PPC managers over the years have always struggled with the right number of keywords to have in their accounts. Should you build out a big inventory of long tail keywords, or keep your campaigns neat and tidy, with fewer terms that account for most of the volume? Honestly, I’d say that most accounts I’ve seen, and indeed, many I’ve built over the years are much more complex and unwieldly than they need to be. In general, I’d argue that for most companies, AdWords accounts with smaller keyword inventories can perform just as well as accounts using larger keyword inventories, b [...]

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There are times you just want to increase your click-through rates. You might need to raise it to help Quality Scores, increase traffic, or gain visibility for a new product. Often by just raising click-through rates, you might not be raising your conversion rate. You can even decrease your conversion rates with ads. However, we’re going to focus on raising click-through rates regardless of how it affects other metrics. As always, you should be testing this for yourself to see what helps your overall account’s goals. Adding An Extension One of the easiest ways to increase click [...]

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Over the years, I’ve done a lot of work with form optimization. In this article, I’ll cover some tried and true form optimization tips. I’ve done most of my testing on the PPC side, but obviously, the information can also be used effectively to improve overall form conversions on websites. 1.  Include A Privacy Line In general, a privacy line below the form helps with overall conversions. Try something like “we respect your privacy” or “we do not provide information to third parties”. Other variables we’ve tested around the lead form do not increase conversions as much as th [...]

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There are plenty of good reasons to advertise on your brand name. Advertising on your brand allows you to: Control the message. The text of the message can be kept fresh, highlighting promotions, shipping cut-off dates, whatever makes sense for the brand. Direct traffic. Site-links provide an opportunity for users to navigate to the next page deeper rather than just the home page, thereby aiding conversions. Occupy real estate. Taking up more space on the SERP means less leakage to affiliates and competitors. Capture incremental traffic. In some cases, our research shows that paid [...]

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One of my New Year's resolutions for 2012 is to do a better job of documenting our mature PPC campaigns, so that any new manager coming in can take advantage of everything we've already tested and learned from over the years, rather than repeating the same tests and/or mistakes we've already lived through. The AdWords and AdCenter change history reports provide a great documentation trail, but they don't tell the whole story. While they do summarize what's been changed and when, they do not provide insight, or explain why any particular change was made. I can't tell you how many times I've [...]

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