It really feels like autumn in the Boston area. How about in your neck of the woods? Since it’s getting dark earlier, you’re no doubt looking for ways to spend your evenings enjoyably in the glow of your laptop. To help you spend this time productively, we’ve brought together the biggest news in PPC from around the web.
Let’s start with the AdWords blog:
Sitelinks were one of the best things to happen to AdWords in a long time. There has been no better way to date to maximize the real estate your ad takes up in SERPs. If you’ve been Sitelink-stuffing (we just made that up), or adding Sitelinks where there shouldn’t be (i.e. a bunch of Sitelinks going to the same page), you are probably going to get caught by Google pretty soon. This article from Inside AdWords outlines a new, stricter Sitelinks policy.
Inside AdWords also has a recent article entitled Introducing The Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers. The playbook is already available online, and Google will be highlighting specific callouts from the publication over the next few months. Stay tuned to the Weekly PPC Roundup for alerts!
Over at the Bing Ads/Microsoft Ads blog…
There’s a great article about innovations in Asian markets in the article Microsoft Advertising at Spikes Asia 2012: Shaping What’s Next. The theme of the conference seemed to be pushing the boundaries of customer engagement.
For developers, there’s an announcement here: New Microsoft Advertising Ad SDK for Windows 8 Available Today.
Will you be attending the 2012 Advertising Week events in NYC this coming week? Microsoft will be presenting thought leadership pieces on how Windows 8 can do for brands on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
And, elsewhere around the web:
Using Web Analytics for PPC Optimization from Search Engine Watch is a good place to start for people new to AdWords. Actually, a good place to start would be linking your Google Analytics account to your Google AdWords account properly. Then, look at the Search Engine Watch article to see some key metrics you can use to evaluate your campaigns.
Also from Search Engine Watch, A Very Revealing Look at Paid Facebook Ads gives some interesting stats about Facebook Ads. The article reveals top advertisers by countries, by domains, and more. Revealing!
Also in NYC this coming week, SMX East! You going?
Exact match domains have been a tactic for both SEO and PPC through the years, but Google issued a “Weather Report” last week saying that exact match domains for low quality sites will be hit with an algorithmic change sometime soon. You can read more at Search Engine Land about the update here.
And, just because it’s cool: Google is posting movie trailers in search results. Have you seen any?
Finally, news from HubSpot: 50% of Facebook Fans Prefer Brand Pages to Company Websites [INFOGRAPHIC]. Makes sense to us, considering that brands feel like they have to be less corporate on their social media profiles.
Have a great rest of weekend, everyone!
