links for 2009-02-26

February 26, 2009

  • Keyword Research for Mobile Search | semvironment
    How to get the AdWords keyword tool to give you mobile results.
    (tags: keyword+reserach mobile+ppc,)
  • Q1 PPC Benchmark Data: Ouch! – Rimm Kaufman Blog
    If you're in the retail sector, good read on how RKs clients are faring in this economy.
    (tags: ppc+ecommerce)
  • Penn State Study: Search Ad Click Through Rate
    SEL Article links to a Penn State PDF file w/ interesting study.

    Points of note: Most info is from 2006 dogpile.
    Numbers are directionally accurate, but not purely accurate – IMO.

    30% of Dogpile users & 45% of Web searchers do not click on an any links after a search
    30% of Dogpile users did 3 or more searches before performing a click (I'd love to know this number on Google, I'm guessing it grows every year as you can do instant answer searches)

    There is some other good info in the (transactional vs navigational vs info searches) PDF; however, users are using many more keywords per query than in this study on engines like Yahoo and Google.

    Dogpile is a meta engine with a very small user base. While the paper is a good read, please don't quote the stats and apply them to Google, Yahoo, or MSN to prove 09 data.

    (tags: search+research)

Posted by Brad Geddes aka eWhisper | Filed Under PPC Marketing Blog | Leave a Comment 

Make sure your Google Analytics & AdWords accounts are linked by March 3rd, 09

February 26, 2009

Google Analytics is doing an update to their system in passing AdWords to Google Analytics data. If you have multiple Google Analytics accounts; or accounts which are not linked to AdWords accounts – you might want to make sure the information is correct.

Here’s the step by step information from Google in linking your AdWords and Google Analytics account together (copy and paste email from Google):

Action required: Cost data change
Important change to Google AdWords and Analytics cost data importing

 

Dear Google Analytics User,

On March 4th, we will be updating how Google Analytics imports AdWords data to improve security and provide greater control and convenience. This update will require that your AdWords and Analytics accounts are linked and that you have "Apply Cost Data" selected. We are proactively notifying Administrators of Analytics accounts that will be affected by this change (you either have auto-tagging enabled and/or have a linked account without cost data applied to some or all of your profiles).

If you are receiving AdWords traffic (e.g. Visits), but the AdWords reports in Google Analytics do not contain impression or click data (e.g. CPC, Impressions, ROI), then it is likely that AdWords and Analytics are not linked or the cost data option is turned off for that profile. The cost data import option is selected by default when linking your accounts; however, new profiles created after the linking process may not have cost data implemented.

You may need to apply one of the following changes to your Google Analytics account(s) <removed> by March 3rd, 2009 to continue collecting AdWords data:

Link your accounts and apply cost data (if you have enabled auto-tagging, but you have not linked your AdWords account to Analytics)

  1. Sign in to AdWords and click the Analytics tab.
  2. If you don’t see your Analytics account, then your accounts are not linked. Follow the on-screen instructions to link your accounts. (Learn how or watch the video)
  3. When linking your accounts, keep the default "Apply Cost Data" box checked. AdWords cost data will now be applied to all of your current profiles.

Implement cost data (if your AdWords and Analytics accounts are already linked)

  1. Sign in to AdWords and click the Analytics tab.
  2. From the Overview page, select an Analytics account to display all the profiles for that account.
  3. Select desired profile and click "Edit".
  4. View the Main Website Profile Information box to see if cost data is already applied.
  5. If cost data is not applied, click ‘Edit’ from the upper right hand corner of the Main Website Profile Information box.
  6. In the Edit Profile Information page, select the checkbox that says ‘Apply Cost Data’.
  7. Repeat these steps for each profile you wish to continue receiving AdWords cost data.
  8. Click ‘Save’ to finish.

Please remember that you can only link one AdWords account to one Analytics account. If the Analytics account you wish to link to is not available, it is possible this Analytics account is already linked to another AdWords account. (If this is the case you can always unlink them and then link the desired ones.) Currently, due to auto-tagging, your Analytics account may be receiving data from more than one AdWords account although they are not linked. With the March 4th change, if you need to receive data from multiple AdWords cost sources these must all be applied to your profiles. If this is necessary, please read this FAQ. With cost data applied, please note that you will receive full AdWords cost data (visits, impressions, CPC, ROI, etc.) in your Analytics report.

We recommend that you make the changes outlined in this email to your Google Analytics account by March 3rd, 2009 to ensure your Analytics reports continue to receive AdWords data.

Sincerely,

The Google Analytics Team

Posted by Brad Geddes aka eWhisper | Filed Under PPC Marketing Blog | 5 Comments 

links for 2009-02-25

February 25, 2009

Posted by Brad Geddes aka eWhisper | Filed Under PPC Marketing Blog | Leave a Comment 

links for 2009-02-24

February 24, 2009

  • Inside AdWords: A display ad builder contest – enter today!
    The display ad builder within Google is a good tool. It allows you to create image ads without photoshop. However, the fun ads are known as 'interactive' ads (slideshows, quizzes, etc).

    Google is holding a contest (i.e. increase adoption and awareness of this feature). If you're using display ad builder, let them know and you could win some free AdWords credit.

    (tags: adwords, display+ad+builder)

Posted by Brad Geddes aka eWhisper | Filed Under PPC Marketing Blog | Leave a Comment 

How to view Google Analytics Funnels for Segmented Data

February 24, 2009

The Goal Funnel Visualization is a critical report in Google Analytics. This report will you see where users are abandoning your conversion activities.

 

image

For example, if you had a 3 page form fill, wouldn’t it be useful if you could see:

      1. Page 1 – 100% enter
      2. Page 2 – 80% enter
      3. Page 3 – 30% enter
      4. Goal completion: 2%

What that data shows you is that consumers are moving down the early stage of the funnel, but there is a large drop off later in the funnel. This is a perfect place to examine for usability, informational, and other issues to see why there is such a large conversion abandonment.

One of the best uses of the funnel (and many of Google’s other charts) is first segmenting users to see how that user type interacts with your site.

For example, you could view your stats only when:

  • Visitors are from a social network site
  • The user converted on your site
  • A user came from an expensive banner ad you’re testing
  • The user is on a mobile device
  • The user is in California
  • The user came from a particular search engine
  • The user came from a paid search campaign
  • The user bought a specific product
  • The user came from an email campaign
  • etc…

By only looking at segmented data, you could see that banner 1 is profitable, and RSS advertising isn’t leading to a high engagement. This level of detail will let you tailor your site to visitor types, but also allow you to make better decisions about which ad types are profitable. Understanding if that the $15k/month banner you’re buying from a site is leading to solid traffic is an insight that will help you make better advertising decisions.

The biggest issue with segmentation on Google Analytics? It doesn’t work with certain reports:

Goal Funnel - Google Analytics_1235476699188

If you are trying to view reports that can not be segmented, there is a way around this issue.

Create New Filter - Google Analytics_1235477039774

  1. Create a new analytics profile
  2. Edit settings for that profile
  3. Go to the filter settings of that profile
  4. Create a new custom filter
  5. In the filter field, choose campaign source, medium, or however you’re tagging your URLs
    • If you don’t know how to tag your URLs for Google Analytics, use Google’s URL builder tool.
  6. Save the filter
  7. Repeat the above step as necessary if you want new sources of traffic added to that profile

Now, that profile in Google Analytics will only contain traffic from that particular source. The biggest drawback is that this will not let you see data back in time. Google profiles only contain data from the day you set the up. However, now you can view the Goal Funnel, and any advanced reports just for traffic from a certain source.

You could set this up so that one profile is just your Google AdWords data, and another is just your Yahoo Search Marketing or Microsoft adCenter data. What to look at organic conversions from just Google, or just Yahoo? You can use a custom profile to see which search engine sends you higher converting traffic.

My favorite use is one profile for bought traffic, and another for each high priced banner or email ad. You could even just see how your email lists are performing by just looking at traffic derived from particular email campaigns.

Make sure you can analyze your data and traffic properly. Custom filters and profiles will give you fantastic insight into your customers to help you make better advertising decisions, but to have the data to know where you need to work for increasing conversion rates.

Posted by Brad Geddes aka eWhisper | Filed Under Analytics, PPC Marketing Blog | 4 Comments 

Next Page »