Sometimes PPC can feel a bit like wizardry. The further you delve into AdWords, the more powerful data you can find and harness to succeed at PPC. If you have been chugging along managing your AdWords campaigns in the same way for a while, why not look into these PPC tricks to see what kind of deeper information you can uncover? You may be surprised at the type of data that was hiding in your AdWords account all this time!
Get ready to hop on the broom or take the red pill or whatever analogy you’d like to use…
Get ready to hop on the broom or take the red pill or whatever analogy you’d like to use…
1. Figuring out Where Call Extensions are Working
Location: Dimensions > Call Details
What it Tells You: This provides rich data about your calls, which include the data and time of each call, whether the call was missed or received, the duration of the call and the area code of the caller.
Why it Matters: Having the area code of the caller and the time when they called provides two great pieces of information when it comes to deciding where to advertise and when. If you find many calls coming from a certain region or a certain time of the day (or a certain time of the day in a certain region) you can use bid modifiers to bid up these locations and times in order to be more competitive. Conversely, if you seem to get very few calls during a certain time of the day, you can bid down that timeframe to avoid ad spend waste.
Even beyond the PPC implications, this can have business implications. Let’s say that your business hours are 8am-5pm. If you see that you are missing a number of calls during the 7 o’clock hour but people are not leaving messages, you may want to consider opening early or shifting your hours to capture this added business.
2. Examining Ad Lift from Sitelink Ad Extensions
Location: Ad Extensions > Sitelinks > Segment > This Extension vs Other
What it Tells You: This lets you see how that sitelink performed and also how any ad using it performed while it was shown as a part of the ad.
Why it Matters: If you are only looking at the data for each sitelink in and of itself, you are missing out on the bigger picture. You may have a sitelink that only has a few clicks and a low overall Click-Through-Rate (CTR), but if that ad extension can cause an ad lift for the ad it’s attached to, then it’s worthwhile to keep it around. This is especially important to look at when you are trying to evaluate promotions and seasonal elements. For instance, you may have “New Release Fall Collection” or “Save 25% on Black Friday” sitelinks that are affecting the performance of your ad just as much as your ad text.
3. Determining which Time of Day Converts Best
Location: Dimensions > Time > Hour of Day
What it Tells You: This breaks out your PPC performance (impressions, clicks, cost, conversions, etc.) by hour of the day.
Why it Matters: Knowing when your PPC generates the most clicks and conversions is important because, again, it speaks to how you budget your PPC dollars. You may choose to bid up or down during certain times, or even turn your ads off completely if you are spending money and not getting any conversions at off-peak hours.
If you are in a highly competitive industry, may find the opposite to be true. Sometimes businesses will find that off-peak hours (like the middle of the night) actually provide the best return because there are fewer competitors to drive up the cost of clicks.
4. Evaluating the Performance of Google’s Partner Network
Location: Campaign > Ad Groups > Segment > Network (with Search Partners)
What it Tells You: This separates the performance of your ad groups on Google.com from their performance on the Google Search Network (which includes places like AOL, Ask.com, Netscape, Earthlink, AT&T, Dogpile, etc.).
Why it Matters: Sometimes ad performance on the Google Search Network is not statistically significant than ad performance on Google itself. However, other times Google’s partner network will underperform relative to Google.com. In these case, you can opt to turn it off and just run your ads on Google by going into your campaign settings and under “Networks” unchecking the “include search partners” box.
By Kate Pierce. Kate Pierce is the owner of LionShark Digital Marketing LLC, a West Michigan internet marketing company. Her areas of expertise include Paid Search, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Web Consulting for small businesses, Copywriting and Local Online Marketing. She lives in the Grand Rapids area with her husband and enjoys cooking, watching sports and spending time outdoors. Like a true digital marketing expert (i.e. geek), she loves talking about marketing theory and SEM trends… so don’t say you weren’t warned!
Location: Dimensions > Call Details
What it Tells You: This provides rich data about your calls, which include the data and time of each call, whether the call was missed or received, the duration of the call and the area code of the caller.
Why it Matters: Having the area code of the caller and the time when they called provides two great pieces of information when it comes to deciding where to advertise and when. If you find many calls coming from a certain region or a certain time of the day (or a certain time of the day in a certain region) you can use bid modifiers to bid up these locations and times in order to be more competitive. Conversely, if you seem to get very few calls during a certain time of the day, you can bid down that timeframe to avoid ad spend waste.
Even beyond the PPC implications, this can have business implications. Let’s say that your business hours are 8am-5pm. If you see that you are missing a number of calls during the 7 o’clock hour but people are not leaving messages, you may want to consider opening early or shifting your hours to capture this added business.
2. Examining Ad Lift from Sitelink Ad Extensions
Location: Ad Extensions > Sitelinks > Segment > This Extension vs Other
What it Tells You: This lets you see how that sitelink performed and also how any ad using it performed while it was shown as a part of the ad.
Why it Matters: If you are only looking at the data for each sitelink in and of itself, you are missing out on the bigger picture. You may have a sitelink that only has a few clicks and a low overall Click-Through-Rate (CTR), but if that ad extension can cause an ad lift for the ad it’s attached to, then it’s worthwhile to keep it around. This is especially important to look at when you are trying to evaluate promotions and seasonal elements. For instance, you may have “New Release Fall Collection” or “Save 25% on Black Friday” sitelinks that are affecting the performance of your ad just as much as your ad text.
3. Determining which Time of Day Converts Best
Location: Dimensions > Time > Hour of Day
What it Tells You: This breaks out your PPC performance (impressions, clicks, cost, conversions, etc.) by hour of the day.
Why it Matters: Knowing when your PPC generates the most clicks and conversions is important because, again, it speaks to how you budget your PPC dollars. You may choose to bid up or down during certain times, or even turn your ads off completely if you are spending money and not getting any conversions at off-peak hours.
If you are in a highly competitive industry, may find the opposite to be true. Sometimes businesses will find that off-peak hours (like the middle of the night) actually provide the best return because there are fewer competitors to drive up the cost of clicks.
4. Evaluating the Performance of Google’s Partner Network
Location: Campaign > Ad Groups > Segment > Network (with Search Partners)
What it Tells You: This separates the performance of your ad groups on Google.com from their performance on the Google Search Network (which includes places like AOL, Ask.com, Netscape, Earthlink, AT&T, Dogpile, etc.).
Why it Matters: Sometimes ad performance on the Google Search Network is not statistically significant than ad performance on Google itself. However, other times Google’s partner network will underperform relative to Google.com. In these case, you can opt to turn it off and just run your ads on Google by going into your campaign settings and under “Networks” unchecking the “include search partners” box.
By Kate Pierce. Kate Pierce is the owner of LionShark Digital Marketing LLC, a West Michigan internet marketing company. Her areas of expertise include Paid Search, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Web Consulting for small businesses, Copywriting and Local Online Marketing. She lives in the Grand Rapids area with her husband and enjoys cooking, watching sports and spending time outdoors. Like a true digital marketing expert (i.e. geek), she loves talking about marketing theory and SEM trends… so don’t say you weren’t warned!
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