Webconsuls Recognized As Google AdWords Certified Partner

Webconsuls has recently been recognized as a Google AdWords Certified Partner.  This certification is given to companies with Pay-Per-Click managers who currently run successful Google AdWords marketing campaigns and have also demonstrated in-depth AdWords knowledge by passing multiple professionals exams created by Google.


Google has created the Certified Partners Program for businesses that are looking to use Google marketing as a business tool to create more business but don’t have the knowledge or time to successfully manage an AdWords campaign.  The Google stamp of approval lets potential businesses know about companies with a high level of expertise and a significant amount of history in the medium.

Our PPC Specialist Keith Hansen is our Certified Google Partner. Before joining our team over four  years ago, Keith was a Yahoo Search Marketing specialist.  He was trained from the inside of the industry, a real advantage in this very competitive marketplace.  As a result of this new certification, Webconsuls and Keith will have access to next-level Google training and resources, as well as $100 in promotional credits to new businesses who are interesting in trying Google AdWords to promote their business goals.


Let us create a PPC/Google AdWords marketing proposal customized to your business goals and web site so you can see how it works and what it brings to the table.  Here is some basics on the value AdWords provides, and why it is so successful:

1. You set the cost- we can work with any budget.
2. Reach 84% of internet users. 
3. Track-able to the penny- ability to know what works and what doesn’t towards optimization. 
4. Complete Control- come up on Google searches for the keywords your target audience is searching. 
5. Find searchers looking for your service/product!

Read more about Pay Per Click campaigns here and feel free to leave a comment or question. Keith will be happy to join the conversation.

Google AdWords- New Interface (in Beta)

Google AdWords is allowing some of its established clients view and actually use it new interface, which is in the beta stage.  This new approach is designed to 'make campaign management faster, clearer, and more intuitive' in their words.  And I must say, that while I am still getting used to it, the new interface is also prettier in a way.

Here are some other notable differences:
1. Custom Graphs on every management page
2. Single tab editing for keywords
3. Bid Editing all on the keyword tab, no longer needing a separate page
4. New Reports- search query and URL reports
5. Specific Content Management tab- for better assessment and custom bidding

It is always good to see the big search engines attempting change and progression when so much of the time complacency and ignorance are the big criticisms of a company that knows it is the biggest dog in the yard.

Has anybody else tried this new interface and found anything super useful or even found bugs to look out for?

Google AdWords- Local Business Ad

The Google AdWords 'local business ad' is one of the forms you may choose to create for your keyword listings. If your business is localized to any extent, this is probably very helpful. To take it a step further, if your business takes 'walk-in' traffic and/or has a brick and mortar presence, then this functionality is a must.

If you have ever done a Google keyword search where your query included a location, you may have seen this type of ad appear. Underneath the sponsored results but before the organic results, a google map will appear with points on the map representing local results for your query. An easy example would be local pizza restaurants- a business-person is traveling and doesn't know the area well. He or she is looking for a good pizza for dinner, but wants one in walking distant to the hotel. That person can look at the map to see the closest match and how to get there.

The ad itself as has a description for a tag line like normal PPC ads. The business web site, physical address and phone number can all be included, making this a very useful tool for businesses in a community.

Need help setting up and creating a local business ad for your Google AdWords account? Don't even have an AdWords account? Either way Webconsuls can help, its what we do.

Smart Positioning- Google AdWords

Google AdWords has in a beta test a bidding tool called Smart Positioning. The function of this tool aims to place your ad in the most cost-effective position each time it's displayed. Here are Google's words in how it works.

How Smart Positioning works.

Here's an overview of what happens when your campaign is opted in to Smart Positioning:
1. Smart Positioning calculates incremental CPC's to evaluate the effects on cost and click through rate that would be associated with a higher position for your ad.
2. Once our system determines the incremental CPC for putting your ad in a higher position, it compares the incremental CPC to your maximum CPC bid.
3. Your ad is placed in the highest position possible, as long as both the actual CPC for that position and the incremental CPC are less than your maximum CPC bid.

So essentially, this Google AdWords tool attempts to give its advertisers the best position given recent click data and the bid landscape. It then actually changes the max CPC in the account to reflect the bid it deems most 'efficient'.

I hate to always be the cynic, but with my history in working with one of the major search engines, I know that 'helpful' tools may or may not be as helpful as they are described, but they always work in the favor of the search engine.

Here are some things that make me question the tool and therefore whether I will use it or not in the long run.
1. Since my bids can be changed without my specific knowledge, I am dissuaded.
2. Because Google is providing this 'help' to multiple advertisers in competition with each other on the same keyword, I can see a problem developing; either the tool won't be very effective or certain advertisers will be favored and/or others hurt.
3. Google only provides help in ways that increase revenue as I stated earlier, so I cannot see this costing me less, but quite the opposite.

In conclusion of this early evaluation of a new bidding tool, albeit before it is in wide use, I prefer a bid to position model where I am paying the least possible for a particular position and I have real expectations on my cost and display position. When things can be open ended, Google can take advantage of the account without having to defend their actions. I know what their defense would be when you finally reach a customer service rep- 'in the terms and conditions it clearly states we can raise your bids'.

I am out.

Google AdWords- The Keyword Tool

Google AdWords does provide a way internally to get suggestions for keywords in your marketplace, its called the Keyword Tool. This tool is found when drilling into the account at the 'keyword' level. This means you have clicked past both the Campaign and Ad Group levels to display your keywords and ads.

This tool is free to AdWords users, so great right. Well in the past not as much because depending on what you gave the tool as a starting term for more suggestions, the tool spit out those suggestions from most general (least useful) to specific. Furthermore, the only information associated with these suggestions was 2 simple horizontal bar graphs detailing, 'advertiser competition' and 'search volume'. So hopefully your are following me in that no numeric data was given whatsoever.

Now Google has expanded the tool to return suggestions with 'approximate search volume' for the last month and 'approximate average search volume' with an actual value. Practically speaking, your campaign has only to spend a predetermined amount any way, so its not as if one regularly finds him or herself adding up search volumes, but it is nice to quantify what Google used to shove into a half inch blue bar.

When it comes down to it, we need to have all the necessary keywords in the PPC account regardless of search volume because we need to target what it is we have deemed necessary in achieving our projected goals. That is, we do the best we can with what we can in the given market with a given budget for a certain business model. But I can say it is significant that Google's Keyword tool is a bit more useful, and frankly it is nice to see Google sharing any real data with us at all. I'm sure tired of getting email replies that might as well have been some fraction of a bar graph. But Google must be listening to the people to some extent in changes as little as this one.

The Notorious Pay Per Click Ad Quality Score and what Google will tell us about it

What is Pay Per Click 'Quality Score' and how is it calculated?
Quality Score is a dynamic variable assigned to each of your keywords. It's calculated using a variety of factors and measures how relevant your keyword is to your ad text and to a user's search query, according to Google.

About Quality Score

Quality Score influences your ads' position on Google. It also partly determines your keywords' minimum bids. In general, the higher your Quality Score, the better your ad position and the lower your minimum bids.

Quality Score helps ensure that only the most relevant ads appear to users on Google and the Google Network. The AdWords system works best for everybody—advertisers, users, publishers, and Google too—when the ads we display match our users' needs as closely as possible. Relevant ads tend to earn more clicks, appear in a higher position, and bring you the most success.
For calculating a keyword's minimum bid (PPC only, not content network or content targeted ads):

• The keyword's historical click-through rate on Google
• The relevance of the keyword to the ads in its ad group
• The quality of your landing page
• Your account history, which is measured by the CTR of all the ads and keywords in your account
• Other relevance factors***

Unfortunately, that is all Google will tell us, partly to avoid people gaming the system and partly to be less accountable. The ability to control earnings this way (in my estimation) will keep Google (and Yahoo in their shadow) from ever completely erasing the veil.

All we can do is play by the rules and put ourselves in the best position to pay the least for the desired position. This includes rotating ads, writing the most direct ad, and having the site back both of those points us with our "call to action", or what we are looking to have the user/searcher do. This must be done clearly, easily and within the top fold of the landing page.

Google AdWords, Automatic Matching and

The following linked article from The Register accuses Google's AdWords, namely the 'automatic matching' feature to be untargeted and an outright waste of funds in most instances.

In short, automatic matching weakens the parameters and rules of defining 'targeted' in PPC terms. If I sell Adidas shoes, the articles explains, I don't want to come up for a search on slippers. That would simply be a waste of money. I would go as far to add that in today's world of short attention spans, anything not directly or literally an Adidas shoe is not targeted enough- let alone slippers.

Pay per click is too reliant on the 'conversions to dollars spent' ratio to allow for any more leniency than exactly what I typed in. Again, attentions spans generally don't allow for it. Additionally, if the search term in question is on the general side where this rule may not directly apply, then the traffic itself will be of the browsing type not the converting (purchasing, buying, targeted lead) type. So in this case my clients probably aren't interested in the 1st place.

But that is a whole different argument in itself.

Search Engine Marketing Newsletter December 2003

Happy Holidays!

In this issue read about

• No change in our rates 
• Google Changes 
• What you can do to help 

No Change in our rates

We have decided not to raise our rates at this time. We thank all of you for your confidence in us and are pleased that we can hold the line on our fees.

One step we took to reduce our workload was to reduce the number of search engines on which we report. This does not affect your positioning on the other engines. We just reduced the reports to the most important engines, which saves us time.

We are also redistributing some of our workload so some of you who were working with Dennis on your positioning may now work with Dick, and vice versa. You can be sure that the change will not impact the effort put into positioning your site.

Google Changes

As you may be aware, Google is constantly revising its methodology for ranking sites. Google made a major change in mid-November to reduce the rankings on certain search terms on sites that it determined to be “over optimized” for search engines. Some of our clients were affected. Google seems now to be modifying just what it did. We are regularly reviewing the literature, talking with other SEO professionals, and using our own experience to determine the proper next steps. If you must quickly obtain high rankings then a paid program on Overture and Google Adwords may be your best alternative. Please call Dennis or Dick for more information.

What you can do to help

The chances that your web site will be indexed by the search engines for a particular term are greatly enhanced if that term appears in the actual text on your web site. Frequently you get position reports from us that list the terms we are trying to position for you. You should look at this list and determine if there are other relevant terms that should be added, and any that can be dropped. For all terms that you want us to work on, please check your site and make sure that the term actually appears on the site. If is does not, try to find the best place for us to add the term or have your designer add the term to the site.

Wishing you a prosperous 2004

Dennis Helfand and Dick Fay

Search Engine Marketing Newsletter August 2003

In this issue we discuss

• The slowdown of Internet traffic caused by the latest virus attacks
• Why Webconsuls is dropping FindWhat 
• Changes at Overture 

EMAIL/INTERNET SLOWDOWN

If you are experiencing a marked decrease in web site traffic and e-mails, it is more than likely due to the Blaster Virus -- also known as MSBlast or LoveSAN. You do not have to have the virus to be impacted. It has caused so much congestion on the Internet and networks that companies have to shut down computers to clean out the Worm. Earthlink and Adelphia report enormous strain on their systems, with many connectivity issues and e-mail problems. Be sure that you regularly update your virus Programs, ( i.e. Norton, Macafee, Firewalls like Zone Alarm, etc.) and run virus scans routinely.

FINDWHAT (Important Change – Please read)

Some of our clients have been subscribing to Findwhat.com for the past year or so. Webconsuls has been tracking results relative to other Pay-Per-Click engines, such as Overture and Google Adwords. While there was a great deal of hype associated with the introduction of Findwhat, we have not seen enough of an impact on web traffic and conversions to justify the costs and time involved.

Accordingly, Webconsuls will no longer participate and manage Findwhat programs. This means that when the current banks are depleted, we will cease adding funds and discontinuing our related third party bidding management software support. If you want to continue participation in Findwhat on your own, passwords are (and have been) available to you. However, our feeling at this point is that your money would be better spent in other Internet opportunity areas.

OVERTURE

During August, Overture Services introduced broader matching options for advertisers, to bring keyword ads to search queries without a specific match.

The two new matching options, Phrase Match and Broad Match, will serve up advertisers' keyword listings, even when their search term is not entered exactly. In this way, Overture hopes to extend its paid listings to ever more searches. Overture will use Phrase and Broad Match listings to fill in when its database does not have regular Standard Match listings for terms. In addition, advertisers can rule out certain queries through listing excluded words. Advertisers can change their bids for each matching level.

The changes are rather involved and not always easy to follow. Over the past week, Webconsuls has updated it third-party bidding software to accommodate these changes. To become more familiar with the changes, there is a tutorial available at the following URL: http://www.content.overture.com/d/USm/adcenter/index.jhtml, then click on “Match Type Tutorial”