Recruiting new AdWords Seminar Leaders

Since their introduction in September 2006, AdWords Seminars have helped advertisers across the US learn how to get more out of their AdWords accounts. Many seminar attendees have told us that what made the experience valuable were the knowledgeable, enthusiastic seminar leaders who were able to teach them ways to use AdWords more effectively. Now, due to a high level of advertiser interest, we'd like to expand the program -- and we're looking for more great leaders to help lead future sessions of AdWords Seminars in the US and Canada.

Although the Inside AdWords blog is designed to educate AdWords advertisers, we know that some of you are also veteran AdWords users and client managers who may have some AdWords best practices of your own -- if you have deep, hands-on, and up-to-date knowledge of AdWords, a knack for explaining how things work, and are interested in training and empowering others to use AdWords, be sure to apply to become an AdWords Seminar Leader. All applicants must be at least 18 years of age, and be a Qualified Individual in the Google Advertising Professionals Program. Please note that applications for this recruiting wave are due by April 30, 2007.

If you're not really interested in becoming a Seminar leader, but are simply interested in attending a future session to learn more about using AdWords, you can find more information on the AdWords Seminars site, on which the new schedule for the next round of seminars will be announced in a few weeks.

Posted by Vivian, Inside AdWords crew

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Pay-per-action beta -- your questions answered

Last week, we announced the launch of our pay-per-action beta test for selected US advertisers. Since that post went live, we've received a number of questions -- and wanted to answer the most popular ones (paraphrased for brevity) in a quick follow up post:

Do pay-per-action ads show on Google.com or on sites in the search network?
No. Pay-per-action ads are not eligible to show on Google.com or in the Google search network. They're only eligible to display in the Google content network.

I am an advertiser using My Client Center (MCC) and am interested in the pay-per-action beta test for my clients, as well as for my own business. What are my sign up options?
We're only adding individual AdWords accounts to the beta test, so if you are an advertiser managing multiple accounts with an MCC, you can add the individual accounts that you believe will benefit from pay-per-action, including your own.

Is it possible to set a cost-per-action (CPA) value (i.e. the amount I'd like to pay for a specific action) as a percentage of the amount of the purchase rather than as a fixed amount per purchase?
We don't currently offer the option to set a CPA value as a percentage. The cost-per-action value must be a fixed amount.

I am also an AdSense publisher and would like to participate in this test. How can I sign up?
Please visit the AdSense referrals beta site, on which you'll find a 'Sign Up' link.

I am not a US advertiser, and wonder when pay-per-action will be available in my country?
Although we plan to extend the pay-per-action beta test to advertisers outside of the US in the future, we don’t currently have a date for when this option may become available in other countries.

Although I am not a US advertiser, my campaigns do target US customers. Can I participate in the beta?
At this time, we're only accepting advertisers who have a billing address located in the United States.

Want to learn more? Please take a look at our frequently asked questions regarding the pay-per-action beta.

Posted by Sarah and Blake, Inside AdWords crew

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AdWords Editor's "Top 10 Favorites"

Have you wondered how to make the most of AdWords Editor? Or, if you haven't used the desktop application, are you interested in learning about its most popular features?

Annie Hsu from the AdWords Editor team spoke with users and compiled a list of the top ten reasons they love this campaign management application:

Whether you're just learning about AdWords Editor now or you've been with us since the beginning, we hope you'll find the following list of favorite features useful.

10. Find duplicate keywords in your account with just two clicks of your mouse.

9. Copy or cut and paste between ad groups, campaigns, or even across accounts.

8. Make bulk changes to destination URLs using the Add/Update Multiple tools or Advanced URL Changes.

7. If you need to edit your keywords or ads in a spreadsheet, copy the items to edit from the data view and paste them into a spreadsheet. Make your changes, then paste the contents of the spreadsheet directly into the appropriate Add/Update Multiple tool.

6. Undelete and activate previously deleted text ads.

5. Search your account quickly. Perform simple word searches, or do an Advanced Search to find items that meet the multiple criteria that you specify.

4. Easily find and edit bids, destination URLs, and text for ads, keywords, or sites.

3. Submit multiple exception requests at once.

2. Automatically organize your keywords into ad groups based on common themes.

1. Save a snapshot of your account for archiving or for sharing. Later, you can import the archive file to restore your prior account settings.

The AdWords Editor folks are always interested in hearing your feedback, so email them at adwordseditor@google.com if you have any comments or suggestions. If you haven't already downloaded AdWords Editor, you can get started now.

Posted by Judy, Inside AdWords crew

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Pay-per-action beta test

Is there a specific action on your site that you want visitors to complete? Do you know how much that action is worth to your business? If so, you may be interested in our pay-per-action beta test. Here’s Rob Kniaz, Product Manager for Pay-Per-Action, to tell us more:

Pay-per-action advertising is a new pricing model that allows you to pay only for completed actions that you define, such as a lead, a sale, or a pageview, after a user has clicked on your ad on a publisher's site. You'll define an action, set up conversion tracking, and create ads that publishers in the Google content network can then choose to place in new ad units on their site. Let's run through the details:

Ad placement: Pay-per-action ads are only shown on sites in the Google content network. Publishers choose specific pay-per-action ads that are relevant to their site and can place them in a new ad unit on their page.

Ad formats: You can create text ads, image ads, or our new text link ad format in your pay-per-action campaign. Text link ads are brief text descriptions that take on the characteristics of a publisher's page. These Javascript-based ads will display like regular hyperlinks and allow publishers to embed these links inline with other text to promote your product or service.

Pricing: You define a fixed amount that you'd like to pay for a completed action based on the value of that action to your business. You'll only pay when that action is completed, not for a click or impression. For example, you may wish to pay $1 every time a user fills out a lead form on your site and $5 when a purchase is made.

Tracking: Google conversion tracking allows us to determine when an action that you've specified has been completed on your site. If you're already using conversion tracking, you'll be able to quickly enable existing actions for your pay-per-action campaign by adding the amount that you're willing to pay. For new conversion tracking users, you'll need to add a small amount of code to your website after you define your actions.

Beta Test Requirements: At this time, the pay-per-action beta test is only available to advertisers in the United States. In addition, you must already be using conversion tracking or be able to implement conversion tracking code on your website so that we can track your completed actions.

Over the next few weeks, we'll begin adding advertisers to our beta test. If you're an AdWords advertiser located in the US and are interested in participating in this beta, please fill out this short web form. We'll let you know as soon as you've been added to the test and will continue to add advertisers on a rolling basis.

We hope you're as excited about this beta test as we are! Please let us know if you have any questions that you'd like us to answer on the blog. You can also read up on pay-per-action here.

Posted by Sarah, Inside AdWords crew

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AdWords Optimization Tips: Part 3 - Account Structure

In our previous Optimization Tips posts, Stephanie L. offered advice on how to assess your industry and audience as well as your website and goals before beginning any optimization. We hope that these tips helped you get into an optimization mindset. Today, Stephanie provides us more tips on how to apply the information you collected through assessment to optimize the structure of your AdWords account.

Deciding between campaigns and ad groups

One of the most important aspects of structuring an account is deciding whether to use campaigns or ad groups to meet your advertising goals. And one of the most common questions asked by new, and sometimes even experienced, AdWords advertisers is 'What is the difference between a campaign and an ad group?' Campaigns and ad groups are different levels of organization within your account, each with different settings. Campaigns allow you to set your daily budget, target languages and locations, start and end dates, and ad distribution preferences (i.e., whether or not to show ads on the Google Network). Ad groups, on the other hand, allow you to set maximum cost-per-click (CPC), specific ad text, keyword list, and landing page destination URLs. Each campaign can contain up to 100 ad groups.

When deciding whether to create a campaign or ad group for a particular product, service, or section of your website, consider how these settings will help you achieve your goals. One of the most common reasons to create separate campaigns in your account is to set different daily budgets. You may decide to devote more budget to some of your best-selling or most profitable products. Separate ad groups, on the other hand, may be created whenever you'd like to set different maximum CPCs for keywords that may be highly competitive or lower converting. Regardless of how you choose to structure your account, it's important to remain flexible in your strategy -- the structure you envision when you begin may need further refining as you continue to optimize.

Deciding how to organize campaigns and ad groups

There is almost an infinite number of ways to configure your campaigns and the ad groups within them, and AdWords allows you to easily customize according to your business needs. Below are some common ways to structure an account:

• Products and services: If a sporting goods store offers a vast range of products, it may make sense to set up separate campaigns for the different product areas: Camping, Men's Athletic Wear, Hunting, etc. Within the 'Camping' campaign, the advertiser could set up separate ad groups set up for the various items that fall under camping, such as 'Tents,' 'Cookware,' and 'Sleeping Bags.' And within the 'Men's Athletic Wear' campaign, there could be separate ad groups for 'Athletic Socks,' 'Basketball Shorts,' and 'Knee pads.'
• Brand Names: A website that sells a variety of brand-name products may find that branded keywords convert better than generic product descriptions. To test this, the advertiser may want to designate separate ad groups or even separate campaigns for each brand, depending on the variety of products under a given brand label. If you want to use trademarked brand names of a trademark owner who has filed a complaint with Google, you will need permission from the trademark owner in order to use the trademark in your ad text.
  
• Websites: For advertisers promoting a variety of products or services from different companies and websites, such as affiliates or agencies, each company or website should have its own campaign or even a separate account.
• Geographic Location: Service providers that are geographically-targeted, such as furniture stores, real estate developers or car dealerships, may designate a different campaign for each state and then a different ad group for each city or metropolitan area.
• Seasonal products and services: Products that are affected by seasonality should be organized into their own campaigns or ad groups so that these can be paused and resumed according to the season. A flower delivery shop may run different campaigns or ad groups for Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, graduation season, and so forth.
  
• Themes or functions: A company that provides only a few products or services may still want to set up separate campaigns or ad groups because the same product or service may appeal to a variety of needs. A catering company may want to run separate campaigns or ad groups for 'Weddings,' 'Corporate Events,' or 'Birthdays.'

Structuring your account effectively will allow you more flexibility in managing your keywords and ad text, controlling budgets, and setting strategic bids. If you think your account structure could use some changes, you may want to test different configurations until you feel that your account is manageable and helping you achieve your advertising goals.

We hope that you have found Stephanie's Assessment and Account Structure tips helpful. Stay tuned for more advice on selecting keywords and ad text!

Posted by Feng, Inside AdWords crew

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New: Technology Business to Business Newsletter

Several weeks ago, Jennie C. from the AdWords Retail team introduced the Retail Knowledge Center and mentioned our efforts to provide industry-specific information to AdWords advertisers. Today, we've asked Megan U. from the Technology Business to Business (Tech BtoB) team, to tell us about another resource for industry specific advice:

We'd like to invite advertisers to read the new quarterly AdWords Technology Business to Business Newsletter. The inaugural issue features a number of optimization tips tailored to the Tech BtoB industry, including improving your keyword lists, getting the right traffic to your site, building the best landing pages, and making the most of the Google content network. This issue also includes a brief introduction to Google Apps, our hosted services for communication and collaboration. Future editions of the newsletter will include more optimization tips, industry trends, and suggestions for Tech BtoB advertisers.

If you're interested in having newsletters delivered straight to your inbox, please let us know by editing your notifications preferences within your AdWords account. Here's how:

1. Login to your account.
   
2. Select the My Account tab.
   
3. Select Account Preferences.
   
4. On the left-hand side you'll see the Language and Notifications Preferences; click edit to set your preferences.
   
5. Check the box for Newsletters.

Also, please let us know if you have any feedback about the newsletter. We'll make sure to pass your thoughts along to the Tech BtoB team.

Posted by Trevor, Inside AdWords crew

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More testers needed for Audio Ads

In December, we announced the start of a beta test for Google Audio Ads. The beta has been going well and, in fact, the Audio Ads Team is looking for more testers. Advertisers who are interested in participating in the beta can sign up here.

In terms of feedback, the Audio Ads team has heard that beta testers like the simple and clean user interface and the targeting and reporting options. Beta testers also find the audio ad creation process easy and fast since it only takes them a few days to create their ads and launch their first campaigns (as compared to potentially weeks for traditional radio ads).

You might be wondering whether Audio Ads would be a good fit for your business. Instead of hearing it from us, we thought we'd let a current AdWords advertiser, Richard Swezey, do the talking. Richard is the Executive Vice President of Cequal, which created the Bed Lounge. Over the years, Richard had always made a point of exploring different advertising channels. Some made sense, some didn't. And some, like radio, looked like a good idea, but had limitations that seemed to offset the benefits.

We thought a lot about how to expand the reach of our message, and radio seemed like a great opportunity – it's a 'main stream America' type of channel, but we had zero experience in it. My impression was it was something for bigger companies, or at least companies with bigger pockets and a bigger appetite for risk. Then we learned about Google Audio Ads and thought 'not only does it address our concerns but we can custom fit it to our budget and marketing goals.' So we decided to take the big plunge into radio. We've been really pleased with the experience.

Sound intriguing? If so, check out our product site to listen Richard's audio ad, hear more advertiser testimonials, and sign-up for the beta test.

Posted by Vivian, Inside AdWords crew

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AdWords Editor 3.0 now available for Mac

AdWords Editor 3.0 for Mac is now available and includes all the new features released a few weeks ago for Windows, such as the ability to add site-targeted campaigns, edit a different account while posting changes, and pause or resume keywords, ads, and sites. New and existing users can download version 3.0 from the AdWords Editor website.

For users upgrading to 3.0 (Windows or Mac), here's a helpful tip from Igor T., one of the AdWords Editor engineers:

To avoid losing any unposted changes when upgrading to the next version of AdWords Editor, export an archive of your account. After you've completed the upgrade, re-download your account, import the archive file, and find your account information intact, including any unposted changes and comments.

For a full list of features, check out the release notes.

Posted by Judy, Inside AdWords crew

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New features for Local Business Center

Google's Local Business Center is the place to go to add or edit your business listing in Google Maps. Yesterday, we launched a number of new features that can help you improve your listing, and Daniel Z. from the Google Maps team is here to tell us more:

The Local Business Center helps your business stand out on Google Maps. With these new features, you can create richer listings and include more information about your business:

Add photos to your listing
Google Maps now includes images in local search results. Suppose you own a restaurant in San Francisco that specializes in pastries. A potential customer, craving something sweet, searches Google Maps for "dessert in san francisco." In addition to the business name and location, she will now also find photos of your double chocolate cheesecake with raspberry glaze when looking at your full listing.

Describe your business with custom attributes
Details matter. In addition to common pieces of information like store hours and accepted payment types, you can include custom information specific to your business. For example, a gelateria could include a list of all the flavors it offers.

Track your stats
When it comes to knowing how your listing is working for you, there's nothing like statistics. And now, when you login to Local Business Center you can see the number of impressions your listing has received over the last 30 days.

Place your map marker with precision
If you find that your location on the map isn't exactly right, you can now fix it. When creating or editing your listing, click "Fix incorrect marker location," and simply drag your map marker to your business's exact location.

If you'd like to list your business on Google Maps, you can sign up for Local Business Center by visiting this page. It's completely free.

Posted by Trevor, Inside AdWords crew

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Daylight Saving Time - a friendly reminder

The Inside AdWords crew would like to remind you that Daylight Saving Time begins a few weeks early this year. The time change will take effect this Sunday, on March 11 at 2 a.m., so don’t forget to set your clocks one hour ahead.

If you have set up your AdWords account to one of the time zones that will be affected by the change, the time in your account will adjust automatically. All of your ad scheduling settings that help time your campaigns or adjust your bids will run on the new time.

We're hoping that "springing ahead" early also means that spring is arriving early this year!

Posted by Feng, Inside AdWords crew

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More AdWords Seminars added

Missed the last AdWords Seminar for Success? Have no fear – new seminars have been added in Minneapolis, Detroit, and Atlanta – all occurring this month. Sign up for seminars at least 7 days in advance and we’ll even throw in a $50 AdWords credit. You'll find more information about these seminars, including dates, course outlines, and registration instructions at http://www.google.com/awseminars.

Where will AdWords Seminars be held next? Stay tuned for upcoming seminars starting in April in Las Vegas, Toronto, Boston, Phoenix, St. Louis, Dallas, and more. If you'd like to be informed when AdWords Seminars become available in your area, simply fill out this form.

Posted by Vivian, Inside AdWords crew

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AdWords system maintenance on March 10

Here's a quick heads up from our tech team:

On Saturday, March 10th, the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PST due to system maintenance. While you won't be able to log into your accounts during this time, your campaigns will continue to run as usual. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Posted by Judy, Inside AdWords crew

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A handy tool for troubleshooting account behavior

The AdWords support team helps thousands of advertisers troubleshoot account issues each day. Below, Brittany S. shares an experience she had with an advertiser who was surprised to see that his average cost-per-click (CPC) doubled seemingly overnight.

Recently, an advertiser wrote into the AdWords support team, alarmed that his average CPC had increased suddenly from $0.65 to $1.40. He had no idea what caused this spike, nor could he recall making any recent changes that would prompt such a dramatic increase. Fortunately, the My Change History tool, which is available within all advertiser accounts, is invaluable in uncovering factors that may lead to unexpected account behavior. I helped the advertiser filter his account’s CPC changes and we found that a few days earlier, a user with his same AdWords account login had, in fact, increased a campaign’s maximum CPCs to $1.60. This change would explain the dramatic increase in average CPC.

Even after seeing his account's logged changes, the advertiser still could not recall making the CPC increases and thought it must have been an error. Just to be sure, he checked with his manager who rarely makes changes to the account but does login on occasion. It turned out the CPC increases were in fact, made by his manager and were not an error. To avoid any future confusion over account changes, I suggested that he and his manager make use of multiple logins.

If several individuals make changes to the same AdWords account, but are sharing one user login and password, troubleshooting account changes using the My Change History tool can be difficult or impossible. With multiple logins, each person can create their own AdWords login and password and any changes they make will be recorded in My Change History under their respective login.

Once we got everything straightened out, the advertiser was happy to know that he could always turn to the My Change History tool to troubleshoot any account problems easily, especially now that he and his manager were using their own separate logins.

The My Change History tool is one of many tools that you can use to troubleshoot account issues on your own. If you’re interested in learning about other troubleshooting tools, visit this page within the AdWords Help Center.

Posted by Judy, Inside AdWords crew

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Focus on feedback

Every week the Inside AdWords crew get together to plan out our posts for the coming week and discuss other blog-related business. Sometimes, after that's done, we kick back and get a little philosophical -- even brainstorming on occasion about the future of the blog. When we do this, one theme invariably comes up, which is the value of feedback. Specifically, feedback from you, our readers and advertisers.

In our most recent meeting we agreed that it's time to get even more serious about your feedback. We'd like to earn more feedback from you by doing more with the feedback we get. Here's our plan:

• You may notice us asking for your feedback more often. This would include feedback about the Inside AdWords blog, as well as feedback regarding the AdWords program itself.
  
  
• We'll post responses to your questions and comments in this blog more often -- focusing on those of general interest, rather than particular questions about individual accounts.
  
  
• Lastly, we'll make sure that your feedback about the AdWords program is heard by the right people within Google: each week, we'll include a number of your verbatim comments (minus any personally identifiable information regarding advertiser and account) in an internal Advertiser Feedback Report. It may be of interest to know that this report, which collects advertiser feedback from a variety of sources, has been compiled for the last 198 weeks, and is sent to more than a thousand folks within Google who have requested to receive it. In the past, comments from our readers have certainly been included in this report -- but starting next week we'll be including them in a more formal way, in a new Inside AdWords section.

So, please keep your feedback coming. By doing so, you'll be helping Inside AdWords become a more useful resource, while also helping the AdWords program become even more finely tuned to your needs.

Thanks in advance!

Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew

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