Make sure you don't fall foul of these common but expensive AdWords mistakes
When it’s used correctly, Google AdWords can be a fantastic way to drive relevant visitors to your website and generate new enquiries or online sales for your business. AdWords works well for all sorts of products/services and you don’t need a huge budget to get started. Plus, it’s quick and simple to set up a basic AdWords campaign even if you’ve never done it before.
And that’s where the problems start. Yes, it is very easy for a beginner to set up and run their own AdWords account, but if you just accept all the default settings and don’t take the time to properly understand all the finer points of how AdWords works, you’ll end up spending a lot and getting very little return on your advertising budget.
Here we provide a list of the top 10 most costly Adwords…
Our summary of the wide number of changes to Google AdWords and Analytics announced at the Google Performance Summit.
Value: [rating=5] (Webmasters, Account Managers, SEM Professionals, PPC Professionals)
Recommended links: Google Analytics blog & Google AdWords Blog
Yesterday (24th May 2016) Google announced a whole host of changes to their AdWords and Analytics platforms, citing the shift in mobile as the reason.
"The shift to mobile is no longer a change on the horizon. It’s here."
During the Google Performance Summit, the likes of Jerry Dischler (VP for Search Ads) & Brad Bender (VP for Display & Video Ads) talk through the steps and the processes involved in the decisions behind the changes. Skip to around the 27 minutes to get into the nitty gritty.
For the sake of not making this article too confusing I'm going to split the changes up into two sections:
…
Avoid those common PPC Mistakes to maximise your campaigns
As I work with new clients to improve their PPC campaigns, there are some common mistakes I see again and again. These include both the way the account is set up and the overall strategy of where to focus PPC spend. In this post I'll recommend a number of tools and techniques that can help you avoid these mistakes and so boost campaign ROI in AdWords.
1. Not analysing enough data
One simple mistake that marketers make is that they don't analyse enough data to come to a statistically reliable decision. When you first start out testing and you see that one ad has 15 clicks and one has 12 and come to the conclusion that the one with 15 is better. However here you would not have enough data to make a reliable decision and are at risk of choosing the wrong advert as your winner.
To…
6 Migration musts for advertisers to prepare for the switch
Remember 2012 when Google switched Google Shopping over to paid ads, and merchants on Google had a collective pain attack? It's happening again.
Google recently announced they are switching the current version of Product Listing Ads (PLAs) over to the newer Google Shopping Campaigns format. This will happen by August 2014.
It's similar to the initial introduction of paid Product Listing Ads from (October 2012), when Google completely changed how Google Product Search functioned, and required merchants to make the switch within a certain timeline (July 2012).
This time, to prepare, read the PLA Guide.
How is Google changing Google Shopping and how can you get ready? Below are the details of how Google Shopping Campaigns are different from current Product Listing Ads, Google Shopping Campaigns best practices.
Google Shopping Campaigns vs. Current PLAs
Google Shopping Campaigns are at…
8 Tips for passing Google’s AdWords Exams
As Google continues to put a squeeze on traditional SEO techniques with its algorithm updates (more of which are certainly on the way in 2014), there’s been an increasing demand for pay-per-click services from clients who no longer feel they can compete or get the traffic they need in organic search.
This means that if you’re a digital marketer with good experience of using AdWords, now is a great time to get yourself accredited under Google’s AdWords certification programme. The programme consists of two exams, which, if passed, enable you to become a certified expert on AdWords PPC advertising.
Even if you’re not too bothered about the accreditation, I’d still encourage anyone who uses AdWords regularly to take the exams, that goes for both client-side and agency-side marketers.
What does the Google Adwords Exam cover?
The exams cover all aspects of AdWords, so in the course of revising…
By
November 26, 2013
Practical tips to improve AdWords click volume and quality, particularly relevant for B2B and low volume B2C accounts
PPC traffic, in most accounts, have a very uneven distribution between the ad groups. What I find is that usually there are a few ad groups that get lots of traffic and then lots of long tail ad groups that each get a little bit of traffic.
This makes ad improvement tricky for the majority of ad groups. In order to improve ads we always run 2 or 3 ads in an ad group to see which one performs best over time and then optimise towards the best performer. So unless the ad groups ads have each had a high number of impressions and clicks then we cannot make a decision on which ad is performing best.
Fine for the few high traffic ad groups, but less easy for the majority of the ad groups.
This…
By
November 1, 2013
We find that keyword match types are an important aspect of Adwords that there is often confusion about. It is so fundamental that all Adwords customers understand this that I thought I would try and summarise it more clearly than Google do! We also cover the topic in more depth in the Smart Insights 7 Steps guide to improving AdWords ROI that I recently updated.
I will cover these two areas of good practice in this post:
Keyword match typesNegative keyword match types
It is worth doing this because; although negative keywords and standard keywords share the same basic match types (broad, phrase and exact) these terms actually have different meanings and functions with the two types of keywords.
1. Keyword Match Types
Exact Match
The users search term must exactly match a keyword in your account in…
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…
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…
