links for 2009-10-20

PPC Engine Loyalty Study

Interesting study about how people search on one engine and may click on an ad from another one before final purchase. I think your main takeaway should be to answer the question, "Should I be on multiple engines?". Many advertises only use Google as that's the biggest engine out there. However, if you only use on source of advertising, you will miss some potential customers.

(tags: ppc)
Classifying PPC Marketing? Is It An Art Or A Science? Part 1: PPC News & Opinion | Pay-Per-Click Marketing Consultant

There have been arguments for years if SEO is an art or a science. Someone is taking the time to examine this from the PPC side. Personally, I think its a bit of both. Art gives you the creativity to start. Science (i.e. numbers) tells you how good your art is and when you need to change brushes or add a different color paint.

(tags: ppc)
Harris Interactive | The Harris Poll – Four Out of Five Adults Now Use the Internet

Multiple browsers on the same computer (http://community.microsoftadvertising.com/blogs/analytics/archive/2009/10/19/do-you-have-a-primary-browser-that-you-use-most-of-the-time.aspx) or multiple browsers via different locations (this study) mess up attribution management, cookies, and so forth. Some fascinating data about access to the web:
While most people (75%), and almost all those who use the Internet, use it at home, more than two out of five adults (43%) go online at work and a third (32%) do so at other locations (schools, cybercafés, libraries, etc.)

(tags: attribution+management internet+usage)
Inside AdWords: Google Campaign Insights: Better measurement for display advertising

Campaign Insights is a unique measurement tool that can give reliable data about how a campaign has raised brand awareness, or active user interest, in a particular product or service. It looks beyond the traditional measures of clicks and conversions to calculate the incremental lift in both online search activity and website visits that result from a display ad campaign.

(tags: adwords display)
Adwords moved closer on August 12 – has it hurt organic traffic?

Google made a small design change recently where the ads are no longer justified to the right side on larger monitors and are closer to the organics. Discussion at WMW, poll from SE Roundtable:
1) Increased AdWords CTR: 24 (50%)
2) Increased organic CTR: 4 (8%)
3) No change in AdWords CTR: 7 (15%)
4) No change in organic CTR: 7 (15%)
5) Decreased AdWords CTR: 1 (2%)
6) Decreased organic CTR: 5 (10%)

(tags: adwords)
Attribution Wars: In Defense Of The Last Click (Part I)

Problem: 74% of purchases can only be attributed to a single click anyway. By definition, that’s the last click. Attempt to “attribute” that purchase to prior clicks or other factors? Good luck.

(tags: attribution+management ppc)
Growing Segment of SMBs Markets on SocNets

Some good insights into SMBs using social. Here's the real issue in SMB adoption:
"79% of respondents report annual marketing budgets of less than $5K per year with 44% spending less than $1K annually on advertising and marketing."

(tags: smb social)