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WTH??? Is Yahoo! so hard up for money that they’ve done away with human beings to man their customer service phone lines? I can tell you what will happen with this process. I will contact them via the ‘Customer Support’ link. I’ll receive a reply tomorrow or maybe even Friday with follow up questions. By Monday I may have my issue resolved. If I could freakin’ talk to someone, I know I could have this resolved TODAY. And trust me, I want this resolved today.

At this point I’m really hoping the Yahoo!/Microsoft deal goes through. At least when I call adCenter, I can talk to someone right then and there.  Only one word can describe my rage right now: FAIL!

Photo courtesy of Fireflythegreat at Flickr.

General Search Engines

• Google AdWords
• Yahoo! Search Marketing
• Bing / Microsoft adCenter
• Ask.com

PPC Ad Networks

• 7Search
• LookSmart
• ABC Search
• Marchex Adhere
• SearchFeed
• Miva
• Kanoodle
• EPilot
• AdBrite

B2B PPC

• Business.com

Local PPC

• Local Pages
• Yellow Pages

Job Search PPC (traditional PPC and feed-based CPC job listings)

• Indeed
• SimplyHired
• Top USA Jobs
• Jobs Online

Shopping (feed-based CPC product listings)

• PriceGrabber
• Bizrate / Shopzilla
• Yahoo! Shopping
• NexTag

PPC Grab Bag of Niche Verticals

• ThomasNet
• PetLinks
• Chem Industry

…And there are hundreds more. Like I said, this is just a starter list! If you don’t see a PPC service that caters to your industry, don’t fret. I have a suggestion. Head on over to Google and enter a search query like “advertise my-industry-goes-here” or “my-industry-goes-here PPC” – you’ll be amazed at what you’ll find!

Photo courtesy of Danard Vincente at Flickr.

Is there a PPC search engine or network that you feel belongs on this list? Leave a comment and let me know!

3. Potentially Lower CPC and Increase ROI

Of all the benefits to expanding your PPC advertising beyond Google AdWords (and even Yahoo! and Bing), the one that stands to make you smile this most is this: Google naturally has a tremendous amount of advertiser competition which has increased bid prices and ultimately the cost-per-click (CPC) achieved. CPC increases and in some cases, ROI decreases.  BUT… Yahoo!, Bing (via adCenter) and especially niche search engines have the potential to provide relevant traffic at a much lower CPC.

Cheaper traffic translates into decrease cost-per-conversion and increased ROI (assuming a constant conversion rate, but that’s a conversation for another day!).  When you combine a reduced CPC with the use of a highly specialized vertical PPC search engine, it’s a match made in heaven.  Todd Mintz discussed this very same thought process in an article titled “PPC Is Rocket Science“:

Clearly, AdWords is the largest, most important PPC advertising network, but folks sometimes get so fixated on AdWords that they fail to consider using Yahoo & Bing, making those networks relative bargains for advertisers. In almost every campaign in many different verticals that I’ve worked with, the Cost Per Conversion for Yahoo is less than it is for AdWords.

4. Prepare for Potential Shifts in Search Market Share

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve likely heard of the new deal between Yahoo! and Microsoft. In short, it’s a 10-year deal that will combine the 2 companies’ search technology (well, dissolve most of Yahoo!’s) to compete with Google.  This isn’t new, per say. Microsoft tried to buy Yahoo! outright in 2008. Google and Yahoo! drafted an agreement later in ‘08 to share AdWords ads on the Yahoo! search engine.  Neither of these deals went through, but you get the picture.

What I’m driving at here is that while Google is the undisputed #1 in search and PPC, this may not be the picture in the near future.  Microsoft’s re-branded and well advertised Bing engine is actually gaining in market share.  That is big news! If you are only advertising on Google AdWords, you could be losing clicks and conversions to Bing.  Whereas if you were devoting time and money to targeting customers across Google, Yahoo! and Bing – you would be prepared to react to that type of change by shifting budgets and management time between campaigns.

***

Thus endeth part 2. The whole point of this blog posting marathon is to broaden your PPC horizons. It is important to your advertising success to know that there are opportunities, big-potential opportunities, lying beyond Google AdWords! There’s one more day left in this PPC diversification series. Check back in tomorrow when I’ll be posting a mega-list of PPC search engines sorted by category/vertical.

Photo courtesy of Tommy Ellis via Flickr.

Have a question or think I’m full of it? Leave me a comment and let me know!

1.  Different People Use Different Search Engines

Different strokes for different folks, as some might say. This is officially the obvious statement of the day. But it’s true! Not everyone uses Google. And dare I say it, the entire US population (and especially international searchers) aren’t 100% accounted for between Google, Yahoo! and Bing/MSN either.  Yes, Google has dominant market share.  But when you’re talking about millions of monthly searches, there are plenty – I repeat – plenty of opportunities for finding PPC success with other PPC search engines.

Aside from the obvious, there is a fundamental driving force behind the idea of diversification in PPC: user intent.  When the user types in their search query, what are they really looking for? Do customers come to Google to find products/services like yours? Or does their intent take them someplace else due to niche specialization?

An easy example of this is for ecommerce advertisers. Sure, there are a tremendous amount of product based searches, and yes, people buy products when they search on Google, Yahoo! and Bing. But you know what? There are also a tremendous amount of sales happening on shopping search engines like Yahoo! Shopping (separate from primary site), PriceGrabber and Shopzilla – to name but a few.  Those sites have a special focus, they cater to a niche. Because of that simple fact, there will be potentially less advertiser competition and the individuals who search on those sites are already in the mode of buying (user intent, remember?). You can apply this to any niche/vertical you like from B2B, job search to finance, etc..

2. Remain Competitive in Your Market

I think I can best explain this point through story telling.  Imagine Advertiser A, a purveyor of fine women’s shoes. He has been advertising on Google AdWords for a few years and knows that he’s getting a great ROI. However, something is nagging at his sole (misspelled on purpose): his arch enemy, Advertiser B, always seems to be posting better profits and claims that it’s all from PPC.  Advertiser B has campaigns at the main PPC search engines Google, Yahoo! and Bing. And a few months back he also submitted product feeds of his stock of women’s shoes to Yahoo! Shopping, PriceGrabber and Shopzilla and began bidding. All of this remains a mystery to Advertiser A who is suffering from extreme AdWords-tunnel-vision.

The point of this silly story is that if you assume your competition is only as smart as you, there’s a damn good chance you’re in trouble.  Make it a point to know on which PPC search engines your competition is advertising and stand up and meet the challenge by advertising there yourself. Otherwise you might as well be giving them a free pass to Club Med. On the other hand, you yourself may be like Advertiser B. You already have diversified your PPC reach and are laughing cynically at the sad-excuse of a PPC campaign Advertiser A is putting up. Don’t let your holier-than-though attitude push you to laziness. New vertical search engines and advertising opportunities pop up all the time – so keep actively looking for other ways to reach your potential customers. Do that, and you may always stay one step ahead of poor-old Advertiser A.

***

Alright, 2 reasons down.  I know you’ve been waiting for it – the moral of the story is, “don’t put all of your eggs into one basket.” All joking aside, hopefully you’re starting to see the light as those proverbial PPC blinders begin sliding off your face. Duh – different people use different search engines, right? Actionable item: open a Yahoo! and Bing/adCenter account. Better yet, research your niche and find a relevant PPC search engine and give it a test run. And don’t let your competition get the upper hand. Keep an eye on their PPC activities and ensure that you remain competitive by diversifying your PPC reach!

Check back in tomorrow when I’ll discuss the next 2 reasons for diversifying your PPC: lower CPCs; higher ROI and be flexible for the changing search landscape. Of course, I’ll wrap all of this up on Thursday with a sweet list of niche/vertical search engines listed by category.

(photo courtesy of Librarian Avenger)

Have a question or think I’m full of it? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Keyword Research Tools

Find a way to incorporate keyword research (tools) into your PPC management routine.  Your first thought is likely, “But John, I already completed my keyword research 12 months ago when I launched my campaign.”  OK, yes, you completed a round of keyword research.  But that was a year ago!  Keyword research is not a one-time event.  Major tool players like Google, Keyword Discovery and Wordtracker are constantly updating their search volume data and more importantly, incorporating new search queries into their results.  This is especially true with the Google Keyword Tool whose data is derived directly from Google’s search query database.  Make the decision to scrub your keyword lists against a research tool’s updates and you’ll soon find that new keywords just keep popping up.

Keyword Expansion Tools

The human mind is capable of many things, including the ability to extrapolate variations of your targeted keywords.  Differences in capitalization, spelling and even similar or related terms all can be found with a simple brainstorming session.  The problem lies in the fact that this can be a tedious, time consuming process – one that exponentially grows with the size of your PPC campaign.  Because of the difficulty, some of you have likely avoided this tactic or perhaps haven’t fully thought it through.  Thankfully, there are tools available for keyword expansion.  Google AdWords and Microsoft adCenter both have expansion tools readily available for your use.  Many of the more sophisticated PPC software packages also include these tools (i.e. Wordstream, ClickEquations, etc.).  In short, kill 2 birds with one stone: improve efficiency and find new keywords with an expansion tool.

Competitive Research

For the sake of conversation, let’s say that you’ve incorporated routine keyword research and the use of expansion tools into your PPC strategy.  What now?  Is it OK to rest on your laurels?  No.  Hone your skills as a PPC guerilla and do some competitive research.  Check out Compete, QuantCast or SpyFu and review your top competitors’ keyword lists.  I’ve found on more than one occasion that this can push me and my keyword selections to new and exciting territory.  Think of it as inspiration, or a push in a different direction.  Get inspired and motivated by your competitors and head back to your keyword research and expansion tools to flesh out your list.  Rinse and repeat.

Flippin’ Brainstorm

Sounds obvious, right?  Well it should be.  Brainstorming should be a part of your PPC keyword selection process from the beginning (if it isn’t, better late than never I guess).  But just like using research and expansion tools routinely, so should you participate in the keyword brainstorming process.  Much like search engines, our own minds are constantly evolving – and a few weeks or months can provide new perspective on an old product, service or whatever.  Additionally, bring in different people to brainstorm with.  Especially if all of your keywords have been chosen by you and you alone!  Fresh eyes and opinions always have a way of showing us what we missed.  If you don’t have any co-workers to bug, drag in your significant other, friends or family to mull it over.  You and your keyword list will thank you.

I didn’t set out to reinvent the wheel with this post today, but it was my hope that I could snap a few of you out of your “my keyword list is perfect” stupor.  Remember that there is always potential for new keywords as the search engine landscape continues to evolve.  Use your keyword research and expansion tools.  Check on your competitors and last but not least – talk it out and brainstorm.  Yeah keywords!

(image courtesy of SearchEnginePeople.com)

PROS

• Search Query Reporting:  The addition of the Search Terms report directly from an ad group is fantastic.  The ability to choose one keyword or the entire ad group speeds up the process of finding negative keywords or new long tail variations to target – especially with the simple click/save functionality.
• Persistent Graphs: Nearly every tab employs a graph that can be customized for quick reporting.  Slicing and dicing PPC data is so important, and this just takes a bunch of work out of the equation (for us visual thinkers out there).
• Edit Budgets from Overview: The fact that you can now edit campaign budgets without leaving the campaign overview page is fantastic.  Instead of clicking through and finding the campaign settings (as in the old interface), now you can simply click the budget and type in the new dollar amount.

CONS

• Pokey, Pokey, Pokey: Comparitively speaking, I’ve found the new interface to be particularly slow.  The visual elements of each page (including the graphs I mentined as a positive…  yeah, I know – sue me) really drag down the speed at which you can navigate between campaigns, ad groups and tabs.  I’m an impatient cuss, so this really gets me.
• Tab Selection: This is slightly nit-picky, but when going from an ad group to a campaign or from a campaign to the overview – the fact that I remain on the same tab annoys me to no end.  What do I mean?  Ok, so I’m editing an ad text and from there I decide to go back and review other ad groups.  When I do so, I remain on the “Ads” tab.  This is useless to me.  I don’t want to review ad texts from a campaign level or worse yet, the account level.  The old interface defaulted to the account, campaign or ad group overview.  I miss that.
• Keywords Tab – Search vs. Content: In the old interface, at the very top of the list of keywords in an ad group, I was presented with a direct split of Search vs. Content performance for a particular ad group.  This was never a significant point for me until I started using the new interface.  Now when I review keywords, I have to scroll to the bottom of the ‘Keywords’ page to see the Search/Content split or switch to the ‘Networks’ breakdown tab.  This is really minor, but for whatever reason it has really bugged me – and I can’t seem to get over it.

The new AdWords interface is likely a big step forward.  Guess I’m just taking my time in getting used to it.  Nostalgia and muscle memory are winning out over flash and new-car smell.  For now AdWords doesn’t feel right to me.

Have you found that the new AdWords interface has met your expecations or do you, like me, miss the old UI?  Leave me a comment and let me know!

Under certain criteria, you can use trademark terms in your ad text in the U.S. even if you don’t own that trademark or have explicit approval from the trademark owner to use it.

This change comes as “…an effort to improve ad quality and user experience.” How does that work exactly? Well, the whole point of this update is to allow legitimate advertisers selling brand-name products to use trademarks without fear of retribution. In lieu of offering up a generic ad to searchers, these advertisers can just come right out and say what brands are being sold in their ad texts.

The official announcement was made on 05/14 – but Google will not begin displaying these new “trademark friendly” ads until June (06/15).  If you need a refresher on the official criteria for what is and isn’t allowed when using trademarks in ads, head on over to the AdWords help section!