How to Measure AdWords Profitability

I just watched this youtube video from the Chief Economist, Hal Varian, who explains some fundamental profitability terms in a surprisingly "non-economist" fashion. By this I mean it's relatively easy to understand. If you can get past all the acronym-induced confusion and fear of percentages, you'll find this video particularly helpful when it comes to thinking about how much of a return you're getting from AdWords. Perhaps more importantly, it'll help you think through bidding strategy with a sense of direction.

In the first part, he discusses how to find your Value Per Click, and how that can guide you towards a profitable bidding price.

In the second part, he explains how to find Incremental Cost Per Click, and how this can deliver an optimal bidding strategy for gaining the most profit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRx7AMb6rZ0

 

 

Mobile Optimization Meetup

    

 Tomorrow I will be hosting another Meetup for small business owners and digital marketers alike! I will broadcast this Meetup live via Google Hangouts as I deliver it in person at USC. If you have a website and want to optimize it, ensure that it's optimized, find out what the Google Best Practices are for optimization or even learn a bit about app marketing, then this is for you! Join the conversation and learn with me tomorrow at 8pm. Hope to see you there!

Meetup Details for Mobile Optimization

Restaurants: Plan Your Discounts Around 2015 Trends

                          


Thinking about which discount/coupon incentive will be effective for social media in 2015? How about offering small items related to popular search terms every month in 2015? If you do this, you can then take advantage of trending topics in social media.

 IE.
 January - "Vegan Value" | "Weigh-Loss Diet Discounts"

 February - "Wing Wednesday" | "Wind Wing Specials"

 If your restaurant doesn't offer term relevant to these topics, perhaps it's time for a menu upgrade? It doesn't have to take up your whole menu, just enough to match your incentives with the trends.

 View the Google Infographic Here

5 Factors of Viewability Infographic by Google

If you're a small business investing in an impression based campaign, it's important to know what an impression is, and how to strategically plan for placement to get the optimal ROI. Google released this infographic to help clear this up, take a look:

5-factors-of-viewability_infographics

Takeaways for SMB Community

1. Most viewable part of a page is above the fold, not on top of the page

2. Vertical messages are more effective than horizontal

3. Keep the message above the fold

4. Certain business vertices attract more attention than others