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Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Fine Tuning Your Google AdWords Keywords with the Search Query Performance Report

We are running a large campaign for a software company that sales design-related products. A lot of our time thus far on the project has been devoted to ad group "expansion" (that is, expanding the number of keywords and ads in each ad group). It is a multi-stage project, and the first stage is basically to start generating as much traffic as possible, and then later stages will be devoted to improving the quality of the traffic and increasing conversions.

We've been working on the project for a few weeks, and have begun generating a fair amount of traffic. So we decided it was time to take a look at the search traffic that was generating clicks and see what it looked like. We did this by generating a Search Query Performance Report from the AdWords Reports tab. The results were very enlightening.

What we discovered was that we were getting lots of traffic from completely irrelevant searches. We are using broad match, in order to maximize ad impressions, but we discovered that our ads are being triggered by way too many searches that are unrelated to the products we're selling. Despite ad copy that clearly states the nature of our client's business and its products, people are still clicking on the ads even if it is not relevant to what they are looking for.

The solution is to add negative keywords to the ad groups to prevent our ad from being displayed by all of the irrelevant searches. After generating the Search Query Performance report (with the data divided up by ad group), we pulled out bad search terms that had triggered clicks and added those as negative keywords to the proper ad groups. As a result, we should greatly cut down on the number of irrelevant impressions and clicks, which should result in improvement in our conversion rate. And that's the ultimate goal.

So the negative for us is that now we're going to have to do more keyword research to try and generate as much traffic as we can. But we're pretty sure our client will be happy at the prospect of paying much less for conversions. After we add another round of keywords, we'll have to repeat the whole process, generating reports to look for irrelevant search terms that are triggering our ads. But that's what it's all about - iterative improvements over time that maximize account performance.

If you would like Work Media to help you manage or improve the performance of your Google AdWords (or other search engine) campaigns, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: internet marketing, keyword research, keywords, pay-per-click, ppc, reporting, search engine marketing, search marketing, search query performance, sem

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

More About Google Radio Ads

In our last blog post, we began a discussion about Google's new Google Radio Ads feature. Today we are going to provide some more detail about the service so you can decide for yourself if this might be right for your.

Currently, all radio ads purchased through the Google system must be 30 seconds in length. There is a slight bit of flexibility - if your ad is within 2% of 30 seconds, Google will compress or stretch the ad. We suggest you just go ahead and make it exactly 30 seconds.

As far as the content of the ads, Google states that the ads must adhere to their AdWords' content policy (nothing promoting violence or discrimination, no academic aids, no anti-drug testing devices, no auto-clicking products, etc.) as well as a set of editorial guidelines specifically created for audio ads, which basically state that the ad should accurately represent your business and emphasize the unique qualities of your product or service. In addition, content promoting sexual content is not allowed, as well as political election or fundraising ads. Ads of a non-commercial nature are also not allowed.

With regards to the technical specifications of the ads, it may be in MP3 or WAV format. If MP3 format is used, the maximum file size of the ad is 1.5 MB. For WAV files, the maximum size is 11 MB. You may get slightly better sound quality from using WAV format, but it could take a lot longer to upload the ad. You're probably just fine going with MP3.

Given the cheap cost and high quality of today's audio recording/mixing equipment and software, you can easily create your own ad or hire a professional to do it. If choosing between spending your time on production or writing compelling ad content, we would advise you to spend the most time crafting your message. If the message is strong, and audio quality acceptable, then the ad will be successful if it is heard by the right people.

If you would like help running Google Radio Ads for your business, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or email Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: google, Google Adwords, Google radio, Google radio ads, internet marketing, pay-per-click, search marketing, sponsored search

Monday, June 04, 2007

Bringing Your Message to the Masses with Google Radio Ads

You may have noticed a new tab on your Google AdWords control panel - "Audio Ads". The Audio Ads option lets you run a radio ad campaign in a very similar fashion as a paid search ad campaign. When you click the tab, you have the option to "Create an audio ad campaign". Sound familiar?

We at Work Media are excited about the prospect of being able to create and manage radio ads right alongside paid search ads, all from a single interface. There are probably a lot of marketing theorists and business school professors who would argue that it is not good for a single company, Google, to dominate so much of the advertising market on so many different platforms. But as business pragmatists, our view is "Who cares?" If it helps us make more money for our clients, and it makes life easier, then we're all for it.

The first thing you do when setting up a campaign is to set your weekly budget. There are several pre-set options, ranging from $500 to $2,000, but you can set your own budget at whatever amount you want, as long as it is at least $25. The second step is to select your geographic market. The third step is to select your option for specific stations. You have the choice of either running your ads on whatever stations reach the most listeners at the lowest cost, or you can pick stations in particular formats. If you have a definable target market, then your best bet is to select stations that best cater to your market.

Now, this is a brand new program, so the number of stations on which you can run your ads at the present is fairly limited. For instance, when we were playing around with setting up a radio campaign, there were no sports stations available in our preferred target markets. But hey, this is cutting edge stuff, so you can't really expect everything to be perfect yet.

The next step is to set a bid per thousand impressions. Same old auction format - tried and true.

After selecting the days and time blocks in which you would like your ads to run, Google will show you an estimate of how much you will spend and how much your cost per thousand impressions will be.

The next step is to either upload your audio ad or use Google's ad marketplace to find a company to create your ad for you. Either way, the end result is that you will be running audio ads on multiple targeted radio stations without the hassles of having to deal with radio sales people. Beautiful!

If you could use some help running your own Google radio ad campaign, contact Work Media at 888-299-4837 or via email at Info@WorkMedia.net.

Labels: google, Google Adwords, Google radio, Google radio ads, internet marketing, pay per click, ppc, search marketing, web site marketing