Does Your Search Strategy Depend On Customers’ Memory?

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Men dread these moments: my wife's errand was to go to the drugstore and pick up...diapers. My little guy was on his last one. I was ready to get him his Pampers when I was stymied by the store selection. The sale was nearly lost! As I stood looking at the row of diapers, all I could see was … [Read more...]

Google, User Experience & Thinking Beyond Conversion

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Google is a money making machine; that is why it has tremendous influence in the online ecology. Google has a lot to teach the world about relevance, credibility, value & user experience. However, Google isn’t a training company; it derives more than 90% of its revenues from advertising. … [Read more...]

The Biggest Lie of Pay-Per-Click Marketing

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[standing up] My name is Bryan and I am a screenshot addict. When I fall off the wagon, it happens every so often, I pick a keyphrase and start clicking through PPC ads and their landing pages taking screenshots of the entire experience. It's hard to imagine how often the experience from … [Read more...]

Simplicity: Google’s Secret Pay-Per-Click Tax

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We want it simple! Given a choice, human beings choose simple over complicated virtually every time. Searching with Google is simple. You type in a few words and Google delivers the most relevant results. So, what could be simpler than Google pay-per-click advertisements? People search … [Read more...]

An Intervention for a PPC Addict

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In my previous life, I was a social worker who helped mentally ill and chemically addicted adults on their road to recovery. I see many of the same symptoms of addictive behavior in too many pay-per-click (PPC) advertisers today. After all, there's something terribly seductive about the … [Read more...]

PPC Optimization: The Road to Recovery Workshop

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In a couple of weeks, I will be on the road again to help people optimize their Pay Per Click marketing efforts. From July 7-9th, I'll be in Boston, Philadelphia and New York City for the Online Marketing Summit tour. Here is a description of the PPC Optimization workshop I'll be doing: Over $10 … [Read more...]

Why I Won’t Buy From You!

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Actually the answer is pretty simple. You haven't given me sufficient reason to choose you over your competitors. Today's customer has more choice, more knowledge, and even tabbed browsing to evaluate you and distinguish you from all of your competitors. In the few seconds they'll invest in your … [Read more...]

The Secret Behind Successful PPC Advertising

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When we audit clients' PPC (define) accounts, we look at their work from two aspects: the technical and the creative. While a 95-character ad shouldn't be so challenging, common flaws appear in almost every account. Let's start out by examining the creative aspect. Creating the PPC … [Read more...]

The Google AdWords Drama

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You'll laugh, you'll cry, you might even kiss your money good bye. Google AdWords is one of the most remarkable advertising vehicles in the history of marketing. No matter how simple 95 characters seems to be, there is no denying the complexity of executing well. Of course, the fact that not all the … [Read more...]

SEM Intent & Landing Page Conversions

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If you knew the true intent of a search inquiry (query) and you could respond to that intent perfectly then you'd convert most of the time. For more than a decade Bryan, John and I have been working with clients to determine all the different buying modalities (read "Waiting For Your Cat To Bark?") … [Read more...]