3
May2015
£120 AdWords Voucher
On the one hand, if you were a big fan of iron Maiden in the 80’s these are pretty cool. On the other hand they are £30 less than Google used to give away!
29
Apr2015
Google Shopping Exam Now Available In The UK
So now you know. Apologies if I am on the slow side and this has been the case for the past 6 weeks or so…
15
Apr2015
Northern Irish Negative Keywords
When it comes to location targeting in AdWords there is one big drawback (apart from it not always being very accurate) – you can’t actually exclude people who are searching for a product or service in an excluded location without excluding everyone in that excluded location without using a very long negative keyword list. Location targeting tends to be a bit of a head melt, so let’s give a somewhat simplified hypothetical example which makes it easier to understand. I own a Restaurant in Belfast. I set my location targeting to Belfast. I target “restaurant” as a keyword. Now, if we assume that Google gets location targeting 100% correct (it doesn’t), I am now targeting people in Belfast looking for restaurants. But what if someone in Belfast is looking for “restaurant in Newtownards”? Will my ads still show? Yes, yes they will (maybe not as often as they would for…
9
Apr2015
Keyword Research with Google Adwords
There’s a whole host of keyword tools, and you could spend hours and hours testing these to see whether there is enough traffic to justify your choice of keywords. Anytime I’m trying to get an idea of potential traffic for a new client, rather than using Wordtracker, Google’s keyword suggestion tool or other keyword tools that can be unreliable and sometimes there’s not enough data for small regions like Northern Ireland, I just nip into my Google Adwords account, create a new campaign, budget some money, add the keywords, run a couple of ads and set the campaign live. Over a couple of days to a week, this can quickly give me a more accurate idea of traffic levels. It’s real information, real impressions, and I get to find out how much the clicks actually cost. I can then use this information as a factor in deciding which keywords to…
2
Apr2015
AdWords Call Extensions
Apparently if you are using a phone number in an AdWords call extension, there has been a policy update which means that the phone number you put on your ads has to be a phone number that is displayed on the web site featured in your ad. Here is a bit more information:- https://www.en.adwords-community.com/t5/Tracking-Reporting/verifying-phone-numbers/m-p/442227#M18310 According to AdWords support, the format of the phone number on your web site has to be exactly the same as in the call extension (spaces in the same places etc.), and it can take up to *7* working days for the system to verify the phone number…
11
Mar2015
4x £150 AdWords Vouchers
Expire at the end of March 2015, so you’ll need to be quick in getting one applied to your new AdWords account…
5
Mar2015
12 Deadly Google Analytics Mistakes To Avoid
1. Not Installing Google Analytics The biggest mistake is not installing it in the first place. It’s free so why not use it. If you have a comparable piece of software that’s fine, though odds are it’s alot more expensive. If you have any suggestions as alternatives leave a comment at the bottom. 2. Not Monitoring the Reports Another mistake is having it installed and just ignoring the information and doing everything on a whim. No one pays attention to the information and all website development, updates and changes are made without even looking at the information and what it tells you. You might just delete a page or section of the site that users found engaging and that was driving plenty of conversions. 3. Not Owning Your Analytics Account I see this all the time. The Google Analytics account belongs to the web agency, and they’ve set your analytics…
4
Mar2015
See What PPCNI Did With Fabulous New Ad Copy*
See – we have created new ad copy which shows without shadow of a doubt (with statistical significance no less), that the new ad copy is working better! The slight decrease in CTR can be accounted for with the inclusion of Search Partners and the 2 ads not getting equal impressions on Google Search and/or a tiny variation in average position. So, what was changed to get this significant increase in impressions? NOTHING. ZILCH. NOWT. The ad copy in the 2 different sets of ads are exactly the same. The only thing that is different about them is the destination URL! *The title of this post is not actually true and is a homage to the type of post you often see on the subject from so called ‘gurus’. :-)
25
Feb2015
Don’t Be Too Quick To Write Off ‘Search Partners’ In AdWords
Search Partners will lower your overall Click Through Rate for your search campaigns, but this will not have an adverse effect on your Quality Score. It won’t work well all the time, but I have found it can work well particularly with CPA bidding. Here’s a couple of examples:
11
Feb2015
AdSense Earnings For This Site – Past 12 Months
I think I need around 300 times the number of page views before I can give up the day job (and even then, it would be the height of stupidity to rely on free search engine traffic for all of my earnings).