www.GFX.0fees.net Winning Results with Google AdWords Second Edition About the Author Andrew Goodman is founder and president of Page Zero Media, a Toronto-based search marketing agency offering full-service campaign management for paid search as well as a variety of related online marketing services for growth-oriented clients such as E*TRADE, Canon, Etsy, Business and Legal Reports, Canadian Tire, and Torstar Digital. His blog, Traffick.com, has framed many of the debates in the industry, dating back to 1999. A globally recognized speaker (including an integral role in over 30 Search Engine Strategies conferences dating back to 2002), he has served as Program Chair for Search Engine Strategies Toronto for the past two years. His columns appear regularly in publications such as Search Engine Land, and his sound bites frequently show up in major media, including The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, The Washington Post, Fortune Small Business, Business News Network, and Marketing Magazine. Andrew is also a cofounder of HomeStars, a dot-com startup in the home improvement space. He served as VP, Strategy for HomeStars from 2007 through 2008. For relaxation, Andrew enjoys inline skating in west end Toronto (sometimes into hostile crowds of picnickers), extreme gardening, watching the Weather Channel, and long walks on Cuban beaches. He shares most of these experiences with his wife, Carolyn Bassett. About the Technical Editor Matt Van Wagner is President and founder of Find Me Faster (www.findmefaster.com), a search engine marketing firm based in Nashua, New Hampshire, and product architect for DEKE, an ad simulator and quality control application for the Google AdWords DKI Ad function. Matt is a member of Search Engine Marketing New England (SEMNE) and Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization (SEMPO), and is a courseware developer for the SEMPO Institute. Matt writes occasionally about the Internet, search engines, and technology for iMedia Connection, New Hampshire Business Review, and other publications. He has served as a technical editor for Mona Elesseily’s Yahoo! Search Marketing Handbook. Matt holds a BS in Economics from St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York, and an MBA from Rivier College, Nashua, New Hampshire. Winning Results with Google AdWords Second Edition Andrew Goodman New York Chicago San Francisco Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City Milan New Delhi San Juan Seoul Singapore Sydney Toronto Copyright © 2009 by The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. 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For Bill Gates This page intentionally left blank Contents at a Glance PART I The Paid Search Opportunity 1 How Big Is This Market? The Rapid Rise of Paid Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2 A $21 Billion Afterthought: How Google Entered the Advertising Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 PART II How to Play the AdWords Game 3 First Principles for Reaching Customers Through AdWords . . . . . . . . . . . 71 4 Setting Up Ad Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 5 How Google Ranks Ads: Quality-Based Bidding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 6 Big-Picture Planning and Making the Case to the Boss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 PART III Intermediate-Level Strategies 7 Keyword Selection and Bidding: Tapping into Powerful AdWords Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181 8 Writing Winning Ads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 9 Expanding Your Ad Distribution: Opportunities and Pitfalls . . . . . . . . . . . 245 PART IV Winning the AdWords Game: Advanced Issues 10 Measuring Success: A “What’s Changed” Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267 11 Increasing Online Conversion Rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 12 Online Targeting 1995–2015: Fast Start, Exciting Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367 vii This page intentionally left blank Contents Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii PART I The Paid Search Opportunity CHAPTER 1 How Big Is This Market? The Rapid Rise of Paid Search . . . . . . . . . 3 Targeted Advertising vs. Surplus Interruption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 In the Beginning: Advertising on the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Mass Marketing Inertia: Why Do the Old Ways Persist? . . . . . . . 8 Google’s Unassuming, Yet Butt-Kicking, Beginnings . . . . . . . . . 9 Search Marketing Facts and Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Size of the Advertising Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Size of the Online Advertising Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 The Growth of Search Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Search Engine User Growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Types of Search Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Why Pay for Search Traffic? Isn’t It Free? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Screen Real Estate, Location of Listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Some Ads Are More Relevant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Post-“Florida” Fallout: Algorithmic Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Control Over Message, Navigation, Timing, Exposure . . . . . . . . 25 Noncommercial Sites and the Organic Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Organic and Paid Search Strategies: Not Mutually Exclusive . . . 27 CHAPTER 2 A $21 Billion Afterthought: How Google Entered the Advertising Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 AdWords Gets Its Start . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 How to “Speak Google”? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Google Responds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Predecessors and Competitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Major Predecessors in Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Major Predecessors in Paid Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 ix [...]...x Winning Results with Google AdWords The Growth and Evolution of AdWords Early Version Challenges Google as Referee: Complications of Multiple Stakeholders How Google s DNA Influences the AdWords Game PART II How to Play the AdWords Game CHAPTER 3 First Principles for Reaching Customers Through AdWords 50 50 52 57... e-books, and here—the second edition of his “real world” book—Andrew has educated thousands of people On an ordinary street, he might not seem to have celebrity status But for those who try xvii xviii Winning Results with Google AdWords to ferret out how the often secretive and complicated Google AdWords system works, Andrew’s one of the A-List stars Indeed, if there were Oscars of the AdWords world, he’d... of the AdWords interface, and the ins and outs of using core features of Google Analytics, Google s website behavior measurement tool Chapter 11 could be a book in itself, and xxiii xxiv Winning Results with Google AdWords again in a philosophical sense you could easily cite it as the most important chapter in the book, as it addresses the issue of converting website visitors into buyers, along with. .. you’re about to read Andrew is an AdWords celebrity Indeed, like the star of a hit film, it might make sense for people to refer to him with AdWords as part of his name: Andrew AdWords Goodman For as long as we’ve had Google AdWords, we’ve had Andrew Goodman writing about the system and how it has evolved, giving advice for those wanting more out of it, and nudging Google when it needed to make things... Planner Offline Marketing 246 246 248 248 249 250 252 253 254 254 258 259 260 260 261 263 xiii xiv Winning Results with Google AdWords PART IV Winning the AdWords Game: Advanced Issues CHAPTER 10 Measuring Success: A “What’s Changed” Report CHAPTER 11 267 What to Measure, How to Manage: Skinny Summary How Tracking... the first edition of Winning Results I’ve had people tell me the book helped them through decisions to change careers or launch their own agencies; unexpected and flattering At Fanshawe College, Liz Gray pioneered one of the world’s first college-level courses dedicated to search marketing It’s been a pleasure getting to know her, and her students xix xx Winning Results with Google AdWords Business and... working with Google is Google customer support Today, Google employs a “team” approach to assisting large or strategic clients, putting three or more support staff with distinct responsibilities at the disposal of the client Not only are Google staff helpful in the strictest sense of getting things accomplished, they’re highly knowledgeable and have helped me understand many details and nuances of AdWords. .. Fast Start, Exciting Future 335 Google AdWords: Emerging Trends Google Projects to Watch Google Chrome Google Product Search and Google Checkout Orkut: The Cool Kids Moved On? YouTube Google Labs ... to Google; I’ve become overwhelmed with the sheer headcount in Mountain View (and their dozens of other facilities around the world) I’ve had the privilege of interacting with a host of great people On the AdWords product side, Nick Fox stands out In addition to patient explanations of the complexities of Quality Score, Nick (like many Googlers) does a personable job of outlining the principles of Google s... a short time, Google has become one of the most famous companies in the world, with its founders themselves transformed into huge celebrities Little wonder Millions of people each day turn to Google for answers to their questions And Google keeps delivering so well that—yes— google is now a verb many people use to say they searched for something It’s an amazing consumer success story Google is also . . . . . . . . 2 61 Offline Marketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263 xiv Winning Results with Google AdWords PART IV Winning the AdWords Game: Advanced. Canton, New York, and an MBA from Rivier College, Nashua, New Hampshire. Winning Results with Google AdWords Second Edition Andrew Goodman New York Chicago San Francisco Lisbon London Madrid. . 13 8 AdWords 1. 0 and 2.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 8 AdWords 2.5 and 2.6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 8 AdWords