35 Posts to Define Your 2012 Pay-Per-Click Marketing Strategy

Still trying to figure out Pay-Per-Click? Well get ready to bookmark some of the best tips, tricks and industry tid-bits from this list of 35 awesome blogs posts on the topic written in 2011.

Tips and tricks in the PPC game

  1. Can an Intern Do Your PPC
    Because PPC is not a “set it and forget” process, interns may not be the best choice for handling a PPC campaign. However, there are several key tasks identified in the below posts that are perfect to assign to young staffers looking to gain experience in digital marketing.
  2. Adjusting Your Thinking: 3 Concepts for Moving from Traditional Advertising to PPC
    Are you ready to make the switch from traditional advertising to PPC? This post will help you gain a better grasp on the new media and perhaps even help you explain it to someone else.
  3. PPC Marketing: 10 Killer Tips for Better ROI
    It’s been a guiding principle of marketing since the dawn of time: Location, Location, Location. This tactic holds true in PPC marketing as well. This tip, along with nine others, can help establish a campaign with great ROI.
  4. 8 Best Ways to Find Negative PPC Keywords
    Negative keywords help target traffic properly and help lessen the chance your ads will display on irrelevant searches. This post gives eight easy tips for incorporating and finding negative keywords.
  5. How to Challenge Your PPC Campaigns
    The author of this post created a check list to help her clients ensure they are getting value from their PPC campaigns. This is a great list for those who are new to PPC and a great reminder for seasoned pros.
  6. 20 Conversion Rate Optimization Terms to Know
    This is an inclusive list of the buzz words and acronyms that dominate the industry. This is particularly helpful for those just entering the PPC market and want to take control of their campaigns without sounding like a novice.
  7. 7 Winning Strategies for PPC Remarketing Success
    Providing seven key areas to target when remarketing, this post examines how visits to various pages within your website can either bring a user back or get them to convert.

Mobile marketing & PPC

  1. Coming Soon: AdWords Tablet Targeting
    AdWords is planning to automatically turn on its new feature to help target tablet users. This post asks several questions to help you decide whether the feature will be a benefit to your PPC campaign and whether you should keep the feature activated.
  2. iPad Traffic Share at 96% As Google Plans Motorola Acquisition
    The iPad has continued to dominate the tablet market and in 2011 continued to see growth in ad traffic. Nearly 70% of all ad clicks come from iOS devices and 27% on Android. Google’s plans to acquire Motorola may create a true contender in the mobile market.
  3. Exploding Growth of Mobile Search Makes Call Tracking Essential for the Automotive Industry
    Visitors to mobile auto sites grew 463% over the course of just one year, creating a demand for conversion solutions within the industry. A new study has shown that 21% of users access auto content every day. Are you ready to take advantage of such staggering statistics?
  4. The GoMo Initiative: Tips for Creating Mobile-Friendly PPC Campaigns
    The usage of smartphones and tablets is continuing to grow. There are several key strategies to making your website and advertising campaign mobile friendly. Have you begun considering a mobile strategy?
  5. More Ways to Reach Your Audience with YouTube Mobile Ads
    Advertisers are branching out to include YouTube in their mobile strategy. Results for a recent Nielsen survey find that brand recall jumps to 74% for people who saw ads across a variety of platforms including smartphones and tablets versus just 50% for those who saw ads on TV alone.

Facebook ad fascination

  1. Facebook: You Can Lead a Horse to Water…
    We all know Facebook is a critical tool, but some brands have not entered this venue. The author provides compelling evidence as to why a Facebook branding page may be one of the most valuable assets in business.
  2. 3 Ways in which Facebook’s PPC Outperforms Traditional PPC
    The social nature of Facebook may be one of the greatest assets in a PPC campaign. The social factor opens opportunities for advice and suggestions from friends on purchases and when an ad appears for a retailer offering that product, consumers are likely to buy.
  3. Social Media and Online Advertising Help You Reach Your Audience
    Does Facebook’s tailored advertising creep you out? The author takes a closer look at the privacy concerns surrounding Facebook from a marketer’s point of view. But the real question is how do consumers feel about t the targeted ads.
  4. LinkedIn PPC vs. Facebook PPC—An Initial Assessment
    Looks like both platforms have a place in the game. LinkedIn appeals more to B2B marketers since the social media site is able to target specific decision makers in business whereas Facebook may be more geared to B2C advertising.
  5. Facebook Ads Do Not Work
    Admitting he was wrong, this author reexamines his long-held belief that Facebook ads don’t work. His change of heart came after reading about a man who earned more than $3,000 per day using his Facebook ad account.

AdWords archives and Google groupings

  1. Keyword Research Tip: The “Real Goldmines” Are in Your Content
    Even though most people are focused on keyword tools to help maximize ROI, the real “goldmines” may very well be the content provided. This post give 5 reasons why content is King even in the PPC world.
  2. Making Search More Secure….and PPC More Appealing
    Google is proving to itself and its users that they are “not a Big Brother type entity” and are “concerned with protecting their users’ privacy.” In October, the company made the announcement that they will no longer track queries for users signed into a Google account. However, PPC data will not be encrypted keeping marketers on top of their game.
  3. Facebook Bans Users for Trying to Attract Customers to Google+… Facebook Guilty of Hypocrisy
    BlackHat PPC takes a look at Facebook’s blatant hypocrisy in advertising. “It’s okay for Facebook to advertise on Google to attract users to Facebook, but when the tables are turned and a user advertised Google on Facebook…they get their account suspended.”
  4. Google +1 is Changing the Face of PPC. Are you Ready?
    Google’s working to integrate AdWords into its newest venture in social media. Marketers need to pay attention to the benefits of Google+ as it may begin affecting quality score.
  5. Get close to your customers with Google+
    This is a great introduction to Google plus’s brand pages. It gives great tips and tricks for utilizing the new social media platform for advertising and brand growth.
  6. Thoughts on AdWords’ Slaps, Bans and Recovery
    It’s been reported that AdWords recently banned more than 50,000 accounts without explanation. It seems that Google is not only banning users for current infractions, but also for those from the past.

Best PPC infographics

  1. Most Expensive Keywords in Google AdWords
    This infographic examines the top 20 categories in Google AdWords and several keywords in each category. These top 20 categories are vital to Google’s business since many can command up to $50 per click.
  2. Learn How Google Works: in Gory Detail
    This is a great infographic on how the Google bots filter your blog posts. All of the work culminates in less than one second, billions of times a day and generates more than $20 billion in revenue for Google.
  3. Digital Marketer Views on SEO, PPC & Social Media
    This great visual shows how PPC still gets more budget dollars for targeting consumers over SEO even though SEO proves to have the biggest impact on lead generation. In addition, social media continued to show its power with half of closed leads coming from social media channels.
  4. Social Media, Email, PPC and SEO – Your Guide to Online Marketing
    This infographic provides key strategies for nearly every aspect of online marketing including a week by week timeline for integration of strategies. This is a great tool for both newbies and experts.
  5. Facebook Wall of Shame: Facebook’s Failures, Criticisms and Missteps
    This great visual shows some of Facebook’s most notorious actions over the past few years including its privacy “SNAFUs,” unwelcome changes and its short-lived Facebook Deals.
  6. SEO vs. PPC
    Confused about the difference between SEO and PPC? This infographic examines the two and provides a great visual to help all understand the why you would select one tactic over the other.

Newsworthy notations and PPC points of view

  1. The Tyranny of Free
    “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch, ” was a phrase often used by this author’s Economics 101 professor and while many online components appear “free” there are several angles that allow the “offering party to make money.”
  2. Wasted Ad Spending
    Are there times your AdWords bill seems a little higher than it should be. Perhaps Spam is the culprit. Many legitimate ads are being filtered to spam websites like amezen.com or yotube.com and it may be worth your while to investigate if any of your ads are being placed on these sites.
  3. Are Your Web Visitors Converting Online?
    Did you know that more than 60% of website visitors completed their purchases offline? The bigger question is how do you track your ROI for PPC marketing campaigns if your consumer is buying offline?
  4. What Makes People Buy? 20 Reasons Why?
    Understanding why people buy is Marketing 101. To create the most successful PPC campaign you must first understand this concept. This post offers 20 great reasons why people convert.
  5. A Social Thank You: Customer Value After Conversion
    Have you ever wondered if maybe there was more you could do after a conversion? This post examines an out-of-the box strategy to thank loyal customers, create more interaction and hopefully more sales.
  6. Mitt Romney Campaign Uses PPC Marketing to Attack President Obama, Not Newt
    Political ads have found their way to the PPC world. Ads are beginning to populate the web with Mitt Romney already campaigning against President Obama. The author provides five great tips on how political campaigns can take advantage of PPC ads.

Now go rock those PPC ads and start converting more. And don’t forget to send your Pay-Per-Click traffic to a landing page!

— Angela Stringfellow

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About Angela Stringfellow
Angela Stringfellow has spent the last few years of corporate life working in marketing management in the healthcare industry before transitioning her real-world marketing experience to the web. For the past several years, Angela has worked as a consultant with businesses small and large to build comprehensive social media campaigns, blogging and editorial strategies and enhance overall brand reputation and media presence, with a primary focus on Web 2.0 technologies and content marketing.
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