Archive for the ‘Search Engine Marketing’ Category
Best AdWords Tips and Tactics of 2009, Part 1
Sunday, January 10th, 2010How can you utilize rich media ads to take advantage of the coverage provided by Google’s content network? Which AdWords reports are the most critical, and how you can take full advantage of the information they provide? How is AdWords Quality Score calculated, and how can you improve that score in your campaigns? How can you calculate the potential advertising value of AdWords before making a costly investment?
Find the answers to these questions and others here in more of the best articles and blog posts on maximizing the value of Google AdWords from the past year.
Setting up PPC Campaigns 101, Part 1 by Search Engine Watch
The prolific and always helpful Ron Jones steps through the basics of setting up a search marketing campaign, from sorting keywords into ad groups to identifying negative keywords to use.
Rich Media and Video templates in display ad builder by Inside AdWords
Emel Mutlu steps through the benefits of and process for creating rich media AdWords ads for display across Google’s content network. This includes the capability to use multiple destination URLs, track all activity including mouseovers, and exercise greater creativity in producing ads. Another Inside AdWords post worth checking out is AdWords Editor 7.5.1 for Windows and Mac by Austin Rachlin, which outlines the process for importing CSV files for editing in the AdWords Editor.
Is The Hype Over Google AdWords Quality Score Justified? by Search Engine Land
Craig Danuloff clearly explains why the AdWords quality score is important, how it affects cost per click for SEM campaigns, and the factors that go into Google’s calculation of quality score. Another noteworthy post from Search Engine Land is The 6/90 Rule: 6 Reports Contain 90% Of Actionable AdWords Insights, in which Brad Geddes details how half a dozen reports—including the AdWords keyword, search query and placement performance reports—provide critical, actionable information, how to use them, and how often to run them.
AdWords Management : How ROI, Costs, and Services Measure Up for Your Business by Pure Visibility
Steve Loszewski explains how to use the AdWords Traffic Estimator tool to calculate the potential value of AdWords for your business, and gives tips for maximizing that value. The only statement I take exception to in this excellent post is that “For small companies unaccustomed to budgeting much at all for advertising, the costs can be impractical.” Actually, by combining the geo-targeted features of AdWords with careful keyword selection and close monitoring, AdWords can be a cost-effective advertising tool even for very modest sized enterprises.
Learn How to Import Your Google Analytics Goals into AdWords Conversion Tracking by PPC Hero
As this post notes, until recently Google AdWords and Analytics were two entirely separate entities. But recent upgrades enable at least partial data sharing between the two systems, and this post provides instructions for importing Analytics goals and transactions into AdWords for unified conversion reporting—a “pretty nice” feature, as the author notes. Another noteworthy post from the PPC Hero blog is 5 Tips on Passing the Google Adwords Qualified Professional Exam, in which Amber provides tips to help “pass the exam with flying colors,” such as reviewing the materials in the AdWords learning center, ad text policies and how to calculate ROI for e-commerce campaigns.
Top 11 Money-Wasting AdWords Mistakes by Alibaba.com
The ubiquitous Jon Rognerud lists 11 common mistakes made by small companies and those new to AdWords, such as duplicating search ads on Google’s content network (the ads need to be different due to the different context in which they are seen), using too many keywords, sending visitors to your home page, and not properly testing ads.
5 Common AdWords Myths Absolutely Destroyed by Search Engine Journal
Brian Carter demolishes five common misconceptions about AdWords, explaining the real story in detail. Among the myths: “AdWords is an auction”—well, sort of, but quality score, which is influenced by the click-through rate, is as big a factor as your bid, and “Google is out to get me”—a common feeling, but as Brian responds to this: “Sure, in some ways. But not so much that you can’t get incredibly good ROI from AdWords for the right offering, if you know what you’re doing” (or are willing to hire professional help from the outside).
Search Ad Quality Score 101, Part 2 by Search Engine Watch
Ron Jones explains how to increase your quality score in AdWords, which gets you a higher ad position at a lower cost. Among his recommendations: small (15-20 term), tightly-focused ad groups; including keywords in landing page copy; and experimenting with different matching options. Another interesting AdWords-related post worth checking out from the team at Search Engine Watch is Get More Attention with Legal PPC Ad Symbols. David Szetela recommends experimenting with using symbols in your ads to increase CTRs, though commenters call him out on the practice.
PPC Web Spy For Competitive Keywords Analysis by WordPress Howto Spotter
Alex Sysoef reviews and recommends PPC Web Spy, a free keyword research tool for AdWords and organic search optimization. The post is a little spammy (as is the PPC Web Spy landing page), but the tool sounds interesting. For any keyword, the tool displays statistics like the average cost per click and number of clicks per day. If you have any experience with this tool, feel free to share it in the comments.
Do more with less — Part 2 of 3 by Inside AdWords
Amanda Kelly explains how the free AdWords Conversion Optimizer tool can improve the productivity of AdWords campaigns: “The Conversion Optimizer helps you get the most conversions for your ad spend by using your conversion tracking data to improve your advertising efficiency. It does this by optimizing the placement of your ads in each auction based on the likelihood of a conversion. This process helps to avoid unprofitable clicks and to get you conversions without requiring you to spend as much time managing your bids.”
Everything You Need To Know About AdWords Display URLs by Search Engine Land
Brad Geddes recommends testing the display URL portion of your AdWords ads as thoroughly as you would any other elements, and offers several examples that fall within Google’s requirements.
How Does AdWords Determine a Keyword’s Quality Score Before It’s Even Activated? Find Out! by PPC Hero
This post explains how Google determines a quality score for your keywords as soon as your campaign is launched, by using the experience of other advertisers who have used that keyword as a base. How can you use this information? As the author notes, “If you load a series of new keywords and they all have a low Quality Score, then you may want to re-think these additions. This is because other advertisers have not had success with these keywords. On the other side of the coin, if the Quality Score for a keyword is 9 or 10, this means that previous and current advertisers are having success with this keyword, and competition could be more fierce. You may want to give this keywords special attention and place them into their own ad groups.”
Three Tips for Optimizing SEM Programs
Friday, December 18th, 2009
This post was originally published on the WebMarketCentral blog in February 2009.
If you’re relatively new to search engine marketing programs such as Google AdWords, these tips can help you get better results for less money. For those experienced in SEM, these tips may still serve as helpful reminders.
1. Bid on your own company name. Even though your website should already show up in a top organic search spot for your firm’s name (unless your company name is really generic), using it in your paid search campaign provides benefits: showing up in both the paid and organic search listings boosts your brand credibility, helps your site additional clicks, and enables you to deliver specific offer messages. It also lets you guide visitors to specific landing pages other than your home page. The cost of paid clicks for your company name is usually low, and the conversion rate—assuming a well-designed landing page—is generally very high.
2. Periodically check and clean your keyword lists. Your keyword lists should be dynamic, with an objective of continually improving the ROI of your campaigns. Periodically go to Reports…Create Report and run a Placement / Keyword Performance report. Under Add or Remove Columns, be sure to include the Conversions, Conversion Rate and Cost/Conversion fields. Under Filter Your Results, select Keyword Status of Active so you’ll only get results for the keywords currently in use in your campaigns.
Once the report is complete, you may want to export it to Excel to make the data easier to work with. Sort the data in a couple of different ways, first using “Sort by Impressions Descending Then by Clicks Descending,” then “Sort by Clicks Descending Then by Conversions Descending.” These two sorts will indicate which keywords to drop and which to expand on.
To determine which terms to drop, set a threshold rule that you are comfortable with for each sort. An example would be 200/100: delete any term that has had 200 impressions with zero clicks, or 100 clicks with zero conversions.
After deleting unproductive terms, look at your most profitable terms to see if you can expand on these. For example, suppose top marketing books was a high-performing phrase for your SEM campaign. Within AdWords, go the ad group where you are using that term and click Keyword Tool. Type in “top marketing books,” then click the Get Keyword Ideas button. The tool will return a large list of related keywords, along with average volume and advertiser competition information, from which you can choose to add to your campaign.
3. Use SEM terms for SEO. Your SEM keyword reports contain a wealth of data about the keywords being used to drive relevant traffic to your site: which terms are searched most often, which produce the highest percentage of clicks, and which convert most effectively. Just as this information helps you optimize your SEM spending, it also indicates what terms you should focus on in your natural search efforts. SEM keyword reports are particularly valuable for identifying long-tail terms that are relatively easy to optimize for yet can produce a respectable amount of traffic.
Best of 2008: Search Engine Marketing
Saturday, December 12th, 2009Originally published on WebMarketCentral between August 2008 and January 2009.
Everything But Google: Alternative Search Marketing Options: SES San Jose by Search Engine Journal
Blogging a session on alternative search marketing outlets at the SES conference, Darrell Long provides bite-sized updates on pay-per-post (boo!), Superpages, Facebook, Quigo (interesting), ContextWeb, LookSmart, ASK (lower CPA than Google? hmm…) and MSN.
Why Google keywords cost more but deliver less by iMedia Connection
Dave McCarthy explains how Google uses its quality score to reward (or punish) advertisers, how to improve your quality score, and what types of landing page offers to avoid. All of which explains the interest in Darrell’s post above.
Killer PPC Ads: The Fundamentals by Search Engine Watch
An outstanding post from David Szetela that walks you step-by-step through the process of turning a boring, unproductive search ad into a “killer ad” that stands out and performs. Among his tips: speak directly to your audience, sell benefits not features, and use a clear call to action.
10 tips for scrutinizing paid search agencies by iMedia Connection
Noah Elkin offers thoughtful advice to organizations looking for search marketing help. Among his recommendations: think about your goals and budget first, so your needs are clear; think about the size of agency you’ll be most comfortable working with (“Do you want to be a big fish in a small pond, or a small fish in a big pond?”); and finding an agency that has experience solving your specific type of challenge is sometimes more important than finding one with similar industry experience.
Six benchmarks for the perfect search campaign by DMNews
Howard Sewell lists his ideal criteria for measuring the success of SEM campaigns. Of course, any search marketing program should do more than just generate clicks—without some measure of ROI, it’s too easy to spend money unproductively. Still, even Sewell admits that his list is an ideal that few if any programs fully meet. For example, “generates a cost per acquisition (CPA)…competitive with other advertising vehicles” is an extremely reasonable goal for almost any advertiser, while few organizations really have backend systems in place sophisticated enough to measure ROI on an individual keyword basis.
Optimize PPC Campaigns by SEM Scoop
A short but useful (particularly for SEM newbies) post on how to maximize results from paid search campaigns. Basically, 1) use keyword tools to help develop a solid list of PPC search phrases, which will be pruned over time; 2) test keywords, ads, landing pages—everything; and 3) understand and utilize broad, exact, phrase and negative matches.
The 5 Biggest Mistakes in PPC Testing by Search Engine Journal
The biggest mistake advertisers can make in an SEM campaign is not testing. Without full conversion tracking in place, there’s no way to measure ROI—and without testing, there’s no way to maximize return. Brian Carter notes both of those points and explains three other common PPC testing mistakes.
7 Tips to Save Money on Pay-Per-Click Campaign by Saad Kamal
Great advice on how to set up an AdWords program that produces positive ROI, though written more for newbies than seasoned pros. Among the recommendations here: understand keyword match types and use wisely, bid in odd amounts, and avoid the content network—at least until you have the search side performing effectively.
5 Keyword Strategies for B2B PPC Campaigns by High Rankings Advisor
Andy Komack offers five valuable, practical tips for improving web marketing results, such as “Users Do Not Search for ‘Solutions’” (so true!) and “Apply Your PPC Intelligence to SEO.” This is a relatively quick but highly worthwhile read.
Cookies, Milk & Kramer: Converting Visitors Into Buyers @ SES by aimClear Blog
Charlene Jaszewski, self-described “Internet Consultant and Word Wrangler Extraordinaire,” provides an excellent and detailed summary of presentations by Mike Moran, author of Do It Wrong Quickly
Challenges of Paid Search Marketing in 2008 by PPC Blog
PPC guru Gordon Choi outlines the challenges that pay-per-click advertisers will face as this space becomes more competitive, and provides strategies for addressing these challenges, including how to structure and retain PPC staff, monitor click fraud and write more effective ads.
Using PPC for Conquesting Your Competitor’s Brand Keywords by Search Marketing Sage
As Tad Miller explains, “‘Conquesting,’ as used in the Advertising Industry, is a means to deploy an advertisement for one’s products or services adjacent to editorial content relating to the competitor or the competitors’ products. In the online world it usually means bidding on your competitor’s ‘brand’ keywords on a Pay Per Click Advertising platform.” As a PPC tactic, it tends to have a high cost but also a high value per conversion. His post outlines five challenges of keyword conquesting along with six solutions to those challenges.
2 Major Reasons Why You Should Run a Search Query Report Today! by PPC Hero
This post shows how to use the Google AdWords Search Query Performance Report to generate new keyword ideas as well as to identify negative keywords for exclusion from your campaigns.
Marketing lessons learned form pay-per-click analytics by John W Ellis
How PPC analytics take the guesswork out of marketing, providing precise, quantitative feedback on elements like ad messages, geo-targeting and keyword selection.
Essential metrics in paid-keyword campaigns by DMNews
Olivier Silvestre provides guidance on optimizing landing pages, ad copy and keywords through the proper use of actionable SEM metrics.
Campaign Maintenance – Removing dead keywords by CDF Networks
A very brief post that doesn’t say a whole lot but provides an important reminder: while it’s important to experiment with new keywords to try to maximize campaign results, it’s also critical to periodically prune unproductive keywords in order to maintain high quality scores.
The Great (And Completely Ridiculous) ‘In-house vs. Outsourced SEM’ Debate by MediaPost Search Insider
Dave Pasternack hammers home the value of using an outside specialist firm for search marketing by looking at the possible reasons some executives might still believe their in-house teams can do this just as well. There is no explanation, however, for the incredibly wrongheaded statement about SEO in the last paragraph; typo?
Yahoo Smart Start – A Handy Guide For Yahoo Advertisers by Google Analytics Blog
PPC specialist Katherine Anderson recommends the downloadable Yahoo Smart Start manual as both a valuable guide for beginners and reference for experienced search marketers, saying “the book reaches out well to its target audience and addresses common concerns of new and experienced advertisers in an easy and understandable way.”
Google Analytics Keyword Sleuth vs Search Query Performance Report by Google Analytics Blog
Mark Curtis offers up a detailed comparison of these two helpful PPC keyword research tools. Both are free, but one is considerably faster and more thorough.
SEO and SEM Shortcuts, Spying and Stats to Dominate Google! by SiteProNews
Writer Michael Small supplies some now-slightly-out-of-date but still useful statistics on usage of the leading search engines as well as advice on tools to help improve both SEO and search marketing results.
The AdWords Content Network – Better Than Ever by PPC Discussions
Reflecting the experience of many search marketers, blogger Jeremy Mayes gives 10 reasons why the Google content network no longer sucks for advertisers. Thanks to improved quality of sites in the network, along with other factors, the content network can now provide reasonably good lead generation performance often for considerably less than the cost of search-driven conversions.
Whats the best keyword match type? by CDF Networks
Broad match, exact match, phrase match, negative match…ever wonder when to use which? This brief yet helpful post provides some answers.
Four Tricks to Gain An Unfair Advantage on AdWords by Search Marketing Standard
“Unfair advantage” may be stretching the case a bit, but author Andrey Milyan nevertheless presents four tactics that enhance your SEM results with Google AdWords.
With A/B Testing – You Don’t Think, You Know by Find Resolution
In this articulate and well-researched post, Jeff Campbell lays out a 10-step program for scientifically performing split tests to optimize campaign copy.
Why YOU fail with Google Adwords by SiteProNews
Leighton James ticks off ten common mistakes to avoid in PPC campaigns, from including too many poorly targeted keywords and failing to optimize landing pages to improperly using phrase matching options and modifying bids for the content network.
Avoid Scope Creep Money Pit SEM Jobs by aimClear Search Marketing Blog
In kind of an inside-baseball piece for search marketing agencies, Marty Weintraub shares his firm’s goals and scope document, which is designed to set clear expectations, avoid expensive scope creep and, in the end, make projects fair for both agencies and their clients.
PPC Automation: Robots vs Humans by StraightUpSearch
This post makes the case for using a real live PPC manager instead of PPC automation software. In practice, both are probably needed. Particularly for large, complex campaigns, automation software can improve efficiency and reduce total costs. But the software itself is just a tool; for best results, it needs to used in the hands of an expert search marketing professional who can use it to streamline tedious tasks while applying human judgment in areas such as optimizing ad copy and aligning SEM programs with overall marketing goals.
Pay Per Click Advertising Tip #11 – Conversion Tracking by semvironment
Okay, it’s kind of basic, but conversion tracking is essential to determining and optimizing ROI from search marketing programs. This post walks readers through the conversion tracking process on AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter.
Website Visitors Read Your Copy, Right? by Search Marketing Standard
Uh, no. Kevin Gold offers a couple of examples demonstrating that ad clickers don’t read landing page copy in detail. In other words, they respond to what they think the offer is rather than what it actually is. As with all other elements of search marketing campaigns, the key is to test, test, test landing page copy to not simply maximize leads but also disqualify resource-consuming non-prospects.
PPC ads should always lead your online sales efforts by DMNews
Writer Tim Schaden makes a compelling case that PPC efforts should precede and guide SEO efforts. Because PPC produces almost immediate results—while SEO changes need weeks to take effect—it’s the ideal testing ground for the productivity of various search phrases for a particular offering. Armed with analysis from PPC testing, SEO efforts can be focused on optimizing for the most valuable terms for a specific company, product or service.
