January 10th - Display URL’s Are Standardized to Display as Lowercase Letters Only

Before: www.CoolExampleSite.com  |  After: www.coolexamplesite.com

The first change of 2011 removed a feature that enabled advertisers to capitalize letters within the display URL. This was useful to help make multiple word domains easier to read. However,  Google states that this change is made after determining that standardized display URL’s improved user metrics including click-through rates.

February 2nd - Location Extensions Enhanced With a Distinctive Blue Pin

This change affects only local searches for advertisers that have the location extension enabled. The blue pin is added to the location extension and integrated into the map when the ad qualifies to serve at the top of the page for a local search. This is a useful feature to help the advertiser stand out among a large set of listings.

February 3rd - Longer Headlines For Select Ads That Appear at the Top of the Page

Before:

After:

This update enabled advertisers to extend their headline to include the first line of description text as long it is a distinct sentence that ends with a punctuation mark. Google claims this enhances user experience by highlighting more information within the ad, but it could also be seen as an attempt to boost revenue by increasing clicks on paid instead of organic results. This was one of the most significant changes that Google has ever made to how search ads are displayed and provided a great opportunity for advertisers to enhance their messaging and increase click-through rates.

March 24th - Media Ads Display Video Directly From the Search Page

Media ads are released as an automated feature that serves a video (usually a movie trailer) into the ad. This feature is available only to a limited set of advertisers (motion picture studios promoting new release features). Users can find these ads by searching for upcoming films and then view the trailer within the search result page by clicking the thumbnail image.

March 30th - The +1 Button is Added To Search Ads

A “+1″ button is added to the right side of ad titles. Users can “+1″ ads that they like when logged in by scrolling over the button and clicking as shown in the above image.

Friends of users who have clicked the “+1″ button are able to see that recommendation directly from the ad unit as shown above. This personalized experience is intended to help users identify advertisers that are most relevant to them. For advertisers this new feature makes it ever more important that their product and ad quality is worth recommending.

April 25th - Instant Preview for Search Ads

Instant preview for organic results were first released in late 2010 and this update brings that feature to ads. Users are able to preview the landing page for ads by clicking on the instant preview icon and thereby enhance user experience and improve clickthrough quality for advertisers. This update puts added pressure on advertisers to enhance landing page design in order to produce a more quality preview.

May 17th - Display URL Shown in Headline For Select Search Ads

Before:

After:

Following the successful release of the extended headline in Febuary, Google followed up with this update which extends the ad headline with the display URL. Google states that the display URL can be an important deciding factor in whether a user clicks on an ad and would allow advertisers to more prominently feature their brand.

June 7th - Embedded Site Links Released

This feature enables advertisers to integrate site links into the text of their ad by matching a site link text exactly with a string of text within the ad. Google automatically detects the match and serves the link within the ad. This is a useful tool for advertisers to stand out in the listings and encourage users to click within the flow of their copy.

November 2nd - New Ad Placements on the Bottom of the Result Page

With this update Google decided to move ads in the right margin to below the organic listings in some cases. Google stated that on average this placement performed better than ads in terms of click-through rate.

Time To Catch Up

Now is a good time to review your ads and make sure they are taking full advantage of all the changes from 2011. Google released these changes at a rapid pace last year so it’s possible that you may have missed a few, but catch up soon because more are sure to be on the way in 2012.

Google has been a leader in the online advertising space for some time now. They offer display ads, text ads, video ads and mobile ads. They offer ads on the display network, in search listings, on YouTube, in Gmail, in RSS feeds, let’s just say they have had online advertising by the throat. But now they are being challenged by a real player, Facebook.

Example Facebook Advertising Segementation

Facebook advertising has developed what some might view as a competitive advantage through likes and interests. For example, let’s say you want to sell search engine optimization in San Diego. On Facebook you can target the following:

• Location – San Diego
• Demographic – 25 to 55
• Sex – All
• Precise Interests – Search Engine Optimization, Internet Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Marketing
• Connections on Facebook
• Advanced Connection Targeting: Target Users Who are Connected to your Page
• Advanced Demographics
• Interested In – All
• Relationship – All
• Education and Work
• Education – College Grad
• Work – Open

The ability to target this specific demographic information is getting online advertisers everywhere excited, especially now that many of them have tried it and seen the results. With Facebook you can hit the exact age, the sex, the precise interest, you can decide if you want to target users already connect to a page and can even decide what relationship status you would like to market to. Moreover, you can choose education level and work place. Workplace is particularly fascinating. Looking to secure a new account at a particular company? Showing them an ad on Facebook might be a good idea.

The class asked me, “Can’t we do this through Google advertising?” My answer, “Ummm… Sorta.” Google works a little differently. First, lets define our mediums. We have the Google Display Network. In this network you can run text ads, image ads and video ads on other websites offering Google advertising. Then we have the search network. The search network displays ads after someone uses Google to perform a search. Both of these advertising options can be run through the Google AdWords interface.

Long story short, you can select demographic information for the Google Display Network, but it works a little different than Facebook. In Google, you can select a demographic group. This would be an audience that shares certain similar qualities. You can make this selection through the Google AdWords Placement Tool.

Google Demographic Categories

According to Google, “With the AdWords Placement Tool, you can pick your preferences in up to three different demographic categories. The system will analyze your preferences and create a list of available Google Network sites that are popular with that audience. If you select multiple demographics, the AdWords system will look for sites that match all of your preferences. For instance, you might ask the Placement Tool to look for sites popular with users who have children, or for sites popular with men earning a high income. The Placement Tool will then return a list of sites whose audience tends to match those demographic descriptions.”

The ability to filter websites by demographic and keyword relevance is a welcomed feature in AdWords. While that is the case, Google still lacks the power of being able to target on the granular level that Facebook offers. Likes, interest, age, sex, relationship and education on a person by person basis in the eyes of many marketers trump general Google Display Network website tendencies.

It should be noted that Google and Facebook have very similar location targeting systems. Basically, if you search on Google domain such as www.Google.fr you will see ads for France. However, if a user searches Google.com they will see ads based on the search term (example if a location is used), the physical location (IP Address) and Google Search personalization (blocked sites, location specification, etc.)

According to Facebook, they target location in a similar manner. “Facebook determines the location of a user based on IP (Internet Protocol) addresses, which can help identify the country or city where a user is physically located. If a user has listed a current address on their profile, they may see ads targeted to that location, regardless of where they are currently located. Ads are not targeted to a user’s geographic networks or any other information.”

In summary, Facebook has created specific user information that is valuable to advertisers. This has resulted in a percentage of advertising dollars shifting from Google AdWords campaigns to Facebook Ads. While this is the case, Google is not the type to be left behind. With the new Google + initiative, Google is collecting more user information than ever. If they are successful and smart in this endeavor, they may just have the info they need to take the power back from Facebook. Finally, it should be noted that certain advertising mediums work better for specific campaigns. Make sure you are always testing. While Facebook likes and interest may give your the targeting you need to convert in some situations, a Google Display Network site with a clear demographic may work better in others.

When running Pay Per Click, each ad is evaluated based on the both the bid and the quality score. This is one of the main reasons why PPC experts are constantly adjusting their bids, in order to create the best relationship with their quality score as possible. The main goal is to allow an ad to rank in a position that will result in the highest conversions. Most times, positions 2 through 8 are the highest converting, however, this can alter based on keyword group and industry.

Quality score for PPC was invented to allow search engines to display the most relevant ads. This allows advertisers to get more clicks, and the search engines to make more money off those clicks. Quality score was implemented about the same time as the minimum bid. The minimum bid had a large effect, as it allowed search engines to better qualify competition and make more money for certain keywords.

There are many factors involved in determining quality score for PPC. But like search engine optimization, many of the factors are discussed in general but real detail is never given. While this is the case, here are some of the known factors in determining quality score.

Click-Through Rate

The amount of times an ad is clicked in regards to how many times it is shown, or CTR (Click Through Rate) is a major factor in quality score. This takes into account the keyword, the matched ad and the display URL being shown.

Keywords in Ad Copy

When determining quality score for PPC, the search engines gauge the relevance of the ad copy in relation to the keyword the advertiser is bidding on. Because of this, it is important to use keywords in your ad that match the keywords you are bidding on.

Landing Pages

Landing pages can play a role in your quality score. Search engines crawl the pages copy and code to evaluate the relevance of the keyword you are bidding on to the destination URL. Furthermore, landing page load time can also impact PPC quality score, as Google announced this in 2008.

Other Considerations

Google does have a slightly more advanced quality scoring system for PPC. Google takes into account the ads performance in a geographical location and some feel that it evaluates other items such as on site conversion data.

Watch a Video on Quality Score for PPC

More on Quality Score

According to Google, this is how quality score is determined for the Google search network:

• The historical clickthrough rate (CTR) of the keyword and the matched ad on Google; note that CTR on the Google Network only ever impacts Quality Score on the Google Network — not on Google
• Your account history, which is measured by the CTR of all the ads and keywords in your account
• The historical CTR of the display URLs in the ad group
• The quality of your landing page
• The relevance of the keyword to the ads in its ad group
• The relevance of the keyword and the matched ad to the search query
• Your account’s performance in the geographical region where the ad will be shown
• Other relevance factors

Google mentions that there are slightly different factors that effect ad position and first page bids:

• For calculating a keyword-targeted ad’s position, landing page quality is not a factor. Also, when calculating ad position on a Search Network placement, Quality Score considers the CTR on that particular placement in addition to CTR on Google.
• For calculating first page bid, Quality Score doesn’t consider the matched ad or search query, since this estimate appears as a metric in your account and doesn’t vary per search query.

Quality Score for the Google Display Network

According to Google, the quality score for calculating an ad’s eligibility to appear on a particular display network site, as well as the ad’s position on that site, consists of the following factors:

• The ad’s past performance on this and similar sites
• The relevance of the ads and keywords in the ad group to the site
• The quality of your landing page
• Other relevance factors

If the campaign uses cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM) bidding, quality score is based on the quality of your landing page. If the campaign uses cost-per-click (CPC) bidding, quality score is based on the historical CTR of the ad on this and similar sites and the quality of your landing page.

In Summary

Ultimately, the higher your quality score the better off you will be from a ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) perspective. A higher quality score means lower bid prices and higher ad placement.

Have questions about quality score for PPC? Add them below!

In PPC, there is no Question that Conversions Trump Click Through Rate (CTR)

One of the most common questions we get from website owners is: What is a good click through rate for a PPC campaign?

This question is not as cut and dry as general click through rates for organic listings… PPC click through seems to have a much higher degree of variance based on the keyword itself, the relation of the keyword being searched to the title, text and visible URL in the ad, etc…

You have to do keyword research. Some keywords lend themselves to a higher percentage of PPC clicks. These are typically terms related to purchases… the statistics that I have seen vary widely but all indicate that if the person is in an information gathering / research mode, they tend to click on the organic results. However, if a person is closer to making a purchase then the PPC click through rate increases significantly. As you know this tends to be especially true for the longer tail more specific terms… in many people’s minds paid advertising is closely related to coupons or other advertised savings and this may be a factor in a persons decision to look at paid vs. organic listings.

When you look at click through rates for PPC you will see ads with click through rates anywhere from under 1% to as high as 30%. Again, this really just depends on the keyword, the ad, and the nature of the product or service being represented, etc…

To understand what is a good click through rate you really need to look at the Net Profit per conversion. Then through keyword analysis we can get a good understanding of what the Cost Per Click will be and how many clicks they can expect to receive for that term based on historical information. Then we can get an understanding of what type of conversion rate we need to achieve in order to ensure a profitable campaign.

It is better to have a 2% click through rate with a 10% conversion, than it is to have a 3% click through rate with 5% conversion.

Honestly, an 8-10% click through rate is outstanding.

But click through does not tell the whole story. All that really matter is ROI. If you want to know how to set proper goals for a PPC campaign, what you really need to do is understand this equation:

(Cost Per Click) x (estimated clicks per day) = Estimated Campaign Costs per day
(estimated clicks per day) x (conversion rate for landing page) = estimated new clients per day
(Campaign Costs per day) / (estimated new clients per day) = Cost Per Acquisition
(Net Profit per new client) – (Cost Per Acquision) = ROI per new client
(ROI per client) x (estimated new clients per day) = Estimated daily profits from campaign

Example:
On average they make $50 per new client
CPC = $1
Estimated clicks per day = 100
Conversion rate for landing page = 10%

Then, here is an example campaign analysis:

($1) x (100) = $100 estimated campaign costs per day
(100) x (.1) = 10 estimated new clients per day
($100) / (10) = $10 estimated cost per acquisition
($50) – ($10) = $40 ROI per new client
($40) x (10) = $400 Estimated daily profits from campaign

“The only question is… why aren’t you doing this already?”

The truth is, once you understand this you will be able to set reasonable goals for a PPC campaign, but still, the only way to meet or exceed those goals is through top notch implementation and campaign management. That is where we come in!

For a quick campaign analysis contact:
David Hall
davidh@seoinc.com
760.444.9259

Google Tags for local businesses

Google Tags is now out of beta and available nationwide. For local businesses that rely on Google searches, this is now a way to stand out from the crowd with your own special offer or message in the map 7-pack. For now, they are relatively rare and stand out. As Google Tags become ubiquitous, it might be the price of admission.

Here’s what Google had to say about this new feature:

For a flat monthly fee of $25, businesses can enhance their listings that appear on Google.com and Google Maps with a yellow tag that emphasizes specific information such as a coupon, video, website, menu, reservations, photos, or a custom message. Tags do not affect the ranking of the listings, and we clearly indicate which parts of the search result are sponsored.

As with all things Google, expect the paid listings to expand over time and start to overwhelm the free listings. To learn more and try it out, please visit Google Tags.

If you need help with your Google Places listing, Local Search Optimization or want to be a head of the curve with Google Tags contact us today.

Good PPC Management Means a Happy Potato

Pay Per Click marketing is as simple as choosing some keywords, creating a few ads, and letting the campaign run, right? Not quite; efficient paid search marketing campaigns require constant upkeep as well as ad and keyword testing.

I read an article on Search Engine Land this morning about crucial steps in building a PPC campaign and completely agree with the “one best piece of advice” that was given. “Once the account is live, it will need to be robust enough to test many different types of targeting, various keywords, ad messages and so on.,

When I create an account, I plan on it growing in the near future. I structure it so that there are many different segments that can be easily and quickly modify or paused without disturbing the rest of the account.

Having grown up on a potato farm, I’d like to use a farming metaphor. When you plant potatoes, you don’t just put them in the ground and move on until harvest time. They need constant attention: watering, fertilizing, and ridding the surrounding area of any weeds. PPC accounts are like potato plants. With constant attention to keyword performance, ad text relevance and many other key factors, your account can flourish.

It always surprises me how certain keywords can outperform what were initially considered more important keywords. If the account was hastily set up and then left to run by itself, many opportunities for conversions would be missed. The harvest would be pretty sad. By constantly monitoring traffic, clicks, conversions, and cost per conversion, essential changes can be made to getting the most bang for your buck. The same goes for ads- your ads should speak to your target audience in a timely and relevant manner.

That’s where having Paid Search Managers like myself come in handy. While you are focusing on doing what you do best, we are making sure that your account is getting the nourishment it needs. Through diligence in analyzing how customers search within your industry, your PPC campaign can more than pull its weight as part of your search engine optimization.

Social media is, naturally, going to strengthen brand awareness. Because of this, consumers are more likely to click on paid search ads because they are more familiar with your company. So, with a strong social media based brand campaign, people are going convert on your ad when searching for your product or service, which will improve your click through rate and improve your quality score.

Some social media sites let you create PPC ads which can use strategies similar to Adwords. Other sites like YouTube need to be more thoughtful, using longer tail keywords to find that target audience. Either way, taking the time to become familiar with each site’s structure is going to be time well spent.

When all is said and done, the smarter companies are going to fuse paid search campaigns with social media campaigns. Both have different methods and approaches but complement each other to reach the same goal: increased ROI. The more that these are managed together with a similar brand and theme messages, the more likely you are going to see that increased ROI. By using both paid search and social media, you can have your cake and eat it too.

This type of markup is unheard of in the SEM agency world where a good PPC Management company may use a variety of pricing models for their services but rarely mark up more than 20% of ad spend and are typically closer to 10-15% of ad spend.

For SMB’s, this change will ultimately force PPC Management companies to be more transparent about their fees which is a good thing for the SMB’s that were not getting as much as they paid for. For agencies, it will be a good thing too and level the playing field. The market will become more competitive and SMB’s will pick agencies based on service an results.

There are several reasons why paid search marketing methods like pay per click (PPC) are not only beneficial, but crucial to your search engine optimization strategy.

• First, you are dominating more real estate on the search page. People are more willing to purchase from companies they are more familiar with, so the more your company’s name shows up the more that will be reinforced.
• Studies have shown paid search has the highest ROI of all advertising/marketing vehicles (SEMPO Survey February 2007).

• Paid search allows more control over your company, your brand, and your products or services. With PPC, you can deliver an ad at any point of the buying cycle that your customer is in.
• Search ads result in offline sales as well. On average, there is a 46% increase in in-store dollars when a customer has seen an ad online.

At SEO Inc we understand the importance of having PPC as part of your search engine marketing and to compliment your search engine optimization. As an agency with over a decade of experience in the industry, we are up to date with the best practices and have access to exclusive beta tools and cutting edge software.

Managing a successful paid search campaign requires attention and time. We commit ourselves to realizing your online marketing goals so you can focus on doing what you do best. Give paid search marketing a try and you are sure to see the results you have been looking for.

When someone is going through the buying process whether it is a company or a consumer the basic steps are the same. First there is motivation, a problem is recognized and the next step is doing an internal or external search. Internal search implies going off of what they know or have experienced, where external search means they seek out information outside of themselves. That’s when SEM comes into play!

By incorporating SEM a company is able to meet a specific need immediately when a website is probed by a search engine, but not so fast! The spiders and crawlers are not that philanthropic. Oh if it were only that easy! In order to take advantage of SEM, the interactive marketing strategy needs to apply Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay-Per-Click (PPC), and Social Media Marketing (SMM). Let’s rewind and understand how an integrated approach can benefit your business and how to get the best results since it is not automatic.

1. Consolidate SEO, PPC, and SMM under one umbrella. By utilizing one company you ensure that there is frequent interdepartmental communication (well you can’t ensure it, but any good SEM agency will make communication a priority, so remember to hold them accountable).

2. Next, remember the advantage of SEM compared to other advertising is that you can be at the right place at the right time. Do not lose out on this opportunity! I can not stress this enough. If you have a beautiful website with a great product or service or even pride your offering as unique and in high demand, but do not use SEO, PPC and SMM collectively, your website will be lost in the internet abyss.

3. Maximize your SEM presence. It is not enough just to do one element of SEM. If you have incorporated SEO (which entails much more than making your site readable by the search engines btw), but do not use PPC, you have knowingly or unknowingly shaved off a chunk of your target audience. It is impossible to appear in the top of the SERPs for all your terms; PPC is your presence savior in this instance and gives you the ability to measure results.

4. Some companies decide PPC is their SEM strategy, but what you don’t know can hurt you. PPC prospers with SEO. Search engines have the ability to evaluate your landing page and influence your maximum cost-per-click (CPC) bid based on the relevance of the page. With SEO your page is more transparent and can have more authority which increases the quality of the page for PPC.

5.Last but not least, SMM is the icing on the cake. Think of SMM as support media to your online marketing mix. Start interacting with your target audience in those areas where they spend their time online. Inspiring your target audience beyond your product or service facilitates a relationship and potentially engages your audience on the internal level rather than the external. It’s money if they think of you first.

So all in all, an integrated approach to your online presence maximizes your SEM. Each element of SEM supports the other by filling in the gaps and providing you with a comprehensive holistic campaign strategy. Don’t go solo with one element, you will be expecting the results of an integrated approach and be left disappointed.