Trada’s Weekly Roundup

February 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Happy Friday! While you plan out your weekend, check out some of the things we read on the web this week!

1. Techcrunch covered “Why VCs are getting into PR” and it was a hot topic! There has been a rise in pitches from VC firms instead of the startups themselves. And why? As stated in the article, technology PR isn’t easy! Comments on the article offered other explanations as well- the changing game of PR, the accessibility of VCs and executives, and the involvement of VCs in start-ups without providing financial support. What are your thoughts?

2. Online Media Direct is offering “5 Facebook Advertising Tips for B2B’s”. Tips include having simple ad copy, using your existing fans’ interests to tailor your content, and targeting. One more tip could be using Trada for your Facebook advertising! (Shameless promotion, we know.)

3. PPC MEMES! Have you seen these? If you’re a paid search expert or novice, you will enjoy!

4. Blooming Pity: Valentine’s Day Florist Wars Turn Ugly Online via Brand Channel. Even the title sounds scary. What happened was the giants in the floral industry created ads on Google that said the local florists were (gasp!) SOLD OUT! It happened to all of the local shops in Minneapolis. In reality, ProFlowers meant to say their OWN flowers were sold out for Valentine’s Day, and a keyword mishap occurred, saying the local florists were sold out.

5. Mashable reports “Twitter Opens Self-Service Ad Platform Widely to Small Businesses.” And American Express cardmembers get first dibs? Twitter is partnering with American Express and offering preference to cardmembers and even giving them $100 in free advertising! Small businesses, sign up!

And because we couldn’t resist, one more PPC meme!

Thanks to PPC Memes for these images!

Filed Under: Trada News

Trada’s Weekly Roundup

February 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

With all the great blogs and publications out there, every week we read fantastic articles about paid search, content marketing, SEO, and more. We wanted to highlight some of the articles that stood out to us this week.

1. The Content Marketeer has compiled a list 50 Marketers to Watch in 2012.  The list includes thought leaders, executives from leading brands, and talented writers with a passion for providing relevant content and strategies. Check it out and take note of these up-and-comers.

2. The Super Bowl was last weekend, and like most of the country we tuned in for the commercials. The NFL put together this stellar infographic  about how the Nation was “consumed” by Super Bowl Sunday. Did you know there was a 20% increase in anti-acids sales the next day? Not totally surprising, but a fun infographic!

3. The Attacat Brain is talking about being relevant- Do we Need to Add Search Queries? The post covers keywords and search queries and provides some great insights on broad match, negative keywords and more. Awesome post guys!

4. BlueGlass has created an infographic on the Rise of Content Marketing.  According to the Content Marketing Institute, Content is one of the fasted growing segments in Marketing. No surprise here, but did you know 90% of B2B marketers do some form on content marketing, whether they realize it or not? A cool infographic with tons of useful information and stats.

5. And lastly, Google is giving us an early Valentine’s Day gift in the form of algebra! Type this into the Google search form and be amazed:

sqrt(cos(x))*cos(300x)+sqrt(abs(x))-0.7)*(4-x*x)^0.01, sqrt(6-x^2), -sqrt(6-x^2) from -4.5 to 4.5

(Via Mashable)

Happy Friday! Have a fantastic weekend :)

Filed Under: Trada News

The Future of Paid Search – Google, Bing & Beyond

February 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The smart people at KISSmetrics put together this infographic on the future of paid search, and we couldn’t help from sharing. Though the infographic is from August, it offers valuable insight into the present and future of paid search. As Wordstream’s infographic pointed out, Google alone made $37.9 billion dollars in 2011, 96% of which came from advertising. It’s impossible to ignore the future of paid search, and it’s dangerous to discount it as a business.

Want to try Paid Search, but don’t know where to get started? Trada is hosting a webinar tomorrow with questions about how Trada works, and why YOU might need it. Sign up today- you could win a $100 gift card!

 

Filed Under: Paid Search

Marketing Tools: Optimizely

January 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Have you ever wanted to change something on your website because you have a hunch that it will perform better? But maybe you aren’t a developer, and you’re unsure if it will ACTUALLY improve your conversions or for whatever goal you’re aiming.

Optimizely to the rescue! Simple, fast, and powerful. Optimizely is a dramatically easier way for you to improve your website through A/B testing. Create an experiment in minutes with their easy-to-use visual interface with absolutely no coding or engineering required!

Why You Need It

1. Super Easy

Enter the URL, create versions of the page you’re testing, and test! It REALLY is that simple. You can choose the element you want to change, (font size, color, the message, etc) and see which version performs best!

2. YOU Can Do It!

“It’s awesome!” says our Marketing Manager, Anna Sawyer. And that’s because SHE can do it herself! With Optimizely, there’s no need for a developer or coder to change the page. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Marketing Tools

Top 10 Industries in AdWords Spending

January 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Google’s 2011 earnings were announced recently as “disappointing,” but they still made $37.9 billion in advertising revenues. Have you ever wondered which industries are contributing the most to that number? Our friends at Wordstream have put together a stellar infographic detailing who spent what in Google AdWords, as well as the top five biggest spenders in each industry. Check out the infographic below, and head over to Wordsteam’s blog to see Larry Kim’s analysis of the results.

Interested in more paid search news and tips? Subscribe to our blog!

Filed Under: Advertising

Click Fraud Week Wrap Up

January 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Click Fraud Week has come to end. Thanks for tuning in all week! If you missed yesterday’s webinar, fear not, we have it here!

Click Fraud: Protect Yourself from Internet Crime!

Check out our other presentations on Slide Share!

Filed Under: PPC Tips

Marketing Tools: Crowdbooster

January 5, 2012 By 2 Comments

With celebrity rappers to major brands using Crowdbooster, it’s hard to see why you wouldn’t use it too! Crowdbooster provides the world’s first intelligent social media dashboard designed to help businesses effectively grow and manage their presence online. Crowdbooster helps you achieve an effective presence on Twitter and Facebook. They show you analytics that aren’t based on abstract scores but numbers that are connected to your business and your social media strategies: impressions, total reach, engagement, and more. Crowdbooster then gives you the tools and recommendations you need to take action and improve each one of these metrics.

 

Why you need it

1. Cut Through the Clutter

You could be following thousands (maybe even millions) of people and brands on Twitter. That’s a lot of tweets to sift through! With Crowdbooster, you can easily see conversations to help you better engage with your core customers. See who is retweeting your content, who is mentioning you, and how many impressions your tweets are making.

2. Get Stats from Social Media

Sometimes it’s hard to track your efforts in social media. Crowdbooster shows which posts were working for you. It points out who retweeted you, and the impressions made by retweets. It also gives recommendations for when to tweet for the best results, giving you multiples times in the week when your tweets will reach the most and best customers. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Marketing Tools

Online Marketing Tools: Raven Tools

December 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

“Geeks helping geeks,” is their model, and boy is it true! Raven Internet Marketing Tools is an online platform that helps users quickly research, manage, monitor and report on SEO, social media and other Internet marketing campaigns. Its collaborative, multi-user features and fast, professional reports make it the software choice of thousands of online marketers worldwide. Based in Nashville, Raven Tools offers services to track your brand’s social media performance and reach, monitor rankings, build reports, and much more.

Why Does Your Brand Need Raven Tools?

1. Tracking takes time!

When companies engage in social media platforms, they have a variety of sites to choose through. Positioning your brand on social media sites is difficult enough, let alone tracking it! Raven Tools lets you download reports with trends from Google Analytics and metrics from social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube. Monitor your keywords as well. Not only is this huge for PPC needs, but it allows you to monitor keywords in many languages which caters to international businesses! [Read more...]

Filed Under: Marketing Tools, Social Media

Making Time for Social Media

November 17, 2011 By 1 Comment
Social media presence is very important for brands. In recent years, we have seen an explosion of engagement from brands on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. While years ago it may have been unclear of the impact of social media, today we are seeing these platforms used for opening the channel of communication between customers and brands, for sharing information and news about your brand, for building brand image, and for SEO use. But with so many social media channels (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Youtube, and countless others), how do you spend adequate time on all of them?

You Don’t! Pick and Choose
You must examine all of the social media platforms and focus on those which help your brand the best. Where are your followers most engaged? Which platform is growing the most and generating conversations about you and your brand? At a past employer, Facebook was huge for us for giveaways and sharing company information. The followers were highly engaged and encouraged participation from their friends as well. At Trada, Twitter is where much of the conversation happens, and it works for us.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Social Media