Advanced Segments
Analytics has several segments built-in (Search traffic, visits with conversions, mobile traffic, etc.). While these segments can be very useful, I find that custom segments are even more useful. Utilizing custom segments allows users to create their own segments that are useful to their particular interests. I like to create custom segments for individual AdWords campaigns or specific locations that we want to target. Although you can find this information in other locations in Analytics, I have found that using custom segments is an easier way to look at metrics for these specific segments and to also compare multiple segments to each other.

Custom Reporting
Along the same lines as advanced segments, custom reporting allows you to build reports customized to your specific reporting needs. For our clients that require regular reporting, I have found that setting up a custom report takes less time than searching for that information each time I need to produce a report.

Dashboard Customization
The dashboard screen is made up of various widgets, all of which are moveable. You can also add more widgets that are useful to your goals or design multiple dashboards that you can switch between. Additionally, you can download or email your current dashboard.

URL Tagging
For easy tracking of any of your campaigns, be sure to include custom tags on your URLs. Google provides an easy tool to generate these URLs, which include campaign name, source, medium, and specific advertisement identification. The more information you include in these URLs, the more tracking ability you will have within Analytics. If you are using AdWords, be sure to sync your AdWords and Analytics accounts and enable auto-tagging.

Download and Email Reports
Another useful feature of Analytics is the ability to download or email any of the reports you can generate. It is important to keep in mind that the information shown  in your window is what will be downloaded, so if you have rows that are not shown in your current view, be sure to add more so that all of your information is showing. When emailing reports, you can designate various options and whether to send reports regularly (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly) or only once.

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The previous posts in this series covered optimizing your ad text and utilizing various keyword match types in order to increase CTR and relevance. Today, we are going to focus on optimizing your landing pages in order to further increase your quality scores.

Even though landing pages are a vital part of increasing the ROI of an AdWords campaign, over 40% of B2B companies still drive visitors to their homepage, and those that do utilize landing pages typically only use a few pages.

Your landing page should be directly related to the content in the ad that people will click on to get there. The more targeted you can make your landing page content, the better! Consider creating at least one landing page for each ad group. Also, if you vary the call-to-action in your ad, it is a good idea to direct the ad to a landing page that reflects that call-to-action.

Utilize a Clear Call-to-Action
Visitors to your landing page should be able to easily determine which action you wish them to take, and it should be as easy as possible for them to complete the action. Use only one call-to-action per page. Keep your call-to-actions consistent throughout your ad and landing page. Another best practice is to keep your call-to-action above the fold. And be sure to tell your visitors why they should complete the action!

Keep the Content Simple
Don’t overwhelm visitors with too much information. If your product is complicated enough that it needs more information, consider utilizing a secondary “more information” page that visitors can click on if they wish.

Test
Just like testing your ad copy, testing various iterations of your landing pages can prove to be very useful in increasing the ROI of your campaign. While this is a very important way to improve your landing pages, only about 40% of marketers are using this method. Use multiple versions of your landing pages with various layouts and copy. If you use Google Analytics, you can see which landing pages delivered the best results based on your campaign’s goals. Google recently introduced a tool within Analytics called Context Experiments which allows marketers to conduct experiments with various versions of content. Analytics will automatically rotate the content and provide users with detailed metrics concerning user activity on the different pages.

Need help increasing the ROI of your AdWords account? Contact Launch today!

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In addition to the basic best practices of Google AdWords, there are multiple ways to continue to improve your campaign’s performance. To continue our blog series covering increasing AdWords ROI, the next technique we will cover is utilizing the various match types in Google in order to increase the amount of relevant traffic your campaign drives to your company’s website.

By default, all keywords are set as “broad match.” While this setting is very useful for attracting a large audience, you may not be getting the relevant traffic that you think you are. Take a look at your bounce rate (the percentage of visits to your landing page that immediately leave). Is it high? This probably means that people are clicking on your ad and are not finding relevant content on your landing page. Note that you are still paying for these clicks on your ad, even though the visitor isn’t staying on your site long.

Tips to attract relevant traffic with targeted keyword selection:

Let’s say that you are a company that sells office furniture. You may bid on keywords such as “office furniture” or “desks”. In this case, your ads will probably reach your target market, but you might also show up for irrelevant search queries such as “office supplies ” or “desk calendars”.

To help combat these unwanted impressions (and useless clicks), consider using some of the other match types Google offers.

Phrase Match: The search inquiry must contain the phrase, and may contain other words

• Example: “office furniture”
• Your ad may show up for search inquiries such as “cheap office furniture” or “business office furniture”

Exact Match: The search inquiry must be the exact same as the keyword phrase

• Example: [modern office furniture]
• Your ad will only show up when people search for “modern office furniture”

An option that we have found very useful is broad match modifier keywords. These keywords allow for the best parts of broad match and the other two more exclusive match types, in that it allows search terms to be shown that contain similar words, but the search term must also include all of the words in the keyword phrase.

• Example: +modern +office +furniture
• Your ad may show up for search inquiries such as “office furniture modern” or “modern business office furniture”

Another important keyword type is negative keywords. By choosing negative keywords, you eliminate any searches that contain that word or phrase.

• Example: -used
• Your ad will not show up for search queries such as “used office furniture” or “where to buy cheap used furniture”

Google provides this chart to illustrate the various keyword matching options:

In summary, we suggest considering using multiple types of keywords in your AdWords campaign. This will enable you to not only reach a large audience, but to reach an audience that is interested in your company’s offerings. In addition, eliminating irrelevant searches gives you the greatest return on your advertising spend, as you are not paying for irrelevant clicks on your ad.

Need help with your AdWords campaigns? Contact Launch today! And be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook to keep up to date with our insider marketing tips.

Earlier, we wrote a blog post giving an overview of AdWords best practices. Now we are starting a series of blog posts that will dive deeper into optimizing your AdWords campaigns and increasing your ROI. The first post in this series will cover testing and optimizing ad text.

Why Should You Optimize Your Ad Text?
By creating an effective ad, you increase the relevance of your ad to the keyword that triggers it, and therefore the probability that someone will click on the ad. By increasing your click-through rate, you take an important step in improving your quality score. Quality scores are very important because the higher the quality score you have, the less Google charges to place your ad in the higher positions on a search page. Therefore, you are increasing the number of potential clicks you can receive while also lowering the amount of money that you pay for each click, giving you more bank for your buck.

How Do You Optimize Ad Text?
A common misconception is that comparing small changes to an ad’s punctuation or grammar comprises ad text testing. Instead, it’s about testing various versions of the more influential aspects of the ad such as the featured offer or call-to-action, ad extensions, or the structure of your campaign. Be sure to have Google rotate your ads equally so that you may be able to compare their performance on an equal basis.

An important consideration to take into account is the metrics you use to determine which ad performed better. While click-through rate is commonly used, it may not be the correct metric to use for your campaign. Consider the goals of your campaign. Are you simply trying to drive people to your website? If so, CTR may be a valid choice, but it would still be wise to utilize metrics such as bounce rate to see which visitors actually stayed on your website, as those that immediately left are not quality visits.

If your goal is to drive leads or purchases, it would probably be in your best interest to focus on conversion rates. While the ads that deliver the most clicks will most likely have high conversion numbers, you may find that this is not always the case, and that ads may be delivering a high volume of traffic, but the traffic is irrelevant to your website offerings.

In the next blog post in this series, we will cover optimizing your landing pages in order to further increase your CTR.

Need help increasing the ROI of your AdWords account? Contact Launch today!

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