Nuts & Bolts: Four Strategies for Winning Top Spots in Google AdWords

Nuts & Bolts: Four Strategies for Winning Top Spots in Google AdWords

by Mark Smith Nuts & Bolts Quality Score

When Google announced changes to its search engine results page (SERP) earlier this year, marketers immediately began re-evaluating their digital advertising programs. Like highly trained athletes who were suddenly competing with a new set of rules, marketers wondered if they could learn and adjust to the new playing field fast enough.

The net effect of Google’s changes is there is now 30% less advertising opportunity on the SERP. As we said in a previous post, in any contest, who remembers the competitor who finished outside the top spots?

In this “Nuts & Bolts” post, we explain Google’s recent changes and how they affect your campaigns, then we look at four strategies you can use to capture a coveted top position or use other options to bolster your ad’s visibility.

View the slides below from our workshop. For a more in-depth discussion, read the MarketingProfs article “How to Win a Spot on the PPC Podium in the Olympics of Search,” and the posts in our blog series about Google AdWords.

Nuts & Bolts: How to Decide if Paid Video Search is Right for You

by Mark Smith Nuts & Bolts Video

Look at any article or blog post on “hot marketing trends for 2016” and you’ll see “video” at or near the top. Do you have a strategy for implementing paid video search in your marketing plan?

The latest post in our “Nuts & Bolts” series delves into the what, why and how of paid video, based on a recent workshop I presented. For example, Forrester estimates that one minute of video is worth 1.8 million words of text in terms of the message being communicated. Can you afford to miss out on that opportunity?

View the slides below from our workshop to learn if a paid video program is right for you right now. If not, discover how to discern when it is the right time. You’ll also get useful tips and links to help you begin – once the time is right. More importantly, you will get advice on how to measure your program’s effectiveness with techniques like attribution marketing.

Nuts & Bolts: Why Mobile is Important to Your Paid Search Strategy

by Kurt Anagnostopoulos Analytics Mobile Nuts & Bolts

In this installment of the “Nuts & Bolts” series, which digs into the nitty gritty of paid search, I want to share with you some valuable findings on the importance of mobile in your paid search strategy.

In a PPC Workshop I presented recently, I outlined five ways analytics makes paid search campaigns better. Further, I recapped the three-part series on mobile search that explained the driving forces behind the explosion of mobile search (and why it will continue to increase), what this means to marketers, and how this affects your paid search strategy.

Links for further reading and learning occur throughout the slides. And if you would like to share the workshop, we’ve posted to SlideShare for your convenience. Just click on the LinkedIn button or the file’s title to be immediately signed into the SlideShare site.

A Year of Analytics, Mobility and Video

by Mark Smith Analytics Mobile Nuts & Bolts Video

As we prepare to say farewell to 2015, we’d like to use this final FirstWord post of the year to say thanks to all the editors who published our articles. We focused on three major themes during the last 12 months – Analytics, Mobility and Video – and some of the finest digital marketing publications on the web were gracious enough to share our work.

Here are five of our favorites:

“Why Digital Marketing Analytics Is Important for Retail Sales” – a video interview with Eric Vidal, editor of The Marketing Scope

TargetMarketing“How to Use Analytics to Improve the Performance of Your Digital Marketing Campaigns” – from the Measurement & Metrics section of Target Marketing

MarketingProfs“Five Ways Google Analytics Turns You Into the Sherlock of Paid Search” – a column in MarketingProfs

“Before Shooting for Video Marketing Success, Learn to Hit a Moving (i.e., Mobile) Target” – featured in the Executive Briefing from biz

CMLogo“Think Before You Leap Into Paid Video Search” – from the Consumer Marketing channel of Chief Marketer

If any of these headlines catches our attention, practice the power of the click. Click on the links we’ve provided and visit these pages in support of the publications that support us.

Nuts & Bolts: Five Ways Analytics Make Paid Search Campaigns Better

by Mark Smith Analytics Nuts & Bolts

For the December installment of our “Nuts & Bolts” series, I’d like to share one of our Google Analytics Workshops. The presentation – “Five Ways Analytics Make Paid Search Campaigns Better” – has three key takeaways:

  • Analytics help you see beyond the obvious and discover truth of your paid search campaigns
  • Analytics go beyond counting website visitors to assessing prospective buyers
  • Learn 5 useful metrics provided by Google Analytics for evaluating paid-search campaigns

Links for further reading and learning occur throughout the slides. And if you would like to share the workshop, we’ve posted to SlideShare for your convenience. Just click on the LinkedIn button or the file’s title to be immediately signed into the SlideShare site.

Nuts & Bolts: Raising Google Quality Score

by Mark Smith Nuts & Bolts Quality Score Retail Analytics

Screen Shot 2015-11-17 at 5.50.49 PMFor our November installment of “Nuts & Bolts” post, I’d like to share our Google Quality Score Workshop from earlier this year. Following my recent 3-part series of posts focused on mobile search, I feel this topic follows theme, as retailers gear up for ecommerce during the holiday season. Raising your Quality Score is one technique for optimizing your spending for higher ad positions. Topics include improving your click-through rate, ensuring the relevancy of your ad copy, keywords and landing pages and building quality history.

Nuts & Bolts: Close Variant Matching

by Mark Smith Analytics Close Variant Matching Nuts & Bolts

horseshoe and handgrenadeEach month, we plan to post an installment to our blog that delves into the nitty gritty of paid search.

For our inaugural “Nuts & Bolts” post, I’d like to share our Google AdWords Workshop from earlier this year. Following my recent 3-part series of posts focused on analytics, I feel this topic follows theme. Managing issues such as Close Variant Matching is an excellent reason to plunge into web analytics, gain a better understanding of them and then apply them to sharpen the strategy and execution of your paid search campaigns.