Google’s Conversion Tracking is a really great tool to track the success of your AdWords campaigns. With almost no effort (you only need to implement a java script tracking code into your website) you get the conversion rate and CPA for each campaign, ad group, ad and even every single keyword. And it’s free.
There’s no easier way to see whether a keyword leads to conversions. Using your own tracking can get quite complex when buying tens of thousands of keywords.

However there are things you need to know before trusting Google CT without double checking. Just yesterday I read an article at MindValleyLabs warning that, based on their experience, Google would track about 20-30% less sales than their more rigorous internal tracking systems. That’s about the same figure we’ve experienced at Spreadshirt when first using Google CT. I think the reason for that difference is simple though. Let’s have a look at the AdWords Help Center:

In addition, remember that Google AdWords conversion tracking only reports conversions that occur within 30 days of an ad click. If a customer converts after the 30 days have passed, we don’t report that conversion. When viewing conversions for a specified time period, note that conversions are assigned to the date on which the ad click occurs, not the date on which the conversion occurs.

I’m pretty sure this explains most of the difference between Google’s tracking and internal tracking at Spreadshirt as we do not assign orders back to the date of the click.
Therefore, when you’re looking at the stats of a period that lies a few days (better: weeks) back the difference will melt down to only a few percent.
So please don’t jump to overhasty conclusions based on yesterday’s stats. Give it a while and look back later in order to get valid results.

Recently I stumpled upon an old copyblogger entry that seems quite interesting to me. It shows you how to get backlinks to your blog by optimizing the title of your posts. This will not only attract more readers but might also make it more likely that other bloggers link back to that post with a catching title.
Actually it’s quite simple stuff that is suggested but still I think that many bloggers are not aware of it when updating their blogs (me included). Therefore, here you go: ten headlines that should capture people’s attention.

1. Who Else Wants [blank]?
2. The Secret of [blank]
3. Here is a Method That is Helping [blank] to [blank]
4. Little Known Ways to [blank]
5. Get Rid of [problem] Once and For All
6. Here’s a Quick Way to [solve a problem]
7. Now You Can Have [something desirable] [great circumstance]
8. [Do something] like [world-class example]
9. Have a [or] Build a [blank] You Can Be Proud Of
10. What Everybody Ought to Know About [blank]

Of course that’s not a complete list of what works but I think it’s worth keeping them in mind. Might even help to write a focused article.

This blog was totally ready for a new template - at least for one that’s not called default. Fortunately I was able to find a nice one and to adjust it to my individual needs in almost no time. Think it looks more professional and might suggest that I’m serious about what I’m doing and writing. Hope you like it.

When Google released version 2.5 of their tool AdWords Editor last December I felt tempted to play around with it a little. Furthermore just shortly after I had installed the program Google offered me to take part in a Webinar. I did take part and I did learn that it really is quite useful eventually.
It took about one hour to show the participants most of the latest features but it was well worth the time.

What is AdWords Editor?

I let Google speak:

AdWords Editor is a free, downloadable application for managing your AdWords account. AdWords Editor offers a wide array of features, but the basic process is simple: download your account, make your changes offline, then upload your revised campaigns when the changes are finalized.

So why using an offline tool when we’re on line constantly?

Because it can do so much more than the online interface and it’s quite comfortable to make some changes and still being able to reverse everything if neccessary before uploading it to our active account.

To me the major advantages are:

- You don’t need to wait for a ’several thousands keywords campaign’ to load everytime you want to access it. Everything works much faster.
- You can switch between several accounts in no time (especially useful when not using the Client Center)
- You can copy existing ad groups, text ads and keywords in 1-2 seconds (depends on how fast your fingers can move from CTRL+C to CTRL+V). This comes in really handy for us as we’re running A/B tests quite often which requires heavy ad group copying.
- There’s no need for bulk sheets anymore. You can copy loads of keywords into an ad group in very little time.
- It’s really easy to make little adjustments such as deciding whether you wanna go for exact match, broad match or phrase
- It let’s you know when you’re about to use a keyword more than once
- You can download and save your campaigns and import them on another computer
- I can still use the online interface when I like to and just download the latest changes to the Editor tool in a second

I think the only problem would be that when you work on a campaign on line and forget to download these changes to the Editor tool but upload changes that you’ve made on the Editor. In this case your on line changes will be overwritten. That’s what just might happen when you’re working on two different interfaces. That’s why the first thing I do when working with the Editor is downloading the latest status of the account. Be careful with that.
There are a few more rather small disadvantaged like using the stats. You can’t choose a date range other than yesterday, last 7 days and last 30 days which is pretty useless. However word is that this will be improved with the next update.

So far I can only recommend it as it really saves a lot of time. I appreciate that Google seeks to improve their advertiser’s usage experiences.

Norway’s most famous Online Marketing expert Karl Philip Lund published an article about brand mark bidding today. He basically approves of:

- Merchants buying their own brand even though they’re on number one in natural search results
- Merchants buying their competitors brand keywords
- Merchants letting affiliates buy their brand keywords
- Merchants allowing others to bid on their brand

I actually would recommend only the first of these suggestions. Merchants should bid on their own brand. Even if it doesn’t help anything it doesn’t hurt either. When prepared properly merchants will pay as less as 1 cent per click for their own keyword. Furthermore it could even provide advantages such as the choice to send your prospects directly whereever you like. In most cases people who search for your brand will expect to get to the start page first though. You should have a good reason to send them somehwere else.

As for letting others bid on a merchants brand: basically I wouldn’t even let my affiliates bid on my brand. Why would I do that? I’m fine when my ad is shown. What would I need another one for?
I can only think of one reason to make an exception: merchants might want to let their top affiliates use their brand. This way they could help to make the affiliate’s campaign more profitable. In return affiliates will promote the merchant more heavily with more competitve keywords.

I don’t see any single reason why merchants should allow anyone else bidding on their brand.

Last but not least: I also wouldn’t recommend to bid on a competitors brand. Not only that it’s unfair and might have a negative impact on the merchants reputation but I think there’s always a legal risk when doing so. Therefore I’d suggest to refrain from buying your competitors keywords.

Merchants should ask Google to ban everyone else from bidding on the merchants brand keywords. That’s quite an easy process. You just need to fill out a little form provided by Google and send it to them. After a few weeks it won’t be even possible for other advertisers to trigger their ad with the brand keyword. (This might work a little different with other search engines.)

Karl Philip’s conclusion is based on his own as well as Seth Godin’s thoughts:

- By buying their own brand keywords merchants have the possibility to control which offers the prospect is about to see first
- If merchants don’t buy their brand keyword others will take that number 1 spot
- Since a merchants ad fits best to the keyword it will become cheaper soon whereas competitors need to pay more for the merchants brand than the merchant does
- Merchants can lead customers directly to special offers

I agree with the first argument (see my thoughts above). However the other thoughts don’t quite convince me. No one will take your spot when you tell Google to forbid bidding on the keyword in the first place.
Also, there’s no question about who pays more or who pays less for a keyword. You, the merchant, are the only one who pays anything at all. The argument might apply for other search engines though.
Certainly you can lead a prospect directly to a special offer. However why don’t you just make it visible on your start page? I’m sure merchants want everyone to see that very special offer anyway, don’t they?

What do you think?