Jamie LeRoy
Google, SEM, Social Media, facebook
When charged with finding out the latest and greatest in the search-marketing world, one might be hard-pressed to find anything that’s really newsworthy. Besides the recent merger of Bing and Yahoo!, there hasn’t been a juicy search marketing story to hit the industry in quite some time.
Social media, on the other hand, has no problem staying newsworthy. Whether it’s a new location-based check-in application or a privacy issue, social media is always in the news. Maybe that’s why Google is rumored to be creating its own social network. Google misses the days when it covered the proverbial front pages and was the center of the industry’s attention.
Read the full article…
01Sep
Joseph Kelly
Google, PPC, SEM
Available in Beta form since March, Google officially launched the Enhanced CPC bidding feature within AdWords on August 16th. The purpose of this new automated bidding tool is to help improve ROI for AdWords campaigns that use manual bidding by increasing conversion volume while reducing overall Cost per Acquisition and the amount of time spent manually managing keyword bids. Read the full article…
30Aug
Courtney Keller
15miles, Google, POV, PPC
Last weekend, SEO consultant Rob Ousbey experienced something new while performing a Google search: results were updated in real time as he entered keywords, changing in the blink of an eye before he even pushed ‘enter’. This streaming search results trial is speculated to be a part of Caffeine, Google’s latest project to make the Web even faster. (See it in action here)
But what does this live update of search results mean for the future of paid search? Read the full article…
27Aug
Sherri Albus
Bing, Google, SEM, Yahoo
As the MicroHoo merger draws near, Yahoo and Bing have gained US Search share from May to June according to ComScore. Google advertisers wishing to capitalize on (or not miss out on) this opportunity are undoubtedly preparing their MicroHoo campaigns for this merger, which may be as soon as mid-August. Those unfamiliar with AdCenter may be tempted to simply mirror their Google campaigns, but they may run into some unforeseen obstacles. Read the full article…
13Aug
Jon Legler
Google, Places, Ratings & Reviews
Google has recently released an update to Google Place Pages that now will allow business owners to publicly respond to reviews. This is a great opportunity for businesses to interact directly with their customers. When it comes to negative reviews this has the potential to be an extremely powerful tool. It allows both sides of the story to be told if you will. It is reassuring for a consumer to see that when someone does have a bad experience with a business that the business is aware of the issue and doing everything possible to correct it.
So while this is a great opportunity to clear up complaints, I would suggest against posting a response with a hot head. More than one person is going to see the response. Posting an inflammatory response to someone who is already unhappy with your product is only going to make a bad situation worse. The phrase “The customer is always right” still has relevance in this case. Potential customers will see great value in a company who realizes that they might have a problem, and if they choose to do business with that company the same will not happen to them. In the case of responding to good reviews it is great to let the consumer know that their business is important to you, and be able to thank them directly.
All a business has to do in order to claim their place page is verify their identity and claim their listing. Remember to check your reviews often and stay up to date with responses.
09Aug
Jane Wamsley
15miles, Google, PR
For those of you who don’t yet know, Google has been experimenting with the placement of the 7-pack listings. In short, the map now appears on the right side of the SERP (where paid listings show up), and local listings now appear bigger in size (making them look more like organic results). While this new layout enhances consumer usability, it has all sorts of implications for advertisers…particularly local advertisers. Read the full article…
29Jul
Jill Jansen
Google, SEM, online marketing
It appears as though the world of online advertising is about to see changes coming in the near future. Internet giant, Google, and start-up company, Groupon, are just two companies trying to reinvent the way in which they approach local advertising online by creating new ad formats that will, in turn, help small businesses reach new customers. Read the full article…
15Jul
