Adwords

Seismic Shifts

The Afterpay Effect Working across a number of industries, we uncover insights that shift strategy across all our advertising accounts. Some small, some Seismic. The impact of Afterpay, Zippay etc.. has created a dramatic change in online purchase behaviour. Due to the structure of our Search ad accounts, we can spot early keyword trends and...

We are hiring

21 June 2018

A billion hours ago, modern Homo sapiens emerged. A billion minutes ago, Christianity began. A billion seconds ago, the IBM personal computer was released. A billion Google searches ago… was this morning – Hal Varian, Chief Economist, Google About You Are you constantly immersing yourself in Adwords, listening to podcasts, watching webinars and get a...

No

I love coffee. I love drinking coffee. I love talking about coffee. A coffeeholic friend was telling me about a new cafe he's been going to that have set a new standard in his mind - by rejecting him. The (very experienced) Barista tried six times to pull a proper espresso with some new beans and just couldn't get the shot right to his satisfaction. He ended up telling my friend "I'm sorry, I just can't serve this", then ...

The FitBit Syndrome

12 May 2015

The other day my mum, the queen of random, asked me “Do I need a Fitbit? Everyone’s got one…” I began looking around and noticing that she was right, the tipping point of wearable tech has happened. Thousands upon thousands of people collecting data, daily, on how many steps (or swings of their arm) they are taking. We live in an age where there is a dizzying amount of data available to us - certainly as digital marketers, but now even as individuals. We collect data because we can, and even because it’s cool. The question now is - what do we do with this data?

First Adwords, then SEO

Often when a new client engages us for Adwords search advertising, they usually engage an SEO agency at the same time. Simultaneously working on both paid and unpaid Search makes complete sense from a project management point of view, but from an SEO point of view, which keywords do you optimise your site for? This apparently simple question was made even more difficult since Google removed organic keyword results from Analytics ...

Adwords Line of Sight

We've all done it before - googled something, liked the first search result, clicked on it... only to land on a page that was completely off. As a consumer, this process happens so quickly that we don't even pay attention to what just happened - we just search again. As an advertiser paying for Adwords ads, mistakes like the above cost dearly. To understand the problem, lets ...

$10k in free advertising from Google every month

For a company that makes its billions from advertising, the Google Grant is possibly the worst advertised marketing service available today. In summary, the Google Grant: * Gives Non-Profits $10,000 of free Google Search Ads every month * Has a maximum Cost Per Click bid of $2.00 (previously $1.00) * Can be upgraded to GrantsPro which provides ...

Hands-On Adwords Workshop

I rarely do workshops as it takes me away from client work, but as a favour for close friends, Bruce & Jacquie Macintosh of the IT Department, I’ll be running a half day hands-on Adwords workshop as part of their NFP Experts Series. Adwords Hands On Workshop. In this session, I’ll reveal our agency’s best tips on how to maximise your...

Website Call Conversions now live in Australia

Barely 3 months ago I wrote about Adwords Call Forwarding becoming available in Australia. As useful as this was, there are several niches where users aren’t going to click the phone number in the ad before they’ve visited the website. Now, Google have closed this loop and launched Website Call Conversions – live and available in Australia today....

Upcoming Speaking Engagements

I rarely do speaking engagements but close friends, Bruce & Jacquie Macintosh of the IT Department, managed to twist my arm to speak at a new workshop series they are running. So if you want to catch me in person, I’ll be speaking at the following two sessions: 1) The Top 10 Online Advertising Opportunities...

[video] Adwords Innovations for 2014

Its official, I'm calling 2014 the year of the PPC Wars. The history of the internet has seen Netscape vs Internet Explorer. Windows vs Mac. iOS vs Android. Now its well and truly Adwords vs Facebook Ads.

Hot off the press: Google Call Forwarding now available in Australia

Not too long ago I wrote about the top 3 new PPC features I saw as the killer opportunities for this year. Within 30 days of writing that post, Facebook introduced the ability to do native FB website remarketing right inside the Facebook Power Ads editor – circumventing FBX middlemen like Adroll. Barely a month...

Top 3 Aussie PPC Opportunities for 2014

We’ve seen more changes in PPC Advertising in the last 12 months than we have in the last 5 years. Because of the rapid rollout of these changes, its easy for both agencies and clients to allow some of these marketing advantages to slip through the cracks. So here are the top 3 recently released...

[Video] How to get 15% more Conversions for 35% less: SNDS

Last month, Google quietly rolled out a significant new feature to Adwords: SNDS. It is Google's answer to Search Advertisers who would like some of the extra benefits from display but can't be bothered building out and performancing Display Campaigns. It is also proof that Google continues to suffer from terrible naming syndrome.

[Video] How Tim Ferriss used Adwords to sell 1.35m copies of ‘The 4 Hour Work Week’

28 November 2013

Tim Ferriss famously used Adwords to split test the name of the book that would eventually become 'The 4 Hour Work Week'. While writing the book he ran a $200 Adwords campaign rotating 6 different ads each containing potential book titles, including ...

[Infographic] The impact of Ads on Mobile

As every Adwords account around Australia comes to terms with the Enhanced upgrade d-day on Monday 22, its worthwhile knowing the impact that Adwords Ads has on Mobile devices. Google recently did a second Search Ads Pause Study, this time specifically on Mobiles to find out: “If I’m already ranking organically on mobile, what difference...

[Infographic] How the Adwords auction works

Interesting Infographic from Wordstream on how the Adwords auction works. If you’re interested in learning more, watch this youtube video with Google’s Chief Economist, Hal Varian.

4 Man Intensive, Hong Kong with Perry Marshall

An Irishman, German and Scotsman who live in Thailand; an American who lives in Spain, a London born Malaysian-Chinese and a German who lives in Australia all walk into a boardroom in Hong Kong ... ...for Perry Marshall's famous 2 day, '4 Man Intensive'.

[Video] Google announces Adwords Enhanced Campaigns

Today, Google announces Enhanced Campaigns for Adwords. In a nutshell Enhanced Campaigns allows the advertiser to show different ads to the same user - depending on the context (location, device, and time of day) of where/how the user is searching.

[Infographic from Google] Impact of Organic Ranking on Ad Clicks

Interesting Infographic from Google released today: Impact of Organic Ranking on Ad Clicks. “89% of the visits to the advertiser’s site from ad-clicks are not replaced by organic clicks when the search ads are paused”.

How Perry Marshall has influenced your adwords

Who is Perry Marshall and how has he influenced your adwords? If you’ve spent any time researching or performancing your adwords account, no doubt, you’ll have come across the name, Perry Marshall. For the last 10 years Perry Marshall has been the leading authority in the world on Google Adwords – featured in Fast Company,...

[Video] Adwords Bidding Strategy

Assuming your Adwords account is structured correctly for both Search and Display networks, its time to optimise your spending. Bidding strategy can get very complicated - however the most difficult part isn't the technical ability to set and adjust bids, its understanding the numbers in your business. Get that part right, and bidding strategy becomes easy.

[Video] How to maximise profit using Adwords

This is one of those videos that I love to hate...Google's Chief Economist Hal Varian, (very simply) discusses advanced bidding strategies for maximising your profit using Google Adwords.

[Infographic] The Top 20 Most Expensive keywords in Google Adwords advertising

This Infographic was released a few weeks ago but I’ve mentioned it enough times to people that I thought it was worth adding to the blog. Keep in mind that these are US based Keyword & Cost Per Click statistics so we’re not looking at the same level of competition per keyword for domestic advertising...

Australian Government uses Adwords to get 670,000 shopping cart completions

For those in Australia, you might have seen the recent news story where 670,000 Australians failed to hit ‘Submit’ after completing their Census form online – because the Call to Action wasn’t clear. The next day when a friend told me about this I had to google it (of course) only to see this ad...

How to beat your Adwords control using KISSinsights

Do you have a Control Ad that no matter how much you split test, you just can't seem to beat? I have adapted a technique from Marketing Psychologist Glenn Livingston, that involves using Adwords, a Landing Page and the KISSinsights survey tool to beat long-standing Controls.

New Gmail Preview Theme: 3 consequences for your Adwords Campaigns

Just like the rest of Google, Gmail will soon be rolling out a new look-and-feel that will soon become the default for all Gmail users. Before they roll out those changes, they have given us a sneak peak. Lets have a look at 3 ways this new theme will affect your Gmail Center Top targeted...

Sniper Tactic: Single Line Gmail Ads

Here’s an example of an advanced Adwords sniper tactic: the Single Line Gmail Ad. Gmail ads have always been a useful Adwords sniper tactic for the simple reason that you can target keywords in people’s emails.

Are your Adwords ready for Embedded Sitelinks?

Last week on July 7th 2011, Google announced a new Adwords format that continues the evolution of the Sitelinks Ad Extensions feature set. Different to the regular Single-line and Multi-line Sitelinks that appear below Adwords ads, Embedded Sitelinks appear inline within your actual ad text.

10 Adwords features to use – before your competition does

Over the past 12 months I’ve seen more Adwords updates and notifications than in the previous 2-3 years combined. Google have no doubt felt the serious competition that Facebook (and soon to be LinkedIn) is presenting to advertisers and have thrown serious resources into giving advertisers more options for advertising on the Google search &...

How Google Adwords ranks your Ads

If you are advertising on Google Adwords and your Adwords Account Manager doesn't fully understand this YouTube, then you are throwing money away. Guaranteed. In all of my years in Search Engine Marketing, Online Advertising and Adwords Consulting, this is simply the best 9 minutes I've ever spent.

Intentional

Purpose Per Click