Google Ad Preview Tool
If you’re not familiar with the Google Ad Preview Tool than this post is an opportunity for you to add something new to your PPC tool belt. It seems that more now than ever clients are interested in seeing their ads in action. They are doing multiple searches daily with the hope of seeing their ads show above their competitors or just to monitor the ad generation that hired guns are doing on their behalf. What most fail to realize though is that the impressions generated from these “false” searches count towards specific metrics utilized to measure success on both the agency-side and the Google algorithm-side. Essentially, these searches inflate impressions without the chance for clicks, thus lowering the campaign’s click-thru rate (CTR). The click thru-rate is a large component of the ads quality score, and the quality score has a direct impact on the bid that is needed to obtain a certain position. Agencies and consultants need to communicate to their clients that while these searches are alleviating their obsessive need to micro-manage their ad campaigns, they are ultimately affecting the performance of the ads and their wallets.
The benefit of the Google Ad Preview Tool is that clients and account managers now have the ability to check ads without generating impressions and affecting key metrics. Additionally, this tool was designed to help advertisers see the ads when they’re targeting a location outside of their own location, and target specific languages other than their own computer language setup.
For access to the tool, please click on the image below.
Kurt Kaufer
A new addition to Google Webmaster Tools has popped up, its called Parameter Handling. Found under the Settings menu, Parameter Handling allows site owners to specify up to 15 URL parameters that Google should ignore while crawling and indexing your website.
Google will list any parameters they have found and will auto select what they think is best for you, but this can easily be changed by selecting the drop down and selecting “Ignore” or “Don’t Ignore”.
The main benefit of Parameter Handling is to help eliminate duplicate content issues. If you’ve used some of the older shopping carts out there (xcart, oscommerce) then you can probably recall the session id’s being loaded in the URL when a user signs in and out. Well now thanks to this nifty little addition to Webmaster Tools we can eliminate these duplicate content issues.
In addition to helping avoid duplicate content, Parameter Handling can also help with crawl efficiency and PageRank dilution. If search engines are crawling multiple pages with session ids for example, then they are putting a load on your server and theirs. As for PageRank dilution, someone can easily link to one of your URL’s that has a session or id tied to it and unless you are using Parameter Handling, link juice will flow to that exact link.
The main drawback is that Parameter Handling is only for Google, but who knows Yahoo and Bing might offer something like this soon. It wouldn’t be the first time they added a feature Google came out with.
-Marko
In an age where a backlash against traditional advertising is fueling the growth of social media as a robust marketing channel, this un-intrusive and user engaging alternative communication medium is experiencing unprecedented growth both in terms of the amount of user generated content splashed onto the web and the tools available for understanding what these conversations mean to your brand. As marketers become hyper-sensitive to the buying public’s increasing use of instinctive advertising defense mechanisms (such as selection and filtering), they are simultaneously being bombarded with an assortment of new tools and services to combat this messaging avoidance. Staying on top of these new tools as they roll out is becoming a full time job upon itself, but ultimately the role of the marketer is to effectively integrate these tools in a way that not only connects with their target audience, but measures how this interaction impacts the business.
The earliest forms of social media were built on the premise of “members” exchanging information with other “members” across a wide range of topics. Members create the content, the conversation, and have control over the conveyance and distribution of information. In keeping with that tradition, this blog post, which presents five tools for social media measurement, is in itself a fundamental platform representing the principles of interactive social information flow. I am neither trying to endorse nor detract from the below tools, and I am simply using this forum as a springboard for conversation, awareness, and information sharing.
With that said, the tools listed below are useful platforms for measuring brand reputation, tracking user trends, understanding influence, and analyzing customer sentiment. As a marketer, the ability to organize and understand the massive amount of data available is paramount in not only being able to engage with your target customer base, but in converting them into loyal advocates for your brand. The main goal is to create actionable insight from your conversation audit, thus advancing the brand and ultimately the business. Below are five tools that help you get one step closer to realizing qualitative bliss.
Kurt Kaufer
QR stands for “quick response” and the QR code is a cube shaped 2-dimensional matrix code that permits users to obtain data at a high speed by simply using the scanner (camera) located on their mobile phone. Originally developed by the Japanese corporation, Denso-Wave in 1994, the codes were initially used for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing. As the years have progressed, the genesis of this technology has enabled it to be used in a much broader context, including mobile marketing. A QR code is free and easy to generate, and with the code’s ability to store much more information than a traditional barcodes, a user now has the ability to connect with a brand by viewing highly targeted website URLs, text and sms messages, and storing personalized B2C information all from their mobile phone.
When a QR code is scanned, information from the code is transferred to the mobile device where it is processed by specialized software located on the phone. This convenience oriented application enables marketers to better narrowcast audiences by directing users to specific website landing pages, advertisements, coupons, and calls to action while keeping the advertiser’s brand top of mind through the user’s ability to store this information in their phone. Certain brands and industries have already recognized QR Codes as a new communication channel in their quest to reach an expanding generation of tech-savvy consumers and have been using these codes in numerous ways to help achieve their marketing and branding initiatives. From using them to build their social communities, to placing the codes on outdoor advertisements, for-sale signs, print advertisements, business cards, fast food wrappers, convention name badges, in-store advertisements, dvd cases, and even wine bottles, these codes are furthering the personalization aspect of mobile marketing and helping brands win the war of advertising resistance by the consumer.
Although QR codes have yet to be widely adopted in the United States, it is commonplace in certain countries within Europe and in Japan. The Japanese are continuing to innovate around their original technology by searching for ways ways to strategically reach customers who they say are increasingly suffering from information overload. The advent of change is upon us and as QR codes become more mainstream in the U.S., marketers and advertisers will increasingly rely upon the ease and accessibility of this pull marketing technology to connect with audiences in a more efficient and cost effective way. The innovation and evolution of this intelligent advertising platform will create a mobile revolution where phones will eventually become a consumer’s main information source. With over 3 billion mobile phones worldwide today, the QR code will be a powerful mechanism in providing information gratification for a society that increasingly demands it.
Kurt Kaufer
