The OnlineAdvertising.ie crew were lucky enough to enjoy and be informed at Advanced SMX in London last week.

It was a 2 day event covering the latest need to know elements of PPC, SEO, Website Optimisation & Analytics to an internet marketing savvy audience.

I spent the 2 days in the PPC room gobbling up info from the world’s brightest internet marketers.

Here are my key take-aways:

• Google has recently released 5 new ad formats and there are plenty more to follow. Understanding their effective usage and speedily adopting these new ad formats are a great way to increase CTRs, Conversion Rates and generally gain competitive advantage.
• Quality Score is becoming more important as some of the new ad formats will only display if your QS is sufficiently high.
• Craig from ClickEquations made many great contributions, in particular he dispelled some Quality Score myths including the existence of adgroup & campaign quality scores.
• Quality Scores of 10 will pay half the cost-per-clicks for the same keywords as Quality Scores of 5. Fact!
• Spain is the fastest growing search market in Europe and ranks about 4th in terms of size. The UK is the largest followed by Germany.
• Suprisingly, Europeans search 20% more than their US counterparts.
• In Eastern Europe the leading search engine is minimalistic Yandex
• Online Purchases are preceded by on average 10-12 searches.
• The was furious debate as to whether Google’s new Search Funnels prove or disprove the theory that people search from broad to narrow terms before converting. Personally I believe they do, but I am looking forward to gathering more data on the topic.
• Fumbling around is crucial to thorough reporting. We all try to automate our reports, read them and move on, but allocating time to dig beneath the stats to uncover the trends is crucial to developing your campaigns and something very few people invest time in.
• And last but not least, at advanced SMX London I learnt that I get super jittery if I have four cups of coffee before lunch!

Google Adwords has just launched a remarkable new advertising service called “Remarketing”.

What does Remarketing do?

Well, it follows people who have visited your website around the web, showing them your ads, and enticing them to return and convert (buy, enquire, register etc).

The majority of your websites visitors in any given time period, will not convert, this is the nature of the online game.

Typically, if you are selling online, 2% is a good conversion rate, if your website’s objective is to generate enquiries, 5% is a good conversion rate.

This means that over 90% of a good website’s traffic does not convert into sales or enquiries.

Remarketing targets the website visitors who do not convert and follows them around the web using Google’s ever expanding content network of websites (YouTube, Irish Times, Gmail etc), showing them targeted ads, for a selected time period.

Advantages of Google Adwords Remarketing to the advertiser:

1. Naturally, people who have already visited to your website are more likely to be interested in your products & services.
2. You get to show your message to somebody who may be considering your offering at that time, perhaps weighing it up against a competitor.
3. You can target visitors based on what webpages they visited e.g show boys t-shirt ads to all visitors of boys t-shirt page.
4. You can target visitors based on how far they got in your “conversion funnel” e.g they added items to a shopping basket but didn’t check out – show them an ad offering a discount if they come back and buy!
5. You have the opportunity to “Remind” the person that they were on your site and are interested in your offering.

Remarketing is a great tool to increase your conversion rate for online campaigns. As an advertiser, anything you can do which increases your conversion rate not only increases your profitability, but gives you a valuable competitive advantage over your rivals.

Another great Google online advertising innovation. Keep ‘em coming Big G!

Hi,

Apologies for not blogging in a while, my lame excuse is that I have been busy working on some new projects.

One of them gets released later this week so I thought I’d give me blog readers an early heads up.

I’m organising & hosting a TED event in Dublin on Thursday the 15th of April.

If you are a TED fan you know what it’s all about for sure.

If not I’d strongly suggest you grab a mug of coffee and check out www.TED.com, it’s savage stuff!

You can digest the details of Aprils Dublin event here:

http://tedxliffey.eventbrite.com/

Seats are very limited (’bout 70!) so if you are interested do snap yours up fast.

It’s a “not for profit event”, so tickets are dirt cheap too.

Oh and if you have any suggestions for speakers for future talks or want to get involved yourself do zip me a mail, your input is much appreciated.

Be Inspired!

We love Keyword Insertion.

It’s a super tool for increasing Click Through Rates & Quality Score. It also enables you to avoid creating multiple adgroups for similar words and variations of words (e.g Taxi Blackrock, Taxi Monkstown, Taxi Deansgrange, Taxi Sandymount etc).

Keyword Insertion makes life much easier for internet marketers everywhere.

However, like chainsaws and dental equipment, Keyword Insertion can do more harm than good when not used correctly.

And even the big guys get it wrong.

O2ooops!

What has happened here is O2 have included their competitors name as a keyword which is perfectly reasonable and legal, but they are also using keyword insertion which is causing the competitors keyword to appear in their adtext.

Bad Buzz:

1. O2 are now inadvertently advertising the Vodafone Iphone here which I’m sure is not their intention.
2. Misguided clicks from Vodafone contract customers (who are unlikely to switch) will cost them money unnecessarily.
3. O2 may be in breach of Google’s Irish Trademark policy.
4. They look silly.

A far better strategy would be for O2 to set up a Vodafone Iphone Adgroup, which sells the benefits of the O2 deal to people searching for Vodafone Iphone.

i.e Where the keywords are Vodafone Iphone, Iphone with Vodafone etc. And the adtexts advertise the advantages of the O2 Iphone, and links to a landing page which gives details of the specific benefits of Iphone with O2 such as O2 treats, the O2 Room and more, and uses strong call to actions to encourage the user to enquire.

e.g.

Person searches “Vodaphone Iphone”

This would be the first adtext on the Google results page:

In our experience “corner turner” ads such as these have decent CTRs and pretty darn impressive conversion rates. Meaning the advertiser is winning market share from right under their competitors noses.

Machiavellian Adwords!

Howdy,

Having trouble finding Google Zeitgeist 2009 stats for Ireland?

Me too! I couldnt find the full Irish Google Zeitgeist report for 2009 anywhere online either, so I got in touch with the big G and here they are from the equine’s gob itself to satisfy your inquisitive mind!

A Year in Search: Google Releases Ireland’s Search Terms of 2009

Google announces its annual Zeitgeist, a look at 2009 through the collective eyes of the world on the web. The 2009 Year-End Zeitgeist offers a unique perspective on the year’s major events and hottest trends based on global searches.

In Ireland it turns out we’re a sociable bunch with social networking sites including Facebook and Bebo dominating the top spots. However it’s the fastest rising searches that really give us an insight into what is preoccupying the public, and on Google News, Ireland was mainly concerned about the threat of swine flu and the death of celebrities.
Ireland:

Google.ie

Fastest Rising

1. facebook login
2. yahoo mail
3. aib internet banking
4. mail
5. google maps
6. utube
7. irish times
8. rte news
9. fas.ie jobseeker
10. iraq goals

Google News

Fastest Rising

1. swine flu
2. stephen gately
3. jade goody
4. michael jackson
5. rte news
6. facebook
7. cork floods
8. limerick
9. nicky byrne
10. olly murs

Google Maps

Fastest Rising

1. o2
2. old trafford
3. eiffel tower
4. county
5. city centre
6. tallaght
7. dundrum
8. croke park
9. blackrock
10. university

Google Mobile Search
Fastest Rising
1. twitter
2. iphone
3. waptrick
4. facebook
5. apple
6. irish times
7. zedge
8. imdb
9. fantasy football
10. o2

Google Book Search

Fastest Rising

1. twilight
2. fiction
3. science
4. religion
5. economics
6. philosophy
7. education
8. sociology
9. psychology
10. poetry

Google Images

Fastest Rising

1. lady gaga
2. twilight
3. michael jackson
4. cheryl cole
5. beyonce
6. clip art
7. megan fox
8. miley cyrus
9. hairstyles
10. wallpaper

Invaluable reading for anybody who want to know…

(apologies for the inconsistent formatting, gotta run it’s nearly beer o’clock)

The ever increasing importance of SEO is highlighted by the BBC’s decision to abandon the traditionally brief story headline in favour of a more SEO friendly keyword rich header.

From last Friday the 20th of November, headlines on the BBC News website will become longer to make its stories easier to find on search engines such as Google.

“We estimate that about 29% of BBC News website UK traffic comes from search engines.”, says Steve Herrmann, editor of BBC News website.

The BBC will therefore allow its journalists to create two headlines for a story. While the shorter one between 31 and 33 characters appears on the front page and the website indexes as well as on mobile phones, the longer one – up to 55 characters will appear on the story itself – and in search engine results.

Search engine optimisation has become a standard practice for most online organisations over the past couple of years. As users began to find stories more and more via search engines or Google News, via personal recommendations on social media or in email, via links on Twitter or their RSS readers, news publishers wanted to be sure of reaching them.

“The practice of ‘search engine optimisation‘ – making content in such a way that it is easily retrieved via search engines – is an important area for us and for others across the web,” explained Steve Herrmann to the BBC news users in a blogpost.

In fact, in the news sector, the changes are minimal – as the BBC shows in an example: “Possible counter-bid for Cadbury” becomes “Ferrero and Hershey in possible counter-bid for Cadbury”. Might be a bit harder to scan on a front page, but the longer headline is definitely more informative.

Source: Guardian.co.uk

Not normally ones to blow our own trumpet (stop sniggering down the back!), we are delighted to announce our White Smile Clinic Google Adwords campaign has been selected by Google to be published as an “Official Google Success Story”.

We took over the White Smiles Clinic’s Google Adwords campaign in November 2008. In the subsequent 12 months they have grown from being a 1 clinic operation to a national Monster with 5 clinics in Dublin (2), Cork, Limerick & Drogheda. There is a third Dublin clinic coming soon.

The management of the White Smile Clinic have done a fantastic job growing their business and we are very proud to have been the internet marketers who contributed to their notable success. We wont give away the “secret sauce” to the success of this Google campaign but we will say that it was 50% down to Adwords know-how, and 50% down to fluid 2-way communication between the White Smile management and ourselves. We might know Adwords upside-down & inside-out, but nobody knows their business better than them.

We will be the first Irish Adwords agencies to have a campaign published as a “Google Success Story”, and we are mighty proud.

Here’s the link:

http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/adwords/select/success/whitesmile.html

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, There Aint No Recession Online!

What is a view-through conversion?

Simple, a user sees a content network ad and makes a mental note of the details, but does not click on it.

At a later stage the user visits the advertised site and converts.

You will now see this conversion recorded as a view through conversion within your Google Adwords campaign.

Currently (28/10/09) Google Adwords will not record View Through Conversions for text ads, or conversions that occured more than 30 days after the initial adview.

How is this metric useful?

The key word (sic) here is Context!

Because someone who sees a content network ad is actually doing something else i.e. watching a YouTube video, or reading the Irish Times online, they are not as likely to visit the advertised site and convert immediately as a Google searcher (who is actively seeking something) would.

The context of what the content ad view and search ad view are quite different, unlike the searcher, the content viewer is not actively seeking something, but never the less is open to advertisers messages.

The View Through Conversion Metric enables you do identify which ads left your message imprinted on somebodies mind and spurred them to visit your site and convert within 30 days of seeing your ad.

It also enables you to identify which websites are gluing your message to peoples minds and generating conversions on your site.

Vital info for Content Campaign Optimisation!

And never forget, effective optimisation is critical to successful Adwords advertising.

I think I get it, can you give me an example?

OK – Johnny is watching YouTube footage of Katie Taylor winning the European Boxing Championships on his Iphone. While he is watching the You Tube footage he sees an inVideo Ad for Sporty Als’ Deoderant socks. Although Johnny’s feet reek and he needs to do something about it he does not click the ad as he does not want to interrupt his viewing of Katie kicking ass.

The next week all Johnny’s 5-a-side football teammates are slagging him because his feet reek! After training he gets out his Iphone and searches Sporty Al’s Deoderant Socks. He finds the site and orders 2 pairs of size 10s.

Google Adwords will now record the view through conversion for the display ad on YouTube for this sale. Sporty Al now knows that YouTube is an effective advertising medium for reaching his target market.

The Sunday Tribune published details of our Cyber Sunday study.

Read article here

I recently came across the term “Cyber Monday”. It’s the name used in the States to describe the Monday after Black Friday, which is the the traditional start of the holiday shopping season Stateside. Cyber Monday is based on the assumption that after 3 days plundering the shops like rabid T-Rexes, our US bretheren choose to cyber shop from the comfort of their computer come Monday.

So I decided to research our own pre-Xmas shopping binge habits here on the Emerald Isle.

Using Google Insights for Search and analysing data from Oct, Nov and Dec 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 (Irish data only!), I made to the following fascinating findings as regards searches on Google in Ireland, which include the words “Buy Online”:

1. Sunday was overwhelmingly the biggest day of the week during the research period for Google searches which included “Buy Online”.
2. In each and every year studied, the first Sunday in December was the peak, followed by the last Sunday in November.
3. This year (drumroll), Ireland’s Cyber Sunday will fall on December the 6th. November the 30th will be Cyber Sunday 2.
4. Searches for “Christmas Gift” will grow throughout the first 2 weeks of December and then peak around about the 15th of December (there are no day of the week trends here). This is most likely people researching purchases online prior to consummating them offline.

3 other interesting facts about online shopping in Ireland:

1. In 2008 36% of Irish people made an online purchase. We are ranked 10th in the world for online buyers.
2. 54% of Irish consumers research offline purchases online first.
3. In 2008, only 20% of people said they would not use the internet for Xmas shopping at all.

So online stores, stock your shelves or prepare to drop-ship like Contepomi, Cyber-Sunday is trundling your way!