To set the stage, when our agency was invited to attend the 2011 Agency Summit at Google Headquarters in Mountain View CA, I was ecstatic to meet my maker.

I would not call myself a Geek, nor a Marketer or a Sales Guy. I’m a Search Engine Marketer. The Googlers (Google Employees) call me an SEM. SEM’s represent an emerging breed of professionals constantly seeking to out-wit, out-analyze, and out-game, the most competitive algorithm in the digital age.

Now put yourself in my shoes, to make a comparison it felt like waiting in anticipation before the first coin toss at a football game, first pitch of a baseball game, or even the feeling of lights dimming at the movies before the sequel to that epic saga you had followed since you were a kid. The show was about to begin. The crowd of SEM’s looked right, left, then down at their tablets, laptops, and mobile phones. We were all frantically, checking in, tweeting, and finishing that last email as our host stood confidentially in the front of the theatre ready to introduce the delivery of the state of SEM and focus of Google and most excitingly what’s next?

Allen Thygesen delivered the “State of Search” address. He focused our attention on Small Business market penetration and the future of complete digital adoption. He noted that only 30% of companies have a website and in his opinion (and his opinion matters) Small Businesses represent the largest growth opportunity for Google. His remarks really energize SEM’s (link back to part 1 for a full description of our tribe) as GoldenCommunications serves a large community of small and medium size business here in Orange County, CA. Allen spoke about a secular shift from offline to online and a clearly demonstrated demand for local search results. Allen mentioned “there is headroom here” as we are still at an early adopter stage. I personally agree as it’s not ok, NOT to compete in the online space, not with all the tools, transparency, and direct customer intelligence we gain through online marketing.

Another great presenter, Ryan Gibson spoke about the challenges, best practices, and new strategies in search. Ryan related that “Search is hard to do well.” However, with an onslaught of new tools added to the performance analytics suite through Google Adwords and Google Analytics he shared that the people who truly understand the analytics of auction based media will be positioned well now and in the future as all digital media may adhere to these foundational principles as the media space expands.

Follow the latest Ad innovations from Google

Now back to my personal journey inside the heart of Google. What is the heart of Google you may be asking? Well if you think it’s only an algorithm, then you made the mistake I did and forgot that there are people behind the algorithm. And as I was thinking deeper, people are really the heart of any company…

I’d like to focus this final thought on one Googler, his name is Adam Grunewald he is part of Google’s Agency Strategy team his job is helping SEM’s like myself win auctions on behalf of our clients. Over lunch Adam helped find solutions to a very complex search wall my team had not been able to overcome. He not only gave insight into the algorithm but more importantly gave insight into our online business.

Inside the heart of Google are people, these are really smart people, really helpful people, that can really help accelerate your business. Google Headquarters is a fun and fascinating place, but truly what impressed me most is the heart of Google. And for that, SEM’s like me are personally grateful to working with such a great business partner.

Yes, people really do work at Google – and, we love them (especially when they work for our clients).

Pictured above: Audra Gussin (GC) and Beth Hardy (Google).

Beth heads up GoldenComm’s Account Team at Google. Basically, our advocate and advisor. We want to thank Beth, Chris and all our team members at Google who work hard for us (and our clients). You are so appreciated!

10 ADWORDS TIPS!

#1) Split Testing:
The benefits of split testing are great. I love split testing my ‘Ecommerce Web Design’ ads.  I rotate my ads to show evenly throughout the day. Over time I can identify the winner and get rid of the loser.  Once I get rid of the loser ad, I write a competitor ad to see if I can get a higher CTR.  To add this feature go to ‘Campaign Settings’ and click ‘Rotate’ under Ad Serving.

#2) Knowing your keywords:

Everybody wants to be right.  Even I thought our #1 keyword would be ‘Custom Ecommerce’ or some variation of it.  Let the numbers do the work.  Our keyword ‘Ecommerce Web Design’ brings us 5 times the traffic in comparison to the 20 other keywords combined! So I began to not only optimize the landing page for that particular keyword to increase relevancy for SEM, but I also did it to optimize the page for SEO.

#3) Keyword matching type: Broad, Phrase, and Exact match types.

Keyword matching allows you to control how precise a user’s search must be to trigger your ad on Google search pages. Defining how broadly or narrowly your keywords are targeted helps you reach the audience you want. In general, the more targeted your keywords and ads are, the more likely you are to reach potential customers. -Google-   Please visit http://www.google.com/adwords/learningcenter/text/19135.html to get an in depth view of this subject.

#4) Keyword in header
Try this: Write one ad with your keyword in the header and one without the keyword in the header.  Do it for about 1-2 weeks and look at your numbers.  You’ll be surprised.  Most competitors have not figured this one out yet!

#5) Keyword in Subdomain
For this to work, you have to create a subdomain through your back admin office.  Put the keyword in front of the subdomain like this:  EcommerceWebDesign.goldencomm.com    Here’s another example with a different keyword of ours:  StrategicEcommerce.goldencomm.com

#6) Dynamic Keyword insertions
Do you ever wonder how Amazon.com and Best Buy have all these ads written for every keyword you enter?  They don’t have a department filled with hundreds of people typing up individual ads.  They use dynamic keyword insertion.  We use this too, especially for the local search results.  Write this in the headline when you are creating the ad.
{KeyWord} in OC
If the keyword makes the headline more than 25 characters (including spaces), it will only show “in OC”.  So make sure you know how this works.  Or you can leave {KeyWord} all by itself in the headline. The keyword which the user typed in will always come up.  If you don’t capitalize the W in keyword, the second word will be lower case instead of uppercase.

#7) Write Winning Ads
This one combines #4 & #5 into the ad.  Your ad should do two things.
1)    Attract quality traffic AND 2) Repel unqualified traffic.

Follow this Format:
Your #1 Keyword in header
What you do better than competition
Weed out unqualified people here.
AnotherKeyWordInSubdomain

This is our ad:
Ecommerce Web Design
Fully integrated eCommerce sites!
Customized sites starting at $12K
StrategicEcommerce.GoldenComm.com

In this example I try to weed all the small timers out.  I actually try to scare them away!  By the way, our eCommerce sites do start around $12K anyway.

#8) Conversion Goals & Google Analytics
Without conversion goals or Analytics, your advertising campaigns are just a shot in the dark.  A website should be a tool to grab contact info for a newsletter, a “Contact Us’ form, or to sell something (eCommerce) through the internet.  Usually an eCommerce website will have the conversion goal set to the ‘Thank You for your Purchase’ page.
The new Google Analytics makes it easy to improve your results online. Write better ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives, and create higher-converting websites. Google Analytics is free to all advertisers, publishers, and site owners. -Google- http://www.google.com/analytics/
Google Analytics can show which keywords are generating a positive or negative ROI.  This program can be tied into Google Adwords.

#9) Poor/Ok/Great quality score
Use keywords in the content.  This will help raise your quality score.  The more relevant your landing page is to the keyword, the lower your CPC will be.  We are in a higher position than our competitors and pay less per Click than they do.  You should always strive for a quality score of “GREAT”.  Sometime when you have dozens of keywords this becomes difficult.  Not only will you achieve higher relevancy by using the keywords in the content, but you will also optimize the webpage for SEO.

#10) Using your Competitor’s Keywords:
I saved the best for last….  Some people think this is unethical, but their eyes open wide with dollar signs.  My philosophy is this: “If my #1 competitor made it to the top, what can I learn from them so I can get there myself?  Why should I do all this hard work if they have already done it. “
Here’s how to rip the keywords off your competitors website:
Login to Adwords> Tools> Keyword Tool> select Website Content
This will generate relevant keywords based on the text found on your webpage.  Enter in your competitor’s website instead.  This will not only give their keywords, but similar keywords as well.  I don’t think Google has caught on to this, but let’s enjoy this while it lasts.  Google even organizes all the keywords for you!
Please reply to this post and let me know if you found any of this information helpful.  I would greatly appreciate it.