Adwords advice please...

[J.D. Landscaping]

Hi folks,

Just a quick one, Is it advisable to add the names of towns and the county we work into to my adwords "keywords"

ie,

"landscaping" would become for instance " landscaping Preston "

or " Landscaping lancashire "


I have the location set to 200 mile radius also, as the larger companies etc will be based, possibly, outside the area. Is this good practice ?

Regards Dave

[directmarketingadvice]

Dave,

Are you in Cumbria? If so, you might have a problem.

I have a client in Cumbria and he says that, because you guys are in the internet "dark ages", you don't have a lot of dedicated broadband in the county.

As a result, Google thinks many Cumbrians live in a different part of England.

(I used to have this when I was with AOL. Google thought I lived in the South of England - I was actually in Edinburgh)

So, if you're focusing your ads in a geographic area, you might find that a lot of people in that area won't see your ads.

(Google bases Geo targetting on IP addresses)

So, I'd advise you have two campaigns:

(1) A local campaign that uses the non-geo terms - e.g. "landscaping"

and

(2) A campaign for England that uses geo-terms such as "landscaping Preston".

Hope this helps,

Steve

PS If anything in this post is confusing, just ask.

[J.D. Landscaping]

Cheers Steve, funnily enough, I had just read your pdf on ppc and wondered whether I should try two different ads.

If I dont get the results I'm looking for is this a sector you could work with ? As I noticed you don't take on projects you feel you wont get results.


Regards Dave.


Yes we are in deepest darkest cumberland ;-)

[directmarketingadvice]

Cheers Steve, funnily enough, I had just read your pdf on ppc and wondered whether I should try two different ads.

I was wondering where you were getting your good ideas from. :)

If I dont get the results I'm looking for is this a sector you could work with ? As I noticed you don't take on projects you feel you wont get results.

If you get the content on your site right, you'll probably find it's pretty easy. I can't imagine there's much relevant competition.

However, if you don't find it's doing well, drop me a line.

Steve

PS If you're going for "landscaping", remember to add negative keywords like "jobs", "job", "vacancies", "vacancy" etc.

[J.D. Landscaping]

So, I'd advise you have two campaigns:

(1) A local campaign that uses the non-geo terms - e.g. "landscaping"

and

(2) A campaign for England that uses geo-terms such as "landscaping Preston".

PS If anything in this post is confusing, just ask.

I have added the " county " to each keyword and may add more specific town names at a later date, which I think will do for the " England " campaign ? please advise if that is not correct ?

One more thing, should the search terms be exact or will a broad match be sufficient ?

Many thanks Dave

[J.D. Landscaping]

The keywords I have edited to include my county, have " low search volume " and apparently are now suspended.

Is this normal ? and if so, how can i get around it ?

Dave

[directmarketingadvice]

The keywords I have edited to include my county, have " low search volume " and apparently are now suspended.

Is this normal ? and if so, how can i get around it ?

Dave

You'll find that few people search on their county compared to searching on their town or on their area.

("area" being part of a county - e.g. in Kent, there's "Medway")

Steve

[J.D. Landscaping]

Thanks Steve, I will alter that now.

[J.D. Landscaping]

The " area ", ie town etc is still recording a low search volume and has been suspended, so I'm guessing that I will just have to go with what is allowed and hope for the best ?


Dave

[J.D. Landscaping]

Edit /\ /\ /\ /\ When I say suspended, I mean around 75% not all of them.

[directmarketingadvice]

The " area ", ie town etc is still recording a low search volume and has been suspended, so I'm guessing that I will just have to go with what is allowed and hope for the best ?

Why are they suspended? I don't remember the last time I saw a keyword suspended.

(in fact, I thought google had stopped doing that)

What reason do they give?

Steve

[J.D. Landscaping]

Example keyword - " grounds Maintenance lancaster " (not actual location )

Reason for suspension - " low search volume "

Thats more or less all it says Steve.

Could it be that we are well and truly in the dark ages up this end of the country and as such there really is limited searches of this nature :|

[directmarketingadvice]

Example keyword - " grounds Maintenance lancaster " (not actual location )

Reason for suspension - " low search volume "

It's quite common to see that next to a keyword, but it doesn't normally have "suspended" next to it.

Steve

[J.D. Landscaping]

It's quite common to see that next to a keyword, but it doesn't normally have "suspended" next to it.

Steve

Can't see the exact wording at the minute as I decided to start again with the ads, but thats pretty much what it said in the pop up box.

Will try again later and report back :)

[J.D. Landscaping]

Exact wording.....


Low search volume
This keyword has generated very little search traffic on Google properties. In which case, we suspend your keyword. A keyword can have low search volume for a variety of reasons, including a lack of relevance to users' searches because of keyword obscurity, specificity or a significant misspelling of the intended keyword.

[directmarketingadvice]

Exact wording.....


Low search volume
This keyword has generated very little search traffic on Google properties. In which case, we suspend your keyword. A keyword can have low search volume for a variety of reasons, including a lack of relevance to users' searches because of keyword obscurity, specificity or a significant misspelling of the intended keyword.

From Google:

Keyword status: Low search volume

"Low search volume" keywords are keywords that are associated with very little search traffic on Google properties. In which case, we suspend your keyword. This status is only temporary and these keywords will be reactivated if we find that they could start delivering traffic.

A keyword can have low search volume for a variety of reasons, including a lack of relevance to users' searches because of keyword obscurity, specificity or a significant misspelling of the intended keyword. Keeping these keywords out of the ad auction helps AdWords serve ads more efficiently and reduces the volume of keywords on our system. Before stopping a keyword from joining the auction, our system evaluates the number of searches on a given keyword worldwide over the past twelve months. It takes very little search traffic for a keyword to be unsuspended, and for business practice reasons, we don't disclose our keyword traffic thresholds. Our system checks and updates this status once per week.

When you have a keyword with low search volume, you have a couple of options:

1. Don't do anything - if more users start searching for your keyword, we'll reactivate it. This is particularly relevant in the event that you're advertising a new brand term or some newly-launched product.
2. Use the keyword tool to try and find additional keyword ideas. It's possible that your keyword is too specific or obscure.

Hope this helps,

Steve

[J.D. Landscaping]

From Google:



Hope this helps,

Steve

Cheers Steve.


Last question, if you don't mind of course....


Does a good " quality score " say 6 / 10 upwards make for a good keyword in terms of ctr, in your opinion ?

[directmarketingadvice]

Cheers Steve.


Last question, if you don't mind of course....


Does a good " quality score " say 6 / 10 upwards make for a good keyword in terms of ctr, in your opinion ?

Quality score is 60-65% based on ctr. So, it's more the other way around.

i.e. having a good ctr will give you a good quality score.

(right now, you might just have preliminary quality scores - i.e. google doesn't know enough about you or your campaign to know what sort of ctr you will get, so it has to estimate)

Steve

[J.D. Landscaping]

The local ad campaign is up and running and the impressions are at the very top of the page which is exactly where I hoped they would be.

However, I'm just a bit concerned that I may not get the national campaign working aswell though, mainly because of the suspension of the area specific keywords. Are there any other ways I can target our working area on a national level, or maybe I should just trial the campaign as you suggest in your white paper.:|

[directmarketingadvice]

However, I'm just a bit concerned that I may not get the national campaign working aswell though, mainly because of the suspension of the area specific keywords.

They're not really suspended. Google is really just saying they don't expect there to be traffic.

Are there any other ways I can target our working area on a national level,

You could use yahoo, msn. You can look for relevant local sites that run adsense ads and do site placement. (i.e. target those sites so your ads show there). You can do the content network generally.

You can also look to expand your keyword list in both campaigns.

And, of course, there's a whole big world out there that has nothing to do with the search engines.

Steve

[admagic]

Dont know if anyone has said this or the op has understood -

Location targetting is essential.

He seems to be only targetting those who type "landscaping barrow" or whatever..

He needs to target everyone who types just "landscaping" in the barrow region by selecting the locations the ad appears.....

allowing of course for steves remarks on negative keywords ..

Who will generally be far more numerous than those who actually type "landscaping barrow"

Out of interest, can JD confirm he is on the case of using google local?

PSST...dont tell anyone I said this...but with different phone numbers you can appear on google local maps for different locations, and

cjd voip will give you four phone numbers - or as a cheap skate our good friends at O2 are happy to give you four sim cards for phones.

Did I say that? oops....

[J.D. Landscaping]

Admagic, We have 2 campaigns running at present.

1. This is local and doesn't use geo based keywords ie ( keyword=landscaper ) and the area is set to 40km from my postcode....

2. This is UK wide and uses geo based keywords ( keyword = landscaper carnforth )

I think I got it right ?

We do use Google local, but many thanks for the voip tip. I already use 1 number provided by CJD, I'm guessing the 4 you speak of are extra ?


Many thanks once more.

Dave

[admagic]

Admagic, We have 2 campaigns running at present.

1. This is local and doesn't use geo based keywords ie ( keyword=landscaper ) and the area is set to 40km from my postcode....

2. This is UK wide and uses geo based keywords ( keyword = landscaper carnforth )

I think I got it right ?

We do use Google local, but many thanks for the voip tip. I already use 1 number provided by CJD, I'm guessing the 4 you speak of are extra ?


Many thanks once more.

Dave

Are you placement targetting too?

Finding sites about your subject, and targetting google ads to those...
You can image target them on cpm- you need to have low tolerance for sites that dont give clickthru, but in principle you can get far cheaper clicks and conversions this way than regular ppc.

It takes more detective work to find good sites - but in many cases you can get more good traffic that way, than on search.

also think marketing process...if you want to target landscape design sites, you may have to give some good info free to capture a name, because you may catch them before they are ready to buy.

[J.D. Landscaping]

I have looked at a few sites that are the bigger names if you like and they aren't signed up to cpm, which suprised me as I'm sure I've seen ads on them in the past.

Never thought about the Design sites though, so will do some investigation work on those.

Many thanks.

[admagic]

I have looked at a few sites that are the bigger names if you like and they aren't signed up to cpm, which suprised me as I'm sure I've seen ads on them in the past.

Never thought about the Design sites though, so will do some investigation work on those.

Many thanks.

google has its own inbuilt tools to find sites, although people like me use paid tools which search for me.

googles own tools are ok, if you are careful.
- the key is not to take the sites blindly.

look at each one google recommends for relevance, and only choose those which are relevant and where there are prominent ads on the first fold - I then use cpm not cpc , targetting pages not sites - and - I allow each one 100 impressions. If I dont get a click in that time, I chop them off the list - paring down 50 sites to say 5-10 that work. doing things that way - often gets me click conversions at less than 30% of the price of search ppc.

it is more painful, but the results can often be much better (or worse) than search ppc - so testing is the only way.


-just looking at who ranks for your terms is a start

for example landscaping.about.com ranks high

- also alexa /keywordspy can help....

[J.D. Landscaping]

Does anybody know why 1 of my campaigns would have 2 clicks, but no data to verify which keywords they came from,

The table then has this in the - clicks total column.

( Total - all deleted keywords 2 )


Seems the keywords were clicked on then removed ?

But I'm still be charged for them :|

[J.D. Landscaping]

Google stats for these sites that are relevant to me have a impression rate of between 0 - 10k and to be honest none of them look like they fit imo, The sites I would like to advertise on look like they book the space up internally.

Dave


google has its own inbuilt tools to find sites, although people like me use paid tools which search for me.

googles own tools are ok, if you are careful.
- the key is not to take the sites blindly.

look at each one google recommends for relevance, and only choose those which are relevant and where there are prominent ads on the first fold - I then use cpm not cpc , targetting pages not sites - and - I allow each one 100 impressions. If I dont get a click in that time, I chop them off the list - paring down 50 sites to say 5-10 that work. doing things that way - often gets me click conversions at less than 30% of the price of search ppc.

it is more painful, but the results can often be much better (or worse) than search ppc - so testing is the only way.


-just looking at who ranks for your terms is a start

for example landscaping.about.com ranks high

- also alexa /keywordspy can help....

[admagic]

dont necessarily trust google broad brush stats....on the 0-10k

the fact is - that site landscaping.about.com ranks #1 for landscaping which gets 10000 searches a day, typically 4000 of those go to #1 - even if only 1% of that is in your capture area , that is still valuable traffic


BTW looking at it , landscaping is a relatively weak SEO term - and whilst it would not be an overnight success - it would lonly take a few months to get there - if you bought the right domain to do it.

ed - just checked - exact traffic is a lot less. Still worth a look though, to see how many impressions that page does get.

[J.D. Landscaping]

Admagic, After a bit of searching I found around 5 -6 sites including About landscape .com, so I will see how these fair for perhaps a month or so.

As for the domain name I already have a cumbria based domain that I have just launched, It's for a different term though, a bit more specific if you like.

Can I buy another domain name and use it to get hits on our new domain, a kind of redirect if you know what I mean ?


Dave

[admagic]

Admagic, After a bit of searching I found around 5 -6 sites including About landscape .com, so I will see how these fair for perhaps a month or so.

As for the domain name I already have a cumbria based domain that I have just launched, It's for a different term though, a bit more specific if you like.

Can I buy another domain name and use it to get hits on our new domain, a kind of redirect if you know what I mean ?


Dave

Multiple sites are good.

Social bookmarking etc sites dont like promotion of commercial stuff.

So having one or more keyword related blog sites writing interesting stuff that can be bookmarked - on a different c class address, with links to the money site is a good strategy, and will help with links to get rankings for the money site.

Give people what they are looking for, if they are looking for design ideas - then give them a downloadable tips guide or something. Dont try to sell them if the mindset is further back... then start giving them info, mixed in with a few promotions when you have their id.