Branded Keywords: To Bid or Not To Bid?

By Mandy Lauman

Branded keywords are words or phrases that include your company or brand name, as well as variations of those terms. When it comes to managing search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns, clients often wonder why they should spend their advertising dollars on their own branded keywords – especially when they rank at the top of the page organically for those terms.

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Is Digital Marketing Right For Your Business?

by Erica Cullum

PART ONE: Where to Start

Everyday I talk to business owners and marketers that know they should be doing some form of digital marketing, but just don’t know where to begin. If you feel like you want to get into the online advertising arena, but don’t know where to start or feel overwhelmed, fear not. You are most definitely not alone.

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So, You Want to Run a PPC Campaign … What Should You Know About Ad Copy?

by Mandy Lauman

Congratulations! You’ve made an important leap for your business by deciding to invest in a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign. But, this is only the beginning! One of your next important steps is writing ad copy. This can be tricky as you have to write compelling ad copy while making sure to follow the publisher’s guidelines (Google, Bing, Yahoo!, etc.).

For today, we’ll just focus on some of the more important tips to get you started:

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Are You Using Ad Extensions in Your SEM Campaigns?

by Mandy Lauman

One easy way to differentiate your ad from the competition is to incorporate ad extensions. Ad extensions add additional information about your business to your search engine marketing (SEM) ads. Not only do these extensions help you stand out from the others by giving you more real estate on the search engine results pages, they also provide useful information for users looking to find out more about your business.

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Intro to Quality Score

by Daniel Hadaway

Hang around with search marketing geeks for long and you’ll most likely hear the term “Quality Score” mentioned a few times. But what is Quality Score?

Quality Score is a number that Google assigns to each keyword in a PPC campaign that represents how relevant your ad is to a person’s search query. It’s important to remember that Quality Score is merely an estimate of the likelihood of a user finding what they are looking for via your ad. Read the rest of this entry »

Three Search Engine Changes We’ll See in 2012

by Marcus Snyder

2012 is certain to come with a lot of changes in the way that search engines work. More importantly, we’re going to see a lot of changes to the way that search results that show up. I’ve collected a few things that I think we’ll see (or in some cases, see more of) in 2012:

Search algorithms will continue moving toward personalized results.

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Pick the Best Marketing Medium for Your Business

by Daniel Hadaway

If you’re planning to begin marketing your business online, there’s a chance you’ve got a plan laid out for all the different types of marketing you’d like to utilize. It’s important to note, however, that while most businesses will see success from all online marketing channels, different types of online marketing lend themselves more favorably to specific vertical markets.

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Google Maps + Advertising = ?

by Marcus Snyder

Consider this: When potential customers look up your business online and see your Google Maps listing, they’re hit with a promotional ad for your services. Genius, right? Well, maybe.

This hypothetical can easily become a reality as Google Adwords recently extended their reach to include their Google Maps service. It’s time to gather your marketing team because with the right approach, there’s a lot of potential here for your business. However, while you’re doing that, you might want to gather your public relations team, too.

So, what could possibly go wrong? The short answer is: everything. Read the rest of this entry »

Want Your Paid Search Ads to Perform Better?

by Daniel Hadaway

In September, Google announced a new factor for landing page quality score that they will be considering when serving up paid search ads. This new factor is whether or not the website for the advertiser is mobile-optimized.

If your website is mobile-optimized, Google is more likely to show your ad higher up in the paid search listings. Google will be determining the quality of your site’s mobile experience based on several factors including: Read the rest of this entry »

Marketers: SEO Generates Leads, But Social Is the Future

by Daniel Hadaway

Search Engine Land just posted an infographic based on some research they recently wrapped. The 2011 State of Digital Marketing Report provides some key insights into how marketers are viewing the roles SEO, Search and Social Media play in effective marketing:

SEO currently has the biggest impact on lead generation. Marketers (both B2B and B2C) currently view SEO as the most effective tool for generating leads, which isn’t surprising considering the positive perception and emphasis the digital marketing world has placed on it during the past 5 years. But, the current emphasis and “trendiness” of social media as a marketing tool is driving change on this front… Read the rest of this entry »