the PPC Book

Multi-tasking and wide skill sets are at a premium in this crazy industry.

For example, here’s what I’ve had my hands on in the past day. IN THE PAST 24 HOURS:

adwords
YSM
MSN Adcenter
facebook
twitter
basecamp
xcart
google analytics
freshbooks
wordpress
magneto
elance
odesk
guru.com
excel
word
outlook
iphone
iphone apps
adwords editor
permutator
IM
Authorize.net
cpanel

I could probably come up with 20 more, as could you, but you get the idea.

A quote that was just sent to me by my minneapolis jiu jitsu instructor struck me as particularly timely.

I do not fear your ten-thousand techniques.
I fear the one technique you have practiced ten-thousand times.

- shaolin proverb

written by Jeff Hudson

Just a friendly reminder. If you’re managing a PPC campaign that is budget driven – this is basically the last week of November for all intents and purposes. Better press to be ahead of schedule going into next week!

Good luck!

written by Jeff Hudson \\ tags: ppc campagin management

SO retailers are desperate and sales are down and no one is buying flat screens at Best Buy. Gloom and doom persists. How can you find those new shoppers no one else is targeting? Google has an idea for you…

In the realm of ‘fundamental’, but important, Amanda Kelly over at the Adwords blog reminds us of the importance of mining for new queries. I’ve seen numerous pie in the sky estimations about % of queries that new, and Amanda dishes an interesting number:

Did you know that 20% of the queries Google receives each day are ones we haven’t seen in at least 90 days, if at all?

**finger on chin…thoughtful pose….knowing nod of head**

Imagine. You own a shop and 20% of the people walking outside your store didn’t even exist yesterday. They appeared out of thin air. And they are window shopping. They’re interested in what you sell but don’t know who you are.

Here’s how to strike up a conversation and lure them in…

Adwords recommends that you run the Search Query report to find these NEW NEW keywords.

That’s a good start, and certainly part of the solution, but you need to dig deeper than that. There are 2 other options that you can use in order to get the real data:

1. Google Analytics Keyword Filtering. Hands down the best data you’ll ever get for free. If you are running broad match keywords (admit it, you are), this step is absolutely necessary. If you’re not, I should take away your logins

2. Tag and Bag (it’s hunting season up here, forgive me) – If you are using a 3rd party analytics platform, this is for you. In your Adwords settings, tag your urls. Now login to your analytics platform and pay attention to what keywords you’re seeing. Log files might even be more accurate, but are harder to work with.

3. Bonus extra – Revenue by product and keyword

In Google analytics – visit:

>Ecommerce Overview
>Product Overview
>Sort by Revenue ***Now you are looking at your biggest selling product
>Click on the product name link
>Select: Dimension – change to Keyword

Now you are looking at the keywords that drove sales on this product and can segment the best revenue producers.

I used this last night to find 12 new keyword variations that were not in a campaign and were driving revenue for the website.

Try it, you’ll be surprised at what you find. Go find some NEW NEW shoppers!

written by Jeff Hudson \\ tags: Ecommerce PPC, Google Analytics

Yesterday the Adwords blog detailed some improvements being made to the quality score algorithm. I found them to be very interesting.

1. More precise Quality Score calculation

The most telling comment:

Clickthrough rate (CTR) is the most significant component of Quality Score because it directly indicates which ads are most relevant to our searchers.

I disagree with this totally, but that’s beside the point. High CTR will make Google the most money, but does not mean the ad is ‘most relevant’.

Anyway, we’ve always been told that CTR was normalized for position, and apparently it wasn’t, really.

In the coming days, we’ll update the portion of the Quality Score algorithm that accounts for ad position

To me that means it was taken into account, but not all that strongly.

2. Higher quality ads above the search results

This is an interesting revelation – the concept of a ceiling – or threshold that would keep all the ads down.

To appear above the search results, ads must meet a certain quality threshold. In the past, if the ad with the highest Ad Rank did not meet the quality threshold, we may not have shown any ads above the search results.

Secondly…

With this update, we’ll allow an ad that meets the quality threshold to appear above the search results even if it has to jump over other ads to do so.

Good, so we don’t all get punished for poor ad quality by our competitors. I believe this new approach will benefit skilled PPC managers the most.

I like!

More thoughts from our PPC friends on this subject:

Ad Position, CTR & Quality Score – We’re Going to do What we Already Did

Google Updates AdWords Quality Score To Be “Fairer”

written by Jeff Hudson

Google Adwords continues to slowly move the transparency meter when they don’t really have to (commendable because they have no competition). Last Thursday it was announced that Adwords will now show search partner data separately from google search.

Now, we show one set of statistics for Google and another set aggregating search partner performance. Search partners include AOL, Ask.com, and many other search sites around the web. You can view ad group or campaign performance at a summary level, or broken down by different combinations of Google, our search partners, and our content network. Additionally, separate Google and aggregate search partner statistics will soon be available in the Report Center.

PPC managers have been calling for this development for some time. The problem lies in the fact that Google will allow you to run Google + Search Partner, or Google only, but not Google Search Partner only. The ideal solution would be to create a separate Google search and search partner campaign, both identical, but with separate distribution. Similar to the best practice of separating Search campaigns from Content (you’d better be doing this by now), we need the ability to do the same with Google and the Search Partners.

Why don’t they offer this? They’re afraid to, basically. If everyone starts opting out of large parts of their networks they’ll lose a not insignificant portion of their revenue, of course. I disagree with this notion, however. Has revenue dropped with better transparency in the BIG BAD content network? No, because advanced ppc analysts know that this is where the growth lies in every campaign. Search can take you from 0-60mph, but the content network (well controlled), can take you to F1 type speeds.

C’mon Adwords. This is a nice tease, but give us what we want.

All I really want for Christmas is a separate Search Partner Campaign.

written by Jeff Hudson

The Panic of 08 continues and I’m feeling almost vindicated that I slacked for so long with my 401k and retirement fund buildup. That money was much better spent during my 20’s on….well…um…I had a lot of fun..

Now I get to buy stocks at a 40% discount! Who needs compound interest anyway!

If you need a little ‘pick me up’ motivation today, head over to MsDanielle’s fine blog and read her interview with Bankaholic.

If you’re 23 years old and you sell a site for $12mm+, I’m a fan of yours.

written by Jeff Hudson

Oh how I long for the days of artificial credit driven growth and monthly incremental gains in ecommerce revenue.

Here’s a little slice of ecommerce-land today, a micro example of a macro trend….

Google trends is kind enough to point out exactly when the word BAILOUT entered the national vernacular….

In this case I don’t really need a chart to show me WTF is happening, but just for my amusement, here’s the corresponding point where one particular client hit the bailout wall…..

I better get busy pulling some miracle ad copy out of you know where…

See you on the other side of the economy folks!

written by Jeff Hudson

The tool du jour for most of us on a daily basis is the Adwords Editor, which launched a new version – 6.5

Per Google:

To keep you up to date, we’ve compiled a sneak peek into some of the new features you can expect with version 6.5:

* Horizontal scrolling in the data view and auto-sizing columns.

* Calendar picker for performance statistics and campaign end dates.

* New Keyword Opportunities tool to help you find new, relevant keywords for your campaigns. Use the expansion feature to generate keyword ideas from words or phrases, or the multiplier feature to combine lists of terms to create new keywords.

I just downloaded this minutes ago, but first impressions seem to be that there are a few subtle improvements to usability. The EXPORT functions are more clearly labeled and there is also a beta inclusion of the Keyword Tool – a nice little addition that I’m playing around with right now.

Make sure to keep your Adwords Editor up to date. Download here

written by Jeff Hudson

I bought myself an iPhone 3g for my birthday (don’t ask). I have to say, I’m not an ‘apple’ evangalist, but this is the single coolest piece of technology I’ve ever seen. I love it.

The main reason I bought it was for the web browser. It’s so far beyond anything else. Work-wise, I don’t know of another phone that allows you to login to google adwords and manage a campaign like you’re on your home computer. Then again, I’m not a gadget guy.

Anyone else using the iPhone or another phone to login to campaigns while you’re away from your desktop?

written by Jeff Hudson

Barry Schwartz highlights a NY Times article this morning that details the story of an online entrepreneur, a gem named Mr. Savage, who built his entire business, a not so content rich nor useful Sourcetool.com, around Adwords and Adsense (problem #1), and then was devastated when slapped with the Quality Score bag o’ rocks.

The difference between this guy and everyone else? He wrote a letter to the Justice Department. As I’ve hinted and is documented everywhere, the Justice Dept. is taking this kind of thing seriously and is out there doing research.

Is Google anti-competitive?

Sure, there is no one who can compete with them.

Is it their fault?

No.

Google has a right to protect the experience of it’s users. This guy was making $100k per month by using Adwords to send traffic to a worthless arbitrage page with nothing but feeds and Adsense ads.

This is an entire business model that was solely made possible by the invention of Adsense, and he’s complaining when they decide he’s not providing enough value for his users.

Is Google perfect and holy and always right?

No, of course not. But in this case, Mr. Savage is blaming Google because he’s too lazy to go out and find other advertisers for himself. Which probably could have made him even more money had he put some work into it. Mr. Savage – you sir, are a tool.

written by Jeff Hudson