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
Last week we began to roll out bid ideas in the Opportunities Tab . Along with customized keyword and budget ideas, you'll now be given bid suggestions for specific keywords, based on bid simulator data, to improve your AdWords ROI. Depending on whether you want to increase traffic or decrease cost, you'll see ideas on how to raise or lower your bids to meet your business goals. You’ll see bid ideas in your account if we determine there's an opportunity for you to: Receive significant additional clicks without a significant increase in cost Save money without sacrificing a lot of clicks Bid ideas became visible in some accounts last week, and will be available in all accounts in the coming weeks. ( click here to view larger image ) For additional information on bid ideas, please visit the full post on the Inside AdWords Blog . Posted by Alexandra Kenin, Product Marketing Manager
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Find big ideas with bid ideas
You may have seen Google's Superbowl ad this past Sunday and have gotten a taste of what a love story might look like when told as a series of search results. Of course, that was just one example; it's certainly possible to find romance outside of Paris. With total 2010 Valentine's Day spending expected to reach $14.1B 1 , there are ample opportunities for you to inject a little romance into your own clients' campaigns to ensure they have the biggest impact in the next few days. Here are some quick tips: 1. Ad Copy: Activate and create new text ads that specifically mention Valentine's Day. This serves as a reminder for users that the date is almost here. In addition, create a sense of urgency in your ad text. Shipping deadlines, or a Valentine's Day countdown (i.e., Only 5 Days Until Valentine's!) may make your advertisement that much more compelling and drive panicked, last minute shoppers to your clients. 2. Budget: Search traffic for "Valentine's Day" and "Valentines Day" is trending upward year over year. Ignoring this increased traffic is a missed opportunity for conversions. Increasing budgets where possible will ensure you capture relevant traffic and capitalize on all conversion opportunities. Consider using the Bid Simulator to simulate various scenarios based on your bidding strategy and improve profitability of campaigns. 3. Keyword expansions: Capture additional traffic for your clients with expanded keyword lists. Try the Search-based Keyword Tool and take a look at the organic search queries reported in Google Analytics for new keyword ideas. Use Google Insights for Search to understand where your clients' products or services intersect with increased search activity. In addition to category specific opportunities, remember to target consumers looking for gift ideas. Women may be particularly interested in such suggestions - searches for "gifts for boyfriend" were up +250% y/y . 4. Expand reach: Use Ad Planner to reach your clients' target demographic on the Google Content Network and compliment search campaigns for maximum impact. Combine relevancy and targeting with eye catching visuals using Google's Display Ad Builder . For additional resources, be sure to visit the AdWords Help Center . Happy Valentine's Day! [1] the NRF 2010 Valentine's Day Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted for NRF by BIGresearch Posted by Yael Davidowitz-neu, Retail Team and Evan Ortiz, Agency Team
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Help clients spread a little love this Valentine's Day
What makes up the ideal creative for your client? We'll walk you through how you can answer this question using AdWords reporting and the Display Ad Builder , a tool that allows you to quickly and easily customize display ads and to run measurable experiments. Experimentation is not new to advertising, although the theories and ideas that inspired campaigns have evolved over time. For example, in the early 20th century, the prevailing sentiment in the ad industry was that information made a creative effective. The car ad below sums up the thinking of the time: National Motor Vehicle, Inc. advertisement (1907) retrieved on 21.1.2010 from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:National-advertisement_1907.jpg Theories eventually emerged suggesting that consumers weren't always need-oriented, but advertisers were baffled by how to measure seemingly subjective behavior. Mid century a study was released that put data to consumer responses. It showed that three factors - the size of the ad, the size of the illustration and the numbers of colors - together could help explain some of the readership difference between a magazine's ads. Today, you can find out the the factors that trigger the strongest response by using the data in Ad Performance Reports in AdWords, which provide relevant statistics for ad variations, such as text ads, image ads, video ads, and local business ads, and run experiments with Display Ad Builder . Here are two creatives developed with Display Ad Builder for a hypothetical online travel company: Ad creatives developed internally using Display Ad Builder: Image 1 & Image 2 When creating the ads, populate the "Ad Name" field in Display Ad Builder with the ad's elements. We'll call the first "day_scene_cta" and the second "night_people_question." Launch the ads on even rotation to ensure a good sample. Then you can construct a chart like the one below from your Ad Performance Report by adding up the clicks and impressions for each ad component: Sample data set from internal account independent of example creatives. In this example, the effectiveness measure is clickthrough rate (CTR), but this can be substituted for conversion rate or cost-per-acquisition (CPA). The chart shows the elements of the ad that had the greatest impact on CTR, benchmarked against the performance of the whole ad group. You can tweak the reporting to show the impact of relationships as well. Do people prefer images of scenery or people at night? With a well-designed ad experiment, you can use basic data-mining principles to find these results. However you choose to experiment, continue to measure your results so you can find the best creative. Posted by Eddie Higgins, Agency Team
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Display Ad Builder & Creative Generation