ePages-Blog » Google & Other Search Engines

Conversion Rate for Google AdWords: Keep Track of Your Advertising Costs

Volker Schwarz — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:59:51 +0000

“Half of the money spent on advertising is wasted. But nobody knows which half that is.” This quip attributed to Henry Ford does not apply, however, to the online age. By measuring the conversion rate of Google AdWords advertisements, you can determine just how many of the customers attracted to your shop by an ad then proceeded to make purchases. The ePages Blog will show you what to do so that you can distinguish between successful ad campaigns and unsuccessful ones.

Your AdWords account’s back office—which allows you to create and manage ad campaigns—provides a range of statistical functions to help you evaluate the effectiveness of your campaigns. The dashboard displays an overview of all online campaigns.

Data can be displayed concerning not only individual campaigns but also any given keyword.

For a detailed overview of terms used in the table and their definitions, please visit: https://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=20846

Activation of Conversion Tracking

What steps are required to activate tracking regarding your AdWords advertisements and to incorporate your ePages online shop?
In the back office of Google AdWords, choose the “Conversions” section. You will find it under the “Reporting” tab. (Note: You can select this section only if you have activated AdWords advertisements.)

On the page which subsequently appears, click on "New conversion".

You must now name the new report and select a “Tracking purpose”. Since we want to determine how many of our advertising customers also bought something in our shop, we will specify "Buying/Selling" as the intended purpose.

After you have created the new report, click on the “Code” tab. Google AdWords will then display a snippet of code, which you must then integrate into your shop on the shopping basket’s confirmation page.

Your code snippet will essentially look like this:

Inserting the tracking code in ePages

Copy the complete conversion-tracking code onto the clipboard; then, insert it in your ePages shop’s confirmation page for purchases made. To do so, access your shop’s back office to select the “Settings/Basket settings” menu item.

You will see input fields on the “Texts” tab for shopping-basket texts, which you can use to notify your customers regarding their purchases. Simply insert the snippet of code underneath the standard text for the confirmation page.

Please note: Do not use the WYSIWYG editor (which you can access by clicking on “Edit text”). Instead, insert the code directly into the text-entry field.

Simply save to finish. Effective immediately, Google will be notified (via confirmation page) every time a purchase is made by a customer attracted to your shop by an ad. Statistics will be updated accordingly in the AdWords back office. If you would like to be sure that everything is functioning properly, you can perform a test run. Please keep in mind, however, that doing so will result in fees which you must pay to Google.

New Terms of Use for Google Base: Verifying Your ePages Shop by 18 May 2010

Volker Schwarz — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:41:31 +0000

The terms of use have changed for Google Base, the popular product-search technology offered by California’s search-engine provider. Merchants must therefore verify and claim their website URLs without delay. If merchants fail to do so, they will no longer be able to export products to Google Base. Merchants who already have a Google Base link must verify their online shop by 18 May 2010. Continue reading this ePages blog to find out how to do this.

In order to claim your ePages online shop at Google Base, you must first prove that you are the legitimate owner. Visit Google Webmaster Tools to accomplish this. Log in there by using the same data which you use to access your Google Merchant Center—the portal for Google Base merchants. After you log in, click on the Add a site button in Google Webmaster Tools.

Enter your online shop‘s URL (e.g. http://www.myepagesstore.com). Make sure that you follow these rules:

The URL must start with either http:// or https://
No IP addresses are allowed, e.g. http://10.127.127.127
No ports are allowed, e.g. http://www.myepagesstore.com:8080
No fragments are allowed, e.g. http://www.myepagesstore.com # top

In your ePages shop‘s back office, you must enter a code snippet generated by Google to confirm that you do indeed own your online shop. First click on Verify this site within Google Webmaster Tools.

You will then see a code snippet similar to this:

Mark the snippet and right-click it to “copy” the snippet onto your clipboard. Now open a new browser window and access the administration page of your ePages online shop. In the Settings menu, select General settings. Click on the Status tab to access the Advanced settings submenu.

You can make entries in the large text-entry field within the area—which stores your online shop’s HTML programming code and renders it “invisible” to visitors.

It is here that you now must enter the code snippet provided by Google Webmaster Tools. Ensure that you transfer the entire code without entering any characters incorrectly. Then click on Save. Use the cache function in the back office of your ePages shop; don’t neglect to update it!

Now return to Google Webmaster Tools and click on Verify. Google will now seek out your website to check whether the suitable snippet is in your online shop’s programming code. If this is the case, then you have demonstrated beyond a doubt that you are the shop’s legitimate owner; last but not least, you can continue posting products from your online shop’s back office to Google Base.

Remarks from ePages

The approach described above is a current work-around to comply with Google Base’s modified requirements. In conjunction with updating your ePages shop to Version 6.09.4, we will add to the Google Base settings in your shop’s back office a function for verifying conveniently. When we release Patch 6.09.4, we will correspondingly expand this tutorial.

Advertise with YouTube – Become a Seller Once Again

Volker Schwarz — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:37:39 +0000

People have loved moving images since the advent of motion pictures. Thanks to DSL and other broadband connections, videos have become an integral part of the Internet. Unleash the multimedia potential of your ePages software by incorporating product videos into your shop. Our YouTube gadget makes it easier than ever before to tap the multimedia power of your shop. The ePages blog will help you get started.

Filming your own product videos provides an ideal opportunity to distinguish your online shop from the competition. Show your customers that you believe in your products. Explaining and selling simultaneously: your product videos set the stage for you to establish a personal rapport with your customers. In other words:

Rediscover the seller within you

Thanks to the affordability of digital video cameras, you don’t need much equipment to create appealing videos. Far more important than any piece of technology is your knack for selling. Stop playing the role of merchant and be a seller to boost your sales.

Let’s take a look at an especially successful example. At the online shop operated by the Schmidt store, selling musical instruments and accessories in Frankfurt, salespeople regularly feature the latest musical instruments. Corresponding videos are regularly integrated into the online shop, on a given product’s information page. At the following link, Olaf Brauns (the store’s manager), presents a digital piano made by Casio: http://www.musik-schmidt.de/Casio-CDP-200-R.html Customers searching for this product realise, upon watching such a video, that they’re in good hands.

Outwit your competitors

Making your own product videos helps you not only to directly promote sales. At least of equal importance: doing so enhances online publicity for your shop. The first benefit for you? Your product videos represent you on YouTube, the Internet’s Number One video portal. Use it to advertise your shop and your services. You can prevent nasty theft of your content by simply including a link to your shop in your videos.

The second advantage, which is not to be underrated? Google loves content within its own YouTube service. Search results concerning Google’s in-house video service enjoy preferential ranking. Let us return to the aforementioned example — this time from the perspective of search engine optimisation. A search for the digital Casio piano mentioned above results in over 21,000 Google results. The video and the corresponding shop appear prominently in the Top Five, accompanied by a preview image and a star-based rating so beloved among users.

Where do you think customers wishing to learn more about this instrument will click?

As you can see, it’s worth it to post your own product videos on YouTube and link them to your shop. But how can this be done with your ePages software?

Become a video producer

You must first film a video. It’s up to you how much you want to invest in it. Keep in mind that you should incorporate your shop’s URL into the video while editing it. As soon as you are satisfied with the results, upload your video to YouTube

The link for uploading is in the upper right corner of YouTube’s homepage. If you do not yet have a YouTube account, you must first register — free of charge.

Be sure to enter an information text appropriate for the product while you’re uploading your video. Don’t overlook the fact that such a text constitutes exclusive SEO advertising space for your shop.

As soon as your video uploads successfully and has been converted, you can view it in the video portal. To link it to your ePages shop, you simply need to copy your video’s URL from the browser’s window.

Now access the administration page of your ePages shop. Select the Content/Categories menu item, then Preview.

You will see an overview on the left of your online shop’s various pages organised by categories. From the corresponding categories, click on the product you want to associate the video with.

The main window will then show you an editor preview of the corresponding product presentation. You can modify the descriptive text by clicking on it. Place the text cursor wherever you wish to insert your video.

A blue symbol for Insert gadget is in the editor’s upper menu line. Click on it.

You must now decide which type of gadget you would like to insert here. Select Video and then YouTube.

You’re almost done! Simply enter your video’s URL into the Link window. Choose a large or small video format, and confirm everything via Add. You have thus incorporated your product video at the position you specified previously.

Don’t worry that your MBO’s Preview mode is not yet properly displaying the video. You will simply see a placeholder here for performance-related reasons.

To finish working on the product in question, you need only to click on the diskette symbol in the editor’s upper menu line in order to save your changes.

If you activated your online shop’s page cache so that you can work more efficiently in the MBO, then you must first refresh it to place your product video online.

Search Engine Optimization: Content is King!

Volker Schwarz — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:39:09 +0000

The easiest way is not always the best way. If you want to sell well online, you must learn how to draw attention to your website and persuade people to buy from you. The ePages Blog will tell you why self-created content helps to boost your sales figures.

A typical scenario: after considerable consideration, you’ve decided to open an online shop. You have also invested a lot of time researching available technology and have concluded that a flexible, customisable and inexpensive ePages rental shop will be ideal. An excellent choice! You learn how best to use the software, create a wonderful layout and begin entering products.

After you’ve already invested hours in your future online business, you want to save time by resorting to the standard texts which the manufacturer supplied together with product images. Stop! Step back and reflect — instead of making one of the biggest mistakes possible in this situation.

Why, you ask? Spend a few minutes researching online to determine just how many of your online competitors use the manufacturer’s product texts. You will be astonished.

To name but one example, let’s select an excerpt from Apple’s product text for its iPod touch and then google the phrase. A search for “Use the revolutionary Multi-Touch interface to flick through your music in Cover Flow” returns over 12.000 results for web pages which all use exactly the same standard text. If you use the identical product description, then you will compete against all those website operators for the attention of search engines and customers.

The pen is mightier than the sword” — in the online era, as well

Google and other search engines value originality and reward it with a higher ranking. The pivotal factor in this regard: search engines tend to recognize who first used a given text online. Such websites benefit from the originality of their texts and receive better evaluations. If you use a manufacturer’s product texts, then it’s extremely likely that somebody else did the same long ago. Google and other engines will barely notice your website — if at all. Conversely, if you compose your very own product text, then you will have the undivided attention of search engines.

Unfortunately, content theft — the unauthorised use of others’ content — is rampant online (despite the fact that it is every bit as prohibited online as it is offline). So, what happens to your ranking if one of your competitors simply copies large amounts of the product texts which you worked so hard to create for your own website? Developers at Google provided an answer some time ago at Google Blog:

“Don’t fret too much about sites that scrape (misappropriate and republish) your content. Though annoying, it’s highly unlikely that such sites can negatively impact your site’s presence in Google. If you do spot a case that’s particularly frustrating, you are welcome to file a DMCA request (http://www.google.com/dmca.html) to claim ownership of the content and have us deal with the rogue site.”

Use words to sell

People finding your website is half the battle; persuading potential customers to purchase from you is the other half. How can original texts help you?

Just imagine you’re at a party. Would you rather talk with the innumerable guests who all have the same things to say and merely contribute to the background noise? Or, instead, with the one person who knows how to tell an interesting story and exudes eloquence, wit and charm? Not a difficult decision, is it?

But the presentation of products in your online shop is no different. If you lazily resort to mass-produced standard texts and standard images, then there is nothing which will distinguish you from your competitors — except price.

But you will gain a decisive sales advantage versus your competition if you can show customers that you have spent time analysing the products you sell, you know their respective advantages and disadvantages, and you can provide informed opinions about your products.

Exploit this opportunity to increase your sales.

Get ready to write

It literally pays off, by all means, to create your own product texts. Yet where and how to begin? We provide some help on getting started in our article: “Writing for the Web: 10 Rules” (http://www.epages.com/en/blog/index.php/2009/01/14/writing-for-the-web-10-rules/ )We also recommend the following books to everyone who wishes to more deeply explore this (admittedly) complex topic:

“Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content That Works”
by Janice Redish
(amazon)

“Writing for the Web”
by Crawford Kilian
(amazon)

First aid with Search Engine Optimization – ask our SEO-Doc

Volker Schwarz — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:36:47 +0000

Make your way to the top of the Google search results- our experts in Search Engine Marketing tell you how. They have put together a special document for you in order to give you first steps advices how to succeed in the wide field that is Search Engine Marketing. Learn in our free SEO-Doc, how to optimise your Onlineshop und present it to the search engines with success.

Use external content to make your website more interesting for your customers as well as for the search engine crawlers. Read where to spread links to your onlineshop the easy way in order to make it more valuable for the search engine rankings. Learn the tools for monitoring your SEO-efforts.

Our free SEO-Doc tells you all that – and even more.

Have fun browsing.

For offline browsing feel free to download the SEO-Doc.

Selling with just a few words – Designing Google search results (part 3/3)

Volker Schwarz — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 12:01:49 +0000

In the last article of our three-part special (part 1, part 2) we’ll take a look at the descriptive text in the Google search results. What options do we have here to have an effect on the display?

The description of your shop in the Google search results

The descriptive text that is output with the search results is just as decisive for a customer click as a short and concise title. Where does the information that Google uses for this come from?

Unfortunately, this question is not easily answered as it was for the title. As a rule, Google uses text from the website, usually the first 25 words of the page. Alternatively, the text can come from the site description of the page. With the site description, we are talking about a so-called "meta tag", an additional piece of information that is invisibly embedded in the area of the source code of your website. (You can find more information about the general structure of a website here)

With your ePages rental shop, you have the ability to check both pieces of information and optimally present your shop to the search engine and to your customers. Again, there are different procedures depending on whether it is a home page, category page or product page.

The description of your home page

Initially, you should enter an introduction text on your home page. Compose it so that it presents your shop in a way that makes sense if it should show up in the Google search results. Keep this space free of anything unnecessary. An introduction text like "Welcome to our website,…" wastes valuable space. Keep in mind that the descriptions that are adopted by Google are also limited in the number of characters. Google generally only shows about 150 characters in the description text.

To enter an introduction text, click on the "Content/Category" menu item and then select "Datasheet view".

Click directly on the "General" tab without first selecting a specific category to get to the settings for the home page.

You can enter the text that the visitor of your website will first see in the large "Long description" field.

If your home page uses graphics and you are not presenting any text to your customers, you should still write a text for the search engine so that it can generate your result from this. You do this in the slightly smaller "Description" field. Everything you write here will only be stored in the of your website and will thus be invisible to your customers.

The description of individual category pages

The site description for individual category pages is slightly easier to change than was the case with the home page. You can change it under the "Content/Category" menu item. Click on the now familiar "Data sheet view" and select the category page that you would like to change. The "Texts" submenu is located on the "General" tab. You can enter a short sentence in the "Description" field. This is simultaneously shown to your customers in your shop as well as being stored as a "description" meta tag in the source text.

The description of individual products

You are basically serving two target groups with the descriptions of the individual products. On the one hand, there are the customers that are searching for a product via search engine. For them, you should use the "Description" text field which stores an invisible entry in the area of the website. The five recommendations mentioned above apply to this entry: Focusing, positioning, buying incentives, setting the tone and product orientation.

Your second target group are the customers who have already reached your shop. What really counts with the product description is that your customers are well informed by it and motivated to make a purchase. Thus, the product description should be comprehensive enough to make an impression. You can use the large "Additional description" text field for this entry. Your customers will be able to read everything you enter here on the website. With the editor, you also have the option of designing this text visually. Important elements should be in bold. This will be registered by both your customers and by the search engines and evaluated accordingly.

In the top menu, select the "Products" entry and then the product whose description you would like to adapt. The "Description" entry is located on the "General" tab. If you click there you will get to the two input fields for the "Description" as well as for the "Long description".
In addition, you can assign your own keywords to every product on this tab which are used by the search engine for categorising.

Selling with just a few words – Designing Google search results (part 2/3)

Volker Schwarz — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 08:56:22 +0000

How do Google search results get their heading?

As discussed in the first part of our special, every Google search result is made up of three elements: Title, description and link. While the origin of the link may be clear, this is not clear at first glance with the title and description. Where does the information come from?
The blue title of every search result at Google is fed from the title of the website. In your ePages rental shop, you have the option of giving both the home page as well as every category and product page its own title. This title is then used both in the browser header and by Google to create the title line of the search result.

Please note: Information about the titles of the Google search results

The number of characters in the title area of the search result is limited to 60 characters. Everything after that is truncated by Google. Keep this in mind when you give a title to your categories, products and your home page so that important information isn’t cut off.

Information about version 6.0.6 of your ePages rental shop
If your hosting provider has already updated to version 6.0.6, you can use the function of the individually configurable "Short URLs". By default, the system suggests the URL from the categories or product names. Thus, relatively long URLs sometimes arise such as http://www.my-t-shirt-store.com/cotton-t-shirt-with-v-neck-and-tiger-print. Consider this beforehand and adapt this URL accordingly as necessary. A URL should not be changed any more after it has been recorded by Google.

How to give your home page a title

In the "Settings" menu, search for the "General settings" menu item.

On the "Status" tab that now appears, you can enter the name of the website as well as the slogan under the "Presentations" item. Both entries are stored in the title of the home page and thus appear in the header of the browser as well as the title of the Google search results.

Individual titles for every category page

The title changes of the individual category pages are changed at a different place: In the "Content/Categories" menu, search for the "Data sheet view" menu item. Then select the category whose title you would like to change.

Under the "General" tab that now appears, you can specify an individual heading for each respective category. This appears in both the browser as well as in the Google search results. In addition to the title, the name of your shop is always attached by the system.

Take this into consideration. Don’t just give your categories a short generic term like "Nike", for example. Instead, make use of the character length of 60 characters. An example: "Nike – shoes and sneakers – all models and sizes"

Two small tips:

A category title with up to 60 characters might not always fit in the front layout of your shop. Therefore, you can additionally enter a short form of the category title on this tab in the "Labeling in the page element" field. The short form is then used in the store front for the category listing.
You can also enter keywords on this tab that describe the content of the category page and help Google to classify them correctly.

Last but not least: Title for product pages

Select the "Products" entry in the main menu to get an overview of all created products. Search for the one that you want to change the title of and click on the corresponding entry. In the tab that now appears, choose the "General" entry. You can change the name of the product in the "Name" field.

In addition to the correct product description, you should again add typical search phrases here and present your shop. An example: Instead of simply naming the product "Nokia N97", you could write "Nokia N97 – Online shop for mobile phones – free shipping"

Don’t forget that you can enter additional keywords for improved indexing on this tab – as you can with the category pages.

After we have given our shop, all categories, as well as the product pages an individual title, we now take care of the descriptive text in the Google search results. What options do we have here to have an effect on the display?

Read more in the third part of our special "Selling with just a few words – Designing Google search results“.

Selling with just a few words – Designing Google search results (part 1/3)

Volker Schwarz — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:38:06 +0000

Being at the top of the Google search results is the dream of every shop operator. After all, being first place in the ranking of the largest search engine in the world promises an additional stream of customers. And just as important as the positioning in the results is the presentation of the shop within the results. Well-designed search results attract clicks and increase sales. But which information does Google use for displaying its results lists? And which settings do I have to make in my ePages rental shop in order to be able to optimally present it to the search engine and the customer? Our three-part special will give you the answers.

The results of the Google search are always structured the same way and follow the same pattern as is the case with the display of the Adword advertisements. At their core, they consist of a heading, which is also the link, a short description of the page as well as the complete link (which, however, cannot be clicked).

About the meaning of an optimal presentation

Presenting yourself optimally in the search results is decisive so that your potential customers go to your shop and not the shops of your competitors. An small real-case scenario is the best way to demonstrate this. Let’s assume we’re using Google to look for an online shop where we can order sneakers. So we formulate our search like this: "shoes + sneakers". Under the results, we also find the following two results:

Example 1	Example 2

Which result do you think will probably be clicked on more often?

The first result only give us a cryptic listing of keywords without really describing the product offering. The shop URL is also not self-evident at first glance.

Result 2 already gives us all the information about the offering in the title line. With just a glance, we can also see that this online store offers special on sale conditions. Fantastic!

It’s very likely that we will probably choose the second shop.

Careful planning of how your shop is presented in the Google search results really pays off. But which information convinces customers to go to your shop instead of the competition?

"Attracting clicks" – The art of saying a lot in just a few words

For all of the three page types (home page, categories page, product page), there are several relevant pieces of information that you should present to your customers via Google search results. Each one of these can get customers to click and thus go to your shop. The following applies: Everything important belongs in the title.

Products: What are you selling? Be sure to name different versions of the same product in the description text (e.g. "shoes and sneakers" or "mobile telephones and mobile devices"). This way you’ll ensure that your customers really get the answers they are looking for.
Focusing: Concentrate on 2-3 product groups that you would like to specify in the descriptive text as keywords. This particularly applies to the categories and product pages. Here, the remaining offering of your shop is not of interest for the Google search results.
Buying incentives: Present your shop as particularly "low-priced" or "inexpensive". Avoid unspecific and less meaningful "special sales". You’ll do better with "free shipping", for example. Your customers will choose you over your competitors if they have the feeling that they are getting a particularly good deal.
Positioning: Make it clear that you are an "online shop" or an "online distributor". Your customers should see at a glance that they can not only get information from you but that they can also purchase from you.
Setting the tone: An exclamation point underscores the highlight of your offering. But be careful: Its overuse comes across as untrustworthy and deterring.

After you have decided which product and shop information you would like to present to Google and thus to your customers, you can start designing the potential search results. Which information does Google use to create its search results?

Read more in the second part of our special "Selling with just a few words – Designing Google search results“.

Bull’s Eye: Planning AdWords Campaigns

Volker Schwarz — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 09:51:47 +0000

How do I draw attention to my shop? A lot of online merchants ask themselves this very question upon placing their ePages rental shop online. One of the most popular answers to this question is Google AdWords. As explained in our first tutorial, Google AdWords offers an ideal opportunity to capture the attention of potential customers as they have just begun their online search for products. Yet AdWords campaigns are not always successful. Why is this the case?

Google AdWords provide shop operators an invaluable advantage compared to conventional advertising campaigns by addressing the concrete needs of potential customers. As a shop operator, you thus have a chance to focus very precisely on your target group and appeal to them directly.

So far, so good. In the pursuit of luring as many users as possible to their website, however, many online merchants unfortunately overlook that simple principle. “But I’d fail to attract 80 percent of potential customers if my ads are too specific,” is a beloved objection to segmented AdWords marketing, along with the sometimes arduous work it entails. Instead of addressing specific search queries with tailored ads, a lot of online merchants opt for generalised ad texts which correspond to basic keywords. In so doing, shop operators quickly lose sight of a fundamental question:

“How do I sensibly structure my advertising budget?”

AdWords is practical for users, too. Instead of being forced to rummage through a great many search results, users see relevant results at a glance. The very fact that a merchant has paid for the ad tells the user that the link will lead to relevant information. Many users therefore notice AdWords ads and click on them.

Good for you as a shop operator. But a click on your ad does not constitute a purchase. Even when you do appeal directly to potential customers, a majority of them nevertheless will buy nothing on your website. A lot of users namely open several ad links at once. If a potential customer does not find the product straightaway they are looking for, then they will immediately close that window.

And that begs the question: what is more important? A high click rate — enticing a lot of people to visit your shop — or a high conversion rate, which means that a lot of users choose to buy from you? Let us briefly examine a statistical example.

General vs. specific: what yields more?

Let us suppose that your generally worded AdWords ad is displayed 10,000 times. Of these 10,000 users, 1,000 click on your ad text to visit your shop. If each click costs 10 cents, your advertising costs amount to 100 euros. Not bad for 1,000 willing buyers, right? Let us continue to compute. The average conversion rate (the ratio of your shop’s visitors to your shop’s customers) is between three and six percent. Because your ad is general, you can present only a general product page. Your customer must therefore explore your shop — which lowers the conversion rate. Consequently, we must assume that your campaign will enjoy only limited success. Assuming a conversion rate of three percent, 1,000 visitors to your shop will result in 30 purchases. In this scenario, your advertising costs would be about 3 euros per purchase.

Let us now apply the same statistical approach to a targeted AdWords ad. Because fewer people will enter a specialised term into a search engine, your ad will appear less frequently. Let us assume that the aforementioned 80% of all users will miss your ad because of its specificity. Your ad will thus be displayed only 2,000 times instead of 10,000. As above, 10 percent of users click on your ad text; in turn, 200 potential customers visit your shop. Because your ad is displayed less often and also generates fewer clicks, your per-click AdWords costs are lower. Let us assume that each click of your ad costs only half as much: 5 cents. This would entail spending 10 euros for the 200 visitors to your shop. It is safe to assume that these visitors will purchase more on a percentage basis, for they were drawn to your shop by targeted advertising. At a conversion rate of six percent instead of just three percent, 200 visitors to your shop will result in 12 purchases.

Quadrupled sales thanks to targeted marketing

An advertising budget of 100 euros will permit you to launch nine additional targeted AdWords campaigns. Instead of 30 purchases via a general ad, the direct targeting of potential customers results in 120 purchases. In other words, you can use the same budget to quadruple sales via targeted marketing.

It ought to be clear now that you should always strive to address (potential) customers in accordance with their needs. It is worth investing the effort to create and pay for tailored ads for individual products. Carefully consider which keywords you specify for your AdWords campaigns. Vague keywords such as “laptop” result in lower conversion rates than, for example, specifying a particular model such as “Dell Latitude laptop”.

Bad Adwords ad	Good Adwords ad

4 designing tips

Your ad text should feature the keyword in the heading to convince customers that your shop sells precisely what they need.
Your ad text should entice potential customers to your shop: Promise customers something they cannot refuse!
Poor: “The expert for laptops”
Better: “Sale: 20% discount on all Dell notebooks” or “Free shipping of all Dell notebooks”.
Open the back door! Online shops are different from brick-and-mortar shops. The main entrance — your home page, in other words — is not necessarily the best choice for an ad campaign. Your customers instead prefer entering via the back door and learning right away about the items which interest them. You should therefore go to the trouble of creating different links for every ad. If a potential customer wishes to buy a Dell laptop, than a proper ad will guide them directly to the proper place in your shop so that they do not have to click their way through your entire shop. You will thus increase the conversion rate within your shop. Never forget that a customer can leave your shop at any time to visit someone else’s shop!
Use your URL as an ad. Version 6.0.7 of your ePages rental shops allows you to use Tiny URLs. In lieu of a cryptic URL such as "www.laptopshop.de/epages/61504599.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/61504599/Categories/"Lemote product" linking to a product, you can in future use do-it-yourself URLs such as "www.laptopshop.de/dell-special_offers". This will indisputably benefit your AdWords campaign by convincing potential customers that your shop is the perfect place to be.

Advertising with Google Maps

Anja Römisch — Tue, 19 May 2009 08:31:59 +0000

Nobody wants to have to go far when they are looking for a specific product or service. That is why customers are always pleased when the small red flag they see on Google Maps is close to their location. According to Google, by 2006 already, every fourth search query was location-specific. Even experts are saying that maps and location-based services will be that much more relevant in 2009. Companies with both a stationary and online presence can increase their real as well as their virtual business by taking advantage of a free listing and a local advertisement on Google Maps.

Creating Your Free Listing on Google Maps

Whether you have a website or not: Anyone can list themselves on Google Maps for free. If you do not already have a Google account, you can quickly open one in the Local Business Center and then add a new listing. In addition to name and address, you can also add a web address and a description of your business, including photos, videos, categories, business hours and payment options.

Activating Local Ads on Google Maps

The more ingenious versions are local advertisements (Local Business Ads), which are a form of the Google AdWords that appear on Google Maps, Google and in the Google advertising network and are visually accentuated. The advertisement text in the search results column contains the URL, the company name, the address and a short description.

A red marker on the displayed section of the map shows the location of the company. You can use either the default icon for the map marker or upload your own logo. When the marker is clicked, the company information mentioned above appears.

To activate a local ad, you need to have an already existing AdWords campaign and a listing on Google Maps. The AdWords help will explain exactly how to do this. To maximise the reach of the advertisement, you should enable the option for activating the campaign in the search advertising network.

This is how a local ad could look like: