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Rick Backus

Member since January 2015Contact Rick

Rick Backus is CEO of CPC Strategy, a leading eCommerce and Retail Search Intent company. Rick has spent his entire professional life in the world of online retail, initially with pioneering price comparison site PriceGrabber.com, before co-founding CPC Strategy in 2007. He has since grown CPC Strategy into an elite industry leader, partnering with more than 220 retailers. Today, Rick is primarily focused on growth opportunities and keeping CPC Strategy ahead of its competitors by constantly evolving and improving the online experiences of clients so they thrive on bottom-of-the-funnel retail search channels.

Articles by Rick All articles by Rick

  • Timeliness & Automation For Cyber Monday Holiday Prep in Search & Performance Insider on 11/25/2015

    If retailers want to stay ahead of their competitors they will need to advance their marketing strategy to cater to the needs of holiday shoppers. I've compiled a list of four ways every marketer should be using search and digital tools to gain the attention of hungry holiday shoppers.

  • 5 Reasons Dynamic Search Ads Are Primed To Replace Keywords in Search & Performance Insider on 09/21/2015

    Earlier this year, Google upgraded its dynamic-search ads (DSA) program, making it significantly easier for retailers to improve their campaign efficiency, spending and scalability. Finally, advertisers have the ability to build out their campaigns without having to slave over keyword research. If you're a retailer with a content-rich website and your goal is to drive-high quality traffic to your most relevant pages at a cheaper cost, DSAs are the way to go. Since the update, we're seen solid results using DSAs as the primary campaign type, replacing keyword targeting.

  • The Search Agency Mandate: Differentiate Or Die! in Search & Performance Insider on 07/21/2015

    Search agencies: Do you offer a free consultation? Maybe even a free AdWords audit that normally costs $5,000? Do you have a vertical specific case study? Client success stories? Award-winning agency culture? Does your executive team have over 35 years of combined search experience? Sorry, it's 2015. Your free consultations, audits, case studies, client success stories, company culture & executive experience are no longer enough to truly differentiate your agency. Are those aspects of your agency helpful in closing new business? Absolutely. Are they true differentiators to help you stand out from the sea of other search agencies? Absolutely not.

  • Is Your Jaded Outlook On Mobile Destroying Your Search Campaigns? in Search & Performance Insider on 06/24/2015

    It's still shocking how poor some mobile sites are. Even some legitimate retailers doing north of $10 million in annual revenue seems as if they're in mobile denial. In 2013, Google tried to force AdWords advertisers to step up their mobile game with enhanced CPCs. Advertisers in mobile denial reacted by dramatically lowering the mobile CPCs because "our customers don't use their phones to shop." In 2014, Google began using mobile-friendly labels on its search engine results pages to help users identify mobile-optimized sites before clicking through. Mobile deniers claimed that since the label didn't influence their organic rankings, this didn't actually matter. In 2015, Google rolled out its mobile friendly algorithm update (MOBILEGEDDON!!!) to reward Web properties with mobile-optimized sites.

  • Can Google Close The Trust Gap With Amazon? in Search & Performance Insider on 05/28/2015

    With rumors of a Google Retail Marketplace heating up, there has been much speculation about Google's ability to accurately vet retailers' customer service and shipping practices.

  • Will Facebook Anthology Disrupt Video Advertising? in Search & Performance Insider on 04/29/2015

    Video advertising still kinda sucks. The persistent video advertising model typically forces viewers to suffer through 15-30 seconds of excruciating pain while waiting to view the content they actually want to watch. Anthology is Facebook's attempt at improving the video advertising experience by increasing both the quality and relevance of video ads.

  • Why Did Facebook Purchase TheFind? in Search & Performance Insider on 04/01/2015

    With its mid-March acquisition of the personalized commerce search application TheFind, Facebook showed it's getting serious about connecting people to products as much as to each other. TheFind melded search data to location-based purchase data to better hone product suggestions, so it's telling that Facebook acquired TheFind and immediate shuttered it, absorbing its technology and much of its talent.

  • Is A Google 'Buy Now' Button Inevitable? in Search & Performance Insider on 02/23/2015

    It's been two months since the Wall Street Journal reported that Google has been considering a "Buy Now" button on Google Shopping. The rumored feature would transition Google from a custom search engine to a marketplace, more directly challenging Amazon's "one-click" ordering feature and dramatically changing the customer experience on Google Shopping. The "Buy Now" button sounds great in theory -- but here are four major challenges that may delay or completely derail this new feature.

  • Retail Search Intent For 2015 And Beyond in Search & Performance Insider on 01/21/2015

    The term "retail search intent" is new, but the concept behind it -- consumers conducting online searches who have a distinct plan to buy something during their browsing session, as opposed to virtual window shopping -- is not. Tapping into this core search behavior is the key to selling successfully, both online and offline, but until recently has been a challenge for retailers.

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