A few months ago I wrote a blog post about the frustration caused by the fact that remarketing lists generated in Google Analytics could not be used for RLSA campaigns. Today, I am pleased to report that Google has now integrated Google Analytics lists with AdWords to the extent that they can now be used for RLSA campaigns. You see, you can get what you wish for...
There was a short debate on one of the forums I regularly visit this morning where several AdWords consultants and agencies were discussing client's "interference" in accounts. One contributor suggested that clients should be given "read only" access to the AdWords interface. Another, that they should only be given a monthly report, and that no access be given to the AdWords account itself at all. I was, not to put too fine a point on things, stunned. Actually, double stunned...
Starting in June, Google are going to require telephone number verification for all numbers used in Call Extensions. You can verify your numbers already, if you wish, but in June, if the numbers are still marked as "unverified" then the Call Extensions will be disapproved. At the moment they are simply marked as "unverified" - an unsightly red mark on your campaigns and one which clients are (understandably) worried about. After all, anything that Google put in red on your account must be bad, right? Well, yes and no. At the same time as they mark the number as unverified they also provide helpful guidelines to help you get verification. Helpful, possibly. But of the three options, a little like Goldilock's porridge, only one is "just right"... and even that one has some serious questions to answer...
Most people understand the auction concept that underlies Google AdWords. It's a little more complex than a simple auction, the Quality Score of your keyword determines the ad rank and that either boosts the real value of your dollar bid, or reduces it. But it's an auction nonetheless. What many people fail to realise is that before your keyword is even entered into the auction another selection process has already taken place. Since, for most advertisers, there are any number of keywords within their account that could match a particular search query, Google will decide which has the higher ad rank and, therefore, is the one which should become your account's Champion in the battle for results page dominance...
Do you believe in karma? It's not such an existential question as it might sound... essentially, do you believe in giving back, paying it forward - putting in before you take out? I do. And this is why being awarded the Top Contributor badge on the Google AdWords Community Forum is something I'm very proud of. It's not because I like to be able to flash the badge. It's because it shows that I am part of a thriving community that simply helps others do better online marketing...
There has been some discussion online recently about how to use keyword match types within RLSA campaigns. For those who are unfamiliar with RLSA campaigns, these are Google AdWords campaigns which target previous visitors to your site (the RL part - Remarketing Lists) when these people run new search queries (the SA - Search Ads). For many PPC Managers there is an ingrained aversion to using Broad match keywords. and even for these RLSA campaigns many are reluctant to use anything looser than Broad Match Modified. This, in my opinion, is an unfounded fear, and you will be doing yourself a disservice if you do not use very generic keywords in Broad Match type for your RLSA campaigns.... and here's why.....
Last week I launched a small new campaign for a client. Following best practices I added two ads to the campaign and set them to "Rotate Indefinitely: Show lower performing ads more evenly with higher performing ads and do not optimise". There is a caveat below this option which states : "Not recommended for most advertisers" - but I like living on the edge. I also like to give my target audience the benefit of the doubt that they might know better than I what they will respond to. This is the essence of rotating your ads. run a number of ads against one another, see which ones people respond to best - not just in terms of CTR, but also with respect to other measures of engagement and, of course, conversions. In my experience I have often been surprised how ads which I had thought were terrible and should never have been allowed to see the light of day, perform wonderfully and without shame once launched on an unsuspecting..
I'm pretty good at math. I can't do calculus or anything really complicated, but I consider myself to be one of those people that are "good with numbers". At the very least I know that $163.27 divided by 1 should be $163.27. So I was understandably confused when Google reported that it was actually only $61.53.... Here's how this came about...
On the 16th December 2014 Google pulled their Google News service in Spain. This was reported - albeit superficially - by the Spanish media in a way that seemed to suggest that this was somehow the callous corporate giant somehow snubbing the Spanish speaking world. That the arrogant Americans had "done it again"... but the truth is a little way from this interpretation. What actually happened is that Spain shot itself in the foot. Big time...
I got caught out again this morning. I hate it when that happens. I overlooked to change one of Google AdWords default settings. On a client's new campaign the ads were set to "Optimize for clicks: Show ads expected to provide more clicks".... the campaign is a day old... How do you presume to know, Google?? So I changed the setting to Rotate Indefinitely and make a mental note to actually prepare that basic checklist of default settings I need to remember to change.... on every campaign I set up. EVER! And this got me thinking - there are some default - out of the box - settings that simply go against Google's own best practices...
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