Post by CPC Search + Trada

We all love feeling as though we’ve dodged a bullet, right? Well, here are some practical tips and real-life examples for using AdWords tools without them using you.

The AdWords Search Funnel

AdWords Search Funnels reports were first introduced in March 2010 to favorable reviews. After all, this was Google’s free answer to multi-attribution channels. In October 2010 Google made a few improvements to Search Funnels, and what we have today after another upgrade is additional granularity.

Before diving in, it is important to understand that these reports reveal things you won’t find in the AdWords dashboard, and as a result, you might choose to change your optimization practices in AdWords.

To access these reports from AdWords, navigate to Tools & Analysis->Conversions and look for Search Funnels on the left side of the page.

Top Paths
Top Paths reports show the most popular paths to conversion and are available at the campaign, ad group, keyword and query levels. But even more revealing is the Transition Path (Clicks) report, which can be found by clicking the ‘Other’ dropdown and choosing a dimension.

The Campaign Transition Path report shows you how visitors moved from one campaign to another on the path to conversion. For example, we know that non-brand campaigns do the heavy lifting of educating our visitors about products and services, while brand campaigns often get all the credit (seen as last-click conversions in the Conv. (1-per-click) column). This report shows you how many conversions started in one campaign and converted in another, and which specific campaigns had the most influence on your visitors.

Besides Campaign Transition Path reports, you’ll also find several more detailed reports for the Ad Group, Keyword, and Query levels. Although it does reveal how search intent changes over time, the Query Transition Path report (shown below) may just be too granular to put to good use.

Assisted Conversions
Available at the Campaign, Ad Group and Keyword levels, Assisted Conversion reports let us understand and observe two distinct roles at play during the conversion process: assisted interaction and last interaction.

By definition, a channel (ie, campaign, ad group, or keyword) gets an assist interaction when that channel appears anywhere on a conversion path except as the final interaction. When a channel closes or completes a conversion, it is logged as a last interaction.

At the keyword level, we see many keywords with both last click conversions and assisted click conversions. Some keywords show even more assist conversions than last click conversions, which means they play a strong assisting role in your campaigns.

Now that you’ve isolated your top assisting keywords, what do you do with all this information? The next step might be to pair this with actual cost data, but unfortunately Google Analytics doesn’t provide cost data for click-assisted conversions out of the box. You’ll need to download separate reports, create pivot tables, and run some VLOOKUPs.

Path Length
It is always helpful to look at the number of visits it takes to convert your visitors. To quote Avinash Kaushik, self-proclaimed Google Analytics evangelist, “Not everyone wants to marry you on the first date, right?”

The Path Length report is our go-to for this type of analysis. What is interesting is how many visitors did NOT convert on the first date, er, click, but instead converted on the 2^nd click, or 3^rd click, etc. Perhaps your market is highly competitive and your visitors are doing some research?

Drilling into this segment of visitors to learn what things actually converted them is hard work, but it can be done. The Path Length report is really a jumping off point for some deep data diving.

In the next two parts of our Advanced AdWords Tools series we’ll look at the benefits and pitfalls of AdWords Campaign Experiments (ACE), and we’ll explore how to get the most out of Conversion Optimizer. Stay tuned!

Terry Whalen is the Managing Director and a Parter at CPC Search, an SEM agency is San Francisco. Terry is a certified Google AdWords Professional. Follow Terry on Twitter @tfwhalenho.

Joey Muller is an Account Director at CPC Search. Joey is a certified Google AdWords Professional. Follow Joey on Twitter @jmthefourth.

Want to improve your AdWords savvy? Sign up for our FREE webinar this  Thursday! Advanced AdWords Tools: Tips from the Experts, with our friends from CPC Search!

Guest post by Matt Heinz of Heinz Marketing

Search engine optimization (SEO), of course, is all about driving a growing volume of natural search volume to your site by creating and publishing compelling, relevant content.

It’s free traffic in that you don’t have to pay for the click, but it’s a lot of work to create the quantity and quality of content necessary to drive meaningful traffic growth.

That traffic bump also isn’t immediate, as Google needs recognize, appreciate and index your content first.

Paid search (often referred to as Pay Per Click or PPC) is immediate. Buy keywords today, get traffic today. But it can be crowded, incredibly expensive, and it doesn’t scale well over time.

But if you want a higher-performing SEO program, you actually want to start with PPC. Why? Because traffic isn’t the end goal. Conversion is. And because you don’t have infinite resources to create content and SEO value for every possible keyword (nor would you do them all at once anyway), the immediate data from PPC can tell you not only which keywords drive the best click performance but also the highest conversion on your destination or landing page.

Google may create a visual distinction between paid and natural links (which some consumers still don’t understand or discriminate based on), but keywords are keywords. The intent of the searcher is exactly the same.

Starting with a tight PPC test of your SEO keyword priorities might cost a little money, but in the long run you can quickly convert that investment into more clicks and higher conversions from your SEO efforts.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Martin_Heigan.

Want to get started with PPC? Learn how Trada can help!

Happy Friday! While you plan out your weekend, check out some of the things we read on the web this week!

1. Techcrunch covered “Why VCs are getting into PR” and it was a hot topic! There has been a rise in pitches from VC firms instead of the startups themselves. And why? As stated in the article, technology PR isn’t easy! Comments on the article offered other explanations as well- the changing game of PR, the accessibility of VCs and executives, and the involvement of VCs in start-ups without providing financial support. What are your thoughts?

2. Online Media Direct is offering “5 Facebook Advertising Tips for B2B’s”. Tips include having simple ad copy, using your existing fans’ interests to tailor your content, and targeting. One more tip could be using Trada for your Facebook advertising! (Shameless promotion, we know.)

3. PPC MEMES! Have you seen these? If you’re a paid search expert or novice, you will enjoy!

4. Blooming Pity: Valentine’s Day Florist Wars Turn Ugly Online via Brand Channel. Even the title sounds scary. What happened was the giants in the floral industry created ads on Google that said the local florists were (gasp!) SOLD OUT! It happened to all of the local shops in Minneapolis. In reality, ProFlowers meant to say their OWN flowers were sold out for Valentine’s Day, and a keyword mishap occurred, saying the local florists were sold out.

5. Mashable reports “Twitter Opens Self-Service Ad Platform Widely to Small Businesses.” And American Express cardmembers get first dibs? Twitter is partnering with American Express and offering preference to cardmembers and even giving them $100 in free advertising! Small businesses, sign up!

And because we couldn’t resist, one more PPC meme!

Thanks to PPC Memes for these images!

It doesn’t matter how stunning your blog post content is. A lousy headline will ensure your audience never reads it. You have to put the same amount of thought into your blog headlines as you do your topic selection and content writing.

Blog headlines create a first impression. They have to intrigue people and pique their interest, irresistibly luring your prospective audience to read on. Blog headlines are a sales tool. The right wording makes your post stand out from the mind-numbing clutter of literally thousands of other reading options.

Your blog headlines have to be short and sweet, a teaser in our quick-scan world. If your headline is too long readers will drift off before they even to the end, ensuring they certainly won’t be around to read your actual post.

So your blog headlines have to be eye-catching and thought-provoking. If you’re feeling performance anxiety, here are a few tips to help you improve your headlines:

1. Write the headline first … or maybe not.

Experts disagree on this. Some say you should write your headline first, because you have to clarify what readers can expect to get out of reading your post . Writing the headline first also helps you keep your content on-topic and tightly written.

But some blog pros believe savingthe headline till last finalizes the creative process and helps bring your topic more sharply into focus. Drafting a working title, like movie producers do, will help you stay focused as you’re writing your content.

Regardless of when you write your headline, give it the time and thought it deserves.

2. Keywords play a starring role.

In reality, blog headliners must speak effectively to two very different audiences – readers and search engines. The trick is to incorporate keywords so they perform their crucial SEO-boosting work for you, yet write a headline that appeals to real people, too.

As with all web-based content, you have to speak your readers’ language. The work you’ve already done researching keywords helps you think like a customer (potential reader) when writing your blog headline. Some industry thought leaders suggest that using your second-tier or niche keywords may be more effective and may offer more natural wording.

Using blog headlines to drive SEO matters, so you can get ranked high enough to be at the party. Search engines index and rank using headline content to detect post content. Experts say the first words in your headline are more effective to attract search engine attention than later words. And sticking to around 40 characters will allow your entire blog headline to show in search results.

3. Good blog headlines come in many styles.

Here are some examples:

• “Why” – an invitation to explore a topic, the thinking person’s headline.
• Posing a question – questions are good for ending your post but also initiating capturing reader interest, because people just love to be asked what they think.
• “How to” or “tutorial” – promises no-nonsense information to meet a specific need.
• Direct offer – leaves no question about what you’ll get. This is most often used in advertising headlines but can be effective in blogging, too.
• List – an extremely popular format. Numerals have a near-magnetic attraction — 3, 7 and 10 tend to be the most effective.
• News – be one of the first to learn
• “Context: phrase” – immediately identifies your subject, then introduces your specific topic.

4. It’s all about your prospective readers.

Your blog headline should identify what’s in it for them if they read your blog post. Personalize it with “you” or “your,” and compose with your audience in mind. You may not appeal to everyone, but you probably don’t want to anyway.

5. Bland is boring.

So avoid passive wording at all costs. When was the last time you saw something boring and wanted to know more about it? Instead, use action-oriented adjectives and adverbs — what journalists call “trigger” words – to grab attention. But don’t over-do it because you shouldn’t promise something you can’t deliver, nor do you want headlines that belong in the National Enquirer. Use words like:

• New
• Announcing
• Introducing
• Proven
• News
• Surprising
• Startling
• Free

6. Study the pros.

Read newspaper and magazine headlines to see which specific words writers use and how they use the words together.

7. Keep it simple.

Headlines should instantly identify what your blog post is about. Cute, cagey or cryptic language will only confuse readers, in which case they’ll simply move on to something more appealing.

And, finally – you’ve heard this before – don’t forget to test your blog headlines, so you can learn by doing how to perfect your ability to write tantalizing ones. Tracking results and analyzing which headlines have been most successful.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Lady Madonna

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Burning questions! Alert and dedicated listener Daniel wins the podcast lottery this week and we answer his very tricky question: What’s the deal with moving stuff around in my campaign and its potential effect on Quality Score?

Fear not, Daniel. Brave world explorers Anna Sawyer and Matt Hessler are in Athens this week studying the Socratic Method and they apply critical thinking to this puzzler.

- You’ll have to wait a while for Quality Score to improve
- How account history affects Quality Score
- Quick fixes for landing pages
- Yes, you should restructure your PPC campaign – and why

We love questions almost as much as we love cake. Be a hero like Daniel and leave them in the comments or email us at podcast@trada.com!

With all the great blogs and publications out there, every week we read fantastic articles about paid search, content marketing, SEO, and more. We wanted to highlight some of the articles that stood out to us this week.

1. The Content Marketeer has compiled a list 50 Marketers to Watch in 2012.  The list includes thought leaders, executives from leading brands, and talented writers with a passion for providing relevant content and strategies. Check it out and take note of these up-and-comers.

2. The Super Bowl was last weekend, and like most of the country we tuned in for the commercials. The NFL put together this stellar infographic  about how the Nation was “consumed” by Super Bowl Sunday. Did you know there was a 20% increase in anti-acids sales the next day? Not totally surprising, but a fun infographic!

3. The Attacat Brain is talking about being relevant- Do we Need to Add Search Queries? The post covers keywords and search queries and provides some great insights on broad match, negative keywords and more. Awesome post guys!

4. BlueGlass has created an infographic on the Rise of Content Marketing.  According to the Content Marketing Institute, Content is one of the fasted growing segments in Marketing. No surprise here, but did you know 90% of B2B marketers do some form on content marketing, whether they realize it or not? A cool infographic with tons of useful information and stats.

5. And lastly, Google is giving us an early Valentine’s Day gift in the form of algebra! Type this into the Google search form and be amazed:

sqrt(cos(x))*cos(300x)+sqrt(abs(x))-0.7)*(4-x*x)^0.01, sqrt(6-x^2), -sqrt(6-x^2) from -4.5 to 4.5

(Via Mashable)

Happy Friday! Have a fantastic weekend

One of the biggest mistakes you can make when starting a paid search campaign is to send traffic to your website. Your leads, the ones you pay for, are too valuable to send to your homepage. Each ad group in your paid search campaign should have its own dedicated landing page to ensure the user finds exactly what they are looking for. If I am searching for running shoes, I want to be taken to a landing page that has running shoes! The homepage of a shoe warehouse is not an acceptable alternative. Always aim to get the user to the page that supports what they were searching for in one click. Now that you know dedicated landing pages are a requirement for your paid search campaigns, where should you start? Below are my top five must-haves specifically for lead gen landing pages.

1. A simple form - You’ve likely heard this before but I’ll say it again. Don’t ask for someone’s entire life story if you want them to complete your form! Only ask for the fields you absolutely need to complete your follow-up action. Take advantage of your ability to follow up once you have their phone number or email address to find out additional info you may want but do not need. You can try another form on your confirmation page or asking the questions once you get them on the phone. Wouldn’t you be willing to sacrifice knowing what zip code your user lives in if it meant they’d be more likely to fill out your form? Take action: Remove as many fields as you can from your form to increase conversion rates

I like Visual Website Optimizer’s sign up page. They make it easy for you to sign up and don’t ask for any information other than what’s needed for them to market to you through email.

2. Proof that people like you – Users want to know other people like you! Try using a quote from one of your happy customers with their pretty picture to show the visitor that they are a real person and not just another made up quote. If you are a B2B company, don’t be afraid to use logos of your clients even if they aren’t big brands! If you don’t service big brands, it’s likely that most of your prospective clients trolling your site aren’t a big brand either and may appreciate that you work with other similar sized companies. Take action: Place at least one element of “proof” on your page: customer testimonials, press, Twitter/Facebook feeds and logo reels are all great options.

It’s obvious that testimonials must work well for KISSmetrics. You can see that they use a quote and client logos on this page. If you were to scroll down further (I only included what was above the fold for me), you’d find another client quote.

3. Privacy policy – I know this is boring but it’s often overlooked. If you’re collecting data on your landing page, you must have a privacy policy present . Not only does this give your user a feel-good sense of security, but the policy is required by Google, Yahoo! and Bing. If you don’t include one on your page, the search engines will eventually find this and pause your ad campaigns. Take action: Place a small link in the footer of your page linking to your privacy policy.

Privacy policies aren’t that fancy so I’ll shamelessly plug Trada and use our landing page as an example here.

4. Short and relevant content – You want it to be extremely obvious to the user what your value proposition is and why they are on your page. If the user clicked on an ad about email newsletters, your landing page should have a sign up for an email newsletter and explain why yours is the best! Please don’t include links to other pages on your website to learn more or navigation as part of your content. You’ve worked hard and paid money for the visitor to get here; don’t distract them by offering opportunities for them to leave. Take action: Only include a strong headline, a brief description of what you’re offering and supporting bullet points in the copy of your page.

Zoho does a nice job of using white space to their advantage and making the headline and supporting bullet points easy for the user to digest. I can skim through the bullets quickly and know that they are offering a project management tool that will allow me to stay organized and collaborate with my team.

5. Video – Video continues to show an increase in conversion rate. Why? Other than the fact that people may prefer to learn through watching rather than reading, it’s another trust factor. If you’re “professional” enough to have a video on your site about your product, I may be more willing to give you my information. A study by eyeviewdigital.com showed that adding video to a landing page increased conversion rates by 80%. Take action: Add a video to your landing page. If you don’t have a video to use and have a web-based product, consider a service like Jing  which allows you to record your screen and demo your product.

There’s nothing like a sexy product video that entices me to click and view. The video is embedded in the page so I don’t have to leave to watch it and the next action they want me to take, entering my website URL, is placed strategically below the video. Once I’ve bought into what they do, I can easily complete their desired action.

After you’ve made sure your landing pages include these five elements, don’t forget to TEST! To start, try testing the number of form fields that get you the best conversion rate, your headlines, client testimonials vs. client logos and positioning of your call-to-action buttons and video on the page.

If you have a landing page element that’s worked well for you, please share your strategy in the comments. We love hearing what’s worked for others.

Ready to test your stellar landing pages? Learn more about how Trada can help you drive targeted traffic to meet your conversion goals!