The Digital Lookout

Earlier this week Google announced the launch of the ability to target iPhones and mobile devices which have full (html) web browsers on the Adwords blog.  As always happens with these announcements the news spread like wildfire and it is now all over the blogosphere and shouldn’t really be news to anyone who works in search engine marketing.

All campaigns are automatically opted in to the iPhone search results by default but to the intelligent search engine marketer this new functionality offers new opportunities for trial, refinement and maximisation of mobile search.

To the lazy or uneducated this box will remain ticked and the PPC campaign will continue to run on both standard web search and the new iPhone and advanced mobile search.  Using the same keywords, same ad text, and directing to the same website.  There is no harm in this as such given the volume and the way it follows standard search specifications.  But in many industries this would be massively missing an opportunity.  Location specific products such as hotels and national companies with regional branches could do so much more with this functionality if they put their minds to it.

Mobile campaigns need treating differently to standard web search campaigns because users interact with mobile Internet in a different way.  To realise the opportunity then there are a number of steps I would recommend;

Campaigns: deactivate iPhone search in your main campaign and set up a new campaign targeting ONLY THE NEW iPHONE SEARCH.  This will allow you to build a campaign aimed solely at the mobile users and mean you can make the necessary amends.

Keywords: build a keyword list based around mobile users.  This tends to mean simplifying your keyword list and using more broad keywords and dropping the long tail.  But make sure you include location specific keywords if your product fits with people using destinations in searches.  Most people using mobile search to find things want to find something nearby so will often include a town or area name in their search.

Ad Text: Obviously follow the standard Adwords guidelines of making it relevant the search phrase but also consider making it specific to mobile users.  If you are going to offer something special (see point below) then include it in the creative.  Also consider reaching out to mobile users in the creative, a message such as “welcome mobile Internet users!” might sound cheesy, but it’ll also make you stand out.

Website/Landing pages: It is still best practice to have a tailored site for mobile visitors even as mobile Internet advances.  But by splitting out the campaign so you can be sure the visitor is coming form a mobile device, why not send them to a page targeted at their needs?  Or even offer them something special? If you have local stores why not have a splash page offering a discount for all users who show the page in-store and make a purchase?  this would work great for hotels, coffee shops etc.  20% off if you show this page in store.

Tracking: Make sure you track it separately so that you can judge performance.  This probably wont be performance by way of conversions but it will certainly help to see bounce rates and site traffic stats.

Bid strategy: Use the fact you have split the campaign out to your advantage, use the tracking you have installed to judge keywords based on mobile search performance rather than web search performance.

Keep testing!: your unlikely to get this right first time but by trying different things you are bound to find some successes so don’t be afraid to try.  iPhone’s and other mobile devices with full browsers are set to revolutionise mobile Internet, it is better to make your mistakes now and learn from them, rather than in a couple of years when you are already behind the game!

Mobile strategy shouldn’t be something which gets lumped together in the general web pot, in the same way search shouldn’t.  Making sure you have a clear strategy and objective for mobile activity will ensure that as mobile Internet grows, you are best placed to take advantage.

From Jan 1st 2009 the current Google Best Practice Funding programme will be no more.  The programme aimed at rewarding agencies who show growth of both clients and revenues by rewarding a % rebate on all spend with Google is being scrapped.  This move has been coming for a few years with Google gradually changing the programme and its conditions to slowly reduce the amount returned to agencies.  Originally set at the market rate of 15% for agency purchases Google has tweeked and changed their model to bring it down to a level where the bigger agencies are currently on receiving 6-8% commission on their sizeable Google budgets through the current Best Practice Funding Scheme.

This obviously as cause agencies to rethink their current commercial agreements with clients and could see some major shake-ups in the search marketing agency world as existing contracts become unmanageable without the commission in place.

What has become clear in the last couple of weeks however is what Google now plans to do with agency commission, they are going to use it to grow their non-search products.  It has been clear to see recently for those who deal with Google on a regular basis, that Google is desperate to expand their product mix outside of paid search.  They have launched media planning tools, display ad creation tools and have used every given opportunity to push the Google Placement Network.  Similarly with Youtube and their video advertising options, there has been national roadshows to agencies broadcasting the availability of their video advertising options.

And now this week Google has announced that they will be introducing agency commissions on all YouTube advertising (nma article here) and it is thought that the rebate amount is going to be back up to the 15% agencies enjoy on other media channels.  There are also rumours in the industry that a commission is set to be introduced on advertising across the Google Placement Network, although only for the largest players.

So it appears Google no longer feels it needs to compete in pay per click advertising due to its dominance, and that it is better placed rewarding advertisers in the areas it wishes to grow in.  You cant really fault them on that logic.  The removal of Best Practice Funding is unlikely to see agencies pulling spend from their Google Adwords campaigns, as it remains the best performing search engine around.  But by offering an incentive to broaden the products utilised they can begin to make headway in other areas.

Google announced yesterday that it was pulling out of the agreement with Yahoo which would have allowed them to display Google Adwords listings on Yahoo search results in the US.  The announcement comes in the face of a potentially lengthy and costly legal battles with competition regulators which Google has decided would “distract the from their core mission”.

In Yahoo’s response via email to it partners they reassured PPC advertisers that, whilst they were disappointed by the announcement, it would not prevent them becoming an “ever-stronger player in online advertising”.  and reaffirm their strength in certain sectors by quoted their positioning across selected news verticals.  A clear attempt to say “don’t give up on us yet!”

In a further twist, Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang has come out and reverted on his original defiance on a sell out to Microsoft by claiming that he was open minded about a potential deal with Microsoft having been bitterly opposed to such a deal when originally proposed.  Its funny how he has changed his mind immediately prior to the Google announcement!

So its back to square one in the search engine battle for supremacy with no deals on the table and everyone working independently.  But for how long?  Yang’s announcement is bound to start the Microsoft-yahoo rumour mill off again and it is probably more likely to go ahead after yesterday but who knows?  I’m sure there will be more twists in the tail before the saga ends.

Google has today announced plans for further changes to be made to their quality score algorithm following the changes to the Google scoring system which took place in September.

The latest announcements as announced on the inside Adwords blog are not yet in place but are likely to be in the next week so it is considering how they may affect your Adwords campaigns.  The changes come in two forms:

Position Normalisation on CTR Influence

Reading between the lines on the release (it isn’t Google’s clearest ever announcement!) Google are going to be accounting for the position of an ad when deciding how significantly CTR should apply to the quality score.  Traditionally CTR has played a huge part in the quality score algorithm and I have no doubts it will continue to do so, but the problem with it has always been, it can be bought.  The big spenders, with the deep pockets, can afford to bid to position 1 and buy a good CTR in a short space of time.  Through this latest change Google are aiming (at least I hope) to reduce the ability to do this by accounting for position when judging what constitutes a “good” click through rate.  So for example a CTR of 3% in position 5, would be determined a better judge of quality than 5% in position 1 where the ad is the first thing is searcher sees.  This should allow for a much more level playing field for the lower spending advertisers and negate, to a certain degree, the spending power of the big players.

Changes in Position 1,2 and 3

Traditionally the top 3 positions which appear above the natural search results are determined by whether the top 3 advertisers in the max CPC x QS model had a sufficient quality score to merit inclusion in the top bar (what quantifies sufficient is unknown).  These three positions are highly valuable and get high CTR due to their prominence on the page.  What the latest changes are going to do, in essence, is to place more emphasis on ad quality and QS in this equation and less on max CPC (see a trend here?).  So that if an ad in position 1 doesnt have the necessary CTR and ad quality to appear in position one, but wins the general auction, it wont stop the ads in position 2 and 3 from leap-frogging into these prominent positions.

My general feeling is that these changes will normalise the market for the benefit of the small business PPC marketer.  Obviously Google will still make their money as a lot of clicks at a medium CPC is better than a couple of clicks at a high one.  it could also prompt the big PPC spenders spend even more as they try to achieve the positions they previously hold, win win for Google!

I expect a pretty turbulent PPC landscape over the next week so Ill be keeping a close eye on things, I advise you to do the same!

Google has announced on the Inside Adwords blog the launch of a display advert creation tool in the US and Canada in an obvious attempt to broaden its market for display advertisers and in the hope of expanding its share in this area.  The availability of ads for the use in display and placement campaigns is often a barrier to entry for the smaller companies as a full professional creative suite can cost thousands of pounds.  By providing this tool they will be hoping to broaden the reach of their placement network and steel some market share from the big publisher sites such as Yahoo!, AOL and MSN.

The tool looks remarkably easy to use in the video demonstration, as you would expect, as it works on a simple standard template with upload functionality for a logo, selling point and call to action.  The background css is fully editable to create the appropriate colour scheme and the tool creates ads in four standard sizes.  This is a smart move from Google and they have followed the simple model of Adwords which will appeal to the less savvy SME market.

It is only available in the US and Canada at the moment but once proven successful a UK launch is inevitable as Google aims to try and win the battle to become more than just a search engine and more of an advertising platform.