AdWords Analyst, Antony Potts explains how this helps you.

A “View Through Conversion” occurs on the Content Network when your ad is shown, but not clicked, and that person then returns to your site through a Google Search/Search Partner campaign and converts within a 30-day period.

Think of it this way. There’s an old adage, “we waste 50% of our marketing budget. If only we knew which 50%”. This arises because there is a lack of ability to measure how some advertising media influence your customer’s decision to buy. Let’s say you place an ad on the side of a bus, sponsor Coronation Street or your local football team – very difficult to accurately measure the impact this has on your sales and enquiries.

View Through Conversion Tracking delivers more accurate measurement of the customer’s journey across the web (only for Google ads, remember!) to demonstrate where your ads have displayed and perhaps should be credited with ‘an assist’ in generating that order or enquiry.

View Through Conversion Tracking

This measurement may help to indicate that your Content Network account is performing well, but it unfortunately can not be as accurate an indicator as we’d all hope. Remember that although your ad may have been rendered on a web page that person is viewing, it may be in a position off-screen and they may not have physically seen it.

However, the trends it illustrates are more important than the numbers – even if it accurately measures only 50% of the traffic, improvement trends would still prove valuable data. You can now measure the benefit of Google Display Ads on the Content Network with more confidence, knowing that you’ll have some method of calculating the return on effort and the budget you spend.

This is a valuable metric to analyse and understand, but like View Through Conversions, use it to influence your decisions rather than build your entire business strategy around it.

Much better than not knowing which 50% you’re wasting, but won’t get that waste to 0% just yet.

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On the one hand, searchers already want to buy from you and might well find you in organic links where the clicks are free, so why pay for the click?

On the other, there may be competitors bidding on your brand and stealing your profit from right under your nose if you don’t.

There isn’t a right or wrong answer, but there some factors you may want to consider;

Google knows that this is your domain name and/or your brand, so it’s very easy for you to achieve top paid position.

Clicks on your own brand keywords tend to cost pennies – we’ve often seen clicks at £0.05 for position one.

CTR, as critical as ever, is typically awesome – 25-50% CTR, which won’t do your overall campaign CTR any harm at all.

In one of our most advanced campaigns, our client makes over 100 sales every month on one single competitor keyword for less than £0.20 a click.

Whether you like the ethics or not, there’s profit waiting on the table.

Learn more advanced techniques in Google AdWords Masterclasses.

So what are session-based keywords?

Google says:

“When determining which ads to show on a Google search result page, the AdWords system evaluates some of the user’s previous queries during their search session as well as the current search query. If the system detects a relationship, it will show ads related to these other queries, too.”

So this means that, assuming there aren’t more relevant ads to show for these later searches, Google will show your ad instead. Mostly, I would imagine that this doesn’t happen too often – most of the time, there will be other people bidding on the secondary terms.

Example: you’re bidding on “car tyres” and the user searches for “car tyres“; it shows your ad. However, the user then qualifies their search further, “peugeot car tyres“, which shows your Peugeot Car Tyres ad. The user hasn’t clicked yet and now searches for “peugeot 406 1.9 diesel 2004“. You’re not bidding on this because it isn’t relevant enough to your market, and neither is anyone else (except maybe ebay et al.)

At this point, Google shows your car tyres ad again because at some point in the search session, the user did type in your keyword. Google feels that they are still searching the same theme and your ads are still relevant, so it shows them.

Should I bid on session based keywords?

You shouldn’t necessarily bid on these keywords, only if they are specifically relevant.

Can I switch off Session-Based keywords?

No. There is no option to do this, but like expanded keyword matching, it does only work with broad match keywords.

Why do Session-Based keywords have such a high CTR on the Search Query Report?
It is important to understand the context of this measurement. Remember that the Search Query Report only reports data for keywords that have generated clicks – it won’t show you data for session-based matches which have shown your ads, but not generated a click, hence the high CTR.

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In a fiercely competitive market, where clicks are £1.50 or more, together we established that he was wasting around £50 PER DAY on irrelevant clicks that had absolutely no chance of becoming sales.

Why? Keyword match-types.

You will hopefully be aware that Google Adwords provides three different keyword match types; broad match, phrase match and exact match.

Starting with the last first, Exact Keyword matching will only show your ad when the search term (what your customer types in to Google) matches your keyword exactly, no misspelling, no typos, no plural, no partial matching.

Secondly, Phrase Match will match the search term if it includes your phrase somewhere; the phrase “red dress” would be matched to searches for ‘ladies red dress’, ‘girl in a red dress’, ‘make a red dress’, ‘red dress design’, ‘red dress lyrics’. Now, of course some of these are relevant, but some are not and potentially waste your budget.

Phrase Matching is quite tightly targeted though, so the same phrase would not match searches such as ‘red evening dress’, ‘red cocktail dress’ or even ‘dress red’ or ‘dress red’. The words are in a different order or do not form the phrase you’re bidding on, so you should thoroughly research and include each variation in your campaign to avoid missing that traffic.

Lastly, Broad Matching is the widest possible match type, and matches any search which includes the words in your keyword, misspellings, plurals, the words in a different order.

This is fine in some circumstances, but we would advise caution; research all possible search variations which might match your keyword. In the example broad match ‘red dress’, this matches; red head dress, dressing in red, red gingham dress, red white and blue dress, red or dead dress, red dressing gown and many other, potentially wasteful clicks which aren’t relevant enough.

Some of the terms may be relevant, and you want that traffic anyway. But matching one broad match keyword in this way will make it difficult to target that keyword with a relevant ad and to land that searcher on the right page on your site, impossible to measure the success of each search term and you’ll pay a lot more for each click.

Worse still, Google AdWords also uses what it calls, ‘expanded matching‘ on broad match keywords, often using synonyms. In a recent example, fujitsu bracket might match ‘mount fuji’ and ‘monitor mount’ matches a search for ’shower screen bracket’! Completely irrelevant.

So, what should your keyword strategy be?

Depending on your market, budget and your personal preference, we might recommend bidding on phrase matches to begin with, researching as many variations as possible, or using only exact matching to start. In either case, a small number of broad matches should also be included to pick up anything you missed in your research. You can then frequently monitor the search query report for your account to add more phrase or exact match variations, or use negative keywords to exclude the irrelevant searches you find.

CAUTION: if you have been using broad match keywords in your account, removing them all in one go can upset the ecology of your campaign – be very careful before implementing a policy change such as this.

For advanced keyword strategies, try live one on one coaching – guaranteed satisfaction or your money back.

Alternatively, have one of our professionals carry out a free audit of your campaign and tell you where you’re going wrong.

Many of our clients and coaching students have asked us about their obligations surrounding their use of competitors’ brand names in Google ads and as keywords to generate traffic and sales. We interviewed top commercial technology lawyer, Frank Jennings to field those common questions.

Mark Tillison: Although Google disapproves some Google ads because they include trade marked terms, this isn’t true of all trade marked terms. If Google lets you include the terms, is it OK to use them?

Frank Jennings: It does depend on how you’re using the trade mark. If you are using a competitors’ trade mark to divert traffic away from their site to your site, this is a clear infringement of the Trade Marks Act 1994. In principle, the trade mark owner has a right to seek compensation from the advertiser.

However, the law is less clear where you might include a trade marked term in an ad because you sell an accessory product, rather than a competitive product. An example of this might be mobile phone ringtones or tyres – the intention here isn’t to divert traffic away from the trade mark owner but to use the mark descriptively.

Mark Tillison: So what about bidding on those same terms as keywords?

Frank Jennings: The same principle applies. The law does provide for the trade mark owner to seek compensation for damages through your unfair use of their trade mark and does include bidding on keywords, including them in any part of your ad text and/or including them on your web site.

In the landmark Mr Spicy case against Yahoo!, the judge concluded that the search term was used by a member of the public and that Yahoo! used it to produce results and that Yahoo!’s use did not constitute infringement of the trade mark.

The result of this is that in essence the search engines decided that they had no legal responsibility to block the use of trade marked terms, leaving the market to self-regulate. The responsibility would be for trade mark owner to make a claim against the person using their trade mark in key words.

Mark Tillison: Google’s position is that it will allow you to bid on keywords, but may block some trade marked terms from being used in ads where it has received a complaint from the trade mark owner.

Frank Jennings: Google has been looking into this whole area recently but their policy appears to exceed the legal requirements, allowing certain parties to block use of terms unnecessarily. Such action prevents a site selling mobile phone accessories or ring tones using trade mark terms with the words “ring tones” although there is not necessarily competition with the trade mark owner nor an attempt to divert custom from that trade mark owner.

Mark Tillison: So if the brand is not a trademarked term, is it OK to then use it?

Frank Jennings: In principle, the law still applies, although in such an example the claimant would have to demonstrate that their investment in the term entitles them to claim compensation in the same way. This is a more complicated and lengthy proposition. I’d recommend that companies register their trade marks using a filing agent, or you can register it yourself at http://www.ipo.gov.uk.

Mark Tillison: What about natural search?

Frank Jennings: The Trade Marks Act would prohibit use of the mark to unfairly divert sales away from the trade mark owner, so yes, work to increase a natural search ranking for a trade marked term would be subjected to the same legal test.

Mark Tillison: What about beyond the UK?

Frank Jennings: Google has expanded its new policy to 194 countries but not yet the other EU countries (other than Ireland). However, there are different trade mark laws for different countries, so beware.

Mark Tillison: So if a trade mark is being used to sell an accessory product, and the trade marked term is blocked for use in a Google ad, what can the advertiser do?

Frank Jennings: You need to ensure you are using the third party’s mark correctly under the Trade Marks Act and this is a fine balance. Once you are compliant, contact Google and show them you have a legitimate business selling accessories which complement the trade mark and you are using the mark descriptively and are not competing with the trade mark owner.

Frank Jennings is a Partner within DMH Stallard LLP’s highly-rated Technology Group and head of the firm’s Commercial Team in Gatwick. He has extensive experience of the technology sector having previously worked at Psygnosis (part of Sony) and Vodafone and regularly writes and gives presentations on intellectual property rights and IT.

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]]> http://tillison.co.uk /2009/05/20/google-adwords-trademarks-and-the-law/feed/ 0 http://tillison.co.uk /2009/03/16/why-adwords-ctr-is-critical/ http://tillison.co.uk /2009/03/16/why-adwords-ctr-is-critical/#comments Mon, 16 Mar 2009 10:18:40 +0000 Mark Tillison http://tillison.co.uk/?p=269 For many of our clients new to Google AdWords, the most confusing element is how to achieve top positions on Google AdWords – the ranking system can be confusing.

We spotted this neat video which demonstrates the value of CTR and explains in simple terms how Google ranks your ads amongst competitors’ ads.

Learn more about quality score here.

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We’ve had a few clients just recently whose ads stopped showing on Google pretty much overnight, costing hundreds of pounds on lost revenue every single day. Why?

Quality Score has reared its head again. Google is seeking the very best experience for its customer – not only now will Google place your ads in higher positions and charge you less per click for being relevant, but is now also aggressively excluding ads for which landing pages and sites are not relevant enough.

This won’t happen to everyone at once though. You’re waiting for the Google bot to come along to your site, make the analysis and then you’ll discover if you’re a victor, or a victim.

To overcome this, your site must satisfy Google’s quality score criteria. Easier said than done, as Google doesn’t publish the precise method it uses to calculate the quality score. However, there are a few clear areas that you can address to improve this;

• Relevance, relevance, relevance.
• Wherever possible, make sure that the keyword that you’re bidding on is included in the ad(s) in your ad group.
• The quality score includes an element of your historic Click Through Rate (CTR) for each individual keyword, each ad group and each campaign throughout your account.
• More importantly, Google is now even more focused on landing page quality, it’s relevance to the subject matter, how many times the keyword is mentioned, the quantity of text on the page, the quantity of pages and text on the site itself which are relevant to the keywords.
• Another element to consider is that Google really wants UNIQUE content, so there’s not so much value in just copying text from other sites – you need to create your own. It’s an opportunity for you to demonstrate your expertise to the customer.

To address this easily, consider increasing the amount of content on your landing pages, adding a blog, FAQ section(s) or a forum to your site.

This won’t be an overnight fix – you’ll still need the Google bot to re-evaluate your site when it finally arrives. And again, unfortunately, there’s no fixed frequency as to when this will happen.

Google is a content monster. And it’s hungry!

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To effectively lower your cost-per-click (CPC), and therefore your cost-per-acquisition (CPA) or cost per sale, you need to first appreciate Google’s perspective. If you understand what motivates Google, you’ll understand better how to manipulate the system to your advantage:

1. Obvious, perhaps, but Google is a SEARCH engine. Its job is to make sure that the user finds the most relevant results, first time, every time. Google leads the search market by a very wide margin because it focuses so hard on this principle. If users consistently see results irrelevant to their search, there’s a strong possibility that they’ll switch to another search engine that works better. That’s not what Google wants.

2. Whether results on Google are natural listings or paid ads, this same principle applies. Google wants your ads to be relevant to the keyword on which you are bidding. The ads that are most relevant WILL appear in the higher positions because that’s what motivates Google. Not how much it earns for each click fee, but how relevant your ad is to the keyword.

3. Google measures your ad’s relevance to each keyword in a number of ways; the keyword appearing in your ad, the keyword being mentioned a number of times on your landing page. But most importantly, Google measures the relevance using the most reliable method: users vote with their feet every time they click – generating your click-through-rate (CTR) statistic.

4. When your keywords achieve a high CTR, Google will promote them up the ranking without you needing to increase your bid. More importantly, once you reach those top one or two positions, you can begin to lower your bids and still achieve position 3-4 and continue to retain a good CTR.

5. Maintaining a good CTR in positions 3-4 will again push your ads to positions 1-2, and again you can reduce your bids, repeating this cycle as often as possible whilst still maintaing those important top positions.

To lower your CPC and CPA – you must first satisfy Google’s first rule – RELEVANCE.

Learn more about how to lower your CPC by reading the AdWords Success Guide.

Take the fast track to Success.

As poor Filipe Massa proved at the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend, having the pace to overtake and lead the race almost all the way to the chequered flag just isn’t enough – you have to have all parts of your game on song to beat the competition; the right driver, so many small performance parts that all have to work in unison, the right strategy for each track. But most of all, you need the right team, all working together to achieve a common objective.

Winning business online is a very similar proposition. You might have the best web site in the world that converts 35% of your visitors to hard cash. But, with the wrong visitors, or too few of them, that’s just not going to get you over the finishing line.

There are multiple parts to your strategy that all need to work in synergy to squeeze every last drop of performance from your race car;

• the right strategy
• quality visitors landing on your site that are looking for exactly what you’re selling
• landing those visitors on the absolute sweet-spot on your site that addresses their need immediately
• good copy that reinforces your ability to fulfil their need or desire
• obvious calls to action to motivate your visitor to buy, pick up the phone, sign up for a trial, or whatever it is you want them to do

…and we’re still only at the second pit stop!

The ‘conversion‘ isn’t the end of your race – you still need more to reach the chequered flag of success.

1. Qualifying: Getting the right traffic.
2. Stint one: Making sure your visitor lands in the right place and stays
3. Stint two: Converting that visitor to a sale
4. Stint three: Maximising your return on that customer
5. Chequered flag: 10 points in the bag, the glory and a big bottle of champagne

To discover your winning strategy and avoid a Massa-style blow-up three laps from the end of your race, have us join your pit crew – 08000 47 47 14.

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But there’s a little-known element that’s really beginning to annoy me and a lot of the other search community: the Search Network.

You’ll be familiar with the two primary networks; Google Search – essentially, the Google you know and love, and then there’s the content network where your ads are showing alongside some forum or blog that contains the keywords on which you’re bidding.

The Search Network is somewhere in the middle of these two and relates to sites that technically are search engines like Google, and merely send the visitor’s search query off to Google, and then get Google’s data back. And your paid for ads too. And yes, you’re still paying per click the same way you do on Google Search.

It’s good idea in principle, at least for sites like www.sky.com and www.orange.com. These are search engines where the audience will behave in a very similar way to the audience on Google.

However, this is where it starts to get a little concerning. Google doesn’t publish a list of its “Search Partners”, so there’s no way of knowing in advance which sites will be carrying your ads, and where your money is being spent.

Depending on your market and your product, for example, you might not really want your ads to show on www.ebay.co.uk, or Amazon.co.uk. Or perhaps you do? Either way, you really want to be able to measure the effectiveness of each of these sites carrying your ads and the clicks that come from them – how many Amazon clicks does it take for you to achieve a sale?

Right now, the only way of knowing this is to use Google Analytics or similar software to check the source of visitors to your site, how they behave, and if they convert to a sale or not.

It isn’t currently possible to run a campaign only on the Search Network, or to see where your ads are showing, or which site individual clicks are originating from. You can’t currently calculate your Cost Per Aquisition, the average ad positions or the average cost per click. All of these stats are rolled up in the stats for Google Search in your campaign.

So what happens if you don’t want your ads showing on a particular property like www.FreeIndex.co.uk or www.DoorOne.co.uk? A nice simple site exclusion tool like the one provided on the Content Network? No, I’m afraid not – you have to actually call Google and request that they manually exclude your ads from showing on those sites.

Maybe some of these sites perform really well and have a great CTR and awesome CPA figures. And maybe they don’t. But without the ability to individually target ads for the audience, without the ability to measure it’s effectiveness, it’s difficult to make a case one way or the other.

You could always opt out of the Search Network, of course, but there’s definitely some good quality traffic in there you’d be missing out on.

If only we could tell which traffic it was.