Infolific » SEM

The Keyword and the SEM Campaign

Special Contributor — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 14:47:33 +0000

Often times, marketers overlook the importance of a campaign?s keywords in favor of catchy creative, fancy testing techniques or their reliance on bid management software to sort it all out. Now, I?m not saying that these individual components are not important. Everything plays a role in the success of a [...]

SEM Agency Differentiation

Marios Alexandrou — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 14:31:28 +0000

I think 2008 is going to be a tough year for SEM agencies and consultants. In many cases, which company remains in business will come down to how effectively it is able to differentiate itself. In times of plenty, the riff-raff and the true experts can co-exist, be profitable, and [...]

Best PubCon Coverage

Marios Alexandrou — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 04:39:16 +0000

You don't get many people relating their disappointment with major webmaster conferences. And so I found the following commentary amusing. Maybe it's because I was bitter at not attending... "Well, I intended to blog from Pubcon, but that is not meant to be. To me, "live blogging" is blogging not [...]

How to Use Trademarks (Not Yours) in AdWords Ads

Marios Alexandrou — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 02:14:05 +0000

Not too long ago, Jeremy Shoemaker wrote about his successful attempt at trademarking the ShoeMoney brand. This in turn allowed him to submit documentation to the Google AdWords team so that using ShoeMoney within ad titles and copy wouldn't be allowed. This inspired me to see if I could find [...]

Yahoo Paid Inclusion: SEO or PPC Team?

Marios Alexandrou — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 00:09:55 +0000

In a previous post I implied that Yahoo's Paid Inclusion (a.k.a. Search Submit Pro) program was for lazy SEOs. That's a little harsh, I suppose, but I'm sticking to my belief that you can achieve high rankings in Yahoo with less effort than true search engine optimization. I've worked at [...]

Google Fails to Block ShoeMoney Ads

Marios Alexandrou — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 19:06:30 +0000

Jeremy Shoemaker of ShoeMoney fame recently wrote about his recent success with obtaining a trademark for ShoeMoney which in turn allowed him to eliminate AdWords ads that contained his trademark. Of course, I couldn't resist testing out just how thorough the AdWords system is with such things. And in 10 [...]

When Affiliate Marketers Go Too Far

Marios Alexandrou — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 17:18:11 +0000

When affiliate marketers are too aggressive with their search engine marketing efforts, the end result is something that just feels wrong. But does having something feel wrong mean it shouldn't be done? If the idea is expected to be profitable and someone else will do it if you don't, should [...]

Jim Cramer on Paid Search

Marios Alexandrou — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 13:43:59 +0000

The investing world has been abuzz with the news that Google didn't do as well as expected. But the most amusing comment came from Jim Cramer: "I would have liked to have seen a much higher click-through rate in advertising, and it makes me wonder whether, at last, people have [...]

Another Milestone for the SEM Industry

Marios Alexandrou — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 13:25:25 +0000

A co-worker sent this link out today. It's the first TV commercial (as far as I know) to play on a major network (CNBC) for search engine marketing services. All the movement makes the message feel compelling, but at the same time I question the use of the term SWOT. [...]

Yahoo Paid Inclusion for Lazy SEOs

Marios Alexandrou — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 02:50:52 +0000

By its very nature, search engine optimization (SEO) takes time not only to implement, but also to see the changes in traffic and rankings. For those who are in a hurry or just plain lazy, Yahoo offers an alternative with their paid inclusion program (also known as Yahoo Search Submit [...]

Google CPA Ads Will Worsen Click Fraud

Marios Alexandrou — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 00:17:59 +0000

There is a lot of buzz around Google's recent beta testing of a cost-per-action (CPA) advertising program. The excitement is justified of course since Google has a strangle-hold on the cost-per-click advertising market making it a power to be reckoned with and one worth watching. The program's beta status means [...]

Non-Branded Paid Search a Waste of time?

Marios Alexandrou — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 10:10:50 +0000

There's an interesting article from AdAge about the effectiveness of non-branded paid search campaigns. In this article, Jeffrey Glueck, chief marketing officer of Travelocity, is quoted of saying, "It is a profound mistake by all of us to think we've figured out how to measure ROI on search. We're in [...]

The End of Click Fraud?

Marios Alexandrou — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 01:41:07 +0000

There's an article in the NY Times (I'm not going to bother to link to it since it'll be gated soon) today that is causing a bit of a stir in the pay per click (PPC) world. In the article, a representative from Google states that in a few months [...]

Google AdWords Quality Score

Marios Alexandrou — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 12:34:22 +0000

Google's AdWords program has included a quality rating for each keyword and ad combination for quite some time now. What's relatively new is that they've made this score publicly visible to advertisers. Of course, the specifics for how the score is calculated is still a secret, but at least you [...]

Don't Forget About Your Landing Pages

Marios Alexandrou — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 02:23:24 +0000

Google's AdWords program offers an unprecedented training ground for aspiring pay-per-click (PPC) advertisers. It doesn't just provide a theoretical education, but rather a practical one from which you can learn lessons to become a successful search engine marketer. The problem is, many people fail to learn from their mistakes and [...]

Dayparting PPC Campaigns

Marios Alexandrou — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 14:08:45 +0000

There are many techniques for improving advertising campaigns particularly with robust systems such as Google's AdWords program. Some of these techniques are considered to be advanced, but I find that often they're advanced more because they're not commonly used rather than because they are necessarily effective. Adjusting a campaign either [...]

The CTR Conundrum

Marios Alexandrou — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 02:14:30 +0000

New users of pay-per-click (PPC) ad campaigns likely get caught up in the click-through rate game. This little statistic often becomes the only measure of success for a given keyword. Google re-enforces this thinking by automatically deactivating keywords if they fall below a certain CTR threshold. The problem with getting [...]

CPM vs. CPC vs. CPA

Marios Alexandrou — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 15:13:53 +0000

For those of you that have been using the Internet as an advertising medium, you know that there are various pricing models available to you. However, there are a lot of people just entering the fray and so I thought I'd take a quick look at the 3 categories that [...]

AdWords Arbitrage Getting Harder

Marios Alexandrou — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 11:38:31 +0000

In a post earlier this year, I briefly mentioned AdWords arbitrage (a.k.a. AdSense arbitrage) as part of a discussion on driving traffic to a site via the AdWords program. A lot has been written about taking advantage of Google's system, but there was recently a particularly interesting piece on Forbes.com. [...]

AdWords for Site Traffic

Marios Alexandrou — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 07:33:07 +0000

There are many ways to promote a new or existing website, but one of the easiest and fastest techniques is to use Google's AdWords program. Many people consider AdWords to be of value only to those who have a product or service to sell, but that's simply not true. When [...]