If you’re spending on AdWords (or other online ads) then you’re probably paying close attention to conversion rates. Doing so is understandable but flawed. And it may be hurting you and also Google. At risk of oversimplifying how conversion tracking works, a person clicks on your ad, a cookie is placed in their browser, and when they buy your product, this registers as a conversion. Voilà. … Read More
Conversion tracking in Google AdWords – a better way
AdWords conversion tracking is dead. No, Google haven’t removed it from AdWords, nor are they phasing it out. Yet. But if you’re using conversion tracking as your sole gauge of success, you’re doing it wrong! Why? Because AdWords conversion tracking is a highly inaccurate indicator; but not a reliable metric. The entire system is based on a cookie, and that cookie might not … Read More
AdWords conversion tracking is broken. Here’s why.
Most AdWords accounts use some form of conversion tracking as a metric of success, yet this model is flawed to the point of being meaningless. I’m not going to go into the specifics of why there may be a disconnect between the ad click and the conversion here, but if you want details read Tracking your AdWords return on investment. … Read More
What everybody needs to know about tracking
The era of being able to accurately track your online marketing efforts is over. Or more accurately: the era of thinking you could accurately track your online marketing is over. Only a few years ago, we thought we could track almost every single keyword that was used to find our websites. The reality was that we could track the keywords … Read More
How do I know if my AdWords account is working?
When it comes to AdWords, what works for some may not work for others. One account’s goals may be different from another. I might want to show my ads to a large number of people, while you might only want to show your ads to those who are at a specific point in the purchase process. We each have different … Read More
Why shouldn’t you choose a local firm? Because you’re worth it.
As a service provider, who would you think is our biggest competitor? It’s not another SEO agency, and it’s not an AdWords agency. It’s the firm based near where you work, who can walk, drive or commute to where your business is run. This is ludicrous. Historically it made a great deal of sense. Our parents and grandparents did business … Read More
The AdWords vs. SEO debate is over
I think it’s time to stop chewing over the SEO vs. AdWords debate. Here’s why. Google have long argued an absolute separation of their organic and paid search results, at least from the point of view of the factors and variables involved. Yet the two sets of results have, over the years, moved closer to each other, both in terms … Read More
What can you do when Google are wrong?
We just discovered a bug in Google Analytics. In itself that’s worrying enough, but Google appear quite adamant that this isn’t an issue. I strongly disagree. Here’s what happened. While recently reviewing organic search traffic in Google Analytics, we noticed that some of what Google was identifying as organic was actually coming from AdWords. When we looked further, Analytics identified … Read More
Don’t Be Evil – really?
I don’t believe for one moment that Google are evil; it’s a baseless idea that most intelligent people reject as sensationalist. The embodiment of good, however, has to be more than just the absence of wickedness. And a motto of simply not being evil does little to reassure me of a company’s intentions. Imagine, for example, a person described as “not … Read More
Target the right people in Google Ads wherever they are around the world
When setting up a Google Ads campaign, one of the central decisions you’ll need to make is who to target and how you actually target them. Google do provide a fair amount of control, however if you use the wrong settings, you’ll end up showing your ads to people who weren’t interested in the first place. Take the following into … Read More