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Posted on April 7, 2008
Top 5 Pay Per Click Mistakes
BY BEN CASTELLI
I promised Stepan I would actually contribute to the CTC blog when the new design finally went live. Here were are 6 months later, the new design is awesome and its time for me own up. So here it is, the top 5 Pay Per Click mistakes we commonly see in client's PPC programs. If you are currently running a PPC campaign, I think you will find this list very useful, if not you may want to bookmark, star, tag or stash in a folder somewhere for future reference…
Top 5 Most Common PPC Mistakes (don't let this be you!)
- Abandoning ad copy split testing after initial success
- Misunderstanding margin and miscalculating ROI from PPC ad spend
- Assuming top ad placement will result in the greatest conversion or ROI.
- Not sending traffic to the most relevant pages
- Disorganized campaign structure
Ok, I actually have 6 but "Top 5" sounds better so here is a bonus one:
6. Having too narrow or too broad keyword strategy
Got any other common mistakes you think should be on the list? lemme hear about them!
Posted on June 25, 2007
Google Reveals Content Network Site Performance
BY BEN CASTELLI
I was finally able to catch up on some of the latest news in my reader over the weekend and was really psyched to see that Google has begun a phased launch of their Placement Performance report for Adwords. Several months ago Google announced it would be adding this new feature which basically allows you to “view site-by-site performance metrics -- including clicks, impressions, cost, and conversion data -- for domains or URLs in the content network where your ads have appeared.”
Overall, with our clients we see that the Pay Per Click ads on Google Search convert better (with a better ROI) than ads on the Google Content network. Ads on Google Search show up on the top and right hand side of the page when you do a search in Google, content network ads show on websites running Ad Sense (such as news and blog sites) that have content relevant to your keywords.
One of the biggest challenges I have had with running ads on the content network is that a major news story or popular event can trigger ads to receive a huge spike in impressions and clicks but not necessarily an increase in conversions. Without the ability to see which sites were driving all of the clicks, the only option was to scale back your bids on the content network or turn off the content network altogether.
Now with the Placement Performance report, you can see which content network sites are converting well and those that are not. You can use the site exclusion tool to eliminate sites that drive a lot of clicks but little conversions. And increase ad spend on the sites that drive the quality traffic that results in conversions and high ROI. This is accomplished with the site targeting feature.
I have also seen similar trends with ads on the Yahoo Search Marketing content network, where a news event triggers ads to receive a large increase in impressions, resulting in a large number of clicks with very few conversions. Hopefully Yahoo will continue to their strategy of copying the Google PPC platform and add this feature!
Actually, Yahoo recently did take one step to improving their content network by introducing Quality Based Pricing, realizing that all clicks from the content network are not created equal, something Google has been doing for a long time with their Smart Pricing.
So rather than shutting off your ads from showing on the Google content network when your cost per acquisition is high and ROI low, use this new transparency to improve your content network strategy by optimizing your ad for specific sites or weeding out sites that drive a lot of clicks but do not convert.
Posted on February 27, 2007
3 New Ways Google is Showing Me Love
BY BEN CASTELLI
In just the past FEW DAYS Google has rolled out a number of upgrades, changes, and improvements to help out its Adwords advertisers. Here are the top 3 things they did recently to make my life easier (well at least my 8-5 life). Tune in on the steps after the jump.
Posted on October 16, 2006
3 Ways to Split Test
BY BEN CASTELLI
Want to increase conversion rates? Split testing is an essential step in improving the effectiveness of online marketing efforts and converting more visitors into customers. Classic A/B split testing has been a staple for direct marketers, however it is surprising how few online businesses take advantage of this technique, especially since the cost of split testing online is minimal compared to the cost of printing and mailing. The number of things that you can test online are almost limitless; copy, graphics, colors, placement of forms etc.... Below are 3 general ways that you can use split testing to monitor your online marketing efforts and increase conversions.
- AdWords Ad Text - It is essential to split test your Google AdWords ad text. Just make sure you only have two ads running per ad group, accumulate clicks (over 30 per/ad), determine the winner, delete the loser and create a new ad to try to beat the winner. If you are running Google Analytics the Overall Ad A/B Testing report is a great way to see which ad text is driving visitors to your site. For example, through split testing I was able to determine that adding the word "New" to the title of my AdWords ads resulted in a significant increase in clicks and conversions. Don't forget that it is very important to look at conversion rates of the ads in addition to CTR. Generally you want to accumulate a good number of clicks before declaring a winner, however if you can't wait, check out SplitTester to see which of the two ads will really perform better over time.
- Email Marketing Campaigns - A great way to split test an email marketing campaign is to send out the email in waves. For example, if you are planning on sending out a promotional email to your list of 1,000, but are uncertain about which subject line to use, you can send out 100 emails with subject line A, and 100 emails with subject line B. Then compare the open and click through rates and send the remaining 800 emails the winning subject line.
- Landing Pages/Opt-in Pages - There are a large number of items you can test on a landing page such as the call to action text, the placement of the sign up form, inclusion of audio, etc... A service like Hypertracker will split your visitors between two pages and help you determine which changes to your landing pages will deliver the greatest increase in conversion rates.
Finally, to avoid skewing your data, it is important to split test at only one point of the sales process, Adwords, landing pages, sales pages, product pages, order pages etc...
Posted on September 28, 2006
Local Search Ads: Better Service Needed to Attract Small Advertisers
BY JASON CORMIER
Today I'm attending the Search Engine Strategies Local Search conference in Denver. As you probably know, local online advertising, especially that's tied into search engines or ad delivery programs such as Google Adsense, has been lagging. For instance, you can probably find your local Circuit City online more easily than a local plumber or daycare center.
That could -- and should -- be changing, according to the experts here. However, a big part of the problem is that online advertising isn't as easy as it should be for small business owners.
In the "Local Search Ads" session, Brad Geddes of LocalLaunch noted, "The typical small business owner's advertising effort usually involves just a few phone calls or conversations a year."
And in the session before that, Jupiter analyst Barry Parr observed that in local advertising, sales and service are a huge part of that business. "Creating an Adwords account and placing an ad on Google is not all that easy for someone who's used to placing ads in the yellow pages. Ad sales and service is the big missing link in online ads."
Seems to me that there's room for a smart entrepreneur to start serving the small business advertiser market more effectively. The big portals simply aren't cutting it. Either that, or (as Geddes recommended) the portals need to start offering more data and tools to agencies that are willing to offer the sort of support, guidance, and assistances that small businesses need in order to want to advertise online.
