As I manage quite a few PPC campaigns I always notice the silly and sometimes not so silly mistakes that advertisers make with their PPC programs. Mistakes when creating PPC ads, click fraud detection, and lack of testing are just a few of them. Fixing each of these mistakes could mean an extra 70% of revenue or a savings of thousands of dollars every month.
Below is a list (we all love those lists don’t we?) of the most common mistakes marketers make with their paid search (PPC) advertising campaigns.
1. Bidding Broad - It’s important to not be lazy when setting up that campaign of yours. Every industry has their giant keywords that bring the most traffic but there are many more variation of keywords that are being searched. The more you focus on the “long tail keywords”, the less you’re going to pay per click. Furthermore, your ads will be ranked higher if the keyword is closer matched. Take your 100 keywords and make them into 200 by just looking at your own web statistics for exact keyword variations people use to search for your product.
2. Fighting for #1 Spot - Most of the time (from my experience), being #1 ad in paid search results is not the brightest strategy, especially if you’re paying a lot per click and the keyword is broad. I found that one of THE best ranks in paid search is being #3 (top left side for Google). Look, most people do research before they buy online. Being #1 could mean that you’ll attract visitors who might have not used the right keyword for their search or ones that are just starting their research and thus … you’ll be remembered last when they are ready to buy.
3. Avoiding Geo-targeting - Even if what you sell works all over US or world, people are still more keen on using a local provider or at least a company that recognizes “their state”. It’s just a psychological thing. Google and other search engines allow you to geo-target your PPC ads by state. Create 50 ads and drop in the state name inside the ad. You will surely get a higher click through rate (CTR) and thus a lower CPC. Furthermore … right from the start, your visitor will know that you “recognize” their location.
4. Losing Relevance on Landing Page - Whatever you say in your ad … repeat it on the landing page where you’re taking the visitor! If you are advertising an 80% sale in your ad, you can be sure that people are looking for it when they land on your landing page. If they don’t see it … they leave. It’s kind of like a scent they pick up on when they read your PPC ad and look for when they land on a page you take them to.
5. Getting Rid of Fraud Networks - Every paid search engine, be it Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc, has a network to which they distribute your ads. Unfortunately, many of these networks are fraudulent and do not refer quality traffic. Look into your web statistics and find domain names that bring you traffic with a high bounce rate. Usually it will be around 90%. Google allows you to drop these domains into a “negative excluded sites” folder while Yahoo and others make you call them to address the problem. Doing this will prevent you from paying for garbage traffic.
6. Being Boring - I still see marketers go online, search for a keyword, look at the advertisers (competition) and create ads to fit in with the “community”. Silly right? Unfortunately, very true. Anytime you create a paid ad you MUST look at what is already being said by the advertisers and come up with something unique and yet relevant. It’s a tough one but you have to identify what is unique about you and why people should buy from you. Just make sure that it’s what your target market wants and cares about.
7. Using Telephone Numbers - Using a telephone number within your PPC ad is an eye catcher … that’s all. Not many people will pick up their phone and dial your number if they see your ad. So what you’re doing is just wasting space that can be used for a good message. Tests have been done and this was proven quite a few times … get rid of that phone number in the ad.
8. Not Bidding for Your Name - If your competition is targeting your company name as a keyword I’d suggest taking legal actions (if applicable). In our company we send out those legal letters at least every other month to a competitor. If you’re in a different situation … bidding for your keywords will mean more traffic and another real estate space devoted to you on that search results page. I’d even bid for the company name if there were no competitors at all. You will pay around 0.05 to 0.10 cents per click and see the amount of searches (impressions) that are done for your brand name. A little of extra statistics that shows you the possible growth of your company.
9. Lack of Affiliate Control - The company name is usually the highest converting keyword. Your affiliates know this and advertise under your company’s name in paid search. What happens is that not only do you now have to pay your affiliate for the sale “they” brought in, but you’ve already paid your due with your own advertising methods for that customer to know your name before the search. Be sure to prevent your affiliates advertising in paid search for your company’s name. All they are doing there is collecting the cash from your own advertising.
10. Not Separating Content Match from Search Results - This is a mistake 101. Yes it takes time, but any campaign should separate their regular search advertising from content match. This will allow you to get better reporting, set different cost per click, different budget and overall have a cleaner look at both of these campaigns. Just separate into 2 campaigns. Both will have same keywords but one campaign will be created only for “search” and the other one for “content match”.
11. Ignoring the Seasonal Copy - It works. Including a seasonal discount or a “holiday special” in your ad copy is a great way to increase your CTR and get more sales. Furthermore, your ad will clearly stand out from the rest. Make it a Christmas special, Spring special, Summer blow out, etc. Make it relevant to “today”.
12. Lack of “Exact Tracking” - You must be able to track every visit to your site from PPC advertising by the exact keyword, campaign and ad group used. To do so you can set variables (yourcompany.com/?keyword) or integrate your PPC campaigns with your website analytics software. This is the only way you can really calculate the effectiveness of every keyword you use to get traffic.
13. Paying for Negative Keywords - Google and other search engines allow you to report keywords for which your ads should not be shown. If you’re paying for “broad match” keywords, you’ll see a lot of visits from people who’ve typed your keyword with a word “free” or “stock” or “jobs”. Do you want to pay money for visitors who’re looking to pay $0 for what you sell? Do you want to pay money for visitors who are researching stock info on what you sell? Be sure to use that “negative keyword folder” to get rid of these worthless clicks.
14. Mistaking CTR with conversion rate when testing ads - We love to test and that’s great, but what should marketers look for when choosing which ads to keep and which to delete? Looking only at the CTR (click through rate) is a false indication of a better performing ad. If you add a word “FREE” to your ad, you’ll see a jump in your CTR but what good will it do?
15. Not Using Keywords in Ad Copy - This is a simple one. Put keywords into your ad copy for which you are serving the ad. Not only will your ad be more relevant but the keywords in it are going to be bold.
16. Not Calling Google - Ok, I am not a fan of being a “rat” or telling on someone, but my friend … when it comes to business and playing fair, you have every right to raise a flag when you see a competitor engaging in bad techniques. You’ll notice some of your competitors creating multiple accounts and having 2 ads simultaneously on the Google PPC results page. Google has a policy against this. Call Google and let them know if your competitor is doing anything that’s against the rules of the search engine. You’ll be amazed how quickly they take care of the problem.
17. Avoiding Brand Name Keywords - It is unfortunate, but many companies do not take advantage of their competitors. How do you do this? Bid on their brand / company name. Think about it … anyone searching for your competitor could easily be your customer instead. Why not have your ad show up under that keywords? What if they are still shopping around? What if they are searching for your competitor’s name because they saw their TV or radio ad. Bottom line is, bid on your competitor’s brand names. Most of the time the ROI on those keywords is excellent. If you get a “legal letter” from the competitors and it holds water, I’d suggest comply with it.
Other related and helpful articles about PPC mistakes
Concerning not bidding broad, I think that this is a great idea. However, it is important to not completely ignore broader terms since sometimes an ad will help someone realize that they actually need your service. Having said that, do devote most of your budget on keywords further down the long tail since they will likely lead to higher ROIs.
Steven, I couldn't agree more. I could show numerous examples where we focused the PPC campaign on precise keyword combinations that led to a specific product page and the conversion rate was unbelievably high. A very high percentage of people who get specific enough to type in a 4-6 word product-related keyword combo in a Google search are ready-to-buy.
I remember a few weeks ago when I was taking about keyword selection for one of our clients, and all the words I suggested were long tail. He countered that sometimes we want to catch a broader audience who may not know about us and our services. It is nice every once in awhile to get pulled out of the SEO world to see what else is happening.
I hear ya. I would agree that it's important to have balance for your overall strategy.
I think the right balance of long-tail vs. broad really depends on what market demographic you are targeting.
Hi ,
Thanks a lot for this Knowledge transfer . These points are really helpful. But i want to add one more point.
Set demography.
As an example: my product is "Enterprise Mobility", My target zone is limited. So i need to set my target area for contextual targeting. Like age grp: My product is not for student, kid... So I need to set age limit .
Again thanks Igor..
Steven ... I didn't say that people shouldn't bid on broad terms ... heck I do it all the time .... it's just that I look at the broad terms and find more exact searches within the broad search. Hey, if that keyword variation gets 10 clicks a day I am making it a stand alone "Exact match" ad.
Understood. It is just important to not completely ignore broad terms. However, it is very wise to focus on more specific kewyords.
Do you use any software to assist in your PPC management? If so, which ones? and what features/attributes to like from each?
Thanks in advance,Zach
Do you use any software to assist in your PPC management? If so, which ones? and what features/attributes to like from each?
Thanks in advance,Zach
Steve
Question: How do you calculate ROIs on your PPC campaigns?
We're trtying to develop a formula for evaluating PPC campaigns adn would like input.
Thanks
Mike
I submitted the story to Netscape. If you have an account check it out here and be sure to add me as a friend if you haven't done so already.
Great post, but I think you missed the BIGGEST mistake most people make with PPC:
Use the daily budgets to limit their spend. In nearly all cases, you should limit your budget with PPC bid amounts. You leave money on your table otherwise.
Here's an example to help clarify. Suppose your client/boss told you: we only want to spend $50 a day. You set up a campaign that buys visitors at $.50 a click, giving you 100 clicks a day. Let's assume that if you had no cap, you could buy 500 $.50 clicks.
Now, if you lowered your bid to $.25, your total possible clicks would drop. But, if for example, the possible universe of $.25 clicks is 200, then you could hit your budget target simply by lowering your bid. You would then get twice as many clicks for the same budget.
You've now left 100 clicks on the table (or paid twice as much for the 100 that already got).
This is true. It is better to average out over a given period of time as it is nearly impossible to predict or arrange your spending at exactly a certain amount, especially with Google Adwords. It may be less difficult with Adbrite, but in general it is more important to maintain your campaign once at the beginning of the day, and once before the end of the day, for all days of your campaign. It only takes one minute to check up on your campaign, and in Adwords (although the reporting is unfortunately delayed by 3 hours) you have some flexibility to pause and resume keywords, ad groups, and campaigns.
Re: #7 - Only Google lets you do that now. Yahoo & MSN will not let you save an ad that lists a phone number in it. They don't want to run the risk of someone calling it and not generating revenue for them.
Oh, and for #15 you could mention the {KeyWord:default} tag as a useful keyword insertion too, it gets that bold text showing up a lot more :)
" {KeyWord:default} tag "
Sheseltine ... that's a good suggestion though it does take away the control over your ad. I've seen some companies decline to use it.
The number one mistake would be not doing it in the first place.
very true indeed.
#14 is crucial. The bottom line is conversion rate, and whether the high CTR leads to a high conversion rate or not is another step in analyzing the effectiveness of your campaign. Only looking at the cost per click or the clickthrough rate is short-sighted but a mistake that many newbies make.
I think this is one of the most important. I think so many marketers emphasize the CTR. I am still reading articles that show how to increase CTR but never mention watching conversions. Shoemoney did a post the other day on improving CTR but never mentioned conversions in his analysis which surprised me.
I have seen ads that have double/triple the CTR but the Conversion Cost is 2-3 times higher.
If the point of your campaign is branding, then I can understand driving higher CTRs. If however, you have a Cost per Lead/Purcahse at a set amount, then you need to focus on the Conversion Cost to provide the best returns on the campaign.
This might also be in part because people have not yet fused the "sales" aspect into SEM because it is essentially called Search Engine MARKETING, not Search Engine SALES. If was called Search Engine Marketing & Sales, then it would be more accurate. At least for conversion driven websites (almost all websites). Whether you are selling a product, looking for subscribers, looking for employeers, or seeking people to give donations to your charity, conversions always comes into play. Of course, it is also the type of conversion - do you want the one time client, the long-term client, the nitty-gritty picky client, the big-time client, etc. Do you want the big donation, or a sequence of small donations, that is where the marketing and sales have to join together.
That's where the buzz words associated with this industry become very fuzzy. What level of service and how deep do you dive into their internet marketing / online business model? That really depends on how much they're paying you, more services requires more time and more knowledge. If you take a look at Elance or any other job posting site you'll see people bidding amazing low for PPC management, but what exactly are they going to provide? For a very large PPC campaign you could spend a lot of hours a week adjusting ad spends, monitoring analytic data, picking new words, testing new ads, looking for trends, changing landing pages, trying to increase conversion ratio, etc. There is a point of diminishing returns and a lot of that depends on the budget of the client.
That's why for small clients, unless they posses the skills to effectively manage their own PPC campaign I believe in many cases they would be much better off investing in organic SEO services which build permanent value. To illustrate with a more specific example lets use an individual real estate agent or group of agents (like 2-5 agents working together.) Depending on the market they may have a budget of around $10,000 to spend on online advertising / marketing in a year (apart from their website costs and other advertising costs, print is still really big for real estate etc). That doesn't last that long with PPC when you factor in the labor costs for someone to manage it for them, but that same investment in organic SEO could easily rank them top ten for a hundred + terms including most of the searches they would be buying like "city state real estate"
Plus even if they stopped paying (they'll probably see such on ROI they won't want to) their rankings and traffic may not go away, because the white hat SEO tactics and grey hat tactics build permanent value and their website will continuously see benefit. If they continue for years into the future more and more value is built and there traffic becomes more and more defensible as their online presence grows.
The only major hurdle is they would have to find an search engine marketer that dosen't suck and dosen't cost $400 per hour and that's a challenge and where my income comes from.
Solomon ... why pick SEO over PPC again? Why start that discussion? :-)
Both are good if implemented correctly. I'd be really worried if all the start up had is 10K to spend on online advertising. What kind of capital is that?
Yes, some companies start with $500 but I wouldn't feel comfortable starting a business that requires advertising (duh) with only 10K in mind.
I was just making a point. I manage PPC campaigns and have a Google adwords qualified professional on staff, so I wasn't trying to make a general argument about why one if always better. I also don't mind working with staups that are under capitalized (As long as I get paid) lol.
I agree, You should always closely monitor your cost per conversion figures, however if you regularly optimise your ads CTRs, you can obtain an amazing quality score and this will help reduce your cost over time. This strategy can significantly increase the volume of site visitors and also reduce the average price you pay per lead. Improve your quality score, lower your cost and increase your ad ranking.If your CTR is strong and your cost per conversion is high, try reducing the number of broad matched keywords and consider using more keyword matching options in your campaigns. You should also pause all non-converting terms - especially those highest paying keywords and simply focus on search queries that are consistent in their performance.
This is a very well written list. I manage quite a few PPC campaigns myself and I would have to say that #12 is what I find most important.
You have to know how visitors interact with your site after they click on your ad. It is well worth your time to setup your web analytics software to track this.
Measurement is crucial. It may make sense or seem logical will act one way, but in many cases they don't. Thus, tracking the performance of any keyword is essential to understanding the ROI and effectiveness of any effort.
Thanks Igor, glad you made it at YOUmoz. At our Company we have been working on improving our PPC Campaigns, especially on what has to do with landing page, and proper tracking of productive keywords.
Thanks for the article Igor. I am interested in #10. I work for a small company and we are just getting into some PPC. I have heard about all of hte other tips before but #10. Can someone explain that one to me a little more? What is the difference between search match and content match and how do I build campaigns for both?
Thanks in advance for the help.
RTMike,
I'd suggest you call Google Paid Search support people. They are helpful when it comes to setting up and modifying your account. Their number is ... 866-2GOOGLE
Great article Igor, it has given me several new ideas that I need to address. I would add another PPC mistake, perhaps so basic that you didn't mention it --
18. Not performing A/B split testing. This is a basic direct marketing principle that is a must. I am runing a campaign for a client who is a life coach with an A/B split, which I always use. The "winnning" ad has a 4.77% CTR, the "loser" a 0.34% CTR. The difference titles and copy changes can make is staggering. As per your advice, I always make the "A" ad title match the search term as closely as possible, and it usually (but not always!) wins. I have my client's permission to share these results but haven't posted them yet, will put a link up when I do.
Mitch,
I would agree that A/B testing is a must; however I would refer you to #14.
When measuring the success of ads, it is not CTR that matters it is conversion. Even if the site is not selling anything, there are other things you can do to measure conversion: landing pages, contact forms, e-mails, etc.
Thanks,
-John W Ellis
https://www.JohnWEllis.com
Ok heres a question regarding #17 and #8.
When you've SEO'd the site and under the company name your in no1 position on the big 3 search engines, you've stopped competitors bidding on the name, so its all good things with the top 3 listings being from your site....
then why continue bidding? (for search listings NOT content)
Are you not wasting money on people being lazy who would otherwise click on your natural listing? Yours is the only add shown, without it they just go straight to your natural listing correct?
Rob
Robbothan,
Let me give you an example from one of the companies I manage. The benefit of bidding for your own name ... even if there is no one else bidding on it is ...
1) You get extra data from Google such as impressions, clicks, etc.
2) CPC for your brand name is so little that with 200 clicks a day, it's insufficient amount of dollars (for our budget).
3) More real estate. Yes naturally the company might own top 3 rankings, BUT there is always #4, 5, 6, 7, 8,9 and 10.
You said
I am OK with them being lazy. Our own brand name gives the highest conversion and it's not surprising. I am OK with paying $0.10 per click that results in a 16% conversion rate.
cool, thanks for that Igor,
Having read everything over on the subject i'd have to agree, seems that more "real estate" is good, plus with removing others bidding on our company name we should be ok.
Mainly the PPC on the names is something the MD's where complaining about due to ethics, that we shouldnt bid on competitors and they shouldnt bid on ours.
Rob
Igor, I've referred to this post several times and have found it helpful in my PPC campaigns -- thank you for writing it!
Long-tail PPC has been great this year for our adwords. We can cheat on the broad keywords rule a little because we use Geo-location to target a local area. But otherwise, complete agree.
Everyone marketer who is doing PPC Adwords should know these mistakes to know where they are going wrong and why. As said it will increase the revenue and helps in ranking, saving the cost. It is more important while bidding where we are positing the ad. It’s better to know more before starting. Very factual article. Looking ahead to see more articles on PPC from you.
Not to mention one of the biggest sins - forgetting to set your location targeting from the get go. #14 - yes higher CTR does not mean higher landing page conversions. #7 - I do not know if I would necessarily agree with this in ALL cases (no phone numbers in ads), though your ideas on this are quite sound (who will phone only after 2 lines of ad copy). However, what if it was an emergency, such as a geyser bursting or dog having a fit or some other type of critical emergency - actually putting the phone number in the ad makes a lot of sense. Better yet, using those nifty ad extensions could do the trick even better.
Don't know if I'm allowed to post this here, but here are 77 more adwords mistakes I wrote about a few days ago: leanmarketing.co.za/adwords-tips [Should have set the url to adwords mistakes ... XD]
Reg #2
I agree that some companies can make their advertising more successful by showing their ads on the standard sponsored link section. However before you reduce your ad rankings, you should know why you are doing so and know - not guess - how you can benefit from that. I recommend to use the Google Analytics keyword position tool - this report displays search positions correlated with visits, conversions and revenue for each of your keywords, giving you a clear idea of how much money you make from each ad position. Find the best performing ad rankings and turn more clicks into profit.
Good post!! Little details we miss out on......
Thanks, Bob.
This post has been sending a ton of traffic from stumbleupon, way to go IgorMord!
Hey, my pleasure.
Thanks guys for the positive comments. Now Oatmeal ... let's talk about doing a 301 to my Blog for that Stumbleupon traffic you're getting? ;-)
Oh and just for the record .... full last name is Mordkovich
I need to change that on SEOMoz.
Great Info! My comments are too long for a reply here, and relate specifically to exceptions and issues in real estate related PPC campaigns, which only a select type of user would be interested in, so they are posted at:
https://www.realestatewebmasters.com/blogs/ronnieg/695/show/
Great post. Bookmarked!
Thank You IgorMord, Now only i came to know about my mistakes thans for that , Hope i will not commit it after i practise this
Great list. Is it possible to create an inverse list for those people hosting PPC ads on their blog or website. Perhaps detailing the usage of blacklistings, the placement of PPC ads, etc.
Thanks!
Great post and very true. I realized recently that I was not bidding for our main companies name. Within a week or two of adding our name as a keyword, I found we were loosing a lot of traffic and missed clicks. Plus the CPC for those keywords is pretty low. I'm sure there are a large majority of people who just overthought using their business' or parent companies name. Great article!
I've also found that the #1 spot isn't usually worth it.
Great post.
Yeah #1 is usually over priced.
Unless you convert so hard that you drive up the price across the board and drive out competitors. Sometimes the #1 is the only position that matters (although infrequent, this scenario does exist)
Searchstudent,
You're absolutely right. Sometimes there are industries / situations where being #1 is actually a good thing. Coming back to "generalities" I would do a lot of testing before committing to a #1 ad strategy.
That just drives up the price of your own bid over time. You're bidding against yourself!
I think most smaller companies in markets with lots of PPC competition would see more of a return on their investoment by using those resources for an organic search engine optimization compaign combined with some targeted website advertising (like buying sponsored listing on appropiate portals and niche directories.)
My company manages a few medium PPC campagins and has a Google adwords professional on staff. With that said the article has a great list of points and i'm very happy they moved it to the main blog. I hope you get some click throughs and enough thumbs up that they validate your profile link.
I would add to the testing advice, USE ANALYTICS (google analytics or Indextools are both great), get as much information about what your PPC visitors do when they get to your site. On competitive words you could be paying as much $50 per click so even the smallest usability changes can have HUGE effects on ROI.
On Being boring - sometimes it can pay off to be VERY boring or maybe boring is too harsh of a word, but VERY specific to decrease the amount of non-converting click thrus. If you have a very sexy non specific enough ad, you may be paying out a lot for people just browsing. Since you're paying per click the goal is to attract as many buyers as possible, not as many click thrus as possible.
Thanks for the post Igor. I think this is what you're saying in your comment above, but isn't broad match a good way to find those keywords you'll use later in exact match? I've seen recommendations to accept a loss bidding on broad match keywords early to get the feedback loop going and find the more profitable keywords to use on exact match.
I'm curious how #8 and #17 work together in the above tips. Aren't you advising us to take legal action against someone bidding on our brand and also recommending to bid on competitor's brand?
That's what I was thinking, i am not sure if your are contradicting yourself here Igor.
Either way good post.
Vangogh,
"but isn't broad match a good way to find those keywords you'll use later in exact match?"
Exactly my point. Marketers should use broad match and then look at their stats to find more searches that can be made into EXACT match and thus lower the cost of the click and make the ad more relevant. Remember I wrote .... take your 100 keywords (broad or exact) and create 100 more variations out of them.
# 8 and #17 .... I call it capitalism. :-) Bidding on your competitor's brand name has given my companies a lot of business. Hey, if they allow it (their name is not trademarked or they don't send us legal papers) I am all for it. My company on the other hand has a legal trademark on the brand name and once we see a competitor bidding on our brand name we shoot them a nicely written legal letter. Works well.
I had a feeling that's what you were saying with broad match and thought I'd confirm it. I think it's great advice too.
I see the distinction now between #8 and #17. The legal part comes in because of the brand being trademarked. I missed that earlier and it makes sense. Thanks for clearing it up for me.
By the way I'm glad to see this post moved to the main blog. There have been a lot of good YOUmoz posts already, but I though this one might be the first moved here. Well done.
#17 may be capitalistic but so is article marketing, buying links, doorway pages, etc. All are legal yet it won't take long before searchers, your competition and/or search engines notice putting your brand in the ads of your competition. How much sense would it make for Wal-Mart to put one of their leaflets in a Target newspaper ad?
Yes, isn't it a double-standard?
This is true. We just filed a complaint with Google and Google confirmed that we can prohibit competitors from using our Brand Name as a key word. All they ask you is to prove that you are a registered brand.
good tips, I didn't know about #16 before
thanks for posting!
Number 12 is HUGE! Companies are going to realize analytics is a huge part of running a successful paid search campaign.
You must know the exact keyword bringing in the traffic, the adcost of the keyword and the revenue brought in from that keyword.
Without this information, you are flying blind.
Even companies with analytics on their website often operate blindly. I've run into a few where they had an analytics service, but were not using the data or monitoring it properly. What's even worse is the companies spending thousands on "do it yourself" PPC and they don't even have have analytics and landpages at all.. They are just pointing all their keywords to a homepage that lacks a strong call to action, resulting in a high bounce rate. What a waste of money.
Yes. For some people having the tools and gadgets is a buzz word, but they don't really understand the practical use of those tools.
Great post! I am curious what other methods of online marketing one might look into other then PPC. Can you point me in the right direction please?
banner ads, affiliate ads, text link ads, pre-sell pages, paying bloggers, social networking, interstitial ads, sponsoring newsletters, writing for websites, writing articles & distributing, pay-for-performance, strategic partnerships, um that's all i can come up with off the top.
i think a great blog post would be a break down of all the forms of online marketing. hmmm, don't know if i quite have the expertise in all aspects. could write a YOUmoz post then get community feedback.
adding to point #1.... i found out today via email by Google, that broad keywords are not guaranteed to show up for all variations of searches containing that keyword.
let's say your advertising the keyword Widgets. if it is a broad match, you actually won't show up for Widgets in New Jersey, etc. you must specify Widgets in New Jersey as one of you keywords.
here is the entire important part of the email i received from Google in case anyone is interested:
Toofast ... that's a good note.
The key word in their response is "not guaranteed".
Yes, if you bid broad, it does not mean that your ad will show up with any variation of that borad keyword. To me it seems that Google is using an algo that's looking deeply into the additional words that are being added to the broad keyword you're targeting.
I've done testing on this and noticed that whenever you would add a word that had absolutely NOTHING to do with the broad keyword, the ad would probably not show up.
Note that I've done these tests in only one (our) industry.
seems like they won't serve your ad when someone includes a city or state in the search also.
this may be due to the recent changes Google implemented regarding local search, not sure.
Hmm ... I just did few searches like that and I still see our broad match and exact match showing up.
This might vary by industry or competition.
Great article, I'm not currently separating my Content from my search, but that's a good idea!
IGOR!
I second Searchstudent on congratulating you on reaching the main blog :o)
I must admit PPC isn't my strong point so you're list of factors will be very helpful in managing my campaigns. Cheers!
IGOR! Congrats on writing the first YOUmoz to make SEOmoz HomePage! Great post, well thought out. I hope a power user diggs this to see if it has legs :-)
How's powerful is your digg account? I have some power on Netscape, but unfortunately it doesn't bring much traffic, but I'll put it up there anyways.
I just use digg for fun when I'm bored. I certainly shouldn't be digging stuff that could work because I'll probably just hurt the chances lol
Gave it a bump in Netscape :-)
Which social media site do you use the most?
digg lol
This is a great post, but #7 "Using Telephone Numbers", and his position on not adding phone numbers is simply just false and bad advice... everyone should try this tactic and see what works best for their specific business.
What "tests" is he talking about to support this claim? I've seen LOTS of opinions, and subjective positions by some people, but NO credible tests.
Here's my opinion and the results we have seen....By adding a trackable phone number to the ad, we firmly believe that the user knows they're not about to go to some weaker third party lead gen or adSense rev gen focused site. The user knows they are going to go to an actual business site, and will have a chance to speak with someone at some point IF they find what they want. Nobody expects many, if any calls from the search results page, but that's not the goal. More valuable clicks that convert into solid leads or sales. That said, we consistantly see that CTR's and Conv% are more often than not, much higher with a tracking phone number in the ads. It's too bad MSN & Yahoo dont allow them.
RedSearch, nice comment! What size PPC campaigns are you running? It's important to have a grasp of the scope to assign meaning to your statement about consistantly seeing higher CTR's and Conv%.
Great point, and my apologies for not clarifying.
Our firm works primarily with small to midsized businesses around the US. We also have a number of businesses that would be considered "Local" type business. Almost all of our clients have had the "phone number in the ad" tactic used, and the ones who have used it have seen, and still see higher CTR's and Conv%. We have call tracking numbers on all of our Google campaign ads, LP's and Micro-sites to track these phone conversions.
After re-reading my original post, I probably didn't put enugh emphasis on the fact that I really thought the post was extremely strong. I just didn't agree with #7 because we know it works for our client base.
RedSearch ... this just goes to remind us once again that marketing tactics performance differs based on the industry and medium.
I can agree that having a phone number in the PPC ad can be an "eye catcher". Thus, your CTR might go up. Think back to when advertisers started using phone numbers in their ads. They didn't necessarily do it for achieving higher CTR ... they wanted to get people to call. For that goal, this strategy didn't work. People did not want to pick up their phone and dial a number without first clicking on the ad and viewing the website.
So ... if advertisers place their phone numbers in the ad to get CALLS .... I'd suggest dropping that dream. If the phone number is used to catch attention and thus increase CTR ... the strategy will work in many markets.
From my experience working with different industries I found better ways of increasing that CTR. Phone number was not the BEST push.
I ways say this .... "do not rely completely on what other business tested as their market might react differently to their tactics than yours would."
Test, Test, Test.