Have A Plan When Determining Your Google’s Ad Destination

When creating ads to use advertising in the Google AdWords system, advertisers have a number of fields they must complete in order for their ads to be eligible to display.  These fields include the title/headline (limited to 25 characters), description line 1 (limited to 35 characters), description line 2 (limited to 35 characters) and the display URL (also limited to 35 characters).  In addition, advertisers must enter the URL on their website that they wish users be taken when their ad is clicked.  This URL is called the destination URL and properly selecting the destination URL is vital in the success of an advertising campaign and here are the reasons why.

Relevant to all Google advertisers including both Professional Services as well as eCommerce, it is important to direct users to a page within a website related to the ad shown and to the keyword that generated the ad being shown. By doing this an advertiser can ensure the user a good customer experience.  Why is this important?

Two reasons:

1. With Google Ads, advertisers are paying for the customer to be directed to their website. The last thing that advertisers wants to do is to pay for a visitor to come to their website, not find what they were looking for or are expecting and immediately hit the back button (called a bounce). A high bounce rate (the number of customers that navigate away from the website after viewing one page divided by the total amount of customers) costs advertisers money and results in no additional income for the advertiser.

2. If Google determines that an advertiser’s ads are generating a larger than normal bounce rate compared to other’s advertising on the same keyword, Google will lower the quality score on the keywords that are generating the high bounce rate. A lower quality score can result in higher CPC (cost per click) charges for an ad to be served and may even affect whether your ads are eligible to be shown at all! (See my post Why Advertisers Need To Know Their Quality Score for more information).

Review-and-Ratings-SystemSo what can advertisers do to make sure their landing pages are relevant to their ads?

1. Keyword Targeting – Make sure the keywords in your Google campaign that are triggering an ad are also contained on the page that users are being directed to when clicking on the ad.

2. Proper Ad Targeting – Make sure the ad is accurately setting expectations as to what a user can expect at the website once they click on an advertiser’s ad.

3. Use Home Page For A Destination URL Judiciously – The home page should be used as a destination URL sparingly. Only keyword terms for a website’s brand name and the most generic terms should be directed to the home page.  All other ads should link to webpages within a website further down the sales channel that are geared toward the user’s search as described above.  Remember, the end goal is having the user take some sort of action once they reach the website.  This could be a sale for an eCommerce advertiser or completing a contact form for a Professional Services advertiser looking for lead generation. 

In today’s world of information now, users simply will not search your website to find the information they are looking for once they arrive at a website.  Users expect and demand that the page they land on is suited to what they are looking for and expecting.  The negative result of not giving customers what they want is a quick exit from your website and the user moving on to one of your competitors.

Let’s now look at some examples to cement the point:

Suppose you are a dentist offering cosmetic treatments such as teeth whitening and you bid on the term “teeth whitening”.  You very well may have an ad that looks like one of the top 3 advertisers in the image below. All 3 advertisers in this example do a great job of including the keyword or some variation of “teeth whitening” in their ad; however, when the ads are clicked only 1 of the 3 advertisers directs the user to a page on their website specifically geared for teeth whitening.  So which advertiser do you think is going to have the most success with their ad in terms of conversion?

If you said the advertiser that is taking the user directly to a dedicated teeth whitening page, you are likely correct.  For every page a user needs to navigate within a website there is an increased chance the user will exit the website before ever even seeing the information they were originally searching on Google.

Google Search As Seen For "Teeth Whitening"
Google Search As Seen For “Teeth Whitening”

Another interesting example of my point is for the search term “drop safes”.  The majority of advertisers for this term have the keyword “drop safe” in their ad, which again is great.  The interesting fact here is the smaller advertisers take the user to a page specifically designed for drop safes, while the two larger retailers: Amazon and Lowe’s direct the user to a generic page for all safes.  (An interesting find and an example where smaller retailers can indeed gain a competitive advantage over the bigger box stores, but that is a subject for a different day).

Google Search As Seen For "Drop Safe"
Google Search As Seen For “Drop Safe”

Summary

If an advertiser is going to spend the money to drive traffic to their website using Google PPC ads, they need to ensure they are taking the time to create pages geared toward the search terms they are advertising.  This is a vital, yet sometimes overlooked step in creating a successful Google advertising campaign.

A great ad is a great start and a great website with clearly defined goals (either sales for eCommerce or lead generation for Professional Services) that engages their customers is even a better start, but don’t forget to have a plan when determining which page to send the visitors you receive through a Google PPC campaign.

Still need help or looking for someone to bounce ideas off? I am currently offering free marketing strategy sessions to those interested. Contact True Online Presence at 1-888-456-6943 to schedule.

Happy Marketing!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Andy Splichal is an online marketing strategist  with more than a decade and a half of experience helping companies increase their online presence and profitable revenues.  Although this blog focuses on driving profitable traffic through Google AdWords, True Online Presence offers additional services for lead generation as well as other proven marketing strategies customized for each client.

 

When It Comes To Your Google Ads, Size Does Matter

Advertisers using Google search are (or at least should be) well aware of the character limitations that Google makes available in their search ads. If you are not, here is a recap:

Title/Headline – 25 Characters.
Description Line 1 – 35 Characters.
Description Line 2 – 35 Characters.
Display URL – 35 Characters.

If an advertiser’s ad violates Google’s character ad limits listed above one of 3 things will happen:

  1. Ad disapproval – The ad will not run.
  2. Domain disabled – The advertiser will no longer be allowed to advertise until the issue is resolved.
  3. Account suspension – Google will no longer accept any advertising from the advertiser.

As you can see, Google takes violations of their character limits very seriously, so it is advised to adhere to their policies. 

However, there is an allowed way to lengthen and advertiser’s ads and allow ads to stand apart from the competition.  It is called Google Ad Extensions.

Google Ad Extensions – What They Are

Ad extensions are extra information that Google allows to be placed inside ads.  This extra information works to increase visibility and in many cases can dramatically improve CTR (click through rate), increasing traffic and improving ROI (rate on investment).

Ad extensions are not guaranteed to appear, but often do appear when ad advertiser’s listing is displayed in one of the top three ad positions.  The best part, ad extensions do not cost any more than normal ads without ad extensions. An account is only charged when an ad is clicked, so with an increased CTR and improved ROI a real possibility it is a no brainer to add strategic ad extensions to your existing campaign.

There are several different ad extensions available including sitelink extensions, call extensions, location extensions, review extensions, seller rating extensions, dynamic sitelink extensions,  app extensions and Google newest ad extension, the callout extension (see my post – Why Google’s Newest Ad Extension Provides A Competitive Advantage for detailed information on properly using this extension).  The type of ad extensions best used depends on each advertiser’s unique campaign and business.

Below, I will focus on 3 of Google’s most popular ad extensions – Sitelink Extensions, Call Extensions and Location Extensions. Looking at these popular ad extensions in what they are, how to properly implement and examples of each extension in use.

Review-and-Ratings-SystemGoogle Sitelink Extensions –

Sitelink extensions are extra information that allows a marketer to add up to 4 additional links for unique URLs to a standard ad.  They are eligible to be displayed on Google’s Search Network for mobile, tablet and desktop. 

The biggest advantage of using sitelink extensions is that users can be sent directly from an ad to a targeted page on the website that has the most interest to them.  This allows a user to go directly to a page that interest them, thus increasing conversion by not forcing users to further search for what they are looking for once they arrive on your website.

Below is a great example of sitelink extensions as used by UGG Australia. As you can see in the  image below, a search for UGG displays an ad for UGG Australia, but not only can a user go directly to the UGG home page, but they also have the ability to click on one of four sitelinks below the main ad which will direct users to either Women’s Slippers, Men’s Slippers, Women’s New Arrivals or UGG Online Exclusives.  These choices allow users to land on a page more relevant to them thus helping increase conversion.

UGGAnother benefit of sitelink extensions is that ads implementing them take more real estate on the page.  In this case, you will notice the ad in fact takes so much real estate it pushes all of their competitor’s ads to the right of the organic search.  Ads using sitelink extensions are larger and more prominent on the page a factor that has been found to significantly increase click through rates (CTR).

Google Call Extensions –

In 2013, Google stopped allowing advertisers to include their phone number inside their ads.  However, what they now do allow is for advertisers to use a call extension. 

In a nutshell, what call extensions do is to place an advertisers phone number on their ads and then when displaying on a mobile device it replaces the phone number with a call button.  The button allows customers to easily contact advertisers while on the go or to pick up the phone directly from their search from a desktop or tablet opposed to clicking on an ad and searching for a phone number.  Once you have the customer on the phone, well it is up to you and your sales team to deliver!

Call extensions where the call button is pushed are charged the same as a click on your ad.  Meaning that you will only pay what you were willing to pay for a click if the phone number is dialed from a mobile device, however now they are speaking to a live person instead of simply browsing your site and again call extensions make ads more prominent which increases CTR (click through rate), Google estimates between 6-8%.

Call extensions shown on search are not clickable if a customer decides to call the number listed instead of clicking on the ad, well in that case there would be no charge.

Currently call extensions are not available for Display Network aka Remarketing or Display Network aka Google Shopping, but for search they can be used across all devices.

Below is a look at how internet retailer Trenz Shirts uses call extensions as displayed on a laptop to increase visibility and CTR rates.  (Notice, they are also using sitelink extensions).

Phone-ExtensionGoogle Location Extensions –

Recommended exclusively for advertisers with brick and mortar location(s), location extensions as the name implies allows advertisers to list their business address, phone number and map marker alongside their ad text. For mobile, they will include a link with directions to the business.

Location extensions are great in that they encourage consumers to visit an advertiser’s physical location.  Multiple locations can be added manually or by linking accounts through Google’s My Business and location extensions allow marketers to target ads around specific business addresses.

Do they work?  Absolutely. Google estimates that ads that utilize location extensions increase click through rates (CTR) on an average of 10%!  Again this is due in part to giving your ads more prominence along with giving location and the confidence that is brought by having a physical location in today’s fly by night Internet world.

Here is an example,

Location-ExtensionIn the image above, you can see Home Depot using location extensions.  Their 500 S Marego Avenue address was listed as it is the closest address to the user doing the search.  You will notice that a map marker was also shown allowing potential customers to easily navigate to the store using Google maps.  And, to benefit, if a customer does not click on the ad or the location extension, the advertiser is NOT charged although the user is able to still see the address and know the location!

Why Use Google Ad Extensions?

Not every ad extension is applicable or right for every company, but across the board they have been found to positively increase both click through rate (CTR) and rate on investment (ROI). Plus there are no additional fees for using, so there is really no reason not to test the different Google ad extensions to see what works in your PPC campaigns.

Still need help or looking for someone to bounce ideas off?  I am currently offering free marketing strategy sessions to those interested. Contact True Online Presence at 1-888-456-6943 to schedule.

Happy Marketing!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Andy Splichal is an online marketing strategist  with more than a decade and a half of experience helping companies increase their online presence and profitable revenues.  Although this blog focuses on driving profitable traffic through Google AdWords, True Online Presence offers additional services for lead generation as well as other proven marketing strategies customized for each client.

Enhancing Google Shopping Using Promotions {updated 3/18/20}

Google changed their Google Shopping model to a Pay Per Click model in October 2012.  Since that change, Google has been extremely focused on providing their users an effective shopping portal that allows consumers to compare prices for the same product among multiple retailers.  

Google has added numerous tools that allow advertisers to more effectively market their products and create while helping advertisers differentiate themselves from others selling the same products.

One of the most effective tools for eCommerce advertisers wanting to differentiate from the competition is the ability to add promotions to their products listing on Google Shopping.

Once an advertiser has properly implemented their feed in a Google Merchant Center account and linked the feed to their Google Ads campaigns (see my article Google Shopping – What It Is, How It Has Changed), the advertiser has the ability to add promotions to their products.

Getting Started With Google Promotions

Before advertisers can add a promotion to their products in Google Shopping they need to request authorization from Google.  In order to be approved, advertisers need to complete the Google Merchant Promotions Interest Form.  This form requires advertisers to enter their promotions target country, merchant center account number, name, URL homepage and contact information.  Once submitted it usually takes Google approximately 24 hours to review and approve the request.  Google will send the contact email confirmation once and if the approval has been granted.

Adding Promotions Once Approved

Once an advertiser has been approved a new promotions link will appear in the left dashboard of the Google Merchant Center account below the Marketing link. By selecting the Promotions link, advertisers are able to add a variety of promotions to enhance their Google Shopping listings.

To add a promotion, navigate to the Promotion section and select the blue + button and enter a promotion. 

You will be prompted to enter your country/language; destination and promotion category (amount off, percentage off, free gift or free shipping).

Next, you will be prompted to enter a promotion title (describes promotion – shown to customers); a promotion id (used for internal tracking – NOT shown to customers), designate which products are eligible for the promotion; enter the promo code (if needed) and your start and end dates.

Once you click on the CREATE PROMOTION button you are set.

Google will review the promotion, which includes both a policy review as well as a validation review. 

If the promotion complies with Google guidelines, the promotion should be approved and will become active for product ads in either Google Shopping, Shopping Actions or both (depending on which was selected while creating the promotion). In general, the approval process takes less than 24 hours and the advertiser will receive an email notification once approval has or has not been granted.

Google Restrictions For Promotions

The following are the current Google requirements for having a promotion approved.

  1. The title of the promotion must contain the value of the promotion and the text may not exceed 60 characters.
  2. The title cannot be misleading.  It must specifically and clearly state the promotion.  Example of a valid promotion: Save 10% On Entire Order. Example of an invalid promotion, Save Up To 10%.
  3. If there is a maximum discount threshold, it must be clearly stated.  Example, Save 10% On Entire Order (max discount $30).
  4. Title cannot include expiration dates.  Example, Save 10% On Entire Order – Ends 3/31/20.  Don’t worry, there is a field to enter when the promotion begins and ends when creating the promotion.
  5. Promotion title must be concise and cannot contain extra text.  Example of what is not allowed includes a promotion such as: See Why We Can’t Be Beat – Save 10%.
  6. Promotions must have proper formatting.  Proper grammar, spelling and punctuation are required in order for a promotion to be approved.
  7. Finally, the promotion must use a coupon that is not currently found on your website.  For example, if a merchant offers free shipping on orders over $49 automatically in their shopping cart, they cannot simply run a promotion for it.  The promotion must be unique and require a coupon code.

What It Looks Like

Below is an example of an eCommerce retailer, Epic Sports, using a Google Shopping promotion. Notice the tag with the Special offer next to it?  That is a Google shopping promotion live.

If a user clicks on the ‘Special offer’ link a window is displayed showing the full promotion.

The promotion displays the name of the company, the offer, when it expires and how to redeem.  In this case, the promotion expires in 13 days and to redeem a user would enter the coupon code listed during checkout.

Note, a retailer is not charged when the promotion is displayed.  Only if the item URL is clicked or the CONTINUE TO STORE button is clicked after the promotion is opened then will an advertiser incur their normal charge for the click.

In this example, the retailer is offering a free gift with purchase of a free VKM Dry-Fit Moisture Wicking T-shirt. Offering a free gift with purchase are just one of the options when offering a promotion.

It also doesn’t mean that a customer automatically gets the free gift, but they would have to add it to their cart and then apply the promotional code provided. By just having the promotion, this retailer’s ad is highlighting their product and thus most likely improving their CTR (click through rates).

Final Word

Typically, Google Shopping typically provides a better ROI and CPA compared to traditional search ads.  However, as more and more merchants come to discover this fact it is essential for advertisers to find ways to have their products stand out from their competitors. A Google promotion allows just that. By adding a promotion that is cost effective, an advertiser can capture more clicks, leading to a higher quality score resulting in a lower average cost per click and the ability to drive more profitable traffic.

A well-run promotion helps to boost click-through rates (CTR); highlight Shopping ads and increase conversions by giving customers a reason to buy now.

Will a promotion work for your company?  It depends on the promotion and on the company, but it is a tool definitely worth testing as we all strive to fully optimizing our Google Ads campaigns.

Happy Marketing!
Andy Splichal

Looking for More Information on Google Advertising?

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If you are ready to take your online advertising to the next level, I welcome you to take a trial. It only costs $1 for access.

Happy Marketing!
Andy Splichal

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andy Splichal is the founder of True Online Presence, the founder of The Academy of Internet Marketing, author and certified online marketing strategist with twenty plus years of experience helping companies increase their online presence and profitable revenues. To find more information on Andy Splichal, visit www.trueonlinepresence.com or read The Full Story on his blog, blog.trueonlinepresence.com.

Google Remarketing – What It Is, Why Use Google

On the average, 97% of website visitors leave a website without buying.  It is a fact that most of these potential customers are gone forever! What if there was a way to reach back out to these customers easily and seamlessly?  There is through Google’s remarketing.

By using Google remarketing a marketer can easily serve a relevant ad to a visitor that has been on their website and left by using an almost endless stream of websites in the Google display network when their abandoned visitor is online browsing the web. To achieve, all a marketer needs to do is place a small snippet of code that Google provides on the pages of their website that they wish to promote with Google remarketing ads.

When using Google remarketing you have full control just like in Google search on how much you are willing to pay for each click, which allows you to ensure you receive a profitable ROI. A powerful way to keep your brand in front of customers, Google remarketing can give the appearance that you have an immense marketing budget with customers thinking ‘wow this company is everywhere!’  This not only encourages customers to return and purchase, but  it also instills a confidence that may very well have customers returning on their own without clicking on the ad, which of course would incur no charge.

Google offers a number of different options for their remarketing including dynamic ads, which thanks to Google’s Ad Gallery, makes creating semi-easy and free.  For eCommerce marketers, dynamic ads are able to capture images, prices and headlines of products that customers viewed before they left your website and re-serve these products to customers.  You know the potential customer has interest because they already viewed a particular product, why not remind them and reshow the same product?

The second type of remarketing is a bit more complicated and involves creating audiences. Basically, what creating audiences does is allow a marketer to segment users by which page they viewed before leaving and serve an ad tailored to have them return.  It also allows a different bidding strategy to be implemented.  Example, a visitor that made it to your shopping cart is a far more valuable customer to have return than one that viewed a single category page.  With Google’s remarketing system, a marketer can bid higher for ads shown to cart abandoners than to website browsers.

The use of audiences is also a very effective way of using remarketing for Professional Service marketers.  Abandoned visitors can be easily segmented by which part of a website they visited allowing an effective bidding strategy to be implemented.

What It Looks Like

Retargeting-AdIn the above example, I visited UGG Australia’s website and looked at the UGG Men’s Brunswick Robe. Then I visited www.foxnews.com and was served an ad for the same product that I was just looking at (although UGG elected not to display name and price, which I personally prefer). Wow, how did they know!

Why UGG Australia may indeed have the marketing budget to advertise on all the sites in the Google display network, most companies including yours probably does not.  However, think of how impressive it would be to a would-be customer if they thought you did!  Plus the ability to serve a potential customer the exact product they have already looked at and shown an interest in is a powerful tool in the conversion game.

With Google retargeting you can control how many times and how often ads are served to a customer (frequency caps) along with controlling which websites ads are ineligible to show (if you find a particular partner site has a low conversion rate, you can omit it from the list of website eligible to show your ads).  These tools are just a few that allow marketers to be able to control their advertising and generate a positive ROI.

Review-and-Ratings-SystemWhy use Google for retargeting?

You may be saying to yourself, there is a ton of retargeting companies out there, why use Google?  The truth is that although different retargeting companies say they have this advantage or that advantage over the other, most respectable retargeting companies have a very similar reach (which websites ads are eligible to be shown).  With Google retargeting, you can also use Google’s code for other display network advertising you might use as well.  In addition, Google’s system is user friendly to create ads and the reporting is delivered alongside your other AdWords reporting marking retargeting easily tracked using the same interface as Google search ads.

A final plus for using Google retargeting, Google is not going anywhere and is constantly growing.  A few years ago, I used a different retargeting company that was smaller, but very effective (it was before retargeting was available with Google).  Suddenly, the retargeting company I was using was purchased by AOL and the service changed, product functionality declined and prices went up.  I had to change my remarketing company and lost hours of time that I had spent building out retargeting campaigns.  With Google, they are always adding new sites into their network and additional features that make remarketing more effective and easier to track.

Summary

Remember 97% of your customers come to your site and leave.  Will they come back?  Maybe, maybe not.  With Google remarketing you can stay in front of your lost customers with precision ads that help drive return traffic with a system that allows you to control cost and create an effective ROI.

Still need help or looking for someone to bounce ideas off?  I am currently offering free marketing strategy sessions to those interested. Contact True Online Presence at 1-888-456-6943 to schedule.

Happy Marketing!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Andy Splichal is an online marketing strategist  with more than a decade and a half of experience helping companies increase their online presence and profitable revenues.  Although this blog focuses on driving profitable traffic through Google AdWords, True Online Presence offers additional services for lead generation as well as other proven marketing strategies customized for each client.

Top Tips To Optimize Google Shopping

A great tool for ecommerce companies currently using Google is implementing an effective Google shopping campaign.  Assuming you have already opened your Google Merchant Center account, uploaded your data feed and have linked to a Google shopping campaign inside your AdWords account, how do you optimize your rate on investment (ROI) or simply how do you get the biggest bang for your buck?

How Google’s Fee Structure Works

Google charges your account for shopping clicks the same way they charge for clicks coming from search.  Advertisers enter an initial maximum cost per click they are willing to pay and this amount is assigned across the account.  When a Google user is shown an advertiser’s product and clicks on it they are directed to the advertiser’s website, the advertiser is then charged.  An advertiser will never be charged more than their maximum bid amount and just like in Google search and display results are open to a real-time auction system in determining the price an advertiser pays and whether or not their products will be shown. Generally the bid is less than the maximum bid amount, but it depends on other advertisers and what they are bidding.  Note, the maximum bid amount can be changed at any time for either the entire ad group or sub-sections of the ad group.

Splitting A Campaign Into Subsections

Splitting an advertiser’s campaign into subsections takes work on the comma delimited (csv) feed that is sent to the Google Merchant Center account.  Google supports approximately 20 fields, see my post Google Shopping – What It Is, How It Has Changed, for a complete list. However, in terms of subdividing your feed Google currently uses the following fields: Category, Brand, Item ID, Condition, Product type, Custom label 0, Custom label 1, Custom label 2, Custom label 3, Custom label 4, Channel and Channel exclusivity.

By having data in these different fields, an advertiser can subdivide their campaign based on attributes listed in those fields as granular as 8 times. 

Review-and-Ratings-SystemHow To Subdivide A Google Shopping Campaign

When products are initially listed there will be a single field under product groups listed as all products with a small gray plus symbol to the right.  Click on the plus symbol.  A subdivide window will open with a drop down menu of what fields are eligible to subdivide a feed.  Select which attribute you would like to subdivide and a list of options available will populate the window.  Advertisers are either allowed to add selections individually by clicking on the double arrow to the right of the individual listing or add all items in the group by clicking on the plus symbol near the top.

SubdividingBy subdividing, advertisers can view where sales and costs are being generated allowing the strategic raising or lowering of bids on a subcategory level in order to maximize costs and minimize spend. Note, for sales/conversions to appear the Google AdWords tracking script must be enabled.

Subdividing the product feed is an essential part of optimizing a Google shopping feed. Without subdividing advertisers are bidding blindly and not able to track what categories/sections/items are generating sales and which are eating marketing budget.

Quick Tip

One of my favorite ways to optimize a Google shopping campaign is using a tiered bidding system based on price.  I use one of Google’s custom labels to enter a price range of the products.  First, I subdivide by brand and then subdivide by the field I use to store the pricing data, usually Custom label 0.  Once this is done, I can use the price of the item to raise the bid for higher priced products and lower the bid for lower priced items.

Here is a quick example of a tiered bidding system.

Items Priced $0-20 – Bid $0.10
Items Priced $21-39 – Bid $0.20
Items Priced $40-65 – Bid $0.30
Items Priced $65-99 – Bid $0.40
Items Priced $99-199 – Bid $0.50

Changing Bids

Once a campaign has been subdivided, changing the bids is relatively easy. Next to any campaign that has been subdivided, there will appear a light gray arrow. Once the arrow is clicked, a drop down with the categories that are available will appear. Simply enter the new maximum CPC (Max. CPC) and save. Note, here advertisers can also exclude an entire subset of products from being included in Google shopping by selecting the radio button next to Exclude and saving.

By no means is this the end of optimizing a Shopping campaign, but it is a good start to see where your sales are being generated.  It also allows advertisers to grab a larger search impression share on higher priced items while not blowing up their AdWords budget on lesser priced, lesser profitable items.

Adding Negative Keywords

When negative keywords are created it restricts an advertiser’s product from being shown. An important piece of optimizing Google search campaigns, negative keywords can also be used in Google shopping to avoid products from showing for non-related terms thus saving budget.

The first step is to determine what keywords are currently triggering your products to display in Google shopping.  It is important to have enough data for Google to display results, so I would suggest changing your date range to at least the past 30 days. Then, select the keywords tab and under Details click on the down arrow and select All.

Seeing-KeywordsA list of keywords will be displayed that have triggered products to be shown within the date range selected. Use the Columns tool to customize the view to see a wide range of useful statistics including costs, clicks, impressions, conversions and many more.  For negative keywords, look for words that do not belong and that you wish your products not to be displayed in the future.

Once you have this list, click on the Keywords tab and scroll down to the Negative keywords link. Under campaign level, click on the Add button and select Add keywords.  Add the keywords that you DO NOT wish to have trigger products to show and save.  That’s it, you’ve just saved marketing budget.

Adding-Negative-KeywordsSubdividing categories and adding negative keywords is by no means the end of fully optimizing a Google shopping campaign, but it is a great start.  Some of the other tools available include adding promotions, altering bids based on the users search device, changing bid by time or geographical region and a few others, but the two techniques described above if implemented properly will go a long way in making sure that you are driving more profitable traffic from Google shopping.

Still need help or looking for someone to bounce ideas off?  I am currently offering free marketing strategy sessions to those interested. Contact True Online Presence at 1-888-456-6943 to schedule.

Happy Marketing!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Andy Splichal is an online marketing strategist  with more than a decade and a half of experience helping companies increase their online presence and profitable revenues.  Although this blog focuses on driving profitable traffic through Google AdWords, True Online Presence offers additional services for lead generation as well as other proven marketing strategies customized for each client.

Google Shopping – What It Is, How It Has Changed {updated 12/19/19}

Google Shopping is by far the largest Comparison Shopping Engine aka CSE on the Internet. CSEs are used exclusively by ecommerce advertisers, not professional services advertisers. This is because Comparison Shopping Engines allow customers to compare the same product or type of products from multiple stores simultaneously.

Although there are other Comparison Shopping Engines, many of these companies have gone by the wayside as Google Shopping has captured the vast majority of the market share.

Companies such as PriceGrabber, Nextag, BizRate, Shopzilla, Pronto and Shopping.com have been outpaced and left behind by Google and the opportunities that Google brings to its advertisers.

Make Each Click Count - T.O.P. Guide To Success Using Google AdWords

In order to have your products eligible to appear inside the Google Shopping platform, advertisers must first open a Google Merchant Center account and then upload their products into the Merchant Center platform.

Typically for retailers with a substantial number of products, a data feed is formatted in either a csv or txt format. Although there are other ways including API connections most advertisers use the formatted feed method to upload their products.

The ability for merchants to upload their products to Google Merchant Center has given rise to quite a few data optimization companies. Some will also manage your feed (we can get into that later), but for the most part their services exist to make an advertiser’s life easier when it comes to getting their products approved and ready to advertise on the Google Shopping platform.

Before we go any further, let’s take a quick look at the history of how Google Shopping came to dominate the comparison shopping space.

Google Shopping was a free service until October 2012 called Froogle. In October 2012, Google went to a cost per click model similar to Google text ads where advertisers would pay each time one of their product ads was clicked. Although it was free to list prior to October 2012, the reporting abilities and customer support from Google was almost non-existent. 

When Google changed to a CPC model they made their Google Shopping system much more user friendly, allowing advertisers to manage their Shopping campaign inside their Google Ads console, allowing different bidding options and adding full customer support. Google has also made Google Shopping more prominent in how they display it to their users.

What Google Shopping Looks Like

There have been many variations over the years of where Google Shopping ads appear on Google as Google continues to experiment with the best-placement for these high performing ads.

Currently, Google Shopping ads are seen either in an expandable carousel at the top of the page above both text ads and organic placements or in a limited view on the right side typically which occurs for branded term searches.

To illustrate the difference, let’s look at search results for ‘baseball gloves’ vs. ‘Wilson baseball gloves’

Non-Branded Search Results For ‘Baseball Gloves’
Branded Search Results For ‘Wilson Gloves’

As you can see the generic search results for ‘baseball gloves’ yields 5 Shopping ads located above the search ads and the organic listings. In this case, JustGloves has every shopping listing shown as well as the Search Text ad. What a great job they are doing with their Google marketing!

If you click on the arrow, more results for Shopping ads are shown. In addition, users can find more Shopping ads inside the ‘Shopping’ tab where shoppers can compare the same item from multiple sellers on the same listing. Shoppers are also able to sort their searches by price, brand and other criteria such as fielding position in this example.

For branded searches such as ‘Wilson gloves’ you can see in the image above that Shopping ads are not shown on top. Instead, there is a Search text ad. The Shopping ads, again for JustGloves, are shown on the right side of the organic results along with information about the searched brand.

How To Implement Google Shopping

For advertisers to participate in Google Shopping, they must have an active Google Ads account as well as a Google Merchant Center account with approved products.

The Google Merchant Center account is where advertisers upload their products typically through a data feed. This data feed must contain their current product listing that they wish to make eligible for inclusion within the Google shopping database. To open a Google Merchant Center account, visit https://www.google.com/merchants/.

The Google Ads account is where advertisers can create a Shopping campaign and where merchants will link their Shopping campaign in order to control bids and their Shopping ads placement.

It sounds much more complicated than it is. Once an advertiser opens a Google Merchant Center account and uploads a feed and verifies that they own the website in Merchant Center, they can quickly link to their Ads account simply by sending an invitation from Merchant Center to their ads account.

Here is how to link your Merchant Center account to your Google Ads account.

  1. In Merchant Center, click on the wrench icon in the upper right corner.
  2. Click on ‘Linked accounts’ under Settings.
  3. Click on ‘LINK ACCOUNT’ and enter your Google Ads customer ID and ‘Send Link Request’.
  4. Then, open your Google Ads account.
  5. Click on the wrench icon in the upper right corner and select ‘Linked accounts’ under SETUP.
  6. There you should see an invitation to link to your merchant account.
  7. Accept the request and you are done.

Easy, right?

The part that is a little more involved is setting up the csv file for the Google merchant feed. Google supports a variety of different attributes for each product.  Attributes currently supported include: id, title, description, google merchant category, product type, link, mobile link, image link, additional image link, condition, availability, availability date, price, sale price, brand, gtin, mpn, identifier exists, gender, age group, size type, color, size, material, pattern, shipping, shipping weight, excluded destination, expiration date, product applicability, promotion id, product review average, product review count and five custom labels.

The purpose of so many attributes is to allow Google to serve the most refined results to their users performing Google searches. It may sound a bit overwhelming, but the good news is that there are many services that help merchants convert their products into the correct formats that are accepted by Google.

However, most of these services do not work right out of the box and may need some customization in order to correctly populate as many fields as possible.

This is where using a 3rd party Google data optimization company is extremely helpful especially for merchants with a large number of product offerings.

It is in the best-interest of advertisers to populate as many of these fields as are relevant to their product listings. Populating fields correctly will help advertiser’s products appear more often and appear more relevant to searches performed. It will also allow advertiser’s products to be accurately grouped with other merchants retailing the same product which will allow for your product ad in a Google Shopping campaign to be displayed.

Therefore, when selecting a feed provider double-check that the provider has the capabilities to both deliver Google a correctly formatted feed as well as the ability to convert existing data from your website to the appropriate Google field attributes.

Final Word

Google Shopping generally delivers a better ROI (rate on investment) and generally higher conversion rates compared to using straight text ads. This is due to how they appear.  Google Shopping ads show customers an image of an item along with the price.  In contrast, Google text ads show provide only a text description.  Even the most detailed description may not convey what is in the customer’s mind and therefore the customer may click on an ad (costing the advertiser money) and not be taken to the product or products that they expected thus leaving.

Advertisers not using Google Shopping ads will not appear in the Google Shopping results either in the Shopping carousel or withing the Shopping section of Google.

As simple as that sounds, I’ve spoken to retailers before that have said to me, “Hey Andy, I’m advertising on Google, why are my products not being shown under Google Shopping?” 

And the answer is: only products in the Google Shopping database as submitted to Google Merchant Center are eligible to show on Google Shopping and an advertiser needs to set up their products using the processes described above in order for their products to be eligible to appear.

Once an advertiser has their products appearing in Google Shopping the work has just begun.  Just like search campaigns, a Google Shopping campaign must be fully optimized in order to produce the best possible results and the ‘biggest bang for the buck’. 

For more information on optimizing your Google Shopping listings, check out these articles:

Keyword Search Terms – Unlocking The AdWords Puzzle
Effectively Optimize Google Shopping Based on Past History Nothing More
How Segmenting Google Shopping Campaigns Can Boost Profitability

The bottom line is that Google Shopping ads are far outpacing other Google Ads including search in terms of profitability for retailers.

If you are an ecommerce merchant, then selling your products inside Google Shopping is an absolute must if you want to substantially grow your online sales.

Looking for More Information on Google Advertising?

Check out the all new The Academy of Internet Marketing (www.theacademyofinternetmarketing.com), the premier online marketing destination for small to mid-sized e-commerce businesses serious about substantially growing their online sales plus exclusive access to me, author of Make Each Click Count, The TOP Guide To Success Using Google AdWords.

If you have the dedication and are ready to take your online sales to the next level, then The Academy of Internet Marketing was created for you. It provides the tools in the form of knowledge of what works today. Join us and see what makes us special and together we will grow your business.

If you are ready to take your online advertising to the next level, I welcome you to take a trial. It only costs $1 for access.

Happy Marketing!
Andy Splichal

Complete Access To The Academy of Internet Marketing For $1

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Andy Splichal is the founder of True Online Presence, the founder of The Academy of Internet Marketing, author and certified online marketing strategist with more than a decade and a half of experience helping companies increase their online presence and profitable revenues. To find more information on Andy Splichal, visit www.trueonlinepresence.com or read the full story in his article – The Full Story of The Academy of Internet Marketing.

Here’s A Secret – In Paid Advertising Cost Is Irrelevant, Look At Your Rate On Investment

When bidding on competitive keywords in Google the price advertisers are charged per click can be high if an advertiser wishes their ad to appear on the first page or ideally in the top 1-2 positions. I recently read an article that advertisers bidding on the keyword phrase “Personal Liability Attorney” in the Manhattan, NY area were paying a staggering amount – in excess of $100 per click!

I can’t verify those numbers, but I’ve recently had my Google representative (a perk of being a certified Google partner agency) run some numbers for a couple of potential clients.   For keywords related to bail bonds in the Los Angeles area such as bail bonds agent, bail bonds service, bail bonds agency, the cost per click ranges in between $25-$30 per click for the top ad spot.  For a real estate agent located in the central California valley region, keywords related to real estate agent range between $1 and $1.25 for the top spot. As you can see, the average CPC (cost per click) charges can vary greatly between verticals as well as between locations. However, even if an advertiser is in an industry or location where there is a high CPC for certain keywords to get placed on the first page, there is a good reason why that should not necessarily scare advertiser away.

So the question is why would advertisers be willing to pay such a steep price as those listed above for every visitor being directed to their website through a Google Ad?

Let’s use an analogy to better understand.  Assume someone told you that if you spent $3,000 you would get back $3,500.  Would you do it?  Probably, but maybe it would depend on how much work you would need to do to make that $500.  However, let’s assume someone told you if you spend $3,000, you would get back $30,000.  Would you do it?  You bet you would!

Review-and-Ratings-System

What I have just described is a simple example of ROI (return on investment).  ROI is a profitability measure that evaluates performance of an advertising campaign by dividing net profits by net worth. For Professional Services, ROI is even easier to calculate since the cost of goods is generally time rather than a physical product. To calculate divide return (benefit) of an investment divided by the cost of that investment.

The Rate On Investment Calculation

Professional Services ROI Calculation:

Return (benefit) / Cost of Investment = Rate On Investment

Example 1: $3,500/ $3,000 = 1.666
Example 2: $30,000/ $3,000 = 10

Ecommerce ROI Calculation:

$ Sales  / Cost of Investment + Cost of Goods Sold + Shipping Costs = Rate On Investment

As you notice from the above example calculations, the higher the ROI the better for the advertiser.

The easy answer to the question to why advertisers are willing to pay such high prices for every visitor clicking on their ad is simple.  Advertisers have calculated (or at least should have) that their ROI is more than 1 showing that advertising even on highly competitive keywords is being done at a profit.

So here is the secret, having to pay a high CPC should be considered irrelevant.  The number that actually matters is the ROI calculation. 

Will your advertising spend make a profit?  There is a bit more to calculate other than just ROI such as lifetime customer value, average customer value etc, but for simplicity the calculations above give a great idea of how to ensure profitability using a straight ROI calculation when determining the success of your advertising campaign.

Tracking Revenue Generated

It is important to track all of your marketing to ensure profitability, but it is even more important when dealing with high dollar CPC investments.  Google analytics is a free tool available to all advertisers and although there are undoubtedly more robust systems available, Google Analytics when used correctly provides sufficient tracking capabilities.

For eCommerce companies, tracking sales is an easier task.  The goal is selling a product and in order to track an advertiser simply needs to place a Google provided conversion tracking script on the confirmation page of their website.

For Professional Services, tracking conversions and sales is a more involved process since customers are not going to order services such as legal counsel or dental services online.  In order to properly tack in order to effectively determine an ROI there are numerous things that can be done.  Tracking a contact page is a great start.  If an advertiser can tell how many contact page submissions have been generated from Google AdWords they can then calculate what percentage of contact page submissions resulted in sales and multiply by the average customer value.  Another way to track return on investment is by making sure the advertiser know the source of incoming phone calls.  This can be done by using either a unique phone number geared toward specific ads and tracking those results or by simply asking callers where they found an advertiser’s service and keeping accurate records.

Although it provides challenges, creating an accurate ROI is possible and should be done as accurately as possible in order to determine the success of an advertising campaign.

The price per click from different industries to different parts of the country can vary drastically.  However, just because the area you are in may be more competitive, it does not mean that advertising using Google’s Pay Per Click cannot be done profitably.  It does mean that advertisers need to make sure campaigns are optimized and tracking is in place before spending your advertising dollars.

Still need help or looking for someone to bounce ideas off?  I am currently offering free marketing strategy sessions to those interested. Contact True Online Presence at 1-888-456-6943 to schedule.

Happy Marketing!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Andy Splichal is an online marketing strategist  with more than a decade and a half of experience helping companies increase their online presence and profitable revenues.  Although this blog focuses on driving profitable traffic through Google AdWords, True Online Presence offers additional services for lead generation as well as other proven marketing strategies customized for each client.

Why Google’s Newest Ad Extension Provides A Competitive Advantage

A Google Search Ad contains four lines of text: a headline also known as a title (limited to 25 characters), two description lines of text (both limited to 35 characters), and a display URL. Within an ad there are a number of best -practices to make ads stand apart from the competition, which I have written about before in my blog post: Why Google Advertisers Need To Know Their Quality Score under the paragraph Improving quality score through ad copy.  These best-practices include tying creative to keywords, including a call to action and the proper use of Ad Extensions.

This article is going to discuss how to create distinction between your ad and the competitors with the use of Google Ad Extensions and specifically Google’s new Callout Extension.

Google Ad Extensions allows advertisers to place extra information in their ad.  Using Ad Extensions is an important and strategic way to increase your ads click through rate (CTR) by adding extra pieces of information within your ads that may not be used by all of your competitors. This extra line allows advertiser’s ads additional information to set themselves apart

Google Ad Extensions are nothing new, most Google Ad Extensions have been in place for years. Existing Ad Extensions included: Sitelink Extensions, Location Extensions, Call Extensions, App Extensions and Review Extensions. However, in October 2014, just in time for the holidays Google rolled out their newest extension – the Callout Extension.

What The Callout Extension Is – Google Callout Extensions allow advertisers to add another line of text just below the description text. The Callout Extension displays two distinct Callout Extensions simultaneously on the same line; in fact at least two Callout Extensions must be present in an advertiser’s account for Callout Extensions to be eligible to show. Callout Extensions are limited to 25 characters each and are not clickable and do not cost extra to display, they are simply another way to make your ads stand out from your competitors. Although there is no charge for displaying Callout Extensions, note advertisers will be charged per usual if an ad is clicked. Also, Callout Extensions are more likely to appear when an ad appears in the top one to two positions.

What It Looks Like – In the example below, I am showing an ad for my client Safes ETC. The ad appears in the top position and is showing both Sitelink Extensions as well as the just released Callout Extension.  In the ad, Google has combined the headline with the first line of description text (which happens when you close the first line with a period) and is then displaying the second line of description text and then the two distinct Callout Extensions (Plus Save 5% – NewYear15 and Those Who Know Shop Here) and finally the Sitelink Extensions.  As you can see the Callout Extensions appear above the Sitelink Extensions and are not clickable, just simply another line of text savvy Google advertisers can use.

Example of Callout Extension

 

How To Set It Up – Callout Extensions can be added on either an account level or a campaign level.  In order to set up on an account level, perform the following steps.

  1. Login to your Google AdWords account.
  2. Click on the Ad Extensions tab.
  3. Under the Campaigns tab, there is a pulldown menu of different ad extension types. Click the arrow and select Callout extensions.
  4. Click the red + Extensions box.
  5. Scroll down and select + New callout.
  6. Enter the new Callout text (here Google also allows you schedule when you would like to appear, leave this blank if you would like it to appear all the time).
  7. After you enter your callout text and schedule click save.
  8. Repeat to add additional Callout Extensions.

In order to setup Callout Extensions for the campaign level, first select the campaign in AdWords that the Callout Extensions should appear and then repeat the steps above.

Remember, there needs to be at least two Callout Extensions in order for the extensions to be eligible to show; however Google only shows two at a time.  Meaning if you have more than two Callout Extensions, Google will rotate the extensions allowing advertisers to test multiple extensions. This is best-practice so an advertise can determine and optimize the most effective Callout Extension.

Google Callout Extensions are new and in being new is where advertisers who add Callout Extensions to their account will gain an advantage, before Callout Extensions become common practice.  Google is now giving advertisers in the top spots the ability to add an additional line of text.  More text equals the ability to add more relevant information that will have users clicking on an ad; thus improving click through rates (CTR), quality score and the effectiveness of the Google campaign. A nice new tool from Google for those advertisers who wish to take advantage of the newest ad extension, I have been finding a healthy increase in CTR when used correctly.

Still need help or looking for someone to bounce ideas off?  I am currently offering free marketing strategy sessions to those interested. Contact True Online Presence at 1-888-456-6943 to schedule.

Happy Marketing!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Andy Splichal is an online marketing strategist with more than a decade and a half of experience helping companies increase their online presence and profitable revenues. Although this blog focuses on driving profitable traffic through Google AdWords, True Online Presence offers additional services for lead generation as well as other proven marketing strategies customized for each client.

 

Why Google Advertisers Need To Know Their Quality Score

When using Google AdWords, advertisers create a set of keywords for which they want to have an ad displayed, determine the maximum they are willing to pay if someone is taken to their website for those keywords and then create ads to show for these keywords.  Within the ad copy, advertisers determine which page on their website that the user will be taken once the user clicks on their ad. 

Keyword quality score is a highly relevant factor in establishing successful Google marketing campaigns for both eCommerce as well as Professional Services advertisers. There are two important factors in determining quality score: ad quality and page relevance.

Let’s cover the basics first and then look at how Google determines and finally how an advertiser can improve their quality score.

What is Google’s Quality Score – Every time a search is done on Google, Google runs a real-time auction to determine in what order paid ads are listed.  The real-time auction takes into account two things in determining Ad Rank (what position ads are shown): how much an advertiser is willing to pay if their ad is clicked and the quality score of the keyword being auctioned. Quality score is determined by how often an ad is clicked on (click through rate) along with how long the user spends on the website they are taken and if the user hits the back button immediately (referred to as a bounce). If a user bounces, Google calculates that the user was not interested in the page they were taken and assigns a low quality score for that search to that particular keyword.  If this happens on a ratio that Google deems lower than average, the keyword is defined as having a determined low quality score.

Why Does Google Assign A Quality Score? Google wants those searching their results to find what they are looking for easily.  This keeps people using Google to perform searches instead of using a competing search engine. Therefore, it is in Google’s best interest to provide users with the most relevant results in order that they keep their users using Google to perform Internet searches.

What happens if advertisers have keywords with low quality scores?  If an advertiser has a keyword with a low quality score, three things are likely to happen.  1). Ads will be displayed lower on the page than competing advertisers with a higher quality score that are willing to bid the same amount for the same keyword. 2). Google will charge more per click to serve ads for keywords with low quality score (although an advertiser can NEVER be charged more than the maximum bid they have allowed).  3). Keywords will receive the message that ‘ads are rarely being shown due to low quality score’.  This generally happens when a keyword is assigned a quality score of either 1 or 2.

Review-and-Ratings-SystemHow can advertisers determine the quality score for keywords.  In order to determine the quality score for keywords open the Google AdWords dashboard and go to the keywords tab and click on columns and then select customize columns. Under attributes is listed Qual. Score (short for quality score of course).  Simply add Qual. Score and hit apply.  Now, when viewing keywords advertisers will see a column for quality score rated from 1 to 10 with 10 being the best. The lower the quality score for a keyword the more expensive, less often and lower placed the advertiser’s ads will appear.

Improving quality score through ad copy – A low quality score may indeed be due to a poorly written ad.  For advertisers looking to improve quality score, make sure that ads contain popular keywords from the ad group for which they are being served.  This technique is known as tying creative to keywords and if done well will increase the likelihood of users clicking on an ad thus improving click through rate (CTR). 

Help ads stand out with the use of offers and creative copy. This can be challenging with just four lines of text to work with so it is important to always be testing and optimizing ads. Include a call to action, this is a chance for the ad to convince potential customers to select your ad as well as letting potential customers know what to expect when they visit an advertiser’s website.

A third technique that can help increase quality score by strengthening an ad is adding Google ad extensions.  Google offer a number of ad extensions which includes: call extensions, location extensions, review extensions, seller rating extensions, dynamic sitelink extensions and app extensions. Each of these extensions have their place and their success depends on the business using, but they all have one thing in common: they take up more real estate on the page (when displayed) making an ad more prominent thus increasing the likelihood of clicks and leading to increased click through rates.

Improving quality score through landing pages – Two words: Be Relevant.  Make sure the page a potential customer is brought to when clicking on an ad matches their search.  Advertisers often make the mistake of dropping potential customers onto pages which are much too broad (including the home page) rather than creating a landing page geared toward a user’s search.

Having landing pages closely related to a user’s search will not only increase an advertiser’s quality score on their Google ad campaign, but it will also work wonders in increasing conversion rates. It is a cardinal sin to make potential customers search a website once they have arrived from Google in order find what they were initially searching for on Google and customers simply won’t do it.  What customers will do is hit the back button and click on a competitor’s ad that the user hopes will be more relevant.  Customers bouncing back to Google hurt an advertiser’s quality score and costs advertiser’s money for the visitor they received who took no action other than to leave. It takes time to create relevant landing pages, but it is an effort worth the trouble ten-fold in order to improve both conversion rate and quality score.

Strategy for monitoring quality score – It is recommended for advertisers to keep a close eye on their quality scores.  A keyword with a low quality score could have the ability to negatively affect an entire ad group making it more expensive for keywords with an average to high quality score. Low quality score keywords do this by lowering click through rates for ads being served to other keywords within the same ad group.

If an advertiser has a keyword with a low quality score, it is recommended to either pause the keyword or pull the keyword into its own ad group and work on making either the ad copy, landing page or both more relevant to that keyword(s).

Quality score is often overlooked in importance in favor of bid, but remember Google uses a combination of both to determine Ad Rank. Therefore, it is critical to monitor keyword quality score as low quality scores are red flags that are not only costing advertiser’s budget, but affecting the overall quality health of the campaign.

Still need help or looking for someone to bounce ideas off?  I am currently offering free marketing strategy sessions to those interested. Contact True Online Presence at 1-888-456-6943 to schedule.

Happy Marketing!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Andy Splichal is an online marketing strategist  with more than a decade and a half of experience helping companies increase their online presence and profitable revenues.  Although this blog focuses on driving profitable traffic through Google AdWords, True Online Presence offers additional services for lead generation as well as other proven marketing strategies customized for each client.

Why Professional Services Should Look To Google AdWords

Professional Services I will define as any company that sells their service or expertise opposed to selling a physical product.  This includes dentists, lawyers, doctors and too many more professions to continue to name.  One thing they all have in common is that they believe they offer a service worth money to others or they would not (or should not) be in business.

With that said, all Professional Service businesses face a common problem: how to let potential clients in need of their service know about them.

Before the Internet, it was much more cut and dry.  There was word of mouth, newspaper ads and the good ole yellow pages.  Today, online is where the majority of potential clients begin and generally end their search (approximately 80% based on a recent Forbes article).  The game has definitely changed.

Here are some ways that Professional Services can go about getting in front of potential clients.

Yelp – Yelp is an online source that customers can search for anything from restaurants to shopping to yes Professional Services.  Yelp offers free listings where your organization can create a page and be displayed based on popularity (reviews) along with Yelp’s algorithmic match to a user’s search criteria and location.  Yelp offers a free page that can be customized, which does offer an online presence.  However, where Yelp makes its money is offering paid ads where companies pay for their listings to be displayed on the top of searches.  Yelp uses a CPM model charging for total impressions (when the ad appears) rather than a CPC (charging when the ad is clicked).  This of course encourages Yelp to show its advertisers ads as much as possible which many times has its advertisers paid listings display on irrelevant searches (a major complaint of many Yelp advertisers).

Yellow Pages or (YP.com) – It used to be a must to advertise in the Yellow Pages; however that was before the Internet.  Today, potential customer behavior has changed.  Formerly, a simple set it and forget it strategy of having your ad appear in a book of ads, the Yellow Pages have evolved into YP.com.  Although possibly still relevant based on the urgency of your business, such as plumbers, advertising on YP.com faces challenges that include the lack of use by potential clients, the lack of the ability for an advertiser to track their results and YP’s lacking the ability to allow advertisers to bid on a wide variety of keywords.

Review-and-Ratings-SystemGoogle AdWords – Although many people think of Google AdWords solely for companies selling toasters or t-shirts it couldn’t be further from the truth. Google can be a great source of lead generation for Professional Service companies and here is why:

1. Ability to track – With Google AdWords you can track the results of every click that has resulted from your ads. In addition, when you create a Google AdWords account you are given access to a free online analytics tracking software (Google Analytics) that allows you to see all customer behavior on your website.  This not only helps advertisers track Google AdWords, but other marketing channels as well. In addition, Google provides call stats which give advertisers information on potential clients that have called based on Google ads.

2.  Ability to set your budget – With Google AdWords, you determine how much you are willing to spend on both the overall campaign as well as each individual keyword. This functionality allows marketers to optimize revenue by increasing bids on productive keywords and minimizing or eliminating bids on non-productive keywords.

3. Geographical targeting – With Google AdWords you determine who sees your ads. This functionality is important for local oriented Professional Services companies ensuring they are only paying to advertise to potential clients within their service radius.

4. Ad Scheduling – Allows advertisers to determine the time of day or day of week that their ads run as well as allowing changes to advertising budget for different times. This is important, for example, if an advertiser wants their ads to show only during open business hours or when a customer service representative is available to answer incoming calls.

5. Bid By Device – This feature allows advertisers to vary the amount they are willing to pay for a keyword based on what device is being used to search their ad (laptop, tablet or mobile). An important tool in optimizing campaigns in order to provide cost effective results.

6. Retargeting – Allows advertisers to display ads to customers who have visited their website and left without purchasing. Retargeting, also called remarketing, extends a company’s advertising reach allowing Professional Services to stay in front of potential clients whenever the clients are searching other websites within the Google Network.

7. Display Network – Allows advertisers to display ads on relevant news articles and other related spaces in the Google Network which helps extend an advertiser’s reach beyond that of potential clients doing Google searches.

Although not all techniques are going to be right for every Professional Service company, a properly implemented Google campaign should use what is available to test and the Google Analytics program, which is available free of charge to Google advertisers, makes it possible to do so.

Today, it is harder and more competitive to get the word out about your organization and those companies not fully utilizing Google and the features available are going to start one-step behind.

Still need help or looking for someone to bounce ideas off?  I am currently offering free marketing strategy sessions to those interested. Contact True Online Presence at 1-888-456-6943 to schedule.

Happy Marketing!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Andy Splichal is an online marketing strategist  with more than a decade and a half of experience helping companies increase their online presence and profitable revenues.  Although this blog focuses on driving profitable traffic through Google AdWords, True Online Presence offers additional services for lead generation as well as other proven marketing strategies customized for each client.