Issue 1

Online Marketing Tips & Strategies Newsletter

Want to help your business save money? Make money? Read on for ways to do just that with AdWords.

Here’s what we’ve got for you this month:

1. Google AdWords – How to Use “Keyword Quality Score” to Cut Costs

2. Google AdWords – Prevent a Business Flop with an AdWords Campaign

3. Google Analytics – Are your Personal Website Visits Distorting your Analytics Reports?

1. Google AdWords – How to Use “Keyword Quality Score” to Cut Costs

Estimated time to implement: depends on the number of keywords

Google gives each of your keywords a Quality Score out of 10. But is this score really important? You’d better believe it. Google rewards you for high quality. The higher your Quality Score, the less you pay per click, so it’s definitely worth putting in the extra effort.

Quality Score is based on 3 factors:
1.    The keyword
2.    The text of your ad
3.    Your landing page

First, make sure you can see your own keyword Quality Scores (strangely, it’s turned off by default). If you can’t already see it, then log in to your campaign, and in the top right corner, click <filter & views> then click <customize columns>, and check <quality score>.

Next, sort the column by clicking on the column heading “Qual. Score”.

What range of Quality Scores do you have? How many are less than 7 out of 10?

While we’d all love a Quality Score of 10 for each keyword, this rarely happens. 7 and above is a reasonable score – you don’t have to make any urgent changes. If, however, you have lots of keywords with a score of less than 6, you’re wasting money and should make changes pronto.

We’d recommend some changes to increase the relevancy of the keyword. For example:

- Move the low quality score keywords into their own different ad group.

- Write an ad that includes that keyword in the ad copy.

- If it’s an important keyword, also consider developing a specific landing page using this keyword on the landing page.

- If that doesn’t increase its Quality Score, consider deleting (or pausing) the keyword all together.

By getting rid of very low quality score keywords, you’ll have a better performing campaign, and you’ll save on costs.

Here are some links to helpful videos about Quality Score:

Google Ad Auction & Quality Score Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7l0a2PVhPQ

AdWords Learning Centre Video: http://services.google.com/awp/en_us/breeze/3015424/index.html


2. Prevent a Business Flop with an AdWords Campaign

Estimated time to implement: 1 to 3 hours (depending on your skills & the complexity of the campaign)

Thinking about launching a new product line or service? Before you sink too much money into the whole shebang, test the waters with a Google AdWords campaign.

By taking the time to measure market demand for what you want to offer, you are de-risking your launch substantially.

All you need are some targetted ads and a well thought-out landing page.

If you get good interest, you’ve just de-risked your launch. If you don’t, perhaps you need to rethink your product or service strategy.

3. Google Analytics – Are your Personal Website Visits Distorting your Analytics Reports?

Estimated time to implement: 10 minutes

Do you sneak a peek at your own website a few times a day? (Or maybe even more?) If you do, and you get regular Google Analytics reports, your daily visits could be throwing these reports out of whack.

This means they won’t be as accurate and meaningful as they could be. These stats could be further skewed by your web developer / PR agency or others frequently visiting your website.

But don’t worry – you can resolve this in 3 quick and easy steps!

All you need to do is alter your profile to exclude these visits.

Firstly, you need to know your own IP address. If you don’t, just visit http://whatismyipaddress.com and write down the number you see on that web page.

Then log into your Google Analytics account. On the page that lists the profiles you’ve set up, in the last column named “ACTION”, click <edit>.

Then scroll down to the heading “Filters applied to profile”. Click <add filter> and then add the IP address number and save changes. Easy peasy!

If you have a web developer who also looks at your website regularly (or anyone else for that matter), you can also add their IP address in the same way.

Now your reports will be more accurate – and will exclude any distortion from your own visits.

4. What’s going on with us?

Laura, our most recent Google AdWords Qualified Professional, is back from some much deserved R&R in Vietnam & Cambodia.

As always we’d love to connect on Twitter at www.twitter.com/philipshaw where Philip covers news and tips on various online marketing topics.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this edition. If you’ve come across something a friend or colleague might find useful, please share the love and pass it on!

As always, we love your feedback.

Regards,
The CleverClicks Team
www.cleverclicks.com.au