“You can’t fear mistakes when you manage a PPC account.” Good advice from our seasoned PPC veteran, Jeff, as he lands the top spot for the Greatest Hits last month.  Jeff takes a stab at 4 PPC Mistakes that Kill Your Career by giving tips on how to be a creative account manager who goes above and beyond for their client.  Know how to fully examine your account for not only problems, but opportunities as well.  Jeff gives hints on how to speak to your clients to make the most out of your relationships as well as not just relying on your basic skills to help your accounts.

Google came out with some really cool things in 2011, one of them being Multi-Channel Funnels for analytics.  Of course, PPC Hero really digs this great tool and explains all in our Guide To Google’s Multi-Channel Funnels for PPC Managers.  Learn how Multi-Channel Funnels can help you decipher which marketing channels are assisting your PPC efforts as well as how PPC is assisting other marketing efforts.   Get the basics, how to run and utilize reports, as well as how you can set specific channel groupings.  The best part of our guide explains how you can improve your PPC performance by using MCF and move the needle for your clients. Don’t miss out on how to use this important marketing tool!

In December, PPC Hero delivered a great series on the different types of AdWords Ad Extensions.  I personally love site links and so I am thrilled to be in the number 3 spot with my post Ad Extensions In 5 Days! Site Links – Small But Mighty! Learn what they are, when to use them, how to use them and why they work.  Catch the rest of our series as well by visiting here!  Well, don’t just sit there – click away!

So that wraps it up for 2011’s Greatest Hits!  We are so thrilled that you have been with us all year… and there are more great things to come in 2012, so stay tuned!  Thanks as always for reading PPC Hero!

One of our newest resident PPC experts, Jeff, hits the top with his post, Google Bottom Ad Placements Eroding CTR.  Jeff explores how Google has added a new placement for paid search ads at the bottom of the SERPs and how it has affected click-through rate for our accounts.  Even though this just started recently, the changes are already drastic.  Find out Jeff’s theory on why Google might place your ad at the bottom and what the current trend is!

If you could ask Google Analytics 4 questions, what would they be?  Jeff knows and asks his post 4 Questions to Ask Your Google Analytics.  Sometimes Analytics can be a very scary tool because there is an overwhelming amount of data in there!  I liken it to the Great Oz in a way.  But we all know that the “man behind the curtain” was not so scary and in fact, very helpful!  So read Jeff’s post, log into your Analytics account and figure out the following:

Well, what are you waiting for!?

We have waited a long time for this one… and it’s finally here!  Yes, my friends, the adCenter User Interface has been UPDATED!  For PPC managers everywhere, this is as exciting as the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series to a die hard fan.  Dave is our Bing Guru here at Hanapin Marketing and was quick to post The Complete Guide to adCenter’s New & Improved User Interface.   There are now tabs to navigate to different levels of your account quicker as well as advanced filter options.  After all the heartache we have been through with the old interface, we are glad that Bing could finally mend our hearts!  Don’t miss this article outlining all of the awesome new features of the UI!

There you have the top three posts for November.  It was a jam packed month of great PPC tips.  So snuggle up with your laptop and a cup of hot chocolate by a roaring fire and read PPC Hero.  Also, don’t forget to check out our December series on Fully Utilizing All AdWords’ Ad Extensions in Just 5 Days!  Happy holidays!

October was a month of great “how to” and resource posts from Hanapin Marketing!

Abby comes in first place with a post from the PPC Toolkit: Resources for Improving Your PPC Accounts. Need help with Google Analytics or the Display Network?  What about Remarketing?  If you need help getting your Mobile campaigns up and running, there are 3 awesome resources to assist you.  Abby provides a wealth of knowledge and resources on these topics and many more.

It’s all about going back to basics with Bryan.  His top page viewed post on PPC Ad Copy Writing for Beginners really hits the spot!  Bryan gives tips on finding those perfect keywords, where in the ads to utilize those key players as well as one of the most important things in ad writing – testing!  He even goes for the epic blog post win by exploring the strategy behind dynamic keyword insertion (dki) ads as well as how to churn peanut butter.  So even if you feel that you are a seasoned ad writer, this is a post not to be missed… you can always learn something new from the PPC Hero!

How do you manage a PPC account with overall low search volume?  Well, Sarah will tell you in her post focusing on this frustrating status.  Sarah identifies 2 major changes that you can make in your accounts to help boost your keywords to an eligible status.  And she doesn’t stop at just optimizing Google – she includes Bing helpful hints as well!  This is a must read for anyone suffering from keywords that just don’t do your account justice.  And while you’re at it, you should read the rest of the October series too!

Don't let them kill your PPC account too!

Keep reading fellow PPCers!  You know that these posts cannot be missed!  Be on the look out for some great posts on how to best optimize your accounts as well as our monthly series and guides.  This month’s series will explore how to gear up for a successful holiday season by using PPC.  Stay tuned and as always, thanks for reading PPC Hero!

The page views have spoken! Below we have gathered PPC Hero’s most visited, and hopefully most valuable articles from September. Whether you’re a new or long-time subscriber, you may have missed these insightful and helpful PPC management tips. Enjoy!

What’s the Secret of Your Success?  Bethany has an idea of how to achieve PPC Success!  She shares the top monthly PPC tasks to complete in her article PPC Task Checklist for Account Success.  We would be lost with out daily checklists here at Hanapin Marketing and value anything that will help keep us on the right track for success!  This list includes weekly, bi-weekly, monthly and bi-monthly tasks to help you improve your account’s performance as well as improve your own accountability.  Read this article for a downloadable copy of Bethany’s checklist to get you started.

Our series in September highlighted How to Succeed on the Display Network in both Google and Bing.  Bethany’s article on Display Network Best Practices comes in second place this month for our Greatest Hits.  Learn why it’s important to split out your search from your display campaigns, as well as how to effectively target the best audience for your client.  There are also tips for optimization and what the best campaigns to start off with for the display network.  This post is a must read if you want your clients to be successful in the vast realm of display!  Make sure to check out the whole series as well!

Usually we are all about Google around here – but Bing is the comeback kid this month!  Felicia writes about adCenter’s Explicit and Implicit Bidding strategies to take the third spot in September.  Learn how to set your bids based on match types, why the bids work the way they do and how to move the needle on your accounts using these strategies.  Also get a couple of Hanapin best practice tips for Bing as well as information on forced minimum bids.  Read the whole article to help your client become a swimming success in Bing!

Keep reading to see your favorite articles become part of the Greatest Hits!  Let us know what you think and what topics you would like to see covered by PPC Hero.  We thrive on your feedback readers!!  As always, thanks for spending time with us to learn new things to improve your client’s accounts and your own PPC prowess!

The page views have spoken! Below we have gathered PPC Hero’s most visited, and hopefully most valuable articles from August. Whether you’re a new or long-time subscriber, you may have missed these insightful and helpful PPC management tips. Enjoy!

Bethany starts the month off with her Top 5 AdWords Filters for PPC Managers.  Get the download on those keywords that are spending your budget and not giving you any love back; keywords that are way too expensive for your client’s taste; keywords that impress but no one clicks them; and the low average position keywords with mucho potential.  Bethany also helps you find keywords that have a low CPL and are a PPC Manager’s dream!  Learn how to save time and sanity with these quick filter tips!

Suffer from test anxiety?  A lot of PPC Managers get that sick feeling in their stomach knowing they need to study for the Google AdWords exam.  Fear not, friends!  Bethany goes through everything you need to pass the Google Advertising Fundamentals Exam in this handy post.  Learn how to study for the exam, how to access it, as well as tips for passing.  So bite the bullet and take the test already – but visit here first to make sure you’re prepared!

Starting a new account from scratch?  There is a lot that goes into doing this – but we are here to help!  Felicia (that’s me!) provides best practices and tips for setting up a successful account structure in this post.  Read about choosing your campaigns, ad groups, how to silo your keywords/ad groups and picking the right settings for your account.  It’s definitely a must read to get back to the basics if I do say myself… and I am completely unbiased!

What’s your match type?  Bryan explores the What and Why of your favorite pay per click keyword match types in this post.  Make your match types work for you and not against you.  Learn how to use negatives – properly!  Bryan also explains Broad, Phrase and Exact’s friends Broad Modified and Embedded.  Embedded!?  Holy keyword – what is that!?  Now you have to read this one…

It wouldn’t be a greatest hits post without an appearance from Jessica C!  And here she is with a great post on Ad Writing Tips for a New Account.  Jessica, Bethany and I wrote a whole series on starting a PPC account from scratch this month and this post is the ultimate in ad writing best practices.  She outlines the importance of a great ad, the rules of the road, all the way through knowing your audience and products.  Want to win the PPC war of words? Read this post and get a winning strategy!

And that does it for August!  Make sure that you keep on keepin’ on with your comments and suggestions.  The only way to make your favorite articles show up in this post is to get your read on!!!  And it’s a nice way to expand your brain.  So, thanks, as always for reading PPC Hero!

Our top honors this month go to PPC Hero himself!  In this day and age, everything wants to be “the ultimate” – the ultimate cheeseburger, the ultimate driving experience (thanks BMW), the ultimate roller coaster, ultimate Frisbee… Well PPC Managers, PPC Hero has now provided you with the Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords Quality Score!   Feast your eyes on this 4-chapter guide that walks through several topics helping PPC Managers improve this mysterious metric.  Types of Quality Score, Why QS Matters, QS Misconceptions, and Has Your QS Tanked? are all addressed in the full article.  Don’t miss out on this guide – it will help your accounts have the ultimate AdWords experience!

Bethany’s case study on writing effective sales ads sells itself time and time again to earn the number two spot in July.  By exploring simple a/b ad testing, Bethany digs deeper into her account to find a winning combination of headline and body copy helping her client find success.  Read this post to learn how and why just getting back to the basics can improve performance in your accounts.

Bethany is like butter – cause she’s on a roll with another top post for July!  Did you know that Google’s brought in $32.2 billion in advertising dollars over the last 4 quarters?  Neither did we… so Bethany broke down the Google keyword cash cow in her article Discover the 20 Most Expensive Keywords in Google AdWords.  The Insurance, Loan and Mortgage categories are where Google profits the most.  Those businesses can afford to pay larger amounts for keywords to obtain customers since the ROI is so much greater.  Find out how to pick competitive keywords for your accounts so you can run with the big dogs in the PPC world.

Jessica C. explains relativity PPC style with her post about Understanding Relative CTR for Google AdWords accounts.  This is a relatively new feature for Google and helps give PPC Managers an idea of how their ads are performing on the Display Network compared to other ads running in the same places.  Jessica goes through set up, how to calculate Relative CTR and best practices of using this metric for reporting and optimization.  This could be the best thing since sliced bread – relatively speaking… read and find out!

She’s baaaaaackkkkk!  Bethany strikes again with knowledge on how to Expand Your PPC Advertising Networks To Improve Return On Investment.  Second and third tier search engines sometimes get a bad rap when they really should be seen as heroes.  Bethany explains how many of these sites generate just as many quality leads at a lower cost as the “first tier engines” and therefore should become a part of the PPC Manager’s plot for PPC domination.  This is the first post in a PPC Hero Series about using alternative engines in your strategies, so make sure you read this post to get the skinny!

That wraps up our PPC Greatest Hits for July.  As always, it’s a pleasure bringing you such exciting insights into the industry.  In the words of Will Rogers, “We can’t all be heroes because someone has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by.”

You keep reading and we promise to keep you clapping!

PPC Hero Greatest Hits:

Just when you thought the water was safe, Google introduced a new version of Analytics back in April, which introduced several new features.  Bethany bravely cannonballs into the Analytics pool and gives readers lessons on how to swim and not sink with her article Creating Custom Reports in Google Analytics.  She outlines how to choose what kind of report will meet your needs and how to set up your report and how to get the most out of your built report. Read Bethany’s post to get the skivvy on making the most out of Google Analytics.

You asked for it – and you read it!  One of June’s most read posts hails from Jessica C. who provides 5 More Top Excel Tips for PPC Managers.  This post is part of our June EXCELlent Series highlighting different tactics to win the PPC war and make Excel one of your best allies.  Jessica highlights the LEN function to help with ad text creation; the beauty of using Pivot Tables (a step-by-step tutorial!); creating useful charts; various keyboard shortcuts for PCs and Macs; and the IF function to test if certain conditions are true in your spreadsheets.  Don’t miss out on this post if you want to be all you can be in Excel!

Other posts in the blog series include:

http://www.ppchero.com/my-top-5-excel-tips-for-ppc-managers/

http://www.ppchero.com/excellent-blog-series-use-excel-to-boost-ppc-performance/

http://www.ppchero.com/projecting-ppc-account-performance-in-excel/

http://www.ppchero.com/excellent-series-making-excel-subtotals-work-for-you/

SEO Boy Greatest Hits:

First place honors go to Jessica C. for her article, 10 Ways to Improve a Google Places Page.  Google Places is a free option used for promoting your business online and helps boost your listing to the top of the local search results.  Jessica takes us through step-by-step account set up, verification and optimization of your Places Page, including making the most out of tracking your pages through Analytics.  The bulk of this post is about optimization so make sure that you read the full article to help place your clients in those top results like Jessica did!

Kayla rocks the second spot this month with Google Displays Click Count In Paid Search Results.  Google is now testing a new feature in AdWords that will display the click count under select advertiser’s PPC ads. Google has not released info on how they will select these advertisers but it is in the works.  Kayla also addresses what this means for all of you SEO Managers out there who think that this new feature won’t help you… so read on friends!

What else do you want to see on PPC Hero and SEO Boy?  Let us know by filling out that awesome pop up screen in the bottom right hand corner of your screen… And remember, your favorites won’t make this post if you don’t read at home!  On that note, Coover, out!

PPC Hero Greatest Hits:

Dave makes his PPC Hero debut and scores big with his analysis of Quality Score Across AdWords & AdCenter.  This post explores ways to better understand QS as it relates to keywords in the two PPC systems.  Google has used QS for ranking keyword relevance for some time now. Dave explains the “known factors” in the elusive Google algorithm and how raising your keyword’s QS will help lower your CPC and increase your ad position.  Bing has recently released their version of QS, which has a much different approach than Google’s.  AdCenter QS is designed to represent how competitive your keywords are in the market place.  While both Google and Bing are not giving up all of their secrets, Dave helps reveal quality tips to help move your keywords towards a healthy score to grow your account.

Vlog it up!  Jessica R. shows us the ropes of PPC Management for Large Accounts with a little help from her Hanapin Marketing friends.  Jessica discusses how to organize the account structure to include products, services and different demographics; keyword duplication; and competition between ad groups.  How do you deal with vast amounts of data and making huge changes as well as day-to-day maintenance of a large account like a pro?  It’s all covered here in video form for your viewing pleasure along with a written transcript.  Give your large (and small) accounts a tune up by implementing our expert tips!

SEO Boy Greatest Hits:

Amy is movin’ on up with her post about Mobile SEO!  Learn how to optimize your mobile site for the best search experience on the go.  Amy walks through how to write the best Meta Data, choose the right keywords and how to format your URL to make the most of a mobile site.  Want to push for your company to optimize its mobile site?  Amy includes a list of benefits of Mobile SEO to show to the boss and get started!  Don’t worry if you haven’t decided to start your mobile landing pages yet either – we can help you out on there too.  Read Amy’s mobile SEO post on PPC Hero to help your mobile get a move on!

My post, Content Farms Just Added A Panda to their Menagerie, rounds out the top four posts for the month of May.  When Google sent out “Panda,” one of the major benefits of the update was that it would eliminate the content farms.  Unfortunately, this was not the case and other legitimate sites suffered.  Once you recover from the Panda update, you should optimize your site to help surpass the content farms in rankings.  Read this article to find out if your site is implementing the five right tactics to increase your ranking and visibility!

PPC Hero Greatest Hits:

Your wish has been granted PPC Managers!  Jessica C. gives you 5 reasons not to hate Excel in her article My Top 5 Excel Tips for PPC Managers.  Excel is something that we cannot live without in our business, and she explains some of the most helpful functions of the program.  Learn the VLookup function, how to better use Find & Replace, how to Concatenate information, the ever popular Character Case Conversion function and Conditional Formatting.  With so many new tricks up your PPC sleeve, your work efficiency will skyrocket.  Read Jessica’s post for detailed instructions on these top tips!

Ever played Risk?  It’s a game of strategy, goals, and tactics – as well as tanks, armies, and countries that don’t exist anymore.  Your PPC accounts need strategies, goals, and tactics too, and Amy highlights how to win the game in her article, Developing a Pay-Per-Click Strategy.  Find out the differences between all three facets and how to develop each.  She also provides a great list of items to dive into in order to understand your brand, competition, and target market so that you can devise your game plan.  Help make your PPC account thrive by having a clear and concise strategy moving forward. This is an article that should not be missed!

SEO Boy Greatest Hits:

Bethany never knew Pandas could be so destructive.  But this Panda was in cahoots with Google, and Bethany was in for a big surprise.  Bethany takes top SEO Boy honors this month with her article Recovering From Google’s Panda Update.  She outlines how she began the recovery process for one of her own clients who suffered the wrath of Google’s algorithm update.  By reading Bethany’s blog, digging deep into Google Analytics, using Webmaster Tools and some critical thinking, you too can begin to recover your accounts.

Jessica C. tackles the number two position this month with the Do’s and Don’ts for Handling a Social Media Backlash.  She uses the recent Applebee’s Apple Juice/Margarita Scandal to demonstrate how to effectively use social media to gain back your client base.  Tips such as engaging with customers from the onset of your campaigns and responding to legitimate concerns as soon as possible are key to a successful online presence.  Read this article and see if your company is engaging in more do’s than don’ts when it comes to your social media accounts.

PPC HERO GREATEST HITS:

Jessica C. leads the pack this month with her informative article on Adwords Remarketing Success.  In this article, Jessica gives an overview and best practices on how to use this tool to its fullest capability.  She gives insight into how you can remind visitors about their Free Trial or downloads, as well as how to find your most qualified, most likely to convert searchers with the Remarketing tool.  She also shares how remarketing has helped Hanapin continue to solve the mysteries of the display network for our clients.  Learn how to set up your remarketing lists and be on your way to a more successful display campaign!

Amy scores the “match point” with her Revisiting Modified Broad Match post.  There are still a lot of questions about how Modified Broad Match works, even though it was introduced almost a year ago.  Amy explains that the main advantage of using this keyword match type is that Modified Broad serves to increase traffic, without advertising to an audience that is too large.  She also includes some best practices on when to use this match type.  Read this article to help ensure you win the game, set and match for your clients!

SEO BOY GREATEST HITS:

Many people peeked “Behind the Curtain” and read Jessica C.’s post about Hanapin Marketing’s hiring practices, which are uniquely ours!  She details the job announcement process, where to look for talent, and the questions used to filter out your candidates each round.  Learn what tactics can give away little warning signs about your candidates, and how important it is to not have “cookie cutter” interviews.  All of this and more are outlined in this great article, which is part of our March blog series on hiring.  Be sure to read this today to help bring in exceptional talent for the future!

Bryan makes Blogging as easy as 1,2,3 with another great post for March.  “Get Out Your Quill Pen – Scribe for Bloggers” discusses a very cool new tool called Scribe from our friends at Copyblogger Media.  Scribe is a plug in that will analyze your blog to help you optimize the SERPs.  After analysis of your blog, it makes suggestions on additional keywords, tags and links.  Bryan highlights the best feature of Scribe – how it hooks up your blog with Twitter.  So, if you seek higher readership for whatever you are blogging about, check out this post to help make it happen!