What does the new ad format mean for advertisers?

Naturally the importance of a targeted ad headline has increased dramatically, while the actual ad copy is becoming less relevant. In fact, the ad description is becoming a place to only include promotions such as “Low Price Guarantee” or “Fast/Free Shipping!” Ad headline has always been the most important area of the ad and is now the focal point with the new ad layout. We recommend A/B testing ad headlines for all new ad groups, now more than ever.

Naturally, the changes will also make the display URL more important. While it is important to have a relevant URL or a strong brand this isn’t always possible; plus it is impractical to change your domain just for Adwords. At the very least you should create specific subdirectories in your ads to show that the ad will drive the user to a relevant page. An ad for “Northface Denali” should have the display URL look something like “www.mysite.com/northface-denali” to increase performance.

Keep in mind that description line 1 will still appear in ad headlines if the line ends with proper punctuation. The ad can also display the site domain in the ad headline. If the site domain, description line 1 and ad headline are all less than 68 characters all 3 will show. This leaves huge potential for companies with shorter domain URLs. For ads that hit this trifecta the CTR will be much higher. These types of ads should leave a promotion spot or company slogan for description line 2.

This change is also affecting natural search results. leaving us to believe that a big reason for the change is to clean up the search results. This change definitely leaves more white space and makes the search process much more user friendly. So do you think the new display format is here to stay? What do you think about Google’s “keep-it-simple” updates to the SERPs?

1) Adwords display URLs no longer show capital letters

So what does this mean for advertisers? Well first you should note that most ads would show a domain in this format, MySite.com/Cool-Stuff. This will now display as mysite.com/Cool-Stuff. In my experience the upper case “/Cool-Stuff” does not mesh well with the lower cased domain. We recommend changing all letters in a display URL (including those after the “/”) to lowercase format. Leaving the domain lowercase with subdirectories upper case just looks too much like spam and, in most cases, your CTR will drop as a result.

2) Longer ad headlines now displaying

Yes, that’s right. An ad will display description line 1 next to the ad title now if it meets the following criteria:

-The ad has a high enough ad rank to display above search results
-The ad has a description line 1 that ends with proper punctuation

These ads look much better than previously top ranked ads and many argue this will improve CTR overall. When you couple this with 4 sitelink extensions you will have a great CTR. Whether the increased CTR brings in a higher ROI is dependent on your advertising goals.

3) Google Checkout no longer displays in ad copy

Google has finally dropped the Google Checkout badges from its Adwords program. This was mainly instituted to clean up search results. The new Google +1 will be displayed and this feature in Adwords should really boost +1 adoption.

Will the removal of Google Checkout badges from ads hurt the adoption of Google Checkout? We think it will as many clients with newer sites installed Google Checkout specifically to boost Adwords ad performance.

What are direction clicks?

As defined by Google, “Direction” clicks is a feature of location extensions that enables customers to map the quickest route from where they are located to a business they want to visit.

What is changing is that if a user clicks on the blue button for directions the advertiser will be billed as if a user is clicking on the headline to go to the advertiser’s website.

Should I set aside budget for Directions clicks?

“Direction” clicks currently represent a minimal percentage of traffic but will likely play a much larger role as mobile search becomes more popular. Every dollar counts, so in creating the best possible Adwords account you must decide if you are better off paying for “direction” clicks or spending that money on additional traffic elsewhere.

In most cases, the goal of Adwords accounts is to drive relevant traffic in the hope of increasing sales. With that in mind, a user seeking directions is likely someone that is looking to come to your store with the intent to purchase.

While it was nice that Google was handing out freebies for a few months, this was an inevitable bullet that an advertiser will need to bite.

Will you be paying for direction clicks?

Personally, I’d rather not pay to send people to Google Maps. This strategy will really depend on each PPC account specifically. You are effectively paying to send people to a Google owned and operated web property (Google Maps).

Location extensions are optional so there is no argument here; if you don’t like the change, don’t use them. I do, however, feel you’ll be at a disadvantage by opting out as they do help the ads stand out from the rest; helping to increase the headline CTR and are more informative to the user.

What I don’t like is the way this has been implemented. Someone clicks on “directions” to my business and they get sent to Google Maps. There is no link to my website, not even a mention of my business name on this page. We hope this is going to change. It would be much better if advertisers had a choice between sending these clicks to a Google Maps page or sending to a destination URL that complies with advertising policy.

In the meantime we recommend A/B testing this to see if it is a viable strategy. Just remember, you are at a disadvantage if this extension is not enabled. You have to determine if the extra cost is worth the reward.

As our PPC agency continues to grow we have started to notice a trend in the way client’s set-up their PPC accounts. The majority of new Adwords (or AdCenter) accounts we take on have many issues, but we are going to dive into the biggest issue – poor account set-up.

We see a lot of PPC accounts that have 1 campaign, 1 ad group and 100’s of keywords stuffed into that ad group. Accounts like this also tend to have the worst Quality Scores in the bunch. Some get so bad that ads don’t even show due to low ad rank! For this reason we have decided to give Poor Account Structure the award for biggest mistake amateur PPC managers make.

Why does PPC set-up matter?

When starting a new PPC set-up it is like building the foundation of a home, a poorly structured account will collapse even if all other areas are outstanding. The PPC set-up process is the most important area of PPC management.

What are the benefits of a properly set-up PPC account?

When an account is set-up the right way you will see multiple benefits that will pay dividends on future PPC efforts. Your Quality Score will be noticeably higher; this will have an immediate effect on your cost-per-click & impression share. As Quality Score improves over time the benefits will increase further.

You will also be able to write more targeted ads. If you have 1 ad group with 100’s of keywords you will have to find a one-size-fits-all ad to run with. We think this practice should be made illegal. A properly set-up PPC account will have 100’s (even thousands) of ad groups that have tightly focused themes. The tighter the better because you will then have the power to write more enticing ads that relate to those keywords. For example, a campaign for Panasonic TVs should have an ad group that gets as granular as “Panasonic Plasma P50S2.” Ads that get this specific will show huge CTR improvements.

Another benefit to having a solid foundation for your PPC account is more customized ongoing management. We’ve already outlined that your overall CPC will be much lower, but what about those keywords that just don’t seem to convert for you? With ad groups that are more tightly focused you will be able to quickly spot poor performers and react accordingly by lowering bids, adding various negatives, adjusting match type or writing new ad copy. Let’s say your “Panasonic Plasma P50S2” ad group has a CPA over $100; you can easily drop the bids at the ad group level, then review keywords and ad copy to see where the hidden problems are.

For these reasons, the upfront time to properly set-up your PPC account will be well worth the effort, even after only a few weeks. By fixing this common problem area you will begin to reap the rewards of a proper PPC set-up. If this doesn’t sound like something you have time or patience to learn on your own contact us now. Our PPC account set-ups now start at only $400!

Mobile searches on Google jumped by 400% last year and every day more of your customers are using mobile devices to find the products and services they need.

How well are you handling the move to mobile?

One of the simplest and most effective steps you can take is to create a mobile-only campaign in your AdWords account. Separating your mobile campaigns from your desktop ones provides you more control and allows you to better optimize for mobile.

Advertisers creating a mobile-only campaign have seen, on average, increases in mobile clicks of 29% and click-through rates of 11.5% compared to combined desktop and mobile campaigns.

Take advantage of this $100 AdWords credit and see for yourself the value of a mobile-only campaign.

Act by March 31, 2011 to get your $100 AdWords credit:

1. Sign in to your AdWords account.
2. Create a mobile-only campaign. Keep it active at least until April 1, 2011.
3. Serve an impression from your new campaign by March 31, 2011.