A few weeks ago the Nickelback Summer "All the Right Reasons" 2007 tour arrived here in Raleigh, NC. My brother-in-law is good friends with the lead singer (Wes) for one of the supporting acts for the Nickelback tour, Puddle of Mudd. One of the perks of having a family member know a 'rock star' so well is access to a couple of backstage passes. Our pass allowed us full access to the restricted areas back stage including the dressing rooms, the band-member's catering area, and in the case of the Puddle of Mudd performance, right on stage while the band performed.

Here at ROI Revolution we have an immediate opening for a single backstage pass to one of our 'rock star' Pay Per Click teams.

Here are the details from our the careers section of our website:

Continue reading "Pay Per Click 'Rock Star' Wanted" »

2 years ago, NOBODY was a bigger dummy than I was when I first began fiddling with Google AdWords. For me, it was an overwhelming mix of internet articles here, a free eBook there, some trial and error and a pinch of "how hard can it be" that got me started (if you're one of my clients, please stop crying. This is long before I worked here). My first Adwords recipe wasn't a complete disaster, but it certainly wasn't anything delicious either. It was like pulling the dish out of the oven, waving off the smoke, and then scrambling to read every cookbook I could find to figure out what went wrong. Times have changed, and I definitely have a newfound appreciation for the words WARNING: Read the instructions first!

So, I just finished reading Adwords for Dummies by Howie Jacobson. First things first, congratulations to Mr. Jacobson. This is the first "For Dummies" book that I finished, cover-to-cover, every single word (except the index). Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the other Dummy books, but I typically treat them more like dictionaries than books. Yes, it's a reference book. But regardless, I read it straight through and it still kept my interest. That's certainly no small feat.

Howie explains things very well, evenly balancing casual tones with occasional (and necessary) tech talk. His steady use of examples, analogies, humor, tips, pictures and additional resources will no doubt engage readers, whether they seek the "techy" stuff or just a casual read on Adwords. With so many best practices, business blessings, warnings, and parables, one could rightfully call this the Bible of Adwords and feel somewhat justified. There's even a Revelation-esque chapter at the end called "The Ten Most Serious Adwords Beginner's Mistakes," crammed with stories of woe and all manner of marketing budget destruction. Regardless, there is still a happy ending.

Continue reading "Adwords For Dummies: Who's the Dummy Now?" »

Due to the new Google Analytics interface, some changes had to be made to our old ROI Calculator Spreadsheet tool. Unfortunately, there's now an extra step involved before you can use the tool to figure out your ROI (See Step 4 below). The good news, however, is that the new method is a lot more versatile, and you can use it for many kinds of reports, including your non-AdWords campaign and keyword reports.

Read on to learn more:

Continue reading "New Google Analytics ROI Caculation Spreadsheet" »

Heather Lutze, of Lutze Consulting, sat down with me to record a podcast at the New York Pay Per Click Summit about why Google Analytics is such an important part of the Pay Per Click process to learn what happens (in detail) after the click.

I'll be joining Heather and a whole host of other PPC experts as a speaker in a few weeks in Los Angeles at the next Pay Per Click Summit in Los Angeles.

I'm super impressed with how Heather produced this Google Analytics podcast; she didn't just take our interview and slap it up on her blog, she actually took some serious time to record a detailed intro to the topic, added music in the intro and in the close, and wrote up a nice piece on the blog.

I don't know where Heather gets her direct, pull-no-punches-style interviewing experience but I felt a little like I was being interviewed by an experienced network-level journalist. Katie Couric look out!!!

We talked about the biggest challenges with Google Analytics, specifically how improper configuration/setup can affect the data that an advertiser has access to (or not) .

From Heather's blog: "This invaluable tool, configured correctly, can help you bridge the gap between a paid search click and what happens after the click."

Heather outlines how we can help companies configure Google Analytics correctly through our many services, including the free Google Analytics webinar and newsletter, as well as training packages.

You can listen in on our whole conversation here.

Dear Michael,
I just implemented AdWords autotagging for my website, and now my organic Google traffic has dropped dramatically. What gives? Is Google Analytics ruining my search rankings? Who do I blame for this? Can you fix it?

Okay. Calm down and breathe. There's nothing to worry about.

First, the bad news: your organic search traffic wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

But, the good news: now that you've turned on autotagging, your Google Analytics profile is more accurate than it has ever been.

Continue reading "Tales of Overanalysis: My Organic Traffic Has Tanked!" »

Click Here For Part 1 - Branding
Click Here For Part 2 - Tracking Emails

What do the topological feature of spacetime and the interesting little Google Analytics variable have in common?

Both deal with travel. One just happens to deal with matter traveling through spacetime, and one deals with visitors to your website. While I am not an expert on wormholes, I do understand how the utm_nooverride variable affects your visitors, and this post is about using the utm_nooverride for those websites that feature special paths which take the user through all sorts of intergalactic mayhem.

This includes websites that send the user to third party domains, even if just for a moment. This could be due to an autoresponder, a shopping cart, a form submission, a tool for visitors to use, credit card processing, and a whole host of other possibilities to consider.

A good example of a 'wormhole' is PayPal. When a user clicks on a PayPal link, they travel to a new domain. On top of that, it's a domain you can't control. You can't add any code to the PayPal pages or make the modifications that you would need to track things according to Google's official instructions. But you can control the URL that brings the user back to your site. And that's where the utm_nooverride comes in.

Continue reading "Using utm_nooverride Part 3 of 3 - Through the Wormhole" »