Paid search is believed to be particularly effective in promoting viral videos by most marketers, new research has found.
Almost two-thirds of those surveyed by MarketingSherpa said that pay-per-click (PPC) advertising had a good effect on their viral campaigns, with 13 per cent rating paid search as "great" in this context.
PPC came ahead of paid-for media, third-party blogs, traditional PR and search engine optimisation for the purpose of promoting viral campaigns.
MarketingSherpa noted that viral marketers usually operate in niche sectors and have difficulty in getting their content to users through mass media.
"Paid search is a proven method for reaching hyper-specific audiences," the website went on to add.
In related news, video-sharing site YouTube recently launched a sponsored video ad service similar to Google's AdWords program where video creators in the US are able to advertise their clips by bidding for ad placements that appear next to site search results.... read full details »
An expert has listed some of the most common misconceptions regarding AdWords quality scores for pay-per-click (PPC) landing pages on the Search Engine Land blog.
Brad Geddes, founder of bgTheory, explained that some of the factors commonly believed to affect the quality score which do not actually have any bearing on it include inserting keywords and a privacy policy into the landing page.
Furthermore, having a Flash website will not necessarily have a negative effect on the quality score, nor will microsites or dedicated landing pages, he said.
Mr Geddes also asserted that there is not necessarily a link between quality score and PageRank, as both factors use different bots and algorithms.
"A brand new site can do well in PPC. A site that is banned from the organic SERPs can do well in PPC. A site banned from PPC can do well in the organic SERPs. Landing page quality and natural search rankings are completely unrelated to each other," he commented.
Google has this week announced a new AdWords feature allowing marketers to set up PPC campaigns specifically for mobile devices with a full HTML web browser.... read full details »
Search engine marketing (SEM) could be a key online strategy for non-profit organisations, new research has indicated.
Charities can benefit from lower costs than other forms of marketing when it comes to SEM, even in the current economic climate, the study published in the International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising suggested.
Dave McMahon and Charla Griffy-Brown of Pepperdine University's Graziadio School of Business and Management explained that charities would do well to conduct intensive research into what their potential donors are likely to type into search engines.
Not only will this result in more relevant keywords being identified, but it could also help the charity to improve the way in which they operate overall, the researchers said.
They commented: "The compilation, selection, and evaluation of search engine keywords are vitally important to any search engine marketing campaign."
SEO Book recently launched a free guide to SEM for non-profits, which covered areas such as keyword research, brand creation and integrating campaigns with social networks.... read full details »
Yahoo! is conducting tests to see if the addition of elements such as images and logos adds to the paid search advertising experience.
According to Erick Schonfield of TechCrunch, the search engine has started to add such media to some of its sponsored search ads, giving the example of a search for eBay yielding a pay-per-click ad containing the eBay logo.
A Yahoo! spokesperson said that the company is also looking at using deep links, videos and search boxes within pay-per-click advertising. To date, the majority of paid search ads on Yahoo! and other search engines have relied on text only.
Mr Schonfield said: "As long as they are not too blaring, I think they'll work.
"Any image will pop in that sea of text on the search results page. And both Yahoo and Google are already incorporating images and videos in their natural search results."
Meanwhile, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer recently told the Wall Street Journal that it would be best for all concerned if his company did a deal involving Yahoo!'s search business "sooner than later".... read full details »
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