Top Movers Adwords Report

Google launched last week that they had rolled out a top movers report. This report, at campaign level, shows the top moving clicks and costs each week.

The report shows the following:

• Topline increases and decreases in clicks and costs for all campaigns
• Top increases in costs -> Showing changes in average position, clicks, average CPC, impressions and clicks
• Top decreases in costs -> Showing changes in average position, clicks, average CPC, impressions and clicks

The great thing about this report is it highlights some of the possible reasons why the changes have occurred. Be that a change in bids, keywords deleted or new ads introduced. I would expect this report will become part of the Monday morning ritual to check what is driving a change in costs or clicks over a certain time period.

The report can be found in the campaign tab -> Dimensions tab -> Top movers

Is this a report you’ll now be looking at regularly?

Laura

A Guide To Search Query Reports (SQR’s) On Adwords

Google Adwords’ Search Query Reports, commonly known as SQR’s, are one of the most important reports to look at as PPC marketer. Here is a little guide on why they are useful, what you can (and should) do with them and how often to look at them.

What is a Search Query Report?

So you have keywords on different match types in your Adwords accounts (Phrase, Exact, Broad, Broad Match Modifier) which make your ads appear on all sorts of keywords, some that you want and some that you don’t. SQR’s show you exactly what search terms people are getting to your site from.

Where Do I Find The Search Query Report?

You can view of download the search query report if you go to a keyword report, then click on the details drop down and select the search terms report (either selected or all keywords).

Why Is It So Useful? 

• Prevents spending on keywords you wouldn’t want your add to be shown
• Gives you an awareness of your potential customers search habits and behaviours
• Allows you to reassess the keywords you target and the overall structure of your account
• Identify which search terms are performing on all metrics – CTR, CVR, cost per lead/cost per acquisition

What To Take From a Search Query Report?

• Keywords to add into your account

What is the benefit of adding keywords into the account that are already triggering clicks to your site? This is something which seems to baffle some people, but the main benefit is that you can then treat this search term as an individual keyword. By doing this you’ll be able to:

– Bid separately (different CPC’s) – This could ultimately reduce your costs and efficiency

– View data on the individual keyword rather than a group of keywords

• Identify negative keywords to add

Don’t sell a certain product? Out of stock on a certain type of product? Don’t want your ad showing against people searching for scams? Then add them as negatives. Go through your search queries to establish what isn’t bring in quality traffic and refine your negatives.

How Often Should You Look At Yours?

There’s no hard and fast rules about how often you should look at them, but for me the more the better. I schedule time every week to review SQR’s for clients.

Make sure you don’t forget by scheduling a report and get it emailed to you through Google!

So, there you have it a very brief guide to Adwords’ Search Query Reports. Comments and feedback welcome as always 🙂

Is This The End of Vine? Instagram Vs Vine

Last week Instagram launched a video feature to its existing, successful photo sharing service. In just one day an impressive 5 million videos were uploaded. Vine was once known as ‘Instagram for video’ but now you can do exactly what you can on Vine, as well as upload photos and put nice, pretty little effects, so where does this leave Vine?! Is it the end? Maybe a little too early to write it off, just look how much Twitter has grown in the last few years (Vine is owned by Twitter).

Let’s take a further look at the two:

Instagram Vs Vine

Instagram                                                                                                Vine

– 6.5 second videos                                                                                  – Up to 15 seconds video

– Social sharing  – Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Email              – Social sharing – Twitter, Facebook

– 130 Million Users                                                                               – 13 million downloads since January

– 16 billion photos                                                                                  – 0 photos

– Owned by Facebook                                                                          – Owned by Twitter

– 1 billion likes per day

On paper it looks like Instagram would win hands down, but let’s remember how relatively new Vine is. On a personal note, the novelty of Vine wore of pretty quickly for me and now if I had videos to record I’ll be doing it through Instagram so my pictures and videos are in the same place. From a business perspective, I don’t think anyone has really cottoned on to the commercial benefit of using either.

What you think, is it the end of Vine?

Related articles

• Instagram video is already hurting Vine (bgr.com)
• Vine vs. Instagram Video (features.en.softonic.com)
• Instagram, the next Vine? (socialmediaclub.org)
• The new Instagram video and the differences with Vine (ivarsmore.wordpress.com)
• Vine Use On Twitter Almost Doubled In Last 2 Months (simplyzesty.com)

Laura

What Do Your Search Query Reports Say About You?!

Search Query Reports (SQR) in Google Adwords can (and should) completely shape your PPC activity. Ever wondered why one of your keywords on a phrase or broad match isn’t giving you a good clickthrough or conversion rate? Search Query Reports tell you everything you need to know. Your SQR’s can say a few different things:

1 – You Need to Review Your SQR’s More Regularly

By having keywords on phrase and broad (I personally think broad terms should be only used on Branded terms) matches, there are all types of keywords that your ads will trigger for. Some of them will be the right type of keywords, but others really won’t. If you’ve got lots of keywords that you think s*it we shouldn’t be appearing for that, then you need to look at SQR’s on a more regular basis. Place negative keywords against:

• Products you don’t sell
• Anything that would make your brand look bad appearing against, such as ‘scams’, ‘worst place to buy xx’
• Things showing in the wrong ad groups – i.e a competitor term might come up on a phrase match in one ad groups, but you have an ad group just for competitor terms – so place it as a negative in this ad group so it shows in the ad group which will have the best ad copy/landing page (see point 3)

2 – You Should Add More Keywords & Restructure Your Ad Groups

A Search Query Report isn’t the best way to find new keywords, mainly because it only shows keywords that have triggered impressions and clicks. But one of the things you should do with your Search Query Reports is to add any search terms you don’t have as keywords. There are many benefits of doing this – separate bids for keywords, ability to review the keyword individually and limit the amount of keywords you have on phrase match.

The more keywords you do add though, the more of a need there is to tightly group your keywords. Restructuring your ad groups with just a few related keywords allows you to tailor ad copy, link to relevant landing pages which in turn improves clickthrough rate (quality score) and conversion rates.

Search Engine Marketing News May 2013

Another month has flown by and it’s been a busy-ish month in the world of SEM. With no major updates around Enhanced Campaigns and Adwords in general, the main news has been about the return of a well known animal…

Penguin Is Back With A Vengeance!

Penguin 2.0 was released late May as Google’s latest update to fight against spam. This 4th update attempts to prevent spammy, low authority websites gaining positions in the SERP’s. Matt Cutts, head of web spam at Google has said that 2.3% of English queries would be affected by this update.

Google Conversational Search Live on Chrome

So voice recognition technology giving responses isn’t a new concept. Apple have been doing it with ‘Siri’ for a while now but after having a play around on both I’d say Google’s works surprisingly well. If you have the new version of Chrome, you can click on the microphone button and ask a question which Google will respond both verbally and in the search results.

There are some flaws with the voice recognition which can only be anticipated but the opportunity for search is huge and on the whole is pretty well constructed.

Google Author Authority Algorithm Launched

Further to the Penguin updates and Google’s bid to penalize spammy sites and reward quality content, more and more emphasis is being placed on industry authority figures. Google stated this month that they are working on an algorithm to determine subject authorities across the web.

Matt Cutts said – “We are doing a doing a better job of detecting when someone is sort of an authority in a specific space. It could be medical, it could be travel, whatever. And trying to makes sure that those rank a little more highly, if you are some sort of authority or a site that according to the algorithms we think might be a little bit more appropriate for users.”

Adwords Editor Update 10.1

Adwords Editor 10.1 was available this month with changes made to make it easier to make changes within Enhanced Campaigns. The main changes were to:

• Set bid adjustments for placements, topics, and audiences.
• Set mobile bid adjustments at the ad group level.
• Upgrade campaigns in bulk using CSV import or the Add/update multiple campaigns tool.
• Use the new ValueTrack {ifmobile}, {ifnotmobile} parameters.

Google Testing Ads in Google Maps

Google announced that they are testing ads within Google Maps. An pretty unsurprising move from Google which had been expected. Haven’t yet seen this in action but Google are testing search ads with and without location extensions on the map and below the search box. There is huge potential for local businesses around this so I guess watch this space!

• Search ads with location extensions can appear directly on the map and just below the search box
• Search ads without location extensions can appear just below the search box

Laura