Google AdWords Tips | CTR isn’t everything

Never let anyone tell you click-thru rate is the be-all end-all of AdWords analysis. Smile and notify them that they’re not seeing the entire picture.

Clicks are great, but if your traffic doesn’t perform your most wanted response (MWR), then you just lost money. I know of few marketers who want to pay Google to give them traffic that simply pokes around and then wanders off.

WE pay Google to give us traffic so we can provide them information and eventually help them make a purchasing decision.

Take a look at this:

Some people may automatically choose the loosing ad because more people are clicking on it.

Remember, this doesn’t capture the whole picture.

It turns out that the winning ad has a much smaller cost per conversion, a critical piece of info.

To ultimately decide which ad would better suit you, you must include your profit margin and look at what you are able to afford. Here’s what to think about:

1. If your margin is large, sheer masses of sign-ups may benefit you more because this of course leads to more sales.
2. If your margin is small, you want to maximize the efficiency of acquiring customers, which means you might want to focus on conversion rates.

So now if anyone gives you some weakly constructed argument only involving click-thru, you can toss these lemons right back at them.

Disney in digital push

Disney is revamping its digital strategy in Europe with the roll out of a range of virtual worlds, starting with the launch of a 'Pirates of the Caribbean' online game in the UK. A number of other virtual games, based around popular Disney franchises, will follow. These are likely to be linked with Club Penguin, the kid's social network and virtual world that Disney bought in Aug for an initial cash offering of USD350m. The roll out is part of a wider initiative by Disney to enhance its online content. The sites will rely on Disney Xtreme Digital, a widget based platform already available in the US that allows users to log in, personalise Disney content and share it with friends.

More than USD1bn was invested in 35 companies related to virtual worlds over the last year, according to Virtual Worlds Management. However this figure includes the USD700m for Disney's acquisition of Club Penguin, of which half has yet to be paid, dependent on earnings in 2008 and 2009. Intel provided the next most significant individual virtual world investment this year, when it acquired Havok, a tech firm that makes graphics technology for virtual worlds like Second Life for USD110m. In Apr, Gartner predicted that by the end of 2011, 80% of active internet users and Fortune 500 companies would have a presence in a virtual world.

FXLabs Buys Game Portal Knibble.com

FXLabs Studios, developer of video games in India, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Interactive Media Technology, Inc., a US-based company that owns one of the world's largest online casual games portals, knibble.com.

FXLabs will pay USD 3 million in stock to acquire 100% of IMT.

With over 10,000 online causal games which can be played for free, Knibble has emerged as the best destination for game developers to showcase their talent, wherein registered members can submit new games, add a description, suggest a content rating and add tags.

Sashi Reddi, Founder and Chairman of FXLabs said, "With the acquisition of Knibble we have expanded our capability from being a game developer to a company that will be directly delivering world class game play experience to consumers globally. We are extremely optimistic about emerging markets like India driving worldwide online game revenues and we believe that this is a terrific move for both FXLabs and Knibble."

Knibble games will be available and can be played on the iPhone, Nintendo Wii console and other traditional and non-traditional gaming platforms.