Tag: AdWords

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Great AdWords Landing Page Tips

Not getting the conversions you think you should with Google AdWords? If you are getting clicks, have a good click through rate, but no leads or sales, the first place to really look is at your ad group and even keyword landing pages.

What makes a landing page great for creating sales and leads? Here are my top tips to consider as you design your own.

  1. Skin the page with your regular website look and feel and include your full website navigation. You are reinforcing your brand when you do this. I am not an advocate of having a landing page that does not look like your website or is just a big graphic  with bullet points.l I like the legitimacy a fully skinned website page affords.
  2. Keep your page load speed snappy! You’ve got 5 to 6 seconds to make an impression, don’t have those precious seconds be in loading images or superfluous content.
  3. If you have a site search function, include it in the landing page or at the very minimum supply a link to your site map.
  4. Bulletize your content and condense your sales pitch. Most readers will scan your page – put that to work for you by creating bullets, visual graphics that are appealing, and white space that opens up the content.
  5. Include a path to the action you want the reader to take. I will typically encourage the introduction of a contact form at the bottom of the landing page content. I want to lead the reader into getting more information or a price fast with one click. I do  not require any information on the form and usually just ask for first name, last name, email, phone, and comments. Again I do not require any fields I want to make the information request form process friendly and fast.
  6. Make sure your phone number is prominently featured on the landing page top and bottom. Many people will sit on that page and pick up the phone right then to chat with you.
  7. Do not include and excessive amount of content. Identify what your buyer wants to know and link to content that provides more information.
  8. Add graphics to break of the content or to reinforce your message. One page of text looks dull and if the paragraphs are too long, the reader may simply loose interest and surf off.
  9. Make sure you have a link to your privacy policy on your AdWords landing page. AdWords is scanning for this so make sure to have a policy in place and have it linked from your landing page.
  10. Keep all your important information above the fold of the page, that means visible so that someone does not have to scroll to read it.

Creating a landing page is like creating a marketing piece. Give the prospect the information they want fast and entice them to contact you to find out more. Give a sense of urgency to act on the information by offering a promotion with an ending date that encourages interaction to receive the incentive typically within the next week or 30 days.

Even after you have a great landing page, continue to test and refine your message. Find out what resonates with your clients and closes the deal by asking them and then build those items into your new landing page test.

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Google AdWords Introduces Shared Budgets for Campaigns

Just this past week Google announced a very big change in how they do budgets for your AdWords account. Introducing Shared Budgets for Google AdWords campaigns. You can read the full release on the Google blog.

Although this sounds great, I have already had experience with Shared Budgets already last week and want to let you know to be careful and choose carefully what you share.

With a Shared Budget, this is how it is supposed to work. You select which Campaigns (not ad groups) you want to share budgets between. If you have one campaign that does not spend its daily budget on a regular basis and one which does, you can choose to share budgets. Google says this:

“Using shared budgets allows automatic adjustments across campaigns, so you don’t have to constantly monitor and change individual campaign budgets throughout the day.”

It sounds good, that money not spent on the one weaker campaign, would flow over to fund the stronger campaign when needed. BUT, this is the reality of what I have already seen this last week on set up.

I set up Shared Budgets, what happened by noon one day is that the entire account budget was spent by a “hog” of a campaign effectively shutting down exposure for the full account. No metering out there, or leftovers given to the strong program, the stronger program overrode all settings of the weaker programs and took every single cent all $166.66 dollars, all of them!

The lesson learned is to be very careful what you share with AdWords Shared Budgets. Watch carefully after you set up the share both several times during the day and for statistical data. Make sure you are not funding a hog at the expense of the rest of the campaigns in your account.

By using Shared Budgets, you are effectively putting all shared campaigns in one campaign and the strong campaign now acting as an ad group in a single campaign will take the most cash at the expense of the others.

I think the idea is great, the but actual execution can create havoc with an account’s funding structure. Use Shared Budgets carefully and watchfully.

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Tips on the AdWords Display Ad Builder

Here are some tips to consider when using the Google AdWords Display Ad Builder to help set up image ads for your Google AdWords Display Network targeted campaign.

  1. Expect a much higher click through rate (CTR) with ads created using images in the Display Network than with regular text ads.
  2. The Display Ad Builder will make all sizes of your ads for you automatically. But make sure to click each ad size and resize as needed or move around the content blocks by dragging them so the text looks “right” for each size ad.
  3. Consider using the suggested ads that AdWords creates for you to get started in under 10 minutes.
  4. You cannot change the ad text in each ad size so choose short phrases that work for your product or service.
  5. You can add additional images of products or your logos to certain templates. Browse around in the tool to find the one that suits your specific needs best.
  6. Once your program is running a .05% (yes that is right) is considered a great click through rate by Google.

I do like the Display Ad Builder. It allows me to set up good looking display ads pretty quickly. This is especially important where we want to test the program we are running in the Search Network to see if it has viability in the Display Network.

If you are looking for savvy personalized help with Google AdWords, make sure to find out more about our company and services.

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AdWords Third Party Compliance – We Passed

My business was just reviewed this past month by Google under their new Google AdWords third party compliance program. You can read all the details about this new Google AdWords policy in this article by Google. As a Google AdWords Certified Partner, being in compliance is important. If you are found to not be compliant, Google can remove your certification and even disable your ability to manage accounts.

My firm passed the review which is now to be done yearly or in some cases more frequently if Google receives complaints about a Partner. I have to say the review was thorough! As we operate transparently and were already adhering to Google policies the audit was not a problem for us, but for others, may require a change in business model, updates to their website, or new information communicated to every customer.

In summary this is what Google requires your Google AdWords Certified Partner to do:

  1. “At the minimum provide advertisers with monthly data on AdWords costs, clicks and impressions at the account level.”
  2. “All third parties primarily serving small to medium-sized clients are required to provide the Google Disclosure Notice.”
  3. “Third parties may not engage in unclear, deceptive or harassing sales practices.”
  4. “Third parties may not misrepresent their relationship to Google.”
  5. “You may not make improper guarantees about Google to your clients.”
  6. “You may not violate Google’s branding guidelines.”
  7. “You may not improperly use AdWords accounts, or AdWords marketing or sales material.”

You’ll want to check out the full article as I know of several situations when client’s have told me what other AdWords service suppliers have said to them are in direct violation with the policies.

As for me, I feel that a compliance review is a good thing. It keeps Google AdWords Certified Partners on a level playing field. No more having to compete for a client against a competing service that is saying they have a special preferential relationship with Google and that they get special deals that I can’t possibly get and give to the prospect.

Thanks Google for helping to make the Google AdWords Certified Partner status I work hard to get and keep mean something!

You can verify our Partner status with Google AdWords.