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This extra cost isn’t necessarily a negative against using call metrics in your campaigns, and there are many benefits of adding phone numbers to your ads that outweigh the potential extra $1 cost per click. Adding a phone number to your ads has been shown to increase your ad’s click-through rate by 5-30% . It’s a quick and easy way to give your business credibility online. Also, with the number of mobile searches on the rise, you’ll be want to be sure to give mobile searchers an easy way to click and call. Since these incur no additional cost, they could easily offset the cost of other calls.

But the main reason that the extra $1 charge isn’t such a large set back is that the number of calls to your forwarding number will be factored into your ad’s rank, potentially boosting your ad’s position and lowering your cost per click. With this change, of course, will also come additional reporting metrics on call statistics, including call duration, area code, etc.

So, how can you maximize the ROI on calls generated from your online ads? Just as landing pages are important to capture people who have clicked on your ads, you’ll want to make sure you give the same thought to the conversations you provide with people who are calling in. You’ll want to be best prepared to handle calls appropriately to see those calls convert, so everyone handling the calls should be well versed in what ads and/or promotions you’re currently running in AdWords.

The word from Google is that these changes to call metrics, including the added reporting functionalities, will roll out in mid-May. What do you think about the potential of call metrics to enhance your online advertising efforts? Do you see the extra charge being worth it to be able to have a conversation with your potential customers? Let us know in the comments below!

For additional reading on call tracking in Google, check out this article from Search Engine Watch: The Call for Call Tracking Is Answered.

Check out The Adventures of PPC Hero: Heroic Feats of Pay Per Click Management at http://www.ppchero.com/. Copyright © 2007-2010 Hanapin Marketing, LLC.

Regex can be a lot to take in but when it’s broken out in simplified form, it’s not half as bad as its reputation would lead you to believe.  (I hope you’ll agree!)  Regex was a fairly small portion of the Analytics test, with maybe 3-4 questions, but is a pretty handy knowledge set to maintain, even if you aren’t worried about taking the test.

Regex can be used for several things within Google Analytics, such as:

1. Setting up goals funnels
2. Tracking equivalent pages
3. Filtering data within reports
4. Profile filters

Finally, without further adieu:

Regex Character Guide

Regex Wildcards

. is a wildcard for any single character.

• Act . matches Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, etc. but does not match Act 10
• Act .. matches Act 10, Act 11, Act, 12, etc.

Note:  If you want to use a period as an actual period, not as a wild card you’ll need to use a backslash before the period, as a qualifier.  You would want to do this if excluding an I.P. address in Analytics.   The same rules apply for question marks, which can also be used in regular expressions, as we’ll discuss later.

• U\.S\. matches U.S.
• 163\.212\.171\.123

? matches 0 or 1 of a previous item (Use / as discussed above, if using a question mark in the literal sense).

• 51? matches  5 or 51
• AB? matches A or AB

+ matches 1 or more of a previous character.

• 51+ matches 51, 511, 5111, 51111, etc.
• AB+ matches AB, ABB, ABBB, ABBBB, etc.

* matches 0 or more of previous item.

• 51* matches 5, 51, 511, 5111, 51111, etc.
• AB* matches A, AB, ABB, ABBB, ABBBB, etc.

{} quantifies the number of the previous item.

• 51{2} matches only 511 (the 2 means that there are two of the previous item, which was a 1)
• 51{1,3} matches 51, 511, 5111 but does not match 51 or 51111

Match Set

[] matches one item in a character set.

• [uU]\.[sS]\. matches u.s. and U.S.
• [1-9] matches any number between 1 and 9

^ negates the set.

• ^[uU] will not match u or U
• ^[1-9] will not match any number between 1 and 9

() allows you to group contents as an item, using | to separate grouped items.

• (U\.S\.|US| u\.s\.|us) matches U.S., US, u.s., or us

Regex Anchor String

Match a string of characters using ^ to start the series and $ to mark the end of a string

• ^US matches ‘US Holiday’ but does not match ‘Monday is a US Holiday’ because it does not start with ‘US’.
• Holiday$ matches ‘US Holiday’ but does not match ‘US Holiday Dates’ because it does not end in ‘Holiday’.
• ^US Holiday$ only matches US Holiday

Regex Shorthand:

\d matches any number just like [0-9]

\s matches any white space

\w matches any number, letter, or underscore like [A-Za-z0-9_]

Now let’s try something a little more comprehensive.

What does \d{1-5}\s\w* match?

1. 1234 Johnson
2. Johnson
3. 132344 Johnson
4. 123

If you guessed ‘a’ or ‘d’ then you are correct.  Here’s why:

\d means that there is a string of numbers, which knocks out choice b, and {1-5} means that the string of numbers can only be one to five characters long, which knocks out choice c.  These are the kinds of questions that you will need to prepare for. \s represents the space and \w represents the word ‘Johnson’, however, as we know * means there could be an infinite number of  \w, which matches any character, or it can mean that the last character may not be present, so choice ‘d’ works also.

Although it isn’t an extensive part of the test, be prepared to answer a couple questions on regex when you’re taking the Analytics test.  Much like this last question, you will need to be able to identify what a sequence of characters and numbers will match.  As I said earlier, it is helpful to have a guide so that when you are setting up profiles, filters, goals, etc. you can be sure to do it correctly, without accidentally skewing your data.

For more tips on regular expression, check out the Analytics help section.

I’d love to hear any tips, tricks, or questions!

Check out The Adventures of PPC Hero: Heroic Feats of Pay Per Click Management at http://www.ppchero.com/. Copyright © 2007-2010 Hanapin Marketing, LLC.

Misperception #6: High Quality Score means a Good Campaign:
This sounds confusing, but this is absolutely not true. How many times have you see a High Quality Score rank for a term that has no conversions. How many times have you seen a very low Quality Score Rank for a term that possesses many conversions. This metric means nothing and should not be looked at with any concern. Furthermore, the algorithm behind this rank is very suspect and should be modified to be based on Conversions. Word of advice, STOP thinking about it.

Misperception #5: Good CTR% is Most Important Metric
Yes, a good CTR% is a sign that you have a good impressions vs. clicks ratio. But it does NOT mean SUCCESS. You could argue that a good CTR% is a sign of a good quality score and that is correct. But that doesn’t matter if you are not getting any conversions from it. Wouldn’t you rather have a lower CTR% and 10 Conversions, vs. a high CTR% and 1 conversion? Having both a high CTR% and many Conversions is the best of both worlds, but don’t rely on a good CTR% as a success. The only success is the sound of the cash register.

Misperception #4: Lots of Keywords and Negatives is a Good Thing
This one makes me crazy to no end. Having lots of keywords in a specific adgroup is a sign that it needs to be broken out into many other adgroups to improve on relevancy. If you have tons of Negative Terms, that is a sign that you are (1) not targeting the right audience or (2) not using the proper keyword matching options available to you. Just because you spent money on expensive keyword research tools does not mean you will make a return on that investment. In most cases, you will have 500 keywords running and at the end of the month, you might have like 10-20 that might actually perform well for you. Remember, you are trying to reach and identify potential customers, not everyone under the sun.

Misperception #3: Display/Content Network is a Waste
That may have been true 5 years ago, but not today. In a world of high competition and inflated CPCs, Google’s Display Network is “Prime Real Estate” right now for advertisers. Now it does NOT have the amazing targeting abilities such as LinkedIn and Facebook, but they do have the power of Remarketing as well as YouTube Targeting. Also, so Branding is making a comeback in PPC and is a must strategy that deserves a larger piece of the Ad Budget. The only downfall you may have with the Display Network is the person behind the Strategy and “day to day” management. Remember the days when your Content Network budget was consumed by a few Adult-Oriented or completely irrelevant sites which made you freak out and demonize the network? Well, perhaps it was a matter of Management and in today’s world it could be a potential goldmine for your business.

Misperception #2: It’s OK to Use PPC To Drive Traffic WITHOUT Conversion Tracking
Sorry to break it to you, but unless you just won the lottery and want to make a donation to provide more Filet Mignon’s and Italian Gelato to the Google Cafeteria Budget, I would never suggest to use PPC for just driving traffic and not monetizing anything. For every dollar you spend in PPC, Google has provided every advertiser with all of the tools needed to ensure that you know what is working and not working with your investment. Tip: Don’t be lazy, find someone to set this up. It’s worth it!

Misperception #1: Being Adwords Certified Means your an Expert:
Being Adwords Certified means only one thing. You have an idea on how to use the platform. Just because someone is Certified does not mean they can outsmart someone who is not Certified. This is probably one of the biggest issues in PPC today. Yes, the Certification provides some excellent best practices that are crucial to a successful campaign. I would rather hire someone with past experience than someone who just passed the exam. Here are just a few things that the Exam does not teach you:

• How to come up with a Good Strategy
• How to be Proactive and Reactive when it matters most
• How to deal with Client Management
• What to do when something goes wrong
• How to understand true ROI and Atrribution
• How to look at “Offline” influencers that affect PPC efforts
• How to deal with Affiliate and Resellers who are invading the advertisers space
• Shall I go on………..

In Conclusion:
Good PPC Marketing comes from experience, best practices and passion for doing the work. It also encompasses a strong dedication and loyalty to the client and/or company you are working for. Passing an Adwords Exam only show that you are either a Good Test Taker or you know how to use their platform. That is all it does. The key to success is how you use the platform and all of it’s bells and whistles to your client’s advantage.

Every three weeks, on Tuesdays at 2pm Eastern / 11am Pacific

Tuesday, May 10th:
Introducing the New Version of GA: Navigating the new interface, finding key reports, using helpful analysis tools (webinar link)

Tuesday, May 31st:
Exciting Insights with Light Speed Analysis: Using the right tools to identify performance opportunities

Tuesday, June 21st:
Measuring Multi-Channel Media: Best Practices for measuring Search, Display, Mobile & Social

Tuesday, July 12th:
Optimizing AdWords & Search: Using GA to improve CPC performance campaigns

Tuesday, August 2nd:
GA for Display Insight: How GA can improve targeting and measurement for Display buys

Tuesday, August 23rd:
Measuring Customer Engagement: How to set up GA to measure the things that really matter

Tuesday, September 13th:
Analytics Partnership Opportunities: How your business can deepen their relationship with GA

Completely new to GA? Check out our Getting Started Guide.

Posted by The Agency Blog Team

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Search & Social Influence – eMarketer

Reuters posted an article yesterday entitled, “Is SEO DOA as a core marketing strategy?” and trust me, I know better than to respond and fuel attention to a writer who is either naive or trying to stir up the bee’s nest with a contrarian title. I suspect there may be a bit of both in this situation. Basically, the article makes the argument that entrepreneurs “may want to reconsider pouring money into search engine optimization (SEO) as their primary marketing strategy” based on an ill conceived post by Chris Dixon “SEO is no longer a viable marketing strategy for startups”. The reason I am posting about another “SEO is Dead” diatribe, is that with the right context, I would agree.

Before you think I’ve turned coat away from SEO, read my comment in response to the Reuters SEO is DOA post:

If you don’t want prospects, customers, investors, marketing partners, job candidates or journalists to find your content via search, then by all means – don’t even bother with SEO.

As a standalone tactic, (which is not the same thing as core) SEO is not what it was a few years ago and that is a valid point.

As others in the article state, SEO works in conjunction with other marketing, advertising and public relations tactics to achieve business goals. To work best across disciplines, SEO needs to be a core principle in online marketing since it affects discovery anywhere something can be searched on – including social networking and media sites.

If a business isn’t optimizing for improved findability, one needs to wonder what they’re hiding from?

For some reason, there’s a set of people in the biz media that like to focus on a small segment of opportunists making big claims with no skills about SEO vs. the thousands of professionals that are making a huge impact on companies’ bottom line.  The fact that there are a few misrepresenting the whole is no different than any other industry whether it’s PR, legal or car repair.  Making the effort to understand what SEO really is can help those who are not practitioners, but in a position to write about it, see the difference between the exception and the rule.

I’ve been providing SEO services since 1997 and like other industries, SEO has changed. Stand alone SEO only makes up a small percentage of our current consulting engagements. Most of what we do includes SEO as an element working in concert with social media, content marketing, email, PPC, social advertising and online PR.  Companies that want us to “just optimize” their site are met with questions about how much revenue they’d like to grow. Then we work backward from those goals and develop the appropriate strategy and mix of tactics, which often includes SEO.

Masterful SEO practitioners possess a unique set of skills ranging from technical to creative. As technology and consumer behaviors online have changed, so have SEO best practices.

Search as a means of discovery is massively popular. Google sites alone handle over 88 billion queries per month. The sheer volume of content being produced can possibly be filtered in a qualitative way by personal recommendations on social networks. Search plays an essential role for people that need to find answers whether it’s on a standard search engine like Google or Bing, the internal search engine on Facebook or YouTube, or on mobile devices.  In fact, search engines are the most popular destinations on smart phones, not social networks.

For many businesses, SEO is absolutely the most viable core marketing strategy.  And that strategy often includes working in concert with other marketing tactics such as PPC, content, display and email. SEO and nothing else is a disadvantage compared to SEO that is amplified by a robust social media and content marketing program.

As long as there are consumers in need of search engines, there will be a demand for expertise that helps brands surface their relevant content where people are looking.  If a company’s target audience is prone to use search for information discovery, then building a website with search in mind is absolutely a best practice. As I mentioned in the Reuter’s comment above, if a website isn’t optimizing content so prospects and customers can find easily find their content, what are they hiding? What’s the point of having a website?

If you’re a client side SEO practitioner or if you work at an agency as an SEO, what is your mix of stand alone SEO projects vs. SEO working in concert with other marketing?

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