PPC Copy Mistakes, New AdWords Reports & The Mobile Era

Google launches all-out assault on mobile advertising, cross-device conversion, and in-store ROI

Following the anti-climactic “Mobilegeddon” on April 21st, Google has rolled out a multitude of new mobile features for AdWords. Some new features include:

New ad units for mobile

More interactive
More visual – more images
Additional features and extensions
Built for specific verticals (think car sales and hotel booking)

New cross-device conversion capabilities

Track activity and conversions between tablet, desktop, and mobile
Attribution and revenue tracking

Dynamic search ad units

Updates ads when you update your website

In-store visit measurement tools

Uses data from Google users who show their location data, plus Google’s own geo and storefront data
This is cross-referenced with advertising data to help determine store traffic and ROI

Google has been pushing hard to revolutionize mobile advertising and these newest announcements are pushing the ball forward to provide better, more rich tools and insights for advertisers. make sure to read the whole article for all the details.

Sneak Peek Into AdWords’ New Multidimensional Reports

By: Ginny Marvin

These new mobile advertising releases and announcements via Google are so cool I have linked a second post covering the official event leading up to the launch. I also wanted to include this article from Search Engine Land because Ginny covers some of the announcements from a different angle, which is always nice when so much information is released at one time. Two points to pay special attention to in this post:

Measurement advances – integrating attribution with bidding strategies. AdWords will now use conversion data to calculate the contribution of each keyword on the path to the conversion.
Google compare expansion – adding mortgages to their lead generation service.

Make sure to read through both of the above posts, as well as the official words from the AdWords blog.

3 AdWords Reports That Every Search Marketer Needs To Stay Competitive

By: Thomas Stern

This article does a fantastic job of breaking down three relatively underutilized reports in AdWords and describes best practices for using them to your advantage in your campaigns. The three AdWords reports are:

Pad & organic report: It is possible to link your Webmaster Tools account to your AdWords account in order to compare organic and paid search data. Take this with a grain of salt as GWT search query data is questionable to say the least. However, it is still nice to compare datasets. Another helpful point is to look at which organic keywords have the highest CTR and compare that with the paid spend for the correlating keyword.
Auctions insights report: This report lets you look at the competitive landscape with metrics like impression share and average position. Use this report to spy on competitors and see where you are getting beat.
Search query report: broad match: Instead of only using this report to sift out negative keywords, use it to find new ideas for keywords and expand your “good lists.” Some great ideas for modifiers can come directly from this report.

Read more in depth about these reports at Seach Engine Land.

3 Trends That Will Change the Future of Online Advertising

By: Larry Kim

Larry did a fantastic job putting together this huge article on the future of mobile – it’s really great. So much has happened so quickly in digital advertising, especially mobile. We are now in a position to witness even more growth and change in mobile marketing. Here are his thoughts on the future:

Rise of identity-based PPC marketing: Use new technologies to find the people who can help spread your content and help bring potential customers to your site.
Automation: Google has made a lot of changes to how AdWords works by adding more automation. Unfortunately, this gives less control to us marketers. Save yourself a headache and focus on the things that you can control.
Convergence of paid/organic teams and the rise of remarketing: PPC and SEO are still very siloed at most agencies, but in the future we will see these teams come together since these tactics are better together. Shared information and budget accordingly means more success for clients. Additionally, tagging users who have visited your site with a cookie and serving them ads elsewhere on the web can contribute to more leads and more sales. A win-win for everyone!

This is a great article and I highly recommend reading it in its entirety.

The PPC Copy Mistakes That Are Costing You Money

By: Dale Harley

I often like to post articles that deal with copywriting for ads because it is such an important aspect of PPC advertising, but it’s something that isn’t talked about enough. Here are a few tips covered in the article to help you level up your copywriting game:

Your text/copy is blending in with all the other ads just like it – differentiate your ads
Having a weak call to action – use buzzwords like “free trial” to earn clicks
Use the remaining characters to add more details that will make searchers want to go to your website to learn more
Don’t ignore your data, especially when A/B testing – look at the smaller details to give you the bigger picture of what’s working and what’s not working.

Paid Search for the Mobile Era

By: Invoca

I have been reading and posting a lot of articles recently concerning utilizing click-to-call bidding within AdWords, It seems this trend will continue to rise as companies continue to search out the most qualified customers in terms of the purchase journey. I found this great infographic and thought I would share with our readers. It does a great job of succinctly visualizing some of the articles we have been discussing recently, and I have embedded it for your reference.

This infographic is available here.