Like many of you, I enjoyed a quintessential summer weekend during this past 4th of July holiday. I feel like I did almost everything people enjoy doing on warm summer days. My activities included spending time at the pool, eating lunch in the park, visiting a zoo (the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago is absolutely wonderful), watching World Cup games, and grilling out with some friends just before topping off the weekend with a traditional Indianapolis fireworks display.
All in all, I am happy to say it was a pretty nice holiday weekend. However, you may have noticed that most technology-related activities were clearly absent from my weekend itinerary. Sure, tech geeks like me do not venture too far without being equipped with a smart phone and any number of handy apps. Nevertheless, with exception to some quick Twitter updates, email checks, and text messages, I was pretty vacant from my connected, online lifestyle. Instead of spending hours of my day searching Google, monitoring PPC accounts, and being logged into Facebook and Digg, I took the weekend to relax and enjoy some time with my long forgotten friend – the sun.
In fact, after realizing this void of technology pervasiveness, I remembered many of my officemates were going to be unavailable this weekend detached from both email and cell phone. Thus, my conclusion to this revelation: The only thing able to hold its own and fight for attention against the Web and digital technology might be a beautiful summer’s day.
So, in light of this discovery, I guess my question to you is: Are you appropriately adjusting and optimizing your PPC accounts for the summer months? At the end of May, Microsoft’s AdCenter Blog had a great article that introduced 10 Summer PPC Tips. Now being the beginning of July, I’d like to follow-up on their article by both elaborating on some of their points and introducing some new insights of my own.
World Cup
Ah, the thrills of the beautiful game. With only four games left, the bulk of the World Cup is pretty much over, but since the semi-finals are airing this week, I believe this worldwide event is still very relevant to talk about. So, how much does a game of soccer really impact economic and sales productivity?
It is said that each World Cup match has an average of 95 million viewers. Estimates conclude that 10 minutes of productivity will be lost a day for American businesses and unfortunately for companies (and in return, your PPC campaigns), 121.7 million dollars will be lost in the USA alone. Let me remind you that the United States is a country that ultimately has little interest in the world’s game. Our friend’s in the United Kingdom will see about 7.36 billion dollars lost in productivity if British workers view games for only an hour a day.
Now, I don’t believe I’m going out on too much of a limb here if I say that when people are so invested in a soccer match to not work, then they probably are not too interested in viewing your PPC ads either.
How to adjust:
Try and make your keywords relevant to soccer, the World Cup tournament, and to the current matches.
Focus ads towards those male and female sport fanatics, but also to those female fans that are tired of the constant World Cup attention (my girlfriend being one of them).
Know what time the games are airing live and adjust your bidding accordingly with day parting. Search volume will be down during live play, but search traffic will peak with people looking for commentary and video before, at halftime, and after the game.
Summer-ize your ads and landing pages
You have perfected your ads and landing pages. They are reliable for clicks and leads, but maybe you have noticed those ads performing less than desired during the beginning of this summer.
Remember that during the summer, not only are people spending more time outdoors and away from their computers due to longer days, but also, sunlight and warm days draws out a different mindset in your regular audience.
How to adjust:
Make your ads and landing pages relevant to the summer, utilizing summer themes and colors.
Do your ads and landing pages express the summer mindset? Relaxation, vacation, warmth, and sunshine are words that catch the eyes of an audience with the summer sun on their minds.
Make your ad benefits summer-related. Deals, savings, and specials should read hot deals, scorching savings, and summer specials.
With longer days, people are spending more time outside and offline. Adjust day parting to avoid showing ads on particularly nice evenings and weekends.
What is coming next this summer season?
Independence Day and the fireworks have come and gone, but there are plenty of other summer events to focus your PPC ads on. Try to stay one step ahead of the season and offer your company or client to new markets by expanding on your seasonal keywords.
How to adjust:
Be creative and topical with your summer ads. Make sure to stay fresh and keep ahead of what is on the mind of your summer audience.
Up next: Back to school as well as Labor Day festivities, which include family gatherings and cookouts.
Don’t Act Until Certain
Summers can have a tendency to throw some curveballs into your PPC campaign trends; so don’t let the dips in performance panic you too much. Obviously, keep a watchful eye, make some minor adjustments for the summer months, and make sure to continue meeting your campaign goals, but try not to make any major changes without knowing for certain that those changes need to be made.
In the summer, weather, sporting events, and the overall psyche of potential customers can have a significant impact on ad and keyword performance. My advice, make sure to relax yourself this summer. Try to be clever with ad and landing page copy and innovative with your campaign strategy.
Facebook has long debated with reporters and bloggers, contending that the social network does not match or track search keywords and terms to advertisements on the site. Nor does it target ads based on behavior, it says. In recent years I’ve kept an eye on anything that remotely resembles technology that would allow the site to serve up and match ads based on search terms, but those who support Facebook media relations insist the site’s algorithms do not make the match. Well, maybe not today, anyway.
Giving a link is like giving a vote of confidence and trust. Here are the main reasons why your link building efforts may be failing, and how to turn it around. …
Coming off the heels of the launch of the new Bing Entertainment feature, we’re excited to kick off a music-themed summer with an East and West coast concert series, chances to win tickets to private shows and a Lady Gaga fan search contest!
First let’s talk Gaga. In honor of the 40th Anniversary of America’s Top 40′, we’re teaming up with Stubhub and Ryan Seacrest to launch the Lady Gaga Superfan Search. To enter, upload your best Lady Gaga Superfan photo showing your most fierce Lady Gaga fashion. The winner will receive the ultimate Lady Gaga prize package – round-trip travel and tickets to one of her shows either in Miami, New York, Las Vegas, or Lollapallooza in Chicago. Go to Bing.com/gaga to learn more details and get inspiration from Bing Visual Search and Bing Video; sample Lady Gaga music; read the latest news on Bing Music; and check out what the social sphere is saying about Lady Gaga.
The lucky Lady Gaga Superfan will be chosen on July 23,, 2010 so make sure to enter soon. We will also be building a Bing Visual Search gallery of the entrants, so even if you don’t win the grand prize, you’ll still have the chance to show off your Lady Gaga finery online.
And that’s not all… last week we kicked off a summer concert series taking place along L.A.’s famous Sunset Strip with Jane’s Addiction and in the lovely resort town of Montauk, NY with Pete Yorn. We’ll be uploading videos from the private show to Bing Video so check back soon for behind the scenes footage of the concert. The concert series will continue through the summer with acts like the Pussycat Dolls and RATT. So how can you get in on the action? There will be chances to win tickets on the Bing Facebook page so stay tuned for those details and if you’re not a lucky winner, we’ve got you covered with continuous coverage on Bing video.
Summer is always a great time to catch a music concert! Be sure to check Bing Music for all your music needs.
PPC Hero is showing his patriotic spirit, and got all decked out for the parade, so keep your eye out for him marching in your local 4th of July celebration. Enjoy your delicious B-B-Q food, and remember safety first when using fireworks!
There is a strong architectural community within Second Life, largely populated by real life architects, interior and architectural designers, who are using SL to explore how architecture and design function within virtual and real world environments. …
Getting the consumer to your site is only half the battle. Check out these 5 Tips To Improve Conversion On B2B Landing Pages, and start reaping the benefits. *Side note: don’t be deterred by the title, the tips can be applied to your B2C clients as well!
Mike Fleming dropped his third installment on using ad testing to reach your marketing goals. This final article helps us know when to conclude our tests so we can analyze our results. These tips will help you get the most out of your tests and will make sure the time spent setting them up is well worth it.
Head over to the PPCBlog for an interesting read on the importance of headlines in PPC advertising. To an expert, this little fact might be nothing new, but this post is a must read as it goes into depth about the role of headlines, not only in PPC campaigns and traditional advertising, but also in our overall media culture. Brevity, relevancy, and simplicity are the keys to success for higher CTR and conversion rates.
Josh Dreller over at Search Engine Land has come up with a list of 11 Inventory Sources for Keyword Marketers. From Twitter and Facebook to the Internet Yellow Pages and Shopping Engines, this list includes some of the top ad inventory for search marketers.
Getting the consumer to your site is only half the battle. Check out these 5 Tips To Improve Conversion On B2B Landing Pages, and start reaping the benefits. *Side note: don’t be deterred by the title, the tips can be applied to your B2C clients as well!
Mike Fleming dropped his third installment on using ad testing to reach your marketing goals. This final article helps us know when to conclude our tests so we can analyze our results. These tips will help you get the most out of your tests and will make sure the time spent setting them up is well worth it.
Head over to the PPCBlog for an interesting read on the importance of headlines in PPC advertising. To an expert, this little fact might be nothing new, but this post is a must read as it goes into depth about the role of headlines, not only in PPC campaigns and traditional advertising, but also in our overall media culture. Brevity, relevancy, and simplicity are the keys to success for higher CTR and conversion rates.
Josh Dreller over at Search Engine Land has come up with a list of 11 Inventory Sources for Keyword Marketers. From Twitter and Facebook to the Internet Yellow Pages and Shopping Engines, this list includes some of the top ad inventory for search marketers.
Getting the consumer to your site is only half the battle. Check out these 5 Tips To Improve Conversion On B2B Landing Pages, and start reaping the benefits. *Side note: don’t be deterred by the title, the tips can be applied to your B2C clients as well!
Mike Fleming dropped his third installment on using ad testing to reach your marketing goals. This final article helps us know when to conclude our tests so we can analyze our results. These tips will help you get the most out of your tests and will make sure the time spent setting them up is well worth it.
Head over to the PPCBlog for an interesting read on the importance of headlines in PPC advertising. To an expert, this little fact might be nothing new, but this post is a must read as it goes into depth about the role of headlines, not only in PPC campaigns and traditional advertising, but also in our overall media culture. Brevity, relevancy, and simplicity are the keys to success for higher CTR and conversion rates.
Josh Dreller over at Search Engine Land has come up with a list of 11 Inventory Sources for Keyword Marketers. From Twitter and Facebook to the Internet Yellow Pages and Shopping Engines, this list includes some of the top ad inventory for search marketers.
It’s t-minus 2 days until the Holiday and I’m sure many of you are planning to attend a BBQ or host your own. Whether you’re the host or the guest, your “to-do” list is probably continuing to grow. Good news! There are many ways that Bing can help you plan for this year’s holiday festivities.
First, will you be inside or out? Check out the weather forecast for your area just by typing the word “weather” into the search box. That’s right, no city name or zip code required, just “weather” and you’ll see an inline instant answer of the local forecast to help you prepare and plan the right attire. Next, what to make? You can find the latest recipes using Bing to search for all of the Fourth of July favorites. And if you are looking for Fourth of July weekend events in your area just search for events in your area and click on the events tab.
For more tips on how to decorate and use Bing to plan for this BBQ season check out our Lifestyle and entertainment expert Kelley Moore’s blog on how to take your summer BBQ from drab to fab.
Google’s acquisition of ITA Software will shake up the online travel industry, despite Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt’s attempt to convince press and analysts on Thursday otherwise. Insights into the travel purchase funnel could push the engine past services for consumers and advertisers, and into online sales. Schmidt told those on the call that the search engine intends to tap the data from the $700 million ITA Software acquisition to build out search tools allowing consumers to discover and compare information on air travel flights. And while he likely believes that today, stopping at this search-and-discover model would present missed opportunities to tie in additional ad targeting signals running through the entire purchase funnel.
Google’s acquisition of ITA Software will shake up the online travel industry, despite Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt’s attempt to convince press and analysts on Thursday otherwise. Insights into the travel purchase funnel could push the engine past services for consumers and advertisers, and into online sales. Schmidt told those on the call that the search engine intends to tap the data from the $700 million ITA Software acquisition to build out search tools allowing consumers to discover and compare information on air travel flights. And while he likely believes that today, stopping at this search-and-discover model would present missed opportunities to tie in additional ad targeting signals running through the entire purchase funnel.
“Focus on the user and all else will follow.” That’s always been Google’s philosophy. It’s also why we’d like to talk to you about how we can best serve you as an advertiser.
On Wednesday, July 14th, 2010, we’ll be hosting advertisers at our headquarters in Mountain View, CA to hear about your experiences with AdWords support– including email, chat, and phone.
If you’ll be in the San Francisco Bay Area on July 14th and have thoughts on how we can improve our support services, we’d love to have you join one of our focus groups. No visit to Google could be complete without lunch and a tour, so we’ll make sure you get both when you come visit.
If you’re interested and available, please fill out the form here
Even if you can’t make it to Mountain View on July 14th, we’d still like to hear your feedback. If you provide us with your contact detailswe may reach out to get your feedback by phone or email.
The other day a person contacted me about wanting to help me with ad retargeting on one of my sites, but in order to do so they would have had to have tracked my site. That would have given them tons of great information about how they could retarget all my site’s visitors around the web. And they wanted me to give that up for free in an offer which was made to sound compelling, but lacked substance. And so they never got a response.
Given that we live in “the information age” it is surprising how little people value data & how little they expect you to value it. But there are still a lot of naive folks online! Google has a patent for finding under-served markets. And they own the leading search engine + the leading online ad network.
At any point in time they can change who they are voting for, and why they are voting that way.
They acquired YouTube and then universal search was all the rage.
Yes they have been pretty good at taking the longterm view, but that is *exactly* why so many businesses are afraid of them. Google throws off so much cash and collects so much data that they can go into just about any information market and practice price dumping to kill external innovation & lock up the market.
Once they own the market they have the data. From there a near infinite number of business models & opportunities appear.
All those star ratings near the ads go to a thin affiliate / Google value add shopping search engine experience. Featured placement for those who are willing to share more data in exchange for promotion, and then over time Google will start collecting data directly and drive the (non-Google) duplication out of the marketplace.
You can tell where Google aims to position Google in the long run by what they consider to be spam. Early remote quality rater guidelines have highlighted how spammy the travel vertical is with hotel sites. Since then Google has added hotel prices to their search results, added hotels to some of their maps, and they just acquired ITA software – the company which powers many airline search sites.
Amongst this sort of backdrop there was an article in the NYT about small book shops partnering up with Google. The title of the article reads like it is straight out of a press release: Small Stores See Google as Ally in E-Book Market. And it includes the following quote
Mr. Sennett acknowledged that Google would also be a competitor, since it would also sell books from its Web site. But he seemed to believe that Google would favor its smaller partners.
“I don’t see Google directly working to undermine or outsell their retail partners,” he said. “I doubt they are going to be editorially recommending books and making choices about what people should read, which is what bookstores do.”
He added, “I wonder how naïve that is at this point. We’ll have to see.”
If they have all the sales data they don’t need to make recommendations. They let you and your customers do that. All they have to do to provide a better service than you can is aggregate the data.
The long view is this: if Google can cheaply duplicate your efforts you are unneeded duplication in the marketplace.
Well, with the USA soccer (futbol) team exiting the FIFA World Cup for 2010 my attention gets focused elsewhere. Enter, Le Tour de France. Le Tour de France runs from Saturday July 3rd to Sunday July 25th 2010. The 97th Tour de France will be made up of 1 prologue and 20 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,642 kilometers. I was looking at Le Tour de France site and they have this PDF route map – a bit antiquated. I’m going to go out on a limb and say you might want to check out the Bing 2010 Tour de France map app for a better experience.
Fans of cycling’s best known tour, the Tour de France, can now preview the course and check the standing of their favorite teams! During this three-week long event each stage is displayed on the map along with pushpins to indicate the start and finish. Various waypoints, such as the feed zones and hill climbs are included. Displayed along the top of the map is an interactive profile for which a user can see elevation and slope changes for the selected stage. The stage description and weather prediction are shown in the “Stages” tab on the left panel. Fans can view daily results in the “Results” tab.
A little better than the PDF. Arguably the best experience is in Bird’s Eye view (enhanced). We’ve reprojected the ortho photos to provide a unique visual context; however, that combined with the elevation information gives you a great feel for just how tough these hills really are.
The page views have spoken! Below we have gathered PPC Hero’s four most visited, and hopefully most valuable articles from April. Whether you’re a new or long-time subscriber, you may have missed these insightful and helpful PPC management tips.
This month’s top post goes to Erin and her how-to guide on Google AdWords settings. All the Google settings can be a little overwhelming at first, but the benefits of putting together the right combination of settings is well worth the time. The key to finding a successful combination is through testing and exploration. If all works accordingly, you will see additional clicks and conversions in no time.
Since we aren’t lucky enough to have unlimited budgets, Jen walked us through 10 tactics to utilize when projected over monthly budget. Nobody likes to close in on the end of a month and realize they are going to be forced to pause their account due to budget concerns. Jen suggests small, but frequent budget management throughout the month can help you stay on top of your spend.
In our next greatest hits post for the month of June, Google AdWords released a new tool into beta testing and Erin comes through with the inside scoop. The initiative is called AdWords Campaign Experiments (ACE for short), and the new feature helps account managers monitor and control tests that they are running within an account. Erin provides a guide to the new beta tool and gives her insights on how to best utilize Google’s latest feature.
Finally, in the month of June, Jessica taught us how to avoid the “banana peels” in Google’s Content Network and increase our overall visibility and relevancy. This informative post outlines tips for managing your content placements, ad groups, and keywords. Managing your content network can be a complex task, but in the long run, it will help to lower your CPL and ultimately make your content campaigns more profitable.
You can find the latest songs as well as sample the songs right there inline with the Zune Player. We have even taken it a step further letting you purchase those songs right from the results page through Amazon.com, iTunes or Zune. Zune is also now allowing you to buy these songs with cash in addition to points.
Have you noticed the link that takes you directly to the lyrics of the songs? More than 70 percent of people look for music lyrics online; I know I can recall a time or two where this would have come in handy in the past.
Now if you are a huge fan and want to listen to the music in person we provide an events tab, which lists out the upcoming concert and event info (looks like the Cleveland concert is already SOLD OUT) and there are also tabs that will take you to the latest news, videos, and images of your favorite artist.
Looking for, listening to, and purchasing music online is something that I do often and now having it all within Bing has made it that much easier to really experience music with Bing.
If you’ve read the Google blog recently you’ll see that there are quite a few new tools being introduced to help us do our jobs better, and work more efficiently. So how can you tell which tools will help the most, and how do you find the time to learn about them all? While I can’t help you learn about everything right now, I can share some insight into a few of the tools we use most for our clients.
Google Website Optimizer
What is our motto? TEST! And how do we do it? With the Google Website Optimizer tool, that’s of course free, and very easy to use (typical for Google, I know).
What it does: Google Website Optimizer (GWO) allows you to test different versions of a page and select the elements/design that persuades more of your visitors to convert (or complete your goal whatever it is).
Types of testing:
A/B: this allows you to test two entirely different pages (or more) against each other.
Multivariate: this allows you to test multiple elements of a page at the same time. You are then able to distinguish which combination of elements worked best.
Tips for using it effectively:
Think through your test before starting – the more thought you put into it, the better off you will be. Think about the following:
What are the business goals you are trying to achieve?
What is the best strategy to test that goal?
What page(s) are you going to test and where should you start?
Determine which type of test (A/B or Multivariate)
A/B tests are a little easier, require less time and are used to test major design decisions.
Multivariate tests are more complex and will take long to come to a conclusion. If you choose multivariate – make sure you have enough traffic to the page to support it.
What elements do you think are impacting visitors who are converting?
Images
Copy
Offer
Headline
Layout
Call to action/buttons
Choose your pages:
Choose the page you will be optimizing.
Choose your conversion page.
Plan on taking more than 5 minutes to set it up correctly – especially the first time. Set aside an hour or so to go through the steps and make sure everything is correct.
You will need to install tags on the pages, so make sure you or your programmer know how to properly install code snippets. Don’t worry, the tracking code will be given to you as you set up the test.
Don’t run tests that will take several months to complete – there are other factors that go into play, seasonality, major news, competitor sales, etc. Aim for no longer than 4-6 weeks.
The key is in analyzing the data, and moving forward. Anyone can set up a test, but interpreting it is more important. From there you may need to do additional tests, but you first need to get some data to decide where to go next
Ideas of what to test:
Call to Action -
Language
Button vs. hyperlink
Button colors & shapes
Fonts
Choice of font
Readability
Color, treatment (bold, etc.)
Headlines
Different language
Formatting: bold, color, etc.
Number of words
Quote vs. question
Page copy
One vs. three column layouts
Actual copy on pages
Images
Forms
Long form vs. short
Drop downs vs. fill in
Language around form
Placement/language of call to action button
Shopping cart
Process/pages
Incentives/offers
Site wide test
Navigation
Shopping cart button
Tagline
Search box
Location of authority & trust seals
Home page
Main image
Flash vs. images
Headlines
Best sellers, featured products, new arrivals (placement as well as adding these in)
Copy
Product displays
Ecommerce
Shopping funnel
Check out page
Image of product on product page
Product descriptions
Reviews
Add to cart buttons
Cross sells
Day Parts Report
The day parts report is a new analytics report, and it is found in Analytics under Traffic Sources > Ad Words > Day Parts. This report is used to find out what time of day your campaigns are most effective, but right now it is only for Adwords campaigns. From here you can see your ad performance broken down by day of the week and by hour of the day. The Day Parts report can help you find the most profitable times of day for your ads. Then pair it with the Ad Scheduling feature in AdWords to automatically adjust your bids to capture the right traffic at the right time.
Looking at the Data:
You can view your data in the table, or by time of day. The table lists each hour of the day. Click an hour to drill down and compare each day of the week for that hour of day. Clicking an hour in the resulting report takes you to the detail report for that day and hour (for example, Saturday 10:00).
You can also replace the ‘None’ dimension on the detail report with another selection such as Keywords so you can compare keyword performance for that day and hour.
By graphing visits against transactions you are able to see how transactions increase or decrease relative to visits. To access this information, click the tab at top left of the graph to select up to two metrics at a time. View the data hourly, so you can determine the best time to increase or decrease your bids.
Important Notes:
You must have enabled Destination URL auto-tagging in your AdWords account in order to see data in this report.
The above information is applicable for ecommerce sites. If you don’t have an ecommerce site, you will need to set up lead goals in Analytics. Once you have your leads goal running, you will be able to assess the days and times that your campaigns convert the best, and make day parting decisions based on that information.
Using the Data:
Once you know the days and times that your account converts the best, or when revenue and visits increase together, you can adjust your Adwords account accordingly.
Google Conversion Optimizer
The goal of the Google Conversion Optimizer is to increase conversions, decrease CPA (Cost per Action) and improve ROI.
How it works:
Your conversion tracking data is complied, and a prediction model is generated based on that data. From there your bids are optimized, and it selects the best auction scenario based on targeting. Your bids are also adjusted to a price that will put your ad in the best situation to convert.
In order to implement conversion optimizer you need to have a minimum of 15 conversions in the past 30 days, and the conversion level needs to be consistent over recent days. Google recommends having conversion tracking running for 2 weeks or more, and from our experience, the more data you have, the better, so don’t skimp here. When setting up the optimizer functionality you will set either a max CPA or target CPA (target is the average you want to pay per conversion).
Best practices:
Use the optimizer with existing campaigns
Leave it running. The longer you have been running conversion tracking the better it’ll work.
Don’t make large changes when it’s running (deleting or creating ad groups). Make small adjustments only (changes in keywords, creative, or landing pages).
Don’t move or remove the Google tracking codes.
Advantages:
It will automatically adjust your bids in real time for each auction.
Your click value will be determined based on specific criteria (user location, user query, content site, etc.).
It can be a great tool for managing cost within a campaign.
It has the ability to improve campaigns with minimal management.
Disadvantages:
Some control is taken from the user.
Tracking needs time to adjust to major changes.
It could create complacency on the part of the account manager.
Recommendations:
Try it on seasoned campaigns that are already performing well
Enable tracking for a minimum of 1 month for a better performance snapshot.
Do not try it with campaigns that are still a heavy work in progress.
Make adjustments to your CPA to find where the campaign will ideally perform.
If you’ve read the Google blog recently you’ll see that there are quite a few new tools being introduced to help us do our jobs better, and work more efficiently. So how can you tell which tools will help the most, and how do you find the time to learn about them all? While I can’t help you learn about everything right now, I can share some insight into a few of the tools we use most for our clients.
Google Website Optimizer
What is our motto? TEST! And how do we do it? With the Google Website Optimizer tool, that’s of course free, and very easy to use (typical for Google, I know).
What it does: Google Website Optimizer (GWO) allows you to test different versions of a page and select the elements/design that persuades more of your visitors to convert (or complete your goal whatever it is).
Types of testing:
A/B: this allows you to test two entirely different pages (or more) against each other.
Multivariate: this allows you to test multiple elements of a page at the same time. You are then able to distinguish which combination of elements worked best.
Tips for using it effectively:
Think through your test before starting – the more thought you put into it, the better off you will be. Think about the following:
What are the business goals you are trying to achieve?
What is the best strategy to test that goal?
What page(s) are you going to test and where should you start?
Determine which type of test (A/B or Multivariate)
A/B tests are a little easier, require less time and are used to test major design decisions.
Multivariate tests are more complex and will take long to come to a conclusion. If you choose multivariate – make sure you have enough traffic to the page to support it.
What elements do you think are impacting visitors who are converting?
Images
Copy
Offer
Headline
Layout
Call to action/buttons
Choose your pages:
Choose the page you will be optimizing.
Choose your conversion page.
Plan on taking more than 5 minutes to set it up correctly – especially the first time. Set aside an hour or so to go through the steps and make sure everything is correct.
You will need to install tags on the pages, so make sure you or your programmer know how to properly install code snippets. Don’t worry, the tracking code will be given to you as you set up the test.
Don’t run tests that will take several months to complete – there are other factors that go into play, seasonality, major news, competitor sales, etc. Aim for no longer than 4-6 weeks.
The key is in analyzing the data, and moving forward. Anyone can set up a test, but interpreting it is more important. From there you may need to do additional tests, but you first need to get some data to decide where to go next
Ideas of what to test:
Call to Action -
Language
Button vs. hyperlink
Button colors & shapes
Fonts
Choice of font
Readability
Color, treatment (bold, etc.)
Headlines
Different language
Formatting: bold, color, etc.
Number of words
Quote vs. question
Page copy
One vs. three column layouts
Actual copy on pages
Images
Forms
Long form vs. short
Drop downs vs. fill in
Language around form
Placement/language of call to action button
Shopping cart
Process/pages
Incentives/offers
Site wide test
Navigation
Shopping cart button
Tagline
Search box
Location of authority & trust seals
Home page
Main image
Flash vs. images
Headlines
Best sellers, featured products, new arrivals (placement as well as adding these in)
Copy
Product displays
Ecommerce
Shopping funnel
Check out page
Image of product on product page
Product descriptions
Reviews
Add to cart buttons
Cross sells
Day Parts Report
The day parts report is a new analytics report, and it is found in Analytics under Traffic Sources > Ad Words > Day Parts. This report is used to find out what time of day your campaigns are most effective, but right now it is only for Adwords campaigns. From here you can see your ad performance broken down by day of the week and by hour of the day. The Day Parts report can help you find the most profitable times of day for your ads. Then pair it with the Ad Scheduling feature in AdWords to automatically adjust your bids to capture the right traffic at the right time.
Looking at the Data:
You can view your data in the table, or by time of day. The table lists each hour of the day. Click an hour to drill down and compare each day of the week for that hour of day. Clicking an hour in the resulting report takes you to the detail report for that day and hour (for example, Saturday 10:00).
You can also replace the ‘None’ dimension on the detail report with another selection such as Keywords so you can compare keyword performance for that day and hour.
By graphing visits against transactions you are able to see how transactions increase or decrease relative to visits. To access this information, click the tab at top left of the graph to select up to two metrics at a time. View the data hourly, so you can determine the best time to increase or decrease your bids.
Important Notes:
You must have enabled Destination URL auto-tagging in your AdWords account in order to see data in this report.
The above information is applicable for ecommerce sites. If you don’t have an ecommerce site, you will need to set up lead goals in Analytics. Once you have your leads goal running, you will be able to assess the days and times that your campaigns convert the best, and make day parting decisions based on that information.
Using the Data:
Once you know the days and times that your account converts the best, or when revenue and visits increase together, you can adjust your Adwords account accordingly.
Google Conversion Optimizer
The goal of the Google Conversion Optimizer is to increase conversions, decrease CPA (Cost per Action) and improve ROI.
How it works:
Your conversion tracking data is complied, and a prediction model is generated based on that data. From there your bids are optimized, and it selects the best auction scenario based on targeting. Your bids are also adjusted to a price that will put your ad in the best situation to convert.
In order to implement conversion optimizer you need to have a minimum of 15 conversions in the past 30 days, and the conversion level needs to be consistent over recent days. Google recommends having conversion tracking running for 2 weeks or more, and from our experience, the more data you have, the better, so don’t skimp here. When setting up the optimizer functionality you will set either a max CPA or target CPA (target is the average you want to pay per conversion).
Best practices:
Use the optimizer with existing campaigns
Leave it running. The longer you have been running conversion tracking the better it’ll work.
Don’t make large changes when it’s running (deleting or creating ad groups). Make small adjustments only (changes in keywords, creative, or landing pages).
Don’t move or remove the Google tracking codes.
Advantages:
It will automatically adjust your bids in real time for each auction.
Your click value will be determined based on specific criteria (user location, user query, content site, etc.).
It can be a great tool for managing cost within a campaign.
It has the ability to improve campaigns with minimal management.
Disadvantages:
Some control is taken from the user.
Tracking needs time to adjust to major changes.
It could create complacency on the part of the account manager.
Recommendations:
Try it on seasoned campaigns that are already performing well
Enable tracking for a minimum of 1 month for a better performance snapshot.
Do not try it with campaigns that are still a heavy work in progress.
Make adjustments to your CPA to find where the campaign will ideally perform.
If you’ve read the Google blog recently you’ll see that there are quite a few new tools being introduced to help us do our jobs better, and work more efficiently. So how can you tell which tools will help the most, and how do you find the time to learn about them all? While I can’t help you learn about everything right now, I can share some insight into a few of the tools we use most for our clients.
Google Website Optimizer
What is our motto? TEST! And how do we do it? With the Google Website Optimizer tool, that’s of course free, and very easy to use (typical for Google, I know).
What it does: Google Website Optimizer (GWO) allows you to test different versions of a page and select the elements/design that persuades more of your visitors to convert (or complete your goal whatever it is).
Types of testing:
A/B: this allows you to test two entirely different pages (or more) against each other.
Multivariate: this allows you to test multiple elements of a page at the same time. You are then able to distinguish which combination of elements worked best.
Tips for using it effectively:
Think through your test before starting – the more thought you put into it, the better off you will be. Think about the following:
What are the business goals you are trying to achieve?
What is the best strategy to test that goal?
What page(s) are you going to test and where should you start?
Determine which type of test (A/B or Multivariate)
A/B tests are a little easier, require less time and are used to test major design decisions.
Multivariate tests are more complex and will take long to come to a conclusion. If you choose multivariate – make sure you have enough traffic to the page to support it.
What elements do you think are impacting visitors who are converting?
Images
Copy
Offer
Headline
Layout
Call to action/buttons
Choose your pages:
Choose the page you will be optimizing.
Choose your conversion page.
Plan on taking more than 5 minutes to set it up correctly – especially the first time. Set aside an hour or so to go through the steps and make sure everything is correct.
You will need to install tags on the pages, so make sure you or your programmer know how to properly install code snippets. Don’t worry, the tracking code will be given to you as you set up the test.
Don’t run tests that will take several months to complete – there are other factors that go into play, seasonality, major news, competitor sales, etc. Aim for no longer than 4-6 weeks.
The key is in analyzing the data, and moving forward. Anyone can set up a test, but interpreting it is more important. From there you may need to do additional tests, but you first need to get some data to decide where to go next
Ideas of what to test:
Call to Action -
Language
Button vs. hyperlink
Button colors & shapes
Fonts
Choice of font
Readability
Color, treatment (bold, etc.)
Headlines
Different language
Formatting: bold, color, etc.
Number of words
Quote vs. question
Page copy
One vs. three column layouts
Actual copy on pages
Images
Forms
Long form vs. short
Drop downs vs. fill in
Language around form
Placement/language of call to action button
Shopping cart
Process/pages
Incentives/offers
Site wide test
Navigation
Shopping cart button
Tagline
Search box
Location of authority & trust seals
Home page
Main image
Flash vs. images
Headlines
Best sellers, featured products, new arrivals (placement as well as adding these in)
Copy
Product displays
Ecommerce
Shopping funnel
Check out page
Image of product on product page
Product descriptions
Reviews
Add to cart buttons
Cross sells
Day Parts Report
The day parts report is a new analytics report, and it is found in Analytics under Traffic Sources > Ad Words > Day Parts. This report is used to find out what time of day your campaigns are most effective, but right now it is only for Adwords campaigns. From here you can see your ad performance broken down by day of the week and by hour of the day. The Day Parts report can help you find the most profitable times of day for your ads. Then pair it with the Ad Scheduling feature in AdWords to automatically adjust your bids to capture the right traffic at the right time.
Looking at the Data:
You can view your data in the table, or by time of day. The table lists each hour of the day. Click an hour to drill down and compare each day of the week for that hour of day. Clicking an hour in the resulting report takes you to the detail report for that day and hour (for example, Saturday 10:00).
You can also replace the ‘None’ dimension on the detail report with another selection such as Keywords so you can compare keyword performance for that day and hour.
By graphing visits against transactions you are able to see how transactions increase or decrease relative to visits. To access this information, click the tab at top left of the graph to select up to two metrics at a time. View the data hourly, so you can determine the best time to increase or decrease your bids.
Important Notes:
You must have enabled Destination URL auto-tagging in your AdWords account in order to see data in this report.
The above information is applicable for ecommerce sites. If you don’t have an ecommerce site, you will need to set up lead goals in Analytics. Once you have your leads goal running, you will be able to assess the days and times that your campaigns convert the best, and make day parting decisions based on that information.
Using the Data:
Once you know the days and times that your account converts the best, or when revenue and visits increase together, you can adjust your Adwords account accordingly.
Google Conversion Optimizer
The goal of the Google Conversion Optimizer is to increase conversions, decrease CPA (Cost per Action) and improve ROI.
How it works:
Your conversion tracking data is complied, and a prediction model is generated based on that data. From there your bids are optimized, and it selects the best auction scenario based on targeting. Your bids are also adjusted to a price that will put your ad in the best situation to convert.
In order to implement conversion optimizer you need to have a minimum of 15 conversions in the past 30 days, and the conversion level needs to be consistent over recent days. Google recommends having conversion tracking running for 2 weeks or more, and from our experience, the more data you have, the better, so don’t skimp here. When setting up the optimizer functionality you will set either a max CPA or target CPA (target is the average you want to pay per conversion).
Best practices:
Use the optimizer with existing campaigns
Leave it running. The longer you have been running conversion tracking the better it’ll work.
Don’t make large changes when it’s running (deleting or creating ad groups). Make small adjustments only (changes in keywords, creative, or landing pages).
Don’t move or remove the Google tracking codes.
Advantages:
It will automatically adjust your bids in real time for each auction.
Your click value will be determined based on specific criteria (user location, user query, content site, etc.).
It can be a great tool for managing cost within a campaign.
It has the ability to improve campaigns with minimal management.
Disadvantages:
Some control is taken from the user.
Tracking needs time to adjust to major changes.
It could create complacency on the part of the account manager.
Recommendations:
Try it on seasoned campaigns that are already performing well
Enable tracking for a minimum of 1 month for a better performance snapshot.
Do not try it with campaigns that are still a heavy work in progress.
Make adjustments to your CPA to find where the campaign will ideally perform.
If you’ve read the Google blog recently you’ll see that there are quite a few new tools being introduced to help us do our jobs better, and work more efficiently. So how can you tell which tools will help the most, and how do you find the time to learn about them all? While I can’t help you learn about everything right now, I can share some insight into a few of the tools we use most for our clients.
Google Website Optimizer
What is our motto? TEST! And how do we do it? With the Google Website Optimizer tool, that’s of course free, and very easy to use (typical for Google, I know).
What it does: Google Website Optimizer (GWO) allows you to test different versions of a page and select the elements/design that persuades more of your visitors to convert (or complete your goal whatever it is).
Types of testing:
A/B: this allows you to test two entirely different pages (or more) against each other.
Multivariate: this allows you to test multiple elements of a page at the same time. You are then able to distinguish which combination of elements worked best.
Tips for using it effectively:
Think through your test before starting – the more thought you put into it, the better off you will be. Think about the following:
What are the business goals you are trying to achieve?
What is the best strategy to test that goal?
What page(s) are you going to test and where should you start?
Determine which type of test (A/B or Multivariate)
A/B tests are a little easier, require less time and are used to test major design decisions.
Multivariate tests are more complex and will take long to come to a conclusion. If you choose multivariate – make sure you have enough traffic to the page to support it.
What elements do you think are impacting visitors who are converting?
Images
Copy
Offer
Headline
Layout
Call to action/buttons
Choose your pages:
Choose the page you will be optimizing.
Choose your conversion page.
Plan on taking more than 5 minutes to set it up correctly – especially the first time. Set aside an hour or so to go through the steps and make sure everything is correct.
You will need to install tags on the pages, so make sure you or your programmer know how to properly install code snippets. Don’t worry, the tracking code will be given to you as you set up the test.
Don’t run tests that will take several months to complete – there are other factors that go into play, seasonality, major news, competitor sales, etc. Aim for no longer than 4-6 weeks.
The key is in analyzing the data, and moving forward. Anyone can set up a test, but interpreting it is more important. From there you may need to do additional tests, but you first need to get some data to decide where to go next
Ideas of what to test:
Call to Action -
Language
Button vs. hyperlink
Button colors & shapes
Fonts
Choice of font
Readability
Color, treatment (bold, etc.)
Headlines
Different language
Formatting: bold, color, etc.
Number of words
Quote vs. question
Page copy
One vs. three column layouts
Actual copy on pages
Images
Forms
Long form vs. short
Drop downs vs. fill in
Language around form
Placement/language of call to action button
Shopping cart
Process/pages
Incentives/offers
Site wide test
Navigation
Shopping cart button
Tagline
Search box
Location of authority & trust seals
Home page
Main image
Flash vs. images
Headlines
Best sellers, featured products, new arrivals (placement as well as adding these in)
Copy
Product displays
Ecommerce
Shopping funnel
Check out page
Image of product on product page
Product descriptions
Reviews
Add to cart buttons
Cross sells
Day Parts Report
The day parts report is a new analytics report, and it is found in Analytics under Traffic Sources > Ad Words > Day Parts. This report is used to find out what time of day your campaigns are most effective, but right now it is only for Adwords campaigns. From here you can see your ad performance broken down by day of the week and by hour of the day. The Day Parts report can help you find the most profitable times of day for your ads. Then pair it with the Ad Scheduling feature in AdWords to automatically adjust your bids to capture the right traffic at the right time.
Looking at the Data:
You can view your data in the table, or by time of day. The table lists each hour of the day. Click an hour to drill down and compare each day of the week for that hour of day. Clicking an hour in the resulting report takes you to the detail report for that day and hour (for example, Saturday 10:00).
You can also replace the ‘None’ dimension on the detail report with another selection such as Keywords so you can compare keyword performance for that day and hour.
By graphing visits against transactions you are able to see how transactions increase or decrease relative to visits. To access this information, click the tab at top left of the graph to select up to two metrics at a time. View the data hourly, so you can determine the best time to increase or decrease your bids.
Important Notes:
You must have enabled Destination URL auto-tagging in your AdWords account in order to see data in this report.
The above information is applicable for ecommerce sites. If you don’t have an ecommerce site, you will need to set up lead goals in Analytics. Once you have your leads goal running, you will be able to assess the days and times that your campaigns convert the best, and make day parting decisions based on that information.
Using the Data:
Once you know the days and times that your account converts the best, or when revenue and visits increase together, you can adjust your Adwords account accordingly.
Google Conversion Optimizer
The goal of the Google Conversion Optimizer is to increase conversions, decrease CPA (Cost per Action) and improve ROI.
How it works:
Your conversion tracking data is complied, and a prediction model is generated based on that data. From there your bids are optimized, and it selects the best auction scenario based on targeting. Your bids are also adjusted to a price that will put your ad in the best situation to convert.
In order to implement conversion optimizer you need to have a minimum of 15 conversions in the past 30 days, and the conversion level needs to be consistent over recent days. Google recommends having conversion tracking running for 2 weeks or more, and from our experience, the more data you have, the better, so don’t skimp here. When setting up the optimizer functionality you will set either a max CPA or target CPA (target is the average you want to pay per conversion).
Best practices:
Use the optimizer with existing campaigns
Leave it running. The longer you have been running conversion tracking the better it’ll work.
Don’t make large changes when it’s running (deleting or creating ad groups). Make small adjustments only (changes in keywords, creative, or landing pages).
Don’t move or remove the Google tracking codes.
Advantages:
It will automatically adjust your bids in real time for each auction.
Your click value will be determined based on specific criteria (user location, user query, content site, etc.).
It can be a great tool for managing cost within a campaign.
It has the ability to improve campaigns with minimal management.
Disadvantages:
Some control is taken from the user.
Tracking needs time to adjust to major changes.
It could create complacency on the part of the account manager.
Recommendations:
Try it on seasoned campaigns that are already performing well
Enable tracking for a minimum of 1 month for a better performance snapshot.
Do not try it with campaigns that are still a heavy work in progress.
Make adjustments to your CPA to find where the campaign will ideally perform.
