Tip: Using Google’s ‘Wonder wheel’
Posted by yhk on Sep 20, 2009
As discussed in the last post, here we are going to talk about how an advertiser can come up with related themes for their products to advertise on Google’s Content Network. We would like to introduce Google’s ‘Wonder wheel’…tada! This tool will help you come up with related themes to what you actually offer. Lets take an example to understand this better. Lets say an advertiser is selling ‘yoga mats’ and he is trying to create and target secondary themes. To access the tool and get suggestions, he should:
First go to Google Search and perform a search for the product ‘yoga mats’. Next, he should click on the little plus sign right below the search box, as seen in the image below.
After that, he should see a navigation panel on the left-hand side of the page which should have the link to the ‘Wonder wheel.’ Once he clicks that link, he should see a diagrammatic representation of the original search query with the related ones. A screenshot below. He can also click any of the related searches and get further related themes like in the second illustration below.
Content Network Tip: Using Secondary/Complimentary Themes
Posted by yhk on Sep 17, 2009
Google’s Content Network is not just limited to targeting those pages on the publisher network that are highly relevant and talk directly about what you offer to sell, as most advertisers think. A really effective strategy for advertising on the Content Network is creating secondary themes that are likely to convert.
Eg: Someone selling flowers online, apart from targeting websites that talk about flowers, might also want to target websites that talk about or sell chocolates. In such cases, their keyword theme would be something like:
chocolate
buy chocolates
chocolates online
send chocolates online
And the ad text should be something like:
Sending Chocolates?
Why Not Send Some Flowers Too?
Same-day Delivery Available Here!
www.flowers.com
Notice how the ad text tries to build a connection between the theme of the Content Network website and the theme of the advertised website. Advertisers who have used this technique have reported a noticeable increase in clicks and conversions coming from the Content Network. This method allows you to broaden your approach on the Content Network while maintaining high quality clicks.
Curious about how to figure out secondary and related themes? Watch out for our next post which will talk about a Google tool that will help you do just that.
Reasons Why People Quit Orkut and Move To Facebook in India
Posted by yhk on Sep 15, 2009
If you live in Brazil or India, you probably still log in to Orkut. Orkut is still the most popular social networking website in these two countries. However, for India, this probably wont be the case a few months down the line. The graph below, from Google’s ‘Insights for Search,’ shows a clear trend.
Facebook, however, has no significant share in the Social Networking market in Brazil. There is also no trend suggesting any change or market share gain. Below are a few reasons (no specific order) why I believe people move to Facebook from Orkut.
- Facebook offers more privacy, and you can be assured that only your friends get to see your complete profile and not any strangers as has happens on Orkut.
- Orkut is perfect for only those people who have got friends only in Brazil or India. Searching for friends in the Middle-east or even the US (where Orkut was created) will rarely give results. Facebook has a far wider reach and is the dominant social networking website in many countries across the world, and people manage to find long lost buddies with ease.
- The Orkut interface looks a lot more spammy than Facebook.
- You rarely receive “b mi frnd” requests from strangers on Facebook like you always do on Orkut
- Facebook has a lot more cooler features to stay in touch with friends and to know whats going on. Facebook’s updates on the home page and email notifications will rarely ever let you miss an update from a friend or a comment. Its easy to miss stuff on Orkut — especially when something is happening within a community, you need to manually check the community page for updates and are not notified automatically.
- Orkut has copied dozens of Facebook features (status updates, photo comments, certain privacy features — to name a few) which has made it pretty evident who the leader in social networking is.
- Facebook has a lot less spam than Orkut (funny how Google hates spam but has failed to tackle this here).
These are just a few of the many reasons why people do it. If you feel there are more, please feel free to add them as a comment to this post.
Personally, my Orkut account is almost dead. I once used to receive around 10 scraps a day, but now, 10 scraps a year would sound amazing. 
Reasons to Advertise on Google’s Content Network
Posted by yhk on Sep 12, 2009
Many advertisers feel that the Content Network is not effective and just boosts up their AdWords costs. Well, from my experience with AdWords accounts, I would say this is far from the truth. Those who say this, have not understood the potential this network holds and do not actually know on how to tap it. Did you know that people spend most of their time online on Content Network websites? In this post, I will include a few reasons why you should advertise on Google’s Content Network.
With the Content Network you can:
- target a much wider audience than the search network (people exhaust the potential on search and that is why this is all the more important)
- target people who may be interested in what you have to offer
- target the passive market (search is when people actively look for what you offer)
- target the type of web pages that your typical customer reads (Eg: people selling cameras might want to target pages that have reviews about the cameras they sell)
- drill down to websites that actually work for you and exclude the ones that don’t
- create a massive branding campaign and get noticed online
There is no one way of approaching the Content Network. You have to experiment with different keyword themes and ad copy to come up with that structure that really works for you.
Access the Content Network videos (10 of them) in a playlist created on Google’s YouTube business channel here.
Tip: Use Google’s Ad Planner Tool
Posted by yhk on Sep 11, 2009
With Google’s Ad Planner tool, you can create media plans for your business and find the audience you are looking for on the internet. This is a 
stand-alone tool which is not linked to AdWords, but it will also show you which websites support Google ads. To get a brief introduction to this tool, watch the video below.
Also, for a more detailed look into this tool and how you can use it effectively, see this recorded webinar by an expert at Google. It talks about what the tool is and its features, and also includes a demo of how the tool is used.
To summarize, here are the features:
- Search and categorize websites on the internet by demographic data (allows you to target only those websites for advertising that match your typical customer’s profile)
- Drill down based on potential keywords your customer/user might search on or similar websites they might visit
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For those AdWords advertisers who believe that targeting the Content Network in general has not really worked for them, this is an answer.
Review: Tata Indicom Broadband - Flash 384
Posted by yhk on Sep 10, 2009
I just got this connection about three weeks ago. Here are the reasons why you should and reasons why you probably should not go in for this provider.
The Good Stuff:
- Super fast speeds with amazing consistency
- 1.5 mbps (proper) after 10pm till 8 am everyday, and the whole of Sundays (download 700 MB in an hour) - more than enough for YouTube
- No disconnects yet
- Free WiFi Router on 6 month advance payment
The Bad Stuff:
- Slow response to your application (the sales guy promised to deliver in 24 hours but took a week)
- Its been three weeks, but no sign of a WiFi router being delivered to me (they said it would happen after my payment clears — which happened 2 weeks ago)
- Broken LAN cable that wont fix into its slot (pops out of its socket every time you move your laptop — noticed that after those guys left. It popped out even while drafting this post…sigh! 
- Used Modem (they say they don’t give these out anymore, so no chance of getting a new one)
My advice: pester them to have the connection installed asap if you really need it, and also for the WiFi router. I called the sales guy and threatened to complain to his manager. Its probably the only thing that works here.
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Update: I called customer service and the agent said that it usually takes a month for it get delivered and asked me to be patient. She then asks me for my account details only to find out that its been way over a month! Then she places me on hold, and guess what the hold message is — “Now with Tata Indicom Braodband get a WiFi router absolutely free…”
She said she raised the issue with her TL. Lets see where it goes from here…
Tip: Understanding The Google Adwords Ad Auction
Posted by yhk on Mar 17, 2009
This is a new video released by Google that talks about how the auction system works for Google AdWords. It explains how bids (maximum cost per click) and Quality Score work together to determine your Ad Rank, which in turn determines how much you pay.
Google #1 on Alexa Rankings
Posted by yhk on Feb 25, 2009
Google finally beats Yahoo! on Alexa rankings. Check this out!
Google is #1. See the latest Alexa Rankings.
Yahoo! Ranks #2 now. Check here.
Tip: Using Analytics To Find Poor Keywords In AdWords
Posted by yhk on Jan 13, 2009
Like mentioned in the last post, Google Analytics can be used to review and optimize the performance of your Google AdWords campaigns. Below, is a short video which explains how you can identify and filter out poorly performing ads and keywords in AdWords using Analytics.
YHK
Tip: Regional Targeting In Google AdWords Using Analytics
Posted by yhk on Jan 11, 2009
Here is a short video from the official Google Business Channel on YouTube. It explains why and how you should smartly choose location targeting in Google AdWords using Google Analytics.
YHK