It’s surprising that such a good tool is not easy to find on the Google Analytics website, especially when it makes measuring online campaigns so darn easy!

For those of you that use Google Analytics there is a tagging feature that allows you to create unique URL’s for all of your campaigns. It gives you the ability to tag every and all links in an email campaign, or even in your PPC efforts. Obviously, Google Analytics is integrated with Google Adwords (if you have your accounts integrated), so you can easily measure these campaigns. However, this tagging tool is especially helpful if you’re participating in other PPC efforts, yes there’s more than just Google Adwords!

Anyway, this tool allows you to enter your campaign information and then produce a unique URL with the tracking data integrated. It will give you a much more accurate picture of what your advertising and emailing is doing for you.

It can be a little tricky to setup at first, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be tagging everything!

Check it out.

When I first started using Google Adwords years ago, I always had trouble thinking of good keywords to try. It is a great place to test the effectiveness of keywords, before you invest in optimizing your site with the. Then, shortly after, Adwords added a suggestion tool to their PPC admin area. I thought this was great! Now Google was telling me what the most popular keywords are, basically taking all of the need for research away!

 WRONG!

Google is not offering their Keyword Suggestion tool so you find new relevant keywords to use. Google is simply showing you the most popular keywords that other merchants are bidding on. There is a HUGE difference.

The Google Keyword Suggestion tool is telling you what other keywords are popular with other advertisers, NOT with searchers. So, what you’re doing by selecting these “popular” keywords is raising the CPC of the keyword, because more advertisers are going after it!

When setting up your Google Adwords account be sure to do your own independent keyword research. Don’t follow the crowd, and pay more for the privilege.

CHEAP PLUG

Check out my new ebook “101 Ways To Improve Your Online Store“! It’s full of tips and tricks to improve all areas of your website, from SEO to PPC, Product pager design, and customer service. It’s all in there.

One of the most important components of any effective SEO/SEM campaign is keyword research. It also happens to be one of the more tedious tasks out there. In a future post I am going to show you how to create a nice keyword spreadsheet that will allow you to evaluate and grade your keywords. For now, concentrate on your most important keywords and check out a cool tool at Google. It’s called Google Trends.

This is only ONE tool out there for keyword research. There is also the better known, Overture Keyword tool, and several others. Most of these just give you an idea of traffic for each particular word. What I like about Google Trends is that it breaks it out by geography, which allows you to effective geo-target with your Google Adwords account.

One of the most common phrases in the Book of Great Clichés is perhaps, “think outside the box”. Now when I hear someone say that it makes me want to loose it. I am sure all of the great business books of yesteryear promote the phrase like it is the end all and be all of business marketing. However, if you think about it, thinking outside the box leaves something important out. Well, at least when it is applied to marketing.

As a marketer if I am always thinking outside the box, by definition, I am never thinking inside the box, and doing things that are tried and true. How is that a good thing? It’s not, especially for marketers with modest budgets.

What sparked this idea in my head was a client call I had yesterday. We were talking about ways to increase traffic to her website, and as if it were required to say, she uttered those all-to-common words, “let’s think outside the box.” There was silence on the other end because I am sure she expected something purely genius to come out of my mouth, but I had nothing. There are so many sure-fire ways to drive traffic to your website that I don’t want to waste energy or money on out of the box experiments. Bare in mind, I am NOT saying you shouldn’t test different strategies, and get creative. But, I am saying that, if you have a limited budget and need results. This is the boat most small merchants are in.

So, just to back-peddle a bit, I will say I am all for thinking outside the box when it comes to marketing. I love a good creative approach just like the next guy. However, when I am advising someone with a limited budget I will always air on the side of conservatism. When someone only has a few hundred bucks a month to spend driving traffic to their site, I am not going to recommend something new and crazy. A good, well managed PPC campaign is all they need for now. So please, if you are one of those adventurous marketers that are always thinking outside the box, be careful, and remember, the weather is much more predictable here inside the box.

I came across this great tool online. Anyone who runs an online business should check this out! It allows you to enter any website and see what their average a PPC spend is. For fun, I checked out Ebay.com and see that they spend between $42,000 and $108,000 each day on PPC. You can also search by keyword to get an idea of how competitive a word is, and who is bidding on it.

I cannot speak to the accuracy of the information, but regardless, it is a cool online tool for marketers… and it’s free. Check it out. If you have any experience with this tool please submit a comment and share with everyone.

Microsoft stunned the business world this week when it announced an offer to buy Yahoo, Inc in a multi-billion dollar deal. Much of the commentary I have heard or read is negative; after all, we have antitrust laws for a reason. 

The move worries the Google folks for obvious reasons. With MSN Live and Yahoo working together, the second and third largest in the search market, it brought up talk about an eventual Google takeover. Let me assure you now, it’s not going to happen. Yes, these guys might get together and become a force to be reckoned with, but they will never topple Google. The folks at Google are smart, really smart. Somehow, with almost no advertising, they have turned Google into a “Band Aid” brand. Basically, it’s a brand that becomes the word for the product itself. What Band Aid did to bandages, Google has done to search. You don’t search anymore, you Google.

I don’t love the idea of these guys joining forces but I don’t think it will have the enormous effect that the talking heads at CNBC think. I am sure Google and every other search service will continue to develop new technologies, and encourage small merchants with reasonably priced advertising opportunities. Luckily, Yahoo, MSN, and Google aren’t the only kids in town. They’re so many online marketing opportunities, that you could survive with out them… I’ll admit, it would be tough though.

For merchants, I love the shopping comparison sites, I always seem to see a better ROI. Allowing folks to see your product before clicking on your site really does make sense. For others, I would look at private websites, like industry blogs and forums. Those folks have your audience, and nothing but. If you can’t convert such highly targeted traffic, then you advertising is not the real issue. Most of these highly popular blogs and forums have reasonable advertising opportunities.

Many clients have fairly small budgets to spend on Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. They need to see results from spending as little as $100 per month. This is not a lot of money for PPC advertising, but still workable. If you call any online marketing company they will probably ask for a minimum spend of $1,000 - $2,500 per month. This is simply not doable for many small merchants. So, what is someone with a small budget to do?

One of the first tips I give my client is to watch what keywords you’re bidding on. If your industry is indoor furniture, for example, do NOT bid on the word furniture! This top-level keyword will likely cost you a fortune, and receive a lot of unqualified traffic. If you’re selling furniture, do you really want clicks from people searching for “furniture repair”, “used furniture”, or “patio furniture”? These words are budget-busters, and they’re no good to you. You should be looking for very detailed keywords, that may not get as many searches, but when they do, the traffic will be much more qualified. For example, you may bid on, “living room coaches”, or “brown leather chairs”.

Of course any PPC campaign, regardless of the budget should be preceded by a keyword research period. However, don’t be too selective. It’s a good idea to start with a lot of keywords and narrow down the list every day when you see what keywords aren’t working. Google Adwords has great reporting tools to help you do this.