Further to our Video Testimonial with Google, are very own Account Director, Ian Howie, has been interviewed by Google for their Best Practise Case Study series. In the interview he talks about our experiences using Google’s Website Optimiser and Google’s CPA bid management solution.

Website Optimiser allows you test multiple variations of a page and measure which combinations of elements (Headline, Images, Copy, etc…) converts visitors best, as well as allowing you to do traditional A/B testing. At 1upSearch towers we’ve been busy using this great tool to increase conversion rates for a number of our clients with great success. Remember PCC is 50% getting people to the Landing Page and 50% what they do next when they get there.

We have also been using Google’s CPA (Cost per Conversion) Bid management Solution. We have tested it against other products on the market and found that the Google tool beats them all. It really does save you money - because it works out the best position to put you in - rather than just keep you in the more expensive slot on the page.

Why is Google doing all of this? Over at Mountain View they are smart enough to know that as soon as anything better comes along we are all going to up and leave. So it is in Google’s best interests to give us PPC people the best tools to do the job and get a good R.O.I.. Look at what happened to Overture, once the Kings of PPC, they was scrapped because of a little upstart called Google AdWords.

Microsoft are also working are on CPA and conversion tools - it is going to an interesting battle.

- Read The Full Case Study as a downloadable PDF file.

- Check Out Ian’s Twitter Feed.

As we’ve mentioned before bespoke landing page can really improve conversion.

Everything that the visitor needs should be on the page so..

Ideally you should then use Google AdWords Website Optimiser to try many different variations to find the best combinations. Its certainly worth doing and a a real insight into which copy and images work best in converting your visitors.

Some examples of landing pages we’re currently testing ..

http://jobs.justit.co.uk - testing 36 different versions

http://www.sign-up.to/html/landing/emailguide/index.php - Testing 20+ combinations.

Also here are some other Landing pages we’ve created..

Ours - www.1upsearch.co.uk/googleadwords

MyRuby - www.myruby.co.uk/landing

We’re currently waiting on our new landing page system that will allow to quickly create landing pages in a very cost effective way. We’ll post all the info as soon as it’s launched..

1upSearch recently returned from the Google “Above & Beyond” event. The top 100 medium size agencies from across Europe were invited to visit the Google Europe Headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. During the event we met Google Directors, learnt about new products and give feedback to product managers on current services.

During the event we learnt about some useful optimisation techniques regarding Googles Content network and how to make better use of Google Maps which we will be using on client campaigns, where relevant. We were also able to find out more on Googles illusive quality score in great detail, and we’re already starting to use this when working on clients campaigns.

Look for a an upcoming post on Quality Score soon.

That’s all for now - i’m off to catch my flight

Here are some pics from the event.

“The 1upSearch Google Team.”

“Inside Google”

When designing a web page many decisions need to be made. One of the most important thing to get right is how your visitors are going to get in contact with you. This is particularly important if your looking to obtain sales enquires from your website. Many web developers may say that having a contact us page with a phone number and an e-mail address will do the job just fine. However in my experience this rarely works.

I’d thought I’d post my tips based on my experience.

1) Most People prefer filling forms than writing e-mails.

2) If your web developer tells you its difficult to do a form or that forms aren’t necessary - get a new developer.

3) E-mail addresses posted on websites are harvested for spammers, by spammers.

4) Long forms are a complete turn-off. Thing how much info do I need from this person. Most of the time a Name and Phone number will be enough. All other information can be collected on the follow up call.

5) Ask your visitors to contact you. Use a call to action like “contact us NOW for you FREE quote on 0800 555 888 or online”

6) Put forms and contact information on every page - not just the contact us page

7) Use a free phone number. More people respond to free phone numbers than any other type of number - FACT!.

8) Offer something for FREE. FREE things could be include an assessment of their current situation or a custom report just for them. Of course these can be part of your sales proposal.

9) Put your phone number clearly on every page - top right corner works well.

10) Follow up all your enquiries as quickly as possible. Leads go cold very quickly.

Please contact us if you’d like assistance with marketing of your site.

Original post on alexdigital.com.

We’re often asked :

How do you reduce spend on Google Adwords?

Improving Click Through Rate usually can have a dramatic effect on your Cost Per Click which in turn reduces your overall spend. Here’s an example one of our customers Adwords campaigns.

The First campaign is the original campaign before 1upSearch.

The Second shows the new 1upSearch designed campaign.

The difference is obvious - 6x more clicks for the same money..

Click through rate can be increased in a number of ways. We have developed a Seven Step Adwords methodology that has a proven track record of turning Google AdWords in to profit centres by improving CTR.

If you want help with your Google Adwords Account contact us now for a Free Google Adwords Account Evaluation.

Welcome to Part 3 of my Guide to Google Adwords. I finally managed to find some time to write this part. In part two we talked about keyword research, now we move on to Adwords Advert design.

Ad Copy Design & Structure

Google Adwords Adverts are similar in many ways to the small adverts you find in Newspapers, Magazines and in Shop Windows

One of the most important components of your Adwords Campaign is the keyword lists your use to promote your ads. Your keyword list is going to give you the power over your competition and as most people spend very little time on their keywords you can work this to your advantage.

Adwords Best Practice number 2:

Research, Research, Research.

The extra time you spend planning your campaign will pay dividends in the future by providing targeted visitors at a fraction of the price.

3 Steps to Great Keyword Research.

Step 1 : Brainstorming.

This step is the ONLY step most people carry out and even then they don’t spend the time it needs. Get a pen & paper and try to think of all the words people may use to search for your product and service.

For example one of our clients sells sweets online. During brainstorming some of the ideas we came up with were “sweets”, “traditional sweets”, “old fashioned sweets” and “jars of sweets”.  

Don’t stop at the general terms however. By breaking it down even more you can break it down to categories e.g. “Sugar Free Sweets” and “Chocolate Sweets” or even down to product “Sherbert Lemons” etc.

Once you get going you should be able to think of a healthy looking list full of variations.

Step 2 : Keyword Tools.

Brainstorming is a great start but you need to carry out research to find out exactly how many people are using certain terms and more importantly how much competition is attached to your terms (more on this in future articles).

The Google Keywords tool can be accessed from with your AdWords account and you can find the Yahoo! Search Marketing tool here:

http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/rc/srch/

One of the best research tools available is Wordtracker. Wordtracker not only shows you the number of people searching but also offer data regarding growth, competion and much more. I would recommend you invest in Wordtracker if you’re serious about Internet Marketing and PPC.

Wordtracker - Take your Free Trial

Get all these tools in your Internet Marketers Toolbox.

Step 3  : Beating the Competition

There are many tactics to get 1 UP over your competition. One of the most common is spelling mistakes. By bidding on spelling mistakes you can achieve clicks for far less than the correctly spelt terms that all your Competition is bidding on. People do make typos all the time while browsing.

We’ll go through all the tactics in future posts. Keep working on your keyword research and you’ll get a refined list of words that really works for you and your business.

Keep informed via RSS as number 3 will be here soon.

A lot of our clients originally approach us because they are already running a Google Adwords Campaign, but without success. They are usually paying far too much for far too little, or in some cases nothing at all !

I can normally predict what their account will look like before I even log in and take a look. Most accounts contain 1 adgroup, with a selection of keywords which in turn are linked to a single advert. Put simply this type of campaign is far to broad.

This leads us to one of the most important best practices.

Focus Your Campaign

The first question you should ask yourself before even setting up your adwords account is.