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Synopsis: Google Ad Words are
a wonderful and cost effective way to advertise has great flexibility on the
part of the advertiser, he/she can make it running in minutes and can change ads
whenever feels doing it after tracking the response of the visitors and the
conversion rate. However testing keywords and ads to improve the conversion rate
is a never ending process and one has to be very selective and alert in choosing
the right keywords. You can be running an ad campaign at Google in minutes! Well
to make your ad word campaign successful and worth spending I present some keen
facts and suggestions to be considered while developing ad word advertisements.
Always be very specific: You should be very specific while choosing your
keywords in the ads because being general in advertisements will bring traffic
to your site but not many actual buyers in other words the conversion rate will
be very less or your return on investment will be less.
Use square brackets: Use square brackets [ ] around your keywords that you want
to target the most because by doing this your ads will be shown only when
searches are made that match your keywords or phrases bracketed exactly.
For
example : [search engine optimization], [SEO Masters]
Now in this case the ad will be displayed only if searches are
made of exact words "search engine optimization" or "seo pages"
and you will get only the desired traffic to your site.
Link to exact pages: Always link to correct pages for example if
you are advertising a particular product then link to the page
in particular that is selling that product and not to the site's
homepage. User will never like much browsing and will ultimately
leave for your competitor if isn't able to find the desired
information. So link to particular pages.
Offer immediate benefits: Offer the benefits that your product
will give the consumer because many times users are looking for
those benefits and will be induced to your site. For example
learn free, earn at home, become an expert, lose weight etc. Try
to include such benefits in the ads and see the results soar.
Make multiple ads: Always make two or more copies of ads as you
might not know what might click up, constantly monitor your ads
and see which one is gaining pace and remove or change the
lesser responsive ad. This is an ever going process to reach the
maximum potential customers and will go on and on.
Record the ROI: Record the return on investment of each ad to
keep your expenses in your pre decided budget and update or
change low ROT ads simultaneously. ROI is the base for which you
are planning ads and it should not be under looked. Google
offers the stats free for the ad words, hence you can use it and
calculate the ROI and act accordingly.
Use provoking words: Use provoking words that instantiate action
of the user like free, free shipping, special offer, limited
time offer, tips, tricks etc. These types of words actually
attract the users but make sure that the words are specific to
your business otherwise they can be removed by Google.
Include Price Quotes: A wise and proven selling technique is to
give a hot price and that's what works in ad words too. If you
are featuring a particular product on your site then you must
mention its price in your ad and I assure that you will get much
targeted customers to your site. This will benefit the other way
too that is some free finders will be kept away from your ad and
you can save another valuable click which in return meet your
budget limits. Your main target is potential customers and not
everybody and this way you can head towards your goal.
Avoid double meaning words: There are words and phrases that
mean completely different things depending on the target
audience you're trying to reach. These words should be avoided.
Be sure and examine your keyword list for any words that could
take on a different meaning than what makes sense for your
business. The best way to figure this out on your own is to
simply do searches at the major search engines for each of your
keywords, and see who else is in the result set with you. Then
end up finally selecting the keywords that fit your purpose and
relevance for the campaign.
Your goal to use Ad Words is to increase ROI, not to increase
your traffic. It's more valuable to you, as an advertiser to
receive only 10 new visitors in a month if they're all qualified
and likely buyers, than it is to pay for 1,000 visitors a month
that found you by mistake. You can achieve it by targeting at
the right audience and selective very specific keywords and
constant monitoring.
AdWords: The Basics
Many marketers had their first experience with paid placement on Overture's auction model (perhaps back when it was called GoTo). On Overture, a CPC bid (fixed or auto) determines the position for each keyword in a campaign (subject to the Click Index exclusion for poorly performing ads).
In AdWords, position is indirectly based on CPC. CPC plays a role, but so does CTR. AdWords measures CTR at the various positions, normalizes the CTR to adjust for the positions, then multiplies the CPC by the CTR to determine the efficiency of an ad in comparison to other ads running (taking into account the position an ad was in when clicked).
The formula determines the appropriate average ranking. That means an ad with a greater CTR can be displayed in a higher position than an ad with a greater CPC. Essentially, appropriate, targeted keywords and copy that are accurate and compelling to searchers (i.e., they click) are rewarded. Using keywords and brand names in titles and descriptions can help improve CTR.
Ad Groups: The Power of Separation
This blended CTR/CPC method to determine position/rank is the key to several AdWords best practices. The first best practice tip is to separate keywords into different ad groups by similar core words. Separating ad groups makes tracking easier. The process of generating large, diverse campaigns with many ad groups may seem like lots of work. It is, the first time.
The following benefits accrue as a result of separation, rather than using a generic ad for a large group of keywords:
Power Posting
Still prefer not to set up lots of ad groups? Power Posting is an alternative.
Power Posting is an AdWords account tool to better control a campaign. Power Posting lets you specify additional information for individual keywords or phrases within an ad group. An ad group with 18 very similar keywords (optimizing well-targeted, effective creative) may be best managed down to the keyword level. Each keyword within an ad group can have a landing page URL (for tracking purposes) and a different price.
Execute Multiple Creative
Leverage Google's ability to simultaneously run multiple creative executions. As Google rewards good creative by rotating good CTR ads higher, it makes sense to test ads for CTR. The easiest method is to run two creative executions simultaneously. Depending on the volume of impressions for your ad group, it may take a few hours or several days for Google to test the ads and rotate them into results. Google rewards the better ad with higher position, even during a short test. You can see the CTR for each ad in the View/Edit Campaigns area. With 40-50 clicks on either ad, the difference should be sufficient enough to determine which ad will deliver a higher volume of clicks and thus provide an advantage.
But be careful. If one ad is written in a compelling manner (well-targeted, based on the keyword or phrase) but doesn't accurately describe what a searcher will find post-click, you risk a drop in conversion, ergo reduced ROI. So, increased CTR could cause a reduction in post-click efficiency and a resulting ROI drop.
Keep creative accurate, appropriate to the landing page and what's on offer when a searcher arrives. You might have creative executions that work with broader words or ones that are effective with very specific phrases.
Dynamic Keyword Insertion
For an extremely large campaign (thousands of keywords) with significant spending, investigate "Dynamic Keyword Insertion." This technique automatically inserts keywords into the title or description, resulting in customized creative for each word. We use it for several clients. For others, we use automated means to create static versions of ads that accomplish the goal of targeted custom creative.
Landing Pages and Content Ads
Take time during campaign setup to create the best possible landing page matches between ads and pages on your site. If an ad gets very high click-through, developing a customized landing page may make sense. Similarly, high-volume campaigns should be combined with landing-page tests. Changing landing-page conversion is a huge driver of efficiency.
Make an informed decision regarding the content portion of Google's network. Though appropriate for some advertisers, the inventory does not convert well enough to justify prices paid for others. For example, an article describes how John Marshall of ClickTracks found content-driven traffic a poor fit for his business.
If you're not using a tool or service that identifies content traffic, you can build systems in-house to "tag" visitors arriving from content sources. To do so, examine the referrer. Look for "pagead.googlesyndication.com." You'll not only see the ad was a content ad but also find the site on which the ad ran. By separating clicks with the page ad referrer from regular Google clicks and examining their conversion behavior, you can make an informed decision about the AdWords's opt-in process.
Content ads may be great for you, or not. Chances are you're not getting huge click volume from those ads. But, as the percentage of clicks from content ads increases, making the right choices regarding the opt-in decision will be increasingly important.
I can't cover all AdWords best practices in one column, so I'll revisit the topic. Google's AdWords are a powerful addition to a marketing campaign. Make them more powerful still with knowledge of how best to use the system to your advantage.
10 Inside Secrets to Google Adwords - Part 1
Let’s face it... Google Adwords is not the only
source of traffic on the internet, nor is it free. However, if you cannot
convert the traffic you get from the pay-per-click traffic on Google Adwords,
your site surely won’t convert the casual visitor who may or may not be ready to
buy what you are selling.
When spending money for pay-per-click (PPC) traffic, whether it is from Google
Adwords, Overture, or a 2nd-tier PPC network, the key is to track your traffic
to see if it converts into sales. There are many software products and online
services that can track your traffic. For a recommendation, visit:
http://www.superiormarketingpartners.com/adtracking.html
Many people that have tried Google Adwords have lost their shirt, so to speak.
Some keywords on Google Adwords are cheap (keyword phrases start at a nickel per
click). Some keyword phrases on Google Adwords can cost tens of dollars per
click. If you end up paying high per-click prices on Google Adwords and don’t
sell a high-ticket item on your site, even the most enviable sales conversion
rate won’t turn a profit.
There are several tricks to advertising on Google Adwords that unless you know
them, it becomes almost impossible to turn a profit on your advertising.
Secret #1 - Only bid on exact match keywords
Google Adwords has a few different ‘keyword matching options’ available. When a
keyword is placed in brackets like this:
[keyword], it is called an ‘exact match.’ This means that only when someone
enters that EXACT keyword phrase will your ad appear. It might occur to you that
by limiting your keyword(s) to only exact match, you are eliminating all those
people that may be searching for the phrase "cheap widgets" or even "widget"
singular, since only the keyword "widgets" plural is an exact match. Believe me,
this is exactly what you want. Sure, it will take extra time to create an
adgroup within the Google Adwords system for each keyword phrase you want to bid
on, but you will know with 100% certainty which keyword(s) are converting into
sales this way. If you do NOT use the exact match option in Google Adwords, then
there is absolutely no way to know which keyword(s) are resulting in sales on
your site.
Secret #2 - Bid to be in position #2 or 3
When someone searches on Google for your keyword, the first page of search
results are going to reach the most people. What you want to do is position your
ad in one of the top 3 spots. You don’t want position #1 necessarily, because
that position costs the most and doesn’t give you much more benefit than being
in position 2 or 3. You pay less for these spots than position 1 and gain most
of the benefit.
By being in one of these top spots, your ad gets a higher ‘click-thru rate’ (CTR).
This is good is because the Google Adwords system actually rewards you for
having an ad with a high CTR by charging you less per click! Google Adwords
exists to make money for Google. If they have two companies advertising for the
same keyword, and your ad pulls a 10% CTR and your competitor’s ad for the same
keyword pulls a 5% CTR, then Google Adwords makes more money from your ad.
Google Adwords rewards you for this higher CTR by charging you less per click
than your competitor!
Secret #3 - Negatively qualify your ads
Admittedly, the problem with having an ad that has a great CTR is that it gets a
lot of clicks! Unless your traffic converts into sales, it’s hard to turn a
profit on your Google Adwords ads. The key is to put words in the ad that
DISCOURAGE people from clicking on the ad unless they ‘pre-qualified’ to convert
to a sale. For example, if you have site that sells widgets that cost $10.00
each, then put something in one of the lines of text in your ad like ‘Widgets
cost only $10.00.’ The only catch is that if your ad isn’t getting a very good
CTR in the first place, then a negative qualifier is only going to reduce your
CTR.
Your next step? There are many more techniques to learn that will increase the
profitability of Google Adwords campaigns. The above tricks will start you off
towards making Google Adwords work for you. Check back for Part 2 in this
series. You can get a complete course that covers every tip and trick you will
ever need by visiting:
Some
Comments:
Saturday, December 24, 2005
For exact match, position 1.2 - means that you are in position 1, four times out
of five. 1.8 means that you are in position 1, once in five (and position 2,
four in five). 2.3 means that you are in position 2, um, 7 out of 10 times (too
late - Christmas lunch and drinks have taken their toll on my maths!)
However... it can be a lot more complex than that, if you are using broad match.
With Broad match you could be top of some searches and bottom of others... So
1.8 might represent 100 impressions at position 1, and 8 at position (umm -
drink inspired maths failure coming up) 11? (should sum to 188/108 ~= 1.8 or
so).
The maths only really works accurately for broad match. And when you aren't in a
transitional zone between low volume and high volume searches (there's usually
at least two regimes on Google, and the switch periods are even more complex
than the normal high or low impression rate periods).
Overture? Volume is not the same on the two networks. Depends on the country,
depends on the keyword. We've found that the disparity can be pretty much 1:1
(parity) to 3:1 (Google to Yahoo!Search Marketing).
However... it also depends on how broad, broad is. Google gets very creative
with stretching broad matched keywords to fit user intention. It tries the
advert against things it thinks may fit and if the CTR is right, it'll keep
testing further.
By default Google will preferentially show the advert with the highest Click
Through Rate. Google will learn the CTR over time, so if you start with three
new adverts, they'll get roughly equal exposure for the first few hundred
impressions. If you turn off "Optimise Serving my adverts" in Campaign Settings,
then you continue to get equal serving for all three.
The behaviour is the same on Search, Content and Site targeting. By default, the
best advert wins out (where "best" means "highest CTR").
When you have multiple ads running on the same keywords within an Ad Group, your
ads are rotated. You have a couple of options: you can either choose to have
your ads automatically optimized, or to have them rotate evenly, regardless of
performance. If you choose to have your ads automatically optimized, the ad with
the higher clickthrough rates will show more often.
Now, if you would prefer to have specific ads run on specific keywords, you'll
want to create multiple Ad Groups. This way you have control over which ad
displays for specific keywords.
Here's a link you can refer to:
*Multiple Ads Within an Ad Group
https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=6128
I´m pretty new to this service and am just testing the keywords to see what
works and what doesn´t.
My site is aimed for inhabitants in a small country and in the own language.
When I made my first ad campaign the minimum CPC was 3 or 4 cents for most
words, but maximum 10 cents.
Now, 2 days later, the minimum CPC is 30-40 cents on most words. I even tried to
write something like "akjfslfjsflsjf44343ljgfsldfj" which makes no sense, but
still, minimum CPC is more than 30 cents.
Does anyone have idea for the cause of this?
You cannot find out how much others are bidding for keywords.
The CPC estimator will tell you if your bid is below the minimum to be
displayed. That, and your historical results are what you have to go on.
You just have to throw stuff out there and see what sticks.
This seems to make a lot of people uncomfortable, but it's the nature of the
beast. You need to get comfortable with working with statistics, not abosolutes,
and you need to learn to work over a timeframe.
I've been buying Adwords for about 2 months now, and I've finally gotten quite
comfortable with it. Just hang in there, and limit your spending until you see
proven results. But to allocate a budget for experimentation.
bravenet.com