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Archive for the ‘google adwords’ Category
Tuesday, June 9th, 2009
There’s a problem that I see often. Companies are looking for fast results, and are unwilling to see a strategy through to its conclusion. I see this in AdWords, when companies want to test new ads weekly, and want to turn off low performing keywords before there’s enough data to really get a picture of what’s happening. I also see this in split testing, when the desire to ‘call’ a result outweighs the rigor required for statistical validity.
I noticed yesterday that Google’s free split testing tool, Website Optimizer, suggests that each page variation have at least 100 conversions before a split test can be considered valid. So for an A-B-C test, you would need 300 conversions before declaring a winner. Even with a 10% conversion rate, you are talking about 3,000 impressions, which might take some sites months to gather.
When looking at AdWords I understand the need for faster (and perhaps more intuitive) decision making, but there is still a simple rule I use here. When looking at a keyword (or ad, etc) that I think might be a low performer, I ask the question, if the next two clicks on this keyword (or ad, or whatever) were both conversions, would I still consider this to be a poor performer? If the answer is yes, then I feel okay making the change, but if the answer is no, then it’s a clear indication that there’s simply not enough data for a good decision.
Inside AdWords, I also try to look at at least a month of data, preferably two months. I never look at a single day of data, there are just too many swings of results for that data to be useful.
So, c’mon web marketers, let’s develop the discipline to see these strategies through!
PS If you’re Amazon.com, feel free to ignore this advice. You’re probably running split tests in a matter of hours…
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Friday, May 29th, 2009
Okay, I admit it, for the first two weeks of the test period, I conscientiously ignored the new Google AdWords interface. Then, I tried it for 30 minutes and wrote a stinging review using the Google’s feedback tool. Then I decided that I really ought to give it a fair shake, since it seems unlikely that Google will go back to the old interface, so I’d better become more familiar with it. After a few days of using it full time, here are my initial thoughts:
1. I like that you can change keyword bids right there on the keyword screen.
2. You can still select multiple keywords and edit them as a group, which is great (and something I feared had been removed).
3. I understand the new navigation system (on the top left of the screen), but where have the ‘Next’ and ‘Previous’ buttons gone for moving through adgroups in sequence?
4. Why doesn’t match type appear on the keywords tab anymore? You have to select a word and then hit Edit to be able to see the match type. Am I missing something?
5. Is is just me, or have they removed the ability to combine negative with other match types? (I’m used to using negative exact match together.)
So, my next step is to take some of the new interface training.
And yes, you Geoffrey Moore fans would be right in suspecting that I’m not an early adopter…
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Friday, May 15th, 2009
I’ve been thinking about the new benchmarking feature in Google Analytics, and while I’ve signed up to see this data, I must admit that I’m a little concerned.No, this isn’t another conspiracy theory about how Google is mis-using all the data they collect – it’s far simpler (and perhaps more serious than that). My concern is that by reviewing benchmark numbers, many marketers will settle for mediocrity. If you look at the ‘average’ numbers published by Marketing Sherpa and others, you’ll see that about 5% is considered a typical conversion rate for B2B lead generation. However, I’ve found that much higher numbers are possible (certainly into the teens and even as high as 40%) by the use of effective conversion best-practices, split testing, etc.
My feeling is that just because your site is doing as equally badly as everyone else’s, that doesn’t mean that you should just live with it…
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Thursday, April 9th, 2009
From my discussions with many Google AdWords advertisers, I think it’s true to say that the concept of Quality Score is largely not understood, and is therefore ignored. In fact Quality Score is just one of the many variables that Google allows you to adjust – if you know how.Quality Score is used as a part of the calculation to determine how much you will pay, and where you will rank for a particular keyword. The better your Quality Score, the cheaper your clicks.
You can manipulate Quality Score simply by ensuring that your keyword is 1) in your ad, and 2) on your landing page. Beyond that, you’ll have to work to increase your CTR to impact your QS.
Posted in google adwords | 1 Comment »
Monday, December 8th, 2008
I’m intrigued when I hear the phrase ‘beat AdWords’, it suggests an adversarial relationship that Google has worked hard to dispel. In fact the informal Google motto is “don’t be evil”. In the intro to their Corporate Code of Conduct, Google explains the “don’t be evil” philosophy, “it’s about providing our users unbiased access to information, focusing on their needs and giving them the best products and services that we can. But it’s also about doing the right thing more generally – following the law, acting honorably and treating each other with respect.”
The same code of conduct goes on to detail various types of ‘conflict of interest’, but it’s interesting that it makes no mention of the natural conflict which arises from an advertiser’s desire to get maximum exposure for as little as possible, and Google’s desire to have spending budgets increase.
In fact, the Google AdWords system has (imho) a set of biased settings that sway things in a way that doesn’t benefit the advertiser. Here are just 3 of the blatant ones, and what you should do as an advertiser to ‘beat’ the Google system:
1. In Campaign Settings, ads default to show on an ‘optimized’ basis. This means that AdWords will show ads with a higher click-through-rate more often. I personally find Google’s definition of ‘optimized’ as best CTR as a little bit ‘evil’. I’d suggest always using the ‘Rotate’ option and substituting your own definition of optimization to mean the ads with the best conversion rate.
2. When setting up a new Campaign, AdWords subtley suggests that both Search Match and Content Match are used. However, it seems fairly clear that since different ads are likely to appear to Search vs. Content audiences, it’s best to have Content and Search run in separate campaigns. The AdWords Editor tool is great for copying and pasting an existing campaign and then making the relevant modifications.
3. The nature of a bidding system is that prices will always go up, perhaps not ‘evil in itself (although certainly good for business). However, Google’s implication that you should bid for position 1, is perhaps misleading. In my opinion, the ‘race’ for position 1 leads many companies to overbid. I’d actually suggest that there are a number of cases where position 1 isn’t desirable.
Overall, I’m not sure that I agree with Google as being the adversary to be beaten, however, I do think that the smart pay-per-click advertiser keeps an eye on their own interests, and doesn’t rely on the ‘goodness’ of any advertising platform.
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Friday, October 31st, 2008
You may or may not be aware that in just the past 60 days, Google AdWords has undergone some changes that should have impacted your pay-per-click strategy.
Minimum Bid replaced by Estimated First Page Bid
Previously, you might have had some keywords inactivated by Google due to a minimum bid that was too low. Their calculation took into consideration click-through-rate and quality score, and made a determination about the smallest bid they would allow for your keyword to be eligible to show. That has now changed. Instead, Google is helping advertisers to focus on what bid is required to keep ads appearing on the first page of results.
At the keyword level, this information is displayed in the Status column, but only if your bid is too low. When setting up the columns for a keyword report, there is also now a checkbox to display the estimated first page bid for every keyword.
This change has a couple of impacts; first, it means that long tail keywords won’t be deactivated due to a low CTR. Secondly, it makes it easy to see keywords that are at risk of dropping onto the second page of results.
Search Results Now Differentiate Google and the Partner Network
Hopefully you already have separate campaigns for Search and Content match types. Now Google has increased magnification one more level and is separating results for Google Search and their Partner Network as separate numbers.
Google Search are simply searches performed on Google’s site. Search partners include AOL, Ask.com, and many other search sites around the web, who run a search box ‘powered’ by Google.
Although Google doesn’t allow separate campaigns for Search and Partner, smart marketers will begin running separate campaigns with the Partner Network active and inactive.
Build Your Own Display Ad
The idea here is to allow advertisers to create their own graphic ads to use with Google’s site targeting capability, without the need for a professional graphic designer. I like the idea – site targeting is something that more companies should be experimenting with. However, after a few trial runs with the ad builder tool, I’m not convinced that it will get widespread use. Here’s why:
1. The number of templates is fairly limited (about 50).
2. The tool requires image files to be a max of 50kb, which is probably not typical for company logos or stock imagery. So, the user will have to know how to re-save their image at a lower resolution.
3. The tool doesn’t seem to do a very good job at resizing uploaded images to fit properly in the ad space. As a result, my designs using the tool looked very amateurish.
4. The tool only deems to create ads in two sizes, which does not include the popular 120×600 (vertical banner), and 468×60 (horizontal banner).
It’s entirely possible that Google will expand the functionality and ease of use of the tool, but right now, I think these limitations give it very limited appeal.
Upcoming Changes to Quality Score and Ad Position
Although not yet live, you should be preparing for the upcoming changes to the Quality Score calculation. In the coming days, the Quality Score algorithm will be updated to account for the influence on ad position on click-through rate. This may lead to either an increase or a decrease in cost per click, and the position your ads appear in. Either way, you need to be watching closely (at the keyword level) to respond to the changes.
Google is also adjusting the way they determine which ads appear in the yellow region above their organic search results. The update will now allow an ad that meets the quality threshold to appear above the search results even if it has to jump over other ads to do so. This increases the (already high) importance of Quality Score.
AdWords Editor not yet Current
At this time, none of these changes had been incorporated into AdWords Editor. Google advised me to cease using features inside AdWords Editor that no longer apply (such as the advanced bidding option to increase all bids to the minimum for a keyword to be active), since it wasn’t clear which keywords would be affected and how.
Posted in google adwords | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008
Marketers from a cross-section of categories and industries are feeling the pinch of budget belt-tightening – over half (53%) expect ad budgets to be reduced over the next six month – according to a survey from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA).
However, for those firmly focused on the right metrics, such as cost-per-conversion, justifying the marketing budget should be easy. With the detailed metrics provided by Google AdWords and Google Analytics, marketing costs can be demonstrated as being an investment rather than an expense. It would be a rather dim-witted CFO or CEO who reduces the budget when you can firmly articulate the exact ROI from every marketing dollar spent.
General reductions in marketing budget also present some opportunities for pay-per-click advertisers. Overall bid amounts may drop in AdWords, as the number of advertisers drops. Also clicks may well cost less later in the day, as competitors drop off-line due to their budgets being spent.
If your budget is being cut, consider trimming some of the fat in terms of pausing keywords with a higher cost per conversion and leaving the most profitable ones live. Also consider using ad scheduling to run your ads later in the day, when competitors may already be offline.
Posted in conversion, google adwords | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 6th, 2008
Google AdWords has recently added a new feature that assists greatly in the task of effective keyword selection. Instead of giving a vague idea of the frequency that terms are searched for, AdWords now reports the actual number of searches.
The tool now shows the average number of searches performed for a phrase over the past 12 months. This is incredibly useful in selecting keywords that have enough volume to be the main components of your ppc campaign, but also selecting lesser (long tail) keywords to provide small volume (but highly qualified) traffic.
In addition, the new AdWords Keyword Tool provides an estimate of what you would need to bid in order to show consistently in position 1-3. This is also very useful in understanding how your budget will be used.
Posted in google adwords | No Comments »
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