If you currently have a phone number in your ad text or have plans to start adding your phone number in an ad, this is an important notice that in the coming weeks, we will be launching a new enhancement to AdWords ads that will impact charges on clicks to these numbers. 

To help our mobile users connect more easily with advertisers, all non-clickable phone numbers displayed in AdWords ad text will be automatically converted into a Click-to-call number. Currently when advertisers enter a phone number directly into their ad text instead of using Call Extensions, the phone number is not clickable and will not generate a call. This can be a frustrating experience for mobile users who attempt to initiate a call to this phone number. 

The new Click-to-call enhancement ensures that all phone numbers shown in AdWords ads are clickable and allows users to easily place calls from their mobile device. If your ad text includes a phone number, you will begin to receive clicks and calls on this number once the enhancement is enabled in your account. As with phone calls placed via a Call Extension, you will be charged for clicks on your phone number that result in a call. 

Please note that AdWords policy does not allow for phone numbers to be inserted into ad headlines. As with all Click-to-call ads, advertisers will be charged when a user either clicks on the headline or the phone number listed in the ad. Please see below for additional information regarding this change. 

Which phone number shows?

If you are currently using both Call Extensions and a phone number in your ad creative, only the newly clickable phone number in your ad creative will show. This is designed to help reduce user confusion from seeing two potentially different numbers. If you would like your Call Extension number to display, simply delete all phone numbers from your existing ad text by following these steps. You’ll also receive an additional line of ad text displaying your phone number if the Call Extension is used. 

Measuring results

You’ll be able to review how many calls you receive on the clickable phone number listed in your ad text for each campaign, ad group, keyword and ad on the "Campaigns" tab in your AdWords account. Just select the "Click-type" option under the "Segment" drop down and view your report. Please note that since these are not calls generated from a Call Extension, they will not be reported in the Extensions tab reports. 

Recommendations for featuring a phone number 

You can simply leave your phone number in your ad text and benefit from this change which will automatically make your phone numbers clickable and enable users to call you. However, to get the most value from click-to-call, we recommend that you remove your phone number from your ad creative and create a Call Extension with your phone number directly. This has several benefits. With a manually created Call Extension your number will appear as an additional line of ad text which frees up space in your ad creative for other promotion. In addition, when you create a Call Extension, your phone number appears on a separate line in the ad, and you’re able to take advantage of other powerful enhancements such as Vanity Numbers, Call-only and Call Metrics reporting. 

We are committed to providing our users with the best mobile web experience and encourage you to learn more about Call Extensions by visiting our Help Center. 

Sincerely,
The Google AdWords Team

Google has become the first $100bn (£67bn) brand, according to a new report from research and marketing firm Millward Brown Optimor.

The company’s latest BrandZ: Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands (PDF) places Google firmly at the top of the tree.

The rankings are created through an analysis of the dollar value of a brand, combined with research on consumer practices. Google is followed by Microsoft, with a $76bn (£51bn) value, and Coca-Cola with $67bn (£45bn).

“In the current environment, where the value of many businesses has fallen, brand has become even more important because it can help to sustain companies in tough times,” said Joanna Seddon, chief executive at Millward Brown Optimor.

“Those who continue to invest in their brand will be better positioned for business growth as the economic situation starts to improve than those who have cut spend.”

Other technology firms in the top 10 include IBM in fourth place, Apple in sixth place and General Electric in eighth place. Vodafone made it into the top 10 for the first time, largely on the back of its wireless networking business.

“It is a fantastic achievement to be one of the most valuable brands in the world, and we congratulate all brands that are featured in this ranking,” said Eileen Campbell, global chief executive at Millward Brown Optimor.

“At a time when marketing spend is under greater scrutiny than ever, this ranking is a way for marketers to identify the value that their brand is creating for the business.”

Permalink: http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2241481/google-becomes-first-100bn

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Have a call to action If you ever need proof that pay-per-click is going mainstream for B2B companies, do a search for “ceramic ball bearings.” The SERP is full of paid ads for this basic B2B product. A couple of the ads are pretty good, with offers like “buy affordable ball bearings, online wholesale prices, same day Shipping” or “lightest, smoothest & fastest ever. World Champions, free airmail.”

Unfortunately, this leaves it as an “exercise to the reader” to figure out how to become a lead. Because each click is an opportunity to drop out of the conversion process, the result is much lower conversions. In fact, a 2004 report from Atlas OnePoint found the average conversion rate for lead generation sites that used the home page as a PPC destination was just 6.3%. In other words, almost 19 out of 20 of the clicks you pay for result in revenue for Google but nothing for you

Create targeted landing pages

There is great ROI in having focused, keyword specific landing pages in terms of conversions, but they also help with your PPC ranking and CPC as well. This is because Google takes landing page relevance into account when establishing your “quality score”. Also, using targeted landing pages tends to force you to have more focused ad groups, which leads to more relevant ads and even higher quality scores. Because quality score is as important as your bid when Google determines rank, the better your quality score, the more clicks you get and/or the lower your cost-per-click.

Tips for better landing pages

Keep it simple. This goes for the form as well as the page. Enough said.

Remove the navigation. Every link you put on the page is an invitation to the customer to do something besides taking the action you want them to take. You’ve paid to get them to this page, so remove the distractions and make the conversion action obvious. Tip: test using a graphic element such as a big arrow to tell the prospect where to start.

Include reassuring elements. Every element on the page should serve only two purposes: 1) give the prospect reasons to convert and 2) resolve any concerns the prospect may have about converting. Clip art and visually appealing but generic photos of happy people don’t play a role here. Some of the elements that work on my sample page include the logo and tagline (World leader in the manufacture of thin section bearings), the cover shot of the white paper (with title blown up to be readable), and the sample excerpt from the paper (in this case, the table of contents).

Give prospects a reason to share correct information. Your prospects will to lie to you to get your offer without risking their privacy. Don’t believe me? The #1 name submitted on lead generation forms is Mickey Mouse. I have two tips to counteract this. First, ensure your privacy information is posted. Second, if your offer is a white paper or login code or anything else you can send, rather than fulfilling the offer on the thank you page, email them the fulfillment instead since it creates the incentive to share a valid address.

Why don’t more companies do this?

Given the dramatic ROI of having multiple targeted landing pages, why don’t more B2B companies use them? MarketingSherpa did a study and found that the single greatest obstacle to creating optimized landing pages is a lack of resources, and that the time of in-house web developers was the most difficult resource to get.

However, creating keyword-specific landing pages doesn’t need to take much time given the right templates and tools. I made the sample landing page for this case study using our landing page editor in about five minutes. The key is not to get hung up on making the perfect landing page. Instead, create one OK landing page, clone it and customize it for each of your keyword groups, and then start to test and measure results. Only by getting started will you get begin to get the benefits of better conversions.

Rob Godfrey, Senior VP
Toronto Blue Jays

Hugo Boss

The Canadian Business Directories