Jason Puckett says, “Studying psychology as it relates to marketing is no new concept. Using emotions to drive decision-making is a theory that marketers have been taking advantage of since the dawn of advertising. In the realm of search marketing, this is no different. However, instead of a 30-second television or radio spot, advertisers have a maximum of 170 characters to get the point across. Google’s expanded text ad makes this a bit easier, but not by much. Typically, the main focus of search marketing has been to increase visibility, but, as certain markets become more competitive,... [...]

Dianna Huff says, “In my 17 years as a B2B SEO and marketing consultant, I hadn’t really considered giving PPC a go until Google changed the layout for its search results to remove right-side ads on desktop and to increase the number of ads appearing above the organic results to as many as four. Suddenly, SEO became a whole different ball game, especially since I work with small manufacturers, many of whom are SEO-challenged to begin with. Seeing the lower CTRs and my clients’ listings being pushed farther and farther down on the page, I realized it was time for me to learn AdWords so... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “When Google and its sibling companies at Alphabet buy ads on its own search engine, the company says it works to ensure that its participation in the ad auction doesn’t “directly inflate” what the other advertisers in that auction end up paying. The mechanics of those efforts can be hard to follow if you aren’t familiar with the AdRank system Google uses to decide which ads to show based on how much advertisers are willing to pay and the “quality score” assigned to each ad. Our story on Search Engine Land goes into those mechanics. But the bottom line is that... [...]

Barry Schwartz says, “Last Tuesday, Feb. 7, there seems to have been a Google algorithm change that adjusted how many sites rank — both for good and bad. I’ve been tracking the update since Feb. 8, and over time, more and more webmasters and SEOs have been taking notice of the ranking changes at Google. This seems to be unrelated to the unconfirmed link algorithm change from earlier in February. This new update seems to be more related to Panda, based on such things as content and site quality, versus link factors. Google has not confirmed the update and would not comment on what webmasters... [...]

Dianna Huff says, “In my 17 years as a B2B SEO and marketing consultant, I hadn’t really considered giving PPC a go until Google changed the layout for its search results to remove right-side ads on desktop and to increase the number of ads appearing above the organic results to as many as four. Suddenly, SEO became a whole different ball game, especially since I work with small manufacturers, many of whom are SEO-challenged to begin with. Seeing the lower CTRs and my clients’ listings being pushed farther and farther down on the page, I realized it was time for me to learn AdWords so... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Google and its sibling companies at Alphabet collectively bid on thousands of keywords in AdWords. That has been going on for years. The search giant has said its ad buying does not “directly inflate” pricing for other advertisers because “advertisers are charged as if it wasn’t bidding.” However, that’s not quite accurate. Participating in its own ad auctions has long raised conflict of interest objections. A report from The Wall Street Journal last month put a spotlight on the practice again with some eye-popping stats and renewed our questions about how... [...]

Daniel Burstein says, “The world is moving away from a standard view of advertising. Back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, advertising was fairly easy to identify. But what is it today? And what will it be tomorrow? These are the challenges that have been facing the advertising and marketing industry for at least the past decade. What should advertising be in the future? How do we get there? And, most importantly, who can answer these questions? The Wharton Future of Advertising Innovation Network So in 2008, Catharine Hays teamed up with Wharton’s SEI Center for Advanced Studies in Management,... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Bing Ads’ search retargeting, powered by its Universal Event Tag, lets advertisers create audience lists of users who have visited their sites after clicking on search ads. Now, advertisers can use those lists to keep past visitors that meet certain criteria from seeing their search ads. The ability to exclude audiences gives advertisers much more flexibility with their Bing Ads search retargeting. As just one example, advertisers will be able to keep users who’ve already made a purchase from seeing ads promoting a price reduction. As with regular audience targeting,... [...]

Andy Taylot says, “In response to the growing popularity of searches with local intent, Google released Local Inventory Ads (LIA) a few years ago as a variation of Product Listing Ads (PLA) that include information on when a product is available at a nearby store location. Taking into account the local intent of each search query in determining when LIAs should be featured, Google can serve these units in a similar format to traditional PLAs, as well as in other LIA-specific formats, such as beneath a Google Maps display. These units are steadily becoming an important part of paid search... [...]

Joe Pulizzi says, “In this episode, Robert and I explore the Upworthy/Good merger and what it might signal for other agency/publisher M&A deals. We also discuss potential revenue models Medium might pursue, and talk about why it seems like digital advertising is shrinking for all publishers… except for Google and Facebook. Our rants and raves include CMO.com and Digital Sense; then we wrap up with some home-brewed enthusiasm for our example of the week. If you enjoy our PNR podcasts, we would love if you would rate it, or post a review, on iTunes.  1.    Notable news and upcoming... [...]