Tag Archives: Search Marketing

Google Adwords Displaying Special Offers

Posted on by James Burrow
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I was searching for this domain name creator tool that is really awesome but has one of those goofy web 2.0 names that I can never remember. I think it sounds or looks like panda or pantera or panera or something. Anyway, I happened to come across a new Adwords feature by accident and not through the 500 SEO/SEM blogs I follow. Possibly this has been discussed somewhere and I just missed it. It has been a busy week.

It appears that certain advertisers are being given the option to insert a special offer or coupon into their text ads. As you can see below, this really makes that lower #3 position stand out. Of special interest in my own line of work is the way this particular advertiser is using the feature to encourage customers to call to take advantage of the offer.

 

 

Special Offers Displaying in Adwords

 

Once the offer is clicked, you get the details:

Adwords CouponsI assume this being offered as an ad extension to select Adwords users. I can see this drastically improving click-through in that less expensive #3 position. You can bet I will be getting in touch with my Adwords reps on Monday to get the details. By the way, I finally found that domain name generator I was looking for. It’s called Panabee and you should check it out.

Worst Living Social Offer Ever

Posted on by James Burrow
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This is just so bad I had to share. My wife got this email offer through Living Social and forwarded to me for a laugh. Not that I have anything against Yogi, I mean I do loves stealing pic-a-nic baskets, but this is probably the worst attempt at marketing a resort property I have seen in awhile.

Worst Living Social Ever

So, come on down and see a golf cart parade kids! Is this really the best you could do to represent your Yogi themed resort property? Where is the pic of the 300 ft water slide or the other awesome stuff listed? I am not sure if the Living Social people put this together or the marketing people for the resort, but this email does not make me want to stay at Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Camp Resort. And what is up with the prices? $88 for two nights of tent camping? Apparently there are enough suckers out there though, 119 people have already signed up. Kind of makes me think that people are at the point where they will consider buying anything that comes through the Groupon or Living Social pipeline.

I’m not sure what type of parent books these kind of themed vacations with their kids, but I know I am not the type. Aside from the blatant consumerism, it seems kind of lazy. It’s like people just do not want to make the effort to make a regular vacation interesting so they go somewhere were it is done for them. Then again, maybe I’m just being my typical overly cynical self. I just know that there are better things going on in the Blue Ridge Mountains than watching Yogi lead a golf cart parade.

Changes to Adcenter Campaign Budgets

Posted on by James Burrow
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Microsoft has announced that starting as early as May 11th Adcenter will no longer require both daily and monthly campaign budget limits if you select the per day option when managing your budget. Currently, if you choose to manage your campaigns using a daily budget, you have the option of also setting a monthly maximum as well. I have always like this feature because you can set your daily spend at a higher level than if you divided your monthly budget by the days of the month. This keeps your ads going on higher traffic days during the week instead of just capping all 7 days at the same level like Google. Microsoft basically comes right out and says in their email announcement that they are doing this to emulate Google.

 

We’re excited to drive towards industry parity while helping to simplify your adCenter campaign budget management with this update.

Microsoft advises Adcenter users to start adjusting their daily and monthly budgets before “late summer” when they will automagically use the current daily budget to calculate a new monthly one.

 

 

 

New Twist on Yahoo Search Assist

Posted on by James Burrow

Even though it is my job to monitor search engine results pages, since the Bing/Yahoo merger I just do not make it to Yahoo more than once a week and then, just for a quick search or two to verify that the paid results are approximating what is showing on Bing. It is for this reason that little changes to Yahoo often slip under my radar and that’s a bad thing because Yahoo has always been and continues to be a commerce friendly engine. I am also happy that despite Yahoo’s recent troubles, and the merger with Microsoft, they have resisted the temptation to become a carbon copy of Bing. So, I was kind of excited when I recently noticed a change to the Yahoo Search Assist feature that is not only different than what Bing is doing, but is a definite positive for eCommerce sites. But the important questions is; will this change benefit the user?

The previous incarnations of Yahoo’s Search Assist emulated Google Suggest and offered alternate queries for your initial search. Now, it looks like Yahoo is trying to direct users away from non-commerce sites that may have a dominant position in the organic Bing-powered results. Sites like Wikipedia and Answers seem to be filtered out of these latest suggested results. In the example shown, the top ranking commerce and review sites are presented as suggested results for my digital camera query.

Yahoo Search Assist

As you can see, the suggested results have omitted sites that probably will not lead to some sort of conversion. Bing has not adopted this tactic yet.

Organic Bing-Powered Yahoo Results

So, is Yahoo actually leading users where they would have gone anyway or are they trying to improve their position as a viable portal for merchants? I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt here and say that most people searching for “digital camera” are probably not interested in the Answers or Wikipedia result and actually do want results that are  either reviews or products. So if this is true, are organic results becoming less relevant on their own? Will we see this tactic played out in other forms of search? My initial feeling is yes, most certainly.