I recently received a very serious-looking letter from Bank of America, with "Important Information Inside" emblazed on the envelope. Upon opening it, I learned that I had been pre-approved* for a home loan at an interest rate as low as 2.9%, though the fine print related to the asterisks basically explained that I wasn't pre-approved for anything at all, other than the right to receive bulk mail from Bank of America. What does this have to do with search engine marketing, you ask? Imagine if Bank of America followed the same marketing strategy on AdWords -- a deceptive call to …

A recent study by CPC Strategy detailing the momentum of Google's Product Listing Ad (PLA) program further reinforced what most marketers already know: Google PLAs are having a dramatic impact on the paid search industry. Higher click-through and conversion rates on PLAs have proven that a picture is worth more than a few lines of text. As a result, online retailers are rapidly growing their PLA budgets. While most marketers are focused on creating killer merchant feeds, it is important to realize that having a great merchant feed is only half the battle when it comes to PLAs. A truly …

A few weeks ago, I introduced you to my Underwood No. 5. Today, I'd like to tell you a little bit about the company that created the iconic No. 5. The story may be over a hundred years old, but that doesn't mean that the businesses of today can't learn from it.

Sometimes I'm stupid. Let me tell you about one of those times. A few years ago I was invited to a conference on advertising at a major university. The attendees were a fairly illustrious group of advertising professionals, including several senior executives from major agencies. The organizer of the conference asked me to come up with a "dinner topic." She explained that she wanted to generate a lively discussion at the various tables as we dug in and broke bread. It was okay if it was a "little" controversial. I must have ignored the qualifier, because my suggestion was, "Is …

Capping off arguably its biggest move since the launch of AdWords, Google now plans to migrate all of its advertisers to Google Enhanced Campaigns on July 22. There's obviously been a lot written and said (and even feared) about the potential impacts of this move, but let me provide somewhat of a pragmatist's take on the pending debut of Enhanced Campaigns: Brace yourselves for headaches, but there are some cool features coming, too.

Google's Matt Cutts is warning advertisers not to try passing off "native ads" -- or advertorials -- as legit content. Apparently, the line between advertising and content continues to get blurrier. The reason is that advertisers are still trying to find an ad that works -- which they've been doing for over 300 years.

I had the privilege of virtually sitting down with Eli Goodman, media evangelist at Comscore -- with more than a decade's worth of digital research know-how -- to discuss current trends.

Search marketers remain a busy bunch of people. Whether it's dealing with Enhanced Campaigns, new APIs, PLAs, new opportunities to reach users or just the constant honing and optimizing campaigns -- there always seems to be more on our plates than we can handle given the constraints of a 24-hour day. But in spite of the continued evolutionary changes to the search industry and the no-time-for-rest attitude of search marketers, things are really pretty darn stable. In preparing for this column, I scoured blogs, newsletters and twitter feeds for something juicy to talk about. What controversy can I discuss? What …

I collect typewriters. I don't know why -- I just do. As I write this on a Bluetooth keyboard connected to an Apple Macbook, where the words I type appear on a screen through some magic of integrated circuitry and electrochemistry, I can't help but cast envious glances at the 1923 Underwood No 5. Typewriter that sits on my credenza.

Some have compared writing paid search copy to the ancient art of haiku. It can be tough to assemble a coherent message, much less pop off the page, in 95 characters. But, if you think that's hard, try doing it with rhymes!