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Showing posts from 2016

Yahoo is for (Fire) Sale - Ha ha

Well, to show my "Internet age," I remember when Yahoo was on akebono.stanford.edu. It's become the TITANIC of Internet companies, with sad Marissa Mayer at the helm (yikes, probably wishes she didn't take this job!). Here's BusinessWeek's expose -  http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-yahoo/

Facebook Advertising: What I love & What I Hate

So, here it is 10:41 am on a Wednesday morning. I have a client who is doing Facebook advertising, and like many clients, is a) spending quite a bit of money, and b) very keen to know if the ads are working - reaching the right folks, running at the right time, and generating the results anticipated. Facebook advertising, like Google advertising, is complex. It is "powerful," in that you can do many amazing things with Facebook advertising. Why I love Facebook Advertising Here are a few reasons why I love Facebook advertising -  Targeting, targeting, targeting. Facebook knows a lot about its users, so you can target women vs. men, Bay Area people vs. folks in Tulsa, Oklahoma, lovers of the Oakland A's vs. lovers of the St. Louis cardinals, folks who like Whole Foods vs. folks who like Costco, etc., etc. Employee / Competitor targeting - you can even target people who WORK at a particular company (not to mention of course competitors and their "fans"

Customer Service at Bing or Lack Thereof

Just spoke with Bing technical support.  Where do we start on my wish list? Let's start with last names and phone numbers at Bing advertising support. Wouldn't it be wonderful if people who worked at big companies had last names? Where do they find all these people who are just like Cher or Adele? No one has a last name, which makes them tough to find when you need to follow up (and don't want to have to explain, again, what your issue is). Wouldn't it be wonderful if people who worked at big companies had their own phone number? If Bing would swing for a phone system, then you or I could actually call these people back, directly, as opposed to having to email them first and then have them call us. Those are the technical issues that would make our life so much better vis-a-vis Bing. Of course, it's not just Bing. It's most large companies - including Credit Card companies - where employees a) lack last names, and b) lack phone numbers. I believe it is

AdWords Minimum Bids: Lies, Disceptions and Misinformation

If you are an AdWords advertiser, you may quickly realize that "riches are in the niches," meaning that if you find really wonderful, relevant keywords that match what you sell with what customers want, these will generate high click thru rates, high conversion rates, and ultimately high sales. Yippie!!!!!! However, Daddy Google has some bad news for you: minimum bids. You can have a wonderful, highly relevant ad on a wonderful, highly relevant keyword with all your "quality score" ducks in a row in terms of Google... In fact, you might be the ONLY advertiser on that keyword, and have a click thru rate upwards of 10%, and yet Minimum Bids Google will automatically set the minimum bid for a keyword to some pretty high numbers. I have seen upwards of $20.00 for the CPC on bids for which everything is in alignment, and the quality score is fantastic... YET.... Clearly "behind the scenes" Google has some algorithm to cost you A LOT of money th

Network Solutions Fail

That pathetically sad moment when a major Internet registrar has a website fail. Guess it happens to everyone. # Networksolutionsfail