AdWords Editor 5 Released
Yesterday if you opened AdWords editor you were prompted to download the latest version and upgrade to v.5.0.0.
It has some very nice new features, including "Local Business Ads", but there have also been a few bugs reported by my team alone.
From the Inside AdWords Crew...
Today, we released version 5.0 of AdWords Editor, our free, downloadable campaign management application. Among other features, version 5.0 includes support for local business ads, an export picker that lets you select specific campaigns and ad groups to save to a CSV file, and the ability to save advanced search settings. You can read our release notes for a complete list of new and updated features.
If you haven't yet downloaded AdWords Editor, visit our website to get the latest version. If you're already using AdWords Editor, you'll be prompted to upgrade automatically.
Important note: To avoid losing unposted changes or comments, export an archive of your account before upgrading. After you've completed the upgrade, download your account then import the archive file to get your account up and running.
Version 5.0 is available now for Windows and Mac. For more information about AdWords Editor, visit the AdWords Editor Help Center.
Technorati Tags: Google, AdWords, AdWords Editor, Search, Ads, Marketing, Ironvine
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MSN Mobile Advertising
| Engaging with the right audience any time, any place just got easier! We are excited to introduce advertising opportunities on MSN® Mobile.
Over 9.6 million are using their Web-enabled mobile phones to access the best of MSN content each month.1 Align your message with quality content while extending your reach to the mobile experience. |
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Technorati Tags: MSN, Mobile, Marketing, PPC, SEM, Search, Ironvine
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Google 2006 Holiday Traffic-Conversion Chart
Here is an explanation and track record of why Google charges so much for CPCs during the holiday season. It is interesting to note the swings in CPA because of the conversions and click changes. It is helpful to create a battleplan on what we can expect to see this year.
"Online advertisers have noticed that CPCs tend to increase during the holiday season and have asked us why. We turned to Hal Varian, Google’s Chief Economist, for an explanation:
Many advertisers track their average cost-per-click (CPC), but what really matters for the bottom line is the average cost-per-acquisition (CPA): how much you have to spend on advertising to make a sale. The third factor to watch is the conversion rate, which is defined as conversions (sales) per click.
Note that these numbers are neatly tied together by the convenient formula:
CPA = CPC/Conversion rate = (cost/click)/(conversions/click).
Clicks, cost, and conversions all go up during the holidays. As it happens, conversions increase more than clicks, so conversion rates tend to rise. This makes the clicks more valuable, so advertisers raise their bids to reach more consumers. As a result CPCs get pushed up.
The plot above shows the median CPC, the median conversion rate, and the median CPA during the 2006 holiday season for those Google AdWords advertisers who use conversion tracking. The series have been normalized so they all start at the same point on November 1.
Last year, Thanksgiving fell on November 23. Note how the conversion rate (green) and the CPC (blue) both dropped on that day which means CPA (red) went up. Perhaps watching football and eating turkey trumped online shopping on Thanksgiving?
Right after Turkey Day, people started on their Christmas shopping so conversion rates started to rise. During this period, advertisers raised their bids in order to get more prominent positions in the ad auctions so they could attract those shoppers. That increased the median CPC (blue). But the conversion rate rose more than the CPC, which pushed CPA (red) down. Even though the clicks cost more, the conversions -- what really matter -- cost less.
The conversion rate peaked on December 11, somewhat before the peak of overall retail sales, since it takes time to process and ship the online orders. By December 23, things were pretty much back to normal. Once Christmas Day arrived, conversion rates dropped to their lowest point of the year -- people were just too busy opening presents to think about buying more things… at least for the next few days.
The bottom line is that is that the cost of clicks does tend to rise during the holidays. But since those clicks are more likely to turn into sales, the CPA goes down, making those seemingly expensive clicks quite a bargain. If you are interested in tracking how your own conversion rates and CPAs change during the holiday season, you can set up AdWords Conversion Tracking on your ads and see how these metrics work for you.
Thanks to Hal for his explanation on how the holiday season can affect the ROI for an AdWords campaign. And remember, you can always visit the AdWords Help Center year-round to read up on tips on how to improve your ad performance.
Posted by Christina, Inside AdWords crew"
Technorati Tags: Google, AdWords, Holiday Sales, CPA, CPC, Christmas, ROI, Ironvine
ChannelAdvisor Launches Promotion with Amazon.com
(Research Triangle Park, N.C.) ChannelAdvisor, the leading provider of e-commerce channel management solutions, announced today they have launched a new promotion that allows online retailers to sell through Amazon.com with no subscription fees for three months.
Through ChannelAdvisor Complete, ChannelAdvisor customers can easily sell products across multiple online channels including e-commerce marketplaces, comparison shopping engines and search engines.Through ChannelAdvisor, retailers can integrate with Amazon.com and register for the Selling on Amazon program or the Amazon.com Pro Merchant program. Amazon merchants in the Selling on Amazon program typically pay $39.99 per month to list their products on Amazon.com, and then pay a referral fee when a product is sold. Merchants who take advantage of this promotion for the Selling on Amazon program are able to offer their products to the tens of millions of Amazon.com customers, without having to pay the subscription fee for the first three months.
"If a business is considering selling through Amazon.com this is an excellent opportunity with no up-front costs, referral fees apply only after they sell an item" said Tim Mirick, Director, Amazon Business Solutions. "This is a $119.97 savings on monthly subscription fees. With this offer virtually any business can start selling through Amazon with full support from ChannelAdvisor and all the benefits of the Selling on Amazon program."
ChannelAdvisor's integration with Amazon.com allows ChannelAdvisor customers to manage their Amazon sales, as well as the other e-commerce channels, through a single interface.
"ChannelAdvisor has helped us realize huge gains on Amazon.com in just over six months," says Steve McCarty, President of Ultimate Paintball. "By expanding our presence over multiple channels like Amazon.com, we've tallied increased bottom-line revenues and solidified a relationship with a long-term business partner for the future growth of our business."
"ChannelAdvisor continues to provide online retailers the solutions they need to become successful in this rapidly evolving market," says Scot Wingo, CEO of ChannelAdvisor. "We are excited to offer retailers the benefits of the Selling on Amazon program with no up-front costs allowing them to sell on the Amazon marketplace."
For more information, visit http://www.channeladvisor.com/marketplaces/amazon.html.
Technorati Tags: ChannelAdvisor, Amazon, Promotion, Channel Advisor, Business, Ironvine
eBay: 33% off Listing Fees Oct 18 – Nov 5
Message from eBay!!
33% off listing fees!
Get ready for the holidays -- list now for big savings!
- Limited time only: Oct 18-Nov 5
- Offer good for Auction-style and Fixed Price listings
- The more you list, the more you save
Technorati Tags: ebay, coupon, sale, promo, auction, listing, Ironvine
Google Analyst Day
Wednesday, Google holds its analyst day at the Googleplex in Mountain View, Calif. You can listen to it live from Google’s investor relations Web site.
Analysts will have many questions about where Google is headed and hopefully Google will provide some real answers.
Here are a couple of the most important issues that are sure to come up during the presentation.
* Does Google have bigger plans to expand in social networking, including a possible investment in Facebook?
* Will YouTube and online video advertising ever become a major contributor to revenue and profits?
* Is Google really looking to take on Apple (APPL) in the mobile phone business?
* Is Google concerned about recent enhancements made by Yahoo! (YHOO) and Microsoft (MSFT) to their search engines as well as an increased marketing push by IAC’s (IACI) Ask.com?
* How well is Google’s payment service Google Checkout doing compared to eBay’s (EBAY) PayPal?
* What plans does Google have for online ad placement company DoubleClick — assuming that the deal passes regulatory muster in the U.S. and EU?
* And finally, what does Google intend to do with its $13.1 billion in cash?
Of these topics Google may spend the most time talking about DoubleClick and YouTube and how they fit into Google’s strategy of broadening beyond the keyword search advertising business that still makes up an overwhelming majority of Google’s revenue and profits.
Technorati Tags: Google, Analyst, Invest, YouTube, Facebook, DoubleClick, Ebay, Yahoo, Microsoft, Ironvine
Google Names ChannelAdvisor an Inaugural Partner for Google Product Search
ChannelAdvisor has been named an inaugural partner in the Google Product Search™ Partner Program. This partnership will integrate the ChannelAdvisor Complete™ platform with Google Product Search to offer retailers a painless path to increased traffic and more profits on their e-commerce sites.
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ChannelAdvisor simplifies the technical processes for retailers sending data feeds into the Google Product Search platform. Based on an item’s relevance, consumers will be able to easily find retailers’ products on Google Product Search, and on some occasions even the main Google™ web search site. As part of the partnership, ChannelAdvisor will promote the use of Google Product Search to its large and rapidly growing retailer client base.
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ChannelAdvisor’s Comparison Shopping Solution, ShoppingAdvisor™ allows retailers to focus on the core principles of operating successful comparison shopping programs: minimizing spend, increasing revenue and improving efficiencies. ShoppingAdvisor’s built-in profitability management enables retailers to define business rules that will automatically adjust bid levels or remove products to improve results. Pre-defined business rules leverage best practices for increasing product exposure and conversion with the full spectrum of shopping engines. For more information, visit http://www.channeladvisor.com/products/shoppingadvisor.
Technorati Tags: ChannelAdvisor, ShoppingAdvisor, CSE, SEM, Search Marketing, Online Marketing, Search, Google, Holiday Shopping, Ironvine
MSN adCopy
Here are some tips from the MSN adCenter blog about using 'Brand' in your ad copy. I thought they were worth making note of, especially as we move into Q4 holiday sales season.
The Power of Brand Names
The creation of a strong brand identity is important to every company, large and small, all around the World. Brands built with care can say a multitude of things in just one word such as: hip, secure, quality, trendy, established, reliable, cutting edge, energetic, leadership and trustworthy. Advertisers go to great lengths to strengthen and protect their brand identity through traditional advertising mediums. We believe that it is just as important for this to extend to paid search advertising. Please read on to find out why.
Live Search and Brand Popularity
Approximately 35% of the top searches in the UK, USA and France are brand related, which gives you an idea just how brand focused our Live Search users are. If your brand is strong (and strong brands come in all shapes and sizes) include it in at least in one of your ad titles and try to get it in the descriptions too! We have often seen click through rates (CTRs) increase when brand names have been included effectively.
Smart Use of Space & a Great USP!
One might argue that space is at a premium in the world of search advertising ad copy but if your brand is strong, it will say more than a thousand words! Strong brands can also be a very powerful unique selling point as some users may prefer to buy or use a trusted source instead of a unknown one.
The use of ‘Official Site’
Using ‘Official Site’ in your ad title (when appropriate) will further help you to stand out from the crowd. This works best when you own a big brand, are selling a unique product or when you are dealing with multiple affiliates. A good example of this is the vacuum cleaner manufacturer, Dyson, who offer their products directly to the consumer as well as through resellers. They could incorporate ‘official site’ in their ad text to attract customers that need more information about Dyson in general, or who feel more confident buying directly from the manufacturer.
Technorati Tags: MSN, adCenter, PPC, Search, Paid, Marketing, SEM, Ironvine
Sprint + Microsoft = Moble Search
For those of you who were wondering where Microsoft's mobile search service would end up, here is one place.
Sprint Nextel Corp. on Tuesday began offering an enhanced search service through Microsoft Corp. that allows its phone users to find nearby businesses through the phones' built-in location-based technology.
Typing in a term, such as "pizza," delivers a list of links, including nearby pizza shops, even without a zip code or other address information. Selecting a link pulls up a map to the location and allows the user to call the shop's phone number.
The process could be simplified further through the voice-recognition software also being offered Tuesday for download on certain Sprint phones. It uses technology picked up in Microsoft's acquisition earlier this year of Tellme Networks Inc.
In that case, users just say "pizza" and the search engine does its work.
You can read the full article here:
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/apwire/D8RO3D302.htm
Technorati Tags: Microsoft, adCenter, Mobile Search, MSN, PPC, Paid Search, Online Marketing, Ironvine
Plural Forms of Nouns in AdWords
This is a good article to keep in mind when working with keywords.
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=19527
Technorati Tags: Search, Paid, Marketing, PPC, SEW, Ironvine
ChannelAdvisor Acquires Marketworks
Today ChannelAdvisor announced that it has acquired the e-commerce company Marketworks. The offices in Atlanta, GA; London, England; Germany; and Melbourne, Australia will be added to ChannelAdvisor along with the product offerings like Marketworks' Professional Web Store.
As far as marketing, Wingo said, "We've got to figure out the branding. We'll have Merchant and Marketworks. We may keep those names, we may choose to rebrand to make it clear. But (Marketworks) will be a product offering of ChannelAdvisor rather than a separate company."
So far the news has made Auction Bytes (eBay Services Consolidation: ChannelAdvisor Acquires Marketworks), Tech Journal South (RTP's ChannelAdvisor buys Marketworks), News Observer (ChannelAdvisor buys Atlanta company), and here as well as the official press release on both homepages: http://ww2.marketworks.com, http://www.channeladvisor.com
Following the acquisition, the company says it will have 5,500 customers globally; $2.5 billion in annual gross merchandise value; and offices in the RTP), Seattle, Washington; Atlanta, GA; Bacharach and Berlin, Germany; London, and Melbourne, Australia.
I'm sure we will hear more about it as the day goes on, the news is only 3 hours old at this point.
Technorati Tags: ChannelAdvisor, Marketworks, eBay, Marketing, e-commerce, online sales, search marketing, Atlanta, Merchant, Auction, Ironvine
Three More Shopping Months
Inside AdWords blog posted another reminder that Q4 holiday shopping is right here with tips on how to be prepared and make the most out of holiday shoppers online.
Their recommendations revolve around the Keyword Tool, ad text testing, and their optimization tips.
You can read the details at http://adwords.blogspot.com/2007/09/just-three-more-shopping-months.html
Technorati Tags: Google, AdWords, PPC, Holiday Shopping, Paid Search, SEM, Keywords, Ironvine