Adwords +1 Button Changes Internet Marketing.. PPC, CRO, CTR

Introducing the new Google Adwords button.

How will Google Adwords +1 Button change Internet Marketing? Does it affect PPC? Will it help or hurt CRO? Can it really increase CTR? What’s the Math?

In a recent email from Google Adwords was the following notification:

In the coming weeks, your search results and ads on Google will include a +1 button, which users can click to recommend your ads. You don’t need to make any changes to your account in order to take advantage of them. The final landing page URL of your ads can also appear on the Google profile of any user who +1’s your ad.

That time has arrived.

What this means is that now when your ad receives a +1, Google notes its final landing page URL. When the same URL appears in an organic search listing, the organic listing will include the same personal annotations as would an ad. The ad button also works both ways. Therefore, if a user +1’s one of your organic listings, then the ads Google resolves to with the same final landing page URL will include the same personal annotations. The idea is that this will increase the chance of your ads getting noticed. In theory this will also increase your CTR.

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Google Question and Answers:

per a Google Adwords Representative

Will a +1 click/vote through a Google Ad cost the advertiser anything?

You will still be charged per click on your ad the same as always — a plus 1 does not count as a click.

Awesome. Adsense +1’s don’t cost extra for the advertiser.

Does this work for  Google Boost Ads as well?

“Yes.

And… Yes. I concur.

Does the +1 affect Adwords Quality Score?

Google Reps response:

+1’s (whatever their source — organic search, ads, or +1 buttons on publisher sites) are a signal that affects organic search ranking, but +1’s do not change quality scores for ads and ad ranking. By adding +1 buttons to your pages, you give your visitors more chances to +1 your content, resulting in additional +1 annotations on Google search results and search ads. Studies have shown that customers turn to advice from people they trust when making purchase decisions, so more +1 annotations could lead to more, and better qualified traffic coming to your site from Google search.

The way we measure Quality Score for your ads has not changed. We continue to use historical AdWords performance information, clickthrough rate (CTR), and other signals to calculate your Ad Rank and cost-per-click (CPC). That being said, if personal annotations from +1’s on your search results, search ads, or website increase the CTR on your ads, your Quality Score is likely to improve as well.

So the +1 button does not directly change quality score, but could indirectly change quality score by increasing the Click Through Rate (CTR). This is a good thing for companies that foster customer relations and customer service. Having a higher CTR, increasing quality score, and then saving on the cost-per-click (CPC) means a better ROI for the business. This also turns out to be a better user experience for Google users because they finding those quality companies. This is a win-win-win scenario.

The Problem Pests

The first step in this equation looks pretty good, but this math problem has a few pest issues. ….LANDING PAGES.

We have landing pages for our Google PPC campaign to track our PPC and they are “NoIndex” pages. How will this benefit or hurt us?

In your case, if you have a different landing page for Google PPC, any +1 to your PPC ad won’t also show on your organic listing- but would  +still show on the ad. If you put a +1 button on your Google PPC page and someone +1’s it, then when someone in their network sees your ad, they will see the annotation below it.

 

Hmmm, that doesn’t sound so good.  Would an Extreme Canonical Trick help?

+1s are tagged currently at the URL level. So, if you have a landing +page just for Google PPC, then if someone +1s that ad, you will only see the +1 annotations below that ad and not on the organic link. If the same URL is used for both PPC and Organic listings, then any +1s to that URL (whether on the landing page itself, on the ad, or the organic link) will show up for all links to that page.

While I am sure that there a few geniuses out there that have this problem already solved the rest of us like to create separate landing pages to track Google Adwords, and to improve conversion rates. Optimization of landing pages was one of the benefits that Google Pay Per clicks offered without the hassles of including SEO. Many search engine marketers (SEMs) enjoyed the flexibility of design available within the safe haven of pay per clicks. Because search engine rules demand webmasters show the search bot spiders and the human users the same page, this +1 adwords creation is going to bite into landing page and conversion rate optimization. This seems to be more than a little problem, in my professional pest control opinion, this is an infestation waiting to explode!

Gaming the +1s to increase CTR?

Per some spammy emails  you can buy Google +1s, doesn’t this open up a new black market?

According to Googler Fredrick Vallaeys, “No, Google +1 only influences your circle of friends/connections.”

 

Don’t mind me, Just a pest control guy… and that is the Search Pest Report.

Pest Control Guy - Thomas Ballantyne

-Thomas Ballantyne
Director of Marketing for Bulwark Exterminating
Follow me on Twitter —> @Thos003

 

11 thoughts on “Adwords +1 Button Changes Internet Marketing.. PPC, CRO, CTR

  1. Tim Biden says:

    “So the +1 button does not directly change quality score, but could indirectly change quality score by increasing the Click Through Rate (CTR).”

    Social proof works. Getting enough +1s will definitely affect the CTR and raise the quality score. This gives the less scrupulous PPCers a way of lowering their CPC without improving quality.

    Google is the 800 lb gorilla of Internet search so we’ll have to wait and see how this turns out. But until we have a verdict, I will play the game to the best of my ability within the rules that they set up. =)

  2. kurt says:

    I am really curious to see the futrue of +1. something so easily gamed seems like using as a ranking factor is foolish. However, it would be the same issue big G deals with in regards to click fraud on adsense accounts.

    I added +1 to 1 of my sites, waiting to see what impact it will have.

  3. Sam Paterson says:

    Well it depends on how the users of the big G react to it, The more noise the seo makes the more they will stick to there guns. its stupid they are make a simply search engine hard for people to use.

  4. Guy says:

    Seems like a great initiative to push for more quality content, on google’s part, really. Of course, give it 6 months until it’s being abused in some unforeseen way..

  5. Bradford says:

    It is too early to tell weather or not google plus one will take over the like button of facebook, but with companiers like starbucks having a profile on google plus one. It make me feel they are going to moneterise it at a later date.

  6. Val Johnson says:

    Using the (TM) or (R) on branded keywords has provided a boost in CTR for many of our ads in a recent test. Really, any special characters, aside from the overused “!” have helped differentiate our ads from the competition and given us an immediate boost. Our style is quite aggressive, and there are a few more suggestions I can make on your campaign. Below is my contact info. Email me (or give me a quick call)! Thanks and good luck! 240-455-3886, simon.b@resultsdriven.org

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