AdWords Recommends Separate Mobile Targeted Campaigns

I sat through a seminar this past week that I found very interesting. It was done by Jason Woods from Google AdWords on Mobile Specific Programs.

Here are a few important points that I gleaned from the seminar that I wanted to share with you:

  1. Google AdWords is recommending that businesses do breakout campaigns to target just high end mobile phones and tablets. Although Jason Woods recommend that tablets be put into the desktop and laptop campaigns I don’t agree with that focus just yet. I’ll expound on that issue later.
  2. Google AdWords is recommending more general keywords in this program due to the types of keywords mobile users will type in.

Here are some of my comments and recommendations that I have seen from client accounts we are already managing that have separate mobile/tablet campaigns.

1. The click cost is typically less, but so are the conversions and activity. But don’t think you shouldn’t do a separate mobile program for these reasons, just alter your budget and click cost accordingly and watch your cost per conversion. So far we’ve have good results for clients in the mobile and tablet arena.

2. I don’t necessarily agree with putting tablets into the desktop campaign. I base this on my observation of tablet users. Most tablet users I’ve seen are using cell phone access to the web, meaning that they are out and about and are using access to the web via Sprint, Verizon or some other service. Although most tablets will connect to wireless networks, the fun of a tablet is to access information anywhere not just where you find a hot spot. Now this may change as more and more mobile service providers reign in big data users, but at this time make your own decision based on what you and your client see. For you, you may want to put tablets in with your desktop program.

It is easy to see if you should try a mobile specific program now by logging in to AdWords, go to your campaign tab, select the segment drop down, then click network. Google will show you the number of clicks and conversions that have come from mobile devices with full browsers and tablets with full browsers. Base your decision to do a breakout program from this data.

If you are looking for a savvy Google AdWords account manager, I would be glad to chat with you about your Google AdWords needs (301-705-7303) or I invite you to visit our AdWords account management services page for our programs and pricing.

Google to Re Rank Overly Optimized Websites

Matt Cutts from Google dropped a bomb this past week. According to Cutts Google is set, in their upcoming algorithm, to re rank in their organic search placement websites that have been overly optimized in an effort to “level the playing field”.

Here’s what Matt Cutts from Google said in another exchange on the topic:

 “We are trying to make  GoogleBot smarter, make our relevance better, and we are also looking for those  who abuse it, like too many keywords on a page, or exchange way too many links  or go well beyond what you normally expect.” Read the full article.

What does this exactly mean to website owners?

Well if you have really worked over your website for keyword density, aggressively worked to build inbound text links with very specific anchor text, your website may be hit with a Google search penalty filter in the upcoming three months as their new algorithm rolls out.

What should you do now?

We recommend a careful review of your home page now before your website is dropped or pushed to the 100th page in the search results to see exactly what may need to be changed to be more Google-friendly with this new content focused push. If you have built strong keyword density on some terms on your home page, now’s the time to remove some of the usages and make the content more readable.

Get the AdWords Time Machine Cranked Up Again

If you are in this business, you’ve heard it too… “I used to have such great results on Google AdWords back in 2006. Why can’t you just roll my account back to those settings. Surely I will get more clicks and activity at a cheaper price!” There is no time machine that can turn back the clock to give you clicks and performance that you used to have in the past on Google AdWords.

Here are a few changes that I have seen in the last eight or so  years that have impacted advertisers on AdWords. I will only list ten, but you can leave a comment with the ones you have seen too.

  1. Introduction of the quality score based on your keywords, ad text and landing page.
  2. Highly competitive bidding from new advertisers bidding on your keywords pushing up the market price per click. In one year I saw a 33% increase in click costs.
  3. Increased use of technology to manage bidding from specialized programmer interfaces. AdWords now has many of these tools available to use as rules in accounts, but before only the big companies with special programming staff had access.
  4. Tremendous variety of ad choices from text ads to video ads. We used to only have one choice text ads on Google.com.
  5. Proliferation of the publisher network through AdSense. There has been an improvement in the publisher network, but it has been pretty awful and rife with fraud previously before Google wised up to the issue of robot ad clicking.
  6. Issues of using trademarks in your ad text and keyword list. It used to be you could use them and then trademark owners have gotten very testy of even demanding you remove them from your keyword list in the US even when Google says you don’t need to go that far. In some cases, it has made it impossible for some legitimate businesses to promote their product and service on AdWords. I know of several specific cases.
  7. Google AdWords providing account set up and management services directly to businesses and putting themselves in direct competition with firms such as my own. Remember when they did this in the early days of certification.
  8. Instituted a program to certify account managers. I managed AdWords before there even was a certification program. I’ve seen the tests be tough, easy, and they are tough again. I’ve even had people ask to pay me to take the test for them. No I haven’t done that, I am offended to be asked to do so, as it hurts the professional credential I work so hard to keep.
  9. Introduction of TV, newspaper, and telephone into AdWords. We don’t have the option to buy AdWords ads in print newspapers, but we used to. Telephone started out as a totally different beast and only to a few select advertisers. Remember the green click to call phone icon. I like the new phone integration much better and am getting great success using it for my clients.
  10. Remember the early days you could create AdWords ads and target your Google Places page all from within the control panel. I liked that much better than AdWords Express. There was better control, but we cannot do that anymore.

These are just a few of the changes that I personally have seen. Each one has had an impact of advertisers as AdWords has matured into the vibrant ad platform that it is today. So sorry, there simply is no going back what AdWords used to be it has morphed over the years into a very cool, high tech valuable tool that will drive sales and website traffic. It is much more complicated but more powerful than it was before. With this power comes significant market acceptance and competition for the available clicks, sorry, but that’s progress.

Lead Conversions – Metrics Part Three

I’ve saved the best and most important metric for the last post this week. Lead conversions or requests for information coming from your website (from organic search placement) are typically the top metric that top level executives watch to determine if their website is successful. Website design is important but what really drives lead conversions is the content, communicated transparency, and culture of the business.

What you say, how you say it, and the depth of experience in your field that you show on your website works to communicate that you care about your potential customers and effectively explains how you can help them. By communicating your business culture in your content, you differentiate yourself from others in your industry and create a position of authority that search engines typically will reward with organic placement.

It’s great to have a pretty website, but if that website does not make your phone ring and you don’t get regular information requests from your contact form, it is key to take a very close look at your website content.

  • It may be that you simply do not have enough content to make an impact on your potential customers.
  • Your content may be too technical or too simplistic to resonate with your audience.
  • There may be no call to action to encourage a reader to take further action.
  • You may communicate too many specifics that really should be detailed later in a contract and not in the initial interaction.
  • Your message may not be clear as to what you offer and can do.
  • Features and benefits may not be clearly detailed setting your product or service apart from similar offerings.

Periodic review should additionally be done on your website content. What was great and resonated with your audience five years ago may need updating to reflect new services, interests, and trends. There is simply no reason why your website should not be working hard for you. If your’s is not, it may be time to check with us for a website review.