Base Quality Score!

Hey Guys

We, as paid search marketers, new or old, have always pondered and came to many conclusions(both rational and irrational) when it comes to "Quality Score" or more popularly known as "QS" in paid search marketing circles. I would also not disagree with the fact that the theories and experiences of individual advertisers, seldom have been concurrent when it comes to discussions on QS.( They often take an ugly form)

In this post,I would not be discussing generic topics as to how it is calculated for the keywords,the factors on which it is dependent or the account optimization techniques or best practices one can follow to improve upon it, if it is dwindling of course! One can find numerous articles catering the same topics already.

Moreover, I plan to discuss a very interesting aspect of it, which our less inquisitive comrades often ignore. I can also re-frame that the QS transition happens too fast for the "not so keen" to notice.

BASE QS??

Now, when you add new keywords for a matched ad you must have noticed that they all are assigned a QS instantly !! Be it any figure in the range of 1-10. Now,the question is, how these keywords are assigned a QS without even any performance? or without even knowing how well they match user search queries when they have not even went live!! Ain't this QS is all about?-How well your keywords match user search queries!

You can refer this initial QS as "Base QS". This is the QS which is assigned to your new keywords based on how they have performed for other advertisers. It is this QS which you have to take forward.

Sometimes, initially a keyword is assigned a QS of "7" but the moment it enters live ad auction it dips to 3 or 4 !

THINGS YOU COULD INFER

IF BETWEEN(5-10):-

If the base QS of your newly added keyword is a good figure (between 5-10), you can broadly interpret that the particular keyword has done good for other advertisers, it would be a good traffic generator, it would accrue good CTR, it would be profitable in terms of ROI and also a caution that it would bring stiff competition!

WHEN BELOW 5:-

If it is a low figure from the start, you can interpret that it has not done too good historically and most advertisers have refrained to carry on using it because of the unprofitable output it brings.

Such keywords would normally be low in competition because of mentioned reasons. As an advertiser, you will have be to be extra smart in using and spending on them because they would more often than not, eat more money with unimpressive return on investment.

CONCLUSION

Either you will be building on the base QS or will help it fall even more. In both cases you have got to be patient and focus more on the effort rather worrying about an unimpressive "QS". Focus on having a decent CTR for your keywords, test multiple ad copies, bid intelligently and rest all will fall in place automatically.

Hope it helps.

Cheers

  

 

Click To Teleport Extension- What Good Is It??

Google recently launched the Click To Teleport Ad Extension (beta) to adwords and DoubleClick with a strong message that it will shorten the online to store channel as compared to the already present valuable extensions like call and location, not forgetting that they both can be used in conjunction for an even more powerful impact on users on high end mobile phones (smart phones).

Google's David kaufman  has tried hard to market and portray this new ad extension in his own witty way and using scientific aspects of time and space travel associated with teleportation. Pheww..He has even signed off the blog post with a designation of Teleportation and Time Travel Marketing Manager ! Now,that is fancy!!

Frankly, I have not used this extension and just moments back I acquainted myself with this new development and by no means I am trying to criticize this new "beta extension" because technically, I am not in a state to, till the time I try it out myself. But with the look of things there are certain questions which are arising in my mind about the same which are just pushing me to say that this teleportation might not be as special as portrayed!

What I fail to understand is that with this new extension how well would google be able to preserve their concrete ideology about providing the best "user search experience" and that the user is the one of prime importance to them?

This question arises due to the fact that the settings of the new "click to teleport extension" can be tailored by the advertiser to suit his advertising needs ie. "optimize to nearest location", "optimize to conversion" and "rotate evenly" but the poor user has no idea where he is going to be teleported after clicking the extension!

Isn't it a bit of misguidance on the advertiser's part that it is his will if he wants to take the user to a location page or a conversion page or can even rotate different business locations to avoid rush on one specific location without actually declaring in the ad itself where the user will be "teleported" after he clicks the ad!

The already present ad extensions in the adwords interface are humble enough to at least let the users know where they are being taken and can very proficiently perform all tasks which this new "click to teleport" extension promises to deliver. To elaborate, it will be another webpage for a click on a sitelink with the search ad, it will be dial pad redirect with a call extension, it will be a location of a business with a location extension click and so on.

But,I might be wrong with all this. A fancy blue colored "Teleport Me" button with the search ad might actually bring a lot with it to users as well as advertisers. Don't forget, there already are success stories from people using this new extension and I must say these "successful" people are pretty quick for a post which was made public on 31 March 2012. Hats off!!

Cheers!!

Call Extensions- Click To Call Baby!!

Hey Fellas, hope all of you are awesome your side!

Today's post is on a very basic but extremely fruitful and powerful feature which Google adwords provides advertisers to integrate with their ads. 

There are certain businesses (Currently I work for one such business) which need leads in the form of "phone calls" to survive and apart from all the relevant and quality traffic which adwords brings to one's website,it is as powerful, proficient and dedicated in delivering "calls" to advertisers to profit on! Yeah,I am referring to the awesome "Call Extensions".

Call Extension???...

"Call extension" is one of the many " Ad Extensions" which an advertiser can incorporate with his/her ad at the campaign level to display additional information alongside the ad. As the name suggests in this case, with call extensions one can display a business number alongside the ad for inquiries,sales, providing information and "n" number of other profitable reasons:)

Call Extension Settings

You have to select a country which you desire to target as well the phone number which should be a valid number within the set country.

If you are not eligible for using "google forwarding number" (I have mentioned eligibility for it below,so keep reading) the option would do appear but the check box would be "non click able" and then you would only be left with one option ie. adding your business contact number.

Personally, the best part about using call extension is that it allows you to set if you want the user to visit your website along with an option to call (allow click to call and clicks to website) or a click on the headline of the ad which incorporates your phone number and straight away reach his/her dialing pad (allow only click to call) without visiting your designated landing page.

The options are for you to choose as you are the best judge of what you want!

Some Important Points to Remember!

* There can be only "one" active call extension in a campaign which is valid for all the ad groups in that campaign.

* You can't exclude any particular ad group or an ad from displaying the call extension if you have an active call extension in that campaign.

* Call Extensions are not eligible to appear on desktops and tablets because of the simple reason that the mentioned devices don't have "calling" capabilities. Though if you have added a phone number within the ad text and the user on a desktop or tablet has installed any software or plug in( like skype),the number would appear click able and callable but in any case it would not be referred as a call extension!

* Adwords allows advertisers to mention a phone number within the ad text and when the ad appears to users on smartphones the number within the ad text appears callable, don't mistake this as a call extension, it's just a feature which adwords provides if an advertiser is ignorant enough to sacrifice some valuable characters in his ad text.

* A click to your call extension from an user would cost you the same CPC as a click on the "headline" of your ad.

* The adwords customers in US and UK (Those you have their billing address situated in these countries with the corresponding local currency as their account's billing currency) have the privilege of using call extensions with "google forwarding number".

* Call extensions often are not shown as they should be or sometimes not at all in the ad preview and diagnostic tool , but to the actual users searching for your ad they appear the way they should be, so there is no need to panic!

* You also may notice that for a campaign which is only targeting "mobile devices" with active call extension having only click to call settings is obtaining "headline" clicks while there should only "click to calls"! Well,there are certain mobile devices like "ipods" and "old blackberry phones" which do not support click to call and hence the users on such devices only see the normal title of the ad and are taken to the assigned landing page!

* Vanity phone numbers (which have alphabets corresponding to digits within the phone number) are supported by call extensions and are displayed to the users as they are.

* Toll free, local and standard numbers are supported normally along with "non standard" phone numbers (in which the caller pays more than usual) with a disclaimer that "additional charges may apply".

Eligibility

There is no defined eligibility criteria for an advertiser to use call extensions apart from certain constraints about targeting devices (desktops and tablets) which don't possess calling capabilities and if one day you do want to target them no one would stop you, just the fact that the call extension would not show with the ad, just in case you were waiting and wondering why isn't there any call??, lol!

Few Interesting Scenarios!

* Phone Number Within The Ad Text and an Active Call Extension:

In the above scenario if you have set the call extension to "allow click to call and click to website" your assigned call extension would not appear alongside your ad and your ad would appear as it is. In this case the user can click on the headline of your ad and visit the landing page or if he clicks the click able phone number within the ad text he would reach his/her phone's dialing pad.

In the above scenario if the setting is "allow only click to call" then the number within the ad text would not appear click able and the call extension would appear in the title of the ad which would take the user straight to his/her phone's dialing pad. The user would not be able to visit your landing page from the ad.

* An All Text Ad With "Allow Click To Call and Click to Website":

In this case the headline of the ad would take the customer to the designated landing page and the call extension would also appear as an additional piece of information which if the user clicks on, he would reach his/her phone's dialing pad.

* An All Text Ad With "Allow Click To Call Only":

In this case the user searching your ad on his/her smartphone would view your phone number in the ad title (ad title and headline is the same) and if he clicks he would be taken straight to his phone's dialing pad. In this case he does not have any option of visiting your assigned landing page.

**************

So, this is the crux of "call extension" for all you keen information gatherers out there. If I got anything wrong please don't forget to correct me and if any of you have got more insights on the same or related topic, you are most welcome to share!

Take care till next time.

Cheers!






















 

Starting From Scratch!!

Hi people,hope my post catches you all hail and hearty!

I plan to begin from scratch(this is the way I always like to do things). I have decided that I will follow the sequence which google follows in its "help section" which FYI is a great information building source (refer it for all your queries,then research and take it over from there itself).

True,It's A Bit Ambiguous for Beginners

As I build on a topic, I will try my level best to address those ambiguities which I myself faced and develop an understanding on the same in the easiest possible language or way. I have gone through all this myself and after hours of reading and researching on the same,talking with "google adwords reps" countless times in a day,I guess I can be of some help!

This Wont be An Adwords Help Section "Alter Ego"!

                                                                         LMAO!!


You can be rest assured of this fact,I ain't going to be what "Jo Calderone" is to "Lady Gaga"!! I would be talking and sharing much more than just building on the "adwords help section"(that is the endeavor at least)!

Without further adieu,lets begin.

Adwords Overview

The article (hyper linked above) mentions how "google adwords" facilitates advertisement with minimal budget and time constraints which is a bit of "overselling" in my eyes and sighting the huge annual revenues which it earns from it,sounds a bit of cliche!

One requires great investment of time,logic and of course money to stand any chance of a quality show on the platform and there is a minimum payment which one needs to make to start advertising and though its not much, once you make it you can spend it in running your ads.

You can check that out yourself from the "payment options and finder tool". Just select the country where your billing address is located and the currency you want to pay in(You will notice the minimum payment figure at the bottom).

There is a very unique discovery I made about the "payment options and finder tool" which I will discuss in later posts.So,watch out!

It also mentions the unique benefits which an advertiser can avail by advertising on Google, like:
 
* How google targets your "precious" ads to an audience who is specifically searching for the products and  services which an advertiser offers.

Insight:-

There are various good tools in the adwords interface itself which helps one to choose the most relevant keywords to trigger the ads but as far as the system automatically helping you finding the most relevant audience and choosing keywords for you, It's not true!

Google lays down infinite guidelines and tutorials on how to accomplish the same but there is no automatic targeting apart from an automatic bidding option.

* It mentions that an advertiser is free to target any part of the "google network" according to his advertisement needs which indeed is true and really beneficial.

* It states that the adwords system charges advertiser's only when their ad is clicked which is also known as the "Pay Per Click" model and also that there are other bidding options.

Insight :-

The Pay Per Click model is the most famous and favored advertising model and the other bidding options include:

CPM( Cost per thousand impressions) which is available if you "only" choose the display network for your advertising and the advertiser is charged for every 1000 impressions his ad accrue.

Note: You will see this bidding option only when you are opted into the display and display network only,so don't wonder if you have a campaign opted into the "google search" and "search partners" and the CPM option is no where to be found in the "Bidding and Budget" settings of the campaign!

e-CPC which is also known as Enhanced Cost Per Click is available when you have the "conversion optimizer" enabled in your account and website.We will talk about in future posts.

* It states that the actual cost per click is always less than the set Max CPC for a keyword courtesy the "adwords discounter" feature for CPCs and the "smart pricing" feature for placements.

*Also,there is no minimum spending limit in google adwords(needless to mention)!

*It also mentions that google targets 80% of the internet users in US, which is an outdated piece of statistic. The most recent comscore study says that the share of google properties in US in approx 66%. You guys can read more for yourself by clicking "here"

Gauche,I guess I have spoken too much here,sorry!! Actually, once I start it's real hard for me to stop,hope you guys wont mind.

And we will be building on all the terms mentioned in this post in future,so there is no need to panic.Don't worry,I wont forget,that is just not me!

Will carry on from here real soon,take care till then and keep researching.

Cheers!





 

Noobs At Their Best

Hi! Hope all the super excited and confused PPC Noobs are doing awesome out there!

Well, I plan to begin with a small introduction about myself being the publisher of this blog,its customary you see and I am a man of traditions and stereotypes,so bear with it!

I am "Noob" like all you guys I am addressing(well,that is the intention),been about one and half years that I have been trying to acquaint myself with all the never ending concepts,techniques,rules etc. etc. about how to manage Pay Per Click accounts(majorly adwords) and thus my definition of PPC has somewhat confined itself to Google Adwords learning and management.

Its the largest paid search advertising model(read that google earned close to 37.8 billion dollars in the year 2011 from advertisers through paid search) and I think that if by any chance I become proficient in profitably investing my employer's money in it,other models would not be too hard to work on!(Classic Noob thinking)..Pfff..!!

Ok,that is all about me and now coming back to being a noob.Is referring to oneself as a "noob" aka "newbie" really derogatory? Is it a word which if someone uses to address you,offends you? Well,I definitely do not think so!

I can live my whole life being referred to as a "noob" but don't mistake it as living life as an "Unkeen Noob". Starting each day with a feeling of being a "rookie" in something which keeps the bread and butter on your table is a sure shot sign that you are looking forward to living a life full of learning and wisdom.If you live with this feeling, you perform every task,read pieces of information with a sole intention of leaning and not as a monotonous chore which is necessary to keep you standing in quest!

It allows and forces one to research, it forces one to relate, to develop a clarity to concepts and be sure,which results in a quality learning experience and gives you pleasure worth cherishing!

Often while surfing through PPC related articles and forums I come across fancy titles like "adwords pro", "PPC experts" blah blah... and I wonder if it actually provides the owners any pleasure?? Well,don't know about them but it sounds insulting to me at least!

Ok,enough of thought about being a "noob" now! Through this channel I want people to address and ask the most basic,silliest and even nonsensical queries which arise in their minds and we(though there is no one except for me at this point of time here) will try to find the best possible solution for it. I wont say that the solution or feedback would be real time but yes,together we will all talk,research and discuss to satisfy our quest for excellence!

Will keep sharing, catch you soon.

Cheers