Posted by: Rosemary Dempsey, Senior Storyteller

Quality Score. Everybody knows it’s an important part of paid search programs run through Google AdWords and the content network. But how does Google calculate these scores, and why are they so important to our pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns?

According to Google, “A Quality Score is calculated every time your keyword matches a search query - that is, every time your keyword has the potential to trigger an ad.” It’s important because it influences your keywords’ actual cost-per-clicks, determines if your keyword is a potential result for a user’s search query and even affects how high your ad ranks.

What’s the best way to improve your quality scores? Optimize your account! As Google recommends, your ad groups should have descriptive ad text relevant to each keyword in the group.

Visit Google’s AdWords Help section for more information about quality score and tips for optimizing your paid search programs.

Posted by Kelly Hall, Account Manager

“Optimization” has many meanings in today’s marketing world. What might come to mind first is search engine optimization — or improving your rankings in search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. And while that should be an important part of your overall marketing plan, optimization has a place in many other tactics you use to build brand awareness, attract your audience, and of course, create conversions.

To read the full article and learn more about measurable optimization tactics subscribe to 90news and view the February 2010 issue in the archives.

Atlas Copco Construction Mining Technique USA was looking for a new channel to sell pre-owned water well drill rigs. They turned to us, 90octane, a Denver-based, conversion-driven marketing agency, for help.

90octane built a custom lead generation microsite to showcase the rigs, which typically carry six-figure price tags, and crafted an associated paid search marketing campaign to drive visitors to the site.

Joanna Canton, Atlas Copco marketing communications director, is pleased with the hundreds of highly qualified leads generated. For the paid search program, “The average cost-per-lead is $28, compared with hundreds of dollars apiece for leads from trade shows and print ads,” she noted.

Because the program has resulted in high-dollar sales, Atlas Copco CMT USA already has plans to expand it.

Read the full Atlas Copco paid search story from a February issue of BtoB Magazine.

Posted by: Shannon Denny, Project Manager

Google has recently launched a new feature for pay-per-click (PPC) advertising that inserts customized site links beneath the ads. At this time, this feature is readily available to PPC advertisers with high quality scores. Google allows advertisers to enter up to 10 sitelinks, and all sitelinks can point to different pages within the site. The higher the quality of the PPC ad, the more site links will be displayed. Below is an example of these sitelinks (highlighted in green) in action:

Sitelinks take up valuable real estate in the Google search results allowing advertisers to “own” the space which will likely lead to an increased click-through rate (CTR). As these links can be modified any time, it is a good idea to keep seasonality and new promotions in mind when planning them out.

Posted by: Janessa Seewald, Account Manager

In 2010, social media marketing will push to the forefront of many organizations’ marketing efforts, and it will be important to make ongoing improvements as the landscape changes and becomes more competitive.

Here are some tips to consider when making adjustments to your social media marketing strategy:

• Go where the conversation is happening. You may already have a Facebook page, Twitter account, YouTube channel and more, but it is never too late to cut bait. If your prospects aren’t interested in or accessible within a certain platform, there is no reason to spend time posting content and managing it just for the sake of saying your company “is on Twitter.” It is best to focus your effort on the places where you know you can reach your audience and ultimately generate conversions.
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Posted by: Shannon Anderson, Project Manager

As a fundamental building block to a search engine optimization (or SEO) program, it is important to build strong, qualified incoming links to your website. Here are a few ways to build these links and optimize visibility:

• Submit Press Releases: Submit keyword-rich press releases through newswires and online PR sites, such as PR Newswire and PR Leap, to gain increased online visibility.
• Submit to Directories: Directories, such as DMOZ, are a great way to submit links to your website building quality incoming traffic.
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Posted by: Gloria Dutton, Senior Marketing Coordinator

2009 brought a lot of changes and innovations in the wide world of the Web and its search engines. We witnessed the explosion of Twitter and Facebook and the introduction and advancement of Bing and smartphones. These innovations are forcing search engines to alter what is included in their search results, as well as how these results are displayed. The greatest changes to search that will alter search engine marketing (SEM) programs in 2010 include a new emphasis on personalized search, the inclusion of real-time results, and new methods of local and mobile advertising.

Personalized Search: Google’s personalized search is actually not a new development, but the changes to it at the end of 2009 are. Google uses personalized search to present different search results to users based on their search history and demographics. This alteration of search results used to only occur when users were signed into their Google accounts, but now it has been introduced to signed-out users worldwide. The reason this is important to take into account when optimizing is that your company’s listing may be a first page listing for one user while not even rank for another.

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Posted by: Kerry Houchin, Project Manager

With the release of Google’s Nexus One smart phone, Google has spent some serious time creating innovative mobile search applications. Now on-the-go Android users can search for businesses using the “What’s Nearby” feature and can search for information on landmarks, artwork and other objects using the Google Goggles app.

Here’s how they work:
• What’s Nearby uses the smart phone’s location feature to build a list of the 10 closest places including restaurants, businesses and locations of interest. Since listings are pulled from the Google Local Business Center listings, this reinforces the fact that having a presence in the Local Business Center is becoming more and more important.
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Posted by: Caitlin Diehl, Senior Marketing Coordinator

2009 was another incredible year for Google. Despite new competition, a refreshed search engine from Microsoft and a search partnership that might have made others worry, Google maintained its stronghold on the search market. Here are some examples of what kept searchers on their toes and the competition at bay:

Google Wave
In May engineers released their first demo of Google Wave – Google’s real time communication and collaboration tool. Even though it will not become open to the public until mid-2010, the development and first releases of this new program represent some of Google’s finest work of the year.

According to Google, Wave should be considered a “conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.” Google suggests using waves for event organization, group projects, photo sharing, meeting notes, brainstorming and even for interactive games. Check out Google’s Wave help pages for information about how the tool works. read more »

Posted by: Janessa Seewald, Account Manager

The latest statistics show that more than 40% of searches within search engines have local intent. For local business owners this means that not only is important to have a website, but to also focus on optimization of your local business listings. Some best practices to consider when developing and optimizing local business listings include:

• Claim your business listing and ensure it is updated. This may sound obvious, but you would be surprised how many listings some businesses already have that they don’t even know exist or are outdated. Claiming the listing you want or that is the most accurate, will allow you to make updates on a regular basis which is very important within the eyes of the local and larger search engines.
• Select the most appropriate categories for your business listing. In most cases you are given several options and can choose more than one category. Make sure you don’t select too many categories as this can dilute the significance of your listing for the most appropriate and relevant categories; however, you also don’t want to select too few categories as this may make it difficult for potential customers to locate your business when searching.
• Include important product and/or service keywords related to your business within the title of your listing. This will not only help increase your rankings within the search engines, but also make your listing stand-out amongst the competition.

Similarly to optimizing a website, optimization of local business listings can take time and involves several more factors than the ones listed above, but starting with these few tips will help start your listing in the right direction.