July 1, 2009

Google and Google Search Partners- How They Stack Up

Posted by Lisa Raehsler under PPC, search engine marketing | Tags: , , , |
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As a Google advertiser, your ads are being placed on Google’s search results pages AND their search partners.

These search partners include:

* AOL
* Ask.com
* Netscape Netcenter
* Earthlink
* Compuserve
* Shopping.com
* AT&T Worldnet

Until recently, no data on the performance of these ad placements was offered was Google. But last October Google released a feature in Adwords offering more transparency into the results advertisers see from paid search served through Google search partners. Now, Google shows one set of statistics for Google and another set aggregating search partner performance. Yay? How do the results for these stack up?

After accumulating a good amount of data, I found some interesting results.

  1. In campaigns with more generic themed keywords (related to the product) I found Google’s clicks around 80% of the clicks. This seemed consistent, even when geo-targeted, which surprised me. I would have expected the search partners percentage to be much lower when geo-targeted. For the 20% of search partners clicks sending traffic to the site, the CPC was 40% higher. Again, this was consistent even with geo-targeted campaigns.
  2. For individual product campaigns, the specific product keywords typically will have much lower search volume. In this case, I found different results. Google had 60% of the clicks leaving the search partners with 40% of the clicks driving traffic. The CPC was very similar between the two.

In the first example of the more generic themed words, the search partner campaigns are less effective. However in the second example, we can see in terms of both clicks and CPC, Google and the search partners are on a more equal playing field.

Within your own data, also consider the conversion rates. Unfortunately I can’t include this…

Knowing the basic behavior of how these placements can perform for you can be critical in optimizing your campaigns. Feel free to share your findings!

 

March 22, 2009

List of Online Marketing Lists: 316 Tips & Ideas

Posted by Lisa Raehsler under online marketing, search engine marketing, social media | Tags: , , , |
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online-marketing-planIn need of some online marketing inspiration? I’ve found these online marketing lists to be a great place to start for new ideas, research, and resources on hot topics.

1.  50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business
Twitter for business? Yes, I know it all sounds so strange. You can become totally Twittertastic, but you’ll need ideas and a plan. Chris Brogan’s post can get you started on both.

2. Top 150 Social Media Marketing Blogs
Social Media is every where, there’s no escape. Use eCairn’s list of the top 150 blogs about social media as the ultimate resource.

3.  5 Tools for Keyword Brainstorming
I struggle with the keyword generation process in search engine marketing. If you need help too, Ann Smarty’s post offers great resources as starting point for keyword brainstorming. Also valuable for other types of concepting and brainstorming.

4.  101 Link Building Tips to Market Your Website
Awesome list of link building strategies for SEO from Aaron Wall. Advice on “30 Bad Ways to Build Links” is funny and demonstrates how not to implement these great ideas. While 101 actionable tips can be a little daunting, for you unorganized people I’d recommend:

  • identify the tactics that apply most closely to your website (save the rest for later)
  • organize into “quick wins” and “more difficult” buckets (for example, directory submissions will not take as long as writing an article or setting up RSS feeds)
  • create a timeline, including “one time” tasks and “ongoing”

Ok, there’s one more…

5.  Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization Books
Books are not dead! And you really could use a break from your computer. Greg Jarboe offers 10 smart recommendations.

If you just can’t get enough, I previously posted another list of resources that will also keep you busy: Best Online Marketing Lists

 

January 10, 2009

4 Basic PPC Mistakes You Can Correct Today

Posted by Lisa Raehsler under PPC, search engine marketing | Tags: , , , , , , , |
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On a regular basis I have seen marketers make the same tactical mistakes in running their PPC (pay-per-click) programs. Why?
This seems to occur…

  • in the beginning due to inexperience or indifference
  • after the account has grown substantially and becomes quickly out of control
  • with too many cooks in kitchen adding junk and pushing buttons
  • when people panic and start adding junk and pushing buttons, hoping this will improve performance

By identifying and correcting the problems, you should see immediate and positive changes.

Account creep: Recently observed:  campaigns added upon campaigns, random keywords added, or text ads added in until there are half a dozen creative versions for one Adgroup.

Solution: with each addition to the account, you need to do an audit to find same or similar or complementary campaigns. Compare and contrast. Maybe the additions you need are simply an edit or enhancement to an existing campaign? For new ad texts, you really only need one or two versions unless you intend to test them. Delete the old ones when adding new.

Duplicate keywords: Have you heard: “Why is the wrong ad showing up when I type in ‘blah blah blah’?” Take a detailed look. Do you see keywords duplicated and all over the place? This can result in the incorrect ad showing up.

Solution: Understand each set of keywords should be associated with the exact ad you want to appear. Make sure the same keyword is not in multiple campaigns. Run a keyword report and sort to find any duplicates. Decide which ones are in the wrong place and delete ‘em!

Google says: “Avoid duplicate keywords across adgroups. Google shows only one ad per advertiser on a particular keyword, so there’s no need to include duplicate keywords in different adgroups or campaigns. Identical keywords compete against each other, and the better-performing keyword triggers your ad.”

This help file is excellent in demonstrating a simple account set up and how the keywords should look.

Keyword matching: The way keywords are matched up with search terms is extremely critical to performance. Recently, I witnessed an account capture 30% less traffic because the keyword match was changed from broad to phrase match in Google. Because phrase match is more targeted than broad match, the keywords were actually tightened up, thus limiting traffic. Google uses broad match and Yahoo uses standard match as the default.

Solution: Learn the details of how to make sense of keyword match types. Experiment in small amounts until you understand how your keywords will behave. Then expand.

Content and keyword campaigns combined: Even though this is the default setting for Google, you shouldn’t mix the two. The content campaigns will behave more like display ads with a lower click-through-rate than keyword triggered campaigns. This will skew the results and make it difficult to optimize.

Solution: In keyword campaigns, only select “Google search” and “search partners”. In content campaigns, do the opposite. See awesome illustration:

adwords-settings

Have you made the same mistakes? Don’t panic. Kick the other cooks out of the kitchen and simply set a plan to make corrections and then it will be smooth sailing. For now…

 

December 26, 2008

Google Search Results Have Holiday Spirit

Posted by Lisa Raehsler under holiday search, search engine marketing | Tags: , , , |
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xmas-resultsSearching for “Christmas” on Google yields sponsored results with a neat little holiday border around them. “Christmas”, “Christmas cards”, “Christmas stocking”, and even “Christmas sales” showed the festive border.

In 8 out of 10 of the top searches for “Christmas”, the border appeared:

  1. christmas tree
  2. christmas lyrics
  3. merry christmas
  4. christmas songs
  5. christmas cards
  6. christmas 2008
  7. christmas gifts
  8. christmas music
  9. christmas lights
  10. christmas song

(top searches According to Google Insights for Search)

Also interesting is searches for “marry christmas” increased 40% from last year, showing we’ve become badder spellers. Lucky we have Google, who shows the results for “merry”.

Marry Xmas!

You can leave the "x" in "xmas"

You can leave the "x" in "xmas"

 

December 17, 2008

My Yammer Trial: Not Bad

Posted by Lisa Raehsler under social media, social networking | Tags: , , , , , |
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yammer

My email inbox is officially out-of-control. I can’t find anything and it’s over the storage limit almost everyday. This is the reason I’ve been trying out Yammer. Have you heard of it?

Yammer, a “Twitter for business”, was launched in September of this year and also won the top prize at TechCrunch50. (TechCrunch50 is a showcase for startups to present their idea to venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and the press.)

Yammer allows co-workers to make quick status updates on what they’re working on. They require a corporate email address to sign-up which ensures privacy.

Once in Yammer, you access a feed of messages limited to folks working for the same company. You can create private groups to limit communications to a select team or project. Users can also have threaded discussions, “follow” co-workers, attach files, and create a professional profile.

Mobile nuts can use their phone to send and receive messages via SMS through either iPhone or Blackberry apps.

A co-worker and I have been testing Yammer for three weeks now. Our everyday use is mostly asking quick questions and posting updates when stuff is done. I’ve been using the desktop AIR app for PCs for posting. The app is convenient and has a pop-up window when there is a new message. With just two of us in the trail, I like the pop-up. I can imagine this would start to get annoying with a larger group.

So far, the overall technology has been dependable and user-friendly. We’ve found it reduces the volume of emails for short updates which was sorta the point from the beginning. My main concern is less tech savvy employees may resist using this. I can easily see someone intending to post in the “private group” and instead posting in the public group. That would be awkward…

Since the base product is free, you can give it shout without any investment at this point. Or you can just use it to chat with co-workers– nice. :)

 

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