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Archive for the ‘SEM’ Category

Google Study: 89% of Paid Search Clicks are Incremental

Thursday, April 26th, 2012

The search engine result page has become one of the most valuable landscapes for businesses of all sizes and types because it drives more customers to their website than almost any other channel. That’s why establishing your presence on these pages is so important. One of the biggest questions that businesses ask themselves is if they need to pay for that presence and if so, how much of it do they need to pay for. The answer to that question really revolves around clicks and what mix (organic vs. paid) generates the most. Well according to Google’s recent Search Ads Pause research study, the majority of paid search clicks are actually incremental – 89% to be exact. Or in other words, 89% of the visits to the advertiser’s site from ad clicks are not replaced by organic clicks when the search ads are paused.

I’m sure that many of you are thinking the same thing that I thought after seeing this. Of course Google is going to tell us all that paid search clicks are incremental. However, after digging into their research a bit further it does give you the confidence and reassurance that you’ve been looking for all these years. One of the most interesting elements of this study was the way that Google broke out these incremental clicks by organic position. The proportion of incremental clicks varied from 50% (when the organic result was ranking #1) to 96% (when the organic result was ranked lower than 4). Even when the organic result ranked between 2 and 4, which are very productive positions, the percentage of incremental clicks from paid search was still 82%.

It is very interesting to think that even if you’re ranking #1 for a top keyword that there is still opportunity to capture 50% more clicks with the presence of an ad right above that. This research also gives you the confidence to be aggressive from a paid search perspective on keywords that you’re struggling with on the organic side. As much as we’d like to think that having a strong presence organically is enough, knowing that there are many more clicks out there for the taking makes paid search a very valuable tool for growth. So the next time you’re thinking about turning off your brand campaign in AdWords think about that 50% that you might be saying goodbye to.

Tags: Google, PPC
Posted in Google, PPC, SEM | No Comments »

Google AdWords Conversion Tracking Now Available for Ad Extensions

Tuesday, April 10th, 2012

Quietly like a ship in the night, Google recently made a slight tweak in Google AdWords reporting that made tracking ad extensions performance just a little bit easier – you can now see conversion data for extensions in Google AdWords. The AdWords blog did not mention this fun little update, but PPC sleuths across the web soon started spreading the news.

While some may point out that this update is not really groundbreaking (you could always infer this data with some Google Analytics finagling), I still say it’s worthy of a blog post or two. Ad extensions are extremely useful facets of Google search ads that can help to drive click-through and conversion rates. Being able to more easily report on the performance of the extensions themselves (rather than just the ads they were associated with, as before) can help us to kick account performance up a notch.

Before I get ahead of myself, here’s how to see the data: Go to your “Extensions” tab in AdWords and add the column “Conv.” (which wasn’t available on this report before). This layout gives you data for the particular set of extensions you are looking at and reports if your ad received a conversion while the extensions were showing. On a related note, you can further refine the report by segmenting by “click type” to see if the conversion came from a click on the actual extension, or on the headline that was accompanying the extensions.

So what does this mean? Is this really any different than segmenting your data by click-type and seeing the performance labeled “Sitelinks”? Yes and no.

Yes: You can now see conversion data associated with a specific set of extensions. So, let’s say you are testing two different sets of sitelinks to see which set drives a higher conversion rate. With this update, you can now see the conversion rate associated with a specific set of sitelinks. And you can see this all within the Extensions tab, without digging around for the data elsewhere.

No: You could always dig this up in Google Analytics if you appended your sitelinks destination URLs with UTM parameters. We’ve been doing this on our accounts because we didn’t have access to this data in AdWords. Now it’s just that much easier to optimize based on the conversion data available in AdWords.

A pessimist may say, “Rachel, this is all well and good, but you still can’t see how a specific sitelink performed. You can only see how an entire set of sitelinks performed.” And that pessimist would be right. Sitelink reporting at the most granular level (each specific link) is still missing from AdWords. So, if you want to see how a specific link did, continue the method of appending UTM parameters to your destination URLs and analyze performance in Google Analytics. But I wouldn’t be surprised if specific extension performance reporting will be available soon.

Happy Reporting!

Posted in Google, PPC, SEM | No Comments »

Search Engine Use in 2012

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012

The Pew Internet & American Life Project released a new study on Internet usage last month. It’s a daunting read – 42 printed pages! (for those who like paper) – but very insightful and worth the read to better understand today’s search engine user.

One of the main takeaways from the in-depth study is that search engines are more popular than ever. We’re not surprised, but the stats back up the assumptions. Pew says “in January 2002, 52 percent of all Americans used search engines. In February 2012 that figure grew to 73% of all Americans.”

The report goes on to explain that on any given day so far in 2012, nearly 60 percent of adults using the Internet use a search engine. And by “a search engine,” they basically mean Google, as 83% of people use it over other engines these days (compared to 47% in 2004).

While Google is the current reigning king of search engines, the report does highlight that many Internet searchers are “anxious about the collection of personal information by search engines and other websites and they do not like the idea of personalized search results… .”

It’ll be interesting to see how Google’s introduction of “Search+ Your World” affects these already-weary users. In fact, 73% of survey respondents said they thought personalized search results were a bad thing, “because it may limit the information you get online and what search results you see.”

Despite the reluctance to get on board with personalized search, the report clearly illustrates that the reliance on search engines isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. In fact, there’s also a lot of data around the increase of mobile search. And that was a new thing not that long ago, as well.

To geek out with us, read the whopper Search Engine Use in 2012 report and let us know of any surprises!

Posted in SEM | No Comments »

New Hires and Promotions at Nina Hale Inc

Saturday, March 31st, 2012

For Immediate Release:

Minneapolis (March 26, 2012) – Nina Hale Inc, A Minneapolis Search Engine Marketing agency hired Molly Exner, Project Manager, and Joel Swaney, Senior SEO Manager. In addition to new hires, there were several internal promotions. Hired in 2011 as a Director of Client Services, Paul Sanders was promoted to Managing Director. Lee Ann Villella was hired in 2010 as a Senior Sales Manager and has been promoted to Director of Business Development. Hired in 2010 as a Search Marking Manager, Tami McBrady was promoted to Senior Search Manager. Dan Cardamone was hired in 2011 as a Senior Search Specialist as has been promoted to Search Marketing Manager.

Nina Hale Inc (NHI) has the largest staff of Google Certified employees in Minnesota. Currently NHI has more Google certifications than any other search agency, with 10 search marketers who are Google AdWords Certified across multiple tracks, and 14 employees who are Google Analytics Certified. NHI works with clients such as Ecolab, Red Wing Shoes, Medtronic, Room & Board, Taylor Corp, Hazelden, Starkey Hearing Aids, and more.

Nina Hale Inc., Search Engine Marketing is located in Minneapolis, MN and serves clients nationwide. The team of 21 focuses on Search Engine Optimization, Paid Placement SEM, and Social Media integration and reporting. NHI partners with several agencies as a subject matter expert in search marketing. The company currently manages over 12 million dollars in annual media fees for its clients. Nina Hale Inc., Search Engine Marketing was named one of the “Best Places to Work, 2011″ by the Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal.

Posted in PPC, SEM, SEO, Social Media | No Comments »

Facebook Ads – Broad Category Targeting

Thursday, June 9th, 2011

Facebook has been rolling out new targeting options for its ads. In the past Facebook Ads were “push” model. You had to specify a keyword interest if you wanted to go beyond simple demographics. If the database (which wasn’t always complete) had people who had identified themselves as having those interests, it would show up as an option that you could choose. So in order to target Moms, we would have to list every possible thing we thought moms might be interested in. Now in this new model, you can precisely target Moms, even down to the age of their children.

There are a lot of options so far, including mobile interests (or is it platforms? I don’t know, but I’ll find out soon).

As in the past you can overlay these with demographics. So only single women of a certain age, in the US (you could choose a specific location), who are parents of teenagers.

What’s still missing? People CONNECTED to people who fit these demographics. This is important for advertisers, because come holiday, I may want to show ads for fishing lurea to people who are married to avid fishermen, for example.

You still can’t overlay elements within categories. This makes it hard to find people with specific interests – see my example below

But you can hone by adding targets, and these do overlay on each other

Location (Minnesota)
Demogtraphics (women)
Age Range (or specific)
Connections (if you’re an admin of a page, you can show ads to fans, or to everyone BUT fans, or to friends of fans, etc)
Interests (specific keywords – old skool) or new categories
Advanced demographics (single)
Education (high school grad)

What do I see in our immediate future? FATHER’S DAY! (target ads to married women with kids)

Posted in PPC, SEM, Social Media | 1 Comment »

“Official site” tag in Yahoo Search Marketing

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

I’m not going to be all that sad when Yahoo Search Marketing goes away, mainly because the interface is such a pain to use. But they have a great feature which is fantastic for big brands that get poached on thier trademarks all the time.

A small logo on the search ads that says “official site.” Hello! I wish Google Adwords would have this.

Posted in PPC, SEM | No Comments »

More on View-Through Conversions

Monday, August 16th, 2010

Have we mentioned how much we love being able to accurately report view-through conversions?

View-through conversions allow you to get a better understanding of the effectiveness of your display advertising. If a user sees your display ad on the content network and doesn’t click on it, but completes a conversion within the next 30 days, voila, you get a view-through conversion.

If the user had clicked on the display ad, it would be reported as a regular conversion.

Remember: When you are running display ads ALWAYS enable de-duplication. This way you’ll avoid double reporting if a user sees your display ad on a site, and converts from another ad in the search results. Then there’s no need to worry!

Another thing to note is that your conversions will drop after enabling the de-dupe feature, generally by 25-35%, but simply because they aren’t being double counted or inflated.

Tags: content network, conversions, display advertising, reporting, SEM
Posted in Google, SEM | 2 Comments »

What Happened to the Google AdWords “Previous Interface” option?

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

When Google came out for a visit last month we got hints that they might be ready to kill the "previous interface" option for finding new keywords in Google AdWords. And today (tonight we think) it seems that they did finally. There is a hint of a new backend that might be better called "nostradamo" that is linked from the new keyword interface, but it’s broken right now.

Why I liked the old version better.

I was used to it. (lame I know, but still)
Less broad. Now I enter a keyword and I get a huge amount of synonyms and I have to go in and uncheck the categories.
Automatic. Hear me out here. So in the old version if you didn’t add anything into the box if would automatically give suggestions on anything that was in your ad group already. SO you could enter some placeholders in Google AdWords Editor, post them, then look for suggestions. Seems like not a big deal, but it saved time, and it felt like a lot of time. If the new interface had this one option, I think I would like it more.
This is a big one: "Don’t show me suggestions for other keywords." This allowed you to quickly get estimated monthly searches for your previously chosen keywords. So we would settle on a set of keywords to recommend to clients, and would then want to go get number of search estimates.

There are some things I do like: The ability to drop different keywords into different ad groups. That’s nice.

And of course this comes at a bad time. There are three of us tonight working on deadlines, and we’re all sending sad and frustrated IM’s back and forth about it. You can still access the open version that isn’t tied to your account. But that means that you can’t save them into the ad group. Also the keyword tool in Editor is still working, but that works only 1 keyword at a time.

So my plea to Google: PLEASE bring back the previous interface.

Please leave comments (legitimate – we’ll ruthlessly delete spam.)

Tags: AdWords, Google, keyword tool
Posted in Google, PPC, SEM, SEO | 3 Comments »

New Google View-Through Conversion Reporting

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

We had one of those problems that most SEM agencies dream of having. We have clients who are running display ads on the Google Content Network whose view through conversions are in the hundreds a month. We love to report on this number, but have to add the caveat that a certain % of those conversions are actually counted elsewhere in their other search campaigns. Faces turn from happy to puzzled in a manner of seconds.

So when our Google reps were in town visiting us last week, we mentioned this problem. They looked over their shoulders to see if anybody was watching before saying, in a whisper: "This doesn’t leave this room, but we are looking into a feature that de-duplicates view-through conversions."

And sure enough, the next week we ran across this blog post on Google that talks about this exact feature.

Many of you know that view-through conversions result when users see but don’t click on a display ad. They may come back later and convert through a search ad, which would count the conversion twice. Which makes reporting nearly impossible and leads to puzzled faces.

By enabling the de-duplication feature, you exclude view-through conversions that are found in both the Search and Content networks!

Do note that the feature isn’t retroactive, and that going forward, the number of view-through conversions will drop. In the first few days of testing, we saw a 35% decrease in the number of reported view-through conversions. But what we are left with is basically 65% more conversions that we can accurately report back to our clients.

We can’t wait to see their faces.

Tags: conversions, google analytics, reporting, SEM
Posted in Analytics, Google, PPC, SEM | No Comments »