Going Mobile with Sitemaps

Back in June, we had Shaluinn from the Product Team tell you a bit about Google Sitemaps, which allows webmasters to directly inform Google about changes and additions to their websites. As you may remember, Sitemaps informs our "spiders," which go out and crawl the web, thus speeding up the discovery and addition of pages to our index.

Many businesses want their sites to be found in Google's search results, but did you know that potential customers may be looking for your product or service from their cell phones? Google Mobile Web Search allows people to search, from their phones, through sites that have been specifically designed for mobile devices.

We add new sites to our mobile web index every time we crawl the mobile web. And just as Sitemaps can help Google crawl your site effectively, webmasters can now use Google Mobile Sitemaps to tell us about their mobile web pages. If you have URLs that serve mobile content, help us add them to our mobile web index. More content for us, more potential traffic for you!

Posted by Arielle, Inside AdWords crew

Read More

An AdWords history lesson

Four score and thousands of advertisers ago, Google engineers brought forth on this continent a new form of advertising, conceived in relevance and dedicated to the proposition that all advertisers should have access to an effective marketing channel.

We recently sat down with Ross K., one of the original AdWords engineers, and got a little history lesson...

Before the fall of 2000, Google offered advertising through Premium Sponsorships, but there was no way for advertisers to set up campaigns for themselves. As we're often prone to do, we ran a limited test, showing a little link that said "see your ad here" to a small percentage of Google users.

After the link went live, we eagerly waited for the first advertiser to sign up. A few engineers kept checking the system, and within minutes, our first AdWords customer had created the very first ad through online sign up. They were a small business that sold live mail order lobsters. Less than half an hour from the time the link went up, their ad was live on Google! These guys had never considered using online marketing before, but saw our test link and signed up when they realized they could just do it themselves right then and there.

Today, of course, you can still find mail-order lobsters on Google, in addition to tarragon, garlic, and black peppercorn. And if we've made you hungry, the rest of the lobster bisque recipe is here.

Posted by Arielle, Inside AdWords crew

Read More

'Dear Inside AdWords...' - list o' sites, and a couple of introductions

Thanks for sending us all your great questions. This week, we've got two more to share with you:

I know that you can now target your ads to show on specific content sites. I would like to know how I can find sites that display Google ads so I can target my ads on them. – Wesley R.

Dear Wesley: Yes, as part of our site targeting feature, you can specify URLs for sites on which to target your ads. (The sites, of course, must be part of the Google content network.) While there's not a way to get the entire list of sites available, you can generate a list of eligible sites based on a combination of URLs and/or topics and keywords that you specify.

For example, let's say that you don't have specific websites in mind, but you know that you want to advertise on sites with content about gardening, lawn care, and landscape architecture. You can enter these terms into the campaign wizard, which will show you a list of all relevant sites based on those topics. You can then choose the sites you'd like to include in your site targeted campaign.

I've noticed new people blogging on Inside AdWords. What's the deal? – "Ima Plant" ;-)

Dear Ima: Good observation! I suppose this would be a good time to make formal introductions. The Inside AdWords crew is excited to have Arielle and Sarah join the team. Arielle and Sarah bring with them many years of AdWords experience and they pretty much know the system inside and out. Look for some of their tips and insights in future blog posts.

P.S. In addition to being talented bloggers, they are also proficient artists—as demonstrated by their self-portraits below:

That's all for today! More answers to your AdWords questions next time.

Posted by Vivian, Inside AdWords crew

Read More

Search my campaigns

Want to see how a particular keyword is performing but having trouble remembering where it's located in your account?

Here's a tip from Annie H., an AdWords specialist:

Searching for keywords within your account is as easy as searching on Google. Just type your keyword into the search box located in the upper right hand corner of all your Campaign Management pages. This tool will find that keyword (and related keywords) in your account, and you can click on a link that will take you directly to the relevant Ad Group. If you want more advanced search options, try using the Find and Edit Keywords tool located under the Tools menu of your account.

Posted by Arielle, Inside AdWords crew

Read More

Blake's hidden gem o' the week #6

We've heard continued interest in learning more about the new keyword states and quality-based minimum bids from our advertisers, so in this installment of the hidden gem o' the week, I'd like to spotlight several new pages of the Help Center that you may not have seen as of yet.

Without further fanfare, here are a few links that I hope you'll find useful:

• What do I do if my keywords are inactive?
• How do I increase my maximum CPC to the minimum bid?
• How do I optimize my ads?
• Can I be charged less than my minimum bid?

Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew

Read More

Answers to your new keyword state questions

Now that you've had a few days to adjust to the new active and inactive keyword states, we wanted to answer some of the questions that we've heard most:

Question no. 1: Why do I still see disabled keywords in my account?
Though we're no longer disabling keywords within your account, keywords that were previously disabled will remain in your account for approximately one month. At that time, we will delete all disabled keywords. This gives you the chance to evaluate your disabled keywords and add any valuable ones back into your account. We'll send you an email before this happens to let you know that your disabled keywords will soon be deleted.

Question no. 2: Where can I see the minimum bid for my active keywords?
You can see the minimum bid for your active keywords by running a custom or keyword report. Just make sure that you select 'Active' in the 'Status' column. You can also view the minimum bids for active keywords in the Ad Group details page by clicking the box next to the appropriate keyword (or select them all by checking the box next to 'Keyword) and clicking on the 'Edit CPCs/URLs' button.

Question no. 3: Will the minimum bid for my keyword change?
The minimum bid for your keyword is dynamic and can change over time. Remember, the minimum bid is determined by your Quality Score, which looks at your keyword's clickthrough rate (CTR), relevance of your ad text, historical keyword performance, and other relevancy factors. If one of these factors improves, such as writing ad text that is more relevant to your keyword, your minimum bid may decrease. If you'd like to keep tabs on the minimum bids for all of your keywords you can set up a daily or weekly report to be emailed to your inbox.

Posted by Sarah, Inside AdWords crew

Read More

'Dear Inside AdWords...' - deleting keywords, and "those highlighted top ads"

This week, we'll answer some of our readers' questions about deleting keywords in bulk and ads that appear above the search results.

I'd like to use the keywords tools in AdWords to delete all keywords which haven't accumulated impressions for several months. I don't want to delete keywords I've put in over the last few weeks (whether they accumulated impressions or not) to give the newer ones a chance first. Is there any way to do this? - Alex

Dear Alex: You can use the Find and Edit Keywords tool in AdWords to filter out or delete keywords based on specific criteria. For example, you can find all the keywords that have shown less than 100 impressions in the last month (as I’ve highlighted in red in the screenshot below). The tool also allows you to view the list of keywords found based on your criteria first, so you can verify that you won’t be deleting any wanted keywords by accident. (e.g. the "No changes right now" option in the second highlighted red box below) You can also find and edit keywords by other criteria such as CPC, CTR, number of clicks, and more. I know this doesn't necessarily help you track down all your keywords with low impressions from the past several months, but this would be a great addition to the tool and I'll forward your feature request to our product team.

I’ve noticed that sometimes an ad is located on the top of the search results in a highlighted sponsored link. What makes an ad appear there versus the regular ad spots on the right side of the search results? – Erik F.

I’m interested in showing my ads in the highlighted section on the top of the search results. How do I get my ads to show there? – George S.

Dear Erik & George: The ads you’re referring to are automatically placed above the search results on Google.com by the AdWords system, depending on a number of variables and performance factors including: ad approval status (these ads must be approved), maximum cost-per-click (CPC), clickthrough rate (CTR), and ad text. This is to ensure that we can provide the most relevant advertising to our users. There is not a way to request one of these top spots since placement is automatically determined by the AdWords system. However, we can tell you that the ads that qualify for these spots also tend to rank first or second among AdWords ads in the regular spots on the right side of the page, and are evaluated with a stringent ranking formula that favors higher CTRs. Our advice would be to continually monitor and optimize your keywords and ad text in order to get the best performance; our favorite tips can be found here.

Do you have some AdWords quandaries of your own? Send them to us and we'll try our best to answer some of those questions here.

Posted by Vivian, Inside AdWords crew

Read More

A quick heads-up

From our tech team:

On Friday, August 19, 2005, the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. PDT [?] due to system maintenance. Please note that your campaigns will continue to run normally during this short downtime. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Posted by Vivian, Inside AdWords crew

Read More

About the new simplified keyword states

Sorry we haven't posted for a couple days. If you've logged into your account today, you'll probably see why. We've been really busy preparing for our new simplified keyword states and quality-based minimum bids. We've said farewell to the normal, in trial, on hold, and disabled keyword states, and your keywords will now be either active or inactive, depending on their Quality Score and maximum CPC. Remember, the Quality Score determines the minimum bid for your keywords. If your maximum CPC meets or exceeds this minimum bid, your keyword will be active. As you begin to navigate through this new world of active and inactive keywords, we wanted to point out a few tools that can help improve your account management:

Reports – If you'd like to view the minimum bids for all keywords in your account, you can create a Custom Report. You'll see the minimum bid and maximum CPC bid set for your keywords, as well as clicks, impressions, cost and more.

Find and Edit Max CPCs - If you'd like to raise the maximum CPC for your keywords to the minimum bid, the Find and Edit Max CPCs tool is for you. We've added a new option at the bottom of the page that allows you to ' Increase each keyword's Max CPC to the recommended minimum bid.' You can make mass changes to your account with the click of the mouse.

AdWords API - For API users, we've introduced a new minCPC field in reports, and updated the keyword statuses to include the new 'active' and 'inactive' statuses. You can read more about these changes here, from the API blog, or in the Developer's Guide

Conversion Tracking - In the end, it's all about results and the value of your keywords to you. Make tracking your ROI easy by implementing our free conversion tracking tool. If you know how much your keywords are worth to you, it'll make it a lot easier to bid on them

Posted by Sarah, Inside AdWords crew

Read More

What's an urchin?

VS

?

An urchin can be a colorful creature of the sea, or it could be a product that increases your business intelligence. While I have a liking for the former, I’m probably more of an expert on the latter, so this post will be about the picture on the right. I’ve learned that Urchin is a tough product to discuss because it means different things to different people. So rather than regaling you with a long list of features that may or may not apply to you, I wanted to highlight a great use of Urchin that I’ve heard directly from a client.

This particular client was concerned about improving the conversion rate on her site. She wanted to know why she had so many visitors, but so few sales. We showed her the site overlay report from Urchin and helped her examine the organization of her landing pages.

She noticed that one link on the bottom of the page was actually leading to the highest conversion rate, so she moved that link up on the webpage and made it more noticeable. Three weeks later, she found that she had more than doubled the number of conversions on the site.

With the right information from Urchin, she was able to make one minor change (which took a few minutes to implement) and improved her business significantly. This is just one quick example of how Urchin web analyics can make your website better – Urchin can do much more for your advertising campaigns and website content.

One of the reasons we're so excited about web analytics is the level of insight it can offer to website owners. Here at Google, our mission is to make the world's information universally accessible and useful. Web analytics helps us move towards realizing that goal because it collects the data necessary to more effectively communicate web content and improve visitors' experiences. And the coolness of seeing a funnel optimization doesn't hurt either :).

Read more (and decide if you want a free trial) at http://www.urchin.com. And, as always, feel free to email us if you have any more questions about it.

Urchin photo courtesy of www.oregonstate.edu

Posted by Andrew, Inside AdWords crew

Read More

More on going negative

Last month, I blogged about why negative keywords are so important. One of the things you have asked about since then is how to find good negative keywords. Here are a couple of suggestions from Eric J., an AdWords specialist:

• Plug your keywords into the AdWords Keyword tool. If any of the terms don't seem to fit your product, consider including them as negatives. As Andrew said, this may result in decreased traffic to your site, but it also could drive more targeted leads because you are filtering out the users whom you don't want before they get to your site.
• Also, try a Google search on your keywords. Say you sell clothing. A Google search for "clothing" brings up results for wedding dresses and vintage clothing. If these aren't the types of clothing you sell, add them as negative keywords. You don't need to search through all 51,000,000 results for clothing; just click through a few search result pages to make sure you have all the negative keywords you need.

Posted by Andrew, Inside AdWords crew

Read More

Blake's hidden gem o' the week #5

I've already pointed out at least one keyword related hidden gem already. But the ability to create well thought out - and targeted - keyword lists is so essential to success with AdWords, that I thought I'd point out a couple of other useful pages as well.

First off, it's difficult to create great keyword lists without first having given some thought to your actual advertising goals. Here are a few essential questions to ask yourself, that'll help you decide how best to organize your advertising, and create effective keyword lists.

Then, an AdWords Help Center page entitled "Where can I find keyword ideas?" provides a couple of very simple tips which, over the years, I've realized that lots of advertisers simply forget to leverage - perhaps because they are simply too close to their own business.

Sometimes it pays to just take a step back, and focus on the basics!

Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew

Read More

'Dear Inside AdWords...' - T is for tips, U is for URLs

Thanks for all your great questions. We love hearing from you, and we'll continue to answer as many questions as we can. Without further ado, here are some of this week's questions:

Oh! How I wish I was young (I’m 81) so I could study and learn more about how to take advantage of all Google AdWords has to offer. I have two AdWords campaigns now and I'd like to know what I can do to get more "hits". If there's anyway you can help out, preferably without too much technical "speak”, I would appreciate it greatly! – Manny K.

Dear Manny: Google has a variety of resources to help you understand AdWords and how you can optimize your campaign performance. For example, you can watch our interactive demo on Optimization Tips or read the list of tips we’ve put together to help you get more out of your AdWords campaigns. If your customers are based in a specific geographic location, you may also want to check out the interactive demo on Local Targeting.

I received an email from AdWords that said that I had a "Disapproved Destination URL" in my ad; what does this mean and how can I fix it? –Karen C.

Dear Karen: As you know, all AdWords ads must comply with our Editorial Guidelines. URLs are an important part of the ads, so they must be functioning properly and accurately reflect your ad and website. Be sure that your Destination URL (the URL that a user is taken to) links to a working website (and not to a file or an application), and that your site has content that is relevant to your ad. It’s also important that your Display URL (the URL shown in your ad text) and your Destination URL direct the user to the same website. I don’t know the exact issue with your particular ad, but you can always check out the Links section of the editorial guidelines to see what other factors may cause the URL to be disapproved.

That's all for today. We'll try to answer more of your burning questions next time.

Posted by Vivian, Inside AdWords crew

Read More

Quick system maintenance update

Last week we mentioned that the pages under the 'My Account' tab would be temporarily unavailable due to system maintenance for a period of time this Saturday, August 6th. We wanted to let you know that this maintenance has been postponed until later this month (so this weekend you can access your account without restriction). We'll continue to notify you in advance about any planned maintenance, and we'll try to schedule them so they cause as little disruption as possible.

Posted by Jon, Inside AdWords crew

Read More

Blake's hidden gem o' the week #4

We've received a couple of emails wondering why Blake's hidden gem o' the week focuses on links to the AdWords Help Center, when everyone already knows that the information is there and how to find it. Good point.

Here's the reason behind my weekly focus on these links: in my years with the AdWords support team, I've been surprised again and again by the number of advertisers who are simply unaware that answers to just about any AdWords question are available 24/7 on the AdWords site, in the Help Center.

So, by way of pointing folks to useful information that they may not be aware of, here are this week's hidden gems:

Would you agree that there are few things more important to advertisers than profitability? After all, there's not much point in advertising if one's ads are costing more more than they bring in, right?

One key to understanding if your advertising is profitable is to track your conversions. You'll find a great deal of information on this very important topic in the Help Center, right here.

And if you're truly committed to maximizing your profitability, I hope you'll take some time and soak up even more info on tracking and interpreting your results.

Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew

Read More