February 17th, 2012 § § permalink
Dear Mr Gates,
I’m just setting up a Bing campaign for a client and Yorkshire is not available as an option! 6 million customers have disappeared!
I quote: “Did you know, for instance, that Yorkshire has a greater population than nations like Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Libya, Panama, Paraguay, Uruguay and New Zealand, is approximately equal in size to countries like Israel and El Salvador and has a greater population than all but 14 states of the USA?” Thanks to Ackroyd Family Research for that.
I’d have a lot more take up from clients if the Microsoft Adcenter and Bing Advertising were more advanced and more accessible.
I’m seeing a bunch of SEO people saying that Bing is a better search engine. And I want nothing more than for Bing to command a greater share of the search market so Bing advertising becomes more of a product I can help more with (as well as keeping Google fresh and humble with some good competition!)
Very happy to help you with suggestions and an analysis.
Kind regards,
Rob
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Update: Is the (York metro) what you mean by Yorkshire? That would explain it – but we’d do better with good localisation. I would never talk about the “county” of California!
February 10th, 2012 § § permalink
Emphasise the negative.
A Google Adwords campaign is only as good as it is targeted.
I’ve been thinking for some time about compiling a dictionary of negative keywords which can instantly improve any campaign with the right kinds of exclusions.
With “in this economy” thing, I’ve found Google Adwords campaigns increasingly muddied by people searching for jobs and experience. The thing is, my clients don’t want to pay click costs for every speculative CV or search, hence me working in more and more negative keywords to combat this.
So a few examples of this list are:
- job
- jobs
- career
- careers
- vacancy
- vacancies
- internship
- student
- work experience
- CV
- resume
- training
- trainee
- course
- courses
- certificate
- certification
- qualifications
- PHD
- masters
- degree
- entry level
- graduate
You get the idea.
Refining campaigns is important and it’s a cumulative task that I look at with every client.
The fact is your ROI depends on appearing only for the search terms that will bring you customers. Anything else means wasted clicks and budget as well as the ever present spectre of decreasing quality scores if CTR is low.
I suspect that if I built a dictionary and a niche course ONLY on managing negative keywords, it would help other people who manage their own campaigns (or for clients) far more effectively.
I also suspect that this is one of those ideas that is great in theory but I will never have time for.
Back to the campaigns…
February 8th, 2012 § § permalink
The Google Display network is a huge opportunity. In short, this is Google’s network allowing text adverts and image based display advertising on private websites, blogs and portals worldwide.
Here are just 3 reasons for using the display network:
1. You Can Advertise on Major Newspaper Sites
The Times Online, The Guardian and The New York Times to name just 3.
These brands have historically been the preserve of the big advertiser. But news consumption is changing and more people are going online, More content is being archived online and that means more pages available to advertise on. So it is entirely possible to target advertising to newspaper readers. But the difference this time is phenomenal: you only pay when people click – which means you could be getting thousands of impressions and only paying when people are interested in your advert.
2. You Can Re-Target Customers
With some minor script additions to your website (and a a modified privacy policy) you can use the display network to retarget people who have visited your website. Setup of this should be careful, not cavalier, or you risk ‘stalking’ your customers. Used well, it gives users a second chance to express interest in your product. And chances are, if they clicked on your advert before, they’re a more qualified prospect who is more likely to buy.
3. You Can Target The Right Demographic
Google Adwords allows you to set demographics which can exclude your advert from being shown to age groups that don’t fit your product (assuming that the site has demographic data and the user is logged in i.e. YouTube). But more than this, choosing specific managed placements allows you target people at the interest level. So if you’re advertising a rail product you might consider advertising on seat61.com. Or if you’re in property you might consider advertising on Countrylife.co.uk. This is important, not only for extra reach, but also to target the people who aren’t yet actively searching for products like yours.
It’s Payback Time
The right targeting and reaching the right audience means everything if you want a campaign to pay you back. Allied with a strong conversion tracking process, the display network could be your next big source of customers – and at a relatively modest budget.
February 7th, 2012 § § permalink
Compare them side by side and it’s obvious which advert should win in Google’s display network.
But the figures tell a different story.
The simple, almost juvenile advert somehow outperforms the one which, at first sight, looks far superior and ought to perform a lot better.
But it doesn’t.
One thing which my profession teaches me is that, wherever possible, I should ignore whatever I think, and try to work out what the numbers are telling me.
Maintaining impartiality and objective judgement in marketing and advertising is key.
Because people are more complicated than we think, and sometimes the inferior advert performs better over time. It’s important simply to step back, and not expect results one way or the other.
And then work out what the numbers are telling you, simply what you want to hear.
February 3rd, 2012 § § permalink
Often, I think people don’t understand what goes into jobs. Or the real value that experience over time brings.
Think about the master craftsman who has trained for 10 years but then does a job that takes just an hour. Are you really paying for just an hour of work? No.
What you’re really paying for is that 1 hour + 10 years of experience.
February 3rd, 2012 § § permalink
As a Google Engage Agency, I’ve got several coupons offering £50 of advertising credit for new customers of Google Adwords.
They’re for new Google Adwords customers.
I’m offering them completely free with no strings. You don’t even have to do business with me!
Call me on 01392 424 679 to find out more.
