I am in the process of renewing my Google Advertising Professional certification and have found several inconsistencies between the previous Adwords interface and the new one.
A lot of the links don’t work.
For example, clicking on the Google Advertising Professionals Help link from within My Client Center produces the following “Page not available” message.
Google Advertising Professionals Help
Although I haven’t ever generated an online or offline transaction from my own firm’s Google Local Business Center listing, I have closely monitored my listing and its appearance or lack thereof in Google search results since business listings were first introduced.
Over time, the type of results have changed from lists of ten to as few as one result for specific business or category localized search queries.
I have also watched Google’s Local Business Center product evolve to its present version which includes rudimentary search traffic stats.
Because of the nature of my firm’s listing categories (advertising and marketing), generating a search referred transaction isn’t expected.
However, many small businesses have come to rely on the referrals Google local search listings provide.
Fortunately I haven’t relied on Google’s free local search referrals for generating new business; because if I had, my business would have since dried up with the recent changes impacting what appears to have only occurred in geo-modified advertising and marketing search results.
Prior to the recent paring of local advertising and marketing results, firms like mine could count on their local business listing being displayed for queries in their respective markets.
A generic web search query for marketing + city used to produce the following type of results.
Marketing
A generic web search query for marketing consultant + city used to produce the following type of results.
Marketing Consultant
In both instances and because of my firm’s listing presence, Google saw fit to publish my company’s details for these types of queries.
Once my Local Business Center listing even appeared inexplicably atop a Google Maps search for “marketing consultants”.
Google Maps Search Marketing Consultants
However, today the same search query for marketing + city produces the following results sans One Plus Box or any other type of previously seen types of multiple listing results.
Marketing Oklahoma City
The same holds true for a search for marketing consultant + city. No One Plus Box results or any type of multiple listing results.
Marketing Consultants Oklahoma City
Nor does my listing still appear atop a Google Maps search for marketing consultants. My listing shouldn’t have probably been there to begin with but its unclear to me as to why any of results that do appear for this particular search appear as they do.
Marketing Consultants Google Map Search
Historically when these types of changes have appeared in search results, the new results types were evenly distributed across all business categories.
I am not so sure that is the case this time.
It looks like the advertising and marketing categories are the sole beneficiaries of these new types of category search results.
A quick search for other categories still produces any one of the previously identified One Plus Box results types.
A search for a local Doctor’s listing still produces his Google Local Business Center listing data.
Dr Local Web Search
A search for “Luxury Apartments Dallas” produces the recently discovered seven local results format.
Luxury Apartments Dallas
However, a local search for my business name and city no longer produces a Google Local Business Center result like the the Doctor’s listing above.
Instead it produces a traditional search engine results page.
Google Web Search Advanced Marketing Consultants NIchols HIlls, OK
Although my local business center listings information still appears in a specific business name search in Google Maps, the One Box type result for my categories appears to be totally gone.
Google Maps Advanced Marketing Consultants Nichols HIlls, OK
To confirm my experience isn’t unique, I ran several search queries in other markets for the same generic terms and produced the same type of results.
A search for “Advertising Agency New York” produces the same type of results as those identified above – no One Box or any type of multiple listings.
Advertising Agency New York Web Search
Yet a search for “marketing + city” produces a buggy list of non marketing related business listings ( (must be the data center).
Marketing New York
I have seen these type of results before where similar nonsensical business listings appear in search categories unrelated to their primary business. Could these types of results been a catalyst for these recent category results changes?
However, a search for “marketing consultants new york city” produced the same type of search engine results pages mentioned initially.
Marketing Consultants New York City
Are these new search engine results pages for advertising and marketing related category + location specific search results by design and the new norm or are these new results the by-product of a bug?
If these results are indeed the new norm for the advertising and marketing industries, agencies and marketers alike may need to get acquainted with Google’s advertising product – Google Adwords – if they want their businesses to have a higher level of visibility in both Google search engine results pages and Google Maps.
The Google Ad Planner Team has issued their first newsletter.
Google Ad Planner
Topics discussed in the first Google Ad Planner newsletter are actually the subject matter of a Google Ad Planner “Webinar for Advertisers” to be held November 20, 2009 @ 12pm PST and again on November 24 9am PST .
Topics to be discussed include:
Google Ad Planner updates for advertisers
Google Ad Planner updates for publishers
Sign up to attend online or call 866-699-3239 to register for Google Ad Planner’s Webinar for Advertisers.
As a loyal customer to many different companies and their brands, the following email is the first I recall ever receiving where a company I have chosen to spend my money with has asked me to participate in their brand’s community.
Customer Retention Strategy
What better way to retain customers than to engage them and let their voices be heard?
MB Advisors
While I am certain other large companies like Mercedes Benz are actively pursuing methods like establishing brand communities for further engaging their customers, I am also certain – the smaller the company – the less likely it will have enacted any kind of ongoing engagement strategy at all.
What engagement strategies can your business institute to help customers make their voices heard?
There are only three ways to grow a business: (1) Increase the total number of customers (2) Increase the average ticket amount, and (3) Increase the frequency of repurchase.
Every business marketing strategy should be measured by it’s ability to directly impact and improve upon each of these three factors.
Increasing only one factor will produce linear business growth. Increasing all three will produce geometric business growth.
Marketing Strategy #1. Increase total number of customers
Increasing a total number of customers is the first step most business owners and managers take to grow their business.
Losses can occur when inexperienced sales personnel are put in charge of designing and implementing a marketing campaign – investing corporate resources to find and acquire more customers.
Executed correctly, marketing strategies cost efficiently produce new prospects who are ready, willing and able to buy products or services. The main goal of a marketing strategy is to give sales personnel prospect traffic to convert into paying customers.
Rewarding existing customers for referring new ones is one easy step business owners can take to increase their total number of customers.
Taking care of existing customers can also lead to unpaid referrals.
Marketing Strategy #2. Increase the average ticket amount
Owners and managers spend most of their time operating their business and searching for new customers. They often overlook the customers they see regularly. These repeat customers can often be taken for granted and left to conduct entire transactions without ever being asked if they would like to buy more product or service.
Complacency, expecting customers to buy a minimum amount of product or service without ever being asked to buy more, can be the undoing of a business. This attitude can eventually cause customers to spend less money. Customers who aren’t continuously offered compelling reasons to keep buying more of the same products and services from one business will eventually look for new reasons to buy from another.
Cross selling and upselling, systematically offering customers more value via additional products or services at the point of sale, are two simple steps business owners can take to increase their average transaction amount.
Marketing Strategy #3. Increase the frequency of repurchase
In an established business, an average customer purchasing pattern develops and (like the average transaction amount) is usually taken for granted and rarely improved upon.
A customer’s repeat business is earned by the business who gives the customer what they want. Without having institutionalized marketing strategies or processes for consistently offering customers more of what they want, repeat business is earned less frequently.
Frequently communicating news and offers to past and present customers via telephone, mail and email generally increases their frequency of repurchase and is one more step owners can take to grow their business.
(Originally published on MarketingPrinciples.com)
Planning to set up a Google display ad any time soon?
Google Adwords helps take some of the guess work out of selecting an ad size and type by providing the following list of their top highest clicked through display ad formats.
Highest Clickthrough Display Ad Types
Find the highest clicked through ad types under the Display Ad Builder link when creating new ads in Google Adwords.
Not surprisingly, Google has ended their social search experiment Google Social Search.
Google Social Search Marketing
When Google first announced their social search product, I wrote “It remains to be seen whether this Google trial will be adopted much further than beyond the borders of the search engine marketing community.”
I also wrote:
“The Google social circle search product reminds to some degree of the previous Google product: “subscribed links”.
Although Google has ended this particular experiment, the Google Social Search product still appears in my Google Experimental Labs account.
Google Social Search
I thought the idea of social search was half baked to begin with and remain convinced that a social search product of any kind regardless of who produces it will be inferior to Google’s existing search product.
Here are two of my Tweets echoing the same:
Will Social Search Matter?
Will Social Search Matter
No.
Why?
Social Search Inferior
Because Social Search is inferior to Cloud Search.
Update: November 16, 2009: Barry Schwartz reports @Search Engine Land that Google’s social search program has not ended but instead their message: “The experiment you’re trying to access is no longer available.” was caused by a bug.
That is one smart bug – writing its own goodbye…
In this short, insightful “snippet”, Google Chairman and CEO, Eric Schmidt, describes the role of marketing in long-term business success.
John Sviokla has asked an interesting question on his blog about why institutions are generally incapable of innovation.
I thought it was a great question and came up with the following algorithm for innovation.
1. Construct a conventional wisdom idea / strategy / plan 1-10 scale with 0 representing conventional wisdom, 10 representing abstract unconventional thought.
2. Run existing ideas / strategies / plans through the scale, target 0, 1, 2 and 3s for review.
3. Ask for, develop and design 7, 8, 9 and 10s for each of 0, 1, 2 and 3s for further evaluation, consideration and possible execution.
Although this process for innovation may appear overly simplified, I think identifying institutionalized malaise is the first step an organization must take to begin the process of identifying new opportunities.
I liked the idea of the Innovation Algorithm so much that I bought the company – I mean the domain – InnovationAlgorithm.com
Google Adwords has added service icons for use with Google Adwords connected to Local Business Center accounts.
Local Business Center Ads
Seventeen service icons are available for use including a “No category specified” icon.
The following sixteen business categories have service icons available for use with Google Adwords campaigns combined with Google Local Business center listings:
Movies, film, video
Bar, pub, liquor
Accommodations
Restaurant, dining
Café, coffee shop
Flowers, garden
Car dealer, rental, service
Grocery, department store
Shopping, boutique
Homewares, home repair, real estate
Phones, service providers
Bank, finance, currency exchange
Bank, finance, currency exchange (UK)
Hardware, repair
Hairdresser, barber, tailor
Bank, finance, currency exchange (Eur)
Are Google’s reasons for choosing these particular local categories governed by the same reasons they make most if not all of their other business decisions – data?
Google Adwords Icons
If so, then marketers this list of sixteen business types and their icons are the most searched for competitive local search marketing categories in Google at this particular time.
Google Service Icons
If these types of service listings are indeed the most searched local cateogies, what can we expect to see next from Google?
Search Marketing Communications 
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