10 Things Every PPC Manager Needs at Their Desk
PPC managers are like Iron Man. Iron Man is brave, willing to take on the some of the hardest tasks known to man, solves problems, and works well with his clients(the U.S. government). Managing multiple PPC clients at an agency is similar to defending the world from bad guys because it is not an easy task. You have to be brave, take on difficult and low performing accounts, solve problems daily, and work well with all your clients. Tony Stark has his Iron Man suit to help him out. What do PPC managers have? Let me tell you.
Here are 10 things every PPC Manager needs at their desk(at least this is what I have at my desk):
1 – Note Pads- I have 4 note pads. One I write daily to do lists on. Another has new clients whose accounts we’re getting up and running smoothly. The others are for taking notes when I strategize with the clients or co-workers.
2 – A Drink- I prefer water because it’s healthy, it doesn’t fatten me up(like soda), and it keeps me awake for some reason.
3 – A Computer with the MCC open- Can’t miss this one can you?
4 – Work Phone- Gotta talk with the clients. That phone allows you to plug headphones in to keep your hands free while talking.
5 – Personal Phone(I’m taking the picture with it)- Gotta talk with the wife. Happy wife=happy life!
6 – Microphone- I use it to talk with clients over Skype.
7 – Headphones- Good for listening to music and for talking with clients. Keeps the conversation between me and the client… not me, the client, and the office!
8 – Trash Can- Gotta throw the notes and apple cores away somewhere. If you can put it far away from your desk, you can use it as a basketball hoop to shoot your notes at!
9 – Snacks- I usually mix it up with some healthy and some not healthy. Here at GFF we have a sweet stash of the not healthy stuff, although I find the healthier stuff keeps me more focused!
10 – Comfy Chair- Ok, my chair’s not that comfy but it’s comfy enough. I prefer a stiff backed chair.
With all these items at my disposal, I take on PPC Management daily. Like Iron Man gets all the ladies once he beats the bad guys, I too get the lady(my wife) at the end of the day.
What can’t you live without at your desk when managing PPC or SEO? Let us know!
-Luke
New Ad Rotation Option in Google Adwords Settings
There has always been an argument among PPC managers in regards to the best way to use the “AD ROTATION” settings in Google Adwords. My opinion has always been that both settings have their proper place and time to be used. As a quick reminder or for those who may be unfamiliar, within the settings tab at that campaign level, you can choose the way the Adwords platform chooses to display your ads if you have written more than one per adgroup (which in my opinion is a MUST because with PPC you should always be testing). Until yesterday, there were just two options to choose from for ad rotation:
When you mouse over the question mark to the side of “Ad Rotation” in the setting of an Adwords Campaign, it says this:
“Your ad rotation selection determines how often we deliver your active ads in relation to one another within an ad group:
- Optimize for clicks (default): Ads expected to provide more clicks are delivered more often.
- ….
- Rotate: Each of your ads will enter the ad auction an approximately equal number of times. This allows ads with lower clickthrough rates and conversion rates to show more often, so this option could result in a lower average position or fewer clicks and conversions.”
My tendency has always been to select the “Rotate” option for new campaigns. The thought process behind this was that until the ads have all ran for a while, we don’t have enough statistically significant data to determine which ads have improved. Similar to conversion optimizer not being available until you have 15 conversions (which is arguably not enough), I don’t believe you should use the “optimize for clicks” option until your ads have ran for a while. Unless you know that you are not going to monitor your campaign very close (not recommended), then I would not use the “optimize for clicks” option until your ads have thousands of impressions and thousands of clicks, at which point I think you would be crazy not to rely on Google Adwords algorithm that determines which ads will get you the most clicks.
As of yesterday, though, Google Adwords announced that it is providing a third option for Ad Rotation:
- “Optimize for conversions: Ads expected to provide more conversions are delivered more often. If there isn’t sufficient conversion data, the system will optimize for more clicks.”
This is the best option available, but it is for seasoned campaigns and seasoned PPC managers. Luke Alley, one of our Google Adwords Qualified Individuals goes on and on about the conversion optimizer tool and just how effective it can be. We consider ourselves to be pretty savvy PPC managers, but we both agree that we don’t have the time and energy to do everything to an account that the conversion optimizer tool can do for us, nor can we expect to consider all of the things the conversion optimizer algorithm considers when it makes changes to think like bids, time of day an ad appears, which keywords deserve more of the budget and more impressions, etc.
For that same reason, my recommendation is that you do use the optimize for conversions setting, but only after your campaign has run for a long time and you have tested your ads and found a few that are proven successes. This is still a very new feature and we will for sure be testing to see how well it works for us. Best of luck to all who do the same!
-Stu
PPC Management Agencies Have Google Police Now
Do you remember in elementary school how much you looked forward to recess? I LOVED RECESS! You know, boy chase girl, girl chase boy, waiting your turn on the swing, sports, etc. Remember the recess aids? You know, the ladies on the playground that wore the whistle around their neck like it was a jewel on a necklace. They watched carefully for kids that misbehaved and when they did, that shrill of the whistle was loud enough everyone could hear it. Punishments for misbehavior included time out against the building wall for just a couple minutes all the way down to a trip to the principal’s office.
Just like the playground at recess, the Google Adwords platform has been monitored for years by recess aids. Google has had robots reading the text of ads, the keywords involved, and watching the landing page content to ensure that their search engine only provides relevant results, and rightfully so! If you wrote an ad the wrong way, the robot would disapprove your ad and were put in timeout until you fixed your mistake and made right what was wrong. In worse cases, if the robots caught you writing ads that went to a landing page with a business model against their policies, Google would simply shutdown your ads. Your only choice at that point was to go to the principal (your Googler – a person at Google with expertise in Adwords policies) and talk it out with them. A lot of the time if you just change the way you are doing things, you can get your ads up shortly, other times it is suspension, and in very worst case scenarios, they will go as far as expelling you, your address, your credit card, and everything from the Adwords system.
Times have changed. When I was in High School over 12 years ago (my bones are creaking already), right after the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado, my school in Washington got a full-time security guard that carried a loaded weapon. No more recess aid. In high school we had police.
Well, there have been no shootings that I am aware of because of Google Adwords, but Google is upgrading from recess aids to police as well. Robots are still going to play a major roll in the day to day stuff that happens on the Adwords platform. The difference is that they will now have human emloyees that police the day to day business practices of the ppc management agencies. In 2010 they made this announcement in July and this one in December on the Adwords Blog. But the biggest news is the latest from their blog about “third party partners” and their intention to “audit,” or as I like to call it, “police” how we do business with our clients. They have new policies, and a lot of ones that were already in place, that you can read. Today, with our reports that went out to all of our clients we have added a link to the Google Adwords disclosure document that is required that we provide to all or our clients. Don’t forget to do the same if you haven’t already. If you figure you already know them, or that they will bore you, at least take time to know the penalties if the Google Police catch you:
“Program Policy Enforcement and Non-compliance
Google will enforce policies through compliance audits as well as through investigation of complaints that it receives. Complaints can be filed by filling out this form.
If we find you in violation of any of the above program policies, you’ll receive a warning. If you fail to correct the violation within 30 days, your membership and access to Google programs will be reviewed for corrective action.
Corrective action can include disqualifying you from Google Certification Program, Google Engage for Agencies, AdWords API preferred pricing, AdWords API access, and/or terminating your AdWords accounts if violations of these policies continue.
As noted in Section (8), some egregious violations will lead to immediate suspension without notice, and/or termination of your AdWords accounts, all qualification status, and AdWords API access.”
Some have said that Google should stay out of business that isn’t theirs. That if an agency wants to sell their services and price them in another way other than that which is outlined in Google’s policy, that should be between the agency and their client. In my opinion, Google has every right to monitor this as their reputation is put in jeopardy by third parties doing shady things. Plus, since my company is always in compliance with their policies, I have nothing to worry about, right? Only the Shady McShadies in our industry should be worried according to Google:
“We believe that most agencies, resellers and other third parties that sell AdWords already meet these policies and will need to make minimal or no changes to their systems. Proactive audits for selected third parties will start on April 1st 2011, although you are strongly encouraged to start complying with these requirements today. Note that we will continue to investigate any complaints and take appropriate actions.”
What do you think? Were recess aids enough or is Google smart to hire “Google Police?”
-Stu
Image From: http://images.thecarconnection.com/sml/pulled-over-by-the-police_100180482_s.jpg
Is Google Adwords Too Complicated for Small Businesses?
Remember when Google AdWords was easy? Remember when all you needed was five minutes and a credit card to advertise to millions of people? Yes, those were the good old days, back in the early 2000s when Google launched its revolutionary pay-per-click (PPC) platform AdWords.
But in the 10 years since its launch, has Google AdWords become too complicated for SMBs?
It Wasn’t Always This Complicated
I’ve worked with AdWords accounts for over six years now. My first foray into PPC was a group project in my Internet marketing class. My team was handed a shiny American Express gift card worth $500 and told to create an AdWords campaign for a local company. We did some keyword research, wrote a few ads and unleashed our creation into the wild. To this day I don’t know if the project had a positive ROI for the company, but at that point in time, using AdWords was so easy five college kids with no experience could do it.
After graduating from college I started working for a software company that marketed almost exclusively online. I was in charge of an AdWords budget of several thousand dollars a month and got much better at using it. My keyword lists became more refined, my ad copy had laser-like focus on getting the click, and I was landing users on the exact page that would deliver on their intent. With the robust reporting, all I had to do was focus on the numbers and let them direct where I put in my efforts. AdWords was so easy a new college grad could do it.
Eventually I moved on to work for an Internet marketing agency where I was the one-man PPC department. I was now managing multiple accounts and tens of thousands of dollars in clicks. Sounds like a big deal, but the basic principles were still the same. Pick good keywords and write good ads to keep Google happy with your high click-through rate (CTR). Send people to landing pages that convert to keep the client happy. AdWords was so easy that one guy could run a whole agency’s PPC portfolio.
The changes were almost imperceptible to me because I was working on multiple accounts every day and reading numerous industry blogs. But to the SMB owner, Google AdWords was evolving faster than a virus in a sci-fi movie.
The Interface
AdWords started beta testing a new interface in November 2008. They expanded the beta during the first part of 2009, and on July 30, 2009 they said “Bye, bye, beta.” Personally I didn’t mind the new interface, but for someone unfamiliar with AdWords, I can see how it had an intimidating appearance. Here is a screenshot from early 2009:
Look at how many options you have from this one screen:
- 6 top-level tabs, 4 of which have drop-down menus
- 6 more tabs inside the main campaign area of the page
- 2 scrolling menus in the left sidebar
- Other links scattered around the page
That’s a lot of options, and that was in 2009. Looking at the interface for one of my clients today, there can be as many as 10 tabs in the main campaign area, and many basic functions (like reporting and the keyword tool) have been moved in the last year or so. Not very friendly to the novice user.
New Features
If you visit the Official Google AdWords Blog you’ll notice that virtually every post is about something “new” or “improved.” Here’s a short list of new features AdWords has launched in past few months:
- Search Funnels
- Ad Extension
- Seller Ratings
- AdWords Campaign Experiments
- Remarketing
- AdWords Automated Rules
- Enhanced CPC
- Broad Match Modifier
- Call Tracking
- AdWords API
Each one of these features is powerful, but at a rate of nearly one major feature added per month, how is the SMB owner supposed to keep up?
Quality Score
Quality Score (QS) isn’t new in AdWords. It’s been around for years. However, the factors affecting QS change frequently, and even the best PPC managers in the industry struggle to decipher what exactly goes into the QS algorithm, how much weight each factor receives and how QS differs based on placement (since QS is calculated differently for search vs. display). Since this seemingly magical number influences if/where your ad will be displayed and how much you’ll pay for a click, you can’t just ignore it. But can SMB owners really invest the money/time necessary to hit a constantly moving target?
K.I.S.S
No matter how complicated AdWords gets, success will always depend on the basics.
- What pain do your customers have? – Choose keywords related to this pain.
- How can you fix their pain? – Write ad copy that offers a potential solution.
- What do they do next? – Send users to a page that clearly explains how you’ll solve their pain and what they need to do (Buy Now, Sign Up, etc.).
While simple, this approach should guide all your AdWords efforts. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes by imagining that you have a problem and typed it into Google. You see multiple ads and search results. Which ones stand out? Is there an angle not being utilized? Go to your landing page and see how well it matches up with the search term and ad copy. Once you’ve mastered this basic process you can augment your efforts with new features, but keeping it simple will help your business benefit from Google AdWords.
This is a guest post by Robert Brady which originally appeared on the Small Business Trendsblog. Robert is the owner and head PPC wizard at Righteous Marketing, a Google AdWord Certified Partner. You can follow him on Twitter @robert_brady.
Batman and SEO
Aside from his impressive martial arts skills, huge budget, and tricked out batmobile, everyone knows that what makes Batman so effective is all the cool gadgets he has. Well, here at Get Found First, we’d be lying if we said we didn’t use some pretty sweet tools tocombat appease the search engine gods. In an effort to spread the SEO love, I’ve created a list of some of the best SEO tools that we use in the Get Found First bat cave on a daily basis, and best of all, they are all free! Here they are(in no particular order):
- Firebug – This gem is mostly a web development tool but comes in super handy when doing on page optimization. You don’t have to be fluent in HTML but it will definitely help. Firebug allows you to not only inspect elements on a page but also make changes to the code so that you can visually see what a page will look like with an image moved, an H1 added, or text changed. You can also view page load/speed issues. It’s ranks right up there in awesomeness with the Batarang.
- SEO Book Rank Checker – Okay, so you know your site isn’t on the first page of Google for the term you want it to be, but where is it exactly? Instead of searching page by page on Google indefinitely, just add the URL of your site and the keyword in question and viola, instantly know where you rank. Rank Checker lets you save all of your keywords so you can come back and check them whenever you wish.
- SEO X-Ray – Though not as powerful as superman’s x-ray vision, this is yet another handy add-on from the fine people over at SEOBook. Want to check the Meta tags or see what heading tags are on a page quickly without having to go into the page source of a site? With the click of the mouse, SEO X-Ray provides a heads up display of the webpage displaying Title, Description, and Keywords while highlighting and marking all the heading tags on the page. Internal and external links are also shown and a keyword density report can be run as well (if you decide that keyword density is important).
- Hubspot Website Grader – This is a nice tool that crawls your site and gives you an overall grade of your website compared to other sites on the web. Some nice features include telling you if there are missing alt tags on images, too many images, if a blog is found, and how many links you have. Great tool to give you some ideas on how to make your site better for those.
- Yahoo Site Explorer – Rumor has it that this tool may soon cease to exist due to the Bingahoo merger. So far it is still active and working. It gives a great view of your backlinks and allows you to export the list. I use it mostly to count the number of links for tracking purposes. Word on the street is that Yahoo site explorer is not crawled as often these days so links may not be as current.
- SEOMoz Opensite Explorer – If/When Yahoo site explorer gives up the ghost, Opensite Explorer will most likely be the dominant backlink tool. By filtering only external links on competitor sites and exporting the data to a spreadsheet, you can get a good idea of their strategies and adopt them for your own site. Of note, I have noticed that links on here are not always an accurate measure of actual links, but it will still give you a good idea as to where you stand. So just because a link isn’t showing, doesn’t mean you don’t have it.
- Majestic SEO – Awesome tool for doing backlink analysis on your own site or competitor sites. Big help when you want to get an idea of how well your historical link building efforts are going.
- SEM Rush – Good tool for organic and adwords competitor keyword research. Also one of the few tools I know of where you can enter your competitors URL and it will spit back the organic and Adwords keywords they are ranking for.
- SEOMoz Tool bar – This is probably one of the coolest SEO gadgets and the closest thing to having a H.U.D. like the inside of the batmobile. Includes everything from SERP and analyze page overlays, one click highlighting of no follow links, and instant access to some great SEO tools, this is must have for any SEO.
- Keyword Spy – Another great tool for doing competitor keyword research. Keyword Spy allows you to enter a Keyword, a domain, destination URL, or even ad copy, to do research on. Great way to get an idea of what your competitors are up to and how much they may be spending on.
For those with more of a Bruce Wayne budget, stay tuned. In my next post, I’ll put together a list of some of the best paid SEO tools.
-Matt
