Good Day Sunshine
Spring is well and truly here now and with the sun beating through my office window I was wondering how great it would be to have an internet usage / weather report function! Ideally it would enable you to see...
Pay Per Click
Thursday, 17 April 2008
Friday, 04 April 2008
Adwords - Open Season On Trademark Bidding
Just got of the phone with our Adwords account manager and here is the email to summarise: "As of 5th May, we will allow open keyword bidding on all terms in the UK and Ireland only. This means, that as...
Thursday, 20 March 2008
Heads We Win, Tails You Lose
Whilst tapping my way through the Google AdWords Editor in the dying hours before Easter I stumbled upon a rather amusing message (shown above). It just goes to show you cannot win sometimes! Happy easter everyone!
Monday, 17 March 2008
How fast are you?
Load time to be incorporated in Quality Score: - Google are adding another element to adwords Quality Score: landing page load time. They state that waiting a while for a page to load is not a positive experience and can...
Monday, 25 February 2008
To match or not to match?
I was recently introduced to the new Google Automatic Matching facility that Google AdWords customers are being opted into. Its a beta named Automatic Matching that enables surplus budget left in a campaign to be spent as Google sees fit...
Friday, 08 February 2008
Yahoo!....step up!
Well I thought a new month should be opened with a new post. I write this after spending most of the last hour wrestling with the Yahoo upload editor! (And not for the first time!) When oh when are we...
Friday, 14 September 2007
Google 'Above & Beyond' Agency Event - Dublin
Google Agency Event - Dublin Another big thank you to everyone at Google Dublin for their hospitality & organisation during the 'Above & Beyond' event in Dublin this week. The amount of Googlers at the European headquarters has now grown...
Thursday, 30 August 2007
Christmas online retail sales in UK to hit £10bn?
According to the YouGov opinion portal online shopping is set to recieve another boost this year - light shoppers increasing their purchases by a large 57% - and the usual heavy shoppers also increasing this year by 28%. It would...
Monday, 21 May 2007
MSN Out of Beta
The new adCenter is out of Beta - but still not out of the dark ages yet! Even with new and improved ad management abilities we are still not seeing some of the functionality we would expect. Out of the...
Thursday, 22 March 2007
Google touts pay-per-action advertising
Google has revealed the details behind its pay-per-action advertising. The company yesterday announced that a new pricing model will allow advertisers to pay only when certain predetermined actions are completed on their site. Actions might include making a purchase or...
Friday, 16 February 2007
Google Adwords Professional verification is back
Thank goodness for that, the Google Adwords Professional verification pages have reappeared, so you can all see and verify our wonderful qualifications again. http://www.whoisagap.com
Wednesday, 14 February 2007
Spreading the Pay-Per-Click love around.
Valentines treats are in abundance today. Our Pay-Per-Click team have a special treat for anyone with a reasonably sized account, they'll run a FREE trial to prove how much they love their work and the value they can add. Check...
Thursday, 25 January 2007
Google Adwords Qualified Professional verification pages disappear.
As of Tuesday Adwords Qualified Professional status verification links for individuals and companies lead to a login page, meaning potential advertisers must create an Adwords account themselves before they can verify an individual or agency they are considering working with....
Monday, 22 January 2007
Yahoo! Launch Min CPC
Yahoo! Search Marketing seem to have done away with their usual 10p min CPC in favour of a new min CPC of 5p. Google already have a min cpc of 1p, however, this also isn't across all keyphrases, and while...
Friday, 15 December 2006
Explanation of Googles handling of the click fraud case against Michael Anthony Bradley
Shuman Ghosemajumder, Google Program Manager explains Googles handling of the click fraud & extortion case against Michael Anthony Bradley. "Teddie, regarding the Michael Anthony Bradley case, I’m not an attorney, but I can offer this high level explanation which was...
Wednesday, 13 December 2006
Google Top of our Xmas Pressie List
I think Google is def in the running for best Christmas gift this year. MSN's gift arrived last week, which was much appreciated, but looked very similar to what Google sent out last year. But when Google's gift of a...
Click fraud at Google with Shuman Ghosemajumder
Shuman Ghosemajumder talks about click fraud at Google and the difference between invalid and fraudulent clicks. "...third-party estimates which say that click fraud is 15% or higher appear to clearly be substantial exaggerations."
Wednesday, 06 December 2006
Google drops click fraud case against Michael Anthony Bradley
BusinessWeek has a great article about how Google has quietly dropped the case against Michael Anthony Bradley who was arrested in 2004 for 'click fraud' and attempted extortion against Google, and could have faced a 20 year penalty in prison....
Thursday, 16 November 2006
Google Agency Event - Dublin
A big thanks to the Google guys last week for being most hospitable in Dublin. Heading out the day before the event I got to meet up with our account contact for a Guinness and discuss new developments within the...
Friday, 29 September 2006
MSN AdCenter - First Full Month
September will have been the first full month since the launch of MSN’s UK AdCenter. A Frustrating start but nonetheless campaigns are active & collective bid prices have so far remained at a relatively minimal level. We will be paying...
Friday, 01 September 2006
Googles domain query handling change, will it boost PPC revenues?
Google has updated its handling of domain based queries which sounds like an SEO issue, but this post is filed under Pay Per Click, read on and find out why. A high proportion (you'd be shocked) of internet users don't...
Thursday, 17 August 2006
MSN AdCenter UK Launch
AdCenter Launched in the UK on Tuesday Blood sweat and tears to get the campaigns loaded into a system that isn't very useful for agencies. Two days later...Brrng brrng "Do you know we launched MSN AdCenter?" Grhhhhh... "I know we've...
Monday, 14 August 2006
Yahoo! Search Marketing put the Americans First
Yahoo! Search Marketing in the USA have announced that the new, long awaited Sponsored Search system will be available in America come the Fall, While here in the UK it looks like we're going to be made to wait until...
Tuesday, 08 August 2006
Google Clickfraud is it so bad?
Googles Click Quality Team have just published a report "How Fictitious Clicks Occur in Third-Party Click Fraud Audit Reports" which I shall be digesting this evening and from first review am likely to agree with quite a lot of. One...
Thursday, 22 June 2006
Ridiculous keyphrases
Barry has a funny thread on keyphrases ebay bid on, as the fact they just dump thousands of keyphrases into their accounts and autofill the ad copy can lead to some very interesting combinations. Personally not my style of PPC...
Tuesday, 23 May 2006
Google: Click-to-Play Video
Google has now announced the release of click-to-play video across their content network. Running in the same model as their pay-per-click system, ads are based on a CPC & CPM bidding basis. From a web user perspective, the idea is...
Monday, 22 May 2006
Google Click Settlement?
If some of you are wondering if the email you received from clicksettlement regarding the class action suit against Google is a hoax or not (seen as though it wasn't sent by Google), let us put your minds at rest...
Wednesday, 03 May 2006
MSN Ad-Center - UK Launch Imminent
It looks like we are getting ever closer to the launch of MSN managed PPC ads in the UK. Reports are coming in that it could be as soon as next month that this becomes available! Have chased MSN for...
Wednesday, 05 April 2006
Spyware and Clickfraud
Brilliant analysis of the automated clickfraud issue created by spyware vendors, in particular their relationship as part of Yahoo!'s partner network. A few recurring offenders on this list I know we had pulled from our Pay Per Click campaigns distribution...
Tuesday, 14 March 2006
More Google Qualified Companies in the UK than the USA
We have just done a big update to the WhoisaGAP website which we use to monitor the qualification levels of Pay Per Click teams across the industry, this included adding in proper country classifications - its not entirely altruistic, we...
Thursday, 09 March 2006
Demographic targeting in Google Adwords
At the e-consultancy paid search round table all the agencies were getting excited about the ability to use demographic targeting in MSN Adcenter, so obviously Google have realised this is a hot topic and in the United States at least...
Google to drop '60 day prior' click fraud limit
Wow. Google to drop '60 day prior' click fraud limit as part of their settlement in the Lane’s Gifts v. Google clickfraud case. This is quite a significant change, theoretically advertisers that have never done a proper clickfraud audit and...
Wednesday, 08 March 2006
Adsense format tests
More and more I am seeing these single ad Adsense banners around and it looks like Google is running tests to improve the performance of them. Today I have just spotted three variations of the Leaderboard (728 x 90) ....
Google - Quality Scoring?
Yet again Googles !=logic continues to baffle me. I know i'm covering old ground but their Quality Scoring is so annoying. Why shouldn't we be able to activate a keyphrase, which nobody else is bidding on without having to pay...
Wednesday, 01 March 2006
Paid search, television and lifestyle changes
I was at the e-consultancy pay per click round table the other day, shout out to Ashley for pulling together a smart bunch of people from our peers, Google and some big brands (Google, Euroffice, Debenhams, Post Office, Signet, Alliance...
Longtail Search vs Partner distribution
Why do certain campaigns underperform on particular search engines, one big factor is the type of distribution they have. Pay Per Click networks that have a mainly affiliate or partner site distribution rather than direct search traffic, will not be...
Monday, 27 February 2006
Overture becomes Yahoo! Search Marketing
After months of waiting, today Overture in the UK has finally become Yahoo! Search Marketing. As members of the exclusive Overture Accreditation scheme we are still waiting to see how they update the Ambassador programme for the UK market.
Tuesday, 31 January 2006
MSN to get Sponsored Links from Kanoodle
In the States, Kanoodle has just signed an agreement with MSN to provide them with sponsored links. Click on the below URL for the full story: http://www.kanoodle.com/about/press_releases/01-30-06.cool
Monday, 30 January 2006
Overture Changes to Yahoo! Search Marketing
It has now been confirmed. Throughout Europe, Overture as we know it will rebrand on 27th Feb to Yahoo! Search Marketing (not just in France as reported last week).
Friday, 27 January 2006
Au Revoir Overture France, Bonjour Yahoo! Search Marketing
Overture France are finally going to rebrand to Yahoo! Search Marketing on 27th February 2006. Advertisers won't really notice any real changes it's just parent company, Yahoo! taking another step towards bringing the Overture brand under it's umbrella.
Thursday, 26 January 2006
Google Make Managing Campaigns Easy!
At last it looks like Google is going to make it easier for users to manage / edit / update their PPC campaigns. Google are offering a free, downloadable account management application enabling users to quickly: - edit keywords -...
Monday, 23 January 2006
Yahoo! PPC 70 character Ad Length - Tests
It seems that Yahoo! / Overture have changed their mind and are testing the shorter sponsored search descriptions in the UK - not just France as previously reported. On 8th Feb, about 10% of listings displayed on Yahoo will be...
Tuesday, 17 January 2006
Yahoo's 70 Character Ads
At the moment, some sites displaying Yahoo ads show 70 characters, while others show the full 190 characters, but recently there has been lots of discussion regarding the 70 character limit for ads being made compulsory across the board. There...
Sunday, 15 January 2006
Pay Per Click ads integrated into the local search maps on Google
Hooray, finally some integration between pay per click ads and the local search interface on Google. At the packed NMK event on local search last year 'New Directions In Search (NMK) 08/09/2005 ' I did a walk through of what...
Friday, 13 January 2006
Search vs Contextual PPC value proposition
We have long known there is a massive difference in the way internet users respond to paid search ads vs contextual ads, and the pressure from agencies about this was hopefully what inspired Google to split their bidding systems late...
Wednesday, 30 November 2005
Finally Bidding for Content
Well, some good news, Google have finally released content bidding within adwords, we've been asking for it for years - a hot topic 2 years ago at SES. You can now specify bid amounts for content ad placment at 'ad...
Thursday, 10 November 2005
Who is a Google Approved Professional - whoisaGAP
New website whoisaGAP provides a reference point for finding and verifying Google Approved Professionals. ...wouldn't it be worth knowing just who is a Google Approved Professional (GAP) ? We thought so to, but surprisingly finding out who is GAP qualified...
Monday, 07 November 2005
MIVA Updates its Management Centre - Finally.....
After what seems like years of 'discussions' re MIVA's client management centre, it seems they have finally listened and this week we see the launch of a new set of campaign management tools: "Today MIVA is proud to announce it...
Friday, 04 November 2005
Google Third Party Programme ETP - details released
Pretty much the entire UK and European search engine marketing community has been on tenterhooks about this, rumour was we were all meant to receive the final draft yesterday, and then we heard it might be by post this morning....
Friday, 28 October 2005
New Adwords Tool
Adwords has a new enhanced keyword tool: Similar to previous tools you have the standard option to enter keywords and generate further related keywords (with some poor degrees of relevancy) But it can also take into account adgroup history and...
Friday, 21 October 2005
Adwords Reporting - unable to input a date range
Adwords user friendly? We all know it has its ups and downs but lately (the past month) we have been experiencing an annoying reporting glitch. When trying to create any standard or custom report you are unable to input a...
Monday, 03 October 2005
MSN adCentre France
MSN’s new pay per click system adCentre has launched in France. The system features some very cool new tools including audience targeting and object based approach to ad reusability. Advertisers I’ve spoken to say they were impressed by how good...
Thursday, 25 August 2005
DTC Delays in Overture (Yahoo Search Marketing)
The recent batch of weekly DTC (Direct Traffic Centre) updates seem to be causing more problems than benefits for the user. Over the past few weeks Overture have been making system updates to their DTC over the weekends - with...
Wednesday, 17 August 2005
A Two State System
Google has implemented its new Adwords status settings - the quality score is now upon us! , for more info see: "New Status for Adwords"
Wednesday, 03 August 2005
Gooooooogle to increase ad copy.............
Google are planning to increase their ad copy length up to 200 characters. Basically, titles and display urls will remain the same, but advertisers will now have the capacity to write a description which is 200 characters long. Ads that...
Tuesday, 02 August 2005
Ask Jeeves: Pay Per Click
Out with Premier listings & in with PPC Ask Jeeves have announced that sponsored listings have replaced their premier listings product. Open-auction, the pay per click system is currently only available on Askjeeves.com for US search. The relationship between Ask...
Monday, 01 August 2005
Googles Golden Triangle
A new in depth study by Canadian SEM Enquiro and DID-IT provides great incite into the way users actually interact with the results page in terms of scanning and deciding which links they want to click on. Ad positioning on...
Wednesday, 20 July 2005
New Status for AdWords
Quality score? Quality-based minimum bids? Adwords is changing, doing away with all keyword states & leaving us with a quality score. What will this mean for advertisers….well, hopefully making life simpler. There will no longer be any “normal” “on hold”,...
Thursday, 07 July 2005
London bombing, MIVA offer sanctuary
Just got the news of the horrendous bombings in London today. Checking everyone in London we know is OK we discovered MIVA's office, which is located close to one of the tube lines was temporarily converted into a shelter for...
Tuesday, 14 June 2005
New Google Adsense formats
Google has released a new set of single line Adsense formats, that look like they are designed to fit into a menu bar. New! (468x15) Displays up to 5 links New! (468x15_4) Displays up to 4 links New! (728x15) Displays...
Monday, 16 May 2005
Google Adwords Bulk Upload Function
At last, Google Adwords changes can be made en-mass. Theoretically you are able to log into your Adwords account, although not through your MCC (My Client Centre), download your campaign, make changes and then action a ‘bulk’ upload. This is...
Thursday, 05 May 2005
Pay Per Call to hit the UK
With no official UK launch to date, speculation is rife regarding Pay Per Call. Although launched 6 months ago in the US by FindWhat, none of the other major US search engines have followed suit. Could this be an early...
Tuesday, 26 April 2005
Full Speed Ahead at Espotting!
Espotting’s recent move of premises has brought with it an upgrade in speed for their online account area. Navigating my way through to create a report this week I was impressed at the speed at which I got there, after...
Thursday, 21 April 2005
New AdWords layouts on Google SERP. Profit the motive?
Spotted any changes to the Google SERP lately, that'll be Google testing out the prospect of displaying three top line ads across the results page instead of two. When you look at the results page you'll see that on some...
Monday, 18 April 2005
Overture Rebrands as Yahoo! Search Marketing - or does it?
Today we can see that Overture has 'officially' become Yahoo! Search Marketing. At least that's the impression given when logging into the DTC. However, it seems the DTC is split! If your DTC encompasses both US & UK campaigns, all...
Wednesday, 13 April 2005
Overture DTC Problems
If you’re an agency with multiple accounts in the Overture Direct Traffic Centre (DTC), make sure your double checking your Account Summary Status. At the moment it is quite sporadic about updating information, ie; it doesn’t appear to be updating...
