Google Analytics updates visitor tracking

By Matthew Kinlin

Google has updated the way it tracks its sessions per visitor in Google Analytics.

Previously, a session would end when a user closed their browser. However now a session will complete based on clicks. So a user can click through and then return to Google and click on another site, and Google will recognise these as two different sessions, without the browser being closed.

Google Analytics has now changed their model so a session will end when any traffic source value for the user changes. Traffic source information includes: utm_source, utm_medium, utm_term, utm_content, utm_id, utm_campaign, and gclid.

This will benefit Google Analytics as it allows for more accurate sourcing. Previously Google would only recognised Ad Words and if a user returned to the site and click on something different, then the first Ad Words would only be recognised.

Now Google Analytics can base sessions on clicks. This means more accurate attribution information and should reflect more accurately how visitors engage with the website.

Review your PPC with Adrac Ltd

Bu Jackie Yeadon
 
Most small businesses believe that by running their own pay per click (PPC) campaign they can save money – they are not paying an agency to run it, they understand their own business like nobody else and, actually, they are getting some profit from the whole exercise.
 
There a good enough reason to try an agency, even if this is the case. Your PPC activities may well be bringing in some profit but with the right help, this could be so much more.
 

Edits, cloning keywords and split-tests in AdWords

By Andrew Burnett

Every search professional interested in Google scrutinises the small things. It has become apparent over the years that Google tests potential changes and new services on select groups without drawing much attention to it; the ensuing “what’s going on here?” on forums and in chat rooms blows the whistle. Sometimes the new feature or whatever-it-is stays, sometimes it simply vanishes.

Over the past couple of weeks Adrac Ltd has noticed a tweak to Google AdWords. A small number of our older accounts have not had a feature added, but curtailed. Our AdWords managers have asked on Google help forums if anyone else has noticed this and what they think is happening: there have been no responses, meaning that either nobody else is having this issue or nobody know what is going on.

It’s all to do with keyword matching. If you’re a PPC/CPC manager you’ll understand totally; if you have no idea, I’ll put the following in simple terms for you.

How do you pay for paid advertising?

By Jackie Yeadon

The traditional way to employ an online marketing agency to manage paid advertising (PPC) is to allocate a monthly budget for your campaigns and pay a percentage fee on top for the work it actually does. This tends to be around 15% but it can vary between agencies and reputations. Other activities, like content optimisation, link building and so on, are extra. There is usually a minimum-term contract, which can also vary between three and 12 months.

This is the model that Adrac Ltd was built on in the early days of paid advertising and online marketing. When it was acquired by Reach Global Ltd in 2003, this changed with incoming operations director Israr Sarwar.

AdWords preview, digested for SMEs

We have seen Google testing it for a while, but now the AdWords Preview is official. Below is a list of the good and bad aspects of the new feature, as seen through the eyes of internet users and SMEs who include paid search advertising in their marketing mix.

The good news for internet searchers
•    See what a page looks like before clicking – is it attractive, is it relevant?
•    Could save time it takes to reload the Serp (search engine results page),  as previews are displayed on-page.

The bad news for internet searchers
•    It’s an extra stage and more time.
•    Is the preview large enough to isolate the detail you need to assess it?
•    May miss out on good content if the previewed website doesn’t look attractive, even if it’s relevant.

The good news for SME paid advertisers
•    You don’t pay for a preview click, only a click through.
•    Your quality traffic and conversions could increase.
•    It does not affect your quality score.

The bad news for SME paid advertisers
•    Preview is free but not optional.
•    If your landing page doesn’t look good on the preview, your quality traffic and conversions could decrease.
•    It might not last if it affects click throughs massively from Google’s point of view.

It will be interesting to see how this takes off or flops in the next few months – that is, if users appreciate the offering, ignore it or purposefully avoid it.

Learning from the big 100: the IAB and online advertising spend

This week the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has published positive figures showing that 25% -which has a worth of just over £4bn – of British advertising budgets are spent online.

According to the IAB’s most recent adspend report, this is growth of 12.8%: not bad for a country in recession!

There’s an awful lot of bad business news presently but what the IAB’s report highlights is how commerce is utilising all the skills at its disposal, not only to survive, but to thrive. The IAB notes, using Nielsen’s figures, the top 100 companies in the UK are spending more on marketing.

Smaller British companies sit up and pay attention: if the big 100 are doing this, what is stopping you?

Regular readers of the Adrac blog will know that one of the golden rules is never to shrink your adverting/marketing budget in a recession.

Two common opinions

“Yes but you’re an internet marketing agency, you’re bound to say that!”
“Yes but I’m an SME!”

Considering the rules and guidance for Google AdWords

SearchEngineLand, in a post that appeared last week, lists four main ways of falling foul of Google AdWords’ rules:

• Using multiple accounts for one business
• Masquerading as someone else to attract traffic
• Selling free items
• Distributing malware/infecting searchers’ PCs

At least three of these might be obvious, but Adrac Ltd reckons that using multiple accounts might be one rather innocent way to get a suspension or ban from using Google’s paid advertising platform.

Google’s standards for AdWords are quite high, and rightly so. Sometimes the accessibility of the internet and its magic makes people want to rush in and get started and forget to proof read or even read the content guidelines.

If you are considering handling your paid search advertising (pay per click or PPC) yourself, or even if you want to understand a little about what your account manager is doing on your behalf, read on. But we also recommend you read Google’s rules, too. Not only is it interesting, giving insight into the wider world of natural search, it could stop a shed load of trouble.

Here are some of the stipulations laid down in Google’s guidance for AdWords – a shortlist by Adrac of the ones people could accidentally, or purposefully, fall foul of.

And in here somewhere is the formula for the perfect AdWords text. Honestly!

• Spelling: must be correct, though common abbreviations or spellings such as ‘tonite’ or ‘pix’ are permitted. stifles a wince
• Adverts and keywords must be relevant to your landing page.
• Language: no profanity, plus Google prohibits call-to-action phrases like ‘click here’.
• Prices: must be accurate and easily found within one or two clicks of the landing page.
• Warranty: if mentioned, any limitations should be included in the advert.
• Some examples of what is specifically banned from AdWords: escort agencies, anti-abortion promotion, herbal drugs, fireworks, some mobile content, travel aggregation websites, selling items or services available free elsewhere, the selling of items breaching copyright, online pharmacies, websites that are unclear about their billing practices.
• Take care with your landing page. Error messages, incorrectly displayed links, locking users into the landing page, using a landing page with the sole purpose of driving traffic on to another webpage, use of popups and poor server security are no-nos. Consult Google’s WebMaster advice. Landing page relevance is vital.

So, while you might not be able to imagine your reputable business falling foul of the ‘no phishing’ or ‘no malware’ rules, it’s conceivable that your AdWords account could be suspended or terminated because you missed something really simple.

AdWords is a fabulous tool and, despite all these rules and regulations, relatively easy to learn. However, Adrac recommends using paid search management for AdWords (and other PPC providers like Bing, Facebook and so on) because this places your budget into the safe hands of business development managers, and the profits into your business bank account.