4 AdWords Optimization Tips to Try This Week

Lisa Raehsler | ClickZ | July 24, 2012

Every paid search account needs new ideas to keep moving forward with a positive return on investment (ROI). The following tips can be implemented in less than 15 minutes and make a lasting positive impact on the performance results. Try one tactic per day, and then take Friday off.

1. Negative keyword lists.
Negative keywords are a critical component to any AdWords campaign optimization because you can filter out irrelevant clicks and impressions on keywords. Excluding keywords can save click spend and make the overall campaign more effective. A recent feature release now allows advertisers to manage negative keywords across multiple campaigns. The new negative keyword lists can be associated with many campaigns and can be easily applied to any campaign with a few simple clicks.
Get started building a list by accessing the "Shared Library" section of AdWords, then creating a new list in "campaign negative keywords."

2. Mobile review.
 Have you checked your mobile traffic lately? Often advertisers don't bother with setting up mobile-only campaigns because they believe there is not enough demand to justify it. Within the AdWords, you can select "segment" to see activity by device from the campaign, ad group, display network, and even keyword-level tabs. This will provide interesting insights into opportunities as well as areas of possible inefficiencies. Recently I discovered a group of keywords that had a much lower average cost per click (CPC) in mobile. One keyword was just $0.06 per click in mobile vs. $1.03 on computers. This keyword also had the volume to justify a new campaign and strategy. This is just one of the insights you can gain by analyzing data by device and taking action on the findings.

3. Automated rules.
Automated rules in AdWords won't replace good old-fashioned manual management but may help to save time and streamline processes. One way to use automated rules to directly impact the bottom line is to adjust bids on keywords based on the cost per conversion.

Increase bids for your keywords that are good converters and at a low cost per conversion. For example, a rule can be set to increase max CPC bids by 10 percent for keywords with more than 20 conversions and a cost per conversion under $7. Even though you will not pay the max CPC bid price, it's best to set a maximum bid that the automated rule will never exceed.

Within the keywords tab, select the "automate" button and "change max CPC bids." When increasing bids, set the requirements for conversions (one per click) >=20 and cost/conversions (one per click) < $7. Also consider decreasing bids for keywords that are not converting to more efficiently focus budget.

4. Display Ad Builder.
The display ad builder is a neat little tool that can make getting into the Google Display Network quick and easy. Some companies don't have the budget or resources to create banner ads, so the Display Ad Builder tool will allow them to choose from a variety of templates using their own text, images, or logos. A banner ad doesn't need to be fancy to be effective so this can be a good option for smaller advertisers.

It's quite easy to create an ad from the "Ads" tab within any campaign or ad group that contains text ads - select the checkbox next to any text ad, and from the drop-down menu above the ads table, select "More Actions," then "Generate Display Ad." Several simple templates are available to get started. Now, if only the display targeting was as easy!

 

 Original Article...

HVAC Contractor Obtained 4 Jobs in 4 Days with Live Chat

Brian Starzec | HVAC Business Solutions, LLC | July 24, 2012

We implemented our HVAC Live Chat on our client's website - Ferrugia Mechanical - last Thursday, July 19th. Since then, Ferrugia Mechanical has:

Already Replaced 1 Air Handler
Scheduled 1 Equipment Replacement Lead
Scheduled 2 Service Leads

In addition, 1 more lead has not been scheduled yet as of this writing.

Why These Customers Preferred Chat over Calling

We communicated with the customers that engaged Ferrugia Mechanical via the Live Chat and they specifically chose to chat because they wanted to speak with a live person that could answer their questions.

They naturally assumed that if they dialed the phone number after hours they would have just received an answering service rather than being able to speak with someone that could actually help them through the Live Chat.

The Live Chat provided the reassurance that the website was active, closely monitored and that their needs would be met immediately.

Website Response Spiked
"I don't know what you guys changed but since adding the chat I am starting to receive submissions through my contact form when I wasn't getting very many before."
- Michael Ferrugia, owner of Ferrugia Mechanical

This was a pleasant surprise to all of us and was in-line with the customer feedback. By having the Live Chat, website visitors felt confident that completing the Contact Us Form would actually result in action.

What is Live Chat?
A service provided by HVAC Business Solutions that engages your website visitors with a proactive invitation to chat - see the image below:



If the chat invitation is accepted, one of our trained agents answers the visitor's questions and attempts to convert the visitor into a lead.

If the visitor is interested in setting an appointment, then our agents obtain the contact information (name, email and phone number) and immediately send it either by email or text message to a contact person at the HVAC company. If during business hours, we also offer to connect both parties by phone.

Live Chat Stats
Here are some recent stats conduct from an Internet marketing survey in 2012:

Chatters are 7.5 times more likely to convert
Chatters spend 55% more per purchase
The average percentage of website visitors who accept proactive invitations to chat is 8.5%
Best practice to answer chats within 10 seconds

Live Chat Benefits
This service is about gaining new business by demonstrating your ability to respond quickly and effectively to your potential customers:

Convert Your Website Traffic Into Business
Engage Visitors 24/7
Increase Customer Service Levels
Deliver Immediate Customer Assistance

Our Service
The bottom line is that we monitor your website 24/7, engage with visitors and convert them into leads.
No Contracts
No Monthly Fees
Pay Only for Leads
24/7 Chat Service

Give us a call if you are interested in learning more about our Live Chat service and how we can help you obtain more business from the traffic that is already on your website.

Sincerely,
Brian

40% of Consumers Say a Targeted Online Ad Has Made Them Feel Uncomfortable

Jason Hahn | DM Confidential | July 18th, 2012

A new report from TRUSTe finds that online behavioral advertising (OBA) has made 40 percent of consumers feel uncomfortable, while a majority of consumers say online privacy is an important issue that they think about often.

According to TRUSTe’s “2012 U.S. Online and Mobile Privacy Perceptions Report,” conducted online by Harris Interactive, 58 percent of responding consumers say they don’t like OBA. Meanwhile, 42 percent of smartphone users say privacy and security are top concerns, and 85 percent say they won’t download apps they don’t trust.

The report also found that 60 percent of adults are more concerned about online privacy today than they were last year. TRUSTe notes that 49 percent of consumers check for independent privacy certification or seals, up from 41 percent in 2011.

“Our 2012 findings show that managing consumer concerns through good privacy practices must remain on the forefront in order to stem mistrust,” said Chris Bable, CEO of TRUSTe. “With increased understanding about choices, the survey also shows that consumers react more positively to the potential value of new online technologies, such as OBA.”

According to the survey, negative feelings toward OBA drop from 69 percent to 40 percent when users believe that their personally identifiable information isn’t linked to their browsing behavior. Meanwhile, 61 percent of consumers are inclined to do more business with a site that offers opt-out choices for OBA, up from 55 percent last year.

The report also found that 94 percent of consumers deem privacy an important issue, with 55 percent saying it’s a really important issue they think of often. Meanwhile, 69 percent of consumers say they trust themselves most when it comes to protecting their own personal information online.

TRUSTe found that consumers are taking matters into their own hands when it comes to protecting their privacy, as 76 percent don’t allow companies to share their personal information with a third party, 35 percent have stopped doing business with a company or using their website because of privacy concerns, and 90 percent use browser controls to protect privacy.

Meanwhile, 40 percent of consumers say a targeted online advertisement has made them feel uncomfortable, 50 percent will opt out of OBA to manage their privacy and 53 percent believe personally identifiable information is attached to browsing behavior.

Regarding mobile concerns, TRUSTe found that 62 percent of smartphone users are aware that advertisers track mobile activities for mobile ads, but only 1 percent likes this.

Original Article...

7 of the Most Popular Social Networks for Business

Rebecca Corliss | HubSpot | July 17, 2012


People expect different type of content on each social media network. Not only does that mean the content you post to each network needs to be unique; it might also mean that you shouldn't be hopping on every single social network out there to meet your company's business goals.

But how do you even make that decision if you're new to the social media game? The best way is to get to know the different "personalities" of each network so you can understand how to leverage it best for your business. Using this article as your guide, you'll get to know some of the most popular social networks, learn what their super powers are, and determine whether they're a good fit for your brand. So let's analyze the key players in the social space, and talk about each of their strengths and weaknesses to help you decide who you should be hanging out with!

Getting to Know Twitter, The Buzz Generator

Twitter hit its 5 millionth user this past February, and the network is active and abuzz with links, chatter, one line self reflections, and just plain content. To inbound marketers, all of this content probably seems pretty great -- but it also means it takes a lot of work to get your  content to stand out in the crowd. Just look at how often HubSpot posts on Twitter to get our content some visibility in the news feed!

 

Twitter's Superpower

Twitter brings a viral, buzz-generating component to your marketing. For example, when a business has a massive group of people either sharing content or using a hashtag all at once, that has a big, very visible impact. Twitter is right for you if you are looking for a network where you can build a large audience that you can incite to action -- potentially all at once to create a viral effect. Mind you, that type of audience growth takes time ... but the value of creating such a large network sure pays off!

Getting to Know Facebook, The Humanizer

Facebook is most-used social networking site around the world. In fact, a recent study found it to be the top-visited social media site in 126 of the 137 countries studied. Still think your audience isn't using social media? Think again.

People use Facebook to keep in touch with friends, view their grandkid's baby pictures, discover content their friends are sharing, and more. It's a truly powerful connector. But how do companies fit into this social network that focuses so heavily on the human connection? Users expect companies on Facebook to act more like friends, and less like, well, companies. This means your updates should be friendlier, and show personality through photos and videos that make your brand seem more relatable. That's why we use Facebook to share things like important milestones in our company's life, just like you would with your friends and family!

 

 Facebook's Superpower

Facebook as a social tool will help a business become more likeable. By engaging like you naturally would with friends, your fans will respond and interact with you and your content in the way they feel most comfortable on that network -- colloquially. Use this to build a loyal fanbase who will view, click, and share your content so your reach continues to grow. If your company is not comfortable being a bit more flexible and friendly in its tone, however, Facebook might not be the best bet.

Getting to Know Quora, The Authority Builder

Quora boasts a slightly smaller user base than Twitter and Facebook with 1.1 million monthly users. But even though the network is smaller doesn't mean you should balk at its marketing potential. If you've ever participated in Quora's Q&A, you'll know that the quality of questions asked and answers provided is extremely high. While Quora might not be the right network for your business as a major traffic driver considering the lower usage volume, it could be a great place to build your company's authority and thought leadership, generating much higher quality leads (albeit at a lower volume) in the long run.

 

Quora's Superpower

Use Quora to build the authority of specific employees. For example, you could encourage your sales and marketing employees to search for questions your leads commonly ask, and provide insightful answers to which you can point future leads. What a great way to build trust and rapport!

Getting to Know Google+, The Search Optimizer

Google+ launched business pages in fall of 2011, at which point Google+ usage picked up as brands started creating their own pages and building their following. But since then, its been reported that usage has significantly decreased -- eMarketer reported that users only spend an average of 3.3 minutes on Google+ in a single session, down from 5.1 minutes in November 2011. Yikes. Looks like it's not incredibly active as a social network ... so what's the value? The value comes from its SEO support.

 

Google+'s Superpower

When you post your content to Google+, you're making it more likely your company's content will rank well in Google's SERPs. That's because, much to the dismay of many other social networks, Google is considering factors such as +1's of content when deciding how high to rank a piece of content. Google also started to index and feature Google+ status updates, author names, and 'Add to Circles' buttons in search results, making your activity on Google+ even more important for a strong organic search presence.

Getting to Know Pinterest, The Artist

Pinterest, the "newest" social network on the block, has actually been around since 2008! Gaining some serious popularity earlier this year, the network is an excellent tool for sharing and spreading a company's visual content. After all, images can often tell a far more profound story or give insight into a feeling in a more powerful way than mere text. If you're producing more visual content, you can easily share that content through channels like Pinterest by "pinning" it to a board. 

 

Pinterest's Superpower

Pinterest is easy to maintain and grow if you're more reliant on visuals than text in your industry. We do, however, recommend writing descriptions for every image you pin to provide further explanation for those looking to learn more about your pin. And before you go saying Pinterest is just for wedding planners and hairdressers, remember that your visuals could include anything from photos, to graphs, to infographics! They key with Pinterest is, when someone clicks your image to see the source, you're directing them to your website so you can convert all that Pinterest traffic. So go on, have a little fun with your social media marketing!

Getting to Know LinkedIn, The Professional

LinkedIn has a very distinct personality. It's the most suited-up network, generally rather conservative, and reserved for business-focused conversations. For B2B companies, LinkedIn is an incredibly valuable channel. In a HubSpot study last year, in fact, we found that LinkedIn is 277% more effective for lead generation than Facebook and Twitter. Since LinkedIn users are generally in a business-focused mindset, lead generation content that's extremely valuable and provides a solution to a common problem in your industry can work incredibly well.

 

LinkedIn's Superpower

Use LinkedIn to target other businesses -- if that's your goal, of course. Use your content to provide solutions to business-related problems, and people will naturally share your content in an attempt to boost their own clout, not to mention click your content so you can generate more leads. Don't be afraid of posting white papers and reports here, either -- this is the type of content that typically performs quite well on LinkedIn.

Getting to Know YouTube, The Story Teller

YouTube is different from the rest of the bunch for obvious reasons -- it's geared specifically towards video! And it has a lot of video. In fact, YouTube reports that 3 billion hours of video are watched each month on the social network. Video is a powerful story-telling mechanism, so it's no wonder marketers are using video to celebrate customer success, get customers excited about an event, or use music to teach someone something new. 

YouTube's Superpower

Use YouTube to tell important stories about your company, to entertain your audience, and even to educate them (ever thought of creating a how-to video?) As with most visual content, sometimes it's easier to get your message across with something a bit more interactive; and that's when YouTube comes in handy! You can also embed your videos in your blog or on other social networks so the videos can get more reach. Plus, YouTube is owned by Google ... you can bet those videos will be indexed in organic search!

After you understand the different personalities of each of these social networks, you're better equipped to determine which ones match the personality and needs of your brand. If you're just starting out in social media, it should help you approach these networks with less of a blind eye, and create content that better matches the tone of the content already on that platform.

Based on your brand, which social network do you think is the best fit for you? How does your use of each social network differ?

Original Article..

Paid Search up 17% in Q2 2012, Keyword Pricing up for the First Time Since Q3 2011

Jason Hahn | DM Confidential | July 18, 2012

According to Covario, paid search spending rose 17 percent in the second quarter compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, keyword pricing increased for the first time since the third quarter of 2011.

Covario’s quarterly global paid search spend analysis showed that spending on paid search advertising was up 17 percent year-over-year in the second quarter, and up 5 percent from the first quarter. The company called the second-quarter growth healthy, but noted that it was down from the spending that was observed during the previous three quarters.

“We expect things will further heat up in the second half of 2012, especially since early signs indicate creeping CPC inflation for paid search globally, which must be factored into advertiser budget plans,” the report noted.

In the Americas, spending was up 15 percent year-over-year and up 1 percent quarter-over-quarter. Covario maintains its forecast that annualized increases in spend for 2012 will fall in the 18-20 percent range.

In Europe and the Middle East, spend was up 2 percent year-over-year and up 1 percent quarter-over-quarter. Meanwhile, in Asia-Pacific spend was up 41 percent year-over-year and up 23 percent quarter-over-quarter, thanks to continued investment in China, Japan, India and the Australia-New Zealand regions.

Paid search impressions were up 7 percent year-over-year and 10 percent quarter-over-quarter, while clicks were up 18 percent year-over-year and down 1 percent quarter-over-quarter, and cost was up 17 percent year-over-year and up 6 percent quarter-over-quarter.

Google continued to dominate the global landscape, claiming 86 percent of spend, 91 percent of impressions and 68 percent of clicks.

Covario notes that spending on Google was up 16 percent from a year ago and up 5 percent from the previous quarter.

Yahoo-Bing, which continues to benefit from the implementation of “broad match,” saw its share of spend grow around 30 percent year-over-year and 3 percent quarter-over-quarter. The alliance maintains 7 percent of spend, 3 percent of impressions and 5 percent of clicks.

In the Americas, Google has about 90 percent of the search engine market, while Yahoo-Bing has about 9 percent.

Cost per click (CPC) for the five major global search engines (Baidu, Bing, Google, Yahoo and Yandex) was $0.80, up 6 percent quarter-over-quarter, the first increase since the third quarter of 2011. Baidu’s CPC was $0.19, while Bing’s was $1.32, Google’s was $1.01, Yahoo’s was $0.80 and Yandex’s was $0.61.

Original Article...

Nine ways to either tiptoe into mobile or take the plunge

Robin Neifield | ClickZ | June 11, 2012

You probably don't need convincing that a mobile strategy is necessary, but many digital marketers have been reluctant to jump in the water, waiting for all the ripples of devices, markets, and approaches to settle. They won't. In this very fractured digital media environment, mobile plays a unique and increasingly critical role, providing a wealth of personal, immediate, and location-smart ways to interact with specific audiences.

The U.S. mobile environment is turbulent but full of growth and promise. The majority of mobile phones are now smartphones, many with larger screens and more sophisticated user options. Apps, tablets, and converging devices as well as the growing availability of good, useful, and functional mobile experiences have given consumers the opportunity to increasingly choose mobile over other digital connections. This ease of use and the attending dramatic adoption rates are largely responsible for the growth in mobile ads, mobile email, mobile websites, and mobile apps that follow and feed the consumer trends. The impact is felt across channels and verticals but it need not be an all or nothing commitment for you. Only you can assess how important mobile viewing and interactions are to your business, and the "right" strategy will be dependent on many variables including your audience demo and smartphone or tablet adoption, your competitive environment, available budget, and digital goals.

Your minimum requirements may range from a tiptoe approach that cautiously tests your mobile opportunity to a full-out plunge into the mobile waters. But what may be a small test for a large or mobile-critical organization may seem like a plunge to a smaller business or one less reliant on mobile marketing, viewing, or interactions. Keeping that in mind - here are some ways to either tiptoe into mobile or advance to take the plunge.

Mobile Tiptoes

• Prepare for any mobile recommendations or budget requests by checking your site stats on a regular and recurring basis. What percentage of your audience is coming from a smartphone or tablet? Distinguish between the two. Set up your analytics to assess the behavioral characteristics of these groups. How did they find you? Are they new customers for you? Are they good customers?
• Make sure your site experience on the most popular mobile devices is a good one. You'll have to do some rigorous quality assurance (QA) across devices and platforms. Mobile-friendly sites need not mimic every function or include all the content on your website, but they should satisfy the mobile user's needs and provide a positive, integrated experience that allows for more interaction, if desired.
• If you are running a paid search program create a new ad group for mobile searchers that recognizes the different frame of mind of the on-the-go consumers. Their potentially timely and location-based needs may vary sharply from other searchers and that should impact your copy, bidding, and testing strategies. It also helps with budget management to have them in their own ad group. Make sure you have the mobile-friendly landing pages to send users.
• Ensure that your email is readable and actionable from mobile devices and test segmenting mobile readers for a different messaging strategy and cadence.
• Make good use of social options with mobile viewers. Users are an easy click away from sharing, rating, reviewing, commenting, etc…and you don't want to lose that opportunity.

Mobile Plunges

• Build mobile-specific destinations and experiences. A mobile site or an app can be a new point of entry that provides a unique experience for your viewers and may also bring new users to your brand family.
• Expand your concept of push marketing beyond email to include opt-in text advertising. While the great majority of emails are never seen by their intended target, the vast majority of SMS messages are opened and seen within minutes of sending.
• Incorporate mobile ads, including video ads, into your media plan to reach your audience where they spend an increasing portion of their time online. Take them through a mobile funnel to mobile conversions and track that separately.
• Make mobile commerce easy or integrate with other e-commerce opportunities to start or finish the sale in mobile.

What's next for the very mobile inclined? Follow retail leaders as they wrestle with how to make their brick-and-mortar stores more online shopping-friendly or conversely work to guard against mobile price shopping comparisons. We can expect more offer pushes via text including indoor exact location positioning. Augmented reality could breathe new life into QR codes or replace them completely, and Articulated Naturality Web (coming) is augmented reality and then some: imagine pointing your smartphone to a restaurant and getting a coupon for a competing restaurant across the street; pointing your phone to the sky and getting a weather forecast.

Whether you are in tiptoe mode or plunge mode, remember that the mobile experiences and opportunities that you provide do not stand alone. Your mobile consumer may and probably does touch you in multiple ways, so strive for consistency and use each channel in the most impactful way possible.

Original Article...

Every Email Version Is Your 'Mobile Version'

Mike Hotz | ClickZ | June 27, 2012

What a difference a year makes.

Return Path reported last month that mobile device email opens increased 82 percent over March 2011. At the same time, email read on the iPad increased 54 percent. Marketers are seeing an average of 30 percent of emails opened on mobile devices, with this rate expected to climb to over 50 percent by the end of 2012.

Some other telling results: 63 percent of U.S. smartphone users say they would delete an email not optimized for their mobile device. Only 2.4 percent of smartphone users said they would open an email on both their mobile devices and computers.

In May 2011, I recommended that you start optimizing your email creative for viewing on mobile devices ("Optimize Your Email for Mobile").

This new research indicates that the time to prepare is behind us. You can no longer think you've done your job if you simply link to a "mobile version" in your preheader.

Every version of your email is now a mobile version with almost nine of every 10 email readers checking messages via mobile devices every day.

It is now imperative to make your email creative easy to view on a mobile device. Your creative needs to adapt whether your subscriber is reading it on a desktop, a tablet, or a mobile device.

Design With Mobile in Mind
As more subscribers use their smartphones to view your email, it becomes even harder to get the subscriber's attention in the mobile inbox. The mobile inbox takes up a third of the viewing space, leaving you only 200px to get your message across.

As a result, the subject line counts as your headline. Mobile users are relying heavily on subject lines to signal messages they should open immediately, so yours needs to be compelling and make an impact.

Consider these tips:

• Keep subject lines to 25 characters.
• Decrease number of navigation items to three.
• Continue to use HTML text. Most mobile email clients default to disabled images.

You also must keep the following creative considerations in mind when you are designing your creative for mobile devices:

• Increase font size. Many designers recommend a minimum of 14 pixels for body text and a minimum of 22 pixels for headlines. Apple will automatically increase small fonts to a minimum of 13 pixels. On Android devices, 16 to 18 scale-independent pixels are considered medium and large text sizes.
• Add contrast. Many factors make reading on a mobile phone challenging: smaller screen, lighting conditions, distractions, etc.
• Add padding between sections. A typical adult finger covers 45 pixels when pressed against a mobile screen. Make sure that your calls-to-action are padded at least 10 to 15 pixels to avoid frustrating tap errors.
• Use distinctive colors for links.
• Create larger buttons and links. Avoid clustering links in lists to make tapping more accurate.
• Design whole sections to be clickable.

Test a Responsive Layout
The ultimate in mobile-friendly emails is created using a responsive layout. Responsive-layout email creative relies on the same HTML code for all versions and uses media queries to style the HTML based on screen size.

Subscribers viewing the creative on larger screens (desktop, tablet) see the full design, while subscribers using native email apps see the smaller mobile version.

REI is an excellent example of a marketer that has gotten this concept right. Its navigation condenses down from four items on the desktop version to two across on the mobile view.

The primary imagery and content in the creative can scale to drop extra space when viewed on a smartphone. Tertiary messages are designed so that the image can be hidden while the overall message stays intact.

Desktop/Tablet version	Smartphone version

The Last Word
If you have been on the fence about getting your email creative in shape for mobile devices, now is the time.

Your subscribers' move toward mobile is not showing any signs of slowing down. You can no longer assume that mobile users are returning to their desktops to get the full email experience.

Don't try to fit everything in your desktop version of an email message into your mobile version. The secret is to plan to streamline content and ensure that your subscribers get your message and take action no matter which device they use to view your content.

Research shows that 63 percent of U.S. consumers who have made a purchase via their smartphone did so in response to a marketing message delivered via mobile email.

If you ensure a good experience across devices, you can bank on a continuing increase in opens, clicks, and conversions.

Original Article...

Google Claims Nearly 80% of U.S. Search Advertising Spend in Q2 2012

By Jason Hahn | DM Confidential | July 4, 2012

IgnitionOne recently released its “Online Advertising Report: Q2 2012.” Among the findings was that search spend in the second quarter of 2012 slowed down from the growth observed in the first quarter of the year. Also, Google claimed for nearly $8 out of every $10 spent on U.S. search advertising in the second quarter.

In the second quarter, paid search spending grew 15.5 percent year-over-year, slower than the 30.3 percent growth seen in the first quarter and the 22.4 percent growth in the fourth quarter of 2011.

According to IgnitionOne, clicks were up 13.2 percent year-over-year in the second quarter, also slower than the 29.1 percent increase seen in the previous quarter.

Total cost-per-click (CPC) was up 2.1 percent year-over-year, with Google’s CPC down 3.1 percent. “This continued decrease can be blamed on increasing reliance on mobile, which has cheaper CPCs as well as increasing use of new ad formats which are generally lower PPC clicks,” according to the report.

Bing/Yahoo, on the other hand, saw its CPC surge 24.3 percent, about the same as its increase in the previous quarter. IgnitionOne attributes this to the alliance’s promotion of best practices, “which led to greater competition in auctions through the increased use of broad match keywords as a stepping stone for exposure across other match types.”

In the second quarter, Google held 79.1 percent of U.S. search engine ad spend, while Bing/Yahoo claimed 20.9 percent. Google grew its share of search ad spend by 11.4 percent year-over-year, while Bing/Yahoo increased its spend by 32.9 percent year-over-year.

Spending on mobile search ads is up 333 percent year-over-year, according to IgnitionOne. Impressions are up 130 percent and clicks are up 325 percent.

According to the report, mobile search claimed 14 percent of total search advertising spend in the second quarter, a 12.3 percent increase from the previous quarter. Tablets accounted for 60 percent of mobile search advertising spend in the second quarter, while mobile phones accounted for the other 40 percent.

IgnitionOne pointed out that travel search advertising spend grew 37.8 percent year-over-year, compared to its 22.8 percent growth in the first quarter. Impressions grew 61.9 percent year-over-year, a notable rise from the 34.3 percent growth in the previous quarter.

The report also shared an estimate that Facebook’s real-time bidding advertising platform will drive an incremental 12-15 percent in retargeting budgets and drive overall display spend higher.

Original Article...

SEO Results in Less than One Month

Brian Starzec | HVAC Business Solutions | July 2, 2012

On June 12, 2012 we launched two websites for one of our customers - Air Clinic - and then proceeded with SEO.  Roughly two weeks later, on June 27, we ran our initial progress report and were delighted that both websites went from only ranking on their name to ranking on the first page of Google for several air conditioning specific keywords for service and repair (see the images below).

Normally we wouldn't see this type of result so quickly, but it does show that it is possible to achieve results with the right set of circumstances - take an existing website, update the code properly, then apply search-engine approved SEO techniques with a very specific local target and it is possible to get achieve results sooner than expected. 

If you are interested in improving your website's rankings this summer, please contact us immediately - 713-270-6400.  We only work with one company for a given targeted area and we provide a guarantee on our services. 

Primary Website After Two Weeks of SEO

Second Website After Two Weeks of SEO

Please note that in the rankings report above, the number listed in the search engine column reflects the overall rank for the keyword.