Print this articleOn Saturday, January 10th, 2009 the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 10AM to 2PM PST, for maintenance. While you won't be able to sign in to your accounts during this time, your campaigns will continue to run as usual.
AdWords system maintenance typically occurs on the second Saturday of each month from 10AM to 2PM PST.
We'll continue to update you via the blog as we always have, but please make note of the January 10th date and our scheduled maintenance further down the road.
Welcome back! We hope you enjoyed the holidays. To start 2009 off right, we'd like to offer you two webinars: Shaping the Heart of Your Marketing Strategy: Valentine's Day 2009 from the AdWords Retail team and Travel Shopping in Today's Economy from the AdWords Travel team. You can read more about each webinar and sign up below.
Shaping the Heart of Your Marketing Strategy: Valentine's Day 2009 Webinar
Wednesday, January 7th at 10 AM PST - Register to attend
As we wrap up the holidays, it's time to plan ahead for the new year and adapt your business strategy for upcoming opportunities and challenges. In this webinar, we will discuss strategies retailers can take to get the most out of this Valentine's Day. Join the Google Retail team and the Google Tech team on Wednesday, January 7th at 10 AM PST to learn about these topics:
- Understanding retail trends to reach consumers in today's landscape
- Building effective Valentine's Day ads using new Google tools
- Planning ahead based on online campaign performance trends
- Tips and tricks for optimizing your search campaigns
This webinar will run approximately 30 minutes, followed by a 30-minute Q&A session. Register here.
Travel Shopping in Today's Economy, presented by Compete and Google
Wednesday, January 14th at 11:00 am PST - Register to attend
As the economy has slowed, having an up-to-date perspective on consumer travel demand and preferences is more important than ever. Using an in-depth survey of traveler perspectives and a detailed online behavioral analysis, Google and Compete have partnered to create a new study exploring how consumers are shopping for travel in today's economy.
Join us on Wednesday, January 14th at 11:00 AM PST to learn:
- How the volume of travel research and booking activity changed as the economy has weakened
- How consumers are shopping for travel differently now than they have in the past, and what implications this has for travel marketers
- Consumer outlook on their plans for travel in the future and how travel sellers can take advantage of this
This webinar will run approximately 45 minutes, followed by a 15-minute Q&A session. Register here.
We hope these webinars help you get the most out of your 2009 campaigns.
Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Inside AdWords crew
2008 is coming to a close, and we want to leave you with our favorite posts for 2008. The posts were chosen based on FrankRank, and represent the team's favorites over the last year.
- Introducing Google Ad Planner
There was a ton of interest in the tool, and the post announcing it was the most read post here on Inside AdWords for the whole year. - Improvements to Ads Quality
This year, we made two big changes to how we calculate Quality Score and rank ads. This post explained the new changes in detail. - Build your own display ads in minutes
We liked this post as it showed off a new tool that helps you broaden your advertising campaigns easily. - Keyword tool updated with search volume
A theme for this year's top posts is providing our advertisers with more information to make their advertising decisions. The keyword tool updates definitely fit in with this theme. - Announcing Google Insights for Search
Like the keyword tool, Insights for Search is another useful tool for your business. - Tie: New ways to look at Search & Content Network statistics and Separate metrics for Google and search partners now available
Both these posts announced improvements to AdWords reporting that had been heavily requested by advertisers. - New features in Website Optimizer
The new features addressed some of the top requests for Website Optimizer. - Use keywords and placements together on the content network
This new feature gave advertisers better control over their advertising on the content network. - Groundhogs, Seasonality, and Trends
A fun post looking at how you could use Google Trends to plan your campaigns around seasonal traffic patterns. - Announcing the Search-based Keyword Tool
Another tool we released this year. The Search-based Keyword Tool helps you locate missed opportunities for advertising campaigns.
That's it for our top 10 for this year. We'll be off celebrating the holidays for the next two weeks, so you won't see any posts from us. We'll be back here blogging in January. Have a great holiday!
This week, we released version 7.0 of AdWords Editor for Windows and Mac. The new version includes the long-awaited first page bid estimates and keyword Quality Score, along with several updates to the Keyword Opportunities tool. Version 7.0 also provides the option to enable usage tracking, which lets Google collect anonymous statistics to help us improve AdWords Editor. Learn more about these and other new features in the release notes.
If you're not already using AdWords Editor, you can visit our website and click 'Download AdWords Editor' to get started. If you're an existing user, you'll see a prompt to upgrade to version 7.0 the next time you run the application.
Important: Existing AdWords Editor users will need to download their accounts again after upgrading to version 7.0. We've discovered an issue with the automatic upgrade feature (the 'Backup then Update' option in the upgrade prompt), so please refer to these special instructions to save comments and uposted changes when you upgrade.
If you'd like to wait to upgrade, you can click 'Don't Update' in the automatic update prompt.
To learn more about the benefits of using AdWords Editor to manage your ad campaigns offline, please refer to these frequently asked questions. Also, comprehensive instructions and tips are available in our Help Center.
If you're not already using AdWords Editor, you can visit our website and click 'Download AdWords Editor' to get started. If you're an existing user, you'll see a prompt to upgrade to version 7.0 the next time you run the application.
Important: Existing AdWords Editor users will need to download their accounts again after upgrading to version 7.0. We've discovered an issue with the automatic upgrade feature (the 'Backup then Update' option in the upgrade prompt), so please refer to these special instructions to save comments and uposted changes when you upgrade.
If you'd like to wait to upgrade, you can click 'Don't Update' in the automatic update prompt.
To learn more about the benefits of using AdWords Editor to manage your ad campaigns offline, please refer to these frequently asked questions. Also, comprehensive instructions and tips are available in our Help Center.
Today, we'd like to highlight a campaign management tip from the AdWords Help Forum: Using keyword matching options with your negative keywords.
You may already know that keyword matching options allow you to specify how the keyword should interact with users' search queries to help you target your ads more effectively to potential customers. But did you know that in addition to your regular keywords, you can use keyword matching options with negative keywords as well? Since negative keywords filter out unwanted ad impressions and clicks, using matching options gives you more precise control over which queries to filter out. To learn more and see examples, please read the full post in the AdWords Help Forum.
You may already know that keyword matching options allow you to specify how the keyword should interact with users' search queries to help you target your ads more effectively to potential customers. But did you know that in addition to your regular keywords, you can use keyword matching options with negative keywords as well? Since negative keywords filter out unwanted ad impressions and clicks, using matching options gives you more precise control over which queries to filter out. To learn more and see examples, please read the full post in the AdWords Help Forum.
Seasoned AdWords users know that to have successful campaigns you need to do more than simply set them up and let them run. To get the most out of your campaigns, you should consider optimization, today's (Ad)Word of the Day.
According to the AdWords Glossary, optimization is the process of modifying your ad campaigns to improve the quality and performance of your AdWords ads. This often involves changing the contents and settings of your campaigns and ad groups and editing your keyword lists and landing pages.
Optimization can be as simple as adding new keywords relevant to your campaign, or can be as involved as adjusting your CPC bids and rewriting your ad text. By optimizing your campaigns to improve your keyword Quality Scores, you can help lower your ad's costs without losing your position on a search results page.
If you'd like to learn more about optimization, here's a guide from our AdWords Help Center.
As many of you know, we're constantly evaluating our AdWords program policies to keep them current and effective. This means making changes from time to time by either adding new policies, such as the endangered species policy, or updating existing policies, such as the Display URL policy.
This fall, we changed our policy around beer, for the first time allowing advertisements of its sale in the U.S. via AdWords. And starting today, in response to advertiser feedback we've received over the years, we'll permit the advertisement of hard alcohol and liqueurs that target the U.S.
To comply with the updated hard alcohol and liqueurs policy, advertisers must promote the information about hard alcohol and liqueurs that their websites contain, such as recipes and brand messages. Ads that directly promote the sale of hard alcohol and liqueurs are still not permissible through our program. In contrast, advertisements for beer may directly promote its sale.
For example, under the hard alcohol and liqueurs policy, you might market to individuals searching for helpful and relevant alcohol-related information by promoting holiday cocktail ideas or the caloric content of popular spiked beverages. Under the beer policy, you might state a specific sales promotion for a great winter ale.
Hard alcohol and beer manufacturers can now take advantage of online holiday traffic and initiate campaigns that appeal to their target audiences.
Plans to expand this updated alcohol policy to other countries in accordance with local regulations are expected in the coming weeks. For more information about the alcohol policy and other AdWords content policies, please visit our Advertising Policies page.
This fall, we changed our policy around beer, for the first time allowing advertisements of its sale in the U.S. via AdWords. And starting today, in response to advertiser feedback we've received over the years, we'll permit the advertisement of hard alcohol and liqueurs that target the U.S.
To comply with the updated hard alcohol and liqueurs policy, advertisers must promote the information about hard alcohol and liqueurs that their websites contain, such as recipes and brand messages. Ads that directly promote the sale of hard alcohol and liqueurs are still not permissible through our program. In contrast, advertisements for beer may directly promote its sale.
For example, under the hard alcohol and liqueurs policy, you might market to individuals searching for helpful and relevant alcohol-related information by promoting holiday cocktail ideas or the caloric content of popular spiked beverages. Under the beer policy, you might state a specific sales promotion for a great winter ale.
Hard alcohol and beer manufacturers can now take advantage of online holiday traffic and initiate campaigns that appeal to their target audiences.
Plans to expand this updated alcohol policy to other countries in accordance with local regulations are expected in the coming weeks. For more information about the alcohol policy and other AdWords content policies, please visit our Advertising Policies page.
Today, we're announcing a new campaign-level option that allows you to extend the reach of your text and image ads to show your AdWords ads on the T-Mobile G1, the iPhone, and other mobile devices that have full (HTML) Internet browsers. This new option will now allow you to display your ads specifically on these devices, create exclusive campaigns for them, and get separate performance reporting. We hope this option will help you more effectively reach your audience with the right message at the right time.
G1 and iPhone ads have many of the same benefits as our standard mobile-format ads, such as allowing you to deliver mobile-specific calls-to-action and reaching your audience when they're on the go. Showing ads on the G1 and iPhone also has additional advantages for your advertising. Users are performing a lot of searches on these devices, and searches are likely to go up during the holiday season. Last Christmas, the iPhone drove more traffic to Google.com worldwide than any other mobile platform.
Unlike standard mobile ads, you don't need to format your ads for mobile phones to show your ads on the G1 and iPhone. Because the G1 and iPhone have full Internet browsers, you'll be able to display your standard AdWords ads and landing pages on these devices without having to modify them.
With this new option, you're opted-in to show ads on the G1 and iPhone, and you're also eligible to show on additional devices that use full Internet browsers as these devices enter the market. If you want to change your settings to only show ads on G1s and iPhones or to not show ads on these devices, follow these steps.
If you're running standard mobile ad formats, they won't be affected, and they'll continue to run on mobile phones with mobile (WAP) browsers. If you're interested in learning more about mobile advertising in general, you can see past mobile advertising posts on the Google Mobile Blog.
G1 and iPhone ads have many of the same benefits as our standard mobile-format ads, such as allowing you to deliver mobile-specific calls-to-action and reaching your audience when they're on the go. Showing ads on the G1 and iPhone also has additional advantages for your advertising. Users are performing a lot of searches on these devices, and searches are likely to go up during the holiday season. Last Christmas, the iPhone drove more traffic to Google.com worldwide than any other mobile platform.
Unlike standard mobile ads, you don't need to format your ads for mobile phones to show your ads on the G1 and iPhone. Because the G1 and iPhone have full Internet browsers, you'll be able to display your standard AdWords ads and landing pages on these devices without having to modify them.
With this new option, you're opted-in to show ads on the G1 and iPhone, and you're also eligible to show on additional devices that use full Internet browsers as these devices enter the market. If you want to change your settings to only show ads on G1s and iPhones or to not show ads on these devices, follow these steps.
If you're running standard mobile ad formats, they won't be affected, and they'll continue to run on mobile phones with mobile (WAP) browsers. If you're interested in learning more about mobile advertising in general, you can see past mobile advertising posts on the Google Mobile Blog.
Ads Quality is important for you, our advertisers, as it directly affects your ads' position on the page and how much you pay for your ads.
Over the past few months we've made some big changes to improve how we calculate Quality Score and how your Quality Scores are displayed in your account. One of these changes was the transition from minimum bids to first page bids. To help explain Ads Quality and these changes, we've just released two instructional videos that walk through the basics of Ads Quality and the transition to first page bids.
The first video, Ads Quality Basics, provides a general introduction to Ads Quality, including an overview of Quality Score and answers to some common questions about Ads Quality. If you don't know how Quality Score works, this is a good video to watch.
The second video, Ads Quality Updates, goes beyond the basics and gives more detail on the recent changes made to Ads Quality. If you want to know more about how the change from inactive keywords to first page bids affects your campaigns, we recommend this video.
Last week, we posted about recent improvements we've made to the display ad builder. Now we'd like to share some best practices for using the tool. Hopefully these tips will help you get off to a running start with your new display campaigns:
Customize your ads to make them stand out. Here are some ways you can do that:
- Choose the color scheme of your ad, like the background and font color, to align it with your unique product and brand.
- Ensure text and images are a proper fit. Review all available ad sizes for each template to ensure that the text displays properly and images fit the ad slot. Upload images and logos that fit the recommended specifications we display as you create your ad.
- Try out different templates. You can see which one yields the best performance and optimize accordingly.
- Consider transparent PNG graphics. They can make your ads look more professional by matching the background of both the image and the ad.
Consider separating your display ads into their own ad group. This will allow you to:
- Set unique bids for your display ads. For example, you may want to bid more competitively for you display ad, since it has to rank high enough to place above the other ads competing for the same spot.
- Use unique keywords for your display ads, without impacting the performance of your text-only ad groups, especially those running on search as well as the Google content network.
- Your display URL should be visible. If it's the same color as the ad's background color, it won't be visible to the user.
- Uploaded images should be less than 50KB. Otherwise your ad won't be eligible to run.
You may not know it, but the busiest shopping day of the year, Black Friday, is shortly followed by the biggest online shopping day of the year, Cyber Monday. This year Cyber Monday falls on December 1st, and a little preparation can help you make the most of the day.
Here's a few tips to help you prepare:
- Check your budgets, and consider increasing them. You're likely to see increased traffic and you won't want to exhaust your budget early on a day when there are so many potential buyers.
- Give customers peace of mind about shipping times. One of the most stressful parts of online holiday shipping is not knowing if a present will make it in time. Be up front about delivery dates and let customers know ordering deadlines for gifts to make it in time for the holidays.
- Promote any special offerings in your ad text. If you have a holiday special that differentiates you from the competition, be sure to showcase it in your ad.
The holiday shopping season continues beyond Cyber Monday, and we hope all these tips can help you attract more customers this winter.
Today, we announced new improvements to the Google TV ads program targeting feature. With program targeting, you can reach more customers when your message is most relevant, which means you're more likely to see better results.
Simply enter a keyword related to your product or service, and we'll provide you with a list of relevant TV programs to choose from. You can access this feature during the 'Target Campaign' step when setting up a TV campaign.
To learn more about how this works and to watch a demo video, check out the blog post on the Traditional Media Blog.
We recently announced the launch of AdWords display ad builder, and now we've made it more widely available and easier to use. Display ad builder is a tool that lets you create and customize display ads, allowing you to easily expand your AdWords campaigns beyond text advertising. We've had an overwhelmingly positive response from our advertisers so far, so we're happy to announce that the tool is now available to advertisers in the UK, Ireland, and a number of other countries.
In addition, based on your feedback, we made improvements to the display ad builder to enable greater customization and make building display ads even easier:
Next week, we'll post best practices to help you build effective ads with the display ad builder. In the meantime, you can view our tutorial video or visit the display ad builder site to learn more.
In addition, based on your feedback, we made improvements to the display ad builder to enable greater customization and make building display ads even easier:
Image picker: You can now choose from previously uploaded images when creating your ads.We think these improvements will help you more easily and efficiently create engaging display ads. As always, we welcome your suggestions on how we can improve the display ad builder.
Real-time editing: See what your text and other customization edits look like, automatically -- without having to click the 'update preview' button.
Quicker way of seeing available ad sizes: You can see which sizes your ad can run in for each ad template without having to complete the ad creation process. You can also preview how your customization choices affect each size.
Additional templates: Choose from even more templates for customizing your ads.
Next week, we'll post best practices to help you build effective ads with the display ad builder. In the meantime, you can view our tutorial video or visit the display ad builder site to learn more.
We've just asked a small group of US advertisers to start testing an updated web interface for AdWords. (If you're in the test pool, you'll see an alert when you sign in to your account.)
We're testing changes to the ways that AdWords advertisers see and manage the data in their accounts. These changes should make it easier to tackle common tasks, like navigating between campaigns and editing keywords across several ad groups. We hope the updates will give advertisers clearer insights into their ad campaigns and simpler ways to act on those insights.
To answer a common question: The updates we're testing won't affect how ads run. Bidding, ranking, Quality Score, and the other key AdWords performance fundamentals are not changing with these updates.
We've started advertiser testing very early, while we're still working on changes to the updated interface, so that we can make adjustments based on comments from our testers. That's one reason why this test group is pretty small. We'll gradually increase the number of advertisers testing the updated interface (and make it available to international testers) in the coming months. We'll be sharing more details about key features along the way.
In the meantime, if you'd like to be considered for the test, please submit your AdWords account information on our beta sign-up page and we'll contact you when we're ready to add you as a tester.
We're testing changes to the ways that AdWords advertisers see and manage the data in their accounts. These changes should make it easier to tackle common tasks, like navigating between campaigns and editing keywords across several ad groups. We hope the updates will give advertisers clearer insights into their ad campaigns and simpler ways to act on those insights.
To answer a common question: The updates we're testing won't affect how ads run. Bidding, ranking, Quality Score, and the other key AdWords performance fundamentals are not changing with these updates.
We've started advertiser testing very early, while we're still working on changes to the updated interface, so that we can make adjustments based on comments from our testers. That's one reason why this test group is pretty small. We'll gradually increase the number of advertisers testing the updated interface (and make it available to international testers) in the coming months. We'll be sharing more details about key features along the way.
In the meantime, if you'd like to be considered for the test, please submit your AdWords account information on our beta sign-up page and we'll contact you when we're ready to add you as a tester.
Keyword targeting can sometimes feel like a guessing game. Potential customers are performing hundreds of millions of searches on Google, most of which you don't even know about. With so many searches, you have to guess which ones might be relevant for each of your landing pages, and hope you find the right audience for your AdWords campaigns. That's where the Search-based Keyword Tool (beta) comes in. With this new tool you can get a better sense of what your potential customers are searching for and which keywords you should advertise on.
Here's the scoop: you know that the Google search engine starts with searches conducted by users and helps them find relevant pages. But for keyword targeting, what you want is a tool that goes in the opposite direction by starting with your pages and identifying keywords that potential customers are searching on to find your products or services. The Search-based Keyword Tool does exactly this, leveraging search query data relevant to your website's content. In other words, this new tool gives you keywords that are highly relevant to your site but are not part of your AdWords campaigns. This helps you take advantage of missed opportunities.
The tool is also useful if you don't currently advertise on AdWords. For example, a shoe store could discover which footwear styles users are searching for, or a digital camera blog could decide which cameras to review by looking at which camera models attract the most queries.
The Search-based Keyword Tool is now available to all advertisers in the US and UK. We'll be expanding to additional languages and more countries in the near future. We'll also continue to develop the tool based on your feedback. Try it out at http://www.google.com/sktool, and let us know what you think.
The Seminars for Success program continues to grow and we're happy to announce a new addition to the program: Website Optimizer Seminars for Success.
For those not familiar with Seminars for Success, they are full day, in-person seminars providing hands-on training on Google products. Seminars are currently offered for AdWords, Analytics, and now Website Optimizer. Seminars for Success are led by industry experts using a curriculum designed in conjunction with Google.
The first Website Optimizer Seminars will be held in the following cities:
December 4 - Alexandria, VA
December 10 - Seattle, WA
January 23 - Las Vegas, NV
February 11 - San Jose, CA
Sign up for Seminars at least 7 days in advance and we'll even throw in a $50 AdWords credit (View the terms and conditions of advertising credits). We'll be adding more Website Optimizer Seminars in the near future, so if you want to hear when seminars are happening near you, you can fill out this contact form.
For more information about Seminars for Success, including registration details, course outlines, and past attendees' comments, please visit www.google.com/awseminars.
For those not familiar with Seminars for Success, they are full day, in-person seminars providing hands-on training on Google products. Seminars are currently offered for AdWords, Analytics, and now Website Optimizer. Seminars for Success are led by industry experts using a curriculum designed in conjunction with Google.
The first Website Optimizer Seminars will be held in the following cities:
December 4 - Alexandria, VA
December 10 - Seattle, WA
January 23 - Las Vegas, NV
February 11 - San Jose, CA
Sign up for Seminars at least 7 days in advance and we'll even throw in a $50 AdWords credit (View the terms and conditions of advertising credits). We'll be adding more Website Optimizer Seminars in the near future, so if you want to hear when seminars are happening near you, you can fill out this contact form.
For more information about Seminars for Success, including registration details, course outlines, and past attendees' comments, please visit www.google.com/awseminars.
Did you know that 20% of the queries Google receives each day are ones we haven’t seen in at least 90 days, if at all? With that kind of unpredictable search behavior, it's extremely difficult to create a keyword list that covers all relevant queries using only exact match.
Broad match is a great way to capitalize on those unexpected, but relevant queries. When you include a keyword as a broad match, your corresponding ad is not only eligible to appear alongside queries with that exact spelling, but it can also capture keyword expansions that include synonyms, singular/plural forms, relevant variants of your keywords, and phrases containing your keywords.
Matching your ads against all these relevant query variations can have a big impact on the success of your online search campaigns. In fact, broad match currently accounts for over 1/3 of all clicks and conversions for advertisers, worldwide.
To make the most of broad match, you can run search query reports to monitor your expansions. If you discover a query that's performing exceptionally well, consider adding it to your ad group as a broad match keyword and setting an appropriate bid. Conversely, if you see that one of your keywords has been matched to a search query that doesn't fit with your campaign, include that search query as a negative keyword in the appropriate campaign or ad group.
We recently improved the search query report to provide more granular detail on which queries are triggering ads for your broad match keywords. This means less of your traffic may be reported under the "other unique queries" heading.
We also recommend trying the Conversion Optimizer, a bidding feature that uses your conversion tracking data to get you more conversions at a lower cost. Conversion Optimizer helps you by automatically finding the clicks from broad match terms that convert the best.
With so much traffic on Google each day, finding the queries that are most relevant for your business can be a challenge. With broad matches accounting for 1/3 of all clicks and conversions, using broad match keywords can help you capture relevant clicks and conversions that you never knew existed.
For more information, check out our frequently asked questions on broad match in the AdWords Help Center.
Broad match is a great way to capitalize on those unexpected, but relevant queries. When you include a keyword as a broad match, your corresponding ad is not only eligible to appear alongside queries with that exact spelling, but it can also capture keyword expansions that include synonyms, singular/plural forms, relevant variants of your keywords, and phrases containing your keywords.
Matching your ads against all these relevant query variations can have a big impact on the success of your online search campaigns. In fact, broad match currently accounts for over 1/3 of all clicks and conversions for advertisers, worldwide.
To make the most of broad match, you can run search query reports to monitor your expansions. If you discover a query that's performing exceptionally well, consider adding it to your ad group as a broad match keyword and setting an appropriate bid. Conversely, if you see that one of your keywords has been matched to a search query that doesn't fit with your campaign, include that search query as a negative keyword in the appropriate campaign or ad group.
We recently improved the search query report to provide more granular detail on which queries are triggering ads for your broad match keywords. This means less of your traffic may be reported under the "other unique queries" heading.
We also recommend trying the Conversion Optimizer, a bidding feature that uses your conversion tracking data to get you more conversions at a lower cost. Conversion Optimizer helps you by automatically finding the clicks from broad match terms that convert the best.
With so much traffic on Google each day, finding the queries that are most relevant for your business can be a challenge. With broad matches accounting for 1/3 of all clicks and conversions, using broad match keywords can help you capture relevant clicks and conversions that you never knew existed.
For more information, check out our frequently asked questions on broad match in the AdWords Help Center.
Since we launched Google Ad Planner a few months ago, you've suggested more ways we could help improve your media planning process. First, we're excited to announce that Ad Planner is now accessible to anyone with a Google account. Second, we've released a number of new features that we built based on your direct input.
(Click the image for a full-size version)
Define your audience by keywords and geography
In response to your requests for more audience definition options, we've enhanced Google Ad Planner to support search queries and geo-targeting. For example, now you can find video game enthusiasts based on their likeliness to search for keywords such as "video games" or "video game codes." You can also drill-down to specific states or metros (region or cities in geographies outside the US).
Manage your site results
With three new site ranking methods, you can decide how you want your site results ranked and displayed. You can choose between sites most likely to attract your target audience, larger known sites to increase your campaign scale, or a balance between the two. By applying other site filters, you can narrow your search to only sites that accept ads, sites in specific categories like "Video Games," or sites that end with a particular domain suffix like ".edu."
(Click the image for a full-size version)Analyze your media plan
(Click the image for a full-size version)
Sign in today to see the latest improvements, maybe check out a training video or two, and let us know what you think.
With Google Ad Planner's new interactive bubble chart, you can compare sites in your media plan by demographics, frequency, traffic, and unique visitors. In the example below, the red bubble shows a site heavily skewed towards females under 35, which is inconsistent with other sites in the media plan. By discovering such outliers, you can easily refine your media plan targeting.
(Click the image for a full-size version)International demographic data
We've expanded demographic audience data to include France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK. We look forward to continuing to expand the number of countries Ad Planner covers.
Sign in today to see the latest improvements, maybe check out a training video or two, and let us know what you think.
On Saturday, November 8th, 2008 the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 10AM to 2PM PST, for maintenance. While you won't be able to sign in to your accounts during this time, your campaigns will continue to run as usual.
AdWords system maintenance typically occurs on the second Saturday of each month from 10AM to 2PM PST.
We'll continue to update you via the blog as we always have, but please make note of the November 8th date and our scheduled maintenance further down the road.
Today, we have been experiencing delays in the reporting of your AdWords account statistics. This delay is temporary and does not affect the serving of your ads as per your campaign settings.
We have been working hard to get this fixed, and at this time, click and cost statistics have been updated and show the correct numbers. Correct impression counts will follow soon. As a result of these reporting delays, your clickthrough rate (CTR) may show a higher than actual number until the impression counts are also updated. This delay in reporting is unrelated to the ads quality improvements that we wrote about on Monday. We regret any inconvenience that this may cause you and appreciate your patience as we work toward a resolution.
We have been working hard to get this fixed, and at this time, click and cost statistics have been updated and show the correct numbers. Correct impression counts will follow soon. As a result of these reporting delays, your clickthrough rate (CTR) may show a higher than actual number until the impression counts are also updated. This delay in reporting is unrelated to the ads quality improvements that we wrote about on Monday. We regret any inconvenience that this may cause you and appreciate your patience as we work toward a resolution.
We're pleased to let you know that the improvements to Ads Quality that we announced last week have recently launched. As we explained last week, these improvements better evaluate the precise quality of your ads and improve the way we determine which ads show in the yellow region above the search results.
We also wanted to emphasize that AdWords has always accounted for the influence of ad position on CTR and removed it from the Quality Score. This specific improvement updates this system to make it fresher and more accurate.
Again, 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.
We also wanted to emphasize that AdWords has always accounted for the influence of ad position on CTR and removed it from the Quality Score. This specific improvement updates this system to make it fresher and more accurate.
Again, 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.
We know that many advertisers set up seasonal campaigns for specific holidays and occasions. Well, if you didn't set an end date for your Halloween campaign yet, here's a quick reminder to log in to your account and pause it. (You can always use it again next year.)
And of course, Happy Halloween from the Inside AdWords crew!
And of course, Happy Halloween from the Inside AdWords crew!
We're always working on improvements that will help us show the most relevant ads to our searchers, and we're excited to tell you that we'll soon introduce two changes designed to enhance how we calculate Quality Score and rank ads. The first change helps better evaluate the precise quality of your ad - regardless of its position on the page. The second change improves how we promote ads to positions above the search results. Let's take a look at both of these changes in more detail.
More precise Quality Score calculation
Clickthrough rate (CTR) is the most significant component of Quality Score because it directly indicates which ads are most relevant to our searchers. As you probably have observed, ads in high positions typically earn better CTR than those in low positions, because ads in high positions are more visible to searchers. To calculate the most accurate Quality Scores, it's important that the influence of ad position on CTR be taken into account and removed from the Quality Score.
In the coming days, we'll update the portion of the Quality Score algorithm that accounts for ad position. This will result in more accurate Quality Scores, ensure that ads compete fairly for position based on their quality and bid, and enable Google to show the most relevant ads to searchers by rewarding high-quality advertisers with better ad positions.
Higher quality ads above the search results
We're also improving the way we determine which ads show in the yellow region above the search results. These positions are particularly valuable to advertisers because they are prominently positioned on the page. Given their prominence, it's especially important that these ads be high quality; we therefore place extra emphasis on quality when determining which ads to show in this location.
To appear above the search results, ads must meet a certain quality threshold. In the past, if the ad with the highest Ad Rank did not meet the quality threshold, we may not have shown any ads above the search results. With this update, we'll allow an ad that meets the quality threshold to appear above the search results even if it has to jump over other ads to do so. For instance, suppose the ad in position 1 on the right side of the page doesn't have a high enough Quality Score to appear above the search results, but the ad in position 2 does. It's now possible for the number 2 ad to jump over the number 1 ad and appear above the search results. This change ensures that quality plays an even more important role in determining the ads that show in those prominent positions.
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.
We'll post again once these changes are live.
More precise Quality Score calculation
Clickthrough rate (CTR) is the most significant component of Quality Score because it directly indicates which ads are most relevant to our searchers. As you probably have observed, ads in high positions typically earn better CTR than those in low positions, because ads in high positions are more visible to searchers. To calculate the most accurate Quality Scores, it's important that the influence of ad position on CTR be taken into account and removed from the Quality Score.
In the coming days, we'll update the portion of the Quality Score algorithm that accounts for ad position. This will result in more accurate Quality Scores, ensure that ads compete fairly for position based on their quality and bid, and enable Google to show the most relevant ads to searchers by rewarding high-quality advertisers with better ad positions.
Higher quality ads above the search results
We're also improving the way we determine which ads show in the yellow region above the search results. These positions are particularly valuable to advertisers because they are prominently positioned on the page. Given their prominence, it's especially important that these ads be high quality; we therefore place extra emphasis on quality when determining which ads to show in this location.
To appear above the search results, ads must meet a certain quality threshold. In the past, if the ad with the highest Ad Rank did not meet the quality threshold, we may not have shown any ads above the search results. With this update, we'll allow an ad that meets the quality threshold to appear above the search results even if it has to jump over other ads to do so. For instance, suppose the ad in position 1 on the right side of the page doesn't have a high enough Quality Score to appear above the search results, but the ad in position 2 does. It's now possible for the number 2 ad to jump over the number 1 ad and appear above the search results. This change ensures that quality plays an even more important role in determining the ads that show in those prominent positions.
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.
We'll post again once these changes are live.
Want to attend an in-person training for AdWords or Analytics? Seminars for Success offers day-long trainings on AdWords and Analytics for all skill levels from Beginner to Advanced. If you want to get started next week, you can check out an AdWords seminar in Seattle and Adwords and Analytics seminars in Los Angeles.
And if you won't be in Seattle or Los Angeles next week, don't worry. In the coming months we'll also be offering Seminars for Success in the following cities:
AdWords
November 3: Los Angeles, CA - AdWords 301: Advanced
November 5: Seattle, WA - AdWords 301: Advanced
November 13-14: Philadelphia, PA - AdWords 101: Beginner, AdWords 201: Intermediate
November 17: Las Vegas, NV - AdWords 301: Advanced
December 1-2: Honolulu, HI - AdWords 101: Beginner, AdWords 201: Intermediate
December 2: Washington DC - AdWords 301: Advanced
December 4: Houston, TX - AdWords 301: Advanced
Analytics
November 5-6: Los Angeles, CA - Analytics: Introduction, Analytics: Advanced
December 8-9: Seattle, WA - Analytics: Introduction, Analytics: Advanced
December 8-9: Montreal, QC - Analytics: Introduction, Analytics: Advanced
Sign up for Seminars at least 7 days in advance and we'll even throw in a $50 AdWords credit (View the terms and conditions of advertising credits).
For more information about Seminars for Success, including registration details, course outlines, and past attendees' comments, please visit http://www.google.com/awseminars.
And if you won't be in Seattle or Los Angeles next week, don't worry. In the coming months we'll also be offering Seminars for Success in the following cities:
AdWords
November 3: Los Angeles, CA - AdWords 301: Advanced
November 5: Seattle, WA - AdWords 301: Advanced
November 13-14: Philadelphia, PA - AdWords 101: Beginner, AdWords 201: Intermediate
November 17: Las Vegas, NV - AdWords 301: Advanced
December 1-2: Honolulu, HI - AdWords 101: Beginner, AdWords 201: Intermediate
December 2: Washington DC - AdWords 301: Advanced
December 4: Houston, TX - AdWords 301: Advanced
Analytics
November 5-6: Los Angeles, CA - Analytics: Introduction, Analytics: Advanced
December 8-9: Seattle, WA - Analytics: Introduction, Analytics: Advanced
December 8-9: Montreal, QC - Analytics: Introduction, Analytics: Advanced
Sign up for Seminars at least 7 days in advance and we'll even throw in a $50 AdWords credit (View the terms and conditions of advertising credits).
For more information about Seminars for Success, including registration details, course outlines, and past attendees' comments, please visit http://www.google.com/awseminars.
One of our favorite and most useful posts from last year was an in-depth look at cost-per-click behavior during the 2006 holiday season by none other than Google's Chief Economist, Hal Varian. In the post Hal explained how CPC's and CPA's (cost-per-actions) vary over time to affect advertisers' ROI.
This year we have two new posts about CPC's and holiday trends over at the newly launched Google Retail Advertising Blog, a great source of information tailored to the needs of retail advertisers. The first post is Hal's updated look at the new data from the 2007 holiday season. The second has some tips regarding scheduling and consumer behavior specifically for your campaigns this winter. Remember, it's never too early to start your holiday planning.