Archive for the ‘PPC’ Category

What Is It?

Google has introduced a new AdWords feature, the very useful, very valuable, “product extensions.” It allows advertisers to show products and information from their site that are most relevant to a user’s current search directly within the ad. A plusbox appears underneath the ad, showcasing the image, title, and price of the advertiser’s relevant products.

Product extensions will only appear when an ad is triggered by one of the keywords in campaigns that have been enabled to take advantage of this new feature. Advertisers can control which products are displayed, meaning the feature can be used to highlight specific items. For example, a site selling cameras could use product extensions to display the latest models when a user searches for “digital camera” on Google.com. Or, product extensions could be set up to display the latest deals. It’s easy to control the products that display for certain searches manually. Or, advertisers can also opt to use automatic targeting, which lets AdWords determine the most relevant products in an advertisers account to a user’s search.

Why Use Product Extensions?

Why is product extensions such a valuable feature? Searchers can immediately see an advertiser’s product from the search engine page results (SERP), and quickly decide if the product is what they are looking for. This increases the likelihood that these searchers will convert to buyers, since they can immediately click on the displayed product to buy it.

Moreover, because product extensions increases advertisers’ exposure on Google sponsor links result pages, the new feature should lead to a boost in Paid Search campaign revenues. Google reports that advertisers who used product extensions during its beta phase have reported a boost in the performance of their search campaigns. SonyStyle.com, for example, saw a 10 percent increase in clickthrough rate (CTR) for their ads that included product extensions.

How Much Does It Cost?

Product extensions are charged on a cost-per-click basis (CPC). Moreover, advertisers are charged the same CPC whether a user clicks on the main text of the ad, or on any of the offers displayed in the product extensions plusbox. Advertisers are not charged if a user expands the plusbox without clicking through to the site.

Getting Started

To access product extensions, advertisers use their existing Google Merchant Center account. Advertisers need to add their AdWords customer ID to their account. After that, they can go directly to the campaign setting tab in their AdWords account, and find the ‘Ad extensions’ heading and select the option to “Use product images and information from my Google Merchant Center account.” There is no need for any additional work—no need to create new campaigns or ad groups, update keywords or change ad text. Thanks to our close relationship with Google, ISM is happy to set up everything for you and apply directly with Google.

Yahoo! has unveiled a new option for users of its Sponsored Search pay-per-click service.

Marketers can target searchers in specific zip codes by associating their ads with particular geographical areas in the US and Canada.

User data such as search queries and IP addresses are analysed by Yahoo! to determine where the searcher lives and serves the relevant ads based on this information.

Advertisers need not find out the zip codes for all of the areas they want to target as a map facility is available to help them select the relevant regions, Yahoo! said on its Search Marketing blog.

"Keep in mind the more you target, the fewer users your ads may reach. Generally, you’re trading relevancy for volume, narrowing your target to a specific audience rather than every potential eyeball in the overall market," remarked Yahoo! communications manager Kastle Waserman.

Yahoo! recently announced the launch of its new web analytics tool, which is based on technology acquired through the purchase of IndexTools earlier this year.

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is helping to drive search engine traffic to websites belonging to the UK’s supermarkets, new Hitwise figures have shown.

According to the research company, up to 90 per cent of all visits to supermarket sites from search engine listings came from PPC ads last month.

Furthermore, most of the top 20 search terms directing traffic to supermarket websites in September were found to be generic rather than branded or long-tail phrases.

The research also showed that visits to UK supermarket websites have increased by ten per cent in the last year.

"Supermarkets are using their market power and search marketing budgets to pick up traffic, rather than optimise for higher converting tail terms," said Hitwise UK research director Robin Goad in a blog post.

About nine in ten UK online searches are made up branded terms rather than generic keywords, according to research published by Hitwise in August.

Search marketers would spend approximately 22 per cent more money on pay-per-click (PPC) advertising if it were easier to use, new research has found.

JupiterResearch conducted a survey of major search marketers for Marin Software and discovered that 92 per cent would increase PPC spending by this amount on average if problems involving management and technology were solved.

With the paid search market projected to be worth $26.8 billion (£15.5 billion) in 2009, this means approximately that an additional $5 billion to $6 billion is available to the industry should it be able to fix these issues.

"The lack of technology and infrastructure to support search marketing poses a serious problem for advertisers looking to grow their PPC spend. This represents a potential Achilles heel for search industry growth," commented Marc Barach, chief marketing officer of Marin Software.

Last month eMarketer revealed that spending on search advertising far outstripped any other online marketing medium in the UK at more than £2 billion, just under three times more than the amount spent on display advertising.

Pay-per-click (PPC) expenditure in the US is rising in spite of the global economic slowdown, according to a new research report.

SearchIgnite said in its latest quarterly look at the sector that spending on the medium rose by 26.9 per cent in the three months to September compared with the same period in 2007.

Google dominated the market again by attracting almost three-quarters of all PPC budgets, although all search engines experienced gains in spending.

Retailers saw their conversion rates improve slightly while also spending 1.5 per cent more on PPC.

"The strength of this ad market in today’s economy suggests that paid search continues to be a highly profitable and efficient digital marketing channel for brands," said SearchIgnite president Roger Barnette.

In the UK, marketers spent 28 per cent more on PPC in the first six months of 2008 than they did in the corresponding period in 2007, the Internet Advertising Bureau said in its most recent report.

New case studies produced by Microsoft have indicated that tighter links between display and search ads can significantly increase the impact of online campaigns.

According to a post on the adCenter Advertiser blog by Microsoft’s Nick Drew, a well-executed display campaign can prime consumers for search ads and vice versa.

He pointed to a case study showing that campaign effectiveness can be up to 15 times greater when search and display are combined compared with isolated campaigns.

"This increased impact is visible through the key measures of response (how many people visited the advertiser’s website), engagement (page views and time spent on-site), and perhaps most importantly, conversions," the expert remarked.

Furthermore, evidence suggests that consumers are 50 per cent more likely to search for branded terms following exposure to a linked display ad, Mr Drew explained.

Almost nine in ten online searches are for branded keywords, recent research by Hitwise suggested.

Search engines Google and Yahoo! have announced that they are delaying the launch of their search advertising agreement.

The deal will see Google ads displayed next to results from the Yahoo! search engine for certain terms and has drawn criticism for its potential to increase pay-per-click ad prices and lessen competition in the market.

Now the launch of the partnership will not begin for a "brief" period while the US department of justice continues to look into the matter and determine how much of an impact, if any, the agreement will have on the paid search sector.

"We have had discussions with regulators and look forward to responding to their questions about this agreement," a statement from Yahoo! read.

Eric Schmidt, chief executive of Google, had previously said that he expected the alliance to officially start early this month.

A report released by SearchIgnite earlier this year claimed that the deal will increase ad prices for most search marketers dealing with Yahoo!.

The online travel sector should avoid turning to Google for pay-per-click (PPC) ads to keep costs low, it has been claimed.

Steve Endacott, chief executive of On Holiday Group, told the Travel Technology Initiative’s Travel Futures conference earlier this month that Google’s ad offerings are having a negative impact on companies’ profits due to organisations getting into bidding wars.

Others suggested that it may be more viable to go through a website such as Expedia, although Jamie Cole of Hilton claimed that this would actually be more expensive, Travolution reports.

Peter Healey, chief executive of Vertical Group, added that the online travel sector is currently faced with the problem of converting website visitors into customers due to the sheer number of options available to consumers.

"Most people are paralysed by the richness of choice they have online. They come on and take a stab in the dark," he commented.

Earlier this month, a study by Whatsonwhen and Travolution indicated that more than two-thirds of travel organisations intend to invest more money in search engine optimisation over the next year.

Businesses should be aware that the search ad deal between Google and Yahoo! will not result in the two companies setting ad prices, it has been urged.

According to a post by Yahoo! president Sue Decker on the Yodel Anecdotal blog, many of the rumours linked to the agreement are untrue and do the benefits of the deal a disservice.

She explained that Yahoo! does not have to use Google’s pay-per-click ads if it does not want to and emphasised that the agreement will bring a boost for Yahoo!’s competitiveness in paid search as well as increasing opportunities for search advertisers.

"We are not in any way going to be coordinating or setting search term pricing with Google," Ms Decker added.

"The fact is that advertisers set prices by bidding in our real time auctions."

Google and Yahoo! have recently launched a website, yahoogooglefacts.com, to set out the facts behind their agreement.

Businesses looking to maintain or increase marketing investment returns as the economy continues to slow may do well to employ paid search tactics.

This is according to Jack Wallington of the Internet Advertising Bureau, who said that pay-per-click advertising can hold much appeal thanks to its measurable and predictable nature.

The expert stated that this can be particularly true if web analytics are used in conjunction with PPC methods.

He said: "This means that if you have a strong web presence with a great customer journey you will know how many sales or enquiries you can actually get."

Search engine optimisation, online PR, mobile advertising and affiliate marketing can also offer good returns on investment for a number of businesses as the economy tightens, Mr Wallington added.

Spending on online marketing is expected to rise by 16 per cent in the next year, according to a recent survey by the European Interactive Advertising Association.