Google AdWords – Page 19 – The Web Authority

August 5, 2015July 31, 2015

Google AdWords is Still the Best Way to Drive Lead Traffic

Google Partner Badge — McCord Web Services is one of the few Google Partners in the Fredericksburg, Virginia area.

Hands down, Google AdWords is still the very best way to drive quality lead traffic to your website and business. Even with cost per click prices seeming to be higher this year, AdWords still generates a positive lead flow. But are they higher?

For more information on trends in AdWords cost per click, here is a great article to expand your knowledge.

For many of the Google AdWords accounts that I manage there has actually been a click cost decrease. Here is a sampling over a wide variety of business sectors as an example comparing July activity this year to July activity in 2014.

Ecommerce store for small dollar products 2015 = $0.59 | 2014 = $0.41- 20% increase in average cost per click.

Medical services 2015 = $1.60 | 2014 = $1.79 – 6% decrease in average cost per click.

Cosmetic medical services 2015 = $3.02 | 2014 = $3.67 – 18% decrease in average cost per click.

Home services 2015 = $6.10 | 2014 = $8.36 – 28% decrease in the average cost per click.

Industrial equipment 2015 = $2.05 | 2014 = $3.14 – 35% decrease in the average cost per click.

No wonder Google AdWords is changing the quality score and trying to boost mobile cost per clicks? Mobile activity has really mixed up the equation for advertisers impacting both cost per click and the number of lead conversions as well as the price to generate a lead.

That being said, there is no other vehicle other than Bing Ads that I’ve found for my clients that comes close to generating the number of targeted leads that Google AdWords does.

August 3, 2015July 31, 2015

Will Google AdWords Change to Quality Score Impact You?

Google announced this important notice just this past week:

Starting today, we will be updating how we report 1-10 Quality Scores for keywords [https://goo.gl/c4Oi7]. This update only affects reporting. There is no change to ad serving such as how auction-time quality signals affect Ad Rank and CPC. The most significant part of the change is that keywords without traffic will now, by default, receive a score of 6, and Average for the three components of Quality Score. Once keywords gather enough impressions, scores will update about a day or so later.Behind the scenes, this change will allow us to simplify some of our core systems, letting us focus our attention on improving reporting accuracy for keywords with traffic.

This could be good or this could be bad. Understand that AdWords quality score impacts the price you pay to get into the AdWords auction and affects the price to appear on the first page of the search results. Although the statement seems like an improvement – rating keywords without traffic to a 6, to me this seems only a cosmetic improvement.

The truth is that Google knows from other advertisers already, what the quality score typically is on a keyword phrase, but now it appears to be waiting for your program to run to allow for the quality score to be more indicative of other factors that may impact your own personal score; such as landing page and ad text.

My personal feeling is based on other news that the cost per click had decreased overall for Google AdWords based on the impact of mobile activity that this is not an innocuous update but rather a strategic push to boost profitability for Google across all devices. We may not see of understand yet this change to quality score yet, but will certainly see the results this next month.

July 22, 2015July 17, 2015

Mobile Has to Be a Part of Your Google AdWords Equation

I have been managing Google AdWords accounts for around nine years. This depth of experience has given me a unique point of view.

Here are a few nuggets to share with you on the topic of mobile.

1. Advertising in the mobile space has to be a part of your Google AdWords strategy. For some clients all leads will come in via mobile, for others just a part, and for some none.

2. If you are a lawyer, dentist, or a doctor where you have a mix of patient age groups, you will see strong activity in the mobile ad space and strong conversion activity there.

3. If your product or service deals with immediate decisions such as an animal emergency room your activity will be in the mobile ad space and nearly all of your lead conversions will be by phone.

4. Even if your business is tech software, know that although you may not get leads from mobile, early decision making and research is being done initially on mobile. It is better to control your ad spend on mobile in that case instead of totally moving out of mobile.

5. There is no single combination of what works best for businesses in mobile at this time and there does not seem to be one pattern of behavior that is repeated across diverse industries. What I have definitely seen is that mobile should be a very important part of every AdWords program.

If you need help with your Google AdWords campaigns I invite you to review our services and qualifications. We may just be the perfect match for your pay per click management needs.

July 1, 2015June 26, 2015

Mobile as an Important Aspect of Your AdWords Strategy

Save money by allocating it in AdWords where it works best for you.

Showing your Google AdWords ads on mobile is an important part of your overall Google AdWords strategy, but how much should you spend in mobile for best results?

For all new AdWords programs, I recommend the following plan to determine just how important mobile is for your overall strategy.

1. Start out at the same bid for mobile that you spend for tablets and desktops, but watch over the next weeks to month where that puts you in regards to average page position.

2. If you are in position two to three, keep your bid where it is unless you start to see stronger conversion activity in the mobile space.

3. If your conversions are strong in mobile move your bid up by adding a positive bid adjustment for mobile from the settings > devices tag. Move slowly and test your account, but let your adjustments run long enough to have good statistical data – like 30 days.

4. For location specific businesses like doctors, dentists, lawyers, and other similar professions mobile may be your single most important space for conversions. For many of the accounts we manage now mobile accounts for all lead conversions. But consider your demographics! For areas where you will have younger customers, mobile will be stronger. For areas where your customers will be older desktops will be stronger. If there is an immediacy with a search such as animal ER mobile will own your conversion numbers.

Looking for a PPC manager in Fredericksburg or Spotsylvania, Virginia? We arrive in town on July 28th and our offices open on August 3, 2015.