Adwords Call Tracking Update- Metrics Added

Last November Google announced you could do click to call with Adwords.  Yesterday they added call metrics. 

What is it?

Basically you can now assign a number to an Adwords campaign.  Whether this be your office number, call tracking number or another number.  Then when your ad shows up there's now that number listed there. See this picture:

This shows up on regular computers but also on mobile phones which is a big plus.  The searcher can call you directly from their smart phone just by clicking on that ad. 

This is certainly different as they person never has to even visit your site to contact you. 

Potential Benefits

Right now Google has it at $1.00 a click.  This may be high for some.  But we've set up Adwords for a client, a dentist.  The bidding landscape is over a buck so this may be a deal for him and any other advertiser that is used to spending more than $1.00.  Of course, this may not last as people catch on to this new feature.  Stay tuned on this.

Things to Remember:

After you set up call tracking, be sure to enable metrics.  Then go to either your campaigns or ad groups with this and click on show columns pick the call tracking metrics you want.  Now you can see calls, impressions and all other types of great info on whether people are actually clicking and calling you.

Call tracking is very important.  It tells you if the person who visited your site or saw your ad actually contacted you.  So many times people think if a form is filled out etc. the SEO or PPC is working but don't know that those 10 calls last month that resulted in alot of new business or clients came from marketing their business online.  We almost always insist this is set up for our clients.  Meauring, tracking and reporting are so crucial to online success.

Stop! Do This BEFORE You Start a Link Building Campaign

Before You Start Link Building:

Before you start a link building campaign, you need to decide what keywords you will include in your anchor text.  What is anchor text?  The anchor text is the hyperlinked text that when clicked on sends the user to your site. 

Anchor Text- The Key(words) to Great Links & Rankings

Most people wrongly just have the site linking to them decide this.  This ends up with them having their website address hyperlinked or the words click here.  While getting links is great, this is the WRONG WAY to have your link put on a site.  While a link from a trusted site will help your website you need to have the correct keywords as the anchor text.  These keywords are the keywords you would like to rank for on Google. 

 Why is this the case?  Google search technology is rapidly getting smarter and smarter.  It can more or less "read" (loosely used) the text of a link and compare the page its linked to for relevance.  So if a link says Greenville Used Cars and leads to a site that is about Greenville Used Cars Google says, "this page is about Greenville Used Cars", so when people type "Greenville Used Cars" into Google, I will show them this page as a top result, and not their competitor that also sells used cars in Greenville but has www.dougsusedcars.com as the anchor text."  See the picture below to get the idea:

Courtesy SEOMoz

Another example:  Let's say you have a painting company in Lake Norman area north of Charlotte, NC your anchor text may be:  Lake Norman Residential Painter, not www.mikespainting.com (or whatever your site is).  But how do you know which keyword phrase or phrases to choose for the anchor text of your links?  Take a little time to do some keyword research to find out the actual terms people are typing into Google to find your product or service.  You can use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. 

In Deciding Which Anchor Text to use for you links, remember these DOs & Don'ts:

• Don't make the anchor text too broad, like "residential painter", "painter", "house painter", or you will be competing with every residential painter in the country and won't show up on.

• Don't use just one phrase for your anchor text (such as "Lake Norman Residential Painting") if you are a large site or target multiple main keywords. Use a phrase for a number of links and then a phrase for another number of links (like "Lake Norman Pressure Washing" if you were a painting contractor that also does pressure washing.

• Don't use keywords that may have possible obvious multiple intents such as "Lake Norman Paint", "Paint Lake Norman", etc. because this person may not want a professional painter but rather just where to buy paints.

• DO choose anchor text that is relevant to what you sell or do. Don't use anchor text such as "Lake Norman Landscaping" when your site is about window cleaning. Your links should be from sites relevant to what you do to a site that matches the anchor text.

• DO Remember, links are a vote of confidence. You wouldn't believe the recommendation for an excellent Italian restaurant from a person who hates Italian food. But you would from a person born and raised in Rome. Google also doesn't give as much weight to links to sites that aren't relevant, but on the positive side it does to sites that are authorities and relevant to what your site is about.

• DON'T have keywords that are either too broad in scope or too narrow.  Choosing a keyword phrase such as "Lake Norman Professional House Painter Custom Painting" for your anchor text is to specific. You're looking for a keyword phrase that people actually type into Google enough times a month that they will visit your site, but not one that is way too competitive.  Again, see the picture below to get the idea:

Courtesy SEOMoz

Does this sound like alot of work even before you start the tedious but important work of actual link building?  How do you do this Keyword Research?  Are you worried you'll get it wrong and not choose the correct keywords?  To be honest, you should be.  Because if you choose the wrong keywords and your competitor chooses the right keywords for their anchor text, they will show up higher in the Google search results page in most cases.

For a fantastic, in depth article about link building, please read: 

17 Ways Search Engines Judge the Value of a Link (from SEOMoz.com)

 Shameless plug:  If this is way above your head or you have absolutely no desire to do it, hire a professional internet marketer.  Depending on your budget, you can hire him/her straight out, or for just a few hours of consulting or training to show you how to do this (yes, we do both).   But please do the above BEFORE starting your link building campaign.  Failure to do the above initial keyword research can result in frustration and much time wasted. 

What are your thoughts on link building, and using the right anchor text.  Let us know!

Google Adwords Quality Score. How Ad Ranking is Determined

Understanding Adwords Part 3 of 3:  Google Adwords Quality Score. How Ad Ranking is Determined

Last post we talked about Click Through Rate, Quality Score how they are figured and how to improve it.  But have you ever wondered exactly how each ads ranking is determined in relation to another ad?  Or to put it another way, how does Google decide to show your ad at position #4, another competitor at #1, and another at #9?  

Top Rankings in Adwords- Its Not Just Bidding Higher

As we've already talked about in other posts, its not just bidding the most.  In fact some advertisers bidding the highest are in one of the lowest positions while some bidding the lowest may be in the highest positions.  Why?  Because Google rewards advertisers with high quality ads, keywords, match types, and landing pages and penalizes the lazy.

Determining Ad Rankings

In a nutshell, the two top things that determine your rankings are:  Quality Score and Keyword Bid.

The equation goes like this:

Quality Score X Maximum Keyword Bid = Ad Rank Number.  

The higher the Ad Rank number is not the position you will have in vs. your competitors (such as being ranked 1st, 2nd, 6th, etc.)  It is simply a number in the calculation.  The higher the number, the higher you will rank vs. your competition.  Let's take a look at a few advertisers bidding on the same keyword:

Advertiser A Max CPC. 0.75, QS 8.  0.75 X 8= 6

Advertiser B Max CPC 0.65, QS 10  0.65 X 10= 6.5

Advertiser C Max CPC 1.50, QS 3    1.50 X 3= 4.5

Advertiser D Max CPC 0.95 QS 6  0.95 X 6= 5.7

Special thanks to the awesome explanation of this by Brad Geddes of bgtheory.com.  He is the man!

Learning from the Ad Ranking Equation

In the above example, what do we see?  Who will rank #1, 2, and so on?  If you answered Advertiser B for the first position, you got it!  As you can see, they have the highest Ad Rank Number.  The rest goes like this:

#1.  Advertiser B

#2.  Advertiser A

#3.  Advertiser D

#4.  Advertiser C

What do we learn from this example and how important Quality Score is?

First of all we have to acknowledge that we just don't know what our competitors are bidding on terms, so using this equation on them is impossible.  But we do learn that you can take the top position in Adwords and have the lowest maximum CPC.  Why?  Because you have the best Quality score in relation to your competitors. 

Another takeaway is from Advertiser A.  He has a good quality score of 8 for that keyword but not as good as Advertiser A.  So he can either raise his quality score or his bid.  We always recommend raising Quality Score but if you can't get to a Quality Score of 10 and it is economically feasible for you, you can raise for bid.  As you see his bid is only a dime higher than Advertiser A's, yet he beats out Advertiser D & C who are paying significantly more. 

In Conclusion:  Even if you don't know what your competition is bidding knowing that where you ad ranks is a combination of Quality Score and Max. Keyword Bid shows that getting that Quality Score higher is the most important thing you can do to lower your CPCs.  Keep writing and testing better ads, keywords, landing page copy and improving CTR and you'll be on your way. 

What have you found regarding Quality Score and Max CPC in your accounts?  Let us know!

Google Adwords Quality Score. Decoding it (Somewhat)

Part 2 in a 3 Part Series:

Understanding Adwords Part 2:  Google Adwords Quality Score. Decoding it (Somewhat)

Do you feel you are alone in trying to decode Google Adwords Quality Score?  Unfortunately, you can't simply use this secret decoder ring from Ovaltine in the 1930s.  But fear not, we will try to be your decoder ring and shine some light on this often mystifying subject.  Hopefully this will result in higher rankings, lower CPCs and strong bones and teeth.  Here goes:

Google uses Quality Score to determine your ads rank.  In the old days he who paid the most per click was the one in the #1 position.  But that just led to lazy advertisers paying through the nose for position #1 or 2 and having stinky ads that didn't help anyone find what they were looking for.  Enter Google Adwords and their quality based ranking system using Quality Score. 

What is Quality Score?  How is it determined and how does it affect your Adwords Ads?

Quality Score is Google's quality based bidding system.  It rewards those smart advertisers who put the time into researching the right keywords, writing excellent ads, and making sure the page the person ends up on after they click the ad is just what they were looking for. 

How Are Keywords Scored?  Why is it so important?

Quality score is determined for each keyword in your account and only when someone types in that exact keyword.  It is figured on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest.  One keyword may have a quality score of 7 out of 10, one may have a score of 4 out of 10.

If you get one thing out of this article it is this:  The higher your quality score, the less you will pay per click and the higher your ad will rank.   In theory, the ad ranked number one could being paying the least per click vs. their competitors because they have the best quality score for the keyword. 

So the key to winning with Adwords is to get that quality score up!  Not by bidding higher, but by improving your ads.  Anything over 7 is good.  8-10 is great.

What goes into factoring quality score?

Frankly, we don't know everything Google uses to figure quality score.  But here is what we do know...

Quality Score:  Determined by a number of factors

Historical CTR of keywords.

Your Account Performance History.

Relevance of keywords to the ads in an ad group.

Relevance of keywords to the ads in the search query.

Historical CTR of the display URLs in an ad group.

Landing page quality.

Other things Google won't tell us.

Much thanks to sources Advanced Google Adwords by Brad Geddes & Pay Per Click Search Marketing an Hour a Day by David Szetela for the above factors.  ps:  By both books now if you have time to learn and you're serious about improving your Adwords campaigns.  If not, hire us ; )  Its alot of work to learn all this!

For a Very Basic Visual Breakdown Check out Google's Video Here:

How to improve Quality Score? 

We aren't going to reinvent the wheel here.  There are a ton of articles by the best in the business on how to do this and here is a straightforward one by Brad Geddes of bgtheory:

Google AdWords Quality Score Factors Demystified

Closing Thoughts:

Google is full of very smart people.  They figured out that when people search for something and see ads that have just what they want, they click on those ads, find what they're looking for and are so happy they use Google again and again.  In the meantime, Google makes billions of dollars a year on each of these clicks, and advertisers are happy to pay for each click since it brings very targeted people to their sites and makes them money over and over.  It is truly a unique system that ideally is a win for all parties: the searcher, the advertiser and Google.

While this system rewards savvy advertisers, it penalizes lazy ones.  If you don't want to put the time into writing great ads, having good landing pages and the right keywords and campaign structure, your quality score will be low and you'll be paying alot for each click.  Eventually it may no longer be cost effective for you to use Adwords.  For some who just bid higher and higher, it puts them out of business pretty fast.

So that's the basics of Click Through Rate and Quality Score.  But what about this question:  What determines where your ad ranks in relation to your competitors?  After all its great if you have great quality score, but what if you ad is ranked #10 and you want to get it up where people will see it?  See Part Two of this series to find out.

Give us your thoughts on your trials and tribulations understanding Quality Score.

Be sure to be on the lookout next month for Part 3 of this Series: 

Understanding Adwords Part 3:  Google Adwords Quality Score. How Ad Ranking is Determined

Subscribe to our blog to make sure you get it.  Its got an awesome equation on how this is figured out.

INTJ: The Ultimate Personality Type for Online Marketing & SEO?

In getting to know a number of Internet Marketers, the first thing you notice is the wide variety of personalities.  Some are extremely outgoing people persons.  Others are very introverted and shy.  Still others are very process oriented.  And finally some just do marketing "by the seat of their pants" and say they love the excitement of it.

This is all well and good but if you're someone who is going to hire someone to market your website and business online what really is the best personality type to hire? 

After all you want someone friendly, professional, someone who is able to communicate what is being done in a way that you can understand.  But in the end you want results.  Higher rankings, more sales, more customers, more profits, etc.  You don't want someone ruled by emotion and who is not able to sit in an office for any length of time and get the work done.

What is the best personality type for Internet Marketing? 

Let the Myers-Briggs Personality Types be your Guide

You've probably heard of the Myers-Briggs Personality Test.  About 70 mulitple choice questions will let you know which of the 16 personality types you are:  ENFP, INTJ, and introvert, extrovert, logical, creative, etc.   If you're not farmiliar with it, please Google it and take the test.  It's quite eye opening to say the least.  Have your wife, husband or kids take it too.

Our Completely Biased Opinion as to the Best Personality Type for SEO & Online Marketing

Our owner has often wondered why he enjoys systematically improving websites, totally happy to set up a complete system for doing this, being extremely thorough and methodical.  The reason?  He is probably the perfect personality for an Online Marketer.  In fact, after you read the explanation for his personality you will see the obvious advantage. 

We could say an unfair advantage versus other online marketers, one that would certainly benefit all who use our services.  But it's not like a person can take credit for their natural occuring personality traits, perhaps no more than for their blue or brown eyes.  Some people are artistic, some are logical, etc.  So here it is:

INTJ - The Mastermind

Intellectual conceptualizer, a system builder who brings clarity and objectivity to decision making. Excels at seeing the big picture and finding solutions to complex problems. Has a talent for deductive reasoning.  Rare, comprise less than 2 % of the population. They love:

• Fair performance measurement
• Autonomy
• New projects or learnings
• Strategizing
• Control
• Opportunities for creativity
• Things to perfect

Famous Masterminds (INTJ): 

• Thomas Jefferson
• Lance Armstrong
• Stephen Hawking
• Peter Jennings
• C. S. Lewis
• Colin Powell
• Ahhnold! Schwarzenegger
• Nikola Tesla
• Sir Isaac Newton

Even more eye opening is the longer definition below ( credits: adapted from the Book Please Understand Me II by Dr. David Keirsey).  Read through this and see if this is not the personality type that you want working on your SEO, PPC, Analytics and Online Marketing campaign:

All Rationals are good at planning operations, but Masterminds are head and shoulders above all the rest in contingency planning. Complex operations involve many steps or stages, one following another in a necessary progression, and Masterminds are naturally able to grasp how each one leads to the next, and to prepare alternatives for difficulties that are likely to arise any step of the way. Trying to anticipate every contingency, Masterminds never set off on their current project without a Plan A firmly in mind, but they are always prepared to switch to Plan B or C or D if need be.

Masterminds are rare, comprising no more than one to two percent of the population, and they are rarely encountered outside their office, factory, school, or laboratory. Although they are highly capable leaders, Masterminds are not at all eager to take command, preferring to stay in the background until others demonstrate their inability to lead. Once they take charge, however, they are thoroughgoing pragmatists.

Masterminds are certain that efficiency is indispensable in a well-run organization, and if they encounter inefficiency -- any waste of human and material resources -- they are quick to realign operations and reassign personnel.

Masterminds do not feel bound by established rules and procedures, and traditional authority does not impress them, nor do slogans or catchwords. Only ideas that make sense to them are adopted; those that don't, aren't, no matter who thought of them. Remember, their aim is always maximum efficiency.

In their careers, Masterminds usually rise to positions of responsibility, for they work long and hard and are dedicated in their pursuit of goals, sparing neither their own time and effort nor that of their colleagues and employees.

Problem-solving is highly stimulating to Masterminds, who love responding to tangled systems that require careful sorting out. Ordinarily, they verbalize the positive and avoid comments of a negative nature; they are more interested in moving an organization forward than dwelling on mistakes of the past.

Masterminds tend to be much more definite and self-confident than other Rationals, having usually developed a very strong will. Decisions come easily to them; in fact, they can hardly rest until they have things settled and decided. But before they decide anything, they must do the research. Masterminds are highly theoretical, but they insist on looking at all available data before they embrace an idea, and they are suspicious of any statement that is based on shoddy research, or that is not checked against reality.

So there you have it:  The ultimate personality for Internet Marketing:  The INTJ Mastermind.  The person you want working for you.  What do you think?