What's new at Google AdWords

New report: User Locations

Thu, 2 Feb 2012 20:03:09 -0600

If you happen to be targeting more than one country, region, state or city, you need to regularly analyse how AdWords is distributing your ads across them. You might want or assume there is an even distribution, however that is far from AdWords reality.

AdWords email support has changed

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:23:24 +0000

In a given week, I often find myself speaking with AdWords support several times.

In general, AdWords phone support is great. It's far more professional and knowledgeable than Microsoft's adCenter support.

They either answer my questions right away on the phone, or get back to me with an answer a day or so later. Email support is reasonable, but not as good as the phone support. I was, however, somewhat surprised by an email I recently received from AdWords support:

Hello Aaron,

Hope you are doing great.

Thanks for writing in your doubt.

Aaron, I am (Google reps name removed) from the AdWords Team and I shall be more than happy to help you with the concern that you have.

I understand that would like to know about the re-marketing campaign and the audiences in particular.

So I have explained to you the same here along.

What does All Visitors in the Audiences list include ?

-------------------------------------------------------

Aaron I would like to share a fact here along that 'All Visitors' in the audiences tab often include unique visitors that come to your website. Hence if user who have already visited your website again re-visit your website, they would not be accounted under the list.

However the number of days until when users who have already visited your site are considered as re-visitors depends upon the number of days a user's cookie stays on the list.

The default duration is 30 days, however the same in your campaign seems to be set at 90 days. This means that if a user has not cleared his cache and cookies in the 90 days (Day from which he first visited the website), and if he re-visits the website, he will not be considered as a unique visitor.

Hope this clarifies the issue.

If you need more explanation and think that the same would be more clearer if I call you, please feel free to write back to me with your number and the appropriate time to call. I shall be more than happy to arrange the appointment with you.

Have a great day ahead !!

My own English writing skills are not particularly great, and they certainly have room for improvement.

However in my opinion this was an unacceptable reply. I hope that this was just a bad email day for that Rep, and it is not a new level of quality from the AdWords Support.

Ads stuck under review?

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 08:47:11 +0000

You have created some new ads, submitted them to AdWords only to find that they have been given a status of "Under Review".

Normally, ads are reviewed and approved rather quickly, however you can often find yourself in a situation where your ads are stuck under review for weeks.

Because of the number of accounts that I manage, I can run into this situation several times in a week. I have created a template email that usually helps to resolve the issue.

It seems like this is a common problem for others as well, as Google have now created a new form specifically for this issue. Here is what they have told me:

"For future reference, if your ads have been under review for more than 3 business days, you can send your ad review request to our team directly via this link: http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/request.py?contact_type=approval_request "

I have yet to use the form. Hopefully it will work even faster than my emails.

Paused ads will be reviewed

Thu, 8 Sep 2011 09:15:01 +0100

Google have announced that they will reviewing paused ads in order to eliminate any unnecessary delays in the approval process.

I am very pleased to hear this because it will allow for a more responsive approach with launching new ads.

From now on, once you activate your ads after they have gone through Google's sometimes lengthy approval process, they should be ready to be seen by your target audience.

That is if you know what you are doing with AdWords. If not, we can help!

New AdWords metric: Est. Top Page Bid - Translation: More money for Google

Thu, 8 Sep 2011 09:10:59 +0100

Google have recently introduced a new column to the keyword stats called "Est. top of page bid".

Google explain the new data as follows:

"The Est. top of page bid is the estimated cost-per-click (CPC) bid needed for your ad to appear above the first page of Google search results, when a query matches your keyword exactly. This metric is based on the Quality Score and current advertiser competition for that keyword. Note that meeting this estimate is not a guarantee of ad position, which can still depend on many other factors."

Translation: Google are happy to accept more of your money without any guarantees of top of the page placement.

I will however, give Google some credit. About a month or so ago, they released a feature that allows you to see how well your ads perform in the top or the side on Google search and search partners. That feature provided you with data so you can determine for yourself if top is indeed better than the side. The only problem is that AdWords is not so black and white.

There is simply too much missing data. For example, when you were in the top position, where there 3, 2 or 1 ads above the organic results? Did you have site links displayed when you were in top position or did you competition? Was your ad number 4 on the side or number 1 on the side? Maybe you did or did not perform better in the top. You just don't know.

So far, the new column is not enabled by default which is a good idea. Once it is, I suspect that many advertisers who do not know what they are doing will simply increase bids. Good for Google, not good for the rest of us.

For now, I would recommend that you familiarize yourself with the data. To do so, simply click on the customize columns option under the Keywords tab and make sure that "Est. first page bid" and "Est. top page bid are checked". You will want to look at both of those together.

New version of the AdWords Editor - 9.5.1

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 09:54:51 +0100

Google recently released new version of AdWords Editor.

You can download version 9.5.1 at the AdWords Editor Website.

There are a number of noteworthy improvements:

1) You now have the ability to enable or disable the targeting of "Tablets with full browsers" at the campaign level. Up until now, you had to make this modification within the AdWords web interface.

2) The spell checker has been fixed so that it is enabled by default. Also, it stays on even when you restart the software. In the previous version, this was not the case.

3) You now have the ability to add multiple search criteria. In the past, you could only search using three.

4) Ad status is now displaying more information. Instead of display just "Approved" or "Disapproved" you now can see if your ad is "Under Review" or if it is "Approved Limited". This will allow you to identify when your ads are being held up in the sometimes never-ending ad review queue.

Things that are still missing:

1) Google did not update the wording for the different forms of targeting on the display network. In the AdWords web interface you can currently target the display network using "Show ads on pages that match the broadest targeting method" or "Show ads only on pages that match all selected targeting methods". In AdWords Editor both options are displayed, but it uses the old options of "Relevant pages across the entire network" or "Relevant pages only on the placements and audiences I manage".

2) There is still no way to view your display ads. You can only edit or view them through the AdWords web interface.

3) SiteLinks do not have any stats even though the AdWords web interface displays them.

The list goes on but I won't bore you.

Regardless of the missing features, I would highly recommend the upgrade.

Conversion tracking for mobile devices

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 09:13:48 +0100

If you happen to be displaying your AdWords ads on mobile devices, you may have noticed that AdWords conversion tracking is even more hit and miss on some mobile devices. My understanding of the issue is that there are compatibility issues with JavaScript on some devices. Since AdWords conversion tracking is primarily setup for Javascript, I suspect that causes a problem.

Google appear to be slowly introducing a new option in the conversion tracking configuration that seems to solve this problem. The new option is called "Page markup language".

Here is how Google describe the new option:

"If you are advertising to mobile devices, you may want to choose a mobile markup language. JavaScript variables aren't compatible with conversion tracking for mobile devices.

html - Can be used in most cases when dealing with html or xhtml. This allows dynamic revenue value based upon JavaScript variable names.
chtml - Can be used for mobile sites implemented in chtml.
mobile xhtml - Can be used for sites implemented in xhtml that target mobile browsers. It requires less browser features than the normal html snippet.
wml - Can be used for mobile sites implemented in wml."

Here is some sample code so that you can see what each option produces:

chtml:

mobile xhtml:

wml:

Top vs. Side

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 07:10:33 +0100

We have all known for some time that average position can be misleading. For example does an average position of 2 mean that your ads are above the organic results or to the side of them? Also, when your ads are displayed to the side of the search results, do they perform better than your ads being displayed above?

Until now there was no way of telling.

Google have recently introduced a new way to segment your stats to provide some additional insight into where your ads where actually displayed.

To view this new data, simply click on the segment drop-down and choose "Top vs. Side".

Here is what each of the items mean based on information from a Google help article:

Google search: Top -- Your ad ran above the organic Google search results.

Google search: Side -- Your ad ran at the side of the page alongside the organic Google search results.

Google search: Other -- If your campaign includes certain special ad formats (like product listing ads), these formats will be categorized as "Other because they don't occupy the usual top and side search ad locations. Google may also occasionally test ads in new locations that will appear in this category.

Search partners: Top -- Your ad ran above the partner's organic search results on a search partners' page.

Search partners: Other -- Search partners have different methods for showing AdWords ads that don't always conform to Google's definition of "side" ads. Therefore, all ads that don't appear directly above partner search results are categorized as "Other." This can help you avoid making inaccurate comparisons between partner and Google ad locations.

Google Display Network -- Your ad ran on the Google Display Network.

This is a definite step forward, however they have left out some important details. For example, if you have an average position of 5 on the "Google search: Side", does that include or not include the top positions? If it includes the top positions, how many ads were there in "Google search: Top"?

New targeting for Tablets

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 09:50:27 +0100

Not referring to pills or drugs but tablet computers. iPads and the like.

Now at the campaign level, you can target "Tablets with full browsers" which is a great new feature.

Most importantly, you can also exclude that traffic if you feel your visitors are not using those devices to search for your products or services.

Keep in mind that different devices do not handle AdWords conversion tracking. So if your visitors click on your ads from an iPad but download or purchase from a PC, you will not be able to track that back to AdWords. Different device, different cookie.

I find it interesting that they provide very detailed options for mobile or tablets but do not for desktops and laptops. For example it would be extremely useful to target software for a Mac, as advertisers cannot use the word in their ad texts thanks to Apple.

Display network campaign level setting changes

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 09:46:22 +0100

When you setup a campaign and opt to display ads on the display network, you knew that there were two basic options: Targeting specific websites which you select or allowing Google to choose for you, based on your keywords.

Google will be re-wording these options:

"Relevant pages across the entire network" will be changed to "Show ads on pages that match the broadest targeting method".
"Relevant pages only on placements, audiences, and topics I manage" will be changed to "Show ads only on pages that match all selected targeting methods".

Based on what Google are telling us, this is aimed at users who were choosing the option to target placements, audiences and topics but only adding keywords.

Until now, ad groups that had those settings would not display anything. From this point on, Google will assume that you basically don't know what you are doing with AdWords and show your ads across the entire display network based on those keywords.

I believe that this update/change could have been applied behind the scenes.

Why make us aware of it? Has relevance gone out the window?

Keep a close watch over your campaigns.

New metric for the display network.

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 15:56:38 +0100

Google have recently introduced a new metric for campaigns which target the display network - Relative CTR.

This new metric represents how your ads perform compared to other ads on the display network. It basically compares your CTR with other advertisers in the same places on the display network.

Google claim that it provides you with "Better Measurement". I disagree. If we were looking at data from one specific page on a particular website on the display network with a set number of advertisers, I can see how a comparative analysis would be interesting, however this is far from being the case. When it comes to the display network, you are dealing with hundreds of thousands of potential pages, websites and advertisers. So Google are taking averages of averages of averages and comparing them to your CTR. How does this help you?

It's also worth remembering that CTR on the display network should never be taken too seriously. We've all see websites on the display network that are specifically designed to get people to click on the ads. In this scenario you have a high CTR, but does that mean much when many of the ad clicks are unintentional?

When it comes to the display network, you need conversion tracking to see how well your ads are performing. It's that simple.

On the off-chance you wish to view the new metric (Relative CTR), it can be found under the customise columns section on the ad groups tab.

AdWords Editor Bug

Mon, 6 Jun 2011 19:33:30 +0100

If you use the AdWords Editor, beware of a new issue with the spell checking functionality.

Spell checking was first introduced to the AdWords Editor back in version 6.0. Since then, you have been able to see if you misspelled words in ads or keywords. The functionality is similar to how Chrome and Firefox check spelling.

Be default it was turned on, and within the recent version it has now been turned off by default.

So the auto spellchecker feature won't check your keywords and ads automatically. Hmmm.

To re-enable this feature you need to right-click on each field that supports spell checking, and choose "Spell check this field". The fields are as follows:

Headline
Description Line 1
Description Line 2
Keyword etc.

Just remember that when you close AdWords Editor and restart it, you'll need to re-enable spell checking on each of the fields.

Thank you Google for making life that little bit easier.

Location targeting updates coming soon.

Tue, 24 May 2011 08:55:54 +0100

After July 8, 2011 Google will be implementing a number of changes to the AdWords location targeting functionality. If you are using location targeting at the city or region level, or if you are using custom areas, you need to be aware of these changes:

"Changes to existing available locations: Due to changes in real-world geography or the existence of duplicate or overlapping location targets, we're removing certain location targets in countries such as Japan, Denmark, Spain, and the Netherlands, among others. For example, in 2010, six provinces were abolished in Finland, and while you'll no longer be able to target these provinces, you can continue targeting cities in Finland. You won't be able to target these provinces in AdWords, but you'll be able to continue targeting cities in Finland. After the changes take effect, you won't be able to add the locations that are listed here to new campaigns. If you're currently targeting any of these locations in your existing campaigns, you should migrate them to the recommended targets in the list. Otherwise, we'll migrate them automatically. Please review the list carefully since some of these changes will result in migration to larger locations.

Sunset of custom shapes (multi-point or polygon targets): You'll no longer be able to add multi-point targets in AdWords. You'll still be able to view and delete existing shapes in your current campaigns, and we'll continue to use them until the end of 2011. After that, all polygon targets that are still present in your AdWords campaigns will be migrated to available locations such as a nearby city or a map point with a radius. We encourage you to replace your polygon targets with these alternatives or we'll migrate them automatically at end of 2011.

Removal of 'Show address in the ad' feature: In some countries, you currently have the option to show an address with your ads by checking the "Allow address to show in my ad" option for campaigns that target an area around a map point. This option will no longer be available. If you want to display your business address or phone number, you'll need to use AdWords location extensions."

Domains are being added to the ad headline

Tue, 17 May 2011 13:03:52 +0100

Google have begun to display the domain right after the headline on select top placement ads.

This appears to be something that you cannot control, unlike the new feature of adding the description line 1 to the end of the headline for a much longer headline.

Also, there are no stats for how often this occurs on your ads.

Watch this space.

AdWords Editor Version 9.0

Fri, 13 May 2011 12:44:53 +0100

Google have released a new version of their AdWords Editor.

Here are some of this new version's highlights:

- The ability to manage ad sitelinks. In the past you would need to make those changes from the web interface. Now with this new version, you can only add, edit, delete or change the order of the site links from the extensions tab. Note that to view stats you still have to use the web interface.

- Updated the feature for adding or updating multiple items - keywords, placements, ads and so on. Now when you add keywords, for example, you can paste them directly from a CSV file. It can be useful for those who perform editing through a spreadsheet.

- Negatives have been moved. Now they can be found on the Keywords, Placements and Audiences tabs by selecting the button "negatives".

What's still missing:

- The ability to create display ads. You can copy display ads and see their stats but you cannot create them.

- The more detailed keyword status information that is provided within the web interface.

You can download the new version of AdWords Editor here.

Instant Previews for AdWords Ads

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 19:16:08 +0100

You may have noticed that when you perform a search on Google, you can see an Instant Preview of the website for the listing that you are currently hovering over without having to actually click on the listing. It's a nice little feature that gives you a quick glance at the look of a site.

Just recently, Google have begun to show this feature on AdWords ads.

Based on their Instant Previews help article, you are not charged for any Instant Previews of your AdWords ads. Also, it does not have any effect on Quality Score.

The question now is how will this effect your AdWords ads? If your competition do not have appealing landing page screenshots, you might well be in luck.

Preset filters from Google, how nice of them?

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 14:21:08 +0100

Within AdWords there is a feature that allows you to filter the current view based on different criteria - an extremely useful tool that everyone should be using. It can be found on almost any tab which allows you to view your AdWords stats.

Have a look at the keywords tab, where you can find some rather interesting preset filters provided by Google:

Keywords below first page bid
Good quality but low traffic keywords
Cost-effective keywords
Costly keywords with no conversions
All enabled keywords
All non-active keywords

Take a look at "Good quality but low traffic keywords". If you have a closer look, you can see that it is configured to do the following: Show all keywords with a quality score>= to 5 and has Impressions <= 1,000.

So are Google saying anything equal or greater than 5 is a "good" quality score? What about the less than 1,000 impressions? Anything more is fine?

Why not give us a filter for the exact opposite? Or is this a hint that we should increase bids in order to gain more impressions for what they call a "good" quality score.

That said, quality score should never be looked at in isolation. If you have a keyword with a low quality score which produces many conversions, you obviously would not want to delete it.

Free phone support for U.S. and Canada based AdWords customers

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 19:27:39 +0100

I have had the luxury of being able to contact AdWords support by phone for some time now, but this new feature may be of interest to you. Assuming you are based in Canada or the United States - for now at least.

To call AdWords support call 1-866-2-Google between Monday-Friday, 9am-8pm Eastern Time. You will need your customer ID and the login email address associated to your account.

I have had my share of dealings with customer service reps, so it is worth noting that AdWords reps are by far the most knowledgeable and pleasant to deal with.

That said, they did mention that they will be rolling out phone support to international advertisers in the coming months. Hopefully, this will not diminish the quality of service that I have been receiving so far.

Say goodbye to Position Preference

Fri, 8 Apr 2011 08:30:00 +0100

Google have now announced that they are retiring the position preference bidding feature from AdWords.

If you never heard of it, you've missed nothing. We have been saying for sometime that this feature is not a good idea and it never has produced good results when we have used it.

If however, you are using it, here is what Google have said about the retirement:

"As of today, April 5th, position preference can no longer be enabled for campaigns through either the AdWords web interface or the API. Campaigns already using position preference will still have it enabled, but if you turn position preference off in one of your campaigns, you won't be able to turn it back on.

Starting in early May, we'll begin disabling position preference for any campaigns still using it.

After you disable position preference (either manually or when the feature is retired starting in early May), the manual maximum CPC bids for those campaigns will be the bids position preference used most recently. Position preference tries to raise or lower your bids to target the positions you specify. So using the most recent position preference bid as your manual maximum CPC should minimize disruption to your traffic."

New feature for AdWords: Make your campaign less targeted through topics.

Tue, 5 Apr 2011 18:56:13 +0100

Google recently launched a new feature for the display network that allows you to target based on selected topics.

If you feel as though your display campaigns weren't always broad enough, you are now in luck. You are now able to target even more people who are not interested in what you are offering by selecting a topic instead of keywords.

This new feature is only available in campaigns which target the display network. By default it is hidden so you will need to enable the tab which can be found by clicking on the button on the right-hand side of all the campaign tabs - at the end of the Ad groups, Settings, Ads, Keywords, Networks tabs.

Once you enable the new topics tab, you are able to select topics you wish to target through a specific ad group. Here is a list of all the topics which Google return for the term "software":

Internet & Telecom> Mobile & Wireless> Mobile Phones> Smart Phones
Computers & Electronics> Consumer Electronics> Gadgets & Portable Electronics> PDAs & Handhelds
Internet & Telecom> Mobile & Wireless> Mobile Apps & Add-Ons
Computers & Electronics> Software
Computers & Electronics> Software> Freeware & Shareware
Online Communities> Online Goodies> Skins Themes & Wallpapers
Computers & Electronics> Software> Multimedia Software
Arts & Entertainment> Movies> Science Fiction & Fantasy Films
Internet & Telecom> Mobile & Wireless> Mobile Phones
Computers & Electronics> Software> Multimedia Software> Photo & Video Software
Computers & Electronics> Software> Operating Systems> Windows OS

I suspect some will find this feature useful when trying to blast a large number of topics or a wide audience.

If you do plan on using the feature, I would recommend that you do not mix different options. For example, setup a new ad group which only targets topics. Google don't appear to mention what happens when you target both keywords and topics in one ad group.

Location targeting changes - beware

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 17:41:03 +0100

Google have recently introduced more advanced options for location targeting. At first glance these appear to be both logical and welcome, however I am concerned with the new defaults.

Up until now, when you set your campaign's location targeting to London, you understood that your ads would only be displayed to people within that target area. That is, their physical location is determined by AdWords to be in London. Not a perfect system but it is what we have.

With the new system default, it is based on "physical location or search intent" and not just "physical location" as it was in the past. The "search intent" is what concerns me.

Don't get me wrong though, I do like this new feature and here's why.

If you setup a campaign for a restaurant in Spooner Wisconsin, USA, you will most likely want to target a small area around Spooner. The problem with this approach was that if I were in Chicago performing searches in preparation for an upcoming trip to Spooner Wisconsin, I would never see the ads for the restaurant since I would be outside the target zone. Now with the search intent addition, I will hopefully see those ads.

So what's not to like? Well if "Search Intent" is anything like broad match, we could all be in for potential problems of overly-broad targeting. For example, are you searching for pizza in Paris Texas or Paris France? I am sure Google won't mind either way, as long as someone clicks your ad.

The two new options can be found within the campaign settings under "Locations and Languages". They are, Targeting method and Exclusion method.

With Targeting method you have three options:

- Target using either physical location or search intent (recommended) - The default option.
- Target using physical location: Device-based location signals.
- Target using search intent: Location terms in user queries.

With Exclusion method you have two options:

- Exclude by physical location only (recommended) - The default option.
- Exclude by physical location and search intent.

New device targeting options coming soon

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 11:04:10 +0000

In a recent email, Google announced that they will soon be introducing new targeting options for tablet computers.

"We are pleased to announce that in the coming weeks we will be launching new targeting functionality in your Google AdWords account. To give you greater control over your ads, we are changing the way you can target tablet devices such as the Apple iPad, the Samsung Galaxy Tab or the Motorola Xoom. The 'Tablets with full browsers' check box will be located on your 'Settings' tab under 'Networks and Devices' and will enable you to select more precisely which types of devices and operating systems will display your AdWords ads."

With the ever increasing popularity in tablet computers this is a much welcome addition to AdWords.

Personally, I would like to see the ability to target Windows or Mac interdependently. Now that would be an improvement!

Update to the upcoming changes on managed placement bids

Fri, 4 Mar 2011 07:44:52 +0000

Back on February 22, 2011 I wrote that Google were removing the managed placement bid from all campaigns. They recently sent out an email which provides more detail on how their system will automatically deal with this change. It is important to be aware of these changes in order to make sure that your campaigns will not be adversely affected. Here are the important points:

"Starting on March 15, 2011, we'll be removing the managed placements default bid in your account. We're taking several steps to make sure that this will have no impact on your current bid amounts or where your ads currently appear. Here's what you can expect based on how your ad groups are currently set up:

- If your default bid and managed placements bid are equal, and a Display Network bid is not set, we will simply remove the managed placements bid. Any managed placements with individual bids will still keep those bids.

- If your managed placements bid is equal to your Display Network bid, we will simply remove the managed placements bid.

- If your default bid and managed placements bid are different, and a Display Network bid is not set, we will copy your managed placements bid over as the new Display Network bid. Any managed placements with individual bids will still keep those bids.

- If you have separate default, managed placements, and Display Network bids, we will copy your managed placements bid to individual managed placements. Note that this will happen only if these individual managed placements do not already have their own placement-level bids.

- In the rare case where you don't have an ad group default bid and are only using a managed placements bid, we will copy the managed placements bid over as the new default bid. Any managed placements with individual bids will still keep those bids."

Diagnose keywords

Fri, 4 Mar 2011 07:40:47 +0000

The Diagnose keywords tool within the keywords tab is well worth a look. It can highlight keyword issues quite quickly, but pouring through the results can be time consuming.

Google recently introduced a method of filtering through the diagnosis results in order to highlight specific issues. Simply run a keyword diagnosis, wait for it to complete and then filter the results.

Be aware, however, that it is a little buggy. For example, if you filter on keywords that have a Low quality score, you might see nothing. That is if your status lists the keywords as "Low bid or quality score".

Also, the information can be misleading. Take for example the status Budget limited or exhausted. How can you have some keywords with that status and others without? Keywords don't have budgets, campaigns do. If your budget was limited or exhausted, would that not affect the entire campaigns?

Ad rotation update

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 14:48:37 +0000

For as long as I can remember, Google have had two methods of rotating your ads within a particular ad group. Optimized or Rotate. When you setup a new campaign, by default Google set the ad rotation to Optimized. In the past, that meant that the ad with the better performing CTR would be shown more often.

Under certain circumstances this might work well for you. A good CTR, however, is not always a good thing, especially if it is attracting general or broad clicks. For Google, all clicks are good.

Our company's stance on this setting was to always select Rotate. That's the option which "shows ads more evenly". Then you need to pause, delete or create ads as the data pours in based on what you see.

Google have just introduced a new option which optimizes for conversions. At first glance this might sound like a good idea. You want conversions, right? The problem is that conversions or CTR can never be read in isolation. You need a balanced approach with these two performance indicators. I have seen many situations where an ad results in a great CTR, but produces a low number of conversions. The opposite holds true as well. You may have an ad with a high conversion rate that has a low CTR, ultimately resulting in few conversions because no one clicks on the ad.

Google, why not make the ad rotation take both CTR and Conversions into account?

Changes are coming for bidding on managed placements

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 14:39:08 +0000

As announced in the AdWords blog on March 15th 2011, Google will be removing the managed placements default bid. If you are targeting managed placements this will affect you.

Currently on managed placement targeted campaigns, you have three bidding options: Default Maximum CPC, Managed Placements Maximum CPC, and Display Network Maximum CPC.

Google are gradually introducing this change, however by March 15th they will be updating your existing managed placement bids. How exactly they plan on updating the bids will be interesting to see, especially if you have a separate bids for each bidding option.

It also appears that a new AdWords Editor will be released to deal with this change.

AdWords Automation for All

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 14:45:25 +0000

Inside AdWords have just announced that the somewhat new feature for account automation is now available for all account holders.

If you are interested in automating increases or decreases to bids or budgets, pausing or enabling campaigns, ad groups, keywords or ads you are now in luck.

It goes without saying that you need to use this feature with caution.

I am a big fan of automation when it comes to my PC. In the course of managing many of our client's AdWords accounts, however, I never find myself doing the same thing over and over again.

Everything I do is on an individual basis, taking into account a number of different factors. I have often found that a chosen course of action taken on one part of an account cannot be applied to another.

Want bigger Headlines?

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 08:43:50 +0000

Google have recently announced that they are experimenting with longer headlines in some of the top placement ads. These are the ads that appear above the organic search results.

For now, it looks like they are pulling the description line 1 up to the headline. When this occurs, they place a hyphen to separate the two. There's no need to rush and update your headlines so that they each contain proper punctuation.

On the subject of punctuation, however, you will need to have proper punctuation at the end of the first description line in order to have it inserted into the headline.

Google will hopefully allow more control over this by allowing for alternate extended headlines when creating text ads

New AdWords Account Snapshot

Tue, 8 Feb 2011 07:34:47 +0000

Have you seen the AdWords account snapshot?

Whether or not you're familiar with it, it might be worth taking another look, as Google have just launched a new design and some new features. Simply log into your AdWords account and click on the home tab.

The new design is broken down into 9 modules, each containing information about your AdWords account:

- Alerts
- All enabled campaigns
- All non-active campaigns
- All enabled ad groups
- All non-active ad groups
- All enabled keywords
- All non-active keywords
- Good quality but low traffic keywords
- Keywords below first page bid

Interestingly, it would appear that you can create your own modules which will display data based on your criteria, by creating saved filters though out your account.

For example, if you wanted to see all the keywords which received many impressions and no clicks, simply create that filter on the keyword tab, save it and you should be able to see it in the available modules within the account snapshot.

Budget ideas to replace Limited by budget?

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 09:45:04 +0000

Have you ever run out of your daily budget and seen a message saying limited by budget? When you hover over the help icon, Google provide you with their suggested daily budget. Something along the following lines:

Limited by budget My-Search-Campaign
Your ads are showing, but due to your budget, you're missing 90% of the ad views available.
Receive 257% more clicks per month with a budget of $600.00/day.

Increasing your budget can maximize your ad exposure and help your ads receive more clicks.
Prediction based on this campaign's performance over the last 15 days assuming you used your current budget of $120.00/day”

It looks like Google are about to change this feature with a more graphical approach, similar to the one found under the opportunities tab.

Our approach is always to take that information with a pinch of salt. Budgets should be raised gradually while carefully monitoring performance.

Want some Free Clicks?

Thu, 20 Jan 2011 09:41:46 +0000

Google have recently launched a new report under the Dimensions tab called Free Clicks. The strange thing is that these are not clicks. That is, you are not charged for the supposed Free Clicks and no one is actually clicking on anything.

So why call them Free Clicks?

At the time of writing this, there is no documentation on this new feature but it appears to be down to Display ad mouse over for at least 1 second. So if you are running display ads and someone moves their mouse over your ad for at least 1 second, you got yourself a Free Click - that isn't a click...

Display URLs are about to change

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 07:21:20 +0000

In the coming weeks if you happen to notice an unusual decline to your CTR, it might be down to a new display URL policy.

AdWords recently announced on their blog that they were going to change the display URLs so that the domain portion is all in lowercase.

For example, if we were using the following as the display URL:

Before: www.SoftwarePromotions.com/AdWords
After: www.softwarepromotions.com/AdWords

You do not need to go back and edit your ads, they say they this will be automatic when the ads are served.

For those who have domain names which do not need capitalization, I suspect it will not be an issue. For example, www.google.com. However those who need to highlight the actual name of their domain through capitalization will most probably take a hit to their AdWords performance.

Thanks Google.

News for Display Ads

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 09:03:26 +0000

If you found AdWords display ads too restricting in that you could not move text or images around to your liking, you are now in luck.

AdWords have updated the Display Ad Builder with a much needed fix.

Now you can move text around and align to your liking. No more ads with text being cut off on the edges.

If you are not using display ads, you might want to check them out.

Contextual Targeting Tool

Wed, 1 Dec 2010 20:03:53 +0000

Google have just introduced a new tool called "Contextual Targeting Tool". It's in Beta as you would expect, however that should not put you off. You can find the tool under the Reporting and Tools menu within your AdWords account.

What it does is interesting. You enter a keyword or phrase, set the locations and languages targeting and Google returns a list of keywords broken down into suggested ad groups with bid recommendations for each. How nice.

The idea is to create tightly-themed ad groups on the display network. This is not a new idea. It has been around for years but now Google have created a tool for it.

The tool even goes further than keywords, ad groups and bid recommendations. It also predicts potential placements which is very interesting. See the types of websites that might display your ads on the display network.

If you are just starting a new campaign or you're looking to expand on an existing one, you might want to give this tool a try. In my initial tests, the resulting suggestions are proving to be quite interesting.

AdWords Change History facelift

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 19:28:41 +0000

If you are not using the AdWords change history tool, you really need to get with the program.

It's by no means a new feature, and for many years was hidden away deep in bowels of your AdWords account. It has been brought to the forefront some time ago, and has now had a much-needed facelift.

The tool can be used to instantly see what you did to either mess up your account's performance or improve on it. It lists the changes you have made to your account along with your AdWords stats over time. The new facelift has integrated the standard AdWords graph which allows you to compare different performance indicators as well as a newer and quicker layout.

New version of AdWords Editor - Version 8.5.1

Tue, 9 Nov 2010 11:41:31 +0000

Google have just released a new version of the AdWords Editor.

A much anticipated feature has finally made its way into this new version, however it is in my opinion incomplete. The new feature is the ability to manage display ads. The problem is that you still need to edit the actual content of a display ad from the web interface.

I will say that the new feature will partly help speed up some of the process, but I would have liked to have seen a way to edit the content of the display ad.

A definite step in the right direction but it is lacking.

Note that this update will require that you re-download your entire account again. So you will lose comments that you may have entered into the AdWords Editor. Also, if you have not yet pushed changes to AdWords, you will want to make sure you do that before you install this update.

Download AdWords Editor here.

New Reporting and Tools tab

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 12:22:11 +0100

If your account has not yet been updated, you will only see the old "Reporting" tab and not the new and improved "Reporting and Tools" tab.

The new and improved "Reporting and Tools" tab now includes links to the following areas of your AdWords account:

Reports
Change history
Conversions
Google Analytics
Website Optimizer
Keyword Tool
Traffic Estimator
Placement Tool
Ads diagnostic tool
Ad preview tool
More tools

This is a very welcome improvement to the account navigation. It makes it much easier to navigate over to these areas of the account.

New AdWords columns you might want to view

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 12:20:37 +0100

By default, Google only display a small number of columns within an AdWords account. In order to see more data, you need to click on the columns when viewing the stats for your campaigns. Recently Google introduce some new columns for conversion stats that you might want to pay closer attention too.

The columns are:

Total conv. value
Value / conv. (1-per-click)
Value / conv. (many-per-click)

These columns are useful if you are dynamically populating the google_conversion_value variable within your AdWords conversion tracking code.

For example, if you are tracking the download and the purchase of your software through AdWords conversion tracking, you can insert the value for each conversion action. Then when you are evaluating the performance of a particular ad, keyword, ad group or campaign, you will be able to see a more accurate representation of the conversions true value.

In the past, you would only be able to see the conversion rate, cost per conversion and the total number of conversions when looking at the campaigns, ad groups, ads and keywords. If you wanted to see their actual conversion values, you would need to run a report which included those columns.

Now this data is visible right next to the rest of your stats that you are regularly viewing.

Missing any AdWords reports?

Wed, 29 Sep 2010 17:42:08 +0100

In order to make AdWords even more confusing, Google seemed to have moved some reports from the Report Center into the campaigns tab section of the AdWords interface.

Now when you try to create a new report, you will notice that many of the reports you may have grown to love are no longer available from within the Report Center.

The following reports are now grayed out from within the create report interface:

-        Placement / Keyword Performance
-        Ad Performance
-        URL Performance
-        Ad Group Performance
-        Campaign Performance
-        Account Performance
-        Demographic Performance
-        Geographic Performance

More information on the move can be found here.

Additionally, it would appear that many of the field names within the various reports have also been changed. If you have software which imports and processes AdWords reporting data you may have noticed that they might not work anymore.

The question for Google is simple: Why not leave access to the reports from within the reporting center? Why fix what worked perfectly?

AdWords Editor version 8.0.1

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 08:56:30 +0100

Google recently updated AdWords Editor to version 8.0.1. There is nothing overly dramatic in this new version.

Some of the main changes are as follows:

- The ability to modify the devices your campaigns are targeting. This saves you from having to exclude mobile devices from within the AdWords web interface after you have published a new campaign.

- A new Extensions tab, but it does not include all campaign extensions, such as site links.

- Surprisingly, they have yet to include a means of managing display ads from within the AdWords Editor.

Be aware that when you update to the new version, you will lose any comments or unpublished changes.

http://www.google.com/intl/en/adwordseditor/

Comparing past performance gets easier

Mon, 17 May 2010 08:19:43 +0100

Have you ever wanted to compare last week's AdWords performance with this week's performance?

This was possible previously by way of the account snapshot page, however that was for the entire account. Looking at just one ad group or campaign was more difficult.

Google have now made slight modifications to the Graph options to provide a way to compare date ranges.

In order to see this new feature, click on the graph icon above the graph within your AdWords account in order to toggle open the graph options.

You then need to select a primary metric, for example clicks.

Then you need to choose what to compare that to.

You can either choose another metric such as conversions, or you can compare a date range. If you choose date range, it will compare the primary metric for the current date range with the previous date range.

New AdWords feature (long overdue)

Fri, 14 May 2010 14:37:53 +0100

As you probably know, broad match can produce some rather broad terms. Sometimes they can be downright irrelevant. Some call it the wild west of keywords.

Google are launching a new match type for advertisers in the UK and Canada, called "broad match modifier".

Here is how it works based on some examples from Google:

Broad: formal shoes - also matches: formal footwear, evening footwear, men's dress wingtips and so on.

Modified Broad: formal +shoes - also matches: evening shoes, black dress shoes and so on.

Modified Broad: +formal +shoes - also matches: frmal shoes, formal evening shoes and so on.

It would seem as if this is exactly what most people would have wanted broad match to do in the first place.

More information on this new feature can be found here  or here.

Enhanced CPC beta

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 08:41:02 +0000

There's a new AdWords feature that we're starting to see in some accounts: Enhanced CPC beta.

Google's description:

"Enhanced CPC beta is a bidding feature that you can use with manual or automatic bidding to attempt to get more conversions. With Enhanced CPC you can continue to manage and optimize your bids as much as you like.

This feature will also adjust your bids so that they are higher in auctions where it predicts you are more likely to receive a conversion and lower in auctions where it predicts you are less likely to see a conversion. It's possible your average CPC could exceed your CPC bid."

What is Enhanced CPC beta?

Google, why not give us a tool that will lower our bids when you predict we are less likely to receive a conversion?

Or for that matter why not share your predictions with us?

Work faster in Google AdWords

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:20:50 +0000

Google are beginning to ask if you want to "Work faster in AdWords".

What they mean is that Google Gears will soon be available for Google AdWords users.

If you find AdWords to sometimes be painfully slow (and who doesn't?), this could be an interesting development.

My initial thought was how well they will handle synchronization of new data. Based on their help article, they claim that this isn't a problem: Browser Local Storage

My advice? It's probably worth holding off on this new feature until it is more widely available. So far, we are only seeing it in a few client accounts.

Lost your filters?

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:17:45 +0000

If you were wondering where AdWords filters, links to show only enabled campaigns and column modifications went, Google have recently moved those items and others into a new toolbar right above the graph within the AdWords web interface.

There is a nice new way to segment data based on day, week, month and so on. Not really a new feature just a more convenient way of accessing this data.

More information on this change can be found here:

Streamlined analysis tools in your Campaigns tab

Targeting mobile devices gets focused

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:13:08 +0000

If you wish to target mobile devices such as iPhones through AdWords, you're in luck. Google are now allowing you to specifically target device type and carrier.

To access this new feature, you need to visit your campaign settings. There you will find it under the "Networks, devices, and extensions" section. Select "Let me choose" next to devices which will then expand a very long list of options.

This feature is important to all users of AdWords for the following reasons:

1) If you know your target audience will not be arriving from an iPhone, exclude this traffic.

2) If you are targeting this audience, for example if you sell software that only works on Palm devices, you can now specifically target them and not iPhones. By the way, where is Blackberry in the list?

Also, why have Google not done this for desktop computers? It would be remarkably useful to have the ability to target specific users on specific types of computers.

Bid Simulator

Fri, 7 Aug 2009 15:22:44 +0100

Google recently launched their AdWords bid simulator:

"Have you ever wondered how many impressions or clicks you could have received if you had used a different maximum CPC bid? Until now, finding the right bid has typically involved a lot of trial and error.

The bid simulator, launched today, is a feature of the new AdWords interface that shows you the potential impact of your bid on your advertising results. While it can't predict the future, the bid simulator allows you to explore what could have happened if you had set different keyword-level bids.

Using data from the past seven days, the bid simulator re-calculates the number of impressions for which your ad could have shown had you chosen a different maximum CPC, how many clicks your ad could have gotten for those impressions and how much those clicks could have cost. The feature provides increased transparency into the AdWords auction and gives you the insight to make more informed bidding decisions to meet your advertising objectives."

The tool is an interesting idea, and it appears that a number of advertisers are getting quite excited about it.

However it's worth remembering that there are two ways to rank higher and get more clicks: Spend more money. Or work the system.

The problem with the new tool is that it will push some advertisers to simply spend more on their bids.

As an AdWords Qualified Company, we know that you really don't need to spend more money to get more targeted traffic from Google.

Bid like a pro with the bid simulator (Google's title - not mine!)

The New AdWords Interface is live - bad news for most advertisers

Thu, 14 May 2009 12:44:51 +0100

The new interface appears to be out of beta.

But it's not all good news.

Details on our Software Marketing Blog.

New AdWords interface - bad news for most advertisers

New Conversion Metrics

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 12:10:44 +0100

Our very own Aaron Weiner has written about some recent changes to Google's conversion tracking in the SoftwarePromotions Software Marketing News blog:

"If you are using AdWords conversion tracking on your website, you might not have been aware that only one conversion will be counted for a particular visitor. For example, if you have the same conversion tracking code set up on each of your software downloads, you will only see one conversion for a particular visitor, even though they may have downloaded multiple products from your website. This is because a conversion can only be counted once per user.

So how do you tell if your AdWords traffic is performing a particular action multiple times? In the past, you would need to dig deeper within the AdWords reporting center.

However Google have now moved this value right into the conversion tracking section of your AdWords account. The new name is called "Conversions (many-per-click)"."

New AdWords conversion metrics - Conversions (many-per-click)

Warning: New AdWords phishing

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:01:18 +0100

Be careful how you log into your Google AdWords account.

Warning: New AdWords phishing and the MySQL saga

More display URL policy changes

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 10:12:06 +0100

Inside AdWords have announced a change to their AdWords policy on display URLs:

"In an effort to provide more relevant results and a high quality experience for our users, we've made the decision to disallow multiple display URL domains within a single ad group. Going forward, all display URLs within an ad group must have the same top-level domain. Please note that this amendment to our policy applies to all advertisers, regardless of previous exceptions or acceptability of any ad groups."

The main point is that the display URLs need to have the same top-level domain.

Note that sub-domains are allowed, so all of the following would comply with the new policy:

- www.yoursite.com
- blog.yoursite.com
- www.blog.yoursite.com

Different display URLs are still allowed, but these have to be placed in their own ad groups.

Why? I have no idea.

Google claim that this is "in an effort to provide more relevant results and a high quality experience for our users", but this is clearly nonsense. The user is entirely unaffected by the new policy.

A change to our display URL policy

New AdWords interface

Mon, 2 Feb 2009 09:55:47 +0100

From our Software Marketing News blog:

"Google appear to be working on a fresh new AdWords interface. In short it is very impressive. For now, not everyone is able to see the new look, as it appears that Google are rolling it out in stages. In fact out of all the clients whose accounts we manage, only one had access to the new interface."

More details here:

New AdWords interface - very cool!

Using Trademarked Names in Display URLs

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:33:16 +0100

PPC Hero have a very interesting article on why trademarked names are allowed in Google's Display URL.

Yes, I did say that they are allowed.

According to the article, Google had the following to say:

"Our trademark policy only applies to the use of the term in the ad text. We don't monitor the display URL and thus we will not disapprove an ad if the trademark term only appears in the URL line."

Enjoy it while it lasts.

Why Trademarked Names Are Allowed in Google Display URL

Your Google AdWords Approval Status

Mon, 5 Jan 2009 19:28:36 +0100

"Thank you for advertising with Google AdWords. After reviewing your account, we've found that one or more of your ads or keywords does not meet our guidelines. You can see your disapproved ad(s), the reason for disapproval, and editorial suggestions, from the Disapproved Ads page within your account."

You've probably seen this sort of email before, but this one isn't from Google.

A new flavour of AdWords phishing?

Your "Google AdWords" Approval Status

AdWords Editor 7.0 released

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 10:56:36 +0100

Version 7.0 of Google's AdWords Editor has just been released.

This is technically a major release, but in fact there's nothing particularly major or exciting.

What's new?

First page bid estimates: I'm no fan of this misleading information, so am less than pleased to see it in AdWords Editor.

Keyword Quality Score: In the Keywords tab. As I don't display this by default, there's nothing to get my heart racing here either.

Keyword Opportunities locale: This is a nice addition to the AdWords Editor built-in keyword research tool.

Send feedback to Google: "Help us improve AdWords Editor by enabling usage tracking in your AdWords Editor settings (Tools menu> Settings). Seriously, you have to admire the genius of Google!

And other minor updates.

The bottom line, not much to be excited about here. But it appears to be stable - more so than version 6.5 earlier this year.

Google AdWords Editor version 7.0

iPhones and other mobile devices

Tue, 9 Dec 2008 12:51:44 +0100

Google recently added a new option under campaign settings.

Under Networks and bidding, there's a section entitled Device Platform that has two options:

Desktop and laptop computers.

iPhones and other mobile devices with full Internet browsers.

Google define full browsers as "those that can show standard HTML web pages and can support a user making a purchase from start to finish, including supporting any tracking or Analytics functionality on e-commerce pages".

Note that this doesn't include WAP browsers.

My issue with this new functionality is that it is enabled by default.

Realistically, how many of your customers are likely to search for your goods via their iPhone?

Most companies should be able to safely disable this setting.

Top Tactics for Tough Times

Thu, 4 Dec 2008 10:57:54 +0100

"Armed with the right advertising strategies, online advertisers can find opportunities in today's economic downturn. And AdWords' real-time targeting and reporting provide advertisers with the most nimble and efficient way to reach customers during these tight times.

We know you're probably keeping a close eye on your bottom line, and in this challenging economic climate, we're committed to helping you maximize your AdWords investment. To that end, we asked experts on the AdWords team to share their top recommendations for getting the most out of AdWords during an economic downturn. "

Top Tactics for Tough Times

More Quality Score Changes

Wed, 5 Nov 2008 11:47:27 +0100

Google are soon to introduce two new changes to how Quality Score is calculated and ads are displayed.

The end of the snowball effect:

CTR has obviously been a major part of Quality Score, as the greater the click rate, the more relevant the ads - according to Google.

The catch has been that higher positions usually generate higher CTRs, due to their prominence and visibility.

Google are now removing the "influence of ad position on CTR" from the calculation.

Rather them than me.

Three can be more than one and more than four:

How many times did you have to read that sentence?

Google are changing the rules for the ads that appear above the natural search results.

In the past if the ad with the highest position did not meet the "quality threshold", then no ads were displayed above the search results.

Now Google will allow ads that meet the "quality threshold" to appear above the search results, even if this means that it has to effectively jump over other ads to do so.

The bottom line here is that while these changes are logical, they're going to make tracking and understanding your data more complicated than ever.

From Google's Inside AdWords:

"Keep in mind that these enhancements may cause changes to your ad position, spend, and performance. We're launching these updates soon so that you'll have enough time to review your accounts and prepare for your holiday season advertising. While we don't believe that any immediate changes are needed on your part, we encourage you, as always, to watch your key metrics and to make adjustments as appropriate."

Wise words indeed.

Improvements to Ads Quality

How will the recession affect Google AdWords?

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:36:19 +0100

The recession is upon us. The credit-crunch has been stinging, the deteriorating exchange rates are good for no-one, and as depressing as it sounds, it's going to get a whole lot worse before it starts to get better.

Perversely, however, the recession is probably going to be quite good for businesses with a Google AdWords account, assuming they know what they're doing.

In the struggle between brain and brawn, the past few years have seen Google lean increasingly towards brute strength; companies who achieve high volumes of traffic by paying dearly for it. And those of us who prefer to use more cost-effective methods of skill, experience and technique have often had quite a fight on our hands.

The recession is set to change this. I predict that as the less-skilled businesses have to start tightening their belts, they won't be anywhere near as eager to recklessly hurl money at their Google AdWords accounts, and may slash their budgets or even stop spending altogether.

This will result in less competition, more clicks, and should even lower the costs.

We've already started seeing the beginning of this trend in some of our client's accounts, and I predict that as the economy gets dragged deeper down the toilet, we'll see a lot more.

There's never been a better time to make sure that your account is in good hands.

Google and Search Partners - the separation begins

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 17:25:21 +0100

Google AdWords have taken the surprising step of providing separate stats for Google, Search partners and the content network.

You can see the breakdown of this information at the account, campaign and ad group level, so they're clearly eager to make sure you see this data. The question is why?

A few thoughts:

Cynical: The more data Google provide, the more likely the advertiser is to drown. Death through data is the norm.

Practical: There's greater transparency, but no more control. You still can't (yet) set up a Search partners only campaign.

Optimistic: I can't provide hard/meaningless figures, but am confident that advertising on the Search partners network isn't anywhere near as effective as on Google itself. If budgets are being depleted, then some companies may choose to disable the Search partners. Nothing new here - but now you have the data to hand.

Impressed (by Google and/or myself): It appears that you can go back and look at old data. Meaning that Google knew this information before but only shared part of the picture. Who would have guessed?

Puzzled: Why are Google doing this? Are they providing greater transparency? If so then why? I have a hunch that many advertisers will simply switch-off the Search partners. Could this be the first step towards the end of the Search partners?

Frustrated: When will we be able to block specific domains for the Search partners? Why can we do this for the content network, but not the Search partners?

Why do I have separate account statistics for Google, search partners, and the content network?

New version of AdWords Editor - version 6.5

Wed, 8 Oct 2008 09:01:35 +0100

Version 6.5 of AdWords Editor is now available, and includes a number of new features:

Keyword Opportunities - apparently a tool for generating new keywords. I get an error when I try to use it so can't comment.

Data View Improvements - column auto-sizing, column selection and an oddly basic date selection tool.

Importing and exporting - no significant changes aside from the names of each option!

New editing options - copy campaign or ad group "shells", in other words the campaign or ad group without the items. How odd.

In short, a few minor cosmetic fixes, a few low-key tools, and one potentially interesting feature that won't work.

AdWords Editor release notes

Statistics drop-down menu

Fri, 5 Sep 2008 07:58:23 +0100

Some of the accounts I'm handling have a new mini-feature on the Campaign Summary page.

Towards the top right of the data is a drop down menu next to Statistics, with four options:

All (Search + Content)
Search
Content
Summary

It's not exactly useless, but we're not exactly breaking out the champagne either.

Why do I have separate 'Campaign Summary' page statistics for the search and for the content network?

Quality Score "Improvements"

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:00:07 +0100

More changes afoot for Quality Score.

From Inside AdWords (edited for relevance):

"We'd like to let you know of further improvements [to quality score] that we'll introduce in the coming weeks:

* Quality Score will now be more accurate because it will be calculated at the time of each search query
* Keywords will no longer be marked 'inactive for search'
* 'First page bid' will replace 'minimum bid' in your account"

Interesting. Let's take a look at these three improvements individually.

Quality Score will be calculated at the time of each search query:

According to Google, "we are replacing our static per-keyword Quality Scores with a system that will evaluate an ad's quality each time it matches a search query". This sounds more like refining the existing system, as opposed to actively expanding or enhancing it.

Keywords will no longer be marked 'inactive for search':

Not good news for advertisers. Firstly this takes yet another piece of information away from the advertiser. And as we know, information is money.

Secondly, instead of knowing that there's a problem to be fixed, advertisers will just see their traffic dry up.

'First page bid' will replace 'minimum bid' in your account:

At first glance, this actually sounded quite good. Again, however, there are a number of problems.

Firstly this takes yet another piece of information away from the advertiser. And as we know, information is money. Anyone seeing a pattern here?

Secondly, all this can really do is raise the minimum bids. So what will most inexperienced, gullible or clueless advertisers do? They'll simply raise their bids to be on the first page. And what will that do to the minimum bid? Hint; It'll go up.

You have to tip your hat to Google. If "dressing-up bad news as great news" was an Olympic event, they'd take Bronze, Silver and Gold every time.

Quality Score Improvements

Google AdWords Cheat Sheet

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:02:46 +0100

Hi all,

At last month's Software Industry Conference we gave all attendees a printed Google AdWords Cheat-Sheet in their goodies bag, that apparently went down very well.

We're now making it available for download (as a PDF) from our website.

I hope you find it useful.

Enjoy:

Google AdWords Cheat Sheet

Google + DoubleClick = better content network

Fri, 8 Aug 2008 08:37:28 +0100

From Inside AdWords:

"We're happy to announce that we'll soon be enabling a number of new features made possible by a new DoubleClick ad serving cookie on our content network. All advertisers will soon be able to take advantage of features like frequency capping, better reach and frequency reporting, and view-through conversions."

On Google's official blog, the hype goes further:

"When we purchased DoubleClick, we talked about how we would empower agencies, advertisers and publishers to collaborate more efficiently and effectively, and provide a better experience for our users. We are happy that we have been able to deliver on this promise already..."

So what's it all about?

The four main enhancements are:

Frequency capping - allows advertisers to limit how many times a user sees an ad. Good for advertisers, good for users.

Frequency reporting - gives advertisers "an insight" (aka some information but not all) into how many people have seen an ad campaign and an ad. Good for advertisers, but there are potential privacy issues for users.

Improved ads quality - not sure what this means yet.

View-through conversions - allows advertisers to see how many users visit their sites after seeing an ad. Not sure how this will work.

The whole thing is being applied through use of a DoubleClick cookie. And users will be able to opt-out of this with a single click.

The bottom line is that there will probably be greater transparency. My guess is that this is in response to a decline in confidence in the content network. Time will tell.

New features coming to the Google content network

(Ad)Word of the Day: Keyword Insertion

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:49:34 +0100

There's an interesting post on the Inside AdWords blog on the issue of keyword insertion, often referred to as dynamic keyword insertion:

"Keyword insertion is a powerful feature that can save you time and also help make your ad text more relevant. This feature will automatically customize your ad to a user's query, which means your ad is more likely to attract a user's attention."

It's interesting that they're drawing attention to what used to be an unofficial technique. And it's even more interesting that they don't mention the main drawback of using keyword insertion.

Namely that it can take away control of your ads, and can even result in some odd looking ads.

A simple example:

You're bidding on the keywords raw conversion software and raw files.

Your ad is setup as follows:

Convert RAW Files
Download {KeyWord:RAW File Converter}
for your PC. Free trial.
www.domain.com

This may result in the following:

Convert RAW Files
Download raw files
for your PC. Free trial.
www.domain.com

And that's before getting into the issues of expanded matching.

Dynamic insertions can be very useful, but use with caution!

(Ad)Word of the Day: Keyword Insertion

New Format for Main Ad Group Page

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:27:14 +0100

Some slight changes have been made to the look and format of the AdWords Web interface.

The main ad group page now breaks down ad group performance into Search (sub-divided into "Google" and "Search partners") and Content (sub-divided into "Placements you've targeted" and "Other placements on the content network").

There is also now a "Placements" tab in the interface which allows advertisers to select placements to go along with their keyword targeted content campaigns.

New AdWords Editor Release - 6.0.1

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:26:34 +0100

The new version of AdWords Editor makes it possible to download performance statistics for selected campaigns and ad groups, instead of having to download statistics for the entire account.

A very sensible change that should save advertisers a lot of wasted time waiting for statistics to download.

Now if only I could still work on AdWords Editor in the background while it downloads data. One can always dream!

Use Keywords and Placements together on the Content Network

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:35:29 +0100

Google now allows advertisers to combine the use of keywords and site placements in contextually targeted campaigns.

This is a nice feature because instead of creating two separate campaigns, one for keywords and another for placements, you can now add both to any campaign running on the content network.

I'm hopeful this new addition will improve the targeting for content network campaigns.

Keyword research with figures

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 07:50:52 +0100

Google's Keyword Tool is now displaying actual figures for the approximate search volume, instead of the old-style "little green frustration bars".

This is long overdue, and makes their free tool a serious contender to the likes of WordTracker and KeywordDiscovery.

A very welcome move.

Slow Speed Costs!

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:13:02 +0100

It's now official. As of today, landing page load time will be factored into your keywords' quality scores.

Meaning? Slower-loading landing pages may get lower quality scores, possibly resulting in higher minimum bids.

One more factor to keep an eye on.

Landing page load time now affects keywords' Quality Scores

AdWords Editor Bugs

Fri, 6 Jun 2008 13:10:03 +0100

Eesh. I'm running into some bugs with the latest version.

Mainly:

- The cursor keys sometimes stop working when editing text. Oops.

- Very slow performance when uploading alterations.

- Some ad modifications wouldn't upload for me. I had to copy and paste the problem ads.

Based on what I've seen so far, I'd recommending waiting for version 6.0.1.

New version of AdWords Editor

Fri, 6 Jun 2008 10:29:30 +0100

Version 6.0.0 of AdWords Editor has just been released.

A lot of minor changes, but nothing revolutionary.

Useful:

Spell checking - basic but effective.

Drag and drop for ad groups.

Formula words in the Replace Text tool.

A better duplicate keyword finder.

Better advanced searching.

Backups automatically created when re-downloading an account.

Not so useful:

A new tab structure. Mainly resulting in less space. Great.

Appending text before or after existing text. For the life of me I can't work out why this would be useful.

Notably absent:

Full access to campaign settings. You still need to log in via your browser to change (for example) ad display settings.

AdWords Editor 6.0.0 Release Notes

New feature - monthly budget

Mon, 26 May 2008 10:19:40 +0100

"New! You can now use both daily and monthly budget options for your campaigns.

We are currently testing a monthly budget option with a limited number of advertisers. When you edit an existing campaign or create a new campaign, both 'daily' and 'monthly' will appear as budget options for your campaign settings."

This one struck me as a little odd. Why would time and effort be spent on this?

Do Google think that advertisers are incapable of converting a monthly budget to a daily one?

One possible cynical interpretation:

Google are dipping their toes in. If enough people use it and like it, I suspect this would become the standard option, and Google might even replace the existing daily option.

Why is this a bad thing? Because it would be one more example of Google taking away control from their advertisers.

Bear in mind that Google already make it quite clear that a daily budget doesn't actually mean a daily budget:

"On any single day, the AdWords system may deliver up to 20% more ads than your daily budget calls for. This helps make up for other days in which your daily budget is not reached."

What is a monthly budget and how does it work?

My Change History REALLY changes

Thu, 22 May 2008 12:41:22 +0100

The My Change History is often overlooked, but is an extremely useful tool. The problem is that many users feel a little overwhelmed by the sheer amount of data presented.

Google have now added graphical data to the top of the details.

You can choose to display a graph of impressions, clicks, clickthrough rate, cost and conversions, and different points of the chart are graphically linked to the changes that took place.

It's actually quite a nice idea, although I'm concerned that this much information may still overwhelm many users.

At the very least though, it's a good reminder that making too many changes at the same time can result in drowning in data.

Ultimately, however, I still prefer AdwordsReporter to get to grips with what's going on in an account.

Note: You may sometimes see an error when trying to generate the charts. I assume that this is an early glitch in the system.

My Change History Changes

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:13:25 +0100

Nothing overly dramatic here, but useful nonetheless.

If you go to My Change History in Tools, you may (or may not) notice that the going back drop-down has more options than before:

1 week
2 weeks
1 month
3 months
6 months
2 years

The change log can sometimes be very useful, yet most people don't even know it exists.

It's well worth a few minutes getting to know this tool.

Google Leaks Quality Score Variables

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:10:49 +0100

Fascinating.

From the Search Engine Journal:

"Earlier this morning a colleague of mine was conducting a search and called me over to show me something interesting. Immediately below each of the sponsored search results (AdWords) were three separate variable names and values."

Google Leaks Quality Score Variables (Pscore, mCPC and thresh) in Search Results

New conversion tracking features

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:07:14 +0100

From the horse's mouth:

"We've recently redesigned our conversion tracking feature in order to allow you to manage your ads more easily in a variety of different ways.

As part of this redesign, you'll notice that you can now name and describe the types of conversions that you wish to have tracked by defining actions. You can classify each action as one of 5 separate types: Purchase, Lead, Sign-up, Page View and Other."

I'm yet to experiment with the new features, but suspect that my fundamental issues with the system have not been addressed.

(1) Why only a 30 day cookie? Not ideal if you're selling a 30 day trial of software.

But more importantly:

(2) Google knowing more about your business and industry is not to your advantage.

Andrew Goodman, in his excellent "Winning results with Google AdWords" book puts it nicely:

"... using Google's tracking tool is like handing over your sales receipts to your office building landlord. This is information they don't need to know."

Sigh.

Too many people just don't get this.

And don't get me started on Google Analytics!

Not ideal.

Conversion tracking looks different. What changed and why?

AdWords Trademark Policy Revision (UK and Ireland)

Mon, 7 Apr 2008 19:35:14 +0100

Straight from (one of) the horse's mouth:

"What's changing in AdWords Trademark Policy? When?

Google has made a policy revision that applies to complaints we receive regarding trademarks in the UK and Ireland. For complaints received on or after Friday, April 4, 2008, we will no longer review a term corresponding to the trademarked term as a keyword trigger. However, we will continue to perform a limited courtesy investigation of complaints regarding ad text purported to be in violation of a trademark.

Beginning May 5, 2008, keywords that were disabled as a result of a trademark investigation will no longer be restricted in the UK and Ireland."

Now you know.

AdWords Trademark Policy Revision (UK and Ireland)

An update to display URL policy

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:11:31 +0100

Don't forget that the new display URL policy is set to be applied on Tuesday April 1st. I suspect it's not a joke.

"In response to advertiser and user feedback, and in an effort to provide more relevant advertising results and a higher quality experience for our users, we have made the decision to no longer allow certain exceptions with regards to our display URL policy. This includes, but is not limited to redirects and vanity URLs. This policy will be strictly enforced regardless of past approvals and will apply to all advertisers, beginning on April 1st."

More details on the Inside AdWords blog:

An update to display URL policy

You were warned (AKA I told you so)

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:41:02 +0100

The PPC Super Affiliate Blog has an interesting article on the Google AdWords & Analytics "data sharing" program:

"So Adwords wants you to OK them accessing your Analytics data. Time to put on your Big-G tin foil hats."

And the guys behind the blog hit the nail squarely on the head:

"Google must laugh out loud when they hear Yahoo and Microsoft talk about "Behavioral Targeting" in advertising. There is no cookie-trail in existence that could possibly give you the amount of 'behavioral' data Google now has.

The 'do not share data' link may be the only way affiliates can put a stake in the ground and keep a fair amount of separation given the value of all of this data.

Then again, what's the point of opting out? They're clearly already collecting it all anyway:"

"Will my historical data be included?

When you opt in to data sharing, we will include data from up to a month before your opt-in date to enable features such as benchmarking. When you opt out, data sharing stops on that day."

Ah.

Anyone who feels that Google don't or won't use the data collected in their analytics may want to drink some water and lie down. Fast.

And anyone who thinks that Google have the same goals as their advertisers may wish to do the same too.

Worlds Are Colliding- Google Adwords & Analytics 'Data Sharing' Program

Time really is money

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:16:55 +0100

There's a new metric that is now supposed to affect quality score; the amount of time it takes for your landing page to load.

The main points appear to be:

(1) There's little idea of a good load time. I assume that common sense applies. Five seconds is fine. Thirty might not be. Two minutes definitely won't be.

(2) You won't gain by having a fast loading page, but you can lose with a slow page.

An update to display URL policy

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 13:11:11 +0100

Inside AdWords have posted that they're updating their display URL policy:

"In response to advertiser and user feedback, and in an effort to provide more relevant advertising results and a higher quality experience for our users, we have made the decision to no longer allow certain exceptions with regards to our display URL policy. This includes, but is not limited to redirects and vanity URLs. This policy will be strictly enforced regardless of past approvals and will apply to all advertisers, beginning on April 1st."

This seems to have created a certain amount of confusion.

The bottom line is that the policy is the same. But in the past they sometimes made exceptions. Now they won't do so.

This won't affect most AdWords account holders, but if Google made an exception for you in the past, you have until April 1st to conform to the rules.

An update to display URL policy

AdWords Phishing Email

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:04:17 +0100

Apparently there's a fairly sophisticated phishing email doing the rounds. It looks like the real thing but of course isn't.

There are only a handful of reports so far, but you don't want one to be one of the unlucky few.

The email appears to be a standard "disapproved ads" email, with a link to log in to your account.

Be extra vigilant about clicking links from any such emails.

The best approach, as always, is to log directly into your account.

Better still have SoftwarePromotions handle your AdWords account, then you don't have to do anything!

Let's be careful out there!

Keyword Tool redesign

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 10:39:27 +0100

The Google AdWords Keyword Tool has been updated.

It appears to be mainly a cosmetic redesign, but is still quite useful. Nothing to get too excited about though.

Template Centre

Tue, 4 Dec 2007 11:46:06 +0100

What is the Template Centre?

"The AdWords Template Centre is a free tool that allows My Client Centre (MCC) account managers to create AdWords templates for pre-defined campaigns and share them with their directly-linked accounts. The advertisers with access to these templates can use them create their own campaigns."

More to the point - Where is the Template Centre?

So far it's not showing up in my account. Why do they do this?

Country targeting new interface

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 11:21:19 +0100

If you go into a campaign's settings and choose to edit the locations, you may be in for a surprise.

Google have gone cool. But perhaps a little too cool.

The new interface appears to make use of Google Maps, but there's a problem.

It crashes my browser, and I know it does the same to at least one other system.

For example when I click the Browse tab my browser crashes. At least sometimes.

cool + crash = beta = uncool.

Change to content network text ads

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 07:41:11 +0100

It looks as though Google are tightening the content network again:

"We're pleased to announce a change that we've made to the incidence of clicks on text ads on the Google content network. Previously, users could click anywhere on text ads running on the content network, including the ad's background and any part of the ad text, for their click to be registered. Now only clicks on the title or URL of text ads will be counted."

With regular AdWords ads, Google's interests are split three ways: Their own, their advertisers, and the people searching.

On the content network the people searching don't apply, but there are still three sets of interests to reconcile: Their own, their advertisers and the site owners.

Google's tightening of the belt can only mean one thing. Too many advertisers are losing faith in the content network.

It'll be interesting to see whether this makes a difference.

A change to text ads on the content network

Why I don't like the new keyword analysis tool

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 13:44:21 +0100

The latest entry in Inside AdWords describes the new keyword analysis page; the latest tool for diagnosing a keyword's quality score:

"The new Keyword Analysis page gives you a detailed breakdown of your keyword's Quality Score and how it might impact your ad's visibility. Specifically, you'll learn how keyword quality and landing page quality are performing and receive recommendations for improvement."

The idea, in concept, is a nice one. The implementation, however, leaves a lot to be desired. Instead of useful information you're more likely to find hype, propaganda and hyperbole.

As an example, I just went into one of our client's accounts, and ran the tool on the keyword that has generated the most impressions and clicks this past week, with 3,101 impressions, 104 clicks and a 3.35% CTR.

The tool tells me the following "useful information":

(1) No ad is showing for keyword XXX. Interesting. I'm not sure how I received 104 clicks this week.

(2) Reason: We are showing your ad only occasionally based on your budget. Right. So I need to spend more. Good tool.

(3) This test is based on the user's location, and not where the ads are actually displayed. Puzzling.

(4) Quality Score: Great. Great.

(5) What should I do? Keep it up! Your keyword, ad text and landing page quality are high. Continue to track your keyword and ad, however, as performance data can change regularly. Finally some good advice.

My main problems with the new tool are (a) that there is too much of sales push, (b) that too much of the information is inaccurate, and (c) it continues to fuel the quality score myth.

Quality score is the AdWords equivalent of the PageRank recipe:

- take two or three items of truth
- mix them in with many irrelevant factors
- water down until the truth can no longer be recognised and/or identified
- leave in the oven for onlookers to discuss, theorise and disect ad nauseam.

Quality score is little more than common sense. Your time can be better spent.

New Keyword Analysis Page: diagnose your keyword's quality score

1 keyword(s) are currently inactive for search

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 08:58:34 +0100

This one is stupidly small, but it really niggles me.

How many talented developers are there within the Google AdWords team?

Yet no-one can add a tiny line of code that will change this message to:

1 keyword is currently inactive for search

2 keywords are currently inactive for search

I'm not a programmer but even I can write this code.

It's the little thing(s) that are/can be annoying.

It may also be something to do with this being a no-caffeine day...

What's New in Google AdWords?

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 08:43:07 +0100

What's New?

According to the 1 New Feature! link at the top of my AdWords account, there are two recently added items:

Compare performance across two date ranges and/or metrics on Account Snapshot:

This is quite a nice little feature that I stumbled across a few days ago. Not particularly exciting though.

And AdwordsReporter puts it to shame.

Use the Conversion Optimiser to save time and minimise conversion costs:

This is a new(ish) feature that's still in beta, designed to manages your advertising costs around specific conversion goals.

It's an interesting idea, but there are caveats - aren't there always?

What is the Conversion Optimiser?

Help me

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:14:48 +0100

Google appear to be getting proactive with trying to get their advertisers to part with more cash.

I just logged into one of our client's accounts, and underneath some of the Current Status data for each campaign, there are links saying (for example) Help me get 69% more traffic.

Being naturally curious, I clicked on one of the links, wondering if Google would tell me that some of my bids were too high, or suggesting other cost saving techniques. I'm generally more optimistic on Mondays.

The only advice offered, however, was to raise the daily budgets.

How inspired.

Keyword Insertion now official

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 15:24:18 +0100

The AdWords Help Centre has just been updated with details of using dynamic keyword insertion.

Subjects include:

* How do I use keyword insertion? (tutorial)
* What is keyword insertion?
* When and why should I use keyword insertion?
* How does keyword insertion work with broad-match keywords?
* Will using keyword insertion affect my keywords' Quality Scores?
* Why doesn't my keyword appear in my approved keyword insertion ad?
* Why was my keyword insertion ad disapproved?

Using Keyword Insertion

Landing page quality score clarification

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 14:40:00 +0100

Google's Inside AdWords has been discussing "websites that may merit a low landing page quality score.

They've outlined three categories of websites that will be penalised; no beating around the bush here:

(1) Data collection sites offering free gifts, subscription services etc., in order to collect private information
(2) Arbitrage sites designed solely for the purpose of showing ads
(3) Malware sites that knowingly or unknowingly install software on a visitor's computer

They even go so far as saying that if complaints are received about ads for these types of sites, the advertisers may not be allowed to continue running AdWords ads.

The entry also outlines types of sites that are likely to merit low landing page quality scores and may be difficult to advertise affordably:

(a) eBook sites that show frequent ads
(b) 'Get rich quick' sites
(c) Comparison shopping sites
(d) Travel aggregators
(e) Affiliates not complying with their affiliate guidelines

So what's going on here?

Google are tightening their belts a little.

Why?

The success of Google AdWords depends on three groups all getting what they're looking for. Advertisers, searchers and Google. If any one group isn't happy, the three-way symbiosis can fall apart.

Will this affect you?

If you're running legitimate websites selling legitimate products, probably not.

If you're trying to make "easy money" then maybe.

Keep in mind that Google haven't said they will close all these accounts. They've said they might. Considering the fact that Google obviously make money from these advertisers, how out of their way do you think they'll go to track them down?

Sometimes it's easier to turn a blind eye to minor issues than include them in the terms of usage.

Speak to a specialist

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 08:16:56 +0100

Google Live Support allows you to receive immediate response to your questions via a free online chat session with a Google AdWords representative.

The Ask a specialist via chat button will appear on AdWords Help Center pages when an AdWords Specialist is available. You may not see the button all of the time, but it will be displayed as soon as a specialist is free.

Very nice!

Ask a Specialist via Chat

Little Trouble in Big China

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 08:04:14 +0100

I just changed a campaign setting for one of our clients, and changed the location targeting to target all countries instead of a select few.

I then noticed a new message that I had never seen before:

Due to advertising regulations and laws of the People's Republic of China, you may be asked to provide certificates and licenses if you are advertising certain categories of products in China.

Advertising in China

Report Centre Changes

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 10:15:42 +0100

The Report Centre has had a subtle cosmetic makeover.

It's easier to read and makes use of grey shading. Er...

You can also choose how many rows to display, but don't expect the system to remember your preferences.

Aside from all the above, the reports I'm generating recently seem to be a lot faster. Long may it continue.

Pushing the sale too hard?

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 10:25:41 +0100

Most of my client accounts are showing some variation of the following message:

"Campaign Budget Alert

Your ads are not receiving 63% of their eligible impressions due to your current budget settings. Increasing your budget can maximise your ad exposure and help your ads receive more clicks."

Thanks Google, but I'm already on top of this.

And as if that wasn't enough, underneath Active by each campaign's status, there's a link saying Want more clicks?

No, I don't. Thank-you.

It's irritating.

Have you ever been to a website site that has BUY NOW buttons plastered all over every page?

It's irritating.

I'm a little irritable today.

Top ad placement formula

Thu, 9 Aug 2007 17:22:27 +0100

There's an intriguing posting on the Inside AdWords blog.

A stripped down version of the post:

"Advertisers often aim for top placement because they find that their ads perform the best when they appear above Google search results.

Quality Score is the greatest determining factor in top ad placement, which means no one will ever be able to pay their way to the top.

We have, however, been working on an improvement to the top ad placement formula.

Today's formula considers an ad's Quality Score and actual cost-per-click (CPC). The improved formula will still heavily weight Quality Score, but instead of actual CPC, it will consider an ad's maximum CPC."

I've read this a few times and don't get it.

Essentially:

Actual cost per click = amount advertiser is paying. Advertiser has some control over this.

Maximum cost per click = amount advertiser is prepared to pay. Advertiser has full control over this.

Unless I'm missing something, this is a very definite move towards letting advertisers pay their way to the top.

Brawn will win over brain. At least until their budgets run out, anyway.

How is the formula for top ad placement changing?

Pushing features onto AdWords Editor

Thu, 9 Aug 2007 08:51:40 +0100

Are Google trying to push people into using their AdWords Editor software?

I just logged into an account's Tools, and saw the following message:

"The 'Copy or Move Keywords and Ad Text' and 'Advanced Search and Editing' tools will be removed from all AdWords accounts on August 20th, 2007. These features are still available in Adwords Editor, which you can download for free."

It's an interesting direction to take. But when will Google allow you to carry out all changes from within AdWords Editor?

The decision is apparently as a result of user feedback.

While I applaud the sentiment, I can't help but feel a little cynical.

Are users really contacting Google to tell them which features they don't need under tools?

Dear Google:

I really like the tools within my AdWords account.

But why do you still have the 'Copy or Move Keywords and Ad Text' and 'Advanced Search and Editing' tools?

It's much easier in AdWords Editor you know?

New version of AdWords Editor

Fri, 3 Aug 2007 17:40:23 +0100

I've just installed version 4.0 of AdWords Editor.

The information on the website doesn't tell me what's new, but here are a few things I've just discovered:

(1) You can now set custom date ranges. Great! I'm genuinely delighted by this, as it allows me to look at 28 days of data at a time. You know the whole "units of 7 days" rule right?

(2) More structured menus, and better use of shortcut keys. Very good.

(3) The ability to only publish a single campaign. Not sure why that would be useful, but it could be.

(4) It's a lot faster and more responsive.

I'm sure there's more, but here in the UK it's 17:50 on a Friday.

Oh and don't worry if you can't yet upgrade. It appears they may be staggering the rollout.

Campaign Optimizer?

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 14:27:29 +0100

Inside AdWords are reporting the launch of a new ad performance tool - Campaign Optimizer.

I can't yet see it in any of our client accounts, but suspect that it'll appear over the next few days.

What is it?

"It's an on-demand AdWords tool that provides personalized campaign ideas in just minutes. We're always looking for ways to help you improve your account performance and increase your advertising return, and we're excited that this tool can help jumpstart your optimization efforts."

Am I excited?

No. I'm guessing that this will not be revolutionary.

Would I trust it?

No. Even without having seen it.

Broad Match just became a lot more dangerous

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 13:19:44 +0100

Recent log analysis for one of our clients revealed a very serious issue within their AdWords account that we assumed had been an error within the AdWords system.

We contacted Google, and it turned out the system is working as intended. In the following information, keywords have been changed so as to protect client confidentiality, but if you use broad match in your AdWords account/s, you want to read this.

When poring through the server logs, we noticed a lot of clicks for one single broad term. The problem was that we weren't bidding on it.

The term generated 3,500 impressions and 140 clicks for the broad matched term climbing.

These were the keywords that we were bidding on:

climbing advice
climbing assistance
climbing classes
climbing guidance
climbing questions
"climbing advice"
"climbing assistance"
"climbing classes"
"climbing guidance"
[climbing advice]
[climbing assistance]
[climbing classes]
[climbing guidance]
[climbing guide]

Bidding on terms such as climbing advice and climbing assistance is not the same as bidding on the broad match climbing. The company in question don't sell books, magazines, equipment, courses or any number of possible broad match variations.

When we sent this information to Google, they replied:

"I checked with our Technical Team regarding the issue we spoke about. It is possible for two-word keywords to expand to one-word keywords if that one word is highly relevant. In the example that we discussed, 'climbing' had a four percent clickthrough rate (CTR). This high CTR is telling our system that users searching on 'climbing' are still finding your ad to be very relevant. As you know, if you would not like to show on these expanded variations, you can use negative exact match."

This concerns me. Aside from the terrible English.

First of all, when does expanding a two-word keyword reduce it to one single word? Expanding means less?

Secondly, why have they now placed the onus on their advertisers to find negatives for broad matches that they're not even bidding on?

Thirdly, why are Google now deciding when to ignore certain words within your broad matches, and reduce them to single words?

Fourthly, why are Google doing this so silently? If we hadn't spotted this in our logs, we'd never have known.

This scares the bijeebies out of me.

Moral: It's never been so important to thoroughly analyse your web logs.

Search Query Report

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 13:09:16 +0100

If you didn't yet spot it, there's a new report.

The Search Query Report is one of a whole bunch of recently added features, but this one is different. It's really, really useful.

"A Search Query Performance report shows performance data for the search queries that triggered the ads which appeared after receiving clicks. This report is only available for the search network."

As per usual with all new features, there do appear to be inconsistencies, but this strikes me as a seriously useful source of quality information.

Credit where it's due, this is one of the most interesting and useful additions I've seen in years.

What is a Search Query Performance report? How do I create one?

IP address exclusion

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 13:01:18 +0100

Another new addition that falls under the "bafflingly bewildering" category, Google recently added the ability to specify IP addresses where you do not want your ads to appear.

Their information explains how it works, but I am thoroughly confused as to why this should be an option:

"You can exclude up to 20 IP addresses or ranges of addresses, per campaign."

Why only 20?

This strikes me as a very odd feature, and while Google explain how to use it, they fail to say why.

If a person keeps clicking on your ads, shouldn't the Google system spot this as potential click fraud?

And how many fraudsters will use fixed IP addresses?

This is a dangerous tool. And it will only be a matter of time before someone goes through their web logs, sees "click fraud attempts" and inadvertently blocks every AOL user in the US from seeing their ads.

Why have they done it?

The only reason that I can think of is to alleviate the support requests. But as a feature, it's more or less useless.

Negative Keyword Tool

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 12:43:50 +0100

Google AdWords have added a lot of new features in the past week or so.

One of them, the Negative Keyword Tool, may or may not be showing up in your Tools just yet.

I've had a look at what it offers, and am more than a little puzzled.

First of all when it comes to keyword information, the AdWords approach is usually to simplify to a baffling level.

The keyword tool doesn't give actual figures for search volumes, for example, but gives meters indicating very low, low, average, high or very high. Why?

Yet the the Negative Keyword Tool gives actual figures in the form of percentages.

Secondly, the information they provide seems to be so incredibly inaccurate as to be useless.

We ran the tool on a client's campaign that generates almost 3.5 million impressions per week with a very healthy number of keywords and clicks.

The tool made two negative keyword suggestions, both of which were ludicrous.

After a quick look at some of the other campaigns, it soon became clear that as it stands right now, the tool is more or less a waste of time.

Sorting by budget

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 10:01:08 +0100

You may have noticed that in the Campaign Summary view, your campaigns are sorted by current budget in ascending order.

You may also have noticed that no matter what you do, this setting keeps reapplying itself.

Rest assured. You're not losing your marbles.

Maybe it's a new feature?

Work faster. Save money.

Thu, 7 Jun 2007 14:18:26 +0100

After a series of unbelievably frustrating technical issues with my MCC account, I finally moved over to viewing my Ad Group information in tabs.

Since doing so, I've stumbled across a means of reducing the wait for your ad group info to display.

When you click on an ad group, you'll probably notice that the information is sometimes a little slow to come in. Sometimes the three tabs (Summary, Keywords and Ad Variations) come in first, and it can take a few more seconds for the information to be displayed.

If you see this, try clicking on the Summary tab. Nine times out of ten the data will immediately appear, saving you a few seconds each time.

I know it's not much, but I'm a believer in the idea that if you look after your seconds, your minutes will look after themselves. Something like that anyway.

Q: When is a new feature not a new feature?

Mon, 4 Jun 2007 11:24:35 +0100

A: When Google say that it is.

The initial idea behind this feed was that Google didn't have a "what's new" area, to allow their customers to see ongoing changes to the system and interface.

On May 9th I mentioned that Google had finally added this to their system, but was concerned that they weren't including new features at all.

Time has proven me correct.

Today's New Feature is the Account Snapshot. This was implemented weeks ago.

The previous New Feature was the ability to pause ads and keywords, which was added on Feb 19th.

For now, the best means of knowing what's new is to continue to read this feed. Watch this space.

No End Date

Tue, 29 May 2007 11:34:02 +0100

If you log into your Campaign Settings, you should see a new option under Basic Settings; No end date.

Google's take:

"'No end date' is an extra campaign setting option that we have added to all AdWords campaigns.

Advertisers now have two choices: set a specific end date when their campaign will stop running or select 'no end date' to have their campaign run indefinitely. Campaigns set to 'no end date' do not have to run forever; they simply run until the advertiser decides to pause or delete the campaign manually or resets the campaign to a specific end date. You can make those changes at any time. If you want to create a campaign and let it run until you decide to make changes, 'no end date' is a good choice.

With the addition of the 'no end date' option, we will also change the default end dates for all AdWords campaigns. Until early in 2007, if an advertiser set no specific end date for a campaign, the AdWords system set a default end date of 31 December 2010. Now, if an advertiser creates a new campaign and sets no specific end date, the campaign will automatically be set to 'no end date'. "

So far I'm not seeing the auto-setting kick in, but they did refer to doing so in the future tense.

And obviously there's no way of choosing this option with AdWords Editor yet. It would be asking too much for Google to update their own software.

Placement Performance

Fri, 18 May 2007 15:11:24 +0100

Google are testing a new report type called the Placement Performance report.

The idea is that advertisers can view performance metrics for ads that may be running on URLs or domains within our content network.

Content network?

From the horse's mouth:

"Google has always provided full online statistical, conversion and financial reporting for the Google AdWords programme. Now with the Placement Performance report, you can gain greater transparency about your campaigns' performance on the content network for the first time. This report is intended as a tool for you to make informed decisions on improving your campaign's return on investment."

Interesting.

How do I create a Placement Performance report?

What's New?

Wed, 9 May 2007 10:39:57 +0100

I just logged into my Google AdWords account and saw a new link at the top right of the screen:

2 New Features!

Clicking on the link let me see some recently added features.

This is a long overdue addition, but they're still not including everything!

The only way to see all the interesting new features and changes is still right here.

New version of AdWords Editor

Mon, 7 May 2007 09:58:23 +0100

Version 3.5 of the AdWords Editor has been released.

AdWords Editor 3.5

New features include:

- image ads compatibility (long overdue) *

- drag and drop (they've finally caught up with Windows 95)

- region and city targeting

Nothing too exciting, but another move in the right direction.

* Could this be a sign of Google's growing interest in image ads?

SMS Phone Alerts

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 11:43:26 +0100

AdWords phone alerts let you receive important alerts about your account as text messages on your mobile phone.

This strikes me as an interesting insight into Google's communication problems, as email would appear to be far more practical.

Notifications will include payment and billing problems, ad activity and performance issues and more.

Just what you need when you're lying on a beach on vacation.

About Phone Alerts

It's a shame they can't extend the full functionality to My Client Centre accounts, but such is life with Google AdWords.

As to where to find the new feature, go to My Account, Account Preferences, then Notification Preferences.

In theory there should be a link to Set up phone alerts.

And don't worry if it's not there. Google often seem to stagger new features across AdWords accounts. It should show up within a day or two.

Something to look forward to...

Google AdWords New Preferred Cost Option

Wed, 18 Apr 2007 09:47:41 +0100

Just when you thought you were getting the hand of managing your Google AdWords account.

"Today, we are introducing a new bidding option called preferred cost bidding -- a feature designed to help you save time while achieving your advertising cost goals more consistently. Instead of setting a maximum cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-impression (CPM) bid, you can set a preferred CPC or CPM bid that represents the average price you want to pay."

So what's it all about?

On December the 18th, 2006, I wrote an entry entitled Quality Score Befuddlement.

I outlined my belief that the AdWords system uses Quality Score in the same way that soldiers use smoke. To create confusion and take away the ability to assess what's going on.

It's my belief that this latest "feature" is little more than a lot of smoke.

Take a step back. The basic principle of AdWords is simple. Set a bid, be ranked according to performance and bid, pay when clicked.

With time Google have developed the basic idea into a phenomenally powerful machine. Yet with each new feature, the system becomes ever more complicated.

There are three types of features:

The good:

Network choices, matching options, geographic and language targeting, maximum bids and more.

These are genuinely useful, and help the advertisers achieve their goals.

The bad:

Position preferences, ad serving that offers "more evenly" instead of evenly, content bids, budget optimiser, preferred cost bidding and more.

These are overly complicated, and instead of aiding the advertiser, actually confuse them and take away vital information. In other words more smoke.

The ugly:

Ad scheduling, accelerated delivery, preferred cost bidding and more.

These are interesting features, but poorly implemented and overly confusing. And when there's confusion by the advertiser, who do you think gains the most; Google or the advertiser?

The more observant readers will note that the new Preferred Cost Bidding appears under both bad and ugly.

Why? Because I'm not yet sure just how bad and ugly it is. But I'm absolutely certain it won't be good.

Google have an incredible and highly profitable system. But there are plenty of areas that could and should be improved. Yet for reasons that I unfortunately do understand, they keep squirting ever-thicker smoke over the ever-murkier waters.

When I get the chance I'll experiment with preferred cost bidding in our test account. But I wouldn't dream of doing with any of our client accounts.

Campaign Summary changes

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 08:33:23 +0100

If you log in to your AdWords account today, you'll probably see a "Cleaner look, more data." notice.

This is odd. For the life of me I can't understand why they're drawing attention to what appears to be the most inconsequential change they've ever implemented. Very strange.

Nothing to get excited about.

My Change History changes

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 11:30:46 +0100

My Change History is a very useful feature that remains hidden away under the Tools tab.

You now have more control over the date range, and can also select the change type as required.

I suspect that this is more for Google's bandwidth and system performance than anything else, but it's still quite useful.

They are also displaying a little more information under Description, assuming that you select the Show all details option.

Top ads display changes

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 12:23:04 +0100

In case you haven't already noticed, the ads that are displayed above the natural search results are now displayed differently.

The blue background has been changed to yellow. And the link itself now needs to be clicked, instead of anywhere in the box.

I'm guessing that this will make a difference to the click through rates of these ads.

Measuring this, however, will be next to impossible. Advertisers won't be able to tell how many times their ads were displayed in this "premium" position, if at all.

AdWords slow performance

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 11:24:20 +0100

If you're grinding your teeth over how slow and unresponsive your AdWords account interface has been over the last 24 hours or so, you're not alone.

We're seeing the same things in the UK and US. It appears that the deeper you dig, the slower the web interface.

And unlike most previous slowdowns, accessing your account/s through another country (eg: Ireland) makes no difference.

Hopefully Google will fix this quickly.

Shiny new help icons

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 10:27:34 +0100

I've recently noticed the little help icons that have started showing up throughout the AdWords accounts. If you hover your mouse over them, some information is displayed.

Useful?

Most of them are more than a little basic, to put it mildly.

And some of them are less than helpful.

Example: the info displayed next to the inactive keyword notification tells you nothing, but does offer links to more information.

Earth shattering? No. But it appears that Google are polishing and refining their help centre, which is enormously useful.

Anything that gives AdWords account holders more useful information has to be a good thing.

New Promotional Credits policy

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 09:33:18 +0100

As of March 31st 2007, AdWords promotional credits will only be available to Qualified Individuals and Qualified Companies in the Google Advertising Professionals Program.

Why? According to Google, it's to "ensure that customer acquisition funds are being spent appropriately".

Okay.

My guess? Too many people are taking advantage of promotional credits, and setting up "what do we have to lose" accounts. I can only imagine how relevant and worthwhile most of these prove to be.

My theory? Google may have been a little too generous in giving these out. I've seen companies giving them out with new website accounts.

Not any more.

New Version of AdWords Editor

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 10:30:08 +0100

Version 3.0 of AdWords Editor has just been released.

What's new:

- the ability to pause keywords
- full support for site targeted campaigns
- negative sites
- the ability to edit another account while your changes post (how useful is that?)
- counting of rows selected
- more detail in the "post completed" information

What's updated:

- HTML export
- CSV export
- the ability to paste into multiple ad groups

What's not included:

- full control over campaign settings
- use of Google's own match syntax
- end date bug (not as far as I can see)

I don't understand why Google continue to take such an odd approach with this software.

90% of it is superb. The other 10% is confusingly awful.

Report Changes (minor)

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 12:49:34 +0100

Google have been quietly making minor changes to some of the reports that you can generate from the Report Centre.

Changes include changing some of the default settings for the various report types, and adding some new minor options. For example, within the Ad Performance report, there are more flexible options under Filter Your Results.

Earth shattering? No. But interesting nonetheless.

Pausing enabled

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 17:12:19 +0100

Finally!

You can now pause ads and keywords from within your AdWords account.

Fantastic. I just hope they add the functionality to AdWords Editor soon.

Quality Score Chaos

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 16:48:20 +0100

As expected, the first set of changes applied by the Quality Score update are causing a lot of problems for a lot of people.

If you're seeing a whole load of inactive keywords with stupid/silly bids required to activate the keywords, then wait.

All may not be lost yet.

A number of people seem to think that at least some of the changes are down to technical problems.

So hold your horses.

As in all things AdWords related, throwing money at the problem may not be the best solution.

Watch this space.

Quality Score - the confusion continues

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 16:27:54 +0100

Inside AdWords has issued a statement on upcoming changes to the way that Quality Score is handled and displayed.

"Transparency - Later this week, we're releasing an optional Quality Score column that shows the minimum bid for all of the keywords within an ad group as well as a Great, OK, or Poor quality label for your keyword."

I have issues with this system.

First of all, I still believe that Google use Quality Score like armies use smoke. See the previous post if you don't know what I'm talking about.

Second of all, Google love figures.

Search for "software marketing" and you'll be told there are 416,000,000 results.

Yet go into your AdWords account and it all goes a little vague.

Use the Keyword Tool to search for the same term, choose to display search volume, and there are no figures. Just little bars that represent very low, low, average, high and very high.

And the soon to be released Quality Score information will be represented by Great, OK or Poor.

Great. I mean Poor.

Inside AdWords also announced that they're launching improvements to to the Quality Score algorithm.

Improvements?

"As a result of this update, you may notice that the minimum bids increase for some of your keywords and decrease for others."

Oh, one of those improvements.

I remember how pleased people were by the last round of improvements.

Quality Score updates

Customised (customized) columns

Wed, 31 Jan 2007 10:03:38 +0100

You can now customise the columns that appear throughout your AdWords account.

When I initially heard about this, I thought it might be useful.

How naive of me.

Aside from one fairly redundant option that can be added (average CPM), it appears that all you can do is hide the columns.

Why on earth would you want to do that??

Perhaps your CTR is depressingly low? Or you've decided that the average position is irrelevant?

Yet again I'm staggered.

Google must have some serious talent behind the system, and there are hundreds of useful features being asked for by users. So why do they only add little irrelevant features that nobody wants?

Ad Serving

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 11:52:34 +0100

In the campaign settings, under Advanced Options, you can choose how ads are served.

Is it just me, or has the wording changed? I seem to remember that one of the options used to be to display ads equally. Now it says "Show ads more evenly".

More evenly? I'm not sure whether this is a mistake on my part, irrelevant, or a little more Google AdWords deviousness.

Quality Score Befuddlement

Mon, 18 Dec 2006 15:00:02 +0100

What is 'Quality Score' and how is it calculated?

If you believe what Google tell you, then they've just released the formula. In a manner of speaking:

Quality Score = (keyword's CTR, ad text relevance, keyword relevance, landing page relevance)

Right.

That's a formula?

When soldiers fight in close quarters, they often use smoke grenades. The idea of the smoke isn't so much to hide what they're doing as to create confusion and take away the ability to assess what's going on. With enough smoke, the enemy can't see how many people there are, what they're doing, what they've carrying or even which direction they're going.

Facts become blurred. Knowledge becomes guesswork. Even the sharpest of eyes start to squint.

It's difficult to respond when you can't see.

Quality Score is Google's smoke screen.

We know how AdWords works, and we know about the importance of Quality Score. But the more information that Google give us, the more confusion they create.

It's ingenious.

I've often thought that the AdWords quality score is similar in effect to PageRank. Everyone talks about it, no-one understands it, and too many people become far too obsessed by it. Don't let Quality Score dominate your Google AdWords efforts.

What is Quality Score and how is it calculated? (hint: don't hold your breath)

Google Audio Ads

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 10:31:01 +0100

AdWords is moving onto (into?) the radio.

"Google Audio Ads is an extension of the AdWords platform, allowing advertisers to create and manage radio advertising campaigns using AdWords' powerful online interface."

What is Audio Ads?

AdWords Editor 2.5

Tue, 5 Dec 2006 16:33:46 +0100

A new version of AdWords Editor has been made available.

I have to admit to being puzzled. Like most other releases, it includes a variety of different nice features. But they still don't include the important features that users are requesting.

There's better implementation of keyboard shortcuts, tools for bulk deletion, exporting to HTML (?) and automatically adding http:// to your destination URL (hurrah) and more.

But can you change all of the campaign setting from with the editor? No.

Can you now always see all of your ad text displayed? No.

Does Google AdWords Editor now use Google's own formatting for matching? No. No!

So is it only a small step? Not even.

Why are Google spending time on fixing silly little issues and adding unwanted features instead of addressing the core issues that users of the software point out and request?

Are they short on manpower?

In balance, however, if you're not already using AdWords Editor, it's still a very useful tool. Once you've figured out all the workarounds anyway.

AdWords Editor Release Notes

AdWords Yo-Yo

Thu, 30 Nov 2006 11:03:28 +0100

Google AdWords has up and down like a yo-yo this morning.

It keeps slowing down to a crawl, then giving an error message, then going offline completely.

Sigh.

MCC statistics now updated daily

Thu, 23 Nov 2006 11:25:52 +0100

A notice in my Google AdWords MCC account:

"Fresh stats! Your MCC dashboard statistics are now updated every morning, based on your local time zone setting."

Wouldn't you think that Google would be able to handle more regular updates?

Dig around a little, and you'll also find the following:

"MCC alerts for declined payment and 'budget at 80%' are updated on your dashboard within two hours of their occurrence."

My experience: Not so.

How often are my MCC statistics and alerts updated?

Quality Score Nonsense

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 09:43:25 +0100

I sometimes wonder what Google AdWords are thinking.

From InsideAdwords, a fascinating snippet of information:

"Using Website Optimizer to experiment with your landing page does not have any impact on your Quality Score or your landing page quality. Website Optimizer evaluates your conversion rates to tell you which marketing messages are converting most often on your landing page, whereas the Quality Score doesn't incorporate any conversion information."

Right. I had to read that a few times too.

So quality has nothing to do with conversion.

I think this may be the beginning of a new chapter for Google.

If anyone from Google is reading this then I think it's time to start listening to your advertisers.

You're going too far. You're annoying and frustrating too many people.

Answering your landing page quality questions (part 1)

Landing Page Quality Update

Thu, 9 Nov 2006 08:14:04 +0100

The Inside AdWords Blog has posted details of some forthcoming changes to landing page quality.

Credit where it's due, Google are having an impact on the English language. Not only is Google now a verb, but quality is slowly but surely becoming synonymous with confusion.

From the blog entry:

"Why are you focusing on landing page quality?

The goal of our ongoing landing page quality initiative is to improve the experience of our users by providing high quality results not only in the ad text, but also once the user has clicked through to the site. We strongly believe that an excellent experience on the advertiser's site is an essential element in earning the continued trust of our users. Clearly, the better the user experience, the more likely it is that users (who are also your potential customers) will continue to seek out -- and click on -- AdWords ads over the long term. This is to the advantage of everyone: users, advertisers, and Google alike."

Never forget that Google are balancing the needs of three groups:

(1) Advertisers. Google have to remember why their advertisers use AdWords. Run too many circles around them and they walk away.

(2) Searchers. If the quality of Google's search results becomes diluted, people will begin to look elsewhere.

(3) AdSense. If the account holders don't get enough for the space they give up, they'll look for other options.

You may notice a pattern here.

Relevance = Revenue.

That's all there is to it.

Keep your landing pages (important hint coming here) and the rest of your website relevant to your ads and keywords. That's all there is to it.

AdWords Editor Nightmare

Wed, 25 Oct 2006 17:11:01 +0100

I've been having terrible problems with AdWords Editor.

The problem has now been resolved, but it took far too long, should have been avoided in the first place, and I have lost a great deal of faith in AdWords Editor.

If you use AdWords Editor, you want to read this.

AdWords Editor Nightmare

Report Centre Changes

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 11:38:50 +0100

Report Centre Changes
Very minor alterations appear to have been made to the Report Centre.

The first change is a cosmetic one. Instead of choosing the Report Type from a drop down menu, you have a list to choose from. Technology is a wonderful thing.

There's also a new Filter option under the optional Advanced Settings. Under most reports, this lets you separate Content from Search, which initially struck me as an interesting move.

Will it provide greater transparency for your content ads?

No. I don't think so. But it's a great illusion.

AdWords Editor Version 2.0

Wed, 4 Oct 2006 10:52:13 +0100

The new version of Google AdWords Editor has just been released, and I'm in the process of giving it a workout.

There are loads of new features, but these are the first things that I noticed.

IMPORTANT: You may want to hold off with upgrade if you have work in progress in your older version. It appears that the new version has to re-download the data from your Google AdWords account. As far as I can see, this overwrites what you have.

I just learnt this the hard way.

What's new?

The interface looks more or less identical, but does seem a little quicker than the old version, especially in accounts with lots of data. And unless I'm mistaken, it also seems to download data from Google AdWords faster too.

There are some more tools, such as a duplicate keywords checker (very useful) and a tool to group keywords together that I really don't understand.

When you choose to check changes, the dialog can provide more details of what's being checked, but not as much information as I would have expected.

And my big issues with the last version of AdWords Editor?

Does Google now recognise its own conventions? No! For example, if you want to enter three match variations of Google AdWords, you would expect to enter the following:

google adwords
"google adwords"
[google adwords]

But you'd be wrong. Sigh.

And the campaign settings? Yes!! I can now change the max CPC for content separately. I'm very happy about that.

There's also a feature to select "Advanced Max CPC Changes", which allows you to increase max CPC either by a percentage or a number of dollars. Intriguing. You can also choose to set max CPC value to no higher than X. I must check what max CPC stands for then.

There are also some new features to find and replace text in ads. Useful, but they don't allow you to preview the changes. Bad idea. The same for some new Advanced URL Changes.

My other peeve - do the ads fit in the ad preview? No.

All in all, a big step in the right direction. Let's hope that more updates are on the way.

Google AdWords Editor Version 2.0 Release Notes

Check your ads through the eyes of the world!

Mon, 11 Sep 2006 09:19:03 +0100

If you want to see how your Google AdWords ads will appear to people in other parts of the world, Google have made the process a lot easier.

As well as providing you with a link to preview the ad results (that won't affect your AdWords impressions, clicks etc.) the page details the parameters for country, region, city and more.

Very useful.

How can I be sure my ad is showing in other geographical locations?

Free software that saves time - AdWords Editor

Tue, 5 Sep 2006 09:04:14 +0100

Google's AdWords Editor has been around for quite a while now, yet I'm surprised by how few people are actually using it.

If you haven't yet dabbled, you may find the following to be useful.

Pros:

- Fantastic at bulk copying/cutting and pasting of ads and keywords. Infinitely faster than the Google AdWords interface.

- Great at chopping and changing between ad groups and campaigns to check keywords, ads, tracking etc.

- Ideal for setting up new campaigns that you don't want to make live yet.

- When making a large number of minor changes (eg changing the tracking for 25 ads), may sometimes save hours over the Google AdWords interface.

Cons:

- It's still in beta. Yes I know that Google like to leave their software/services in beta for years, but the interface is quite clunky. And finding the specific setting you're looking for can sometimes be a challenge.

- The interface needs some serious work. Google should use our Software Evaluation Service!

- There are a few settings that you can't change from within the software, so you need to go into the Google AdWords account anyway.

- The software doesn't recognise Google's own conventions. Surround a keyword by quotation marks and it doesn't realise it's supposed to be phrase matched. Sigh.

Ultimately I feel the same way about Google AdWords Editor as I do about Act!2005. I use them both all day, and they are simultaneously the most useful and exasperating pieces of software on my system. Classic love-hate.

But the bottom line is that Google AdWords Editor saves me a great deal of time every day of the week. Not bad for free software.

AdWords Editor

MCC Alerts

Wed, 23 Aug 2006 12:43:29 +0100

I just logged into the Google AdWords My Client Centre, and found a notice from Google regarding MCC Alerts:

"The MCC alerts feature makes it easy to keep informed about important issues that may affect your managed client accounts. Based on your preference settings, alerts will appear on your MCC dashboard about account-specific issues."

The options that I can select, right now, are alerts for the following:

Ad delivery stopped

Google AdWords: Credit Card Declined

Campaign end dates nearing

Account budget end dates nearing

Budget is 80% completed

Earth shattering? No.

Useful? Yes, very.

Report Centre Changes

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 10:03:24 +0100

If you go to your account's Report Centre, and select Ad Performance as the report type, you'll see that Google now let you specify which ad variations to include: text ads, image ads and/or local business ads.

Obviously this gives you more information, and information in Google AdWords is power.

But of all the changes that the Google AdWords development team could have included, this seems to be off the scale for obscurity.

Or is it?

Could it be that there's a growing trend towards image ads or local business ads working better?

Click Fraud Detection

Wed, 9 Aug 2006 10:06:39 +0100

Google AdWords have long understood that click fraud poses a more serious threat to Google than their advertisers.

Why?

Because if we (the advertisers) suspect click fraud, we walk away from Google AdWords. A great shame, but not the end of the world.

But if enough of us walk away at the same time, AdWords lose their customers. And Google AdWords is the heart of the Google money making machine.

Market forces have, predictably, produced services to stamp down on this threat. Some of whom, according to Google, have widely exaggerated the scale of the problem.

From Inside AdWords:

"One clear indication that the consultants' results are flawed: they're not even getting the total number of clicks correct. We have seen some instances of reports showing 1.5 times the number of clicks in our logs - for example, in one case 1,278 clicks were claimed as being "fraudulent" by the consultant while only 850 actually even appeared as clicks in Google's logs."

Troubling findings on how some third parties detect click fraud

A more detailed PDF of the findings may be found here.

Personally I've always found Google to be quite responsive when it comes to responding to click fraud. And infinitely better than Overture.

And it's no coincidence that Google also recently introduced new features to track invalid clicks from within their reports. Details here:

Estimating invalid clicks

More Changes - Quality Score revisited

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 13:10:08 +0100

In case you hadn't already heard, Google recently made some sweeping changes to the backbone of their "Quality Score" system.

A lot of people logged into their Google accounts last week to find that a whole load of their lower bids were now inactive. Hmmm.

Interestingly enough, the vast majority of our clients appear to have been completely unaffected. But the forums are full of some very unhappy people indeed.

Generally speaking, the majority of people affected seem to be using a lot of very low-priced keywords.

Generally speaking, ads pointing to one-page websites seem more likely to have been affected.

The theory is that Google are trying to spot the pages and sites that don't have enough content, or at least "quality" content.

If this is the case, then surely moving ads to sites that do have lots of content would work? Or for that matter simply adding content?

The question is, if you do so, how long will it take Google to spot that you've realised the error of your ways?

But the big question is as follows. Why have almost none of the companies that we work with been affected?

Do Google really love SoftwarePromotions? Or is it something to do with how we have setup our client's campaigns?

If so, then what are the key points to avoiding the latest Google Slam?

One thing is for sure. There are a lot of really unhappy people out there who are now looking elsewhere to spend their money. If the trend continues, this will have obvious repercussions on Google.

My advice: Don't panic. If you've fallen victim, contact Google AdWords or your account rep and find out what you need to get things moving again. Without spending more money. If account holders continue to walk away, Google are going to have to find a better way of raising the quality of their results.

Major Round of Changes

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 11:04:53 +0100

The AdWords team have been busy, but I for one am not so happy.

The interface has been redesigned quite drastically. If you go into one of your Ad Groups, you'll see that the account stats are now displayed in a tabbed interface.

Does it work?

I like that fact that you can now instantly see your conversion rates on individual keywords. That's a good new feature. But it's the only one.

The ability to change the date range has been quite cleverly hidden. Go on. See if you can spot it. Hint: Instead of a nice clear drop down, it's now a little Change range link towards the top of the page. Hiding useful functionality doesn't rate as an improvement in my book.

You can also override the tabs and choose to View all tabs at once. Which makes it even more difficult to read in my opinion. One step forward and three steps back?

By default, when you create new ads, you won't see which keywords have been performing well. And this is progress?

So why have they done this, and not implemented the features that advertisers have been asking for?

There are a few possible reasons:

(1) Because they genuinely believe that the new interface is better. Personally I don't believe this to be the case. They've already proved that they can create a good interface when they want to. This isn't one of them.

(2) Because people were getting too comfortable with the old interface. Yes, I know it makes me sound like a conspiracy nut, but I think this may well be the case. For more on this, come and hear me talk at the Shareware Industry Conference. I'm the guy wearing the aluminium hat.

(3) Because Google like to change their system just after I finalise my Powerpoint Presentations for the Shareware Industry Conference. This is the third year on the run that they've done this to me.

Yup, it has to be reason 3.

Ad Scheduling

Fri, 16 Jun 2006 09:25:28 +0100

I really like it when Google listen to their customers. Credit where it's due, this is a feature that many people have been asking for.

Normally, assuming your budget is high enough, your Google AdWords ads run 24 hours a day, every day.

The new scheduling features allow to you select the blocks of time and/or days of the week that you want the campaign to run, while the advanced features allow the price to be adjusted during certain times of the day.

Interesting.

Step by step instructions are available if required.

Note that when you enable this feature in the Campaign Settings, you also need to select a permanent time zone for your account. The important word here is permanent.

Question: Do you set the time zone according to your business or your web server?

Answer: The obvious choice may appear to be the time zone of your business, but you might want to make sure that when (for example) you match up your AdWords data with your server logs, that you're looking at the same time sets.

Details are available from What is the time zone for my AdWords account?

So how useful are the new scheduling features? That remains to be seen. I know a lot of people have requested this feature, but personally I can't see it being so useful for anyone selling their goods to the world. There are other requested features that I feel would be far more useful to far more people. For example the ability to pause an ad, without having to delete it.

But Rome wasn't built in a day.

Position Preferences

Thu, 15 Jun 2006 14:18:35 +0100

Inside Edit Campaign Settings, under Advanced Options, there's a checkbox that allows you to Enable position preferences.

Google's Help explains:
"Position preference lets you notify Google where you would prefer your ad to show among all the AdWords ads on a given page.

Whenever you run a keyword-targeted ad, your ad is assigned a position (or rank) based on your cost-per-click (CPC) bid, your keyword's Quality Score and other relevant factors. There may be dozens of positions available for a given keyword, spread over several pages of search results.

If you find that your ad gets the best results when it is ranked (for example) third or fourth among all AdWords ads, you can set a position preference for those spots. AdWords will then try to show your ad whenever it is ranked third or fourth and avoid showing it when it is ranked higher or lower. If your ad is ranked higher than third for a given keyword, the system will automatically try to lower your bid to place your ad in your preferred position."

We've now tried this with around ten different accounts.

One account saw fantastic results.

One saw mediocre results.

And the others were all bad.

My advice? Try it for a week and see. You never know. But it appears that the odds may be against you.

AdWords Editor

Wed, 7 Jun 2006 10:46:35 +0100

Google's offline AdWords Editor Software is now freely available to everyone.

And it's free.

It is, however, still in BETA, but I'm expecting it to remain that way for quite some time.

And the good news is that it works for users of the My Client Centre Account too. So Qualified Google Advertising Professionals (like myself) are happy!

AdWords Editor

Including deleted items that were active

Mon, 5 Jun 2006 16:27:23 +0100

When you drill all the way down into an ad group, under the date selection section, there's a checkbox for the following:

Include deleted items that were active in this date range

I'm not sure about this one. Was that there before?

If so, then how's that for a feature with limited appeal?

New terms - US accounts only?

Fri, 2 Jun 2006 10:05:09 +0100

New terms - US accounts only?

You may have noticed the following message in your AdWords account:

Important notice: Please be advised that Google has modified the standard terms and conditions of the AdWords programme. As stated in the terms, your continued use of AdWords indicates that you accept these new Terms and Conditions.

Oddly we're only seeing this in our US client accounts.

Summary of the changes

Updated terms

Delivery method - new feature

Mon, 22 May 2006 09:08:47 +0100

Inside Edit Campaign Settings, under Budget Options, there are now two alternatives for Delivery Method:

Standard: Show ads evenly over time

Accelerated: Show ads as quickly as possible

What's it all about? According to Google's explanation, accelerated delivery is "best if you want to increase the likelihood of spending your full budget each day. We will display your ads as often as possible until your budget is reached. If your budget is set below the system-recommended budget, your ads may not receive all possible impressions."

Is there any real advantage to this? I really don't know. It could turn out to be useful, but it could also be one of their all too common red herrings.

Anyone who's been working with Google AdWords for long enough knows that new features may fall into three categories. The useful, the detrimental and the irrelevant.

Ad Serving - terminology change

Mon, 22 May 2006 09:06:02 +0100

Inside Edit Campaign Settings, under the so-called Advanced Options, there are now two alternatives for Ad Serving:

Optimise: Display better-performing ads more often

Rotate: Show all ads equally

You may well find that you've always left these on the default, which is to display the better performing ads more often. However this isn't always the best choice, especially if you're working with new ads and/or A-B testing.

What's new at Google AdWords

New report: User Locations

AdWords email support has changed

Ads stuck under review?

Paused ads will be reviewed

New AdWords metric: Est. Top Page Bid - Translation: More money for Google

New version of the AdWords Editor - 9.5.1

Conversion tracking for mobile devices

Top vs. Side

New targeting for Tablets

Display network campaign level setting changes

New metric for the display network.

AdWords Editor Bug

Location targeting updates coming soon.

Domains are being added to the ad headline

AdWords Editor Version 9.0

Instant Previews for AdWords Ads

Preset filters from Google, how nice of them?

Free phone support for U.S. and Canada based AdWords customers

Say goodbye to Position Preference

New feature for AdWords: Make your campaign less targeted through topics.

Location targeting changes - beware

New device targeting options coming soon

Update to the upcoming changes on managed placement bids

Diagnose keywords

Ad rotation update

Changes are coming for bidding on managed placements

AdWords Automation for All

Want bigger Headlines?

New AdWords Account Snapshot

Budget ideas to replace Limited by budget?

Want some Free Clicks?

Display URLs are about to change

News for Display Ads

Contextual Targeting Tool

AdWords Change History facelift

New version of AdWords Editor - Version 8.5.1

New Reporting and Tools tab

New AdWords columns you might want to view

Missing any AdWords reports?

AdWords Editor version 8.0.1

Comparing past performance gets easier

New AdWords feature (long overdue)

Enhanced CPC beta

Work faster in Google AdWords

Lost your filters?

Targeting mobile devices gets focused

Bid Simulator

The New AdWords Interface is live - bad news for most advertisers

New Conversion Metrics

Warning: New AdWords phishing

More display URL policy changes

New AdWords interface

Using Trademarked Names in Display URLs

Your Google AdWords Approval Status

AdWords Editor 7.0 released

iPhones and other mobile devices

Top Tactics for Tough Times

More Quality Score Changes

How will the recession affect Google AdWords?

Google and Search Partners - the separation begins

New version of AdWords Editor - version 6.5

Statistics drop-down menu

Quality Score "Improvements"

Google AdWords Cheat Sheet

Google + DoubleClick = better content network

More Sponsored Links

(Ad)Word of the Day: Keyword Insertion

New Format for Main Ad Group Page

New AdWords Editor Release - 6.0.1

Use Keywords and Placements together on the Content Network

Keyword research with figures

Slow Speed Costs!

AdWords Editor Bugs

New version of AdWords Editor

New feature - monthly budget

My Change History REALLY changes

My Change History Changes

Google Leaks Quality Score Variables

New conversion tracking features