Someone just gamed Google PLAs (product listing ads) with a listing on eBay. Aside from the somewhat unique PLA display shown below, with 6 product listings to the right of the SERPs; you can see that the advertiser added a red border to their product image. This essentially highlighted the listing and made it look like Google featured it out of all the other listing ads. But, it was just a trick with the product image. You can see the highlighted border in the image. *I only added the arrow. Google PLA Highlighted Ad You can see in the actual eBay listing that the product image still has the…
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Most Topular Stories
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Google PLAs Gamed by eBay
Jordon Meyer - eCommerce Search Marketing28 Apr 2012 | 8:04 am -
Apple's Patent Win Delays Shipments of Two HTC Smartphones
Wired Top Stories16 May 2012 | 12:33 pmShipments of HTC's One X and Evo 4G LTE smartphones have been delayed by U.S. Customs enforcement as the result of a December Apple patent lawsuit win over the Taiwanese smartphone maker. -
Startup Swingers: Swapping Founders to Generate Fresh Ideas
ReadWriteWeb16 May 2012 | 12:00 pmRemember "swinging"? Two people in a committed relationship go to a party with a bunch of other people in committed relationships. They all separate, find new partners for the evening and get jiggy. It may sound lurid and gross, but it’s the cool new thing for startup founders. Swapping Ideas, Not Spouses First, let’s be clear. We’re not talking about sex. We’re talking about Founder Swap, a June 1 event in New York where teams from six different startups will get together, trade partners for a day and go home with an injection of fresh ideas. The tagline? “Like Wife Swap but for… -
CNBC Details How Americans Really Feel About Facebook
Marketing Pilgrim - Internet News and Opinion16 May 2012 | 11:36 amHow do you really feel about Facebook? Do you trust it? Would you give it your money? Is it fun? Is it safe? These are just a few of the questions asked in a recent AP-CNBC poll and the answers they got. . . well. . . they weren’t exactly surprising. But hey, we love data here so let’s take a look! Who is on Facebook? Facebook is a keeper for most of the US. 56% of all Americans have a Facebook page. 3 in 10 use it everyday with younger users visiting more often. Those who don’t have a page, 35% say they have no interest or they have better things to do with their time. 22%… -
Google Launches Knowledge Graph To Provide Answers, Not Just Links
Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing16 May 2012 | 10:00 amHinted at for months, Google formally launched its “Knowledge Graph” today. The new technology is being used to provide popular facts about people, places and things alongside Google’s traditional results. It also allows Google to move toward a new way of searching not for pages... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
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Jordon Meyer - eCommerce Search Marketing
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Google PLAs Gamed by eBay
28 Apr 2012 | 8:04 amSomeone just gamed Google PLAs (product listing ads) with a listing on eBay. Aside from the somewhat unique PLA display shown below, with 6 product listings to the right of the SERPs; you can see that the advertiser added a red border to their product image. This essentially highlighted the listing and made it look like Google featured it out of all the other listing ads. But, it was just a trick with the product image. You can see the highlighted border in the image. *I only added the arrow. Google PLA Highlighted Ad You can see in the actual eBay listing that the product image still has the… -
Click-To-Teleport Customer Overflow Issue
1 Apr 2012 | 5:31 pmWhile most businesses would love to get a customer in the door, the new Google AdWords Click-To-Teleport creates another problem, getting customers to leave! Their terms of service states that Google is not responsible for return teleportation. This leaves heaps of customers in the store, and adventurous shoppers wondering aimlessly around unfamiliar towns. CTR is so 2011. The only metric I care about now is Teleport-Through-Rate! ~ Greg A. Since the April Fools debut of the beta AdWords program, businesses have been teleporting customers from couches, right into the showroom floor. Business… -
Google AdWords Seller Ratings Update
2 Mar 2012 | 9:33 amAnother Google AdWords update spotted today. It looks like another beta that only impacts the display of an AdWords ad. The update is that they expanded the Seller Ratings extensions to a pop-out preview, similar to the Landing Page preview. Maybe it’s more than just a new look. The preview also includes a second instance of your ad. Does it count as two impressions, once it is expanded? Does this count against your CTR, impacting your quality score? The same question goes for the current landing page preview. What this does show, is the continued importance of Google Seller Ratings. If… -
Big AdWords Update: Google Display Network Tab
27 Feb 2012 | 5:40 pmA Beta update rolling out in AdWords finally allows search marketers to see keyword data from their Google Display Network. Finally! Seriously…this has been a BIG frustration with search marketers for the last few years. Google LOVES to take your money and pump out impressions and clicks through the Google Display Network (GDN) but never reports on granular performance. You could have 100,000 keywords driving $1mm worth of clicks to your site and Google would never tell you which keyword did what. How are you supposed to optimize an account with no keyword data? Current (Old) GDN View This… -
AdWords Enhanced Sitelinks – Update Your Architecture
15 Feb 2012 | 10:17 pmGoogle’s recent AdWords Sitelink Extension update is a big one. It seems as if Google updates something in AdWords several times a month. While many updates are nice, they are not all game changers. The most recent update, called Enhanced Sitelinks is a game changer. You essentially get rewarded with A LOT of SERP real estate if you have closely themed Ad Groups within your campaign and those Ad Groups have ads that are closely related to your Sitelinks. Best practice is to theme everything from top to bottom very closely to each other, and this update will reward that practice. The problem…
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Wired Top Stories
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Apple's Patent Win Delays Shipments of Two HTC Smartphones
16 May 2012 | 12:33 pmShipments of HTC's One X and Evo 4G LTE smartphones have been delayed by U.S. Customs enforcement as the result of a December Apple patent lawsuit win over the Taiwanese smartphone maker. -
Nvidia, Citrix Bringing Graphics Power to the Cloud
16 May 2012 | 12:15 pmThe graphics chip giant Nvidia has combined forces with Citrix to deliver graphics processing power from the cloud. -
Hands-On: Flipboard iOS App Adds Audio to Your Social Magazine
16 May 2012 | 11:51 amFlipboard is a graphically stunning social media aggregator that organizes your friends? tweets, posts, and links into a magazine-like spread. But now that experience isn't just visual: In an update yesterday evening, Flipboard added sound to the mix, so you can enjoy your favorite podcasts and music through the app. -
China Flies New Stealth Fighter as Problems Plague U.S. Jets
16 May 2012 | 11:27 amThe second copy of China's stealth fighter prototype has just flown at a research facility in the city of Chengdu. The first flight of the J-20 Mighty Dragon with the nose number 2002 doubles Beijing's stealth test fleet at a time when America's latest jet fighters are hobbled by cost overruns, labor disputes and lethal design flaws. But it's far from certain how much, and how fast, the new Chinese jet will alter the military balance. -
Dell Targets SMBs With Boomi-Based Cloud Packs
16 May 2012 | 11:05 amFresh on the heels of rolling out its virtual desktop Simplified DaaS , Dell is bolstering its cloud services offerings again with Integration Packs, "... a point-to-point integration solution ... that enables automatic synchronization of critical data between popular software applications."
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ReadWriteWeb
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Startup Swingers: Swapping Founders to Generate Fresh Ideas
16 May 2012 | 12:00 pmRemember "swinging"? Two people in a committed relationship go to a party with a bunch of other people in committed relationships. They all separate, find new partners for the evening and get jiggy. It may sound lurid and gross, but it’s the cool new thing for startup founders. Swapping Ideas, Not Spouses First, let’s be clear. We’re not talking about sex. We’re talking about Founder Swap, a June 1 event in New York where teams from six different startups will get together, trade partners for a day and go home with an injection of fresh ideas. The tagline? “Like Wife Swap but for… -
Google Goes Back to What It Does Well: Finding Things
16 May 2012 | 10:00 amSurprise! Google has completely transformed the way search works again. But this time, it's a kind of search that would have made the old Google proud. Today, starting with U.S., English-language users, Google unveils the Knowledge Graph. Search now looks at the words of your query and identifies the things in it. You're not just searching the Web anymore. You're searching the world. From Words to Things Most of Google users' queries are ambiguous. In the old Google, when you searched for "kings," Google didn't know whether you meant actual monarchs, the hockey team,… -
Read/Write Daily: Bionic Eyes That Can See Clearly
16 May 2012 | 9:45 amToday's theme is improving on life. Nature did a pretty good job of engineering some hardy life forms. But now we're able to tinker with life ourselves. We're further along than you might think. Researchers have lifted the lid on turtle evolution, a perfect demonstration that technology is natural. But now we have our own genetic ideas. We're able to triple the physical endurance of mice in the lab. This paper shows that high-resolution prosthetic human eyes are possible! Here are slightly and greatly more accessible articles about these bionic eyes. We've also developed low-cost artificial… -
Why the iPad Works for Writing
16 May 2012 | 8:02 amWhen the first iPad launched in 2010, critics were quick to lampoon the device for being geared too heavily toward content consumption. The criticisms weren't entirely without merit, especially considering that the first-generation iPad didn't even have a camera, and external media slots are still nowhere to be found. Over time, the iPad has evolved into something that's much more creation-friendly. It still doesn't compare to a desktop or laptop computer for many things, but it's great for quite a few others. Writing is one of them. I happen to write things for a living, but the… -
The Truth About Why Yahoo's CEO Got Fired
16 May 2012 | 7:02 amWhat's the takeaway from Yahoo's recent CEO fiasco? Don't lie on your corporate bio, for one, and make sure no one else has lied on your behalf. But the real lesson has nothing to do with falsified credentials. Sure, the world will remember Scott Thompson as the Yahoo CEO who got fired over a fake computer science degree, but the context is crucial: A battle with Yahoo shareholder Dan Loeb for control of the company. If not for Loeb, we may never have found out about Thompson's juiced resume, and he might still be CEO. The real lesson is: Beware the activist investor. Four months…
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Marketing Pilgrim - Internet News and Opinion
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CNBC Details How Americans Really Feel About Facebook
16 May 2012 | 11:36 amHow do you really feel about Facebook? Do you trust it? Would you give it your money? Is it fun? Is it safe? These are just a few of the questions asked in a recent AP-CNBC poll and the answers they got. . . well. . . they weren’t exactly surprising. But hey, we love data here so let’s take a look! Who is on Facebook? Facebook is a keeper for most of the US. 56% of all Americans have a Facebook page. 3 in 10 use it everyday with younger users visiting more often. Those who don’t have a page, 35% say they have no interest or they have better things to do with their time. 22%… -
Twitter’s New Email Digest Makes Top Content More Visible
16 May 2012 | 10:53 amTwitter used to be one of my favorite web destinations but in recent months I’ve nearly walked away from it thanks to the overwhelming overflow of information. It’s what happens with social media, you start following a few people you really enjoy then you add the obligatory follows and work follows and brand follows and soon it’s too much to handle. I only follow 126 people and I get a new tweet every minute. What about the people who follow 300 accounts? Keeping up is impossible. (Cue the trumpeters) Announcing the new Twitter Email Digest! The digest is broken into two… -
IAB Launches Digital Media Sales Certification Program
16 May 2012 | 8:01 amEver have a bad experience with a sales person in the interactive space? That question is kind of like asking if you have ever felt the urge to breath first thing in the morning. I come from the sales side of the ISP and SEO industry as part of my interactive background. In my time, I did OK. In that time I also saw MANY who did not do OK and wondered what they said in an interview to get hired. That’s the way it is with most sales positions which is why turnover is so high and ‘opportunities’ are more than most other job segments. Part of the trouble is the learning curve… -
Study Says Social Media Ad Spend (US) Will Hit Almost $10B by 2016
16 May 2012 | 7:31 amIn a shocking development, a research company has chosen this particular week, of all weeks, to post their forecast for what is in store for social media ad spending in the US over the next several years. Do you think it was just dumb luck that it coincides with Facebook’s IPO ? Hey, who can blame BIA/Kelsey for jumping on the train that is the Facebook IPO Express? Here is the picture version of this predicted US social media spend through 2016. Let’s consider the whole Facebook IPO thingy in light of these numbers. In 2011, Facebook did somewhere in the neighborhood of $3… -
OK, So GM Pulls $10M in Facebook Ads, So What?
15 May 2012 | 11:42 pmCould this Facebook IPO be over with already so we can get back to our regularly scheduled programming? Please?! Every Tom, Dick and pundit is putting in their heavily discounted two cents (it’s like there was a Groupon for pre-IPO Facebook hype and speculation and everyone appears to have bought it) and it is getting pretty silly. The latest chicken little concern is the pulling of Facebook ads, to the tune of $10 million, by General Motors. Here is the tweet from the Wall Street Journal’s Dennis Berman that set all of this in motion. In the world of “no good tweet goes…
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Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
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Google Launches Knowledge Graph To Provide Answers, Not Just Links
16 May 2012 | 10:00 amHinted at for months, Google formally launched its “Knowledge Graph” today. The new technology is being used to provide popular facts about people, places and things alongside Google’s traditional results. It also allows Google to move toward a new way of searching not for pages... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article. -
With Fix In Place, Wolfram Alpha Explains How Siri “Recommended” The Lumia By Mistake
16 May 2012 | 8:15 amIt wasn’t Siri that was recommending the Lumia as the best smartphone to some last week; it was Wolfram Alpha. That won’t happen again, now that Wolfram Alpha has made changes to to fix problems it had dealing with customer reviews. Reviews Weren’t Weighted To Account For Number... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article. -
3 Guidelines To Scale Your SEM Team
16 May 2012 | 7:03 amThere is a phenomenon within organizations that causes productivity to decline as teams grow larger. This phenomenon is described in economics as a diseconomy of scale and is caused by at least three factors including increased communication costs, duplication of effort, and top-heavy management.... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article. -
Did Google Drop 100+ Small Directories
16 May 2012 | 6:44 amYesterday I covered a WebmasterWorld thread where SEOs were complaining that Google has been removing tons of free web directories from their index. I conducted some random tests and did notice some of these free web directories not coming up in Google. Later in the day, Terry Van Horne began... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article. -
Do Search & Display Really Belong Together?
16 May 2012 | 6:27 amThe premise is simple – PPC and display are both media buys trying to achieve similar outcomes; both are forms of ‘bought media’ and now with display moving to a biddable environment both now require quantitative skill sets to manage them. It’s not a tough sell to convince a budget holder that a... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
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Posts about Search Marketing - Organic/Natural (SEO) from the Econsultancy blog
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Successful content marketing doesn’t require a zoo
16 May 2012 | 2:50 amContent marketing requires many things to be successful; luckily a Zoo isn’t one of them. That said, you can definitely learn a thing or two from “We bought a Zoo” author Benjamin Mee. I won’t bore you with all the details of who Benjamin is, but if you’re interested you should visit the Dartmoor Zoological Park website or watch this short video. Benjamin’s book was published in 2008. Since then it has become a film and the Zoo has enjoyed a significant amount of interest from the world’s media. This isn’t a typical content… -
Demand for digital marketing freelancers soars: trends
15 May 2012 | 2:25 amHiring online freelancers for marketing roles and projects is a trend that has experienced significant growth over the last year. We’ve seen a 106% increase in digital marketing jobs posted on Elance for the 12 months leading up to March 2012. And, the increase from UK businesses was even greater (124%). There has also been a 215% increase in marketing jobs completed and a 188% increase in client spend. In the first of a series of monthly posts, I'll look at more trends in digital marketing jobs...UK marketers are using digital marketing freelancers more than other countries. In March… -
Sears site review: the good, the bad and the ugly
14 May 2012 | 8:03 amI've been taking a look at the Sears website from a user experience perspective to see what the retailer does well online, and where it can improve. I've highlighted some excellent features on the site that other online retailers could learn from, some relatively minor irritations that would annoy users, and problems that may make users abandon the site. Overall, the site performs well and contains some excellent features, such as proactive use of live chat. However, even with the best sites, there is always room for improvement... The good Nice big search box One of the… -
What do you think of Econsultancy?
14 May 2012 | 3:45 amWe'd like you to help us improve the content and services on Econsultancy, and boost the amount we donate to Save the Children at the same time. Econsultancy's 2012 user survey is the first we have carried out since 2009, and we will donate £3/$5 for every completed response. We like to think we're pretty good at spotting trends and working out the kinds of services, content and events that digital marketers want to see, but sometimes there's no substitute for asking your users directly. The survey is completely anonymous. We'd like to know: How do you use… -
Is Google really going to rely more on social media signals in the future?
14 May 2012 | 2:57 amWith many people thinking that social media will become an increasingly important SEO weapon, we examine its likely importance in the long term. When you speak with SEO experts, the hot topic is how social media signals are going to be used increasingly by Google to determine the authority of a website. It’s believed that the number of Facebook “likes”, Twitter followers, Google +1’s and even You Tube channel views you have, the more credence you could gain from Google.It has a ring of truth. After all, Google has for years taken more notice of how others regard you…
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Search Engine Journal
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A Keen Mind in Sheep’s Clothing
16 May 2012 | 11:00 amZuckerberg moves almost as fast as you can say “hoodie.” While we were feasting our eyes on the media’s fascination regarding Mark’s choice in clothing, Facebook donned itself in two more acquisitions. I say ‘more,’ in reference to the few-week lapse in acquisitions; as we all have heard, Facebook acquired startup Instagram as of late. [...] -
‘Relevancy is King’ Says Google VP at SMX London
16 May 2012 | 9:00 amIn his opening keynote at SMX London, Amit Singhal, VP and Google Fellow, who rewrote the original Google algorithm upon his hire in 2000, said today that “Relevancy is King”. He added that Google looks at a combination of three signals (links, social, user actions) and how those signals support each other to build the [...] -
Facebook Update: Higher Target IPO Price Resulting in Stakeholder Liquidation
16 May 2012 | 7:51 amOn Tuesday, the world’s largest social network raised the target IPO price range to $34 to $38. If Facebook shares sell at the upper limit ($38), the social network will raise about $12.8 billion and its market value will be approximately $104 billion. As a result of the higher target price and rich valuation, a [...] -
Why Did GM Drop Facebook Advertising?
16 May 2012 | 5:33 amI am sure you heard yesterday that GM stopped investing in ad space on Facebook. New research on Facebook advertising performance from WordStream may offer a few clues as to why General Motors discontinued advertising on the massive social network. Wordstream’s research provides some important data such as: Ad Performance: Click through rates on Facebook [...] -
5 Local Resources to Boost Your Local Rankings
15 May 2012 | 11:00 amLocal search engine optimization (SEO) is a specialized form of SEO focused on optimizing businesses and their websites for optimal visibility in local search engines. Local search takes into consideration not only the keyword the searcher entered, but also the location of the searcher, whether indicated through user settings, automatic detection, or a location in [...]
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PPC Strategies & Pay Per Click News | PPC Hero
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Google Insights for Search for PPC
14 May 2012 | 10:20 amGoogle Insights for Search is a popular web trend tool, but it’s application to PPC is often overlooked. This post discusses three ways you can use the tool to increase the efficiency of your PPC accounts. Use Google Insights for problem solving and keyword identification Google insights can be used to help troubleshoot when a past performing keyword starts to do poorly, or starts doing very well. Simply type your query into insights and you’ll see if volume is trending up or down. For “Grocery Coupons” you can see a clear decline in volume. This tells you that you… -
Give Your In-House Team a Little Breather!
14 May 2012 | 6:00 amNot every company needs to employ an agency full-time to manage paid search. Yup, I said it and I work for an agency. Shhhh…no one tell! The truth is that sometimes keeping either a single individual or a small in-house team for PPC management fits certain corporate level business models much better than hiring an entire agency. But what happens when Google releases a new feature, Bing upgrades a targeting capability or the company in question opens up their market to a new product-line? (Remember when Bing changed phrase and broad match keyword behavior back in August of 2011 and many… -
Google Analytics Test Lab – Series Wrap-Up
11 May 2012 | 8:46 amWe hope you’ve found this month’s Google Analytics Test Lab series helpful. By now, it should be obvious that Analytics is a very complex and powerful tool that can be very beneficial for your own accounts if utilized properly. What’s better is the fact that it’s completely free to use! We’ve covered several Analytics topics this week, including: 10 Google Analytics Hot Spots Finding New Test Subjects Using Google Analytics for Lead Generation Google Analytics for Ecommerce Accounts So what do you like most about Google Analytics? We would love to hear about your favorites in the… -
Google Analytics Test Lab: Drive Your E-Commerce PPC Account
10 May 2012 | 10:22 amWelcome to the third post in our Google Analytics Test Lab blog series. Today I’ll be walking you through using Google Analytics to get the most of you’re your e-commerce PPC account. If you’re running a PPC account for e-commerce, you likely already understand the importance of dynamic reporting capabilities, so I’ll try not to make this article sound like a sponsored plug for Google Analytics. But, as an Account Manager here at Hanapin, I can’t fathom running an e-commerce PPC account without the powerhouse that is Google Analytics. For e-commerce accounts, AdWords data and… -
Using Google Analytics for Lead Generation
10 May 2012 | 9:58 amThe best thing about Analytics is also the worst thing about Analytics. If utilized correctly, Analytics can open up a whole new world of possibilities within your accounts. On the other hand, trying to digest all of the different facets and capabilities can be a difficult and time-consuming process. This is why we decided to host the Analytics Test Lab this month in order to reveal its’ true power. For the purpose of this lab, we will review the basics of goal tracking in Analytics and then discuss some of the methods that I have found to be particularly useful. Goal Conversion…
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Inside AdWords
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Announcing the next series of Learn with Google webinars!
16 May 2012 | 10:00 amEarlier this year, we introduced the Learn with Google webinar program, and we were delighted to see thousands of you show up to learn about a variety of Google advertising products and solutions. Today, we’re happy to announce the continuation of our series with 10 new webinars over the next few months. During each webinar we’ll share tips and how-to’s to help make the web work for your business. Check out our upcoming live webinars below: May 23 at 10am PDT: Getting Started with Google Analytics May 24 at 9am PDT: Building Blocks of Digital Attribution May 31 at 10am PDT: Introduction… -
Younger viewers say hello to online video in 2012
16 May 2012 | 9:11 amAs more consumers reach for their smartphones, tablets and laptops for news and entertainment, there’s a new segment of viewers that watch less than two hours of TV per day - the “light TV viewer.” Around 31% of adults 18 to 49 are light TV viewers. And this segment is growing - households that opted for broadband internet instead of cable TV grew 22.8 percent over the past year, according to the latest Cross Platform Report from Nielsen. To understand how this trend will impact advertisers in 2012, we partnered with Nielsen to conduct six cross-media studies looking at viewership… -
Celebrate the best in digital creativity with Google+ at Internet Week New York and the Webby Awards
15 May 2012 | 10:03 amOnce again, Internet Week New York is in full force, and we hope that you'll come and join Google+ for some of the festivities as the city’s digital thinkers, from developers to ad agency execs, collaborate on a week of panels and parties: IAB Innovation Days: On Wednesday, May 16 at 1:45pm, Kate Stanford, Group Product Marketing Manager for Social Ads, will be giving a presentation at IAB Innovation Days at Skylight Soho about connecting with customers through a joint strategy across mobile and social platforms. The Webby Awards: On Monday, May 21 at 5:30 PM, celebrate with the whole… -
AdWords Editor users: Migrate to v9.7.1 before June 12, 2012
11 May 2012 | 1:30 pmAs of June 12, 2012, AdWords Editor versions 9.0 and prior will be sunset. After this date, changes made via these versions will not be implemented in your AdWords account. Please download the latest version (9.7.1.) at your earliest convenience, but no later than June 12, 2012.You can upgrade to version 9.7.1 through the auto-update prompt or download the latest version from the AdWords Editor website. After you install the new version, you’ll need to download your account again. To preserve your comments and unposted changes, select the ‘Backup then Upgrade’ option in the automatic… -
Model bid changes at scale with campaign bid simulator
11 May 2012 | 9:57 amWhen we launched bid simulator in 2009, we wanted to make it easy for you to understand the impact of bids on your advertising results. Until now, you’ve been able to access bid simulator at the keyword and ad group level.To allow you to more easily simulate and apply bid changes at scale, we’re pleased to announce the launch of campaign bid simulator.To access campaign bid simulator, go to the Opportunities tab and select “campaign bid simulator” from the left navigation tree. With campaign bid simulator, you can: View bid changes in aggregate and model changes even when keywords or…
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RKG Blog
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Bing’s Other Ideas: A Head Scratcher
16 May 2012 | 7:46 amThere is a new feature showing on Bing called Other Ideas, that, at first glance, appears to bring together Related Searches and Sitelinks all at once. This feature is only live on Bing, not Yahoo, and can be found under the ads in the promoted positions on Bing’s SERP. While the Other Ideas suggestions seem like they could hold value, they have a few of us here at RKG scratching our heads. Why? User Experience is Poor These Other Ideas often look very similar to Google Sitelinks, however, when the user clicks on one of the links it takes them back to a new Bing SERP, similar to how… -
SEO and the Flight To Quality
11 May 2012 | 2:01 amThe topic of negative SEO is a contentious one. Already, camps are forming. When experienced veterans like Danny Sullivan, John Andrews, and Aaron Wall debate hotly in threads like this one, you know it’s a subject that requires some attention. Google reports that the Penguin update is performing well, while many sites complain loudly that they’ve been unjustifiably penalized. It’s hard to find answers, yet, in all this noise. One thing is clear: the recent changes at Google have yet again raised the bar for SEO. SEO’s Flight to Quality David Brooks of the New York… -
Updates to Facebook’s Ad Creation Tool
8 May 2012 | 11:36 amFacebook has quietly rolled out new changes to how ads are created through the Facebook Ad Creation Tool in Facebook’s user interface. The Ad Creation Tool is currently the primary method of creating Facebook ads outside of Facebook’s Power Editor or through Facebook’s API. We have noticed the changes have taken effect in new Facebook advertising accounts (or “grey accounts”) and have not yet rolled into accounts that were already active when these new changes went live. The new tool includes a step-by-step guide that customizes the input fields by what information you have… -
Device Specific SEM
1 May 2012 | 11:44 amMy newest post from SEL in case you missed it there: Segmentation is the key to success in most marketing activities. Simply recognizing that how traffic gets to the site tells us a great deal about its value should prompt analysts to dive into data. Doing so often reveals big opportunities in device segmentation. Golden Tablets I’m not talking about Joseph Smith’s discovery, I’m talking about Apple’s. The traffic from iPads is more valuable than traffic from desktops for many in the eCommerce sector. Our data suggests the traffic from tablets as a class to be worth… -
More Affiliate Dirty Tricks: Device Targeting Brand PPC
27 Apr 2012 | 8:13 amThere’s a certain class of affiliate marketer that will go to any lengths to make a quick buck — short of providing any real value to the companies they are supposed to be supporting. One of the tried and true tactics of this type of affiliate is to run paid search ads on a company’s brand terms, trumping the company itself by utilizing their display URL and pocketing the difference in ad costs and affiliate commission. Generally, this behavior is expressly forbidden in the affiliate terms and conditions and monitored by the advertiser and/or its agency, so the black hat…
