Free Google AdWords Worth £30 for UK or Ireland - Is It Really FREE?

There is good news for new advertisers in UK and Ireland to take advantage of the trial £30 voucher of Google AdWords now. However, you need to carefully monitor your campaign that you set up using promotional AdWords coupon. Otherwise, you’ll be charged.

Actually £30 free coupon is in fact worth £25 (£30- £5 activation of AdWords account). If your account is less than 14 days, you can avail of this FREE AdWords coupon but not without caution. Read carefully the Terms & Conditions.

“If you do not wish to incur additional charges beyond the promotional credit then you should monitor your account and pause or delete your campaign before or once this amount has been reached.” .” Otherwise, you will be charged for any advertising charges that exceed the promotional credit.

Isn’t this really a good news for small business in UK and Ireland to try AdWords now? At least you are getting FREE from search giant :)

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Device Platform– A New Add on Feature in Google AdWords

At time when iphone and mobile are the popular means of surfing and browsing internet, Google seems to be catching with this trend by offering ‘Device Platform’ option for desktop & laptop and for iphone or mobile in AdWords. One of the AdWords account holders, as reported by a search engine watch forums, has got such option. Below is the screenshot for the same.

I have inquired with some of my colleagues if they have got such option of ‘Device Platform’ in their AdWords account; I have got mixed replies. However, I personally don’t see this option in my clients’ account yet many others do. This means that Google team is making this option available for a few, as of now, depending on their business models. Currently, this appears to be in BETA but soon we’ll have this option to gain more control over our advt.

A sweet gift for advertisers by Google on Thanksgiving Day!

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Why & When You Need to Turn On or Turn off Content Network in AdWords?

The highlight of this article is to understand:

• Why do you need to emphasize more on number of clicks
• How does advt impression affects your CTR?
• How to gain quality score?
• How can you increase CTR?
• How can you decrease impression to increase no of clicks for better CTR
• When & how can you turn on or turn off content network?

It’s worth knowing these all. So, take your time and read to manage an effective AdWords campaign

Case I: Assume the cost per conversion is $ 24.26 for both ad groups

CTR = No of clicks/Impression x 100

• A) 15/2300 x100 -----------------------Equation A

CTR =0.65 (Quality score will be good)

• B) 15/28000 x 100 -----------------------Equation B

CTR= 0.53 (Quality score will not be good)

Case II: Assume the cost per conversion is different

CTR =0.65 @ $ 35 per conversion

CTR =0.53 @ $ 30 per conversion

It looks as though Equation B is winner because it has lower cost of conversion but it’s not the case. Since equation A has good quality score though cost of conversion is high, it will continue to win the top slots @ lower CPC because CPC gets lower with the increase in CTR and vice versa. B campaign with lower CTR will likely to have higher CPC. Equation B has lower CTR though relatively lower cost of conversion but its CPC will continue to increase and hence conv. rate will eventually decline due to low CTR history. This indicates:

1. Higher Conversion @ low CTR will eventually increase CPC to reduce conversion
2. Lower Conversion @ higher CTR will eventually decrease CPC to increase conversion

Now you must have understood as why CTR is important in AdWords to gain Quality score. CTR is a simple calculation of no of clicks and impression. Equation B, as above, has higher impression while equation A has lower impression with the same no of clicks yet Equation A is winner due to higher CTR. Higher CTR is due to less number of impression compared to Equation B even though no of click is same. So, either you need to struggle for improving numerator or denominator. Increase in numerator will improve your CTR or lowering denominator will improve your CTR.

Which way you would like to go?

When it comes to enhancing no. of clicks, you can do by setting higher bid for competitive keywords with good contextual advt. It will cost you initially but will also help you gain top slots by gaining quality score since Google looks into the CTR and bidding history and then you lower bid and continue to monitor your ad performance. I have already written why are small business dying in adwords? Why setting high bidding initially and what small business can do to achieve higher CTR?

However, the precaution is - never ever engage in bidding war - it might be dangerous sometimes, I have also written a month's back.

On the other hand, when it comes to lowering impression, just turn off content network if it does not fetch good click. Otherwise, it will mere increase your impression and will impact negatively your CTR. However, if your ad is getting clicks from content network, you need to evaluate with two sets of advertisements.

1. One ad without content network
2. Other ad with content network

Compare CTR for both. If CTR is good for your ad with content network compared to without network, continue with this but if your ad does not get higher CTR with content network, turn off this. Generally, CTR in content network is lower while impression is high. However, I don't advise you to turn off content network at all. You need to evaluate the pros and cons.

When is it possible to turn off content network?

It’s all mathematics. When you see the rate of number of clicks is higher than the rate of number of impression, you can turn on content network because of good CTR. However when rate of impression (denominator) is higher in proportionate to the rate of no. of clicks, turn off content network to reduce impression and improve CTR.

Hope, this will work you guys... :)

All the best

Munaz

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Career Risk of SEO, SEM & Online Marketing –My Honest Analysis

While skimming through the Times of India yesterday, I had had glance at the article of contextual adv and its future prospects in India. This has inspired me to analyze the career prospects of SEO and SEM. I mathematically perceive SEO as a subset of SEM which is further a subset of e-marketing. To cut lengthy argument in short, I say any skill set within subset of circle is not good. Let me explain.

When there is scope to make a move around the full circle of e-marketing, why sticking to SEO or SEM? Of course, the narrower subset of your career you choose, the broader risk you carry and vice versa. The consistent struggle to make a move beyond the subsets definitely finds a scope to survive.

It’s true that job opportunities for SEO service particularly in India, Philippines, Malaysia and other developing countries abound these days. This is because many offshore SEO agencies in developed countries particularly in the US and UK outsource the service to these countries for cost advantage. Google Insight may further help you know the volume of search for keyword –SEO- a very high volume search in India. And this is due to aforementioned reason.

While searching on Google, -SEO Career, you’ll have a list of websites that covers this topic before and many of them have agreed that SEO would soon be a in-house job or at least people on web business would learn DIY basic SEO. I’ve liked the opinion of Zednetasia Career expert published on - Bright SEO Career Prospects Could Dim”.

I don’t discourage anyone seeking full fledge SEO career. Instead, I suggest all to broaden the career spectrum and move on to the next level.

SEO profession down the years may not be lucrative nor may plenty of job floats but one thing that I ensure is the continual recognition of online digital media as a powerful place for marketing. So, career prospect for online marketing (DIY SEO, Search Engine Advertising, Email Marketing, Online Advertising, Social Media Marketing, Live Chat Support, Webinar Promotions, etc.) and looks bright and rewarding too.

It’s true that online advertising in India is still at nascent stage while in other European and Western countries, it has already taken a deep root. The share of India’s online advertising in world pie is almost negligible. Some of the leading companies from this sector are HDFC, Citibank, SBI, and UTI etc. FMCG goods have just started to come in led by companies like Hindustan Lever, Procter and Gamble etc. FMCG accounted about 20% of total online advertisement spending in India. Consumer durables companies are also coming and accounted 15% of total online advertisement. Share of media sector is about 10% and rest comes from other. In India, most popular form of online advertising is banner advertising.

In fast bourgeoning economies like India and China; where Internet users are growing very rapidly, online marketing has a huge potential. India’s leading advertisers are starting to advertise online, but at a very slow pace. Indian companies are also showing keen interest in promoting their products or services online. Currently finance sector is most dominating in online advertising and accounted about 40% of total online advertising in India. According to reports from the Internet and Mobile Association of India, spend in online advertising stood at Rs 42 crore in 2003-04. Last fiscal, this figure shot up to Rs 107 crore and went up to Rs 162 crore at the close of the current fiscal, and to Rs 218 crore by the end of FY 2006-07.

Most Indian advertisers use the popular form of contextual advertising used by search engines to display ads on their search results pages or publisher network websites based on what word the users has searched for or the publishing website content.

Going by the above trends, I may sum up:

1. Don’t Restrict Your Knowledge Within SEO Subset
2. Consistently make effort to move on to next level of online marketing and reach the low risk zone

Good luck to SEO guys! :)

Munaz

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Google Chrome –Why SEO Is More Important Now Than Ever Before?

1. Why has SEO become more important now than ever with Chrome?

2. Why should you emphasize now on making website Chrome Compatibility and do Google Optimization?

3. Why pseudo SEO knowledge does not help companies manipulate rankings now?

4. Why marketers need to pay attentions to Chrome or ignore at their peril?

5. Why appropriate content wins while scarp will be thrown out of Google index?

Search engine optimization has become a critical need especially when Google Chrome is now launched. Yes, this browser suggests the top websites based on organic web ranking, CTR, unique and daily visits, etc. However, if your SEO efforts aren’t up to mark or fail to win the top slot on Organic Results Page in Google, the giant search engine will surely ignore you in the testing of their browser, too.

If Chrome attains huge success in the coming years, Google will test against your site - if you rank. SEO companies or online marketers need to pay heed to, or ignore at their peril.

If users think your site is worth to remember, Google Chrome will do it for them. No… you don’t need to bookmark, the next time you open the browser chrome will suggest what you have visited last time. Furthermore, if your site ranks for keywords on organic page, Chrome will suggest it in the browser itself. There is no need to use Google suggest.

Just have a look at the Chrome comic pics.

Google Chrome suggests that if you make your content remarkable, they’ll market it for free to their users directly in the OmniBox. However, time will only tell how this new browser does but marketers should start paying attention to this right now.

Google chrome, as a tool, will surely give huge statistics of human behaviors on website. Every move you make on the browser will be noted by Google. This also implies that analytics becomes more important than ever it was. Who knows, Google analytics might introduce a component of ‘chrome compatibility’ of your website. I analyze following points:

- How much time you spend on a web page

- What you click on or what not

- What parts of the page you read, browse or exit

- What you buy

Beyond doubt, millions of users must have installed this browser by now. With this, box checked and search will become semantic. Search compatible website with appropriate content will continue to find place in check box. Artificially or black hat SEO will soon droop its ranking while ethical SEO of website with good content will gain in rankings based on Chrome’s statistics.

It’s time for SEO or online marketers to pay attention to Chrome Now!

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Some People Are More Equal Than Others – GOOGLE

1. Is Google search engine’s algorithm biased towards some websites/blogs owned by Google employees? Yes
2. Does PR really depend on nth number of factors? No
3. Is Google biased in giving higher PR values to its top level employees’ website/blog? Yes
4. Why urchin.js is still continued by top Google person?
5. Why not Google top person did not switch to ga.js in his blog despite Google describing great features of ha.js analytics (the new analytics tracking code)? (Google Tracking code)

Yes these questions have crept into my mind when I have recently got a chance to go through Matt Cutts’s blog (http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/)

I’m surprised to find that his every blog page has Google PR 7. Just check by yourself. What is so special that Matt Cutts’ blog PR is equal to mashable.com, a popular blog on social networking theme? I cease to think that Mashable’s quality of news, opinion and content are of equal values as that of Matt Cutts’ personal blog. Not every webpage of mashable.com has PR =7 as you find in Matt Cutts’ blog.

You can also take any top website and compare with Matt Cutts’ blog interms of Google PR and you will end up with your understanding that Google prefers Matt Cutts’ blog to any other top blog/website. Based on the above observation, I continue to believe that Google is biased unless Matt Cutts himself explains this dichotomy to me?

SEO Analysis –Mashable.com and Matt Cutts’s blog

Link Analysis

4,340 (Matt Cutts)

7,420 (mashable)

Webpage Index

433,000 (mashable)

1,230 (Matt Cutts)

Estimated Traffic

Estimate 1,163,900 visits in the previous 30 days (Mashable)

Estimate 170,000 visits in the previous 30 days.(Matt Cutts)

After a quick glance, you’ll amazed at the facts that in terms of traffic, link, and page index, mashable.com stands at the top while Matt Cutts’ blog stands at lower ebb. Nevertheless, Matt Cutts’ maximum blog pages have PR 7 while mashable’s not.

I have no personal affiliation with mashable not grudge against Matt Cutts’ blog. You can compare any other top website or blog with Matt Cutts and more you’ll find the same results. The best tool is either Google Insight or Google trends whichever you use.

My First Conclusion

This analysis has made me believe that Google’s algorithm is not automated but it can be manipulated

Further if you view the source code of Matt Cutts’s blog, you’ll find that his blog has old tracking Google Analytics Code. Just have a look at the following screen shot.

Well its his personal choice whether he implements old version or new tracking analytics code. Right?

If this is true then why Google suggests to implement new version tracking code for additional features. Does Matt Cutts don’t want additional features despite the fact that Google says “urchin.js will continue to function for at least a year after the new version is released, and possibly longer.” It means Google may scarp old version tracking code after some days, months or years. Matt Cutts might not know this….is he really? Or web analytics hardly matters for Matt Cutts? If this is true, Avinash Kaushik must be hurt. :)

While Google offers whole lot of suggestions on DIY SEO for one’s own website for Google ranking and holds a favorable opinion on new tracking Google Analytics code, why Matt Cutts fails to obey this? Is this a mere coincidence or something else?

Second Conclusion

If Matt Cutts is the role model for many guys and many SEO companies approach to know his personal opinion, why he himself forgets to implement new version Analytics code in his blog? Is web analytics no more important to him or he is not aware of additional benefits (features) that Google Analytics 2.0 claims?

Nevertheless, his blog gets higher preference than others (for example mashable.com). This reminds me of George Orwell’ novel -Some animals are more equal than others. In Google’s single sovereignty, this means some people are more equal than others. If Google PR is judged how important an employee of Google is, then ‘o guys’ first build your name and then use your brand name to blog. Google will look more of a brand name of yours than brand visibility and popularity of your website.

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Why Are Small Business Dying in AdWords? Any Solution?

Q1: How hard it is to go from $100 a day spend on adwords to $500 a day and be profitable?

Q2: Despite studying hard, you still think most of your AdWords advertising is insanely over-priced. Is Google ripping you off?

Q3:How can you improve my performance in Google Adwords while spending less money…?

Q4:Every time someone enters a search query, there is only room for 10 sponsored ads on the first page. Which ads are they going to see? And what position is your ad going to show up in?

Q5:Would I be wrong to say that increasingly it’s the big brands that dominate search results? I don’t think so?

Q6:Do you think that you will see any small businesses showing up on the first page of Google’s sponsored links? Let me tell you right now you won’t. Why? Because they have already been squeezed out by the big brands.

Q7:Think about what this means for your business. How long do you have before the big brands start bidding on your keywords and squeeze you out of the market? What are you going to do when they come rolling in?

If you don’t believe me, just look at the search query result for “Internet Marketing’.Can you afford to win the top slot position on Google at affordable bidding price? Never! Unless you bid high which is STILL not possible for many smaller companies because budget is constraint.

Survival of the Best Fittest!

Big fish eats small. This is true when small busiess gets ready to win the battle with a list of weaponry keywords only to find their agony.

These days, AdWords is far too big an opportunity to ignore and everyone wants to get a piece of it for themselves. But… the supply of resources has not changed. Let me show you a small piece of the picture.

Courtesy: Michael Reining and MindValley Labs

Remember… this is just a small… in fact a very miniscule part of the picture. Just think about what your niche looks like. How many businesses are you going to be fighting with to get the keywords you want – the resources you need – over the following year… or just over the next few months to come?

Unfortunately for you, this isn’t the only problem you face. As in any other business terrain, the law of supply and demand has been pushing up prices since 2001. While the supply (search queries on Google) has grown, the growth in demand (advertisers wanting to bid on the keyword) has far outpaced the growth in supply with the predictable outcome of rapidly pushing up prices.

Whenever supply exceeds demand, the price will go down.

What does all this mean to you?

It means the keywords that you most likely want are constantly getting more expensive. So now… not only does every other kid on the block run into the candy store… but the price of the most yummiest candy has shot up.

In order to protect Small business from being washed out, Google is consistently changing its adwords algorithm. Introduction of Quality Score is one of the steps that Google use to allure small businesses.

Quality Score = CTR X Bidding Price

This is what I believe the formula of Quality Score though Google AdWords claims to look into other factors as well.

The SINGLE most important factor is to earn a high CTR and the single biggest driver of a high CTR is your ad posit ion…, which initially you can only obtain by bidding high.

Solutions for Small Business

Attain High CTR by bidding high for very specific keywords related to your business. In my previous article I have written why its dangerous for small business to engage in bidding war. Now I suggest them to increase the bid in a way that ensures high CTR during initial phase and then lower the bid once their good CTR history (that Google looks into) is built to continually gain the same slots on Google Sponsored Links Page.

Once you gain good CTR history that Google looks into, try to lower the bid to still enjoy the top slots but Remember, be volatile, mobile and dynamic. You need to constantly refine, redefine, and redesign. Unfortunately, its’ a never ending battle for small business. One who has stamina to continuously fight with big players in adwords market, they are ultimate WINNERS!

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Keyword Bidding Strategies-Google AdWords

• How does AdWords Keyword Bidding Strategies Work?
• Why Google charges less than you bid for a keyword?
• What does the following answer by Google mean to you?

“The AdWords Discounter monitors your competition and automatically reduces your actual CPC so you pay the lowest price possible for your ad's position on the page.” Google Answer

The answer to the above question is -Vickrey Auction.

What is Vickrey Auction?

A Vickrey Auction is where the highest bidder wins - but he/she only pays the second highest bidding price. Now Read carefully the above message by Google Answer.

Yes, the above message verifies that AdWords follows Viekrey Auction or Sealed-bid auction or second-price auction.

Advertiser B's bid = $15
Advertiser C's bid = $12
Advertiser D's bid = $10

If there are 3 ad spots in this auction, then the ad spots will be assigned to the top 3 bidders: you, Advertiser B and Advertiser C. The value of the ad is figured as the value displaced by your participation, which in this case is Advertiser D's bid. You therefore pay $10 for the ad spot. Advertisers B and C will also each pay $10 for their ad spots.

If you wanted 2 of the 3 ad spots, your bid would be $18 x 2 = $36. You'd be displacing Advertiser C as well as Advertiser D, so the value displaced would be:

Advertiser C's bid = $12
Advertiser D's bid = $10

You'd pay $22 for both ad spots - much lower than the $36 you were willing to spend.

The important thing to remember is: bid what you're willing to pay. You'll never be surprised by ad spots that go over your maximum CPM, and our system will figure discounts when possible as a result of the auction. (Source: AdWords Google Support)

If you participate in a Vickrey Auction, you can safely bid the maximum price that makes sense to you in the knowledge that if you win, you will pay less than this. If everyone understands this, they will all bid the maximum they can afford and the seller does very nicely. Furthermore, no one ends up paying more than they can afford.

If budget is not a problem, one can go ahead with this strategies to win the slot but it carries high risk of losing huge chunk of money. However, it also might help you win the top slot on Google Paid Search listing at lower CPC next to the bid set by your competitor.

I strongly suggest for small business or advertisers with low budget not to engage in Bidding War, as explained above.

Why it can be dangerous to bid high?

Google uses a variation on the Vickrey Auction model to determine how much you pay when your ad is clicked. Let's look at the situation when three people again are bidding.

A bids $1.20
B bids $2.50
C bids $1.21

B wins the bid, but Google sets the price paid at 1 cent ABOVE the next highest price. In this case then B has to pay $1.22 for the click. This is well below the price he bid.

Now it may be that B simply set his price high because he thought that $2.50 would guarantee top slot and that everyone else would be bidding much lower which in this case was true.

But suppose C also adopted the same philosophy and bid $2.30 instead of $1.21.

A bids $1.20
B bids $2.50
C bids $2.30

In this case, B would still win - but would have to pay $2.31 for the click this time.

This shows why it is dangerous to bid too high just to achieve a high ranking. You can't always assume you will pay much less than your maximum bid price.

2 Additional Google Twists

Just to make the process more complex, Google adds a couple of twists to this process too.

In the above examples, we talk about bid prices measured in dollars and cents. In practice, Google uses a different "currency". Let's call it your bidding power.

Your bidding power is equal to your bidding price multiplied by your ads popularity for the relevant keyword. What this means is that your bidding power doubles if you run ads that achieve twice the click through rate of competitor ads for a given keyword even if you are bidding exactly the same amount of money per click.

Example:

Bid price $2.12
CTR 2%
Bidding power = 414

Bid price $2.12
CTR 1%
Bidding power = 212

When you bid in Google's real time auction for an ad, it is your Bidding Power and not simply your bidding price that determines where your ad will rank.

If you get a high CTR, you can still have a higher Bidding Power than your competitor who is bidding a higher price than you. This is why it pays to have ads that get the clicks.

How this fits with the Vickrey Auction

The model is the same as the dollar-only model we first discussed but this time, instead of costing you dollars and cents per click, you get charged an amount of Bidding Power.

Example

A bids 400 Bidding Power Units
B bids 300 Bidding Power Units
C bids 349 Bidding Power Units

A wins the bid but pays only 350 Bidding Power Units. (1 more than the 2nd highest bidders bid of 349)

Google charges A in dollars and cents so how much does he pay?

The answer depends on his Click Through Rate. If he has a CTR of 1% he will pay $3.50 because 350 x 1 = 350.

On the other hand, if he is achieving a CTR of 5% (which is what top performing ads can achieve), he will pay 70 cents (70 x 5 = 350)

The second complexity that Google adds to this system is that a similar process goes on for each bidder in order to determine the final order in which ads appear.

Finally don't forget that the click through rate you achieve for each keyword will depend in part on the ad that gets displayed for the keyword. You need to maximize this and the best way to do this is to run several ads at a time and see which ones generate the highest click through rates.

Part of the process of managing your account is to delete poor performing ads and create ads that beat your best performing ad to date.

Key learning points

1. Treat your Click Through Rate at least as importantly as your Maximum Cost Per Click price.
   
2. Don't over bid for keywords unless you are sure no one else is doing the same.

Courtesy: FactsAboutAdsense

Thoughts Aside

Clear Microsoft 70-290 and 70-640 at first attempt guaranteed. Know about Cisco 640-863 CCDA certification and latest CISCO 350-001 CCIE routing and switching certification. Download free demo for CompTIA 220-602 security certification.

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