Nancy McCord is a recipient of the Meritorious Public Service Award.
That’s right I am a recipient of the Meritorious Public Service Award. It was designated by Vice Admiral P.M. Balisle, Commander of Naval Sea Systems Command and presented by Rear Admiral Paul V. Shebalin, Deputy Commander for Mobilization for NAVSEA and SPAWAR in 2004.
I received this special award for a website I built for the Engineering Duty Officer’s Reserve group, of which my husband had been a part of at that time. The 500 page website was full of information to help reservists know more about projects, where to stay in Washington when they traveled on duty and a place to share documents.
As the Admiral gave me the medal he also read:
“Your contributions to the command in shaping communications that are focused on the mission, goals and products of NAVSEA and the NRED Community are a credit to your professionalism and skill in software development and web page design. Thank you and congratulations on a job Well Done!”
My family is a military family and my husband is now a retired Navy Captain. The military has been good to our family and we continue to benefit from our connection to the military community. We love our country and our military.
I mention my Meritorious Public Service Award to let you know my business model and life are managed to the highest level of personal integrity and honesty. If you are looking for a professional to help you with AdWords or your website, my firm and I, myself, will treat you right. Find out more today about our Internet Marketing Services.
Are you seeing depressed activity in AdWords? What should you do first to try to turn an AdWords account around?
As a professional AdWords manager and Google Partner, I troubleshoot AdWords accounts all the time. This December has been particularly troublesome for many businesses in a diverse set of sectors. Many are experienced depressed activity in AdWords accounts.
Here’s what I do to try to move an account back to profitability when activity has started to slide.
Check the bidding algorithm.
If you are using Maximum Clicks move to eCPC bidding. Set your ad group bid to the lowest common denominator of first page bids, then run a filter to show the keywords that are below the first page bid. Select all the words and in bulk choose the highest bid you want to use and then in the drop down for change the CPC bid, select bid to first page and cap the amount with your desired figure.
Check your daily budget.
If your bid has been raised make sure you have a high enough budget to afford to get clicks during the day. I will routinely do budget sharing between account campaigns. I will sometimes break an account into one to three budget shares to assure that areas that need clicks are getting them.
Review that you are using eMax Clicks or eCPC bidding.
When possible, but that does not mean always, let Google enhance your bid to get better results. Understand that Google does not have a specific bid cap anymore when using the e component to bidding. I will weekly look at the max bid for each keyword in the account to assure that I am not spending more than I would have wanted to by turning on that feature.
Start trimming your keyword list.
When activity is depressed look to see if your clicks have come in on broad match keywords. Check the actual search queries that triggered the ad and then decide if you want to pause broad match keywords due to being too untargeted or if you need to add some if you are only using exact match and phrase match terms.
AdWords accounts are exciting and challenging to manage. Knowing what to do when activity is depressed in an account is crucial to keeping happy clients.
We Are a Google Partner Specializing in Search Marketing,, Mobile, and Display.
Think you know what keywords people use to find you? You may be surprised to find out what they really are searching for. Google My Business has a new feature that will email you the top term that people used to find your business. I love that!
Previously, I have been focused on placing on a certain set of keywords based on my service offerings. I was truly surprised to find that people are searching for Internet marketing service, which is an older phrase that I have not focused on for a while.
With Google Analytics not showing organic search terms, the Google Search Console is now the only way you can actually see what keywords are driving traffic to your website. But now, Google My Business AKA Google Places, AKA Google Maps, AKA Google+ Locations is now helping you to understand your local traffic and the keywords that people use to find you.
Google My Business is the Key
If you don’t have a Google My Business page sign up to get one free today. It is easy to set up. Google will verify your physical address by sending you a snail mail letter with a PIN to prevent people from scamming the local search systems. But once verified and set up they do send you nice updates of search activity and keywords used to find you.
If you need help consider our Internet marketing services to get your name and business out of the web to get discovered and to leverage website exposure.
Can you teach others to value your time? Yes, you sure can. I have been in business since 2001 and over time my business and client load and demand for my services have grown significantly.
As a business professional who makes a living off of time billing, I have learned a few things about helping clients learn to value my time.
Use Calendly
I use an appointment calendaring app called Calendly. I started out with the free version of Calendly but now use the premium paid version. This app moved me from one to six emails (for each client) to schedule a mutually available time for client strategy calls to now one email with a link and the client self-selects a time and even gets automated reminders.
I even use Calendly for pre-paid consulting appointments, linking the notifications in the app to my billing page to get payment before I even get in the car.
Rarely Talk on the Phone Except by Appointment
Most of my correspondence is done by email. I have voice mail messages letting clients and prospects know the best and fastest way to get me is by email. I typically send all my phone calls to voice mail. This puts me in charge of my day and time allowing me to be highly productive.
Set Email Auto Responder Messages
If I am super busy and not available to react immediately to an email, I set up a “vacation” notice that I am super busy that day and list the times I will be checking email. I will always respond that same day, but sometimes am tied up on a code issue, SEO problem, or AdWords program set up. Interruptions on some of these projects kill the thought continuum and are serious distractions. When I am working on a project I have a laser-beam focus and operate at a high level of efficiency and competency. Calls distract from that focus.
By communicating when I will respond, I assure clients that I will touch base back. I do however perform triage. If there is a disaster happening – I will stop my project to help. I do have a strong sense of urgency when it comes to assuring that your site is up and fully functional or that a real time sensitive problem is addressed quickly.
Set Limits on Free Services
Although I am willing to freely share my thoughts and time with prospects, I do limit the time I will spend without moving into a paid client category. I do clock all my time chatting with a prospect. Typically at the end of 30 minutes I will go and then followup by email with a request to move to a paying client category. I have been burned a number of times and now I do value my own time. The most important thing I have found is if you do not value your own time, clients will not value it either.
That being said, you do not have to be rude, pretentious, or full of yourself by setting limits and guiding customers on how best to use your services effectively. I always try to be helpful yet focused.
In all I do, I work hard to provide value for clients and work to save them time and money. If you are looking for an expert to help with your SEO, content strategy, or Internet Marketing Program using Google AdWords, contact my by email at nancy@mccordweb.com.
