We've had quite a few questions about how to track outbound AdSense clicks from a website using Google Analytics. There's an older post (from 2005) over on Aaron Wall's SEOBook blog, but it should still work. Check out how to track Google AdSense clicks in Google Analytics.

One of my favorite quotes that sums up online marketing is from the book Call to Action by Bryan & Jeffrey Eisenberg:

"Trying to increase sales simply by driving more traffic to a website with a poor customer conversion rate is like trying to keep a leaky bucket full by adding more water instead of plugging the holes."

I love that! It summarizes the reality of marketing in such a great, visual way. When you put it like that, everybody can see it's such a commonsense approach. Focus on your ROI (return on investment) and conversion rate, and the rest will fall into place easily.

Continue reading "Marketing Frame of Mind" »

Finally the Yahoo! Search Marketing upgrade has brought some well-needed changes to their Sponsored Search program with its new ranking model. This revised model will help advertisers spend much less time on bidding wars, leaving time to create more relevant ads. It is replacing the current method for ad ranking which is based on bid amounts alone.

Beginning February 5, 2007 bid amount and ad quality will determine an ad's rank in the search results. What exactly determines 'ad quality'? Well, there are two factors to this new feature-one being the ad's historical performance which consists of the click-through rate in comparison to that of the competitor's and the normal click-through rate for that position.

Continue reading "Yahoo!'s New Ranking Model" »

I'm addicted to organization. It's so satisfying to take a tangled-up mess of a situation (whether it's a shoe closet or a business process) and straighten it out into a neat and tidy condition. Another area of potential organization nirvana has recently come to my attention: Google Analytics.

Oh, I hear you laughing out there!

But it's true, and it can have a huge payoff. Comparing all of your online marketing campaigns will be MUCH easier if you remember to organize your marketing efforts from the campaign, medium, and source level.

Continue reading "The Secret to Making Money with Organization" »