I was Googling around, checking in on some local listings and seeing if Pittsburgh’s Google Local listings (or ‘Places’, whatever it Google is calling it today) had any of the new changes that Andrew Shotland was talking about in his blog post last night, when I noticed that Google Instant is very screwy.

First I was Googling for ‘pittsburgh dui lawyers’ (not for myself, for a client!!) and then I wondered if a more common search term would display the new changes, so I typed in ‘pittsburgh dentists’, and this is what happened:

So there is one dentist (the first result) that comes up in the sponsored results, but the rest of the PPC ads are lawyers, left over from my previous search. All of the organic listings are dentists.

Obviously, you can see where this could cause problems. My questions is, if I were to click on one of the “Lawyer” pay-per-click ads after using “pittsburgh dentists” as a search term, would the law firm be charged for that click? I know the lawyer isn’t bidding on “pittsburgh dentists” for a keyword!!

These two search terms are completely unrelated, but what happens when search terms ARE more closely related, for instance, what if I typed in “tennis shoes” and then Googled “work shoes” — will Adwords advertisers be charged for clicks they didn’t bid on?

Would love to hear your insight and comments.

p.s. Notice that Google Places (what I was originally trying to have displayed) did not show up at all!!

Last month (has it been a whole month already?!) I wrote a blog post about how the number of keywords in an AdGroup can affect your cost-per-click when using Google Adwords. The reason is due to targeting — the more targeted your ads are to your products or services, the better your ads will fare, the less money you’ll end up paying in the end.

In the post, I touched briefly on the importance of deep-linking within the context of your written ad, or linking to pages within your website that are not your home page or category pages, but a specific product page.

Deep-linking is an important strategy for those of you managing your own Adwords campaigns, so let’s take a deeper look at deep-linking.

If you were to search for “Pittsburgh pay per click”, you will see that I have bid on that keyword. You will also see a link below the ad: www.ClicksInternetMarketing.com. This appears to be a link to my home page, but when you click on the ad, you are taken to a deeper link, http://www.clicksinternetmarketing.com/ppc-services. This is the page that gives information about the pay per click services I offer, specifically.

People like landing on a page they were looking for, and Google knows this, so they like it, too. You are more likely to have conversions (actions taken by visitors – phone calls, request a quote, downloads, sales, etc.) if visitors are first taken to the information they were seeking — the product or service page — and do not have to click from your home page and look for another page, etc.

These pages are also called “landing pages” — sometimes landing pages are not just simply the product/service page, but a web page specifically designed for an ad. Essentially every page on your website is a landing page.

The bottom line here? Swim deep. I’m no fisher(wo)man, but I can tell you that it will effect your bottom-line, or cost-per-click. By deep-linking, you then have to TARGET your ads to that page — your keywords will reflect only the information on the specific product page, your ad copy will be written only for that particular product, etc. Therefore, users who see your ad will be more likely to click on it (increasing your click-through-rate). AND, visitors who click on your ad are much more likely go to your website and actually DO something (browse around, click on other pages, convert).

How many of you are using deep-linking or simply sending visitors to your home page?

As discussed in previous posts, if you are using Google AdWords, or plan to use it, you need to be aware of some of the default settings and features that will cause you to pay more for each click, and how to avoid those hidden charges.

The number of keywords or keyword phrases in each of your ad groups is yet another small feature that can have a BIG impact on your bottom line. (If you’d like to see how much of an impact, check out the Google Adwords Tax Calculator.)

Let’s say you have 1,000 keywords defining your products or services. You’ve put them all into one ad group and now you need to create ad copy. You should create multiple ad copy for testing and targeting. Your ad copy should reflect your keywords, but since you have 1,000 keywords stuffed in one ad group, it is impossible for your ad copy to be targeted to a specific product or service. If your ad copy doesn’t target your keywords, which should reflect the content on your landing page, your click-through-rate will decrease, which will cause your cost-per-click (or CPC) to increase.

Sadly, nothing is simple. Let me explain further.

The reason that stuffing all 1,000 keywords into one ad group will decrease your click-through-rate, is because if someone Googles your keyword, and your ad copy appears, the relevant keyword (if it’s in your ad copy!) will be bolded, which guides people to click on your ad. Testing has proved that if ad copy is relevant to what the searcher is searching for, the searcher will be more likely to click on your ad.

Not writing relevant ad copy decreases your click-through-rate, which will signal to Google Adwords that your ad is not relevant, causing your cost-per-click to INCREASE. Totally not cool.

To avoid this debacle, it is generally good practice to limit the number of keywords per ad group. There is much debate over the “right” ratio of keywords to ad group, but a good rule of thumb is to only cover the keywords of the landing page to which you are directing traffic. Which brings us to another point: Deep Linking! Don’t send searchers to your home page (unless they are seeking your brand, specifically) — send them to a specific product/service page.

For example: You are a baker and you offer five products (pastries, pies, bread, cakes, and muffins). One of your keywords is “blueberry pie”. When someone searches for “blueberry pie”, you do not want them to see ad copy that reads:

Get a bunch of baked goods here
The best bakery in Pittsburgh
www.generic-bakery.com

Instead, your ad copy should reflect the content on the page that you are sending your paid visitors to. For example:

Our pies taste just like Grandma’s
Apple, Cherry, & Blueberry Pie -
www.generic-bakery.com/pies

This way, when someone searches “Blueberry Pies” – they will get precisely what they asked for, be more likely to click on your ad, and, if your website is enticing enough, be more likely to EAT YOUR PIE. Win!

All of this was a round-about-way of explaining WHY you don’t want to have all your keywords in one ad group, nor do you want to have keywords pertaining to your pastries in the same ad group as keywords pertaining to your blueberry pie.

You could even break it up further and have a landing page on your website for blueberry pies, apple pies, and cherry pies with three separate ad groups that reflect only the keywords and ad copy for that particular type of pie.

Takeaway: If you can break down each ad group to only hold 10-20 keywords, you’re doing pretty darn good.

I would love to hear your thoughts about the “right” number of keywords for an ad group, or about your experience on “The Hidden Costs of Adwords”!

If you’re really into Adwords, be sure to read my other two posts on The Hidden Costs of AdWords – In the first post I show you why keyword matching is important and in the second post, why you should be using negative keywords.