Week 3 - MKTG 349 - Picking The Right Campaign Type

During the set-up process of your campaign, Google asks you to pick a campaign type and a sub-type.  There are three types of campaigns: search network only, display network only, and search network with display select.  These three types of campaigns determine where your ads appear.  The search network only and display network only are Google's main advertising networks.  The search network with display connect is a combination of both networks.  On the search network, ads can be seen on Google searches, shopping, Google maps, groups, and any other Google partner such as AOL.  On display network, ads can be see on websites that show relevant Google ads, videos, apps, basically everywhere.

The search network only campaign works by matching search results page based on words or phrases a person puts in the search engine.  For example, if someone were to search for a new car, a car dealership's ad would show up.  The display network only works by matching your search results to websites and other "non Google" sites.  You also have the ability to narrow in on specific websites, pages, and topics.  If you were to go with the search network with display select, your budget will affect both campaigns and it will have a shared function of both the network and display campaigns.

When it comes to choosing the type of campaign, typically the network only campaign is used for people who want their ads to appear on Google search results, and you are just trying to reach customers looking for your product or service.  The display network is typically used among experienced adword users.  The display network only campaign is designed to reach customers just casually browsing the Internet.  The combination of the network with display select campaign is typically used among beginners.  It is intended for people who want to advertise on Google, but also branch out to other customers who are surfing the web.

Week 3 - MKTG 348 - Search Engine Types and How They Work

When searching for something on Google or Yahoo!, how do they come up with their list of results?  Search engines rank their results based on what a user typed in the search bar.  When it comes to ranking results, there are two categories: crawler based and human powered based.  Web crawling is a program that scans the entire web to come up with webpages for your results.  They do this by evaluating each web page and comparing it to your search.  Crawling takes into account keywords, titles, body pages, etc.  Human powered directories works by humans putting in a description of their site to the search engine.  Say a small company has a website they just created, a worker can create their own description of their site, which the directory will use when a search is being conducted.


Web crawling is more commonly used, especially in the bigger search engines like a Google.  Crawling is made up of three processes: crawl the web, index pages, and search engine software to bring it on home to the users.  Indexing takes place right after the crawling process.  An index is a copy of a web page that is in a database.  Once the web page is indexed, it can be seen in search results.  What is really neat about the index is that if a web page is changed, the indexed page is automatically updated.  The last step in a crawler based search is the search engine itself.  The search engine takes all the indexed pages it received and picks the relevant content that closely matches the search.  The search engine basically picks out the content it believes matches the search and ranks them based on their perceived strength of correlation.

Week 3 - MKTG 348 - Keeping Your Blog Post Consistent With Your Agenda

When it comes to blog posts, it is imperative that you stay on the same subject for the entire post.  You cannot drift off into another subject; save that subject for another post.  There are many reasons to focus on one topic.  One of those reasons is to keep the readers' attention.  If you drift off into another topic, the reader may not enjoy that topic, and will stop leaving.  Another reason to stick to one topic per post is to increase your SEO.

SEO is crucial when it comes to blogs.  Creating solid keywords and meta descriptions will increase your chances of being found on search results.  With regards to SEO, there are five practices that should be implemented when blogging.  The first practice is the keywords.  Your keywords should include your title and any other descriptions of your topic you see fit.  Keywords only allow 55 characters so choose your topics wisely to give you the best chance of being seen.  The second is meta description.  Meta description is your last opportunity to draw in the viewers.  It is 140 characters of your selling your blog to someone.  The description needs to be on the same page as your blog and entice your viewers to click on your link and read your blog.  Another good practice in blogging is to add a picture.  Adding pictures gives your posts eye candy, and it breaks up the reading for your audience.  The picture should be consistent with your topic.  The last two are links and anchor texts and focusing on mobile optimization.  Focusing on mobile optimization allows people to view your blog anywhere on any kind of device.

Week 2 - MKTG 349 - Organizing Campaigns and Ads

In AdWords, there is a three-layer design.  These layers consist of: account, campaign, and ad groups.  In regards to the account, it is associated with an email address, a password, and a billing address.  With campaigns, that has its own budget and settings which the user determines and thus, determines where and when your ad will appear.  The last layer consists of ad groups.  Ad groups include similar ads all bunched together with similar keywords.


The reason people should organize their ads is so other users can easily find that ad.  When bundling your campaigns together, you increase your chances of being seen, and having your ad be clicked on.  These collections of ads is known as the campaign and your campaign ultimately controls your ad groups.  Your campaign controls how much you are willing to spend on clicks/ads, where you want to show your ads, and other settings which alter your ad groups.  The campaigns are structured like so:

Week 2 - MKTG 348 - Website Optimization

This week in class, we watched a video on website optimization.  There are two ways you can optimize a website.  The first method is having a goal in mind and how you want to accomplish this goal.  The second method, and the one that I will go into detail with is understanding web crawling.  Web crawling is a method that browses the entire World Wide Web in order to create a list of search results after entering a search keyword.  Web crawling is a very important aspect in website optimization.  In regard to your own website and making it easy to crawl and understand, there are three methods: design, content/keywords, and formatting the content.  The stronger these three methods are, the stronger your site is and the easier it is to crawl and be towards the top of search results.  In regards to design, hubspot says to focus on cognitive fluency.  All cognitive fluency means is how easy something be processed.  If I were to search for something specific, say red SUVs, I get websites that are selling red SUVs.

The second method to understanding web crawling is content.  When discussing content, the topic of the site falls under this category as well as the description and keywords you include.  You want your site's content to relate to searchers' search results.  The stronger the correlation between your content and the users' search, the better the chance the user will see your website.

The final method to better understanding web crawling is content formatting.  When it comes to formatting your content, you want to include different fonts, with headings and sub-headings.  Your content should also include pictures as eye candy to your viewers, and include short sentences and paragraphs; nothing to long as you do not want to bore your viewers.

Week 1 - MKTG 348 - Inbound Marketing

In class on Thursday, we watched videos on inbound marketing.  The videos were very interesting.  They discussed the differences between traditional marketing and inbound marketing, and how inbound marketing is becoming the new trend.  Inbound marketing is designed to attract consumers, without interrupting them.  Traditional media does just that; they try and set up videos on websites that annoy its viewers and could turn them away from these websites.  Inbound marketing does the complete opposite by setting up a target market, and generating awareness without annoying its target market.

These videos on hubspot were very informative, and give a new twist on marketing.  Up until now, I have really only studied traditional marketing.  This site will help expand my marketing background and gain a better understanding in the field.  Having an expanded background in marketing will help me get a job in the future and succeed.  Hubspot, so far, has really got me thinking into the whole "marketing world", and what could be with all these new strategies like inbound marketing.  Things such as: how effective is it, will it become more effective, and what other strategies will come from inbound marketing.

Week 1 - MKTG 349 - AdWords

Today in class we got an overview of Google's AdWords and how it works.  AdWords is a very powerful tool that allows users to market themselves, their company, and/or a product or service they may have.  AdWords work by offering users the opportunity to advertise through Google's search engine as well as their partnering companies.  This powerful tool seems to be the future of marketing, and falls under the concept of inbound marketing, which is something that I learned in my Marketing 348 class.  The idea behind inbound marketing is to create awareness without interrupting any sort of medium.  For example, when you go on YouTube to watch a video, you typically have to sit through an advertisement before you can watch the video you wanted to see in the first place.  That sort of obnoxious advertising is traditional marketing.

Going back to my Marketing 348 class, there are two types of marketing: Traditional and Inbound.  Both my Marketing 348 and 349 classes seem to focus on Inbound Marketing.  After reading getting an introduction to Adwords and reading through some of the AdWords introductory links, I can really see a parallel between inbound marketing and the AdWords.  The whole idea behind AdWords is to create awareness without creating a nuisance.  AdWords is a great investment for people and businesses looking to create awareness.  I say its an investment because you do have to put money into AdWords.

AdWords charges account users per click, meaning for every time another user sees your ad, and clicks on the link, you get charged a certain amount of money that was previously determined by the account user.  AdWords tracks many other metrics besides clicks, one in particular is CTR, or click through rate.  Click through rate is the tracking of how many people not only saw your ad, but how many actually clicked on the link to view the website.  You can view the CTR through specific keywords, ad groups, and the entire campaign as a whole.  According to the AdWords introductory website a good CTR rate is 1% or higher.