Category: News & Trends

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AdWords Content Network – Excluding Below the Fold Placements

The team at Google AdWords has been incredibly busy this last month rolling out some super new features. Here’s one that is really great if you are advertising in the content network:

Exclude content placements that fall below the fold

The fold is the part of a web page that a reader has to scroll to see. In many cases to be below the fold means that you do not get the clicks, exposure, and return on investment that you need. For content placement in the top three to five ad spots on the side of the page or at the top of the page are preferable. As typically in the content network readers will rapidly scan content and may not even read past the first one or two paragraphs, having a top position can mean the difference between mediocre and great results.

Here’s a quote directly from AdWords on this topic and how to enable it for your content program:

“How to exclude below-the-fold placements

“Follow these steps to exclude below-the-fold placements for your AdWords campaign:

  1. Click the Campaigns tab.
  2. Select a campaign.
  3. Click the Networks tab and scroll down to the bottom of the page.
  4. Click the Exclusions link. You’ll see an “Ad group level” table and a “Campaign level” table.
  5. Within the Campaign level, click the Add exclusions drop-down menu, and select Exclude category.
  6. Select the “Below the fold” checkbox, and click Save.

“When you target placements above the fold only, the available inventory decreases. As a result, the winning bids for those placements are expected to be higher than for placements below the fold. So if you want to maintain your same campaign budget, we recommend increasing your bids. This will help you compete against campaigns that target placements below the fold, and other advertisers bidding exclusively on placements above the fold.”

You can read the full article and how-tos here in the AdWords help center.

The key here is that for above the fold placements, you will need to bid more, but your results may definitely improve. However anytime you advertise in content it is important to make sure to evaluate your return on investment after at least a 30 day period. Content clicks can suck your budget dry, so you only want to be in content if it generates sales for you or if you are working to establish your brand.

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April AdWords Trends

I have just finished doing my April reports for a large number of AdWords clients and I wanted to share with you a few interesting trends I am seeing.

  1. Impressions and clicks are up for many accounts.
  2. Conversions are trending up for many accounts as well. Some are showing results similar to February high conversion figures.
  3. Cost per click is really moving up for many geographic locations when local targeting is used. In some smaller metro areas the cost per click is staying static, but in major areas like New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, the cost per click is really moving up strongly as more advertisers move back into Google AdWords and competition for the first page of results is ramping up.

If  you are thinking of Google AdWords, this is still a good time to get into the “game”. I am seeing strong movement that allows me to believe that real economic improvement for many business sectors is just around the corner. Get positioned in the “mix” before the crest hits!

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Google AdWords Trends for April

This is interesting and as I am seeing this over many accounts I felt it warranted a comment. Conversions are very tough to come by so far this month using Google AdWords and nearly non-existent on Yahoo.

I have a feeling that much of this behavior is tied to tax time and feel that things will open back up for advertisers after April 15th, but so far this month and starting at the end of March I have seen a consistent drop in the number of lead conversions.  Yahoo seems to be hit the hardest, but Google AdWords is affected strongly as well.

Click traffic and impression traffic is still good at this point, but people are not buying at this time. AdWords works in cycles with ebbs and flows. It is the advertiser who sticks through the tough and good times that ends up with the best results. So if things are “flat” in your Google AdWords account, take heart other advertisers across many business sectors are experiencing this same trend.

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Google Maps Optimization or Account Crashing?

Just recently one of our clients asked our opinion on a cold call she received with an offer to optimize her Google Maps account for big money. What the business said they would provide was intriguing to me so we agreed that my client would be my “guinea pig”. What I found out is highly interesting and makes me concerned about anyone spending money on Google Maps optimization at this time.

This is what we did to match the same protocol the Google Maps optimization business said they would provide.

  1. I set up a domain name on GoDaddy that was keyword dense and used a term that the client did not place on Google Maps for already. I then pointed the domain to the client’s website and masked the domain so that it appeared that the website had the new domain name.
  2. I set up a GMmail account and tied it to a new Google Maps account. The business was adamant that a GMail account had to be set up as in their words  “Google gave preferential treatment to Google Maps accounts that had a GMail email address”. *I just have to say at this point, that this is bunk. I believe that the business wanted the GMail account so that all interaction with Google Maps would be under their control. I have never seen a situation where Google has preferred an account with a GMail email address over a non GMail address.
  3. I set up a new Google Maps account targeted to highlight the service that the client was not showing for already on Google Maps.
  4. I then did a phone PIN verification with the client to complete the Google Maps set up.

Now it is important to know that this client had excellent Google Maps placement on all terms and locations except for this one term we used. What happened next may warn you to stay away from businesses that are selling Google Maps Optimization.

In about two weeks or maybe even less the new Google Maps account was showing, but what was concerning was that it had taken over the old account. Now, all Google Maps entries were showing our “bogus” URL! In other words the new account superseded all the placement from the old account. That was particularly concerning to me as the URL did not match the URL on the “real” website.

I took immediate action to correct the problem, but what this shows is that if you already have a Google Maps account and you pay an optimization firm to work over your account, you are not adding to what you have, you are replacing what you have. If the tactic has been to create a “bogus” masked domain that is keyword dense then suddenly your website information does not match your domain and the reader cannot bookmark any of your inside pages.

You do not need optimization to place on Google Maps! In fact paying an optimization firm that is going to perform the functions I have detailed may work to hurt you more than help you by diluting your URL , brand, and confusing the customer with two domain names.

I recommend for Google Maps, setting up an account using your legitimate business domain, email, and location. But I do recommend a monthly review of content, update of coupons, addition of new images and in general a “laying on of the hands” on all content there. By keeping your information fresh you can place well on Google Maps.

For businesses that currently do not place well on Google Maps I recommend updating your content and then setting a schedule to update and freshen content weekly to see if you can get improvement this way.

For businesses that are already on Google Maps and place well, don’t mess with anything except to keep your account fresh. To try to optimize an account to boost placement even further using the optimization techniques that I have tried may actually work to harm your account.