Posts Tagged ‘Google AdWords’

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Use Google AdWords Opportunities To Broaden Your Campaign Reach

August 13th, 2009

Google Rubber Duckies

In the (relatively) new Google AdWords interface, there is a new tab called Opportunities, in here Google will periodically offer you campaign optimization tips.

The best idea is to go and review these suggestions on a monthly basis as these tips are constantly changing based on consumer search behavior and patterns.

Keyword Opportunities

On the left side, you can select a campaign the same as you would in the Campaigns tab. When you select a campaign it will show you a list of ad groups with suggestions. Click on each ad group and you will see a list of search terms that Google suggests you add to the ad group. You should always review before accepting because they will suggest many keywords that may be to generalized for your campaigns success.

By doing this monthly, you will keep growing your campaign target audience based on Google’s historical data and metrics.

Image Credit: Yodel Anecdotal

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Go For Break-Even In Google AdWords & Raise Your Budget

August 12th, 2009

Google Daily Budget

When you are first starting out with your Google AdWords campaigns you will tend to be concerned about your ROI. A good trick to help progress your campaigns performance in terms of ROI, is to aim for your break even point.

Break Even

First you will need to figure out what that point is, once you have the magic number — whether it is $25 per sale or 20% of the total sale amount — you will need to set up your campaigns budget to get a decent amount of traffic. As your campaign starts collecting data, keep optimizing and tweaking it until you reach the break even point.

Shot In The Arm

Once you come close, you should raise the daily budget as much as you can. This will do two things simultaneously: first, it will bring you more traffic which you can optimize better and second, it will help bring up your click through rate and conversion rate. This works by simple logic. If your conversion rate is 1.5% and you only have 100 visitors, you may miss out on the 1.5 sales you would have got. If you have 1,000 visitors, you have a better chance of finding the 1.5% of visitors that will convert into customers.

Image Courtesy: Danard Vincente

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How To Boost Traffic & ROI With Your Daily Budget

August 11th, 2009

Google AdWords Daily Budget

The daily budget in Google AdWords is kind of confusing for some advertisers. If you set your budget to $50, you will notice some days it will spend $48 some days it will spend $59.32.

Even though it is called the daily budget, the way Google actually calculates it is slightly different. They will take your daily budget and multiply it by the number of days in the month to get a monthly budget. This is the magic number that your campaign will not spend more than. I believe anything over this number Google will actually refund you. (Can anyone confirm this?)

Budgeting

It is important to look at the daily budget and see if you are hitting your daily budget on most days. If you are, chances are you can get more traffic for your campaign if you raise you budget. As long as your ROI is ok, you will want to raise your daily budget where you will not be losing out on traffic.

In addition to bringing more traffic, you will probably see an increase in overall ROI. When you have more traffic you have a better chance of turning conversions.

Image Courtesy: Darren Hester

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Use Search Query Performance Report To Reduce Extra Spend

August 5th, 2009

Although broad match keywords should be only be used sparingly, there are many instances where you will find the need to use them. In such cases it is a good idea to look at what terms Google matches your ads to and what terms are getting clicked on.

Search Query Performance Report

In the new Google AdWords interface this is relatively simple. When you are in the keyword tab select a few broad match keywords or select all, and click the ‘See Search Terms…” button and select show all. This will pop open a new window with a list of the terms that trigger your ad. From this list you can check of specific keywords and select exclude. You have the ability to exclude terms on the campaign level or ad group level. These keywords will be added as negatives to you campaign or ad group depending on what you selected.

search-query-data

Bottom Line

Best practice is to run this every two weeks or so, especially if you are constantly making changes to your campaigns. You will find that you are shaving off significant chunks of your spend which you can reallocate to better performing keywords.

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Use Google Checkout To Boost Click Through Rates In AdWords & Base

August 3rd, 2009

If you use Google Checkout in conjunction with Google AdWords and Google Product Base (Product Search), you have the ability to connect the accounts in the settings section. When you connect the account Google places a Google Checkout logo on your ad in AdWords. In Google Product Search they show the Google Checkout logo next to your listing and they give the consumer the ability to filter search results by merchants that accept Google Checkout.

AdWords

AdWords-Google-Checkout-Badge.jpg

Google Checkout Badge: AdWords

Checkout

Google Checkout Badge: Product Search (Base)

Google Checkout Badge: Product Search (Base)

Bottom Line

Even if only 1% of your customers use Google Checkout, the boost it gives to your click through rate on these marketing channels makes it worth spending time on the integration.

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Measure Your Campaign Performance With Impression Share Report

July 29th, 2009
Impression Share Report

Impression Share Report

Are you getting the most out of your keywords? Of the 100 people a day who search for Blueberry Pie, how many see your ad? There is an easy way to find out.

Under the reports section in Google AdWords, when you run a Campaign Performance report, it gives you the ability to select additional columns to add to the report. One of those columns is Impression Share (IS) Percentage Report. Just check of the option and run the report, you will now see a column showing what percent market share you are reaching. Additional columns are Lost IS (Rank), Lost IS (Budget) and Exact Match IS. More info on these columns can be found here.

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Using Google AdWords Accelerated Ad Delivery Will Boost Clicks

July 29th, 2009

Accelerate

When you set a campaign’s daily budget to $100 with the default settings, Google will automatically calculate how many times your ad can be displayed for that budget. It will then proceed to display your ad throughout the day based on that number of clicks. In order to ensure that your ad will be displayed at all hours they will not show your ad every time someone does a search but will pick and choose when to show your ad throughout the day.

Get More Clicks

If you’re willing to raise your budget to get more clicks, the best thing to do is change the Ad Delivery option under settings to Accelerated Ad Delivery. Your ad will now show every time someone does a search for your desired terms. One thing to keep in mind is that with this option you can go through your budget before breakfast, so make sure to set your budget appropriately. I found that my campaigns were getting 30-40% more clicks with Accelerated Ad Delivery.

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Is The Google AdWords Content Network Right For You?

July 29th, 2009

Content Network

Google’s Content Network is huge. In minutes you can get thousands of impressions and clicks. Does it work? Here is an easy way to measure your ROI.

If you already have a campaign running for Brand A or Category A, change the targeting option under Settings to be Search only. This will only show your ad to Google’s search network which includes searches done on google.com as well as Google’s search partners (i.e. CableVision or other ISPs). Now create an exact copy of your previous campaign and check off the opposite settings, choose only the Content Network. When the campaign is only tageting the Content Network you will be able to effectively monitor the performance from just this channel.

Keep in mind that as a general rule the Content Network does not perform too well for eCommerce websites. I’ve had better results from display ads in the content network, but your best bet is to test text ads as well.

Image Courtesy: PROFITAPOLIS

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Google AdWords Bid Simulator Has Launched

July 29th, 2009

Google has been testing a “Bid Simulator” in AdWords for a short while now. It seems to have gove live (for me anyway). Check out the screen shot below. The AdWords Bid Simulator help you calculate how many clicks you will get at what cost based on your bid and historical data.

Google AdWords Bid Simulator

Google AdWords Bid Simulator

UPDATE: It’s official.

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Advertise Your Brick & Mortar Business With AdWords Ad Extensions

July 28th, 2009
Google Local Ads -- Enter Address Or Link Local Business Center Account

Google Local Ads -- Enter Address Or Link Local Business Center Account

What Is This?

In the new Google AdWords interface, you will notice that the option to add a new Local Ad is no longer a available. Instead, Google has released a new feature called Local Ad Extensions. This gives you the ability to show a PlusBox in your ad that pops out with your business address and location on a map.

What To Do

You can either enter the business address by each campaign or you can connect your campaign to your Google Local Business Center account and it will automatically pull in your business info. With this new feature you can select from preset icons or upload your own. This icon will be shown next to your business address on your ad.

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