Jon Clark is a Internet Marketing Consultant specializing in Pay Per Click Marketing (PPC), Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM). This search marketing blog serves as a backdrop for educational search marketing conversation as well as a resource for cutting edge (and free) Internet Marketing tools to make all of our lives as search marketers easier!
There are all sorts of Firefox plugins available for Internet marketers. If you're a search marketer specifically, this PPC Management toolbar should be a included in your 'Firefox must have add-ins'. Note* As the name implies, this tool is more for the PPC manager not the client due to the requirements (which you'll see below).
So, why is this toolbar a must have?
Here's a quick run-down of everything this tool offers:
Keywords Estimate Tool
Keyword Suggestion Tool
Site Keywords Tool
Account Statistics Tool
Double Click this toolbar for your stats to update - it may take 60 seconds to update depending on the size of your account. The data you see will be for today only.
Right click to see the tool menu and drill down into your account level statistics.
Tip: Your statistics might take 60 seconds or more to load depending on the size of your account. If you still do not see data, you may need to restart FF and test your credentials again.
How to Install the PPC Management Firefox Addon?
Upon download, Firefox should automatically recognize the extension and install it.
If you get any errors:
Right click the logo, click ’save link as…’, after saving you can scan it with any Anti-Virus program, then open Firefox. In FF, click file -> Open File -> Find the file and open it -> Install
If any of you have utilized your Google analytics account to track PPC programs outside of Google Adwords you have no doubt run into a tracking issue or two. Here is a quick run-down of how to get your URLs tagged appropriately in order to track accurately:
Data from Google AdWords is automatically included in your Analytics reports (assuming you have AdWords and Analytics linked). For your 3rd party PPC campaigns, the “how” is pretty simple. First, go to Google’s URL Builder tool, and enter the destination URL from your ad texts (i.e. landing page). From here you can enter the five parameters that will become your URL tag.
utm_source: This is the name of the search engine or the source of traffic (i.e. Yahoo, MSN, email newsletter, blue banner ad).
utm_medium: This is how you tell Analytics what type of traffic your source is (i.e. cpc, email, banner).
utm_term: This is where you detail keywords! This can be manually entered or dynamically generated with Yahoo’s {OVKEY} or MSN’s {QueryString} parameters.
utm_content: Consider this the ad variation or ad group. You choose how detailed you want to get. Typically, I designate this as the ad group for my PPC campaigns.
utm_campaign: If the name isn’t obvious enough – this is where you designate the name of your campaigns!
Once the tool gives you the fully tagged URL, all you need to do is copy and paste that URL into your ad texts. Google Analytics will do the rest of the work for you and begin giving you keyword level data for all of your PPC campaigns!
Have any additional tips? Please feel free to add in the comments!
Let’s face it: you can write the most amazing ads and your landing page can be wonderful and marvelous, but if your ad isn’t getting noticed, then the rest doesn’t matter. A sure-fire way to gain more attention is by increasing your ad position. Here are some quick fixes to get you ranked higher:
Raise your bids! Again, that may seem rudimentary, but let’s just get that out of the way. You need to keep your CPC and ROI in mind. Don’t raise your bids beyond your comfort level, but could a slightly higher ad position increase your clicks, and conversions? It might pay off!
AdWords has a very handy tool to help regulate your ad position: Position Preference. This tool does exactly what it’s name says; you can choose your preferred position. This is helpful when determining your “sweet spot”: the ad position where you get the right amount of clicks and conversions.
There was an interesting post in the Microsoft adCenter blog recently regarding the varying tactics needed to run successful paid search campaigns in differing search engines. After reading through the article I quickly realized something! I've been approaching adCenter all wrong! Here is what I read when it hit me:
Some advertisers optimize their pay per click campaigns for other engines and then export them with little change to adCenter. This may save time, but it doesn’t always optimize for the distinctly different character of Microsoft’s traffic. In other words, you may be leaving a pile of money on the table.
Lets face it! Google and Yahoo capture 85-90% of all search traffic while MSN gathers up the remaining 10-15%. In like manner, I had been dividing my campaign's ad spend in like manner - 85-90% between Google and Yahoo and throwing 10-15% at adCenter.
Where the problem lies in this is that despite the varying differences in traffic percentages, there is always room for improvement. Not to mention that in a few cases, adCenter carries with it a significantly higher conversion rate. This blog post in particular focused on bidding strategies in relation to the long tail of keywords which is typical for an Adwords or YSM paid search campaign. To counter-act the lower traffic level in MSN's adCenter, concentrate on a select few keywords that are closer to the head.
Here are a few additional reasons to NOT copy and past your Adwords campaign to other paid search vendors:
Character Limits: This directly applies to Yahoo!, where your headline is allowed 40 characters. AdWords and adCenter only allow 25. You should do your best to maximize the space given to you in Yahoo!. Just think of the extra keywords you can fit in that space!
Keyword Bids: Beyond merely making bid decisions based on the long tail of keywords, you should make those decisions based on the search engine you’re working in. The bid you have set in AdWords is based on Google’s traffic and competitive landscape. Those factors are altogether different when dealing with Microsoft and Yahoo!. All three of these search engines offer their own unique bid forecasting tools for a reason. In a perfectly optimized world, a single keyword will have a different bid in each account.
DKI, Keyword Insertion, Dynamic Text: Each of the search engines takes a slightly different approach to DKI. While Google and Yahoo!’s systems are nearly identical, there are vast differences when Microsoft is thrown into the mix. In adCenter, you can dynamically insert the keyword, but also have the ability to set multiple parameters per keyword which can be inserted into your ad texts automatically. Taking the time to learn the ins and outs of these tools is important and can directly benefit your CTR!
Match Types and Negative Keywords: When you copy and paste your campaigns from one search engine to another, you will likely erase your negative keyword lists. And your match types will be eradicated when copying into Yahoo! (no exact, phrase or broad matching!). Negative keywords and match types are such a vital part of the PPC arsenal and should not be forgotten. Take the time to research the right negative keywords and match types for each search engine and implement them accordingly.
There have recently been an increased number of phishing attempts targeted at Google Adwords advertisers. I received an e-mail from Google regarding the issue and thought I would pass along the tips to those folks who may have not received it or may have overlooked it.
There are reports of phishing attempts that falsely appear to be from adwords-noreply@google.com. These fraudulent emails ask users to update their billing information, take action on a disapproved ad, edit their account, or accept new AdWords terms and conditions. Please remember that Google's AdWords team will never send an unsolicited message asking for your password or other sensitive information by email or through a link.
Here are a few additional tips on how to avoid phishing attempts:
- Don't reply to or click on links in emails that ask for personal, financial, or account information. - Check the message headers. The From: address and the Return-path should reference the same source. - Instead of clicking the links in emails, go to the websites directly by typing the web address into your browser, cut and paste or use bookmarks. - If on a secure page, look for "https" at the begging of the URL and the padlock icon in the browser. - Keep your computer's antivirus, spyware, browser, and security patches up to date and regularly run system scans. - Review your accounts regularly and check for unauthorized activity. - Use a browser that has a phishing filter (Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Opera).
This is an ongoing argument in the industry and even in the agency I work for. My take on the subject? If you're spending money on pay per click marketing, you must buy your brand name! Ignore those who say otherwise.
Make damned sure you're bidding on the name, mispellings, and the like.
Even if you rank #1 for your own name. Do it anyway.
Here's why:
It's cheap. PPC engines' quality scoring algorithms mean you're likely to get the best deal on your own company and product names. That translates to lower bids.
It's insurance. If you slip from the organic rankings for a day or two, your paid ranking will maintain your presence.
Chances are, someone else has your name, too. You're probably not the only 'Acme Co.' on earth.
If you don't bid, competitors will. In the United States it's perfectly legal to bid on competitor product and company names. It happens all the time. You can easily outbid them, though, thanks quality scoring (see #1)
Did I mention it's cheap?
Why Bother You Ask?
How much money do you invest in trademarking your name, incorporating your business, etc.? Buying your own brand name on Google Adwords, Yahoo! and Live is a tiny expense by comparison. Why not do it?
I have run pay per click accounts for numerous clients (who shall remain nameless) who tried to persuade us to stop bidding on their brand name in their pay per click campaign. Despite efforts to dissuade them they did it anyway, claiming they'd get the same results from their organic rankings. Within a week their lead count fell by 40%. Turned out other, unrelated companies had the same name as them, and they weren't #1 in the organic rankings for their own name.
You don't have to believe me, though. Read what George Michie said on the RKG blog.
The AdWords quality score is an ongoing mystery to both inexperienced advertisers as well as pay per click 'experts'. As with most things Google, it is shrowded in mystery - although more and more of the 100's of factors are being brought to the forefront. Regardless, there is a need for what IS known to be documented in one place for all to access. Behold the FAQs on Google Adwords Quality Score!
Luckily for us, Jeremy Mayes over at PPC Discussions has put together a very comprehensive list of questions. All of his answers are backed up with personal experience and/or references straight from the horse's mouth - ie. Google.
Here is a quick run-down of the questions covered. It is a great read!
Question 1 - How can I improve my quality score? *answers are applicable to search network quality scores
Question 2 - How many quality scores are there?
Question 3 - Will changing to a different keyword match type, for example from broad match to exact match, give me a better quality score?
Question 4 - I have been told (and read lots of places) that when I first start a new AdWords campaign I should bid really high so my ad is higher on the page. That will give me a higher click through rate and that means I will have a better quality score. Is that good advice?
Question 5 - Having Flash on your landing page is bad for your quality score right?
Question 6 - I get a lot of clicks from the Google Search Network. Does that help improve my quality score?
Question 8 - Does turning off the content network help improve my quality score? My CTR is always a lot lower on the content network so I assume turning it off will help my quality score improve.
Question 9 - How can I find out what my quality score is?
Question 10 - I am the only person bidding on a certain keyword but my minimum bid is higher than I think it should be. If I'm the only one bidding how come my minimum bid isn't $0.01? My quality score is "OK".
Question 11 - I just a made a lot of changes to my AdWords campaigns and to my landing pages to try and improve my quality score. How soon should I expect to see quality score changes in my account?
Question 12 - I just added a bunch of new keywords to my account and almost 1/2 of them received a poor quality score and minimum bid of $5.00 right away before I ever received a single impression. How the hell can Google say I have a poor quality score before my ad even gets a chance to run?
Question 13 - It seems like no matter what I do or try my quality score is always poor. Are there certain types of sites that just don't work well with AdWords? Question 14 - Is there a site or something I can sign up to find out in advance about quality score updates before they happen?
This FAQ will be updated from time to time so be sure to bookmark. If you have any questions related to the AdWords quality score feel free to contact me or leave your question in the comments.
Ok, I'll say it. "I love Google Adwords." Let's be honest. They have a better interface that is more user friendly. They offer more tools that display better results whether it be for initial research or campaign management. Adwords easily drives more traffic than Yahoo and MSN. Most importantly, Google Adwords provides better geo-targeting options than any other pay per click vendor out there. All of that is, of course, my own personal opinion. So you're running an AdWords campaign for your business, but you only want to target specific locations. How can you do that? Easy. You just go into your campaign settings and set the location to the area you want to target. But what options do you have? Simon Heseltine over at Search Engine Guide has put together a number of ways you can utilize geo-targeting and Google Adwords to benefit your business.
Google recently updated their interface to catch up with Yahoo Search Marketing's panama release in December 2006. This new release nicely integrates maps into the existing targeting system. In fact, the new features not only help them catch up with Yahoo!, they've moved them way ahead of Yahoo!.
So how granular is the targeting on Adwords?
Continent level? Country bundling is a new feature, and allows you to quickly select a group of geographically similar countries, which you can add to and subtract from as needed.
Country level? Most companies will go with the default of US, but consider your audience. If your products are targeted towards armed forces personnel you may want to add countries like Germany, Afghanistan and Iraq.
State level? Even apart from state-wide business possibilities there are interesting options here. Consider a politician aiming to influence people in certain states during the primary season.
Metro level? In the old system you had no idea whether metro level encompassed a specific suburb. Now with the map you can see for certain. (Note: The zoom capability gives you much more visibility than that in Yahoo!.)
City level? You can add as many cities as you want from to the list, not necessarily contiguous.
Radius around a point? Just don't try to go down to a 3 mile delivery radius for your pizza place.
Custom shape? - In case you wanted to target those 'inside the beltway' politicians.
So what else is new? You can now exclude areas within your target. So say you want to target the entire US except for Tennessee, you just select the entire US, then select Tennessee as an exception. Here's an example with bits of New Jersey taken out of the Philly Metro area.
Of course, you still have all of the existing issues with geotargeting, in that the ads will be shown to users based on where their IP address resolves to, which may or may not be where they're physically located, or based on the content of their search (if someone is in Peoria searching for Atlanta Restaurants, then it makes sense to show an ad for a restaurant that geotargets to Atlanta). However, these features do make the process of setting up geotargeting for your campaigns much easier.
Hey Yahoo!, Google's made the move; it's your turn to try to jump over them in this game of leapfrog.
In the past, we've often mentioned Google Analytics as a great tool that helps you learn more about how visitors reach your website and what they do once they get there. But now's a good time to take a step back and talk about how to get started with Google Analytics from the very first step. The Google Analytics Blog is providing a series of "Analytics 101" articles that will walk you through sign up, installation, and using reports.
What is Google Analytics?
Google Analytics is a free, hosted web analytics service that provides useful data for website and marketing optimization. Site owners and marketers can make better informed decisions about their sites and campaigns by using metrics from Google Analytics reports. Google Analytics works by collecting information about your site traffic and advertising campaigns, combining this with e-commerce and conversion information to provide insight into the performance of your marketing efforts and site content.
Anyone can sign up using a Google account by visiting http://www.google.com/analytics/. You don't even need to have an AdWords account beforehand.
How do I sign up and install Google Analytics?
After signing up for a Google Analytics account comes the most important part of installation -- the tracking code snippet. Every Analytics user is given a unique piece of JavaScript code to insert in all site pages immediately before the </body> tag. The code snippet may look like something like this example below:
Your "UA-#####-#" number will be unique to you. It's important to insert the code on all of your site's pages; otherwise Analytics won't be giving you the whole picture of what's going on.
If you're not ready to insert the code now, you can always retrieve this code later. Depending on the size of your site and the number of pages you need tagged, you may want to discuss installation with your webmaster, if you have one.
How do I view my reports?
After you've finished signup, you'll be taken to the Analytics Settings page. The Status box on the right side of this page will let you know whether the code has been properly inserted. It's important to note, however, that it takes anywhere from a few hours to a full day after code installation for your reports to start gathering and showing information.
Once the Status box in the Analytics Settings page says that you're receiving data, you can click the View Reports link to receive reports about your website traffic.
That's it for this first installment of Google Analytics 101. Try playing around with a few reports. If you want to learn more right away, the Analytics Help Center is a great resource for information. Look for the next installment soon, when we'll explain more about administering your account and using your reports.
Google announced the launch of the AdWords Local Plus box. When you conduct some local searches, the sponsored listings may contain a plus sign, which you can click and expand into a map. There have been reports of this 'coming soon' but it is nowofficially live. Here are a couple screen captures:
Here is a picture of the AdWords plus sign closed:
Here is a picture of the AdWords plus sign open:
Advertisers will not be charged for clicking on the plus sign, they will only be charged for clicks on the link that takes the searcher to the advertiser's destination.
How do you get your ads to show up like this? If you are already a local business advertiser with Google, then you won't have to do anything. The only requirement is that the ad be in the top yellow ad position, ads on the right side of the page, will not contain the plus sign.
