The Pay Per Clickers amongst you will be delighted to hear that there are a whole host of PPC updates coming to a computer near you, as well as some which were rolled out towards the back end of 2012. With the PPC sphere constantly changing, here’s a helpful guide to the 5 main areas we think that Pay Per Click advertisers should be on top of this year.

Mobile

As the years go by the reach of mobile technology grows and grows. This year the stranglehold will grow stronger than ever, with 2013 set to become the year more people access the internet on a mobile device than through their computer. For many of us the smartphone is the first thing we pick up in the morning and the last thing we put down at night. If you are still not harnessing the power of PPC for mobiles then the potential market you are missing out on is enormous. The time for being able to justify ignoring the mobile market has been and gone, so we recommend that you test out specific mobile campaigns and make sure that your site and landing pages work on mobile devices.

If your site is ecommerce then you may find that people research more with their mobile but are more likely to make the actual purchase later on a desktop or laptop. Bear this in mind when choosing the keywords to put into your mobile campaigns, as the ones used at the start of the user journey may work better for you. Check the Assisted Conversions data within Analytics to see if it is the case that these PPC campaigns are influencing more online purchases.

Product Listing Ads

Product Listing ads allow retailers to promote their products on Google Shopping, with each ad displaying the product price, image, business name and more to users. Setting up a campaign is easy and can be done either directly from the Merchant Centre or by using your existing AdWords account. Once the account has been created Google will automatically display your products which are most relevant to a particular search query.

We did a lot of testing of Product Targets within AdWords in 2012 and found that in the majority of cases, the click-through-rates and conversion-rates grew significantly for ecommerce websites that take advantage of this feature.

Remarketing

There has been plenty of debate over the effectiveness of Google Remarketing with many users finding the adverts a bit annoying and invasive. Remarketing ads are those from a particular site which follow you about wherever your online activity takes you (so long as the websites you visit allow Google AdSense placements). The beauty of this strategy is the customers being targeted are those who have already visited your site and performed a certain action, ensuring an underlying interest in the products or services you offer. By spending money on prequalified traffic it is possible for a Google Remarketing campaign to play an important part in improving overall ROI, as you get a second chance with visitors.

Remarketing isn’t just for attracting new business. We have run campaigns for clients in the financial services and training markets, where the adverts are used to remind people to complete the sign-up process or up-sell them to a different package. In each case, we saw success and will be further testing out Remarketing campaigns this year.

Attribution Modelling

An attribution model allows marketers to take a broader view of the journey a customer goes on before a sale or conversion is made. Traditionally conversions were credited to the last ad clicked or viewed, whilst an attribution model gives credit to each ‘touch point’ the user interacts with along the way. 

The benefit of attribution modelling is it allows marketers to obtain an understanding of the bigger picture, in terms of the part each marketing channel is playing in a customer’s journey. By analysing multiple touch points users can gain new insights into their campaigns giving them a more accurate representation of the worth each marketing channel presents. 2012 saw attribution modelling become mainstream, with most of the industry events holding topics based on the subject, and we think 2013 will be the year that all advertisers start taking it seriously, especially as the attribution modelling toolkit for Google Analytics Premium users will be filtered down to all basic level accounts at some point this year.

Tag Manager Tracking

With marketing budgets increasingly under the spotlight, tracking, which helps you understand how your customers convert is becoming an increasingly important tool. There are plenty of tracking options available to you, but if you’re worried about how to implement the correct code or how long it will take to get through your IT development backlog, Google’s Tag Manager could be the solution for you.

Google Tag Manager allows optimisation tags to be changed quickly and easily without the need for your development team to go behind the scenes and start playing around with the site code. The system uses a simple and intuitive interface which allows users to edit their website’s tags. This can help to increase the speed campaigns go live, reduce developer costs and allow you to identify errors before they occur.

With so much new to the world of PPC advertising, the year ahead looks to be a busy and exciting one for search engine marketers. If you want to discuss these points further then please give us a ring.

No matter how savvy and on-the-button your Google AdWords consultant may be, if your website isn’t up to scratch, all that hard pay per click (PPC) work will be for nothing when the visitors your PPC campaign brought to your website disappear without a trace.

In fact, if your website isn’t going to convert PPC visitors into buyers, the time, money and energy you and your Google AdWords consultant/agency/team have ploughed into a great PPC campaign may be for nothing...

Of course, not every visit is going to convert into sales, but there are literally hundreds of ways that you can boost your conversion rates. In this post we’ll be looking at just three of the most fundamental changes you should consider if you’re hoping to become a conversion champion and squeeze every last drop out of your PPC!

(A quick note: Although this article covers website conversions from a PPC/AdWords angle - after all, you don't want to have to pay for traffic that doesn’t convert! - a lot of this could equally apply to traffic arriving to your site from non-paid search, too!)

Clarity
The first and most important thing you need to learn and never forget is that human beings are fickle and impatient creatures. The sheer accessibility of information on the Internet - at the click of the button - only makes matters worse. Visitors are not going to hang around if you do not give them strong, clear messages about who are you, what you do and what you’re selling, so be clear and don’t overcomplicate!

Keep your homepage short, sweet and to the point. Include strong images which show visitors that they have come to the right place for what they’re looking for but absolutely do not overcomplicate matters. However, if a better page is available as a landing page then make sure it’s the landing page!

By ensuring that your visitors know exactly what they’re looking at you’ll keep the ones you want and lose those you don’t.

Keep track of stats
Your Google AdWords person should be keeping their beady eye on your data in order to constantly improve your campaign and boost traffic, but these stats can also help you tweak your website into conversion perfection. Data from enquiry forms and shopping baskets will tell you which PPC ads brought visitors to your site and which ones converted into sales.

As an example, imagine you’re selling your clairvoyance service through your website (although if you can actually see the future, you’re probably not going to need a consultant’s help)! One of the keywords your campaign is targeting is “cheap clairvoyance service” but unlike your other keywords, that particular keyword just isn’t converting into sales, yet it is bringing in tonnes of traffic and your service really is cheap.

In all likelihood, your website isn’t making it clear enough just how cheap your service is. Highlight the key sales points that lure in visitors and you’ll turn even more visitors into customers.

Hand-holding
Visitors might be fickle, but they also need an awful lot of attention. Make sure you provide clear, helpful guidance to walk them through the sales journey on your website and you’ll find that your conversion rates soar. Make contact information easy to see and easily accessible, so they don’t end up leaving frustrated if they can’t find your phone number...

At Liberty Marketing, our PPC and Google AdWords consultants are experienced online marketing experts, who can advise you on how to boost your conversion rates whilst bringing you all the traffic you need to make your business a success on the Internet. Fill out an enquiry form today or get in touch on 029 2076 6467 or at info@libertymarketing.co.uk to learn more!

As a Pay Per Click (PPC) advertiser using Google AdWords, you can select whether your adverts show for broad searches relating to your keywords or very specific searches that match your terms exactly. By choosing from a range of ‘keyword match types,’ you can tactically enhance your campaigns and improve the quality of the traffic that you attract to your website.

In AdWords, there are five different keyword match types to choose from:

Broad Match

Broad match - as you might ascertain from the name - returns a broad range of results originating from your keyword or phrase. Your adverts will automatically run for keyword variations including synonyms, singular and plural forms, common misspellings and even other phrases that contain the selected keywords. Although assigning broad match to a campaign can help to increase traffic, it may also result in wasted spend, attracting clicks from people looking for products or services your business does not supply.

"Phrase Match"

By placing quotation marks around particular keywords, Google will only display adverts when the search term entered contains the keywords in the same order as they are listed in the ad. For example, when bidding on a keyword which is written in quotation marks - e.g. "car insurance" - you will show for those keywords in that order. However, you will also bid on search terms such as 'cheap car insurance', 'car insurance quotes', 'car insurance policies', etc.

[Exact Match]

Exact match is the most specific keyword match type. By placing your keyword or phrase in square brackets - e.g. [car insurance] - Google will only show the advert for that exact term, without including any variations.

-Negative -Match

Negative matches are an excellent method of reducing the amount of wasted spend your ad campaign generates. The addition of a negative sign shows Google that your ad is not to be returned for any search including that keyword. Using the car insurance example, by adding the negative keyword '-sports', your advert will not be returned for "sports car insurance" searches.

+Modified +Broad +Match

The most recent addition to AdWords, modified broad match allows you to apply a more specific version of broad match. By putting a plus sign in front of a keyword or key phrase, you can tell Google exactly which keywords you would like to bid for, ensuring you show for a range of terms without appearing for those which aren’t related to the products or services you sell. For further information on modified broad match, check out this blog post, when we wrote about its initial launch in the UK.

Done well, pay per click advertising can really help to drive more traffic to a website at a minimal expense. However, unfortunately, we’ve seen many people give it a go themselves, only to set up their campaigns with the wrong keyword match types in place. Our PPC Team have years of experience in setting up and managing campaigns in a plethora of industries and therefore know the do’s and don’ts with Google AdWords.

For more information, please visit our dedicated pay per click advertising page or call 029 2076 6467 today.

Yesterday on the Inside AdWords blog, Google announced a new change to AdWords and the way adverts are rotated.

Advertisers have the option to rotate adverts in three ways. Optimise for Clicks, Optimise for Conversions or Even Rotation. We always test adverts on the Even Rotation setting as it allows you to split test your adverts and find out what copy works. Over time, this can give you very powerful insight into what makes your customers tick. With the other two rotation settings, you don't have this control over testing copy because, as soon as one advert starts getting more clicks or conversions than the other, it starts being shown for more of the time, so skews data.

Unfortunately, Google is making it far harder for us to work in this way because...

"Starting next week, the “rotate” setting for ad rotation will change. Instead of rotating creatives for an indefinite period of time, this setting will only rotate for a period of 30 days. After that, the setting will then optimize to show the ads expected to generate the most clicks. Every time a creative is enabled or edited, the ads in that ad group will rotate more evenly for a new period of 30 days."

This is far from great news for advertisers who like to test out ad copy and see what really works for their markets. They say this is to help advertisers improve the performance of their accounts but we think it's a very bad move and one we can't help but feel Google us putting in place to get more click budget from Pay Per Click customers.

Get ready, as the changes will start taking place next week and "ad groups with creatives that haven’t been added or modified in the past thirty days will see this new ad rotation behavior. Otherwise, this change will begin 30 days after your last creative was enabled or edited."

If you’re looking to control your advertising spend whilst getting a good return on your investment, Google AdWords – Google’s own paid advertising platform – is a good choice. No matter how much time or money you have available, AdWords can help you to reach new customers and get your business noticed.

Google give subscribers to the service complete control over the positioning of their ad, advertising spend, and also visibility of the impact of that ad and whether it is performing well or needs to be changed. AdWords allows businesses to reach customers at the exact moment they are searching for a product or service. Your ad will be displayed in a prominent position and the best thing is you only get charged when somebody clicks on your add.

There are many benefits of using Google AdWords:

• The service allows you to reach people who are searching for your services or products – this is great as these people are in the mood to take action and are more likely to click on a prominent ad
• You can choose exactly how or where your ad appears
• You have complete control over your AdWords spend – if an ad isn’t working particularly well, you can pull it and review your advertising once again
• There are no contracts and no up-front payments – you only pay when somebody clicks on your ad

Google AdWords works by using cost-per-click bidding, hence why it’s also called ‘Pay Per Click’ (PPC) advertising. That means you are charged whenever somebody clicks on your ad and not the moment your ad is published. Basically, there are a number of bidding options available to you. You can choose to set a monthly budget and Google will never charge above this rate, or you can set an unlimited budget.

AdWords also gives you complete visibility of your ad’s performance. Not only can you see how many customers are connecting with you, but you can also see where they are coming from and the time of day they visited. This information is invaluable when it comes to perfecting your website and how your ads are worded. AdWords also gives you access to tools that allow you to improve and edit your ad in order to increase its effectiveness.

Part of creating your ad will involve the selection of your ad’s wording. You’re going to need to get creative here as Google only allows a short ad, but with the clever use of keywords you can get your point across in just a few words. Google also has a Keyword Tool that will help you pick out the best for your business.

All in all, Google AdWords is a great service if you are looking for a cost-effective and controlled method of advertising. Unlike many other advertising services, you will not be charged unless your advertising campaign is effective.

Are you interested in Pay Per Click advertising for your business? Why not contact one of our Google AdWords consultants today?

Don’t let it be said that we aren’t willing to share here at Liberty. Yes we do have our own team of pay per click advertising specialists and yes they are extremely good at what they do, however, we are still willing to spend a little bit of time compiling this list of common pay per click advertising mistakes you should avoid like the plague should you decide to run your pay per click advertising campaign in-house.

Analyse your results

A pay per click advertising campaign is for life, not just for Christmas. Granted that’s a poor use of metaphor but it does help to emphasise just how important it is to look after your pay per click advertising campaign. You shouldn’t simply set it free to roam; it needs constant care and nurturing. All those statistics enable you to fine tune your campaign and cut off the fat, leaving a lean, streamlined and effective campaign.

Take your time over keyword choice

Choose your keywords wisely. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that a more expensive keyword is a better keyword. Conduct thorough research. You never know, you might unearth a gem! Sometimes niche keywords produce the most lasting results and the more targeted your choice, often the less expensive the bid.

Give your ads a chance

Don’t go chopping and changing your pay per click advertising campaign when you start to panic that you aren’t receiving enough clicks. To establish a true picture of the success of an advert, even if it’s destined to fail, it is essential to give it every chance. By leaving adverts for a good amount of time you will eliminate any element of doubt. Such an advert can then be removed from your future pay per click advertising strategy with certainty.

The top spot is not reserved for the biggest spender

Pay per click advertising can be a great leveller. Do not make the mistake of assuming that by blowing the competition out of the water with a high bid, top spot is guaranteed. Google is far too clever for that. Your bid will be considered alongside the wording of your ad and the quality of your landing page. Keep the standard high or prepare to be usurped!

If you’d rather trust the proven expertise of pay per click advertising specialists, Liberty Marketing’s in-house team benefit from the experience gained whilst managing over 200 campaigns.

If you believe the adage there is no such thing as bad traffic, you could well be wasting a good proportion of your Google AdWords spend by neglecting to add negative keywords.

Negative keywords can be defined as those terms which are not relevant or associated with the products or service being offered. Negative keywords can pose problems, as often a term which is relevant to your industry can also be used widely within another.

An example of the importance of a Google AdWords consultant identifying negative keywords can be seen in the following instance:

If, as a dedicated Google AdWords consultant, you are looking to attract new customers to your Pay Per Click service, you might choose to run an ad campaign with the search term ‘increasing traffic’ featuring heavily. However, traffic is a term more widely associated with the congestion of our roads, and as such your ad will likely be clicked on not just by individuals looking for a Google AdWords consultant or methods or increasing traffic via a PPC campaign, but also individuals trying to work out how long it’s going to take to get to work in the morning.

If your ads are attracting clicks from people looking for an entirely different service, then not only will you receive poor conversion scores, your cost per acquisition will also be far higher than it should be.

So how do you identify negative keywords?

• Keyword research
  As Google AdWords consultants will doubtless be all too aware, you should never dive into a campaign without having completed thorough keyword research. You will be surprised by how many of the terms you assume will be most popular actually receive a low search volume, with other industry specific keywords mopping up most of the traffic. There are a number of keyword tools that can you help you to identify negative keywords and they are all simple to use so there really is no excuse.

• Take a look at the search results
  The most popular search engines now have a feature which offers keyword term recommendations as you type your keywords into the search bar. This can help to identify other terms you have neglected to consider.

• Look at industry literature and use your intuition
  If you are a Google AdWords consultant operating in-house then you are likely to know your industry inside-out, including all of the most industry specific terms. However, sometimes when you are so involved in a project it becomes difficult to see the wood from the trees. Taking a step back and approaching the industry assuming zero knowledge can help you indentify terms you may have overlooked.

There are plenty of other strategies you can use to identify negative keywords, but obviously our team of Google AdWords consultants have to keep some of their resourceful methods to themselves. For further insight or a no obligation quote, please call our Google AdWords consultants on 029 2076 6467.

As a result of numerous requests from online advertisers, Google AdWords has offered ad group level impression share metrics for the Search and Display Networks, making it easier to identify, analyse and track the success of your highest performing ad groups, helping you to ensure your ads capture the maximum number of impressions.

Here at Liberty, our Pay Per Click advertising team had been suffering from sleepless nights for some time, unable to dampen their excitement and anticipation at having three new columns on their ad groups tab to play with.

The three new columns responsible for causing such excitement are:

• Impr. Share – this tab details the percentage of impressions you received as a proportion of the impressions you were eligible for.
• Lost IS (Rank) – this column identifies the number of impressions you lost due to your Ad Rank.
• Exact Match IS – (Search Network only) shows the percentage of impressions received for searches that exactly matched your keyword divided by the estimated number of exact match impressions you were eligible to receive.

In terms of Google AdWords, it seems it never rains but it pours. Pay Per Click advertising specialists are also happy to see the further addition of an update to the algorithms, ensuring more accurate campaign impression share metrics. This has brought about additional changes that PPC advertising professionals will need to keep abreast of.

• Improved campaign level statistics – an improvement in the algorithms has not only improved impression share metrics, it has also updated all erstwhile campaign-level impression share metrics dating back to May 2011. However, as a consequence of this change, you are no longer able to see campaign-level share metrics prior to May 2011.

If you’re looking to make the most of your PPC advertising campaign, the experienced and professional team here at Liberty will put their expertise to good use making sure you receive the very best value from each and every penny you spend.

Sometimes the internet can seem like a cut-throat place. In such an environment non-profit groups and charities with limited budgets can lose out. Fortunately there are many good guys scattered across the web and, luckily, search engine giant Google is just one of them. 

What are Google Grants?

Google have been running a programme called ‘Google Grants’ for a number of years now. The Google Grants programme allows non-profit, charitable organisations to give their online presence a significant boost by providing them with their very own AdWords account. This Google Grants AdWords account comes with up to £310,000 worth of online advertising every year, allowing charities to make a big splash online. 

Why should your charity go for a Google Grant?

A well-managed AdWords account allows users to display their adverts right at the top of Google search results.

Put to good use, Google Grants are your organisation’s route to increased visibility, a greater presence, a louder voice, widespread support and significantly boosted donations. 

To date, Google Grants have supported and empowered more than 6,000 non-profit groups by giving them free access to highly effective AdWords advertising. The Google Grants programme has been responsible for some incredible charitable successes. From boosting Shop UNICEF’s profits by 43%, to gaining 10% more volunteers for CoachArt; Google Grants can be used to achieve great things.

Is my organisation eligible for Google Grants?

If you are a registered UK charity with current charitable status, you can apply for a Google Grant. Google Grants are available to you if you are registered with:

• The Charity Commission of England & Wales
• The Inland Revenue
• The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator

Along with registered charity status, you will need the following in order to be eligible for the Google Grants programme:

• An up-and-running website to link to your Google AdWords Pay Per Click account 
• A set of targeted keywords relevant to your charity
• No money-making adverts (this means no affiliate ads and no Google AdSense etc.)
• The ability to make the absolute most of the Google Grants programme and your free AdWords account. 

This last point is an important one. The team in charge of the Google Grants programme are obviously looking to ensure that the Grants they award are used to the greatest advantage. This means that they are far more likely to be given to organisations with a good understanding of how AdWords works. 

How do I apply for the Google Grants programme?

Before you do anything, make sure you know exactly what you are signing up for. Ensure you fully understand how Google Grants work and how you can turn a free AdWords account to your advantage. When you make your application you’ll need to:

• Suggest potential keywords for your AdWords campaign
• Provide compelling adcopy to work alongside them
• Explain exactly how your charity will benefit from the Google Grants programme

If you are at all confused or uncertain about any element of Google Grants or AdWords, speak to someone who knows their stuff. Here at Liberty we have a dedicated and talented Pay Per Click team who work extensively with Google AdWords. Our Pay Per Click advertising experts can provide you with all the advice, training and information you need to make your Google Grants application a success. Call us now on 029 2076 6467 to discuss how we can help make your application stronger and take away a lot of the hassle.

Once you’re on top of all the facts, you’re ready to make your application. Just fill out the online Google Grants application form and wait for it to be reviewed. Due to the high number of applications, the review process could take up to 5 months. Once the review has been completed you will be contacted with the result. If your Google Grants application has been successful you will also be sent instructions to help you set up your Google Grants AdWords account and get started! 

What do I need to know about Google Grants?

Once your organisation has been accepted onto the Google Grants programme you will continue to benefit for as long as you continue to make good use of the award and stick to its rules. Here are a few key things to bear in mind regarding Google Grants:

Use it or lose it

Once you’ve won your Google Grants account, you’ve only just begun. In order to manage a successful AdWords campaign and to continue receiving free advertising from Google you’ll need to regularly work on and monitor your AdWords account. Signing in regularly and responding promptly to communication from the Google AdWords team will give your grant a longer life.

Stick to the rules

You can be taken off of the Google Grants programme if you fail to keep to the rules. There are a number of rules, but if you are using your free AdWords account for your own charitable purposes you’re unlikely to break any of them. The conditions include:

• Only ever linking your free ads to your organisation’s website
• Never using irrelevant keywords
• Never using bids of more than $1.00
• Never using your free ads for purely commercial purposes
• Never using Google Grants ads to advertise financial products or vehicle and property donation

You have the power to boost your budget

If you prove that you are using your allotted Google Grants budget shrewdly and successfully (and to its full extent), you may be rewarded with an increased budget. Google Grants generally start at around £75,000 per year and could be increased to a maximum of £310,000 per year. To push budgets up and to create the most successful AdWords campaigns, many charities outsource the management of their Pay Per Click advertising to an online marketing agency like Liberty.

If you would like to learn more about Google Grants and how to boost your non-profit organisation using Google AdWords, get in touch with us today. Our AdWords experts can help you to win a place on the Google Grants programme and make the very most of all that Google has to offer.

Earlier in the year, Gareth was approached by an online publisher to write a book on Pay Per Click advertising. Bookboon publishes short textbooks for students, professionals and business owners to download from their site.

They mentioned that there is a demand for easy to understand books in the world of online marketing and they wanted a title on Pay Per Click and Google AdWords. They needed a new book where the advice would fall somewhere between an introduction to the topic and a step-by-step guide for those new to search engine advertising.

A few month and 15000 words later, Gareth had written the book. Chris, who heads up the Liberty Pay Per Click team (and knows Google AdWords and Analytics inside and out), contributed on some chapters and made sure the book was up-to-date following the numerous AdWords changes.

If you want to learn about Pay Per Click advertising, in particular Google AdWords and Facebook Ads, then you can download your copy of How Google Changed Advertising and How to Master AdWords here.