But if we stop getting caught up in the buzz of these new AdWords features for just a moment, you might ask yourself the question -  How exactly are these extensions going to benefit my AdWords campaigns?

Utilising ad extensions opens a whole new world for your ads by extending the ad format and helping to make your advertising stand out from your competition. Additions such as Sitelinks and Location Extensions mean that AdWords ads are beginning to look more like the natural organic search results, which is great for us PPC marketers!

However, there are many other advantages and benefits your campaigns could gain through utilising ad extensions.

This article will explore and analyse  each of the current available ad extensions and, furthermore, will highlight exactly how you can maximise their performance and better your SEM results.

Sitelinks

Sitelinks are additional links that can appear below your AdWords ad in instances where Google deems your ad to be of ‘high enough quality’. Usually only showing 3 to 4 extra links, you can add up to 10 links in AdWords. The advantage of these extensions is more options for the user. Rather than your ad having one focus, you can now add sitelinks which directs users straight to a special offer page, a specific product page or a contact us page on your website. And how does this help the performance of your campaigns? Firstly, sitelinks are often known to increase the Click-Through-Rate which can help the overall quality of your campaigns. But more so, sitelinks can offer more high quality clicks because potential customers are choosing where they want to go once they click on your ad, and having done this, are less likely to bounce straight off the page.

Location Extensions

Location Extensions add location specific information as a 5^th line to your ad. These can include your full business address, and even a drop down function that opens to a Google map. The obvious impact that this extension has on your campaigns is that it makes it much easier for potential customers to find your business! Location Extensions may also save a wasted click from someone who has clicked on your ad, only to realise they are not close enough to your business, or are not willing to travel to where your business is located. For example, utilising location extensions is a great one for car dealerships and other similar businesses where the aim is to get customers through the door.

Product Extensions

Product Extensions are yet to be released in Australia, but when they do the possibilities will amaze you! This extension allows you to showcase your products before a user has even clicked on your ad. When your AdWords text appears on the Search Network, it will display the product that is most relevant to the user’s query as well as displaying the product’s price. At no extra CPC charge, Product Extensions can also link to a more relevant landing page on your website. For example, the checkout cart for the product on display. Product Extensions allow you to enrich your AdWords Campaigns and can present more relevant and specific information to the user, thus heightening the chance of creating a conversion, increasing the click through rate or realising another goal.

Click-to-Call Phone Extensions

Click-to-Call Phone Extensions make it even easier for potential customers to call your business. Mainly used for a mobile targeted campaign, the Phone Extensions appear as a 5^th line to your ad allowing users to click directly on your phone number, and automatically call your business straight from your Google ad!

This extension can potentially increase your conversion rates by making it quick and easy for potential customers to ring your business. And with AdWords, you can even schedule your ads to only run when your business is open! Therefore, your ads will only show when your business is operating, and you can avoid disappointed customers calling an unanswered phone.

Seller Rating Extensions

Although not out in Australia yet, you can see Seller Rating Extensions appear on Google.com and Google.co.uk which include a star rating beneath your ad. The rating is a combination of ‘user-submitted’ ratings and reviews about a particular business. However, once a user clicks on the rating, they are directed to a new page which outlines the reviews, therefore distracting potential customers further away from your website.

On the other hand, this rating extension may be good for a potential customer who wants to choose the highest rated business or product with the most reviews. But, this may become a disadvantage to your ad by giving potential customers evidenced based pre-judgement to not visit your site. It’s a well known fact that one unhappy customer will tell as many people as they can about a bad experience, where as happy customers aren’t always that inclined to tell the world. So how then, are these user reviews actually providing applicable information for potential customers clicking (or not clicking) on your ads? I’ll leave this thought with you.

If there is one thing we know at Reload Media for sure about Google, it’s that change is inevitable and new AdWords ad extensions and features are going to keep coming. So, Google will continue to provide the power for your AdWords campaign potential – you’ve just got to plug in the extension!

Images Taken From: http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=188235

And: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_X6aeJvBBv4o/TCj-kUVrrKI/AAAAAAAAAH8/rvSIfABVF58/s1600/laser+printers+-+Google+Search.jpg

Google have updated their AdWords blog to announce the change of display url appearance. From now on, your primary domain will be in lowercase but your tail at the end can still be capitalised. See some examples below:

Time to put those w’s back in!

To read Google’s official statement, click here.

[Previous Post - December 17th 2010]

About two weeks ago I noticed on my computer that all AdWords display urls on the Google search results pages were showing up in lowercase.

I did a quick whip around the office to check to see if anyone else was seeing what I was seeing but to no avail.

However, I am now convinced that Google were testing a new ad format on a limited sample of users.

My ads have gone back to normal for now but another blogger identified the same phenomenon last week.

Why do I believe this was a deliberate test by Google:

1. For some reason, my PC has been included in other Google trial runs in the past. This included access to Google Instant prior to launch and the appearance of the new purple AdWords background colour a week or two before the full roll out.

2. It makes sense for Google to try & make their sponsored links look as similar to their organic search results as possible in order to blur the lines between paid and organic results. This would help to increase the CTRs of the top three paid ads and, therefore, increase revenue for Google.

3. We have seen other efforts on Google’s behalf to try and get advertisers to aim for the top 3 ad positions in recent times. The most significant change has been the new places map overlay which now covers up ads on the side of the screen when a user scrolls down the page:

Conclusions

Google don’t appear to have announced anything yet so they may have just been doing a limited test to see what would happen in terms of click through rates. However, if there were to be widespread changes to display urls in the future, many advertisers would need to:

• Rethink display URL capitalisation tactics (e.g ReloadMedia.com.au vs reloadmedia.com.au)
• Perform new www vs non www split testing. Currently, in most split tests, non www ads perform better than www ads. However, this is likely due to the extra capitalisation that is allowed in AdWords display urls (e.g. ReloadMedia.com.au ads will generally have a higher click through rate than www.ReloadMedia.com.au or www.reloadmedia.com.au ads).
• Amend every ad in every campaign in order to harness the results of aforementioned split testing.

As mentioned, this may have just been a case of Google experimenting with AdWords results to see what would happen. Only time will tell if this new Ad format will be rolled out and how they will affect current AdWords campaigns. However, considering the rapid rate that Google have been making changes to their search results pages lately, I would keep a close eye on this one!

If you’ve seen these lowercase urls in YOUR search results or would just like to discuss the implications further, feel free to comment below.

Apologies for the acronym soup I’ve served up today. Before we indulge in the main course, here’s the menu in brief:

IMC

IMC stands for Integrated Marketing Communication. According to Wikipedia, IMC is a “holistic approach to marketing” that “aims to ensure consistency of message and the complementary use of media” (IMC, Wikipedia, 2010).

SEM

SEM is short for Search Engine Marketing. In many cases, search marketing includes a wide variety of disciplines but for the sake of this article, when we refer to SEM we will be referring to pay-per-click search advertising. This includes sponsored advertising on the Google, Yahoo and Bing search and display networks.

SEO

If you are an avid reader of this blog, you will likely already have some idea of what SEO is. SEO is short for Search Engine Optimisation (or, for the Americans reading this, Search Engine Optimization!). This involves the process of optimising your website in a bid to improve your search engine rankings on the keywords that are most valuable to you. SEO is achieved through a multitude of visible website changes (on-page SEO) and non-website (off-page SEO) strategies.

SMM

A relatively new acronym in the online marketing field, SMM simply stands for Social Media Marketing. This involves harnessing the communication and viral power of social media platforms in order to achieve a particular marketing objective.

The Main Course

Ok. Now that we know the dishes, it’s now time for the special – a combination of the four!

Consistency. This the main ingredient in a quality IMC campaign. IMC involves creating a consistent tone, character, appearance, personality and message across your entire marketing mix. IMC has been widely accepted as the most effective way to cut through media clutter and deliver a single minded brand proposition to your target market.

You have probably already experienced a quality Integrated Marketing Campaign without realising it. Consider Optus. The way Optus have developed their IMC campaign is through the use of a consistent brand theme throughout all of their visible customer touch points. This theme of course, revolves around the brand colours yellow and turquoise and the use of wild animals in all of their marketing discourse (open a new browser/tab and check out their website now – you’ll see what I mean).

So how can SEM, SEO and SMM be integrated into an IMC campaign? Here are a few tips:

SEM

• Ensure that you develop your PPC advertising campaigns to include keywords that are utlised in your offline marketing efforts (for example brand slogans, tvc messages, etc)
• If your brand has a recognisable and distinctive brand personality, try to incorporate this personality into the writing of your ads.
• If you have a special offer or promotion running offline, replicate and reinforce this offer though your ad copy in the search engines.
• Let users know they have landed in the right place by integrating your landing page/website design with offline marketing themes.

SEO

• Like with SEM, make sure you have optimised your website for keywords and phrases that a potential customer might type in after ingesting your offline marketing material.
• Increase your search engine real estate by dominating the most valuable keyword groups relating to your industry. This will increase your branding and will allow you to reinforce your integrated marketing message every time a user searches for a relevant term in your industry.
• Make sure that, in making on-page SEO changes to your website, that you are able to create a balance between SEO and readability so as to maintain a clear and consistent marketing message.

SMM

• If you have an actual brand character, consider integrating this character across all of your social media channels. Brand characters are very powerful marketing tools and work well to create instant brand recognition and connection.
• Once again, if you have offline promotions running, you can boost the profile of this promotion through a creative social media marketing strategy.
• If you have decided on the brand tone and personality you would like to convey to your audience (are you young with attitude or conservative and corporate?), make sure to convey this personality in your social media interactions. A great example of a brand with a consistent brand personality and theme is Virgin (cheeky, red and white, casual, innovative, slightly (and ironically) anti-corporate)).

Mmm delicious…

I hope you’ve enjoyed this quick taste test on some ways you can incorporate SEO, SEM and SMM into your integrated marketing campaigns.

Please feel free to add a comment below if you:

• Did or didn’t agree on any of the points,
• Know of another good IMC example?
• Or simply have a question about this post!

The internet is a big place, so making sure your online advertising dollars effectively reach your target market is one of the biggest challenges for managers.

When it comes to most marketing activities, whether it be a newspaper advertisement, television commercial or internet campaign, managers are always striving to choose marketing mediums that attract the most number of potential customers for their dollar.

This is where search engine marketing has a huge benefit over its more traditional rivals. SEM can obviously be targeted to the exact keywords you want, which gives you a great level of control over who your advertisements reach. By targeting the phrase “neon lighting brisbane” you can be fairly well assured that your ads are going to be displayed to those who want to buy neon lights in Brisbane.

However, not everyone includes the location when searching, meaning that someone from Perth can search “neon lighting” and click on your ad, costing you money without ever really having any intention of purchasing from you.

One way to get around this dilemma is to use what’s called ‘location targeting.’ Location targeting in programs such as Google AdWords allows your business to specify to what geographic regions you want your ad displayed.

For instance, you might want to target the whole of Australia, so you select that option. Alternatively, you can narrow down your region even further to a particular state or city.

An even better option however, is to use an ad radius, which allows you to set a certain size ring in which you want your ad displayed. For instance, you might set up your campaign so that your ads are displayed within a 50km radius of the Brisbane CBD, and only users within that radius will see your ad.

Obviously this is an extremely useful tool as it enables businesses to really target their potential local customers. One word of warning though, this is not foolproof system, as current ISP setups in Australia mean some users will not see your ads when they should.

SEM Tip #1

When it comes to managing a search engine marketing (SEM) campaign online in Google AdWords or one of the other search marketing programs, too many businesses get carried away with click-through-rates (CTR).

But before I get into why click-through rates (CTR) are overrated, let’s just clarify what a CTR is. A Click-Through-Rate, or CTR, is a measure of the percentage of people who click on your ad after viewing it.

Typical CTR’s are often well below 1% for most online campaigns, but what is it about them that as soon as they reach 2-3% everyone starts giving each other high-fives even when sales are not affected? So let’s go through the pros and cons of CTRs.

Firstly, CTR’s can be used as a guide to how effective your ad text is. Quite often, the more appealing your ad text is, the higher your CTR will be. But what if you’re in a very specific industry, say ‘neon lighting Brisbane.’ As part of your campaign it would be perfectly normal to include broader keywords such a ‘Brisbane lighting’ in the hope that people who search for lighting in Brisbane will be then interested in neon lighting. However, this is where your CTR can be misleading.

For instance, say my headline for the ad is ‘Brisbane Lighting’ – A large majority of users who have searched “Brisbane lighting” might think this is a relevant ad, so I get a higher CTR. The problem is that they click on the ad, bumping up my CTR and costing me money, only to find when they get to the site that I only sell neon lights. This is a waste…but my CTR looks good right?

On the other side of the coin, if my headline for the ad is ‘Brisbane Neon Lighting,’ all those users who have searched for “Brisbane lighting” will see my ad but only those who are interested in neon lighting will click on it. This means that I get a lower CTR but in this case that’s actually a good thing as I get better quality traffic.

Now, it is well publicised that Google, when ranking ads, don’t just take into account how much you bid, but also your quality score. One of the things that makes up the quality score is your CTR. However, your quality score is unique to each separate keyword, so having a low CTR on a broad term such as ‘Brisbane lighting’ does not affect your quality score on your more targeted keywords such as ‘Brisbane neon lighting,’ so there’s no real advantage to CTR there.

The other downside of having a high CTR is that you use up your advertising budget very quickly. A low CTR has the added advantage of giving you great exposure, as you get more impressions on your ads before your budget is used up. This helps immensely with brand recognition.

So at the end of all this you may be wondering if I can’t trust CTR, what can I trust? Some people put their faith in conversion rates, but this again has many of the same pitfalls. The best statistic to track is cost-per-conversion, which details how much it costs per sale or lead. This is done by the insertion of a snippet of HTML code on your ‘Thankyou for Purchasing’ (or likewise) page. A professional SEM management company can set your business up a conversion tracking AdWords account and manage it throughout the course of a campaign, continually adjusting all facets of the campaign for best performance.

I guess the key thing to take from this today is that when it comes to your online marketing campaigns, don’t worry too much about the percentages; but look at the dollar amounts that it is costing your business per sale to advertise online.