Category: Google AdWords

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Mobilegeddon So Far Has Been a Bust

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What was Google thinking when they back pedaled on the mobile search release?

Fresh from doing a SEO review of five client sites, I have to say that mobilegeddon is a bust, at least so far.

Google started the roll out of this much talked about algorithm that was to have impacted over 14% of the search results in the mobile search sphere on Monday April 21st. But as of April 30th, I was still seeing sites appear routinely in the mobile search space that were not mobile-friendly.

Does that mean that there was all this hype about nothing? No, not really. I suspect that Google got scared of crashing it’s search engine and money driver if it moved too fast to chop sites that had not moved into mobile. I suspect that they will over time tweak this as new sites enter the index that are mobile-friendly, but they have already back pedaled from their previous approach.

Earlier in the year in the pending change announcement Google stated that if you did not have a mobile-friendly site you would be dropped from the mobile index. Later, Google softened this approach to say, well maybe you’d be dropped, but if your website really matched the query best and even if you were not mobile-friendly they would show your site in the mobile results as most relevant – totally watering down the first announcement.

Then, Google AdWords reps started to say, well if your site is not mobile-friendly and you are using AdWords advertising, your non-mobile-friendly website would still show in the mobile results as an AdWords ads. Note the serious conflict here? Advertising vs. Search?

I think that as it got closer to the date, Google decided that there was too much money at stake and sites had simply not upgraded as they had thought they would.

I do suspect that over time there will be a “weeding” of sites from the mobile index but for now I think the change on Google’s part is being driven by a concern for a loss of revenue in AdWords and search relevancy versus the competition.

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Google AdWords Says Hello to Broad Match Modifiers as Keywords of Choice

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Over the nine or so years that I have been managing Google AdWords accounts, I’ve seen new match types added to the AdWords program. Out of all the types I use I like broad match modifiers the best. But based on this recent article from Search Engine Watch, I may stop using all other match types in accounts as Google has blurred the lines between what the various match types now do.

I’ve never loved broad match keywords and now even more I am distancing myself from their use as when I look at the search queries that are trigged in accounts using broad match in AdWords I consider the queries weak and a waste of money for a client.

However, I feel differently about broad match modifiers. I like the control and ability to modify some words in my phrase and leave others alone. It is not uncommon in accounts I manage to see phrases like:

+Keyword Services +Location note that with this query phrase Google can broad match and show the ads on synonyms of services but that my selected Keyword AND Location must be in the search query phrase.

I still use all match types based on a clients needs but see myself distancing myself farther from exact match and broad match as time goes by just as this article mentioned.

If you are looking for a savvy AdWords account manager or AdWords optimization make sure to check out our services page for pricing and details.

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Mobile Bid Formula Designed by Google – How to Get Your Bid Right!

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McCord Web Services is a Google Partner and Nancy McCord is a Certified Professional.

This past month across a number of AdWords accounts I’ve started to see a drop in conversions as Google AdWords more strongly serves ads in the mobile space. With click costs, impressions and click through rates nearly the same as the past 30 days when there were healthy conversions, I had to dig deep to identify what was plaguing a number of client accounts.

I found that by serving more strongly in mobile, AdWords had forced my conversions lower. By adjusting the mobile bid using a formula that my Google Rep., Kelsey Bowers, shared with me this week, I am working to boost conversions back to the appropriate level.

Kelsey told me that Google has done extensive statistical testing to come up with this formula and I’d like to share it with you.

Here’s what I do. Go to the Campaign tab, then go to the setting tab, and then go to the device tab. Make sure that these columns in your view, if not click customize columns to add them – conversions, cost per conversion, and conversion rate.

By campaign use this formula to decide your mobile bid:

(Mobile conversion rate divided by Desktop conversion rate) -1 times 100 = mobile bid adjust up or down.

Make sure that before you finish, you look at your mobile versus desktop cost per conversion. If you are spending nearly the same budget or more in mobile versus desktop and have no conversions in either space do a 90% deduction in bid in mobile or wait to get more data to make a good decision on what is right for your needs.

I found that the ad serving changes that I saw this month reflected a big increase in ad serving in the mobile space and that I was paying too much for exposure at the expense of account conversion generation. With a few quick change our clients will be back on track in no time.

If you are looking for quality AdWords help to boost conversions and troubleshoot issues in your AdWords account, I invite you to find out more about my firm.

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AdWords Auction Insights – Daily Budget

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Not getting the performance you want out of AdWords?

Not only is your maximum cost per click a factor in deciding if you are in the Google AdWords auction, but your daily budget may be a factor keeping you out of the auction too!

It is important to understand a few things first about how the AdWords auction works.

AdWords account managers will talk about your 30 day budget spend;  it needs to be high enough to support your accounts daily budget based on your maximum cost per click. Not your average cost per click, but your maximum cost per click.

Here is a fine example of a client who by having a low 30 day click spend has effectively kept Google AdWords from being able to serve his account for best performance.

30 day click spend $150
Daily budget $5
Typical max. CPC for other clients in the same industry $6.50 His top maximum CPC based on his daily budget $5

As his maximum CPC is constrained by his daily budget, his account can never be set at a level to truly be in the auction, he gets spotty click results and sometimes Google cannot even spend his $150 in a 30 day period.

In scenarios like this, what we see happening is that an account manager gets desperate and starts adding broad match keywords to an account in an effort to get low cost traffic.

Here are some of the results we then see when that happens:

30 day number of impressions 11,930
Clicks in 30 days 36
CTR in 30 days .30%
Average position 6.8

It looks like the account is performing, but look at the impressions. They are high and the CTR is low. This account is getting clicks, but they are typically poor quality and untargeted clicks because the client has set the daily budget too low and so can never raise the maximum cost per click to get in the keyword auction. Google may even be delivering clicks at off hours setting the account up for even lower levels of success.

This is just one example of problematic account performance. In some cases as you monitor clients such as this you will even see Google saving up money to try to serve their program by even going a day or three without any clicks at all and then getting a few clicks a day or so later.

If you are looking for a savvy AdWords manager I invite you to read our client reviews. We resolve AdWords problems all the time and do work in some cases on an hourly basis to help re-mediate AdWords problems.