When Prescriptive Landing Pages Are A Bad Idea

5 Comments Written on February 28th, 2011 by
Categories: Landing Pages

I was reading comments made by a guy who said he can’t find any decent search marketing help. He is selling a cloud computing service.

The marketers he talked to wanted to create landing pages and copy that read like a Blu Blockers advertisement. Buy now! Two for one deal! Constant calls to action. Twee headlines, along the lines of “They Laughed When I Sat Down At the Piano But When I Started to Play!”.

They were advising a prescriptive, one-size-fits-all direct marketing approach.

He felt they were totally wrong.

Marketing approaches need to gel with the client, product and the audience. If used with the wrong product and audience – in this example, those who equate a hard sell with low quality – prescriptive direct marketing approaches can have a negative effect.

Consider Apple

Apple market to creative, hip individuals, or, more accurately, people who perceive themselves to be creative, hip individuals. Apple is not for everyone, it is “exclusive”. “Think Differently”, not the same as everyone else. Apple frequently invoke modern art and visual design reference points. There’s an elitism about Apple.

This brand positioning comes from understanding the desires of their customers. Apple know their customers aren’t buying on features (Apple’s products often have fewer features than their competitors), price (Apple are often more expensive), or flexibility (Apple tend to lock the user in).

They’re buying into something more universal: a desire to belong, and to be cool. Apple’s entire marketing approach orients around this truth.

Hard Sell = No Sell

Now, imagine a Blu Blocker, hard-sell pitch to this audience? Would it work?

Highly unlikely.

This group would respond to pitches that involve belonging. Of cool. Of indidividuality. A hard-sell “call to action” is unlikely to work on consumers who are making lifestyle choices based not on need, but desire.

Here are a few tips on how to think about landing pages in a less prescriptive way. The key is not to put the cart before the horse. Seek to understand the audience first, then work backwards.

1. Put The Audience First

First, decide who the audience is, and what they want.

The landing page is not simply a device to get someone to react, like an unthinking robot. Click here! Buy now!

A landing page is something that can be used to draw someone deeper into your world. Reflect the audience back at themselves. Reflect their values and desires. Are they urbane? Security conscious? Conservative? Anti-authority? Homely?

Your landing page should look like what your audience expects to see. It should use language that sounds like how your audience talks.

2. Integrate Direct Marketing Tactics Carefully

Take a look at this Apple page.

The Apple aesthetic is strong, as is the sense of community and desirability. They’ve also worked in the price point. The hand grabbing the iPad implies you should purchase one. The pitch is not far removed from a hard sell pitch in terms of what it achieves, but it does so in a rather subtle way.

It doesn’t push too hard.

3. Design Is Important

Your visual design is important.

We’re a visual culture, and react to visual ques. Make sure, like Apple, that your design reflects the values of your audience, and the values of your product, else some of those click backs will come from people – rightly or wrongly – judging a book by it’s cover.

This is not to say all landing pages must have high-end, glossy design.

On the contrary. High-end, glossy design may alienate, say, academic audiences. An academic audience may associate glossy design with the frivolous. A design that is likely to appeal to an academic audience is probably more Wikipedia, less Coca Cola. More depth, less flashy teen culture.

The design, like your pitch, and like your writing, should reflect the values of your audience. Once you understand your audience, take your ideas to a designer, phrased like I did with the Apple description above:

“Apple market to creative, hip individuals, or, more accurately, people who perceive themselves to be creative, hip individuals. Apple is not for everyone, it is “exclusive”. “Think Differently”, not the same as everyone else. Apple frequently invoke modern art and visual design reference points. There’s an elitism about Apple“

….and see what they come up with.

Simply changing the “cover” might get you higher click-thrus and conversions.

Big Changes: Adcenter Trademark Policy Updated

2 Comments Written on February 21st, 2011 by
Categories: Geo Targeting, Google Adwords, Microsoft Adcenter

Image Credit: http://www.jcatrademarkuae.com/Microsoft dropped a big piece of news last week: they’re bringing their trademark use policies closer to Google’s.  In the past Microsoft had a similar policy to Google, but when they took over PPC for Yahoo they adopted Yahoo’s archaic trademark editorial policies.

As of March 3rd, Microsoft Adcenter will once again allow bidding on trademarked terms and use of competitors’ trademarks in your ad text under certain circumstances:

Use of a competitor’s trademark in ads only may be allowed if its use is truthful and lawful, for example, if:

  • Your ad compares your own product’s attributes to those of your competitor’s product, as represented by independent, third-party research. However, you must also do the following:
    • Present the trademark in the context of the research that is cited in the ad.
    • Feature the related research clearly and prominently on the landing page that your ad links to.

When Microsoft changed to Yahoo’s old trademark policies as part of the Search Alliance rollout, they automatically disapproved most, if not all, advertiser keywords that were determined to be trademarks.  I seriously doubt that if you just left these keywords and ads in your Adcenter account  that they’ll just magically go back through and retroactively approve them all on March 3rd.

My recommendation would be to delete all of your old, disapproved ads and keywords and recreate them after March 3rd.  Of course, there’s likely to be a bit of inconsistency when that date rolls around, so it may take some adding, disapprovals, deleting and reloading if you start right away on or near that date.

This brings back to mind a tip I share in our PPC training modules: Keyword or ad disapprovals in Adcenter are often best handled by just deleting the disapproved item and reloading it.  I’ve seen scenarios where doing this as often as 4 times on the same item with get the 5th attempt through permanently.

The ‘delete and reload’ method is annoying to be sure, but at least you don’t have to do something even more annoying to resolve it:  Submit a question to Adcenter support staff (not a fun experience, trust me).

In our members’ community  I’ve posted a number of strategies for competitive trademark bidding, but here’s a couple quick points to keep in mind for Adwords in particular:

  • The trademark will almost always be auto-blocked in ad text if the TM owner has complained to Google or Microsoft directly via their online complaint process.  No complaint from the TM owner? No auto-block when uploading new ads containing the term.
  • The TM claims are country-by-country.  The TM owner must apply for and prove grounds for an automatic TM block in ad text for each country individually.  Basically, they need to have the TM registered in every country they want to block ads from showing in.  If they have a US-only TM, they can’t block ad text containing the TM in Canada et al…
  • Recognizing this, advertisers can create individual campaigns targeting one or more countries where the TM owner hasn’t registered a TM. In some cases where you have countries mixed together in a campaign that have some countries where a TM is restricted I’ve seen Google put a “limited” flag next to an approved text ad indicating they won’t show it in every country targeted in that campaign.
  • Although I’ve seen claims otherwise, it’s perfectly easy to get good Quality Scores on Adwords for a competitor’s trademark, CTR is king, and if users find your ad click-w0rthy, you’ll be fine QS-wise.

Here’s a list of the trademark registration and search sites from various prime PPC markets if you want to find out if a particular TM is registered in a given country:

If you’re interested in internal Google’s thinking on fair trademark usage with Adwords, be sure and read this fantastic interview with Terri Chen, Google’s Chief Trademark Counsel.  Josh Dreller did a great job of asking the tough questions and pinning Google down on specifics.  Josh’s post didn’t get the attention it deserved at the time.

PPC Pain Points

2 Comments Written on February 21st, 2011 by
Categories: Copywriting

Pain Point
Nothing motivates a person quite like pain.

If you’ve got a toothache, you probably can’t wait to use a dentist’s services. The money, so long as you can afford the fee, becomes a non-issue compared to the thought of enduring the pain for one day longer.

You want your customers to be in a similar painful position – not in the sense that you wish pain upon them, but you do want them to have a burning need. This need might be to travel immediately (“last minute flight bookings online”), wanting to have the latest technology (“iPad 2.0, avoid the wait”), or a suit cleaned before an important meeting (“express dry cleaning service, while you wait”).

The customers that are most likely to convert have a pain they need to alleviate. Now.

The commonality in the examples above is that the customer doesn’t just want something. They have a burning need for something, so much so that is causing them a degree of pain. They alleviate this pain by buying what you have to offer. These highly motivated customers are certainly the type of customer you want to select when you’re paying by the click!

In terms of PPC, we have three tools to work with – the pitch, the landing page and the ad text.

1. The Pitch

Everyone says “understand the customer”, but what does that really mean?

Try to understand your customer in terms of the pain they are experiencing. In the example of the dentist I used above, the pain point is self-evident: a sore tooth!

However, most consumer situations are more subtle. Having a suit cleaned before an important meeting is an organisational pain. Time creates a constraint i.e. the suit must be cleaned before the meeting. The need to have the suit cleaned is linked to a strong desire to make a good impression.

There is pain involved in not completing this task. The time constraint creates a sense of urgency – itself a form of pain – as does the mere thought of showing up to an important meeting wearing a shabby suit – i.e we try to avoid the pain of embarrassment.

Look at your good or service in terms of the “medicinal” quality it offers. Identify the point of pain, or points, of pain in the customer, and make a list. Also make a list of general pain points. For example, time pressure, social pressure, work pressure, family pressure, etc, that will be common to many people, and may only be indirectly related to your offer.

2. The Landing Page

Take your list of pain points, and turn it into copy.

Identify and acknowledge the pain points in your audience. A cheesy way to do this involves asking ridiculous questions “You Have A Hot Date In Two Hours, But Your Suit Needs Cleaning Now! Who Will You Call?”.

That works, but it comes across a bit like a 1950′s used car salesman. A more modern technique is to refer to the problem more obliquely. “Immediate Dry Cleaning, While You Wait”. The suggestion is that other services don’t offer immediate dry cleaning. The customer connects the dots in their head. Note that this phrase “Immediate Dry Cleaning, While You Wait”, as is a result of me noting, following step one, that time, and shortage thereof, is a common pain point.

Your “medicinal” qualities become features. For example, “guaranteed service”, “we’re a phone call away”, “we pick up and deliver”, and “there is no garment we can’t clean within an hour”.

3. The Text Ad

The text ad is the same as the landing page step, except you must focus on the most “painful” point your customer is experiencing.

You haven’t got a lot of words to play with, and there are many words on the search results page fighting for the customers attention. The text ad is, of course, related to the search phrase, an analysis of which can also be used to isolate pain points.

Your text ad may focus on time and location: “One Hour Dry Cleaning”. The pain doesn’t need to be stated, just the solution, but you must first have identified the pain point in order to focus on time constraint as being the most important aspect.

Adwords Extended Headlines – Early Test Results

12 Comments Written on February 16th, 2011 by
Categories: Google Adwords

Google’s relentless march to completely indistinguishable ad layouts took a big step forward with the implementation of a change to the handling of headlines in ads found above the organic SERPs.

This change coincided with a move back to light yellow backgrounds on top-position ads, ditching the highly noticeable pink that’s been in place for a while now. (Anyone want to bet how long it will be until the background colours disappear completely?)

I’ve seen some crazy CTR-lift numbers batted around in PPC expert circles, with some managers reporting seeing lift as high as 50% or more.

Early Test Results

I ran my own split test to see how much the CTR can be lifted with these new, elongated ad headlines above the SERPs, and I thought I’d share the results so far.  The results were indeed positive, but not as good as I’ve heard others mention.

First off, it’s hard to isolate the test to only report on ads that appear above the SERPs, (sometimes Google will show the #1 and #2 ad on the right, where there’s no room for the extended headline to show).

So you have to find a keyword to test the new ads on where you’re sure that 99% of the time your ad appears above the serps where the new format will appear.

I have only one or two keywords where I can guarantee that happens and that have enough traffic to test with accurately, and yes, I realize that position 2.1 isn’t a guarantee that my ad will show above the SERPs even 99% of the time, but this is a keyword I’ve advertised on for years, and in my experience always has had (and continues to have) three ads shown above the organic results.

Anywhoo, I was able to run a pretty stable ad rotation and here’s the results thus far:

A 13% lift is great and I’ll take it, but I was expecting more, particularly when these new headlines look SO much like organic results.

I ran the test on other ads and keywords as well, the results showed no difference, but I think is because I couldn’t guarantee that the ads were not showing on the right, in which case a period isn’t going to make any difference to CTR per se.

Impact for Advertisers

The big thing I see here is that if your competitor is aware of this new change and is actually running ads with the new headlines, their CTR is going to rise leaving you in the dust in the auction.

Basically, you need to be first or pretty damn quick to implement it if you dont’ want to fall too far behind in CTRs and quality score.

Google’s ability to turn their revenue dials to bring in more paid clicks is truly enviable.  I can’t wait for their Q1 paid click results to see what impact this has had overall.

What CTR increases have you noticed so far?

Is There a Quality Score for Facebook Ads?

2 Comments Written on February 14th, 2011 by
Categories: Facebook Ads

Note from Geordie: The following is a guest post from Boulder CO.- based Kevin Weiner, a Facebook marketing specialist and consultant.  Kevin is one of the most talented Facebook marketers I know, and I’ve asked him to guest post on a number of “under-the-hood” Facebook Ads questions.

Does Facebook have a “quality score”?  In short, yes, but it applies more to reputation and account trust than Google’s ‘relevance’ driven quality model.

For people that run self serve ads on Facebook, the idea of having a ‘quality score’ almost seems like adding insult to injury. Simply getting ads approved consistently on Facebook is hard enough, let alone trying to keep track of some ‘account trust system’ metrics.

The good news is that a lot of the trust metrics are common sense, and it paying attention to these trust factors really can help how your accounts perform, and how much leeway they get in Facebook’s eyes. This translates into easier ad approvals, raised budget caps, and more warnings before they would consider disabling your ad account.

What Will Users Think?

The first thing to consider is whether the average Facebook user could either be upset or ticked off about the content in your ad or landing page. There really is a surprisingly large amount of people that like to complain about ad content and they will seek out internal Facebook emails and contact forms (which are not easy to find) to do so. People can also “x” out your ad, stating it’s either misleading or offensive.

If you’re getting reams of retroactive ad disapprovals then this is something you’ll to pay closer attention to.

Here’s an example of an ad that Facebook wouldn’t like:

Here’s a much safer one:

One big difference is the word “Googling.” Even though to google something is actually a word now, when people click on the ad and don’t end up seeing google anywhere, they get angry. The second ad is also much more transparent as it shows that it’s searches on MyLife.com that you’ll be able to view for your name, not Google history or logs.

As an aside, it’s no surprise that Facebook has since banned the use of “Googling” in ad text, as well as the actual MyLife offer (given the number of mislead users).

Take Email Warnings Seriously

Probably the biggest rule we play by on Facebook is if they send you any type of email warning about something specific they disike, make sure you NEVER DO IT AGAIN (or at the very least wait a long time). Facebook sends out warning emails like these to give you a second chance, so it’s something to take seriously.

Despite ongoing support to improve your ad quality, your ads continue to rank among the poorest quality in our ads system. A large number of users have expressed that your ads are “misleading” and/or “offensive”. As an effect, your advertising account is on notice. Please improve the quality of your ads within the next 14 days.

Are Your Ads Performing a Bit Too Well?

One of the most frustrating things Facebook does is actively penalize advertisers for having super high CTR ads over large demographics (.4% click-thru rate and up/500k users and up). The main reason for this is that since a much higher percentage of Facebook users are clicking on your ad, they are going to be that much stricter making sure there’s no possible way your ad could be misleading.

It’s pretty difficult for most ads to get their CTR that high, so Facebook can easily single out those ads for additional scrutiny. Finding the middle ground here between a slightly lower CTR and a higher conversion rate is difficult but often necessary.

Bottom line: For those of you that suffer from long approval times, frequent disapprovals, and low budget caps, actively working to improve your Facebook Ads’ account trust level (or ‘quality score’ if you like) will help  increase your campaign performance in direct and measurable ways.

Have a Facebook Ads question?  Post it in the comments and we’ll get Kevin to consider answering it in future posts!

Finding Your PPC Niche

No Comments » Written on February 10th, 2011 by
Categories: Business

Many people use PPC to promote existing businesses.

However, PPC is also well suited to the process of deciding on what business you should start. You can pick a lucrative niche using PPC data and a little self-inquiry.

If you start an internet business using the following method, you will avoid two of the biggest pitfalls common to many business start-ups – selling something no-one wants, or selling something everyone wants, but the market is already saturated.

Let’s look, specifically, how to do choose an internet business, and how to avoid these pitfalls.

1. What Are You Passionate About?

A friend of mine studied to be a lawyer.

He was well into his third year of study, when he woke up one day, and something was bothering him. Deep down, he realized that he didn’t really want to be a lawyer. He knew studying law would lead to a well-paid career, but the reality was that the work bored him.

What he really liked to do was create things.

He dropped out of law school, reasoning that if his heart wasn’t in it, he was only every going to be a mediocre lawyer. He would go through the motions, and would be unlikely to stand out from the crowd.

Instead, he followed his passion. He became a graphic designer.

What are you really passionate about? Forget the money for a minute – pretend all jobs are paid the same. What would you really like to do?

Problem: some people stop their analysis here.

Many people follow their passion, and fail to make a living. Passion is important, as it will get you through the tough times, but the reality is that it is not enough just to follow your passion if your aim is to make money doing what you love.

You need to take two more steps.

2. Is There Demand For What You’re Passionate About?

You can find out if there is existing demand using various keyword tools – Google’s Keyword Tool, Wordtracker, SEOBook, etc. More on keyword research here.

Look for areas where there are good levels of search volume. What is a good level? It depends. We’ll talk more about this in step three, however look for existing traffic streams at least in the hundreds, and preferably thousands and tens of thousands. Avoid areas where there is very little consumer demand as indicated by low traffic levels as this may be an indicator of low demand.

3. Can What You’re Passionate About Make You Money?

This is the critical bit.

You have identified your passion. You have identified existing demand. But many people still fail at this point. They fail because they don’t consider the likelihood of turning passion and demand into money.

For example, let’s say someone has identified their passion – web design – and they have found there is considerable keyword demand in the hundreds of thousands.

Trouble is, there are also hundreds of thousands of web designers all chasing the same work. The question then becomes “can I differentiate myself in order to stand out?”. This is the hardest question to answer. Whatever niche you choose, you are going to face competition.

Some people may choose to compete on price. Some people may choose to offer higher skill or service levels. All good, however consider that your existing competitors have probably already thought of those angles.

Carve Your Own Niche

Another way to approach competition is to carve the niche even finer.

Let’s say someone is a web designer. They may choose to focus exclusively on travel web design, as they have a passion for travel, too. They have worked in the travel industry and can leverage existing contacts.

Think about your background and how you can combine your passion with who and what you already know in order to come up with a unique advantage.

As mentioned in stage two, you need to be careful with the search volume numbers. Ensure you have enough volume in your niche. If your margins are high, you don’t need high volumes. If your margins are low, you’ll need to be putting considerable volume through in order to make a living.

Tip – if you’re a one-man band, it can pay to stay away from high volume, low margin businesses, as you need scale to make these work. If you’ve got a plan to scale-up, great, but if not, try to find areas where there are high profit margins.

For example, someone selling expensive, custom-made pianos may be able to make good money on a low volume of searches, whereas someone selling cheap art prints may not, even though there are many more searches for art prints than there are for expensive pianos. The market for cheap art prints is crowded, and if differentiating on price alone, the highest volume operators will win, as they can buy their stock cheaper from the manufacturers than a new entrant can.

There is no magic formula for this, other than applying some common sense. Figure out what the clicks would cost you, estimate a conversion rate (likely somewhere between 3-10%), determine the profit margin you need in order to cover your overheads and make a profit, and consider how many X you can deliver. X being a product or number of hours of a service.

Pulling It All Together

  • 1. Find your passion
  • 2. Determine if there is existing search volume for what you’re passionate about
  • 3. Determine if this passion is able to be monetarised. Evaluate competition levels. If high, try to cut the niche finer in order to arrive at a unique selling point in order to reduce competition. Estimate possible returns for that niche.

Oh, the Irony…

3 Comments Written on February 9th, 2011 by
Categories: Google Adwords

While researching where Google’s product review stars are pulled from I came across this little gem.

Who writes this stuff? Do they not see the blatant irony of Google telling business owners how to treat their customers while they pull every means of communication with their Adwords support teams, herding people into brain-dead support forums?

How can I improve my seller ratings and reviews?

The best way to improve your ratings is to make sure that your customers receive excellent customer service. Happy customers attract more happy customers who are willing to rate you well and tell others about your business or products.

Read the reviews about your business, and be proactive about resolving issues raised by your customers with a positive result that reasonably satisfies all parties, including you.

I’m speechless.

/rant

BREAKING: Keyword Research Shows You’re Probably Wrong

8 Comments Written on February 7th, 2011 by
Categories: Google Adwords, Keyword Research, Microsoft Adcenter

Note: This post is an abbreviated version of one of our PPCblog member’s training modules.  Not a member yet? Join Now and get instant access to reams of expert guidance and tips!

Get Ready for Some Humble Pie

Keyword research is as much about uncovering what you don’t know than reinforcing what you do.

Why is that?

Effective keyword research leads to really getting to know your prospects, which usually results in you completely throwing out your previous assumptions about what your customers want or think they want.

This can be a humbling experience as it can reveal holes in your PPC marketing strategy, both in your coverage of high-potential keywords and your landing pages.  Let’s dig into this a bit more deeply with a couple of examples…

Looking Beyond What “You” Would Do…

Many businesses approach Adwords with a pre-set list of keywords in mind, all of which are based on what they would look for if they were the customer.  The assumptions that come out of this approach can be incredibly limiting to the effectiveness and reach of an Adwords search campaign.

Why?  Because we typically jump to conclusions about whether a particular topic strain of keywords will be effective or not at bringing in paying customers.

Here’s some examples:

  • “Customers that are searching for a free product will never actually buy anything”
  • “My customers typically know my industry jargon”
  • “Customer with that particular type of problem won’t pay for a solution”
  • “My customers are well-spoken when searching online for my product”
  • “There’s nothing new in my industry that users would be looking for”

Let’s look at the first assumption: “Customers that are searching for a free product will never actually buy anything”.

Many advertisers shy away from bidding on keywords that include the term “free”, assuming the user will only accept a free solution, product, or advice.  This is typically not the case.  Searchers often start with a query or two including the word “free” even though they may be perfectly willing to accept an appropriate paid product or solution.

One of the biggest advantages of Adwords ads is their ability to redirect a searcher’s attention from organic, natural search results to an advertisement seamlessly.  This works well whether the user is searching for a competitor of yours or a free product.  Same difference.

Here’s an example:

The user may start out looking for a “free” software product, but may also very well end up clicking on and purchasing the IBM or Smartsheet products listed above the SERPs.

Actually, let’s be honest, the IBM ad sucks, so the Smartsheet ad deserves the click. The middle ad from Clarizen, highlights yet another strategy of using the word “free” but it’s a stretch given the fact that their actual landing page offer is a free trial only. One more thing to experiment with.

The big takeaway? Don’t be afraid to test out variants of your keywords that include the word “free”.

Industry Jargon & Buzzwords Are Your Friend

Next, reconsider the thinking that your customers somehow inherently know your industry’s buzzwords and jargon.  If you’re not in an ultra-specialized niche, it’s unlikely that they search for your product using the lingo you are most likely to use around the office.

Try to think past this assumption and envision the “dumbed-down” ways that your customers might be referring to your products or genre.  What would your mother call your niche or product? Stretch out and really think about how others who are not in your line of work would refer to your business, product or service.

The point here is that when you actually start digging into keyword possibilities using the tools out there right now- if you go beyond what you would personally look for- you’ll find amazing opportunities to reach customers who would have otherwise never found you.

Have you had any success testing your assumptions during keyword research? Share them in the comments!

Best Practice For PPC, Isn’t

1 Comment » Written on February 4th, 2011 by
Categories: Habits & Work Environment

No doubt you’ve heard the term “we follow best practice”, many times.

What does it mean?

The implication is that there is an objective methodology that is “best”, agreed upon by a group of operators, who all follow the same methodology, which is, of course, “the best”. After all, there is little point claiming to “follow worst practice”.

The Problem With Best Practice

The big problem with the term “best practice” is that it is a nonsense. How do you differentiate your marketing if your process, method, strategy & techniques are backwards looking?

If everyone follows an agreed standard of “best”, then everyone becomes just like everyone else, which makes them average, not best. Best Practice is a recipe for mediocrity.

Best practice implies “co-ordination”, “acceptance”, and “having stood the test of time”. It’s a secure-sounding phrase.

However, it can also be problematic, because the world – particularly the online marketing world – is uncertain and always changing.Restrictive practices can limit adaptation, which can turn practices from “best” to “worst”. Conventional wisdom repeatedly gets thrown under the bus. Experimentation and keeping your wits about you, especially in PPC, can mean the difference between success and failure. You can’t just be as good as your competition, you need to be better. Whatever their best is, you have to be better in order to win.

This is not to say there is no such thing as best practice or process. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel each time we do something.

For example, it could be considered best practice to use tight, keyword focused groups, as this is an effective way to keep quality scores high, and campaigns focused.

In the field of medicine, you want a surgeon who follows “best” practice, rather than deciding to randomly experiment on your left eyeball. You want best practices in medicine, accounting, and insurance. But in marketing it all comes down to testing.

Risk Is Good

In terms of PPC, you can afford to experiment and take risks. No one will die if you push a few boundaries.

Whenever you feel you’re getting into a rule-based mode of operation, ask the question:

“why?”

Why do we create ad groups this way? Why do we research keywords in the way we do? Is this ad copy really the best it can be, or could we try a different approach altogether?

Adopt the attitude “ok, this might be the “best practice”, the accepted way of doing things, but how can I push the edge out? Is there a way I can make it better?“

A Few Ideas…..

Don’t Bid To The First Position On PPC

Instead, find a site ranked highly and advertise on it. After all, the point is to get traffic/attention, and the top web site might be selling that traffic a lot cheaper than Adwords does.

Break All The Copywriting Rules

What if you write Adword copy that sounds mad? Does this get more clicks than something than copy that sounds sensible?

Don’t Use A Keyword Research Tool To Research Keywords

The problem with keyword research tools is you get the same lists as everyone else.

What are other ways to find out what people are interested in? How about identifying your customers and hanging out with them on forums, or Facebook, or wherever. What phrases do they use in normal conversation? Make a list of them. Are you seeing the same phrases over and over again?

Take Your Rules And Break Every Single One

Do you use small keyword groups? Make large ones. Do you bid during a certain time-period? Change all the hours. Do you bid cautiously? Go crazy. One caution – probably not a great idea to do this with a performing campaign, but try it with a new one. Breaking old habits can lead to fresh insights.

Challenge Accepted Wisdom

Every blog and forum you read – ask “why?”. Many people repeat what they think sounds good, but may have no basis in reality. By definition, those who do very well at something are doing something that everyone else isn’t. They aren’t following the exact same path.

Gates, Page, Brin, Zuckerberg – they all did something different.

Write your own “best practice”.

Quickly Create & Tweak Country-Specific Adwords Campaigns

No Comments » Written on January 31st, 2011 by
Categories: Geo Targeting, Google Adwords

Not every Adwords campaign starts off with the geographic targeting perfectly dialed in.  Often, marketers start by lumping a scads of countries in together, ignoring language and currency as well as differences in conversion rates from country to country.

So how can you quickly segment out a country or group of countries that either need to have their bids customized (higher or lower), keywords tweaked, or daily budget settings adjusted?

The quickest way in my experience is to create a carbon-copy of your existing multi-country campaign and make a few quick changes.

Clone Your Existing Campaign

To create a carbon-copy of your Adwords campaign to customize, use Adwords Editor.

In Adwords Editor, click the “Campaigns” tab, and select the campaign you’d like to duplicate:

Do a CTRL-C to copy the campaign.

In the campaign tree on the left, select your account at the highest level of the tree.  Looking right to the campaign tab again, CTRL-V and paste in your copied campaign creating duplicate.  Change the name to something that makes sense:

In this case, we want to isolate Mexican traffic as we’ve found while it converts, the conversion rate isn’t high enough to sustain the same CPC bids as those used in the U.S., (about 50% lower in fact).

Change Your Geo Settings

Now that we have a cloned copy of our campaign to work with, we can edit the country settings and choose just Mexico:

*We could also change the language targeting to Spanish at this stage if we were going to translate all of the campaign elements.

Important: Don’t forget to go back and remove Mexico from your old original campaign!

Bulk-Change Your Bids & More

What we really need to do with this campaign however is to bulk-reduce the bids without going into each adgroup and making individual bid changes.

The easiest way to do this is to use the ad scheduling feature only available in the online Adwords UI.

(Before posting your new campaign to Adwords, you may want to set the campaign status to “Paused” until you’ve had a chance to tweak the settings online, at which point you can activate the campaign when you’re ready.)

Post your new campaign.

To lower our bids across the board in the newly uploaded campaign, go into the campaign and select the “Settings” tab, scrolling down to “Advanced Settings” and click “edit”:

On the screen that pops up select “bid adjustment” instead of “basic” and click on the box that shows “% of bid” to edit it.  You can now reduce your bids across the board and apply this reduction to all days of the week in one go:

We’ve now effectively reduced our bids by 50% for Mexican traffic only.

You can also make daily budget adjustments here to spend less budget on an ongoing basis.

Splitting out high-traffic countries into their own campaigns and localizing your settings can also improve your quality scores, both in the campaign you’ve removed the extra countries from as well as the newly targeted campaign as quality score can often have a strong regional component.

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