Adjusting AdWords

This week our group is focusing on making adjustment to our AdWords campaigns. By looking into details of the data, we have made the following adjustments:

Our first adjustment was adding new keywords to each campaign. Based on the opportunities tips from Google, we added several new keywords to each campaign in order to get a better performance. After we double checked and made sure all the keywords that Google suggested us to add to the campaigns were relevant and adhered to our campaign goals, we added those new keywords to our keyword list in order to get our ads in front of more potential customers. In addition, we intend to compare the data after one week to check whether these keywords are working effectively.

We also adjusted our "low search volume" keywords. The keyword with “low search volume” status implies that the keyword isn’t eligible to show our ads because few people search for it on Google. There are many reasons why this happens, such as the keyword is too specific, obscure, or misspelled significantly. In our case, we think it happens because the keyword we put in is too specific. Therefore, we made some change to these keywords and made them more relevant to customers’ searches.

Additionally, we raised the budget for a well-performing campaign. We raised the daily budget for our third ad, CHEST Pulmonary Medicine Board Review, from $1.60 per day to $4.50 per day. We predicate that this adjustment will generate 22 more clicks and 26,000 more impressions per week for our Pulmonary Medicine Board Review campaign. If things go well, we intend to increase the budget again next week to make sure we our ads can be shown to our target customers.

Google AdWords: The good, the bad, and a few surprises

This past week, we set up our Google AdWords campaigns, and for our blog, we’re breaking down the good, the bad, the under performing and the surprises we’ve encountered while working in AdWords for the Google Online Marketing Challenge.

The good

Our ads are receiving clicks! Of course we knew we would get some, but there is always an element of fear when engaging in paid search. What if your keywords are horrible? What if no one cares?  Fortunately, we have seen some action.

We’re seeing some decent click through rates on our very specific ads when compared to the more general search terms.  However, we’d like to see our click through rates improve, so we have some tweaking to do.

The bad

Some of our negative keywords are suppressing our keywords from search. With an organizational name like CHEST, we’re of course, doing battle with some seedy ventures, so we’re trying to avoid getting those results. However, we’re learning it is a fine line and need to adjust and course correct as we go along, so we don’t miss valuable traffic!

Moreover, Google Adwords does not allow listing the keyword that contain pharmacy-related content.  Therefore, we cannot list the keywords contain “medicine”, such as “pulmonary medicine board” and “American Board of Pediatrics Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine”.  Our solution is to remove the sensitive words, so the keywords became “Pulmonary board” and “American Board of Pediatrics Pediatric Pulmonary”

Surprises

One of our ads is performing well, and we have been prompted by AdWords to up our budget for that campaign in order to not miss out on clicks. As a group we are now deciding how to handle this information.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is the need for flexibility, or testing, just as we’ve learned in our Internet and Interactive Marketing course.

Three tools for a social media arsenal

For our assignment this week, we were asked to identify three social media dashboards for our client. The three tools topping our list were Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and Bit.ly. All offer great features for managing a successful, smart and informed social media presence. However, there are many other tools in a social media professional’s arsenal.

Here are a few honorable mentions; the tools that make our lives easier!

Afterlight (Free): All social media people worth their weight in gold understand how valuable great photographs are to a social media strategy. A tool for making even the must mundane photos something special is Afterlight, free cousin of Afterglow. This photo editing app is packed with features and is available free of charge in the app store. Beyond filters, the app allows for adjustment of saturation, brightness, color levels, and clarity. It also features advanced cropping tools.

(Image: Socialexaminer.com)

Hashtracking (Prices vary, but you can track you first hashtag for free): Tweeting around a hashtag campaign or meeting? Have no budget but want to see the results of your hashtag including sentiment, timestamps, and impressions? Hashtracking might be the thing you’ve been looking for. The tool offers some of the same smart analytics offered by the big guys, but for a much smaller price tag.

(Image: Firstsiteguide.com)

iRig Mic for iPhoneand iPad ($46.99 on Amazon): Sadly, it appears that this little gem is being discontinued by the manufacturer, so swoop your mic up while you still can. This microphone, in addition to a low-cost tripod and iPad adapter can make you a one-man video show. Pair it with iMovie on your mac and you have a nice quality set up for under $100! With the increasingly important role video is playing in social right now, this is an essential item for your toolkit.

(Image: Amazon.com)

Any “must have” tools in your social media toolkit?