You’ve only got 95 characters to play with in a PPC ad, and most digital marketers will tell you that writing an ad is almost an art form. While some people are just better at this than others, there are a few ways to improve any PPC ad and campaign. Here are my top seven.

A strong call to action is the first step to a successful PPC ad. Photo courtesy Jesslee Cuizon on Flickr.

• Tell people what they can expect. Your call to action can’t be something hazy like “read now” (and a description of your product isn’t a call to action, by the way). People need to know what’s going to happen once they’ve clicked on your ad, whether you want them to sign up for a free trial, download an eBook or buy the product right then and there. Once you get them to click on your ad, make the process as easy as possible.
• Have a clear, well-designed landing page. When we build landing pages, we spend a few hours writing and incorporating forms onto the page. The idea is to get people to complete their goal on this page – you don’t want them clicking away to find out more about your product guarantee or to find out where your head office is based. Try to address each and every fear or question the reader might have on your landing page. Don’t let them hunt around for what they’re looking for after they’ve clicked on your PPC ad.
• Organize your ads, not your keywords. I’ve seen a huge difference in our conversion rate since we started to create niche ad groups to target different types of searchers. Theme your ads to focus on only one type of keyword or phrase. You will need around 15–20 keywords for each group and a customized landing page for each ad group.
• Give people what they’re looking for. Themed, exclusive ads work well because search engine users want to see exactly what they’re looking for in search results.
• Experiment with Dynamic Keyword Insertion. This handy and refined tool lets you create ads that mimic the exact phrase the searcher typed in without any further effort on your part. It works by substituting a variable keyword phrase in your ad copy with the keyword the searcher typed in. Remember that you need to make sure your ad is linked to a specific ad group (forget about broad search phrases – you run the risk of creating nonsensical ads). Also make sure the search term you choose isn’t too long as Google will use the default for your original ad if it goes over the allocated 25 characters.
• Don’t forget the basics. It’s understandable that beginners can mess up their PPC ads by forgetting the basics – such as not including a clear call to action – but it happens all too often that PPC campaign managers have too much on their plate and start forgetting these basics as they start adding more clients to their portfolio.
• Update and refine. Whether you’re a PPC pro or just starting out creating paid search ads, the trick to getting the most out of your PPC budget and conversions is continually updating and refining your campaign. Set aside a half hour a day to check, track, monitor and change your clients’ ads to show them amazing results.

Francois Muscat is a Digital Marketing Consultant, Speaker and Social Media Trainer. Read Francois’ blog and follow WSI OMS on Twitter.

Ready to see how Raven can organize your PPC campaigns? Sign up for a free 30-day trial today!

The post Wording and perfecting your PPC ads appeared first on Raven Internet Marketing Tools.

Luckily, U-turns are allowed in PPC campaigns. Photo courtesy Jürgen Stemper//Bloemche on Flickr

1. Refine, refine, refine

It’s true that you don’t pay for impressions in paid search, only clicks. Many marketers struggle with PPC because they think there is no harm in racking up as many impressions as possible. They are wrong! Any time you show an ad to someone, there is a chance they will click it, even if they are never going to convert. The most successful PPC campaigns never stop refining their keywords so that ad shows only to people who are looking to buy what you are selling.

Fortunately AdWords and AdCenter have filled your tool belt with great ways of refining your campaign’s keywords. One of the most important is to use keyword match types effectively. If you are only using broad match, you have very little control over which search terms will trigger your ads, putting your campaign in danger of attracting wasteful clicks. Phrase match and exact match are used to refine the targeting of your impressions and can drastically reduce the number of wasteful clicks.

AdWords has some other great tools for refining a campaign such as negative keywords, geo-targeting, and day-parting. With these tools you can prevent your ads for showing on terms you know aren’t relevant, target the specific geographic location in which your customers live, and isolate the time of day you are most likely to convert.

2. See search terms

In my opinion, the “see search terms” option is the best tool for gaining insight into how refined your campaign is and what steps you need to take to address irrelevant traffic. This tool shows the exact keywords that led to clicks on your ad. If your campaign’s click-through-rate is satisfactory, but the conversion rate remains low, the “see search terms” is a good way to tell if your keywords are too broad. Often you will find phrase and exact match keyword ideas alongside negative keyword suggestions that you never would have thought of on your own.

3. A/B test

Great online marketers love data, and A/B testing is the best way to gather great data used to determine whether your ads and landing pages are performing as well as they could be. A/B testing allows marketers to engage in little experiments using control pages or ads and variants. By keeping the variants identical to the control in all ways but one, marketers can easily compare an ad’s click-through-rate or a landing page’s conversion rate to see whether the changes improved performance. Remember, A/B testing is an iterative process! If you change more than one element at once you’ll never know which one was responsible for the improvement.

4. Conversion tracking

Paid search is a powerful marketing channel largely because it is so measurable. Surprisingly, not every marketer takes advantage of the wealth of information PPC campaigns can provide. While all AdWords and AdCenter campaigns provide information on click-through-rate and keyword relevance, easy implementation of conversion tracking opens up an additional layer of data that can make or break a campaign. Conversion tracking allows you to optimize your campaign to drive the activity you care about rather than just expensive clicks.

5. Long tail keywords

Long tail keywords are incredibly cost efficient but can also feel like a shot in the dark. By using 3-5 word phrases instead of short keywords, you drastically reduce traffic while increasing quality. Long tail keywords will be feast or famine by nature, so don’t get discouraged if you aren’t even seeing any impressions. A good long-tail strategy is one that keeps a lot of variations of a basic keyword enabled waiting for one of them to strike gold.

There you have it! 5 easy tips to turn around a struggling PPC campaign. What are your tips? Let me know in the comments.

Danny Randa is the Inbound Marketing Manager at email delivery and management service Sendgrid. Follow him on Twitter at @dannyranda.

Ready to see how Raven can simplify your PPC campaigns? Sign up for a free 30-day trial today!

The post 5 steps to turn around a failing PPC campaign appeared first on Raven Internet Marketing Tools.

Yes, PPC. All the things that good project managers do – set short term goals, keep a project on budget, juggle the data and numbers, communicate internally and externally, manage a team and build trust – are the kind of skills that increase the efficiency and profitability of a PPC campaign. Like any facet of Internet marketing, PPC at its core is about creating honest communication and establishing realistic goals and budgets.

Here are the 4 project management skills that will help better focus and simplify any PPC campaign.

Steve Jurvetson via Compfight

1. Setting both long-term and short-term goals

Trained project managers are not only versed in setting reachable goals for the companies that employ them — they are also able to create long-term vs. short-term goals and set realistic expectations for both. Without a project manager, short-term and long-term goals are often muddled together, and stakeholders can’t differentiate the big picture from the reachable short term steps to get there.

Take a cue from project managers. Look at your entire PPC campaign and set immediate goals that are attainable for internal teams. These, of course, are based on the overarching long-range goals. A good project manager can also predict fluctuations — seasonal traffic, emerging market trends, etc.— and tweak goals accordingly without discouraging employees.

2. Tackling the numbers

Good project managers also bring another essential skill to the table: they don’t balk at the numbers.

Channel that as you manage the financial side of your PPC campaign. PPC campaigns must be monitored closely — data reviewed, budgets established, spending managed, user traffic anticipated, investments strategized and so on. It’s vital to be able to read PPC data and create sound goals and investments based on that data.

3. Communicating to clients and team members

Communication is a vital skill for anyone managing people or projects.

In the case of PPC, the lines of communication must be kept open both with employees and with clients. Talk with clients about their PPC accounts in order to build and strengthen external business relationships (such as word-of-mouth referrals). But don’t stop motivating your internal team – this is the step that improves morale and team dynamics and encourage company loyalty and the drive for success.

4. Being transparent and trustworthy

An effective project manager seeks to communicate honestly with clients and strives for transparency in his or her interactions with his team — because without a motivated, loyal team, a project manager can’t do it all. This is why transparency is so important when dealing with employees. Making an empty promise to employees regarding goals, overtime, promotions, or bonuses will create an air of mistrust within the company, and your campaigns will suffer as a result.

Instead; bring each employee on-board with a confidentiality agreement to ensure their discretion, and ensure any communications that go out to clients (be they social media, e-newsletters, or a simple email communication) are honest and help build long term trust in all business relations.

Caeden M MacGregor is a staff writer for Prestige Marketing, a Vancouver internet marketing company that specializes in blogging on viral marketing, social media, and internet marketing tips and techniques. Caeden has written for numerous blogs in a variety of fields ranging from software to fitness, and from gourmet food to travel.

Do more. Spend less. Get to know Raven Tools. Sign up for a free 30-day trial today.

The post 4 project management tips to streamline your PPC campaigns appeared first on Raven Internet Marketing Tools.

Over at the WordStream blog, I recently asked 18 PPC experts to share their best bid management tips. It’s full of great advice, so if you have the time, I recommend reading the whole bid management guide. But for those who might find it a little overwhelming, here are ten great tips I’ve culled from the guide to help PPC practitioners handle bid management more effectively and efficiently. Here we go!

1. Choose your bidding solution/methodology based on needs, budget, and scale.
   “A site making $15/lead with 100 leads a month doesn’t need to pay for a huge bid management system. A site doing thousands (or tens of thousands) of sales where the prices and margins are variable needs a robust system. A site that is bidding on multiples of email captures, page views, click-outs, sales, installs, downloads, etc. probably needs their own custom system.” (via Brad Geddes)
2. Develop a schedule and stick to it.
   The flow of your account (the volume of clicks and conversion per day) should determine your schedule. “Whether it is daily, or weekly, the process is the same. Pull reports and adjust bids according to your KPI targets.” (via John Lee)
3. Don’t fiddle with bids on the daily.
   You need more data to make informed decisions. “Don’t obsessively look in campaigns every day and make reactionary changes. If you make bid changes every day, you’re most likely not gathering enough data for those changes to be warranted.” (via Pamela Lund) “A keyword needs to gather adequate historical data before you can make a good decision. The time frame you need in order to gather this data is going to vary depending on your vertical, keyword bids, match type, campaign budget, and many other factors. However, I have personally found the ideal interval to be around two weeks of data between bid adjustments.” (via Shawn Livengood)
4. If you use automation, monitor your rules carefully and adjust your strategy as needed.
   Over the life of a campaign, you may have differing goals – such as increasing volume initially and lowering CPA later on. “You can’t set and forget your bid rules. You may find that your settings are too aggressive or not aggressive enough.” (via Joseph Kerschbaum)
5. Experiment with different types of bidding options.
   In other words, test, test, test, even when relying on automated bidding – you never know what will work until you try it. “Just because you are focused on conversions doesn’t mean ‘Optimize for Clicks’ won’t drive sales!” (via Bethany Bey)
6. Know when to intervene on automated bid management.
   You may need to step in and correct things manually due to seasonal changes, products being temporarily out of stock or other reasons. “A classic example would be the first day in December, when you can no longer ship in time for Christmas. Conversion rates drop like a stone from one day to the next, but most bid management systems will need some time to adapt to the change. Unless you intervene, your bids will be far too high at a time when many people still search and click on your ads.” (via Martin Roettgerding)
7. Don’t bid more than you can afford.
   It’s not about being #1. “More often than not, the top position isn’t the most profitable.” (via Aaron Levy) “Usually the best performance comes from finding the sweet spot between cost and high-quality traffic volume.” (via Chris Kosteki)
8. Try Enhanced CPC Bidding if you have enough conversion data.
   “It almost feels like it’s cheating a bit to be able to use Google’s user behavior to increase bids based on when they believe a user is more likely to convert, but I’ve seen it make a big impact in campaigns that have high traffic and conversion volume.” (via Justin Vanning)
9. Use the Bid Simulator.
   “Bid Simulator enables you to see the advertising results you could get if you used a different maximum CPC bid for your keyword or ad group.” (via Marko Kvesic) You can find this tool next to your bid in the Max CPC column (more info here).
10. Try dayparting.
    Dayparting is re-allocating your budget over certain days of the week or times of day so you spend more during optimal time periods. “Dayparting can be your best friend. Frequently, the easiest way to slash CPA is just to shut down during the lowest performing hours of the day.” (via Todd Mintz)

Have these strategies worked for your team? What’s your best bidding tip?

Photo courtesy Guanatos Gwyn on Flickr

Elisa Gabbert manages and contributes to the blog at WordStream Inc., a provider of search marketing software and services, including a PPC management platform and free keyword tools. Follow her on Twitter at @egabbert.

The post 10 bid management tips from PPC pros appeared first on Raven Internet Marketing Tools.

Search Query Performance shows the search terms that people used when they clicked on PPC ads. It also shows impressions, clicks and conversions.

Both SEOs and SEMs will find value in this tool, if you have synced your Google AdWords account with Raven. Why? Not only is this a good research tool for AdWords customers, it provides data to help fill in the gaps created by (not provided).

Here’s how it works.

How To Use Search Query Performance

1. Go to Insights > AdWords.

2. Click on the Search Query Performance tab. After a few moments, you’ll see a table of the search terms that visitors used in Google that pulled up one of your PPC ads. You can see Impressions, Clicks, Costs, Conversions, Conversion Rate and more.

Toggle your Display Options via the Display Options icon.

3. Click on the Gear icon for any keyword for several action options.

You can view the keyword, Ad Group or Campaign that were triggered by that search term.

You can add the search term to an Ad Group—which will add it to the Ad Group that was triggered by the search—or you can add it as a negative keyword to an Ad Group or Campaign. That’s useful for keywords that were far off base for your target campaigns and could be costing you a lot of money.

Finally, you can add any keyword to Raven’s Keyword Manager for follow up and/or turn on SERP tracking for it.

4. Use the drop-downs above the table to filter data at the Campaign or Group level. You can also change the date range and number of table results you’re viewing.

5. Export your data by clicking the Export Data icon.

Please let us know if you have any feedback—simply email support@raventools.com.

For more information about the AdWords Insights tool, see our announcement about its release.

The post New Feature: AdWords Search Query Performance appeared first on Raven Internet Marketing Tools.

He said: Why I hate retargeting

What do I have to give for 2012 to be the year that retargeting goes away? Let me know, and I’ll seriously consider it.

I don’t like ads following me around the Internet. They’re creepy, unnecessary, and often irrelevant. I would not pick those three adjectives to describe good advertising.

Here are a few recent examples for my own experience:

• I reviewed Adobe Creative Suite software options for our new creative director. Now Adobe follows me everywhere.
• I’m a huge Levenger fan and researched their Thai Pad reading pillow. And now the Thai Pad – not just Levenger – follows me everywhere.
• I looked up details on Online Marketing Summit, at which Raven was a sponsor. Thank goodness that ad has stopped since the event took place last week, but I’m sure they’ll be cueing me up for 2013 soon.

The list is by no means comprehensive. The number of offenders is plentiful. All that said, the ads are harmless. I’ve been ignoring them for a long time now.

But this new batch of über ads pushes a few new buttons:

• The ads assume I want to buy something. Only the Thai Pad was a possible purchase. The other visits were solely for information. Please don’t penalize me for visiting your website.
• The math is wrong. My desire to buy is inversely proportional to the number of your ads I see. The idea of bombarding people thoughtlessly offends me as a marketer.
• The ads are noticeable, and not in a good way. They’re the people no one invites to the party, but they always seem to show up anyway. It makes you want to avoid them at all cost, even if it means leaving a fun party.
• The process is backward. I initiated the search and visited your website, so I’m well aware of you and your capabilities. I’ll come back if I need you. In the meantime, why wouldn’t you use your money to find other people who don’t know you yet?

Yes, I understand I have some control over the situation, whether it’s opting out with Evidon or using an app like Ghostery to help me at least track who’s watching.

That doesn’t mean I have to like it any better.

She said: Why I love retargeting

OK, maybe love is a strong word. It’s more like I just can’t understand why everyone else hates them so much. To me, retargeting just makes sense – both as an Internet marketer and as a regular old web consumer. Here’s why.

It’s more relevant

Above are two ads I saw recently when I was on one of my favorite sites (and a hotbed of retargeting for me), The Awl. One of these ads is for a brand I trust, offering me cute handbags they know I’m likely interested in.

The other one…I honestly don’t even know what The Darkness is. A new line at Hot Topic? That weird band from 2003? A video game, maybe? Now which one of these am I more likely to click? Yup, you guessed it.

It’s a given that advertising is always going to be around in one form or another. I would rather have it know me well enough to show me things I might actually care about.

It’s competitive intelligence

Yes, OK, ads are stalking you all around the Internet, ya big Internet privacy crybabies. Let’s look on the bright side. If you’re a diligent Internet marketer, at least part of your job is keeping an eye on competitors, perhaps by reading their blogs or visiting their sites.

Retargeting means competitive intelligence could be coming right to you as you shop for shoes or read the news online! That’s a win in my book. Are they overdoing it? Do they have a new offer you need to take note of? Are they doing something creative you can adapt? Learn from it.

It’s no creepier than anything else on the Internet

Between half the stuff on YouTube, Google’s new privacy policy (yes, I’m aware it’s exactly this kind of thing that makes retargeting possible) and Courtney’s Stodden’s Twitter account, aren’t we kinda used to creepy on the Internet by now?

I mean, it’s not like someone’s offering you candy from a windowless van. It’s just retailers trying to sell you stuff. If you’re creeped out by ads following you around way too much, that means that brand is just overdoing their retargeting and needs to set a lower frequency cap on the number of impressions you’re seeing (4-5 ads per day is the going best practice).

It’s effective

Try to remember the last online ad that you really, truly remember seeing – and acting on – that wasn’t “stalking you”? Go ahead; I’ll wait.

If you can’t, that’s a good sign that retargeting works.

Could it be more fine-tuned? Of course. Retargeting is still new and there’s going to be lots of tweaking on the way. But it won’t be long until marketers get sophisticated enough to segment their retargeting into different ads for different stages of the purchasing funnel, from brand awareness to research to purchase. Then we’ll likely see more effective (and less creepy), tailored messages based on the actions you took (or didn’t take) on a site.

It’s not perfect yet, but what advertising is?

Postscript

Top photo courtesy clairity on Flickr

Where do you stand on the retargeting debate? Let us know in the comments!

PPC, SEO, social media and more – all in one platform. Sign up for a free 30-day trial to see how Raven can help you spend less and do more.

The post He said, she said: Why we hate (and love) retargeting appeared first on Raven Internet Marketing Tools.

Twitter is aggressive about advertising

Obviously. Twitter’s main source of revenue is their promoted products, and they want to compete with other self-service advertising platforms like Google and Facebook. In my opinion, it is actually easier to target users with one of Twitter’s promoted products than with a standard Facebook display ad.

Initially, promoted products were only available to US advertisers, but they have been expanding with new offices in the UK and Japan. According to reports, Twitter’s ad revenues are expected to be close to $400 million during the year 2013. Which is a pretty impressive number considering the community is only a few years old.

Consumer don’t mind promoted tweets

But how do people on Twitter feel about ads in their Twitter stream? Check out these statistics from eMarketer on attitudes towards promoted tweets.

Only a small percentage said they find promoted tweets annoying, and a much larger group is engaging with them and even finding valuable discounts. The vast majority of Twitter users surveyed were OK with seeing promoted tweets that are relevant to them – possibly even enjoying them.

Twitter trumps Facebook in fan loyalty

When comparing Twitter to Facebook, CMB Consumer Plus recently found that users who follow a brand on Twitter have a higher likelihood of buying something from that brand than those who are a fan of the brand on Facebook (67% compared to 51%). They also found a higher likelihood that Twitter followers of a brand would recommend it to others as compared to Facebook fans (79% compared to 60%).

The competition is low – for now

Because Twitter’s advertising program is still in a beta, the competition is low. You bid against other advertisers, and without many other advertisers to bid against, you can pretty good cost per engagement (CPE) prices. The minimum CPE bid is only $0.50 (which is not necessarily what you would pay, as you have to bid high enough to beat out other advertisers), which presents a great opportunity to start a campaign on a reasonable budget.

But that window could be closing soon. Twitter Sales Chief Adam Brian spoke with the Wall Street Journal a few months ago and said that more than “1,000 advertisers, including many small businesses” have used purchased ads from Twitter, “and about 80% have made more than one purchase.” As more and more advertisers purchase more ads on Twitter, the competition will rise.

How to get started

If you can spare $5,000 a month (Twitter’s minimum commitment, for 3 months) from your advertising budget, consider testing a Twitter campaign. Right now, you still need to apply for an account to begin running promoted tweets or accounts.

Usually, you will be required to complete an insertion order, but a few weeks ago Twitter announced a limited beta allowing electronic payments – a good direction, as their ultimate goal is for advertisers to be able to set up and launch a campaign without help from a representative. Still, I can tell you that you can easily get a sponsored follow or tweet campaign running within seven days. Your options are:

Promoted accounts

Promoted accounts are probably the easiest and most straightforward advertising solution on Twitter. Your account is listed under the “who to follow” section on Twitter.com, and you bid against other advertisers in a cost per follow bidding model. Just like with AdWords, the bidding really depends on your industry and the competition but generally CPF starts around $1-$2.

You can target users by location, interests, and keywords mentioned in their Twitter stream. Here’s an example of what a promoted account looks like on Twitter.com.

This is the official Occupy Wall Street account being promoted, by the way. If an occupier hooked up to a car battery, using WiFi from a nearby coffee shop can run ads on Twitter, your business can too!

Promoted tweets

With a sponsored tweet, you can promote a message in Twitter’s search results, in a follower’s timelines, or in the timeline of users that Twitter deems “similar” to your current followers. Advertisers pay on a cost per engagement model, where you can bid your maximum CPE. Promoted tweets carry a minimum CPE of $0.10 and a suggested CPE of $0.50.

Engagement is defined as one of the following actions:

• Click (can be a link, hashtag or open of the promoted tweet to the details pane)
• Favorite
• Retweet
• Reply

Notice that you will be charged for the click of a hashtag. This is why, unless you have a specific reason for doing so, I usually don’t recommend including a hashtag in your promoted tweet.

Promoted trends

Worldwide promoted trends are Twitter’s most expensive advertising solution by a long shot. For a $120,000 flat fee you can promote a trend to all users in the USA. The trend will also appear on third party and mobile apps. Experts estimate this promoted trend can deliver an average of 25,000,000 impressions a day.

With such a high price tag, this is obviously not an option for most advertisers. But for those representing, say, a large brand launching a new product, or a television network looking to create conversation about a new show, then promoted trends can actually be a pretty effective way to reach a huge audience.

Layer on top of organic efforts

If you’re ready to run a Twitter promoted campaign, make sure you’re getting the most of out those advertising dollars. The most important piece of advice I can give you is that any effective paid Twitter strategy must be paired with natural interaction in the community. You, or your community manager, will need to be active in posting valuable updates, interacting with your followers, keeping on top of popular trends, etc.

If you don’t have that foundation in place before launching a sponsored campaign, it will inhibit the success of your paid effort. Why? Because no matter how high you bid on a promoted follow campaign, if users don’t see any value in the updates in your Twitter stream then they aren’t going to follow you. Plain and simple.

Set goals before launching

Before you begin spending money on followers or actions, think about your goals. Exactly what actions do you want users to complete? Exactly how will you define the success of your campaign? Always establish your goals first, and then build your campaigns around these desired actions.

You may just want to get more followers for your brand. That’s an easy goal to achieve. But maybe you have a more complicated goal, like getting people talking about a new product launch. Maybe you want to get users to click through to sign up for a newsletter on your site or complete a contact form. As with any paid effort, it is always important to define these goals, otherwise you could be wasting your advertising dollars.

I have no affiliation with BeachBody (the P90X workout company) but I think this is a great example of a promoted tweet.

I took this screen shot on November 10th, 2011 – the day before 11/11/11, which was trending worldwide on Twitter. BeachBody did a great job of capitalizing on the popularity of 11/11/11, and tied in a contest for $1,111. Also, notice how the only link they have in the promoted tweet is a link to enter the contest. No hashtags, no push to get users to retweet, the goal is very clear: click the link and enter the contest.

Consider deals and contests

According to a study from Shop.org, 58% of people surveyed say they follow retailers online to find discounts. Another 39% said they follow retailers for information on contests. These are great elements to include in your sponsored effort, and they often lead to higher engagement rates.

As an avid Tweeter, I have entered probably hundreds of contests that I’ve heard about on Twitter. From iPads, to books, to gift cards. Users on Twitter have come to expect contests and special “Twitter followers only” deals, so why not give them what they want?

Mathew Guiver specializes in paid search and sponsored social campaigns at e-storm International. He is also a mega Britney Spears fan. Find him on Twitter @MathewGuiver.

Have you considered or run a promoted campaign on Twitter? What were the results? Tell us about it in the comments!

The post Advertising on Twitter: Is it right for your brand? appeared first on Raven Internet Marketing Tools.

While 2012 is still a clean, blank sheet of paper just waiting to be scribbled upon, we’re gazing into the crystal ball by rounding up posts from around the web focusing on Internet marketing predictions. Big thinkers from all over the industry offer more than 300 total predictions, so read up to see what could happen in the year to come. Then tell us your own predictions in the comments.

Internet marketing

Search Engine Land: Digital Marketing Trends To Watch Out For In 2012

Top Rank Blog: Future Trends: 2012 Online Marketing & Technology Predictions

Small Biz Trends: 5 Internet Marketing Predictions for 2012

HubSpot: 18 Insightful 2012 Marketing Predictions From the Experts

Market Motive: Online Marketing Trends for 2012

SEOptimize: 30 Web Trends For 2012: How SEO, Search, Social Media, Blogging, Web Design & Analytics Will Change

Blind Five-Year Old: 2012 Internet, SEO and technology predictions

Content Marketing Institute: 150+ Content Marketing & Social Media Predictions for 2012

Social Media

Marketing Land: Social Media Marketing Of The Future

CNet: 5 social network predictions for 2012

Social Media Today: 5 Totally SWAG Social Media Predictions for 2012

Businesses Grow: The anti-prediction of 2012 social media predictions

Social Media Today: 2012 Social Media Predictions: 5 Must-Reads

Brian Solis: 2012 Social Marketing & New Media Predictions

SEO

Search Engine Watch: Search & Mobile Marketing Trends: SEO Apocalypse 2012

Email Marketing

Marketing Land: Email Marketing In 2012: How To Stay Ahead Of The Pack

PPC

PPC Hero: Our Favorite 2011 PPC Changes & Predictions For 2012

Content marketing

Junta 42: Top 15 Content Marketing Predictions for 2012

Reputation management

Search Engine People: 3 Reputation Management Trends & Predictions for 2012

Mobile

Marketing Land: Twelve Mobile Predictions for 2012

Did we miss any Internet marketing prediction posts? Let me know and we’ll add yours. Share YOUR best guesses with us in the comments. Happy New Year from Raven Tools!

Photo courtesy Frogman on Flickr

Ready to start 2012 smart? Do more and make more money with Raven Tools. Sign up for a free 30-day trial now!

The post 300+ Internet marketing predictions for 2012 appeared first on Raven Internet Marketing Tools.

There’s good reason for that. Unlike traditional advertising channels, online advertising is less expensive, far faster to market and easy to measure. Good news for you if you’re in the hot seat for getting the boss or client results. But there’s a hitch: without the right tools, you can find yourself way over your head and way over your budget.

Here’s a peek at the tools that can help you manage a successful online advertising campaign. Today’s list is limited to PPC advertising tools. Tomorrow, we’ll have an ultimate list of social media advertising tools. And soon, we’ll circle back around with display and ad network advertising tools.

Search engine PPC tools

There are few online advertising tools that can put you in front of an audience that rivals a small nation in size. But build an effective campaign with PPC on a search engine and you’ll accomplish just that. Roll that campaign across multiple search engines and in no time you’ll be a little online ad mogul.

• Google AdWords
  With nearly 65% of search traffic, Google AdWords will get your text ads out in front of the lion’s share of search traffic. But it’s not cheap. A Sponsored Link is a coveted ad position that will drive traffic, but comes with a hefty price, too.
• Yahoo! Search Marketing
  Out of the big three search engines, Yahoo! has the smallest market share at 14%. But it’s still a percentage you don’t want to ignore: it has the highest search success rate at 81.14%.
• Bing AdCenter
  With two powerhouse search engines (Yahoo! and Bing) under one platform, you can interact with over 30% of search traffic, traffic that’s supposed to be known for buying, not just browsing. Sweet keyword tool.”If you do not diversify your paid search campaigns beyond Google AdWords, you’re not only missing the boat—but losing your company money via inaction.”—Loren Baker
• Baidu Phoenix Next
  Baidu is China’s No. 1 search engine, with 75.9% of the market share in Q2 of 2011. (In comparison, Google China had about 18% of the market share during the same period.) Its advertising models and networks are similar to Google’s, but there are significant differences. Before you jump into Baidu PPC advertising, read up from experts like Gordon Choi and those at China Internet Watch.
• Yandex.Direct
  If you want to buy PPC ads for Russian audiences, add Yandex to the list—CTR is better than Google.ru. There are some good descriptions of the tools in English, including an English-language help center, but you’ll still want to read from experts like those at RussianSearchTips.com.

Google AdWords tools

Google AdWords allows you to display your ads on Google, and across its advertising network, at the moment people are searching for your product. The following tools help you leverage this powerful platform.

• Google AdWords Keyword Tool
  When you want to find out what related word searches your ad will show on, use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. Free and dead simple to use.
• Google AdWords Traffic Estimator
  Google will give you rough estimates on clicks and bid prices for your ads at the top position. Helpful for planning your budget. Free.
• Conversion Optimizer
  Google dishes out yet another AdWords tool, this time to help you achieve double-digit conversions by bidding on your CPA (cost-per-acquisition). Free, but to be eligible, campaigns must have had 15 conversions in the last 30 days.
• AdWord Accelerator
  For a one-year subscription at $299, the AdWord Accelerator will give you access to tools like the keyword basket, estimates and competition tracking in one convenient suite.
• Google AdWords Manager
  Raven debuted its AdWords management and reporting tools a couple of months ago. You can create AdWords campaigns, adjust budgets, pause or start campaigns in bulk, manage multiple accounts, set extensions and more. Reporting AdWords campaigns is extremely simple. $99/month for a Pro account, which gives you access to all the SEO, social media and PPC tools in the platform.
• AdWords Wrapper
  Enter a list of keyword phrases into the Google AdWords Wrapper, click “Wrap Keywords” and bingo: you’ve got a combination of Broad, Phrase and Exact Match keywords, a combination of Phrase and Exact Match keyword, Phrase Match only keywords and Exact Match only keywords. Free.
• Keyword Wrapper Another free tool that lets you create various combinations of your keywords. @markkennedysem says this about their service. “SEOM’s keyword wrapper is a free tool for PPC campaign managers to wrap keywords in [exact], “phrase,” and +Broad +Match +Modified match types.”
• AdGrenade
  A super fast, super efficient way to expand your keyword list, write ads for each keyword and track each core keyword. In just six seconds. One time cost of $147.
• AdWords Editor
  Free Google application to download your AdWords account, update your campaigns with the editing tools and then upload your changes. A must.
• Negative Keywords Maker
  Negative keywords allow you to filter out unwanted impressions, reduce your CPC and increase ROI. But they can be a pain to create. Until now. Insert the minus sign “-” in front of keywords with one click. Free.
• AdWords Insights
  Uncover poorly performing keywords and landing pages with low Quality Scores in bulk with this Raven tool. Fix problems to save money and increase conversions. $99/month for a Raven Pro account, which gives you access to all the SEO, social media and PPC tools in the platform.
• Keyword Niche Finder
  If you want to find profitable keyword niches that you can dominate, then use this free tool. You can start with general terms like “auto” or “sports” and refine until you find that keyword phrase or two no one knows about.

PPC budgeting tools

Pay-per-click advertising is probably the fastest way to dominate search engine rankings. But it can also be the most expensive. The following tools will help you manage, budget and succeed at the PPC game without breaking the bank.

• Pay Per Click Universe
  A free resource dedicated to provide unbiased information to the small-to-medium sized business owner interested in exploring the world of PPC advertising.
• Acquisio
  If you run multi-channel advertisements across Search, Social and Display networks, you have no shortage in the amount of data you collect. But data means nothing if you don’t turn it into action. With Acquisio, you get one integrated platform to purchase, track, manage and optimize all your marketing efforts.
• CPC ROI Calculator
  Want a tool that figures out how you can profitably pay for your ads? This cost-per-click ROI calculator from SEOBook is just the ticket. Free.
• PPC Bid Max
  Software solution that automatically manages your PPC campaigns. Perfect for the time-starved one-man shop. Standard edition starts at $96.
• PPC G-Test Calculator
  This free tool allows you to predict the winner out of two competing ads, thus allowing you to save money while you optimize your ads.
• Taguchi-based Ad Optimizer
  Want to speed up the testing process AND test up to 15 elements in your ads at a time? Then this free tool is what you need. It will blow your mind. In a good way.
• Wordstream
  Wordstream touts its new Pause Keyword Alerts, weekly updates that tell you the keywords to pause for better campaign performance. Monthly plans for its PPC tools start at $299.

Competitive PPC analysis tools

Knowing what your competitors are doing in the online advertising space is a must if you want to dominate. These tools will help you pay attention to their campaigns and respond accordingly.

• Spyfu
  The concept is simple: when you spy on your competitor’s AdWords campaigns you are bound to find AND capture profitable opportunities. Spyfu allows you to do this for $79 a month.
• PPC Web Spy
  Another competitive analysis too—this time free. Uncover the Google AdWords keywords your competitors are using with Brad Cullen’s downloadable PPC tool.
• My Ads Advertising
  In minutes you can build and customize ads, reach broad audiences or target your customers and track and monitor your ad to see how it is performing with flexible budgets and no minimum bid.
• iSpionage
  Simply enter any domain for rich results on PPC competitors. Test it for free right from the home page, or sign up for a plan starting at $59 for more tools.
• SEMRush
  SEMRush offers deep competitive intelligence for Google AdWords. Plans begin at $69 a month (or access SEMRush data from within Raven at no added cost.)

Your turn

What am I missing? Are there any online advertising tools out there that you think a website owner shouldn’t be caught dead without? Share your thoughts in the comments. Brutal and all.

Demian Farnworth is a owner of and chief web writer at The CopyBot. He hustles the finer points of web copy at the blog. Follow him on Twitter or Google+.

Ultimate list of Ultimate lists

• Ultimate list of conversion optimization tools
• Ultimate list of blogging tools for pros
• Ultimate list of social media advertising tools
• Ultimate list of online public relations tools
• Ultimate list of online content readability tests
• Ultimate list of Internet marketing humor sites
• Ultimate list of PPC bid management solutions

The post Ultimate list of PPC advertising tools appeared first on Raven Internet Marketing Tools.

Session description: Lessons learned as they relate to digital media and advertising based on an array of comScore studies. Guiding agencies down a path toward more effective planning, stronger evaluation and overall improved results.

Speakers: Hugh McGoran

The skinny

The advertising ecosystem has changed drastically over the last 10-15 years with this little thing we call the “internet”. Brands, agencies, ad networks, exchanges and SSPs, DSPs, publishers, data providers, and agency trading desks have all had the game changed on them. (Yeah, I went there.)

What he said

• A very large number of your web visitors are coming from outside the United States. Remember that when you are working on messaging. A major US website can have up to 75% of foreign views.
• Mobile will eventually take over the majority of web browsing. Start thinking about that now…how are you going to optimize your site for mobile?
• Three biggest areas of mobile activity: Online shopping, social media, the weather.
• Fans of a brand on Facebook are generally more likely to visit their website. Friends of those fans tend to visit the websites as well.
• The number of clicks on ads has been cut in half in the last few years. A click means nothing. 8% of all internet users account for 85% of all banner ad clicks.
• Again, mobile directly affects how we interact with content. How will we reach people with the mobile web?
• The power is shifting completely to the customer. Never forget that.
• Use social media measurement to inform your social strategies. Use KPI’s that matter to your individual business.

The post Liveblog from Bolo 2011: Maximizing Your Digital Marketing Investments appeared first on Raven Internet Marketing Tools.