Melville, NY (Practical E-commerce) -

My philosophy on pay-per-click bid management has always been to manage each keyword’s performance in each engine individually. Knowing a keyword’s impact makes it easier to determine the next steps to take in improving the account’s overall performance. I start by looking at a current month’s worth of data and sorting the data based upon three criteria: Cost per conversion, cost per click and number of clicks. The first section is for keywords that have generated conversions sorted by cost per conversion from highest to lowest. The next section is for those keywords that have had clicks but zero conversions sorted by cost from highest to lowest. Lastly, I group the keywords that have had no clicks in descending order of impressions.

Here’s how it works:

1. For the converted keywords, compare the cost per conversion with the optimal cost per conversion that you want to achieve. Modify bids to alter position if the keyword’s cost per conversion is too high.

2. For the keywords that have clicks but low conversions, look to improve the landing page call to action. The searcher is interested enough to click on your ad, but either he didn’t find what he was looking for, or the landing page did not reflect the ad’s message. Make sure the call to action on the landing page is clear.

3. For the keywords that have had impressions and zero clicks, the searcher is actively looking, but your ad is not enticing him or her to click. Rewrite the ad with multiple versions and be sure to A/B split test.

I am currently working with SearchForce, a portfolio-based bid management tool, which is a completely different approach. I absolutely recommend it. I can apply a strategy to any grouping of keywords I choose, even across multiple search engines. I can then apply a different bid strategy to different subsets of keywords. Brand name keywords can be maintained at position one, while broader keywords can be constrained to a maximum cost per conversion. I can decide that any keyword that spends a certain amount of money without converting should either have their bid reduced or paused. The tool will decide how to bid and position each keyword to maintain the criteria I have defined. I can spend more time strategizing on a higher level and let the tool do the testing of bids and positions to meet the desired goals.

Author: Pamela Nelson, Prime Visibility

July 1, 2008

Original Article in Practical eCommerce:

http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/769/Pay-Per-Click-Bid-Management-Strategies/

Melville, NY (SearchInsider) -

With the acronym DAO (digital asset optimization) floating around everywhere these days, it’s easy to wonder if DAO is replacing search engine optimization (SEO). The answer is no; in fact, DAO can best be described as the evolution of SEO, which isn’t dead but just rapidly changing.
Over the past few years, since Google’s “PageRank” started DAO by measuring a site’s popularity — counting every external link as a vote to determine its relevance — the emphasis has shifted from “on-page elements” to a focus on off-site criteria.
DAO is all about moving the focus of optimization efforts from the page text to more relevant assets, such as images, audio and video. The goal is to help searchers find the most relevant site based on the criteria and content most important to them.
From a bottom-line vantage point, companies must figure out how to best adjust their Internet marketing strategies to maintain a competitive advantage. To find the right balance, they must decide the most opportune way to optimize standard text while also optimizing and promoting their other digital assets.
When is the right time to start making this shift? Now! Search engines already have systems in place to measure the relevance of a Web site’s digital assets. And they are constantly focused on improving them so that they become a more prevalent part of the equation. The only question is how long it will take for users to fully realize that they have these resources readily at their disposal.
The growth of universal search means the kinds of search results SEO consultants have become accustomed to are history, or at least on the decline. So now they need to figure out new ways to optimize any electronic file that can be crawled, indexed, categorized and sorted. This is about much more than just optimizing social media but rather the entire Internet, making all content easier to find via search.
Consequently, businesses today are increasingly producing an array of content for search engines that can be indexed, leaving their success directly linked to their ability to adapt to a rapidly changing market.
To survive, those of us who use search engines to market Web sites must adapt. With such intense competition and money at stake, the leading search providers will continue to improve the user experience.
As long as billions of people continue to use search engines daily, there will be a progression in the modes of optimization we use to improve the visibility of Web sites and enhance their presence.
That makes it necessary for companies to consider all of their digital assets in producing formats that are responsive to search engine and costumer demands.
We can no longer afford to wait for the customer to find us through text optimization and impress them with our other digital assets. Now it is all about matching digital assets with channels of distribution to provide marketers with even more opportunity to reach customers. In this new world, each channel not only drives traffic independently, but improves a Web site’s standard search visibility.
DAO is not just a better definition — it is the future of search marketing.

SearchInsider - June 24, 2008

View Original Article:

http://blogs.mediapost.com/search_insider/?p=815