Archive for December, 2009

Everyone knows that an ad at the top of the results page will attract more click-through’s than one further down. But ask yourself this question, is the top AdWords ad position always the one that brings in most sales?

Just think about it, you don’t want to pay premium bid prices to keep your ad at the top of the results page when you could have the same or even more sales at a lower page position, obtainable for less cost.

Now, I can almost hear your mind saying, how can you find the best position on the results page for your ads that will also convert well?

There is only one solution to this problem and that is to try your ads in different positions and monitor the results.

Track Your Ads With Google Analytics

Imagine what it would be like if you could look over the shoulder of every visitor to your web site at the exact moment they click on your ad. And once they arrive at your web site, you could observe them as they navigate their way through your site.

Obviously, you can’t actually be there every time someone clicks on your ad, but Google can.

Install Google Analytics on your web site, link it to your AdWords account, and you’ve got a very powerful free tool that can tell you a lot about your web site and how people navigate it.

Configure goals for your new Google Analytics account and you can begin tracking AdWords conversions from your website and find out what positions on the results page your ads convert best.

Monitoring Your AdWords Ad Position

Now keep in mind, to perform any worth while analysis on your ads position your going to need at least a month of data from your web site. For best results, unless your website is very busy, you may even need two or even three months of data.
As time passes by, you’ll also want to vary the bid price of your keywords such that your ad averages every position on the results page for about an equal amount of time.

Figure 1: Google Analytics Menu

Once you have sufficient data, log into your Google Analytics account and find the “Keyword Positions” menu option (figure 1). You’ll find it by expanding the “AdWords” option in the “Traffic Sources” section.

The Keywords Position screen is divided into two parts. On the left is your AdWords keywords.

Figure 2: Keyword Breakdown (visits)

Click on a keyword you’ve been testing and the right hand screen will show the position breakdown (figure 2).

You’ll notice for this keyword there is a good number of visitors for the top ad positions and the side ads to position 5.

Any results from side position 6 onwards should therefore be ignored.

Now let your thoughts focus on the number of conversions each ad position has obtained.

Figure 3: Keyword Position (goals)

Select “Goals” from the “Position Breakdown” drop menu (figure 3) to see how many sales each ad position obtained.

For this example, you’ll see the ad converted poorly in the top three positions when compared to the first side position. But best results of all were obtained when the ad was at side position 5.

Let your thoughts focus on these findings.

If you were bidding on this keyword to ensure your ad was shown at the top of the results page then these findings clearly show that you’ve been wasting money. You now know, for best performance, you have to choose between placing your ad at side position 1 or 5.

If you’re like me, you’d aim your ad at side position 1. The results for side position 5 are based on a much smaller sample of click-through’s and could therefore be misleading.

However, if you’re not sure, you could always perform the test again, this time positioning your ad at side position 1 for a few weeks and then side position 5!

You have no idea how many people we hear from every week with their own horror story to tell about when they started using the Google Display Network (formally Google Content Network). It looks so easy having your ad displayed on thousands of websites around the world, but the reality is often quite a different story.

No matter how experienced you are, most experts agree that the right thing to do when starting any AdWords campaign is to take things slowly and keep everything simple.

Why You Should Turn The Google Display Network Off!

By default, AdWords will always try to get you to run before you can walk. Whenever you start a new campaign, Google will automatically place your ads on as many different advertising platforms as possible.

Although this might sound good it’s actually not, so don’t let Google push you down the most expensive track that they want you to follow. When you start a new campaign show them whose boss and do things the right way from the start.

Click on the “settings” tab and turn the “Display Network” off. Limit your efforts to the Google Search and Search Partners networks and only when you’ve mastered these and your campaign is starting to see a profitable return, should you even consider branching out into the Display Network.

You see, the Display Network is a totally different beast to Google’s other networks and you need to approach it in a particular way. Get it wrong and it could cost you dearly.

When you’re actually ready to start using the Display Network, it’s important that you are properly prepared with the right tuition. We’ve collected together here for you a comprehensive guide to the Display Network so you can be sure you’ll get your campaign off to a good start.

A Guide To Getting Started

Recently, Google have released some excellent guides to using AdWords. The Google Display Network Getting Started Guide is a series of helpful screens that’ll assist you with:

• Creating a new campaign for the Google Display Network – you need to adopt a different approach to that used for the Google and Partner networks.
• Writing ads for the Display Network – your audience is very different and your ads must reflect this.
• Choosing keywords – the best keywords will not necessarily be the same as those you use elsewhere in AdWords or for SEO.
• Measuring your campaigns performance – you need to know what works and what doesn’t or you’re going to waste lots of time and money.
• Optimizing your campaign – once you start to get results, you’re going to want to focus on what works and drop what doesn’t.

Regardless of if you are about to start an advertising campaign using the Display Network or are currently running one, you should check out Googles’ advice here …

A Video To Get You Going

Google recently ran an excellent webinar on the Display Network. If you didn’t attend the live broadcast, then you can catch up on some of the valuable information that Google gave away by watching the video here.

In this webinar, you’ll learn:

• About what the Display Network is and it’s advantages
• How to create your campaigns.
• Ways to target your audience properly.
• The right way to find appropriate keywords, write ad text, and bid on the Display Network
• Techniques to optimise your campaigns, test new keywords and ads, track your results and help you understand Placement Performance Reports

This webinar ends on a very informative question & answer session with the audience.

Other Useful Articles On The Display Network

Make The Most Of The Content Network With The Placement …

After you read this short article, you will have learned how to find out the inner most secrets about the performance of your ads on the Google Display Network and what you must then do to improve your campaigns to make them more profitable. …

Publish Date: 03/13/2010 8:00

http://www.site-reference.com/articles/General/Make-The-Most-Of-The-Content-Network-With-The-Placement-Performance-Report.html