Multi-Channel Funnels (MCF) can provide a lot of valuable data about the entire multi-touch conversion process. But the most common question I’ve heard from people in this industry is – okay, but what do I do with this? Today I’m going to step through using MCF for opportunity analysis both in Paid Search and Organic [...]
Articles by Michael Wiegand
Michael has spent the better part of the last decade nerding out on various marketing disciplines: direct mail, design, search, social and – more recently – analytics.
Ad Comparison Tool
A few weeks back, I wrote a guest post on PPC Hero about the Profit per Impression (PPI) metric. In the post, I talk about calculating PPI manually using an Excel Spreadsheet. To that end, I created a free spreadsheet to do just that: the Ad Comparison Tool! How does the Ad Comparison Tool work? [...]
QR Codes: A Social Experiment at SMX
A few weeks ago at SMX, I wanted to try something. I was too busy to order business cards in the weeks leading up to the conference. And in lieu of taking generic company cards to the show, I figured I’d make a QR code for folks to scan. QR Code Destination At a conference [...]
Studying for the Google Analytics IQ Exam
I cannot lie – The prospect of taking the Google Analytics Certification Test intimidated me. I know my way around Google Analytics well. I counsel clients. But Google has this way of concocting test questions that are just odd enough to make you question your answers. Would there be lots of questions on the code [...]
Advanced Segment Tutorial #1 – Keyword Groups
I’m Michael Wiegand, resident Analytics nerd at Portent. Let’s be honest: With a slew of new Google Analytics features being launched every 6-12 months, it can make your head spin just keeping up, let alone finding a practical application for them. In this monthly series, I’ll tackle making sense of one of the more powerful [...]
Shout-Out: Hanapin Marketing’s $16,000 SEM Sweepstakes
Our good friends over at Hanapin Marketing – you know, the folks who run the PPC Hero blog – are running a pretty amazing SEM Sweepstakes right now. They have some great prizes available, including: (3) Paid Subscriptions to SEOMoz (1) 3-Month Subscription to ClickEquations (a neat bid management tool that we use at Portent) [...]
New Predictive PPC Tool: Paid Search Return Estimations
The Paid Search Problem Let’s be honest. All too often, starting or optimizing a paid search campaign is a guessing game. You make obvious changes to your keyword list, rewrite some ads, and setup a new landing page – but for the most part, it’s like a Jackson Pollock painting. You throw a bunch of [...]
3 New Google Analytics Custom Reports a PPC Marketer Should Be Using
If there’s one amazing thing about Google Analytics, it’s that Google’s ability to improve it is never dormant. At their Mountain View compound, they’re always looking for a way to constantly better their products. Here at Portent, we have a similar resolve – except that ours is to exploit Google’s tools to achieve our internet [...]
The AdWords Quality Score Hammer Has Fallen, Now What?
Google AdWords is a mystical beast sometimes, capable of dumbfounding and goring the best of us. My cost-per-click cohort, Elizabeth, kindly tipped us off to Google’s most recent Quality Score update – and it appears the latest changes are starting to affect the paid search landscape in a big way. For some, scores have dropped [...]
Hedging Your PPC Bets: Geo-Targeting for Revenue
PPC, at times, can feel a bit like going to Vegas and pumping nickels into the slot machines. Except imagine the nickels are dollars, or sometimes several dollars. Ouch! Pretty soon you’ve squandered your dinner money, and the forgiving 7-7-7 has eluded your grasp all night. Fortunately, there’s a way to hedge your bets in [...]
