Wrapping Up The Google Adwords PPC Seminar in Boston

Joe and I were lucky enough to attend the Google Adwords Seminar in Boston last week, lead by industry expert Brad Geddes. The seminar, an all-day event held in locations across North America, incorporated detailed overviews, tutorials and tips for using all facets of the Google Adwords interface. Here are a few ideas and concepts to consider when managing your Google Adwords PPC campaign:

• Consider the types of searches that a user will query when looking to address a problem in search. For example:
  • Are they searching for industry specific information, company names or band names? (“Boston Plumbing Company”)
  • Are there specific problems that need to be addressed? (“broken water pipe”)
  • Are there specific actions or events that would trigger a search? (“flooded basement”)
• If you are using broad, phrase and exact match types for specific keyword triggers, make certain to adjust your bids appropriately so that the most appropriate messages appear in correlation with the “exactness” of the search.
  • Bid “exact match” the highest, so that the most targeted message appears when users type the exact keyword search.
  • Bid “phrase match” second, so that there is the appropriate keyword visibility for the variations of user searches available, but still constrained to a relative scope of reference (specifically, the order of words in a phrase).
  • Bid “broad match” the lowest, because user intent is the least understood in relation to keyword visibility for this type of ad placement.
  • Make certain to take advantage of the use of “negative keywords” which will prevent your ad from being seen for unwanted or inappropriate search results.
• Quality Scores variables for Google’s search network include: Click Thru Rate (CTR), Ad Copy, Landing Page, Account History, “Additional Variables” (this may include detail such as regional/local relevance, specific product/functionality etc).

  According to Google: “The AdWords system uses your Quality Score to define several important factors for your keywords when you first create your ads. These factors define how much you’ll pay for clicks, whether your ad is eligible to compete in the ad auction, and your ad’s rank in the auction (if eligible to compete)“

I am definitely not an expert when it comes to the Google Adwords Platform or to managing a client’s PPC campaigns (although Joe and Andy definitely are), so I found the depth of information covered immensely valuable, even with some high level experience in working with the system. More importantly, Brad was more than willing to pause the presentation material in order to field questions during day and stayed a decent amount of time afterwards to discuss specific topics and issues related to Google Adwords.

It appears that there are only a few seminars currently being offered, but I would highly recommend anyone running Google Adwords campaigns for their business to attend a seminar if the opportunity arises in the future. Here’s a link to the agenda for the Intermediate/Advanced Seminar that I attended, so you have some idea of what is presented.

One Item of Note: The seminar seemed to be much more geared towards a B2C environment, but there was more than enough opportunity to incorporate B2B discussions related to Google PPC strategies during the day.