Winning Results with Google AdWords

401 Pages·2009·8.47 MB·English

by  Goodman A

Winning Results with
Google AdWords
Second Edition
About the Author
Andrew Goodman is founder and president of Page Zero Media, a Toronto-based search
marketing agency offering full-service campaign management for paid search as well as a variety
of related online marketing services for growth-oriented clients such as E*TRADE, Canon, Etsy,
Business and Legal Reports, Canadian Tire, and Torstar Digital. His blog, Traffick.com, has
framed many of the debates in the industry, dating back to 1999. A globally recognized speaker
(including an integral role in over 30 Search Engine Strategies conferences dating back to 2002),
he has served as Program Chair for Search Engine Strategies Toronto for the past two years.
His columns appear regularly in publications such as Search Engine Land, and his sound bites
frequently show up in major media, including The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, The
Washington Post, Fortune Small Business, Business News Network, and Marketing Magazine.
Andrew is also a cofounder of HomeStars, a dot-com startup in the home improvement space. He
served as VP, Strategy for HomeStars from 2007 through 2008.
For relaxation, Andrew enjoys inline skating in west end Toronto (sometimes into hostile
crowds of picnickers), extreme gardening, watching the Weather Channel, and long walks on
Cuban beaches. He shares most of these experiences with his wife, Carolyn Bassett.
About the Technical Editor
Matt Van Wagner is President and founder of Find Me Faster (www.findmefaster.com), a search
engine marketing firm based in Nashua, New Hampshire, and product architect for DEKE,
an ad simulator and quality control application for the Google AdWords DKI Ad function.
Matt is a member of Search Engine Marketing New England (SEMNE) and Search Engine
Marketing Professionals Organization (SEMPO), and is a courseware developer for the SEMPO
Institute. Matt writes occasionally about the Internet, search engines, and technology for iMedia
Connection, New Hampshire Business Review, and other publications. He has served as a
technical editor for Mona Elesseily’s Yahoo! Search Marketing Handbook. Matt holds a BS in
Economics from St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York, and an MBA from Rivier College,
Nashua, New Hampshire.
Winning Results with
Google AdWords
Second Edition
Andrew Goodman
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For Bill Gates
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Contents at a Glance
PART I The Paid Search Opportunity
1 How Big Is This Market? The Rapid Rise of Paid Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2 A $21 Billion Afterthought: How Google Entered
the Advertising Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
PART II How to Play the AdWords Game
3 First Principles for Reaching Customers Through AdWords . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4 Setting Up Ad Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
5 How Google Ranks Ads: Quality-Based Bidding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
6 Big-Picture Planning and Making the Case to the Boss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
PART III Intermediate-Level Strategies
7 Keyword Selection and Bidding: Tapping into
Powerful AdWords Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
8 Writing Winning Ads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
9 Expanding Your Ad Distribution: Opportunities and Pitfalls . . . . . . . . . . . 245
PART IV Winning the AdWords Game: Advanced Issues
10 Measuring Success: A “What’s Changed” Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
11 Increasing Online Conversion Rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
12 Online Targeting 1995–2015: Fast Start, Exciting Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
vii
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Contents
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii
PART I The Paid Search Opportunity
CHAPTER 1 How Big Is This Market? The Rapid Rise of Paid Search . . . . . . . . . 3
Targeted Advertising vs. Surplus Interruption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
In the Beginning: Advertising on the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Mass Marketing Inertia: Why Do the Old Ways Persist? . . . . . . . 8
Google’s Unassuming, Yet Butt-Kicking, Beginnings . . . . . . . . . 9
Search Marketing Facts and Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Size of the Advertising Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Size of the Online Advertising Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The Growth of Search Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Search Engine User Growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Types of Search Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Why Pay for Search Traffic? Isn’t It Free? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Screen Real Estate, Location of Listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Some Ads Are More Relevant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Post-“Florida” Fallout: Algorithmic Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Control Over Message, Navigation, Timing, Exposure . . . . . . . . 25
Noncommercial Sites and the Organic Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Organic and Paid Search Strategies: Not Mutually Exclusive . . . 27
CHAPTER 2 A $21 Billion Afterthought: How Google
Entered the Advertising Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
AdWords Gets Its Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
How to “Speak Google”? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Google Responds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Predecessors and Competitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Major Predecessors in Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Major Predecessors in Paid Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
ix