'Net Features : wordstream

Report Puts Facebook, Google Ad Values on Display

Linc Wonham — Mon, 21 May 2012 16:30:00 GMT

SEO software provider WordStream has released new research comparing the value of Facebook advertising to Google’s Display Network – the portion of Google’s advertising business that allows advertisers to place display ads on Google sites such as YouTube, Gmail and Blogger and over 2 million other websites rather than alongside search results.

The results are compiled in an infographic that evaluates the two models on criteria such as advertising reach, ad performance, revenues and growth, ad formats and targeting options, and highlights of the study appear below:

• Facebook and Google both have huge potential reach, with Facebook boasting 845 million monthly active users and Google owning the world’s largest online display advertising network.

• The average click-through rate (CTR) of an ad on the Google Display Network is 0.4 percent – almost 10 times as high as the typical Facebook ad. Average CTR on Facebook is under 0.05 percent, about half the industry average for online banner ads. At the same time, costs per thousand impressions on Facebook are climbing.

• The Google Display Network offers twice as many ad formats as Facebook, including in-video ads, mobile-game ads, support for industry-standard image ads and more.

• Facebook does not yet support mobile advertising and has more limited targeting options than Google.

The comparison clearly suggests that Google currently offers advertisers more value in terms of both options and results for advertisers, and that Facebook has a lot of catching up to do to provide advertisers with the best possible advertising solutions.

“So far, Facebook’s advertising platform hasn’t kept pace with the explosive growth of its social network, and it remains to be seen if CEO Mark Zuckerberg even wants to focus on advertising as a source of revenue,” says Larry Kim, founder and CTO of WordStream. “In his 2,500+ word letter to shareholders this month, he mentioned advertising just once.”

WordStream provides search marketing software and PPC services aimed at helping marketers get better results from their PPC and SEO efforts.

AdWords Performance Grader from WordStream

Michael Garrity — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Search marketing software and services provider WordStream has launched a new, free program called AdWords Performance Grader, which is designed to help marketers evaluate the performance of their AdWords campaigns based on an array of different criteria. This will help these online businesses and advertisers decipher just where and how they need to make improvements in their AdWords campaigns.

Among the many features of AdWords Performance Grader are discovering an effective use of negative keywords to control spend, determining a Quality Score for text ads and the keywords targeted, checking clickthrough rates and impression share for ads, providing long-tail keyword, text ad and landing page optimization, and providing PPC best practices information.

The program will also give marketers benchmark data to let them know how their campaigns perform when compared with other companies that have similar advertising budgets.

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“At WordStream, we have worked with thousands of small and medium-sized businesses to build out keywords for their AdWords campaigns. We’ve witnessed how many hands-on marketers have not yet mastered fundamental best practices of PPC ad campaigns,” says Larry Kim, WordStream founder and chief technology officer. “We built this free tool to provide advertisers with an easy way to digest snapshots of how their ad campaigns are performing and to tutor them on how to make changes that will boost their performance and save money.”

Visit WordStream for more information on the new AdWords Performance Grader.
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Most Expensive Keyword Categories at Google

Administrator — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 18:10:00 GMT

Search marketing software provider WordStream has released data showing the top 20 high-volume keyword categories with the highest costs-per-click at Google.

According to WordStream, the top five keyword categories are Insurance, Loans, Mortgage, Attorney and Credit (see the infographic below for more). Advertising accounts for approximately 97% of Google's revenue.

The keyword categories with the highest volumes and costs represent businesses with very high lifetime customer value – in other words, these industries can afford to pay lot to acquire a new customer. These businesses include lawsuits, mortgage applications, and server hosting. Some high-volume keyword categories have lower CPCs because advertisers have slimmer margins to expend on PPC advertising.

WordStream compiled data from its keyword database and the Google Keyword Tool to determine the top 10,000 most expensive English-language keywords over a 90-day period. This keyword list was then organized into categories by theme. The largest keyword categories were determined by weighting the number of keywords within each category, as well as the estimated monthly search volume and average cost per click for each keyword.

WordStream Offers New Keyword Research Suite

Linc Wonham — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 17:00:00 GMT

Search marketing software provider WordStream has released a comprehensive new suite of tools designed to help marketers find and organize large numbers of targeted keywords for use in paid and organic search campaigns.

The new Keyword Research Suite builds on the capabilities of WordStream’s free keyword tools, providing marketers with more valuable data and a keener competitive edge.

The standard edition of the Keyword Research Suite includes a Keyword Suggestion Tool, Keyword Niche Finder and Keyword Grouper, all of which leverage WordStream’s trillion-keyword database and intelligent grouping algorithms to help users find profitable new niches and opportunities to rank. The Extreme Long-Tail edition provides extended access to WordStream’s keyword database, offering 25 percent more long-tail keywords, valuable for affiliate marketers or those in highly competitive industries.

The standard edition costs $329 per year and the extreme edition is priced at $599 annually.

Upgrade options include a proactive, money-saving Negative Keyword Tool or SEO Content Creation Plug-In, as well as an exclusive monthly newsletter with helpful tips and strategies from industry experts in search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising.

WordStream's Negative Keyword Tool

Administrator — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 20:00:00 GMT

Keyword research platform WordStream has released a free negative keyword tool. If you need to improve click-through rates and Quality Score (don't forget your ROI from advertising) this is definitely a resouce to check out.

The tool aids users in identifying a list of high-traffic keyword niches related to their business, service or product. Search marketers are then able to designate which of the keyword niches are relevant and which ones aren’t. The Negative Keyword Tool then saves any keyword terms deemed “negative,” and suggests additional, related terms that have a high likelihood of getting matched against the ad groups within paid search accounts.

“The Free Negative Keyword Tool saves PPC advertisers the headache of going the long, tedious and expensive traditional route of waiting for your ad campaigns to mature and accrue query data, then sifting through search query reports to uncover negative keywords,” said Larry Kim, WordStream’s Founder and Vice President of Product Development. “So rather than wasting tons of time, money and energy, you can quickly and efficiently weed out irrelevant terms with our tool, thereby eliminating wasted spend before these terms ever cost you a single penny.”

Two Free Keyword Tools from WordStream

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:00:00 GMT

Two new keyword tools were released by keyword research firm WordStream, a free keyword niche finder and a free keyword grouper.

The Keyword Niche Finder enables users to enter a keyword to fin valuable pockets of keyword opportunities, returning structured keyword suggestions for use in search marketing campaigns.

The second tool released by WordStream is the Keyword Grouper, which lets users enter a list of keywords or analytic data and get back related groupings to use in PPC ads or even Web copy.

Both look like pretty basic, but are another set of free solutions for your SEO and PPC tool chest.