To supplement our discussion at Directions 2009 we’ve posted some additional insight into the most common mistakes Partners make in regards to Google AdWords.

Not using Geo-targeting

If I had a nickle for every time I’ve asked a B2B partner, “who is your target market?”  and they responded with, “EVERYBODY!”….

While you can certainly reach just about anyone with Google Adwords, you have to be realistic about the types of businesses you work with and the proximity to a service provider for which they will do business. Businesses like to do business locally; it gives them confidence and a sense of accountability.

Unless you have an office in every state in the USA, you should not be targeting your ads nationally.

Not using Geo-targeting is the fastest way to burn through your ad spend.

While our recommendations vary drastically depending on the size of your organization and your particular niche, we generally recommend isolating your PPC to the state/province that you operate in.

If you’re an up and coming partner working in a busy metropolitan like LA, our recommendation would be to target just LA and perhaps cities within a 50m proximity. Don’t target all of California! You’ll lose your shirt in adspend, driving prospects you would have to drive 12 hours just to introduce yourself in person.

If you have 5 offices, you could target the 5 states where the offices are located. If you have a $100 million dollar a year business with 50 locations, then sure, you can target nationally.

Stick to the little pond and be the big fish, for now at least.

Keeping the Content Network On

Look carefully at the screenshot above. If your Networks, devices and extensions settings don’t look like this, than you may be paying DOUBLE for leads aquired through the Content Network!

There are 2 primary types of Networks you can display your Adwords ads on:

• Search Network
  Your ads show up in Google search results as well as in the search results of some major sites.
• Content Network
  Your ads show up on Publisher websites in the form of Google AdSense.

You want to be on the Search Network, but not the Content Network.

Why?

The cost per conversion through the Content Network vs the Search Network, in this example, is more than 100%!

Publishers, aka website owners, are hosting your ads as a method of generating revenue for themselves. They generate revenue based on the number of times the ads on their site are clicked. This creates an incentive for publishers to mislead and encourage visitors to click on your ads accidentally. Due to widespread fraud and abuse on the Content Network we no longer recommend this platform unless you’re prepared to be absolutely diligent with cracking down on your referrers.

If Google were to change their Content Network model to CPA (Cost per Acquisition) to function more like an affiliate referral system, then we would certainly revisit it.

Poor Continuity Between Keywords, Ad Copy and Landing Pages

Imagine this scenario…

You’re searching in Google for “make to order manufacturing software” and see an ad that says something along the lines of,

Manufacturing Software
Accounting, cost control, sales,
inventory control, MRP, eBusiness
www.number1partnergold.com

You click on the add and it takes you to a page that looks like a replica of a Microsoft Dynamics NAV brochure.

There’s no reference to Manufacturing…

There’s no reference to Make to Order Manufacturing or Engineer to Order Manufacturing…

It’s just a sales pitch for Microsoft NAV, followed by a “Contact Us” link at the bottom of the page…

This campaign lacks continuity! The ad copy is decent, however not specific to make to order businesses, and the landing page is a complete disconnect. We’ve seen this time and time again with Business Software Resellers who have been lured to PPC by its sweet temptation of instant traffic.

To make matters worse…

A few years ago Google introduced Adwords Quality Scores to measure this continuity at a pretty basic level.

In short, if your ad copy doesn’t match the keywords you’re targeting and your landing page was copied directly off Microsoft’s website (or worse, your competitors) then that will affect your Quality Score for that campaign.

And it gets EVEN worse…

If you have poor quality scores in one campaign Google has a habit of lowering the quality scores of ALL your campaigns. Even after you purge your entire account, Google has a history of your quality scores which can affect FUTURE quality scores.

Why does this matter?

Because Quality Scores are used across your Adwords account in the following ways:

• influencing your keywords’ actual cost-per-clicks (CPCs)
• estimating the first page bids that you see in your account
• determining if a keyword is eligible to enter the ad auction that occurs when a user enters a search query
• affecting how high your ad will be ranked

Which translates into:

Above average CPC. Yes, you’ll have to pay more than your competition for the same keyword, at potentially a LOWER position. You might have to pay top dollar just to show up as #8 on the first page of results!

For more information on how Google calculates your Quality Score and CPC check this post out.

Overbidding for the top positions

The screenshot above shows some examples of highest Click Through Rate (CTR) ads within a specific adgroup. Take a look at the CTR column and the Average Ad Postion (Avg. Pos.) Notice the lack of correlation between CTR and Ad Postion?

We used to believe in the “Golden Triangle” theory which dictates that users scan search results in an “F” pattern as seen below:

However, this theory was put forth in the early 21st century when PPC ads were new and users weren’t very familiar with the internet. Half a decade later and people have figured out that the first few results are going to be ads and they have adjusted their scanning patterns. The advent of multimedia embedded in the results is changing the users focus even further. New evidence is showing that users are now scanning search results in an “E” pattern, taking a deeper look at individual results, reading the entire title and spending a bit more time prior to clicking.

See the example below of the new “E” scanning pattern:

Source for images

In short, climbing over each other trying to bid your way to the #1 Ad Position is no longer financially viable. In our experience you’ll be able to lower your CPC significantly, while maintaining good CTR, if you aim for the positions #3 through #8. All this translates into a lower Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) which, at the end of the day, is what really matters.

Please note: For this to work your entire PPC strategy must be fine tuned; great ad copy, excellent keyword choices and solid continuity through to your landing pages.

Not tracking Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

Sure you know how much you spend on AdWords every month… but do you know what kind of return you’re getting on your ad spend investment?

The beautiful thing about online analytics is the finite level of detail you can extract from your marketing efforts. To monitor your AdWords performance, and your investment, you need to setup Conversion Goal tracking. This can be done through the AdWords interface or within Google Analytics.

Keep in mind that tracking conversions is only one piece of the puzzle.

Working those conversions back to your costs, and constantly reducing those costs, in what separates the amateurs from the PPC experts.

Here’s the formula used to calculate CPA:

• ( Total Ad Spend / Quantity of Leads generated ) = Cost Per Acquisition

At the end of each month we highly recommend you compile your AdWords statistics and throw together a report that allows you to see your PPC ROI at a high level.

We recommend that you segment your CPA by AdGroup as well as at the Keyword level. This will allow you to take decisive action when you see that a specific AdGroup/Keyword is costing you dearly and not producing results.

We also recommend that you do the same calculation for your campaigns as a whole so that you have a CPA Avg. By examining this data over several months you’ll be able to monitor your progress, and hopefully the fruits of your labor.

Has this been helpful?

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