Tag: AdWords

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Top Google AdWords Questions

There are questions that we get asked by clients about Google AdWords frequently. Here are several and our answers to each.

I am looking for my ad at 8:00 PM on Google and can’t see it why?

When you cannot see your ad in the evening it is typically because your daily budget has already been spent for the day and Google has stopped showing your ads. The frequency of your ad being shown is all tied to your daily budget which is found by taking your 30 day click budget and dividing it by 30 days. Google may spend over 20% of your daily budget on any one day, but will never spend over your 30 day budget in a 30 day period.

My budget is $500 and Google spent $516 in December, why?

December is a 31 day month so Google could spend an extra day spend in December. Remember the budget you set is for clicks for a 30 day period. Some months will have 31 days.

I have reviewed my credit card and it appears that I was billed by Google several times why?

Google does not bill according to your credit card billing cycle or for that matter even on a set monthly basis. Google bills when you have spent your pre-assigned Google spending limit. Here are the limits from the Google help center:

The initial credit limit of $100 is incrementally raised each time an account hits its credit limit before 30 days have ended. The credit limit is first raised to $100, then to $250, then to $500 and then to $1000. The amount billed may be slightly in excess of the credit limit if an account accrues clicks very quickly.

So you may actually have several transactions to your credit card in the same month or straddled over two months appearing that Google is constantly billing you, but in essence they are following their credit guidelines noted above.

I thought it used to be $5 to set up an AdWords account, but I got billed $10

 Google has recently changed its set up fee. You are right it has always been $5 and just in the very recent past has Google started to bill $10 for set up.

As pricing and billing are some of the most asked questions about AdWords, here is a link to the AdWords help center to specifically additionally address some other topics you may find of interest.

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Google Says 50% of Searches Using Caffeine Now!

Google has announced that one of the data centers is already running the new Caffeine algorithm. This in not new news, but Google stated that 50% of searches are now coming out of the new Caffeine algorithm.

We know that all of Google will move to the Caffeine algorithm after the holidays, but with 50% of the searches running on Caffeine now is hot news.

I suspect that the week between Christmas and New Years Google will roll out the full Caffeine update. Partly because there are typically low search numbers in that week and that may give Google a chance to tweak some things and kind of do a test run live before traffic returns after the New Year.

On the other hand everyone at Google may be off between Christmas and New Years and so the update will roll out the first week of January. Your guess is as good as mine which approach Google will take.

I am taking a poll, just leave your comments on when you think the rollout will be.

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Selling Locally? When Should You Advertise Off Line?

For many clients online advertising is done in addition to direct mail, print advertising, flyers, and Yellow Page advertising. For some online advertising is the only type of advertising that is done. When should you consider advertising offline once you have an online presence?

Here are my tips:

1. If you have a store location, it would strongly benefit you to advertise in the local and regional yellow pages as well as online. Some customers may not be able to find you quickly with a Google.com search and may pick up the phone book, especially when it comes to local services like a plumber, attorney, or even a dog walker.

2. If you are advertising on Google AdWords, Yahoo, and Bing and have great conversions now’s the time to expand your offline presence to really work to penetrate your market if you have a local business. Some of our clients have expanded into bus advertising, billboards, radio, and even local flyers. In this case this type of advertising makes perfect sense. This approach does not make sense if you are located in California and selling nationally. The sheer expense of bus advertising in all the major markets is really left for huge enterprises and not right for small to medium sized entrepreneurs.

3. Have you considered flyers? If you live in a densely populated area such as New York or Washington DC where you have condos, co-ops, and apartments and many non-driving customers flyers placed on bulletin boards in lobbies, meeting places, bistros, and local restaurants can really work to drive traffic to your website and potentially bring you more business. This approach does not work for suburbia or areas where there really are no common meeting places that are heavily trafficked.

I think the real takeaway from this article is that online advertising is important to nearly every business in today’s world, but is not the only place you should advertise. Your marketing plan should contain both offline and online efforts. For businesses who really have not done much advertising at all, online is an excellent place to start.

If you need help with online advertising using AdWords, Yahoo or Bing give me a call at 301-705-7303 or visit my website at www.McCordWeb.com.

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When Should You Raise Your AdWords Budget?

On Wednesday this week I wrote about when you should consider dropping your AdWords budget, now let’s talk about when you should consider raising it.

1. If you are not tracking conversions or leads I would not consider raising an AdWords advertising budget until those tools are implemented. If you are making strong conversions and leads I would recommend that you increase your advertising budget for a two to three week test period. In many cases doing so will bring more conversions, but not in all cases.

2. If you have very few impressions in your account you should consider not only increasing your AdWords budget but your maximum cost per click. In a case such as this, typically you have simply fallen out of the auction and AdWords will very slowly serve your ads. In other cases where you have very few impressions it is a possible problem with a high cost per click and a low daily budget. Raising your daily budget will allow you to identify where the problem really lies.

3. It is very important to monitor your AdWords program when you do increase your budget. Use all the tools that AdWords has available to monitor your activity. It is possible that you will need to raise your budget again if you are getting results or that you will need to lower your budget if you have not stimulated leads or conversions.

If you need an experienced Google AdWords account manager, don’t forget to check with me first.