R.O.I Media | Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Professionals » Pay per Click

PPC Impression Share

secret weapon — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:11:30 +0000

Cost effective advertising, the holy-grail of marketing, the Shangri-La of high-way signage and double page spreads. Is there a solution out there that one can actually measure how much of your target market you’re actually reaching?

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.

Cyberworld without Search Engines

Germe — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:08:17 +0000

Imagine a world where there was no order; a world where everything goes and nothing needs any type of organisation. Like a University class list filled with names in non-alphabetical order, it would be chaos! Think of duplicate street names in one suburban area, think of houses all constructed in the exact same manner, how would you at the end of the day pick up that special package you got for a bargain deal through a classified ads bulletin? This is what Cyberlife would have been like without search engines. Through their rules and regulations, they ensure that all website owners implement Search Engine Optimisation practices on their sites to make the web a much better place to roam through.

Just as the real world needs proper organisation to function, the World Wide Web needs proper structure. More than 80% of all web users hunt for information on the internet using search engines. Like the legal laws of a country, so are the ranking algorithms of Search Engines, and without them being in place, it simply would have been a really massive pile of useless information. You can just imagine that if search engines displayed information that was not at all related to search queries, more than 80% of web users would have nowhere to go, no means to find the end to a heated debate between two mates regarding who won the 1992 Soccer World Cup. Oh the disaster! Cyberworld activity would diminish rapidly, and like dinosaurs, would only be referred to as a previously existent fossilized entity.

That is why being on the coveted 1st page of search engines is all that matters. Putting your time, effort and finances into constructing a website that is buried deep in the search engine results, will be like constructing a huge billboard for your business and then placing it in the middle of the desert. Unlike politicians making empty promises to win your trust, search engines will ensure that you reap the benefits if you ‘follow ‘them. In layman’s terms, follow their rules and you will be sure to benefit from the exposure of your top rankings.

There is a saying that goes ‘You are who Google says you are’ and that simply translates to the following fact: If search engines do not rank you in the top 10 for you industry related keywords, they do not see you as a formidable force in your industry (and web users will use the same analogy).

Ask yourself this, ‘Will you pick up and read a newspaper dated 1999 or one which was printed last night?’ The answer is quite simple. So say NO to copying content from other websites and receive fresh, never before crawled content. Say NO to meta data spamming and non-friendly search engine optimization practices. Say NO to harmful elements on your site that can give you a quick boost but will ultimately affect your site negatively. Say NO to digging your own site’s grave!

Be part of the online revolution! We offer services ranging from online business development, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to Pay Per Click (PPC). We will secure your ‘billboard’ on a spot next to a busy freeway, which is the only pathway to all major cities. Ensure your online success and say YES to R.O.I Media!

Google Adwords Ad Review

secret weapon — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:41:14 +0000

There has been a little bit of controversy in the land of Google PPC recently, as Adwords users around the world are complaining that Google is taking too long to approve their PPC ads.

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.