I am starting a new series here - how not to do PPC!

Today I started looking for a “range extender” to expand my wireless network into my yard so I can work under the gazebo when I feel like it.

My Google search term was “buy wireless range extender canada”. Here is an example of how not to do PPC:

Sears has the following ad:
Sears.ca: Canada’s Store
Great prices, great variety, great
products. You’ll find it at Sears
Sears.ca

Ok so they are targeting Canada, that is good…but I am not aware of Sears selling computer equipment and nothing about that ad says networking. I wonder to myself if by range they are referring to ovens/stoves?

I click on the ad and land on this page. Part of the URL contains the phrase “generic-store-buy”. Heaven forbid but are they bidding on the word buy? If so, good luck getting an ROI on that one ;-)

Stay tuned for more “how not to do PPC” case studies!

I’ve just proven that offline marketing can drive people online ;-)

I am sitting at my desk working away when I hear a ton of cars beeping their horns outside on Carling Avenue.

I look out and see quite a few cars with Italian flags flying from their windows…think! Think! Think! What is going on that involves Italy?

Ah ha! I remembered seeing a young friends MSN Instant Messenger picture - and it was of an Italian Flag…

So off to Google I go wondering what I will see if the soccer game has just (just!) ended. I typed in “soccer game italy” and found a new type of entry that I am not familiar with. It said “World Cup results on your Google homepage” and was above Google News links.

Wow! Very up to the minute results…but does this show up for other searches as well? Let us know if you have seen this for anything other than sports!

ClickZ is reporting that Google is testing Cost Per Action rather than Cost Per Click for their AdWords PPC program.

CPA ads will be run on a separate network, most likely reserved for only CPA advertisers and not CPC advertisers.

Great concept to have CPA as an option especially for some B2B clients. I know of a webcasting company that would want to go this route in a heartbeat!

As a sidenote, we have once again switched hosting companies and hopefully will have close to 100% uptime rather than what we experienced over the past 2 months with a very poor quality webhost. I must have filed 20 support tickets in 2 months!

Now that we are settled, we will blog more often and update our Search Engine Marketing Resources Directory.

One last goody that we have planned? We hope to beta test our online classroom towards the end of summer. Should you wish to take a Pay Per Click course online, you may want to join our mailing list!

Talk to you soon!