Archive for October, 2010

Google AdWords Certified Partner Status Achieved

October 21, 2010

Happily today I received the following email from the Google Certified Partner team:

Google AdWords Certified Partner Status Achieved

Google AdWords Certified Partner Status Achieved

I was one of the first people to achieve the Adwords Qualified Individual status shortly after the Google Adwords certification program was launched in 2005.

Adwords Qualified Individual

Adwords Qualified Individual

When the program first came out, there weren’t any ongoing testing and certification requirements.

AdWords has changed a lot since 2005 let alone since March 5, 2002 when I opened my first Adwords account!

For example, I don’t think Google had even initiated advertising on the “Content Network” now known as the Google Display Network when I was first certified in 2005.

I am glad to have once again achieved Google AdWords Certified Partner Status.

Google Adwords City Vs. Metro Geo Targeting

October 20, 2010

If you live in a city and market like I do – one with clear boundaries between itself and cities close by – the differences between geo targeting location options and results within Google Adwords may not appear obvious.

As far as I can tell, Google Adwords offers two types of predefined targeting perimeters: the first at the “City” level and the second at the “Metro” level.

City Geotargeting

City Geotargeting

I am not absolutely clear where Google gets its definition of and parameters for it “City’ coordinates.

However, as you can see in my particular city’s case there is little difference between the City and Metro geo targeting options.

Metro Geotargeting

Metro Geotargeting

I believe Google assigns its Metro targeting parameters via the Designated Marketing Area (DMA) system.

When geo-targeting campaigns in Google Adwords, be sure to examine the differences between the City and Metro targeting options to make sure your Adwords advertising campaigns are reaching the internet audience in all the right places.

Google Adwords Keyword Alert!

October 19, 2010

I inherited a Google Adwords account with about 65,000 keywords.

Today while scrubbing the account I happened to click on the home tab where I got the following alert.

Google Adword Keyword Alert

Google Adword Keyword Alert

Here is the text verbatim:

The keywords in your account are nearing an unmanageable size. We recommend that you reduce the number of keywords within your account. This will ensure that your account includes the most targeted and relevant keywords possible.

Use our Adwords Editor to identify poor performing keywords within your account (such as keywords with few or zero impressions) and delete them.

Note: Be careful when deleting keywords in campaigns that are only opted in to the Display Network. Impressions and other statistics aren’t attributed to individual keywords when ads show on Display Network pages, but are attributed to the ad group as a whole. Therefore, keywords in Display Network-only campaigns will always show zero impressions.

The “Note” portion of the warning kind of complicates matters doesn’t it?

Google Adwords Geotargeting Limitation

October 18, 2010

I run advertising campaigns for multi-unit operators which require targeting at the Zip Code level.

While Google Adwords doesn’t offer Zip Code targeting per se, it does offer radius targeting of locations.

The suggested minimum setting for map point radius targeting is 10 miles although in my  particular case, I have found 20 miles a more forgiving distance for reaching the correct geographic audience.

Geotargeting Ads

Geotargeting Ads

I hand code in geographic radius targeting perimeters in an Adwords campaign initially to make sure I can confirm the location targets on the map Google provides before replicating targeting coordinates again into any future campaigns.

While I have come to expect some initial detailed input by hand, you would think Adwords campaign managers would be able to copy their targeting radius coordinates into other campaigns to expedite additional ad campaign programming.

Nope.

Attempts to copy a list of previously accepted geotargets from one campaigns settings into another is more often than not met with the following error message – “We can’t find the list of locations you entered.”

Geotargeting Copy Errors

Geotargeting Copy Errors

What gives Adwords?

If you have accepted the coordinates in another campaign, how come your system can’t recognize them again for input into other campaigns?

Hand coding each and every geotargeted Google Adwords campaign is by definition a limitation and thus a barrier to scalable and efficient advertising.

What’s The Difference Between Marketing And Advertising?

October 17, 2010

I was giving a presentation on Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations several nights ago when one of the attendees asked What’s the difference between Marketing and Advertising?

Being immersed in and literally living both subjects for my entire career, I hadn’t ever asked myself that specific question let alone answered it.

Yes, I know what marketing is.

According to Wordnet.Princeton.Edu the definition to marketing is:

  • selling: the exchange of goods for an agreed sum of money
  • the commercial processes involved in promoting and selling and distributing a product or service; “most companies have a manager in charge of marketing”

Yes, I know what advertising is.

  • ad: a public promotion of some product or service
  • the business of drawing public attention to goods and services

Yet, answering the question what’s the difference between marketing and advertising will require further contemplation and reflection.

 

Rogue Google Doodle? Oscar Wilde Google Doodle In U.K. Not U.S.

October 16, 2010

Today is the 156th anniversary of the birth of Irish writer Oscar Wilde.

Google are celebrating this event by featuring a Google doodle image of Dorian Gray on their homepage in the U.K. but not the U.S.

 

Oscar Wilde Google Doodle in UK

Oscar Wilde Google Doodle in UK

 

While there is nothing unusual about Google substituting a doodle for the Google logo, this is the first time I can recall seeing a non U.S. Google property feature a doodle that wasn’t also featured on Google.com.

Soon will every Google property worldwide be able to run its own Google Doodles like Google.co.uk has done today?

What if any consequences are there for the Google brand?



NAA.Org Newspaper Association of America Website Offline

October 15, 2010

Its after 10:00 P.M., do you know where your  Newspaper of Association of America NAA.org website is?

 

Newspaper Association of America Website Down

Newspaper Association of America Website Down

 

One thing is for sure, its not on the world wide web.

Update: I tried several times to reach the NAA.Org site with two different browsers to no avail. However, the NAA.Org site appears to be online again.

How To Sell A Product Online No One Has Bought Offline

October 14, 2010

How do you sell a product no one has ever bought before either online or offline?

Specifically how do you sell several products that haven’t yet sold through a website that no one has ever heard of or visited much less cares about?

These are the types of projects my consulting firm seems to attract – last ditch, hopeless, near impossible assignments.

Not for the faint of heart!

Years ago I came to realize being a generalist marketing consultant in a not so large geographic market would be fraught with danger and thus opportunities.

Why? Because the only businesses that hire marketing consultants are businesses that can’t afford to hire the personnel to do the job in the first place.

Or better yet, businesses hire marketing consultants to solve problems they can’t solve themselves.

In both instances, the hiring of a marketing consultant is usually a last ditch effort by the business owner to save their business.

So lets review the typical “lets hire a marketing consultant” scenario –

1. a business owner comes to me to solve a problem they can’t solve themselves.

2. They don’t have any money to pay for the solution.

Great work if you can get it!

Case in point: “Sell the products I have produced but have never sold before… online.”

This is the latest example of one of the Mission Impossible type projects on my desk.

I like a good challenge and if selling a product that’s never been sold before isn’t a marketing challenge – I don’t know what is.

Instead of approaching this in my usual offline manner, I thought I would outline the solution here across several blog posts so that others might benefit from my experience and process.

In my next blog post, I will show you how I construct a prospective buyer profile which is the first step in How To Sell A Product No One Has Bought Before.

Coming Soon To The Google Display Network

October 13, 2010

Google has introduced two new features to a select group of Google Display Network advertisers – the Display Campaign Optimizer and the Contextual Targeting Tool.

The Display Campaign Optimizer is an auto-optimization tool that automatically manages targeting and bidding for campaigns on the Google Display Network, delivering more conversions for advertisers, based on their target CPA.

To use the Display Campaign Optimizer, an advertiser’s campaign needs to have Conversion Optimizer set up and Target CPA bidding enabled.

More about the Display Campaign Optimizer:

The Contextual Targeting Tool lets advertisers build tightly themed keyword lists for campaigns that are running on the Google Display Network.

How it works: Advertisers enter words or phrases in the Contextual Targeting Tool and the tool suggests a set of keywords related to their terms, and groups the keywords into themed ad groups.

While the Display Campaign Optimizer and the Contextual Targeting tool are presently only available to larger Google Display Network advertisers, both tools will be made available to more advertisers in the coming months.

Adwords Reports Tab Now Reporting and Tools

October 12, 2010

Google has renamed the Reports tab the Reporting and Tools tab in Google Adwords accounts.

Adwords Reporting and Tools

Adwords Reporting and Tools

Within the reports section, Adwords users will find Reports, Change history, Conversions, Google Analytics and Website Optimizer.

Within the tools section, advertisers will find the Keyword Tool, Traffic Estimator, Placement Tool, Ads diagnostic tool, the Ad preview tool and a link to more tools.

Placing the account analysis and planning tools under one tab will make Adwords account management both more convenient and efficient.