Archive for the ‘Search Engine Marketing’ Category
17 (of the) Best AdWords and SEM Guides of 2011
Wednesday, March 14th, 2012Paid search sometimes gets a bad rap, as various studies have shown that (depending on whose numbers you believe), anywhere from 75% to 85% of all clicks are on organic, rather than paid, links.
That high-level analysis is misleading, however. Consider just one category of searches: students conducting research projects. Whether its a junior high, high school or college student, researching anything from the paintings of Pablo Picasso to the writings of William Shakespeare to the mating habits of zebras, the odds of such of search resulting on a paid ad click are virtually zero. That’s just one entire category of searches that should, rightfully, be removed from any relevant analysis.
The fact is, paid search is a vital component of any web presence optimization strategy because it enables advertising companies to:
- • appear prominently in search results for terms that would be difficult to rank for organically (e.g. competitor names or highly competitive search phrases);
- • control the precise message (their ad) that searchers will see in the search results;
- • guarantee exp0sure on page 1 of search results when buyers are late in their purchasing process;
- • specify exactly what page searchers will be linked to; and
- • direct searchers to landing pages that may be very difficult to optimize organically (e.g., pages with a conversion form and limited content).
The best approach is to use organic SEO and paid search (e.g., Google AdWords) in conjunction to maximize first-page-of-the-search-results exposure. With that said, how can you maximize the impact of paid search ads? Increase the click-through rate on paid search ads? Understand Google AdWords quality scores? Optimize landing pages for conversions?
Discover the answers to these questions and many more here in 17 of the best AdWords and SEM guides of the past year.
AdWords Guides, Tips & Tactics
The New Paid Search Ads On The Block by MediaPost Search Insider
Janel Landis Laravie highlights changes Google had made to give paid search results more prominence, among them Local, Product, Video, Phone and Sitelinks, and states that “If you still are not using these, you are missing out.” She describes in detail how sitelinks are used and how advertisers can take advantage of these features.
How to Write a Killer AdWords Ad by Treating It a Mini Landing Page by Search Engine Journal
Observing that “text ads follow structure of good landing pages. First, there is a headline. Then there are two lines of text (the copy). Finally there is call to action (the URL),” Paras Chopra discusses the attributes of an effective PPC ad and how to create one by optimizing each element of the ad.
2 Little Known Ways To Increasing CTR And Quality Score by Certified Knowledge
Noting that “the biggest factor that influences (quality score) is CTR,” Chris Thunder shows how to use day-parting and geo-targeting to gradually increase CTRs and quality scores by granularly excluding low-click-through hours and geographic locations.
5 Tips for Increasing Your AdWords Quality Score by ClickZ
Frequent best-of honoree Ron Jones notes that Google uses three primary factors—CTR, ad relevance (“relevance of the keyword or search query to the ad”) and landing page relevance and reputation—to assign quality score, and walks through a 5-step process, from creating carefully targeted ad groups to reducing landing page loading time, to help improve quality scores.
How Does the AdWords Auction Work? [Infographic] by The WordStream Blog
Elisa Gabbert illustrates “how exactly the AdWords auction works, including what gets entered into each ‘auction,’ how Google determines which ads are shown where, (and) how Google determines what advertisers pay” for search ads in this handy and helpful infographic.
How to Schedule Dayparting on Google AdWords by Search Engine Watch
Writing that “all businesses have specific time periods in which they are more profitable than others,” Howie Jacobson steps through the process of how to determine the most and least productive hours for any AdWords campaign, and details the process for excluding certain blocks of time each day. He also adds a helpful reminder to take time zones into account when day parting.
AdWords and PPC Guides from PPC Hero
Nowhere else in this best-of series does a single source gets its own section in a summary, but the team at PPC Hero so consistently produces notable PPC-related content that they have earned this distinction.
AdWords Privacy Policy Updates, Just in Time!
Jessica Cates steps through Google’s changes to its privacy and transparency requirements from AdWords advertisers. Essentially, Google requires that advertisers make it clear to landing page visitors how their personal information will be used, how to opt out of communications with the business, and a secure connection if any financial information will be transmitted.
Ticker Tuesday: Are You Sure You’re Optimized For PPC Mobile?
Jessica Rooney provides a video guide to mobile PPC advertising, specifically “how to check to see that you’re set up for mobile PPC in a way that gives you the most benefit from your PPC campaigns.”
The Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords Quality Score
***** 5 STARS
This must-read-and-bookmark guide is designed to de-mystify the murky value that is the Google AdWords Quality Score, and to help PPC marketers “understand the different types of Google Quality Score, why they’re important, the misconceptions about Quality Score, and (provide) a checklist of actions you can take to help raise…Quality Score.”
Whaddya’know Wednesdays: 5 Tips to Improve Quality Score
For ADD-sufferers interested in this topic, Kayla Kurtz presents a highly-condensed version of the the guide above, focusing on a handful of quick tips to help improve your AdWords quality scores, in this less-than-two-minute video.
Keyword Match Types: The What and Why
Bryan Watson analyzes the six keyword match types (broad, phrase, exact, negative, embedded, and modified broad) and explains how to properly use each type, e.g., “if your marketing campaign is targeted towards customers in the beginning phase of the buying cycle, broad match may be good to utilize in order to target people who are looking for your service, but aren’t entirely sure what to search for.”
Expert Advice and Best Practices for AdWords Dummies
For anyone who’s not entirely clear on what all the unique phrases and acronyms used within the AdWords realm mean exactly, Faseeh Shams has compiled a list with extensive definitions for terms ranging from quality score and CTR to search query reports and negative keywords–along with tips for improvement in each area.
adCenter 101: Utilizing Campaign Analytics For Better Conversion Data
Explaining that “I’ve found that literature pertaining to (Microsoft adCenter’s paid search interface) is sparse, so I intend to contribute to the lack thereof,” Dave Rosborough supplies an overview of how adCenter works and steps through the setup process.
PPC Ad Copy Writing For Beginners
Bryan Watson (again) goes through the process of writing effective PPC ads, starting with using keywords in ad titles, moving along to utilizing action words in ad copy (“Call Today, Get a Quote, Sign Up, Etc.”), and proceeding through continuously testing all elements of the ads.
General Search Engine Marketing Guides and Tips
The Backward Landing Page by ClickZ
***** 5 STARS
Brian Massey demonstrates how to design the perfect landing page, starting from a blank slate rather than treating the landing page as another page on your site, with all of the attendant design and navigational baggage. Priceless: writing that the clearest, simplest landing page would contain nothing more than a “Submit” button, Brian notes “Unfortunately, this page will only be effective if you’re selling to a very curious crowd or are selling dominatrix services, where to ‘Submit’ makes sense. For other markets, we’ll have to make the call to action more relevant.”
The Bid Management Recipe by Search Engine Watch
Alistair Dent explains what you’ll need to set up a system to optimize keyword bids in your paid search campaigns, and helpfully defines relevant terms like cost per conversion (CPC): “CPC = Average Order Value x CoS x Conversion Rate.” This works fine for relatively small PPC programs, but advertisers running large campaigns with thousands of keywords turn to bid management software to automate this process.
5 Reasons PPC Search Beats PPC Social by ClickZ
Kevin Lee warns paid search marketers to avoid “shiny object syndrome” in placing PPC ads, noting that while “social media advertising shows a lot of potential for brand advertisers looking for ways to influence demand and build awareness,” search still has indisputable direct response benefits such as harvesting demand and providing clear success metrics.
Seven Expert Search Engine Marketing Guides
Friday, February 25th, 2011Done properly, search engine marketing (a.k.a. SEM, paid search, PPC) is a powerful complement to SEO and an effective tactic on its own. SEM enables enterprises to rank for specific search terms immediately (including terms for which it would difficult to rank organically), target traffic to specific landing pages, test everything (keywords, bid levels, ad copy, landing page design), and precisely quantify ROI based on sales or leads generated. Of course, done improperly, it can also be a tremendous waste of money.
How can you improve quality scores to get a higher ad position at a lower cost? How can test to increase conversion rates while reducing the cost per conversion? How can create dynamic landing pages, and are they worth the effort? Discover the answers to these questions and others here in seven noteworthy search engine marketing guides from the past year.
My Best Advice on Improving Your Google & Yahoo Quality Scores by PPC Hero
Three strategies for improving quality score, which results in high ad positions with low cost per click (CPC), such as creating small, tightly focused ad groups (“breaking down your campaigns and ad groups into smaller ad groups…allows you to write more relevant ads for a select number of keywords in your ad group. Google and Yahoo both say that by including your keywords in your ad title and descriptions will greatly help increase your quality scores”).
How to quadruple a conversion rate by Google Website Optimizer Blog
Trevor Claiborne shares lessons learned from the Voices.com search engine marketing campaign on optimizing conversion rates, among them: knowing your customers (“time and again, the greatest conversion rate increases I’ve seen have come from a better understanding of the customer”) and testing everything.
Paid Search Ad Copy: Five Things Newbies Don’t Know by ClickZ
Andrew Goodman discusses the importance of testing ad copy and important considerations to keep in mind when doing so, like measuring both click-through rate (CTR) and cost per acquisition (CPA) when evaluating ad copy, and running tests long enough to generate valid data for decision making.
Dynamic Landing Pages by PPC Hero
Amy Hoffman explains why dynamic landing pages are helpful (“The more specific a landing page is, the more likely it is that the visitor will convert”), how to create one using either dynamic keyword insertion or IP targeting, and best practices to follow when using dynamic pages.
How to Double Your Conversion Rate in the Next 5 Minutes by KISSmetrics
Cameron Chapman offers a half-dozen tips for increasing your conversion rate by making your sign-up form more friendly, such as by removing unnecessary fields, making as many fields as practical optional to complete, and explaining why you’re collecting the information requested.
Lessons Learned from 21 Case Studies in Conversion Rate Optimization by The Daily SEO Blog
Paras Chopra uses several case studies to illustrate the role of design, headlines, copy, and calls-to-action in landing page and conversion rate optimization.
6 Optimization Tips to Get Ready for the New Year by PPC Hero
A half-dozen tips for “PPC housekeeping” to get you account shaped up for the coming year, including reviewing your negative keywords, segmenting your analytics by device (to determine, for example, if you get enough traffic from mobile devices to make it worthwhile to set up separate mobile campaigns) and replacing under-performing ads with new copy.
Best Google AdWords Tips and Tactics of 2010
Friday, January 28th, 2011According to recent research from eConsultancy, “Paid search consumes the largest portion of online lead generation budgets, accounting for 28% of spending (in 2010), up from 22% in 2009.” In addition, more than half of companies that use paid search increased their budgets for it last year.
There’s no question that paid search delivers leads, and no question that AdWords is the big dog in the PPC world. Yet many marketers struggle to optimize this channel in the face of increasing competition, changes to Google results pages (e.g. Google Instant) and changes within AdWords itself. How can you use AdWords reports to fine-tune campaigns? How do the new keyword targeting options work? When should you use the AdWords Editor? How can you optimize campaigns using search funnels? Where do image ads fit in the mix? And most vexingly, how can you fix low Quality Scores?
Find the answers to those questions and more here in some of the best Google AdW0rds tips, tactics and techniques of the past year.
4 Ways to Leverage Adwords Search Query Reports by PPC Blog
Four ways to generate actionable data from Adwords Search Query Reports, such as finding new keywords from phrase variations and synonyms, and identifying negative keywords to add to campaigns.
Including Image Ads In Your Marketing Mix by PPC Hero
“Image ads (a.k.a. banner ads) are run on the content network, and they are a great way to add an additional variable to your ad testing, and reach your customers in a new way.” This post outlines several considerations to keep in mind when using image ads on Google’s content network, as well as step-by-step instructions for setting up image ads.
3 Rarely Used AdWords Settings You Should Be Aware Of by Daily SEO Tip
Eric Gesinski explains how to adjust keyword bids by time of day, set up a custom area within which to display ads for local campaigns, and rotate ads evenly for proper A/B testing.
New keyword targeting feature rolling out globally by Google Inside AdWords
Dan Friedman illustrates how the new modified broad match keyword targeting option works, complementing the original broad, phrase and exact match options in AdWords.
Google AdWords Quality Score Factors by PPC Blog
***** 5 Stars
An outstanding post detailing the factors that make up Google’s notorious Quality Score, the most important steps you can take to improve a low quality score, and which actions don’t really matter.
Uncovering Valuable Insights With Google’s Bid Simulator by MediaPost Online Media Daily
Comparing Google’s bid simulator to “a spreadsheet where marketers can test different scenarios to illustrate the real value between click and cost,” Jeff Licciardi explains how the bid simulator can be used to drill down to the revenue-per-click level and optimize bids to increase impressions, clicks and ROI.
5 Reasons Why We Love AdWords Editor by 1upDigital
The AdWords Editor, as Lucy White describes it, is “a free Google application that allows you to manage and update your Google AdWords campaigns offline, and then upload your changes to the online AdWords interface.” She details five reasons why this tool is helpful for managing large AdWords campaigns, among them the ability to find and replace, copy and paste, and make bulk changes (such as changing max cpc bids for a group of keywords).
Spotlight on AdWords Search Funnels – Part 1 by Google Conversion Room Blog
Noting that “The standard approach to conversion reporting traditionally focused on a customer’s last click on your ad. Search Funnels fills in the gaps on what happened before this last click!” Evelyn O’Keeffe steps through the benefits of and process of using AdWords Search Funnels to hone in on metrics such as assist clicks (clicks on one of your AdWords search ads that happened prior to a conversion) and assist impressions (unclicked ad impressions viewed prior to a conversion).
6 Steps To Raise Your Quality Score by PPC Hero
Amy Hoffman provides a helpful checklist of actions for improving quality score, such as using keywords in your ad copy and creating tightly themed ad groups.
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8 Ways to Optimize Your AdWords Campaign by Search Engine Journal
Larry Kim offers eight tips to improve the ROI from your AdWords campaigns, including using your prospects’ words, optimizing ad copy, and using long-tail keywords to get more conversions at a lower cost.
The New Google AdWords Feature You’re Not Using But Should Be by MediaPost Search Insider
Janet Driscoll Miller explains how the AdWords Call Metrics feature works, who can benefit from it, how to enable it, and how it “opens greater opportunity to effective, trackable mobile search advertising.”
Case Study: Improving Low Quality Score Accounts by PPC Hero
A practical, real-world case study that steps through four key areas for improving quality scores: tightly-focused ad groups, relevant landing pages, using keywords in ad copy, and taking advantage of all keyword match types.
SEM Mystery: The Case of the Missing Leads
Thursday, June 17th, 2010Originally published on the WebMarketCentral blog in December 2008.
It was 5:00 on a sultry, simmering Friday afternoon when she walked into the office. Trouble, spelled with a capital T, a capital R, and several other letters.
“Hello Sugar,” I said as I slipped a bottle out of the bottom drawer of my desk and poured myself a belt. “Care for a drink?”
“No thanks,” she responded as she wriggled herself down into a chair across the desk from me. “I’ve got to watch my figure.”
You and every poor slob on the street, I thought to myself.
“Mind if I don’t smoke?” she asked, pulling out a cigarette but not lighting it.
“Nah, don’t kill yourself,” I answered. This was Minnesota, the state where nothing is allowed. I was used to people not smoking in my office.
“I’ve got another job for you,” she purred.
I had figured as much. I’d done a job for Sugar a few months earlier. Government stuff, on AdWords. Went great. Door-busting CTRs, conversion rates as respectable as that lady always sitting in the front row at church, nice ROI.
“Sure,” I said, taking another sip of my drink. “Another government job?”
“No. Private sector this time.”
Well, that was fine. Government, enterprise, it was all business to me. Sugar explained the plan. Same product as before, only they’d made a few tweaks to optimize it for business use. Sweet new white paper to go along with it as well. No problem, I thought; knock out a keyword list, crank out a few ads, test a couple of different landing pages, keep an eye on things to weed out the bum search phrases and keep bids in line, piece of cake. I could do it in my sleep. Heck, a couple more drinks and I might have to.
“No sweat, Sugar,” I said. “Leave everything to me.”
Except things didn’t go quite as planned. Two months down the road, the AdWords campaign was in trouble. Trouble, spelled with a capital T, R, and those same other letters. Sure, the CTRs were decent, but the conversion rate was uglier than the business end of a sharpee. Nothing seemed to make the conversion budge either; I threw up new landing pages like condos in Shanghai, but lead production stayed stubbornly low.
Sugar wasn’t going to like this, and as the old saying goes, hell hath no fury like a woman with an underproducing SEM campaign. Or something like that.
So I downloaded a keyword report and went through it with a fine tooth comb. I tried running the numbers by campaign, by CTR, by landing page—everything seemed random. Finally I sorted all the keywords in the entire program alphabetically, and suddenly the columns lined up like a slot machine hitting the jackpot in Vegas. It seemed that everyone searching for a certain phrase, or variant of it, beginning with a letter of the alphabet that won’t be named here, was bailing out at a scandalous rate.
Why hadn’t we seen this sooner? Because we’d made a big mistake, thinking private sector yahoos would search for our offering using the same lingo as government schmucks. But it don’t work that way. Not in the city.
Once I’d cleaned out the unsuitable search terms, the campaign started humming like the V8 in my `66 Ford. I could breathe a sigh of relief, put my feet up on my desk, and pour myself another round.
She came strolling in again. “Hello Sugar.”
“Nice work,” she said. “But things were looking a little dicey there for a while. I thought you’d lost your touch. I didn’t think you had any more tricks up your sleeve. Thanks for proving me wrong.”
“No sweat, Sugar,” I tossed back. I know how to play good cop / bad cop with an AdWords report. I’ll talk nice to the analytical data set and buy it a few drinks, but if that don’t work, I’ll take it out back and knock it around until it gives up the answers. “It’s what I do.” That, and dodging bullets in the rough-and-tumble world of search engine marketing.
Best Search Engine Marketing Tips of 2009, Part 2
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010While more than 80% of companies now use paid search in some form (primarily AdWords), many of these programs are under-optimized and not delivering the results they could be. How can search marketers use techniques like testing and keyword match types to improve results? How important are branded terms in paid search? Does PPC advertising help with branding? How can you use demographic and geographic targeting to improve results? What are the best ways to reduce the bounce rate from landing pages? What’s a “conversion path” and how can you use that knowledge to increase conversion rates?
Get the answers to these questions and many others here in more of the best articles and blog posts on search engine marketing (SEM) from the past year.
10 tips for extending paid search growth by iMedia Connection
Noah Elkin walks through how to use testing, match types, ad text optimization and other tactics to improve search marketing success.
Better Targeting = Better Leads — Demographics for SMBs by Search Engine Watch
Carrie Hill explains how to use demographic targeting tools from AdWords, MSN AdCenter and Yahoo to increase conversion rates for b2c search marketing programs.
Back to the PPC Classroom | A Disciplined Approach To Managing A Client Relationship by PPC News & Opinion
For search marketing consultants and agencies, four basic phases and an example of what a monthly report should consist of to keep the client engaged throughout the relationship.
The Importance Of Branded Search Programs (Even in Tough Economic Times) by Search Engine Land
Sami Carroll shows why branded terms are important in both SEO and SEM efforts, along with tactics for maximizing results with a limited budget.
New Research: Paid Search Builds Branding by ClickZ
Kevin Lee reports on a study showing that search increases brand awareness by 6% or more, and points out that, because PPC search marketers pay only for the click, the lift in branding due to the sponsored link is free.
What’s The Real Value of Brand PPC? by Search Engine Journal
Brian Carter uses research and client studies to support the same conclusion reached by Kevin Lee in the post above, and also provides tactical options for maximizing the branding impact of search based on your objectives. Two other noteworthy posts from Brian are 5 Ways to Maximize PPC Impressions, in which he explains how to use bid levels, keyword match types and other tatics to maximize PPC exposure, and The PPC ROI Calculator: How To Forecast And Optimize Your PPC ROI wherein he shows how to maximize the productivity of search marketing programs using an ROI calculator.
Geo-Targeting Basics: A How-To Guide on Setting Up Geo-Targeting in Google, Yahoo and MSN by PPC Hero
A guide to options and techniques for limiting delivery of search marketing ads to a targeted geographic area for local SEM.
Study Confirms Display Ads, Paid Search Work in Concert by MediaPost Online Media Daily
Laurie Sullivan details results of an iProspect study quantifying how “display ads and search work together to provide a bigger impact on campaigns.”
X Marks the Spot! How to Get Listed In Google Local Map Ads by PPC Hero
***** 5 Stars
This post tells how to get a business listed on Google Maps, then goes on to explain the distinction between a map listing and local map ads: “that (map) listing doesn’t reach as many searchers and internet users as one might think. To broaden your advertising reach, Google created Local Business Ads. These ads are separate from your traditional campaign-level geo-targeting in AdWords.”
10 tactics for lowering your website’s bounce rate by iMedia Connection
Tom Shapiro explains how to analyze your bounce rate (percentage of people who hit the landing page from a PPC ad then leave your site immediately without taking any further action) and reduce it using keywords, timing, landing page design, navigation, offers, and other elements.
7 Steps to Improving Conversion Rates by Search Engine Guide
Stoney deGeyter provides a seven-step guide to using conversion paths to increase conversion rates.
How to Use Google Wonder Wheel and Related Search Tools for Keyword Research by PPC Hero
Why one of Google’s less-known tools, the Google Wonder Wheel, “is a very helpful and insightful tool for PPC keyword research” and tactics for using it.
