Internet advertising revenues reached historic highs in Q3 2012. The magic number? $9.3 billion! It would be a complete understatement to say that PPC is huge — it’s the backbone of commerce on the Internet.
Whether your marketing budget is $10 or $10 billion, performance marketing is one of the most important tools for building your business. Here are 30 resources to help you find the customers who want to find you.
Performance Marketing for Your Wallet
1. 6 Tips for Optimizing Small Budget PPC Campaigns
Search engine marketing (SEM) is awesome because you can be up and running for under $100. Once you see results, you can scale as far as your budget takes you. Test, be relevant, waste nothing, stay focused, know your ad network, and keep watch over your data. Remember that the big-picture means everything.
2. 13 Optimization Tips for Managing Low-Budget PPC Accounts
As PPC Hero eloquently points out, PPC budgets come in all shapes and sizes, so don’t be discouraged if you’re not a big spender. You need to make every dollar you spend count – here are 13 extremely practical tips to help you out. Our favorite tip? Be in control, and avoid having too many campaigns.
3. PPC Bid Management: Are You Managing Bids Effectively?
Okay, so you’re bidding on what – 5,000 keywords? You definitely can’t expect to watch each and every keyword individually. From Google Docs to native interfaces and algorithms, here is a breakdown of how to manage your bids better.
4. Is Your Quality Score Costing or Saving You Money
You probably know that your landing page quality score influences more than your ranking – it can save you money. According to Search Engine Watch, the magic number is 7 or higher. Anything lower is considered irrelevant.
5. How Even YOU Can Master PPC Campaign Management
Ever hear the expression that time is money? Nothing in this world is more true. Here’s a template from HubSpot to help you keep your PPC campaigns organized. If you love Excel, you’ll love this post.
6. SEO Vs. PPC: How Much Is a Search Engine Ranking Worth?
When comparing SEO to PPC, you may feel like you’re talking about apples and oranges, but the fact is that you aren’t – the end result is always customer acquisition. Here’s a quick primer on how to compare the value of both initiatives.
7. Google Looks to Prevent Accidental Clicks in Mobile Environment
Accidental clicks can be a drain on your budget. The UX of mobile can make it tough to advertise efficiently. Here’s what Google is doing about it.
8. Four Seasonal Keyword Research Tips
We love the ever-so-timely Super Bowl theme of this breakdown (okay, okay, the Superbowl was 5 days ago, but the Ravens are still celebrating). The team over at MarketingProfs did some extensive research into the seasonality and trends of keyword searches on Google. There was a near perfect correlation between the demand for chicken wings and buffalo chicken dip with the NFL season.
9. 5 Google Adwords Tips for a Small Budget
You’re interested in taking your small business online, but you don’t quite have the big brand budget. That’s okay. Here’s a step by step breakdown of how you can get up and running on AdWords with an extremely small budget. This post is super beginner-friendly with a detailed step-by-step of how AdWords works.
10. The 10 Commandments of Highly Successful Google PPC Ads
With Google holding 80% of the search engine market share, you may think that jumping into PPC advertising is a no-brainer. But there is a real strategy for getting started — here are 10 tips to help you do just that.
11. How to Manage Enterprise PPC
Large enterprises face a range of unique PPC management challenges. First of all, your team may be scattered all over the world.. Secondly, you need solid operations. And then there’s the whole data and analytics thing – another can of worms. This post will add some clarity to your operations.
For Your Strategy Beyond Google
12. A Simple Guide to Setting Up our First LinkedIn Ad Campaign
LinkedIn has value beyond its core marketing features – its ad network provides a powerful platform for reaching B2B audiences. You may have noticed that more marketers are turning to LinkedIn to promote their products, content, and services. Here’s how they’re doing it.
13. 5 Myths About Online Advertising
To say that online advertising is huge would be an understatement. According to a recent Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) study, online advertising accounted for 3.7 percent of the United States’ GDP in 2011. Don’t let these 5 myths bog you down from your strategy beyond Google.
14. Yahoo Intros Cost-Per-Lead Search Ads, First New Format Under Marissa Mayer
Search Engine Land used the word “groundbreaking” to describe this new technology. Why? Because it places a cost-per-lead ad just under an organic listing – to truly capture user interest. Yahoo also says that they’ll validate all leads. Would you give this a try?
15. Facebook Ads Case Study – Education Space
Facebook ads don’t work for everybody, but they could very well be awesome for you. If you’re popular on social and have a strong strategy, you could very well get 5 million impressions for $500. This case study will show you how an advertiser got more than 174K referrals for $1,500.
16. Facebook Ads Are Failing to Impress
Here’s one side of the Facebook debate that says that their ads just don’t work. The argument? Advertising revenue is way, way down. How come brands aren’t spending on this platform?
17. Triggit: Facebook Exchanges 36% Better than Google at Converting Retargeted Users
To advertise on Facebook or not to advertise on Facebook — it’s a neverending debate, isn’t it? It’s been a few months since the testing of Facebook Exchange (FBX), which allows for real-time bidding and retargeting on display inventory. Here’s what the data has to say.
18. 10 Top PPC Tips for 2013 (Bing Edition)
Props to Microsoft for this creative post. For this roundup, writer Simone Schuurer turned to Twitter for ten 140-character samples of top PPC wisdom. The roundup includes a great mix of feedback from marketers, authors, and personalities from across the online advertising industry.
19. How Hugo Boss and Virgin Atlantic Can Improve Their Retargeting
If you love big brand case studies, then you’ll love this post. It’ll show you some examples of common marketing disconnects as well as active steps that brands should take to bridge these types of gaps.
20. Retargeting Tips for Highly-Regulated Advertisers
Finance and health verticals have different restrictions when it comes to online advertising. Sometimes, the judgment calls you need to make are less than clear-cut. If you’re a marketer for a highly regulated industry, this post is a must-read.
21. The Biggest Myths About Paid Channel Marketing
Display doesn’t work, ads are spammy, and PPC campaigns can run on autopilot. If you’re following these tips, you’re probably making some big mistakes. Here are some tips to help you wise-up.
22. Outbrain Wants to Be the Google AdWords of Content Recommendation
Is content recommendation part of your PPC strategy? If you’re not sure how to answer this question, be sure to check out this article to see how this one company is creating a new ecosystem for online publishing.
For Your Landing Page: The Light at the End of the Tunnel
23. How to Optimize Contact Forms for Conversions
Neil Patel boosted his website conversion rates by 26% by removing one form field. The experience inspired him to create an infographic. As always, thanks for helping us learn, Neil.
24. 23 Landing Page Optimization Articles from the Best in The Business
Is it cheating if I make this Unbounce list longer by linking to this CrazyEgg one? This roundup comes straight from the CrazyEgg Blog and covers topics like headline formulas, conversion rates, virality, and prelaunch pages.
25. How to Run A/B Tests that Give Your Business Big Wins
Here’s how you resolve those ‘judgment call’ arguments with your boss. She likes red, but you like pink. Which one wins? The answer is in the data.
26. 20 Fast Facts About PPC Agencies
If you’re thinking of working with a PPC agency but aren’t sure where to start with your research, here’s a quick primer to help you find the right partnership.
27. 11 Simple (But Critical) Tips for Creating Better Landing Pages
No matter how many people you bring to your website, you won’t generate leads without the right landing pages. Here are 11 tips for making these mission-critical marketing tools work more effectively. Without a robust landing page, your PPC strategy means nothing.
28. 10 Articles to Kickstart Your Video Marketing Growth
Thinking of adding an explainer video to your landing page but aren’t sure where to start? Here is a collection of inspiration to get you going.
29. 10 Super Smart People Talk Copywriting for Conversion
We wanted to include at least one copywriting post for this roundup — but then we decided that the list would be better with 10. Luckily, Oli did a killer roundup last week. Here are some of his favorite posts on conversion-driven copywriting.
30. How to Sell with Six Words or Less
The tagline is one of the most concentrated yet powerful forms of marketing. When used correctly, they can pack a heck of a lot of punch into just a few words. This post will help you see how three world-class companies are able to sell with six words or less.
Your Thoughts
From posts on AdWords to debates about Outbrain and your favorite landing page optimization strategies — what performance marketing posts would you add to this list? Be sure to share your thoughts & favorites in the comments below.