A recent profile in the New York Times of Nicolas Fox, the brain behind Google’s advertising program,  reveals that Google is more than just a machine and that they actually employ people behind the complex algorithms . One might raise questions about the openness of Google, often called the ‘black box’ company, but in this […]

Click Forensics, the firm that tracks click fraud using campaign data from over 3,500 marketers, reports that Pay Per Click fraud is on the rise again, increasing to 14.8 percent in the first quarter of 2007.
That’s the highest level in the last twelve months and 1.1 percent up on the same period last year. The fourth quarter of 2006 click fraud rate was 14.2 percent.
Click Forensics president and CEO Tom Cuthbert commented, "Click fraud seems to be following a similar path as other online fraud schemes such as spam and phishing — the problem is growing as fraudsters fine-tune their methods.
Although they tend to play down the size of the problem, Yahoo and Google have previously made it known that they are trying to solve the click fraud problem. In fact, Yahoo recently appointed a “click fraud tzar.”
The continuing rise in click fraud means that anyone using PPC […]

Adwords has created a new column in their PPC campaign performance page. This is going to be helpful to both  beginners who are trying their hand at PPC and experienced users who would like to keep track of how Google is viewing them.
 It is the “Quality Score Column,” and it gives you three ratings, “Great,” “OK” and “Poor,”  to help you determine way s of improving your campaign.
 - Great: The keyword is very relevant and may have a high clickthrough rate (CTR), relevant ad text, and a unique, relevant landing page. The minimum cost-per-click (CPC) bid for this keyword may be low. If you’d like to lower your costs further, you can optimize this keyword’s Ad Group by using more targeted ad text or improving your landing page content. Otherwise, this keyword is very relevant and effective for your ad campaign
- OK: The keyword may not be as relevant as […]

It’s the most common error I see with clients who have been running their own PPC campaign, and the bigger their budget, the more likely they are to make it: They want to be #1 - and they want to be there for anyone who might possibly be searching for what they offer.
I can’t blame them. It does intuitively seem like being in the number one spot would be ideal. It does, after all, generate significantly more traffic, and often a high click-through rate. Just think, if you have enough money, of all the people you could direct to your site if you can afford to be in the number one position for your most general term! An auto dealer that’s #1 for "car," or a home loan site that’s #1 for "mortgage" - assuming they have enough money - surely would benefit tremendously from this kind of placement.
And because […]