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Justin Miller

Muted Ads – Is Being Blocked Bad?

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Google is always trying to give web surfers the best experience. Recently, with a change made to Display Advertising, Google has given the web surfer the capability to block or “mute” paid ads. As a marketer, initially my reaction was of fear and dread. Now, people on the web won’t just ignore my display ad, but go a step further and mute it! However, after thinking about this further, it may not be such a bad thing after all.

What is the new “Mute Ads” Feature?

The “Mute Ad” feature, which Google announced to the advertising world on June 29, is slowly being rolled out on their Display Network. This feature simply places an “X” next to the Ad Choice Logo on the top right hand side of your Advert.

If a web surfer chooses to click this “X,” then your advert will no longer appear to them, even if fit all of your targeting settings, such as placements and keywords. The first thoughts surrounding these “Muted Ads” were that they would lead to fewer Impressions and a decrease in reach.

How will “Muted Ads” Impact Your Display Campaigns?

Although getting fewer Impressions may be true, the “Muted Ads” could also mean lower costs, higher CTR (Click Through Rate), and decreased CPA (Cost per Acquisition). If you are a bidding CPM (Cost per 1,000 Impressions), then muted ads mean fewer Impressions to viewers who don’t want to see your ads – or less wasted dollars. If you do see a drop in Impressions, then overall Cost should drop with it, seeing as how you are paying per 1,000 Impressions. If you are running CPC (Cost per Click) bidding on the Display Network, “Muted Ads” can help you too. They will decrease your Impressions, but since you would lose people who didn’t want to see your ad, you should not be losing any Clicks (or at least valuable Clicks – the ones that lead to Conversions). This will result in a better CTR, which in turns will help improve Quality Score, reduce CPC, and improve ranking position. Altogether, the “Mute Ad” feature seems like it will be more beneficial than first expected. The question is, will people actually use it, or just continue ignoring irrelevant ads?

Could “Muted Ads” be Better?

In saying that I think this “Mute Ad” feature is good, I am also hoping Google AdWords will release more data around it once it is fully launched. Knowing where (which placements) an ad is being muted, or by which demographic (age, sex, geographic location) could be useful. This would enable advertisers to pull, revise, and replace irrelevant ads with more relevant ones to niche markets. For instance: An Ad may perform great in L.A. but get “muted” a lot in D.C. Knowing this allows the marketer to continue the successful Ad in L.A. while creating a new one for the D.C. area. So here is hoping that more data around “Muted Ads” is on the way.

What are your thoughts on this new “Mute Ads” feature, which enables web surfers to block specific display ads? Let us know in the comment section below.

3 Steps to a Successful Strategic PPC Campaign

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Exampale Pay per Click Advertising
Exampale of PPC Ads on a Google search engine reuslts page

Pay per Click (PPC) are the paid ads the show above and and along side of the search results, when you use Google, Bing, or other search engines. PPC can be a very powerful form of advertising. Google and Microsoft often brag about its amazing reach and how cost-effective it is. However, like everything else in business, if your PPC advertising efforts are aimless, then the profitability will most likely not be there. In order to not waste your time and money, here are 3 Steps (Strategy, Implement, and Optimize) to consider prior to running a Pay per Click Campaign.

1) Strategy

First ask the all important question: Why? What is your purpose of advertising online? This begins the strategy building process, which all starts with an overall objective – Increase brand awareness, generate leads, drive more sales, etc. This defined objective gives your PPC Campaign a focus. Next, decide how much you are willing to spend. Your budget is best set either monthly or daily. The final stage of the strategic process is setting specific and measurable Goals – i.e. to increase sales 3% month over month.

2) Implement

Now that you have an objective, budget, and at least one goal, the next step is setting up the Campaign. Before heading to Google AdWords or Microsoft adCenter, you will want to do some research. A few questions to consider are – Who is your target audience (broad or niche), what are they searching (keywords), and where are they online (websites, Social Media, etc.)? With all of this newly found information, it is time to head to the most appropriate advertising platform(s) (AdWords, adCenter, Facebook, etc.) and set-up your PPC Account. Remember to include multiple ad copy variations, keyword match types, and landing pages for testing purposes, because it is never too early to begin testing to see what will be the most effective and efficient.

3) Optimize

Finally, your PPC is up and running. The last step is to monitor its performance and make adjustments accordingly. Re-visit your goal(s) and determine all your Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s), not just the final goal metric. For example, if your goal is to increase sales 3% month over month, your KPI’s would include:

  • Impressions – Number of times the ad was shown

  • Clicks – How often your ad was engaged with

  • Conversions – Sales, Lead Generation, Phone Calls, etc.

  • Cost – Cost/Click and Cost/Conversion

  • ROI – Measure and show Profitability

Between checking the important KPI’s and continuously testing different elements (Ad Copy, Landing Pages, Keywords, etc.) of your PPC Campaign, you will be able to make the modifications needed to ensure that you reach your goals and objectives.

To summarize, Pay per Click can do wonders for your business, but you have to put work into it, rather than just running it aimlessly. Start with putting together a strategy. Use that strategy to guide you through the set-up and targeting process. Finally, stay focused on your business’s goals as you monitor, test, and optimize your PPC Campaigns. This simple, yet time-consuming and work-intensive 3-step process will help you build and manage an effective and efficient PPC Campaign.

PPC Advertising Battle: AdWords Vs adCenter

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Everyone knows that Google is king of search. But when it comes to Paid Search Advertising (PPC), is going with the Google always the best option? Although Bing and Yahoo combined do not compare to Google’s daily search volume, their paid advertising via Microsoft adCenter might be a cheaper alternative that could generate a higher ROI for you.

Round 1 of the PPC Advertising Battle: Stats & Metrics

From my experience, there seems to be less competition and therefore cheaper prices (CPC) on adCenter. Below is a snapshot look into a client’s account on adCenter. As you can see, they had an almost 2% CTR, an Average Position within the top 2-3 spots, a CPC below $1.00, and a CPA under $20.00. Now let’s compare those performance metrics to the same time period on Google AdWords. Stats are taken for the same Date Range from Google AdWords and Microsoft adCenter. As expected, Google AdWords brought in more traffic, and therefore more conversions (7 more to be exact). However, each Click cost $0.71 ($0.07 more) and each Conversion cost $26.26 (almost $10 more.)

Round 2 of the PPC Advertising Battle: ROI

If, for example, we assume the value of each conversion is $50 each, which PPC Account has a better ROI? Microsoft adCenter is showing a Cost of $583.10 (CPA $16.66 x 35 Conversions) with a returning Value of $1750 (35 Conversions x $50 value per Conversion). That results in an ROI of $1166.90 ($1750 Value – $583.10 Cost).

Keeping the same assumption of a $50 value per Conversion, Google AdWords earned a returning value of $2100 (42 Conversions x $50 Value), but had a cost of $1102.92 (Cost/Conv. $26.26 x 42 Conversions). With that said, the ROI for Google AdWords was $997.08 ($2100 Value – $1102.92 Cost.)

In this particular case, although Google AdWords earned a 90.4% ROI ($997.08), it was trumped by Microsoft adCenter, which earned an incredible 199.9% ROI ($1166.90).

Google AdWords Vs Microsoft Adverting Battle Re-cap

Microsoft adCenter did well in Round 1 with maintaining a good CTR (almost 2%) and generating 35 Conversions. However, Google was able to out muscle Microsoft, with more than double the CTR (above 4%) as well as an additional 7 Conversions (42 in total.)

In Round 2, Microsoft adCenter came out swinging with it lower CPC and CPA (or Cost/Conversion). After multiplying the incremental costs out, it turned out to be too much for Google. Bing Ads was able to pull out the victory with a very impressive ROI of over $1,000.

If you run similar or identical campaigns on both Google AdWords & Microsoft adCenter, let us know which is performing better. Does your paid search advertising battle end the same way this one did with Microsoft earning the higher ROI?

[Exact] ≠ Exact; at least not in Google AdWords

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What is Google Changing Now?

With the upcoming changes to both the [Exact] and “Phrase” Keyword Match Types, Google is helping you reach a larger audience. The question is will it still be your target audience. If you read the official post AdWords Blog, the examples given seems like this change will be extremely helpful. However, some marketers do not agree. Whether these changes will be beneficial to you is yet to be seen, but you need to know what impacts these changes will have on your account(s).

How Match Types Work

First, understand that [Exact] and “Phrase” match types are designed to help you reach your target audience and only your target audience. For example:

As you can see, the changes to these match types include close variations of the keyword (i.e. checking – check.) In addition, [exact] and “phrase” match types will also include misspelling, abbreviations, and singular/plurals. According to Google, these changes are meant to help you increase your reach and visibility online. Will it really help?

The Impact of the Changing Match Types

The obvious impact is going to be more Impressions for your ads. The question is will these addition Impressions generate more Clicks for you. If you feel that the addition impressions caused by the change of the match types will bring in more Clicks, then great. You do not have to do anything. Google will automatically opt-in to these changes for you.

However, if you feel this extended reach and visibility is going to be outside your target audience, then the additional Impressions will not result in more Clicks. That means that your Click Thru Rate (CTR) will drop, which is a large aspect of your Quality Score. A drop in Quality Score would result in an increase in Cost per Click and potentially in overall Cost, or drop in Position and most like Clicks. Therefore, if you feel this update to match types is not going increase Clicks, then you are going to want to opt-out in the advance settings.

Beneficial or Harmful Changes?

To conclude, these changes to the [exact] and “phrase” match types on Google AdWords are neither beneficial nor harmful across the board. It is going to be a case-by-case situation. You are going to want to keep a close eye on your CTR over the next few weeks. Once the change is made, you will notice an increase in Impressions, but if your CTR drops, you will want to opt-out. Otherwise, you will soon see a drop in Quality Score and eventually a decrease in Position and Clicks, or an increase in Cost. Do you think these changes will help or hurt your PPC Campaigns? Let us know.

The Cost of a Low Quality Score

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Quality is important in advertising, but even more so in PPC advertising. Google AdWords gives the top Ad Position to the highest Ad Rank, and Ad Rank is Max CPC Bid multiplied by Quality Score. This means that there are two factors that decide what position your PPC ads are shown – 1) How much you Bid (CPC) and 2)What your Quality Score is. A Quality Score can range from 1 (terrible) – 10 (excellent), as shown below.


In order to clearly see the Value (or Cost) of Quality Score, let’s walk through an example. First, assume a competitor is Bidding $0.75 with a Quality Score of 7. This means their Ad Rank is 5.25. The Table below reveals the CPC Bid that is needed in order to achieve the same Ad Rank depending on your Quality Score.


As you can see, a Higher PPC Quality Score can actually save you money, while a lower Quality Score could cost you $1.00 or more of additional cost per click (CPC.) Let’s continue with this example and assume 100 Clicks in a month. The below Table shows the additional and total savings/cost due to Quality Score.


The Yellow Highlighted Row is your competitor. The Green Highlights show the possible savings per click, and how you could be paying less than your competitor, if you have a higher Quality Score. However, the Red Highlights reveal that a low Quality Score could cause you to pay more than double your competitors per click. Now you should be able to clearly see how a Low Quality Score will greatly increase your Cost per Click, which in turn increase overall Cost, but also how a high Quality Score could lower you Cost and increase your Bottom Line.

Testing Changes in PPC Advertising

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As many of you have probably heard, both Google AdWords and Microsoft adCenter are testing multiple aspects of PPC advertising. Some items being tested include placement, layout, ad extensions, images within text ads, and more.Descriptions of each follow:

Placement

It has been reported that text ads have been spotted with the organic results on search pages.

Layout

The Headline can sometimes include the first line of description and the URL has jumped to just under the Headline.

New Ad Extensions

These let you have searchers request that you contact them via phone of email directly from your ad.

Images within Text Ads

Lastly of the ones that I am mentioning is the ability to show off products being advertised or the company logo within the contextual ad space.

To wrap up, keep an eye out for some, if not all, of these aspects being tested to be implemented into either Bing Ads and/or Google AdWords. Also remember that no matter how frustrating these changes are to keep up with, both Google and Microsoft are trying to improve their services so that we as online markets can improve our CTR and Conversions.