7 Definitive Do’s and Don’ts of Google AdWords Pay Per Click

Using Google AdWords or Bing Advertising can be one of the most efficient and most effective ways to drive highly targeted traffic to your websites and/or landing pages in a relatively quicker time frame than other digital marketing campaigns. However, there is a cost involved as there is with other […]

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How do people view search engine results pages?

The F-shaped pattern has been the commonly understood way in which web users browse sites and search results. 

Has user behaviour changed since then, or have perhaps the changes that Google and others have made to the presentation of search results made a difference?

An eyetracking study carried out by ConversionXL looks into this question, comparing the results with previous studies.

Here are a few key findings from the article…

The F-pattern no longer holds up

The F-pattern was something discovered during testing by Jakob Nielsen. The finding being that users read or scan pages in two horizontal movements followed by a vertical movement. Thus the F-shape.

For search results, as in the example shown on the right below (this is from 2006) we can see that the first two or three results attract most attention, while results below four or five downwards attract less interest.

Now the SERPs are different. We have more images to catch the eye in some results, as well as features like rich snippets, which stand in contrast to the more text-heavy Google results of the past.

Perhaps as a result of this ConversionXL were unable to replicate the F-shape in their tests. In the example below, the first result gets the maximum attention, with very little below the third result.

Google was right to remove right hand side ads

Google’s removal of right hand side ads earlier this year is backed up by the study.

In a nutshell, ads on the right didn’t get much attention, but ads at the top of search results did, at least until users realised they were ads (explains the green text I’d say).

Contrasts between Bing and Google

The study found a few differences in user behaviour on the two search engines:

• Users took longer before exploring below the fold on Bing. Google users began to view below the fold after around 7.1 seconds. On Bing this figure was 10.5 seconds.
•  Bing users spend more time viewing results above the fold. On Bing, users spent around 9.8 seconds compared to 7.8 on Google.
• Bing users took longer to view the first organic result. On Google, users viewed it after 3.3 seconds. On Bing this was 8.8 seconds.

In summary

I’d recommend reading the full article for more detail around the tests, but there are some interesting findings.

It seems that the f-shaped pattern may be no more, though I’d like to see other eye tracking studies before drawing that conclusion with certainty. There are so many variables – number of ads in results, images, featured snippets etc – that can effect the reading pattern.

There may well be a number of different patterns according to result types and, of course, user behaviour may change according to the intent behind the search.

One thing seems to be clear though – the top two or three results still command most attention. (This is from an Advanced Web Ranking CTR study in 2014)

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RLSA and Customer Match: using smart segmentation for big wins

So we all know about RLSA (retargeted lists for search ads) and its ability to use Customer Match, but how many of us are actually taking advantage of it?

The big problem with RLSA Customer Match is that in order for it to really have an impact on volume and performance, you need to have a very large customer list.

To be specific, leveraging RLSA with Customer Match is only worth the effort if you have a list of customers larger than 50,000.

So let’s say you do have that size database. How do you actually use RLSA with Customer Match to make the most of your re-engagement efforts? It all starts with segmentation.

We’ll go into how to do that, then explain why creating a campaign for each segment is important (TL;DR: it allows you to customize messaging and landing pages).

Segment your audience

The first step is to smartly segment out your customer list. There are a couple of ways to do so:

1. Use Average Order Value: Segmenting out audiences by high AOV, mid AOV, and low AOV helps determine which audiences tend to purchase our more expensive, luxury/premium type products and those who go after the cheaper items.
2. Use gender-specific categories: If your customers have purchased men’s clothing, accessories, or products or women’s clothing, accessories, or products, make sure your segments reflect that.
3. Segment by brands/line of product: If you have certain types of brands or lines of products, you may want to segment customers out by the brand/product line they’ve purchased.

Now that you’ve segmented your customers, you can create an RLSA campaign for each audience segmentation. Take the AOV example above. Based on that segmentation, you would create three campaigns: RLSA_HighAOV, RLSA_MidAOV, RLSA_LowAOV.

Split out segmented campaigns to get creative and destination control

Everyone knows that RLSA reaches users with high intent, which means that higher bids are appropriate; you can do that by just layering RLSA on existing campaigns and applying bid modifiers.

So why go through the hassle of creating additional campaigns for RLSA efforts?

Well, the benefit of creating them in separate campaigns is achieving complete control over creative and the post-click experience – getting the ability to tailor creative to each segment you’d like to reach.

As an example, you know that high-AOV audiences performing a relevant keyword search have purchased more luxury products, so your messaging should be more geared around quality, design, or high-end products.

On the flip side, for a lower-AOV segment, you should consider messaging more around deals, discounts, and affordability.

So you have a more tailored creative experience for each audience segment. That’s great – this can help with bringing customers back onto your site. Now it’s time to also ensure you’re sending users in each segment to the most relevant page possible.

Again, taking the AOV example, you would want to send your higher-AOV audience to a page that shows the relevant product/category they are searching for (if you have multiple pages that fit the bill, send them to the page showing more high-end items).

For lower-AOV audiences, use a relevant product page with deals and discounts – or even direct them to a sale/clearance page.

If you have a large customer list, RLSA with Customer Match is a powerful re-engagement tool – but success starts with smart segmentation.

Good luck!

Sana Ansari is the General Manager of 3Q Accelerate.

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Five brief but helpful tips for Google AdSense placement

AdSense is an advertising service provided by Google that gives webmasters a free and relatively simple way of earning money through display advertising on their site.

Of course the terrain of display advertising in the last few years has become a rocky place. With more and more people subconsciously becoming used to ignoring display and the rise of other content-led marketing methods.

However, display ads can theoretically bring in revenue if they are targeted properly and are relevant to the user, context and device.

And now that 21% of internet users globally only use their smartphone to access the internet, spurring Google to strengthen its mobile-friendly algorithm, it’s critical for all businesses to optimise their advertising for mobile.

AdSense has recently issued its own report on tips for mobile web success, and in among the general advice and lovely graphics, there are some brief tips for ad placement that you may not be aware of, so let’s take a quick look at them now.

Mobile ad placement best practice

As the report says, you should focus on creating “a flow between your content and the ad placements.” Basically your ads should feel like part of the user experience, and served when your visitors are most receptive.

The following tips are taken directly from the report…

Tip #1

When using enhanced features in text ads, decrease accidental clicks by moving the ad units a minimum of 150 pixels away from content.

Tip #2

Think about peeking your ad units above the fold for a great UX while maximizing revenue potential.

Tip #3

Potential eCPMs increase when you swap 320×50 for 320×100 ad units.

Tip #4

Anchor social links to make sharing easy.

Tip #5

Use the 300×250 ad unit for a potential increase in fill rates and eCPM.

Of course all these tips merely apply to AdSense display ads. There are many more pitfalls to be aware of when using other ad formats, especially if you use full-screen app ads on mobile sites, which you will be punished for.

And much of this is moot if you don’t have the fundamentals of mobile optimisation correct in the first place.

So your site needs to be responsive or adaptive to every screen size, the page speed needs to be fast, content should be easy to read… in fact, you should definitely read our comprehensive guide to mobile optimisation for more details.

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How to improve your CTR using Google Search Console

Last month I wrote a comprehensive guide on how to use Google Search Console, covering every aspect of what is essentially a giant toolshed full of useful stuff for all webmasters to use.

It was exhaustive, and probably exhausting. Don’t read the whole thing in one sitting, just dip in and out when you come across something you’re unsure about.

While wading through Search Console’s huge amount of features, I noticed a few elements that deserved to be highlighted, not only because I had no idea they existed or were even accessible to webmasters, but also because they may be able to help raise your click-through rate (CTR) on search engine results pages (SERPs), or at the very least, show you where to improve.

The first thing you need to be aware of is this… You can see all the search queries that bring traffic to your site in Search Console.

Yeah it was a massive pain when Google encrypted your search terms Google Analytics and replaced them with the ambiguous (not provided) but at least you can still find them here…

Just go to Search Console, then click on Search Traffic>Search Analytics.

There you go, a veritable bounty of delicious search terms, keywords and traffic-generating pages.

Now here’s the really good bit…

How can I use Search Console to help improve my CTR?

As I said in my original Search Console walkthrough, here you can toggle between a variety of options, filters and date-ranges.

Here are the Impressions and CTR for my own website Methods Unsound for April 2016:

Using this simple overview, ordered by number of impressions, I can see which posts have the highest visibility, but also the ones with a relatively low CTR.

Perhaps all these pages need is a tweak of a meta-description or the addition of some structured data?

And that’s what I did. I went through every article in the top 20 with particularly low CTR compared to impressions, and I made a number of changes to them in the CMS, including using the recommendations as featured in my guide to writing meta descriptions and guide to writing title tags.

These included:

• Making sure the most important keywords for the webpage showed up in the meta description.
• Making sure the most important keywords were first in title tags.
• Rewrote meta descriptions so they were more legible and meaningful.
• Made sure the meta descriptions were as compelling and as relevant as possible.
• Made sure meta descriptions were no longer than 135 – 160 characters long
• Made sure title tags were 50-60 characters long, including spaces.
• Made sure headlines (<h1> tag) were different from the title tag.
• Removed duplicate meta descriptions and title tags.
• Used rich snippets, in the form of Schema markup, to add elements such as visible star ratings to my results.

The results

Looking at the following 30 day period’s Impressions and CTR, here’s what I achieved in making these small changes…

If you look in the two last columns you can see the CTR for both April and May, and if I’m terribly honest it hasn’t been a ‘resounding’ success, but there has been some small improvements to a few of the pages…

Page 2 saw a 0.10% increase. Page 3 saw a 0.02% increase. Page 4 had a much more impressive 4.5% increase. Page 5 had a 0.64% increase. Page 10, a 0.73% increase…

Overall, the average CTR for the site has risen from 2.7% to 3.37%, but as you should already be pointing out, this can also be attributed to wealth of other factors – seasonal changes in traffic, algorithm fluctuations, general site health – and not the general on-page improvements to a handful of posts.

Also, sadly, a few of the pages’ went down in terms of CTR, and although I could blame the fact that most of those pages are more review and news based – and therefore have a limited shelf-life – that’s not strictly true for all of them.

This is far from an exact science, and clearly I have more work to do when it comes to my own on-page improvements. And for another test such as this, it would definitely be better to make changes to more evergreen posts (i.e. anything that’s not a review, news item or a specific timed event).

But what my intention is here is to show you that using Search Console you can clearly see which of your posts are doing well in terms of visibility but poor for click-through, and that by using some basic SEO techniques, you may be able to make a difference.

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EU referendum and brexit betting: who’s winning in organic search?

With the referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU coming up this week, there has obviously been a lot of debate online. 

It has also become a major online gambling event, with the value of bets set to exceed the previous biggest political event, the 2012 US election, according to a recent press release from online betting exchange Betfair.

In fact, it has now exceeded that mark, with more than £43 million in bets matched on the exchange. There’s also plenty of betting on the financial markets too, but we’ll stick to the bookmakers for this article.

While the polls predict a close outcome, the bookies are more certain that a brexit vote is unlikely. Odds of 4/1 for a leave vote seem very generous when some opinion polls put the two sides neck and neck.

One interesting aspect with a relatively unique betting event like this is the opportunity for new customer acquisition. It’s likely to attract customers who wouldn’t normally bet, and should be seen as an opportunity for the betting sites.

So which betting sites are ranking for brexit betting?

Here’s the data from Google Trends, showing the spike in search interest for terms around EU referendum betting.

We can see the spike in interest, which obviously presents an opportunity for traffic and customer acquisition for the betting sites.

Unlike seasonal SEO events like Christmas or major sports championships, this referendum is a one-off (hopefully) so strategy has to be geared towards this single event.

In the case of the EU referendum, the betting sites have had around a year to prepare for the event, though we can see that interest in betting has only really taken in the last two to three months.

According to PI Datametics, the term ‘EU referendum odds’ was searched on average 1,000 times in November 2015 and is now being searched 40,500 times a month.

We don’t have the data for June yet, but I think it’s safe to assume that we’ll be in six figures, as the spike on the chart above suggests.

Top organic search performers

The top performers (from the gambling sector) are:

1. Odds Checker
2. Paddy Power
3. Ladbrokes

All three sites rank highly for the term, and consistently too. Just compare their performance to that of their rivals:

This points to a lack of a coherent strategy around EU referendum betting. For example, Betfair has has 10 separate pages performing for this term, hindering its ability to hit a high search position.

Again, so much of this is about effective internal linking and creation of single landing pages for high value and high traffic search terms.

Clearly, with £43m matched on the exchange alone, Betfair has done well, but could it have done better with the right SEO strategy?

A missed PPC opportunity?

One final side point here – have the betting sites missed a PPC opportunity around referendum betting?

There is just one site buying ads today on the term. Given the spike we can see from Google Trends, and the high cost of customer acquisition for online betting, it seems strange that more sites aren’t using PPC to gain instant visibility here.

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How To Find The Best Bloggers and Journalists For Your Next Campaign

You have an awesome campaign idea for a client or a new project but are not quite sure where to find the right bloggers and/or journalists to target. This article will show you a few places to look for contacts as well as giving you some hints and tips for […]

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