Google AdWords Strategies: Placement & Keyword Targeting
Posted by adam on August 19, 2008 at 10:12 AM
Last month Google began allowing the option of combining placement targeting and keyword targeting in the same AdWords campaign. Agencies are always thrilled when we're given greater control over where, when, and how our clients' ads are placed, especially on content networks.
When placement targeting rolled out over a year ago we were excited to be able to serve ads on specific sites matching our own targeting criterion, which is much more targeted than advertising on the entire Google content network.
I see these new options taking the targeting of Google's network to a whole new level.
Campaign Settings
Before you get started, make sure you fully review your campaign settings before you launch any new campaign. Poorly set up campaigns is the easiest way to fail in AdWords.
How it Works
By using placement targeting without keywords your ad can appear on any page of a particular website. If your ads are relevant to all pages of the site, then there's no need for further targeting refinement - adding keywords to the placement targeting campaign won't be necessary.
Adding keywords to your placement targeting campaign will be beneficial when you want to advertise on large sites featuring multiple topics, such as Kaboodle.com. This product review site shares reviews on many consumer products, so if you're selling Zebra brand printer repair services, you wouldn't want your ad showing up next to reviews for zebra print slap bracelets (see the middle ad below).
To prevent paying for unqualified traffic, test adding keywords that describe the product/service you wish to promote or keywords that describe the pages of the site you'd like to advertise on.
Concluding Notes
I personally have several strategies in mind for a variety of business models that I'll be testing in the coming months. I truly believe that with continued testing and a trained eye for SEM strategy, these new options have the potential of taking conversion rates on contextually targeted ads to new heights.
Happy bidding!
Go Go Google Phone
Posted by nick on August 18, 2008 at 09:42 AM
It looks like Google's venture into the world of mobile platforms is set for a 2008 public debut, and wouldn't you know it, just in time for the holiday season.
According to recent reports, the first handset to use the open Android platform from Google should be available to the public before the end of the year.
This mobile device, the HTC Dream, is supposedly going to launch on T-mobile's network and could be on the market as early as October or November. That should give holiday shoppers enough time to scoop up a few of these babies. I can see the lines forming around Best Buy already.
Does this mean the iPhone will finally have some solid competition? With a phone from HTC and platform from Google, I'm sure some people are thinking they could give Apple a run for its money. That is, if all the kinks are worked out by then.
Along with a bevy of blurry spy photos of the device and even blurrier video demonstrations, reports have surfaced from those who've had a chance to test out this new Google phone and they're not all good. The verdict seems to be that the actual device is bulkier than the iPhone, and its interface is less user-friendly.
Even if these problematic reports are indeed true, I wouldn't worry much. I mean, this is Google we're talking about here.
I'm just hoping that some of that Google magic will rub off on those wireless networks and help carriers finally provide a phone that can actually make clear, uninterrupted calls. I have yet to use a mobile phone that can do so. Sure, the Android platform has all sorts of nifty extras like GPS, internet access, and media support for audio, video and images, but in my experience all those features seem to be a distraction from the fact that you can't understand the person talking on the other end of the line.
Of course, I still can't seem to master the call waiting function on my cell phone, so maybe I'm not the best person to judge a new mobile device before it's released. I'm just interested to see if the Android platform can dispel all the rumors and influence mobile as much as Google has impacted the search world.
Tags
Google Android
HTC Dream
Oneupweb
Search Engines Compete for Olympic Audience
Posted by alex on August 15, 2008 at 10:39 AM
The Olympics are here again - the age old tradition of torch lighting and athletes competing for the gold. But athletes aren't the only ones competing anymore. Search engines are battling it out to see who can point searchers to the best coverage, the most in-depth information, and the most recent video of the Olympic games in action.
I decided to take a look at what exactly Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask are serving up to Olympic searchers, and determine which search engine gets the gold. Let the games begin!
Ask
When searching for Olympics on Ask, the first result is the official Beijing 2008 Olympics website. Included beneath this link is a helpful drop-down list where you can refine your search by sport. From this list select a sport, such as beach volleyball, and you get TV listings for when and on what channel your sport is being aired.
Back to the first search result page. Ask also provides links pointing to event schedule, medal count and upcoming Olympics. On the right hand side of this page you can find images of Olympic medal winners. There are also links to news articles and a link to an encyclopedia definition of "Olympic Games" that takes you to a Wikipedia page.
Yahoo!
Searching for Olympics in Yahoo! reveals a variety of results, including a link to the official Olympics web site and to the Beijing Olympics page of Yahoo! Sports. There you can get up-to-date coverage on athletes, different sporting events, and shortcuts to the current medal count, news coverage, and videos. Currently, Yahoo! Sports provides about 350 different videos about the Olympics, the first displaying some very enthusiastic fans and a story covering ticket scalpers.
Yahoo's homepage also displays some news stories under the Featured tab, and, at times, some pretty interesting Olympic oriented graphics around its logo.
While Google's logo has been covered in cartoon animals posing as Olympic athletes (monkey gymnasts, diving pigs, and a slam dunking Chinese dragon), the results returned from an Olympics query are a bit more reflexive of what is going on in Beijing right now.
Google offers a current medal count right on the results page, as well as a PPC link to Google's Olympic homepage, which includes a link at the top of the page to a Google gadget. The gadget allows you to keep track of Olympic events, medal counts, and news via your iGoogle homepage.
Google also offers Olympic coverage through a YouTube Summer Games channel featuring news, recaps, and different aspects of Beijing. And to round it all out, Google also offers a mobile site: m.google.com.
Back to Google.com. Searching for one sport in particular? Simply type it into the query box (you may need to include the Olympics qualifier) and Google will return the score of the most recent game.
MSN Live Search
Before even performing a search MSN's Live Search greets you with a photo of a recent Olympic event. Today it's baseball. Beneath the photo is a link to recent news articles outlining up-to-date wins and feature stories about athletes like Michael Phelps. Above the fold on the same page is a selection of videos. Hovering your mouse over the thumbnails gives you a preview of each video. Judges may deduct points due to duplicate video clips, but all of this is available before you even search for Olympics.
Back to the Live Search homepage. After searching for Olympics, Microsoft provides a medal count table along with updated Olympic information through a partnership with NBC. Links to NBCOlympics.com are sprinkled in the results. Clicking over to the NBC site, you can find a complete listing of the medal standings.
And the Gold Medal goes to...
In my opinion, the search engine that displays the most information and provides the easiest access to medal coverage, videos, and news articles is Live Search.
However, I do believe Google gets a very close Silver Medal due to the variance in its results and the different outlets the engine offers to track and keep up with Olympic events.
Please feel free to submit your judge's ruling!
Tags
Olympics
Beijing
Oneupweb
Keyword Density of Search Marketing Blogs
Posted by duncan on August 14, 2008 at 09:10 AM
Today we'll take a unique look at the recent hot topics in Oneupweb's StraightUpSearch blog. Using a tool called Wordle we'll get a word cloud visual representation of the words used most often on the current StraightUpSearch homepage. Take a look at the image below. Pretty cool stuff.
I need to give a shout out to Lee Odden for bringing this to our attention. Lee recently featured Wordle in his TopRank blog. His post looks at some other highly visited search engine marketing blogs: Word Visualization on Search Marketing Blogs.
StraightUpSearch and other top search marketing blogs have high keyword density on search marketing and social marketing terminology. I am pleased to see many current events listed in the StraightUpSearch blog as well. Words pop out related to the Olympics and the Presidential race.
Spend a minute looking at our results and those in Odden's. Drop us a comment about the trends most apparent to you, or whatever else strikes you.
Thank you Wordle for giving us an out-of-the-box way of looking at ourselves in the mirror.
Tags
Wordle
Word Cloud
Oneupweb
Oneupweb Climbs Website Magazine's Top 50 List
Posted by keirsun on August 13, 2008 at 03:11 PM
Once in awhile we like to engage in a little shameless self promotion around here. Last month we announced a couple of industry awards that our fearless leader recently received.
Today I would like to point you in the direction of the Top 50 SEO Firms and Resources, as listed in the August issue of Website Magazine.
We're honored to see our website, OneUpWeb.com, sitting pretty at #10.
We've worked hard over the past 12 years to stay on top of this ever-changing industry - and we have always been delighted to share our online marketing knowledge in the form of white papers, collateral, podcasts, and more.
Looking for a digital marketing agency to help with your online promotions? Contact Oneupweb via our website or give us a call: 877.568.7477.
And a special thanks to the publishers of Website Magazine for acknowledging our hard work.
Tags
SEO
Website Magazine
Oneupweb
