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.
Interview: Fighting Malware with Anirban Banerjee
2012 continues to be a year of great excitement for 123-reg. We are thrilled to announce the release of Site Scanner, powered by Stop the Hacker. For those not in the know, Site Scanner is a SaaS based malware monitoring tool that scrutinises a user’s website, notifying the customer when malicious code/viruses are found via email and in the 123-reg control panel. Furthermore, the software provides the user information on where the damaging code is located (the line of code it starts and ends on) and provides steps on how to eradicate it. Protecting your online business against malicious code couldn’t be more important in 2012. This year has seen the issue of internet security rise to the front pages of the national newspapers. Whilst events such as the Linkedin security breach are unfortunate, they are helpful in educating the market. 123-reg spoke to Anirban Banerjee, Co-Founder of StopTheHacker Inc., in a bid to help inform website owners of the growing threat of malware and detail how purchasing Site Scanner can give you peace of mind. A blacklisted website can have serious implications for any online business in terms of lost revenue, potential customers and credibility. We asked Banerjee about the threats to 123-reg customers who run websites with little or no malware detection service. ‘Malicious hackers are targeting websites in order to compromise them. If your website gets compromised and is misused to distribute malware to innocent visitors, the infected website is put on a blacklist by Google and other search engines.’ The potentially spiralling affects could be disastrous for your online business as Banerjee explains. ‘If your website is blacklisted, users will be blocked from coming to your website. This could lead to a loss of revenue. Moreover, this could result in an irreparable loss to the reputation of your website and business.’ The threat of being blacklisted by Google is one that is not only very real but one that every website owner needs to protect against. Once malware infects a website, it harms both the company and its customers. Website owners typically have no idea they have been infected, and many do believe that anti-virus protection software is enough. However, it is not. ‘9,500 websites get added to the Google blacklist every single day. Given the UK market is quite big; this represents a substantial number of UK businesses. It takes 7-10 days for a blacklisted website to clean up its act, on average, this process can cost thousands of pounds in lost revenue before even considering the potential revenue lost from your brands’ reputation being tarnished.’ Prevention is better than cure, but having said that, Site Scanner also acts as a quick reaction, something users can take heart from. If malicious code is found on the user’s website at any time, they are sent an email detailing exactly where the code is, and just as importantly, how to delete it. ‘Site Scanner incorporates the best of breed technology when it comes to malware detection, Antivirus engines, signature databases and reputation monitoring. It will help 123-reg customers by providing them with peace of mind. Together, we will help fight the battle for them!’ Central to seeking a partnership, 123-reg looked-for a provider with a real passion for the online security industry. What 123-reg customers should also take from the partnership is Banerjee’s passion for helping people secure their websites as well as the quality of product that his company provides. ‘Our goal is to make website security ubiquitous. Having a secure website and not worrying about hackers installing malware on your site and getting blacklisted shouldn’t be a luxury, everyone should have access to a high quality, reliable and accurate malware detection prevention like Site Scanner.’ Releasing a product like Site Scanner highlights 123-reg’s commitment to helping its customers secure their websites. 123-reg is working with everyone involved with Site Scanner to bring website security to millions of users. Remember, you don’t have to be a high traffic website to be targeted. Even if you see yourself as a small site, you are attractive to hackers because your site will have more vulnerable openings for hackers.
2012 is all about ecommerce
If you didn’t notice already, more and more of those presents you received last year were bought online. People turned to the virtual high street ahead of Christmas in their droves with lots of e-retailers tempting buyers in with pre-season sales. Yet the trend continued immediately after Christmas too with Experian HitWise revealing that Boxing Day (26th December) 2011 was biggest online shopping day ever in the UK. According to the report, Visits to UK e-retail sites reached record levels on Boxing Day. 13 million hours were spent cumulatively by Brits shopping online on that day notching up a massive 96m visits. That was up an amazing 19.5% compared with Boxing Day last year. The report highlighted that multichannel retailers accounted for the majority of visits during December, and in particular on Boxing Day with almost twice as many visits to multichannel brands than there were to online only retailers. However, the gap between the two groups is narrowing. The UK’s retail economy is estimated to have been worth 81 billion Euros in 2011 with the e-retail market showing growth of 16% per year. The UK’s per head online spend is already the highest in the world and in 2012 the trend is set to continue as more people get connected at home and on the move and the Government makes legislation changes to encourage spend online. If your business is not yet online, our ecommerce packages are the perfect way to get started. Have a look now.
Ifttt may make your life easier
The home page for IFTT simply reads: “Put the internet to work for you” It’s so simple, you think somebody must have invented this before, but to be honest this is the first time we’ve come across IFTT or any of its ilk and we love it. So what is IFTT? Well IFTT stands for “If This Then That”. In programming terms its the very basic function that makes the internet, applications, operating systems and the like, all work. Now with the help of APIs and some clever tweaks it is being put to use on the internet and internet driven applications. So if everytime you take a photo with your phone app you want it published to Twitter and stored in your online drive you can. The very steps that might take you an hour to manually complete, you can automate within seconds. You just use IFTT to set up the triggers and hey presto no more worrying about human error meaning a missed-out step. It is all based around tasks, triggers and actions. Simply choose the channel – Facebook, Google Calendar, etc and follow the step-by-step instructions. You can turn actions on or off, edit them or delete them. Yet its value is in the fact that if you set it up once correctly, you may never need to worry again, you can automate the ‘knock-on’ actions. You’ve probably been using similar tools without knowing. Plug-ins that automatically tweet your latest blog, automating Facebook comments to be tweeted etc. Yet IFTTT goes even further. You can even include the weather. We’ve just set-up an auto-tweet to send out a message to our followers when the weather is predicted to drop below 5 degrees C. So like other tools you can schedule your tweets but with IFTTT that needn’t be based on time, it can be based on various other conditions. What’s more you don’t need a smartphone to use it, just a plain, simple browser. We are only just getting to grips with IFTTT ourselves but what we’ve seen so far we love. We’re sure there will be many clones to follow. Life just got easier. Have you used IFTTT? Can you recommend anything similar?
Ecommerce still growing
This month’s figures from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index reveal that online shopping just gets stronger and stronger. £5.3 billion was spent online during May according to the report which is a year-on-year increase of 18% and up 2% on an already impressive April. However, with economic times pinching it appears big money purchases, which helped fuel the original trend for online buying, are not doing as well as so called ‘low-ticket’ items sales of which are booming. As people’s social trends change due to economic pressures so different sectors seem to be benefiting from online sales. Stay at home entertainment is growing with the alcohol sector growing to an average order reaching £161, which is up a massive 25% on May 2010. Staying-in every night also makes people want to make the most of when they do leave the house so it is no surprise then to find the average travel spend online soaring to £869 a year. To date, £25.7 billion has been spent online during 2011. That is in stark contrast to figures released by the British Retail Consortium earlier this month, which showed that, despite a surge for the Royal Wedding and Easter holidays, high street sales were down 0.3% year-on-year and down 2.1% on April 2011. Are you spending more online? Are you selling online? Our Eshop range offers everything you need to be selling online via a professional looking shop with a few clicks and our InstantSite Pro and SiteFusion offerings have ecommerce functionality that is simple to set up too.
Social media more a means to an end for men
A new study from Shoppercentric suggests men are more likely to use social media to shop while women prefer to use social media to interact with others, with the male gender apparently embracing social media as a whole than their female counterparts. The headline figures in the report revealed: 38% of men own a smartphone compared to just 29% of women. While 56% of those surveyed use Facebook a gender gap is evident with 60% of women Facebook users compared to just 52% of men. Shopping is where the gender difference is really highlighted with men much more likely to choose ecommerce than women. 14% of men said they shopped using apps, but only 8% of women do – although this is partly off-set by the different uptake of smartphones across the genders. In the hunt for a bargain, 27% of male shoppers admitted to using price comparison sites, while only 19% of women do. Interestingly, while the internet may offer an easier direct route direct to brands for the consumer, the traditional choice of going to a shop stocking a range of brands is still favoured – even online. 75% of those surveyed said they had visited retail websites, but only 33% said they had gone to brand websites. The figures offer a useful insight for marketeers looking at the best way to connect with potential customers. Of some concern is that while two thirds would buy online, only 6% were likely to do so social media. This may be due to the lack of opportunity at present and the early evolution of ecommerce via social media but is something retailers need to consider addressing. In terms of social media, the main reasons given for customers connecting with brands was found to be: 32% – finding out something new 23% – for brands to connect with them 24% – to be sold something by brands 12% – for brands or retailers to help them have fun Revealingly, more than half (54%) of people thought brands or retailers used social media to sell more products, while 43% thought it was “because everyone else is”. The report also highlighted the reasons consumers chose to follow brands on social media: 32% – feel part of a group 29% – to be part of a forum 10% – for discounts or promotions 6% – to complain The tone of social media should also be considered given the results of age group and their use of brand engagement through social networks. The strongest age group was revealed as 16-24 year olds at 38% but within the 35-44 year old bracket (18%) and 45-54 (8%) and 55+(0%) there is clearly work to be done to get them to embrace brand offerings via social media, particularly when 56% of the 55+ age group said they could not see the point of social networking. While some of the results may not be surprising, the breakdown of how different age-groups and genders use social media to interact could and should help brands develop their own social media policies. Do you buck the trend? Do these results surprise you?
Transacting online – almost a way of life
The latest IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index report out last week showed that the number of online transactions continues to rise as more and more people accept it as the quickest and easiest way of doing business. The report revealed a spend of £5.1 billion during January in total equating to a year-on-year increase of 21% Unsurprisingly, in the dark weeks of the opening month of the year, there was much interest in people making future travel plans. A year-on-year increase of 31% for the travel sector and a massive 173% increase on December 2010 meant more and more people surfing and clicking to sunnier climes. Interestingly, despite the economic times, the average basket value for travel sector transactions was also at its highest (£886) since the launch of monitoring of the sector in December 2008. If going away was popular in the January spends, home was too. There was impressive growth too in the home and garden sector, after five months of annual decline. Up 56% year-on-year an average basket spend of £120 perhaps reflected the expected early spring after December’s snow. It seems 2011 could be a much healthier year too. Alcohol sales in January declined by 67% after some strong Christmas spending. You can read the full report here. Are you spending more online? Are you noticing customers putting more faith in online transactions?