Coast Digital Blog

The PPC management team at Coast Digital continually look for ways to develop conversion rates in our AdWords campaigns and Google Website Optimiser is a tool we use to help us achieve great results.

If you are unfamiliar with this addition to Google AdWords you can find a link to it in the header of the AdWords campaign management banner. Set-up is relatively easy and I personally like the prompts which test the code is installed correctly.

To get the best out of Google Website Optimiser I recommend you apply the following points to your PPC landing pages:

• Use a simple, templated structure which enables easy swapping out of headings and other elements
• Clearly define a list of USP’s to test
• Make sure all sign-ups / purchase call-outs are clear to see
• Don’t overload the landing page with content – keep it crisp, clear and concise

Once the script is installed correctly on the landing and succeeding pages I recommend leaving the optimiser to run for at least 3-5 days, this will give the system enough time to collect data and display findings.

Below is an example of an account where Coast Digital managed 4 variations of landing page elements within Google Website Optimiser to improve the conversion rate:

What do these figures tell us?

In this example in particular it is clear that Combination 2 has delivered the highest conversion rate. Next steps are to take the constituent elements of Combination 2 and apply them to the landing page as a permanent fixture – and then look to test other elements of the page.

Overall I would say that Google Website Optimiser can offer as much insight as Google Analytics; its delivery is clear and simply linked from within Google AdWords.

To get the best out of Google Website Optimiser, Coast Digital recommend split testing at least 2 different landing page elements. In doing so you are continually refining the quality of your AdWords traffic; the better the quality the more likely it is to convert.

Google AdWords will reward your campaign with traffic at a cheaper cost when you focus on quality – and Google Website Optimiser can help you achieve this.

We've had a couple of these passed on to us this week, and we think that this is significantly worrying enough to issue a warning to our clients who use AdWords.

There is currently a scam email circulating, from adwords-noreply@google.com sent from people claiming to be "The Google Adwords Team". The email requests billing information and user details be entered into the page shown. The link then directs the user to a spoof duplicate of the AdWords login screen.

The URL shows the standard Adwords link text, but sends the unsuspecting user to (parts of the url are masked for safety) http://adwrods.google.select.*******.cn/index.html (Note the misspelling of "adwords" and the .select.cn domain.)

We would like to reassure our clients that any billing issues are automatically flagged up in the AdWords interface and as such, we will pass these on.

Google rolled out an update to its search result pages this week, which introduces a second search box beneath the top result, for large sites. This allows a site content search to be carried out all without leaving the Google interface.

An example of the new search within a search feature

Essentially it is simply an expansion of the existing advanced search string "keyword + site:url.co.uk", presented to the consumer in a more direct, familiar format. Google have commented that the tool “grew out of observations by Google about the way web search was being used to navigate.”

This 'improved functionality' for the consumer has however, caused a backlash from site owners and online retailers. They argue that they are not only losing out on access to essential consumer search behaviour data - previously obtained from their own site searches - but are also losing out on coveted home page views.

The change also offers Google the chance to display competitor AdWords ads alongside the second set of search results, which in turn increases the chance of a visitor deferring to a competitor site via a strategically placed AdWords ad.

This potentially signifies the beginning of a period of unrest for a number of online retailers and corporations, although there are already reports of Google bowing to pressure and disabling the feature on request for a number of undisclosed brands. We’ll just have to keep watching to see how this potential saga unfolds.

I can’t imagine my working life without it now. In actual fact – how did we cope before AdWords Editor?

If you’re not already familiar with AdWords Editor it’s a great offline tool from Google to speed up creation and management of AdWords accounts.

You install Editor on your local machine, download your current configuration and make changes to your account offline until you are happy to upload the changes. Find more information here.

I find AdWords Editor incredibly useful when taking over management of existing client PPC campaigns. This frequently involves a lot of restructuring as accounts may have been set up with 10’s if not 100’s of keywords crammed into the same Ad Group. Editor allows me to get things right offline, so I can be confident everything works well before going live.

If an Ad Group contains one particularly well-performing keyword then we look to ‘peel and stick’. Peel and stick? It’s the process of pausing a better performing keyword (generally with high click-throughs) and placing it in its own highly targeted Ad Group.

Isolating effective keywords using ‘peel and stick’ generally improves CTR’s as your advert can be much more targeted. A high performance keyword just isn’t as cost-effective in amongst lots of under-performing variations in one huge Ad Group.

What about the keyword history? Will it be lost?
Well, it depends how you restructure the account. I’ve read some well-known books which advocate deleting the keyword and then creating it again in a new Ad Group. Personally I think this is unwise as once you delete a keyword you can’t restore it, and if something goes wrong then your history is lost.

It’s not only keyword history you will loose, ad history is important too. If you’ve spent 6 months testing new ads and trying to improve click-through-rates and then create a brand new Ad Group, Google will view this as entirely new and untested. By starting from scratch you will end up paying more to prove to Google that you are a relevant and reliable source all over again.

So how do you retain the keyword and ad history?
Using AdWords Editor right-click and copy the entire Ad Group which contains your keyword and paste into your desired location, whether it be in the same campaign or a new one.

Once the Ad Group has been copied, delete all irrelevant keywords. My advice would be to keep the existing adverts associated with the old Ad Group but to introduce new ones into the mix. This way Google can tell that you’re introducing a new ad amongst tried and tested ads and these generally ‘bed in’ quicker.

Although you cannot see any history on the Ad Group you’ve just copied, don’t worry, Google can. I recently tested this on one of our client’s main keyword phrases which they’ve spent near to £1M on and have drastically lowered the CPC over the past couple of years. In fact this keyword is incredibly expensive to target if you’re new to the market.

I used the technique above and managed to switch from the old to the new Ad Group without any increase in CPC. But I would personally advise to be careful and err on the side of caution and test, test and test.

This issue of account history raises another question. How much can you edit or change your advert before Google views it as new? This question will be tackled in the near future, so keep on checking our blog or subscribe to our RSS feed.

Ask has taken a step ahead of Google with its new search privacy tool – AskEraser – which allows users to instantly delete their search history from Ask’s servers.

This is a refreshing move from Ask as concern continues to grow about the amount of data harvested by the other big players in the search market.

Google keeps hold of all your search data for 18 months before it is deleted. Critics of AskEraser have pointed out that search data from Ask will still be passed to Google due to Google Adwords powering advertisements on Ask. This data will not be deleted by AskEraser.

However, it is interesting to see that Ask is listening to the concerns of its users by allowing them to delete personal data if they wish to do so. This is yet another unique selling point from Ask, and one which could explain why their search market share is continuing to grow.

With Google continuing to dominate the UK paid search market, it’s interesting to reflect on how their position is bolstered by the availability of online training on AdWords and pay per click.

Since 2004 Google have supported their AdWords product with free online training. Many search agencies and individuals use Google’s online training to become certified Google Advertising Professionals (GAP).

Attaining GAP status is good for business, staff morale and achieving greater results in Google. All of the online marketing team at Coast Digital are GAPs. In fact we were one of the very first companies to achieve qualified status.

Some of the criteria for qualification include: demonstrating a full understanding of the AdWords advertising model through management of two or more campaigns over a 90 day period; consistently meeting Google standards and delivering results of the highest level. Achievement of a pass mark of 75% in a final exam is also required.

The team have benefitted enormously from undertaking this training, but it raises the question of why Yahoo and MSN don’t support their products with a similar approach? Their apparent declining position in the market place only goes to underscore the opportunity they are missing. Google’s training tools help us to do a good job even better. And for Google it’s a win/win situation.