Should you buy search ads for your brand keywords?
I confess, as a search engine optimizer, I used to think that buying ads for one’s own brand name was a complete waste of money. After all, all companies should rank in top slots for their own brand name(s), if they’re doing their SEO right, and if you’re ranking tops then people will be able to find you if they’re looking for you. As such, I thought that buying ads for your own name was just paying for clicks that should rightly come to you anyway.
But over time, I’ve heard other experts stating that their research shows that having ad presence for brands along with natural search ranking appears to enhance overall click through rates in a synergistic manner. And, with greater experience, I’ve seen a number of cases when companies really should be buying their own brand name keywords for ads!
I see that George Michie over at the Rimm-Kaufman Group criticized a recent Microsoft study claiming that some advertisers are wasting money by buying their own brands in paid search ads — and I think George was right to criticize this. Read on and I’ll elaborate…
Popularity: 14% [?]
Posted by Chris Silver Smith of Netconcepts on 08/24/2007 | Permalink | 
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Filed under: Advertising, Monetization of Search, Paid Search, brand namesAtlas-Study, brand names, brand-ppc, brand-search, Microsoft-Ads, Paid Search, paid-vs-natural, Pay-Per-Click, ppc
7 Habits of Highly Effective PPC Advertisers
I just saw this great article on “Seven Habits Of Highly Effective Pay-Per-Click Advertisers” by John Ellis, who does search marketing for Gaylord Entertainment, and I thought it was worth highlighting.
Some of the tips include:
- Control spending by adjusting bid amounts, not daily spend budget
- Conversion matters, not click-through rate (CTR)
- Avoid bidding up for top position
…and more. I think there’s some great stuff here - both for paid search newbies as well as veterans.
Popularity: 9% [?]
Posted by Chris Silver Smith of Netconcepts on 05/31/2007 | Permalink | Email
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Filed under: Monetization of Search, Paid SearchPaid Search, Pay-Per-Click, ppc, PPC-Tips, Search-Engine-Marketing
Click Fraud Costs Estimated at over $800M
In Report: Advertisers Cut Spending, Blame Google and Yahoo for Click Fraud, a new report states that advertisers wasted over $800 million last year on phony clicks.
Some points of interest:
- “The Internet advertising market is expected to be worth about $15.6 billion in 2006, up from about $10 billion in 2005.”
- “Google is expected to capture about 25% of that market, compared to Yahoo’s expected 20%, according to research firm eMarketer.”
- PPC therefore is valued at around $7-8 billion this year.
- “15% is estimated as fraudulent”
- “37% of advertisers are reducing their PPC activity”
I predict that this fraud perception will fuel advertisers increasing reliance on natural search, where click fraud is not incentivized.
Will click fraud be the catalyst that finally causes retailers to more equally allocate their spending between PPC (pay per click) and NSO (natural search optimization)? So, for example, shift from $1MM/yr PPC and $150k on NSO, to more like $1MM/yr PPC and $1MM/yr NSO?
As PPC gets more expensive, the act of click fraud gets more costly, and that bad apple must begin to spoil the bucket at some point - not completely I’m sure, but probably enough to cause advertisers to rethink allocation and importance of NSO.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Posted by Stephan Spencer of Netconcepts on 07/10/2006 | Permalink | Email
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Filed under: Paid Searchclick-fraud, Paid Search, ppc
