Hi! My name is Erez Zundy and I want to share with you the fact that I have no idea what to write here about myself yet. What I do know is that I will post here anything I know about PPC. I have 3 years of experience in PPC marketing, both as an affiliate and as a PPC manager for other unique clients. In this blog I will discuss many espects of the PPC for both affiliates and PPC managers. I will tag my posts by either "affiliates" or "PPC managers", depends on the topic, so keep an eye on that. Ohh yeah, you should also follow me on twitter: twitter.com/erez_z .
I got a comment (from Barak) on the last post suggesting I wouldn’t give up on managed placements and that “if you “catch” a winning horse on the automatic placements, I you should add it as a managed placement. In most cases it won’t fail and you’ll gain better control over the spend your’e allocating for this placement.”.
I begun writing my comment to that but then I realized it is something worth writing a post about since other people might have the same situation.
So, what to do when you find that one great website on the automatic placements that is performing really well and the CPA is right on target and even better?
As some of you may do, you have the option to target your ‘winning horse’ through your managed placements in the same ad group. My experience with this action is quite bad. Sometimes it worked, but many times it didn’t. Barak was right when he said you get the benefit of better control over the spend you are allocating for this placement, but on the other hand, if something is working, why fix it?
As I mentioned in my last post, Managed placements vs. Automatic placements, PPCHero wrote a post that describes my experience from taking ‘winning horses’ to the manged placements and explains why this happens. Basically they are saying, and I think they’re right, that if you move a site to the ‘managed placements’ you are actually saying to Google, ‘hey, this site is working well for me and I want more of it’, and then you can kiss good-bye to the discount you got in CPC there thanks to ‘smart pricing’.
I think the best way to go is to open a new managed placements ad group and add your winning horse there. This way you can check your ads performance on this website both on managed placements and on automatic placements. Check how many impressions your ‘winning horse’ is getting in each ad group and adjust the bids accordingly. Be prepared to pay higher CPC though, cause after all you are telling Google this site matters to you so the smart pricing system won’t take effect on this site anymore.
You might see that this site is not performing well on the managed placements after all and decide to stick with targeting it just through the automatic placements. But it might be too late to save your ‘smart pricing discount’. If this is really the case, then your last option might be to copy this ad group and place higher bid on this new ad group. Why copy it and place higher bid? because if you raise the bid on your old ad group you might lose other sites that are performing well since you will suddenly have many more websites you weren’t able to reach before because you had a low bid and these websites might consume your budget.When you open this new ad group, you might want to open a new campaign for it in order to control its budget.
What I described in the last paragraph really depends on the niche, the volume of traffic you get and your daily budget. You might decide to forget all about your ‘winning horse’ and start looking for a new one.
Oh man the content network can get tricky. This is really advanced stuff. I hope I didn’t mix things up but if I did let me know.
Last thing, sign up to my RSS feed to keep yourself updated with my latest posts. Thanks!
P.S
Thank you Barak for inspiring me to write this post.
When you first create your campaign targeting the Google Content Network ( GCN) you need to decide if you want to go with automatic placements by using keywords to target the relevant sites and let Google decide what is relevant, or to go with managed placements by picking the exact websites you want your ad to show on and not trust Google’s algorithm to pick the places for you.
My opinion is that although by choosing automatic placements you take a risk that Google will show your ad on irrelevant websites (and it will happen), it is the better way to go since after all Google knows better than you all the relevant sites in their network, and if you try to find them yourself it will take you hours and you might end up missing that one killer site that could have generate mass amount of conversions.
As mentioned, the obvious shortcoming of choosing the automatic placements is of course spending money on irrelevant sites. But the weird thing is, that you will most likely to find sites that on first glance seems irrelevant, but convert well. And who said that if you pick the relevant sites yourself you will get great CPA there? After all, if you found them easily, probably your competitors did the same, and the result is higher CPC on those sites.
PPCHero wrote a really good post about why your managed placements might fail even if you found those sites by using the automatic placements. Basically, Jessica, the post creator, wrote that when using the automatic placements the rule of smart pricing applies, while it doesn’t on managed placements, and that is why your managed placements will often cost more than the automatic placements (even if we’re talking about the same site). Smart Pricing, for those of you who don’t know, is a system of pricing Google is using in the content network that basically says that you will pay less per click where Google thinks your conversion rate will be lower than average.
I first planned to write a post about how to optimize in the Google Content Network but somehow I didn’t get there. Maybe next time…
One of my clients’ account got an invitation to take part in a beta test of a new feature in AdWords called ‘modified broad match’.
If you ever got upset over the extremely wide range of search queries that trigger your broad match keywords (and my guess that 99% of PPC managers and affiliates did), this new feature is made for you.
Modified broad match gives you better control over which search queries trigger your broad match keywords. Adding a plus modifier (+) immediately before a word indicates that word must very closely match a word in the user’s search in order to trigger the keyword.
This is the example AdWords provided in their email:
If you have leather shoes in a campaign as a broad match keyword, your ad could show when someone searches for “leather shoes,” “leather sandals,” “blue suede shoes,” “athletic footwear” and other related searches because broad match attempts to match your keyword to a wide range of relevant variations.
However, if you have +leather shoes as your keyword instead, the range of searches that trigger your ad is much narrower. Only the exact word, very close variations (e.g. plurals), or a common spelling mistake of the modified word (+leather) can trigger a match. Synonyms do not trigger a match.
Based on this example, when using +leather shoes, these queries will trigger your ad:
dress shoes men’s leather – “leather” and “shoes” appear in the search.
leather sandals – “leather” appears in the search, and “sandals” are closely related to “shoes”.
leathr sandals – “leathr” is a common misspelling of “leather”, and “sandals” are closely related to “shoes”.
These queries will not trigger your ad:
blue suede shoes – “leather” does not appear in the search.
athletic footwear – same reason.
leather belt – “leather” appears in the search, but “belt” is not closely related to “shoes”.
The really great thing about it is that now, unlike the time before this new feature, I don’t need to be worried that if I raise the bids on my broad match keywords more irrelevant queries will trigger my ads and I will pay too much for irrelevant traffic. Now I can enjoy the great power of the broad match without the negative sides of it.
Learning to use this feature properly will, without a doubt, push your PPC campaign to the next level.
I don’t about you, but I like Google’s content network. I get some really nice results there during the last 2 years or so. Before that I didn’t come near it since all the gurus told everyone to shut it off and I was part of the herd. (I’m assuming that who ever reads this blog already knows what is Google content network, but if you don’t then I suggest you go ahead and search some information on it.)
Since many are still trying to find their way through the content network I decided to share the rules of thumb I use when I create a content network campaign:
Use up to 10 keywords in each ad group – I suggest using between 5 to 10 keywords. Unlike search, in the content network you are building your ad groups in a way that each ad group will represent a certain theme. For example: if you are promoting a clothing retailer, you should create an ad group about shirts and another about skirts. If you mix themes you might “confuse” the machine and thus get less impressions.
Create the “themes” as specific as you can – This is in order to get the most impressions you can. If you are running a content network campaign that you are trying to expand, go and check if you could split your ad groups into more ad groups. For example: the ad group “shirts” you could probably split into many other ad groups like “men shirt”, “women shirts”, “polo shirts”, “sports shirts” etc..
Don’t use exact or phrase match keywords – It just doesn’t matter.
For each theme create 2 ad groups. 1 with text ads, and the other with image ads - The logic behind this rule is very simple: When you are running an image ad you are taking the spot of 3 text ads, meaning that you will basically need to pay per click 3 times the cost of a text ad. For this reason you will have to set a different bid to it and therefore you will need a different ad group. Plus, it will help you to better analyze and control which ad is shown where.
You should always test dynamic image ads – Who said banners are dead? Even if you theoretically need to pay more for an image ad than for a text ad, the CTR that you will get on your dynamic image ads may help you cut your costs per click to be even lower than text ads.
Test as many ads as you can – In the content network you have a lot of impressions on your ads. That gives you the opportunity to test more than 2-3 ads, like you usually do in the search network campaigns, and improve your results faster. Later you can take the winning ad and copy it into your search campaigns.
Create your image ads in every available size – If you won’t than you are missing on out on what could have been great traffic. Google allows 8 ads sizes:
Leaderboard – 728×90
Banner – 468×60
Small Square – 200×200
Square – 250×250
Medium Rectangle – 300×250
Large Rectangle – 336×280
Skyscraper – 120×600
Wide Skyscraper – 160×600
Make use of more “emotional” ads than informational ads – Remember that this is different from search. Search is more “pull” marketing while the content network is more “push” marketing. This rule does not apply on B2B products.
What I described so far are the things I keep in mind when I’m building a new campaign that is targeting the Content Network. The thing that is missing here is how to optimize these campaigns and I plan on write another post to explain just that.
The Google Content Network (GCN) is a big opportunity and if you learn how to take advantage of it you will find yourself ahead of your competitors.
When trying to upload image ads (I prefer banner ads) to AdWords, either through the AdWords Editor or the AdWords interface, you might find that Google is not able to upload your banner.
Here are 7 reasons why:
Wrong usage of click tag in you SWF file – AdWords guidelines specify the exact click tag they want you use in your SWF files. Find it here.
Usage of random numbers in your SWF file – Sometimes flash designers use random numbers to create certain effects on the banners. For example: Making the text on the ad glitter every few random seconds.
Your banner is trying to ‘pull’ data from your site – For example: SWF files have the option to include a video on them. In order to make the banner ad file size smaller, the designers use a function that tell the SWF file to pull a video from a different location (website). This is against the guidelines.
The animation length is longer than 30 seconds – After 30 seconds your banner ad should be still.
The file size in bigger than 50K – Kinda explains itself.
Your banner is blinking, flashing or “strobing” – The AdWords Editor is more sensitive to this matter in GIF images. I had a situation when a GIF banner which was a bit flashy was rejected by the AdWords Editor while the exact same banner as SWF file was uploaded without a problem.
You have more than 50 ads in your ad group – Yes, AdWords has a limit of 50 ads per ad group. If you are asking yourself who the hell have 50 ads in their ad groups, than well, try to calculate how many banners you may need in order to test simultaneously 2 types of banners and 4 landing pages (remember there are 8 banner sizes available for use). Hint: 56 .
Now that you know what are the reasons for the errors you are getting from AdWords try to avoid them in the first place. The best way to avoid the errors is to go and read all the guidelines about image ads in AdWords.
Enjoy your reading and tell me if I missed anything. Thanks.
I just finished reading a book called ‘The power of giving’. At least this is how it is called in Hebrew.
The book has a really great massage and part of it is “give more value then you charge for”.
Unfortunately this is not something product owners and marketers are concerned about when they try to sell their product. They are mostly concerned about how to make money, and fast.
I am guilty of the same sin. When I used to create landing pages and sites promoting a product, giving value was not my main issue. When looking back on the things I’ve done and the sites I created, I now realize that a big part of those projects is useless since it didn’t give any value to the clients (or users) and this is probably why I only got a few sales from each and never made a killing.
The funny thing is that this is not the case when I’m dealing with my PPC clients. In that area I feel that I always gave more value than what I charge for. So I need to ask myself why didn’t I do it when I created my own sites?
I think that I was so eager to follow those “super affiliates”, and make a 5 figures income each month, that I forgot that I really need to care about the clients and give value.
It’s weird, but I now understand why Google ban one of my accounts. I really didn’t give any value to the users. So after 2 months I can now say “Thank you Google for doing the right thing”. Lucky me that I still have active accounts so after I will spend some time creating a site that actually gives value I will still be able to advertise it on Google.
Do you understand the power of giving more value than what you charge for? This is how you can create a great deal for your clients, this is how you can sell your product easier, and this is how you can crush the competition.
I think that the best way to give value is the show your clients that you actually care. People all around the world are eager for someone the show them affection and that will care about them. If you manage to give that to your clients I have no doubt in my mind you will make a fortune, no matter what you sell.
I am definitely going to follow this motto and I wish more will do the same.
As usual when I don’t have much time to write a post I am posting some of the latest industry news and some cool PPC blog posts. If you are wondering why I don’t have the time is because besides all the PPC work I’m doing I just moved to a new apartment and it’s a time consuming project. Anyway…
Here are my favorites from the last 2 weeks:
Yahoo is changing some things making the control of your ads distribution easier. Plus, and that’s a big PLUS!, they also added a campaigns import tool. So you now can upload your Google AdWords campaigns into Yahoo. I plan on using this one ASAP. Read about it here.
Google is apparently pushing their new phone, Nexus 1, in a way that is taking impressions from content network advertisers. There are some reports that the Nexus 1 banners are spotted on many sites that are irrelevant to cellphones therefore pushing a side relevant advertisers who once claimed those spots. It’s funny how Google is talking about relevancy and how important that is and will even kick your A** away from AdWords if you are not relevant enough, but if it’s a product made by Google everything is legit. Read about it in this PPCBLOG post.
2 great articles were posted on search engine land that can really help you see that PPC, and Search Marketing in general, is not all about Google. There are many other opportunities like mobile advertising and ad exchanges. Though neither of those articles are actually trying to say what I wrote here, but this is what I decided to take from articles. One of those articles also contains great information about AdWords mobile campaigns.
Brian Carter from Search Engine Journal wrote a nice article about an experiment he did checking if Google’s geo-targeting is accurate. I don’t want to ruin your surprise when you find out the results so go and read about it here. On the other hand, if you actually thought Google’s geo-targeting is accurate, then I should ruin your surprise – it’s NOT.
Do you remember the time when you still had your day job while doing affiliate marketing in the nights? Remember that you had almost no sleep because you were working on your PPC campaigns? You were so passionate about it but still couldn’t quit your day job because you were scared it wouldn’t work.
If you are in affiliate marketing long enough, you probably remember those times. If you are new to affiliate marketing, you are probably living it right now.
So let me ask you something. Why don’t you quit your day job?
Yes, I know it’s scary, but don’t you think you are wasting your precious time there?
You know what? I understand that you are scared. I’ve been there. But I think I have the solution for your problem. Go and find yourself a job as an intern in a SEM agency. I don’t know about the US, but here in Israel the agencies are looking everywhere for smart and sharp interns.
So if you are too scared to quit your day job at least go and find yourself a job that will actually help you in becoming a successful affiliate marketer. Go and learn from the bests in the fields of PPC and SEO. Don’t you think it’s a better way to “waste” your time? I’m still calling it a waste because you still have a job and fix hours, but it’s a much better waste than your current day job. And hey, who knows – you might like it better than being an affiliate.
I worked for a company called easynet. I learned a lot there. I learned from the best there is how to do PPC and how to think like a PPC marketer. If you have a long run plan, and are willing to spare 2 years to work as a PPC manager, they are actually looking for someone. If 2 years are too much for you, there are many others in the field.
I will end this up with a very powerful advice I truly believe in:
Don’t just wish for money, KNOW you are going to get it.
Hi! My name is Erez Zundy and I want to share with you the fact that I have no idea what to write here about myself yet. What I do know is that I will post here anything I know about PPC. I have 3 years of experience in PPC marketing, both as an affiliate and as a PPC manager for other unique clients. In this blog I will discuss many espects of the PPC for both affiliates and PPC managers. I will tag my posts by either "affiliates" or "PPC managers", depends on the topic, so keep an eye on that. Ohh yeah, you should also follow me on twitter: 
