In this video learn how Google Adwords Site and Category Exclusion tools can be used to refine placements on the Google Content Network to improve campaign performance based on advertising goals.
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Site And Category Exclusion Tools In Google Adwords
For an agency today, it's very difficult to reach a client's customers online because their customers are consuming media everywhere. To reach users as they browse millions of websites across the Internet, agencies need to buy and to tailor ads across thousands of websites, and they need to measure how well these campaigns performed on all of these sites as well. At Google, we've built tools and platforms to address these challenges for agencies. Google is focused on delivering performance to advertisers and agencies through the Google Content Network (GCN), our ad network of over a million AdSense sites, which includes some Google properties like Google Finance and YouTube. One of the ways we deliver high performing ads is through contextual targeting, the science of matching the right ad with the right website content. For example, we might show an ad from a tech company on a tech review site because the ad will be relevant to the user and therefore, perform well for the advertiser. We've been working on helping agencies match the best ad through more precise contextual targeting that enables advertisers to focus on very specific themes. Over the past year, we've made over 60 improvements to our contextual targeting technology. In August, we enabled advertisers and agencies to do more precise contextual targeting , and we've seen that it can be used to effectively drive conversions. MediaWhiz tested this strategy for American Laser Centers to promote the client's hair removal and aesthetic services. The agency used both text and display ads to raise brand awareness as well as to drive customer action. Instead of creating a few ad groups with many keywords, it created hundreds of small, very specifically targeted ad groups containing around four to six keywords each. The highly targeted groups cut across a wide range of American Laser Centers’ business areas, covering laser hair removal, skin aesthetics spa treatments, at-home hair removal and many more related topics and themes. By using small, focused keyword lists in each ad group, the team was able to increase the relevance of the client's ads on the Google Content Network, helping to attract the exact customers interested in the services American Laser Centers offers. Using the Google Content Network Placement peformance report , MediaWhiz could optimize and measure exactly how well American Laser Centers' campaign did. According to Erick Maks, advertising director at American Laser Centers: This strategy of multiple ad groups containing tightly grouped keywords helped American Laser Centers raise its campaign conversion rate by 233 percent in the first three-month period. During the same period, by fine-tuning at the ad group level and reducing waste, it also cut impressions in half—while simultaneously increasing conversions by 365 percent. The complete case study is available for download here . If you're interested in additional resources, be sure to check out this post on using the Wonder wheel to generate ad group themes, and watch the recording of last year's webinar on more precise contextual targeting. Posted by Jesse Nichols, Agency Team
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Case study - Perfecting the art of matching the right ad to the right site
Our previous post in the Content Network Optimization University series covered the basics of setting up and launching a good campaign on the Google Content Network for your clients. Today we will cover more advanced optimization strategies. We've compiled these by observing best practices from the most successful advertisers on the network. Whether you're new to the Content Network or have been using it for a while, you can get better results from your campaigns. The best practices are structured along 3 key phases of a campaign - Build Effective campaigns Optimize for better results Expand your campaign for more traffic Build Effective campaigns Taking time up front to set up your clients' campaigns correctly goes a long way in getting higher quality traffic to their sites. Let’s recap the top strategies. Separate search and content network campaigns: Setting up a separate campaign just for the Content Network will will give you more control over daily budgets, ad groups, keywords and bids. Watch this demo on campaign setup. Create many, tightly themed ad group: AdWords can target your ads more precisely by building multiple ad groups, each with a small tightly-themed set of 5 to 20 keywords. Watch this demo on ad group setup and this demo on keyword selection . Copy your best performing text ads from search campaigns: For initial setup, it is best to use the text ads with the highest click-through rates from the clients' search campaigns. Watch this demo on ad text best practices. Setup same starting CPC bid as search campaigns: We recommend starting with the same maximum CPC bid as the search campaign ad groups you set up for your clients. Once AdWords has collected enough data, our smart pricing technology will automatically optimize bids on Content Network to give your clients more profitable clicks. Watch this demo on bidding tactics . Set up AdWords Conversion Tracking on your clients' sites: Install Conversion Tracking on clients' websites to measure sales and leads (conversions) they get from each ad group and placement. Watch this demo to learn how conversion tracking works on the Content Nework. Optimize for better results It is important to monitor clients' campaigns' performance and consistently optimize individual elements. Before making significant changes (e.g. changing bids, excluding high volume sites, pausing ad groups), wait until enough click or conversion data has accrued; we recommend 5+ conversions or 100+ clicks per site Exclude poor-performing sites: Get more qualified traffic and boost conversions by excluding sites that perform poorly for a campaign, based on number of clicks, average CPC and particularly conversions. Focus keywords and exclude less relevant keywords: Add more keywords that describe the clients' products and ad group themes in greater detail. Also, add negative keywords to fix cases of incorrect targeting caused by synonyms and similar, but less relevant keywords. Watch this demo on refining campaigns . Adjust bids to manage costs: Change bids for ad groups or individual sites based on conversion rate, average CPC and cost-per-acquisition (CPA) to meet clients' performance goals. Bid higher for better performing sites to get more traffic, and lower bids for lower performers. Use Conversion Optimizer to manage CPA: Google Conversion Optimizer is a fee tool that automatically manages bids at the site level to reach a maximum CPA bid, which is the amount a client is willing to pay for a conversion (such as a purchase or signup). Watch this video on how to use Conversion Optimizer . Expand campaign for more traffic To get additional traffic and boost sales from your campaign, we recommend using a Content keyword expansion strategy. Use the Wonder Wheel tool for ad group ideas: You can use Wonder Wheel on Google Search to brainstorm new ad group themes and keyword ideas. When you search for any topic on Google.com, Wonder Wheel will generate up to eight related topics for you to consider. Create new ad groups to reach additional parts of the network: Each topic in Wonder Wheel represents a possible ad group theme for a campaign. Simply click on any of the topics to see other searches and themes related to it. Also, any closely related topics that are less relevant to your product, are great candidates for a negative keyword lists. Watch this demo to learn how to use this strategy . Expand your keywords set to get more traffic: Once you have finalized ad group themes, use the AdWords Keyword Tool to get keyword ideas. Enter an ad group theme description or keyword under the "Descriptive words or phrases " tab. Select the 5 to 10 most frequently searched keywords and save them to your client's ad group. This will help to ensure that the list stays highly relevant to the ad group theme. You can find all the latest videos and updates on our YouTube channel . Posted by Aman Govil, Product Marketing Manager
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New best practices to find more customers on the Content Network
For many, data can be daunting, involving endless number crunching and analysis. As confusing or overwhelming as data may be, it can also be powerful. At Google, we get pretty excited about data and are always thinking of new ways to present it. Data can read simply, like the year-end roll-up presented in our Zeitgeist 2009 report or it can be geographical, such as the information presented via Google Flu Trends . Recently, we developed a series of videos to illustrate several Google products, including search, DoubleClick for Advertisers and the Google Content Network. The dynamic visuals in the videos use light, colors, and movement to present data as experience. To create the search video, a bunch of Googlers sifted through Google Trends on a Friday afternoon to aggregate the top queries over a year-long period. Try it one day. We promise you'll be amused and surprised. To measure the success of a display campaign, a marketer needs benchmarks to compare campaign results against. Using data from our ad serving tool, DoubleClick for Advertisers, the DoubleClick video illustrates the relationship between click-through-rate (CTR) and creative size. The colorful blocks help bring the comparisons to life, illustrating the click-through-rate (CTR) by height and depth. For the Google Content Network visualization, we highlight the always-on nature of U.S. impressions. As the sun rises and sets over the country, the mesmerizing imagery conveys performance at scale. You can view all of the videos here: (Click to view video) Sit back, relax and experience the data. Posted by Janine Gianfredi, Agency Marketing Manager
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Experience Data
The end of the year is typically a time to reflect on the past 12 months and plan for the next adventure. Taking inspiration from our favorite pre-holiday work distraction, we are pleased to bring you the Agency blog's own "best of 2009." Your visits and time spent on site helped us identify the information, ideas and resources that can best help you move your clients' businesses forward.
1. Google Content Network tips and tools - Knowing that the Content Network offers the opportunity to scalably expand your clients' reach, we posted on a number of Content Network topics, ranging from tools to optimization tips to training resources. We hope that they enabled you to plan, execute and measure your Content Network campaigns in the most impactful, efficient and cost-effective ways possible.
2. Quality Score - A key element of successful campaigns is ensuring that they have the strongest Quality Score possible. Whether you're brand new to search marketing, or were one of the first search advertisers on the scene, there's always something new to learn about Quality Score. To help you get the strongest Quality Score, we ran our Quality Score series and will continue to post new tips as they become available.
3. Case studies - One piece of feedback we heard is that agencies and advertisers value case studies, as they inspire and instruct with "best in class" examples and useful data points. We also heard that sometimes they're not easy to find. As a result, we added case studies to the 2009 blog list, with topics ranging from online-to-stores successes to effective integrated media campaigns.
4. Training resources - With the frequency of additions and updates to Google's media solutions, you could spend as much time keeping up to speed as you do managing your clients' campaigns. Knowing your time is precious, we focused on webinars and on-demand videos that work with your schedules and deliver just the right amount of information. In addition, we introduced you to Google AgencyLand, our new learning and resources platform for agencies.
5. Analytics - Whether you love data, or love to hate data, data is central to successful campaigns. We want you all to love it, so we posted our favorite Analytics 60-second videos, product updates, as well as useful tips delivered from in-house experts, including Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik.
6. Local marketing resources - Sometimes your clients' customer is half way across the globe; other times the customer is half a block away. Regardless, it is important to market to consumers where they are, and Google has made it easier to do that with new and improved local marketing features, such as Location Extensions and Place Pages in Placement Performance reports.
It's been a pleasure blogging for you in 2009, and we look forward to bringing you fresh new tips, tactics, resources and updates in 2010.
