The Caffeinated Blog

The Positive Side of Negative Keywords (or, How to Stop Paying Way More Than You Should for PPC)

In my last post about getting started with Adwords, I talked about the 5 basic things you need to know when building your first campaign on Adwords.  I also mentioned that I would post some more tips.  While it’s been over a month, I believe that it’s never too late to dispense some good Adwords advice – especially if it can save you money.

And save you money is exactly what negative keywords can do.

First of all, if you’re new to advertising on Google, you may be wondering what negative keywords are.  Well, negative keywords are best described using an example (let’s use the greeting cards example from the last post):

Let’s say you sell greeting cards on your website, and you’re advertising on the keyword “cards” (phrase-matched).  By advertising on this keyword, you’re pretty much covering the gamut of greeting card types (birthday cards, get well cards, anniversary cards, Christmas cards, etc.).  However, I would be willing to bet that you’re also getting (and paying for) quite a bit of traffic from keywords such as memory cards, business cards, baseball cards, video cards, and a host of other keywords where you really don’t want your ad to be.  What’s worse is that by appearing on these untargeted keywords, you’re inadvertently lowering your quality score, which effects how much you pay and where your ad appears (basically, the lower your QS, the lower your position and the more you’ll pay).  This is where you can use negative keywords to your advantage.

All you have to do is add negatives directly to your keyword list, like this:

-memory
-baseball
-business
-video

This will prevent your ad from being shown on those unwanted keywords.

So how do you find negative keywords to add to your account?  Here are a few ways:

Adwords Keyword Tool

The easiest way to find negative keywords.  This is what I used to find the negatives I used in the example above.  I put in the keyword cards, unchecked “Use synonyms” (so I just got results containing cards), and ran the tool.  If you sell greeting cards, you’ll see in the results all the keywords you don’t want to advertise on and will want to add to your negative list.

Search Query Performance Report

You can run this report at the campaign or ad group level, whichever works best for you.  It will show you the keywords for which your ad is being served and getting clicks (which unfortunately means that if you find any unwanted keywords here, you’ve already spent money on them).  If you already have negative keywords in your campaigns and/or ad groups, then it’s a good thing to run this report every now and then to make sure your negatives are working for you, and you’re not wasting money on unwanted terms.

Just searching

I managed campaigns on Yahoo, and their platform doesn’t have a negative keyword tool; so I ran searches their site with Search Assist turn on.  This showed me terms that contained my keyword(s) and had been already searched on.  I was able to pick out negative keywords from there.

You can also use Google organic search results to find negatives, simply by looking for search results for your keywords that are completely irrelevant.

 
Your own analytics

If you’re running Google Analytics or any other analytics package on your website, it will tell you the keywords that are driving traffic to your site.  Run a weekly or monthly report and see if you can spot some negatives.

So, the overall takeaway here is negatives are positive.  By implementing and continually expanding your negative keyword list, you’ll increase your CTR and Quality Score; but most importantly, you’ll save loads of moolah.

Damn You World Market...DAMN YOU!

I have a love hate relationship with my neighborhood World Market.

It used to be a love relationship; but that changed about 6 months ago.

Let me explain...

When my husband and I lived in the UK, we started buying acacia honey. 
We LOVE acacia honey, and we could buy it in any supermarket over there. 
Here in the States, though, it's apparently a commodity.  You can only get it at specialty markets and stores.  Well, it just so happens that World Market carried it.

Noticed I say "carried".

They suddenly stopped selling it.  Correction - they stopped selling honey of any kind.  Except whenever we asked them about it, they just said they were out of stock and to come back in a week or two.  That was in January.

We stopped in today because they sell my husband's favorite tea, Twinings loose leaf Earl Grey.  We thought we might check on the honey situation as well. 

Guess what - no honey, and no loose leaf Earl Grey!  But I swear, you just can't walk into World Market without finding loads of stuff that you just have to buy.

"They still don't have the honey."
"Bastards!"
"But look what I found - Lavazza Blu Espresso!"
"Cool!"

So they didn't have any of the items we intended to buy, but we ended up buying a ton of stuff we didn't intend to buy.

Damn them.

[where: 22206]

Shakespeare is RIHG (Rolling in His Grave)

I came across this excellent - but scary - article today:

Language that makes you say OMG

It's quite alarming to me, to say the least, that high school students - high school, for crying out loud - are learning how to write (and worse, spell) using LOLspeak.

Seriously - WTF!!!

Next thing you know, they'll be a huge movement to get LOLspeak added to the curriculum at our schools, and homework will be turned in via IM with a simple "hearz my hw ttyl :-)".

You Get What You Pay For: Understanding the Value of Your Content

In the one month that I’ve been a freelance copywriter, my biggest frustration has been losing projects to other “writers” who’s proposals were filled with really bad grammar, horrible spelling mistakes, and even “text-speak” (you know, things like “ur”, “lol”, etc.); however, their proposed cost was 10 times less than what I was proposing. Forget the years of experience I outlined, the variety of samples I provided, the glowing feedback I presented, and the triple-proofread proposal I submitted. What the buyer wanted was cheap and fast.

This has made me wonder about the value many businesses place on their website content. I mean, if you have a website, you have to have high-quality, original, compelling, and informative content. Content that will help your site to:

• Rank high in search results
• Keep visitors longer
• Bring in new visitors
• Generate leads and/or sales

So if you want content that will do all of this (and more), and you don’t have the time/expertise/in-house staff to do this, then naturally you would want to hire the right freelancer to create high-quality content so your investment will yield a return many times over.

Let me repeat that and highlight the keywords here:  You want to hire the right freelancer to create high-quality content so your investment will yield a return many times over.

Here’s the breakdown:

Your website is one of the most, if not the most, valuable asset of your business. The content you put on that website is its centerpiece – what everyone will be reading to find out what your business does and decide if they want to purchase from you or not. By hiring a freelancer with the knowledge and creativity to write content for your site that does all of the things I listed in the bulletpoints above, you’re making an investment in your business. That investment, made wisely, will then yield a return in the way of increased sales, higher search rankings, more new visitors, etc.

Is this a cheap investment? No.

So when you’re looking for a freelancer to create this killer content for your site, think about the value you place on that content and its ability to sell your products or services and build your online brand – then decide how much you’d be willing to invest to ensure you achieve that value. Then measure the freelancers you’re considering by the quality they can deliver, not how much they can deliver for how little. Quantity does not equal quality.

Microsoft Backs Away from a Noseless Jerry Yang

In what could be interpreted as Steve Ballmer's strategy for buying out Yahoo at dirt cheap, Microsoft formally withdrew it's bid for the ailing Yahoo, and Yahoo's shares plunged 20 percent as a result.

It was like an arranged marriage that Jerry Yang didn't want to be a part of.  He was not at all attracted to his billionaire suitor, and tried to woo other suitors to make the other jealous.  But alas, Jerry's plan backfired; and after turning down Steve's unsolicited marriage proposals one too many times, he gave up.

This isn't finished yet, though.  Yahoo is out on it's own after Jerry Yang cut off his nose and shot himself in the foot.  They're still trying to make it work with Google; but that could end up being the wedding night from hell with FTC scrutinizing the partnership.  Yahoo's relationship with News Corp. has "cooled", and AOL already outsources its search ads to Google (which would make for a tricky love triangle).  Yahoo may be crawling back to Microsoft in short order, begging to be taken back.  Microsoft will oblige; but the ring will have a much smaller rock on it.

What are your reactions?  Do you think Yahoo can pull itself back up?  Will shareholders all but crucify Jerry Yang?  Will another hero sweep in to save the day?

Cinco Reasons Why Freelancing Might Be For You

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

You may have noticed that I’ve been posting a lot more than I have in past months. You may have also noticed that I’ve starting pimping myself with “Hire Me” links (hey, what else can I use my own blog for?!).

Why? Because I’ve just ventured into the wonderful (and uncertain) world of freelancing.

Yes, I’ve left the old nine-to-fiver and made the leap into that great big unknown chasm of freelance copy writing.

To be honest, I didn’t plan it. Not long after I left my job, I just…well, decided to try freelancing. I mean, why not, right? I have the experience under my belt, and I feel that I can add value to the websites of businesses everywhere by providing them with my services. What’s more, I really enjoy it.

So could freelancing be for you? Here are 5 reasons I came up with (based on my experiences thus far):

1. Low Startup Cost: If you don’t have a lot of startup capital, or don’t fancy putting yourself into     further debt taking out a business loan, than freelancing is an excellent business to start. You don’t have a lot of overhead (you just need a computer and an internet connection), and you can market your services in a number of places for no or low cost. You can list your services on freelance sites like Guru, Elance, and iFreelance, place an ad on Craigslist, work your network on LinkedIn, approach web design and marketing firms offering your services, approach other (busier) freelancers about working with them…the list goes on.
2. Ease in with Part-Time Freelancing: Not quite ready to give up the full-time grind to go all in on your own? You can still start your freelancing career on a part-time basis. This will take extra time on your part, like evening and weekend work; but if you’re willing, able and committed to turning this into a full-time business, then this could be ideal.
3. Learn and Work in Other Industries: They say variety is the spice of life, and it certainly spices up freelancing. How else do you get to work on a project for the life sciences sector one week, then in music the next? It’s always interesting…
4. Flexing Your Creative Muscles: As a freelance copywriter, this is the most appealing to me. In my previous full-time marketing position, I got the occasional opportunity to use the right side of my brain and do some writing and work with the designer on the website and marketing materials; but much of it was very analytic (as marketing is these days – it has to be). Going full-on into copywriting has brought my creative side out for some fresh air – without my brain hurting.
5. Love is Patient…and if you love freelancing, you’ll need a lot of patience. There have been times, even in the short time I’ve been freelancing, that I thought “No one wants to hire me, the      competition is too great, I should go back to full-time…” Trust me on this – you need to give it some time before you throw in the towel. If you really want to make your freelancing business work, put in the effort to make it work. It won’t happen overnight; but just keep plugging away, and eventually you will begin to build your business.