Inside Google

Posted by James in Local Business, News, Podcast, PPC, SEO, Traffic

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 12:45 — 23.4MB) | Embed

Last week I visited Google Australia. They are getting pretty keen to share with marketing agencies how best to sell Adwords. For your benefit I made some notes since you may either be selling to businesses, considering selling to businesses or perhaps you are a business.

Maybe you just want to know how Google ‘think’ and operate. The meeting reminded me how new this industry is and how far it is going to go. We covered Adwords, Marketing, People, Innovation and Design.

In Australia only 50 % of small business are online

Wow. That means as the owner of a web development business, SEO business and Internet marketing coaching community things are on the way up. Business owners are more aware that online business is the way to grow faster (or get left behind). Google Australia have 550 staff .  Half of them are engineers, the other half are marketing based. In Australia we are going to receive  a faster internet speed soon. (It is quite slow compared to the USA).

PPC Techniques Update

We had an “Advanced” PPC breakout session with Kate Conroy.  First we got an  update on Adwords reporting. Here were her tips:

• Reporting can be customized so be sure to select the columns you want and not too many. (Avoid column bloat, keep it lean).
• Focus on conversions because they make you money and are also an indicator of high quality (the all important relevance).
• The new ‘top versus side report’ shows a client where where ads appear on the page.
• Screen for quality.  Filter quality score by ‘low but getting impressions’ to see where you can tune the campaign.

How to boost your quality score

• Make sure your pages are very relevant to the search phrase and topic. If they are weak bolster landing page.
• Make ad groups better (by that she means smaller).
• Segment by device (Mobile is hot the last 6-8 months) ‘Mobile only’ can significantly increase conversions.
• See ‘search terms’ report and create new content based on the new long tail phrases.
• Use a ‘geo report’ filtering impressions by minimum.
• ‘Best day of the week’ report helps you schedule ads and adjust bids for your sweet spot.

Focus on Extensions to really optimize the campaign

• Location shows in seo results so be sure to include it for local businesses
• Shopping extensions are HOT. (There exists a huge Merchant feed optimization opportunity for providers). Make sure pictures are big enough. Just increasing image size will show you higher more often!
• Get serious about shopping feed management

Checklist for Adwords campaign tuning

• CPC x quality score = rank score
• Make sure your Ad groups are well structured
• Two to four keyword combos work bets for buyer intent and relevancy
• Use the extensive free training available from Google
• Use $75 vouchers from google to get started (I have some if you need them)

How to sell adwords to businesses

When you are talking to small businesses remember you have the relationship with them  (not Google).  Here is a checklist for you to move the customer through the phases (offered by the business development expert):

• Comprehend – helping the business owner become aware of the possibilites.
• Connect – building relationship rapport so that a trusted conversation is possible.
• Educate – putting forward factual information to help bridge the gap.
• Ask questions – fully understand and resolve all areas of doubt or uncertainty.
• Pitch – suggest the solution.
• Close – make an agreement.

Here are some Google opportunity sizing tools that really help you gather facts and data to help your pitch:

Insights – ‘you can compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames and properties’

Keyword tool – there are  a number of options here.

Compelling reasons why Adwords is the perfect story for business owners..

PPC marketing is easily Digestible for business owners because it has many elements they want.

• Urgency – campaigns can be set up very quickly
• Solve problems – people are already searching for solutions online
• Reporting gives you measurability. No wastage.
• Demonstrate success with conversion goals and excellent metrics
• Proof – profit can be traced directly to the source
• Presence ( branding ) can be increased because it adds to other mediums
• Leverages website investments by increasing traffic
• Can be adapted to whatever the current business strategy is
• Get an advantage on competitors who do not use paid traffic
• Fastest potential for scalable business growth

Frame these value combinations into a perfect story

• Pay only for clicks you use.
• Easy way to measure success.
• Scope change instantly.
• Flex your budget as required.
• People do not remember URL’s. They search within 3 days of hearing advertising
• Call tracking per campaign leverages PPC more
• 92% of Australians are Internet users (more reach)

Paid and organic gives you larger share

1+1 = 3 when it comes to having seo and ppc results for the same phrase. Google claim it increases sales. This has been supported in a  recent article on Search Engine Land.

Display advertising tips:

• Ads can be run in multiple media formats
• Google offers virtual CPA
• Partners spread ads further
• Use the Adplanner for target audience selection
• Use ad builder templates for banners
• 300 size banner is very popular
• 728 size banners are the most displayed
• Choose sites to advertise on
• CPC by industry varies but is standardized - Finance and travel are the most mature industry categories for paid advertising

Google discussion on Marketing

• 50-100 new products are launched each week by Google
• Innovation is about being open
• Example: Openness about sharing open source like Chrome and Android
• Sharing source code floats all boats in the industry
• Change is the most important element
• User decides how to best use technology in the end

For new products the “release and iterate” method is better than the big unveil. After that the goal is to keep improving. The user becomes part of the culture with new technology. Example: Gmail is still beta after 3 years.

People hiring Is the most important thing

In Google a manager is hiring about 40% of the time. They look for diversity and passion  outside work. In particular they look for generalists since generalists will apply skill to any area.

The famous 20% employee free time is designed to change the world technology. Other success factors for the Google employee approach are:

• Serendipity
• Flat hierarchy
• Small teams
• Pragmatic long term thinking
• Ideas + technology
• Befriend a geek
• Audacious place big bets
• Think big
• Fail fast
• It is Easier to attract people to big challenges

Things the team have developed that they are proud of:

• Gmail had 250 times more storage than competitor at launch.
• Adwords was the worlds first real time PPC auction.
• News by topic not source.
• (Even though Buzz failed and Wave failed they pushed html5 browsers forward).
• Google docs

It pays to Question Everything!

In Australia Google noticed a huge disparity between use of the web between consumers v business. Less than half of businesses have a website yet most of us use the internet.

• 15 million consumers use the internet every month
• 9 million people in Australia are on Facebook

Why do business owners NOT have a website?

• 5o percent thought it is not relevant.
• 27 percent lack the time budget or knowledge.  Perception: cost, complex, time suck.
• 12 percent never considered it.
• Note: Almost all use Internet personally.
• 25 percent of businesses who have a website wanted to upgrade or revamp the website they already have

Google talks user experience (UX)

Here are the Design questions that help designers create the platforms we see coming from Google and improve the ‘man machine interface’:

• Follow the user and everything else will follow
• Don’t design with our own set of bias
• Think clearly about who is receiving our message
• Design for a primary persona (Even triplets are very different)
• How do people change over time
• Be aware of experience around you
• Account for triggers and influences

Affinity diagramming

• What is the business goal?, what does the user want?, what do you want?
• First and foremost provide something the user needs and user wants.
• We are in the world of perpetual beta.
• Release by ‘Dogfooding’ to the 28000 Google employees.
• Survey users. Who are they? What do they want to do?
• Shadow people.
• Conduct Percent experiments.
• Keep things ‘Dustbuster binary simple’ ie: one button!

Design drives outcomes

• Question everything
• Design with someone in mind
• Test test test

On a closing note, I queried the policy of ‘openness’ v the lack of phone support and they advised that Phone support will be coming on board during business hours…

Oh yeah – they were also surprisingly quiet about Google +

Please comment below:

IMPORTANT NEWS – Time Sensitive

Mike Rhodes a World Class PPC Marketer and I are running an 8 Week  PPC Masterclass starts 9 Aug. It should be obvious from this post that when you have a high level PPC skill you are able to help the vast majority of business owners (or yourself) WITHOUT COMPETITION.  They lack the skills, time and resource to learn this themselves.

Best opportunity to have a PPC agency ever:   See The Video HERE

Tags: adwords, adwords tips, business consultant, digital media, display advertising, gmail, google, google employment criteria, james schramko, online advertising, ppc + seo case study, small business internet, usability, ux, wave

Related Posts

Images:

The images are downsized due to limited space here. The original dimensions may differ.
Click on the image to open it on a new tab.