What type of Keywords to bid on:

For starters, you have three basic keyword searches that you can use.  A broad match, a phrase match and an exact match.  Say you bid on the keyword  “leather jacket” .  If you go with a broad match, anything that Google thinks is relevant will show up.  So while you are bidding on leather jacket, you could be showing under bath robe or apron.  Broad match gives you a ton of impressions but a poor CTR (more on that later) and a lot of garbage clicks in my opinion.  When I first started out, I had every keyword in our account on broad match.  It is almost impossible to get a good gauge on what your account and your consumers are really doing since you don’t actually know what the keyword they clicked on.  Whenever you go to set up an Ad words account or a new ad group, the default setting is broad match.  Ultimately, the one who benefits the most from this is Google themselves as more clicks mean more revenue for them.  Please don’t think I am knocking Google, I have the utmost respect for them as a company.  But they need to make money just like the rest of us and are going to set up this program to be beneficial to them first.  So what I did next was go from one extreme to another and switched all our keywords to an exact match.  You do this by actually adding brackets like [this] around the keyword.  This tells Google that you are only bidding on that exact match term.  This has its advantages.  You eliminate a ton of garbage clicks.  Your CTR (Click through Rate) will go up, which can help with what you are actually charged per click.  However, you are also missing a lot of potential clicks.  Let’s say you are bidding on Leather Jacket with an exact match.  Here are some terms you could be missing out on:  Black Leather Jacket, Cool Looking Leather Jacket, buy leather jacket.  You get the point.  When I switched everything over to exact match, there were some benefits but ultimately our traffic went down.  So what to do?  Enter Phrase match.  Phrase match is activated when you put quotations like “this” around a word.  Now let’s search the term “leather jacket”.  All the examples I gave earlier would be trigged because the phrase Leather Jacket is part of the search.  But it must have that phrase in it to be triggered.  Hence eliminating Google taking liberty with your keyword and showing whatever they think is relevant.   My current setup is about 95% phrase match with some broad and exact matches sprinkled in.  If you would like to know more about when to use those, just drop me a line and I would be happy to discuss that with you. 

What are some good measuring sticks of success?

I have had a lot of different answers to this question and am just going to share my basic experience on what I go after.  I am going to assume you are selling on your site and tracking conversions. 

So let’s take a basic account and look for some metrics.  Campaign A sells widgets.  Its daily budget is $50 a day.  In this campaign we have 25 ad groups that average 20 keywords each.  (Try not to let your keywords exceed 30 per ad group as this starts to confuse the Google machine)

At the end of two weeks this is how your stats look:

Campaign Name              Budget                 Clicks    Imp        CTR        Avg CPC   Cost   Conv Rate           Convs

Campaign A                        $50/day                243         16307    1.49%    $.29        $70.61   .41%                      1

Some people will tell you that a 1% Click through Rate is good (in fact, Google themselves told me this) I don’t buy it.  If you are only reaching 1% of the searches, that is unacceptable.  I want my campaigns to have at least a 3% CTR.  That’s low end and I have many that are well above 10% on the CTR.  So what to do about that.  Well there are several things that you can check for:

·         Is there one really broad keyword that is affecting my overall performance. 

·         Am I bidding high enough on certain keywords.  Looking at this example, I would be quick to look at that as .29 cents is great but you may need to push it up to gain better visibility

·         Do my ads make me want to click them?  Do a search of some terms and compare how your ads look to your competitors. What is good about theirs that yours is missing?  Fix it , Re-write it and always, always have at least two or three ads running so A/B test.

·         Do I have the content network turned on?  If so, turn it off and start a new campaign for just the content network on its own.  Never run them together.

How about a conversion rate of .41%, is that good?  Well it depends on your site, but the quick answer is NO, that is not good.  You should have at least a 1% conversion rate.  What to do about that.  Well lets assume your website is laid out well and you are priced competitively.  You cant fix web errors with Ad words.  Assuming that is all good, then check these things:

·         What page am I bringing them in to.  Consumers don’t want to have to work to find what they want.  If they searched Widget, bring them in to the widget page not your home page

·         Is my term I am bidding on pertinent to what the consumer wants.  IF I typed in Red, electric widget, then bring me in to that page that sells Red, electric widgets.  Or a term like free widgets.  Perhaps I should not be bidding on this term since its likely this person is not looking to buy.

So lets say we optimize this campaign and look at some of these factors.  Here is how I would want it to look in a few weeks:

Campaign Name              Budget                 Clicks    Imp        CTR        Avg CPC   Cost   Conv Rate           Convs

Campaign A                        $50/day                208         3902       5.33%    $.30        $61.41   1.44%                    3

So that’s some basic Ad words 101.  Some other random thoughts that you might want to look into:

·         You can adjust your bidding by times of day or days of week

·         You can turn your bidding off during hours that don’t perform well and set when it comes back on

·         Look into Keyword Substitution Ads for better CTR

·         Be wary of programs that claim they can monitor your competition. 

·         Use Vanity Display URLs in your ads..I.E  www.mysite.com/widget

Ok, enough of this, I would love to hear any best practices that you have had.  If you have any questions, drop me a line.

Jeff V

Up close at the MN Zoo

We started in the Ocean exhibit.  All kinds of fish, shells, coral something or other and sharks.  They have pools that allow you to actually touch a shark.  I would have done this but my overall desire not to have my hand bitten off would not leave.  Nor would this irrational fear leave as I watched a bunch of 4 year olds “pet” the sharks.   You can touch starfish, shells and other sea life as well as watch many creatures in smaller aquariums.  However the big attraction is the dolphins.  The underwater viewing tanks were empty so we wondered up stairs to another viewing area.  However this was locked.  So no dolphins!  Not so fast. My son the cat burglar in training was somehow able to pick the lock. Upon entering the upstairs viewing area, we were treated to a unbelievable show of two dolphins playing, jumping and making that dolphin sound they do.  Excellent start to the visit. 

Next up was the Jungle.  Flamingos, turtles, snakes and such.  You walk around a hot, humid jungle and get to see all these animals in what look to be very natural and comfortable environments.  I am going to be honest.  While I am sure this is a very good exhibit, I was anxious to get out of there and go see Bears and tigers.  So we whipped throughthis.  Oh, at one point a some big bird escaped and was right on the walk way.  We made it out alive.  Next up is the Minnesota trail.  This one was way better than I was expecting.  Wolves, Mountain Lions and the like.  They have a stamp card that helps keep the kids interested and again, just an amazing cages that make you feel like you are right in the wild with them.  The MN zoo also has very knowledgeable volunteers walking around who can answer any questions you might have.  Really cool exhibit and Im glad my wife insisted we go.  On to the Tigers….

So we walked to the other side of the park and hit the tiger cage.  This is a very large cage and it is very easy for the tiger to blend in and hide.  When we first got here, we felt like those people in Jurasic Park on the tour, when they are all despondent cause no animals would show themselves.  However, luck was on our side and soon spotted a tiger hiding in the bushes.  More than that, he spotted us and procedded to start a slow walk straight for us.  Its an amazing feeling to stand there and watch a grown tiger walk straight at you.  He came up to the glass looked and then kept on his way.  Nothing could top this. I was wrong.

The Grizzly Bear Cage.  A full glass wall that allows you a great view into the bears area as well as the fully stocked “pond” where the bear can fish

You really get a close look at bears at the MN zoo (and a appreciation for thick glass)

Thats a bad picture but you get the idea.  This Bear came down to fish and then stayed and showed off for the crowd. 

A beautiful day with a great ending.  All in all, the Minnesota Zoo was well worth the money and a great afternoon.  While they did close at 6, no one came to rush us off so we strolled around for another 1/2 hour before we left.  Looking for a great way to spend the day and love animals?  Then the Minnesota Zoo is for you.

So this morning, I wanted to let you all know my thoughts on a product I had the chance to use this weekend. The Sportz Truck Tailgate Tent from Napier. Now before we begin, I need to let you know that I am not much of a camper. In fact, I borrowed almost everything that I took with me. A fun filled weekend in the woods of Minnesota was my goal. A group I belong to was hosting this weekend and there was about 75 at the lake.

First things first, everyone had to come by and check out this tent. If you are the type of truck owner that likes attention, then this tent will certainly serve that purpose. So I arrive on Saturday morning with enough snacks to spend a month out there if need be and start setting up camp.

First observation: If you are going to use the Sportz tent, make sure you are parked on even terrain or one that slightly elevates the tailgate upward. Once the tent is set up, you will not be able to move your vehicle so, pick a good spot. Next the set up. I was actually pretty impressed with the instructions. The only problem I encounter was at one point, it told me to insert the gray bar through the top. When I looked down, I had three gray bars all of different length. I guessed and grabbed one. I still don’t know if I grabbed the right one but the tent stayed up all night. It took me about 20 minutes to set up but if I was to go out again, I would say I could do that in half the time. Second Observation: The tent is taller than you might think. I’m 6.2 and could actually stand in the bed while being slightly crouched over. Once the tent is set up, you have a nice little area all right in the back of your vehicle. This part was really nice. I left a lot of my gear in the cab of the truck and everything was right there. The one thing that does take some getting used to is entry and exit. Let me put that another way, you really want to remember you are elevated if you wake up in the middle of the night and need to go back outside.

With an air mattress in the bed of the truck, I was quite comfortable. Overall, I found this to be a neat product. Tear down was especially easy as you don’t have as many stakes to contend with. For me personally, I liked that I was up of the ground. No concerns about rain or rocks that are right under my back. I also enjoyed the fact that I was sleeping within my truck bed. Having a solid structure around brought a sense of security that I would not get with a normal tent. Had any experience with a Sprotz tent? Let’s hear your thoughts.