Facebook Advertising with Facebook Deals – Top 5 Reasons I’m Excited

Just saw this video today for the new advertising product from Facebook called Facebook Deals and it has me excited to try this with some of my clients that have local, brick and mortar businesses.

Watch the video here.  I was surprised to see that Facebook didn’t provide a way for me to embed the video, or share it any other place than within Facebook.  Trust me, I would have embedded it if I could have.

According to Facebook, “We launched Places to let you share where you are with your friends and see who’s nearby. Now with Deals, you also can see what offers are nearby and share those deals with your friends.”

You can read the official Facebook announcement on their blog.

Here are my top 5 reasons I am excited about Facebook Places and Facebook Deals:

1. Location-based marketing is all the rage.  Foursquare (have tried) and Gowalla (have not tried) have received a lot of hype, but the fact is that no one likes to manage a bunch of different social networks.  Think about it, in real life, between church, work, friends, and family, it is hard to manage all of those relationships.  Facebook, the largest social network in the world, now has a way for you to “check-in” so you don’t have to login to any other account to tell the world where you are.
2. New, shiny, bright thing effect.  Every internet marketer likes to be one of the first ones to try the latest way to get you or your client’s name out there.
3. More than ever before, consumers are asking their friends about products before making purchases.
4. Facebook is already awesome for targeting specific demographics, and now it is better at targeting specific geographics, even down to the actual location.  Why?  Because now Facebook users are telling the world when they walk into a store.
5. I can’t wait to get the deals.  It will be cool to check-in at Target and see what discounts I can get just for being okay with letting all of the world know that is where I am.  Seriously, do you think I would be ashamed to let my uncle Dave on Facebook know that I am at Target if it means I am going to save 30%?

Even after all the hype and excitement, and having 5 reasons to love Facebook Deals, I will probably hold off a little longer before I test the waters.  If you haven’t read the blog post I linked to above, it talks about who the early adopters are to this new advertising technology.  I am anxious to hear how it goes for them, and let them teach the world how it works, before I use it on my own stuff.  As soon as I do, I’ll let you know how it goes.

Happy National Entrepreneurs Day and Happy Birthday to Me!

Yep, a young entrepreneur like me couldn’t be more honored to celebrate National Entrepreneur’s Day on my birthday (can you guess how old I am?).  Coincidence?  I think not! In fact, the proclamation starts out: “To honor Stuart Draper, and other amazing entrepreneurs like him….”  I crack myself up!

On a more serious note, you can read the official blog post from the White House here.

Here is the best part of the Presidential Proclamation:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim November 14 through November 20, 2010, as National Entrepreneurship Week. I call upon all Americans to commemorate this week with appropriate programs and activities, and to celebrate November 19, 2010, as National Entrepreneurs’ Day.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand ten, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fifth.

It is fun and neat for me to have this special day on my personal birthday, but I’ve got to tell you, I have felt very little support from the Government in my entrepreneurial efforts.  Having a day set aside is neat, but I think entrepreneurs would like more support than they are getting.  I AM NOT ASKING FOR SOME SORT OF BAIL OUT OR MONEY INFUSION FROM THE GOVERNMENT, JUST LESS HASSLE (meaning to get out of the way) IN GETTING A BUSINESS OFF THE GROUND AND RUNNING. And, less hassle when I try to qualify for a loan.  The regulations on the banks from the government are making it impossible for them to lend money to SMBs and self-employed individuals looking to buy a home.

The proclamation also states,

“I encourage aspiring entrepreneurs and other Americans interested in promoting innovation to visit www.SBA.gov for resources and information.”

So there you have it, they have created a website for us.  Not sure how much of a help it will be, how user-friendly it really is, and who qualifies for help, but it is there.  I did notice that they don’t mention on the page that you will owe us a ton of taxes if your business succeeds so start looking for write-offs. If it is there, I missed that part. 

HAPPY ENTREPRENEURS DAY EVERYONE and HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

A Phone Number To Call Google

For my PPC management clients I have always touted the fact that because we are a Google Adwords Certified Partner Company we have a direct phone line to speak with a human being at Google.  Google has recently put a huge emphasis on local search and in more ways than one. Rather than go into the details of all of the changes, I will stay focused on the one change that to me is HUGE!  Google is giving out their phone number. They are reaching out to the meager budgeted, small businesses in small town USA.  We help a client show up on the Google Map in Salem, Oregon.  Just to day I got the following email from Google reaching out with a special offer they have been pushing for a few months now:

So what’s the big deal, you ask? Well, do a Google search for “Google’s phone number.”   You will see that their number is buried about 7 results down, and the phone number is provided by Yahoo!  And not even directly from Yahoo, it is from Yahoo Answers where a guy shares a number he has been given by Google.

I am personally very excited that Google is being more proactive about Local Search and the little guy in small town America.  I don’t blame them for dealing with all of the deep pockets in big, corporate America first, just refreshing to see them reach out and give out the phone number to Google.

By the way, I called the number, you do get an operator, not a live human (so it is not as cool as the phone number they have given us permission to call), but with patience, you can get through to a Googler.

The Letter “N” Can Increase PPC CTR by 2.5%

While doing some optimizing in an account several weeks ago I noticed a small spelling error in one of my ads. I had misspelled “known” to “know” and the sentence read “Uncover How a Little Know Secret Maximizes Tax-Free Retirement Now!”. Despite the error the ad was the best of the 3 or 4 that we were running in that adgroup, with a CTR of around 5%. Rather than be content with that CTR I took that ad, made a copy, and changed “know” to the correct spelling of “known”. Here are the results:

From that small change we saw an increase in CTR by 2.48%! It makes sense in this case that the proper spelling would increase CTR, however the principle applys to every ad we make. Always test to try and get better performance out of your ads and improve your Pay Per Click account! At any one time we have around 2-5 ads running side by side in each adgroup to find what searchers really prefer, while all the time pausing the low-performing ads.

-Luke

Have You Heard of the Google Lab Rat?

Google has been using me!  Well, really, it’s nothing new, they have been using me since the day I chose to use their search engine.  They use me to see what I search, and where I click, and how long I leave their site when I click on one of the search results they have provided. Used and abused I tell you.  But now they have taken it to a whole new level!  When I do a search now they aren’t just changing small things.  Oh no.  Now they are making massive changes to see how I react.  It is like I am some sort of a test rat.  Okay, maybe I am not the only one.  Have you guys been “chosen” as a Google lab rat?  Let me know if you feel used and we’ll let Google know together.

You have most likely seen this one by now:

The local results are intermingled with the organic results which had a negative effect for some, and a positive effect for others.  The map is showing in the top right.  This is a change that is universal, and I don’t believe I am being used as a Google Lab Rat any more. The following I know they are still testing.  Have you seen it? You likey, or no likey?

In this case sticking with the “7-pack” at the top just like the old Google Maps listing, but the map is up in the right hand corner.  Has anyone seen where they have gone back to A-J instead of just A-G.  As a lab rat I saw it, took a screen shot just the other day, and I can’t remember where I save the file.  Doh!  The following is something I presume we are all Google Lab Rats on now, but they are still testing this and I am not sure they will stick with it forever:

Note that in the screenshot above the map on the right is eclipsing the ads on the right. Speaking of which, did you notice that MAJOR CHANGE!  It doesn’t say “sponsored links” any more!  Google does away with their bread and butter “sponsored links!” So they haven’t actually gone away from their roughly 20-Billion-a-year bread and butter, but they did leave the name at least for a little while to test the word “ads” on lab rats like me.  Are they testing this on you too? A few days ago my co-workers were still seeing “sponsored links.”  Now they are lab rats as well seeing “ads” instead.

In the ad below, while the SERP is showing as a local serp with the map on right, something is different, what is it?

You guessed it.  Google is giving less priority to the “7-pack” moving them down the page below some of the first organic results.  My guess as a seasoned Google lab rat is that this is due to the fact that the maps results have very few reviews and for that reason are given less relevance. What is your guess?  Or, do you know something I don’t about what is causing that?

Now let’s look about what is different about what shows up beneath the fold in the Google serp.

Just 5 organic results!  Ouch!  They cut the results down from 10 beneath the map to just 5!  But wait, check out this next one:

See, I am a Google Lab Rat, and maybe you are too.  Now I see 7 organic results beneath the “7-pack.” Go check.  How many are showing up for you?  Do a couple different searches and see if you get a different number each time.  Are you one of Google’s rats?

Below is a screen shot of something they have done to conditioned Google rats like me.  Can you guess what it is?

They quit showing ads on the top.  This is nothing new.  I have had more people than I can count on my hands and toes ask me how come Google shows ads on the top and sometimes they don’t.  This is what happens to conditioned Google lab rats.  If you don’t click on the ads after multiple searches without a click-through, they stop showing ads to you on the top.  Google wants to show ads to people that are going to click-through.  If you won’t they quit showing you as many ads for a couple reasons (Matt Cutts, correct me if I am wrong):

1.) User-experience.  They don’t want to show you something they begin to assume you don’t want.

2.) It effects the advertisers click-through rate and quality score to keep showing ads to someone who doesn’t ever click-through.

Have you ever seen when only 2 ads show on the right for a search that you know has multiple advertisers willing to pay to be there? I haven’t been able to get it to happen ever since Google Instant came about.

So, you little rat, what other crazy changes have you noticed with Google.