There is a phenomenon within organizations that causes productivity to decline as teams grow larger. This phenomenon is described in economics as a diseconomy of scale and is caused by at least three factors including increased communication costs, duplication of effort, and top-heavy management….
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Image from: Student Image / Shutterstock
The old model of communication (sender -> receiver) doesn’t really cut it anymore, especially with the ubiquity of social media in our digital world. Your search marketing efforts shouldn’t be any different. Allowing your search ads to be more interactive for consumers is a great way to increase engagement with your paid search campaigns, and at the same time, shows your potential customers that you “get it.” By adding game-like elements or social tie-ins to your search ads, your prospects will feel the need to click through and see what you have to offer.
Interacting with customers on their own turf is incredibly important for successful campaigns and one of the ways you can do that is by making your search ads more shareable or connected to your brand’s social media presence whether it’s an AdWords extension for Google+ or having your ad direct consumers to an e-commerce focused Facebook page.
Outgoing traffic for Yahoo! Search, as seen below, paints an interesting picture of the search engine’s users. Looking at site destinations can help to identify trends in consumer behavior in regards to where search engine users are going more frequently—whether through paid or organic search. Not shown below, #12 on the top growing list is the massively popular, up-and-coming social website Pinterest.com.
No matter which search engine your campaign is running on, incorporating social elements into your advertising remains critical. You may even consider focusing on Pinterest while the network is still young – it could be invaluable to your bottom line. Creating more social search ads will help support the strength of your campaigns across channels and organically increase the number of social search results from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+.
In a perfect world, all your marketing efforts should intertwine and support each other. Make it happen! Check out the first edition of Compete’s State of Search report to find out more about how you can optimize your search marketing campaigns to work well with all your online marketing assets.
Le 1er mai, notre marque pour les PME a changé de nom : « Microsoft Advertising » est devenu « Bing ».
Notre objectif est de simplifier notre collaboration avec les clients PME qui diffusent des liens sponsorisés. Ce changement se traduit par une plus grande synergie entre l’expérience publicitaire et notre moteur de recherche : tout au long de leur expérience publicitaire, les PME seront ainsi accueillies par cette iconographie propre à la page d’accueil Bing. Bing attire les internautes qui font des recherches pour prendre des décisions. Aussi, lorsque les PME publient ses annonces via adCenter sur les principaux sites de recherche tels que Bing et Yahoo!, elles peuvent facilement transformer leur publicité en ventes.
Voici quelques-uns des nombreux avantages dont les annonceurs de PME peuvent bénéficier avec Bing :
En France
SOURCES : 1. Comscore qSearch (custom) February 2012
Au niveau mondial
· Nous atteignons une audience aussi vaste qu’active en termes d’achat. Présentation des utilisateurs uniques sur Bing et Yahoo! Search : 19 % des internautes uniques du monde entier qui utilisent Bing, Yahoo! Search ou nos sites partenaires n’utilisent pas Google.1 Ils sont aussi :
Nous attendons avec impatience vos commentaires à propos de ces modifications. N’hésitez pas à soumettre votre avis ci-dessous ou contactez-nous. Comme toujours, vos commentaires sont les bienvenus, car nous continuons de travailler à l’amélioration de l’expérience proposée par Microsoft à ses clients.
Merci,
Matt
When I first heard this news, I was incensed. Now I know that advertisers can opt-out of the changes, I am a little calmer, but still pissed.
Here’s the deal: Starting next month, Google is changing the way match types work in AdWords. From mid May onwards, misspellings, plurals and variations of your Exact Match and Phrase Match keywords on Google AdWords will trigger your ads. In the past, if you wanted your ad to appear for variations, abbreviations or misspellings, you would use Broad Match targeting. If you wanted your ad to appear for plurals or word stemming, you would use “Phrase Match” targeting. If you wanted your ad to appear only when searchers typed in a specific phrase/keyword, you used [Exact Match]. Now, by default, using Exact Match or Phrase Match targeting will ALSO trigger your ads for each of the described variations.
Despite Google calling this change *an improvement*, for all intents and purposes, this means Exact Match is dead. Yes, advertisers can opt-out of this so-called feature, but it is switched on by default, which means that new advertisers selecting Exact Match as a match type will wrongly assume their ads will only be triggered by exact matches of their keywords. It’s a pretty logical assumption! I don’t know about you, but I think that Exact Match should remain, you know, an EXACT MATCH. At the very least, they should change the match type to IN-exact Match so it is less misleading.
According to Search Engine Land, Google has already been testing the new functionality with advertisers and claims the change has resulted in a 3 percent rise in clicks, at comparable CPCs. In the same sentence, Google states that individual results will vary. No freaking kidding. Variations can account for a LOT of searches and for advertisers on a tight budget, this could spell disaster. Here’s an example: if you are an artist selling color prints of your artwork and targeting [color prints] as an exact or phrase match, would you want your ad to be triggered if someone types in *color printers*? No. But it seems this is a distinct possibility under the new rules.
With this move, it feels like Google is taking away some of the minimal control advertisers have over how/when their ads appear in their increasingly annoying quest to make more money for shareholders. I say hands off our Exact Match Google!
What do you think? Do you feel like the changes are reducing the control you have over your campaigns? Please add to the discussion in the comments.
As we initiated the Microsoft and Yahoo! Search Alliance, we committed to offer each of our customers a quality transition towards the newly formed combined market place. We are now about to enter the final stage of the alliance implementation and start combining Bing and Yahoo! Search audiences on one global platform, Microsoft Advertising adCenter.
Ad Serving transition begins 18 April
Next week, we begin to shift ad serving for Yahoo! Search over to Microsoft Advertising adCenter. This means that adCenter ads will gradually be displayed on Yahoo! Search result pages in the UK, France and Ireland. This process will begin as early as the 18th of April and is expected to conclude during the last week of the month when 100% of the Yahoo! traffic will be made available in adCenter and Yahoo! Search Marketing accounts will go in read-only mode.
As Yahoo! ad serving moves to adCenter, and your clicks and impressions in that account begin to increase, you’ll see a corresponding decrease in clicks and impressions in your Yahoo! Search Marketing account. It is thus important to continue managing your campaigns across both platforms throughout this transition phase, in order to avoid missing out on any potential clicks. To help you prepare, I wanted to share the following guidance to assist you through this transition.
Migrate your Yahoo! account to adCenter today
If you have a Yahoo! Search Marketing account, and haven’t already transitioned it to Microsoft Advertising adCenter, now is the time to do so. Take advantage of the easy-to-use transition portal available under the adCenter tab, when you sign into your Yahoo! account to complete your account transition. As a Yahoo! Search Marketing advertiser, you should have received instructions from Yahoo! on how to transition your Yahoo! campaigns to adCenter. If you haven’t received that communication from Yahoo!, contact your Yahoo! Account Manager or click here to send an email to Yahoo!.
Increase your adCenter budget for the transition
We recommend increasing your adCenter budget to prepare for the increased traffic once Yahoo! Search traffic ramps on adCenter from the 18th of April onwards. We suggest that your adCenter budget equals what you have previously been spending on both Microsoft and Yahoo! Search platforms. As a routine best practice, remember to increase your budget if it is within a 20% range of being fully depleted. For further insight into budgets in adCenter, click here.
Revisit your bidding strategy
Increase your keyword bids to prepare for increased competition from the new advertisers joining the adCenter auction. Also, consider expanding your bids across all match types and use negative keywords to ensure your impressions remain steady and relevant. Learn more about bidding in adCenter.
By following the instructions in the specially compiled Transition Checklist, small businesses will ensure to transition their accounts with ease and with little impact to their search marketing campaigns. If you want to get more advice and tips from our experts, I would recommend to attend our free online webinar: Search Alliance: Are you ready? on the 16th of April.
Towards a competitive search marketing alternative across Europe
By the end of the month, Yahoo! Search and Bing will offer a competitive search offering that provides advertisers both quality audiences and opportunities to leverage strategic partnerships to efficiently deliver a strong return on investment. This means adCenter users will benefit from the joint Bing and Yahoo! Search audiences in the UK, France and Ireland in addition to the already combined audiences in North America and India. And guess what, we are about to add a few more markets in the coming months, including Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
As always, we will keep you informed of our progress. So stay tuned.
Before I started my career in PPC, I knew about the basic account structure – campaigns, ad groups, keywords. So when I started, I always figured coming up with campaigns, ad groups, and keywords would be a piece of cake. How hard could it be? As long as you understand your product/client enough, should be pretty easy. Well, as it turns out, it can be pretty hard, especially when you’re trying to come up with expansion ideas for an established account!
One of the best sources for expansion is the target audience itself – specifically what exactly they’ve searched for that got them to click your ad in the first place. We look at search query reports to try to find themes that pop up that we never thought of before. But that can be really hard to do, especially if you’re dealing with a large volume of queries – the repeating patterns of themes can blend into a big ol’ mess of text.
Enter TagCrowd – a tool that takes a sample of text data and consolidates the trends contained within that data into an easy-to-digest graphical representation. In other words, it takes a whole lot of text and makes the most common themes stand out:
I think you can probably guess why this is useful and how it could be used to your advantage here! But here’s a brief tutorial on using TagCrowd for those that haven’t already jumped in and started playing around:
Start by pulling a Search Query report. You’re going to want to set a pretty long date range – six months should do it. Once you have that, sort by conversions, so your top-converting queries are at the top of the list. Since TagCrowd has a limit to the file size that it can analyze (3MB of pasted text or a 5MB plain text file), we only want to look at the terms that are performing best for you. So, take the top queries and paste them into the TagCrowd interface, or save as a plain text notepad file (.txt) that can be uploaded into the interface.
Now, before you go clicking “Visualize!” and getting your cloud, take a look at the options. You can set the maximum number of words you want displayed. I like to set this to 100 – not too big or too small. Set your minimum frequency – you don’t want words coming in that have only appeared a relatively small number of times, especially with a large data set. Set this somewhere between 50-100 for large data sets, set it lower for smaller data sets. Click “Yes” to “Show Frequencies?” so you don’t have to guess just how many times a word appears in your data set. I also like to keep similar words grouped, since we’re looking for themes. You also have the option to exclude words you KNOW don’t apply or on which you’re already bidding.
Alright, Champ, go ahead and click the big Visualize button now! It may take a little while to generate your cloud if you had a large data set. If it was too large, TagCrowd will eventually stop trying and yell at you. Cut your data set down (from the bottom) and try again. Once you get a look at your cloud, the terms that appear most frequently will be displayed the largest. In the example below (edited for client anonymity and hilarity), chances are I’m already bidding on “Shuffling” and “Turtles” terms, but “Cowboy” and “Grinding” terms may have eluded me in the past. Since we already know these terms are converting, let’s do some keyword research and put together a nice new campaign or ad group with which we can expand our account and increase performance!
Some other applications we’ve found for our clouds involve account refinement. In the same set of search query data, identify popular geographies or competitors by using options to filter out the main terms on which you’re bidding and other major themes that come up. For any two-word phrases, geographies, or competitors that you are aware of (e.g., “Sell Widgets”, “San Diego”, “SEER Interactive”) edit your data set before plugging into TagCrowd by doing a find-and-replace and inserting a tilde between words you want to keep together (so, search for “San Diego” and replace with “San~Diego” in order to keep it together as one term).
Use the results to your advantage by bidding on specific geo-modified terms, start or expand a competitor campaign, or to geo-target based on the most popular regions that come up. You can also use data from competitor spy tools that you’re already using for competitive analyses to pull thousands of keywords on which your competitors are likely bidding, and run them through TagCrowd to find the major themes that are common between all of your competition to make sure you’re bidding on them too!
It should be noted that TagCrowd is in a beta stage, and to use it for your business, you should purchase a commercial license. They will eventually be rolling out a premium business account as well. But in the meantime, give it a whirl and see if you can pull some new themes out of your users’ search queries! Let us know how it goes or if you’ve found any other creative uses for TagCrowd in your PPC accounts!
Many people are creatures of habit. If you are a commuter you have plenty of time to observe people’s habits. Two fellow commuters watch films on the train thus can’t hear themselves eating really loudly – annoying habit! One man always gets up for women – bit old fashioned but nevertheless charming habit. Nobody speaks to strangers on the train. Ever – Quiet British habit. We all have our habits and some are very effective and timesaving – especially when it comes to work.
Now onto the Microsoft and Yahoo! Search Alliance, and the associated migration: some things work a little different on adCenter than you may have been used to with Yahoo! Search Marketing or in fact Google adWords. In a series of four blog posts we’ll explain these differences to you (account set up, campaign management, keyword and ad customisation and reporting) so that adapting to these changes will soon be as normal as getting your morning coffee. Today we look at those things important to know when setting up an account.
A slightly different way of location targeting
Language and Location Targeting
Yahoo! Search Marketing allows setting Language and Market at the account level and enables geo-targeting of users at the campaign level. When you transition your Yahoo! account to adCenter, your campaigns will be set to Language and Location targeting. To illustrate with an example: Yahoo! account with language and market setting of En_UK will have its campaigns migrate in adCenter to language = English and Target Location = UK.
1. Location targeting in adCenter also offers you greater control to target by specific countries/regions, states/provinces, metro areas, or cities where your target customers are.
2. You can also target potential customers who live within a specified distance, or geographical radius, from one or more business locations or other types of locations.
3. If you target postal codes with Yahoo! Search Marketing, these settings will not transition to adCenter as we do not have these geographic designations in adCenter at this time.
After migrations make sure to check your ads to ensure they’re serving to the desired locations.
Microsoft adCenter does not currently allow you to block distribution in certain continents; rather, it enables you to select your targeting by language and location.
Time Zone
1. When you transition your Yahoo! Search Marketing account to adCenter, your master account level time zone will be automatically set as the default time zone for your account in adCenter, which will carry down to all of your campaigns for that account.
2. In adCenter, you also have the ability to set a time zone for each new campaign individually. The time zone should be where your office is located because it’s used for billing purposes and to help control your daily and monthly campaign budgeting. The time zone is not associated with the location of your potential customers.
Other recent blog posts on the Microsoft and Yahoo! Search Alliance:
Microsoft Yahoo! Search Alliance Results, Expectations and To Do’s
The Search Alliance: the Path to a More Competitive Search Market #bingyahoo
Microsoft and Yahoo! Search Alliance: the migration starts today in the UK and France #bingyahoo
British advertisers: get ready to benefit from a combined Yahoo! and Bing audience by April.
As always, if you have any questions or comments, let us know! Feel free to leave a comment below, post in our forums, ping us on Twitter, write on our Facebook wall or start a conversation in our new LinkedIn group.
Microsoft and Yahoo! are keen to bring advertisers the benefits of our combined audiences as soon as possible. We have completed the transition of organic searches globally, which means that any user performing a search on Yahoo! from a PC or a mobile is provided with Bing-powered results. With regards to consolidation of the audiences on one single ad platform, it is already live in the US, Canada and India and we have identified an opportunity to accelerate its implementation in the UK, France, and Ireland.
UK advertisers to access a combined audience this April
We are beginning to transition Yahoo! Search Marketing accounts to Microsoft Advertising adCenter today, on the 22nd of February. We would then expect to start ramping Yahoo! traffic to the adCenter platform as early as the 19th of March and to complete the paid search transition before the end of April for the UK, France and Ireland. As promised, our commitment is to keep you informed on the developments and any actions you may need to take during this transition period.
Next steps and key actions
As an adCenter advertiser you don’t need to do anything just yet. If you also advertise on Yahoo!, you can now access an easy-to-use portal from your Yahoo! Search Marketing account to migrate your Yahoo! campaigns to Microsoft Advertising adCenter. As a Yahoo! advertiser, you should also have received detailed instructions from Yahoo! by now on how to successfully transfer your campaigns to adCenter.
Then, starting around March 19th we expect to progressively start serving adCenter ads to Yahoo! searchers. The entire Yahoo! paid search volume is expected to be transitioned to adCenter within approximately two weeks from that date. Below is what you will need to do during this second phase of the paid search transition:
In the next few weeks, we will continue to publish more in-depth recommendations on this blog for you to prepare and set up your campaigns for success in the combined marketplace. If you cannot wait, there is already a wealth of resources published on searchalliance.com/uk, including detailed FAQs and a feature comparison highlighting the main differences between Yahoo! Search Marketing and adCenter and how to leverage them.
Towards a competitive search marketing alternative
Yahoo! Search and Bing will soon offer a competitive search offering that provides advertisers both quality audiences and opportunities to leverage strategic partnerships to efficiently deliver a strong return on investment. As mentioned above, we expect to complete the transition in the UK, France and Ireland before the end of April 2012. This means our advertisers are now just a couple months away from benefiting from the new joint audience. By then, you will be able to advertise on the full Yahoo! Search, Bing and their partner networks traffic through your adCenter campaigns.
Until then, we stay at your side to support you through this transition phase, to ensure there is minimal impact on your business.
We’ve been reimagining search campaign management, and the new Atlas Search is finally here and available for all Atlas clients!
EFFICIENCY
We set out to build a tool that was:
The Atlas Search Desktop Tool (ASDT) is all of those things. You can traffic up to 1mm keywords 
within 24 hours by simply exporting your keywords from the search engines, and then dragging and dropping the file into the tool. Click redirects are created at the click of a button and ready to upload back into the search engine. No really, it’s that simple!
MEASUREMENT
OK, so the ASDT will keep traffic time to the barest minimum. But when you’re using the ASDT, you also benefit from deeper connections between search engine data and Atlas data. You’ll be able to pull search engine dimensional and fact data side-by-side with Atlas data in MyReports, giving you the ability to assess campaign, ad group, ad, keyword, and landing page performance.
We’ve also updated our Advanced Analytics reports to ensure they’re compatible with the new, simplified click redirects created in the ASDT. To leverage deeper insights into your Search performance, you can request the:
Keyword Path Analysis report to help you uncover search behavior patterns to show which keywords drive prospects into and through your sales funnel, or the
Search and Display Synergy report to understand how your conversions get a boost when you combine display ads with your paid search, and identify the best opportunities to maximize it (screenshot shown left).
Redirects created with the ASDT also weave right into your Engagement Mapping results, allowing for holisitic attribution across channels and insight into the purchase path.
WHAT’S NEXT
We’ve just introduced you to solutions enabling you to efficiently traffic, track, and measure your search campaigns through a new desktop tool; however, we’ve also just released a brand new API that will support the launch of a new Search Engine Management (SEM) channel in the Atlas Technology Partner Alliance (ATPA). This Phase Two will allow you to enjoy the flexibility and control of managing paid search campaigns through an SEM, while relying on the breadth and scale of Atlas for conversion attribution and analytics.
We can’t wait to share more details on this exciting 2nd Phase. Until then, if you’d like to get on your way to efficient trafficking for search keywords backed by robust reporting and analytics, contact your Atlas representative, or visit the Atlas Client Center to learn more.
Thanks,
Lori
@AtlasAdvertiser | 
Atlas on Facebook
You’re reading the adCenter blog, so it’s likely you may be running one or more pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns with us to advertise your business on Bing. You know that, through Bing, you can reach 14 million unique searchers a month in the UK** and that there are free tools that can help you to manage your campaigns and import any existing ones you may run elsewhere. If you don’t you may even be more interested.
Today we launched a Facebook campaign in the UK and France to help more businesses like yours reach new customers with the help of our fictional UK small business customers Stan & Dan.
What does Stan know about online advertising that Dan doesn’t? You can watch their video on our Facebook page to find out how advertising on Bing worked for them and hear stories from real-life small businesses that found success with search advertising. Of course we’d love to hear from you as well. What has worked for you and what tips can you share with new advertisers?
Advertisers new to adCenter can claim £30 in free* advertising for their first Bing campaign so please feel free to like share the word!
* See offer conditions **ComScore August 2011
