Author: Search Influence Alumni

Earlier this year Anthony, our resident PPC expert, wrote a great blog post titled, Pay Per Click for Dummies? Hire a Professional. Consider this its sequel. A part 2: Electric Boogaloo, if you will.  While doing a little Google Maps magic for one of our clients, I stumbled upon this PPC ad when searching for the phrase, baby moon California.

I was shocked. How did the baby-selling black market get ad space for their sale? I thought Google had standards! Though, free 2-day shipping on an 8 lbs. package is a steal. My curiosity was piqued. I just had to click. Needless to say, I was let down. Apparently, California Baby is a product line of shampoos, soaps, etc. If this is how they advertise baby lotions, I’d hate to see how their ad for the importance of baby naps would look…

I really don’t know how the site owners gave it the go-ahead. Perhaps if I lived in California and knew of the product, my mind wouldn’t have automatically jumped to such a horrendous conclusion. However, not every person who is searching for baby moons is going to be familiar with this brand. Even just adding the word “products” in between “baby” and “on sale” would have helped. It’s much clearer, still falls in the 35-character limit, and doesn’t remind people of the Lindbergh baby.

Awkward first impressions aside, they make a couple other rookie mistakes. First, the keyword selection is incredibly unclear. Most search engines bold the keywords in the title and copy. I assume they’re going for the phrase “California Baby,” but Google doesn’t seem to recognize it as a keyword. That’s why only California is in bold but nothing else. This should have prompted them to rethink their strategy.

Next, it’s best to try to squeeze the keyword into the copy as well. The bolder, the better. It stands out more to the customer, which means they are more likely to click through. They must have learned this lesson between the above ad and the most recent one I found:

TWO ads for baby sales? They must be selling like hot cakes. The free market has spoken!

In my opinion, Mad Men is one of the greatest shows on TV. Not just because it treats television as an art form, but because it also shows that advertising can be too.  Print ads, to be specific. Well, with Google’s new “Watch This Space” campaign, they’re showing that display banner ads can be just as artful.

Many businesses are still wary to commit to display advertising and instead fall back on dated methods, such as print, radio, and television. Not to say these forms aren’t effective, I just don’t understand this fear of the digital world. With the advent of DVR and the failing print industry, I’d be more afraid of the more traditional means of advertising. Not only that, but it is so much easier to track progress through display ads than it is for other forms.

The ad is fantastic. Check it out.

This particular feature has been available in the Adwords platform for a few years now. Google likely treated that as a soft run and is now ready to repackage and really push it to gain more advertiser attention.

Display ads still lack the specific demographic targeting of Facebook, but the ability to display and manage ads on a multitude of sites while using one interface is a huge bonus. It gives busy business owners and marketing managers more flexibility and extends their reach. They can quickly and easily change what message is displayed depending on the type of site, whether it’s a men’s lifestyle site, a parenting site, or a teen magazine site, they have the ability to target the same or similar products to all of those demographic groups by packaging the ads in a different way for each.