Category: Search Engine Marketing

Broad Match Modifier Was Rolled Out

Back in May, Google introduced AdWords Broad Match Modifier by launching the beta version in Canada and UK.  The broad match modifier is a targeting feature that lets advertisers create keyword phrases in their AdWords accounts which have greater reach than phrase match and more control than broad match.  Google has now rolled out the broad match modifier globally.

The earlier test I did, in some of the niche accounts, the new match type has proven successful.  The challenge I had earlier with these niche B2B accounts was that with the phrase or exact match types I was not getting enough traffic and with the broad match, I was getting a lot of not-so-relevant impressions and clicks.  So, on a daily basis I had to add negative keywords to my Google AdWords Ad Groups and Campaigns.

With the new modified broad match, I was able to create a balance between getting enough traffic and keeping the need to add so many negative keywords to minimum and improve the overall ROI.

Depending on the type of campaign, this new AdWords matching type might or might not become handy. Nevertheless, it is definitely worth trying.

CPA Bid Management – Google AdWords Conversion Optimizer

Google just announced the addition of Target CPA Bidding to its conversion optimizer tool.  With this feature, you can set the Target Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) Bidding at the campaign level which lets Google AdWords know the average amount you are ready to pay for a conversion.

When Google first introduced Conversion Optimizer, the tool had some shortcomings and in few occasions that I tried it, it did not have the results I was expecting and I had to move back to the manual bidding to keep the Cost per Conversion (CPA) in check.   However, over time Google’s bid management tool improved.

The challenge with the tool was that it was looking at the Max CPA bids (the bid amount you were willing to pay for a conversion for each Ad Group) as opposed to the target CPA which was making the tool less flexible and as a result, in some situations, it was limiting the chance of maximizing the number of conversions.  Bidding with a target or average CPA allows for maximizing the number of conversions while keeping your target CPA in mind.

For the CPA bidding option to be available in the “Advance Options” under “Focus on Conversions” section of campaign settings, you need to have Google conversion tracking active, have received conversions at a similar rate for a while and have at least 15 conversions recorded in the 30 days.

Google AdWords takes into consideration various factors when trying to analyze, optimize and maximize the ROI of a campaign such as keyword matches, search partner sites, content site topics, user location, operating system, browser, language setting, and seasonality.

In order for Conversion Optimizer to work properly, Position Preference and Advanced Ad Scheduling needs to be turned off.

This tool will make the need for a third party bid management software for those who do not manage the bids for their PPC advertising manually less relevant.

Google Introduces Remarketing Feature – Search Retargeting

Being an innovator might not necessarily mean you will be successful. In order for an innovative product to catch on, the market should be ready for accepting the product and you need to have the marketing arm that can push the product.

Yahoo was the first major search engine who got into behavioural marketing by acquiring BlueLithium (an online advertising network) back in 2007. The idea was to join behavioral targeting with advanced data analytics to improve campaign optimization over an advertising network for performance-based display advertisers while enhancing the value to the publishers.

Some visitors convert the first time around; however, many will visit your site once and may never come back. The way Behavioral targeting (BT) works is that visitors to your site are tagged by a cookie, which contains no personally identifiable information. Ad retargeting allows you to continue to advertise to and remarket those visitors while they browse other relevant websites utilizing uniquely customized banners created to fit your retargeting campaign.

Not only does retargeting builds brand awareness, but also helps direct marketers by improving conversion rates. As visitors are presented with multiple advertisements from your business, they begin to recognize your brand. Brand recognition earns trust and leads to higher conversion rates.

Search retargeting adds a layer of relevancy to banner served to searchers after they leave your site. This advertising technology recognizes users’ intents based on their original search queries. This theoretically should increase the value of search marketing ( SEM ) by increasing the likelihood of a conversion.

Through this behavioural targeting technology, advertisers can reach a target audience with display ads that are highly relevant to the way users search. For example if Visitor X comes to your site and browses for DSLR cameras but leaves without buying, you can use search retargeting to track Visitor X and serve and remarket DSLR cameras to him/her after s/he leaves your site with targeted ads with a 20% off offer.

As with any other marketing campaign, to effectively utilize behavioral search retargeting, strong creative related to landing pages and search terms are crucial. Developing special offers and unique messages help entice and lure back visitors to your site. The challenge is for the search retargeting to work well you need to have enough traffic volume on your pages.

After almost a year of testing with, Google finally joined the list of companies who offer online ad retargeting by introducing their new Remarketing feature. Now, Google AdWords allows its advertisers use remarketing to reach their audience on sites within the Google Content Network based on their past interactions with their websites.

Now search marketers can then remarket to those visitors who reach their sites by showing them tailored ads on sites throughout the Google Content Network. You can set up your remarketing campaign through the new “Audiences” tab in Google AdWords interface.

Google Remarketing Feature - Audience Tab

The way it works is that you put a piece of code (pixel) on your landing pages, website, or YouTube channel, which will let you later show relevant promotional ads to those audience who have visited those pages, as they browse sites within the Google Content Network.

The beauty of this remarketing feature is that you can run multiple remarketing campaigns at the same time based on audiences’ behavior. Remarketing allows businesses to reach those users who are more likely to be receptive to their text/banner ads and achieve a higher ROI.

Impression Share – Google IS Report

Have you ever wondered what kind of impression coverage (share of voice) you have on your Google AdWords campaigns? To help you get a better insight into your AdWords campaign`s share of voice, Google allows you run Impression Share reports both at the campaign and account levels.

Impression share is a metric that represents the percentage of impressions where your ads were shown out of the total available impressions in your market in the search network. But before I get into how to use this report, it is important to understand why impression share (IS) is an important metric.

Low impression share can mean missed opportunity.  If your ads do not show every time people search for the products/services you offer, you might miss on potential traffic or conversion. In addition, low impression share can mean you are overpaying for your clicks.

Here is how impression share report may look like:

Google AdWords Impression Share Report

Impression Share Exact Match reports the impression share of your campaigns when people search the exact match of the keywords in your campaigns.  Since broad and phrase match types can affect your impression share, Exact Match Impression Share can help you determine your share of voice just for the exact keyword phrases in your campaigns.

One of the reasons why your impression share is low can be because your ads do not show up on every occasion a broad match keyword should trigger your ad.  Exact Match Impression Share tells you how your keywords would perform if you had all the possible keywords in exact match.  This helps you understand if the match type is a possible cause for the low impression share.

How to Improve Impression Share?

Your impression share equals 100%. – Lost IS (Budget) – Lost IS (Rank).

The ‘Lost IS’ reflects a portion of the total impressions you were eligible and did not receive due to insufficient budget or poor Ad Rank (CPC x Quality Score).

To increase impression share for your campaign, your ads must appear either more often or in more places or both. Here are tips on improving the accounts overall quality score in order to achieve a higher impression share:

• Improve ad quality in order to improve CTR
• Increase the campaign budget – specially if you see Lost IS due to low budget
• Increase or decrease your bid based on the situation
• Adjust keyword match type if your exact match IS percentage is low
• Adjust geo-targeting

SEM Specialist

Google Advertising – AdWords in a Nutshell

Advertising on Google has become an important part of Internet marketing mix. Google AdWords can be marketers’ best friend. Whether you are looking to raise brand awareness, lunch a new product, generate more leads, increase traffic to your site or sell products and services online, Google pay per click advertising can prove useful.

As I mentioned in my Google AdWords Consulting Might Just Save Your Campaign post, it is not a secret that if you do not know Google AdWords system well enough, you might easily ramp up your cost and spend your advertising dollars without gaining a positive ROI. On the flip side, if you can get Google advertising work for you, either through outsourcing SEM to a Google AdWords Professional / Company or by developing the necessary SEM expertise yourself, your business will prosper.

The first step is to set your objectives. Decide what you would like to achieve with your AdWords campaign. It is not uncommon that you have many competing goals. It is important to set your priorities and decide on the best strategies to maximize your Return on Investment. Based on these objectives you need to come up with some Key Performance Indicators.

Once the objectives are set, you can start conducting keyword research using various free or paid keyword tools and keyword research techniques. The result of your keyword research might influence how your final strategy shapes.

In order for your Google advertising to be successful, like any other marketing campaign, you need to segment your campaign. Segmentation in Google AdWords is more than just segmenting by geography, language and demography. You need to segment your Google AdWords campaign into various campaigns and Ad Groups based on the keywords your audience search for. I cannot emphasize the importance of segmentation enough. This could make or break your campaign as it affects how nimble your campaign is and can have a major impact on your Quality Score, cost per click (CPC), click through rate (CTR), conversion rate and ROI.

As the next step, you need to develop high quality Ad Copies that resonate both to your audience and Google AdWords system. By testing various Ads, you need to find the best advertising copy that generates the right balance between high CTR, Quality Score and Conversion Rate. The ad copies need to send visitors to relevant landing pages that are optimized for search engines, usability and conversion.

Congratulations on building your professional Google AdWords PPC Advertising campaign. If you have done all the steps right you are off to a great start. A great campaign structure could dramatically increase the chances of a successful advertising on Google. However, you need to keep a close eye on your PPC advertising campaign`s performance. This should be done utilizing the SEM KPIs that you have developed for your Google advertising when you were defining your campaign objectives. Whether you are using Google Analytics or any other Web Analytics application it is important to constantly monitor your campaign’s performance against your KPIs and tweak your keywords, bids, ad copies and landing pages to maximize your company`s ROI.

Toronto SEM Expert – Nima Asrar Haghighi