Category Archives: Wordstream

Three new ways to use Google AdWords

Here are some more updates on changes with Google AdWords – it’s all happening at the moment. For those of you using us to manage your campaigns, rest assured we’re looking into the applicability of these opportunities. If you’re managing your own campaigns, these will be worth putting aside some time for. If you use someone else to manage them, it might be worth seeing if they’re on the ball. You know what to do if they’re not.

1. Expanded Text Ads
I’ve previously mentioned this new opportunity with search adverts, and all I need to add is that it should now be a priority task to get all of your adverts rewritten to take advantage of this. Our own clients will have had plenty of information from me about what’s going on.

2. Responsive Display Ads
Text ads on the Display Network are all but dead. Google has been taking our text and creating pseudo-image ads for some time now, but the results have been less than optimal in terms of branding. They’ve even had the nerve to lift images from our landing pages or logos from our Google+ accounts, which is an outrageous liberty, and I’ve told them so at the highest level. The new “Responsive Display Network Ads” allow us to at least specify the image and/or logo which is used, and ads will be created from these (and the text) to fit in the 50 or more sizes of advert now available to us, as well as responsive screen displays. Do not continue to use text adverts on the Display Network without having a thorough understanding of this. Here’s a good background article which Wordstream has written, so I don’t have to.

3. Remarketing for Dynamic Search Ads
Not something which Google is promoting as a major new class of advertising, but an interesting idea nevertheless. The link above is to a Wordstream article (again) which explains this interesting combination of two search advertising campaign types: Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) and Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA). With the first, we let Google create ads dynamically, based on our landing pages and the searches being made. With the second, we modify the bids for previous visitors, perhaps to enable us to target a broader range of searches. Put the two together and you’re giving Google an adventurous level of control, but one which is worth investigating. Best of luck.

More detail on the effects of Google’s ad changes

Yesterday I discussed some of the biggest ever changes to the way Google’s results are displayed. There were a few observations on the impact so far, but for a more comprehensive update, I’d thoroughly recommend reading 3 Weeks After Google Killed Side Ads, Here Are 5 More Takeaways on the Wordstream blog. One of the key findings is that natural (free) search results haven’t been hit hard, which some people – like me – feared they might. Why this may be is open to speculation, but it’s good news for all of us.

How a web marketing assistant could transform your site

I was asked recently by a client to recommend a course on SEO which a new marketing assistant could attend. While there are a few courses around, I feel that the best thing they provide is an up-to-date list of actions, and there are many such lists available online for free. So my suggestion was to work through a really good “SEO basics” guide, and spend the cost of the course on subscribing to some online services which might really help your website management.

The best guide I’ve seen for a while is the Complete Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization on the Wordstream blog, an epic effort published just last week. This would probably take a full-time employee the rest of the summer to work through, but if they were bright, and had full access to make changes to the site, it should result in a step change in your web marketing over the next few months.

Have you got time for online advertising?

Every month we’re approached by companies (usually readers of these articles!) to talk about running online advertising campaigns for them. Many have never before used any of Google’s range of advertising offerings (which is where we start, for most businesses), and have heard that it’s a lot easier to subcontract it out to people who know what they’re doing. Other companies contacting us have been using Google search marketing for a while, but realise they can’t keep up with all the developments to that basic product, never mind take advantage of some of the latest features Google has available.

Among the newer things we’re doing for clients at the moment is taking advantage of Enhanced Sitelinks. These give you a completely dominant position above Google search results. Then there’s “Remarketing“, where your ads keep displaying around the web to people who’ve visited your site already. There’s also “Remarketing lists for search“, where you can bid more on searches for people who’ve been to your site before. You might also want to investigate advertising on LinkedIn, which is providing interesting results.

I could go on. What all this means, however, is that there’s an increasing amount to learn just to keep up with the best of your competitors. That’s fine for those companies who are increasingly concentrating on online marketing. If you no longer have to organise that annual trade exhibition stand, you can use the time which has been freed up, to work on getting qualified in Google AdWords. But if you’re still never getting through your to-do list, may I suggest you ask us to come and show you why it’s better to let us do the day-to-day stuff, while you make the big decisions?