Now, I don’t mean this to be mindless self-promotion (although it all helps of course!), but more of an attempt to get some SME’s to think a little more logically about the management of their Adwords campaigns with a short example.

A small trader with a new e-commerce store came to me recently for a quote on managing his Adwords campaign. His store is a (very nicely designed) niche online gift store and he had been managing his own campaign with little success in terms of sales and he had got to that point (that I see very often) where his CTR was almost non-existent, his quality score was poor and his click prices had gone through the roof. His adgroups (and keyphrases) were illogical, his ad-copy all wrong, etc, etc…

His average cost per click was 37p and most of those were not targeted correctly. Suffice to say, he had no REAL idea as to how it was performing other than to say his sales were non-existent.

In short, it was a mess.

Anyway, when I first spoke to him on the phone, in the first minute he said the words that I never, ever, ever understand.

He said something like… ‘well the problem I have now is that I can’t afford to spend much on Adwords’.

Hmmm…

To that I said what I normally say…

[me] ‘OK… well, if you could find a way of buying 50 pence for 40 pence would you do it’?

[him] Err… yes… obviously…

[me] ‘And how much could you afford to spend on doing this?’

[him] *Laughs* – as much as i could buy…’

The Point? Well, if an Adwords campaign is correctly managed, this is possible, and in his case, is actually doing so. Less than 3 months on, his average click price is 24p, but, and here’s the killer part, we know that, on average, EVERY click is making him a profit.

How? Firstly, it’s about knowing how to manage an Adwords campaign (obviously), but less obviously, it is about measuring the performance of your ads and doing so constantly. You can use Google Analytcis to tell you exactly what return in terms of revenue each click gives and so once you have done this, you can see what a click is worth, and if you see what a click is worth, you know how much you will pay. After sufficient testing, If you know that a click on a certain keyword, consistenly results in an average profit of 50p per click, then you know what to pay up to.

So, in summary, if you are inexperienced with Adwords and need a single piece of advice, make very sure that you have installed Analytics and that you KNOW how to measure your campaigns performance.

It can be just like ‘buying profit’.

Keyword Research

Spending time researching which keywords to target for SEO purposes is imperative to the long-term success of any search marketing campaign, and yet it never fails to amaze me:

1. How few online businesses actually allocate time and resources to doing it
   
2. How misguided the research and subsequent results can be
   
3. How companies often ignore the ‘goldmine’ of existing data at their fingertips.

I would like to concentrate on (3).

We find that many of the companies who come to us for SEO advice and services have already embarked on some kind of Pay Per Click campaign, whether it be through Google Adwords or some of the other click providers. Adwords in particular gives the advertiser a wealth of information at keyword-level, including search volume, click through rates, the value of clicks and the earnings per click for individual keywords. So why not use this data and integrate it with your keyword research?

Essentially, keyword research should be used to identify viable target keywords based on:

• Search volume
  
• Relative competition
  
• Relevancy
  
• Commercial viability

Well a successful Adwords campaign can tell you the EXACT number of page views on the Google listings a search term will receive, and it enables you to spot and nurture the ‘golden’ keywords – those that convert and give you the greatest return.

So, use this data! Remember that keyword research and Pay Per Click data are not mutually-exclusive concepts and delve into those PPC stats to find the clues. It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes!

I’ve pulled together a few of our favourite tools that we have found to improve efficiency within our team over the past 6 months. Some of these tools have enabled us to save many man hours that we would usually be lost from day to day, most of these tools are free to use with some having limitations dependant on the type of use.

Toggl, The Online Time Tracking Tool

Dave, the MD at Webtistic discovered Toggl a few months ago and we have found it to be a fab tool for tracking the time spent of designated tasks and for improving the overall effiency of the team. We downloaded and installed the Toggl Desktop software free version but there are paid plans available with more advanced features.

In a busy, thriving office environment where you’re multitasking it’s difficult to recall exactly how long you spent on a specific task such as taking telephone calls or answering an urgent email but with Toggl you are able to create individual tasks and switch easily between them, thus enabling the ability to track everything with a single click. You can then view various charts online and interpret the data in the ways you wish. We have found to be very useful in informing our weekly meetings

We have found it a great tool for tracking the time spent on SEO milestones. This enables us to accurately and confidently invoice SEO clients on a monthly basis thus eleveating the worry that wasted time or interruptions don’t become part of the client’s invoice.

Through Toggl, all the time spent on various daily tasks are monitored. This should then provide the basis for improved productivity as you can go on to analyse exactly where time is being spent and where you can allocate time more efficiently.

Toggl is also available as an application on smart phones such as Android and iPhones downloadable from the iTunes store or Android Market Place. It’s also available for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Ease of use 8/10
Time saving 9/10
Making efficient use of your team 10/10

Dropbox, Simple Tool To Share, Store And Sync Files Online

Dropbox has been installed on our desktops as a way for us to easily share and update files that are used within our office on a daily basis. The contents of the Dropbox folder automatically synchronises between everyone in the office. This eradicates the mundane task of emailing files to each other for updating and checking and allows for a single copy to be stored that can be edited, accessed and saved by everyone remotely on the Dropbox server. You might be thinking, ‘What if I delete a file by accident?’. Well, you can undelete files by logging in to the Dropbox site where you can also view changes to documents that have previously been edited.

For us Dropbox has cut out the need for sending documents internally via email and the fact we can can all edit the one document stored on the Dropbox server is proving to be a great efficient tool for us. I’m pretty sure the standard free 2 GB storage allowance is adequate for the majority of smaller set-ups but this obviously depends on the file types that are being stored on the server. Dropbox runs in the background on your desktop and simply works like any other folder saved.

Ease of use 8/10
Time saving 7/10
Making efficient use of your team 8/10

TeamViewer

TeamViewer simply allows you to take control of another computer so it enables you to remotely control a client’s computer to give them a tutorial, presentation or to assist with a technical enquiry.

Taking control of another PC is straight forward as no software installation is required as long as you run the application on both sides. We also had no problem with firewalls blocking the application unlike other similar applications.

In addition you can transfer files using the drag and drop functionality. Dragging a file to a partner’s screen during a remote support session will automatically initiate a file transfer, placing the file on the user’s desktop.

TeamViewer is available on Windows, Mac, Linux and as a Mobile Application and we are currently trialling this free for personal use to decide if it will enhance the support we offer our clients. The early signs are that this could potentially save an incredible amount of time with regards to solving client’s technical problems.

Ease of use 8/10
Time saving 10/10
Making efficient use of your team 6/10

Google Calendar

Google calendar is available for free and enables you to set up a calendar for your business and can be shared with each member of the team. This enables you to keep track of meetings, deadlines, scheduled telephone calls and various other events. You are able to assign different colours to staff so that you can differentiate who is responsible for carrying out a specific event or task at any given time.

If you’re organising a special event, the calendar enables you to invite colleagues to a function and they can reply even though they don’t use Google calendar. Google calendar will then track accepted invitations.

You can get event reminders sent directly to your mobile phone or sent straight to your inbox and the calendar is easily accessed from the Google homepage but in order to use this you must sign up with a Google account.

We have found Google Calendar really useful when setting deadlines for clients and is a great way to see exactly who is in the office on any given day in terms of staff holidays etc…

Ease of use 8/10
Time saving 8/10
Making efficient use of your team 8/10

Skype and MSN

Both of these are web-based internet applications that are widely used and are better known than the other tools mentioned above but with our business being based in Derby, UK we have many clients and partners whom are London based so the video chat functionality is very useful. Both of these tools allow file sharing but in my opinion is that Dropbox offers a more simplistic answer.

Using Skype you can have a video conference and we find it’s a great alternative to business trips, helping you work together and make decisions while spending more time being productive in the office. Both tools are cost effective as the only outgoing are your internet costs providing you make your call through the connection using the webcam, microphone and speakers.

Both of these tools allow you efficiently to make quick contact with people. We also use it for communicating with staff working outside of the office. Furthermore you can leave staff messages which they can retrieve the next time they login.

I’m a big fan of both these tools and this is why we have awarded them nearly 5 stars.

Ease of use 9/10
Time saving 8/10
Making efficient use of your team 9/10

I am often asked about the easiest ways of increasing the click through rate of a pay-per-click campaign. Higher click through rates will increase your campaigns historic performance and so generally, will have a positive effect on Quality Score, which in turn will gradually release the price per click. In short, a high CTR is essential to any successful campaign.

So, here is an ultra-quick tip which will help your CTR…

The first, and easiest thing I always do to a new or existing campaign is to use ‘Camel Case’ URL’s. In fact, every single Adwords campaign that I manage uses ‘Camel Case’ display URL’s as a means of increasing the click through rate (CTR) of that particular advert.

What Is Camel Case?

Camel Case is the use of upper-case letters for each first letter of every word within a URL.

Example (standard URL):

www.webtistic.co.uk

Example (Camel Case):

www.OnlineMarketingBlog.co.uk

Why Does This Help?

Using Camel Case increases the click through rate of your adverts based on the principle that it is easier to ‘glance-read’ and it immediately makes your display URL more legible.

Are You Sure?

Yes, absolutely. I actually tested this again recently when I took over the management of a campaign for a UK lingerie retailer. Within 15 monutes of taking over the campaign, I converted all of their Ad URL’s to Camel Case and this alone increased CTR from that day onwards by upto 5%. This is just one example of many!

How Do I Do It?

Very simply, click on your ad group in question, then select ‘Ad Variations’ and edit the display ad of each ad you have for every ad group you have.

I hope this small tip helps and I would love to hear how you get on!

In the old days when people still used to point at aeroplanes, proficient web developers were constantly optimising and measuring the loading speed of their landing pages. This was critical because, with dial-up internet connections, you could begin to load a webpage, then go for a quick cuppa, walk the hound, build a shed, and listen to Dark Side Of The Moon in its entirety before the page would finish loading.

In short, the internet was all about optimising landing page speed, and if your website loaded quicker than your competitors website, it was you who would spend the day having grapes gently lowered into your mouth by semi-naked supermodels.

Then came broadband, and we all cared less about speed, and more about graphics, video, and Flash. Image size became less important and many a bad-habit was born into Arnold the web developer who was more swayed by adding 24 dancing iguanas onto his site than optimising for load speed. After all, this is broadband.

Well, let me take you back to basics for a second to give you some news. Google looks closely at landing page speed, and although it doesn’t penalise dancing iguanas, it does give additional Adwords quality score to landing pages that load quickly.

So, next time you are assessing how you can improve your quality score, try doing a speed test on your landing page. You may not realise it is loading slowly, but Google does.

Big Brother is alive and well and living (nowehere near Elvis) in Adwords land, but many advertisers who employ Adwords managers don’t seem to know it. Now, I am going to disclose how simple it is for advertisers to check that ‘Arnold the Adwords manager’ is actually worth those 20 hours a month he has been charging for.

Now, don’t get me wrong. There are some very reputable and professional Adwords and Pay Per Click management companies out there, endlessly toiling away for the good of their happy clients who are experiencing the promised land of super-conversions whilst procuring small islands in the Caribbean.

But, I have seen the work (or lack of) of too many charlatans in the PPC management space to know that all is not as it may seem. Indeed, my little ‘secret’ can be not only revealing but SHOCKING.

So, I am going to disclose the secret (to many) that the less-than-scrupulous don’t want you to know. In fact, after disclosing this, I may have to go into hiding so that these people don’t hunt me down and try to eat my head.

It is super simple (but generally overlooked):

1. Login to your Adwords account

2. Click ‘Reporting’

3. Click ‘Change History’

Voila! Now you can spy on exactly what changes have been made on your account by date and even by activity!

Has, the ‘constant optimisation’ been constant? Has the ‘ongoing split-testing’ seen any testing? Has the ‘keyword bid manipulation’ been manipulated? Now you know, and you can manage your manager’s management like a monkey in a manger.

After all, there is nothing wrong with a little transparency if you have nothing to hide…

So, I speak to a lot of affiliates.

Some have the PPC experience of a geriatric turtle whilst many are only just starting out with testing PPC campaigns, landing pages, ad-copy, and fine-tuning all of these factors as a means of maximising profit. With this in mind, one thing that never fails to amaze me is the frequency of which I speak to affiliates who have not thought through the raw figures of the campaign they are spending their hard-earned wonga on.

Let me give you an example.

I recently spoke to an affiliate who was using PPC to promote a videogame store on a sales campaign. The store paid out 5% commission and he had been told that the average order value was £26. So, it doesn’t take ‘Arnold Cleverbugger’ to calculate that every successful conversion will be worth, on average £1.30 in commission to him.

Now, videogames retailers have more competition than the Olympic Games, so there is a fair chance that conversion rates (unique visitors/number of sales) wil be no higher than, let’s be really generous, 3%. (TOP TIP: this is the conversion rate to PPC traffic, not other types of traffic that may have higher conversion rates and distort the figures.)

So, following our example, every 100 clicks purchased will yield £3.90 in affiliate commission.It follows then that the affiliate must be buying clicks for less than 3.9p per click to be showing an operating profit.

Can this be done? Possibly, but the affiiate I was speaking to had his maximum bids (all of them, as he hadn’t heard of keyword tracking/identification) set to 10p per click, paying on average 9p per click. So, for every 9p he spent, he would earn, on average, 3.9p.

Now that is a very quick way to fall out of love wth PPC, not to mention your bank manager who wants his pound of flesh and your new lady-friend who has her eye on those new Jimmy Choo footwarmers.

So, the moral is to look at the simple mathematics first and select campaigns from there. Then, with split-testing, accurate trcking, and ongoing optimisation, the rest will follow.

It really is all just very simple mathematics.

I just thought I would do a quick post to hopefully save some of the more inexperienced Adwordsers (good word eh!) a world of pain and probably a wallet/purse full of cash.

Today, I took over a new clients Adwords campaign which has been running for over 2 years. He owns a website related to the UK travel industry and has been dishing out a fairly significant monthly lump to drum up business.

Upon inspection, he had added ALL of his keyphrases as ‘broad match’ and had not used ANY negative keyterms.

This made me shudder.

Why?

Well, I spent some time delving into the reports of what he had actually been paying for and I reckon that upto half of his clicks were completely irrelevant to his desired market, not to mention his CTR which was abysmal for the same reason.

So, heres a little tip….

If you are not going to look at adding negative keywords ONLY use exact match (or in some rare cases phrase match). Do not leave it at Broad match just so Google can buy even more champagne for their Christmas party season. You may as well get your money and ask Northern Rock to look after it for you.

My client today has wasted thousands of pounds and severely punished his Adwords account through not thoroughly understanding the difference.

I recently commenced with a new Adwords campaign on behalf of a UK client who is looking to break into the gift market in time for Christmas. A small part of what his store sells is an alcoholic range, including wine, spirits, port and champagne.

I have been aware of the Adwords policy on ads relating to alcohol for a little while and thought I would double-check with them regarding advertising wine gifts.

It seems that it is perfectly acceptable to include ‘wine’ in your ad copy, but you must not say ‘alcohol’, ‘whiskey’ or ‘spirits’.

I decided to call the Adwords support team and check to see if ‘port’ is allowed, and apparently it is.

So to summarise, Google, our moral guardians, are happy for us to promote the sales of wine, beer, champagne and fortified wine because they clearly are not dangerous.

So with this in mind, why does the drunken vagrant who is sitting in the park near my office have a brown paper bag containing Tennants Super lager? Maybe he doesn’t realise that drinking that stuff isn’t going to get him drunk!