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Microsoft adCenter Resources
I don’t talk about adCenter very often; however, Microsoft has a strong PPC platform that is worth testing to see how your ads perform.
Microsoft launched a learning center for adCenter recently.
adCenter has a fantastic community site.
I’m also a fan of their analytics solution. Here’s some screenshots and a review I wrote up about adCenter analytics earlier this year.
Give adCenter a Try When..
Most PPC marketers start with Google, add Yahoo when they max out Google, and then add Microsoft when both of those are maxed out.
If you’re a small business managing your own account and not spending a lot of money; that might be the way to go (time is money).
However, if you are a dedicated PPC manager, or a business with a high spend, or a high percentage of your client recruitment from search - you should test out adCenter to determine your returns. You might want to move a slice of the Yahoo/Google budget to Microsoft permanently. The one thing about adCenter is they know they are the small player, have engaged the community exceptionally well, and have done many things right in helping people to transition accounts to adCenter.
Other Microsoft adCenter Resources:
- Excel plug-in (easy keyword research tool)
- Bulk upload your account (you can use AdWords Editor exports to make this simple)
- Microsoft adLabs – If you’ve never visited this site, use your Friday afternoon to learn some new (and fantastic) tools.
Does your website speak your visitors language?
Many websites exist in multiple languages. However, the way you institute language switching (or country detection and language selection) can make a large impact on your visitor’s ability to interact with your website.
I was recently in Italy. When I visited Google Reader, I was forced to interact with the page in Italian. There was no way I could find to change the language back to English. Google reader exists in many different languages; however, they had taken my language choice away from me and forced me to read the site in Italian (which I don’t speak).
As a comparison, this was also an issue with Google Analytics first launched. However, now on the homepage of the site is an easy to find drop down box that allows you to select the language to view the website.
Having your site in multiple languages can be very useful – if you don’t forget about the visitor.
As a reminder, if you allow someone to switch languages, please reload the exact same page in the new language. Too many sites bring you back to the homepage again, and force you to find the exact same page again in the new language.
If you are working on SEO efforts, you should not be changing the site’s language based upon user location – please have separate, spiederable pages for each page and language combination.
13 Sites to Jumpstart Your Keyword Research
I recently wrote about the simplest way to jumpstart your keyword research. First, read that post. Secondly, come back and use these sites to examine the results.
- Your site
- Your top competitors site
- Thesaurus.com
- Ask.com
- The DMOZ page for your category
- The Yahoo Directory page for your category
- If you’re a location based business, try the local.com search results for your keywords
- Is the number one page/site in the organic results related to your keywords?
- If yes, spider for keywords
- If no, spider for negative keywords
- Google News or Yahoo News. Do a search for your keyword first (this one might not be around forever. Google doesn’t normally let their results get spidered)
- The top authority magazine’s or newspaper site in your industry.
- The sites where you get your news about your industry
- Any sites you regularly watch for information about your industry
- If it’s one of your industry resources, spider it for new keywords
Keyword Confusion - Do your keywords describe more than just your product?
While the word ‘bleach’ often conjures up images of housewives doing laundry, the number one demographic that searches for this word is an 18-24 year old male.
Ever heard of Japanese magna? Bleach is one of the top shows.
There are times when our keywords describe more than a single topic. It’s important to examine those keywords to determine what to do with them. In many cases, you’ll want to write something more specific in the ad copy to clarify the different. Other times, you may wish to change the keyword matching options and use more negative keywords.
In the case of bleach, one ad copy could call out Clorox; while another one talks about selling DVDs. Someone learning more about bleach’s effect on clothing is probably not in the mood to buy a magna DVD.
How do we find out this information?
Demographic Prediction
A great tool to start with is Microsoft adLabs Demographic Prediction Tool.
In adLabs demographic prediction tool, the ‘general distribution’ describes the audience who use MSN search. The ‘Predicted Distribution’ is Microsoft’s prediction of what demographics will search for that particular query.
Organic Results
Not only are organic results are a great way to kick off your keywords research, but a quick search on Google would let the people at Clorox know there is a problem as every single top result is about anime or magna.
What can be more useful than a Google search result, it a Ask.com result that has information about narrowing down your query. If you had done the same ‘bleach’ query on Ask – you can see there are differences between anime and Clorox.
Filtering Out the Noise
The issues is that if you are advertising for either Clorox or Bleach anime, you want to make sure you’re only being shown on appropriate keywords. One of the best ways to start is by using the AdWords keyword tool.
You can use these results to find negative keywords so your ad is only displayed on more appropriate search results.
The other technique is to use very explicit ad copies:
| Clorox Bleach Turn your clothes whiter than when they were new. Clorox.com |
Bleach DVDs Season 3 now on Sale. Only $24.99 Bleach DVDs.com |
Don’t Confuse the Searcher
In order to have high converting landing pages, you must meet the expectations of searchers.
When searcher’s can be confused by results, or your keywords can describe other industries, follow these simple steps:
- Examine your keywords
- Examine their meanings
- Use negatives to filter out the noise
- Use ad copy to pre-qualify the keyword’s meaning (or the searcher’s intent)
Don’t just give up on the traffic – as with everything else – optimize towards what you can control.
Q&A - Should I use both Google Analytics and AdWords Conversion Tracker?
Yes! Please! I often survey attendees of an AdWords Seminar, and a common theme often emerges.
- Most of the audience uses Google Analytics.
- Most of the audience does not use the AdWords conversion tracker.
They are different tools that should be used differently.
AdWords Conversion Tracking
The AdWords conversion tracker just tracks conversions. You can define a conversion in many different ways (sale, lead form, page view) etc. You can define different conversions within the same account. Once you’ve enabled conversion tracking, you can run reports to see performance statistics by keyword, ad group, campaign, ad copy, landing page, content sites, etc by different conversion types (what keywords lead to contacts vs. shopping cart checkouts).
AdWords conversion tracking passes that stats back to your AdWords account so you can easily access all you conversion information cross referenced with your AdWords data within the single AdWords reporting interface. This is a huge timesaver.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is an analytics system. It will give you more information than you need to know about your site and visitors. You can easily define goals (conversions) within your analytics account. Google Analytics will tell you about visitors to your site that came from other sources than AdWords. You can view browser, screen resolution, referring site info, and your AdWords account within Analytics (as well as hundreds of other data points).
Like AdWords conversion tracking, analytics should be used to make decisions. Whenever you decide to implement analytics, the first question you should ask is ‘What information do I need to know to get my job done well?’. You can ask that of the design, marketing, and other departments within your organization. Then look for an analytics solution that fits your needs.
For most small businesses, Google Analytics will fit that need. If you need to make real time decisions, then it will not meet your needs.
However, it is much more difficult to extract data such as what content sites are sending you converting traffic from your Analytics account. From within the AdWords conversion tracker – it’s easy. From Analytics – incredibly difficult.
Use Both Google Analytics and the AdWords Conversion Tracker
Assuming you’re willing to use Google Analytics, and it gives you the data you need to perform your job – then you should use them both. Since these two tools perform different functions, you need a tool for each function. Neither are difficult to install, and the data can be invaluable for increase your website’s effectiveness.
AdWords Conversion Tracking Resources:
- Video: Setting up conversion tracking (watch this first)
- Setting up AdWords conversion tracker FAQs
- PDF guide to setting up AdWords conversion tracking
- Troubleshooting conversion tracking
Screen Resolutions – What do your visitors actually see?
When is the last time you looked at your website in different browser resolutions?
If its been a while, maybe these statistics will make you change your mind:
| Where Users Click | ||
|---|---|---|
| Visible Area | Right of Visible Area | |
| Visible Area | 76.5% | 0.3% |
| Below Visible Area | 23.1 | .1% |
Searchers are still clicking ‘above the fold’ in what is visible when your page first loads.
The issue is, we all have different screen resolutions.
W3.org publishes stats on the screen resolutions.
| Date | Higher | 1024×768 | 800×600 | 640×480 | Unknown |
| January 2008 | 38% | 48% | 8% | 0% | 6% |
| January 2007 | 26% | 54% | 14% | 0% | 6% |
| January 2006 | 17% | 57% | 20% | 0% | 6% |
| January 2005 | 12% | 53% | 30% | 0% | 5% |
| January 2004 | 10% | 47% | 37% | 1% | 5% |
| January 2003 | 6% | 40% | 47% | 2% | 5% |
| January 2002 | 6% | 34% | 52% | 3% | 5% |
| January 2001 | 5% | 29% | 55% | 6% | 5% |
| January 2000 | 4% | 25% | 56% | 11% | 4% |
Just because it’s the published number does not mean that applies to your site.
Here’s a screenshot of Google Analytics for this blog:
In the past month, this blog has been viewed on 128 different screen resolutions. In addition, the most common screen resolution (1024×768) which normally makes up 48% of all visitors, sees half of that typical number (only 21.87%) for this site.
While more people are scrolling overall, and some companies are ‘debunking the fold’; every time I most actions on a site to below the fold, I see conversion rates drop.
While vertical scrolling is getting some traction, horizontal scrolling is not. Make sure you page does not force individuals to scroll right to view additional content.
It only takes a few minutes of your time. Change your screen resolution, surf your site, make notes of areas to test for different resolutions or areas where you are most likely losing conversions or traffic and need to make some design changes.
One idea is to split test your pages where the major change is layout based upon different screen resolutions before you do any major redesigns.
Another option is to use crazyegg to create a heatmap of where your visitors are clicking and make decisions or tests from that data.
You should have some analytics package installed – don’t forget to use the data!
Q&A - Why should I only use one country per campaign?
This is a very common question, and one that’s often addressed in the AdWords Seminar. The answer to the question resolves around how you use your reporting statistics for further optimization.
If you run a campaign targeted to the UK, Canada, US, and Australia (a very common thing to see), and after a month you have these stats:
- CTR: 5%
- Conversion rate: 5%
- CPC: $2
What do you do next? Where are your ads doing well?
If you had this data:
| Australia | Canada | US | UK | |
| CTR | 10% | 3% | 5% | 1% |
| Conversion Rate | 6% | 1.5% | 1% | 12% |
| Cost Per Click | $5 | $2 | $10 | $0.25 |
Suddenly, you can make much better decisions.
- The UK converts well, and is the cheapest click, but has a much lower CTR – work on raising that CTR.
- The US CPC is way too high compared to the others and the conversion rate, lower the CPC.
- Do the math on Australia, with a high CPC, but a nice conversion rate, it might be an OK campaign.
The more granular you can view the data, the better decisions you can make.
And I didn’t even mention the most obvious question, how do you spell ‘color’ or ‘colour’ in your ad copy? Every area has a different belief system and different ways they react to words. You can’t test well for different geographies if you don’t have the data to work with.
There are some reasons to start bundling countries; however, a good general rule of thumb: target just one country per campaign.
Slight change to the ‘Offical Quality Score’ - CTR on Partner Search Sites Matter in Certain Instances
Google has long made the statement that when examining CTRs for calculating quality score, only the CTR on Google.com was used (which was normalized by position).
Now that quality score is being factored in real time, it makes sense to change that rule slightly.
The CTR used in determining the quality score for search will be your CTR on that specific site. Therefore, if your ad will be shown on Google.com, as with the past, your CTR on Google.com will be used.
If your ad is being displayed on Aol.com; then your CTR on Aol.com will be used in calculating your quality score.
Overall, a pretty minor change - but one that’s worth nothing how some of the ‘makes sense’ factors on quality score will now be possible with the real time calculation.
AdWords Quality Score now uses Geographic Signals
Google has updated their information on Quality Score to now include geographic information. This has long been a part of the ‘other relevancy factors’; so it shouldn’t be that big of a surprise.
At present, it’s only used in calculating the quality score for search.
Essentially, Google is looking to see how your account performs in different geographies. At present, this factor is listed to be used at the account level. Hopefully, it will eventually be moved to the campaign level, which is where you can actually specify different geographies.
This should help small businesses who are targeting very locally.
It should also help those who are tightly focusing their keywords and ad copy around specific geographies. You should use one campaign per country at a minimum (another post coming on that soon).
I’ve updated the Quality Score Factors Chart to also include the new geographic information.
The Best Ultra Portable Laptops for Travelers
Choosing the correct ultra portable laptop can help you be more productive on a plane, save your back from lugging around a heavy computer, and have a machine that can be your primary machine at both home and on the road.
The first step is to layout the minimum specs for an ultraportable that can meet the demands of travelers:
Processor: Minimum of a 1.3 dual core processor. While you can often find 2.4 dual processors; usually you are giving up something in the process (such as a DVD player) for the machine to fit into the ultra-portable category.
Memory: Minimum of 2gigs
Battery: Rated for 6 hours with the extended battery. Even 6 hours of ’standard computing’ might only be 3-4 hours of video or WI-Fi.
Power: Ability to turn off the Wi-Fi and broadband card and have other energy saving/management software.
Broadband card: Built-in broadband is both faster than an external card and often leaves an external slot open for expansion.
Bluetooth: Ensure that your phone, Bluetooth headset, presenter, mouse, etc can connect to your computer without extra adaptors.
Ports: Minimum of 1 USB (you can always carry a mini-hub), VGA out (for presenters), speaker in/out (for Skype calls or other headset functionality, often can skip this if you have a Bluetooth headset). 7-1 card readers, SD card slot, express card slots, etc are bonuses; but often not mandatory.
Weight: Max 3 pounds (excluding power adaptor and including standard battery)
Screen size: Max 12.1 inch. I will examine a couple of nice 13.3 inch monitors, however, the idea is that you can be in a plane, someone can put their seat all the way back, and you can continue to work. In the majority of plane configurations, with first class often being the exception, if your screen is larger than 12.1 inch, you can’t effectively work.
Docking Station: The system must have a docking station. This allows you to keep your regular monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, etc constantly connected to the docking station and then you can just undock the computer when you have to run. No messing with cables when you move from your desk to putting your computer away in its briefcase.
The Ultra Portable Contenders
Sony VGN TZ Series
The Sony TZ series is 11.1 inches of back-saving freedom. I’ve had an older model of this computer for 3 years and it has been an exceptional computer. This is the smallest of the computers in the ultra portable category at just 11.1 inches. You can even work on this computer in a cramped economy seat.
The biggest advantage of this computer is it’s integrated DVD player. With its extended battery life and DVD player, this doubles as a very nice media device for long trips.
The biggest disadvantage is that it maxs at 2 gigs of memory. This is the smallest max memory in my favorite ultraportable category.
The keyboard is 90% of the size of a regular keyboard. It only took me a few days to get use to the small keyboard, and I don’t mind it anymore. However, if you prefer a real size keyboard, you’ll want to pass on this computer.
The main reason why I won’t buy another one is that all Sony broadband cards only have Sprint as an option. I’ve had some bad experiences with most mobile broadband card providers except for Verizon. In fact, on my current Sony TZ, I don’t use the built-in card; I use an external Verizon card.
Overall, this computer falls into the middle price range between the three ultraportables. It starts at $1699; however, when you have it fully configured, it will be more in the $3k range.
Sony customer support has been fairly good. If you want a reliable, very small computer, this is one of your best bets.
Lenovo x200
The Lenovo x200 is the most powerful of the 3 computers in the top ultra portable category. You can have up to a 2.4 dual core processor. It’s also the most configurable:
- OS: XP to Vista 64 bit (64 bit OS is necessary for more than 3.5 gigs of memory)
- 1-4 gigs of memory (1067 MHz)
- Up to 320 gig harddrive, or a 64 gig solid state drive.
- PAN option
- Verizon or AT&T broadband card
- 12.2 inch screen
Where some users will not like this computer is that it’s TrackPoint only. No touchpad. I had the older model of this computer (the x61, and still a viable option if you want a cheaper ultra portable) and after a couple weeks, I didn’t even look for the touchpad anymore. It was quite odd switching between my x61 and my Sony TZ. I found the TrackPoint more useful for precision work, and the touchpad more useful for general browsing I do wish there was an option to have both. While this will kill the deal for some, the other advantage is it’s full sized keyboard.
You can also have GPS, built-in camera for conferencing, fingerprint reader, lo-jack, etc in this computer.
While this is the best ‘pure power machine’ of our three top ultraportables, it does not have a built-in DVD drive. There is base you can add so you have a DVD drive; however, this will add enough weight to the machine to take it above 3 pounds.
The other huge disadvantage is Lenovo support. I’ve never had good luck with Lenovo support. In fact, the reason I don’t own this machine today is because their presales support is so bad (and rude), along with their huge technical website launch issues (wrong SSD drive upon launch, then no warranty option, then no lo-jack option) than I grew frustrated when trying to buy the highest model (around $4.5k, but there are options well under $2k) that I finally gave up to wait for the new Dell (below). The website is past the technical issues at present, but beware of any Lenovo support you may require.
If you buy this machine, make sure you also buy the slimline AC adapter. I have no idea why this isn’t standard. It is both smaller and lighter than the standard AC adapter.
Overall, the most powerful machine of the ultra portables. If you don’t need a DVD drive (and I went 2 years with my x61 without one) and can live without a touchpad, this is one of the best ultra portables on the market.
Dell e4200
The machine I’m waiting on; the Dell e4200. The reason it hasn’t shipped yet is that Dell is waiting on the latest low voltage Intel processor. As soon as Dell receives those processors, it will be launched into the wild.
This machine has several solid features going for it. First the battery life. I’ve heard that with the extended battery and the new processors you might be able to hit 19 hours of battery life. While that sounds high, I have no doubt that when watching a video (it has an internal DVD player), you could get 6 hours of high-powered computing from this machine with the extended battery.
The next is the weight. At 2.2 lbs, this is the lightest laptop I’ve seen (not including Netbooks, and laptops with so little functionality you can’t use them as your primary machine).
The third is configuration. While the processor is less powerful than the Lenovo, the rest of the options are fantastic:
- 1-5 gigs of memory (if you break 3, get a 64bit OS)
- 64 or 128 SSD Drive
- Multiple Wi-Fi options
- Verizon or competitor cell cards
- Smart card reader, fingerprint reader, GPS, etc
For those with exchange, it will have a unique option to not power-up the entire computer, but to instead just connect to exchange without powering on the entire computer.
I’ve had a Dell laptop for 5 years (one of the behemoths that I call a ‘destination machine’ 8 lbs to carry but when you get there you have a fully functional desktop replacement) and have had very little issue with their customer support. I’ve heard stories go both ways on Dell. However, overall they have been one of my favorites (which really isn’t saying that much as I’ve not seen companies with great customer support for those who want to just jump pass the ‘yes my computer is plugged in’ stage). While HP is one of my favorite CS companies, they don’t have a computer that meets these specs for review.
This computer has not shipped yet, but the day it does - I’m ordering one.
The 13.3 inch Contenders
If you want a larger screen for when you reach your destination, and not just one an ultraportable, there are three machines in the marketplace worth examining.
Sony Z Series. Billed as the executives dream, it has some fantastic configuration options. It can get quite expensive starting at $1799; but you get Sony features, some creative graphics options, and a fantastic display.
Lenovo x300. Forget the MacBook Air. This machine is is a travelers dream. It has more functionality and options than most machines in the marketplace. The only thing that kept it back from our ultra portable review is it’s 13.3 inch screen. Due to many of its options, it’s actually less powerful tan the x200 above. That shouldn’t stop you from reading the reviews of why it’s on many editors top-choice list.
The new Dells. The Latitude e line looks to be worthy of consideration. It’s been quite some time since I seriously considered Dells as I had been quite happy with Lenovo’s power and Sony’s media. However, it appears that Dell is once again making a strong foray into business computing.
Google AdWords
Seminars for Success
Learn about Google AdWords from experts hand selected by Google.
These seminars will educate advertisers on the creation and management of successful AdWords campaigns.
Upcoming Seminars:
Phoenix AdWords Seminars January 22nd & 23rd
Austin AdWords Seminars January 28th & 29th
Learn More about the Seminars:
Seminar Information
Official Google Seminar Page
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Brad Geddes
Leslie Clark
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