Posts Tagged ‘Conversions’

New Google Adwords Updated Interface Graph Option Metrics

February 12, 2009

I have been using the Google Adwords Updated Interface for several weeks now and have come to appreciate its speed and data display features.

I opened my first Adwords account March 5, 2002 and if I recall correctly I think the Updated Beta version – excluding the initial Adwords product and then the addition of the My Client Center dashboard –  is just Google’s second incarnation of their Adwords account interface.

New to this latest version of Google Adwords is Graph Options viewing of account data.

Adwords advertisers can view one or two of their campaign’s metrics from within their account under any of their campaign tabs.

Being able to drill down into an Adwords account and visualize data whether in ad groups, keywords, networks or ads saves both clicks and time.

Google Adwords Updated Interface Graph Options Metrics

Google Adwords Updated Interface Graph Options Metrics

With Graph Options Metrics buttons advertisers can see a combination of two sets of data at once.

The nine account performance metrics available within Google Adwords new Graph Options are:

Clicks, Impressions, CTR, Avg. CPC, Cost, Avg. position, Conversions, Cost/conv. and Conv. rate.

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Posted in Google Adwords, Graph Options Metrics, Updated Interface Beta | Leave a Comment »

Google Conversion Room Blog

December 20, 2008

Google has launched their newest blog: “Conversion Room – The place to visit for tips on tracking and improving conversions online”.

The Conversion Room blog was started on December 18, 2008 and prior to my subscription had 11 subscribers.

Google Conversion Room Blog

Google Conversion Room Blog

Search marketers interested in learning more about the terminology and process of tracking and improving online conversions should find Google’s Conversion Room blog helpful.

From the 2nd entry on the Google Conversion Room blog:

What is a goal/conversion?

In order to track your website ROI, it is important to define goals or conversions. A goal is an action you wish your visitors to complete when they visit your site. Examples of goals include: a completed purchase, the download of a document or a subscription to a newsletter.

How to set up goals?

You can easily set up goals within Google Analytics and measure how often visitors reach these goals (or convert on your site). What proportion of users who reach your home page, for example, then go on to buy from you? You can also specify steps that lead to a goal (e.g. purchase or lead) and measure how many visitors follow these steps, called a funnel. You can create up to 4 goals per profile in your Google Analytics account. Once you have activated your goal you will begin to see data appearing in your Google Analytics account under the ‘Goals’ report

Sign up for the Conversion Room blog to get regular tips for increasing your website’s conversions and return on investment.

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Posted in Conversions, Google, Google Analytics | Leave a Comment »

Ad Scheduling Example

September 23, 2008

Google Adwords lets advertisers adjust their ad display times at the campaign level through its “Edit Campaign Settings” ad scheduling and serving section.

Ad Scheduling Serving

Ad Scheduling Serving

This feature can be beneficial for business-to-business advertisers who primarily generate leads and sales Monday through Friday.

Businesses who have identified unique time periods where search traffic and conversions peak and trough can also benefit.

Most businesses I have been involved with experience search traffic and conversion troughs on weekends.

However, I have some clients who generate more search traffic and book more sales on Saturday and Sunday than they do during any other day of the week.

The first step to determine whether your business can benefit from ad scheduling and the initial savings it can bring is to begin capturing and measuring your online traffic and conversions to identify any traffic and sales patterns.

It’s the odd – albeit – the great business – who produces business every hour of every day.

Does your advertising produce the most results during business hours or after business hours? Or, does your advertising produce leads and sales in some combination thereof?

If any patterns develop within your data, you can use the Google Adwords ad scheduling tool to optimize the performance of your advertising to reach prospects at the times they will most likely be in the market for your products or services.

Ad Scheduling

Ad Scheduling

Ad Scheduling

With Google Adwords, you can edit days and times to see how the schedule updates. When you’re happy with the schedule, click ‘Save Changes’ to activate Ad Scheduling. To adjust your pricing during any time period, use the advanced ad scheduling mode.

The Advanced Ad Scheduling feature can be used to increase bids during times when competition for your product and its demand are the greatest.

Advanced Ad Scheduling

Advanced Ad Scheduling

Click edit to set custom prices for ads on a given day and time. Example: If your default bid is $1.00 CPC, and your custom “% of bid” entry for Tuesdays is 120%, your CPC bid for Tuesdays only would be $1.20.

Both Google Adwords ad scheduling tools give advertisers more control over how advertising dollars are apportioned which is just one requisite for advertisers who want to begin managing their return on advertising investment.

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Posted in Ad Scheduling, Advertisers, Advertising, Business-to-Business, Conversions, Google Adwords, Sales | Leave a Comment »

Microsoft adCenter: No Cost Per Conversion Data

September 15, 2008

Is there a particular reason why the Microsoft adCenter doesn’t provide a cost per conversion column for its advertisers?

Microsoft adCenter Cost Per Conversion

Microsoft adCenter Cost Per Conversion

The Microsoft adCenter dashboard displays ad group name, ad group start date, ad group end date, status, spend, impressions, clicks, ctr %, average position, conversions, average cpc and negative keywords.

adCenter data does show number of conversions – just not their cost. This unnecessarily creates an extra level of interpretation and work for advertisers.

Why?

If an advertiser wants to manage and understand their advertising campaign’s effectiveness through cost per conversion data – Microsoft through its omission of this metric – leaves advertisers to make their own calculations… or not.

Is this a lack of transparency in Microsoft’s adCenter?

If it is, Microsoft’s not providing its advertisers with acquisition cost data makes calculating their return on investment more difficult.

Both Google and Yahoo supply this type of data.

Surely this is just an oversight on Microsoft’s part.

If it is an oversight, adding cost per conversion data in the Microsoft adCenter dashboard would help Microsoft’s advertisers understand more about their campaigns acquisition costs and in turn their return on investment from advertising with Microsoft.

Surely providing this data in column form would be in the best interest of both Microsoft and its advertisers.

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Posted in Ad Group, adCenter, Advertiser, Aquisition Costs, Average CPC, Clicks, Conversions, Cost Per Conversion, CTR, Impressions, Microsoft | Leave a Comment »