PPC Trends 2010

Later in 2010, Google and Microsoft Bing will be competing head-to-head in pay-per-click (PPC) advertising platforms (i.e. Adwords and Adcenter), after Yahoo decided to exit search and became Bing’s largest search traffic partner.

PPC Strategies for the Big 3 Search Engines

Your search engine marketing strategies will include the big three search engines (i.e. Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing and Microsoft Bing Adcenter).

To do well with the big 3 search engines:

Keyword Research and Keyword Management

Create keyword lists for search targeted campaigns and content targeted campaigns:

Track Conversions

To monetize through search engine marketing, the ability for big brands to track return-on-investment (ROI) will become far more important than before. Google offers free PPC conversion tracking tools for search engine marketers who will not be spending budgets on “paid” conversion tracking software.

Optimize Keyword Bidding

Keyword / ad group bidding is/are another areas that can no longer be done manually in an efficient way. Google offers Adwords Conversion Optimizer, a free keyword bidding tool. Follow Adwords Conversion Optimizer tips before using this bidding tool.

Use one of the auto-bid / portfolio bid management software from Efficient Frontier, Marin Software, Search Force or Kenshoo Search, if you prefer “paid” software and services. Paid bidding software allows you to manage/optimize all your different search engine accounts (Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing and Adcenter) in one system.

Optimize Landing Pages

Use dynamic keyword insertion to improve your ads’ click-through-rate (CTR), and optimize PPC landing pages to:

  • Improve your site users’ experience
  • Increase your websites’ conversion rates

Comments

2 Responses to “PPC Trends 2010”

  1. Kristina Zhao on March 17th, 2010 5:49 pm

    Hi Gordon,

    My name is Kristina Zhao from Get Smart Content. This message is not really a comment – but I figured it was a good way to reach you since you review all comments prior to posting and the email listed did not work for me.

    I’ve been following your blog on PPC, SEM and SEO and found it very insightful and informative. I actually contacted you because I was wondering if Smart Content would be something that you and your readers would be interested in learning about and could benefit from, especially with your experience with Google Analytics. http://www.getsmartcontent.com

    Just to give you a rough idea, Smart Content is a web based system that enables you to serve content on websites and landing pages that is targeted to the individual user. Where you would normally have a static image or text you embed a hosted widget-style .gif or .swf and then manage your combination of rules and content in the Smart Content admin. Since Smart Content is added to your site via an embeddable .gif or .swf file, it requires little technical expertise and the Admin panel is all drag and drop so any marketer can use it.

    We think Smart Content is a great compliment to Website Optimizer because you can optimize your page to the broadest audience and use the Smart Content swf to deliver a call to action targeted to the individual user. The results of targeting your content and call to action is pretty amazing, specifically on landing pages where users decide very quickly to move deeper or bounce.

    If you’re interested in learning how marketers are using Smart Content to serve the right content and Call to Action to the right audience at the right time, I’d love to give you a walk through.
    I look forward to this opportunity and thanks,

    Kristina Zhao | Smart Content

  2. uberVU - social comments on March 23rd, 2010 9:13 pm

    Social comments and analytics for this post…

    This post was mentioned on Twitter by gordonchoi: PPC Blog: PPC Trends 2010 – http://tinyurl.com/yzmn5xe…

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