Justin Miller

Don’t Let Just Anyone Manage Your AdWords! Get a Google Partner!

July 25, 2016 by Justin Miller Leave a Comment

Potential customers are searching for your products and services on Google. While you have invested in SEO (search engine optimization) and are acquiring organic traffic, you could be reaching more customers with PPC (pay per click). The problem is: where do you begin? Keywords, Ad Copy, Bids, Match Types, Ad Extensions, Landing Pages, Budgets, Placements, Mobile Ads, Display Ads, Day Parting, and Bid Adjustments to name a few…

Don’t worry! There are digital marketing managers and agencies that can help you. However, be very careful when selecting someone to manage your Google AdWords account and digital marketing dollars. Here are a few things to look for as you search for help with your PPC:

Search for a Google Partner (Agency)

The first step to becoming a Google Partner is having at least one employee get individually certified with Google AdWords. One must take and pass at least two exams to become a certified individual. The first must be the basic Google AdWords Fundamental Exam. Afterwards, one can choose which speciality exam(s) to take. These exams cover Search, Display, Shopping, Video, and Mobile.

One employee must be individually certified for an agency to be an eligible partner, however, the agency still needs to meet performance requirements. These requirements dictate that the agency have a proven record with managing over $10,000 in 90 days as well as continuing to grow (in Ad Spend).

Not All Google Partner Agencies Are Equal

An agency with one certified employee in one domain of Google AdWords can showcase the same badge and “Google Partner” status as an agency with 10 certified employees in all five of AdWords categories. Recently, Google has addressed this concern by awarding agencies with specializations. These specializations require an agency to have at least one employee certified in a certain category and maintain a minimum of $10,000 managed spend in that category (search, display, shopping, video, or mobile).

Look for an agency that has employees that are both certified and experienced with managing ads within the categories that you are/will be running. Don’t forget to allow room for growth. Just because you aren’t thinking about video ads now, doesn’t mean that you won’t create them in the future. Having an ally that knows how to manage them helps to boost the performance of your other (search, display, etc.) ads as well as grow your business with profitable advertising.

Don’t Forget Google Analytics

Although it is not a requirement to be a Google Partner, having employees that are certified in Google Analytics ensures that the agency knows how to measure the efficacy of your ads and their performance beyond simple clicks. Connecting Google Analytics to your Google AdWords account allows for the tracking and monitoring of users that come to your website via PPC ads and their interactions with your pages. Having a PPC manager that understands Google AdWords, Google Analytics, and your business’ goals ensures that your Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) is maximized.

Before hiring a team to run your Google AdWords, make sure that they have the knowledge and experience to deliver the results that meet (or exceed) your expectations. First, look for the Google Partner Badge. Secondly, make sure that the agency has at least one person who is certified in the category or domain that you want to run your ads. Finally, look for individuals who are certified in Google Analytics to ensure that they can measure and showcase Return On Ad Spend (ROAS).

If you have PPC questions, if you are looking for help managing your Google AdWords, or if you just want to audit your current account, contact DaBrian Marketing Group(a Google Partner), today!

Google Adwords Audit/Grader

May 16, 2016 by Justin Miller Leave a Comment

Google AdWords Audit/Grader – Example Google AdWords Audit (This will accompany a YouTube Video)

The first three pages of the audit is like an executive summary including a general performance grade (ie, excellent, average, poor, etc.), a few facts pertaining to the activity of your account over the last 30 days, a report card, and finally an overall grade out of 100. While this quick 3 page summary is a great overview, the more granular sections of the audit really help uncover what can be done to improve your account performance.

Quality Score Optimization

Having a good Quality Score is important to keeping your Cost per Click (CPC) low while keeping your Ads showing in the prime Ad Positions (1 – 4.) This account has a low Quality Score, which we will see is negatively impacting other areas of the account performance.

Click Through Rate (CTR) Optimization

While CTR is above 1.00%, it could be higher. The Ad Position is mostly between 5 – 10, which is bottom of page 1 or even worse Page 2. Focusing on improving Quality Score will help increase Ad Position and boost CTR.

Account Activity

This given account has had a lot of changes happening over the 30 day time frame. This is great to see that the problem areas are being addressed, specifically the over 200 changes to keywords, and almost 500 changes to Ads.

Text Ad Optimization

Testing Text Ads is a must for account managers who are trying to maximize Clicks and ultimately Conversions. While this account has over 100 text ads with more than 10 per ad group, your account may only need to have 2-3 per ad group so that each ad gets enough impressions (views) to determine which ad copy relates better to your target audience. (Sometimes less really is better!)

Long-Tail Keyword Optimization

Short 1 Word keywords will get a lot of impressions, but utilizing multiple word keyword phrase will help you better reach your target audience. Again, less (in this case Impressions) is not a bad thing and can lead to more/better Clicks.

Impression Share (IS) Optimization

How often are your Ads getting Impressions compared to how often they could be shown. This account is losing a large chunk of Impression Share due to low Ad Rank (or position). This is another area that would benefit from improving Quality Score.

Landing Page Optimization

Clicks are nice to get, but where does that Click take the user? A good landing page will encourage the user to take action – Lead Generation, Sales, etc. Make sure you are testing multiple Landing Pages to see which is going to help you achieve your goals.

Mobile Advertising

People are coming to your site on mobile devices. Are your Ads helping to drive that traffic, and is your site (Landing Pages) mobile friendly? There is no good/bad percentage to have here, but it is important to know how users are getting to your site and interacting with your ads.
PPC Best Practices

While there are more than 8 best practices that Certified Google Partners are required to adhere to, this audit performs a quick check to confirm your account adheres to the following 8 PPC Best Practices:

Network Targeting
Geo Targeting
Language Targeting
Conversion Tracking
Multiple Text Ads Running
Modified Broad Match Type
Negative Keywords
Use of Google AdWords Ad Extension

If you would like to see an audit of Your Google AdWords account or speak to a Certified Google Partner pertaining to your PPC, you can contact DaBrian Marketing Group via phone (610) 743- 5602 or email at Sales@DaBrianMarkeitng.com

Importance of Keyword Research

February 29, 2016 by Justin Miller Leave a Comment

Is your local target audience finding you when they search online? If you are using the wrong keywords within your content (Headlines, Paragraphs, URL, Blogs, etc.), then there is a good chance your business is not being found. The question then becomes, how do you know what the right keywords are? Answer: Keyword Research.

Local Keyword Research via Google Trends

Scenario: You are a doctor looking to acquire new patients.
People across the US are searching for doctors, but everyone doesn’t use the same keywords to search. We ran “family doctor”, “primary care physician”, and “family physician” through Google Trends (see image below.)

Clearly “family doctor” is the most searched, but this is at a nationwide level. For doctors and other health care providers with a physical location, it is crucial to look at your specific location when doing research. While most cities across the nation will closely resemble what is shown above there are some cities that will be drastically different. For example here is the last 12 months worth of searches for the same terms in the Boston area.

While “family doctor” remains high, it is surpassed by “primary care physician.” When writing for your target audience, make sure that you are using terms that they are familiar with and use. Having these terms inside headers, context, and links throughout your website will help users find, understand and engage with your site.

Hopefully, Google Trends will help you identify what keywords your local audience is searching and would help boost your website’s visibility and performance. While search volume is a critical part of keyword research it is only the beginning.

If you have further questions or would like help conducting research, let us know, we would love to help you reach new customers.

eCommerce PPC Christmas Wish List

December 21, 2015 by Justin Miller Leave a Comment

Dear Santa,

This year for Christmas eCommerce PPC account managers would like:

1 - Preview Functionality for Shopping Ads

Why is it that I can preview my Search and Display Ads without skewing my Impression data, but can’t do the same for Shopping Ads? As marketers, we would like to know exactly what our ads will look like before they are live on the internet.

2 - Average Position Data for Products and Product Groups

We can see the Impression Share lost (Rank), but not the average position that our Shopping Ads are shown. This information would help make decisions concerning bid adjustments at the product group or product-specific level.

3 - Multiple (and more specific) Conversion Columns for each conversion being tracked

While it is great being able to track Conversions, being able to quickly see the amount of each type of conversion (newsletter sign-up, sale, or phone call) would be beneficial. This would be useful in maximizing Return on Ad Spend (ROAS.)

If we can get these 3 new features we will have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Did we include your Christmas wish for eCommerce PPC in our top three, or do you have additions for our Christmas wish list? Let us know in the comments.

Are You Afraid of PPC Advertising?

October 28, 2015 by Justin Miller Leave a Comment

With Halloween in a few days, we want to look into why some small business are afraid to run PPC advertising campaigns. After taking a closer look at some of the spooky aspects of PPC, hopefully, you will find that it is not scary, but that Pay per Click is an opportunity to help you increase leads and sales for your business. Here are the top 3 reasons small business are afraid of PPC:

1. Scary Expensive or Scared of Wasting Marketing Budget

Sure you can set a daily and monthly budget to control cost, but that doesn’t mean that it is being used wisely. Did you know that you can schedule your PPC ads to only run during specific hours of the day to maximize the effectiveness of campaigns with limited budgets? In addition, there is geo-targeting for localized businesses, and device specific bidding if mobile or desktop traffic is more valuable for your business. If you are already running PPC, these are a few settings that you might want to check to ensure you are getting the most out of your campaigns.

2. Scary Results (or lack thereof)

As a digital marketing agency, we hear “PPC doesn’t/didn’t work for our company/industry.” Really? Are you sure? Before you dive into doing PPC advertising, set your goals and know how you are measuring success. Are you trying to generate phone calls, form submissions or online ecommerce sales? Whatever the end goal might be, set-up Conversion (or goal) tracking. This can be done within the PPC platform (Google AdWords, Bing Ads, etc.), but ideally it is set-up through web analytics (Google Analytics.) Connecting web analytics to your PPC will allow you to see beyond the basic Impression and Click data, and uncover if there is a problem with your landing page(s) or conversion funnel/process.

If you are already running PPC but are not currently tracking conversions, then this is something that you should set-up ASAP. We cannot imagine anything scarier than spending marketing dollars and having no way of knowing/measuring the return!

3. Scary Complicated and/or Too Time Consuming

Pay per Click may seem simple and easy at first, but there is a reason Google requires a person to pass 2 of 6 different PPC proficiency exams to earn their AdWords Certified status. To properly setup and manage an account one needs to know the ins and outs of the AdWords platform and understand how search (both paid and organic) works. While there are several tools available to help make monitoring and management easier, these are only tools. The person using the tools still needs the skills and know how to make the most out of the tools. For instance, a carpenter can do a lot more with a saw and hammer then a chef can.

If you don’t have the time to learn, set-up and manage your own PPC advertising, we highly recommend that you seek help from someone certified (Google AdWords or Bing Ads) to help manage your PPC. Before you seek the help of just anybody, make sure that you have FULL access to your account and that if for any reason you decide to fire/disconnect from them managing your PPC, that you get to keep your account. Because the second scariest thing we can think up is not having any insight/access to your own PPC account.

Even though PPC can be scary and be a daunting task for some companies, if you take the time to truly understand the value of PPC and its ability to gain leads and sales and reach potential customers, then there should be no reason to be afraid of PPC advertising.

Are Your Wasting 25% of Your Pay per Click Budget?

September 3, 2015 by Justin Miller Leave a Comment

Study shows that small businesses waste 25% of their Pay per Click budget! Learn how working with a PPC certified individual/agency could help you maximize the return from your PPC advertising.

Check out our Google Partners Profile Page and Bing Ads Accredited Company Profile Page

Read Transcript

Hi, Justin Miller here from DaBrian Marketing Group, and I want to talk to small business owners, and small businesses in general that are running pay per click advertising. There was a study done not too long ago, that shows that up to a quarter of their pay per click budget is being wasted, and how and why is this being wasted? It has to do with not being knowledgeable of the platforms, and how to properly target your ads, as well as just not having the time to properly manage them, and keep them up to date. So, how can you be sure that you’re not wasting 25 percent of your PPC budget? If you need help, looking for a certified agency, or individual, can help cut down that waste, and maximize the return.

What's Exactly Does PPC Certified Mean?

But how do you know who is certified, and what exactly does it mean to be certified? So, let’s look a little bit more into that. First off, if you want to run Bing Ads, you’re definitely going to want to look for someone that is Bing Ads certified. What does this mean? It means they’ve passed the knowledge based test.So Bing Ads has put together a test to make sure that these individuals have the knowledge of how to set up, how to run, maintain, and keep up with best practices using the Bing Ads platform, which reaches not just Bing, but also Yahoo Search, as well as Apple’s IOS, on mobile devices. So you can see here, I’m logged in to my account, and I have passed this test. I am one of several that are, Bing Ads certified.

What to Look for with a PPC Company?

And what you want to look for, as a small business owner, is this accreditation badge. If you see that badge on somebody’s website, that indicates that that individual, or at least that agency, has someone in house that’s employed, that has passed this test, and has proven that they’re knowledgeable and successful at running a Bing Ads campaign. Okay, so that’s Bing Ads.

What's Required to be Google AdWords Certified Individual?

Next up is Google. Google has a similar type of test, or series of tests actually. So for Google AdWords, if you want to be Google AdWords certified, you have to pass the fundamentals test, as well as one additional specialized test. The specialized tests include search advertising, display advertising, video, shopping, or e-commerce, as well as targeting mobile devices, and advertising via mobile phones. Again, to be certified in AdWords, you have to pass the fundamentals, which is just a high level basic AdWords, PPC advertising exam, as well as one specialized one.

What's with Value of Working with a Google Partner?

In addition to being a certified individual, companies can earn what is called a partnership, or a Google partner status. Here at DaBrian Marketing Group, we have earned, and maintained that status with Google. So the first step is having at least 1 employee that is certified. We have 2 that are currently certified on staff, and you can see that includes the search and display advertising, as well as some of the other ones that we’ve looked at. Next is, maintaining best practices. So, pay per click as an industry is constantly changing, there’s constantly new updates, and the best practices on how you use these new features, constantly changes along with them. So you have to maintain these accounts, your client accounts, and make sure that you’re keeping up to date with best practice. So here you can see that there’s a minimum requirement, and then the average Google partner’s, requirement, and then where DaBrian Marketing Group currently sits, as far as maintaining best practices.

Why Does it Matter if You Work with a Google Partner?

Next up is experience. You have to show that at least 60 out of the last 90 days that you’ve logged in, and you’re active on these accounts. As you can see, we’re well up and above that in staying active every day on our client accounts, as well as managing a minimum ad spend. There’s a minimum spend of 10K, over 90 days, and currently, we’re just shy of 20K. So, the partnership status shows not only that they have knowledgeable staff who can take and pass those tests and exams, but also the experience in managing a sizable amount of budget over the last 3 months, as well as staying up to date with best practices, and really minimizing that wasted spend, that no company wants to pay out money to see no return for.

Is Your PPC Company Certified?

So definitely you want to connect with a certified partner, whether it’s Bing Ads, and or Google Partners, or at least AdWords certified. So, the question now is, is your current agency certified? You can go to Google.com/partners and do a search for that agency, or whomever you’re working with, or if you’re looking for an agency. This is a good place to start, and search around, find a local agency, that fits your needs. Some will require a minimum ad spend, and tit shows the different certifications that they have. If mobile advertising is important to you, you definitely want to find an agency that has the mobile advertising certification. Or e-commerce, you definitely want to look for shopping, and such. So hopefully you have a better understanding of what PPC certified means, and how individuals, as well as companies can go about getting these certifications, and working with them, to really minimize that wasted ad spend. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment, or give us a call. The office number is 610-743-5602. Thanks. Have a great day.