Google allows you to add additional information to your ads, such as address and phone number, more website page links or product information.  Typically, Ad Extensions are displayed when your ad is displayed in the premium results (i.e. the ads that are at the top of the page, in the centre).

Why use ‘Ad Extensions’?

• increase the size of your ad (so searchers are more likely to notice it)
• ads can contain more links (so searchers are more likely to click)
• they make it easier for searchers to find what they are specifically looking for (so they are more likely to buy when they land on your site)

In addition, because of the way Google’s “auction” model works, you may actually pay less for your ads than you do at the moment (because ads with Ad Extensions tend to get a higher ‘click through rate’).

How to set up Ad Extensions:

Step 1:  Choose an ad campaign & click on the ‘Settings’ tab (see image below)

Step 2:  Scroll down to the section on ‘Ad Extensions’ and click the ad extension link (see image below) 

Step 3: Click on the drop down menu on the left hand side to pick which extension to choose (see image below.

You have 4 options to pick from

1. Location extensions: Help nearby consumers find or call your nearest store
2. Call extensions: Connect users to your business directly by phone
3. Sitelink extensions: Promote more pages within your site beyond your main ad landing page
4. Social extensions: Link people’s Google+ endorsements for your business +Page to your AdWords campaign

In most cases, we find sitelinks to be the most effective (as you can promote specific offers, feature the most popular products in a category etc).  However, if your business is location specific location extensions are worth considering as an alternative. 

At present, social extensions aren’t the best choice.  However, when Google+ and the +1 button see higher usage numbers, the social extensions will become more important.

It can be a very expensive mistake….

However, this common mistake can be fixed in less than 5 minutes and you’ll start to make savings (often huge savings) straight away.

How do you end up getting so many irrelevant clicks?

When you pick the keywords you want to target, Google’s default setting will display your ad when someone searches for:

1. the keyword you specifically choose
2. for searches that contain your keyword and
3. for related searches that they think are relevant. 

(This is called ‘broad’ keyword matching).

Most of the time, they do a good job of finding relevant, similar searches.  But too often your ads are shown for searches that you didn’t intent.

Looking at the ‘standard’ keyword view in AdWords won’t show you the actual keywords that people typed in – the stats include not just the specific keyword you chose – the ‘related’ searches are also bundled into the stats you see. 

This means that most advertisers aren’t aware of a lot of the actual keywords that people are using before they click on their ad.

Here’s how to find out the actual keywords people who click on your ad are using:

1. Log into Adwords and pick a date range (the longer the better)
2. Click on the ‘Campaign’ & ‘Ad Group’ you want to look at.
3. Click the ‘Keywords’ tab
4. Under the graph, you’ll see a drop down menu that says “See seach terms” (see image below)
5. Click ‘All’

(Click on the image below to enlarge)

This will display all the keywords that people used to find you for this specific ‘Ad Group’.

When you identify irrelevant keywords, click on the box beside them, and click the ‘ad as negative keyword’ button. 

You can either add them as negative keywords for this specific Ad Group or for your campaign as a whole. 

If the keywords have nothing to do with your business at all, add them as negative keywords for the campaign.  If they aren’t suitable for this specific AdGroup but are suitable for another AdGroup, block them at the AdGroup level only.

This will block those keywords from displaying your ad in future.

If you have more than one campaign and/or Ad Group (which you definately should), repeat the process for each Ad Group.

Keep an eye out for more tips in your email over the next few days.

We review lots of companies Google Adwords accounts and there are some common mistakes that almost everyone makes.

One of the biggest mistakes that people make (that they aren’t even aware of) is that they end up paying for lots of irrelevant clicks from people who will NEVER ever buy from them.

It can be a very expensive mistake….

In fact, one company asked us to find out why their campaign was performing so badly and it turned out that nearly 40% of their entire budget was being spend on searches for a product totally unrelated to what they sold – and they didn’t even know.

Don’t worry, this common mistake can be fixed in less than 5 minutes and you’ll start to make savings (often huge savings) straight away.

How do you end up getting so many irrelevant clicks?

When you pick the keywords you want to target, Google’s default setting will display your ad when someone searches for the keyword you choose, for searches that contain your keyword and for related searches that they think are relevant.  (This is called ‘broad’ keyword matching).

Most of the time, they do a good job of finding relevant, similar searches.

But sometimes your ads are shown for searches that you didn’t intent.

For example, AIB & KBC banks target the keyword “mortgages” but their ads also display for “spanish mortgages”, which they don’t offer. 

An ad for “life insurance” may be triggered by a search for “health insurance”, a completely different product (that most life insurance companies don’t sell). 

A search for “second hand clothes” shows an ad for the Littlewoods website - I’d be surprised if that was intended.

99.9% of the clicks on these ads will probably be a waste of money.

Here’s how to find out the actual keywords people who click on your ad are using:

1. Log into Adwords and pick a date range (the longer the better)
2. Click on the ‘Campaign’ & ‘Ad Group’ you want to look at.
3. Click the ‘Keywords’ tab
4. Under the graph, you’ll see a drop down menu that says “See seach terms” (see image below)
5. Click ‘All’

(Click on the image below to enlarge)

This will display all the keywords that people used to find you for this specific ‘Ad Group’.

When you identify irrelevant keywords, click on the box beside them, and click the ‘ad as negative keyword’ button.  You can either add them as negative keywords for this specific Ad Group or for your campaign as a whole.  This will block those keywords from displaying your ad in future.

If you have more than one campaign and/or Ad Group (which you definately should), repeat for each Ad Group.

Learn more techniques and strategies to improve your Adwords campaigns at the next Adwords Seminar on March 28th 2012 in Dublin.

… starting today, we’ll automatically show your display URL domain in the headline for select top placement ads on Google. As a result, your brand will be featured more prominently in your ad, and you can use the text in the headline to highlight other information. Potential customers, on the other hand, will be able to more easily identify the site to which they’ll be taken after they click on your ad.

When shown in the headline, the display URL will be separated from the rest of the text by a vertical bar and will include only the domain, not the “www.” prefix or any subdirectories. Your display URL will also continue to appear as normal below the description line. Of course, if the headline already contains your domain, we won’t display it again. Finally, it’s possible for the display URL domain to appear in addition to a description line that is promoted to the headline, as long as the resulting headline is sixty-eight characters or less.

Google are updating their policies for advertisers on May 17th 2011, which will require website changes for most advertisers.  The changes relate to websites that collect financial or personal information – so if you either sell products or services online or collect names and email addresses, this will effect you.  If your website isn’t compliant, your ads may be suspended.

Here’s an excerpt from the Adwords blog, which outlines what you need to do:

1. Clear, accessible disclosure before visitors submit personal information
   Our existing policy requires you to clearly describe how any personal information you solicit will be used. Soon, we’ll require that your description must also be easily accessible before site visitors submit their details.
2. Option to discontinue direct communications
   In the same description of how personal information will be used, you’ll also be required to describe how people can opt out of future emails, phone calls, or other direct communications.
3. SSL when collecting payment and certain financial and personal information
   Many websites use what are known as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connections to encrypt sensitive information that travels between the user’s browser and the website’s servers. To help ensure user safety, AdWords policy will require all advertisers to use SSL when collecting payments and certain financial and personal information (like bank account and social security numbers).

For more details, check out the following resources:

• Specific personal and financial information governed by these policies
• Getting started with SSL

Here’s a great example from ABtests.com.  The landing pages are exactly the same, except example A features a man, example B a woman.  One got more than twice as many conversions (reducing the cost per lead by more than half).  Which one was the winner? 

Answer the 10 multi choice questions. Your answers and recommendations will be displayed as soon as you complete the quiz.  Learn how to implement these strategies (and many more) at the next Adwords Seminar we’re hosting in Dublin (April 25th 2012) & Cork (May 10th 2012) 

3 steps to eliminating unwanted clicks,

Google Adwords is simple… but it’s complicated too. While you could get an ad campaign started in less than half an hour, setting it up in the right way to get the right visitors at the right price is not so easy.

Get off to the right start with our professional account setup.

We’ll:

• Get to know your business
• Discuss your goals
• Research the Right Keywords for your business
• Schedule your ads using Day Parting
• Create effective ads
• Launch your campaign within 3 business days

Account Set Up fees start at €250 (once off), depending on the size of your campaign.  We also offer a management service, where we review and optimise your account on an ongoing basis.

For more details, please fill in your details below & we’ll contact shortly (usually within a few hours) . 

Google is a big fan of testing too.  They are constantly testing different variations of ad formats among small samples of searchers.

When they roll out changes to the general public (after testing), it’s because they KNOW the changes will get more visitors to click on their ads and the changes will add to their bottom line.
    
On February 3^rd 2011, Google announced that they have introduced new longer headlines for top placement ads – a move Google says will increase click-through-rates for advertisers.  They can say this with confidence because they’ve tested it.

Here’s what Google announced:

Google will change the placement of the first description line for certain ads that appear over Google’s organic search results.

“For some ads where each line appears to be a distinct sentence and ends in the proper punctuation, description line 1 will be moved to the headline and separated by a hyphen. As a result, some top placement ads will have longer headlines,” the company announced via Inside AdWords.

Here’s their before and after example:

Only some ads will be shown with the longer headline. Google advises you to make sure each line of your ad appears as a distinct sentence and ends in the proper punctuation (e.g., period, question mark).

After the announcement was made, I started some tests of my own – on campaigns I manage in a range of different industries.

The test has been running for a week now and so far it’s a resounding success. I’ve seen a big increase in click-through-rate (CTR) & visitor numbers and lower click costs.

Here’s what to take from this post:

1. Try the new longer headlines.  Because it’s a new feature, not too many people know about it. Now is the time to benefit from it before your competition do.

2. Testing is the key to online success. Small changes to your ads can turn a badly performing Adwords account into a winner.  Small changes to landing pages can rocket conversion. Small changes to email subject titles can double open rates. If you’re serious about your online business…test.