O, the agony of the summer game as we approach the dog days of the season. And yet, we mustn’t turn away. Wisdom lies buried in the rhythms of the long 162-game season. Jacques Barzun wrote in 1954: “Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball, the rules, and reality of the game.” I don’t really have a clue what he meant. But I put a lot of faith...
PPC Match Types Gone Wild: Fixing the “Five-Year Problem”
[Editorial note: The Prodigal PPC’er Returns. Apologies for the extended absence. I didn’t know if I’d ever take pen to paper again after wandering off. Happily(?), with this latest COVID lockdown in my neck of the woods, I can’t even break up my day by going to the gym or to brunch at Claudine’s, so I’ve decided hey, how about doubling or tripling my screen time and neck pain...
Why Google Ads Smart Bidding “Works”: The Mutual Fund Manager Analogy
A rising tide lifts all boats, goes the old proverb. Well, most boats. You can rule out those overloaded with anvils or built with holes in them. Consider a thriving sector with plenty of opportunity borne of technological changes or evolving consumer habits. To pick three random clients from our list, modern furniture, legal practice management in the cloud, and exercise...
Pretty Little Liars: Low-Revenue PPC Conversions in Freemium B2B Models
Recently, I provided a small snapshot of accounts struggling with sagging conversion rates. This week, I’d like to address the sneaky phenomenon of accounts boasting pockets of mega-high “conversion rates,” and how that can actually be hurting financial performance. Of course, I’m not referring to conventional, easy-to-attribute, profitable sales. If your core ad targeting is...
PPC Forensic Files: Conversion Rate Problems You Can Solve At Your End
Low conversion rates are the bane of paid media campaigns. The simple math dictates that if you pay for nonperforming media, your ROI will be poor, and profit elusive. The targeting we rely on as PPC account managers is the driving force behind surgical efforts to show advertising to consumers (or business prospects) with high purchase intent. Sometimes, we make judgment calls to...
