Ok here is something juicy…
When doing pay-per-click every seems to think it stops with keywords. Here is a small little trick that we have been using since it launched. What is it? Why its Google Trends of course!
Let me show you an example… Lets say you are pushing the Omaha Steaks offer through Azoogleads, or whoever your favorite affiliate company is.
So we can use KeyCompete or other means to scrape together a keyword list but then we are still on the same playing field as everyone else right? I mean unless you want to pay a zillion dollars to hitwise how are you going to know where to bid so you get the best possible ROI on your investment.
What if I told you there was a totally free way to do this and it was under your nose the whole time? Well its Google Trends (ya now your probably thinking DUH).
So keeping with our example of Omaha Steaks offer lets look and see what Google trends says:
Now you have to keep in mind that Omaha Steaks is located in Omaha Nebraska so you should pretty much write off Nebraska and the citys of Omaha and Lincoln because they are always searching for “Omaha Steaks” for compliance and whos talking about them …etc…
But as you see take your Keycompete you made above and apply it to the CITIES that are searching for Omaha Steaks. Guess what is going to convert REALLY WELL?!?! Yes its the places that are actually searching for Omaha Steaks.
Since we started using Google Trends we have trimmed about 35% off of our bottom line on PPC -> Affiliate offers. If you are not already using it I HIGHLY sugest you do.
This has been your tip for success. Day 2
About the author...
Jeremy Schoemaker – who has written 2415 posts on ShoeMoney.com.
Hi I am Jeremy Schoemaker and ShoeMoney.com is my blog. 99% of the post here are done by me but you will see others occasionally make guest posts. This blog is fun to write but for my day job I run several online companies.
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{ 58 comments… read them below or add one }
Holy shit shoe I never thought to use google trends for ppc data! Great tip man.
hi shoemoney thanks for ruining the Omaha steaks offer for everyone like you did ringtones and blockbuster
Do you discuss stuff like this at Elite Retreat?
Great post shoe. I predict 143 million posts about google trends across the SEM scene in the next few hours now. Trendsetter!
That is a great tip! Love the free tools you share.
Great series.
yes this and lots of other stuff. There are many tips and as I said before I am a much better oral communicator which is why I dont really delv much into tips on the blog.
Thanks for the great tip. I’ve been using google trends but never to this capacity.
Did you talk about this at Elite Retreat Shoe? I don’t specifically remember this tip or I would have tried it by now.. will have to check my notes..
I am using Google Trends since a while, it is a great tool. There are also some other tools that you need to master. I am always searching for good things to learn. Good work!
Just out of curiosity, care to elaborate on how you trimmed 35% off your bottom line doing this? Using your example, when you take out Nebraska all the rest of the top 10 cities have almost the same search volume. What exactly would you do to optimize this hypothetical example??
im not sure i understand why the cities that have higher traffic volume for a given keyword would generate a higher ROI. The way i see it; City A has 10,000 searches for Widget123 & City B has 1,000 search for Widget123 — why wouldn’t you see the same conversion-rate / ROI (more or less) in both cities?
Interesting post – Here’s a question though.
What increases the chances that you will buy if you are searching from a city high up on Google Trends list? In the end, it is still the same search performed by a user whether it’s on the top of the google trends list or not. What helps you determine that a person is likely to return a greater ROI on a highly searched state, since all it’d determine is where there is more popularity – but in cities that are less popular but still get search volume, does this automatically say that they will not convert?
That’s funny. True. But funny nonetheless.
hilarious.
Are you saying to just target those cities? Or do you append the city to the keyword? And if it’s just targeting those cities, then I’m with the last two posters, why would the ROI be higher, it shouldn’t matter how big or small the city is. Would be cool if you could clear this up
exactly what i was asking…
Wow, great tip. You will see the same conversion rate but the more volume, the more sales.
You could geo-target to these areas (take DC), and write a specific ad copy that mentions Omaha steaks shipped to DC – which should result in a higher CTR and thusly a lower CPC, and hopefully a better conversion rate.
It just hit me after an hour of thinking about it. You’re absolutely right Ian.
yeah anonono its a damn shame since there aren’t a thousand other well playing outlets online..
Seeing as they’re just launching ‘Google Hot Trends’, I think you may be right.
As soon as I saw the ‘Hot Trends’ press release I thought about shoemoney’s comment about buying up domain names related to britney spears shaving her head. I wonder how many people are out there right now doing a whois lookup on ‘paula-abdul-broken-nose.com’:
http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?sa=X
Google Trends is now updated.. More detail city information. You can now narrow it down to the state level to see the top 10 cities in the state.
Good question – because the search volume or “interest” is there your more likely to convert by bidding on longtail keywords for Omaha steaks
I am saying you target those citys. The ROI would be higher because there is more interest in that item. (brand familiarity)
Actually we have seen a dramatic increase in conversion because of brand familiarity… i need to probably edit the post people are getting confused.
The real question is, is this because they are more family with the brand (as you wrote) or because the geographical location of the user is written underneath the add, thus creating more confidence. Did you by any chance test this? I would imagine you could select geographical targeting and target all states and then run the same campaign but just for the cities like you mentioned.
I use Google Trends to research every keyword I bid on. To ensure high ROI I only bid on keywords that are on an upward trend and that I know will make page 1 of the SERPS. I’ve been very successful with a very small number of keywords this way.
yep it is all about presenting it to users that are looking for it. and the more you can key into the user the more easily u can sell them.
Can you geotarget via adwords on the ad group basis? I’d hate to have to create 10 campaigns for 10 different regions to advertise the same offer.
Sadly, no. Targeting is handled on the campaign level. It is a (small) bit of extra work – but if it improves your ROI…
Really nice tip shoe. I always have been a big fan of Google Trends. They give out some very useful information! Especially if your looking to geotarget!
Wow, Great tip. Ive used Google Trends a lot but it never actually clicked about how powerful of a tool it really is.
Wow, great idea. Hat tip to shoe for sharing.
Isn’t it kind of a problem tho that Adwords only allows 20 campaigns total, would be kinda hard to really go all out on geo-targeting with each ad group I would think due to the limitations?
I still don’t get it. Someone in X city that might be “good” according to Google Trends who types in “buy blue widget” is no more likely to buy your blue widget than the guy in Z city who also types in “buy blue widget”. What am I missing here?
You need to start offering call services via skype or something. Just don’t get too expensive, I ain’t full o’ cash.
Maybe a competition once a month to award a free hour to a reader of your blog. What say?
Google have so many good tools that most people dont know about and never will. You should (if you get time) do a breakdown of whats on offer so new markerters dont need to shell out any cash
One possible way is what i mentioned earlier…
“You could geo-target to these areas (take DC), and write a specific ad copy that mentions Omaha steaks shipped to DC – which should result in a higher CTR and thusly a lower CPC, and hopefully a better conversion rate.”
They do cap you at 25, but I suppose you have two options. 1) Explain what you’re doing to an adwords rep and ask for your limit to be raised. Or 2) Open separate accounts for the separate offers that you plan on really hammering and bridge them under My Client Center. Once an offers is off the CPA networks, you dump the campaigns and re-use the account for a new offer.
Great idea- put it together with click fraud detection services and you really have something.
Great idea- combine this with Click Fraud detection services, and you really have something.
Good tips. Thanks Ian
haha, makes you earn it anonono.
I’d love to see this too, although, isn’t Jeremy often saying how little time he has?
Then throw the family time into the mix and then you start sleeping only 4-5 hours a night.
Dang that’s clever… thanks Shoe.
Excellent! I will be looking into this further. Thanks for the tip!
Duh?
Shoe’s been talking about them at NPMMO and elsewhere for a while now. Hang around him too long and you get all sorts of crazy ideas that could take a lot of time.
One approach – Geotarget to the cities that search a lot, optimizing those bids, and dropping the bids elsewhere. That’s worked for us, anyway.
and thats if you really dont like your family. if you have a family you love cut it down to maybe 2 hours.
Ian – It still doesn’t make sense. All you are saying is to geotarget your PPC ads for a term – what does google trends have to do with that? Because they tell you what cities are most popular?
i kinda liked zeitgeist better than the new hot trends… i know lame
I was just talking to my Azoogle AM yesterday about possibly running the Blockbuster offer, I was explaining how I was a little hesitant, especially after your post about it.
She said:
For some reason I was rolling after she said that.
Yes, that’s exactly why G Trends is important. I mean, you could geo target for a whole list of cities anyway if you wanted. But with trends you already have a list of the cities/states where the product you’re promoting is the most popular so you can target your work efforts more effectively.
Any links to point a newbie to learn more about using google trends for ppc?
Thanks, Great advice!
You misspelled “sugest”
p.s. – I have lived in Omaha for 7 years now and have never heard of you.
That was like a Eureka tip!!
Thanks Shoe!!