Chapter
1: Introduction to AdWords
Chapter 2: Getting
Started with AdWords
Chapter 3: Targeting
Chapter 4: Costs
and Billing
Chapter 5: Tracking
Ad Performance
Chapter 6: Optimizing Ad Performance
Chapter 7: Account
Performance Tools
Chapter 8: Google Analytics
Chapter 9: Managing Client Accounts
Introduction to AdWords
AdWords
Basics
Google
and Google AdWords
Google
is a search engine Google uses keyword based advertising to
target your ads to users searching for your product or service
The
text ad headline is limited to 25 characters (including spaces)
Basic
AdWords Features
The
CTR helps determine whether your ad is effective If you elect to show your ads on the Google
content network, your ads will be eligible to show on websites that contain
content related to your ad. Google
ads can be targeted to any language or location available worldwide.
Benefits
of AdWords
There
is no minimum spending limit with Google AdWords AdWords allows an unlimited amount of changes
to an account per month Google Ads appear primarily on the right hand
side of the screen or above the search results and are titled “sponsored links” Your ads will appear when a user’s search
query includes a keyword that is part of your ad campaign You control the budget for your advertising
campaign. You can set a daily budget and Google will stop showing your ad when
you reach the daily limit.
AdWords
Policies
Link
Policy
A
Destination URL must
Link
to a working website NOT
link to website under construction NOT
require users to download software Sites
can not have pop-ups on the landing page An
example of an appropriate URL would be www.gmail.com
Editorial
Policy
Punctuation Policy allows only one exclamation
point in ad text Google allows certain common misspellings or
variations of words in ad text (for example: E-Z or foto). If you can find the
word in an online dictionary, it is probably ok Prices
stated in ad text must be supported within 1-2 clicks of the landing page. Free offers in ad text also must be supported
within 1-2 clicks of the landing page Superlatives are only allowed in ad text if
the claim can be backed by a legitimate third party.
Image
Ads Policy
A
display URL is NOT necessary to include in an uploaded image Image
ads are NOT allowed to be rotated or inverted Image
ads must be rated family-safe only Images
must be clear and readable No
mock animated features may be included in an image ad
Trademarks
Google trademarks are not allowed in ad text.
Google, Froogle, Gmail, Orkut, keyhole, and PageRank are all trademarks owned
by Google. Advertisers are responsible for their use of
other companies’ trademarks in their ad text and as keywords Google encourages trademark owners to resolve
trademark disputes with advertisers directly, but will begin a limited
trademark investigation after all mandatory information included in a claim is
received
Copyrights
Google’s policy on copyright claims applies to
ads, search results, and Google group postings. You can send a Google copyright claim form by
ground mail or by fax
Google
Invalid Clicks Policy
Repeated manual clicking, use of click robots,
or automated clicking agents or tools are prohibited Invalid clicks are used to inflate publishers’
earnings through AdSense or drive up an AdWords advertiser’s costs. Google closely monitors campaigns for invalid
clicks and automatically filters them out of any reports before you are charged If Google discovers you were accidentally
charged for invalid clicks, you’ll receive a credit for those clicks
Identifying
Invalid Clicks
If
your web log shows identical IP addresses, it does not necessarily mean you
have invalid clicks. Possible reasons for increase in clicks: Users
may be comparison shopping AOL, Earthlink, and Comcast assign identical
IP addresses to multiple users in the same geographic region Your
ad may be too general Competition may have decreased Your
ad may have been approved for the search or content network Seasonal products may be more desirable at
certain times of the year Increase in CPC bid will show your ad higher
on the page and increase clicks You
should suspect invalid clicks if: Review
your account for suspicious activity
2 or 3
times normal amount of clicks on a single day Number
of impressions is equal to number of clicks Compare your clicks over time If one
week is unusually different from another and can’t be explained Compare web log to Google reports Web logs should not have higher number of
clicks than Google reports show If you suspect invalid clicks contact click
quality control with the following info: Campaign, ad groups, and keywords associated
with suspicious clicks The
dates and times of the suspicious clicks A paragraph explaining why you believe the
click activity is invalid according to trends in logs or reports Data
in weblogs or reports that indicates invalid clicks
Pricing
and Ranking
Paying
for AdWords and Ad Ranking
No
minimum spending requirement. One
time $5 activation fee You
control your cost through: Daily
budget Bids
Quality score If your daily budget is set to less than the
recommended amount, your ads may show intermittently throughout the day, but
will not stop showing completely Higher
quality score = lower CPC minimum bid You
can set your CPC for each keyword or ad group in your campaign Keyword targeted ads are positioned based on
rank number Rank
number is determined by your quality score and CPC bid Google
determines your quality score by considering: Your
CTR The
relevance of your ad text Historical keyword performance Your
ad will never be locked out of top ranking position solely based on price
Terms
To Know
Search
Engine – A website that gathers and sorts information from the
Internet based on a specified topic Search Field – Input box in the
middle of the Google homepage
Search
Query – The keyword(s) a user types into the Google search
engine to find information on the Internet
CPC –
Cost per Click – You are charged every time a user clicks on your ad, but not
every time your ad appears in the search results
CPM –
Cost per Impression – You are charged every 1,000 times your ad appears on
Google whether it is clicked or not
CTR – Click Through Rate
– Clicks/Impressions x 100 = CTR%
Keyword
Based Advertising – Advertisements that are triggered by users
search query Daily budget – The daily spending limit for an AdWords
campaign
Text
ad headline – The title of your ad - used to attract
users interested in your product or service Display URL – Last line of
an AdWords ad. It indicates the URL of the website the ad is linked URL –
Uniform Resource Locator (also called web address)
Affiliates
–
People who get paid commission to promote a merchants website Superlatives –
Words that emphasize superiority over others (i.e. Best, Greatest, etc)
Call-To-Action
Phrase – Example “Buy here” or “Click here” are not allowed in
ad text because they are unrelated to the content of the site
Image Ad – A Google ad that
includes an image
Trademark
–
A word, phrase, logo, or symbol that identifies and distinguishes a product or
service from others in the marketplace
Copyright – The legal right
granted to an author, composer, playwright, publisher, or distributor to
exclusive
publication,
production, sale, or distribution of a literary, musical, dramatic, or artistic
work
Invalid
Clicks – Clicks generated through prohibited methods often with
the intention of driving up advertiser’s costs
Rank
Number: The result of your CPC bid x Quality score Daily
Budget: Spending limit you set on each campaign
Chapter
2
Getting Started with AdWords
Account
Types, Setup, and Structure
Starter
Edition vs. Standard Edition Accounts
Starter Edition – simplified version of
AdWords used to advertise a single product Standard Edition – utilized by users with
multiple ad campaigns and provides all the features AdWords offers You can graduate to a standard account at any
time, but can not switch back to starter edition once you have upgraded You
may want to graduate to a standard account if You
want to sell more than one product You
want to create more than one campaign You
want to target multiple geographic locations You
want to target multiple languages You
can always edit your keywords after setting up an account
AdWords
Account Structure
Account Your
account contains all your campaigns and ad groups Email address, password, billing information,
and account preferences are all part of your account information Campaigns Each Campaign has a name, start/end date,
daily budget, ad distribution preferences, and language/location targets Each
campaign is either keyword or placement targeted Each
campaign contains at least one ad group Ad
Groups Keyword or placement targeted Successful advertising= many small and highly
targeted ad groups Versatility – you can run as little as one ad
with a few keywords or up to 25 campaigns with as many as 100 ad groups each
Account
Navigation
Campaign
Management
You
can edit campaign language and location targets at any time You can search for words or phrases across all
campaigns, ad groups, and ads in your account by using the “search my campaigns”
box on the campaign summary page You
can customize the columns on the campaign summary page Choosing Accelerated Delivery tells Google to
show your ad as quickly as possible until your daily budget is met Ad
groups within a campaign can be paused from the campaign details page
Ad
Group Management
Keywords Tab Magnifying glass icon is used to see whether a
keyword is showing ads and to check the quality score Edit
your CPC bids Check
to see whether a keyword is showing ads Pause
individual keywords It is
possible to pause an individual text ad
My
Account Tab
Billing Preferences page View
method of payment Change
contact information Edit
payment details Account Preferences Edit
login, email address, password, display language Edit
Google Analytics Billing Summary View
invoices Access
page View
and control others’ access levels Invite
others to share the account Grant
users access Disable users access Report
Center tab Contains detailed account statistics Generate reports for different levels of your
account
Starting
Off Right, Organization, Keywords, Ad Text
Selecting
Keywords
List 2
– 3 word phrases that searchers might use to find your product or service Use
the keyword tool List
plural variations, synonyms, and spelling variations Keep
lists small and manageable Exact match keywords only show your ad when a
searcher types in the precise phrase without any words before, between, or
after Single word or general keywords are often too
broad and can lead to too many clicks from uninterested users Use
negative keywords to increase the accuracy of your campaign target
Writing
Targeted Ad Text
Rotate
your ads and automatically show your best performing ad more often The
most effective headlines directly relate to the keywords being searched Your
display URL does not have to be the exact same as your destination URL
Image Ads
Can be banner, leader board, small square,
square, inline, large rectangle, skyscraper, or wide skyscraper format Can
not exceed 50k file size Image
ads can be created in groups that target keywords, placements, or both
Video Ads
‘Click-to-play’ ads – the first thing a user
will see is a static image It is
best to deliver key message as soon as possible Before
creating a video ad you must enable the content network
Local
Business Ads
Can
NOT appear on Google content network Before creating an ad you must create a local
business listing in the local business center and on Google maps Format
of Local Business ads is different on Google maps and Google search network
Mobile Ads
Ads
that appear when users search on mobile devices Contain 2 lines of ad text with a maximum of
12-18 characters per line Your
mobile ad can connect users to your business phone Mobile
ads are either pay-per-click or pay-per-call
Traditional
Media Ad Formats
AdWords can help you reach offline customers
with print and radio ads Track
performance in Report Center Only
available to U.S. advertisers Free
call reporting You
can choose what newspapers and what sections of the paper to show your ad Print
Ads Announce sales and promotions Communicate a branding message Target
key audience segments Support multimedia campaigns Generate leads and promote conversions Audio
Ads reach hundreds of AM and FM stations across the country Reaches over 82% of population Increase brand awareness Influence brand perception and appeal Cost
effective Auction Audio Campaign Works
like pricing of keyword targeted campaigns Set
weekly budget and max bid per 1,000 listeners Ads
broadcasted based on available time slots for your price Reserve Audio Campaign Provide more predictability than auction
campaign You can reserve the exact time for ad to be
broadcast Pay a
set price determined by station
Terms
To Know
Keyword
Tool – generates potential keywords according to your existing
campaign settings and account performance history
Chapter
3
Targeting
Search
and Contextual Targeting
The
Google Network
Search
result pages like Google do not make up the majority of the web pages viewed on
the Internet Search
pages make up 5% of web pages Google
Network provides an alternative to search pages Google
automatically formats your ad to match the look and feel of different network
sites Text
ads can appear on search and content pages while image ads can only appear on
content pages You
can set bids separately for both search and content page ads Fine
tune your ads for search targeting by: Target
specific languages and locations Choose
highly relevant keywords Use
keyword-match types A low CTR on the content network will not
affect the ranking of your ad on search result pages A low CTR on content pages does NOT indicate
that your ad is not profitable
Contextual
Targeting
An
effective strategy for creating contextually targeted campaigns is to create
overall keyword themes A
Placement Performance Report provides the best information on your textually
targeted campaign Use
the site exclusion tool if you find that a particular site does not convert
well over time Point
all ads to the same destination URL Use
the Google content network to: Increase awareness by using multiple ad
formats Highlight your unique product to convert
casual site visitors into buyers Use call to action phrases like “Buy now”
Placement
Targeting
Introduction
Ads
with placement targeting do not share the ad space of a content page with any
other Google ads Placement Targeting campaigns are useful for
advertisers who want to build brand awareness Placement Targeted campaigns can be expanded
text ads, image ads, or animated image ads Campaigns with placement targeting offer the
ability to Expand
your ad to fill all ad space on a page Pay on
a CPM basis Choose which sites in which you want your ad
to appear Exclude sites that do not provide a good ROI
Creating a Placement-targeted Campaign
The Placement Tool gives you four different
ways to choose placements on which to show your ad The Site Tool helps you choose sites on the
content network on which you wish your ad to appear You can choose sites based on categories,
topics, similar URLs, or demographics
Pricing
and Ranking
Ads
with placement targeting compete with keyword targeting ads In order for an ad with placement targeting to
appear, it must outrank the effective CPM bids of the top four text ads with
keyword targeting combined
Language
and Location Targeting
How
AdWords Targets Users
Google does not consider a users previous
purchasing history when determining whether to show your ad Google
does not translate ad text Google
determines the location and language of a user through: Google
domain (i.e. Google.fr) Query
parsing IP
address Language Preference Detection
Language
and Country/Territory Targeting
Targeting ads to all countries and territories
is ideal for businesses that sell products globally Country and territory targeting allows your ad
to show anywhere in the locations you select
Region
and City Targeting
Helps
keep your quality score high and cost low Appear in a different format than
Country/Territory targeted ads – ads include the chosen region/city in the last
line of ad text Best for businesses that sell in a specific
region or city and want to avoid extra clicks from country wide users Use
the names of cities and regions you do not want to advertise to as negative
keywords
Customized
Targeting
Customized targeting is best if you wish to
reach an audience in a very specific area It is
possible to target an audience within a specified radius of your business
location Three
types of customized targeting Create
a circle around a specific address Create
a circle around a specific point (latitude/ longitude) Multi-point or polygon With
multi-point targeting you can create target areas of any shape or size
Keyword
Targeting
Keyword
Matching Options
Four
types of keyword matching Broad
– reach the widest audience/ allows other words included in search query, mixed
order of
words, related words
(i.e. car = buy used car, used car = car used, car = vehicle)
Phrase – triggers ad to appear when your
keyword phrase is included in a search query/ can include extra words before
and after keyword phrase (i.e. “buy car” = buy car cheap) Exact – most precise method of targeting/
triggers ad only when precise phrase is searched (i.e. [buy new car] = buy new
car) Negative – prevents ad from appearing when
irrelevant keywords are present (i.e. ‘buy toy car’ won’t show your ad if you
specify toy as negative) The
default setting for any keyword is broad-matched No
punctuation is necessary for broad-matched keywords Quotes
are used to specify phrase-match keywords Brackets are used to specify exact-match
keywords You can change keyword match types at any time
Implementing
Keyword Matching Options
Broad-match keywords provide the best
possibility for a high number of impressions Exact-match keywords will provide less
impressions, but a higher rate of conversions You can use multiple keyword matching options
for different keywords in the same ad group Negative keywords can be applied to an entire
campaign or to specific ad groups
Combining Keywords
and Placements
Combining
Keywords and Placements
AdWords ad groups can have keywords,
placements, or both If a placement is targeted by both keywords
and a placement, the individual placement bid will take priority The keywords and placements you choose, along
with your campaign settings, determine where on the content network your ad
will appear Three
possible ad group targeting combinations Keywords only Ads
can appear on search or content network Placements only Ads
can appear only on content network and only on pages you have specified Keywords and Placements Ads
can appear on search or content network Keywords and placements work together to
determine where on content network ads will appear Once
you have created an ad group, you can add or remove keywords or placements at
any time Keywords and Placements work together AdWords first matches keywords with possible
sites on the content network AdWords checks to see which placements match
the possible sites You Choose Search
network – Google and/or search partners Content Network – Relevant pages across the
network or relevant pages only placements targeted A Placement Performance Report (PPR) lets you
see which sites are providing the best conversions for your ad
Terms
to Know
IP Address- Internet Protocol
Address is a unique number assigned to each computer connected to the
Internet
Query
Parsing- Google uses the query entered into the search field to
determine what language and location ads should show
Content
Pages – web pages in the Google Content Network that show
AdWords ads Contextual Targeting – targeting determined by the page a
user is currently on
Broad–Match
Keyword – trigger ad from a search query including related words
or mixed words Phrase-Match Keyword – Ad triggered when keyword phrase
is included in the search query
Exact-Match
Keyword – Most precise method of targeting/ triggers ad only when
precise phrase is searched Negative Keyword – Prevents ad from appearing
when irrelevant keywords are present in a search query
Chapter
4
Costs and Billing
Cost
Control
How
AdWords Controls Costs
Google
rewards high quality accounts Your
Daily Budget must always exceed your CPC or CPM bid Choose
between standard and accelerated delivery of your ads Standard Delivery shows ads smoothly
throughout the day Accelerated Delivery shows ads until the
budget is reached Google may “overdeliver” your ad up to 20%
more than your daily budget to make up for days when the budget was not met If
Google exceeds your monthly budget you will receive a credit Preferred CPC bid allows you to set an average
amount you want to pay, rather than the maximum amount Content Bids are available for keyword
targeted campaigns and allows for different bids on the content and search
networks AdWords reduces your costs with the AdWords
Discounter and “Smart Pricing” Discounter reduces your cost to the minimum
amount needed to win your spot, works all the time, and causes your actual CPC
or CPM to be lower than your maximum bid Smart Pricing works all the time and reduces
the price you pay for a click on the content network if data shows it is less
likely to turn in to an actionable business result
Billing
Cycle
Basic
Billing Process
All
accounts are subject to a one time $5 activation fee The amount billed may be more than the credit
limit since ads do not stop running between the time the billing cycle is
triggered and the time the charge is completed. Prepay
and Postpay options depend on your address and chosen currency Prepay
– pay in advance of receiving clicks and Google deducts from your balance Postpay – you pay only after users click on your
ads and you accrue charges Billing occurs every 30 days or when the
account reaches its credit limit The Google billing threshold gets raised each
time an account reaches its credit limit within a 30-day period The initial credit limit of $50 is raised each
time an account reaches its credit limit within a 30-day period and the charges
are paid. Credit
limit increases from $50 to $200 to $350 to $500
Billing
Details and Issue Resolution
The
Billing Summary page differs for prepay and postpay accounts Prepay
will show balance remaining Postpay will how balance due Pending charges are advertising costs accrued
since the last time you were billed and can be viewed on the Billing Summary
page under Outstanding Balance Invoice Details page will show charges broken
down by campaign as well as billing adjustments like invalid click credits If a
payment is declined, Google suspends advertising for that account until payment
is received
Payments
Outside The U.S.
Payment
Options
Advertisers may not switch between Prepay and
Postpay options Google
Postpay options include Debit card, Direct Debit, and Credit card Using
Direct Debit allows Google to withdraw accrued charges directly from your bank
account Google
accepts Visa, Mastercard/ Eurocard, American Express, and JCB Google
Prepay options include Bank Transfer only When Google receives your bank transfer funds
you will receive a confirmation email and your ads will start running
VAT
or EU Advertisers
European Union Value Added Tax = EU VAT Customers living in the European Union, with
exception to Ireland, must self-assess their VAT charges All
European Union advertisers are effected by the VAT tax Advertisers enter their VAT registration
numbers upon account creation An
advertiser that does not submit a valid VAT number will be charged the Irish
VAT rate
Invoicing
Invoicing
Basics
Advertisers that meet Google’s requirements
may apply for Credit terms and monthly invoicing Advertisers on monthly invoicing must pay each
invoice by credit card, check, or wire transfer To qualify for invoicing, an advertiser must
spend at least $1,500 per month for 3 months and have an established credit
history with AdWords Once on invoicing terms, the advertiser’s
campaigns are no longer subject to suspension if a credit card is declined Credit
terms are determined at Google’s discretion In order to receive credit terms and monthly
invoicing you must submit a credit application and in some cases, additional
documentation If
approved, you will receive an offer of credit terms via email Upon accepting Google’s credit terms, you will
need to confirm billing information and your account will be switched to
monthly invoicing
Terms
to Know
Standard Delivery – shows ads smoothly
throughout the day
AdWords Discounter – reduces the cost of
CPC or CPM to the minimum amount needed
Smart Pricing –
reduces the price you pay for a click on the content network that is less
likely to turn into a sale
VAT – Value Added Tax
Chapter
5
Tracking Ad Performance
Quality
and Performance Basics
How
It Works
Your
keyword will be inactive for search if your CPC is below the minimum bid Quality Score is determined by CTR, Quality of
ad text and keywords, and Landing page relevance A high
Quality Score will decrease your minimum bid Keyword’s Quality Score, minimum bid, and
keyword state can fluctuate often due to the dynamic nature of search A High
CTR usually means your campaign is performing well A low
minimum bid usually means you keyword is performing well Ads Diagnostic Tool allows you to see if your
ad is showing for a particular keyword query Monitor your account to continually improve
quality
Ad
Visibility and Trouble Shooting
Account
Wide Issues
Billing information must be entered into
AdWords before you can start advertising Email
must be verified to see ads on Google If
credit card is declined your ads will stop running until billing information is
updated Not
sure why credit card was declined? Make
sure you entered the correct credit card number Check
to make sure you haven’t reached your credit limit Check
your cards expiration date Make
sure your billing address is correct If
everything on the checklist is correct contact your bank
Campaign-Specific
Issues
To get
full exposure of your ads from your daily budget, view the AdWords recommended
budget If your ad’s target location does not include
your location, you will not be able to locate your ad on Google Ads
will not show for a campaign that is paused, deleted, or ended A
paused, deleted, or ended campaign can be reactivated On the
Edit Settings page you can: Edit
the end date of a campaign Change the daily budget and compare to it to
the recommended budget Change delivery method Change
target audience and location Be
sure none of your keywords are cancelled out by negative keywords
Ad
Group Specific Issues
Your
ads will NOT show if the CPC or CPM are greater than the daily budget If your ad is disapproved because of editorial
policies it will only show after you have made the appropriate changes and
re-submitted it for review Ads in paused or deleted Ad Groups will not
show until the Ad Group is reactivated Sexually explicit ads will only show on pages
with adult material
Keyword
and Site-Specific Issues
Keywords that are inactive for search can be
re-enabled by increasing the keywords Quality Score Keywords marked inactive for search can still
trigger ads on content network sites A poor
performing keyword can affect the Quality Score of an entire ad group or
campaign
Reports
How
to Create a Report
Access
the Report Center under the Reports Tab AdWords Reports allows you to: Monitor the performance of your campaigns, ad
groups, ads, and keywords Identify important trends over time Generate spreadsheets to download Report Center allows advertisers to email
reports, download report spreadsheets, and view both data and graphs for
selected reports You
can view your report data, graphs, or data and graphs together While
a report is loading you can turn off your computer To
create a report: Go to
Create Report under the Reports Tab Choose
what type of report to generate Keyword Performance Ad
Performance URL
Performance Ad
Group Performance Campaign Performance Account Performance Search
Query Performance Placement Performance Choose
time period the report will be over– daily, weekly, monthly, etc Choose
date range Choose
which campaigns to include in report Name
your report You
can choose to run the report automatically every day, month, or set time period
Additional
Reports Features
You
can save your report within your AdWords account to view later The
Report Center will only save your 15 most recent reports If you create more than 15 reports, the system
automatically deletes the oldest Whenever a report runs you can have it emailed
to multiple recipients
Understanding
ROI
ROI:
Return on Investment a.k.a. ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) CPA:
Cost per Acquisition CPA can be a measure of advertising
effectiveness ROI Percentage= (Revenue-Cost)/ Investment x
100
Introduction
to Conversion Tracking
To use Conversion Tracking, you must have an
active ad and the ability to edit the HTML of your webpage Google’s Conversion Tracking tool is free In
order to pause conversion tracking you must click the “Pause Conversion
Tracking” button Steps
To Set-up Cross Channel Tracking: Choose
an advertising channel Create
a campaign for this channel – a separate campaign for each destination URL Paste
the tracking URLs into your related channel’s ads Insert
JavaScript code (provided by Google) into your websites landing page Test
your setup A Site
Stats text block should appear on pages where you have placed the conversion
tracking code Recommended placement of the text block is in
the lower right hand corner of the conversion page (the page that thanks your
customers for their purchase or visit) Do not
hide or modify the text block Verify
correct setup of Cross-Channel Tracking Check
that you can see the ‘Site Stats’ text block on the pages that you’ve placed
the code Test Data Gathering by completing a test
conversion or wait for a conversion to occur to avoid incurring an ad click
yourself Check cross channel reports Reporting may take up to 24 hours
Advanced
Conversion Tracking
Introduction
to Advanced Conversion Tracking
Effectively tracking advertising costs is
essential to understanding your ROI Use the Conversion Tracking tool under the
Campaign Management Tab to set up advanced conversion tracking Four
Main Types of Conversions Purchase/ Sale – tracks purchases and sales Lead –
how many users request follow-up calls Sign
up – sign up for subscription or newsletters Page
View – how many pages a user views and time spent there Other
– define your own conversion type Choose
language and security level – https:// is more secure Define the value of a conversion (a sign up
may be worth $25 to your company) Dynamic variables can be used in code for
non-static conversion values Adding a dynamic variable to the ‘Total Value’
field of your conversion tracking code will allow you to calculate the
accumulated value of conversions consisting of several purchases, each with a
unique value
Terms
to Know
Quality Score –
determined by CTR, quality of ad text and keywords, and landing page relevance
Report Center – AdWords tool that allows you to generate, email, and view
reports on the performance of your account
ROI –
Return on Investment ROAS – Return on Ad Spend
ROI
Percentage – (Revenue – Cost)/ Investment x 100 Conversions –
Purchase/sale, lead, sign-up, page view, or other
Conversion
Tracking – a way to edit the HTML of your webpage to automatically
track conversions Site Stats Block – a block that appears in the corner
of your webpage to confirm conversion tracking is working
Chapter
6
Optimizing Ad Performance
Optimization
Overview Preparing to Optimize
Optimization: Adjusting parts of your account
to improve performance of your ads Start
optimization by reviewing the webpage of the advertiser Go
through the motions of a customer to understand how they would experience the
site The
‘About Us’ page or something similar is a good place to start This
page often offers good keywords to use in ad text Review
the products and services offered Review
existing AdWords campaigns to see what has worked well so far (and what hasn’t) Research competitor’s sites Figure out the similarities and differences in
your products or services Find factors of your business to highlight in
your ads
Your
Website
Choosing
Landing Pages
Users
need to find what they want on your site quickly Link
the most relevant pages to your ads Landing pages should be easy to navigate Landing pages should include unique content
that highlights your service or product above the competitors’ Clearly define what your business is Provide information without requiring users to
register or log in Be
honest and clear about how and why you would be collecting someone’s
information Provide an easy path for users to get to
products and purchasing page Make sure your page loads quickly – 4 seconds
is best
Your
Account
Account Optimization
Optimization makes your ads more effective Increases the rate at which you connect with
customers Raises
your ads position on the search results page Increases your CTR Decreases your costs Three
main areas for Optimization Campaigns – organize, modify location or
language Ad
Groups – edit keywords, ad text Website – choose more relevant landing pages,
make page easier to use If
your CTR is low or costs is high, it is time to optimize
Advanced
Optimization Features
Ad
scheduling – control the days and times your ads appear All ad
groups within a campaign follow the campaign scheduling Enable
ad scheduling on the ‘edit campaign settings’ page under ‘advanced options’ Set
correct time zone You
can raise and lower your bid during set time periods
Optimizing
Ad Position, Position Preference
If you
know your ad gets the most hits when in a certain position, you can set a
position preference Position preferences are not guaranteed Selectively target less expensive positions in
order to increase ROI Beneficial if you are only interested in
position 1 and 2 – your ad will only show in those positions You
can set highest and lowest preferred positions The
AdWords system will adjust CPC to fit within preferred position Position preferences can be enabled for
campaigns and individual keywords Position preferences do not work with Budget
Optimizer tool The Report Center can show position
preferences Does not work with preferred CPC bidding
Specific
Optimization Strategies
Increasing
Traffic/ Clicks
Create
new or unused unique keyword variations Use
plurals and misspellings Create
keywords for unadvertised products Create
keywords for product categories Product types or Models Include more general keywords Generate lots of impressions Separate high traffic keywords into different
ad groups Increase daily budget to increase traffic on
all keywords Increase maximum CPC or Quality Score Ensure distribution preferences are set to
maximize traffic Broaden Geo targeting settings
Increasing
Conversions
Conversion Optimization requires understanding
the Buying Cycle Consumers go through different stages while
buying a product Keywords should address each part of the
Buying Cycle Awareness/ Interest: Customer learns
about product Retention/Advocacy: Target with words like
‘accessories’ to target loyal owners of a product Negative keywords help filter out uninterested
users More specific keywords tend to convert at a
higher rate Including prices in ad text may save you the
cost of a click
Adjusting
CPCs to Maximize ROI
Adjusting your CPC should be an ongoing
process to reach your ideal CPC CPC
affects position which in turn affects CTR and ROI Monitor your account after making changes
since CPC can drastically affect CTR and Impressions Factors to consider before changing CPCs Length of time keyword has been running – It
takes time to acquire the data to tell if a keyword is performing well Position – position affects CTR and ROI, try
changing a poorly performing keyword’s position before deleting it Determining ROI How
much value a keyword generates as compared to cost Track
conversions from keywords If
value per click is higher than average CPC there is a profit If
average CPC is higher than value per click than there is a loss Increase CPC of profitable keywords for more
exposure and traffic Decrease CPC of non-profitable keywords To
determine your minimum bid Create
a custom report for minimum bids Edit your keywords’ CPCs or URLs in your Ad
Group Details page Edit your keywords in your Ad Group Details
page
Terms
to Know
Optimization
–
the process of adjusting your account to improve performance of you ads and
produce a greater ROI
Buying Cycle – the process
consumers go through before purchasing; awareness, purchase, retention
Chapter 7
The AdWords Toolbox
Account
Performance Tools
The
Keyword Tool
The
keyword tool is used to Find
new keywords Find
negative keywords Estimate traffic for existing keywords View
expanded matches that may trigger your ads Ad new
keywords directly to an ad group or download them The
Keyword Tool provides results based on your existing campaign settings and
account performance
history
If the
keyword tool offers irrelevant variations, you should ad them as negative
keywords When selecting keywords from the keyword tool,
look for terms that are highly relevant to your product or service The keywords generated by the Keyword Tool
have not been reviewed and are therefore not guaranteed approval by AdWords Site
Related Keywords Tab – used to generate keywords based on the content of a
webpage After
adding keywords from the Keyword Tool, you can Estimate their potential traffic Add them to your ad group Download them as a .csv file
Site
Exclusion
The Site Exclusion Tool allows you to stop
your ad from being shown on certain websites in the Google Content Network The Site Exclusion Tool is located under
‘Tools’ on the Campaign Management Tab Site Exclusion is applied at the campaign
level
Analytics
Tools
The
Traffic Estimator
Used
to estimate: Your
ads position based on keyword selection and max CPC Your
daily advertising costs by keyword or Ad Group The
number of impressions and clicks your keywords will generate Your
keywords status and minimum bid The
traffic estimator is located on the Campaign Management Tab under ‘Tools’
My
Change History Tool
Located on the Campaign Management Tab under
‘Tools’ Used
to view changes you have made to your account in the last three months Allows
you to view changes within Daily
Budget Keyword edits and additions Change
in distribution preferences Changes made via the AdWords API If
multiple people manage the account, you can view who made what changes The My
Change History Tool will not display CPC
changes made by the Budget Optimizer Changes made by the Ad Automator Ad
approvals or disapprovals Password changes
Troubleshooting
Tools
Ads
Diagnostic Tool
Used
to: See if
your ad is appearing on the first page of search results Determine why a particular keyword is not
triggering your ad Identify why a particular ad or group of ads
is not showing Access the Diagnostic Tool under the Keywords
Variation Tab to get information on each individual keyword Or
access the Diagnostic Tool from the Campaign Management Tab under ‘Tools’ Hover over the Magnifying Glass icon next to a
keyword to be presented with details on that particular keyword
Disapproved
Ads Tool
Tool
displays: All
ads in your account that have been disapproved The
location of your disapproved ads The
reason for disapproval Suggestions from AdWords to get your ad
approved Date
of the disapproval Disapproved Ads Tool is located on the
Campaign Management Tab under ‘Tools’ Once you edit your ad it will automatically be
sent for review by AdWords for approval
Chapter
8
Google Analytics
Google
Analytics Basics Introduction to Google Analytics
Google
Analytics is used to report on the performance of your webpage Google
Analytics provides reports on: Performance of all your ad campaigns How
visitors use your website Understanding how users interact with your
website is key to building an effective online business Helps
answer questions like Why
are visitors abandoning my shopping cart page? Is the
design of my website inefficient? Which
marketing initiatives work best? How
are people finding my business? What
do users do while visiting my site? What
keywords generate the most conversions? Some
of the things you can do with Google Analytics include: Evaluate ROI of all marketing efforts Evaluate visitor navigation to identify
problem areas Track
revenue and conversions Track
any browser based events Define
groups of users by age and gender Spend
time exploring reports to fully understand the large amount of information
provided To install Google Analytics to your website,
simply place the Google Analytics Java Script tracking code within the body of
the HTML on each page you want to track
Introduction
to Google Analytics Settings
Use
multiple profiles to track several domains, sub-domains, or sub-directories You
can have up to 50 profiles in your account Under
Website Profiles Area you can: Add
new profiles View
reports for each profile Edit
profile settings Delete
profiles Editing Conversion Goals A conversion occurs when a visitor to your
site completes an activity that you have identified as a goal, such as a
purchase, signup, download, or page view A
funnel is a series of pages a user must pass through before reaching the goal Editing Filters Filters are used to manipulate your data to
depict your reporting objectives Exclude Filters – exclude specified data from
your reports Editing Profile Users A user
is someone that can log in to your analytics account Change
first or last names and access type Access
type can be administrator or ‘view reports only’ Add
new or existing users Analytics and AdWords logins are separate
Tracking
Your Advertising Campaigns
Campaign Tracking enables you to monitor the
effectiveness of various marketing efforts AdWords Ads Other
CPC Ads Banner
Ads Email
Newsletters Offline Advertising Reports allow you to compare different ads
side by side Campaign Tracking Variables are identifiers
you attach to the hyperlinks that lead to your website in order to track ads Reports will show where the clicks to your
website are coming from Attaching Campaign Tracking Variables to a
hyperlink is called Tagging Tagging is not necessary for all links since
Google Analytics will track some types of referrals You
can enable auto-tagging under the Account Preferences Tab Tagging is not necessary for AdWords URLs Links
from search engines (organic) Links
from referral sites such as portals and affiliates You
should tag All non-AdWords paid keyword links Banners and other ads Links
are tagged with the following Campaign Tracking Variables Campaign Name – track campaign name or product
promotions, use auto-tracking feature for AdWords referrals Source – Track where customers found your
hyperlink (i.e. Google.com or Email Newsletter) Medium – Helps to qualify the source (i.e.
organic or CPC from the source Yahoo.com) For
AdWords auto-tagged accounts the medium is automatically CPC Content - Optional Variable used to test
different versions of an ad Called
A/B content testing For
AdWords auto-tagged accounts, the content variable is the first line of ad text Term –
Tracks keyword or phrase that triggered the ad If you don’t manually tag your links, Google
Analytics will automatically assign source and medium values that will show in
your reports Automatically assigned source values are
usually the domain of the reffering site Another source you may see in reports is
“direct” which means the user had the URL bookmarked or typed it directly into
the browser Automatically assigned Medium values will
often follow the source value Organic – visitors referred by unpaid search
engine result Referral – visitors referred by links that
were not paid Not Set – visitors referred by links which
were tagged with Campaign Variables, but not with a Medium Variable Direct/None – visitors used a bookmark or
typed the URL Several Reports show traffic from tagged
initiatives All
Traffic Sources Report – displays all traffic that comes to your site Ad
Versions Report – Traffic assorted according to content Campaigns Report Search Engines Report – View how well your
paid keywords for a particular search engine are performing
Terms
to Know
Campaign
Tracking Variables – identifiers attached to the hyperlinks that
lead to your website in order to track ads
Tagging – the process of
adding campaign tracking variables to links
Chapter 9
Managing Client Accounts
My
Client Center
The
purpose of My Client Center (MCC) is to centralize and manage all your AdWords
accounts Useful
for advertising agencies, search engine marketers, and automated bid managers Useful
for advertisers with very large campaigns that cannot be easily managed in one
account With
MCC you can access all your accounts with one password and move between
accounts easily You
can receive a My Client Center account by signing up as a Google Professional Sign
up under the “Google AdWords Professionals” link on the Google homepage Google allows two or more of your clients to
use the same keyword as long as they have separate accounts My
Client Center allows you to Run a keyword report for a linked account View recent charges for a linked account Modify
the daily budget for a campaign in a linked account The only way to edit a clients billing
information, login, and password is to log directly into the clients account The
Dashboard Report displays the following Status
Alerts Start
and End date Budget Account description
Selling
AdWords
Selling
the Benefits of AdWords
Google AdWords is effective because your ads
reach users at the moment they are interested in your product or service AdWords is particularly effective for Generating leads or sign-ups on your website Generating sales or conversions Brand
marketing and brand awareness An
advertiser only pays when a user clicks on their ad AdWords ads are seen by over 80% of Internet
users in the United States every month AdWords allows for easy tracking of
conversions
Understanding
the Basic Google Sales Pitch
Four
steps to creat an effective advertising campaign Create
relevant keywords and ads grouped by goals Test
multiple ad copies and keyword variations Use
reporting tools to measure results Refine
campaigns and keep what is working Once
an ad campaign is created, it should be monitored regularly and modified for
best results Four
step client start-up process Define
marketing objectives, metrics, and budget Deliver proposal, including messaging and
budget options Receive client approval and sign-off Launch, monitor, and modify campaigns to meet
objectives Share reports with client and refine
Handling
Common Questions and Concerns
Why
use Google over another search marketing organization? Approximately 50% of Internet users use Google
as their primary search engine That
is almost 2.5 times more than any other search engine 89% of
Google users rated their experience as “strongly positive” Why
use search marketing? Relevant, real-time, and extensive ad
distribution Measurable results Total
control of spending and targeting Generates leads or sign-ups on your website Generates sales or conversions Effective for brand marketing and brand
awareness Respond to common objections such as “I don’t
need to advertise” or “I don’t have the budget” Start with a budget of one dollar per day to
demonstrate the possible return on investment AdWords will never charge more than the set
CPC and with Smart Pricing, advertisers are charged the minimum amount
necessary to show their ad
AdWords
API
AdWords
API Overview
Application Programming Interface (API) is
another way to manage your AdWords accounts through programs that you write AdWords API is most beneficial for online
marketing agencies with multiple clients and for advertisers with technical
backgrounds and/or programming skills AdWords API is a good substitute for
screenscraping In
order to access AdWords API, advertisers must already have a My Client Center
account With
AdWords API you could Create/Manage campaigns and ad groups Get
traffic and performance estimates View
clicks, click through rates, average position Retrieve account performance reports Modify
Ad Syndication preferences Change account login information and password View basic API usage information Benefits of using API High
efficiency Compatibility with many programming languages Innovative uses of AdWords Simple
and quick to sign up
Getting
Started
To
sign up for AdWords API go to www.google.com/apis/AdWords Developer and Application tokens are necessary
to access AdWords API Token
– a combination of letters and/or numbers that identify your AdWords API
activity Developer Token – one per account, shows user
as approved developer Application Token – one per account (can apply
for more), shows approved application for API usage Fee-based quota system Rate
is 25 cents per 1,000 quota units The API operations quota is defined by the
total account spend and the number of clients managed Updating the bids on 1,000 keywords would
equate to 1,000 operations
API
Implementation
Web
Services provided by AdWords that give programmatic access to AdWords accounts
include Data
Services Criterion Service – provides information about
targeting criteria, create and modify keywords and website targeting criteria Keyword Tool Service – generate keywords based
on a website or specific keywords Account Service – modify AdWords account
features Info
Service – allows you to obtain basic information on your API usage Traffic Estimator Service – provides
operations for estimating traffic for keywords, campaigns, Report Service – allows you to request a
report about the performance of your AdWords campaigns Data
Services Campaign Service – create, update, access,
list and perform campaign-wide operations such as changing the daily budget,
pausing a campaign, or adding new ad groups Ad
group Sevice – create, access, or update ad groups, add keywords and creatives Keyword Service – create, update, or access
keywords, specify keyword type and text CreativeService – create, update, and access
creatives API Data Services allow you to manage
campaigns, ad groups, keywords, and creatives Use of batch operations is encouraged over
single operations
Terms
to Know
My Client Center – account management
tool provided by Google
Application
Programming Interface (API) – a tool used to manage
AdWords accounts through programs you write
Developer
Token – a combination of letters and/or numbers that identify
your AdWords API activity – only one per account
Application
Token – a combination of letters and/or numbers that identify
your Adwords API activity and shows approved application for API usage –
can apply for more than one per account
Batch Operations – API applied to a
group of items at once