Digital Marketing and Web Strategy by Bob Hazlett | One Half Amazing!

In November, Google launched a small beta of Ad Sitelinks.  Essentially, Ad Sitelinks is a feature for search-based ads that lets you include up to four additional links to deeper content on your site beyond the main landing page or link.  To give you a better idea, here’s what they look like.

Well, I guess the test was successful, because Google is now releasing the feature to all Adwords users.  In fact, they’re even reporting the advertisers are boosting their click-thru rates upwards of 30%!

Ad Sitelinks is available on the campaign level, so  before you turn it on you’ll want to make sure that the additional sitelinks you create are releavant to any ad in that particular campaign.  When a user’s search matches a keyword in your Ad Sitelinks campaign, Google will decide if your ad is up to snuff (ads with the highest quality score are most likely to contain sitelinks) to show Ad Sitelinks and whether to show the two-line or the one-line format.

To turn on Ad Sitelinks, shimmy on down to the Campaign Settings tab in your Adwords account.  Once you’re there, go to the “Show additional links to my site” section under “Ad extensions.”  All clicks are charged the same rate, regardless of which of the Sitelinks are clicked, but you may want to make sure you increase your budget a little in case you experience the same success as the beta testers.

Got questions or want to find out more? Check out the FAQ on Ad Sitelinks.

Here’s a quick tip from PPCBlog. They suggest using 1st-person quotes in the title of your Google Adwords to distinguish your product from other bland ads.

You don’t want to go too over-the-top and keeping it believable and relevant could be something to consider, but I’d be interested to hear how a 1st-person text ad like the samples below perform against similar ads.

If you have a small business, you know you don’t have tons of money to waste on pay-per-click advertising that doesn’t convert. But, how do you target the right local customers in their given location?  Here’s a cool hack that uses Google Local Business Center coupled with Adwords to create a hyperlocal, spot-on ad campaign that will crush your competitors.

• If you haven’t already, set up a free listing for your business on Google Local Business Center (if you’re just getting started, its going to take a few days to gather the data that’s needed below).
• Google offers a dashboard of analytics for each listing to show you who is looking for you, how they’re finding you and most importantly, where they are coming from.  Take note of your most popular zip codes.
• Go to your Adwords account, click into one of your Campaigns and then Edit the location under the Settings tab.
• Editing brings up a cool little tool that allows you to draw an irregular polygon over any area.  Draw a polygon over the most popular zip codes you found above. Game, set, match.

What you end up with is creating a super-targeted and hyperlocal PPC advertising that focuses directly on the customers that ring your cash register without breaking your budget.

A great introductory video on how the Google Ad Auction actually works.  Chief Economist, Hal Varian (Mr. Personality 2003) shows how your max CPC bid and quality score determine how much you pay for a click within your Adwords account.

Originally posted January 15, 2009

As budgets get tighter, take 20 minutes today to update your paid search negative keywords.  Negative keywords are those irrelevant or low converting keywords that you add to a pay-per-click campaign which tell the ad system not to show your ad when that particular keyword appears in a search.

To start, do some research for new negative and low-performing keywords through Google’s keyword tool or your web analytics data. Add your findings to your already established campaigns and adgroups.

Adding additional negative keywords optimizes and streamlines your campaigns’ effectiveness. They increases your quality score, improves your click-thru and conversion rates.