What any dealer jumping into running their own Google AdWords campaign may find is that running ads on the Content Network is risky business. By default, AdWords serves ads on both search results and on the content network, but unfortunately, this can often increase costs and hamper conversion rates.

The Content Network is not without its value, however. One of the best methods to ensuring a successful content campaign is to separate search and content into their own campaigns, as opposed to running them together. Generally, content campaigns garner more impressions and lower conversion rates. Therefore, keeping the campaigns separate will prevent the content campaign from skewing search campaign data.

Advertising on the content network can take some getting used to, but the point is that search and content are two very different worlds, and it’s advised to treat them as such. Try to use different keywords, ad copy, and budgets when diving into a content campaign. Unlike search, content advertising is less targeted, meaning that lower conversion rates are almost inevitable. Although ROI can be a bit difficult to gauge at first, a few weeks of testing can yield beneficial results.

One piece of advice for advertising on the content network that is difficult to adhere to is that content typically requires a healthy budget. Sending $1,000 or more per month is an important factor for ensuring a campaign’s success. If that budget is not feasible, it’s certainly a good idea to restrict advertising to search only.

Although strong conversion rates on the Content Network can be elusive, Google does provide tools that will help ensure success. Tools such as the conversion optimizer as well as the site exclusion tool are both used to improve the targeting of your content campaigns. Advertisers can also set cost-per-acquisition goals to help keep costs under control.

Content network advertising has a notorious reputation for getting out of control when it comes to clicks and spending. But by using the free tools and settings that AdWords provides, and by separating these campaigns from search, advertisers can easily discover that the Content Network provides tremendous value by allowing your brand to reside on relevant websites, popular blogs, and high-traffic portals. There are also different pricing options that including CPC, CPM, and CPA that you may want to experiment with.

When setting up your ad campaign, try to limit ad groups to a couple dozen keywords and make sure you keep similar keywords together. One of the best ways to prevent untargeted impressions and clicks is by including as many negative keywords as possible. Try running custom reports to see how these campaigns are running. Again by separating content from search, you’ll be able to use your custom reports to more easily see what’s happening. Lastly, don’t stop testing! By experimenting with new keywords, ad copy, and campaign settings, you may hit that sweet spot that’s been eluding you until now.

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Learn more about advertising with Google AdWords on Top Dealer SEO.

As we know, car dealers are feeling the effects of the current recession like no other industry. With so much at stake in the current economy, search engine optimization and marketing has been a huge benefit to plenty of dealers who want to maintain leads as cost effectively as possible.

For those who are active in search, or considering allocating addition marketing dollars to search, know that there are still opportunities to be had online despite the current economic downturn. In fact, those who are PPC advertisers can take advantage of helpful tactics from AdWords experts.

Just released, Google’s Tough Tactics for Tough Times outlines helpful tips that any paid search advertiser should consider. One of the biggest benefits to SEO and SEM is that it enables dealers to maximize online exposure online while also maximizing ROI. What many advertisers are finding out is that this also holds true when the going gets tough. Although they may be somewhat general, we recommend checking out Google’s helpful tips to staying competitive in the downturn.

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Find more search tactics for a recession right here.

There are plenty of factors to discuss when it comes to making a solid landing page. For those car dealers that are using pay per click advertising, this is an especially important consideration. Optimizing your landing pages will help reduce bounce rates and improve your conversion rate, and the Landing Page Utopia panel was able to shed a bit of light on how exactly that can be done.

Scott Brinker from Ion Interactive was the first speaker to discuss what makes a successful landing page. While traditional thinking says that the fewer pages there are after arriving at the landing page, the more likely it will be at converting the user. Interestingly, Brinker’s take on the topic was quite a divergence from this line of thinking. He proposed that when executed correctly, a multi-page landing page can actually improve landing page conversion. This is because post-click segmentation can be utilized strategically to better direct the type of customer to the information they’re seeking, even more so than the keyword/ad variation used to get to the landing page. For example, in a hypothetical campaign for Richmond Ford, perhaps the dealer would use truck-related search queries to drive traffic to a general Ford truck landing page. Once the user arrives at the page, the user will be segmented by an option for those seeking either new Ford trucks in Richmond or for those seeking commercial trucks Richmond, differentiating the average consumer versus a fleet vehicle buyer. As Brinker admits, users do want to take fewer clicks when everything else is equal, but sometimes everything is not always equal depending on the segment, the target audience, and the marketing objectives.

Landing pages can also be switched out or tweaked depending on the season. Seasonality affects many different industries and verticals, including car buying. Even financing specials coincide with holidays and specific times of year. Thus landing pages should also be designed to highlight these special holiday offers to get potential car buyers excited about coming to your dealership.

When it comes to landing pages, perhaps more so than static website pages, the panel as a whole agrees that A/B and multivariate testing is becoming increasingly paramount in the creation of a high-converting landing page.

There’s a number of best practices that should typically be addressed for a successful landing pages. This includes keeping the page sparce, without adding clutter. In addition, contact forms should be kept brief as well without requiring the user to input data and personal information that isn’t absoletely necessary.

Rather than discussing best practices, panelist Jonathan Mendez of Ramp Digital took a different approach by discussing what he has determined is the world’s greatest and most succecsful landing pages (shown below).

Needless to say, Google’s classically simple home page has been a success in user interface design. It provides the users with control as they already know what they want to search for, without the need for other content to interfere with their intended quiery. As such, Google has also reduced choice which helps support the flow of what the user is supposed to do, which is to perfom a search.

Landing pages should be current with Web trends and technologies, utilizing the latest Java, ajax, APIs, and/or other languages to help make the page dynamic and easy for the user. The content should also be targeted to the user and appropriate. When designing the page, a good rule of themb is to design it for the goal of the landing page in mind rather than just the person to ensure your conversion objectives are met along with the user’s needs.

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