This article by Howie Jacobson was originally posted on Search Engine Watch. Know a novice marketer who aspires to mastery? Tell them to begin by learning how to write a single Google ad for a single exact match keyword. That advice may seem counterintuitive, given that AdWords is the most competitive...Read More
Strategy
This article by Howie Jacobson was originally posted on Search Engine Watch. When I planted beets this summer, I followed the instructions on the seed packet and spaced them 6 inches apart, with 15 inches between rows. In a three-foot wide bed, that meant I had room for only two rows, or a total of about...Read More
This article by Howie Jacobson was originally posted on Search Engine Watch. A mother gives her son two ties for his birthday. He goes upstairs, puts on one of the ties, and comes back down to show his mother. She looks him up and down, then says, “What’s the matter, you didn’t like the other tie?” This...Read More
This article by Howie Jacobson was originally posted on Search Engine Watch. Recent discussion among search marketers over whether lowering a keyword bid can lower quality score reminded me of a totally different topic: the way pharmaceutical companies sell us unnecessary and harmful drugs that keep...Read More
This article by Howie Jacobson was originally posted on Search Engine Watch. In “Stumbling on Happiness”, Daniel Gilbert talks a lot about the concept of “nexting.” By this, he means our subconscious habit of predicting what is just about to happen. Without this habit, he points out, we could...Read More
This article by Howie Jacobson was originally posted on Search Engine Watch. During the energy crisis of the 1970s, governments scrambled desperately to promote conservation as a method of combating rising demand and uncertain supplies. In Holland, one suburb’s consumption patterns utterly baffled...Read More
This article by Howie Jacobson was originally posted on Search Engine Watch. Think you’re stuck with a not-so-great market or competitive environment? In search marketing, you often have a lot more control over those factors than you might think. Aren’t You Glad You Aren’t a Plant? Imagine...Read More
This article by Howie Jacobson was originally posted on Search Engine Watch. Ash Maurya’s book “Running Lean” provides an excellent roadmap for anyone starting a new business or introducing a new product line, especially if that person doesn’t want to spend huge amounts of time, money...Read More
This article by Howie Jacobson was originally posted on Search Engine Watch. We lost a client recently. Not because of anything we did (if it were that kind of story, I wouldn’t be telling it here). When we landed the account, we looked at their AdWords traffic, cost per click, and cost per conversion,...Read More
This article by Howie Jacobson was originally posted on Search Engine Watch. Think of an AdWords account like a garden. Most gardeners measure success by yield: bushels of tomatoes, armloads of sweet peppers, ovenfuls of zucchini bread, and so on. But these outputs, as delicious and motivating as they...Read More
This article by Howie Jacobson was originally posted on Search Engine Watch. After two weeks exploring Botswana, my family and I returned to South Africa on a hot and dusty late morning via the Bray border crossing, one of the least utilized in the country. Getting to Bray required a jarring 70 kilometer...Read More
This article by Howie Jacobson was originally posted on Search Engine Watch. After months of agonized waiting, my daughter finally received her Pottermore account last week. In case you’re not a Harry Potter nerd, Pottermore.com is the “all Harry all the time” website that J.K. Rowling created...Read More