Search
Paying for clicks
Hundreds of companies have sprung up in recent years offering paid search engine marketing (SEM) management services, and with them, a multitude of pricing
SEM Top 10: Dig into the Details
During the past 10 weeks, we
SEM Top 10: Get More from Your Shopping Feeds
Whereas keyword paid search allows marketers to advertise on relevant phrases, feed-based search allows you to advertise relevant URLs.
SEM Top 10: Tame Your Affiliates
Managed wisely, search engine marketing and affiliate programs can coexist peacefully. When the programs are left unchecked, however, many catalogers find themselves competing against their own affiliates, driving up their overall marketing costs, increasing their use of discount offers, decreasing their average margin, and possibly harming their brand.
SEM Top 10: Monitor Brand vs. Nonbrand
One of the most important analyses a retailer can perform is the breakout of brand vs. nonbrand paid-search economics. As you drive your program to its target metric, evaluate its success excluding the effect of the sales and cost associated with sales on your brand.
SEM Top 10: Bid for Profit, Not Position
Faced with the bid spasms of some of their competitors, marketers may be tempted to measure their success by the most readily visible metric: position on the page. But bidding to position is dangerous
SEM Top 10: Test, Test, Test
Savvy direct marketers understand that ongoing testing is the key to improving results. Done right, paid search advertising lends itself well to this rigor:
SEM Top 10: Target Your Ad Copy
Targeting your ad copy is a powerful lever: It can raise your ad efficiency by increasing your qualified clicks, so you grow sales in a way that
SEM Top 10: Track Everything
Last week we kicked off our SEM Top Ten with a look at how to effectively grow your phrase list. We recommended testing between two and ten phrases for each page on your site.