• With the holidays upon us, it’s time to start talking statistics. Marketing Pilgrim shares 8 statistics for internet retailers this holiday shopping season. For example, 61% of online shoppers prefer free shipping and 68% of internet users shop or research products online. This is a good list to get us all ready for Cyber Monday!
  • The long tail is overrated (everything’s overrated this week). At least that’s what The PPC Book is telling us. “If you can’t… turn a positive ROI with the most competitive short tail terms… there is a very good change that your problem isn’t keyword related.” This post suggests that in order to get the most bang for your buck, you’ve got to aim for the big league, competitive keywords.
  • There is an SEM/PPC debate brewing! The topic: PPC ad copy. Greg Meyers at SEM Geek has taken the stance that paid search ad copy is overrated. His stance is that keywords, site usability are much more important than focusing on ad copy. Greg says, “Ads don’t move the Revenue Needle. Keywords, landing pages, carts, user experience and most importantly DEMAND for your products/services are what does it.” However, the team over at Mind Valley labs appear to have a different take on ad copy. They have published two studies (study #1, and study #2) that focus on the importance of ad text. I think when it comes to PPC management, you need to focus on everything!
  • Has your click-through rate increased or decreased since the clickable area change within AdSense? I haven’t noticed much a difference, but you can see what other people have to say on this topic and how this change has effect their campaigns over at Search Engine Roundtable.
  • What can hinder or completely halt a search marketing campaign? Brian Kaminski has posted a very good article over at Search Engine Land that answers this question.