Search Results: Accelerated vs. Standard ad delivery

There are several advanced targeting options when configuring listings on Google adwords . These optimizations affect where and when ad groups are triggered. One commonly overlooked setting is the Delivery method.

Delivery method has 2 settings: Standard and Accelerated.
Google describes these as:

Standard: Show ads evenly over time. Standard delivery distributes your budget throughout the day to avoid reaching your budget early on. Your ads will show periodically throughout the day.
Accelerated: Show ads as quickly as possible. Accelerated delivery displays your ads as often as possible until your daily budget is met.

Accelerated Difference
Google touts that the main difference is that the advertiser is more likely to spend their ad budget. The functional difference is that once Google has shown a sponsored listing it will tend to not show it again to the same users. This comes into effect when a user performs another query or refreshes the page.

Why go accelerated? Usually this is necessary for a psychological affirmation. Businesses need to see their own ad listings in order to believe that their ads are working. The accelerated setting accomplishes this goal by repeatedly showing ads even when the user has already seen them. Another justification is for brand advertising when it is crucial to ensure that a brand name is placed in all relevant areas.

With Standard ad delivery; a sponsored listing may likely not be displayed upon clicking refresh.

Marketing Comparison
However more detailed analysis gives light as to the expectation of differences. Here are two identical campaigns with the exact same settings, ads, keywords and values that were run during the same time period (approximately one month). Here are the statistics:

	Max CPC	Clicks	Impressions	CTR	Average CPC	Total Spend	Position
Accelerated	$2.00	395	24,598	1.60%	$0.95	$374.20	5.6
Standard	$2.00	414	13,426	3.08%	$0.90	$371.56	4.9

Accelerated ads are shown much more often, and shown multiple times to the same users. The click-through-rate is decreased and as a result Google is penalizing this campaigns' ads. The keyword quality score is shown to be the same across both campaigns, however we experience a 5% higher average-cost-per click with a lower average position.

Bottom Line
The benefit of an accelerated campaign is that your listings are more likely to be shown; however it will come at an increased cost and lower average ranking. Unless you have a compelling reason to display your ads, even when a user has already seen it, this setting should be set to Standard. Brand name advertisers can justify the added expense and exposure.

David Rodecker
President, RelevantAds
“getting local business online"

Following Google Local

The Google Maps API team has opened up their files. Depending on where you are looking on Google Maps you will have different functionality and information. For example, in India, you'll get geographic titles and business listings on the map, but there are no driving directions.

See the Google speadsheet for more information. According to the spreadsheet, there are 18 counties that support business listings. Thanks to Pamela Fox, now we know where our the Google coattails can drive local business...

identifies the major geographies and major types of information including geographic titles,

OpenSocial - Has Two Uses

Googles launched OpenSocial this week. OpenSocial is a content sharing standard that allows two primary capabilities:

3rd Party Embedded Content
Popular websites like LinkedIn and MySpace were previously limited to what their technology teams could create. With OpenSocial, these site no longer have to develop all the information tools on their site. By embracing the standard, popular websites can allow for any web information tools to be added to their site; some examples have already been created such as calendar sharing, event organization and music listening.

Content Syndication Standard
The corollary to 3rd party content integration is that OpenSocial allows for websites to re-published their content and information tools. OpenSocial boasts 250MM users through its current partners, while that is a great jumpstart, the effect of a content sharing standard is far reaching and has substantial long-term implications. By embracing the syndication standard, however, you have in effect limited the possible growth of your own website (see the end of new social neworks).

Easy Use and Implementation
Behind the scenes the coding for either use is simple. It is basic HTML and Javascript encapsulated in an XML file, so all the cool AJAX and web features are available. Unfortunately, compiled code libraries such as .Net won't work out of the box. See sample OpenSocial code.

While OpenSocial will commoditize the social networks, we still embrace how Google gives away the number one position.

Trump Advertises for Competitor - "Your Fired"

In search marketing, you usually don't want competition. However Madza was more than happy to take the opportunity to show everyone the advantages of the MX-5 Miata over the Solstice; especially when Donald Trump is behind it!

Pontiac created a large marketing stunt sponsoring The Apprentice show. The car was the center of attention in the show and to find out more Trump asked guided viewers to simply perform a Yahoo! search for "apprentice car".

Incidentally our partner manages the marketing campaigns for Madza USA. They we're able to immediately added that keyword to the search campaign and wa-lah, nstant traffic! Thanks Donald!


Result: On the top of Google and Yahoo! for "apprentice car" was Mazda's ad showing the advantages of their car versus the Pontiac. After having spent millions to sponsor the Apprentice, failed to spend enough to lock in the top position for "apprentice car" allowing Mazda to get all the traffic.

Googling Over Yelp

This piece is a continuation of the Search for Google returns Yahoo story six weeks ago.

I've been asked if Google has corrected the potentially embarrassing error in their local search results. Well, the Yahoo company address doesn't show up, however a couple of other, seemingly random listings do instead (Eastridge Mall, and Fresca).


Googles phone number returns a different business.

These new results are businesses that we're reviewed by Yelpers who also reviewed Google Inc. Confusing? Let me clarify:

• Google Inc is a registered business on Yelp with several reviews from other Yelpers,
• Yelpers review other businesses, providing lots of great content (Google Maps loves it too),
• All reviews are on one page; along with each respective business identification (name, address and phone)
• Entire web page is associated to a single business entity in the Google Maps database,
• Even though the phone number (650) 318-0200 is owned by Google Inc., it is actually not associated with any registered business in Google Maps or any other info databases! (yes, irony).
  
• A different company is now fingered as being a relevant result for this query.

Upon deeper investigation, an interested local-SEO points was identified:
Single Business to Web Page Association. This is an common assumption to local search engines; associate a webpage (or domain) to a single business location; however Yelp proves the point here. There are several business listings shown on the Yelper review page; however it all only helps a single business listing. Even when another business with accurate information is found, that webpage is NOT being associated to it. That means all the content on this whole site is only benefiting one company. Even more interesting is that this applied to businesses listed above and below the business. (which is the case for the Google phone number too).

Point 3 is the most crucial for local SEO. Implication here is that a Yelper profile can only help to optimize a single business on Google Maps. This means that a business won't really get a benefit from a big-time reviewer. Unless your luck like Fresca, being SEO'd with every listing here; you're better off getting more reviews from smaller people than one review . The bottom line is that Yelp is more a benefit to users than it is to businesses (which I think Yelp would agree), but interesting to see how Google effectively decided that too.

Anyway, I wonder how long it will be until Google fixes their own business listing. Maybe we should offer Google Inc. the RelevantYellow placement verification service to cure the issue!


About the Author
David Rodecker is President of RelevantAds, a service that gets local businesses online through local search.

Search for Google returns Yahoo!

I consistently preach that it is crucial for businesses to ensure that their identity is protected and highlighted online. When users search for business products, services and contact information, they better be able to find you instead of your competitor.

I came across an ironic competitor search result today when using Google Maps. A search for Googles business location actually returned Yahoos!

Search result on Google Maps.

You'll notice that I queried using their phone number (650) 318-0200 (number source explained below). This is a technical contact number, not the companies primary number, as a result they don't have it associated with their primary business location information. Nevertheless, it certainly isn't Yahoo, their major competitor!

Cause/Solution
This is a case of an contextual misidentification. The web page at CountryPlans.com has address information of the Yahoo office, but also shows the Google contact phone number. The query for the phone number is contextually found in the web page which is associated with Yahoos business location.

Local search has many levels of algorithms, contextual relevancy on top of structured data
and unstructured information. Most of the unstructured data comes from web sites and webpages. Some webpages are included in local search when they can be associated with a business name, phone number, address. All the content on the page is then indexed for search, but with a lower relevancy confidence as compared to a structured data match.

Google can easily solve this problem by associating this secondary phone number with Googles' business listing.

By the way, in case you're wondering where I got this internal phone number for Google, it is listed on Yelp.

Google on Yelp.

About the Author
David Rodecker is President of RelevantAds, a service that gets local businesses online through local search.

Why Local Search Can't Be Standardized

Search engines operate differently, it's what makes them distinctive. They provide different information, organize data in unique ways, and rank results differently. Local search is no different, however local data is much hard to come by. The majority of US business are not represented accurately online. The problem is lack of verified business data.

Most of the popular local search destinations and search engines allow business owner to freely submit their information; however very few businesses take up on the offer. Either because off lack of knowledge, but also because there are many destinations such as Google, SuperPages, Yahoo, etc. Submitting to one has limited benefit in the overall marketplace. It has prompted some to call for standardizing local search data.

Technology standards are a great. RFC 822, for example, provides for the standard in transmission of email. A business information standard might allow for a business owner to submit and see their accurate information and special deals spread across the internet. And although users and businesses owners would love to see it, it’s not likely to ever happen. Unlike email, this proposal won’t get the support of service providers and users alike; largely because it doesn't make business sense. Destinations thrive on their differentiation as I wrote local business is different everywhere. Beyond the lack of a business case, there are substantial technical issues:

Data fields. Where do we start? I'm working of the premise that businesses want more than a name and address; after all that information already exists in domain records (whois) and hCard is already a standard. RelevantYellow supports over 3 dozen structured data fields to uniquely define a business; while most business won’t require that many we should they should at least specify Category and coverage area.

Category. Practically every provider has a different business category ontology. The U.S. Government has defined and re-defined business category several times; making it difficult for data providers to latch on to, especially since new types of businesses are evolving each year.

Coverage Area. A business may be located in Fountain Valley, CA, however its customer base may be limited to a few city blocks, the county, metropolitan, state, nationwide, or worldwide. This information is currently not well defined, used or verified. However, this is the primary how search engines charge for advertising. Ideally, however, consumers should be presented with businesses that truly service their area, not the highest paying advertiser.

Type of exchange

Email standards were popularized not because of centralizing message formats, but because it allows for the transmission and syndication of content. Can business information be that clearly distributed and trusted? Most internet directories are relevant to a specific region or category. An open standard would open the door for spam where we could see a Miami florists ending up in a California lawyer directory.

Summary:

Content sharing is popular with the person producing content and users; but just as news agencies and video websites act in silos, we are not likely to see local destinations supporting a content syndication standard.