The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article: August 2004, Volume 3, Issue 4
Paid Search Advertising in Google & Overture: Part 2
by Meg Gonzalez, Search Marketing Specialist, iProspect
In Part 1 of this article in last month’s Search Marketing Advisor, we discussed the advantages of paid search advertising and how the programs offered by Google and Overture differ.
This month we discuss the selection of keywords, building the creative for your ads, and what to expect when you launch your paid search advertising campaigns.
How to determine a list of keyword phrase targets for your keyword buy:
First, you must identify your website’s audience. Then you must establish which keyword phrases are most likely to drive conversion on your site. For example, if you are selling athletic shoes, you will probably be looking into purchasing keywords such as: running shoes, basketball shoes, sneakers, tennis shoes, etc. It is also important to consider whether the keyword phrases that you are buying will lead to a positive user experience. For example, if you don’t sell basketball shoes, it is not advisable to purchase that keyword phrase on the hopes that a user, not finding that product, would decide to buy some other type of shoes on your site.
On the contrary, if the user’s intent is not fulfilled by what you offer, in all likelihood, the user will simply click back on the browser and choose another site that offers the product sought. This could also prejudice the user against your site for future purchases, and negatively impact your credibility, inasmuch as you lured the user in under false pretenses.
Once you have established which keyword phrases you are considering purchasing it is time to evaluate the potential cost and resulting traffic to your site. Pricing of the keywords is very fluid, and the cost varies greatly based on the demand for specific phrases. The pricing of these words is not always intuitive.
Both Overture and Google offer tools to help you forecast clicks and pricing for your campaign. Overture provides an entire tools section on their website (www.content.overture.com/d/USm/adcenter/tools/ index.jhtml) which offers several helpful tools, including the “terms suggestion tool,” and the “view bids tool.” Google offers similar data on their website; however, it is not as easily accessible. To get to click data and bid data, you need to navigate to www.google.com/ads and set-up a dummy ad in order to enter your keyword list and discover the cost per click for your targeted keywords, how many clicks Google estimates for a month-long period, and the estimated position your ad will have on the page based on your bid price. Like Overture, Google also offers a keyword suggestion tool, if you are looking for some additional phrases to buy.
Selecting the phrases that will give you the most visibility for your budget requires skill and practice. Your search engine marketing vendor can perform keyword research provide recommendations to help you make the right choices.
Building your creative:
Google and Overture have strict guidelines about character limitation and ad copy, as is listed on their sites It is advisable to conduct some queries on the words you are buying, before you write the creative. This will allow you to get a sense of the ad copy that already exists around the keywords. You will then be better poised to differentiate your ad, or to beat your competitors at their own game by doing it even better. To be effective, consider each keyword listing as if it is a separate piece of creative that you will need to develop. Leading SEM providers have staff that is trained and experienced in writing search engine listings that sell.
What to expect in the first few weeks of your keyword buy:
You should plan to devote considerable time to closely track your campaign, particularly at the outset.
In Google, watch for ads that are disabled due to low click-through rates on high-traffic-but-unspecific keywords. While Google will notify advertisers of ads that do not meet editorial standards, they will not notify you of ads that are dropped due to click-through performance. When keywords are disabled, new, more specific variants should be added to capture the lost traffic.
Managing the bids for Overture ad campaigns requires a bit more time. Since Overture’s interface lets advertisers see their relative position and bid for each keyword phrase, bidding tends to be fierce within this program. For some high- demand keyword phrases, it is sometimes necessary to revisit your bids several times a day to maintain your positions. Before you begin, it is advisable to have some idea of your top spend per keyword, and not to bid above that level. Bid management within Overture is an ongoing task throughout the life of the campaign.
There are several tools available through SEM firms that can automate the bid management process for you. These will be addressed in a separate article in a future issue of the Search Marketing Advisor.
Final thoughts:
Over the last year, Google has become increasingly competitive with Overture in the keyword-buy space. Google has expanded its range by offering contextual ad delivery of their ads through a variety of affiliate sites. Recently, Google introduced “Ad Sense,” a program that enables smaller sites to set-up their site to deliver these contextual ads, and get a piece of the ad revenue. Overture has recently begun factoring in click-through rates in their ad delivery, and has raised the minimum bid rates in their program. These paid programs will continue to evolve as the market matures. This will change how campaigns are set-up and managed, and produce new best practices.
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