May 2021 Keyword Search Campaigns
Justin talks through recent changes in Google’s phrase match keywords with Keep Optimising host Chloe Thomas.
An excerpt:
“Google made an announcement back in February that phrase match keywords are going to start acting like modified broad keywords. Originally you only had broad match, phrase match, exact match, and negative keywords. When modified broad was introduced, it was a good space between broad where you had a lot of wasted spend and phrase, that just didn’t get all the variations you were looking for.”
Justin also participated in a Google Ads Q&A available on YouTube.
July 2020 Google Shopping Listings
In 2020, Justin appeared on the podcast Keep Optimising presented by Chloe Thomas. Among topics like best SEO practices, Justin discussed how you can get your own free Google shopping listings. Google shopping results started out as a free Google feature in 2002 and began costing money in 2012. Google recently made them free again under certain circumstances, both as a gesture of goodwill for businesses suffering because of the COVID-19 pandemic and a strategic move against rival Amazon.
Three Quick Facts About Free Google Shopping Listings
- Free is a Good Start. While the free listings from Google are a great way to start your campaign, don’t underestimate the value of putting some actual money behind them, too. We find that the opportunity for free click generation goes up if you are actively running a Google Shopping campaign supported by ad dollars. Every free click is great, of course, but to max out your free click opportunities you might want to consider allocating a little bit of budget to Google Shopping. It doesn’t take a lot to make a big impact (but it might–see below).
- Popularity Comes at a Price. We’ve seen that the lower your volume of paid clicks, the higher your percentage of unpaid clicks. While this is simple math, that trend also indicates that Google is more likely to evenly distribute the paid vs. unpaid impressions initially, but then over time will be more likely to charge for the clicks for a more popular product.
- Clickthrough Rate Varies Wildly. Sometimes you get what you pay for, and the free listings from Google can show clickthrough rates from less than 1% for some products to as high as a 7000% for others. That massive discrepancy is due to a lot of different factors, and many of them are simply beyond your control. The market, as ever, moves in mysterious ways.
You can listen in the embedded player, below, or visit the Keep Optimising website.
Also be sure to check out Chloe Thomas’s book, eCommerce Marketing: How to Get Traffic That BUYS to your Website.
To get more information on this topic, contact us today for a free consultation or learn more about our status as a Google Partner Agency before you reach out.