AdWords Archives - BOLLYWOOD SURKHIYAN

How to Read Google AdWords Reports

I was writing a pretty lengthy email to one of our clients tonight about how to read their Google AdWords report and realized that I would probably be writing this same email over and over again. But, as my business partner Harry Casimir likes to say, “never do something more than once, automate!”

Many of our clients are not technologically savvy, but I realize that even those who are (and this particular client is) might have trouble reading the default reports generated by Google. Maybe it’s their use of abbreviation or that some of the main elements of their reports are formulas, but I’ve noticed many of our clients at Unique ID have asked me to explain, in some form, their reports.

I am a huge proponent of Google AdWords, and like Google AdSense, it has revolutionized the web (but on the opposite spectrum) and it has led to the success of many of our web sites and the elation of many of our clients. But, as Action International explained at a recent Small Business Development seminar “You Must Measure Everything!” Many of our clients have requested detailed reports of their Google AdWords accounts. My employees and I are very familiar with the system, and consequently, the reports are easy to read, but for those unaquainted with the system I can understand their frustration. So I put together a simple guide to reading Google’s Adword reports (an explanation of each column of the report, names and prices have been changed to protect the innocent).

Date: The date or date range of the data.

Campaign: Arbitrary information that lets you know under what campaign the reporting information is for. In the examples’ case we only have one active campaign “Regionally Targeted”

Ad Group: Arbitrary information that lets you know under what ad group the reporting information is for. In the examples’ case we only have one active adgroup “Sounds.” In the case of other reports (depending on how your or your search marketing company have set up your account) there might be additional items.

Keyword Matching: The type of system the keyword was displayed on. Broad means Google’s search engine or search engine affiliates (companies that use Google’s software and utilities to drive their own search engines). Content means those sites that have agreed to run Google’s ads through the AdSense network.

Keyword Status: Shows the current status of the Keywords for that month (active, deleted, paused, etc.).

Keyword Min CPC: The minimum cost per click that was paid for term(s). This is just the absolute minimum Google charged for the specific term (most likely based on competition for the term you were bidding on).

Current Maximum CPC: Current maximum cost per click. This is the item that is adjusted to increase or decrease our terms rankings. This is the maximum amount we are willing to pay Google for a single click for that term. Most of the time this is edited on a Ad Group wide level so every maximum cost per click should be the same. You can edit each keyterm individual and the report may reflect that.

Impressions: The number of times an ad was shown.

Clicks: The number of clicks we received.

CTR: Click through rate, clicks divided by impressions. This is one of the biggest measurements of the success of an account. A high click through rate means our ads and keywords are very well matched and targeted. Our standard measure for CTR is 0.5% or 1 click for every 200 impressions.

Average CPC: Average cost per click. The average price you paid for a click for that specific term.

Cost: Clicks x Average CPC (cost per click).

Avg Position: Average Position, or the position on Google the ad appeared at. Typically a higher position means a higher CTR. And alternatively, accounts with higher click through rates typically receive better placement.

Conversions: the number of direct web contacts received through google. These are the number of people that fulfilled every step, they searched for your term found your ad relevant, clicked through to your site, and either signed up or purchased something. Click through rate is only a measure of web leads or contacts, some visitors might have been ‘converted’ through the telephone or direct email.

Conversion Rate: Conversions divided by clicks. If you had 3 people click through to your site for “chicage killgrass7” and 1 person actually contacted you through the web contact form you would have a conversion rate of 33% for that term.

Cost/Conversion: Cost divided by conversions. This is done on a per term basis and also as a total at the bottom.

Internet Marketing For Small Business – Part 2 of 5 Steps to Succeeding With Google AdWords

Continuing on from my last article ‘Internet Marketing For Small Business – Part 1 of 5 Steps to Succeeding With Google AdWords”, here are the final steps to ensuring a successful Google AdWords Campaign.

2. Understanding Quality Score:

Once you have added your keywords, Google will tell you your quality score. Its important that you have a good to great quality score in your keywords (usually rated out of 10), if you get a poor or OK quality score, it means you have done something wrong. It could be that you are bidding on the wrong keywords, that your landing page is not specific enough for those keywords or Google does not think your ad is related to your keywords or that the page you are sending people does not have those keywords in it.

The quality score will be determined from a number of things:

You need to have a high CTR: A high quality score must be over 1% and this will also depend on how your ads are showing up. If your ad is appearing on the 2nd or 3rd page, then this will mean your quality score is lower but if you are in the top 5 or 6 positions, your CTR should be over 1%. Therefore you need to work on getting that CTR as high as you with a baseline of 1% as the CTR. You should always get a CTR of over 1%, even as high as 15% and the way you get a high CTR is by testing. You write 2 different ads and see which ones performs better. Usually after 30 to a 100 clicks, you pick the ad that gets a higher click rate and write a variation on it. You then go on and write another ad that is different to that one and see which one performs better again (beating the control). When you have found a theme that performs very well, you can tweak your ads by adding a question mark, quotations around it, switch the descriptions lines or even change your url. You can do any of these things to tweak your ad so that you can get a higher CTR, thus a higher quality score.
Its Not A Bidding War….Most people when starting out with Google AdWords usually say “I want to be in the top position, at number 1 and I am willing to pay more than anyone else to be there”. This is the wrong way to go about it. It should not be a bidding war, it should be a fight over who is the better advertiser, that is what Google really wants. Google wants you to write an ad that gets the highest CTR so that they make more money ie. the more clicks, the more money you pay them. So if you can write a better ad than your competitors, Google will be very willing to reward you for that. They reward you by charging you less per click and putting you in a higher position on the page. Lets say your ad gets a 2% CTR and your competitor gets a 1% CTR, it probably means you are going to pay half as much per click and be ranked higher than your competitor because Google will know the user is having a better searching experience. Hence you should always have two ads running and check which ad is performing better. If one is performing badly, pause it, write a better ad and see if you can beat your better performing ad.

3. Tracking:

AdWords is probably the best system for tracking that exists. It is very easy with Google AdWords to set up your keywords and track how well they are performing ( i.e. by making you money). What is most important is to track whether the clicks are making you sales or converting into leads or sales. If your clicks are not converting, you are obviously just wasting money so it is very important that you track down at a keyword level which ones are making money for you. This is called keyword conversion tracking and there are a couple ways of doing it. The best way is to have Google do it for you. Google has some keyword conversion tracking code which they will allow you put it on your thank you or finished page and they will let you track a sale or a conversion.

The other way you can track conversions is by assigning a specific URL to every keyword (help can be found at the Google AdWords Tutorial). The better you understand how to track conversions, the better your results will be with AdWords. You will find that as you get more clicks on your campaign and by tracking everything, different keywords will perform very differently even though they may seem very similar. For example ‘dog training’ maybe very different to ‘train my dog’, you may find that one of them may convert much higher than the other one.

On another level, you can track conversions through the success of your ad campaigns. Some ads may perform better than other ads, for example one ad may have a price and the other may not, this means anyone that clicks on the ad with a price knows that they have to buy something when they go to that page – that ad will convert at a higher percentage than if you did not have the price on the ad. It will probably have a much lower CTR but also a higher conversion rate. This is really something that needs to be tested on every campaign to see if you are getting a return on investment because in the end the goal is to make the greatest amount of money. Track everything!

4. Bidding:

Over the years bidding has changed, it use to be bid low and then raise your bid and to see what the lowest point was. That is probably not the wisest thing to do anymore – at least not right now. Right now what I suggest is start by bidding high, what this does is allow you to get a good position on AdWords and a good CTR. As you establish the CTR, Google will recognize that you are a good advertiser and then you can lower your bid everyday to what Google is actually charging you (whilst maintaining your high CTR). What you need to figure out is whether you are getting a good returns for the money you are actually spending so if you are spending a $1 and getting $2 back – you know its worth continuing the campaign.

5. Last words:

Please don’t get emotional attached to a keyword because you ‘like’ the keyword or believe it should work. Do not expect to learn everything upfront and then go implementing a Google AdWords campaign effectively. If you have your own full time business and love what you are doing – then get a professional in to run your own PPC campaigns.

Benefits of Opening a Google AdWords My Client Center

For those that have run an AdWords account in the past for their own websites, the mention of a separate, more advanced account for those who work as consultants might seem a little foreign. But it is important to find out more about Google’s “My Client Center” as it is a vital part of the process required to take the AdWords Professional Exam and become certified by Google.

My Client Center is essentially the tool that Google provides to advanced AdWords users who currently manage more than one account at a time. It allows larger advertisers who either run multiple accounts for their own business or who work as consultants for multiple companies to keep track of every AdWords account they have open from one simple interface.

It is an ideal tool for search engine marketers and optimizers, as well as bidding managers who only keep track of advertising accounts. Think of it as a master program that compiles all of the data from every one of your AdWords accounts to speed up the process of going through each of them.

Within the My Client Center interface, you can do multiple things. You can view and work within multiple accounts, even other My Client Center accounts, directly through the interface you are provided. Additionally, you can run reports for a single account or for all of your accounts, across the board with the My Client Center report feature. You can assign a single login name for your account and quickly and easily create new AdWords accounts or link existing accounts together through this interface.

Your regular AdWords interface will still work as well when you start a My Client Center account if you only need to access one account at a time, but with so many integrated features at your finger tips it is rare you will ever need to do so.

It is important, even if you do not currently need a My Client Center account, to both understand what it is for and how it operates. You will be tested on it and need to have an operational account when you try to get your Google AdWords certification. Additionally, you will be permitted minimal leniency on questions regarding this part of AdWords. The interface, how it works with each account, how you start a new account, and how you can communicate with clients or profiles through it are all important aspects that you will need to know.

For anyone that has multiple AdWords accounts or who has thought about considering the starting a career in AdWords consultation, it is vital that you start your My Client Center profile right away. You will need to acclimate yourself with the features, how to use it, and what you will be required to do when you want to perform a specific function now instead of trying to figure it out later when a client’s livelihood relies on it, and in turn your own livelihood.

5 Insider Tips From a Google AdWords Strategist

Today I had a missed call from a London phone number, and I thought, “who the heck do I know that would be calling me from London?” A few hours later my phone was ringing again, and it was the same London phone number, so I picked it up. It was Google.

More specifically, it was a call centre employee dubbed a “Google Account Strategist”, and they were calling me about a new small business AdWords account I had just started managing. I receive so many calls from overseas people about Google and SEO, and how I “can be number 1 in Google for a fee” blah blah blah, so my first instinct was to say “no thank you” and hang up, but I knew the client would be told if I didn’t at least hear what the account strategist had to say.

Fast forward 30 minutes to when the call finished. I was actually impressed with the level of knowledge and step-by-step detail the account strategist provided for features that don’t cost extra to implement. Google AdWords has so many options that setting up a new account can easily take two days, so it was nice to get a refresher on a few strategies I hadn’t got to yet.

I thought it would be helpful to share these tips with you as well, whether it’s a refresher or you’re still exploring everything that AdWords can offer. I also have a step-by-step guide for starting AdWords, Get Started with Google AdWords, which you should take a look at first if you’re new to AdWords. The foundation needs to be right before exploring the advanced features.

Here are the 5 Google AdWords strategies that are definitely worth experimenting with.

Ad Extensions

Firstly, I’m a big fan of ad extensions because they allow you to include additional information beyond the character limit of the ad copy, giving way more prominence to your ad.

My go-to ad extensions are always:

Location Extension: Showing your physical address for hyper-local marketing.
Call-Out Extension: A good spot for value proposition text such as “friendly team”.
Sitelinks Extension: As you’re only allowed one URL per ad, this type of extension enables you to add other links to cross-sell within the same ad. For example, if you’re advertising a painting category, then within the extensions you can also have links to ladders, paint brushes, and even paint services. Highlighting more of your offering positions you as an attractive one-stop option.
Call Extension: Make it very easy for people to click while on their mobile and instantly calls your business.

Ad extensions can be applied:

At the Account level: This option will add the extensions to every ad within the whole account.
For Specific Campaigns: This option allows you to tailor the extensions based on the Campaign theme.
For Specific AdGroups: This option allows you get even more specific with the extensions based on the AdGroup theme.

The more relevant your ad is to what a searcher is looking for, the better it will perform. Using the paint example again, it’s not a good use of space to also advertise that you sell plants within the same ad. Sure, it’ll be interesting to some people, but you should have a separate AdGroup for plants with ads written specifically for people searching for plants.

The next two ad extensions have evolved, and I will definitely be using them wherever possible.

1. Structured Snippets

Structured snippets is an ad extension that allows you to insert another line of words, which adds more depth to your ad message.

a) Click on the Ad extensions tab

b) Click on the drop-down and select Structured snippets

c) Click the red button ‘+extension’

d) Click on New structured snippet

You’re restricted to fixed categories, but most will allow up to 10 items. The categories to choose from are: amenities, brands, courses, degree programs, destinations, featured hotels, insurance coverage, models, neighbourhoods, service catalogue, shows, styles and types.

Adding the additional information can make your ad more enticing and is very useful if your offering is broad.

2. Price Extensions

The price extension is a must-have if you have a sale or promotion. I don’t think I need to explain why, have a look at the screenshot to see how prominent the ad is. It will certainly stand out!

a) Click on the Ad extensions tab

b) Click on the drop-down and select price extension

c) Click the red button ‘+extension’

d) Click on New price extension

I like that it allows you to choose whether to be specific with prices or keep it general.

a) Choose the type; brands, events, locations, neighbourhoods, product categories, product tiers, service categories, service tiers or services

b) Currency

c) Price qualifier; none, from or up to

d) Header

e) Description

f) Price

g) Units; none, per hour, per day, per week, per month or year

h) Final URL

3. Phone Call Conversion Tracking

If you are using the call extension, there are additional steps you need to take to enable calls to be tracked within the account. It’s a must-have measurement to judge the performance of your ads. Especially if you don’t have Google Analytics linked (but you really should link to Analytics – so that you can monitor the behaviour once people are on the website. If people click and then leave, you’re wasting your money on those keywords without knowing it).

a) Click on Tools in the top menu, click on Conversions and then Phone calls

b) Select the 1st option ‘Calls from ads using call extensions or call-only ads’, fill in the options (change call length to 5 seconds and count to ‘every’), and save

c) Then go to call extensions and click the red button’+ extension’

d) Select Campaigns or AdGroups, add your phone number and click the edit pencil on the right

e) Turn call reporting ON, expand the advanced option – tick the report phone call conversion and select the phone conversion from the list we set up earlier and save.

4. Shared Library: Bid Strategies

Shared bid strategies are located in the AdWords shared library; you’ll find this in the left-hand menu. Here you’ll find the option to choose from six different flexible bid strategies: Enhanced CPC, Target Search Page Location, Target CPA, Target Outranking Share and Maximize Clicks.

However, we’re going to focus on the Target Search Page Location.

It’s a reality that the top 1 or 2 ads will get the most clicks, and if that’s your goal, then this is an ideal strategy to test out. This option will automatically adjust the bids required to get your ads to the top of the page, or the first page of search results.

Here’s a look at the options you can set: Target search page location

a) Select ‘Top of first page’ and ‘automatically’

b) I recommended that you set a bid limit. Otherwise you can easily blow out your budget. This may defeat the purpose of the strategy, but if you aren’t willing to spend $20 per click to get to the top, you need to fill this in.

5. Use 3 Variations of Ad Copy

And finally, it’s always best practice to write 2 to 3 variations of ad copy and based on the result, the ad that generates the most activity will automatically be shown more. The account strategist recommended this particular structure for each AdGroup, as the combination has apparently gained good results from tests Google have done:

Ad Copy 1: Use your business name in the headline
Ad Copy 2: Use keyword insert in the headline to match the keywords that the user has typed into Google search. E.g. AdWords automatically replaces the code with the keyword that triggered your ad: {KeyWord:House Paint}.
Ad Copy 3: A strong call to action in the headline, e.g. Claim Your Free Paint Sample

So, there you have it, 5 handy tips straight from a Google Account Strategist that you can implement in your Google AdWords account straight away.

Getting a Google AdWords Coupon For Your Online Business

Upon establishing your presence in the internet by creating your website, the next thing to do is promote to have higher ranking and better popularity. There are many ways to promote a website: you can have the organic way of acquiring traffic like using different SEO strategies or paid advertisements.

If you are want to get visible results in no time, then Google AdWords is the one for you. It is a pay per click (PPC) platform developed by the popular search engine to provide better ad placement services to advertisers.

Basically, Google AdWords is composed of text lines for an ad copy that usually appears on the right side of related search result pages. It easily boosts your website’s popularity as your ads are easily visible.

It might cost you a bit as you pay for every click made on your ad copy but other online marketers who are using this platform for quite some time now have a technique on how to save on the marketing cost. And this is by availing a Google AdWords coupon.

A Google AdWords coupon is a voucher that offers discounted or even free services that let you save big time on the PPC program. Usually, the banners that are regularly used will be replaced by keywords.

To avail a Google AdWords coupon, all you have to do is find websites through the use of search engines that give away such coupons for free.

However, these websites give the coupons for free but along with a purchase so you will still be spending some money. But if you find the product interesting, then you can do some calculations and when you have proven that you can still save with what the site offers, you can do the purchase and enjoy the Google AdWords coupon.

You can also join a business network that uses Google AdWords. Being a member of such network, you can also avail the incentives that Google provides to the whole network.

To utilize your Google AdWords coupon, you must ensure that your site is interesting and worthy of visit. If it is, then you can offer Google to use several parts of your site to be used as advertising space.

But make sure that your website has been established for quite some time now and has already earned a number of followers so you can assure them that the ads posted will get good number of clicks. Moreover, having an interesting website can lure more people visiting your site thus making the ads more visible – remember that people become interested once you are able to stir their curiosity.

Now, acquiring a Google AdWords coupon that can save you from expensive operational costs is easy.

Get Started With Google AdWords

Google AdWords advertising allows you to show your ads to people who are most likely to be interested in your products or services, while filtering out those who aren’t.

You can track how many people your ad was shown to, how many of those people clicked your ad and more if you integrate your account with Google Analytics. By measuring your ads, you’ll quickly see where to invest your budget and boost the return on your investment.

AdWords is most commonly based on a cost per click system, where the cost per click is the minimum amount required to outrank a competitor advertiser. Using a very simple example, if a competing advertisers budget per click is $1 and yours is $5, you’ll only pay $1.01 for that click.

When you’re first starting out with AdWords, it can be a little overwhelming. Google AdWords itself is massive, and every slip-up can blow out your budget. I know quite a few people that have been burnt by trying AdWords without really understanding it.

To help you get started, I’ve created some helpful tips that I’ve learned over the years.

Getting Started

Create Your Google AdWords Account

Google has prepared a 7 step starter guide for creating an account which covers the basic such as creating a login, setting up billing information and a daily budget.

Resist the Impulse to Activate Your Ads Just Yet

Google’s goal at this point is to then encourage you to maximise the amount you’re spending on your advertising. This is the first trap for beginners. You’ll enter some keywords, Google will suggest many more keywords which are mostly helpful, but next thing you know you’ve spent $150 in one day with no sales or leads gained.

Research Your Keywords

Thorough keyword research is so important to the success of your AdWords advertising – if you focus on the wrong keywords you can be almost certain that your advertising won’t be profitable. Start with your website to build a list of relevant keywords, look for the main words that describe what you do, your products and your services. Align your AdWords account structure with your website.

Use the Google Keyword Tool

Once you’ve got your list of keywords, you can use the Google Keyword Tool to find related words and phrases for a complete list of possible keywords. People may use different words or phrases when looking for your products or services.

The tool will then show you the average search volume per keyword (there’s no point is bidding on keywords that no one searches for) and the average cost per click so that you have a better understanding of the budget required and what you can afford.

From my experience, the lowest cost per click I’ve seen is around $0.80c and the highest was $16. So, choose wisely. Choose general and specific keywords, and group similar keywords into ad groups (aim for 5-20 keywords per ad group).

Choose Keyword Match Types

This is another trap for beginners. Google’s default setting is ‘broad match’, which allows you to reach the largest number of people, but provides the least control over when your ads are shown.

For example, if I was a personal trainer and I bid on ‘personal training’ to attract new clients using broad match, my ad would be shown to people also searching for ‘personal training courses’, ‘personal training certification’ and ‘personal training salary.’ Clearly, none of these people are looking to hire a personal trainer. I would either receive many irrelevant clicks wasting my budget, or no clicks, which is just as bad because Google will punish me with a low-quality score and I’ll have to pay more.

Essentially, the higher your Quality Score (on a scale of 1 to 10), the less you’ll have to pay per click. Relevance is the key. New keywords will be assigned a quality score within a day or so.

Keyword Match Type Options

Broad Match: The widest possible search that includes a number of keywords that may not be relevant to your business at all e.g. ‘Women’s hats’ can match searches for ‘buy ladies hat’.

Phrase Match: A more targeted option that will match to people searching for the keywords you have specified e.g. ‘Women’s hats’ can match searches for ‘buy women’s hats’.

Exact Match: The most targeted option that will match to people that are searching for your keyword, exactly as you have typed it e.g. ‘Women’s hats’ can only match searches for ‘women’s hats’.

Negative Match: Using negative keywords can greatly reduce wasted clicks by excluding keywords that don’t relate to your business e.g. If you sell reading glasses and use ‘glasses’ as your keyword, your ad would be displayed to people also searching for ‘wine glasses’, adding ‘wine’ as a negative keyword would eliminate this problem.

Campaign Types

It’s important to understand the differences because they function very differently.

Search Network Only: Target people that are actively searching for your products or services. This is recommended for beginners.

Display Network Only: Target people who are browsing websites that contain content that is in some way related to your products or services. From my experience, this is effective for short term campaigns for specific promotions e.g. an online pet store’s ad for free shipping for the next 7 days can appear alongside an article on how to manage aggression in puppies.

Search & Display Networks: Is a combination of the two, personally I prefer to keep the campaigns separate for more effective performance monitoring.

Shopping: Is a must if you sell products online and requires the creation of a Google Merchant account and some set-up to create a product feed. This allows your products to be featured visually with the text search results.

Writing Your Ads

Explain why a potential customer should buy your products or use your service instead of a competitor. Include your keyword so that it attracts attention. The character limit is tight, but try your best to differentiate yourself from other ads.

Google has strict advertising guidelines to ensure ads are of good quality, but I have seen dodgy grammar slip through. ‘I will provide you with the best advise’, will deter people who know the difference between advice and advise.

A call to action is also important to for potential customers to understand what action you want them to take and to filter out people that aren’t ready to take the desired action, e.g. buy now, call today, request a quote, learn more, browse now.

The page you link to on your website is also important, create a custom page if necessary to match your ad. If your ad is promoting 20% off toasters, ensure that your ad points to the toasters category with a banner highlighting 20% off. Make it easy for people to take the action you promised in your ad.

Link to Google Analytics for Conversion Tracking

Access to analytics is essential to managing your AdWords efficiently – without it there is no way of knowing if you are achieving your goals, or which campaigns, ad groups and keywords are successful and which are not. When you create a Google Analytics account, you’ll need to add a short piece of tracking code to your website and then you can link the accounts together.

Conversion tracking provides important data relating to what a person does after clicking on your ad. Do they purchase, submit an enquiry, download your app? This information helps you to determine your success.

AdWords is not a “set and forget” platform, and it needs to be carefully monitored and managed, particularly when you first begin.

Typically, I recommend running AdWords for at least 2 months and commit to weekly monitoring to determine if it’s right for your business. You need time to give it the best chance for success.

Where to Learn More

It’s not possible for me to cover everything about AdWords. I spent 3 weeks studying around my full-time job for the Google AdWords Fundamentals, Google Search and Google Display certification exams to ensure my knowledge is the most up to date.

I highly recommend that you at least read the Google AdWords Fundamentals study guide to understand more about structuring your account, bidding strategies, quality score, location targeting.

Once you’ve activated your ads I recommend checking on the progress every day for the first week to get an understanding of how fast your budget is being spent and what the bounce rate is for your keywords. A high bounce rate generally indicates that your web page is not relevant to the search, try adjusting the keyword, match type or simply pause it.