Digital Deepak

What are View Through Conversions in Google AdWords?

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In Google AdWords you may have noticed that there is something called View Through Conversions. This may show up in your reports and you may notice that certain display ads have driven view through conversions. This also shows up when you are trying to set up conversion tracking.

vtc column

Many people have asked me what view through conversions are and here is a simple answer. When you are running a PPC AdWords campaign, people click on your text based ad and then either convert or do not convert.

But when you are running a display ad, it is a little bit different. Apart from driving clicks, display ads also drives brand awareness.

Display advertisements online or just like hoardings that you see outdoors. Sometimes people may look at a display ad, remember the brand, and then visit the website of that brand.

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Are You Advertising on Google Adwords For Your Brand Keywords?

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You may be running a lot of AdWords campaigns promoting different products and services, but have you ever thought about advertising for your brand keywords?

Multi-Ethnic Group of People and Brand Concept

More often than not, your website will have No.1 ranking in the organic search results when someone searches for your brand name. So you may have not considered running a paid ad for that. In this post, you will find out why you shouldn’t miss out running ads for brand keywords.

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How to Target Only Mobile Devices in Google AdWords PPC Ads

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mobile adsAfter Google AdWords launched their enhanced campaigns, targeting only mobile devices has become tricky. The way Google has built the new Adwords interface and campaign settings hints that they want you to create universal campaigns which will run in all the devices, without much options for device targeting.

However I want to run the ad only on mobile devices. How do I achieve it? Right now there is no option to setup a campaign only for mobile and there is no option in the campaign settings to turn of computers and tablets completely.

There is an approximate work-around to target only mobile devices in Adwords PPC ads, and this is the method that I use. In the campaign settings you can change the bids for mobile devices, computers and tablets.

device settings adwords

If you are running a campaign only for computers and tablets, you can decrease bids for mobile by 100% which would turn of ads in mobile.

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How to Generate B2B Leads Using Google AdWords

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Google AdWords is a great tool for driving targeted traffic to e-commerce websites and other businesses. In the B2C market, the CPCs are not that high and is a great marketing channel for several businesses. But did you know that AdWords is also a great tool for generating B2B Leads?

adwords search

B2B Marketing comes with the huge challenge: you have to get the targeting right. For example, if you are selling a SaaS software to doctors, it makes sense to advertise on magazines and journals which doctors read. But even with such targeting, you are still shooting in the dark and only a small percentage of the people who see your ads are your prospects.

With AdWords, you show the ads only to the people who are searching for you. The seller and buyer meet each other half way and the place is Google search.

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How to Become a Google AdWords Certified Professional (Google Partner)

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Many people recently asked me how to become a Google AdWords certified professional. This post is going to show you how.

There is a bit of confusion in this arena because Google recently changed how the entire certification program works.

group of multiracial graduates holding diploma

Google AdWords certification is definitely a plus if you want to brand yourself as a PPC expert. (But keep in mind that passing this exam alone does not make you an expert). Read more about how to become a self made digital marketing expert.

Earlier, the test alone costed $50 to try and the process of the certificate issue was different. Now it is free to take the test. If you take the test and fail, there is a time period where you have to wait before you can give it a go again.

The entire certification program is now re-branded as ‘Google Partners‘. You can access the Google Partners website at https://www.google.com/partners/

There are three exams available:

  • Advertising Fundamentals
  • Advanced Search
  • Advanced Display

You need to pass any two exams to become certified out of which fundamentals is mandatory. I passed the fundamentals and search.

adwords-certification

After you pass the exam and become certified, Google allows you to showcase it to the world. There is a printable version of the certificate which you can access from the Google Partners login. Here’s mine:

deepak-kanakaraju

You can also get a link which you can share online. This link will show your profile with the certification. If someone wants to verify it online they can. My online profile resides here. This link will be accessible for you from your Google Partners login under the My Profile page. Make sure that you turn the visibility into public so that others can see it.

For the purposes of simplicity I strongly recommend that you use the same Google account that you have for your Google+ profile/account.

And yeah, to prepare for the exam you need a study guide. The study guide for AdWords Certification is available here at Google Support Page. If you read through it patiently and have a descent memory power, you will be able to pass the exam easily.

All the best!

If you have any questions, let me know.

Update: I see a lot of questions below where many people are asking – “Should I be affiliated with a company to take the exam?” The answer is NO. You can take this exam as an individual. Visit this link (while being logged into your Google account) and click on See Exams.