AdWords Editor 7.5.1

Have you tried it yet?  What do you think?

Don’t know what AdWords Editor is?  Contact me!

Being in business isn’t all about earning profits.  It is about community involvement and corporate social responsibility as well.

SolidCactus.com is fortunate enough to be part of a new program in conjunction with the SPCA of Luzerne County.

Tomorrow from 11:00 a.m until 1:00 p.m., several furry friends who need a home will be visiting the Solid Cactus Shavertown, PA headquarters.  In addition, there will be a pizza sale of $1 per slice, with all proceeds benefiting the SPCA of Luzerne County.  Pizza will be from the wonderful Pizza Perfect!

If you are in our area, stop by, buy a slice, and visit with some very lovable pets who need a home.  Thank you for your support!

Check out how BlairCandy.com leverages Pay-per-click (PPC), Social Media, and other marketing efforts to maximize advertising budgets.  PracticalEcommerce.com interviewed the merchant to find out what has contributed to 70 years of going strong:

BlairCandy.com interview with PracticalEcommerce.com

BlairCandy.com focuses on the following strategies:

> Understand the differences between marketing a brick-and-mortar store and marketing an online store.  This can affect everything from your advertising message to the inventory that you carry.

> Keep in mind two key factors:  Customer Acquisition and Customer Retention.  You have to market prospects to convert them into customers, but you also have to market to existing customers to keep them as customers.

> Perform your marketing as a cohesive unit; if you outsource, keep your account manager updated about your changing needs, inventory, promotions, etc., and expect your account manager to help provide fresh new ideas and strategies.  Work as a team.

> Blog! You are an expert in your field, so share your knowledge and stories.  Give people a reason to want to read what you have to say.

> Network! Get involved in forums, conferences and training sessions, and share your ideas and questions with other store owners and e-commerce experts.

> Make customer service a top priority.  Truly listen to your customers and demonstrate a genuine interest in suiting their needs.

> Be patient and realistic.  Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither were the powerhouses in e-commerce and retail.

It is your party and you can cry if you want to, but rather than throwing a temper tantrum, get out there and rear your own success!

About Quality Score

A Quality Score is calculated every time your keyword matches a search query kinda like adding points in a game. Every time your keyword, phrase or exact term has a chance to trigger your ad, this score is effected. This quality score has several variables that influence Cost Per Click (CPC) which gives you the most for your cost,  getting to the first page (Just Like Organic Searches),The floor to ceiling variable also called the AD ranking on the page.  So the magic happens when every build is built around relevant Campaign Names, Ad Groups, Keyword Terms, and of course the ADs.

Now we will show you how those ads got to 1st page and top ad ranking for Search Network

1) It starts with the historical data of the clickthrough rate (CTR) and the Relevant Matched AD

So try to turn down low CTR terms or move them to a different campaign or ad group.

2) All the historical data of the CTR and All ads within the account.

Once the account has been established try to keep the history where it is. So any major changes should be created in new campaigns.

3) The Full historical CTR of the Display URLs in the Ad group.

Got a new url to use. Try to establish a new account, this will keep your history display urls intact.

4) The quality of the landing page, loading times & relevancy.

If you have a slow landing page, try to update the server and if the landing page is not relevant, try and make the page name to one of the best key terms. EX keyword term shirts then try to change to shirts.html, this works boys shirts then change it to boysshirts.html 

5) The relevance of the keyword terms to the ads.

Say you sell board shorts and you are using the term Board Shorts Have your ad reflect the term.For example:

Skater Board Shorts
Warpspeed Quiksilver Board Shorts
10% Off On All Board Shorts

6) The relevance of the keyword terms to the MATCHED ad and the Search query.

Remember to pull a search query report and choose the ad category. So you can find which terms triggered the ad. This will also provide you a new list of keyword terms relevant to the ad.

7) Geographical performance of the targeted region.

Sell where the sales are. Simple, I am not going to the Artic Circle to sell Board Shorts.

The last Key to the Trick Google’s Own Private Measure (?)

Keep all and everything relevant. This is not the only method to use but here goes one.

Campaign Name:Shorts
Campaign Ad Group:Board Shorts
Keyword: Quicksilver Board Short
Keyword: Board Shorts
Relevant AD:
Headline: Skater Board Shorts
Description: Warpspeed Quiksilver Board Shorts
Description: 10% Off On All Board Shorts
DisplayURL: ExampleBoardShorts.com/BoardShorts

You have been shown the inner workings to the Magic Of the Quality Score For Search Networks. Keep in mind there is the Content Network Quality Score. But that trick is for another show.

The Google Search Query Report is like taking a tour inside the minds of the consumers who clicked your ads.  You will see the actual terms users searched before clicking your ads.  Why does this matter?  It allows you to determine if you are neglecting opportunities because you are missing relevant keywords, and it allows you to see if you are attracting untargeted traffic, thus allowing you to see potential negative keywords.  Still scared?  Consider a few examples.

Let’s say you sell lawn and garden equipment.  You have a broad match keyword Wasp Pest Control.  Since broad match can trigger your ad if at least one of the words within the searched term matches your term, you may see that you received traffic from someone searching the term Pest Exterminators.  Since you don’t offer extermination services, a good negative keyword would be Exterminator.

Allow me to illustrate one more example.  If you sell a specific garden hose and are using the broad match keyword  Flexogen Garden Hose,  you may see from the Search Query Report that someone clicked your ad after searching the term Sale Flexogen Hose.  As a result, you may want to add the term Sale Flexogen Hose to your account.

To easily manage the report, I recommend the following tips:

> Don’t run it for extremely wide dates ranges.  It can end up generating too much data to evaluate at once.  Try a few months at a time.

> Sort by match type, and don’t be concerned with the traffic obtained from exact match keywords.  In those cases, you already had the precise term the user searched, so instead, focus on the traffic coming from your broad match and phrase match keywords.

> Use common sense.  If you see your ads being triggered for a general, untargeted term such as Hose, don’t simply assume you should add the keyword to your account just because it is related to what you sell.  In fact, I would recommend adding such a term as an negative exact keyword, as you really don’t want such unqualified traffic.

Confused by match types?  Google and MSN have similar match types; Yahoo has its own version.  Following are helpful links:

Google Match Types

Yahoo Match Types

MSN Match Types

Still feeling intimidated?  Contact me. I’m happy to help in any way that I can.

Both photos from Coldplay’s Twitter the day of the show.

Everyone had to huddle under the grandstands for about 40 minutes until the rain passed, then wait it out while the stage was dried off. Needless to say, everyone was damp, tired and grumpy. Just the kind of crowd Coldplay wanted to play to, right? You’d think so if you saw the show they put on! The boys played for about 2 1/2 hours, which included 2 encores! They also spent plenty of time at the end of each runway, getting closer to the fans. Near the end of the show, they actually did an acoustic set in the grandstands (I was about 50 feet away at this point. HEE.)

Everyone there felt really connected to the band, and you could tell they made a genuine effort to make the show extra special after we were all stuck in the rain. I think this is an awesome example of connecting with your audience. Maybe you can’t do a grand gesture like this, but there are a lot of things you CAN do. Start reaching out to your customers via social media, or offer special deals to your most loyal customers. They’ll appreciate it and spread the word to their friends and family. You’ll connect better and make a fan for life.

Are you reading eBiz Insider magazine?  If not, start now!  The articles are brief but informative, and are written in terms the average person can understand—no geekspeak here!

Have you joined the eBiz Insider Forum?  This is a great way to connect with not only the experts at Solid Cactus, but also with other business owners and merchants.

If that’s not enough, we are also on Twitter!  Follow me via @Cactus_Robyn.

Still need more help?  Contact us, as we are always willing to help in any way that we can!

*****

Have a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend!

Then, at work it’s another ritual - swivel into my chair, drink more coffee, check my accounts from the day before and then the week or so before.  After that it’s off to the land of emails, blogs and RSS feeds that adorn my inbox & iGoogle.

This morning one really caught my eye - and it’s for a selfish reason - it involved Lollapalooza

I’d say I’m a pretty big music geek, so when I hear the mash-up of Analytics & a festival tour I get really excited!

Lollapalooza partnered with a GAAC firm to look at the SMO impact of the festival’s marketing. Looking to isolate (through event tagging) the effect of their SMO efforts on ticket sales & rev. generation; A very very interesting topic, esp. to a paid search geek like myself.

The study looked at which SMO sites were generating the most visits, which site resulted in the most brand exposure, rev. generation & viral views. This data, was then parsed 17-times-sideways and conclusions were drawn.

I won’t give away any more special sauce - you can read the article here.

What I feel is not valuable about this it that some segments of the offline world are actually getting the power of web analytics & marketing measurement. In the retail space there’s always been that “where did it come from” factor - trying to pin-point the which medias (or combination of them) resulted in an interaction & conversion.

It’s really great to see the music industry getting it, even if it’s only in the fringes at this point. I can only hope that one day the big-box labels get it…

You can also leverage such a tool to provide added creativity, and to become more memorable in the minds of your consumers.  For example, if you sell flea and tick medication for dogs, you can capitalize on the “scratch” theme by using PPC ads that convey a message such as:

.

.                                       Is Your Pet Pestered?

Check Out Our Scratch & Save Sale

So Your Dog Will Scratch No More!

.

.

Don’t be afraid to take a chance! We have already seen bounce rates decrease as a result of Scratch and Save.

So why have I struggled to find a blog topic for over a week now? It’s been a busy couple of weeks here at Solid Cactus, and that’s truly a good thing. The ever changing environment and fast pace of Internet Marketing are what keeps this place so interesting! Of course, it’s easy to go from ‘productive busy’ to ‘totally wiped out’ at times.  It even happens when we’re managing Pay Per Click accounts - which is something we have to avoid if want them to be successful. Much like my post about social media burnout, sometimes you need to step back and refresh yourself and get some new ideas or perspective.

I go to a few different spots when I need some PPC inspiration:

• Google search results - plug in some of your core keywords and see what kind of ads and organic results you get. It helps to take stock of your competitor ads from time to time. Note - don’t copy their ads, but see what you can learn.
• Search Engine Land - There are a ton of great blogs out there with industry data/articles to review. I like Search Engine Land, but any blogs that you can read to sharpen your skills is a plus.
• Search Query Reports - It’s always great to run these reports in Google. I find they get me thinking because I often find new search phrases to bid on, and new ways to discuss our products. Maybe I could be describing them better, or there are words I should avoid using!

Where do you go for your inspiration?