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Tuesday, 19 February 2008

An update to display URL policy

Posted on 14:07 by Unknown
We'd like to give you advance notice of an update to our display URL policy, which will take effect on April 1st. While the majority of advertisers will not be affected at all, action will be required from those who are. Please take a few minutes to read this post thoroughly, as the information below should help you determine whether you will be affected by this change.

In response to advertiser and user feedback, and in an effort to provide more relevant advertising results and a higher quality experience for our users, we have made the decision to no longer allow certain exceptions with regards to our display URL policy. This includes, but is not limited to redirects and vanity URLs. This policy will be strictly enforced regardless of past approvals and will apply to all advertisers, beginning on April 1st.

In line with our existing policy, we will continue to require that your ad's display URL match its destination URL (the URL of your landing page).

For example, if your destination URL is www.google.com, your display URL must also be www.google.com. The following would not be acceptable display URLs for an ad for www.google.com:
  • www.google.co.uk - because this URL leads to a different site
  • www.gogle.com - even though this URL simply redirects to www.google.com it is still not acceptable
  • www.gooogle.com - because this URL leads to a page showing content identical to www.google.com
What about tracking URLs?
We do understand that many advertisers utilize tracking URLs within the destination field of their ads. Therefore, if the URL of your landing page matches that of your display URL, your ads will be approved.

For example:

Display URL: www.google.com/adwords
Destination URL: www.trackingurl.com/google123
--> Landing page URL: www.google.com would be acceptable

Display URL: www.google.com/adwords
Destination URL: www.trackingurl.com/google123
--> Landing page URL: www.trackingurl.com would not be acceptable

Are sub-domains still acceptable?
Yes, the use of sub-domains and additional text within the display will continue to be acceptable provided the top-level domain matches the URL of your landing page.

For example, display URLs such as the following:

sub.google.com
google.com/extratext
www.google.com/extratext

would all be acceptable for the landing page URL below, as the top-level domain of google.com is matched:

http://sub.google.com/miscellaneous

In light of this update to display URL policy, we'd encourage you to make any necessary changes to your ads in advance of the April 1st date to ensure that they'll run without disruption by future disapprovals related to this policy.

Thanks for reading this far, and please note that more information will be provided before April 1st via alerts in all AdWords accounts.

Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew
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Posted in Announcements | No comments

Friday, 15 February 2008

Top Conversion Optimizer tips

Posted on 09:34 by Unknown
The Conversion Optimizer is a bidding feature that allows you to set a maximum cost-per-acquisition (CPA) instead of a maximum cost-per-click (CPC), helping you save time and maximize profits. We recently held a series of Conversion Optimizer webinars, which you can watch on YouTube. To help you get more out of your Conversion Optimizer campaigns, we've compiled a list of top tips based on the most common questions we received from our webinar attendees.
  1. A campaign must have 200 or more conversions per month as tracked by AdWords conversion tracking to be eligible for the Conversion Optimizer. If none of your campaigns reach this level, check out these tips to increase your conversion numbers.

  2. Conversion Optimizer works on a campaign level, not at the account level. You can enable Conversion Optimizer for eligible campaigns by following these steps. Keep in mind that you can't use Conversion Optimizer with a brand new campaign -- it needs the conversion history to work correctly.

  3. Once you activate the Conversion Optimizer, you should check its performance periodically to ensure that it's delivering what you expect. Keep in mind that normal variations in campaign performance can make it difficult to interpret short-term changes. You can change your bids as often as you like.

  4. The Conversion Optimizer works on a maximum CPA, not an average CPA. While we aim to avoid any conversion that costs more than your maximum CPA bid, changes in your conversion rate may cause your average CPA to exceed your maximum CPA.

  5. Keep in mind that if you choose a CPA lower than the recommended maximum CPA bid, you are likely to get less traffic than you did with your old CPC bids. It's a good idea to start with this recommendation and adjust based on the results you observe.

  6. If you choose to opt out of the Conversion Optimizer, your campaign will revert to the previous CPC bids you were using. (So, there's nothing to stop you from giving it a try!)

  7. Conversion Optimizer campaigns cannot yet be modified with the AdWords Editor, but we're aware that this is a common request from our advertisers.

  8. The Conversion Optimizer does not work with Google Analytics conversion data, but it's fine to use AdWords conversion tracking and Analytics at the same time.

  9. The tool does not impact your keywords' Quality Score, which is calculated in the usual way regardless of the bidding option you are using.

  10. It's best not to turn on the Conversion Optimizer for the first time right after you've made major changes to a campaign, as your conversion rate may not have yet stabilized to reflect the updates. Similarly, while you are running the Conversion Optimizer, it's best to avoid major campaign changes that are likely to impact conversion rate (or to pay careful attention after making them to evaluate their impact).
We hope this information has piqued your interest about the Conversion Optimizer. Please visit the Conversion Optimizer website for more information, including FAQs and details for upcoming webinars.

Posted by Feng, Inside AdWords crew
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Posted in New features, Tips | No comments

Thursday, 14 February 2008

Roses are red...

Posted on 13:57 by Unknown
For Valentine's Day, we wanted to write you a sonnet but we've found that it isn't as easy as Shakespeare made it look. So instead, we took the traditional approach. Here's a Valentine's day poem from each of us...enjoy!

Roses are red
Violets are blue
We love our readers
...Yes, we mean you. :) (Vivian)

Roses are red
Violets are purple
Our readers are as sweet
As fine maple syrple. (Blake)

Roses are red
violets are mauve
Inside AdWords readers
Are pretty darn suave. (Trevor)

Roses are red
So are your lips
We're glad you read
our AdWords news and tips. (Feng)

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Sugar is sweet
Google offers a number of business solutions that help advertisers increase their ROI, most of which are free. Check them out here. (Christian)

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Happy Heart Day...
From the Inside AdWords crew. (Heather)

Posted by Vivian, Inside AdWords crew
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Posted in Fun, Seasonal | No comments

Wednesday, 13 February 2008

Introducing the Google Business YouTube channel

Posted on 17:23 by Unknown
If you read the Inside AdWords blog to learn the latest features and tips relating to AdWords, you'll be interested in knowing about the new Google Business YouTube channel.

On this channel, you can watch Fred Vallaeys, our AdWords Evangelist, discuss conversion tracking and bid management, learn the basics of ad quality, receive tips on how to brainstorm negative keywords, or view a webinar on the AdWords Conversion Optimizer.

In addition to videos on AdWords, the channel also features videos of other Google business solutions like Google Analytics and Website Optimizer. The videos are currently organized into different playlists by product and by topic.

We hope you'll enjoy watching (and hearing) our very own product experts explain the different ways Google can help your business. We would love to know your suggestions and feedback as we continue to develop more content for this channel.

Posted by Feng, Inside AdWords crew
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Posted in Announcements, Learning resources | No comments

Tuesday, 12 February 2008

AdWords system maintenance on February 16th

Posted on 16:14 by Unknown
On Saturday, February 16th, the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PST due to scheduled 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 during the above times -- with this month being an exception to that rule, as previously noted in our January maintenance update.

We'll continue to update you via the blog as we always have, but you may want to take note of our intended dates and times to help you plan for any scheduled downtimes further down the road.

Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew
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Posted in System updates | No comments

Monday, 11 February 2008

Audio Ads Webinars: sign up now

Posted on 11:33 by Unknown
Later this month, specialists from the Audio Ads team will host three free online webinars. Join us for tips on how to set up an effective radio campaign and optimization ideas. A few members of the Audio Ads product team will also join us as guest speakers, offering ways to help you more easily track the impact of your Audio Ads campaigns.

The webinars will take place February 20-22. Registration closes 12:00pm PST on Thursday, February 14, so sign up now. The content of each webinar is the same -- please pick the date that works best for you. Once you sign up, we'll email you login information to access the webinar.

If you aren't familiar with Audio Ads, we encourage you to join us to learn more. You can also check out a collection of sample 30-second radio ads, played on AM and FM radio stations across the U.S. using Google Audio Ads. All of the ads listed were created by specialists in the Google Ad Creation Marketplace.

See you soon!

Posted by Heather, Inside AdWords crew
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Posted in Announcements, Learning resources | No comments

Thursday, 7 February 2008

Google Analytics 101 (Part 2)

Posted on 16:47 by Unknown
In Part 1 of Google Analytics 101, we talked about what Google Analytics is, how it helps site owners, and how to sign up. At the end of the sign-up process, we arrived at the Analytics Settings page, which is where you administer your account and make important changes. Let's take a closer look around it (we've numbered the screenshot to make it easier to follow).



(Click on the image for a full-size version)

(1) This picture is of an account that hasn't finished code installation. At the top you'll notice the box with the yellow exclamation mark that says the tracking code hasn't been detected. This box will go away once your code is installed. If you need to look at your code again, click the 'Check Status' button to get it.

(2) This grey-headlined box in the middle of the page contains your Website Profiles. Here's the first of some important Analytics definitions: a profile is a set of rules that determines what data shows up in your Analytics reports. The rules for a particular profile include user access levels, advanced configurations, and most importantly, the website being tracked. You can have as many profiles as you want, meaning that you can track multiple domains each with their own profile. Or, you can track one domain with multiple profiles to look at different sets of data. For now we'll stick with one domain and one profile. You have to have at least one profile per Google Analytics account at all times.

(3) To the right of the Website Profiles box are links to our Help Center. These common FAQs in the Help Center fill in a lot of details if you're having trouble setting up, or just feel like poking around.

(4) Underneath the Website Profiles box are links to add more profiles, manage user access, and create filters for your data. These tools, when properly set up, allow you to control what data shows up in your reports, making it easier to focus on certain segments of traffic. We'll give these options individual attention in the future.

That's it for this installment on Analytics Settings. In Part 3 we'll introduce the reports, as well as feature a certain statistic that web analytics experts often say is the one of the single most useful around.

Posted by Christian, Inside AdWords crew
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Posted in Learning resources, Reporting and Analytics, Series, Tips | No comments

Friday, 1 February 2008

Groundhogs, Seasonality, and Trends

Posted on 14:49 by Unknown
Tomorrow, February 2nd, is Groundhog Day, and Punxsutawney Phil will soon emerge from his burrow and give his prediction for how much longer winter will last. While working with a prognosticating woodchuck to predict seasons is great, we have our own tool for determining seasonality: Google Trends.

Google Trends shows you what the world is searching for. Using Google Trends you can see when searches for a particular keyword are most popular as well as the top geographic regions and cities for that keyword. You can even perform comparisons between keywords.

(Click the image for a full-sized version)

Here we have a trends graph for the searches performed in the United States in 2007 for the keywords flowers, roses, and chocolate. We can see that flowers is more popular around Valentine's Day and most popular around Mother's Day. Roses, on the other hand, sees the biggest surge around Valentine's Day, and just a small bump for Mother's Day. And chocolate has jumps for Valentine's Day and Easter and then starts climbing around Halloween, peaking around Christmas. You can also look at a monthly view to see which days have the most traffic. Knowing this information can help you prepare your campaigns for the additional interest.

Happy Groundhog Day!

Posted by Trevor, Inside AdWords crew
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Posted in Fun, Seasonal, Tools | No comments

Friday, 25 January 2008

Latest Retail and TechB2C Industry Newsletters

Posted on 13:36 by Unknown
Just because the December holidays are over doesn't mean we're taking a break from our industry trends and seasonal highlights. Get a head start on preparing for winter sales opportunities (including Valentine's Day) with our latest Retail and Tech B2C newsletters.

Retailers can find tips for driving more conversions in the AdWords Retail Industry Newsletter. Advertisers selling consumer electronics, and telecommunications and technology products or services can check out the AdWords Tech B2C Industry Newsletter for advice on reaching more customers.

You can sign up to receive AdWords newsletters via email through your AdWords account.

Posted by Feng, Inside AdWords crew
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Posted in Announcements, Learning resources, Seasonal | No comments

Thursday, 24 January 2008

Google Content Network Tips: Optimizing for a content network audience

Posted on 14:36 by Unknown
Recently, we wrote a three part series on the Google content network. Many of you were interested in more optimization advice for the content network, and we're sharing more of those tips today:

On the search network, ads are shown to users who are specifically searching for results using one of your keywords. On the content network, ads are shown to users as they research interests and browse sites that are related to your keywords and ad text. Users on the content network are in a different mindset than users on search, so changes to your keywords, ad text and account structure may be necessary to make the most out of your content network advertising.
  • Create separate search and content campaigns.
    This will allow you to:
    • Optimize your ad groups and ad text specifically for content pages.
    • Target different audiences. If you sell flowers, you may want to create a content ad group to show your ads to couples by targeting pages relevant to them.
    • Use general keywords to strengthen the theme of your ad group, without affecting your search performance.
  • Think about the type of user browsing a web page and write ads to catch that user's attention.
    • It's important for your ad text to relate to the webpage on which it appears. If your target user is going to be on pages related to flowers, mention flowers or closely related products in the ad text.
    • Test multiple creatives and ad formats (text, image, video) in all available sizes to gain better insight into what sort of ads will perform the best for you.
  • Include call-to-action phrases.
    • Phrases like 'Register now," "Get a free quote," and "Call now" can can help set expectations for the person who is about to visit your site.
    • Your call-to-action should be what you consider to be a conversion.
  • Highlight special offers or features available on your site.
    • We've found that advertisers often get higher ROI on the content network when they include product prices in their ads. Prices and special offers can help you stand out from competitors and showcase your best deals.
  • Link your ad to customized landing pages that match the information in your ad text.
    • If your ad highlights a special deal on cell phones, make sure that the ad directs users to the specific cell phone page of your site. And ensure that your landing pages are clear and easy to navigate.
As you implement these tips and those from the previous optimization post, we recommend that you track the performance of your campaigns and iterate to figure out what works well for you.
  • Track the performance of your contextually targeted ads using Placement Performance reports.
    • The Placement Performance report (PPR) provides information on where your contextually targeted ads are showing up and how they are performing. You can use placement targeting (CPC or CPM) to further target the placements where your ads are performing particularly well and use site exclusion to exclude them from sites where they are not performing well. You can find more tips on how to use PPR effectively to boost campaign performance here.
  • Let Google track and manage your campaign's performance for you.
    • Using the Conversion Optimizer, you can specify a cost-per-acquisition (CPA), and Google will automatically adjust your CPC bids to meet your CPA goal. Learn how Bingo Card Creator used Conversion Optimizer on his content network campaigns to save time and increase his profits.
We hope you found these tips useful. Please continue to send us feedback on the content network and what additional content network topics you would like to read about in this blog.

Posted by Feng, Inside AdWords crew
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Posted in Optimization, Series, Tips | No comments

Three More Conversion Optimizer Webinars

Posted on 14:13 by Unknown
Last week, we hosted an online seminar for the Conversion Optimizer, a free AdWords feature that saves advertisers time and money by managing CPC bids based on their cost-per-acquisition goals.

Since last week's seminar was so well attended, we've decided to offer three more seminars -- on January 31, February 7, and February 13. For each seminar, we'll give a product overview and explain how Conversion Optimizer can help you get a higher ROI and more conversions from Google search and content campaigns. We'll also have time to answer your questions. Keep in mind that the presentation and format for all three seminars will be the same, so please choose the date that works best for you. If you would like to attend, please register here.

If you'd like to learn more about using the Conversion Optimizer, you can also visit the Conversion Optimizer website.

Update: Corrected second webinar date to February 7.

Posted by Heather, Inside AdWords crew
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Wednesday, 23 January 2008

Demographic bidding beta test

Posted on 20:31 by Unknown
Ever wish you could show your ads more often to a specific group like women aged 25-34? Want to see how your ads perform with certain demographic groups and then adjust your bids accordingly?

We're excited to introduce the new demographic bidding feature from AdWords. Demographic bidding helps you display your ads to specific gender and age group audiences on some sites in the Google content network, giving you more control over who your audience is and greater insight into how your ads perform with certain demographic groups.

We'll start testing this feature over the next few weeks with a selected group of advertisers in the U.S. and U.K. If you'd like to be part of this group, read on.

Demographic bidding and reports are available to advertisers who run contextually targeted or placement-targeted campaigns (with CPC or CPM bidding) on certain sites in the Google content network. Here's how it works: Some publishers in our network, such as social networking sites, know the gender and age of their users because their users sign in with that information when they create a profile or fill out registration or subscription forms. Participating publishers anonymize this user reported demographic data and then send it to Google in aggregate form, allowing us to adjust which ads are shown to members of specific demographic groups. (To protect user privacy, AdWords receives this data only from publishers that have permission from users to share their data according to the site's terms and conditions. Users are never identified personally, but only as anonymous aggregated data in the demographic reports. And to protect the privacy of minors, users under 18 can't be targeted demographically.)

There are two ways you can use demographic bidding. First, you can modify your bids for a particular audience segment, such as increasing your bid for 25-34 year-old males by 230%. Second, you can ask that your ads not be shown to certain demographic groups if they aren't meeting your ROI goals.

If you're not sure which demographic converts best for you, you can run Demographic Reports (found in the Report Center) to guide your bids for certain groups. These reports can show you campaign performance metrics (including impressions, clicks, CTR, and conversion data) by the gender and age range of users who saw your ad. If there are demographic groups that convert well, you can increase your bids for those groups, increasing the frequency your ad will be shown to this audience. You can also choose to have your ad hidden from groups that don't respond well to your campaign.

If you're an AdWords advertiser located in the U.S. or the U.K., we'd like to invite you to try out demographic bidding. You can see which partner sites offer this feature and learn how to get started by visiting this site. We plan to add advertisers on a rolling basis. We'll let you know as soon as you've been added to the test.

Posted by Feng, Inside AdWords crew
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Posted in Announcements, New features, Testing opportunities | No comments

Tuesday, 15 January 2008

More AdWords Seminars coming near you

Posted on 19:47 by Unknown
Are you ready to kick-start your AdWords account in 2008? If you'd like to learn more about how to get the most out of your account, we encourage you to check out an AdWords Seminar. These seminars are offered by search marketing professionals who are also Qualified Invididuals in the Google Advertising Professionals program. Sessions have just been added in St. Louis, Miami, Las Vegas, Denver, and San Francisco. Sign up 7 days before the seminar date and we'll even throw in a $50 AdWords advertising credit. (View the terms and conditions of advertising credits.)

You'll find more information about these seminars, including dates, course outlines, and registration instructions at http://www.google.com/awseminars. On the site, you can browse through the schedule of upcoming seminars in the new handy calendar. And of course, 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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Posted in Learning resources | No comments

Google Analytics 101 (Part 1)

Posted on 16:40 by Unknown
In the past, we've often mentioned Google Analytics as a great tool that helps you learn more about how visitors reach your website and what they do once they get there. But now's a good time to take a step back and talk about how to get started with Google Analytics from the very first step. This will be the first post in a series of "Analytics 101" articles that will walk you through sign up, installation, and using reports.

The WAY Beginning: What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a free, hosted web analytics service that provides useful data for website and marketing optimization. Site owners and marketers can make better informed decisions about their sites and campaigns by using metrics from Google Analytics reports. Google Analytics works by collecting information about your site traffic and advertising campaigns, combining this with e-commerce and conversion information to provide insight into the performance of your marketing efforts and site content.

Anyone can sign up using a Google account by visiting http://www.google.com/analytics/. You don't even need to have an AdWords account beforehand.

How do I sign up and install Google Analytics?

After signing up for a Google Analytics account comes the most important part of installation -- the tracking code snippet. Every Analytics user is given a unique piece of JavaScript code to insert in all site pages immediately before the </body> tag. The code snippet may look like something like this example below:

<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js ' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-#####-#");
pageTracker._initData();
pageTracker._trackPageview();
</script>

(For illustrative purposes only.)

Your "UA-#####-#" number will be unique to you. It's important to insert the code on all of your site's pages; otherwise Analytics won't be giving you the whole picture of what's going on.

If you're not ready to insert the code now, you can always retrieve this code later. Depending on the size of your site and the number of pages you need tagged, you may want to discuss installation with your webmaster, if you have one.

How do I view my reports?

After you've finished signup, you'll be taken to the Analytics Settings page. The Status box on the right side of this page will let you know whether the code has been properly inserted. It's important to note, however, that it takes anywhere from a few hours to a full day after code installation for your reports to start gathering and showing information.

Once the Status box in the Analytics Settings page says that you're receiving data, you can click the View Reports link to receive reports about your website traffic. Like this:



(Click on the image for a full-sized version)

That's it for this first installment of Google Analytics 101. Try playing around with a few reports -- the Analytics interface is specifically designed to be intuitive and "discoverable," so to speak. If you can't wait to learn more, the Analytics Help Center is a great resource for information. Look for the next installment soon, when we'll explain more about administering your account and using your reports.

Posted by Christian, Inside AdWords crew
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Posted in Learning resources, Reporting and Analytics, Series | No comments

Monday, 14 January 2008

Sign up for the Conversion Optimizer online seminar

Posted on 10:46 by Unknown
Last week, we announced that the Conversion Optimizer, a free AdWords feature for managing CPA (cost-per-acquisition) bids, was out of beta and available to more advertisers.

We'd like to remind you that the Conversion Optimizer team will be giving a free online seminar tomorrow, January 15th at 10 am PST. This one hour session will cover how the Conversion Optimizer works and how you can use it to get more conversions and improve your ROI. You'll also have the chance to get your questions answered by the team. If you would like to attend, please register here.

If you'd like to learn more about using the Conversion Optimizer, you can also visit the Conversion Optimizer website.

Posted by Trevor, Inside AdWords crew
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Posted in Learning resources, Tools | No comments

Thursday, 10 January 2008

The Conversion Optimizer: Increase profits and save time

Posted on 13:18 by Unknown
Last September, we launched the Conversion Optimizer, a free AdWords feature for managing CPA (cost-per-acquisition) bids. Since then, the Conversion Optimizer has helped many advertisers save time and money, and we're announcing today that it's no longer in beta. We're also making it available to more campaigns: any campaign with AdWords conversion tracking enabled that has received 200 conversions in the last 30 days can now use the Conversion Optimizer (previously 300 were required). We've received lots of feedback from advertisers using the Conversion Optimizer including Moritz Daan, Webgamic's CEO, who shared with us:
With the Conversion Optimizer, we managed to get 600-plus conversions per day, instead of the usual 200. Also, I thought it wasn't possible to get below €0.60 CPA, but Conversion Optimizer managed to cut our costs down to €0.25 per conversion.
Many advertisers also like that the Conversion Optimizer makes it easier to advertise on Google's content network. Patrick McKenzie, CEO of Bingo Card Creator, writes:
Conversion Optimizer has improved the performance of my ads on the content network…I’ve cut down my involvement with the content network from a very stressful, mandatory daily session to a leisurely, weekly session, which I can skip if I want to. [The Conversion Optimizer] algorithms take care of finding the gems and discarding the trash without my intervention. I really can’t stress how powerful this is for a time-pressed small businessman.
Here's how the Conversion Optimizer works: for each ad group, simply specify a maximum CPA bid, the most you're willing to pay for each conversion like a purchase or sign-up. The Conversion Optimizer does all the rest; using historical information about your campaign, it automatically finds optimal CPC bids for each auction. You still pay per click, but you no longer have to manually adjust your bids to reach your CPA goals.

The Conversion Optimizer uses algorithms to predict which clicks are likely to be most valuable, bidding higher on these clicks and lower on less valuable ones, in real-time. The prediction is based on your specific ad's conversion history and considers the website in the Google Network where your ad appears, the user's location, the user's search query, and other factors.

For example, let's say an advertiser with a custom shirt website gets a higher conversion rate from the search query custom shirts than from just shirts. The Conversion Optimizer learns this difference and bids higher for clicks on custom shirts. By reducing the risk of over-bidding for non-converting search queries and under-bidding for potentially valuable search queries, the Conversion Optimizer can help improve performance substantially. Based on our analysis of the Conversion Optimizer beta, advertisers using this feature have seen more conversions at a lower CPA.

Follow our instructions to get started with the Conversion Optimizer. If you'd like to learn more, register for our free online seminar on January 15, 2008, from 10 am to 11 am PST. Lewis Lin and Andrew Silverman from the Conversion Optimizer team will give a product overview and explain how the Conversion Optimizer can help you get higher ROI and more conversions from your Google search and content campaigns. They'll also have time to answer your questions.

You can also get additional information by visiting the Conversion Optimizer website.

Posted by Trevor, Inside AdWords crew
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Posted in Announcements, Case studies, Optimization, Tools | No comments

Wednesday, 9 January 2008

AdWords system maintenance on January 12th

Posted on 12:04 by Unknown
On Saturday, January 12th, the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PST due to our regularly scheduled 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 during the above times. Next month will be an exception as the maintenance will occur a week later to accommodate Valentine's Day. We'll continue to update you via the blog as we always have, but you may want to take note of our intended dates and times to help you plan for any scheduled downtimes further down the road.

Posted by Feng, Inside AdWords crew
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Posted in System updates | No comments

Wednesday, 2 January 2008

Our top 10 of 2007

Posted on 16:46 by Unknown
The Time Square ball has dropped for the 100th time and the New Year is officially underway, but before we say goodbye to 2007, we'd like to continue the annual tradition of reminiscing about our top 10 favorite blog moments of 2007. Whether you're a newcomer to the blog or an old-time fan, we think you'll find at least a few posts in this list worth reviewing again:

10. Complimentary optimizations make it easy (and free!) for you to get some expert help with your campaigns.

9. We made a change to the formula that determines which ads get top placement.

8. Meet the Click Quality Team and learn all about invalid clicks.

7. Find out why some websites may merit low landing page quality scores.

6. Turkeys (lots of them!), snowpeople, and a few Inside AdWords bloggers, too... we celebrate the holidays with a touch of whimsy and fun.

5. Google's Chief Economist Hal Varian explains how the holidays may affect clicks, conversions, and CPAs.

4. The content network series takes you deeper inside the world of content ads, and how they can work for you...

3. ...while Placement Performance reports help you better understand where your ads are showing, and how they are performing on the content network.

2. The Optimization tips series offers helpful advice on how to make your ads more effective.

1. Learn more about return-on-investment and why it's important with our ROI series.

With that, we're off to work on our resolutions for 2008. We hope you had a restful holiday, and wish you all the best for a Happy New Year!

Posted by Vivian, Inside AdWords crew
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Posted in Seasonal | No comments
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    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 ef...
  • AdWords system maintenance on February 16th
    On Saturday, February 16th, the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PST due to scheduled maintenance. W...
  • Audio Ads Webinars: sign up now
    Later this month, specialists from the Audio Ads team will host three free online webinars. Join us for tips on how to set up an effective r...
  • Target with even more precision
    As we've mentioned, site targeting allows you to hand pick sites from our content network where you'd like to show your ads. Now, w...
  • Google Print Ads now available to AdWords advertisers
    We're very excited to announce the availability of Google Print Ads ™ in U.S. AdWords accounts. To introduce you to Google Print Ads, ...
  • An update to display URL policy
    We'd like to give you advance notice of an update to our display URL policy, which will take effect on April 1st. While the majority of ...

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Blog Archive

  • ▼  2008 (18)
    • ▼  February (8)
      • An update to display URL policy
      • Top Conversion Optimizer tips
      • Roses are red...
      • Introducing the Google Business YouTube channel
      • AdWords system maintenance on February 16th
      • Audio Ads Webinars: sign up now
      • Google Analytics 101 (Part 2)
      • Groundhogs, Seasonality, and Trends
    • ►  January (10)
      • Latest Retail and TechB2C Industry Newsletters
      • Google Content Network Tips: Optimizing for a cont...
      • Three More Conversion Optimizer Webinars
      • Demographic bidding beta test
      • More AdWords Seminars coming near you
      • Google Analytics 101 (Part 1)
      • Sign up for the Conversion Optimizer online seminar
      • The Conversion Optimizer: Increase profits and sav...
      • AdWords system maintenance on January 12th
      • Our top 10 of 2007
  • ►  2007 (151)
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