Finally, Microsoft have released their offline editing tool to the masses – adCenter Desktop has been available for download to a select few advertisers lucky enough to be included in Microsoft’s pilot program since last summer, but it is only since this weekend that it has been available to all. It’s still only a beta [...]

Search Laboratory have been shortlisted for the Innovation in Paid Search Award for its PPC Bid Management System. The system is unique in the way it optimises campaigns and allows our PPC managers to organise the campaign in a way that reflects search behaviour, rather than in the way that Google defines (around ad groups). [...]

One of the world’s largest infrastructure software companies has appointed a Yorkshire-based company to manage its Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns.

Novell, based in Waltham, MA, USA known for its infrastructure software including SUSE® Linux Enterprise, an operating system in use by businesses worldwide, has specific requirements for its search marketing campaign, including [...]

The recent onslaught of suspicious emails claiming to be from the AdWords team at Google, at the very least, wins a mention on this blog. This post is going to discuss this annoying yet highly damaging phishing technique.
 
Having received a rather professional looking email from AdWords asking for some updated account information would not have [...]

Spend 10 minutes looking for information on Google’s broad keyword match type and you will come across hundreds of articles and forum entries.  Most of them seem to be dead set against using it stating that it performs badly and is a waste of money.  While others seem delighted at the results they are getting.  [...]

Or at least it does if you’re retailing online, according to search trends from Google. The UK’s largest search engine reports that search volume for retail websites increased as much as 48% between August 2007 and January 2008. But what about this year with the gloomy economic outlook; can we expect a similar pattern?
 
The current [...]

What’s My Adwords Quality Score Now?
Google’s quality score system has been changed and we’re all learning how to understand it. My initial thoughts are that it was easier before. Although the minimum bid has indeed been replaced, that doesn’t mean your ads will show more often. In fact, some of them may be shown a [...]

In reaction to Microsoft’s bid to buy Yahoo, Yahoo ran a trial showing Google ads on Yahoo in the US. Slide 14 in this Yahoo Presentation to their stockholders gives a good explanation to exactly how the test worked (the rest of the presentation also makes for pretty interesting reading).
If Yahoo decided to go [...]

Driving relevant traffic to your website is the most important aspect of PPC management. This means having a very specific set of keywords. However, being more specific with your keyword targeting will lower the overall volume of traffic you can expect to receive. This may lead to missed opportunities and underachievement. Advertising on search engines [...]

In the coming weeks, Google is planning to make some fundamental differences to the way each keyword’s quality score is calculated.

Previously, adwords quality score was worked out based on the past behavior of the keyword and the click-through rate of the ad (and a multitude of other semi-enigmatic factors). And once the score had [...]