Thursday, September 6, 2007

Phrase Matching Options and Negative Keywords
A network contact of mine recently described the following problem, and asked what I might suggest.....
For his Adwords campaign he chose three keywords (lets say they were "knitted", "jumper" and "cardigan"). He selected phrase matching, where the keywords or keyword phrase is enclosed in quotes and the advert gets displayed if the searcher inputs a phrase that includes the keyword. He had hoped that this meant the ad would appear when someone typed in "knitted jumper" or "knitted cardigan", but what actually happened is that the ad showed up whenever someone searched on a phrase including any one of the search words. So although they got some clicks which were spot on, they also got clicks from people who searched for things like "babies blue lycra cardigan" or "bon jovi knitted T-shirts", which he found annoying.
My response was as follows....
You can mix Phrase Match, Broad Match and Exact Match keywords in the same ad group. For instance, you could have a keyword of "knitted jumper" plus one for [knitted jumper] and another for knitted jumper. The former would display your advert whenever a user typed in a search phrase that contained the term knitted jumper - so a search phrase such as 'purchasing a knitted jumper online' would show your advert, whereas it would not get shown for 'buying a jumper that is knitted'. The second keyword [jumper] would only trigger an advert when the user typed in this exact phrase (with no additional words). The final keyword would trigger an advert whenever one or both of the words 'knitted' and 'jumper' were searched for (in any order) - so the phrase 'looking for a knitted cardigan or jumper' would trigger the advert. The options for keyword matching get very complex - my advert groups generally have dozens or even hundreds of keywords.
Do you use negative keywords? If you did, then you might prevent some of the annoying clicks. For example, if you added a keyword such as -baby and another -babies none of your adverts would display if the user typed in the word baby or babies as part of their search phrase. Useful if you don't sell baby clothes. Equally, you could use lycra and tshirt as negative keywords. Just add them to your keyword list.
Martin Jarvis is a Pay-Per-Click Marketing Specialist at DMJ Computer Services Ltd


11 Hot Tips to Make Google Adwords Pay - Part 2
Have you tried Google Adwords and watched your money go
down the drain faster than you ever thought possible? This
is the second in three articles about how to make Google
Adwords work for you instead of watching your hard earned
money go to Google Adwords.
Hot Tip # 4 - Edit your campaign with negative keywords
Negative keywords prevent your ads from showing up in
searches that you don't want such as "free widgets". This
helps prevent wasted clicks which tend to do nothing but
cost you money. If you only sell red and blue widgets then
you should add yellow as a negative keyword. You make a
search negative by using the minus sign i.e. "-yellow".
Hot Tip # 5 - Go with your gut
If you are using a tool such as Google Adwords' Traffic
Estimator, realize that it is known for returning less than
accurate results for your keyword. Don't let that be your
decision maker.
Adwords Traffic Estimator is not accurate for narrowly
defined keywords phrases or "niche" words. Go with your
instincts and try it out. Fortunes have been made by people
who are willing to march to a different drummer.
Automated systems are helpful but they are far from perfect.
Hot Tip # 6 - Run lots of keywords
Start out with lots of keyword phrases and monitor them.
Not all people think the same so not all people are going
to use the same search phrases. This way you will catch
people who you normally wouldn't catch. If you find that
you are getting few or no clicks, then pare them like you
would the branches on a tree.
Remember to use the exact keyword matches and negative
keywords when doing this.
Hot Tip # 7 - Rotate your ads and split test
Google lets you have more than one ad for your ad group.
It then rotates them and keeps track of which ad gets the
higher CTR. Google Adwords will then begin to show that ad
more often than the ad with lower CTRs.
The best way to do this is to test and run only two ads at
a time. This way you can tightly manage your variables.
Some tests have shown several hundred percent changes in
click through rates just by switching around the first and
second lines of an ad.
If you start split testing more than two ads at a time,
the variables will quickly get out of control.
Hot Tip # 8 - Be Darwinian
Once you have identified that one version of your ad
doesn't work as well as the other version, get rid of it.
Now make the stronger ad your baseline and run another ad
against it to see which is the stronger. What you are
trying to do is improve your ad.
What is the correct sample for testing ads? Top experts
say that 50 clicks may be enough but 100 clicks is better.
A larger sample gives more accuracy. You, of course, know
what your budget will allow for.
This is a continuous process that will strengthen your CTR
rates and gain more customers at a continuing lower cost.
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3 Key Questions About PPC Advertising
You've heard the term pay-per-click advertising but you aren't really sure what it means and how it applies to you?
In order to better understand PPC advertising there are three key questions that need to be answered:
~ What Is It?
~ Why Use It?
~ How Do You Get Started?
Pay per click advertising, often known simply as PPC, is the fastest and easiest way to gain targeted traffic for your web site.
What exactly is PPC advertising?
It is very much as it sounds. You place a bid (sometimes mere pennies ranging up to many dollars) on a key word or key phrase. Your bid guarantees you a place in the search or ad listings for that particular key word or phrase.
Your anchor text and link (sometimes accompanied by descriptive ad copy) then appears in search engine results relative to the price of the bid. If you are the highest bidder, your webpage appears at the absolute top of many search engines.
Every click on your ad will cost you the agreed upon amount (or bid) and your ad will be displayed until you have generated that number of clicks.
Why would you use PPC advertising?
There are several advantages to PPC advertising.
Probably the single greatest advantage that PPC offers over other forms of advertising is that you only pay for performance. In other words, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.
PPC advertising also offers a great deal of flexibility to you as an advertiser. You can continually change and tweak your campaign or even run different campaigns at the same time to test performance for different key words, descriptions, and sales pages.
PPC advertising also gives you a great deal of control over when your ad campaign will start and stop as well as the exact phrasing of your displayed ad text and the target sales page.
Timing is another key reason why many people seek out a PPC campaign. While it may take weeks or months to achieve a listing for a new site (or to change the listing status of an existing site). With PPC you can achieve top ranking literally overnight and see a dramatic jump in your traffic.
How do you get started with PPC advertising?
Your choices for arranging a PPC ad campaign are many. The top players are Google and Overture, recently purchased by Yahoo. Microsoft has added MSN Search and there are many smaller engines out there as well.
It is important that you have an idea how much your visitors are worth to you and that you watch your conversion rate (the percentage of visitors who become customers) closely. You need to do this so that the PPC rate you are paying is worthwhile for you.
PPC advertising requires planning and careful management. You should do a lot of homework and testing before embarking on a PPC campaign. Test out your sales copy and optimize your conversion ration before you put money into a PPC campaign.
You need to know your target audience and have a pretty good idea what search terms they are likely to use.
Most PPC engines, certainly the big ones, offer this calculation and tracking for you so it is fairly painless, but you should always double-check it before adding more funds to a campaign.
Most engines let you know what placement your bid will give you so you can jockey for the best position at the lowest price. They often will also often give you an idea of how many clicks to expect at various rankings.
The more specific your key phrase can be to your product then the higher your conversion rate is likely to be. Often the PPC rates for select key words is high but you can quickly find phrases that are actually more apt for your product and cost you a lot less.
PPC advertising can be tremendously powerful and profitable, but it can also be very costly and confusing. Start small, test all the angles, and then build on your success. Unless you are experienced and knowledgeable you can easily lose a lot of money with PPC advertising, but carefuly management and cautious planning can help you achieve the success you desire.
Deanna Mascle will be glad to share more Web Advertising Answers and Answers About Internet Promotion.