Tag: Google AdWords

Posted on

Google AdWords and the New Auction Insights

Just this last week Google AdWords added an “auction insights” icon to AdWords control panels. On certain keywords (on the keyword tab or keyword rollup found on your campaign tab) you may see a small block graph icon. Tick the box next to the keyword and then click the button called “keyword details” and then select “auction insights”.

AdWords will return a list of your actual competitors and your position in the AdWords auction. The table will show the following data:

  • Impression Share
  • Average Position
  • Overlap Rate
  • Position Above Rate
  • Top of Page Rate

This information is very important and allows you to be much more strategic about your bidding and to understand more fully what is happening in your account. This additional transparency is welcome indeed and I would like to thank Google for providing it.

Here are a few things you can do with the data:

  • If your impression share is high and you are in the top position, you can lower your click cost to have a greater ROI (return on investment).
  • You can actually see the names of the businesses and sites you are competing against. You can harvest these names and do an additional ad group to try to take additional market share away from them. This is a short term approach, but as Google will most likely drive the quality score of these keywords down quickly, but you can bleed off a bit of traffic and boost CTR. It just depends on how competitive you want to be.
  • If your impression share is low and you are not in the top position as frequently as you would like, this may be a good time to optimize and possibly increase your bid.
  • If your impressions share is high, your ROI great, you may want to consider breaking out that keyword and variations of it into its own ad group to get an even higher quality score and even better return.

I have to say that I personally feel that the auction insights tool is a wonderful refinement to AdWords. Knowing who you are competing against and how you really stack up against them by keywords is excellent and a feature I will be using to strategically position my clients in their marketplaces.

For more on how my firm can help you with Google AdWords, please visit our Google AdWords services page for account management options.

Posted on

Google Cracks Down on Misleading AdWords Service Providers

All third party service providers of Google AdWords™ advertising account set up and management services are being audited. I am in the middle of my compliance review right now. For some businesses who perform Google AdWords™ services, this will be a real wakeup call!  I won’t name names, but there are some big mainstream providers whose names I hear from clients consistently as offenders.

It is about time that Google really cracked down on what third party providers sell in regards to Google AdWords™. I cannot begin to tell you about the phone calls I have received from clients shopping for a new account manager and the misinformation that they have been told about their service providers relationship with Google.

I have heard from prospective clients that their current account managers have:

  1. A special relationship with Google to get clicks at a lower cost or bundled price.
  2. They have a deal with Google that their ads get top placement always.
  3. That they buy placement on Google as well as buy keyword activity in bulk.
  4. That they and only they get special pricing and their clients don’t compete in the AdWords auction.
  5. That their account is not transportable and that they are not allowed account access.
  6. They get special ad positions from Google because of who they are.
  7. If you spend so much in a 30 day period, Google will match it dollar to dollar up to $10,000.
  8. If you pay them you are guaranteed top placement of your ads in Google Places.

If you are tired of being mislead by your account provider or been approached with these types of selling tactics, you can complain directly to Google about that service. Rest assured that they will be found out in the months to come as ALL third party providers come under the AdWords™ services compliance microscope.

At McCord Web Services, we make no margin or commission on any clicks delivered in  your account. Find out from Google more about working  with third party account managers like McCord Web Services. McCord Web  Services manages your account with the highest level of integrity and adheres  strictly to Google’s policies to provide full transparency for how clicks are  delivered and how your budget is spent. At all times, you have full access to  your AdWords™ advertising account.

Posted on

So You Want the Blue Balloon Next to Your Google Maps Listing – How to Get It

Do you want that blue balloon found next to certain listings in Google Maps? Most listings have the red balloon, but you want the blue one as it really stands out. Here’s how to get it.

First, the blue balloon denotes a sponsored Google Maps listing. It means that this business is using Google AdWords Express to promote their website and Google Places page. If you are already using AdWords you may not want to proceed with these instructions, but say you don’t care about click performance, you just really want that blue balloon!

Allison at Google AdWords has explained to me how you can get the blue balloon. First, you will need to create a Google Places page that uses the SAME login as you use at Google AdWords for your regular pay per click account. Within your new Google Places account you will see a link to AdWords Express or you can login directly to AdWords Express at http://www.google.com/adwords/express/. Once you have your Places page set up, just enter your credit card information and website information.

AdWords Express will not allow you to manage your pay per click account as you typically do in the AdWords control panel. It is a streamlined and fully automated ad serving program. You cannot set keywords, bids, or targeting, or for that matter even create ad text. AdWords Express will set up generic keywords (in many cases just your business name), set your ad targeting to a 15 mile radius (you will not be able to change this), but it will allow you to select a monthly click spend range.

The next time you login to your regular Google AdWords account, you will then see a new ad campaign appear. The campaign name will consist of a string of letters and numbers and is grayed out. What you see is a read only copy of your Google Places AdWords Express advertising program. You cannot make changes in AdWords, just read what is there. To make any changes or to stop activity you will need to login to AdWords Express or your Google Places account.

Then voilà! You now have a blue balloon next to your paid ad that will show Google Maps and in some Google organic listings.

Do I recommend this course of action, meaning advertising on the super simplified and automated AdWords Express platform? Only if you are a do-it-yourselfer when it comes to AdWords, and only if your monthly budget is under $500 for clicks for a 30 day period. If you are a power advertiser and already have a well set up AdWords account and pay a professional manager, I do not recommend following this course of action just to get the blue balloon. As long as you have location extensions set up in your AdWords account, your AdWords ads are already showing in Google Maps – just not with the blue balloon.

From what I have seen in viewing these accounts once set up, the keywords are very, very general and the type that you would typically pause in a well-managed AdWords account as low performance high dollar click cost keywords. I personally don’t feel the cash drain and poorly targeted activity is worth it just to get a blue balloon.

Posted on

Google Statistically Documents AdWords and Organic Click Activity

This is a very interesting article and one worth a quick review if you are advertising on Google AdWords or thinking of advertising on Google AdWords. The title is “Impact of Organic Ranking on Ad Click Incrementality“. The study done by Google, in a nutshell, shows that when an advertiser with high organic placement stops advertising on Google AdWords, the high placement does not replace the click activity from AdWords.

“A meta-analysis of 390 Search Ads Pause studies highlighted the limited opportunity for clicks from organic search results to substitute for ad clicks when search ads are turned off. We found that on average, 81% of ad impressions and 66% of ad clicks occur in the absence of an associated organic result on the first page of search results. In addition, we found that on average, 50% of the ad clicks that occur with a top rank organic result are incremental. The estimate for average incrementality of the ad clicks increases when the rank is lower; 82% of the ad clicks are incremental when the associated organic search result is between ranks 2 and 4, and 96% of the ad clicks are incremental when the advertiser’s organic result ranked lower than 4.”

The bottom line is that even with high organic placement AdWords ads will bring more traffic and clicks in to your website. The lower your organic placement the higher percentage of click activity will be from AdWords. When you stop Google AdWords ads, the traffic from your organic placement will not rise, but rather your click activity will actually drop as much as 50% for top placed websites and as much as 82% for lower placed websites. The lower your organic position the more important AdWords is for click activity and the boost of exposure.

From these findings even top ranked website can benefit significantly from an AdWords campaign. If you are interested in trying AdWords, we invite you to visit our services page to review our AdWords account management program.