Yahoo "Import" Feature Problems on Excel 07

As much as I have frustrations with Panama, the relatively new Search Marketing platform from Yahoo, I have found the "import" feature of great benefit. True, it did take a couple of days to get the hang of it, saving the file as Unicode Text with a .csv extension(?!?!) - but after that it was all plain sailing.

That was until I upgraded my computer to Office 2007! After that it all went blurry and fuzzy again, and nothing seemed to work. Even Yahoo's official instructions on how to use the import tool seem to contradict itself!

Try and try and try as I could to use the tool, it was just not happening. I did some searches and found a thread on SearchEngineWatch.com. Apparently what you need to do is:
1. Save the file as Unicode (.txt)
2. Close down your Excel spreadsheet
3. Go back to its saved location and rename it with the .csv extension
4. Upload the file using the Import function

HOWEVER...this still did not work for me?

I understand that Office 07 is a relatively new package, but it seems crazy that the import function is incompatible with it.

So, if anyone from Yahoo reads this, please, please, please make the import process easier and compatible with all versions of excel.

I would be interested whether this has worked for anyone else?

Yahoo's New Partners

We were running our standard end of month PPC reports today and came across something quite interesting for one client. On Yahoo! they experienced a huge increase in impressions, although we changed nothing major within the campaign. We have content network switched off and these results are very much out of the blue as you can see:

Feb	Impressions	Clicks
X Y	2618	20
X Y Z	1500	6

March	Impressions	Clicks
X Y	24,351	16
X Y Z	44,446	26

(X Y Z stand for different words, with X Y Z being an extension of X Y)

Having looked a little further into when these clicks occurred they always arrived in short bursts. The first came between Monday the 10^th of March and finished Friday the 14^th of March. The next burst came between Monday 24^th of March and lasted until Friday the 4^th of April. To me this looks like a testing period; from Monday to Friday and then a longer period of two weeks, including a weekend.

Having thought about this and considered going mad, we called Yahoo! After some denial on the second call they did mention that they might be “trialling new partners” but that they didn’t have any available information at the moment.

Looking to a number of our other clients who are also on Yahoo! we have notice similar trends over similar time periods, with nothing but tweaks made to the campaign.

Interesting, something is going on behind the scenes with Yahoo! the question is just what?

Google likes a quickie (as do I)

Google are now factoring in page download speed when determining the Quality Score of your PPC ads. Well done Google, this could help push developers of those really annoying, SLOW websites into improving their speed. This would make me happy... I really hate slow loading websites.

I was surprised (and somewhat annoyed) to read that slow loading websites apparently cost us Brits 2.5 days every year (just imagine what we could all do with those!) Slow websites are also Britain’s top web complaint which comes as no surprise to me. I don’t know about you, but if a website is really slow to load, I tend to abort my mission however important the information is to me. I seem to come across this quite a lot these days and I feel that the advent of Web 2.0 has changed how many websites are designed leading to image heavy (although lovely looking) websites that ultimately are much slower to load.

My rant is not totally unfounded now that page load times are a factor in Google attributing Quality Score to keywords in your Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns. Quality Score measures how relevant your keyword is to your PPC ad text and to your user's search query. It effectively determines the position of your PPC ad on Google and partly determines your keywords' minimum bids. In general, the higher your Quality Score, the better your ad position resulting in you spending less (hoorah!)

PPC landing pages have a large part in determining your quality score and with page load times now a factor in this, we need to look at ways to keep your sites download speed down.

• Firstly I would suggest that all images are optimised as much as possible. You could shrink the size of your images, crop out any additional space in the image or even remove some images. Do you really need all the images?

• You should also try to ensure that all HTML code, JavaScript, CSS files are optimised as much as possible to try to reduce page load time of your site pages.

• Page loading speed could also be the result of a web server problem whereby your server is not capable of handling traffic. In this case, you should update your server settings and ensure they are configured correctly to handle your traffic.

• You can also be sure that any animated GIF’s or use of Flash will slow down the loading speed of a page.

All of the above are things that you should check your website against in order for your site to be correctly optimised to maximise on its performance. This is particularly crucial to all companies that have Google PPC campaigns. Not only will faster loading speeds make your site more usable and accessible to your target audience, but it would make a lot of Brits happier as we can plan what to do with our extra 2.5 days each year!

Save Money, Increase Sales, Eat Waffles!

It’s my birthday in a couple of weeks and I’ve been quietly hoping I might get a waffle iron. Now with any purchase or indeed decision to seed an idea into the minds of my friends and family I usually find myself conducting a lot of research. This research will touch upon product sites, review sites, coupon sites and comparison engines – before coming away with an idea of exactly what I want and exactly what I should expect to pay for it.
This presented a thought, and I am sure I am not alone in thinking this, but almost everything I look at on the web I analyse with a marketer’s hat. I analyse what it’s doing, what it’s not doing and how it can do better – and my search for ‘Buy Waffle Iron’ cemented my thoughts of widespread inexperience within the paid search industry .

The following shots document the first page paid results for the term “buy waffle Iron” from Google and, using only these paid listings, I reviewed each of them from the initial expectation of the PPC ad copy to the respective landing pages. As a customer, I accessed whether these ‘ads’ and landing pages fulfilled my needs in terms of product descriptions, price and availability. The results follow.


Position 1: TheAluminiumShop.co.uk
Ad copy: The addition of ‘top brands’ is somewhat generic and doesn’t really add value to my search.
Landing page: There is nothing above the fold about Waffle Irons, and after scanning the homepage, I wondered exactly what I had clicked. (Visit landing page)
Action: Immediately Dropped out
My rating (0/10)


Position 2: Amazon.co.uk
Ad copy: The addition of ‘top brands’ is somewhat generic and doesn’t really add value to my search. But free delivery is good, especially for my heavy waffle iron.
Landing page: I am immediately drawn to the picture of the Prima Waffle Maker and the inclusion of price and availablility encourage me to click and “find out more”. Aside from this product, the entire page is full of “waffle” related goods. (Visit landing page)
Action: Went to product page and read reviews.
My rating (6/10)


Position 3: HouseMakers.co.uk
Ad copy: Excellent. Providing a brand name so I know what to look for, it’s available today and I can use Google checkout.
Landing page: Displayed exactly what was promised. The landing page was simple but effective, with a good title, breadcrumb trail and a prominent call to action.
(Visit landing page)
Action: Clicked on “more info”, enlarged the image, noted the price and read the excellent features list.
My rating (7/10)


Position 4: UKEquipmentDirect.co.uk
Ad copy: I didn’t want a crepe or pancake machine! But they do promise the lowest prices, so no harm in looking.
Landing page: Generic search page with no clear title or description, just displaying the crepe and pancake machine search results. No mention of a waffle. But the ‘buy now buttons’ and the display of availability if nice. (Visit landing page)
Action: Dropped out.
My rating (3/10)


Position 5: ThomasGolf.com.
Ad copy: Again I didn’t want Iron, and to be honest I am not entirely clear what this ad is about!
Landing page: Ah.. It’s about Golf clubs.. And here is me thinking Thomas Golf was the owner’s name. (Visit landing page)
Action: Immediately dropped out.
My rating (0/10)



Position 6: LQCommodities.com.
Ad copy: Great! At this rate I’m never going to get a waffle iron. Use your Negative keywords!
Landing page: Very content heavy, and nothing to inspire me to read on. (Visit landing page)
Action: Immediately dropped out.
My rating (0/10)


Position 7: Shopzilla.co.uk
Ad copy: “from over 4000 UK consumer rated stores”, seems somewhat generic as I’m sure I’m not going to be present with 4000 stores. Ability to compare prices is good though.
Landing page: I’m made to wait, whilst the prices are compared, but the landing page does display 2 retailers, the price and free delivery. Although this is only a comparison site, and not a retailer themselves, the call to actions are clear, it’s just a shame there aren’t more retailers. (Visit landing page)
Action: Clicked on both retailers, but I’m still not sure which waffle iron is right for my needs.
My rating (4/10)


Position 8: DealTime.co.uk
Ad copy: Like it. They’ve repeated the term which has somewhat reinforced the ad and it looks like they’ve got a dedicated page.
Landing page: The images are almost below the fold as I’m presented with ads, ads and more ads. Not happy about this… but it does display 3 waffle irons of various prices along with prominent “see it” buttons. This, like Shopzilla, is another comparison engine, but I really don’t think it assisted in my search. (Visit landing page)
Action: Had a look at retailers, but then dropped out.
My rating (4/10)

I had to question how these results would influence my future search behaviour. Would I exclude or subconsciously filter out particular retailers as a result of their landing pages? and if I did, what about other users and their perception of the brand?

Presumably, any online business wants to maintain or enhance their brand equity and maximise conversions whilst reducing the cost of these acquisition through their paid search, but why – as the evidence has suggested – are businesses still aimlessly ‘reacting’ to paid search competition without thinking about converting this traffic efficiently?

Within this in mind I would welcome any of the abovementioned retailers including The Aluminium Shop, UK Equipment Direct, ThomasGolf.com and LQCommodities.com to get in touch with either Amelia or I here at Leapfrogg so we can set up your campaigns correctly. In the meantime however, here are my top 5 tips to increase conversions and get your cost per acquisition down!

1. Take users as far along the buying cycle as possible:
Amazon did this particularly well as they directed me to a list of suitable Waffle Irons, which I could sort by price and then purchase. Now ignoring the fact that their landing page for this ad directed me to the Kitchen page, it was a page populated only with ‘Waffle Irons’, and by doing so I didn’t have to sort through lots of other kitchen products to find exactly what I wanted. The No1forFun website really let me done on this, and as a result, I left immediately.
You should use landing pages to your full advantage through the use of ‘headlines’ to grab attention, (Something only HouseMakers.co.uk did well), high resolution images to stimulate and enhance the comprehensive product description and prominent calls to action (which should be clear and located above the fold.

2. Increase the relevance of your ads:
In light of Google’s Quality Score it’s in your favour to ensure your ads are relevant, not only to the keywords in that ad group but also to the landing page for that ad. If I were promoting “Waffle Irons” I would ensure the keywords I were targeting were specific, and it directed the user to the specific Waffle Iron page of the site. By doing so you are presenting the user with the best quality result, and Google, with reward you for this, in terms of lower click costs.

3. Make use of negative keywords:
If you are selling Waffle Irons then include terms like shoes (Nike Waffle Racers), scrap (Scrap Iron) and Golf (golf iron) in your negative keywords to ensure your ads aren’t displayed for irrelevant searches. Further information can be found at Google and by Richard Ball at the Search Engine Guide.

4. Don’t forget that small is beautiful (and profitably):
A larger number of small but incredibly focused ad groups are more likely to bring you a lower cost per acquisition than generic groups that encapsulate multiple terms. Relevance is the key, so don’t bunch all of your keywords together in generic group. Spend time creating specific groups for each product, and direct the user to their respective product pages.

5. Don’t always be the retailer:
Sometimes it’s important to take a step back from being the retailer and actually act as a customer. By taking the time to search for your products within the major engines, review your landing pages, the checkout facility and the general site navigation you can really begin to recognise where you might be falling down and where users might be dropping out.
1,500 daily unique visits is all very well, but a 1% conversion rate suggests massive room for improvement.

In conclusion:
The major search engines want the best quality results for their demanding customers, so the best advice has to be ‘give it to them’. In doing so, you’re fulfilling need and, it’s inevitable that your traffic, and more importantly, your conversions, will increase!

Search Tip of the Week (8)

This week our tip is related to Paid Search.

For the SME running a Paid Search campaign on a limited budget there are various ways you can ensure you get maximum bang for your buck!

So here is a tip on how you can make sure you are not wasting money on clicks that are not likely to convert for you.

"Do not Broad Match" your terms. If you just type a list of terms into your ad groups on Google the automatic matching of your terms will be "Broad." This means that your ad will be shown for any search containing your search terms in any order.

E.g. If you sold cars and had the "broad" matched term "cars" in your ad. Your ad could potentially be shown for the following searches:

fluffy dice for cars
police cars
cars the movie

As you can see these will not be relevant to your car selling business and so could result in low click through rates or a large number of untargeted visitors to your site.

Sooooooo to drive more targeted visitors to your site and limit the amount you spend on wasted visitors, we recommend for those on a tight budget that you "phrase" or "exact" match your terms.

If you put "" around your search terms this means that your terms will be "phrase" matched. This means that your ad will only be shown for searches that contain the full search term in the right order.

E.g. If you have the phrase "used cars for sale" in your ad group your ad would only be shown for the following types of searches:

red used cars for sale
used cars for sale uk
ford used cars for sale

This would result in far more focused traffic to your site and you are likely to be paying a far lower cost per click.

If you "exact" match by placing [] around your terms they will only be shown for the exact terms with no other words on either side. This will give you even tighter control over the searches your ad is shown for, again reducing your spend and giving you more focused visitors. However, with exact matching you are limiting your exposure.

So if you are spending more than you want and finding your campaign is giving a low return on investment why not just try making all of your search terms "phrase" matched and seeing what happens!!!!

Help us Help You

We recently had a rather irate client on the phone to one of our account managers questioning why they were not seeing their ad in the search listings. They had been “searching and searching” but were not seeing their ad. Within about 10 seconds the account manager entered the search query, had seen the ad is question (at the desired position) and had deduced that the client had not been able to view the ad because they had simply searched for it too many times. Essentially, the client’s actions were causing a negative effect on the campaign. This made me think of a number of ways that clients can help SEO Agencies manage their PPC search marketing campaign more effectively.

In order to run a successful PPC search campaign it is imperative that there is a clear line of communication between the SEO agency (i.e an account manager) and the client. This is crucial to the success of the campaign for a number of reasons.

It is inevitable that products or services will become discontinued or unavailable at some point in a campaign's life cycle. In the event of this occurring, it is necessary for the client to immediately get in contact with their SEO agency. This will enable the search terms related to the discontinued or unavailable products or services to either be deleted or paused. This will mean that no clicks or costs will be accrued for the product or service that has no chance of leading to a conversion. Similarly, it is also important for the client to notify the agency of any new products or services newly offered.

If the client is running any additional marketing initiatives, either in the future or at present, alongside search engine marketing it is important to let your agency know. The marketing initiative undertaken will inevitably cause some amount of "buzz" and a large amount of people will perform searches to either find out more about the company in question or the product or service being advertised. If your online spend is only small, it is important to maximise your spend during, and after these key periods in order to capture the full impact of this increased traffic.

If the client wants to make sure that their ads are at a certain position and is performing countless searches a day, it is CRUCIAL that they use the Ad Preview tool (mentioned in a previous post) https://adwords.google.co.uk/select/AdTargetingPreviewTool
The key reasons for this are as follows:

Google recently made a change to the way ads are shown, allowing each individual search query to be responded to uniquely or differently. For example, if a client was to search for their ad multiple times, the system may "adapt" the search results in order to (supposedly) relate to your needs. The thinking behind this is that if you do not click on the ads that are shown a number of times, they are deemed less relevant to the search query. This may cause ads to drop to lower positions than before.

Each time an ad is shown an impression is accrued. An ad's relevance is determined largely by its CTR. Click through Rate is calculated as Clicks/Impressions x 100. So, if a large majority of impressions are recorded for a search term, but only a small number of clicks are generated, the individual ad’s CTR will be very low, which will then effect the quality score of the search term. A low quality score means that you may have to pay a considerably higher CPC to attain your desired average position, than your competitors.

This process is usually a relatively straight forward and dare-I-even-say “fair” way to attribute a cost to a keyword when left to the relevancy principal. However, when a faux search is made (i.e checking the average position of an ad), this will significantly increase the volume of impressions generated for a certain keyword. As these searches are made with the intention of checking, rather than actually searching, no clicks will be accrued thereby lowering the CTR of an ad, which will directly lead the CPC paid for the individual keyword to be raised, and may even lower the ad to lower positions (based on the paragraphs above).

So, to conclude, the success of a brilliantly optimised, high converting paid search campaign can never be wholly be attributed to either Agency or Client. Instead both must understand each others goals, and the steps that they can both take to achieve them.

Banner Advertising – Are Users Turning A Blind Eye?

Whether part of a multidimensional online campaign, stimulating and reinforcing brand awareness or additional in support of integrated offline promotion, banner ad have their uses, but are users blind to their messages?

Of course this notion considers targeted placement such as a music equipment supplier on a Glastonbury forum however, what about longtail areas including clothing?

Banner advertising can reach thousands and thousands of people, particularly so as users spend longer online, harnessing social networking platforms and email services, but of course in many instances such adverts might be unwanted by the user.



CTR’s or Click Through Rates (obtained by dividing the number of users who clicked on a banner ad by the number of times the ad was delivered (impressions)) will of course depend upon how large the campaign is, and how many times the ad is served across multiple websites for example, however with reports from Doubleclick that the average banner CTR is 0.44% while Google Adwords reports a CTR across all keywords system of about 2% is the life of the banner slipping away?

Whilst it has been discussed that banner adverts can contribute to brand awareness campaigns, what of the marketing budgets for small businesses? Such businesses that cannot afford large campaigns of across Silicon Valley networks how are they to get higher CTR’s and the best level of exposure?

Well, certainly ensuring focus and accurate targeting is the key, however I would say a review of what exactly you want from the banner campaign in addition to an audit of the customer experience when having banners designed is of importance.

In seeking to counteract the traditionally low CTR of traditional static banners churned out from the ad networks and merchants we are seeing nothing short of an evolution. Gone are the days of poor quality flashing 468x60.gifs (or worse still a static image) and there now exists examples of flash animated banners which interact with the user, non more recognisable than those displayed by mobile phone operator Orange with their ‘Free Sim Card’ banner. Heavily featured on email provider websites, the Orange banner enabled the user to enter their personal data within the banner without leaving the original page they saw the ad from.

In addition, banners are also cropping up that are keyword rich so as to contribute to search engine rankings, such as that of the following mocked-up example.

	Leapfrogg Internet Marketing Ethical SEO SEO Info Library Our Services Frogg Blogg

But so as not to get into a comprehensive review of the individual demographics and their preference on how and what they click the crux of this post is that banners, like traditional media, have their place, not with driving qualified visitors like PPC does, but instead with generating exposure and brand awareness.

The points to which I pause to cast reflection are:
1. How will banner design evolve to engage the user?

2. Are users, thanks to social networks, savvier to online advertising, rendering it increasingly more difficult to convert?

3. And, perhaps more importantly, regardless of the message or indeed the usability within the banner, do users even see them anymore?

Problems with Yahoo Panama

We have had real problems with our newly migrated panama accounts this week. We were only able to navigate around the site for a maximum of 20 minutes before it would completely freeze up. Then when the account was frozen, we were unable to access anything within the Panama interface.

Speaking to Yahoo, they suggested that it may be problems with IE7 or Firefox, or even our internet connection. This confused us somewhat.

After about 3 hours of pulling our hair out (I am nearly bald now - used to have very long hair!) we found that it was a problem with the Panama login that we had initially bookmarked. When upgrading each account to Panama, you are taken directly to the new Panama login screen which asks you to bookmark it. As I took little notice of the login, I did not notice the length of the URL which was a lengthy dynamic url with many parameters. We then decided to try a version of the URL without the dynamic part:

https://login.marketingsolutions.yahoo.com/

And...Bob's your uncle! We had access to our accounts again! Thank God!

So, If anyone is having System Error with a newly migrated Panama account I would recommend re-bookmarking the login above, and then re-logging in. You may well find this is the answer to all your problems!