Previously, we made it a best practice to segment campaigns based on different devices and locations. Now with Enhanced Campaigns, Google is going to force all devices and locations for keywords to be managed in 1 campaign, making for less overall campaigns.

For advertisers who don’t have mobile-optimized websites or ads, this is definitely the wakeup call they have been in need of. Search has been completely turned upside down with the growth in mobile device browsing. It is expected that by 2016, 75% of all internet searches will be on a mobile device and much of these searches will be with local intent. Google is anticipating this growth and making these changes to push advertisers to evolve with the times.

What Exactly Is Changing?

There are several changes happening in ALL Google Adwords Accounts. These updates mainly affect Search only (non-Display Advertising) campaigns. These changes will require account preparation to avoid undesired results. (See Below). The most significant changes are:

The Consolidation of Campaigns segmented for Devices, Locations, and Time of Day Served. Now these campaigns will be managed under a single campaign. The way in which ad spend for devices, locations, and scheduling will be controlled is by bidding a percentage higher or lower than the campaign/adgroup default bid. Here is an example used by Google:

Example: A breakfast cafe wants to reach people nearby searching for “coffee” or “breakfast” on a smartphone. Using bid adjustments, with three simple entries, they can bid 25% higher for people searching a half-mile away, 20% lower for searches after 11am, and 50% higher for searches on smartphones. These bid adjustments can apply to all ads and all keywords in one single campaign.

Ad Format Control or “Smart Ads” that will allow advertisers to display different ad text and sitelink extensions (or apps) without having to edit the various campaigns for possible combinations of devices, location, and time of day. Here is an example of this:

Example: A national retailer with both physical locations and a website can show ads with click-to-call and location extensions for people searching on their smartphones, while showing an ad for their e-commerce website to people searching on a PC — all within a single campaign.

Enhanced Call Reporting that comes from phone numbers in site extensions. Where we could before track only the phone call before, we can now set parameters around how long a call has to be before it is deemed a conversion.

Example: You can count phone calls of 60 seconds or longer that result from a click-to-call ad as a conversion in your AdWords reports, and compare them to other conversions like leads, sales and downloads.

The Good

Less Clicking In and Out of Campaigns to manage segmentation.

Designation of Mobile-Optimized Ads that Include Click-To-Call, Location, and other Sitelink or App extensions with the ability to bid higher or lower based on device type.

Location-Optimized Ads that Include Location Extensions with the ability to bid higher or lower based on location or distance from your location.

Day Parting Ads with the ability to bid higher or lower based on time of day your ads show.

Added Conversion Reporting and functionality primarily around phone calls that come from site extensions and digital downloads. Removal of Phone Fees for Call Reporting

Sure, we could get the above “enhancements” while maintaining separate campaigns. The picture Google is trying to paint is that: It’s good to have all these upgrades but the true long-term benefit is in them all working in a single integrated fashion with less moving parts.

What Are the Ramifications?

One of the biggest implications of Enhanced Campaigns is closure on the bid gap between desktop and mobile devices. Sure you will be able to bid down and have the control on mobile but it doesn’t mean you’ll get the same ROI you did before. Larry Kim from Wordstream made a statement that CEO, Larry Page from Google has publicly acknowledged his excitement toward an “improvement” in mobile CPC.

If you are performing in mobile ads but want to spend less (because you are not as efficient), you have to bid down by a percentage rather than directly controlling the budget. If you don’t want to run them at all, it’s easy. You just bid down 100%. But trying to control budget by decreasing percentages could prove tricky and exhausting.

Losing control of the budget allocation on mobile campaigns is of great concern. Losing control of budget on location-based campaigns is greater because more people have separate location campaigns than device campaigns or ad scheduled campaigns.

Another concern, according to Search Engine Land is that tablets are going to be lumped in with desktop data, removing the transparency of those searches. Those who have a real advantage or disadvantage on tablet based browsing will now be the ones missing out.

Some initial concerns from outside agencies and advertisers surround the Quality Score Issue though Google has reinforced that Historical Quality Score has always accounted for the device types and will continue to do so as those searches merge.

We don’t have a ton of insight yet on how Google is setting up these new campaigns. (We know there will be a sub-nav off the Campaign Settings tab for Locations, Ad Scheduling, and Devices.) Simplicity is one of Google’s selling points, though we are now faced with the challenge of managing multiple devices, locations, and ad scheduling in a single campaign.

Before we can do that effectively, we have to face the challenge of “merging and consolidating” multiple instances of keywords, ads, and ad groups into a single campaign. This actually rewards the advertisers who never took the time to segment campaigns. We are offering to help our clients with this if they need it.

When Is This Going To Happen?

In the next weeks, Enhanced Campaigns will be available through opt-in only means. There will be an option in Adwords to upgrade. At some time in June, advertisers are going to be forced into the merge. Those that haven’t done this voluntarily will probably see undesired results including disproportioned bidding and budgets, overlapping keywords, ad, and ad groups, improper location serving, and other consequences.

What Can We Do About It?

In the sense of asking how this could be avoided; it can’t. The most important things an advertiser can do are prepare for the changes ahead of time. Of course, we will be helping advertisers with this turbulent change. But if you insist on doing it yourself, there are some necessary resources you will need to familiarize yourself with.

Google has published a web page: Adwords Enhanced Campaigns. Here you will find some resources including this 32-page guide: Upgrading to Enhanced Campaigns.

There will also be a series of webinars in the upcoming weeks which we are looking forward to participating. This will be some of the first glimpse advertisers will see into how these new campaigns will operate.

Next week, our Agency Team is coming to Southern California and meeting with us to discuss the roll out in greater depth. If anyone has an interest in having our Google team look into your account, please let us know.

Authored by Peter Dulay

Collaboration with content writers is important to ensure you accomplish your SEO goals and bring your content strategies to life. Questions still remain:
• Does outsourcing your content needs make sense for your business?
• What type of content schedule should you devise and implement?
• What are creative ways SEOs are working together with content writers to ensure they’re in sync to produce the best content possible?

Now more than ever, it is important that companies have a good content marketing strategy that focuses on readership and engagement. We composed a few memes about producing content and what to think about before you just start writing. They are:
Hiring Content Writers
You can outsource your content needs by hiring an agency like TextBroker.com or you can have someone within your business take on the additional role of a content/copy writer. Small to large business globally are outsourcing their content needs in an effort to increase creativity and collaboration. Whatever the size of your organization, be sure you hire content creators who are passionate, creative and memorable.
Whether you employ writers or outsource your needs, it’s essential for SEOs to work closely with any new content writers on the team.
Creating Your Content Calendar
A content calendar is an essential piece of planning for your businesses content strategy. It will help your focus and structure the execution of you content marketing efforts.
Creating a predicable focus and theme throughout the week trains your visitors and subscribers to expect certain types of content.
Collaborating With Your Writers
Collaborating with content writers is the first thing you should do to ensure that your vision gets implemented. Leverage their expertise to achieve your goals.
Writing for Web
Writing for the web is different than traditional writing; articles must be very relevant, unique and engaging. The most important part of the article should be on top rather than the end, as in some traditional media.
Keywords vs. Content
The optimal way to achieve great rankings on Google is to produce content that is most relevant to users. The best way to create the most relevant content is to create specific unique topics of focus.
If your content is focused on a specific topic, keywords will naturally be present within your content and naturally help your ranking. Don’t over stuff your content with keywords and it will only serve to upset the search engines and your visitors. Keep your viewers’ experiences at the top of your concern and you’ll do great!
Share Reports
Better insight for your in-house and extended team will help determine whether your efforts were effective. The added transparency helps keep content writers more engaged and allows them to analyze and optimize their work.
Summary
If you follow all the aforementioned steps, you’ll be well on your way to bringing your content marketing strategies to life and reaping the benefits from your efforts.

Src: http://info.getcurata.com/rs/hivefire/images/Curata_B2BMarketingSurvey2011_Report.pdf
Do you use content marketing to enhance your business or brand?

The state of Adwords Advertiser Accounts have changed over the years where it was once very common to find an account without negative keywords and now it is rather uncommon. In time, advertisers have either become savvier to Adwords best practices or they have hired agencies to implement strategies.

But how far have they really evolved?

I can tell you for certain that the Google’s profit algorithm has evolved even further and is always 10 steps ahead of its advertisers. So my job is to make sure you guys are keeping up with the times.Search queries happen to be a major part of the account research we do here at our ppc management company. Looking at what people actually type into Google tells us a lot about the visitors you are attracting and what they are looking for. Routine search query analysis is a paramount component for many advertisers but we feel most have just gone part of the way to maximize its usefulness.

3 Things to Analyze with Search Queries

Irrelevant Queries-This is the area where we’ve actually seen progress from Adwords’ customers. They pull a [Search Term] report, look through it, and add negative keywords for any irrelevant searches. Easy enough.

Incorrect Adgroup-This is where we start to see major problems. Incorrect adgroups refer to when the search query is relevant to the business offering but not the specific adgroup it is in. When this happens, the visitor can sees the less targeted ad and; if clicked, is sent to the wrong landing pages.

Example: query=dark bold coffee when adgroup=light body coffee; you might sell them both but you want the dark bold queries to go to the dark bold page, not the light body page.

This error is commonly overlooked because when Adwords managers review the query list, they are looking for discrepancies in the query defined but not which adgroup it belonged to. Problems with incorrect adgroups lead to lower CTRs, lower quality scores, higher CPCs, higher bounce rates, higher conversion costs, etc. A process which guides traffic down the appropriate avenues will have a positive impact on the account.

General Queries-This is the easier fix but often a more dangerous culprit. General terms tend to have more volume, competition, and cost associated with the clicks. So when general terms are plagueing the account, they are often putting a big dent in the wallet.

General terms can describe your business offering in either an overly vague sense or a more general category sense. When queries are general, it helps to evaluate how general it is and if it should be considered a candidate for your keyword list.

Example: query=coffee beans when adgroup= light body coffee; you certainly sell coffee beans but maybe they want to see the entire coffee selection of light and dark body types.

When general queries go to specific landing pages, the visitor often mistakes that page for the entire product offering. They are more likely to bounce and have the same negative effects as incorrect adgroup discrepancies. They are actually one in the same.

Sometimes you find that a general query doesn’t refine the visitor to be qualified enough to be a good paying customer for you. In this case you don’t want your ads to show for general queries. For example, “coffee” by itself might be too general for your taste (pun intended) but you would like ads to show for “gourmet coffee” and “dark roast coffee.”  Negative exact matched keywords are in order for these. i.e. [coffee]