Quality Score affects your position in the paid search results and how much you pay per click, so it is an important element of your campaigns. Get it right and you will be paying less per click than your competitors for higher positions.

Quality Score is determined by three factors:

1. Click Though Rate
2. Ad Relevance – how relevant the ad text is to the search query.
3. The Landing Page – Google uses a similar algorithm to its organic search to determine a landing page’s relevance and reputation.

So what can you do to maximise your quality score?

1. Structure your campaigns into highly targeted ad groups.

Ideally, you should be splitting your campaigns into one ad group per keyword. This way you can include the exact search keyword in the ad text once or more. If this is too complex a structure, try and keep the individual ad group keywords lists as small as possible, and preferably variations of each other, eg:

“green widget, green widgets, dark green widgets.”

2. Target your Landing Pages.

The more targeted the copy on your landing pages to the search keywords the better. While it is often not practical to build a landing page for every single ad group, it is a good idea to build keyword-themed landing pages. For example if you are selling widgets in four different colours, why not build a landing page for each colour?

If you want to check what keywords Google sees your landing pages as being relevant to, use the Site Related Keywords feature of the Adwords External Keyword Tool.

Just click on the website content radio button, enter your url and you will see the keywords that Google thinks your page is most relevant for. Match these to your most productive keyword terms and your quality score should increase.

3.Optimize your whole site

If your site is liked by Google, your quality score is likely to go up. Google’s own Landing Page and Site Quality Guidelines are a good point to start from. Basically, Google wants your site to be easy to navigate, trustworthy (display your contact details, privacy policy etc), and relevant to the subject you are advertising on.

Once you get these three factors right, you should see good quality in your campaigns, and start paying less for those all-important clicks!

Counting followers is kinda useful. Sure, it makes you feel good when you get some new followers. But when measuring Twitter we should probably be looking for a more meaningful metrics.

Here’s 3 Free Twitter Analytics Tools that help you measure your Twitter activity and give you a bit more info about your influence..

Twitalyzer

Twitalyzer gives you a whole load of brand new Twitter Metrics including your Influence, Engagment and Generosity. These new metrics really open your eyes to what we should be measuring on Twitter and who the real influencers are. Highly Recommended.

Check out: www.twitalyzer.com

TwitterCounter

We all love counting followers and this gives you the information over time with a pretty graph. It’s useful for looking at trends. Are certain Tweets attracting new followers? Are others losing you followers? This tool is also handy for finding people to follow.

Check out: www.twittercounter.com

RE:Tweetest

RE:Tweetest doesn’t count your followers. It gives a far more interesting metric – Re-tweets per 1000 followers. This is a real measure of your influence. One caveat: this site is developed by a guy in Japan on his own and doesn’t always seem to work correctly. Still worth a look though.

Check out: http://retweetest.com

At the moment these are limited to people who have a Google account and are signed in to that account. The extra results look like this:

From what I’ve seen the results include those people who are on your Gmail contacts list, and also your Twitter follow list. Apparently Flickr and Facebook friends’ posts and feeds are also included.

Google’s argument on the usefulness of these results is that we all rely on our friends and contacts for advice and recommendations from time to time, so why not include their content in your search results.

While this is a fair point, would we not just go and ask the people in question what their opinion is on something if we wanted it?

Here’s Google’s video explaining the new SERP:

I’m going to give you some ideas from my new book Wordtracker Masterclass: Google AdWords PPC Advertising and we also cover these in our regular Google AdWords Training Sessions at our Central London Office.

Reducing AdWords costs and increasing response rates requires a range of creative, trading and technical skills that few possess:

• Creative skills are needed to increasing your clickthrough rate (CTR) by writing compelling and focused ad copy that more searchers will click.
• Trading skills are needed to keep costs per click down by managing your bid amounts and bid types.
• Technical skills are needed to effectively organise the keywords you bid on into different ad groups with matching ad copy and landing pages.

Offline, the equivalent work is often done by specialists. A creative department or agency might look after ad copy and design; a media buyer might be the trader negotiating price for media space and time; whilst techies look after the production of print, radio and TV adverts.

With AdWords, most of us have to do the lot

Although they maybe quite different in the real world, most AdWords users become either Creatives, Techies or Traders – personnas that match just one of the required skill sets.

The result is that most people play to their strengths and neglect their weaknesses. They fail to use all tools and metrics available to create higher clickthrough rates, lower costs and better response.

Below we’ll look at some techniques to help you develop your creative, trading and technical skills.

Google Adwords comes with Clickthrough Rate (CTR) and Quality Score (QR) – two key metrics you can use to measure your development.

Clickthrough rate (CTR) is the % of those that see your ads and click on them. It’s a measure of your ads attractiveness and appropriateness to searchers.

Quality Score (QS) is based on your advert’s click clickthrough rate, the relevance of your ad’s copy to the search terms you’re bidding on and the relevance of your landing page.

Google gives lower costs and higher positions on its results pages to ads with higher clickthrough rates and Quality Scores. So let’s have a look at how you can increase them by developing your creative, trading and techie skills

Develop your creative skills

The most important creative technique to practice is writing ad copy that matches the keywords you are bidding on. It’s as simple as this …

If the Search is green tea then bad ad copy might look like this:

Despite the search being for green tea but keyword is not there. The text is too general.

A good ad reads more like this:

The keyword green tea is in the ad title, the body copy and the URL.

There’s is a call to action (‘Buy’), a promise of good tea (‘Quality’), you will find what you want (‘Specialist’), at a good price (‘From $0.99′) and with great service (‘Free Next Day Delivery’).

Develop your trading skills

By becoming a better trader you’ll get more value for your clicks.

You can gain greater control of your bids and you lower your bid costs by mastering AdWords different match types.

Each match type uses its own punctuation to let AdWords know your bid type:

• Broad match keywords have no punctuation like this: keyword
• Phrase match keywords are surrounded by quotation marks: “keyword”
• Exact matches are shown with square brackets: [keyword]

A positive broad match will show your ads for the greatest number of possible searches. With a broad match your ads will match any search containing your bid keyword. For example, if you bid on brew tea your bid will match (and your ads show for):

• brew tea
• brew loose tea leaves
• brewing a cup of tea

However, broad match contains a little sting in its tail – it includes ‘expanded match’. Expanded match will display your ads for plural versions of your bid keywords and any relevant keyword variations. For example our brew tea broad match bid might match with:

• brewing teas
• brew teas
• brew tee

Those examples seem harmless enough – perhaps even useful. But expanded match can find matches that don’t even contain your keywords and you might think are little to do with the product you’re selling. For example brew tea might match with:

• tea infuser
• brewing coffee
• brewing iced coffee

For this reason, broad match bids are us usually accompanied by negative match bids. Adding negative keyword bids stops your ads showing for irrelevant searches, allowing you to greatly increase your profits by …

… increasing your clickthrough rate (CTR) which leads to a better Quality Score and paying less per click (lower CPC).

A negative broad match will stop your ads showing for any search containing the negative keyword. For example, if the negative keyword -coffee is added to an ad group then your ads will not show for any search containing coffee and therefore including:

• coffee
• brew coffee

However negative broad match bids do not ‘expand’ like positives so you have to add plurals and related keywords. For -coffee this might include:

• -coffees
• -grind
• -grinds

Develop your techie skills

Only if you first organise the groups of keywords you’re bidding on can your ads and landing pages match your bid keywords. Ad groups are the techies tool for this job.

An ad groups is a group of keywords you are bidding on, with matching ad copy and the landing pages those ads link to.

The most important thing to do with your ad groups is keep the keywords focused on a very narrow subject.

The diagram below shows poor ad group with a wide range of keywords, very general ad copy and landing page (how else could they be with so many different keywords to satisfy).

By contrast, the strong ad group below is focused on a small set of keywords about one subject (green tea) with closely matching ad copy (all about green tea) and a landing page also all about green tea.

Only by organising your keywords this efficiently can you use your trading and creative skills to increase clickthrough, reduce costs and increase response.

Summary

• To save money on Google AdWords you need to develop the differing skills of a Creative, a Trader and a Techie.
• As a Creative make sure your ad headlines and body copy use the keywords they serve. Do this and your ads can move higher up Google’s results pages without the need to increase bids – that means less cost and more profit.
• As a Trader you will master both exact match and broad match types. With broad match you bid on all keywords containing the specific word you are bidding on. As broad match can include irrelevant keywords that will deliver no response, you must combine it with negative keywords to stop your ads showing for those irrelevant searches.
• As a Techie you can learn to segment your keywords into tightly-themed ad groups with different match types, bids, matching ad copy and landing pages.

These skills are explored in more detail in my new book: Wordtracker Masterclass: Google AdWords PPC Advertising, step-by-step guide to profitable pay per click campaigns.

I’m also hosting regular Google AdWords Training Sessions at our Central London Office which are designed help you develop your Creative, Trader and Techie skills.

]]> http://www.1upsearch.co.uk/blog/are-you-paying-too-much-for-your-google-adwords.html/feed 0 http://www.1upsearch.co.uk/blog/google-labs-launch-a-browser-size-tool.html http://www.1upsearch.co.uk/blog/google-labs-launch-a-browser-size-tool.html#comments Thu, 21 Jan 2010 08:32:44 +0000 Michael Theodoulou http://www.1upsearch.co.uk/?p=2300 There are other tools out there for testing to see how your site will look in different browsers, but this is Google’s effort. It is a very simple interface which allows you to test what percentage of visitors will see what proportion of your site.

In other words, it is a tool that shows (unsurprisingly) browser sizes in relation to your site:


Yes, the lines look a little scrappy, but Google claims that they actually visually represent the proportions of visitors in terms of who will see what as determined by Google’s own visitor stats.

“So what?” I hear you cry. Surely our web guys would be using a tool like this already, and shouldn’t designers know about which browser sizes to optimize for anyway?

Well, here’s the clever bit, in Google’s own words:

“Think the numbers are different for your site? Browser Size bases its data on a sample of visitors to Google.com, but you can check out your screen resolutions report in your web analytics tool to see the most common visitor screen resolutions for your own site. For most sites the list of dimensions is quite long, and the ones we in the industry tend to use – 1024×768, 1280×800, 1280×1024 – typically only represent about 50% of the visitors at best.”

There is also an indication that this may well be integrated as a feature into one or more of the Google products, so it may be a good idea to get used to seeing it if you use Analytics, or Optimizer.

Using it in with your own stats may well lead to you being able to optimize an extra few % out of your site…
You can check out the tool here: http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/

]]> http://www.1upsearch.co.uk/blog/google-labs-launch-a-browser-size-tool.html/feed 0 http://www.1upsearch.co.uk/blog/google-website-optimizer-ab-multivariate.html http://www.1upsearch.co.uk/blog/google-website-optimizer-ab-multivariate.html#comments Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:55:35 +0000 Michael Theodoulou http://www.1upsearch.co.uk/?p=2281 So, you’ve decided to try out some tests with Google Website Optimizer. You log in to your Adwords account and go to the Optimizer section…

Lo and behold, the interface asks you if you would like to set up and A/B test or Multivariate. “Which one should I choose?” you think.

Well, it depends on what your goals are, what kind of site you are running, and what you want to find out. Lets go over the two types of test:

A/B Testing

This is the simpler of the two tests. It involves setting up two separate versions of a page and testing them against each other. You may want to change one or two elements, or look at testing two different layouts to see which performs the best.

A/B is also simpler to set up. You simply produce the two pages, set up the experiment in GWO, and add code to both of the pages. Website Optimizer does the rest, even distributing traffic evenly between the two experiment pages.

You can also set up experiments in this way with more than two variations, so you can have A/B/C, A/B/C/D experiments and so on.

Multivariate Testing

Multivariate testing is a little more complex. It allows you to test multiple versions of elements on a page. For example, you can set up a test which has two variations of a headline and two different buy now buttons. Website Optimizer will then tell you which combination of the four different elements worked together for the best result.

Multivariate tests are more tricky to set up. What you have to do is determine the page elements that you wish to test and load the actual code for the variations into GWO. Once you have done this, you need to insert the code that GWO provides into the correct portions of the page. It is very important to double check the variations you have set up and test to make sure the pages work properly.

So Which One Should I Use?

Well there are a number of factors to consider?

1. Technical know-how. If you are starting out with GWO for the first time, or you don’t build web pages yourself it would be a good idea to start with an A/B test as they are a lot easier to set up.
2. What are your goals? If you are looking to find out something simple like whether one background colour works better than another for conversions, you may be better off with an A/B test. However if you have more complex goals and are looking to test multiple theories on what will work best on your site, it may be a good idea to go with Multivariate.
3. How much traffic do you have? Multivariate tests typically need more traffic pushed through them to determine a winning combination than A/B tests do to determine a winning page, so if you have low traffic numbers start with an A/B test.

Both methods are very powerful for proving theories on how your web pages work, and both can be used to great effect to increase the performance of your site. You will need to be patient though. You will only start seeing a true idea of how your pages perform after a goodly amount of time. We usually look at two weeks’ data as a minimum.

You will end up learning a lot about your visitors and your market and hopefully boosting your revenues, but remember that Website Optimization is an ongoing process. It is wise to plan well and use a conversion methodology such as this one.

]]> http://www.1upsearch.co.uk/blog/google-website-optimizer-ab-multivariate.html/feed 1 http://www.1upsearch.co.uk/blog/set-up-google-local-business-center-in-5-steps.html http://www.1upsearch.co.uk/blog/set-up-google-local-business-center-in-5-steps.html#comments Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:12:19 +0000 Michael Theodoulou http://www.1upsearch.co.uk/?p=2198 Ok, so you may have read my quick intro post on LBC here and decided that Local Business Center is a good thing to do. Well here’s a quick step-by-step guide of how to get set up:

Step 1: go to http://www.google.com/lbc



Click on the “Add New Business” button (if you’re not logged in to your Google account, you’ll have to do this, or create one if you don’t have one yet).

Step 2: Fill In Your Details



As you fill in your details, the actual listing will populate itself to the right. Make sure you check through and get this right before you click “Next.”

Step 3: Add or Claim your Listing

Now, it may be that someone has already listed you, this may be someone in your company, or a third party. The next screen lets you claim existing listings if you want to:



We are going to carry on and add this listing, so we can get to the next step.

Step 4: Business Information.

The next screen is a long one so we’ll forego the screenshot, but this is the bit where you add opening hours, what kind of payment methods you accept, as well as any photos (up to 10)or videos (up to 5) you have of your business.

You can also add custom fields to the end of your listing to further describe what you offer.

Step 5:  Confirm that the listing is yours.



And that’s it. The whole process not including verification should take around five minutes, and for that, your customers will find it easier to locate you, and you could even get a whole raft of new business!

Want to know more about Google Adwords?:
Download our Free Google AdWords eBook
Training Day in London – Limited Places

]]> http://www.1upsearch.co.uk/blog/set-up-google-local-business-center-in-5-steps.html/feed 1 http://www.1upsearch.co.uk/blog/using-google-local-business-center.html http://www.1upsearch.co.uk/blog/using-google-local-business-center.html#comments Sat, 16 Jan 2010 12:54:41 +0000 Michael Theodoulou http://www.1upsearch.co.uk/?p=2191 Does your business have a physical address? Do you care about getting people to come and visit you?

Trite the last question may be, but if you answered yes to both of the above, then you should be using Google Local Business Center.

Local Business Center is a mash-up of Google Maps and Search.  You may have noticed its results popping up from time to time, where you get presented with a map with a list of sites down the side:



Now, this is great for helping your customers find you, but the benefits of Local Search are much greater than just that.

Probably the most powerful aspect of Local Search is that your map listing appears above the normal organic search results. You therefore have a chance at being one of the first results that a potential customer sees.

Your phone number is also featured on the listing. This gives the searcher two ways of getting in touch with you from the get go.

Finally, you may have noticed that there is a link to reviews.  This leads to a page with, yes you guessed it, reviews of you business. Moreover, the searcher is presented with this:



Again there is a link to your site, your contact details (including email), and a short description of your offering which you can enter. Effectively you get a nice piece of real estate on Google’s own pages. This can be very powerful as long as your reviews are good!

Added to this, the control panel that you access can give you some very good data on  impressions, clicks and even what postcodes your visitors came from.

So, if you are not already using this, take the time, its well worth it.  Here are instructions on how to set Local Business Center up in 5 easy steps.

You can also check out Google’s nice glossy ad for the service:

Want to know more about Google Adwords?:
Download our Free Google AdWords eBook
Training Day in London – Limited Places

]]> http://www.1upsearch.co.uk/blog/using-google-local-business-center.html/feed 0 http://www.1upsearch.co.uk/blog/google-adwords-blog/maximise-clicks-lower-bid.html http://www.1upsearch.co.uk/blog/google-adwords-blog/maximise-clicks-lower-bid.html#comments Wed, 06 Jan 2010 10:07:26 +0000 David Bushell http://www.1upsearch.co.uk/?p=2089 Did you know that the majority of Google advertisers bid too high for keywords? Bidding too high for a keyword not only means you are paying an excessive cost per click but it also means that you are getting fewer clicks (and therefore conversions) for your fixed daily budget. This means you have the opportunity to outstrip the competition by paying less for your clicks!

One thing that curiously doesn’t seem to appear often on PPC advice blogs is advice on bid management. Bid management appears to be very passe it seems yet it is still one of the cornerstones of PPC success – the others being the product itself, landing page conversion, good ad copy and relevant keyword reach.

Lowering Your Bids Can Boost Your PPC Performance

To some, the above statement seems obvious and to others, it may sounds ridiculous but it comes down to simple supply & demand theory.

Let’s take the following example, where your daily budget is £100 and, on average, it costs you:

£3/click for position 1

£2/click for position 2

£1/click for position 3

Clearly spending your £100 on position 3 clicks is going to give you 3 times as many clicks as spending it on position 1. Ergo, a lower bid is better. If you think ‘that’s obvious’ then you might want to back up your claim by setting your ad distribution to accelerated and see by what time of day your daily budget is used up.
If you find that you’re spent by lunch, then either your bids are too high or your daily budget is too low. Clearly you could just raise your budget but what if you can’t?

In this instance, lowering your bids will make your budget last longer and, as we’ve seen above, get your more clicks. The bonus reward here is that, in many markets, customers who do bother to click on the lower ranked ads are often ‘higher quality’ and less impulsive. ‘Higher quality’ can mean ‘more likely to convert’ or simply ‘higher value’.

Adwords Editor will allow you to perform advanced bid changes so that you can modify your bids by a percentage so that you can gradually edge towards this ’sweet spot’ of bid management.

Quick Check List

1. Set your ads to accelerated in Campaign / Settings for 1 day.

2. See when your budget is being used up (this can be done precisely using Google Analytics but monitoring your campaign throughout the day will give you a rough estimate).

3. Lower your bids by 10% at a time using advanced bid changes in Adwords Editor

4. Repeat until your daily budget lasts the whole day (on accelerated)!

Disclaimer: Obviously you might want to consider implementing this on some keywords and not others. All campaigns are different and only you can decide what is exactly the best bidding strategy but, frighteningly, this concept seems to be outside the knowledge of most so just being aware of it could give you that competitive edge.

Have you tried this? Feel free to comment with your thoughts…

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