Use the Time Lag report to discover how long it takes the average clicker to convert.  This information can be especially helpful in assessing the performance of any site-based retargeting that you’re doing.  Say that 99% of your conversions historically happen on the day of the first click. Then you launch retargeting, and 30 days later 90% of conversions happen the day of the first click, but 10% happen later.  This would mean that your retargeting campaign is successfully causing conversions that otherwise would not have happened.

The Path Length report shows what percentage of conversions happen after more than one click, and you can pair it with the Top Paths report to learn how prospects find you, and then what information or need brings them back.  If your campaigns land to different pages depending on the query, the Top Paths report can help to determine if any particular landing page needs different or additional data in order to convert more traffic on the first click. Another advantage of the Top Paths report is the fact that you can view the “Query Transition “Path.”  Say you have an account in which most conversions come off of brand terms, and this causes your boss or client to suspect that non-brand campaigns are a waste of money.  You can use the query transition path to prove him/her right or wrong.

The two reports we use most often at Path Interactive are the First Click Analysis and Assist Clicks and Impressions.  First Click Analysis shows the first interaction a searcher had with your site.  You can view by campaign, adgroup, or keyword, and use filters to find the information you’re looking for.  We like to see which non-brand keywords acted as the introduction to our clients’ sites.  Since the campaigns tab only shows data by last click, we use the first-click information to ensure that non-brand keywords are bid properly.  Assist Clicks and Impressions shows which keywords/adgroups/campaigns helped lead to a conversion, but weren’t the last click.  This report is especially important for path lengths of 3+ clicks, in which case the First Click Analysis wouldn’t give credit to all assisting keywords.

One missing data point that I’d like to see added is click paths that don’t end in conversions.  Patterns in such a report would shed light on keywords or ads that bring in the wrong type of traffic, or landing pages that don’t fulfill searchers’ needs.  It would also be nice if we could view assists and first click conversion data right in the campaigns tab; this would make it much easier to properly bid keywords.  Maybe next year.

Search retargeting allows you to marry your existing keyword lists with relevant banner ads to target consumers who have demonstrated interest in a particular offering, and search retargeting enables you to continue the conversation with prospective customers beyond the search engines.

5 Reasons Why Brand Marketers Should Use Search Retargeting.

Former Google SERP for Labor Lawyer NYC

The new SERP looks very different (see screenshot below). The top three ads are still there, but the map is now on the upper right hand side, and ads 4-10 have been moved down the page; many of them are now below the fold, depending on your screen.  The SERP leads with a few organic results from the wider web, but then shows results from Google Places, offering more information than the 7-Pack including pictures, descriptions, and the option to go to the law firm’s website or Places page.

New SERP for Labor Lawyer NYC

Predicted Effects On Paid Search Advertising
The key change for paid search is the location of the map.  By moving the map to the top right, Google has effectively de-emphasized any ad that doesn’t appear on the top of the page (positions 1-3).  Moreover, the map stays visible as you scroll down the page, covering up ads in positions 4 – 10 as it moves.  This, combined with the fact that the ads start lower down to begin with, likely means that ads in positions 4 – 10 will suffer lower click through rates and, potentially, higher costs per click (CPCs) due to declining quality scores.  Most importantly,the reduced value of positions 4 – 10 will lead to higher competition for positions 1 – 3, so we expect a marked increase in the CPCs of those positions.  We’ll watch to see if these predictions come true.

Return of Session-Based Match?
One interesting thing we noticed with the new SERP is the renewed presence of session-based match in the ads displayed.  Session-based match means that Google will show you ads based on previous search queries.  We hadn’t seen this occur in months, but we saw it in a number of searches yesterday and today.  Not only that, but, at least in one case, the ads shown were for queries done days ago.  We’ll keep our eye on this development, too.

Though Facebook PPC is typically more top of the funnel, and paid search PPC is more bottom of the funnel, there are a number of similarities between the two:
1) Demographic/interest targeting on Facebook is akin to selecting keywords on paid search.  The more specific you get, the smaller your potential audience.  Also, as you get more specific, you typically have to pay a higher cost per click.
2) If you’re running direct response campaigns, you want to keep your demographic/interest Facebook targets pretty tight, Just like you want to keep adgroups tight in paid search.  Also, make sure you avoid grouping related but dissimilar groups together. For instance, if someone is interested in sustainable energy, they might be thinking wind energy, not biofuels.  Keep those sorts of interests separated.
3) Just like you want to write ads specific to each Ad Group for paid search, optimize your ad copy for the demographic/interest that you’re targeting.

Landing Pages – Where Should You Send Your Facebook PPC Ad Traffic?
Most people would say it’s best to send Facebook ads to your Facebook page (preferably a custom tab), thinking that they’ll be happier staying in the same environment.  However, that may not necessarily be the best way to achieve your goal.  Sending them off of Facebook means you can better control the environment they end up in, which can be especially important for direct response marketers.  Also, you can avoid having them see (and possibly click on) a competitor’s ad just after they clicked on your ad.

Typical Facebook PPC Click Through Rate
Marin Search Marketing, a third-party paid search management system, states that their clients who advertise on Facebook typically see a .02% to .04% click through rate (CTR).  This has proven to be the case for most of our clients as well, although we have seen CTRs as high as 0.12%.

Swap Ads As Soon As The CTR Starts Its Decline
Ad blindness sets in very quickly on Facebook.  You’ve probably experienced this yourself: the same ad follows you around, and you get sick of seeing it after the 3rd or 4th time.  The result of this is that ads typically start off with a decent CTR, often around 0.03%, but the CTR quickly plummets.  Depending on the size of the audience you’re targeting, this CTR decline continues steadily until it gets low enough that Facebook stops showing the ad.  The way to get around this is to change the ad as soon as you see the CTR decline begin.  This can mean you need to change the ad multiple times per day, depending on the size of your audience.

Swap The Image First
The most effective part of the ad to change is the image, because that’s the part of the ad that first attracts the eye.  Images should pop: they should contrast with Facebook’s blue and white color scheme.  Make sure the images are nicely saturated.  Path Interactive typically plugs at least 10 images per ad into our automated Facebook PPC ad management system, and we program the tool to swap the image after a 5% decline in CTR.  Our clients’ CTRs have jumped nicely since we began this practice.

Not Sure If Your Company Should Be Running Facebook PPC Ads?
Here are some stats from GroupM Search that may change your mind.  Consumers exposed to a company’s social media are:
1) 2.8 times more likely to search on brand terms
2) 50% more likely to click on that company’s PPC ads
3) 1.7 times more likely to purchase from search.

The Bottom Line
Facebook PPC is relatively new, but the targeting options have become sophisticated enough to justify adding Facebook to many types of existing PPC campaigns, especially in light of the GroupM stats.  You should consider adding it to your marketing mix.

Start off with a clean slate

Don’t be tempted to create your mobile campaigns as you would your regular, PC based campaigns.  Best practices in PC search campaigns may not hold water in mobile. So that means no copying your existing campaign, targeting to mobile and calling it a day. And don’t think you can just let mobile piggyback on a campaign that is targeting PC computers either.  Don’t do it! The same way you separate your search and display campaigns, so you must do with mobile! Kerri Smith from Range Online Media says to take it a step further and really speak to your mobile audience. Call to actions like “Call Now” and “…from your SmartPhone” suggest to users that your ad is relevant and made specifically for mobile search. Take the time to create and test new keyword lists. While doing this, remember that…

Less is more

Benny Blum from esearchvision shared some findings on his experimentation with mobile ads.  Contrary to what we usually see in PC SEM campaigns, shorter phrases are the way to go in mobile.  Mobile long tail keyword searches are virtually non-existent, and conversion rates actually go down as the query gets longer. If there are generic, short keywords that don’t work well in your PC search campaigns, mobile may be the place to test them out again.

Be mobile ready…and be mobile ready now

Jesse Haines from Google stressed the importance of being “mobile ready” with your website. With the help of some screen shots, she illustrated how many prominent brands didn’t have their websites optimized for mobile search…and also showed some that did, along with their telltale revenues that validate their efforts.  With lower CPCs and less competition than traditional search, now is the time to get on the mobile search bandwagon, before all your competitors wise up and do it before you and leave you weeping in the dust.

A brand new AdWords beta, perhaps?

Transcript:

Duration of Video:  5 min 17 sec.

Ruben Quinones:  Hey there! Welcome to episode 2 of Path TV. I wanted to talk about something    that I have heard about last week  on CNN  is through the three sixteenths reported that BP Maroline was   spending  fifteen million dollars on  an ad campaign you know to manage their reputation and put out  these commercials but that they were also spending money online  specifically with pay per click  ads and just  a kind of differentiate  and  if you don’t know the difference since the sponsored  links  at the top and  on the right  hand side of your search  results page and on the left hand side below sponsored links and below any map listings if  you get that is your organic or they what they call natural rankings.

So there was a guess of how much they are spending  and I think that the estimate was  believe it was ten thousand a month if I am hearing  correctly which I thought was actually high at the moment but I wasn’t thinking of  all the potential key terms that you could use. So what I decided to do was actually do a little bit of research and going to couple of search engines get some estimates and do couple of searches and see where they were coming up and come up with some of my own guestimate of where they were at.

 I also heard of another blog and they were spending a million dollars which I thought probably way too high unless they were doing some other online marketing campaigns outside of sponsored links. So, this is what I did: I took a couple of search terms and I typed in  go for all the all you come up together all you come up for the all your  disaster, all your  news, all your slick, all your spell  they  do not come up  a hundred percent  at a time but they still  come up for oil as a key term and that can really spend you a lot of money as a matter fact it probably spend ten thousand dollars a day at about a dollar a click per  visitor to their web page but they weren’t on a  100% of their  time so which makes it even more of a guess, so I am goanna guess that they were spending based on putting those search terms together looking at the most prior history of what those  key words were generating on a  cost per click  basis and I actually think the average  is really between that figure it’s not as much million and it’s not less than a ten thousand, It’s actually I think it is between three to five hundred thousand — if I had to really guess — it is lot about the factors it could be lot about the search terms they could be coming up with , they could be changing it everyday and one thing that is  a variable that we can come up until  next month  is how much these search terms are actually going to cost as I would imagine that the bids are being driven up because not only  BP is buying those links but some other PR companies other websites are popping up to capitalize on the opportunity get their message across.

So, it’s not just BP so that’ going to drive up the costs of the actual search terms on Google, yahoo and MSN which is big. So, it’s interesting to know my guestimate is actually really last month’s term which is pretty much for anybody would be able to look up so that actually will go up higher so may be ten million dollar number might be the case for real search time numbers but I am goanna stick to on half a million as my guess from I can see which is a small drop in the bucket compared to fifteen million dollars. Of course, they might be doing such campaigns and then some of the things that might be implemented so I am sure they have money but what is big picture here in what is really accounting here is is of course what is happening down there for the lives of people that depended it on the goal. I wish him my best and I hope truly that BP as much as they put their money into their PR they will take care of those individuals down there and hopefully clean up this mess whenever it finishes so there we go that’s my guestimate and I will see you next time I am goanna actually have my first guest so don’t miss it.

 I am going to talk about Foursquare. What is four square? Why should you be on it, should you care. That will be my next episode.  So if you have any recommendations as such topics let me know and is multiple ways you can actually let me know you can add a comment on any of the video sharing sites, you can comment on the fan page which is now the light page, you can also tweet us and send us a contact from your website which is pathinteractive.com. Until next time have a great morning, afternoon or evening whenever you are watching this and I will see you next time. Take care.

It might be from your CMO or your contact that online shoe store you just signed, but whether you do in-house or agency paid search advertising, you’ve undoubtedly had this asked before (perhaps several times).

A couple of answers.

Without Paid Search, You Are Losing Clicks and Sales.

Yes, for brand terms, where you rank #1.

The AdWords agency team recently released notes on an experiment showing the value of paid search for those ranking competitively in natural search.

The experiment involved the clothing company Vineyard Vines, which feared it was paying for brand-related clicks it might have received anyway. They ultimately calculated they’d only replaced about 33% of their paid clicks with organic clicks, meaning the great majority of such clicks were completely lost by not running paid search campaigns.

And these brand clicks, they saw, were converting at over 5%.

The Secret Reason Goldman Sachs Loves Paid Search

Paid search advertising allows you to tightly control the content and prominence of your message, something not always possible when you’re relying solely on natural search.

Currently mired in a dramatically reported mortgage controversy, Goldman’s corporate site does not come up in position 1 naturally for “goldman sachs.” Nor does it appear in position 2, for that matter. Those positions are taken up by bad press.

Thankfully, they’ve read this post.

Whether you use excel for reports, budgets, time management or all of the above, there are definitely ways you can optimize your Excel experience.  Just because you know how to do something in Excel doesn’t mean that your way is the only (or easiest) way to do it.  While few of us have the time to be proactive about how we use Excel, the truth is it would behoove all you campaign managers (or any Excel users out there) to dive into some of these handy-dandy resources. You will learn something and it will save you time!

A Helpful Excel Webcast for PPC Advertisers

SMN released a webcast last month detailing some pretty helpful tips on how to save time when you are managing reporting data for your PPC accounts. If you can invest 60 minutes of your time by watching this you may save yourself hours in the long run, and look cool in front of your coworkers when you implement what you learned.  After viewing the webcast, I became inspired to do a little research on my own to find shortcuts and functions for things I use most.

In this webcast you can learn things like

• how to name a range
• the benefits of conditional formatting
• how recording a macro can save you hours
• the endless possibilities of pivot tables

The Excel Shortcut Cheat Sheet

If the extent of your shortcutting abilities is  CTRL+C and CTRL+V, you may find this Microsoft cheat sheet useful. Shortcuts are real time-savers that let you get away from using a clumsy mouse. You aren’t going to need all of them, but it’s worth noting any that you would frequently use that will make your life easier. The time saving adds up.

Did you know?

• F2 allows you to edit within a cell without double-clicking

• CTRL+1 opens up the format box

• CTRL+’ – copies the formula from the cell above without modifying the formula to that particular cell

And do you Scroll Lock in Excel? I know you see the button on your keyboard but you don’t really touch it, except to turn it off when it was accidentally turned on. Scroll Lock isn’t a godsend but it can save you a bit of awkward frustration if you want to do simple navigation within your worksheet and you don’t like using your mouse.  Basically it disables the arrow keys from moving your cell selection and allows you to move past the fold immediately.  So, say you are editing in A1 but you want to see something in A50. While you’re in A1 just put the Scroll Lock on and you can use the arrow keys to move within your sheet without losing the selection of the cell you’re in. “Look boss, no mouse!”

Learning More with Mr. Excel

In addition to a vast and ever expanding forum, this website offers new 2 minute podcasts each weekday detailing a new tip or trick. The forum is amazing because if you have a question about how to do something in Excel, chances are someone has already asked it and someone else has already answered it.

How Mr. Excel changed my life with absolute cell references in formulas

By far, the biggest milestone in my Excel life was the discovery of absolute cell references. If you love formulas but =$A$1+$B$1 looks foreign to you, you need to read the following immediately.

If you’ve ever tried to CTRL+D or copy and paste a formula, you’ll notice that the formula changes depending on where it’s been copied to. This is because the cells within the formula are relative. Wherever you paste the formula, the formula will change itself to reference the new column and/or row where it has been placed.  Absolute cell reference allows you to keep all or part of a cell in a formula constant, both when you want to use the fill down option or when you want to copy and paste a formula to another part of your worksheet. By inserting $ between the parts of the cell(s) you want to keep constant, you prevent all or parts of your formula  from changing. Mr. Excel explains absolute cell references like so:

• $A1 tells Excel you always want to refer to column A.
• B$1 tells Excel you always want to refer to row 1.
• $B$1 tells Excel you always want to refer to cell B1.

Find Help with #Excel

A more passive way to learn Excel is to just let the tips come to you. As much as we’d like Twitter to be the answer to all our problems, it most likely isn’t going to help you if you are looking for an answer to a specific question you have. But you may come across a tweet or two that will pique your interest if you follow TechTipTweets or OfficeWatch. As a bonus, they often tweet about other MS programs that you may be using as well.

More People Now Visit Facebook Than Google

Search engine advertising has been a dominant force in the world of online advertising for years now.  However, with Facebook taking up an ever-greater share of people’s time online, it is inevitable that Facebook will also account for an increasing share of online advertising.  That said, Facebook advertising isn’t useful for every business.  Here is some information to help you decide whether your company should give it a try.

Facebook Isn’t As Good For Transactional Ads

On Facebook, people see your ads earlier in the interest cycle than with paid search ads.  Facebook advertising is therefore less useful for transactional advertising than paid search.  Instead, companies use Facebook to create awareness of, interest in, and engagement with their brand.  Whereas best practice for paid search is to include a strong call to action like “Buy Now!”, Facebook ads should focus on softer benefits your company can offer such as information, contests, or coupons.  Campaigns typically target potential customers at the start of the sales funnel, or even before they know that they need a service or product, and ads can lead people who click to a landing page or the company’s fan page, depending on the campaign’s goal.  In order to eventually realize sales from a Facebook campaign, companies must follow up with a long-term customer engagement strategy so that they stay top of mind.

Different Targeting

Facebook also differs from paid search in its targeting capabilities.  It does offer the ability to target by keyword (Facebook calls it “Likes & Interests”) and location, but also by demographics such as age, relationship status, education, workplace, and even college and major.  This means that if you know the demographics of current and past customers, you can target others just like them.  In all probability, most of these people won’t be in the market for your company’s product or service at the moment they see your ad.  However, the ad can create awareness and engage them with your brand.  Then, when they are in the market, they’ll know where to look first.  Better yet, they’ll (hopefully) recommend your service/product to their friends.

Who Should Advertise On Facebook

So what sorts of companies should advertise on Facebook?  The prime candidates are businesses that can have an ongoing relationship with consumers such as restaurants, retail, theaters, gyms, even tax accountants.  A spa is a great example of a business that could benefit from advertising on Facebook.  Because spas fulfill a need that is relatively unpredictable on an individual basis (aside from birthdays & holidays), a spa needs to stay top of mind with its customers through emails, flyers, and other points of contact.  Spas need to constantly expand their customer list, and that is where a Facebook ad campaign could play a big role.

For example, a spa could run ads targeted to women at nearby companies asking them to sign up to receive monthly coupons.  The landing page would include not only the email signup form, but also a “Become a Fan” icon in a prominent position.  When a visitor becomes a fan, Facebook will list that fact in the her news feed, and also underneath the spa’s ads when those ads show to her Facebook friends.  In this way, the ad serves to build the spa’s email list, increase Facebook fans, and spread the word about the spa to each new fan’s friends.  Although the ad probably won’t result in any immediate sales, the spa should realize sales down the line when it offers a great deal, or when one of its fans finds herself in dire need of a treatment.

To sum up, if your company offers a service or product that is typically purchased at frequent intervals, and if it has a long-term engagement strategy to stay top of mind, Facebook advertising is a great way to gain new customers.  However, if demand for your company’s services is more intermittent and/or urgent – locksmiths, for instance – then Facebook probably isn’t for you.