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DMI Blogs | adwords
adwords
Friday, August 27th, 2010
One of the better Google video’s that I have seen (and I show as many folks as possible) is one delivered by a guy called Hal Varian who is Google’s Chief Economist. The video introduces viewers to the wild and woolly area of the AdWords auction. You can watch this Google AdWords video below.
Finally, remember that if you’d like to understand how bidding can affect your ad’s performance in the auction, you can use the bid simulator. It will provide you with click, cost, and impression data estimating how your ad could have performed over the last seven days had you used a different bid.
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Posted in adwords, adwords campaign, google adwords | No Comments »
Thursday, August 26th, 2010
Google recently launched their Google Certification Program (to replace Google Advertising Professionals program). To provide professionals who had previously taken the program time to transition over to the new program, Google is running both programs side by side during a six month grace period which ends in October 2010. To retain certified status and continue using the badge within your marketing collateral, Google AdWords professionals MUST meet the requirements of the new program.
What’s the difference between the two programs? With the Google Certification Program, Google is offering updated learning materials written by Google experts. The company has developed four, separate in-depth exams on AdWords management called Fundamentals, Advanced Search, Advanced Display and Advanced Reporting & Analysis. The exams are designed to prove proficiency in these areas and are being widely adopted by employees of search marketing agencies. To gain qualification, exam takers must pass both the Advertising Fundamentals exam and one advanced-level exam.
In addition to this, Google has also launched Google Partner Search, a directory to help advertisers find agencies to manage their campaigns. Currently, all Google Advertising Professionals who have opted in are part of Google Partner Search, but this will not be the case by the end of October. If you have an employee that already qualified under the old program, this is a great time for them to update their skills through the Google Certification Program. Digital Marketing Institute runs training courses that enable AdWords professional to take the Google Exams. Call us on 01 271 1888 for more details on these Google AdWords training courses.
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Posted in Advertising, Online Marketing, adgroups, adwords, adwords campaign, browser, digital marketing institute, google adwords | No Comments »
Friday, July 16th, 2010
We have been using Facebook ads for a while now with some success. However, one of the main things that Facebook advertising and marketing has been lacking up until now has been a decent keyword research tool, along the lines of the Google Keyword Tool. Facebook’s online tools are outdated. There are no real keyword tools and the poor one that they do have is a bit on the clunky side.
However, the guys behind a third party keyword tool called Cash Keywords Pro have developed a Facebook keyword tool. What it does is queries the Facebook database and then combines the results with Google-related data to make a truly useful and powerful weapon in the battle for the clicks.
Watch the video here:
Check out the Cash Keywords site for more info on the new Facebook Ads Keyword Tool ….
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Posted in adgroups, adwords, adwords campaign, facebook | No Comments »
Monday, January 25th, 2010
The Digital Marketing Institute is Ireland’s leading provider of training and certification in all aspects of online Marketing. Our Organisation is expanding both in Ireland and overseas and we require a Training Administrator.
ROLE: Training Administrator
ROLE DESCRIPTION
- Co-ordinate all administrative activities for course attendees
- Telephone and email contact with attendees to complete application, booking and payment process
- Prepare course materials and folders for students
- Manage in-class Course Registration
- Maintain and update course website and Membership database
- Prepare and compile course marketing materials
- Issue invoices and follow up on payments
- Liaise with lecturers on class schedules and database
- Book travel and accommodation for lecturers
- Organise and manage training venues
SKILLS REQUIRED
- Well presented and professional with a flexible approach to work
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Strong attention to detail
- Ability to work on own initiative and unsupervised
- Administrative Experience essential – minimum 2 years
- Excellent PC skills, particularly Microsoft Powerpoint, Excel, and Word
- Knowledge of basic HTML very desirable
- Knowledge of Graphics package very desirable (Photoshop, PaintShopPro etc)
- Good organisational skills and ability to meet deadlines
THE IDEAL INDIVIDUAL WILL
- Be an experienced administrator with a minimum of 2 years experience – ideally in a fast paced organisation
- Have a good level of business acumen, sound common sense and be able to demonstrate a genuine interest in the web industry
- Be massively driven to succeed, hugely self motivated, be using (on a daily basis) Social Media networks, have a clear grasp of everything online and also be able to administer all of our courses!
LOCATION: Dun Laoghaire – Dublin
HOW TO APPLY:
- Applications will only be accepted for this role by E-Mail.
- Please send your CV by email only to ian@digitalmarketinginstitute.ie
- Please note that at this stage in the process we are not able to take phone calls regarding this position
- At this time we do not require the service of Recruitment Agencies.
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Posted in Email Marketing, Online Marketing, SEO, Search Engine Optimisation, Sitemaps, Technology, Twitter, adwords, facebook, google analytics, social networks | No Comments »
Thursday, January 21st, 2010
Thanks to Perry Marsall and Howie Jacobson for ths following Top 10 AdWords Tips (actually, they are in the form of thetop AdWords mistakes so you need to invert!).
If you need AdWords Training, then you might think about the next Google AdWords Training Course that we are running.
Here are the Google AwWords tips (ie don’t make these mistakes!):
1. Neglecting to Split-Test Your Ads. I’ve gotta say one of the coolest discoveries of my whole life was, in my first week of playing with AdWords 5+ years ago, noticing that “create new ad” link and seeing that I could create a 2nd and 3rd and 4th ad and try different text. Running them simultaneously, then seeing how teeny tiny changes made huge differences. I still get jazzed about this. It’s like practicing psychology without a license.
2. Letting Google Retire Your Ads Without Testing: In Campaign Settings, when you turn “Optimize Ad Serving” OFF, you declare a winner and a loser much faster. Turn that option off if you’re checking in every day.
3. Split Testing for Improved CTR Only: At first, Click Thru Rate is the only thing you can measure. You want it high so you get the most traffic. But eventually what REALLY matters is conversion rate and cost per new customer. Sometimes high CTR ads don’t bring buyers. Conversion is what matters most.
4. Ignoring the Display URL Line in your Ad: If you own http://www.redwagon.com, you should try http://www.RedWagon.com, and http://www.RedWagon.com/RadioFlyer, or http://www.RadioFlyer.RedWagon.com, or RedWagonStore.com. Tiny hinges swing big doors.
5. Creating Ad Groups with Unrelated Keywords: Do not write an ad and dump every keyword under the sun into the ad group. Make tight ad groups based on a narrow set of related keywords matched closely to the ads and the landing page.
6. Muddying Search and Content Results: If you run all three streams of traffic (Google / Search / Content Network) through the same ad group, you lose the ability to distinguish among the very different kinds of traffic. I prefer to separate Google & Search from Content, in different campaigns.
7. Ignoring the 80/20 Principle: The 80/20 Rule says that the vast majority of outputs (impressions, clicks, leads, sales) are caused by a very small minority of inputs (ad groups, ads and keywords.) Spend your time on the vital few instead of the insignificant many.
8. Declaring Split-Test Winners Too Slowly: If you can declare a winner twice as fast, your site improves twice as fast. I recommend combing through your ads as often as you can announce a winner. If you go to http://www.splittester.com you can enter the # of clicks and the CTR of any two ads and it’ll tell you whether the better one is really better, or if it might just be luck.
9. Declaring Split-Test Winners to Quickly: If one ad got 1% and 5 clicks, and the other got 2% and 8 clicks, that’s not enough clicks to know for sure the winner is a sure thing. Again, let http://www.splittester.com decide their fate. Rule of thumb: 20+ clicks on each ad.
10. Ignoring negative keywords: Just about ANY ad group should probably have some negative keywords. It should always be on your checklist. It increases your Click Thru Rate because your ads don’t get shown to people who shouldn’t see them. Less waste.
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Posted in adgroups, adwords, adwords campaign, digital marketing institute, google adwords | No Comments »
Friday, December 11th, 2009
Online advertising spending on the USA is set to drop this year for the first time since 2002. eMarketer estimates online ad spending will be down 4.6% this year. However, the slowly recovering economy, combined with basic structural changes in how marketers and the public use media, will lead to Internet ad spending growth in early 2010
The various components of online advertising react differently to cyclical and structural changes. While one format might show relatively healthy growth in the recession, another suffers due to the same economic climate. For example, pay per click advertising will grow by 2.2% in 2009, while classified ad spending will decline by 30.2%. Even during 2010 and 2011, eMarketer projects search will continue to grow at mid-single-digit rates, while classified spending will decrease again both years.
The full report is available here
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Tags: pay per click advertising
Posted in adwords, adwords campaign, social networking training | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
Facebook recently announced that they had over 350 million users. So, the population of Facebook now exceeds that of America. Since September, Facebook Social Media network has added 50 million users, which means it now finds itself with 350 million of them.
There they are, cavorting away in cyberspace so thoughtfully (and expensively) provided by Facebook, where they post photographs of themselves in embarrassing situations, write affectionate or silly messages on one another’s “walls”, become “fans” of obscure comedians, join witty “groups” to support the Tiger Woods driving school and do other cool things too numerous to list. And all without paying a cent!
The above piece comes from, in the main, a piece in the Observer newspaper from December 6. The title says it all: “Facebook now has 350m users – and there’s no point in advertising to them.” Why? Because online advertising “really works” only in the context of search, where user motivation increases the likelihood of interaction with ads.
Of course, as we in the Digital Marketing Institute have been saying for a while now, it is not the the size that matters but the quality. So, let’s consider the advertising possibilities.
Let’s say that you are advertising “green training shoes”. Now, which would be better – have someone SEARCH for “green trainers” (using Google or their favourite serach engine) or woudl you be better advertising to someone who just might be interested in green shoes cos they happen to hang around on Facebook?
This is exactly why advertisers are spending their advertising euro’s on Google. The punters come to you ….. as opposed to you having to interrupt their Facebook activity.
So, what do you think?
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Tags: facebook, facebook adverts, google adwords
Posted in adwords, digital marketing institute, facebook, social networks | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
Google AdWords is text only advertising. There are no images or videos or any of the other rich content that is currently associated with banner advertising. Therefore, the branding possibilities are limited. As an example, have a look at how companies like O2 and Vodafone use a combination of text-based and image-based adverts to build and enhance their brands.
So, while text is often useful, sometimes videos and pictures are a more effective way to receive information. For example, if you want to learn how to open a bottle of wine, a video showing you how to do this is likely the best result for your search. Over the past few years, Google has blended videos, images, maps and more into the search results on Google.
It also makes sense for Google to provide richer types of information in the ads. For example, if you are looking to buy your mother a new handbag for the holidays, you might want to see pictures, prices, the addresses of boutiques in your area and a map of how to get there — all within the advert.
To provide a better search ads experience, Google has been developing and testing a variety of new ad formats. These formats are focused on giving you the information you need, while ensuring that the adverts continue to be relevant and useful.
Read the complete article, which was written by one of the Google Product VP’s
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Tags: google, search
Posted in adwords, digital marketing institute, google adwords, google analytics, webmasters | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
Most of Google’s business comes from search advertising (also called Pay per Click – PPC). This is the little adverts that appear at the top and to the right hand sid of the the search results. However, they are also, to a very small extent, in the display advertising business. To prove a point, Google paid $3.1 billion for DoubleClick in 2008, one of the leading players in the display advertising business.
Yesterday, Google announced that it was acquiring a company called Teracent, a dynamic ad serving and optimization startup company.
Teracent’s technology displays ads in real-time. Ad elements go in and Teracent’s technology figures out how they can be combined to produce the best results:
Teracent’s technology can pick and choose from literally thousands of creative elements of a display ad in real-time — tweaking images, products, messages or colors. These elements can be optimized depending on factors like geographic location, language, the content of the website, the time of day or the past performance of different ads.
This technology can help advertisers get better results from their display ad campaigns. In turn, this enables publishers to make more money from their ad space and delivers web users better ads and more ad-funded web content.
Google’s announcement shows the product of a Teracent optimization:
The ad on the bottom is the product of Teracent picking and choosing ad elements using machine learning, and ostensibly converts better than the ad on the top.
Google believes that Teracent’s technology “has great potential to improve display advertising on the web” and once Teracent is in the Google fold, plans to make its technology available to DoubleClick and Google Content Network advertisers.
Click for more information from Google on the purchase
Read more about Teracent
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Tags: acquisition, google. teracent
Posted in Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, adwords, google adwords | No Comments »
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