Archive for the ‘PPC’ Category

Don’t Freak Out Over AdWords Match Type Changes

May 2nd, 2012

Recently, Google announced that in mid-May they will change what Exact and Phrase match types mean. For the last decade there have only been a handful of changes to match types. This most recent move may be the most significant change of all though. It basically kills the meaning of exact and phrase match and several news articles have painted a grim picture. However, Sweet Spot is not afraid of this change and I will tell you why.

The original match types:

Broad match: keyword
Allows your ad to show on similar phrases and relevant variations
(The broad match modifier may also be used to further refine your broad keyword matches: +keyword.)

Phrase match: ”keyword”
Allows your ad to show for searches that match the exact phrase

Exact match: [keyword]
Allows your ad to show for searches that match the exact phrase exclusively

With the changes coming this month, Broad match will stay virtually unchanged. However, Phrase and Exact will now include close variants including misspellings, singular and plural forms, acronyms, stemmings (such as floor and flooring), abbreviations, and accents.

Google is framing this as no big deal. However, it could have serious consequences. With the new matching system, if you have “slate roofing” as a keyword, it will also bring in searches for “slate roof.”  “Slate roof” is more of an informational keyword with a lower conversion rate.  Consumers searching “slate roof” are much more likely to be looking for photos or more information about slate roofs.  “Slate roofing” has a much higher conversion rate.  Consumers searching for “slate roofing” are more likely to be looking to buy something.  Therefore, an advertiser would be losing profits by appearing for the keyword “slate roofs.”

This is a serious situation but I am not freaking out because you can turn it off.

1)      Go to your Campaigns tab.

2)      Choose the campaign you want to adjust and click Settings.

3)      Scroll down to Advanced Settings and click Keyword Matching Options.

4)      Choose Do Not Include Close Variants and Save.

AdWords Match Type Changes

 

So, if you have a campaign that is reliant on transactional keywords, turn this new matching system off.  You will now be able to manage it as usual. Moving forward I will be building campaigns to anticipate this new matching system though.

Google AdWords Gets Additional Tweaking, ZIP Code Targeting

April 17th, 2012

When it comes to targeting an audience for a message or advertisement, marketing campaign managers fantasize about laser precision – getting right down to the neighborhood, subdivision, address, individual consumer even. In the days before online advertising, AdWords and the like, when media mail (read: junk mail) advertising ruled the streets, so much paper and printing and postage was downright wasted on whole address regions that had little interest or need for whatever product or service the advertiser was hawking.

Example: In 1965, you could blanket every address in Schenectady, New York with coupons for your lawn-mowing service and lose up to 45% of that marketing effort to whole areas of the city where apartment dwellers were predominant. Back then, that meant wasted efforts and wasted money. But back in 1965, that was as good as marketing could get.

Fortunately, we’re much smarter and much more capable now. In recent years, certainly after the rapid proliferation of the home computer and the popularity of the Web, ad targeting has become much more data-driven and computer-assisted. This, in turn, has created a much higher potential for ad campaign success. Less waste, less cost = more success.

As competent as modern marketing and advertising may seem, there is, however, always room for improvement. Granular is never granular enough for some. But until the day marketers can broadcast messages that appear out of thin air right before our eyes (we’re hinting toward you, Google Glasses), we’ll have to stick with the levels of granularity that are accessible to us via our available systems. Fortunately, due to some additional tweaking to AdWords by Google, that level of granularity just got a bit more… well… granular.

Last week, Google announced that AdWords was given a new feature – the ability to target AdWords ads down to the ZIP Code level. This is a bonus feature that allows AdWords campaign managers to create more locally-relevant ads. In fact, AdWords campaign managers will be able to add up to 1,000 postal codes at a time – without having to create multiple ads for multiple locations.

The AdWords tweak is actually two-fold. In the first part, we’re now allowed to target areas by specific ZIP Codes. In the second part, the new Location Insertion feature allows us to write one single ad that can be instantly updated with granular-level location information. And when the ad is triggered in this location or that, Google automatically updates your title, ad text content, and URL with location-specific information. With Location Insertion, Google can do this for all of your locations – at scale!

According to Inside AdWords, the official Google AdWords blog, “If you customize your direct mail, outdoor ads, or newspaper ads at a postal code level, you now can easily do the same in AdWords in the US. We are introducing the ability to target more than 30,000 US ZIP Codes with your AdWords campaigns… and with location insertion, you’ll no longer need to create multiple ads for multiple locations.”

So, with the new ZIP Code database at your fingertips and the location insertion feature, you can write one ad that serves all of New York State and your Ad Impressions in Schenectady would be both targeted and personalized to the user.

Note: If 30,000 US ZIP Codes sounds like a lot – it is. There are only about 43,000 ZIP Codes in the USPS database.

The takeaway: Being able to craft highly-relevant ads that target specific postal codes means that your Certified Google AdWords marketing managers (like those here at Sweet Spot Marketing) are able to reach more of the right kinds of consumers and, hopefully, build more authentic relationships based on demographics and product or service qualities.

Postal code targeting for AdWords is warmly welcomed and highly beneficial. But there are those who believe it may be a bit overdue. As marketing professionals, we’ve been able to custom-tailor direct mail, outdoor ads, newspaper ads, and a number of other collateral marketing materials to the postal code level for quite some time. In this incredibly-wired, data-driven world we live in, it would seem reasonable to expect that online marketing would afford the marketing manager the same kind of granularity as something you could post in bulk to a neighborhood or paste-up alongside a specific stretch of roadway. Especially when it’s Google.

In the end, ZIP Code targeting means more geographic control over targeted ads. Additionally, it is also expected that an AdWords campaign with this type of granular-level targeting will help foster a stronger community around your brand, as well as grow your network through consumer referrals.

Google Gives Display Advertising its Own Tab within AdWords

April 13th, 2012

Does it seem like display advertising has long been the redheaded stepchild in the Google AdWords extended family? Sure, third-party display network ads are invaluable to any ad campaign, keeping both brand and message before the eyes of browsers across all areas of the Web. But when it comes to finding sites, adjusting settings, and constantly monitoring campaigns, it also seems like display advertising has taken a back seat in terms of how we have been able to manage the processes. Well, no more.

Google made a move last week that has given display advertising a new home – a place that was designed to simplify the way we buy and manage display ads through the AdWords interface (with its own tab even!). And given that there are over 1,000,000 websites on the Google Display Network, it was about time we received an upgrade to the system.

At its core, advertising is built to get both brand and message in front of the right people. The best advertising makes use of eye-catching creatives and a compelling message. Both of these key advertising elements are easy to build and manage – due to the simple fact that message and creative elements are refined and honed to perfection well before they leave the building (so to speak). But until very recently, it was difficult to target display ad sites, receive feedback and manage advertising campaigns after they hit the Web. As with any build or project, the right set of tools allows the manager to supervise and handle the project with ease and confidence. Google has done us all a great service with the new Display Advertising tab in AdWords.

Google has been building-out functionality in AdWords for quite some time now. It is fortunate that the Project Management team at Google AdWords has been listening to feedback from advertisers and taken note that a chief objection to the display advertising system is the fact that campaign managers are forced to visit multiple areas of the AdWords interface to effectively manage their display campaigns. Google has admitted that, since the inception nine years back, AdWords customers have been buying display ad campaigns through an interface that was originally designed for search. With its own tab within AdWords, display advertising has now been granted a new set of tools that will allow display ad marketers to manage and deliver more engaging and relevant display ads for their campaigns.

As stated in the official Google release, “the new Display Network tab is an interface built from the ground up to run display campaigns, and will enable you to bid, target and optimize display campaigns all from a single place.”

Visitors to the new Display Network tab will be met with a few interesting new additions. In the new development, Google has included a “revved-up” contextual engine that quickly matches ads to pages based on keywords – effectively leveraging the power of search to aggressively target high-performing keywords and maximize the reach of the display network.

In addition, Google has also introduced a new visual targeting diagram that allows advertisers to see a diagram that shows the reach (or potential reach) of a campaign, as well as how that reach may be affected by combining different targeting types (such as keywords, placements, topics, interests or remarketing).

And with the new Display Campaign Optimizer (originally rolled out in October 2010 but recently released from beta status), advertisers are more easily able to set goals and leverage the power of Google technology to find the best places to show ads – optimizing both targeting and bidding processes.

In short, with the new Display Advertising tab addition to the AdWords interface, Google has both supercharged the display ad management process and reduced our business process at the same time. More power, greater reach, more conversions, better results, lower associated costs. Sweet.