Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Pay Per Click (PPC) Articles by Alison Wilkinson

It has been widely reported in the industry news over the last few days that Yahoo and Microsoft have announced a merger. For those of you who have miraculously escaped this news, the basis is that Yahoo will be adopting Microsoft's Bing search engine technology and the PPC marketing will be... read more

As mentioned by Brand Republic last week, a recent study has shown that despite the reductions in online marketing spends during the last quarter of 2008, search engine advertisers have improved their ROI (Return on Investment) by 25% during the first three months of 2009.PPC (Pay Per Click)... read more

An article posted on Brand Republic confirms that since Google altered their brand bidding policy in May 2008, the average Cost Per Click (CPC) has increased and the average Click Through Rate (CTR) has decreased. I am not surprised by the findings of this research, and I think it was... read more

As mentioned in one of my previous posts, the Christmas period has a major effect on Search Marketing campaigns, and Christmas 2008 was no exception. I was reading in the Independent this morning that online sales hit a new high this Christmas. The article compares the fact that as high... read more

We already know that Christmas can have a massive impact on the online industry, and this year, despite the ‘credit crunch’, there has been no exception.  Already we are seeing considerable fluctuations in the CPCs as more advertisers compete for position in the paid search results. It... read more

Previously it has not been permitted to advertise gambling related activity via Google Adwords as it was against their policy.  Until now that is....From tomorrow, Google will be allowing the use of Adwords Gambling Ads provided the advertiser has a valid licence. There is also a separate... read more

Today I have received an email from Yahoo! stating that they are no longer fixing the minimum bid for UK search keywords at £0.05, although the content network bids will remain at a £0.05 minimum. This change is to take place in the coming weeks. Yahoo!’s reasoning behind the change is... read more

I-COM have discovered that the Google Adwords External Keyword Tool is now providing approximate search volume stats. This created quite a buzz around the I-COM offices as we have been wishing that Google would provide the actual numerical stats for so long.   The Inside Adwords blog... read more

Google continues to be the top search engine in the UK, attracting 74.4% of the search market traffic during April, according to the recent comScore report.  eBay is still taking up the second place with a 6% share, which is a 0.3% increase compared with March.  The Yahoo! Search... read more

Whether you are already running a PPC campaign, or are still thinking about whether to dip your toes into this area of internet marketing, there is one crucial thing to consider.  What do you want to achieve?  Do you want your PPC campaign to promote your brand in the online industry,... read more