Make Mine Instant!

So Google announced yesterday the launch of a service they are dubbing “search faster than the speed of type”! Calling itself Google Instant, it has had Twitter and the blogosphere flooded with people from the search industry fretting about how this innovation could affect their campaigns.

If you haven’t tried it yet, Google Instant automatically populates the results page (known in the industry as SERPs) whilst you type. No longer do you have to press the Enter key on your keyboard, or the ‘I’m feeling lucky’ button to see the results of what you’re searching for. Google themselves estimate that Instant will save users anything up to 5 seconds per search. This may not sound like a lot, but these seconds all add up when you consider how many searches we conduct through the search engine each day.

But let’s face it; Google has done this for several reasons. Firstly, it’s innovative, and part of Google’s brand is based on their innovative and intuitive products. Automatic search suggestion as you type has long been with the three main search engines, but none of them have hitherto showed a full search result based on the first letter typed into the search box!

Secondly, it’s a time saving tool which will lure users back to the Google home page. Google search has been increasingly appearing on different corners of the web for a while (perhaps more prominently, in the right hand corner of our web browsers), and these handy shortcuts have steered people away from using the Google homepage as their search starting point.

This tool is highly dynamic and potentially game changing for those who work in search or even advertise on Google. It means that some Pay Per Click (PPC) adverts may only appear for a split second on the results page, as Google changes the visible results according to what the user is typing. This could affect PPC and SEO campaigns in three main ways. Firstly, it could mean lower Click Through Rates (CTR) on Google Adwords. For SEO, It could also mean increase the importance to rank high on short tail organic keywords. Finally, it could also further decline the importance of misspellings as Instant automatically corrects

At present, Instant is only available to users logged into a Google Account, who are located in certain countries, and who are searching from the Google home page. And because of its current level of restricted access it is hard to see Instant changing anything from an SEO and PPC perspective in the immediate future. But as with all things that Google does, the proof is in the pudding. Time will tell as to how this ground breaking change to Google’s core product will affect those who advertise with it, and wish to rank high in its search results.

SEO

Rand Fishkin explains how search engines judge the value of a link - essential reading.

Social Media

Over at 10e20 Rebecca Kelley teaches Social Media - McHammer style, 2 legit 2 quit - marvellous.

PPC

Chelsea Blacker shares an adwords tip – including your keywords in display URL subdomains - definitely worth a test, methinks. 

Usability

Tom Critchlow has penned an excellent post on improving conversion rates, and deserves a link for the title alone

Aaannnd Finally, Friday’s Saturday’s Funny

Courtesy of xkcd:

Image credit Flawka

What am I blethering on about? Negative keywords.

So, what are negative keywords?

According to Google:

“Negative keywords are a core component of a successful keyword list. Adding a negative keyword to your ad group or campaign means that your ads won’t show for search queries containing that term. By filtering out unwanted impressions, negative keywords can help you reach the most appropriate prospects, reduce your cost-per-click (CPC), and increase your ROI.”

Still not sure? Let’s imagine that you sell iPods. Therefore, you’re bidding on terms like iPod, the various models and colours and so on. However, you don’t give them away for free. By including ‘free’ as negative match, you’re ads will not show for searches such as ‘free iPod’.

Sounds sensible, right? And yet, I see many campaigns with either no negative keywords at all, or a woefully inadequate list.

The good news is, that sometimes – you can get away with it. Google applies a relevancy algorithm to every keyword in your campaign, which it compares to the keyword entered by the searcher.

Over time, Google will recognise that certain search terms do not illicit clicks and so over time, you will automatically stop appearing for these search terms. This does take time though, and in the meantime your campaigns will suffer.

However of course, this assumes that you don’t get clicks. If you get clicks your ads will continue to show, and you’ll be wasting money. Bad times.

So, I’m guessing you’re now sold on the need to include negative keywords – but how do you go about it?

Adding Negatives

You can add negative keywords either at a campaign or an adgroup level. Using the new interface, simply click on the campaign you want to add negatives to, then click on the keywords tab. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and you’ll see a link for negative keywords. Here you can elect to add them either at the campaign, or ad group level.

As with the keywords you bid on you can elect to add them as negative broad, negative phrase or negative exact match:

Negative Broad – this will prevent your ads from showing if the keyword (or words) you select appear anywhere in the search query

e.g. If you negative broad match Van, your ads will not appear for any search queries which include the word van

Negative Phrase – this will prevent your ads from showing if the phrase you selected appears in the order you’ve entered it anywhere in the search query

e.g. If you negative phrase match van insurance, your ads will not appear for the search query ‘van insurance’ but will appear for search queries such as ‘insurance for van’

Negative Exact – this will only prevent your ads from showing for the precise phrase which you have selected.

e.g. If you negative exact match van insurance your ads will not appear for the search query ‘van insurance’ but will appear for search queries such as ‘insurance for van’ and ‘van insurance quote’

How to find negative keywords to add to your campaigns

Most you’ll be able to figure out all by yourself

The key question to ask yourself is what don’t you do? Think about products and services which are related to your sector, but you do not offer.

Also think about how you sell – for example if you don’t give things away free – you’ll need to add ‘free’ as negative match. Likewise if you don’t lease or hire you’ll need to add those. Conversely if you only lease or hire you’ll need to include ‘buy’ as negative match.

Other negatives worth considering include:

Job Seekers – consider including: career, careers, jobs, job, etc

Courses/Qualifications – classes, courses, qualifications etc

DIY – DIY, how to, etc

Repair – repair, repairs etc

Second Hand / Antiques - second hand, antique, antiques, etc

Software – software, freeware, downloads

Google’s keyword tool is also a great source, as it demonstrates the sort of searches which Google deem relevant to your selected keywords. Simply copy a representative chunk of your keywords into the keyword suggestion tool. Then go through the list of suggestions generated by the tool and include any irrelevant ones as negatives.

Likewise the search query report will tell you which search queries have elicited clicks. To run the report:

1. Click on the ‘reporting tab and select ‘reports’.
2. Click on create new report.
3. Select ‘Search Query Report’
4. Select adgroup from the drop down menu (for some reason this defaults to ad, but in my view the report’s much easier to use if it’s filtered by adgroup)
5. Select an appropriate length of time e.g. one month.
6. Hit ‘create report’ and Bob’s your Mother’s Brother

Most of the search queries will be relevant (hopefully!), but add any irrelevant ones as negatives.

I hope you’ve found this useful – if you’ve any tips of your own you’d care to share, please do so in the comments.

Image credit Fuyoh

SEO

Danny Dover has written an excellent guide to moving domains - definitely bookmark -worthy!

Social Media

Over at Search Engine Land Ciaran Norris highlights the spate of brands using social media as a band aid and urges companies to stop saying sorry and start getting really social.

PPC

Always wondered why Adwords conversion tracking doesn’t match up to the conversion tracking in Analytics? Matthew from Receptional does a top notch job of explaining the discrepancy.

George Michie talks about his research collaborationwith direct mail practitioners in an attempt to ascertain whether or not key learnings from the traditional catalogue shopping industry can be similarly applied to PPC campaigns.

Aaaannnnd Finally, Friday’s Funny

Got some time to kill?  Waste a few minutes clicking on this Pringles Banner ad (don’t worry, you’ll not be taken anywhere dodgy) – it’s a really rather mavellous way to waste some time – hat tip to Ciaran for this one.

Image credit Yogma.

News

You can’t fail to have heard about the Microsoft – Yahoo deal which was struck on 29th July which will see Microsoft’s ‘Bing’ power Yahoo’s searches. Will it threaten Google’s dominance? In the UK it’s unlikely to, but it may mean that some advertisers elect trial advertising on Yahoo/Bing – time will tell.

SEO

Over at SEOmoz Rand’s written a fantastic summary on the implications of the Microsoft-Yahoo deal for SEO.

Meanwhile, a month on since Google’s ‘Vince’ Update, Richard from SEOgadget takes a gander at the results for the search term ‘car insurance’ – and asks brand or no brand?

Social Media

Matt Churchill talks about ‘Auntie’ getting all social media savvy with the launch of Shownar; a great post about how the BBC have been embracing social media.

Lisa Barone asks if Social Media is Becoming a Weapon - and how you might try to handle an attack on your brand. As usual, it’s facinating reading – and the comments are well worth a read too.

PPC

Thinking about outsourcing your PPC activity to an agency? Over at PPCHero Amber’s written a great post on the 10 questions you should ask when looking for a new agency.

Media

Matthew Robson caused a stir when he wrote a memo for Morgan Stanley on How Teenagers Consume Media, interesting reading, but I much preferred Dan Wilson’s response: How 31 Year Olds Consume Media :)

 Aaaannnnd Finally, Friday’s Funny

 Simon’s Cat

Image credit Unhindered by Talent

SEO

If like me, you think link building is the toughest part of any SEO project, you’d do well to read Garrett French’s post via Search Engine Land on how to research, create and distribute highly linkable content.

Still focusing on the link building theme, Shaun Anderson of Hobo-Web talks about reciprocal links, and whether or not they should be avoided.

PPC

Get some great tips from PPC Hero on PPC landing page optimisation - sterling work from Amber there.

Social Media

Over at Econsultancy, Patricio Robles asks does social media lead to better financial results for companies? As he quite rightly points out, correlation is not necessarily causation – essential reading.

Also well worth a look is the A-B-C’s of Social Media - not least because as Dr Pete said, they’ve come up with an ‘x’ which isn’t xylophone

Aaaannnnd Finally, Friday’s Thursday’s Funny

This brilliant picture is from passiveaggressivenotes (click the link to see it in it’s full glory). Hat tip to Rob - genius  

‘Thursday’ image credit adamwilson

All too often I see campaigns with impeccable structure, great keyword selection, judicious use of match types and negative matches and yet; they stumble at the final hurdle. Their ads just aren’t standing up (or standing out) versus the competition.

Consequently, as their click through rates are poor, their quality score is suffering and they’re paying over the odds for their clicks. Bad times.

So, just how good are your ads?

Check out the competition:

So you need to look at your ads in situ – here you’ll be able to see what the competition are doing, and indeed how your ads stack up. Now, you don’t want to look at them live, as you’ll be generating impressions and no clicks, which might hurt your quality score even more. Google have a handy solution – the ad preview tool.

So check you’ve selected the correct geo-targeting options so you can see your ads alongside your competitors, pop in your search query and you’re good to go. Here are some things to look out for:

Offers:
 

Click to enlarge

I’ve chosen to use ‘double glazing’ to illustrate my point as it’s a very competitive ‘offer driven’ sector. On the page you’ll see ads featuring 40% off, 35% off, 70% off, 65% off, buy one get one free, etc, etc.

Now, imagine that you’re offering 35% off – I’m guessing that your click through rates might just suffer in the face of such competition.

So what do you do? Assuming you can’t offer 70% off to stay ahead of the competition, what should you say instead?

My view would be to create a new ad to test. Avoid the whole x% off messaging altogether as it looks like you can’t compete. Instead make a general mention of low pricing, or a sale, then focus on another key benefit – e.g. interest free credit; no quibble guarantees; lower energy bills; etc. Test it versus the current ad, and see what happens.

Humour:

Click to enlarge

Alternatively, you might look for other ways to make your ad stand out versus the competition. Above I’ve shown an example of a search for ppc agencies. Now to my mind, whilst the ads shown are fine, they’re a little bit dry for my taste. Therefore, when I was creating a campaign for Gravytrain I elected to inject a little humour into the mix. Now clearly, depending on the product or service you’re promoting that might not be the way to go, but we’ve seen some success, so I would suggest a test.

Be Topical:

Again here this won’t necessarily be applicable to all products and services, however sometimes mentioning something topical can make your ad stand out versus the competition. We tested a set of ads which referenced the credit crunch for one of our insurance clients, which saw significantly higher click through rates than their previous best performing ad. Interestingly conversion rates also held up well.

Whatever you decide to do, we wouldn’t recommend making wholesale changes to your ads – instead leave your best performer live and create an alternative and see how it works for you. In order to give your new ad some exposure you’ll need to select: ‘Rotate – show ads more evenly’ within the ad serving options of your campaign settings.

Hopefully you’ve found this useful – if you’ve some additional tips you’d care to share please let me know in the comments.

SEO

Looking to build links with relevant blogs in your niche? Read Lucy’s guide on finding niche blogs over at SEOmoz.

Are your title tags in good order? Check out Marc’s guide to optimising title tags over at Bruce Clay Australasia.

PPC

Thinking about restructuring your Adwords campaigns? Be sure to pop over to PPC Hero and read their killer post on the affect of moving keywords in Adwords.

Social Media

Jason Murphy writes an open letter to United Airlines explaining how they might deal with their current reputation management issue - he’s come up with some fabulous ideas, it’s well worth a read.

Blogging

Think writing Guest Posts for other blogs is a waste of your precious time? Think again – read Lisa’s take on the benefits of guest blogging over at the Outspoken Media blog. 

Aaaannnnd Finally, Friday’s Funny

This week’s funny comes courtesy of Dilbert – enjoy & have a lovely weekend!

Image credit faeryboots

SEO

Joanna Butler talks Gorillas, Meerkats & Michael Jackson and the importance of generating ‘buzz’ around your brand.

PPC

Over at Search Engine Land, Doug Drees comes up trumps once again with his excellent tips on Ad Scheduling to maximise your PPC results.

Social Media

Still not quite got your head around link bait? Stephan Spencer explains all.

Is that celeb you’re following on Twitter the real deal? Ciaran talks about the problem of hoax accounts on Twitter.

Blogging

Should your CEO be Blogging? Lisa says no. Thought provoking, funny, and so true… but you didn’t hear me say that – ok?

Aaaannnnd Finally, Friday’s Funny

Wondering what SEO’s do on Twitter all day long? Well, after a long day, they like nothing more than to talk Princess Bride

Have a lovely weekend!

Image credit Jonathan Beard

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