Month: December 2006

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Google AdWords Radio Will It Work?

Google is expanding the reach of AdWords into radio. Will it work? Of that I am not exactly sure, but it may. With radio and commuters spending more time in the car, you have a captive audience that may be ripe for the picking.

As with other Google endeavors, this is starting out as a beta. We don’t have any advertisers involved in this new program yet, but we may in the very near future.

What I do see is a whole new cottage industry being developed right now to piggy-back on this new initiative. Many savvy entrepreneurs seem to be very bullish on the idea. Me, I’m not sure. I’ve seen other Google beta items fall flat on their faces, but this one has a particular nice ring and so right now, I am kind of sitting on the fence.

So if you’re totally in the dark on this one, click our post title to read more about Google Radio to see what you think.

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Yahoo Rolls Out The New Account Platform to New Accounts

If you were waiting to sign up for Yahoo! Sponsored Search advertising when Yahoo allowed new account set up on the new platform, well now is the time. Today Yahoo has changed all newly set up accounts to go immediately onto the new platform.

Click our blog post title and get a $50 click credit on setting up your new Yahoo! Sponsored Search account for self set up.

I like the new Yahoo interface and so far with our testing and client accounts the quality of clicks has been excellent, conversions good, and geo-targeting accurate. Yahoo has really upgraded their ad platform and we consider it a really viable alternative to Google AdWords.

So, if you’ve been waiting, don’t wait anymore you can now take advantage of Yahoo’s new geo-targeting and improved ad serving now!

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Google AdWords Click Cost Increases

We have done an analysis and wanted to point out that we have found roughly a 21% increase in click costs in our client accounts from December figures compared to August figures.

That means your budget does not stretch as far on the Google AdWords of today. You are paying more for clicks, getting fewer impressions, and paying more for each conversion. So ready to change to a new pay per click program. Well hold your horses as Google AdWords is still king. Unfortunately we all just stuck with the situation as Google still owns 47% of the search market share, and 84% of all searchers start their searches on Google.

Hmm, Merry Christmas.

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Cost Per Clicks On The Rise in Google AdWords

Have you seen this yourself? Particularly in the last 30 days we have seen a marked rise in Cost Per Click (CPC) across most client accounts.

The biggest increases in CPC have been in accounts where there are no specifically created landing pages. We have seen CPC increases in accounts where we are using specific landing pages, but at a much smaller percentage. Here’s an example: account a used to be able to get geo-targeted clicks on terms at $6.50 per click. Now the CPC has moved closer to $7.50 and up to be shown in the same position on the same keywords. Account b used to be able to get geo-targeted clicks on terms at $1.23 per click. Now the CPC has moved closer to $1.53 and up to be shown in the same position on the same keywords. Between both accounts that’s a 15 to 24% increase in CPC.

Why is there an increase? Part of the increase is due to supply and demand and I feel that part of the increase is due to the change in the quality scores for accounts based on their landing pages or lack of use of them. I am still working to identify what is causing this increase in CPC, but I have to say that it is nearly across the board on the client accounts that we manage.

What are you seeing in your Google AdWords accounts? What are you doing to keep your CPC the same or lower than what you paid about 30 to 45 days ago? Leave your comments below.