Tag: Google AdWords

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Google AdWords Explained

Google AdWords is a pay per click program. Pay Per Click programs, PPC or Pay For Performance are all the buzz in Internet marketing. The growth in web traffic generated by pay per click services is growing and a marketing option to be seriously considered. With PPC, you pay each time a web viewer chooses your ad listing link and clicks into your website.

Pay per click targets a specific audience reaching up to 85% of all Internet users in a cost effective and immediate way. There can be as much as a $20 return of investment for each $1 spent.

The first step is to select which pay for performance agent to use.

Although Yahoo has more overall visitors statistically, due to their Web properties, than Google, Google AdWords is the most productive pay per click vehicle and the place you should start with when you decide to advertise using pay per click. In the United States, over 80% of all Internet searches will start on Google first. With Google AdWords, you can see your ads in several hours, and have the ability to start and stop campaigns easily. You will show your products and services to millions of viewers and active shoppers using the massive reach of Google. Additionally Google AdWords will typically out perform Yahoo and MSN adCenter when it comes to generating conversions and return on investment.

The second step is to select your targeted keyword or phrases.

At this point you may want to consider increasing the density of your selected keywords in your website’s HTML code, your site’s description, and title. However, we have found that you can still experience great returns using PPC without revising your website, as your PPC ads are triggered by the keywords you selected that are tied to your ad and not your web site’s content.

The third step is to select your monthly budget.

You select the maximum amount that you will pay each month for click throughs to your website. Once the maximum amount is reached your agent will halt click throughs to your site automatically. Additionally, you will select how much you are willing to pay by keyword.

With Yahoo! Sponsored Search, you will be charged your pre-designated budget amount on a monthly basis in advance of the clicks. Clicks are then deducted from your account balance on a daily basis. With Google AdWords, you may pause a campaign or update your settings at any time. There are no minimum monthly spending limits and no contracts or long term commitments. You can select to be charged for clicks after they happen.

How much should you allot for a pay per click program?

I suggest that clients should set a budget of at least $500 and better yet $800 to $1,500 for 30 days of clicks on top of our fees for the first month. This allows Google to have enough budget to not minimally serve the account and allows us enough latitude to find the sweet spot for a market competitive cost per click.

When you are ready to get serious about pay per click for your business we invite you to consider our AdWords services. Not sure which account manager to use? Review our client ratings and testimonials as you evaluate your choices.

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PayPal Versus Google AdWords

I wanted to bring to your attention some issues in using PayPal and tracking conversions on sales on Google AdWords in this issue.

Right now with PayPal, if the user selects to purchase with their PayPal account they will be automatically be redirected back to your selected landing page in which you have embedded your Google AdWords conversion tracking code. However, if the customer selects to pay by credit card (not the one tied to their PayPal account), they will no longer be automatically redirected to your landing page accruing a conversion. For this type of user, your buyer must now click an orange button to return to your website on their order confirmation page.

If they perform this action, they will go to your landing page and a Google AdWords conversion will be recorded. If they choose not to click the orange button to return to your site, the sale is recorded, but a conversion for Google AdWords is not recorded. This is a very big problem for any client who is using PayPal and then marketing these services on Google AdWords and really needs to know conversion statistics.

As a Professional Google AdWords Account Manager I will not be recommending that clients use PayPal if they are promoting their items on AdWords unless they are using a third party PayPal Web Pro integrated shopping cart. As an account manager, the recording of conversions is one of our biggest tools to understanding if the advertising spend on AdWords is an investment or an expense.

So what can you do if this is a problem for you?

1. In your PayPal settings you can force all users to use either their PayPal account or set one up. This means they will be redirected at the completion of the order to your conversion tracking landing page.

2. You can move to a different credit card processing program – I use Sage Payment for my online credit card transactions. Although PayPal makes it very easy to do online transactions, the issues in regards to accurate conversion tracking may force you to use an alternative service. 

3. You may even want to test, for two weeks or so, forcing customers to use their PayPal account for transactions online and see if you receive complaints. The reality is that most people who do buy online at some point have set up a PayPal account, but for some reason may not want to use it. If tracking a conversion is crucial to your business, you may need to force them to use their PayPal account to shop on your site.

It is easy to change this one setting (forced use of the buyers PayPal account) in your PayPal account settings and easy to undo as well. If you choose not to do this, you and your AdWords account manager simply need to be aware that some sales simply will not be recorded as AdWords conversions. If that is the case, AdWords conversions and overall sales should be evaluated together when reviewing the success of an AdWords program. The big draw back to all of this is that your statistical data on which keywords convert for you and which do not will not be accurate.

I wish these work arounds were not needed, as the redirect issue has not been an issue before, but for some reason PayPal has decided to make these important changes in the order confirmation page that impact conversion tracking forcing us to look for alternatives to their service.

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Google AdWords Trends From August 2009

There are several marked trends that we have seen across many business sectors in Google AdWords this past month. One has been an increase in advertising start up and the other has been a marked increase in conversion activity. Both trends bode well for a change in our economy and for increased business for the fourth quarter of 2009.

First, many clients who have moved out of AdWords due to budget restraints and the economy are moving back into AdWords this past month. We’ve had several new account set up and several paused clients re-start programs. What is interesting to me is that with this flow back into AdWords, typically we see a rise in the cost per click as more competition drives the click cost up on AdWords, but we have not seen this activity yet. Possibly we will this next month, but not so far.

Second, we’ve seen a real jump in conversions across nearly every market sector. Conversion activity has been particularly strong in August with many clients having their best month ever or for the best month in the past six months. Now not all conversions are sales in “AdWords language”. For some accounts a conversion does mean a true online purchase, but for other clients a conversion actually means a lead. A conversion lead really should called a micro-conversion, but AdWords calls it a conversion in their tracking and control panel. Whatever you call it, increased leads and increased sales is good news for our economy and our own personal clients.

So based on these trends should you be moving back into AdWords or should you wait out the economy a bit longer? The decision may be in part based on what you sell. Most of the activity we are seeing is still for products under $1,000 or so and not the big ticket purchases of $2,000 and more, but based on the activity we are seeing, the prospects for a strong economy for the fall are looking pretty good.

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CPC Rising on Google AdWords

After three months of decreasing cost per click prices on Google AdWords, the CPC is on the move up for the majority of the accounts we are managing.

I manage numerous Google AdWords accounts and am seeing this as a strong trend starting in mid March and continuing into April. The cost per click is increasing in nearly all accounts. However, impression activity is still low or the same on many accounts. So although advertisers are feeling bullish about AdWords and moving  back into the platform, searchers and buyers have still not returned to previous levels.

For advertisers who have a click budget under $500 a month for clicks, it will be a struggle to get Google to serve their ads due to increasing competition for the available clicks with the decreased search traffic. Advertisers with larger budgets will simply, by default, hog the available traffic as Google tries to help them spend their budget during the day. With their budget lasting longer into the day it will be hard for those with smaller budgets to get a piece of the available action.