Are you looking for a company to manage your Google AdWords campaigns for you?

Hallam is a Google AdWords Certified Partner. In order  become qualified, we  undertook training, demonstrated an in-depth understanding of AdWords by passing a series of rigorous exams, and we met all of Google’s qualification guidelines including demonstrating practical experience.

Be sure to look for the  badge – if you are looking for help managing search programmes and seek support and expertise, using a Google Certified Partner ensures a level of knowledge and practical experience.  And by clicking on the badge you will have the assurance from Google that we have met their eligibility criteria to be called a Certified Partner.

So feel free to give Katie, Wayne or Susan a ring to discuss how we can make your AdWords campaigns more successful by getting more visitors to your website, making more sales, improving your return on investment, and reducing your overall costs.

.

September 14 is a big day for Google AdWords advertisers: two changes are taking place that will make significant differences to UK advertisers.

Trademarked Terms in AdWords copy

Some advertisers will now be permitted to use trademarked terms in the text of their advertising copy. That means “resellers, sellers of component, replacement or compatible parts corresponding to the trademark and informational sites” can now include the trademarked term in their advertising.

If you do a quick search on Google for “Louis Vuitton” you will find almost no advertising:  the brand owner, LVMH, currently exerts its rights and has a monopoly on this advertising space.

Similarly,  you’ll see great big empty spaces on the Google search results if you search for travel brands like the hotel chain Le Meridien, insurance companies like Geico, or electronics brands like Nokia and Dell.

However, this change is equally important for Business-to-Business (B2B) brands, and can provide powerful marketing opportunities for niche brands.

This does not appear to be a free-for-all for your advertising to masquerade as your competition;  the issue of misleading customers remains a legal matter, and brand owners will be still able to ask Google to take down an advert by a third party if they feel it confuses users about the origin of the advertised product or service.  And AdWords have made it absolutely clear that relevance of landing pages is paramount:  your landing page must correspond the phrase for which your bidding.

Since 2008, it has been permissible for UK advertisers to bid for trademarked phrases,  but the change is now some businesses may be entitlled to put the brand words right in the text in order to create a more meaningful and useful advert for the consumer

How can your business take advantage of bidding for your competitors’ trademarks?

European Advertising Update

In a second change to trademark policy, AdWords will permit businesses running AdWords campaigns across Europe to bid for phrases containing trademarked terms (but not put trademarked term in the ad copy).  This brings Europe in line with current UK guidelines.

Read more about the changes to the UK Trade Policy and the Frequently Asked Questions

PPC advertising – an effective and highly targeted way to drive traffic to your website.  But here is one tip for all Adwords users to get more out of your daily budget.

Make sure your ads are not showing on the Google Display Network.

Previously known as the Content Network, the Display Network is a collection of websites on which Google adverts are displayed.  You will have seen them at some point – they often look a bit like this:

Although really creative ones feature multimedia, images and creative copy to encourage their users.

The Google Display Network can be a really excellent way to increase the visibility and recognition of your brand.  But, the audience that you reach by advertising this way is less targeted, usually not as far along in the buying cycle and potentially less likely to convert meaning you’ll spend more money to acquire each customer.

For example, say I decide that I really want to buy red shoes.  I go on to Google and run this search:

I’m shown a variety of ads that all relate directly to my search – Office in particular is really shouting about red shoes in their ad.

Now imagine I’m reading my friend’s shoe blog.  Yes, I have an interest in shoes, but I’m not actively looking to buy, I just want to keep up with my friend’s blog.  If any of these adverts were to appear on her site there is a chance I’ll click on them, but unless I’m prone to impulse buying I’m much less likely to become a customer.

You need to advertise to potential customers in subtley different ways on Search Engines and the Display Network.  So if you are displaying the same ads on both, chances are you are wasting your money.  Not only will you get less conversions for your cash, but a drop in the Click Through Rate (CTR) of your ads can drive the cost of your ads up so you get less for your daily PPC budget.

The real danger here is that many Adwords users aren’t aware that their ads are showing on the Display Network. To find out if yours is, go to your campaign settings and look for your network settings:

If it is set to All, click Edit, and choose where you want your ad to be displayed.

Simply untick the Display Network box, and your ads will only appear on Google, and other search engines powered by Google.  For anyone on a limited budget you may also want to untick the Search partners option, so that your ads only appear on Google itself.

As your understanding and use of Adwords grows and you have more to splash out on PPC, it’s worth exploring the Display Network.  There are many great things that you can do with it and you can even select specific sites to appear on, to target your ads more effectively.

But, if all you want right now is the most conversions, and the most clicks at the right price, stick to Google Search and you’ll get much more from your budget.

+++

Katie Saxon

This week the team at Google Adwords announced that they are rolling out a new AdWords Modified Broad Match keyword targeting feature for Adwords users.

Now, as well as using broad, phrase and exact match targeting on your keywords, they are offering a modified broad match feature.  This new keyword match feature gives you more control than a basic broad match, without limiting you to phrase or exact matching.

As a quick reminder for anyone who is new to Adwords, before this update you could bid for keywords based on three matching types – broad, match and exact.  Whether or not your advert was displayed for a certain search query, depended on the matching type you had selected.

Broad match would display your ad in the SERPs when synonyms of your keywords were used and if additional words were used.  Phrase match would display your ad if the keyword appeared as a phrase, but additional words could be used either before or after.  Exact match would only show your results if the user had typed in your keywords exactly as you did, with no additional words or variations.

The new Broad Match Modifier keyword targeting feature sits between the broad and phrase match types.

By adding a plus sign (+) directly in front of any or all of your keywords you specify that you only want to match your advert against variations of that term.  This means that your ad might show when the search terms includes misspellings, pluralisations and abbreviations of your modified keyword but it won’t be displayed if synonyms or related search terms are used.

To make this concept easier to understand, Google has provided an excellent graphic of how the different targeting features work:

Results from beta testing have been positive, showing this as a cost-effective way of improving your conversions.  However, so far the happy clients include Adwords customers who have only used Phrase and Exact matching types.

If you currently make use of broad matching, making sweeping changes to use the Modified Feature instead will most likely result in a drop in clicks, as less people will see your ad.  That would also lead to a decrease in conversions, so use this with caution.  It is far better to add Modified Broad Match keywords to your account and test to see if this feature works for you.

This new feature has the potential to generate really positive results with Pay Per Click and we’re looking forward to seeing how it impacts on future Adwords campaigns.  Let us know how you get on – does it help to improve your conversions?

Read the announcement on the Google Adwords blog.

+++

Katie Saxon

It’s been in the USA for a while, but it would appear AdWords is running a pilot in the UK is now inviting searchers to preview advertisers’ products through the use of a plus box inviting them to click to see the product choices.

In this example, I did a search in Google.co.uk for  “wedding dresses” and an advertisement from an American company appears in the British results, complete with the Show Products plus box:

This advertisement is displaying integration from two of Google’s services:

• the option to display products listed on the Google Shopping (or Google Base) data feed
• offers being made through the Google Checkout payment gateway ($20 off)

Clicking through to the products offered by this advertiser then inserts the wedding dresses straight into the AdWords advertising in the search results:

In the same way that Google is integrating Universal content into the organic search results (videos, social media, maps, images) it is also testing integrating additional types of content into the paid advertising results.

Anybody else seeing British advertisers benefiting from the Show Products plus box?

Was this just a glitch that I happened to spot, and capture?  Or can you share other examples

Watch this space!

If  you missed The Internet Conference 2010 then you missed one amazing day.  Our expert speakers shared a huge amount of knowledge, and feedback from the delegates says it was a great opportunity to network and connect with other businesses using the Internet.  We will be organising another event next year, even bigger and even better, so watch this space!

In the meantime, our speakers have kindly agreed to share their slides with you:

What’s New With Google

Susan Hallam:  Hallam Communications Ltd

Getting it Wrong:  Change and Measurement on the Internet

Charles Arthur: The Guardian

Essentials of Search Engine Optimisation

Ian Lockwood:  Ian Lockwood Digital Consultancy

Improving the Ecommerce User Experience

Are the questions in the Google AdWords Professional exam suitable for the UK market?

I’ve just passed my re-accreditation as a Google AdWords Accredited Professional (GAP) with a robust score of 89.5%.

I know it sounds petty, but as I was answering my 110 questions in 90 minutes, I was getting more and more annoyed with the references to selling houses in San Francisco, allusions to zip codes and area codes, and prices in dollars and cents.  Just as ex-smokers are the most intolerant, my  shiny new UK citizenship leads me to object to the American bias, Obama’s Nobel prize not withstanding.

Be sure to scroll to the bottom of this message where you can see a specific example where the AdWords Anglo/American relations went well and truly off the rails.

However, let’s start with particular  AdWords issues of significant importance to businesses in the UK that are not addressed in the UK exam.

Here’s a few I would suggest, and I welcome your proposals for additional exam questions;  put them in the comments below and we’ll get them over to the AdWords team.

1.   How is VAT charged on UK AdWords Accounts?

Be careful you are not being charged VAT at the Irish rate of 21%

2.  How effective is the use of Geo-targeting in the UK in light of the way IP addresses are handled by UK Internet Service providers?

Not very accurate for small businesses in the UK.

3.  How effective is mobile Geo-targeting?

Not very precise at this stage

4.  What is a Google AdWords reseller, and who are they in the UK?

There are 5 authorised UK resellers at the moment, and 1 in Ireland.

5.  What impact does “enhanced broad match” have on your ads displaying?

You ads may be displaying when you don’t want them to.

Along the same lines, are the exam questions tailored for British professionals?

I have taken the liberty of copying one of the questions from the Google AdWords exam. It asks “what is the typical spending level of advertisers paying in Pounds Sterling who qualify for the invoicing payment option?” The multiple choice answers, inexplicably, are offered in dollars.

So the first step is to convert the correct answer, £1500 per month, into US dollars.  Hmm, quick calculation… 1.6 dollars to the pound, that’s rougly $1000.  Oops, no it’s not, it’s the other way around.  I always do that.  £1500 pounds is about US$2400.

Oh dear, I’m given the choice of either US$500 or US$4000.  Which would you go for?

I did double check on the Invoicing section on the AdWords help and the answer is right there for us to see:

So, as you are looking for a company to handle your Adwords account, do make sure they are Google AdWords accredited, and that they can demonstrate their entry on the Google Advertising Professionals website.

And then double check that they are able to answer the extra questions that means they understand the UK market!

.

Google has created an “Agency Toolkit” – a single point of acccess to free Google tools that can be used to Plan, Create, Place and Measure your online marketing activities.

Designed for Marketing Agencies, I think this is potentially more valuable resource for small businesses managing their own Internet Marketing campaigns.

Google Agency Tookit

SpyFu is a keyword research tool that let’s you discover your competitors’ keyword strategies for their pay per click advertising and organic search engine optimisation.

Larger organisations are using services like Experian’s Hitwise competitive intelligence tool, but at just £14.95 for a 3 day subscription, SypFu is  well suited for small businesses looking to sharpen up their search marketing activities.

The free version provides you with a websites top organic and paid key phrases.  In this example I’m researching the organic and paid key phrases being targeted by a local Nottingham web designer.

This data gives not only a better understanding of key phrases, but also provides competive information on your competitors’ product offerings, target markets, and how they are positioning themselves in the market place:

You can research by your competitor’s domain name, by selected key phrases, or by industry sectors.

With the paid-for version, I can then see a comprehensive list of phrases that I can download to a spreadsheet including  Ad copy, landing page URLs and bid estimates.

You can also see changes in key phrases usage, changes in budgets.  You can get a glimpse of what is working well for your competitors, and what they have decided is not working well:

I decided to test the accuracy of SpyFu to “spy” on some of my own client’s Pay Per Click Advertising.  On the one hand, some of the data is highly revealing, but there was alot of inaccuracies in the results SpyFu reported.  In some examples the budgets were widely inaccurate, and the price per click not representative.

This is because of the way SpyFu gathers competitor data, and the way it then calculates some of the results.

Nevertheless, the information it provides is very useful, and I would suggest using Spyfu to:

• get an overview of the phrases your  competitors are bidding for
• identify new competitors who are bidding in your market space
• discover the organic keywords driving traffic to your competitors’ websites.
• Download this data to a spreadsheet and use it in your own PPC strategy, or to guide your own SEO
• analyse the overlap in PPC advertising key phrases between your own and your competitor’s campaigns
• see all the copy of the adverts a competitior is running, including their landing page addresses

Don’t get ripped off by the BT Web Clicks service.  Why pay £460 every month for a year for a service that would only cost you £150?

More importantly, why is BT claiming to generate “contacts” for your business, when indeed all it is doing is charging you for a “click” to your website .  Since when is a click the same thing as a valuable contact?

BT are aggressively marketing their own Pay Per Click management service branded BT Web Clicks. Delegates at a number of workshops I recently taught have mentioned there is a carpet bombing telemarketing campaign promoting their money back guarantee.  As soon as I see money back promises, I reckon it is worth looking more closely at the detail of what is being promised.

BT Web Clicks guarantees a “level of contacts” – and they price the offer at a sensible £40 per month (+VAT)  giving a business 40 contacts, or £60 gets you 60 contacts, and so forth.

BT will  promote your site, thus generating contacts, via

• BT’s own BT directory sites like BTExchanges.com
• Proprietary directory like Ufindus
• Pay Per Click services on Google, Yahoo and MSN.

So, why are BT being so generous with this offer, and why am I recommending my clients to avoid committing to the BT Web Clicks?

Who Uses BT Exchanges.com?

Have you even heard of BT Exchanges? It’s a big secret to me, and it looks like not many other people are using it.  Take a look at the visitor data for BT Exchanges.  No data means insufficient visitors to register on Google’s radar.

What about the other directories BT are promoting in?

Taking a look at visitor traffic to Ufindus, SmileLocal, and MoreUK.  There is a distinct downward trends as fewer Internet users make use of these directories, dipping towards half the amount of traffic they formerly received:

So, how will BT get all these “contacts” for you?

The answer is likely to be Pay Per Click advertising.

Indeed, in it’s own terms and conditions BT describes the service thus:

“BT Web Clicks is a package of online advertising, enabling business to advertise on Internet search engines such as Google and Yahoo.”

And herein lies the rub.

Let’s do the maths together, and you’ll see why I recommend you avoid BT Web Clicks

A BT Web Click contact is defined as  “calls, clicks, texts, emails.”  Note how BT have cannily included “clicks” as a successful contact. I would hardly equate a Click on my website as a Contact, but that is the marketing spin being put on this package.

I suspect people think a “contact” equates with an enquiry, but  given the low volume of traffic to the directories they are promoting your business in, I think it is fair to assume BT will be getting a delivering the bulk of business contacts as paid “clicks” to your website.

So, at a budget of £40 for 40 contacts, that means you will paying a  £1 per click on the pay per click network for a click that might actually be costing BT 2 pence.  My maths aren’t great, but I think that means for every click there is 98% profit for BT.

But the price of a pound per client is only for the easiest clicks to acquire.  If you are in a more competitive field like Teleconferencing, then BT will charge you £400 per 40 visitors, or whopping £10 per click.

If we take a look at the estimated price per click for teleconferencing using Google AdWords, the price is estimated at £3.75.  That means a business might pay BT £400 per month for a service that costs BT only £150. You do the maths on the profit BT is making.  By the way, the £400 is plus VAT, and the £150 includes VAT

Why is is BT Web Clicks a Bad Idea?

• You are paying a huge mark up on Pay Per Click advertising that you could do yourself, or get a professional agency to do for your more cheaply
• In addition to this cost, you will also be paying a significant set up fee running to hundreds of pounds.
• You are restricted in terms of the flexibility of testing new keywords, and changing your keyword strategies
• You are locked into a 12 month contract.  Even if you’re not happy with the service you have signed on the dotted line and you must continue to pay up
• It is not compatible with a business doing their own PPC advertising.  Either you use BT’s service, or nothing at all.

I hate to even link to the service, but here is where you can learn more about the BT Web Clicks service

.