Would you like to see a graph of the number of clicks you received over the past month? Or how about a report the number of conversions you received during that Mother's Day promotion? The 'custom report' feature allows you to generate reports that track the parameters and date ranges you specify. You can even save these reports or have them emailed to you on a regular basis. Read more about it here.
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Getting the Reports You Want
Today's tip comes from Tolu T., an AdWords specialist:
Friday, May 27, 2005
Tell Us What You Think
It's been two weeks since our first blog post, and during this time, we've been trying to answer some of the common advertiser questions that we hear. Hopefully, we've provided some tips that you've found useful. Now that we're warmed up, we want to broaden the scope a bit and dive into more advanced topics and issues such as the AdWords API, how to get the most out of conversion tracking, and tools that will help you make changes across all your campaigns.
Before we get too carried away with our own ideas, we'd like to pause for a moment to ask for your feedback. Tell us what you like or don't like about the blog, as well as any suggestions for what you would like to see here in the future. (We promise we won't get mad if you don't like something you've seen, so be honest!) We may not get to respond to each of you personally, but we'll definitely take all your feedback to heart.
Thanks for visiting! And for our readers in the US, have a great long weekend!
Posted by Jon, Inside AdWords crew
Before we get too carried away with our own ideas, we'd like to pause for a moment to ask for your feedback. Tell us what you like or don't like about the blog, as well as any suggestions for what you would like to see here in the future. (We promise we won't get mad if you don't like something you've seen, so be honest!) We may not get to respond to each of you personally, but we'll definitely take all your feedback to heart.
Thanks for visiting! And for our readers in the US, have a great long weekend!
Posted by Jon, Inside AdWords crew
Thursday, May 26, 2005
Give Better Direction
Here's a tip from Matthew H., an AdWords specialist:
Posted by Jon, Inside AdWords crew
Sometimes it's better not to send customers to your home page, but instead to a more specific page based on their search term. You can do this by specifying different destination URLs for individual keywords. When customers search for "blue suede shoes" and click on your ad, you can then send them directly to a page containing your entire inventory of blue suede shoes. This practice can lead to higher conversion rates, and could allow you to get more value from your clicks. Read more about it here.
Posted by Jon, Inside AdWords crew
Top banker enters "business ethics" fray
The head of Switzerland’s largest bank has outlined his vision of how companies can regain public trust, in the context of a growing debate about "business ethics".
Peter Wuffli, group CEO of banking giant UBS, condemned what he called the "almost cyclical abuse of power by business leaders" that led to a series of high-profile corporate collapses in recent years.
However, he told the 35th annual ISC conference at St Gallen University that society now ran the risk of "going too far" and "crushing" business with arbitrary new regulations.
Wuffli said the time had come to "give corporations the chance to earn back the trust of society", and argued that businesses – like individual human beings – "need freedom".
"For a large, global listed corporation, there is simply no alternative to maximising the profit potential relative to relevant competitors."
However, he said this did not mean only "cold-blooded short-term profit maximisers [would be] rewarded by the financial markets".
He said companies could only be successful if they "balanced the interests of various stakeholder groups" – particularly customers and employees.
"Responsible corporate leadership means delivering on a profit-oriented mandate in a way that is fully transparent and in line with its stated values, vision and strategies," he said.
However, he concluded: "It is only individuals who can act responsibly. A company is as ethical as its people – every single one of them." Article in Swiss Info
Peter Wuffli, group CEO of banking giant UBS, condemned what he called the "almost cyclical abuse of power by business leaders" that led to a series of high-profile corporate collapses in recent years.
However, he told the 35th annual ISC conference at St Gallen University that society now ran the risk of "going too far" and "crushing" business with arbitrary new regulations.
Wuffli said the time had come to "give corporations the chance to earn back the trust of society", and argued that businesses – like individual human beings – "need freedom".
"For a large, global listed corporation, there is simply no alternative to maximising the profit potential relative to relevant competitors."
However, he said this did not mean only "cold-blooded short-term profit maximisers [would be] rewarded by the financial markets".
He said companies could only be successful if they "balanced the interests of various stakeholder groups" – particularly customers and employees.
"Responsible corporate leadership means delivering on a profit-oriented mandate in a way that is fully transparent and in line with its stated values, vision and strategies," he said.
However, he concluded: "It is only individuals who can act responsibly. A company is as ethical as its people – every single one of them." Article in Swiss Info
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
You’ll never have to come here again…
Now you can get all Inside AdWords posts in your email inbox as soon as they appear online.
Posted by Andrew, Inside AdWords crew
Posted by Andrew, Inside AdWords crew
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
What in the World is an Impr?
As I've worked with advertisers over the years, I've found that I especially enjoy helping new advertisers get up-to-speed with AdWords. Quite a few turn out to be not only new to AdWords, but new to online advertising in general, and they're often unfamiliar with the lingo. Here are some resources I often recommend:
* First, we have the essentials for those wondering "What basic terminology should I know?"
* Of course, there's the ever-popular AdWords Glossary
* And lastly, I find myself frequently directing advertisers to the searchable Help Center, where they can get answers to questions such as "What is an Impr?"
If you're new to AdWords, I hope this helps you - and I wish you every success!
Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew
* First, we have the essentials for those wondering "What basic terminology should I know?"
* Of course, there's the ever-popular AdWords Glossary
* And lastly, I find myself frequently directing advertisers to the searchable Help Center, where they can get answers to questions such as "What is an Impr?"
If you're new to AdWords, I hope this helps you - and I wish you every success!
Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew
What is an "outside accounting firm"?
Our home association bylaws mandate that an "outside accounting firm" be employed to do our accounting. Members of the Board maintain that that would not preclude a resident of the home association being contracted as our accountant so long as he or she is not an employee; being paid a salary, payroll deductions; etc.h, but not an employee of the association. Those on our newly formed ethics committee maintain that the intention of the authors of the bylaws was to preclude the use of a resident as accountant in that he or she would have a personal interest as a member of the homes association, and therefore, would be considered as an "inside accounting firm," not an "outside accounting firm." That "outside accounting firm" is meant that the firm is outside the physical residences of the Homes Association. We need to have an opinion from an ethics organization to support our position to ask for the release of this one-person resident accountant and hire the services of a firm outside the premises of our homes association. Please help.
Monday, May 23, 2005
Reviewed and Approved!
Recently we've seen quite a few emails from advertisers wondering how and why their ads were disapproved - and even more importantly - how this can be avoided in the future. Good questions!
The short story is that new and edited ads are reviewed after you submit them in order to ensure that they comply with the AdWords Editorial Guidelines.
It probably goes without saying that it's a good thing to have your ads approved the very first time you submit them; it saves you time and energy, and puts your ads in front of your potential customers without interruption.
Perhaps the best way to ensure that your ads will be approved the first time is to simply be familiar with the Editorial Guidelines before writing your ads. After all, these are the standards that your ads must meet, so it just makes sense!
You'll be happy you spent the time familiarizing yourself with these guidelines when your ads sail right through review!
And by the way, if any of your ads are disapproved, you can always use the Disapproved Ads Tool to find out when and why they were disapproved and edit them for re-review.
Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew
The short story is that new and edited ads are reviewed after you submit them in order to ensure that they comply with the AdWords Editorial Guidelines.
It probably goes without saying that it's a good thing to have your ads approved the very first time you submit them; it saves you time and energy, and puts your ads in front of your potential customers without interruption.
Perhaps the best way to ensure that your ads will be approved the first time is to simply be familiar with the Editorial Guidelines before writing your ads. After all, these are the standards that your ads must meet, so it just makes sense!
You'll be happy you spent the time familiarizing yourself with these guidelines when your ads sail right through review!
And by the way, if any of your ads are disapproved, you can always use the Disapproved Ads Tool to find out when and why they were disapproved and edit them for re-review.
Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew
Friday, May 20, 2005
AdWords Update - 5/20/05
Another regular feature of this blog is, of course, keeping you up to date with all the changes being made to AdWords. Here are a couple of features we launched this week:
My Client Center dashboard enhancements
We've made some updates to the My Client Center dashboard so you can now easily sort accounts by start or end date, view daily budgets for online accounts, view yesterday's account spend (in addition to this month, or the last 7, 30, or 90 days), and find out when client accounts were linked to My Client Center.
Account Performance Suggestions email preferences
You can now change your preference for receiving account performance suggestions emails in the User Preferences section of the "My Account" tab.
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Well, the "send us an email" link seems to be working!
We've gotten a few emails asking for a clarification of our previous post, and we're happy to oblige:
Please rest assured that your account will continue to run as normal during the short downtime. Your ads will continue to appear, and statistics will be compiled as normal. It's business as usual, except that you won't be able to access your account for that short period of time.
If you're completely at a loss for things to do during that time, may we suggest a new movie? We've been hearing a lot about the latest Star Wars!
Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew
Please rest assured that your account will continue to run as normal during the short downtime. Your ads will continue to appear, and statistics will be compiled as normal. It's business as usual, except that you won't be able to access your account for that short period of time.
If you're completely at a loss for things to do during that time, may we suggest a new movie? We've been hearing a lot about the latest Star Wars!
Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Plan Ahead
Straight from our tech team:
Posted by Jon, Inside AdWords crew
On May 20, 2005, the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 9 p.m. to 9:45 p.m. PDT (US) due to system maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Posted by Jon, Inside AdWords crew
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
A *Bold* New World
On this blog, we'll be showcasing tips from the AdWords team. Our first one is from Emel, an AdWords Specialist:
If your ad text includes a term from your keyword list, that term will appear in bold text when that word is in a user's search. This can help improve the clickthrough rate of your ad, as its relevance is highlighted to the user. So the next time you're writing a new ad, boldly experiment with using a keyword in the copy or title. Want more details? Take a look here.Posted by Andrew, Inside AdWords crew
Monday, May 16, 2005
So we heard this blogging thing is going to be huge...
Recently, we were putting the finishing touches on some really cool new features for AdWords, and our conversation turned to a common theme: We’re really proud of AdWords because we know it can help people worldwide advertise successfully, but we wish we had a better place to tell you about it. Lucky for us, the Blogger team works down the hall.
So, with that… Welcome to Inside AdWords!
Here’s what you’ll find when you visit adwords.blogspot.com…
- Updates on enhancements we've made to the system
- Thoughts on things that advertisers have been asking about
- Tips on getting the most from AdWords
- Details on tools we think you'll find useful
- Links to articles you might find interesting
That’s it. We’ll try and post every few days, and hope that you'll come back often.
And if you have suggestions for this site, send them to inside-adwords@google.com.
Posted by Andrew, Blake, Vivian, and Jon. The Inside AdWords crew.
So, with that… Welcome to Inside AdWords!
Here’s what you’ll find when you visit adwords.blogspot.com…
- Updates on enhancements we've made to the system
- Thoughts on things that advertisers have been asking about
- Tips on getting the most from AdWords
- Details on tools we think you'll find useful
- Links to articles you might find interesting
That’s it. We’ll try and post every few days, and hope that you'll come back often.
And if you have suggestions for this site, send them to inside-adwords@google.com.
Posted by Andrew, Blake, Vivian, and Jon. The Inside AdWords crew.
Sunday, May 1, 2005
Business Ethics for SMEs
This month, Ethics Today (the Newsletter from the Ethics Resource Center) focuses on ethics initiatives in smaller organizations. More often than not, resources and new insights for organizational ethics are assumed to have universal appeal. However, their research and experience have revealed that organizations with fewer than 500 employees represent a very different mix when it comes to effective ethics program efforts.
On the one hand, small businesses exist as streamlined examples of the impact of organizational leadership on a company's ethical culture.
On the other hand, smaller organizations are much less likely than larger ones to have in place what we now consider to be "formal elements" of an ethics program, namely written ethics standards, ethics training, a dedicated ethics office/advice line, and a means to report misconduct anonymously.
In May 2004, the U.S. Department of Commerce published a manual for corporate responsibility programs that integrates corporate governance, organizational ethics, and social responsibility. "Business Ethics: A Manual for Managing a Responsible Business Enterprise in Emerging Market Economies" was co-authored by ERC Principal Consultant Kenneth W. Johnson and Igor Y. Abramov, Senior Advisor, Market Access and Compliance, International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce.
Because the bulk of businesses in all economies, especially emerging market economies, consist of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), note the authors, most chapters discuss specific issues facing SMEs. Some chapters have tables comparing the best practices of large, complex enterprises and cost-effective solutions for the SME.
Chapter 6 (pages 129-140) examines business ethics infrastructure -- the structures and systems that help enterprise owners and managers address issues of responsible business conduct. The manual details the best practices that have been developed by large, complex enterprises (LCEs). While valuable for similarly situated enterprises in emerging market economies, they can also serve as models for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). By considering the best practices that have been generated over countless hours by larger organizations, SMEs can design business ethics infrastructure that meets world-class standards but is tailored to the requirements of an SME.
According to the authors, leading enterprises, government agencies, and NGOs have found that an effective business ethics program addresses functions at seven levels of responsibility. Table 6.1 describes how a typical SME might staff these seven responsibility functions. Also in this chapter is a box that lists "Ten Ways Small Business Owners can Prevent and Detect Fraud."
The book contains numerous practical examples, worksheets and checklists, a bibliography, a glossary, and-in its nine appendices-numerous examples of business ethics policies adopted by various countries and organizations.
The manual can be downloaded for free at:
http://www.ita.doc.gov/media/Publications/blurbs/ethics2004blurb.html. (Printed versions are available for sale also at that site.)
More on Business Ethics in SMEs can be found at the Ethics Resource Center , a great source of information on Business Ethics.
On the one hand, small businesses exist as streamlined examples of the impact of organizational leadership on a company's ethical culture.
On the other hand, smaller organizations are much less likely than larger ones to have in place what we now consider to be "formal elements" of an ethics program, namely written ethics standards, ethics training, a dedicated ethics office/advice line, and a means to report misconduct anonymously.
In May 2004, the U.S. Department of Commerce published a manual for corporate responsibility programs that integrates corporate governance, organizational ethics, and social responsibility. "Business Ethics: A Manual for Managing a Responsible Business Enterprise in Emerging Market Economies" was co-authored by ERC Principal Consultant Kenneth W. Johnson and Igor Y. Abramov, Senior Advisor, Market Access and Compliance, International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce.
Because the bulk of businesses in all economies, especially emerging market economies, consist of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), note the authors, most chapters discuss specific issues facing SMEs. Some chapters have tables comparing the best practices of large, complex enterprises and cost-effective solutions for the SME.
Chapter 6 (pages 129-140) examines business ethics infrastructure -- the structures and systems that help enterprise owners and managers address issues of responsible business conduct. The manual details the best practices that have been developed by large, complex enterprises (LCEs). While valuable for similarly situated enterprises in emerging market economies, they can also serve as models for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). By considering the best practices that have been generated over countless hours by larger organizations, SMEs can design business ethics infrastructure that meets world-class standards but is tailored to the requirements of an SME.
According to the authors, leading enterprises, government agencies, and NGOs have found that an effective business ethics program addresses functions at seven levels of responsibility. Table 6.1 describes how a typical SME might staff these seven responsibility functions. Also in this chapter is a box that lists "Ten Ways Small Business Owners can Prevent and Detect Fraud."
The book contains numerous practical examples, worksheets and checklists, a bibliography, a glossary, and-in its nine appendices-numerous examples of business ethics policies adopted by various countries and organizations.
The manual can be downloaded for free at:
http://www.ita.doc.gov/media/Publications/blurbs/ethics2004blurb.html. (Printed versions are available for sale also at that site.)
More on Business Ethics in SMEs can be found at the Ethics Resource Center , a great source of information on Business Ethics.
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