Atlanta Pay-Per-Click Expert

With regard to Social Media Marketing news, just days ago the Washington post reported on Google announcing that they will provide a service that lets any Web site to become a social site. Currently in Beta, Friend Connect lets any Web site get social features up and running immediately without programming – by merely adding a snippet of code. Available features include invitations, user registration, gallery, reviews, and the ability to post messages, as well as the ability to incorporate third-party applications built in the OpenSocial developer community. This may make it easier for the average small business in Atlanta to have a low cost entry into social media advertising

• Friend Connect appears to be a response to MySpace Data Availability and Facebook Connect
• Friend connect will propel the concept of OpenSocial which, while very significant, has received relatively little notice by the public
• Free services like Friend connect may serve to lower the cost of proprietary social media platforms
• Perhaps most important, the upswing in Social Media marketing is now a large step closer than it was before.

EWerner, 5/13/2008, Atlanta

I originally had the Aha! moment almost 10 years ago at a party in Atlanta. Social Media Optimization at Live Events was the wave of the future. I remember spending the remainder of the evening trying to convey the significance of this concept to a woman I met that night. (In retrospect I have no idea whether she was interested or not, but she kept listening.) Of course at the time I was visualizing people at parties connecting through social media on the internet with other people in other areas of the country (some at parties and some at home).

While it may not have much of an application to the party scene yet, it will become very significant for many industries.

If I could watch a webinar of a live Atlanta SEO conference and be able to instant message my questions in real time - some of which may be fielded by the speaker, some of which may be answered by members of the audience if they choose… If I also have access to the questions other people are asking and anyone who wants to can take those questions and comments and put together new materials and then send those materials out to a mailing list of people who had those questions or expressed interest in the topic. And if we can do all of this without worrying about someone getting my personal information and spamming me to death. Now we might be getting somewhere…

One of the projects I have taken on recently is the management of two Google Grants for an Atlanta non-profit organization. When I first heard about Google Grants it was the type of thing that made me feel very positive about Google. I knew that the fact that they would provide this free advertising for non-profit corporations that fit certain requirements was a good thing. It fits in well with the way Google approaches everything else (SMART).

Managing a Google Grant poses some interesting challenges. For all Grants the maximum cost per click allowed is $1.00 – I think that would make it completely useless to a great number of self proclaimed PPC Experts. I found it to be a fantastic practice in the development of the long tail key phrases needed to get really inexpensive clicks. In fact I think that every internet marketer in training should be given a non-profit to develop a campaign for their very first time out so that they are forced to learn the skill it takes to develop revenue generating phrases that have low competition.

Apparently most not-for-profit organizations the limit on a Google Grant is around $300 a day. I was shocked to see what the daily ppc budget was for this company… $1300 – Now I admit even I am finding it a little bit difficult to figure out how to spend that within a limited span of time to work on it.

I learned something else while managing a free ppc spend for this Atlanta non-profit. This may be worth an entire post of its own since it answers questions that many people in SEO would be interested in. Historical Keyword Performance affects the cost per click for that key phrase.

Understanding this concept requires a little extra attention so I will probably post about it in another blog entry. Everyone is aware of the importance that Relevant Landing Page, Relevant Ad Copy, and Keyword Targeting have an effect on Quality Score. Most people are not aware that the keywords themselves have an intrinsic Historical Keyword Performance score which can cause you to pay out the nose for a keyword even if there is no competition for that phrase!
I will discuss it more later
Regards,
Eric

An Adwords Authorized Reseller in Atlanta may have made a significant error that could cost them their credentials and possibly litigation.

What is an Adwords Authorized Reseller? Why do I feel so much less confident in the term Reseller as opposed to Google Certified Adwords Professional? Or Google Qualified Company? Or perhaps best of all Google Analytics Authorized Consultant?

Why is it so difficult to find good information on the Adwords Authorized Reseller program?

Before I go into a detailed answer to these questions I should back up and tell you the story. Some of you already know, but bear with me I will try to keep this brief but pointless.

My first encounter with a Google Adwords Authorized Reseller was when one tried to woo a client of ours with the suggestion that they could give him great results in 30 days for a relatively low fee. This company then made a near exact duplication of the website we developed and put it at a slightly different domain name and proceeded to serve Adwords ads like it was their common practice.

When I found the site I was shocked. How could someone consciously do something that violated Google Guidelines and Adwords Policies and with no potential gain!? Now I know that there are plenty of people who will violate Google Policy in order to get traffic to their site. I know that there are plenty of people who have done this successfully. I do not know of anyone before who has done it in a situation where there was no potential upside and the potential downside is being completely removed from the Google Index.

It turns out that the results that this company provided was nowhere near as effective as ours and it was easy to explain to the client that he had made a boo-boo and that all could be forgiven as soon as the offending copycat site was removed.

But what of this unethical company? Is there a regulating body that should be notified of this behavior? Is there any potential blowback from reporting them?

These are the answers I don’t have - If you’ve got ‘em let me know. It is companies like these that give us all a bad name.

Regards,

Eric