Imagine the gold ring of search advertising: the mythical keyword that’s in high demand by searchers but has no competition from other advertisers.
That sweet spot in Google where, even if only for a short time, you can reach Figure 9-4:
Here’s a friendly interface for creating unique keyword values.
millions of hungry searchers for the absolute minimum cost per click. In that Eden-like scenario, your ad would be the only paid link on the page, floating majestically in alluring solitude, receiving hordes of dirt-cheap clickthroughs.
That’s the ideal. Reality usually differs considerably. Sharp, opportunistic advertisers converge on important keywords, driving up the price of good positioning into the realm of dollars per click. But, amazingly, ideal and near-ideal keyword discoveries do exist. I’ve launched dozens of Ad Groups with keywords for which I bid the minimum of $.05 per click, and watched the ads claim positions no lower than third on the page (and several times the top spot), earning very robust clickthrough rates. Driving highly targeted clicks at a cost of $50 per thousand is a true bargain.
Chapter 4 describes Wordtracker, which strives to evaluate keywords based on their popularity as search terms and their prevalence on Web sites, to arrive at a competitive profile of a keyword or phrase. Wordtracker is certainly a tool you should know about. It’s also important to research on your own, especially in Google, where your keywords must perform well to stay in play. (Actually, the ads perform well or badly, but the keywords are disabled if the ads fail.) When you identify a potential keyword, search for it in Google — that’s the most direct way to survey the competitive landscape in the venue that really counts. Click the Search button a few times to catch ads that are in slowed or spread-out distribution patterns. Notice also how many search results Google finds. These two pieces of information — the number of search results and the number of ads on the page — give you a good idea of the demand (from searchers and advertisers) for that keyword. When demand from searchers (represented indirectly by the number of search results) seems to exceed demand from advertisers (represented directly by the number of ads), you know you have a potentially productive keyword.
Remember that an attractive keyword need not result in millions of page results in Google; hundreds of thousands of links represents a healthy market-place in which to present your ads. With this perspective, look at Figures 9-5 and 9-6. The first screen is Google’s results page for the keyword phrase dis-count cds. The second screen shows the results for budget cds.The first page shows strong demand everywhere: roughly 2.5 million search results and an AdWords column full of ads. The second page shows strong consumer demand (753,000 results) and faltering advertiser demand.
Is there room in that AdWords column for a third ad? Most certainly, espe-cially because one of the displayed ads is owned by a local shop. Whether a third ad would be successful depends on many factors. But for the moment, it appears that the third spot could be purchased for a low CPC bid. This situ-ation is ripe for testing, and it took me about 30 seconds to find it. Search Google with your prospective keywords and with productive variations!
Figure 9-6:
This page shows reasonably strong consumer demand and weak advertiser demand.
Inexpensive space is available.
Figure 9-5:
This page shows strong consumer and advertiser demand
for the keyword.
Competition is fierce and expensive.
One possibility to remember as you strive for the perfect keyword is counter-intuitive. Namely, being lower on the page can deliver better results than top placement. The point of bidding up a keyword is to attain a higher position.
But there’s some question as to whether a high position necessarily means better visibility, and there’s even more question about correlated advertising results. Consider these factors, based on anecdotal experience shared by the Google advertising community:
Top-placed ads suffer from drone clickthroughs.Tire-kickers, it’s widely supposed, veer straight for the top ad and click through it with no intent to do business. Those determined to find useful information and prod-ucts are just as likely to click further down the AdWords column of ads.
Also, determined searchers — who are often the best leads and most likely future customers — comparison-shop in the AdWords column, clicking several in succession and examining each landing page.
Competitive ad-bashing normally targets the top-placed ad.It isn’t par-ticularly ethical, but when competitors want to drive top-placed ads out of their lofty position, they click through the ads, driving up costs (and driving down ROI) for the advertiser. Such hostility is usually not directed at lower-placed ads. (Google is alert to such ad-bashing and penalizes those who are caught.)
Top-of-page ads might not be as visible as ads in the AdWords column.
AdWords ads roll up to the top of the page when 9 or 10 ads qualify for placement on the page, as shown in Figure 9-7. In those cases, only 8 ads are placed in the AdWords column. While reaching the top of the page (where Google used to sell cost-per-impression sponsored links) is an accomplishment and an honor, there’s some doubt about the effective-ness of that perch. Google users are accustomed to glancing over to the right when checking out the ad portion of search results. And “ad blind-ness,” in which the viewer disregards top-of-page, horizontal ads, is also common. (For more on ad blindness, see Chapter 13.)
Here’s an example of a lower placement beating a higher placement. The report in Figure 9-8 shows the Ad Groups of a campaign. Notice the performance of the Josh Turner Ad Group. Although its average page position is the second-lowest of the group, its CTR is the highest, by far.
Notwithstanding everything I say about low positions having certain advan-tages over high positions, one aspect of high placement gives it undeniable value. Google’s extended advertising networks present ads differently from Google, in ways that dramatically reward the top spot. On AOL Search, for example, often only a single ad is presented on the results page (see Figure 9-9), and I have experienced outstanding clickthrough rates on ads claiming that spot.
Figure 9-8:
A low position can lead to high clickthrough rates, as shown by the Josh Turner Ad Group.
Figure 9-7:
AdWords ads roll up to the top of the page when
every spot is taken.
Figure 9-9: