Bevelwise Blog

Use Google Analytics to optimize your Adwords Pay-Per-Click spending by monitoring your conversion rate, bounce rate, and ROI.

First, link your Adwords to Analytics. Tip, do it from your login account (same admin on both), not a My-Client-Account MCC. Make sure your "cost data" is applied to the correct adwords account number.

Once your accounts are linked, apply conversion tracking/goals. Do this even if you don't have e-commerce. A goal could be a sign-up, contact request, newsletter request, purchase, key page view, etc.

Now, login to Analytics and analyze you data! Find your adwords data by going to Traffic Sources --> Adwords.

• Check the bounce rate. Ideally, a lower percentage is better...especially because you are paying for these keywords. Bounce rate is a visit with only one page view on your site, then they "bounce off" aka leaves your site. If the bounce rate is high, the landing page may be wrong.

• Check average time on site. Usually longer time is better. You may want to improve the look of landing pages with low time on site because it may mean that the searcher immediately doesn't like what they see. Or maybe they can't easily navigate around your site.
  

• Find out what time of day you are getting highest amount of conversions. This can help enable "Day parting" if you would like to lower your budget (or increase impressions for times when people are more likely to buy.
  

Expand on keywords with high conversion rates. Bid aggressively on keywords that are giving you a good return-on-investment (ROI). Ditch the keywords that aren't converting!

Please contact Bevelwise if you need someone to manage or straighten out all of this data!

Labels: AdWords, Google, google analytics, HowTo, online marketing, Search Ads, Search Advertising

Google AdWords has a new keyword "status" message called "Low Share of Voice." We are getting to the bottom of what this means and how it impacts our clients' campaigns.

If you hover your curser over this status message, it explains that "Low Share of Voice" indicates that you are missing out on opportunities (impressions). This is most likely because of budget constraints.

Here is what an AdWords rep said: "..Long story short, I have been looking into this since I first saw this thread a couple of hours ago - and am trying to get to the bottom of things. At this point, though, I am sorry to say that I don't have any definitive information.

However, a tech contact with whom I have been working had an interesting comment that I'll pass along. He has been able to check the accounts of a few folks who have written us, and he is seeing no drop in traffic as has been reported here. His thought is that those in this thread who have reported such a drop may have been looking at their stats mid-day, rather than for a complete day - thus the apparent drop in stats. And, looking at the time stamps of these posts, I think that is a real possibility.

In any case, my colleague Stephen who has posted here in the past as 'AdWordsPro Stephen' (and whom Sarah and I are actively be trying to lure back into the forum) will continue to look into this, and update the thread when he has a clearer picture of what's up.

In the meantime, my apology for the confusion and discomfort. Not fun, I know."

We are wondering if AdWords is having a bug or if it is a bigger scheme than that. Most of the business owners that we work with have a specific/strict online advertising budget. Is the only way to get rid of this message to dramatically increase your budget? Sometimes this is not possible. Should we just ignore this message? Until we get more info, we are thinking we should.

What are your thoughts on Google's "Low Share of Voice" status?

Labels: AdWords, Google, PPC, Search Ads, Search Advertising

It can be very confusing to understand a keyword's quality score. How does Google concoct my score? What's a good quality score to receive? Why bother improving quality scores?

Bevelwise complied a bunch of information from the AdWords blog and help center to help clear this up.

Quality Score ensures that Google only shows relevant ads to its users. Searchers want to find the information they are looking for quickly and easily and Quality Score helps Google show more relevant ads. To make sure that your potential customers see your ad, you need to pay attention to Quality Score. It also influences your ads' position, and it partially determines your keyword's minimum bids, which can help reduce your budgets.

Quality Score is used in several different ways, including influencing your keywords' actual cost-per-clicks (CPCs) and estimating the first page bids that you see in your account. In general, the higher your Quality Score, the lower your costs and the better your ad position.

Quality Scores 1-10

• 1-4: The keyword isn't very relevant to users, and as a result may have a very high first page bid. This means that the keyword is not performing very well for your website, or even for your competitors sites. Try experimenting with variations of this keyword by using plural/singulars or grammatical tweaks. If you'd like to keep advertising with this keyword, you can optimize instead. To do this, try lowering the first page bid, writing a more targeted, relevant ad, or improving your landing page content.
• 5-7: This keyword is performing well, and there isn't a need to worry too much. On a grading scale, our AdWords Specialist at Google, said "a 6 or 7 is equivalent to an A-." It may have a mid-range first page bid, and the keyword may not be very costly. Optimization can lower your overall costs, draw more clicks to your ads, and result in a better return on your investment (ROI). If you want to further optimize, try using more targeted ad text and keywords or improving your landing page content.
• 8-10: The keyword is extremely relevant and may have a high click through rate (CTR), relevant ad text, and a unique, relevant landing page. The first page bid for this keyword may be low. This keyword is very relevant and effective for your ad campaign. Our AdWords Specialist at Google, said that it is very rare to get this high of a quality score from Google.

Quality Score Formula:

• The historical click-through rate (CTR) of the keyword and the matched ad on Google
• Landing page quality
• The relevance of the keyword to the ads in its ad group
• The relevance of the keyword and the matched ad to the search query
• Relevance of ad text (especially the title)
• Historical account performance (CTR)

How Quality Score Impacts Your PPC Campaign:

• Cost-Per-Click - A keyword's Quality Score influences its CPC - that is, how much you're charged for a click on your ad when it's triggered by that keyword. The higher a keyword's Quality Score, the lower its CPC, and vice versa.
• First Page CPC Bid Estimates - On your Keyword Analysis page, you'll see a metric labeled 'Estimated bid to show on the first page.' This metric, also called the 'first page bid estimate,' approximates the cost-per-click (CPC) bid needed for your ad to reach the first page of Google search results when the search query exactly matches your keyword. The estimate is based on the Quality Score and current advertiser competition for that keyword. Ad placement will still be dependent on Quality Score, your cost-per-click (CPC) bid, your budget and account settings, and user and advertiser behavior.
• Eligibility to Show Up when Searched for - Every time one of your keywords matches a search query, our system evaluates its combined Quality Score and cost-per-click (CPC) bid to see if it's eligible to enter the ad auction. Keywords with a higher Quality Score will be eligible to enter the auction more easily and at a lower cost. Our goal is to encourage relevant ads for our users, so our pricing system is designed to favor more specifically targeted ads and keywords.
• Ad Position - Ads are positioned on search and content pages based on their Ad Rank. The ad with the highest Ad Rank appears in the first position, and so on down the page.

Monitoring Your Quality Score

Search advertising is a dynamic, evolving marketplace, and the Quality Score of your keywords can fluctuate. Google continually monitors the performance of all ads, keywords, and landing pages to reward high quality ads and encourage advertisers to improve low quality ads. The best way to maintain a high-quality, cost-effective campaign is to frequently optimize your account to help ensure your ads have a high Quality Score.

Improving a Keyword's Quality Score

Optimization is the best way to increase your keyword's performance (Quality Score, CTR, conversion rate) without raising costs. If your Quality Score is very low (below a 5), you may be using keywords, ads, or landing pages that aren't as targeted or relevant as they could be. This can mean higher cost-per-clicks and a potentially poor ROI. Remember: The higher the Quality Score, the lower the price you'll pay when someone clicks on your ad.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) focuses on keywords and relevance of pages to popular keywords. Looking at quality score, if your landing page isn't viewed by Google as relevant to the search query, you can work improving landing page content, meta tags, image tags, etc to make the page more relevant and possibly improve your Quality Score.

While a high quality score may seem like the most important part of your PPC campaign, the conversion rate is a best indicator. A high CTR or Quality Score doesn't necessarily mean a high ROI or that people are buying your product or service. The conversion rate tells if your keyword is driving sales, sign-ups, or whatever else your company is trying to achieve.

For more information please contact us or read our whitepaper.

 

References

http://adwords.google.com/support/
http://adwords.blogspot.com/
http://www.google.com/adwords/learningcenter/

Labels: AdWords, Bevelwise, Conversion, Google, keyword urls, marketing, PPC, Search Ads, Search Advertising, SEO

Finally! Google AdWords conversion tracking users are no longer required to display the "Google Site Stats" logo on the conversion pages of their web sites.

Previously, a small but visible text block that read "Google Site Stats" automatically appeared on the page where the conversion tracking code was placed on your web site. The logo would appear only after a conversion occurred via your AdWords ad, and it provided converting visitors links to information about AdWords conversion tracking and instructions on how to block the tracking.

The logo was redundant with almost all web site privacy policys, where they already notify users about the tracking technologies in use on their sites. A

If you currently have conversion tracking tags installed on your web site, the Site Stats logo will continue to display unless you take further action. If you choose to remove the logo, please inform users about the tracking methods you employ on your site by modifying your site's privacy policy.

For those of you who are new to conversion tracking, it's a powerful tool that allows you to measure conversion metrics for your AdWords campaigns. An added benefit of using conversion tracking is that it allows you to use the Conversion Optimizer, a bidding feature that uses your conversion tracking data to optimize the performance of your campaigns, helping you make the most of your advertising dollars.

Labels: AdWords, Conversion, Google, SEO

Finally, Google launched their much requested AdWords Quality Score Index Tool. Now both agencies and clients can see their First Page Bid Estimates and Inactive Ad reasons. This is a big time saver.

Google says, "....that for queries without many advertisers competing for placement, the first page bid estimate should be relatively close to your existing minimum bid. However, queries with a high level of advertiser competition may have significantly higher first page bid estimates, because you'll likely need to bid above the old minimum bid to rank higher than your competition and show on the first page. Remember that you can bid less than your first page bid estimate and still show on subsequent pages -- as long as your keyword is relevant to our users."

Advertisers familiar with the competitive landscape for their keywords will notice that the first page bid estimates provided are in line with the CPCs that they had been bidding to appear on the first page prior to the release of the new tool.

Labels: AdWords, Google, SEO

Sorry for the blogging absence the last couple weeks, back to regular updates this week.

First , I have really never heard complaints about Google AdWords having a limit on the characters allowed in the display URL. Last week, I found out that the max number of characters you can have in your AdWords display URL is 35. An advertiser ran into this issue and posted the details at Google Groups.

I suspect this wasn't much of an issue before Google began enforcing the display URL policy. Back then, I assume you can use shorter versions of a domain name and get away with it easily.

So, what do you do if you really need more characters in your display URL?

(1) Drop off the www, preceding the host name. I.e. you don't always need www.seroundtable.com/pagename/, you can drop off the www in many cases (especially for the display URL).

(2) AdWordsPro suggests that if those three extra characters don't help, then you should contact an AdWords representative. It seems that maybe Google can either aid you with your issue or bend the rules a bit.

Labels: AdWords, Google, URL