The Inbound Marketing Blog

Today I noticed in one account interface a message that if ignored could radically change how often ads are triggered and for what keywords. I thought they had a similar match type already implemented called “extended match,” but this possibly takes the liberty at which Google will trigger your ads for search (related and sometimes unrelated) queries even further.

According to Google:

“Automatic matching is an optional feature that helps your ads reach targeted traffic missed by your keyword lists. It works by analyzing the ads, keywords, and landing pages in your ad group. It then shows your ads on search queries relevant to this information.
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When Andrew Goodman talks about AdWords I listen. I read his book back in the summer of 2006 and my eyes were opened to many AdWords techniques as well as many direct response advertising principles in which I had forgotten. I look back at my first attempts at Overture in 2005 and realize how much has changed and how much I have learned.

In the following article Goodman gives some sage advice on what to do with when you inherit a bad AdWords account. This quote seems to appropriately reflect his point..

“No matter how far you have gone on the wrong road, turn back.” -Turkish Proverb

Individual account history combined with Google’s own historical assessment of keyword success gathered from advertisers over the last seven years (since 2001) plays a role in AdWords Quality Score. So does those crucial first 1000 impressions for getting a good click through rate.

So what do you do when your account bombs or you inherit one with bad set up/history? Start over with a new account or you will be facing an uphill battle for a long time, and possibly forever. Start by creating tight adgroups and bidding higher than you normally would in order to obtain a high Quality Score. Don’t expect the account to instantly pay for itself the first week or even month. If you follow the path of the diligent and knowledgeable you will outlast the lazy and uninformed and eventually be rolling in ROI bliss.

Read the rest of Goodman’s commentary on his Monday Search Engine Land column.

I’ve heard this advice before from two other Gurus whom I follow.
Micheal Reining of MindValleyLabs.com in his The Coming AdWords War ebook.
SEOChat Forum posts by the legendary GarytheScubaGuy.

Edit:
Jon Rognerud from Entrepreneur.com also mentioned this technique today.

To combat dwindling advertising revenue and readership due to companies spending their advertising and marketing dollars on the Internet, The Dallas Morning News is now experimenting with giving away a smaller version packed with more graphics, brief stories, and more coupons. I thought they already had the Quick news which was already free, but I guess it’s geared more toward entertainment/tabloid style. Sometimes major news networks are the worst about reporting Hollywood news, which isn’t really news. That’s just my $.02

Read the whole story here at the Houston Chronicle ironically.

Pre-Wordpress’ birth and the critical mass of blogs, Internet Marketing Professionals used many other tactics, one of which was writing value-based informational articles and submitting them to several article directories for online publishers and website owners to repost. This type of article marketing was done for years before blogging.

What is Article Marketing?

Wikipedia defines Article Marketing as:

“A type of advertising in which businesses write short articles related to their respective industry. These articles are made available for distribution and publication in the marketplace. Each article contains a bio box and byline that include references and contact information for the author’s business. Well-written content articles released for free distribution have the potential of increasing the authoring business’ credibility within its market as well as attracting new clients.”

Over the last few years it has become harder and harder for those starting fresh in the Internet Marketing arena to separate the wheat from the chaff, the noise from the signal. Of all the 100s of techniques and gurus touting the latest trends, it’s hard to know what works and what’s a waste of time.

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One of the measures of search engine marketing success is getting keyword targeted traffic through organic or natural listings. This is obvious. Being able to see the difference in paid and unpaid traffic is not so obvious to the beginner, but it is where the truth of success comes. It is no secret that paid traffic can actually have more value per visitor in some industries (if you know what you are doing), than unpaid traffic, but you should never throw the baby out with the bath water. In other industries pay-per-click inflation has gotten the best of bidders. In any case, it’s very important that you tag your paid search campaigns.

Tagging is a fancy word for naming something unique to identify its origin, and it’s highly important to tag your ads through AdWords. For most analytics or web stats programs you have to tag ads manually in which you should use a dynamic string attached to the destination URL. Google Analytics makes it easy on you (in exchange for being Big Brother) and will tell us the difference between paid and unpaid traffic automatically IF one default setting is changed through AdWords.

Here are the easy steps to making this change:

1. Login into AdWords

2. Go to the “My Account” tab, 4th Green Tab on the right

3. Then go to “Account Preferences”

4. Under “Tracking” on the right side, edit and set “Auto-tagging” to “Yes”

By default it is set to “No.”

In the future if you decide to use Yahoo! Search Marketing or MSN adCenter (which I recommend you do), you have to manually tag the ads (adding a bit of description to the destination URL). This way you will be able to tell what is ppc traffic and what is organic from Yahoo and MSN. Use this tagging URL builder.

Contact Rachel at 214-887-8586 Ex 518 to request a code.

High school yearbook sales are down in Houston schools. Some say it’s sites like Facebook or just the fact that books are not as relevant to kids since they can keep their memories in virtual interactive photo albums. Others believe it has to do with demographics.

“They all want them, but it’s like, who’s got $60?” Miller said of yearbooks. “They would rather go buy their tennis shoes or buy a grill for their mouth or something. A book is not as significant today to a child.”

-Lisa Schwartz, a manager at the Houston office of Taylor Publishing

Notice the bolded words…funny. Read the whole story

This release caught my eye because I have recently been working on SEM strategies for non-profits that use this exact software. I can only predict what they have to say. I assume the Internet has helped charitable organizations immensely with the ease at which one can donate, set up ongoing giving programs, and Businesswire.com

University marketing departments and alumni associations should be all over MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube. Major universities should also be hiring SEOs and paid search specialists. If they cannot increase their exposure and credibility by being on top 100 lists, why not be on the top ten on Google for certain programs. There seems to be a huge market abrew. Anyhow, I applaud Ohio State University for getting its own YouTube Channel. Read the story here.

At the National Venture Capital Association’s annual meeting Wednesday, Efrusy sat on a panel with executives from advertising firm Omnicom Group Inc. (OMC), entertainment content company Viacom Inc. (VIA), and Internet giant Yahoo Inc. ( YHOO), to discuss the power of online advertising.

Among the topics was the hot-button issue of whether Facebook and other advertising-based social networking sites deserve lofty valuations at this point. “Would we love to own MySpace for $700 million? Absolutely,” said Wade Davis, senior vice president at Viacom, which was interested in Facebook in the past. Would Viacom buy Facebook for $15 billion? “Absolutely not. Nor did we want to pay $1 billion. There is a lot of hype, a lot of activity, but a lot of dollars aren’t being made.” Read the whole story at CNNMoney.