Google AdWords recently introduced a new keyword match option called Modified Broad Match. At a high level, modified broad match fills in the gap between phrase match and broad match. Which is great news, especially for companies using Google AdWords in highly competitive spaces. So let’s begin the Google AdWords Training!

• What exactly is modified broad match?
• How do I use modified broad match?
• What does it mean to my AdWords Campaign?

What is Modified Broad Match?

Modified broad match provides more flexibility with the targeting of your AdWords campaign. You will find Modified Broad Match to be more useful if you are currently using both broad and phrase match types.

This new match type option allows you to better control your broad match targeting and in the case of long tail keywords – you can select which keywords you want to apply the modified broad match rule to.

By placing a + sign in front of a broad match keyword, your AdWords ad will only be served for search terms that contain the exact keyword or contain close variants of the keyword. Google defines close variants as misspellings, singular and plural forms, abbreviations and acronyms, and stemmings. Related search terms like apple and fruit, or synonyms like smart and intelligent are not close variants.

So you can now tighten up your broad match keywords or even portions of your broad search terms that contain multiple words (i.e. cakes, chocolate cakes, red velvet cake).

Google AdWords Training – How Do I Use Modified Broad Match?

The implementation is pretty straightforward. When you add a new keyword, you put a plus symbol in front of your keyword.

For example:

+Google +AdWords +Training

Applies modified broad match to all three individual words for the keyword: Google AdWords Training

You could also elect to put a + sign in front of one or two of the individual words in any combination you choose.

Incorrect examples of applying modified broad would be:

+Google+AdWords+Training or…

+ Google + AdWords + Training

What does Modified Broad Match mean to my AdWords Campaign?

Well, that depends on your campaign(s), your industry, your budget and a whole host of other questions. But modified broad match appears to offer a much needed tool to fill the gap between phrase based and broad match types.

You will need to test this new match type for yourself and determine what is best for your business. I have seen clients that run AdWords campaigns in competitive markets where phrase match was the best option. Broad match produced too many generic, unqualified clicks, phrase match worked well but their budget could support more clicks. Modified broad match presents an opportunity to expand reach to qualified impressions without serving ads to unqualified surfers. Especially if you are targeting multi-word keywords that are fairly generic “tree houses”.

Google AdWords Training for Modified Broad Match

If you are a highly proficient Google AdWords professional, I would recommend setting up structured tests to evaluate the effectiveness of modified broad match on your AdWords campaigns.

If you are learning your way in Google AdWords and are not sure how to most effectively use this new keyword match type, here are some recommended resources:

Google’s Official Page on Modified Broad Match

Inside AdWords Google’s blog and explanation of the new match type

Read, test, monitor and improve. If you need to learn more, you may want to consider some Google AdWords Training. Or hire a Google AdWords Professional to improve your AdWords performance.

According to Google, quality score is a measure of relevance.  I’ll cover Google’s definition of quality score and a specific tactic to improve quality score.

Here is Google’s exact definition of quality score.

According to Google, quality score is influenced by:

• Historical Click through Rate (CTR)
• Historical CTR of the display urls in the ad group
• Click through Rate of your account
• Quality of your landing page
• Keyword relevance to the Ad Group ads
• Relevance of the keyword and ad to the search query
• Ad Words account performance
• Other AdWords relevance factors

So to improve your keyword quality score, those are the levers to pull.

There are several articles out there on ways to improve your AdWords quality score.  One of the simplest methods I know is to create highly targeted, focused Ad Groups. But in the end, you need to improve your click through rate – quality score is, in my opinion, a way for Google to optimize the ROI of their Ad Words revenue stream, but that is a separate topic.

How Ad Groups Can Improve Quality Score

If your AdWords keywords are experiencing low quality scores you are paying more money for the same placement. Here is an easy way to give your quality score a boost.

1. Identify your AdWords keywords suffering from low quality scores
2. Group those keywords into relevant clusters, for example
   1. Widget Keywords separate into clusters: Blue Widgets, Red Widgets and Yellow Widgets
3. Create highly targeted Ad Groups for each cluster – 3 to 5 keywords per Ad Group
   1. Title the Ad Group with the targeted keyword
   2. Use relevant, focused keywords for your Ad Group
4. Use the various keyword match types for each keyword
5. Create ad versions using the targeted keyword theme for each Ad Group “cluster”
6. Direct each ad version to a landing page
7. Optimize the landing page for the targeted keyword for the Ad Group

More Ways to Improve Quality Score

There are many resources out there on improving your Google AdWords quality score.  Remember, your click through rate (CTR) is going to have a large impact on improving your Ad Words quality score so fundamental marketing principles come into play. Here are some other resources to help you improve the quality score of your AdWords keywords:

Improve Quality Score

And for the basics, here is a

Google AdWords Tutorial from Marketing Practicality

Finally, a great video explanation of the Google AdWords Quality Score directly from Google – as you watch it, consider ways to improve your AdWords quality score.

Google AdWords has allowed image ads (display ads) on its content network for some time now.  But you may have noticed image ads ocassionally showing on Google AdWords search network.

So what is this all about and more importantly, how can you start showing images ads within your own search network campaign?

Example of Image Ads on AdWords’ Search Network

Recently I did a search on Walker Trays in Google and these results were shown:

I know it’s a little tough to read but trust me, the word in those red circles is Target.  They are showing in the #2 position for the Google AdWords text ad.  And Target has the first and third position on the right hand bar – typically reserved for AdWords text ads but currently displaying Image ads on the search network (i.e. PlusBox ads).  Not bad if you are Target, but if you are trying to sell walker trays is not a good sign if Target owns 3 of the top spots – and two ads are images!

Also note the Google Shopping results for Walker Trays – the five small boxes below the shaded sponsored links box.  Guess who has three of those five images – you got it, Target.

The Google AdWords PlusBox Ad

Image ads on the search network are called PlusBox ads.  And they are appearing more frequently in searches. So how is this done?

According to Google, PlusBox ads are part of a small Beta test offered to select advertisers. So outside of asking your AdWords account manager to try and get you in, it’s on an invitation only basis.

But here’s basically how it works:

The images that are displayed are fed from your Google Merchant Center Account.  So you need that first.

Then, by selecting Ad Extensions in your Google AdWords account, you allow the product information in your Merchant Center Account to by shared with your AdWords account.

Google summarizes how to run a PlusBox ad here: Plusbox Ads. Search Engine Land also covered this topic a while back, that article can be found here: Google Continues AdWords Product PlusBox

Images Ads for the AdWords Search Network

In my opinion, it’s a huge differentiation to  show an image ad among a sea of text ads – so hopefully this will be expanded beyond the Beta testing stage.  Or the testing will stop so the select advertisers who can run images don’t continue to benefit from an uneven playing field.  It depends on the product (or service) but I know several clients that would love to serve image ads on the AdWords Search Network.

This is the third article of a three part series on Successful Web Marketing – this article provides web marketing ideas on how to increase website visibility. Because, at the end of the day, no matter how good your content is, what does it matter if no one can find your website (and your content)?

How to Increase Website Visibility

In order to successfully increase your website’s visibility you will need to learn certain tools. Like most things – you will be able to pick up a basic knowledge of these skills with a moderate time investment. If you want to develop expert-level skills, count on 1,000’s of hours for each of these web marketing tactics – or hire a qualified professional. The following 5 tactics can be employed to increase visibility to your website – generating more web traffic – and exposure to that valuable content you have already created.

Increase Website Visibility Idea #1 – Search Engine Optimization – SEO

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is the practice of developing and managing your website so it ranks well for targeted search terms in the major search engines. An effective SEO marketing strategy will significantly increase traffic to your website. Search engine optimization consists of both on-page SEO and off-page SEO. I strongly recommend you perform search engine optimization within the search engines guidelines if you intend to build a website for the long haul. When done effectively, search engine optimization is the best tactic in your toolbox to increase website visibility – and a critical component of successful web marketing. Don’t overlook this web marketing idea. And use a proven, qualified SEO marketing consultant if you’re not sure how to do it internally.

Increase Website Visibility Idea #2 – Pay per Click Marketing – PPC

But like most things, you don’t want to put all of your eggs in one basket, so if you completely rely on SEO for website visibility, you may be very disappointed if a search engine that sends you a large amount of organic traffic changes an algorithm or otherwise stops sending you the website traffic you were accustomed to. Pay per Click Marketing (also called paid search or PPC) involves targeting certain keywords and paying for search engine listings. This is a great tactic to increase visibility to your website, but of course costs money. So carefully evaluate your marketing metrics and monitor your PPC campaign performance. It only makes sense to carry out a PPC marketing campaign if it produces a positive ROI.

Increase Website Visibility Idea #3 – Social Media

Social media continues to gain momentum as a tool for increasing website visibility as well as developing online relationships with your customers or prospects interested in your products and services. Social media also ties in with search engine optimization as it provides a medium where your website can garner inbound links, thus increasing your website visibility.

Increase Website Visibility Idea #4 – Referring Websites

When I say referring websites, I mean websites that link to your website and direct traffic to your website by means of an inbound link. This also ties in with SEO, but if you build up a network of quality, referring websites that are synergistic with your website, you can increase visibility to your website and quite likely, improve your conversion rates. Generating a network of referring websites takes work; it’s best to reach out to other webmasters and establish a level of trust before simply asking someone for a link.

Increase Website Visibility Idea #5 – Networking

Old fashioned networking and personal relationships can go a long way for small businesses trying to increase website visibility. Think about who could link to your website – starting with your personal network. Vendors, customers, suppliers, business contacts, friends, consultants – there are likely a host of people you already know that have a business website. If you already have an established level of trust, and it makes sense, why not ask that person for a link in to your website?

Successful Web Marketing – A Blend of Old and New Marketing

In today’s competitive landscape, successful web marketing really requires a blend of old and new marketing tactics. Staying on top of rapidly changing technology and how it impacts your business market efforts is critical to successful web marketing.
Ask yourself:

1. Are you getting the most out of your search engine optimization?
2. Have you fully tested pay per click marketing?
3. Are you effectively using social media marketing?
4. Do you know the top ten websites referring traffic to your website?
5. Do you routinely discuss web marketing with your network?

If you take these 5 web marketing ideas and deploy them effectively. you will see positive results. In order to increase website visibility, you need to work at it, or hire someone who will. Successful web marketing depends on knowing what to do, how to do it and then putting in the hard work to ensure success. So get going!

View the first article in the “Successful Web Marketing Ideas” series:

Web Marketing Ideas

View the second article in the “Successful Web Marketing Ideas” series:

Creating Valuable Content

By Marketing Practicality

Looking for successful web marketing ideas? Here’s some advice on how to effectively promote your business on the web.

First you need a business and a website. You’ve done that but you are not satisfied with the quantity and / or quality of leads your website is generating, so far you web marketing ideas aren’t so successful. Here’s what to do.

Web Marketing Ideas

I’ve broken down these web marketing ideas into three main categories: Web Marketing, Web Design and Web Marketing Process. Consider applying this web marketing advice as you grow your online business presence.

Successful Web Marketing

SEO – or Search Engine Optimization, is the process of increasing the organic (not paid) listings in search engines for targeted terms. Learn how to do this yourself (plan on invest 1,000’s of hours to do it very well) or hire someone to do it for you. Don’t commit the sin of developing a beautiful, content-rich website that no one can find because this step was omitted. SEO applies to both on page optimization and off page optimization. If you only take one piece of web marketing advice, take this: optimize your website for search engines.

Pay per Click Marketing – Google AdWords being the most common, but Bing and Yahoo have their own paid search marketing platforms. Paid search marketing (pay per click marketing or PPC) is a way to quickly generate targeted traffic to your website at a cost you control. The advantage is the immediate traffic; the disadvantage is you pay for every click.

Social Media – This is one of the fastest growing areas of web marketing. There are numerous websites – the heavyweights being Facebook and Twitter but the list is vast and most sites have their own twist on social interaction via the internet. While many find this a difficult area to monetize, the value of the inbound links (in most cases) is certainly a plus, and it creates another channel to communicate your product or service.  (Note the social media links at the bottom of this post).

Create a Blog – By creating a blog you have content that is easily shared throughout the web, allowing you to link to other blogs, and of course have them link in to your website. As your popularity increases you will generate more inbound links and a following of people that are interested in your products, services and content. Plus the content management systems of blogs make it very easy to organize and create new web pages, without knowledge and experience in coding a website.

Networking – Not just networking through the web, but also through your (human) contacts. Networking, especially for small businesses is one of the best ways to build awareness of your website and your products or services. If you educate your network on web marketing (and they own websites) you can also generate traffic through that relationship.  Remember to give more than you receive – it will come back to you.

Quality Content – This will be covered in more detail with the next article in this series, but providing valuable, original content will play a large role in the success of your web marketing efforts. Create valuable content and create it often. Adding a page a day for a year is sound web marketing advice. Sound like a lot of work? It is – but like most things in life that are worth achieving, it takes effort.

Website Design

Website Design – If possible, hire a professional web designer to develop a great looking site.   Successful web marketing, in my opinion, is more by the marketing items I listed above – but good design goes hand in hand with good marketing and quality content.

Website Structure – Your website should be easily navigable – meaning any page on the website can be accessed in two clicks or less. The website navigation should be clean and intuitive. I like to create logical groupings of categories within clients’ websites. The web pages within each grouping interlink to one another so it’s clear to both users and search engines that all related web pages are contained within their logical grouping. Avoid making web pages that run too deep – no more than 4 directory levels in a URL, in fact, the fewer the better. Also, create websites that load quickly.

Contact Form – If you don’t have one, you need one – that simple. Especially if you plan on running paid search marketing. Create a contact form on your website.

Practical Web Marketing Ideas

Granted, this is a partial list of web marketing ideas but diligently applying this web marketing advice will result in successful web marketing. In part two of this Web Marketing Ideas series, we’ll cover how to develop valuable content that targets the type of visitors you want to attract to your website.

Related Resources:

7 Ways Internet Marketing Can Supercharge Your Small Business

Read the next articles in the series here:

Successful Web Marketing Ideas: Creating Valuable Content

Increase Website Visibility

From Marketing Practicality

Google AdWords includes some powerful tools to improve your campaign ROI, but many people rarely, if ever, take advantage of these free and readily available options. If you are new to pay per click marketing – why not take a moment to review our AdWords Tutorial.

Search Query Reports are great for finding the keyword search terms people are actually using to find and click on your AdWords ad.  We’ll cover how to run the report and what the practical applications are in improving Google AdWords ROI.

Using Search Query Reports in Google AdWords

You can run this report through your reports section – which allows you to set up a recurring report and have it emailed directly to you (once you set up the parameters).  But Google makes it even easier for you to access this information within your Google AdWords account.

First go to your Campaigns and then select the Keywords tab.  Next click on the “See Search Terms” menu and select “All”.

After that, your report will appear and look like this:

Improving Google AdWords ROI

So what does this information mean for your Google AdWords campaign?  Sure it’s a neat report and easy to use, but how is this information practically applied to increasing revenue and reducing costs?

Here’s how:
This report is showing actual search terms that lead to a click on an ad in your Google AdWords campaign.  When you review the report you will see that the actual clicks may or may not have matched up with the keyword you selected in your AdWords campaign – especially if you are using broad match.  There are many things you can do with this information, but here are a couple tips to improve your AdWords profitability:

Search Query Reports and Negative Keywords

As you review the report – do you see any search terms that don’t make sense? Are you attracting unqualified visitors (and paying for them) only to have them bounce off your landing page once they get there?  Review the search terms and identify those that just aren’t good matches – then identify the word or words that may have triggered the unqualified click, and add that term as a negative keyword to your campaign.  This reduces cost – which improves ROI.

Search Query Reports and Match Types

Now review your report to identify search terms which appear highly relevant (resulting in a  high quality click) – these are the type of visitors you want more of. If it’s a keyword you haven’t used add it to your campaign using the various Google AdWords Keyword Match Types.
Now you are accessing real click through data to develop your AdWords Keywords – which is better than any online tool in my opinion.

Search Query Reports and Improving Google AdWords ROI

Hopefully this gives you an idea of how search query reports can be an effective tool for improving Google AdWords ROI. Let me know if you tried this and how it has worked for your AdWords campaign!  For more tips and advice – contact Marketing Practicality.

To see the first tip in this series visit Improving Google AdWords ROI – Tip #1.

If you do these three things effectively, your small business internet marketing efforts will be successful.

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
2. Pay per Click Marketing (PPC, Google AdWords)
3. CRM Marketing

I have the privilege of working with many small business owners across several industries.  And rarely do I come across a company that is doing all three of these “legs” effectively.  More often, a small business does one or two of them, and provides explanations as to why they don’t do the others.

Granted, each of these items are entire industries, so all the details can’t possibly be captured in one article.  But the basic premise applies.

If you have a website for your business, and your website generates leads, then this is for you.

Search Engine Optimization – SEO

SEO gives your website visibility in search engines.  And search engines, Google in particular, are the yellow pages of 20 years ago.  It is where potential consumers start to find a product or service.

Do not spend $10,000 developing a great looking website without giving serious consideration to SEO – I’ve seen this too often.

Essentially, SEO is the process of increasing your rankings in search engines for targeted keywords.  Keywords you have strategically selected to generate qualified traffic and ultimately sales from your website.

The upside – SEO has momentum.  Once your website starts ranking and gaining authority, it is easier to rank for other terms, more people link to your site, and it continues.

The downside – SEO is not a quick process.  It is not a magic bullet or “get rich quick” scheme.  It is, frankly, a lot of work.  So don’t expect overnight results from SEO.  Consider it a long term strategy.

Google AdWords and Pay per Click Marketing – PPC

Pay per Click Marketing, commonly called PPC, however can produce results overnight.

Google AdWords is the most common platform for PPC marketing.  You can set up a Google AdWords account in a day and start generating clicks.  With Google AdWords, you can appear on the “first page” of Google in a day.  This can be a powerful tool.

The upside - PPC Marketing is quick and targeted.  The major search engines offer robust PPC marketing tools to help you better target your campaigns, improve response and save money.

The downside – The cost.  These placements do not come free.  You set a daily budget and your ads will be served as long as the daily budget allows.

CRM Marketing

CRM Marketing ties in your marketing efforts to your sales efforts – and your sales results.  So you can identify not only which advertising mediums are producing the most leads (and what that costs you) but you also see which leads are producing the most sales – now you can track ROI and truly optimize your marketing mix.

The upside – CRM systems can be incredibly powerful tools for your small business marketing efforts.  Not only do they integrate marketing and sales – but most integrate customer service and several can tie in to your ERP or financial software.  It all depends on your needs.

The downside – I suppose one could say the cost, but I believe CRM systems more than pay for themselves if used properly.  The biggest downside I’ve encountered is people.  More specifically, getting people to buy in to a new way of doing things and getting the most out of these incredibly powerful tools.

Successful Small Business Internet Marketing

The trick is finding the time and resources to make sure all legs of the “stool” are done well.  Otherwise the stool gets a bit wobbly, or worse, it falls down.

But having witnessed many companies and how their internal marketing operates – the businesses that effectively use seo, pay per click marketing and crm marketing have successful small business internet marketing programs.

In most cases, using dynamic keyword insertion will improve your Google AdWords click through rate.  And if your text ad creative, landing page, offer, etc. is well constructed and thought out – your AdWords ROI improve.

If you are not using dynamic keywords I strongly recommend you test them for your business’ Google AdWords campaign.

What is Dynamic Keyword Insertion?

Dynamic keywords show the specific search term in your ad, providing it meets certain criteria.

For example, you have an ad in Google AdWords with a title like this:

“Buy Widgets”

Depending on your keyword match type, bid amount, geo targeting, etc. your ad would show if the searcher typed in “widgets”.

But what if you have many different widgets?  How do you target that?

Well, there are ways to do this within Google AdWords – but dynamic keyword insertion allows you to cover the various related search terms in your ads – and show those terms in bold face type – making your ad immediately appear more relevant and ideally suited for what the individual is searching for.

How To Create Dynamic Keyword Insertion

It’s simple, and can be used anywhere within the displayed text of your ad.

Instead of writing “widget” put {Keyword:Widgets} in it’s place.  The default word will be widgets, but if the search term meets Google AdWords parameters, the targeted search term will be shown.

And that sort of relevancy improves click through rates.