Hey Buddy, Can You Spare A $1:

1. Hey Buddy,Can You Spare A $1: Effective Strategies to Maximize Your Organization’s Google Grant Kristie Ferketich Senior Strategist, Google Grants

2. TXT Your Session Evaluation! TXT ntc138 to 69866 Or complete online at http://nten.org/ntc-eval or on a paper evaluation available in the session room. Each completed session evaluation enters you to win a FREE 2010 NTC Registration!

3. Session Goals • Gain a better understanding of how to make the most of your Google Grant AdWords account • Learn hands-on tips and strategies to maximize your account to meet your organization’s goals

4. Agenda • Importance of Evaluating and Optimizing • Active Account Management • Evaluating Performance • Optimizing for Improved Performance • Resources

5. Why Evaluate and Optimize? • “Can’t we just set it and forget it?” • “We never login and our account runs fine.” • Your ads may run, but they will not be nearly as successful as they can be for your organization

6. Why Evaluate and Optimize? • By committing targeted time and effort, you can maximize the full potential of your grant • Don’t waste the value of your Google Grant by ignoring what it takes for an account to succeed

7. Evaluating and Optimizing • Identify your goals • What do you want to get out of your account? • Think beyond just additional traffic to your site • What do you want users to do once they get to your site? • Make a donation? • Sign-up as a volunteer? • Download or read specific content on your site?

8. Evaluating and Optimizing • Identify your goals • Evaluate your account to see if you are meeting your goals • If not, optimize to reach your goals • Then evaluate again!

9. Active Account Management • What does it mean to actively manage your account? • Login at least once a month • Analyze performance regularly • Make changes as needed (almost always needed!) • Be responsive to email requests from our team

10. Active Account Management • Why is this important? • Now required by us, but more importantly helps you better understand your account performance • We want to ensure we are providing grants to organizations actively engaged with their accounts

11. Active Account Management • OK, I’ve logged in. Now what? • Evaluate • Analyze campaign statistics • Schedule reports • Review Google Analytics data • Optimize • Make changes to what is performing poorly • Try new variations of what is performing well

12. Active Account Management • Exercise #1

13. Evaluating Performance • Campaign Statistics • Review performance statistics for your campaigns, ad groups, keywords, and ads

14. Evaluating Performance • Campaign Statistics • Sort data by Quality Score, Clickthrough Rate (CTR), and Cost • You may need to enable the Quality Score column in your account

15. Evaluating Performance • Campaign Statistics • Identify problem areas • ‘Poor’ Quality Scores • CTRs below 1% • High-cost with poor Quality Score or low CTR • Take note of these areas as we will target them for optimization

16. Evaluating Performance • Reports Center • Many useful reports available here • Run on-demand reports within your account or schedule recurring reports • Create reports to be emailed directly to you

17. Evaluating Performance • Reports: Keyword Performance Report • View statistics on how your keywords are performing across all campaigns • Schedule a monthly summary report and have it emailed to you • This can act as a monthly reminder to login to your account to evaluate and take action

18. Evaluating Performance • Reports: Keyword Performance Report • Sort by Quality Score, CTR, Impressions, and then Cost • Ensure high impression, high cost areas are in-line with your goals • If they aren’t, take note for optimization

19. Evaluating Performance • Google Analytics • Free web analytics program • Shows how users found your site, how they explored it, and how you can enhance their experience • Use this data to improve your site for a better user experience

20. Evaluating Performance • Google Analytics: Everyone should be using it! • Link your AdWords and Analytics accounts • This allows you to track landing pages and conversions and view your highest performing ads

21. Evaluating Performance • Google Analytics • Leverage Analytics and AdWords reports to identify what is and what’s not working • Make changes to your site and AdWords account based on user behavior • Edit pages where people are exiting your site, delete poor-performing keywords, etc. • Having a stronger website helps you convert users into volunteers, donors, etc. more easily

22. Evaluating Performance • Analytics: Top Content Analytics Report • See which pages drive the most pageviews for your site • Consider using these for your ad landing pages • Pages with high bounce rates should not be used as landing pages and need redesign

23. Evaluating Performance • Analytics: Map Overlay Analytics Report • Visualize volume (visits, pageviews) and quality (conversion rates) metrics by geographic region • Identify the regions that convert and target or customize your AdWords campaigns to them

24. Evaluating Performance • Exercise #2

25. Optimizing for Improved Performance • What is optimization? • Modifying your account to improve its performance • Ensure your goals are defined prior to optimizing • Optimization is ongoing… and ongoing!

26. Optimizing for Improved Performance • Keywords • In general, think like a user! • Use descriptive multi-word terms • Include variations / common misspellings • Don’t forget negative keywords • Experiment with keyword matching options • Use the Keyword Tool and scrub suggestions

27. Optimizing for Improved Performance • Keywords • Look at Quality Score, CTR, cost, and impressions • These statistics should align with your goals • Refine what is not working and expand on what is working well

28. Optimizing for Improved Performance • Ads • Use a call-to-action phrase • Include your main keywords • Be descriptive (but do not include your name!) • Run landing page tests • Create multiple ads for A/B testing • Delete poor-performing ads and create new ads to rotate in

29. Optimizing for Improved Performance • Targeting Options • Select targets that match your constituents • Geographic targets • Run geo reports within Analytics if needed • Language targets • Target by day or time

30. Optimizing for Improved Performance • Campaign Structure • Having a solid campaign structure helps you more easily evaluate your account • Create small, highly-targeted Ad Groups • Use multiple campaigns for different target audiences, distinct initiatives • Take the time to think through your structure and reorganize if appropriate

31. Optimizing for Improved Performance • Exercise #3

32. Takeaways • Being active in managing your Google Grants account is key • Regularly evaluate data within your AdWords and Analytics accounts • Keep testing and optimizing for success! • Use strategies discussed and online resources

33. Resources • Google Grants Help Center • Guides, online trainings, articles, etc. • Google Grants User Forum • Google Grants Blog • Google AdWords Help Center

34. Q&A

35. Thanks!

36. TXT Your Session Evaluation! TXT ntc138 to 69866 Or complete online at http://nten.org/ntc-eval or on a paper evaluation available in the session room. Each completed session evaluation enters you to win a FREE 2010 NTC Registration!