To me, this is a very curious move. All of this functionality is currently available in the AdWords Editor tool. So why complicate things by making it available in the AdWords interface?

The only reason I can think of is that they want to phase out the AdWords Editor and make it browser based only.

Maybe.

Instead of buying a search keyword like they do with Google Adwords, advertisers like Lawyer.com can pay Outbrain and Virurl to act as distributors for their messages. They supply the message in the form of a link to a piece of content — a picture, a story or a video. Outbrain and Virurl then spray the link across the web via third party publishers and on social media sites like Tumblr and Twitter.

I would disagree with Jeff on a number of points.

(i) This ‘new’ form of marketing is very content specific. It doesn’t seem like you can promote a specific product or service directly as it would most likely seem gimmicky to users.

(ii) The only two things that Outbrain/Virurl have going for them are simplicity and low cost. I won’t say that these are advantages in themselves but the metrics that matter for ROI driven online marketers are conversions and CPA. The article makes no mention of how these services compare to AdWords on these parameters.

(iii) It would seem that this form of marketing is effective for users looking to promote content (perhaps even arbitrage?) but not as wide in scope as AdWords.

Overall, I feel that there isn’t any new marketing platform that can beat AdWords’ reach and ROI.

1. Average conversion rates for different industries.

Is there a way to know what the benchmark conversion rates for every industry are? Larry Kim from Wordstream shares some great insights in to average conversion rates by industry vertical. Of course, this data will probably not be fully representative of actual numbers, but I feel it provides good insight.

Also, this data depends on how advertisers define their conversions. Advertisers within the same vertical may work with different conversion goals so it isn’t an apples to apples comparison within each vertical.

2. Is self-managing your AdWords account a good idea?

Paul Downs blogging at the NY times seems to think so. He lists some common errors that AdWords consultants make when approaching prospective clients. He also has a suggestion that many consultants might not agree to: Offer two months of free service. Sort of like an extended test run.

Here’s a simple way to reduce your cost per conversion and improve your conversion rate.

In your AdWords account, click on the ‘Dimensions’ tab on the Campaigns page and and select ‘Hour of day’ from the ‘View’ drop-down menu.

Once you’ve done that, you should have your conversion data broken down by the hour.

Sort this data by cost per conversion. Now, look at the top 4 and bottom 4 hours. If you notice a pattern, then go to the Campaign setting tab and adjust the ad delivery schedule so that your ads don’t show during those times.

You should see a reduction in cost per conversion in a week or so.

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Too many keywords – When approaching AdWords, the first strategy seems to be adding as many keywords as possible without any thought towards the value of each keyword and their relevance to your campaign. Keyword selection should be a well thought out process with only the right keywords going in to your campaign.

Highlighting USPs – If you have a feature of speciality that distinguishes you from your competition, it’s seems obvious for you to highlight it. But its surprising that so many people fail to do so. If you have USP, you should be showing it off.

Just one campaign – AdWords allows you to make multiple campaigns. I doubt if any more are needed than available limit. But there are folks who don’t know that they can (or should) be creating more campaigns. Which brings me to my next point.

Different strategies for different platforms – Although AdWords is one system, it truly has two advertising platforms (I’m still simplifying when I say this) The Search Network and The Display Network. Each one calls for a different strategy and a one size fits all approach usually will not work. You have to tailor your campaigns accordingly with a more targeted campaign for search and a more general campaign for display.

Failing to Optimize – Most folks are busy and and can’t take enough time out from managing their day-to-day business to focus on their AdWords Campaigns. The first (gargantuan) effort in creating the campaign usually ends up becoming the last. What’s essential here is to optimize, to analyze and further improve your campaigns based on yours ads’ and keywords performance.

There are more pitfalls, but for someone seriously thinking about AdWords, these are a few to consider.

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If you’re not getting any luck with your search marketing, perhaps it’s time to get an expert to optimize your AdWords Campaigns.

- While users search using words and phrases called keywords on Google, Facebook only provides information about the likes (or perhaps dislikes) of individuals.

- While searches on Google are more active in nature, Facebook likes are more passive. When a user searches on a specific phrase, say ‘buy camera online’ they’re most likely looking to make a purchase. Compare that with Facebook, where users may simply like ‘photography’ or ‘cameras’ but that doesn’t really tell us if they already own a camera or if they’re looking to buy one.

- Since Facebook ads are relatively new, the competition is lesser, which means you can still get quality traffic on the cheap. AdWords can be prohibitively expensive for businesses in certain niches. That’s not to say you can’t do well with AdWords. You can, but it requires a lot of clever optimization and strategy.

- With Facebook, you’re gonna have to get creative when targeting a certain demographic. For instance, if you’re selling a travel package, you probably want to target people who love ‘the lonely planet’ show. And this is where the advantage with Facebook is. With Google, you don’t know who’s searching for your product. Is it a young person, or an older one while Facebook gives you the precise demographic.

- The final word on both, however, is that you’ll need a lot of experimentation, testing and tracking to really understand what works for your business and go with that strategy and continuously optimize

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If you’d like to find out which advertising platform is best for you, contact us now.