AdWords Editor 6.5 for Windows and Mac

On Tuesday, Google released version 6.5 of AdWords Editor. This release includes several features to help us navigate and manage our account, such as a new Keyword Opportunities tool, horizontal scrolling in the data view, and auto-sizing columns. New features are included and you can see them in the release notes. If you’re already using AdWords Editor, you’ll be prompted to upgrade automatically. This update won’t require you to re-download your account, and it won’t affect your comments and unposted changes. When prompted simply choose the ‘Update without Backup’ option. Then, after you upgrade, your account will already be in the new version of AdWords Editor.

If you’re not using AdWords Editor, go to Google website [http://www.google.com/intl/en/adwordseditor/] and download ‘AdWords Editor’.

Source – adwords blog

Improve Landing Page’s Credibility by Favicon

I found one article like this today. I never used a Favicon and don’t know how effective it will be. Read and post your opinion about this.

Landing page optimization is one of the most important aspects of PPC advertising. But there is something else you can do to improve your conversions on your landing page and it has nothing to do with optimization per Search Engine. It’s called a Favicon. A Favicon is a way to brand your landing page and give it more trust and credibility. In fact, your entire website should have a Favicon. But you can use a separate Favicon for your landing page, or you can use the same one site wide. If your landing page is a separate website altogether then it should have its own Favicon. A Favicon screams credibility. When web users see the Favicon they immediately think the site is there to stay and not just here-today-gone-tomorrow illusion. That’s important for increasing conversions. Add a Favicon to your landing page and improve your trust factor right away.

Differences in Analytics of Google AdWords and MSN adCenter

The major reason why I prefer Google AdWords PPC over MSN adCenter is the distinction in their analytics package. If you are using MSN adCenter, it is mandatory to insert code onto your landing page and a link will be appeared on your pages. The link is pointing to the MSN adCenter privacy policy and the link allows your site visitors to read the privacy policy at a quick look. I favor Google AdWords because I don’t want to include a link on my page at all. I am not against any privacy policy and I think that is necessary. But I feel it is better to put my own privacy policy than to give a link to another web site’s privacy policy. It looks more proficient and it won’t confuse the visitor. Even if the MSN adCenter link on my landing page opens up a new window for the MSN adCenter privacy policy, I still don’t like the link to be appeared in my page. But if you are happy with the service provide to you by MSN adCenter, then go ahead. Continue use it. I just express my opinion.

Can I Run a PPC Campaign To Promote a Blog?

As you know blogging is very popular today. These days it is used as a business medium – marketing tool for products, a sales tool, a traffic originator for AdSense, a link generation tool and so on. If you can do all these, what about running a PPC campaign for your blog? Many have a doubt that whether it is possible to use PPC to create traffic to their blog and make money out of that. Yes it is possible. But it is difficult to get a real ROI by maintaining a blog and using PPC to bring traffic to it.

The best ways to make money on a blog using a PPC campaign to drive traffic –

* Use your blog to sell a product
* Use your blog as an affiliate promotion strategy
* Use your blog to attract people to connect to your community
* Force people to subscribe to your opt-in list

Make sure that your call to action is strong and enough relevant content should be there in the index and inside pages. Writing a PPC ad for blog is the same as that of writing ad for a website. No need to worry what your landing page is. Success depends on constant testing and monitoring.

(If You Want) Say Goodbye to Google Site Stats Logo

It is no longer compulsory for the conversion tracking users to display the “Google Site Stats” logo on the conversion pages of their web sites. Before, a small but visible text segment that read “Google Site Stats” automatically appeared on the page where the conversion tracking code was placed on our web site. The logo would appear only after a conversion happened via our AdWords ad. It provided converting visitors links to information about AdWords conversion tracking and instructions on how to block the tracking. Many advertisers have told Google that the image is not going with their privacy policy. The users were able to notice the tracking technologies using in our sites. At last Google allowed to use that logo as an optional one. If you have installed conversion tracking code on your web site, the Site Stats logo will continue to display until you take further action. It is better to mention about the removal of the logo in your site’s privacy policy.

Should I Have More Than One Landing Page?

I highly recommend multiple landing pages and I have reasons for that. Different pages will do well in different search engines. It is because each search engine has its own ranking criteria. For Google, we can create a more text content oriented page with all the product descriptions, service offerings and provided benefits of using this service. For yahoo, we can create a landing page with images, testimonials and content in a brief form. Use bullets to show features and benefits. Think which are the keywords you are optimizing your landing page for. We can create two separate landing pages with similar keywords and each could rank well for their respective keywords in the same search engine. To do this, you have to write a separate ad for each landing page. Sounds bit odd right? But I’ve heard many companies who use this tactic quite successfully. Normally, I use more than one landing page. You have to decide which campaign needs a second landing page and set goals according to that.

Google TV Ads partnering with Bloomberg TV

On September 25, Google announced that they’re partnering with Bloomberg TV to offer Bloomberg TV’s national inventory to advertisers through the Google TV Ads platform. Bloomberg TV is a 24-hour business and financial news channel with more than 54 million listeners in the US.

This builds on Google’s partnership with NBCU( see my previous post –
Google & NBC Universal Partnering Up), and will provide advertisers with broader audience reach and access to desirable viewer demographics. Google TV Ads advertisers will have access to premium inventory on Bloomberg TV very soon, so stay tuned for further announcements. Currently, advertisers can target Bloomberg TV through Google DISH Network inventory available on the Google TV Ads platform. Google’s partnership with Bloomberg TV means that advertisers will be able to reach all Bloomberg TV viewers in the US.

Integrative PPC Campaigns

What will you do when you start a new PPC campaign? I mean whether you keep your new campaign as a stand alone one or integrate it with your existing campaigns? You might try being more integrative with your practice and see whether you get better results or not. If you integrate your new PPC campaigns into your current marketing scheme, what you already do should be successful enough to benefit from an add-on. If it is not successful and beneficial enough then there is no point in doing that. PPC integration is one of the crucial aspects of your total marketing plan. The true meaning of PPC integration is taking the most successful parts of your other marketing campaigns and making them work together with a PPC advertising. Even if you are using off-line marketing, article marketing, blogging or display advertising, you want your pay per click advertising to compliment your success. If you are using the same keywords and landing pages for your campaigns then you can measure the difference in results using an analytics application like google analytics. It is better to Take your pay per click campaigns and integrate them.

Elements of a Landing Page Design

Many times we have discussed about the importance of landing page in PPC. The following elements on your landing page should be considered for every landing page design you undertake:

* Call to Action – Your call to action is one of the most important elements of any landing page. This is the content that will ask for the sale. Without a strong call to action you will not see as many conversions as you expect.

* Page Content – Your content must be clear, enough descriptive and keep them reading.

* Headline – Your landing page headline must grab your readers’ attentions. They’ll never read your outstanding content if you don’t get their attention first.

* Overall Design – The design of your landing page is very important. It should be attractive to stick the visitors in your website.

* Landing Page Layout – Page layout is one of the most important component of building a quality landing page. Place your photos and graphics optimally. You should not have exit links that encourage page visitors to leave before making a purchase. You should make good use of bullet points, headlines, sub-headlines, and other page elements.

These points will help you building better landing pages. You have to determine which of elements will give a rise and down to your conversion.

Google & NBC Universal partnering up

Source – adwords.blogspot.com

September 09, Google announced a strategic partnership with NBC Universal in which NBCU will offer a limited amount of advertising inventory across all days and times on several of its cable networks. Advertisers using Google TV Ads will be able to place their ads on CNBC, Sci-Fi Network, MSNBC, Oxygen, Sleuth and Chiller starting in early 2009.

Read the full details of the partnership in the blog post on our Traditional Media blog. You can also read about how other advertisers are finding success with Google TV Ads, and check out our product demo to learn how to launch your own TV campaign.

We’ll also be holding a free webinar that will cover tips on how Google TV Ads can help drive more web traffic and increase your sales volume, turning TV viewers into your customers. The webinar will be held October 1st at 10AM PST, and you can sign up here to reserve your spot.