Posted on: June 10, 2010 by Search Master Steve
Hey guys! Search Master Steve here, Syzlak is far too busy celebrating the recent Stanley Cup victory by the Chicago Blackhawks, so I’m here to fill in.
Today, we’re going to delve into some great AdCenter features that you’ll probably all want to be very aware of as you transfer all your adverts to AdCenter in the next months. In case you forgot, Bing is now Yahoo, so you’ll want to get your ducks in a row to capture all that sweet AltaVista traffic.
AdCenter’s 3 Strongest Features
Geo-Targeting
Right from the bat, we’re targeting your geo in AdCenter. Let’s go through the steps. When you sign up an account from the US, we’ll walk you through creating your ad, specifying your budget, bids, etc. Just like Google.
Then, instead of setting you up with your ads targeted to North America, we’ll go ahead and target your ads to the world for ya.
True Geo-Targeting right when you setup an account. Only from AdCenter.
Keyword Insertion
We all know that keyword insertion, or dynamic titles, or whatever you call them (parameters? what?!), are vital part of every campaign’s ad copy. Well don’t worry, at AdCenter we’ve made sure that Keyword Insertion works just as it does on Google and Yahoo.
Simply put {keyword:xxx} into your ad, and we’ll insert your keyword if it fits within our character limits. Additionally, you can follow Google’s keyword capitalization standards and use {KeyWord:xxx} or {KEYWORD:xxx}, but we won’t follow their command and formatting.
At AdCenter we assume that you’ve created your keywords with the capitalization you’d like to use, so we won’t bother you with any other option. We’ll keep your keywords in lower case if that’s how you entered them.
Easy Tracking Integration with Google Analytics
Here’s the best feature yet. Say you use Google Analytics and want to see which keywords your visitors used to find your ad, click through, and buy your product.
You’re in luck!
With AdCenter we’ll let you use a standard variable for your ads that will cover all keywords used to see your ad. By using the {QueryString}…or, wait…{OrderItemID}, no no no, {keyword}, well, one of those probably works…anyway, plop that bitch in your tracking URL, and behold!!!!!
In Google Analytics you’ll see data for the keyword {querystring}, {keyword}, or {orderitemid} depending on which one of those you decided was the best. None of them will show you your keyword…we don’t know how to do that yet. We’re working on it, we’re thinking that it might take a couple years, though.
In the end, how’s that going to help you track your hits anyway?! You should just use AdCenter’s Analytics Package – seen below.
AdCenter Analytics Package
As you can see, AdCenter really has the user in mind, and we can’t wait to take all your money in the next couple of months.
Love,
Steve
Posted on: January 15, 2009 by Syzlak
Bam! Welcome to 2009 reader! Your man Syzlak attended the SEMpdx PPC Hot Seat on Tuesday the 13th and blew it up.
On my first panel for SEMpdx, I was tasked with critiquing the PPC campaigns/offering PPC guidance. It was an interesting experience, unlike many of the other Hot Seat nights (that should totally be a viral infomercial for SEMpdx “Hot Seat Nites,” make it all 11pm 80s style, a little sex, a lot of dumb humor, like Viva Variety. Now, THAT was a good show. Remember Johnny Blue Jeans and all the stupid products? Baby is the Bagpipes? Baby Tastes Like Soup? Fishy Bar – the candy bar that tastes like fish??? Loved that show. Especially the episode where they played the game Plant or Animal. Contestants were given a 2 second sound bite and had to guess if the sound came from Robert Plant or a wild animal. It was unbelievably difficult, and made for a great game show.
Man, there really was nothing like the early days of Comedy Central. Shows like Exit 57, Stand-up Stand-up, Short Attention Span Theater, MST3K , Dr. Katz – all great. Then South Park came and ruined it. Now all we have (aside from Daily Show & Colbert) are MADtv reruns and Dane Cook specials. Seriously, when are people going to realize that not only is Dane Cook a theif, but he’s also about as funny as Andy Dick), this time the audience didn’t seem to be as familiar with the topic at hand. I think it’s fair to say that SEMpdx audience members are a bit more in tune with the ideas of usability and SEO, than they are with PPC; and for that, I am thankful that SEMpdx put on a PPC specific event.
Hopefully, the audience members got as much out of the sessions as the businesses on display did. I know that after the session the businesses were quite appreciative of all the help from Mr. Tom Hale, Mr. Todd Mintz and Ms. Leisa Hall and myself. I just hope that those in the audience didn’t feel like all the information was going over their heads.
All in all, a fantastic time and a great idea. I really hope SEMpdx makes a PPC Hot Seat a part of the regular rotation. If not, put a PPC specialist on the panel once in awhile to add some diversity, it’s about time we knocked some of those SEO big whigs down a notch 
Oh, I almost forgot – I won a T-shirt!!! See what you can do if you set your mind to it?
Posted on: October 22, 2008 by Syzlak
Yesterday, Rand posted a rather short-sighted view on the discrepencies in SEO and PPC budgets. While, I understand his fundamental argument for increased SEO budgets, the post drew ire from myself and fellow PPC advocates. Through quick smattering of evidence, Rand showed that PPC is on the decline, everyone looks at organic listings all the time, and no one clicks on ads (paraphrasing here folks). So, aside from a simple disagreement on the purpose of PPC and the effectiveness of SEO, what am I so mad about?
To some of you this may be familiar:
This eye research has been shown countless times to illustrate the Golden Triangle of search – the red area in the top left of a SERP where users are most active, violently clicking away to their hearts’ desire on the first thing they see. Since you’re probably familiar with this research, you probably know that I used it in a post from December of 2007 about Google’s encroachment on this Golden Triangle. Shit, I’m not even the first to use it! In fact, if anybody clicked through on the link Rand gave for the pic, you would see that Inspired Impressions used it back in April of 2006 (over 2 years ago). 2 years in “search time” is an eternity. For reference, if you were to have a kid in 2000 and he were to grow up in “search time,” he’d be Robin Williams from Jack.
Here’s how SERPs look more often than not today…well at least as of December 2007 (I’ll admit when I took the screenshot)
See how our buddies at Google are putting ads into that Golden Triangle? Do you suppose that users might be clicking on those a bit more often than they did 2+ years ago? More importantly, did you see what the top listing was in the pic that Rand gave us?
Look’s like that’s a Sponsored Link, and it’s getting quite a few clicks too…
Wouldn’t it be great if current data was used to make claims of suspect? While I think that some of what Rand is arguing is prudent (SEO could use a bit more money and focus for many companies), I do not agree with either his methods or his implied conclusion (we didn’t get a conclusion out of Rand, so I don’t want to put words in his mouth).
The fact of the matter is, PPC can drive instant gratification (traffic), qualified visitors (through ad copy and keyword targets), motivated visitors (drop ‘em on a landing page…they’ve seen everything – they’ve seen it all), and it can do all of this for as many or as few pages as desired on as much or as little a budget available.
Market size is also a determining factor of PPC/SEO budget. When I worked in local search for a few years when it was first blossoming, I would never have suggested to the 100 plumbers in Atlanta that they could spend their budget on trying to beat each other, as well as the national giants, on organic listings. For some industries, it’s pretty easy to compete in the less competitive field of PPC with focused keywords than to try to tackle 8,000 competitors in organic. So, why not allocate $100 towards a PPC budget that will pay off, and do so quickly, as opposed to spending thousands on SEO – especially when thousands aren’t available?
I hate to call out my pal David Mihm, but I also had a problem with his comment:
Well, honestly, it all stems from Kate’s comment, but I was more irked by this one. Not to be a downer, but sometimes in a “down economy” (I call it a depression, but ok ), some companies may have to go with the cheap & quick solution just to stay alive. A lot of times, that’s the small businesses. Small businesses need to be present, build their brands and get visitors “in the door” just to make it to the next step-especially in a “down economy.”
I know Mihm, I know his work, he’s damn good and any small business would be wise to pay for his SEO services. Hell, businesses of any size would be wise to spend money on SEO; but for a lot of them, it’s just not in the cards right now. Not everything comes down to SEO having a bad reputation, being misunderstood & misrepresented, complex or the rest of the excuses a lot of us use; sometimes, SEO is just not what a business needs when we’re trying to sell it.
Posted on: April 1, 2008 by Syzlak
I get pinged this morning by a former co-worker asking whether “[I'd] come across any blogs that say running homepage & branded terms in ppc is a good thing?”
It’s getting old people.
What’s getting old? Two things:
1) Asking around for answers instead of figuring it out for yourself (whether it be running tests or looking it up on some sort of universal encyclopedia…we need to get access to one of those)
2) Thinking that for any reason, bidding on brand name keywords would be a bad idea.
I know that I come at this industry from a different direction now that I work at an agency. The main focus of our agency has been building brands. So, whilst drinking the Kool-Aid (mmm, cyanide flavor!), I apply branding to everything I do online. Sure, some of our clients don’t have branded terms that generate much traffic, but that doesn’t mean they should be ignored. Building a presence in the SERPs is half the battle sometimes, especially for small clients.
That being said, did I learn this from running small accounts at the agency? No, I learned the value from running branded keywords and homepage ads on Best Buy – not really a small business.
So, in response to my friend, go run a test and figure it out for yourself. While I love how open this industry can be at times, and admit that I’ve learned a lot from some of the bloggers out there and the conferences, I hate how lazy it has made some of us. Shit, on average it takes 20 minutes and a week to find out how a new concept will work, and only 5 minutes to convince the boss man that it’s worth testing.
Posted on: January 15, 2008 by Syzlak
All week I had waited for a package from Amazon. I had ordered the FLCL Ultimate Edition DVD box set, and was on pins and needles in anticipation for the day it would arrive. As it turned out, the package arrived the day after a very ominously thin package from MSN arrived…
Good heavens! What sort of magic could be in this wonderful box???? I mean shit. You’d have to have some sort of magic to make me more attractive to millions of shoppers. I’m a damn fine looking man. Don’t believe me? I can look good eating a cheeseburger.
So, what’s in this box?
Yep, a piece of Styrofoam and a small brochure. Aces!
Lord, really? So, what am I looking at, exactly? Apparently, a “Search Marketing Guide.” Usually, we put these sorts of things on the Web, but I suppose if you’re MSN, that’s just too difficult. Upon further inspection I learn that I’ll be getting tips from “Search Master Steve”
in order to make my business more attractive and “get the most out of adCenter”
Seriously, if anybody out there knows how to get the most out of nothing, please fill me and the rest of the fucking world in on your secret. Also, I find it very hard to believe that with all of Microsoft’s black helicopters, they weren’t able to figure out just how goddamned attractive I already am. Did you really think that Search Master Steve looks better than me? And while I have a minute, how did that guy master search? He can’t even master a comb.
Overheard in an ad exec meeting at MSN:
Ad Exec 1: We need to sell our adCenter product to search marketers that are already signed up with adCenter
Ad Exec 2: Get that guy who looks like the Verizon guy! Utility nerds are so handsome and unassuming!
So what other nuggets of wisdom are found in this manual?
Well, there’s the importance of spelling, 
and the ultra backasswards way that adCenter chooses to use keyword implementation.
Has anyone ever tried to use this? There’s no code for automatic capitalization as there is in Yahoo and Google and they allow you to have something like 3 parameters in addition to the keyword (for sales, shipping discounts, etc.) . While the parameters are a good idea and have come in handy once or twice, all of their codes are very cumbersome and most of us have our own tricks that are much faster than using MSN’s built in tools.
So what have we learned?
- MSN does not research their market
- MSN puts together really stupid booklets
- I can remember to bring my camera to work, but consistently forget to stop drinking before eating cheeseburgers
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Hey guys! Search Master Steve here, Syzlak is far too busy celebrating the recent Stanley Cup victory by the Chicago Blackhawks, so I’m here to fill in.
