Improving targeting options in AdWords Express
By: Jade Wang
As we discussed in the course, beware of AdWords Express because it may lead you in an inefficient direction. But at least now they are allowing you to remove keywords that you don’t feel are relevant to the business. While this new feature is a step in the right direction, it is still important for AdWords managers to control as many of the advertising variables as possible. This is exactly why we spend so much time learning about campaign setup and management in the course. More information concerning this update is available in the article.
5 PPC Testing Myths & Mistakes: How To Avoid Them!
By: Mona Elesseily
Since paid search advertising is such a highly saturated and competitive advertising channel, PPC specialists need to ensure that they do everything possible to deliver the most value to their clients. A big part of this is testing ad copy, images, extensions, and calls-to-action. However, there have been a lot of false claims floating around concerning testing for PPC campaigns. In this article, Mona sets the record straight and busts these 5 common myths:
- You should test everything all the time
- A large majority of tests kill it
- Move along from loser tests quickly
- Boring pages don;t convert
- But so-and-so ran the test and it worked
Bing Ads Unified Device Targeting Is Here: Explicit Smartphone Campaigns End This Week
By: Ginny Marvin
Last week, Bing announced that they would be no longer supporting device targeting at the campaign level (Google has already been doing this for a while now). The changes were made throughout last week, and if you are managing Bing campaigns, you need to make sure that you do not have duplicate keywords after this migration. Check out Ginny’s article as well as these resources over at Bing Ads.
Hacking the Google Display Network for Insanely Low CPC
By: Larry Kim
Over the years, the Google Display Network has gone from the “less desired” option for advertisers to an extremely effective and legitimate tool for marketers to reach the public. While Google keeps us in the dark on how they determine Quality Score and CPC, Larry Kim offers five hacks to help you improve CTR and improve Quality Score on the Google Display Network. Here is an overview:
- Get to know display ad builder
- Exclude mobile apps
- Use Google Web Designer for HTML5 ads
- Target in-market audiences and specific demographics
- Tap into the power of remarketing
Make sure to check out all the details over at Search Engine Watch.
Google’s Steady Gains In Paid Search Location Tracking A Win-Win
By: Andy Taylor
During the course of the past year, Google has greatly improved its ability to track user locations at ever more granular levels. There is no shortage of metrics for advertisers to utilize to hyper-target users based on location. This is a win-win for users and Google alike, and Andy does a great job explaining what’s been going on in his post this week. Here are the essential details covered in the post:
- Share of AdWords traffic tracked to ZIP code climbing
- Better tracking = better bidding for advertisers
- Improved local ad serving
- Some in-store tracking is geo-reliant