Favicons Are Important For Online Marketing

I just got a brand new favicon for PPC Ian and I’m quite excited about it. Check out the URL bar above. You can see that there’s a little 16×16 image with the mouse pointer clicking the target. My favicon also displays in the browser tab window and the toolbar bookmarks (check out the first screenshot below and you can see what I’m talking about). In short, favicons are a really cool graphical addition to any site and can add a lot of brand value.

Here’s where it gets really cool. Check out the second screenshot below, the Yahoo! paid search results for the brand name “Progressive”. As you can see, Progressive’s favicon shows up right in their paid ad. This is something Yahoo! has been doing for a while, and I really like it! If you’re running PPC campaigns on Yahoo! (via adCenter) and your brand name drives a lot of traffic, you definitely need a favicon. Right now, favicons only display on Yahoo! for brand searches, but they can really help your CTR if your brand name drives a lot of traffic.

I was able to get two favicons (for PPC Ian and IJL Productions) for $50, with multiple revisions. It was totally easy to outsource the project on Elance and get great quality work. Especially for your large websites, I recommend getting your own favicons today. Once they are ready, simply upload your favicon.ico file to your website’s root directory and you’re good to go.

Are You Leveraging AdWords Call Extensions?

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Nov 8 3

Check out the screenshot below. I really like the MetLife and SelectQuote ads. Why? They leverage Google AdWords call extensions. Also known as desktop call extensions, these ad extensions offer a neat way for advertisers to display a phone number in their AdWords ads outside of descriptions lines 1 and 2. They are incremental to your existing AdWords ads and provide a great way to connect with users. If you’re set up to handle customer calls and conversions via phone, I highly recommend giving AdWords call extensions a try. Following are a few quick facts.

AdWords call extensions work for both top, yellow bar advertisers as well as right rail advertisers. They work for everyone.
They used to be free during the beta testing period but now cost money. Each call starts at $1.
When you enable call extensions, you will activate a few new columns in your AdWords interface that display the number of phone calls and phone through rate (PTR), a metric very similar to click through rate (CTR) but for phone calls.
Google displays its own number and then forwards to the number you enter in your ad extensions setup. That’s how Google measures the number of calls and charges you.
To the best of my knowledge, phone calls do not count towards your overall CTR nor quality score at this time. If you get a ton of calls (and see fewer clicks as a result), you may experience a lower CTR and therefore quality score. That said, the economics may still make sense. You just need to model it all out and test both scenarios. In the future, calls may count towards your quality score.
Call extensions only show up for ad groups that got at least 30 clicks in the last 30 days. They do not display for lower volume ad groups.

It’s my personal belief that call extensions add a lot of credibility to ones ad. I actually believe they can improve your CTR. Just having the call extensions number present shows that you mean business and you’re legit. This trust factor can really draw attention to your ad and make it look appealing. In my opinion, it’s a true winning situation and an ad extension that must be explored by all major AdWords advertisers. Are you currently leveraging call extensions in your AdWords campaigns?

AdWords Display URLs Are More Important Than Ever

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Aug 14 13

Google is on a roll – 2011 is a year of change when it comes to AdWords. I’m talking about front end changes that directly impact user experience. Just a few recent examples: Six Sitelinks In Paid Search, Light Blue Google Search Results, and AdWords Megatitles. Today, I’m thrilled to blog about a few recent changes to Google AdWords display URLs and how you can benefit from these changes.

AdWords Display URL Changes and Tips

Check out the screenshot to the right. You can see that the display URLs are now right under the title, followed with description lines one and two. In the past, the title would always be directly followed by the description and then the display URL at the bottom.

Most users focus primarily on the title. Now that the display URL is so close to the title, it’s more important than ever. Users are going to focus on your display URL more than ever before. My recommendation: Consider modifying your display URL to include relevant keywords (either as a subdomain or as a folder after the root domain). In the screenshot to the right, I personally like the Allstate ad since “Auto-Insurance” really stands out as a folder after the root domain in the display URL.

Another recent change to display URLs on AdWords (a few months back): Display URLs are now in lower case. You can no longer have title casing in subdomains and also root domains of display URLs. However, there’s one exception: folders. Check out the esurance ad to the right, the folder “California” is in title case. Now, check out the ad for insure.com. The “autoinsurance” is in lower case. A while back, it was possible to leverage title case in subdomains and root domains, such as “AutoInsurance.Insure.com”. My tip: Make sure to test both subdomains and folders. As you test folders, make sure to test both lower case and title case. Personally, I have found great success with title case and feel it will be even more important now that display URLs are right below the title.

So there you have it. A few recent changes to display URLs and a few tips on how to optimize the CTR of your ads. Hope this helps. Any special display URL strategies that have worked well in your AdWords campaigns?

Google Now Displaying Six Sitelinks In Paid Search

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Aug 5 5

Google AdWords is evolving! More front end, user facing enhancements have occurred in the last year than I can remember in my 7+ years of paid search. This is really fun for me because I’m obsessed with PPC and also because the front end is all about marketing at its best. The tools now available, via Google ad extensions, empower us more than ever to deliver amazing ad experiences to the end user.

If you’ve been reading PPC Ian for a while, you probably know I’m a huge fan of sitelinks. Out of all the Google AdWords ad extensions, sitelinks are by far my favorite. Today, I’m excited to share a neat screenshot (below) that shows State Farm’s brand ad with six sitelinks! That’s right, if your CTR is high enough, Google now appears to be delivering six sitelinks. Also, I’m pleased to share some of my favorite sitelinks tips and strategies.

PPC Ian’s Top 4 Sitelinks Tips

Now, this is cool for State Farm, but you may be wondering what does this mean for you? Good question! First and foremost, make sure to make sure all your campaigns (especially the ones that house your brand name terms) have six sitelinks. If you don’t have six sitelinks, it’s impossible for six to show up. Side note: I noticed one advertiser recently who only had three sitelinks (two on the first line and one on the second). I think it’s because they only had three in their campaign, how embarrassing. I never advise having fewer than four sitelinks. If your worried about which ones Google will pick, don’t be. If you include six sitelinks, but only two or four show, Google will pick the ones that optimize your CTR (to the best of my knowledge).

Second, I highly recommend longer sitelinks. If you have longer sitelinks, they’re likely to occupy multiple lines like State Farm’s. However, let’s say you have shorter sitelinks. Then, they’re likely to display side-by-side and occupy fewer lines (less real estate).

Third, I recommend sending your sitelinks to different landing pages. The original intent of sitelinks is bringing your site’s navigation closer to the user. Now, you could send all of them to the same landing page, however this is not an ideal user experience and could lower your conversion rate.

Last, I recommend including calls to action in your sitelinks. State Farm does not do this, although I cannot fault them because they appear to be doing quite well. That said, there is always room for improvement when it comes to pay per click. If State Farm included words like “compare”, “find”, “get”, “apply”, etc. in their sitelinks, they are likely to improve CTR and conversion rate too (in my opinion).

Image in this post © Google and State Farm

Google Testing Light Blue Search Results

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment May 8 8

It seems like Google is always testing something new. Whether we’re talking about Google AdWords, organic search, or simply the overall look at feel of the Google experience, there’s always something new and exciting. Just recently I wrote about Google’s new mega titles and organic sitelinks. The mega titles test stuck (and are amazing), but the organic sitelinks test does not seem to have panned out (I don’t see these sitelinks anymore even though I really liked them). Today, I’m thrilled to share another new Google test. As you can see in the screen shot below, Google is testing a lighter shade of blue in the search results.

Google’s New Light Blue Text

I noticed the light blue a bit earlier today, but it’s already gone from my computer. It seems like a really low volume test right now. Personally, I think it’s a great idea to test the color of the link text. The link text color (on Google and other search engines) has been that classic darker blue color forever. It’s time to try a new shade of blue! I must say, however, the light blue hurts my eyes a bit compared to the classic blue so I must give my vote to the control in this test.

Stay On Top of Search Engine Tests

To close out today’s short post, I want to encourage anyone advertising in pay per click to really stay on top of these tests. Seemingly small tests and changes on Google’s end can mean a big difference for your campaigns. If you’re like me and are in the corporate world of SEM, it’s even more important to stay on top of these tests. When you’re spending millions, these changes can have even more impact. Moreover, you want to know every new thing in SEM because you never know when your boss or another executive may ask you about the new trends they are seeing.

Image in this post © Google

New Look & Feel For Google Sitelinks

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Feb 27 10

I just searched for my brand name (PPC Ian) on Google and noticed that my organic sitelinks have a brand new look and feel! Check out the screenshot at the end of this post. I’m not sure if this is a beta test or a permanent change, but one thing’s for sure: the new sitelinks rock!

Google Organic Sitelinks: New Versus Old

You may remember from my post Happy Birthday To PPC Ian that I just started seeing sitelinks for PPC Ian around October, 2010. As you can see in the image in that post, the sitelinks were just links with no surrounding text. Moreover, I just had four of them.

More Brand Name Traffic

The new sitelinks that I just noticed today are much more pronounced. There are eight links in total and there is descriptive text below each of the links. My organic listing occupies a lot more space in general. Whenever someone types in my brand name, I’m going to capture a lot more traffic because this enhanced listing with the new style sitelinks really pops. Even better, many of my organic sites that never had sitelinks before now do. With this change, I believe Google is also displaying sitelinks for more sites.

Between the new AdSense formats, the new AdWords mega titles, and these new organic sitelinks, Google is making serious progress through testing. Awesome work, Google!

Screenshot of Google Search Results © Google

Google AdWords Testing New Ad Formats

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Feb 3 8

I love Google! How couldn’t I? AdWords has fueled my online marketing career. Another reason I’m a huge fan, however, has nothing to do with my personal online marketing career. It’s really just the simple fact that I love innovation and Google keeps innovating. Back in August, Google really started innovating with their new AdSense formats. I’m an AdSense publisher and my personal earnings improved handsomely as a result of the new AdSense formats. Just recently, I’ve seen some major tests in the AdWords landscape as well! In short, Google is testing a new AdWords format where D1 is in the title, if you’re a top bar advertiser. This test could have some really big implications on large paid search advertisers!

Your AdWords D1 Is Now In the Title

Check out the screenshot below. In the amazingly competitive auto insurance industry, you’ll see that D1 is now part of the title for the top three top bar advertisers. This is really interesting because it’s all about the title. When it comes to paid search ad copy, the title is your single biggest leverage point. Adding more real estate to the title adds a new world of opportunity for AdWords advertisers and is likely to improve CTR quite a bit.

So what can you do? Keep a close eye on your campaigns. Right now, it appears Google is just testing this new format on a very small percentage of their traffic. I only get it once in a while. However, if this new format starts spreading, you may want to re-think your ad copy strategy to further optimize your new mega titles! Also, you’ll want to prepare yourself for a large potential influx of paid search clicks.

Dot US Domain Spam Taking Over Yahoo

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Dec 22 4

Let me start off by saying I’m a huge fan of dot us domains. Dot us is the ccTLD (country code top level domain) for the United States. It’s one of the few TLDs that does not allow private registration. The user needs to enter their full contact information for all to see who run a whois lookup. It’s really for that reason that I respect dot us so much. It’s a high quality TLD since there’s no way to hide!

Also, I’m a huge fan of dot us domains because they rank really well in Yahoo and Bing (Yahoo organic results are now powered by Bing). I’m not really sure why they rank so well, but I’ve got to think that the engineers behind the algorithm add logic that probably takes into account the fact that all dot us domains must contain valid publicly viewable whois information.

Recently, however, I have been seeing an unparalleled amount of spam in the Yahoo and Bing organic results, especially around product-focused dot us domain names. Below I’ll go through just one specific example. My takeaway: I’m still developing dot us domain names but am also treading with caution. The spam is getting bad enough that it could catch up with the TLD. I’m betting once Yahoo and Bing take notice, they’re going to take action. Now, I’m hoping they just address the violating sites, but it’s also possible they slap the entire TLD. We shall see…

Dot US Domains Are Dominating The Results

So, who am I competing against in the narrow dishwasher vertical on Yahoo and Bing? Is it the dishwasher companies themselves such as Avanti and Whirpool? No. Is it the big shopping engines such as NexTag and Shopping.com? No. Is it authority retail websites like Amazon.com? No. Surprisingly, I’m competing against a ton of strange dot us domain names that appear to be spamming the Yahoo and Bing search results. Check out the screenshot below and visit a few of those dot us websites. Most of them look the same. They are old school looking websites that include a bunch of AdSense ads and Amazon product feeds. As I navigate around, it’s impossible to find a privacy policy, terms and conditions, or even a contact us.

The really interesting part: A lot of these dot us domains aren’t even that good (they’re not expensive exact match domain names and don’t really have any resell value). It’s not really the root domain that’s doing the ranking. It’s the combination of using smart subdomains with the root domain that’s building keyword-rich domains which end up ranking for important keywords. I’ve been seeing these types of dot us domains across most of the product verticals in which I’m competing.

I’m Still Investing In Dot US Domain Names

I’m fascinated with this stuff! At the end of the day, I’m a huge fan of dot us domain names. I continue to buy and build dot us domains, especially in the financial services vertical. At the same time, I do wonder what will happen when Yahoo and Bing recognize the depths of the dot us domains taking over their search results. While I’m hoping they will just penalize these domain names, it could affect the entire TLD.

Search Alliance Snail Mail

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment Oct 19 13

The Yahoo! Microsoft Search Alliance is upon us! It’s October and the Alliance is happening, right on plan. I couldn’t be more excited and impressed with the Alliance happening on schedule (it’s one of the biggest events in the history of search engine marketing, after all). As you may remember, I wrote about preparing for the Yahoo! Microsoft Search Alliance. I also wrote about Marin Software’s amazing search alliance whitepaper. Today, I wanted to share an interesting story and a few last minute tips about the Alliance.

Are You Ready For The Yahoo! Microsoft Search Alliance?

Are you ready for the Search Alliance? If not, don’t worry, you’re not alone. PPC Ian is in the same boat as you, not all of my Yahoo! accounts have a transition plan. As you may know, I’m a huge fan of leverage. I work on the most important stuff and don’t give much time to the lower leverage activities. As such, I have a few smaller personal YSM accounts that I haven’t logged into for a while and I have absolutely no transition plan in place. It’s actually really crazy! About a month ago, Yahoo! started calling me and leaving messages on my phone to remind me about the Alliance! Most recently, they started sending me snail mail. Check out the images of the postcard at the bottom of this post. Click on them to view the full sized pictures. Can you believe it?

I’m Impressed With The Calls and Snail Mail

I’m actually really impressed with it all. Just think about it: These smaller accounts are ideal accounts for Yahoo! and Microsoft. I rarely log in, I let it spend money month after month, and I’m not really measuring the results. Again, it’s all about leverage for me and this stuff is just too small to look at regularly. These types of autopilot accounts are really like a dream come true for search engines. The money just keeps flowing in. When I think about it all through that lens, it totally makes sense why Yahoo! and Microsoft are going to such great lengths to move my smaller accounts over. I’m sure when you add up all the folks in the same bucket as me, we’re talking about some serious profit that could be lost for Yahoo! and Microsoft.

Last Minute Search Alliance Tips

Let’s say you have larger search engine accounts that aren’t yet prepared for the Alliance. I’d like to close out by offering a few tips. First and foremost, let’s start out and look at the root of the issue. Did you know about the Alliance and, if so, why did you wait? If you knew about the Alliance, I’m betting you’re just too strapped for time. You need more leverage.

How do you get more leverage? First, I highly recommend working closely with your Yahoo! reps to see how they can help. You’d be really surprised how much they can get done quickly. My Yahoo! reps have been truly invaluable in the entire process, they are working overtime to make sure the Alliance goes smoothly. Second, I recommend evaluating ppc management software such as Acquisio. I’m just about the biggest fan of SEM software around and can guarantee it will give you more leverage. PPC software will ensure that you’re always on top of your game, one step ahead of everyone else. Best of luck!