The Search Query Performance report in AdWords is a rich source of information that can help you hone in on the most productive phrases in your campaign.

If you were bidding on a broad term like “Marketing” the report shows all the phrases that were triggered from that term, you might see “internet marketing“, “web marketing” or “marketing on the internet.”  You can then evaluate the click thru rate (CTR), cost per click (CPC) and conversions on that term to determine if it’s a good fit for your business. The report also helps you identify phrases that might not be good for your business, but are generating clicks and costing you money. Using the information in the report, you can add the phrases that work into your campaign and add negatives to filter out the phrases that don’t.

The only issue with the Search Query Performance report has been that Google has always lumped lower volume quires into groups called “other unique queries.” This has been a point of contention because it obscures some number of phrases that were successful and hides terms that could be used as ‘negatives’ to remove irrelevant searches for your campaign.

Google announced that starting Tuesday, May 19, 2009 the Search Query Performance report will show all queries that resulted in a click… (Yeah!)
http://adwords.blogspot.com/2009/05/enhanced-search-query-performance.html

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It is beneficial to separate and track your Pay Per Click traffic from Organic in Google Analytics. If you don’t make the effort, PPC and Organic traffic will be lumped together, making it difficult to know how your SEO efforts are progressing.

Once you make the link between Google AdWords and Google Analytics accounts, the tracking will occur automatically. To set this up, simply access the Analytics tab in your AdWords account and then either select Create New or Link to Existing.  Once you have done this, all your campaign information, keyword information et cetera will be nicely broken out in your Google Analytics account.

If you previously messed up and selected Create New (when you had an existing account) this can be corrected. You use to have contact Google to have this done manually. This recently changed with this AdWords announcement explaining how you can now un-link and link AdWords and Google Analytics.

In addition to seeing Google (CPC) broken out, you can also have Yahoo (CPC), MSN (CPC), and others broken out in Google Analytics.  While tracking additional marketing campaigns in Google Analytics requires a little extra work when you set the campaign up, it’s definitely worth the effort.

Tracking other campaigns is accomplished by editing and adding a tracking code to the end of each of the URLs used in your ads. While adding this “tracking code” stuff may sound complicated or technical, it’s not. But just in case, Google has created a tool that simplifies things. To set these up go to the Google Analytic URL builder , enter the URL of your landing page with the associated campaign information and the tool will generate  an updated URL complete with the code . The codes can be placed on any incoming links you wish to track enabling you to track banner ads, paid placements, and so on with your Google Analytics  account.

Note: AdWords will automatically appear in your Analytics account as “Google (CPC)”, so using “CPC” (cost per click) as the “Campaign Medium” setting for other Pay Per Click marketing campaigns will make them appear in like fashion, Yahoo (CPC), MSN (CPC).

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Google just published updated information on ‘Quality Score’ and how is it calculated. Quality Score is a major factor in determining what advertisers pay for ad phrases.

I believe this is the clearest information so far on this import, evolving algorithm.
What is ‘Quality Score’ and how is it calculated?

Past Articles:

• How Google AdWords Bidding Works – Quality Score
• Landing Pages to Improve Quality Score
• PPC Campaigns and Quality Score
• Chasing the Long Tail

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I have been participating in Microsoft’s AdCenter beta program. This type of desktop PPC management tool is essential to managing PPC programs. I have participated in, and managed several beta programs in my career and you expect things to be a clunky at first. if you have used the early releases, I am sure you would agree, there was room to improve.

A Little History

We were once satisfied to manage out PPC campaigns in an excel spreadsheet. Tabbing, cutting, pasting, searching and replacing. However the bar was raised when Google’s AdWords Editor program was released. My weekly drill of checking position and conversions was made dramatically easier with the release of AdWords Editor. Tasks that required HOURs to perform in a spreadsheet were reduced to minutes. Read more…

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I have always felt that conversion tracking was an absolute necessity if you are running Adwords Campaigns.

The Google AdWords team just announced that displaying the AdWords Site Stats logo is no longer mandatory. This is good news as I always felt the logo was unattractive and distracting for customers/prospects coming in through AdWords campaigns.

Information on changing the conversion code out for the non-logoed version here :

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I have been on a mission with several of my clients to establish good landing pages. Good landing pages can improve Quality Score and your rank for key phrases. A good Quality Score means Google considers your page to be relevant to the phrases used in your ad campaigns and directly impacts what you pay Google for your ads.

This test demonstrates the real dollar impact (savings), when it’s done right.
see: Landing Pages to Improve Quality Score

Google suggests:

• Edit your keyword and ad text so they clearly relate to each other and accurately describe your landing page.
• Choose keywords that target your audience. What terms would your customers use to describe your products or services? Use the Keyword Tool for help.
• Optimize your ad text to include your keyword and a call-to-action (such as purchase or sign up).

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I attended an Advanced AdWords seminar last week and am revisiting the topic of Building National Ads for Local Needs .

This seminar was sponsored by Google and lead by Brad Geddes of BG theory . While most of the Advanced Class was more a refresher than anything new, it has prompted me to make a change in my national campaign strategy for local business. In addition to the negative terms I use (listed in the original article), I now also use exclude cities, regions and metro areas in the campaigns Location settings. If your business is in Madison Alabama area, I would create local and national campaigns. In the national campaigns, I would exclude the areas covered in the local campaign and then add exclusions for all cities named Madison in the country (Google lists 24 all together).

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I handle pay per click campaigns for most of my customers. The front-end, setting up and tuning the campaign is the most time consuming part of the effort. Finding the right words and then determining which words best convert. After the initial set-up maintenance requires fewer hours, with much of the time spent, testing new ad copy and adjusting bids to improve acquisition cost. However diligence and attention are important as search phrases should be constantly evaluated and the results fed back into the website to improve landing pages and improve organic results for top performing phrases.

It is interesting to see how people charge for this service. There is an excellent article about PPC management options here

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