23 May 2013

AdWords: Upgrading to Enhanced Campaigns For Small Business

What is your excuse for not upgrading your AdWords account to enhanced campaigns?

If you are a small business owner, and have a limited number of campaigns running in your account, there is no reason that you shouldn’t set some time aside and make the change to enhanced campaigns. The process won’t take much time and could save you valuable marketing dollars.

Google Announces Enhanced AdWords Campaigns

Google has set July 22nd as the date which all legacy campaigns will start to be automatically upgraded to the new enhanced campaigns. While you may be tempted to let your account roll over automatically, I suggest you don’t.

When updating my own AdWords account I saw that Google suggested a ‘mobile bid adjustment’ – this is a percentage change from your desktop bid. For some campaigns they were suggesting equal or lower bids on mobile, but the majority were suggesting increased bids.

This is something to watch as your business may not see the same value in mobile as you do on desktop, so it may be wise to use the same bid as desktop or even decrease the mobile bid for the time being until you can determine if there is value there or not.

How to Upgrade To Enhance Campaigns

The initial step is straightforward. In your campaign tab, click an existing legacy campaign.

You will see a highlighted area like this:

Click the blue ‘Get Started’ button.

Upgrade This Campaign Today

The next screen you see is a cover page that talks about the benefit of enhanced campaigns. You’ll have three options – start now, do it later, or learn more.

If you are ready to upgrade the account, click the blue ‘Start now’ button.

Adjust Your Bids For Mobile

Here is where Google suggests an increase, decrease, or same bid as your desktop and tablet bids you already have in place for your campaign. Beside the suggested change, they will show you a 7-day estimated change for mobile.

Make the change you feel is best suited for your account. You can choose the Google suggestion, use one of the listed suggestions, or use a custom bid adjustment.

You’re Now Using Enhance Campaigns

Now that you have finalized the upgrade you have some options. You can read Google’s guide which will walk you through enhanced campaigns, update your ads, or follow Google’s suggestions on how to make your website mobile ready.

When you are done, simply close the page.

For help with making the switch to updated campaigns click here.

15 May 2013

The Top 7 Myths About Google Grants For The Small Non-Profit

It has been well documented on this blog that the Google Grants program is of great benefit to non-profit organizations. However there are still a number of misconceptions about the program and how it relates to small organizations. This article will address the most common myths that I hear about the Google Grants program.

The Top 7 Myths for Small Non-Profits and Google Grants

Myth #1 – You Will Use the Full $10,000 per Month

The Reality: The average participant in the Google Grants program ‘spends’ $300 per month.

The limiting factor in this equation is the number of people who search for your keywords in the geographic area you have defined. For example, if 500 people see your ads and decide to click on them you will have used $1,000 (assuming it costs the full $2/click you are allowed).

For small non-profits who have a regional, not national, presence it is hard to use the full $10,000. Don’t be disappointed if you don’t use the full amount each month. Instead, focus on your goals and monitor your results.

Myth #2 – Having a Google Grant Is Free

The Reality: Managing your Google Grant costs staff time and salary.

The major cost is employee wages. Starting and running a successful online advertising campaign takes skill, knowledge and time. If your organization does not have a marketing department or a staff member that specializes in online marketing, this could be a burden on your resources.

For more information on this topic click here.

Myth #3 – Small Non-Profits Can’t Compete with Large Organizations on Google

The Reality: Small organizations that serve local clients may have the upper hand.

Google rewards relevancy. Including your city or region in your keywords is helpful in having your ads shown to users searching for keywords in a specific geographic area. For example, someone who lives in Toronto and searches the term ‘places to volunteer in Toronto’ will more likely be shown your ad over a national organization’s ad assuming everything else is equal.

To capture the most traffic, it is a good idea to use descriptive keywords that include your city.

Myth #4 – Google Grants Will Mean Increased Fundraising

The Reality: Direct fundraising is difficult with Google AdWords.

This is one area that large nationally recognized non-profits are at a definite advantage. For smaller organizations it is difficult to convert users searching for your programs directly into donors. However, it is very possible to capture the email addresses of visitors to your site. By doing this, it is easier to stay in touch with the people who have searched for your keywords and turn them into future donors and supporters of your organization.

Click here for more information on Using Google Grants to Build Your Contact List.

Myth #5 – AdWords Is Easy For Staff to Learn and Manage

The Reality: Google AdWords is complex and can be difficult for a beginner to learn.

There are a lot of online resources to help you learn AdWords, but there are no shortcuts. Search Engine Marketing takes time and effort to learn and the Google Grants program is no exception. When starting out with AdWords, it is easier to digest if you don’t overwhelm yourself on the first day. Learn at your own pace and designate small blocks of time that you dedicate to learning the program.

For a head start, read the Getting the Most Out of Your Google Grant Series.

Myth #6 – Small Non-Profits Won’t See a Benefit from Google Grants

The Reality: Any organization who offers programs and services that are searched for online will benefit.

You don’t need to have an overwhelming response to your ads in order to benefit from this program. If your non-profit is highly focused and only offers services that are sought after by a small segment of your community it is okay to not see a huge influx of traffic.

Take the time to set up campaigns that are important to you. You never know who will find you online – potential volunteers, clients, partners – but this will only happen if you set up related campaigns.

Myth #7 – Applying to Google Grants is Difficult

The Reality: It isn’t.

Applying for a Google Grant for your organization is not difficult at all. The application is very straight forward and shouldn’t take too much time to complete.

If you still aren’t sure about whether the Google Grants program is a good fit for your organization click here.

Mark Hallman + 0 comments Blog Google AdWords Google Grants Non-Profits Read More →

25 Apr 2013

Google Grants to Allow Remarketing Campaigns?

Remarketing is a tactic used by many AdWords marketers as a way to maximize their conversions. Simply put, remarketing is the practice of delivering display advertisements to users who have visited a website in the past with the goal of getting them to come back and take action.

Currently Google limits remarketing activity to the Google Display Network, which means that these activities are not allowed to take place on Google Search alongside regular paid ads. That in turn means that organizations in the Google Grants program have not been able to take advantage of remarketing because they are limited to Google search ads.

That could all be changing.

Remarketing in Google Search?

Although remarketing has been restricted to just the Display Network to date, Google is planning on introducing remarketing for search ads on Google search. This new feature is aptly named Remarketing in Search.

Remarketing in Search would allow advertisers to use remarketing lists to customize search ad campaigns for users who have previously visited their website. Ads are targeted to the user’s search query, and are subject to the targeting and quality criteria of normal search ads.

As Google Grants allow search network advertising, this new feature will be available to Google Grants recipients.

Google has started beta testing of Remarketing in Search, but no dates have been set as when this program could become available to all Google AdWords users.

What Does This Mean For Google Grants Recipients

The potential benefits for non-profits and charities are yet to be seen. However remarketing to people who have visited your site could bring powerful results.

Users who visit your site without taking action could be targeted for new campaigns based on their previous activity on your site. For example, users that have visited your donation page could be segmented for a distinct ad campaign to generate more donations in the future, or people who read about your programs and services could be shown ads related to new programs.

This is definitely something all Google Grants recipients should be watching for in the near future.

For more information on the Google Grants program and how it could benefit your organization click here.

Mark Hallman + 0 comments Blog Google AdWords Google Grants Google Search Marketing Non-Profits Read More →

11 Apr 2013

Happy 10th Birthday to Google Grants!

Google Grants celebrates its 10th Birthday this month!

If you are unfamiliar with the Google Grants program and would like to know if your organization could benefit from the $10,000 per month in free AdWords advertising click here.

10 Years of Helping Non-Profits!

Google Grants launched with its very first nonprofit, March of Dimes, on April 1, 2003. By the end of year one, 139 nonprofits were thriving in the beta program. At that point Google decided to extend the opportunity to as many organizations and countries as possible.

In the 10 short years since the initial beta program, Google Grants has grown to include 28 countries and over 14,000 non-profit organizations.

Not Part of the Google Grants Program?

Contact us today for help in getting your non-profit a Google Grant and take advantage of the $10,000 per month in free AdWords advertising.

Mark Hallman + 0 comments Google AdWords Google Search Non-Profits Read More →

9 Apr 2013

Google AdWords – Spend $25, Get $100

Have you wanted to try AdWords but have held back because you aren’t sure if you’ll get anything for your money?

Now’s your chance to test drive AdWords with a minimal risk!

Spend $25, Get $100!

Google is currently offering new AdWords accounts a $100 credit once $25 has been spent.

To take advantage of this offer contact us.

5 Reasons Why Your Business Needs Google AdWords

Benefits of AdWords:

Effective: Show your ad to people at the precise moment they are searching for what you have to offer
Measurable: See exactly what you’re getting for your money
Flexible: Change, pause or stop your ad at any time to suit your business
No Risk: You only pay when prospective customers click on your ad to get more information

Introductory offer code guidelines and rules:

For new AdWords accounts only.
Codes must be applied to advertiser accounts within 14 days of their creation.
Codes can only be used by new advertisers with a billing address in United States or Canada.
Only one offer can be applied to any advertiser account.
Codes will be given out at the sole discretion of Hallman Communications.
For an offer code or more information about Google AdWords – contact us.

Mark Hallman + 0 comments Google AdWords Marketing Small & Medium Business Read More →

4 Apr 2013

One Simple Tip for Improved AdWords Account Structure

One of the biggest mistakes I see beginners make when they are starting out with AdWords is not properly structuring their campaigns. By failing to split up campaigns and ads into defined groups, accounts become difficult to manage and hard to measure for success.

An Easy Strategy for Structuring Your AdWords Account

The easiest strategy for creating an effective account structure is to copy your website’s layout. By creating campaigns and ad groups around a specific category or product, you can create keyword lists that directly relate to the corresponding ad text, and ads that link directly to that item’s page in your website.

For example, a sporting goods store’s website is likely to have different sections for each type of product, like shoes and clothing. The website might also have separate sections or pages for each specific product, like a certain type of shoe or style of jacket.

Example account structure:

Account Name

Sporting Goods Store

Campaigns

Shoes

Clothing

Ad Groups

Running – Soccer

Pants – Jackets

In this case you now have general product themes grouped together in the campaign level (shoes or clothing), and the more focused products under the ad group (running shoes or soccer shoes).

By setting up the account in this manner, it is easy to identify and include everything related to the sporting goods store’s website. Having campaigns organized around broad areas, with specific products being the focus of the ad groups, allows for simple updating of the account. This format can be changed to match your business and products you want to advertise.

If you only sell one product or service on your website, you can always create a simple campaign structure around that product.

Mark Hallman + 0 comments Blog Google AdWords Non-Profits Small & Medium Business Read More →

21 Mar 2013

How to Recruit New Volunteers Using Google Grants

One of the biggest challenges faced by non-profit organizations today is recruiting quality volunteers. This post will teach you how to use your Google Grant to successfully advertise directly to potential volunteers while they are searching for a place to donate their time.

Google Grants have many uses. They are great for promoting programs, services, events, and fundraising, but the one piece that is often overlooked is volunteer recruitment.

Your potential volunteers use Google like everyone else. They type in what they are looking for, in this case places to volunteer, and view the results. This is where a Google Grant can help.

If your organization doesn’t have a Google Grant click here.

How to Set Up A Successful Volunteer Recruitment Campaign

Campaign Level

Start a new campaign. I prefer to be straight forward when naming campaigns, so I would call it “Volunteer Recruitment.” This way it is easy to find and monitor your results in your account. Another benefit of having a separate campaign is that you can easily put the campaign on pause when you are not actively advertising for volunteers.

Set the campaign to run only in the appropriate geographic areas. You don’t need people across the country applying to volunteer if you are only looking locally.

Ad Groups

People typically search for volunteer positions in two ways. One, they search for volunteer opportunities by location and then read through the results to see what is out there. And the other way they search is by the type of volunteer work they want to do.

Set up two adgroups, one serving each kind of search. While your text ads may end up being similar, it is easier to keep track of your ads if you organize your adgroups this way.

Keywords

There are two approaches that you should take here:

1) Be broad – catch all potential volunteers who are looking generally, by using keywords such as:

Volunteer Toronto
Where to volunteer in Toronto
Best places to volunteer in Toronto

2) Be specific – so people looking to volunteer with organizations like yours find what they are looking for:

Volunteer with the elderly
I want to help elderly people
I want to volunteer with the elderly

Experiment with both types of keywords and measure what brings the best results for your organization.

Landing Page

Now that you’ve brought users to your website, it is important to have a dedicated page for volunteer recruitment.

This page should have a description of any available volunteer positions, information about your organization, and clear contact information so that potential volunteers can get in touch with you.

Use visuals on this page. A photo of your current volunteers in action is ideal. Adding a story about how your volunteers positively impact your community will help convert people from being potential volunteers to people asking how they can become involved.

For more information on how the Google Grants program can benefit your organization contact us.

Mark Hallman + 1 comment Google AdWords Google Grants Non-Profits Read More →

20 Mar 2013

Announcing the Hallman Communications Blog App for BlackBerry

Hallman Communications BlackBerry App

We are proud to announce that we have just launched the Hallman Communications app on BlackBerry World. With this new app you will be able to get all of our great blog content perfectly optimized for your BlackBerry, regardless of which model you have.

Now you can have all of our blog posts delivered directly to your BlackBerry as soon as they are published on our site. This app will help you stay ahead of the curve by bringing you in-depth tips, advice, and the latest information about Google AdWords and Google Grants.

This app is for anyone who is interested in learning more about search engine marketing and how it can help your business or organization.

To download the app go to BlackBerry World and search “Hallman Communications” or follow this link:

http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/25399923

Mark Hallman + 0 comments Google AdWords Google Grants Non-Profits Small & Medium Business Read More →

14 Mar 2013

How To Test Demand For Your New Product Using Google AdWords

One of the biggest risks that small business owners and start-ups take when developing a new program or service is not properly testing for demand. While you may think you have an idea that will be an easy sell, without proper testing you may find no buyers when you take your idea to market.

Using Google to test online demand for your product is a great way to limit your downside risk by spending a few marketing dollars up front to determine whether you are meeting a need. This post will show you how you can use your AdWords account to test and analyze online demand for your products or services.

What is Google AdWords?

In short, AdWords are the little ads that show on top and beside the organic search results on Google. When placing these ads you will have control over keyword selection, ad text, and how much you are willing to pay for each click. Typically advertisers use AdWords for directly advertising a service or product that is currently for offer. For example, I use AdWords to bring potential clients to my website for account management and training services.

An Alternate Use for Google AdWords.

Google advertises their AdWords program as a way to bring traffic to an organization’s website by matching a user’s search query with relevant advertisements aimed at meeting the user’s needs. They are incredibly successful at doing so, and this is primarily how Google makes money.

Because Google is an active search tool that people use when seeking information or products, you will be able to quickly test if there is demand for your new product or service. This is different than using social media or other passive methods that broadcast information to users when they are probably not in the search/buying mode. While that is great for awareness, it doesn’t help you with testing.

How to Test For Product Demand

Set up a regular ad campaign in your Google AdWords Account.

Choose keywords that users would use to find the product or service you will be testing. Try different variables and be fairly broad so that you capture any potential searchers.

Write text for your ads highlight the benefits of your new product. Showcase the main benefit of your product and explicitly mention how it is going to help the buyer. Poorly written ads can negatively skew results and keep people from clicking through to your site even if they would be interested otherwise.

Be Very Geographically Specific

Only run ads in the areas that you are making the product or service available. Failing to limit the campaign to a local or regional area may skew your results and show an inaccurate level of demand.

Choose Your Budget

Testing should be thorough but affordable. You’ll need to set the maximum cost per click you are willing to spend as well as your daily budget. Not setting these properly could cause you to burn through your test budget too quickly.

Set Up A Landing Page

Since your product won’t be ready for market, set up a page with some info on the product you are planning on launching. If applicable, use an email capture form so you can gather email addresses of interested buyers. At the same time, give them an incentive to sign up –sneak peeks, early updates, or first access to your product is a great incentive to get an email address.

Look At the Results

If you find that there is a steady stream of traffic responding to your ads you will know that there is a market and demand for the product or service you are developing. Try to capture email addresses so that you can contact these interested parties when you are ready to launch.

On the other hand, if no one is responding to your ads you may decide that the challenge in finding buyers may outweigh the potential for your product. Tweak your ads, study your keywords, but if you aren’t finding demand through online advertising now you probably won’t find it after the product is launched.

3 Potential Downfalls

There are a few mistakes that can be made that should be avoided when testing:

1) Failing to segment the testing campaign:

If you are using AdWords for products and services that you currently offer, don’t run ads that you are using for testing with other campaigns – set up a new campaign titled ‘testing’ or ‘experiments’ so you can clearly differentiate this campaign

2) Duplicating keywords from current Ad Groups:

Try not to use the same keywords that you have in other campaigns. If competing, Google will decide which ads to show and you may be pulling impressions away from vital ads.

3) Not running thorough tests:

While it may be tempting to jump to conclusions after a handful of clicks, I recommend letting the ads run for at least a few hundred clicks so you properly determine demand.

Summary

Google is a great testing tool for people that are willing to take the time to learn to use AdWords and experiment with the results. Take the time to try new things. If a test fails, you can always delete the campaign and move on. For best results, try to set some time in your calendar to actively manage your account.

For help with setting up an AdWords account and running these tests contact us.

Mark Hallman + 0 comments Blog Google AdWords Marketing Small & Medium Business Read More →

6 Mar 2013

Using Google Grants to Build Your Contact List

One of the biggest challenges faced by organizations is finding a way to stay in touch with potential supporters and clients. If you have a Google Grant, and have built successful campaigns, you will have a lot of new visitors to your site. Finding a way to stay in contact with this new traffic is very important if you want to grow your client and supporter base.

Luckily, all of these people will have an email address, so building an email list is an easy and inexpensive way to keep in touch. Each email you capture is someone that you can send weekly or monthly newsletters to. You can use these newsletters to share information on events, fundraisers and organizational updates.

How do I get their email address?

Because you have a Google Grant that uses advertising to bring relevant traffic to your site. There is an easy way to convert some of this traffic into email subscribers for your list – using email sign-up forms.

Where to Get Sign-Up Forms

I use AWeber for the contact forms on my site. You can see them on this page in the sidebar and at the bottom of this post. I like AWeber because they have customizable forms and great newsletter software, but there are other good providers such as Mailchimp and Constant Contact that you can use as well.

Where Should You Place Sign-Up Forms On Your Site?

After Blog Posts

When someone finds an article on your blog, and reads to the bottom of the article, they are interested in what you have to offer. This is a great place for an email sign-up form.
Placing a form here converts well and it asks the reader for their information when they have just received information that has either helped them or has caught their interest.

Top of Your Blog Sidebar

Right at the top of your sidebar above the fold is the second most important area to place your email sign-up forms. This form will be visible when the reader lands on the page and it is in an easy location to find even if they don’t read to the bottom of the article.
In The Footer Of Your Site

This is similar to the first reason. If readers scroll all the way down your page and get to your footer they are interested in what you have to say. Again, when readers are engaged and interested in what you have to say is the best time to ask them to sign up.

On Your About Page

This is one of the most read pages on your site. When readers go to your “About Page” they are interested in learning more about your organization and service so this is a good time to ask them to sign up for regular newsletters.

The one place I recommend that you don’t place a form is on your donation page. If someone has decided to visit that page you don’t want to distract them from making a donation to your organization.

Mark Hallman + 4 comments Google AdWords Google Grants Marketing Non-Profits Read More →

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