Salesforce for Google AdWords Blog - April 2007

• Google Dominates Q1 with $3.66B in Revenue

  Kraig Swensrud Apr 20, 2007

  Yesterday Google announced its first quarter results that blew past the estimates of many industry analysts.  Here's the quick and dirty on Google's Q1:

  • Revenue: $3.66 billion, up 63% from $2.25 billion a year ago
  • Profit: $1 billion, or $3.18 a share, up from $592.3 million, or $1.95 a share, a year earlier

  It was also the second consecutive quarter in which Google earned $1 billion.  As reported by the AP, this is more than many more-established media companies make in an entire year.

  As most people know, Google's core business is online advertising, with 99% of revenues coming from ad clicks purchased through the Google AdWords.   Surprisingly, even with some stiff competition coming from Yahoo (recently released Panama) and Microsoft (recently released AdCenter), Google's ad revenues are clearly dominating those from its rivals.  Many Salesforce customers note that Google's ad system delivers higher quality web traffic and therefore, more qualified leads.

   

  Here's the breakdown from eMarketer (check out their full report)

      

  
  

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• Keyword vs. Keyword Phrase

  Kraig Swensrud Apr 12, 2007

  Salesforce for Google AdWords tracks 5 major Google AdWords components and helps an advertiser understand which aspects of those components are effectively generating leads, pipeline, and revenue.  They include:

  1. Search Campaign (Google Campaign)
  2. Ad Group
  3. Text Ad
  4. Keyword
  5. Keyword Phrase

  
  What's the difference between a Keyword and a Keyword Phrase?
  A Keyword is the word or phrase that you buy from Google, while a Keyword Phrase is the search team that a user types into the Google search box (we're considering renaming keyword phrase to search phrase for better clarity).

  
  

  
  Why might these be different?
  Google AdWords allows you to buy keywords with a variety of keyword matching options.  Keyword matching options is a feature of the Google AdWords program that allows you control how broad or precise a users search on Google.com must be to trigger your ad.   Using these matching options, you can more effectively target your ads to appropriate search queries.  The matching options are broad match, phrase match, exact match, and negative match.  Watch the demo at the Google AdWords Learning Center.

  For Example, you may have purchased the broad matched keyword slushies.  In this example, your advertisement will trigger when users search on the following keyword phrases:

  • supersonic slushies
  • slushies
  • slushies raspberry
  • Licious Lemon Limecicle slushies

  
  Understanding what works
  You can use then the Google AdWords dashboard in Salesforce to see which keywords and which keyword phrases are generating leads, pipeline, and revenue.

  

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• Not in a Million Years Would We Run a Print Ad

  Kraig Swensrud Apr 9, 2007

  As a marketer in the high tech space, I subscribe to more than a few technology publications, trade journals and magazines.  Wired magazine, Business 2.0, Computerworld, ZDnet, and a host of others.  It was only a few years ago that I read all of them in print, but today I find myself increasingly reading articles online and sharing good stories with my friends over IM and email.

  I still do read a few of these publications in print, which tends to work well when sitting on cross-country plane flights or long BART rides to Embarcadero Station.  But, without a doubt, times are clearly changing.  Last week I opened my mailbox to find the latest print issue of Infoworld, a publication that reports on news in the tech sector.  The Cover Story Read: 

  A new Era begins, after 29 years and 1384 issues, we're folding our print publication and focusing solely on the Web

  Every once in a while it smacks you in the face, publications are moving exclusively online because advertising budgets are driving them there. 

  If a company came to us and said 'We want to generate leads for our sales people', not in a million years would we run a print ad. - Dick Reed, CEO, Just Media Inc.

  The reason ad budgets are shifting online is simple:  What happens on the web is measurable and advertisers prefer to spend money on trackable media.  Online advertisers can mesaure every aspect of a campaign.  They can count every impression, analyze every click, and track every web visitor through the sales process, from suspect, to lead, to opportunity, to closed sale.  With a little bit of website configuration, Salesforce customers can easily track these aspects of a Google AdWords campaign. 

  When advertisers can track what's working, they feel confident about spending more of their ad budget on channels that product measurable results.

  Now does anyone know when BART or United Airlines will provide wirless access?

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• Batting Averages and Clickthrough Rates

  Sean Whiteley Apr 3, 2007

  John Gartner is obviously a fan of the book, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, as am I.  Moneyball is a book by Michael M. Lewis released in 2003 about the general manager of the Oakland Athletics, Billy Beane, and his team's approach to running the organization.  One of the central tenants of Moneyball, is that in the game of baseball, real statistical analysis has shown that on base percentage and slugging percentage are better indicators of offensive success, and that avoiding an out is more important than getting a hit.  In his article, Do Your Metrics Measure Up, John analogizes a batting average in baseball, to a clickthrough ratio for marketers.  This begs the question, which metrics are most important to your marketing organization?

  The Internet has fundamentally changed the way we all live an work.  This has never been more true for marketers.  As marketing dollars and advertising spend has shifted from Madison Avenue to Amphitheatre Parkway, marketers can measure almost every aspect of the performance of their marketing programs in real-time.  One of the potential effects of this, aside from Google's repeated quarterly revenue home runs, is a potentially overwhelming amount of statistical information associated with your various marketing programs.  If you get lost in a sea of stats, and lose track of what is important, it is very easy to miss your targets, which in the b2b world is likely along the lines of pipeline, revenue, and profitability.

  John's article certainly shares our mindset.  While clickthrough rates, quality scores, and conversion rates are key metrics to track closely, if you live in the b2b world, be careful not to get so bogged down in the myriad of metrics that you lose sight of your original goals:

  Driving new leads, pipeline, revenue, and profitability for your organization.

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