The Scary, Growing Ad Group, It’s the Attack of the Adblob!
We participated in the Greater Lansing Business Monthly Fall Showcase yesterday, and I was a presenter at the Lansing IT Council’s Google 101 event. Both went very well. At the Showcase, we had lots of interested companies stop by, and we also saw a lot of old friends and colleagues. At the Google 101 presentation, it was myself, Bill Hamilton of TechSmith, Ryan Vartoogian of Spartan Internet Consulting, and Travis Stoliker of Liquid Web. It was a very exciting honor to be on this panel with such respected and successful individuals, and their companies.
The areas I spoke on within the presentation were:
Search Engine Result basics - explaining the difference between paid and organic results.
Ad Group Development and Ad Construction - a real favorite topic of mine.
Key takeaways - I got to wrap up the presentation with key points of emphasis, and well as some tangible takeaways, such as setting up a Google Webmaster Tools account, and registering with the Google Local Business Center, and some resources available at Google.
Getting back to Ad Groups, I discussed the importance of setting up very tightly constructed ad groups, with with specific and ultra-relevant keywords. I have seen too many companies group several keywords and keyword variations into too few ad groups. The result are ad groups which generate low click through rates, or worse yet, ads that show up for keywords that are too broad, and attract clicks that result in poor visits to your site. Now that is expensive! In the spirit of Halloween, I like to call it the Attack of the the Adblob!!!
You may start with good intentions and a few keywords centered around your service or product, and then over time the temptation to keep adding keywords to it that you think users may type in. Or maybe you are passive in your approach, grouping in a lot of keywords into just 2-3 ad groups thinking it will just magically work.
While it is good to add relevant keywords that your target audience may type in, you need to establish ad texts in different ad groups that address the diverese keyword variations. And I am not talking about just the color of your product either. Be thinking about those keyword variations for ad texts. ”Halloween costume” should be not in the same ad group as “Halloween masks”. Is there a rule of thumb on the number of keyphrases? Well no, but anything more than 8 should have you concerned.
A fundamental driver to any good Adwords venture is small ad groups. This approach enables specific ad creation, which allows for the usage of keyword variations in ad text, which allows for higher click through rates, which means a better Quality Score, which means lower cost per click. Whew! But seriously, that is the cycle, and that is why that approach is important.
Enjoy your Halloween,,, and don’t let the Adblob massacre your AdWords budget!
Network, Network, NETwork
Well, shame on me. It has been two weeks since I have posted. We have been very busy at Netvantage Marketing. It seems to me that the business community and associations have a vast period of inactivity between July 1st and Labor Day, and then bam - I am going to Capital Area IT Council meetings, Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce Bottom Line breakfasts, luncheons, and local business association meetings. Why? Well because we want to network, and pursue all avenues possible to spread the word on Netvantage Marketing. And I am guessing that we will be on this torrid pace until Thanksgiving - and then of course its “we’ll get to it after the Holidays”. But until then, lots of meetings and networking events, which should be a lot of fun.
Why network? Well for lots of reasons that you know. But this is not a post about why network to build leads. You can get that in something like the local paper’s business tips section. Besides the odd chance that we will gain a lead, we network to help build brand. Build brand? Yes, remember a brand is not your logo. A brand is what your various target audiences perceive of you. Is is totally controllable? Unless you can manipulate people’s minds, no. But can you contribute to it? Of course! Giving the right first impression when you network at events helps build your perception and resultant brand.
However, don’t forget to build your online brand. Online brand development is very key to your business. Thinking of the home page of your website as that first handshake and 45 second elevator pitch at a cocktail mixer will go a long way in the success of your website as an important part of your business model. At Netvantage, we are always looking at ways to drive more traffic to your site, with search engine marketing, and search engine optimization, and web analytics. However, first and foremost, before we can do our work, we also need to make sure that our client’s online handshake is strong enough, and that their website is able to NETwork. So if you are looking to generate more traffic to your site, be sure to take a good look at the site, and take the appropriate steps to develop the right online brand.
