Free phone call tracking is available in your account from Google AdWords. Why pay for a third party service when you can get great metrics that flow into the AdWords control panel for free?
With nearly all conversions now happening in Google AdWords via phone activity versus email actions, tracking is more important than ever.
Google AdWords allows you to enable through phone call extensions a call forwarding number. Install 4 pieces of code on your website and you can even track calls that are made after an ad click from website visitors.
Although you can’t record calls or see the full phone number, you do see the area code, time to the second, and length of the call. For most clients this is enough data to ascertain the value of AdWords in driving phone calls about your services.
If you need AdWords services, account management, service by the hour, make sure to visit our AdWords services page for details and pricing.
As part of my preparing to take my second AdWords certification exam for the year, I am studying all of Google’s AdWords documentation. I came across information on attribution models that I thought might be interesting to review.
There are 6 attribution models you can select in the AdWords control panel under Tools and in Conversions. See if your current model should be changed.
Last Click
This one is pretty self explanatory. AdWords attributes the conversion in your reporting to the keyword that generates the last click in the conversion path.
First Click
This one is pretty self explanatory. AdWords attributes the conversion in your reporting to the keyword that generates the first click in the conversion path.
Linear
In this attribution model, Google spreads the credit for the conversion equally across all keywords clicked in the conversion path. For newly running AdWords accounts this is my preferred attribution model.
Time Decay
In this attribution model, Google weights credit to the click closest in time to the conversion over a 7-day half life. So a click 8 days before conversion will get 50% of the credit versus a click 1 day before conversion.
Position Based
In this attribution model, 40% of the credit for the conversion goes to both the first and last clicks with the remaining 20% spread over the other clicks in the conversion path.
Data-Driven
If your AdWords program has been running for a while, Google has data on your conversion activity by keyword and will credit the keywords clicked in the conversion page based on your own historical data. This is my preferred model for mature accounts.
Most advertisers will choose by default the last click conversion model. But, when you change your conversion model in your conversion actions to data-driven or time decay, you will start to see that keywords that were not the last click start to see conversion data.
Knowing what is driving conversions is particularly important as inadvertently pausing keywords that you did not know were important to the conversion path may lower your own conversion numbers expectantly.
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I wanted to share this quick Google AdWords account management tip with you today as I just got off the phone with a Googler about it. (Thanks Eric for the info!)
I have had a few accounts in the last few days have new ad text disapproved with the message that there was a destination URL mismatch.
This is what Google said – this is new and just creating ad disapprovals.
The ad path that you use must be the same in one ad group.
So, if before you used for let’s say for a pest control firm several different path fields in your display URL, your ads are, and will be getting flagged for disapproval.
Example:
First Ad
Path one: local-pest-control
Path two: services
Second Ad
Path one: free-pest
Path two: identification
Now both ads must have the same path one and path two fields.
Use AdWords Editor to quickly and easily set ads to have the same path within the same ad group so you won’t run into this problem.
If you are a do-it-yourself AdWords account manager for your own business, and have never hired a professional manager, here are some things that you may be missing out on using that will boost performance.
Extensions
I frequently see that a diy (do it yourself) AdWords manager does not understand the power of using extensions. Most frequently callouts and location extensions are not being used. Sitelinks may not be tailored to the ad group, and phone extensions are set up to not use Google Forwarding and recording calls as conversions.
Bidding Strategies
More frequently than not, I see manual bidding used in self-managed AdWords account. Using automated bidding you may see up to a 30% boost in traffic. Using CPA bidding or cost per acquisition bidding you may see a drop in clicks but as much as a 20% increase in conversions.
Ad Text
Most frequently I see that account owners who are managing their own AdWords accounts are not using dynamic keyword insertion in ad text. Using dynamic keyword insertion increases conversions. When ads are A/B tested with and without dynamic keyword insertion, those that insert the keywords always out perform the other ads.
If you have been managing your own AdWords account and frequently think that AdWords is not performing or is simply too expensive, it is time to get professional help.
With over 10 year of professional AdWords account management experience, McCord Web Services is the resource you need to whip your AdWords account into shape and have it start performing for you.
