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Googe Adwords – Conversion Optimizer – Terrific Tool Now More Easily Available!

Friday, July 24th, 2009

mrt Optimize your Bling

Hi folks,

Google have announced that they have reduced the requirements for an AdWords campaign to be eligible to use the wonderful “Conversion Optimizer” tool. AdWords Advertisers previously needed 30 conversions in the last 30 days to qualify to use the tool, the requirement has now been reduced to 15 conversions in the last 30 days to qualify to use the tool.

Why did Google do this?

Google AdWords services “the longtail” of advertisers. What this means is Google’s most important clients are not the advertising world’s big fish such as Coca Cola or American Airlines, but the massive ecosystem of small to medium-sized businesses such as flower delivery companies, insurance brokers, yoga studios. In reducing the requirements to access the AdWords Conversion Optimizer tool Google are better servicing their most important market, the small (to medium) guy!

What does the Conversion Optimizer do?

With the Conversion Optimizer, you bid using a maximum Cost Per Acquisition, which is the most you’re willing to pay for each conversion (such as a purchase, enquiry or signup). Using historical information about your campaign, the Conversion Optimizer automatically finds the optimal equivalent cost-per-click (CPC) bid for your ad each time it’s eligible to appear. You still pay per click, but you no longer need to adjust your bids manually to reach your CPA goals and can benefit from improved Return On Investment.

To calculate the optimal equivalent CPC bid, the Conversion Optimizer first calculates a predicted conversion rate for each auction. The Conversion Optimizer takes many factors into account, including your ad’s conversion history, the keyword’s broad match query, the user’s location, and the conversion rates of Google’s search and content partner sites. The feature then generates an ad rank by combining your CPA bid, quality score and predicted conversion rate.

How does the Conversion Optimiser help me?

Simple:

Greater control of Return On Investment by enabling you to select your maximum cost per sale/enquiry.
More Sales/Enquiries. Double digit growth in conversions is common.
Reduced cost. Your cost per conversion will often decrease.
More time. Bid management is one of the most time consuming activities within AdWords optimisation. Enabling the conversion optimiser gives you more time to optimise other equally important elements of your campaign such as adtexts & keywords.

Sounds great! Does this mean if I turn on conversion optimiser I wont need to optimise my AdWords campaign anymore?

Conversion Optimiser will have a positive effect on your campaign performance by managing your bids.

It won’t:

Optimize for Quality Score
Create and test new Adtexts
Split test landing pages
Add new keywords
Insert negative keywords
Develop new Adgroups
Manage your Impression Share
Identify new markets to target
Keep an eye on industry trends
Audit the competitve environment
+ much more

For best results, it is still essential you, or an Adwords Professional, optimises your AdWords campaign on an ongoing basis.

Where can I learn more?

Here’s a great video from Google which explains the Conversion Optimiser Tool. Surf’s Up!

For information on our Google Adwords services click here.

Tags: Conversion Optimiser
Posted in Adwords, Google, PPC | No Comments »

Ireland’s Newest Google Adwords Professional

Monday, July 20th, 2009

gaplogo

OnlineAdvertising.ie wish to congratulate recent recruit Ed Murphy on successfully passing the Google Adwords Professional exam. His score of 85% means Ed has become Irelands newest Google Adwords Professional.

Ed is coming from an underwriting background and was recruited for his strong logical and analytical skill-set.

In addition to engineering Adwords campaigns to deliver results above and beyond expectations for OnlineAdvertising.ie clients, Ed will be contributing to the continuous enhancement of our in-house Google Adwords Campaign Optimisation Process. This process is our blueprint of optimisation tactics for continuously improving campaign Return on Investment.

We pride ourselves on delivering superior results by getting under the skin of our clients business and marrying this insight with our indepth knowledge of, and passion for, Google Adwords.

One of OnlineAdvertising.ie’s campaigns was recently selected by Google to be published as an official “Google Adwords Success Story”.

Which we are naturally dee-lighted about.

For more info on Google Adwords check out the following links:

How Google Adwords Works

Why Google Adwords Works

Our Google Adwords Services

Posted in Adwords, Google, Latest Company News. | 1 Comment »

Google AdWords v Google Organic User Behaviour- What Every Advertiser Needs To Know

Monday, July 13th, 2009

This post is for you if you are, or plan to be, an online advertiser. It will explain how Google users interact with the various positions and listings on the Google search results page. We have identified 3 types of interaction; Eyeballs (Adviews), Fingers (Clicks) and €€€s (Conversions which are enquiries, sales etc) for this post.

Eyeballs (Adviews):

Mulley Communications released an important study last month entitled “Google Search”. One of the key findings of this study was that 70% of the sample group look at the top result first whether this result was a sponsored link or not. So if your sponsored link is in position no.1 on the left hand side of the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) you are in the most viewed position on the page.

Fingers (clicks):

Our internal stats for the first 6 months of this year across 20+ adwords accounts show that average Click Through Rate is 4.6% when an ad is in the top 2 positions (left or right of SERP) for a relevant search. Click through rates decrease as your ad moves down the positions on the page.

picture-52

When the search term is specifically relevant e.g. “laser eye surgery Dublin” matching keywords have click-through rates upwards of 20%.

€€€ (Conversions):

Our internal studies have also shown that people who click on sponsored links are more likely to enquire or buy. Here are recent Google Analytics stats from our own site, the goal is an enquiry:

picture-4

As you can see the top converting traffic source was Microsoft Live, but with one enquiry the data is not statistically significant.

When you compare Google Organic to Google Cost per Click (AdWords traffic) we see that AdWords traffic is twice as likely to enquire as it’s organic counterpart. This is a trend we have been seeing again and again over the past 2 years.

We believe the reason for this is that people looking for information on a subject will click on the organic list. Whereas a shopper, who want to make a purchase or enquiry and they want to make it now, is more likely to click on the sponsored links, it’s logical.

Conclusion:

The top of the Search Engine Results page is prime position for ad views with 70% of searchers looking at the top listing.

When a sponsored link is in the top 1-2 positions it benefits from a CTR of about 4.5%. Considerably lower than the 70% ad views, why?

This is because the majority of searchers are info seekers. So the wiki’s, forums and news sites on the organic list best suit their informational requirements. However the minority of searchers are shoppers, who want to make a purchase or enquiry and want to make it now, so they are more likely to click on the sponsored links and convert from there.

From an advertisers point of view:

Organic Clickers = Tyre Kickers

3 Reasons Why Branding is Critical to Successful Search Marketing

Monday, June 8th, 2009

If I had written a post on branding 12 months ago I would have been explaining my thoughts on why display advertising is an inefficient use of marketing budget and that branding is bound to go the way of the dinosaur.

Brandosaurus?

I would have asked questions such as: “Why would a company spend vast sums of money on display advertising attempting to communicate with people who may or may not ever be interested in their product? Especially now when they can tap into the rivers of people actively searching for their services on search engines such as Google & Yahoo, with their credit cards at the ready.”

I would have also rammed home salient points such as: “Surely only after every last click from all available search engines had been gleened would a company start trying to inform and persuade new customers to consider buying their product via branding!”

However, I have recently changed my views on the importance of branding in the marketing mix, here’s why:

1/ Top Searched Terms

The screengrab below illustrates the most searched terms in Ireland over the last 30 days. We can see that 14 of the 20 entries are brand names. This indicates that people are very likely to search for brands they are familiar with. The user often knows who they want to buy from before they go to a search engine.

Google Insights for Search

2/ Google acknowledged the importance of brands to search earlier this year when they adjusted their search ranking alogarithm to favour brands for generic industry terms. Google CEO Erick Schmidt recently went so far as to describe the current state of the web as a “cesspool of false information”. Google believe brands create credible content hence the favorable rankings for established brands.

3/Specific Media recently conducted a 12 month study which shows display advertising campaigns lift searches for specific brands by 155%. Clickers who had been exposed to display advertising prior to arriving at the site were 22% more likely to purchase.

Here in OnlineAdvertising.ie, we saw further evidence of this recently when a client in the health and beauty sector invested in a display campaign (Google Adwords Content Network) with a budget equal to their Google Adwords Search Campaign. 3 months later the monthly volume of searches on Google for their brand have lifted 56% on their previous level and is increasing month on month.

The 3 points above illustrate that all the marketing activities which the consumer was exposed to before they landed on the site count. Firstly branding will increase searches for, and hence, visits to, a website. Then the website will benefit from an increased conversion rate as people have a prior relationship with, and trust in, their brand.

As with all symbiotic relationships the benefits flow both ways: Display advertising boosts search advertising clicks and conversions while Search gives key metrics for measuring the success of a branding display campaign.

Branding is sowing the seeds which will both increase market size and your market share. Search marketing is the harvesting of demand within your market and for your brand. They skip happily into the sunset hand in hand!

Click here for info on our Google Adwords Search Marketing Services

Click here for info on our Display and Banner Advertising Services

Posted in Adwords, Branding, Display Advertising, Google, Google Content Network, Marketing Mix, Online Advertising | No Comments »

Google Adwords – The Importance of Quality Score

Monday, May 18th, 2009

What is Quality Score?

Quality score is how Google rewards Adwords advertisers who display the right product to the right audience in the right manner.

Why does Google reward relevant advertising?

Google’s holy grail is “user experience”. If a Google user searches for information on “Car rental in Paris” and the search results displays Autotrader car sales, tractor leasing and Paris Hilton fan sites, the searcher is unsatisfied and quite likely to use another search engine such as Yahoo instead (well the “hes” might take a peek at Paris Hilton first). It takes less than 5 seconds to type Yahoo.com into the URL or Google search bar*, and the switching costs are zero.

Because it is so simple for a Google user to switch to another search engine, Google prizes “user experience” above all and seeks to reward Adwords advertisers who focus their efforts on the same.

Concurrently, if Googling e-shoppers are finding the products they seek easily, they are more likely to buy, and likely to buy more. This broadens Adwords advertisers’ smiles and they will funnel more of their advertising spondoolas into Google. It’s your classic win-win-win!

*Did you know: The second most searched term on Yahoo in the UK is actually Google!

So how does a good Quality Score benefit me as an Adwords advertiser?

It increases your Ad rank on the Google Results page. You can bid less for keyword than your competitors yet appear higher on the Google results page if your Quality Score is sufficiently higher.
It reduces your Cost Per Click. CPCs are a function of Bid and Quality Score. Simply put, the higher your Quality Score the less you will pay for your ad position.
It increases the Cost Per Click for the competitor immediately above you. This benefit appeals to the more “Machiavellian” advertiser. Because Google Adwords is an auction, advertisers pay the maximum bid the next placed advertiser would have paid. Having a strong Quality Score increases the value of your bid meaning the person above you needs to pay more to be above you.

These benefits are explained in detail in the YouTube video at the end of this post.

How do I increase my Quality Score?

There are 3 principle determinants of Quality Score for Google Search:

Click Through Rate. Hight CTR = High QS, Simple as that (please see case study below).
Keyword to Adtext Relevance. The more times the search query appears in the adtext the better.
Landing Page relevance & quality. Again search query repetition on the landing page is important here. Not just on the face of the page but in the backend too (Well search optimised pages will benefit from better QS). Landing page loadtime is another factor, the faster the better (sorry Flash).

Case Study: Click Through Rate and Quality Score “The Chicken and The Egg”.

Recently the most important keyword (SEO) in our own adwords campaign (SEO Campaign!) was not showing due to poor quality score (4/10). The CTR for this keyword was 0.3%, The average CPC was €3.83 and the average postion was 5.9. What to do? Well I know that higher positions benefit from higher CTRs (although Google states they have “normalized” Quality Score to even out differences for rank) so I decided to drastically increase my my maximum bid to see if by increasing Ad Rank, I could increase Click Through Rate which in turn would increase Quality Score.

I created a new adgroup with exactly the same keywords and adtexts but tripled my maximum bid and gave it a good start by searching “SEO” on Google and clicking on our own ad myself to give it a CTR jumpstart (I just invented reverse click fraud!). 3 weeks later I checked back. My Quality Score was now a healthy 7/10, my ad position was now 2.5, my CTR was now 1.8% and AMAZINGLY, my CPC had only increased to €4.22 (10%).

Lets analyse these stats. By tripling my maximum bid (and bumping up QS with a cheeky click), I moved from ad rank of 6 to top 3, my CTR increased times 5, my quality score nearly doubled and in the end I only ended up paying 10% more per click.

So what exactly happened here? There is a little bit of “egg before the horse” and “cart before the hen” here. The increased bid led to increased position led to increased CTR which led to increased QS which may have increased position again which would have increased CTR again further increasing QS and so on and so on. I’m sure you catch my drift.

What is evident is a multipler effect from higher ad position to higher CTR to higher QS and back.

Conclusion: The first point worth noting is by improving Quality score I moved 3 postions up the ranking and only paid an extra 10% per click! The second point to note is the relationship between Ad Rank and Quality Score via CTR. The third is if you are starting from a low quality score there is potential for a multipier effect of higher QS = higher postion = higher CTR = higher QS and so on, this could be called the “Chicken & Egg” effect because one leads to the next.

Recommendations: To benefit from a strong Quality Score; start campaigns by bidding aggressively on keywords (this doesnt mean increasing your budget, just your bids). Let the campaign work up some “history” at the higher bid levels and CTRs, you can then start reducing your bids and reaping the rewards of a strong Quality Score.

Everybody loves Videos!

This is an excellent video fro Google’s chief economist Hal Varian which explains The Google Adwords Ad Auction using practical examples. Well worth a watch!

Posted in Adwords, Google, Online Advertising, Quality Score | 1 Comment »