How to add Negative Placements
Reading the news this morning I was surprised to see an ad for The Age on, you guessed it, The Age!
Clearly someone at Fairfax doesn’t understand how to control where their ads do & don’t show on Google’s Display Network. And they’re not alone. So if the phrase “negative placements” means nothing to you, read on…
The sites on which your Display ads (typically text or image ads) show are called Placements in the AdWords system.
There are typically 2 types of campaign you might run: Automatic & Management Placements.
Managed Placements are exactly what they sound like – placements (websites) that you manage. You give Google a list of the sites on which you want your ads to show & Google puts them there.
This gives you more control (you know exactly where your ads will show), but also limits your reach (you have to think of every site yourself)
The alternative (& often a great way to run campaigns) is to make use of the power of Automatic Placements. Now Google will decide where to place your ads based on information you give it (more on this later).
The downside here is that Google is in control & your ads may show in places (or next to content) that you don’t want associated with your brand.
That’s where Negative Placements come in.
They give you a way to stop showing ads on certain sites. For instance,a negative placement we use a lot (on 99% of campaigns) is adsenseformobileapps.com which we’ve found to generally give poor results across the board in many different industries.
So, it would make sense for whoever’s running the Fairfax Digital campaign to exclude theage.com.au from the campaign showing ads for The Age.
Sure they’ll make a few cents if someone clicks their own ad – but why pay for the click/impression in the first place?
Far better to save that space for an ad that makes them money (assuming they have covered their online properties with ads to make money!).
Maybe it’s some warped idea of brand-building… but c’mon who really thinks they need to interrupt a user with an ad for their own service while using that service!
If you want to get a bit more advanced, you can use ‘Placement Exclusion Lists‘. A newish feature that Google quietly rolled out recently that allows you to create lists of sites & exclude them from campaigns more easily. This is great if you’re also running other types of Display Network campaigns such as topic targeting, interest targeting or remarketing campaigns.
Sadly there’s no way to easily share your lists between client accounts if you’re running an MCC account – maybe Google will add that one day. But given negative keyword lists aren’t even in ADWords Editor yet, we may be waiting a while!
Last tip…
If you are running ads on Aussie newspaper sites, you may want to exclude them from your main ‘automatic placements’ campaign & run them in their own managed placement campaign – so you can more easily see their performance & adjust bids as needed. Sometimes these sites work very very well for clients, other times they suck. It’s just one more thing that you must test if running ads on Google’s Display Network.
Our standard list of Aussie newspaper sites follows – feel free to add any others in the comments below. news.com.au in particular often gets very poor results & is usually worth excluding:
theage.com.au
smh.com.au
theaustralian.com.au
news.com.au
heraldsun.com.au
theherald.com.au
couriermail.com.au
adelaidenow.com.au
perthnow.com.au
dailytelegraph.com.au
Google Quality Guidelines
Google has recently updated it’s guidelines for what equals a ‘high quality’ page.
This list makes for interesting reading…
* Would you trust the information presented in this article?
* Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?
* Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?
* Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?
* Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?
* Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?
* Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?
* Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
* How much quality control is done on content?
* Does the article describe both sides of a story?
* Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?
* Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?
* Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
* For a health related query, would you trust information from this site?
* Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name?
* Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
* Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
* Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
* Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
* Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?
* Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?
* Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?
* Would users complain when they see pages from this site?
AdWords Conversion Cookies
Yesterday a friend wrote to me asking:
“Quick question: If I get a click through from an AdWords campaign that results in a 30 day software trial download. Then 31 days later the person buys… does the conversion get attributed to AdWords (given that I’ve got conversion tracking on the thank you page of my cart)?
Now, you may not be selling software, but many people are now using some sort of Freemium model – that is giving a free trial & later upselling that person into a paid version of the product (eg a membership site)
So hopefully my answer will be useful to you:
Sorry mate – the short answer is NO.
The AdWords conversion cookie is set to 30 days & as far as I’m aware there’s no way to change that.
So when your new customer downloads the trial, you obviously register that conversion (via the AdWords conversion code on the thank you page for the trial)
but if they come back & buy something 31 days later, that conversion won’t get attributed to the initial click.
There is some fancy stuff you can do with cookies…not perfect of course (the customer might change machines or clear their cookies) but if I had to find a way to do this… it would look a little like:
- as soon as they land on the initial landing page, cookie them & store something like “visitor” in an Analytics custom variable
- for bonus points you could also save their google search query (presumably the main info you want to track) in an second Analytics custom var
- add a conversion tag to a different custom var (you get a few these days) once they download the trial (maybe “trial”)
- then when they come back to buy you could cookie those that get to the cart (”interested”) and even a separate one again for those that buy (”customer”)
then you can pull apart the analytics data & find which keywords (or adgroups if you’re using the content network) lead to purchases, almost purchases & free trials
there’s more about custom vars here (you’d want the visitor level stuff at the bottom of the page):
http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/tracking/gaTrackingCustomVariables.html
Another thought… you can also use that data for remarketing. Show ads to the people that have downloaded the trial but not yet bought, reminding the of the benefits & maybe offering a special deal…
Hope that helps!
How to Use Re-Marketing with Google AdWords
Remarketing has existed in the online advertising world for a while now. However the feature is fairly new to Google AdWords & still causes a fair bit of confusion among AdWords users.
In its simplest form, it’s a way to show ads to people browsing the web – but only to those people who have already visited a particular page on your website. The benefits are improved ROI & more powerful search marketing strategies for your business.
How does remarketing work?
To use Remarketing in AdWords, you first need to ‘tag’ visitors to your site. Then you’re able to show ads (on Google’s Display Network) to those people & only those people. This gives you a number of strategies.
The type of visitor you tag is entirely up to you. For example you may choose to tag some or all of the following types:
all visitors regardless of which pages on your site they visit
visitors that view a ‘category’ of pages within your site (eg mens, womens & childrens; or, luxury, business & budget)
only visitors that successfully performed an action on your site (eg opted-in, bought, downloaded a pdf etc)
only visitors that placed an item in the shopping cart but then abandoned the cart & left the site without buying
Each type of visitor is then stored in it’s own remarketing list. You’re then able to market to individual lists, or even combine lists for more advanced strategies.
You can even combine your Remarketing lists with other AdWords features such as Geo-targeting, frequency capping, image ads and more.
A popular remarketing strategy
One of the more popular remarketing strategies is targeting users who left your site without purchasing anything. Since one of the most common reasons for not making a purchase is price, why not target these people with a special offer & either add value, offer a better bonus or discount the sale price?
To set this up create two remarketing lists. The first is for all your site’s visitors & the second is for your ‘buyers’. Google will give you two different code snippets – one for each list. Install the code on your site (eg snippet 1 on all pages, snippet 2 only on the thank you page). Now target the ‘audience’ that consists of all visitors but not buyers.
Customise your creative
As with anything in marketing, you’re only as good as your offer. So try different creatives for your remarketing campaigns. You already know which parts of your site they were interested, so try cross-selling or up-selling related products & services.
Once you find an offer that works, you can quickly roll out new text ads with variations on that theme & even add new image ads if your budget allows.
Another great feature is that you have control over the length of time that users see the ads. Google’s default time is 30 days, but you can always adjust this to the timeframe you think is reasonable.
For more information visit http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=173945
Search Engine Marketing
Our method differs from the majority of our competitors. We do not merely digest and react to requests handed to us by our clients. Neither do we wait for your feedback. We provide the comments, advise on proactive campaign adjustments and chase you for your feedback.
Consultation Stage
We establish your goals and objectives
This is where we conduct thorough research and analysis to learn about your business from a variety of angles. First, we talk to you! We request our clients set aside around an hour to discuss their business with one of our campaign managers. It could take more time or it could take less but we’ve found that an hour is about average. We use this time to understand a little about your business and establish your goals and objectives. You might require branding, reach, a specific number of leads per week, or an improvement in direct response CPA. Furthermore, we carry out a comprehensive viability assessment to ensure that all stated goals and objectives are achievable.
Market & Competitor Analysis
We find out what the other guys are doing
Your market undoubtably has existing advertisers using the AdWords platform. We need to determine how your business fits into this picture. Is the competition using particular text in their ad creative, targeting specific keywords or showing at certain times of the day. If so, are they doing those things because they have been getting results? Once we have an idea about such things, we can formulate the best strategy to either improve your presence in the same sectors as your competition, or identify new niche keywords to place your business under.
Keyword Research
Where we get smart… not crazy
This part can seem the easiest but it also has the greatest consequences if done wrong. We use the information from the previous stages and set about choosing the best keywords to meet your objectives. Keyword selection is about identifying a precise target market, visualising the buying cycle of your customers, and putting yourself in the customer’s mind as they complete the research, comparison, decision and purchase (or enquiry) phases of your product or service. Even customers looking for carpet cleaning are still comparing quotes from three or more providers!
Landing Page Analysis
Wasted traffic is our pet hate
We go over your landing page and the rest of your website with a fine-toothed comb. Why? Pointing traffic to a poor landing page won’t convert potential customers, is an expensive & wasteful exercise, and can eventually get you nudged off the front page due to a spiralling Quality Score. We will assess your landing page for relevancy, usability, search-engine friendliness, and how well it has been optimised for generating conversions. If required, we will recommend and supply (free-of-charge) one of our own conversion-optimised templates.
Small Business Big Marketing Podcast
What an honour… last week I was invited to speak to Luke & Tim at the Small Business Big Marketing (SBBM) Podcast. It was great fun & you can listen to the whole thing for free at:
http://smallbusinessbigmarketing.com/how-to-master-google-adwords-locally/
Go check it out & let me know below if (like Luke) you still have questions you’d love to ask me about AdWords 
AdWords Conversion Cookies
Yesterday a friend wrote to me asking:
“Quick question: If I get a click through from an AdWords campaign that results in a 30 day software trial download. Then 31 days later the person buys… does the conversion get attributed to AdWords (given that I’ve got conversion tracking on the thank you page of my cart)?
Now, you may not be selling software, but many people are now using some sort of Freemium model – that is giving a free trial & later upselling that person into a paid version of the product (eg a membership site)
So hopefully my answer will be useful to you:
Sorry mate – the short answer is NO.
The AdWords conversion cookie is set to 30 days & as far as I’m aware there’s no way to change that.
So when your new customer downloads the trial, you obviously register that conversion (via the AdWords conversion code on the thank you page for the trial)
but if they come back & buy something 31 days later, that conversion won’t get attributed to the initial click.
There is some fancy stuff you can do with cookies…not perfect of course (the customer might change machines or clear their cookies) but if I had to find a way to do this… it would look a little like:
- as soon as they land on the initial landing page, cookie them & store something like “visitor” in an Analytics custom variable
- for bonus points you could also save their google search query (presumably the main info you want to track) in an second Analytics custom var
- add a conversion tag to a different custom var (you get a few these days) once they download the trial (maybe “trial”)
- then when they come back to buy you could cookie those that get to the cart (“interested”) and even a separate one again for those that buy (“customer”)
then you can pull apart the analytics data & find which keywords (or adgroups if you’re using the content network) lead to purchases, almost purchases & free trials
there’s more about custom vars here (you’d want the visitor level stuff at the bottom of the page):
http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/tracking/gaTrackingCustomVariables.html
Another thought… you can also use that data for remarketing. Show ads to the people that have downloaded the trial but not yet bought, reminding the of the benefits & maybe offering a special deal…
Hope that helps!
How to Use Re-Marketing with Google AdWords
Remarketing has existed in the online advertising world for a while now. However the feature is fairly new to Google AdWords & still causes a fair bit of confusion among AdWords users.
In its simplest form, it’s a way to show ads to people browsing the web – but only to those people who have already visited a particular page on your website. The benefits are improved ROI & more powerful search marketing strategies for your business.
How does remarketing work?
To use Remarketing in AdWords, you first need to ‘tag’ visitors to your site. Then you’re able to show ads (on Google’s Display Network) to those people & only those people. This gives you a number of strategies.
The type of visitor you tag is entirely up to you. For example you may choose to tag some or all of the following types:
- all visitors regardless of which pages on your site they visit
- visitors that view a ‘category’ of pages within your site (eg mens, womens & childrens; or, luxury, business & budget)
- only visitors that successfully performed an action on your site (eg opted-in, bought, downloaded a pdf etc)
- only visitors that placed an item in the shopping cart but then abandoned the cart & left the site without buying
Each type of visitor is then stored in it’s own remarketing list. You’re then able to market to individual lists, or even combine lists for more advanced strategies.
You can even combine your Remarketing lists with other AdWords features such as Geo-targeting, frequency capping, image ads and more.
A popular remarketing strategy
One of the more popular remarketing strategies is targeting users who left your site without purchasing anything. Since one of the most common reasons for not making a purchase is price, why not target these people with a special offer & either add value, offer a better bonus or discount the sale price?
To set this up create two remarketing lists. The first is for all your site’s visitors & the second is for your ‘buyers’. Google will give you two different code snippets – one for each list. Install the code on your site (eg snippet 1 on all pages, snippet 2 only on the thank you page). Now target the ‘audience’ that consists of all visitors but not buyers.
Customise your creative
As with anything in marketing, you’re only as good as your offer. So try different creatives for your remarketing campaigns. You already know which parts of your site they were interested, so try cross-selling or up-selling related products & services.
Once you find an offer that works, you can quickly roll out new text ads with variations on that theme & even add new image ads if your budget allows.
Another great feature is that you have control over the length of time that users see the ads. Google’s default time is 30 days, but you can always adjust this to the timeframe you think is reasonable.
For more information visit http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=173945
Google AdWords Target CPA & Max CPA
Google AdWords has introduced a new way to manage your accounts if you’re using Conversion Optimizer (if you’re not using CO already, you should at least test it on one campaign).
You can now choose a Target CPA instead of a Max CPA. So what does this mean and, more importantly, how does this affect you?
Max CPA
Is how Conversion Optimizer has traditionally worked. You set an amount that you’d like Google to not exceed for each conversion, for example you’d set a max CPA of $10 to get a new subscriber on your list.
In the past the result of this has been that your average CPA has generally been less than this Maximum (much like a Max CPC bid of $1 generally means you’ll pay an average of say 50-80c per click).
Your new option is Target CPA Bidding
Now you set a ‘target’ rather than a ‘maximum’ which means your average CPA should be a lot closer to the CPA bid that you choose ($10 in our example). The cynics will say this is another money grab by Google, but this should give more control to advertisers & help achieve CPA targets more accurately.
As with all bidding options, go to the Settings tab under the Campaigns tab & scroll down to the ‘bidding & budget’ section.
