Archive for the ‘posts’ Category
AdWords in tough times – Google’s tips
Thursday, May 28th, 2009
Google’s own internal Optimisers have produced a helpful set of tactics to help people get the best results from AdWords in this difficult economic climate. In these conditions it’s important that you really make sure your campaigns are profitable and you will probably have to work that little bit harder to persuade people to buy your product or service.
Here are Google’s 6 Tactics for Tough Times with my interpretation/comments:
1. Focus your ads on low prices and savings
Price is more important than ever. Make sure your proposition and Ad copy focus on low prices and value for money. That is what people are looking for, now more than ever before.2. Use value-related keywords
Keywords are what people are looking for, so if people are looking for bargains then make sure your keywords reflect this. Research and test value-related keywords such as “cheap carpet”, “discount carpet”, “carpet offers”, etc.3. Ensure your Ad Groups are targeted and relevant
This is not particularly a recession tactic, it is always important but it’s perhaps even more important in difficult times because you have to have everything right. Even small mistakes might now mean the difference between profit and loss. So rather than having big vague Ad Groups that target a broad area, split them into smaller more tightly-focused ones. For example, rather than have a big Ad Group about Training Shoes, split it into smaller groups covering Running Shoes, Squash Shoes, Gym Shoes etc. so that your Ads can specifically address what people are looking for. People looking for running shoes are more likely to click on an Ad about running shoes than they are on one about trainers in general.4. Don’t waste money on irrelevant clicks.
Use negative keywords to filter out people who are looking for something different but which uses the same words. For example if you’re selling Butter you don’t want people who are looking for Peanut Butter clicking on your Ad (and believe me they will!) so add Peanut Butter and Peanut as negative keywords.5. Make it easy for people to buy
Make sure the destination URL takes them straight to the order page – don’t make them hunt for it!6. Focus your money on your high-performers
Spend your budget where it has the most effect. Always monitor the profitability of your campaigns and spend your money where it generates the most profit. Simple, but you’d be amazed how often it isn’t done!
So there is nothing earth-shatteringly new here, but it wouldn’t hurt to spend 5 minutes reviewing your AdWords activity against this list just to make sure you’re doing the best you can in this difficult climate. I pretty much guarantee that there will be something you can improve. All in all, a very helpful article from Google.
Tags: adwords, optimisation, recession
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5 Keys to success with AdWords
Thursday, January 15th, 2009
No this isn’t another how-to-setup-and-optimise-an-AdWords-campaign article, there are plenty of those already. What this article concentrates on is the non-technical aspects of AdWords that are often overlooked in all the excitement of choosing keywords and writing copy, but which are actually critical to the success of your campaigns. It doesn’t matter how good you are at setting bids and optimising your account, it will all be for nothing if you get these fundamentals wrong.
Tags: adwords, landing pages, optimisation
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Marketing in the recession – can we afford to advertise?
Monday, January 5th, 2009
Can you afford not to is more the question!
In any downturn, most people’s thoughts quite rightly turn firstly to cutting costs as a means of ensuring the security of their business. However, there is probably a limit to how far you can go with this unless you were previously wasting heaps of money on unnecessary expenditure. One of the first areas to come under scrutiny for cuts is marketing and particularly advertising. Should you continue to advertise in the current recession?
Somebody wise (I forget who) once said “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, the trouble is I don’t know which half”. This uncertainty about the effectiveness of some advertising makes it a worthy candidate for consideration at least, when it comes to getting the red pen out. If it isn’t making you money then you should cut it. The trouble is how can you tell if it will make you money or just cost you money until you’ve done it? And then it’s too late…
Tags: advertising, adwords, profitability, recession
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New AdWords options for iPhone
Tuesday, December 16th, 2008
Google have announced a new option to show your AdWords ads on the iPhone and other mobile devices with web browsers. The landing pages can be normal web pages, you don’t have to create special mobile landing pages or mobile format ads. What’s new is that Google have created new iPhone results pages pages that are specially formatted for the iPhone and you can select in your campaign settings whether you show your ads on normal desktop and laptop PCs or on iPhones. This means you can create campaigns exclusively for iPhone users so if that’s your market, or they fit your demographic that’s got to be good news.
You may have seen ads running on the iPhone and G1 already. That’s because Google Search on these devices used to show desktop results pages modified for these phones. Recently, the Google mobile team launched formatted specifically for the iPhone. Now, advertisers will be able to display ads exclusively on these mobile devices, create campaigns for them, and get separate performance reporting. If you prefer not to show your desktop ads on these phones, you can opt out and show ads only on desktop and laptop computers.
More information from AdWords Help Center.
Tags: adwords, iphone
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Google’s new search-based Keyword Tool
Sunday, December 14th, 2008
Finding and testing new keywords is one of the most important parts of any AdWords campaign. There are a variety of tools and services (both free and paid-for) to help you in this task and Google have launched a new keyword tool which is currently in Beta testing in the UK and USA.
The difference with Google’s search-based Keyword Tool is that this one looks at your landing page and cross-references it with their vast amounts of search data to find out what keywords people are using to find your products and services. It looks at your landing page and any additional keywords that you enter and finds relevant user searches that have occurred on Google over the last year. It will then give an indication of search volume and the bid price for a top-three position.
Tags: adwords, keywords, tools
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