PPC Rockstars

Tim Ash was the co-founder and CEO of SiteTuners for 19 years, and he helped to create over $1.2 billion in value for companies like Google, Expedia, and Nestle. Now a globally acknowledged authority on evolutionary psychology and digital marketing, Tim joins the show today to share insights from his new book, Unleash Your Primal Brain: Demystifying how we think and why we act.

Nils Rooijmans is here to make your business grow and help you get more clients at fewer costs. He talks about how to get started with, or improve, your Search Engine Advertising, Google Ads, and Bing Ads. Not mention PPC Automation via Google Ads Scripts and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). You can Contact Nils at [email protected]

COVID-19 has driven consumers online and boosted eCommerce growth. With more people searching online, brands have the opportunity to connect with consumers looking for their products and services this holiday retail season. Today we talk about the Holiday 2020 Insights guide from Microsoft, Google, and more with Lisa Raehsler, Founder of Big Click Co.

Brad Geddes has been involved in PPC since 1998. He is a co-founder of AdAlysis, an ad testing & recommendation platform, and a member of the programming team for SMX events. Brad is the author of Advanced Google AdWords, the most advanced book ever written about Google's advertising program.

Melissa Mackey is Search Supervisor at gyro, Dentsu Aegis Network's Global B2B Flagship Agency. A veteran PPC marketer, she helps clients achieve maximum ROI from paid search. Mackey contributes regularly to several industry publications, including Search Engine Journal, MediaPost, and AdWeek, writing on PPC strategy. She also hosts a blog, www.beyondthepaid.com, where she writes on the topics of pay-per-click and search marketing. Mackey has spoken at industry conferences such as SMX Advanced and PPC Hero's HeroConf. Throughout her career, her achievements include the evaluation and implementation of paid search and paid social campaigns for all types of advertisers, as well as execution and analysis of ad copy and landing page strategy.

Ginny Marvin is Third Door Media’s Editor-in-Chief, running the day to day editorial operations across all publications and overseeing paid media coverage. Ginny Marvin writes about paid digital advertising and analytics news and trends for Search Engine Land, Marketing Land, and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions.

Learn about Getting Started with AdWords Scripts, a new way to programmatically access AdWords data: write simple JavaScript in an IDE embedded directly into the web application, with Former Google Adwords Evangelist and Founder of Optmyzr, Frederick Vallaeys.

John Lee is a digital advertising professional with experience in PPC, display advertising, social advertising, SEO, and analytics. At Microsoft, John is a Learning Strategist creating training experiences for Bing Ads employees and customers. He has been in the digital advertising industry since 2006 working with Hanapin Marketing, Wordstream, and co-owner of Clix Marketing.John is a regular contributor to Search Engine Journal, The SEM Post, Acquisio Blog, Clix Marketing Blog, Search Engine Watch and was instrumental in the creation and launch of popular paid search advertising blog PPC Hero. In addition to his writing, John has been a speaker at SMX, PubCon, SocialPro, SES, ClickZ Live, HeroConf, Acquisio User Summit, State of Search, MN Search Summit, Ticket Summit, and Zenith Conference.

Gianpaolo Lorusso is one of the first Italian web professionals who got involved in search engine optimization in late '90. Now he believes in bettering user experience to increase conversions is the last frontier of web marketing. Since then he has been working on several large web projects for some renowned Italian and multinational companies as well as NGO / Non Profit organizations. At the beginning as a marketing manager of one of the leading Italian web agencies and, since 2008, as a freelance professional in web marketing and CRO.

Navah Hopkins is the Director of Paid Media at Hennessey Digital, an integrated digital marketing agency helping our customers own their markets via PPC, SEO, CRO, PR, and Content. A veteran of the digital marketing industry, she began as an SEO in 2008, transitioning to PPC in 2012. She manages the strategy and execution of paid media, as well as leading a team of paid search and paid social champions. Prior to joining Hennessey, she served as Services Innovation Strategist for WordStream, working across the international book of SMBs and the agencies who serve them. In this role, she identified accounts facing obstacles, helped customers overcome these obstacles, and relayed feedback to the customer success, product, and ad partner teams so all could proactively empower clients to profit. Throughout her career, Navah has made a point to give back and loves sharing lessons learned on the international speaking circuit as well as local universities. She is a frequent contributor to SEJ, SEMrush, and WordStream blogs/webinars. In 2019, she became a founding member of the Paid Search Association, a group dedicated to empowering the next generation of PPC practitioners, as well as serving as a resource for all practitioners to learn from and share with the community.

Duane has been called a digital nomad by friends after living in 6 cities across 3 continents and visiting 40 countries around the world. After leaving Toronto, Canada in 2011 to gain an international view of the world, he has worked for Telstra in Australia and brands including ASOS, Mopp (bought Sept. 2014), Jack Wills and Grant Thornton while in London, UK.After London, Duane went traveling in Asia for 10 weeks and then came back to Canada and got a job with Unbounce. That job allowed him to work on more PPC landing pages than any marketer in the world. He now lives in Montreal, Canada helping ecom & SaaS brands grow through data, CRO and marketing.

Frederick Vallaeys was one of the first 500 employees at Google where he helped grow the AdWords search marketing system and served as Google’s AdWords Evangelist, teaching advertisers about which Google products are best to support their marketing goals. He was a key player on several of the teams that made AdWords into the leading platform for search marketing, including the team that started the AdWords Editor and the one that acquired Urchin (now Google Analytics). He has contributed his technical expertise to several AdWords books including bestsellers like “AdWords for Dummies,” “Advanced Google AdWords,” and “Quality Score in High Definition” and he writes a monthly blog for searchengineland.com. He helps advertisers improve their search marketing results through Optmyzr.com, an AdWords tool company that makes a Historical Quality Score Tracker, One-Click AdWords Optimizations and other tools to make account management more efficient.

Things you Should Be Thinking As a PPC Manager as David Szedtela speaks with the Managing Director Of Marketing Operation Company NameApogee Results. Michelle Stinson Ross is an industry recognized authority on digital marketing, particularly the convergence of content, search, and social media. She brings an extensive knowledge of digital marketing techniques and years of experience working with both B2B and B2C clients in marketing, content, and strategy roles. Michelle is a creative thinker, who enjoys solving business problems and assessing customer behavior. When setting strategy, Michelle is adept at targeting specific goals, focused metrics and KPIs to keep marketing plans and budgets on track. She also continues to maintain a proficiency in the evolving best practices for CRM, SEO, social media, email marketing, marketing automation and blog writing, and continues to cultivate an active thought leadership role in relevant digital strategy communities

David Bain, author of Marketing Now and David Szetela discuss how paid search and content marketing can work more closely together. "Marketing Now is filled with timeless advice that will help you gain an edge in your market. David Bain has interviewed hundreds of marketers who have years of experience in the digital space. He distilled all of that knowledge into the most actionable high-profit tips.

We see Google is pushing it's AI onto advertisers in the Google Ads platform. Examples include Smart Bidding, Smart Display and Shopping Campaigns, Responsive Search Ads and Close Variant matching. And the list goes on.

The Paid Search Association is dedicated to serving the search-advertising field by drawing on a diverse and expert community of paid search marketers to create programs, services and information products that advance the industry. Today we speak to Mike Freedman, manger for Paid Search Association. Mike Freedman has enjoyed a successful career in the field of search marketing for more than two decades. He’s worked in client-side and agency-side paid search advertising and also for two niche paid search advertising software platforms. Mike also has more than a decade of experience in the non-profit world. He helped develop and managed two national non-profit healthcare organizations, including a trade association and a certifying board. Mike worked for several years as director of communications for the American Heart Association in the Greater Miami area. If you’re working in the paid search industry or you are a student interested in opportunities in the paid search industry, the Paid Search Association is for you. We're just getting started but we promise to work hard to be your constant ally, advocate, and adviser to help you grow and advance in the paid search industry.

Andrea Cruz is a Digital Marketing Manager at KoMarketing, where she leads and executes demand generationprograms for clients. Andrea is responsible for driving and implementing SEM, Social Media, ABM, and contentsyndication campaigns on platforms including Google AdWords, Bing Ads, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more.

LinkedIn Ads is one of the most difficult ad channels to get right because the clicks are expensive, so any mistake becomes an expensive one. What people miss is it's also the channel that closes the largest deals. They're the only agency worldwide that's a LinkedIn certified marketing partner. Their team of experts have managed over 300 LinkedIn Ads accounts, spent a cumulative $110M+ on LinkedIn, which includes 4 of LinkedIn's top 10 accounts. They make LinkedIn Ads rock and have the results to prove it.

Lisa Raehsler is a search engine marketing and pay-per-click (PPC) strategist, nationally recognized speaker, and columnist for industry leading publications. As the founder and principal strategist at Big Click Co., she helps companies and agencies of all sizes to integrate PPC advertising into online media programs for brand promotion, demand generation, and customer acquisition. Lisa has led hundreds of paid advertising accounts for search engines (Google AdWords and Bing Ads), mobile, display, retargeting, and social media ad campaigns. Her experience spans twenty years and includes working with national brands at agencies and at the enterprise level at Thomson Reuters.Lisa has spoken about PPC, mobile, retargeting and other online marketing topics at industry conferences, training events, podcasts, and webinars. Lisa shares her expertise as a columnist for several industry publications. She is a recipient of the Microsoft MVP Award for Bing Ads PPC.

Frederick Vallaeys returns to PPC Rockstars to explain how Google Ads will continue to change at a breakneck pace and introduce changes that can make or break a PPC pro’s next few months. It’s essential to stay on top of what is announced by Google at their premier event for marketers.More context is here

Frederick's new book Digital Marketing in an AI World: Futureproofing Your PPC Agency is now available. He is pricing the book at 99 cents for the week of 5/27 to ensure that anyone who is interested has a chance to pick up an inexpensive copy. Former Google AdWords evangelist Frederick Vallaeys talks to David Szetela about his new book titled Digital Marketing in an AI World: Futureproofing Your PPC Agency.This book talks about what AI and other digital marketing technology can and cannot do, how agency owners can reposition their business in the current environment, new skillsets to develop or look for in potential new hires, four essential roles digital marketing professionals will continue to play in the future and more.

MobileMonkey is bringing the power of chatbots — personalized, individual, scalable messaging — to every marketer, no coding needed. David is sold into the concept with the help of Virginia Nussey, the Director of Content Marketing at MobileMonkey.Virginia writes on the future of digital marketing automation via chatbot tutorials and guides. MobileMonkey makes it easy to build chatbots and execute marketing automation without writing a line of code. Marketers can do chat blasting, drip campaigns and list building in Messenger with powerful chatbot building tools.Digital agencies and marketers who care about performance and growth can join the conversation at https://mobilemonkey.com.

David Szetela welcomes back Kirk Williams, the owner of ZATO, his Paid Search PPC micro-agency of experts.Kirk shares his thoughts on Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAGs), which is an ad group that targets variations of a single keyword rather than following the AdWords setup guide and having 20 keywords in your ad group.They also talk about shopping campaigns and running Shopping Ads for clients and how Kirk has been wondering lately about whether you should use Smart Shopping campaigns.Kirk wrote recently, "Does it always negatively impact positioning? Surely not, but it’s certainly a part of the conversation that needs to take place. Unfortunately, Google removed our ability to have that conversation when they removed our ability to make any adjustments around ad placements in Smart Shopping.Just so I’m clear here, it’s not just that you can’t add negative keywords, or select/remove Channels right now in Smart Shopping (you can’t do either of those).

David Szetela discusses how Facebook advertising and search advertising are synergistic with Michelle Stinson-Ross, the Director of Marketing Operations for Apogee Results. Facebook recently decided to test Search Ads in selected industries in the US and Canada. Facebook first tried Sponsored Results back in 2012 but eventually shut down the product in 2013. They’ll be repurposed News Feed ads featuring a headline, image, copy text and a link in the static image or carousel format that can point users to external websites. Facebook declined to share screenshots as it says the exact design is still evolving. Facebook may expand search ads to more countries based on the test’s performance.

PPC ads come in many shapes and sizes. They also change frequently, which means it’s nearly impossible to provide a truly comprehensive guide for every ad format available. What follows is an overview of the major PPC ad formats that are available across Google Ads. Most of the basic text and shopping formats are also available across Bing Ads. There’s an old adage that our CRO team likes to share. Companies spend $92 of every $100 to bring customers to their site, but only $1 to convert them. Seems off, doesn’t it? Landing page experience is one of the more under-optimized facets of search marketing. It doesn’t fit neatly into a budget, so it’s difficult to find resources. The average search marketer doesn’t have the skillset to design and build a landing page. Powerful development tools like Unbounce and Instapage exist to do the heavy lifting. But without the right starting point in mind, it’s akin to giving a 16-year-old a driving test in a Ferrari.

Average Position was one of the original metrics in Google Ads when they launched their search advertising product called AdWords. But as search advertising has evolved, what used to be a primary metric for making optimization decisions has lost its usefulness and so Google has announced that it will disappear later this year. Frederick (“Fred”) Vallaeys was one of the first 500 employees at Google where he spent 10 years building AdWords and teaching advertisers how to get the most out of it as the Google AdWords Evangelist. Today he is the Cofounder of Optmyzr, an AdWords tool company focused on unique data insights, One-Click Optimizations™, advanced reporting to make account management more efficient, and Enhanced Scripts™ for AdWords. 

5 Common Pieces of Misinformation about Google Ads Their Corrections with Brad Geddes, the Founder of AdAlysis, an automated PPC ad testing and quality score analysis platform, an official AdWords Seminar Leader, and author of Advanced Google AdWords. Google Ads is so complicated that it often leads to incorrect assumptions as to how certain things work. When one authority site writes about one of these features incorrectly, it is often considered true and the misinformation quickly spreads and many marketers end up with poor information. Whenever you see some truly terrible search terms in your account, it’s either a result of Google not understanding your exact match keywords properly or the usage of true broad match. The most understood usage of broad match is when you have search terms that are in two different languages at once. We see in many countries search terms that are in English and Arabic, German and English, etc. When a search term is in multiple languages, the best way to target them is with broad match. For example, here’s a small sampling of a flower shop’s search terms that are using broad match to capture multi-lingual queries.

Today David is joined by 33 Across founder Eric Wheeler. While the biggest players in the industry like Google, The Trade Desk and agency programmatic platforms like Xaxis scoop up the majority of the $50 billion now flowing through automated advertising trading platforms, specialist services have emerged to meet marketers’ needs for transparency and impact. The company name refers to the toughest crossword puzzles that can be solved if you decipher a large horizontal word in the middle of the puzzle. According to Wheeler, in many difficult puzzles these are often around 32 or 33 across. “33Across unlocks the puzzle of quality online advertising,” says Wheeler. 

David Szetela talks about the Microsoft Audience Network with Frances Donegan-Ryan - Bing Ads Global Communications Manager and Learning Strategist - Client Experience Design Delivery - Bing Ads at Microsoft.The Microsoft Audience Network combines powerful artificial intelligence and the Microsoft Graph digital marketing platforms to find your target audience.Built on the Bing Ads platform, the goal of the Microsoft Audience Network is to make it easier for advertisers to profile the interests of their customers, Microsoft says. As part of that effort, the platform combines the AI with information from LinkedIn, Bing, and other Microsoft services, to improve targeting.

David Szetela talks about the Microsoft Audience Network with Frances Donegan-Ryan - Bing Ads Global Communications Manager and Learning Strategist - Client Experience Design Delivery - Bing Ads at Microsoft.The Microsoft Audience Network combines powerful artificial intelligence and the Microsoft Graph digital marketing platforms to find your target audience.Built on the Bing Ads platform, the goal of the Microsoft Audience Network is to make it easier for advertisers to profile the interests of their customers, Microsoft says. As part of that effort, the platform combines the AI with information from LinkedIn, Bing, and other Microsoft services, to improve targeting.

David Szetela talks with Akvile DeFazio about getting your feet wet with Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest direct response advertising. Learn what considerations should be made before diving in (e.g. Facebook can create a catalog from a Google Merchant Center feed)? What kind of results can they expect(in standard KPIs) compared to search engine results?Any tips or hidden landmines and more. 

Jon MacDonald is founder and President of The Good (https://thegood.com), a conversion rate optimization firm that helps brands convert more of their existing website traffic into buyers. The Good has unlocked results for some of the largest online brands including Adobe, Nike, Xerox, The Economist,  and more. Jon regularly contributes content on conversion optimization to publications like Entrepreneur and Inc. He knows how to get visitors to take action. As President, Jon has helped lead The Good to become one of Oregon's top 20 fastest growing private companies. The team at The Good have made a practice of advising brands on how to see e-commerce sales double or more. In recent years, brands that have worked with The Good have seen an average revenue increase in revenue of over 100%.

A recent Forbes article claims, " You see it everywhere, people staring at their smartphones without seemingly ever looking up. They’re glued to their screens, multitasking, while walking, driving, waiting in line, watching TV, studying, sitting on a train/plane, etc. While some of us may not agree with the amount of screen-time people endure, it is their time and it is creating a new genre of connected consumerism. This always-on, mobile customer isn’t just connected, they’re empowered. And, these empowered consumers are completely shattering the construct of the traditional funnel as we know it.

LinkedIn Profile Targeting now available on Bing Search Ads as David Szetela speaks with LinkedIn Ads Expert, Agency Founder, and Speaker AJ Wilcox. Bing last month announced the integration of LinkedIn and Microsoft Advertising. Bing is now offering profile targeting that leverages LinkedIn data for search campaigns on the Bing Ads platform.LinkedIn profile targeting is in beta for specific clients. Advertisers that want to test should reach out Bing Ads account manager that can help to join the beta. 

David Szetela welcomes back Kirk Williams Owner of ZATO, a Paid Search Paid Social Marketing agency and in digital marketing since 2009.  They discuss how understanding client needs lead to better analysis and better results and how when a client is unengaged, rather than just coasting or trying to change things, seek to understand why.

Navah Hopkins is part of the Thought Leadership and Customer Success teams at WordStream. She’s worked in digital marketing since 2008, and in paid search since 2012, committed to helping advertisers across all industries WordStream serves achieve profit and understand the process. When she’s not helping customers or speaking at international conferences, Navah enjoys gaming with her husband and cuddling with her two cats and rescue dog.  WordStream helps thousands of SMB’s and the agencies who serve them win at AdWords, Bing, Display, and Facebook worldwide. We offer solutions that range from DIY to fully managed offerings, and are committed to helping our customers win in their marketplace.

David Szetela welcomes back Brad Geddes, the author of "Advanced Google AdWords", and founder of Certified Knowledge, an online source where the Paid Search community comes together for PPC training, tools, and advice. They discuss the impact of machine learning on internet marketing strategies and the job market, Man vs. machine as it relates to the PPC optimization process, what a machine can and cannot do, and future job roles and how you can structure your career in this domain

Today on PPC Rockstars our host is joined by Natalie Baredda the director of paid speech at Point It Digital Marketing. Stop Dismissing Google Display Network and Engage with Traffic That Converts. Natalie focuses on strategic growth planning and testing. She explains how search marketers can find great results by building audiences off of your targeted names and doing some competitor conquesting. 

Google Marketing Live 2018 Recap with Optmyzr Co-Founder Frederick Vallaeys as he tells us how he took part in a live-on-the-scene panel discussion with other industry experts to discuss trends that are shaping search – both from within Google as well as the broader search universe. 

Official AdWords Seminar Leader, Author of Advanced Google AdWords, and Co-Founder of Adalysis, Brad Geddes talks about the Advance of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence including the fears that some PPCs that their work might become obsolete. 

10 years ago this week, PPC Rockstars made its debut on the WebmasterRadio.FM lineup and host David Szetela welcomes aboard a roundtable of perennial guests: Matt Van Wagner from FindMeFaster (the first guest on the program) Lisa Raehsler from Big Click Co and the Senior Manager, PPC Training at Microsoft Purna Virji.They reflect on past episodes and issues that PPC community confronted plus we hear messages from some of our other distinguished friends of the program. 

Machine Learning, PPC The Advent of Free Google Attribution as David Szetela welcomes back Lisa Raehsler from Blig Click Co. Plus, Lisa and David discuss how Google is set to launch free Google Attribution, hoping to kick last-click attribution to the curb. Multichannel attribution data feeds are back into Google AdWords and DoubleClick Search to inform bidding optimizations.

Impact of EU Price Regulations on Advertisers, remarketing custom lists, email lists and the death of audiences are all weighed on as David Szetela speaks with Third Door Media's paid media reporter, Ginny Marvin. Plus, they discuss how Google announced more ways for users to control the Google-served ads they see. The changes will have implications for advertisers, particularly those who are running remarketing campaigns.

Today on PPC Rockstars our host is joined the Co-Founder Adalysis. Brad Geddes has been involved in online marketing since 1998. Over the years, he has provided a variety of consulting services, including usability, conversion optimization, product development, product positioning, and agency consulting, He has managed, SEO, PPC, and affiliate marketing campaigns for both himself and others. One of his trademarks has been demystifying the more complicated aspects of SEO, PPC, and Internet advertising through writing, speaking, and training. Brad does not withhold secrets as he prefers to educate readers on the various aspects of crafting marketing campaigns to ensure the success of all parties involved. Brad is not one to call himself an expert or guru. He prefers to train marketers and let the results speak for themselves. Therefore, instead of writing paragraphs that use the words “master,” “wizard,” or “thought-leader,” and name-drop companies, he has worked with such as Amazon, Yahoo, and Google he prefers a simple bullet point list of facts to let intelligent readers make up their own minds.

PPC David Szetela welcomes Frances Donegan-Ryan, the Global Community Engagement Manager at Bing Ads. She tells us about Janes of Digital where women who work in the search and digital space get the stage. Where you can expect your voice to be heard, your effort to be recognized and your initiative to be credited to your innate awesomeness. 

Today on PPC Rockstars David is joined by Mark Irvine. Mark is chiefly responsible for creating WordStream’s data-driven industry research, analyzing data and spotting trends within AdWords, Google Analytics, Bing Ads, and Facebook. Mark regularly publishes on the Wordstream blog whenever a new ad format, feature, or major change to the SERP is announced. He regularly presents his research on trends in the SEM industry on webinars and at conferences around the country, such as SMX and Pubcon. His work has also been featured on CNET and CNN. In 2016, Mark was named one of the 15 most influential PPC Experts in 2016 by PPC Hero.

What Lies Ahead for PPC and Display in 2018 as David Szetela talks to John Lee, the Learning Strategist for Client Experience Design Delivery for Bing Ads at Microsoft. They discuss what is being shown at this year's Consumer Electronics Show and much more

Talking about The Great PPC Ad Testing Debateas David Szetela talks with Melissa Mackey, search supervisor at gyro and founder of BeyondThePaid.com. She discusses how "there have been several opinions thrown around regarding which PPC ad test settings should be used for best results. It’s been interesting to watch the debate play out in blog posts and on Twitter. And to add confusion to the mix, Google recently announced that they were reducing the options available for ad rotation to two: optimize and rotate indefinitely."

Artificial Intelligence Awareness and Preparation as one of Google’s first 100 employees, Frederick Vallaeys (who helped build the AdWords Editor and is now CEO of Optymzr, a PPC scripts and automation provider) talks to David what to watch out for and why we need to be prepared. On the subject of PPC automation, Frederick emphasizes it’s critical to remember that the machine learning boom is ultimately a statistical approach limited by combinatorial explosion. In other words, it’s math. Regarding PPC automation, an AI entity attempting to bid on a single keyword for each device, location, and time for audiences of different ages and genders will quickly end up with tens of thousands of permutations. This is a calculation volume that overwhelms not only humans, but machines too.

Amazon PPC Advertising, Voice Search, Mobile and Buying Trends in 2018  as David Szetela moderates part 2 of a roundtable panel of PPC professionals that include:Lisa Raehsler from Big Click CoSenior Manager of Global Engagement at Microsoft Purna Virji Senior Director, e-Commerce Growth Services at CommerceHub Elizabeth Marsten.