The process of setting up an ACE within the AdWords interface has always been fairly straightforward, following these steps:

1. Set experiment parameters (name the experiment, determine the split percentage between control and experimental changes, select a start and end date, save)
2. Define your experimental changes (depends on your goals, but could apply changes to: keyword bids, keywords, ad text, ad groups, keyword match types, ad group bids and/or keyword insertion)
3. Let your control and experimental splits run and accumulate traffic (calling an experiment without statistically valid data could leave you worse-off in the end!) You’ll know you’ve received enough data to make a statistically valid decision when 1-3 up or down arrows appear next to your experimental data when segmented in the interface, depending on the level of probability required for your test.
4. Decide if you’ll keep or reject your experimental changes and apply based on your decision (Pretty straightforward…did the experiment work? Apply changes. If it didn’t or didn’t work as you thought, you can delete those changes and make a new experiment to test something else.)

Now that we’ve refreshed ourselves on the steps to setting up and running an ACE in the interface, on to the real fun…how to make this process a little easier by using the Desktop Editor update!

Here’s the long and short of it: when you are applying changes in the interface to whichever level of the account structure you’ve decided to test, it’s moderately difficult to make bulk changes to your experimental data. However, with one of the more recent Desktop Editor updates, we gained the ability to make some changes to our ACE’s within the Editor quickly and easily. There are still some things that you must do in regards to the ACE in the interface, as the actions are not supported within the Editor at this point, but…we’ll take it!

Supported Changes in Editor

• • Apply and edit an experiment status (ex: ‘control only,’ ‘experiment only,’ ‘control and experiment’)
  • Apply and edit a default max CPC, Display Network max CPC, or max CPM bid multipliers at the ad group level
  • Apply and edit a max CPC bid multiplier at the keyword level

• • Change the maximum CPC bid and destination URL, add new keywords, change keyword text, and change keyword match type
  • Download and upload experiment status and bid multipliers in both CSV and XML import/export

Not Supported Changes in Editor

• • Creating, pausing or deleting an ACE
  • Display segmented experiment and control statistics

Certainly the addition of these features to the Editor are handy and going to make editing Experiments just a little simpler on PPC managers, but let’s review how running ACEs in your campaigns can improve account performance:

• Determine if a keyword still sees traffic volume with a decrease in max CPC to a lower position (decreased cost per lead/click)
• Test if your searchers respond more to text copy that reads “Buy Now” vs. “Shop Now” (increased CTR)
• Conduct research on a new landing page layout (increased conversion rate)

Your turn! How do you PPC Hero readers use the AdWords Campaign Experiments to find ways to tweak account performance? Share your thoughts, ideas or direct experiences in the comments section below! Thanks for reading!

Here’s a recap of all the posts we covered this week for quick reference if you need it:

Ad Testing Best Practices (Dave)

Setting Up Ad Testing (Felicia)

Implementing ad Ad Test (Sarah)

Ad Testing Challenges (Kayla)

If you have any questions, comments or additional tips about ad testing, we’d love to hear from you. Feel free to reach out to us in the comments section below. Otherwise, happy ad testing and thanks for reading!

Challenges

• Getting Started

It’s probably obvious based on the previous three installments in the series that one of the major challenges in ad testing comes with the decision to ad test in the first place. You need to follow all the best practices, set everything up correctly and then run the ad test effectively and accurately. Knowing all that work is needed to run a successful test can send some PPC managers running for the hills to focus on slightly simpler tasks. Keep in mind, those simpler tasks may keep your KPI in line for now, but eventually you will begin to see the effects of ignoring significant ad testing for higher performance in your ad groups. Trust me, it won’t be pretty. Strap on the above-mentioned hard hat and make it happen.

• Waiting It Out

We now know that allowing your ad tests to receive enough traffic to determine a true performance winner is key when it comes to carrying out this account optimization. Calling the winner with too few visits to the contenders may lead the data analyst to make a decision on what could be a statistically even fight. This is definitely hard, especially when you get that instinctual feeling that you can tell for sure which ad version is the better one for your goals. I assure you, waiting until the whole pack reaches the finish line will be in the best interest of the account (and the client). When you can show complete stats on a performance snapshot where one ad statistically beats another out, you can rest a little easier applying the tested changes across similar ad groups.

• Pulling the Trigger

You put all the effort in and determined the parameters for your ad test, applied your experimental changes and kept best practices in mind and now you have enough traffic through your variable ads to make the call. Make it! If you have followed all the steps necessary and the data shows you a winner, then you have to trust your work. This can be a very difficult step for those of us with a “What If?” mentality (I’m just as guilty, I promise!), but you have to do it. You can see through the experimental data that the account will be better for it, so just pull the trigger.

Why It’s Important to Stick with It

This is plain and simple: the results are worth it. Click-through rate contributes to Quality Score as keyword relevancy increases and an increase in Quality Score can eventually lead to cheaper click costs for your account. Who can argue with that?

If for some reason you aren’t pro-cheaper clicks, consider the back end profits. Odds are, increased CTR after ad testing to find the best messaging and/or landing page-to ad-to keyword-to search query combinations possible, will result in increased leads, conversions or revenue for you or your client’s business.

PPC Hero readers, you are now armed with all you need to get 2012 started off on the right foot when it comes to ad testing in your accounts. Check back tomorrow for the full series wrap-up and if you haven’t already, the other three installments to the series.

You know we love to hear from you with every post, so tell us: what do you find the most challenging about PPC ad testing and how do you get yourself through it? Leave your stories and ideas in the comments section below! Thanks for reading!

The Dossier

The most important part of ad testing besides following Dave’s best practices from yesterday is to identify your control ad.  This is going to be the best ad that is currently in your ad group.  Based on your goals for your account, the way you determine this can be slightly different.  If you are running an account for branding purposes only, click-through rate is a great metric to focus on.  Most accounts we have at Hanapin are focused on gaining conversions.  If this is the case, you do need to look at every metric like average position, conversion rate and number of conversions as well as if the ads have a high CTR.  Remember that a high CTR doesn’t always lead to conversions.  Lots of searchers may click and then just not convert. (Dealing with this is another issue and Rob can help you with that here!)  Be sure that you are giving all of your metrics a fair shake down before blowing up the ad associated with them.

Mission: Beat Bing

I traveled to Chicago last summer for a seminar hosted by Bing.  We asked if you could truly run an A/B test for your ads in adCenter. Their answer: the system will always pick the best ad so just “trust the system.”  Well friends, this super PPC spy doesn’t like to trust the system.  I want a plan with some results!   Again, ask yourself this…. Would Ethan Hunt trust the system?  NO!  So you shouldn’t either.  So, find your control ad by running your ad performance report and sorting out your metrics.  Write a new ad and write a duplicate of the control ad.  You will be uploading this ad again as a fresh ad.  By uploading the control again, you are giving adCenter the chance to let it choose the ad it likes the most.  There is one trick to uploading the control back into adCenter – make sure that you change something in the new control.  If you pause the old control and upload it exactly as is, adCenter thinks that it’s a duplicate ad.  Our suggestion is to add a backslash “/” to the end of the display url.

Mission: Get Google

AdWords breaks down a little easier when it comes to ad interrogations… You still need to find your control and write some new ad copy.  But ad settings in AdWords are the key.  Just set your control and newly written ads to rotate evenly and Google will take care of the rest of the dirty work.  Of course you have to do the clean up by sorting through all of the great data that you have collected, but that’s a small price to pay to gain more conversions!

Planning the Heist

Here are the quick tips for setting up your excel spreadsheets to determine your best ad performers:

1. Export data from the platform with a date range of at least 3 months.  This should give you enough data to make an informed decision.  If your ads don’t have your 200/1000 clicks or impressions, you are not ready to engage in this mission.
2. Filter by ad group so that you have all ads together.  This will make comparing them easier.
3. Create a column for ad status (new ad, permanently paused ad, control) as well as 2 columns for text length (=len(cell number)).  This will help you sort what you actually need to upload and also benchmarks all the work that you have completed!
4. Add in rows right into the spreadsheet to write your new ad.  This way you can easily drag down your campaign, ad group, display url and destination url information.

Remember to pause all current ads in the ad group before you upload your new ones!  This eliminates confusion when looking in the interface.  A quick tip on this is to pause in the editors, synch and then ad the new test in.  Since ad testing is performed in so many phases, it is wise to keep a spreadsheet of vital information.  Your benchmarks, when you started, stopped, what was paused, what was added, how long the test ran for, etc.  Any information you can add in to help you keep organized is well worth it!

Now that you have the perfect set up for your testing, find out how to implement these tests and how to evaluate your data tomorrow from Sarah.  Congratulations on a successful mission.  See?  Not so impossible after all!  This blog post will self destruct in 20 seconds… (unless you read more PPC Hero articles now!)

Hint: This isn't on our list.

It’s a new year PPC Hero readers, and that means it’s time to stop putting off all the things you promised you’d do in 2011 and really start doing them! First on your list? Ad testing for increased account performance. At least that’s where we’re starting, with the first PPC management series of 2012: How to Ad Test Using Best Practices.

You’re probably saying to yourself, “But I DO ad test!” We don’t doubt you, really. Most PPC account managers are doing some form of testing, but the staff here at PPC Hero wants to be sure our readers are implementing ad-testing strategies that are best practice moving forward with the new year.

Here’s a quick look at the topics we’ll be covering in the coming week in regards to ad testing and how to do it so you get the best results. Make sure you check back daily for the next step in the ad testing process!

Monday: General Best Practices for Ad Testing – Dave

Tuesday: Setting Up an Ad Test – Felicia

Wednesday: Running an Ad Test – Sarah

Thursday: Why Ad Testing is Important & Challenges When Testing – Kayla

Friday: Series Wrap-Up

**Thanks to Amplify for the picture!

Poor guy must've lost his conversion tracking...

The crew here at PPC Hero was fielding quite a few questions in the last few months regarding how to manage in crisis situations. Specifically, our readers wanted to know how to manage a PPC account when conversion tracking fails. We tackled that issue and several others in a series on tricky account problems in October.

Earlier this month, I wrote about how to test your broken conversion tracking and/or fix it, if possible, and I promised a follow-up post to cover how to manage for lead gen in the event this unsavory issue is plaguing your accounts. Well, here it is!

The Account Executives at Hanapin Marketing are no stranger to handling the most difficult of PPC issues and lead gen clients with broken conversion tracking have not been left out of that list. As a matter of fact, one of the largest accounts we manage here at Hanapin falls in that exact description, so how do we do it? No plan is foolproof or applicable across all accounts, but the following list of optimization strategies can certainly keep you headed in the right direction until you can solidify what works for you!

1. Stay on your negatives & SQRs. Generally speaking, when managing an account that has been using conversion tracking, the first instinct is to freak out when you lose your direct line to that data. However, this is precisely the time to get back to your basics. As a matter of fact, that’s a lot of the point of this post. If negative keyword addition and regular search query reports (SQRs) have fallen off your monthly maintenance schedule for some reason, this is the best time to get those back on a regular schedule. Not only can you find negatives to add to your account structure to weed out unwanted traffic, you can also find new query strings that you may want to begin targeting based on changes in searcher intent. You can’t find any of that information without mining a few SQRs every now and again!
2. Revisit ad testing schedule and delivery settings. You should always be ad testing in some form or another in your account, but now this optimization will become a larger cog in the machine. An increase in click-through rate is usually a sign of good things (as long as you’re remembering step number 1!) so continually enhancing ad performance when you’re without conversion tracking is a great way to increase conversion rate, even if you can’t see it. Assuming (dangerous, I know) your users are reading your ad text and choosing to click your ad, as long as your landing page offers them what they clicked on, you should be one step away from a lead submission. Write the most effective ad copy you can, determine the best copy via testing, and set your ads to rotate so you’re truly testing and you’re at least making positive changes in your account more often than not.
3. Analyze historic best placements. This can apply to nearly any metric or account element. Generally speaking, taking a hard look at highest-performing ad position, cost per click, specific managed or automatic placements on the Display Network, etc. Essentially you want to look at a long enough snapshot of historic account data and determine, based on your chosen metric, where your account had performed best for leads, conversion rate and/or cost per lead. You can then optimize to any increase or decrease you see in the chosen metric. For example: let’s say my account historically performs best at ad position 4 and I’ve lost conversion tracking this week. I pull a current keyword report and find out that 50% of my keywords have fallen to below position 4. Odds are with me that if I can optimize my keywords back to their average best performing position, leads will continue to come in at about the same rate that they were before conversion tracking was lost.
4. Get as much back end data as you can. I mentioned previously that one of our larger clients at Hanapin is a lead gen client that does not currently have conversion tracking and this is probably our first line of defense in managing through the problem. We get a weekly report of all leads received on the clients end, down to the keyword level, that we can dissect to determine individual keyword CPL and costs. I won’t get in to the details, but essentially we pull an interface keyword level report to one sheet of an Excel document, format the back end data in to another sheet of that doc and use a vlookup formula to compare the two and calculate costs per lead. This process could also be taken up a level to the ad group or campaign level if a less granular amount of information is necessary to appropriately manage the account.

There you have it! Again, this is by no means an exhaustive list of methods you can use to manage PPC for a lead gen account with no conversion tracking. It also is not a list that necessarily applies to all accounts or business verticals, so tell us what you think! Have you experienced this issue with your own or a client’s account? How did you manage differently or was your method similar? How well did you method work? Share your thoughts and ideas in the comments section below!

Step One: Tracking Indicator Icon Check

If you opted-in to the tracking indicator option (AdWords only) for your conversion page when you enabled the particular conversion type you’re checking (see screenshot below, accessible from the Conversions option in the Tools & Analysis tab drop-down menu), then you should be able to navigate to your ‘Thank You’ or final conversion URL page and simply look to see if the ‘Google Site Stats’ box is showing. If it isn’t, your conversion code is likely not placed correctly, or at all, and you either need to fix it yourself (more on that in the next step) or alert your client to the issue if they placed the code. If it is there, move to the next step. If you never opted-in to this option or are having trouble with conversion tracking in Bing, also see the next step!

Step Two: View Page Source Code

To complete this part of the test, either as your first true step or as a second step to the tracking indicator icon, all you need to do is access the live version of your ‘Thank You’ or conversion confirmation page and right-click. You’ll see a small menu of options and you’ll want to select ‘View Page Source.’ A window will open that shows you the entire coding structure for the webpage. Scroll to the bottom and check to see if your conversion code is placed directly before the final </body> tag.

If the conversion code is visible in your source code but appears higher up in the page code, it may be technically disabled by the surrounding code. In this case, simply access your page code (or alert the client if you can’t access the code) and move the conversion code to appear directly before the </body> tag. If you view the source code and can’t find your conversion code anywhere, it may need to be replaced or was not placed on the correct page.

In both these instances, you’ll want to get back in the interface and copy the conversion code to place appropriately on your confirmation page. If you have allowed this task to be handled by the client or you do not have access to the back end coding, also be sure the conversion code was not placed on another page, as you may start to see (if you aren’t already) false conversions in the interface.

You can access your standing conversion codes in AdWords from the Tools & Analysis>Conversions tab and in adCenter from your campaign-level Advanced Settings by selecting ‘Show code’ beneath the conversion tracking options.

AdWords Conversion Code Retrieval

adCenter Conversion Code Retrieval

On the other hand, if you view the source code and your conversion code is placed correctly, then it’s time to run a test conversion! Next step…

Step Three: Run A Test Conversion

Once you’ve confirmed your conversion code is placed correctly and on the right page, you’re ready to actually send through a test conversion. As a best practice, I run a test conversion anytime I set up a new account or new conversion segment to make sure I catch any initial issues as quickly as possible, but it’s especially important to revisit if you are currently or recently having conversion tracking troubles. First things first, make sure you clear your browser history and cache and enable cookies if you have them disabled normally, then complete the following:

1. Choose one of your cheapest CPC keywords and use that as your query in the appropriate search engine (if you’re having trouble with tracking in Bing, don’t Google your keyword…Bing it!).
2. Click on your populated PPC ad. This is an important step! You can’t go directly to your site and complete a conversion without first passing through a PPC ad in order to see the data in your advertising interface.
3. Submit a conversion! Depending on your client, or your business if you’re managing PPC for yourself, you may either need to complete a form with contact info or complete a purchase (lead gen vs. ecommerce). In either situation, make sure you’re prepared or that you prepare your client to handle the test conversion. If you or the client are in charge of the CMS for an ecommerce account, you’ll want to make sure the order is cancelled on the back end to keep the product from shipping or from being fully charged to the credit card you used. If you’re representing a lead gen account either for yourself or for a client, you’ll want to make sure you get removed from any email blasts or databases in the future (typical result from filling out an online contact form) so as not to “waste” resources.
4. Wait patiently, grasshopper. This is hands down the hardest part of running a test conversion…the waiting. It takes a few hours, on average, for the interface to show conversion numbers so you have to literally move on to something else and come back later. If you come back and see your conversion in the interface from your queried keyword, then you’ve found success and likely fixed your issue with moving the conversion code to it’s appropriate place in the page code. Still not seeing any triggered conversions in the interface? The most important thing to remember now is that you shouldn’t assume you’ve completely stopped pulling down leads or sales, you just can’t see them or manage your account as easily as before. The game is not over! You are more than likely still getting leads and sales, you just can’t directly give the credit to a particular keyword in the interface. I posted a couple months back about how I managed an ecommerce account without conversion tracking and will be posting later this month on how to accommodate for this issue with a lead gen client, as well (eyes open!). Your next step is to find a way to manage the account without conversion data that continues to bring in leads or sales for yourself or the client until the situation is resolved.

If I had one piece of advice for PPC managers who have or suspect they have conversion tracking problems, it would be this:

You definitely can’t throw up your hands and refuse to manage your own or your client’s PPC until conversion tracking is fixed because what if it never is? Some websites just don’t support conversion tracking and if your, or your client’s, site falls in that hole, the PPC world does not stop turning and people will continue to click on your ads unless you turn them off. Turning off your ads only means you are most assuredly not making any sales or gaining leads, rather than just not being able to attribute them to a particular keyword. Choosing to stop optimizing from lack of conversion data won’t get you anywhere but angry and bitter and will more than likely result in the loss of a client if you can’t find a way to keep going. Determine a strategy that works and that you can optimize from until the storm clouds move on. If they don’t, you’re already managing the account without it, so the transition will be much smoother!

You can also check out this troubleshooting tool from AdWords to attempt to track down your problem that way.

Let us know what you think! Have you had broken conversion tracking problems before? How did you handle, test or fix it? What did you learn that you could share? Leave your thoughts and ideas in the comments section below and as always, thanks for reading PPC Hero!

Thanks for watching, and remember: turn the setting to 1080 in youtube for a better view and check out the rest of our video blogs!

Multi-Channel Funnels were launched earlier this year and, personally, I think it’s the most valuable tool Google has released since I started workingin PPC. Before multi-channel funnels, showing clients the true value of PPC advertising was nearly impossible. Now, MCF allows PPC managers to see all how all the pieces of online marketing channels work together to create a conversion. This tool is so valuable to all of us at PPC Hero that we’ve created a guide to how to use multi-channel funnels to get insights on your PPC accounts and improve overall performance.

You can access the guide from the link below, or find in anytime on our Guides tab at the top of the page.

PPC Hero’s Guide to Google’s Multi-Channel Funnels for PPC Managers

Below is what you’ll get from the guide:

Chapter 1: Multi-Channel Funnels Basics

Chapter 2: The 5 Multi-Channel Reports

1. Overview Report
2. Assisted Conversions Report
3. Top Conversion Paths Report
4. Time Lag Report
5. Path Length Report

Chapter 3: Channel Groupings

• Basic Channel Grouping
• Custom Channel Groupings
• 3 Steps to Creating a Custom Channel Grouping

Chapter 4: 5 PPC Questions To Answer Using MCF

Chapter 5: Improving PPC Performance With Multi-Channel Funnels

• Find Valuable Keywords
• Allocate Spend to Increase Conversions
• Assess Display Network Placements

As Google continues to update MCF features, we’ll update this guide as well to provide you the most current information.

Let us know how you’ve been using MCF for your PPC accounts below!

Benefits

All of AdWords’ ad extensions are touted as tools to help you increase CTR, but how can location extensions in particular aid in your advertising? The biggest reasons to use location extensions are simple: increased relevancy and effectiveness. If you have location extensions enabled in your accounts, when someone searches for a service or product that you offer and is relatively close to your physical location, they may see a pop out of your business name, location and phone number. Seeing that you are close and easy to find, they may be more likely to shop or do business with you!

Where Can They Show & What Do They Look Like

Location extensions can show on either the Search or Display networks and will trigger on mobile device searches, as well. Dependent on the particular format of a particular website or whether or not the search was completed on a Search Partner’s site, etc., a pop-out map showing your location may show up along with your text ad. Location ad extensions usually look like this:

Your ad will populate as usual, but with extended information showing your particular brick and mortar location, as you can see here with the ‘Cheers’ example. Now your searcher knows you are within a reasonable distance to their location, so they are more likely to visit your location than a competitor who doesn’t have a location listed. Should your searcher be looking for you on a mobile device, your address may be clickable for directions directly on their device.  Keep in mind, if you also have a phone number listed in your location extension, you could opt-in to call metrics and give your mobile searchers a click-to-call option (more on call extensions in Abby’s post here!).

How to Implement

You can enable location extensions fairly quickly within the AdWords interface. Once you are logged in to your account, toggle to the ‘Ad extensions’ tab. Here you’ll see an option to select which extension you want to work with from a drop-down menu:

Once you have selected to add a new location extension, you have the option to either manual enter an address for your location or use an address from your Google Places account, if you have one (and you should). If you select the manual entry option, you’ll be prompted to select which campaign you want to apply the extension to, and then will see a drop-down box to select the extension you want to use. If there isn’t one already present in the account, you’ll see an option to add a new extension and the space to do that will look like this:

As you can see, there are open boxes for you to fill in with you location information, and then select a map icon and/or business image to complement your ad. Click ‘Save’ and you’re done!

Probably one of the nicer elements of location extensions is that you can apply the same or multiple addresses to all campaigns within your account. Once a location extension has been added to the interface, you can go back and select other campaigns to apply that existing extension to. However, keep in mind if you share a location extension with multiple campaigns, making a change to one of those location extensions will apply that change across all campaigns using that extension. You can also apply multiple location extensions to a single campaign, but know that you have to meet the following criteria in order for multiple addresses to show with your ad at one time:

• Appear in the top ad position on Google.com
• Be a high-quality ad
• Your campaign is linked to a Google Places account
• You are the primary business owner, and
• Your Google Places account contains at least one location in a given city/area

Ad-Level Location Extensions

The commonplace practice for location extensions is to add them on the campaign level, however there is an option to apply location extensions at the ad level for a more targeted user-experience. Ad-level location extensions are a single address linked to a single ad and they tend to serve less often than those location extensions added on the campaign level as they will only show when the searcher is within the target radius set for that address or if the searcher queries one of your keywords and a location term that is located near your address. As another note, your ad will never show without the location extension if it’s added on the ad level, so be sure no matter who triggers your ad, your location in that ad will be relevant to the searcher.

Well, that’s that! You’ve officially received a 101 lesson in location ad extensions! If you haven’t implemented them yet, give it a go and let us know your results! If you are already using location extensions to improve account performance, tell us how it’s been going, and any tips or tricks you’d like to share with our loyal readers, in our comments section below.