Sure, we all know that average position is not always a wholly reliable metric, just as achieving a higher position does not necessarily equate into more traffic. Looking at a small data set from one of our existing campaigns illustrates how decisions change based on the manner in which we group data. [...more]
Sometimes I hear pay-per-click advertising account managers say something like "My CPCs keep going up!" as if that's a bad thing. But one sign of the effectiveness of online marketing efforts is the degree to which they increase the observed Cost-per-Click. In this post, Bradd explains why. [...more]
Keyword prices continue to rise across all the search engines. Effective keyword management and quality score optimization have become even more important as search marketers try to keep their campaigns within budget and profitable. [...more]
In part 2 of this post, Bradd provides a simple, visual means for determining your optimal bid from Google’s Bid Simulator. Then, uses some straightforward math to show you how to calculate the optimal bid (and CPA and ROI) for Dr. Varian's example of online retailer selling digital cameras. [...more]
Dr. Hal Varian produced a Google AdWords bidding tutorial in which he outlines a 4-step process for determining your optimal bidding strategy. The video includes a number of best practices for any PPC manager to follow, but also leaves out critical information and makes numerous simplifications. Bradd has identified the best practices and limitations from Dr. Varian's tutorial and translates this insight into actionable tactics to improve your campaign performance. [...more]
If you manage bids on search engine ad auctions, you probably spend a lot of time puzzling over spreadsheets looking for opportunities to improve your account's Cost per Acquisition (CPA). But CPA is a funny beast and if you don't know how funny it can act (even in the best of times), you might be wasting some of your effort. [...more]
Three weeks after the launch of Bing, The Search Agency conducted an analysis of our advertisers' key performance metrics on Microsoft's new "Decision Engine." See how conversions, CTR, and CPA are trending on Bing compared to Live Search. [...more]
