One of the more common complaints that people have with the Google AdWords system is that there is nowhere detailing new features. New options, preferences and functionality are added on an ongoing basis, but finding them often proves to be a case of hit and miss. Until now.
This page will detail all the Google AdWords changes that we happen upon, along with our own commentary, based on our experiences.
An RSS feed of this information is also available. 
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My Change History Changes
April 30, 2008 |
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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. |
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Google Leaks Quality Score Variables
April 30, 2008 |
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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 |
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New conversion tracking features
April 14, 2008 |
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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? |
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AdWords Trademark Policy Revision (UK and Ireland)
April 7, 2008 |
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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) |
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An update to display URL policy
March 28, 2008 |
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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 |
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You were warned (AKA I told you so)
March 17, 2008 |
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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 |
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Time really is money
March 11, 2008 |
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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. |
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An update to display URL policy
February 21, 2008 |
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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 |
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AdWords Phishing Email
January 14, 2008 |
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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 SharewarePromotions handle your AdWords account, then you don't have to do anything!
Let's be careful out there! |
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Keyword Tool redesign
December 17, 2007 |
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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. |
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Template Centre
December 4, 2007 |
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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? |
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Country targeting new interface
November 29, 2007 |
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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. |
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Change to content network text ads
November 20, 2007 |
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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 |
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Why I don't like the new keyword analysis tool
October 23, 2007 |
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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 |
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1 keyword(s) are currently inactive for search
October 23, 2007 |
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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... |
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What's New in Google AdWords?
October 23, 2007 |
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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? |
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Help me
October 15, 2007 |
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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. |
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Keyword Insertion now official
October 11, 2007 |
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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 |
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Landing page quality score clarification
September 20, 2007 |
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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. |
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Speak to a specialist
September 13, 2007 |
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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 |
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Little Trouble in Big China
September 13, 2007 |
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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 |
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Report Centre Changes
August 30, 2007 |
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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. |
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Pushing the sale too hard?
August 14, 2007 |
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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. |
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Top ad placement formula
August 9, 2007 |
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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? |
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Pushing features onto AdWords Editor
August 9, 2007 |
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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? |
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New version of AdWords Editor
August 3, 2007 |
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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. |
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Campaign Optimizer?
July 31, 2007 |
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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. |
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Broad Match just became a lot more dangerous
June 18, 2007 |
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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. |
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Search Query Report
June 18, 2007 |
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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?
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IP address exclusion
June 18, 2007 |
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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. |
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Negative Keyword Tool
June 18, 2007 |
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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. |
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Sorting by budget
June 12, 2007 |
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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? |
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Work faster. Save money.
June 7, 2007 |
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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. |
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Q: When is a new feature not a new feature?
June 4, 2007 |
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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. |
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No End Date
May 29, 2007 |
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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. |
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Placement Performance
May 18, 2007 |
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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? |
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What's New?
May 9, 2007 |
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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. |
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New version of AdWords Editor
May 7, 2007 |
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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? |
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SMS Phone Alerts
April 23, 2007 |
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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... |
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Google AdWords New Preferred Cost Option
April 18, 2007 |
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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. |
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