• To get search marketing right, you have to get it wrong. Mike Moran has written an insightful article on why search marketing is so hard. I agree! Mike discusses why search marketing is so different from ‘traditional’ marketing, and why some key decision makers within a company may still be hesitant to fully explore SEM. Basically, people are afraid to be wrong and search marketing requires so much trail and error that it scares people away.
  • Every year PPC figures continue to grow which means the industry is alive and well. Search engines are serving ads with higher relevance and advertisers should be seeing a higher ROI as a result of these efforts. However, Gary Stein at Clickz has already started putting nails in the PPC coffin (queue ‘Taps’). Gary’s stance is that PPC is a stepping stone toward a CPA-based (cost-per-action) industry. I think CPA could eventually be a valid supplemental source of revenue for companies but I don’t see it overshadowing PPC anytime soon.
  • Here you can read 10 ways to increase your Adwords quality score from Red Fly Marketing Dave Davis. Dave discusses best practices to optimize your account to achieve the highest quality score possible. Some tips include splitting keywords into smaller, more targeted ad groups, link building and SEO and split test landing pages.
  • Dave Davis from Red Fly Marketing gives sound advice on how to increase your paid search click-through rates through action words, or better known as a call to action. Here he gives several examples of good calls to action. You can also read more on the importance of a call to action in my post here.