Using Ad Groups to Improve Your AdWords Quality Score
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.
And here is a great video from Google explaining the AdWords bid auction process and the impact quality score has on bid cost and placement.
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.
Identify your AdWords keywords suffering from low quality scores
Group those keywords into relevant clusters, for example
Widget Keywords separate into clusters: Blue Widgets, Red Widgets and Yellow Widgets
Create highly targeted Ad Groups for each cluster – 3 to 5 keywords per Ad Group
Create ad versions using the targeted keyword theme for each Ad Group “cluster”
Direct each ad version to a landing page
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:
Most small businesses have dabbled in email marketing – whether it’s a newsletter, e-blast or other email marketing strategy. Let’s cover some of the most effective email marketing strategies and some practical email marketing tips that will help your small business.
Email Marketing Strategy #1: The Email List
Your list is the single most important factor in your email campaign. Your house list (you are developing a prospect database, right?) is your best email marketing list.
If you have integrated your email marketing platform and your customer database (typically requiring a CRM system) – that’s the best option.
Email Marketing Strategy #2: The Email Communication
Email communication comes in many forms – informational, newsletters, promotional, etc. For purposes of this article, let’s cover promotional (revenue generating) email marketing communicating.
Email Marketing Strategy #3: The Offer
This goes without saying but developing a compelling offer is critical to the success of your email marketing strategy.
Email Marketing Strategy #4: Segmentation
Once you’ve selected your offer and your email list – it’s time to segment the email marketing file. There are unlimited ways to segment your email marketing file – age of leads, geography, purchase history, recent activity, marketing acquisition channel – be creative and think about what is most relevant to your offer and list.
Email Marketing Strategy #5: Email Delivery
Depending on your business model the day of the week and time of the email delivery can impact open rates. Personally – for most B-to-B or B-to-C email marketing communications, I recommend Tuesdays (Wednesdays are second best) around 11am – eastern time. That hits your email prospects before lunch on the east coast of the US as well as around the start of the day on the west coast.
Effective Email Marketing Tips
Let’s cover small of the most important design elements of your email marketing campaign. Follow these email marketing tips and you will develop optimal email marketing communications.
Email Marketing Tip #1 – Value Propostion
You have (at most!) 5 seconds to communicate your value proposition through email. Think about how you go through your own email. Your value proposition must be clearly communicated and the first ways the recipient discerns that is through:
The From line
The Subject line
The Email Preview Pane (if applicable) – Images and Content
Email Marketing Tip #2 – The From Line
The is the most important line for establishing trust. If you are using your house email marketing file, the recipient should know you. If you segmented recent or previous buyers, you have a greater chance establishing trust. Send your email from an email address that builds trust and contains your brand.
Email Marketing Tip #3 – The Subject Line
Get to the point – early. And make it compelling to the email recipient. Most email recipients open their inbox, read the From Line first and then the read the Subject Line, and decide to open, delete or save. Subject Lines and From Lines work together – don’t emphasize brand in the subject line – communicate value to the recipient, in 40 characters or less.
Email Marketing Tip #4 – Images and Content
Your content should clearly reinforce the value proposition and benefit to the prospect. Your images and layout should be attractive. If you choose to send HTML based emails with images – check the layout of the email in multiple email clients. Odds are your email will arrive with the images turned off, so make sure your value proposition is clearly communicated with and without images.
Email Marketing Tip #5 – Personalization
Personalization, using the email recipients’ information in the email (i.e. name, etc.) is information you should leverage. Consider how you can capture and use prospect data to improve conversion rates. At a minimum, it is generally better to use Dear [first name] instead of a generic salutation.
Email Marketing Tips and Strategies that Work
Effective email marketing requires testing. Once you have the basics in place, it’s important you test and track your results. Implementing effective email marketing strategies is very important. But out of all these email marketing tips the most important one is to track your results. Email marketing is iterative and specific to your business’ niche.
All small business owners I know want or need more (qualified) traffic on their websites. And they have varying degrees of understanding about search engine optimization. The problem is how to find the best seo service – and don’t forget we’re talking small business, so the best seo service on a limited budget.
Since I do this for a living I thought I would provide some tips on choosing the best seo service provider for your budget. Of course I would like you to choose my firm, Marketing Practicality, as your SEO Marketing Consultant. But this post is not a sales pitch, rather some practical tips for small business owners to select a quality seo service provider.
Searching the Web for SEO Service Providers
When one doesn’t know where to start, this seems like a logical place, right? Is it the best place to find an SEO service provider? Maybe yes, maybe no. The problem is it’s incredibly competitive, so the first page of Google maybe not actually list the firm that might give you the best seo service for your business. You have a few options:
Select a big SEO firm
Outsource your SEO overseas
Learn SEO and do it yourself
Do some digging and find a smaller SEO firm
The Big SEO Firm
Large SEO firms typical provide service packages. So for a set price, you’ll receive a defined service (updating content, submitting your website to a number of directories, changing title tags and meta tags, etc.).
Expect to have the seo work performed for the price you paid.
Expect to be up-sold on other products or seo services
Don’t expect much help outside of the scope of your agreement
This level of service may be fine for your small business if this is what you are looking for,
Outsourcing SEO service overseas
I’ll admit, I haven’t run across too many companies or clients that have chosen this route when looking for the best seo service for their own company. Most small business owners want a resource that is at least US based. My firm uses a programming resource in Europe from time-to-time with positive experiences. But I would be wary of using an unknown resource for one of the many link building services that frequent my junk mail box.
Learn and Do Your Own SEO
Generally, I have two types of clients (which one are you? Be honest)
Client A
Developed a great website (it cost a fortune)
Cash flow is tight
Unfortunately, the website isn’t generating traffic like he hoped it would
After some research, he learned about search engine optimization, SEO
SEO has something to do with meta tags
So maybe he will try this SEO himself and then the expensive website will generate traffic and his internet fortune is made.
Client B
She has a great website (it cost a fortune)
Cash flow is tight
Checks her Google Analytics frequently
Has relevant title tags
Has her local business listing on Google and Yelp
Keeps trying to update her blog but doesn’t have time
Knows she should be doing more with social media – no time
Business is good, growing, even in this economy
She can even code a little HTML
But with all the business pressures, family obligations, etc. she can’t give the website her full attention. And cash flow is still a constraint – so hiring an full time seo is out of the question.
Client A can become Client B with the right aptitude and time. Client B can do SEO herself, if she feels it is the best use of her time. Understand, SEO never ends (if you want to do it the right way) and it is dynamic, so it is a considerable time investment.
If you want to do it yourself, here are some good starting points:
If you want the best seo service, this may be your best option. Smaller firms often provide a more customized and detailed approach the your website’s search engine optimization strategy. But, like anything else, there are good apples and bad apples. Here are some tips in selecting your “best seo service provider”:
Ask your network for recommendations
Ask your potential SEO partner for references – current and previous clients
Get data from the SEO service provider (before and after ranking reports) from clients
Define what the SEO firm will do for you – get it in writing
Trust your gut – do you feel like you are entering a partnership or being sold?
Hear are things (at a minimum) to expect from an quality SEO service provider:
SEO strategy development commensurate with your business goals and objectives
Professional, responsive and consultative interactment
SEO and practical use of Blogs and Social Media
On page SEO – optimization (code editing) of all elements
Qualitative and quantitative feedback of your website
Knowledge sharing
If your SEO service provider regularly gives you these things, within your budget and sales and traffic are improving – congratulations! You’ve found a quality seo service provider.
The Best SEO Service – Where to Find it?
Like most questions, this has many answers. But I would recommend you start within your network and expand your research from there. Once you’ve made the decision to hire an seo service provider – and I believe this is usually the most cost effective and productive route – make sure you are getting results.
Best of luck in your search for the best seo service – there are many qualified firms out there which will help grow your business.
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.
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.
Here are some 5 email marketing tips to better interpret, test and analyze your email marketing campaigns.
Email Marketing Tip #1: Interpreting the Open Rate
After reviewing your email marketing metrics, you notice one person opened your email 30 times. You think, “Wow! What a hot prospect!”. Not so fast. If you sent HTML email and your recipient uses Outlook with the reading pane, your results can be skewed. If someone uses a reading pane and scrolls over your email using the up or down arrow keys, the email is opened in the reading pane. That counts as an open, even though the intent was nothing more than quickly scrolling past your email to get to a different email. So interpret this metric carefully.
Email Marketing Tip #2: Test, test, test!
If your email marketing list is large enough, you should segment and test your list every time you start an email marketing campaign. Common and useful things to test in your email marketing efforts include:
Subject line – this is critical
Email Offer or Call to Action
List Segmentation – including: geography, age of leads, previous buyers vs. prospects, etc.
Landing Page
Creative
Email Marketing Tip #3: Use Website Analytics
If an email generates a click to your website, then what? Use your Web Analytics program to understand what happens next. Depending on your call to action, your Analytics program can tie in the performance of your email marketing campaign to the actual result.
Email Marketing Tip #4: Send HTML and Text Versions
Most email marketing service providers allow you to send an HTML version as well as a text only version of your email. Nowadays, most people use HTML as their default – but many people intentionally or not, only accept text based emails. Make sure you use both.
Email Marketing Tip #5: Follow Up with Qualified Leads
Prospects that opened up your email message multiple times or clicked through to your website, identified themselves as interested. Your next step should be to follow up directly with that prospect.
Email Marketing Service Providers
There are many email marketing service providers out there. Two of the most commonly used are iContact and Constant Contact. My personal preference is iContact but I use both depending on the client. If you have a small business and are looking for a quality email marketing service provider, you be satisfied with either of those two.
Email Marketing Tips Wrap Up
These are some basic email marketing tips. Email marketing can be as sophisticated as you want. But most importantly, your email marketing efforts should continually improve and yield a better marketing ROI. Contact Marketing Practicality for expert email marketing help with your small business.
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