You need AdWords Superstars not just employees!

‘Good is the enemy of the great’

‘The Winner takes it all’ is the stark reality of marketing. No points for coming 2nd. When it comes to marketing, mediocre work is absolutely futile. In order to stand out, your ads need to be great and not just good! For your ads to be great, your AdWords experts need to be superstars and not just employees!

Being an AdWords certified professional in itself does not give legitimacy. Certification requires passing a few fairly easy exams, as well as maintaining a minimum monthly AdWords spend of $10,000—which is a fairly low bar in the scheme of things. So certification is no guarantee of extra-ordinary work!

A true AdWords superstar is driven by passion and has the following skills and traits.

Great AdWords Experts are a rare breed and are hard to come by. Look out for these traits and skills while recruiting and developing account managers. If a person on your team possesses most of these traits and skills, the chances of them turning into a superstar AdWords Experts increases dramatically. Make sure these traits are developed and well nurtured. These superstars can take your business to a whole new level.

The post 9 Qualities To Look For In A New Adwords Hire [Infographic] appeared first on Adwords Reporting Tools | Reportgarden.

It’s the age of social interaction, and people are sick of seeing generic ad after generic ad. If you can be the advertiser who understands your audience using search query analysis, if you can cater for their individual needs with relevant ads and landing pages, if you can be the one who makes a mark in your industry, customers will reward you with their wallet. It’s your opportunity to stand out from the competition. So take it.

The searches done per month for a generic (short-tail) keyword (like “adwords reports”) would be much greater than that of a long tail keyword (like “google adwords reporting tool for clients”). But, long-tail keywords are more specific in their requirements, so you can write a more targeted and relevant ad to encourage the searcher to click. So, what type of keyword to use in what kind of situation? Here’s an infographic to help you decide.

Here, we came up with a detailed analysis of Long tail keywords and Short tail keywords with respect to 8 ROI metrics like Impressions, Click Through Rate, Cost Per Click, Average Position, Cost Per Acquisition, Conversion Rate, Return On Investment on Content and Page Rankings. Dive in.

Prospects:

1) Impressions (Search Volume)

i) Long Tail

It is a fact that as the number of words in a search query increases beyond 3, the number of searches made using that that number of words falls. It is also true that search volume drops as searches start becoming obscure and lengthy.

However, the true power of these long-tail keywords lies in en masse. Added together, searches of 5 words or more account for almost 70% of all impressions. While long-tail keywords may be individually insignificant, a PPC campaign with thousands of long-tails can be a serious source of additional traffic.

Fact: Long-tail searches have significant search volume.

ii) Short Tail

Typical broad keywords or short-tail keywords are generic keywords (for example, shoes) and have the advantage of driving a lot of traffic. It would be of immense benefit for a business to rank for these high volume generic terms since they would drive a lot of traffic to the website.

2) Click-Through Rate (CTR)

“While searches of 1, 2 and 3 words have a relatively low CTR, CTR appears to be increasing significantly for searches of at least 4 words. CTR, it seems, is considerably stronger for long-tail keywords. Their reason being:

Long-tail keywords have less competition, so there is a higher chance someone will click your ad.

Fact: Long-tail keywords can achieve a higher CTR, as long as ads are tailored to the search query”

3) Cost Per Click (CPC)

“Long-tail keywords have less competition, fewer people bidding on them to drive up their prices, so CPCs will be kept relatively low.

Fact: Long-tail keywords are cheaper for the same ad ranking, or the same price for a higher ad ranking”

4) Average Position

“For 1, 2 and 3-word searches, ad ranking is relatively low, and ads are appear near the bottom of the first page. As word length increases, however, ads are shown significantly higher. They are appearing in the top positions.

Fact: Long-tail keywords are cheaper for the same ad ranking, or the same price for a higher ad ranking”

5) Conversion Rate

“Clicks are no good if people don’t engage with your site or part with their cash. It’s often conversion that really matters. Long Tail keywords have high conversion rates:

(i) The reasoning being that people who make longer, more specific searches have already done their research and know exactly what they want. They are further along in the buying cycle so are more likely to open their wallet.

It’s a pretty convincing trend. As the number of words increases, so does conversion rate.

Long-tail keywords are phrases that people enter when they are closer to making a final decision. The increase in conversion rates helps to compensate for a decrease in web traffic.

This means that your website being relevant to these queries will reduce bounce rate and increase conversions.

Fact: Long-tail keywords have a higher conversion rate”

6) Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

“Finally, what does this mean for CPA, profitability, return on investment (ROI)? Is it cheaper to acquire a customer through the long-tail?

Again, there appears to be a clear trend between word count and CPA. Conversions from long-tail searches seem to be cheaper than conversions from generic, short-tail searches.

Fact: Long-tail keywords have a lower cost per acquisition and can be extremely profitable”

7) ROI on Content

i) Long Tail

“If you write good original content that is genuinely helpful to your target market, you’ll automatically weave in long tail keywords without even trying. As your page content grows, visitors will get to your site through more and more of these long tail phrases. In other words, the tail will grow longer and longer.

In fact, you’ll find visitors getting to your site using search phrases that you would have never thought of yourself. This is the value of focusing each of your content pages on a specific topic that provides valuable information to a narrow target audience.

Fact: If you are investing on content you are automatically optimizing it for Long-tail”

ii) Short Tail

“They’re also easy to write about.

When creating web content, it is important to make sure that the keywords used flow with the rest of the text. Fitting the word “”bed”” into a sentence is pretty easy. Making sure your keywords fit your content isn’t difficult, but it will pay off multi-fold due to Google’s recent focus on quality and relevant content.

While making web content, it is imperative to make certain that the keywords utilized run well with the totality of the text. Making certain your keywords fit your content isn’t complicated and it will have a great impact on your quality score.”

8) Page Ranking

“Most companies do not use long-tail keywords when they are creating their websites or when they are formulating AdWords campaigns. So an additional benefit to long-tail keywords is that your company won’t have a lot of competition. This helps you achieve a higher search engine ranking with less effort, decrease CPC for ad campaigns and increase the relevancy of your campaigns-which can positively impact your Quality Score.”

9) Branding

“Short-tail are the broad search terms that people use when they are researching information on the Internet. For example, they can start with a simple one word term such as beds. This one word, when entered into the search box, will bring up many different websites for the person to review.

Using these keywords can help drive large amounts of traffic to a company website.

They are extremely useful in building awareness the very first step to conversion.”

The post Long Tail Keywords Vs Short Tail Keywords in ROI Perspective [Infographic] appeared first on Adwords Reporting Tools | Reportgarden.

Get new additional traffic over a competitor, for a fraction of the cost on Google and Bing.

Successful Ad Agencies always measure their success on the value they create for their clients, on the leads and traffic they bring, while continuing to improve return on investment. A major part of their strategy includes Google AdWords and Facebook, but that is never the end. There are many other advertising networks out there, with unique offerings that can bring in quality clicks and conversions at lower costs. Leveraging these networks, experimenting with these platforms can bring in some really amazing returns!

There’s no doubt about it – Google and Facebook have become extremely popular advertising platforms. Over 1.5 million businesses advertise on Facebook and roughly the same number are advertising through Google AdWords. These two are, by far, the two most popular advertising platforms out there, but there are reasons to choose other ad networks as well.

Consumers are increasingly spending more time researching and understanding the products they want to buy online and you need to leverage multiple alternative platforms to reach out to these customers.

On the big ad networks you are competing against hundreds of other companies for the attention of the same market share, paying increased CPC or CPM fees that all these other advertisers drive up. Naturally the costs have risen by nearly 40% over the past two years.

This post lists down the various alternative ad networks and their unique offerings, which will help you find additional ways to grow your PPC accounts. You may have heard of these advertising networks referred to as second or third tier search engines, but these terms can be deceiving for two reasons. First, it makes it seem like traffic from these sites is of a lower quality which is not the case. These advertisers can generate many quality leads at a cheaper cost. Second, many of these advertisers are not search engines at all. They may show ads in search results but a lot of these sites have contextual networks where ads gather most of their impressions. So let’s refer to this group of sites as alternative advertising networks. These alternative advertising networks supplement Google to drive more quality traffic and leads to your site.

Although these ad networks don’t drive as much traffic as Google, they all bring in leads for a much lower cost per conversion which can improve ROI. If you can A/B test placements in these networks and find out what’s working for you, you can be assured of high volume, high quality, and low-cost clicks.

Factors you should take into consideration while deciding on an Ad Network.

There are many excellent ad networks out there to choose from, but which one is best for your business model?

As always, there’s no single answer to that question, there are many different factors and variables that you need to consider before zeroing on a network.

1. Large ad networks typically work with thousands of different publishers. Try to find out which publishers are in their inventory and see if they’re relevant to your target audience. Really, there’s no point running ads on websites that your target demographic isn’t viewing.
2. Check out if you they have systems in place to to detect and deter click fraud in online advertising.
3. Does their service include personal account managers to advise and assist you with campaign management?
4. Find out if their network includes a good mix of high traffic sites like shopping portals, social networks, search engines, emails, portals, video, game, movie and niche, sector specific content sites, which can bring you more visitors and so more conversions.
5. Chose networks which offer advanced targeting features giving you more control over refining audiences.
6. A good Network should offer you with a dashboard which ties together Contextual, PPC and CPV advertising products in one centralized location. A dashboard that provides automatic updates, statistical reporting and changes in real-time, making campaign management easy and efficient.
7. Good support platform in place offering both email and call support.
8. Think through before opting for the run-on-network campaigns. Many of the ad networks listed below allow you to have your ads placed on random websites in their inventory. There are pros and cons to this option. The downside is that your ads may not be displayed on the highest quality or most relevant sites in the network. On the other hand, this can be an efficient way to test multiple sites to see which ones are consistent with your branding and traffic goals.
9. Select the right network and categories that are most relevant for your business, and write your ads.
10. A/B test your ads rigorously and quickly to understand if the network is working for you.

Familiarize yourself with the different options each network allows before deciding which is most appropriate. Following this checklist will help you close in on the right platform.

So here we go!

1. Buysellads

Operating since 2008, BuySellAds is by far one of the largest networks you can use to effectively disseminate your banner ads around the web. According to BuySellAds team, they have a huge turnabout, selling over 6 billion ad impressions each month.It’s a very convenient marketplace with transparent processes, which provides a good choice of high-quality sites. BuySellAds offers advertisers a mix of display ads, media buys, sponsored content and custom unit opportunities. It also boasts 2 billion guaranteed ad impressions a month, working with 1,500+ well-known publishers like the Atlantic, NPR and PBS.

2. 7search

7Search is one of the oldest second-tier paid advertising networks and provides a search engine to smaller niche website partners. They have a very low minimum deposit of just $25. So, if you want to test a few campaigns your upfront cost is just $25. It really depends on the niche and keywords you are focusing on, but in general you should be able to get some decent traffic really cheap.

3. Advertise.com

Advertise.com provides a good mix of online advertising, including search ads, contextual ads, inline text ads, toolbar ads, mobile ads and on parked domains. They claim to deliver 180 million people per month and 10 billion monthly ad impressions. The cost of advertising is just a fraction of what it would cost on Google and the quality of traffic is also good. They have a ton of volume for pennies but you have to optimize your campaigns.

4. eZanga

As one of the biggest ad networks, eZanga is a good way to be found by new audiences, specific verticals or niche markets that are difficult to reach on the major search engines. eZanga’s search engine network has the ability to aggregate web sites directly from second and third tier networks. Advertising customers are given access to large volumes of traffic at one centralized location, saving them time by dealing with one source rather than several hundred networks. eZanga is able to produce an upward 10-12 billion searches per month, comparative to 15% the size of Google.

5. Revcontent

Revcontent isn’t as large as Taboola or Outbrain, but it’s growing remarkably fast. The Revcontent platform delivers 100 billion content recommendations a month, so it has plenty of volume to test your native ads campaigns. Your brand can use the site to reach customers through Newsweek, Forbes, Match.com, The Daily Dot and many other highly regarded publishers.


6. Adknowledge

The fourth largest advertiser marketplace, a multi-solution ad network that specializes in performance-based marketing solutions utilizing its powerful predictive technology and completely anonymous consumer response patterns to connect advertisers with consumers across multiple channels, including email, search, domains, and social networks. Ads are dynamically generated and placed within category-specific creatives and delivered to those users who are most likely to respond. Over 10,000 advertisers use the Adknowledge ad network to promote their offers.

7. Infolinks

Infolinks is an ad provider specializing in contextual text links, Which is a great way to overcome ‘banner blindness’. Infolinks specializes in providing self service contextual ads targeted to text elements, users search intent, context of the publisher page and tag clouds. If you have a product that can be mentioned through generic terms fairly commonly used, it can be a very powerful ad network. On the other hand, if your product is too niche and there’s too little traffic for the keyword, you’re not going to see much of a return.

8. TLV Media

TLV Media is a leading Real-Time Bidding (RTB) advertising platform, developing proprietary technology for performance optimization in a real time environment. Their private exchange offers advertisers over 50 billion impressions monthly from premium publishers worldwide. s. Combined with advanced targeting capabilities over display and mobile inventory, their technology pinpoints the exact media placement and target audience per each campaign, and then monitors, analyzes and improves its results. With a low minimum payment of $50, this is definitely a good place to start.

9. 50OnRed

There are a few good CPV networks out there ready to drive thousands of clicks to your affiliate campaigns every single day, but 50OnRed definitely stands out. 50onRed can be a wonderful source of traffic for new campaign launches. They specialize in contextual inline text ads. Creating a new campaign only takes about a minute, finding and adding new target URLs and keywords is a breeze, and editing your bids is instant. They have done a really great job of streamlining the process of managing your PPV campaigns. Their initial deposit is a bit high at $500.

10. Matomy

Matomy is a global performance-based company that specialises in multichannel marketing, delivering 60 billion monthly impressions. This network offers international mobile campaigns, audience-based buying & retargeting including both CPI and CPA models. Matomy caters to both mobile publishers and advertisers, allowing publishers to maximise their revenue through their apps and advertisers to grow their reach and generate leads.

11. Pulse360

Pulse 360 is a CPC network that gives advertisers access to over 200 million impressions every day on over 400 different websites. They have a number of targeting options to help you test drive campaigns, as well as tools for evaluating and optimizing your creatives before you put your money on the line with live ads. This feature is useful for demographic and interests targeting.

12. Criteo

Criteo is a unique platform which provides Automatic and real-time audience segmentation and personalized creatives with a self service platform. Criteo provides an excellent solution for retargeting. Given the importance of retargeting for an advertiser focused on performance, it is beneficial to work with a provider focused on this channel versus a generalist that offers commodity products for a range of tactics.

13. Clicksor

A contextual targeting ad network that automatically matches your ads to the most relevant websites in Clicksor’s network. Create text or graphic banner ads, pop-under ads or interstitial ads — appearing between web pages — and pay per click (CPC), per 1,000 impressions (CPM), or per visit (CPV). Clicksor needs to improve their Conversion Tracking implementation. Otherwise, this platform is definitely worth a try.

14. Conversant Media

This is a renowned advertising platform that offers its users several different advertising options. You can advertise on some of the publications they have developed, including Foxtel or Vice, or use their native ad services, such as Largetail and Outbrain.

15. Exponential

Exponential is a global digital agency that connects advertisers with over 600 million daily users. This advertising networks allows you to market to viewers on multiple devices, enabling you to create highly targeted ads that provide a uniform experience across different devices. Their responsive ads allow you to create a consistent branding campaign, regardless of the devices on which you reach your viewers.

16. SiteScout

SiteScout is one of the biggest media buying network serving 31 billion ads per day across nearly 70,000 different websites. SiteScout offers real-time bidding and reporting, which enables advertisers to keep close tabs on their campaigns and optimize them for the highest possible ROI. Advertisers can also use the SiteScout platform to reach consumers via other networks such as Google, Appnexus and Adtech.

17. IgnitionOne

IgnitionOne is a cloud-based digital marketing platform that offers a wide array of services, including media buying, email marketing, search and social. Advertisers can target customers by device, geography and observed behavioral patterns, while the network’s big data solutions allow you to identify the ideal time to serve ads to customers in order to maximize your conversion rates.

18. Epom Market

The Epom Market lets advertisers reach customers with display, video and mobile app ads. Epom Market offers everything for cross-channel and cross-platform ad campaigns.
The ad network supports a wide variety of ad formats, provides precise targeting, smart optimization features, and real-time analytics.

19. DNTX.com

DNTX.com is a direct traffic navigation platform that provides advertisers with the traffic of parked domains. This system can get you people who type in an exact URL of a relevant site they once visited and since the site is no longer active, they’re redirected to your site instead. Potentially you can get traffic that converts better and costs less that Google AdWords. It’s really best if you can find a relevant exact match domain with ongoing traffic; its utility fades if the domain isn’t generally typed in or linked to throughout the Internet.

20. Bidvertiser

Bidvertiser is another network that operates in much the same way as AdWords itself. It holds the distinction of having a reasonably low average bid compared to other networks, without sacrificing the quality of its traffic. Bidvertiser lets you target your ads by channels, keywords and geographic location. You choose the category of sites you’d like to place ads on. You can find some very nice returns through the network, if you’re in the right niche. The other major benefit of Bidvertiser is the control that one can have over showing of ads on a website.
Note that these ads are not contextual.

21. TrafficVance

TrafficVance is one of the most popular pay per view (PPV) advertising solution in the world. You can leverage it it to reach out to customers through contextual textlinks and display ads. TrafficVance makes the platform as effortless as possible with visualized analytics that help you to monitor trends and editing features that help you easily edit your campaigns.

22. AdEngage

AdEngage operates a major online advertising network that displays ads on more than 4000 websites and works with thousands of advertisers to display over 12 billion ads every month. This network has a unique ad inventory which allows you to split test 10,000 ad combinations in just over 1 minute. It also offers Real-time traffic monitoring, which makes it easy to test and optimize campaigns.

23. PocketCents

PocketCents allows you to create and display text, image or video ads directly to the kind of users who are interested in your product or service on the PocketCents Network. This network allows you to set up a fixed monthly budget per ad, eliminate competitive placement based on bidding and much more. With a flat rate of $.25 per click on text or image ad or per play of video ad, this network is good place to start.

24. AdBlade

Adblade is a premium CPC ad network of 1,000 branded sites that reach over 550 million monthly users. Unlike many other ad networks, the company is constantly monitoring their site inventory to make sure that only the high quality publishers are allowed to serve their advertisements. Note that the bidding is done on a CPM basis.

25. ADsmonster

ADsmonster is good alternative ad network in the sector of AdWords alternatives, which provides both low and high-quality traffic which will vary from very cheap to premium. Depending on your niche, you might find it useful.

26. AdBrite

AdBrite is one of the largest ad networks outside of the big search engine brand network. It allows you create and target ads to users in the network and pay with variable pricing models including CPC, CPM and other flexible pricing options.

27. TribalFusion

With a reach of almost 230 million users on their ad network per month, TribalFusion offers a good range of advertising package options that can be tailored to suit your business’s needs, pricing varies on package and scope of campaign.

28. Kontextua

This network certainly isn’t for everyone. However, for the target audience, it has the potential to be bigger than Google in terms of traffic and returns. Why? It specializes in the Spanish language, rather than English. If your site and product are bilingual or Spanish, Kontextua has some serious power. Like Infolinks, it’s primarily based in contextual text links, and it does have an English version if you want to run two language campaigns or try out their English database. This network can get some seriously good returns for Spanish sites.

29. Result Links

This network is one of the in-text advertising options that allows you to target users with ads tailored to the text passages that align with your keyword targeting options. So, if you’ve got a product that people blog, talk, or otherwise write about, it is worth a try.

30. RocketFuel

Rocket Fuel is a media buying platform that leverages artificial intelligence to help advertisers boost their ROI. Advertisers can use the network’s proprietary data to create personalized ads to engage with customers in new and innovative ways. This network has garnered good reputation from both ROI and reach standpoint.

31. Outbrain

Outbrain is a great option Advertisers can’t use it to market thin websites or to link to obvious sales landing pages, but if you don’t fall under one of these categories, you’ll find it an easy way to score some quick eyeballs from reputable publishers.

32. Taboola

Taboola is another native advertising platform worth looking into. They claim to have wider reach than Outbrain and other native ad providers, including placements on the following publishers in the Taboola network: The Motley Fool, The Atlantic, Ben & Jerry’s and Netflix.

33. Ad Landmark

Ad Landmark is a network specifically targeting software providers. To be more specific, it’s a pay per download service. Software advertisers can submit free versions of their tools to the system, and they become available for download on multiple shareware sites.

34. Miva

MIVA offers a low cost alternative by specialising in the delivery of contextual and vertically focused PPC Ads. The MIVA Precision Network concentrates on specific business categories or verticals and has been developed for advertisers looking for highly targeted vertical traffic. The Precision Network is currently available in the US and UK and covers sectors including automotive, finance, health/beauty and recruitment. This vertical approach to PPC is designed to enhance targeting for advertisers and in turn drive lower volume, higher value leads.

35. Kontera

Kontera specializes in In-Text or inline advertising. They have been in the business before Infolinks and Adbrite. They also have a huge advertiser base. Kontera uses a semantic engine to understand and assess user interest. Once they asses the user interest on publisher sites, and later when they see these users elsewhere on the web they show them relevant banners and share the revenues with the publisher where the user first expressed interest.

36. ContextWeb

Target ads to relevant users in this network to get the most value for your dollar spent. Pricing is flexible with a name-your-own price option for cost per 1,000 impressions.

37. Affinity

This network provides contextual, geographical, domain and audience targeting. 30,000+ premium publishers & syndication channels.

38. IndustryBrains

Target pay-per-click or display ads to a specific category or premium branded Web site of your choice.
Look Smart is pretty cheap depending on the niche. With a minimum deposit of $25 it’s a good place to test your campaigns.

39. ClickBooth

This is one of the biggest affiliate networks in the world, empowering small businesses and entrepreneurs by creating a performance based marketplace.

40. CPX Interactive

CPX Interactive LLC operates as a global online advertising network. The Company offers media, data integration, strategy, and account management services. CPX Interactive is located in the State of New York.

41. Super Links

Superlinks is an innovative advertising and technology company that connects online web publishers with premium advertisers using a variety of innovative digital advertising products.

Ad Networks specializing in Mobile

According to research from comScore, 78% of customers that research products on mobile devices later make an offline purchase. This means that using mobile traffic sources may be a good way to connect with new customers, while using desktop advertising services will help you reach prospects further along in the buying process.

42. Inmobi

Inmobi is a mobile ad solution that offers some extremely unique features to maximize your conversions. The developers have carefully studied customer behavior to understand when they’re most receptive to marketing messages and most likely to make key buying decisions.

43. mMedia

mMedia is a self-service mobile advertising platform that runs ads across nearly 50,000 mobile applications and websites. It provides a lot of flexibility with targeting, bidding and customizing creatives. There’s no minimum deposit, which makes this network ideal for mobile advertisers that are trying to get started on a very small budget.

44. Airpush

Airpush is a mobile advertising network that allows advertisers to reach viewers on over 150,000 applications. The best part is that all app users have opted into their ads, which means that users viewing these ads are more receptive than customers on many competing mobile ad networks.

45. Vibrant media

With around 250 million unique users in its network, Vibrant is a great text-based advertising option for ecommerce businesses. Pricing is cost per 1,000 impressions and varies based on available inventory and the category of ad placement.

46. Leadbolt

Leadbolt is a mobile ad network which allows advertisers to choose between self-serve and full service platforms. They also offer real-time bidding, which is perfect for advertisers that don’t want to lose money overbidding for traffic.

47. iAd

This platform offers a very flexible bidding system and a number of targeting options to ensure that you get the traffic that you need. It’s probably the only advertising network other than Google that can boast having over a billion users, making it a great opportunity for you mobile advertising needs.

48. Conversant Media

Place ads and target users on this network that reaches approximately 173 million unique visitors per month. Pricing dependant on scope and style of ad package.

49. Mobvista

An ad network based in China with 180 million impressions per day. Solely on mobile platforms like Android and iOS. CPA based, pricing varies and is dependent on size and scope of campaign.

Ad Networks specializing in Facebook & Retargeting

50. Adroll

Adroll is an advertising platform that offers retargeting and multi-device display advertising services. Their retargeting feature is available for ads on Facebook, Twitter and countless other sites, while their staff offers excellent support to help you leverage retargeting to its fullest potential. Check it out if you’re new to retargeting and need some hand-holding to help get you up-to-speed.

51. Perfect Audience

Perfect Audience is another retargeting solution for Facebook, Twitter and web display ads. The service is meant for targeting the most recent visitors that used your site, as they’ll likely be the easiest to convert.

52. Atlas Solutions

Atlas Solutions is a Facebook affiliate. A media advertising network with a variety of tools that help advertisers realize the best possible ROI from their campaigns. Atlas offers unique targeting options, allows you to reach the same customers across different devices and provides analytics to measure the impact of ads for offline conversions.

53. Chango

Chango is another retargeting advertiser platform that lets you connect with your customers in real-time. It’s one of the most comprehensive platforms out there and can be used to engage with customers on social, display, mobile and video. It also has options for bringing new customers to your site, but it’s particularly effective for scoring previous leads and delivering engaging creatives to encourage them to convert. Chango has been recently acquired by Rubicon project.

Ad Networks specializing in Twitter.

54. Sponsored Tweet

Sponsored Tweets is a Twitter advertising platform, which connects sponsors with Twitter users on a pay-per-Tweet basis. On the system’s core features is transparency. Advertisers can choose partners according to geography, following, category. Each link tweeted has a link that tracks the message and integrates with Google Analytics. This allows advertisers to track back and see if the ads are cost-effective.

Ad Networks specializing in Email marketing

55. TrafficForMe

This is one of the oldest email marketing companies in the world. The network can deliver up to 100,000 clicks a day, so there’s sufficient volume for nearly any campaign.

56. Opt-intelligence

Opt-intelligence is an advertising solution that specializes in helping users build their email lists. Advertisers can promote their email opt-in forms to customers across hundreds or top-tier websites and mobile apps.

57. Dedicated Emails

Dedicated Emails is an email marketing company that allows brands in a wide variety of niches to use Dedicated Emails to generate thousands of targeted leads.

Ad Networks specializing in video marketing

58. Viewbox

Viewbox is a very interactive tool that lets you turn video content into compelling ads, which can then be served on Facebook, Twitter and other social platforms. You can also embed the videos on your own site or on other publishers’ websites to maximize your exposure.

59. Famebit

is a self-service platform for video marketing that connects advertisers with YouTubers that can expand their reach to related customers. The service allows you to collaborate with YouTubers on your own terms, so it shouldn’t be difficult to find an influencer who’s willing to deliver your message to your target customers.

Ad Networks specializing in podcast

60. Midroll

The podcast business is booming, and if you want to get your message in front of this captive audience, Midroll is your advertising partner. The network currently works with 120+ different shows that are downloaded more than 15 million times a month, in addition to providing advertisers with 24/7 access to spots and metrics.

Conclusion

As you can see, alternatives to AdWords are a mixed bag. Some of them are more focused on social media, others (especially the in-text options) give access to a diverse blogging audience. Though it’s different from one network to another. You might not have the same conversion rate with second-tier advertising networks as you would with Google AdWords and even Yahoo! Bing network. Still, bid costs leave room for experiments, traffic is cheap and abundant, so you can expect a good ROI.

The post 60 Alternative PPC Ad Networks for Low-Cost Marketing appeared first on Adwords Reporting Tools | Reportgarden.

Agency – Client collaboration workflow

 

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You cannot afford to have top-level advertising talent on staff.

Creating viral content and advertising that resonates with your audience takes specialty skills – a lot of them. Ad Agencies employ the talents of expert writers, designers, art directors, creative directors, web developers, business and marketing strategists, media planners etc and by hiring an agency you get total access to all these skills at a fraction of the cost.

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Because the best creative minds don’t work for in-house departments!

Working with an ad agency opens up a lot of opportunities for creative people. They get to work on a variety of challenging assignments for different clients, across industries/sectors. This is the only way they can both leverage their strengths and pursue their passion. Surrounded by creativity, agencies creative a perfect environment for creative talent to thrive. Trust me, you need these guys!

“Independent agencies aren’t required to live quarter-to-quarter. We are our own stakeholders and stockholders. We can take calculated risks, work with clients we truly want and partner with suppliers we know will deliver.”
– Tom Bertels | Managing Partner, Sullivan Higdon & Sink

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A full-scale marketing team at your disposal, all the time.

When you hire an ad agency, you’re not just hiring a single copywriter , graphic designer, user interface expert, brand strategist or a project manager. With an agency relationship, you are getting an entire team that will consult with you and become an extension of your company. A complete team to effectively lead your company through the marketing, design and branding process.

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A quick start – pitfalls = Valuable time saved

This could be the most important reason for hiring an ad agency. Agencies often work with a diversity of client portfolio, gaining rich experience about what works and what doesn’t. Every agency has a series of best practices gleaned from years of working with clients and testing out different ideas. All of that experience and learning go into devising your marketing strategy.

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“The founding team has their vision blurred by their own ambition.”

When you are involved in your business day in and day out, you may not always see things from the outside, the way a customer would. Working with an outside agency is a great way to balance your ideas with those of outside perspective. Hiring an agency will bring in fresh outlook and expertise to develop an image that resonates throughout all facets of your business.

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Without a strategy to spread your story, your idea is going nowhere!

For your business to fly you need a consistent and coordinated marketing effort across Search, Social and Content.But where do you start? How do you prioritize? A clear marketing plan specific to your business objectives, budget and branding, needs to decide that. With an experienced agency by your side, you can be assured of a perfect marketing strategy.

“The net result is we enjoy long-term relationships with our clients and our employees, welcoming many of them back after they see how the other agencies are run.”
– Josh Mayer | Chief Creative Officer, Peter Mayer

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Building a strong brand is the best investment your business can make.

Branding is beyond just a memorable logo! Good branding can change the trajectory of your business forever. It will add to your legitimacy, create excitement and make customer acquisition so much easier. Ad agencies have a great deal of creative and design resources at their disposal , and with all that experience , they can build you an awesome brand.  

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See your campaigns up and running in just a few days! 

Agencies act as an external marketing department, and don’t require much management on your part. Once you give them an update on your product, features and roadmap, your marketing goes into autopilot mode. They put together content calendars, campaign ideas, and start handling all the day-to-day work, leaving business owners to focus on growing their business.

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You don’t wanna pay for dud leads, right?

Coordinated campaigns and continuous monitoring are crucial for achieving the best marketing results. One big problem with an in-house marketing team is that your employees are always working on various projects and hardly have time for continuous monitoring. An ad agency on the other hand,  has a dedicated account executive constantly monitoring your campaigns.

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Agencies move quickly and test repeatedly, getting better each time

Marketing — online or offline — requires a significant investment of time, energy and financial resources. And so, every marketing asset needs to be tested diligently to find out what’s working and what’s not. This ensures that you don’t miss out on an opportunity to do something better and for less. Agencies know this because they’ve experimented with various approaches in the past.

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Unlike you, agencies invest on multiple tools for data analysis

Ad agencies don’t just get you great results – they even analyze and quantify them for you. Seeing where certain ideas hit or missed, and re-calibrating for future efforts. Their ability to analyse multiple campaigns and endless metrics is the reason they are able to produce such good results. Agencies have the resources to invest in better tools for data analysis.  

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The faster you figure out what’s driving conversions, the faster you grow!

Optimization is not a one time activity. All your campaigns need to be constantly monitored, tested and analysed to improve conversion rates. And budget needs to be reallocated to those areas that are delivering the best results.  Campaigns eat a lot of your budget if you fail to optimize them quickly. You need a full-time professional to analyse the results and optimize your campaigns.

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Hiring a reputable firm can bring instant recognition and credibility

Ad agencies will also help you with media purchasing, such as ads placed in magazines, newspapers, television broadcasts and radio shows. Agencies have an intimate knowledge of pricing, effective scheduling and results-oriented media platforms. Hiring an agency will give you instant access to this network, saving you considerable time, money and effort.

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Increase your chances of hitting a home run, hire an agency

It may seem a bit dramatic, but a single campaign / blog / video post that goes viral can literally change the trajectory of your business. A successful viral campaign could easily pull an extra 100,000 people to your site. This is exactly the sort of results you need to achieve exceptional growth for your business, massive marketing home runs that drive huge numbers of sign ups and shares. This is one big reason why you need to hire an ad agency.

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A clear accountability structure to ensure timely execution

With an ad agency, you ideally have a single point of contact—an account executive—you can lean on to coordinate getting all your work done. Having a great account executive you can rely on to oversee your advertising business can save you countless hours you’d otherwise spend bringing together the right team for each part of the job and keeping your projects moving.

All these factors will work together to give you extraordinary results!

 

Frankly, you can’t expect more than mere leads, with an internal marketing team

The post 15 Reasons Why You Need An Ad Agency To Skyrocket Your Growth appeared first on Adwords Reporting Tools | Reportgarden.

“She is always a novelty; for she is never the Chicago you saw when you passed through the last time.” – Mark Twain

Behind every great digital campaign is a great agency. Thanks to the growing role of internet in our lives, agencies have come a long way in the past decade, and they’ve begun to hone in on and innovate in the realm of digital marketing. Whether the agency is a dozen people or 500, or was founded as a traditional agency or a digital agency, every creative group brings its own flair and aesthetic to its work. 

And to know more about these creative hubs, what better place to start, than the vibrant city of Chicago. When it comes to areas that are full of inspiration and talent for design, advertising, and web development, Chicago is undeniably one of the leading places in the world. The best and brightest in these industries is often found in one of the many digital agencies that are widespread throughout the city of Chicago. The company culture of these digital agencies shape some of the brightest minds in the industry, and by combining the efforts of graphic design with strategy, digital marketing efforts, and website development, a client’s goals are brought to life through memorable campaigns! Let’s take a look at some of the best digital ad agencies in Chicago.

Each agency in this list was hand-selected by the ReportGarden, and they are among the most creative, top-earning agencies in Chicago. A wide range of criteria, which include social shares, user reviews, culture, certifications, employees, thought leadership and a lot more, have been considered while compiling this list. Apart from the usual big names, this diverse list also includes up-and-coming creative agencies that are working with the largest, most well-known brands and are creating today’s major advertising campaigns.

Here’s a look at what we consider the Top 25 digital ad agencies in Chicago, places full of inspiration, talent and opportunities. Each agency with its own unique philosophy on marketing and vibrant culture. Read ahead, get inspired!

25. Baltoro

More than just a digital marketing agency, Baltoro provides a mix of campaign management and strategic consulting that most companies desperately crave. A hybrid agency/consultancy focused on transparency, accountability and integrity. Baltoro is an agile team that provides rapid efficient growth to help companies create long term sustainable success. This agency drives efficient growth, builds brands and expands market share through data driven decisions.

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Baltoro is the perfect blend of campaign development and campaign management with a continuous layer of strategic consulting. With a unique on-boarding process and continual business knowledge transfer, Baltoro creates and executes the strategies that not only meet your company’s current needs, but also positions you to meet your company’s future goals. This approach is a direct result of their experienced team.

One size does not fit all. Baltoro combines their digital marketing expertise with their client’s business knowledge and then employs the appropriate proven strategies that drive results. Strategy, campaigns and results are all customized on a business-by-business basis. They help create a strategic road map that will allow a client to achieve both short term and long term goals.

Minimum Monthly Budget (approx): USD $750

24. OneIMS – Integrated Marketing Solutions

“We take care of our clients, we take care of each other, and we take care of business.”

OneIMS, based in Chicago, is a specialist digital marketing agency offering services in Search Engine Marketing, Paid Search, Web Design and more! OneIMS maintains an in-house team of experts in SEO, PPC, social media, ecommerce and more, analyzing the data that their technology provides and using it to develop targeted strategies. It is this expertise which helps the agency to work with diverse clientele, across sectors from heavy industry and manufacturing to pet care, with ease.

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OneIMS is always on the top of technology and marketing in digital media, using the latest tools to effectively manage campaigns. A certified Google Partner, OneIMS has demonstrated a high level of technical expertise and proficiency in account management. All of this has brought OneIMS a lot of recognition among clients and awards for web development, web design, SEO and integrated search services.

OneIMS has everything you need to compete in the digital marketplace to get more exposure, more traffic and more leads.

Minimum Monthly Budget (approx): USD $250

23. Straight North

Straight North is an Internet marketing company with proficiency in SEO, PPC management, display advertising, email marketing, and responsive (mobile-friendly) Web design and development. In an effort to meet the unique and traditionally underserved marketing needs of the B2B sector, this Chicago-based marketing agency has formed a B2B services division. With an in-house team of over 60 full-time marketers, this agency has the depth and breadth to manage complex, multi-front campaigns that deliver continuously improving results.

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Straight North offers a real-time system of lead validation and reporting that enables clients to rapidly prioritize and respond to high-value actionable leads. With clients throughout the United States and offices in Chicago, Charlotte, Baltimore and Washington, DC, this agency has set the standard for generating high volume, high quality sales leads.

With a three-year growth rate of 198%, Straight North earned the #1994 spot on the 2015 Inc. 5000 List of fastest-growing private companies in America.

Minimum Monthly Budget (approx): USD $500

22. Digital Third Coast

Digital Third Coast is a reputed digital marketing agency in Chicago specializing in SEO, pay-per-click, and content marketing services. After client onboarding, this agency creates a custom plan for each client based on their industry and company needs. With a constant focus on ROI and with a goal of making a measurable difference, this agency is known for delivering great returns to their clients.

Digital Third Coast has a simple philosophy, to achieve success by combining the latest techniques with time-tested best practices. A data-centric agency, this agency heavily relies on data analysis to drive their strategic decisions and account management. DTC uses this data to uncover cold hard facts surrounding their clients’ PPC campaigns and helps them unlock the keys to increasing client visibility among target audience.

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Digital Third Coast believes in investing in its employees, encouraging them to spend up to 10% of their time on education. This agency is now a hub of talent, with several employees completing their Google Individual Qualification certification, in addition to any other necessary certifications such as Bing Ads, Optimizely, HubSpot, and more.

Minimum Monthly Budget (approx): USD $1,000

21. Wpromote

“We are neither a vendor nor a line item; we are a true partner in your business and we celebrate your success.”

Founded in 2001, Wpromote is an award-winning online marketing firm that has helped hundreds of clients from Fortune 500 companies to small startups grow their businesses online. With unmatched experience in search marketing and an unrivaled dedication to clients’ results, Wpromote stands out from the crowd. The suite of services offered by this agency include PPC Management, Search Engine Optimization, Email Marketing and Social Media. The 90+ employees currently manage more than 200 clients spanning a wide range of industries and verticals in over 25 countries worldwide.

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Wpromote’s SCORE Method is their secret to how they create more value for their clients. It involves a cycle of strategy, testing, and optimization to continuously find new ways to improve campaigns and avoid hitting the “plateaus” commonly associated with ongoing marketing efforts.

Wpromote established themselves as leaders in the industry by offering superior proprietary technology, dedicated customer support and an honest, holistic approach. Wpromote has been honored 7 consecutive times on the Inc. 500|5000 list of the fastest growing privately owned companies making them a member of their elite Honor Roll.

Minimum Monthly Budget (approx): USD $2000

20. Rise Interactive

Rise Interactive is a digital marketing agency specializing in digital media and advanced analytics. More than just an agency, Rise Interactive acts as a strategic partner helping marketing leaders allocate budgets most efficiently and create more relevant experiences for their customers.Rise has accomplished its growth by taking a data-driven approach to marketing, maintaining a razor-sharp focus on client performance, and reinvesting the profits back into the business. It manages enterprise-level analytics and campaigns across all channels of digital marketing, including: paid search, SEO, email, display, social, affiliate, and comparison shopping engines.

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This agency takes a unique approach to digital marketing, applying its Interactive Investment Management (IIM) philosophy to client engagements. Similar to the concept of a portfolio manager, the approach looks at an entire investment across digital marketing channels and shifts budgets based on performance and the opportunity to maximize returns.

An award-winning agency, Rise has been recognized as a leader in the digital marketing space and has received industry recognition for explosive growth, excellence in digital marketing, and company culture. Rise was named Digital Agency of the Year by the Moxie Awards and Built in Chicago in 2013, 2014, and 2015.

Minimum Monthly Budget (approx): USD $2,000

19. Perfect Search Media

Perfect Search Media was founded in early 2010 with expertise in all online traffic strategies, with core competencies in search engine marketing and search engine optimization. Much of the firms strategies are based on the background and experiences of their Founder, Ajay Pattani. Today this agency has evolved into a high growth organization that manages SEO, SEM, social media, retargeting, display advertising & design and development for various clients across US.

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Perfect Search Media has some of the best talent in the town, each one of their online advertising analysts are Google Adwords Certified and Bing Ads Accredited Professionals. PSM is also a Google Partner, which means they have a dedicated team of Google Adwords reps and exclusive access to beta programs.

Minimum Monthly Budget (approx): USD $3000

18. The PPC Guys

As the name so clearly indicates, PPC is all they do. The PPC Guys is known for its strong AdWords management team that has years of experience setting up and optimizing Adwords and Bing Ads campaigns for ecommerce, national lead gen, local businesses and SaaS clients. With over 2,000 Google AdWords accounts set-up and managed in the past 5 years, this agency is an obvious choice for businesses in Chicago, focusing on PPC.

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The PPC Guys is a Search Engine Marketing agency with a specialized focus on conversion based pay per click management. With a track record of delivering above industry standard performance, over the past 6 years this agency has grown to over 200 active clients around the globe.

With a well versed knowledge of Google and Microsoft’s search platforms and dedicated analysts striving to improve campaign performance, The PPC Guys is a perfect combination that drives the success of their PPC services.

Minimum Monthly Budget (approx): USD $5,000

17. Walker Sands Digital

“We’ve essentially combined a Chicago web design company, Chicago SEO consulting firm, and Chicago PR firm into one full-service agency.”

Walker Sands Digital is a full service digital firm offering web design, SEO, SEM, and CRO, among other services to clients around the world. Headquartered in Chicago, this agency is a part of the award-winning B2B tech PR agency, Walker Sands Communications. As is the case with its parent organization, Walker Sands Digital specializes in quality driving leads and delivering measurable improvement to clients across a range of industries.

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Walker Sands Digital enjoys a diverse clientele which include large Fortune 500 corporations, startups, fast-growing high-technology companies, professional service firms, business associations and nonprofit organizations. The only thing that this agency seems to care about is to systematically optimize their clients’ campaigns, regardless of the budget. They successfully manage accounts that spend $50,000 per week on PPC ads, and also help out clients with a $1,000 per month budget, with equal zeal.

Results-oriented in every aspect of their work, they’ve built a strong reputation for providing insightful, strategic communications counsel as well as meticulous execution.

Minimum Monthly Budget (approx): USD $5,000

16. Marcel Digital

“Our main objective is to bring transparency to our client’s digital marketing solutions.”

Founded in March 2003, Marcel is one of the original and well established boutique digital marketing firms in Chicago. This agency specializes in Search Engine Marketing including Search Engine Optimization & Paid Search, Web Development, Conversion Rate Optimization, Website Analytics and more.

Marcel Digital is a Google Certified Partner in Paid Search. Along with an awesome creative talent they bring in a strong conversion focus to paid search advertising, optimizing both the traffic driving campaigns as well as the user experience. With a huge clientele across US, Marcel has been successfully helping businesses achieve their objectives, be it driving traffic, e-commerce sales or lead generation.

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Behind all their awards, certifications and credentials are a group of passionate and talented individuals with a strong customer service orientation. Over the years, Marcel has not just built a technically sound account management team but a more client friendly team of digital strategists.

Minimum Monthly Budget (approx): USD $5,000

15. Be Found Online

“The Art & Science of Digital Marketing.”

Be Found Online is an end-to-end solution for traffic generation, lead nurturing, and conversion, driving engagement from first impression up to first contact. By consistently analyzing and optimizing, BFO provides clients with a detailed understanding of customer’s’ entire conversion path. Their Search, Content, and Marketing Automation experts work as a team to cost effectively drive more, and higher quality leads.

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BFO spends zero time building tools, instead they are investing time and money in using them. Leveraging these tools to uncover the deepest of insights to formulate a plan that puts your digital marketing in the right places and in front of the right faces.

BFO offers a full suite of digital marketing services that includes performance organic media, paid media, analytics, and local search tactics.

Minimum Monthly Budget (approx): USD $5,000

14. Mabbly

“Trust Mabbly, then sit back and relax. Their team is the best.”

This is what Chicago Tribune wrote about Mabbly in 2013. Fast Company recently called the Mabbly staff “A hip, young team of approachable guides that demystify the murky world of PR in an internet age.” In the highly competitive online landscape, Mabbly truly stands out. Behind this success is their passion to put their extensive experience, skills, and connections to help their clients businesses rise to the top.

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Mabbly is a truly vibrant agency committed to strengthening their clients’ brand and celebrating the creative and hardworking people behind it. This uniqueness comes from their unique perspective on marketing. They believe the core of a digital brand lies in its narrative. So, after client onboarding the first thing that Mabbly does is understand the client’s story, then work tirelessly to communicate it quickly, easily, and effectively to potential customers. A good story can definitely be a real game-changer.

Mabbly’s team will not only uncover, define, and refine your story; they’ll package and deliver it in a way that’s guaranteed to resonate with your future clients and customers.

Minimum Monthly Budget (approx): USD $5000

13. Kelly Scott Madison

Kelly Scott Madison is a leading independent media agency that delivers results through original media solutions. Over the years, this agency has successfully built a team of skilled marketers with an overt passion for all things media. From experienced professionals to fresh minds, everyone at KSM shares the distinct desire to deliver innovative solutions that go beyond the expected.

KSM has repeatedly demonstrated an impressive degree of versatility and expertise. This is most clearly exhibited by the positive results they have achieved for clients across numerous categories. Their unique approach ensures continued success for their clients.Their daily personal attention and account management is top-notch and their commitment to producing excellence is unmatched.

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KSM has a reputation of delivering exceptional results by integrating additional budget optimizing elements to increase message effectiveness while keeping costs low. This agency has the adaptability and resources necessary to handle any undertaking.

Minimum Monthly Budget (approx): USD $5000

12. Geary LSF Group

“ We bring our obsession with performance to everything we do.There’s no such thing as good enough.”

Geary LSF is an integrated full service online marketing group that is consistently delivering great results by uniquely optimizing the digital customer engagement path. This agency provides all services under one roof: from Strategy to Development, Media Planning to Placement, SEO, SEM, Analytics, Social, Local and Mobile media services.

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Geary LSF specializes in engaging users across multiple touch points to carry them along the consumer decision-making journey. Through the use of Display, Paid Search, Video, Retargeting and more, Geary LSF will carry your brand’s voice from one touch point to the next, seamlessly working with earned and owned media initiatives to move the consumer along the path to purchase.

The 240-people strong Geary LSF Group has offices on two continents and manages campaigns for more than 450 brands worldwide.

Minimum Monthly Budget (approx): USD $5,000

11. Envisionit Agency

As one of the first digital agencies in Chicago, Envisionit Agency is a true pioneer in several segments, working with and creating some of the biggest brands. This digital marketing agency specialising in crafting memorable stories for your brand. Stories that engage your customers and transform your brand into a systems that attract, connect & convert.!

The success of this agency can be attributed to a simple philosophy, something which they stood by from the beginning.

“Our clients deserve the best agency experience they’ve ever had, and our team should love what they do while enjoying the environment in which they do it.”

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Envisionit is a perfect team of designers, writers, marketers, strategists, and developers who work closely together to help you meet your business objectives.

Minimum Monthly Budget (approx): USD $10,000

10. DAC Group

“A full-service digital agency specializing in location-based lead generation”

DAC Group is a full-service, best-practice performance digital agency with a simple objective: to generate measurable revenue for their clients. They combine in-house consumer insight, proprietary technology and media expertise to create innovative marketing and lead generation solutions across multiple platforms – paid and organic search engine marketing; social, local, mobile and location-based media. Starting from research and competitive intelligence, through design and deployment, all the way to execution and continuous improvement, DAC delivers everything that your business needs for growth.

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DAC attributes its consistent performance to localization, granularity and context-sensitivity. And the way DAC achieves this is through a data-driven work culture. This agency is a hub of talent and invests a lot in latest technology & tools, continually optimizing performance to turn leads into customers and big data into impressive results.

All of this provides DAC with the right mix for improving your performance, from the national right down to the hyper-local level.

Minimum Monthly Budget (approx): C$10,000

9. Resolution Media

“Global, but Built on the Best Local Talent.”

With more than 1,350 specialists in 50+ markets worldwide, Resolution Media is one of the largest performance marketing agencies in the world. Always evolving and actively discovering better marketing strategies, Resolution Media has successfully developed some of the world’s largest and most effective campaigns in a truly global fashion. With more than 20 percent of their specialists worldwide focusing on strategy, Resolution has developed sound expertise in Paid Search, SEO, Content, Display, Social and Local marketing.

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Resolution Media helps clients discover their next powerhouse customer acquisition channels while refining and optimizing the campaigns that already drive results.What you can definitely expect from Resolution is finding new opportunities, cross-channel coordination, a significant understanding of your key audiences and more.
Among the best in the marketing business, this agency is always ahead in leveraging the most effective tools and partnering with the industry’s most innovative and top-rated technology companies to manage more than $1.2B in media investments.

Minimum Monthly Budget (approx): USD $5,000

8. iCrossing

“ We bring our obsession with performance to everything we do.There’s no such thing as good enough.”

A unit of Hearst Corporation, one of the nation’s largest diversified media companies, iCrossing offers world-class digital marketing services including paid search, search engine optimization, display, web development, social media, mobile, research & analytics. With 18 offices worldwide, iCrossing is a truly global agency. No wonder, their client base includes Coca-Cola, FedEx, LEGO, Toyota etc.

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As a unit of Hearst Magazines, iCrossing has access to the vast content and data from one of the world’s largest independent media and entertainment companies, this is a huge competitive advantage for its global client base.

iCrossing is heavily invested in data, this is one big factor for its success.They rely on data for everything they do – whether it’s searching for a breakthrough insight, making quantum leaps in technology, or creating content.

Minimum Monthly Budget (approx): USD $20,000

7. Ethology

“We are consumerists at heart and integrationists in practice.

Ethology: The study of human behavior and social organization

As the name suggests, the first thing they do after client onboarding is a through audience research. After a thorough audit process, their Audience Research team provides valuable insights into where your brands and products need to be across the digital spectrum.

With a good mix of analytics and creative talent, Ethology is an agency which believes in creating value by fusing scientific approach with creativity & design. Whatever may be your business objective – brand awareness, sales or client retention, this agency will directly work with you to build a sound strategy and implement it.

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The services offered by Ethology span from integrated digital marketing strategy and planning to digital media planning and buying, creative services and content strategy. They combine these services with robust analytics to track your campaign performance, and provide valuable insights on where to go next.

Minimum Monthly Budget (approx): USD $20,000

6. MARC USA

“No matter the client, category, medium or budget – we’re moving people to action.”

With an unique approach of their own, MARC USA is an agency you can rely on to create strong emotional connections to your brand. As pioneers in search engine marketing, MARC USA has created award-winning campaigns across industries. From customer acquisition, to eCommerce, drive to store, brand engagement, loyalty, advocacy, recruitment, and product launches, MARC USA has done it all. Their channel expertise includes traditional paid search, local, mobile and Product Listing Ads (PLA).

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Using their robust technology infrastructure, these guys centralize, analyze and interpret the data from clients’ marketing efforts to provide customized reports based on their needs. These reports include everything from executive team dashboards to detailed placement level analysis.

With a powerful media team that now includes more than 60+ top-notch planners and buyers with 30+ focused exclusively on digital media, MARC USA is a true pioneer of performance-driven digital marketing.

Minimum Monthly Budget (approx): USD $25,000

5. Cramer-Krasselt

C-K is the second largest independent agency in the U.S., with more than 500 employees and $1 billion in annual billings. Headquartered in Chicago with offices in New York, Milwaukee and Phoenix,they represent major brands across virtually every industry.

The success of this group can be attributed to its unique marketing philosophy:

“Make friends, not ads. Friends are with you for years, not just a quarter. That’s why we believe: The brand with the most friends wins.

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This mindset pretty much drives all their ideas and surprisingly their work structure. Instead of clearly separated departments, C-K works with subject matter experts integrated throughout disciplines across the agency. C-K has achieved great results in this process.

Minimum Monthly Budget (approx): USD $50,000

4. 3Q Digital

Now a part of Harte Hanks Group, this agency is one of the biggest names in Digital Marketing. 3Q Digital is a full-service digital marketing agency working with clients across industries, from Automotive to B2B, from newly funded disruptors to enterprise-level companies. 3Q specializes in ROI-focused digital marketing techniques across all the channels, including SEM, SEO, social, display, video, and mobile. Their core USP lies in advanced attribution techniques and time tested methods of process, strategy, and execution across channels.

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3Q started as the best, most pioneering SEM agency around in 2008 and rapidly built their expertise across channels. Today 3Q owns a huge client base built on a strong foundation of scientific, intent-driven, hyper-customized campaign management.

Minimum Monthly Budget (approx): USD $60,000

3. Rosetta

Rosetta is ranked by Ad Age among the top U.S. digital agencies and was named the #1 Agency to Watch in Ad Age’s 2011 Agency A-List. Rosetta has deep industry expertise in Healthcare, Consumer Technology & Entertainment, Consumer Products & Retail, Financial Services and Business-to-Business (B2B).

“We are an agency of data scientists,designers, storytellers and innovators.”

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It is their differentiated capabilities and structure that have enabled them to become one of the market leaders.They are one of the few agencies which could successfully combine technological depth across platforms with world class creative, design and user experience capabilities. It is their ability to harness the power of data to create customer engagement that increases customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy, that made them an industry leader.

Minimum Monthly Budget (approx): USD $75,000

2. Tribune Content Solutions

A division of Chicago Tribune Media Group, this agency specializes in web design, SEO, paid search, social media and customized training sessions. As the name suggests, this agency believes in leading with content. With content as their core offering, this agency provides all the above services to their clients.

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With a huge base of 45 million consumers nationally, it is this audience base and unrivaled local market reach which gives this agency it’s advantage.

Minimum Monthly Budget (approx): USD $75,000

1. iProspect – US

This agency needs no introduction, iProspect is a global, award-winning marketing agency that drives digital performance for many of the world’s largest brands. An industry leader which handles everything from search to influencer marketing. Born out of search, their reach and market knowledge is unrivalled in the industry. And naturally they attract great talent! With 2,500 employees in 71 offices across 50 countries, iProspect is a first truly global digital performance marketing agency,

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With an in-depth understanding of consumer behavior, iProspect specializes in delivering personal, adaptive and valuable digital experiences.

Minimum Monthly Budget (approx): USD $125,000

The post Top 25 Digital Ad Agencies in Chicago appeared first on Adwords Reporting Tools | Reportgarden.

Paid search testing, optimization and reporting is an important process for almost all digital companies. Most marketers focus on optimization through bids and keywords but ignore improvements that can take place at the creative level. The goal of this post is to introduce our readership to the type of testing and data collection that can take place at the creative level.

To help provide our readers with some high quality knowledge and the associated data, we’ve brought in Jason Puckett, CEO & Founder of AdBasis. AdBasis is an A/B and Multivariate testing platform for search, display, remarketing & mobile ads. Jason’s expertise resides in the ad testing arena and we can’t think of a better resource for our audience.

Jason, please introduce this report you’ve constructed about search ad data.

Jason Puckett:

“Ad testing is conducted for two main reasons: to optimize your ROI and to learn about your audience. Optimization is a relatively standardized process. ReportGarden provides a ton of awesome content telling us how to optimize through enhanced reporting. The second purpose of testing and optimization, “learning”, is a little bit more difficult to grasp and there is significantly less content out there for audiences to learn from.

Advertisers need a way to understand which ad creative actually drives performance for specific audiences. Within the AdBasis platform, we track the metadata associated with each ad variation being tested. Our team collected the creative performance data for over 250,000 search ads and came up with 21 interesting trends that advertisers can implement in their daily ad strategies. Here they are:

The post 21 Things You Didn’t Know About Search Ads [Infographic] appeared first on Adwords Reporting Tools | Reportgarden.

“Make your mark in New York and you are a made man.”  –  Mark Twain

It’s a funny story……

When I was in college, I was sitting in a bar with a friend and we were looking for a one-hour college course to fit into our schedules. It had to be between 10 A.M. and 2 P.M., and we decided the first thing that fit, we’d take. Advertising starts with an ‘A,’ and that’s how we picked it.

I remember telling my friend that I had no idea what advertising was all about. I can’t write jingles and I don’t know how to sing. But once I got into the course, there was a natural discovery of ‘WOW’ — this fits.  I was immediately hooked. So hooked, that I graduated from the University with a degree in Advertising.

And after a short stint as a bartender, I got into my first advertising job as a copywriter. At 25, I became a partner in a creative boutique, where in a span of two years, we drove the business from zero to $50 million, and then right back down again. It taught me a lot about how not to run a business.

From there, I went to a big ad agency on the account management side. My next move was pretty obvious to me. I opened my own agency in NYC! Of course one needs to attract and retain the best of the talent to succeed with it. So, after a few years of running an agency, I quit. Not because I didn’t like the job, but because I felt restricted. I wanted to make it big.

Luckily for me, one the biggest ad agencies in US opened their NYC office. In those days, this agency was seen as a creative boutique. I knew that this was ‘the’ opportunity for me, I got into it. Today I am the President and CEO of this agency…………..

5 years from now, this could be your story.

New York, the mother of ad agencies, is every marketer’s dream and to make it big in New York is making it big in the world. When it comes to areas that are full of inspiration and talent for design, advertising, and branding, New York comes #1 in the world. From across the world, the best and brightest gravitate to the many digital agencies that are widespread throughout New York City, obviously to create an identity for themselves and to make a mark. The creative and vibrant environment of this city and the various opportunities that it offers, shape some of the brightest minds in the industry. If one wants to learn from the success stories of ad agencies, there is no better place to start than NYC.

Fast 35 is a definitive listing of the fastest growing digital ad agencies in New York city. This post features a detailed analysis and commentary on the core USPs and success strategies of these agencies. Information on the various services offered has also been included to help client-side professionals choose the right partner to help achieve their business goals.

Each agency in this list has been hand-selected by the ReportGarden team, and they are among the most creative and fastest growing digital ad agencies in New york city. A wide range of criteria, which include social shares, user reviews, culture, certifications, employees, thought leadership and a lot more, have been considered while compiling this list.

We had awesome fun researching and interviewing these agencies, I am sure you will love it!

Q: With an  average person seeing 3,000-20,000 marketing messages in single day, how do you manage to stand out??

A: Our creative breaks through the advertising clutter because we speak in a different voice than their competitors!

Check out how these 35 digital ad agencies are making their mark in the noisy NYC landscape! Read ahead and get inspired!

1.Firstborn

A global mindset with a New York perspective.

“At our core, we are a culture of thinkers and makers. We aren’t just a production company that executes someone else’s vision. We develop insightful strategies rooted in consumer behavior and the digital space. We turn those insights and strategies into experiences consumers ultimately engage and interact with.”

Firstborn are team of strategists, designers, producers and technologists from around the world who share a passion for creating digital experiences, products and content that reshape the connection between brands and their consumers. Founded in 1997 as a design and technology company with the belief that intuitive and engaging consumer experiences will help move clients’ businesses forward – today Firstborn has evolved into one the leading digital mad agencies in US. A full-stack agency offering services ranging from ecommerce to analytics.

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Personalization guides the entire ideation process at Firstborn. Their core strength lies in their client-centric process. Being involved with the client as early as possible in the strategy and creative development phase helps them in clearly understanding the business objectives & problems of their clients. After a thorough analysis they come up with ideas and execute them.

To improve efficiency and overall quality of work, Firstborn has grown and built out departments in-house to streamline a multi-platform production process under one roof. The next department to be built out is mobile tech and development, this shows Firstborn’s commitment to digital marketing.

More than the processes, services and tools, Firstborn is, at its core, extremely Creative! They are essentially a culture of thinkers and makers. They are far from a regular consultancy whose end deliverable is merely a PowerPoint presentation. They are extremely creative, and can quickly connect the dots to develop insightful strategies rooted in consumer behavior. Capable enough to turn those insights and strategies into experiences consumers ultimately engage and interact with.

Firstborn was named a Creativity Standout for 2015 by Ad Age’s Creativity, an honor that recognizes a handful of agencies around the world who are delivering notable creative ideas that push the ad industry forward. They are also the winners of:

Crain’s Best Place to Work in NYC

Ad Age Best Place to Work in Advertising

These awards are a testimonial to the creative environment that Firstborn offers to its employees. Constantly striving to shatter the standards of how consumers interact with brands in the digital world, Firstborn is leading the way!

2. Critical Mass

We are an experience design agency with a relentless focus on the customer.

“Our work starts and ends with our clients’ customers. We seek to create meaningful experiences that improve those customers’ lives. We produce the kind of meaningful experiences that make something convenient, useful, valuable, simple or entertaining.”

Critical Mass started in Calgary, Alberta, 18 years ago. Today this agency employs 750+ people in 10 offices on 3 continents. All of this was possible purely because of their relentless focus on the customer experience. Critical Mass is one of the very few agencies in the country which truly understands branding and customer experience. At the core of their operations lies an experience-design process, making things simpler, more useful, more entertaining, more convenient and in many ways changing lives.

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As full-service digital experience design agency, Critical Mass provides expertise across Service Design, Experience Design, Marketing Communications and Implementation. Its unwavering belief in delivering brilliant customer experiences has produced business-building results for clients that include Citibank, Nissan, Clorox, Luxottica and many more. Critical Mass is a part of Diversified Agency Services, a division of Omnicom Group Inc.

Naturally, Critical Mass has managed to attract the best talent in the industry. A creative team of tinkerers, makers and do’ers with capabilities to prototype, produce, test, deploy, operate, and optimize digital properties of all types and at scale. With a vibrant work culture that is steeped in entrepreneurial spirit, design heritage and technology,

Critical Mass is your go to destination if you want to create extraordinary experience for your customers!

3. Gyro

Our mission is to create ideas that are humanly relevant.

“Gyro is a global ideas shop, an agency with an unconventional DNA. We are 600 minds in 14 offices acting as one. We Call this Culture UNO. No borders, no walls, no silos; just diverse talents all around the world, working as one, for the good of all our clients.”

Gyro tops Advertising Age’s 2015 BtoB Best Awards. Not just in 2015, Gyro is the reigning BMA Global BtoB Agency of the Year, has won the Advertising Age BtoB Best Awards for six years in a row for its best-in-class work. Part of Advertising Age Top 50 Agency, Gyro also serves as Global Marketing Advisor to FORTUNE. With a huge talent pool of 600 creative minds in 14 offices worldwide, Gyro is trusted by biggies in all verticals including BlackBerry, Cars.com, DuPont, eBay, FedEx, HP, John Deere, SAP, Tate & Lyle, TD Ameritrade, Time Inc. and USG.

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Gyro is today is the world’s largest B2B integrated marketing agency.The fuel behind this astonishing success is its unique work culture.  A culture that is inclusive and celebrates diversity. This inclusive culture is designed for one purpose: to set creative minds free! A hyperconnected world, needs a lot more than just a concept and a media plan to ‘emotionally move’ people. So the more kinds of talent and experience an agency can bring to the challenge, irrespective of job title and department, the more kinds of creative opportunities they will see. Gyro lives and breathes this culture. It is this culture of inclusiveness, that allows it to break down silos and operate holistically.

Gyro holds strong expertise in design, analytics, content, mobile, SEO/SEM, Social Media, PR etc. When it comes to B2B marketing, there is no better agency than Gyro.  

4. Cramer-Krasselt

Make friends, not ads.

“Too much agency work is disposable. Here today, forgotten tomorrow. But great work endures. Because at its core is a big, truth-heavy insight. And when it’s delivered with the right execution, a big truth changes the conversation and connects in a way that lasts. It starts a relationship. A bond. An affinity that pays off in countless ways. A big truth powerfully told creates what cannot be easily stolen. A friend. Make friends, not ads.® “

At C-K, their mission is simple: Make friends, not ads.® This is the philosophy that helped Porsche’s first luxury sedan—the Panamera— become a smashing success and helped catapult Corona Extra to America’s #1 import.

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This unique philosophy not only drives their ideas, it also drives their structure. They‘re built without silos or competing interests to truly tap into an ever-expanding range of disciplines, from advertising to SEM/SEO to social to analytics-whatever it takes to create compelling brand experiences. This philosophy has made C-K the nation’s second largest independent ad agency, placing them among the top 20 advertising and digital firms in the country with more than 500 employees and $1 billion in annual billings. Digital alone now accounts for 42 percent of their business.

Headquartered in Chicago with offices in New York, Milwaukee and Phoenix, C-K represents the biggest brands across virtually every industry, including Benihana, BIC Razors, BRP (Ski-Doo, Sea-Doo, Evinrude), Cedar Fair Amusement Parks (Cedar Point, Knott’s Berry Farm and 10 others), Corona Extra, Edward Jones, Giant Foods, Heinz (Ketchup, Smart Ones, Classico, Steam n’ Mash), MGM Grand, Porsche, Spice Islands and Vitamix.

They are constantly on look for ideas that fascinate and motivate new behavior. With help from data, debate, psychology and math, they look for all the things that a brand can do to bring people closer to it.

5. iCrossing

A marketing agency for the modern world.

“By modern world, we mean a C2B world, where consumer is in control. And as consumers lead, brands must follow. Today, success means planning around people, not products. iCrossing helps create brand stories and user experiences that deliver superior business results, with an innovative blend of performance marketing, insights-driven strategy, impactful creative, and powerful technology.”

iCrossing is a global digital marketing agency offering world-class digital marketing services including paid search, search engine optimization, display, web development, social media, mobile, research & analytics.

iCrossing is a unit of Hearst Corporation, one of the nation’s largest diversified media companies. Headquartered in New York, NY, this agency has 900 employees in 18 offices worldwide. iCrossing combines talent and technology to help world-class brands find and connect with their customers. It’s client base includes such recognized brands as Coca-Cola, FedEx, LEGO, LG Electronics, Toyota, Williams-Sonoma and 40+ Fortune 500 companies.

iCrossing specializes in creating powerful brand stories and designs responsive user experiences to deliver meaningful business results. Owned by Hearst Magazines, it is the only digitally-born agency within a media, entertainment, and content empire. This ignites marketing solutions that marry iCrossing’s creative, technological, and media prowess with Hearst’s rich data, quality content, and editorial fire-power.

Named a “Leader” in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for global digital marketing agencies for the second year running, this agency headquartered in New York is a pioneer in performance media. They work with data to understand user intent, identify patterns in search behavior and drive results. Whether it’s searching for a breakthrough insight, making quantum leaps in their technology, or creating content that forges a deeper connection with a brand, iCrossing completely relies on data.

Grounded in performance. Fueled by insights and creativity. Powered by data and technology. iCrossing is truly a dream agency!

6. Essence Digital

Making advertising more valuable to the world.

“Digital advertising done well is more meaningful and more effective. We help some of the world’s top brands earn relevant connections with their customers.”

With a creative workforce of more than 480 people, $700MM+ in media spend and active campaigns in 71 markets, Essence is the world’s largest independent buyer of digital media. With offices in London, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Singapore and Tokyo, Essence is a truly global digital agency. Their USP is their ability to seamlessly blend data science, objective media and captivating experiences to build valuable connections between brands and consumers. With heavyweight clients like Google, Viber, method, Tesco Mobile and the Financial Times, Essence is one of the fastest growing ad agencies in the world.

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In an industry rife with pseudoscience, Essence takes data science pretty seriously. Their work has won praise from leading academics and economists as well as clients with stronger, more accountable media programs.

More than the data capabilities, it is their global reach that makes this agency irresistible. Their hub operating model has a proven track record for clients who want to run their business on a genuinely global basis. As a part of GroupM, Essence is majority owned by WPP, the world’s leading communications services group.

Their media teams create effective connections, regardless of screen size or media type—paid, earned, owned or borrowed. Whether it’s building brands, or driving sales, their clients get the most from this rapidly evolving ecosystem.

If you are planning on going global, you don’t have to look beyond this agency!

7. 6S Marketing

We’re not satisfied with “good enough”.

“We’re always identifying opportunities for further growth, and pushing the program to consistently win big — your brand reaps the benefits.”

6S is an international squad of digital marketing superstars. With offices in New York, Toronto and Vancouver, their success has been growing multifold since the year 2000. A trusted Google Partner, with more Google-certified strategists than 99% of agencies worldwide. 6S has been continually honored with Top Employer awards for their company culture.

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Founded by Chris and John in 2000, 6S Marketing has always stood out for its creative and vibrant work culture, where coworkers are more family than friends. Since then, the company has grown impressively in size, with multiple offices and a wider range of service offerings. From Web Development to SEO, 6S Marketing is known for delivering spectacular digital experiences, creating campaigns that are world-class in style, scope and execution.

What you can definitely expect from 6S is hand-picked account managers to work with you based on familiarity with your industry. With detailed targeting, precise delivery and constant optimization, 6S is sure to get you exceptional conversion rates.

From the east coast to the west coast 6S got you covered!

8. Blast Radius

We use technology in service of creativity.

“We are a global experience innovation agency. Creatively driven. Digitally focused. A Wunderman company.”

Blast Radius is a global experience innovation agency that delivers branded content across social, mobile and other platforms. A truly global digital agency, it operates from offices across the world, Amsterdam, Chicago, London, Munich, New York, San Francisco, Singapore, Toronto and Vancouver. With a team of over 300 employees, Blast Radius has one of the most diverse and creative teams in the industry. A proud member of the Wunderman network, this agency is trusted by the biggest global brands like Starbucks, Nike, Microsoft, Bacardi, Nokia, BMW, Nivea.

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Known for pushing the limits of technology to bring the best creative ideas to life in intriguing, engaging ways, Blast Radius constantly tries to bridge the gap between physical and digital. This agency has always stood for its clear vision, bold ideas and the courage to challenge convention.

At the core of any marketing activity lies creative content, Blast Radius specializes in creating content, that builds brands and engages customers. From social to mobile to platform, they specialize in creating content that is tailored to each channel and true to the shared ideal between brand and consumer.

This statement clearly states the purpose of the content that they create:

“We uncover the shared ideal that lies at the intersection of consumer passion and brand purpose and bring it to life in always-on brand experiences and integrated campaigns.”

All of this takes a whole lof of creative talent. And to retain this talent, Blast Radius has evolved a cross-disciplinary, collaborative approach to work. Thus, creating a culture of inclusion that helps teams stay engaged and excited.

Blast Radius is full of people who are truly passionate about the digital world, get in touch, they are bound to leave you super excited!

9. Moroch

We live consumer behavior every day!

“We live customer behaviour every day and because of that, we develop meaningful, more intimate brand experiences that deliver immediate, demonstrable, and sustainable results. We combine Paid, Owned, and Earned digital channels to create brand experiences that are worth sharing. We always start with “Why?” We measure everything. And we obsessively look for ways to constantly improve performance.”

To truly appreciate this agency one should definitely read this:

Tom Moroch began the company in 1981 with one client and an idea for an agency: living its clients’ business and getting closer to their customers. That first client is still with them, along with—as you can see from the site—an impressive number of others.

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Today Moroch is one of the biggest agencies in US with a unique footprint of 33 offices throughout the U.S, offering best-in-class services in Social and Digital Analytics, Digital Audience Profiling, Content Strategy, Influencer Engagement, SEO Strategies, Micro Real-Time Engagement and Digital Lead Generation!

So what lies at the core of this agency?

An intimate understanding of the customers, what’s important to them and the world they live in.

Moroch is an amazing mix of catalysts — researchers, provocateurs, thought-leaders, planners and partners. Grounded in a solid understanding of the consumers, their work has proved to have an immediate, demonstrable and sustainable impact.

Moroch is one of the few agencies which combines strong traditional media functions—strategizing, planning and buying with new media roles, developing vehicles for broadcast, digital, print and experiential.

If you are looking for a meaningful and more intimate brand experiences, Moroch is your agency!

10. Laundry Service

Success on social media is a commitment to change.

“We use data to inform strategy, which drives creative and targeting. Creative and targeting achieve business objectives, giving us more data to optimize our strategy. Rinse, repeat. It’s the circle of digital life.”

You can get all of your laundering needs completed under one roof at a laundry service. Why should your social media be any different? Laundry Service is the only mid-sized agency that handles content creation, media buying, and digital PR in one place, in real-time and all at once!

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With an unique approach to social media, this agency on Madison Avenue, has been rocking since Day 1! A part of  Wasserman Media Group company, Laundry Service was one of the agencies to watch in Ad Age’s A-List issue in January. 247LS is a  social media agency with full-service capabilities across owned, earned, and paid media. One big advantage of this agency is that they have Public Relations and video production capabilities, all in-house.

The rocket growth of this agency can be attributed to its amazing team, awesome work culture and a simple organizational structure. Everyone at 247LS is a community manager, creative, strategist, and ad buyer. This flat structure allows LS to deliver nimble, efficient and truly effective social programs that drive high ROI and consistently outperform campaigns managed by multiple agencies.

It is this scalable, unique agency structure that allows 247LS to work with a large variety of great brands, including big businesses (Amazon, Disney), institutions (University of Miami, NYU) etc..Also, LS has successfully proven itself across many verticals, including fashion, e-commerce, entertainment, publishing, finance, CPG, automotive and healthcare.

If you are thinking social, you don’t have to look beyond 247LS!

11. Laughlin Constable

Our business creates ideas. Our ideas create business.

“Our culture is creative but steeped in accountability. Every idea we present is vetted for one objective: Will this strengthen our client’s brand for the purpose of increasing our client’s business? Performance, as it relates to business success, is how we live and judge ourselves every day. Marketing innovation, insight, imagination and digital mastery anchor our approach.”

Founded in 1976 by Steve Laughlin, LC is today among the top 25 independent agencies in the U.S. An agency responsible for some of the classic brand invigorations like Sargento Cheese, Oshkosh B’Gosh, Leinenkugel’s and Sharp’s Beer among dozens of others.

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A full-service marketing communications firm, with offices in Milwaukee, Chicago, New York and New Jersey. This agency provides Full Circle Branding™ solutions including brand strategy development, digital marketing, design, advertising, public relations, media research, planning and buying.

The continuing success of this agency can be attributed to its two prime foundational principles:

“Our product is people and happy, fulfilled, motivated people make great marketing!”

LC offers a great workplace that is flexible and welcoming, an environment which allows employees to grow their talent and advance their careers. This agency has been winning ‘Top Workplace’ award consecutively for the past 5 years! Naturally, they attract the best talent in the city / industry.

“Every activity that we undertake has the sole purpose of increasing our client’s business.”

LC believes in working together, to equip their clients with the ideas and infrastructure needed to be successful. To combine fresh insights and technical skills that can help attract, connect and engage their clients’ best prospects to their brands.

It is their commitment to clients and employees which is keeping this agency ahead of it’s competitors.

12. Rokkan

Born from digital. Evolved into a fully integrated agency.

“Our aim is to help brands meet the ever-shifting needs of communities and cultures. To develop a strategic point of view that can navigate existing and emerging consumer journeys. To challenge conformity. And to completely re-imagine the experiences through which people will connect.

In short, we believe that marketing can make us more, not less, human. We’re a company by and for the brave.”

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More than an external agency, Rokkan is a client partner that brings brands and people together with purpose. Founded in 2000, Rokkan has grown from a three-person startup into a heavily awarded member of the Publicis Groupe, housing some of the most brilliant talent in the industry. With offices in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, Rokkan leverages a customer- and digital-first approach, blending strategy, storytelling, digital business and technology. Sound expertise in everything they do, is what makes this agency one of the most sought after agencies in US.

This Agency has seen amazing growth in terms of both revenue and employees, working for big ticket clients including JetBlue, Sharp, Bethesda Softworks etc. With an amazing team, this agency, led by CEO-cofounder John Noe, manages to span a range of digital work from media to e-commerce to social media. With a New York ZIP code and a tendency toward designing digital properties and websites that endure, Rokkan is sure to follow in the steps of the big boutiques and A-Listers Agencies in NYC.

Named to Ad Age Agency A-List for thirds consecutive year, Rokkan has been winning awards and honors almost every year for their amazing campaigns.

13. PMG

We work hard, we care about our clients, and we’re upfront with them.

“PMG ranked #13 among an exclusive list of 50 Best Places to Work in Advertising & Media by Advertising Age.”

“Full-service digital agency PMG was named to the Technology Fast 500™”

“PMG wins the Silver medal at the 2015 Ad Age Small Agency Awards in Boston”

It is not very often that you see an agency winning multiple awards across categories. Meet PMG, a team of extremely talented individuals with an awesome culture of creativity! In their own words : PMG is a pack of weirdos and button-ups alike interested in learning and doing the right things.

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Founded in 2010 in Dallas/Fort Worth, PMG began with the vision of smart, creative, and passionate individuals creating change through innovation. With a combined 30+ years of experience in the media industry, PMG is a team of pioneers, committed to finding the most innovative and authentic ways to help clients exceed the goals unique to them. From Apple’s Beats by Dre to OpenTable to J.Crew, PMG is today a full-service digital agency to some of the world’s most progressive brands. Driving results for Fortune 500 brands!

PMG is a full-service digital agency that specializes in SEO, Digital marketing, Creative Design & Development, Ecommerce Consulting, Mobile Development, Brand Strategy, Social Media, Incubation, Local Optimization etc. Successfully operating across a range of industries from retail and luxury to hospitality and CPG.

The rocket growth of this agency can be attributed to their amazing client service. More than an external agency, PMG provides its services as an extension of their client’s marketing group. They work as strategic consultants, empowering their clients to create successful and innovative digital marketing programs.

What you can definitely expect from PMG is great work, professional service and 100% results. They are fearless and innovative and worth every penny!

14. AMP Agency

Perfect blend of big agency resources and small agency nimbleness.

“We are a team of talented characters who happen to love creating smart ideas for those who will have us. We ask the questions no one else asks to get to the smartest ideas.”

From creating the ‘Best Cause Related Marketing Campaigns’ to winning awards for experiential marketing campaigns, AMP Agency excels at all! With a vibrant work culture and an extremely talented team, AMP agency has been growing steadily.

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Through the years, this agency has morphed from a non-traditional marketing agency into a full-service shop. Today, they’re a 100 + team of intellectually curious individuals eager to put their digital marketing and advertising services to work for their clients.

AMP Agency is today a full service marketing agency with offices in Boston and New York. Venturing into San Francisco and New York reflects AMP Agency’s growing roster of clients and continued commitment to service key clients with an in-market presence.

The success of this agency can be attributed to the time they invest in understanding a client’s customers and business needs. Which is then translated into the best intent-capture campaigns to ensure success! This amazing work has brought them some really big clients like Maybelline New York, Princess Cruises, Hasbro and Ansell Healthcare.

All recommendations AMP makes are inspired by consumer insights and a deep understanding of all media channels and powered by an agency-wide spirit of integration and creativity. They are really good at what they do.

15. Avex

We combine design, commerce & technology to launch brands and help businesses grow.

“We believe in including our clients in every step of the process. Designing and prototyping from day one, our expert team collaborates to bring ideas to life.”

Avex is a boutique New York web design company & digital marketing agency. Founded in 2013 by Freelance Web Designer John Surdakowski, Avex is a perfect team of multidisciplinary designers & strategists, with a passion for creating immersive digital experiences.

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Avex is especially known for creating beautiful and immersive digital experiences for brands and businesses of all sizes. Starting as a design-first agency, Avex has now acquired specialization in SEO, SEM, UX design, responsive design, social media management, mobile app design etc.

With offices located in the WeWork building on Varick Street in NYC, this agency has won the trust of big brands like Google, USA Network, HBO, PONY, UBISoft, Sony Music, Bank of America etc. in a very short time span. Amazing work output and ability to quickly scale up depending on the client size and needs, is the secret behind the success of this agency.

You can definitely count on Avex to provide you with the best possible solution for your business needs, pushing the boundaries of technology and user experience!

16. Eventige

Inspired by Passion. Driven by Results.

“Eventige has been essential to us in developing and executing a social media and search engine optimization strategy. They developed Twitter and Facebook systems that are consistently growing organic new followers, along with an extremely strong Google AdWords campaign, both of which have yielded us impressive rankings. Eventige also provides us with constant updates and tips on other ways in which we can leverage success in such a competitive marketplace.”

This testimonial from a happy client sums it all. From Adwords campaigns to setting up social media profiles, Eventige does it all. Eventige Media Group is full service marketing partner to some of the most innovative brands on the globe. The rocket growth of this agency can be attributed to their client-oriented approach. transparency, strategy, and the use of the latest technologies to power their campaigns.

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Eventige owns Event Marketing Worldwide, the largest experiential marketing group in the world. The group was also featured on LinkedIn for creating the most active discussions on brand innovation and grassroots techniques. Eventige Media Group was also featured in Forbes as a Top 100 Global Ad Agency!

Now combine strong event management / outdoor skills with digital marketing abilities and you have a superb combination. Eventige combines its expertise in outdoor event management with digital services like social media, SEO/PPC, web development, branding & design etc to produce extra-ordinary results.

Their work with Logic e-cigarettes is worth discussing. A combination of offline and online activities has produced record growth numbers for the company, expanding from 440 to over 50,000 retail channels in a time span of only 2 years. Internet sales increased by over 1800%, social media fans increased by over 700%.

Over the last few years, Eventige has grown into one of biggest names in NYC, attracting clients from across US. If you are planning on an outdoor event + online marketing, Eventige is you go to agency.

17. Performics

Inspired by Passion. Driven by Results.

“In an increasing complicated media world where participating with your customers across ever changing channels, platforms and screens is essential, a relentless focus on connectivity, measurement, optimization and integration is essential. We operate in a time when we can make every marketing dollar accountable and attributable, and Performics mission is to realize this opportunity for the clients it serves.”

Founded in 1998, Performics is named the “original performance marketing firm” by Forrester Research. Part of Publicis Groupe— the world’s third largest communications group and top search spender, Performics is today a global giant with 1300+ experts in 40 countries. For more than 15 years, Performics has redefined performance marketing by using data, technology and media in novel ways. An award-winning global player in search, social, display and affiliate channels, Performics collaborates with 220+ brands globally.

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A global performance marketing agency for the world’s most respected brands, Performics activates data to motivate participation, drive performance and optimize for action across channels. It is through investment in market-leading tools and technology and by using data to understand consumers and their media habits, Performics is able to drive enhanced performance.

17 years after its inception, it still manages to rule the markets because of the exceptional people at Performics. Performics boasts a 95% team member satisfaction rate and low turnover. Performics is continually recognized as a world-class performance marketing agency and has received numerous industry accolades for its work culture and employee benefits.

With vast experience, truly global reach and huge talent pool, Performics is definitely an industry leader and a go to agency for any business that aspires to go global.

18. Maxburst

Out of this world support.

“No matter how small or large your business is, we provide complete marketing solutions for your company. The most important thing is that the work and services we provide are focused on results, conversions, and a strong return on your investment.”

Founded in 2003 on Long Island, New York, Maxburst, Inc. was formed to provide professional web-based services, ranging from custom web designs to digital marketing. Providing the ability to integrate clear, functional, and creative interfaces with technical, business solutions, Maxburst was launched to strategically build brands to develop more meaningful relationships with client customers.

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Maxburst specializes in SEM, SEO, Social Media as well as Local Search, thus by choosing Maxburst, a client will benefit from constant quality and the ease of coordinating projects with a single vendor. By helping clients to strategize, develop and implement compelling Digital Based Solutions, Maxburst generates more revenue, gets more customers and increases profit margins for its clients. Using the latest tools and technologies that are both proven and practical, Maxburst maximizes ROI.

By choosing Maxburst to handle your creative needs, you’ll benefit from constant quality and the ease of coordinating projects with a single vendor.

19. Flying Point Digital

Data-driven marketing for retail and e-commerce.

“Our results-oriented approach, rooted in data-driven marketing, ensures we build client success stories with measurable results. As an agency focusing on retail and e-commerce marketing, we understand the unique needs of retail businesses and how to best engage and convert visitors into customers.”

With an average person seeing 3,000 – 20,000 marketing messages in single day, obviously, most of those messages get lost. So, how do you to stand out from the crowd?

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Extra-ordinary work is the only way to stand out and get the attention of your target audience. Flying Point tries to do that with every single campaign!

Flying Point Digital isn’t your run-of-the-mill SEO or Social Media marketing company. They are a full-service digital marketing agency that offers solutions for businesses to truly scale. Help brands find their voice and put their message in front of the customers.

As an agency focusing on retail and e-commerce marketing, Flying Point understands the unique needs of retail businesses and how to best engage and convert visitors into customers. With a successful track record within the retail industry, Flying Point focusses on generating and acquiring demand at all stages of the customer’s journey. Their SEM Management and Paid Search Marketing services are tailored to the retail industry and are proven to deliver performance-based results for top retailers.

The success of this agency lies in their approach. Flying Point leverages cross-channel attribution modeling to achieve optimal efficiency for a digital strategy. As the market continues to fragment, and consumer touchpoints continue to increase, a holistic strategy becomes essential to win – one that focuses on the synergies across multiple channels and magnifies results.

With a results-oriented approach, rooted in data-driven marketing, Flying Point has been delivering measurable results for nearly 15 years! If you are looking for a digital partner to challenge your strategic thinking and improve your digital presence, Flying Point is your answer.

20. Elite SEM

People-focused. Performance-driven.

“Founded on Search, focused on holistic performance-driven digital marketing with our cross-device digital marketing mix tailored to your specific needs and goals.”

Recognized by the Inc.5000 as one of the fastest growing Performance Driven Marketing agencies in the US, Elite SEM is a team of industry experts specializing in online marketing. Founded on Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – both paid search and organic search (SEO) – in 2004, Elite has evolved alongside client needs, with further expertise spanning Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), Performance Display Advertising, Paid Social, Shopping & Feed, and Mobile Strategy.

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Elite SEM has been honored with several prestigious industry awards for both their culture and performance, including: Ad Age Small Agency of the Year: Best Agency Culture; US Search Awards Best Agency in 2013, 2014, and 2015. And many more, but what really makes Elite SEM stand out is its people-centric culture.

People always come first at Elite SEM – both internally and externally. Employee benefits at Elite SEM are a gold standard for the industry and are truly committed to attracting and retaining top industry talent. A committed team definitely helps in building strong and lasting relationships with clients and partners. Their unique business model incentivizes and rewards account teams to consistently drive performance and keep clients happy, engaged, and successful! The super success of this agency is direct consequence of its people-centric culture.

At Elite SEM every employee is a business owner, with executive benefits like unlimited vacation/sick days, Profit Sharing Compensation and Equity from Day One. No wonder they are on the top every prestigious list :

• Crain’s #1 Best Place to Work in NYC
• MASHABLE #1 Best Tech Companies to Work For
• AD AGE Best Agency Culture
• ENTREPRENEUR Best Company Culture.

With an unprecedented 97% employee and 95% client retention rates, their commitment to people and performance has cemented their position as one of the top digital marketing agencies in US. Undoubtedly, Elite SEM attracts and retains top talent, creating tenured teams with experience across multiple verticals and industries. This way even Clients feel confident knowing they have dedicated, consistent teams working on their campaigns, with account managers who know their business inside and out.

SEM account managers are all stakeholders whose prosperity is dependent on the success of their clients. This business model ties account performance to account managers and leads to better results.

21. Digital Surgeons

Forward Obsessed. Change is the only constant.

“Born from passion, an entrepreneurial spirit, and a curiosity for advancement, the team at Digital Surgeons will forever be relentless in discovering new ways to drive brands and consumers forward.”

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Digital Surgeons are a passionate group of visionaries, creative technologists, strategists, makers and doers, obsessed with discovering new ways of creating connections between brands and consumers. From product development to branding & marketing , they are a full-service agency optimized for a digital-centric world.

The foundational principle of this agency is to create great experiences. Because, experiences build relationships and relationships build brands. It’s these experiences that cut through the noise and create lasting connections that build brands.With insight-rich strategies, flawless execution, and intelligent technology, Digital Surgeons create lasting connections to build brands.

With an ever expanding list of big clientele, likes of Unilever, CamelBak, Guess, Sharp, Barneys New York, Borderfree, USTA etc. Digital Surgeons is one of the fastest growing ad agencies in New York.

22. Jellyfish

Our success is down to great people, innovative ideas and lots of hard work.

“Jellyfish aren’t just PPC professionals and SEO & Social experts, we’re also passionate about Creative, dedicated to Display and link it with Analytics, creating perfect digital journeys for their clients.”

Jellyfish are a global digital marketing agency, with offices in the UK, US and South Africa. We are a specialist team of designers, developers and dedicated project managers with a wealth of industry experience.Their award-winning combination of technology and talent has led to successful projects in paid search, SEO, social media, analytics and creative solutions.

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With a heritage as the UK’s leading agency dedicated to paid search, Jellyfish have worked across a wide range of industries, including property, pharmaceutical, financial and gaming. Their impressive list of clients include Experian, Motors.co.uk, Fitbit and Berkeley Group.

With an international team of 280 employees, all with industry recognised qualifications, Jellyfish combines talent, experience and a deep understanding of user interaction online with advanced technologies to deliver outstanding results for their clients.

The 3 big reasons behind the success of Jellyfish are:

(i) Ability to integrate with all departments within Jellyfish in the delivery of creative digital solutions.

(ii) Great understanding of the convergence of marketing channels, platforms and devices to create an overall winning strategy.

(iii) Using the latest and best-of-breed technologies and tools

With an expanding list of service offerings Jellyfish is at the forefront of digital marketing, pushing boundaries and getting results.

23. Forward3D

Cutting edge search and display marketing across global markets.

“We run cutting-edge search and display marketing campaigns with industry leading technology and performance linguistics.Our analysis and intelligent use of data has established industry-leading expertise and knowledge.”

Forward3D is one of the world’s largest performance marketing agencies. Running cutting edge, global digital marketing campaigns across paid search, natural search, content, display and social using industry-leading performance linguistics, data science and technology.

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What started as a PPC affiliate agency in 2004, is today a global agency with offices in London, New York, Shanghai, Seoul and Tokyo, as well as a dedicated localisation division, Locaria. Forward3D specialises in international, data-driven, online DR campaigns and market to over 65 territories, in 45 languages, across more than 20 search and social platforms. Today Forward3D, successfully manages integral campaigns for some of the biggest brands in the world like British Airways, Hilton Hotels, Hertz, Ralph Lauren, Gucci and a host of exciting brands across fashion, retail, travel and professional services.

“What was quickly evident as we grew was the need to adapt to overcome the scaling, data and linguistic challenges we were facing. This led to the adoption of an agile working methodology, a dedicated international division, Locaria, along with our technology platform, Stage.”

Performance has always been at the core of this agency. Forward3D manages to achieve such high performance by investing on the development of their team. Increasing the knowledge and experience of their employees will obviously benefit their clients, and is sure to deliver great results and service.

With a narrow structure, devoid of unnecessary layers, Forward3D offers a straightforward and dynamic team apt for producing quick results.

24. Tenthwave

Your Customer informs us. Our job is to inspire them.

“Every day, we do a better job of finding transformative ideas that seduce the hearts and minds of your customers.”

Tenthwave Digital is a more personal full-service digital agency specializing in social marketing, digital strategy, website design and development, SEO and SEM, digital advertising, promotions, sweepstakes and technology. This agency specializes in humanistic marketing for the connected world i.e.creation and activation of Digital, Social, and Mobile experiences. As a Customer Obsessed Digital Agency, Tenthwave  works with clients as a team, to arrive at an optimal digital strategy, then develop the best ways to execute it.

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Reporting is the most crucial client communication after on-boarding and Tenthwave takes its reporting pretty seriously. They send detailed analytics reports on your campaign performance, while constantly refining the tools to maximize efficiency. More than the tools, techniques and strategies, Tenthwave is adept at finding out human insights, which are then used to build mathematically- modeled marketing plans that connect a brand to people and drive quantifiable results.

Tenthwave is a trusted partner for some of the biggest brands across a broad range of industries—including beauty, consumer technology, CPG, finance and more. Brands trust them because they truly understand how to connect to people on a deeper, emotional level. The various awards they’ve won across categories, from Davey, Marcom, W3 to Horizon Interactive awards, is in itself a testimonial for their proficiency.

Working with Tenthwave is a real pleasure! No matter what your budget is, big or small, Tenthwave can develop creative marketing concepts that will work on multiple platforms.

25. Search Laboratory

We increase client revenue with Scientific Search Engine Marketing!

“Search Laboratory delivers profitable search engine marketing campaigns, including mathematical PPC and customer-centric SEO, to clients in 18 countries worldwide. Working in over 35 languages, Search Laboratory can help you deliver more revenue from your existing search marketing or help you tap into new markets overseas.”

Search Laboratory is an award winning digital marketing agency specialising in Pay-Per-Click (PPC), search engine optimisation (SEO), conversion optimisation and website analytics. An international agency with over 150 clients spanning 18 countries, Search Laboratory caters to a broad range of sectors including e-commerce, fashion, technology, B2B, professional services, gaming and many more.

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The core USP of this agency lies in its awesome ability to create successful multilingual campaigns. Search Laboratory was founded by Ian Harris in 2005 in order to provide a more auditable, ethical and statistical approach to PPC and SEO, and to fill the gap in the market for a linguistically faithful campaign management.

80% of the digital ad agencies don’t offer this kind of multilingual service, or rather fail at multilingual campaigns because it is difficult to direct a larger team of multilingual workers, especially if they’re spread across different locations and time zones. Search Laboratory on the other hand, employs a large team of native linguists – by having everyone based in the same location it makes it much easier to manage campaigns that span multiple countries and languages. This gives them a greater control over the quality of work that’s being done for their clients, yielding far better results than outsourced work.

If you ever want to run foreign language PPC campaigns, Search Laboratory is your go to destination.

26. R2integrated

Create new integrations between brand, demand, and technology!

“We deliver multi-channel marketing experiences. We work to understand your needs, your customers’ behaviors and help you implement the best options. We don’t stop at implementation either. We develop dashboards that show ROI and run campaigns that connect with your audience.”

R2i is a full-service digital ad agency providing national enterprise-level digital marketing, social marketing, and technology services.Their services include digital marketing, analytics, design, strategy and search. Apart from the regular services offered by an ad agency, R2i offers a full suite of technology services to enterprise-level clients!

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R2i uses proprietary tools and social media software to provide clients with a range of options for distributing social content as well as monitoring and tracking performance, engagements and conversions across all channels.

(i) R2iQ Analytics Dashboard provides a clear multi-channel view of marketing efforts

(ii) R2intel Dashboards help optimize campaign strategies

(iii) R2iSMASH™ Storytelling collects social media conversations in one feed

Technology-Driven Marketing for Enterprise Brands

From customized cloud-based social community management programs to mobile apps and interactive visual dashboards, R2i provides ideas and solutions that are on the forefront of digital marketing technology. This unique capability has brought them a lot of clients, from across industries like Real Estate, Education, Healthcare, Government etc.

Along with marketing technology, R2i is also a pioneer in producing thought leadership content covering trends in digital marketing and resources that are integral to navigating marketing technologies. CEO of R2i, Matt Goddard needs a special mention here for transforming this agency into one of the fastest growing agencies in the world.

27. Bowen Media

Exceptional Talent Meets High Standards.

“Our days are tuned to industry pulse — and we practically dream in digital. Our accomplished team prides ourselves on honing our hard-earned expertise, creating rewarding client experiences, and perfecting our craft.”

Bowen Media is an award-winning, Long Island based web design and digital marketing agency that partners with businesses to create powerful, enduring results. Their core strength lies in their ability to combine exceptional artistry and sharpened strategy, to provide their clients with unparalleled value.

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This agency specializes in creating strategy-driven, visually outstanding websites that are fully equipped to fulfill the client’s marketing goals. And when it comes to digital marketing, complete transparency, measurable Results, and accountability, has been Bowen Media’s Baseline. Highly trained AdWords professionals and a strong commitment to turn out actual, tangible outcomes is the reason why Bowen continues to dominate the market. (With 500 clients in Long Island alone!)

Led by the highly talented Dan Bowen and Natalie Trapani, Bowen is perfect for expanding companies that need powerhouse-level support.

28. Rakuten Marketing

Driving the omni experience.

“Today, consumers don’t perceive your brand in individual channels. It’s the entire brand experience. We present a seamless, consistent online marketing experience to influence your customers at each touch point, using specialized expertise in every channel and clarity into what drives consumer purchase. We call it the omni experience.”

Rakuten Marketing is a global digital marketing company specializing in affiliate, search, attribution and display. With nine offices around the world and HQ in New York, their global marketing services span Australia, Brazil, Japan, Singapore, the United Kingdom, France and Germany and throughout the United States. With the merger of several agencies under Rakuten Marketing, we can expect highest level of specialization in their core services.

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By providing real-time insights into campaign performance, across multiple channels and devices, Rakuten gives a bird’s eye performance view to its clients. Providing a 360-degree view of the consumer journey across all digital campaigns also helps in capturing the true measure of ad spend. Rakuten is known to empower its clients with solutions that go beyond the expected, from superior service and technology to consumer-centric insights that drive better results.

With weekly client calls for discussing results, to brainstorming strategies to push the business further, Rakuten is always there for its clients to offer support and expertise. More than an ad agency, Rakuten acts as a true partner.

When it comes to clients service Rakuten clearly stands out.

• They build campaigns from the ground up
• Provide recommendations
• Drive sales
• Keep their clients abreast of industry trends
• Constantly strategize on ways to make the brand stand out
• Ultimately deliver strong ROI

Rakuten is a perfect partner for all your digital marketing needs, an agency that will provide great support year after year.

29. Flighpath

We share the emotional experience of being human.

“Creating emotional currency is a richly affirmative way to show your consumers you really get them. We create campaigns that forge a connection through a range of compelling visual language, artful messaging, and charm. It isn’t rocket science, but it is emotional sensitivity.”

Founded in 1994, Flightpath is a creative digital agency, providing a wide range of digital services from web design to mobiles apps. This agency specializes in SEM and SEO, social media – with full-service strategic, creative, and production capabilities.

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Over the last 20 years, this agency has evolved into a strong team of truly talented professionals covering the full spectrum of left and right brain thinkers. An open air, collaborative workspace workflow and a strong culture of creativity is directly responsible for the evolution and success of this agency.

Flightpath truly stands out when it comes to creating emotionally rich campaigns. Driven by analytics, insights and relentless curiosity, Flightpath combines data with psychology to create truly memorable campaigns. (across search, social and mobile platforms)

Flightpath is also a Google AdWords Certified Partner, displaying expertise in ad creation, campaign management and reporting.

30. Digital Pulp

Great things happen with smart people and creative thinking.

“We’re inspired by all that technology allows, but know it’s nothing without big ideas that inform, motivate, and empower.”

Digital Pulp is a full-service digital agency specializing in marketing, design, strategy and user experience. Led by a passionate group of industry veterans like Sarah Blecher, Gene Lewis, Ron Fierman, Brian Loube etc. this agency has won several accolades/awards over the years.

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Founded in 1996, Digital Pulp has a track record of building effective brands across domains like education, non-profit, consumer, publishing, B2B and healthcare. Driven by people who are passionate about their work, this agency creates groundbreaking experiences that engage and captivate the viewer (with every single client). Their work for Smile Train is truly exemplary!

Driven by an insatiable need to learn, and a corporate mission that nurtures imagination and creativity, Digital Pulp continues to dominate the digital landscape of New York.

31. Converge Direct

Strategic ROI-based media planning. Accountable. Data-driven.

“At ConvergeDirect we’ve put together an astute team who thinks big, works effectively and is as dedicated to your business’ success as you are. Work with us, and you’ll see it in our collaborative approach and the data-driven insights we deliver. Smart tools. Smarter people. That’s how we roll.”

Converge Direct is a direct-response media firm that delivers strategic solutions in media planning and buying, analysis, and marketing services. With an experienced team of senior-level executives – each with over 20 years of experience in direct marketing, Converge Direct specializes in developing comprehensive marketing strategies through ROI-based media planning.

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What’s amazing is the importance that the agency gives to its employees. Converge believes that real – value generation is in the hands-on, day-to-day interaction between senior professional and clients to optimize advertising strategies and measure investments. Their team philosophy starts with the quality of the relationship and the benefits it affords to its clients.

The diversity of their direct marketing experience enables them to quickly and accurately identify customizable, comprehensive strategies to support the client business goals. While most agencies focus on the output, ConvergeDirect has always focused on the outcome.

With processes and technologies in place to ensure goals like ROI, CPL and CPA, Converge ensures that everybody is aligned to achieving the same business goals.

32. Path Interactive

We Overdeliver and Overcommunicate!

“At Path, we are relentless overachievers. In a field where the only constant is constant change, we pride ourselves on taking a flexible approach to our clients’ marketing goals while maintaining a borderline obsession with ROI. We’ll do whatever it takes to win, and make no mistake—we like to win.”

Path Interactive is a leading search engine marketing & full-service Internet advertising firm providing results oriented ad campaigns for national, regional & local business clients. Path specializes in Paid Search Advertising, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing & Web Development. Path’s commitment to forging deep and meaningful relationships is the reason they retain their top talent and their clients.

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Path Interactive builds holistic and integrated campaigns that utilize the mix of services that’s right for each client. With a deep expertise in PPC management, SEO, social media and display advertising, they rely on the entire range of digital marketing tactics to drive performance — whether the goal is prospecting for leads, amplifying a brand’s reach, or nurturing existing customers and driving them to convert. This deep expertise is the reason for the success of this agency. Members of their senior management team are also Adjunct Instructors of Digital Marketing at New York University. A third of their staff teach the next generation of digital specialists how to code, as part of the Path Cares initiative. These initiatives bring a strong culture of education into the agency. This also helps Path to groom and attract diverse talent into the agency.

Path Interactive develops deep relationships with their clients. The good part is that they give the same level of hand-on service to every company they work with, whether it’s a major national brand or a dynamic local business. They spend a lot of time to learn your business intimately, and then design holistic digital marketing campaigns that consistently exceed expectations. Then sift the data for the hidden trends and latent opportunities,

With a deep and sophisticated analytics, Path ensures that their campaigns capture and engage the right kind of customer for their clients.

33. Ironpaper

We are digital practitioners

“Ironpaper was founded on the idea that success in the digital world requires a smart and thoughtful integration of technology, design, marketing and strategy–a union of art and science.”

As an inbound, multichannel marketing company, Ironpaper helps organizations generate leads, nurture relationships, build user engagement and improve sales.With a data-driven approach to improving marketing results, this agency specializes in developing solutions, strategically designed to convert existing user base, attract new ones and optimize for success.

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More than an external ad agency, Ironpaper acts as the “special operations” of in-house marketing teams – helping their clients integrate marketing, technology, analytics and design to achieve business goals. They fill in the talent gaps to become the strategy and execution engine to help clients grow, compete and succeed.

Established in 2002, Ironpaper has been providing high-value digital solutions, acting as a critical growth engine for its clients. With a multi-channel marketing process that employs a data-driven, growth hacking and inbound methodology, Ironpaper helps its clients with all the stages of the marketing process: the strategy phase, the launch phase, the go-to-market phase and the growth phase — hence Ironpaper’s signature model: Strategize / Launch / Market / Grow.

34. Pure Digital

Partners First, Agency Second.

“From day one, we’re your partners. We’re not just a third-party vendor. No matter how many people are working on the project, that entire team will be a member of your company. That’s the most important thing. That’s at our core.”

Pure Digital is an Execution-Based Digital Marketing Company with an expertise in Paid Search Marketing (PPC/SEM), Targeted Display, Shopping, Remarketing, and Mobile App Installations. With a team of dedicated experts, this agency will bring you the highest possible return on your marketing investment. This agency perfectly understand the success mantra i.e. provide the highest level of service to clients.

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The mission statement of this ad agency is clear and simple. It is to put their marketing efforts into substantially increasing client revenue while lowering cost.And by doing so, hitting target ROAS and, more often than not, surpassing it. Spend less and make more! Pure Digital knows exactly what the clients want and has the complete capability to deliver it.  

Pure Digital believes in developing a successful relationship with the client, built on mutual trust & complete transparency. Before starting the campaigns, Pure Digital invests time in getting fully acquainted with the client business. They are available every single day and act more like an extension of your marketing team. And are always available via phone, email, or Skype and their response time is usually in hours. Their client conversations usually start and end with data and the decision are strictly data-driven.

Pure Digital is a perfect partner that understands the complexities of marketing in a new age, filled with countless different devices and usage scenarios.

35. Likeable Media

We curate, create and connect content that gets you results.

“Likeable Media is a marketing partner that curates, creates and connects content with the right audiences. The Likeable Content Cubed™ product uses social data to develop and promote digital branded content that generates business results for Likeable customers.”

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Founded in 2006 by Dave & Carrie Kerpen and based in New York City. Likeable Media’s unique product – Likeable Content Cubed™ uses insights curated from social listening and data to create innovative content coupled with an efficient advertising strategy to ensure results. Currently ranked sixteenth on Crain’s Best Places to Work NYC, this agency operates on a unique three step methodology:

Curate: Likeable Media doesn’t just respond to people’s comments, questions, and mentions. Instead they monitor keywords, topics, hashtags, trends, competitors, influencers, and other brand-relevant categories to gain real-time understanding of what’s happening and what’s resonating with the target consumer. The agency then uses these findings to quickly create real-time content and capitalize on opportunities, as well as evolve and improve the overall content strategy to ensure that the content stays fresh and engaging.

Create: Likeable Media’s in-house content strategists, copywriters, art directors, designers, and videographers will then take the brand’s content to the next level. From a complete editorial calendar to supplemental content, Likeable Media’s Content Cubes will work to accomplish client’s content.

Connect: With a well-crafted promotion strategy Likeable Media ensures that the right people see the right content at the right time in the right feed and that they take the desired action that meets your business goals and objectives.

With this unique methodology Likeable Media can generate up to 20 times greater business results!

The post The 35 Fastest-Growing Digital Ad Agencies in New York appeared first on Adwords Reporting Tools | Reportgarden.

David said: “ That’s you. Open it.”

So they opened the doll, and inside was a smaller one. And they opened it up and each doll got smaller and smaller. And finally, when they got to the very inside, in the smallest doll they found a tiny piece of paper on which David had written a motto.

When they unfolded it, it said: “ If you always hire people who are smaller that you are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. If on the other hand, you always hire people who are bigger than you are, we shall become a company of giants.

This David was none other than David Ogilvy, the father of advertising. One of his most famous quotes was: “Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving.”

He was the master of the “split test,” where two versions of an ad were published at the same time, but “keyed” with a unique way for consumers to respond, so the winning ad could be identified, then rolled out nationally. Here was a man who never shied away from experimentation. A lot has changed in the world of advertising and marketing since then. You might find this Ted talk useful. Mike Osswald explains the role of marketing in today’s digital age. 

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Modern Digital Marketing

Thanks to SEO, most of the work now boils down to keyword research. I wonder what the greats would do if they were here today. I’m sure they would continue to experiment. These are great times for a marketer. For the first time in history, we a level field. Google’s adwords tools are of a great help but they alone won’t do. There are plenty of google adwords tools alternatives- both free and paid. In this infographic below, we present to you some of the most incredible tools we found as a replacement or an extension to google’s adwords tools.

For a more detailed understanding of all these tools, you can read our article here.

The post [Infographic] Google AdWords Tools Alternative appeared first on Adwords Reporting Tools | Reportgarden.

“Our jobs as marketers are to understand how the customer wants to buy and help them do so.” – Bryan Eisenberg

Remember how research was carried out in the good old days of traditional marketing? The qualitative focus groups, in-depth interviews, polls and surveys, stopping people in the streets and asking them questions. It seems like a very tedious process if you ask me.

Along came google and everything changed – thankfully so. Marketers now no longer have to move heaven and earth to find out what the customer really wants. Thanks to SEO, most of the work boils down to keyword research.

Although Keyword planner provided by Google is a great tool, as a marketer you’ll need to spread your net far and wide. Many alternatives to google adwords tools – both free and paid that are at your disposal to help you make the right choice when it comes to keywords. You can’t limit yourself to just one basic tool.

 Find the complete list of Google Adwords Tools infographic here.

Listen to Rand Fishkin talk about how keyword research needs to change with time. 

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Here’s presenting our top 20 list of free and paid tools that we have found to be very useful to marketers. Please note that most of the free tools mentioned come as a free trial version with a limited number of results each day.

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Free alternative to Google adwords tools

A. Keyword Research

1. Wordtracker 

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WordTracker is a commercial application that offers a free tool on their front end. Although this free tool is mostly intended for you to sign up , it still provides a quick and clean interface for fast analysis.

One of the best things about this keyword research tool is that their incredibly robust platform lets you pick the most profitable keywords from over 320 million Wordtracker keywords. How easy is it to start using this keyword research tool, you ask? Just type in a keyword you wish to research and from there the tool will do all the heavy lifting, giving you all of your actionable data in one centralized spot. This also means that you will get work done faster and in a more efficient manner. One of the unique things that Wordtracker allows you to do is to utilize misspellings in your SEO efforts. What this means is that this keyword research tool will also show you the most common misspellings for your keyword or key phrase, allowing clever SEO professionals to target misspelled keywords that typically have low competition.

2. Ubersuggest 

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Unlike other free alternatives, this keyword suggestion tool does not limit its functions nor does it lock all the good stuff behind a paywall. Right from the start, you have unlimited access to all of its features at no extra cost. This tool is, without a doubt, absolutely free.

Created by Alessandro Martin, a lone Italian developer who is now the head of SEO at Reprise Media Italy, this keyword suggestion tool is truly a remarkable achievement. This is probably one of the simplest and most user-friendly keyword research tools out there right now. That said, do not let its simplicity fool you because this is also a pretty powerful tool that has helped numerous users optimize their websites.  

The fact that Ubersuggest scrapes search results to return real keywords or phrases that actual people have searched for and you get data that is real, which means that you get keywords that people are actually searching the web for.

What Ubersuggest does is that it usually takes your base search term, adds a letter or a digit in front of it, and extracts suggestions for it. Plus, you can even drill further down the list in order to reveal more keyword or key phrase permutations. This platform is extremely easy to use. It’s good especially for beginners or people who want a more simple, uncluttered approach to keyword research.

This keyword research tool does not have any of the advanced features that many of its competitors have, which might prove to be disadvantageous to some. For example, you do not get information about keyword rankings or how much competition certain keywords have. If you want to perform some serious keyword research then you might want to look elsewhere. If, however, all you want is a tool that can provide an extensive list that will help you come up with content ideas or new insights for your SEO or marketing strategy, then Ubersuggest fits the bill.

3. SEO Book 

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Launched way back in 2003, and founded by Aaron Wall, SEOBook is one of the longest standing SEO websites that still sees regular updates to this day.

The site continues to be a popular spot, providing a number of free tools in addition to those for keyword research. It’s still a great place to start, run by a long-time leader in the industry with a ton of experience behind him. You’ll need to create a free account to use the tools on the site (a relatively new practice to cut down on the number of scrapers trying to access the site).

But before you even begin building your site or even thinking of performing any sort of keyword research, you might wBeforeant to check out SEOBook’s training module on the subject. This module gets into detail about how to brainstorm a list of meaningful keywords, the best methods for using a keyword research tool, methods for narrowing keyword list down to the most crucial ones, the importance of comparing against a competitor’s keywords, and so much more.

First, you’ll need to sign in to the SEO Book website, then go to the SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool.

-Type a keyword into the text field.

-Use very simple words here to get the broadest results for your search. Multiple words are always treated as an And modifier, not an Or modifier. This means that if you type in content ideas, all of your results will contain both of those words. You will get more general keyword suggestions if you just type in content.

The only two columns you need to pay attention to are the WordTracker column with the suggested phrases and the Overall Daily Est column that gives you a ballpark figure for the volume of daily searches for those phrases.

The numbers that you’re given for searches, however are only rough estimates.  In addition, SEOBook Keyword Tool provides links to price estimate tools from Google AdWords and estimates roughly how much traffic you could expect AdWords to send you based on that bid price and ad position. This resource is driven off the Wordtracker keyword suggestion tool.

SEOBook’s database contains 28,527,279 keywords representing more than 13 billion monthly searches. This keyword tool offers rough suggested daily search volumes by market for Google, Bing, and Yahoo networks, links to Google Trends, Google Suggest, Google Synonyms, Yahoo! Suggest, and more.

4. WordStream 

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WordStream’s free keyword tools are an integrated, actionable suite designed to help search marketers with keyword suggestion, keyword grouping, keyword analysis, long-tail keyword research and negative keyword discovery

WordStream boasts of a trillion-keyword database and you can try 30 keywords for free. There are little checkboxes enabling you to customize searches by filtering adult keywords or “nichefying” results. There are more options for finding negative keywords and grouping your keywords. The full version spews out tens of thousands of results for many keywords, the top 100 of which are available for free.

The Keyword Tool provides guest users 10 free keyword searches upfront, then one free keyword search per day onwards.

The Niche Finder Tool allows you to discover niches of particular core keywords. Much like the Keyword Tool, you also get 10 free niche searches, then one free niche search per day onwards.

The Keyword Generator Tool provides keyword suggestions for your paid and organic search campaigns. What is more impressive is that, even though this is a free tool, it returns thousands of accurate data that is pulled from a constantly updated database consisting of more than 1 trillion search queries from diverse sources.

Finally, the Keyword Grouper Tool basically organizes and groups related keywords in just a matter of seconds. Going through huge lists of keywords and organizing them manually tend to eat up a lot of time and is rather tedious. With this free tool you need only paste in up to 1,000 keywords and it will automatically find the most appropriate keyword groups for you to target in a heartbeat. This, in turn, helps you prioritize your SEO workflow, and ensure that your content is well-optimized.

5. Keywordtool.io 

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KeywordTool.io helps you find out what people are looking for. It generates around 750 suggestions for every keyword.

It’s a handy tool for marketers and SEO consultants as it give out keyword suggestions based on  your primary keyword you entered. KeywordTool.io is helping people with their struggles and informing them about what keywords to target in their next ad campaign. Providing you with long tail keywords based on Google’s auto suggestions, the keywords will be generated based on what Google domain you choose, and there are plenty of domains to choose from, approximately 180 domains you can choose from.

It gives you an option to copy all the keywords suggested or copy them 10 by 10, depending on which column you selected. You can also navigate fast between the suggested keywords with a sticky navigation bar which lets you choose alphabetically and numerically. It’s fast and it works 100%, best thing about it, it’s free to use. Besides the domains, you can choose what language you want. This is a great feature to have.

6. Wordpot

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Unlike many other keyword research tools, this one offers quite an advanced free plan, so you may never need to pay and use the free plan. So just bookmark the tool and use it randomly when you are stuck and need some inspiration.

It is an interesting little tool in that somehow it is able to provide daily search volume. This data point isn’t often provided by tools vendors, so this could be useful when correlating various metrics.

The tool provides you with the root term that you are using for your base topic. It shows you how many people search for this each day, both broadly, and exact. This can indicate how popular the search term is. It can also uncover useful alternate wordings for phrases that you might include.

Wordpot offers a database of 60 million keywords and growing daily. This allows you to build keyword lists on your search engine optimization and pay per click advertising and helps you succeed in finding your target audience.

WordPot has quite a unique comparison algorithm: “Exact daily” versus “Total daily” where:

• “Exact” indicates the number of daily searches done with that specific word on the internet.
• “Total” stands for the number of searches including ALL searches done daily that word in them (i.e. including phrase

While most keyword Tools offer long-tail keyword suggestions, Wordpot’s tool offers a multitude of long-tail keyword possibilities that do not always show up in other keyword research tools. When you’re researching a keyword with Wordpot’s tool, you have the option of checking the keyword with Google, MSN, Yahoo, ASK, AOL, or all of the above.

B. Keyword  Discovery

1. Google Trends 

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Derived from Google’s search data, Trends is a numeric/historic representation of the relative volume of searches made on Google. It creates indexes that show trending instead of actual volume (a big difference between Trends and Keyword Planner); this data can be mined for actionable insights you just can’t get from Keyword Planner. You start by entering a search term or topic in the query box.

• Region. Allows you to define your search by worldwide, country, state or even city/metro area.
• Time Frame. Lets you select a variety of predefined time frames (last seven days, one year, one month, etc.) or set a custom period. The data goes back to 2004, which makes this an amazingly interesting source as it contains the rise of the Internet, the evolution and decline of Myspace, and other fun historical changes.
• Categories. You can limit the terms and search volume to a certain category. Having this dimension allows us to look at specific trends and discover new themes/searches.
• Engines. This option lets you choose between News, Web Video and Shopping search, which offer great flexibility depending on the brand and vertical. This also allows you to focus on the right intent — learning through video search or buying through shopping search, for example.

2. BuzzSumo 

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BuzzSumo is a research and monitoring tool.

BuzzSumo is a social media analytics and curation tool for content marketers. It searches the web for content based on search queries and reports back to the enquirer on its success, based upon its social likes & shares.

When you first land on the BuzzSumo site you’re presented with a search field and a brief introduction as to what this powerful beast can really do – show you what content is being shared the most on social media.

One of the first things you’ll notice is how BuzzSumo breaks down it’s most shared content. Showing you the total number of shares a particular piece of content got. BuzzSumo also breaks down the number of shares by social media platform – which is a fancy little feature to help you (at a glance) see what content is shared the most and on what social media platform.

Further, refine your results on the sidebar and see what’s been shared the most on social media in the last 24 hours, the last week, last month, and further down the line. There’s a few other option to choose from but as this is a freemium service and we only get access to the timeline.

Another facet of this tool is the ‘Trending Now’ tab which is located on the top navigation bar of the webpage. Doing exactly what you think it might do, this tool shows you the content that is beginning to be shared the most on social media and starting to gain steam.

BuzzSumo lets you analyze the best performing content in any market niche. Its advanced social search engine identifies the most shared content for a topic, author or domain, giving you an understanding of what content is resonating well with your audience. Use this knowledge to guide your own content creation and then gain valuable insight into the resultant success of your content on social media networks.

3. Keyword Discovery

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Keyword Discovery helps you identify the keywords that your customers are using, related keywords you need to look at, and common spelling mistakes, as well as how your industry’s keywords are impacted by seasonal search trends.

Keyword Discovery offers a free trial option. While the things that you can do with this trial version are limited, you do get access to 50 searches per day, 10 results displayed, 10 industry terms search results, 10 analyze and KEI credits per day, 10 keyword density checks per day, a total of 1 allowed project, 100 terms per project, and 10 Yahoo PPC bid forecast credits per day.

The Keyword Discovery interface is optimized for doing heavy-duty keyword research. You can switch between different features with one click of your mouse, analyzing keywords from a whole new perspective.

This keyword research tool has some very useful features that let you view synonyms, misspellings or typos, plurals, and other keyword permutations, as well as view statistics that relate to seasonal trends, check keyword density of any url, and more. Keyword Discovery has definitely got you covered in terms of features and overall functionality.

C. Competitor Keywords

1. KeywordSpy

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This is another commercial option with a free front end. With this tool you can search for not only word variations, but also similar words, and spelling mistakes. It is designed mostly for PPC, but can still be useful for just getting your lists started.

The Research section extensively focuses on competitors and general market research. Keying in a domain name gives you a quick overview of competitor’s adwords keywords, their ad copy as well as organic traffic keywords.  A key feature that gives KeywordSpy an overwhelming edge is the support for data from dozens of countries. Most tools offer research just pertaining to the US and maybe the UK or Canada as well. With KeywordSpy you get access to data from over 30 countries!

You will notice that KeywordSpy keeps the interface simple. On the surface, the tool seems quite bland but you can drill down deeper by clicking on individual keywords and then proceed to find more competitors eventually gathering a comprehensive field to work with.

The above tools are great but all the free tools come with certain limitations. If you’re ready to shell out some amount of money then you can get more out of these tools.  This could be very beneficial to you in the long run. I’d say test a tool for a few days and then see if you like it enough to pay for it.

Paid alternative to Google adwords tools

A. Keyword Research

1. KeywordtoolDominator

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If you’re really hardcore about finding a mass of keywords in a fraction of the time it would take to generate a comparable list with the Google’s tool, look no further thanKeyword Tool Dominator ($39.99), which basically creates lists of lists.

The Amazon tool from Keyword Tool Dominator offers a unique piece of data: a rank from 1 to 10 based on where the keyword was found in Amazon’s autosuggest list. A rank of 1 indicates that the phrase is the most popular keyword suggestion, and 10 is the least popularThis tool used to find long tail keywords which filters directly from Google search. You can try up to three searches for the day it’s a free keyword tool which used to find long tail keywords which your target user is searching. In this Keyword Tool Dominator you can find different type of keyword tool.

In other words, you can import your list of 800 keywords from the Google Keyword Tool, and KTD will create a new keyword list generated from each of these keywords, then collate these lists into a master list that’s exponentially larger than your initial list. The latest version can take one keyword, generate the initial list, then recursively build a master keyword list. It’s not uncommon to end up with lists of 3000-8000 keywords.

The other feature you can use it for is AdSense Potential calculation. With Google Keyword tool, you’d have to often scan back and forth between the CPC and Global Monthly Search Volume columns to compare the overall value of one keyword on the list to another, which can get extremely tedious. You can streamline the comparison by exporting the list to Excel and running a formula that computes what each keyword is theoretically worth in AdSense revenue on a page ranked #1 in Google; then you can sort these amounts in descending order. Keyword Tool Dominator performs the computation directly in the program, so that you don’t have to export to Excel. You can compare potential AdSense revenues instantly, giving you a more immediate sense of the keywords’ relative commerciality.

2. Keyword Snatcher

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In a nutshell, this long tail software pulls the most frequent Google search auto-suggest search queries and puts them into a list. Keyword Snatcher does NOT pull from the popular Google Keyword Planner.  Instead, it pulls data from Google’s auto-suggest, which opens up a lot more long tail keyword options. In fact, these are the real, undiscovered long-tail keywords that are often super easy to rank for because no other websites target them specifically.

So, here is what you can do with this tool.
1. Use it to plan brand new sites by finding keywords that are getting searched but not showing in tools.
2. Use the tool to find hidden keywords that other search tools (including Google) ignore.

If you are someone who is constantly looking for new niches to target, and finding easy but profitable keywords that other people aren’t aware of, then you should make sure to get yourself this tool. Apart from being a keyword research tool, it is also a niche research tool as it has the ability to generate thousands of niche ideas for you. Not only that, but you can use this to bring in existing traffic to your site and blog. Let’s say that you already have an existing article and you want it to rank for even more keywords and bring in traffic from a larger variety of those keywords. Just use Keyword Snatcher to find the keywords you want, and insert the ones you like into your article, site, or blog.It might be great for you if you are having writer’s block and you are just someone looking for new keyword ideas to write on as well.

Of course, if you are looking for an all-in-one keyword research software, then the Keyword Snatcher might not be for you. What it does is to merely help you to find profitable keywords that you normally would not be able to find elsewhere, and to rank those keywords based on traffic. If you need something that complements the other keyword research software you have, then by all means make sure you try out Keyword Snatcher.

Keyword Snatcher is available for a single payment of $47 with lifetime usage. If you have a limited budget and have a keyword idea in mind. Keyword Snatcher is basically for any internet marketer that relies on the use of techniques such as SEO for the purpose of driving traffic.

3. Fresh key

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FreshKey is a piece of software developed by the Digital Marketing Team head by Ryan Deiss. Quite simply it is able to take the data right out of Amazon search as well as out of Google search.  It can show you the most popular search terms in real time as people are searching. FreshKey is platform independent Adobe Air software so is works perfectly well on the Mac or the PC.
In a nutshell, this is what Freshkey can be used for:The number of searches you can do

-The number of searches you can do are unlimited.

-Sort popular key terms by rank of popularity

-Pulls data from Google Trends so you will know immediately if the niche is a growing or declining market.

-Excellent niche finder and ultimate idea generator.

-Great for keyword and trending data for PPC, SEO, Blog Titles, Book Titles etc.

-Perfect to pick the “next best thing” to promote as an affiliate

They’re also offering a 30-day money back guarantee. If for whatever reason Freshkey does not satisfy you in any way, simply send them an email within 30 days from your purchase and they’ll refund you right away!

B. Keyword  Discovery

1. MOZ

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Moz is a top SEO tool provider that uses both basic and advanced research tools to help you in your search engine optimization. Moz recently launched their new keyword research tool called Keyword explorer. It is now available to all Moz PRO subscribers, but also as a standalone tool with two service levels. Level one includes 5,000 full keyword reports per month and 10 keywords lists with up to 500 keywords per list. That will run you $600 USD per year. Level two will let you run 30,000 full keyword reports per month and gives you up to 30 keyword lists with 1,000 keywords per list. This option is $1,800 per year.

Rand Fishkin promises their new Keyword Explorer tool, which they’ve dubbed KWE, “takes you all the way through the keyword research process — from discovering keyword ideas to getting metrics to building a list, filtering the keywords on it, and prioritizing which ones to target based on the numbers that matter.” There are four key indicators that the Moz Keyword Tool tells you about the search phrase you’re researching — volume, difficulty, opportunity and potential.

Using the Moz Keyword Explorer is pretty simple. When you search for your term, you’ll get a quick summary page showing all of the metrics. like Monthly Search Volume, Difficulty level, Opportunity and potential. A cool thing about this tool is the ability to group related keywords into lists. After creating a list you can click on the list name to get more information for the specific list you are working with.

SERP Analysis is one of the interesting features of this newly launched Moz keyword analysis tool.  The SERP data will include all the features that you will generally see in the Google’s search results. This page is much more representative of what’s actually in the keyword SERP.

2. Long Tail Pro

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As the name suggests, Long Tail Pro is a keyword research tool that’s designed to find “long tail” keywords.  These are not the obvious keywords, which get lots of searches but are difficult to rank for, but longer terms and phrases that are less competitive but just as effective.  Instead of “marketing tips”, for instance, Long Tail Pro might return such phrases as “content marketing tips and tricks”

They have recently switched the pricing model, and you can no longer buy the core software at an one-off fee of $97 plus $27 / month for the Platinum version which includes full features like importing your own keywords and generating KC.

Monthly Plan – $37 / month

Annual Plan – $352 / year

The good thing about Long Tail pro is it’s simplicity. There are no bells and whistles. It’s meant for finding long tail keywords, and it does exactly that. You can enter multiple keywords in Google Keyword Planner as well, but it will only produce up to 800 ideas.

You will have to make multiple searches, with different seed keywords, to get more ideas. Long Tail Pro allows you to add multiple keywords as seeds, and it generates up to 800 results per seed keyword. This means that you can get more than 3000 keyword ideas even if you’ve just entered 4 – 5 seed keywords (after removing duplicates).

Also, it has another option that allows you to add up to 10,000 of your own keywords. Here’s one thing that differentiates Long Tail Pro from the free ones like Google Keyword Planner. Google Keyword Planner will give no information about competition for organic search results. You will have to do it yourself by checking out the metrics, such as Domain Authority, Juice Page Links, etc, and doing that will take hours, if not days.Long Tail Pro does it in seconds and gives you a fairly accurate picture of the competition for any given keyword. Long tail pro keyword tool helps you find buyer keywords without any hassle. Even if you are a beginner to finding keywords for your niche, you will find it easy to use long tail pro to find your buyer keywords.

C. Competitor Keywords

1. Ispionage

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Covering over 92+ million keywords, 108+ million ad copies, 45+ million domains on Google, Yahoo! And Bing, iSpionage may be the right software for you to use. It is an advanced (paid) keyword research tool allowing for numerous keyword management and competitive analysis features many people (especially PPC marketers) will find useful. iSpionage offers an assortment of useful features that agencies and companies can use to gain an edge on the competition and grow their product. Their main tool sets are Keyword and Domain Research where you can check the top keyword results for different search engines to see where you stand against the competition.

Ispionage has three main plans. They are:

Starter: $59 a month ($49 a month for annual billing). This is great for small business owners as it has all the basic features you need.

Professional: $99 a month ($79 a month for annual billing). This comes with the same feature set as the Starter plan with the addition of a few more that would benefit small to medium sized agencies.

Advanced: $299 a month ($197 a month for annual billing). This is the ideal plan for agencies with over $10,000 of PPC budget

2. Spyfu

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SpyFu is one of the more feature-rich tools, but probably has the least attractive interface out there. SpyFu offers SEO and PPC spy tool options along with their own keyword research tool. You can get a list of keywords by either searching a domain (and SpyFu will give you a list of the keywords it believes to be driving traffic to that domain) or by entering in a base keyword.

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SpyFu will display its estimates on total monthly searches for the term, the (estimated by SpyFu) CPC (further broken down into broad, phrase and exact match), the (estimated by SpyFu) cost per day to rank #1 on the term in paid search (further broken down into broad, phrase and exact match), how many advertisers (estimated by SpyFu) there are on the term, the number of homepages ranking in the top 50 for the term, Google’s estimated CTR for the term, SpyFu’s estimate on the ranking difficulty for the word and a listing of what kinds of results show for the term.

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With SpyFu Kombat you can look at overlapping and site specific keywords for up to 3 websites. For the PPC version you can also see a chart which goes back over a period of a few years showing the overall amount of keywords being bid on by all three sites. You can also rollover the chart to see keywords specific to just 2 of the sites if you feel the 3rd site may not be doing as good a job (or vice versa) as 2 of the other sites. It will also show you the PPC budgets of the sites as well as the number of organic keywords ranking in the top 50 results for said keyword.

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SpyFu has multiple plans and their pricing can be a little confusing.There is one way to sign up for SpyFu month to month without committing to an annual contract. It will run you $79 per month. If you’re willing to commit to (and pay for) a year upfront, then the cost ranges from $599 to $899 per year (depending on if you want US data only or US and UK data) – which equates to about $50 and $75 per month respectively. They also have an agency plan option which comes with five login accounts and whitelabeling for about a grand a month.

D. Keyword Ranking

1. Report Garden

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ReportGarden helps Digital Marketing Agencies prepare analysis and performance reports for their clients. Reportgarden’s Keyword Rank Tracking Software enables you to track multiple keywords across search engines, simultaneously. Tracking your most valuable keywords on a daily basis, helps you diagnose issues quickly and prioritize your efforts. Now quickly understand if your SEO efforts are producing the expected results.

ReportGarden gives you the flexibility to group keywords by brand names and add the same keyword to different groups. You can now track all your keywords, simultaneously, on a single dashboard. They support keyword tracking for Google, Yahoo, Bing, Yandex and Baidu engines across multiple locales. They also support local rankings for google, where we show the average rating and the position in the local 3 pack, to help monitor local businesses better.

Tracking your competitors is critical to SEO success. A side-by-side comparison of your rankings versus your competitors’, will help you identify new keyword opportunities and discover weak spots. Increase your keyword pool to reach more prospective customers and optimize your content & ad strategy.

All this data is presented in a clean and concise format in the SEO tab, where you can choose the domain and select the engines to view the data and the trends. The same can also be imported into reports and dashboards and scheduled to the clients with ranking data.  The price starts at $39 per month.

2. SEMRush 

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SEMrush is a website analysis tool to help you analyze and optimize SEO strategies. SEMrush’s Pro version offers keyword suggestion and keyword ranking. Using SEMrush, you can track up to 500 keywords over five campaigns. The tools available for keyword research can display a keyword’s search volume and help you gauge how well a keyword will perform on your site. The phrase match report will show you keywords related to prime keywords that can also help drive traffic to your site, but they may be less competitive, so it will be more possible to rank with them.

They take a database of the top 220 million keywords worldwide and automatically query each keyword on a regular basis. Sometimes, as often as everyday, depending on the popularity of the keyword. Then, they record the first two pages of search results for each keyword and parse that source data in order to determine which domains rank for these keywords and where.

What’s really exciting about SEMrush is that you can analyze some of your top competitors using their organic search feature. This allows you to see what strategies your competition is using. You can view a competitor’s paid search keyword list. There is this awesome feature where the tool enables ide by side comparisons on how you are doing vs competitors for key metrics such as back links, SERP Results, Domain Strength, etc. These strategies help you track your competition and get ideas for how to optimize your own site.

There is this awesome feature where the tool enables ide by side comparisons on how you are doing vs competitors for key metrics such as back links, SERP Results, Domain Strength, etc. These strategies help you track your competition and get ideas for how to optimize your own site. SEMRush has two plans and three pricing options. The Pro plan is $69.95 per month if you put your account onto recurring billing (meaning you use more than a month of the service). There’s the Guru plan at $149.9 and the business plan at $549.95.

3. Advanced Web Ranking

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Aside from the main rank tracking functionality, AWR also includes a number of highly useful SEO tools including Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools integration, as well as tools for website auditing, competitive research, and keyword research. It is sold under a lifetime license and is available in a few different versions, each with varying features. The basic “Standard” version is available for $99, while the fully featured agency-grade “Server” version starts at $1499. The module is highly customizable and can show you anything from the current, previous, & best performances for keywords to the number of local monthly searches and keyword competition, and much more!

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You can view reports that show you the visibility of a website in search engines as well as others that will tell you the position of a website for individual keyword queries in the SERPs. These reports can be run manually or automated. Advanced Web Ranking’s tools enable you to find the best phrases and keywords that are most likely to optimize your site and bring it to the top of the page in important search engines. The software pulls from Google databases and uses Google AdWords, Webmaster, Trends, Suggest and other search engine tools to identify which keywords are the most efficient. Pulling from multiple sources increases the chances of your page moving to the top of search engine rankings.

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After finding a list of keywords that fit your site’s criteria, Advanced Web Ranking tools dive deeper by offering functions for calculating keyword commercial value and filtering keyword priority based on criteria you set. Refined keywords help increase your site traffic because they more specifically target your audience. Once your keywords are in action, the software’s ranking and analytic tools continue to calculate keyword traffic and identify potential traffic opportunities. Competitor analysis tools in Advanced Web Ranking give you insight into your top 10 competitors’ websites and keyword optimization strategies. These insights give you an overview of their social media strategies, link partners and on-page optimization. You can use the insight drawn from your competitors’ sites to develop an SEO plan that keep you ahead of their tactics.

The post Google Adwords Tools – 10 Free, 10 Paid alternatives appeared first on Adwords Reporting Tools | Reportgarden.

A Guest post by John Surdakowski, CEO at Avex Designs

Pay­per­click advertising is almost perfect. Set up your campaigns the right way and you can bring your best potential buyers directly to a landing page of your choosing. On social platforms, you can catch them at the perfect moment with an ad that will grab their attention.

The only problem? Every click is going to cost you a little bit of money.

That’s not so much of an issue if you’re earning a healthy return on investment from your ad budget. But, if it seems like your dollars are disappearing into thin air, the costs (and aggravations) can add up quickly.

Fortunately, there is a simple and reliable way to optimize your online advertising campaigns. All you have to do is think smaller. The bigger your campaigns are, and the more clicks and impressions they are generating, the greater the likelihood that at least some of those clicks are being wasted. But, when you concentrate all of your efforts on bringing your perfect buyers together with the ideal marketing message, your campaigns become less expensive and more effective.

Here are a handful of ways you can tighten up your PPC accounts to yield better long­term results without costing you an extra dime…

Be Specific with Your Audience

Just because someone could buy your product or service doesn’t mean they are a great prospect. Your online ads should be aimed at the men and women who are most likely to buy from you, both now and again in the future. Be specific with your audience and look for customers who will become longtime fans of your company.

Pay Close Attention to Account Settings

A lot of marketers never dig into their account settings, but that’s a big mistake. You want to ensure things like language, location, and time of day or week are all configured correctly. Otherwise, your ads could be shown to people who are never likely to buy anything from you.

Go Negative When Needed

In the same way that account settings can be used to weed out poor prospects, so can negative keywords and traits. If there is a certain type of searcher or buyer you know you don’t want to see your ads, much less click on them, be sure to filter them out within your campaigns. There’s no sense in paying for those clicks if you don’t have to.

Don’t Create Ads That Appeal to Everyone

Although it may go against everything you’ve heard and read in the past, a higher click­through rate on your ads isn’t always better. That’s because lots of people click on an ad that appeals to everyone, even if they aren’t likely to generate a conversion. More efficient ads, on the other hand, turn away poor prospects while getting the best potential customers to take notice.

Focus on Conversions

Ultimately, PPC is about generating leads and sales, not clicks to your website. So, regardless of what other indicators are telling you, pay close attention to which keywords are resulting in conversions. If you have some that are underperforming, try pausing them and seeing whether you have much of a drop off in revenue. You might find you don’t need as many ads as you think. The best pay­per­click advertising campaigns aren’t usually the biggest, but the most efficient and optimized. Are you wasting money on ads that could be used to find better customers, or improve your business in other ways?

                              John Surdakowski is CEO at Avex Designs, one of the fastest growing Digital Agencies in New York.

The post The Single Best Way to Optimize Any PPC Campaign appeared first on Adwords Reporting Tools | Reportgarden.

Excerpts from the blog on ‘Ad Agency Reporting Softwares’ by Bodie Czeladka of Dilate Digital.

Keeping a keen eye on budgets and expenditures is critical to any digital agency. Over-spend and your clients will be annoyed; under-spend and it could affect the results, ROI, or your campaigns.

If you’re using paid-advertising- think Adwords, Bing Advertising, social media advertising, remarketing- then you need to have the sharpest tools in the shed to analyse and succinctly display your results. While a lot of these channels may offer robust and intuitive dashboards for managing both performance metrics and budget, constant tab jumping and calculating daily/ weekly/ monthly spend can chew up considerable amounts of time- time that could be spent improving the performance of your campaigns.

Twelve months have passed since I started on my journey; searching for a platform that would become a centralised hub for my results-orientated and fast-growing digital agency. That lengthy investment of time and frustration spent on the gaps in current software suites has led me to this post, so you can avoid making the same missteps.

My journey started with:

5) Google Drive

Overall, Google Drive is a fantastic tool that allowed me to set up a cloud-based server for my agency, with tiered access based on each staff members’ responsibilities and role. A little more exploring through Google Sheets even retired the traditional Excel sheet, since now my data entry could be achieved through a collaborative tool, ideal for keeping track of expenditure.

So we had lift off; daily, we had an administrative attendant who would enter the daily spend amounts from ad mediums (such as Google Adwords and Facebook) into the sheet. With the use of a formula, we now could automatically deduct this from the total budget, and divide that amount by the days left in the month. It was a crude but effective solution, although it left us open to human error.

We had a separate column for leads KPI’s, such as keyword rankings and traffic-generated leads. These are always the most important metric in our agency and we always strive for an accurate insight, due to the fact leads are the one item that creates sales and revenue.

While Google Drive served a valuable purpose, at the time we were on-boarding an average between 4- 6 clients a month, and I knew it might not be able to keep pace with our growth.

4) Supermetrics 

Supermetrics is a great tool which allows you to pull data dynamically from many different advertising mediums, and direct it to Google Drive. This was able to add extra value to the investment of time and data in our base of Google Drive, for the Supermetrics price tag of $49 per month- and I would have paid three times that, just to cut down the data entry, and cost of administrative staff. With this tool, any of our ad mediums were now at my finger tips, and able to be pulled dynamically into a single sheet for all to view and auto calculate with formulas and tables.

I had big ambitions for this, and turned into a kid at a candy store. I instantly started thinking I could use the graphs in Google Sheets to create gauges for items like ‘Expenditure’, and essentially customise my own dashboard. Reality hit, and I soon realised upon closer inspection that each medium (i.e. Facebook or Google) had to be called independently to the sheet, and then again for each client. This made the initial set-up process way too time consuming, for a ‘time-saving’ tool. The data also had to be called/queried each time, and occasionally pulled in rogue dateranges- probably due to stray data fields during set up. This was extremely frustrating for me because once I entered one client, I copied the items through for the next to act as a base structure for the others… Yeah, huge speed bump. Overall, once everything was set up, it was far better than manual data entry, but it still felt like the pair of boots I was soon to outgrow. And I was right.

As my business continued to develop, so did my most valuable metrics grew, such as frequency rate of ads on Facebook, or cost per converted click on Adwords. However, the daunting thought of going through each client sheet/dashboard, and recalling that data just for these two metrics seemed a counter-productive and downright unfair.

So the search was on once again:

3) Klipfolio

One evening, Klipfolio appeared in my Facebook newsfeed like a mirage in the desert of reporting software. It would appear Facebooks interest targeting was spot on on this occasion, I noted. I arranged a call with a member of their team- not the easiest, when they’re a hemisphere away in Canada.

After an hour on the phone with a representative, and an intensive introduction to the Klipfolio product, I started getting that candy-shop feeling again. Finally, a tool that has all the features I was looking for, even client pivot tables! Sound too good to be true?

You guessed it. Starting at $24 per month and going right up to $199 per month, it would appear we would need to start on the highest plan available with our client numbers. Not an issue, if had ease of use and an intuitive interface that SAVED ME TIME.

While there were plenty of cool integrations, such as white-labelling, SSL domain, custom CC/JavaScript, and custom data store (which lets you host your data on your own server) you could spend up to an extra $936 per month to get access to them.

This software appears to have a language all of its own, and that is why they have a Ninja Services Program at $249 per month (minimum of 3 months). While Klipfolio may be near and dear to other digital advertisers, I find that any software that is complicated enough to require ‘ninjas’ I would not call intuitive or time saving.

After realising I may have gone off track and into the thistles, Klipfolio were nice enough to provide me a refund, and I made a line for the horizon to continue my search.

2) Gecko Board

Trying to lean away from the complicated and expensive comes Gecko Board, with a selection of widgets that didn’t really cater to our requirements. A little tag at the bottom asks “Can’t find the widgets your looking for?”“Send request.” Oh well, at least they tried. Even the Facebook widgets didn’t allow you to pull in conversions and leads, which I found a little dumbfounding.

The interface was quite intuitive and aesthetically pleasing- I could imagine a densely populated dashboard would look quite nice up on the big screen in our office. However, utterly useless without the correct metrics we need to track performance of our campaigns.

This is as far as we got without the customisation required.

1) Report Garden

The post Finding the right Adwords Reporting Software for our Results Based Agency appeared first on Adwords Reporting Tools | Reportgarden.

‘There is no such thing as a permanent advertising success.’ – Leo Burnett

True! As advertisers, we’re always trying to find new and innovative ways to showcase our products. Sometimes it isn’t just about the “look and feel” of our products, but the placement of them as well.

Where can we put our products and ads so that they stand out to our customers?

For example, in a grocery store, this is the equivalent to learning whether we should be placing our products on an end-cap display, up front by the register, or in a “bull’s eye zone.”

With digital advertising – we learn where to “place” our products by using our existing data to make assumptions about our customers’ behavior. Where are they looking for our product? When is the right time for them to receive messaging about our product? Which search queries am I ignoring and what keywords can I add into the negatives list?

This is where AdWords Search Query reports come into picture. Search Term reports show you what users were actually searching for when your ad was triggered. They give you insight into how your customers search. They can even generate ideas for new keywords you may have missed and also allow you to exclude irrelevant keywords. They keep your account focused and ensure your ad dollars are going to the most qualified people.

Find the complete guide to AdWords Search Query Reports here.

This video talks about how to find and run an AdWords Search Term Report.

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Here are the instructions to create and sort the AdWords Search Query Reports:

1. To conduct a search term report, go to the Keywords tab and select Details> Search Terms> All.

2. The search terms people were using when your ad was triggered will appear in the first column.

3. Go to Columns> Customize Columns> Attributes.

4. Choose “Add” next to the Keyword option and select “Apply.”

5. In the far right corner you can now see which keyword you have programmed that triggered your ad to show for a search.

6. Sort your STR by number of impressions, clicks, or spend to see which search terms are getting the most traffic (Select Clicks, Impressions, or Cost).

7. To add or exclude a keyword, select the keyword check box and choose either “Add as keyword” or “Add as negative keyword.”

8. If you are adding a negative keyword, you have the option to add it at the ad group or campaign level, or you can add it to an existing negative keyword list.

9. Don’t forget to save your settings.

10. It is recommend to conduct a search term report at least once a month. If there is not enough data to support an STR, try expanding your date range in the upper right corner.

This infograph clearly talks about the process to be followed to create an AdWords search query report and the different methods available to analyze this report and act o the insights found.

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I. AdWords Search Query Reports help you find New Keyword Opportunities

The adwords search query reports are full of new keyword opportunities, especially if your campaign is full of broad and phrase matched keywords. You’ll want to look through the report for queries that performed well and aren’t yet in your campaign as exact match keywords.

To find keyword opportunities in your report:

1. Filter the report so only broad and phrase match keywords are being shown. This way you can skip the exact match keywords that are already in your campaign.

2. Sort by highest clicks or highest conversions to see which queries are performing best.

3. Starting from the top, review the search queries in each row. Look at their CTR and conversion rates and compare them to other rows to gauge the quality of the keyword.

4. Note which keywords are performing well and add them as exact match keywords. This way you can ensure your ads display for these queries in the future.

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II. AdWords Search Query Reports help you find Negative Keyword Opportunities

The adwords search query reports can also reveal negative keyword opportunities, especially if your campaign is full of broad and phrase matched keywords. You’ll want to look through the report for irrelevant queries that you want to avoid advertising on in the future.

Find these negatives to boost CTR & Quality Score and also to save money and lower CPA by sorting the data by highest impressions and highest spend respectively. Then, starting from the top review the search queries in each row. Look at their CTR, conversions and conversion rate and compare them to other rows to gauge the quality of the keyword. If the queries are irrelevant and aren’t resulting in conversions, you can add them as negative keywords. When you add negative keywords using this data, you’ll directly improve your CTR, quality score and cost per conversion.

The Google AdWords Search Query Reports are highly valuable reports. They contain detailed information about your keywords and how well they are performing against users’ search terms. It’s vital to optimize your keywords to ensure your ad is being triggered by relevant search terms. You can also use the STR to identify new keyword opportunities and the negative keywords you don’t want to trigger your ad.

The post [Infographic] 10 Steps to AdWords Search Query Reports appeared first on Adwords Reporting Tools | Reportgarden.

Imagine you’re managing a campaign for a product that sends videos over optical fiber. Would you think to set “Justin Bieber” as a negative keyword?

I know I wouldn’t!

But as it turns out, this is one of the best moves that has been made by Rolands, who manages this campaign. Rolands oversees paid search for AD Net, a Taiwanese manufacturer of Formosa cables. A few weeks ago, as he was mining his search query data, he noticed that his ads were showing to searchers looking for videos of Justin Bieber—not exactly his target audience!

He quickly realized that Google considered “Bieber” to be a misspelling of “fiber,” which is one of the most prominent keywords in his account. There were so many variations of Bieber queries that Rolands found himself “cleaning Bieber’s for the next few weeks.”

If you’re lucky, your keywords aren’t matching to one of the most commonly searched pop singers on Google. That said, we should all be utilizing negatives to help ensure our ads are only being shown to qualified searchers. Google can get pretty aggressive with its broad matching, and you don’t want to end up paying for a Bieber’s clicks.

AdWords is all about getting the best results. Organizing your account properly with the right keywords targeted to the right geographic area and audience is very important.

Find the infographic on the step-by-step procedure to create AdWords Search Terms Reports here.

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The goal is to raise click through rates (CTR), lower cost per click (CPC), and decrease cost per acquisition (CPA), all while getting enough impressions, clicks, and conversions to stay in business. One way to do this is to weed out terms that aren’t performing because nobody wants to bid on a phrase that isn’t converting, even if it does have a high CTR and low CPC. But knowing which terms to bid on can be extremely tricky. Businesses bid on a variety of exact, phrase, and broad keyword matches, but you don’t always know for sure the exact phrases people are searching for and which ones are converting, especially when you’re bidding on broad match terms.

The problem with broad match terms is that your ads end up showing for a large number of search phrases that have less and less of a connection to the keyword you’re bidding on. This means your Quality Score will go down, your cost per click will go up, your conversion rate will go down, and your CPA will go up as well. For example, when you bid on “women’s sports shoes” as a broad match, your ad will be served for related terms that include synonyms like “ladies sports shoes” and “shoes for women”. This helps to get more impressions for your ads, but it’s not good if you aren’t selling regular shoes for women and only want your ads to be shown to women who want sports shoes.

So what can you do about this, and how can you use the search terms report to find negative keyword opportunities in order to optimize your campaigns?

Search Terms are an AdWords advertiser’s best friend. Search term reports (or STRs) show you what users were actually searching for when your ad was triggered. They give you insight into how your customers search. They can even generate ideas for new keywords you may have missed and also allow you to exclude irrelevant keywords. They keep your account focused and ensure your ad dollars are going to the most qualified people. Conducting STRs can be really fun by the way. You would be surprised what other people actually search for in Google. Search queries are certainly an extremely important piece of online advertising as they show you not only the keywords that you’re bidding on, but the actual queries that are driving traffic to your site.

This video talks about easy keyword research strategies in general. Hence, to be able to understand the importance of the search queries, this blog post will talk about the power of search term reports in particular for keywords research and expansion.

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That said, an important thing to note about the search term report is that you can now find very similar data in the default keyword tab reports, and that from those views you can designate negatives right from the AdWords interface.

AdWords can generate a report with all search terms that were used by multiple people and received clicks in the past 30 days. All other search terms, along with those from the last day, will be summed up in the “Other search terms” row.

To generate your AdWords search terms report:

1. Click the Campaigns tab.

2. Click the Keywords tab.

3. Click the Details button.

4. Select All from the drop-down.

5. Click the download button to export the data.

The value of the search term report is really in pulling larger volumes of search query data into Excel to manipulate the data there. You can get similar data from the keywords tab, but often getting a mass of data for this purpose is much quicker and easier within the search term report.

As you can see from the options around downloading a report, the options from within the dimensions tab allow you to create a really robust report where you can:

1. Customize the columns/data you’re shown in the report.
2. Layer on additional segments like conversion, time, or network data.
3. Schedule the reports to run every week or month so you can have the same report queued up for use in your normal optimization process.

Once you’ve exported this data, what you do with it on an ongoing basis is what this blog talks about. This blog is divided into 3 parts :

I. Value of AdWords Search Terms reports.

II. Preparing the data for analysis of the AdWords Search Term Reports.

III. Acting on the insights generated for the AdWords Search Term Reports.

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I. The Value of AdWords Search Terms Reports

If you are bidding on broad match keywords and ignoring your search queries, you are definitely wasting money, by not managing your negative keywords, missing out on profitable long-tail keyword opportunities, and possibly missing new emerging search trends in your market.

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A. All keywords are not search queries

Keywords are not search queries, although search queries can be keywords. Keywords are assumptions about the words we think our customer will use when using a search engine, while search queries are the reality. If you are only using exact match keywords in your PPC campaigns, then your keywords will match your customers’ search queries exactly every time a search is matched to your ad.

However, if you are taking advantage of broad and phrase match, oftentimes one keyword can generate hundreds or even thousands of search queries. It is our responsibility to take control of these search queries.

Do not forget this about keywords and search queries:

• Keywords are advertiser-centric assumptions—a targeting method to attract search queries.

• Search queries are customer-centric realities—your customers’ voice and, most importantly, clues to your customers’ intent.

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B. The Goal of Search Query Inspecting

Through search query mining, you want to find:

• Keyword candidates: Good performers that you might have otherwise missed and that need to be promoted to keywords.

• Negative keyword candidates: Poor performers that need to be added as negative keywords, both as ad group negatives and campaign negative keywords.

As your query mining efforts mature you will find less and less irrelevant search queries and more new profitable long-tail keywords or even new high-volume search queries reflecting changes in your customers’ search behavior.

Now that we agree on the power of search queries, we will jump right into the world of search query mining.

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C. Getting the Right Data from AdWords Search Terms Reports

As with any PPC analysis, you must get the right data to answer your questions about the impressions, clicks, conversions, average CTR, average Cost/Conversion and so on.

In order to answer the questions about a search query’s performance we need the Search Term Report, for questions about comparison metrics we will need an Ad-Group Report, and for questions about duplication of keywords we will need a Keyword Account Structure Report.

• Search Query Report – Through your AdWords interface you can pull a 30-day Search Query Report for the campaigns you want to use for understanding the procedure. Next, download the report as a .csv and open it in Excel. We will come back later to and format this report for our analysis.
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• Ad-Group Report – A big part of data-analysis is applying the proper context for PPC peer comparisons. For this analysis, you should be able to compare search query performance against the ad-group that it matched to. If you are wondering why you don’t just use the SQR data for this comparison, it’s because the SQR only reports on search queries that received a click. If you aggregated the SQR by ad-group it would show a much inflated CTR compared to the CTR that is reported in the ad-group report that contains all impressions. Now, pull your ad-group report for the same time-period and campaigns as the SQR you just downloaded. Download and open the ad-group report in Excel.
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• Account Structure – Exact Match Keywords – Next, copy your exact match keywords for the campaigns you are analyzing from AdWords Editor and paste it into Excel. Again, this keyword data will be used for context during our analysis of your SQR. We will use this data to find duplicate search queries (search queries that are already in your account as an exact match keyword) and for comparing the individual words that make up your search queries as we mine for campaign negative keywords.

The reason we use this data source instead of the exact match search queries found in the SQR is because we want all keywords that are currently in your account not just keywords with impressions and the SQR is a performance report and will not show the current state of your account like AdWords Editor will.

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D. Put all the data in Excel

You should now have three sets of data (1. SQR, 2. Ad Group Report, and 3. Keyword Data from Editor). Next get them into an Excel workbook together. As with most data-mining exercises, data preparation will be a large part of the work and is crucial for being able to answer all of the questions we will have concerning our search queries’ performance.

II. Preparing the data for analysis of the AdWords Search Terms Reports.

Now, we must take the time to prepare our data for analysis. This will include formating data as a table in Excel, creating derived fields in Excel, and creating a word count formula in Excel. We are going to use the power of Excel to our advantage and push our data to its limits to extract value.

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A. Format your data as an Excel Table

1. Highlight your entire SQR dataset including the header row.

2. Click on “Format as Table” from the Home ribbon.

3. Choose a style that you like.

4. Click “OK”.

5. Repeat these steps for both the ad group and account keyword structure datasets.

B. Flag Duplicate Search Queries

Duplicate search queries are broad and phrase match search queries that are already being targeted in your account as an exact match keyword. In other words, your broad and phrase match keywords might be ad-poaching your exact match keywords.

1. Go to your AdWords Editor keyword data and cut column C (keyword) and insert it at column A so that “Keyword” is your first column.

2. Create a new column “DUP_CK” in your “sqr_data” tab.

3. Type this formula or use the formula wizard in the new column created: =VLOOKUP(Table1,editor_kw_data!A:C,2,FALSE)

4. After Excel is through processing, copy all of the new column and right click then “Paste Special > Values” back into column. This way every time you change something in Excel it doesn’t start processing through your data again.

C. Create a ‘Word Count’ column

We will use a search query word count later in the analysis process while we are surveying our data.

1. Create a “WORD_COUNT” column.

2. Type this formula: =LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1,” “,””))+1

D. Create a search query ‘peer CTR’ column

Having a CTR comparison (or reasonable CTR expectation) will be very valuable for our analysis. In order to calculate a “Peer CTR” we must subtract the search queries clicks and impressions from the ad group’s total clicks and impressions and then calculate a CTR.

1. Create a “PEER_CTR” column.

2. Type this formula: =(VLOOKUP(Table1,adgroup_data!A:L,4,FALSE)-Table1)/(VLOOKUP(Table1,adgroup_data!A:L,5,FALSE)-Table1)

   [Friendly formula: (ag_clilcks – sq_clicks)/(ag_imp – sq_imp) = PEER_CTR]

E. Create a search query ‘peer conversion rate’ column

Like “PEER_CTR”, a comparison (expected conversion rate) is a great metric to have during your search query analysis. You create it very similarly to how you just created “PEER_CTR”.

1. Create a “PEER_CVR” column (CVR = conversion rate).

2. Type this formula in the cell: =(VLOOKUP(Table1,adgroup_data!A:L,10,FALSE)-Table1)/(VLOOKUP(Table1,adgroup_data!A:L,4,FALSE)-Table1)

   [Friendly formula: (ag_conv – sq_conv)/(ag_clicks – sq_clicks) = PEER_CVR]

F. Create a search query ‘peer cost/conversion’ column

In order for us to later look for a high CPA search query, we must have an average or expected CPA to compare against.

1. Create a “PEER_CPA” column (CPA = cost per conversion) with the formula: =(VLOOKUP(Table1,adgroup_data!A:L,8,FALSE)-Table1)/(VLOOKUP(Table1,adgroup_data!A:L,10,FALSE)-Table1)

G. Create a ‘needed impressions’ column

In order to know how many impression are needed before we should expect to see clicks, we must calculate a needed impressions metric. We do this by dividing the number of clicks you would like to see by the peer CTR.

Of course, you could use a more “statistically significant” approach but the point is to create a flag that can be used to filter out search queries with sparse data later in our analysis.

1. Create a “NEEDED_IMP” column.

2. Type this formula in the cell: =1.5/Table1

H. Create a ‘needed clicks’ column

In order to know how many clicks are needed before we should expect to see conversions, we must calculate a needed clicks metric. We do this by dividing 1-2 clicks by the peer CTR.

1. Create a “NEEDED_CLICKS” column.

2. Type this formula in the cell: =1.5/Table1

I. Create an ‘enough impressions’ column

In this step we are going to use the “NEEDED_IMP” column that we created earlier with an “IF” statement to set a flag that we can use as a filter later in our analysis.

1. Create an “ENOUGH_IMP” column.

2. Type this formula: =IF(Table1>Table1,”Y”,”N”)

J. Create an ‘enough clicks’ column

Again we are going to use a derived field that we created earlier, “NEEDED_CLICKS” to set a flag for “ENOUGH_CLICKS”.

1. Create an “ENOUGH_CLICKS” column.

2. Type this formula in the cell: =IF(Table1>Table1,”Y”,”N”)

K. Create a ‘low CTR’ column

This is a very important filter that helps us focus on search queries with below average CTRs. The formula described below will set a flag for “LOW_CTR” for search queries with a CTR that is 30%+ below its peers in that ad group.

1. Create a “LOW_CTR” column.

2. Type this formula: =IF(Table1<(Table1*0.7),”Y”,”N”)

L. Create a ‘low conversion rate’ column

Just like low CTR, a below average conversion rate can be an attribute of a negative keyword candidate.

1. Create a “LOW_CVR” column.

2. Type this formula in the cell: =IF(Table1<(Table1*0.7),”Y”,”N”)

M. Create a ‘high cost per conversion’ column

A high CPA can also offer insights into potential problems with a search query. The search query may perform better with a different landing page or perhaps it needs to be added as a negative keyword. The formula below sets a flag for search queries that have a CPA 30%+ above its peers.

1. Create a “HIGH_CPA” column.

2. Type this formula in the cell: =IF(Table1>(Table1*1.3),”Y”,”N”)

This might seem like a lot of work, but once you get familiar with these techniques it should only take you about five minutes to create all 12 columns. You can also experiment with creating your own derived fields for your analysis. Start by formulating the questions you will be asking of your data. This will help you figure out what new fields, flags, etc. you will need to answer those questions.

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III. Acting on the insights generated for the AdWords Search Terms Reports.

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A. Analysis of data using Excel

For the most part, these questions are focused around search queries that may need to be added as negative keywords and search queries that need to be a part of a keyword expansion strategy. Start your query mining analysis with a quick survey of your data.

1. Survey your data

The really bad and obvious waste can sometimes be seen easily in your data by just sorting by cost and filtering for zero conversions, etc., so a quick survey of your data is always advised. Know your data. Use a pivot table, sort, and filter. The more you learn about your data, the better equipped you will be for the analysis process.

A good example of this would be creating a pivot table to see how much duplication is happening.

1. Select a cell in your ‘sqr_data’ worksheet.

2. Insert a Pivot Table.

3. Add ‘DUP_CK’ to the Row Label.

4. Add ‘Search Term’ to the Values and Count.

5. Add ‘Match Type’ to the Report Filter and filter out the exact match search queries.

See if you have an issue with duplication. Depending on your results, you may need to invest some time to reduce the amount of ad-poaching that is occurring by the creative use of negative keywords (i.e., add the exact keyword negative to the broad and phrase match ad group where the duplication is occurring).

While you are surveying your data, go ahead and filter for zero conversion search queries as well as search queries with zero clicks. Look for the easy stuff before we jump into the more advanced analysis.

2. Create your negative keywords list

One of the main reasons for search query mining is to find negative keyword candidates, or words and phrases that might need to be added as a negative keyword inside your ad groups or campaigns. Because of the time we spent preparing our data, creating this list will be much easier.

Ad group level negatives will be based primarily on the search query’s performance when compared to its peers in the ad group. If it’s performing badly, most likely you will need to add it as a negative and let another ad group worry about it. If you think it’s relevant you may need to move it to another ad group (as a keyword) with better aligned ad copy or landing page.

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This is how you create your list of negative candidates: Filter for ‘DUP_CK’. Choose ‘#N/A’- this will leave only non-duplicates.

1. Filter for ‘LOW_CTR’.

2. Filter for ‘zero conversions’.

3. Filter for ‘ENOUGH_IMP’.

4. Copy the resulting data into another worksheet and rename it ‘negative candidates’.

5. Repeat this process for your ‘LOW_CVR’ and ‘HIGH_CPA’ search queries.

You now have a dataset that is a fraction of the size of your original search query report. Because these search queries are below average in some way, they are much more likely to need to be added as a negative search query.

Of course, you can and should play around with your comparison thresholds. In this example we used ad 30%+ below average comparison. Depending on your situation you may need to be more or less aggressive. For example if you are analyzing 300K rows of data you might want to start with an 80%+ below average comparison for CVR or CTR and drill right to the horrible stuff. Search query mining is part art and part science. Regardless of the thresholds you choose, you now should have a much more manageable list of search queries to work through.

3. Create your keyword expansion list

Your raw search query data most likely consists of thousands of rows of data, so we need a good way to pull the good performing search queries out and create a keyword expansion list. Don’t add new keywords to my account unless they have enough activity (clicks) for them to be treated differently.

An easy way for us to do this is to:

1. Filter for search queries that have resulted in a conversion.

2. Filter for ‘ENOUGH_CLICKS’.

3. Filter for ‘N’ on ‘HIGH_CPA’ (might be a good idea to do a quick pivot and find out how many of your converting search queries have a high CPS).

4. Copy and paste this data into another worksheet and rename the worksheet to keyword_expansion.

You should now have your negative candidates and keyword expansion list ready to be worked. These lists will be around 1-3% of your original search query report, making them much more focused and easier to work with.

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B. Analysis of data using ReportGarden

And of course, if you’re either not comfortable mucking around in Excel with large volumes of search query data or simply don’t have the time, ReportGarden, a reporting tool, automates a lot of the work of mining search query data to bubble up important insights about your campaign. You can try the tool to learn more.

This infograph clearly gives the step-by-step process to be followed to create AdWords Search Term Reports using ReportGarden.

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In order to access the various custom reports available in ReportGarden, you need to Sign-up with ReportGarden and create your account. And also link your AdWords account with this account.

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1. Select New Report option available in the Reports option on the left side of the screen.

2. Name your report and select a template that will generate your report in the required format. For example, for this search term report we can select AdWords New Template from the options available.

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Select your AdWords account from the drop-down menu of the AdWords Account and also the time period that you would like to analyze the campaign for.

After submitting the details your screen would look like this.

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Each page of the report can be modified according to the interest of the client with various text formats and custom colors with the edit option on the receptive pages.

3. This cover page is followed by various performance reports that are all included in the AdWords reports.

4. Since we are looking for a Search Term report, we can delete all the other performance reports except the search queries sheet. When ever they are needed they can be added back into the report easily with the widgets and the dimensions available.

This search queries table can also be created using the widgets on the right side of the screen and by selecting the Dimension for the table as ‘Search Queries’.

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5. The table can now includes all the parameters that would ease the analysis of the search queries.

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6. You can also arrange these search terms in ascending/ descending order based on any measure used in the table like impressions, clicks, CTR% or others by using the options available in the advanced setting options in the edit menu.

7. You can now play with the visualization tools available by changing every attribute in the table by adding filters and also understand the effect of each of the measure on the overall performance of the ad campaigns run.

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C. Work on your Negative Keywords list

There are several factors that could be impacting the performance of your search queries, but one major reason that you have poor performing search queries in your ad group is because of the way Google matches search queries to your broad match keywords. Google’s idea of broad is just about as broad as you can imagine, and sometimes even broader.

In order for a search query to be on the negative candidates list, your search query has already demonstrated that it doesn’t belong in the ad-group that it’s matching to—it has very poor CTR and CVR. These search queries are not working with your existing ads. There is really no good reason not to just add the entire list as ad-group-level negative exact match keywords, preventing them from matching to your broad match keywords in the future.

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D. Work on Your Keyword Expansion List

Adding new keywords to your account is more difficult. You must make sure they find a good home (ad group). At a high level, you copy your keyword expansion list for the campaign and distribute it into appropriate ad groups. The challenge is finding the appropriate groupings/ themes of your new keywords. There are a couple of ways you can approach this problem.

• Manually scan your keywords looking for themes that match to existing ad groups and keywords.

• Use the AdWords Editor Keyword Grouping tool.

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A good place to start is by using your existing ad groups and keywords as the criteria for filtering your keyword expansion list. If you have a well built out campaign then you probably have most of the groupings already.

For example: let’s pretend that you sell dog food and dog food accessories. It’s safe to assume that you already have a dog food bowl ad group, so you should filter your keyword expansion list by the word ‘bowl’ in AdWords Editor. The resulting list will be all of your new keywords that contain the word ‘bowl.’ From here you can just drag-and-drop your keywords into the ‘bowl’ ad group or ad groups. Similarly, you can use the output of one of the grouping tools as your filtering criteria and then distribute your keywords.

The Google AdWords Search Terms Report is a highly valuable report. It contains detailed information about your keywords and how well they are performing against users’ search terms. It’s vital to optimize your keywords to ensure your ad is being triggered by relevant search terms. You can also use the STR to identify new keyword opportunities and the negative keywords you don’t want to trigger your ad.

The post Google AdWords Search Terms Reports- Analyzing Search Queries appeared first on Adwords Reporting Tools | Reportgarden.

“A goal without a plan is just a wish”. – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

True!

Assume yourself to be in a situation where planning can give you the best of insights for you to improve your business. Obviously that would be of great help.

Imagine you’re a local plumber who’s planning on advertising your business in the local phone book, in the newspaper, and on television. You’re interested in seeing which method is most successful, so you buy three different phone numbers (which all ring to your office phone) to use as call tracking numbers for the ads—one for your phone book ad, one for your newspaper ad, and one for your television commercial.

After a few weeks of advertising on all three media, you check to see which phone numbers received the most calls. You find out the phone number on your phone book ad has received five times as many calls as the number from the television ad. Surprisingly, you find that the newspaper ad received no phone calls. Now you have the data you need to reassess your marketing strategy. You have the evidence to pull your newspaper ad and to spend more on your phone book ads. Maybe adding a coupon in the back of the phone book will boost calls even more? With call tracking, you can test it!

Similarly, marketers running Adwords campaigns should absolutely be tracking calls back to the keywords, ads and campaigns that drive them.

Find the complete guide to Google AdWords Call Tracking Reports here.

There have been multiple studies that have confirmed what many marketers have suspected for quite some time: inbound calls are the most valuable and lucrative type of leads. Sales teams want inbound call leads more than any other because they know those are the types of leads most likely to convert to actual revenue. The fact that Google is providing a service like this validates how important inbound call leads are, and how this is becoming the new metric to replace “clicks.”

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Tracking your phone calls that came from Adwords is an incredibly valuable metric that is often overlooked by many small business owners. With the adwords call tracking reports, you can track day, date, time of call, duration, and number of calls. This data is invaluable in helping you determine your true ROI from your AdWords campaigns.

Before explaining the benefits of Call Extensions and the adwords call tracking reports, I urge you to think about how much value your business places on phone calls. For example, imagine yourself to be hearing to a business saying that “Calls aren’t important to us. So, lets not have them in our marketing strategy!” On the flip side, for a university, prospective students frequently call and inquire about program offerings. So, Call Extensions can be a great strategy to enhance ads performance.

Because call extensions aren’t for everybody, you need to make that decision before moving forward.

I. How AdWords Call Tracking Reports work

AdWords Call Tracking reports allow you to see precisely which keywords resulted in a phone call. They help you see the duration of the call, track it as a conversion based on duration, and provide you with a range of call tracking metrics, including geographical location, the type of device used and more. Ad Extensions are the best way to enhance paid results on Google.com and provide searchers with the opportunity to dive further into your site, or, directly contact your business.

This infograph gives a detailed procedure on how call tracking reports are generated.

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II. How Do I Report on Call Extensions?

After implementation, pull a Call Details report to gauge how many phone calls you received, and area code in which they came from and whether or not that phone call led to a conversion. You can even customize columns to analyze the Campaign and Ad Group source. Follow this path in the AdWords UI for reporting: All Online Campaigns > Dimensions > View: Call Details.

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III. What can you track with website call tracking?

The possibilities are literally endless. You can track online and offline sources. You can break it down to the keyword level (which would be ridiculous and not cost effective). Most commonly people may break down their call tracking to the campaign level. You may also want to track calls from different search engines (Google, Yahoo, and Bing). You can track calls from Bing Ad’s, Facebook Ad’s, or offline sources like a post card or a newspaper ad. The possibilities are literally endless!

Some of th benefits of call tracking reports are:

• Track PPC at the source, campaign, ad group, and keywords.

• Identify your most effective landing pages for generating phone call leads.

• Send phone calls back to Google AdWords as conversions using our Google Analytics integration.

The post [Infographic] An Easy Guide to AdWords Call Tracking Reports appeared first on Adwords Reporting Tools | Reportgarden.

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The trouble is, I don’t know which half.” – John Wanamaker

Very true!

Tell me if this story sounds familiar?

Over the years, too many clients question the value of online marketing because they’re not sure whether or not it’s working. Sure, the ads were running and their phones were ringing – but how could they be sure it was digital marketing and not, say, their most recent mailer driving those leads?

It’s a fair question. Even with online forms – can the customer really be certain it wasn’t direct traffic bringing home the bacon?

It got incredibly frustrating – I knew we were generating customers and good results, but I couldn’t always prove it. I could talk about bounce rate, traffic, online conversions and all the other usual metrics – but to the client, these often didn’t mean much. Worse, reporting on form submissions is only half the story – especially in industries where people would rather pick up the phone and call to schedule an appointment.

Without a clean way to trace those ringing phones back to our digital marketing efforts, we were left trying to prove our value and accurately measure how well various ad channels were actually performing.

This is when Call tracking reports help you understand the call conversions you get from your online and offline channels and let you present your account performance better.

Find the infographic on the step-by-step procedure to create AdWords Call Tracking Reports here.

Now, let us talk about some facts before you know about AdWords call tracking reports. Did you know that 43% of all search-related conversions happen over the phone? And that 65% of businesses consider phone calls their most valuable, highest quality source of leads? Given the importance of phone calls in businesses, Google AdWords advertisers need a way to track those calls back to the ads that triggered them. When you know where your calls are coming from, you can make smart decisions about your advertising budget and your sales strategy.

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Now, with the Google adwords call tracking reports, you can see precisely which keywords are driving phone calls, and which phone calls result in conversions. In general call extensions from AdWords leverage Google Voice to allow you to track not just activity on your site (via form completions and shopping cart sales) but also inbound phone calls that result from AdWords ads. To be able to track the calls back to AdWords ads, Google creates a unique phone number for your campaign to show in your ads. When a searcher calls this number their call is forwarded to your actual business phone, but by using the Google Voice number the call is recorded and attributed to the appropriate campaign, ad group, and keyword.

Google’s call-related solutions have very similar sounding names yet are reported in different ways. It’s crazy to me that tracking results for businesses that are usually the least online marketing-savvy is the most complicated. In this post you will know about

I. The different ways to show phone numbers and track calls in AdWords.

II. Benefits of Google AdWords call tracking reports and common mistakes done.

III. Analyzing the data using a Reporting tool- ReportGarden.

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I. The different ways to show phone numbers and track calls in AdWords.

A. Different Places To Show Phone Numbers With Online Ads

Advertisers that want phone calls should provide their prospect a phone number at each touch point to maximize their chances of getting the call. There should be a number with the ad on the search results, on the landing page after the user clicks the ad, and in display ads you show users through remarketing after they’ve left your site (though the number to be added here is manual). Each of these touch points requires a different implementation.

Call extensions can be set at the ad group level — so if you want, you can show a different number for each ad group. You should consider showing numbers with different area codes if you have different ad groups for different cities. For example, a company that services the entire San Francisco Bay Area, could show a phone number with the 415 prefix for ad groups with “San Francisco” keywords and a 650 prefix for ad groups that have keywords for “Palo Alto,” thereby reinforcing the local nature of their business.

One of the best things about showing a phone number through a call extension on a desktop or tablet is that there’s no charge when the user calls the number, even when using Google Voice to track the calls.

The different places available to show phone numbers in the ads are:

1. Google AdWords Call Extensions

Call extensions can be added to ads in your AdWords account and allow you to show your phone number to potential customers.

When call extensions are viewed on a desktop device, they appear as a phone number next to your ad. You’ll see a unique call tracking number which isn’t your actual phone number. The number was swapped for tracking purposes which we’ll talk more about in the “how” section next.

How to implement these Call Extensions?

In the Google AdWords UI, follow this order: Add Extensions tab > select Call Extension from the drop-down > +Extension button > Select a campaign and the +New phone number button.

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Now, you need to decide whether you want to use a Google forwarding phone number or My own phone number.

By selecting a Google number, you have access to call reporting that includes: start & end date/time, status (missed or received), duration, caller area code, campaign, ad group and call type (manually dialed vs. mobile click-to-call). This is a randomly-generated phone number that will forward to your phone line. Additionally, you can count phone calls as conversions when they last longer than a period of time defined by you. The difference if you select to use your own phone number is that the ability to count phone calls conversions disappears. Additionally, by not using a Google-forwarded number, the reporting features outlined above are not available.

Benefits of Using Your Own Number

• If users write it down, they’ll always be able to reach you because it’s your number.
• You can show a local number with your own area code, reinforcing the idea that you are a local provider that is close to users.

Benefits of Using a Free Google Voice Tracking Number

• When you use a GV number, Google can track the number of calls that are connected and how long these last. They can report calls of a certain length as conversions.
• Google reports these calls at the ad group level so you can see which ad groups have a good cost per call.

Despite the differences in how you choose to display phone numbers, one of my favorite features about Call Extensions is scheduling . That’s right – if nobody can answer the phone, you can schedule your phone number to go dark.

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2. “Call” button on mobile devices

On mobile devices, ad extensions appear differently. Instead of seeing the phone number, visitors see a “Call” button that immediately connects them with your business. When visitors click the “Call” button, the number appears in their phone’s native call functionality to immediately connect to your business.

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3. Your Website

Many times, visitors aren’t ready to call just because they saw your ad. They want to take a look at your website, learn about your company and then call to ask questions. In these cases, potential customers will most often use the phone number on your website.

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B. How do I track the calls?

1. Google AdWords Call Tracking: Phone Number Extension

Ad extensions are one method that Google offers to make your ad more interesting and appealing. One of the most important ad extensions is the call extension that associates a phone number with your ad. Setting up ad extensions is straightforward.

Track as a Call

When you set up a standard call extension, you can choose to track phone calls using a Google forwarding number. Visitors will see this forwarding number and will be redirected to your business phone when the number is dialed.

This method allows you to track phone calls in your reporting.

1. Add a new Call Extension in the Ad Extensions section of AdWords

2. Choose the “Show my ad with a Google phone number and use call reporting”

At this point, the call is simply logged but not tracked as an actual conversion.

Track as a Conversion

You might want to track phone calls as a conversion in addition to just seeing a call metric. In the method above, the call is tracked but it’s not explicitly tracked as a conversion. This setup might not meet your reporting needs.

For example, for a service business you track phone calls as conversions. If you have a retail store, phone calls might be used primarily for support, in which case it may not make sense to track them as conversions.

If you decided to not track phone calls as conversions, you would only see those conversions as a result of just the landing page form completions.

In order to add phone calls to your conversion tracking, follow these steps.

• Navigate to the conversions page under the Tools menu
• Add a new conversion and select “Phone calls”
• Select “Calls from call-only ads or ads using call extensions”
• Complete the rest of the options to your liking

After you’ve added a conversion to your campaign, calls from the ad extension will be tracked as a standard call as well as a conversion.

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2. AdWords Call Tracking: Dynamic Number Swapping

The first method we went over using the call extension occurs when the visitor is viewing your actual ad. However, what if the visitor clicks on your ad and then decides to call while they’re looking at your website? They’ve already skipped the ad extension phone number and don’t see it now that they’re on your site.

In these scenarios, you can implement dynamic number swapping to track visitors. Dynamic number swapping detects when a visitor has come through AdWords and replaces the phone number the visitor sees on your site with a new tracking phone number.

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When the visitor calls the tracking number, AdWords tracks the call as a conversion and forwards the caller to your actual number. The tracking number appears on your site as long as the AdWords cookie is on their computer. If they come back to your site a few weeks later, they’ll see the tracking number and be tracked as a conversion when they call.

Setting up dynamic number swapping requires a few more steps, but is still fairly simple.

1. Create a Phone Conversion in the conversions section of your AdWords account

2. Add the phone conversion tracking code to your website

3. Add the code that detects and actually swaps your phone number

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C. Tracking Phone Calls In Google AdWords Call Tracking Reports

Now that you’re showing tracking numbers at all touch points related to AdWords, it’s time to look at reports and see how your campaigns are performing. As with most of the reports in the dimensions tab, you can also get data about call metrics from within the campaign tab by customizing your columns, but also similar to most of the reports in the dimensions tab, the data available in the call details report is more robust and easier to export and manipulate in Excel.

From the dimensions report you can view the data at the campaign and ad group level, and can analyze:

• Call start time
• Call end time
• Call status (missed or received)
• Caller area code
• Call type

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II. The benefits of Google AdWords call tracking reports and the common mistakes done

A. What Are the Benefits of Call Tracking?

In addition to providing you with a reliable, accurate and quantifiable way to track the effectiveness of offline conversions and phone conversations, the Call Tracking Reports also gives you actionable insights and comprehensive reporting on the true return of PPC investment – leads.

AdWords Call Tracking allows you to:

• Clearly measure your paid search ROI

• Track calls back to specific campaigns and keywords

• Make better optimization decisions based on phone call conversion data

Let’s take a look at each benefit in more detail.

1. Clearly Measure AdWords ROI

Demonstrating the return on investment of online conversions is easy. Now, with the various reporting tools available, doing so for offline conversions is just as simple. These reports allow you to clearly measure the ROI of all leads driven by your PPC efforts, not just those captured online. This transparency offers a bird’s eye view of your entire paid search spend, as well as your real ROI, not just that of your online conversions.

2. Optimize Account Performance

Call Tracking Reports take the guesswork out of AdWords PPC. By clearly showing you which campaigns are driving leads and conversions, you can optimize your account structure to eliminate wasted spend and only target the keywords, ad groups and match types that are driving conversions. Call Tracking can provide you with detailed conversion data from the campaign level, right down to specific individual keywords.

3. Receive More Accurate Account Recommendations

You can as well set a conversion duration to more easily track phone call conversions. For example, if you know a conversion typically occurs after a 60 second phone conversation, then you can easily set this as your conversion duration and each call that lasts 60 seconds or longer will be tracked throughout your account as a conversion. This will allow you to make more informed decisions when it comes to bidding, setting up negatives, identify costly keywords, etc.

B. Mistakes people make with Call Tracking

One thing that I like to do with all call tracking I setup on websites (especially AdWords Call Tracking) is ensure that I don’t use a “cookie” tracking method.

With most dynamic call tracking services available – you have the option to set the duration the cookies stay on a visitors computer. This means that when the visitor arrives – a cookie is placed on their computer identifying them as a “paid” visitor. If that person returns to your website anytime within the next 30 days, regardless of if that return visit is via a direct, organic, or referral link – they will still see your tracking phone number! This is troublesome because the end result is that you will track multiple calls from the same visitors!

It is for this reason that your default setting should be to DISABLE COOKIES from call tracking services. This way each visitor is treated independently and will only see your tracking number if they arrive through that paid link. This technique will also give you valuable insight into the behavior of people that originally found you through a paid source.

The insight comes from the fact that if you see multiple calls from the same number in your tracking reports, you will know for a fact that the person clicked on your ad multiple times! This is not a good thing as in a perfect world, the person would return to your site from a book mark or directly typing in the domain name. This insight could potentially save you a lot of money in click cost.

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C. What Can I Do with the Additional Data in the Google AdWords Call Tracking Reports?

Obviously being able to report on call-in data in general can help you better understand the performance of your PPC campaigns individually, and can help you better report on the value of PPC as a channel. The unique thing about the call details data is that it can help you better understand the quality of leads different campaigns and ad groups are driving.

Additional metrics such as call duration and call type can give you greater insight into the types of calls that are effective and those that aren’t, and data such as whether a call is missed or received and the area code can tell you if you should be tuning down PPC campaigns at certain times of day (maybe you can’t handle the call volume), while things like caller area code may indicate that you’re getting calls from area codes you can’t service.

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D. Who Should Use the Call Details Report?

The call details report offers additional, very granular data for advertisers. If inbound phone calls are a small part of your business, and if tracking the effectiveness of both the call leads and the people servicing those leads isn’t a core competency then the basic campaign-level reporting is probably sufficient. However if you generate a large number of inbound calls and have an extensive telesales presence, this reporting feature can offer some added insight into the effectiveness of different campaigns and ad groups, as well as your ability to service different types of leads.

III. ReportGarden‘s AdWords Call Tracking Reports

Obviously being able to report on call-in data in general can help you better understand the performance of your PPC campaigns individually, and can help you better report on the value of PPC as a channel. Additional metrics such as call duration and call type can give you greater insight into the types of calls that are effective and those that aren’t, and data such as whether a call is missed or received and the area code can tell you if you should be tuning down PPC campaigns at certain times of day (maybe you can’t handle the call volume), while things like caller area code may indicate that you’re getting calls from area codes you can’t service.

To visualize this data better and to improve the performance of your AdWords account, great data visualization tools like ReportGarden are helpful. ReportGarden helps you make different AdWords reports or Google Analytics reports with just a click and can as well automatically schedule it to the client at the required intervals. This inforgraph clearly explains the steps to be followed while creating a call tracking report in ReportGarden.

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This is how you can create a Call Tracking report using ReportGarden tool. In order to access the various custom reports created, you need to Sign-up with ReportGarden and create your account. And also link your adwords account with this.

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1. Select New Report option available in the Reports option on the left side of the screen.

2. Name your report and select a template that will generate your report in the required format. For example, for this call tracking report you can select a Blank Template.

Select your AdWords account from the drop-down menu of the AdWords Account and also the time period that you would like to analyze the account for.

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After submitting the details your screen would look like this.

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Each page of the report can be modified according to the interest of the client with various text formats and custom colors with the edit option on respective pages.

3. This cover page is followed by some performance reports that are all included in the AdWords reports.

4. Since we are looking for a detailed call tracking report, we can edit the performance tables or create a new one from the widgets available.

On editing the table, you can select any of the call tracking integrations available like CallRail, Avanser, CallTrackingMetrics or Twilio, according to your requirement.

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With each of these integrations there are various options available to modify in the measures and dimensions of the table. You can chose which measures are required for your campaign so that you generate maximum insights for understanding.

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A few examples of the measures and dimensions that you can choose from are:

Measures:

• Calls
• Repeat calls
• Average duration
• Conversions
• Inbound calls
• Outbound calls

Dimensions:

• Sources
• Tracking numbers
• Destination numbers
• Location
• Type

5. Your sample report with CallRail integration would be ready. You can also play with the visualization tools available by adding filters like location, answer numbers and many more to understand the effect of each of the measure on the overall performance of the ad campaigns.

While all the data can be consolidated in AdWords, making sense of the reports is really important to improve your campaign performance. While Google AdWords call tracking reports may not fit every marketer’s needs, its relative ease of implementation and the ability to track phone calls to the keyword level is extremely valuable.

The post Google AdWords Call Tracking Reports for clients appeared first on Adwords Reporting Tools | Reportgarden.

“To optimize the whole, we must sub-optimize the parts.” – W. Edwards Deming

Even before knowing how to optimize we need to understand the need to optimize something.

For example, the difference between setting up a campaign and its optimization is the same as the difference between setting up a pipeline system and finding a leak in an existing one – In the first case you know that your goal is to connect between the different pipes, while in the second case you’re supposed to locate the leak source in the darkness, and without the proper tools you’ll find a very hard time doing so.

Similar is the case with your AdWords account. To just set your AdWords account for your campaigns will not provide the required results but frequent visiting and understanding its performance helps you get better results and save money. There are a lot of moving parts and dozens of places problems can hide and it’s easy to miss them if you don’t have a system.

Find the complete guide to Google AdWords Audit Reports here.

In this blog, I’ll walk you through a comprehensive account audit to identify opportunities to improve your Google AdWords account!

This video explains how you can analyze our AdWords account performance data.

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Let us now talk in detail about the AdWords audit reports with reference to the campaign level and ad level analysis. This inforgraph helps in understanding the step-by-step process for creating the AdWords Audit reports.

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I. Campaign Level AdWords Audit Reports

Your initial research should start with the understanding of how frequently you visit your account and how frequently you change your account settings. It is recommended that you’re in your account at least weekly optimizing things around like bids and ad copy.

You should also frequently check your conversion and call tracking set up. You want to track conversions and calls to see which keywords are converting, when they are converting, and how often conversions occur for optimization purposes.

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Your mobile strategy should be examined next. Our world is turning into a mobile centered one. More and more people are using their phones for searching and surfing the Internet. Because of this, your ads and landing pages need to be responsive and specific since that can help improve conversion rates. For ads, this means click-to-call buttons and mobile friendly websites.

The contents of your campaigns should also scrutinized–you should look for campaigns that are dedicated specifically to be display campaigns or search campaigns. Because bids, positioning, and success will be different between these two campaigns.

The last stop at the campaign level are your settings. Your location settings should be set up properly so that your ads are only being shown in your targeted location and not everywhere else. You should see bid adjustments for mobile–if your campaigns are converting well on mobile there should be bid increases and vice versa if your campaigns are not converting. Lastly, you should also check if there is an adequate budget to actually perform competitively against competition.

II. Ad Group Level AdWords Audit reports

In the Ad Group level you should first look at the quantity of keywords in each group. It is recommend to have one (yes, you read that right) keyword in each Ad Group. Each keyword should have 3 different match types–modified broad, phrase, and exact match. When you have one keyword in each group, your ad text and landing page can be specific to the keyword.

Next look at Ads. It is recommend to have two different ads to test against each other at all times. The two ads could be as similar as sharing everything except a headline or have nothing in common. All ads should have a clear call-to-action like “Call Now” or “Sign Up”. The end of the first description line of each ad should have a period or other punctuation symbol. The punctuation will bump the first line up to the headline to maximize space (if your ad rank is in the top 3 spots) and leave more room for extensions.

Also look into your Ad Extensions settings. At minimum, you should have Site-links and Call Out Extensions. Every company regardless of industry or service can create these. They tell people more of what you offer and provide discounts, benefits, etc.

The last things you should look at in each Ad Group are quality scores and click through rates because they are used to determine the effectiveness of the ad. There a tons of things that go into the quality score: click-through-rate, landing page, ad text are some of the biggest.

If the quality score is high then we know that the message in the ad text and the message on the landing page is similar. The click through rate shows how often your ad is clicked on when it is shown. If it is high, you are relevant to the search terms and audience.

III. Landing Pages

In each landing page make sure that message match between keyword and landing page is 100% clear. For example, if you are a plumbing company and the keyword is clogged drain, your landing page must be about clogged drains and not about clogged toilets or even worse, your home page. Also make sure that the destination URL leads to a legitimate site. Mobile pages should also meet all the criteria above. They should also have a good layout on mobile devices and load quickly.

IV. Miscellaneous

In the miscellaneous category you should look for the missing elements that make you more profitable and give you data to improve your PPC campaign. First up–Google Shopping. If it makes sense for you to have Google Shopping, aka–you sell a product, is it set up and in use? If it is, you passed! Next is re-targeting and remarketing campaigns. Remarketing helps us keep showing up to people who have already seen us. Typically, it takes seven interactions with a given company before a person converts. Remarketing helps you ensure people see you again and again.

The last element to look for is the Display Network. The display network consists of image, video, and text ads shown all over the Internet based on interest of the user or the content of the specific website you are on. Display ads are typically cheaper than search ads and are a great way to get more traffic to your business. If you are running display ads, you passed this step, too.

These points helps you find what works best when performing an AdWords audit!

The post [Infographic] 8 Steps to AdWords Audit Reports appeared first on Adwords Reporting Tools | Reportgarden.

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” – Henry Ford

True! But in recent years, failure has become glamorized. You might have seen article after article telling you to embrace failure, to fail forward, to fail quickly. The successful business owners you admire all have harrowing tales of epic screw-ups. But there’s an important distinction to be made: the failure itself isn’t the important part. In fact, failure by itself is never a good thing. It’s what happens after the failure that matters most.

Failure presents a unique opportunity that’s often absent from success: it’s much easier to determine why something failed than to determine why something succeeded. If you want to see someone act clueless, ask them what they’ve learned from their successes.

For example, look at Slack, the increasingly popular team communication Platform. In the span of 12 months, Slack went from not existing to being valued at over $1 billion. When the CEO of the company, Stewart Butterfield, was recently asked at a conference how they had become popular so quickly, his response was brutally honest:

“I have no idea,” he said.

Failure doesn’t guarantee enlightenment. But it does provide the opportunity. So, here I share with you one such failure ad campaigns. This is what Gavin Zuchlinski of Acuity Scheduling had to say on AdWords Metrics:

“My biggest marketing failure was misreading the metrics behind AdWords. I was successfully measuring engagement and things like sign-ups for our mailing list which looked absolutely phenomenal — but the life-cycle of someone? Horrendous! Once I realized the small metrics of success didn’t represent success for the company, only then could I turn it around.

“The number of sign-ups can be a TERRIBLY misleading metric without the context of other data.”

The key takeaway from this is to value of monitoring of your entire funnel rather than just the entry point. When you pay to acquire opt-ins, you have to make sure that enough of those opt-ins are converting into customers to justify what you’re spending. If you’re not looking at all of the relevant metrics, you’re essentially flying blind.

This story gives us an insight on how important it is for us to check on our AdWords account and what are all the metrics that are to be considered to improve our performance.

Find the infographic on the step-by-step procedure to create AdWords Audit Reports here.

This video talks about online advertising and how important it is for businesses to use this to get to the right customers at the right time.

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Since Google AdWords is an advertising platform that uses a paid search advertising model, in which users bid on the keywords they want to have trigger their sponsored ads, it is necessary to know how to optimize it to generate the best results.

While a number of factors determine a successful Google AdWords campaign, much can be achieved by focusing on:

• Relevance – Crafting relevant AdWords keyword lists, tight AdWords keyword groups, and proper ad text.

• Quality Score – Google’s rating of the quality and relevance of your keywords and PPC campaigns.

Whether you’ve inherited an AdWords account or created one from scratch, it’s important to take a step back and review the account as a whole to make sure there are no problems. There are a lot of moving parts and dozens of places problems can hide and it’s easy to miss them if you don’t have a system. In this guide, I’ll walk you through a comprehensive account audit to identify opportunities to improve your Google AdWords account! But before that just look at the way you need to think about your Ad campaigns for your business.

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“If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.”

For the keywords (and ad groups & campaigns) in your account that meet your goals, you’ll want to be as visible as possible. Every missed impression is a missed opportunity to generate additional clicks and conversions to further increase your profit.

“If it’s not worth doing right, it’s not worth doing at all.”

Maybe a campaign isn’t meeting your goals and you decide to lower its daily budget, which leads to lost impression share due to budget. This, of course, is just damage control and not solving any underlying problems. Lowering the budget also leads to less impressions for the profitable keywords, while still leaving impressions for the unprofitable ones. To prevent this, make sure you fix your problems at the right level: adjusting bids, adding negatives, pausing keywords, improving ads and landing pages, etc.

“If it can’t be done right, do something you can do right instead.”

If you’ve tried everything to improve the performance and impression share of a keyword but it doesn’t pay off, your time is probably better spent at improving other areas of your account. Don’t obsess over Ad Rank and quality score for every one of your keywords, and certainly don’t indulge yourself into ego bidding to ‘solve’ the problem.

Now having understood how and what to think about to make your ad campaigns, this blog will help you in different ways:

I. Common Errors done in AdWords management

II. Understand how AdWords Audit Reports Work

III. Analyzing the AdWords Audit Reports data using ReportGarden

IV. How to Use the Google AdWords Audit reports

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I. Common Errors done in AdWords management

Data collected from the AdWords performance reports help you discover the major markers that determine the success or failure of advertisers in dealing with PPC ad performance. Many struggling adwords accounts make the same mistakes:

• Inconsistency: Only 1% of small business advertisers log in and do work in their PPC accounts each week. Our research has shown that PPC account activity plays a huge factor in determining ad performance. Don’t abandon your account at the wayside – treat it with care!
• Wasteful Spending: 20% of small businesses aren’t using any negative keywords. Negative keywords are absolutely essential when it comes to cutting down costs and preventing wasted spend that results from unqualified clicks.
• Improper Account Setup: More than 50% of small businesses aren’t implementing conversion tracking, which makes means they aren’t able to see how keywords and ad performance lead to sales. Conversion tracking is absolutely essential for properly measuring your ad performance.

Auditing an account helps save you money and time, and it should be regularly done both on new and old accounts.

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II. How the AdWords Audit Reports Work

Google AdWords audit reports help AdWords advertisers better understand how well their campaigns are performing compared to PPC best practices. Let us look at each level of the account, from its organization to campaign and ad levels to understand the metrics to be worked on for the account’s improvement.

A. Account Organization Audit

The following steps will help you review your overall Google AdWords account to make sure it’s in good shape:

Structure – A well-structured campaign helps prevent problems like missing or overlapping keywords and helps you spot opportunities in your reports. It also makes it easier for colleagues to help manage your campaigns if your team grows.

Conversion Tracking– With conversion tracking, you can optimize every aspect of your campaigns to maximize profit and eliminate wasted spend by measuring the impact ads have on your bottom line. Make sure you’re tracking the most important actions a visitor could take.

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Brand & Non-brand Split – All keywords that contain your brand name should live in their own campaign because branded keywords perform differently than non-brand keywords: CTR is higher, Quality Score is higher, search intent is different, ad copy is different, cost per conversion is different. Keep brand and non-brand separate so you can optimize accordingly.

Ad Group Focus – Having too many keywords in a single ad group makes it very difficult to create focused and relevant ads. Split out keywords into new ad groups based on the main word and theme and drop in a custom ad that someone searching those keywords would want to see.

Approval Issues– Approval issues keep your ads from running but can be fixed quickly. If you find any, make the required change and set a reminder for yourself to check back in a few days to make sure the issue has been resolved.

B. Campaign Setting Audit

Now that we’ve made sure your AdWords account is in good shape, let’s take a look at each campaign to make sure they’re set up optimally.

Ad Rotation – While “rotate evenly” is great for split testing multiple ads, it requires you to manually monitor the test for a winner. Failing to pause ads that under-perform will mean the losing ads keep serving. A great alternative is to set the ads to “optimize to clicks” or “optimize to conversions.” With these settings, AdWords will test your ads on its own and serve the winners more quickly than if you were to do it manually.

Budget – Review your spend and budget to make sure your best-performing campaigns have a high enough budget to handle the volume. If the budget is maxed out, consider lowering your bids in order to reduce your cost per click– you just might get more clicks for your money.

Location & Language – Make sure your campaign is targeting only the locations your business serves. And if your budget is limited, consider only targeting your most profitable locations for now. Also consider adding additional languages that your bilingual customers may speak. This opens up your campaign to additional opportunities to display your ads.

Search/Display Network – You never want to create an AdWords campaign that’s set to serve on both the Search Network and Display Network because that makes the campaign difficult to optimize. If you want to serve banner ads and advertise on blogs and niche sites, create a dedicated Google AdWords campaign that is set to serve on the Display Network Only.

Ad Delivery – Standard delivery distributes your budget throughout the day and helps you avoid running out of budget early in the day. Accelerated delivery shows your ads as soon as reasonably possible which means your ads could stop serving before you even wake up.

Bid Modifiers – Bid modifiers make it easy to adjust your bid based on the predicted value. For example, if you have a 5% conversion rate on mobile and a 10% conversion rate on desktop, you may want to decrease your bid for ads shown on mobile devices.

C. Ad Audit

Now it’s time to address that part of your campaign that potential customers see. Your ads are what you’re paying to promote, after all, so let’s make sure they’re strong.

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Typos – Typos reflect poorly on your business and obscure the message of your ad. Pause any ads with issues, and make the corrections in a duplicate of the ad (changing the ad directly will reset the performance statistics).

Calls to Action – Tell your customers what the next step they should take is and you’ll see an increase in the number of them that actually follow through.

Ad Quantity – Keeping multiple ad variations in an ad group makes it easy to find and serve the best ad for those keywords. It also protects you from sudden disapprovals that could pause an ad without you knowing. Add new ad variations to your ad group to keep the number of ads to two or greater.

Custom Display URLs – The display URL is a great place to tailor your ad to show relevance to the ad group. It’s possible that that display URL outperforms the real URL so you should test it. Just make sure you have redirects set up for these made-up URLs in case someone copies and pastes the link.

Having spoken about the audit at account organization, campaign settings and ad level, let us now look at the general metrics to be looked at to improve the overall performance of the account. These reports include an overall grade as well as individual grades in ten key areas of pay-per-click management:

• Wasted Spend
• Quality Score
• Impression Share
• Click-Through Rate (CTR)
• Account Activity
• Long-Tail Keyword Optimization
• Ad Text Optimization
• Landing Page Optimization
• Mobile Advertising
• PPC Best Practices

You need to know how well you’re really doing in each of these important areas, as well as how you could improve your performance, driving more leads and sales at lower costs. So to know your performance and to improve that you need to what these parameters are in detail and understand how to improve each of these.

1. What Is a Good Quality Score in AdWords?

Google’s AdWords Quality Score is a grading system that judges your ads and gives you a “score.” Having a good AdWords Quality Score is essential to a successful AdWords campaign. Google’s quality rating has a powerful influence over the cost-effectiveness of your paid search campaigns, making it essential to have a good Quality Score in AdWords. Having a high Quality Score is a tremendous benefit to your AdWords campaign, as it provides you with:

• Lower costs – Google rewards advertisers with high Quality Scores by lowering their cost per click (CPC), which can subsequently lower your cost per conversion.

• More exposure – When you have high Quality Scores, your ads will display more often and in better positions. You can get more exposure, more clicks, and more conversions without having to raise your bids.

Your AdWords Quality Score is determined by several factors:

• Relevance of ad copy to the keyword
• Relevance of the ad to its corresponding landing page
• The ad’s click-through rate (CTR)
• Historical account performance
• Other relevance and performance factors

A higher Quality Score equates to more impressions at lower costs, lowering your cost per click and cost per action. Having a high Quality Score is key, but it can often be difficult to manage the varying factors that contribute to Quality Score single handedly.

2. What Is a Good Click-Through Rate (CTR) on AdWords?

Click-through rate (CTR) measures the percentage of clicks advertisers receive on their ads per the number of impressions. “Impressions” refers to how often your ad is viewed-if your ad has a lot of impressions but no clicks, you will have a low CTR, which generally reduces the effectiveness of your campaigns. Click-through rate is important because it affects your Quality Score, making a high CTR an essential component of a profitable AdWords campaign. Google AdWords gives high Quality Scores to advertisers with high AdWords click-through rates. In sum:

• High click-through rates lead to high Quality Scores.
• High Quality Scores allow you to improve or maintain ad position for lower costs.

3. What Are Negative Keywords in AdWords?

Negative keywords serve as essential building blocks in establishing a successful keyword list. Adding a negative keyword to your AdWords ad group or campaign ensures that your ad will not appear for search queries containing that term. Using negative keywords in your Google AdWords campaign is beneficial because they:

• Filter out unwanted ads – Creating a negative keyword ensures that your ad doesn’t show for that particular term.
• Allow you to reach the most appropriate audience – By ensuring that only relevant queries trigger your ad, you are more likely to reach an audience that is likely to convert.
• Reduce cost per click and increase ROI – Don’t waste money on unwanted impressions and clicks from irrelevant searches that won’t convert to sales. Using negative keywords helps put a stop to wasted spend.

4. What Makes a Good Landing Page for AdWords?

Having a well-crafted landing page is a big component of a good Google AdWords Quality Score. From the moment a prospective customer reaches your landing page, everything should be tailored to helping the customer find what they are searching for and assist them towards a conversion. A successful landing page requires a number of different elements:

• Keyword Segmentation – Different types of keywords should take visitors to different landing pages with their own customized offers.
• Navigability – Users should be able to easily find what they are looking for and move around your site.
• Compelling Offer – If your ad references special products, have those products in the front and center on the landing page. You should give visitors a reason to stay.
• Focused Page Content – Optimize each landing page by authoring page content around groups of relevant, narrowly focused keywords.

The better the landing page, the more conversions you are likely to achieve. Expertly designed landing pages have a powerful impact on both SEO and PPC marketing campaigns.

• Organic Search Benefits: Keyword-relevant content results in higher rankings in the SERPs for the keywords you’re targeting, bringing more visibility and more traffic.
• Pay-Per-Click Benefits: Keyword-specific AdWords landing pages are much more likely to earn strong Quality Scores and high conversion rates, as the landing pages will be more aligned with the searcher’s intent.

While a better optimized landing page will help increase conversion rates, depending on what you are trying to persuade visitors to do, what constitutes a “good” conversion rate will vary. A “good” conversion rate depends on what the desired conversion is. Conversion rates will tend to be higher if visitors are asked to sign up with a simple form to receive something free. If visitors have to fill out a lengthy survey or provide credit card information, conversion rates will be lower. While conversions can range from 0-50%, 2% is quite common.

5. What is Impression Share View?

This view helps us understand how often our ads are showing up. We can see if our budgets are where they need to be and if our ad ranks are sitting in the right places. Most times advertisers want to improve PPC performance without increasing budgets. While optimization should always be happening, there is a time and place for budget changes. Bid management and budget management need to be revisited often.

6. What is Text Ad Optimization?

The more text ads you write and test, the better your results will be. Do your ad numbers measure up? To get the most out of PPC, target your weakest ads and replace them with new and relevant text ads that feature compelling text and keywords from your ad groups. Long-tail keywords cost less per click and often drive more conversions. Are you taking advantage of these less competitive long-tail opportunities? Adding more long-tail keywords to your campaigns could improve your conversion rates and lower costs per click.

7. What is Mobile Advertising?

Mobile searches increased by 200% year over year and are set to outpace desktop searches. Mobile searches often have higher action intent, convert quickly with 55% taking action within 1 hour, and typically cost less per click than desktop CPC’s.

8. What are AdWords Best Practices?

These best practices for AdWords account management will help you improve your account performance:

• Filtering out wasteful, irrelevant clicks and non-converting traffic with negative keywords.
• Maximizing relevance across your campaigns for higher Quality Scores.
• Raising click-through rates with strong keyword, text ad, and ad group targeting and organization.
• Practicing regular, active account management and optimization.
• Expanding and refining your campaigns with long-tail keyword research.
• Testing multiple text ads to optimize CTR, conversion rate and cost per conversion.
• Creating unique, targeted, well-designed landing pages for each ad group.
• Making use of the modified broad match option and other settings that improve targeting.
• Leveraging Mobile PPC features like call extensions and site-links to improve conversions.

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III. Analyzing the AdWords Audit Reports data using ReportGarden

If you’re managing accounts consistently and sticking to a well thought-out process, there will almost certainly be things you can automate to free up your time to work on the strategic and creative elements of your campaigns. And of course, if you’re either not comfortable mucking around in Excel with large volumes of data or simply don’t have the time, ReportGarden, a reporting tool, automates a lot of the work of getting all the performance related data of your account data to bubble up important insights about your account performance. You can try the tool to learn more.

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In order to access the various custom reports available in ReportGarden, you need to Sign-up with ReportGarden and create your account. And also link your AdWords account with this account.

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1. Select New Report option available in the Reports option on the left side of the screen.

2. Name your report and select a template that will generate your report in the required format. For example, for this AdWords audit report we can select AdWords account performance Template from the options available.

Select your AdWords account from the drop-down menu of the AdWords Account and also the time period that you would like to analyze the campaign for.

The sample report is created where each page of the report can be modified according to the interest of the client with various text formats and custom colors with the edit option on the respective pages.

3. This report contains various performance reports like

• Account performance
  

  
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• Campaign performance
  

  
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• Impression Share performance
  

  
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• Ad performance
  

  
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• Search Query Performance Report
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4. All these performance reports can now be edited based on the requirement of the metrics to be included to understand the insights better.

For example,

• You can track your conversions through these performance reports at the campaign, ad group and ads level as well. In each of the performance report you can edit the attributes to add the conversions metrics and the other metrics related to that.

• From these AdWords audit reports you can as well check your account structure so that they don’t have too many duplicate keywords and not too few or too many ad text variations.

• You can also check the keywords performance with reference to the ad group and the keyword match types.

• You can also segment the data so that you can look at your data at a granular enough level to get actionable insights based on:

  • Device type

  • Network

  • Click type

  • Conversion type

  • Conversion name

These performance reports can also be created using the widgets on the right side of the screen and by changing the dimension of the table with reference to the performance report needed.

5. You can also arrange the attributes in each of the table in ascending/ descending order based on any measure used in it like impressions, clicks, CTR% or others by using the options available in the advanced setting options in the edit menu.

6. You can now analyze each performance report based on the metrics involved and improve the performance of your account based on the insights.

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IV. How to Use the Google AdWords Audit reports

Google AdWords has revolutionized the online advertising landscape, encouraging advertisers to create relevant ads that cater to the searcher’s needs. The innovative quality requirements that make Google AdWords so unique and powerful can also make it tricky for advertisers to maximize their ROI, especially as new businesses struggle to juggle the various components that make up AdWords.

The AdWords Performance reports provides clarity and understanding to the difficult and confusing elements of Google AdWords Management. Because AdWords is so complex, it can often be difficult to determine where you are losing money in your campaign. The AdWords Performance reports give you a fast, free, and easy-to-understand audit of your AdWords campaign, showing where and how to improve your PPC campaign in order to maximize profits. The AdWords Performance reports can be used in numerous ways:

• To focus your efforts as you begin in Google AdWords, ensuring a profitable and efficient campaign.
• Provides a thorough and comprehensive report on your Google AdWords campaigns, bringing your attention to where you can improve results and save money.
• Use the AdWords Audit Report to see how well your agency is working for you.

Any and all of these are great reasons to use the Google AdWords Audit reports to see how your PPC metrics stack up against best practices.

The post Google AdWords Audit Reports for Clients appeared first on Adwords Reporting Tools | Reportgarden.

 “Reporting is the most important client communication after onboarding!” 

Wanted: Executive experienced in data, digital, social & search. The ability to simultaneously and efficiently handle up to dozens of stakeholders (often with competing interests) a must. A successful candidate is skilled at managing up,managing down and balancing a P&L. Old-school thinkers need not apply!

I applied!

And I never looked back again!

From the day I joined PPCGeeks, my only focus was to learn as fast I could. I quickly found a mentor in Bethany. I read and implemented everything she suggested. I should say that I owe a lot to Larry Kim, Rand Fishkin, Neil Patel and Brian Dean for their actionable tips & techniques. In the next 18 months, I quickly rose through the ranks, handling SEO and Social accounts along with PPC, for my clients. I asked for bigger clients and my agency was more than happy to give me higher responsibilities.  

This week we had a long meeting on client satisfaction & retention and I was asked to submit a detailed roadmap. Without wasting time, I quickly began working on the report.

1. What are the 3 biggest factors that affect client satisfaction? I asked myself.

A. The answer was obvious to me:

•  Transparency
• Accountability
•  Inclusion

2. How can we improve all the 3 factors?

A. Regular reporting

3. Why are we failing with reporting?

A. Because its manual and time taking.

I had found the theme of my roadmap, client report automation! So let’s get down to it. Tie on your AdWords apron, grab a pen to write down the key ingredients that form an integral part of the report. And follow along as I walk you through various kinds of automated Google AdWords client reports and the valuable insights they offer about the performance of an Adwords account.

Before delving into the reports, let’s look at various key ingredients that form the core of the report. Those includes :

• Metrics
• Segmentation
• Dimensions
• Filters

I. Metrics

“Without the right marketing metrics, you are shooting in the dark. The only way to know if things are working for you or not is those metrics.”   — Ian Brodie

If you manage a Google AdWords account to supplement your organic search engine optimization efforts, you know there are a ton of metrics available to track and analyze, and it can quickly get confusing and overwhelming. Since we all have limited bandwidth, it’s a good idea to narrow down the field to a short list of key metrics that really give you a meaningful insight into what’s working — and what isn’t.

Let us now talk in detail about the AdWords metrics that can provide valuable insights into the performance of an Adwords campaign. This infographic helps in understanding the key metrics that can provide a solid measure of your success.

A. Impressions

The first metric we should look at is  the number of impressions for campaigns within the account. Impressions are the number of times your ad was displayed to a searcher audience based on matches between your campaign keywords and terms used within search queries. As a very broad statement, your ads need to be displayed in order to see any sort of performance in your account. If your ad isn’t showing, you’re not even giving searchers a chance to click anything and definitely not leading them down the road to conversions. The bottom line here is that you first need impressions if you’re expecting to perform well in other areas.

If you’ve looked at your impressions and feel like your ad is showing a significant amount of times based on your targeting, that’s awesome, you can move on to some of the more telling performance metrics.

B. Clicks

When someone clicks your ad, like on the headline of a text ad, AdWords counts that as a click. Typically the more ad clicks the better as this means more people are coming to your website from the ads. Clicks can help you understand how well your ad is appealing to people who see it. Relevant, highly-targeted ads are more likely to receive clicks.

C. Click Through Rate (CTR)

Click-through rate (CTR) is one of the purest metrics and is the lifeblood of any good AdWords account. It is easily evaluated by dividing clicks by impressions.

CTR can be used to help you determine the quality of your imagery, positioning, and keywords. CTR helps evaluate how well you are communicating with searchers and can help determine the relevance and effectiveness of your campaign. A high ratio of clicks to impressions is an indication that you are targeting the right audience with appropriate keywords and ad text, and those searchers are responding by clicking through to your site – whereas a low CTR is pointing out that there is some disconnect between you and your audience.

D. Cost

 Are You aware of Where Your Money is Going?

Once your account is up and running (i.e. ads are showing and searchers are clicking), you’ll want to look at some metrics that dive deeper into how well your account is performing based on the most important metric: MONEY.

A huge aspect of interpreting your AdWords data is determining whether or not you are taking advantage of your advertising dollars and not wasting money. You can’t expect high profits if you have high costs, so you’ll want to make sure you’re reducing the wastage throughout your account.

E. Cost Per Click (CPC) and Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

Cost per click, the amount you pay for each click, is important because it ultimately determines the financial success of your campaigns.

Cost per acquisition focuses more on how much your business pays in order to attain a conversion. Looking at both metrics will help you to answer the questions as to whether or not you are making money in your account. Generally, your CPA will be higher than your CPC because not everyone who clicks your ad will go on to complete your desired action (or in other words, convert).

It’s always a good feeling knowing that people are interested in your ads and are showing that interest by clicking, but if each click is costing you more than you would pay for a fancy dinner, it’s probably not going to feel too great at the end of the day. Your return on investment (ROI) will be determined by how much you are paying for clicks, and by what kind of quality you are getting for that investment. It’s important to monitor your CPC so that you can determine if you are under- or overpaying for clicks. And it’s equally important to monitor CPA because it determines whether or not your conversions are being driven at a cost that is profitable.

CPC, of course, varies depending on the competitiveness of the industry among other things, but you still need to take into consideration whether or not you can still make money after you pay for the cost of your clicks. That’s where CPA comes into play; if you’re paying more for that potential customer than you can make off of them, then essentially you are paying for that person to be your customer. Lowering CPC can require some strategy as you want to maintain value while lowering the price you’re paying for each click.

F. Average Position

A statistic that describes how your ad typically ranks against other ads. This rank determines in which order ads appear on the page.

The highest position is “1,” and there is no “bottom” position. An average position of 1-8 is generally on the first page of search results, 9-16 is generally on the second page, and so on. Average positions can be between two whole numbers. For example, an average position of “1.7” means that your ad usually appears in positions 1 or 2.

• Your ad’s rank can change, causing its position on the page to fluctuate as well, so your average position can give you an idea of how often your ad beats other ads for the position.
• You can see an “Avg. Pos.” column for your ads, campaigns, and other elements, but the average position is generally most useful to look at for your keywords. By seeing how your ad typically ranks when it’s triggered by one of your keywords, you can try to influence your position by changing the keyword’s bid.

G. Converted Clicks

A conversion happens when someone clicks your ad and then takes an action that you’ve defined as valuable to your business, such as an online purchase or a call to your business from a mobile phone. Conversions help you understand how much value your online ads bring to your business. In reporting terms, the change means the Conversions (One-Per-Click) will be replaced with “Converted Clicks,” and Conversions (Many-Per-Click) will be replaced by “Conversions.” Advertisers can think of the newly named columns this way:

Converted Clicks = Unique Customers.

This is “the number of clicks that convert within your chosen conversion window (typically 30 days)”.  So, if a customer makes two separate purchases after clicking on an ad, they will register as one Converted Click.

H. Conversion Rate (CR)

Conversion Rate is probably the most significant metric for your business because everything else is just numbered unless you can convert ad-clicks into revenue. It is very similar to CTR. Instead of impressions and clicks, it focuses on how many clicks lead to conversions. CR is used to evaluate the utility of incoming PPC traffic. How many of these users that click the add will go on to complete a purchase? This avoids the pitfall of CTR in that you ultimately measure which ad brings in the highest percentage of qualified traffic. The more you turn clicks into leads, and leads into satisfied customers, the higher your conversion rate will be.

 Why Conversion Rate?

The conversion rate is a great marketing performance metric for really drilling down to how your terms and ads are performing for you. You may have a great CTR, but if you aren’t converting any of those clicks, the conversion rate will help tell you that and you’ll know it’s time to optimize. Conversion rate also lets you look at the rate trend (vs. just absolute conversion number trend) which can help you compare to conversion rates from other advertising avenues – comparing to other metrics is vital in understanding how well your campaigns are performing outside of just your Adwords silo.

I. Total conversion value

Total conversion value is the sum of all conversion values for all conversions.

Make sure you are assigning a value to your conversions so you know the exact return you are seeing. This value should be assigned directly in your conversion tracking code. Though you can see conversion value through your analytics, it will be preferable to view cost and conversion value, and ultimately return on ad spend, directly within one place, the AdWords interface.

II. Segmentation

“Use segments to split your data into rows based on the options that matter most to you, such as periods of time, click type or device.”

You can  never meet a client who will not want to know as much as he could about his customers. Californians buy more beach balls on Sundays than on Monday. What helps you to drill down to such an extent? The answer is obvious, Segmentation. Segments allow advertisers to dig deeper into their performance metrics. It also helps to isolate high volume search queries: to eliminate the “noise” of analyzing too many variables at once.

Why Segment Your Adwords account?

Control and efficiency are the secrets to high-performance of an Adwords account. Segmenting your accounts by geo, device, network, etc., allows marketers to squeeze extra performance by customizing copy, landing page, bids, and budgets. Segments not only improve performance, but they can also keep your clients satisfied.

It also allows you to manage money more efficiently by illuminating natural browsing behaviors and optimizing towards them, taking money away from what doesn’t work, and putting it where it does. Pulling AdWords reports by day-of-week, hour-of-day, geo, and device helps refine bidding strategies by giving insight into trends that their competitors may not see.

For example, if a client in the online dating space tells us that women over 45 are more likely to subscribe than any other demographic, then we can specifically target this demo while pushing free signups to this demo at a much more aggressive CPA target. This data integration improves the working relationship by bringing SEMs closer to their clients’ businesses and permitting sophisticated reporting. The Segment option allows you to review your campaign performance data in a number of ways:

• Network: Google Search, Search Partners, and Content.
• Click type: URL clicks or click to call
• Device: Computer or mobile device.
• Conversion Type : Signed Up / Paid Conversions
• Day: Performance by day.
• Week: Performance by week.
• Month: Performance by month.
• Quarter: Performance by quarter.
• Year: Performance by year.
• Day of week: Performance by day of the week (Sunday through Monday), regardless of date.

All data is displayed for the date range selected in the AdWords UI. For example, if you’ve selected “Last 30 days” as the date range, segment data will display for that time period.

III. Dimensions

“The Dimension tab lets you slice and dice your data by the dimension of your choice across an ad group, a campaign, or your entire account.”

Why “Dimensions” tab is  so crucial?

You can use Dimensions to view statistics that cut across other AdWords tabs. For example, you can view your total stats by month, hour, or geographic region. You can customize your table to compare your total clicks in January across ad groups, or see individual cities where your clicks came from. These different Dimensions help you to dissect your account in a number of ways including the following:

• Time
• Conversions
• Reach and frequency
• Labels
• Destination URL
• Geographic
• User locations
• Search terms
• Automatic placements
• Free clicks
• Call details

This may seem like a large list to work through but spending a bit of  time on each one can be fully beneficial for optimizing your account.

IV. Filters

“A search that you can do on your campaign data to restrict the type of data that you see in your tables and charts.”

Why is the Click Performance Report important?

Click Performance Report helps evaluate how well you are communicating with the searcher audience. It can help determine the relevance and effectiveness of your campaign.

What does the Click Performance Report show?

The Click performance report includes stats aggregated at each click level and includes both valid and invalid clicks. A high ratio of clicks to impressions is an indication that you are targeting the right audience with appropriate keywords and ad text, and those searchers are responding by clicking through to your site – whereas a low click performance  is pointing out that there is some disconnect between you and your audience.

Generating a Click Performance Report can be made a lot easier with ReportGarden 

What good is the ad if you receive impressions but your ads can’t close the deal? The potential lead/customer can’t do anything on your site if they don’t click through and arrive on the site first. ReportGarden’s sublime style report, What You See Is What You Get(WYSIWYG) makes your work easy and simple. With just a simple drag and drop of a widget, you can view your entire Click Performance Report with detailed analysis. Furthermore, it facilitates various options like Dimensions and Segmentation to isolate high volume search queries: to eliminate the “noise” of analyzing too many variables at once by giving you insights into trends that your competitors may not see.

Dimensions : Time

Dimensions : Time.

The following screenshot is a representation of Click Performance Report  generated on an hourly basis and segmented on the basis of device type.

Some key metrics to look for are :

• Clicks : How many times it was clicked
• Impressions : How often your ad has appeared on a search results page or website on the google network
• Conversions : How many conversions it earned
• ROI : measures the gain/loss generated

B. Geographic performance Report

Why is the Geographic Performance Report important?

Geographic performance report helps to better understand how your ads are doing in different locations.

What does the Geographic Performance Report show?

Much like how snorkeling is popular in Hawaii and sledding is in Alaska, you may find that your business flourishes in particular parts of the world. Location reports in AdWords can show the places where your customers are physically located or the locations they showed interest in. As with any AdWords report or new feature, You would want to identify how (and whether) this is actionable. With geographic reporting, one main use of the report (similar to dayparting and demographic reporting) is you can tune budget allocation by geographic regions that are performing well (and those that are underperforming).

Generating a Geographic Performance Report can be made a lot easier with ReportGarden

ReportGarden allows you to view your ad performance at the most specific level available for targeting — in other words, if you were targeting a particular city like Toronto, you could view location data down to the postal code, university, or airport level. This gives you a more detailed view of the locations where your campaigns are performing well. ReportGarden’s meticulous reports help you to fine-tune your budget allocation. They help you to spend money in areas that will perform better, also helps to drive better performance by looking for “outliers” and instances where you have:

• High volume regions (high amount of spend/clicks/conversions)
• Underperformance from a CPA perspective

Dimensions : Countries(Geographic).

Dimensions : Countries.

Dimensions : Cities.

The following screenshot is a representation of City wise Performance Report sorted in the descending order of clicks and segmented on the basis of Network.

Some key metrics to look for are :

• Clicks : How many times it was clicked.
• Impressions : How often your ad has appeared on a search results page or website on the google network.
• CTR : How often it was clicked when it appeared.
• Converted Clicks : Number of clicks that convert within your chosen conversion window (typically 30 days).
• Conversions : How many conversions it earned.
• Cost : How much money it spent.
• Total Conversion Value : It is the sum of all conversion values for all conversions.
• Average CPC : What the cost per click is on average.
• Click Conversion Rate : Number of converted clicks divided by your total clicks that can be tracked to a conversion.

C. Network Performance Report

Why is the Network Performance Report important?

The Network Performance Report provides the statistics to help you evaluate your ad performance, whether you’re new to display advertising and just want the basics or have been doing display advertising for a while and want to delve into your performance and audience stats to get even more out of your campaigns.

What does the Network Performance Report show?

Network Performance Report shows performance based on what network the ads are being shown in, including “Search Partners.”

Generating a Network Performance Report can be made a lot easier with ReportGarden

Are you looking for a unique reporting tool which gives in-depth analysis about your ads’ performance in different networks? Is your performance segregation based on different networks becoming hectic? No worries. No more mirages, ReportGarden will be your oasis. ReportGarden considers a wide range of factors to analyze your network performance on different search networks and also tracks each and every metric to provide the required analysis. Have you ever imagined that there is a possibility to view your performance on different networks based on the click type? With ReportGarden, it is made very easy at the click of a button.

Dimensions : Network.

Dimensions : Network.

The following screenshot is a representation of Network Performance Report segmented on the basis of click type.

Some key metrics to look for are :

• Clicks : How many times it was clicked
• Impressions : How often your ad has appeared on a search results page or website on the google network
• CTR : How often it was clicked when it appeared
• Conversions : How many conversions it earned
• Cost : How much money it spent
• Total Conversion Value : It is the sum of all conversion values for all conversions.

D. Impression Share Performance Report

Why is Impression Share Report important?

Impression share report is an underrated report. Be wiser than your competitors and use it to find powerful leverages to increase your Adwords campaign performances. It also helps you to increase the visibility of your ads, the piece of the market cake you can advertise.

What does the Impression Share Report show?

• It is a great indicator of the strength of your keyword set: If you have a very high Impression Share for both Exact Match and Standard you can feel confident that your coverage is strong. It also helps guide you to expand your keyword set through Search Query Reporting or encourage you to add more negative terms to improve campaign performance.
• Helps to identify areas of missed opportunity due to budget constraints: If you have a strong performing campaign or ad group that is missing out on Impression Share due to Budget then you can simply increase budget here to gain additional conversion volume and overall campaign performance.

Generating an Impression Share Performance Report can be made a lot easier with ReportGarden

Is your Impression Share Performance seeing a dip in a particular month of a year? need a report of that month? No worries. No more mirages, ReportGarden will be your oasis. ReportGarden enables various key options to track your Impression Share Performance of a particular month based on the device type  with the help of segmentation. It generates reports with utmost precision and ease which gives you a better understanding of your market, the performances of your campaign and the adequation of your budget.

Dimensions :Time.

Dimensions :Time.

Some key metrics to look for are :

• Search Impression Share: This metric is found by dividing the number of impressions received on the Search Network divided by the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive.
• Search Lost IS (budget): The figure represents the percentage of instances that ads were not shown on the Display Network due to inadequate budget.
• Search Lost IS (rank): The number indicates the percentage of time that ads were not shown on the Search network due to low Ad Rank.
• Display Impression Share: This metric is found by dividing the number of impressions received on the Display Network divided by the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive.
• Display Lost IS (budget): The figure represents the percentage of instances that ads were not shown on the Display Network due to inadequate budget.
• Display Lost IS (rank): The percentage of time that your ads weren’t shown on the Display Network due to poor Ad Rank.

E. Conversions Report

Why is the Conversions Report important?

Conversion tracking is a powerful tool in AdWords that lets you identify how well your ad campaign is generating leads, sales, downloads, email sign-ups and other key actions for your business.

What does the Conversions Report show?

The data recorded by conversion tracking allows you to identify which areas of your campaign are working and not working, so you can optimize your bids, ad text, and keywords accordingly.

Generating a Conversions Report can be made a lot easier with ReportGarden

Depending on your business, a conversion could be counted when a customer makes a purchase through your website, signs up for a newsletter, fills out an online survey or contact form, downloads an app or white paper, calls a phone number from a mobile phone, and so on. ReportGarden lets you identify what customer actions you want to track as conversions, it gives an analysis of the Conversions, whether it is signup or a Purchase/sale to get your conversion tracking up and running for your campaign.

Dimensions :Time.

Dimensions :Time.

Dimensions :Time.

The following screenshot is a representation of Conversions  Report on hourly basis segmented on the basis of Conversion type. 

Some key metrics to look for are :

• Clicks : How many times it was clicked.
• Converted Clicks : Number of clicks that convert within your chosen conversion window (typically 30 days).
• Conversions : How many conversions it earned.
• Click Conversion Rate : Number of converted clicks divided by your total clicks that can be tracked to a conversion.
• Cost : How much money it spent.
• Cost/Conversion :  How much it cost to get each conversion on average.
• Cost/Converted Click :  Cost divided by your total converted clicks.
• Total Conversion Value : It is the sum of all conversion values for all conversions.

F. Campaign Performance Report

Why is the Campaign Performance Report important?

This report allows you to view performance data for your campaigns.

What does the Campaign Performance Report show?

After publishing a campaign, you will have access to performance reporting. It allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of your campaign. It allows you to view the performance of your campaign at a “macro” level and then dig into specific marketing pieces (such as emails) in order to see how well they are performing.

Generating a Campaign Performance Report can be made a lot easier with ReportGarden

The campaign level data is easy to see from a single screen in the interface, you would probably only need to pull this report for historical purposes. For example, with ReportGarden you can set the date range to go back several years and then choose the unit of time in months. This way you could get a good month-over-month look at how your account has been performing. ReportGarden also allows you to view your campaign performance across various countries and if you want to drill down even further, it allows you to segment your Campaign performance based on the Network, Device Type etc.

Dimensions : Campaigns.

Dimensions : Campaigns.

The following screenshot is a representation of Campaign performance Report displaying 3 rows, filtered by Cost and segmented on the basis of Network. 

Some key metrics to look for are :

• Conversions : How many conversions it earned.
• Impressions : How often your ad has appeared on a search results page or website on the Google network.
• Clicks : How many times it was clicked.
• CTR : How often it was clicked when it appeared.
• Cost : How much money it spent.
• Average CPC : What the cost per click is on average.
• Average Position – Where on the page its ads showed up on average.
• Cost/Conversion :  How much it cost to get each conversion on average.
• Total Conversion Value : It is the sum of all conversion values for all conversions.

G. Ad Group Performance Report

Why is the Ad Group Performance Report important?

This report is crucial as it includes all statistics aggregated by default at the ad group level and gives an overview of the overall performance of the Adgroups.

What does theAd Group Performance Report show?

You’ve created your ad, and it’s up and running. Your next step is to find out how it’s performing. The report tracks statistics like clicks, impressions, and click-through rate which is a great way to start. It’s also important to think about what you’re trying to accomplish with your campaign, so you can focus on the statistics that can help you achieve your goals.

Generating an Ad Group Performance Report can be made easier with ReportGarden

ReportGarden provides flexibility to your reporting by concentrating on the important things you are looking for. For example, if you want to see your Ad Group performance strictly in the ascending order of impressions your ad is getting or you can drill down even further to see your Ad group performance based on Device type with the help of segmentation.

Dimensions : Ad Group.

Some key metrics to look for are :

• Impressions : How often your ad has appeared on a search results page or website on the Google network.
• Clicks : How many times it was clicked.
• CTR : How often it was clicked when it appeared.
• Cost : How much money it spent.
• Average CPC : What the cost per click is on average.
• Average Position – Where on the page its ads showed up on average.
• Conversions : How many conversions it earned.
• Cost/Conversion :  How much it cost to get each conversion on average.

H. Ad Performance Report 

Why is the Ad Performance Report important?

This report gives an analysis of how different text, display ads are performing which helps to zero-in on the performance.

What does the Ad Performance Report show?

Advertisers like to analyze how their ads are performing in their campaigns. Sometimes, comparing how a given Text Ad or an Image Ad  performs against others will provide insight in creating new ads.

Generating an Ad Performance Report can be made a lot easier with ReportGarden

With ReportGarden, a single click gives a good overview of the performance of your Text and Image ads’. ReportGarden delivers a consolidated report which includes the number of clicks, impressions, and the number of conversions that particular ad has earned. This helps you to better understand, provides an opportunity to work on your strategies to improve your campaign’s performance .

Dimensions : Text Ads.

Some key metrics to look for are :

• Impressions : How often your ad has appeared on a search results page or website on the Google network.
• Clicks : How many times it was clicked.
• CTR : How often it was clicked when it appeared.
• Cost : How much money it spent.
• Average CPC : What the cost per click is on average.
• Average Position – Where on the page its ads showed up on average.
• Conversions : How many conversions it earned.
• Cost/Conversion :  How much it cost to get each conversion on average.

I. Keyword Performance Report

Why is the Keyword Performance Report important?

All good managers evaluate their employees’ performance on a regular basis. In the same way, you want to review your keywords’ performance to see which ones are helping you meet your advertising goals for your campaigns that target the Google Search Network.

What does the Keyword Performance Report show?

The report shows the particular keywords performance from a specific time period and also shows how keywords are performing by match type. Based on the report, you can also run a keyword diagnosis to review your keyword Quality Score.

Generating  a Keyword Performance Report can be made a lot easier with ReportGarden

ReportGarden helps you build customizable report cards to measure your keyword performance. It helps you to analyze your data related to keywords to see larger trends, identifies the performance of your keywords, so you don’t waste time on underperforming keywords. Run an AdWords keyword performance report to determine which keywords are performing well for your ad groups, and those which are not.

Dimensions : Keywords.

The following screenshot is a representation of Keyword Performance Report displaying 4 rows sorted in the descending order of CTR segmented on the basis of Network. 

Some key metrics to look for are :

• Impressions : How often your ad has appeared on a search results page or website on the Google network.
• Clicks : How many times it was clicked.
• CTR : How often it was clicked when it appeared.
• Cost : How much money it spent.
• Average CPC : What the cost per click is on average.
• Average Position – Where on the page its ads showed up on average.
• Conversions : How many conversions it earned.
• Conversion Rate – How often did clicks result in conversions.

J. Search Query Performance Report

Why is the Search Query performance Report important?

Search queries report is  an extremely important piece of online advertising. It shows you not only the keywords that you’re bidding on but the actual queries that are driving traffic to your site.

What does the Search Query performance Report show?

Search query data offers you insight into which queries aren’t working (even when they may be associated, at a higher level, with keywords that are) and which queries are working better than you thought.

Generating a Search Query Performance Report can be made a lot easier with ReportGarden

ReportGarden helps mine your search query data with a clear strategy, efficient techniques, and  process, which will ultimately translate your search queries gold into improved campaign profitability. It also helps you to filter and compare your search terms with a threshold for values based on :

• Impressions
• Conversions
• Campaigns
• Device type

Run a search terms report to identify which searches trigger your ads. Use this data to analyze ad performance and refine ad impressions and ad spends with additional keywords and negative keywords.

Dimensions : Search Queries.

Some key metrics to look for are :

• Impressions : How often your ad has appeared on a search results page or website on the Google network.
• Clicks : How many times it was clicked.
• CTR : How often it was clicked when it appeared.
• Cost : How much money it spent.
• Average CPC : What the cost per click is on average.
• Average Position :Where on the page its ads showed up on average.
• Conversions : How many conversions it earned.

Building a report is actually fun, you’ll love the workflow. Put the days of copy-pasting behind you. Generate automated reports with just a few clicks that will make your clients go WOW! 

Reports aren’t just reports, they’re beautiful stories with data your clients will actually enjoy reading.

The post 15 minute Guide to Google AdWords Client Reports [Free Sample] appeared first on Adwords Reporting Tools | Reportgarden.

“Reports help to predict trends, and this is an advantage towards increasing profits.”

If you’re anything like me, you’ve participated in a couple of DIY home improvement projects. At the beginning of these projects, with YouTube training videos as my sidekick, I have an irrational sense of confidence in my handyman abilities. When I’m tracking down my supplies at the local hardware store, I often find the products priced and displayed as “good,” “better” and “best.” The frugal side of me tries to argue that “good” is good enough, but is there something about the “best” product that will secure my DIY victory?

With an Adwords account, we often face the same dilemma; we need to decide which reports provide the “best” measure of our campaigns’ success.

There’s a wealth of content and opinions on how to track our success, which can get confusing and overwhelming. So, it’s crucial to strip away the excess and overkill – and focus on the Google AdWords Custom Reports that can really provide valuable insights into our performance. What are Reports? Which Google AdWords Custom Reports for Clients work the hardest and speak the loudest?

Let’s dig in.

Find the complete guide to Google AdWords Client Reports here.

I. Google AdWords Custom Reports for Clients

Why Reports?

• Reports are many times Ad agencies true deliverables, they present a great opportunity to highlight the value of their services to the clients.
• With reports, it just takes 30 seconds for the Ad agencies to explain to the clients how improving numbers are good for their business.
• Reporting communicates execution of a plan as well as the value agencies bring to their clients beyond simply executing.
• Quality Report paves the way for customer satisfaction and retention.

Now, let’s dig into various Google Adwords Custom Reports that can provide a solid measure of your success. This infographic helps in understanding the various important Google AdWords Custom Reports for Clients.

A. Click Performance Report

The Click performance report includes stats aggregated at each click level and includes both valid and invalid clicks. It helps you to evaluate how well you are communicating with the searcher audience. It can help determine the relevance and effectiveness of your campaign.

B. Geographic performance Report

Location reports in AdWords can show the places where your customers are physically located or the locations they showed interest in. It helps you to better understand how your ads are doing in different locations. With geographic reporting, one main use of the report is you can tune budget allocation by geographic regions that are performing well (and those that are underperforming).

C. Network Performance Report

Network Performance Report shows performance based on what network the ads are being shown in, including “Search Partners.”

D. Impression Share Performance Report

Impression Share Performance Report helps you to increase the visibility of your ads, the piece of the market cake you can advertise.  Be wiser than your competitors and use it to find powerful leverages to increase your Adwords campaign performances.

• It is a great indicator of the strength of your keyword set
• Helps to identify areas of missed opportunity due to budget constraints

E. Conversions Performance Report

Conversion tracking is a powerful tool in AdWords that lets you identify how well your ad campaign is generating leads, sales, downloads, email sign-ups and other key actions for your business. The data recorded by conversion tracking allows you to identify which areas of your campaign are working and not working, so you can optimize your bids, ad text, and keywords accordingly.

F. Campaign Performance Report

Campaign Performance Report allows you to view the performance of your campaign at a “macro” level and then dig into specific marketing pieces (such as emails) in order to see how well they are performing. It allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of your campaign.

G. Ad Group Performance Report

You’ve created your ad, and it’s up and running. Your next step is to find out how it’s performing. This report is crucial as it includes all statistics aggregated by default at the ad group level and gives an overview of the overall performance of the Adgroups.

H. Ad Performance Report 

Advertisers like to analyze how their ads are performing in their campaigns. This report gives an analysis of how different text, display ads are performing which helps to zero-in on the performance. Sometimes, comparing how a given Text Ad or an Image Ad  performs against others will provide insight in creating new ads.

I. Keyword Performance Report

The Keyword Performance Report shows the particular keywords performance from a specific time period and also shows how keywords are performing by match type. Based on the report, you can also run a keyword diagnosis to review your keyword Quality Score.

J. Search Query Performance Report

Search query data offers you insight into which queries aren’t working (even when they may be associated, at a higher level, with keywords that are) and which queries are working better than you thought. It shows you not only the keywords that you’re bidding on but also the actual queries that are driving traffic to your site.

There’s a lot of data in Google AdWords and it’s easy to get lost once you log in and start clicking around. By focusing on the key AdWords reports highlighted above, you can determine where you need to focus your efforts to make the biggest impact on ad performance.

The post [Infographic] Google AdWords Custom Reports for Clients appeared first on Adwords Reporting Tools | Reportgarden.

Work smarter not harder!

We drafted 250 articles for our homepage and magazine, produced 60 videos, and conducted more than 200 photo shoots!

You must have seen statistics like these many times. That’s a lot and every marketing office is producing content at a rapid pace. Relevant content in the right form at the right time can be a very powerful tool, specifically for fund raising and stewardship—and ultimately for moving the needle for your institution.

But are your efforts bringing results? Are they successful in connecting to your targeted audience? Are they bringing you the required traffic?

All this hard work would be a waste if you are not able to provide to your customers what they are looking for. A smarter way to work would be to understand what your audience wants. You can do this by monitoring analytics, conducting focus groups, and periodically administering surveys.

Working with the right combination of data is also as important as working smarter. Some of the most enduring and powerful pairs of our collective conscience include Batman & Robin, Simon & Garfunkel, and Ben & Jerry’s (who doesn’t love Chunky Monkey?). But for PPC marketers, Google AdWords & Google Analytics represent a new pairing that should enter into our canon of powerful pairs.

The linking of Google AdWords and Google Analytics accounts represents a sea-change of new, powerful data availability from each interface. With data flowing freely both ways, marketers can now make more informed AdWords decisions based on actionable insights from either platform, drastically reducing the need to jump from one interface to the other. There are few things PPC marketers like more than a tip, tool, trick, or hack to help increase their optimization efficiency. PPC Marketing is a business where you need to work smarter, not harder.

Find the complete guide to Google AdWords Analytics Reports here.

Let’s take a look at the new wealth of data available via linking AdWords and Analytics accounts.

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I. Linking AdWords and Analytics data

This infographic gives us an easy 10 step step-up about how to create the AdWords Analytics reports and how to analyze them.

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But before that let us link our Google AdWords and Google Analytics accounts. To link Google Analytics to AdWords you will need to use a Google account login that has administrative access to AdWords and edit permission for Analytics.

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Next follow this process:

1) Sign in to your Google Analytics account.

2) Click the Admin tab at the top of the page.

3) In the Account column, select the Analytics account that contains the property you want to link with your Google Ad Grants account. We recommend using a property that tracks all of the sites you want to promote with your ads. Some organizations call this their roll-up tracker.

4) In the Property column, select the Analytics property you want to link, and click AdWords Linking.

5) Select your Google Ad Grants AdWords account to link it with your Analytics property. You may want to check the customer ID number if you have more than one AdWords account. We recommend linking your paid AdWords account in the same way so that you can distinguish in Google Analytics between Google Ad Grants and paid AdWords campaigns.

6) Click the Continue button.

7) In the Link configuration section, enter a link group title (e.g. Google Ad Grants) to identify your linked AdWords account.

8) Select the Analytics views in which you want the AdWords data to be available. We recommend selecting all views.

9) The account linking process will enable auto-tagging for your linked Google Ad Grants AdWords account. You can check this in AdWords under Account settings / Preferences / Tracking. Auto-tagging should be enabled.

10) Click the Link accounts button.

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II. Acting on AdWords Analytics Reports data

With Google Analytics you can find insights that matter, including how visitors arrive at your website, how they use it, and how you can keep them coming back. Here are some ways you can take advantage of the new Google Analytics data available in AdWords to improve your results.

• Attract more engaged users. If highly engaged users are an important goal, sort your ad groups to find the ones that deliver visitors who stay on your site the longest (“Average Visit Duration” or “Pages Per Visit”), and bid more for these.

• Discover opportunities to convert more engaged visitors. You might find certain keywords or ads that have relatively low conversion rates, but great engagement metrics. You could lower your bids by a little and move on. Or you could see this as a great opportunity to convert clearly engaged visitors into buyers. To look for these types of opportunities, create a filter based on conversion rate and sort by Average Visit Duration, Pages per visit, or Bounce Rate.

• Identify ads with badly matched landing pages or inaccurate targeting.Pages with both low conversion rates and low engagement metrics (low Average Visit Duration or High Bounce Rate) could indicate a poor landing page for a particular ad or keyword. It might also suggest inaccurate targeting. To identify and troubleshoot these problems, set up a filter for low conversion rate and low engagement rate and regularly monitor it.

Most of us work pretty hard to build and maintain successful AdWords campaigns. It makes sense to spend a little extra time to analyze them effectively and report our successes. Being able to accurately report on the effectiveness of AdWords will give your clients and bosses confidence in your ability, and grow support and budget for your efforts. With these adwords analytics reports when you assess the performance of a keyword or ad, you will have some extra data points about traffic quality.

The post [Infographic] 10 Steps to AdWords Analytics Reports appeared first on Adwords Reporting Tools | Reportgarden.