Pay-per-call for all numbers in Google Adwords

Google is to go one step further with its pay-per-call facility. Until now, if Adwords advertisers included a telephone number in their Google adverts, it had to be ‘clickable’ which meant setting up what’s known as ‘call extensions’ in their Adwords account.

From last Friday Google started rolling out the automation of that facility - in other words, any phone number appearing in a Google Adwords ad will be clickable. Don’t get too excited if you’re a Gloucestershire or even UK advertiser, as it’s on a roll out.

If you’re wondering how this works in practice, the answer is via mobile phones. Accessing the web via smartphones is where the growth is and this gives Google another way of extracting more cash from advertisers. Er, sorry, it’s another Google innovation to enable advertisers to increase response and hence return on investment.

Putting our world weary cynicism to one side for just a moment, for local businesses this should be a good thing. It makes sense that having found what you want via Google, the next step would be call and reserve a table, book a cinema seat or just to shout at a hapless customer service expert straight out of nappies (that’s ‘diapers’ to our US readers).

So what’s the damage? A click on your phone number will cost the same as a click on your ad and the caller will get charged too.

Definitely worth testing  but make sure you’ve got your website ready for mobile browsing first and that you’ve got call handling people in place for when the ads appear - preferably men in long trousers (pants to you US types) or women of a certain age.

Google now allows pay-per-click advertisers who use its Adwords platform to target users of smart-phones and tablets, such as the iPad.

Hold the front page!

Ok, maybe it’s not so thrilling but it’s a recognition of the trend towards accessing the internet via mobile platforms, a trend that will continue, even in Gloucestershire. And it’s important for business that want the most from their investment in search engine marketing.

If you’re a current Adwords advertiser and you want to either target users of mobiles or, conversely, stop your ads from appearing on such devices, go to your campaign settings and click on ‘Networks and Devices’ where you can select accordingly. You’ll then have another testing metric to add to your armoury. If you’re in a market such as retail, hospitality or perhaps selling something that appeals to young, tech-savvy types, it’s possible that your campaign will perform better on mobiles.

Local search is becoming more important. The ability to control the display of your ads, if say, you own a pub or restaurant, so that you control both the area and the devices in which your ads appear, has got to be a good thing.

BUT, is your website suitable for mobile browsers? If it isn’t, you could spend your precious click budget on traffic that goes to less than satisfactory pages. And if your site is built in Flash, it won’t be viewable on an i-Phone.

The good news is that those advertisers who take the time and trouble to test this new facility will be in the minority. When mobile internet really takes off - and it will - they’ll be the ones with a competitive advantage.

Exhibit 3 – The Deposit

I know it’s in the terms and conditions when you sign up to a Yahoo Search Marketing account, so perhaps I am being a little unfair, but I still think the hefty deposit you are expected to pay when you open a Yahoo account is extortionate!  Signing up to Google AdWords or Microsoft AdCenter will set you back the grand total of five English pounds.  Opening a Yahoo account for PPC, will set you back £60.  Now admittedly, the fees charged by Microsoft and Google are non-refundable one-off “activation” fees but it is explained that these are to avoid lengthy credit checks and that this is the standard practice for all Pay-Per-Click providers (except Yahoo obviously).

Now, the deposit in your Yahoo account can be used against your first campaign, but along with all the other little inconsistencies presented by Yahoo, I get the uneasy feeling that this just gets cash into the Yahoo pot.  It also suggests that Yahoo aims to make sure you use their service whereas Google and Microsoft, who by charging such a small amounts, don’t coerce you.

Exhibit 4 – The Staff Training

My Yahoo agency team offered to look through my account and suggest a plan of optimisation.  Not being one to turn down free advice, I readily agreed and asked if they could put forward a proposal relating to optimising conversions.  When I received the report, everything pointed towards optimising for more traffic with no reference to ensuring that the traffic was specifically targeted to ensure maximum conversions. When I queried whether any information about conversions would be forthcoming, I was told that Yahoo doesn’t provide conversion analysis as getting people to the website is more important – words to the effect of “conversions depend on the quality of the website rather than the quality of keywords or ads”. Now whilst I agree that having a quality website can significantly improve campaign results, the fact that Yahoo staff have been trained that “Traffic is Key” without any regard whatsoever for the humble conversion, quite frankly staggers me!

OK, now I’ve got that out my system I’m feeling a little better. And as a nod towards a slightly more balanced piece I would like to mention one excellent idea that Yahoo supports. http://www.goodsearch.com/about.aspx is a search facility powered by Yahoo and is set up so that a charity of your choice gets donations whenever you search for something online through the Good Search page. I could cynically mutter about tax write-offs here; but that would just be uncharitable!