B2Blog

Business-to-business (b2b) and industrial marketing blog.

Thursday, January 06, 2005

How to get "up north" on Google

My Google AdWords used to occationally earn the coveted "up north" position (above, not on the right) on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) but recently have been pushed down to an average of #5. But I don't think I've updated my CPC (Cost Per Click) in three years.

So, how do you get to the top listing? This post by a Google representative explains it very clearly:
Search Engine Watch Forums -- Top position? Impossible?

Here are two basic facts worth knowing:
  • Rank number = Max CPC x CTR. Thus Max CPC and CTR have equal weight
  • Ads go to the top when they have met an additional performance standard, which focuses on the relevance of the ads to our users...This is measured by CTR.
There is additional discussion from people in the forum about this information but no one discussed how to boost CTR (Click Thru Rate). And the only way I can think of doing so is to improve your ad. Once again, I haven't touched my AdWord ad in years. I think the only way to do this is by adding gimmicky copy. Right now, I have a couple promotions starting that I could list in my ad which would boost CTR. And afterall, isn't click-thrus why we are using AdWords?

posted by Dave J. @ 9:59 AM  

3 Comments:

  • At January 10, 2005 6:02 PM, Coordinator said…

    Ahh....the fun of maintaining an Adwords account. This is a huge thing in my company as well, and I swear to god that our competitors are sitting and just waiting for me to update the bids, so they can outbid me. So far that has been our only solution to maintain at least a top 3 ad listing. Does anyone know if there are automatic bidder programs within Google Adwords that some people might be using, because as soon as I update a bid and appear at the top, not seconds go by and our competitor is back at the #1 position...

     

  • At February 14, 2005 2:54 AM, Rick said…

    Nice blog Dave.

    My own experience is that chopping my bids and radically increasing the number of keywords I bid on increased my click thrus by more than 300%. This actually resulted in a decrease in our costs across four or five different programs. The #1 spot is not necessary in order to get click thrus. At least that has been my experience. I have outlined my little experiment HERE.

     

  • At February 15, 2005 7:37 PM, Dave J. said…

    Hey, thanks for checking in. You're right about going for the less demanded keyword phrases is potential gold...its just not a vein in a mine, its flakes in a stream.

    My own case: See my blog entry two years ago where I brag about getting 4 adword click-thrus...on 87 pageviews.

    Last month this same keyword phrase had 20 pageviews and 5 click-thrus. And the cost was less than a buck, total.

    I think the real gold is that the people who search for these terms aren't finding what they are looking for because they are off-track. By running the ad, we've actually helped them get what they want.

     

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