Short Introduction to Google Adwords Quality Score

 

What is Google's quality score ?

At a very basic level: Google's quality score is a Paid Search / Adwords algorithm (rule) which provides an estimate of how relevant the keywords are to the ads, adgroup, campaign and the landing page.  1 is the lowest score and 10 the highest.

Improving your quality score

We work with our clients to improve their 'quality score', by reviewing integration between the below:

• Keywords
• Ad text
• Destination URL
• Landing page 

Understanding quality score

There is some debate as to how much the landing page affects Google's quality score, with many (who have run tests) saying it is a small % of the score.   Researchers have found that rarely will you see a Quality Score of above 3 if your landing page is not relevant.

Useful link to Adwords help to help you check and understand quality score.
What we are certain of is:

• If the most appropriate landing page (relevant to keyword searched) is served then set conversions will increase
• CTR and Keyword relevancy and Adgroups are closely related
• Adverts need to relate to the keywords
• Quality Scores are determined at the keywords, ad text and campaign levels

Benefits of achieving a high quality score

Having a high Quality Score within your Adwords account can lead to:

• Lower costs (CPC)
• Better ad positions
• You can also outrank competitors that have relative CTR and a higher CPC than you

How is your score working right now?

We work with our clients to improve their Google Adwords Quality Score and increase their return on advert spend (ROAS).   If you believe your Google Adwords account could benefit from a third party review, please feel free to get in touch with our sales team.

Author: Sarah Griffiths

Geek Video of the Month

The Independent ran an article on the 21st August 2013 asking the question:  Is Google’s Chromecast the future of television?  With the author stating that he believes the £30 dongle / USB device will transform the way you watch your favourite shows.  

Sounds pretty exciting? And this is precisely the reason why the Google’s Chromecast teaser advert / video has won Geek Video of the Month for September.

Find out more about the Digital media streaming adapter developed by Google here:
http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/devices/chromecast/

The video, shows a number of situations where you may need the USB attachement, highlighting the main USPs as computer to TV mirroring, streaming YouTube, Netflixs and other sites to your TV.

Google's Chromecast is expecting to hit the shops before Christmas?  Will it be on your Christmas list?

Personally I will be sticking with our Apple TV as this plays videos from many more services than those found on Chromecast.  An additional negative of Chromecast is that it only lets you mirror what is on your PC from Chrome tabs to the TV, also mirroring is not available from a mobile device.   

Alas if we didn’t already have Apple TV, Chromecast would be a must have, as it is a steal at £30! 

It will be interesting to hear more about the devices popularity in the coming months.  

Author: Sarah Griffiths

Marketplace Websites: The Future of Ecommerce?

Ecommerce, it appears that everyone is doing it these days. And why shouldn’t they?  After all it’s dead easy to register a domain name and put together a simple on line store.  Ta-da! Your online, OK now what?

Well that’s when the hard graft starts. You will need to get your name out there, building brand awareness and crucially, trust. Stock management and overheads all have a role to play as well.  And after you have done all this you will be ‘thrown to the proverbial wolves’. Today’s internet savvy shoppers want every product at the lowest possible price, with fast, free delivery to an address of their choice. Be it work, home or Auntie Edna’s house just in time for her birthday (and woe betide you if it arrives late, because it will be on Facebook before you can say ‘refund’).

So all is not as simple as it seems for a new business that is trying to get a leg-up in the world of online trading.  Of course the word ‘Ecommerce’ has been around for a long time, longer in fact than the Amazon or Play.com websites. However, when we look at these businesses, we get an insight in to how traditional ‘pure play’ ecommerce traders have evolved their platforms in to marketplace’s, that allow smaller traders to piggyback off the brand name, by setting up trader accounts within the website. Now marketplace owners like Play.com and Amazon benefit from an increased product offering, with no additional stock overheads, increased cross selling opportunities and regular commission payments made by traders for every sale. 

So why join a ‘marketplace’ when it’s so easy to set up your own site?

Exposure – By trading on a marketplace website you will not only be benefiting from your own traffic sources, you will also be benefiting from traffic driven to the site by other marketplace traders. So even if your marketing budget is small you can still have substantially more traffic driven to your products than if your where to build a standalone ecommerce shop.

Simplicity – Understanding today’s tech terms is not everyone’s cup of tea.  With a marketplace this pain is taken away as somebody else has considered the importance of how ‘usable’ the site has to be. After all it’s in the marketplace owner’s interest to make the site easy to use, to attract more traders to the site.

Trust – Having a new build ecommerce site liked and respected by customers will take time. Will they commit to spending £££’s on a website that they have not heard of or has no reviews? Probably not.  By trading on a marketplace, you will benefit from the trust and loyalty which are fundamental to its brand.

Cost efficiency – With marketplace websites there is not usually an upfront set up cost, so you can start building your online presence straight away.  However long term you will need to consider if the commission you pay to the marketplace owners outweighs the costs of building your own ecommerce store.

Speed to market – Design considerations, site development, testing and SEO all takes time, and can give you a lead time of 6+ months before you own site can realistically be in a position to trade online. With a marketplace you can start listing products as soon as your account is created. Market places allow sellers to be online and trading…fast.

Market awareness - By joining a marketplace, you can easily view the prices your competitors are charging for their products, and see the marketing messages they are using. Any small business relies on targeted, intelligent pricing and marketing, and a Marketplace site can give you a real leg up in this crucial area.

Here at Rocktime we love Ecommerce, and our very own Source ecommerce platform provides the perfect launch pad if you're considering setting up a marketplace website. Like all the best platforms, it is built to open standards so you can explore the developer marketplace after the initial development phase if you wish.

Developing Ecommerce solutions for our client’s sites is something our tech guys have been doing since 1999 and they will happily talk to you about it until the cows come home. So if you fancy a cuppa (or two) and a chat then give me a call.  I would love to hear from you. Visit our contact us page here.

Author: Martin Bradbury

Team Event: Paintball Warriors

This month’s team event was organised by Martin (Business Development) and Craig (Quality Assurance).   The team were invited to a Paintball Warriors Paintballing afternoon in Wimborne. 

Paintball Warriors in Dorset state on their website in their About Us section that they “offer the very latest innovation in cutting edge paintball technology”.  As we offer the "very latest innovation in website technology" then, we already had great synergy before we even arrived.

We would like to send a big thumbs up to the staff at Paintball Warriors who were extremely helpful and focused on making sure everyone had a great time. We would recommend them to anyone thinking organising a Dorset Paintballing event.

Krishna from Rocktime’s Business Development team was our roving reporter on the day and has provided us a selection of observations on skills spotted. Overall everyone participated well throughout the tournaments and a great time was had. 

Krishna’s top observations on Rocktime players:

 

Safe Player: Craig – he managed to not get even one hit in the whole tournament as he was very careful throughout and used clever tactics to keep away from enemy firing line!

Courage – Kieran Bell – I must say, Kieran Bell at times got in the firing line and got hits but never gave up till the last tournament and kept fighting.  Really impressed with his not give up attitude!

Skillful – Kieron Matthews – he was quick and also rallied team players at times and somehow his team won 3 of 2 battles (cheats! Lol).

Accuracy – Mark – he was focussed and many of his shots were on target.  Though, at times he shot the opponents but few of them denied walking away from the match.

Entertaining – Martin – he made the event interesting and exciting and also was the one to throw grenades etc. and giving a realistic battle ground feel!. Sadly at times, also took consecutive hits on same spot on his hand but was energetic throughout the tournament.

Author: Sarah Griffiths and Krishna Rayalu