The Latest
The Paid Search Sweet Spot
It was an average ad position of 2.5 in paid search. We couldn’t explain why, but some how if our average ad position was 2.5, then the average cpc, conversion rate and customer value all aligned to hit our targets. It was basic math. By why 2.5? We couldn’t say, but we dubbed it “The Sweet Spot” and for a while it held. If we bid higher to get further…
Google Plus Launches Collections
Google+ makes content discovery easier for users through a format similar to Pinterest boards. This gives people the ability to curate content and share it with others that have similar interests. Making this more powerful is the ability to curate different types of content and make the overall experience more helpful with long form posts and interaction. For companies, this can become a great way to keep deep content in…
Marketing Automation… are you really ready for it?
Marketing Automation (MA) is hot. A lot of companies are engaging tools like Pardot, Marketo, Hubspot to send messages, share information, tweets, post and pretty much push out just about any utterance their marketing department can think up. This is great! Set up a drip campaign, nurturing campaign, journey or any number of other euphemisms for a communication program and you’re ready to go. Not really. Often there is very…
Apple watch… great for (too) easy amazon ordering
Scott at CNET now owns an xbox. Didn’t want one, but the Apple Watch makes it so easy with the Amazon 1 click to order…well, he did.
Email Opt-out: more than being polite
I had an interesting conversation with the head of a company that has an email campaign running. Its been running for a while. The conversation moved to opt-outs and how they were getting them (as most programs do). He casually mentioned that maybe he could move these folks back into the active list. My reaction was initially amused silence. Then when I realized he was serious, I told him he…
Art & Intuition When Data Is Not There
Analytics is a great tool for helping us make decisions and take action. As a representation of behavior, it helps us respond to customers and see the impact of our actions. However, analytics only represents “what” but not “why” people behave in the way they do. For some marketers this is a blind spot. Over dependence on numbers leads to paralysis or to erroneous decisions when working with a blank…
Creating the Right Culture to Maximize Analytics
Digital analytics and more precisely, how a company uses digital analytics is a focus of mine. Over the years I have seen very smart people with access to very sophisticated analytics programs feel paralyzed by their own ignorance. Whether it an inability to measure their own results or the lack of visibility into what others in their organization are doing, they don’t have the confidence to make decisions and take…
eWOM : What durable goods marketers need to do about it
WOM, word of mouth has long been a powerful force in the making (and breaking) of products and companies. As the force has moved online to become known as eWOM marketers have struggled to understand the dynamic it plays in the material affect on their sales. A culprit in perpetuating this struggle is the monolithic view of social media that serves as the proxy for eWOM among many. “A Meta-Analysis…
Facebook seeks to prove ad and sales connection
The WSJ article on Facebook’s sales lift research is a new bow on an old, old package. Using post impressions studies to calculate the lift in sales derived from advertising was being used over 25 years ago. While I applaud the continued push to connect online ad expenditures to off-line results, articles like this in the WSJ make it seem like digital marketers haven’t been thinking about this for decades. Now…
IBM: Mobile app security is virtually non-existant
Apps are so shiny we can’t see the problems they (and we) face. I wrote before about the reliability of location based technology and the issues apps have in accurately locating users. This is an issue for advertisers who rely on location targeting. For consumers these poorly performing apps can be frustrating. But if the report by IBM and Ponemon on app security is an indication, users have a great deal…
Local Search’s Unseen Trap: App Location Technology
local search trageting Your local search program is buttoned up. You’ve got your location information just they way it should be. It’s clean and accurate with the phone numbers, streets, directionals, numbers and your schema code is all correct. You even have your location meta data all set. You’ve personally reviewed the information in all your accounts with the big search engines, local sites, and it looks good. There is…
Omni-channel brands start with culture
So, you want to be an Omni-channel brand? Omni-channel is described as a seamless experience for the consumer regardless of their mode of interaction. In other words they and your employees have the same product, options, pricing, delivery and service options no matter where they are in your brand / purchasing ecosystem. All customer history and preferences are available online, to your operators (phone & chat) and in your brick…
SEO
Automotive Repair Digital Marketing P…
Local auto repair shops generally have engaged owners who enjoy working in the b…
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One of the biggest concerns companies have when redesigning their website is tha…
What Are the SEO Implications of AI?
We’ve been working with clients in SEO for decades, and one of the consistent th…
Before You Change Your SEO Strategy
I had a call from a client in the auto repair industry. He asked if I’d be willi…
Boost Your Plumbing Business: Digital…
Ready to elevate your plumbing business? Discover effective digital marketing st…
Top Chicago SEO Marketing Companies f…
Unlock your business potential with Chicago’s top SEO marketing companies. Disco…
Large Language Models and AI for Loca…
It is mind-boggling to consider how fast AI has become part of our lives. From t…
GOOGLE SUNSETS THE ”&num=100” PAR…
GOOGLE SUNSETS THE ”&num=100” PARAMETER The affects on SEO data, and how it…
Search Engine Marketing for Small Bus…
The Chicago area is a powerhouse of small business innovation. From manufacturin…
A Guide to Auto Shop SEO
A Mechanic’s Guide to Ranking on Google In today’s digital landscape, having a s…
Does Duplicate Content Hurt SEO?
Can Publishing Duplicate Content Hurt Your Search Engine Rankings? Duplica…
The Role of SEO in B2B Marketing
On the surface, SEO’s role for B2B is simple: help generate sales. However, wher…
Do No-Follow Links Help SEO?
First, What’s a No Follow Link? A no-follow link is a hyperlink that looks like…
Technical SEO An Overview
Technical SEO is the process of ensuring search engines can access and easily cr…
The Impact of AI on SEO (So Far)
Generative AI & SEO In the rapidly evolving digital landscape, Artificial In…
How to Improve Your Ranking on Google…
A Guide to Google Maps SEO In the digital age, visibility on platforms like Goog…
Rebrand Your Site Without Losing SEO …
SEO Tips for a Smooth Rebrand At some point in their lifecycles, many businesses…
Citation Building for Local S…
Local Citations & Linkbuilding There are tons of components that go into a s…
Comparing Website Authority Scores (D…
Domain Authority vs. Domain Rating vs. Authority Score One of the primary sellin…
Google Automated Campaigns…use …
Google Ads is a great advertising tool for businesses of all sizes. From interna…
A Beginners Guide to Local SEO
Getting Started with Local SEO If you’re running a small business, you know that…
B2B SEO: Content-Led Strategy
Business-to-Business SEO Strategy B2B SEO is an important strategic marketing to…
Optimizing SEO vs. PPC Landing Pages
SEO vs. PPC Landing Pages Search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertisi…
Managing Change in SEO
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21 On-site SEO Areas to Improve Your …
The recommendations for on-site SEO, or on-page SEO, over years, have often been…
SEO Timelines: How Long Does SEO Take…
How long does SEO take to work? It’s a pretty straightforward question with a le…
What your SEO agency doesn’t know can…
No, this isn’t about the competency of your SEO agency. My guess is they’re good…
Google Update: How Google Changes You…
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PPC
Our Favorite 2025 Google PMAX Campaig…
For a while, Google has been pushing advertisers toward a fully automated system…
Automotive Repair Digital Marketing P…
Local auto repair shops generally have engaged owners who enjoy working in the b…
Keywords, Search Terms, and Search Th…
Your Back to Basics Guide: Keywords, Search Terms, and Search Themes In today’s…
Google Ads Campaign Types Breakdown
Your Back to Basics Guide: Campaign Types Whether you’re new to Google Ads or ju…
Biggest Changes to Google Ads in the …
The 6 Biggest Changes to Google Ads in the Past Five Years Google ads is always…
PPC Audit: A Complete Overview
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising allows businesses to display ads on search engin…
Google Ads Tracking Offline Conversions
Google Ads provides various tracking methods, from online e-commerce to offline,…
What Is A Google Ads Quality Score an…
What is a Google Ads Quality Score? First things first: what is a Google Ads Qua…
Google Ads – Build Your Funnel …
Improve your Google Ads Conversion by more than 50% Google Ads keeps getting bet…
Why Don’t I See My Remarketing Ads
“Why don’t I see my remarketing ads?” is a question we get asked. Or, some varia…
Amazon Prime Days and Google PMAX Sho…
October Amazon Prime Days ran 10/8-10/9, and they were promoted for weeks prior….
Evolution of a PPC Agency
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5 Common Mistakes in Google Ads
Maximize the Effectiveness of You Ad Spend Maximizing the effectiveness of your…
Are You Starving Your Google Ads PMax…
Google Ads is in a transition, and while this may initially feel unsettling for…
The demise of Cookies and lessons fro…
As Google Chrome is sent to send Cookies to the dustbin this year, digital marke…
A Guide To Google Ads With Wix
Using Wix to Set-up Google Ads Starting a business is no easy feat and includes…
Google Ads Updates – Feb 2024
Over the past month, the two biggest (but not surprising) announcements have to…
Why is it hard to trust Google Ads AI?
There is no doubt that Google is pushing advertisers and their agencies to imple…
How to Use Remarketing in PPC
The Role of Remarketing in PPC: Strategies for Targeting and Converting In the f…
Google Ads Update: Search Themes in P…
Google Ads Update: Search Themes in Performance Max Campaigns Google has m…
5 Alternatives to Google Ads
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Google Ads: Automatically Cre…
Google Ads: Automatically Created Assets As Google Ads grows and expands its cap…
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Geo Targeting Vs Geo Fencing
Geotargeting and Geofencing Compared The line between geotargeting and geofencin…
Google Ads Phrase Match Types Compare…
Should You Switch to Broad Match Keyword? We have all been there. Going through…
Is Paid Advertising Evil?
Are Search & Display Ads Evil? In the year 2023, we have all experienced ad…
5 Steps to Clean Up Your Google Ads C…
Why wait for spring cleaning when the start of the year is the perfect opportuni…
Optimizing SEO vs. PPC Landing Pages
SEO vs. PPC Landing Pages Search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertisi…
Display Campaigns & Brand Awareness
Today, we’re looking at how to build brand awareness with display advertising. T…
Google Ads Match Types Lack Meaning
As Google continues to push its belief that the Google Ads AI is better at align…
All Blogs
The Paid Search Sweet Spot
It was an average ad position of 2.5 in paid search. We couldn’t explain why, but some how if our …
Google Plus Launches Collections
Google+ makes content discovery easier for users through a format similar to Pinterest boards. This gives people the ability to …
Marketing Automation… are you really ready for it?
Marketing Automation (MA) is hot. A lot of companies are engaging tools like Pardot, Marketo, Hubspot to send messages, share …
Apple watch… great for (too) easy amazon ordering
Scott at CNET now owns an xbox. Didn’t want one, but the Apple Watch makes it so easy with the …
Email Opt-out: more than being polite
I had an interesting conversation with the head of a company that has an email campaign running. Its been running …
Art & Intuition When Data Is Not There
Analytics is a great tool for helping us make decisions and take action. As a representation of behavior, it helps …
Creating the Right Culture to Maximize Analytics
Digital analytics and more precisely, how a company uses digital analytics is a focus of mine. Over the years I …
eWOM : What durable goods marketers need to do about it
WOM, word of mouth has long been a powerful force in the making (and breaking) of products and companies. As …
Facebook seeks to prove ad and sales connection
The WSJ article on Facebook’s sales lift research is a new bow on an old, old package. Using post impressions studies …
IBM: Mobile app security is virtually non-existant
Apps are so shiny we can’t see the problems they (and we) face. I wrote before about the reliability of …
Local Search’s Unseen Trap: App Location Technology
Your local search program is buttoned up. You’ve got your location information just they way it should be. It’s clean …
Omni-channel brands start with culture
So, you want to be an Omni-channel brand? Omni-channel is described as a seamless experience for the consumer regardless of …