What Is The Most Important Metric To View First Thing Every Day?

For many small business advertisers with very limited budgets, the most important metric  of your AdWords account to view everyday may very well be total cost. You know advertising with AdWords can have a great benefit, but unlimited money is not a luxury many of us have. It’s an ongoing process to try and get the best value for your advertising dollars, and can also be a bit of a  juggling act. Some days you may have to raise your bids and budget to maximize your exposure, some days you may have to reduce your bids and budgets to bring the costs in line. You won’t know where you stand today, this week,  or this month without keeping an eye on your budget.

Why Can Cost Be The Most Important Factor For Small Business?

The adwords system may accrue up to 30% more cost on any given day than your maximum daily budget. Depending on your  overall financial situation, a 30% increase in costs over several days or a week, could be an cause for great concern. Is that also the week payroll goes out, vendor bills come due, or a costly emergency pops up? Pausing all your advertising to temporarily reduce costs may drastically reduce sales, compounding the overall short term cash flow issue. If you check your budget and spend daily, you will be more likely to stay ahead of the game, and not have to stress over playing catch-up when you are already over budget.

When Should You Adjust Or Optimize Your Bids And Budgets?

While it’s important to know where you stand regarding your budget at least several times a week, it may be counter-productive to make too many changes, too quickly. If you’re 10% over budget, perhaps reduce your daily budget by %10 to keep costs inline, but think twice before drastically reducing your bid in the short term. Keep your impression share metrics in mind.

If you are losing more impression share due to budget than position, any reduction in budget will mean a decrease in overall traffic. Ads that show in a higher position typically have higher click through and conversion rates than ads that show in lower positions. Even if you lose some traffic, try to maintain as much relevant concerting traffic as you can with a reduced budget. You may get more clicks for the same daily budget in a lower position, but f those are not profitable clicks (lower conversion rate), you will continue to spiral further into the red. Why pay for “bad” traffic, no matter how much you get for your available budget?

Tips For Estimating What Your Daily Budget Should Be:

If you do have a conversion strategy in place, and a value formula, then you know whether or not your ad buy is profitable. The impression share metrics are crucial metrics to establishing how much more profit you could make, for how much more cost. If you are only reaching 50% of your potential impression share due to budget for a profitable campaign, how much more revenue could you earn by increasing the budget? There is a point of diminishing return, but typically that point is around the 90+% mark. If the more you spend the more you make, in the long run, try to find a way to move more resources into your advertising. Consider your ad buy an investment, not just a cost of doing business.

If you are reaching 100% of your available impression share with your current budget, but still losing a significant impression share due to rank, raising your bids alone may not be the most effective approach. Yes you are more likely to get clicks and conversions for ads which show in a higher position, but the point of diminishing return can be much more drastic when it comes to bids than budget. If your return per click is $.06, and your average cost per click is $.05, any increase in bid will erode your current profit margin.

The opposite can be true if you lower your bids too much. An average CPC of $.04 may reduce adrank to a point where you lose the more profitable position, to competitors with a higher overall ad rank. Spend more make more, spend less make less – as a rule – is not always true, but is always a possibility that should be considered. From the first thing in the morning, to the last thing at night, knowing where you stand regarding your costs and profits is the key to knowing what you should be spending on AdWords, at any given time.

What Is Click-To-Call Only?

Click to call can be a great tool, and couldn’t be easier to set-up. Click-to-call only insures that every click on your ad from a mobile device capable of making a phone call, results in a phone call being initiated by the user. This feature allows the website to be bypassed entirely, and calls to your business to be initiated directly from Google’s search results pages.

With “standard” call  extensions (Show my business phone number only on high end mobile phones) a click to call icon is always displayed (when eligible to show a call extension) whether you have selected click to call only or not. Click to call only prevents a user from clicking through to the website, when using a device capable of making a phone call. Only the call icon is click-able. You are charged for a “call” when someone clicks the click-to-call icon, and you are charged the same as you would be for a click through to the website.

Why Use Click-To-Call Only?

There is one over-riding requirement to use the click-to-call feature – Having a phone number, that you want customers to call.

If calls generate the majority of your conversions, it may be beneficial to make sure the campaigns are segmented by device, and the structure/strategy of those campaigns – including keywords and especially ad copy – is focused on optimizing for click to call calls.

When Should I Use Click-To-Call Only?

There is a distinction between click to call, and click to call only. When I decide whether to use one option or the other, I try to take the website format into account. If the site is formatted for mobile users (smart phones), and your conversion events can occur on or off the site, giving users the choice of clicking or calling seems like the right way to go. They may not yet be in the purchase stage of the buying cycle, and may only be looking for information on the site. Or, they could be looking to call the business directly, and make an immediate purchase. If your website is mobile friendly, why not give them a choice?

If your website is not mobile friendly, you may want to consider using the click-to-call only option. Users still may not intend to make a call, but if the website is not formatted for smart phones, they could immediately bounce from the site as well. At least if they call, and let the phone ring long enough for you to answer, you have some chance of engaging the customer.

Tips On Using Click-To-Call Only:

Hello Portland Plumbers!

We like small business, professionals, and entrepreneurs. Probably because we ourselves are small business professional entrepreneurs.

And we can’t think of a more iconic local small business profession than that of plumbing!

So…..we would really like to have a plumbing client from our hometown of Portland, OR.

We are not cold calling scammers or a behemoth ad agency – we are simply small business professionals looking to provide AdWords and pay-per-click services to the same.

If you are a Portland plumber looking to start AdWords or improve your current AdWords performance then you best give us a shout out pronto – we will only serve one Portland plumber at a time.

Contact Us to learn more about AdWords for plumbers.

Hello Portland Eye Care professionals!

We have enjoyed our relationship and the good work we have been doing for Ft. Lauderdale eye care professional Dr. Gary Enker at World Eyeglasses & Personal Eyecare

Now we are looking for one good eye care professional in our hometown of Portland where we can do the same.

If you are an eye care professional in Portland, OR, and are interested in starting AdWords or improving your current results, then you would be well served in contacting us.

We are going to do someone some good, so this is as much audition as sales pitch – because we will only represent one Portland eye care professional at any one time.

Contact Us

Hello auto repair shops and mechanics!

We like small business.

And one of our favorite small biz AdWords clients is Tom Dwyer Automotive Services.

In fact, we have enjoyed our experience with Tom Dwyer so much we want more clients in auto repair. The nature of auto repair is local, so we are not looking for another auto repair client in the Portland Metropolitan Area. But that leaves 199 or so other Designated Marketing areas in the United States that we would love to put our auto repair AdWords skills to work for some lucky client.

Two Metro areas we are especially interested in cracking is Seattle and Miami – Ft Lauderdale.

Seattle because we love the Northwest.

Miami – Ft Lauderdale because we have had noted success with other sector-clients in that area and would like more business there.

But our expansion is not limited to those two metropolitan areas. If you are in the auto repair business, and you are not located in the Greater Portland, OR metropolitan area, and you have an interest in Google AdWords, then you might be very well served contacting us about our services.

We are in the process of putting packages together – but if you get in early, you will get special consideration, as the first eager beavers will help us determine the nature of future offerings based on our mutual success. We consider ourselves pioneers in bringing experienced and personalized AdWords management to small biz Main Street. If you want to explore options other than cold call – spamming scammers or high priced Mad Men like agencies, you should give us a call.

Contact Us to learn more about our AdWords services for Auto Repair.

1 – Depends on Circumstances
2 – Depends on Circumstances
3 – Depends on Circumstances
4 – Depends on Circumstances
5 – Depends on Circumstances
6 – Depends on Circumstances
7 – Depends on Circumstances
8 – Depends on Circumstances
9 – Depends on Circumstances
10 – Depends on Circumstances

Is this flippant? or critically precise and accurate?

The experienced know.

Learn more about our AdWords Services

-Tom Hale

Because of Google’s new Call Metrics for AdWords, clients are starting to see custom unique dynamically generated phone numbers in their AdWords ads.

It only took one ping to realize we better get in front of this, because it looked like this feature was getting rolled out fast. And depending on how well it actually works, sounds like it may be a game changer in certain sectors. Cost-per-call metrics, phone tracking – free, and apparently relatively easy at first glance and set-up.

The heads-up on the new phone numbers I sent out to clients turned out to be a general heads-up that things were changing fast and significantly when it comes to AdWords. And we should be talking about that.

Here it is, with some admitted modification.

For instance, I left out the pandering for leads (bribery actually), suggestions that service expansion may well be recommended, and other such client-centric things.

Hopefully it will give some flavor nonetheless.

——————————————–

Hello Clients!!!

AdWords is changing faster than ever. Too much for a single communication. So allow me to be relatively brief, and hit the high points for now.

1 – Google is instituting an important new feature called Call Metrics.
As a result you may soon start seeing “strange” phone numbers in your ads – we are instituting this new tool in campaigns/accounts as we can, when appropriate. This one could be huge, especially for those businesses of all kinds whose sales process involves phones.

2 – Google is really integrating services – and part of that push is further AdWords integration with things like Places/Maps and Merchant Center/Product Search. Not to mention new reporting and analytics tools. Not to doubly mention mobile marketing and hand-held devices which add an additional exploding layer on top of everything. Yikes!!!!!

These services and tools take communication and coordination between us, you, your staff, and other web service vendors if we are going to get the most out of them.

The following article from Greg Sterling does a good job of laying out how and why Google is stepping up AdWords integration. The focus is Mobile and Local, but the same type of integration is happening in Video, Product Search (shopping), and other cross-over Google channels.

Let’s talk.

Learn more about our AdWords Services

-T

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Tom Hale
AdWords Specialist
ThomasCreekConcepts.com
503-946-8109 (W)
503-961-5721 (C)

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