First things first, let’s define what a parked domain is and how it’s relevant to PPC.  A parked domain is defined as a site that is undeveloped and belongs to a domain name registrar or a domain name holder.  Google’s Adsense program places targeted AdWords ads on parked domains that are part of the Google Network.  So, whether you’re running the content network or just search, you’re ads could appear on a parked domain site.

Apparently parked domains used to be considered a blank page that if a user ended up on they would have to retry their search. However, now parked domains that run Adsense could offer ads that can be relevant to a user’s search query.

To answer our initial question, yes, parked domains can drag down your click-through rate if you’re running ads in Adwords. However, there is good news. You can view the performance of your parked domain ads by going to the tools section in Adwords, and clicking on ‘site and category exclusion’.

Once you click on a particular campaign, click on ‘page types’. Now you can view exactly how many impressions, clicks, click-through rate, cost, average cost-per-click, conversions, conversion rate and cost per conversion data over a period of time. Now if you see that your parked domains sites are dragging down your click-through rate, you can then select the box next to the name, ‘parked domains’ to exclude it and save your changes. At that point your campaign will no longer show ads on parked domain sites.

The site and category exclusion also allows you to view performance stats on error pages and other categories your ads may appear on. This is a great tool/feature to check periodically in your account to make sure you’re not throwing your money down the drain on parked domains, error pages and other categories.

First, why would you specifically target RSS (really simple syndication) feeds for blogs? RSS feed placements allow you to connect with a tech savvy audience through AdWords’ ever expanding network of publishers like Blogspot, Digg, Reuters, and more. These users are very web-friendly and their online activity may be more extensive than your casual browser.

How do you find these RSS feeds within your AdWords account? First step, access the Placement Tool within your chosen ad group. Choose the topic that is best associated with your service/product. Here is a quick screen shot of the tool:

Once you have sorted through the categories you will find a series of websites where you can target your advertisements. The first batch of results will be the usual site placements. However, if you scroll down further you will find, “Feed Placements.” These are the RSS feeds that are available for targeting. Here is a screen shot:

As you can see, there are a series of blog RSS feeds that are available. However, there are other new placement targeting options that Google AdWords did not mention in their announcement.

Looking for greater reach with your mobile PPC efforts? You can specifically target mobile sites with your PPC ads:

And you can specifically target sites that highlight video content as well. Sites such as these may be available for your placement targeting:

The inventory for these categories isn’t extensive just yet, but as you can see, the Google network keeps expanding. Some of these new distribution avenues may not be right for your client/product/service. But if you’re looking for additional sources of traffic, and possible conversions and revenue, it’s worth researching and testing!

Thanksgiving is only 2 weeks away!  Black Friday and Cyber Monday are looming, if you want to capitalize on holiday revenue, now is the time to ramp up your website and in-store promotions to drive sales and capitalize on extra holiday revenue. As part of our holiday shopping blog series, today we’ll discuss some tips on how to bring together your online and offline seasonal promotions.

With so much talk about the current state of our economy, now is the time of year when shoppers online start bargain hunting!   Let’s face it, there are those people who love to get out in the hustle and bustle of the Christmas shopping season, waiting at that retail store and fighting their way to the “deal of the day.”  Then, there are those of us who like to sit back in our jammies and shop from home.   One thing is for sure, regardless of how we shop during the holidays, we’re all looking for a great deal.

What can you do to entice more people to shop your online or brick & mortar store?  Sales, coupons and Promo Codes!  Take it from this seasoned online shopper, I do almost all of my holiday shopping online and I’m always hunting for a sale, coupon code or discount.

Make it easy for the novice and seasoned online shopper, put coupons on your website that can be redeemed with an online order or printed out and taken in-store for purchases there.

Or go one step further and publish your coupon and promo codes on popular sites like, couponCode.com, CouponMom.com or CouponCabin.com.  These sites compile searchable lists of retailer discount offers, promo codes and sales.  By adding your promotional offer to one or more of these sites, you can reach out to audiences who may have never shopped with you before or to consumers who have shopped your site and are looking for information about discounts or sales you’re offering.

A great way to increase sales is to offer a tiered discount based on the total of the sale.  Example, “Save $25.00 on a $75.00+ purchase, save $50.00 on the purchase of $150.00+ and save $75.00 on the purchase of $250.00 or more.”  Encourage your shopper to go for the biggest discount by spending more in your store!

There’s always the ever popular “free shipping” offer.  This can attract new customers or invite customers back who haven’t purchased from your store in several months to come online and buy something without the expense of shipping charges.  The LA Times recently reported that 80% of consumers surveyed said they were more likely to shop online with a retailer that offers free shipping.  That number is up from 60% surveyed last year!  Don’t under estimate the power of free shipping!

Another way to increase sales is to reach out to your repeat customers.  Send a promotional email or postcard to your most loyal customers; offer them a percentage off their next order.  Make your existing customers feel special and they will reward you with additional purchases.  Go the extra step to encourage another purchase before the season is over and offer a discount code in the emails you send to confirm an order or hand out coupons at your cash registers that can be used either online or in-store.

Are you thinking about launching your promotions effective the day after Thanksgiving?  Why wait?  Shop.org’s 2008 Holiday Strategy and Planning Guide suggests offering a “Thanksgiving Day Only Sale”.  “With the 24/7 nature of eCommerce, Thanksgiving Day itself can be a bona fide shopping day for online retailers” the guide says.

Shoppers will be online throughout the holiday season, be sure to keep your promotions fresh and appealing through the holidays.  Customers will be purchasing gifts now through Christmas Eve, and they are surely looking for bargains, so intrigue them and capture their attention with promotions they can use online or bring to your store to redeem.

Happy Shopping!

• Sometimes trying to target the long tail can be difficult. Scott Brinker over at Ion Interactive has some useful tips to consider when developing your long tail marketing strategy. Central to this strategy is implementing landing pages that will be relevant to your customers.

• Google Site Search is nothing brand spankin’ new or exciting, but now within site search is the ability to click an “Index Now” button to have Google index your site within hours. Andy Beal with Marketing Pilgrim has the scoop.

• QA’s with Google people are always helpful. Here are the meat and potatoes from one such QA session, provided by Web Pro News.

• Over on Search Engine Land they have a great post on 8 don’ts and 7 do’s for Holiday eCommerce. Some of these tips include don’t blindly test, don’t make major site changes and don’t forget your gift finder or recommended gift buying section. Be sure to supplement this with our own holiday blog series!

• We have written previously on Google Ad Planner and recently Google announced that they have added new features and that the application has a wider availability. Now, you can define your audience by keywords and geography, manage your site results and analyze your media plan all within Ad Planner. This is a helpful tool and you should give it a try.

• This post from Fuel Interactive is a great resource for individuals who are new to PPC. Brian exposes 5 super dumb mistakes that are commonly made in AdWords. Keep in mind, these mistakes can also be made in any PPC campaign!

• Alan Rimm-Kaufman ruminates on the “prisoner’s dilemma” in holiday promotions for 2008.  With so many retailers cutting prices to gain an edge during the holiday shopping season, you are forced to do the same.  But is it the right decision?  “Promotions are where many retailers are heading.  It is going to be an extremely rough-and-tumble Q4 in retail this season.”

• Is AdWords Quality Score Like SEO?  That’s what Andrew Goodman is asking this week.  Optimizing landing pages for SEO and PPC still require separate strategies, despite what some people are saying.  I would agree with Andrew that “AdWords=SEO” certainly misses the mark.

On Tuesday, we discovered a post on Search Engine Watch entitled, “Google AdWords Quality Score — That’s Old-School for SEO” by Mark Jackson. Naturally, this article caught our collective eye. The article discusses a new Google AdWords Quality Score algorithm that concerns the landing page Quality Score. The sentence that really caught our attention was this:

“Google is asking that you have a targeted page for every keyword that you would like to advertise against. They’re saying that if the keywords aren’t in the title tag, content, and if the page isn’t specific to the keywords that you would like to advertise against, there’s a good chance that the page won’t show up in the top Google AdWords listings, even if you’re willing to pay or bid the highest amount for a listing there.”

We keep pretty close tabs on Google AdWords Quality Score updates and we had not heard of this new initiative by Google. We thought that if this is truly a new Quality Score algorithm, then we have a lot of work to do with our clients! So, I thought I would do some investigative work to uncover the details of this new landing page initiative. I went straight to the source: our Google AdWords Representative, and our Google AdWords Quality Score Representative.

According to my Google Representatives there has been no recent updates to the landing page Quality Score ranking system. Basically, there are still three elements of your landing page that determine your landing page Quality Score:

Keyword Relevancy: Google scans your URL to make sure that your landing page is relevant to the search query and ad text. The post from SEW takes keyword relevancy to the extreme by dedicating every single keyword in its own unique landing page. Keep in mind that you need to have your account structured so that your keywords are tightly themed. These keywords should send users to a highly relevant landing page. But you don’t need to create thousands of dynamically generated landing pages to achieve relevancy.

Landing Page Load Time: Google wants to make sure that they provide the best user experience possible. If a user clicks on an ad and the landing page takes an excessive time to load, then that is a poor experience. Basically, make sure that your landing pages are clean and clutter free so that they load as quickly as possible.

Content Relevancy/User Experience: This is the element of the landing page Quality Score that is murky, even to us! Google also takes into account if your landing page provided the information/product/service that the user was searching for. I tried to drill down to find exactly how Google gauges this somewhat subjective aspect of a landing page but my Google Representatives said there are “triggers that indicate relevancy” but they wouldn’t go any further. My insight? I think they mean optimize your landing page toward conversion generation.

If you are still unclear as to if your landing page has any issues, you can just check your AdWords account! Within the AdWords keyword analysis tool, you can find this information:

We agree with the SEW article that relevancy is the key to success. However, the Google AdWords Landing Page Quality Score has not undergone a major overhaul that requires advertisers to create individual landing pages for every single keyword.

Regardless of what is happening with the economy on a macro level, people are still going buy gifts this holiday season. There may be fewer dollars spent this year than in previous years, but there are still thousands of purchases waiting to be made. Now, your challenge as an SEM manager is to acquire as many of those precious sales as possible. With competition getting tighter, you need to utilize every facet of your website to enhance the user experience and build trust with your audience. Even seemingly mundane information like shipping details/information can be used as a weapon to boost your sales this holiday season.

As part of our holiday shopping blog series, I will be discussing how to use shipping information to boost your holiday sales!

One of the common roadblocks that keeps users from purchasing online is shipping. Everyone who purchases a gift online wants it to arrive safely, and more importantly, on time before the holidays. Using price points, sales and discounts, and a wide selection of products, are all great tools to peak your user’s interest. But once you have their attention you need to allay any fears/concerns about shipping.

If you have done everything right by enticing the user with the right products at the right price, don’t let the last step of the buying process be your downfall. Here are some tips to utilize your shipping information as a sales tool:

Clearly display your holiday shipping schedule. Yes, this is basic, but this is what users want to know. Since the user is already thinking about arrival time for their order (”Will get here in time?”), why not go ahead, be pro-active, and address their concerns. You can list this information on the front of your site, as well as on every product page. Clearly state, “If you place your order today, your package will arrive between these dates…”

Clearly display shipping deadlines. You can display your holiday shipping schedule, but you should also add on deadlines for purchases in order for those packages to arrive on time before the holidays. Doing this sets the proper expectation of when an order needs to be placed. And this can also give the user a sense of urgency. If they like your product, they will make an effort to meet this deadline.

Clearly display shipping costs. If you can offer free shipping during the holidays as well as a time line for delivery, that is a winning combo. However, if you can’t offer free shipping, you should set the proper expectation of how much shipping will cost before the user gets to the check out page. Since we are trying to create a sense of trust, the goal here is make sure there are no surprises when a purchase is being made.

The overarching goal of these tactics is to minimize risk for your users. When they arrive at your site you instantly want them to know that they are in the right place, that you have the right products at the right price, and that you will get their package to them on time as promised.

Remember, make sure that you use every element of your website to aide in the sales process. Nothing is mundane when it comes to convincing a user to make a purchase during the holidays (or any time of year for that matter!).

About the Jobs

Don’t be lured by the bright lights of the big city! Come work for an award-winning and fast-growing tech company, in Bloomington, Indiana.? Hang out with people who understand Twitter, work with some of the best brands in Indiana, and spend your days where your talents are appreciated.

Hanapin Marketing is looking for two team members, a Senior and Junior Search Marketing Consultant to work with clients for both search engine optimization and pay per click advertising.? Direct experience is required for SSMC and related experience is required for JSMC.? If you can answer yes to the following questions, you may be a good fit for our team!

1. Is your love for all things Internet exceeded only by your desire to tell others about them?
2. Are you a huge fan of Lost and can’t wait to figure out what actually happened to that island?
3. Do you wonder about the people who don’t see the value of blogging?
4. Do you love challenges, learning, growing on a daily basis?

To join the Hanapin Team - and the PPC Hero Team - you can check out our job listing on Monster.com! Within our Monster listing you’ll find many details about about these jobs and Hanapin Marketing!

While consumers will still be buying Christmas presents this year as normal, they will be a little more picky about what they’re buying, how much they’re paying, and where they’re buying.

So far this week we’ve learned about earning extra revenue by advertising via shopping search engines, and how to maximize your ROI by shopping cycle bidding strategies.  As day three in our holiday series, I’m going to go over how to generate even more seasonal sales by using a gift finder landing page and keywords.

When it comes to buying Christmas presents consumers need ideas. They need to find items that are in their price range, and they need to find these items quickly.

For an e-commerce site, the best thing to do on your site during the holidays is design a gift finder landing page.  A gift finder landing page will immediately allow customers to find gifts by gender, by price and by category.  This is a smart way to guide people along the way by giving them choices that they can easily select from and begin shopping.  When it comes to converting traffic to your site, one universal marketing truth holds true: you need to flat out tell consumers what to do and where to go on your site. Don’t leave it up to them to navigate their way around.  A gift finder landing page is the key to this strategy.

Without going overboard by making too many options, create your gift finder landing page first by gender.

• Male
• Female
• Little Girls
• Little Boys
• Teen Boy
• Teen Girl

Whatever best describes your product is what you should list.  Then you can allow consumers to narrow down their search by price.

• Gifts under $25
• Gifts under $50
• Gifts under $100

At this point, depending on your product or service, you can add specific categories to your page.

• For the Home
• For the Office
• For the Kitchen
• For the Chef
• For the traveler

Now that you have these categories on your gift finder landing page, you can add keywords into your PPC campaign that will to take users to the individual categories.  I have keywords in my account during the holidays for “gifts under $25,” “gifts under $50″, “gifts for her”, “gifts for him”, etc. and these worked really well for me last year. I’m expecting them to work the same this year.  Then in your PPC ad text you can literally have your headline be the same as your keywords, “Shop Gifts for Her”.

Gift finder landing pages are a smart strategy because they direct people to the most relevant products on your site.  They allow people to pick and choose specific areas they need whether its gender based, price based, or category based; it’s all right there an organized neatly which makes shopping easy and quick.

We have been long-time readers of Website Magazine and recently, we’ve been asked to contribute to this very fine publication! Our most recent article, Developing the Right PPC Bidding Strategy, was published in the November edition, and you can also find the article online at their website. Also, don’t forget to sign up for a subscription to the print edition… it’s free!

Recently, PPC Hero was also a guest speaker on PPC Rockstars, hosted by Dave Szetela of Clix Marketing. This is one of the premiere pay-per-click Podcasts and we were honored to have a team member (John!) on  the show. You can check out the entire podcast here!

Also, PPC Hero made the Winning the Web’s IM Top Blogs List! Winning the Web’s IM Top Blog list is the ultimate ranked list of the best Internet marketing blogs in the industry. Yeah! We just want to say it’s an honor to be on the list and we won’t let you down!

We’ll keep workin’ hard here at PPC Hero to bring you the best & latest in PPC management, strategy, and industry information!

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Chrismahanakwanza! Whichever holiday you celebrate, one thing is for certain – the end of November marks the beginning of the official holiday shopping season. As part of our week-long holiday shopping expose, today I’d like to share with you tips on laser-targeting potential customers with your bidding strategy! Whether you are assessing keywords and the buying cycle, or diving head-first into demographic targeting, there are plenty of ways to find customers who are past researching and are ready to buy right now.

Bid for the Buying Cycle

Understanding the buying cycle is an important part of any form of advertising. Your messaging changes with each passing phase, from research to shopping to the actual point of purchase. If the messaging changes, why shouldn’t your bidding strategy?

The basic gist is this – generally speaking the buying cycle follows the chain of keywords from the head through to the long tail. Customers who are researching will use general, non-branded keywords when searching (i.e. laptop computer). Those who are shopping may step it up and start using a particular brand (i.e. Apple laptop computer). And finally, when the customer is ready to BUY RIGHT NOW, they’ll start using brand names and product specific keywords (i.e. Apple MacBook Air Laptop). Your bidding strategy for the holidays should in essence follow this buying cycle. Your highest priority, and bids, should be on those keywords at the end of the buying cycle!

Know Thy Customer

Everyone talks about the phrase, “Know Thy Self.” That’s great and all, but when you’re trying to get people through your door on Black Friday, or through your online shopping cart on Cyber Monday, “Know Thy Customer” seems so much more important. Hopefully, you’ve already given this some thought. Who is the intended audience for your product or service? Men or women? Baby-boomers or teeny-boppers? Knowing who you’re targeting is half the advertising battle!

Now that you know who you’re targeting, it’s time to pull the PPC levers to make the magic happen. Both Google AdWords and MSN adCenter have tools for targeting searchers via demographic data. There are subtle differences between the two, which I will cover here briefly:

MSN adCenter

• Microsoft utilizes demographic data as reported by Windows Live IDs and applies to traffic on Live.com, MSN.com and other search partners.
• At the ad group level, you are given the opportunity to set incremental bids (percentage of current bid) which will increase your bid based on age and gender (or geographic/time variables too).

Google AdWords

• Google’s demographic bidding option is a component of the Content Network.
• Demographic data is reported via Ad Sense publishers (i.e. social media account info, etc.).
• The demographic bids are a percentage above the current Content bid for each campaign.

Use these tools to really zero-in on your best customers – the ones that are the most likely to convert into sales. Be that in-store or on your website!

Hopefully, these tips will help you to better target your customers this holiday season – and in turn, increase revenue. Your bidding strategy should always be focused on delivering ads to potential customers who are ready to buy, but seasonality dictates that you stand up and take notice this month. Good luck!