Category Archives: PPC

Computer with Pay Per Click written below

Digital Ad Revenue is On the Rise

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Digital ad revenue is on the rise. In fact, according to The Wall Street Journal, there was a 35% increase in 2021, the highest growth since 2006. 

Many factors have likely contributed to this trend. For one thing, the U.S. Census Bureau reports a rise in new business applications. And, many of those new businesses turn to digital ads to build a customer base and market their products or services. There are also newer and more appealing digital advertising channels, such as podcasts and streaming services.

What This Means for You

As a business owner, you have to strike while the iron is hot. Now is the perfect time to invest in digital advertising. In particular, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising can be an effective way to generate traffic to your site. That, in turn, can generate more conversions, sales, and brand recognition. 

The Importance of PPC Management

When implemented correctly, PPC advertising can be very cost-effective. However, if you set your campaign up incorrectly or fail to manage it properly, you can end up wasting money by not reaching the right customers.  Fortunately, C0MPLÉX1 can help. As a Certified Google Ads Partner with over a decade of Google-specific experience, we are more than qualified to help you build, manage, and benefit from a PPC campaign.

Contact Us Today

Digital ad revenue is on an upward trend, and C0MPLÉX1 can help you manage it.  There’s no better time to invest in a PPC ad campaign. Contact us today to learn more. 

Google-Metrics-Post

New Ad Position metrics for Google Ads

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Due to a lack of clarity on average ad position (says Google), Google has announced that they will be introducing new ad position metrics starting September 30, 2019. In the past, the top ad has not always been placed above the organic search results. This was leading to confusion for some over why some top ads had low click-through rates.

Google is introducing four new metrics. Two of metrics involve the absolute top position on the page. These are the ads that appear above the organic search results and all other ads. 

The other two new metrics involve all other ad positions above the organic search results. The new metrics are:

Impr. (Absolute Top)%:

Search absolute top impression rate is the percentage of your ad impressions that are shown in the absolute top position above all other ads and organic search results.

Search (Absolute Top) IS:

Search Absolute top impression share is the number of impressions you receive in the absolute top ad position divided by the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive in the absolute top ad position.

Impr. (Top)%:

Search top impression rate is the percentage of your ad impressions shown in a position anywhere above the organic search results.

Search (Top) IS:

Search top impression share is the number of impressions you received in a position anywhere above the organic search results divided by the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive in a position anywhere above the organic search results.

As always, C0MPLÉX1 is here to help you create or improve your pay per click (PPC) Google Ads campaign. We are a certified Google Partner and our experts have over a decade of experience working in internet marketing.
We are always on top of any changes in Google’s metrics so your business can get the best results. For more information about our internet marketing or SEO services contact C0MPLÉX1 today.

More Reasons to Make the Mobile Move

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According to a recent Q1 2016 Digital Marketing Report by Merkle, Google was a major driver of smartphone usage in the first quarter, driving 95 percent of US smartphone paid search clicks.

Most notable, however, is the fact that Google is far ahead of its search engine competition, Bing and Yahoo, when it comes to driving and converting mobile search traffic. Combine this with a recent article that explains how Google is making signifiant strides with in-store attribution, and you’ve got a real powerhouse to contend with.

2016 Merkle Search Engine Clicks and Shares by Device

Continued Growth for Mobile

According to Merkle, smartphone click shares rose to 39 percent in Q1 of 2016 compared to 33 percent in Q4 of 2015. It should also be no surprise that Google, once again, continues to dominate search. The one change that Google made to paid search in Q1 was the removal of text ads from the right sidebar. Additionally, Google seems to be showing more attention to Product Listing Ads (PLAs) as they are beginning to show up more.

The Importance of SOBO

Searches that Result in Offline Purchases (SOBO) are an important part of the mobile growth that is occurring – particularly where closing the online-offline marketing gap is concerned. Search Engine Land columnist, Mona Elesseily, points out a couple of reasons why we might want to pay attention to the importance of closing this gap:

#1 – SOBO conversions significantly outnumber online conversions.

Though many of us use our smartphones as a shopping companion (i.e. checking and comparing prices on items while in the store, researching products, etc.), most retail sales (95% to be exact) still happen at brick and mortar locations. Because this type of marketing data is difficult to capture, it cannot be factored into optimization efforts.

#2 – Offline tracking is labor-intensive.

Elesseily explains that current offline tracking methods require that the offline data be uploaded consistently to Google. The actual process is extremely time consuming and frustrating for companies, which often leads many companies to simply bypass tracking offline marketing initiatives altogether.

Evidence of Better In-Store Attribution

Elesseily sees three things that Google is doing, which is proving that we’re on the right path to closing the online-offline marketing gap:

#1 – Google Local Inventory Ads

  • Highlights how far the nearest store is from you
  • Shows specific store inventory

Implications:

  • Helps us understand in-store-attribution/understanding what audiences are more likely to convert in-store
  • Should improve as it’s able to get more granular and optimize in-store conversions

#2 – Google Now In-Store Cards

  • Appears when a shopper is near a store
  • Displays useful information such as sales, closing hours, loyalty card data and more

Implications:

  • Takes into consideration location history, internet activity (like clicks on ads) and actual visits to a store
  • Also considers data that’s stored in Google accounts

#3 – Google In-Store Conversions

  • Allows advertisers to measure the number of shoppers that visit a physical store after seeing a search ad.
  • Uses a combination of WiFi, GPS and specialized store maps to track visits (basically footsteps) to and within a store

Implications:

  • First step in Google attempting to tie specific purchases at checkout to people who have previously viewed ads

Google Location Extensions: Changes You Need to Know

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Estimated Reading Time for This Post:  1 minute, 9 seconds; approximately 231 words.

Get ready, Internet marketers!  Google recently announced some “improvements” to its location extensions, which will (hopefully) make it easier and faster to manage individual and/or multiple business locations.

Google Location Extensions

Google Changes & Improvements to Location Extensions

The following are some of the changes that Google made to location extensions:

  • Ability to add/manage business location info from a single Google My Business (formerly Google Places) account, linked to your AdWords account
  • Ability to use location information in Google My Business for location extensions across ALL AdWords campaigns
  • Starting in September, non-upgraded location extensions (managed at the campaign level) will be removed from your AdWords account
  • Previous methods of managing location extensions, such as manually entering addresses, will no longer be available.

3 Key Benefits of Google Location Extensions

  1. Improved Relevance – Location extensions are a great way to include relevant, key information about your business/brand to potential customers.
  2. Better Optimization – Because location extensions is linked with your AdWords account, you can direct your ads to different locations throughout various geographic areas, making it easier to hone in on your target audience.
  3. Faster, Better Reach – With the recent changes/improvements to location extensions, Google has now made it faster and more efficient than ever to help you promote your business to customers who may just be right around the corner.

How has using Google location extensions benefited you and your business? Do you think the recent improvements/changes will make a difference?

Using AdRank to Improve Relevancy

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Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes, 28 seconds. Contains approximately 495 words.

As Internet search has become more prominent over the years, relevancy with regards to search has also increased. People now want to be able to type in a search term or phrase and receive a specific set of results related to their search. This is where Google AdRank comes in.

Google Ad Extensions

Using Ad extensions, users are able to see more specific information that is both relevant to their search as well as useful to them. By providing more relevant information, business owners have the opportunity to capitalize on attracting more potential customers via search. Take Google +, for instance. By providing more information about your business and including relevant hashtags, someone could search for keywords or search terms pertaining to your business, find your business and be provided with a wealth of information from your Google + page. They can call your business, see where you are located on a map and even see what other customers have had to say.

Google ad extensions can (and usually do) improve your click-through rate as well as boost campaign performance. Why? They make advertisements more useful.

Improvements  to Google Ad Rank

Ordering advertisements on search results pages involves using a type of calculation, referred to as ‘Ad Rank’. It used to be that  Google Ad Rank was calculated using your max cost-per-click (CPC) bid and your Quality Score. However, Ad Rank has recently updated and now takes into account a third component:

Google has also increased the importance of Ad Rank in determining whether your ad is even eligible to be displayed with extensions and formats.
Details as well as the implications of these changes are summarized below:

  • Ad Extensions and Formats – now influences the position of an ad on the search results page. Ex: The ad with the more positive expected impact from extensions will generally appear in a higher position than the other.
  • Expected Impact of Extensions and Ad Formats – Google now considers click-through rates, and the prominence of the extensions or formats on the search results page.
  • Quality Score – Because Ad Rank is now more important in determining whether your ad is shown with extensions and formats, you might need to increase your Quality Score, bid, or both for extensions and formats to appear.
  • Auctions –  Your highest performing and most useful combination of extensions and formats among those eligible will be displayed, removing any guesswork over what extensions work best for you.
  • CPC – You may see lower CPCs if your extensions and formats are highly relevant, and Google expects a large positive performance impact relative to other competitors in the auction. In other cases, you may see higher CPCs because of an improvement in ad position or increased competition from other ads with a high expected impact from formats.
  • Who it Affects – For now, this update only affects search ads appearing on Google Search.

For more information about AdRank, make sure you check out the following page about Understanding Google Ads.