Archive for April, 2012

Going Negative

Wednesday, April 25th, 2012

AdWords “To Do” list

Recently, Google offered some advice to agencies managing
multiple AdWords accounts. We are always willing to learn and listen to Google.
Steve, our Google rep, recommended a few tips that all agencies should have in
place on all their AdWords accounts, which I will share with you.

Google AdWords programs have become increasingly complex, as
marketers have become uber-sophisticated about crafting ads, campaigns and
strategies to make the greatest use of their paid search budgets. From sitelink
extensions to accelerated delivery schedules to remarketing campaigns (one of
our favorites), Google provides a wide range of methods for getting extra value
from an AdWords budget.

One technique we see growing in popularity – but which is
still too often overlooked – is the effectiveness of including “negative”
keywords in a campaign. We all focus on what keywords we should run for clients
but forget to think about those negative keywords that really should be added
to the account. For example, we have a client that manufactures portable batteries
but their marketing efforts are only targeted to OEMs, not consumers. Buying
“laptop” as a negative term dramatically improved our efforts to avoid casual
consumer shoppers for replacement laptop batteries. Another example was the
diode manufacturer that marketed a product called Avalanche, which certainly
called for negative keywords to minimize snow avalanche traffic.

Video Taken Too Far

Wednesday, April 4th, 2012

Our agency saw a dramatic increase in our online video production last year, and many clients have recognized that video offers and content often generate the strongest response to web and email programs. However, one company recently took the video concept too far when it emailed a news release to editors that consisted ONLY of a video! No text, nothing for the editor to review, revise, and edit. They expected the editor to listen to the video, type a transcript while listening to the audio, and create a new product news item. Sometimes marketers do the darndest things!