Hello there, apologies for the delay in getting this post live!

Here are my picks of the best blog posts in search for the week ending 3/7/09.

SEO

Over at SEOmoz, Rob highlights the use  of  small sites for link building - essential reading for both in-house and agency link builders alike.

PPC

Are you prioritising PPC tasks effectively? Andrew Goodman looks at the Long Tail of Paid Search Account Effort over at Search Engine Land.

Meanwhile, over at PPC Hero Andrew explains PPC Metrics which all Campaign Managers Should Understand - an excellent post for those new to managing PPC campaigns.

Social Media

If you’re starting a corporate twitter account should you use a logo or a picture of an employee as the avatar? Great thoughts from Kristy Bolsinger – also check out the discussion in the comments.

Stuck for link bait ideas? Check out Lucy’s top ten list over at Distilled.

Blogging

I just love a ‘how to’ post. Wanna know how to add a custom default gravatar to your blog? Check out Sugarae’s post on the Outspoken Media blog.

Aaaannnnd Finally, Friday’s (ahem Tuesday’s) Funny

Tango (a soft drink brand) have launched a new advertising campaign, and they are really tickling me – here’s my favourite:

To see more of their really rather wonderful campaign posters clickety click.

Have a lovely week – I’ll be back on Friday

Welcome to the final part of our introduction to PPC. If you’ve not already done so you may like to look over parts one, two, three, four and five.

So, by now you should have your account structure nicely planned out – it’s now time to write your ads and get that campaign live.

Back in part three we talked you through setting up your account, so you’ll now need to either login to that account, or if you’ve not done so already create your account.

Step One – Targeting Languages & Location

First you will be asked which languages, and which locations you wish to target. So, pick a campaign and input the relevant details.

Step Two – Creating Adverts

You’ll then be asked to create your first ad. This feels a little backward, as you haven’t inputted any keywords yet. Don’t worry – just pick an adgroup – you’ll be asked to input the keywords after you’ve created your ad.

You’ll see that you have a strict character limit of 25 for the headline, and 35 for the following two lines. Ultimately it’s all about targeting. You want your ad copy to match your keywords as closely as possible. Try to:

1. Mention the keywords targeted
2. Make the ad relevant
3. Add in an offer or call to action to encourage people to click

It’s not a bad idea to have a look at other advertisers to make sure that your ad is competitive – for example offering a 10% discount for online orders sounds great, until your competitor starts offering a 20% discount.

It’s all about testing and learning. You won’t know what works until you try. Always create a minimum of two ads for each adgroup so you can see which ad performs better.

Step Three – Keywords

Now you can cut and paste the keywords which relate to the ad you’ve just created directly from word or excel. Or type them in if you’ve formulated your keyword lists on paper.

Step Four – Pricing

Again here – this is a little confusing - you’ll need to input the daily budget for the campaign, (i.e. the amount you want to spend on all of the adgroups in the campaign) and the maximum cost per click you are willing to pay for the keywords in your adgroup.

Right now I would recommend that you do NOT bid on the content network. To do this, simply leave the box marked CPC Content Bid blank.

Step Five – Billing

You’ll then be asked for your billing details. Again, I know this feels kind of strange – you haven’t finished setting up yet have you? Don’t worry. Just complete your billing details, and you’ll then get the opportunity to continue to build your adgroups and/or further campaigns.

 

Lather, Rinse, Repeat

You should now find yourself in the Adwords interface. You’ll now need to input all of your other adgroups and campaigns. Until you’re 100% ready to go I’d recommend pausing all campaigns – you can then go live once everything is inputted.

 

Track Conversions…

If your customers can convert online, it’s really important to track this. If you’re using the new adwords interface, click on the tools tab, then on to conversion tracking. If you’re using the old interface, you can click directly on conversion tracking it’s the fourth option on the campaign management tab.

 

Don’t Go Live Yet! Top Tips to Save the Pennies…

When you’re starting out, it’s easy to blow your budget on clicks you don’t want – avoid this by following our top tips:

1. Make sure you’re geo-targeting the right area – if you’re based in the UK, you probably don’t want US clicks – check your campaign settings
2. Check that you’re not on the content network (unless you want to be) – again check your campaign settings
3. Add negative keywords – remember when we did keyword research in part four we were left with unrelated terms? Add these as negative keywords to prevent your ads from appearing for unrelated terms – you can add negative keywords at a campaign or an ad group level.
4. Consider keyword matching options – for further details see Google’s explanation

Ok, so you’re good to go? Unpause those campaigns and make it live!

 

One Final Note

Remember – everything you’re doing right now is a test. You’ll find that some keywords work better than others, and likewise some ads work better than others. The key is to test and learn, then refine your campaign accordingly.

 

 

Image credit Miss Turner

Yesterday Google announced that the click measurement systems utilised in Adwords have now been accredited by the Media Rating Council (MRC).

This means that Google’s click measurement technology adheres to the industry standards for counting interactive advertising clicks and that the processes supporting the technology are accurate. It also covers how invalid/fraudulent clicks are detected and handled.

The audit was conducted by an independent firm on behalf of the MRC.

This is excellent news for advertisers who are concerned about click fraud, (when ads are deliberately clicked upon over and over again, simply to cost an advertiser money) as this accreditation demonstrates Google’s commitment to accurately reporting clicks, and handling fraudulent clicks appropriately.

Read Google’s statement on the Inside Adwords blog.