Friday Bookmarks | Design Ads to Meet Campaign Objectives, PPC Tools & Other Interesting Discoveries

In this issue of Friday Bookmarks, we're opening up the Congruent Media del.icio.us account to share some of the more interesting articles delivered by the  the online advertising industry last month, along with a collection of research & analysis tools to help facilitate better planning, management and measurement of online campaigns.

(For those unfamiliar, Friday Bookmarks is a series in which we share link worthy articles from around the web.)

So. Open your bookmarking service and pour a glass of O.J. ... here's your edition of Friday Bookmarks.

Marketers: "What kind of ad will be most effective in driving visitors towards the action I want them to take"?

We Bookmarked It:  Does Ad Size Matter? It Depends on What You Do With It

Compete.com encourages marketers to look beyond a single metric such as conversions when grasping the impact of campaigns, and focus instead on gauging how well the campaign meets larger business objectives. Are you after conversion? Attention? Support for an offline campaign? In this study, which examines the impact of ad size on impressions and  clicks,  marketers are encouraged to ask these questions when designing banner creative (or ad copy, or ad scheduling or any other facet of an online campaign, for that matter.)
 

Tapping the Minds of Searchers - Search Queries are Driven  By an Information Need, You Know

 We Bookmarked it: A Taxonomy of Web Search (pdf)

Now VP of Search Advertising at Yahoo!, Andrei Broder published this paper when he was with Alta Vista. In it he examines the difference between navigational, transactional, and informational searches, and discusses how global search engines evolve to meet specific needs. A befitting article to include given the recent entry of Bing's "discovery engine" on the Search scene.

For PPC Managers, an Arsenal of Tools

Microsoft’s search funnels tool allows you to research which searches took place before and after the search phrase you're examining. (See Taxonomy of Web Search above, for context to help understand how to apply this knowledge.)

Microsoft's Online Commercial Intent tool estimates if search queries or web pages have a high probability of being informational or commercial in nature.

Google's Ad Planner  shows what your ad will look like in various geographic locations.

http://www.ghostnegatives.com uses a predictive algorithm to discover words that you should include as negatives.  Helps to avoid incorporating  keywords which  trigger a high volume of impressions and low number of clicks.

Google’s Search Query Performance report is equally as useful in helping campaign managers narrow their campaign focus and hone PPC traffic ...  except for that with the SQP report, you're only able to see  search query got a click, and not those culprit search queries  that drug up your impressions and lowered your CTR.

http://www.ppchacking.com   is definitely deserving of some link love –  this guy's blog is chok full of only useful, actionable insights and information.

Insights for Search  Check it out.

Google Trends show where a particular search query is popular (and if there is any interesting news that is driving search queries).

#FollowFriday

For the tweeples out there ...

@HItWise_US  Internet usage and search data from Hitwise in the US and Canada

@chammock - Congruent Media's newest Interactive Strategist and Campaign Manager. (Please welcome her on twitter or in our comments section.)