Today, Google announced the release of Think Quarterly, a new venture in print publishing. At 68 pages, it resembles 
an academic journal, although Think Quarterly is described by Google as a “short book about data.” The publication is based out of the UK and was physically sent to a select 1,500 UK partners and advertisers. For the rest of us, Google has made the book’s contents available online. Matt Brittin, Google’s Managing Director of UK & Ireland Operations, describes the publication as “…a breathing space in a busy world. It’s a place to take time out and consider what’s happening and why it matters.”
Archive for SEM
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Think Quarterly, Google’s New Publication
Sarah Shepich
24Mar
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GOOGLE ANALYTICS GETS A FACELIFT
Jon Legler
Spring is in the air, and Google is doing a little bit of cleaning up. Recently they announced an updated release of Google Analytics that is currently in Beta. This release includes a drastic change for the look and feel of the interface, as well as some hierarchical changes that allow for a deeper level of customization.
The main navigation bar has been updated, and now more closely mirrors what we have been seeing lately from Google in general. Other than things being named slightly differently, there is nothing too surprising here. To get to the big changes you have to dig a little bit deeper. Read the full article…
23Mar
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Microsoft Announces Quality Score Metric
Liz Serafin
This week, Microsoft announced that a new adCenter quality score metric will be available soon, which will have the ability to be leveraged to optimize campaigns across the Bing and Yahoo Search Marketplace. Read the full article…
10Mar
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Creative Development: You Never Get a Second Chance to Make a First Impression
Jon Legler
Compelling ad copy can mean the difference between making or losing a sale. You have 95 characters to present your business or product and let a consumer know why they should choose you. I think that sometimes we are so concerned with creating keyword-rich ad copy (to improve quality score), we lose sight of the “human element.” While keyword-rich copy will improve the quality score, clickthrough rate is much more important. Try to think like a customer. What would make you want to choose your product? What makes you stand out from the competition? Present special offers, and let the consumer know what they will gain by choosing you with a clear call to action. Also try to avoid jargon and abbreviations where possible. Just because you know what something means does not mean that others will. Now that we have quickly covered some of the basics in creative development, here are a couple “public service announcements” about some new Google policies:
23Feb
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Microsoft’s New Trademark Policy More Like Google’s
Liz Serafin
Microsoft has notified AdCenter advertisers that its trademark policy is changing effective March 3rd, 2011. The changes in the policy surround the topic of bidding on competitor trademark terms as keywords, as well as ability to use the trademarks in the ad copy. Historically, Bing restricted advertisers from bidding on (as keywords), or using in the content of ads “any term whose use would infringe the trademark of any third party or otherwise be unlawful or in violation of the rights of any third party.” In plain language, advertisers were not able to use competitor trademark terms as part of their keyword set, nor were they able to use trademark terms they didn’t own in their ad copy. Read the full article…
16Feb
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Negative Keywords: Be Seen In All and Only the Right Places
Jon Legler
In running a pay-per-click campaign the most commonly stated goal is to show your ad when a consumer is looking for your goods or services. Equally important is making sure that an ad does not show when a consumer is looking for services that do not apply to the advertiser’s business. One way to prevent unwanted traffic is through the use of negative keywords. A keyword will trigger and ad to show; a “negative” keyword will ensure that it does not. This means that an ad will not be served in situations that will drive little or no quality traffic. Once an appropriate negative keyword set has been put into place, improvements in CTR, Quality Score, conversion rate, cost per conversion and revenue can be expected. Now that we have gone over the basics and benefits, let’s dig a little deeper with an example and some advanced options. Read the full article…
21Jan
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Reverse SEM and SEO
Sherri Albus
With blogs and online reviews so prevalent, as well as an integral part of consumers’ purchasing decisions, companies are relying on reverse SEO and SEM tactics when dealing with negative publicity. Read the full article…
18Jan
