To get started with product extensions, simply go to the Google Merchant Center and add your Adwords customer ID to your account.

Kurt Kaufer

Google Adwords Product Extensions

The measurement can offer a more accurate depiction of your ads influence and how effective your ad is at drawing visitors to your site, even if they don’t click right away. As an example, the user may see the ad, like it, but immediately close their browser bar without clicking on the ad because they were signing off for the day. Then, ten days later, they resume their product search and remember the name of your website or company from the display ad and go to your website directly. Although they did not click on the display ad ten days earlier, your ad did do its job of engaging and pulling the potential customer to your website.

The view-through metric has been added to the new Google Adwords interface as a default. It could be a sign that Google is really looking to get advertisers to engage with their Adsense content network, and that it may be time to re-optimize any content campaigns you already have running.

Kurt Kaufer

Bounce rate by definition is the percentage of visitors who land on the website and view only one page (without visiting any other pages) before leaving. For example: Kurt sees a pay-per-click ad which was advertising a wetsuit sale at a local surf shop. He clicks on the ad which takes him to the “sale” landing page. After he reads the page he then leaves the website to go back to Google and start another search. Typical ways a bounce is recorded is by:

• Clicking on an internal link to a page outside of the website
• Closing the browser window or tab
• Simply typing in a new URL
• Clicking the “back” button and leaving the site
• Session-timeout*

*A session-timeout is when a visitor views a specific page, doesn’t look at another page, and leaves the browser idle for a certain amount of time. A commonly used session-timeout threshold is 30 minutes; so once this time limit has been reached a bounce is recorded.

Exit rate by definition is the percentage of visitors who leave the website from a specific page based on the number of visits to that page. The difference between bounce rate and exit rate is that the visitor who exited from this specific landing page may have viewed many other pages on the website before landing on this specific page and then exiting from here. For example: Kurt sees a pay-per-click ad for a local surf shop that just opened. He clicks on the ad which brings him to the home page of the website. He views a few different pages before going to the “sale” page. After he reads the “sale” page he then closes his browser window, hops in his car and speeds to the surf shop.

How to use these metrics:
Both of these performance indicators can create actionable insight, but are used very differently. Bounce rate is important for determining how your landing page might be performing. If you have a ppc ad running and you find that you have a 75% bounce rate for the specific product page which your ad brings the user to, then there is a problem with the landing page. Why would so many users leave a page that was specifically targeted for them? What about the page is preventing them from moving onto other correlated pages within the site? Optimizing the page, multivariate testing, and statistical analysis may help you determine what the root cause and solution may be.

Exit rate is important for determining how a particular page is performing in the sales process. If, as an advertiser, you have mapped out a specific sales (page) funnel, and visitors seem to be exiting from one specific page in that funnel, then you know that that page is problematic and needs to be optimized.
As you can see, both metrics can be powerful tools in identifying specific problems in the user interaction process and help you determine what changes are needed to increase sales and ensure a better return on your ad spend.

Kurt Kaufer

1.    Broad Match:  This is the most basic option and happens to be the default when a campaign is set up.  This option is less targeted than the “phrase” and “exact” match options and Google will run your ads on relevant variations of your keywords, even if these terms aren’t in your keywords lists.  Keyword variations include synonyms, singular/plural forms, relevant variants of your keywords, and phrases containing your keywords.

Example:  The keyword you are bidding on is, snowboard jackets.  Ads may appear for searches including snowboard, jackets, buy snowboard jackets, Burton snowboard jackets, winter jackets, snowboard coats, used snowboards.

Pro:  This option allows you to serve your ad to the broadest audience.
Con:  It often generates invalid/unqualified clicks and can increase costs.

2.    Phrase Match:  With this option, Google matches your ad only against keywords that include the phrase you designate specifically in that order.  You can designate this by typing quotation marks around the keyword in the Google interface or by simply selecting the phrase match option.
Example:  The keyword you are bidding on is, “red coat”.  Ads may appear for searches including “cheap red coat”, “buy red coat”, large red coat”.

Pro:  This option allows you to narrow your audience and focus your marketing efforts.
Con:  If one of your goals as an advertiser is generating brand awareness you are eliminating a large base of searchers from ever seeing your ads.  Additionally, if the user happens to misspell a word, or not type it in the exact order, “buy coats red”, then ads would not be served to a segment that really wants your product or service.

3.    Exact Match:  This is the most specific option and your ad would only appear when a user searches for the specific phrase in that order.  You can designate this by typing brackets around the keyword in the Google interface or by simply selecting the exact match option.
Example:  The keyword you are bidding on is, [wetsuit repair].  Ad would only appear for searches including wetsuit repair, in that order, and without any other terms in the query.

Pro:  This option allows you to target your ad spend as much as possible.
Con:  Same as phrase match, but to a higher degree.

4.   Negative Match:  Negative keywords function as a filter to prevent ads showing to unwanted visitors.  This eliminates the amount of untargeted and/or invalid clicks and help control costs.

Example:  The keyword you are bidding on is, snowboard jackets.  If you add the negative keyword ‘cheap’, you ad will not appear for any searches containing the keyword ‘cheap snowboard jackets’.

As you can tell there is a lot to consider when building your keyword list.  In order for your ppc campaigns to be as effective as possible it is a good idea to have a clear understanding of your audience, your marketing and business goals, and your budget well before-hand to ensure you are getting the most effective return on your ad spend.

Kurt Kaufer

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

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

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

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

I love Google Analytics, I really do.  The only issue I have is that some of the information I want is not always easily obtained.  Say you add some external links to your site, wouldn’t it be nice to see how many people actually click them?  Or what if you want to segment your visitors based on the page’s they visit?  This is all possible with a few Google Analytics tips and tricks!

1.  Tracking FULL Referral URL’s

In order to set this up you will need to add the following to your Analytics profile.

Name:  Full Referrers
Type: Custom Filter - Advanced
Field A -> Extract A: Referral (.*)
Field B -> Extract B:
Output To -> Constructor: User Defined $A1
Field A Required: Y
Field B Required: N
Override Output Field: Y
Case Sensitive: N

2.  Track Downloads and Mail links

This is really helpful when you’re trying to figure out how many people are actually downloading your product or click your HTML mailto links.

Download Tracking Code:

<a href=”http://www.example.com/files/map.pdf” onClick=”javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview(’/downloads/map’); “>

Mailto Tracking Code:

<a href=”mailto:[email address]“onClick=”javascript:urchinTracker(’/mailto/bob’);”>[email address]</a>

3.  Tracking Outbound Links

This is one of my favorite!  Nothing like seeing what external links people are clicking.

<a href=”http://www.example.com” onClick=”javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview(’/outgoing/example.com’);”>

4.  Segmenting Site Visitors

Using the code below you can segment visitors by the pages they visit or actions they take.  This can be useful when determining if the pages on your site are helping or hurting your sales process.

<script type=”text/javascript”>pageTracker._setVar(’Marketing/PR’);</script>

5.  Track Exact Keywords from your AdWords Campaign

The keywords you see in Google Analytics (CPC) are not the actual keywords someone typed in the search box, they are simply the words that triggered your ad.  If you want to see the exact keywords, add the filters below to your Analytics profile.

Name: PPC Keywords 1
Type: Custom filter - Advanced
Field A -> Extract A: Referral > (\?|&)(q|p)=([^&]*)
Field B -> Extract B: Campaign Medium > cpc|ppc
Output To -> Constructor: Custom Field 1 > $A3

Field A Required, Field B Required and Override Output Field need to be set to Yes.

Name: PPC Keywords 2
Type: Custom filter - Advanced
Field A -> Extract A: Custom Field 1 > (.*)
Field B -> Extract B: Campaign Term > (.*)
Output To -> Constructor: Campaign Term > $B1,($A1)
Well, there you have it!  Hope you find these Google Analytics tips helpful!

- Marko

As it turns out, they always get the job accomplished, but not without the homeowner having to inevitably compromise of some apartment amenities due to space restrictions. This process is very similar to home page design.  When you look at everything the home page has to accomplish you quickly realize that it is impossible to fit every element in.  Most users have a tendency to scan down the home page just far enough to get a quick idea of what the site is. This means that space on the page is very limited and most elements must be squeezed “above the fold”. This is the beach-front property of the site and with such limited real estate to work with, compromises have to be made in order to complete the most important goal of the page, conveying the big picture, while offering additional elements such as impressing and enticing the users, and exposing them to promos, deals, timely content, shortcuts, and registration options (if applicable).

The home page has to also appeal to everyone who visits the site, no matter how diverse their interests are.  According to Steven Krug, author of “Don’t Make Me Think”, the home page needs to answer the following questions as quickly and clearly as possible in order to accomplish its main goal.

1.    What site is this?
2.    What do they have here?
3.    What can I do here?
4.    Why should I be here and not somewhere else?
5.    Where do I start?

These questions seem fairly straight forward and obvious, but in actuality, it takes a very strategic blue print to answer these questions without compromising too much of the design and branding elements. Below is an example of how eBoost Consulting approaches the answers.

As you can see, we try and answer as many questions as possible within a users “glance” so the chances are lessened that the they will misinterpret something, get frustrated, and have a dissatisfying experience. If the user has clarity on who we are and what our value proposition is within the first 30 seconds or so, there is a greater chance that they will become engaged and continue into the interior pages of our site. Establishing credibility and trust is paramount because this may be our only chance to create a good first impression.

So how do you accomplish all of these goals in such a limited amount of space?  First, you put on your interior designer hat, mapping out what page elements need to be included in order to satisfy your target customer segments.  Then you utilize specific methods that are proven to be space efficient while still accomplishing a multitude of page goals.  Below are two examples of proven methods:

The Tagline: The tagline is phrase that sums up the whole enterprise, and what makes it great in about six to eight words.  The tagline should appear right below, above, or next to the site id because it visually connects your message with your brand.  It is the most valuable space on the page and where users expect to find a concise statement of the site’s purpose.  A good example of a tagline is:  “Single Best Resource For Website Music Reviews”

The Welcome Blurb: The welcome blurb is a brief description of the site and its value proposition, visible without scrolling.  The idea is to use as much space as necessary, but not any more than that.   Keep the text just long enough to get the message across, and ensure that this space isn’t utilized to show your mission statement; hardly anyone takes the time to read those.  A good example of a welcome blurb is: You will find thousands of articles on snowboarding, an online community of riders, and a huge store carrying all your favorite brands.

So there you have it.  The questions and answers you need to ensure your income property helps you pay the mortgage.

Kurt Kaufer