Google to follow Facebook by adding more 'Social Proof" into its ads
Value/Importance: [rating=5] (For Marketer's investing in Google AdWords]
Recommended link: Google's Shared Endorsements
You may have seen the new privacy agreement in Google recently?
It's the precursor of a big change to Google's Sponsored Ads, the intention is revealed in Google's Terms of Conditions for the ads above that state that
'We want to give you, and your friends and connections, the most useful information. Recommendations from people that you know can really help. So your friends, family and others may see your Profile name and photo, and content like the reviews that you share or the ads that you +1’d.
This only happens when you take an action (things like +1’ing, commenting or following) –…
A 6 Step approach for Targeting Local PPC Campaigns
Last month, I shared my tips for carrying out a local SEO audit on your website. But that’s only half the story.
It’s not just your organic SEO that needs to be geo-targeted. With Google placing a great visual emphasis and authority on PPC adverts, you should be integrating geo-targeted ads in your marketing mix. A geo-targeted PPC campaign works best for businesses who perform their services locally, but could attract customers from further afield.
Let's take a UK example, Mrs Jones runs Blue Widget Weddings, a store selling wedding dresses in Redditch, UK.
She obviously wants to attract brides from her local area – Redditch, Bromsgrove, Birmingham and Droitwich. This makes Mrs Jones the perfect candidate for a local PPC campaign.
Six step Paid Search campaign plan for a local business
Here, is a six step plan she, or any other local…
A checklist and examples of all the key AdWords changes you should review
2013 has seen some of the biggest shake-ups in Google AdWords to date. For example Enhanced Campaigns became mandatory on the 22nd of July, so this post looks at some of the recent changes to AdWords and how you can use them to your advantage.
Device Targeting and Bid Adjustments
The most controversial change from Enhanced Campaigns has delivered is the shake up with device targeting. In previous times, best practice has always been to target mobiles and tablets in separate campaigns (away from desktop campaigns) because they perform differently. This also allowed the advertiser control over the split in spend between tablet, mobile and desktop.
The AdWords interface has now changed so dramatically that you can no longer target tablets separately because Google believe they perform in the same way as desktop devices (in my experience they don’t, but who…
Five Powerful PPC Tips to Get More from your Google AdWords Campaign
Optimising PPC campaigns can seem daunting, especially for beginners. But when you know how to get the best out of Google AdWords, optimisation suddenly seems a whole lot easier. It can take years to learn the nuances of Google’s advertising platform, but by keeping a few key principles in mind, you can seriously boost your efficiency and ROI.
In this post I'll share my five tips are my PPC ‘golden rules’ – the key things that everyone involved in campaign optimisation needs to know. Every paid search account is different. But with a bit of brain power, patience and attention to detail, you can apply these principles to any campaign you’re working on.
Auditing your AdWords account with BidCops
To help marketers audit their PPC as part of optimisation, we've developed BidCops, ClickThrough Marketing’s free AdWords audit tool. The 5 auditing and…
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July 23, 2013
Keeping up-to-date with the latest Adwords innovation
Importance (to AdWords users): [rating=5]
Recommended link: AdWords announcement of Enhanced campaigns
This year Google have been shipping enhancements to AdWords at a feisty pace. We thought that it would be helpful to take stock and review some of these key changes.
We notifying this update now since from July 22nd 2013 Google is automatically migrating all users to the new Enhanced campaigns feature. Google notes that a fair proportion of campaigns have still not been migrated since the announcement of the new feature in February...
"Advertisers have upgraded over 6 million legacy campaigns, representing almost 75% of active campaigns".
This blog post covers these 4 main additions for which I give more detailed advice in the newly updated Smart Insights Guide to Getting More ROI with AdWords.
1. Enhanced campaigns
2. Auction Insights tool
3. Automated rules
4. Dynamic Remarketing ads.
1.…
We like this simple PPC advice released by Finch on how to implement and optimize a PPC campaign for ecommerce sites, though it can be adapted across different sectors.
It's a useful checklist for those who are perhaps new to managing adword campaigns, in 9 steps for planning, execution and monitoring your campaign. For in-depth advice on how to manage and review AdWords for marketing managers working with specialists in-house or in company, see our 72 page 7 Steps to AdWords Success Guide.
Here's a summary of the tips from the infographic.
1. Optimise for visits2. Optimise for conversions3. Maximise your ad creative - see our tips4. Define your keyword management strategy5. Reveal all of your inventory.6. Target your visitors.7. Optimise for revenue8. Optimise for profit ad9. Finally, see how your adwords rank.
…
The Top Movers report helps review how Ad ROI changes
Value/Importance: [rating=3]
Recommended link: Adwords New Top Movers report
Whether you manage AdWords Hands-on, or manage others internally or at an agency, we thought this was a useful addition to AdWords. The new Top Movers Report will help you compare Volume and Cost changes for each campaign quickly. You can compare periods of 7, 14, or 28 days, so it's ideal for weekly or monthly reviews although click quality and value measures need to be accessed from elsewhere.
How to access the new Top Mover Adword report?
Select the 'Dimensions Tab' to view this report.
In brief, it provides a comparison of two consecutive periods, and shows the campaigns and ad groups with the greatest changes in that period and potential…
An example of using Google's Multichannel funnels reports to prove the value of digital media
There have been quite a few recent stories detailing how big brands such as Interflora have fallen foul of Google or announcing they have ‘stopped using’ digital marketing as it ‘doesn’t work’. For example, a piece of research conducted by Ebay, led to reports in the trade press claiming that ‘PPC doesn’t work’.
These stories led me to dig a little deeper into the research conducted by eBay to identify what the real story was and not what the press would lead us to believe. The test conducted by eBay in essence stopped paid search on non-brand keywords for 60 days and results indicated that on average ‘consumers do not shop more on eBay when they are exposed to paid search ads on Google’. They found therefore that Google ads did not play a role in…
A quick guide to finding out
A recent article published on Optify highlighted some surprising data on use of PPC which stated:
57 percent of (B2B) marketers spent no time on Pay Per Click, and only 4 percent spend more than 15 hours per week.
I found this a surprising statement and it made me wonder if experiences shared by marketers who "fell out of love with PPC" has led to B2B marketers abandoning the channel all together? I hope not, I don't believe it is about all or nothing in PPC, I think you can find that sweet spot where you target spend carefully to get the return on investment you need.
The data from this survey certainly suggests there are missed opportunities in Pay Per Click using AdWords.
The Optify data also suggests a decline in sites using Paid search.
…
A briefing on Product Listing Ads and Google Shopping changes
From today, February 13, Google will phase out free listings in UK Shopping searches. As Google Shopping changes, marketers will need to budget for clicks they previously got for free and get to grips with the Merchant Center, product feeds and product listing ads.
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive, but those who can best manage change.” – Charles Darwin
Change is coming. After ten years of sending free consumer traffic to online businesses, Google Shopping is ending its charity. From February 13, free listings will begin to disappear from Google Shopping.
In their place, we’ll soon see more and more of the Product Listing Ads: big, shiny, image-led adverts which contain all the info a shopper needs to make a purchase there and then. This is…
