Clix Marketing PPC Blog

Microsoft released a monster 64-mb keyword research tool tonight – download it here. The free software, still in beta, is a culmination of research conducted at their Pac Rim adLab. It’s called the Microsoft adCenter Add-in for Excel 2007 – and (obviously) you’ll need Excel 2007, which Microsoft offers as a 60-day free trial.

Check it out – I’ll write more after we’ve road-tested it.

Now that we’re at the beginning of the end of the eCommerce holiday buying season, some trends are evident among Clix Marketing’s retailing client PPC campaigns:

1. The number of impressions and clicks is down from previous years. It’s likely that online buyers, armed with a broader range of gift choices and savvier searching skills, are starting their gift-giving research with keywords that are more specific than those used in previous years.

2. Click-through-rates (CTRs) and conversion rates are up considerably from last year – our clients are averaging 7-15% CTR and the high end of 5-10% conversion rates. This reflects increased refinement of ad groups, and implementation of new technology like our dynamic landing page software.

3. Average cost-per-click is around 30% higher across the board – reflecting increased competition over previous years.

4. Yahoo clicks and conversions have increased sharply over previous years – reflecting an improvement in click quality and inventory. Microsoft still has the best conversion rates – one of our clients is getting an average of 25% – but click inventory is still very low.

One clear trend: the competition for Google AdWords keywords and clicks has ballooned. Advertisers will need to get savvier to attain the high CTRs and conversion rates that have, in the past, been easy to reach. This coming year we’ll be focusing on Content Network advertising, where click inventory is high and growing quickly, building on techniques described in previous Clix blog posts and my Search Engine Watch column.

Microsoft installed new adCenter features today – details below. Also, Microsoft announced in an SES San Jose session that they’re working on an offline editor for adCenter – like AdWords Editor. Yahoo! Yahoo?

Upgrade highlights:

• Save time with fast and thorough editorial reviews for new ad groups.
• Create campaigns with ease by quickly importing campaigns directly from other paid search programs or by copying existing ad groups within adCenter to a new campaign.
• Instantly navigate to specific accounts, campaigns, or ad groups with the new adCenter home page dashboard, a one-stop-shop for all of your daily campaign management tasks.
• Update keyword bids in bulk and view keyword performance on the same page.
• Visualize your campaigns’ targeting settings with Microsoft Virtual Earth^TM map integration for geographical targeting.

For details on how to use these adCenter improvements view the Feature Release Guide. In addition, the adCenter Blog will highlight detailed feature reviews after the upgrade occurs.

Yahoo announced some cool new features:

Enhancements to Writing Ads

• Advertisers will be able to create, edit, copy, delete, and view all saved ads (up to 20) for an ad group and in one place. They can view the performance of their ads against one another with one click.
• Additionally, advertisers will be able to view examples of ads using selected keywords. A best practices tip sheet will be available to view directly in the interface.
• Lastly, once a new ad is created, advertisers will be prompted to create another one. Creating a second ad activates ad testing, which allows them to compare how ads in a specific ad group are performing against one another in order to help improve quality index score.

Low Quality Index Score Alert

• YSM will let individual advertisers know when their quality index score is down. Every 30 days YSM will check quality index scores and, if it’s low (i.e., one bar), they’ll send advertisers a notice via email.

Also:

New Payment Option: PayPal

• YSM advertisers will be able to pay by using PayPal, providing them with a secure, flexible online payment option. Advertisers can opt-in to PayPal from the Administration tab.

Just announced here at SES San Jose: Microsoft will open up their Content network to all U.S. adCenter advertisers next Wednesday, 8/29. Current advertisers will receive an email giving them the opportunity to opt out. Give it a try, though – Microsoft says traffic quality will be very high. We’ll report on best practices in future posts.

Presentation given today. More tomorrow or Friday.

PowerPoint file here.

(Edited version appeared on Search Engine Land today)

One month ago I mused about possible impact of Google’s DoubleClick acquisition on SEM agencies and bid management tool vendors. This week’s Microsoft acquisition of aQuantive sheds an interesting new light on the situation.

As I reported, DoubleClick (and now Google) sells a powerful PPC bid management system called DART Search. Features include one-screen management of ad campaigns on Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, Microsoft adCenter and other services. It also allows automated bid price management according to rules set by the advertiser. So, for example, bid prices can rise or fall depending on position or ROI goals.

aQuantive is owner/operator of Atlas, a provider of digital marketing technologies, which sells, among many other things, the venerable Atlas Search (formerly Atlas OnePoint), one of the best-regarded bid management tools available. Its feature set is similar to DART Search.

I hope that Google and Microsoft enter into a healthy competition to provide these powerful cross-service bid management tools to agencies and advertisers – preferably at no cost, the way Google now provides Google Analytics. Why would either offer a tool that makes it easy to manage ad campaigns on their competitors’ platforms? Same reason that Google AdWords and Analytics allow conversion tracking of non-Google advertising now: to cement brand/product loyalty.

So that’s the good news; now the bad news. The acquisitions have placed Google and Microsoft squarely and imperiously in competition with SEO/SEM agencies. Microsoft’s aQuantive owns Avenue A | Razorfish, which bills itself as “the largest independent interactive agency.” And Google’s DoubleClick owns Performics, one of the largest SEO/SEM firms worldwide.

Will the acquisitors hold on to their agencies despite the fact that doing so might alienate some of their biggest customers? (Microsoft may be more vulnerable than PPC-leader Google – who’s gonna stop advertising on AdWords?) Or will each spin off their agency property to avoid conflict? Microsoft and Google: bribe me with a free bid management system, and I’ll begrudgingly accept your competing with my relatively smaller agency.