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Are You Checking for Click Fraud?

by ~ September 29th, 2008

Click Fraud is an issue that has been a conversational topic and issue in the search industry and at SES conferences for several years. Search engines have made major changes to their systems of checks and balances in order to ameliorate fraudulent clicks. After all, why perpetuate an issue that seriously devalues your own product? In the end, however, it comes down to a basic situation that is common to every business and division of government extant in America, do people really trust you to tell the whole truth about your internal processes?

The definition of Click Fraud has expanded from that of intentionally fraudulent clicks to that of unwanted clicks or clicks of no value. In general, categories of unwanted traffic encompass the following categories:

  • Fraudulent – Designed to make someone else money at the expense of your campaign
  • Fraudulent – Designed to make a competitor’s campaign use their budget at a higher rate
  • Unwanted – Clicks to your site by a competitor, a vendor or your own people
  • Unwanted – Clicks from a country where you do not have a sales presence
  • Unwanted – Clicks generated by faulty engine spiders or marketing bots
  • Unwanted – Duplicated clicks generated as part of a shopping comparison

All of these clicks can be measured and detected and a case made that they are not part of a normal search campaign, and as such, should not be billed by the search engines. To a great extent, the engines claim that they do everything possible to prevent these activities from occurring, but, how can anyone be certain of this? Analysts have stated that fraudulent and unwanted clicks can be as little as 6% or as much as 17% of a search campaign, depending upon the industry vertical concerned. When you consider that the top four engines had a projected income from advertising of $10 billion dollars in 2006, it becomes increasingly obvious that a third party solution was inevitable and desired.

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Filed under: Paid Search | 1 Comment >>

Google’s Real Time Quality Score Changes Your Query Results

by ~ September 26th, 2008

Last week, Google moved its Real Time Quality Score (RTQS) testing out of beta and launched it live for all AdWords advertisers.  RTQS allows for Google’s algorithm to calculate Quality Score (QS) on the fly each time a search is conducted.  Previously, the Quality Score was not calculated in Real Time, but over a period of time.

When I first heard about the rolling out of this update to the calculation of Quality Score, I was hopeful it would be beneficial to both searchers and advertisers alike.  For searchers, it would allow for instant determination by Google’s system to serve up the most relevant query results.  Thus, in theory, giving searchers exactly what they are looking for each and every time they search.  For advertisers, I was crossing my fingers we would also see a lower cost-per-click (CPC) since our ads should be showing in higher positions when they are more relevant, with an increased QS to help boost them up there.  Also, since results being served will be real-time relevant to what the searchers are looking for, that should then mean advertisers will see more qualified traffic, creating more clicks, a higher click-through rate (CTR), and a lower cost-per-acquisition (CPA).

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Filed under: Paid Search | No Comments >>

To friend or not to friend?

by ~ September 25th, 2008

This post has the objective of evoking more questions and comments than answers!

I am a dedicated and active supporter of social media both personally and professionally. However recently, I had reason to pause when I received a friend request to my Facebook page by a favorite client. A customer wants to be my friend? If I accept, will he view all the photos of me and my dog and think my obsessions are a little strange? If I don’t accept, surely he would be insulted? What would happen when I advise “not available to work on Monday”, but then he views my recently posted photos of my golf long- weekend? My conundrum lasted only a few minutes, he is a great client, we have common interests outside of our work lives and I realized he was the kind of person I would be a friend with anyway!

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Filed under: Social Media | 5 Comments >>

Crisis of Confidence

by ~ September 24th, 2008

In times of crisis, people look to authority figures for crisis-specific information. In an election year, every crisis is spun by authority figures as a campaign issue. People are more apt to try to find a neutral source of information regarding issues that concern them. More often than not, people turn to the internet to conduct their research. When they lack a pre-selected source of news, blogs or comments, they turn to search.

People in the age of online information expect fast, quick access to the information they need. We have created that expectation in an age of instant information, instant access to news, instant access to stock portfolios.

People are apt to take fast quick action on information, bombarded as they are with media “breaking news” of doom and gloom on television, newspapers and yes, on the internet. (Remember, media’s job is to get you to watch, listen to or read more media, that’s how they get their paychecks.

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Filed under: Features, Organic Search, Paid Search | 4 Comments >>

Are Negative Keyword Lists A Positive?

by ~ September 23rd, 2008

When creating a search campaign, you want to make sure you have the right recipe for success: a bowl of targeted keywords mixed with a pinch of catchy ads makes a great search campaign recipe. But what happens when someone does a search query that has nothing to do with your campaign and your ad shows up? This calls for a negative match keyword list.

A negative keyword list is a list of words you enter into your search campaign so your ad won’t appear for that particular search query. For example, if your brand is V8 Juice, you would have “engine” as a negative, so when someone searches for “V8 engines,” your ad will not appear.

There has been debate on whether adding negative terms could hurt campaigns by limiting the amount of traffic to their respective website. I recommend that if your campaign goal is to only drive traffic, try to limit your negative keyword list so you can get as many impressions as possible. But if your campaign has a conversion goal, a negative keyword list will help maintain quality leads to your site and cut total costs. If you aren’t currently using them in your campaign, don’t be scared. Add a few and monitor; you may see amazing results!

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Filed under: Paid Search | 2 Comments >>

Let's All Play In The Sandbox Together

by ~ September 22nd, 2008

This post was authored by Susie Henderson and Karen Works

How can search agencies work with an advertiser’s media partners to provide a successful search strategy? We all understand the importance of utilizing all avenues of media to improve our client’s return on investment (ROI), now it’s time to start implementing our learnings.

Traditional media — print, TV, radio — are losing ground to online media in terms of usefulness due to technology. To combat this, media channels should work together to marry all aspects with the same message. Adding a repetitive message across all mediums is the easiest way for an advertiser’s message to stick with potential consumers.

Keeping with consistent messaging is the best way to garner conversions. All too often you see a great commercial on TV with a website to visit. Many times the ball then gets dropped in one of two ways:

1) In keeping with the idea of a web address that is easy to remember, site visitors are frequently dropped onto a non-intuitive homepage, which doesn’t allow them to easily find the promotion or product they set out to look for; or

2) Search is left out of the mix to support that TV buy. Those who remember a website was available, but don’t remember the particular website, search for the advertised product and do not see a result specific to what they are looking for, which can actually cause you to lose customers, including losing them to your competitors who are bidding on those terms.

A consistent, integrated message across all of your advertising efforts will, with time, become more familiar to your consumers and increase your brand awareness, leading a path to heightened engagement and ultimately, a higher ROI. Many advertisers are starting to “get it” and are working towards synergistic campaigns.

What does it take to get everyone to bring their toys and play together in the same sandbox? Stay tuned next month when we’ll take a look at tips to successful integration when bringing your search agency, creative and media partners together to maximize your marketing goals.

Filed under: Features | No Comments >>

Let’s All Play In The Sandbox Together

by ~ September 22nd, 2008

This post was authored by Susie Henderson and Karen Works

How can search agencies work with an advertiser’s media partners to provide a successful search strategy? We all understand the importance of utilizing all avenues of media to improve our client’s return on investment (ROI), now it’s time to start implementing our learnings.

Traditional media — print, TV, radio — are losing ground to online media in terms of usefulness due to technology. To combat this, media channels should work together to marry all aspects with the same message. Adding a repetitive message across all mediums is the easiest way for an advertiser’s message to stick with potential consumers.

Keeping with consistent messaging is the best way to garner conversions. All too often you see a great commercial on TV with a website to visit. Many times the ball then gets dropped in one of two ways:

1) In keeping with the idea of a web address that is easy to remember, site visitors are frequently dropped onto a non-intuitive homepage, which doesn’t allow them to easily find the promotion or product they set out to look for; or

2) Search is left out of the mix to support that TV buy. Those who remember a website was available, but don’t remember the particular website, search for the advertised product and do not see a result specific to what they are looking for, which can actually cause you to lose customers, including losing them to your competitors who are bidding on those terms.

A consistent, integrated message across all of your advertising efforts will, with time, become more familiar to your consumers and increase your brand awareness, leading a path to heightened engagement and ultimately, a higher ROI. Many advertisers are starting to “get it” and are working towards synergistic campaigns.

What does it take to get everyone to bring their toys and play together in the same sandbox? Stay tuned next month when we’ll take a look at tips to successful integration when bringing your search agency, creative and media partners together to maximize your marketing goals.

Filed under: Features | No Comments >>

BOTW + DMOZ = Super Web Directory?

by ~ September 18th, 2008


There has been a lot of speculation and apparent confirmation (as per Shoemoney’s recent blog post) that Best of the Web Directory (BOTW) may be buying The Open Directory (DMOZ). If this goes through, the combined directories (assuming they are combined) would rival the Yahoo! Directory in size and scope making it the largest web directory on the Internet.

I could understand why AOL would want to drop the DMOZ as it really generates no direct revenue and requires a lot of resources to manage and maintain. Based on all the corruption allegations and the lack of feedback from the volunteer editors, I think now is a good time to try and save the DMOZ by selling it and BOTW is probably the best suitor.

BOTW has the opportunity to turn the DMOZ around and make it into an organized and functional directory much like their own directory, offering full support and reasonable review timeframes. This leaves many questions for the search marketing community including:

- Will Google still use it as a data resource for their own directory – Google Directory?

- Will Google still value the ‘link juice’ that the DMOZ currently provides (BOTW was not hit with the Google web directory penalty as many of the other web directories experienced, so it is possible that Google may still value these links after a merger)?

- Will the two directories be run as two separate entities or merged?

- Will all current listings remain? Will they be updated? Will the structure change?

- Will it remain free (unlikely)? If not, what will it cost?

It will be interesting to watch if and when a merger between these two industry giants happens and what new opportunities this may provide for the online community. In the end, I believe the overall result will force the issue of what the real value of a web directory (no matter what size) is, in today’s search engine world.

Filed under: Features | No Comments >>

Hide and Seek: The Mobile Search Version; Your Indexing and Redirects Can Prevent a Drawn-Out Game

by ~ September 18th, 2008

As seen in DM News, September 15, 2008

While shopping over Labor Day weekend, on a whim, I decided to join some friends in Chicago. It was about 3:30 p.m. so I needed to act fast if I was to leave by EOD. So as any “mobile savvy” person would do in this situation, I pulled out the trusty pocket PC in the middle of the store and headed to Google mobile for rates and schedules from St. Louis.

I started my search with “Megabus”, no mobile site…then I searched “Amtrak.” Again no mobile site (this is so weird!). “Priceline?” Nothing!! I started to feel like travel sites were playing hide and seek with me. At this point I started to question eMarketer, M:Metrics and other resources on their information about mobile and travel. Last time I checked, travel was one of the top verticals in mobile. So where are all the mobile sites!? I come to find out all of these travel services offered mobile versions of their site that redirected users when they landed on the standard .com homepage. So why didn’t I find them from the start? Having become accustomed to the convenience of Google’s quick links, the pages I wanted were Schedules, Reservations, and Contact Us. Not the homepage.

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Filed under: Emerging Trends & Tech | 1 Comment >>

Swimming in the Search Industry Talent Pool

by ~ September 17th, 2008

This is what you get when you let HR people take a turn posting to the blog…

It was a long time ago that I took swimming lessons, and I must say that I did pretty well. I didn’t turn out to be Michael Phelps since I sit here writing to you today instead of weighing my endorsement opportunities or hosting Saturday Night Live. What I have found during my HR life is that I continually have to keep going back to recertify my swimming credentials. I’m not talking about the crystal clear waters of a swimming pool, but rather the murky depths of the talent pool.

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Filed under: Features | 1 Comment >>