The latest Microsoft Advertising adCenter Upgrade includes several improvements that have consistently been requested in the feedback we've received. This upgrade provides easier ways to manage your search and content advertising strategies with adCenter. The changes include improved targeting and enhanced insights.
In addition to the improvements that were released in April, new updates have just rolled out in the latest adCenter Desktop Beta release. With this upgrade to version 7.8, the following additional functionality will be available:
• Quality Score. You can now view Quality Score data from adCenter Desktop Beta. You can also create advanced filters andsorts, and bulk update your keywords to optimize your campaigns based on the Quality Score data.
• Simplified Daily Budget option. Microsoft Advertising adCenter automatically calculates a monthly budget for you when...
From Inside Google - Today, innovations in targeting, optimization, and measurement can help you achieve greater performance with your Display Network campaigns. We’re investing heavily in these areas, and we’re pleased to announce several tools that give you better measurement, transparency and value for your display advertising campaigns.
A few months ago Google released the +1 button on English search ads and organic search results on google.com. More recently, Google have made the +1 button available to sites across the web, making it easier for people who love your site to help their friends and other users find your content in Google search.
Today, +1s will start appearing on ads and organic search results for Google pages globally. We'll be starting with sites like google.co.uk, google.de, google.co.jp and google.fr, and then expanding quickly to most other Google search sites soon after.
We’ve also partnered with a few more sites in Europe, Japan, India, Australia and New Zealand where you’ll start seeing +1 buttons in the coming days.
Today Google Adwords introduced the broad match modifier, a new AdWords targeting feature that lets you create keywords that have greater reach than phrase match and more control than broad match. Adding modified broad match keywords to your campaign can help you get more clicks and conversions at an attractive ROI, especially if you mainly use exact and phrase match keywords today.
To implement the modifier, just put a plus symbol (+) directly in front of one or more words in a broad match keyword. Each word preceded by a + has to appear in your potential customer's search exactly or as a close variant. Close variants include misspellings, singular/plural forms, abbreviations and acronyms, and stemmings (like “floor” and “flooring”). Synonyms (like “quick” and “fast”) and related searches (like “flowers” and “tulips”) aren't considered close variants.
The graphic below illustrates the relative reach of different keyword match type strategies. As you can see, modified broad match keywords match more searches than the equivalent phrase match keyword, but fewer searches than the equivalent broad match keyword. Match behavior also depends on the specific words you modify. For example, the keyword formal +shoes will match the search “evening shoes,” but the keyword +formal +shoes will not.
During initial tests, advertisers who mainly used phrase and exact match found that adding modified broad match keywords increased campaign clicks and conversions, while providing more precise control than with broad match.
Modified broad match keywords have a traffic potential closer to phrase match than broad match. If you mainly use broad match keywords in your account, switching these keywords to modified broad match will likely lead to a significant decline in your overall click and conversion volumes. In order to maintain these volumes, we recommend keeping existing broad match keywords active, adding new modified broad match keywords, and adjusting bids to achieve your target ROI based on observed performance.
If you're in Canada or the UK, you can log into your AdWords account to start adding modified broad match keywords today. You can also use the AdWords Editor or the AdWords API.
This feature is currently available to advertisers in Canada and the UK as an open beta.
Google has launched two new ad types in their AdWords service. The first is called AdWords Comparison Ads and the second is a feature called Ad Sitelinks.
AdWords Comparison Ads
As the name suggests, this new service will make it possible for users to compare offers provided by various advertisers.
Google Comparison Ad unit
The basic Comparison Ad allows users to specify what they are looking for, in a bit more detail than is normally possible on a regular search query, and then delivers a comparison of different offers side-by-side.
Users that engage with a comparison ad will now have to click on a promotion listed within the comparison table that they think is of interest to them. If they are not satisfied, they can provide some more details about what they want, to see better targeted ads.
When the user identifies a satisfactory offer, the advertiser can be contacted directly on the phone – making it a pay per call ad – or a quote can be requested.
Google will anonymise the user’s number with a unique code, through which the advertiser can then contact the user. Advertisers will not receive any user information unless the user wishes to release it. Advertisers will pay Google only if a user calls on the phone number allocated for that advertiser or if the user fills out a form requesting a quote.
The comparison ads feature is very speedy, as it provides relevant offers in less than one second, and the ads will only be for real products. There will be no teaser rates or bait and switch offers.
At present, the service is only available to a few users in some states in the U.S.A and it is only for advertisers in the mortgage and refinance field.
Ad Sitelinks
Just like certain organic results include sitelinks, certain ads can now also feature sitelinks via a new feature called Ad Sitelinks.
Advertisers with extremely high quality ads will be able to specify up to 10 links to deeper pages on their site. These can be links to special offers, featured products, support pages or other popular pages on the site.
Up to 4 Ad Sitelinks will show up below the regular ads for keywords that meet certain quality requirements:
1.The ad should have the first position above the organic search results
2.The ad should have a very high quality score, typically 10/10
3.The Ad Sitelinks URLs must direct users to pages that are part of the main website, and allow users to navigate freely
The links can be updated without changing the ads, as frequently as desired. The option to add sitelinks shows up in the campaign settings tab, under the “Networks, devices and extensions” section, and is labeled with the text “Show additional links to my site within my ad”.
Launching a PPC (define) campaign is still the best way to advertise online. You can measure your results. You can make changes on the fly. You can control your destiny.
Last time, we looked at the basic steps to set up a Google AdWords campaign. Now let's look at how to test your results with an easy landing page test.
A/B Landing Page Testing
With your paid listings in place, it's time to use A/B testing to perfect them.
In Google, you can have multiple ads in any ad group. When you're ready to do an in-depth keyword analysis, isolate the keywords with the highest CTRs (define) and the largest impression numbers in their own ad groups. This allows you to write two creatives for a specific keyword and test the results. The code is similar to what we discussed last time, www.yourdomain.com/?engine=AdWords&keyword=blue+widget, with addition of "+1" or "+2" (numbering the different creatives) at the end of the link: www.yourdomain.com/?engine=AdWords&keyword=blue+widget+1. This way you learn which ad for this keyword sends the best converting traffic.
The process actually is a little more complicated if you want to do it efficiently. You now have two major numbers to work into a further set of calculations. The first is the CTRs for each term. I usually turn off optimization during the first round of testing, so each ad gets an equal number of clicks.
You then calculate the CPA (define) for each ad. Divide total CPC (define) for the ad by the sales it brings in.
Sometimes the CPA differences jump out at you, making it tempting to let the winner be your chosen ad before looking any further. This could be a big mistake. It's one of the parts many people overlook in the battle to perfect paid listings. When you have a significant difference in the CTR and CPA, you must explore what each can mean to the cost of doing business.
Let's take an example. Blue widget's creative 1 generates 80 clicks from 1,000 impressions at a cost of $0.50. The CPC can vary a little, but for easy understanding and calculating, let's say both creatives have the same CPC and a CTR of 8 percent. Creative 2 generates 40 clicks at the same $0.50 with a 4 percent CTR.
The tracking shows us that creative 1 gets eight sales (conversion to impression rate: 0.8 percent) and creative 2 gets five sales (conversion to impression rate: 0.5 percent). Thus, the CPA for blue widget creative 1 is $5: $40 CPC divided by eight sales. The CPA for blue widget creative 2 is $4 : $20 CPC divided by five sales.
It's true that creative 2 costs less to get a sale. But since creative 1 generates more sales from the available traffic, the question of quantity versus quality must be taken into consideration. As long as both are profitable, you need to do more calculations.
If the gross profit per blue widget sold is $8, the profit per sale is $3 for creative 1 and $4 for creative 2.
But what about the number of impressions? Given the limited number of searches for any keyword, the CTR and profit per sale can be critical.
Let's say there are 50,000 searchers. Creative 1 generates 400 sales at the conversion to impression rate of 0.8 percent. Creative 2 would generates 250 sales from the same 50,000 impressions. Creative 1, then, generates 400 sales at $3 profit per sale for $1,200 for every 50,000 impressions. Creative 2, meanwhile, makes $1,000 from the same amount of traffic. (It gets a little easier the more you do this.)
The next step is to test improving the CTR and the CPA. With advanced Web analytics, you can then do visitor path analysis to see where visitors go on the site as a group when they come from a certain ad set. This allows you to make further changes to links on your page and where you land searchers when they do click.
Any successful PPC campaign has to work with the site it's sending traffic to. The more the two work in conjunction, the better the results will ultimately be.
1. Clearly define your goals with finite, measurable objectives.
2. Develop an operational plan that links those objectives with dedicated resources, processes, and relevant technology.
3. Establish Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) then set up a method for KPI based performance analysis and optimization of your campaigns.
4. Develop a customer acquisition model that helps meet your objectives through continuous testing of variables, strategies, and management tactics.
5. In real-time, test and analyze interrelated and constantly changing variables.
- Keyword selection
- Keyword matching
- Ad grouping
- Ad placement
- Ad copy tailoring
- Landing page design testing
- Bidding techniques assessment
6. Devote resources to keep up-to-date on the dynamic nature of search engines as well as your competitors.
- Ranking algorithms
- Search engine policies and offerings
- PPC category "share of voice"
- Competitor strategies & promotional offerings
7. While automated tools help to efficiently manage this complex process, nothing can replace human judgment, resourcefulness, and insight – rely on a mix of both.
