The Position² team was very excited when we announced the formal release of our in-house Bid Management platform late last year, and we have been seeing tremendous success in its adoption across companies. We have been developing and using it for the last four years for our existing customer base. And yes, there are [...]

The Position² team was very excited when we announced the formal release of our in-house Bid Management platform late last year, and we have been seeing tremendous success in its adoption across companies. We have been developing and using it for the last four years for our existing customer base. And yes, there are still a few skeptics out there who do not realize the importance or need for automated bid management. Would you really want to use a scissor to mow your lawn?

Building A Case For Automated Bid Management

If you manage PPC campaigns with a budget of more than $50,000 per month, you will relate to the ... Read more...

Keywords are an integral part of any online advertising campaign; however what is sometimes overlooked is the equal importance of negative keywords which are word filters that disqualify ads being triggered by users search query. For instance if “iPhone” is one of your keyword, each time somebody runs a search for that keyword your [...]

Keywords are an integral part of any online advertising campaign; however what is sometimes overlooked is the equal importance of negative keywords which are word filters that disqualify ads being triggered by users search query. For instance if “iPhone” is one of your keyword, each time somebody runs a search for that keyword your ad will be displayed. If someone were to run a search for the term “iPhone problems” your ad will also be displayed, since the main keyword “iPhone” is present in the search query. To avoid bloating total impressions, with irrelevant searches it’s important to add “Problem” as your negative keyword, so that “ iPhone Problem” query wont trigger your ad.

Every search engine advertiser should be using ... Read more...

The following post is an excerpt from an internal workshop on writing effective ads. It builds up a case to look at both “relational relevance” and “necessity relevance” when writing ads for PPC campaigns. Introduction How does one write ad copy that goes beyond keywords and gets to the intent and motivation of the searcher? I [...]

The following post is an excerpt from an internal workshop on writing effective ads. It builds up a case to look at both “relational relevance” and “necessity relevance” when writing ads for PPC campaigns. Introduction How does one write ad copy that goes beyond keywords and gets to the intent and motivation of the searcher? I have used case examples of tests done by a leading marketing research site. The goal was to determine ad performance based on two types of “relevance” parameters, defined later in this post. Relational relevance This is identified by search engines through algorithms, matching search terms against ad content. It considers relevance of search terms to ads when making placements (assign quality score in Google Adwords jargon). But is ... Read more...

To the uninitiated, PPC appears very simple: buy a few keywords, serve up a few ads and close a few deals. The reality is that professionally managed and optimized keyword campaigns are actually very complex business processes that touch many facets of an organization and require many skill sets to execute properly. The following are [...]

To the uninitiated, PPC appears very simple: buy a few keywords, serve up a few ads and close a few deals. The reality is that professionally managed and optimized keyword campaigns are actually very complex business processes that touch many facets of an organization and require many skill sets to execute properly.

The following are recommended steps for initiating, managing and optimizing PPC campaigns:

• Narrowly define product and/or service offerings

• Define market(s) for each offering

• Set measurable objectives (KPIs) for each service/market combination

• Use empathy with your prospects
  • By service/market combination, to determine keywords prospects will use when searching for your solution

• Generate keywords: thousands of them

• Cluster keywords into campaigns

• You need at least several campaigns

• Write multiple ads per campaign
  • You need at least two ads/campaign
  • Ongoing: Optimize ads ... Read more...