October 22-23 will be our Google Analytics User and Implementation Training Seminars in Columbus, Ohio, which you can attend for $249 per day (includes $50 AdWords™ credit*). We'll be at the Embassy Suites right by the airport in Columbus (click here for location).

We've held a few previous live trainings over the past few months (Thanks to those who attended Raleigh, Chicago and Orlando!). They've all received great feedback and we're eager to present again! We have so much material to cover that I can't possibly list it all here, but there is a content list on the user and implementation registration pages.

Basically User Training is for you if you generate and interpret the reports all the time and could use some pointers on what reports are really key. And the Implementation Training is for you if you are adding the code to the pages and want new ideas for cracking those sticky setups!

These trainings are extra special because they're Seminars for Success, an educational program designed by Google to help people learn their products in a classroom setting. Google feels so strongly about this program that they've graciously offer $50 AdWords credits* to all attendees. They also made ROI Revolution Seminar Leaders and we're really proud of that! No kidding around here, you can even see our name and the schedule for these events on Google's site!

So all that reading aside, what are the main points of this blog post:

• Live Classroom Google Analytics Training from ROI Revolution (Experienced Google Analytics Experts)
• October 22-23, Columbus, Ohio, $249 each - Register NOW for either User or Implementation or both!
• You'll get a $50 AdWords Credit* for showing up!

Got it? Great, see you in Ohio in October!

*Promotional credit must be applied to an AdWords account within 30 days of attending a seminar and is valid only for Google AdWords customers with self-managed signup. Advertisers will be charged for advertising that exceeds the promotional credit. Advertisers will need to suspend their ads if they do not wish to receive additional charges beyond the free credit amount. Subject to ad approval, valid registration and acceptance of the Google AdWords Program standard terms and conditions. The promotional credit is non-transferable and may not be sold or bartered. Offer may be revoked at any time for any reason by Google Inc. One promotional credit per AdWords account. New advertisers with self-managed signup accounts are subject to an $5 activation fee that will be deducted from the promotional credit. Expires 30 days after Advertiser's registered seminar session. Void where restricted or prohibited by law.

As if the AdWords Quality Score algorithm couldn't get any more elusive and mysterious, Google announced a new groundbreaking change this morning to how it will determine the quality of keywords and ads in the future. And yes, it will affect you.

Instead of the usual static per-keyword quality score Google dishes out to advertisers, quality will now be determined in real-time each time a user searches, based on such factors as geographical location and the actual search query.

Gone are the days when your phrase matched term "swiss cheese" is nailed with a $5 minimum for being "irrelevant" due to a low CTR in the US, grinding your traffic to a screeching halt. Now, your keyword will still be active, giving you a chance for searchers in Canada searching for "fine swiss cheese", which you're not directly bidding on, to still see your ad. Since quality is determined in real-time on a per-query basis, the algorithm may determine that users in Canada click your ads more often, and click your ads when searching on specific queries.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Google will also take into account the quality on certain search networks. So while your ad may not pass the quality test to show up on Google.com, you can still show up in the search results for AOL and Ask.com.

Additionally, Google is doing away with the "minimum bid", and replacing it with "first page bid", which guides your bidding strategies a bit more effectively if you want to get on the first page, which is where all the highest quality ads hang out, fighting for that click. This bid is based on the exact match version of the search query, your ad's quality score, and advertiser competition for that query.

These changes can either help or hurt you, depending on how you want to look at it. I can already see the frustration of checking what should be high-volume keywords, and seeing that they're not receiving much traffic. They're not inactive; they're just not generating the volumes of traffic you'd hoped. You've been pegged with low quality. On the flipside, you may notice your clicks and impressions drop slightly, but the quality of that traffic is that much higher, giving you a boost in conversion rate and a drop in your cost per conversion.

According to Google, if you're a high-quality advertiser (and you are a high-quality advertiser, aren't you?) these changes should actually help you:

"Your ads will be more likely to show when they're relevant and less likely to show when they're not. This means that Google users are apt to see better ads while you, as an advertiser, should receive leads which are more highly qualified."

Basically, high-quality advertisers will get shown more for high-quality, relevant searches. That's only fair, right?

Since quality is determined in part by ad CTR and landing page quality, you should get crackin' on a fresh rewrite of your ads, and increasing your landing page quality immediately.

One of my best mates recently tied the knot onboard a cruise ship. The day before the boat left dock, destined for international waters, the unfortunate groom discovered that he had overlooked one all-important detail. It was just one detail out of thousands, but one that nonetheless had the potential to scupper months and months of planning for the big day...

It turned out that he had failed to pack his passport! So while he should have been enjoying the company of his mates the day before the big event, he actually spent the time racing back home (a 10 hour round trip) to save his marriage even before it had started!

Why do I relay the events of this poor unfortunate? Because in the frenetic world of online marketing we often deal with so much information that we fail to stop, take a breather, and make sure that we have not overlooked one all important detail that might sink months and months of planning and implementation.

Last week I received a call from a client reminding me of this fact...

Almost a year ago, the client had granted administrative access to the Google Analytics reports to a trusted employee. For whatever reason, the relationship between employer and employee soured over the next 6 months and the employee ended up leaving the organization.

Continue reading "Avoiding Calamity: Google AdWords/Analytics User Access " »

A couple months ago, there was an increase in attempts to collect personal account information within AdWords by 3rd parties. The most common term for this is phishing, whereby 3rd parties fraudulently try to acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy source.

At the time, Google had written that many phishing attempts came from adwords-noreply@google.com. The emails sent by this address asked users to update their billing information, take action on a disapproved ad, edit their account, or accept new AdWords terms and conditions.

In some cases, the links that were included in the email led to websites that install malware (software that attempts to steal sensitive information from your computer, send spam, or commit fraud) onto your computer. While the number of these attempts has decreased, they are still prevalent (we just received another email attempting this today), so you need to keep your eyes open for fraudulent behavior and contact Google of any possible phishing attempts.

During the influx of hacking attempts, one of our clients was affected. Overnight, someone was able to gain access to their account using their login name and password. They created a new campaign with one ad group and allocated a $9000/day budget in order to sell ringtones.

Fortunately, Google caught this suspicious behavior and temporarily suspended the account to investigate. While this phishing attempt was spotted and stopped before it could do some real harm, you may not be so lucky.

Continue reading "How To Prevent Successful Phishing Attempts with Your Google AdWords Account" »

Google Analytics provides you with a lot of information regarding the way visitors search to get to your site. What could be more important? Well, try asking yourself, "Are my visitors finding what they need once they get to my site?" This can actually be measured in several different ways, but one of the most insightful ways is to use the internal site search reports.

If you are using an internal site search tool (for example Google's Custom Search engine) you can track the searches that your visitors place on your site. By doing this, you can gain valuable insights into what your visitor is thinking, by actually having them tell you!

Not only can you see the keywords people are searching for (located in the Search Terms report) , but you can also gain more context by looking at the page from which they are searching.

Continue reading "Internal Site Search Reporting" »

Due to overwhelming demand for a one-stop documentation on Urchin 6, ROI Revolution is pleased to present our Urchin 6 administration manual, version 1.0. We're learning more about Urchin 6 all the time and Urchin 6 has been updated!

In two chapters this manual covers the basics of installing or upgrading to Urchin 6 and the initial configuration. Getting Urchin 6 up and running on your system can be a challenge and we want as many people as possible to be able to try Urchin 6 via the free 30 day trial. This manual is designed to answer basic questions regarding installation and configuration in an in-depth manner.

To get your FREE copy of ROI Revolution's Urchin 6 Administration Manual, click on this link and submit your information. Soon you'll receive instructions via email on where to download the PDF version of the manual.

Have a great weekend!

Google has just released Urchin 6 - Service Pack 1. There are some very important additions to this new version of Urchin 6.

First, several of the old Urchin 5 helper scripts have been revised and modified for Urchin 6:

Email Yourself Reports!
u6data_extractor.pl - You can use this script to retrieve data from the urchin.cgi engine and print a text-based report, which can be emailed, converted to HTML, etc.

Discover Processing Errors
u6scan_history.pl - This script will parse the Urchin 6 scheduler history file for errors for a particular date and print a notification if any profile exits with a non-zero exit status.If desired, the runtime output from each failed task can be printed inline.

Manage Your Logs!
weblog_rotate.pl - If you are in need of a system of log management, this script will be very handy. This script rotates the specified logs and names them with yesterday's date. The script also restarts the web server with a specified command and optionally compresses old logs and removes them after a certain period.

In addition to these scripts, a totally new feature has been added which enables you to perform user management at the command line. Using the uconf-manager, you can add, delete, and update user records without having to go into the Urchin Administration Interface.

The uconf-manager also allows you to reset the admin password and move users to a different account, tasks that cannot be done using the Urchin Administration Interface. You can also use the uconf-manager to automate the process of user creation, saving you valuable time and eliminating frustration.

ROI Revolution is an Urchin 6 reseller and so if you are ready for Urchin 6, go to www.roirevolution.com/urchin/urchin-six.htm to purchase or upgrade to Urchin 6 today!