Search Marketing

The Biggest Lie of Pay-Per-Click Marketing

August 10, 2010

[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 keyword to ad [...]

Read the full article →

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

July 16, 2010

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 for stuff, you craft a 95-character advertisement with a URL [...]

Read the full article →

An Intervention for a PPC Addict

July 2, 2010

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 simplicity of creating a PPC (define) ad; within [...]

Read the full article →

PPC Optimization: The Road to Recovery Workshop

June 23, 2010

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 Billion [...]

Read the full article →

Why I Won’t Buy From You!

June 18, 2010

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 website, if they can’t decide why you [...]

Read the full article →

The Secret Behind Successful PPC Advertising

June 4, 2010

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 Searcher’s Journey For visitors to convert, the five steps [...]

Read the full article →