How many paid advertisements have you seen that don’t truly give you an accurate picture of what is being offered, or worse – the landing page doesn’t match up with what the ad promises?  Paid ads are a great way to build an online presence, generate traffic to a site, and make more sales.  If you’re not implementing a well-thought-out strategy, or making a great first impression with copy, then you won’t see the most bang for your buck.  Check out Cameron Jonsson’s article on Search Engine Land for suggestions.

Goodbye cookie, hello…fingerprinting?  According to Jack Marshall of ClickZ, new startups software companies are beginning to launch a way of tracking users by relying on device “fingerprints.” Instead of relying on temporary code, this method would log a device’s information, ranging from what operating system it uses to its search history.  That way when its owner uses it to go online, the device will carry a more permanent record of the user’s demographics and search history, which would allow for an ever-evolving but stable profile to be used by online trackers.  While this technology brings up many concerns about privacy, effectiveness, and plausibility, it is an interesting alternative to those time-trusted cookies.

It’s no news to us that Google is constantly rolling out new tools and features. In fact, we have recently welcomed yet another change. Up until now, AdWords users have only been able to optimize for clicks or distribute them more evenly. But last week, Google announced the addition of a conversion optimization option for your ad rotation. Perhaps you are wondering how this happens? I’m glad you asked. The secret lies with the conversion tracking tool in analytics. Now you have even more options to get the best out of your paid search efforts. Check out Rob Young’s post on Search Engine Journal for the full report.

The possibilities alongside Google AdWords are seemingly endless for businesses of all sorts. We have witnessed the success of strictly profit-based PPC advertising campaigns, but there is a long lost brother here that we often overlook. What about non-profit paid search advertising? In his latest article, Chris Soo explains that Google and its PPC interface can be quite useful and generous toward charity organizations. He indicates that Google offers grants of up to $10,000 per month in return for a minimal amount of data at the conclusion of each quarter. Not bad for a free $10,000 to kick-start your campaign! Soo has also outlined a few key considerations for you to remember when promoting a charity via AdWords. Check out his article for the full scoop!

Oftentimes, it is helpful to visualize the data generated by the ad testing in your PPC campaigns.  Chad Summerhill, a guest blogger at Certified Knowledge, shares his way of visualizing ad testing data using cumulative metrics.  He explains that by going through this process, one can identify erratic behavior in ad testing.  This is important because knowing whether or not your ad testing is being done in a reliable and statistically significant manner is essential for decision-making (which is especially true if you are contemplating taking your talents to South Beach).

Have you taken advantage of Adwords Campaign Experiments (ACE) yet?  Google rolled out this tool last year in Beta for testing different aspects of your PPC campaigns.  Before you start, check out some ACE tips and experiences from Melissa Mackey at Search Engine Land.  The post takes you through some of the more confusing aspects of the ACE experiment and control settings, as well as areas that could really do with some tweaking.  The tool is still relatively new, however, and I think over time, Google will really transform it into a greater value than it already is!

Adcenter is changing their policy on trademarks. According to PPCBlog.com, Adcenter will begin to allow bidding on trademarked terms on March 3^rd. But, there are certain conditions: your ad can include a trademarked term in the ad text if it is evaluated by a third party source, you must present the trademark in the context of the research that it is cited and you have to feature the related research clearly and prominently on the landing page that your ad links to. So be sure to keep that in mind as you write ads after March 3^rd.

Twitter’s Promoted Tweets and Accounts have been around for a while now, but never has there been such a concise review of it as Marc Poirier’s article on SearchEngineWatch.  His report breaks down the entire process for advertisers, from determining the type of engagement you want, to picking tweets to using Twitter’s reporting tools.  It’s a worthwhile read for advertisers who have the current ability to use this feature and for those who are considering it for the future.

What’s been your experience with the Yahoo/Bing merger so far?  Melissa Mackey of Searching Beyond the Paid stresses that since the collaboration went live a few months ago, her clients are still not receiving as much traffic as they were pre-merger.  In addition, the billing issues she’s run into leaves a lot to be desired from adCenter. Here at Hanapin, we’ve had similar billing-related issues.  On the bright side, Melissa’s initial worries for dropped conversion rates and CPL hasn’t happened in her accounts.

There’s a new option for advertising on Facebook: sponsored ads.  As Christopher Heine of ClickZ reports, Facebook’s new sponsored ads offer a personalized advertising experience for viewers, where the activity of their friends is converted into Facebook’s PPC ads.  Some of its four forms are similar to approaches Facebook has taken elsewhere, such as the “like stories” option – ads that show which friends of the user have liked a brand or page.  However, other sponsored story ads are more complex, such as the remarketing-style “page post stories” advertising, which shows viewers who already like a brand the posts and status updates from that post’s business page.  Get the full scoop on the new ads from Heine’s post!

Beginning March 3, Bing and Yahoo will permit trademarked names to be used as keywords in text ads on their SERPs.  As Cynthia Boris of Marketing Pilgrim points out, the change is merely an end to investigations into complaints and trademark owners will now have to take it upon themselves to contact advertisers if their rights are violated.  Google has been allowing this for years, but it is new to Bing and Yahoo which makes one wonder if this is just another way for them to assimilate to Google’s practices.

The issue of whether or not Facebook ads have a quality score is the topic Geordie’s newest post on PPC Blog. In a nutshell, the answer is yes—Facebook ads do have a quality score—but it is much more based on account trust and reputation as opposed to relevance. He then goes on to explain the major aspects of Facebook’s “quality score.” The three factors are user experience, whether or not you directly obey what Facebook administrators tell you if they email you and if you cause the same “problem” again and, lastly, if your ad is doing well Facebook will scrutinize it much more than a poor-performing ad. Geordie’s post is a great resource for current Facebook advertisers and those who are considering it.

With the growing importance of social media to search marketing, people are wondering if social and search are butting heads or complimenting each other’s efforts. Simeone Schuurer of the adCenter Blog says they’re working quite well together, “in tune and complimenting each other in a way identical twins are said to behave.” She recaps some top tips on PPC and Social Media from Microsoft’s ‘Hit Me, Optimise Your Search’ event this week. She also covers a prediction for 2011 as well as some key points from the conference about how social and search work together.

Are you a small business owner managing your own paid search accounts? We have news for you! In a two part series offered by the Microsoft adCenter Community, Erin O’Donnell outlines and explains a few PPC concepts small business owners frequently ask about. The article elaborates on topics like keywords, bids and cost per click, which must be thoroughly understood to get the most out of your campaigns. Erin then dives into more specific questions focused around those primary topics. For the full recap, check out both articles!

Attention all Mozilla Firefox users, your privacy features just got even better! In the release of their fourth version of the browser, Mozilla has included a do-not-track feature that can be applied under the general settings. Although this can be beneficial to the individual, this is bad news for paid search analysts. Under the new privacy feature, people can now opt out of providing the useful tracking data that SEM’s use on a daily basis. Although the feature is still in beta testing, this could lead to significant changes in the way we go about account optimization. What do you think of this shift in user privacy? Jack Marshall of ClickZ.com has the full report.

As a follow up to Google’s announcement that they were introducing new reporting metrics on product extension ads, Jason Tabeling of Search Engine Watch wrote a nice article on how you measure free clicks (a new metric) in Adwords.  He also spent time sharing some of the observations he had about how free clicks appear in relation to other factors such as impressions and different browsing platforms.  It’s nice to know how to get stuff for free and as a SEM, clicks are a great thing to get!

Bing searchers in the US, your results are about to change! As Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land reports, Bing has started delivering personalized listings based on a user’s past search history or their location. Bing is currently only testing this with navigational queries, whereas Google gives personalized results with many classes of searches. However, Bing may expand in the future. So how does personalization change your search results? Sullivan ran his own test, and you can check it out in his post!

You’ll definitely want to check out Jennifer Robertson’s post this week at Search Engine Land on using paid search to unite brands during a merger.  When two companies merge, it can be a confusing and difficult process.  Using paid search to bring the two brands together can help make the transition smoother and alleviate public concerns about the changes.  Jennifer has seven helpful tips to get the new company off to the right start while saving a lot of time and money.

According to the Inside Adwords Blog, location extensions in Google has undergone an overhaul. Now, ads with location extensions will show on the place search map as a blue pin. So, if your ad is relevant to the search query and would show above the place map in a normal search, it will be shown with a blue pin directly underneath in the place results. The Adwords blog goes on to say that Google has been experimenting with many different formats for place search, and although this is what they deem will work best now, other overhauls in the future may still take place.

…The AdWords team didn’t stop there. Starting today and continuing over the next few weeks, Google announced the addition of city targeting in 17 new countries to help you reach local consumers more efficiently. Essentially, this allows for campaign targeting at an even more granular level in order to optimize your account and achieve a better ROI. The new countries with these targeting features include Argentina, Brazil and China, along with many others. This brings Google’s grand total to 34 countries! If you haven’t already done so, be sure to check out the article from the AdWords team for the complete story.

Good news for mobile search advertisers!  With all of these new fancy phones, it was only a matter of time until companies found a way to make advertising on them profitable.  According to Rob Young of Search Engine Journal, Google recently reported that they are seeing millions of calls each month with the Click-to-Call option. To use click-to-call, an advertiser opts in and adds a phone extension to their ad, allowing the user to call the company and find out more about the ad they just viewed.  Young also explains that Google has released the call only version which appeals to those without a full website.

Google, Google, Google! On Thursday, Google announced it will start displaying longer headlines for certain ads on the SERPs. Google has been testing these alternate ad forms and found that those in the new formatting tend to bring in a higher click-through-rate. Read Pamela Parker’s post on Search Engine Land to get the details about which ads will be shown in the new format, as well as see examples of the alternate ads (if you haven’t noticed them on the SERPs already!).

Due to recent controversy surrounding the practice of remarketing/behavioral marketing, Google and Mozilla have decided to give users the ability to opt out of behavioral marketing. This is not an all-encompassing solution, as only companies that have agreed with the Digital Advertising Alliance will be affected by this feature. Other marketing companies/websites that aren’t part of this self-regulatory body can still use behavioral marketing, as can sites that are part of the Digital Advertising Alliance if the plug-in isn’t user-enabled. Stay tuned as this debate unfolds.

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, and with almost $14 billion in spending projected for the holiday, Microsoft Advertising reminds us of some Valentine’s Day advertising tips.  There are four things they recommend in preparation for V-Day: keep the ad copy relevant to the holiday, expand your keyword list to capture holiday traffic, bid on phrase match keywords for lower CPC and watch your position as it may drop.  If you do these things, Microsoft expects you to see quite a bit of click through love this Valentine’s Day season.

Retargeting, remessaging, remarketing…whatever you choose to call it, retargeting is a huge opportunity for PPC profits.  As Marc Poirier explains on SearchEngineWatch, retargeting involves using online PPC platforms to find the viewers who have seen your ads and/or visited your sites, but chose not to convert.  With the help of some handy cookies, you can then choose to bid higher whenever these viewers are searching again, and create specific marketing strategies to do better the second time around.  It’s a creative way to use online tracking and analytics, and one that is worth considering for your PPC campaigns.

Remember that mysterious metric known as quality score? According to John Lee of Clix Marketing, quality score has not been receiving enough attention. Perhaps this is a result of the lack of understanding as to exactly how it is calculated, but nonetheless, he believes we need to revitalize our interest in the topic. In his article, Lee writes about the importance of discussing and optimizing your quality score. He explains why and how we should do this, since better scores result in lower spend. Take some of his suggestions and your ROI will likely look much more appealing.

Google announced it’s new and improved ad preview tool this week. Using this tool allows you to see how your ads appear in various locations, no matter where you are. The tool now specifies whether or not an ad is triggering in those respective locations. In addition, this is a great way to avoid manually previewing your ads because it saves on your campaign’s impressions and clicks. You can also distinguish by device, be it computer or mobile. Google never ceases to amaze us by constantly supplying enhancement tools for our arsenal.

According to Jack Marshall of ClickZ.com, the English Office of Fair Trading launched an investigation into Handpicked Media’s use of Promoted Tweets. Apparently, the company did not disclose to their audience that they were sponsoring Tweets through various micro-bloggers and others, and this is against English trade law. Due to the international nature of social media and its use as a paid advertising system, this raises caution flags for all social media paid advertisers, as what you do in one country in terms of paid ads on a social network might not translate overseas.

Do you have a startup? PPC Blog’s Geordie brings us 10 quick tips for growing your startup through the Google search and display networks. Adwords can help to generate buzz about your business and attract as much attention as possible from testers and potential investors. Geordie outlines a plan for your startup’s paid search plan throughout each vital stage. He says that a lot of startups recognize the value of SEO in the beginning stages of the startup, but fail to incorporate a PPC budget from the beginning. By putting aside some budget for paid search, you can hit the ground running.

Think you’ve exhausted all of your conversion options? Try using the Google Website Optimizer. As Ken Lyons at Search Engine Journal reports, GWO is an easy (and free!) way to test your landing pages against each other and to find out which ones work best for your campaign. This is just another step in the ever-growing importance of landing page research, and something that you will be sure to want to incorporate into your own marketing plan.

Competitor analysis is a critical part of any type of marketing, and PPC is no exception. However, it’s important to focus on collecting the right information so you don’t waste time on things you can’t use. George Michie of RKG put together an insightful Q&A about comparing your numbers to competitors’ numbers. As he artfully points out in the article, it is easy to get caught up in trying to collect a lot of information about what your competitors are doing with no guarantee that it will actually provide you with useful insights.

It’s official! Google’s ads are changing format again. In a statement released on Monday, Google announced on its Inside AdWords blog that they will now start showing the domain portion of all display URLs in lowercase letters. Google is even going to go back and change all the existing ads (but don’t worry, this won’t change their history). The change will roll out sometime in the “next week or so,” so keep your eyes out!

According to Jack Marshall of ClickZ marketing blog, over a third of online shoppers also browse via mobile. From the end of November till December 15^th of last year, ForeSee polled holiday shoppers, and the results were pretty surprising. Thirty-three percent of those polled said that they used their mobile phones to access an e-commerce site, 11% said that they made a purchase from their mobile phone and 26% say that they plan on visiting an e-commerce site from their mobile device in the future. Also, with smart phone usage predicted to outpace traditional mobile phones this year, this may mean that advertisers may not need to make separate mobile websites for mobile campaigns, as smart phones typically have full web browsers.

One of the Internet’s greatest strengths is that it is truly the “city that never sleeps.” As Melissa Mackey of Searching Beyond the Paid points out, e-commerce stores are open at all hours of the day. In spite of this opportunity for 24/7 sales, it’s important to consider on a case-by-case basis when sales are actually coming in. Mackey explains how to use dayparting to control your PPC spending and maximize valid conversions. Dayparting will allow you to manage what time your ads show. Of course, you will want to first take a look at the analytics to see what hours of the day you get traffic, but it can be an effective way of managing your spending.

When you’re working in online advertising, straightforward information is sometimes hard to come by. Luckily, this week Bing released a clear, concise explanation of how adCenter does billing. From choosing payment information to finding out your monthly billing date, Bing lays it all on the table. It’s a great link to keep on hand, and send out to curious clients!

This week, Aurea Astro with the adCenter blog promoted a study that Microsoft Advertising  and Wunderman conducted last spring. The study reveals some very interesting findings about moms’ multi-screen media habits. Turns out, moms are the leaders in screen convergence, they’re more receptive to marketing messages on every screen and consistent, connected cross-screen media experiences are very important to them. We recommend you check out this article and even download the full report to help you create and drive more effective campaigns.

Welles Wiley of the Portent Interactive blog discusses his obstacles getting into the Internet ad writing business with a liberal arts university English degree. He discusses what he learned in college that applies to writing online content, as well as what no longer applies. As far as what is now useless—vivid description, high-end vocabulary, and paragraph formatting. But, he also counters that there are some aspects of his English education that still apply to his new career in Internet ad writing, such as excess language is still frowned upon, peer editing still has a place and the fact that inspiration is everywhere.

Facebook has called a halt to RapLeaf’s access to user data. RapLeaf, one of the largest social data providers, for several months has been selling marketing companies Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn customer URLs as well as demographic details and even the user’s full name. But, because of the actions of Facebook in response to a user lawsuit, in regards to information being shared with RapLeaf, other social media platforms are expected to follow suit. If they do, they’ll shut down a wealth of cheap information to marketing companies looking to tweak their PPC strategies based on social media user’s behavior.

Google did some remarkable things in 2010: Google Instant, Google Caffeine, all the AdWords updates and on and on. However, this doesn’t mean that Google didn’t also have a few epic fails.  As Rob Young of Search Engine Journal reports, Google Buzz has been named the “Biggest Flop of 2010” by Mashable.com, which leads to an interesting development in the chronicles of Google’s widespread successes. Why don’t people trust Google to do social media? What is it about Buzz and its wayward companions (Wave, Picasa, Blogger, Latitude, and Knowl) that caused them to flop?  As Young points out, what is laughable now may be a sign of bigger trouble looming in Google’s future.

Google may not have hit the jackpot with Google Buzz, but this top-dog search engine apparently has what it takes to become a competitive cell phone service provider. According to Rob Young with Search Engine Journal, Google could be your next phone carrier. And rightly so! He cites a CNN Money article to support this claim, explaining that Google has already taken many steps in the right direction: licensing out Android, collaborating with Samsung on the Nexus S and Nexus One handsets and providing a ready-to-use phone call service through Google Voice. …Gee Brain, what do you want to do tonight?

This week, Greg Jarboe of Search Engine Watch posted some viral videos from 2010 in response to a guest post in the YouTube Blog about what makes a video worth spreading. The end of the year is a great time to review your paid advertising efforts from the past year and evaluate their effects. Perhaps your ads could use that extra bit of creativity, or you’d like to explore the expanding area of video advertising?  Hopefully you’ll find some inspirational ideas by watching these videos (again) and come up with some great, innovative advertising ideas of your own for 2011! Happy New Year!