When it comes to staying on top of the ever-changing world of Pay Per Click it is nearly impossible to keep up to date on the latest PPC news, findings, features, and other PPC paraphernalia. There are many vehicles great PPC information can be found in, but perhaps the greatest two resources are blog posts and Twitter updates from fellow PPC folk. These two types of resources not only provide advice and experience from real life PPC’ers (unlike newspaper articles from say the New York Times, which is still worthwhile in its own right) but they give a sense of humanity behind them thus making the information provided within each resource that much better.

Imagine for a second reading a blog post that has no personality and is simply dribble talking about the latest greatest AdWords extension. Sure you’re interested but is it really going to keep your attention long enough to get the writer’s thoughts, ideas, experience? Probably not. Compare this to a blog post from Alex Cohen or Brad Geddes and immediately you’ll see a difference and be more likely to take that information and apply it to your own PPC work.

Twitter vs Blogs

Let’s face it, PPC managers usually have limited time to spend on activities outside of their PPC work. This is why following PPC experts on Twitter is better than relying solely on blog posts for PPC information in my opinion. My opinion is based off of the following reasons:

• Twitter is real time, blog posts take time to write, optimize and post.
• You can have actual conversations on Twitter compared to only commenting back and forth on blog posts (if the author approves your comment).
• Feedback and comments from a wide range of Twitter folk can happen in a matter of minutes compared to reading endless comments on a blog post.
• Unless you’re subscribed to blogs, Twitter delivers the blog posts to you via PPC tweets rather than you having to search for them or be completely oblivious to their existence.
• Typically PPC Twitter folk only tweet relevant topics and posts so you’re only reading those blogs most likely to be of high interest to you and not those that are the same old story just on a different day.
• Twitter allows you to develop relationships with fellow PPC’ers, thus creating a lasting experience compared to a typical one time deal if you comment on a fellow PPC person’s blog post.

To summarize, following PPC folk on Twitter incorporates the blog posts themselves but at a greater scale of relevancy due to Twitter’ers (actual word? It is now.) typically tweeting only those posts that are interesting, relevant and important. In addition, Twitter allows for a greater sense of interaction and relationship building in comparison to simply commenting on a blog post. This is why I feel Twitter is a greater resource for PPC news compared to just reading blog posts.

My Dirty Dozen of PPC Twitter Folk

Photo Courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

I follow a bunch of PPC folk on Twitter (just check out my list of those I follow sometime), but there is a certain set of individuals who I find to contribute some of the most thought provoking, relevant, and highly important information in the PPC realm. So without further ado, my dirty dozen PPC Twitter folk are in no particular order…

• Alex Cohen
• Robert Brady
• David Szetela
• Richard Fergie
• Brad Geddes
• Paul Broomfield
• John Lee
• Melissa Mackey
• Matt Umbro
• Peter Gould
• Amelia Dawson
• Andrew Goodman
• Andy Groller (self-less plug LOL)

Although there are a few individuals that weren’t in my dirty dozen, please don’t think I value your information and tweets any less.

For those who aren’t following these individuals, you should really check out what they say on a daily and weekly basis when it comes to PPC because in all honesty these PPC experts provide perhaps the most up to date, highly relevant and best insight and interpretations of PPC across the entire world of Pay Per Click.

Do you think I’m missing someone from my dirty dozen? What are your thoughts when it comes to attaining PPC news and information? Let me know by leaving your comments, even if it does go against the basic premise of this blog post.

This quick case illustrates how even a major player in clothes retailing, Eddie Bauer, can make some pretty major gaffes in its Pay per click marketing and site usability – and how the two go hand in hand on a successful site.

I’m just a bit taller, with a bit of a paunch, so when I buy shirts, I need a shirt made for taller men.  Such sizes are becoming more common, but still, it can be a bit difficult to purchase clothing in those sizes. So I hit Google with the search phrase, “tall men’s clothing”.  The Eddie Bauer site comes up at the bottom of the paid results on the right column.

I click.

The resulting page has NOTHING to do with tall men’s clothing.

I look around.  There is a link on the bottom, “Shop Men, Men’s Big & Tall”.  I click.

The resulting page has a series of navigation items, “Tall, Up to XXXL, Long Rise, Short Inseam”.  Clicking on any of those provides a pop-up that EXPLAINS those terms.  A major link on the bottom says “find your size in the style you want” – which provides a popup with a size chart.

I’m about to give up.  But wait, there is a link to “men” on top – with a dropdown item that says “shop by fit”.  But no; nothing on that page with Big and Tall.

I give up.

Very simple: The landing page should have brought the user to relevant content. 

This is one of the many illustrations of why paid PPC management pays for itself. Besides increasing the conversion rate, a good PPC manager (yes, like the DragonSearch team!) will identify a larger portfolio of long tail key phrases, insure that WHERE the ads are showing are the most effective, and help to make sure customers have a better experience.

Post Script

By the way; Eddie Bauer isn’t the only culprit. 

• Land’ End – same problem as Eddie Bauer – no special landing page
• Thomas Dean – landing page had ONE item on it. And it was big, not tall.

A/B testing is an established procedure to increase traffic, though it’s not as simple as it may seem. It’s more than just testing two or more versions of websites or ads.  While there is almost an endless amount of A/B tests for any given project, it also has some limits.  A/B testing should, by all means, be considered an actual experiment. It’s not just throwing two versions of a test at the wall to see which one sticks.

Starting up

When starting an A/B test, establish your control and your baseline for whatever you’re testing.  It is important also to only make one change to your baseline test versus your control.  More than one change makes it impossible to conclude which adjustment actually makes a difference.  Never assume a seemingly ambiguous change will bring ambiguous results. A simple change of fonts, colors, layout, images and their positions, borders, or design (to name just a few) can noticeably sway test results. A simple change to any one aspect can bring significant change.  This is the limit of A/B testing though; only one slight improvement can be made incrementally, one at a time, per testing period.

Getting a new website against A/B testing your current website

When a business wants to overhaul their website, it would change the entire site all at the same time for that “fresh, new look.”  However I would argue that A/B testing is a more fruitful means of changing a website.  By changing everything simultaneously we cannot garner any information about visitors’ preferences.  On the other hand, by testing one variable at a time, we can find out what is most effective and have a tried and true site instead of just something new-looking.  While there is value to a quick new look and design, there is more value in actual results.

A/B testing is endless

Remember too, that A/B testing is vulnerable to recent trends.  Testing results can be affected much in the same way popular movie characters affect the most popular baby names.  Anything can set off a trend which means anything can affect testing results.  A good example is if a vacuum company has a tornado as its logo.  They would want to hide their logo if a destructive tornado makes a major news story.  The image would most likely have a negative effect on the website.  This is why it’s important to always be testing.  One must also be committed to true scientific experimentation. It is necessary to keep a log of the changes to specific variables to identify what has been tested against what and all of the results.  It is true that effective A/B testing is not for the easily annoyed or impatient. You can test almost everything about a page, but that would be a waste of time.  Stick to the more obvious changes as mentioned above.  The more testing that is done, the more expertise is gained.

Let me be the first to say it’s been a while since my last blog post, but to my defense I was on vacation in Mexico and thankfully did not have any random PPC thoughts during that time.

Anway, on Tuesday Google announced a new AdWords feature that could eventually become a “game changer” in the realm of PPC: AdWords Campaign Experiments. This blog post on the Inside AdWords blog provides some very basic information on what exactly Adwords Campaign Experiments is, but the best way to get a feel for how powerful this feature could possibly be for improving your campaigns can be found here. It is important to note that this feature is currently limited to only those advertisers who submit a form with their Client ID, not MCC.

An Overview of AdWords Campaign Experiments

Have you ever wondered what effect changing your Max CPC for a single keyword would have on clicks, click through rate, average position, and conversions while avoiding possible seasonality issues or other “shocks” that may affect performance from week to week and month to month?

Well ladies and gentleman, Google has taken a giant step towards helping you answer this burning question. Essentially, AdWords Campaign Experiments allows you test changes in keyword level bids, new keywords, and new placements during the same time period as your current settings. For a more in-depth explanation here are three examples:

Testing Keyword Level Bids

Prior to AdWords Campaign Experiments, an advertiser would be able to utilize a keyword with only one keyword level bid. In order to test the effect raising or lowering a keyword level bid had on conversions, clicks, and other statistics the advertiser had to change the bid and wait until enough data was collected to compare the two time periods. The important portion of this is to note the test was conducted over two different time periods. This means various factors such as seasonality, decrease in demand, or other factors could have a serious impact on your test.

AdWords Campaign Experiments creates a so-called “apples to apples” test. For each keyword they choose, an advertiser can use a control keyword level bid and experimental keyword level bid. As searches are conducted and the keyword is triggered, Google will determine which bid to utilize when displaying an ad. At the end of the time period in which you to choose to run the experiment, Google will have displayed ads utilizing each bid at the ratio you chose when setting up the experiment. That’s right; you control the ratio of your experiment whether it’s 50/50 or 70/30 and how long the experiment runs.

At the end of the experiment, Google will provide data suggesting whether the test was statistically significant for various statistics such as clicks, click through rate, and conversions. In essence, Google is providing you with crucial information concerning whether you should continue using the control bid or start using the experimental bid on an ongoing basis.

Testing New Keywords and Placements

Keyword research is an ongoing task for PPC managers because there are always untapped keywords that present tremendous opportunities for a client. When these keywords are added, PPC managers monitor performance to ensure they are performing well but sometimes the component of when these keywords were added gets lost in the shuffle. AdWords Campaign Experiments basically removes this time component from the equation and allows you to see the effect these additions have on overall performance over a set period of time.

For example, I’m currently only using the keyword “internet marketing company” in an ad group but over 1,000 keywords across all active campaigns. I want to see what adding the keywords “online marketing company”, “internet marketing agency”, and “online marketing firm” has on overall performance. Since I’m managing a ton of keywords, I could forget not only to check the performance of these additions but also when they were added. To avoid this, I can set up an AdWords campaign experiment for testing these specific keywords over two months. By setting up an experiment, I will know when these keywords were added, how long they’ve been running, and more importantly what impact they are having on overall performance.

Testing Ad Groups

With Ad Group Experiments, an advertiser is basically testing the effect changes have on ad group performance rather than campaign performance. If I wanted to see the effect adding a new keyword to a pre-existing ad group would have, this is the type of experiment I would conduct. Also, if I’m currently utilizing a content network campaign with only text ads and want to see the effect adding display ads would have on an ad group’s performance, I would conduct an ad group experiment. The only drawback I’m interpreting from the video tutorials (and which I may be wrong on) is that an advertiser will not receive that same data/information showing if the test was statistically significant as they would if they conducted a campaign experiment.

Lingering Questions

Some questions definitely popped into my brain while learning more about AdWords Campaign Experiments.

• Can only 1 experiment be performed at a time? If I want to conduct 1 test for 30 days and another for 90 days, do I have to wait until one of these tests has already been conducted? Viewing the campaign settings within the tutorial videos suggests that only 1 experiment can be run at a time but I’m not sure on this one.
• How is this data going to look in Google Analytics? Do I need to give each keyword its own unique URL in order to identify it? For example, if you currently look at the “Clicks” tab in Google Analytics each keyword has its own cost data. If you perform an experiment on a keyword using multiple bids, is Google Analytics now going to display multiple versions of this keyword within this tab or lump them all into one?
• Is the same limit of 100 active ad groups in a campaign still going to be in place with this encouragement to create multiple ad groups for experimental purposes?
• How is quality score determined for new experimental ad groups? If I want to test 2 ad groups that will use 3 out of 4 identical keywords, will the quality score of keywords in the control group be higher than the experimental group due to past history? If so, this affects ad rank and a host of other factors thus making the experiment somewhat pointless. This is one burning question I need Google to answer.

Final Thoughts

As said, AdWords Campaign Experiments has the potential to truly be a PPC “game changer”. Not only does it provide lots of additional testing in an AdWords account but it also opens the door to developing even more granular tests. In addition, Google is basically offering a free feature that plenty of 3^rd party bid management tools (which you have to pay for) include in their platforms. Is Google working towards offering more features bid management tools do for free? I’m not sure about that slippery slope, but it does make an advertiser who has considered purchasing a bid management tool really look closer at whether it’s a good investment at this time.

In any case, AdWords Campaign Experiments is fresh off the presses resulting in even more feedback, ideas, and questions to likely arise once more people have this new feature enabled in at least one of their accounts. Look for future posts concerning setting up experiments once I have an account that uses AdWords Campaign Experiments.

Stay up to date on the latest online marketing news by subscribing to DragonSearch’s RSS feed, following us on Twitter, or becoming a fan on Facebook. Also, you can follow me on Twitter @Andy_G_PPC.

A few weeks ago, Google finally announced the release of its new rigorous certification program through various emails and this blog post. My response to this? It’s about time.

There are too many individuals and some agencies out there that simply pass the old basic AdWords certification test and think they can perform wonders on any PPC account. Well guess what, it takes more than just passing a basic test to have a firm grasp on the ins and outs of an AdWords account and more so strategizing towards improving performance based off of data from the account in question. Am I saying I’m all-knowing when it comes to PPC? Absolutely not and I don’t think I will ever be able to say that because of the ever changing facets and game that is PPC.

Getting back to this new certification program, Google has gone a few steps further in letting potential advertisers know about the potential quality of those individuals and agencies they are looking to for possible AdWords management and assistance. Individuals and agencies can still be AdWords qualified, but through some advanced exams those individuals and more specifically agencies can become AdWords Certified Partners.

What is an AdWords Certified Partner?

Only companies/agencies can achieve the status of AdWords Certified Partners at this point in time, whereas specific people can become Individually Qualified. It is important to note that agencies need Individually Qualified employees in order to become Certified Partners.

In essence, becoming an AdWords Certified Partner demonstrates to businesses looking for SEM/PPC help that you are very knowledgeable about AdWords management and have passed what has now become more rigorous testing from Google which in turn should produce more qualified PPC managers and agencies. There are several benefits to becoming an AdWords Certified Partner too.

• The individual or company can setup a Professional Profile page that can be accessed by possible businesses searching on the “newly” released Google Partner Search page. I say “newly” because this feature has been out for some time just not as accessible as it is now to the general public.
• A new unique badge to display on your website and marketing materials that separates your company from other agencies and individuals that have only passed the fundamental AdWords exam and are displaying the older AdWords Qualified Company badge.
• Qualified members receive AdWords promotional coupons worth $100 each that can be used only for new accounts. Although it’s fairly small, these promotional coupons can provide incentive to some smaller businesses that may be hesitant to begin advertising via AdWords.
• The ability to apply for preferred pricing on AdWords API costs on this website.
• For Individually Qualifed people, a nice little printable certificate that you can proudly frame, put on your desk, and point to whenever someone questions your common sense or IQ. The perfect tool for those funny and friendly office jokes and arguments.

How do I become an AdWords Certified Partner?

The requirements for becoming an AdWords Certified Partner are fairly simple and straightforward. The company must have:

• A billing and mailing address in countries where qualification is available.
• Have a managed spend of at least $10,000 over 90 days. If you have a couple accounts in your MCC, this is usually not a problem.
• Have at least 1 Individually Qualified employee which I’ll get into in a second.
• Agree to the terms and conditions of the program.

If your company meets these requirements, your new shiny badge will be available for you to proudly display.

How do I become an AdWords Qualified Individual?

Just like the requirements for becoming an AdWords Certified Partner, meeting the criteria for becoming a Qualified Individual is even simpler. To become a Qualified Individual the person must do the following:

• Pass the AdWords Fundamental Exam.
• Pass at least one of the available advanced exams which include:
  • Search Advertising Advanced
  • Display Advertising
  • Reporting & Analysis Advanced
• Agree to the terms and conditions of the program.

Meet these requirements and you’ll get the previously mentioned certificate and a sense of pride that allows you to puff your chest out.

A Small Secret

I must confess that I have a little secret to tell… I participated in the beta testing for a fair portion of these new tests. Due to confidentiality, I could not say this prior to the unveiling of the new program and even now I probably need to be careful in what I talk about regarding these tests. Regardless, the initial round of tests I took consisted of more questions than what is currently being utilized in the available exams while also including a slightly larger range of topics. This is sort of expected though considering that in order to test the test, a larger sampling of possible questions and material needs to be covered.

What made this initial testing slightly more difficult? The fact that one of the beta rounds required an entire day of testing due to covering multiple tests. I can handle a PPC overload and don’t mind taking tests, but when you’re trying to comprehend the ins and outs of AdWords for about 6 or 7 hours it can get tiring. All of that aside, the people of Google’s New York City headquarters (where I went for the betas) were simply awesome in not only helpfulness and communication but also just socializing. Comfort can definitely go a long way when it comes to successful testing and Google did a fabulous job without a doubt.

Brief Closing

“Badges? We don’t need no stinkin’ badges!”

Guess what PPC’ers, if you want to show potential and current clients how knowledgeable you are in comparison to the rest of the PPC world, one of these new badges can go a long way in displaying that to people. For the PPC industry, the quote should probably be changed to:

“Badges? How do I get me one of those stinkin’ Google badges!”

Just the other day Google made two announcements regarding Google Analytics:
1. The launch of its Google Analytics Apps Gallery
2. The soon to be released new AdWords reports in Google Analytics

Although on the surface these two announcements seem relatively small to say Google Remarketing or Search Funnels, both could have relatively long term impacts on the analysis of PPC and traffic in general.

Google Analytics Apps Gallery

The Apps Gallery, found here, is basically a list of Google Analytics apps created by developers that can be integrated into other various software packages and platforms.  For example, the Analyticator for WordPress provides the necessary code to enable Google Analytics on any WordPress blog while Excellent Analytics provides an Excel plug-in allowing the importation of analytics data into a spreadsheet.

So far I have not been overly enthused by any of the current apps in the gallery. Plus only a few of the apps are free at this time. I’m sure as time progresses many more apps will be developed, but for right now I’d suggest just taking a browse through the current gallery and see if anything wets your whistle.

New AdWords Reports in Google Analytics

The other announcement is specifically tied into the AdWords reports within Google Analytics. Some of you may have noticed that the Site Usage tab within Analytics is now displaying total goal completions and revenue (if your account is setup for ecommerce). I first noticed these changes last week, but this announcement goes much farther.

A few of the upcoming reports are:

- Data by match type (unless you have manually tagged your URLs)

- Days and Hours report

- Data by destination URL

- Actual search queries data

Personally speaking, I’ve been anxiously hoping that Google Analytics would finally come to a point where match types would be differentiated and not combined within various reports. Finally that day has (or at least will) come. In addition, you usually had to create custom reports to view data by day or hour in the past so making this data readily available right off the bat will definitely cut down on some management time.

These report releases are going to happen relatively slow (I haven’t come across any yet), but I cannot wait until they are finally rolled out into at least 1 of the Google Analytics accounts to which I have access.

Dear Google,

We need to have a little chat about this whole personalization thing. You should know, I have never given you a hard time or tried to buck your authorta.  I never doubted your supreme powers to give me exactly what I wanted, when I wanted it. In truth, even when you failed to supply me with the search results I had wanted, I blamed myself for not being specific enough to you when I typed in my query. It was never, you , oh Google. You were always in my heart. You had me at “enter”.

Ah, Google…when the social search results, let me hanging; I figure it was still in development and blamed others for not having Google Profiles so you could more easily tell me exactly what all my online friends were up to. When Buzz was introduced, I saw it as a hearty attempt at a real time interface all your own. And even at SMX in the fall of 2009, when that keynote speaker on a panel went off about how much he hated your search personalization; I thought him over dramatic and understood that your only desire was to serve our never ending searches better.

Google, I have never said one word against you all these years when anytime I did any kind of adoption research, I was peppered with paid search results that were from my mortal enemies; the agencies, lawyers and facilitators that profited from adoption. I never blamed you for not understanding that I would be angered by such ads. I didn’t expect you to know my intentions.

But, Today,  You Went Too Far Google

I saw today, for the first time, that there was a subtle ad in my Gmail inbox. Maybe you have been doing this for years and I never bothered to notice until now, but notice I did. I am not too happy, Goggle, I am not too happy.

 This is what it said:

“Affordable Surrogacy – www.surrogatemothersolutions.com – Need a surrogate mother? Most affordable agency fee on-line”

I wanted to understand what the heck you thought you were doing putting this awful ad so close and in such a personal space. So I followed the tiny little link by the ad that said ” about these ads” and found myself on one of your handy dandy help pages:

Until now, the ads you’ve seen next to a message were picked based on the content of that message only. For example, if you’re looking at a confirmation email from a hotel in Chicago, you might see ads about flights, restaurants or other things relevant to your trip to Chicago.

But sometimes, the ads related to a particular message aren’t good enough. Rather than show less relevant ads, Gmail can now instantaneously serve ads based on another recent message on the same page of your inbox, helping make the ads more relevant to you. For example, if your friend sends you a message to say happy birthday, but there aren’t any good ads to show related to birthdays, you might see ads related to another message in your inbox instead — like flights to Chicago.

Like Surrogacy, when there are no good ads for adoption.

Shall we make this perfectly clear?

Just because I get tons of email from places with “adoption” someplace in the URL, or you deliver to me alerts everyday about ” birthmothers, adoption and adoptees”; does NOT mean that in my MAILBOX I want to see ads promoting reproductive exploitation! I do not want to be asked if I would like to violate another human being  and make then sacrifice their own genetic lineage to fulfill my own needs.  I would never use my ability to fork over large sums of cash to a someone younger, underprivileged and more venerable person than I in order to unfairly influence them to do my bidding.  I find surrogacy to be even more frightening than adoption.

So Google, You Don’t Know Me

If you knew me then you would know that I feel violated having that kind of message thrown at me in my private area. You would know that I don’t really enjoy seeing the blatant messages that all I work gains still  from the needless separations of mothers and children. If you really knew me, Google, you would not hurt me so.

What Goggle Thinks I care About

Half the help page is you reassuring people that you have not read out mail. I almost wish you had! Then at least you would have had more of a clue! You know, Google, if you respected me like I do you, then you would have some understanding about who the heck I really am. So I wonder: who do you think I am? What do you think I am interested in Google? I decide to look into that and you give me these ad:

• Up to the challenge? – www.kidspeace.org/foster.aspx – Become a KidsPeace foster parent Give a child a chance
• Hiking With A Baby? – www.REI.com – REI has ergonomic packs designed for junior’s comfort…and yours!
• AARP 50+ Auto Insurance – AARP.TheHartford.com – Get an AARP Auto Insurance Quote. You Could Save $402 in Minutes! ( about 8 times)
• Childrens Book Publisher – www.xlibris.com – Get A Book Publishing Guide Mailed To Your doorstep At No Cost.
• Yogurt Snacks for Kids – www.Yoplait.com/Kids – Yoplait® Kids – 6 Yummy Flavors A Good source of Calcium.
• Looking To Publish Book? – www.ChooseYourPublisher.com – Find A Book Publishing Company To Publish Your Book! Free Guides.
• Boden USA™ Sale – www.bodenusa.com – Children’s Clothes For Everyday. Available To Buy Online Now.
• Foster Care Worker Career – www.Phoenix-Human-Services.com – A Foster Care Worker Career Is Possible W/ A Phoenix Univ. Degree

There was also something else about learning Korean, and another book publisher, cute hairstyles, and of course, surrogacy.  Ok, so you think I am somewhat vain and over 50 want to be book publisher,  into children and  desperate for a another baby so thinking about adopting from Korea? 

I say again;  Google, you don’t know me.  

I would like the opportunity, Oh mighty Google, to let you know a little bit more about my personal interests and opt out of some of those ads. The book publishing, yogurt and cute hairstyles can stay, but the rest are just insulting when you think about how long we have been together. Don’t pretend that you know me.  

You can’t say that you are getting personal unless you also allow me to do the same. There is already so much inequality in our relationship Google. I never completely understand what makes you tick. You are always so aloof and secretive. You keep me guessing, but still I am hanging on.

And then, you hurt me like this.   

If you are going to give me those ads in my Gmail box, then you had better either give me choice to opt out of some that I just hate or you better learn who I am and what I want and my intent much better. I hate to say it, but Facebook already does that for me. Facebook cares when I find an ad offensive. I am not trying to be cruel, but you have to wonder what is up when some young thing like Facebook gets it and you, Google, do not.

Unlike my last random PPC related thought a few weeks ago about displaying multiple ads on a single Google search page, this week’s random moment is a little more deep and insightful.

How does Google determine which ad to display on overlapping keywords and am I being punished for the lack of common sense of other advertisers who use purely generalized or highly competitive keywords?

To clarify a little better, I want to use a real estate keyword themed example that should give an idea on what exactly I mean by the previous statement.

There are many competitive real estate themed keywords on Google, but none perhaps as competitive as “nyc apartments”, which also is a phrase found within many other keywords including “downtown nyc apartments”. So how exactly does Google determine which ad or keyword is triggered, if both of the previous keywords are being used in the same campaign, for the search query “downtown nyc apartments” since it contains both phrases? This page in the AdWords help center reveals the answer.

In order to determine how Google will select the appropriate keyword, you basically have to work your way through all of the scenarios to see what will happen. This almost reminds me of those “choose your own adventure books” from my childhood, but that’s beside the point. Sticking with this example of “nyc apartments” and “downtown nyc apartments”, Google will give preference to “downtown nyc apartments” because it matches the search query exactly.

This is all fine and dandy, but what if I’m only using “downtown nyc apartments” and all of the other advertisers are only using “nyc apartments” because they don’t see the benefit of using longer tailed keywords which typically have more relevance, are less competitive and thus less costly. If someone searches for “downtown nyc apartments”, I’m essentially competing against those advertisers only using “nyc apartments”. Theoretically, am I not going into a more competitive auction and likely paying more for this click?

I posed this scenario to AdWords Specialist Sarah N. yesterday in the chat excerpt below. Before reading I feel it is very important to say Sarah N. answered my questions beautifully. Keep up the good work Google in hiring very knowledgeable and personable people!

Andy: Not sure if (the Google help center article mentioned previously) answers this one though… sticking with my example, if I’m using the keyword “downtown nyc apartments” only and the search is “downtown nyc apartments”, I’m also essentially competing with other advertisers that are using only “nyc apartments”, correct? In addition, I understand that particular auction is unique but isn’t there a greater cost incurred on my part because of the staunch competition on highly used keywords such as “nyc apartments”?

Sarah N.: I see what you mean, with regards to other competitor’s keywords.  In that case, it will be based on your bid and your quality score.  Since ‘nyc apartments’ is a more general term, your competition will have to bid more, I assume.  In that case it will come down to the quality score in combination with your bid.  On the other hand, your keyword will take some priority over your competitor’s keyword of just ‘nyc apartments’ because ‘downtown nyc apartments’ is that much more relevant to the user.  Does that make sense?

Andy: It does, but what does that translate into in regards to CPC? This potentially means because other advertisers may not use more specific keywords than a rather generalized phrase such as “nyc apartments”, I’m essentially paying the price for their inabilities? Not sure how else to word this without being so blunt.

Sarah N.: Sure, I understand what you mean.  I’ll explain further…

Andy: Thanks

Sarah N.: So the issue here is that, in reality, yours and your competitor’s keywords will both be eligible to enter the auction for that particular query of “downtown nyc apartments.”  Your keyword will have a slight advantage in that particular quality score evaluation because of the exact match.  From there, your ad rank is determined by quality score and your bid.  Maybe some of your competitor’s have higher quality scores than you because of other factors involved in determining quality score, and in that case, they wouldn’t have to bid as high as you for that ad rank.

Andy: In which case, I’d have to pay a higher CPC to achieve a similar position that would be achieved if only advertiser’s using “downtown nyc apartments” would be in the auction compared to this example, right?

Sarah N.: Well it depends on the historical click through rate of that particular keyword.  If their historical CTR on Google.com is very high, thus achieving a very high quality score, then you would have to pay more if your quality score is lower.

Sarah N.: The thing is that with such a popular search term, it’s going to be even harder to achieve a high quality score because the competition is so extreme.

Sarah N.: It should be working in your favor to be using the more specific keyword, in this example.

Let me reiterate; AdWords Specialist Sarah N. explained this entire concept and line of thinking beautifully. Her last statement also reinforces the fact longer tailed keywords, in most situations, are favored and thus better than using more generalized keywords. This isn’t exactly something new to most PPC people, but it should be viewed as another reinforcement.

Unlike most of my other blog posts, this one will be very brief because I don’t have any other real information beyond what I am about to share with you. That said, I simply couldn’t wait to share the following opportunity.

Google is releasing a new ad extension that allows for videos to display within high performing ads. It is important to note right away that this extension is in limited beta right now so I doubt there are many advertisers using this new feature beyond movie companies and other relevant industries. Below is an example that I just found for the upcoming release of The Losers.

How will Video Extensions work?

Again, I don’t have any information at this time beyond what I’ve found on the Google Ad Innovations website here; however I can take some educated guesses from what I’ve seen in several examples so far.

First off, the video will only run if the user hits the “+” box within the ad. Once the ad has been expanded, the video automatically begins to play. No cost is incurred until the video reaches the 10 second mark. Once a video has reached this point, a cost is incurred based off of the max CPC bid you set for the keywords associated with these ads. If the user decides to visit your website after watching the video, no extra cost is incurred.

All of this brings up several highly relevant questions:

• Are video extensions similar to site link extensions in that the ad must meet a very high quality threshold and display in the #1 position? In addition, are you only ever going to see video extension when a branded search is conducted?
• Is there a time limit to the video? The Losers example displayed above had a video length of 2:32 minutes so I doubt there is a very significant limitation in video length.
• Are there limitations on what types of videos can be used within ads? I can see advertisers basically putting their TV commercials within AdWords ads in the near future and honestly, I don’t blame them. Instead of paying $1 million for a TV commercial, I could pay $2.50 per click instead… as long as the user expands the ad to display the video. In any event, think of the possibilities!

I currently have a request in to our Google representatives for more information concerning video extensions so once I receive more information, I’ll be sure to post a follow-up to this blog post.

What is Promoted Tweets and How Do They Work?

Twitter officially launched its advertising platform yesterday titled Promoted Tweets along with a short little FAQ page in the Twitter Help Center here. With Promoted Tweets, advertisers can bid on keywords that are searched within Twitter so that tweets put forth by these advertisers will appear at the top of the search results. Essentially, advertisers are highlighting their Tweets.  For right now, Promoted Tweets is only available to select big-name advertisers including Starbucks, Best Buy, and Virgin America.

To many self-proclaimed “Social Media Gurus”, advertising on Twitter can be taken one of two ways:

1. PPC is now infringing on our realm
2. Finally I can be taken seriously when I say Twitter is having an impact on your business’s marketing

In all honesty I was very skeptical and still am of the opportunities Promoted Tweets offers a business. On one hand it seems like a great opportunity for brand reputation management while on the other it could be a complete waste of time and money if you are not a big name brand.  Through all of this, I have come to the realization that Promoted Tweets can only truly become effective if it is tied into your social media marketing mix. By this I mean if your social media department, person, or whomever is pushing an event, sale, or new release in Twitter through different hashtags, links, and other “Twitter stuff”, then using Promoted Tweets could present a great opportunity to expand your voice.

Here’s an example to better demonstrate what I mean:

DragonSearch’s social media department has been pushing a PPC conference in Twitter for several weeks using the hashtags #dragonsearch and #ppcconference while also building up a significant following. Because of this buildup in followers and awareness, use of Promoted Tweets for some previous Tweets dealing with the conference could increase both awareness and conversions such as signing up to attend the conference. However, if DragonSearch has done a horrible job and has no brand awareness what is the point of Promoted Tweets?

Sure you could bid on some generalized keywords but here’s the problem: pricing for Promoted Tweets is currently CPM based which means you’re paying on an impression basis and not by actual clicks. If DragonSearch bid on “PPC event” or “PPC conference”, think of how many impressions that could result in compared to the amount of clicks? I have a feeling Promoted Tweets will eventually become CPC based in terms of pricing, but until then very careful consideration and research should be put into what keywords should be used.

Going beyond this example, Promoted Tweets could be an excellent method of addressing and improving brand reputation. If I’m Best Buy and see there is a lot of backlash against the Geek Squad, then why wouldn’t I want to promote a tweet about the culture and benefits of the Geek Squad when someone searches on “Geek Squad” or “Best Buy”?

Pros

1. Excellent tool for brand reputation and promoting events, sales, etc. that have already built up some awareness and following so Twitter users are already searching for them. Think of the build up and awareness produced prior to the launch of the iPad as an example.
2. Promoted Tweets can only be tweets that have previously been tweeted meaning there is a separation between “organic tweets” and “paid tweets”. Essentially, you’re not paying for Tweets that followers would otherwise see in their normal Twitter streams.

Cons

1. Pricing is CPM based right now.
2. Tracking performance of Promoted Tweets; will there be an analytics or reporting tool within Twitter that shows impression and click data? If so, how do you then parlay that into a metric of success if your promoted link does not go directly to your website?
3. Promoted Tweets blend in and can be very easily overlooked (see example below) compared to Google with the sponsored links highlighted in yellow or Facebook ads being on the right column of a user’s profile.

A Little Unfounded Data

According to this excellent article put forth by Greg Sterling at Search Engine Land, Dick Costolo the COO of Twitter says the site  has “huge” search volume while citing no specific numbers. Hmm, where’d you pull that one from Mr. Costolo? According to comScore’s search rankings list in this same article, Twitter didn’t make the cut meaning either comScore is reporting inaccurate information or Twitter is putting out some inaccurate information. I think I’ll side with comScore on this one.

Conclusion

Promoted Tweets could present excellent opportunities depending on the strategy you wish to employ. If you’re looking to increase sales directly from Twitter, you should probably think very hard about that idea again. On the other hand, if you’re looking to improve your business’s reputation or promote a new product, sale, or event that already has some traction in terms of awareness on Twitter, Promoted Tweets could be an excellent tool in furthering this promotion or improving your reputation. It will be up to you to decide how effective Promoted Tweets has on your performance though.

If you have some experiences with Promoted Tweets and think I’m completely wrong, agree with me, or just want to let your voice be heard, I urge you tell us via the comments section of this post.