(MKTG 297) Week 9 - Location/Language and Device Targeting

In the last blog post I discussed targeting your audience based on keywords and display networks. In this blog I will discuss what I learned about location/language and device targeting.

Location targeting is just as it sounds, you use a specific location to reach your intended audience. You can choose to select an entire country, a specific region, a state, or even a town that you want your ad to appear. Say you are a small business and you only want your ad too appear to people living within 30 miles of your business. All you have to do is put in your location and then track a thirty mile radius around it. Another important bit of information to keep in mind with location targeting is that you want to pick areas that you are able to serve. If you only ship within the United States then targeting your ad outside of the USA would not make sense.





Language is another key way you can target your ads. If you create a product that is known internationally then you can target your ads to reach people who speak all different type of languages. For example, if you sell furniture that people in Paris love but you are located in the U.S. you can target your ad to French speaking individuals. You should remember that your keywords should be written in the language that you are targeting as well.

Device targeting is another way you can reach your target audience. There are many different types of mobile devices on the market right now that have various different screens. This means that you can tailor your advertisement to fit these screen types. Some larger mobile devices have screens with larger browsers while others can only show mobile friendly pages. You can choose to target your ad to a specific type of device that you believe your audience may be using.

(MKTG 297) Week 8 - Keyword and Display Network Targeting

Google AdWords provides several options to help you best target your audience. In general there are four options for targeting:

1. Keyword Targeting
2. Display Network Targeting
3. Location and Language Targeting
4. Device Targeting

This blog will discuss the first two options for targeting: keyword and display network. The next blog will discuss the last two options for targeting: location and language and device. 

You can use keywords to reach your target audience. As previously explained in another post, you can use display network or search network to accomplish this task. Google AdWords has something called a keyword match type. There are five different keyword match types you can use to reach your audience. These include:

1. Broad Match: Your ad will pop-up on searches that are misspelled, have similar words, or are somewhat relevant to the search being made. 
2. Broad Match Modifier: The search contains a modified word in any order but not a similar word. 
3. Phrase Match: Just as it sounds, a phrase similar to what your phrase is. Ex: the search term is purchase dog collars with your keyword being "dog collars"
4. Exact Match: an exact match to what your keyword is. Ex: the search term is dog collars with your keyword being dog collars.
5. Negative Match: Searches that do not relate to your term at all. Ex: the search term is tennis shoes with your keyword being children.

You can only use keyword match types on campaigns that show up on Search Networks not Display Networks. This is because keywords on display networks are all considered broad matches. 

There are three different ways you can target your ads to your audience on the Display Network. These include:

1. Contextual Targeting: Matching your content to relevant sites. You can do this by using keywords or topics similar to your sites content. 
2. Audiences: You can target your audiences in different ways. If you want to increase brand awareness you can use affinity audiences. If you want to reach as many people as you can what want a product in a certain area you can try custom affinity audiences. If you want to reach people who are currently seeking out a product or service that you offer you can use in-market audiences. You can target your audience by their interests using Internet categories. You can also use demographic factors to target your specific audience.
3. Managed Placement Targeting: With this option you can pick specific websites or apps that you want your ad to be displayed. You probably know your audience pretty well so you may know sites or apps that your customers may frequent. 

(MKTG 297) Week 7 - AdWords Account Structure

The Google AdWords study guide provides helpful information regarding how your AdWords account is structured. It is important to understand this information because it will really help you use the website in a more effective manner. Understanding the basis is the only way to be really successful in your AdWords endeavor.

 In general your AdWords account is structured into three parts:

1. Account: Your account is the information that is collected about you which includes billing information, email address, and password, etc. These are the things you use to log in to your AdWords account.
2. Campaigns: You can have several different campaigns running at once that all have different budgets and goals.
3. Ad Groups: Occur within a campaign and have their own set of keywords

Each of your campaigns should focus on a separate goal. For example, if you want to increase conversion rates and track click-through rates you can create one campaign that focuses on conversions and a separate one that focuses on click-throughs. It is important to separate each goal because you need to know what variable is being effected and if you have more than one variable being tested you won't know what is working for which goal. 

For example purposes, say your goal is to track how well a particular offer is doing on sales of a certain product you sell. With your goal in mind, you create an ad campaign that you believe will really solve this problem. With an ad group you are able to group together keywords that all relate to your ad and in return increase your quality score ranking. 

Ad groups work slightly different for display network versus search network. With display network you can make ads that have content relevant to your target customer and then these ads can be posted on websites similar to your website topic. With search network campaigns, ad groups help you get your ads into the searches of people who are searching for products similar to what you are offering.

Basically the structure of your Ad Words account is as follows (from a shallow level to a in-depth level): 

Account: Erica's Marketing Magic Company

Campaign: Track % of sales being made from 20% off coupon code for magic tools

Ad Groups: Blue Social Media tool. Key words: social media marketing, blue tool. Ad 1 and Ad 2

(MKTG 297) Week 6 - Quality and Cost of Google Ads

If your ad is of high quality you can expect to see the cost of your ad lowered and the placement of your ad better. Seems like a pretty simple concept that can work wonders right? Well the answer to this question is both yes and no. Sure it seems easy to create a high quality ad but you have to think about how many other people are creating ads and then look at your ad and see how much better it really is. Google does two things when evaluating your advertisement which include Quality score and Ad Rank. Quality score is the estimate of the quality of your ad and web pages that is triggered by a keyword search in auctions throughout the day. Ad rank is also known as ad position and will tell you where exactly your ad will be placed or positioned.

There are a few different components that Google looks at when generating a Quality Score. These components include things such as CTR, ad relevance, and page experience. Each of these items is given a score between 1 and 10. Ad Rank takes several things into consideration when determining placement on search results. Ad Rank not only takes into consideration relevance but also your Quality Score. No matter your bid amount you can still win a higher placement based on your relevance and Quality Score.

In terms of money and paying Google has three strategies you can use for bidding. These three strategies include cost-per-click (CPC), cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM), and cost-per-acquistion (CPA). CPC is used when you want to focus on driving traffic to your website. If you want to increase brand awareness and increase the amount of time a customer sees your ad then you would use CPM. If you want to focus on conversions or the amount of times some completes an action on your website then you want to use CPA.

You need to set a daily budget for all of your advertisements. This budget is how much you are willing to bid each day for your ads. While you may specify a certain amount of money willing to be spent each day you may not actually end up spending that much in an auction. CPC and CPM strategies will never spend more than necessary to get your ad to the highest placement. However, the CPA strategy may end up costing more because there are factors that google cannot control when it comes to conversions.

(MKTG 297) Week 5 - Google Ad Placement

The advertisement you create on Google can appear in several different locations depending upon your needs. The first placement can occur on the side or above the google search engine results page. So when someone searches for your keyword your ad will appear next to or above the organic search results. Depending on your keywords you will be able to determine how much you pay. Your cost-per-click can either increase or decrease depending upon the keywords you use and the maximum budget you set. This type of advertisement would be performed using the Google Search Network

Your advertisement can also show up on specific websites. This type of advertisement would be performed using the Google Display Network. Keywords are what allow your ad to be shown on specific websites. Google will automatically decide where your ad appears based on keywords and then it will match your keywords to a placement. If you do not want Google to do this automatically, you are able to do it yourself. In a Display Network you are able to create the following types of ads: text ads, image ads, rich media ads, and video ads.

Another important piece of information to know is the type of ad that you have created. There are two types of ads, text ads and ads with extensions. Text ads are the most basic form of advertising. A text ad has a headline, display URL with web address, and a description. Ads with extensions are advertisements with enhancements. These enhancements can include things such as phone numbers, location, or links to other content from your website. You can these extras either manually or automatically in the formatting systems.

Google Advertisement Placement Example

(MKTG 297) Week 4 - Google Advertising Networks

Google has two different networks which include the Google Search Network and the Google Display Network. When you use AdWords your ad will show up in one of these two networks. Search Network includes Google search, maps, and shopping as well as non-Google search partners such as AOL. There are two major benefits of using the Search Network. These benefits include being able to display your ad next to Google search results and also reaching customers who are searching for your particular product.

The Google Display Network includes websites such as YouTube, Gmail, Google Finance, and Blogger, as well as partner sites and mobile sites. There are several different benefits of using the Google Display Network. One benefit is that you will be able to reach a wide variety of people with many different interests. Another benefit is that you will be able to build brand awareness. And as we all know, brand awareness is so important to a company's success. Display Network will also allow you to engage more with customers and actually place your ad where you want it it appear.

Determining the goals of your advertisement is a key way to figure out whether you should use Search Network or Display Network. Are your goals to reach a particular person who is looking for your exact product? If Sally is searching for a red soccer ball and you sell red soccer balls do you want to reach Sally? If your answer is yes than you may want to consider using the Search Network. If you want to reach a greater range of people who may potentially see your product as beneficial than using Google Display Network may benefit your advertisement. This concept is important to understand because it is on the Google AdWords exam study guide. So you know that this idea will probably show up on the Google AdWords exam.

(MKTG 297) Week 3 - Google Advertisement Requirements

When creating Ads for Google you need to ensure that each promotion follows professional standards. Guidelines for what to do and for what not to do are posted on Google for review. Examples of what Google does not allow in an advertisement include: unclear promotion, unclear relevance, and unsupported superlative or competitive claims. Google also has requirements as to use, style, and spelling and grammar.

An advertisement that is unclear can end up misleading a reader. Google requires that your advertisement is written in understandable language and that the product being offered is clearly labeled. Google also does not allow you to create an ad that appears as though it sends you to one link but then really sends you to a completely different one. An example of this would be if an ad showed the link appearing to send you to aol.com but it really sends you to a different site like fancyshoes.com. 

Unsupported superlatives or competitive claims are also considered bad practice according to Google. Google will not allow the use of terms such as the best or #1 without support for the claim from a third party. Google also mentions that if your ad is going out to China or is in Chinese you cannot write any superlative claim even if it is supported by a third party.

Usefulness is another category Google looks at when you create an advertisement. Google requires that your content is easy to navigate and doesn't cause frustration for the person browsing through it. An example that Google uses is pop-up ads. You should not have pop-ups that block the content the reader is trying to view. There are also certain style requirements that Google wants you to use when creating an advertisement. Google requires that you properly use all of the ad-unit space provided or at least use it in a proper manner. For example, there should not be an image that only takes up half the ad-unit space and leaves the rest blank. Spelling and Grammar are also important when creating a Google.

If Google finds your advertisement in violation of any of these rules than they will do one of three things. They can disapprove your ad which means that your ad cannot run live until you fix the violations Google has found. Google can also disable your domain meaning that your website will be not be advertised until you correct your violations. The last consequence of not following the rules outlined by Google is account suspension. If your account is suspended all of your ads will be taken down and Google may no longer accept advertisements from you. An account suspension will occur if you make a serious violation.

This information can be found at: Google Ad Requirements

(MKTG 297) Week 2 - Google AdWords

Google AdWords. A term you hear a lot about but may not fully understand. Google AdWords is an interesting topic because it seems like something that would be so simple yet it is actually rather complex. AdWords help a company show an online advertisement to their desired target market. If the right AdWords are used a lot of traffic can be drawn to the advertisment which can lead to new customers and new sales.

When looking at the Google AdWords study guide you can see that Google points out four key benefits of using AdWords. These benefits include: targeting your ads, controlling your costs, measuring your success, and managing your campaigns. All of these benefits can really help an advertisement stand out and be profitable for the company.

Targeting your ads is very important because it helps the right people see your advertisement. With Google AdWords you can target your customers in a few different ways. These ways include key words, ad location, age and language, days, times, and frequencies, and devices. So for example, if you want to target people who use Facebook, are between the ages of 20-26, and usually access the internet via their laptops, you can use Google AdWords to do this. Another benefit Google mentions about AdWords is that they help you control your costs. This is accomplished because you can specify how much money you want to spend per day and you are only charged when someone actually clicks on your advertisement.

Measuring whether your advertisement is successful is rather easy with the use of AdWords. You will be able to see whether or not someone viewed your ad or even if a purchase was made from a customer clicking on the ad. You can track whether or not the AdWords are benefiting your business or if you need to think about changing your AdWords to have a more successful campaign. Google makes it very easy to manage your AdWord accounts as well. If you need to make changes to your accounts but do not have internet access that is no problem. Google has created an application you can use via your desktop that allows you to make any necessary changes when you can't access the internet. As you can see Google AdWords can be a very useful tool to a business and really help amplify an online marketing campaign.