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10 do’s and don’ts of mobile PPC

January 28, 2013 admin Uncategorized

Mobile search has continued to grow over the past few years. As a result mobile desktop searches have also seen tremendous growth. Along with that growth there has also been a large increase in competition in the mobile PPC space as well. While mobile desktop is a form of desktop, it’s important to recognize that it requires its’ own set of strategies. Below are 10 tips for mobile desktop “do’s and don’ts” to consider as you develop your mobile strategies.

Don’t launch without a strategy

Mobile searches do not behave like desktop searches. Google conducted a research study showing the difference between mobile, tablet, and desktop users. The study revealed that there were distinct ways that users were using each device: Desktops are a “workhorse,” tablets are “couch companions,” and mobile devices are a personal “constant companion.” The study also showed that there was a clear difference in the peak usage times of each device — desktop use peaks mid-day, mobile use peaks in the evening hours. Also as expected the study depicted that along with using each device differently and at different times, there was also a different use for each device. For example, mobile users most often were searching for things like coupons, directions, and searches with a local component.

Do: Make sure that you do your research before you launch. Get to know the mobile searcher and then develop your strategy.

Don’t use your desktop conversion for your mobile conversion

As we now know, mobile users behave differently — including the actions they will take on their devices. For example, if you focus on a “contact us” form conversion as your desktop conversion, this may not translate well to a mobile user. Instead you may want to offer the option for a mobile user to call directly or request a call.

Do: Make sure that you focus on a conversion that resonates and gives value to your mobile users.

Don’t group all devices together

This is one of the biggest money wasters in desktop. Make sure that you are targeting your mobile devices separate from your desktop and tablet devices.

Do: Remember that with device targeting for mobile, you can get as granular as targeting specific devices like the iPhone or Android.

Don’t replicate your desktop keywords

Think about a mobile keypad — they are very tiny. As a result, users often misspell as they type. Users are also typically on the move when using their device and tend to type in shorter queries.

Do: Make sure that your keyword build focuses on short tail versus longer tail terms.

Don’t duplicate your desktop ads

As we noted above, you need to focus on the mobile user and what benefits and values they will resonate with. Your mobile ads should reflect this and not simply duplicate your desktop ads. You should also take advantage of the features in AdWords made specifically for mobile. For example, try using mobile extensions like “call only” and location extensions.

Do: Make sure you tailor your ads to the mobile user and include mobile features.

Don’t forget a mobile device is a phone

People still do use their mobile phones to make phone calls! Test using the call only ad format, which allows a user to only place a call (versus click through to the website). This also works very well if your site is not yet mobile friendly.

Do: Test mobile features like “call only.”

Don’t use your desktop bids

Don’t think that because mobile is newer desktops will be cheaper or even the same as desktop desktops. Remember that there is less space on mobile devices for ads than on a desktop, so competition is high and desktops can be higher!

Do: To get an idea of where you should set your mobile bids, use the AdWords keyword tool to pull mobile desktop estimates.

Don’t set and forget

While sometimes lower positions work great on desktops, remember there are limited spaces on mobile devices for ads. Often times if you are not in position one or two on a mobile device, the traffic is barely existent.

Do: Because of this, it’s important to stay on top of your bids and adjust them often to ensure you don’t lose visibility.

Don’t send mobile traffic to your website

There is nothing worse than being on your mobile device, seeing a great ad that gets your attention, clicking, and being sent to a full website where you need a magnifying glass to read anything!

If you don’t have a mobile website, think of other ways to connect with mobile users. As noted above, try “call only.”

Do: Try using Google’s free mobile tools found at howtogomo.com where you can build your own mobile landing page and site!

Don’t replicate desktop landing pages

As with all points above, it’s important to recognize the difference of how desktop landing pages and mobile landing pages are developed and how it affects the user experience. For example, scrolling vertically on a mobile device is much easier than having to scroll horizontally.

Do: When thinking of how to build your mobile landing pages, keep these mobile website best practices in mind:

Keep it simple
Focus on conversion
Use mobile features, like “click to call”
Think “tap-able” not click-able
Use vertical navigation
Page size and load time matters

Crystal Anderson is paid search associate of SEER Interactive.

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“Female hands using computer” image via Shutterstock.

Article source: http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/33492.asp

No comments PPC

6 Rules for Pay-per-click Ad Profits

January 28, 2013 admin Uncategorized

I often hear from merchants that have tried pay-per-click advertising, but it wasn’t profitable for them. So they abandoned it. In my experience, however, many merchants could turn unprofitable campaigns into profitable ones by adopting the six rules that follow.

Rule 1: Commit to PPC

According to my analysis, PPC listings rank second of all traffic sources, including organic search listings, direct type-ins URLs, social media, affiliates, shopping engines, and email marketing.

What the chart shows is that PPC is too important to ignore. Just search on Google for a product and you’ll notice that PPC listings — including listings from Google Shopping — are dominating the search results page. It’s likely that Google will continue emphasizing PPC listings over organic listings. While organic listings are the most important source of traffic, PPC will increasingly become a close second.

That means that as an online retailer, you have a lot to gain by making PPC work for you, and a lot to lose by not. It’s time to commit to PPC.

Rule 2: Organize for Success

My company audits hundreds of PPC campaigns for online retailers each year. Eight out of ten campaigns that we see are terribly organized. There is no system or strategy in place to distinguish “campaigns” from “Ad Groups.” That makes it very hard to do things like bolstering budgets on product categories that are in season, aligning promotions between your ad text and your website, or using advanced techniques to target shoppers on mobile devices.

We usually recommend a simple approach to organizing Google AdWords accounts that align “Campaigns” within AdWords with the product categories on your site, and “Ad Groups” within AdWords with individual products on your site.

Rule 3: Adjust Your Match Types

When we conduct PPC audits for merchants, we often find that many or most of the keywords within their AdWords campaigns use the “broad” match type. This is a big mistake. Broad matches find close variations and synonyms, so a consumer who searches for “dog supplies” might be displayed an ad meant for “puppy supplies.” A more exaggerated example might be a shopper searching for “office furniture,” who instead sees your ads for “baby furniture.”

You’ll get a lot more traffic when you use broad match, but that traffic won’t be very qualified. As the graphic above illustrates, there are four match types you can select from, and as a default I often recommend “modified broad.” Modified broad match helps ensure that your ad only shows for close variations of keywords. You can designate broad match by placing a plus sign before the keyword.

Exact match (indicated by putting your keyword in brackets) and phrase match (indicated by putting your keyword in quotes) work well, too, depending on what your ad is targeting.

Rule 4: Use Negative Match

It’s likely that many of the clicks from your PPC campaign are coming from shoppers who are not interested in buying your products.

Imagine that you sell Malibu car accessories, for example. If you run a query search report in Google, you may find that you are generating a lot of traffic from searchers who use the query “Malibu recipes.” Using negative match, you can ensure your ads won’t show up for these keywords.

Negative match gives you the ability to determine which searches will trigger your ads. It can make a big impact in the overall profitability of your campaign.

Rule 5: Test Your Ad Copy

You can ensure your PPC ads show higher on the page, for a lower CPC cost, by improving your AdWords Quality Score. One of the most effective ways to do this is to improve the click-through rate of your ads. Any approach to optimizing your click-through rate should involve testing multiple sets of ad copy to see what improves not only your click-through rate, but also the conversion rate of the clicks generated by that ad.

As a rule, try to have two or three variations of ad copy for each Ad Group. I’m often surprised by the ad copy that performs best, which is why testing is so important.

Rule 6: Implement Google Shopping

Google Shopping is a no-brainer for most merchants, as I’ve stated in “5 Steps to Prepare for Google Shopping,” “Google Shopping: 5 Optimization Tips,” and “Google’s Product Listing Ads: Cheaper, More Profitable.”

It’s generating robust results for many merchants, especially when they take the time to optimize their data feeds.

Even if you don’t have the tools or understanding to optimize your data feeds, you can still generate impressive results by using a simple strategy of bidding a penny or nickel per click within your Google Shopping — i.e., Product Listing Ads —campaigns.

In December, I helped three hesitant merchants deploy campaigns on Google Shopping using very small ad budgets, as summarized by the graphic below. The revenue generated from those campaigns delivered an outstanding return on ad spend that can’t be duplicated by any other paid marketing channel.

Conclusion

Over the long term, most merchants must commit to making pay-per-click advertising work. If not, they will likely miss out on a lucrative source of business. They will also be placing most of their eggs in the organic, SEO basket.

By committing to improving the organization of your campaign, by adjusting your match types, by implementing negative keyword matches, by testing your ad copy, and by implementing Google Shopping, you’ll have a good chance at maximizing your PPC campaign profitability and finding a valuable channel for growing your revenue.

Scott Smigler’s profile.

Article source: http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/3888-6-Rules-for-Pay-per-click-Ad-Profits

No comments Ad Groups, Google Shopping, Optimization Tips, PPC

Create a Snazzy-Looking Content Strategy

January 18, 2013 admin Uncategorized

Interesting how the look of tuxedos changes over time. The same is true when it comes to the look of different marketing methods. Take SEO and content strategy, for example. Jason DeMers argues that content strategy is the “new SEO,” due in large part to how Google ranks sites. Case in point: the more outside links (or backlinks) from quality sites that go to your site, the higher your search ranking. A huge component of gaining backlinks is creating content people want to share. This is where a content strategy comes in. You need to understand what kind of content you’re creating and why you’re creating it. Then, you have to take the steps to continuously develop dynamic material for your audience. This isn’t to say you should ignore SEO; instead, try incorporating a content strategy in addition to your keyword strategy.

There are plenty of lists on what goes into a content strategy, and we’d like to do the same here, albeit differently, using elements of a tuxedo to give us visual references for developing a quality strategy. Trust us, it works.

Let’s look at three things that can be part of a tuxedo and how they can relate to a content strategy:

Tie.

Tie your posts back to previous posts when possible. Make sure each new development to your site ties into—and flows with—the context of your site.

(In)Vest.

Invest in your market. Keep them in mind each time you plan on creating something new. Understand what they want and do your best to give it to them. Know what questions they’re likely to ask, and do your best to provide the answers. Also, create content that encourages interaction, so you can continue to build relationships with them.

Links (or Cufflinks).

Examine your site’s links. What kind of material are you linking to? Why do you link to it? Try to create the same quality content you have posted links to; make content worth sharing.

Content strategy is quickly growing in popularity among marketers, and it can certainly make a marketing plan look snazzy. Developing a strategy is not easy, it’s not quick, but—like a tuxedo—it can be impressive.

Mixed Digital Asks: Can you think of any other parts of a tuxedo that could relate to a content strategy?

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This article is an original contribution by Paul Joe Watson.

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Article source: http://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/create-a-snazzy-looking-content-strategy-0380058

No comments Mixed Digital Asks, Paul Joe Watson, PPC, SEO

Back To Basics: Getting Started With Keyword Research & Content Creation

January 17, 2013 admin Uncategorized

Sometimes, the best path to success in SEO is going back to the basics of good old fashioned keyword research and content creation with the end goal in mind: the customer and the conversion.

In this article, I’ll look at a website that was submitted for review from a “Keywords and Content” focus. The site is Restoration Parts Source (RPS), an e-commerce website supplying restoration car parts and accessories for new, vintage and classic U.S. makes and models.

1. Don’t Focus Only On Broad Keywords

In his submission, Michael, RPS’s Web consultant, listed some keywords that are important to them, such as [classic car parts] and [restoration car parts].

While you do want to improve search results for broad keywords like these if you can, the competition can be very high. Plus, you’ll often find the actual business from broad keywords may not be as significant as you expect.

In addition to traffic from broad keywords, we typically see traffic and sales generated from more specific keywords such as [ford mustang parts] that typically return category pages of an e-commerce site in the search results, as well as from searches on specific products themselves such as [Headliner for 1963 Falcon Hardtop], which typically return the product pages in the search results. In fact, for many e-commerce sites, it’s the more specific keywords that are responsible for the majority of the sales.

Ideally, you’ll want to do keyword research for each of the categories and many of the specific products. Test as many of these keywords as possible using a PPC campaign with conversion tracking.

After some time, using site analytics such as Google Analytics, you can get a list of the keywords generating sales from both PPC and organic search. If you focus on improving search results for those keywords, you should increase sales. See Organic Keywords: The First Step In Search Engine Optimization for more information on this.

2. Do Keyword Research For Product Categories Specific Products

Use a keyword research tool such as the Google AdWords keyword tool to see what people are searching on within your territory for your product categories and specific products. For most e-commerce sites, this will take a fair amount of time; so, start with the important products.

If possible, test the keywords that appear to be relevant in a PPC campaign. Then use the results of the keyword research or the PPC campaign to improve your organic search results. Start with the basics, the HTML Page Titles and the content on the pages.

For example, on the RPS site, the HTML Page Title for the Ford category is simply [Ford Parts]. Not only is this not very enticing when viewed in search results, it is likely too broad. The HTML Page title should help searchers scanning the search results understand what they can expect if they click through to the page. Try to create an enticing message and ideally include one or two important keywords.

If RPS determines that [Ford Restoration Parts] is an important keyword phrase, for example, they might create a more enticing HTML Page Title based on their value statement (which is unclear on the RPS site; see more about this below), and/or based on one or more key features/benefits such as the following (with or without the company name appended at the end):

Discounted Ford Restoration Parts Shipped The Same Day

For more information, see 12 Steps To Optimize A Webpage For Organic Keywords.

3. Add Unique Content On Category Pages To Improve Search Results

Armed with your keyword research and/or results from PPC, add some overview text to your category pages. Yes, on category pages, you don’t want to push your items down too far, but just a couple of sentences can make a difference in search results.

This also gives you a chance to present a sales message to your human visitors, many of whom will land directly on these pages from search results without seeing any messages you may have on your home page.

Here’s an example. Assume that from the results of your PPC testing, you learn that [ford mustang restoration parts] is an important keyword. Do a search on that keyword.

Below is the top organic result I got for a Google search on [ford mustang restoration parts]. Notice in the screen shot below, the reasonably enticing description Google generated for a top ranked listing.

It includes some of the words and phrases searched for in bold such as [Ford Mustang parts], [restoration] and even [restore], which Google knows is a variation of the word “restoration.”

Search description Google generated from text on a page

The description above was created by Google directly from the text on the page (see screen shot below).

Description above was created by Google directly from the text on the page (Click to Enlarge)

You can improve your search results, both rankings and click-throughs, by developing similar messages for your category pages that include one or two of the most important keyword phrases for the category. Very often, the search engines will create a description for the search results from the text on the page around occurrences of the keyword the person searched for.

Plus, having the keyword one or more times on the page should help your rankings (don’t stuff it!). You should also create a similarly enticing Meta Description Tag in case the search engine creates a description from it rather than creating a description from the text on the page.

RPS has an issue on some of their category pages which have little category-related text. Some categories have no items at all (this site review is about Keywords and Content, not a User Experience Audit, but I think RPS needs to rethink its navigation system so issues like this do not occur). Hopefully, their site search is helping people find the items they are looking for.

4. Add Unique Content On Product Pages

Adding your own content to product pages, such as unique product descriptions, your own commentary and helpful messages, user reviews, videos and images will likely help improve search results by making your product pages unique. Plus, including additional content on product pages may get your pages returned in more search results because of the additional text.

Finally, and probably most importantly, your content can help increase sales by helping your shoppers make decisions on what to buy and make them feel more comfortable about buying from you.

Use your keyword research and/or the results from your PPC testing initially for the basics, such as creating an enticing HTML Page Title, ideally including one or two important keywords for the product. Also, take the time to write enticing Meta Description tags for your items or, at least, the most important ones.

Include at least some product description text on the product page (see below about using descriptions provided by your vendors). Keep the important product-specific keywords in mind while writing content for the page, but write for your human visitors, not the search engines.

Many of RPS’s product pages are very sparse on product descriptions such as this Headliner for a 1963 – 65 Falcon Hardtop. There’s just a short description and a product number.

Take a look at the search listing for the top ranking site when I searched on [Headliner 1963 Falcon Hardtop]. As with the category page example above, Google created an enticing search description directly from the product description on the page.

Below is the product description for the Dearborn Classics product page that was returned in the search results above.

Product description for Dearborn Classics product page returned in search results above. Click to Enlarge

Using more complete product descriptions such as the above should not only help RPS do better in the search results, it should help improve conversions to sales by providing a stronger, more complete product sales message to their shoppers.

However, it’s important to point out that the product description above used by Dearborn Classics is not unique. I searched on some of it and found the same text being used by many websites. This text is likely being provided by the supplier of these headliners. This is typical of many e-commerce sites that sell products manufactured by others. When the content on your product pages is predominantly the descriptions provided by your suppliers, you’ll be directly competing for rankings with all the other pages that include the same text.

So, when possible, rewrite the description or include a significant amount of your own unique content on the page such as additional product information, your own commentary, additional product images and/or videos, user reviews, etc., (see the next section for more about this).

Automated HTML Page Titles and Meta Description Tags

You won’t be able to write custom HTML Page Titles and Meta description tags for all the items of an e-commerce site that contains hundreds or thousands of items. It’s ideal to use an e-commerce system that creates decent tags using the product headline.

For example, one that creates tags for the HTML Page Title (along with possibly a tag line for the site or the category), while using the first part of the product description on the page for the Meta Description Tag, both of which can be manually overwritten.

5. Give Your E-commerce Site Personality Build Trust

As I went around the RPS site as a typical shopper, I learned very little about the company and the folks at RPS. When people shop online, they need to feel comfortable before they’ll buy from a company they know little or nothing about.

You can make people feel more comfortable about buying from you by at least employing some basics such as: a professional looking, user-friendly site; a meaningful value statement; a great guaranty and return policy; trust builders like well-known e-commerce security and process badges and seals; user reviews and testimonials, etc.

Make sure these elements are obvious as people shop by putting them, if not on every page, at least prominently one or more pages during the typical buying path (category page to product page to cart, etc.).

You can go much further than the basics and show what sets you apart from the competition while personalizing the site by including: mentions of one or more key personnel; helpful articles and videos; buyers guides; your own commentary about product categories and specific products; additional product information; videos and images, etc.

You could improve conversion rates and improve your search results at the same time by adding unique content to your site, allowing you to reach more searchers. You’ll also likely reach more searchers who are in the early stages of information gathering for a new purchase, giving you the opportunity to influence what they buy and retain them until they are ready to make a purchase.

You can learn more about this in from my earlier blog post, how to how increase e-commerce conversions 2-4x and improve search marketing results by helping shoppers decide what to buy.

6. Increase Page Strength To Compete With Top Ranked Sites

When Michael submitted the site for review, he mentioned how eBay is often one of the top ranking sites for many of RPS’s products. It can be difficult to beat eBay because of their link popularity (page strength, etc.), but you can, in many cases.

In my searches for some of the products RPS carries, other resellers similar to RPS often ranked higher than eBay. Plus, you really don’t have to rank higher than eBay. Getting to the top few positions should give you your fair share of searchers as many people do look at a few results. And, many people may be looking for a supplier directly and not want shop via eBay.

RPS should be able to increase its business from both search results and other referral sites by focusing on improving their link popularity and social media engagement.

Take a look at some of the ideas that can be employed by e-commerce sites in the following articles to help improve link popularity and social engagement.

Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

Related Topics: Beginner | How To | How To: SEO | Keywords Content

Article source: http://searchengineland.com/back-to-basics-getting-started-with-keyword-research-content-creation-140788

No comments PPC, Related Topics, RPS, Search Engine Land

Analytics Matched Search Queries Vs. AdWords Keyword Details Report

January 11, 2013 admin Uncategorized

A question recently came across my desk regarding the use of the Matched Search Queries Report in Analytics when compared to the Keyword Details Report in AdWords.

The inquirer was interested in the benefits or drawbacks to both reports, also asking if they were interchangeable. I figured this was a great question to answer in the Search Analytics field, so I’ll do my best to define and give my opinion regarding the pros, cons and interchangeability of these two complex reports.

First, we need to understand what each report provides data-wise. Let’s take a look at the basic data available for each one.

Matched Search Queries Report

This report offers insights into the keywords searched for that lead to paid advertising conversions. This report only includes AdWords data. Its standard information, without altering and creating custom reports based on this report, includes the following:

Visits
Pages per Visit
Average Visit Duration
% New Visits
Bounce Rate
Goal Completions
Revenue

The e-commerce tab of the report offers additional data:

Transactions
Average Value
E-commerce Conversion Rate
Per Visit Value

With this data, I can apply advanced filters, or custom filters, to single out a variety of segments of traffic. I can also look at search query versus landing page or exit page data using the secondary dimension feature. This data is much easier to manipulate.

With the matched search query report, we also have the option of looking at the data by match type. Knowing what types of keywords lead to the most revenue can help you make decisions about how you bid on keywords, as well as what types of keywords are worth the impressions as you build up to creating conversions.

I found it very interesting that in the data sample I looked at, Exact match keywords created more visits and more conversions, but less revenue overall. Broad match keywords created nearly double the revenue, with half the transactions. Phrase match keywords had the fewest visits and conversions, along with the lowest per-visit value.

Pros Cons For Matched Search Queries Report

Below is the list of pros and cons for the Matched Search Queries Report.

Pros

Shows data by match type
Can apply Advanced Segments to this data easily, which is helpful if you’ve built custom segments by demographic or geographic location
Can compare PPC performance against organic performance, overall performance, or just specific segments of traffic fairly easily
Easily see e-commerce data applied to each keyword, and to each match type
View keyword data by landing page

Cons

If you work in Excel to manipulate data, you can’t get all the data out in one dump; you’ll need to dump multiple reports and marry them together in a spreadsheet
You can’t easily see AdGroup level data here; however, you can get it by using a secondary dimension, then export to Excel, then sort and filter to find what I need, but it’s a bit “clunky”

AdWords Keyword Details Report

First, if you’re a beginner, you might not know where to find this information. It’s not something that is front and center, glaring you in the face. I think it should be, but Google doesn’t right now. You’ll find the keyword detail report here:

You can look at this for all campaigns, a single campaign, or a single AdGroup within a campaign. When you’re diagnosing issues with keywords, and landing page issues, this report, in its most drilled-down format, can be very helpful. You can add 24 different data points to this report. I’m not going to list all 24 here, but what this report doesn’t show is going to be pretty apparent in the “cons” section below

I’m a big fan of the data in the Keyword Details report. It’s much more reliable and realistic than just managing PPCs based on the keywords you’re bidding on. In my opinion, PPC managers should spend a great deal of time deep into this data. The keyword you’ve bid on tells only half the story. Because of the great variety of match types, what your ads actually show up for holds much more weight than what you’re bidding on.

I also like the ability to add up to 24 different data points to one report and then have the ability to dump this all out into an Excel spreadsheet. This is much faster than dumping 3 reports and copying and pasting them together as we do in the Match Search Queries report.

Pros Cons For AdWords Keyword Details Report

Here are the pros and cons to the Keyword Details Report from my point of view. If you have other pros and cons, please feel free to share with the group in the comments section below!