Google’s New Pricing Model

June 22, 2007

Google_AdwordsGoogle has now introduced a new pricing model in Australia (in beta mode) around pay per performance. This follows in the trends of other models available online such as affiliate relationship which allow advertisers to pay on a performance basis that moves away from just clicks.

One important thing to note is that the pay per action ads are only available to be displayed on publisher’s sites, they won’t appear in Google search results themselves. As well as this, in order to use Pay per Action you must have your tracking setup properly (as this is how the action is verified). Anyone using AdWords currently has the option to setup their tracking by inserting code on your site and this should be used in all cases anyway as it allows you to see true ROI.

Google’s pay per action require a new ad format to be setup (a text link) and like traditional AdWords you can bid what you are willing to pay for that completed action.

If you are eager to try them out, they are still in beta testing however if you have a current Google AdoWords account, you may have been invited to participate. If not, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait until more invitations are issued.

You can find out more about Google Pay per action in the Google AdWords Help.

Leave a Comment » | Search | Permalink
Posted by Louisa

SEM Campaigns – More than just clicks

June 4, 2007

SEM_factorsIf you’re running a search engine marketing campaign you are no doubt spending a lot of time looking at your keywords, your ad groups and how much you spend each month. Overtime you should ideally be increasing your click through rate whilst at the same time decreasing your cost per click.  Hopefully you have got some conversion tracking on your campaign too so that you can tell how effective your clicks are at converting visitors to something meaningful to your site – this could for example be a registered user, a newsletter subscriber, a shopper or someone inquiring about your product/service.

Don’t forget that whilst SEM is largely about ensuring your listing is showing for key search terms in search engines that it’s also about a lot more than that.  Make sure you think about what people see beyond that paid for click – the landing page. Will the reach the information they are expecting? Have you got key call’s to action on those pages to encourage them to get to that conversion point on your site? How can you make sure that you won’t loose that person when they are done on your page?

All these things need to be working in unison to have a successful search campaign and with the measurement and accountability that is available today, there is no reason not to have your search engine campaign running like a fine oiled (and results-driving) machine.

1 Comment | Commentary, Search | Permalink
Posted by Louisa

Recently Launched Websites

November 26, 2006

Today I thought I’d share a few websites that I’ve come across a that have recently undergone a refresh. In all cases the new website is an improvement from the from the previous website version which is a good thing. After all we’d be a bit worried if they were going backwards wouldn’t we!

1. Dymocks - www.dymocks.com.au: this is a HUGE improvement on their previous site and you can now search for individual books as well as browse by categories and more. I did notice that their Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) leaves a little to be desired though. They have the same title tag and keywords on every page and no descriptions showing either. Fortunately this isn’t effecting their rankings for obvious words like “books” but as soon as you search for “kids books” or “book club” they do tend to drop off the radar. Although website tags aren’t the be all and end all of search tactics, they generally give an idea of the priority given by the organisation in making sure the site can be found.

2. Ford – www.ford.com.au: Ford have launched a well timed game for this Cricket season giving users an opportunity to “Tonk a Pom”. There’s also a car to be won.

3. Gatorade - www. operationgatorade.com: Gatorade have launched this new website which ties in with their current TV commercials. It’s an interesting approach with the website taking the position of being “Anti-Gatorade” because of its ability to make people perform better. The site is done quite well and is visually appealing and presents the facts more as “evidence” which always makes it a bit more interesting. The downside in doing a campaign like this is that because of the concept, Gatorade aren’t linking to it from their main website and it makes it a bit hard to find when you forget the URL and when it also doesn’t appear in search engines…

Leave a Comment » | Search, Websites | Permalink
Posted by Louisa

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.