If everyone used Google Instant, just imagine how much time we’d save!

Google Instant launched yesterday. It’s probably the biggest change to the Google User Interface in the last 10 years, and Google’s Marissa Mayer is calling it a “fundamental shift in search.”

So what is it?

Google Instant predicts what you’re searching for, showing the results as you type. It uses the same technology as the auto-complete that usually fills in the search field. As you carry on typing, Google predicts your query and changes the search results as you go. It only works if you’re logged into a Google account.

Why have Google made this change?

Google reckon that this makes searching faster (up to 5 seconds less according to their research). They also say that good predictions help guide the user, and the instant results save the hassle of hitting ‘search’ or return.

It’s local and its personal

Google instant tailors the search results depending on where you are and what you’ve searched for before.

How does it affect my PPC campaigns?

PPC ads show for predicted queries, but obviously change as the search query grows in character length.  The fear is that this will massively increase impression count without boosting clicks: CTR falls, quality score falls.

However, Google says that not all results pages count as an impression. Its only if:

*the user clicks on the page after beginning to type a search query
*the user chooses one of the predicted queries from Google Instant
*the search results are shown for at least three seconds

Here’s an easy diagram to show you what counts as an impression.

We’ve certainly seen no increase in impression count but it is early days.

The potential upside is that the user gets a more relevant search experience. If your ads are tailored to that, then they’re more likely to buy.

How does it affect my SEO campaigns?

Probably not  at all. You still need to focus on a balance of those queries that bring you decent volumes and decent conversions. The chances are that Google Instant will boost relevancy; so make sure your titles and descriptions accurately describe the content of your page, and encourage searches to click through.

Have you tried Google Instant? What do you think? Leave us a comment below.

Whilst mobile still represents a small overall share of search volumes, its fast growing. Smartphone, iPhone, iPad and Android device use is on a steep upward curve, so this is a great time to start focusing your time and effort on building effective mobile search campaigns.

It’s not simply a case of adding in smartphone users from the setting page of your AdWords campaign: you need to answer a couple of questions first:

1. Are you using a mobile website?

Although smartphones make a good stab at browsing normal websites, they’re much more suited – as are all other phones – at mobile optimised sites. These tend to be simpler, with less content, bigger buttons and often a call to action such a click-to-call button.

Your campaign will almost always get a better result from a mobile site, but you need to decide how to deliver it. Are you going to automatically redirect smartphone users, or give them the option? If you do automatically redirect, then you need to make sure you’re tracking mobile devices correctly – more of that later.

2. How will you track phone calls?

As mentioned above, mobile sites often have prominent click-to-call buttons. The fact that the user has the phone in their hand – will mean your campaign is likely to generate a higher number of phone calls. Therefore you need a dedicated number or a dynamic numbering system – read our guide on how to track phone calls from AdWords campaigns.

How to set up a mobile campaign

Having answered the questions above now is the time to start setting up your mobile campaign.

Here’s our guide:

1. Set up a specific mobile campaign

The first and most important thing is to have a specific campaign for mobile. This is because the type of keywords that users search with – and their propensity to convert – are very different on mobile devices.

For example, a user searching for a good Italian restaurant in Waterloo from their desktop might use ‘Reviews for Italian Restaurant in Waterloo’. They’d then read the reviews, possibly share them, or maybe bookmark them for later. It might be worth bidding on this keyword but the user is not showing much immediacy to purchase, so you’d probably bid quite low.

By contrast, someone using a smartphone performing a local search because they want to eat lunch might simply use ‘Italian restaurant’. They might then use the click-to-call button to make a booking. This user is about to purchase – so it’s worth bidding up to get them on your site.

So build a new campaign with a new bid profile and be sure to include more general search terms.

You might find that many of your campaigns are already opted in for smartphone devices on Google and AdCenter: Take time to opt out of these settings and set up a specific mobile campaign.

2. Ad Copy

Whilst smartphone users can see normal AdWords ads, WAP devices can only see WAP mobile ads, so make sure you’ve got both.

We’ve previously discussed whether or not it’s a good idea to put a phone number in your AdWords ad, and a mobile campaign is one place to test that.

The other trick you might like to try is to make clear to searches that your website is mobile optimised by including an indicator in your visible URL, such as mobi.yourwebsite.com. In these cases, having a mobile optimised site not only boosts your conversion rates; it will help CTR too.

3. Tracking

Tracking and filtering clicks from mobile devices is an essential element of having a mobile search campaign. For all the reasons above, mobile users will interact differently with your website than normal users. Read our guide on how to track clicks from mobile devices.

That’s it

With the explosion of smartphone handset use, there’s never been a better time to set up mobile search campaigns. Follow these steps to make sure you do it right. If you want Euston Digital to help set up your mobile search campaign get in touch.

Back in the day, it was the Overture keyword tool that ruled the roost. There was nothing else out there to match it for keyword variations and volumes.

For the last 4 years or so, Google have taken over. Third party keyword tools can give you more variations, but it’s the Google tool that gives you best insight on the overall shape and depth of searches.

In the last year Google launched an updated beta keyword tool, which helped identify new keywords and search queries to add to your AdWords account.

The good news is that the tool is out of beta, and it has been enhanced to include many of the features of the old tool.

Here’s the good stuff it does:

*You can search by keyword, URL or category and get just 1 set of results
*You can filter by word or match type
*You can drill into stats for local, mobile and even get a view on ad share
*If you use the tool from within an ad group, the keywords that are already in the ad group are marked as such – saves on duplication.

*You can add negatives from right there in the tool, straight into the ad group.

Although available externally, the new tool is best accessed from the opportunities tab of your AdWords account, so that the results it pulls up for you are most relevant for that account.

Take a look and let us know what you find.

Google have updated their AdWords trademark policy in a move that will affect many advertisers.

This update affects what advertisers can say in their AdWords creative.

For Resellers

Up to this point, resellers of trademarked brands needed the trademark owner’s permission in order to mention the trademarked brand in the ad creative. Authorised users were placed on a white list of permitted users.

From the 14th September, anyone selling or reviewing trademarked brand products on their website can start to mention the trademarked brand in their ad creative.

Here’s an example

Until now resellers of Epsom Ink Cartridges were not allowed to mention Epsom in their AdWords creative, unless authorised by Epsom and placed on the trademark white list. From the 14th September, as long as advertisers clearly display the Epsom brand on the landing page, and that a users is able to purchase the Epsom cartridge or read an impartial review of it, those advertisers will be allowed to mention ‘Epsom’ in their AdWords creative.

This change brings the UK into line with trademark policy in the US.

The change will have the biggest effect on resellers and review websites.

What should you do now?

Euston Digital will ensure that all those ads that have been previously disallowed for trademark reasons are resubmitted in order to go live on the 14th. Any other opportunities to include previously restricted trademarks will be evaluated in order to improve the CTR of creatives. Once live, we will test the performance of creatives in order to order work where trademarked terms perform well – and when they do not.

We will also identify where on your website the trademark owner’s brand could be highlighted, in order to make the approval process run smoothly.

For questions and clarification contact your account manager.

When in front of a PC, users often have time to sit back, relax and take time to research the right solution for them. But when a user searches from a mobile phone, they’re usually want to take action. They’re out and about, and want to find answers straight away, with the minimum of hassle or fuss.

This action is often finding your business, or getting your contact details. Mobile users often use maps to find a business and work out how to get there. Thanks to AdWords Location Extensions it’s now possible to put your phone number and location on an expandable map, which can appear either in apps or on Mobile websites on the Google Display Network (GDN).

What does it look like?

The ad looks like a banner text ad along with an icon representing a business. Users can click to expand, and a map shows up with a marker for your location, a click to call phone number and an option to get directions.

These ads are very powerful. As they’re based on where the user is, they will see the number and business address that’s nearest to them. This is a key way to boost visitors to your actual physical business location.

Another great feature is that you only get charged when someone clicks and visits your website, not when they expand your map or get directions. The click to call cost is the same as the CPC of a visit to the website.

How do I set it up?

1. To start with, on the settings tab make sure your campaign is opted into the Google Display Network.

2. Next, opt to display your campaign on iPhones and other smartphone devices with full Internet browsers.

3. Then, on the extensions tab from the overview page, set up location extensions and add your phone number and address.

4. Upload a business logo, or choose from the set of icons available.

The map and placemarker ad will now automatically be generated when users perform a local search from their mobile device.

That’s it

Do you carry out business and meet customers at a physical location? Do you have single or multiple retail outlets? Use location extensions to make it easy for local people to find your business. And then let us know about how you get on!

Ever since Google Analytics launched, a big criticism has always been its focus on the last click in the customer journey.

As any marketer knows, a business usually reaches potential customers a few times before they finally buy. So to reward the marketing channel with the final touch point takes value away from all those other channels.

Robust, detailed tracking solutions (we use DC-Storm) provide hard evidence of these multiple touch points. Using lifecycle reports you can drill into all the keywords someone used before they finally bought from you. And if you can see these touch points, you can attribute some marketing value to them all.

Finally, AdWords and Google Analytics have wised up to this, with their recently introduced AdWords Search Funnel Reports (ASFR).

And there’s something a little bit special about AdWords Search Funnel Reports. Whilst other tracking solutions can tell you which keywords generated clicks on the customer journey, the ASFR can tell you which keywords created clicks and impressions on the customer journey. So this report can tell you when a customer saw your ad even if they didn’t click on it.

Here’s some new metrics that the ASFR reveals:

Assist clicks: These are clicks that did not lead directly to sale, but occurred in the lead up to a sale.
Assist impressions: The same as assist clicks but for when your ad appeared but was not clicked on, and did not appear immediately prior to a sale.
Path length (clicks): The number of ads clicked before a sale.
Assisted conversions: The number times a keyword or campaign played a role in the journey to a sale.
Last click conversions: The traditional metric – when a campaign or keyword was the last one before a sale.

So what are the most useful reports to look at?

To start with, try the ‘Assist clicks and impressions report’:

With this, you can find out how many times a keyword or campaign assisted a sale, whether it generated a click or an impression.

If you’ve got keywords that are great for assists, then these are good keywords to target for expansion.

Then try looking at the ‘Top Paths report’:

With this report you can identify the particular combinations of keywords or campaigns that led to a conversion. You can quickly see the customer journey that often moves from generic keyword to brand keyword.

That’s it for now

The AdWords search funnel reports can highlight much greater depth to your data. If you want Euston Digital to use AdWords Search Funnels in your PPC Search marketing, get in touch.

Google Analytics has just added a new feature that makes tracking clicks from mobile ads a whole lot easier.

If enabled, Google analytics can automatically tag all AdWords clicks with a unique URL the helps it identify that traffic source. However, in some cases it’s not possible to link an AdWords account with an Analytics account. And in other cases, you might want to track clicks from mobile ads on other networks.

So how do you go about identifying and segmenting mobile clicks?

The answer lies in a new tracking parameter called Mobile ValueTrack. This automatically ads a tag to the destination URL, allowing Google Analytics to identify it as a mobile click. To use the feature, just add the Mobile ValueTrack parameter: {ifmobile:NewTagName} into the “Destination URL” field  when you’re putting together your mobile text ad.

Redirecting traffic to a mobile optimised site

The first, huge benefit of the mobile ValueTrack parameter, is that it allows you to identify clicks from mobiles, and to redirect them to a mobile optimised version of your website.

Let’s say you wanted all clicks from mobile devices for your website www.travelingdog.net to be redirected to www.travelingdog,net/mobile. All you’d need to do is add the mobile ValueTrack parameter {ifmobile:mobile}.

Here’s what it would look like in AdWords:

Tracking using third party tags

If – like Euston Digital – you’re often using third party tracking tags, you can still use Mobile ValueTrack to track your mobile clicks. All you need to do is insert the tag into the destination URL.

In the example of travellingdog.net above, you just need to add the Mobile ValueTrack parameter into the landing page URL so it looks like this:

www.travelingdog.net?type={ifmobile:mobclick}

In this example, the tag “mobclick” gets inserted into the URL, which lets you identify those clicks from mobiles.

If you need help tacking clicks from mobile devices for your PPC or Mobile campaign, get in touch.

In the last couple of years, Google have added a few ‘extensions’ to AdWords campaign settings that allow the savvy advertiser to make their ads stand out from the crowd.

Aside from making your ad appear larger on the page, they also let searchers grab more detail about your service, and navigate deeper into your site.

We’ve already talked about Sitelinks, an effective way to take more space on the SERPs and let users reach new pages. And just a few days ago we discussed phone extensions which can display your phone number to some searchers.

Now it’s time to talk about location extensions. Launched last year, these let you attached relevant business address to your ads. This is what it looks like in the SERPs:

And this is what it looks like when expanded:

Location extensions can be added to campaigns from the ‘extensions’ or ’settings’ tab of your AdWords account. You can either link your AdWords account to your local places account, and thus display your location listed there; or add an address manually.

Location extensions have also just been upgraded, to allow the display of multiple addresses. In this example, someone is searching for their local Toys R Us store:

Clearly it’s useful to allow customers to see the location that’s nearest to them, or the easiest to get to. And if they move the map, the relevant locations appear for the new area shown. For offline businesses this is clearly going to provide a boost to in-store footfall.

To make sure you have multiple addresses displayed for your location, you need to link your AdWords account to your Google Places account, and make sure all your locations have been listed there. If you’ve got loads of addresses don’t worry, these can be uploaded in bulk.

If you need Euston Digital to help adding location extensions to your PPC campaigns, please get in touch.