It can actually be overwhelming when you first start to poke around your PPC advertising campaign or your Google Analytics account to figure out what the most valuable data really is, so let me point you in a couple key places.

The new interface has some really great ways to view, filter and analyze your Google AdWords campaign data quickly and efficiently.  These options used to only be available in the reports area, but now they can be seen for every campaign and ad group.

With the new Google AdWords interface, you now have a great new data reporting tool on the right hand side.  It is a graph that will show you the trend for the time period you have selected on several different data values.  You can change the date range to view as many days as you like – I prefer either 30 or 7 depending on the campaign.  The two data items I keep an eye on from this “30 thousand foot” view are Impressions and Cost.  Basically we are looking for any trends – up or down – of the number of impressions your ads are getting and the amount that is being spent on the entire account.  If either one has an unusual spike, there is going to be some digging to do to be sure everything is running as planned.

Also, while you are getting that overview perspective for your AdWords account, go ahead and sort campaigns and ad groups by Cost (descending). This way, your attention is focused on the highest spenders at a high level.  This will also alert you to situations where your highest spenders shouldn’t be your highest spenders and you can make changes accordingly. If you have PPC advertising questions, you might want to consider contacting a professional PPC management company with questions or to plan a consultation.

Google has begun, more than ever, pulling regular search ads into the Google maps display – especially if there are limited competitors running local business ads.  They have also started to default the maps display to the small map with many more local listings and sponsored listings displayed on the screen.  This has created a need for more ads to run in this space – typically there are only three that run when a full map is displayed.

Despite that, a Local business Ad is much more powerful because of the actions the user can take to interact with your ad and find your business.

When you run a Local Business Ad:

1. An icon that you design is displayed on the map.  If done correctly, this can cause your location to stand out from the crowd.
2. Your address is displayed in the ad.
3. Your ad has a link that says “Show on Map”.  As I discussed in my last post about Google Local Business Ads, if your audience is particularly sensitive to location, seeing your location on the map can be a great selling point.
4. Once they have select the option to show your information listing on the map, the user can get directions, show the street view, save to their saved map locations or send the listing to an email address or even a GPS system!
5. Also on the information listing, you can display your phone number and an image.

How do I run Local Business Ads?

First, you must have a Google Local Business Listing  – this is something you should have regardless of whether you run ads.  It is free and when you have a local business listing, properly optimized, your listing can show up on the first page of Google maps for your targeted key phrases.

Second, once you have created a local business listing, you can add a local business ad to any ad group from within the Adwords Editor interface.   Simply select the Ads tab, the Local Business Ads tab and Add Local Business Ad.  You can add the business location, the ad copy, an image to be displayed on the Information listing and a small little icon to be used as a Map Marker on the map.

For more information on creating and managing local business ads, contact the PPC Management Professionals at JumpFly.

Google Local Business Ads – or Maps Ads – are similar to search ads but they appear on the Google Maps platform.  This platform has been growing in traffic since its inception and is now available on many other devices beyond the desktop/laptop including the popular iPhone.

The significance of local business ads is that they satisfy the intent of the search when it comes to local business.  Most local businesses thrive on location – in other words – if someone is looking for a new dentist and you can show the visitor that you are minutes from their home or work, they are more likely to click through or give you a call than if they discover you are an hour or more away.  Therefore, showing your ad in the context of your location on a map gives the visitor that much more incentive to contact you.

Should I be running Local Business Ads?

Perform a search on one of your top keyword phrases from the regular Google Search screen – for example, “find a dentist”.  You will notice that one of the first natural listings, if not the first, is a large group of local business listings next to a map.  There is a large link at the top that says “Local Business Results for <search term> near <your location> and another smaller link at the bottom that says “More results near <your location>”.  When the visitor clicks on either of these links, Google Maps is displayed along with the first several local business ads. 

Because of the location within the natural search results, these links are much more likely to be clicked than any of the sponsored search results.  Creating local business ads to be shown on Google maps can greatly increase your exposure. Contact a professional PPC Management Agency with any additional questions.

More in my next post on How to run Local Business Ads.

Now that there are so many more ways to interact with your local business ad, also referred to as “Google maps ads”, because they appear on the Google Maps site, wouldn’t it be nice if you had some insight into how visitors are interacting with your ad?

Now you do.  Google has given us the ability to see the analytics behind how users interact with your ad.  There is a new feature in the Google AdWords reporting feature – as a part of the Placement/Keyword Report – that allows you to view data on the following actions:

• Info window open from left hand side
• Info window open from map marker
• “Get Direction” clicks
• “Street View” clicks
• Clicks to website from the info window

They are missing my favorite – “Send” – but hopefully that is coming soon – no word from Google yet.

How can you best use this Google Maps ads data? Use it the same as you would when analyzing your site analytics – figure out where to focus your attention based on user activity.  For example, are visitors clicking Street View? Consider putting a picture of your actual location/building on the info window. 

The numbers behind opening from the left hand side vs. opening from the map marker signify to me whether your visitors are typically responding to your brilliant ad copy or if they are more concerned with the exact location of the business.  Google Maps ad data can give you insight into a visitor’s search intent and mind set.  Then let it help you to write even better ad copy for both your maps ad and your regular pay-per-click (PPC) advertising ads.

For more information on the new Google Maps ad reporting features, check out Google’s blog post on this announcement or contact a professional Google advertising agency.

We all know about Google’s Keyword Tool which provides traffic information for your terms but a limitation on the Keyword Tool data is that it is either global or country based (the column labeled “local” now, means U.S. or whatever country was selected at the top of the page). 

This traffic data is good if you are running a national campaign – but not as useful for geographically targeted campaigns.  It can be used to determine relative traffic between keywords (i.e., what gets more traffic? Car dealer or Auto dealer?), but it falls short if you are trying to figure out what to expect when you when you are running campaigns in just Dallas or Los Angeles.

So, what I use for local traffic data is the Google Traffic Estimator.  You enter your keywords (however many you want) and a specific region – anywhere from a country, to a state, to a city or even a zip code with a radius.  If you like, you may also enter your desired daily budget and your CPC. 

The results? The traffic you can expect in one day for each keyword in the region you selected!  Now, keep in mind, there are the same limitations to this data as there are with the Google Keyword Tool – I find the traffic data to be more accurate than the estimated CPC. But it’s a good starting point.

The Google AdWords Traffic Estimator provides extremely powerful data for your Google AdWords campaign efforts. You should use this data to decide where to spend the majority of your time.  Any reputable PPC management firm would always suggest the majority of your time should be spent on keywords that can drive the most targeted traffic to your site.  Don’t waste your valuable time on terms that don’t deliver direct benefit (because they just aren’t searched on very often). That doesn’t mean don’t have them in your account, just don’t spend the majority of your time on them. Focus your attention on the top terms.  Yes, you would have seen this data yourself once your campaign was running for awhile, but this gives you the boost to focus on the right terms from the very beginning. 

In May, Google announced an enhancement to their search query report.

The search query report is a great PPC management tool that we use to fine tune an account.  It allows us to see, for phrase and broad match search terms, what the actual term was that the visitor typed in.  It shows only those terms that resulted in a click-through so you can focus your efforts on your cost areas.

Since inception, this report had a flaw.  For all the low volume terms, Google would lump them into “Other Unique Queries”.  Sometimes the majority of the traffic seemed to fall into this field which could be very frustrating.

Now, Google removed this field all together and we can see all terms that were actually searched for going forward.

Here is how I use the Search Query Report.  You can do this on a weekly or monthly basis. I choose weekly to be sure to catch all the terms possible.

Keep in mind that this information is also now available in the new interface.  However, I am finding that for large campaigns with many ad groups, I can still save some time with using the report itself.  The actionable report within the interface is good for quick spot checks and focusing on the highest spending ad groups, though.

1. Generate a Search Query Report – in fact, create a report that is generated automatically on a weekly basis so it is already there when you are ready to work on it.
2. Download the report into a CSV file and Open it in excel
3. Sort largest to smallest on the cost column (this keeps you focused on the keywords of most importance if you are short on time).  Don’t feel compelled to go through every single one.  Stick to the top 20 every week.
4. Create a list of negative keywords to add and a list of new keywords to add.
5. Import the list into Adwords Editor and Post.

Quick.  easy. and it really tunes up the account and can save big $ for your business.

For more information on the enhancement, See Google’s Search Query Enhancement Announcement.

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Then Google gave us the ability to restrict the placement on certain sites where we knew we did not what to show our ads.  Better, but . . .

Last year Google improved the process with a huge leap called AdWords Placement Targeting and we are now able to place ads very specifically on content sites based on our analysis of the Placement Report.  Remember, from my previous articles that the placement report will give you information on where your ad is performing at its best.  You can decide based on CTR and Conversion Rate whether a particular placement is profitable for you and adjust your campaign accordingly.

Now, Google AdWords just announced a beta test of a new way to place your ads – Interest-based Advertising.  According to their announcement, if you are a Google Interest-based advertising beta test participant, you will now be able to target visitors based on their interests beyond what they are reading right now.  This can be HUGE for advertisers – if it works.

Visitor interests will be tracked based on the types of sites they visit and their general activity on the Internet (much like Engage Media envisioned about 10 years ago, prior to their demise).  Users will also have the option of updating their interests directly with Google with the new Google Ad Preferences tool.  Google is also addressing privacy concerns by allowing web users to opt out of this new interest-based ad-serving feature using the same preferences tool.

One benefit to being a JumpFly PPC Client is that we are able to get our clients into beta tests fairly easily through our Google Agency Support team.  We will also be able to quickly assess whether a new program like this has promise and relay that information to our clients.

Check out more information on the Interest-based Advertising on the Google Blog.

Or find out how to apply for beta testing in the Interest-based Advertising Announcement by Google.

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This is not something new to entrepreneurs and small business owners but I’ll say it anyway:  you can’t do everything and you can’t be great at everything.  If you try to excel at too many things, you will end up only mediocre in many things as opposed to strong in a handful of your core business skills.

Obviously, here at JumpFly, we believe strongly in the concept of outsourcing.  Our business is made up of clients that have chosen to outsource their PPC management.

But my belief in this philosophy goes beyond the services we offer.  I believe there are many places in your business where you should consider “letting go.”  It can be difficult to delegate, especially if you are an entrepreneur. But it is critical to your growth to understand that not only do you have limited time to perform these tasks, you also have limited capacity to learn them and become skilled in them.  

I have found this to be true in many aspects of businesses both online and off, including programming, graphic design, accounting management, just to name a few.  These are professions that, like PPC management, require fairly large learning curves and once mastered require constant use, practice and education to maintain the skill.

Always keep in mind what your time is worth on other tasks in your business and when deciding whether to hire out these important business roles, be sure to take the cost of your time – both in performing the task and becoming educated on the topic – into consideration.

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Here are some tips to making the most of your PPC Ads at Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter:

1. Highlight Your Holiday Specials

In your ads, be sure to mention any holiday specials you are running.  From price reductions to coupons to free shipping.  Include it in the ad.  People are looking for bargains this holiday season.

2. Set Your Budgets Higher

This time of year there will be more traffic on all of the product search terms.  Make sure your ads are showing consistently all day by setting the right budget and the right keywords bids. 

You should double-check your positions as well.  There are some terms that become highly competitive this time of year.  You may have been running happily at positions 2-3 for the last few months and all of a sudden drop to 10 because of increased holiday competition.  Keep an eye on this through the end of the month. 

For most B2C retail businesses, the holiday makes up as much as 60% of their total revenue for the year.  Your advertising spend should reflect this.

3. Consider Gift Terms

Be very cautious with the vague, generic gift terms.  However, you may find that gift terms specific to your product line will help you.  For example, if you sell coffee, consider “coffee gifts”, “coffee gift ideas”, etc.  As with everything, watch your cost per conversion on these terms.

The Google AdWords Team talks about some of these tips in their Inside Adwords blog. Applying proven PPC Management techniques is always critical, but especially during the holidays.

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The Keyword Tool at Google AdWords

I use Google’s Keyword Tool for a large majority of keyword research now.  Yes, services like Keyword Discovery or Word Butler will give us a longer list of long-tail keywords, but according to Google, bigger is not always better in a new campaign.

Google’s Keyword Tool has been improved greatly over the last few months.  We now get very detailed search volume numbers – be sure to change the match type of your results to “Exact” before taking those numbers seriously.

They have also fixed a problem they were having a couple of months ago where they were randomly presenting terms that were not as relevant (called “Additional Keywords to Consider”) before the relevant terms.  That has been fixed and we now see the Related Keywords first on every search.  They have also fixed little annoyances like the scrolling and the ability to download all the terms at once.

So, how is the new Search-based Keyword Tool different?

It’s main difference is that instead of taking your suggested words, Google will now go look at your website and provide suggested keywords based on its content. 

There are  a few new features that make this tool an interesting addition to our arsenal of research tools here at JumpFly:

1. A magnifying glass icon takes you straight to Google Insights for that term.

2. Ad/Search Share tells you how your ad is showing up for that search term

3. We can filter the results by search volume, competition and suggested bid.

I am disappointed that the search volume numbers are apparently from the broad match search volume – not nearly as useful as the existing keyword tool that allows you to change that to exact match for more accuracy.  I also feel that I get a much larger and comprehensive list when I use the Google Keyword Tool.  However, if we are looking for a single term or set of terms, this tool lets us narrow things down quite a bit and may help uncover some valuable new keywords.

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In this article, I am addressing the Quality Score used during a Google Search. 

Google’s AdWords Quality Score is used to determine how relevant your ad is to a visitor searching on a given term.  Google has developed, over time, algorithms to help them present the most relevant results to visitors based on many historical performance factors and on existing relevance factors.

In their quest to present the most relevant results to their visitors, Google rewards high quality ad / keyword combinations with higher positions and lower costs.

When a search query is performed there are two steps. 

1. The first page bid + your keyword (including match type) are used to determine if you are eligible to be shown on a particular search phrase.  In other words – “Are you In the Game?” 
   • The “first page bid” is an estimated metric that exists in your account with each keyword and is only displayed if your particular bid does not equal or exceed the bid estimate.  When Quality Score is used to calculate the first page bid, it does not consider your ad copy or the search query itself. 
2. Once you are eligible, your Quality Score + your Max CPC are used to determine where your ad will be positioned on the page – “Ad Rank” and how much you will be charged for the click – “Actual Cost Per Click (CPC)”.

Quality score is calculated at the Keyword level and is affected by:

• The relevance of the keyword and the ad copy to the search phrase
• The Historical Click Through Rate (CTR)
  • CTR in your current account
  • CTR of the keyword throughout all accounts
  • CTR of any account using your URL in the ads
  • CTR in your account in the geographic region you are targeting
• The Quality of your Landing Page

The algorithm takes into consideration the effect ad position has on CTR and adjusts the importance accordingly.

It is important to note that quality score is used differently within placements on the content network and we will discuss that next week.

If you’d like more information on the Quality Score, check out Google’s Improvements to Ads Quality Post or contact a professional PPC Management Company.

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What is Impression Share?

Impression Share is the amount your ads are showing as a percentage of the total available impressions. 

Why Should You Care?

It reflects your exposure in your marketplace.

In other words, are your ads showing up as often as they can be?

Understanding your impression share will give you some insight into steps you can take to increase your exposure in your market.

The first key figure is Lost IS (Budget).  This tells you how much traffic you are losing (as a percentage of total impressions) because your budget is too low.  Google automatically stops showing your ad if it will exceed your budget.  You can select whether Google should periodically shows your ad over the day or if they show it constantly until you run out of budget.

If you are losing a lot of traffic due to your budget, you need to make changes and it should depend on your business goals. You could:

• Reduce your bid and position your ad lower
• Decrease the targeted region
• Increase your budget – Only if the conversion rate justifies it!

The other figure to consider is Lost IS (Rank).  This reflects how much impression share you are losing due to poor ranking on the page.  In other words, your Ad Rank, which is the CPC bid x Quality Score, is reducing your impression share.

So, what can you do to solve poor Ad Rank?

• Improve Ad Quality
• Adjust Match Type
• Increase Your Bid (again . . . only if the conversion rate justifies it)

One last figure is the Impression Share Exact Match.  This reflects how a keyword would perform if it were set to Exact match.  This can help you determine if you should consider changing the match type to improve impression share.  If you see that the exact match percentage is significantly higher than the actual impression share, you can safely assume that you should test different match types to improve impression share.

You can read more from Google about the Impression Share Report at Inside AdWords.

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PPC Management -  Understanding Seasonality

First, take a look at your seasonality.  Not all markets have the same seasonality.  Some don’t have much seasonality at all. The timing and the length of your high season could be related to what you sell (i.e., bathing suits or snowboards) and where you sell it (air conditioning repair in Michigan).

Over the summer I received a call from a client who was upset because overall conversions were down.  They have a hotel in Mexico.  Is it really a surprise that they don’t book as many rooms in July as they do in January??  I live in Chicago and I can tell you that I’m thinking about a balmy vacation more in the dead of winter than I am during the 3 short months of warm weather we have here. 

You have to understand the seasonality of your marketplace.  When are your customers most likely to order your product or require your service?

Does this mean you just give up and go with the flow? No! Of course not, but you need to be much more creative in your ads and your offers when it is your down season.

You may also find, depending on what you sell, that you just need to adjust your focus.  This is why heating contractors also repair air conditioners – more year round business.  And why landscapers also offer snow plowing.  Instead of lying down and giving up or fighting what you can’t control, roll with it and figure out how to keep going.  When your typical customer is NOT looking for your product or service – what would they be looking for instead?  Be creative and expand your market to even out your revenue.

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When managing your Google Adwords campaigns, a good PPC Manager will match the bidding strategy to the client’s goals and budget.  

What is the best bidding strategy for you?

Many times, if your budget can withstand the initial cost, an assertive initial bidding strategy can pay off in the end. 

As you have seen in many of our posts, we rarely recommend that a client bid for positions 1 or 2.  There is a high premium on these positions and the traffic quality is usually worse that the remaining positions on the page.  However, without a doubt, the CTR (Click Through Rate) is the highest in these positions – which is good for your Google AdWords Quality Score.

Google takes into consideration many things in determining your Quality Score.  Things have changed in the last few weeks with the Quality Score, but one thing remains the same – Google still uses the Quality Score to determine your position and your cost.  With that in mind, a higher CTR improves your Quality Score and therefore improves the performance while decreasing the cost of your campaign. 

With an assertive bidding strategy out of the gate, aiming for positions 1-2, you will increase your CTR.  Once you have established a strong CTR, you can bring the bids down, landing you in a higher position at a lower cost than if you had come in softly.

This strategy isn’t for everyone and needs to be carefully monitored.  At position 1-2, the cost per conversion will be higher for the period of time you are bidding assertively.  But, if you can think of it as an investment in the campaign, it will likely pay off in the long run.

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So one question to ask yourself when looking at these “top spenders” is – Are they also your top sellers?  They should be. 

You should already have a solid understanding of your top selling products or services.  And these items may change seasonally for you.

But you should also pay attention to your top spenders in your PPC advertising campaigns and be sure you are

1. Spending your advertising dollars in the right place and
2. Responding to the market.  If you find that certain terms have escalated in search volume and interest, maybe something needs to change with your product or service offerings.

Another question to consider:  Are your top spending keywords broad match? 

Be careful here.  Remember that broad match at Google AdWords is actually expanded match – Google shows your ad on “relevant” keywords.   While expanded match can be a very productive method to make sure you are showing whenever possible, it can also be difficult to tell what you are spending your ad dollars on.  The search query report is extremely important when you are running on broad match terms.  This report gives you insight into terms that are working well for your campaign and terms that should be excluded.

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