If you run a Google Ads campaign, you want all of the people who view your ads to be legitimate prospects.
But sometimes an ad campaign can receive clicks that are malicious competitors who want to waste your ad budget? And what if some traffic is coming from bots?
This is what is known as ineligible clicks or invalid click’s. This article describes everything you should know about ineligible clicks.
If you watch your site statistics carefully, you probably know it receives its share of spam traffic, especially if you have a comments page. Bot comments are irritating and can fill your inbox and waste time. But what are invalid click’s about?
The term means an action that a bot or person takes where the link you paid for is clicked on by accident or a system did it. Invalid click’s are usually due to:
Spambots can be really annoying by clicking constantly on the paid link, costing you hundreds or thousands of dollars. When you remember that some popular keywords cost more than a steak dinner for two, it can have a really big effect on your ad budget.
Some malicious competitors may try to damage you by draining your budget. Others may work for click farms who click paid ads as well as social media site posts. Believe it or not, click farms are out there and they are profitable for the site owners.
Or a malicious link could be done by someone with an ax to grind.
When you first set up your account, you have an option to customize data views. The default is ‘people in or who are interested in your target locations.’ This is recommended, but if you don’t alter it, you could have some PPC fraud or abuse going on.
You can change the campaign settings and reduce some of the ineligible clicks by changing your recommended settings. Choose ‘People in your targeted locations.’
Next, if you click Campaigns, you will notice 3 columns. Select ‘modify’ and you can add another column to see ‘invalid click’s’ and ‘invalid click rates.’ After you add them, you can review in seconds the campaigns that are being hit with invalid click’s
Google attempts to track invalid click’s and you may see a refund in your account for them from time to time. The refund part of your bill will be noted. You also can see invalid click’s that you won’t get charged for in your ad campaign.
Invalid click’s and click fraud may sound the same but they aren’t. The result is mostly the same but the reasons are quite different.
As we have explained, invalid click’s and ineligible traffic are usually caused maliciously or by accident. You’re paying for every click so repeated clicks can drain your account fast.
Click fraud, however, means that the clicks are malicious in nature and want to defraud the site owner or Google. Click farms are definitely click fraud. So would your angry ex-girlfriend who clicks on your website’s ads.
Google keeps track of these behaviors. It has processes set up to shield you from repeat clicks and automated clicks. The search engine watches timings, IP addresses and other questionable activity to protect advertisers.
Google tries to reduce the impact of invalid click’s and click fraud on customers’ ad budgets. But the invalid click’s Google finds and pay you back for are often a fraction of the real cost.
We’ve gone over what ineligible clicks are, how they happen, and other vital information. Now we’ll detail how to prevent ineligible clicks from damaging your PPC campaigns:
Change your ad campaign stat data by adding several columns that relate to your campaign’s invalid click’s. It’s important to remember that you will not be charged for clicks that Google says are ineligible. However, you can still be paying for bogus clicks that Google missed.
Some site owners purchase a click fraud prevention program that tells you exactly the clicks that are invalid. However, if you don’t want that, it’s possible to find them yourself. But you have to watch and really understand your ad campaign stats. Then you can see sudden spikes and other sketchy activities.
You should carefully go over any time there is a change in your account’s KPIs. Be on the lookout for the biggest sudden changes. Are they explainable or a mystery? For example, a major change could be because of changes you made in your campaigns recently. On the other hand, they could be a sign of a bogus click attack that Google didn’t spot.
Display network advertisements are one of the most frequent sources of ineligible clicks and invalid traffic. The Google Display Network has many benefits and a lot of vendors get excellent traffic. However, there are too many low-quality sites and sketchy website owners.
They could click advertisements on their own site to make an extra buck and get no results for you. If you don’t remember to block them with an automated solution, it’s your job to review your ad placements and exclude sites that don’t convert.
After you include the most important columns, review the campaigns that are seeing the most invalid click’s. Attempt optimization by going over your settings for keywords and targeting.
Approve the changes and check if the invalid click ratio decreases. Google also says you should pinpoint and improve areas of your account with low conversions.
Ineligible clicks and invalid click’s can be a real problem for advertisers. With the above ideas and tips in mind, you can regain control of your advertising campaign and delete those ineligible clicks.
If you do a lot of Google searches (who doesn’t?), you may see ‘People Also Search For’ (PASF) when digging up information on a variety of topics. It’s something to pay attention to when doing your website’s search engine optimization or SEO.
The box that you see on search engines for People Also Search For has been around for a long time. But it became much more important for website rankings in Google after 2018.
These days, PASF as well as ‘Searches Related To’ are fantastic keyword research tool for companies wanting to find relevant keywords that consumers are using in their related searches. You and your SEO strategy team can come up with tons of content ideas that Google itself thinks are of interest in your niche.
Let’s take an up-close look at PASF today, as well as how much it has changed over time. We’ll also detail how your SEO team can get the most out of it to get more qualified traffic to your site.
Most of us don’t know about the history of People Also Search For. No one ever heard of the phrase a decade ago, but now it’s super important, as are knowledge graphs.
Google has a lot to say about PASF, so it’s wise to listen to them. One Googler said recently that it’s possible for Google to answer a question before the searcher even asks. The facts that are shown are search result of what other users are looking for in that subject.
Back in the day, the PASF box was a sort of free agent, especially for related searches to films and related topics. It wasn’t even connected to the knowledge graph. PASF was just at the bottom of the search engine results pages with related images and topics. But smart SEOs can use PASF to boost their Google ranking position.
These days, PASF is usually above Google’s related Google search field. So, it’s quite simple for consumers to see the differences that the search engine is making for the two features, although they’re very similar.
PASF keywords can provide plenty of options for various topics that are related to a Google search. But related searches can offer answers that are more specific.
To put it simply, the earlier versions of PASF provided answers by looking at the things we like in film or music. Following that logic, Google would give us answers that seem to mirror our tastes. But Searches Related just shows varying organic search results for people who asked the same thing.
This all disappeared in 2016. As it is today, the search for PASF box that was a ‘free agent’ a few years ago is back with the knowledge graph. So, it seems there are two boxes with the same functionality but aren’t called PASF.
And that is what has given us PASF as it is this year. The one we see today, a new type of PASF, has changed a lot. In the latest version, thumbnail images are taken out and every related topic is shown as an organic result. Some say the new version is a mix of PASF and Searches Related.
A lot of research has been done on PASFs and there is much to be learned by studying the data. One survey found that the PASF keywords box shows for about 60% of 15k SERPS that were watched for a week on PCs.
The Search result changes a lot when checked for mobile, though. PASFs showed up more than 85% of the time when mobile and PC were combined.
The stats show that PASF isn’t just an experiment that Google has tried for a bit and may do away with. No, the chances are that PASF keywords will continue to be used and expanded.
Another survey found that 8.8 PASF boxes for every SERP appear for one keyword. It’s also intriguing that SERPs with as many as 10 People Also Search for showed up even more often. It was also determined that most search results featured PASFs in the top 10!
It is hard to find out where one search page ends and another starts because rank clustering suggests that PASF keywords are highly related to web page 1 results.
We can’t say for sure why this is. But we do know the PASF keywords-related box for PC doesn’t show as many topics when you compare it to PASFs on mobile phones. Stats show that about 95% of PASF boxes on mobile had eight topics, while 96% of PASF boxes on PC had six topics. The others had between two and five. But the #1 isn’t seen because thepreferred search engine understands things don’t work as well when there is only one search result.
Smart SEOs can get ahead of their competitors by expanding the content on their website to answer PASFs. You can do this by writing interesting content that is related to what you sell or promote, but also answer PASFs.
Also, if you find that people are bouncing when they come to your site, take another look at PASFs for your common keywords. This suggests you should make the page more interesting and informative for these readers.
Choosing one of these to focus on isn’t needed. No need to pick and choose. Just make your website content more informative and longer so people find out more information. If you produce content that gives search results for PASF keywords and PAA, you’ll get more people coming to your site. This also will build trust for your site and brand, which are huge helps in Google’s eyes.
It is clear to us Find PASF keywords are an incredibly important part of Google search results today! If you want to gain a better search rank, your SEO experts would do well to focus on answering those questions well on your websites.
Hopefully, you have a clear idea of what to do with PASFs to ensure you get the best possible qualified traffic.
If you’re going to pour thousands of dollars into a search engine marketing (SEM) campaign, you want to know that you’re getting as much return on investment (ROI) as you possibly can.
And while there are plenty of ways to optimize the ads themselves, much of the success (or failure) ultimately comes down to the landing page.
A pay-per-click (PPC) ad is incredibly powerful, but it’s also limited in the sense that it can’t “create” a conversion – it can only serve as a catalyst. In other words, the ad itself is responsible for driving targeted traffic to a destination. It’s then the landing page’s responsibility to convert that paid search traffic into an opt-in, sale, or another type of conversion.
Whether you’re building your first landing page/landing pages or you’re looking for ways to improve or Optimize landing pages you’ve already developed, there are some strategic steps you can take to enhance results and generate better ROI. Read on to discover more!
For starters, let’s get clear on what exactly a landing page conversions is and why it matters. And the best way to do this is by thinking about it through the lens of your SEM campaign.
When creating a PPC ad campaign, one of the very first requirements is to determine a high-level strategic goal. Usually, your goal will fall into one of three buckets:
The goal will determine the offer. And the offer will be presented on the landing page/landing pages as a way of hooking your target audience after they’ve clicked on your PPC ad.
While there are dozens of tips and strategies we could discuss for optimizing PPC ads to ensure they’re driving qualified traffic to your page, that’s a topic for another post. In this article, we’re assuming that you’re driving the right people to the landing page/landing page optimization. Thus the primary challenge is figuring out how to create a landing page/landing pages that presents the right offer to these people and moves them to take action on your high-level strategic goal.
In the simplest terms, your landing page optimization is the percentage of traffic that follows through on your desired action for them – whether that’s filling out an opt-in for a lead magnet, purchasing a product, or registering for a webinar.
To use clean and simple math, let’s say you drive 100 people from a PPC ad to your landing page/landing page optimization, where your goal is to have people give you their email address in exchange for a white paper that you’ve created. If 17 of these visitors fill out the opt-in form, your conversion rates are 17 per cent.
That’s obviously an oversimplified illustration, but it gives you an idea of how this number is calculated. Now the question is, what sort of average conversion rate should you be aiming for?
This is a challenging question to answer with a simple number or percentage. And that’s because every business, target audience, SEM campaign, and industry is unique. When you layer them all together, you get infinite possibilities. What’s good for one company in one industry might be a waste of resources for another business in a separate industry. There’s just no way to provide an honest benchmark without (a) giving some companies a false sense of security, and (b) discouraging other companies who are doing fine.
To underscore this point, consider two illustrations:
The reality is that both of these campaigns are successful, despite the fact that Amy has a 7 percent conversion rate and Susan has a 1 percent conversion rate. In fact, despite having a much lower rate, Susan’s ROI is significantly higher than Amy’s.
While both of these individuals would be happy to generate these results, it just goes to show that the idea of a “good” conversion rate is situational. Every business, product, and industry will have its own thresholds. It’s up to you to determine whether your conversion rate is translating into an ROI that justifies the expense and effort of the SEM campaign.
With all of that being said, we do want to give you some idea of conversion rates across industries. Here are some median values taken from an Unbounce analysis of thousands of landing pages:
It’s important to note that these are median rates – meaning they don’t account for the large volume of low-converting pages or the handful of high-converting ones. It’s also worth noting that the goal for all of these pages is targeted, even local lead generation, not direct sales. Still, the data gives you a small snapshot to show how you stack up.
Whether your landing page/landing pages have a low conversion rate or you’re already doing well, there are always improvements that can be made. So let’s dive in together and explore a few of the top tips and techniques you may be able to leverage in an effort to generate better ROI from your SEM campaign:
Want to know the truth? On average, just 20 per cent of people will continue to read past the headline on your landing page. That means four out of five people never engage with the rest of your page.
If you want to generate a better landing page/landing page optimization, it starts with getting more people to read past the headline. And you do this by writing better headlines that speak directly to visitors and motivate them to learn more.
Here are some helpful tips for better headlines:
There are world-class copywriters who have spent decades studying headline writing and still haven’t mastered it yet. So don’t assume that you’re going to craft killer headlines overnight. However, the more you learn, the better you’ll get. Start with these tips and test what works.
The average human attention span is about on part with a goldfish. If you want to engage landing pages/landing page visitors and turn them into customers, you have to grab them right away. This can be done by focusing the majority of your efforts on above-the-fold content and design.
Above-the-fold content, which is anything a visitor sees on their screen without having to scroll, is prime real estate. Avoid overcrowding, but be sure to include a clear value proposition and call-to-action (CTA).
As humans, we have a certain “herd mentality” about us. When we see other people who we deem to be like us performing certain actions, we have a natural tendency to do the same. Following the actions of the masses is a way of lowering risk and reducing decision fatigue. Whether consciously or subconsciously, we think, “If they’re doing it, it must be right/good/smart for me to do it, too.”
We’re not going to get into a philosophical discussion of whether basing your decisions on the actions of the masses is a good or bad thing. Instead, we’re just telling you that’s how the world works. And if you want to boost your landing page conversion rates/landing page optimization, you can use it to your advantage.
The best way to tap into this herd mentality is to utilize social proofs, which is basically anything that signals to a prospective customer that other people are gaining value from your products or services.
Examples of social proofs include testimonials and reviews, ratings, data and statistics, endorsements, case studies, etc. By adding these landing page elements to your landing page/landing page optimization, you establish proof and trust.
Social proofs could also mean managing your company’s reputation online–even using pay per click directly.
For best results, pepper social proof throughout your landing page. Another best practice is to include social proof right before or alongside a CTA.
Nothing kills landing page optimization/landing page conversion quite like friction. More specifically, you’re doing yourself a disservice if your opt-in forms or checkout processes contain multiple steps.
Simplifying the steps it takes to follow through on a conversion, like getting a lead magnet or buying a product, creates significant lift.
If it’s an email opt-in, only ask for the bare minimum. Name, email, and phone are the absolute maximum – though phone numbers will hurt your opt-ins rather significantly. (Only include if necessary.) If you get away with just their first name and email – or only the email address – it’s better.
When it comes to an actual transaction, one-step or two-step checkout is important. Anything requiring three or more steps to completion will lead to a massive spike in shopping cart abandonment.
The CTA is where the rubber meets the road. Every landing page should have exactly one CTA. It can be inserted multiple times throughout the landing page/page – and even worded slightly different – but there’s never more than one CTA.
Looking for a few ideas for high-converting CTA copy? Here are some options that work really well:
The key to CTA copy (and really any element of your landing page) is to split test and find out what works best. Over time, optimizing for CTA copy can take a landing page/page and turn it into a great page.
Distractions have to go. Any element that doesn’t directly add value to the user and push them closer to the point of conversion is unnecessary and must be eliminated.
A landing page is not a work of art. It’s not designed to be a piece that you place in a web design portfolio and wow people with. A landing page’s sole focus is driving increase conversions. Run everything through this filter.
Stock photos serve a purpose. They’re free, accessible, and can serve as compelling visual assets in certain areas of a marketing campaign (like blogging). However, stay far away from generic stock images on landing pages.
Consider this case study, in which a truck driving company was selling lessons online. The goal of the landing page was to get more website opt-ins. By simply changing the cover photo from a stock image of a truck driver to a photo image of a real student, they were able to increase conversions by 161 per cent. Real pictures also work well in your PPC retargeting campaigns.
There’s something about seeing a real face and a genuine image that builds trust and makes a landing page/page more relatable. When possible, look for opportunities to humanize with actual images!
Anything you can do to draw a visitor’s eye to the CTA is a good thing. And sometimes you have to be overt about it.
Directional cues, like arrows, are excellent for showing people where to look. However, you can also use more subtle cues, like a picture of a person looking to the right (when the opt-in is to the right). The human brain picks up on little details such as this.
The first version of your landing page won’t be the last. Expect it to go through multiple iterations before you hit your stride. Reach the “best” iteration faster by using different tracking tools to see what’s working on your page.
There are plenty of neat landing page optimization tools/tools available as add-ons to a landing page. Heat maps, for example, show you where people are looking and spending most of their time on a page. Scroll maps let you know how far people are scrolling down a page. Confetti reports can even show you where individual clicks are occurring.
The fear of missing out, search engine optimization or FOMO, is one of the driving factors behind why people make purchase decisions. Thus any time you can leverage scarcity in your copywriting and CTAs, you should do it.
Phrases like limited time, limited quantities, today-only, and ending soon are all effective. Countdown timers also work well, particularly for webinars, events, and sales.
As annoying as they may be, there’s one simple reason why so many marketers continue to use exit-intent popups: They work!
Exit-intent popups, which are the screen overlays that emerge when a user’s pointer leaves the screen and appears to be ready to close out the page, are great for capturing leads that would otherwise be lost. Test them out on your landing page and see what you think.
A perfectly optimized landing page can’t do anything on its own. In order to generate a positive ROI, you need traffic. More specifically, you need to drive targeted, cost-effective traffic to the page. And at PPC.co, we can help.
Through a combination of time-tested techniques and the latest industry best practices, our team of experienced PPC experts provides tailored strategies designed to help businesses across a variety of niches generate massive value from their SEM campaigns.
From search to social landing page/page, our comprehensive Google Ads PPC management services have everything you need to win. Contact us today to learn how we can help you!
Keyword research is crucial to online marketing success, because keywords still govern the way people find information online. Keywords help us accurately find the information that we are looking for among the flood of information on the Web.
As such, proper keyword research with quality keyword research software allows you to understand what set of keywords consumers are using to find what they need. It also allows you to select proper keywords for an SEO campaign based off key metrics such as search volume, competition, and seasonal demand.
But with all the research tools available out there, which one should you use?
Here’s a hint: Marketers are vying for a prime spot on Google. Doesn’t it make sense to use a keyword tool owned by Google?
Google’s own Google Ads Keyword Tool is one of the best keyword research tools available. This is largely due to the fact that most other keyword research tools pull data directly from Google’s tool via API. While 3rd party tools often do a better job of displaying Google’s data and combining that data with other data to present proprietary or unique insights, they are broken as often as Google changes its keyword tool (which, lately, has been daily).
Since most 3rd party tools draw on data from Google’s keyword tool, my experience with them has been one of unreliability. Furthermore, the proprietary data insights that are often provided by 3rd party keyword research tools are often misleading, inaccurate, or downright useless.
Add in the fact that Google’s keyword tool is free, and you have a compelling case. Let’s take a close look at this awesome keyword research tool.
In recent years, Google Adwords Keyword Tool’s interface has gone through several transformations, but the latest has resulted in a cleaner and simpler-to-use interface.
On the main interface is the word or phrase box, where you type the keywords you’re researching. Right below it are Website and Category.
Right below the main box on the interface is the Advanced Options and Filters feature, which lets you more specifically target your research to certain countries, languages, and devices from which traffic is coming.
On the left are several features that let you customize your research further by selecting the match types of the keywords you’re looking for, whether broad or exact.
For the sake of illustration, I’ll walk you through the steps on how to do research for keywords based on Exact Match, which I recommend using for SEO campaigns.
Let’s say you’re gunning for “LinkedIn Marketing”.
1. Type “LinkedIn Marketing” on the Word or phrase box.
2. You can leave out category for the keywords we’re using here, but for accuracy, I recommend you choose the most appropriate category for the keywords you’re researching.
3. Click on the Advanced Options and Filters feature.
4. On the left hand side of the page you’ll see Match Types
Now it’s time to move on to the next phase of the research – gleaning information from the results.
The Keyword Ideas section shows the main keywords, i.e. “LinkedIn Marketing” and the list of variations for the keywords, the Competition and the numbers for Local and Global Monthly Searches.
The list of Keywords column shows results for the main keywords and its variations. In the case of Exact Match, the column shows the exact set of words or phrases consumers use to learn about “LinkedIn Marketing”.
The Competition column shows how competition looks whether it’s Low, Medium or High. Aim for keywords with Low competition. Keywords with low competition will have a better chance of hitting the first page of Google’s search results.
But don’t discount keywords with Medium to High competition; you can target them for your long-term campaigns.
The Local Monthly Searches column shows the average number of searches for the keywords in a specific country or region in a typical month. Global Monthly Searches, on the other hand, shows the average number of people worldwide looking for information on “LinkedIn Marketing”.
For easy reference, you can download the results in spreadsheet format by hitting the Download button right above the Keyword Ideas section.
Combine insights from Google’s Keyword Tool with data from an SEO competition comparison tool such as my personal favorite, Market Samurai (that’s an affiliate link – thank you for clicking, if you do!). If you or your clients’ website metrics stack up to the competition, then go for it.
The Google Adwords Keyword Tool is an excellent keyword research tool. While it doesn’t give you exact numbers (not that any tool can), it’ll provide you with a good idea of which keywords to use as well as which ones to avoid. It’s clean, simple, and reliable, and when combined with insights from an SEO competition analysis tool, it gets the job done efficiently and effectively.
To find out more about keyword research and how to select the right keywords for your business’ PPC or SEO campaign, contact us!
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