05/15/2013 – The MarketFlare DNA AdWords visualization tool features a new “All Charts” option to see data across multiple chart types in a single view.

New! View all chart types for a report, and click through to fine-tune the visualization

While we work towards improving access to AdWords data with advanced reporting functionality, the AdWords report visualization options are just as important. From our experience, creating compelling AdWords reports for clients involves 3 important steps:

The overall goal is to make easier AdWords reporting for clients, and we’re currently focused on step 1 (getting the data), and just starting to build on this with step 2 (data and visualization formats to be used for presentation).

Template-based AdWords reports for clients are not enough

What’s next? We’ll add functionality for creating beautiful template-based weekly, monthly, and quarterly AdWords reports. We’ll address step 3 by articulating the online marketing challenges and opportunities with rules-based processing of historical and current data. Most template-based AdWords reporting software entirely leave out step 3, and this is the most important step to distinguish your services. Look for these updates in coming releases!

You can update the MarketFlare AdWords reporting tool easily from within the app via the notification link near the bottom status bar. If you haven’t started using the AdWords reporting tool yet, download MarketFlare DNA. Within minutes, you will see how easy it is to connect to your AdWords and Analytics account and take control of your report data.

updates

• AdWords API updated to v15.8.0, SQLite to v1.0.85

• Worldwide Region Editor now will apply changes of custom regions & countries to the currently viewed report, and not only to future reports

at visualization tab:
• chart thumbnails dynamically generated to immediately visualize reports in bar, area, column, stepped area, pie, treemap, geo, and line charts
• in “All Charts” view, mouse-over chart to zoom in and click-through to fine tune settings
• Chart navigation on right facilitates chart type selection, text editing, save image to clipboard or to disk

bug fixes

• MCC accounts could be selected before, and now they are grayed out and only MCC client sub-accounts can be selected
• after editing last report name in report history, row would not de-select
• after editing any report name in report history, report selection was incorrect at Reports tab if the report was currently selected

notes

• none

What is MarketFlare DNA?
MarketFlare DNA is the fast, powerful and easy way to create AdWords reports for clients.

04/02/2013 – MarketFlare DNA v.1.8.9 features general AdWords integration improvements that make your AdWords report data more accessible and easier to visualize. You can update the MarketFlare AdWords reporting tool easily from within the app via the notification link near the bottom status bar.

updates

• at report history, report filters show instead of the filter count

at reports tab:
• added icons for report context menu for “group by” and “order by” operations
• added “group by” level (3), and “order by” level (2)
• at report history menu, shift-click on report name to edit name
• report type cloud appears in new tab
• report caching rules are as follows: any identical report pulled within 4 hours, or over 30 days old will reference existing data stored in the local SQL database

at visualization tab:
• mouse over the right of the visualization area for new options: view next & previous chart;
• save chart image and save chart to clipboard options are relocated to this section
• improved chart layouts when dimension text length is long

bug fixes

• at reports tab, clicking on report name in dropdown box would incorrectly open the dropdown and select a report instead of changing the combobox to an editbox for editing the report name

notes

• none

What is MarketFlare DNA?
MarketFlare DNA is the fast, easy, powerful and free AdWords tool for agencies and online marketing pros.

03/08/2013 – The MarketFlare DNA v.1.8.7 beta release fixes an issue introduced yesterday in v1.8.6 where AdWords accounts are not listed for new MarketFlare DNA accounts. You can update easily from within the app via the notification link near the bottom status bar.

Updates
-added default dimensions and metrics for new report types, as part of the v201302 AdWords API update
-for other recent updates, see the v1.8.6 release notes

Bug Fixes
-when linking a Google account or refreshing AdWords accounts from the Settings->Advanced tab, AdWords accounts are not retrieved

Notes
-none

What is MarketFlare DNA?
Fast, easy, powerful automagical AdWords reporting, and more!

03/07/2013 – Today we’ve published MarketFlare DNA v.1.8.6. As usual, you can update easily from within the app via the notification link near the bottom status bar.

We are committed to publish application updates within a week of AdWords API updates!

Updates
-migrated to v201302 AdWords API
-geo target country codes updated to the latest
-new AdWords reports: Audience Performance, Display Topics Performance, Placeholder Feed Item, Placement Performance

Bug Fixes
-at reports tab, error when Analytics returns no results
-at reports tab, error when grouping by dimension with report with no metrics
-at reports tab, error when report has no COST field and advanced setting to include zero cost is enabled
-at reports tab, report name sometimes editing defect when clicking on icon or combobox border
-at start up, last selected dna profile is not selected

Notes
-the AdWords API v201302 update has changed the ‘Managed Placement Performance’ report to now be called ‘Placement Performance’ Report; your reports will be renamed accordingly with this update

What is MarketFlare DNA?
Fast, easy, powerful automagical AdWords reporting, and more!

02/28/2013 – Today we’re happy to release the latest beta build of the MarketFlare DNA AdWords PPC reporting tool. Download the latest PPC reporting tool for free during the beta period!

This build includes the following new features:

• Faster report access. Google AdWords, Google Analytics, and MarketFlare DNA report types are visually represented in a spiraling tag cloud where your most often used reports get the center of attention for quick and easy access. Also, now each report type has an icon indicator in the report history and drop down lists so you can easily find the right report type. Just select the “default” fields and fire off the report request to download the report data within seconds!
• Reports can now easily be named from the drop down list in the Reports tab! Just click on the report name to rename it, and click on the drop-down arrow to see the other reports. Report custom names can also be set from the Report History tab.
• DNA reports are now integrated into the Reports tab as their own report type; so now you can easily run the negative keyword analysis and organic vs. paid reports along with other Google Analytics and Google AdWords reports.
• ROAS reporting! Now you can select ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) when you have selected “Total conv. value” and “Cost” metrics for any report, and the ROAS is calculated and reported automatically.
• Faster group-by, and sort features! This is a partial release in support of upcoming features. In an upcoming release we’ll add the ability to group by and sort from any existing columns so you can drill down to the exact data view that you want.
• Improved stability and responsiveness with many bug fixes. This update includes the latest SQLite database engine and Google API integration code.
• Select the applicable currency for revenue reporting, and the AdWords cost currency is automatically set based on your AdWords account setting.
• Improved visualization layouts and new color schemes. Check it out!

Please report any found issues from the “beta” link at the top of the application or from within the support tab.

Thanks for your feedback and help in reporting any found issues!

What’s MarketFlare DNA? We have just released this AdWords reporting and analysis tool in January 2013 in a public beta version so that marketing agencies and professionals can access their client report data more quickly and in more meaningful ways. Key features include AdWords MCC integration, an AdWords bulk reporting tool, negative keyword tool, an AdWords link and landing page content checker, and other powerful PPC tools for reporting and analysis.

When initially creating negative keyword lists, start with your intuition about about irrelevant keywords and those that indicate people are looking for a different product altogether. Also, it’s good practice to get ideas from Google’s Keyword Tool and practical negative keyword how-to articles that can be applied to your campaigns.

After your campaign has run for some time, a best practice for discovering negative keywords is to mine negative keywords from your AdWords Search Query Performance Report (SQR) based on the keyword cost and related performance metrics such as conversions, click-through-rate, and revenue. The rationale is simply that if you are spending money on keywords that do not produce according to your campaign goals, then you should consider excluding those from your Pay-Per-Click (PPC) activity.

Reaching only those customers who are interested in your product will help you reduce costs and increase your keyword Quality Score, thereby increasing your Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)

We’ve taken a couple unique approaches to automate the mining and discovery of negative keywords with some software we’ve built especially for reporting and analysis of large worldwide AdWords campaigns – MarketFlare DNA. With this software your AdWords report data is automatically, intelligently processed with the net result being a list of negative exact phrases and a breakthrough approach that lists negative keywords (as single negative word candidates) that can be applied to your campaigns or ad groups within Search Network campaigns or Display Network campaigns (as keyword exclusions).

Advanced Negative Keyword Analysis

MarketFlare DNA has a negative keyword tool feature that automatically runs your SQR or you can choose from an existing report that was previously run from the AdWords Report tab.

All you need to do is in the Settings -> Reports tab to set the default report period selection, and  set the thresholds for “Total conv. value” and “Conversions” to values that act as filters to select negative exact phrase or negative keyword candidates. Usually these values are set to zero, as keywords with no revenue or conversions are sure negative keyword candidates especially given a reporting period of 1 month or more.

Set the default report period and the negative keyword thresholds at Settings -> Reports

Negative Exact Phrases and Negative Keywords (single words) candidates are listed along with relevant PPC metrics

Easy Discovery of AdWords Negative Exact Phrases

The negative exact phrase candidates appear in just a couple seconds or a couple minutes if you have tens or hundreds of thousands of records, noting which campaigns those negative exact phrases occur in. You can easily sort the negative exact phrase results by related PPC metrics (such as Cost), and these can be exported to Excel.

Powerful, Breakthrough Algorithm to Discover Non-performing Single Words across All Search Queries in Your AdWords Account

The negative keyword report uses a more sophisticated algorithm that traverses all queries in the SQR and for each word in each query, it obtains aggregate PPC metrics for each distinct word, noting from which queries the words were obtained. This way, you can effectively view single words that have not performed that occur within ALL your search queries for the selected period!

Even if you have an eight-core processor, this report could take an hour to run if your SQPR is very large, but it’s worth waiting for as it can help you save thousands of dollars and boost your ROAS tremendously.

Find out for yourself today which keywords you are wasting money on and that are hampering your keyword Quality Score.

Please let us know how it works out for you.

The MarketFlare DNA AdWords Bulk Reporting Tool was built so that you can get the report data you need with amazing efficiency while also formatting the reports based on your preferences. Within the MarketFlare DNA application, once you have configured and run any AdWords report type, the report appears in your Report History. From the Report History tab, just select the reports you would like to run and then you can optionally adjust all or some of those report dates.

This PPC bulk reporting feature was built so that you can run your usual weekly, monthly, and quarterly AdWords reports effortlessly while also securely archiving the report data into a local SQL database that is built into the MarketFlare DNA application. So, past AdWords reports can be accessed offline and you can create a new report based on any report in your report history.

Optionally, you can have the reports opened automatically in the AdWords Reports tab when the job is completed. The way you have viewed the report is remembered with that report type; for instance, which columns are selected, how data is grouped, column order and even column widths.  Just click “Export Data” and all your report tabs can be quickly exported to Excel. You can even run AdWords reports for multiple clients simply by switching to another DNA profile that is linked to your other AdWords client account, and report tabs will be grouped by client.

Running multiple AdWords reports has never been easier or faster, even across multiple MCC client accounts

Now, in a fraction of the usual time it takes, you are able to run multiple AdWords reports for multiple clients and export them already in the views you need for your client presentations. What’s more, is from the AdWords Reports tab or the Report History you can visualize any report in one of multiple chart types and export the image or copy it to your clipboard.

The AdWords Bulk Reporting Tool is just one other way MarketFlare DNA relieves agencies from the tedious tasks related to regular PPC reporting. Learn more about the many other unique features of this new AdWords Reporting Tool.

Yes, finally you can easily view your custom conversion data in columns alongside any other PPC metrics, and even visualize data in a single click. One of the many pain points for PPC agencies has been to report on multiple AdWords custom conversion action related metrics along with relevant performance metrics side-by-side like this:

Pivoting data is fun, and MarketFlare DNA can pivot and join custom conversion data into any AdWords report easily – Purchase/Sales, Trials, etc. – up to 30 conversion actions!

If you know how and why this is a problem, and just want the AdWords reporting tool that breezes through every type of AdWords report, then get MarketFlare DNA at no cost – thanks for trying it. Otherwise, please keep reading to review a bit of history and then get to how the MarketFlare DNA AdWords reporting tool solves this problem.

Before Google retired the AdWords Report Center…

Back in the old days (2010), AdWords Report Center showed 1-per-click and many-per-click specific Conversion types along with clicks, impressions, and other metrics. Since then, Google moved reports into the same interface where you manage AdWords, and this has facilitated campaign management in many ways. Google also enhanced AdWords functionality by enabling custom conversion actions (up to 30), allowing advertisers to track multiple conversion events (free trials, white papers, downloads, sign-ups, purchases…) and 1-per-click conversion reporting could then be more specific and accurate. Great! But here’s the problem: Google also removed the 1-per-click and custom conversion actions from the standard report data views that include performance metrics. Ouch!

Viewing the custom conversion and metrics data together is usually a cumbersome process: run two separate reports for the same period (conversions only, metrics only), pivot the conversion data and then join the data. If you are running dozens of reports or need various data views, then this process is a time killer and sometimes confusing. Until now, the best way to do this has been with Excel. Even most expensive PPC tools that agencies use do not reduce steps or complexity because either they are geared for general data analysis or they are not fully integrated with Google AdWords.

Why did Google determine custom conversion data should be segmented and reported outside of PPC performance metrics?

Turns out there is problem attributing conversions directly to the reported clicks and impressions; or put another way, the completed conversions are not necessarily a direct result of the clicks or impressions reported. Was it the click or impression? Or following an AdWords click or impression, was it an affiliate banner at a blog, Twitter (as if), or organic search result that actually resulted in that conversion? So, attribution is a problem but that’s not news nowadays. The other issues are that multiple types of conversions may be associated with a single click and aggregate 1-per-click reporting might only reflect the first action across various conversion types.

Why do I want to see my PPC metrics and conversion data together?

While being mindful of attribution challenges, we think it’s useful to analyze your AdWords reports with conversion data and PPC performance metrics side-by-side.

Just select ‘Conversion Action Name’ to automatically create a report that brings PPC metrics and conversion data together!

Clearly seeing conversion data related to performance of keywords, ad placements, geo, devices, and other dimensions helps us to make better campaign management decisions.   While MarketFlare DNA has dozens of additional features, we found that being able to view AdWords metrics and custom conversion data together is one of the most useful features. All you need to do to enable the feature is to select “Conversion Action Name” from the list of dimensions before running a report.

In future posts we’ll cover the MarketFlare DNA negative keywords tool, primary keyword discovery, visualization, and other features.

Try MarketFlare DNA today to discover new ways to view your AdWords campaign data, and save time on your reporting.

For PPC clients struggling to meet ROAS goals, we usually set out to find a solution with PPC best practices. In such cases we apply tactics of increasing the keyword Quality Scores (QS) and optimizing existing campaign structure and elements; also, adding many long tail keywords along with corresponding landing pages related particular descriptive words.

The PPC budget and account keyword performance history are important factors in the PPC campaign optimization process. In case of an insufficient budget and a poor keyword performance history, Google could apply a cost per click premium on your head terms and your long tail terms could realize minimal impression share.  Over the course of 1-2 weeks, after much pushing of buttons and pulling of levers, it could become clear that you are not getting impressions on most of the long tail keywords. When this happens, then the big questions arise:

• what do you need to do to pull out of the PPC tailspin?
• is it possible to obtain positive ROAS with head terms?

Yes, the head terms are obviously important as part of a PPC campaign but does your business have the budget, reputation, and maturity in business to compete with aggregators and businesses that have 10+ years of customer acquisition and reputation-building under their belt?

Figure Out & Measure Your Approach, Then Start Fresh

A conclusion we might reach is that our client is hard-pressed to challenge the “big fish” with head terms. What can be done if the account historical performance and 2 weeks of experience reflect that the economics of the approach with head terms do not work out positively? In this case, to pull out of a PPC tailspin we suggest to:

• trim head terms to 10-20% of the budget and to focus primarily on long tail keywords
• step back and re-evaluate your entire business and marketing strategy as a challenger against other bigger brands; take a holistic approach to PPC success
• launch the PPC campaign in a new AdWords account that is not affected by negative performance history (against AdWords’ Policy, but certainly justifiable in some situations); dealing with a poor QS history can otherwise take 1-4 weeks to deal with

Besides the usual campaign management, these steps require considerable effort and the second point is especially important. While we can move forward with PPC campaign management tactics and work on the long tail to incrementally improve performance, we had better start to dissect some core business issues that are related to PPC success.

Be Aware of Brand Equity Advantage

A stark reality of the “big fish” is that they usually have an advantage of an already recognizable brand. They benefit from significant number searches on their brand that they buy for less than anyone and their high CTR boosts their QS. They usually have a bigger budget. In short, big brands are perched at the top of a PPC upward spiral related to high CTR and Ad Position and low CPC. Consequently, good ROAS comes easier for recognizable brands.

Plan to Break Out of Your Industry Mold

It turns out that the general business evaluation and planning also solves how we could possibly be successful with PPC head terms. Most businesses require very significant investment in time to iron out  general business, branding, value proposition, and online marketing implementation strategy. Again, PPC Marketing activity does not solve these general issues and they must be ironed out before venturing to grow business with PPC head terms.

Here are some important questions and topics that any business must think about:

• What makes your business, products, or services distinct? Can you communicate this in one sentence? How does this distinction break with the immediate past and status quo of the industry?
• What does your brand deliver beyond the practical needs? (secure, cool, intelligent, sexy, successful – what emotions does the brand inspire?) While it might seem silly for a business to consider and strategize about what type of emotional response or connection to evoke, we found that top PPC competitors have either:
  • created and invested in a brand personality that creates an emotional connection; and/or,
  • have been first to market with a product or service that essentially defined their category
• Do you make it clear why your product or service features are better than the competition? What is memorable about this difference?
• Do you have a constant schedule of compelling, limited time offers? Constant Hot Deals are usually an imperative to compete nowadays.
• Why should I trust your company? Can you show me recognizable brands that use your company services?
• Do you completely articulate the features of each of your products and services? It is important that customers have the sense they are getting full featured products or services.
• Is your checkout process very clear, fast, and tailored to specific offers while offering non-intrusive upsell?

While it might seem obvious, it is important to point out that it is the ideas, planning, sacrifice, and leadership that will make your business to succeed and not your PPC marketing campaign. At the same time, your PPC campaign is an important and powerful tool to support your business branding and growth.

Are you a Manufacturer or Publisher that is trying to sell direct while also growing a network of active Affiliates?

In general, affiliates need exclusive promotions and your channel and direct e-commerce also need exclusive promotions. The challenge is to carefully define and mix up these promotions so that the various promotions do not conflict with or detract from each other.

Do your Affiliates offer a reach into unique networks and communities of customers? If they are driving most of their transactions through PPC with Affiliate arbitrage, then their value to your company is debatable.

What is Affiliate PPC arbitrage?

This is basically when Affiliates are buying traffic (Pay Per Click) at a particular price and then converting that traffic to sales at such a rate that they make money. Sometimes Affiliates will convert that traffic within their own targeted landing pages, and sometimes they will send traffic direct to the e-commerce site or shopping cart (direct PPC arbitrage). The general idea and goal of PPC arbitrage is to figure out the average $ earning from each visitor, and to buy sufficient quality traffic at such a $ rate so that the arbitrage venture is profitable.

Having Affiliates who do arbitrage usually hampers your company PPC efforts because they are bidding against you. Also, if you do not have an Affiliate Policy that addresses branding and messaging, then Affiliates can quickly and effectively damage your brand reputation. Furthermore, Affiliates who do direct PPC (with your company URL as the Display URL) can actually supplant your Ads so that your company Ads will not show. The largest concern is with your bottom line -  probably your PPC-derived revenue costs less than your Affiliate derived revenue. Naturally you want to protect your PPC derived revenue and this is why we need to discuss Affiliate program management and Affiliate compliance policy.

Affiliate Program Management

Work must be done on the Affiliate management side to cultivate relationships with various breeds of affiliates, and to structure an Affiliate program that limits Affiliates to engage with only certain PPC networks and/or to use specific keywords.

For example,  a usual Affiliate PPC management strategy is to allow affiliates to offer exclusive $ or % off coupons and to bid only non-branded keywords, and/or specifically only on “coupon” or “discount” related keywords. You know specifically which keywords provide the highest Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) right? Then be sure you have maximum Impression Share and CTR on those, and do some analysis before relinquishing that low hanging fruit to Affiliates.

Does your company have an Affiliate Compliance Policy in place that at least addresses keywords, bidding levels,  ad messaging, and direct linking?

The best value of from Affiliates is realized when they are tapping into their own community. For example, Super Affiliates such as Fatwallet and SlickDeals can enable exposure for your brand and product offers with a focus and magnitude that would be difficult to accomplish with PPC efforts.

Who are Super Affiliates?

These are Affiliates that generate at least $1,000/month in revenue for your company. Maybe $1,000/month is not so super, but this seems to be the rule for earning that moniker.

Affiliate Promotional Strategy

Here we’ll share a specific Affiliate promotional strategy.

• 10 days in advance, the Affiliate channel gets an exclusive, high-incentive offer – $20 off coupon, for the “super sale” on a unique bundle or SKU.
  • Why a unique bundle? A potential problem with this type of offer is that when Affiliates publish it, then it will persist online for all eternity and show up in Natural Search. It could create an expectation from customers that they could get this type of offer in the future your usual product. By offering a unique SKU and tying the promo to a useful marketing message, there is protection against eroding the value of the product and at the same time a positive use for SEO
• The Affiliates are not given a coupon code, but rather a link to a “super sale” landing page that will be enabled at a particular time in xx days – 8am PST Friday morning (or whenever).
• Meanwhile offer your product at the usual price; if you offer a trial version of your product, then users can still use the product now, then buy it later during the one time, limited offer (there is a limited quantity available at that price).
• On the day of the super sale, after the allocated qty is sold, then update the page to show this “super sale” has ended, and of course merchandises other products.
• Affiliates can still earn based on the client cookie for some number of days.

In this case the affiliates are not likely to be active with PPC (because they can’t convert right away), but to create awareness at their affiliate site, forum, or wherever they publish, instructing people to visit the “super sale” page at a particular time. They might do PPC marketing, but only on a particular day for a few hours until the promo is over.

There is growing interest in hot deals and daily deals. So, what is a hot deal? A good way to test if it is warm and worth merchandising as a special is simply to ensure it is at least 10% lower than any other online price (Amazon, Buy.com…). If your product is a commodity type of product then it might not be considered as a hot deal unless it is 40% off.

Building A Network of True Content Affiliates

Managing Affiliate promotions can certainly be tricky business. A challenge now seems to be in figuring out how to move from relying on Affiliate PPC arbitrage related revenue to what we call True Content Affiliates who are publishers (Blogs, Squidoo-type article marketing, Social Media). The type of promotional strategy described above is interesting for True Content Affiliates, and engaging and activating a network of True Content Affiliates should be a part of any Affiliate Network marketing strategy.