Over the past few months, we've written several posts about site targeting, but given the questions we've received, we thought this might be a good time to review the details of site targeting, what it means for you as an AdSense publisher, and how site-targeted ad campaigns fit into the AdSense model.
First, a bare-bones explanation of the program. Using site targeting, AdWords advertisers can enter their CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions) ad directly into their site's ad auction. That CPM ad will compete against the CPC (cost-per-click) ads in the auction -- and if it wins, it will run in place of the CPC ads that would have otherwise appeared. As an AdSense publisher, you get paid for each impression on that ad, rather than for each click.
So what does this mean? It means AdWords advertisers and AdSense publishers can connect in a way not previously possible. AdSense publishers can now offer advertisers the opportunity to bid directly on their site through Onsite Advertiser Sign-up, and advertisers can pull up a list of sites in the content network, large or small, that falls under any vertical or content theme. Advertisers and publishers of all sizes can find each other in the same virtual forum.
Site targeting also means more money for you. Period. If a site-targeted ad (text or image) appears on your site, it means that that ad is paying you more than any CPC ad that would appear in that ad unit. Many publishers have seen dramatic revenue increases as a result of these site-targeted ads appearing on their pages.
Some of you have asked, "How is an ad for an off-road vehicle targeted to my pages about hiking?" Excellent question! Contextual targeting, or targeting the text on your site (the primary targeting mechanism of AdSense), is only one form of targeting. With the launch of the site targeting program, advertisers can select sites that are relevant to their prospective visitors, thereby targeting an audience, not just content. So although the ad campaign may not be targeted directly to your site's content, it will be relevant to the specific or general interests of your readers. AdSense has always been, and will always remain, a targeted advertising system -- we're just implementing new targeting approaches to help you monetize.
Some advertisers target many AdSense sites to reach a broad set of users and interests. Others use site targeting campaigns to target only a handful of sites and a very specific interest niche. And many fall in between these two. Regardless of the level of reach, site targeting campaigns all work to provide higher network CPMs, effective monetization, and fresh, dynamic content rolling through our system.
Remember, you maintain control over the types of ads that are appearing on your pages. So if you ever see an ad on your site that you'd rather not show, simply add the destination URL of the ad to your competitive filter list, and with a snap of our fingers (well, ok, it might take a little longer than that -- but no more than 5 hours), the ad will stop appearing. Your filter list works for both keyword-targeted and site-targeted ads.
We really appreciate all of your feedback about these campaigns. We say this a lot, but it's true: we take your comments very seriously. Never hesitate to send them to us.
Here's to a safe and happy New Year, from all of us here at AdSense.
UPDATED with accurate waiting time
Friday, December 30, 2005
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Site maintenance this Friday
While many of you may be on vacation this week, some of our engineers are working hard to ensure the performance and stability of AdSense. Occasionally this means taking down the main AdSense site (http://www.google.com/adsense) for updates. At 8PM PST this Friday (12/30), it will be unavailable for up to 6 hours while we complete some engineering work. Of course, all your AdSense ads will still serve properly and all your stats and earnings will be recorded as usual. We'll bring the site back up as soon as we can.
In the meantime, we hope you have a happy and high-earning new year!
Season's greetings!
In the meantime, we hope you have a happy and high-earning new year!
Season's greetings!
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
AdSense fan mail 1
To celebrate the holiday season, we thought we would share with you some of the letters we have received from publishers. Here is one from Germany:
We really appreciate hearing from publishers, and of course are very glad when they're happy as this publisher is. But whether your experience is positive or not, we want to hear from you too. Email us here.
| We greatly appreciate your service and feel deeply honoured to be playing amongst Google's Top Leagues now - for us it really is an honour. The whole team here is enthusiastic and motivated to optimise AdSense earnings based on your recommendations as soon as possible. Last year your AdSense program saved us from being taken over by a competitor - we will never forget that. -moonchild media AG (Germany) |
We really appreciate hearing from publishers, and of course are very glad when they're happy as this publisher is. But whether your experience is positive or not, we want to hear from you too. Email us here.
Thursday, December 22, 2005
What's a webinar again?
We're always looking into better ways to communicate with you to help you get the most of AdSense. So on Wednesday, December 21st we held a webinar to provide an overview of some recently launched AdSense features including Onsite Advertiser Sign-up, referrals, section targeting, themed ad units, and custom and emailable reports. We also discuss each in our previous blog posts -- feel free to browse through these.
Satya Patel from product management, Mohammed Abdoolcarim from product marketing, and Phoebe Ho from account management were on hand to provide information about their areas of expertise. Their presentations concluded with a live Q&A session you might also find useful.
If you missed it, be sure to watch a recorded version of the New Features Webinar here (Firefox users, you will need to view this in Internet Explorer).
Satya Patel from product management, Mohammed Abdoolcarim from product marketing, and Phoebe Ho from account management were on hand to provide information about their areas of expertise. Their presentations concluded with a live Q&A session you might also find useful.
If you missed it, be sure to watch a recorded version of the New Features Webinar here (Firefox users, you will need to view this in Internet Explorer).
Something for the holidays...
As 2005 comes to an end, businesses close out their books, people start making New Year’s resolutions, and AdWords advertisers like yourselves start planning for 2006. To help you review this past year’s campaign performance, we’d like to remind you of the handy tools available in the Report Center. To drill down on specific metrics, try generating a custom report for the past year, 6 months, or whatever date range you specify.
Here at Inside AdWords, we’re also doing our own annual review of sorts – reading over your emails and the topics we’ve covered in our inaugural year in order to plan for 2006. We’re taking a bit of a break for the holidays (and hope that you’ll do the same), but we’ll be back after the New Year with more tips, insights and otherwise interesting AdWords tidbits to share.
Happy Holidays and see you in ’06!
Here at Inside AdWords, we’re also doing our own annual review of sorts – reading over your emails and the topics we’ve covered in our inaugural year in order to plan for 2006. We’re taking a bit of a break for the holidays (and hope that you’ll do the same), but we’ll be back after the New Year with more tips, insights and otherwise interesting AdWords tidbits to share.
Happy Holidays and see you in ’06!
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Introducing themed ad units
There's a long history at Google of creating a variety of logos, or Google doodles, to commemorate holidays and special events. Now, publishers of sites in the content network have the option to display themed ad units for various celebrations as well.
And with the holiday season officially upon us, AdSense publishers who've opted into this feature will begin showing ad units adorned with holiday packages and polar bears like the ones below.
Just like the Google homepage logos, these themed ad units are temporary -- this particular version will only appear today through December 26 -- but the AdSense team is already planning designs that celebrate more holidays and events around the world for next year.
And with the holiday season officially upon us, AdSense publishers who've opted into this feature will begin showing ad units adorned with holiday packages and polar bears like the ones below.
Just like the Google homepage logos, these themed ad units are temporary -- this particular version will only appear today through December 26 -- but the AdSense team is already planning designs that celebrate more holidays and events around the world for next year.
Flair for your ad units
Are your artistic talents limited to crayon drawings of stick figures? Good, looks like I'm not the only one. For those of us who peaked at a seven-year-old skill level, here's a holiday gift from a true artist: Google's Dennis Hwang.
Our new themed ad units incorporate elements from past Google logos created by Dennis, to give your pages a little extra flair during various holidays and special events. You can enable or disable themed ad units by logging into your account, visiting the My Account tab, and scrolling down to the Ad Type Preference section to click 'edit.' Check or uncheck the box marked 'enable themed ad units when available' - any changes you make will take effect within 24 hours.
If you've enabled themed ad units, users who visit your site may see themed ad units that are relevant to their geographic location (as determined by user IP address) and the date or season. Depending on your location, you should see the seasonally themed ad units for the winter holidays start appearing on your site soon and remain until December 26th. Here comes one now.
Happy holidays, everyone.
Our new themed ad units incorporate elements from past Google logos created by Dennis, to give your pages a little extra flair during various holidays and special events. You can enable or disable themed ad units by logging into your account, visiting the My Account tab, and scrolling down to the Ad Type Preference section to click 'edit.' Check or uncheck the box marked 'enable themed ad units when available' - any changes you make will take effect within 24 hours.
If you've enabled themed ad units, users who visit your site may see themed ad units that are relevant to their geographic location (as determined by user IP address) and the date or season. Depending on your location, you should see the seasonally themed ad units for the winter holidays start appearing on your site soon and remain until December 26th. Here comes one now.
Happy holidays, everyone.
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Showing ads on Google properties
Especially around the last minute holiday crunch, advertisers are often looking to maximize their ads' exposure to targeted audiences. To that end, they often contact our friends over in AdWords support to ask how their ads can appear on other Google properties, like Froogle and Groups.
Well, it's simple: the Google search network not only includes partner sites, but many of Google's own properties as well. And as long as your campaigns' distribution preferences includes our search network, they're eligible to appear for searches on Froogle, Local, Book Search, and Groups.
In addition to these Google sites showing keyword-targeted search ads, your ads can also appear alongside the content of books on Google Book Search and related to discussions in Groups and Gmail as long as your campaigns are opted into appearing on the content network. These contextually targeted ads work the same way as ads on content pages across the web -- the keywords you provide in your campaigns are automatically matched with the content of books, postings, or emails on Google's pages, and the ads which most closely match the subject at hand are eligible to show.
As always, the goal is to provide users with useful, relevant ads, whether they're browsing books, looking for the local dry cleaners, shopping for holiday gifts, or checking their email with Google.
Well, it's simple: the Google search network not only includes partner sites, but many of Google's own properties as well. And as long as your campaigns' distribution preferences includes our search network, they're eligible to appear for searches on Froogle, Local, Book Search, and Groups.
In addition to these Google sites showing keyword-targeted search ads, your ads can also appear alongside the content of books on Google Book Search and related to discussions in Groups and Gmail as long as your campaigns are opted into appearing on the content network. These contextually targeted ads work the same way as ads on content pages across the web -- the keywords you provide in your campaigns are automatically matched with the content of books, postings, or emails on Google's pages, and the ads which most closely match the subject at hand are eligible to show.
As always, the goal is to provide users with useful, relevant ads, whether they're browsing books, looking for the local dry cleaners, shopping for holiday gifts, or checking their email with Google.
A note from AdWords regarding your site-targeting concerns
When we launched site-targeting in June, we created a new way for AdWords advertisers and AdSense publishers to benefit from each other. Advertisers use the Site Tool, a site-targeting feature, to choose specific sites from the Google content network on which to place their ads. This makes it possible for advertisers to spend more of their marketing budgets on specific sites. For publishers, it's a great way to increase coverage and eCPMs.
Many publishers have asked why we decided to lower the minimum CPM bid required for advertisers to run site-targeted campaigns. As you know, we're constantly working to improve the experience for our users, advertisers and publishers. To this end, the lowered minimum CPM for site-targeted ads allows advertisers to more accurately price their ad placements on a wider variety of sites.
Sounds like a bad deal for publishers, right? It's not. By lowering the minimum CPM we've increased adoption of the product and competition for placements on your site(s). This leads to higher payouts and better coverage. Remember, CPC and CPM ads compete against each other to display on your site, and we'll only show the ads with the highest eCPM. So you can be assured that increased competition will only help you improve monetization of your site.
Many publishers have asked why we decided to lower the minimum CPM bid required for advertisers to run site-targeted campaigns. As you know, we're constantly working to improve the experience for our users, advertisers and publishers. To this end, the lowered minimum CPM for site-targeted ads allows advertisers to more accurately price their ad placements on a wider variety of sites.
Sounds like a bad deal for publishers, right? It's not. By lowering the minimum CPM we've increased adoption of the product and competition for placements on your site(s). This leads to higher payouts and better coverage. Remember, CPC and CPM ads compete against each other to display on your site, and we'll only show the ads with the highest eCPM. So you can be assured that increased competition will only help you improve monetization of your site.
Monday, December 19, 2005
Get more information on the content network
It's been a big year for the Google content network. In the past few months, we've written about site targeting, site exclusion, and, most recently, content bids. Now we'd like to introduce a new resource page that gives you additional information about the network and its features. Here, you can learn how many unique users you'll reach through the content network or check out a selection of our partners.
Intrigued? Take our content network quiz below. If you don't know the answers, you can find them on the site (though we'll also point you in the right direction).
1) In how many different ad formats can you show your ads across the content network?
2) If you target the United States, how many unique internet users will you reach through the content network?
3) Name two of our partner sites who specialize in news.
Once you've found the answers to the questions above, try our new Optimization Demo, which is also located on the site. It will give you tips for setting up your content campaigns and help you maximize your ad's potential.
Intrigued? Take our content network quiz below. If you don't know the answers, you can find them on the site (though we'll also point you in the right direction).
1) In how many different ad formats can you show your ads across the content network?
2) If you target the United States, how many unique internet users will you reach through the content network?
3) Name two of our partner sites who specialize in news.
Once you've found the answers to the questions above, try our new Optimization Demo, which is also located on the site. It will give you tips for setting up your content campaigns and help you maximize your ad's potential.
Friday, December 16, 2005
AdWords success in 25 words or less -- Part 3
The story so far: back in October we invited our readers to summarize AdWords success in 25 words or less. We got quite a number of responses and published a few of them later that same month.
Today we have our latest installment, which starts out with a witty observation from Richard R., who writes:
Here are 25 words from James F.:
And an efficient 20 words, submitted by Randy M.:
And lastly (for today at least), six key points in 24 words, sent to us by Lisa H.:
Feeling inspired? Send us your 25 words or less, and we may publish your tips for success in a future post.
Today we have our latest installment, which starts out with a witty observation from Richard R., who writes:
Just realized that the whole notion of writing ads that are 25-35 characters is a new form of Haiku! Dare I say it?: Google-ku!
Here are 25 words from James F.:
Understanding what the searcher is looking for and giving it to them in the most efficient way from keyword selection through to landing page content.
And an efficient 20 words, submitted by Randy M.:
Focus on converting clicks into sales via a great landing page. Track your conversion rate by ad copy and keyword.
And lastly (for today at least), six key points in 24 words, sent to us by Lisa H.:
1. Relative keywords for your site
2. Specific keywords -- not general ones
3. Landing page with keyword item
4. Good positioning of ads
5. Relevant negative keywords
6. Measure results
Feeling inspired? Send us your 25 words or less, and we may publish your tips for success in a future post.
Out of the box and in your inbox
In our continuing efforts to find a cure for G.A.S.S., we now enable publishers to have your AdSense stats emailed directly to the recipient of your choice. Daily, weekly, or monthly relief from G.A.S.S. is just a few easy steps away:
Step 1: On your "Report Manager" page, under your Reports tab, choose a custom report from the list. (If there aren't any listed, create a new custom report with the settings you want.)
Step 2: Select the frequency, recipient, and format of email reports from the dropdowns. To add a new recipient, click "edit addresses" and enter a new email address.
Step 3: Click "Save changes" to schedule your report for mailing.
We hope this new feature will provide you with the freedom to be away from your AdSense account. There's a whole world outside your AdSense account - one that you can explore for new content for your site. ;)
Step 1: On your "Report Manager" page, under your Reports tab, choose a custom report from the list. (If there aren't any listed, create a new custom report with the settings you want.)
Step 2: Select the frequency, recipient, and format of email reports from the dropdowns. To add a new recipient, click "edit addresses" and enter a new email address.
Step 3: Click "Save changes" to schedule your report for mailing.
We hope this new feature will provide you with the freedom to be away from your AdSense account. There's a whole world outside your AdSense account - one that you can explore for new content for your site. ;)
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Advertising on specific sites just got easier
Have you ever found yourself browsing content on a particular site and realized that it would be the perfect place to promote your product? Perhaps you even logged in to your AdWords account to add this site to your site-targeted campaign. Now, with Onsite Advertiser Sign-Up, we've made this process even easier.
The next time you see AdWords ads on a site that you'd like to target, look for the 'Advertise on this site' link in the ad unit. After clicking that link, you'll be taken to a page that provides additional information about the site and allows you to log in to your existing AdWords account. Upon logging in, you'll simply complete the three step site-targeted campaign creation wizard, and your ads will be eligible to run on that site. Easy, right?
So, remember to keep your eyes open when you're surfing the web, you might just find another great advertising opportunity.
The next time you see AdWords ads on a site that you'd like to target, look for the 'Advertise on this site' link in the ad unit. After clicking that link, you'll be taken to a page that provides additional information about the site and allows you to log in to your existing AdWords account. Upon logging in, you'll simply complete the three step site-targeted campaign creation wizard, and your ads will be eligible to run on that site. Easy, right?
So, remember to keep your eyes open when you're surfing the web, you might just find another great advertising opportunity.
The search for a better search box
Publishers have told us they want more control over the look and feel of the AdSense for search box, and we've listened. There's a new search query box in town - check out your AdSense for search tab to design your very own.
What's changed? First, we cleaned up the design a bit to make it smaller and more compact, allowing you to set the logo position and search box length to best fit your site design. Plus, we've added the "'Google Search' on button" logo option, which enables you to select from a number of different background colors or enter any HTML code to match the color of your site. All these changes add up to enhanced customization and flexibility.
You've asked us, "Why can't Google just let us edit the text and design any query box we want?" While we're always looking to give publishers more customization options, we also feel that consistency in how our code is used and how the Google logo is displayed is good for the long-term integrity of the Adsense program. Rest assured that we're constantly working to provide more options, whether it's improved reporting, more creative styles, or a redesigned search box.
What's changed? First, we cleaned up the design a bit to make it smaller and more compact, allowing you to set the logo position and search box length to best fit your site design. Plus, we've added the "'Google Search' on button" logo option, which enables you to select from a number of different background colors or enter any HTML code to match the color of your site. All these changes add up to enhanced customization and flexibility.
You've asked us, "Why can't Google just let us edit the text and design any query box we want?" While we're always looking to give publishers more customization options, we also feel that consistency in how our code is used and how the Google logo is displayed is good for the long-term integrity of the Adsense program. Rest assured that we're constantly working to provide more options, whether it's improved reporting, more creative styles, or a redesigned search box.
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
For faster, more secure payments, try EFT
If you have an AdSense account in one of these countries and territories, we encourage you to sign up for payments by Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). We're working to expand our EFT support, so if payments by EFT aren't currently available for your location, know that we appreciate your patience in the meantime.
If you're new to EFT payments, signing up is easy: in the Payment Details section of the My Account tab, click 'edit' to enter your bank account information, then verify a test deposit we'll make to your bank account. Once your account is verified, you can begin receiving payments more quickly and securely. If you'd like more detailed instructions on signing up, you can find them here.
If you're new to EFT payments, signing up is easy: in the Payment Details section of the My Account tab, click 'edit' to enter your bank account information, then verify a test deposit we'll make to your bank account. Once your account is verified, you can begin receiving payments more quickly and securely. If you'd like more detailed instructions on signing up, you can find them here.
Learn even more about your Google traffic with Sitemaps
This past summer we introduced Google Sitemaps and explained how you can use this feature to submit all of your URLs to the Google index and help improve your visibility in the Google search results. In August, we let you know that we expanded the product to include mobile web pages. And now there's more.
Here's Shaluinn from the Sitemaps team to tell you about the latest release:
Here's Shaluinn from the Sitemaps team to tell you about the latest release:
Google Sitemaps now offers detailed statistics on your top Google search queries, crawl status, and more. These reports show you how Google search is driving free traffic to your site and can help you make your pages more crawler-friendly.
The best part: you can start getting these new stats today. Just create a Sitemaps account and add your site to it. Once you verify site ownership we'll start showing you these detailed reports. You can always add your Sitemap later and, in the meantime, you'll be getting useful feedback on your Google traffic and crawl status for pages already in the index.
Friday, December 9, 2005
Can't see your ad?
The folks on the AdWords support team often hear the question "why can't I see my ad?" If you've ever had this question yourself, you'll probably know that there are a number of reasons why an ad may not be appearing.
To assist advertisers in getting to bottom of 'can't see my ad' mysteries, there are some excellent resources available. One of these, the new "Can't see your ad?" troubleshooting wizard, will walk you through an ordered list of possible reasons why your ad is not showing.
And, of course, the already popular Ads Diagnostic Tool can help you to identify why a particular ad, or group of ads, may not be appearing -- as well as provide tips to get things up and running again.
If you ever find that one of your ads is not running as expected, give these a try.
To assist advertisers in getting to bottom of 'can't see my ad' mysteries, there are some excellent resources available. One of these, the new "Can't see your ad?" troubleshooting wizard, will walk you through an ordered list of possible reasons why your ad is not showing.
And, of course, the already popular Ads Diagnostic Tool can help you to identify why a particular ad, or group of ads, may not be appearing -- as well as provide tips to get things up and running again.
If you ever find that one of your ads is not running as expected, give these a try.
Tipping you off
If you haven't done so already, check out our improved Google AdSense tips page.
While it still offers many classic tips you may be familiar with, our redesigned tips page is now better organized, with more visual examples of optimization in action.
While it still offers many classic tips you may be familiar with, our redesigned tips page is now better organized, with more visual examples of optimization in action.
Thursday, December 8, 2005
Paramount site-targeting AdSense publishers
In a recent BusinessWeek article, "Grabbing The Grassroots" (BusinessWeek, November 21, 2005), David Kiley profiled Paramount Pictures' use of site targeting to reach a specific and relevant audience for three of their films: Hustle & Flow, Four Brothers and Aeon Flux.
Site targeting allowed Paramount to find many smaller, niche sites with users who they felt would have a particular interest in the films. Kiley describes these as "specialized networks of what are often small online sites and blogs," and notes that such sites "increasingly [soak] up Net surfers' attention," -- which means it's more possible than ever to reach an increasingly fragmented audience.
"With Hustle & Flow, Paramount had the ideal test case for this kind of advertising," Kiley explained. "The film is about an aspiring rap singer, specifically a performer of 'crunk,' 'a Dixie-originated hip-hop genre marked by lurching beats and bellowed choruses. Hustle & Flow was a blowout hit at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, but Paramount couldn't count on that industry buzz making it to the grass roots of crunk enthusiasts the movie studio wanted to reach."
By plugging terms like 'crunk', 'Memphis', and the names of some of the movie's stars into Google's Site Tool (a tool that automatically returns a list of sites related specific topics or categories), Paramount was able to identify and advertise on 170 different niche sites.
As the Hustle & Flow example demonstrates, when advertisers want to reach the audience that's most receptive to their message, they're interested in targeting not just the big sites, but content-rich smaller sites as well. To make it easier for advertisers to target ads to smaller sites, AdSense has added features like Onsite Advertiser Sign-up.
Thanks to all our publishers in the AdSense network for creating the kind of content that makes this type of targeted-reach possible for those of us on the advertising side.
Site targeting allowed Paramount to find many smaller, niche sites with users who they felt would have a particular interest in the films. Kiley describes these as "specialized networks of what are often small online sites and blogs," and notes that such sites "increasingly [soak] up Net surfers' attention," -- which means it's more possible than ever to reach an increasingly fragmented audience.
"With Hustle & Flow, Paramount had the ideal test case for this kind of advertising," Kiley explained. "The film is about an aspiring rap singer, specifically a performer of 'crunk,' 'a Dixie-originated hip-hop genre marked by lurching beats and bellowed choruses. Hustle & Flow was a blowout hit at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, but Paramount couldn't count on that industry buzz making it to the grass roots of crunk enthusiasts the movie studio wanted to reach."
By plugging terms like 'crunk', 'Memphis', and the names of some of the movie's stars into Google's Site Tool (a tool that automatically returns a list of sites related specific topics or categories), Paramount was able to identify and advertise on 170 different niche sites.
As the Hustle & Flow example demonstrates, when advertisers want to reach the audience that's most receptive to their message, they're interested in targeting not just the big sites, but content-rich smaller sites as well. To make it easier for advertisers to target ads to smaller sites, AdSense has added features like Onsite Advertiser Sign-up.
Thanks to all our publishers in the AdSense network for creating the kind of content that makes this type of targeted-reach possible for those of us on the advertising side.
A new addition to the Quality Score
In August, we introduced the Quality Score along with the launch of quality-based minimum bids, letting you know that we evaluate many factors, such as your ad text and clickthrough rate (CTR) to determine the minimum bid for your keyword. Today, we started incorporating a new factor into the Quality Score -- the landing page -- which will look at the content and layout of the pages linked from your ads.
Why are we doing this? Simply stated, we always aim to improve our users' experience so that these users (your potential customers) will continue to trust and value AdWords ads. Have you ever searched on a keyword, found an ad that seemed to be exactly what you wanted, and then clicked on it only to find a site that had little to do with what you were searching for? It's not a great experience.
Incorporating landing page assessment into the Quality Score will help us improve the overall advertising experience for users, advertisers and partners by increasing the quality of the sites we present in our ad results.
Advertisers who are providing robust and relevant content will see little change. However, for those who are providing a less positive user experience, the Quality Score may decrease and in turn increase the minimum bid required for the keyword to run. To help define site quality, we've created a general set of website design tips and guidelines that should help you evaluate and optimize your site.
So, take a look at these guidelines and remember that the more valuable and relevant your site is to your user, the more effective your advertising will be -- and the better your chance of converting a click to a customer.
Why are we doing this? Simply stated, we always aim to improve our users' experience so that these users (your potential customers) will continue to trust and value AdWords ads. Have you ever searched on a keyword, found an ad that seemed to be exactly what you wanted, and then clicked on it only to find a site that had little to do with what you were searching for? It's not a great experience.
Incorporating landing page assessment into the Quality Score will help us improve the overall advertising experience for users, advertisers and partners by increasing the quality of the sites we present in our ad results.
Advertisers who are providing robust and relevant content will see little change. However, for those who are providing a less positive user experience, the Quality Score may decrease and in turn increase the minimum bid required for the keyword to run. To help define site quality, we've created a general set of website design tips and guidelines that should help you evaluate and optimize your site.
So, take a look at these guidelines and remember that the more valuable and relevant your site is to your user, the more effective your advertising will be -- and the better your chance of converting a click to a customer.
Wednesday, December 7, 2005
Queries and PageRank and Traffic – oh my!
As you may recall from previous posts, Google Sitemaps and Google Mobile Sitemaps are quick and easy ways for you to submit all your pages to the Google index and help improve your visibility on Google. But did you know that now with Google Sitemaps you can see which Google search queries are driving traffic to your website and what your PageRank distribution is for all your pages in Google? And, to help you make your site more bot-friendly, Sitemaps also shows you which pages returned errors (and which specific errors were returned) when the Googlebot tried to crawl them.
The best part? You don't even have to submit a sitemap to get all these stats - just create a Sitemaps account and add your site to it. Once you verify ownership of the site we'll show you these stats so that while you're working on creating your sitemap, you can already start getting valuable feedback on your Google traffic and crawl status.
The best part? You don't even have to submit a sitemap to get all these stats - just create a Sitemaps account and add your site to it. Once you verify ownership of the site we'll show you these stats so that while you're working on creating your sitemap, you can already start getting valuable feedback on your Google traffic and crawl status.
Another time-saving account management tool
As the year comes to a close and you're starting to plan for 2006, perhaps you're thinking about ways to re-organize your AdWords campaigns. Or maybe you're like many of the advertisers we've heard from who've been requesting more efficient ways to make account-wide changes. Well, you're in luck!
This week, we're giving you another time-saving tool with the newest of our suite of account management tools. This latest addition, Move or copy keywords and ad text, can be found on the Tools page of your account.
Now, on top of making account-wide changes to maximum CPCs, ad text, keywords, and destination URLs, you can search for, select, and move or copy keywords and ad text from one Ad Group to another. It's worth mentioning that when you move components, your account will treat relocated keywords or ad text as new -- so any statistics your keywords or ad text have accrued will not transfer across Ad Groups.
If you've been meaning to move keywords and ad text into a separate promotional campaign, separate your high-traffic keywords to better control campaign budgets, or copy keywords and ad text into separate content Ad Groups, you now have fast and easy way to do this and more.
This week, we're giving you another time-saving tool with the newest of our suite of account management tools. This latest addition, Move or copy keywords and ad text, can be found on the Tools page of your account.
Now, on top of making account-wide changes to maximum CPCs, ad text, keywords, and destination URLs, you can search for, select, and move or copy keywords and ad text from one Ad Group to another. It's worth mentioning that when you move components, your account will treat relocated keywords or ad text as new -- so any statistics your keywords or ad text have accrued will not transfer across Ad Groups.
If you've been meaning to move keywords and ad text into a separate promotional campaign, separate your high-traffic keywords to better control campaign budgets, or copy keywords and ad text into separate content Ad Groups, you now have fast and easy way to do this and more.
Friday, December 2, 2005
Into the blue...
One of the most frequently discussed topics over in the AdWords Help group revolves around getting top placement. Specifically, lots of advertisers wonder how they can have their ad appear "in the blue" above the search results.
Since the evidence suggests that many Inside AdWords readers also participate in the AdWords Help group, our blog seemed like the ideal place to answer the questions for lots of folks at once. So here goes:
Long ago, there did exist a program that allowed advertisers to guarantee the top spots on Google. But in the interest of leveling the playing field, AdWords stopped offering a way to buy these top placements. Today, all ads on Google.com are ranked based on their maximum cost-per-click (CPC) and Quality Score.
While there isn't a way to ensure top placement, there are certainly some best practices that may well help your ads rise to the top. Really, there are no secrets: these are the same best practices that affect the positioning (or ranking) of your AdWords ads wherever they appear, and they also happen to be the same best practices we wrote about just a few days ago.
At the bottom line, highly relevant keywords and ad text, a high CPC, and a strong CTR will result in a higher position for your ad and help you rise "into the blue."
Since the evidence suggests that many Inside AdWords readers also participate in the AdWords Help group, our blog seemed like the ideal place to answer the questions for lots of folks at once. So here goes:
Long ago, there did exist a program that allowed advertisers to guarantee the top spots on Google. But in the interest of leveling the playing field, AdWords stopped offering a way to buy these top placements. Today, all ads on Google.com are ranked based on their maximum cost-per-click (CPC) and Quality Score.
While there isn't a way to ensure top placement, there are certainly some best practices that may well help your ads rise to the top. Really, there are no secrets: these are the same best practices that affect the positioning (or ranking) of your AdWords ads wherever they appear, and they also happen to be the same best practices we wrote about just a few days ago.
At the bottom line, highly relevant keywords and ad text, a high CPC, and a strong CTR will result in a higher position for your ad and help you rise "into the blue."
Thursday, December 1, 2005
‘Dear Inside AdWords…’ – Potpourri
One of my favorite categories on Jeopardy! is “Potpourri” because you never know what you’re going to get. Our inbox also resembles the potpourri category since we get such a wide range of questions from all of you. Today, a few more answers to your questions…
Dear Uma: While it's technically possible to have the same list of keywords in different campaigns, the two campaigns will end up competing with one another in the auction for the same keyword search. For example, if you have the keyword "potpourri" in two campaigns in your account (with different ad text), the AdWords system will use a combination of CPC, CTR, and other relevance factors to pick the best ad to show. The bottom line is that only one ad per account can be displayed for any given keyword search.
Dear Reader: We have just the solution for you. Our friends down the hall on the Blogger team have made it super easy to create your own free blog in just three steps. All you have to do is create a Blogger account, name your blog, choose a template, and off you go. We’ll let them give you the details here.
Dear Prakash: We discussed negative keywords a while ago in a post, but as a quick recap, they are essentially keywords for which you do not want your ads to show. For example, let’s say your store sells flowers, but you do not carry wreaths or plants. You would probably want to choose '-wreaths' and '-plants' as negative keywords so that ads for your store do not show when a user types in these search terms. (The hyphen in front of the word indicates that you want to choose it as a negative keyword.)
Thanks for all your great questions! Keep them coming and we’ll keep answering them here on Inside AdWords.
Can I have the same list of keywords for different campaigns? Both of the campaigns contain different ads. I would like to know if both the ads will get listed for the same keyword. –Uma
Dear Uma: While it's technically possible to have the same list of keywords in different campaigns, the two campaigns will end up competing with one another in the auction for the same keyword search. For example, if you have the keyword "potpourri" in two campaigns in your account (with different ad text), the AdWords system will use a combination of CPC, CTR, and other relevance factors to pick the best ad to show. The bottom line is that only one ad per account can be displayed for any given keyword search.
One of your past posts mentioned creating a blog as a means to communicate with my customers. How do I create a blog? I am not sure how that works. –An Inside AdWords reader
Dear Reader: We have just the solution for you. Our friends down the hall on the Blogger team have made it super easy to create your own free blog in just three steps. All you have to do is create a Blogger account, name your blog, choose a template, and off you go. We’ll let them give you the details here.
Can you please tell me what a negative keyword is? Can you give some examples of them? --Prakash
Dear Prakash: We discussed negative keywords a while ago in a post, but as a quick recap, they are essentially keywords for which you do not want your ads to show. For example, let’s say your store sells flowers, but you do not carry wreaths or plants. You would probably want to choose '-wreaths' and '-plants' as negative keywords so that ads for your store do not show when a user types in these search terms. (The hyphen in front of the word indicates that you want to choose it as a negative keyword.)
Thanks for all your great questions! Keep them coming and we’ll keep answering them here on Inside AdWords.
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