Paid Search Articles
The Future of Cataloging?
- March 2008
- Catalog Success "The Corner View" Newsletter
Here are nine predictions. Taken together, they paint a bleak picture for traditional cataloging. read more...
Use Online Testing To Increase Print Catalog Response Rates
- March 2008
- Catalog Sucess
This article assumes that insights gained from Web testing lead to effective print catalog presentations. That is our “Big Assumption.” If you disagree, skip to the next article. No hard feelings; see you next month. Still reading? Good. There are two decent reasons to accept the Big Assumption. read more...
14 Hot Ideas in Free and Paid Search
- January 2008
- Catalog Success
Are you on top of today’s hottest ideas in free and paid search? Here are 14 easy-to-implement ways to get your site to the top of everyone’s results. Each could support a full article in its own right, so I’ve also provided additional links to help you dig in further. read more...
Will CyberMonday Fall on a Wednesday? Looking Ahead to the Holiday 2007 Season
- November 2007
- rimmkaufman.com
All the hype creates the impression that CyberMonday is actually the year’s highest volume online shopping day. While this may be true for a few online businesses, data from 100+ retailers shows that the majority of businesses see their top sales days a couple of weeks after CyberMonday. read more...
Search Engine Marketing: Three Big Ideas For Your SEM Campaigns … Now!
- October 2007
- Target Marketing
For many direct retailers, search has become the leading advertising channel for customer acquisition, and its importance still is growing. Here are three big ideas to help you get more from your paid search marketing and your natural search marketing going into the fourth quarter of 2007. read more...
What Every Multichannel Merchant Should Know About Paid Search Performance Audits
- October 2007
- Catalog Success
As paid search marketing grows in importance and consumes a larger share of catalogers’ acquisition budgets, it’s prudent to scrutinize these programs regularly. You want to make sure your plans are being executed correctly, and that your precious marketing dollars are being used intelligently. Here are recommendations for auditing paid search marketing campaigns. read more...
Google AdWords Paid Search Advertising In Close 2006 US Senate Races
- November 2006
- RKG White Paper
To observe the use of paid search advertising in the final hours of the 2006 US midterm elections, we queried Google for the names of candidates running in swing Senate races and analyzed the resulting 569 ads. This study presents the results of the research. read more...
An Empirical Study of Search Engine Advertising Effectiveness
- August 2006
- Working Paper, Simon School of Business University of Rochester
The second and third largest search engines, Yahoo and MSN, respectively, have joined Google in ranking ads by a mix of maximum bid, click through rate, and subjective factors, or soon will do so. This makes position-based bid approaches much more difficult to control. Advertisers must rely on instantaneous and average position data to manage bids in their attempt to hold a certain position on the page. This study, conducted in the waning months of the older Overture (now Yahoo) platform, offers a rare glimpse into the tradeoff between position and bid, and hopefully informs the newer more complicated environment. read more...
The Incremental Value of Paid Search
- June 2006
- DM News
What portion of sales driven by paid search advertising is incremental? For catalogers, incremental PPC contributes 14% of total online sales, for retailers with bricks and mortar outlets 7%, for e-commerce pure plays 52% read more...
Give Your Search Marketing Campaigns a Checkup
- June 2006
- Catalog Success Magazine
For many catalogers, pay-per-click (PPC) search represents the largest line in their web marketing budget. Just as you should visit your dentist twice yearly for a checkup, so should you conduct a routine search marketing audit every six months or so read more...
19 Tactics For Suppressing Online Sales
- February 2006
- Catalog Success Magazine
Was your company swamped with online orders during Holiday '05? Did excessive web sales place undue strain on your business? If so, here are 19 tactics to torpedo your online conversion rate and impede your web sales. read more...
The Economics of Online Marketing
- December 2005
- Catalog Success Magazine
From this article, you'll learn how to determine the efficiency of your online advertising efforts and how to calculate the maximum cost per click for those campaigns. read more...
Annual Checkup For Search Programs
- October 2005
- Direct Magazine
Just because your search results look good in aggregate doesn't mean the program is healthy and running at maximum efficiency. Once a year, or more often, a detailed evaluation of your program is in order. It will pay big dividends in the long run. read more...
Ten Tips for Online Testing
- September 2005
- Catalog Success Magazine
Savvy catalogers have long used testing to improve their mail businesses. As the web matures, catalogers are bringing the same discipline to their online marketing efforts. This article offers 10 tips for running direct marketing tests in the online world. read more...
SEM Top 10: Tame Your Affiliates
- July 2005
- MultiChannel Merchant
Your Affiliates Should Not Compete Against You Catalogers must continually generate new buyers to keep their house-file healthy. They’re always keen to discover hot new channels for acquisition, and to uncover tricks for wringing more new buyers from established channels. Over the past five years, online affiliate programs have become increasingly popular among catalogers. Many [...] read more...
SEM Top 10: Monitor Brand vs. Non-Brand
- July 2005
- MultiChannel Merchant
Break out Brand vs Non-Brand Paid Search Economics Digging into the details can help you win sales from each advertising dollar. To maximize return on their paid search efforts, savvy direct marketers slice and dice their reports, analyzing their results by phrase concept, copy, landing page, engine and time of day. The resulting insights help retailers [...] read more...
SEM Top 10: Bid for Profit Not Position
- July 2005
- MultiChannel Merchant
Bidding For Position Is Dangerous Faced with the bid spasms of some of their competitors, marketers may be tempted to measure their success by the most readily visible metric: Position on the page. But bidding to position is dangerous. Clicks typically do rise with position but sales-per-click may not, and worse, this approach to [...] read more...
SEM Top 10: Always be Testing
- July 2005
- MultiChannel Merchant
Each Element of a Search Ad is Ripe For Testing Savvy direct marketers understand that ongoing testing is the key to improving results. Done right, paid search advertising lends itself well to this rigor: Each element of a paid search ad- keyword, copy, and destination page- can be the basis of a profitable test regimen. [...] read more...
SEM Top 10: Get More from your Shopping Feeds
- July 2005
- MultiChannel Merchant
Where keyword paid search allows marketers to advertise on relevant phrases, feed-based search allows you to advertise relevant URLs. These shopping comparison data-feeds can be an effective way to ensure the engines send traffic to every page on your site that you wish. read more...
SEM Top 10: Dig into The Details
- July 2005
- MultiChannelMerchant.com
Ultimately, winning at search requires getting the details right. Once you're up and running with the basics, reap more from your advertising budget by exploring the subtleties and mastering nuance. The tips in this article are among the details worthy of your attention. read more...
SEM Top 10: Supervise your ‘bot
- July 2005
- Catalog Success
As useful as a smart bidding robot can be, even more important to success in paid search marketing is making sure a smart person supervises that 'bot, particularly during key selling seasons. read more...
SEM Top 10: Write Targeted Ad Copy
- June 2005
- MultiChannel Merchant
Higher Positions Usually Cost More Targeting your ad copy is a powerful lever: It can raise your ad efficiency by increasing your qualified clicks, so you grow sales in a way that’s cost-effective. read more...
SEM Top 10: Track Everything
- June 2005
- Multi Channel Merchant
With as many as 20,000 unique phrases for a 2,000 product site, tracking is key. To manage your program with precision, you’ll need a unique tracking code for each one of your paid search ads. read more...
SEM Top 10: Grow Your Phrase List
- June 2005
- Multi Channel Merchant
The heart of a successful paid search campaign is a well designed, comprehensive keyword list. How many phrases or keywords you need depends on the nature of your business and the size of your product assortment. read more...
How Much to Spend Acquiring a New Buyer
- June 2005
- LettDirect
What's the right amount to spend on new customer acquisition?" Direct marketers have to bring in each year at least as many new buyers as those buyers who stop buying, lest the business spiral into sales decline. And direct marketers seeking growth need even more. read more...
Can You Trust Your Paid Search Reports?
- May 2005
- DM News
Paid search allows advertisers to match sales to corresponding ad expense, buying more of what works and less of what doesn't. But do you really know what's working? You don't if your data are inaccurate. Reviewing performance data from search marketers over the last three years, our firm has found significant data errors in almost one quarter of the programs. read more...
Choosing A Search Marketing Vendor
- March 2005
- Marketing Profs
Thinking of hiring a vendor to help your firm with search marketing? This essay offers some suggestions on deciding which services you may need and which firm might best provide them to you. Accompanying this essay is a survey for evaluating potential vendors. read more...
Survey: How to Choose a Search Marketing Vendor
- March 2005
- Marketing Profs
In March, 2005, the online marketing community site MarketingProfs tapped Alan Rimm-Kaufman to write an essay and RFP on “Choosing A Search Marketing Vendor.” The following RFP accompanies that essay. Our thanks to I-Prospect for their thoughtful comments. For further information on the questions in this survey, please refer to accompanying essay. CONTACT [...] read more...
Hidden Treasures of the Web
- September 2004
- Catalog Success Magazine
The web is full of hidden treasures tucked away in odd corners. The trick, sometimes, is simply knowing where these interesting spots are. For this article, I polled catalogers and e-retailers for their suggestions of lesser-known online resources, information sources, and new ideas related to e-commerce. read more...
Paid Search For Catalogers, 2004
- May 2004
- Catalog Success Magazine
Many marketers are enjoying great results from paid search marketing. Beyond the tactics of pay-per-click, this article asks and answers eight strategic questions about this channel. read more...
Successful Search Engine Marketing
- October 2003
- Catalog Success Magazine
As more retailers roll out successful paid search campaigns, online ad dollars are pouring into the channel. How can a smart cataloger use search engine marketing to drive profits? This article offers twelve tips and one prediction. read more...