Avoiding PPC pitfalls

One of the pitfalls that people fall into when setting up Google Adwords campaigns for themselves is to take the default of being opted into the Content Network.  The fact that Google allows (some would say, encourages) this to happen, which results in advertisers wasting budget, is nothing short of criminal. 

Most of us will have been to websites that aren’t Google or some of the mainstream sites (e.g. Amazon), where there are ‘Sponsored Links’ appearing.  This is the Content Network and this is what advertisers get automatically signed up to when creating a Google Adwords campaign.

The way that the Content Network works is that website owners have the option to have adverts displayed on their websites that the Google system considers to be adverts relevant to the subject of the website itself.   So, if your website is about the history of widgets then Google will show adverts related to widget suppliers and anyone else with a product or service related to widgets.  The idea is that the visitor to the website finds adverts of interest to them and so clicks on them.

So far it doesn’t seem terrible.

However, the adverts displayed are often wide of the mark (for example on a website about bed bug removals there were adverts for house removals companies) and whether honestly or dishonestly (a whole additional subject in itself), adverts get clicked on, even if those adverts aren’t fully relevant to the interests of the person viewing the website.

When those clicks are made, the website owner gets a share of the click revenue, and Google gets the other share.  It’s in the interests of the website owner and Google for people to click on such adverts.  From the perspective of the advertiser, who may not even realise that their adverts are appearing on websites that have little relevance to what they’re trying to sell, all that can be seen is that numerous clicks are gained to their website but that the results aren’t great. 

If you’re not familiar with the Content Network then keep an eye out for Sponsored Link adverts appearing in websites that you wouldn’t consider to be ‘mainstream’ (i.e. not Google or big companies like Amazon).  Look at those adverts that appear and see how closely they’re matched to the context of the website page you’re viewing.  In many cases there will be strong links but there will also be what seem to be complete mismatches.   The point of this article is to highlight that most new advertisers aren’t aware that they’re being opted in to appear on various websites outside Google itself.

Having said all that, the Content Network CAN get results for advertisers but only if it’s properly managed so that adverts only appear on highly relevant websites.  Unfortunately, most people don’t get that deep into their PPC advertising and don’t even realise that they’ve been opted into something that is wasting their budget for days, weeks, months, and years, until they’re made aware of the mistake they’ve made.

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Google Docs in plain English

While it could be said that Google are bad in some ways (for example, making it hard for novices to benefit from Adwords advertising), they do also give a lot away for free.

One such giveaway is Google Docs.   At the most basic level it’s like having Word, Excel, and more, available online ‘in the cloud’ all the time, and multiple people being able to work on the same document at the same time.

If you’re not familiar with how Google Docs can help, there’s a very simple plain English video (ironically, subtitled in what looks like Chinese) that you can view on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRqUE6IHTEA).  The video is under 3 minutes long, quite fast paced, and gives you the rudimentary basics of how you can use Google Docs.  It doesn’t go into the specific details (there are many other videos that cover that) but it’s enough to whet your appetite.

The added benefit of viewing that video is to perhaps think about your own business.  What could you explain in very simple terms (perhaps leading onto more in-depth videos) about your business sector/product/service?   Many people use YouTube to look up music, amusing videos etc. but there are so many opportunities to capitalise on business-related subjects as well. 

That Google Docs video has been viewed over 2,905,000 times and while most of us could only dream to have our videos viewed that many times, if the subject is of interest to people, then there is plenty of potential to gain brand awareness and business.   Making it amusing further increases the potential.  And this is before even touching on the subject of how beneficial it can be in terms of search engine rankings.

It’s probably worth spending a few minutes on YouTube typing various phrases related to your business (and that people may potentially type) and seeing what videos have been posted up and how many times they’ve been viewed.

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Email newsletters stupidity

Something we’ve not yet worked out is why some companies still produce email newsletters as static images, PDF attachments, or Word attachments. 

There are numerous reasons why creating/sending email newsletters in such ways is detrimental to potential business success.

The Custwin newsletters are sent as html emails and have the following benefits:

1. The newsletter is there within the email message, including graphics – all ready for the recipient to interact if they wish to.

2. We can identify how many, when, and which subscribers have opened each email newsletter.  This helps us to see which subscribers remain interested and which ones may potentially need further nurturing.

3. We can identify which links people clicked on within the newsletters, which shows us what subjects were of most interest to individual subscribers.  That may sound a bit ‘big brother’ but it’s only through fully understanding what subscribers are interested in, that future email newsletters can be refined.

When a company sends email newsletters that are static images or have attachments, there are many negatives, including:

1. Many recipients email systems will ‘junk’ emails that have attachments.

2. The recipient is being forced to open something else instead of the newsletter content being instantly viewable.

3. The sender of the email newsletter has no way of identifying how many people opened the newsletters, or what people find interesting within those newsletters.  For all the senders know, none of the recipients could be opening what’s being sent and even if some did open them, they may not find the content interesting.

Each month that the Custwin email newsletter goes out we analyse the open rates, what people are interested in, and more.  We want to know how people respond to what we write so that we can keep tweaking in future newsletters and so retain the interest of our subscribers.   Any company that doesn’t want to know such information when sending out email newsletters is missing major opportunities and may as well not bother sending out in the first place.

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Twitter visibility in Google

Life has just become easier and also harder for business users of Twitter because all your Tweets will now be visible in Google. There's a simple test to take that will show you how important this article is.

Go to Google and type your company name, your Twitter name, or the name/Twitter name of a competitor. In fact, anything you're interested in. Make sure you use 'the web' option of search instead of 'pages from the UK'.

Then click on the 'Show options ...' link that appears in the light blue bar below where you entered the search phrase. Within those options that appear on the left-hand-side click on 'Updates'. This will show you all recent tweets related to the search phrase you entered.

You need to look at this from a couple of perspectives ...

Reputation management - if you typed a word/phrase related to your own business or that of a business you're interested in, you'll see what people are saying about that business. Does your or another business come across professionally?

Competitor analysis - by getting an understanding of what people are saying about your competitors, useful insights can be gained.

We've found it useful to get greater insights into people that we may be doing business with. In one particular case, a one woman business came across reasonably professional in person but when we looked at their recent history of Twitter usage it got alarm bells ringing and uncovered many issues they have. Consquently, we declined to get involved with that person.

The ability of Google to record tweets in this way is clever but it'll catch a lot of people out. Those that get caught out could be those who have been unaware that their tweets are highly visible online. They could also be those businesses that aren't keeping track of what people are saying about them and also what people are saying about their competitors.

At this stage Google doesn't seem to be recording all tweets and it's still very new, but over time it'll get more efficient and will become either a gold mine or a deep grave for many people in business.

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Never assume online

Something we’ve noticed a lot more of recently is how many people online make assumptions about the people they’re trying to make contact with.  They may be prolific users of Twitter, LinkedIn etc. but do they really understand their contacts/customers?  

Never assume that just because a contact/customer uses a certain system (e.g. Twitter), that you can always communicate effectively with them via that medium.

In an ideal world, everyone would be fully connected up so that they always see what you’re saying.  But that’s not always the case.   As an example, we go to a ‘Tweetup’ lunch once a month and the promotion for that lunch is done via Twitter.  But what happens if we’ve not been on Twitter for awhile, or happen to have missed the invites going out?   What if more people are in the same boat?  Numbers for the lunch will be down – purely because it’s assumed that people have seen the invites on Twitter.

Taking another example, just because someone has a profile on LinkedIn doesn’t mean that they receive their LinkedIn-related email alerts in the same way that their main emails are received.  After all, it’s important to try and segment email types received.   So what happens when someone sends an invite to an event via LinkedIn but the recipient hasn’t picked up on it because they have their emails from the LinkedIn system delivered in a different way to ‘normal’?   Potentially, communication between the two parties doesn’t occur.

So what’s the answer here?  Perhaps one answer is for people on the receiving end of communications to try and find a way to be watching communication flows more effectively.  So, if you have a LinkedIn account, Twitter, Facebook, etc. etc., all communications are received in one place.   But let’s be realistic – how many of us can possibly make the time to ensure that every communication that’s aimed at us is read?  The sheer level of online communication is so huge that we’d get no work done if watching that closely!

The answer perhaps, lies with those who are initiating the online conversations.  The arrangers of events, or senders of messages via various systems.  They should be the ones who are asking the question of “how come Joe Bloggs hasn’t responded to this?” – that should spark a conversation that then highlights that Joe Bloggs missed the communication and that the sender wouldn’t assume next time.

Next time you send something online, such as an invite, or a message to someone, look out for lack of responses and ask yourself whether you’ve made an assumption about the people you’re sending to.

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