NOTE: I'm not posting verbatim. It's in the first person because it's easier for me to write that way ;) also, some of the Mandarin to English translations made no sense to me and were conveniently left out. I should really start learning Mandarin.
Speaker: Johnny Zhu (Google) Position: Client Services Team Leader
Johnny starts out with a personal disclaimer "this is my personal view, not Google’s...yadda yadda yadda". But I think he's preaching standard Google information. Some of his examples look very US-centric, e.g. social security number.The Internet is key to all parts of the sales cycle. When asked what online activities they do prior to buying an item online or offline, respondents use the Internet to:
- Compare prices of a product/services - 66%
- Compare products/services - 48%
- Read product reviews online - 45%
- Locate an offline store to visit - 45%
- Choose specific products/services to purchase - 41%
- Look for manufacturer information - 38%
- Download product info or data sheets - 26%
- Locate online coupons to use offline - 18%
- Access customer service contact info - 16%
Differences between traditional (Today) and non-traditional (Tomorrow) media:
- mass marketing vs. one to one marketing
- passive consumption vs. interactive consumption
- metrics is a share of voice vs. metric is ROI, CPA
- high creative costs vs. very low creative costs
- little or no adjusting vs. highly adjustable
Media Evolution Illustration: from Generic Push to Personalized Pull
Press > Outdoor > Radio > TV > Online Display > Search Ads > Contextual Ads > Blogs
Three important questions prospective AdWords advertisers are asking:
- How can I target my various groups of customers?
- Is bidding for high CPC the only way to increase traffic and conversions?
- How do I continue to improve customer interaction with my website?
Keyword Targeting Golden Rules:
- Organize your keywords into small, thematically group ad groups
- Don't ignore the long tail
- Test, test, test - you never know what is going to drive a conversion; make sure you are not missing out on any words
- Promote all products you sell
- Brand terms convert considerably well
- Add negative keywords to your terms to ensure your ads will not show on irrelevant searches
- Utilize match types where appropriate
Creative Optimization Golden Rules:
- Customize copy for each ad group and make sure your message is targeted to that specific product
- Tailor messaging to target customers at different stages of the buy cycle based on keywords they are searching for
- Testing multiple messages per ad group
- Is your rate and offer competitive with the market? If not, remove the rate or offer from the search copy.
- Tie offline messages and current promotions to search copy
- Your visibile URL and destination URL must be the same domain so the user is not confused.
- Use a strong call to action: Tell your customers what you want them to do.
Site Side (landing page) Golden Rules:
- Drive customers to a landing page that speaks to the search term they queried.
- Take users to a page that is no more than one click away from the action you want them to perform.
- Keep the application process as short and painless as possible.
- Are you asking the customer for their social security number?
- Consider offering live online help if a customer is dropping off mid-application.
- Use site analytics. Know where your customers are dropping off and optimize accordingly.
