Local PPC Mastery: A Presentation
TweetI was lucky enough to speak at MNsearch tonight, to a group of digital marketing professionals. It’s always nice to be able to dive in deep and get nerdy with a group of like-minded search marketers. The topic was Local PPC and how to set it up, target the right audience, and analyze your performance by location. Please give it a view below, and reach out to me if you have any questions. Local PPC Tips and Mastery – Jordon Meyer from Jordon...
Read MoreGoogle AdWords Certification – Part 2
TweetWith the recent change to the Google Certified Professional program, some more questions arise about the value of the certification tests. Now that the program is named Google Partners (www.google.com/partners) and the tests are FREE, the question whether to take the test is even easier to answer. As I said before in Is Google AdWords Certification Worth It?, the test is valuable and I highly recommend taking it. The Cost They clearly followed Bing in the pricing structure (Free), and listened to their agency partners to push more of a “certified company” profile more than a “certified professional” program. Over the years I have spent over $600 on Google tests, since you have to take it every 12, 18, or 24 months depending on the test at the time. I’m very happy that the tests are free, even though I’m still annoyed that someone in the business for over 7 years has to take the exam every year. The Investment Now that the exams are free, time and effort are the extent of your investment. Simply spend a few dozen hours in the AdWords interface and study the basics of AdWords at their official AdWords Certification Study Guide. Then dedicate 90 minutes per exam. You will need to pass two exams minimum to become certified; Advertising Fundamentals exam is required, then you can choose Advanced Search or Advanced Display as your second required exam. You can take all three if you fee compelled to take all available exams. The Value Passing the exams will not get you a job (most likely). However, it could differentiate your resume enough versus someone without the certifications on their resume. As a hiring manager, I certainly like to see certifications on a search marketing specialist’s resume. It shows initiative and passion in the space. It shows that the individual is interested in search marketing outside of the 9-5 job, which is essential to success in the industry. Words of Wisdom If you’re just looking to get the certification, you can’t go wrong with setting aside 2-3 hours of a day and knocking out the Fundamentals and Advanced Search exams at one time. The Advanced Search is Very similar to the Fundamentals exam. The main difference is that the Advanced exam adds a lot of situational types of questions, as if you are working with a hypothetical account/client. Don’t over study. I’ve seen this...
Read MoreThe Biggest Name Drop of 2012 – A List
TweetBecause there are never enough “top lists” of the year, I too will add to this flurry of blog posts. However, mine is much different than any other fluff you have read thus far. It is a list of companies, universities and organizations that have visited my site in 2012; the ultimate name drop. This is a list that proves you are currently reading The Most Interesting Blog in the World! How can a lowly PPC blog make such an audacious statement? With visits from NASA, Harvard, MIT, Amazon, Google, 3M, Yale and NBC, I can say that I have had some of the most interesting organizations in the World visit my website this year. Cutting out clutter, like standard ISPs, I got a good picture of companies and organizations that actually visited and used my website in 2012. I hand-picked the top 100 most interesting visitors and broke them out into three main categories: Universities, Corporations, and Government Agencies. These are legit visits with a purpose, no bounces. Basic Statistics of JordonMeyer.com – 2650 unique internet networks – 10k visitors (not great, I need to try harder) – 115 countries from 5 continents – Top countries: US, India, UK, Canada, Germany – 75% of my traffic is Google Organic – 85% new visitors – 45% use Chrome, 30% use Firefox, 15% IE The Breakdown of Recognizable Visitors This was difficult to choose, but I broke down my top visits to make it more digestible. Top 10 University Visitors Columbia University Cornell University Duke University Harvard University Marquette University MIT Princeton University Purdue University Stanford University Yale University Top 20 Large Corporation Visitors 3M Company Adobe Amazon Apple Inc Best Buy Dell Inc Disney Worldwide Services EBay ESPN Ford Motor Company Fox Entertainment General Motors Corporation Google Inc Harper Collins Publishers IBM NBC Universal The Boeing Company The Ogilvy Group Yahoo! Inc Zappos.Com Inc Top 10 Government Visitors Department Of Homeland Security NASA OSHA The United States Centers For Disease Control U.S. Bureau Of Census U.S. Department Of State United States Senate US Dept Of Justice USAISC Headquarters World Health Organization And now you can see why this is the most interesting blog in the world, my friends. Thank you SO much for reading, commenting and sharing this year. I hope to increase visits, time on site, and hope to get a...
Read MoreIs Google AdWords Certification Worth It?
The Google AdWords Certification Program, is it worth the time and money? Another year, another $50 per test, another loud sigh. The Google AdWords certification test is a mixed bag of emotions for me. I love that they have it for people skilled in the craft of AdWords, so we can prove that we know the features and tactics behind PPC. But at the same time I get upset that I have to take it every year to recertify myself. I have been using AdWords for almost 7 years now, and I think that earns me a lifetime membership to the AdWords Cert Club! (or at least 2 or 3 years before renewing) Let’s be realistic about this math I’m about to do. No one is IN AdWords 40 hours a week. Meetings, Excel, Emails, Slide Decks, Lunch, 2nd Lunch, 2 week vacation…it all takes away from actually being in the program. But, for fun, let’s do some easy math. 50 Weeks x 20 hours x 7 years = 7,000 hours inside of AdWords 7 hours x 364 nights x 28 years = 71,344 hours sleeping Now, it is said to take 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert at something. I’m almost there. And sure, I probably AM better at sleeping than I am taking a test about every feature in AdWords. I’ve put in the pillow time to be an expert at that. SO – Is the test worth it? Should a PPC professional take the test? Yes, and yes. If you are in an agency, then YES TAKE IT. If you are in house, it’s less important, but it’s something to keep in your pocket and help professional development. Is there any monetary value to earning the AdWords Certification? Not directly, but there are many possibilities that it will make you money. When I was at an agency, we actually got a lead and eventually a client because 2 of us on the team had the cert. The client did a Google AdWords Partner Search and found us. It’s also a nice thing to have on your resume. I know it has helped me get in the door at a few places over the years. Can anyone pass the test just by studying? No. Unless you are a natural test taker, you need to have some experience behind the wheel of an AdWords account. For...
Read MoreAdWords DSA (Dynamic Search Ads) Checklist
AdWords Dynamic Search Ads Checklist Now that Dynamic Search Ads are in a full released beta, the big question is, “Should I use AdWords DSAs? “. The answer for many people should be no. If you give full effort and properly build out your paid search account, you probably don’t need to waste money on DSAs. However, there are some good uses for them and I have used them in the past at Best Buy. It performed well and was a cost effective way of managing PPC for thousands and thousands of products. An easy way to determine if you should even explore DSAs is to complete the checklist below. Give it a try and share with your PPC peers. Fill-out the (below) checklist to determine if you should run DSAs. Once you answer “Nope” on 2 or more questions, stop, tear up the checklist in a huff, and continue to go about your normal AdWords management. If you make it through with 1 or less “Nope”, congrats – start your DSA journey. * View/Print/Download a better looking version here to share: AdWords DSA Checklist Yep Nope N/A 1. Do you know what DSAs are? 2. Could you give a 10 minute presentation on DSAs to your pet? * 3. Do you have an unlimited PPC budget? Can I have some? ** 4. No seriously, do you have some budget to spare, for a test campaign or for a non-ROI driven PPC campaign? 5. Is your account properly built out and are all of your top products represented in your AdWords account? 6. IF you products are not fully represented in AdWords, is it because of a lack of resources? (i.e.: you are understaffed) *** 7. Do you trust Google to bid on keywords based on your website content? (Because their KW suggestions are usually SPOT ON, right?) 8. Does your company or client have a massive amount of products (over 20,000) or rapidly changing inventory? 9. Are you OK with dynamic ad titles being written by Google, based on your product titles and keywords? 10.Do you have a plan to scale DSAs if it works? A plan that is more strategic than simply increasing budget? *If you do not have a pet, speak to the mirror. If you are a vampire, speak to a bag of O+. ** Doesn’t count towards your “No” total, cheapskate. *** If you are understaffed, you can delete the No...
Read MoreOne Year Out of the Agency Life
TweetThings are very different from agency to in-house. I wouldn’t trade my time at agencies for anything, but I am also very happy to be in-house. Being out of the agency life for the past year has been great. I have grown a lot as a PPC manager and as a professional. Being on the marketing teams of both Best Buy and Rasmussen College has taken me to a level that I don’t think I could have obtained at an agency. Working with world-class marketing teams day in and day out has been a great experience. I’m going to outline some things I miss and don’t miss about working for an agency, and some benefits of working in-house. What I Miss The teams and people I worked with every day. I worked with some great people over the past few years, and the agency folks still hold a special place in my heart. I think a big part of the bonding that happens at (good) agencies is that everyone works their asses off; so you can relate to the pain and you grow close as a team. The crazy artsy and hip guys at Lightburn and the ferociously talented Team Honey Badger teammates at Zeon are still friends to this day. The beer. Seriously. It’s probably nationwide, but the two agencies I worked at were in Milwaukee, the beer capital of the country. We had fridges stocked with beer and the 3pm beer on Friday was perfectly fine. “Friday” was used loosely…it could be any day that deserved an icy cold beverage. That’s unheard of in-house! The variety of verticals and types of clients I worked with. I love to learn about product and services; it’s just in my nature. I’m a Jeopardy type of person and just thrive on knowing facts. Agency life fueled that fire to learn, and I worked with too many vertical industries to list. If we start talking shop, I can probably relate to one of the products you’re marketing. The dress code. I wore a t-shirt and jeans for over a year straight at my first agency. The second was more formal, but they recently went to all casual too. Today, I wouldn’t be wearing a T and jeans, but it would still be nice to have the casual dress every day. The office buildings. Both agencies were located in Milwaukee’s Third Ward. That’s basically...
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