The Beginner’s Guide to Keyword PPC: Part 1- Account Structure September 30, 2007
Posted by Ryan Douglas in Advertising.Tags: , google adwords, keyword bidding, ppc management, yahoo paid search
3 comments
One of the biggest problems I see with most keyword advertising accounts is poor account structure. While it is more commonly found in those starting out in keyword PPC bidding, it can still be a problem in established accounts. While Google AdWords, Yahoo Sponsored Search, and MSN adCenter are unique in details, all three rely on the same underlying account structure; account, campaign, and ad group. Within one account there may be 1 or many campaigns. Within each campaign, there may be 1 or more ad group. Within each ad group, there will be 1 or more keyword. The goal of these accounts is to create a hierarchal structure that groups like keywords as tight as possible respective to their ad group and campaign.
There are several reasons to separate keywords, which reason why may depend on your advertising goals or unique business offering. This is just a basic overview of some tactics and organizational tips for your own PPC accounts.
Take for example a Car Audio and Electronics retailer. They may organize their account by component type at the campaign level, then ad groups by speaker size and have the manufacturers at the keyword level. This advertiser sells CD player which average $200 in sales per conversion. The average speaker keyword conversion results in $75 sales per conversion. The advertiser can effectively spend more on advertising for cd players than speakers, and can adjust campaign budgets and spending targets per product type.
Alternatively, the advertiser may choose to organize the account by component type, then by manufacturer, then by product keyword. This method is beneficial because the advertiser can quickly identify the product keywords by manufacturer and adjust the ad groups individually. Sony speakers may have a smaller markup than Pioneer speakers, thus the advertiser needs to ensure their CPA is lower than the ad group Pioneer. Like the above structure, the advertiser can effectively spend more on advertising for cd players than speakers, but also has one more level of control based on manufacturer.
While the possibilities are nearly infinite, here are a few other things to consider when structuring your account.
- Duplicate campaigns to run specifically on Content and Search.
- Group keywords on a granular level. The more detailed, the more campaigns and ad groups you are likely to have.
- Use geo-targeting for campaigns if applicable. If you only ship car stereos to Los Angeles, California, you shouldn’t be running ads in Atlanta, Georgia.
- Name your campaigns and ad groups something meaningful. Avoid numerical designations such as “Ad group 1, Ad group 2…”. Give them a name you can quickly identify (should you forget) and this helps a whole lot when running reports.
PayPal Express Checkout Testing New Icons? September 28, 2007
Posted by Ryan Douglas in Advertising.1 comment so far
While doing some keyword research this morning I finally found a different PayPal Express Checkout icon. This icon’s purpose is the same as the Google Checkout logo in Google sponsored results. Any Yahoo search advertiser who is offering PayPal Express Checkout will have this icon feature enabled on ads within their account.
I spotted the difference not in successive searches, but in cross browser searches. I run IE 7.0 for a majority of my daily work routines, but I rely on FireFox 2.0 for testing. For AdWords advertisers who implemented Google Checkout early on, I have watched “Google Checkout” accepted logos evolve from continuous testing by Google. Since the marriage of PayPal and Yahoo (which I coined the term “Payhoo“) Yahoo ads began showing a blue cart icon, bearing significant resemblance to Google Checkout’s blue cart logo which was being used. Last week I was in Carlsbad at a Yahoo Search Marketing workshop and had a conversation during lunch with Rich Riley, Senior VP Online Division of Yahoo! about my thoughts for coming up with a better PayPal Express icon for sponsored ads. I mentioned that I had not run across other versions, nor had anyone else in the blogosphere. I’m glad to see that there is at least one variation of the logo at this time, hopefully we’ll see more improvements down the road.
Internet Explorer Sponsored Search Results for “Milwaukee Power Tools”
FireFox Sponsored Search Results for “Milwaukee Power Tools”
If you are unfamiliar with PayPal Express Checkout checkout the flow chart below. What makes this speedy checkout solution from PayPal more appealing over Google Checkout is the fact that the visitor is returned to the merchant’s website to complete the order. With Google Checkout, once the visitor leaves the merchant’s site to complete the checkout, the checkout flow does not send visitors back to the merchant’s site.
5 Reasons to Celebrate Google’s Birthday September 27, 2007
Posted by mikeglanz in Search Engines, WebStuff.3 comments
A tear comes to my eye when I think of everything that Google has done for me in its 9 years of existence. Today is the 9th anniversary of the day that Google.com launched. In honor of Google.com here are the top 5 reasons Google.com is my favorite website:
- They taught us to search – Back when I was still using a 26k modem is the first time I ran across Google.com. My best friends mom was a software developer and told him to start using it instead of Yahoo. I remember not knowing how it worked, but actually being impressed with the relevance of the results for the term I was searching. To date I use all sorts of advanced search techniques like “site:”, “linkdomain:” (RIP), and date search (which I picked up from Matt Cutts).
- They brought us Gmail – Hotmail would never let me have my own name (mikeglanz@hotmail.com was taken!) – when a friend from Stanford gave me a gmail invite, I was stoked to get not only mikeglanz@gmail.com, but my wifes, and my parents names as well. With few exceptions, all my friends have their name on their gmail account (Pete Johnson had no such luck)
- Free Analytics - To date HireAHelper still gets calls from analytics firms offering to sell me $1000/mo+ analytics packages.
- Online Advertising – with positive ROI! – CPC has been responsible for 50% of HireAHelper sales to date. We will most likely never stop making money off the AdWords platform.
- They gave us inspiration – Larry and Sergey jumped to the 55th richest men in the world when Google.com had its IPO. Other companies have inspired me as well (Amazon in particular), but Google is at least partly responsible for me quitting my job and launching my own startup. How many other great startups have been founded because they were inspired by Google. (Ask any VC how many entrepreneurs come in telling them they have the next Google!)
So here’s to you Google. May you last another 9 years. And may HireAHelper.com show up as result 1 for Moving Help!
Comment with YOUR reasons to celebrate Google’s birthday
Microsoft Advertising with Google? September 26, 2007
Posted by mikeglanz in Advertising, Search Engines.add a comment
I wasn’t aware of this, maybe its old news. I was actually looking for samples of the Google banner ads they are using for Docs.Google.com. I figured YouTube would probably have sponsored ads from Google (seeing is how Google bought them), so I was clicking around on the tuber and before I run across an advertisement for Docs, I run across an advertisement for Office 2007? (don’t know if the ad is still there). Anyone know how long Microsoft has been doing this?
Apple Freaks are Delusional – ValleyWag September 21, 2007
Posted by mikeglanz in Replies to Other Posts, WebStuff.3 comments
I didn’t say it… (well maybe I did) – but ValleyWag said it too.
“Apple’s shiny white posterior has been bruised and tarnished today. First there’s some whining over iTunes being offline. Then CEO Steve Jobs was subpoenaed to testify in the SEC’s lawsuit against Nancy Heinen, who allegedly backdated stock-option grants. Apple was than accused of cavorting with “the most cock-thirsty and money-grubbing conglomerates in the United States” — that is, Hollywood studios. And then there’s this sob story: Apple is blocking hacked iPhones. Maybe all these headlines will finally get the Apple devout to realize that Steve Jobs is not their best pal. Rather, he’s the figurehead of a corporate entity trying to make money. It’s like keeping a crocodile as a pet. It looks cute, sure, but eventually it’s going to try to bite off your hand. And can you blame it? It’s just hungry.”
Customer of the Month September 20, 2007
Posted by mikeglanz in Advertising, Replies to Other Posts.add a comment
Seth pointed me to the Customer of the Month post that I thought was worth reading.
Google Docs Presents Presentations September 18, 2007
Posted by Ryan Douglas in WebApps.add a comment
Google just released Presentations, which completes the main apps used in Microsoft Office is now available to the public as of this morning. I spent about 15 minutes in the web app and it was fairly intuitive, assuming I knew what features and functions are available in PowerPoint.
here is a screen shot of the starting window.
If you are in the dark about Google Docs, check out this video, its easy to understand and is pretty darn creative animation. “Google Docs Rocks”
Exciting New Features In Google Webmaster Tools September 17, 2007
Posted by Zac in Search Engines.add a comment
As I was scrolling through my feed reader which is my typical weekend ritual, I came upon a real gem. Google is updating their Webmaster tools with a new look and features as noted in their latest Google Webmaster Central Post. Now most of the time updates like these are all show and no substance, but Google has been pretty good about listening to what people want and updating the Google Webmaster Tools in a timely fashion. One feature stuck out though as something I did not see coming, “Webmaster Tools now show feed publishers the number of aggregated subscribers you have from Google services such as Google Reader, iGoogle, and Orkut.” Now this is quite an awesome feature, webmasters can now see feed stats without a 3rd party feed management or tracking solution (at least for the mentioned services). I think that this is just another area that Google shines far brighter than the other search engines. Yahoo has a good webmaster tool set but nowhere near the reporting Google does and MSN basically leaves webmasters in the dark. In an age where accuracy and relevancy are key it really looks like Google is going the extra mile to improve its services and bring both websites and searchers into a much closer and advantageous relationship.
10 Reasons Apple is Overrated… September 17, 2007
Posted by mikeglanz in Replies to Other Posts, WebStuff.24 comments
This is a nice post… but a little biased I think.
I reply as an avid windows fan, that also owns an iPhone and MacBook (noted only to show that I’m as impartial as one can get).
Comparing Apple to Sony isn’t fair… I worked at Circuit city before becoming a web/software developer and Sony’s were by far the worst computers. I’m not kidding when I say 1/3 of the rich old men who came in and bought our most expensive VAIO were back a week or two later returning them.
I agree that PC manufacturers do whore themselves out, however I think comparing Apple to Sony is un-fair… its a bit like comparing a heisman trophy winner with a mentally retarded 5 year old paraplegic. They both try hard… one just was just born with more talent – and has more experience in the field.
A safer comparison would be with IBM or Dell… IBM makes (well they did) bad ass laptops… I don’t know one person with an IBM laptop that would exchange it for anything else… their re-sell value on ebay is still ridiculous. They make business machines (go figure) and they do a dam good job of it.
What about Dell? Well they do a decent job as well… but they haven’t been around to make as many mistakes as Apple. They do include software, but they seem to me just a little misguided with it… they put the Norton on there… and I guess thats good for the people out there who haven’t heard of AVG (the free and less spammy) alternative to Norton. And their utilities to download software updates are pretty decent (although they do still have the cryptic naming).
Apple advertises that PCs are better for spreadsheets and work, and they are. But thats not all… Heres a list of things that Apple blows at (or a list of the top 10 things that piss me off about my MacBook or Apple in general):
Note: As I said, I am unbiased – I won’t provide a list of things PC’s shortcomings because I’m sure a simple Google query will bring you more than enough blog posts from MacAddicts.
1. Add a right click. Ok we get it, you want to be different, “simpler”, “easy”, whatever. People get the concept of Right clicking now, even Mac freaks. The double tap short cut is a lame substitute.
2. Photos - iPhoto < Picasa. Hands down. If you think its the other way around your lying to yourself, seek counseling.
3. It freezes!!! Its BS that macs are “stabler” than PCs. I have a brand new MacBook, and it slows down and freezes up just like a PC. No extra software installed, just Firefox… if you’re looking to get a Mac don’t buy into the crap that Macs never freeze.
4. Macs come with crappy software installed too. Just because Dell deems it necessary to install Norton, but Apple only goes as far as installing GarageBand doesn’t mean Apple is better. Why do I need GarageBand? or iPhoto?
5. Picassa is just one… hundreds of other software titles only run on PC. Its a cheap shot… but its true.
6. Mac people worship Steve Jobs, and most consider Bill Gates the devil.
“Gates gave away over $29 billion to charities from 2000 onwards. These donations are usually cited as sparking a substantial change in attitudes towards philanthropy among the very rich, with philanthropy becoming the norm.” [Wikipedia]
Talking crap about Microsoft is one thing, but if you don’t respect the Gates then your just a jackass.
7. iPhone - They locked it up! What the heck? With all Apples focus on letting people customize everything, they are still greedy and in it for the money. I can see locking people into Cingular (all though that in itself is a capital crime), but not letting people develop apps for it? Thats just ridiculous.
8. MacBook - $100 more for black paint job? (Don’t know if this is still the case)
9. Not as many “options” - Ok, it keeps it simple… but what if I want a simple way to select my printer?
10. PCs are Cheaper. I’ve read the posts that say they aren’t anymore… but its BS. Go to TechBargains.com and click on a Dell. The “MSRP” may be more than an Apple… but Dell still dominates Apple in cost. Does Dell even offer a $2800 laptop?
The bottom line? Macs are DIFFERENT than PCs. Better than Sony – undoubtedly (it would be hard not to be). Better than Dell or IBM? Depends.
UPDATE:
11. $700 for a 2gb chip of RAM? Thats just ridiculous.
I’ll trade you a water buffalo for Landing Page Advice August 30, 2007
Posted by mikeglanz in Partnerships.add a comment
Roberta Rosenberg gave us a sweet deal: In exchange for a donation to Heifer.org, she wrote up a list of things we can do to increase our landing page conversion.
Check out www.CopyBlogger.com for the write up!
