Your Adwords Questions Answered

[Ad Republic]

As the title suggests, any Adwords (or general PPC) questions you have, feel free to fire them over and I'll see if I can help you!

About me - I've been in PPC for over 8 years, managed high profile accounts such as Party Poker and Philips and run a boutique agency in London called Ad Republic.

 

[intelligentppc]

Always good to see people willing to help on here. Your website looks great by the way.

Mike

 

[Whittie]

Display Network ads...

A site I look after had a traffic spike due to Adwords in May '14, specifically the Display Network.

• In May 2014, there is a total of 4337 placements.
• In April 2014, there is a total of 1561 placements.

With nearly 3000 new placements where the ad could be shown, would you be able to explain as to how and why this happened, they were automatic additions.

I ran through the change history, and nothing I did explains the extra placements. Auto add placements was turned on, but had been on for 12 months with no more than 50 extra per month. The only change that could somehow correlate, is I added a mobile phone extension on ads displayed on mobile devices.

The significant extra cost has been of no benefit to the campaign, as the advert displayed on various apps, forums and irrelevant websites.

I'm extremely confident with PPC as a whole, and look after some fantastic clients, but this had me completely stumped. Would be great to hear your thoughts.

 

[Ad Republic]

Hi Whittie,

Good question - Firstly, can I just confirm that your bid stayed the same? Also am I right to assume your campaign used Contextual targeting, not interests or topics or anything like that?

One possible explanation would be the inclusion of mobile apps. Pull a report of your placement and compare them. You may well find that you're targeting a host of apps that you weren't previously.

Another explanation may be that a competitor put either paused their display activity or reduced their bids. If you have similar keyword targeting, in theory you could have taken their spot on multiple sites.

Let me know how you get on with comparing the placements.

Clive

 

[Ad Republic]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your comments! Funnily enough we're actually in the process of giving the site a bit of a refresh. I've always been keen on the brick wall, but I think there probably too many sections at the moment.

I see you're quite active on here, I take it you're a PPC consultant?

Best,
Clive

 

[intelligentppc]

Yes Clive, for finance & insurance clients mainly having been in lead gen/affiliate marketing for years.

Mike

 

[Ad Republic]

OK cool, good to meet you!

 

[intelligentppc]

Can you tell me please if Adword advertising is good to get enough leads for a Credit repair offer?

How much is a lead worth to you?

 

[Carboy]

If i want to generate the same amount of leads using PPC as we generate organically how would i find out what the cost would be and can you tell how many clicks it has taken to get a user to fill in their details and complete a submission i.e. Email address contact details etc ?

 

[intelligentppc]

If i want to generate the same amount of leads using PPC as we generate organically how would i find out what the cost would be and can you tell how many clicks it has taken to get a user to fill in their details and complete a submission i.e. Email address contact details etc ?

You need to add Google Conversion Tracking Code to your thank you page - it's very simple and allows you to separate Adwords leads from other leads. It also gives you cost per lead conversion statistics.

 

[Carboy]

Ah i see thanks .
Also how would i get an idea on what the cost would be of say 1 particular keyword to rank in the top 3 spots ?

 

[intelligentppc]

Keyword Planner > Get Traffic Forecasts

 

[Carboy]

Yes got it i remember now thanks .
How accurate do you think that is ?
I remember last time i ran a campaign it cost more than the estimates to achieve the top 3 positions .

 

[intelligentppc]

if they submit their email and phone number then $5 and if they Call then Its $7 Each

I'd say that was too low unless you go incredibly long-tail but you'll have to sacrifice volume to see a return. Probably not worth it for such a low-value lead.

 

[intelligentppc]

Yes got it i remember now thanks .
How accurate do you think that is ?
I remember last time i ran a campaign it cost more than the estimates to achieve the top 3 positions .

It's hit and miss but it can give you a rough idea. This sounds like rubbish advice but testing is the only way to find out for yourself. If you can increase your quality score your bid will come down and you'll retain position.

 

[Carboy]

Yes i thought that, just got a £75.00 voucher so i might give it a go, is there a easy way of telling if the enquiry comes from PPC or Organic ? separate landing page ?

It's hit and miss but it can give you a rough idea. This sounds like rubbish advice but testing is the only way to find out for yourself. If you can increase your quality score your bid will come down and you'll retain position.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

Yes i thought that, just got a £75.00 voucher so i might give it a go, is there a easy way of telling if the enquiry comes from PPC or Organic ? separate landing page ?

If you're just looking for totals, then google analytics will tell you (if you have the 2 linked and autotagging set to "yes" in adwords).

If you want to know about particular leads, the simplest solution is to have a hidden field within your web form that reads the url and whether the visitor is ppc or not.

Steve

 

[Carboy]

If you're just looking for totals, then google analytics will tell you (if you have the 2 linked and autotagging set to "yes" in adwords).

If you want to know about particular leads, the simplest solution is to have a hidden field within your web form that reads the url and whether the visitor is ppc or not.

Steve

Many thanks thats useful to know and makes sense .

 

[intelligentppc]

I would recommend a separate landing page for PPC anyway.

 

[leveldisc]

Any advice to someone starring out as an adwords consultant ? (10 years in house experience, qualified google partner)

 

[Ad Republic]

Any advice to someone starring out as an adwords consultant ? (10 years in house experience, qualified google partner)

Yes, leverage sites such as Elance and People Per Hour to build your client base and reputation. It's how I started, and now we've grown into an established agency.

 

[intelligentppc]

Any advice to someone starring out as an adwords consultant ? (10 years in house experience, qualified google partner)

Do your own PPC affiliate stuff on the side, as the income from that is mainly passive.

 

[leveldisc]

Do your own PPC affiliate stuff on the side, as the income from that is mainly passive.

Thanks. I'm actually already doing that and have been for 10 years ! It would be nice to talk to people again, so looking to diversify.

I've had some interest after a bit of local networking, but I'm surprised how little business people know about PPC generally and adwords specifically. Especially where people either don't have the time or skills to do it themselves or the budget to employ an agency. Whether this type of client is scaleable I'm not sure.

 

[AllUpHere]

The problem with selling PPC services to small businesses is that half the time they have had a half- hearted go at setting up an Adwords campaign themselves, it didn't work, so they conclude PPC doesn't work.

In my opinion, selling PPC services is more about having the right kind of clients, than simply finding anyone willing to pay for your services.

 

[intelligentppc]

The problem with selling PPC services to small businesses is that half the time they have had a half- hearted go at setting up an Adwords campaign themselves, it didn't work, so they conclude PPC doesn't work.

In my opinion, selling PPC services is more about having the right kind of clients, than simply finding anyone willing to pay for your services.

Totally agree. You need ones with a decent level of spend too, otherwise you need a high volume of clients which makes things very messy.

 

[AllUpHere]

Totally agree. You need ones with a decent level of spend too

And also a scalable business model. There is no point having a client who can only manage an extra couple of 000's worth of work each year, as your percentage won't be worth having.

 

[Redd]

Hi i run a Driveway and Landscaping Company in Edinburgh, to master google adwords would absolutely set me apart from the rest who ain't doing a whole lot in terms of marketing and pro active seeking of business, I do lots more than google adwords however I appreciate what it could do for me, can you tell me best way forward with google adwords, I recently set up adwords express with £650 monthly budget, they estimated between 1277-2128 clicks? is this accurate?? 1500 clicks for example I would guess would get me a minimum of 40-50 calls which would be like gold dust to me for £650. am I missing something here? is 40-50 calls unreasonable? I paused the adwords express thing for the moment until I understand it better as i want to use remarking along with it and also want to monitor where clicks are coming from which you can't do on adwords express only adwords

 

[leveldisc]

Hi Redd,

It sounds high for basically 50p a click, but obviously depends on what keywords they came up with. It could be that most of the clicks are from a dodgy broad match keyword.

Have you considered a one-off account setup by a professional, with maybe a couple of follow-ups as required to keep an eye on wasted spend and so on.

They could easily setup remarketing as well and sort out the tracking/reporting. Remarketing List for Search Ads (or RLSA - which has been around since 2013, but still massively under utilised) can be really powerful when used creatively.

 

[Will Blears]

Hi i run a Driveway and Landscaping Company in Edinburgh, to master google adwords would absolutely set me apart from the rest who ain't doing a whole lot in terms of marketing and pro active seeking of business, I do lots more than google adwords however I appreciate what it could do for me, can you tell me best way forward with google adwords, I recently set up adwords express with £650 monthly budget, they estimated between 1277-2128 clicks? is this accurate?? 1500 clicks for example I would guess would get me a minimum of 40-50 calls which would be like gold dust to me for £650. am I missing something here? is 40-50 calls unreasonable? I paused the adwords express thing for the moment until I understand it better as i want to use remarking along with it and also want to monitor where clicks are coming from which you can't do on adwords express only adwords

Honestly speaking Redd, I think you would be better off hiring a small agency/freelancer to simply go over what you have created and potentially re-structure the account for a one off fee and then perhaps 1-2 hours per month management.

I see too many small businesses make some of the most basic mistakes which inevitably cost them significantly more money than hiring an expert in the first place would of. You have fortunately been smart in not jumping straight in.

Without seeing the account I'd put money on at least one of the following being incorrect:

1. Using broad modified rather than broad match modified.

2. Not using enhanced site link extensions

3. Not using negative keywords.

4. Not breaking out broad match modified and exact match keywords in to separate campaigns or ad groups.

5. Not adding a mobile bid modifier.

6. Not selecting the right network settings.

Go through the above and ensure to change these before you go live.

 

[Karimbo]

Hi Clive

It's been a while since I've done any serious Adwords work. Certainly not any high spend campaigns. I wanted to know if the low search volume (LSV) rule applies across the board to all accounts regardless of spend level or does Adwords apply a different threshold for low search volume keywords?

When I do a search for the exact keywords that are LSV'd for me I do see some of the bigger spenders with ads on there. I'm not sure if they've targeted the keyword by broad match/shorter tail phrase match or if they get special privileges being a mega spender and can display ads on low search volume keywords.

What are you strategies to overcome low search volume? Is it realistic to create an ad group with a shorter tail and just use lots and lots of negative match keywords as a roundabout way to get to the LSV keywords?

 

[Redd]

Honestly speaking Redd, I think you would be better off hiring a small agency/freelancer to simply go over what you have created and potentially re-structure the account for a one off fee and then perhaps 1-2 hours per month management.

I see too many small businesses make some of the most basic mistakes which inevitably cost them significantly more money than hiring an expert in the first place would of. You have fortunately been smart in not jumping straight in.

Without seeing the account I'd put money on at least one of the following being incorrect:

1. Using broad modified rather than broad match modified.

2. Not using enhanced site link extensions

3. Not using negative keywords.

4. Not breaking out broad match modified and exact match keywords in to separate campaigns or ad groups.

5. Not adding a mobile bid modifier.

6. Not selecting the right network settings.

Go through the above and ensure to change these before you go live.

reading through that I think your right! I don't even know what 1-6 refer to let alone know how to implement, thanks for your advice, any idea of costs for a one off,

thanks very much for your advice

 

[Ad Republic]

Hi Clive

It's been a while since I've done any serious Adwords work. Certainly not any high spend campaigns. I wanted to know if the low search volume (LSV) rule applies across the board to all accounts regardless of spend level or does Adwords apply a different threshold for low search volume keywords?

When I do a search for the exact keywords that are LSV'd for me I do see some of the bigger spenders with ads on there. I'm not sure if they've targeted the keyword by broad match/shorter tail phrase match or if they get special privileges being a mega spender and can display ads on low search volume keywords.

What are you strategies to overcome low search volume? Is it realistic to create an ad group with a shorter tail and just use lots and lots of negative match keywords as a roundabout way to get to the LSV keywords?

Hi Karimbo,

Thanks for the question. Firstly, all accounts are equal and Google doesn't give any preferential treatment to high spenders. Whether you're spending £10 per day or £10,000 per day, both accounts can experience keywords with low search volume.

With regard to overcoming it, yes, you'll have to leverage either Phrase or Broad match to pick up this traffic. I guarantee this is how your competitors are appearing for the search.

Look at your search query reports regularly to identify appropriate negatives, and use the Ad Preview Tool to see which of your new Phrase/Broad keywords is actually triggering the ad to appear for the LSV traffic you're chasing.

With this information you'll be able to better optimise the Ad Group, write better ads and ultimately dominate your targeted searches through being clever, and not necessarily spending more.

Clive

 

[directmarketingadvice]

they estimated between 1277-2128 clicks?

A day? A month?

Either way, it seems unlikely.

Even if your ad was at the top and you had a 20% click rate, that's 7000+ searches in a city of half a million people.

I'm guessing that data was based on broad match keywords that would pull in a lot of irrelevant impressions.

Steve

 

[Redd]

A day? A month?

Either way, it seems unlikely.

Even if your ad was at the top and you had a 20% click rate, that's 7000+ searches in a city of half a million people.

I'm guessing that data was based on broad match keywords that would pull in a lot of irrelevant impressions.

Steve

yeah I thought so too, I have included fife, west lothian, east lothian etc but even then that amount of clicks just seems ridiculous, thanks

 

[leveldisc]

any idea of costs for a one off.

For a local business, excluding any landing page issues, at this point, it is a relatively simple exercise. Personally I don't charge more than £200 for an account setup, but others wouldn't get out of bed for less than £250.

 

[Will Blears]

reading through that I think your right! I don't even know what 1-6 refer to let alone know how to implement, thanks for your advice, any idea of costs for a one off,

thanks very much for your advice

Your welcome, I am here to help!

An initial audit, call & action plan (including implementation) would cost £250 - I'd also get the account launched and live and do the management for the first week.

 

[RichardFT]

Any advice to someone starring out as an adwords consultant ? (10 years in house experience, qualified google partner)

Don't be surprised when you do not get paid on time. Nor be surprised how quickly you learn about the small claims court.

Also, we find it hard to retain customers - they seem to think the grass is always greener elsewhere, and how dare they!

Best of luck with your new adventure.

 

[leveldisc]

Don't be surprised when you do not get paid on time. Nor be surprised how quickly you learn about the small claims court.

Also, we find it hard to retain customers - they seem to think the grass is always greener elsewhere, and how dare they!

Best of luck with your new adventure.

Sent a PM!

 

[Breaking Good]

As the title suggests, any Adwords (or general PPC) questions you have, feel free to fire them over and I'll see if I can help you!

About me - I've been in PPC for over 8 years, managed high profile accounts such as Party Poker and Philips and run a boutique agency in London called Ad Republic.

Thanks for starting this thread! I've got a quick question for you (and anyone else in the PPC industry)

I know this might be difficult to answer but what would you say, in your experience, are the most effective things to change to improve conversions? I know there's a lot of variables that can be altered to improve conversions but just wondered if there were one or two things that stood out more than others?

 

[directmarketingadvice]

I know this might be difficult to answer but what would you say, in your experience, are the most effective things to change to improve conversions?

It varies from business to business, but here are the 3:

#1: Improve your offer/create a USP

#2: Strengthen your proof

#3: Explain your offer/benefits more clearly

Hope this helps,

Steve