5 Ways PPC Campaign Structure Can Increase CTRs

Posted on December 10, 2011 by Kevin Adams

The Best Click-thru-Rates Comes from Great Account Structure

If you’re relatively new to ppc, this claim can seem rather bold. I promise you the title is not misleading or just to ‘get the click’. Account structure involves clearly defining the purpose and settings for each campaign and ad group in an account.

The most commonly talked about aspect of click-thru-rate involves the actual ad copy matched up with the right keyword. In order to right good ad copy it is imperative to understand who you are targeting, but it is even more important to understand what the user is searching for at that moment.

Better Click Thru Rates = Higher AdWords Keyword Quality Scores = Lower Costs Per Click

1. Day Parting

Let’s start at the ad copy level. Consider the following concept: a good ‘Call Now’ search ad during the day is probably a terrible ad at night. Why, because most users aren’t expecting to call at night. If your business can actually handle at a late night call it would need to be explicitly stated in the ad in order to be effective. The solution would be to Create a separate mobile campaign and choose effective day-parting. The remaining campaign should still consider day-parting for times of night when the click-thru-rates drop off significantly.

2. Call-to-Action:

The call-to-action itself is an important distinction. To save time, many account managers rely on a single campaign to handle each area for desktops and laptops, tablets, and smart phones. It has been shown the smart phone users do not convert at the same as displayed in the following article: Mobile conversion rates lag behind tablet. Users searching on a smart phone are far more likely to call a business than complete an online form. Why go against the grain?

3. Match Types

Once the right ads at the right time of day are established comes the keyword factor. Matching ad copy with keywords should be obvious, but different match types may confuse the issue. The biggest question is “What search queries are triggering your ads?” Phrase and especially Broad Match attract a much wider variety of search queries than Exact Match. The search query ‘auto loan rates for good credit’ could trigger the keywords “auto loan”, auto loans, auto loan rates, or even +rates for +auto +loans (broad match modifier being used).

4. Add More Keywords

That’s a lot of weight for each of those keywords to service. How does one write ad copy for all of the myriad search queries a keyword could service? Add more keywords, separate the ad groups, and use negatives. If a more general keyword, such as “auto loans”, isn’t performing well, but it’s being triggered for ‘bad credit auto loans’, the account may lose the ability cover that search query effectively if the bid for that keyword is dramatically lowered If the keyword ‘+bad +credit +auto +loans’ is added there is no longer a need worry about that concern. Keep checking the search query reports to find new keywords to add, block, or move to another ad group.

5. Campaigns as Silos:

The same match type problem may also create inappropriate ad serving. The keyword “home mortgage” may be triggered for the query ‘home mortgage refinancing’. The search intent of ‘home mortgage’ is more likely to informational to find rates or explanations for a home purchase loan. On the other hand, the rates and information regarding refinancing of a home are very different. The account may be able to service both, but the customer needs are different. This is handled easily by putting the keywords in separate campaigns and using a few well-placed negatives to funnel the queries into neatly divided silos. Caution: excessive use of this technique may create significant gaps in queries for which the account is triggered.

Each of these concepts can be broken down further, such as making sure the sitelinks are written well for the individual campaigns. However, that should be enough information to get started re-considering the entire account. After all, the click-through-rates depend on it.

Written by Kevin Adams,

Director of Client Services and Paid Search Marketing Director at smbSEO

Google Further Enhances Mobile Ads with Click-to-Call and Google Voice

Posted on August 2, 2011 by mike

Google Enhances Mobile PPC Ads on Smartphones Google Voice Call Extentions

Google AdWords, Google’s advertising platform, really has their fingers on the pulse of the future of mobile search. Their latest targeting option allows phone numbers in an advertiser’s text-based mobile ads to be ‘Click-to-Call’. This is one of several changes Google has made to bring more business to their advertisers. The advertiser would be charged the same as a click to their website.

In the first half of 2010 Google added Ad Extensions including the Call Extension that created a click-to-call option beneath their mobile ads. A large number of accounts adopted these Ad Extensions to great success, but many less experienced search marketers haven’t gotten around to these features.

Google also offers their Google Voice service as a call-tracking option in AdWords called Call Metrics. Each tracked call would cost an additional dollar and would provide some basic call stats such as whether the call was answered, duration of call, and time. They have recently expanded this to all of their advertisers http://adwords.blogspot.com/2011/07/now-all-us-and-canada-advertisers-can.html.

Google has also announced that the call-rate (the likelihood that a user seeing the phone number chooses to call that number) will become a core componenet of the Quality Score for their mobile ads. To remove any confusion, advertisers that include their phone number in their ads as well as using the Call Extension will default to showing only the phone number in the ad.

Mobile is changing rapidly, but Google continues to provide their advertisers the options to keep up with these changes. I’m personally going to test using the Call Extension as well as ads with the numbers in the ads.

Google’s Official Letter
Dear AdWords Advertiser,

If you currently have a phone number in your ad text or have plans to start adding your phone number in an ad, this is an important notice that in the coming weeks, we will be launching a new enhancement to AdWords ads that will impact charges on clicks to these numbers.

To help our mobile users connect more easily with advertisers, all non-clickable phone numbers displayed in AdWords ad text will be automatically converted into a Click-to-call number. Currently when advertisers enter a phone number directly into their ad text instead of using Call Extensions, the phone number is not clickable and will not generate a call. This can be a frustrating experience for mobile users who attempt to initiate a call to this phone number.

The new Click-to-call enhancement ensures that all phone numbers shown in AdWords ads are clickable and allows users to easily place calls from their mobile device. If your ad text includes a phone number, you will begin to receive clicks and calls on this number once the enhancement is enabled in your account. As with phone calls placed via a Call Extension, you will be charged for clicks on your phone number that result in a call.

Please note that AdWords policy does not allow for phone numbers to be inserted into ad headlines. As with all Click-to-call ads, advertisers will be charged when a user either clicks on the headline or the phone number listed in the ad. Please see below for additional information regarding this change.

Which phone number shows?

If you are currently using both Call Extensions and a phone number in your ad creative, only the newly clickable phone number in your ad creative will show. This is designed to help reduce user confusion from seeing two potentially different numbers. If you would like your Call Extension number to display, simply delete all phone numbers from your existing ad text by following these steps. You’ll also receive an additional line of ad text displaying your phone number if the Call Extension is used.

Measuring results

You’ll be able to review how many calls you receive on the clickable phone number listed in your ad text for each campaign, ad group, keyword and ad on the “Campaigns” tab in your AdWords account. Just select the “Click-type” option under the “Segment” drop down and view your report. Please note that since these are not calls generated from a Call Extension, they will not be reported in the Extensions tab reports.

Recommendations for featuring a phone number

You can simply leave your phone number in your ad text and benefit from this change which will automatically make your phone numbers clickable and enable users to call you. However, to get the most value from click-to-call, we recommend that you remove your phone number from your ad creative and create a Call Extension with your phone number directly.

This has several benefits. With a manually created Call Extension your number will appear as an additional line of ad text which frees up space in your ad creative for other promotion. In addition, when you create a Call Extension, your phone number appears on a separate line in the ad, and you’re able to take advantage of other powerful enhancements such as Vanity Numbers, Call-only and Call Metrics reporting.

How To Find The Best Dallas Internet Marketing Company You Can Actually Afford

Posted on March 30, 2011 by mike

If you are an entrepreneur, shifting your focus from media advertising to Internet marketing it is important to hire a reputable Internet marketing company to increase your visibility on the world wide web. The Internet has grown substantially in the last decade and has become perhaps the best marketing platform in existence. With billions and advertising and e-commerce sites on the net, it is important to develop an affordable and efficient market strategy that will increase your visibility and your sales conversions. The entire purpose of advertising online is to generate leads, prospects, and sales for increased revenue. If you are not familiar with the various methods of Internet marketing, you will need to hire a professional Internet marketer catering to the Dallas area. Understand how to find the best Dallas Internet marketing company you can actually afford and become a force to be reckoned with on the web.

When you begin your search, you will quickly realize that there are several different Dallas Internet marketing companies specializing in different areas of online advertising. As a small business owner chances are you are not familiar with different methods that exist. Internet advertising is constantly changing and improving. Finding a Dallas Internet marketing company that specializes in every type of marketing on the world wide web is extremely difficult. Some of the most popular and effective methods of marketing online include: backward link building (aka: backlinks), social media, pay-per-click ads, sponsored links, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), web design, content management, article marketing, local business listings, and blogs. Each of these areas of advertisement are different and will require different knowledge. There are specialists in the marketing industry for each and every type of marketing. It may be difficult to find a single company with experts in every area.

Now that you understand the various types of Internet marketing, you must figure out which companies are the best in the business. Hiring a professional marketing firm can be extremely expensive if you do not consider results. Big advertising companies are commonly chosen by large corporations and larger middle-sized businesses. When you hire a large Internet marketing firm to handle your marketing campaign, you could be compromising your budget and the quality of services offered. Large Internet marketing companies in Dallas will assign your project to a project manager to discuss your needs. Once you have explained what you are looking for, the account manager will present the project to the individuals specializing in specific areas of expertise. This means you will never actually talk to the person who is handling your account. When you are designing and rolling out a new marketing initiative, it is important to have contact with each and every specialist handling your account. If you can only communicate with a middle man, you could be compromising the efficiency of your marketing initiative.

Another factor to consider when you are hiring a professional Dallas Internet marketer is their rank on Google. Because the company is responsible for making your site rank as one of the top results on Google and other search engines, they should rank highly as well. You would not hire an interior designer with a poorly designed office, so you cannot reasonably hire an Internet marketer that has not focused on advertising his or her own business. You will need to search some of the top industry terms to find a company that ranks highly. Some of the terms you should search for include:

*Search Engine Optimization Dallas
*SEO for Small Businesses Dallas
*Internet Marketing Dallas
*Online Advertising Experts Dallas
*Search Engine Marketing Dallas
*SEO Web Design Dallas
*Content Marketing Expert Dallas

Chances are you will not find a single company listed highly for every single area of advertising. If you do stumble across a company that is ranked highly for every area they are worth considering. Make sure not to compromise the quality of service received by choosing a large firm that sees you as a project rather than a company.

Internet marketing is essential if you want to be successful in today’s technologically advanced society. More and more consumers are surfing the web to find businesses in their area. If you want to compete in today’s competitive market, do your research and choose a Dallas Internet marketing firm you can trust.

One of My First Dallas Small Business SEO and Internet Marketing Clients is Killing It!

Posted on March 17, 2011 by mike

One of my first and oldest Dallas small business holistic seo internet marketing client is Jason Phan of JPImportz:

Jason Phan of JP Importz.org, was invited by SMB SEO to attend last nights DFWSEM meeting (Dallas Search Engine Marketing Association was the first local search engine marketing professionals associations) where we discussed topics related to recent events such as the Google “Farmer” or Panda Update geared at low quality content and the buying process. JP Importz is an independent Dallas Lexus Repair that is located in Garland Tx. JP Importz is not a dealership. Years and years ago, while I working for Verizon Yellow Pages and SuperPages.com, I sold Jason an ad in the Garland and Plano Yellow Pages. Worse mistake I could have ever made. It ended up costing him to the tune of around $8,000 in wasted marketing resources. The ad failed horribly. But I also happened to sell him a valuable link (from SuperPages) and expert advice on his SEO and PPC efforts. I helped him with his On-site SEO (mostly page titles and descriptions and some content at the time) and PPC campaigns.

With my advice while working at Verizon SuperPages, Jason began implementing strategies, such as becoming a Lexus Repair Expert on AllExperts.com and a somewhat blackhat seo at the time Google local listing strategy that focused on keywords in the listing name, something that no longer passes the spam sniff test with Google’s head of web spam Matt Cutts. Jason also ran into issues with the trademark and trade name Adwords policies related to Lexus, another policy that Google has since reversed.

Jason’s internet marketing success can be attributed to effort, great customer service, and a holistic approach. But when you ask Jason what holistic local search marketing is, he probably could only refer you to me!

Jason has also built an excellent strategy with video reviews and testimonials, with a budget of almost nothing. Take a look at how many times his business name or content ranks on the first page. In fact, his video ranks on the first page of Google for Dallas Lexus Repair!

Jason’s most recent web site rebuild consisted of a Joomla CMS (content management system) and he is looking to begin a healthy blog.

JPImportz also has excellent reviews and testimonials from real customers who love his Lexus repair work on his Google Places account. His business is not located in Dallas or Plano but ranks well for those geographies from the overall score of his Google Places account that includes a tremendous amount of citations.

Due to customer demand Jason, a former Lexus Dealership Service Technician, recently went back to automotive school to get his certifications on BMW repair and the company will be adding that service.

I wish Jason the best! He surely deserves it! The guy is a master at Lexus and Auto Service.

Dallas Pay Per Click PPC Advertising Management & Consultants

Posted on February 3, 2011 by SMB SEO

For anyone who is dealing with internet advertising on Google AdWords, it is highly unlikely that they are not aware of the importance of quality scores and low cost per click/bid for thier business. However an understanding of the meticulous nature of how Google ranks ads against eachother is something that most internet marketers do not have. Playing by the rules of Google is definitely a sensible approach. As a matter of fact, this can actually enable the internet marketer to pay less than the competitors as well as rank higher on the search engines along with getting more clicks for a relatively trivial payment compared to competitors. What we are saying is, “Google rewards those that do things the right way.”

SMBSEO has internet marketing specialists who actually deal with this aspect of Google. These specialists are Google AdWords Certified Professionals who have been hands on experience and have been trained by Google AdWords Seminars for Success, PubCon PPC Training, and various other online marketing courses. They help their clients in a number of different ways:

Making targeted adgroups for the client’s keywords
Making adgroups that are targeted to the clients specific geographic markets
Increasing the relevance of the landing page, which means the landing page contains keywords in meta settings as well as in title etc.

Serving the Dallas area can be a plus for a small business given the presence of our local Dallas Internet Marketing Boutique (also known as SMBSEO), the valuable services of which are available to the small and medium-sized businesses in the region, especially when it comes to Dallas Pay Per Click Advertising management. The diverse array of services available on behalf of SMBSEO are inclusive of helping clients cut down pay per click advertising costs and enable a lower price to be paid by the client for Google’s unspoken auction of search traffic. Also article marketing is offered to our clients along with free web ranking reports that give the client about the areas of strengths and weaknesses. SMB SEO believes in holistic search marketing efforts, incorporating FREE clicks from local and organic results in combination with paid search marketing clicks or ppc.

Also a tracking system is there for knowing the statistics through Google Analytics. With the help of these stats, business owners will be able to track down each and every visitor along with the referral domain that guided them to the website and also the keywords that became the initial source of their visit.

The targeted directional marketing process focuses on drawing traffic from a number of different sources. It is especially effective in bringing potential customers that have a high level of interest in the client’s products and/ or services. Cashing in on this interest, they are compelled and persuaded to visit the website.

In addition to that, Google AdWords Certified team members help in the management of pay per click campaigns. These experts are experienced in running Google and Yahoo/MSN AdCenter interfaces. SMBSEO strives for transparency and does not indulge in unethical practices. We also help our clients in a diverse array of Internet marketing services. State of the art expertise is offered to clients at a flat monthly charge and no hidden costs. Nevertheless, quality work requires added effort and lengthier time spans so the same applies to this enterprise also, which is further evidence of the veracity of the claims made. Basically the Dallas Pay Per Click Advertising Management services offered by SMBSEO are not a piece of cake; instead it is an integrated campaign where both the parties work together to achieve the desired results, which is not an overnight process and takes time before one actually starts witnessing the generation of results.

Google Traffic Trends for PPC (AdWords) resellers who markup clicks on Google.

Posted on August 4, 2010 by SMB SEO

Ever wondered how popular one big PPC Adwords Reseller is vs another?

Google Trends is an excellent free tool to find out how many people search for a particular word, phrase, or brand vs another. It can also be used for quick keyword research. A great example is Attorneys vs Lawyers in subregions.

I was curious how the SuperMedia name change from Idearc (after the companies questionable bankruptcy) was impacting the brands popularity vs others like up and coming MLM-styled AdzZoo (who took a big hit from reducing 40% commissions to 20% last I heard) and ReachLocal, a company that is finally getting better at servicing clients and has the sales involvement (from a reporting perspective) and support structure to connect the client and management. SuperMedia has a disconnect by not giving sales reps the training or tools to medigate potential issues or offer optimization such as Website Conversion Optimization or tools such as Google Analytics.

Rumor is that Google wants to end the Google Authorized AdWords Reseller Program due to churn, click markups that are overpriced and prohibit a ROI for advertisers. While the program website is still live, many rumors have been swirling that Google wants to end the program and focus on the Google AdWords Certification and provider program. Maybe Google is shifting away from “working with H&R Block” type companeis and back to “independant tax preparers” or from yellow page providers and big national agencies to local service providers and mid-sized internet advertising and paid search (PPC) agencies.

The program has the following companies still listed on Google’s website:

The following companies are Google AdWords Authorized Resellers:

15miles/ TMP Directional Marketing
ACB
ADP Dealer Services
AdReady
AT&T
Atlanta Journal Constitution
Citysearch
Clickable
Cobalt
Comcast
Dealer.com
FTD
Hearst Newspaper
JG Sullivan
Local Insight Media
Market Leader
Marquette Group
Network Solutions
OrangeSoda
Pica9
ReachLocal
RH Donnelley
SuperMedia
TopSpot Internet Marketing
TravelCLICK
Viamedia
Web.com
Yellow Pages Group (Canada)
Yellowbook
Yodle

The program was designed to allow these companies to provide pay per click management services local SMBs. Companies who in the program must maintain a client base of over 500 clients and get free API access.

Potential concerns by some advertisers with large scale ppc service providers are:

Horrible ROI for the SMB’s due to the high % click markups by the Authorized Resellers on Clicks that are already markedup by Google’s “silent auction”
lack of transparency to the SMB’s.
Even Google’s reseller website all include 45% margins (see http://www.google.com/adwordsresellerinfo/business.html)

Most smaller PPC agencies markup clicks only 15-20%. Some agencies like SMB SEO even allow the client to purchase the campaign and build the campaign on the clients Google AdWords Account. So as they invest in the campaign monthly, they also own all the optimization improvements, history, and detail.

This change will likely force resellers to build a service oriented business model, which is nothing like yellow pages advertising and sales business practices, vs the huge markups necessary to pay sales reps, executives, shareholders, and hungry venture capital and hedgefund investors looking for big dividends and everyone else who doesn’t “service” or manage your account. Atleast ReachLocal has tools, trained sales reps, and client retention for “sales reps” vs the new rep every year business approach of yellow pages companies. Does all this lead to less focus on service, pay per click advertising scams, and a negative reputation for the providers or resellers?

So….. Take a look at the above results. What do you think is going on?

Time to whip out some real SEO keyword tools and see how much keyword query traffic the negative reputation has! Need to put in keywords like ReachLocal Sucks, SuperMedia Sucks, and AdzZoo Sucks or ReachLocal Scams, SuperMedia Scams, or AdzZoo Scams. Of course only 2% of people speak positive and almost 25% of those with a negative experience will comment. By the way… did I mention that I we know a thing or two about Online Reputation Management? I have some great tips to share local internet marketers on my DallasGoogleGuru.com Blog about companies who mark up clicks on Google vs providing a service!

Manage your account effectively

Posted on May 7, 2010 by Casey

This is the last of the Google Adwords Email Training. You can always come back and read up on some basics here.

The online world moves very quickly, so what works for you today may not be as successful next week.

Because of this, we recommend that all our AdWords advertisers log in to their account on a regular basis. Even a quick check-in once a week can help you get the most out of your advertising budget.

Here’s a quick list of actions for you to follow every time you log in to your account. This will help you to get a great understanding of how your account is performing and whether you’re meeting your business goals.

What do I do when I log into my account?

When you log into your AdWords account, first check notifications and account alerts on the ‘Home’ tab.

Then, go to the ‘Campaigns’ tab and set the time range (in the top right-hand corner of your account) to a period of 1-4 weeks to get a good indication of recent performance.

How can I check my AdWords performance?

Performance will vary by account so focus on identifying your best and worst performing keywords and ads to help refine your account:

Under the ‘Keywords’ tab, review:

Keyword clickthrough rate (CTR). Which keywords are receiving your highest and lowest CTR?
Position of your keywords. Are your ads appearing on the first page i.e. avg. pos. of 1-11?
Keyword status. Are your ads eligible to show?
Quality score. You can see the quality score for each keyword by clicking on the icon in the status column.

Under the ‘Ads’ tab:

Review your ad clickthrough rate (CTR). If you are testing multiple ads in each ad group check to see which are performing best.

If you have Conversion Tracking enabled, check which ads and keywords are converting into sales.

What do these metrics mean?

How do I manage my account for success?

Refine your keywords and ads:

Look at the top performing keywords and ads – edit those that are not doing well, using your top performers as a guide to how they can be improved.
Delete those that have consistently performed poorly.
Use negative keywords to eliminate unwanted impressions.

Test new keywords and ads in your campaigns:

Use the keyword tool to get keyword suggestions to add to your campaign.
If you don’t have multiple ads in each ad group, you should create more ads and test them to see which works best for you.

This is the final email of the AdWords Welcome Pack. We hope you have found it useful and are now well equipped to run your AdWords advertising campaign successfully. If you have any questions in the future, we have a variety of educational resources to help you.

What to expect from our Dallas SEO SEM firm?

Posted on May 6, 2010 by mike

Who does your small business SEO at SMB SEO?

Currently at SMB SEO, we have 2 SEO experts, Mike Stewart and Casey Watkins. This means means you will have a dedicated resource assigned to your work that you can communicate your internet advertising concerns to without having to contact a sales consultant. Contrary to what you may have been told by telemarketers and sales reps from ReachLocal.com, SuperMedia.com, AT&T Interactive/Yellow Pages, and other larger internet advertising most internet advertising agencies, you do not have a dedicated account rep like you do with SMB SEO. An account rep’s job is to maintain the client. A sales rep’s job is to make commission and then move onto the next “big sell.”

As Duane Forrester said on his Search Engine Land post regarding “What to Expect from an SEO/SEM agency” here:

To keep the workflow moving for them and ensure the client is happy. Sometimes the rep will also be part of the initial sales cycle, in which case their workload includes making the sale happen. If telling you there is a dedicated resource for your needs gets the sale, most sales people will state just that.

On average SMB SEO dedicates 12-15 hours per month per client on SEO and Web Marketing services for our Dallas area clients. SMB SEO offers our handful of clients dedicated search marketing services with no contracts.

What about other SEO providers in Dallas Fort Worth?

Often times you may be called on by an independent “SEO Consultant” who says he can provide SEO Services that typically consist of changing your websites page titles, page descriptions, adding a few articles and building a pay-per-click campaign. This might sound like a great deal at the time, but something to consider is the not just level of experience but also having a dedicated point of contact that understands YOUR BUSINESS and how unique your company, products, and services are to others in the Dallas Fort Worth area. You don’t have to worry about “booking” more time from your consultants at SMB SEO. We are never too busy for our existing clients. We are loyal to our clients.

INSERT VIDEO OF CLIENT TESTIMONIAL

What kind of experience in Search Marketing should I look for?

Dallas area small business owners and those who are responsible for the company’s online marketing efforts need to consider the level of experience in a search engine marketing agency. Just because an agencies sales rep says they have a Pay Per Click team or specialist on hand to service your company, this does not mean they offer the best value in search engine marketing, a holistic approach.

Mike Stewart began studying search engine marketing as a media consultant for Verizon SuperPages.com. Originally he offered his holistic local search marketing suggestions to existing and potential clients of Verizon as a value added benefit of advertising with Verizon Yellow Pages. Although he was a skeptic about the value of yellow pages (often related to factors out of his control such as price, placement, distribution, and yellow pages sales fraud) he believed that the best return on investment for a local small business was a blended or mixed advertising program that consists of both print and online advertising. He actually coined the phrase used by Idearc Media in the Dallas Texas sales office of “Some people use print, some use online, but most use both.” Not so much anymore. Rural America uses print. Urban America uses the internet. Suburban America uses both.

Does the SEO Guru do Pay-Per-Click and the Pay-Per-Click Guru do SEO??

Is your search engine marketing agency a jack of all trades master of none, or do they offer the experience in all 3 different aspects of local search marketing? Do they have a dedicated manager for your pay-per-click or paid search advertising, and another one for your organic search engine optimization, and someone else who studies local interactive media budgeting and website design? What small business owners really need (and can afford) is a small team of experts.

As Duane Forrester said on Search Engine Watch:

For years, many agencies pursued paid search marketing exclusively, so their depth of knowledge surrounding SEO is lacking. Essentially, it’s based on the knowledge of their staff. Today’s better agencies have not just a person with the title aligned to SEO work, but those individuals do in fact possess hands-on knowledge. This is where’s it’s back to finding out who will work on your job and for how much time. Having a Director of SEO with 10 years of experience on hand is great. But, is that person working on your project?

Never assume a large brand agency knows it all. Often, they don’t. Be particularly careful when engaging with offline agencies trying to reposition themselves as online agencies, as well. These folks are usually still on a learning curve and are banking on their offline brand equity to help them gain clients to learn through.

If you search engine marketing guy claims to have worked for Google, has some special secret, or makes a guarantee of results before spending 3 months on your campaign, it is time for you to walk away. Also, if they refuse to spend at least 30 minutes on the phone with you about your business before signing a CONTRACT and/or can’t offer a few simple suggestions for improving your rankings on Google and other search engines, again you need to walk or RUN AWAY!

If you are looking for an in-house search engine marketing agency for your small business, but can’t afford to hire someone in-house full-time for your company, give SMB SEO a call. We the Dallas area’s small business HIGH RANKINGS internet marketing firm.

214-267-9553

How well is AdWords working for you?

Posted on May 1, 2010 by Casey

In continuing with our series of emails from Google Adwords here is email 5 of 6. Only one more to go.

How is my AdWords account performing?

The first, and easiest way to measure your success is to review your AdWords statistics. Success with AdWords will be different for every business and will depend on your business goals. However, there are a few things to look out for that will indicate your ads are running successfully:

Impressions

The number of impressions tells you how many times your ad has been displayed to your potential customers. A high number of impressions means your ad has been seen a lot but is not necessarily a measure of your account effectiveness. You need to review this in relation to your clicks (how many people have clicked on your ad) to understand your ad’s relevance to your audience. This is easily done by looking at your clickthrough rate (CTR).

Clickthrough Rate (CTR)

To get an immediate idea of how well a campaign is doing, check the CTR – how often people click on your ad after seeing it. As a rule of thumb, a CTR on Google under 1% indicates your ads are not targeted to a relevant audience. Look at this on the ‘Campaigns’ tab and view the CTR of your individual keywords and ads on the respective tabs.

Average Position

Check the Avg. Pos. column on the ‘Campaigns’ tab in your account to find out where your ad is appearing on the search results page. There are up to 11 ads shown on any search page so if your average position is 11 or more your ad is, on average, not appearing on the first page of search results. You should aim to show your ad on the first page of search results so your potential customers can more easily find your ad.

First Page Bids

If your ad is not appearing on the first page of search results, you will see first page bids on the ‘Keywords’ tab under the ‘Status’ column. High bid estimates can indicate that your keywords or ads are not as relevant as they could be.

Quality Score

Each of your keywords is given a quality score which can be found by clicking on the icon in the ‘Status’ column on the ‘Keywords’ tab. A keyword’s quality score updates frequently and is closely related to its performance.

In general, a high quality score of 9 or 10 means that your keyword will trigger ads in a higher position and at a lower cost-per-click (CPC). Quality score looks at a variety of factors to measure how relevant your keyword is to your ad, and to a user’s search query.

If you would like to improve these metrics, we suggest optimizing your account using our Optimization Tips.

I know how many people clicked on my ad, but how many became my customers?

While the number of clicks tells you how many people visited your website, it doesn’t tell you how valuable those visitors are to your business. For this, you need to know how many of the people that clicked your ad went on to perform a desired action on your site (e.g. completed a purchase, signed up for a quote etc.). These actions are known as conversions.

AdWords Conversion Tracking is a free Google tool that lets you measure how many conversions are the direct result of clicks on your AdWords ads. Using this data, you can identify which ads and keywords are most successful in generating conversions and how much each conversion is costing you. You can then edit your campaigns accordingly to improve your return-on-investment.

If you’d like more information on how to track your AdWords success, check out our online AdWords Beginner’s Guide.

Show your ad on relevant websites

Posted on April 23, 2010 by Casey

Did you know that in addition to showing your AdWords ad on Google search, you can also show it on websites that your customers visit?

The Google content network is a large, diverse network of different kinds of websites that partner with Google. On this network, you can show your ad to potential customers when they’re looking at websites related to your product or services.

Why show my ads on websites as well as search pages?

Internet users spend the majority of their time online browsing websites. By advertising on both search and the content network, you can reach your target audience no matter what they’re doing online.

The content network is made up of thousands of websites, from big household names to small specialised websites, such as blogs or forums. This means AdWords can match your ad to websites that are relevant to your product or service and that your potential customers visit.

Want to know more about the content network? Take a look at the video below.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4wJTJr2Qm4

How do I make sure the content network works for me?

When your campaign is opted-in to the content network, AdWords automatically targets your ads to relevant content on websites. This means your message is matched to the right audience at the right time.

For example, if you’re selling digital cameras, our system may place your ad next to a news article that reviews the latest digital photographic technology. In this case, you know that a user who is looking at this web page is likely to be interested in buying from you.

The principles you apply to your search campaigns will also help your ads perform well on the content network:

Follow ad best practices, like using a strong call to action in your ad
Have clear themes in your ads that match your keywords
Have a clear, relevant theme to your list of keywords

Together these basic actions allow our system to assess very clearly what your product or service is and match your ads to relevant websites.

Learn more about ad targeting on the content network.

How can I see how my ad is performing on websites?

You can review all of the websites your ad has shown on and see performance statistics on each site directly within your AdWords account. To do this simply select the ‘Networks’ tab within your campaign and click on ‘show details’ beside your content placements.

With this information, you then have the ability to focus your advertising on the sites that give you the greatest value for your money and get you the most sales or leads. Learn more about how to assess your ad performance on the content network.