Friday, August 1, 2008
Convert Lotus Notes to Outlook and More!
Window's Vista, Firefox, IE 7.0 all have created a need for some robust email, calendar and contact conversion software. Convert Lotus Notes .com seems to be focused around those exact issues. While it doesn't sell the solution directly, the ads it contains are highly relevant for companies offering a "Lotus Notes to Outlook" migration solution.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
PPC Consulting Pay Per Click Consultant
PPCE now offers PPC Consulting services!
As with most services ... this addition to our line of services was born out of a need. As more and more companies contact us to come and train them on our winning techniques of PPC Management, this arm of our company was formed.
So if your company or someone you know is looking for a Pay Per Click Consultant then contact PPCE.net today!
As with most services ... this addition to our line of services was born out of a need. As more and more companies contact us to come and train them on our winning techniques of PPC Management, this arm of our company was formed.
So if your company or someone you know is looking for a Pay Per Click Consultant then contact PPCE.net today!
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Are Some Google Reps Playing God?
PPC Management Frustration! "... putting a strain on Google's servers? Pleeeaassee ...!" (Read On)
Today I pinged Google through their pretty hand chat communicator, to ask for help with an account of a client of mine. Here was my question ...
Can you please expand the number of campaigns allowed (standard is 25) for this client to 99 campaigns?
The first chat (yeah, I had it emailed to me following the conversation) shows the first rep giving me a long winded excuse that sums up to ... I'm lazy and don't want to do this for you.
The second chat initiated about an hour later - posing the exact same question to a different rep, shows the rep helping me by accommodating my request.
I removed the Google rep's names to protect them from any conflict and blocked out account numbers / info, too.
Chat #1 - the rejection ...
General Info
Chat start time Jun 5, 2008 11:37:50 AM EST
Chat end time Jun 5, 2008 11:58:05 AM EST
Duration (actual chatting time) 00:20:15
Operator "Google Rep"
Chat Transcript
info: Thank you for contacting Google AdWords. Please hold a moment while we route your chat to a specialist who will help you with your question: "I manage this account for my client. We're looking to really scale this account out. Can you please make the number of campaigns allowed on this account to be 99?".
info: "Google Rep" has received your message and will be right with you.
"Google Rep": Hello, Clay. Thanks for contacting Google AdWords. I'm happy to help you.
"Google Rep": I understand that you'd like to have the number of campaigns in your account expanded. I'd be happy to look into this for you.
"Google Rep": Would you mind waiting a moment while I pull up your account?
clay: sure ... thanks
"Google Rep": Thank you for waiting, Clay. I've looked into this issue for you and it won't be possible to expand the number of campaigns in your account. This is because including a larger number of campaigns would cause your account to run extremely slowly. However, you can create multiple child accounts for this client so that they can have more campaigns.
"Google Rep": Does that make sense?
clay: child accounts?
clay: also ... why would that make the account run slower?
clay: I have other clients/accounts running over 60 campaigns at a time ...
"Google Rep": The child account is what we call a client account that is included in a My Client Center account.
"Google Rep": Having more campaigns may cause the account to run slower because there would be much more information included in the account, which means that it would take much longer to load all of that information at once.
clay: well - I already have an MCC account. How can I set up child accounts for this client?
"Google Rep": I'm sorry. I should have been clearer. This client account, *****, is what we call a child account, because it is in your MCC. You can create an additional account within the MCC for this particular cilent. Does that make sense?
clay: I understand, but that's not a viable solution for this client.
clay: can you expand the account to 70 campaigns?
clay: pleaaaaasseeeee ???
clay: u there?
"Google Rep": Yes, I apologize for the delay. I'm looking into this issue right now to see if we'll be able to request an exception for the campaign limit.
clay: ok. (don't worry about slow performance ... I'll take care of that)
clay: u there?
"Google Rep": Thank you for waiting, Clay. I don't believe that it will be possible to expand the limits for your account at this time. The reason for this is that your account currently has many ad groups which have a large number of keywords that have not had any clicks or impressions. Because your account has so much information in it that is not contributing to your performance, we recommend that you optimize your keyword lists to make your ad groups and campaigns more efficient. By doing this, you may be able to reorganize your account and make it more efficient within the given account limits.
"Google Rep": Having a large amount of unnecessary data puts a strain on our severs, which is why we have account limits. By encouraging you to stay within these limits, we may be able to make your account run more efficiently and help our servers run faster as well.
clay: (heavy sigh) ok
clay: bye
=========================
Now read the chat transcript from the "helpful" Google rep.
Chat #2 - the solution ...
General Info
Chat start time Jun 5, 2008 12:52:10 PM EST
Chat end time Jun 5, 2008 12:59:14 PM EST
Duration (actual chatting time) 00:07:04
Operator "Google Rep"
Chat Transcript
info: Thank you for contacting Google AdWords. Please hold a moment while we route your chat to a specialist who will help you with your question: "Can we expand the number of allowed campaigns in this account from 25 up to 99?".
info: "Google Rep" has received your message and will be right with you.
"Google Rep": Hello, Clay. Thank you for contacting Google AdWords. I see that you'd like to increase the number of campaigns allowed in your account.
clay: yes
clay: I actually manage that account :-)
"Google Rep": Ok, I'm happy to help you with this. Would you mind waiting for one moment while I pull up your account?
clay: no problem ... thanks
"Google Rep": I can raise that limit for you.
clay: great
clay: when can this be done?
"Google Rep": I'll be able to do this later today.
clay: thank you
clay: what will you be raising it to?
"Google Rep": You're welcome, Clay. It will be raised to 100.
"Google Rep": Is there anything else I can help you with today?
clay: not today. again ... thanks!
Today I pinged Google through their pretty hand chat communicator, to ask for help with an account of a client of mine. Here was my question ...
Can you please expand the number of campaigns allowed (standard is 25) for this client to 99 campaigns?
The first chat (yeah, I had it emailed to me following the conversation) shows the first rep giving me a long winded excuse that sums up to ... I'm lazy and don't want to do this for you.
The second chat initiated about an hour later - posing the exact same question to a different rep, shows the rep helping me by accommodating my request.
I removed the Google rep's names to protect them from any conflict and blocked out account numbers / info, too.
Chat #1 - the rejection ...
General Info
Chat start time Jun 5, 2008 11:37:50 AM EST
Chat end time Jun 5, 2008 11:58:05 AM EST
Duration (actual chatting time) 00:20:15
Operator "Google Rep"
Chat Transcript
info: Thank you for contacting Google AdWords. Please hold a moment while we route your chat to a specialist who will help you with your question: "I manage this account for my client. We're looking to really scale this account out. Can you please make the number of campaigns allowed on this account to be 99?".
info: "Google Rep" has received your message and will be right with you.
"Google Rep": Hello, Clay. Thanks for contacting Google AdWords. I'm happy to help you.
"Google Rep": I understand that you'd like to have the number of campaigns in your account expanded. I'd be happy to look into this for you.
"Google Rep": Would you mind waiting a moment while I pull up your account?
clay: sure ... thanks
"Google Rep": Thank you for waiting, Clay. I've looked into this issue for you and it won't be possible to expand the number of campaigns in your account. This is because including a larger number of campaigns would cause your account to run extremely slowly. However, you can create multiple child accounts for this client so that they can have more campaigns.
"Google Rep": Does that make sense?
clay: child accounts?
clay: also ... why would that make the account run slower?
clay: I have other clients/accounts running over 60 campaigns at a time ...
"Google Rep": The child account is what we call a client account that is included in a My Client Center account.
"Google Rep": Having more campaigns may cause the account to run slower because there would be much more information included in the account, which means that it would take much longer to load all of that information at once.
clay: well - I already have an MCC account. How can I set up child accounts for this client?
"Google Rep": I'm sorry. I should have been clearer. This client account, *****, is what we call a child account, because it is in your MCC. You can create an additional account within the MCC for this particular cilent. Does that make sense?
clay: I understand, but that's not a viable solution for this client.
clay: can you expand the account to 70 campaigns?
clay: pleaaaaasseeeee ???
clay: u there?
"Google Rep": Yes, I apologize for the delay. I'm looking into this issue right now to see if we'll be able to request an exception for the campaign limit.
clay: ok. (don't worry about slow performance ... I'll take care of that)
clay: u there?
"Google Rep": Thank you for waiting, Clay. I don't believe that it will be possible to expand the limits for your account at this time. The reason for this is that your account currently has many ad groups which have a large number of keywords that have not had any clicks or impressions. Because your account has so much information in it that is not contributing to your performance, we recommend that you optimize your keyword lists to make your ad groups and campaigns more efficient. By doing this, you may be able to reorganize your account and make it more efficient within the given account limits.
"Google Rep": Having a large amount of unnecessary data puts a strain on our severs, which is why we have account limits. By encouraging you to stay within these limits, we may be able to make your account run more efficiently and help our servers run faster as well.
clay: (heavy sigh) ok
clay: bye
=========================
Now read the chat transcript from the "helpful" Google rep.
Chat #2 - the solution ...
General Info
Chat start time Jun 5, 2008 12:52:10 PM EST
Chat end time Jun 5, 2008 12:59:14 PM EST
Duration (actual chatting time) 00:07:04
Operator "Google Rep"
Chat Transcript
info: Thank you for contacting Google AdWords. Please hold a moment while we route your chat to a specialist who will help you with your question: "Can we expand the number of allowed campaigns in this account from 25 up to 99?".
info: "Google Rep" has received your message and will be right with you.
"Google Rep": Hello, Clay. Thank you for contacting Google AdWords. I see that you'd like to increase the number of campaigns allowed in your account.
clay: yes
clay: I actually manage that account :-)
"Google Rep": Ok, I'm happy to help you with this. Would you mind waiting for one moment while I pull up your account?
clay: no problem ... thanks
"Google Rep": I can raise that limit for you.
clay: great
clay: when can this be done?
"Google Rep": I'll be able to do this later today.
clay: thank you
clay: what will you be raising it to?
"Google Rep": You're welcome, Clay. It will be raised to 100.
"Google Rep": Is there anything else I can help you with today?
clay: not today. again ... thanks!
Friday, May 16, 2008
Andy Beal - Marketing Pilgrim - Best Contact Form
What does Andy Beal of Marketing Pilgrim say about Best Contact Form? "... it is the Best Contact Form I've ever used!" Read more of what Andy had to say about Best Contact Form here.
What is the automatic matching beta
Automatic matching is an optional feature that helps your ads reach targeted traffic missed by your keyword lists. It works by analyzing the ads, keywords, and landing pages in your ad group. It then shows your ads on search queries relevant to this information.
When automatic matching is first enabled, it dedicates a short period of time to gather information about your campaign. During this period, you won't see any change to your traffic levels. Once automatic matching has evaluated your campaign, your ads will start to show on additional relevant search queries.
The system will continually monitor your performance on these queries and adjust its matches accordingly. Automatic matching aims to show your ads only on queries that yield a high clickthrough rate (CTR) and a cost-per-click (CPC) comparable to or better than your ad group's current average CPC. This way, your ads receive additional targeted traffic at a similar cost to your current traffic.
Automatic matching won't allow your spend to exceed your budget, and it also won't affect the traffic you're currently receiving. For example, say your campaign's daily budget is $10, and on average you accrue $8 in traffic in a day. The automatic matching system may add $1 of relevant traffic per day, meaning it will not prevent your ads from accruing the traffic it normally does. Note also that automatic matching will not affect your campaigns if they already capture the majority of relevant traffic.
Here are a few more details about the feature:
Opting in and out: Automatic matching is applied at the campaign level. You can opt your campaign in and out of automatic matching on your Campaign Settings page.
Google Network: Automatic matching does not affect your ad delivery on the content network. It does affect your ad delivery on Google and the search network.
Quality Score: The traffic accrued by automatic matching won't affect your keywords' Quality Scores or minimum bids.
Ad position: When ranking your ads on search queries acquired through automatic matching, the cost-per-click (CPC) bid will approximate the current average CPC of your ad group. Learn more about ad rank for automatic matching.
Performance statistics: Aggregated performance statistics for automatic matching will appear in each ad group's Keywords tab, in a line item labeled Automatic Matching Total.
Search Query Performance report: You can see the search queries that triggered your ads due to automatic matching by running a Search Query Performance report. The queries will be labeled Automatic in the Search Query Match Type column.
Information found and presented by PPCE.net - a ppc management / pay per click management company.
When automatic matching is first enabled, it dedicates a short period of time to gather information about your campaign. During this period, you won't see any change to your traffic levels. Once automatic matching has evaluated your campaign, your ads will start to show on additional relevant search queries.
The system will continually monitor your performance on these queries and adjust its matches accordingly. Automatic matching aims to show your ads only on queries that yield a high clickthrough rate (CTR) and a cost-per-click (CPC) comparable to or better than your ad group's current average CPC. This way, your ads receive additional targeted traffic at a similar cost to your current traffic.
Automatic matching won't allow your spend to exceed your budget, and it also won't affect the traffic you're currently receiving. For example, say your campaign's daily budget is $10, and on average you accrue $8 in traffic in a day. The automatic matching system may add $1 of relevant traffic per day, meaning it will not prevent your ads from accruing the traffic it normally does. Note also that automatic matching will not affect your campaigns if they already capture the majority of relevant traffic.
Here are a few more details about the feature:
Opting in and out: Automatic matching is applied at the campaign level. You can opt your campaign in and out of automatic matching on your Campaign Settings page.
Google Network: Automatic matching does not affect your ad delivery on the content network. It does affect your ad delivery on Google and the search network.
Quality Score: The traffic accrued by automatic matching won't affect your keywords' Quality Scores or minimum bids.
Ad position: When ranking your ads on search queries acquired through automatic matching, the cost-per-click (CPC) bid will approximate the current average CPC of your ad group. Learn more about ad rank for automatic matching.
Performance statistics: Aggregated performance statistics for automatic matching will appear in each ad group's Keywords tab, in a line item labeled Automatic Matching Total.
Search Query Performance report: You can see the search queries that triggered your ads due to automatic matching by running a Search Query Performance report. The queries will be labeled Automatic in the Search Query Match Type column.
Information found and presented by PPCE.net - a ppc management / pay per click management company.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Are You Hurting Your Own Quality Score in Google Adwords?
By Clay Sinclair.
Tip for PPCE.net's PPC Management / Pay Per Click Management Clients:
Over the past several months we've noticed a big change in Adwords. Particularly the increase in minimum CPC's to maintain ad positions. Some of this can be contributed to increased competition, but the bulk of it is due to your keyword's "Quality Score".
Google is very serious about providing their users with the best search experience possible, so they're tightening up their standards on what deems a site relevant.
I could go into depth on that topic, but for the sake of this article I want to address the question in the title ... "Are You Hurting Your Own Quality Score in Google Adwords?" The answer to that question is "yes" IF you perform keyword searches on your core keywords and don't click your ad, stay on the site a while and eventually convert.
So, how can you check your keywords / ads through out the day? By using the Google Adwords Ad Preview Tool. This nifty tool allows you to see how your ads display on a National Level or at the State Level and DOES NOT accrue impressions on your ads! Note - if your campaings are Geo Targeted, then you need to search your ads in the areas targeted. If you leave the "State" field set to "all regions within this country" while Geo Targeting your ads, the preview tool won't show your ad because the ad isn't a National Ad.
Tip for PPCE.net's PPC Management / Pay Per Click Management Clients:
Over the past several months we've noticed a big change in Adwords. Particularly the increase in minimum CPC's to maintain ad positions. Some of this can be contributed to increased competition, but the bulk of it is due to your keyword's "Quality Score".
Google is very serious about providing their users with the best search experience possible, so they're tightening up their standards on what deems a site relevant.
I could go into depth on that topic, but for the sake of this article I want to address the question in the title ... "Are You Hurting Your Own Quality Score in Google Adwords?" The answer to that question is "yes" IF you perform keyword searches on your core keywords and don't click your ad, stay on the site a while and eventually convert.
So, how can you check your keywords / ads through out the day? By using the Google Adwords Ad Preview Tool. This nifty tool allows you to see how your ads display on a National Level or at the State Level and DOES NOT accrue impressions on your ads! Note - if your campaings are Geo Targeted, then you need to search your ads in the areas targeted. If you leave the "State" field set to "all regions within this country" while Geo Targeting your ads, the preview tool won't show your ad because the ad isn't a National Ad.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Google History aka Personalized Search
Article by Clay Sinclair.
Have you noticed lately that when you do keyword searches for your best keywords that your rankings (I'm talking "Organic" rankings) are all over the place?
I have. I even got a few people on the phone and had them do the same keyword searches and they all reported seeing my site in different places for the same keyword.
For example - when I search the keyword ... ppc management ... I used to see myself organically at #3. Now I see my site on page 2. But when my 2 other friends did the same keyword search, they both reported seeing my site at #3 and #5.
Same thing happened when I typed in the keyword ... pay per click management ... I used to be around positions #5 or #6 and now I'm on page 2. But when my buddies did the same keyword search they reported seeing my7 site where I used to see me site.
In researching this problem I came across some information on Google's site pertaining to their new "History" program. Although Google states that this is a program you have to sign up for (like Adwords and Gmail), I can't help but think they're implementing a "Personalized Search" history for all users to some degree.
You see, I used to search my 2 keywords above several times a day to get that warm fuzzy that "Google Loves My Site" from seeing my rankings on those two very competitive keywords so high. But with the "Personalized / History" program from Google, it makes sense that since I didn't always click on my organic listings, spend a good amount of time on my site and eventually convert by filling out my web forms that Google, in there efforts to provide me with the "best search experience possible", now serves up the results for those two keywords differently.
If anyone reading this article has experienced the same results / challenges as I just described, please reply to this post and let me know your experience.
Have you noticed lately that when you do keyword searches for your best keywords that your rankings (I'm talking "Organic" rankings) are all over the place?
I have. I even got a few people on the phone and had them do the same keyword searches and they all reported seeing my site in different places for the same keyword.
For example - when I search the keyword ... ppc management ... I used to see myself organically at #3. Now I see my site on page 2. But when my 2 other friends did the same keyword search, they both reported seeing my site at #3 and #5.
Same thing happened when I typed in the keyword ... pay per click management ... I used to be around positions #5 or #6 and now I'm on page 2. But when my buddies did the same keyword search they reported seeing my7 site where I used to see me site.
In researching this problem I came across some information on Google's site pertaining to their new "History" program. Although Google states that this is a program you have to sign up for (like Adwords and Gmail), I can't help but think they're implementing a "Personalized Search" history for all users to some degree.
You see, I used to search my 2 keywords above several times a day to get that warm fuzzy that "Google Loves My Site" from seeing my rankings on those two very competitive keywords so high. But with the "Personalized / History" program from Google, it makes sense that since I didn't always click on my organic listings, spend a good amount of time on my site and eventually convert by filling out my web forms that Google, in there efforts to provide me with the "best search experience possible", now serves up the results for those two keywords differently.
If anyone reading this article has experienced the same results / challenges as I just described, please reply to this post and let me know your experience.
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