by Howard Jacobson. Despite having a comprehensive website, chock-filled with valuable information, one law firm found itself suffering from an opt-in rate for a free case evaluation of just 1.1 percent. The figure was so low that Google AdWords was an ROI-negative advertising medium. One of my colleague...Read More
by Howard Jacobson. When I ran track in high school, the coach would put slow guys like me in the fifth and sixth heats of races like the sprint medley. This race consisted of two eighths of a mile, one quarter, and one half to finish the race. I generally ran the second eighth of a mile, so I had to...Read More
by Howard Jacobson. The Google search engine has a hidden side. Because it sells ad space based on a keyword auction, it’s actually a stock market for words. If you bid on “donate your car Sacramento” or “DUI Attorney Houston”, you’ll find that the market for those...Read More
by Howard Jacobson. Pay-per-click search marketing may have been invented in the second Clinton administration, but it’s a modern iteration of a hundred-year-old tradition of direct marketing: Find people who have a problem, get their attention with a small, inexpensive ad, and then offer them...Read More
This article by Howie Jacobson was originally posted on Search Engine Watch. AdWords doesn’t have to be hard, complex, or time consuming. You can still set up campaigns and ad groups without a lot of knowledge or skill. Just follow the prompts, choose a couple of obvious keywords, and accept all the...Read More
This article by Howie Jacobson was originally posted on Search Engine Watch. When Yoda encourages Luke Skywalker to persist in his attempt to lift his ship out of the swamp in “The Empire Strikes Back”, Luke shrugs his reluctant acquiescence: “All right, I’ll give it a try.” Prompting...Read More
This article by Howie Jacobson was originally posted on Fast Company. Sometimes getting more productive isn’t about fixing your own dysfunction–it’s about figuring out how to subvert it. The following is a transcript of an actual conversation that went on in my head at 6:15 p.m....Read More
This article by Howie Jacobson was originally posted on Fast Company. A bed of carrots can teach you a lot about standing out from your competitors. As winter trudges along and the days begin to lengthen, my mind turns to the summer garden. Out come the seed catalogs and seedling trays, and I get...Read More
This article by Howie Jacobson was originally posted on Fast Company. The true reason smart, creative, and motivated people spend time on low-value busywork at the expense of the big-picture stuff. My client Felix (not his real name) was complaining to me about wasting huge amounts of time during...Read More
This article by Howie Jacobson was originally posted on Search Engine Watch. One of the most important elements of any search-based lead generation campaign is the offer – what does your prospect get as a result of giving you their contact information? Ideally, this offer acts like a magnet, attracting...Read More
This article by Howie Jacobson was originally posted on Search Engine Watch. Search marketing is often more like courtship than a shotgun wedding. While some searches lead to online purchases within minutes (usually for inexpensive commodities that people are familiar with), many searches do not. If...Read More
