Clix Marketing PPC Blog

Objectively speaking, Market Motive’s Master Certification Course is the world’s best training for aspiring PPC professionals. I lead the class through all of the fundamentals, mid-level skills and expert secrets over the course of a very busy six weeks. Students learn from videos and then tackle assignments that I grade. During weekly “office hours” I answer any and all student questions, whether on the previous week’s lessons or the latest developments that Google introduces at a dizzying pace.

Students who pass the rigorous final exam earn certification that is becoing the standard-bearer that helps students get top jobs and fat salaries.

The next semester begins on July 30. Between now and then, enter to win your seat in the class – free of charge. That’s $3,500 less than the other students will be paying. And the winner gets their very own autographed copy of my hot-off-the-press book, PPC SEM an Hour a Day.

To enter, just send an email to mm@clixmarketing.com, subject line IWMMMPPCC (I Want My Market Motive PPC Certification), with a sentence describing why you NEED the training.

The winner will be selected and announced on July 29.

We’re doing a live PPC Rockstars show today at 4 PM EDT. I will answer any question – ask about your burning PPC issue or choose one of these hot topics:

Quality Score fact and fiction

AdWords Remarketing

AdWords Ad Extensions

Automated Bid management

Facebook Avertising

LinkedIn Advertising

The Yahoo/Microsoft Alliance

Rickrolling

Tune in at 4 PM EDT. Join us in the Webmasterradio chat room or send me questions before or during the broadcast via Twitter. Query Me!

I’m honored to be speaking next week at the inaugural BlueGlass Los Angeles conference – there’s still time to join us there, and you can get a 15% discount off the admission price by using the coupon code lastweekbg.

The conference is the first for the newly-minted company BlueGlass, the mega-merger of some of the top SEO and social media experts in the world. Think the equivalent of the 80′s supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young – but without the egos and drugs.

In this case the supergroup consists of five luminaries – Chris Winfield, Dave Snyder, Brent Csutoras, Loren Baker and Jordan Kasteler. Backed by a team of future luminaries, BlueGlass is poised to deliver some fantastic results for clients, produce some excellent conference and continue delivering great information resources via Search Engine Journal.

Clix Marketing is particularly excited about the merger, since we’ve worked closely with the precursor companies 10e20 and Search&Social, regularly referring clients to each other. Despite their heady talents and accomplishments, the entire BlueGlass team consists of some of the most down-to-earth, ethical, customer-centric and family-oriented people we’ve met.

So congrats to the BlueGlass team, and to your families and future happy clients!

Are you (or someone you know) a freelance paid search management professional? Do you have years of experience successfully managing large-scale pay-per-click accounts? Do you consider yourself an expert at optimizing PPC performance? Do you want to work remotely with a company that is growing rapidly? If you answered yes to these questions, please continue reading!

Clix Marketing is looking to add a few awesome freelance pay-per-click campaign managers to our rock star roster. We’re looking to hire the cream-of-the-crop, the best of the best. Think of this as Top Gun for PPC campaign managers.

The most qualified, rocking candidates will have:

• Availability to commit at least 15 hours/week to Clix account work
• A minimum of two years experience successfully managing pay-per-click accounts
• Preferably six months of freelance experience (working remotely)
• An uncanny ability to analyze and optimize PPC performance
• Experience managing comparison shopping search engines

We are looking for freelancers who can do it all when it comes to PPC management, but we are also looking for individuals with expertise in specific areas of paid search management.

Specific areas of expertise that we’re looking for include:

• Ad design and copywriting
• Facebook, LinkedIn and Yelp advertising
• YouTube and video advertising
• Mobile advertising
• International PPC campaign management
• Google Content Network optimization
• Google Website Optimizer implementation
• Google Analytics implementation and analysis

Do you fit most or all of these criteria? We want to hear from you! Please attach your resume to an email, send it to freelancers@clixmarketing.com and please include the information below:

1. Any documentation or information that displays your PPC management excellence (i.e. resume, ad samples, references, published articles, etc.).
2. Describe your availability: how many hours per week can you devote to a new freelance project, and when can you start.
3. Your hourly rate for PPC management.

If we add you to the short list of candidates, we’ll ask you to do complete a few test projects – with pay, of course. We look forward to hearing from you!

This is a pre-announcement o the full day of in-depth PPC Advertising training that we’ll be conducting in Denver, CO on June 23. The Training Day follows the most-excellent Affiliate Convention on June 21-22.

Send us your email address via the form below, and you’ll receive an invitation to the training day before tickets go on sale to the general public!

Here’s the overview:

Learn the fundamentals AND the pro secrets you need to get maximum sales and profits from your PPC campaigns. Join online advertising expert David Szetela, host of WebmasterRadio’s PPC Rockstars show, for a full day of total-immersion PPC training. See how the experts consistently achieve double-digit click-through and conversion rates!

You’ll see the latest methods and best practices for building ad campaigns that achieve optimal performance from the very start. You’ll learn the art and science of creating powerful text and banner ads, with plenty of examples. You’ll gain expertise at designing and optimizing landing pages that minimize bounce and maximize conversions.

Be among the first to master Google’s newest advanced capabilities like SiteLinks, Product Listings, mobile device targeting and ad retargeting. And see how to use free software tools to slash the time it takes to create and optimize campaigns.

Whether you’re a rank beginner or a PPC ninja, you are sure to come away tips and techniques that will have you earning more and spending less. And every attendee will receive an autographed copy of David’s new book, PPC Search Engine Marketing: An Hour a Day. Even better, David will critique your AdWords account – before, during or after the training session – a service for which clients normally pay Clix Marketing $5,000 and more.

MarketMotive, which offers internet marketing courses and certification online,  is allowing each of the faculty members to give away one scholarship to its certification courses valued at $3500 for the upcoming semester which starts on April 15th.  All-star faculty members teach the certification courses:  Todd Malicoat (SEO), Matt Bailey (Fundamentals),  Jennifer Laycock (Social Media), John Marshall (Web Analytics), Avinash Kaushik (Web Analytics), Greg Jarboe/Jamie O’Donnell (Online PR and Video marketing), Bryan Eisenberg (Conversion Optimization), Michael Stebbins (Email Marketing) and myself nailing down PPC Advertising. Our goal is to help some deserving folks (like you) attain master certification in their field, and provide a valuable service to non-profit marketers everywhere.

If you would like to win a scholarship to earn certification in any of the offered topics, pick one non-profit web site of your choice and submit a short PPC advertising plan that you think would help improve the campaign results for the charity. You can choose to publish it on your website and let me know about it, or email to me (david at clixmarketing.com).

I will publish the top 3 submissions to this blog, and together with my readers we’ll pick the scholarship winner by April 5th. We’ll be giving away a second prize as well. The other faculty members will pick the winners in their respective topics. At the end, each winner gets a complimentary $3,500 course to earn certification. In addition, each faculty member will link to the plans submitted by other finalists and winners – the sum of which will form a wealth of of information for nonprofit marketers.

Rules:  Submitting a plan means contestants agree that their plan may be be posted (with attribution) and/or sent to the charity.  Plans may be edited before being posted at blog owner’s discretion.  Winning plan (s)will be selected at the discretion of MarketMotive faculty chairs.

We’re looking for exceptionally-talented freelance web designers to create super-effective landing pages for our clients.

You must have experience creating conversion-focused landing pages. You must be able to work quickly and efficiently, and communicate by IM and email even during “off hours.”

You must be able to:

• Use Dreamweaver proficiently.
• Create design prototypes, including graphic design, site navigation, and layout of content for dynamic landing pages.
• Create visual concepts from static image mockups or written descriptions that match the content and the image requested by the clients and Clix.
• Ensure that the layout of the content is accessible and logical; recommend improvements if necessary.
• Build Landing Pages using technologies that conform to international standards and make sure that they are universally accessible by top browsers.
• Understand and employ best practices for landing page optimization.

Interested? Please send your CV or resume, along with a list of 2-3 references and 2-3 design samples (thse can be links) to hr@clixmarketing.com.

Call it a personal hangup, but I think the world would be a better place if we all used the same term to describe what we do.

Should we call “it” Paid Search? That doesn’t work for me, since it ignores the importance of Content Network advertising – whose success depends on entirely different best practices than one should apply for Search Advertising. (See why by downloading your free copy of my book Customers Now.)

Should we call it SEM? Call me pedantic, but the meaning of the word “marketing” is a superset of “advertising.” So SEM could be used to describe a wide range of activities, as Wikipedia agrees.

I’d like to lobby for the widespread acceptance of the term “Pay-per-click Advertising” – with the alternatives “PPC Advertising” and “PPC” for short. Wikipedia seems to favor this definition as well.

Semantic purists would point out that “PPC” is still a bit inaccurate, since an advertiser on the AdWords Content Network can choose to pay on a cost-per-thousand (CPM) basis. But IMHO “PPC Advertising” is the term that best fits.

What do you think? I’ve set up a quick poll here – weigh in to choose one of the alternatives I’ve listed, or post a comment here if I’ve missed THE perfect choice!

Update: the winner, with 68% of the 76 votes is… Pay-per-click Advertising! Okay, I admit that I may have influnced the outcome with this blog post. I’ll act penitent by paying for the next round, gents and lady.

See the download link here

Click here to buy a hardcopy.

Want to pre-order my book PPC on One Hour a Day? Click here.

Tune in tonight at 8 PM CST for the Drunken PPC Rockstars Roundtable, broadcast live from the venerable Kitty O’Shea’s Pub at SES Chicago.

Listen as loose lips reveal deepest darkest PPC secrets. Wouldn’t you love to get even just some of these confirmed PPC experts alone in a bar?

Matt Van Wagner

Marty Weintraub

Marc Poirier

Melissa Mackey

Addie Conner

Richard Stokes

Joe Kerschbaum

Tim Ash

John Ellis

And I promise there will be a surprise guest or two. Listen live at Webmasterradio.fm. We’ll also be tracking twitter questions and comments (send them to @Szetela, and follow the hash tag #ppcrockstars), and also monitoring the Webmaster Radio Chat Room. Join us!

Join me today on PPC Rockstars at 4 PM EST for my interview with Andrew Goodman. Will we uncover the truth about the inaccuracy of traditional analytics – and coin a new phrase? (Hint: Multiple Exposure Attribution, or MEA.)

Join me at 4 PM EDT tomorrow, July 27, on PPC Rockstars for my interview with Mel Carson, Microsoft Advertising Community Manager. Will Mel spill the beans about the on-again, off-again Microsoft-Yahoo merger? Learn how Microsoft plans to make Google the Lotus 1-2-3 of online advertising!