Yes, yet another shining example of Google’s goal to “pair well-targeted ads with our powerfully relevant search results” and to reward and promote the most effective and well-targeted ads in their system to help maintain the value of an AdWords ad to both advertisers and users (you can read it for yourself right here)

I googled sacroiliac joint surgeon and this ad showed up on first page…

Nuff said…

Announced in Fall of 2009, Ad Sitelinks is a new feature that lets you include additional links to deeper content within your Google text ad. Per Google’s blog here:

“Rather than sending all users to the same landing page, Ad Sitelinks will display up to 4 additional Destination URLs on your search-based text ad for users to choose from. By providing users with more options, you can create richer, more relevant ads that improve the value of your brand terms and other targeted keywords.”

They use Priceline as an example:

Ad Sitelinks, which I don’t believe to be available for all advertisers just yet, can be found under the Ad Extension section of your Campaign settings. The many benefits for AdWords advertisers include ability to:

1) Show FIVE links in your ad, instead of one

2) Promote specials offers (e.g. holiday promos, free shipping, 10% off first purchase, etc.), increase awareness of and/or push new products, etc.

3) Potentially control additional ad real estate in the results pages, a great advantage if you’re in a highly competitive vertical

See Chris Zaharias comment in this Rimm-Kaufman blog, which includes links to a few case studies showing how advertisers actually increased their CTR via Sitelinks.

NOTE: Not all ads qualify to display Sitelinks in results and you can read more about Google’s “quality criteria” here.

TRACKING:

My Google rep forwarded me a detailed guide for tracking each ad sitelink separately, which I’ve summarized below:

To track each sitelink separately you will want to append an identifying query parameter to the destination URL of the sitelink. As an example, if my current landing page URL is http://www.ppc-buyers.com/quote, then I would append URLs as follows:

Sitelink 1: Get Free Quote – http://www.ppc-buyers.com/quote?sitelink=quote
Sitelink 2: Our Services – http://www.ppc-buyers.com/quote?sitelink=services
Sitelink 3: PPC Packages – http://www.ppc-buyers.com/quote?sitelink=packages
Sitelink 4: Landing Page Optimization – http://www.ppc-buyers.com/quote?sitelink=landingpages

Tagging your links will result in your landing page URL’s being recorded with the additional sitelink parameter, which means you can view stats in Google Analytics. It will appear as a separate entry in your Top Content reports and you will also be able to view stats in the AdWords section of the Traffic Sources section in Analytics.

Google made some recent search improvements, detailed further in their blog  here:

I wanted to highlight a few I found of interest:

1) Search Suggest: Google boldfaced the suggestions that show up in the search box, as seen below. This allows you to more quickly review all suggestions and easily select how you want to navigate from there.

NOTE: Google placed “Google Search” and “I’m Feeling Lucky” at the bottom of the search suggestion box as well.
2) Local Search: As per Google’s blog:

“Whether you’re looking for info close to home or while you’re traveling, it’s now easier to find things to do in the cities you’re searching for on Google. Now when you search for a city name, we’ll show you popular query refinements for places in those cities. We’ve found that people like to explore several places during a trip, so when we show one point of interest, we’ll also show you related points of interest. For instance, if you’re looking for food or a place to stay, you’ll also see some of the top category and neighborhood refinements to help you choose a place. This new feature will be rolling out over the next couple days for 200 U.S. cities, and in the coming weeks we’ll expand coverage to more cities internationally.”

I tried for San Clemente and Dana Point, but didn’t see example until I tried more popular location, like Laguna Beach below. I don’t see it via Google search app yet though, which is where it would be most useful for me:

Even though branded keywords are an important part of overall PPC strategy, advertisers are often unsure or else completely against buying them. The age old question put forth is “Why by my own trademarked terms if I’m already showing up in the number one position in free, organic listings?”

While the argument may seem logical, there are some very sound reasons for buying your brand’s keywords:

1) Own and protect your brand: Search engines allow competitors and/or affiliates to bid on virtually any trademarked term. Some advertisers consider it “unethical”, but the reality is that it’s common practice. So, why not own it yourself, rather than letting your competitors and affiliates own that ad real estate in order to either a) push their own product/service as an alternative or worse, b) use false or misleading ads to confuse your potential customers.

I’ve always been an advocate of controlling your brand image and marketing message. PPC ads are perfect for this because you can change and test messaging on the fly, and even use “”Official Site” in ads so as to make clear your ad will lead that user to the actual site they were searching.

2) Improve your quality scores: Bidding on your branded keywords may also help improve Quality Scores, as suggested by Dave Davis here – “…always bid (and bid high) on your company or brand name. You will get a massive boost in historical CTR because 70%+ of the time, your ad is what searchers are looking for. You will pay pennies per click and decrease the normalized Quality Score and historical account CTR of any competitors bidding on your brand or company name!”

3) Overall revenue may be higher: Countless studies show increased clicks and conversions when companies owned both top PPC and organic listings for their brand:

From Enquiro Research in partnership with Ipsos Mori:
“When a brand name is the top result in both natural and paid search results, 83% of consumers looking to buy would consider a purchase. Without paid search, however, the same brand name as the top result in organic search only obtains 73% purchase consideration”

From Omniture study:
“Our client was thrilled to learn that conversions across all search engines were higher by 22.98 percent when the brand name keyword ads were present. Better yet, revenue per visitor was higher by nearly 21.94 percent when the ads were present.”

From NYU Stern study:
“Click-through rates, conversion rates and total revenues are higher when both paid and organic listings are present simultaneously than when paid search ads are absent.”

Of course, as with everything else PPC, you have to decide what’s best for YOUR brand, as every company is different. The only way you know how buying branded PPC affects your bottom line is to test it for yourself. Pause your branded PPC campaign and/or ad group for set time frame, then closely monitor traffic and conversions to see if you experience considerable dip in traffic or loss in revenue.

NOTE: You as an advertiser can file a Google AdWords trademark complaint letter specifically advising Google that you do not want other advertisers using your trademark in their ad. However, this does NOT mean advertisers must stop buying your trademark. You would probably need your lawyer to send a cease and desist directly to the company because the search engines clearly state they do not police this on their advertiser’s behalf.

Read the Google AdWords trademark policy, and here’s the link to file trademark complaint letter.

Facebook applications promising to reveal which friends view your profile are bogus people! These apps
serve one purpose, and one purpose only: rake in sweet moolah from affiliate advertisers or potentially direct you to unscrupulous sites with malicious software and/or viruses.

According to Rik Ferguson’s post here:
“The app itself is designed to look convincing enough, but none of the many “Continue” buttons it offers will activate some under-the-counter profile checking functionality, they will just push you into another Facebook app earning the scammer advertising revenue in the process.”

And I would venture to guess this type of app, if it were real, would never fly because of Facebook privacy policies. Remember the MySpace tracker service that popped up several years ago? While the tracking actually did work, MySpace put an end to because it violated their terms of service.

It amazes me how many people boast about how they have set very strict personal privacy settings in Facebook, yet they freely allow dozens of applications to access their profile AND their friend’s profile information! I wonder if they truly understand that they are offering up their profile information in exchange for being able to play Mafia Wars, Farmville or whatever other games they choose. What’s worse, you are potentially allowing these third-party applications to access profiles of friends that AREN’T playing!

Personally, I block all but the basic Facebook apps (e.g. events, photos, groups, notes, etc.) and also have my profile set-up so that third parties can’t access my info either.

Here’s how to block applications:

1) Click on Account at top right-hand corner of your page
2) Select Application Settings
3) Review the list of applications and delete any you don’t use or don’t want

Here’s how to control what your friends can share about you through applications and websites:

1) Click on Account at top right-hand corner of your page
2) Select Privacy Settings
3) Click Applications and Websites
4) Click Edit Settings under the “What your friends can share about you” section
5) Here you’ll be able to pick and choose what types of info you are willing to share, although I don’t know why you’d want to share anything!

Become a fan of Facebook’s Fan page and you’ll get updates like this and other tips or current scams.

The phenomenal growth of mobile phones, Facebook and Twitter usage this last year should prove the value of  social media to all marketers. Mobile phones have rapidly become the main communication tool for both personal and business use, and these users are embracing social media in droves.

Chew on some of these recent mobile stats:

* Facebook access via mobile browser grew 112% in the past year & Twitter access grew 347% (From January 2010 Social Networking via mobile data)

* Mobile online shopping in the US rose from $396 million in 2008 to $1.2 billion in 2009 (From ABI Research’s Mobile Commerce study)

Mobile is changing the way your current and potential customers search. It’s no longer all about searching from a desktop or laptop at home or work. Searchers use social media, and with exciting barcode technology and a plethora of applications being downloaded, “searching” can now even happen outside the browser.

The Retail Advertising and Marketing Association (RAMA) just released some insightful research about how mobile subscribers are interacting with social networks they access from their phones. Here are some highlights from Social Media: An Inside Look at the People Who Use It:

* Men who use social media are much more likely than women to be influenced by internet advertising (32.8% vs. 24.1%), instant messaging (12.0% vs. 7.2%) and blogs (14.3% vs. 10.4%)
* Facebook is the preferred network for both sexes, no matter what age
* Young adults 18-34 are more compelled by online tools like Facebook, blogs, IM & text messaging:

* 71.8% of social media users spread the word about a product/service in face-to-face conversations:

* 20.6% of social media users SEEK purchase advice from others, while 34.7% give advice about products or services (LOL – isn’t that just human nature to want to GIVE advice more than receive it?)

So…how are you adjusting marketing strategies in this fast growing and ever-changing landscape? Are you actively engaging customers on a regular basis via Twitter? Do you have a Facebook Fan page for your business yet? Is there a unique or compelling application you could develop that will generate revenue or increase awareness for your product/service?

And what are you doing on the search side of things? Did you know the following about AdWords:

* Target campaigns by “device”, either targeting desktop and laptop computers, or iPhones and other mobile devices that use full browsers
*Google just released an application that allows mobile users to see whether items are in stock at nearby stores
*Add a phone number that will be displayed whenever your ad is triggered, regardless of the user’s location
*Published case studies about other companies testing out mobile

Where were you when the bubble burst? I was getting my very own pink slip from Synge.com, oh the memories!

Here are a few “collectibles” I’m holding on to – perhaps they’ll make me some money one day…maybe?

Here’s a fun infographic showing some of the biggest financial losses in that bittersweet March of 2000.

As I live and breathe – Yahoo’s Search Marketing Desktop tool is finally here!

Got the following email today and downloading as I post this!

Dear Advertiser,

Great news: We’ve created an offline tool that enables advertisers with multiple campaigns to easily create and manage their Yahoo! Search Marketing accounts. The Yahoo! Search Marketing Desktop

tool offers simpler and quicker campaign management than bulk sheets or the Sponsored Search interface.

Yahoo! Search Marketing Desktop can make many account management tasks easier for you, including:

•     Bulk editing: Easily make mass changes to settings such as status, match types and budgets, all within an intuitive interface.
– Increase or decrease multiple keyword bids.
– Save time by exporting your view of keywords, ads, ad groups and   campaigns into Excel.
– Revert selected changes for greater peace-of-mind.
•     Campaign transfer: Import your third-party campaign data in one easy step.
•     Keyword research: Find relevant terms that may help increase your ROI.
•     Find/replace and search functionality: Find and replace text in ads, keywords, ad groups and campaigns, or use filters to search for specific account information.
•     Account performance statistics: Retrieve status and statistics for your account’s impressions, clicks, CTR, cost, ad quality scores, along with other information.

With this helpful tool, your account management just got a whole lot easier. Get started today by downloading the Yahoo! Search Marketing Desktop

Sincerely,

Your Partners at Yahoo! Search Marketing

A recent AdWords announcement says click-to-call is available to advertisers nationwide via phone extensions:

“Recently, we announced  new click-to-call phone numbers for local ads that appear on mobile devices with full internet browsers, like iPhone, Android or Palm Pre. This week, we’re bringing the same click-to-call benefits to national advertisers through phone extensions. Phone extensions allow you to add a phone number that will be displayed whenever your ad is triggered, regardless of the user’s location. Your number will appear as the last line of any ad text within existing or new campaigns. This enables customers to connect with your business by phone directly from the ad and can be especially useful if you have a call center to handle customer inquiries.”

Per AdWords help section about phone extensions:

To enable phone extensions on your text ads, follow these steps:

1) Sign in to your AdWords account at https://adwords.google.com

2) Go to the Campaign Settings Tab for the campaign with the ads for which you want to show a click-to-call phone number on high-end mobile devices with full Internet browsers

3) In the Networks, Devices, and Extensions section, under Devices, look make sure that your selection includes ‘iPhones and other mobile devices with full Internet browsers’ (if it says ‘All’ these devices will be included).

4) Under Ad extensions, click ‘Edit’ beside ‘Display click-to-call phone number on iPhones and other mobile devices with full Internet browsers.’ Then click the Save button.
5) Enter a phone number by selecting the option under Extensions to add a click-to-call phone number to your ads on mobile devices, entering a phone number, and clicking the Save button.

NOTE: I would suggest acquiring a unique number for phone extension display, so you can track close ratio on your end as well.

Saw an announcement about new “target” CPA bidding in AdWords console today:

With the Bid Type advanced option, you can select the method that suits you best when setting your Conversion Optimizer bids.

Max CPA
With this option, which was previously the only option offered with Conversion Optimizer, you set bids using a Max CPA. This amount represents the most you would want to pay for any individual conversion. The way a Max CPA bid works is similar to the way a maximum CPC bid works. If you set a maximum CPA bid of $5, for example, the actual average CPA is likely to be somewhat less, such as $3. Likewise, a maximum CPC bid of $0.50 may result in an average CPC of $0.30.

Target CPA
This new option allows you to bid based on the average amount you would like to pay for a conversion. For example, if you want to achieve an average CPA of $25, you could use this option and set your bid to be $25. Advertisers with CPA targets they would like to reach may prefer to use Target CPA so they can specify those goals directly.

To change your bid type to Target CPA, please follow these instructions:

1. Select the Settings tab from within your Campaigns tab.
2. Under the “Bidding and budget” section, click “Edit” to change your bidding option.
3. Select the “Target CPA” option and click “Save” to finish.