Google Partner Search Update

May 11, 2011 0 Comments

Google has provided me with an email about their new Partner search feature that are allowed for all Certified Partners. This search is really just an easier way for advertisers to find you or your company. Obviously, this only applies to people or companies that provide adwords assistance to advertisers and that are certified by Google. This change allows advertisers to put a lead out and have partners respond based on their skill sets. This could make it easier for partners to find qualified work directly from Google. Below is the email that was sent to all Search Partners.

We are excited to tell you about new lead management functionality in Google Partner Search (https://adwords.google.com/professionals/search/) that allows advertisers looking for account management support to initiate contact with certified partners by filling out a lead form, and for certified partners to easily review and respond to leads. We made this change in response to both advertiser and certified partner feedback that they’d like to see improvements to the lead management process, as well as the request process for inquiring clients.

Access to lead management will be available to current Google Certified Partners who have opted in to Google Partner Search. To obtain a listing on Google Partner Search partners (https://adwords.google.com/professionals/search/) must meet the following criteria:

1. Become a Google Certified Partner (https://adwords.google.com/support/select/professionals/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=18572) (GCP)
2. Have created a complete company profile
3. Have opted in to Google Partner Search

If you’re are already a Certified Partner and would like to update your profile or opt-in to Google Partner Search please follow these simple instructions:

1. Sign into your account and visit the Company Profile page (https://adwords.google.com/professionals/account/?pli=1).
2. From your company profile page, you can update your company description and service information, and verify that everything is correct. Remember, these fields will be used in your public profile page and lack of service information may mean your company might not be found in the results page.
3. To opt in to the search results, visit ‘My Company’ and choose ‘Profile’. Under ‘Profile visibility’, select ‘enabled’ next to ‘Appear in Partner search’.
4. Finally, if you have multiple geo locations you may want to create an international profile for each location

As only administrators will receive email notifications and access to lead management page, please assign suitable employees as administrators in ‘Account Access’ page to manage leads.

For more information on these, and other features of the Google Certification Program and Google Partner Search, please visit the program Help Center (https://adwords.google.com/support/select/professionals/?hl=en_US).

Many thanks,

Google Partner Search Team

A Common Paid Search Mistake

August 12, 2010 1 Comment

A question that I am frequently asked is how someone can maximize their paid search account. It doesn’t matter if they are advertising on Google, Yahoo (now using Bing’s results), or Bing. While there are many ways for someone to get the best results out of pay per click advertising, there is one common mistake that I find in almost every account I look at. The enemy of every online marketer: High Cost Keywords. You would be surprised how many people start a new campaign or ad group without looking over the keywords to see how much they cost and how much traffic they may bring. This mistake is not just made with PPC novices, but also people and companies that have been doing it for a long time.

High cost keywords can destroy a well developed campaign in a matter of hours, fully depleting the daily spend and leaving your campaign paralyzed until the next day comes around. I tell everyone that I consult for to make sure and take a few extra steps to ensure that there are no high cost keywords hiding in their keyword builds. It is a simple thing to fix, but not many actually do it. There are many keyword estimation tools out there that can help you decide which keywords are right for you, but one of my favorite and easiest to use it the Google Keyword Estimator. This tool is free to use and can estimate cost and clicks for up to 5000 keywords per batch. Google has introduced a new beta for this tool, but I prefer to use the old legacy platform. After running a simple search, you can find out if the keywords that you want to use will be searched on and how much they will cost. Simple, effective, and will save you a lot of money.

I understand that most that use PPC advertising want to get visitors and conversions, but just because you put a high cost keyword in, doesn’t mean you will get what you want. In most cases, high cost keywords will bring you traffic, but rarely bring the conversions. This is a big no-no in paid search advertising. You have to justify your ad spend with conversions, so unless you have thousands to spend and are just looking for visitors, leave the high cost keywords out. How much do you think the word apple will cost you in a day? Take a look at a few of the top apple terms…..

I did this search on the basis of just $0.50 per click and no budget to show the potential of what these type of keywords would bring. Does your advertising budget have this much per day? You might ask why anyone would put these terms in their search ad groups, but I have seen companies that just sell aftermarket ipod, iphone, and ipad accessories have these terms in their account. They never could understand why they were wasting so much money and never getting any conversions. The data speaks for itself I believe. Most people that search for these broad terms are notorious for not purchasing. They are in the research stage of the buying cycle. People that search for terms that usually contain 3-5 terms have a better chance of purchasing than broad searchers do. If you don’t sell these items, then you never need to be bidding on them. You will never win and you will end up broke. Do yourself and your company a favor and take an extra 5 minutes to put all your keywords through a traffic estimator and strip out all the high cost keywords. You will be happy that you did.

Back-to-School Search Marketing Webinar

August 4, 2010 0 Comments

Is your online business ready for the back-to-school rush? If not, you better get it in gear and quickly. Back-to-school spending is the second highest for online shopping all year only to be bested by the fourth quarter holiday rush. If you have products or services that relates to back-to-school then you should have all of your marketing efforts in full swing. Yahoo if hosting a free webinar that goes into the best practices for back-to-school content and search campaigns. They wil also provide great search trends that occurred during the 2009 rush.

If you are interested in learning how to get your search and content campaigns running right, then join Yahoo on Thursday, August 5th at 11:00 am Pacific Standard time. This webinar will probably run around an hour with questions. Sign up for free and make sure you are ready for the back-to-school rush.

iMark Interactive