The Search Star Blog

QR Codes – Linking the Physical World with the Digital

September 2nd, 2010

Written by: Neil on September 2, 2010.

Article first published as QR Codes – Linking The Physical World To The Digital on Technorati.

Since digital media’s earliest days, advertisers and marketers have struggled to link traditional media outlets with their digital counterparts. It’s much easier the other way round, so much so that some in the print media (British newspaper The Times for example) are beginning to charge for their online services. But finally there may be a way to bridge this divide, and somewhat unsurprisingly, it was developed in Japan some 16 years ago.

For those who are unaware what a QR code is, it can best be described as a uniquely designed arrangement of black modules arranged on a square white background (see picture above).

A more familiar term for many of you may be a matrix barcode and, much like a traditional barcode, what is so endearing about the matrix variety is their sheer functionality. Linking the physical world to the digital has been a huge problem, but QR codes can be used across all available media sources and all a user requires is the hardware to scan the code.

So what do users need and what will scanning a QR code actually do? Well with the rapid growth of 3G mobiles it is inevitable that iPhones, Android handsets and BlackBerrys will be the primary drivers.

Some Android devices are even building ZXing barcode scanners directly into the hardware. While QR has been around for a long time, it has taken this mobile explosion to really kick it onto a new level. Now advertisers can reach users at the peak of their interest; if a user wants more information about a product or service they can scan a QR code on their mobile and it will automatically open their internet browser to a relevant webpage.

While QR codes are currently being used commercially to promote online services, I have a feeling that this is just the beginning of something much broader. While QR may be great for advertisers and marketers to push special offers and products it is still, at risk of being petty, quite ugly technology and difficult to integrate with traditional media campaigns (the poster for Ironman being the obvious exception).

I envisage a future where a more integrated version of a QR code will allows users to scan almost anything to get more information about it online, and the quicker marketers are on the uptake the better.

Posted in Marketing | No Comments »

Google Comparison Ads

August 27th, 2010

Written by: Neil on August 27, 2010.

Article first published as Google Comparison Ads on Technorati.

At the back end of October last year Google announced the launch of AdWords Comparison Ads. This comparison tool was originally limited to the US mortgage and refinancing sectors but just recently I’ve been shopping around for a new credit card. Imagine my surprise, then, when I searched Google for “Credit Card Deals” and found the following ads presented to me:

Now we’re all familiar with how comparison sites work, you enter your personal information, get a comparison across a range of providers and the host gets paid if you end up buying a product. But Google are taking this concept one step farther and providing the same service without giving away any user information unless that user explicitly requests more information about a product.

Now Google have taken quite a beating in the press recently over the issue of net neutrality, and people are beginning to question that big “don’t be evil” motto that the company holds so dearly. But here we have Google yet again showing a commitment to user experience over the bottom line. Not only are they more protective of privacy, but they insist on advertiser transparency; putting an end to all those teaser ads suggesting I can get 0% on balance transfers and 0% on purchases by simply filling in my contact details.

Fantastic though all this is, you have to wonder how the big comparison sites feel about Google leveraging their position to top the SERPS. Especially so given that they are likely to lose revenue whilst continuing to pay Google for their own positions in the Sponsored Links. And if Google have already moved on from mortgages to credit cards, how soon before I can get my car insurance through Google?

They might not be listing it just yet, but my policy is up for renewal in a few months. It will be interesting to see how it all works out.

Posted in Marketing | No Comments »

Analytics, Analytics, Analytics!

August 26th, 2010

Written by: Gordon on August 26, 2010.

We’ve heard so many stories about people willing to spend a small fortune on AdWords without giving a care in the world about Analytics. To me, that’s almost like going out and buying a pair of shoes without knowing your size. Sure, if you tried hard enough and convinced yourself hard enough you probably could get your foot into any sized shoe, but not without great difficult I would presume. What I guess I’m trying to say is that using brute force, grunt, and lot of client money (eek!) yes you could probably end up with a ‘successful’ campaign, but you would be able to arrive at the same situation if you had invest a bit of time in setting up an Analytics account and more vitally linking the two together. This literally just take a couple of clicks, and boom, you’re in the goldmine.

By linking the two accounts together you’ll be able have your AdWords traffic separated out from your organic traffic on your Analytics reports. This lets you focus on what you where you should be spending your money, and generally making you think smarter and saving you time. You can even produce pretty reports, visualisations, and funnels and drill down to see the top performing keywords, content, or traffic source. More fundamentally you can interpret results and appreciate how it affects your web optimisation strategy by turning insights into proper action! Here’s just a few of the wonderful things you could be doing on Analytics to aid your AdWords campaigns:

Understanding where visitors enter your website and how many stay
Understanding how much of your marketing budget is wasted
Understanding what visitors look for when they come to your site
Understanding the bottle necks in the user journey and how visitors behave
Understanding what content visitors prefer and how you can improve this process
Improving the performance of your website and online acquisition strategy
Increasing your online ROI and reduce cost of acquisition (improving margins)
Obtaining insights from Google Analytics which will help with the decision making process

In light of this totally awesome news why not sign up to your first ever Analytics Insights Training course. More details are available on our site:

http://www.search-star.co.uk/analytics-course_search-star.php.

There’s limited places so be fast, not last!

Posted in Analytics | No Comments »

IP Targeted AdWords Campaigns

August 25th, 2010

Written by: Neil on August 25, 2010.

Before we talk about how to set up IP targeting on your AdWords campaigns we should think a little about when it would be appropriate for advertisers to target users from specific locations. In reality, IP targeting works best for local businesses keen to avoid spending money on clicks that are never likely to generate any business but this isn’t the only reason for advertisers to get interested in location targeted search…

For example if an advertiser wanted to trial a potential campaign on a small scale to test its performance they might consider IP targeting as opposed to running a limited budget. This is because IP targeting will show more consistent and reliable results as ads will appear every time they are searched for rather than when Google decides they should appear to satisfy the budget.

Now setting up IP targeting is relatively straightforward; navigate to the settings tab within an existing AdWords campaign and edit the locations options. The menu that will open allows you to IP target from entire countries to within 1km of a specific postcode but before jumping straight in advertisers should think hard about how precise they want their location targeting to be. Too tight and you risk missing valuable clicks, too loose and you run the risk of overspending.

Whilst targeting specific user locations by IP address sounds simple there are still some small issues to contend with. Firstly, it is not always accurate. This is down to the fact that a users Internet Service Provider (ISP) assigns the users IP address and while the majority of ISP’s are localised there will always be exceptions. Secondly, you might question the need for IP targeting so long as your keywords refer to a specific location. Great though Google is at query parsing, the fact is that valuable users who don’t use locations in their search query will likely be excluded from seeing your ads.

An additional benefit of using IP targeting is that it allows advertisers to be more specific with their ad text; improving the quality score and increasing click through and conversion rates. If you’re marketing a plumbing company from Cornwall for example, then you can identify that in your ads and only reach users who are also from Cornwall – making the likelihood of a conversion far greater than showing a generic plumbing company ad to somebody who searches for Plumbing from their living room in Newcastle.

IP Targeting is therefore great for small businesses keen to market themselves to the most valuable audiences but can also be used on a wider scale to test out trial campaigns. However if there is one piece of advice to take away from this post then this is it:

When setting up AdWords campaigns for local businesses try creating one IP targeted campaign with generic keywords and one non IP targeted campaign with location specific keywords. This way you ensure that you are driving the maximum volume of the most relevant traffic.

Posted in PPC | No Comments »

The ‘Negative Search Query Report’

August 24th, 2010

Written by: Neil on August 24, 2010.

Yesterday we talked about the benefits of using Google’s ACE program to accurately measure how changes you have made to your AdWords campaigns have affected campaign performance. This got me thinking about how this would work for negative keywords and quickly realised that the picture isn’t quite as rosy as it seems.

Here’s my problem; although you could very easily view the effects of new or deleted negatives on a campaign in terms of the number of impressions, it would not give you any data about the actual performance of individual negatives. My issue is with the fact that Google are happy to tell you which keywords and search terms are triggering your ads, but they aren’t so forthcoming when you want to see the searches that you are filtering out.

This was brought to my attention this morning when a colleague asked me to review a list of negatives within a client’s AdWords campaign in order to pick out the most effective ones to transfer into a new campaign on Yahoo (which limits your negative keywords per campaign). After doing this for a short while I realised that my subjective opinions about which negatives are the best is a quite terrible way of analysing the performance of negatives.

To solve this issue I’m calling on Google to introduce a new reporting tool, which I’m boldly going to call a “negative search query report”. This report should have a breakdown of the number of searches each negative has filtered out as well as the actual search query a user has typed in. My feeling is that if advertisers can use Google ACE to measure the effect of new keywords at search query level then there should also be a way of measuring the searches that individual negative keywords are filtering out.

By reviewing a “negative search query report” advertisers should be able to see instances where they are wrongly using negatives and filtering out relevant searches, for example by employing the wrong match type. The report should also allow advertisers to review individual negative performance stats to see which negatives are filtering out the highest number of searches. This would not only help to optimise PPC campaigns but also identify potential new areas of revenue for the client by demonstrating the volume of search around their existing keywords.

Introducing this negative keyword report would allow advertisers to tighten up their campaigns and demonstrate to clients their commitment to driving only the most relevant traffic to their webpages. Isn’t that exactly what Google would want us to do?

Posted in Adwords News | No Comments »

Google AdWords Campaign Experiments (ACE)

August 23rd, 2010

Written by: Neil on August 23, 2010.

Here at Search Star we love nothing more than coming in on a Monday morning and finding that those small campaign changes we made late on Thursday afternoon have improved a click through rate or lowered a cost per click. The problem that we have is that the only way we can currently judge whether our PPC performance is actually improving is by comparing day by day, week by week or month by month performance figures.

This is inadequate for two reasons; firstly because in the ever changing environment that is PPC advertising there is no way to reliably compare figures from one day to the next. But secondly, and in our opinion more importantly, it means that we can’t test whether the changes we make are having a genuinely positive effect or not; how do we know that the previous campaign settings wouldn’t have performed in exactly the same way?

Fortunately for us, our friends at Google have come up with a tool that allows advertisers to test and measure changes to their AdWords campaigns in real time by executing experimental campaigns alongside their existing live campaigns. AdWords Campaign Experiments (ACE) performs simultaneous split tests to measure the effect of everything from keyword bid changes, match types or new placements – allowing advertisers to make reliable before and after comparisons of PPC campaign performance.

While only available via Beta testing at the moment, ACE is surely the future of PPC ROI analysis. The more information you can get about the effects of even minor variations in your AdWords campaigns can only help advertisers improve their performance, and that will surely make our Monday mornings even more enjoyable.

For more information or to apply for the Beta visit http://www.google.com/ads/innovations/ace.html

Posted in Adwords News | No Comments »

When should I use PPC rather than SEO?

August 20th, 2010

Written by: Neil on August 20, 2010.

I’m always being asked by people to explain why a website should pay for traffic through PPC that they could be getting through SEO. It’s a good question with lots of good answers and so today the aim will be to explore 5 examples of when you should be using PPC instead of SEO and trying to clear up any confusion.

To be clear from the start, this is not an SEO bashing post. We love SEO; if you want to achieve consistent results, become an authority site or increase the value of your website then SEO is absolutely essential. However, you’re going to have trouble selling those last minute flights to Ibiza if you’re relying on good old uncle SEO to bail you out.

So here’s the important bit; if you want to achieve immediate results then PPC is your boy. The main reason being that as soon as you turn that draft campaign live you’re up there competing for and driving traffic into your website. But why would you need such immediate results? Well imagine you’re running event focused marketing, product launches or seasonal promotions; are you really prepared to lose sales waiting for your SEO to catch up? Hmm. Thought not.

And what about all those time sensitive or seasonal offers? You can run PPC for 5 minutes or 5 years, giving you an amazing opportunity to hit the market when you need to and bail out when you don’t. For example you’re managing a website selling Christmas decorations and as November rolls around you’re still on page 2 of the organic search results. PPC will shoot you onto page 1 until December 25th and then happily disappear until November the next year.

One of the great things about marketing with PPC these days is the variety of platforms available. The growth of social media sites for example allows PPC marketers to be even more targeted with their demographics to ensure that ads are only shown to the most relevant users. Furthermore with PPC YOU can control where your traffic lands on the website, allowing you to show users the content that you want them to see.

One last thing before we all go off and get a Friday afternoon cup of tea and Danish pastry; PPC can promote those websites that simply aren’t designed for SEO. SEO demands content rich websites that are updated on a regular basis so if you’re running a squeeze page designed to attract contact information then PPC is the only sure way to generate traffic volume.

So there you have it, 5 reasons you should use PPC rather than SEO:

-You want immediate results

-You have time sensitive or seasonal offers to promote

-You want targeted traffic

-You have particular content you want users to see

-Your webpage isn’t suitable for SEO

Have a great weekend.

Posted in PPC | No Comments »

Why Should You Use Google e-Commerce Tracking Code?

August 19th, 2010

Written by: Neil on August 19, 2010.

The first question to answer is this: why is e-commerce tracking important for your business? Well in short, transaction data is an invaluable asset in analysing online business performance and maximising ROI. While it’s great to be able to measure conversions through AdWords, most business owners and managers are only really interested in revenue…and that’s where e-commerce tracking comes into play.

Most if not all e-commerce businesses should have some form of revenue tracking in place. For a start it immediately removes the problem of justifying the difference between AdWords and Analytics conversions because you know exactly what you have sold and when you sold it. But more importantly it gives you actionable data to improve your sales process and get ROI out of your online marketing.

So what information can running e-commerce code through Analytics give you that you didn’t already know? Well by linking your e-commerce tracking to Analytics you can start tracking the value of your keywords. By drilling down to keyword performance in terms of direct sales you can devise active bidding strategies to push the star performers and boost your conversion volumes.

Alternatively you might want to see how long it takes a user to convert. You can do this by comparing visits to sale; a metric that shows how many times a user visited your site before converting. This information allows you to form hypotheses on why somebody might be visiting the site multiple times before converting. Are they comparing prices on other websites or looking for more information or reviews of a product? These are all things you can change on your webpage to convert a user before they shop somewhere else.

So the message is this; if you are using e-commerce tracking code then that’s a great start but if you really want to maximise ROI it is well worth modifying your existing code to work alongside Google Analytics.

Posted in Analytics | No Comments »

What is Remarketing?

August 17th, 2010

Written by: Neil on August 17, 2010.

Hiding away deep inside the Audiences tab of your Google AdWords account is one of online advertisings most mysterious and powerful secrets. If you haven’t heard about remarketing before now then this post will help you understand exactly what remarketing is, how it’s done and explain the reason behind that niggly feeling you get as you surf the internet that somebody knows a little bit too much about your recent browsing history.

In short, remarketing allows you to display ads across the Google display network to users who have recently visited your website. It works by adding a small piece of code called a remarketing tag to the pages of your website that you want to promote. If you were a website selling sportswear for example, you might tag every page that sells a tennis racket with a tag for “tennis racket” – meaning that a user who visits that page may later be shown an ad for tennis racket special offers while watching a video on YouTube.

But how does this miracle tagging and internet stalking actually happen? As usual when Google is involved it is deceptively simple. Navigate to the Audience tab and add a new audience; select the new remarketing list panel and create your target audience. Google will then calculate your remarketing tag from the descriptive name you gave the list and all you need to do is paste that tag code into the applicable pages of your site.

The great thing about remarketing is the variety of options available. By targeting an audience through both site visits and demographics you can build highly specific remarketing campaigns to optimise conversion rates. Furthermore you can set timers and impression limits to ensure that you are not constantly bombarding users who aren’t going to convert.

This is all done through specific cookies that get stored on your computer when you visit a webpage but what’s clever about remarketing cookies is that they pick up when a user visits a site with the remarketing tag and adds them to the remarketing list – hence why you sometimes feel as though an advertiser is looking over your shoulder while you browse the web.

Posted in Remarketing | No Comments »

Google, Analytics & Conversion Talk

August 11th, 2010

Written by: Dan on August 11, 2010.

Last night I went to Bristol and gave a talk to the Bristol Marketing Network http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=57398 on the increased professionalisation of the PPC Industry by Google and Google’s increasing focus on analytics and conversion optimisation.

I was hugely impressed that Oakley and Martin had managed to set up a thriving & FREE networking group for marketing professionals in Bristol & Bath. Turnout was good at c. 65 people who sat attentively and asked intelligent questions at the end.

A copywriter asked some probing questions about the extent to which the PPC industry used copywriters (answer – not as much as we should) that deserve further thought & discussion….we will think & act on this.

Good group & professionally run event so recommended!

Posted in Analytics, Conversions, Search Star News | No Comments »