Website and Software Services

A network contact of mine recently described the following problem, and asked what I might suggest…..

For his Adwords campaign he chose three keywords (lets say they were “knitted”, “jumper” and “cardigan”). He selected phrase matching, where the keywords or keyword phrase is enclosed in quotes and the advert gets displayed if the searcher inputs a phrase that includes the keyword. He had hoped that this meant the ad would appear when someone typed in “knitted jumper” or “knitted cardigan”, but what actually happened is that the ad showed up whenever someone searched on a phrase including any one of the search words. So although they got some clicks which were spot on, they also got clicks from people who searched for things like “babies blue lycra cardigan” or “bon jovi knitted T-shirts”, which he found annoying.

My response was as follows….

You can mix Phrase Match, Broad Match and Exact Match keywords in the same ad group. For instance, you could have a keyword of “knitted jumper” plus one for [knitted jumper] and another for knitted jumper. The former would display your advert whenever a user typed in a search phrase that contained the term knitted jumper – so a search phrase such as ‘purchasing a knitted jumper online’ would show your advert, whereas it would not get shown for ‘buying a jumper that is knitted’. The second keyword [jumper] would only trigger an advert when the user typed in this exact phrase (with no additional words). The final keyword would trigger an advert whenever one or both of the words ‘knitted’ and ‘jumper’ were searched for (in any order) – so the phrase ‘looking for a knitted cardigan or jumper’ would trigger the advert. The options for keyword matching get very complex – my advert groups generally have dozens or even hundreds of keywords.

Do you use negative keywords? If you did, then you might prevent some of the annoying clicks. For example, if you added a keyword such as -baby and another -babies none of your adverts would display if the user typed in the word baby or babies as part of their search phrase. Useful if you don’t sell baby clothes. Equally, you could use lycra and tshirt as negative keywords. Just add them to your keyword list.

Find out more about keyword matching options at the Google Help Center

A prospective client of mine commented that he was considering a pay-per-click campaign to promote his website as he had been told that it would be difficult to gain good ranking in the organic search engine listings (SERPS) for his Flash site.

It’s true that Flash is not particularly friendly as far as the search engines are concerned. Search engines prefer simple and quick to follow web pages, and not a complex and difficult to navigate web site. If it is important for you to have a Flash website (for example to show off your artistic or design skills), then a pay-per-click (ppc) campaign may be the best way to drive large numbers of visitors to your site. Even then you will need to pay close attention to your site structure. Visitors who click through an advert to arrive at a website will want to see very swift evidence that they have arrived at a relevant site, otherwise they will click away again very quickly. So it is important to land them at a page on your website that gives them the information they are looking for – they may not want to wait for a movie to run, or to try to guess which particular graphic they need to click to take them to the area they need.

If you have to use Flash and still want a crack at reasonable SEO, then make sure you still make good use of the title and meta tags, and try to include as much ‘real’ text in the website as possible.

Hint: To get a good idea of what a search engine spider will see when it visits your site, try using a Text-mode browser (e.g. Lynx) to view the site or try a search engine simulator!

You may want to consider running an HTML equivalent of your Flash website. You can target your adword clicks to the HTML site whilst giving visitors the option to jump to your flash site once they are there. The HTML site will also be better ranked in the organic search listings as well. The downside is the extra cost of maintaining two sites and keeping them in step, although it does give you the best of both worlds – you can also see which one generates the most interest, the best comments, and of course the most business.

Some businesses have been turned-off the idea of having an Internet Pay-per-Click campaign for their products or services because of the risk of Click-Fraud.

What is ‘Click-Fraud’?
For those who are unaware, Click Fraud is the term used to describe the process of repeatedly clicking on an advert with the sole intention of increasing the click cost for the advertiser. It is said to be increasing at an alarming rate, and is generally employed either by competitor companies seeking to increase the costs and discourage companies from competing with their own ads, or by affiliate networks (those that show ads on their websites and who then receive a payment for each visitor that clicks through to the advertised website).

How would I know if this was happening to my campaign?
An unusual upward spike in your click-throughs would be a good indication, although this is by no means conclusive – you may well see an unusual increase one of your adverts or advert groups because the adverts suddenly become more relevant to their audience or because the adverts are being shown on new affiliate sites that may be more relevant to your audience.
Some Website owners think that they are being defrauded because they are getting lots of clicks to their sites, but are not converting those visitors into customers. My response to this concern would be to get advertisers to first check that their advert text is relevant to the page of the website that the visitor will land on when they click the advert, and secondly to be sure that the website itself is appealing enough to engage the visitor and to persuade them to do what you would like them to do!

What can I do if I think it is happening to me?
1. Talk to your Pay-per-Click provider (Google, Overture etc.) and let them know that you suspect fraud. As part of their day-to-day operation they watch for large scale abuses of the system – after all, their business success depends on people being able to trust their advertising systems. They are able to spot unusually high activity coming from certain IP Addresses, Geographical Regions, Affiliate sites etc.
2. It is also worth checking to see whether the high click counts have come from affiliate sites. If they have, then you can stop your pay-per-click campaigns from being made available to affiliates. For those who do not know about the contextual / affiliate network, pay-per-click providers can allow your adverts to be displayed by other websites that are related to your product or service. You will have seen, for example, the ‘Ads By Google’ text and adverts displayed on sites that you visit. Well, Google will place your adverts on these sites if you ask them to. The website owner will then get paid by Google whenever a visitor clicks on the advert to go through to your site.
3. Check your Web Server Log files (or get your P-P-C Manager to do it for you). There is a lot of information that can be gleened from these logs, including how often the same IP addressee visits your site, what they do while they are there, where they came from etc. This is not conclusive, and can be time consuming, but there are many interesting things you can find out from your server logs anyway!
4. Some providers have tools that can be installed to detect fraud.

Conclusion
Without a doubt, some click-fraud happens. It may or may not happen to your campaign (most likely it does not!), but the bottom line for you must be whether or not your pay-per-click campaign is delivering a sufficient return on the investment you are making. If it is delivering a good return, but you suspect that fraud is taking place, you should probably still leave the campaign running but report it to your p-p-c provider and get it sorted out. If it is not delivering a good enough return, then regardless of whether there is click fraud involved or not, you should be reviewing the campaign!