BlogHASH » Google AdWords

Google started selling classic perfumes?

Raj — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:44:02 +0000

Yet again another advertisement from AdWords on my site to prove the fact that most advertisers are taking the AdWords for a ride. Or did Google took over some perfume business and now started selling perfumes?

Google apparently doesn’t seems to have much control over their own system! Take a look at the screen shot below and be the judge.

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Why advertising using keywords you rank # 1 is bad?

Raj — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 14:59:53 +0000

The topmost common mistake most advertisers do is to advertise using the keywords for which they already rank in top position in search engines. But why and why not use such keywords when advertising online?

Let’s use an example: If you type ATT in Google search, you will see that AT&T already ranks # 1 for that keyword. There is no need to advertise using ATT keyword when they naturally appear in topmost position. Moreover, it’s their brand name.

But why not? – When someone types a particular keyword in the search engine, it can be safely assumed that they know what they are looking for. And when such keywords are the actual names of your product, website name or your brand name, you don’t need to advertise in the search engine for these keywords. Most people will click on the first result that shows up in their search. But if you do advertise for such keywords even when your website shows at #1 position for those keywords, people will end up clicking on the advertisement instead and you will pay for the click which you don’t need to. At this moment, I would like to bring your attention to an earlier post – How one line of javascript earns a billion dollars for Google? That will make things more clear to you!

What should you do then? – If you can avoid using such keywords while you advertise online, you will save a lot of money. Don’t advertise with keywords for which you naturally show up in top results and also don’t use your domain names and brand names while advertising, this will save you a lot of money over a long period of time. Remember – Every dollar saved is a dollar earned.

When should you not follow this tip? – When your competitor shows up at second and subsequent spots in search engine results and you don’t want a user to click on your competitor’s link, it would then be advisable to advertise for even those keywords. Another situation when you want to advertise using your brand names and websites is when you are running a promotional.

So, if you have been advertising for such keywords, think about it! Consider running an experiment for a week or a month and check if it affects your sales or conversion ratio in anyway? If it doesn’t, check how much have you saved by not using these keywords for your campaign. That’s what you saved by following this tip.

Please post your feedback and suggestions in the comments section below. If you consider using this tip and conduct an experiment, please share the results with us.
[tags]Advertisement, AdWords, Google, Keywords, Search Engine[/tags]

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Will Facebook Ads take over other advertising platforms?

Raj — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 10:30:04 +0000

By now you must be pretty aware about the Facebook Ads concept which in itself is a superior advertising platform in my opinion. In this article I would like to get your attention towards the kind of advertising platform Facebook is evolving into and if it’s capable enough, by its concept, to take over other advertising platform? Please note that, in this post, I am not considering Facebook Ads as just a social ads platform only but treating it on par with any other popular advertising platform.

There are many intelligently built advertising platforms for advertisers and are widely used by many advertisers from all over the world. Those platform are doubtlessly robust and flexible in functionality but Facebook Ads is many steps ahead of them. When I make that statement, I am talking about the ultimate outcome of advertising, the conversion ratio.

Similarities between other ad platforms and Facebook Ads

Different advertising platforms have varied set of features and functionalities that benefits the advertisers. There are only few common things between these ad platforms:-

Choice of either Cost per Click (CPC) or Cost by Impressions (CPM)
Ad targeting by location, say countries and cities

Difference between Facebook Ads and other Ad networks

Other ad platforms delivers ads to its own publishers, in search engines whereas Facebook Ads shows ads within its own platform
Audience reach for other platforms is comparatively much larger than Facebook Ads
Facebook Ads can deliver ads to very specific set of people based on their age, gender, interests etc. Others don’t have this kind of specific data to accomplish advance ad targeting.
Facebook Ads can show ads specifically to people based on their educational qualification, workplace, relationship status. AdWords doesn’t has this capability yet.

Can Facebook Ads beat other ad platforms then?

In my opinion, not quite yet. There are areas and places where Facebook ads will simply not work but then there are specific situations where Facebook Ads has a clear edge over other ad networks. With Facebook Ads your conversion ratio will be much higher provided you do the right kind of ad targeting.

If you want to target your audience based on their age, location, educational qualification, relationship status, political views then Facebook Ads is what you should be using. For everything else, there are other ad networks.
[tags]AdWords, Search Engine, Advertisement, Facebook Ads, Social Ads[/tags]

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Microsoft Using Apache in AdWords to Attract Visitors?

Raj — Sun, 13 May 2007 18:30:22 +0000

This was not the first time that I saw an Ad on my site showing up with ‘Apache Server’ in the title but this time it was quite unusual because it was an Ad from Microsoft using ‘Apache Server’ in the title of the Ad. See the screen shot below.

Now why would Microsoft use ‘Apache Server’ in the title of their Ad in the AdWords campaign? Does it increase the chances of someone clicking on their Ad to visit their page or if they were to use ‘Windows Server’ the chances of visitors clicking on their Ad is comparatively less? Whatever it is, if someone was expecting to see an Apache server based solution by clicking on that Ad, they would be disappointed and it would decrease the chances of any visitor conversion that Microsoft was hoping to make. Isn’t it?

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10 Tips for Advertisers to Achieve Better Conversion Ratio with Affiliate Marketing

Raj — Sat, 24 Mar 2007 00:41:46 +0000

Google recently launched the PPA program in beta, we covered it here, and opened a new media for advertisers to use Google’s PPA program to advertise and sell their products. Compared to the PPC (Pay per Click) programs, PPA (Pay per Action) [could also be called as an affiliate program to a certain extent] have an advantage and it is that advertisers pay publishers only when a click converts to a sale. Advertisers run the affiliate program using various marketing programs and many do find their campaign to be successful but some struggle to convert a visitor to a customer. Here are some tips for advertisers to achieve better conversion rates using their affiliate marketing

Good wordings in Ad campaign – Using right kind of language and words go a long way in attracting visitors to your Ad and website. Avoid using negative and non-value adding terms in your ad campaigns. One example of bad wordings could be “We do SEO”, which could have been written as “Affordable SEO Solutions”. Imagine the impact that it would make when a visitors spots your Ad on a website, if your Ad is served along with 5 other Ads, there must be a difference between your ad and theirs. Isn’t it?
Provide accurate information – Always provide most accurate information about yourself, your products and company to the visitors. This helps in building trust between you and your would-be customers. If your product has known bugs, do mention about them. There is no point in hiding the negatives of your product, it only results in losing the trust and customers won’t come back even if you later on build a flawless and world class product.
Setup a separate landing page – For every ad campaign that you wish to run, setup a separate landing page for visitors to land from the ads they click on. This serves two advantages for you. First, visitors see a dedicated page containing information about the products or services that you advertised in your Ad, and second that you can update the information and keep the landing page up to date with latest information. Having a separate landing page avoids the confusion visitors might have by looking at several products on your site which could distract their attention from making a purchase decision.
Quality of your content – Are you providing very clear and precise information for visitors to make a purchasing decision when they are on your site? Putting up lot of content and documentation on the site does not help but ends up showing unnecessary information to users who may stop reading and navigate away from your site. On the landing page, put up a list of all important features of your product and/or services, comparison charts if applicable, discounts that you wish to offer and any other important information that will help them make a purchase decision right away.
Deliver what you had promised – I have often seen ads showing free copy of a product but when visited the site I found it to be a free trial copy of the product and that too a limited edition. Never promise what you are not offering. If you wish to offer a trial copy of the software, your ad must clearly state that. If your services have certain limitations, make a very clear statement about it on the landing page or in the advertisement. Attracting users by making fake promises does not serve you any good other than getting lot of useless traffic. You will simply lose your name and brand in the market.
Make it easily available – I had once clicked on an ad that promised a free report on some kind of marketing analysis data and landed on the website which asked me to fill out a so called short survey before I could download my free report. I started with the (short) survey and completed ~20 questions. Then hoping to see a download button, I clicked on the submit button at the end of the survey and the website asked me to register with them to see the link to free download. I simply closed the browser. Avoid such things as much as possible. Don’t put up surveys, registration process, compulsory email address forms, credit card info for trial accounts etc. You might receive 100 clicks, but only few might actually end up trying your product or services. Whatever you are selling must be easily accessible to your visitors, putting up lot of formalities before the actual product is delivered simply irritates the users and wastes their precious time.
Privacy Information Policy- If you are asking your visitors to enter their email address, home address, phone number or credit card number, display a link to a page that tells them what you will do with the their personal information that you are collecting on your site. Providing information on how you will keep their information confidential or your plans to safeguard their personal information proves very valuable at times.
Guide them to Buy – Many advertisers often do the mistake of not putting up a buy button on the landing pages. You should put up a ‘buy now’ button at the bottom of your features, comparison charts etc so as to let visitors, who have made a decision buy your product, place an order. For a clear example, visit any web hosting provider’s website and check out how they place the ‘Order now’ button below their comparison/features chart.
Policies, Terms & Conditions – If there are certain terms and conditions to use your services, they must be shown to your visitors. If you are hiding some information from them, it will only work against your reputation and market value. You should put up a page clearly dictating your terms and conditions that apply while using your products and services. An example would be the ‘Acceptable User Policy’ that most hosting providers ask their visitors to read and agree with before they buy an account with them. By doing so, you create win-win situation for both your customers and yourself.
After Sales Support – Ok, you have successfully sold a product/service but what about after sales support? How will you handle the support related issues that could arise while using your product? Will you offer any refund if your product fails or will you support the bugs and problem of your product by fixing them when user complaints? You must clearly provide this information to your visitors since it makes a lot of impact on their buying decision .

I hope this information will be valuable and help you achieve better results. If you have some tips for our readers, please don’t forget to post your comments here!

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Google PPA (Pay Per Action) Program

Raj — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 02:45:10 +0000

By now, you must be aware of the announcement made by Google about their new PPA (Pay-Per-Action) program which marks their debut in the affiliate marketing industry. Google, so far, had been leading the advertisement industry with their AdSense and AdWords programs and with their launch of Pay per Action programs, though in beta test mode, existing AdWords users can right away signup for the beta program and start using it (beta feature is currently available to AdWords advertisers in the United States on a limited basis) without much fuzz. Google’s recent acquisition of AdScape made their plans clear about entering into the video game advertising industry but that will take some time before it nears any kind of domination in the that market segment. Let’s put our focus on their PPA program and leverage it to our best.

Background of PPA

PPA is Pay Per Action. An action which is defined by the advertiser that could be anything from clicking on a button and entering your email address to filling up a survey and submitting it. Most prominent action event from PPA programs are when a user clicks on an Ad in a website, lands on a landing page of the advertiser’s website and buys a product. Buying a product marks the completion of the action defined by the advertiser. Google’s PPA program is exactly going to do that. Note that, it’s not necessarily an advertiser who will always create an action plan, could be a publisher too who can create a plan to track conversions on her/his own website.

How does Google PPA work?

It’s quite simple and works like most other PPA programs in the market. There is nothing unusual about it, except the new text link ad format that can be placed inline along with the content. You can use the text link ads as a hyperlink within your content too! Here is a quick rundown of the steps involved in this program:

Step1: Advertiser starts by creating a campaign, define an action such as ‘click and purchase’ that you would like a user to do on your site. Then set the amount that you are willing to pay for the action when it completes. An example could be, a hosting provider creates a campaign, defines the action as ‘signup for $1 per month hosting account’ and sets the cost as $0.3 for the action when it completes.

Step2: Now that an advertise has created a campaign, defined an action and set the cost per action, she/her will setup conversion tracking to enable Google track the completion of an action (conversion) through the tracking. Finish this step by installing the tracking code on your website and verify the code so that Google can begin tracking the conversions from your site.

Step3: Select a name for your product (select it as it is), a product group, name of your campaign and the language you will use.

Step4: Select the countries where you target to show your Ads and it will be shown only to the publishers from those countries.

Step5: Create your Ad, basically create an Ad unit with text upto a maximum of 90 characters. Keep it simple but make it powerful and avoid any words that do not add value.

Step6: Now the last step, set a daily budget for your campaign and based on your budget the Ads will be displayed. The frequency of Ads depends on your budget. Note that, you as an advertiser, will remain responsible for a conversion that occurs upto 30 days after the PPA ad was clicked.

How better will Google’s strategy be against their competitors regarding the fraudulent purchases is something that we will have to wait and watch over next few months.

You have something to add? Do you want to share some tips with our readers? Don’t forget to post your comments here!

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Tips to Increase AdWords Conversion Ratio and Lower Your Advertising Costs

Raj — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 00:20:32 +0000

These are some of the most effective tips that will help you achieve better conversion ratio with AdWords. What is more important is that these are very simple to implement and help you all the way to achieve better results.

1. Separate Landing page for AdWords

– Instead of using your domain name, use something like domain.com/?ref=google_adwords or something more meaningful. If you run AdWords for multiple products then setup different landing pages for each product with different ref ID in the URL. This will help you achieve near accurate tracking of hits from your AdWords campaign.

2. Accurate information about your products

– In as few steps as possible, provide useful and accurate information to your visitors. Try to avoid complicated registration process to see the final product. If your offer trial software, avoid lengthy registration process to download the software. I personally do not prefer to go through the registration process to download a trial software on a website.

3. Quality of content on the lading page

- Your content must be different than your competitors. Offer a list of all the important features about your product or the service on the landing page itself. Don’t expect users to navigate through many pages to feel the importance of your product and services.

4. Deliver what you promised in your Ads

– If you promised for a free trial product download in your AdWords, then offer it as you promised. If you offered a free e-book download or some trial service then see to it that your visitors really use it without any complications such as registration process, sign-up forms, email verifications etc etc. After all if more people use your trial software, chances of them buying it also increases. Isn’t it?

5. Navigate them to purchase your product

– On a landing page make sure that the layout of the page is easy to understand and after the features section place a ‘Buy Now’ link. If you plan to offer any discount better put it right there. ‘Buy now and get 20% discount’ or ‘Special promotional offer – 30% discount through next one week’. Such strategies increases chances of someone making a decision to buy your product on the landing page itself.

6. Use good keywords for your AdWords campaign

– Avoid using generic and negative terms in your AdWords. An example of good keyword would be “Search Engine Optimization” or “PHP Web Hosting” but NOT ‘Good Search Engine Optimization’ or ‘Good PHP Web Hosting’. ‘Good’ is a negative keyword in both the cases.

What do you achieve by following the above steps?

Simple! You achieve better conversion ratio because your are providing accurate and useful information to your visitors on the landing page. You are then navigating them to buy the products on the same page itself and avoiding all sorts of complicated steps to use your products and services. Then you are also increasing the click ratio for your Ads by wisely selecting the right keywords and not using the negative keywords.

Please feel free to share your suggestion and recommendations.

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