Fall Teleseminar Series 2006 – Call 2 of 9 – with Andrew Goodman

Episode 2 of FreshBooks “Build Your Business” Fall Teleseminar Series

Introduction to Pay-Per-Click Advertising (46 mins 12 secs)

Listen using the MP3 player below or download the podcast here.

In the second of our Fall teleseminar series, Andrew Goodman, author of “Winning Results with Google AdWords”, shares his knowledge and answers your questions about how to get started with creating and managing a pay-per-click advertising campaign.

(PLEASE NOTE: The media player I used to listen to and record times for these notes is terrible. I apologize if the times are wrong and promise you this: I will never use Musicmatch Jukebox again.)

Here are some notes and timelines from our call with Andrew:

(0.20) – Andrew Goodman introduced.

(1.42) – Why would someone want to consider pay-per-click advertising, and how important is it in the landscape of marketing & advertising?

(3.25) – When it’s realistic to pay for some of your traffic.

(3.57) – Paid campaigns are measurable and accountable. Keyword success and volume of traffic can be tracked with precision.

(4.17) – What does a PPC advertisement look like?

(6.09) – What is content targeting?

(6.34) – Things to consider when you first set up your PPC campaign settings.

(7.30) – What to consider when measuring the return on cost.

(8.10) – Client example: results of measuring online & traditional advertising.

(8.54) – Can you choose the web site you want to run PPC advertising on?

(9.05) – Control over where your ads are shown.

(11.10) – What are the big search networks, and how would you prioritize them with regards to where you should advertise?

(13.18) – What are the differences in working with these top three search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN)?

(15.54) – Optimized ads get higher response.

(16.27) – The trade off between more targeted ads and lower click through rates.

(16.33) – The best ad combines a relatively high click through rate with clear language that filters out bad prospects.

(16.45) – Can you use your ad to further qualify people who are running a search?

(17.00) – Client example of unclear ad wording and what kind of prospects came through as a result.

(17.40) – How Google calculates an ad rank (CTR x CTC plus quality score).

(18.05) – How Google determines and penalizes “abusive” ads and landing pages.

(19.15) – Is Google looking for a strong connection between the ad you place in front of people, and the page those people land on once they click on the ad?

(20.14) – Google places value on disclosure and credibility factors (contact page and business information. FreshBooks has a blog post about how to design a good contact page form).

(21.20) – Many of Google’s rules have come from search engine users’ complaints about deceptive ads.

(21.50) – Does Google looks at page elements to make sure they’re consistent with the ads?

(22.28) – How Yahoo differs from Google.

(23.11) – Google offers A/B ad testing.

(24.04) – Which search network to start your PPC campaign with and why.

(27.34) – Do low performing click through rates of some keywords in an ad group bring down the value of all keywords in the same group?

(29.27) – Is it better to start out with fewer ad groups, and then refine from there?

(30.00) – Planning a category structure using a high level of granularity.

(30.31) – What kind of work should be done before you start bidding on keywords?

(31.25) – Account, campaign, and AdGroup settings and structure in Google.

(32.35) – Using a category structure of theme or meaning helps you analyse later.

(29.35) – Can you recommend any keyword research resources, tips to help with keyword research?

(31.02) – Client example: using specific product names.

(32.40) – Using the long tail terms (less frequently searched terms) and dynamic keyword insertion.

(33.36) – How your customers can help you perform keyword research.

(35.09) – Use benefit related features and plain language when writing your copy.

(36.41) – Some of my keywords have a click through rate above 5% but many don’t pass 1%. Should I concentrate only on higher click through keywords?

(39.30) – How do I target my ads to a specific geographic region?

(40.57) – Is an ad judged for overall CTR or does individual keyword rank the word higher?

(42.11) – Users gravitate to ad that matches more closely into search box. Does that mean create one ad per keyword?

(45.57) – The more advanced questions will be answered in next week’s podcast.

(47.25) – Final words of encouragement for starting a pay-per-click advertising campaign.

Links from Teleseminar:
Page Zero Media

Andrew Goodman’s book “Winning Results with Google AdWords”

FreshBooks post about how to design a good contact page.

Next podcast:
Don’t miss part two with world-renowned expert Andrew Goodman, which will deal with more advanced techniques of running pay-per-click campaigns. Sign up.