BING SEARCH FRAUD- CHEATERS NEVER WIN

I've noticed something very suspicious lately when using my Internet Explorer browser. Whenever you directly type a website name into the browser, you don't get to the website directly. What I see is a Bing search engine query result page with the website of course appearing in its organic results.


Not a big deal you say? Its pretty insidious actually. I believe by doing this, Microsoft is inflating its Bing search traffic statistics. Bing is in running in about a distant 3rd place behind Google and Yahoo for search traffic marketshare- That means a lot of revenue potential for Microsoft.

Read more about Microsoft's Bing marketshare news here:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/194852/bing_loses_more_money_as_microsoft_chases_google.html

What is more interesting, and perhaps not surprising is how Microsoft is blatantly and fraudulently trying to make up ground in this critical area.

Nielsen reports more than 9.17 billion searches in February 2010, with Google Search accounting for 65.2 percent of the market share with a total of 5.98 billion searches. Yahoo came in second with 14.1 percent, with a total 1.29 billion searches. Bing is 3rd place with 12.5 percent. AOL accounted for 2.3 percent. Can we believe these figures?

Query "bing fraud" and millions of topics result for that query. Unfortunately for Microsoft, this isn't the first time its accused of unethical business actions.

What this means for businesses employing Internet marketing, and especially Pay-Per-Click and Search Engine Marketing is to stick with Google (and Yahoo to a lesser degree, especially with recent questions surrounding a partnership between Bing and Yahoo). For small business, Google is the only search engine you need to effectively worry about. For larger companies who insist on using many search engines which include lower quality sites like Bing, safeguards must be employed to protect against fraud. Experienced agencies like http://www.49er-consulting.com/ employ best practices to limit fraud exposure across all search engines, even Google.

Tiger Woods and Image Marketing

Read about our Tiger Woods and Accenture posting here.

49er-consulting.com is a Montclair, NJ-based Internet Marketing Agency specializing in ppc management
and seo consulting. The agency is experienced in delivering marketing results for small businesses and
rapidly growing companies. It's services include but are not limited to:

ppc management / pay per click management
email marketing / email list management
seo consulting
search engine marketing
internet advertising
banner advertising
multi-channel marketing
blog marketing
web 2.0

For additional information, visit www.49er-consulting.com

PPC Management Montclair NJ

49er-consulting.com is a Montclair, NJ based PPC Management agency. We have clients nationwide, not just NJ or the metro NYC area!

Where is Montclair, NJ? It is about a 30 minute drive west of Manhattan, NY.

Montclair is centered pretty well among the  of Route 80, Route 280, Route 21, Route 46, Route 3, Route 19, and the Garden State Parkway.

The closest exit to Montclair, NJ off the Garden State Parkway is Exit 151.

 I prefer Google Maps to Mapquest.  It's not so heavy with ad serving, therefore it loads much faster.

Surrounding towns in which our business serves include:

Verona, NJ
Bloomfield, NJ
Cedar Grove, NJ
Caldwell, NJ
West Caldwell, NJ
Nutley, NJ
Belleville, NJ
Clifton, NJ
Passaic, NJ
West Orange, NJ
Orange, NJ
East Orange, NJ
South Orange, NJ
Essex Fells, NJ
Roseland, NJ
Livingston, NJ
Fairfield, NJ
Totowa, NJ
Paterson, NJ
Elmwood Park, NJ
Garfield, NJ
Hasbrouck Heights, NJ
Wood-Ridge, NJ
Moonachie, NJ
Carlstadt, NJ
Rutherford, NJ
Lyndhurst, NJ
North Arlington, NJ

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49er-consulting.com is a Montclair, NJ-based Internet Marketing Agency specializing in ppc management
and seo consulting. The agency is experienced in delivering marketing results for small businesses and
rapidly growing companies. It's services include but are not limited to:

ppc management / pay per click management
email marketing / email list management
seo consulting
search engine marketing
internet advertising
banner advertising
multi-channel marketing
blog marketing
web 2.0

For additional information, visit www.49er-consulting.com

It's all About CPA not PPC!

Can you see the forest, or do you just see the tree?

Today's topic on PPC Management is a very important one. It has to do with educating a client's perspective of expectations and business strategy.

So many times I get calls from prospective clients who can't figure out their PPC Advertising accounts. And of course that's why they call on me. They think I can wave my magical wand, go into their PPC accounts and instantly fix everything.

I got a call today from a local Montclair, NJ business needing help with their PPC account. Their ROI was about -15% on a consistent basis. They tried a bunch of things including buying expensive bid management software. They depend on PPC advertising for all their revenue volume!

The best PPC Management consultants will always preach the caveat that you must not rely on any one  marketing channel for success. Doing so is like depending on one kind of investment stock for your retirement. It's too risky.

What I recommended the business owner do, is:

• Identify and limit his PPC keywords to only the most profitable or nearly break-even.
• Optimize his landing pages better so that their quality scores improve, and deliver on the promise of his text ads more consistently.
• More importantly, he needs to start thinking about other means of customer acquisition.

CPA in Internet marketing stands for Cost Per Acquisition. PPC advertising "gone wild" has yielded this client an expensive CPA. He is not aware of other successful means of Customer Acquisition.

PPC Advertising, of course is one of the more popular means of Customer Acquisition out there. It brings relevant ads to customers who are actively interested in a product or service. The main disadvantages are, you are paying for clicks, and not guaranteed sales. Plus, PPC advertisers have to manage click fraud, and inconsistent results.

I recommended these other simple strategies to look into to lower his overall CPA:

1. Fixed-price banner ads
2. Affiliate marketing
   

Banner ads, when placed well, can contribute very well to a business's lead mix. On one client I recently worked for, well-placed banner ads were contributing approximately 30% to their lead volume.  That's a very respectable number. Plus, banners can extend your brand image in ways your PPC text ads cannot.

Affiliate marketing is basically sharing your profit with referrers who bring you closed transactions. It's a deep topic, but successful campaigns involve good tracking methods, metrics, and an accounting system to pay your virtual salespeople.  Think about it. Wouldn't you rather pay for customers, and not clicks?

There are many other ways to lower a company's CPA. PPC advertising, while enormously popular, can be very risky to many businesses, even the largest ones with deep pockets. The key is to manage your expectations, limit your keywords, and broaden your marketing strategy. Your business will be healthier for it!

49er-consulting.com is a Montclair, NJ-based Internet Marketing Agency specializing in ppc management
and seo consulting. The agency is experienced in delivering marketing results for small businesses and
rapidly growing companies. It's services include but are not limited to:

ppc management / pay per click management
email marketing / email list management
seo consulting
search engine marketing
internet advertising
banner advertising
multi-channel marketing
blog marketing
web 2.0

For additional information, visit www.49er-consulting.com

Today's PPC Management Tip

 PPC ADVERTISING MANAGEMENT TIP #12

Slow and steady PPC bid management wins the race.

One of the rookie mistakes you will encounter is trying to interpret Traffic and Rank Estimator (TRE) tools that are built into search engine PPC accounts, like Google.

You are curious to know what the costs are for what position ranks. So you try adjusting your bid downward by 15 cents or more, and then immediately re-click the TRE. You see the rank output doesn't change, so you keep adjusting downward. You are thinking to yourself, "Wow, our recent optimization work to our website is really paying off!"

That's not the case.

You check in the next day to see how your conversions are doing, and the numbers have generally fallen off across the board.

Unfortunately, Google is not in the business of revealing to you what keywords will precisely cost for what ranks at any given moment. Part of that assumption is a technical difficulty, and the other part of that is understanding that Google cannot reveal to you on a business level what your competition is bidding. That is generally why search engines like Google will only show you rough, unchanging estimations. In spite of this, there are ways to give you a very good idea about what your competition is paying. But that is a topic for another day.

In short, once you get a feel for what general ranks cost on a consistent basis, do not try adjusting your bids by more than 10 cents at a time. Once you do make bid changes, you should really resist trying to manipulate bids on a daily basis. You have to stand back and let your PPC account accrue data over a period of time.

That's right- in professional PPC management, less is more.

49er-consulting.com is a Montclair, NJ-based Internet Marketing Agency specializing in ppc management
and seo consulting. The agency is experienced in delivering marketing results for small businesses and
rapidly growing companies. It's services include but are not limited to:

ppc management / pay per click management
email marketing / email list management
seo consulting
search engine marketing
internet advertising
banner advertising
multi-channel marketing
blog marketing
web 2.0

For additional information, visit www.49er-consulting.com

Why you shouldn't be Bidding on Keywords that are Core to your Business (I know, theoretically)

One of the concerning trends I see in PPC management is, companies are spending on PPC ads based upon the core keywords of their business.

This is a point of debate in PPC management.

Good use of PPC advertising means you should not have to spend money bidding on keywords for your core products and services. Yes, I know that's theory. And yes, so many companies throw money at their problems in the form of PPC advertising. Their problems being relatively poor SEO value for their websites. Your natural SEO value of your website should already be giving you visibility in that regard.

Granted, many industries are very competitive, and your SEO value alone may not give you enough visibility at the moment. So what do companies do? They bid on keywords they really shouldn't have to. And that's precisely why so many companies find it expensive to compete for PPC bidding.

No wonder why so many companies claim they are not hitting their ROIs. It is also the reason why I believe Google has a great deal of customer turnover, despite their success.

The better approach may be to invest that capital into SEO, viral content, marketing/seasonal promotions, and social media for your website. This is not an overnight endeavor. It will take months of consistent labor. But the payoff is substantial and long-lasting.

49er-consulting.com is a Montclair, NJ-based Internet Marketing Agency specializing in ppc management
and seo consulting. The agency is experienced in delivering marketing results for small businesses and
rapidly growing companies. It's services include but are not limited to:

ppc management / pay per click management
email marketing / email list management
seo consulting
search engine marketing
internet advertising
banner advertising
multi-channel marketing
blog marketing
web 2.0

For additional information, visit www.49er-consulting.com

"Do I need PPC Advertising for my Business?"

I got that question today from one prospective client.

I recommend you do because

1) Search engine algorithms can change. So if you are enjoying high organic visibility now, your PPC advertising will buffer your drop in visibility if that happens.
2) PPC ad spending reinforces to the search engines what keywords are most important to your business, even if your website SEO value is poor. Search engines like Google ultimately want to make their ad-spending customers happy.

PPC advertising can extend your company brand, and  go beyond the marketing reach of your core products and services. For example, let's say your company sells dog shampoo. Bidding on related dog activity keywords might pay off. For example, you may want to bid on "dog hair brush" or "dog grooming tips."

These are keywords that are not exactly related to dog shampoo. But someone may be interested in buying your dog shampoo product.  PPC advertising allows you to go after this traffic.

49er-consulting.com is a Montclair, NJ-based Internet Marketing Agency specializing in ppc management
and seo consulting. The agency is experienced in delivering marketing results for small businesses and
rapidly growing companies. It's services include but are not limited to:

ppc management / pay per click management
email marketing / email list management
seo consulting
search engine marketing
internet advertising
banner advertising
multi-channel marketing
blog marketing
web 2.0

For additional information, visit www.49er-consulting.com