Knowledge is the Foundation To Success  

Back in July Google, announced it would provide advertisers a new AdWords reporting segment.  This ad performance segmentation is called “Top vs. Side” and allows pay-per-click (PPC) advertisers to analyze how their ads perform in the top three positions (above the natural search results) compared to the ads that appear on the right side of the results.  This wealth of information will help with Google AdWords campaign optimization and bid management because we can now see the cost-per-conversion data for the different areas of ad space.

For example:  Imagine that I sell blue widgets online.  I have conversion tracking installed and it is working very well.  My average cost-per-conversion is $10.48 but I would like to try to get it under $8 in order to increase my ROI.  Using the Top vs.  Side segment, I can see that when my ads appear in the top three positions, my cost-per-conversion is $7.45 with an average CPC of $0.14 and a conversion rate of 1.93%.  However, when my ads appear on the side, my cost-per-conversion is $13.51 with an average cost-per-click (CPC) of $0.12 and a conversion rate of 0.85%.  In this example, the ads that show in the top positions are clearly performing better than the ones showing on the side.  This data shows me that I need to make sure that my ads are always seen at the top of the page, but how do I do that?

Enter Google’s Top of page bid estimate metric.  This new feature from Google AdWords gives an approximation of what your CPC bid needs to be in order for your ad to consistently appear in the top positions above the organic search results.  Google is quick to point out, however, that setting your bids higher than the top of page bid estimate does NOT guarantee top ad position and that Quality Score is still a factor.  To see your top of page bid estimates, log into your Google AdWords account and choose the Keywords tab.  Click on the Columns button, then on Customize Columns.  From there you can choose from Attributes (where the Est. top page bid button can be checked), Performance and Conversions criteria.  Click on save and see your extra column appear.  Now you know exactly how you need to be bidding to keep your ads in the coveted top positions.

Thank you Google for bringing us yet another update that allows us to better manage Google AdWords accounts for our clients.  We love when new innovations come along and allow us to be more proactive, productive and efficient for our clients – especially when it also helps us optimize.  Keep the new metric improvements coming; we love data!

Google is notorious for providing its users with free web-based products like Gmail, Google Music, Google Docs and the brand new Photovine.  While all these innovative Google products are robust, user friendly and easy to use, the Google tool that I use most frequently for pay-per-click (PPC) account creation and keyword research is the Google Keyword Tool.  This little gem of a tool allows me to plug in a specific list of words or phrases that I think people might be searching on.  Once the list is searched, I  can see keyword data on competition, global and local monthly searches, approximate CPC and lots more.  Google has recently made an update to the free Keyword Tool that was much needed and greatly appreciated.  Users are now allowed to search 2500 keywords and phrases at a time, a HUGE increase from the previous limit of only 100 keywords.

Why is this so great you ask?  Well, I begin my keyword research with root words and descriptive words.  For example, let’s say I am building a new campaign for a company that sells colored hanging file folders.  They have 20 different colors of folders and they can be called hanging file(s), hanging folder(s) or hanging file folder(s).  To begin the keyword research for this project, I would use an excel formula to create every possible variation of each color with each root word (yellow hanging file, yellow hanging files, yellow hanging folder, yellow hanging folders, hanging file yellow, hanging files yellow, hanging folder yellow, hanging folders yellow, etc.).  With 20 colors and 4 root words, this would give me a list of 160 possible search terms to research using Google’s Keyword Tool.  With the old tool I would need to paste the first 100 words in, star the ones with advertiser competition and/or search traffic, then paste the remaining 60 words and do the same thing.  With the new tool I can paste the entire list in one easy step – which is great!

Once I have several hundred keywords starred in the Keyword Tool, there is a “More like these” option which allows me to search for terms that are similar to the ones I have already chosen to star.  In the previous version of Google’s Keyword Tool I would only get search results for the first 100 keywords that I had starred, which was an inconvenience.  I would have to download the list, break it down into groups of 100 keywords and perform multiple searches again and again to get potentially great keyword suggestions for my new account.  With the new version, as long as my starred keywords do not exceed 2500, the Keyword Tool will provide me similar search terms for all of my starred keywords.  Hooray!

Another update to the tool that is worth noting is the “Group by” feature.  By default the Keyword Tool is set to “Group by None” but if you click on the dropdown, you can choose “Similarity to search terms” and the most pertinent words (keywords that include search terms) will show up grouped together below the search terms, but above the related keyword suggestions.  This is great for weeding through the hundreds of irrelevant keywords that the Keyword Tool often provides.

All in all, the Google Keyword Tool is getting better each and every time there is an update.  I am excited to see how it will progress through the rest of this year and beyond.  Keep up the good work Google!

DoubleClick released their 2010 Display Benchmarks that reveal valuable insight into the Google AdWords Display Network (GDN).  This collection of reports provides tremendous detail as to how various ad types and sizes perform on the GDN.  I am going to point out some of the highlights, but please feel free to review the entire report at Google.

RESPONSE RATE BENCHMARKS

2010 Distribution of Impressions by Creative Type:

Flash – 54%
Image – 28%
Rich Media
- in-Page/Non-Video – 10%
- in-Page/Video – 3%
- Expandable/Video – 3%
- Expandable/Non-Video – 2%

CTR by Creative Size:

Google provides detailed information regarding the performance of all ad sizes, but there is no one ad size or type that seems to be superior to all others.  However, as may be expected, the larger sized ads do tend to see a slightly higher click-through-rate (CTR).

CTR by Creative Type:

Flash Ads – 0.09%
Image Ads – 0.09%
Rich Media
- in-Page/Non-Video – 0.11%
- in-Page/Video – 0.08%
- Expandable/Video – 0.09%
- Expandable/Non-Video – 0.09%

Based on reviewing CTRs alone, it appears there is no need for advertisers to spend a lot of money on fancy, interactive flash or rich media ads (for example, ads that expand when users click or roll over and there are extensive possibilities for interactive content, such as HD video or even the ability to click to make a phone call).  However, there is more to this story.

RICH MEDIA BENCHMARKS

When reviewing ad performance, CTRs alone do not tell the entire story.  Ultimately, an ad’s cost-per-conversion is the most important variable in determining success, but Google does not provide that information.  It is important to note that rich media formats introduce another variable that needs to be considered, and this is called the Interaction Rate.  According to DoubleClick, an interaction is uniquely counted only once per impression and is captured when the user does one or more of the following:

- Mouses over the ad for 1 continuous second
- Clicks an Exit link
- Makes the ad display in Full Screen mode
- Expands the ad

Though not all of these actions may appear thrilling, they do represent some form of interaction with advertiser ads.  Rich media ads receive Interaction Rates over 2% on the GDN.  Though this number may sound low, it is staggering compared to a 0.09% CTR.  So even though rich media ads tend to receive the same CTRs as other ad formats, each rich media ad clicked on also generates about 22 additional interactions.  In fact, larger half page rich media ads saw interaction rates over 3.5% in 2010.  Interaction does not necessarily result in conversions, but it certainly helps ensure users are at least seeing your message.

The GDN has proven to be a valuable marketplace for many advertisers.  Are you taking advantage?