Nick Fox of Google, recently spoke at SES about the future of paid search . One of the most interesting points he raised was the possibility of keyword free advertising. The idea behind this being that small businesses allow Google to manage their campaigns without having to submit tens of thousands of [...]

Quality Score is King in the Land of Generics The issue of quality score has been receiving even more press than usual of late.  Unsurprisingly the consensus is that click through rate (CTR) is king.  We all know the ins and outs of maximising your CTR to ensure the core generics and brand terms get maximum [...]

It seems to me that Google has got what it wanted when it comes to allowing bidding on competitor brand terms. For the IPA Search Group, of which iCrossing’s Arjo Ghosh is chair, has released statistics showing that CPCs on brand terms have shot from 6p to 29p. The study – from the figures of 12 agencies [...]

Digital Marketing controversy comes courtesy of Google this week – as it seems to most weeks, with industry blogs and forums abuzz over the latest addition to Google’s SERPs: SearchWiki for Adwords ads. Google caused a stir last Autumn with the launch of SearchWiki, a feature that allows signed-in Google acount-holders to comment on, promote and [...]

Have you just chosen a new PPC agency and are wondering what next? Are you a search agency who’s just lost a PPC account to a competitor or a SEM paid search have just won a new paid search client following a pitch? Well, outlined below are our best practice guidelines for clients and agencies [...]

In the last post we looked at Click Through Rate (CTR) and how knowing the CTRs of various ad positions helps us better plan our Pay Per Click (PPC) strategy.  This week we will look at changes in Cost Per Click (CPC) for each position and how knowing this can affect your PPC campaign. We used [...]

In the style of Chris Morris in The Day Today, the national media have now declared: “It’s recession!”. So many of us digital folk are wondering what’s in it for us. Here to follow then are some thoughts from our guest poster Phil Buxton on the slump’s likely effects on the UK digital landscape. 1. Ad [...]

So you want to maximise your paid search click-through rate (CTR), while paying as little as possible. But, is it better to bid a lot to ensure a top position, or is it more efficient to pay less to get a middle of the range position? Also, what sort of returns can you expect from [...]