Highlights from last night’s Boston SEO Internet Marketing Networking Group (4/6/09)
Please note this information is provided as a glimpse into this group and topics covered. These are just notes and are not intended to represent final text. Comments, clarifications and other discussions are welcome.
For more information on this meetup: www.meetup.com/BostonSEO/calendar/9671609/?a=cr1p_grp
Speaker: Michael Briggs, VP Search Strategies @ Website Publicity
Google AdWords
slides available @ websitepublicity.com/meetup
2 points to lower cost: reduce clicks or reduce cost of each click
Reduce clicks: block clicks that don’t convert, max converting traffic
Use conversion tracking or analytics to achieve this
Broad match
- Allows Google to perform matches
- Pro: better than a human
- Con: Will get worthless clicks
- Best for: Looking for additional ad groupings & refine the results
Use the right match type
- Use phrases
- Bid higher on phrase match: keep general terms on broad match and monitor
- Bid lower — use to harvest new terms
- Add phrase match negatives, not broad negatives
- Create new ad groups
Where to put money
- ID best converting ad groups
- Ensure they have 100% impression share
- Don’t spread money too thinly
When launch campaign
- Look for themes in your ad groups
- Add text that speaks specifically to each group
- Start w 10-25 keywords per ad group max
- Adjust for optimal timing: bid more for active day of week/time of day
Improve quality score
- Comes from click-thru rate (only scores on exact match)
- Relevance and landing page search to keyword and search query relevance
- Page load time, privacy policy have miniscule impact
Too many keywords will overwhelm your quality score
- Really need targeted landing page
- Make sure ad text meets searchers’ expectations
Adgroup guides
- Central theme 10-25 keywords
- Ad groups for individual products and services
- Don’t mix keyword themes
Anything 7 and above is good
If can’t pull it up, ditch it
Trim out the no-clicks, “death by 1,000 paper cuts”
Add text continually
- With offers, savings, discounts
- Don’t throw away the winner or bid against it
- Track conversions
- Don’t let Google optimize your ads for you
Discussion afterward focused on:
1. Paid vs organic search
Organic is 3x more effective than paid
Can control paid side better, can generally convert those better
2. Jim Manning of Jungle Jim’s balloon artist (junglejimboston.com): Resources for just starting a site?
Lots of voices for don’t read too much just write and be true to self
Some responses advocate be sure you understand your customer
My 2 cents: Check out David Meerman Scott’s books
Contact us:
Thanks for the recap – Michael Briggs definitely provided a lot of solid points people should consider when working with Google AdWords.
I hope Jim Manning was able to sort through the ideas projected – it’s difficult to provide specifics in such a large setting (as was the case last night)