About subscribing via email

I’ve mentioned before that you can get automatic emails from this blog so you don’t need to come back and check it everyday. A few people have asked us how we’re emailing you each time our posts go up.

We’re using a couple of features of Google Groups and Blogger to accomplish this ‘email newsletter’ of sorts. First, we set up an announcement-only Google Group by specifying a name, email address, and short description. You can set up a Google Group here. Next, we used the blogsend feature of Blogger, which allows you to automatically send posts to one email address. The email address we send it to is the Google Group email address we created. And voila, anyone who subscribes to the Google Group automatically receives an email.

We also got some code from the Google Group site so that everyone can subscribe to the group from this blog. Check it out on the bottom right-hand side of this page.

Posted by Andrew Inside AdWords crew

AdWords Update - 6/29/05

Do you manage AdWords accounts for others or use My Client Center? If so, we've got a few new features that will be useful for you:

• My Client Center enhancements: you can now create an online account directly from your My Client Center dashboard, download your dashboard information into a .csv file, and manage billing information for your client accounts.
  
• Google Advertising Professionals: if you know any folks in the Google Advertising Professionals program in France, Italy, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, or the United Kingdom, be sure to let them know that they can now receive promotional credits for their clients to try out AdWords (previously available only in the US), and take the exam in 6 new languages as well! Client managers in Japan can now also sign up for the program.

Posted by Vivian, Inside AdWords crew

Our tools save hours

I asked Stephanie, a product manager I work closely with, to talk about one of her products in-depth today. Here’s what she has to say about the new suite of account management tools that she’s been launching since October:

I’ve noticed that, as our advertisers expand their AdWords campaigns to support growing businesses that managing these larger accounts becomes a challenge. Advertisers have come up to me and told me that they appreciate how much traffic AdWords drives to their sites, but it gets incrementally harder to manage their campaigns as they add more keywords and ads. To help our advertisers with this problem, I’ve been working with my team on a set of account management tools that make changes across an account easy and quick.

We’ve launched three of these tools to help all advertisers manage their keywords, CPCs, and ad text. Now, rather than making these changes for individual items, you can make hundreds of thousands of changes in a matter of minutes. The names of these tools are pretty self-explanatory, but I wanted to point out some specific examples of common uses for them.

• The Find/Edit Max CPCs tool allows you to change your CPC settings for thousands of keywords at once. You can change the CPC to a set price or increase all bids by a fixed percent or fixed amount. Some examples can be seen here.
• The Find/Edit Ad Text tool allows you to change the text of several ads at the same time. Learn more about how you might use it here.
• The Find/Edit Keyword tool allows you to edit keyword match types, delete keywords, and remove keyword-level destination URLs en masse. Take a look at some specific examples of things you can do with this tool here.

These tools all support powerful filtering and searching options. For example, you can find all the keywords that are appearing above a certain position or performing below a particular CTR. If you want to find the subset of ads that have the word “roses” in them, you can just search for that word. Or even go one step further and take advantage of the download as .csv feature to generate high-performing keyword lists or a record of your best ads.

So, feel free to try them out – they can be useful to accounts of all sizes. Just log in and go the ‘Tools’ page (there’s a link to that under the “Campaign Management” tab). Under the ‘Modify your Campaigns’ heading on the right side, you’ll find all three tools listed.

If you want to provide specific feedback on Stephanie’s campaign management tools, write us and I’ll make sure that she gets your comments.

Posted by Andrew, Inside AdWords crew

Mapping the known world

I think we could all agree that AdWords is a great way of getting lots of new people to visit your site. But many advertisers want be found in Google's search results as well. If this sounds like you, here's a tip that'll interest you. It comes from Shaluinn on the Product Team:

We recently released a new product called Google Sitemaps - a free, easy way for you to help people discover more of your web pages. It's a web crawling system that enables you to directly inform Google about when you make changes to your web pages or create new ones. That, in turn, enables Google to crawl your site more effectively and comprehensively. Learn more here.

Posted by Jon, Inside AdWords crew

Pondering Pisa

(Cross posted at my java.net blog)

If I asked you to list the most famous structures in the world, the Leaning Tower of Pisa would probably show up in your top 10 responses.

Like the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty, the Leaning Tower (Torre Pendente) is a major icon of the Euro/American culture that "everybody" knows about.

In early June I caught my first glimpse of Torre Pendente while driving into Pisa on the not-quite-two-lanes-wide road from San Giuliano Terme (driving on Italian roads is an adventure on its own). The tower came into view unexpectedly, and I was quite simply delighted. The reality of seeing something in person that I’ve known about all of my life was a great rush (I felt the same way the first time I saw the Washington Monument).

My wife, Teri, and I are wanna-be world travelers, and this June was our first excursion beyond North America. We spent two weeks in Tuscany, staying at an agriturismo just outside the small town of Calci. Our apartment was very close to Pisa, so we just "had" to make the standard tourist pilgrimage to "The Field of Miracles".

No doubt at this point some of my less patient readers are wondering why-the-heck I am blogging about my Tuscan vacation on java.net. Stick around, I’m getting there…

We arrived in Pisa very early to beat the crowds, and I had an excellent opportunity to experience the tower up-close-and-personal. Tacky over-commercialization aside, the tower and related structures are definitely worth a visit… but almost immediately something deep inside my gut started nagging at me. The tower is pretty neat, and obviously a tourist cash-cow, but as I stood before the tower the engineer in me kicked in and my inner voice started screaming:

"Why didn’t they start over?"

Most tourists get their picture taken in front of the tower. Almost all tourists pose as if they are holding the tower up. You will note that I am pushing the tower down.

Before any Pisans flame me: I love your tower. Its whimsical nature is enthralling, and the extreme measures that have been taken to save it are a testament to the dedication, creativity and resourcefulness of your citizens. My comments are those of an engineer who has endured way too many critical projects built on poor foundations.

You already know that the tower leans, but you may not be aware that the tower started leaning long before it was completed. We aren’t witnessing the results of a hidden flaw that appeared long after the project was completed, we’re witnessing the results of continuing to build on a known flaw for tens of decades after the flaw became apparent (the foundation is inadequate for the lousy soil at the building site).

Here’s a short history of the tower’s construction and projects to keep it standing:

• 1173 to around 1180: The first four stories were built. Leaning was already evident by the time the base and 1st floor were finished. The tower was unwittingly built on the soft silt of a buried riverbed, and the foundation was only 13 feet deep.
  
• 1272: After almost a century, the next three stories are added. To compensate for the lean, the three stories are angled opposite the lean.
  
• 1350-1372: The belfry is added, also angled to counteract the lean.
  
• 1550: The base is reinforced to counteract the slow fall. To some extent this is successful.
  
• 1838: Ground water is pumped out. The intention is to further stabilize the base, but the result is an accelerated rate of fall.
  
• 1990: Thirty million dollars is spent to stabilize the tower. A 600 ton counterweight is added with little effect. The breakthrough comes when 60 tons of faulty soil is pumped out from under the foundation.
  

As an engineer, I have to say that back in 1272 somebody should have said: "Let’s start over".

(Marketing people disagree: If the Pisans had started over on the tower, Pisa would have lost a unique tourist attraction (there are hundreds of towers that don't lean in Tuscany). But the marketers are speaking from today’s perspective.)

The tower was commissioned to demonstrate the might and power of the Pisan city-state. A crooked tower doesn’t meet that goal, and the original design flaw resulted in exorbitant maintenance costs and Herculean efforts to stave off total collapse.

Why does this sound so familiar?

By visiting Pisa I became aware of a bond between Renaissance engineers and myself (and my peers) that I had not imagined before:

• Renaissance engineers were asked (or forced) to build on foundations that they knew were flawed
  
• Renaissance engineers had to deal with "legacy systems"
  
• Renaissance engineers had to implement "quick-fixes" that made the original problem worse
  
• Renaissance engineers had to expend great effort over many years to patch and maintain defective projects (instead of starting over)
  

Renaissance engineers would find some aspects of today’s IT workplace very familiar.

Let’s face it; engineers will always be in a tough spot between the demands of their customers and “doing the right thing”. I’m sure that at least some of the Pisan engineers wanted to start over as soon as the lean started; I’ll bet that some of them were worried sick before the foundation was even begun. The Field of Miracles is a lousy building site, and they knew it. But what could they really do? The client said "build it here", and probably balked at the cost of the foundation. Why spend good money on a part of the building that nobody would ever see?

So as an engineer, what do you do when asked to "build on a lousy site"?

Many times I have told my clients that they were nuts. On most occasions I have convinced clients that their objectives could be met in a better way. Other times, I ended up looking for another job. I’m sure that I "just did what I was told" a few times, but not often; I have the luxury of living in a time and place where changing jobs is fairly easy. I don’t think my Renaissance compatriots were as lucky.

On a more positive note, despite the flaws and frustrations, all of the engineers who worked on the Leaning Tower will be remembered as contributing to something truly special. As an engineer I see flaws, but as a "normal" human being what I see is a truly unique and memorable piece of architecture.

I hope that someday something that I have worked on becomes as significant as Pisa’s tower.

I also hope that some day customers will stop asking engineers to build on lousy sites… but I’m not going to bet on that wish coming true.

Turning clicks into customers

If you're like most advertisers I've talked to, I'll bet you're looking for pre-qualified customers - in other words, people who are actively looking for the very thing you've got to offer.

Here's a short quiz that hints at the secret of attracting these customers:

Given a choice between the two potential customers below, who would you rather have click on your ad?

• User #1: someone who has searched for something only slightly related to what you offer, and who clicked on your ad in the hopes that you might have it.
  
  
• User #2: someone who searched for exactly what you have to offer, and who clicked on your ad because they're certain you have it.
  

If you chose User #2, then you'll be happy to know that AdWords gives you the control you need to reach this potential customer. Here's the simple secret:

Make sure that you create highly targeted Ad Groups. What are those? Well, a targeted Ad Group is simply a carefully chosen list of specific keywords, all regarding a particular something that you wish to advertise, combined with a crisp, specific, and well written ad about the very same thing.

When you advertise in this targeted way, users searching on one of your keywords will see an ad about the exact same thing they've just searched for. And when they click on your ad, they effectively arrive at your site as a pre-qualified customer; they're already interested in exactly what you have to offer.

Want more tips like this? Take a look at the Optimization Tips page in the AdWords Help Center.

Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew

Please plan ahead...

Another update, straight from the tech team:

On June 24, 2005, advertisers will be unable to login to their AdWords accounts from approximately 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. PDT [?] due to system maintenance. Please rest assured that your campaigns will continue to run normally during this short downtime, and we apologize for any inconvenience.

Posted by Jon, Inside AdWords crew

Food for thought

You’ve heard us mention the AdWords API a couple of times on this blog, but today you’ll hear about it straight from the horse’s mouth. Here are a few words from Rohit D., our guest blogger and Product Manager for the AdWords API:

The AdWords API is our way of opening up AdWords to the world. Using the API, developers and advertisers can write creative applications to manage their accounts. I like to think of it this way: if the AdWords online interface were a finely prepared meal, then the AdWords API would be all the raw ingredients. Instead of serving the meal to you directly, we’re letting you go in the kitchen to prepare it your own way.

Since late January, developers around the world have been programming amazing applications with the API. Googlers are also using the API to create tools to automate some of their work. We’ve seen large customers improve their productivity when handling hefty keyword lists, and smaller advertisers who have increased their ROI through more efficient bid management. We heard about one customer who sells tiramisu in the UK and how she used the API to change her bids as her product got closer to its expiration date and her inventory levels dropped. Other customers have hired third party developers to use the SOAP-based API for reporting purposes; one example is automating the process of importing AdWords campaign reports into financial management systems. You’ll find more of these success stories and active discussions on our developer forum.

The API certainly isn’t for everyone, but if you have the technical resources to write even a simple program to automate some of your campaign management tasks, be sure to check it out. You can also read more about the API at our blog.

Posted by Vivian, Inside AdWords crew

The name game

A longtime AdWords Specialist by the name of Annie kindly provides us with today's easy (and useful!) tip:

If you have multiple campaigns with riveting (yet unrevealing) titles such as "Campaign #1", "Campaign #7," and "Campaign #23", then consider renaming your campaigns to describe the Ad Groups they contain.

If you do this, you'll save time that might otherwise be spent searching for your "teddy bear" ads in a couple of dozen numbered campaigns.

Want to quickly change "Campaign #17" into "All Stuffed Animals"? Then just visit the appropriate "Edit Campaign Settings" page. Once there, it'll only take you a moment or two.

It's easy and effective!

Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew>

Targeting in a whole new way

Today, we introduced Site Targeting. Here are the details from Bismarck on the Product team:

AdWords text ads can be incredibly effective, but we're constantly searching for ways to make them better, both for users and for you. We're pulling the curtain off of Site Targeting, a new set of features that will help you reach prospects in a whole new way. Here's what you can now do with AdWords:

Target Sites (Not just Keywords)
Now, you can select specific content sites where you want your ads to show. This will allow you to precisely communicate with those individuals who are most likely to be interested in your offerings.

Get Creative
Within site-targeted campaigns, you can use not only text and image ad formats, but also animated image ads.

Make an Impression
Site-targeted campaigns allow you to bid for placement on a CPM (cost-per-thousand-impressions) basis. These ads will compete in the same auction with CPC (cost-per-click) ads.

The effect of all these features is clear: we're giving you more control over your campaigns and allowing you to do more with AdWords. Interested? Find out how to get started with Site Targeting.

Posted by Jon, Inside AdWords crew

Some Feedback About Feedback...

I'm glad some of you are taking advantage of the "Got a question or comment about Inside AdWords? Send us an email" link over there on the right hand side of the page. We really do want to hear what you have to say about our new blog, and have enjoyed your comments. Keep 'em coming!

On a related subject, more than one person has taken the opportunity to use that link to provide feedback about the AdWords program itself. And while we're delighted to get your feedback about AdWords, a much better place to send that type of message is adwords-feedback@google.com. While the email sent to this address is not ordinarily replied to, it is certainly read every business day, and then forwarded to the most appropriate teams for review. It's actually a great way to make sure that your feedback will be heard by the right people within Google.

And for questions regarding particular AdWords accounts--well, of course the very best way to reach us is by using the "Contact Us" link from within the account itself.

P.S. to G.J.D., who wrote in with comments and questions about the AdWords API:

G.J.D., you'll probably be glad to hear that there is a blog devoted solely to the AdWords API, which is cleverly named the "AdWords API Blog". (We really have a knack for this naming thing, don't we?) You'll find it here.

In addition, there's an active forum for developers on Google Groups that focuses entirely on the AdWords API. (It also is rather stylishly named, as the "AdWords API Forum".) I'm sure the forum's 500+ members would be very happy to have you aboard.

Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew

Put Your Business on the Map

A bunch of you have been signing up to use local targeting for your ads, which helps you drive traffic based on region and language. To help you direct more of this targeted traffic to your website, we also wanted to let you know about a related free service. We've asked Samantha, from the Product Team on Local services, to tell you more:

Everyone should check to see if their business is listed correctly on Google. To find out, visit Google Local or Google Maps and search for your business. If you find anything you'd like to change, you can add or update your business information at the Google Local Business Center. This way, when someone's looking for you on Google Local or Google Maps, they'll be able to get accurate, up-to-date information.

And an important note: Google Local listings and AdWords display separate business information, so you should review your Google Local listing even if you know your AdWords account information is correct.

Posted by Jon, Inside AdWords crew

When Your Ads Need a Vacation Too...

As summer approaches and vacation time looms pleasantly on the horizon, many advertisers wonder if they can pause their ads if they're gone and can't fill orders for a long-ish time. And if so, for how long? A week? A month? A year?

Well, the answers, in the order asked, are: "Yes", "For as long as you wish", "Yes", "Yes", and "Yes, but isn't that a rather long vacation!?"

It's very simple to pause your campaigns, and there is no time limit involved at all. (Although we certainly wish that you'd come back sooner rather than later, because it's nice to have your business.)

Since advertisers often ask in their emails, I'll also mention that there is no charge to either pause one's ads or to resume them after one returns from that arduous month on the beach.

Vacation. A tough job, but somebody's got to do it.

Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew

AdWords Update - 6/7/05

We've got a bunch of new features for you to try out this week:

• New sign-up wizard - a simplified process for you to add new campaigns or Ad Groups to your account and for new advertisers to sign up for AdWords.
  
• Updated Learning Center - participants of our Google Advertising Professionals program know that this is the place to find in-depth lessons on every aspect of AdWords. Now you'll find text-based lessons in addition to the current Flash presentations.
• Find / Edit Ad Text Tool - locate and edit your ads across multiple campaigns quickly and easily. You can find it in the 'Tools' section of your AdWords account.
  

Posted by Vivian, Inside AdWords crew

Content with Content?

Today's tip, from Chris O., an AdWords specialist, can help you keep better track of the results you're getting from AdWords ads on the content network:

If you are using your web server logs to help you track your clicks and referrers, add tracking code to your destination URLs to help you identify which clicks are coming from Google AdWords. For example:
www.yoursite.com?referrer={ifsearch:GoogleAdWordsSearch}{ifcontent:GoogleAdWordsContent}
If that sounds like an alien language to you, then we'll tell you lots more here.

Posted by Andrew, Inside AdWords crew

Where Are My Ads?

One of the questions most frequently asked of our support team goes something like this:

"Would you please tell me why I can't see my ad from the "Friendly Tapir" campaign? I think I've set everything up correctly, and I still have budget left for the day. So why is my ad not appearing?"

The most common reason that your ad may not appear every time you search for it is that your budget is lower than the recommended amount. For any given list of keywords within a campaign, the AdWords system will recommend a daily budget to you. You can use our recommendation as a guideline to set your daily budget so that your ads will appear for the greatest number of relevant searches possible. For example, if there are $100 a day worth of clicks out there for your ad and you set your budget to $75 a day, your ad will appear in about 3 out of 4 relevant searches. Since the AdWords system spreads out ad delivery throughout the day, your ad may not appear every single time you do a search with your keywords, even if you still have budget left for the day. If you want to edit your daily budget, here's how.

If your daily budget turns out not to be the issue after all, you may want to check out the Ads Diagnostic Tool. This tool provides you with a possible reason why your ad may not be appearing. It will also provide a recommendation to help you get your ad up and running, so be sure to give it a try. A little tidbit of Google trivia for those who are interested: when we were developing this tool, some people started calling it ‘WAASUP?’, which stood for ‘Why Aren’t Ads Showing UP?'

P.S. For those of you wondering what a Tapir is: when I was a kid begging for my first pet, it was the only one my dad would let me have. Let’s just say I didn’t want a pet for long…

Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew