Archive for July, 2009

Trust a Professional

The new Yahoo! Web Analytics Consultant Network offers an easy way to get help with your campaign performance measurement

Most people don’t fix their own refrigerators, or know how to gap a spark plug on their cars. We hire trained professionals to do these jobs, and what we pay to have them done correctly is well worth the cost.

For many online advertisers, the same may be true regarding the tracking and analysis of their campaign performance. Sure, you might be able to gather a bunch of data, but what do you do with it?

Here again, trained professionals are available to show you the way. And today we’re excited to announce the launch of a group that is certified by Yahoo! to provide high-quality services in this area, the Yahoo! Web Analytics Consultant Network (YWACN).

The YWACN is a network of independent third-party specialists who can help provide analytics consulting services to our valued customers, including assistance with analytics planning, implementation and usage. Look for this YWACN member emblem on participating consultants’ websites:

Whether you’re a large organization or a small ecommerce merchant, you may be able to benefit from a more intelligent leveraging of analytics with YWACN. The consultants in the network can help increase your qualified website traffic, achieve more conversions and sales, and improve your overall ROI.

About Yahoo! Web Analytics
The YWACN is an offshoot of Yahoo! Web Analytics, which provides audience insights while tracking the performance of all of your campaigns, from click to conversion—and not just your campaigns on Yahoo!, but also other providers’ search ads, display ads and even email.

But don’t just take our word for it. Forrester Research, in the July 23, 2009 edition of The Forrester Wave: Web Analytics, Q3 2009, said of Yahoo Web Analytics: “[Yahoo! Web Analytics] clients can derive immense value through custom reports, detailed segments, and unlimited scenarios for eCommerce and other forms of analysis.”

Yahoo! Web Analytics is currently offered free to all Yahoo! Small Business Merchant Standard, Merchant Professional and Store merchants, and all Sponsored Search and display advertisers that are supported by a Yahoo! account manager. It’s best suited for those with complex analytical needs and the resources to set up and manage analytics. If you think that Yahoo! Web Analytics is the right tool for you, please contact your Yahoo! account manager to get started. To learn more, visit our Yahoo! Web Analytics site.

If you aren’t eligible for Yahoo! Web Analytics directly from Yahoo!, you can contact a member of the Yahoo! Web Analytics Consultant Network as described above to get an account and leverage professionals to get the most out of your analytics. Alternatively, you may also wish to consider the Full Analytics and Conversion-Only Analytics options available in our Sponsored Search user interface.

You can learn more about YWACN and its members here. You can also stay updated on the latest news by following our Yahoo! Web Analytics’ tweets at http://twitter.com/ywebanalytics.

— Jeff Hecox

Microsoft, Yahoo! Change the Search Landscape

More information on today’s announcement

Yahoo! and Microsoft today announced an agreement that will improve the Web search experience for users and advertisers, and deliver sustained innovation to the industry. For more information, check out our CEO Carol Bartz’s post on the corporate blog Yodel Anecdotal here.

— The Team

New Math

How to calculate an effective bid

Remember when you sat in math class in high school and thought, “I’m never gonna use this.”? Turns out that your teacher may have been doing you a favor after all, because setting the right bids in search marketing does require some calculations. Last week we showed you the numbers you need to know to set your bids. This week, we’re going to show you how to fit them together.

Bidding calculations example: Cost-Per-Action
Cost-per-action measures how much advertising spend is required to get one action (in this case, one buyer). Most of the variables are fixed, but you control the cost per click and, therefore, the number of clicks you receive.

Advertising costs: 4,500 clicks x $.40 per click = $1,800
Number of visitors: 4,500
2% of visitors became buyers = 90 buyers
Spend on Yahoo! Search Marketing = $1,800
Number of buyers = 90

Result: $1,800/90 = $20 CPA

If your CPA is less than buyer value, congratulations, you are making money and may be able to increase your bids to gain a higher position in search results. If your CPA is greater than buyer value, you are losing money and may have to reduce your bids.

Another way to view the CPA calculation is, instead of starting with known advertising costs and bids, figure out where to set your company’s bids. If the value of a buyer is $60, how much are you willing to spend to acquire the buyer? It could be 5% or 95%; it depends on what other costs are involved and what your goals are.

For our example, let’s arbitrarily set the amount at 33%.
1. Value of a Buyer: $100 average purchase x 60% gross margin = $60 value of a buyer
2. Maximum CPA: 33% maximum acquisition x $60 value of a buyer = $20 maximum CPA
3. Target Bid: $20 maximum CPA x 2% conversion rate = $0.40 CPC target bid

Bidding calculations example: Profit
Profit is hard to maximize. You may have to experiment with moving bids up to see how much more revenue it creates, and whether it offsets the rise in advertising cost, but it’s essential that you look at the bottom line when you are setting your bids.

Revenue: 4,500 clicks x 2% conversion rate = 90 buyers x $100 average purchase amount = $9,000
Costs: $9,000 revenue x 40% product cost = $3,600 product cost + $1,800 advertising cost = $5,400
Profit: $9,000 revenue – $5,400 costs = $3,600 profit

Now, assess your profit. If your profit is above 0, you may be able to increase bids to get more buyers and increase profit. If your profit is less than 0, you may have to reduce your bids. In our example, the profit is $3,600, so there is room to increase bids.

Bidding calculations example: Return-on-Investment
ROI measures how effective your overall business spend, including advertising, is at generating profit.

Profit: $9,000 revenues – $5,400 costs = $3,600
Advertising Costs: 4,500 clicks x $0.40 CPC = $1,800
ROI: $3,600 profit divided by $1,800 advertising costs = 200%

Now, assess your ROI. (The scenarios for ROI are the same as for profit.) If your ROI is acceptable and profit is positive, you may be able to increase bids to get more buyers and increase profit. If your ROI is unacceptable or profit is negative, you may have to reduce bids. In our example, the ROI is very high and profit is positive, so there is room to increase bids.

Business model implications for bids
The calculations just reviewed apply particularly well to e-commerce sites, but the basic concepts apply to all types of sites. You should always strive to define at least one action that a visitor can take on your site that will denote that the visitor is worth more than average. Once you have defined one or more actions and monitor which visitors undertake the actions, your tracking system should tie it back to where the visitors came from. This will help you better gauge the value of particular keywords, for example, so you can set bids with better regard for the economics.

— The Team

Class Is in Session

Start planning now for a good back-to-school season

 A new school year was always a new beginning for me. I’d have my all new clothes, new backpack and my awesome new Trapper Keeper, and every year was going to be the year I went from being that solid B-minus student to the A-plus student I knew I could be. Of course, by around October I’d already given up and decided to start fresh next year, but for that first month of September I was an academic whirlwind. I still had my cool new clothes and school supplies, so even if I had that B-minus average, I got an A in style.

It may feel like summer just got started and school is forever from now, but your customers are already thinking about school. Every year, our searches for back-to-school items like children’s clothing and supplies start to spike right after Independence Day. So if you’re an advertiser who sells those things, now’s the time to start your back-to-school campaigns. Here are a few hints to help your listings make the grade.

Listings for keywords regarding children’s clothes should try and keep the focus on children. Though you may sell items for mom and dad, users searching on keywords like “clothes for kids” and “boy clothes” are generally seeking for the young folks.

If you sell different varieties of backpacks, avoid listings that make it sound as though you only sell one type, especially for unmodified keywords like “backpack.” Users seeking to buy backpacks for school may be deterred by a listing offering a specialty backpack for mountain climbers. If you sell both types, why limit your audience by making it look like you only offer one?

While safety warnings are appreciated by parents, when your entire ad is one giant safety warning, you run the risk of leaving users slightly confused about the items you actually sell. Say you sell lunchboxes that happen to be lead-free. You may want to mention it, but you wouldn’t want your entire ad to be about it. Your search ads are valuable real estate, so it’s generally better to make what you offer their main focus.

Ads for sites that both sell and repair computers should put the emphasis on sales in their ads for non-sales keywords. Chances are people searching on keywords like “pc laptop” are looking to buy, not repair. Along similar lines, textbook sites that both buy and sell should consider putting the emphasis on sales in ads for general “textbook” keywords, since users searching on these terms are generally seeking to buy, not sell. Ads for textbooks should avoid referencing one specific text, unless the keyword itself contains the name of that particular book. If it doesn’t, it’s usually better to serve up more general results for general keywords such as “textbook.” Even slightly more specific keywords such as “biology textbook” should preferably bring back results that focus on biology textbooks in general, rather than one specific title.

The basics of best practice still apply: be sure to use keyword insertion to make sure your keywords appear in your ads, as well as alt text, to make sure those keywords appear just the way you want them to. Call out any promotions or deals you may offer, such as free shipping or coupon codes. Avoid overly “salesy” jargon or slogans, as well as gimmicky language that may deter users. Watch out for spelling or grammar errors and keep an eye on the general clarity of your listings.

Following this advice should help your listings go to the head of the class. And if your account is handled correctly, they may just stay there a bit longer than I ever did.

 — Noah Belson, Content Quality Analyst

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Claudia Snell.

A New Home

Yahoo!’s new homepage has innovations for consumers and advertisers

Today we unveiled a new beta version of the homepage that makes it easier for consumers to get everything they want in on the Internet in one place, and that means new opportunities for advertisers, too.

What’s new for consumers:

• Easy access to their favorite content and services. Consumers can quickly preview apps from Yahoo! sites as well as their favorites across the web like The Wall Street Journal, eBay, Facebook, blogs and more.
• More of what they like. We’ve added innovative technology behind the scenes to bring consumers more of the news and information they crave, and to help them discover the unexpected.
• Ability to take it to go. In the coming weeks we will offer a more seamless PC-to-mobile experience. This means when consumers add new apps to the homepage, they can choose to take them to go on their mobile phone.

 What this means for advertisers:

• Fresh page and new ad opportunities: Use the powerful homepage ads to try productive new performance units.
• Even more opportunities for contextual ads. New advertising opportunities extend your reach in contextual vertical categories like news, finance, sports and entertainment. “My Favorites” and “Deal of the Day” both offer compelling new placements with demographic, geographic or behavioral targeting in context.

For more about the new consumer features, read our corporate blog post. For more about the advertising opportunities, contact your account representative.

— The Team

Marketing Through Social Networks

3 ways to extend your marketing with Facebook and Twitter

Social networking sites are helping people connect on a massive scale, which changes not only how people interact with each other but how they interact with your brand. And that means marketing opportunities for you.

Marketers should be using traditional advertising methods such as search and display. But they also need to be where customers are and communicate through the channels customers like—and increasingly customers are on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin. Here are a few ideas from real companies who are successfully engaging with audiences on social networking sites.

1. Connect and listen.
Social network profiles and Twitter handles provide an ideal medium for persona marketing. Whether it’s Frank from Comcast tweeting a mix of personal anecdotes and solutions to customer issues,  Jack Box inviting poems from his 130,000 friends on MySpace, or the Travelocity Roaming Gnome on Facebook, putting a human (or made-up character) face can help corporations seem more approachable.  The occasional customer complaint is a normal part of doing business – that said, it’s a lot harder for a frustrated customer to feel hatred for a person or persona than for a faceless company.

Where there is customer frustration, companies like Comcast and Jack in the Box are discovering that other customers are stepping up to defend the brand and products – which is far more credible than if the company were to respond in its own defense. Connecting with customers on public forums like Twitter and Facebook can help companies tap into a community of experts for free customer support, product ideas, and testimonials while building loyalty.

2. Reach and empower
Companies like Dell and Zappos are expanding their traditional audience base with Twitter and Facebook business profiles, which they update daily with product news, special offers, and responses to comments from the community. The ability to easily create separate Twitter handles or Facebook profile pages allows these companies to create targeted experiences for their different product lines and audience segments.

By following the companies on Twitter or becoming a fan on Facebook, individuals are able to choose the products for which they are interested in receiving information and offers. When that interest wears off (say, they are no longer in the market for a Dell laptop because they purchased one), they can just as easily “unfan” or “unfollow.” By giving customers greater control over communications from the company, the company’s messages are more likely to actually be heard and appreciated, building customer loyalty and trust.

3. Promote and get them talking!  
Almost by design, social networking sites facilitate word of mouth. Of course, connecting with customers and reaching new audiences won’t matter unless you have something interesting and valuable to say. Ultimately, you’ll want to convince them to buy your product and  tell their friends.

Entertaining content, such as a funny video or quirky persona (check out the Nesquik bunny’s musings on happiness), is one way. The other way is special offers. Starbucks recently launched a Facebook application which allows users to claim free coupons for the new Starbucks Ice Cream for themselves or for friends. When you offer a good deal, it’s a good bet that people will tell their friends, especially if it’s easy to tweet out or share on Facebook – which gives marketers more bang for their buck.

Facebook and Twitter can be a powerful complement to traditional online marketing such as search and display. More than anything, be prepared to be surprised, learn, and iterate. It’s like the early days of the Internet. No one has the new possibilities around social media completely figured out quite yet, and there is no “one size fits all” approach. Which means if you can figure it out, you’ll have an edge in reaching your customers.

—Clara Shih, author of The Facebook Era

Clara Shih kicked off the social CRM movement in 2007 with her Faceconnector application, which integrates Facebook and Salesforce CRM. Clara is CEO of Hearsay Labs and author of The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences, and Sell More Stuff.  To learn more about extending your marketing with social networking sites, read Clara’s book or sign up for her free upcoming webinar on Tuesday, August 4 at 10 am. Clara is clarashih on Facebook and Twitter, and blogs at http://thefacebookera.com.

Bidding With Your Brain

Know which numbers matter when you set your bid

What’s that ’99 Honda Accord worth to you? That’s easy enough to answer, just click on over to Edmunds.com or the Kelly Blue Book, and you can get a pretty precise valuation that even factors in its high mileage. Want to make a smart bid on a new home? (We hear it’s a buyers’ market at the moment.) Well, that info is easily uncovered right here on Yahoo!.

But when it comes to figuring out what to bid on a certain Sponsored Search keyword, where do you start? In a constantly fluctuating keyword market where competitors are jumping in and out, and raising and lowering bids, it can be a challenge to know what a smart bid is. Let’s start with the basic concepts you need to know when you bid.

Profit
Profit = revenues minus costs

Profit is truly the “bottom line” number. Most businesses want to maximize profit, but profit can be hard to maximize when there are lots of moving parts. Increasing advertising spend will bring in more customers, but you must ensure it will also increase profits.

Cost per action (CPA) or cost per conversion
CPA = advertising costs divided by number of buyers

CPA measures how much it costs for you to obtain the desired action (an action might be a purchase of a product, a download of an application, or a registration for a service). It’s helpful for you to know how much it costs to get a buyer, but it’s even better if you know what that buyer is worth.

In order to do that, you need to know how much a buyer typically purchases and what you make on that purchase; knowing how many visitors actually become buyers is also important. CPA is most useful when compared with the value of a customer. Useful measures include:

• Average purchase amount
• Margin
• Conversion rate

Return on advertising spend (ROAS)
ROAS = profit divided by advertising costs

ROAS measures how effective the advertising spend is at generating profits. Most businesses prioritize their spending based on how much payback it will yield. Sometimes businesses will set a “hurdle rate,” or a minimum threshold, for that payback. Each business is different, so one advertiser may have a very different hurdle rate than another. But no matter what the hurdle rate, if there is one, ROAS will show you what rate-of-return you are getting from your advertising spend.

Return on investment (ROI)
ROI = profit divided by total costs

ROI measures how effective your overall business spending is at generating profits. ROI is essentially the same as ROAS, but takes into account all costs, not just advertising spend.

That’s how you figure out the metrics you should be using when you set your bids. Next week, we’ll show you how to put it all together and calculate your bid.

—The Team

After the 4th

The fireworks are gone, but there are lots more July holidays to entice consumers

“Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.”
— Stephen Leacock, Canadian Economist, 1869—1944

The economy being what it is, finding new ways to advertise your products and services is more important than ever. Recently we told you about some unconventional events that many advertisers could take advantage of to promote their products. These are events proclaimed by Congress and other groups during the year to promote their industry or cause.

While the best known July U.S. holiday is already behind us, many of these specially proclaimed dates below can be used to advertise your products, as well. For example, music retailers might want to take advantage of July being “International Blondie and Deborah Harry Month.” Nurseries might want to run a promotion for “Take Your Houseplant for a Walk Day” on July 27. And during this steamy season, who can resist the cool appeal of Air-Conditioning Appreciation Days (July 3–August 15).

Of course, some events are more whimsical—or more relevant—than others. However, there are celebratory events for just about every niche and business during the year. Here are some of the other events for July, as well as some of the business types that could take advantage of them:

• National Doghouse Repairs Month—Pet stores and hardware stores
• National Wheelchair Beautification Month—Medical supply stores
• National Grilling Month—Home and garden Stores
• National Ice Cream Month—Grocery and specialty stores
• National Horseradish Month—Grocery and specialty stores
• National Hot Dog Month—Grocery stores
• Tour de France Month—Bicycle and bicycle accessory stores
• Women’s Motorcycle Month—Motorcycle retailers
• International Chicken Wing Week (July 10–12)—Restaurants, grocery stores
• Gummi Worm Day (July 15)—Candy stores, florists
• Sinclair Lewis Week (July 12–18)—Bookstores
• Rabbit Week (July 15–21)—Pet stores
• National Baby Food Week (July 21–25)—Grocery stores
• World Footbag (hacky sack) Week (July 27–August 2)—Sporting goods stores
• Moby Dick Week (July 31–August 1)—Bookstores

Finally, we’d like to wish all of our advertisers a very happy “National Independent Retailers Week” (July 19–25).

— Colin Kingston, Listings Editor

P.R. Campaign Reaches Its Destination

Case Study: GoToPuertoRico.com combines Sponsored Search and display ads to help double its site traffic

You’d think it would be easy to convince people to come to a Caribbean island with breathtaking beaches and luxury resorts—especially one that doesn’t require a passport or currency exchange. But with fierce competition from neighboring islands, the Puerto Rico Tourism Company is in a constant battle to gain the attention and reservations of mainland Americans.

Company overview
GoToPuertoRico.com is operated by The Puerto Rico Tourism Company, and aims to promote the island’s tourism offerings to potential travelers in the U.S. and other countries. It also works with Puerto Rico hotels, tour providers and other businesses to book travel directly on the site. Puerto Rico competes with islands such as Aruba, the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas and Bermuda for the same eyeballs and travel dollars.

The company had long relied upon television and print advertising, then began online advertising in July 2007 with banner ads on various websites. In early 2008, it was determined that expanding the company’s online advertising could help reach a computer-using, tech-savvy clientele. The company asked its agency, LIH Group, for ideas on how to increase traffic to the U.S. territory’s official travel site, GoToPuertoRico.com.

LIH turned to the one-two punch of Yahoo! Sponsored Search and display advertising. With help from Yahoo!’s expert sales team, this “P.R. campaign” shocked its media planners by immediately contributing to a doubling of site traffic, and a significant increase in hotel bookings.

Search comes first
“We had read studies that people are watching less TV and subscribing less to print publications,” says Carlos Rom, Media Buyer at LIH Group. “We needed new solutions for promoting the site, so we looked into different options for getting online. We determined that keyword-based search advertising would be the easiest and cheapest way to do this, and would give us a chance to cater to a bigger crowd. Yahoo! was one of the companies that had the best solutions for search advertising and other types of online advertising, so we opened our account with them.”

A Yahoo! account representative worked with Rom to create an expanded set of relevant keywords and separate campaigns for promotional angles, like “destination weddings” and “beach resorts.” The account was optimized to the keywords with the highest click-through rate, and monitored to make sure placement and traffic goals were being met.

Doubling up with display
The team soon saw that keywords like “tropical destinations,” “caribbean vacations,” “puerto rico beaches” and “san juan” were driving the bulk of the traffic. It was fairly easy to adapt these to a new set of graphical display ads—or “banner” ads—that would appear across the Yahoo! network to targeted users via Yahoo!’s My Display Ads. This product enables advertisers to easily create banner ads by adding text, logos, colors and images. The campaigns can be targeted, set to a monthly budget, and run across the Yahoo! network, a specific Yahoo! property, or the Right Media Exchange.

“Our Yahoo! rep talked to me about moving some budget to display ads, to increase impressions and campaign exposure,” says Rom. “In our case, the ads flashed photos of Puerto Rico scenery and activities, and promoted a $200 hotel discount that was only available by booking on our site.” The click-through rate on these ads was excellent, and drove substantial traffic in a short amount of time.

While all parties agreed the display ads were a great complement to the search ads, they found that some that drove the most traffic were the opposite of what was working with search. “One of our best-performing display ads promoted destination weddings,” says Rom. “But that was one of the lower-performing keywords in the search campaign—people just didn’t think to search for that.”

Powerful results
GoToPuertoRico.com’s search campaign launched April 11, 2008, with display ads launching shortly thereafter. Immediately, the company experienced a huge increase in traffic to the site. “We went from an average of 5,000 unique visits per day to an average of 5,500 in April and 6,500 in May and June,” remembers Celmarie Aviles, Interactive Marketing Officer at the Puerto Rico Tourism Company. “We even had a huge spike one day in June, with 8,670 unique visits.”

The company also measures success with the number of hotel bookings completed on the site, and here again, traffic from Yahoo! made a significant impact. “The combination of search and display ads on Yahoo! really satisfied our need to achieve an increase in website visits and bookings,” says Aviles. “The campaigns have been very successful in branding Puerto Rico on the Internet.”

Selling paradise
The Yahoo! Search Marketing and display ad combo turned out to be a package as pleasurable as those sold on the GoToPuertoRico.com site. “For the first time, we are truly competing on the Internet,” says Aviles.

“The Puerto Rico Tourism Company is very, very happy with the results,” says Rom. “Yahoo!’s sales team really takes ownership of the account, and it feels like they are working for us. No matter what clients I work with in the future, I will definitely use Yahoo!’s ad products for our marketing needs.”

Lessons Learned

• Display ads can catch people when they’re not necessarily thinking about a certain product or service (in this case, traveling to Puerto Rico), but viewing one enables the user to come back later via search and find consistent messaging. Repetition drives the message home.
• Promotional offers can be very powerful: GoToPuertoRico.com mentioned a $200 hotel booking discount in both its search and display ads, with excellent results.
• Display ads’ ability to present visual images is especially effective for companies selling an experience or a travel destination.
• Relevant keywords, separate campaigns to promote different promotions, and optimization is essential in a search marketing campaign.
  

— Jeff Hecox

Summer Love—for Your Ads

The warm weather’s here, but don’t relax your marketing efforts

Ah, summer. Who can forget those magical months when school stops and fun reigns supreme? Even for us adults, the season still has a little magic left to it: vacations, dips in the pool, even a quick nap in the hammock can remind us of just how stupendous summer can be.

Without a doubt, summer strikes a chord in everyone. And while that means fun will be had, it also means that consumers will likely be hitting the Web, searching for deals and bargains that will help them soak up the savings as they soak up the sun. When they do, you’ll want your ad campaigns to be toned up and attractive, so follow these tips and you too can have an unforgettable summer.

Price-consciousness never takes a holiday
Ads for travel sites should call out low price points whenever possible. Vacation or not, people are always looking to save. But be sure to check the marketplace to make sure that your prices are competitive, because highlighting prices that are higher than your competition will probably backfire on you. Ad copy for hotels should emphasize amenities and unique features that will appeal to users seeking the perfect stay.

Staying cool
Sites that sell or service air conditioners should be careful not to write creatives that make it sound as if their site is purely informational. Ads for air conditioning sites that reference things like “emergency service” may deter users who are seeking installation or simple repairs. For ads tied to non-emergency-modified “air conditioning” keywords, it’s generally better to focus on sales, installation and repairs. Additionally, if you haul away old air conditioning units for customers who purchase new ones, be sure to mention that, as it’s almost certainly something for which users will be looking. If you sell A/C units that both cool and heat, put the emphasis on “cool” in your summer ads, as that’s undoubtedly more important to users this time of year.

Sex sells—when appropriate
For sites that sell bathing suits and summer clothing, it may pay to add a little flash to your ads. For example, bathing suit ads that refer to bikinis as “sexy” and “hot” may appeal to users more than ads that simply state “we have bikinis.” Along the same lines, while mentioning low prices is always a good idea, ads for children’s swimsuits may be more appealing if they also discuss quality. Parents always want to save money, but high-quality clothes for their children are probably just as important to them.

And at any time of year…
As usual, the normal search ad best practices still apply during the dog days of summer:

• Whenever possible, use keyword insertion and alt-text to make sure that your ads contain users’ search terms and they appear the way you want them to.
• Call out any competitive advantages that you offer: coupons, free shipping, special sales—anything that will help give you a leg up with consumers.
• Avoid ads that offer highly specific results for general keywords. For example, if a user searches on “summer wear” and gets an ad that only discusses bikinis, they may be slightly put off.
• Avoid keyword/creative clashes, and be sure that your ads reflect the keyword. For example, a search for “summer shoes” that leads to an ad offering winter shoes will frustrate users.
• If you’re a business that only serves local customers, consider creating a geo-targeted campaign that will display your ads specifically to users within your area. Doing so will bring you more targeted traffic—customers who are specifically looking for what you sell.

Though summer’s the time to keep cool, applying these best practices can help heat up your summer sales. And that might make your summer every bit as magical as those days of long ago. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m ready for a dip in the pool. Cannonball!

— Noah Belson, Content Quality Analyst

Photo courtesy of Flickr user YatesLaberge.com.