The fanfare surrounding Google+ died down a long time ago (aside from a brief resurgence while everyone threatened to leave Facebook following their redesign in September).  Google’s “Facebook killer” has so far been nothing more than another flop in the line of Google Buzz and Google Wave.  There are a number of reasons why G+ has not lived up to expectations, but one big change yesterday may be Google’s best chance at turning things around. (more…)

Google AdWords has yet another way to refine your search campaigns called “Audience Targeting”.  Audience Targeting allows advertisers to select Audiences from a list of vertical segments defined by Google.  Using this tool can help advertisers refine their Paid Search efforts to target people based on their interests as established through user profiles Google has compiled. (more…)

The goal of Google’s search engines has long since been to deliver a quality user experience, using a complex algorithm to deliver the most relevant search results to satisfy a user’s query.  It does this by crawling page content and identifying the most relevant and highest quality pages using keywords, title and header tags— to name a few.  This is, in essence, what drives quality SEO efforts, with page owners motivated to choose the best keywords for their page, putting those keywords into quality, useful and engaging content and avoiding keywords that may rank well but are irrelevant to the page. (more…)

Google Analytics is an excellent way to track and analyze on-site traffic.  However, the UI for Goggle Analytics is not mobile optimized, which presents challenges for those who need to see updates on their mobile device.  The Google Analytics Software Design Kit (SDK) and corresponding Application Programming Interface (API) rectify the issue by allowing developers to create their own Apps.  Thankfully, there are several well-built, fast and intuitive Apps available.  I will focus this blog on the App universe for Android powered devices.  While I am inclined to frugality (some might argue parsimony), this blog will present what, in my estimation, are the best available free and paid Android Apps. (more…)

A lot of debate in the interactive media sphere surrounds whether advertisers should bid on their branded terms.  At Rise Interactive, we believe the answer is an unequivocal “YES”. (more…)

On April 3^rd, 2010, Apple toppled the current world of tablets and released for sale their newest device: the iPad. In the nearly 18 months following, every other company from Blackberry (RIM) to Samsung has tried to get their share of the tablet pie. While it seems that no other product has been able to out-sell the iPad to date, there are questions from some on how this will change. (more…)

Among the various intellectual properties at Rise Interactive, PPCR stands out as a significant competitive advantage for paid search advertisers.  PPCR is an automated paid search reporting tool created by the product development team at Rise Interactive.  PPCR combines data from multiple search engines to give all users an aggregated perspective on their paid search advertising performance in one central location. (more…)

Based on the public reaction to Google’s launch of the +1 feature for paid search ads, players in the SEM industry can be categorized into two camps: the folks who are immediately dismissing it as the next Google Wave (i.e. a soon-to-fail attempt at competing against Facebook in the social media sphere) and the folks that are choosing to just wait and see.  For those not in the know, the +1 feature allows people with Google profiles to click on a +1 button to recommend either a paid or an organic search result.  That person’s recommendations are publicly shared with his or her contacts on Google. (more…)

As a rapidly growing agency, Rise has the opportunity to audit a plethora of Paid Search (PPC) programs, and we’ve developed a strategy for analyzing PPC marketing campaigns that includes what we believe are the primary areas to focus on.  When analyzing a PPC program, you should always consider campaign structure, budget allocation, text ad copy, landing pages, quality score, bid strategy and reporting.  All these areas are crucial in a PPC program and should be part of any PPC audit process.  More detailed audits can include other components but an analysis of these seven components will provide significant insight into an account’s  status and how to improve performance if necessary. (more…)

While the economy might be showing signs of life, companies are still looking for areas to remove inefficiencies and, in the end, to reduce the cost of digital marketing efforts.  Today, we’ll show you some specific areas to look for wasted funds to help you run the most profitable marketing program possible. (more…)