There are a couple of topics we can’t seem to get away from this week in the search marketing and social media world — Google’s new Privacy updates, and Pinterest, which has seemingly exploded and is taking over the social media landscape, with accounts from Fortune 500s, celebs, artists, teens and tweens, you name it. Monetate, who happens to be supporting the ad testing contest we told you about earlier in the week, has released a fabulous infographic zeroing in on Pinterest’s breakthrough.

Search Engine Journal has included the infographic along with some staggering statistics in a recent post referring to Pinterest as a “referral giant”. Stats are showing that Pinterest is currently driving more traffic than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn…combined. Are you pinning yet?

Moving onto our other hot topic this week — Google’s Privacy Changes. If you have a Google account, then it’s pretty impossible that you’ve missed this, even if you’ve skimmed past the “hey you!” screen attempting to tell you what’s changed and why it’s important. Elisa Gabbert at WordStream gives us a great rundown of all of the ins and outs of the privacy policy and the stir it’s caused across the blogosphere in her post “Google Goes Evil … Again: The New Google Privacy Policy, Now Less Private“. As you can imagine, there are many making their voices heard on both sides of the fence, with some walking away from Google altogether. There are even claims that the new policy may violate HIPAA. Where do you stand on the issue? We’d love to hear your feedback in the comments.

If you’ve managed to pry yourself away from privacy and Pinterest, how bout a couple more ‘P’s? PPC, that is. Are you feeling stuck? It’s about this time of the year when new year’s resolutions start to fall by the wayside and we lose our momentum. Well, there’s hope, at least for your PPC campaign! Kevin Gibbons offers 6 Steps for Kickstarting Your PPC Campaign that are sure to have you back on track.

The folks at PPC Hero must have caught that same vibe, and offer help in a post by Jeff Allen –”Tips for Shaking Off PPC Frustration“. Jeff helps you from start to finish by first helping you to identify what the problem really is, and then offering suggestions for how to solve it.

Have you been wondering how Search Plus Your World (SPYW) impacts your SEM efforts? With so many changes going on at Google in the past few months, it can feel overwhelming. Not to fear. Glenn Gabe at Search Engine Journal has a really in-depth, helpful post to carry you through as you navigate the changes and try to keep your campaigns ahead of the Google game. His post, “AdWords, Plus Your World – 7 Examples of How SPYW Could Impact SEM” is a must-read, particularly with the privacy updates affecting everything, from email to PPC.

How about social media? Are you feeling similar frustrations and overwhelm? Well this week it seems that the entire blogosphere is all about helping and relieving this stress. Flowtown has put together a social media cheat sheet to help you keep track of everything in one place.

And for some analytics help, Carrie Hill at Search Engine Land comes to your aid with her article “5 Common Tracking Problems: How to Troubleshoot & Fix Them”

Share/Bookmark

We’re partnering up with Trada to bring you our ‘All You Need is PPC Love’ free webinar on Thursday, February 9 at 12:30pm EST.

In this webinar we’ll cover:

• Elements of a high-performing PPC ad

• How and which minor tweaks can significantly increase your ad performance
• Tips & tricks to help boost your CTR and Conversions

Sign up today and be on your way to wooing searchers with your PPC ads!

Share/Bookmark

We’re excited to share the news – our CEO David Greenbaum has been featured in an article on Forbes.com! The article, entitled “Tech Pros Want to See These Things in Facebook’s Filing” discusses the buzz surrounding a rumored Facebook IPO filing coming this week, with industry thought leaders weighing in with their thoughts on what they think Facebook should focus on if it does file.

David is one of the experts selected for the article, and shares his optimistic outlook for Facebook’s future. “With improvements in ad copy quality, targeting relevance, and a shift to ads incorporated into users’ normal experience,” he says, “Facebook should be well poised to skyrocket in the coming year.” We hope so! We’re excited to see where Facebook ads are headed and are interested to see what happens this week with the rumored IPO.

To read the rest of David’s Facebook predictions and to find out what the other featured thought leaders had to say, head over to Forbes.com and read the full article.

Share/Bookmark

Do you think that your A/B and multivariate testing skills are top notch? Well, you could put your tests to the test and win an Online Testing Award from WhichTestWon.com!

WhichTestWon is running a contest to find great examples of A/B tests and multivariate tests conducted by marketers and conversion experts like you from around the world. Entrants may have used any vendor, worked with any agency or run tests in-house, and can be from any country as long as an English translation of results is provided. Keep reading for details.

How to Enter – (it’s free!)

Thanks to the generous sponsorship of monetate, entering the Online Testing Awards is completely free this year. So really, you have nothing to lose but the chance to win this contest if you pass up the opportunity!

Entering the contest is simple. You can read all of the particulars on the website. Simply fill out the form on the entry page and you’re all set! You’ll need to have some screenshots/mockups at the ready to showcase your testing talents (if the actual pages are no longer available, a re-created mockup is fine), and will just need to answer some questions on the form.

You can enter as many tests as you like, as long as they’re each entered separately. Only A/B tests and multivariate tests with conclusive results are considered, and your tests must have been conducted at any time after January 1, 2011.

Categories for test entries include:

• Landing page tests
• Lead generation tests
• Ecommerce site & cart tests
• Social media tests
• Banner ad tests
• Homepage tests
• B2B marketing tests

There’s a category for everyone, so if you’ve been doing some analysis of your own like our Wins of the Week, be sure to enter in the “ad” category when you fill out the form and you just might win!

What’s the prize?

Winners will have their tests featured in WhichTestWon’s online Award Winners Hall of Fame, and will receive links from WhichTestWon.com to their sites and profiles of their vendors, including testing technology and services firms/agencies. Winners will also receive a digital Awards Ribbon for bragging rights to post on their site and/or blog.

Ready to enter?

Head on over to WhichTestWon.com to read more of the details and enter the contest, and quick! The deadline is tomorrow, January 31, 2012 at 5pm EST.

Good luck!

Share/Bookmark

The search marketing blogosphere this week really seemed to be zeroing in on social media – from tips on how to make better use of Facebook’s timeline layout to getting a better handle on Google+ for businesses, it was hard to find a site not offering some help for using social media to boost business.

With the line between social media and marketing growing blurrier and blurrier, and with the power of Facebook ad campaigns and other search/social combinations at marketers’ fingertips, we’ve gathered a handful of helpful posts for you this week to help you not only with your PPC, but with the social aspect of your marketing strategy as well.

First things first: are you using Facebook ads to market your business?

Hopefully the hard evidence in our Wins of the Week have convinced you to give it a try. But perhaps you’re not experiencing the positive performance you were hoping for. If so, have a read through this article on Search Engine Journal – “Top 10 Reasons Your Facebook Campaign Isn’t Working“. Writing and designing Facebook ads, just like any PPC ad, is an art as much as a science. Are you falling victim to any of the Facebook Faux Pas in the list?

Let’s look at another aspect of social media – blogging

Blogs continue to thrive (and many continue to be abandoned), but maybe you’re not sure that your blog is really helping your business. Should you continue to blog or focus your effort on other things? Search Engine Journal comes through again with their article “7 Reasons Why Blogging is Still Important in 2012“. Once you’ve read these reasons and are ready to give your blog your best effort, Social Media Examiner has 26 Tips for Writing Great Blog Posts to help you get the most out of your blogging efforts.

‘But it’s too hard to keep up all of my social media profiles and run my business’, you say! Perhaps you should try giving automation a try. Search Engine People’s Dan Howell helps to answer the question: Is Automating Your Social Media a Good Idea? For most businesses, having a social media presence is essential. He shows you how to keep from wasting extra time managing your social media presence while simultaneously getting the most out of the time you are spending by streamlining and automating where appropriate.

Now onto the PPC side of things.

Are there businesses that shouldn’t be using PPC advertising, and if so, what are they? Elisa Gabbert over at the WordStream blog shares her thoughts in her post “What Kinds of Businesses Should Use PPC Advertising?” including an eye-catching infographic highlighting Google’s 2011 Revenues. Do you fit into the categories outlined, or find yourself on the outskirts?

Are you a local business or working with a local business on a PPC campaign? Howie Jacobson of Search Engine Watch highlights 3 ways local small businesses can use PPC, in AdWords, split testing, and remarketing.

And how about measuring your conversion data once it’s come in? John Lynch helps separate the wheat from the chaff in his article “Measuring ROI: How to Collect Meaningful PPC Conversion Data“. From general tracking to phone tracking and self-reported data, he shows you how to bring everything together in a dashboard that will help you make the most informed decisions for your business.

Hopefully with those resources, you’re feeling pretty committed to your PPC campaign in the new year. Perhaps even committed enough to marry it. What? No…well…not exactly. What does marriage have to do with PPC campaigns? Quite a bit, according to Jeff Allen at PPC Hero! His post “PPC Management Vows” compares his recent wedding vows to his approach to PPC. “When things get tough, my vows help motivate me. When I don’t know what direction to go, my vows are a source of inspiration.” he says. “Life in PPC isn’t always easy. Sometimes things you thought would make drastic improvements in performance have to be abandoned because they are doing the opposite.” So in order to stay the course with his campaigns and his clients, Jeff has written some vows of his own, PPC-style. Check ‘em out! You may feel inspired to write some of your own. And you won’t even have to buy a ring. Unless you want to, that is…

Last but not least, let’s turn our attention to the ‘Tube.

Are you using video marketing as part of your strategy yet? Well, if you are, it looks like you’re on the right track. And if not, it might be time to bust out the camera and get to work! Mike Lewis of Socialnomics makes a case for video marketing in his post “YouTube Killed the TV Star: Why Online Video Marketing is Essential for Marketers in 2012“. He not only offers supporting evidence, but gives some great tips for integrating video marketing into your existing marketing campaign.

That’s it for this week’s roundup! Thanks for reading and as always, if you have any comments, questions, or resources to add, be sure to leave us a comment below or come find us on Twitter. Have a great weekend!

Share/Bookmark

Are you planning to attend SMX West next month? As if having the opportunity to attend presentations by 130 of the industry’s best search marketers and having the chance to take advantage of structured social networking events wasn’t enough, we’re excited to say that BoostCTR is offering a 10% discount for attendees that register to attend SMX West 2012 using the following code: smx10boostctr (case sensitive)

But be sure that you snag your tickets early, as early bird rates expire on Saturday, January 28. If you use our discount code before January 28, you’ll save nearly $400 off of an All Access ticket!

We’re excited to be a part of SMX West 2012, with our Director of Marketing Noran El-Shinnawy speaking during Day 2′s event: “Search Ads: Taking Your Ads From Good To Great! (#smx #22D)” alongside some other search marketing pros. We’re happy to pass on this little bonus to our readers and we hope to see you there!

Click here to register and use the code smx10boostctr when checking out.

Share/Bookmark

I  once saw a video clip of British-Irish comedian, Jimmy Carr, doing a bit on “enlargement” e-mails, asking if everyone else was getting spammed by them too, or if they were somehow targeting him based on some sort of presumed need.  He ended it by saying that the worst part was how half the e-mails were forwards from his girlfriend ; )

Well, I can’t speak to those kinds of e-mails, but the number of “Gaming” ads showing up on my facebook page has me feeling similarly; I’m not a freakin’ gamer — why are all these ads targeting me?  Do they know something about me based on online behavior or something?  Maybe they’ve realized I’m prone to procrastination…

But then I realized that this was actually a great opportunity to talk about Targeting, Targeted Appeals, and core emotional appeals.  So let’s start with Targeting:

Because I’ve written copy for the golfing industry, and have also been known to play once in a blue moon, I’ve likely triggered enough indicators of golf interest to make targeting me for this game a smart move.

And as you can see from the second ad for the same game, these guys are also smart enough to split test different ads for different images and headlines.

So let’s talk about the headlines, imagery, body copy, etc.

I would guess that the #1 Golf Game on Facebook headline would outperform the “New Golf Fame on Facebook” headline because it takes advantage of social proof.  But the image of the woman is more appealing than the other image, at least when combined with the same body copy.

Why?

Well, there’s the obvious hardwired appeal of the female figure when it comes to grabbing eyeballs (especially male eyeballs), but more importantly, the femal figure looks like a digitized video game avatar set on a photo-realistic background.  This gives credence to the “Most realistif Golf Game” bit in the body copy.  The other copy looks simply like a photo taken of some exotic golf greens, which might or might not be a screenshot from the game.  And since realism is what they’re obviously plugging in the ad, a picture which implies or substantiates that claim is going to do better than one that doesn’t.

In fact, I’d even go so far as to say that “Most Realistic Golf Game” would probably make an even better headline than “#1 Golf Game” because of the credibility factor built into the image.  I mean, my inner cynic can’t help asking if that’s not kind of like being valedictorian of summer school? just how many golf games are there on Facebook?

OK, so let’s go with this internal consistency thing a bit more.

Just how realistic is it?  Enough to help me improve my club selection, game strategy, and so on?  Will playing this make me a smarter golfer?  In my opinion, that’s the angle to work if you can find any support for it.  So how about something like this:

That would be a definite improvement for me.  Why?  Because it gives me enough of a fig leaf to justify playing it — I can learn more about the game, which might help me to write better copy.  And much the same can be said for a true fan of golf who might play just to see if the game doesn’t help make him a smarter golfer.

So, now lets look at a relatively untargeted ad with a psychologically astute headline:

“Banned Game” — you gotta love that. It’s using the idea of the forbidden / vice as a trigger to curiosity.

Unfortunately, the ad goes downhill from there.  Banned by who?  or Banned from where?  There’s no supporting evidence or internal consistency, and so the ad gets dismissed as mere hype.

Plus the social proof at the bottom actually further erodes the mystery and credibility rather than adding to it. A game called “Super Hero City” got banned? In a world of Grand Theft Auto?  Give me a break…

A similar approach — using a vice-cue to trigger curiosity, but failing to back it up in the body copy — was taken by this ad for a “New Addicting Game”:

Where’s the appeal?  What kind of game?  What’s so addicting about it?  It’s not worth my click to find out.

And finally, there’s this Zombie Western Game. It tells you that it’s a Free RPG and makes some claims, but the whole appeal is located in the basic premise: Zombies + Cowboys = Cool. I’d imagine that if this was targeted to an actual gamer, the ad might do OK.  But since I’m not a gamer, it gets patently ignored.

So what are the take-aways from all this?

First, understand that Facebook Ads really represent a 3-Step Process:

1. Grabbing eyeballs
2. Inspiring curiosity/interest
3. Persauding readers to click

And while a great image can do #1 and a clever headline can do #2, it takes credibility inspiring copy — copy that reinforces the image and the headline — to make #3 happen consistently.

Second, understand that great ads can’t make up for crappy targeting.

You’ll almost always do better advertising games to gamers.  Even though I clicked through on the golf ad, I won’t be playing anytime soon; I’m just not a gamer. Unless they know something about me that I don’t…

This post by Jeff Sexton originally appeared at PPC Hero