Website testing regularly causes tracking issues and contained below are three basic checks as soon as any new test goes live:

(Assuming website test went live on = www.mywebsite.co.uk/test)

1. Is your site listed under the referrals section within analytics?

Yes – Since Implementing The Test

If a significant portion of your traffic is listed under the referrals section, it is highly likely that there is an issue with your tracking.

Yes – Including A Time Period Previous To Test Implementation

Your tracking has probably had issues for a while, and this should definitely be investigated further. At a guess, likely to be a result of subdomain/cross domain tracking issues or a combination of code placement and site speed.

No

Good, no issues so far.

2. Have you seen a sudden spike in Organic Traffic, Direct Traffic (or in fact, any traffic source) that coincides with the test?

Yes – Since Implementing The Test

It is likely that the source has been lost for an alternative traffic source such as paid search. Try navigating to the page that contains the test.

Now there are two main ways to see both test variations, use two separate browsers, navigate to the test page, and keep clearing cookies on one of them until you have a browser set to each page (an uncouth but still effective approach).

Google Analytics Specific

(The principal still applies to other tracking solutions)

Force analytics to show you a version by the addition of variables, add the following onto your URL and change the value after preview to view different versions:

# utmxid=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX;utmxpreview=1

To obtain your utmxid for website optimiser, preview your experiment and take the id from the preview URL. More details can be found here:

http://support.google.com/websiteoptimizer/bin/answer.py?hl=en-GB&answer=63841

e.g.

www.mywebsite.co.uk/test#utmxid=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX;utmxpreview=1

This should then allow you to choose which variation you are shown.

Now try adding ‘?utm_source=TEST’ into the URL, after being re-directed by the test, does the utmx cookie still contain TEST as the source value?

If not, it is likely the analytics cookie has not been set before the re-direct occurred, thus losing the original source. You need to ensure that the cookies are set before the re-direct takes place.

No

Perform the test above anyway, just in case a random traffic surge masks any spike you may have noticed (unlikely you say, at least until it happens to you).

1. Appear to have a small spike yet cannot find an issue?

Segment your traffic. If a specific traffic segment is causing the spike it is likely that that particular segment has an issue. It may be that your site breaks for all mobile traffic, does not work in IE, Chrome, Firefox or even the tracking above could be breaking on a single segment. Segmentation should help you narrow down any analytics problem to the source, not just for website testing.

Any questions or comments? Please leave them below or on Twitter -@JamesMHolding

According to adCenter themselves, the enabling of this feature will both increase traffic volume, while at the same time bring more relevant traffic to your website. While both of these are perhaps admirable goals, it’s tricky to imagine how both could be accomplished at the same time. Given that by definition broad-match can match to a fairly wide range of search queries and should be used with caution as it is, broadening its scope so that it can match to an even wider spectrum of queries seems to make it more likely that only the first of these goals (increased volume) is going to be accomplished, and probably at the expanse of relevancy.

adCenter’s own advice – which seems mostly sensible given the potential increase in irrelevant traffic – is to closely monitor account performance in the coming weeks, and consider taking the following actions:

• Increase daily budget limits (this is the first recommendation they give, but of course should only be done if conversions increase along with the increase traffic);
• Run search query reports to discover new irrelevant queries and add new negative keywords to filter out where necessary;
• Adjust bids so that you’re bidding more for phrase and exact match keywords than for broad;
• Consider switching from broad match to a more restrictive match type, either phrase or exact.

If nothing else, keep a close eye on traffic and spend levels to see if you get any sudden spikes across your accounts in the next couple of weeks.

Has anybody else noticed any traffic spikes or increases in irrelevant search queries as a result of this change yet? Please share them below.

It is very useful to monitor these metrics, especially the Lost IS (Budget). This shows what percentage of impressions your campaign did not receive because of budget restrictions. If a campaign is showing a level of lost impressions, the advertiser can then decide what changes to make to improve performance, either reducing bids to get cheaper clicks for the same budget or increase the budget.

According to the Google Adwords blog, the impression share metrics will soon be available at ad group level. The Lost IS (Budget) will not be available as budgets are not set at ad group level, but we will be able to see the impression share, lost impression share due to rank and exact match impression share. These three column options will soon start to show in Adwords accounts at ad group level.

Exact Match IS and Impression share have been available through the dimensions tab previously but we will soon be able to see all three in the ad groups tab.

This will give us more insight into where a campaign is losing out on impressions. We will be able to see if a very strong performing ad group is missing out on impressions compared to other ad groups in the same campaign, and make adjustments to improve the performance.

Once this becomes available I will use it to see how I can make improvements to ad groups and will report back any findings in a future blog post! – @aimee_roberts

Like most tools, its usefulness depends on your ability to analyse the data presented to you and selecting the options most relevant to you or your business.

Let’s take the current trends in the UK over the last 7 days (if you’re not sure how to do this, simply leave the search term field blank and change the date range to ‘Last 7 days’ and hit search):

Why are these topics trending? Netflix as a result of their online movie streaming service launch in the UK, Georgia Salpa is a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother (I’ve had to Google some of these to find out I swear!), Beyonce Baby due to the birth of her first child Ivy Blue Carter… all very interesting I’m sure you’ll agree, but not massively relevant for most digital marketers.

Instead, here are some scenarios and uses of the tool that could be extremely useful.

Scenario 1 – The Electronics Store

Let’s say I own an online electronics store and I’m quite keen to gauge how interest for 3D TVs has been increasing in recent years.

If I wasn’t aware already, it’s clear that interest is on the increase year on year and I could expect this growth to continue going into 2012. If my range of 3D TVs on my site isn’t that comprehensive, it’s probably about time I started increasing it! Or from an SEO/PPC perspective, this is certainly an area I need to start investing some time and money in.

Scenario 2 – The Travel Agent

An online travel agent will clearly know that they operate in one of the most seasonal industries out there, but what can Google Insights for Search tell us more precisely?

We can clearly see a pretty standard seasonal pattern year on year here – a spike at the beginning of the year as people start to research holidays for the upcoming year. This tails off quite quickly, before a gradual increase each month leading to a spike once again around August time at the height of summer (or most likely, the summer holidays for kids). Clearly this is extremely useful data – digital marketers can use this to plan out their promotional activity across the year, whether that be in email, PPC, SEO or display advertising.

Scenario 3 – The Newspaper Publisher

The way people are reading their news is changing. The rise of smartphone and tablet devices has inevitably lead to greater visits ro online versions of newspapers and magazines. Can Google Insights for Search show this shift more precisely?

As you can see above, I’ve compared two trends in this example. The blue line represents searches for newspapers, whilst the red line signifies ‘newsnow’ which is an online news portal/search engine. Clearly you can see that as newspaper searches have been on the decline, news searches have been gradually increasing year on year. This data would certainly show the importance of investing heavily in optimising online newspaper sites or downloaded app versions for people to read on the move.

Scenario 4 – The DIY Store

You’re a huge stockist and always looking to increase your range to meet potential customer’s needs on your site. Furthermore, the ‘real estate’ space on your homepage is a key area of the site, so you’re always looking to display the key types of products users are looking for.

You adjust the filter on this occasion to ‘Product Search’ instead of ‘Web Search’ and instead of all categories, select ‘Home Improvement’ with it being most relevant to your business.

On this occasion, we don’t need to focus on the trend line graph, as it’s too general in this instance. Instead, if you focus on the top searches and rising searches in this category, it can provide a wealth of data.

All the products mentioned above indicate users’ needs at present, so it would be worthwhile to ensure these types of products are featured heavily on the site and in any promotional activity.

Are you running a PPC campaign and are you bidding on these types of product categories? If not, now would be an excellent time to start.

The scenarios above are just a few of the ways the Insights for Search tool can be incredibly helpful to business owners, digital marketers or online advertisers in a wide range of industries. I’d be really interested to hear about other ways you’ve used the tool for your business or clients, so feel free to drop me a comment below or tweet me @PeterGould83

For those of you that don’t know about the story, find out more here.

Whilst the public and the paparazzi are in a frenzy to get hold of pictures of Blue Ivy Carter, the search marketing experts amongst us see this as an opportunity.

The search volumes around terms such as ‘Beyoncé’s baby pictures’ are huge at the moment. A quick search on Facebook for ‘Blue Ivy Carter’ confirms there are already way more groups then I can fit into a screenshot:

Facebook advertisers that are up to date with the latest news trends can potentially exploit the huge interest to expand their current campaigns. Here’s how:

1. Keep an eye on a news feed, scanning it regularly for potential stories big enough to have an impact on your Facebook campaign.

2. Work out if your target market corresponds to the latest search trend. For example, people looking for stories on Antony Worral Thompson stealing some cheese might not fall into one particular category. We can be fairly certain that people searching for pictures of Blue Ivy Carter are female and interested in both pop music and celebrities.

3. Armed with this knowledge, you can expand your Facebook target demographic to include people with an interest in the news story. E.g. if you were selling a subscription to a celebrity magazine, the Blue Ivy Carter story would be perfect.

4. Test performance- not every story will add huge volumes to your campaign like the Blue Ivy Carter one will, but testing out each opportunity is the best way to ensure your campaign never goes stale.

N. B.

This blog post is a perfect example of the power of current trends, with such huge search volumes around “Beyonce” terms; this blog post received roughly 10x more traffic than other posts published in January.

- @matt_buckley

Product Listing Ads are made up of an image of a product related to the search term with a brief description of the product, the price and the company selling it.

The screen shot below shows two of these ads and from what I have seen, there is usually between one and three of these types of ads shown at one time.

I have been using these new ads for a while now and have seen a very good performance from them so far. The click-through rate and conversion rate have been higher than other campaigns using text ads within the same account, and has had a very positive effect on the overall account performance.

Interestingly, they have also performed better than text ads with product extensions included. This has been tested during a peak period so it will be interesting to see how it performs during times with lower volume.

I would recommend testing this for advertisers with a Google Merchant Account and a good product feed. You need to ensure the account is linked to your Google Adwords account.

Go into your Google account and select the Auto Target tab and select add product target. You can either select All Products or break it down to into more targeted groups. Many people have recommended starting with All Products and then trying to be more targeted once you have more experience and data with these new ads.

If you have any feedback of your own on these ad formats, please do share it, as it would be interesting to hear how they are performing for other accounts.

@aimee_roberts

When it doesn’t work too well, you often have no choice but to turn it off, until now.

Google doesn’t make it easy for you to see which search partner sites you appear on.

But there is a way to find the poor performing websites in your search partner’s campaign and have them switched off.

Here’s how:

Step 1: Identify the Problem

Dive into your Analytics and create a new filter using the settings below. Here is a quick guide to creating a filter (if you have never done it before). This filter will allow you to see the referring website from the search partner network.

This filter only works prospectively, so you will have to allow a week or so for it to collect data (depending on your volumes).

Once you think you have collected enough data, open up the Adwords campaign report in Analytics. Pick the e-commerce tab, then select the campaign drop down box (just above your campaign names) and change this to User-Defined Value.

Now, find the high-traffic, low ‘per-visit value’ websites that stand out. In my case, it was Amazon and EBay.

Considering I am paying about 20p per click on the search partners network, I would like a per visit value of at least 30p+ to be making any real return. The other search partners have a per visit value of £1+, so I feel I could benefit from having these two switched off entirely.

Step 2: Solve the Problem

A quick call or email to Google highlighting your issues with particular search partners should be enough for them to review your targeting, send them your findings and you should be in a good position. They can manually switch off certain search partners, but be warned, it can take a couple of days to get things sorted.

Step 3: Review the Results

If your account is anything like this one, it will see an improvement for most metrics. The most noticeable being: Revenue Per Click

Return On Investment

Let me know if you have any success with this @matt_buckley

We asked our SEO and PPC experts for their thoughts on what the next year will have in store for search marketers. Let us know what your predictions are.

PPC Predictions…

• Images will come into the Google search results on a larger scale to promote products, and the improved merchant center will drive better relevance and options for more shopping oriented results.

We’ve seen Google launch product extensions and now product ads, so it is likely this will continue to grow.

• Mobile spend on paid advertising will continue to grow, and reach a point where it becomes essential to plan a mobile site.

Over the years we’ve been told time and again that it is the year of mobile search, but until recently it has barely been worth splitting out mobile search into separate campaigns because volume was so low.  Now it is common to optimise mobile search separately, and the volumes are increasing to the point where an investment into a mobile site is worthwhile.

• Tracking of social media will improve, and this will start to become a regular part of the digital marketing mix.

We are running more Facebook campaigns than ever before, and actually tracking the impact on brand and sales, so this is going to become a part of many company marketing plans.

Chris Rowett – Head of PPC  @ChrisRowett

• Mobile PPC will become more competitive.

At present, conversion rates are frequently lower, and bids/average positions can reflect this. However, as more people search on mobile devices, it will become increasingly commonplace to split campaigns by device ‘type’. With the increasing popularity of sale attribution across multiple touchpoints, it will become more apparent whether visits via mobile devices result in significant sales volumes via computers – if so, then bidding will become more competitive.

• Google Analytics will take market share away from paid analytics options.

The introduction of conversion path data in Google Analytics is more than just a useful feature – it’s a statement of intent. This feature will be expanded over time, in order to make it more useful and user-friendly (such as allowing users to apply weightings to see adjusted revenue and sales data for different traffic sources). At some point (potentially in 2012), Google will launch a more complete bid management tool – at this point, the value of paid analytics solutions will become very limited.

• Google will continue to ignore the flaws and limitations of Adwords, focusing on new functionality rather than their core product.

Sitelinks will still only be set at campaign level (rather than Ad Group level) with no meaningful tracking, you will still be forced to use the same bids for Google and Search Partners and 50% of Search Queries will still be ‘Other Search Terms’. You still won’t be able to see historical Quality Scores, and contextual targeting on the Display Network will still be spectacularly inaccurate.

Steve Baker – Chief Analyst

• More Visual Search Results

Images and video to be utilised in PPC ads as well as text.

• Google will continue their push to try and automate bidding.

This will includes more effective tools to change bids based on conversions.

• PPC Adverts will be more ‘shop-like’ showing a range of products available in a store front style, rather than the usual listing.

Google will see these improvements as ways to increase click-through rate and improve the amount of advertising revenue it earns.

Matt Buckley –PPC Analyst @matt_buckley

SEO Predictions

• Google to give a much stronger indication that Googlebot can now read pages more like a normal browser than a text-based browser.

We know that Google can now execute Javascript and the instant preview tool shows that it can detect where the fold is – I predict that an announcement that will be made that will lead to usability outwardly becoming a much bigger factor with regards to ‘onpage’ SEO.

• Schema.org to become more widely supported.

The semantic web is on its way and major search engines have made signals for supporting this in the SERPs but an industry wide standard is very much in its infancy. I expect major developments in 2012 with big changes in the way the SERPs look for the three major search engines.

• Further development as to how Google views text within links.

There is definitely more that can be done with this, with regards to improving results by giving more value to natural links. This will go beyond keyword specific links etc. in a more noticeable way. For example you can be 90% sure that image links with an alt attribute that contains the word ‘logo’ (whether combined with a brand term or not) are going to be paid sponsor links and Google’s weighting will (or should!) begin to reflect this.

Richard Lawrence – SEO Manager @richlawre

• Exact match domains (not attached to a brand) will lose favour in Google.

There have been rumblings in the industry regarding the benefits of using an exact match domain (EMD) for years and some minor updates happened in 2011 to reduce the positive effect of using an EMD.

If Google can go further to identifying brands outside of how many searches there are for their brand name (domain name) they should be able to completely remove the benefit of using an EMD in cases where the domain and brand are not aligned.

• Refocus on SPAM.

Google openly admitted that they had taken their eye off the ball with regard to SPAM so expect a surge in anti-SPAM activity in 2012 in terms of content and back-links. If you haven’t already got your house in order you may be in for a bumpy 2012 as new boundaries are applied to penalty filters and links begin to get devalued.

• The shift to social

Google is gathering a huge amount of data from Google Plus and Google +1 button usage. I would but stunned if they don’t attempt to integrate this in some fashion into their ranking algorithm next year. Maybe not full blown social integration but a few under-the-radar tweaks and tests look a dead cert for 2012.

Malcolm Slade – SEO Project Manager @SEOMalc 

• Social monitoring tools will be in demand

All forms or marketing need to be measured in some way and social is no different. Right now social monitoring tools are far from average but as the demand for more data and insight into this area has grown I fully suspect the focus and requirement for these tools will become huge in 2012. With Google Analytics launching ‘social data hub’ which allows you to integrate social data into your analytics this puts social monitoring and measurement tools on a huge number of marketing manger’s radars.

• Cookies will be a hot topic

In May 2012 the UK government will pass an EU directive that outlaws the use of cookies without permission – this is a monumental change to the web. I fully suspect that very few websites will change and the first court cases will make interesting viewing.

• Year of the TABLET

Every year is ‘year of the mobile’ but 2012 could be year of the tablet. With more accessible tables such as the Kindle Fire coming to market this will make web development projects and all online projects consider tablet and mobile use from the start rather than the ‘add-on’ culture we have today.

 Dan Peden – SEO Manager @danpeden

What are your predictions for 2012? Please leave them below or tweet us @epiphanysol

At first look, it appears at least 40% of the screen is wasted! Where is all the information?

There are at least 15 campaigns on the left hand side and I can only see data for the top one. I know AdWords data is presented on different levels, but the same issues are apparent for each level.

This is the data age, with millions of amazing infographics floating around on the web; it seems there are great examples of design and data visualisation everywhere. You would have thought Google might invest some of its billions into creating a more user friendly interface for us?

I know a lot of the features are there to ensure we can see all the data we need within a few clicks. But surely there is a better way of presenting this data. Adobe Creative Suite has the right idea with resizable areas. You select which boxes you need and just click and drag to resize the area those boxes takes up. Imagine an AdWords interface with only the information you actually wanted!

The amount of redundant space on the screen is the main issue. Everything in orange is wasting space for me:

I didn’t want to complain about the AdWords interface without providing solutions, so I redesigned the interface myself.

I’m not known for my Photoshop skills, so please excuse the rough layout, but I think this is far superior to what Google currently offers.

Just think how this would look if you combined it with some new fonts and a bit of a colour overhaul. Google would have something at least twice as usable as the current layout.

Now all it takes is for Google to realise the limitations of the current interface and actually do something about it.

What are your thoughts? - @matt_buckley

AdWords Tracking

This is relatively simple to implement and well documented within several Google help centres. AdWords tracking should ideally be placed on a page that is representative of your websites goal. For many sites, the goal is usually a purchase/sign-up, thus the AdWords code will be placed on a transaction/sign-up confirmation page.

AdWords conversion code is required in the body text of the page, and once implemented, I recommend testing the code to ensure that conversions are accurately picked up.

When creating the code, there are a different options (first navigate to >>Tools & Analysis>>Conversions within AdWords, then “New Conversion”):

1. Decide if the code is to be placed on a web page (the majority of cases) or in a few cases, to track calls from mobile phones.
2. Then decide a conversion category (purchase, sign up, lead etc)
3. Choose the page security level (make sure this matches the page you are planning to place the code upon, otherwise the page will likely alert the user of a security issue).
4. A fixed conversion value can be added (e.g. if you were to drive leads worth £10 each, then a fixed £10 could be assigned to each lead).
5. As default, the AdWords tracking code adds a link that informs users they are being tracked, and explains how and why. This can be removed, but should only be done provided you have covered this in your website’s T+C’s.
6. A dynamic order value can be inserted, modifying the following line of code, so that the value 0 is replaced with the value of the sale: var google_conversion_value = 0;

Testing

The best way to test AdWords conversion tracking is to go through one of your paid search adverts, proceed to the conversion point and then check to see if the conversion has been recorded as expected.

As many conversion points are located on confirmation pages, this usually involves purchasing an item for it to be refunded (or if you’re lucky, using test credit card details that will allow you through the checkout process).

Further checks can be performed for the more technically minded, using a headers program (such as HTTP fox) to look for the response request generated on the confirmation page. This should tell you if conversion tracking is working (it will look along the lines of: www.googleadservices.com/pagead/conversion/xxxxxxxxx/).

Ghostery is a useful web browser plugin (at least for Firefox but it may be available for more browsers). The Ghostery plugin scans pages for tracking code, and lets you see what is in use by the page you are currently viewing. It also allows you to block certain tracking scripts if required.

AdWords & Google Analytics

If you are using Google Analytics to track AdWords stats, then it is possible to link together AdWords and Analytics accounts (see this article for more details on how to achieve this). Once the accounts are linked, ensure that auto-tagging has been enabled within the AdWords’ settings page. This will add a tracking variable onto the URL (?gclid=test) which will enable analytics to distinguish source data for AdWords driven traffic.

IMPORTANT

Testing Analytics Tracking

Again, the best method of testing is to complete the goal (usually purchase something) and ensure that your purchase tracks against the correct source.

If you append ?gclid=test onto a URL of your site that you plan to use as a landing page, then this should then be recorded within the analytics cookie (called UTMZ). A further check can then be performed, examining the cookies set for the page to ensure that the source is recorded as a test. Furthermore, this source should then remain in the cookie for subsequent pages that are viewed. If this is not the case, then it is likely that you have traversed through a page that did not have the analytics code present, or the analytics code has not been correctly set up to track across the site.

Once AdWords and analytics have been linked, it is possible to import goals from Google Analytics. Thus if you have a site already running analytics, you could import a goal into you AdWords account, rather than having to request code to be added to a page. This ability is also useful if any goals have been customised in any way, such as onclick actions, time on page, virtual page views etc.

There are further customisations that can be made to Google’s analytics code to track a variety of sources be it display, Yahoo, Bing, affiliates etc., although this is a discussion for a different blog post.

Useful Programs

HTTP Fox – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/httpfox/

Ghostery – http://www.ghostery.com/

What are your thoughts on tracking? - @JamesMHolding

Nearly all of the companies in the screenshot below are relying on their brand to attract clicks. They have huge offline advertising campaigns that support brand awareness, but what if you don’t? How can you compete with these giants without paying over the odds for your clicks?

There are a few things to consider from a searchers point of view. When they search for “car insurance” they expect to see a list of policy benefits, figures and facts. But does anybody honestly expect people to be able to absorb all this information in the milliseconds that they spend reviewing the adverts. In most cases, people will just click on the advert that stands out, or on the brand they recognise.

For all intents and purposes, these top three ads are exactly the same. They use virtually the same layout, are all jammed with figures and are pretty standard these days. Yawn.

To differentiate yourself, try the following:

1. Use Your USP

So, which advert from that original search actually draws my attention?

It’s probably not the best advert overall in terms of wording, but it stands out hugely because the first thing you see is that its specifically for “Over 50s”. Most people will only read the titles of adverts before moving on. You can guarantee that if you are over 50, you are going to click this advert above everyone else’s.

The point I’m getting at is that Saga has a selling point and they are using it to their advantage. It differentiates their advert from the rest. Truthfully, they are probably putting off 70% of searchers from clicking this advert because they aren’t over 50, but the basic principle is good.

2. Use Popular Headlines

What better way of finding out what attracts attention then by going to a news aggregator and taking ideas from the most popular articles.

I suggest going to Digg.com, specifically because you can see how many times each article has been viewed (and thus its popularity), or alternatively head over to Reddit.com and see what is appearing on the homepage.

Grab a list of the top five articles and use the headline structure to create a set of adverts of your own. Try and copy their layout and language as much as possible.

It can be hard to convince clients of unconventional wording, but any client should agree to at least one out of the box advert test that may improve their click-through rate.

3. Research What Really Works

Combine your other improvements with tried and tested methods for increasing CTR. Below is a short list of my favourites:

• Use embedded site links to allow bolding of keywords within your adverts. Hardly anybody does this, so it’s an easy way to differentiate yourself from the competition.
• Use symbols such as © ®™
• For brand terms, try using “Official Site”
• For the display URL, use “Sale.website.com” instead of “website.com/sale”

There are obviously a lot of differences between online and offline advertising, but what are the similarities? Let’s take a look at one online advertising platform, Google AdWords, and see how some of its options can be compared to techniques used in offline advertising.

Now the whole idea behind searching for a specific product or service, and being presented with a list of companies or providers is old news. Think directory books like Yellow Pages, pick your keyword from the index, turn to that page and there are your search results!

So what options within AdWords could you say are borrowed from older offline techniques? How about location targeting? After all, regional yellow pages meant I was always looking for local suppliers. I didn’t look up a mobile car repair service, a builder and a vet from the other side of the country that time I swerved my car into my garden wall whilst trying in vain to avoid my neighbours escaped dog.

How about the option of advanced bid changes? Do you ramp up your bids to 130% of their default between 2 and 4pm because that’s when most people are searching for your product? Does a sandwich shop send out someone holding a sign advertising their new thinly sliced ham with homemade mustard between 12 and 1pm because that’s when most people are looking for sandwiches? My sandwich shop would.

Do you run on the display network? This is a network to get huge impressions for your ads from people who may or may not necessarily be looking for you or your product, possibly as a way of building up brand awareness. Sounds like those carefully placed billboards I pass every day on my way to work.

What about mail shot remarketing through your letterbox? I once ‘showed an interest’ in being updated with the latest developments in the world of Lego (I was mainly in it for the free lego astronaut they were offering in exchange for my address) and some years later I’m still being updated on the new Lego Atlantis range. Some of the best campaigns now include some sort of remarketing i.e. a way to display your ads your message across again to those who showed an interest by visiting your site but maybe didn’t convert.

No matter how many adverts you see and how many third party endorsements they put on there, you’re always weary that their ultimate aim is to make money from you. So are advertisers trustworthy? Sure they are governed by certain standards, but no better endorsement exists than word of mouth. When one of my friends recommended a local barbers for their discreet and professional nose hair trimming service, I knew I could trust them.…. +1 on your AdWords ads?

These are just some ways in which older offline advertising techniques may have influenced current methods of online advertising. Can you think of any others? -@Nastino

The blog claims that, on average, ads at the bottom of the page performed better than when the adverts were shown on the right hand side of the page. This was based on click-through from tests they previously ran. I wrote a blog post on this, which you can read here. Please see screen shot below of how it looks.

This means Google is also changing the Top vs. Side split in your Adwords account. This will now be Top vs. Other, and the other will include ads shown on the right hand side and the bottom of the page.

I am curious why Google has started doing this. It seems to me they are clearing space on the right hand side for other adverts. I have noticed the Product Listing Ads appearing more and more recently. These ads don’t include a message but just show a product image with the product name and price. These ads come from an advertiser’s Google Merchant Account. A screen shot below shows how these adverts look on the results page. This could mean that Google feels these product ads are more relevant to users than the paid search ads not in position one to three.

I am dubious of whether this will increase click-through rate or not but I will be monitoring the effect, if any, very closely.

If you have any of your own insights from this, please do share! - @aimee_roberts

1)    Going into battle without the knowledge and tools of the trade at your disposal isn’t a good idea. You may be able to hack and slash your way through a few bandits, but you’re going to get your posterior handed to you a number of times as you learn what you’re doing. There are plenty of guides to help you to avoid the common mistakes in AdWords (and a book for Skyrim), and it’s a much less painful way to learn the ropes.

There are obvious similarities between a good shield or defensive spell, and understanding how to adjust your bids to reflect the value of your clicks. If things aren’t going well, cutting your bids intelligently can be as effective as a top quality shield to protect you from losing money if your conversion rate dips (or somebody tries to cut your head off).

2)    Dragon slaying isn’t just a child’s dream anymore – you really can do it (well – not really, but you know what I mean). On Skyrim, the dragons are standing between you and progress through the game. In AdWords, the dragons are more metaphorical – big advertisers with long teeth (financially speaking).

AdWords gives you the tools you need to bring them down – if your clicks generate more revenue than the dragons, you can outbid them, and if you can write more compelling adverts, you can level up your Quality Score.

3)    It has to be said, it’s very easy to lose sight of your goal in Skyrim. Whether you’re chasing butterflies, beating up bandits or simply accosting innocent travellers (come on – we’ve all done it), you can spend days heading off in completely the wrong direction. If you’re going to kill the big scary dragon that’s causing all the trouble, you’re going to have to keep your eyes on the prize.

AdWords is very similar (sort of). You are advertising in order to make money. There are lots of distractions, like Quality Score, maximising your click through rate, the various advertising options, search query reports, bidding options and others. But whilst you should be taking advantage of these things if they push you towards your objective, they should never be mistaken for the objective – to make money.

4)    I loved Oblivion (the previous Elder Scrolls game). I put many, many hours into it, and I wasn’t totally convinced that improved graphics on Skyrim would add much to the experience. It’s a bit like watching a football match in high definition – you love the picture quality for the first couple of minutes, but after that, you completely lose yourself in the game, and don’t notice it any more.

However, so far, I haven’t become used to the improved detail in Skyrim – it’s still impressing me, and I think it’ll continue to do so for a long time to come. And again, this is comparable to AdWords.

The level of detail that you can get on the performance of your AdWords account is improving all the time, and it’s really improving the user experience. It wasn’t that long ago that you couldn’t split out the performance of Mobile Phones, see how your adverts performed in the top positions compared to the side positions, or see an hourly breakdown of conversions. To be fair, on Skyrim the differences don’t actually make it any easier to achieve your objective as far as I can see, whereas on AdWords it can potentially help you to improve your performance.

5)    The scope of each successive Elder Scrolls game is a step beyond what I’ve seen previously. I had thought that the size and scale of Oblivion was staggering, but already it’s looking limited compared to what I’m seeing on Skyrim.

AdWords is a bit like that – over time, it’s becoming bigger and bigger. At first, you simply advertised on Google Search, but over time, they added the Display Network, Search Partners, Remarketing, YouTube, Interest Targeting, Topic Targeting and many others to expend the reach and targeting of your advertising.

I recently blogged (on another site) about how AdWords could threaten the big banner advertising networks, if they can persuade advertisers to view the Display Network the way that they do the rest of their advertising spend. Who else can put your adverts on Google Mail and You Tube?

6)    There’s nothing more enjoyable than a jaunt into a mine (on Skyrim, not AdWords). There are treasures to be uncovered, and who knows what manner of beasties and baddies you may come across.

Obviously, this is just like looking at a list of your search queries. Who knows what little gem of a profitable search query you may find, and add to your keyword list? And those nasty little goblin-esque irrelevant search queries that waste your money and attack you (metaphorically speaking).

Mining your searches is clearly similar to searching mines – whilst you can achieve your objective without doing it, it can be a profitable and enjoyable way to spend some time.

Clearly, there are many more ways in which optimising AdWords accounts is just like playing Skyrim – these are just a few examples. Hopefully these comparisons will be helpful to you whether you are playing Skyrim, optimising an AdWords account, or both.

What are your thoughts? Please leave them below.

The campaign goes live, and within a few weeks, you’re seeing click data for a number of your terms. However, a large majority of your long-tail keywords haven’t even registered a single impression which surprises you. As a result, you run a couple of test searches for some of the terms, and find that your adverts aren’t even showing in results. You push your bids up a little, assuming they were previously too low to trigger a first page search. You search again, and still no sign of your adverts. Is quality score an issue, you ask yourself? Nope – all of the terms are 7/10 – certainly high enough to trigger your adverts. So you ask yourself, what is the issue?

Next to a number of these long-tail terms, you notice the term ‘Low search volume’. Upon hovering over the keyword status icon, the following pop-up appears, which explains why:

Users don’t search for this term very often on Google properties, so it’s not eligible to trigger your ads. If this is a term that you expect to increase in popularity soon (like a new brand name), then you don’t need to do anything; the keyword will start triggering ads automatically.

So in a nutshell, you won’t start seeing impressions for quite a lot of your terms, until people start searching for them on a more regular basis. Well that’s a bit annoying, isn’t it? Particularly when you have a few thousand keywords that could easily fall into this category, and combined, could represent a large portion of click spend (and potentially conversions).

In my opinion, whether someone searches for a term 100 times a day, or once every three months, you want to see my advert appearing for that term. When you’ve put a lot of effort into your keyword research and account structure, it is very frustrating when your perfectly good adverts aren’t appearing for searches that are highly relevant to your business.

What’s most surprising to me, as an advertiser in paid search, is the potential revenue Google will be missing out on by adopting this approach.

More impressions = More Clicks = More Revenue

So why do Google do it?

There are a couple of theories. First: with billions and billions of terms out there, to minimise the strain on server space, Google restricts advertisers from bidding on every single type of keyword, particularly those that are infrequently searched for. When a term reaches a certain threshold of searches, it is upgraded to allow PPC activity.

Second (and the one I personally feel is most likely): Google prefers for advertisers to bid on shorter tail terms, particularly those on phrase of broad match.

For example, imagine you are bidding on the following term on exact match: “cheap televisions 42 inch freeview built in”. A term you wouldn’t expect a great deal of impressions for, but when they do come, a tailored advert and landing page with 42-inch televisions with freeview built in could well entice a few conversions over time. It’s highly unlikely that such an exact term will have much competition from other advertisers, and as such, average cost per clicks could be very low – perfect from an advertiser’s perspective. However, it’s for this reason, that Google is unlikely to enjoy advertisers bidding on such keywords. Instead, they’d much prefer that you bid on ‘cheap televisions 42 inch’ or even ‘cheap televisions’ on phrase or broad match. Not only would that term be picked up using that method, but you’re going to show for even more terms that way.

Here are those SERPs:

With a range of adverts mentioning 42-inch televisions, cheap televisions or even just televisions in a general sense, this would certainly seem to back up the theory that most of these advertisers are using short-tail terms on phrase or broad match. I cannot be completely certain, but I would imagine that if I were to bid on ‘cheap televisions 42 inch freeview built in’, I would see the dreaded ‘Low Search Volume’ message. Instead, my only hope of showing in results for this term, is by being more broad, as seen above.

Broader terms = Greater Impression Numbers = Greater Click Numbers = Greater Revenue.

Very disappointing – particularly as a well-structured AdWords campaign with highly relevant ad groups, adverts and tailored landing pages is the key to delivering a high ROI.

So what can you do about low search volumes in Google? Not a great deal I’m afraid! Either go broader, or hope that these terms naturally increase in volume. I hope however that this post has helped educate about the issue, and to tell you that you’re not alone in being frustrated about it!

Have you seen similar patterns in your Adwords campaigns? What steps have you taken to combat them?

-@PeterGould83

Account Level Settings

Bulk edits of account-level settings other than just negative keyword lists are now possible. Budget and conversion tracking settings can now be edited en masse, and website exclusions can be added similarly. Unfortunately this bulk editing option still doesn’t seem to extend campaign location targeting options or scheduling, which must be set individually.

Lower Level Settings

The old interface created frustration as there was no way to see stats for all your campaigns’ adgroups (or keywords or ad texts) in one place, without having to painstakingly go through each campaign one by one. You could always run a report, but it was not possible to get around the fact that it didn’t allow you to edit status or bids all in one go. To be honest, it still might be easier to make bulk edits such as these using Microsoft adCenter Desktop, but it’s nice to have the option (which I’m pretty sure we’ve always had for AdWords). This is one of the best new features.

Improved Charts

Charts on the home screen make identification of trends across campaign an easier and altogether more pleasant experience.

Click here for the full release notes from Microsoft.

What’s your favourite feature of the new and improved adCenter interface? Please leave your comments below.

Jerry Dischler, director of search ads product management at Google has stated “ads that have previously shown to the side of the results may in some cases appear below them. We dynamically optimize each search page, including its ads, to provide the best experience for our users.”

There is a lot of concern around how this change will affect click through rates and definitely an element that we will monitor very carefully.  Google has provided a segment, ‘top versus side’, to go alongside this update. It will allow you to monitor where your advert has appeared on search results pages allowing you to analyse how the advert placement is affecting your campaign.  You can then optimise your bids according to this.

Google has been tested this update before rolling it out and has said that on average the adverts placed at the bottom of the page performed better than the adverts at the side of the page – in terms of click through rates. There is no visible data to back this up at present but it’s definitely something that we are going to be analysing over the coming months.

What are your thoughts on the new advert placement? Please leave your comments below.

Used in a contextually-targeted display network campaign, the ad will feature the most relevant products from your stock feed, based on the website where the ad is being shown. The example that Google gives is that the ad should show a dress on a fashion website and a backpack on an travel-themed site.

In a further and potentially very interesting development, CDC ads can also be used in conjunction with remarketing. To date, remarketing via AdWords has been limited compared to the offerings of specialist remarketing companies, in that there has been no opportunity for personalisation. Without this beta, the best that you can do is uniquely tag each sub-category of your website, and re-market with ads featuring example products or best sellers from a category that visitors have viewed.

However for large e-commerce websites,  implementation could be complicated and it would be completely impractical to do anything at the product level.

With a CDC ad, a single tag (implemented site-wide) would be all that is needed. If someone visits the site without purchasing, the ad that they will then see around the Google Display Network will automatically be composed of a selection of products that they were specifically viewing, massively increasing the relevancy and potential click-through rate of the ad.

Has anyone managed to get onto this beta yet? What kind of results have you seen? Please share them below.

There are many metrics a campaign may be optimised to such as CPA, clicks and profit so choosing the right metric is critical to how well the campaign performs in the long term.

Essentially you need to know what the true value of a click is so that you can pay the correct amount for it. There are two variables to define:

• What is the true value of the click?
• What is the correct amount to pay for it?

There are more sophisticated tracking systems being developed all the time and one such system is the new multi-channel funnels from Google.  This feature records each visit from an individual up until they convert, so you can see if they typed multiple keywords and arrived at the site via different channels before finally converting.  Analysing this kind of data helps us to understand how much each click really contributes to a conversion so that each click is assigned a more appropriate value.

The question of what model should be applied to your click paths is largely unknown, and realistically the answer would depend on the business model.  It would be very difficult, but the next step is to test different click attribution models to find the most profitable one to your business.

The next consideration would be lifetime value.  If you are generating repeat business from customers, then working to a profitable CPA may not be the best idea.  You should be optimising based on how much the customer is worth to you in the long term.  No doubt this will allow you to pay much more per sale (customer) and will allow you to grow ahead of the competition.

This is by no means the end of the story, but if you consider these extra factors, you can get to a better value per click.

Finally, how much should you pay for a click relative to its value?  This is where you need to start looking into sweet spot analysis.  I will not go into that here, but there are many great blogs you can read including my colleague’s here.

Any questions on PPC, feel free to leave a comment below or on Twitter - @ChrisRowett

(Photo: PSD Graphics)

I’ve always bought books and DVDs online as I find this more convenient and generally cheaper, but one thing I never used to buy online was clothing. This is not because I enjoy shopping, as I do not! This is because the majority of websites had rubbish images where I couldn’t quite tell what the product would actually be like once it arrived and it seemed like even more hassle than just going into town.

There is also the matter of delivery and paying extra for an item, and then returning the item if it’s not right. However, many websites have come up with great ideas in recent years to combat these issues and this has revolutionised the buying process online; this makes it easier for the consumer but also increases the conversion rate of the websites.

One of the most famous websites which has done this is asos.com. Not only does it offer free delivery, but has an easy free returns policy if you’re not happy with the product.

The best part is the Catwalk feature, which gives you a clearer idea of what the item of clothing you’re interested in looks like on a person. Although I know it won’t quite look the same on me as it will on the model wearing the item online, this does give me more reassurance. Enough, in fact, to actually start buying clothes online!

This Catwalk feature is also on boohoo.com and both websites allow you to zoom in close so you can have a better idea of the material of the products.

Another fashion webite, forever21.com, has photos from all different angles which is really helpful; this helps to ensure you know exactly what you’re ordering! They also tell you the height and size of the model so that you know what length the dress will be on you. By doing this, they will be encouraging people to go ahead and purchase, and increase their conversion rate.

The websites, which use poor quality images and only show you the item from one angle, discourages people from buying online because shoppers don’t have a clear idea of what they will get when the item they chose arrives.

One of my favourite features on a fashion website is the H&M Dressing Room, although it is difficult to find on the website. This feature encouraged me to buy online but also to go in store to buy. The Dressing Room is where you can add items and put outfits together. The price is on the left hand side, helping you to know how much your potential outfit will cost. This is not only useful for the customer but is an effective way to upsell. It gives people the chance to see how other items would look with their chosen product.

It could be even more effective with additional recommended products for each product you are viewing. Once someone adds a certain top, a website could have three recommended items that go with that product; this could be an even stronger way to upsell and increase the average order value.

Without these innovative features, it is a lot harder to visualise the products when searching for something online. So many more websites have some of these features now, including a lot of the big high street names, which makes it so much easier now to do my clothes shopping online. It also shows how big brands, with stores all over the country, are taking their online offering more seriously.

How often do you shop online? Do you find it a more personalised experience to the high street shop? Please leave your comments below or on Twitter - @aimee_roberts

Both of the updates will allow a PPC Analyst to optimise campaigns better and to work considerably more efficiently.

Online GUI

Google has now provided a new piece of functionality that allows an analyst to see how much you would need to bid on in order to appear in the top three sponsored link positions as can be seen in the figure below:

This removes a lot of the “trial and error” of trying to appear in the top three positions and will allow an Analyst to meet their objectives faster without bidding too high or low if the aim is to appear in or close to the top three positions.

The bid indicated is only an estimate and cannot be treated as “gospel”, as there are other variables such as your quality score that will affect the position you will ultimately achieve. However, it is a very useful guide that will undoubtedly save time and money, and allow you to meet your campaign objectives sooner.

AdWords Editor

Google has also recently unveiled a new edition of the Adwords Editor – version 9.5. This has two key new functionalities that will allow a PPC Analyst to be more efficient.

So how will they aid PPC Analysts?

One feature now allows you to download accounts and get the recent changes in the background whilst continuing to work on your other accounts. With large accounts, it was often a problem to wait until you had finished downloading an account before you could commence any work. This was very frustrating especially if your internet connection was slow and it would greatly reduce your efficiency. Waiting for Adwords Editor to download is now a thing of the past!

The second new feature is another step towards integrating the functionality found in the GUI and making it available within the latest version of the Adwords Editor. Version 9.5 now supports location extensions; this means you can now add, edit and delete location extensions for your ads via the Editor without having to constantly switch between the Editor and the GUI. This will undoubtedly save time as you are not constantly switching between the two tools.

Has anyone had a good experience with these new functionalities? Please leave your comments below.

Their announcement in full reads as follows:

When searching on Google, users appreciate results that are relevant and deliver a great experience after they click. In August, we announced trials in Brazil, Spanish-speaking Latin America, Spain, and Portugal¹ that increased the weight given to relevance and landing page quality in determining Quality Score and how ads are ranked on Google. The goal was to improve the user experience with search ads. Based on the results we’ve been seeing, we’re now rolling these changes out globally over the coming weeks.

As the changes roll out, some campaigns will see variation in keyword Quality Scores and typical ad position. Within a couple weeks, things should stabilize and we expect most campaigns will not see a significant change in overall performance.

Just like today, campaigns with better-performing ads for user queries will continue to see higher Quality Scores, lower average cost per click and higher position on results pages. The 1-10 Quality Score in the AdWords interface will continue to represent the general quality of your keyword when exactly matching a search on Google. Increases in bid and Quality Score will continue to increase Ad Rank, and the same basic approach to improving your results with AdWords applies.

This is interesting, as this is effectively the same as saying that they are reducing the role of the click through rate in the ranking algorithm. But the use of click through rate is critical to Google – this is what they use to maximise their revenue from Adwords.

By promoting adverts that are more likely to get clicks and demoting those less likely to get clicks, Google ensures that the adverts that appear in the top positions (with the highest cost per click) are the ones most likely to generate clicks, and that an advert with a lower click through rate has to effectively make up the loss of revenue for Google by bidding higher, in order to get the position.

This isn’t a criticism of Google at all – I believe that it’s generally in the user’s interest to see adverts that they are likely to click on – this is a strong indicator that the advert is relevant to the user. So by moving the focus of the algorithm from pre-click to post-click, Google are likely to cost themselves money. But does this really improve the user experience?

Certainly, if the keyword matches the search query, it’s an indication of a more diligently managed account – a campaign that utilises Exact Match extensively rather than relying on Broad Match requires more work. And more targeted landing pages can be achieved by effective keyword grouping – but does this mean that user gets a better experience?

To be honest, I’m not convinced. I doubt that it will make any discernible difference to users, but anything that encourages PPC account managers to manage their keyword lists effectively (or rewards those of us that do) can’t be a bad thing.

-CustardMite

You can now see whether your advert has a stronger click-through rate and conversion rate in the top positions and if so, how much you will need to bid to ensure you are achieving those results more often by putting your advert at the top.

For example, the screen shot below shows that the ads at the top generate a much higher click-through rate as you would expect, but also when the ads are shown on the right hand side, this ad group doesn’t generate as many conversions. Therefore, it is better for this particular account to have the adverts for this keyword in the top position more often.

You can then select the Est. top page bid option from the column choices and this will show up next to each keyword. This shows the top of page bid to be £3.75, which is quite a lot higher than the current bid of £2.41. This then gives you a stronger idea of what effect different bid adjustments could have on the position of your adverts for each keyword.

Questions or comments? I’d love to hear from you either below or on Twitter - @aimee_roberts

Interflora is delighted by the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union which today ruled in their favour. This ruling will enable brand holders across Europe to deliver quality service and ensure that trade marks guarantee the origin of the goods bought by consumers online.

I’ve always been of the opinion that as long as you are making it clear in your advert who you are, and aren’t trying to pass yourself off as the brand being searched for, advertising on a competitor’s brand name could only improve the experience for the searcher.

There was a time when Interflora was the only company that most people could name if they wanted to send flowers through the post. As such, when they search for Interflora in order to send flowers, being presented with a number of other companies offering the same service only improves the choice of services available to them.

I was a little surprised that the court hadn’t seen it that way, so I wandered over to their website to find out what their arguments were. I was far more surprised with what I read. The final paragraph of the ruling is perhaps the most interesting:

Article 5(1)(a) … to approximate the laws of the Member States relating to trade marks and … must be interpreted as meaning that the proprietor of a trade mark is entitled to prevent a competitor from advertising – on the basis of a keyword which is identical with the trade mark and which has been selected in an internet referencing service by the competitor without the proprietor’s consent – goods or services identical with those for which that mark is registered, where that use is liable to have an adverse effect on one of the functions of the trade mark. Such use:

–      adversely affects the trade mark’s function of indicating origin where the advertising displayed on the basis of that keyword does not enable reasonably well-informed and reasonably observant internet users, or enables them only with difficulty, to ascertain whether the goods or services concerned by the advertisement originate from the proprietor of the trade mark or an undertaking economically linked to that proprietor or, on the contrary, originate from a third party;

–      does not adversely affect, in the context of an internet referencing service having the characteristics of the service at issue in the main proceedings, the trade mark’s advertising function; and

–      adversely affects the trade mark’s investment function if it substantially interferes with the proprietor’s use of its trade mark to acquire or preserve a reputation capable of attracting consumers and retaining their loyalty.

There’s clearly a bit of wriggle room here. What they appear to be saying is that you can’t bid on somebody else’s brand name, if doing so makes it unclear which is their website, or reduces the value of their trademark.

The second part reads:

Article 5(2)… must be interpreted as meaning that the proprietor of a trade mark with a reputation is entitled to prevent a competitor from advertising on the basis of a keyword corresponding to that trade mark, which the competitor has, without the proprietor’s consent, selected in an internet referencing service, where the competitor thereby takes unfair advantage of the distinctive character or repute of the trade mark (free-riding) or where the advertising is detrimental to that distinctive character (dilution) or to that repute (tarnishment).

Advertising on the basis of such a keyword is detrimental to the distinctive character of a trade mark with a reputation (dilution) if, for example, it contributes to turning that trade mark into a generic term.

This is reasonable. You can’t bid on their name in order to pass yourself off as them or do anything to tarnish their name. The third and final paragraph is the really interesting one…

By contrast, the proprietor of a trade mark with a reputation is not entitled to prevent, inter alia, advertisements displayed by competitors on the basis of keywords corresponding to that trade mark, which put forward – without offering a mere imitation of the goods or services of the proprietor of that trade mark, without causing dilution or tarnishment and without, moreover, adversely affecting the functions of the trade mark with a reputation – an alternative to the goods or services of the proprietor of that mark.

If I understand this correctly, if you are not imitating them, diluting or tarnishing their brand name, or affect the trademark’s effectiveness, then you can bid on their brand name.

Clearly, you could argue that as long as you clearly present yourself as an alternative purveyor of that product or service, you can still bid on their trademark. From reading this, I would suggest that Marks and Spencer are in the clear – they never claimed to be Interflora, and they didn’t insult them in any way – they simply put forward “an alternative to the goods or services of the proprietor of that mark”.

Ironically, I would argue that Interflora are currently the ones more likely to fall foul of this ruling. Here’s what their advert says when you search for “Marks and Spencer Flowers”:

Unlike John Lewis, Asda and Teleflorist, they have decided not to include their brand name in the title, instead advertising that they sell flowers in Spencer. If you search for “John Lewis Flowers”, you also discover that they sell flowers in Lewis:

Maybe they are just bidding on every town and city in the country, but I know that when I search for “Castleford Flowers”, they are nowhere in sight. I leave it up to you to decide whether the pot’s calling the kettle black, or it’s just a big coincidence.

But if I were Interflora, I wouldn’t be shouting my victory from the rooftops, I’d be keeping very, very quiet…

What are your thoughts? - @CustardMite

Multi-Channel Funnels have many applications for search marketers. For example, it’s now possible to accurately tell how much each form of marketing contributed and how they work together to assist in sales. This attribution model has been available within PPC for almost 2 years – it’s only now we begin to see it cross channel.

Often a searcher will interact more with the first channels then they do with the final channel that actually resulted in the purchase. However, it is important to assign some credit to the first channels too.  I have found clients are often keen to find out how much of an influence PPC had in the number of conversions on their site. Now we are able to supply this sort of data back from January 2011.

Below I explain the features of this new addition to Analytics.

The Multi-Channel Funnels tab is broken down into five reports:

Overview:

This screen is simply an overview of the total number of conversions and the volume of conversions that were assisted before the final click.

Path length Report

This tells us the number of interactions visitors had with your channels. It’s easy to see on this page if conversions were due to different interactions in the marketing funnel or due to the last click. In our case, a lot of conversions came from visitors moving through 12 or more channels.

Time Lag Report

Here you can see the amount of time it takes a customer from the first channel interaction to the final purchase; this helps with understanding customer purchasing behaviour.

Top Conversion Paths Report

Probably the most interesting report, this helps marketers understand the actual paths taken by customers. It also tells you which channels work together and in what order.

Assisted Conversions Report

This gives users a breakdown of which specific keywords, channels or campaigns assisted. Here you can filter, add secondary dimensions and group channels to discover exactly how each area converts.

Have you found Multi-Channel Funnels to be useful? -@matt_buckley

Before you try this there are a few things to note:

1. You need to have a login to the AdWords Accounts.
2. You need to be an administrator on the Analytics account (using the same login as the AdWords accounts).
3. You need to be using the new version of the analytics account.

The linking process requires you to be signed into AdWords before you are able to link the accounts. The official Google blog recommends you make the new version ‘default’ before attempting this however I was able to swap to the new version within the AdWords interface without completing this step.

Update – I realise now that if you do not make the new version of Analytics the default one before attempting this process, when it comes to linking them for the first time, you will not be presented with the correct screen. Therefore it is important to change the default analytics view to the new version before trying this process!

1. Once in the interface select the cog –> at the top right hand side of the screen.
2. Browse to the account that you wish to link (all accounts can be selected at the top left of the centre panel).
3. Once in the relevant account, navigate to the data sources tab
4. Link accounts.

A much easier process for the occasions when clients have multiple adwords accounts going into a single account.

Any thoughts? Please leave your comments on here or Twitter – @JamesMHolding

It appears to be another step that Google has taken to help brands have a stronger presence on the search engine results because that is what the search engine believes people want; it has been like this for SEO for a while now and many of the changes made to the search results are suggesting this is the case.

For example, the domain in the headline, moving the Display URL above the description text and now adding more Sitelinks to those adverts with higher click-through rates, most of which will be brand, all suggest Google is making well established brands more prominent in the search results.

In terms of the effect, because it is pushing down other listings, most advertisers could potentially see a drop in CTR% (if looking for a review site, news articles, Wikipedia etc.). However, I’d expect the deep links to increase user experience but could ultimately reduce time spent on site as people won’t be “browsing” as much. For Direct Response, this should improve conversion rates if done well.

The screen shot below shows an example of this for JD Sports who have already capitalised on this change. Given 6 Sitelinks in an advert enables an advertiser to use extra messages in their adverts and give a larger idea of their range of products or services, as in the advert below. It also takes up more space in the results and pushed other results further down the page, below the fold.

I think these added links in brand adverts will certainly take focus away from the organic brand listing and any competitors bidding on that term. However, it appears Google has found an answer for this by adding in Sitelinks for the organic listings; this new look for the top organic listing is very eye catching and will most likely have a detrimental effect on the PPC brand advert click-through rate. This is beneficial for the advertiser as they won’t pay for that traffic anymore.

The screen shot below shows the added Sitelinks working for the PPC advert and the organic listing. The brand dominates the page and it would be very difficult for a competitor to steal traffic away from this. Of course, this is good for the user, as they are looking for Selfridges so that is where they want to be taken to.

Any thoughts? Please leave them below or on Twitter - @aimee_roberts

Your competitors have no doubt gone to great lengths to think of new keywords that they can use in their search advertising campaigns.  Imagine if you could see their keyword list?  SpyFu does exactly this.

Using SpyFu, you are able to specify a competitor and then look at a list of all the keywords that they have been found to appear for.  I think this is incredibly useful for quickly generating ideas for new relevant keywords.  Unlike Google Keyword Tool, you are not relying on their automated system of finding related terms.

The downside to SpyFu is its incredibly poor stats.  The estimates for clicks and cost can be way off, so I never use this functionality.  I think the keyword generation side alone is worth the monthly cost.

Any thoughts? -@ChrisRowett

The campaign is maturing, and you’re looking for new avenues in which to bring in greater traffic and conversion volumes – Display advertising looks like a very logical step to take.

Your search orientated campaigns bring in high volumes of traffic, and conversions at around a £1 CPA.

You set up a Display campaign with a range of images in different sizes, and run it for two weeks to allow it enough time to build up some data before reviewing the results. After this period, the results look something like this:

As you can see, whilst the campaign is driving healthy click numbers and conversions, the average CPA is way in excess of the £1 target you’re looking for. A big factor in this is the average cost per click – you are having to bid £1.50 in order for your adverts to be seen by the right audience, so even if you achieved a 100% conversion rate, more often than not, the campaign will be performing badly.

But does this tell the full story?

Not necessary. In many ways, Display Image ads need to be treated as they would in the offline advertising world. If you bought up a number of advertising slots in a range of high profile newspapers and magazines and ran your image adverts over a period of days, it can be difficult to assess what direct impact this has on your bottom line. Still, millions upon millions are spent advertising in this way, and has been the case for decades.

When it comes to paid search, we’re all heavily focussed on accountability and ROI, and why not? PPC is one of the best advertising mediums when it comes to being able measure performance. You want to spend £10,000 a month in PPC? Fine. For that, we’ve generated you 1000 sales, and £15,000’s worth of profit – we can be that accountable.

Display is different. If we start using the same exact metrics to define success, more often than not, they will fall short, and we’ll stop using it prematurely, without giving it a fair opportunity to demonstrate its worth.

Whilst Display campaigns cannot be judged directly on performance in the same way Search campaigns can; there are still metrics out there to judge success.

A view-through conversion is one of these. As Google put it; “View-through conversions count a conversion when there is no Display Network ad click but a conversion did occur within 30 days of the last display ad impression. If there is an ad click preceding the conversion, the conversion is treated as a click-conversion.”

In simple terms, somebody on the Display network has been exposed to your image advert,  but didn’t click on it. However, within a 30 day period, has navigated through to your website (by whatever means – PPC, SEO, Direct and so on), and converted.

Now, let’s take that same data set from earlier, and show the view-through conversion figures, instead of the 1-per-click conversion figures:

The data set in line two is a very good example to look at. This particular Ad Group spent £1,113.04 over this period, and generated 170 1-per-click conversions at £6.55 – way over the £1 CPA target. However, it also generated an incredible 47,239 View-through conversions in addition.

Now, I know you may argue the validity of using View-through conversions as metric. In theory, if you’re targeting the right types of websites and people on the display network, then you could argue that these people were already likely to know of you, and were going to convert anyway via another traffic source anyway.

However, I refuse to believe in the example above, that all 47,239 converters were users that were already going to take that path anyway, and that the range of image ads they were exposed to, had no bearing on this. In theory, in order to make this particular ad group profitable, it would have needed to generate 1,113 conversions at £1 each for the £1,113 spend. Well, it already generated 170 1-per-click conversions, so that’s another 943 outstanding.

So, 943 conversions as a proportion of the 47,239 View-through conversions that were achieved is 2%. Put simply, it only required 2% of the View-Through conversions achieved in this period to have been as a result of users seeing the image adverts and going on to convert directly as a result to make the ad group profitable. Does this sound so out of the question?

If you still require convincing, this may also help. Recently, I asked Google if they had any evidence to support the notion that display campaigns do result in the increase in conversions via other traffic sources. The reason being, that naturally, a client of ours was concerned about the high CPA being attained when using 1-per-click as a metric. As a result, Google were able to use some internal tools on one of our display campaigns to offer some insight.

The methodology was fairly simple – they bucket users into two groups. The first are users who have been exposed to our display ads. The second is users on the same sites, same time of day, who exhibit the same type of browsing behaviour, but have not been exposed to your ads. We then track whether or not the first set of users is more likely to navigate to your website than the second set, and what exactly that ratio is.

The result? A 12% uplift on average for those users that had seen the image adverts, compared to those that hadn’t.

So if you’re thinking of terminating your display campaigns prematurely, make sure you’re seeing the bigger picture first.

Please feel free to leave your comments either below or on Twitter - @PeterGould83

Of course, this study does not account for every circumstance, and openly points out those situations where paid and organic ads sit in close proximity; the uplift to clicks is minimal.

For those people interested in the details of the study, it can be found here.

Alternatively check out the following short video that will likely remind you of being in school (just me?):

It would be interesting if the study expanded to include a brand/non-brand split, as I wonder if they provide different levels of uplift (and even how they interact with each other).

Previously I have seen results for newly created brands (and accounts) with no offline marketing (or even organic presence), which show an increase/decrease in brand activity that matches the paid search spend increase/decrease (although with a slight delay due to the buying cycle).

Similarly, consider a brand who dominates the organic listings and also run a PPC Brand campaign. I have seen this scenario combined with unusual competitor activity, causing the brand campaign to run out of budget early for several days. Over this period, sales saw a notable drop in the evening (the same time the brand campaign ran out of budget). If the PPC campaign was only cannibalising organic clicks, surely no drop in sales should have occurred. Admittedly, this scenario is a one off with unique circumstances and I am not suggesting this will always be the case, but it is nice to read more reliable studies on similar situations.

Now it would be nice to have a study by someone who does not make billions of dollars from PPC advertising, would it not?

Any thoughts? - @JamesMHolding