Thomas Creek Concepts – AdWords Specialists

This AdWords Video Project for Small Business and Professionals will be more like a Mosaic bound by search than a String of Pearls with a beginning and end.

The motive behind the project is to address the problem of scaling AdWords expertise to Small Business and Professionals.

These early, brief, ultra-beta pieces are meant to give an overview to those interested in being case studies for the series.

Where the videos go from here – which tiles in the mosaic are fleshed out first if you will – and how they are fleshed out, will largely be determined by early feedback and the nature of the participants. So please weigh-in if you are so compelled.

Introducing the Problem – Time 1:55 – An overview of the problems in scaling AdWords expertise to small ad buys.

Fractured Focus in a a DIY World – Time 2:05 – The problem compounded, too much general info, not enough specifics.

Typo Noted – Lot’s > Lots

Approaching the Problem – the Broad Strokes – Time 2:29 – The approach to this video project is based on applying AdWords concepts to particular situations, which means case studies.

AdWords Conversion Strategy for Services, part 1 – Time 7:28 – How to think about conversions for service based web sites.

It’s a start. Feedback is most welcome.

If this project intrigues you, and you are interested in bartering your transparency for my expertise, then please contact me so we can discuss. The ad buy itself IS NOT free. I would imagine the average ad buy for initial cases to be in the 10-30 dollar a day range. I do have $100 credits available on occasion for new AdWords accounts but the availability of those credits should not be the determining factor in participation. The current batch of credits expire if not claimed by 3-31-10. When and if more will be made available by Google after that time is hard to say.

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The problem of scaling expert and professional AdWords services to smaller ad buys is ripe. Up until now most real AdWords thinkers have turned their back on the problem as “unprofitable”.

Fractured Focus on Main Street

The need has exploded as Mom and Pop Internet Cottage Industries, Oscar the Online Shopkeeper, Mac the Mechanic, Rita the Realtor, Pat the Alternative Health Practitioner, and Francis the Family Lawyer to name a few face ever fracturing technology and marketing options. They are bombarded by good “must do” ideas when it use to be all they had to worry about was what size phone book ad they wanted to buy once a year.

Like me, they have their own expertise to maintain and their own business to run. Every time they put on a new hat their focus gets that much more fractured.

Problems without Solutions = Opportunity for Scams

The growing need for simple AdWords solutions for small ad buys was first filled by what I consider questionable offers. Usually marketed through cold-call boiler rooms. The pitch was concise – “We make AdWords simple” – so you do not have to worry your poor overtaxed brain. Usually some “special relationship” with Google was inferred if not outright claimed. Which was a stretch if not an out and out deception.

The primary problem with the “simple” solution was lack of transparency, which led to reported usury management fees, where little of the money paid was actually going to the ad buy – most was going into the simplifiers pocket. One of the many scams that can give AdWords and Search Marketing a black eye. One of the reasons the scams are still out there is because the need has gotten even more intense while the industry chases Madison Avenue and Fortune 500 budgets.

My Authority

I have come to realize that I am an Authentic Authority on this subject. Both because of my years of experience in working with smaller ad buys but also because I am myself a “boutique” Professional. I understand AdWords and I understand trying to grow a small business/practice while a fire hose of information is constantly blasting me in the face.

So in spite of the conventional wisdom that working the small market is not “profitable”, I am going to quit fighting it and start embracing it.

A Big Problem:Scaling Communication to Small Ad Buys

Because I think much of the problem lies in education and communication with really busy people, I am going to start with short videos as a way of scaling expertise to small buys. These videos will be more about particular situations, problems, and case studies pertaining to small ad buys than “how to” use the AdWords interface, to begin with anyway. The exact nature of the videos will have as much to do with the participants as anything.

More to come on the “Will Barter My AdWords Expertise for Your Marketing Transparency” nature of the video project.

Big Problem Leaves Room for Multiple Solutions

The problem is vast, and I think a number of legitimate models will and are coming into focus. I would love to be part of an ongoing discussion about how to service the AdWords needs of Small Business and the Professional class. Which includes Artists, Artisans, Entrepreneurs and many Non-Profits.

Two On The Radar

-Kim Clinkunbroomer is a fellow expert at AdWords Help Experts (and current spark). She has a practice similar to mine in scope and type of client. She is also Queen of the AdWords Help Forum, in my humble opinion. Like me she lives the problem of adapting years of expertise to smaller ad buys. She is also moving forward with some models that are very interesting.

One of those models is AdWords P.I., an account review and report service. Another is AdWords Hour, training through a Q & A Webinar.

-I had a brief discussion with Cory Huff of NetBiz.com and The Abundant Artist at SEMpdx SearchFest recently. Instant connect in recognizing the problem, and Cory dove right in with this blog post about the issue. Cory and I also seem to share interest and roots in web marketing for artists. In fact, I am learning he has and is already covering a lot of ground with tutorials and courses on web marketing for the arts. A man after my own heart. The Portland music scene is what set me on the web marketing path.

Both of these folks live the problem and have a passion for addressing it as I do, which is totally different from recognizing the problem as an opportunity to exploit.

Are You a Voice?

There are more voices out there on my radar that I would love to have in the conversation, and some I am not familiar with yet. Are you one of them?

Our approach at solving this problem
The AdWords Video Project for Small Business and Professionals

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It occurred to me that since I spend so much time on continuing education, I might as well re-purpose some of that time by sharing my favorite AdWords related news and blog posts that I come across.

First and foremost: Let me divulge my current favorite sources (they do change) – last update 03-18-10

First among the first is of course Google itself. Here are my top two among their many blogs.

Inside AdWords
AdWords Agency Blog

-When it comes to compiling daily search news, I have to think Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Land is leading the pack, maybe by a bunch. I sure rely on his SearchCap newsletter as a primary source of information.

-Another newsletter worth mentioning is SearchDay from Search Engine Watch.

-I also have to give an envious shout out to those bloggers at PPC Hero who have really been pumping out quality content for some time now.

The following individuals are ones I find myself reading and saying: that’s right – or – wish I had said that – or – about time somebody addressed that issue.

In other words – my current favorite pundits.

David Szetela

Brad Geddes

Andrew Goodman

George Michie

And I am also proud to say the following sites are certainly worth mentioning – above and beyond the fact that I am involved

AdWords Help Experts

SEMpdx

AdWords Help Forum

That is a good start. If you hook-up with these sites and people, however you digest your online news, you will be plucking search marketing gems from some very rich sources.

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Google is dealing with several AdWords problems. They are besieged by the bad intentioned and overwhelmed by the unsuited. AdWords has evolved into a vast, complicated product. The low entry threshold has led to both fraud, and loss due to simple ignorance.

Partially because of the $5 entry threshold and the way Google has marketed AdWords as a Do-It-Yourself product they have a mess on their hands. The problems created by the come-one-come-all experiment in advertising for the masses are many. But primary in my mind are fraud due to misrepresentation and loss due to simple unfamiliarity with the complexities of AdWords. The list of particulars in types of fraud and the frustrations of “casual” users is long. Which makes the situation all the more difficult to address.

But something had to be done.

In my opinion the latest rash of AdWords bans, suspensions, and Quality Score slaps is another step toward Google addressing the issues of fraudsters, their unwitting victims/accomplices, and those that just don’t have any business spending money, anyone’s money, on AdWords. But I have to speak out about the “results” I am experiencing due to their current methods.

This latest round has touched close to my small Agency that specializes in AdWords. I find myself caught between a credible client and the secrecy of Google.

The language they use for some ban/suspensions is so nebulous it leads to suspicion between clients and their different vendors. “ .. account is found to be in relation to another AdWords account …” Plus, there are signs that the AdWords Support and Review teams are overwhelmed and under staffed. This compounds the suspicion of some percentage of bans due to simple mistake.

Because I work in the Small Business Market it seems I now am close to the current front line of an AdWords War on Terror and Ignorance. Collateral damage is already being inflicted, in angst, monetary loss, and loss of time to me and client. My client has been condemned as in some way unacceptable, or has been deemed an acceptable casualty. My losses too, it seems, are acceptable. I am not convinced this kind of damage is necessary.

Because of some “relation” of account and/or person to some other suspended account and/or person.

Google will shed no more light than that. Basically the reason being given is that saying any more would give unfair advantage to the Bad Guys. (which are apparently hiding amongst the good guys)

It is giving my liberal backbone the creeps.

-Tom Hale

Google AdWords Quality Score is a black box, wrapped in best practices. Google does not divulge a lot of specifics, but they do give guidelines. So take any pundit’s comments on Quality Score (including mine) for what they are, educated guesses at best.

Most in the know believe clickthrough rate is the most important of many factors that go into Quality Score.

For me, the next most important factor has got to be “relevance”.

Relevance can be defined in terms of how well you have integrated these elements:

-The searcher intent when using a particular keyword in a search query.
-The ad copy
-The landing page

Basic SEO and AdWords Best Practices will help cover these bases. Let’s take a look at the product Golden Widgets. Here’s your checklist:

Searcher Intent

-Get in the mind of the majority of searchers. Google has. Know if you have an intent problem. For instance, if Golden Widgets is the name of a popular TV show, and you are selling fancy doorknobs called Golden Widgets, you have a searcher intent problem that is going to make Quality Score a challenge. Awareness of the problem is the first step in dealing with it.

The Ad Copy

-Golden Widgets in the header.
-Golden Widgets in the two line body
-Golden-Widgets in the display URL

To the extent you can do this naturally anyway. It is more important to have compelling ad copy than have it stuffed with keywords.

The Landing Page

I am not an SEO “expert”, but my understanding is that these elements represent much of SEO basic best practices.

-Golden Widgets in the URL
-Golden Widgets in the Title Tag
-Golden Widgets in the Header
-Content relevant to what most are looking for when they use that search term (pivoting, without bait and switch, to your goal as artfully as possible)

So we come full circle with searcher intent. As it should be. Quality Score is Google’s best guess at how aligned your advertising is to the needs and desires of the searcher, both before and after the click.

If the same keyword means one thing to a majority of searchers, and another within the context of your website, then the harder it is going to be to implement this strategy. Do the best you can without looking spammy, or making the searcher feel mislead.

I understand that the above template may not be practical or desirable in many situations. But as a guideline, it is not a bad way at all to think of Quality Score

One last reminder, any pundit’s advice is only as good as the test you can put it to. Any “hot tip” should be looked at as fodder for testing, not as a silver bullet.

-Tom Hale
AdWords Specilaist

I am pleased to announce that I have been officially added to the AdWords Help Experts Team.

AdWords Help Experts is a team of Google AdWords Help Forum Top Contributors that have banded together to help people looking for practical assistance with AdWords.

I have been following the work of my fellow Top Contributors for the last few years and am very proud to be part of this group. These folks all know their stuff and have their moral and ethical house in order too. Which unfortunately can’t be said of far too many companies and individuals in the Search Marketing industry.

-Tom Hale

Recently I have focused my primary reporting for clients into a simple shared spreadsheet that I call an “AdWords Value Formula”.

I work with small businesses for the most part, where owners, managers, and staff wear many hats. Simple reporting counts for a lot with such folks, because time is the limiting factor.

A simply calculated profit and loss statement when it comes to AdWords is an excellent piece of information for any business.

Sometimes the hardest part is making the first assumptions. Those assumptions, while necessary, can also be somewhat inaccurate. You have to start somewhere.

Defining a “conversion” can be its own exercise; but for this example a conversion is defined as an online sale. In this case each sale is worth an average of $50 retail. A cost factor might include cost of goods sold, labor, etc., figured as you will. In this case I am assuming a 50% cost factor.

It might look something like this in narrative form:

-Data shows 10 conversions for a particular time frame accredited to AdWords.

-Assuming the $50 average sale, retail sales accredited to AdWords should be $500. Apply a 50% cost factor for this generic example and you have $250 dollars.

-Data shows your AdWords ad buy for that same time frame was $100. Subtract the ad buy from the after cost factor ($250) and you now have $150.

-Next subtract any AdWords management fee (such as me!), or appropriate value of labor if your AdWords Management is done in house. Let’s say you paid $20 for AdWords management/labor during that period. Subtract that number from $150 for a total of $130. This will be your net “profit” within the current accuracy of our assumptions

These calculations can be represented easily in a spreadsheet. Call it ROI (Return on Investment), or ROAS (Return on Advertising Spend), or simply Red vs Black. A formula like this is as common in the world of larger corporations as it may be rare in the larger small business world.

When each of these calculations is tailored to the individual endeavor or client they create a big bang for the time it takes to take a look at the data. Also AdWords optimization efforts can then focus on profit as the primary metric and serve as a common language between parties.

I end where knowing the value of your AdWords buy begins. Use good metrics to do more measuring and less assuming. The rest is just doing a little math.

AdWords Value Formulas love AdWords Conversion Tracking and Google Analytics, especially Ecommerce!

-Tom Hale
AdWords Specialist
Thomas Creek Concepts

For most of my clients I fill the role of AdWords Manager as opposed to AdWords Consultant. But I can see that shifting some in 2009.

The role of consultant to those larger businesses that do their AdWords in-house is obvious.  They want the control of in-house management but realize that to get such staff trained and continually polished may take an outside expert or specialist.

Something that fascinates me as having a huge upside, is being a consultant to the smaller of these businesses. It is challenging, because you are often dealing with stretched-thin entrepreneurs that need things condensed, streamlined, and easy to implement without a steep learning curve.

Thomas Creek Concepts hopes to be developing programs in 2009 that act as training-consulting to small business entrepreneurs that just do not feel they are yet in a position to hire outside professional management.

This will be quite a challenge.

AdWords bloggers, experts, talking heads and the like are becoming quite common. But most do not address the temporal realities of small business owners and entrepreneurs. At conference after conference I see folks madly scribbling notes that I know are unlikely to be implemented when they get back to the office. Because what they do not have a simple clear strategy.

Seems to me there is a huge market out there that is more concerned about learning EFFICIENT cost effective AdWords strategies that are appropriate to the scope of their ad buy than they are about an “expert” dazzling them with the latest bleeding edge theories or just rehashing AdWords best practices documentation.

AdWords Consulting and Management for the harried and hectic has a lot of potential growth.

Stay tuned, or contact us to explore how we may act as your AdWords Consultant, big or small.

-Tom Hale, AdWords Specialist

If you are new to AdWords, or trying to break through whatever AdWords ceiling you are currently butting your head against, I highly encourage you to treat Quality Score with the respect it deserves.

 I believe Quality Score will become more and more important. Google continues to try and reward those that advertise in a way most relevant to the divined intent of the searcher.

Here is what I see so often.

1. AdWords Account Opened.
2. Obvious Keywords Entered
3. Bidding Strategy is Arbitrary due to lack of Conversion and/or Quality Score Strategy.
4. Poorly Chosen Keywords, and  Ads result in low Clickthrough Rates which kills Quality Score.
5. Estimated First Page Bid and Cost per Click go through the roof.
6. The new or weary AdWordian is upset and confused –  Thinks Google is a Rip Off (which is unfortunate, I certainly do not think that is true.)

Am I right you AdWords Pros? Don’t you see this over and over?

Be targeted Neophytes! Think Quality Score, not volume of clicks, as you build or rehabilitate your AdWords account.

As you are starting out, be hyper aware of your Quality Score and clickthrough rates. Build your account Quality Score by focusing initially on those things that AdWords is telling you are most relevant as represented by “OK”, or better yet, “Great”, quality scores.

You may not agree with your Quality Score grades. You may even be totally baffled by them. But follow Google’s  lead until your account Quality Score is strong enough that you can start pulling up the Quality Score of individual terms that you feel are relevant in spite of their initial Quality Score grade.

It is still an imperfect science, but Google does have an amazing asset in the volume of data they can process when it comes to divining the intent of the average searcher for any given term. Let Google help you succeed by relying on AdWords Quality Score as your first indicator of how well you are targeting searcher intent.

-Tom Hale,  AdWords Specialist

Recently I was voted onto the Advisory Board of SEMpdx.

SEMpdx is an organization based in Portland, Oregon whose mission is to inform and educate area businesses on the benefits of SEM to bottom line revenue.

I have dabbled in a few professional organizations but these folks without a doubt are my professional peeps. Not only are they top drwaer search marketers but they also call my beloved Portland home base.

Even if you are not Portland-centric you should think of joining if Search Marketing plays a role in your professional life.  

There is also an SEMpdx Forum where you can ask search specific questions or make search specific industry observations.

My roles at SEMpdx that landed me on the Advisory Board are that of Forum Moderator and occasional Educator at events such as Hot Seat.

Hope to see you at an SEMpdx event or online in the SEMpdx Forum.

Tom Hale
AdWords Specialist