Google AdWords’ robust remarketing feature can enhance and expand your PPC campaign. This article will focus on seven high-level strategies that you can employ to bring users back to your website using remarketing after they’ve made their initial visit.

Remarketing: Definition & Basics

When someone visits your website, you can drop a tracking cookie onto their computer. Later, when that individual is viewing other websites that utilize Google AdSense, you can display your PPC ad in front of that user again via the Google AdWords Display Network (GDN).

The objective of this type of targeting is to encourage the user to return to your website – and hopefully convert!

Target Segment Strategies

Remarketing is extremely flexible and you can get tremendously precise with your targeting. You can target users who visit specific pages on your website.

For example, consider this list of targeting strategies:

1. Visits to your homepage: This is your broadest targeting method. You can deliver GDN ads to anyone who visits your homepage.
2. Visits to specific product pages: If you’re an ecommerce client, you can target users who visit specific products on your website. Or if you offer a variety of different services, you can target users for each service they visit.
3. Visits to your landing pages: More than likely, visitors to your landing page will come from PPC. You can retarget these individuals in an effort to gain more value from that initial click.
4. Visits to your shopping cart: If a visitor goes all the way through your website, looks at your products, and actually places one or more items in their shopping cart – they are pretty engaged. You can target users who use your shopping cart but don’t purchase.
5. Visits to your confirmation page: Does your product have a high propensity for reorders? You can target users who visit the purchase confirmation page. You can encourage your previous customers to purchase again by bringing them back to your website with remarketing.
6. Visits to your FAQ/Contact page: If a user looks for additional information on your site, such as your FAQ page or contact form, they have exhibited a high level of interest because they are actively looking for answers. However, if they have to search deep into your website’s content, they may not find what they’re looking for. You can bring these specific users back to your site and help them convert.
7. Visits to your free trial confirmation page: If you offer any type of pre-conversion action, such as a free trial or a whitepaper download, you can target users who complete this initial engagement action. For example, if you offer a 30-day free trial of your product, you can deliver ads to individual who are in this trial period and encourage them to purchase your product.

These are just a few strategies that work. Your remarketing options are as unique as the structure of your website.

How Can These Targeting Segmentations Apply to Your Website?

Ask yourself these questions:

• Why would someone leave your website before converting?
• What does it mean if a user leaves your website on a specific page?
• What would you say to these abandoned visitors to get them back, and how would you convince them to convert?

Mediate on these questions for now. Remember, you have numerous opportunities to make a second impression. But since your first impression didn’t pull the visitor in enough to convert – let’s make the second one count!

Next time: ad messaging tactics and landing page strategies that can help you get the most out of remarketing. See you then.

This article was originally posted on SearchEngineWatch.com on May 13, 2011.

It’s easy to assume that placement targeting is as simple as hand-selecting the sites you want your ad to appear on and there ends the process. This is far from the truth. In fact, placement targeting success requires that you understand how placement ads compete for position on display sites and how your bids and quality score will decide your fate.

One Ad vs. Everyone Else’s Ads

For many advertisers, this may be a new concept, so brace yourself. When you place ads on the Display Network through placement targeting, your ads will be placed differently than if you were running an automatic keyword targeted campaign.

For the “auto” campaign, your ads will compete for the top spot based on Ad Rank (bid X quality score). The winner gets the number one spot and the rest of the ads appear in positions number two, number three, etc., depending on the size of the ad unit.

Things work a little differently when you run the same ads through a placement targeted campaign. The placement targeted ads and “auto” ads still compete for the top spot based on Ad Rank, but if the placement targeted ad wins — not only does it take the number one spot, but it will be the only ad in that ad unit!

What This Means for You

As the examples at left show, using placement targeting gives your ad a huge advantage for increasing CTR and conversions (assuming you claim the top spot). Bumping your competition entirely out of the picture is what every PPC advertiser dreams of. The effect is even more visible when an ad unit designed for three or more ads only displays a single placement targeted ad.

Don’t be misled by the apparent promise of increased CTR and conversions. Yes, that can and will happen if you properly manage your placement campaigns. As you might imagine, achieving the number one spot can be a challenge.

I’ve seen it happen in my own accounts and heard other advertisers discuss the same phenomenon: You run an “auto” keyword targeted display campaign and discover that a handful of sites are generating a ton of clicks and conversions. You decide to put these into a placement targeted campaign. To your dismay, after making the switch these sites seem to all but stop working!

What happened was your bid and quality score weren’t high enough to achieve an Ad Rank capable of winning the top spot. This resulted in your ad being displayed in a secondary ad unit or not at all.

What You Need to Do

I’m sure you’re already drawing some logical conclusions as to how you can ensure your placement targeted ads have a fighting chance to perform. Because your ad’s position will be determined by Ad Rank, we’ll break this down by the two primary pieces: bid and quality score.

Bid

The most important strategy for ensuring your placement targeted campaigns succeed is to increase your bids.

In a scenario where you’ve discovered a site through your “auto” keyword targeted display campaign, you already have a baseline CPC bid that works. When you move that site into your placement targeted campaign, assume that you’ll need to set the placement bid between 10 and 15 percent higher than the “auto” campaign’s max CPC. You may find that even this bid increase isn’t enough — in which case implement another bid increase test to attempt increasing your Ad Rank.

If you’re starting a placement targeted campaign from scratch, you’ll have to play the testing game by setting a bid, reviewing performance, and adjusting as needed.

Quality Score

No one escapes quality score! Quality score is derived from CTR and “other factors” related to relevancy. As such, CTR is your primary point of attack.

If you discover a site through an “auto” keyword targeted campaign and move it to a placement targeted campaign — move the best performing ad already associated with it. Obviously, that ad is generating results, so use it as a launching point.

For all placements, continue practicing your ad testing best practices to write ads that improve CTR and your other target KPIs.

Originally posted June 25, 2010 on searchenginewatch.com

While I could wax poetic about the content network, today I’ll simply focus on tools and strategies for placement targeting that will lead you to greater PPC success!

What is Placement Targeting?

Google’s content network version 1.0 was a system that placed your ads on websites based on the theme of your keyword lists and your ad copy. There was no way to dictate specific sites you wanted to target, you could only block those sites that were not working. This system is still employed today, but now it’s called “Automatic Placements” in AdWords, and many advertisers refer to this as “keyword targeting” for content.

Content network 2.0 brought about placement targeting — labeled as “managed placements” in AdWords. This system allows you to pick specific websites that are a part of the content network and individually bid on those sites for placement. Because you’re hand-selecting the sites to place your ads on, you don’t use keywords for targeting purposes.

If managed properly, placement targeting is an effective way of leveraging the content network for pinpoint targeted traffic and conversions.

Fit Placement Targeting Into Your AdWords Strategy

Finding success with placement targeting requires a shift in strategy from traditional content network targeting. The first step to doing this is to literally fit placement targeting into your AdWords strategy:

1. If you haven’t done so already, create separate campaigns for search network and content network targeting. This is PPC 101, but I’m offering up this reminder just in case.
2. Now take it one step farther — separate your content network efforts into unique campaigns for “managed” (placement targeting) and “automatic” (keyword targeting). You can alter these settings at the campaign level using the check boxes seen here:

Tools for Finding Relevant Sites to Target

• Placement Performance Reports: The first place to look for finding websites for your placement targeting campaign is already in your AdWords account! If you’ve been running automatic, keyword-targeted content campaigns, you have a goldmine of performance data. Run the placement performance report and create a list of those sites that are performing best and add those to your new placement targeting campaign.
• Google AdWords Placement Tool: Google provide a powerful tool to search their internal database of available Content Network sites in AdWords under the Opportunities tab (see image below). You can search either by keyword(s) or by entering a website that Google will crawl and use to find relevant sites. When performing keyword searches, limit your search to a single keyword if possible. Multiple-keyword searches with this tool tends to confuse Google and generates muddled results. No matter how you search, make sure you review the sites you choose to target to ensure they are relevant (yes, Google is not perfect).
• Auxiliary Tools: Placement targeting has generated a cottage industry of tools to find sites to target. Some of my favorites are Shoemoney Tools’ AdSense Crawler, The Placement Locator, and Content Bully.

No matter how you find websites for content network placement targeting, play it smart. Set reasonable CPC bids and monitor your performance. Ultimately, by taking the power of the content network into your own hands, you stand the chance to boost click traffic and increase relevant, affordable conversions.

Originally posted May 28, 2010 on searchenginewatch.com.

Learn more about advertising on Google’s Display Network – download David Szetela’s book free!

Frequently a conversion happens after the customer has visited the site more than once. This is especially true for sites that sell high-priced consumer goods, or complex technical solutions. The first visit may have been elicited by a PPC ad, resulting from a broad search query like “digital cameras,” or a banner ad on a content network. Subsequent visits may result from clicks on natural search results, and/or PPC ads that are displayed as a result of progressively more-specific search terms.

The final conversion often happens following a brand- or site-specific search on a query like “Buy EOS Rebel XSi EF-S” or “B&H Photo.” But here’s the problem: the conversion is attributed to the most recent site visit. So the keyword that results in the ultimate conversion is highly valued by the PPC advertiser, all previous visits are disregarded, and the PPC keywords that elicited those earlier visits are undervalued.

This can lead to self-defeating bid management; the broad terms that send potential buyers to the site receive low bid prices, or worse, are shut off, since they don’t seem to be resulting in conversions. This short-sightedness afflicts advertisers using manual bid management strategies as well as most automated bid management software available.

Former Google employee Adam Goldberg is trying to lead the charge toward remedying this serious defficiency industry-wide. His company, ClearSaleing, offers analytics technology that lets advertisers track all of the site visits that lead up to the conversion, and attribute value to each action in the path.

That’s why today’s Search Marketing Now webcast, “Measuring an Ad’s Value: A Forum Discussion,” is a must-attend. Adam will lead a forum discussion intended to, in Adam’s words:

“…bring together the online marketing and advertising minds to work together as a community to help collectively identify, evaluate, vet and ultimately recommend the best attribution valuation practices and methodologies.”

We share Adam’s hope that the discussion will lead to better analytical tools from the search engines, and better bid management tools, that will incorporate attribution management that enables advertisers to make fully-informed ad investment decisions.

We’ll be participating in today’s forum, and we hope you will be, too.

The article references three files used to illustrate the steps involved – you can download them here:

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Google just released this excellent overview of the top publishers in their Content Network – including powerhouses like the New York Times, Forbes, Popular Mechanics, Glamour, the Wall Street Journal (hey, didn’t Microsoft grab them yesterday?), TV Guide, Discover, Martha Stewart, Oxygen, HGTV, Monster, FHM, Rolling Stone, The LA Times, Salon.com, CNN.com, LinkedIn, ESPN, Wired, PC Magazine, TechCrunch, TeenVogue, Travel+Leisure, Reader’s Digest, and many, many other prominent publishers.

No wonder traditional publishers are terrified of the big GOOG.

Today they announced another move in this direction: Content ads will appear on Wall Street Journal digital sites – a huge coup.

Here’s Microsoft’s announcement – together with tips for using their Content network. last year I interviewed Microsoft execs about their Content matching algorithm, and they told me theirs works differently than Google’s and Yahoo’s. There’s some evidence of that below – apparently separate keyword bids affect the placement of Content ads. We’ll follow up to get more info from Microsoft, and I’ll write about it in the Content Advertising column.

Microsoft and Wall Street Journal Digital Network team up on contextual and paid search advertising

We’re pleased to announce that on Tuesday, January 29, 2008, Microsoft and The Wall Street Journal Digital Network reached an agreement in which Microsoft will become the exclusive provider of contextual and paid search ads for The Wall Street Journal Digital Network (WSJDN), which includes WSJ.com, Barrons.com, Marketwatch.com, allthingsd.com along with other sites.

WSJDN reaches a savvy worldwide audience of over 20 million unique users and serves over 330 million page views per month on its sites specific to the highly sought-after financial services audience for advertisers.

This agreement marks an exciting increase in reach and relevance for adCenter customers bidding on financial services keywords – you asked for more volume, now you got it! Contextual advertising will automatically begin on the WSJDN starting in February 2008. If you are already an adCenter customer who is opted in to Content Ads, your ads will automatically be extended to the WSJDN at that time. Timing for Paid Search advertising on WSJDN is still being determined.

More about Microsoft Content Ads ^Beta

For those of you new to Microsoft Content Ads ^Beta, it’s an advertising offering available in the U.S. that places content-targeted advertisements on relevant web pages, delivering relevant ads to the right people at the right time on the quality Microsoft network, giving you better control over distribution and budget. Microsoft Content Ads is the perfect opportunity to potentially increase your adCenter impressions and clicks as we expand our network of participating sites.

If you’re not using Content Ads, now’s the perfect time to start, so you can reach financially-minded consumers on top sites like wsj.com, msn money, barrons.com, marketwatch.com, etc.

WSJDN, along with our strong audience on MSN Money and syndicated partners such as CNBC.com and EDGAR Online, makes the extended Microsoft network one of the largest financial vertical networks for advertisers.

If you are currently using Content Ads, be sure to keep an eye on your budget to allow for any additional clicks you may see from the WSJDN inventory increase.

Content Ads benefits include:

Control

• Easily extend your Microsoft adCenter search campaigns to the Microsoft content network.
• Manage your campaigns with distribution and pricing controls.

Relevance

• Access to more clicks via technology that delivers relevant ads at the right time.
• All of the targeting features of adCenter search are available to help you connect better with your customers.

Quality

• Exclusive availability to highly-valued content pages on the Microsoft network.

How adCenter delivers a relevant ad

Leveraging years of Microsoft research and technology, adCenter analyzes the content of a webpage to determine its meaning and then matches relevant keyword-targeted ads to display on the webpage.

For example, if you visit a webpage about travelling in the Cascade mountain range, our technology knows that it’s not a page about waterfalls or soap. The result? You get relevant ads delivered on relevant web pages.

How to control your Content Ads

Distribution Control: You can choose between Hybrid ad groups or Content-Only and Search-Only ad groups.

• Hybrid ad groups – this default setting is just a click away allowing you to run the same ads on both Live Search and content pages.
• Content and Search ad groups – this allows you to create a unique destination URL or have content-specific ad creative for each type of campaign.

Pricing Control: Content Ads uses the same bid structure as Search Ads. You can set different bid prices for content clicks by using the Advanced Bidding function at both the ad group and keyword level.

Reporting Control: Advanced reporting features allow you to see exactly how their ads are performing by distribution channel so they can make necessary adjustments.

The Content Ads network

Content Ads are text ads displayed next to relevant content on quality Microsoft-owned websites, such as MSN Money, MSN Entertainment, and Fox Sports as well as participating partner Web sites such as the newly announced WSJDN which includes WSJ.com, Barrons.com, Marketwatch.com, and other sites. Now you can list your business on MSN’s high traffic editorial pages – ad space that was exclusively reserved for limited advertisers.

Content Ads tips – get more out of your Content Ads campaigns by:

• Increasing your bids: start with competitive bids to position your ad to appear. You can then use conversion tracking to understand how traffic converts with your products/services and adjust your bids as needed.
• Monitoring your ROI with conversion tracking: tracking your ROI with adCenter conversion tracking allows you to regulate competitive bidding and adjust your bids as needed.
• Writing compelling ad copy: Since users are not actively searching for products or services during a contextual ad experience, ad copy should be customized to attract a more passive audience.

Content Ads resources

• Visit advertising.microsoft.com to learn more.
• Check out the Content Ads webinar.
• View the Content Ads FAQ.