An often overlooked aspect of ad optimization, A/B testing is a way of comparing two versions of the same ad to gauge their performance. One of the biggest reasons testing is so important, especially in search engine marketing (SEM), is because the higher “quality” of an ad, the better placement it receives on the page….
Could you imagine if you visited the website of a restaurant and they forgot to include their hours of operation? You would be left wondering: How late do they serve food? What time do they open for breakfast? Are they open on Sunday? What if a bank did the same thing? With those variable weekend hours you would…
The world has gone mobile. And the twin sibling of mobile is local. Consider the following: Over 50% of searches are now done on mobile devices, officially eclipsing desktop traffic. 40% – 50% of mobile searches have local intent. In fact, accordingly to Google, “near me” searches have nearly doubled in the past year with…
Recognizing the importance of calls to local and many national merchants, Google is allowing AdWords advertisers now to bid on “Call Only” ads. This was discovered by Philly Marketing Labs. Here’s the official blog post. Advertisers can use a Google tracking number or their own (as in call extensions). Previously Google required a landing page or website…
With tax season upon us, what better time than now to look at how consumers are looking to file. According to search engine keyword performance data pulled from the LSA Insights database, searches for do-it-yourself (DIY) tax software in the 2013-2014 tax season far exceeded the number of searches for local tax service providers. Our analysis…
Today’s member spotlight is with The Search Agency, a global online marketing firm that combines high-tech and high-touch strategies to help clients engage their customers online and measure ROI beyond a reasonable doubt. The company is one of the US’s largest and fastest growing search marketing firms – named the largest independent U.S. search marketing…
When it comes to local search advertising, will SMBs be more inclined to utilize automated, self-service tools in coming years? Or will sales reps still play an important role? Only time will tell, but automated services does not equate to self service and small businesses struggle with the time needed to manage self service offerings….
In roughly 2004 the way that paid-search marketing was introduced to many small business advertisers was in the form of a “bucket of clicks” sold by yellow pages publishers and independent sales channels like the now defunct WebVisible. Paid clicks on Google and elsewhere were sold in bundles for a fixed price. That product was easy to…
Are you localizing your keywords correctly? I ask because many times we assume everyone searches online the same way we do. We think that because we do something one-way, surely everyone else does it too, right? That is not always the case, especially when we are trying to market to a specific location. To take…
