Comments on 17 Most Common PPC Mistakes Web Marketers Make
Posted Feb 16, 2007 @ 1:23 pm, Viewed by 834 Visitors, Read 835 Times.
Re: SEOMoz blog post in Related Links below
(And also check out the other related links at the bottom of the same blog post!)
With a few exceptions, this pretty much what others and I have said before, but all in one post. However, as noted in some of the blog comments, there are exceptions for the real estate industry.
Re #2: IMHO - Being #1 or #2 in sponsored results in our business, for all searches, is pretty critical. I have had many ads where average position was 3-4, and they got no clicks at all. There is just too much other competition on the results page. See more on this below.
Re: #5: Don't ever allow your real estate AdWords ads to run in the "Content" network. Use the "Search" network only. That way, you don't have to worry about all the click fraud that occurs primarily in the content network that the post discusses.
Re #9: Don't worry too much about what "affiliates" are. They generally don't apply in our business, unless your agents (or maybe your lenders) run their own PPC campaigns that send traffic to your team or brokerage web site, and you pay them for that traffic. In that rare situation, they could be considered "affiliates" in the way the author means. Paying lenders a nominal fee for traffic generated from their web sites could also be a way to avoid RESPA issues with that kind of arrangement, but that is another can of worms for a different forum area.
Re #12: Exact conversion tracking and statistics tracking are hard, especially for template web sites and 3rd party plug-in IDX systems, which most of us use, that do not allow you to integrate the necessary Google conversion tracking html code in the appropriate places, in the post registration "thank you" page, and/or do not allow you to integrate Google Analytics code. That's why I always recommend web site providers that have good detailed stats tracking to my PPC consulting clients.
Back to #2: Depending on the search, the ads that match that search, and the ad quality (how well the ads match the search terms), there may be from zero to three sponsored ads above the organic results. The remaining ads (not the same ones) would be in the column to the right of the organic results.
Therefore, the author's statement in #2 reveals that he is not really familiar with how the sponsored results are displayed, because any ad in positions 1-4 could potentially be above the organic results, or at the top of the right side column. In fact, the right side column is where ads in positions 1-2 will often be for "long tail" searches, or for searches where Google applies a "synonym match".
What is a synonym match you ask?
Not understanding synonym matching is Common Mistake #18, in my book.
Lets say you have a broad match keyword phrase: mytown mystate homes. Now that is pretty clearly and obviously a geo-targeted real estate search phrase, and Google identifies it as such. But if you (or your competitors) do not have a specific keyword for any of the user's exact terms in any of your ads for that community, and since Google now knows the user's search terms are real estate related, and thinks it may be similar to one of your keyword phrases, then Google will apply synonym matching. For example, if the user enters, instead of homes:
homes = home = houses = house = townhome = townhomes = townhouse = townhouses = condo = condos = realty = reelty = realaty = real estate = realestate = realastate = realastste = realistate = relastate = realtor = realator = realitor = realter.
All of the above terms and more, even the most atrocious misspellings, are generally considered by the Google AdWords programming to be synonyms. How do I know this?
Back to #12: This the essence of what the blog post author is saying about the importance of having detailed stats tracking. I know about synonym matches because with my P2A site's Ultrastats detailed reporting, I can see every search term a user has ever entered that has triggered my ads and sent them to my site. If I don't recognize the user's search terms to be any of my keyword phrases, I actually test each of the oddball search terms myself in a Google search to see which of my ads is triggered. If I then decide that I do NOT want Google to apply certain synonym matches to that ad, I must add as many of the potential synonyms as possible to my negative keyword list for that particular adgroup.
Now I know that my one keyword phrase, shown above, will trigger my ad for each of the synonym matches, so I really do not need to drive myself crazy to create hundreds of keyword phrase variations for each of the possible synonym cases. But in some cases, I still do, and I have specific adgroups for Homes, Houses, Real Estate and Condos, just to better manage my bids and track stats for those primary categories, and also to insure that the ad text the user sees is as close to the search terms they entered as possible.
(And also check out the other related links at the bottom of the same blog post!)
With a few exceptions, this pretty much what others and I have said before, but all in one post. However, as noted in some of the blog comments, there are exceptions for the real estate industry.
Re #2: IMHO - Being #1 or #2 in sponsored results in our business, for all searches, is pretty critical. I have had many ads where average position was 3-4, and they got no clicks at all. There is just too much other competition on the results page. See more on this below.
Re: #5: Don't ever allow your real estate AdWords ads to run in the "Content" network. Use the "Search" network only. That way, you don't have to worry about all the click fraud that occurs primarily in the content network that the post discusses.
Re #9: Don't worry too much about what "affiliates" are. They generally don't apply in our business, unless your agents (or maybe your lenders) run their own PPC campaigns that send traffic to your team or brokerage web site, and you pay them for that traffic. In that rare situation, they could be considered "affiliates" in the way the author means. Paying lenders a nominal fee for traffic generated from their web sites could also be a way to avoid RESPA issues with that kind of arrangement, but that is another can of worms for a different forum area.
Re #12: Exact conversion tracking and statistics tracking are hard, especially for template web sites and 3rd party plug-in IDX systems, which most of us use, that do not allow you to integrate the necessary Google conversion tracking html code in the appropriate places, in the post registration "thank you" page, and/or do not allow you to integrate Google Analytics code. That's why I always recommend web site providers that have good detailed stats tracking to my PPC consulting clients.
Back to #2: Depending on the search, the ads that match that search, and the ad quality (how well the ads match the search terms), there may be from zero to three sponsored ads above the organic results. The remaining ads (not the same ones) would be in the column to the right of the organic results.
Therefore, the author's statement in #2 reveals that he is not really familiar with how the sponsored results are displayed, because any ad in positions 1-4 could potentially be above the organic results, or at the top of the right side column. In fact, the right side column is where ads in positions 1-2 will often be for "long tail" searches, or for searches where Google applies a "synonym match".
What is a synonym match you ask?
Not understanding synonym matching is Common Mistake #18, in my book.
Lets say you have a broad match keyword phrase: mytown mystate homes. Now that is pretty clearly and obviously a geo-targeted real estate search phrase, and Google identifies it as such. But if you (or your competitors) do not have a specific keyword for any of the user's exact terms in any of your ads for that community, and since Google now knows the user's search terms are real estate related, and thinks it may be similar to one of your keyword phrases, then Google will apply synonym matching. For example, if the user enters, instead of homes:
homes = home = houses = house = townhome = townhomes = townhouse = townhouses = condo = condos = realty = reelty = realaty = real estate = realestate = realastate = realastste = realistate = relastate = realtor = realator = realitor = realter.
All of the above terms and more, even the most atrocious misspellings, are generally considered by the Google AdWords programming to be synonyms. How do I know this?
Back to #12: This the essence of what the blog post author is saying about the importance of having detailed stats tracking. I know about synonym matches because with my P2A site's Ultrastats detailed reporting, I can see every search term a user has ever entered that has triggered my ads and sent them to my site. If I don't recognize the user's search terms to be any of my keyword phrases, I actually test each of the oddball search terms myself in a Google search to see which of my ads is triggered. If I then decide that I do NOT want Google to apply certain synonym matches to that ad, I must add as many of the potential synonyms as possible to my negative keyword list for that particular adgroup.
Now I know that my one keyword phrase, shown above, will trigger my ad for each of the synonym matches, so I really do not need to drive myself crazy to create hundreds of keyword phrase variations for each of the possible synonym cases. But in some cases, I still do, and I have specific adgroups for Homes, Houses, Real Estate and Condos, just to better manage my bids and track stats for those primary categories, and also to insure that the ad text the user sees is as close to the search terms they entered as possible.
Ron Goodman, Broker-Associate
Prudential Colorado Real Estate
http://www.DenverHomeValue.com
1-800-381-8014
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Ron Goodman and the Denver Home Value Team are experienced Prudential Colorado Real Estate agents who specialize primarily in the Denver Colorado South Metro communities of Highlands Ranch, Lone Tree, Littleton, Centennial, Greenwood Village, Cherry Hills Village, Englewood, Parker and Castle Rock. Read More
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