What happens when someone locks their keys in their car? They have to figure out how to get their keys out of their locked car and it delays them from getting to their destination. Although, it wasn’t intentional, their schedule has been altered. It’s the same way in the internet world. Companies make changes to their website, move pages, delete pages, but don’t make the corresponding adjustments to their search engine marketing campaigns. It’s an honest mistake, but one that can be costly.
What many companies don’t realize is that they are wasting money when they change their website pages and don’t adjust their search engine marketing campaigns. Their ads are showing and they are incurring cpc costs, even though their ads are going to an error page.
Think about it. It’s like a restaurant paying for a billboard on a busy interstate that says exit here for food. However, when people exit they end up at an empty building, with no sign that says we’ve moved to a new location. It’s a waste of money. Why pay for a billboard that directs people to the wrong location?
Another cost factor is losing trust and relevancy among searchers. Searchers don’t enjoy clicking on ads that lead them to an error page. It has no benefit for them. Some companies may remember to put in redirects on their websites that send searchers to the home page of their site, but it’s better to send searchers to a page on your website that is directly related to their keyword search. Although some searchers are persistent, a company can lose credibility if their ads consistently lead to error pages.
Error pages not only leave a bad taste in the searchers mouth, but also in the mouth of search engines. A company’s keywords and ads within their search engine marketing campaign can be disapproved by engines. This can be hurtful to the quality score and drive up a company’s cpc cost for keywords, which causes the company to incur unnecessary costs.
The solution to avoid costly mistakes is simple. If there are changes made to your website, especially in the naming of the web page, make sure the corresponding changes are made to your search engine marketing campaign. It is better to pause your campaigns temporarily to confirm that they match your website; than to run them with uncertainty, hoping that everything matches.
If you stay current with Google updates, you know that last year Google ventured into the world of traditional advertising. This gave online ad agencies the opportunity to buy media space online for print, radio and TV without going down the traditional media buying route. Google recently cancelled their print offering, however, this hasn’t stopped them from branching out into the world of traditional advertising and making it available online. In fact, their recent agreement with SpotMixer proves that they aren’t gun-shy about delving into a realm of media that is unfamiliar to them.
When Google first started offering the options of creating TV campaigns through an AdWords account, they would refer advertisers to video specialists; if they didn’t already have their own commercial to upload or to mail in via tape. Now, SpotMixer, and Google TV Ads have collaboratively put their heads together to create a tool that allows advertisers to easily create video ads which can be delivered via Google TV Ads.
This tool allows a user to create video with their own audio from a radio ad, high quality photography and video footage. If you don’t have any of the above, Google has free photos, music and videos that you can choose from, along with provided templates. The video ad creation tool is the same concept as the Google display ad builder and makes it cost effective for marketers to place their clients into the world of TV media. No longer do agencies have to pay high costs for outsourcing the production of a TV spot only to pass that bill on to the client along with media buy expenses. It’s a great tool for online ad agencies that have clients with tight advertising budgets.
Limited advertising budgets used to hinder clients from exploring new media arenas, but not anymore. For online ad agencies that have clients who have wanted to try video ads; now is a great time to start. The video creation tool takes existing text ad copy that’s running for a search engine marketing campaign and makes it into a tailored video within the users AdWords account. Keep in mind that Google allows you to download your finished video, so you’re not just limited to TV ads. This is great for clients who have wanted to promote a video on YouTube or on their company website. A client can save time and money by utilizing in house videos and photography for their video instead of paying money for a video shoot.
This is a great benefit for internet ad agencies that are well versed in the world of Google AdWords. It gives them the opportunity, along with the client to produce a marketing message that is consistent across all lines of media. Think about it- a search engine marketing campaign, radio, and online videos and TV ads all under one advertising roof, with one consistent marketing message.
I am very excited about the relationship that Google has forged with SpotMixer. I believe it will give online ad agencies more deliverables to offer to their clients at a fraction of the cost of a traditional ad agency. As a team member of an interactive agency, I look forward to more Google relationships that will benefit the company I work for and our clients.
It’s a simple question but one that could increase your company’s profit when applied to your business. I came up with this title as I sat in a company meeting the other day. Our EVP was telling a story about the cohesiveness that needs to occur between a website and a search engine marketing campaign. A past client in the cookie business wasn’t getting the kind of ROI on their cookie products that they were seeking. Their search engine marketing campaign was great but their cookie sales weren’t increasing. After some extensive research, my EVP pulled out her credit card and attempted to buy some cookies online. After attempting to buy cookies online for fifteen minutes and still not completing an order, she called the client and asked, “Have You Bought Your Own Cookies?” The client was a little taken back, but went to their site and attempted to buy cookies. The client called back and said I understand. The next step for them was optimizing their site’s usability.
This is the same question that any company should ask themselves from time to time. Switch perspectives and become the consumer, the person checking out the internet. Would you sign up for a newsletter or buy products from yourself if you had never heard of your company? Some company’s aren’t realistic when it comes to this question. Their pages don’t load quickly, their site looks prehistoric, the content is too generic and not targeted to the audience, they have poor site navigation and the list can go on. If any of these issues sound familiar then you should look into optimizing the user friendliness of your site. Not only will it help your organic positions it will help your search engine marketing campaign. Optimization is a good for business. Think about it, you can have the best ad copy in the world, have the best positions, and good keywords, but if people are appalled or confused by your site when they get there, they aren’t going to stay. They are going hit the back button and find a competitors ad and get what they’re looking for in no time at all.
Optimization is a must for both good organic traffic and for a good search engine marketing campaign to perform at its’ best. The next time you’re looking to increase online productivity, go ahead and ask yourself the question. “Have I Bought My Own Cookies?” You may be surprised to find that your need to optimize your site’s usability.
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