Start of email from Google

Google is converting all phone numbers in advert copy into phone numbers under the Call Extension. This means that you’ll be able to track whether calls are coming straight from the advert or from website interaction. There’s no current sign of this announcement on the official Google Inside AdWords blog, yet.

Explicitly offering a phone number to call has been an AdWords feature for mobile devices for nearly two years – but it is still quite rare to see, especially in smaller advertisers’ accounts. This change may come as a significant surprise to some advertisers – and is likely to draw their attention to the ever-increasing search volumes from mobile devices (both phones and tablets).

Will you be paying more?

If you have a lot of users who use a phone number embedded in your adverts, then you may see cost changes. It was previously free for a user to key in your phone number and call you. However, users can still choose to do that – it’ll be up to them, though.

When this change takes effect, it will cost you if users decide to click on your phone number to make a call. Unless you have also opted in to use Call Bidding, you’ll be looking at the cost per click for the advert – the announcements we’ve seen suggest that the price will be same as a standard click to your website.

This change probably does mean some more revenue for Google, especially on mobile devices. Previously, if you had a phone number in adverts, it may not have been clickable and the user would have had to record the number elsewhere and then call. This change should make it easier for users to call you – and at only the cost of a click. On the whole we suspect that the improved ease of use will compensate for the additional costs of the click – you may receive more phone calls as a result of this change.

Further Implications?

This move also makes it more likely that advertisers will offer a Google Forwarding Call Extension, and this will probably push some advertisers who have not intentionally used the Call Extension to consider which other extensions they should be using.

And of course, if phone calls are valuable to your business, then participating in the AdWords Bidding for Calls auction becomes attractive. This is a pretty new auction in AdWords and currently has relatively few bidding in it – keeping the value down. We’re pretty sure that while this announcement may do some positive things for advertisers, we expect the main impact to be increasing value of the Bid-per-call auction for Google – in some markets, the value of a call is far higher than the value of a click to a website, and increasing from the normal click cost will be highly desirable, if it brings in more calls.

There is a variation of the Call Extension that could see further increases in costs for advertisers – Google offers a Call Extension Forwarding Phone Number, allowing for better tracking of call details. The announcement does not say that the changes will involve Google Forwarding numbers – so advertisers should not be looking at the $1.00 (or£1.00 minimum in the UK) call costs, or higher. But it will draw these capabilities to more advertisers attentions.

We reported here at AdWords Help Experts reported back in May 2010 that Google was had begun to show limited data for queries that did not result in a click but the data was very limited.

This week I have noticed a dramatic change to my search query reports and lots more zero click data.

This week I am seeing more data than ever in client accounts!  This is a huge help in identifying negative keywords.  I have not confirmed that Google has changed their reporting so if you see increases in your account reporting please comment!

Article by:  +Kim Clinkunbroomer Clinks Web Service  a  Google AdWords Partner Company Subscribe: RSS Feeds  |  Follow me on Twitter

AdWords Sitelinks have proven themselves a valuable tool in improving click through rate.  Many times CTR on ads with active sitelinks is double or more, that of ads in the same position without sitelinks.   While I find that the ads with sitelinks often receive much higher CTR, I see when reviewing data in the AdWords User Interface that many times the actual sitelinks are not clicked, instead the more traditional title link is clicked.

The screenshot above compares the overall CTR of the campaign, the CTR of the ads with sitelinks included, and the CTR of the actual sitelinks themselves.  As the screenshot shows in this case the sitelinks were not used very often.  The CTR of the ads when the sitelinks are shown is substantially higher than when the sitelinks are not shown.  This increased CTR could be attributed to the ads positioning as the sitelinks will only show in the top positions above organic results which generally elicits higher CTR’s so keep that in mind when evaluating data so that you compare sitelink ads to ads in similar positioning.

Data shows that just seeing additional messages has a positive effect on CTR for most advertisers.  Why the sitelinks themselves are not clicked more often I cannot say for sure.  It might be that many people are not yet aware that these links are clickable.  Regardless, the data should still be tracked and evaluated as sitelinks are likely here to stay and as they dig in they will be more widely recognized and used.

Understanding Sitelinks

What are Sitelinks?

AdWords sitelinks are additional links that appear with your text ads.  They can appear as a listed format including multiple lines or a single line of links.

To Qualify

To be eligible for sitelinks to run with your ads you must first meet the following criteria:

1. Your ad must be positioned in the top sponsored results (above organic listings)
2. You should have a high Quality Scores.
3. Your sitelinks URLs take visitors to the main website, as in the same top level domain as your ad’s display and destination URL.

Why Sitelinks Work

1. Expand your message.  Use your sitelinks to include extra messages about services, offers, and more.
2. Take up more real estate on the search results page.  Your ads are more visually noticeable and attract more attention which generally results in higher CTR.
3. Take visitors to specific landing pages with specific sitelink destination URL’s.  When people click one of your sitelinks they are taken to your website and the specific URL you designate for that sitelink.
4. Give your visitors direction.  Offer your potential site visitors options to help them find the products/services they desire when they use general/generic search terms.

Sitelink Formats

Sitelinks appear under text ads on Google.com, in two formats:

One line format

One line Ad Sitelinks provide for more general targeting with your ads and keywords, but on some occasions may also include brand terms.

Two line format

Two line sitelinks are designed to trigger in situations where an ad provides the ideal answer for a search query. These ads are most likely to trigger on unique brand terms.

How Many Links Show?

You can create up to 10 sitelinks but no more than 4 will be displayed at one time for ads that qualify. Google’s algorithm will determine what site links will appear with the search result.  If you prefer some control over what links appear with your ads then I suggest creating only 4 sitelinks for any given campaign.

Planning for Sitelink Implementation

Sitelinks can be used to send a variety of messages, a few examples are:

• General messages:  about us – Our Products – Coupons
• speak to a categories of products: Lotion – Diapers – Strollers – Cribs
• speak to an individual subcategory of your products/services: Umbrella Strollers – Single Strollers – Double Strollers – Triple Strollers

Sitelinks are a campaign level setting so be very sure that the message you send via sitelinks is appropriate for every ad group in the campaign.  You may be restricted in your sitelink messages based on your account structure, finding you are forced to stick with more general sitelinks that work for every ad group in the campaign.    There are times that you may want to test if sitelinks will provide better performance from your Adwords account.  By better performance I don’t just mean better CTR, I mean better overall performance and return on investment. Testing is always a good idea,  to identify potential areas of improvement and sitelink messages are a great testing idea.   For example, if this baby product advertiser (sitelink examples above) wanted to really push their strollers, they may consider separating strollers into its own test campaign.  This would allow them to create a powerful sitelink message specific to strollers that included brand terms to see what brand drew the most attention on a general term like ‘baby strollers’:   Graco  – Chicco  -  Britax  – Baby Trend.

It needs to be determined if creating additional campaigns to test sitelinks is worth the extra work and if your budget will support an additional campaign(s).  I do not suggest that advertisers start pulling their entire accounts apart to test sitelinks as account history can be negatively affected by large structural account changes.  However, small controlled tests are always a good idea and if you see the effect you are looking for with a certain segment of your account it may give you data to support further testing.

Implementing Sitelinks

To implement sitelinks visit the Ad Extensions tab.

If you do not see the ad extensions tab see the screenshot below.

Once you are on the ad extensions tab select sitelinks from the drop-down.

Then click + new extension.

The sitelink section will load.

Before you get started actually creating your sitelinks read on, below is important info on creating custom destination URL’s to identify and track your sitelinks.

Tracking Sitelink Data

Performance data on sitelinks is limited in the AdWords user interface.  Currently advertisers can see the following metrics:

Clicks, Impressions, CTR, Average Cost per Click and Average position.  This data can be reviewed under the Ad Extensions tab that we discussed in the section above, or by segmenting your data on the Campaigns or Ad Groups tab by ‘Click Type’.

It is helpful to see the data in the AdWords UI but it is limited and leaves us asking for more.

By coding your sitelink destination url’s and using an Analytics program, such as Google Analytics to track goals, it is easy to collect the data you need to evaluate your sitelinks performance.

Tagging Sitelink URL’s for Tracking

Tagging your sitelinks destination url’s with specific parameters allows you to identify and gather performance data such as what specific sitelink was clicked, time spent on the landing page, bounce and exit rates, if a conversion occurred (setup goals), if revenue was generated (when ecommerce is tracked), and more.  To collect this data we code the destination URL with specific tracking parameters and to collect and review this data we go to Google Analytics.

What Parameters to Include?

The list below contains custom parameters as well as some {value track} parameters that collect and pass data to your analytic program.  This link contains the full list of value track parameters.  I suggest that you review and identify if any of these value track parameters would be of use to you personally.- http://goo.gl/cDm2l

These are a good set of parameters to start with:

• origin=sitelink – this parameter identifies traffic generated via a sitelink.
• campaign=campaignname – This parameter identifies the campaign that generated the traffic. Important note: replace text ‘campaign name’ with a name to identify YOUR AdWords campaign.
• {copy:adgroupid} – This parameter identifies the ad group that generated the sitelink traffic and the data will populate with the ad group id.
• sitelinkname=identifythespecificitelink – This parameter identifies the specific sitelink that generated the traffic. Important note: replace text ‘identifythespecificsitelink’ with a name that identifies the specific sitelink i.e. sitelinkname=aboutus, sitelinkname=strollers.
• keyword={keyword} – This parameter identifies the keyword from your AdWords account that generated the traffic.
• matchtype={matchtype} – This parameter identifies the match type that triggered the visit, data will populate with an “e” for exact match,  “p” for phrase match, and “b” for broad match.

Again, there is a larger list of parameters that you can use to collect data and you can create your own custom parameters.  Identify and collect what is important for your own analysis.

Building your Custom Destination URL

To build your new destination URL start with your website destination URL:

Example: http://adwordshelpexperts.com - if your destination URL is an internal page, instead of the home page that is fine, use whatever is the most appropriate destination URL for the advertising directive, we will add from there.

To add your first parameter you are going to include a ?  between the URL and the parameter.  For each additional parameter you are going to separate the parameters with a & symbol.  The language you are creating is to track a specific parameter and other parameters.

Example of a completed sitelink URL:

http://www.adwordshelpexperts.com?origin=sitelink&campaign=babystrollers&{copy:adgroupid}&sitelinkname=graco&keyword={keyword}&matchtype={matchtype}

Before implementing your sitelinks I suggest that they be tested to see that they are not receiving any browser errors.  Copy and paste the customized destination URL into a browser and confirm that the link is working properly.  Then implement the sitelink in AdWords.

Segmenting and Reviewing your Sitelink Performance in Google Analytics through Custom Filters.

Now that you have planned, created, tested and implemented your custom sitelink destination URL’s it is time to learn how to segment and review your data.  This process outlines how to do this in Google Analytics but the concept is the same across any analytics program – segment out this data through filters.

An easy way to do this via Google Analytics run a Top Content report, then filter the report to contain data you would like to see.  For example, I often collect all the sitelink data by filtering on the origin=sitelink parameter as all the sitelinks are coded with this parameter for identification purposes.  I can then further filter this data by campaign, adgroup, etc.

Evaluate

Dig into the sitelink performance data from the AdWords interface as well as this Analytics data to get a better understanding of what these additional messages mean to visitors.   Evaluate visitors on-site behavior via sitelinks, and review if the sitelink traffic is generating leads, revenue, awareness, etc., and make adjustments as necessary to improve performance.

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Article by:  +Kim Clinkunbroomer Clinks Web Service  a  Google AdWords Partner Company Subscribe: RSS Feeds  |  Follow me on Twitter

11/24/10 – Well I guess Google just wanted us to feel really thankful this season!  QS values are raising.  Scores are raising, however, they are not fully back to normal.  QS is up throughout the entire accounts but in some groups keywords are not back to their previous QS.  What was a 10/10 is current 6/10 (was 3/10 with QS bug) Check your accounts and comment below!

What a way to start the week.

Seems there might be something going on with the reporting of Quality Score in AdWords again.

Little background first.

Last month Google had a problem with the reporting of Quality Score in the AdWords Interface.  They issued a Known Issue related to Quality Score.  This Known Issue reports that some advertisers were effected between October 26-27, 2010 with a sudden decrease in Quality Score.  The low quality score reported did not reflect the performance of accounts and the issue was repaired.

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I was surprised last week to see quality score in a client account declining.  Quality scores dropped overnight throughout the account.    I can prove the keywords were running fine a week ago becaused I has paused some keywords that still sit with the Quality Score as reflected last week (screenshot below).  This ‘seems’ to be effecting performance because I am seeing higher first page bid estimates for many keywords.  However these keywords still continue to accrue impressions, clicks and are still holding strong at their previous positions.  The issue ‘seems’ to be only cosmetic but I am not completely sure.

I am not the only one.  There is a pretty full crowd in this thread in the AdWords Help Forum already on the issue.

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Another example of 10/10 keywords reduced to 4/10 – sad isn’t it?

The lines highlighted in Yellow represent keywords PAUSED last week.  As you can see their Quality Score while paused is 10/10.  If I was to enable these keywords their QS will drop.

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Now, for the record this is an account that has been running since 2002 and has excellent history, CTR, and qualtiy score, and has been running that way for a years.  There has been no decline in CTR on the account.  There is no reason for this decline.

Diving into all my client accounts to look things over.

Is anyone else having this issue?  Not just low QS, plenty of reasons for that, but QS that suddenly tanked last week?

Comments welcome please!

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Google has confirmed that there is indeed a problem. A Google employee stated this today in this AdWords Help Forum thread.

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“It is understood that what is being described here is what appears to be a similar but separate issue that folks started seeing on Friday evening, November 19th.

Engineering is taking a look into this, as a priority – and I will report back in this thread when I know more.”

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.IMPORTANT NOTE: the effected accounts I have seen still seem to be performing well.

I do have concerns about the future effect from advertiser that do raise their bids unknowingly. Google has yet to make what I would call a proper statement regarding the Quality Score reporting issue.  This  concerns me as advertisers who are unaware that their account is in fact running fine raise their bids which in turn forces other advertisers to raise their bids to maintain their previous ad rank – AKA Bid inflation.

Hopefully enough advertisers will get the message and sit tight while Google works out the issue instead of increasing bids or panicking.

Good to know Google is on it.  I will post again with whatever updates become available.

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Article by:  +Kim Clinkunbroomer Clinks Web Service  a  Google AdWords Partner Company Subscribe: RSS Feeds  |  Follow me on Twitter