19
2008
Sep

Your Questions Answered… Even Though You Didn’t Know You Asked Them!

I’m often overheard saying that you should never underestimate the creativity of the general public with an empty search box. If you’ve ever taken the time to mine through your Analytics account for organic search queries you know what I’m talking about. Here’s a random sampling of some of my less than on topic visits: how to clean egg off windows, I want find sms for my girlfriend, is it illegal to sell clean urine, little strange monster brands, monster cures the porn site… And the list goes on. Luckily most of my traffic is a little more on topic but it is fun to see what kind of crazy stuff Google is matching to my site. The exciting thing inside of analytics that you should be watching is the questions. A lot of people search by asking Google a question, are you answering these questions?

I figured I would take a minute and answer some of the questions that I found in my data. The following are real searches.

Can Google ban you from Adwords?
Ultimately Google can pretty much do whatever it feels like. If you’re abusing their terms of service they are not shy about shutting down your Adwords account. If you get banned you can open a new account but chances are you’re going to need to use a new credit card too. If Adwords is a big piece of where your business comes from don’t abuse their system!

Can you have phone numbers in Adwords ads?
Yes you can.

Do keywords with zero impressions hurt your quality score?
I don’t think that they do. If they don’t have impressions they’re kind of quality neutral because they haven’t been real world tested yet. The quality score listed beside these zero impression words is a guess based on the historical performance of your account and other relevancy factors. If you have a lot of zero impression keywords take some time to figure out why. Is there no traffic? Are you not bidding enough? Is a higher bid word in your own account getting matched to it faster? Is your geo-targeting too tight? There could be a lot of reasons.

Do you granularize your keywords?
YES!!! If you want a well run Adwords campaign you HAVE to granularize your words. This is targeted advertising, don’t waste the opportunity to actually aim!

Does Google budget optimizer work?
Don’t do it! I’m sure it works for somebody, but personally I think it’s nothing but trouble. Adwords already has a built in ignorance tax, the budget optimizer multiplies your mistakes.

Should I leave poor quality keywords paused or delete them?
It depends. Just because a keyword is listed as poor it doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with it. Google’s quality score can be inconsistent and you just have to roll with it. If you assess your ad group and the keyword fits the ad and the landing page let it ride. If your keyword doesn’t match the rest of the group think about deleting it from that ad group and putting it in a new one. A more targeted approach could help you improve your quality score problem.

How to fix Google slap?
Ultimately what you need to do is a keyword autopsy. Some Google slaps are random but a lot of the time you deserved it. When dealing with a Google slap you can either pay up, restructure or quit. If you’ve built a solid and relevant campaign you might have to just pay up because Google decided to hold your keywords for ransom. If you have a bucket campaign break down your keywords into more targeted groups and see if you have better luck that way. If your keyword was truly irrelevant and a waste of money anyways, delete it. Sometimes when I have some words slapped that I don’t think should have been I let them sit for a while. Occasionally a word will have its minimum bid bumped up for a few days or a couple of weeks and then come back down to earth. You can read more about Google slaps here.

How do you get Google Adwords and Yahoo Ambassador Certification?
To become an Adwords certified professional you have to be in good standing with Adwords, manage at least 1 account in a client center for at least 90 days, spend at least $1000 every 90 days in your client center, and you have to pass the Google Advertising Professional Exam.

To become an Adwords Qualified Company you need to have at least 2 qualified individuals and spend at least $100,000 (US threshold, it varies by country) every 90 days.

To become a Yahoo Search Ambassador you basically need to use Yahoo Search Marketing and you need to pass the Yahoo Search Marketing Ambassador test. Unfortunately this program is being closed. Existing Ambassadors get to keep their certification but the program is closed to new applicants.

(Systems & Marketing Solutions is both an Adwords Certified Company and Yahoo Search Ambassador.)

If you have questions for us you can send them in to rob@gettorchlight.com and we’ll try and answer some on the blog on a regular basis.