Category Archives: Search

Google CPCs and Sitelinks

Posted on February 4, 2012 | Leave a comment

If you want to learn more about the relationship between you average CPC (cost per click) and AdQuality score, and how those might be influenced inversely by way of ad extensions, check out this great article by ClickZ:

http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2143667/solving-mystery-googles-q4-cpc-drop

In a nutshell, as you leverage ad extension you you ultimate goal is to improve conversions as well CTR. Google ocourse wants both as well. Higher CPCs yield more ad revenue, while conversions keep advertisers happy.

So, ad extensions such as Sitelinks (one of my personal favorites) are essentially designed to do both. An interesting sideeffect of this is an improvement in your AdQuality score (because your CTR increases). In turn, your CPC decreases, a nice bonus. Over time this benefit will most likely diminish as more advertisers take advantage of the features. Therefore, being an early adopter of these types of technology can yield some nice benefits.

So it is more important than ever to ensure you stay up to date on the latest trends in the industry.

On a side note, this is my first post made from my iPad, and I’m doing soLin the airport waiting for my flight.

 

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CPCs fall in Q4 for Google as Ad Quality Improves

Posted on January 23, 2012 | Leave a comment

In a rare turn of events for search marketers, the average CPC (cost per click) search marketers paid to Google in Q4 2011 actually fell by 8% according to MediaPost’s report on Google’s Q4 analyst earnings call.

As a search marketer, this news is extremely timely, relevant and refreshing. CPCs have been escalating for years as more and more competitors flood search with their ads.

It seems that many improvements that Google has made to scoring ads (QualityScore) and better education of advertising best practices, has lead to an increase in the quality of ads and advertising campaigns. This has made the campaigns more efficient, which then can often lower the cost of advertising and CPCs. To summarize at a really high level, higher quality ads don’t necessarily need the highest bid to be shown first and win clicks. Google factors in many variables to determine rank.

However, advertisers should not necessarily breathe a sigh of relief. In certain industries that are highly competitive, CPCs may not have declined, and certainly not by 8% as reported. Only your own data will show how your business has been affected. But, it might make you take your foot off the gas a bit and back down on those bids. I have long pondered about what would happen if advertisers all backed off to form a reverse auction, per se… Where everyone kept lowering their bids. A crazy thought of course, one that probably cannot take place in free market capitalism; and it has similarities to a cartel so-to-speak.

Nonetheless, I continue to encourage advertisers to occasionally take their foot of the gas and focus on landing page quality and ad quality versus simply raising their bids constantly. Focusing on the quality will yield better long term results.

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Behavioral targeting – When will it go too far?

Posted on December 22, 2011 | Leave a comment

Sundeep Kapur for ClickZ just released a great article on the creepiness of tracking consumers.

An excerpt:

You just checked into a hotel; they tracked your smartphone and watched you walk in from the parking lot. Your check-in folio was ready for you. That is awesome service. You proceed to your room. They now watch your every move; they know what you’re watching on TV, they know what you ordered from room service, and they know what sites you visited on the web. They know you because of your past stays, and now they are tracking your every move to try and personalize your experiences even more.

Is this creepy? Maybe! But I can tell you, its already starting to take shape.

This happens now on the web.  Go to any retailer’s website and visit a few product pages, or add a few items to your shopping cart.  Almost instantly as you travel around the net visiting other sites, you’ll start seeing banner ads and text ads championing the very products of the site you were just at. It’s called “retargeting” or “remarketing” and it works very well based upon the presence that you are likely to return to a site you previously visited. Advertisers know this works so well, they pay a premium for it. It’s a big business too – there are entire companies based upon behavioral targeting and retargeting.

Okay, so this is not quite as extreme as in Sundeep’s article.y  However, the technology exists, more or less, to do everything he describes. It’s no big deal until this information is used to harm you. And that’s the very problem. How do you enable these services but protect consumers?

Remember that most technology and most inventions aren’t created to cause harm; they are simply exploited by others to do so, after the fact.

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