If you are actively managing PPC campaigns I bet at some point you had to change a percentage rate of several hundred/thousand AdWords keywords, change match types or search for and edit text in hundreds of ad-copies. AdWords Editor options were limited and keyword level management was a slow (and painful) process. Luckily Google made an attempt to make our lives easier and have made e the AdWords interface a little faster and easier to navigate. Here is what Google’s Program Manager said about new changes being introduced: “For us to work on this, that the AdWords system was faster, simpler and has a more attractive appearance, is pure pleasure. Therefore we are pleased that we can advise the introduction of new bulk editing features in the AdWords interface. With the introduction of major changes in the entire account will be faster and easier.” I was monitoring the introduction of new changes. Initially only a couple of accounts in my MCC have been updated with new features, but I think we should all see them implemented across all accounts by now. I have only been using new features ever since and in all honesty – I do not know how I could ever do without them. Here is a review of the changes that are being introduced: Keywords:

• Search and replace text in keywords and target URLs
• Appending text to the keyword or destination URL
• Specify the new rates, (including raising the CPC to appear on the first page and at the top of the first page).
• Increasing and decreasing rates
• Changing the type of keyword matching
• Adding / removing labels

Ad-Copy:

• Search and replace text in the ad or URL
• Appending text to your ad or URL
• Changing the case of text
• Adding / removing labels

Ad Groups:

• Increasing and decreasing rates
• Set new rates
• Add / remove labels

Campaigns:

• Increasing and decreasing budgets
• Setting new budgets
• Adding / removing labels

Another very useful feature, which has previously appeared in automated rules management, is preview of the changes before applying them (if you do a lot of changes, they will be placed in the background). This means that, when you have executed large number of changes, you can leave the site and do other things on your account, and even log out. A progress bar lets you monitor how much time it takes to apply the changes. Once this is done, you can view the changes. All this might seem to be very simple and as the matter of fact it is. The benefit however can be seen from day one you get to know the new options and start using them regularly. It is just so much quicker to implement large scale keyword level changes with no hassle and no time at all! As per usual, more information and reviews are accessible from Google Support Centre, just search for bulk editing.

So what is Quality Score? According to Google: “Quality Score is the basis for measuring the quality and relevance of your ads and determining your minimum CPC bid for Google and the search network. This score is determined by your keyword’s click through rate (CTR) on Google, and the relevance of your ad text, keyword, and landing page.” Quality Score, as the name suggests, is a quality scoring method for Pay per Click Ads. It is an assessment by Google AdWords (and now other search engines) of an individual keyword and its ad, which, in combination with the bid amount determines the ranking of the ad relative to competitors. The primary factor for determining Quality Score is the click through rate (CTR) for each ad, but Google also considers the match between the keyword and the occurrence of the keyword in the ad copy, historical click through rates, and the engagement of the searcher when they click through to the site as well as the speed at which the page loads.

Read the rest of this entry »

Facebook is again at the forefront of savvy advertisers minds.  A new feature is being tested and speculated to be fully rolled out this year that is said to dramatically change how ads are being served to fellow Facebookers. The current model of advertising serves ads based on preferences set by the advertiser which match those of the target user’s profile preferences. For many, this was already in itself smarter than the Google AdWords targeting which was designed to be keyword focused. The only similarity between the two is the bidding system; Facebook’s ad bidding system is similar to Google’s in theory but not quite in practice. A key difference is that after clicking on a Facebook ad you can attribute an “I like” which gives a vote of confidence to the page where you ended up and effectively goes beyond bounce rate. On Google, things are changing and Google +1 is meant to deliver exactly the same functionality from the SERPs. More on that will come in a separate post from us.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Farmer update has shaken the world of SEO in the USA recently and was undoubtedly rolled out with the end user’s benefit in mind – ensuring the most relevant results for any given search. Hurray! Good for Google! Does that then mean that the latest changes to Adwords were rolled out for the benefit of its advertisers? Unquestionably, many of the changes that Google has made to Adwords over the last 18 – 24 months have been to the benefit of its users. As a PPC management company, we know as well as anyone the impact that ad extensions (for example) can have on CTRs and conversion rates; ergo users are finding paid results more and more relevant. However – and call me a cynic – I would argue that Google’s latest changes to Adwords are purely for the benefit of advertisers, and hence to the benefit of Google’s bottom line. So, let me explain my cynicism… Google is making its ads much more similar in appearance to the organic listings. Around 70-80% (depending on your sources) of search engine users ONLY use organic listings, so there is logic in disguising the paid listings as organic to trap the less savvy searchers. But how exactly has Google done it?

Read the rest of this entry »

A client received an email yesterday that purported to be from Google Adwords. He forwarded it to me as we manage his account and normally he doesn’t get any correspondence from Adwords. As you can see it is telling him that some of his ads have stopped and he must click a link to restart the ads and see tips on how to avoid future stoppages.  The email is another phishing scam but is one of the more accomplished efforts I’ve seen. It stands up quite well to light scrutiny. Clicking the link takes people to a page where they are prompted to enter their login details, password and personal information.

Read the rest of this entry »

A Landing Page, better known as a Micro Site, is a page created essentially for a Pay Per Click campaign. It is this page that a web page visitor reaches on clicking a PPC or a CPC advertisement listed on web search results. A Landing Page is specifically designed for marketing a particular product or service. Alternatively a SEO expert uses a landing page for the purpose of evaluating an advertisement’s effectiveness as also the efficiency of the keywords and keyword phrases incorporated in the search results. A Landing Page is often further categorised into a “reference landing page” and a “transactional landing page”. A reference landing page exhibits all information relevant to a web page visitor in the form of text, images and other web resources. A Landing page’s effectiveness is judged by the revenue value earned by the advertisement. Meanwhile a Transactional landing page is designed with the aim of immediate sale of product and services. A web page visitor performing a desired action is termed as “conversion”. A Landing page’s effectiveness and quality is thus measured in terms of its conversion rate.

Read the rest of this entry »