recently involved in doing SEO for a company that had a cost per acquisition of $47 through traditional style advertising and that cost went down to $3.85 for those aquired though search engine optimization.
I find the biggest problem with SEO continuing to grow at the pace it deserves is twofold, first there is a lot of resistance from traditional marketing folks because SEO is a much different animal. With SEO you are spending considerable resources on something your company ultimately has no control over, the search engines. And to make matters even more complicated the search engines keep their algorithms and methods of ranking a secret. Secondly, most business owners and traditional type marketing managers don’t really understand SEO and that makes it very difficult for them to justify the expense and risks involved in switching over their traffic acquisition methods to organic vs. paid.
But there is hope and I do see a pattern starting with the largest and most progressive companies as they give SEO a try. It has even reached a point where many of these companies are bringing SEO in-house where they can learn, track and enjoy these advantages up close and personal.
This one has come out of left-field and has caught many folks (even those in the gambling industry) by surpise. It seems Google is trying to make a little extra cash by offering adwords to qualified UK customers. Now some of the affiliates are screaming bloody-murder.
Google is set to lift its 4 year ban on gambling ads and allow gambling sites to advertise on their search result pages. The move has received a mixed response as you might expect with many groups suggesting that this is reckless in the extreme and others of the view that it was about time for the change. But what is really behind the move?
There have been a number of ideas put forward as to the reason for the change in policy, which will initially happen in the UK and then probably be rolled out, but there is one which really sticks out like a sore thumb. Is the mighty Google finally feeling the economic pinch? Is the recession which has smashed worldwide economies finally hitting cyberspace? Is the juggernaut which is Google desperate for cash? I think not but hey, more money never hurts right? You can BET on that!
