Creating Account, Campaign and Ad Group Level Reports

So, first and foremost, to create a report from the Campaigns tab you need to click on the arrow in the tool bar below the navigation tabs. This will then give you your download options, and a chance to name your report. Remember that specific names will help you later, so try not to use the generic default names. You will also have the ability to choose a Segment (ie: network, certain time frame, click type, device) to help you filter the data.

It is important to note here that should you download a report upon logging in, the data included in the report will represent your default settings. This means that your date range will automatically be the last 30 days, and the campaigns or ad groups you see on the screen will be in the report. The date is certainly something to think about, because you cannot edit this field after the report is created without creating a similar report, and running it as a fresh template.

In order to filter your results, you will need to actually set and apply a filter, then download the report. The filter system is fairly straightforward, just remember that they follow AND logic, so the criteria that you set will need to apply for results to show up. For example, if you say Status = Eligible and Avg. Position is better than 3, only the items that match BOTH criteria will be included in your filter.

So once you’ve created your report, where do they go? On the left hand side of the screen you will see a list of all of you campaigns, and at the bottom there is a link called Control panel and library. Click on this link, and you will be taken to a list of all of the reports that you’ve created. Unlike the old reporting interface, you aren’t limited to seeing only the last 15 reports run (thank you Google!). You will quickly see that the more specific your naming conventions, the better, especially when you have three that say “Campaign report”, so as I said before, keep that in mind when creating a new report.

Editing Your Reports

The following fields can be edited from the control panel page:

1. Report Name – Simply type in a new name.
2. Format – You can choose from a variety of formats such as .csv, .pdf, and .xml.
3. Email – Depending on the report, different people may need to see the data, so you can choose to email just yourself, all account users, or no one at all.
4. Frequency – Each report is set by default to only run once. However, you can choose to run it daily, the first day of the month, or the same day of the week that you originally ran the report on (for example, a report I create today can be set to run every Wednesday).

Once your reports are created you can choose to run them immediately, or create a similar report. As stated earlier, should you want to set a custom time frame, you will need to create a similar report, change the date range from the original report, and run a new one.

Reports Available On The Campaigns Tab

Not all of the reports from the original reports tab are available yet on the campaigns tab. However, the following reports are already available, and just like before they will show you the following:

1. Account Reports – Summary of your entire account data to give you a high level idea of performance.
2. Ad Reports – Metrics relating to text, image, video, mobile, and local business ads.
3. Ad Group Reports – Data pertaining to your ad groups across every campaign.
4. Campaign Reports – Data pertaining to the campaigns in your account.
5. Keyword Reports – Data pertaining to the performance of all of the keywords across every campaign and ad group.
6. Placement Reports – Data pertaining to the performance of the display network (previously known as the content network).

Though the keyword, ad, and placement reports are available on the campaigns tab, they are also still available on the reports tab, but knowing that Google is moving toward reporting from the campaigns tab, I would recommend getting to know the new process to help alleviate future learning curve headaches.

The Dimensions Tab

The final part of creating new reports from the Campaigns tab is the dimensions tab. If it is not already showing in the interface when you log in, click on the down arrow directly to the right of the Ad Extensions tab, and you will see a check box next to the Dimensions Tab option. By checking that box, the Dimensions Tab will be added to your interface for future use.

So what is the dimensions tab for? It is used to help you create reports that require larger amounts of data. You may notice that if you set your time range back to far on the campaigns tab, and try to download a report, say on the day level, it will tell you that the report cannot be created. In order to resolve this issue, you need to create the report from the Dimensions tab.

From here you can create reports for various time periods such as Day of Week, Day, Week, Month, Quarter, Year, and Hour of Day. You can also edit the columns that you are included so you can extend or eliminate certain metrics to make the report as customized as you want.

All in all, the new reporting system should be helpful, and I hope that it will eventually streamline the process for gathering data for various reports, so hang in there, and keep trying different filters and segments!

Generally speaking, the higher your keywords’ Quality Scores, the more Google will like you. And the more Google likes you, the less it’ll charge you for your ads to appear in strong positions in the SERPs.

But there a few instances when low-Quality-Score keywords might actually be a good thing. Here are three situations when it’s OK to have low-Quality Score keywords:

1. The keywords are bringing you a high return on investment.

Your keywords’ Quality Scores may be below 4 or 5 (on a scale of 1 to 10), but if their associated ad is achieving a large net profit, you might want to tolerate those low Quality Score keywords. While your ad might be a little lower in the search results than you’d like, you are making good money.

One possible explanation for your situation is that you have a low click-through rate, but a high conversion rate. Not a ton of people are clicking on your ad, but those who are are buying your product or registering for your free download. That must mean your ad copy is highly relevant to your offering.

2. The keywords are valuable for branding.

Maybe you’ve surveyed customers to see what keywords they think best describe your product or service. But for some reason, some of those keywords have low Quality Scores in your advertising campaign. You may not want to remove those keywords if you feel they are serving a significant branding purpose.

Even though your click-through rates might be low, at least your ads are informing viewers about what you offer. And maybe those people are coming back at a later time to convert.

One way to measure whether or not people are coming back is by looking at your view-through conversion statistics in your AdWords account. Your view-through conversion rate, for example, tells you the percentage of users who viewed an ad and neglected to click on it, but within 30 days went to the ad’s associated landing page and undertook the desired action.

3. You are just starting an AdWords campaign.

If you are just starting an AdWords campaign, it’s understandable that you have low-Quality-Score keywords. You are still learning about optimizing ads and landing pages, and have yet to put all your knowledge into practice. While some people might wish all their keywords had high Quality Scores from the start, others might see the benefit of not having a perfect campaign right away.

Not having perfect Quality Scores initially means you will develop the good habit of doing your research and tweaking your campaign. If Google ever changes its Quality Score formula, or if you decide to advertise with another search engine, you will be well positioned to handle these changes. You will seek out information, and improve your campaign. But if you are used to having perfect Quality Scores that don’t require any effort, you will have a tough time adapting to new Quality Score rules.

About the Author

Christine Laubenstein is a Marketing Associate at WordStream, a provider of an advanced pay-per-click tool suite, designed to improve the performance of pay-per-click keywords in your AdWords campaign.

Network

Levels where you can see this segment:

• Campaign
• Ad Group

The information you will see:

The network segment allows you to view data across Search, Search partners, and the Display Network. Of course we strongly recommend keeping your search and display campaigns separate, so this is not only a good way to see the data in a comparison view, it helps you quickly identify any campaigns and ad groups that are still showing across all networks.

Click Type

Levels where you can see this segment:

• Campaign
• Ad Group
• Keyword

The information you will see:

There are two sections in the click type segment: URL clicks and Calls.

URL clicks are defined in the interface as:

The number of all clicks on ads with a display or Destination URL leading to your website. These clicks were received on the Google Network over the date range you’re viewing for a given ad group, campaign, or account.

Calls are defined in the interface as:

The number of phone calls initiated from a click on your ads on the Mobile Network over the date range you’re viewing (when those ads displayed a click-to-call phone number). Since some ads may display both a Destination URL and a click-to-call phone number, impression counts for these ads may not reconcile within this table.

This information is helpful, because as you know by now mobile marketing is growing quickly, so you will be able to identify the campaigns, ad groups and keywords that generate call clicks, and  use that information to help mold your overall mobile marketing strategy.

Device

Levels where you can see this segment:

• Campaign
• Ad Group
• Keyword

The information you will see:

The device segment breaks up your data between computers and mobile devices with full browsers so you can determine how your customers are viewing your ads.

Computers are defined in the interface as:

This row reflects activity for your ads received via desktop and laptop computers on the Google Network over the date range you’re viewing.

Calls are defined in the interface as:

This row reflects activity for your ads received via mobile devices enabled with full browser capability on the Google Network over the date range you’re viewing.

It is important to note here that mobile devices have full browser capability, so keep that in mind as you are analyzing the data. You should also be aware that the data shown in this segment is not available prior to June 3, 2009.

Experiment

Levels where you can see this segment:

• Campaign
• Ad Group
• Keyword

The information you will see:

If you are running an experiment (see Erin’s post on setting up experiments if you haven’t already done so), this is the segment you will use to view the results as it is running. The rows are broken up into the Control and the Experiment (both set at the percentage you decided when creating the experiment). The clicks, impressions, CTR, average CPC, cost, average position, conversions, conversion rate, and cost/conversion will all show for each row. Once the experiment gathers enough data, you will also be able to view the effects of your experiment, and blue arrows will appear next to each metric to show you whether your experiment has caused an increase or decrease compared to the control.

Search terms match type

Levels where you can see this segment:

• Keyword

The information you will see:

This segment breaks out the data by match type as the name suggests. Though each match type is represented for each keyword, if you have phrase and exact match keywords in the account, data will only show for the proper row. However, data for all three rows is populated when you are looking at the broad match row, so this is a very convenient way to get a quick overview of the keyword’s success so you don’t have to look at them individually. From here you can easily identify which match type drives impressions, clicks, and conversions, as well as those that are costing you money without giving you a good return.

Day

Levels where you can see this segment:

• Campaign
• Ad Group
• Keyword

The information you will see:

Metrics for each campaign, ad group, and keyword are broken out by date in this view. I use this data to help determine if there are days of the week where I am hitting my daily caps, or that my conversions are higher, and I am able to adjust daily spend limits and ad scheduling accordingly so I am getting the most out of each day.

Week

Levels where you can see this segment:

• Campaign
• Ad Group
• Keyword

The information you will see:

Like the day view, the data is broken out by week. I use this data to help me identify weekly patterns throughout the month so I can make adjustments accordingly. For example, one of our clients has a higher level of clicks and conversions at the beginning of the month, so I know that I can open up my daily spends and bids more at the beginning of the month to maximize our conversions, and then pull things back mid-month without sacrificing additional leads.

Month

Levels where you can see this segment:

• Campaign
• Ad Group
• Keyword

The information you will see:

Like the other time segments, the month view shows you data by month. This is helpful when you are trying to identify seasonal trends, or compare year over year data to track your progress.

Quarter

Levels where you can see this segment:

• Campaign
• Ad Group
• Keyword

The information you will see:

As you would expect, the quarterly view is also good for trending and comparative data. It is also useful for budget projections, and can be given to clients so they have a high level view of the account throughout the year for benchmarking.

Year

Levels where you can see this segment:

• Campaign
• Ad Group
• Keyword

The information you will see:

Similar to the quarterly view, the yearly data is most helpful when tracking progress at a high level, and creating benchmarks.

Day of the week

Levels where you can see this segment:

• Campaign
• Ad Group
• Keyword

The information you will see:

The data is broken out by day of the week, so you can identify the days that have the best and worst performance. You can couple this data with the daily view to ensure that your ad scheduling is appropriately set so you can save your budget when conversion rates tend to be lower, and boost bids when you know you have a higher return.

Just over a month ago, I launched several experiments testing what keyword bid differences would do to my performance. I have had many conversations with one particular client where I have been asked, “If we give you an unlimited budget, can you get more conversions?” In other words, is the market saturated and we are getting all that we can or is there an opportunity by spending more money, to get additional conversions. It is not often that a client is willing to give you as much money as you can spend, so I naturally took on the challenge – does spending more really get me more or does it just drive up costs?

The Google Experiment was the best tool for this test as it allowed me to keep tabs on the data for the “control” or for what bids were at now. What the experiment tool does is split traffic between your control group and what you are testing. So I took one campaign and set up an experiment that would raise all keyword bids by 10%. My hope was that this would place my client in a slightly higher position, allowing better visibility and more leads. My concern was that not only would I have this additional visibility, but my spend would also increase resulting in a much higher cost per lead.

I went under the “Settings tab” and set up the basics for the experiment. I ran it for a total of 30-days as this campaign typically has enough traffic that after 30-days I would have enough data to make a decision. I also set the traffic settings to a 50/50 split so 50% of my traffic went through at the control keyword bid and 50% went through with the slightly higher experiment bid.

As I went through the experiment period, I discovered a few tips that I would like to pass along:

AdWords Editor does not like experiments. If you use the AdWords Editor to make bulk changes to your account, make sure you don’t try to adjust campaigns running an experiment. The editor tool won’t let you upload your changes which is a good thing so you don’t ruin the experiment, but frustrating if you don’t know what the error message means. It will not tell you that you are running and experiment and can’t update the campaign but rather give you a general error message when you try and post changes to the account.

“AdWords Editor received an error from AdWords that it does not recognize. This probably means that the version of AdWords Editor that you are running is out-of-date; please check to see if a new version is now available. (Error number: 211)”

This does not mean you need a new version of AdWords Editor, it just means that you likely have changes to an experiment or other auto tool like conversion optimizer and AdWords Editor doesn’t know what to do. Quick solution – revert the changes you tried to make to the experiment campaign and then try and post. Everything should work just fine.

Experiments end on your end date, that is it. You don’t get a courtesy message from Google reminding you that your experiment has ended. It just stops running and all of your traffic then goes back to your “pre-experiment” settings. Don’t forget to make a note of your end date and go back to review your results.

If you don’t want to apply all the changes, you have to do them manually. So your experiment ended and you saw that increasing bids by 10% is what you should do for all your keywords. To make this change, hit the “Apply: launch changes fully” button in the experiments section on the settings tab and you are done. If you only want to apply the change to certain keywords, you have to do that manually for each keyword, similar to how you would make a bid change. At some point this may become a little easier to do (especially if it is integrated in AdWords Editor) but for now you have to do it the old fashioned way – one at a time.

Once you launch or delete the experiment changes, your data is gone. Once you make the decision to either apply all of your changes or to delete the experiment, all of the data you collected is gone. Make sure you take screen grabs in case you want to refer to it in the future.

So, how did my experiment turn out?

Overall the results were in line with what I suspected but the benefit is having actual data to show how the keyword performed at each of the bid levels. Overall, the 10% keyword bid increase did bring up my position slightly and for the most part that meant additional clicks but along with it came a higher spend. On some of my keywords, my click through rate also increased which I expected to see with the additional clicks.

See the experiment data below for Keyword #1.  The little blue arrows next to a data point shows if the data is statistically significant, meaning the results are unlikely to have occurred by chance. For Keyword #1, you can see the increase in clicks and spend but what my client really is concerned about are the conversions. Although I gained 5 additional conversions over the control, I spent significantly more, almost doubling my cost per lead. Based on my goals for the account, the additional number of conversions are so few compared to the spend increase, that this tells me it isn’t worth increasing our bids for this campaign.  We may get a few more conversions but we will spend significantly more driving up our overall cost per lead much higher than goal.

At the end of the day, the Google Experiments tool is well worth the five minutes it takes to set it up. I have several additional experiments running and am seeing slightly different results in each one – make sure you try the same experiment within different campaigns to see if the performance results are really tied to the brand as a whole or just a campaign. The more you test, the more data you will have to make sure your campaigns are performing at their best.

Google AdWords has been working on new features to help manage tests with an initiative called Adwords Campaign Experiments or ACE.  It is still in Beta, but is now available for some users to test out for themselves. If this is something you want to join, simply submit your AdWords Customer ID for consideration. You won’t get an email saying you have been granted access, so check your Settings tab after a few days to see if the option has been added. If access has been added to your account, it will be under Advanced Settings and labeled as “Experiment”.So, you were able to get access to the new tool – now what? Get ready to start testing! The Experiments feature works on existing campaigns, so you can make adjustments and compare it to your control group. To get started, click on the Experiment link in the Setting tab. You will need to enter a name for the test, start date and end date. The default testing time period is 30-days, so make sure you have enough traffic coming into the campaign to provide results in that time period. If your traffic levels are lower, consider extending the test for a longer time period to make sure you get enough data to make an accurate conclusion. You also can select the percentage of exposure directed to your experiment vs. the control campaign. The default is a 50/50 split, with 50% of the time your control being used and the other 50%, your test. This is the recommended setting but if you are testing something significant that may greatly change your overall spend or performance, you may want to allocate slightly less towards the experiment. For instance if your experiment is based on increasing your keyword bid by 60%, you may want to direct a smaller portion of your budget to your experiment in order to help control overall spend.

At this time you can experiment with keyword bids, keywords, ad text, ad groups, keyword match types, ad group bids and keyword insertion. Within the content network, you can also test bids on managed placements, new placements, additional keywords, ad text or display ads, new ad groups, and keyword bids. Basically, you can test anything besides campaign settings. Your current campaigns settings including geo-targeting and ad rotation will be applied to your test so everything is consistent.

Once you set up your experiment on the settings tab, you can now adjust the elements you want to test. Make sure you think about your strategy and approach prior to making any changes so you will gain valuable information from the experiment. Be sure you are only testing one element per experiment so the data is statistically significant and can be attributed to a specific change.

Let’s say for your experiment, you want to bid up on keywords to see if a higher placement will get you additional conversions. To do this, go to the keywords tab within the campaign that has the experiment set and you should see all of your keywords with two rows below. One row allows you to set a bid for the Control and one for Experiment. If you do not see this, go to the Segment button (just below the Settings tab) and select “Experiment” – this will bring in the additional rows needed to manage bids separately. To adjust bids, click on the bid in the experiment line item and then adjust either up or down by the percentage you want it to change by. For instance you may want to see if you get additional conversions by setting your bids 20% higher than the control.

Maybe instead of keyword bids, you want to test a new set of keywords against ones currently in the account. To add these in, go to the Keywords tab at the top. Add in the keywords as you normally would, BUT make sure you select the “Add as experiment only keywords” check box at the bottom before hitting save. This will put the new keywords into the experiment group and will not add them to the control group.

There are a lot of different options you can choose from when setting up your experiment – try clicking on the beaker to the left of the keyword and you can determine if a keyword should run in only the Control group, only the Experiment group or both. Again, be sure not to test more than one thing at once, you can always run additional experiments later to see if other changes positively impact your account.

Your test it set up and running, now what? Watch and observe. Try not to make any adjustments to that campaign during the time period in order to make sure the data you are gathering is accurate. You will see in the data lines, small arrows that show the difference between the control and experiment. If data is statistically significant you will see multiple arrows to help flag the information.

Your experiment will automatically end on the date you selected, so there is no need for you to do anything more except watch the account. Depending on the change, you may find that the data you are seeing is statistically significant in a shorter amount of time so make sure you are checking back.

At the end of your experiment you have to option to apply the experiment changes to the campaign. Let’s say you now know that increasing your bids by 20% brings in significantly more conversions and you want to apply the changes made in the test to the campaign long-term. To apply the changes exactly as they are, go to the Settings tab in the advanced settings where you initially set up the experiment. Select the “Apply: launch changes fully” button and the changes you made will be applied. If you determined you do not want to make these changes but rather go back to your original settings for all search queries, select the “Delete: remove changes” button. One note, once you delete the changes you will no longer have access to the experiment data so be sure you have what you need prior to selecting this.

At the end of the day, the tool is a welcome addition to the AdWords settings, even in Beta format. If you are able to gain access to it I strongly recommend testing – you might be surprised at the results.

Search Funnels are a set of reports in Adwords that allow you to analyze ad impression and click behavior for campaigns, ad groups and keywords. So why is this important for advertisers? Adwords currently attributes conversions to the last click, but as we all know, few conversions are driven by just one click on one ad. There are usually many touch points with a customer, so the search funnels reports allow us to see the impressions and clicks that lead up to the conversion, which in most cases is just as important as knowing what finally lead to the sale.

What reports are included?

The search funnels reports are found in the Adwords interface under Reporting > Conversions. Click the link on the right hand side of the page, and you will be taken to the Search Funnels section.

Let’s first define the data that you will be accessing from these reports.

First click – The first time one of your ads is clicked.

Last click – The click on an ad that precedes a conversion. All conversions in Adwords are by default attributed to the last click.

Assist click – The click on an ad that precedes the last click.

Assist Impression – When an ad is shown preceding the last click, regardless of whether or not the ad was clicked.

Items to Note:

• The number of conversions in Adwords will differ from the Search Funnels, because Adwords includes conversion from the Google Content Network, and the Search Funnels do not. They also exclude information on organic results, actual search queries, and competitor keyword information.
• Cookie settings – search history is currently set at 30 days, and is not yet customizable.

Reports within the Search Funnels

Overview – Show how keywords and campaigns work together to create a conversion. Data is generated from conversion paths, or the sequence of ad clicks & impressions that lead to conversions. As mentioned above, content network, organic and competitive information isn’t provided.

Top Conversions – This report pulls together the various conversion types that you have set up through Adwords conversion tracking.

Assist Clicks & Impressions – This report is helpful when you need data that is not conversion focused. Assisted impressions are when your ad is shown, but not clicked, but these metrics are important in considering how many touch points you have had with the customer. Once again, you can see data for all conversion types together or individually, and you can drill down to the campaign, ad group and keyword levels.

Assisted conversions – This report shows both last click and assisted conversions. The drop down box allows you to view all conversions, or select one particular type. This will come in handy if you have different types of conversions set up (a sign up versus an ecommerce purchase), and you want to see if there is a difference in how each type conversion is reached. This report also gives you the ratio of Assisted conversions to last click conversions, so see below on the details of how to analyze this metric.

First Click & Last Click Analysis - First click and last click analysis reports allow you to focus on conversion paths that began or ended with a specific campaign, ad group or keyword. Once you are on the level you want, you can choose any other report in the drop down (while staying focused on conversions).

• For example, you can choose the top paths report in drop down. Once you are there, the breadcrumbs will show you that you are in a subset of conversions. You will stay drilled in until clicking on a main navigation report.

Top Paths – Shows most common conversion paths, and how everything works together to create conversions. Choose keyword in the dimension drop down box, and you will see the most common path for keywords. If the same keyword is repeated, it represents two clicks for that keyword that then leads to a conversion. As with the other reports you can also view data on the campaign and ad group level. If you select keyword path (impressions) you will see the sequence of keywords that showed your ads, regardless of whether the ads were clicked or not. This data closely represents the breadth of related keywords people are searching for prior to converting.

Time Lag – This section represents the time it takes customers to convert. If it takes a lot of days before a conversion, you will know that your customers are in the research phase of the buying cycle. However, if conversions come on the first day, and the rest of your research shows that there was only one click and one keyword, you will know that your customers are coming to you on those terms when they are ready to buy. The hours data represents the first 24 hours in hour segments.

Path Length – This report is a high level diagnosis that allows you to see how many clicks it takes to get a conversion, and the type of conversions. As mentioned before, different conversions may take more clicks. You can also see how the value of your various conversion types changes by clicking the value link. The data represented here is the percentage of your revenue that is attributed to paths of different lengths. Additionally, if you change to the impressions view you will see how many times people saw your ads (without clicking) before converting.

The search funnel reports can be overwhelming when you first look at them, but it is important to keep in mind that the additional data that is provided is just one more way we can make educated decisions. Start with the overview reports and familiarize yourself with the broad data like understanding on average how long it takes before your customers convert, and identifying if your campaigns tend to have more assisted or last click conversions. From there you can dive deeper into the data, and ensure that you are benefiting from it, and not just spending time looking at more numbers. Along with the tips above, remember the following:

• Keywords play three roles in a conversion path. Last click (immediately preceding the conversion), assist click (immediately before the click that leads to the conversion), and assist impression (ad is displayed but not clicked).
• The ratio of assisted conversions and last click conversions is a quick indicator of whether the keywords serve more in the role of last click or assist click. A value close to zero means they are last click, and a value close to 1 means they are equally an assist and last click. The higher the number, the more they are in the role of an assist click.
• Some keywords in your Adwords campaigns may not show up in the reports because they only include keywords that play an assist or last click role.
• Assist clicks & impressions report break out information in same way, but for clicks and impressions instead of conversions.
• When possible, have FUN with this data. This is great information that will help you grow your accounts, and at the end of the day that’s the main goal, so enjoy getting there!

Conversion Tracking in Google Adwords

Google’s conversion tracking in Adwords allows you to take your account to the next level by providing you with ROI data that can help you more accurately identify both areas of success and opportunities. The best part is it only takes a snippet of code and few settings to get started!

Using Conversion Tracking

The first step you must take is to set up the conversion that you want to track. You can create up to 100 separate conversions, and you have a variety of action types to choose from:

• Purchases/Sales
• Leads
• Sign-ups
• Views of a Key Page
• Other

You can set up your conversion tracking in 3 simple steps right in the interface:

1. Create a new conversion
   
   • Conversions are created in the interface under the Reports tab, then Conversions.
   • Name your conversion using descriptive terms about what you are tracking, or the conversion page that you are using.
   • You will also need to identify the tracking purpose of your goal, and you will be able to choose from the actions listed above.
2. Fill in the code settings
   
   • Identify the page security level, and choose either HTTP or HTTPS for secure pages.
   • Set a conversion value. (This is an optional and will not affect your reporting in any way.) You can track a variety of values such as dollar amounts or page views. Think of this as the value that the conversion is worth to you, so if you have determined that a customer who signs up for your email list is worth $10, then you would enter that value here. If you want to track a value that is dynamic (like total order value), you will just need to include a qualifier such as “Total_Order” along with your value.
   • Set the appropriate language for your page.
   • Choose your Google Site Stats format. You are responsible for alerting your customers that Google is tracking their actions, so you can choose one of two text formats, or include it in your privacy policy. If you choose to use a Google Site Stats link, you will also be able to customize the background color to match the rest of your site.
3. Add the code to your conversion page(s)
   
   • Once you have entered all of the settings for your tracking code, it will be automatically generated at the bottom of the page.
   • You can either copy and paste the code into your landing page, or email it to your web master. If you copy and paste the code, remember to keep it between the body tags of your page.

Once you have included the code on your conversion page you will be able to see data in the interface. To verify that your goals are being tracked, go back to the conversions page under the Reports tab, and you will see the tracking status. You will also be given a total value of your conversions, which is calculated by multiplying the number of conversions you’ve received from that goal, and multiplying it by the revenue value you set.

If you have a Google Analytics account that is linked with your Adwords account you can import your goal conversions into Adwords, giving you another level of reporting to help you analyze your ROI and optimize your account accordingly. If you import Analytics goals you don’t have to tag any analytics conversion pages with the Adwords conversion tracking code, so that is one less step to worry about.

The ability to see revenue data next to your cost data will help immensely in your efforts to effectively optimize your campaigns. One of the most significant benefits of setting up conversion tracking is that revenue is tracked on a campaign, ad group, URL and keyword level, so you have access to a much more granular view. Knowing if one keyword is more valuable than another will be greatly helpful when you are making decisions about account expansions or deletions.

Google provides marketers and site owners a range of great, free tools to perform keyword research. One tool that often flies under the radar of many PPC marketers is Google Trends. The value of a keyword research tool like Google Trends is that it allows you to “see what the world is searching for.”

More specifically, Google Trends lets you discover rising keyword search activity for a variety of different phrases and terms. This gives marketers and site owners the opportunity to monitor and capitalize on the momentum of keyword popularity as its happening. Within the Google Trends toolset, there are a few different keyword analysis features, which include:

• Hot Topics: get a snapshot of what people are saying, by aggregating the topics with the most buzz in the news and social media arena
• Hot Searches: see the fastest-rising searches across different timelines; get a list of the day’s Top 20 fastest-rising search queries or select a recent date in history to see which keywords were trending higher that day; you can also drill down by country and region
• Trends for Websites: see traffic data for a particular website over a specified time frame; get a list of similar sites that users visited and similar keywords that users searched for; compare the web metrics of two sites side-by-side

What’s more, all the keyword and query data in Google Trends is fresh and updated hourly (according to Google’s website). So what we have is a free, real-time keyword listening tool that users can leverage to collect a wealth of search trend data. Think of the benefits. By using Google Trends, you can identify hot, trending topics as they are gaining in popularity and use this intelligence to inform your PPC marketing campaigns.

Now, much of what I’m saying here is anecdotal or hypothetical in nature. To me, case studies and actual results are far more compelling. So in this article, I’m going to give a real world example of how I used Google Trends for a new client’s website to:

• Perform advanced keyword analysis
• Examine seasonal search patterns
• Discover a new, untapped keyword vertical
• Increase relevant traffic and sales
• And, in the process, save myself months of time and energy.

Using Google Trends to Predict Seasonal Traffic Patterns

Last year, I was hired by a client who sells replacement windows in Massachusetts. He wanted to launch a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign to drive traffic to his website because sales were lagging. Now, from previous experience, I know there are seasonal patterns in the construction industry in the Northeast. The majority of the building activity occurs between the spring and fall months because of weather conditions. However, I was unsure if the same seasonal patterns applied to sales of replacement windows, which would impact the PPC campaign strategy I was charting for my client. So I turned to Google Trends for answers.

So there are a few interesting points to note in the results from Google Trends.

• Down Trend: There’s an apparent downward trend for the search term “replacement windows,” which started in 2004 and appears to have bottomed or slowed at present time. I’m assuming this drop in search activity is the result of two factors: the recession and the housing downturn.
• Geo Targeting: Of the top search volume by city, the Boston area is the second most active query space, which is good news for my client and tells me that’s a geo modifier I should target “Boston replacement windows.”
• Seasonality: There’s a very distinct pattern that develops each year. Search activity begins to percolate in March, it peaks in the mid summer months, then wanes in November and December, as illustrated in this example.

  

This seasonal trending makes perfect sense and mirrors the warm/cold weather patterns in the Northeast. Installing replacement windows involves removing old windows and creating huge holes in your walls, and homeowners don’t want to do this when it freezing cold outside. It also tracks with the busy time in the construction industry.

However, my client told me he thought that his peak sales months are in October and November, which is when he wanted to aggressively target paid search. But the Google Trends search data says otherwise. It told me I should ramp up PPC marketing activity from March through November and then go full bore in the prime search activity months, which run from June through October.

Now, had I not been able to leverage Google Trends for keyword data, it would’ve taken me time managing my client’s paid search campaign to discover these patterns. Also, if I listened to my client, I would have cranked up PPC spend at precisely the wrong time and missed the peak months, which is precisely when his competitors were bidding aggressively for the top spots in the Google paid search results. But by researching keywords and search activity with Google Trends instead of relying on conjecture and guesswork, I was able to avoid missed traffic opportunities during those prime months of online activity.

Google Trends Reveals New Keyword Opportunities

The seasonality and geo targeting intelligence I gained from Google Trends was invaluable. But I also discovered a peculiar trend that intrigued me: despite a steady drop in search volume for “replacement windows,” the volume of news references was spiking. Why would that happen? Why would media mentions be on the rise for an industry on a downward trend? It didn’t make sense. So I rolled up my sleeves, did some digging and learned that the Federal Government had recently passed an energy efficiency tax credit for homeowners who installed replacement windows. Could this jump in news activity for “replacement windows” be a result of the tax credit? I re-factored my query to include “window tax credit” and found this.

Eureka! It appears that the tax credit from the Fed did in fact spur the spike in search activity for a lagging industry, as I’d theorized. This was a major find.

Now, without Google Trends, I may have never realized this was this keyword opportunity existed. I immediately created a new PPC ad campaign around a basket of “tax credits for replacement windows” keywords for my client so we could capitalize on this hot search momentum. Here are the initial results.

By discovering this opportunity and creating this ad campaign to target the trending search activity, I was able to provide an immediate traffic boost for my client’s site from consumers seeking information about the tax credit. Even better, we were able to convert many of those visits into sales. Finally, notice that despite the seasonal dip in search activity that occurs each winter, the traffic from the tax credit PPC campaign saw steady month over month growth as word spread about the tax credit. The result of all this was a very happy (and busy) customer due in large part to the keyword research and search trend data I collected using Google Trends.

About the Author
Ken Lyons is Senior Marketing Manager at WordStream, a provider of pay per click software and advanced PPC tools for researching, organizing and grouping large numbers of keywords for greater PPC campaign relevance and higher Quality Scores.

The first area to check into when you get stuck is the Opportunities tab at the top of your AdWords account.  Every couple of weeks, Google automatically scans your account and provides suggestions for optimization. There are ideas for bid or budget changes as well as keywords to consider adding.

Keyword suggestions are organized by ad group – so if you have one area of your account that needs some expansion you can focus there first. Just a word of caution if you have a lot of campaigns or ad groups that are similar, the placement for the new keyword might be correct but double check as it may fit better in a different ad group.

To get started, click on one of the ad group suggestions and you will see a list of the keywords, estimated monthly searches and competition. If you choose to add one of the keywords, select the check box next to the keywords and choose “Apply now” at the bottom.  The keywords will automatically be added into the account without any additional steps. Don’t forget though, if you use custom keyword URLs, you will need to go back and add these in.

If the campaign or ad group for the suggested keyword doesn’t quite align with where you want it, you will need to manually add the keyword. Google allows you the option to export the keyword suggestions as a csv file so it is easy to change the ad group or campaign and upload through AdWords editor. Once you view the suggestions whether you take action on them or not, Google will delete the suggestions to make room for others. Make sure you get all of the information you want out of the suggestions before closing out of it.

If you don’t find enough keywords in the opportunities tab, there is a second area in Google AdWords to help you with keyword expansion. In every account, you will have a few keywords that perform really well. Whether you are looking at clicks, conversions or cost per conversion, you can use these best-performing keywords to expand your list.

Within your AdWords account, select the Keywords tab and then sort your keywords by either conversions, clicks or how ever you gauge performance. You want to make sure you have the best performing keywords listed at the top. Select the check boxes to the left of your best performing keywords, then choose “See Search Terms…” and “selected” from the drop down.

Using your best performers as a guide, Google will then provide you with a list of the keywords or phrases people used when they received your ad. These are only the search queries where people clicked on one of your ads, not all searches, but it can help give you an idea of what people were looking for when they found you.

Similar to the opportunities tab, Google assigns a campaign and ad group to each of the search queries and provides data on clicks, conversions, cost, etc. as if it was a keyword already in your account.  You again have the opportunity to easily add the term by selecting the check box to the left of the keyword and then selecting the “Add as keyword” button at the top. If you notice a search term that you would rather not appear for, you can also add the keyword as a negative.

Although there are many resources out there for keyword expansion, the AdWords tools make it a little easier by allowing you to add the keywords without taking additional steps. Next time you hit a wall when expanding your keyword list, take a few minutes to check out these tools. You might be surprised how easy it is once you have a few suggestions to get you started.

1) Read all of the materials in the learning center for the exam. Even if you’ve been working with Adwords for a while, this could still be useful for the random trivia they throw at you. Especially if there’s a new feature or if one might have been updated.

2) Watch all of the videos. Whether it was intentional or not, there are topics which are not covered in the readings but covered in the videos. You’ll definitely have a few gaps in your learning, if you skip the videos. Here is one that I thought was great at explaining quality score.

3) Best practices for ads are important. Review Google’s list for the exam.

4) Know what to expect when you click Begin Exam. Once I started the exam, my screen blacked out, so I only had the exam in front of me…. no googeling! If you plan on using notes, print them out.

5) 120 questions and 120 minutes. I nearly ran out of time, so bust out the questions you can. As with most certification exams, at least put down an answer and mark it to come back to, before you finish.

6) Experience counts. If you’ve been working with accounts for any amount of time the exam will be much easier for you. Some of the questions have you thinking through real life scenarios and choosing the best solutions. New account managers may find it a little more challenging.

Before taking the exam, I wasn’t quite clear on the adwords account access levels. Know the limits you can place on accounts! Also be fully aware that text, image and video ads are all covered equally. If you’re more familiar with one than the other be sure to read up. Best of luck!