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Penguin Spam Report – Please report Spammy Sites here

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This is new.. Matt Cutts tweeted an interesting new tool Google has created to ‘out’ spammy sites.

Matt Cutts Penguin Spam

I think its a good move as we all know those sites that somehow (miraculously) seem to fall under the radar and don’t get touched by the major updated like Penguin. So Google decided to ask, what have we missed?

This could open up a load of floodgates and nasty submissions but the logic behind it is good and unlike previous attempts where people wanted to get off the spam list, this is a new approach looking at getting people to let Google know what they think should be on it!

I’m interested to know whether this would be a manual review or whether its going to be a submission to a search bot/spyder who will crawl sites again to see whether they should be on the spam list or not.

You can check out the tool here.. but be good.

Google Penguin 2.0 Is Out… Much of a deal

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Google Penguin 2.0 is out and is the talk of Google space. This was probably one of the most anticipated updated or refreshed in a long time. We have been waiting to see what its effect will be for quite some time.

But not everyone is convinced or think its was that big of a deal. Matt Cutts did state that this latest updated was going to be something that would truly shake up the order and weed out the spam sites. However, when I look at some sites that are ranking against my competitors, who should by all means been slapped years ago by Penguin, they have barely moved. In fact some have improved?!

Did Google not get the result from this update that they originally expected? Did they, like us expect a lot more from the latest version of Penguin? Or did they not want to rock the boat too much?

I’m keeping my eye on updated and the general consensus but was the fear mongering justified or was it a ploy to scare webmasters into sorting their sites out. If so.. very clever.

Read more about Penguin 2.0 here:

http://www.seroundtable.com/google-penguin-four-live-16830.html

http://searchengineland.com/penguin-2-0-losers-porn-sites-game-sites-big-brands-like-dish-com-the-salvation-army-160744

Using Google’s Adwords Keyword Planner – Is it Goodbye Keyword Tool?

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Is this goodbye to our decade long love affair with Google’s awesome keyword tool, set to be replaced by a newer, fresher version? Google’s Adwords Keyword Planner has been launched within the Adwords interface and this is something pretty special. It takes all the good bits from the External Keyword Tool, Traffic estimator and even historical campaign data and smashes them into one cool tool, right within your adwords interface.

With the keyword planner, you can now get more in depth keyword and industry data, with clearer CPC and estimated volumes. There is also the ability to easily import the additional adgroups and keywords right into your campaign.

You can find the keyword planner within your Adwords interface. In the Tools and Analysis tab, you will see the Keyword Planner option in the dropdown menu:

Google Keyword Planner

Then you will be taken to the Keyword planner options. Here you can select how you want to use the planner. Remember this is a few tools (and a few cool new features) bunched into one so this step is necessary:

Google Keyword Planner Options

If you select the first two options then, just like the old keyword tool, you can manually input your keywords as well as search for keywords. This time however you can go a bit deeper with traffic selection and can finally choose to get search volume by city, not just state. From there you have the option of adding the select adgroups to a plan like this.

Keyword Planner Plan

The column on the right hand side allows you to select that group and add it to a plan. After you have added your groups you can select the ‘get estimates and review plan’. This is where the tool gets really interesting.

I have used an example of a florist and search terms around searching for a florist in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. The review plan looks like this. You need to remember to put in your Avg big data as well as your budget per day in order to get the information you need.

Keyword Planner Review Plan

Now we have some valuable keyword CPC and budget estimates for these adgroups and keywords which give us an indication of what we should expect from a campaign.

If you are happy with this then you can click ‘Save to account’ which is missing from the above picture but is located on the top right. You can then choose a new campaign to name it under or use add it to an existing campaign.

Keyword Planner Save to account

In the keyword planner menu, there is another option, third down the list, called multiply keyword lists to get estimates. This is where you can take this tool to the next level. This is especially good if you have a business servicing multiple locations or you need to add words before or after a core term.

For example if you are a florist in the eastern suburbs you may want to have the word ‘florist’ and target Bondi, Bronte, Rose Bay.. all the way to Maroubra and everywhere in between. Typing each variation is time consuming especially if your excel skills are not up to scratch. This tool makes it super easy, just add your core term in one column and the variances in the other and Google will do the rest for you.

Keyword Planner Multiplier

You can then get ideas for these keywords and start the process of analysing the data and easily importing it to your campaign.

Google seems to be making the ability to run additional campaigns and add keywords quicker and easier with every update they make. At the same time however, they have successfully managed to improve the user experience significantly along the way. The grouping of keywords into group themes is a great way to set up fast and granular campaigns while taking the legwork out of building keywords lists and grouping them.

We will definitely be using this tool moving forward as it provides great insight as well as allows us to easily add groups and keywords to existing and new campaigns. It still does not provide the granularity that we ask for from our campaigns, but we have not tested the tool to its fullest but I can see it being part of our process to some degree.

How to Choose the Right Ad for Mobile in an Enhanced Adwords World

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Enhanced campaigns will, in around July, force us to embrance mobile in our marketing strategy to one degree or another. I believe that all online businesses should embrace this as opposed to worry about having to do mobile.

Mobile in fact is very highly responsive, a little cheaper (currently) than desktop/tablet PPC but also has a load of traffic that you can tap into. And guess what? If you don’t tap into it, your competitors will do so and in most cases, are doing so as I’m writing this.

What I am going to talk about now is how to find out the best performing ads for mobile and choose that particular adcopy show when you there are mobile impressions.

If you have not set your ads to enhanced campaigns then you won’t be able to select specific mobile ads however keep a note of this article when the new system is forced upon you as it will prove extremely valuable to your campaigns moving forward.

First you need to go to a campaign where you have opted into Google’s Enhanced Campaigns. Now within an Adgroup, go to the Ads Tab. Now what you want to do once you see the ads is Segment by Device. You can see this in the image below:

Segment by Device

Once you click on device you will notice some more data appear for each ad. Here you are able to determine what ads perform best for that particular campaign. In this example i’m going to use CTR as our metrics of performance but sometimes, especially if you are running conversions, this may not be the metrics you want to use. In this example though and for simplicity purposes, I’m using CTR:

Adwords Mobile Segment analysis

You can see the data separated into 3 devices. Interesting that Google only allows a bid adjuster for Mobile devices with full browsers as it considers Tablets and Computer to be the same (odd I know).

Looking at the information we have one ad for mobile performing at a CTR of 8.93% and another ad where mobile CTR was 1.40%. In this scenario the obvious choice is to make the first ad the one to display for mobile.

Once we have made a decision as to what Ad we want to show for mobiles the rest is easy.

You can choose to create a New Ad or we can edit the existing ad. Remember however, editing the existing ad WILL mean you lose all the data associated with it. So I would recommend you create a new identical ad and pause, not delete, the old one.

Mobile Device Preference Ad Selection Option

There will be a little checkbox at the bottom when creating/editing your ad which says ‘Mobile’. Check that box and this ad will then be used for mobile.

Adwords Trademark Policy Changes for Australian Advertisers

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Big (huge!) news in Google’s trademark policy for Australian Adwords advertisers. I have known about this for a little while now but wanted to research more into it before posting something here.

We have always been wary of bidding on competitor keywords due to Google’s Australia policy that prevents businesses from bidding on Trademarks, as well as using trademarked competition brand names in the headlines or the adcopy.

But it appears a recent ACCC ruling regarding use of trademark and Google was the start of a much bigger change in Google’s advertisers policy. The US, Canada, UK and Ireland have been able to bid on competitor terms for a while now as stated in Google’s TOS:

Ad campaigns targeting the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom or Ireland may use a trademark in ad text if the ad is in compliance with our policy on resellers and informational sites.

Now let’s ad Australia to that list (finally!). In fact, the new trademark policy has been given its own section! To save you time and direct from Google’s mouth:

Starting 23 April 2013, keywords that were restricted as a result of a trademark investigation will no longer be restricted in China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Brazil.

However, just like the ACCC case I mentioned above, its not easy street when it comes to using competition trademark and this is what I think most advertisers need to understand before going all out and taking advantage of this change. Google does say this in their new policy:

While we will not prevent use of trademarks as keywords in the affected regions, trademark owners will still be able to complain about the use of their trademark in ad text.

Even though Google says ‘go ahead, bid away’, the onus is STILL on the advertiser to tread carefully. Just like any other means, if you go out and slag a competitor, or use their copyright and trademark questionably, then you need to be prepared to accept virtually inevitable consequences.

Another element that has not changed, is using a competitors trademark term in the actual adcopy. This you still cannot do this. You can use their keyword to bid on, but you definitely should not be using their trademark in your adcopy.

There are some people getting sneaky but I as an example:

So in the example above, bidding on GHD is now ok, but using there name in the adcopy.. no so cool. There is a fine line and its up to you to stay as close or as far from it as comfortably possible.

Google puts the reasoning behind this change to offering users more choice. Previously if you search for a brand generally no ads will appear, meaning there is no choice. Allowing companies to bid on trademark terms will give users choice and options.

It will also make Google a whole lot of extra cash! Think about it this way, if you are bidding on a competitor you are spending money on keywords that you weren’t spending money on before. This provides an additional untapped stream of CPC revenue. On top of this, advertisers will also pay more per click as your adcopy and landing page won’t be relevant.(you can’t use their trademark in the adcopy). For example, Reebok could effectively bid on the word ‘Nike’. But since they cannot use the word ‘Nike’ in the Ad, the Ad will be less relevant to the user. Include the fact that the landing page will be about Reebok, not Nike and you’ve got a great recipe for a low quality score which means higher CPCs! Yay!

Some things to note:

  • From 23rd of April, Ads that didn’t work due to trademark restrictions may currently be working.
  • Advertisers can still submit complaints to Google
  • You cannot use trademark terms in your adcopy (sorry)
  • You will probably pay a load more per click due to low quality scores for trademark terms (due to relevancy)
  • Don’t use misleading or deceptive practices or pass off being the advertisers.
  • If unsure, consult your legal representative (we are not lawyers!)
For a good legal run down have a look at this article.

New Features in Google Enhanced Campaigns

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Google Enhanced campaign options are growing in functionality of depth. There is still a lot of work for Google to do however here are a few changes which are moving it in the right direction:

1. Automatic Social Annotations

Google is not giving up on their Google+ social network by any means. Now if you have a Google+ page linked to your website (and vice versa) plus a ‘significant’ number of followers. What ‘significant’ actually is I’m not sure but Google does state that search ads that use Social Annotations have a 5-10% higher click-through rate.  So if its free, takes up more real estate and can supposedly lead to more click-throughs then why not?

2. Tap into mobile app traffic.

We know mobile is a big deal and so too are mobile apps. Google Enhanced campaigns now allows advertisers to target mobile app users time of day, location and device. Bid adjusters can then be used to target certain demographics at an adgroup level.

3. Adgroup Bid Adjusters

A great change here, with bid adjusters now allowed within an adgroup as opposed to being campaign level specific. This provides advertisers more control over their bids and better optimisations practices.

4. Opting out of Desktop Targeting

No not really.. but I’m waiting for it! Hopefully soon but not holding my breath on this one.

 

Enhanced Adwords Result in Q1 Increase Avg CPC for Google?

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Earlier in January, when Google released their 2012 Q4 earnings report, they blamed their  lower avg CPC’s on the lack of take up from advertisers of mobile search. Then with little surprise and not long the Q4 earnings announcement, Google launched Enhanced Adwords aimed at integrating mobile search with desktop search, effectively ‘forcing’ advertisers into mobile with the hope of bigger mobile ad spends and therefore higher avg CPC’s.

Well Cavario recently released some Q1 stats which support the theory that enhanced Adwords, among other elements, may have actually worked in increasing the avg CPC costs. The standout statement for me is this:

As for global keyword pricing, the report suggests that cost-per-click trends experienced over the last six quarters have reversed with CPC prices rising 7 percent.

Considering that enhanced campaigns are yet to be rolled out completely, with many advertisers still using their original Legacy settings, it remains to be seen how much of an effect the complete rollout will have on average CPCs. Based on this initial data I’m expecting some big numbers over the next 6 months.

 

4 Mobile Search Statistics to Think About

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You may think mobile search is pretty straight forward and how people use mobile for search is self explanatory. Buses, trains, family dinners… these are the times people are on their mobile searching. Right?

Well here are 5 statistics you probably were not aware of:

1. 77% of mobile searches are done at home or work. Only 17% is done on the road, whether it be on a train, bus or in a car.

2. 55% of conversions on mobile happen within an hour of browsing. A conversion could be a call, a website lead, purchase or store visit.

3. 3 out of 4 mobile searches lead to a follow up action. The follow up action could be sharing the information, visiting a store or calling the business.

4. The point 3 follow up is done twice. So when there is a follow up from a mobile search, the average number of these follow ups is 2. The industries with the most follow up based searches and actions include Beauty, Auto and Travel in the order of highest to lowest.

To read Google’s release on Mobile search stats you can visit http://www.google.com/think/ or view the interesting PDF infographic by clicking the snapshot below:

Google mobile search snapshot

Google Keyword Tool Breaking Keywords Into Groups

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We know how good Google’s keyword tool is for keyword research for Adwords as well as SEO campaigns. Not too long ago I stumbled across an interesting development while doing some keyword research for a new client. Google’s Keyword tool now grouped keywords into themes! Naturally, I thought I would write a post about it however when I went back into the tool to do some more research I wasn’t able to replicate it. It turns out, you need to be logged into your Adwords account in order to take advantage of the new feature.

For example the first image below is basic keyword research without logging into your Adwords account and the second version is being logged in.

Google Keyword tool Logged Out

Now Logged in:

Google Keyword tool Logged In

This is truly a great development in the way the keyword tool works. This means no more siphoning through hundreds of keywords and selecting the ones of interest. Google now gives you keywords in group themes, allowing you not only to determine whether a particular theme is of interest but also when it is, easily and tens of keywords to that group.

Something else to think about is that if we know Google deems these themes as quality groupings, then would using their ‘guide’ in your Adwords set up improve the quality score of that campaign? Is it now worth going back to old campaigns that are struggling with a QS issue, and implement these groups for your keyword themes?

It seems logical that if Google gives you these keyword themes then wouldnt these be the ideal themes and keywords to use for optimum campaign setup? Personally I don’t think they are granular enough however I will be testing it on a few older campaigns to see how it affects overall performance.

This will definitely make campaign setup and keyword research more streamlined and hopefully more effective regardless of how you are currently doing it. If you havn’t seen or used the new keyword tool then login to your Adwords account, visit https://adwords.google.com.au/o/KeywordTool and get started. It’s still in Beta but it looks pretty comprehensive from what I can see.

 

Analysing Conversions: Time Data – When Enough is Enough

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Running an Adwords campaign without conversion tracking is kind of like going around a race track without being timed. Yeh, you can run it, even be a bit of fun, but if you are truly serious about it you measure your performance by your lap times.. or your conversions.

I’m not going to go into detail about how to set up a conversion or anything like that, I’m going to talk about analysing the data and to keep things simple, I’ll be using a sale as a conversion and a target cost per acquisition of $10. Nice round numbers and an easy target.

The most obvious thing to do is for a campaign manager to look at the conversion costs and then make a decision based on cost per conversion per keyword or adgroup. That’s fine and of course, best practice. So as an example, we find a keyword converting at $30, which is considerably above our CPA target. Naturally we then go and reduce the bid of that keyword by 10%… run it a bit.. then edit accordingly. Simple stuff and provides great value to the client.

But is that it? A lot of the time, especially with smaller campaigns, the answer could be yes. However lets take a different scenario. Let us now assume that your target CPA is still $10 but your a running quite a large campaign with 1000+ keywords. If 500 words are converting you are still left with a considerable number of keywords that are yet to convert or convert well over that $10 CPA target.

Now I just want to look at those keywords with 0 conversions. There may be a good chance that over 2-3 months there are a fair few words that are yet to convert. Some of these may even have only minimal spend appended to them. What do you do when say, 100 keywords have spent $7 each over 3 months? That is $700 without a conversion that can distort your figures. What is the plan of action? You cannot simply dismiss the keywords as they have not broken the $10 CPA thresh hold to positively conclude that they are bad performers. But at the same time, the culmination of these keywords brings down the CPA performance of the campaign as a whole.

What is the right way forward? Do you give these keywords more time and continue to push through until you have deemed each and every one of them as statistically relevant enough to decide whether they stay or go? A few years ago I would have said yes of course, and even today, when we are dealing with longer term campaigns and bigger budgets then yes, let’s continue to give them a chance to prove themselves.

However over the years, working on hundreds of Adwords campaigns in different phases of development, I have drawn my own conclusions. This is what I call, Time Data. Time Data does away with a purely Spend VS Conversion analysis and brings common sense and judgement back into play. In simple terms the theory behind it is this:

If it hasn’t converted yet… then it’s probably not going to convert

This sounds very low brow but it is really that simple. Why would you continue to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result? It’s Insane (did you like what I did there??).

Where do you draw the line and decide on using Time Data? I use a really simple equation:

x = Conversion CPA x30

y = 3 month moving total of non converting words.

If y > x then remove KEYWORDS to the value of x starting from highest to lowest.

(note that this is assuming the non-performing words have had a full 3 months of being run)

As an example, I have a campaign with a monthly spend of 1k working towards a CPA of $10 using 100 keywords.

3 months is a guide which you should look at having a think about, there are no hard and fast rules, its common sense. If you are tight on budget and ROI requirements are pressing, then try 1 month. If you have some lee way in time and budget then 3 months, or possibly even more, if fine.

The key is to not simply remove keywords and that’s it for your campaign. You should be testing new variations regularly, using search terms as your basis of building out high quality, target keywords. Once you have exhausted this avenue, move onto thinking of broad terms that you may not have exploited in the early stages of the campaign.

Remember to find a way to separate the new keywords from the old ones. Set up new campaigns or adgroups clearly labelling or distinguishing the age of keyword to avoid a mix up which can be time consuming trying to decipher.

If you have your own methods of using information other than purely CPA and conversion data then I would really like to hear it. Also let me know what you think of the equation above and how you would look at analysing it as that’s just my take, you may know of a different, possibly more effective method.

 

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