PPC 101 Education

Recently I talked about Wordstream a new “kick-ass” keyword tool for PPC management. I just been told today that they recently launched a free version of the keyword tool: http://www.wordstream.com/keywords/

It seems better than wordtracker, and it is free.

And here’s a 1-minute video that shows how it works: http://www.youtube.com/v/gV-VB3P7frU

Try it out and comment back here if you like it.

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Here is another PPC learning event with discount if you are a SEMPO member.

If you are a SEMPO Member, the discount code for your group is:

sempo10

and is good for 10% off any of the ticket options (which equates to ~20% if they register for both days since we already offer a $50 multi-day discount). Every attendee will still receive the $50 AdWords credit for EACH day they attend, issued by Google after the seminar via email.

The url for registration is: http://www.bgtheory.com/adwords-seminar-for-success-toronto-2009/

The event name is:
AdWords(tm) Seminar for Success - Toronto

The event is at:
Hilton Garden Inn Toronto Airport
3311 Caroga Drive
Mississauga, Ontario, CA L4V 1A3
8:30 am - 5:00 PM

8/25/09 AdWords 301: Advanced Account Optimization focuses on best practices for Keywords, Ad Copy, and Landing Pages in addition to a deep dive into Quality Score, the Content Network, and Geographic Targeting. This day is jam-packed full of tips and techniques you can functionally use to improve your accounts overall performance.

8/26/09 AdWords 302: Advanced Conversion Optimization concentrates on how to increase your conversions and your profits! Topics include Bidding Types and Strategies, Tracking Conversions, Split Testing, and Account Organization. The information included in this session can have a positive, dramatic impact on your bottom line - this is a must attend event!

If you have any questions about this PPC learning event in Toronto, please ask Leslie Clark:

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It is with great pleasure that I receive yesterday a press release from Acquisio, a tool that I use and love, about the recent agreement with Emovendo and their software, PageVester. I believe this latest addition to their already outstanding product will put it in its own class.

Please find the full press release below.

- Combination Will Provide the Industry’s First and Only End-to-End Paid Search Productivity Suite -

Montreal, QC, Canada - August 10, 2009 - Acquisio inc., a leading provider of Paid Search Management Software, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire all assets of privately held Emovendo, including its flagship product, landing page application PageVester (http://www.pagevester.com). The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“We’re thrilled to announce the latest addition to our offering. This is an important milestone. Our customers will soon be able to gain control over the part of their marketing campaigns which has been in the hands of IT for so long, the infamous landing page” says Marc Poirier, Co-Founder of Acquisio.

“This technology allows marketers with absolutely no design or IT skills to assemble professional looking, dynamic landing pages, complete with forms, validation rules, and so much more. The application is also fully integrated with salesforce.com and can automatically feed it with every new captured lead”, explains Martin Le Sauteur, CEO at Acquisio.

Marketers using the Acquisio SEARCH platform will now have complete control over the entire cycle of their clients’ marketing campaigns. Alexandre Pelletier, founder and former CEO of Emovendo, says “Not only does PageVester allow users to rapidly build and deploy professional landing pages, it also supports the creation and management of A/B tests with Google Website Optimizer”. A/B tests allow marketers to present alternating versions of the same page to its site visitors in order to determine which one provides the best ROI.
Marc Poirier adds “Tweaking ad copy and bids is essential stuff, but it will only take you so far. You need to work on post-click activity. This is where PageVester comes in. It delivers instant value to its users by simplifying landing page creation and A/B test implementation.”

About Acquisio
Acquisio is the creator of Acquisio SEARCH (http://www.acquisio.com) a Software-as-a-Service solution designed specifically for on-line advertising agencies managing pay-per-click campaigns on Google, Yahoo and BING. Acquisio’s set of applications empowers campaign managers, allowing them to spend less time building and launching campaigns, and spend more time on strategy and intelligent campaign refinement.
# # #

Contact:
Marc Poirier, Chief Marketing Officer
Acquisio inc.
450.465.2631 x210

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I recently got a demo from a product called WordStream, a search marketing tool that can be used for a range of keyword and PPC management processes, and I was really impressed by its capabilities. I just want to share a few thoughts here to invite people to check it out. Where the tool sounds really helpful is in keyword grouping and organization, which is a crucial elements of PPC account categorization. Larry Kim, founder of Wordstream, claims this is the most overlooked process in both paid and organic search.

Like most search marketers I know, I use Excel for organizing my keywords. WordStream is meant to replace Excel, but it’s not a spreadsheet. It’s a dynamic, Web-based database that lets you not just group related keywords but also set rules so the software can automatically sort new keywords into the right groups as you expand your research.

Here’s how it works. First you upload your keywords into a private database.  The product offers a few options on how to do this:

* Use the keyword suggestion tool
* Paste keywords into a text block or upload a file
* Use the “advanced” options which pull keywords from your log files and Web analytics.

Next you segment your keywords down from one big list into high-level groups and then smaller subgroups to get a branching tree structure (what Larry calls “a keyword taxonomy"). Yes, you can do this in Excel but the cool thing about WordStream is that it has tools that suggest groupings based on keyword frequency/traffic volume. In the screenshot below, you can see that you can create multiple groups at once. When you create a “bird food” group for example, the software instantly groups together all the keywords that contain both “bird” and “food” including plurals, misspellings, etc. I can see this being a huge timesaver.

WordStream also includes a JavaScript tracker (like the Google Analytics tracker code) that adds new keywords to your database as visitors find your site. (It also tracks conversions.) The idea is to continuously expand your keyword research while refining your organization by creating more specific groups and subgroups.

The point of creating these tightly related groups is two-fold:

* To turn keyword groups into ad groups for PPC:  Larry’s theory is that starting out with a highly organized keyword structure makes your ad groups more likely to get high Quality Scores, because you can better target more closely-related keywords with more relevant ads and landing pages.
* To create SEO-focused content pages: Using WordStream you can easily break down the lists of keywords you want to rank for into specific groupings, and target those terms by authoring one themed content page for each group.

And WordStream provides integrated tools for doing this work: just select a group and do something with it, like publishing an ad group or creating Web content.

There are a few other features of note including a negative keyword tool for scrubbing your keyword lists and workflow tools to help diagnose possible problem areas and suggest optimization approaches. I think the main selling point for search marketers will be the ease of creating keyword groups from very large keyword lists, as well as the continuous expansion capabilities.

Anyway, here are a few links to learn more about WordStream!

* Free Trial
* Request a Demo
* Online Video Tutorial

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AdWords(tm) Seminar for Success come to Vancouver, BC. Please find all the details below including a 10% discount for SEMPO Canada members.

Vancouver Digital Marketing Group Members use code sempo1 for a 10% discount!
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/247294665?discount=sempo1

2/11/2009 AdWords 301: Advanced Account Optimization
2/12/2009 AdWords 302: Advanced Conversion Optimization

Where:
Four Points by Sheraton Vancouver Airport
8368 Alexandra Rd
Richmond, BC V6X 4A6
8:30 am - 5:00 PM

What are Google(tm) AdWords Advanced Seminars?

The AdWords Seminar for Success Advanced series are two days of interactive education that will help you make the most of the time and money you invest in AdWords. Officially sponsored by Google, you can trust that you are receiving the most accurate and up-to-date information on the best practices for advertising with Google AdWords.

You can choose to attend only one day, or receive a 10% discount if you choose to register for both days! Plus, if you register today, you will also receive:

AdWords Seminar Bonuses
* $100 AdWords Credit ($50 if you register for a single day) **Must Register 7 Days in Advance
* 2 USB Thumb Drives with Presentation Materials (1 for each day)
* Other Google Goodies
* Bonus Presentations:

Day 1: Marketing in a Down Economy: Superior Profits on a Minimal Budget

Day 2: Actionable Items: Step-by-Step: How to Maximize Results for Your Limited Time

Advanced AdWords Seminars Overview
AdWords 301: Advanced Account Optimization focuses on best practices for Keywords, Ad Copy, and Landing Pages in addition to a deep dive into Quality Score, the Content Network, and Geographic Targeting. This day is jam-packed full of tips and techniques you can functionally use to improve your accounts overall perofrmance. You can see the in-depth curriculum here.

AdWords 302: Advanced Conversion Optimization concentrates on how to increase your conversions and your profits! Topics include Bidding Types and Strategies, Tracking Conversions, Split Testing, and Account Organization. The information included in this session can have a positive, dramatic impact on your bottom line - this is a must attend event! You can see the in-depth curriculum here.

Who should attend these seminars?
The 301 and 302 Advanced AdWords seminars are designed for seasoned Search Enginge Marketing professionals. If you are an experienced ppc analyst, manager,or executive these courses are for you.

To see the full course curriculum and to register go to: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/247294665?discount=sempo1

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SEMPO Canada is organizing a Free educational webinar for anyone interested in saving on their PPC Investment. The use of negative keyword lists can improve your ROI dramatically and we are fortunate to have an expert in our group to present this cost saving tool for PPC Management. 

Please RSVP to attend the webinar as there are only 25 spots available on a first come first serve basis. Please e-mail Ian Walker at if you plan to attend.

Date & Time:
Tuesday, October 28 at 9h30 MST (8h30 PST)

Duration:
30 minute presentation with Q&A to follow

Topic:
The webinar will cover:

- What negative keywords are.
- What free tools, reports and techniques are available to create extensive negative keyword lists
- How to generate and get the maximum benefit of the up to 10,000 negative keywords allowed by Google.
- Actionable steps, how to’s and relevant case studies will be shown.

Who Should Attend?
SEM Vendors, In-House PPC Managers, SEMPO Members and anyone who is interested in saving 10-40% on their PPC Investment.

How to Attend?
1) RSVP to to grab one of the 25 spots available.

2) To join the webinar please click on the following link minutes prior to the webinar:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/join/441572604

3) Please join the Toll Free conference call portion of the presentation:
Toll Free: 1-800-240-3895, Participant Code: 3458 then #

Speaker:
Ken Jurina, Co-Chair of SEMPO Canada and President of Epiar Inc.
Ken is a frequent speaker at SEO and SEM conferences internationally who just recently presented at SMX East in NYC and Digital Marketing Mixer in Scottsdale, Arizona on the benefits and extreme cost saving of using advanced negative keyword lists in your PPC campaign.

Extra Info:
This FREE webinar is not a promotion for any service or company but rather an educational webinar for SEM Vendors, In-House PPC Managers, SEMPO members and anyone who is interested in saving 10-40% on their PPC investment.  Please note that we have a limit of 25 people who can attend this Free Webinar. Register Quickly. RSVP to

Feel free to forward this invitation to any companies or individuals whom you think would benefit from this webinar. They do NOT need to be SEMPO Canada members to participate in this webinar.

For any additional questions, please address them to Ian Walker, . We hope you can make it!

Alexandre Brabant & Ken Jurina
Co-Chairs SEMPO Canada
Sempo.ca

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I don’t understand why people are going to expensive Internet marketing conferences where most of the content is available for free online. As such, you will delighted to know that Search Marketing Now are offering a variety of online search marketing seminars, for free and on demand. These seminars are conducted by search marketing veterans and are of very high quality. If you are not sure about a certain task you need to perform for either your PPC program or your SEO strategy, feel free to follow these 60 minutes online webcasts that will guide you on the right track. 

For example, the September 16th Search Marketing Now webcast, “PPC’s Hidden Opportunity: Advertising on Content Networks,” featuring David Szetela is now on demand. To view the recording directly, you can go to their website at: http://searchmarketingnow.com/ and click on the “View Previous Webcasts-On Demand “ button.

Don’t miss the next webcast Tuesday, September 23rd.  Selling Your Search Strategy: Timely Advice to Help You Win.

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I have been using an excellent PPC (Pay Per Click) Management tool called Acquisio Search in the last few months to help manage numerous PPC (Pay Per Click) accounts, including Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing & MSN Adcenter (aka. The Big 3) Acquisio now releases an important update today which I would like to go over in more details. 

During the last few months that I have been using the tool and going through my own learning curve, I must say that Acquisio has help me save a lot of time in managing PPC accounts and I am now able to provide stellar reports to my clients. The consolidated view of all the different campaigns for all the accounts in one single (and easy to use) interface makes it far easier than managing them manually. Those who manage multiple PPC accounts on behalf of clients know what I am talking about. Creating reports is the least favorite task in PPC Management, which might be the reason why Acquisio is using the tagline “I Hate Doing This Shit”, which obviously get people talking. Acquisio makes this part very easy and fun. So far, I have been especially impress with the consolidated view it offers, with the campaigns related to the 3 main search engines, the easy to use interface, as well the quality of the report it produces. There are some other really cool functionalities including the campaign optimizer, the mass editor which I am starting to use and help saving a lot of time.

Up to now, Acquisio has been focusing exclusively on the top 2 engines (Google & Yahoo) and they have recently introduced MSN Adcenter as part of the mix. This is the next big thing as part of their development, which is why I felt compelled to talk about it today. Here is the full-on release of the most recent update:

Acquisio’s team has been extremely busy in the past few weeks working on the release of several very important features for our PPC Management platform, and they’re finally ready. The latest release of Acquisio SEARCH includes the following:

Microsoft adCenter Support: Finally, we’re ecstatic to announce that we’ve practically completed work on the integration of Microsoft adCenter to Acquisio SEARCH, which we will release to everyone in the coming days. However, if you need access to it right now, please contact me and I will activate your account as a beta tester immediately - there are still a few small issues with the integration, which will be resolved this week, but you will be able to produce reports and work with the editor. We will look to integrate other search engines, shopping feeds and directories in the near future. We count on you to let us know what your favorites are so we can prioritize our work according to your needs.

Support for Various Conversion Types: We now support all adWords conversion types.

Support for Revenue Metrics - ROAS and many more: You can now see revenue data in all your reports.

Column Picker: You will now be able to pick and choose which metrics are important to each account in a column picker.

New Summary Tables for Reports: You can now produce summary tables to compare overall performance for multiple date ranges, for various search engines, campaigns, ad groups, keywords, content vs search, etc.

In case you didn’t know, there were other releases in the past month or so. Here is a list of the most important features:

- Possibility to request a custom design for reports
- New custom colors in reports
- Login, can now remember credentials
- New Cost Per Conversion column in Optimizer
- New Geotarget with Google Maps
- New ad-scheduling interface (redesign, mostly)
- Editor Support for Mobile Ads, Local Business Ads, Image Ads, Placements, and Negative Placements
- Google budget optimizer supported in Editor
- Added a Client Center shortcut
- Adding a component (from dashboard) to a report will create an extra title component (i.e.: Most impressions)
- New snap grid behavior in reports (blue square preview) - makes it much easier to move things around

We hope you will enjoy these new features, and we look forward to hearing any feedback you may have - we do this for you, so your reactions are important to us. Good or bad, we want to hear it.

*********************************************
Acquisio: in the works:
*********************************************
Coming up in the next few days:
- Access Rights
- Add to Report from the Mass Editor

Also coming soon:
- Automated Bid Management

Don’t hesitate to call Alex Lamoureux at 1.866.493.9070 ext.: 211 or by email at if you need further explanations on any of these new features, or if you want to gain immediate access to Acquisio SEARCH.

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James from Boxcar Marketing sent me this article today from OneDegree.ca on six simple tricks to boost your Google Adwords Click Through Rate (CTR). This is a must-read if you are doing a lot of Pay Per Click (PPC) with Adwords.

6 Simple Tricks to Boost your Google Adwords CTR (Click Through Rate):

1. Use title case: Simply switching from proper case “like this sentence” to title case, “Like This Sentence,” regularly improves click-through rates.
2. Add quotes: “Quotes boost clicks,” particularly when you use them in headlines.
3. Tell a secret: Unfair advantages compel attention. Promise inside information or simply use the word “secret” in relation to your product—it’s your secret weapon.
4. Use numbers: Figures such as in “100% guaranteed,” “100 times better” and “1-click solution” draw added attention.
5. Insert symbols: Visual variation draws the eye. Use acceptable symbols—such as (tm)—to stand out.
6. End on ellipses: Research shows that ending on ellipses—“...”—encourages clicks, possibly because it drives home how more information follows the ad.

Why is CTR so Important?
Increasing your CTR is very important because it is part of Google Adwords Quality Score for your ads. If your CTR goes up, you can lower your bids and still maintain your positions. 

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Clients always want to know how much it would cost them to implement a Search Marketing plan involving Pay per Click (PPC) Investment Whereas it is a simple question, it is not as easy to answer it. I usually give them ballpark figures and I hope it makes sense for them. When you think about it, it is the equivalent of asking a web designer or a web developer on how much it would cost to build a website? It varies a lot. In terms of Search Marketing though, we are fortunate enough to have Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools that can help us define the search volume for your targeted search terms. The relationship between search volume and your targeted geographic area will help us come up with Cost (investment) estimates. Google Trends is one of them.

Simply put, Google Trends gives us a snapshot of the search volume for a given search term (or terms), over time. It provides seasonality search volume information which help us understand how we should spread your Pay Per Click (PPC) budget over a 12 month period and therefore get the most out of your investment.

For example, as we all know, Whistler is both a winter and a summer destination. More people would go to Whistler in the winter of course, but the question remains: if you would get the traffic during the winter months anyway, when the search volume is at its peak, wouldn’t you get a better return on your PPC advertising investment during the summer months, when the online competition (and average cost per click) is at its lowest? Wouldn’t make more sense? This decision is in relation to your yearly PPC budget. You would be surprised how important it is to run a summer and a winter PPC campaigns year-round in order to capitalize on this seasonality factor. See the graph below, showing the search volume for the search term “whistler”:

As you can see, the search volume drops in summer months but not as much as you might think. Use it for your own search terms and define peaks and valleys to help you spread your PPC budget over time and get the most out of your PPC investment.

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I got informed last week of a new competitive intelligence tool that is worth talking about. It is called KeywordSpy.com. KeywordSpy gives you the opportunity to immediately track down your competitors and gather keywords for the promotional campaign of your online business. I played with it for a few minutes and I found it very helpful and easy to use in order to understand how many keywords your competitors have in their basket, how much they are paying for it and the corresponding rank. Remember, if your competitors only have a few dozens of keywords, they are not capitalizing in the power of The Long Tail. Therefore, if you use this PPC Management Tool , you can beat them with a better Search Marketing plan.

Here is an example on competitive information KeywordSpy can gather on Whistler.com online market place. Feel free to Mouse over the question marks (?) in order to have the definition of what each column means.

Here are some additional informations on KeywordSpy:
KeywordSpy is keyword research technology where you can also earn and even surpass what your competitors are making with Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing (formerly known as Overture). KeywordSpy gives you the key to their success: a good ad-campaign with the right keywords. It also has a ClickBank Affiliates Search Engine where you can see the actual market landscape at ClickBank.

It offers Free trials. For more information, feel free to communicate with Tolits Bana: linksline{at}gmail.com

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You will love this. Read this carefully and it will help you climb the ladder to the top paid search results listings while dropping your cost dramatically. As far as I know, most search marketers fail dramatically at writing great Paid Search Advertising ads (aka. Google Adwords). I was asked a question today by a Client to basically justify the rationale for ad copywriting for a display ad network (ie. non-search). The campaign is basically aimed at people who are about to move and how ACME (fictitious name) can help the move process with all the telecommunication services new arrangements. Here is what I had to say.

First, here is the ad, according to Google Adwords Editorial Guidelines:

Moving? ACME Can Help!
Move Phone & Services in 1 Click.
Save Time on Moving Using ACME
acme.ca/moving

And now, here is the explanation. Apparently, everyone who read this today, including Steve Kellas, online copywriting genius, thought it was pretty bang on so I am glad to share this with you.

Explanation:
In a nutshell, we are using the same kind of copywriting rationale & style as if we were talking to the users through paid search engine results. We first need to establish relevance with the users which is why we use self-selecting expressions such as Moving?. People who are not moving will most likely skip the ad completely which is not a bad thing when we are using a pay per click format that online users are used to deal with.

Once relevance is established, we can then proceed with stating the benefits of ACME’s offer, which is to offer *help* in the moving process. Since we all know how any form of help is appreciated during moving time, we thought this would be the best verb to describe what ACME can do for them. This has also a great branding effect as it conveys a strong and positive emotion. (thanks for helping me out). We can only use the exclamation mark once in the ad. We then decided to put it on the headline as this is where it makes the most sense. We also need to repeat the same word (move, moving) a few times in the ads (4), on each line preferably, as online users may only read the headline or the first line of text or the second and so on. They may also read the ad vertically which is why the strongest word is often at the beginning of each line. Even if you read the ad vertically, you would still understand what the offer is. Clever hey?

We also need to capitalize the first letter of every word as it reads better, in case online users will actually take the time to read the ad completely. On line 1, we use obvious terms such as phone & services since these are the topics we are talking about and the use of the words “in one click” says how quickly we can help solve this problem. On line 2, we decided to actually states the benefit “Save time”, again to reinforce what the offer is and describe what the offer can do for them. The repetition in the ads while using synonyms and playing with images and emotions for each word is a standard practice in online copywriting. Please note that the text ad characters limit is very restrictive which is why we are trying to find words that say a lot in terms of meaning but that are in fact quite short: help, save, time, move, click are good examples. 

Removing www in the display url (acme.ca) is also a great little improvement as it cuts unnecessary elements (www) which does not help understanding the meaning of the ad. Check out how often you see *www* in Google Adwords. Did you know you can take them out? Please do! Nobody says World Wide Web anymore. If you know anyone who still uses this expression, please publish their names in the comment box below.

If you use this methodology for writing your Google text ads, you can be sure your Google text ads will be more relevant to the users. As a result, this will lead to greater qualified visitors and better ROI.

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