Knowledge is the Foundation To Success  

Google AdWords has, in the last year, given us a ton of new and interesting ways to place ads within their content network.  At first, the only thing you could do with Google AdWords content advertising was rely on Google to use your keywords to decide where the ads would be shown.  This didn’t function very well at all and gave “content placement” a bad name in the pay-per-click (PPC) advertising industry.

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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You can’t do it alone. 

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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The holiday shopping rush is under way. No doubt, you have already made some improvements to your website and your offers. But have you given any thought to your pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns?

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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