Boost Clickthrough and Conversion with AdWords Reviews
Are you or a client selling goods or services online? Are you paying for AdWords? It’s time for you to sign up for at least one ratings service and politely ask your customers to rate their experience. Google recently started pulling ratings from various services and attaching the *stars* to AdWords text ads. (See Figure: 1) I think that adding reviews directly to an ad is as close as you get to word-of-mouth, which we all know is hands down the best marketing medium out there. You instantly add trust by showing potential customers what people are saying about your company. The only thing holding you back is that Google requires a few things. “If your online store is rated in Google Product Search, you have 4 or more stars, and you have at least 30 reviews, you’ll automatically get seller ratings with your ads.” Seems easy enough; now all you have to do is start asking your customers for reviews. If you’re an eCommerce company, the perfect time to ask for a review (and include an easy-to-use link) is in the Shipment Confirmation email. Check figure 2 for a good list of review sites to look into. Good...
Read MoreMicrosoft AdCenter Bing Calendar Fail
TweetToday is April 30, 2010. I log into Microsoft Advertising adCenter to check an account. Then I click on the calendar to go back 1 day, to 4/29/2010. This should be an easy thing to do, but the option Microsoft gives me is pictured below. They show today as May 1st. Can they predict the future? This happens all the time, I have to go back one month with the drop down (no arrows to make it easy) and select the date. But today is special! They took me all the way back to January. Bing – that was not easy! I just thought this was a ridiculous flaw so I had to point it out. So…thank you Microsoft / Bing for making things so painful. At least your desktop PPC editor is decent. The online UI is pretty annoying, please work on...
Read MoreMy Lightburn Blog Contributions
Time flies when you’re writing for multiple blogs! Since I haven’t written anything here for a while, checkout my contributions on my employer’s website. Lightburn – Milwaukee web design.
Read MoreQualities of a SEM
TweetInterested in Everything I’ve marketed hard hats, concert wristbands, trophies, gas station nozzles, ear plugs, plasma TVs and water pumps. I now know way too much about every single one of those things. To write truly effective ad copy and target the best keywords, you need to know about the product you’re trying to sell. Obsessed with Numbers Maybe it’s a bit of the OCD kicking in. Maybe it’s a hidden need to stare at numbers all day. Whatever it is, I love to analyze everything SEM. Click through rates, bounce rate, open rates, return on investment, and conversion rate – they’re all exciting to track and improve. You won’t be able to measure and improve your campaigns if you aren’t addicted to the numbers. Plus, numbers will never lie to you. They are a trustworthy group. Thinks Charts and Graphs are Sexy Is that a data point on your line graph, or are you just happy to see me? Sure, you already love numbers and your brain is practically a virtual pie chart. What about your clients or your boss? They do not want to see a spreadsheet full of numbers. Dress it up! People love to see their numbers in chart form; it’s a scientific fact. Intelligently Competitive I grew up in a house with 4 brothers and 2 sisters, and played varsity sports all through high school. I know a little something about competition. It’s great to have a competitive nature in SEM. That’s what makes you want to have a higher CTR and Conversion Rate every month. It will help you succeed. However, you have to control it and pick your battles. You never want to get into a bidding war in order to be in a number one ad position. You will lose the ROI game. And that’s no good. More on emotional bidding. Best Friend is a Thesaurus Webster and I have had some amazing wonderful fantastic times! In addition to learning everything you can about the product, a thesaurus or the PPC equivalent Keyword Tool, is essential to finding more keywords and writing ad variations. You can never have enough keyword synonyms in an ad campaign. Customers use the craziest words to find your products. Make sure you’re bidding on those crazy words! Good Enough is Not an Option Wow, I have a 14% conversion rate! I look like a hero to...
Read MoreGoogle Analytics Adds Annotations
TweetSince the official Google Analytics blog didn’t mention anything about their new Annotations feature yet, I wrote a small blog post on my employer’s (Lightburn) website. Google Annotations: Great New Analytics...
Read MoreI Raised the Flag of PPC Fraud
TweetA client recently contacted me because they were concerned that their former PPC bid management company overcharged them for their services and inflated bid costs. Since I’ve been managing their PPC accounts over the past 6 months, they have reduced costs by over 45%, increased their clickthrough rate by 30%, and increased their conversion rate by over 4 times – all while growing revenue by 37%. Before I took over the account, I was able to get a keyword report from the company that I stole the business from. Their report was full of over-priced and under-performing keywords. It was a classic case of a PPC management company just paying for position and not worrying about ROI. They carelessly spent 10’s of thousands of dollars of my client’s money on poor keywords. By focusing on conversion and ROI, I have made such huge improvements to their PPC accounts that my client is actually auditing their former PPC manager. They feel that the company must have been inflating bid cost and passing the cost along to them. I really hope that they don’t find fraud, because the poor bidding job they did in the past was bad enough. What’s the takeaway? Make sure you hire someone that will care about your profitability. Also make sure they are open with their information. No one should be denying you access to your own AdWords account; that’s where bid inflation can easily be hidden. Finally, the number one easiest way to avoid bid inflation is to use your own credit card and don’t let the company invoice you for the click spend. There is nothing more legit than a charge straight from Google. Happy...
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