The UK is still seeing a relatively lethargic response from companies delivering Mobile/Tablet users with appropriate optimised content. The first article link below should be of particular interest to any business not yet optimising their landing pages for mobile;

1 in 5 online retail searches in December were on mobiles http://www.theretailbulletin.com/news/1_in_5_online_retail_searches_in_december_were_on_mobiles_23-01-12/

Whilst the stats represent the US market, the categorisation and depth of spend per industry is fascinating – Finance & Insurance delivering 10.5% of revenues through Paid Search to Google;

What Industries Contributed the Most to Google’s Earnings in 2011?
http://www.wordstream.com/articles/google-earnings

Finally, the study below notes that tablets accounted for a small but fast growing segment of retail website visitors. It went from 1 percent in January 2011 to 4 percent in December 2011;

Tablet Visitors Spent 54% More Than Smartphone Visitors in 2011
http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2140454/Tablet-Visitors-Spent-54-More-Than-Smartphone-Visitors-in-2011

Any questions, as always, just give me a shout.

Using Google’s Call Forwarding service Google provides and displays a unique phone number in your ads, on both mobile and desktop devices. If a potential customer calls the Google forwarding phone number from your ad, AdWords will route the call to your chosen business phone number. You’ll then be able to see the number of calls you received, including call duration and the inbound area code, in your call reports. Further call analysis will include;

• Summaries of completed calls, phone-through rate (PTR), and phone call cost on the Ad Group and Campaign tabs.
• Details for each call, including call time, duration, caller area code, and the ad group that drove the call on the Dimensions tab.

It’s a very common question raised by both business owners and marketing managers. Google analysed over 400 accounts from a wide range of market sectors to see the impact on search traffic if an Adwords account was paused. The full study can be found here however, if time’s short Google have prepared a simplified account of their analysis through the magic of animation…

Google’s Chief Economist, Hal Varian, wrote a post about understanding the average position metric. Hal explained, there is a big difference between when your ad appears in position #1 above the search results and when your ad appears in position #1 on the side. Quoting Hal, “This distinction is important, since, on average, ads that appear above the search results tend to get substantially more clicks than ads that appear on the right-hand side.”

Well, courtesy of this new segment report you can now see for yourself the justification in terms of structuring your Adwords Campaign strategy to deliver results within the Top 3 positions. Prior to this new report the only method to build understanding as to the impact of Ad Position upon site conversions and CPC was through the Analytics Adwords “Keyword Positions” report which delivered conversion and click volume figures.

Reporting is available at Campaign, Ad Group, Ad and Keyword level providing you with a wealth of information to make far better judgement calls in terms of the optimisation of your budget and campaign performance. Not only can you view the difference within your average CPC, retailers can view their true CPA based on “Top Ad” and “Side Ad” segments.

Google define the new tool as “a measure of how your ads are performing on the Display Network compared to other advertisers’ ads that are appearing on the same websites“. Put simply, we now have a gauge to verify the overall CTR success of Display Network advertising. Prior to the launch of Relative CTR, advertisers benchmarked their CTR success on prior month percentages with little or no knowledge of the actual content field whereby the ad was displayed.

Now, through the launch of Relative CTR we have an indicator, similar to that of Search’s Quality Score, drawing comparison between your own ads and each competitor ads own Click Thru Rate.

Relative CTR value is obtained by dividing your CTR by the average CTR of all advertisers on the placements where your ads are shown.

To view your Display Network Relative CTR at Ad Group level select Columns > Customise Columns and tick the box as displayed below;

Taking the ‘average’ relative CTR as 1x, if your website is received twice the average CTR of your competitors the Relative CTR is displayed as 2x. Likewise, if you receive half the average CTR of your competitors, Relative CTR is displayed as .5x.

So, switching on Relative CTR this morning, should you be alarmed if you see scores of .1x? Not necessarily. As long as you’re maintaining a CPA which suits your business model based on your current average Cost Per Click, then there isn’t anything to worry about. However, a low Relative CTR is a clear indicator that your advertising simply isn’t as compelling as your competitors. You may wish, at this stage, to introduce Contextual Ad Targeting or to review your Ad Copy and Image Ads to ensure they’re up-to-date and deliver a concise compelling message to draw attention and clicks.

The introduction of Relative CTR provides the advertiser with yet another reason to re-visit their Google Adwords Display Network strategy. The continuous evolvement of the Display Network provides advertiser’s with even further opportunities to reach their target market with a detailed and precise marketing approach.

Linking your Google Adwords account with Google Analytics (click here to find out how)  is an absolute essential task for any business selling or generating leads online. For the retailer, not only does it provide data relating to your conversion rates and best performing campaigns, it also builds the complete picture required to allow you to make informed decisions based on real data.

One such report is the Margin Analysis report (found within the  Traffic Sources / Adwords Campaign Tab). Here you’ll see just exactly how well your Adwords campaign is performing based on real business data – the good old fashioned margin ((eCommerce Revenue – Ad Cost) divided by Revenue). Here, again, is another TOP reason to ensure that your Adwords Account is structured in a correct fashion – you can break down the Margin Analysis by the following Adwords categories;

• Campaign
• Ad Group
• Keyword
• Ad Content
• Network
• Match Type
• Search Query
• Display URL
• Destination URL

You’ll quickly see how each of your Ad Groups are performing based on actual revenue and cost details extracted from your website.

Ever wondered why Adwords Experts harp on so much about focusing your keyword strategy on Exact Match types? The ‘Match Type’ report within Google Analytics will give you good idea why! The data below was taken from a live retailer account for the past 7 days;

Just look at the different in the Per Visit Value between search visitors attracted using Exact-match compared with Broad and even Phrase.

You can also break the data down further by analysing Match Type conversions for each individual Campaign or Ad Group.

This is the first in a series of weekly articles investigating the essential aspects of Adwords & Analytics for the Online Retailer. Please subscribe to my RSS feed or Email Newsletter to receive further editions.

Following on from the recent Ad Copy amendments where Adwords were selectively showing Description Line 1 of your Ad Copy as part of the headline;

Yesterday’s announcement, which effects all global campaigns, now shows Adwords choosing high performing Ad Copy to include both the chosen headline and the website URL;

As per the initial headline changes, we can safely assume this will only impact upon high performing campaigns (i.e. high historic CTR keyword Ad Copy) and does not take effect for all Top 3 position Ads.

The Headline URL does not include “www.” or any subdirectory – it’s simply taken from your core destination domain URL and separated from your headline by a vertical bar.

It’s noted that you can now incorporate both the Headline, Description Line 1 and your URL within the Headline copy as long as the entire line is 68 characters or less. Great for those sites with a short domain name! Yet again, Adwords will have Paid Search agencies and managers re-writing Ad Copy to incorporate the new aspects of the headline. This latest amendment further enforces the removal of separation between Sponsored Ads and Organic Listings on the search results page.

Here’s an example of the latest Apple.com Ad Copy including Description Line 1 and the Domain as part of the headline along with the addition of Site Link extensions;

If you’re still continuing to focus on your keyword choice and CPC figures here’s further evidence of the need to spend more time analysing and understanding the impact Ad Copy can have on the success of your Adwords campaign. We’ll be keeping a close eye on the performance of the new Headline structure and reporting back soon!

The fact of the matter is that an increase, or conversely a decrease, in Quality Score can have a huge effect upon the overall financial success of your campaign. As highlighted in Craig Danuloff’s brilliant article on Quality Score from 2009, the financial implication of a single point increase in Quality Score can have an immediate 50% influence upon the actual CPC. The results can bring great, or devastating news, dependent upon which way the Quality Score indication swings…. but only on those terms which create significant traffic volumes.

At a micro-level, yes a swing in Quality Score may seem to be a blessing or a hinderance to your overall results for that particular keyword or phrase. But at the macro-level, do you see individual developments playing out which may impact upon your entire campaign? Could the swing in quality score be representative of a lack of focus upon your Paid Search campaigns?

The Click Thru Rate (CTR) of the individual keywords you’re bidding upon plays a large part in the Quality Score grading Google places upon your chosen keyword each and every time your ads are shown (for greater understanding of the make up of Quality Score I highly recommend this video by Hal Varian, Chief Economist at Google). If your ad’s CTR is below average far that particular Ad Position you will start to see a deterioration in your Quality Score. The decreasing CTR will be down to one single factor – your Ads aren’t relevant to the end users search request. This could be due to;

• poor Ad copy
• lack of correct keyword targeting
• broad-matched keywords which do not reflect the Ad shown

all inherent aspects of a poorly-managed Adwords campaign.

More important than a simple decrease in the Adwords grading scale are the monetary implications…. you’ll be spending more money to gain that same Ad Position which may already be underperforming for your business. We’re currently talking about one single keyword – picture the scenario whereby your account continues to stagnate with poorly chosen keywords and disorganised Ad Groups – suddenly the overall implications are far far greater. Your Google Adwords campaign will erode any margins left in your product offering and suddenly the whole idea of running an Adwords campaign doesn’t hold the same appeal….

Conversely, an account which is structured correctly, whereby keywords are collated in tightly-knit content-focused groups and Ad Copy compels high CTR, Quality Score can have a hugely positive impact. Your Ads are ranked based on the simple equation “Ad Rank = Quality Score x Maximum Keyword Bid“. Taking a Quality Score from 4 to 7 could reduce your Cost Per Click (CPC) by as much as 75% for that particular Ad Position. An even greater impact is generated by maintaining the same Maximum Bid and seeing your Ad slowly eat up your competitors and increase it’s position up the Ad Charts.

If you take your foot off the pedal for one moment your Adwords Campaign will suffer. Your competitors are always willing to take advantage of any inefficiencies with your campaign… and Google are more than happy to reward them…

If you’re seeing your costs ramp up without any additional traffic through to your site it’s time to take a look at the current Quality Score gradings on your more popular keywords. Only then will you begin to understand just where your campaign may be flagging… and hopefully begin the process of turning around your campaign performance.

…and here’s how the analogy between flying a plane and managing a Google Adwords account pans out…

What happen’s, or at least you HOPE happens, before a plane takes off? You’ve got to be sure that your Pilot and his/her assistants know exactly where they’re heading, have the necessary tools in place to ensure the journey is as smooth as possible… and that there’s enough fuel in the tank to ensure the journey is completed.

The customers? They’re just wanting to get to a new destination which suits their needs (whether business or pleasure) by the simplest method available… whether that’s the Search Engine or the Airport.

Okay… still with me?

Before any Adwords campaign manager launches a new PPC campaign they have to have a firm understanding of exactly what the campaign’s requirements are;

• the necessary ROI in order to label the campaign a success
• research into the search habits of your audience
• captivating advertising to ensure high Click Through (CTR)
• the optimisation of each landing page
• the required allocation of budget

Each of these aspects is pivotal in creating a successful campaign. Just as a Commercial Pilot makes all the necessary pre-flight checks – there’s no point in even touching the throttle until each and every aspect of the flightpath is detailed and prepared.

Great. So now we have all of the finer detail (pre-flight) mapped and ready.

Off we head towards the runway… the campaign launch

It’s time to hit the throttle.

We’ve received the thumbs up from the Financial controllers… time to launch the Adwords campaign. Now, to be travelling at 33,000ft you’re well aware that the journey skywards takes every ounce of thrust and power to soar to our intended altitude. Likewise, in order for an Adwords campaign to deliver results we have to ensure that our bids are realistically set to deliver quality positions where our Ads are seen and within mouse-pointed distance of our intended audience.

To get to this stage, we’re not looking at 10% power on the throttle. A 10p bid on a term where competitors are bidding £1.00-£2.00 isn’t going to get your campaign off the ground. We’re never reach our intended destinations by minimising spend during the ‘settling’ period for a PPC campaign.

Fantastic. We’re reached our intended altitude… lets just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Wouldn’t that be just great?

Just like inside the engine rooms of our commercial airliner, constant tweaks and adjustments are made to ensure our flight is going to reach it’s destination on time and in safe and working order. The pilot at this stage focus’ their attention on delivering a smooth ride for all on board. He has access to a full range of analytics to keep help him make the necessary adjustments to the flightpath.

At the same time, Air Traffic Control are fulfilling their role making sure that each and every skybound plane is holding it’s correct path. Needless to say, just like the movements of your competitors within the Adwords positions, you have to keep a vigilant eye on those around you. Popping your campaign onto “autopilot” isn’t an option. There are constant shifts taking place within the Adwords world – expect a little bit of turbulence knocking you out of position or bumping you outside of your intended path.

The success of your Adwords campaign is built around your ability to direct your advertising message to a core audience without deviating away from your original destination. Keep an eye out for those “broad match” terms which can quickly take your campaign away from it’s targets.

Never expect a nice quiet ride with Adwords. There are always others wanting to reach the same destinations – the last thing you want is to be bumped off course.

Finally, it’s time to fasten those seatbelts… we’re heading towards descent.

You’re the pilot, you don’t want your passengers to land at any old destination. You must deliver pinpoint accuracy to ensure your entrusted audience reaches the exact destination as stipulated on the ticket (your ad). Don’t try and fob them off with a “oh, I know you were fancied visiting x, but how about checking out y first” scenario. Furthermore, don’t just drop them off at the end of the runway. Make sure you direct your plane to the appropriate arrivals gate. Your customers will thank you for it.

While the journey’s taking place new and exciting inventions are taking place behind the scenes. Similarly, the Adwords interface and the PPC market are developing new and fascinating ways to help you get your clients to their intended destinations in the most cost-effective manner available. Always keep an eye out for ways to improve your customer’s journey. The increase in revenues will be sure sign that they are thanking you for it.