What would your temperament be if one of your direct competitors stood just outside of your office and started promoting their services to people who were coming into your location? I doubt that you would invite them inside for tea and muffins.

That said, how would you feel about competitors who are bidding on the name of your company or your branded keywords in the sponsored results? They may not physically be at your doorstep, but this is worse, as they can man the post 24 x 7 if they so choose.

The fact is that Google AdWords now allows companies to bid on the name and branded keywords of competitors. You can’t actually mention the other company in your ad title or ad copy, but competitors can be visible for searches for your most important keywords.

With this in mind, it’s essential that you devote the resources to both track who (if anyone) is bidding on your branded terms and also devise a strategy to both ensure that you maintain a strong presence on your branded terms and also possibly bid on your competitors. Don’t make the common mistake of complacency. Protect your branded search results by developing branding campaigns so as not be overtaken by your competition.

In today’s economy, consumers are being more price conscious than ever, going the extra mile to research and find a reputable company with the right price for a specific product.

Advertisers want to place their product in front of consumers and have an ad/product that stands out. Shopping feeds, which provide another opportunity for advertisers, fall in the pay-per-click category of advertising.

Advertisers can chose as many or as few of these shopping feeds they would like. Below are a few benefits of using shopping feeds.

1. More Automation– When you upload your products to eCommerce sites, the photos will be adjusted in the feed based on the amount in stock. The cost of shipping calculated and price will be displayed as well.  When you make updates to your product feed, the shopping engine will automatically update the information to display. You can set the frequency of updates to the engine daily or at an interval you decide.
2. More Visibility – Your product will appear next to other products and be more visible, where consumers may have not noticed your product(s) from the others in PPC Results.
3. Targeted Leads – Also, research shows that consumers using, shopping feeds are more educated on the product and are in the final stages of making their decision.

Below are a few features of shopping feeds:

Keyword Bidding: Advertisers are now able to bid on specific keywords for their products.
Product Pricing: Advertisers can have specifications on what products will show. For example, they can omit products under $10 from showing in search results.

Below are two examples of Google searches.  The second image shows a more refined search. You can see how the search results change as the searcher narrows their search query.

Each shopping engine may be manually monitored by you, or there are also vendors that provide one upload portal. Vendors will often format the feeds for each specific search engine.

To learn more about Shopping Feeds, please review our other blog posts.
http://www.morevisibility.com/semblog/articles/shopping-feeds/

A large percentage of websites utilize Search Engine Marketing as a major component of their overall advertising initiatives. Even amidst an economic climate where budgets are stretched ultra thin, paid search is on the rise. According to a recent CNET article, “Paid search is the Web’s latest sector bouncing back from the recession.”

While it is encouraging to see more dollars being spent online, the importance of the message within the ads should certainly not be forgotten. You want to make sure your ads are competitive; Pay per Click Ads are an effective way to drive visitors to your website to (depending on your business model) either buy a product, request a demo, fill out an online form, request a brochure, etc.

Unless your business is uniquely niche, I would bet there are countless others trying to drive the very same visitors to their websites to do the very same thing you are. To complicate matters, the character limitations set forth by the engines can be enough to make you bang your head against a wall! You essentially have to find a way to say what you want to say as creatively as possible, but with very few characters. Trust me, this is no easy task. The key is to make your ad copy eye catching, with incentives to make searchers click on your ad.  This can be accomplished by investing the necessary time to create compelling ad copy that will showcase your positives. Some examples can include:

• The Use Of Coupon Codes
• Free Shipping/Returns
• Fast Delivery
• Free Gift With Purchase
• Low Price Guarantee
• Percentage Off With Coupon Code
• Free Demo
• Free Webinar
• Official Site
• Authentic/Genuine Products

The use of buzz words to create a sense of urgency is also an excellent tool to grab the attention of a searcher. Examples include:

• Now (Shop Now, Buy Now, Click Now, Order Now, etc.)
• Limited Time Offer
• The Use Of An Expiration Date (Valid through 8/31/10)

If you are an Online Retailer it helps to boast components like:

• Huge Inventory/collection
• Full Line of XXXXX in all sizes
• Great Deals

Don’t forget to create a minimum of three (yes three) ads within each ad group and allow your ads to rotate. Eventually you should have *enough data to determine which ad performs the best overall.

*The use of an analytics platform is strongly suggested.