Getting the most from a Google AdWords campaign – 6 Top Tips
If you are about to spend money on Google AdWords then it is important that you also look holistically at your website, to make sure you will get maximum benefit from your internet marketing investment. 1 Get your product pricing right Importantly, make sure your prices for products are competitive. They don’t need to be the cheapest just competitive, otherwise you will be pay for click throughs that have very limited hope of converting, wasting time, effort and money on your part. If you want to get people to your site you may even want to consider running your campaign as a loss leader to drive traffic in that is likely to convert for the advertised product, with the hope that they will add other products to their baskets. 2 Know your keywords Google offers some fantastic keyword tools so make sure you use them. Google Trends helps you understand what people are searching for but also helps with – as the name suggests – trends. Highlight want search terms are on the rise in say the last 30 days. Is there value to be had in these terms? The Google AdWords own Keyword Tool can then identify how much competition you will have using your AdWord budget for those terms. Beyond Google and at a cost you could try some competitive intelligence using something like Keyword Spy and identify what they are investing in. 3 Set up Google Analytics correctly The Google family always work well together and by using Google Analytics you can track how much each source and each visitor is worth to you both organically and via AdWords. Being able to see where visitors are coming from and leaving your site from will also give you an insight into more relevant keywords for future AdWords campaigns. 4 Don’t rely on automation Although Google Adwords can be automated and work very well, for best results you do need to keep monitoring your campaigns. By all means have a budget – there is no point spending more than you can afford – but don’t let that be your automation controller. Consider altering your campaign daily by re-adjusting your bid price rather than just having a set budget. With the latter once your budget is used up your ad will no longer be displayed which means you risk missing traffic and certainly any advantage over competitors if there is a sudden rush. If there is a rush better to go slightly over your budget but drive in considerable more traffic, you just need to make sure you are checking your spend regularly. 5 Use variations for best results When designing your AdWords ads don’t just have one option. Use a couple of different calls to action. Consider it as a cheap way of multi-variate testing. You will soon learn what works, when and where. Don’t try to cram too much into an ad either. Create ad groups and have one group per product you are much more likely to see success. 6 Don’t forget your own brands OK organic traffic should put you high up the rankings but AdWords work and place you where people are more likely to click. Someone searching specifically for your brand is highly likely to click as soon as they see your ad and then also convert too, so you are almost guaranteed a winner. In addition, because it is your own brand name the cost per click should also be low and backed by a high conversion rate it is a pretty safe bet. That’s just six ways you can make your Google AdWords campaign more successful, but we are sure you have more. Please let us know.
Commuting the message – why domains are so important
I am sat on a London Underground tube train on my way into London as part of the commuter morning rush-hour. I don’t do this journey often now but 15 years ago it was part of my daily routine. Boy has it changed! Back in the day, we (myself and fellow commuters) would sit staring into space, out of the window or into each others eyes. Sometimes a few would scan a paperback novel and the odd newspaper but mostly it was a time to reflect about the day ahead – or the heavy night before. Nowadays WE are all connected! Standing (the overcrowding issue hasn’t really changed) here tapping away on my tablet, I look around and think that an alien landing on earth for the first time seeing this scene may believe us humans are actually powered by electronic devices. All bar three people on this crowded train carriage, from what I can see, are plugged in, absorbed or certainly engaged with an e-reader, a tablet, an mp3 player. I can even see one guy turning contortionist as he attempts to type on a full-size laptop with less arm room than a corpse in a coffin. Even those flicking through the pages of he free commuter newspapers are all plugged in with headsets into another device hidden about their person. Some fight with reception as we dip in and out of tunnels and they optimistically attempt to continue their mobile phone conversation. It’s a modern world! Then I look further at our surroundings. The adverts in the carriage, the branded clothing worn by my fellow commuters, the bags they carry, the buildings flashing by outside the odd overground bits of our journey, there another wave of technology is becoming day-to-day with few consciously realising. Back in the day, I would probably have been one of a few on that train with a domain portfolio. Many probably hadn’t even used the Internet! Nowadays the domain name is as vital as your formally adopted name – indeed some even think more important! Domain names are everywhere…and quite rightly too. I am an information junkie and a domainer but I know I am not alone in getting excited when I see a new domain name, perhaps with a catchy ring to it, or an intriguing description built in. One of my domaining regrets is letting a batch of off-the-wall domains expire when I had a domain cull, because nowadays it seems the quirkier the name for a business the better, especially if it includes an animal. So back to my commuter train. You see, full domain integration into our daily lives is not far away. You can already have a full range of personal domain names, some people have even tattooed that onto their physical being in some form or other. On your way to work you will probably ‘see’ tens of domain names but you may not take them all in. Domain names are very close to becoming a commuters norm as the electronic device has, but domains will become more powerful, especially for businesses. They will stand alone, with the catchy, memorable ones becoming etched on the minds of commuters, while many more will also be accessed during the commute via one of the multitude of connected devices the commuters handle. So there has never been a more important time than now to secure your domain name. Commuters love them, kids love them, even business entrepreneurs love them, so make sure it is your domain they are loving. A commuter train is not exactly the most obscure location for a domain name to be promoted, but is there anywhere in the modern world yet untouched by domain name fever? We’d love to hear the most unique place you have used or seen a domain name promoted.
Women lead the way in engagement
The battle of sexes continues in the virtual world and it’s the fairer sex that leads the way according to the latest report from Nielsen. STATE OF THE MEDIA SPRING 2012 – ADVERTISING & AUDIENCES PART 2: BY DEMOGRAPHIC released today is a US-centric study on who is engaging and where and it throws up some interesting stats, suggesting a big shift in the online audience in recent years. The report shows that women are now significantly more likely to engage with social media than men. Women are also 8% more likely than the average online adult to build or update a personal blog and 6% more likely to have created at least one social networking profile If advertisers needed more proof that their target engagers are female not male the report also suggests a lady is 12% more likely than the average adult to purchase a product featured on TV. A pretty clear definition and pattern that advertisers will no doubt no longer ignore. So don’t be surprised to see more fluffier, pinkier or simply more feminine websites and networks springing up in months to come as the strive for social media returns enters a new chapter.
How to grow overseas with the help of Google
Selling overseas is not easy. You need to identify the right market; create localised versions of your website; change your ads so they appeal to locals; create localised distribution; and find out how to reach potential customers with your message. Introducing Google Ads for Global Advertisers To help out business looking to expand to overseas markets Google have developed a load of new resources. These are all clustered on a new site called Google Ads for Global Advertisers. This allows businesses to find the right market for their products, translate the website and ads, set up campaigns to reach new customers, and work out payment, shipping and customer service issues. The Global Market Finder There’s also a tool called Global Market Finder which helps work out which markets have a high demand for products and services. The tool translates a keyword into 56 languages, and then uses search trends to see where in the world people search for the products and services. The tool shows the volume of local searches, the estimated price for keywords, and the competition for keywords in that market. This makes it really easy to work out how competitive local markets are, how much interest there is a in a product or service, and how much it would cost to start advertising in that market. We know what you’re up to! It’s easy to see Google’s play here: the more global interest there is in international markets, the higher the market CPC will rise. But as a company this is a great way to take a quick snapshot at a market before starting the more expensive and lengthy process of local research. Nick Leech runs Digital Marketing Agency Euston Digital