WebProNews

Tag: AdWords

  • Google Lets Advertisers Expand Audience Reach

    Update: Anytime interest-based advertising is mentioned, privacy concerns usually follow, based on its use of browser history.  A Google spokesperson tells WebProNews, "An advertiser can only remarket to users who have visited their site (or who have interacted with their YouTube homepage ad or brand channel)."

    Users can opt-out of seeing remarketing ads using Google’s  Ads Preferences Manager,as mentioned in Google’s announcement, but in case users haven’t seen that particular link, "Clicking on ‘Ads by google’ or ‘i’ (in rich media ads) alongside all ads we serve takes you to this page which explains our ad practices and leads to the Ads Preferences Manager," she says.

    Original Article:     Google is rolling out a new AdWords feature called Remarketing. What this does is allow advertisers to reach users on sites within the Google Content Network, as they browse the web. The feature was originally introduced as a trial a year ago as part of Google’s interest based advertising beta, but the company  is now making it widely available.

    Google rolls out remarketing for adwords users"We’ve received a tremendous response from the hundreds of advertisers who’ve been using it in recent months, across all industries – including automotive, retail, local and finance," says Product Manager Aitan Weinberg. "We’ve seen that remarketing has worked well for many different kinds of advertisers – whether they’re looking to boost brand awareness, or drive clicks and sales, and whether they use display or text ads. For example, if you’re a search advertiser, you can use remarketing to create an integrated campaign strategy. After driving traffic to your site with search ads, you can then remarket to those users who reach your site by showing them tailored ads on sites throughout the Google Content Network."

    Google says remarketing is a great way to reach users who are likely to be "highly receptive" to special offers.

    "Let’s say you’re a basketball team with tickets that you want to sell. You can put a piece of code on the tickets page of your website, which will let you later show relevant ticket ads (such as last minute discounts) to everyone who has visited that page, as they subsequently browse sites in the Google Content Network," explains Weinberg. "In addition to your own site, you can also remarket to users who visited your YouTube brand channel or clicked your YouTube homepage ad."

    Advertisers can run multiple remarketing campaigns at once. "For example, you could offer discount game tickets to users who’ve previously visited your tickets page, advertise VIP hospitality packages to users who clicked on your ‘How to get to the arena’ page, and advertise a sale on team merchandise to users who previously visited your YouTube brand channel," says Weinberg.

    Advertisers who want to use remarketing can set up and create their campaigns in the "audience" tab in AdWords.

  • Google Introduces AdWords Search Funnels Reports

    Last night, your humble author watched an episode of The X-Files in which a sick boy got a new liver.  The twist was this: the boy got a new liver after a man who built Rube Goldberg machines survived four attempts on his life and won the lottery.  And a new set of reports known as AdWords Search Funnels acknowledges the same principle of cause and effect.

    Search Funnels (which is currently in beta) should help advertisers see any sort of complicated processes that are at work.  Essentially, if two or more clicks over the course of as many as 30 days contribute to a sale, companies can now more easily recognize the sequence of events.

    A post on the Inside AdWords blog explained, "AdWords Search Funnels are a set of reports describing the ad click and impression behavior on Google.com that leads up to a conversion.  In addition to a Top Conversions report, Search Funnels consist of 7 reports including Assisted Conversions, First and Last Click Analysis, Time Lag, and Path Length."

    The following video contains more information if you’re interested, although it’s not nearly as entertaining as that season seven episode of The X-Files.

    The Search Funnels beta should roll out over the next several weeks, at which point advertisers will be able to find it in the "Conversions" section of their accounts.

     

  • Google Wins Trademark Infringement Case

    The European Court of Justice has ruled in Google’s favor with regards to a case Louis Vuitton brought against the search giant.  According to the ECJ, Google did not violate trademark law by allowing advertisers to bid on keywords trademarked by other companies.

    Google LogoThe ECJ decided that this practice is fine so long as advertisers’ identities are clear.  Also, the organization indicated that trademark holders should direct complaints about such things at advertisers, not Google.  All of which helps establish AdWords as an acceptable business model in the European Union’s 27 member states.

    Dr. Harjinder S. Obhi, Google’s Senior Litigation Counsel in EMEA region, wrote in response on the Official Google Blog, "We believe that user interest is best served by maximizing the choice of keywords, ensuring relevant and informative advertising for a wide variety of different contexts."

    Obhi then continued, "For instance, if a user is searching for information about a particular car, he or she will want more than just that car’s website.  They might be looking for different dealers that sell that car, second hand cars, reviews about the car or looking for information about other cars in the same category."

    Unfortunately for Google, its stock is down a bit this morning in the wake of the ruling, but that’s more likely due to the mess in China.

  • Google Gives Advertisers Another “In” On YouTube

    In a move that investors and marketers alike should applaud, Google’s figured out another way to make money off the site it bought for $1.65 billion three and a half years ago.  Today, Google explained that it’s come up with a tool to help small organizations advertise on YouTube.

    Emily Williams, a member of the Inside AdWords team, explained on the corporate blog, "[W]e’re announcing another new feature in Display Ad Builder that lets advertisers use simple templates to create InVideo overlays and companion ads on YouTube."  (FYI: "An InVideo ad is an animated flash overlay that appears at the bottom part of a video that a user is watching.")

    Williams later continued, "Now, any advertiser can use Display Ad Builder to turn their image ads into overlays and run a campaign on YouTube in minutes.  Depending on the type of campaign an advertiser wants to run, overlays can be bought on a CPC (Cost Per Click) or CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions) basis, and can be matched to YouTube videos based on numerous criteria (like demographics or content categories), or even on a video by video level."

    This could prove to be a very popular option, considering that takeover ads on the YouTube homepage are said to be sold far in advance for hundreds of thousands of dollars.  And the move also earns points for being low risk, since it probably didn’t take much in the way of resources to execute and doesn’t cut any privacy corners.

    Now we just get to guess how much Google will actually make from the new feature.  One slightly relevant note: earlier this month, a Citigroup analyst estimated that YouTube will pull in about $1 billion in gross revenue this year.

  • Critical: Improve Your Mobile Search and Advertising Strategy

    A Google exec recently said, "In three years’ time, desktops will be irrelevant." That’s debatable, but there’s no question that mobile use will have grown much more than it already has. Based on comments in a recent keynote, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer doesn’t seem to think PC use is going to drop too much, but he did say, "Mobile queries are just going to keep going up and up and up."

    Do you think desktops will be irrelevant in 3 years? Share your thoughts here.

    A study released last month found that the number of mobile phone subscribers is on track to increase from 4.6 billion to 5 billion globally by the end of 2010. Another study found that consumers are getting more comfortable with mobile shopping.

    Mobile Search

    Google has dominated the search market for a long time, and while this still continues to be the case, it’s important to note that search in general changes with mobile. People are searching in different ways than just using their favorite search engines. They’re using different apps. They’re using their voices. They’re scanning barcodes for instant access to product information. The number of ways people are finding information with their phones is only going to keep increasing. On mobile, it’s not just about Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

    That’s not to say these three aren’t still incredibly important to mobile. In fact, the search share among these top search engines may even become more greatly divided as time goes on. We’re seeing different mobile carriers and manufacturers making deals with these companies, which affect the default search options for various devices. As we discussed before, mobile search engine use may be largely dictated by device popularity, which is (in my opinion) one of the biggest things Bing will have going in its favor in terms of market share – Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 7 phones will come with Bing hardware keys, meaning the most convenient way to search on these devices will likely be to hit a single button taking the user to Bing. If these devices become popular, it could be huge for Microsoft in search.

    Matt Cutts says Google doesn't worry about supporting 2 different sites if you can find a way for your existing site to work well in mobile browsers As far as Google indexing and mobile sites goes, Google’s Matt Cutts says, "If you can find a way where your existing site will work well in mobile browsers, we’re not worrying about supporting two completely different sites."

    To learn about this subject in more detail, read the Google Webmaster Central Blog posts: Help Google Index Your Mobile Site, and Running Desktop and Mobile Versions of Your Site.

    Mobile Search Advertising

    When it comes to AdWords, Google says to create separate, mobile-focused campaigns so you can optimize keywords, ad text, and landing pages for people using mobile devices. Google shared an interesting case study this week looking at Razorfish’s mobile AdWords approach. They shared the following details:

    – The Razorfish team started by duplicating the existing desktop campaigns and switching the settings to target mobile devices with full internet browsers.

    – Since their client had a well-known brand name, they focused on branded keyword terms with enough traffic to help them learn quickly about what was working best for their campaigns.

    – To measure performance, they tracked several conversion metrics including whether a mobile user looked up the brick and mortar store location or downloaded a coupon from the website. Right away, they saw a 7.5% lower cost per conversion on mobile devices, encouraging them to test ways to optimize their mobile campaigns.

    – Razorfish tested whether variations in the campaign’s landing page would affect conversion rates. The team hypothesized that mobile users might be looking to take a specific action, and by starting the user’s experience closer to that action, the client would see better results. As it turned out, for this client, they saw much higher conversion rates when the user was directed to a landing page that showed nearby store locations.

    – Finally, they tested variations in the ad text. Four versions of ad text were tested, including the original copy used in desktop campaigns. Each of the three new versions provided over 9.3% lift in conversion rate over the strongest performing copy in their desktop campaigns.

    When it comes to Yahoo and Microsoft search advertising, things are about to get more appealing here in general, and presumably, that includes mobile. Microsoft and Yahoo advertisers will have the audiences of both search engines to view ads once Yahoo and Bing get their integration done.

    Wrapping Up

    One of the most important things any search marketer can do with regards to a mobile strategy, is to simply keep up with the latest mobile trends and innovations. This space is rapidly evolving, and new apps are released frequently. Pay attention to hot apps, and how your target audience is engaging with them. What devices, operating systems, and browsers are hot? Monitor studies and surveys that delve into demographics. Try to stay ahead of the curve.

    Do you have a mobile search strategy? What suggestions do you have for improving in this area? Comment.

  • UK’s Department Of Health Reveals $4.25m AdWords Tab

    Google users in the UK may be unusually well-informed with regards to their government’s healthcare policies.  The Department of Health revealed this week that it spent about £2.72 million (or $4.25 million at the current exchange rate) on AdWords over the past year.

    To be exact: the department spent £2,720,457.11 between February 1 of last year and January 31 of this one, according to official records.  And a whopping 21,939 keywords (including ones like "health information" and "stop smoking") were covered by its campaign.

    As reported in a Smart Healthcare article, a Department of Health spokesperson explained this huge endeavor by stating, "The Department of Health’s campaigns are designed to deliver better health, whether they be to help people change their behaviours to protect their long term health, to signpost people to NHS services, or to encourage healthier lifestyles."

    The spokesperson then further justified the AdWords campaign by adding, "The campaigns are evaluated using a combination of robust techniques that help us identify exactly what works, so we know that these campaigns are saving lives."

    That acts as a nice sort of pat on the back for Google.  The search giant no doubt appreciates the UK government’s money, too.

    Related Articles:

    > Google Narrows Down Mobile Ad Targeting

    > Report Suggests More Revenue, But Fewer Advertisers For Google

    > Google Now Rejecting AdWords Ads Without Proper Display

  • Old Version of AdWords API Nears Expiration Date

    Update: Google is reminding users of the AdWords API that on April 22, most of the services related to v13 will be turned off.

    Google is telling users to switch to v200909 as soon as possible to avoid any complications.

    Original Article: Google has launched the newest version of the AdWords API v2009 beta. That would be version 200909. Google cites the following as the highlights of the new API:

    – Asynchronous calls – Asynchronous calls allow you to work with large sets of data faster and more easily. Instead of having to wait for our system to fully complete your request before you can make another one, you’re now able to make another call as soon as the API service confirms that it has received your previous call. No more waiting for the server to complete large requests. V200909 will continue to support Synchronous methods as well.

    – Keyword and placement ideas – With the new TargetingIdeaService, you’ll be able to get keyword and placement ideas through the API, leveraging the functionality of the search-based keyword tool.

    – Location Extensions preview – Limited location extensions functionality is now available as a preview of the full functionality in development.

    AdWordsThese are just the highlights. Google has a complete list of all of the new features in its release notes.

    The company says that over the next few months, it will continue to introduce new features and additional AdWords functionality. New features will include ReportService, AccountService and the ability to pre-check for errors.

    "Given that v2009 introduces new concepts and features, we have extended the sunset period for deprecated services to 6 months," Google says. "If you haven’t already begun migrating your systems to the v2009 API, we strongly encourage you to start right away."

    v13 services CampaignService, AdGroupService, CriterionService, AdService, InfoService, KeywordToolService, and SiteSuggestionService will sunset on April 22, 2010. Other v13 service sunset dates will be announced in due time.

  • Google Turns to Your Past Emails to Make Ads More Relevant

    Google has made some changes to the way ads shown to Gmail users are selected. If you use the service, you have probably noticed that Google often shows ads that are somehow related to the content of whatever piece of email you are currently reading. If you have noticed this, you have probably also noticed that sometimes the ads don’t seem to have anything to do with your conversation whatsoever.

    Google has decided that instead of showing completely irrelevant ads in such cases, it will just dig back into another conversation from your Gmail usage, and show you ads related to that. This is illustrated in the clip below.

    "Let’s say you’re looking at a confirmation email from a hotel in Chicago. Next to your email, you might see ads about flights to Chicago," explains Gmail Product Manager Steve Crossan. "But sometimes, there aren’t any good ads to match to a particular message. From now on, you’ll sometimes see ads matched to another recent email instead. For example, let’s say you’re looking at a message from a friend wishing you a happy birthday. If there aren’t any good ads for birthdays, you might see the Chicago flight ads related to your last email instead."

    Google is careful to point out that it doesn’t store any extra information to show these ads. It just picks a different recent email to match. It’s all automated, and no humans are involved in picking the ads. The process is compared to Gmail’s spellchecker. Google also notes that no email or personal information is shared with advertisers.

    The change will be rolling out over the next several days, so if you are still seeing ads completely irrelevant to any conversation you’ve had, you may not have the new system implemented yet.


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    > Gmail and Picasa Storage Can Be Used for Any File

    > Gmail Switches to Default Https Encryption Following Attack

    > Google Adds Way to Easily Merge Duplicate Contacts in Gmail

  • Google Narrows Down Mobile Ad Targeting

    Google announced that it is now making sure that ads linking to mobile app downloads automatically appear only on devices that actually offer those apps. In addition, the ads will display a "download" link rather than a URL.

    "Simply include ‘itunes.apple.com/’ or ‘market.android.com/’ followed by the app name in the ad’s visible URL, and it will automatically display as ‘Download iPhone App’ or ‘Download Android App,’" says Katrina Kurnit of Google’s Inside AdWords crew.

    Advertisers also have the option to select specific devices or carriers for their ads in general.

    "If you’ve chosen to show ads on iPhones and other mobile devices with full internet browsers, you can now target specific mobile devices or carriers," says Kurnit. "This feature makes it easier for you to reach the right users if you have a carrier- or device-specific message. This includes landing pages that have been optimized for a specific device, billing relationships with certain carriers, or mobile apps developed for a specific platform. For example, if you sell iPhone cases, you can use device targeting to ensure that users with Android phones won’t see your ads."

    Google Targeting on Mobile

    Mobile Internet usage is expected to continue to increase rapidly. That means a lot of people using a lot of different mobile devices through multiple carriers. Google’s new targeting options could become increasingly important in getting your ads seen by the right people, depending on what you are advertising.

    Related Articles:

    > Apple Acquiring AdMob Competitor Quattro Wireless

    > Google Provides an Update on the AdMob Acquisition

    > Google Buys Mobile Ad Firm For $750 Million In Stock

  • Report Suggests More Revenue, but Less Advertisers for Google

    AdGooroo, a competitive intelligence agency, has released a new report, which indicates that there as has been a decrease in active advertisers for Google, despite projected Q4 gains.

    "Google experienced a quality purge this quarter and banned what we believe to be more than 30,000 advertisers, accounting for about 5.3 percent of its active advertiser base," said AdGooroo Founder and CEO Rich Stokes. "While this typically signals a negative impact on revenues, AdGooroo also tracked increased competition for ad placement, resulting in higher ad prices for Google and unusually high clickthrough rates. Google seems to be taking advantage of a strong Q4 to make some quality improvements."

    The report maintains that ad coverage, which has been steadily climbing for the past 12 months took a sudden dive in December, dropping nearly 10% — from 5.48 ads per keyword in November down to 4.97 in December.

    In the report, the firm notes that the fourth quarter has traditionally been strong for Google, and expects this to be the case again this year. "This seasonal improvement has less to do with total search query volume (which historically is about the same as November), and more with increased competition for ad placement (higher ad prices) and unusually high clickthrough rates," says AdGooroo.

    Here are some interesting graphs from the report:

    AdGooroo Stats

    AdGooroo Stats

    AdGooroo Stats

    AdGooroo Stats

    Other interesting information in the report includes lists of the top 25 advertisers on Google, Yahoo, and Bing, and the most expensive keywords on each of these search engines. These are based on the total number of recorded first-page ad impressions, and doesn’t necessarily reflect total ad spend. You can check out the report in its entirety here (it’s complimentary).
     

    Related Articles:

    > Consumers Expected to Spend $6.2 Billion on Mobile Apps in 2010

    > Click Fraud Rate Spikes In Q4

    > Bing Makes Out Well In Search Spend Report

  • Google Now Rejecting AdWords Ads Without Proper Display

    Google has made an adjustment to the way it handles display URLs for AdWords ads. This is the URL that appears within the ad itself, that users see before they click on it. The adjustment is for sites that sit on shared or hosted domains.

    The idea is to make it more clear to users exactly what they will be clicking on. On the Inside AdWords blog, Google’s Miles Johnson explains, "Let’s say I wanted to create an ad linking to this blog: http://adwords.blogspot.com. In the past, blogspot.com would have been an acceptable display URL. Because there are so many independent blogs hosted on http://blogspot.com however, we now require the display URL to reflect the specific blog reached upon clicking the ad– in this case: adwords.blogspot.com."

    Google AdWords Google outlines its Display URL guidelines here. They include:

    – Your display URL must accurately reflect the URL of the website you’re advertising. It should match the domain of your landing page so that users will know which site they’ll be taken to when they click on your ad.

    – Where you have keyword URLs, these are considered to be your destination URLs, and the display URL must accurately reflect them.

    – The display URLs within each ad group must have the same domain.

    – The display URL field cannot be used as another line of ad text.

    – Your display URL must include the domain extension, for example: .com, .net, or .org.

    – If your actual destination URL link is too long to use as your display URL, use a shortened version (such as your homepage) that meets the character limit for this field.

    – If hosted from a domain that provides service to many independent entities, include a domain and path sufficient to identify your company’s site from all the other sites hosted by that domain.

    Google will no longer accept ads that don’t include the additional info in their display URLs. However, they will suggest a display URL in the rejection email they send.


    Related Articles:

    > Are Google’s Ads So Relevant That People Won’t Block Them?

    > Google’s One-Minute Guide to Search-Based Keywords

    > Google Tries To Connect AdWords Users With Experts

  • Are Google’s Ads So Relevant That People Won’t Block Them?

    A while back, Google launched an extensions gallery for its Chrome web browser. Ad-blocking add-ons are among the most popular for Mozilla’s Firefox, so it stands to reason that they will be for Chrome as well. With Google’s primary source of revenue being its ads, a lot of talk has surfaced about Google letting people block its own ads with its own product.

    Is Google was smart to allow ad-blocking extensions for Chrome? Discuss here.

    A recent article from the New York Times has elevated the discussion, calling the allowance of ad blockers a "test" for Google.

    Google wants people to use Chrome. For that to happen, it has to give people what they want. One point of view would be that the people who are most likely to block ads would just as use another browser that allowed them to do so if Chrome didn’t.

    Google doesn’t think that ad blockers will have much of an impact on advertising anyway. In December, Google Engineering Director Linus Upson participated in a panel discussion about the subject. He, Charles McCathieNevile of Opera, and Mike Shaver of Mozilla discuss it in the following clip:

    Add-on-Con ’09 ads and adblockers (closing keynote) from Robert on Vimeo.

    Upson says it’s "unlikely ad blockers are going to get to the level where they imperil the advertising market, because if advertising is so annoying that a large segment of the population wants to block it, then advertising should get less annoying." He thinks the market will sort it out. The others appear to take similar stances.

    The real question is how many people are really going to make the effort to block ads? As Wladimir Palant, who runs Adblock Plus on Firefox, told the NYT, ad blockers are still used by a "tiny proportion of the Internet population, and these aren’t the kind of people susceptible to ads anyway."

    Based on what Upton had to say in the panel discussion, Google is pretty confident that it can deliver ads people actually want, and that people (for the most part) will not want to block them if they see that relevance.

    What could hurt Google more is if Microsoft or Firefox implemented their own ad blocking capabilities by default. This would lead to average users browsing an ad-less web, because just as most people don’t go out of their way to download ad-blocking add-ons, they are unlikely to go out of their way to allow ads in such a scenario. However, it is pretty unlikely that this will happen, particularly on Microsoft’s end. They of course have their own ads to worry about.

    If ad-blocking from the browser actually did become a big problem for Google, one would have to wonder if the company woulnd’t find some kind of work-around. For example, what would stop them from serving ads directly in the Chrome Browser itself (in a toolbar area for example)? One could envision sponsored link-style ads like those served via Gmail. With Google’s interest-based advertising, relevance would still be at the forefront. But it probably won’t come to that anytime soon (at least not as a solution to the perceived issue).

    Wondering how many people actually use Chrome anyway? Ad-blocking from the browser does after all only matter if people are using that browser. Well, the latest numbers from Net Applications have Chrome’s market share surpassing that of Apple’s Safari browser. It’s worth noting that Google just released Chrome for Mac last month as well.

    As Doug Caverly  mentioned, "Chrome’s only been around for about 16 months, after all, and Safari’s had something like six years to make friends."

    Google’s Chrome OS is set to make things interesting later this year, as well. Chrome use is growing and will continue to do. Ad campaigns from Google may ease that growth along.

    Google made a bold move when it opened up its extensions gallery, allowing for ad-blocking extensions. Could this turn out to be a huge mistake on the company’s part or is Google’s confidence completely justified? Only time will tell for certain, but Google has long stood behind the promise of trying to deliver the best user experience. If users want to block ads, Google is going to let them. Share your thoughts here.


    Related Articles:

    > Chrome Cruises By Safari

    > Chrome Ad Campaign Nets Positive Results

    > Google Pushes Chrome With Newspaper Ads

  • Google’s One-Minute Guide to Search-Based Keywords

    Google has put together a one-minute guide to using its Search-based Keyword tool. The tool was launched just over a year ago in beta. It lets paid search advertisers see what keywords they may be missing out on based on searches on their site.

    "Millions of people use Google each day to find products and services by searching on various keywords," says Dan Friedman of Google’s Inside AdWords Crew. "This means that by including all keywords that are relevant to your product or service in your campaigns, you can ensure you can ensure that you will reach a greater set of potential customers. To help you do this, you can use the Search-based Keyword Tool to quickly identify relevant keywords which aren’t yet included in your AdWords campaigns."

    The guide follows:

    Earlier this year, Google made some improvements to the search-based keyword tool. The company not only expanded the reach to Australia, Canada, China, Japan, and New Zealand in addition to the US and the UK, but users can also now select the currency they’d like to see suggested bids in on the setting page.

    Google also added some customization features to the tool this year that could lead to more targeted results for users. These include language/country-specific results and ad/search share filters.

    Related Articles:

    > Google Improves Search-Based Keyword Tool

    > Google Launches Search-Based Keyword Tool

    > Internal AdWords Tool Raises Rumors About Rankings