I recently read a great post from Paul O’Brien at SEOBrien.com (somehow I don’t think PPCRodnitzky rolls off the tongue quite as well) that listed off an impressive collection of questions to ask a potential PPC vendor prior to signing a contract. A few of my favorites from the list include: – What measurement criteria or metrics does your company have in place to track performance? – How do you provide online real-time reporting and tracking? What tools do you use? Are any of these tools proprietary? – … Continue reading →

Nope, it’s never too early to talk Cyber Monday and the holiday crunch (heck, the Northeast is getting snow today!). Here’s a handful of good articles to help you tune up your campaigns: 1. Mobile Holiday Shopping, from Searchengineland’s George Popstefanov (bonus points for the figgy pudding reference) 2. 10 Bizarre Things that Influence Customers Online, from Getelastic’s Linda Bustos 3. Marketing Ideas for Ecommerce Sites, from Practicalecommerce’s Armando Roggio 4. Tips for Your Holiday Retargeting List, from Searchengineland’s Josh Shatkin-Margolis 5. 10 Cardinal Sins of Paid Search … Continue reading →

I love competition. I’m not an athlete, but I relish the chance to compete with someone else (or many people). Games are a perfect outlet; board, video, poker – doesn’t matter. The poker boom coincided with my college graduation, so I took a two-year break to play professionally. It was plenty to satisfy my competitive urges (for a while). When I realized I was never going to make a million dollars playing cards (though I’m no slouch), it was time to find a job. A couple of false … Continue reading →

I was working with a company on their paid search campaign, and as part of the campaign set-up process, I created a remarketing campaign for them. Unbeknownst to me (until after it happened), they participated in a few daily deal offerings, and initially, I thought these efforts would have no relevance or impact on their PPC campaign. That assessment was totally incorrect. A bit about the company: Niche, highly dynamic inventory. Highly latent buyer (meaning few purchases happen on the first visit to the site…sale usually happens 1-14 … Continue reading →

Imagine going into a casino and being met by a friendly hostess at the front door. As you approach, the hostess smiles and says, “Hello, thanks for coming in. How much money would you like to lose today? Just write me a check and I’ll maximize the amount of fun you have losing that money!” Not many people would like that sort of program, but that’s an apt analogy for the recent “dynamic ads for search” program Google has recently announced. While it’s currently only an optional beta, … Continue reading →