The full version of AdWords has included the ability to track phone calls generated from ads for two years. TechCrunch’s Frederic Lardinois reports that, beginning last week, AdWords Express, a simplified version for small businesses, included that option as well.
Call reporting is similar to reporting on clicks your ad generates. For every consumer that uses your ad to contact you, Google tracks and stores that information so you can see how effective the complete performance of your ad has been.
Google actually routes these calls through their own toll-free number, using Google Voice technology, and then forwards them on to your business. This way, they can track the calls and charge your AdWords account the same way they do for each click.
Google has hinted that they will accept bids for higher cost-per-call ads, which would get those ads higher placement, but that option has not yet been made a reality.
00TMOhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTMO2012-10-26 12:30:012012-10-26 12:30:01Call Reporting Now Available to AdWords Express Users
Imagine seeing AdWords style ads displayed on your TV during your favorite show. The idea isn’t as far away as you might think.
A startup called The Compass Group LLC is working on a way for advertisers to create text overlay ads, which could appear any time on any participating station. This would lower the cost of television advertising and allow small businesses to put their ads in places they never could’ve afforded.
Essentially, TV stations would allocate space on the screen and times when ads could be placed, much like a website allocating space for ads, which are then filled by AdWords. Users would then be able to creat their specific ad and choose when they’d like to run it. This streamlines the process, making it almost entirely user-generated and automated.
The one possible hang-up that has yet to be adderessed is whether or not the public, which is not used to seeing this type of advertising on TV, will respond to the ads. In general, more advertising on TV is usually met with some hositility.
00TMOhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTMO2012-10-25 12:30:032012-10-25 12:30:03Coming Soon: AdWords Style Ads to Your TV
The cost of doing business with pay-per-click advertising has risen sharply over the past decade. So much so, many small business owners are wondering if the price they’re paying to get their message out is worth the return on their investment.
As Darren Dahl reports for the New York Times, larger companies joining the PPC craze has caused rates to skyrocket and nearly priced out smaller competitors.
AdGooroo, a research firm specializing in the PPC market, reports that more than nine out of ten companies spend less than $10-thousand a month on PPC advertising. At the other end of that spectrum, however, are giants like Amazon and University of Phoenix, who spent $54-million and $37.9-million respectively in the first half of 2012 alone.
The advice many experts offer is to scale back PPC ads and make keywords as specific as possible to your business. General keywords like ‘life insurance’ or ‘car sales’ put you in direct competition with a number of companies, many of whom have much deeper pockets.
PPC also shouldn’t be your only advertising platform. Branching out into social media and search is crucial to drive as much traffic to your site as possible.
It’s worth looking into SEO services to improve your organic search rankings. There’s even services online that pledge to manage your social media marketing accounts, as well. When you own a small business, time and money come at a premium and online advertising is becoming costly for both.
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As with any Google service, AdWords is constantly innovating and improving. Lisa Raehsler recently put out her list of the 10 best recent AdWords improvements at Search Engine Watch.
1. Media Ads
This one hasn’t been fully made available yet, but could be huge for certain businesses. The ad includes two links, one to a landing page and one to a relevant video, which is expandable from the ad.
2. Product Listings
These ads are linked to a Google Merchant account and show your product to users searching for a relevant keyword. Also currently in limited release.
3. Enhance Sitelinks
New sitelinks are larger and actually appear like regular ads, but they’re connected to one closely related ‘umbrella’ ad. CTR have reportedly significantly improved with the enhancement.
4. Remarketing
Currently in beta testing, advertisers will soon have the opportunity to use a consumers previous search for keywords to show them relevant ads on subsequent searches.
5. Offers extensions
Ads and offers combined. Your specfic promotion or coupon is included with your ad and can be saved to a Google offers account.
6. Reminder extensions
Users can send themselves an email from your ad reminding them about a sale, opening or special. Just started in beta.
7. Remarketing in Analytics
Build targeting lists in analytics using a variety of factors, including referral source or the site the user came from. These lists are easily integrated in AdWords.
8. Dynamic Display
Target specific users based on their activity or websites based on their audience. Display ads will link with a Merchant account to show your relevant products.
9. Comparison ads
It’s a cost-per-lead model that does just what it sounds like. Compare your prices to other companies. This one may be a long way from full release, but it’s being tested on financial companies.
10. App promotion
Advertise your app to app users. AdWords does most of the work here providing the graphics, formatting and updating the rating ad reviews.
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Bing Ads recently made Sitelink Extensions available to all U.S. users, which allows advertisers up to 10 sitelinks to their ads. This helps consumers navigate directly to their desired page, rather than landing on the homepage and having to find their way around.
As Pamela Parker reports for Search Engine Land, during beta testing, click-through-rates for ads with sitelinks improved by as much as 25-percent over standard ads.
In another tweak, advertisers no longer need to be logged in to use the ad preview tool.
In order to improve your existing online ad campaigns and discover new opportunities that you’re currently missing, you have to study the analytics. Trend line analysis is likely included whether you use AdWords, Microsoft AdCenter or any other platform and it saves you from poring over column after column of numbers. Instead, you are presented with an easy to read and, more importantly, an easy to digest report.
Matt Van Wagner has an in-depth report on different types of trend line reports and how to use trend line analysis at Search Engine Land.
Let’s look at some potential errors to avoid and how to make these reports work for you.
First and foremost, you have to understand the context of any report and be sure to enter proper parameters. If your reporting time is too short, you may see a graph suggesting a problem that isn’t really there. You may also notice a simple fluxuation of variables beyond your control and perceive it as a problem with your campaign.
Before making any changes, do some investigating. Take the guesswork out of online advertising and diagnose the problem. Then, you will know what needs to be changed, or what can be left as is.
Always keep your specific campaign goals in mind. For some, conversion rates improving but total conversions going down could be a problem. However, if it’s in line with that campaigns goals, then you’ll probably want to leave the campaign untouched.
Sometimes it’s what you decide not to change that will make the biggest difference.
With time, you’ll start to be able to recognize at a glance a graph showing the early signs of trouble. Be sure you understand not only what each individual trackable metric means, but also how they relate to each other.
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Sometimes, the determining factor in whether your work for a client will have a happy ending or not is simply how strong your relationship is with that client. By effectively communicating, making sure you understand their goals and using the right language, you give yourself the best chance to succeed.
Purma Virji has, what she calls, “5 amazing tactics” to build that strong client-consultant relationship. Check out her in-depth look at Search Enging Watch.
1. Learn from each other
In order to successfully fulfill the client’s needs, you need to be on the same page. Understand what they want out of the project. When you pitch ideas to them, back them up with reasoning and a cause-and-effect approach. Set realistic timelines that you both can live with. Be sure that they understand your language. Educate them so they know what’s possible and how valuable your work is.
2. Lines of communication open, not flooded
Your client wants to feel that their voice is being heard and they want to have access to you. However, allowing anyone involved in the process to contact you at all times will be too time consuming. Instead, set a communication schedule and stick to it.
Set a weekly meeting time where everyone involved has a chance to voice concerns and you have an opportunity go over timelines, new ideas and progress.
You should also send out regular updates to keep your client involved. Ideally, these short reports will answer any questions they might have before they come to you with them.
3. Be prepared when asking for buy-in
Do your homework and have metrics ready when asking for an increase in budget. You should know exactly how much time and funding will be needed for a specific project. Then, be sure to articulate why it will be worth it.
4. Prioritize
When first starting out on a project, your to-do list will probably seem pretty daunting. You want to knock out as much as possible and show your client that you are making quick, effective progress.
To do so, tackle the tasks that are short and simple but could yield big results first. Anything that involves a simple adjustment without weeks of testing should be at the top of the list.
5. Be honest and upfront about bad news
Mistakes will happen. Goals will be missed. You will not meet every expectation. If you handle bad news correctly, however, you can and will overcome it.
Send out a detailed email as soon as the problem is discovered. Set up a meeting if warranted.
When discussing it with your client, summarize the problem while including how much it is costing. Talk about what you’ve done to fix it, what is needed and when you expect to overcome it. Also, try to find the good that has come out of it. Maybe you’ve avoided potential lost time or discovered a new method of doing things or just gained some valuable knowledge.
00TMOhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTMO2012-10-18 12:30:012012-10-18 12:30:015 Ways to Build A Strong Relationship with Clients
Chances are that your company doesn’t have piles of money to throw at advertising in order to get results. Most likely, you’re wondering how to get a big ROI from a modest to meager ad budget. Jeremy Decker has five tips for you, which you can read more about at Search Engine Journal.
1. Utilize lower ad positions
When you search for a specific topic or product, do you always click the first result that appears? I’m assuming you answered ‘no’ because I don’t know anyone who does.
With that in mind, you can take advantage of ad placements below the top three on Google and still see results, often at a lower cost-per-click.
2. Specific targets
Using general, one-word keyword will allow your ads to pop up more often. However, your audience in that scenario will rarely be searching for exactly what you offer.
Instead, use keywords that pinpoint what your business is. These ideally would be phrases of three or more words, which will probably include your location. Fewer users will enter those search terms, but the ones who do will be hoping to find a business just like yours.
3. High-converting keywords need their own campaign
Be sure to check out how each of your keywords are performing. When some separate themselves as ‘high-converting’, consider creating a campaign that includes only those keywords. This way, the most effective keywords will have a budget to themselves. Otherwise, less effective keywords could show up more and you’ll reach your cap without the heavy hitter getting a chance.
4. Display network doesn’t get conversions
Using the display network option in addition to, or instead of, search results will potentially spread awareness about your company to a gigantic audience, it usually doesn’t yield conversions at a high rate. If your ad budget is limited, it’s best to put all of your investment into search traffic rather than limiting yourself in order to invest partially in such a risky venture.
5. Location, location, location
It’s not just a key for real estate. AdWords allows you to track what cities your traffic and conversions are coming from. With this information, you can get the most of your budget by omitting your ads in locations where conversions are low. You can also create new campaigns specifically for your top performing areas.
00TMOhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTMO2012-10-18 08:00:162012-10-18 08:00:165 Tips to Stretch Your Modest AdWords Budget
In the past 18 months, Google has waged war against spammers. It began with their attempts to purify organic search rankings by introducing the Panda and Penguin updates. Now, with an AdWords policy update this week, Google has targeted those evil doers of the PPC game.
Ali Harris has an in-depth look at the changes at ClickThrough Marketing, but here’s a quick rundown of what you need to know.
Google’s goal is to improve the ad experience across the board, meaning only those with ill intent will object and most users and campaign managers will applaud.
By weeding out the spam, your Quality Score will likely rise and your cost-per-click will likely drop. But, you have to know the rules and follow them.
Your ads and keywords must be easily relatable to the landing page they point to.
If you mention a specific promotion or product in an ad, the landing page must feature it too.
No more throw-away lines like “Click Here Now!”
Just like in English class, poor grammar will be punished.
Keyword campaigns must be relevant and clear.
If your landing page has ads, they must be clearly discernable from original content.
No phone numbers
No email inbox look-alike ads
Essentially, you are expected to use common sense and be sincere in your advertising. If your goal is to trick users into clicking your ads, you will be punished.
Those punishments start modest but can become severe.
Campaigns that are flagged as not in compliance won’t run the disapproved ads until they are changed. If advertisers feel they were judged unfairly, they are able to submit their ad for review again.
Suspensions could be doled out to domains to temporarily stop their use of AdWords.
For repeat or serious offenders, accounts could be banned along with any related or future accounts.
Most likely, you’re already keeping tabs on AdWords metrics, particularly Quality Score. But now would be a good time to go through your campaigns with a fine-toothed comb in order to be sure you’re in compliance.
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If you select “Rotate indefinitely” option for your campaign, we will show lower-performing ads about as often as higher-performing ads. For most advertisers, this may result in fewer, more expensive clicks and your ad appearing in a lower position. So we generally don’t recommend“Rotate indefinitely”
Also, as Pamela Parker reports for Search Engine Land, less than 1-percent of AdWords users asked for ‘Rotate indefinitely’ to be brought back.
Be warned though. In the coming weeks, campaigns that are set to ‘Rotate evenly’ will automatically change to ‘Rotate indefinitely’.
AdWords is also adding options to their impression share metrics to better track and manage ads. It comes at a price, however, as Google will be phasing out impression share data in AdWords existing columns. In order to preserve historical impression share data from these columns, you’ll need to download the reports before November 1st, when they will be wiped out.
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