St. Louis Pay Per Click

Archive for the ‘PPC Information’ Category

Have you noticed several of the report options under the Reporting tab have been grayed out, including the Ad Group Performance, Campaign Performance, and Account Performance reports? These reports have now been moved to the Campaigns tab, under the Control panel and library section, where all your reports will now be stored and new versions of these reports can be created.

Creating a New Report

To create a new report, you must first go to the data under the Campaigns tab that you would like to report on and hit the button with the arrow. Make sure you have already chosen the date range that you would like in your report.

This will give you the option of naming your report, choosing the download format, adding segments such as month, day of week, click type, etc. You also have the option of choosing to have the report emailed to a user already specified in the My account tab.

Accessing Reports

Once you have created a new report, they will now be stored in the Control panel and library section.  All of the reports you have created in the past will now be shown here (and are not limited to the last 15 reports created as with the previous interface).

Dimensions

If you are creating reports with large amounts of data from a longer time period, you may need to use the Dimensions tab. (It can be found next to the Ad extensions tab. If it isn’t showing, click the arrow next to the Ad extensions tab and check the box.) If you try to create a report with large amounts of data without using the Dimensions feature, you may get a message that the report cannot be created. By using the Dimensions feature, you can view and segment data across an ad groups, campaign or your entire account.

Recently, Google made the broad match modifier available globally. Now that it is offered in the US, how can you use it in your campaigns? In short, it will allow you to be somewhere in between broad and phrase match with your keywords.  Currently, with broad match Google automatically runs your ads on what it deems “relevant” keywords, even if they aren’t in your actually keyword list.  For example, if you have the broad match keyword red cars, your ad has the potential to show when a user searches for blue cars, because broad match is just that: broad. But, changing all keywords to phrase match makes it nearly impossible to capture every version of a keyword, including plurals, misspellings, and countless other variations.

With modified broad match, you can still get the benefits of your ad showing on variations of your keyword without showing for completely different keywords. So, by adding a “+” in front of one (or many) of your keywords, AdWords will make sure that that keyword is within a user’s search query and only show for that word or a variation of (such as plurals, misspellings or acronyms).  For example, +red cars will ensure that a user searching for blue cars wont trigger your ad, your ad will only show for search terms such as red car, red cars, red vehicle, and red automobile.  And adding the “+” to both keywords, such as +red +car will trigger your ad on keywords such as red sport car and red sports cars.  More examples can be found this blog post from RKG.

This image from the Google AdWords blog post about the new broad match modifier illustrates each match type:

Websites have to accomplish many missions. One of the most important is being effective at getting people to perform. This action (conversion) can be  buying an item, submitting an email address, answering a survey, downloading a report or picking up the phone and giving you business a phone call. Your website conversion rate has a direct effect on your pay per click management campaign.

If a click on an ad costs $5 and you convert 1 out of 10 (conversion rate equal 1/10 or .10, then it costs you $50 per action. If you value that action at more than $50, it makes sense to use PPC in your Internet marketing strategy. Since PPC is an auction system and if the value of the actions are the same amongst competitors, then if you convert at a higher rate than your competitors, then you can bid a higher price per click and still achieve the same or better cost per action (cost per click / conversion rate = cost per action). Being able to bid a higher amount yields a higher position and more clicks which gets you more revenue than your competitors!

The Net Impact is a full service PPC agency, and our consultation and bid management services are designed to assist you in setting up your pay per click search campaigns from start to finish. Contact The Net Impact today to kick off your PPC Campaign!

A good place to start analyzing your pay per click campaign is reviewing the keywords that trigger your pay per click ads. It is important to remember that when people search these words in the search engines, they will be more likely to click your ad if the copy matches the keyword as closely as possible. To keep unwanted clicks from filling up your campaign, weed out generic and common words in your keyword research. Making keywords more specific to your product will help bring targeted traffic to your website.

If you have a significant amount of relevant keywords, but you still are not receiving the number of clicks you were hoping for, you might need to rethink your content. The best way to succeed with your Pay Per click campaign is to test different content at the same time. A good online strategy is to have two or more ads running for each group of keywords. That way, when someone searches for a keyword in that group, they will be shown one of those three ads. After a few weeks, you will be able to see which of the three ads brings the most traffic to your website. Then revise, delete or pause the underperforming ads to increase the effectiveness of the campaign.

Whether you are trying to get ranks in the organic results of a search engine or whether you are running a PPC campaign, it is critical that you select the right keywords to bring in the most targeted traffic.  

The Net Impact uses competitive marketing research to find the initial keywords for your new pay per click campaign. Keywords are determined based on reviewing competitor keywords and monthly search results of customers interested in your product or service. Contact The Net Impact today to establish a Pay-Per-Click Campaign that fits your online needs.

After The Net Impact, a full-service online interactive agency,  completed search engine optimization and a successful conversion strategy for Key to Metals,the world’s most comprehensive database of metals, the next step in their online marketing strategy was to optimize their current global pay per click management campaign and maximize conversions.  Key to Metals had several geo-targeted campaigns in place in order to target specific countries; however, the company’s global campaigns were not performing; click-through-rates and conversions were low and cost-per-click was relatively high compared to the targeted campaigns. The challenge was to create a new, global campaign that maximized conversions with a relatively low cost-per-click.

The Net Impact first reviewed Key to Metals current pay per click campaigns to use as a baseline for the new global campaign. A thorough review of current website analytics was done as well as a comprehensive industry analysis to determine industry-specific terms, strategies, and competitors’ ad text and search terms.  Extensive keyword research was performed to determine optimal campaign keywords based on previous campaigns and current search terms and volume. The Net Impact created several ad groups within the new global campaign in order to better target recommended keywords. Next, several sets of targeted ads were created for each ad group with a clear call to action and a targeted landing page. 

Once the new campaign was designed and implemented, The Net Impact monitored the new campaign closely for 30 days, optimizing and testing keywords to gain an understanding of what search terms visitors were using to find the Key to Metals site as well as what keywords were converting.

As a result, The Net Impact delivered an effective global campaign that sent qualified traffic to the Key to Metals website increasing conversions while lowering cost-per-click. In addition, the click-through rate of the new campaign more than tripled that of existing global campaigns. After the campaign implementation and monitoring period, The Net Impact created a detailed report indentifying future steps needed to maintain the success of the new global campaign.

“The Net Impact team provided a comprehensive review of our online presence which has resulted in significant improvements across several dimensions.  Of particular importance was the development of a substantially revised PPC campaign which delivered enhanced targeting, greater CTR and lower overall costs.  We look forward to further improvements to our global online presence and leadership in the material database niche by applying TNI’s recommendations  and methodology to our websites and PPC campaigns in German, Italian, Spanish and other languages, said Viktor Pocajt, Key to Metals AG Founder.”

The Net Impact is a full service PPC agency, and our consultation and bid management services are designed to assist you in setting up your pay per click search campaigns from start to finish. Contact The Net Impact today to learn more about our Pay Per Click Campaign Program.

This year, Google has created two new ways to incorporate phone numbers into your pay per click ads. Having a phone number in your ad can allow visitors to connect directly to you and easily get information or complete a conversion, which is not always easy from a mobile device.  Here are the two different ways you can include a phone number in your PPC ads:

Click-to-Call Phone Numbers

Earlier this year, Google announced click-to-call phone numbers, which are available on local and national ads that appear on mobile devices such as the iPhone, Android, and Palm Pre. This feature will allow you to add a phone number, which will appear as the last line of your text ad. This lets  users on mobile devices easily click on your phone number to call, rather than navigating through your website from their device. 

Here is an example of the ad on a mobile device from the Google blog:

Setting us this feature is very simple.  In AdWords, under ‘Locations, Languages, and Demographics’, set up the location extension and add your phone number.  Then, make sure you’ve chosen to show your ads on mobile devices under ‘Networks, Devices, and Extensions”. Once that is done, your phone number will now show when your ad is displayed on mobile devices.  To view the clicks on the phone number, under the ‘Campaign’ tab, click ‘Segment” and then on ‘Click Types’.

Phone Numbers In Ads

This is a brand new feature and is only currently being tested by a few advertisers.  This feature allows you to include a phone number in your ad that is not included directly in the text of an ad.  Google confirmed to Search Engine Land that they were testing this feature:

“We’re currently testing a feature with a small number of advertisers in which a phone number can be included within the ad to help them more effectively engage with customers who prefer to connect over the phone.”

This is different from the click-to-call phone numbers and is not likely to be a browser extension.  Not much else is known about this feature at this time. Here is an example of an ad with the phone number included, also from Search Engine Land:

Google AdWords has many different extensions that allow for increased versatility with your PPC ads.   I have been writing about these extensions in the last few posts, including local extensions, site links, and product extensions.  Google debuted yet another new extension earlier this year that is still in beta testing called ‘Contact Form Extension’. The Contact Form Extension will be an expandable feature in your PPC ad that will allow visitors to fill out a contact form directly from your ad, rather than clicking through to your site.

The following image from PPC Hero provides an example of what the drop-down will look like:

 

The form will allow you to collect information on the visitor, including name, phone number, address, and up to 3 custom questions, all for the price of a click. However, this will only be available to the ad in the top position. PPC Hero was selected to test this feature and explains in detail how it works in this blog post.

There are pros and cons to this new feature.  On the plus side, it can simplify the conversion process. However, you may miss the opportunity to draw visitors in to your landing page and provide additional them with additional information that may lead them down the path to conversion.  And, users might be reluctant to offer up contact information such as their phone number so quickly.  This might also mean an increase in the bid needed to maintain the number one position. For more thoughts on the advantages and disadvantages from ROI Revolution on this new extension, read this article from BGAmedia.  This is only in beta right and the time this feature rolls out to all, there may be some changes so it will be interesting to watch and see the effect this new feature will have.

Back in November, Google AdWords introduced two new features, Ad Sitelinks and Product Extension.  Both are tools that you can use to enhance your PPC ads and direct traffic to internal pages within your site.

With Ad Sitelinks, you can choose internal links to display beneath a new or existing ad in your campaign, up to 4 destination URLs.  Doing so will allow you to pick pages that you would like users to find easily from your PPC ads and direct visitors deeper within your site without having to send all users to the same landing page.

Currently, only some accounts are eligible for this feature, based on the quality of the ads in the account.  To check if this feature is available on your account, look under the Campaign Settings tab under the Ad Extensions section.

The Product Extension feature also allows you to direct traffic to internal pages by displaying images of your product. You can include titles and prices with your images. You are charged the same cost per click as other PPC ads, and are not charged if a user expands the ad to view the images but does not click through to your site.

To set this feature up, you must have the images, titles, and keywords in your Merchant Center account that you would like to use, and then link your Merchant Center account to your AdWords account. This can be done by adding your AdWords customer ID to your Merchant Center account.  Then, go to Campaign Settings and under the Ad Extensions section and select “Use product images and information from my Google Merchant Center Account”.

One of the most important aspects of a successful PPC campaign is choosing your keywords. Choosing the wrong keywords for your campaign can result in users never finding your site or can waste your advertising budget on non-targeted traffic.  But how do you choose your keywords? There are countless tools to estimate search volume and competition of specific keywords.  But, this research from Marketing Sherpa finds that looking at keywords that are already driving traffic and conversions is the best method of determining which keywords to choose.

Understanding the terms that your customers are using is critical to finding the best keywords and this research supports that idea.  Determining the keywords that actual customers are using is critical, and can be done looking at your analytics to determine keywords that are currently directing traffic to your site as well as your site search to find out what visitors are looking for when they are on your site.  Analyzing competitor’s sites is also an important tactic in determining popular industry-specific terms.  Using keyword tools is still one aspect of choosing the right keywords, but should be used in conjuction with many other research methodologies as well.

Local Extensions allow you to show your local business address with your PPC ad.  These ads will display a plus sign next to the ad on search engine results pages, allowing users to click on the plus sign to access additional information about your business. Along with the address, the ad will display a map and directions to your business.  This type of localization of a PPC ad is a great way to increase the trust level and authenticity of your business while allowing visitors to easily find your location.

Add an address at the campaign level:

Campaign level extensions will appear with all relevant ads in your campaign.

To add and address at the campaign level, go to the Settings tab and make changes under the Ad Extensions section. If you are a business owner, select this option to link your existing Local Business Center account to your campaign. There is no limit to the number of address you can add.  If you are a non-business owner, select this option to manually enter your address. You can enter up to 9 different addresses.

Select an address at the ad level:

When using ad level extensions, you can choose one address to be the only address that displays with a given ad.  If the address is not relevant to the user, no address information will be shown. This allows you to promote specific information for one location.  For example, if one location of your business is offering a special and the others are not.  This also allows you to direct those users to a targeted landing page with that special offer.

To display a certain address with an ad, click on the edit icon next to the ad, and then select “Always show with one address”.  A box will appear with all of the addresses you entered at the campaign level, allowing you to just choose one to appear with the ad.