Flights and Johannesburg traffic aside, the event was well attended and thoroughly enjoyable. The morning got off to a good start – everyone fresh and perky as a few Google gift bags were handed out and coffee and refreshments were served.

What better way to start off an event of this nature than by having Google South Africa country manager Luke Mckend introduce the event. Listening to Mr Mckend speak was hugely inspirational and a massive privilege to say the least. We were fortunate enough to have a quick one on one chat with him during a tea break, where we talked about the growth of R.O.I. Media and the local online advertising market within South Africa. It was an honour to hear his insights and suggestions, even more so as he was as enthused as us during the conversation.

After tea, the launch consisted of talks by Google account managers who explained exactly how Google is capable of helping people in Johannesburg find petrol – a problem us Capetonians are fortunate enough to not have to worry about.

After lunch there was a fascinating talk on how mobile is exploding not only internationally but locally too, with Africa often being far ahead of the rest of the world in some areas of mobile. Despite a few internet connection problems (Google was not the internet supplier, as they pointed out) the videos and examples given were amazing. A great description of how a holiday trip can be completely organised, scheduled and enjoyed by simply using a mobile was absolutely brilliant, and demonstrations of picture searches using Google Goggles on a mobile device were mind blowing too. You’re able to search brands, mountains, landmarks and more just by searching the photo you took of it (this excludes organic objects, so get your mind out of the gutter).

Once the conference wrapped, Allen and I were fortunate enough to be able to get a speed dating session with some of the Google Employees. Allen was able to have a one on one with a Google agency manager while I was able to get time with a Google account manager, which gave us valuable time to bounce ideas and questions off of real life Google employees.

After a long day of mind blowing talks, laughs, superb networking and good food, we hopped a plane back to Cape Town with a world of new knowledge to share.

At the end of the day, the Google Engage launch allowed agencies to engage with and connect with Google more easily, which is a valuable advantage. The biggest plus is that agencies are able to connect with their clients better by using Google Engage as a direct source of information, allowing them to become more knowledgeable about Adwords and the PPC market.

Google Engage = engaging and connecting to create a better PPC industry.

The question is; what does all this mean for you, the advertiser, and how can R.O.I. Media help you enhance your advertising through Google Adwords?

The most obvious reason why Google is pushing free vouchers at the moment is to make money. Google wants you to use the voucher and then spend more of your own money to continue running your campaign once it is depleted. Google, like any company, is interested in turning over a profit for their shareholders by allowing advertisers to pay for advertising space on their search results.

In turn, you could possibly make a profit within your own business by advertising on Google.

The next question is: why did I say “you could possibly make a profit within your own business” and not “you will definitely make a profit” when using Adwords? Well, that is where R.O.I. Media steps in.

Throwing a campaign together in Adwords, creating ads and setting the campaign live takes minimal effort and a very short amount of time. However, when R.O.I. Media sets up a campaign we do it meticulously while optimising, monitoring, taking control and squeezing the absolute maximum out of the campaign that you can get. This sort of Adwords management comes from years of experience and expertise in the industry.

R.O.I. Media thrives on creating and running the most highly optimised Adwords campaigns. Years of experience, as well as being a Google Adwords Certified Partner, means R.O.I. Media is able to drive relevant and highly targeted traffic to your site through Google Adwords advertising. We make sure that every cent of your budget is being spent on the most relevant clicks and on users who are most likely to bring your business ROI.

R.O.I. Media takes the hassle out of Adwords advertising, allowing you to focus on other areas of your business with the peace of mind that your budget is being spent wisely and your campaign is being tweaked and constantly monitored by professionals who eat, sleep and live Adwords advertising.

If you would like to take Google up on one of their R300 voucher offers and advertise online, or are interested in taking your existing Adwords campaign to the next level, please contact R.O.I. Media and allow us to help you get the most out of your Adwords budget. Let us help your business make ROI!

Experience:
The certification ensures current and future clients that we are highly experienced in managing large and small accounts. To get this certification we need to not only have at least one Google Adwords Certified individual but also maintain active Adwords accounts to the minimum value of $10,000, over a minimum time period of 90 days.

Google Certified:
We essentially have a Google stamp of approval, assuring clients that we have passed the tough Google Adwords exams and are used to dealing with large accounts. It also means that Google feels we are worthy enough for them to give us a certified badge of approval!

Code of Conduct:
With great power comes great responsibility. With these achievements, the qualification states that R.O.I. Media will follow Google’s terms and conditions as well as manage clients’ campaigns in a manner that is ethical and right, some of the very same principals that R.O.I. Media was founded upon.

If you need a strong online presence, whether it be from natural search result rankings through SEO or high quality, highly optimised Adwords ads, R.O.I. Media have proven time and time again to be the industry leaders. The difference now is; not only do we have our clients who can vouch for us, but now even Google has given us their stamp of approval.

If you are unsure what Adsense is; it is in short, a Google developed system that allows you to manage Google sponsored (Adwords) ads which are being shown on your website.

Pros:

• Free: It is free to join and use.
• Simple to use: The Adsense program is easy to use, easy to understand and simple to operate. Understanding the metrics and graphs is a simple task, and everything is self explanatory. Signing up is easy, and so is inserting the code into your site.
• Revenue: The big reason why you want to use Adsense. It generates revenue for you every time someone clicks on an ad which is present on your site.
• Advertisers: You don’t have to go out looking for advertisers or ads, Google provides well written and highly relevant ads to be displayed.
• Filters: You can filter up to 200 URL’s that you feel are not relevant enough to your website.
• Diverse: Google Adsense is suitable for novice marketers and veteran marketers alike.

Cons:

• Minimum Payout: Google only pays you out once you reach a minimum amount – Usually $100 or R1000.
• Confidentiality: Google states that you are not allowed to share confidential info about your Adsense account without written permission from Google.
• Unknown ROI: Google is unable to give information about how much revenue its ad partners will receive.
• Fraudulent Clicks: If Google discovers fraudulent clicks on your ads (clicking ads in order to increase your revenue) they will ban your site from the service and refuse to pay you. Why is this a con? For one thing, some webmasters have had this done to them though they claim complete innocence.
• Adsense and Only Adsense: If you use Google Adsense on your site you are not permitted to use any other text based/content targeted ads on the pages which are currently hosting Google sponsored (Adwords) ads.
• Unprofessional Look: Too many Google Adwords ads on a site can make a site look cheap and unprofessional.

These are just a few pros and cons of using Google Adsense. There is no doubt that Google Adsense is a great tool and has the potential to generate extra income for webmasters, the only decision you have to make is whether it is right for you and your website. Contact ROI Media if you are unsure about whether Adsense is the right choice for you, as we offer many other services like search engine optimization (SEO) , pay per click (PPC), social media marketing and more.

The ROI Calculator works by measuring performance levels of a Google Adwords Campaign, such as CPC (Cost Per Click), CPA (Cost Per Acquisition), CTR (Click Through Rate), as well as other external factors. Then using those stats we are able to calculate via points along a graph when a Google Adwords Campaign and segments within the campaign would become profitably beneficial for your business.

To demonstrate how powerful the ROI Calculator really is, R.O.I Media is offering a free digital campaign evaluation to the first 20 readers who respond. The results of the test will empower you to improve upon your existing online ad campaign or educate on whether to launch a paid campaign through Google Adwords. To take advantage of this offer, email calculator@roimedia.co.za with your name, telephone number and website address for a free evaluation and find out ROI Media can help increase your businesses’ profits through your Paid Campaigns.

Yes, if you know where to look.

Pay per click advertising has been around a while now and any business with an awareness of just how much an internet presence contributes to a successful advertising campaign is already on board. If not, get out from under that rock that is business cards and flyers and step into the realm of the greatest innovation since pre-sliced bread. Enter: Google AdWords!

Why AdWords and why does it differ from any other method of advertising? In two words: Measureable impression share.

Impressions are the number of times your ad displays itself to the world at large that you’re targeting. So it therefore makes sense that impression share would be the ‘share of voice’ you have in that market amongst your competitors.

Not only does this handy feature tell you how you fair against the rivals, but also lets you know where you’re falling short. Overall impressions can be broken down into a 3-way split in this way: Current impression share, impression share lost from budget and impression share lost from ad rank.

Impression share lost from budget is fairly self-explanatory, a daily limit will determine just how many clicks you’ll receive and in most cases you would be acquiring as many as possible, right? So long as they’re coming from worthwhile potential customers of course. You could be limited depending on your product/service as big competitors may have deeper pockets than you.

Impression share lost from ad rank is determined by how well your ads perform amongst the rest. A number of factors influence this figure and mastering the art of the perfect campaign takes time. The key areas to focus on would be the quality score that you’re granted on your ads, relevant click-through pages and, most importantly, bid price on your keywords. Bidding price will ultimately determine how high up your ad will display in the list and thus influence ad rank.

Here’s an example on how you can troubleshoot an advertising flaw using this tool:

Joe’s fax-to-email business has been on adwords for quite some time. Recently he’s spotted an inconsistency in the number of sales that he’s been making and it doesn’t look pretty. Joe’s been measuring his AdWords PPC conversions (actual sales generated online from his website), and there’s been a significant drop of late. The first place he looks: Impression share! He sets up a 3-way pie chart that determines how the ideal 100% impression share is split into the main categories. Immediately he can tell that impression share lost from adrank is now a bigger slice than before and the loss from budget remains the same. In knowing this he’ll now focus his AdWords efforts on assigning his Ads more specific landing pages on his site, pushing up the bids on his keywords that grant less-than-ideal ad position and maybe even cull a few keywords that have not converted and/or have a poor click through rate. He may also throw in a few more bucks per day to compensate for the up in bid price and not harm the impression share lost from budget.

For centuries advertisers in every industry have been plagued with approximation, ball park figures and AB testing when it comes to getting their name out there and seeing a return. The impression share tool offers surety that you’re hitting the mark, getting accurate figures and above all; determining what you’re doing wrong and how to fix it.

Kyle says about his achievement, “The Google AdWords Qualification certifies me as a PPC analyst. Why did I spend so many hours trying to gain it? I was looking for a way to bolster my work with a qualification that can prove to clients that I have the right stuff.” Kyle explained to me that if clients see the certified by Google stamp, they immediately know that they will experience a high level of positive PPC results for their website. “This is a monster of an exam,” Kyle intoned, “any client who knows anything about PPC will trust me with their website”.

Kyle continued with some information about the exam. “It’s tough, certainly no walk in the park; 120 questions in 120 minutes. Sure, it’s all multiple choices but more often than not, two answers can both be correct.” I asked him, “So which one would you choose then?” Kyle gravely intoned that one can be more correct then the other.

I pushed Kyle for further information, his hesitation led to a flurry of answers. “I used many Google study guides but it was my years of experience that led to a pass. The written word alone is not enough.”

What lies ahead for young Kyle? “I need to write another Google exam as I have only qualified for the old AdWords rules. In the crazy world of Google, it takes two sets of exams in order to fully qualify for the new rules. After this, I will have to re-qualify on a yearly basis.” Kyle is positive that he will continuously renew his qualification in order to provide a quality PPC service for his clients.

It is important to realise before writing the exam that it is indeed difficult, and the pass mark is 85%, which is no small feat. It also costs $50 to write the test and there are 120 questions to answer in 120 minutes, which can be a little nerve-wrecking. The first hurdle to jump is to wrap your head around the fact that the exam is passable, and with some studying and practical experience managing an Adwords campaign, you will have the knowledge required to pass.

Studying is always important, and Google does supply you with all the tools and learning material that you will need to pass. Let Google Study Centre be the first and most important place for you to get your study materials from. There are plenty of blogs and articles where you can get secondary information from, but Google is and always will be right in regards to your studying!

You will not find any questions online. Google makes sure that you will not find any websites that offer questions from the exam. Don’t bother looking, because you won’t find it. You may find some sites that offer mock tests and these can be beneficial, but there is usually a fee involved.

When writing the exam, the program that allows you to take the test shuts down all accessibility to other programs on your computer. This means that you will be unable to browse the net for answers, thus when studying take lots and lots of notes, and keep those notes with you when you write the exam. Make sure that your notes are neat and easy to read, because when averaging 1 question a minute you will need to be able to retrieve your information fast.

Lastly, when studying and taking your notes, make sure to pay particular attention to small details. Don’t just study the broad outline of a topic, rather know that topic inside and out! Every tiny detail does matter!

With these tips and some good practical Adwords campaign management experience you should be able to pass the Google Professional Advertising Exam easily, advancing your online marketing opportunities and experience

- Setting up PPC/Adwords accounts for new clients
- Analysis and optimisation of accounts
- Compiling short account performance reports
- Liaising with customers to provide ongoing feedback on account performance
- Liaising with team to ensure professional customer service

Requirements
- Some experience in Paid Search Management, including Google Adwords
- Strong writing and communication skills
- Customer service orientation
- Able to work systematically and to do routine work
Personal Skills/Attributes
- Energetic and enthusiastic
- Hard-working
- Honest and reliable

Details
Remuneration: Market Related
Province: Western Cape
Education level: Matric
City: Cape Town
Type: Permanent
Job level: Junior

Contact
Lisa
ROI Media
seo.jun@roimedia.co.za

NO RECRUITERS! Only Cape Town residents may apply please.
Apply via email
Phone-in candidates will not be considered

If you have been using Google Adwords for a few years you might have noticed that the time taken for new or edited ads to be approved is becoming increasingly longer. This is especially the case when creating image ads and ads focused on content networks. Why is this happening, that is the PPC question that everyone is asking?

The answer is simple, and it boils down to the sheer number of people and businesses (as well as spammers) using Adwords. The number of ads being created by current and new Adwords users is growing daily, and while Google has some strict policy guidelines about what is and isn’t allowed in ads, all ads that have been created still have to be reviewed and approve/disapproved. It seems that some ads get reviewed by computer systems and algorithms, but image ads and those targeting content network seemingly has to be viewed by a physical person. This method, unlike a computer system, is time consuming and causes a delay when waiting to get ads approved, but it does allows for more accuracy in the reviewing process.

Some PPC users have stated that Google may take up to 46 working hours to approve ads. That means that ads could be approved after approximately 7 working days. If you happen to submit an ad for approval on a Friday afternoon then you better be prepared to wait a little longer, as over weekends there is less man-power to review ads so the process is delayed even further. Google is, however, double-checking the ads. This means that all ads are being reviewed twice ever since the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has taken a firm stance and Google was forced to become extremely strict with regard to ads.

I already hear everyone crying, “What is Google doing about increasing the speed of the review process?” Well, the answer is simple – at this moment, based on my exhaustive research into the subject, I surmise that Google is not doing anything it is telling anyone about! In all likelihood Google is working behind the scenes on an ingenious way to speed up the process, or perhaps they already have a solution. The fact of the matter is that we just don’t know yet and we will have to wait and see what Google has in store for us mere mortals.