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
Microsoft adCenter Updates Sept 2007
Last Friday MSN adCenter updated their interface to include several new features including faster editorial reviews, a hew home page dashboard, and faster ways to copy and edit keywords and create campaigns. You can review the update notice below.
Microsoft adCenter will upgrade on Friday, September 7. The tools and functionality in this upgrade will include significant improvements in editorial efficiency, campaign creation, and campaign management.
During this upgrade, adCenter will be temporarily unavailable for up to 8 hours on Friday, starting at 6:00 P.M. Pacific Time. Your ads and keywords will remain live and continue to run as usual, during this time.
After this upgrade, reporting will be delayed for up to 72 hours. To see when your data was last updated, check the timestamp on the bottom of adCenter Reporting tab.
Upgrade highlights:
Save time with fast and thorough editorial reviews for new ad groups.
Create campaigns with ease by quickly importing campaigns directly from other paid search programs or by copying existing ad groups within adCenter to a new campaign.
Instantly navigate to specific accounts, campaigns, or ad groups with the new adCenter home page dashboard, a one-stop-shop for all of your daily campaign management tasks.
Update keyword bids in bulk and view keyword performance on the same page.
Visualize your campaigns' targeting settings with Microsoft Virtual EarthTM map integration for geographical targeting.
For details on how to use these adCenter improvements view the Feature Release Guide. In addition, the adCenter Blog will highlight detailed feature reviews after the upgrade occurs.If you have any questions, please contact our adCenter Support Team.
Sincerely,
The Microsoft adCenter Team
Technorati Tags: MSN, Microsoft, adCenter, PPC, Paid Search, Online Marketing, Ironvine
Creating Compelling Ad Copy.
I was reading the SEW news daily and they had a headline link to a Search Engine Land blog post about creating compelling ad copy. It is pretty basic steps on the makeup of ad copy but I thought it was a good refresher to help as we go into busy season.