Is your website AMP’ed? If it is you most certainly know that I am talking about Accelerated Mobile Pages, and Google loves them.
If you are not, it is relatively easy to create an AMP page template for your HTML website. Just follow some of these links to learn more and to see examples.
As AMP’ed websites are important from Google viewpoint and Google is actively showing AMP pages in the mobile index, it is important to know and understand why your website needs to embrace AMP now.
I listened with interest at the Google Marketing Live 2019 presentation earlier this year to how Google will try to compete head to head with Amazon. Clearly they are afraid they are losing too much market share.
Here’s what I learned at the event:
Google will be making all products shown on its 8 properties shoppable. You will be able to buy items directly from ads on YouTube videos from within the search results and you will be able to choose to buy it through the Google Platform or from the business owner’s website.
Google will be providing customer service when you buy it from them and will allow for simple returns as well as a Google guarantee.
You will be able to use your Google payment profile to pay for merchandise. Additionally, shopping and buying features will soon be appearing in the Google Assistant which appears to have Alexa firmly in its sight.
Google will even be making images found in the image search into shoppable ads. Clearly from this announcement, and very tight integration of selling products into all Google properties, Google does not want to lose out to Amazon on being the premier shopping and buying platform.
So, has it happened so far this year – Google becoming Googazon? Or is this another Google+ fiasco. We’ll just have to wait and see.
We get a chance to check our current Google Ads strategy against your needs.
We get feedback from you on what is trending in your business and in sales so as to rearrange our program if needed.
We get an opportunity to review your budget to keep on track with your marketing plan and revise budgets up or down.
I personally find that when we have regular feedback from the client in regards to how Google Ads is working for them, that performance is better and customer satisfaction with Google pay per click is higher.
My firm manages over $3 million in ad spend for clients in Google Ads yearly. As a result, we see opportunities for improvement in regards to conversion tracking across multiple accounts in diverse industries.
My Tips on Conversion Tracking
Always track website contact forms.
Try to track website phone calls.
Do not change key conversion actions.
Use Position-Based attribution.
Set your cookie for 30 to 60 days.
Add additional conversion actions for promotions.
Nancy C. McCord, Owner of McCord Web Services LLC
One of the most important aspects to conversion tracking is to select key conversion actions and to NOT change them in the Google Ads conversion control panel or Google Analytics.
We have recently had several situations where well-meaning marketing staff deleted conversion actions thinking that there would be no harm in doing so, but as a result the smart bidding algorithms in Google Ads were negatively impacted and performance dropped quickly in the account.
I have found that when a customer is changing the conversion actions for promotions and they do not have key conversion actions that are always in the account, bidding algorithms are easily confused and cost per click and cost per conversions will increase, sometimes dramatically.
Assure that if you track website phone calls and email form completions that you always keep these running as conversion actions. Do not move in and out of conversion actions unless you use manual bidding.
Let Smart Bidding Algorithms Do the Heavy Lifting for You
Once you have your conversion action strategy in place, wait to accrue 15 conversions in a 30 day period and then test the use of smart bidding options like maximize conversion or Target CPA bidding for your account.
Make sure to do routine checks at 2 weeks, 30 days, and 60 days to assure that these algorithms are actually delivering results with a cost per conversion that works for your business. Most accounts will benefit from the use of smart bidding based on Google’s machine learning and AI, but not all.
