Internet Marketing Centricity

Google Beta Testing Demographic Bidding on Content Network

Would you benefit from the ability to target your pay per click ads demographically? For example, if you sell women's apparel, would you like the ability to target your ads to women in the 25-49 age group? How about targeting males 18-34 if you sell paintball markers and supplies?

In the very near future, you may have the ability to target your ads on some sites within Google's Content Network using limited demographics. According to Google:

Demographic bidding helps you display your ads to specific gender and age group audiences on some sites in the Google content network, giving you more control over who your audience is and greater insight into how your ads perform with certain demographic groups.

You have two options for the demographic settings. First, you will be able to increase your bids for specific demographics so you can increase the number of clicks. Second, you'll be able to show your ads only to your demographic settings.

Demographic bidding is available in the U.S. and U.K.

Does Pay Per Click Ad Rank Impact Your Conversion Rates?

If you lower your ad position in Yahoo Search! or Google AdWords, how will your conversion rate and number of overall pay per click conversions be impacted? A study several years ago by the Atlas Institute found the overall answer to this question.

I use the term "overall" because you should never assume that search marketing studies like this one on PPC conversions will apply accurately to your specific paid search account. In addition, the study is somewhat dated and visitor behaviors and the search marketing platforms are continually changing.  Having said that, the study provides some general knowledge that may benefit you.

The study found that the overall conversion potential for both high-volume and low-volume keyword phrases decreased as the ad rank decreased. This makes sense because your click-through rate normally decreases as the ad rank decreases. Fewer clicks on your ads translates to fewer visitors to your site and lessens the opportunity for conversions. The overall impact on conversion potential dropped 90% between ad rank 1 and ad rank 10.

In addition, the conversion rates for both Google AdWords and Overture (now Yahoo! Search) fell 20%-30% between ad rank 1 and ad rank 10. So, as you move down in ad rank, this study found you'll not only garner fewer clicks, but you will also convert fewer of the visitors who do click.

If you combine the lower click-through rates with the lower conversion rates as you decrease the ad rank, there is a significant impact on the keyword phrase conversion potential. In Google, for example, the study found ad rank 2 had a conversion of 54.5% versus ad rank 1. Ad rank 6 had a conversion potential of 22.5% versus ad rank 1. In Yahoo, ad rank 2 had a conversion potential of 73% in relation to the top position and ad rank 6 had a 22.2% conversion chance.

One very interesting finding in this study had to do with the conversion rate for high-volume vs. low-volume keywords. In both Google and Yahoo, the conversion rate decreased as the ad rank decreased. However, the conversion rate for low-volume keyword phrases actually increased as the ad rank decreased.

As always, take the information in search engine marketing studies with a grain of salt. Use the information to develop and test results for your own pay per click strategy.

Rob Reed
Terrakon Marketing
Pay Per Click Consulting and Management

Microsoft and Yahoo - What Could it Mean for Your Pay Per Click Advertising?

Would a Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo be a good thing for pay per click advertisers and search engine marketing firms? My personal opinion is that a merger between the #2 and #3 paid search platforms should be a good thing for most SEM's and PPC advertisers in the long run.

The primary benefit for search marketing agencies and advertisers is the result will eventually be one less platform to learn and manage. More impressions and clicks in the new "Microhoo" pay per click platform will result in better economy of scale for launching and managing pay per click programs.

Right now, Yahoo Search! and Microsoft AdCenter are considerably more difficult to set-up and manage compared to Google AdWords. Both platforms are significantly behind Google in terms of ease-of-use, tracking and reporting. At the same time, the combined volume for my clients running Yahoo and Microsoft campaigns is typically 1/3 of that for Google AdWords. It takes just as long, if not longer, to launch and manage campaigns on Yahoo Search! and Microsoft AdCenter as Google AdWords, but at significantly lower click volumes.

Despite this drawback with Yahoo! and Microsoft, I still recommended Yahoo Search! and Microsoft adCenter to my clients because the higher conversion rates on those search platforms, in comparison to Google, more than justify the time required to launch and manage paid search campaigns on those platforms.

By combining the pay per click volume of the two search engines, in-house advertising departments and search marketing agencies will be able to lower their overhead costs to launch and manage the same level of clicks. There's also the possibility that the Microsoft and Yahoo! teams will be able to create a paid search platform that rivals or even surpasses that of Google. The potential of a better Microhoo platform, while seemingly slight, will obviously encourage Google to continue improving their already superior pay per click advertising platform.

Of course, there is downside risk to this scenario if Microsoft and Yahoo are not able to effectively integrate their cultures and platforms. Large mergers/acquisitions like this one rarely meet the expectations of shareholders (e.g. AOL and Time Warner). This deal is nearly 7 times larger than any acquisition Microsoft has made previously which increases the risk level for a successful outcome. This leaves us with the potential outcome two or three years down the road where Google is even more dominant that they are today. Admittedly, that would not be the best outcome for online advertisers.

Rob Reed
Terrakon Marketing
Pay Per Click Consulting and Management

Pay Per Click: When Free Shipping Isn't Always Free

Do you have an ecommerce site? If so, do you offer “free shipping?” Do you use this benefit in your pay per click advertising?

While conducting some research for a couple of potential ecommerce PPC clients, I noticed the extensive use of “Free Shipping!” in the pay per click ad copy of many of the PPC competitors for that industry. It makes sense, of course, because the use of “free” in your ad copy can sometimes lead to increased click-through rates.

What I found interesting about these two industries, though, is that when you clicked through to the landing pages, you discovered that there were important caveats to the “free shipping” as claimed in the paid search ad copy. Specifically, you found the shipping was only free if you spent over a specific amount of money. While the ad copy in all of the pay per click ads stated “Free Shipping!,” with no conditions or clarifiers, the landing pages specified that you only received the free shipping if you spent over $75, $99, $100 or other amounts.

Is this misleading advertising? Well, it probably depends upon who you ask. So, I thought I’d ask my contacts at Google AdWords since these examples were in their PPC Network and see if this particular example was against Google’s Editorial Guidelines.

Not surprisingly, the response I received from Google AdWords was that they were okay with this scenario so long as the paid search advertiser stated on their site, “Free Shipping on Orders Over $99.” I wasn’t surprised because Google understands the use of “Free Shipping” generates more clicks for their advertisers. More clicks equates to more revenue for Google. In addition, if a visitor clicks on an advertisement because they see “Free Shipping,” only to discover the “free” is conditional, they may very well hit the back button and return to the search results to click on another paid search ad. This is not a bad result for Google either because it generates even more revenue.

Let’s go back to the original question. Is the advertising misleading? Personally, I think it is a perfect example of a “half-truth” used by our politicians and advertisers for years. If I were conducting the search and clicked on a pay per click ad because it said “Free Shipping,” only to later find on the site the shipping was only free if I purchased above a specific amount, I’d click the back button and go to the next pay per click ad. Trust is a primary consideration to me when purchasing online and the use of misleading advertising is certainly an indicator that a site/company cannot be trusted.

Now, that’s just my personal opinion. Many potential buyers may experience the exact same scenario and not have any issue whatsoever. That’s why I think it would certainly be something that would need to be tested for your particular audience. You may find that it has little impact on your conversion rate or it could impact your conversion a great deal. As always, the best way to resolve any question is to test and see what happens.

I’ve noticed that large, well-known brands like Amazon use the ad copy, “Free Shipping on Most Orders.” To me, this is much better ad copy and you have much less chance of diminishing visitors’ trust.

Rob Reed
Terrakon Marketing
Pay Per Click Consulting and Management

PPC Management: What's the Best Ad Position for Conversion?

What's the best PPC Ad Position for conversion? That's a loaded question, but the answer appears to be: it depends!

It depends on a number of interdependent factors and the only way to truly find out the answer is to test, test and test some more. Some of the factors that will determine the best ad position for conversions include:

• Industry
• Product or service offered
• Competitive ads
• Organic search results where ads appear
• Keyword phrases used
• Time of day
• Day of week
• Time of year
• Ad copy headline
• Ad copy body
• Ad copy display URL
• Landing page or destination URL
• Top-level ads (blue area) or not
• Pay-per-click program used
• And more

What I can tell you with some degree of certainty is that you should not assume the top position will result in the most conversions and especially, the best ROI.

Here's a study Terrakon did with one of our clients to identify the best ad position for conversion. This study was based on results over a nine-month period and included thousands of conversions. Conversions in this situation were purchases. It's important to note that these results include a number of keywords combined and over an extended period, so we're not giving anything away and please don't assume these results will fit your situation - they most likely will not.

As you'll note in the graph, the number one position did not fair very well for conversions when compared to most all of the other PPC ad positions. For the cumulative number of keywords this graph represents, we would probably look to position ourselves somewhere between position 2 to 6. Of course, we'd be very happy sitting consistently in positions 5 or 6 if we could generate enough clicks there at a much lower cost than positions 2 or 3.

The most important pay-per-click myth I hope to break with showing this graph is the belief that you have to bid for the top position every time to make the most money. Simply not the case if conversion is your primary objective - and it should be!

Rob Reed
Terrakon - A Pay-Per-Click Advertising Management Company

Pay Per Click Management: How Long Should Your Keyword Phrases be for Your PPC Campaigns?

Post: I ran across this interesting data on the SearchEngineWatch blog. This post discusses data based on 2 million visitors. They ranked the number of words that are used in search phrases.

Here's how the top five breakdown:

1. Two-word phrases -- 28.38 percent
2. Three-word phrases -- 27.15 percent
3. Four-word phrases -- 16.42 percent
4. One-word phrase -- 13.48 percent
5. Five-word phrases -- 8.03 percent

The percentages begin to drop off signifcantly after five-word phrases. So, when you're conducting keyword research for your pay per click campaigns, you can use these figures as another means of prioritizing the keywords and phrases that are most likely to be searched on by potential visitors.

For instance, it is usually a good idea to focus on two or three-word phrases because those phrases are searched on the most and they tend to provide more qualified visitors. One-word phrases, on the other hand, are typically searched on a lesser amount and tend to send less qualified traffic to your website.

In some niches, though, you can still be very successful with one-word phrases. With one of our clients, for instance, we use a one-word phrase that provides a signficant amount of qualified traffic that converts very well. However, it took a little while to get the keyword to oustanding profitability by constantly testing new ad copy and adding negative keyword phrases to better focus the traffic.

Syndication Header: Terrakon Marketing is a pay per click firm in St. Louis that specializes in helping clients optimize and manage more profitable pay per click campaigns.

Rob Reed
Terrakon Marketing

Google Makes Change to Top PPC Results

It appears Google is either testing or has implemented a new design for their top cpc ad results. These ads are the top one to three ads that sometimes appear above the organic search results. In the past, these ads have had a light blue background. As of about five minutes ago, however, the top cpc ads now have a light pink background.

The change certainly makes the bold headline words even more important as they stand out more than before with the light blue background. It will be interesting to see if this is a permanent change and if so, the impact the new background will have on click through rates for the top results.

We'll be tracking...

Rob Reed

Terrakon - A pay per click advertising management company.