New AdWords Conflicting Negatives Tool
TweetIf you have a Google rep, you may know of the Conflicting Negative Keyword Report. It is an invaluable report that they can run for you, that basically matches up your negative keywords with your positive keywords and makes sure that none of the negatives conflict (block traffic) to your positive keywords. I recently discovered that one of my accounts had a new feature enabled. A simple alert read, “Negative keywords blocking targeted keywords”. Bing has a report like this in their UI, and it’s pretty good. But it is a report that you need to download and then take later action. The new AdWords feature allows you to make changes directly in the UI! Plus it gives you an alert if it finds conflicting negatives, rather than waiting until you run the report. The Conflicting Negative Keyword Tool was only displaying in 1 of my accounts. It wasn’t even the largest account, so this seems like a somewhat random beta. I manage about 10 accounts, so I’m sure it was a very small roll-out. The alert is similar to any typical AdWords UI: The interface is easy to use and you can make quick work of fixing your conflicts. *Don’t just take an axe to your negatives by trusting the suggestions though! The negatives were put there for a reason. This is more of a double-check to make sure you negatives are blocking traffic for the proper campaigns. Conflicting Negative Keywords Feature Interface *UPDATE: I no longer see the interface in my account. According to my rep, the feature wasn’t known to be rolled out publicly yet. So I must have seen an Alpha release. Luckily I used it to fix a few small issues, and got the screenshots in time. *UPDATE 2 – Friday 10/12/12 – Negative alerts are now in All of my accounts! This includes even more alerts than before. In addition to Negative KW, it shows AdGroups With No Ads, Not Running in Network Selected because…, Campaigns with No AdGroups, AdGroups with No Ads. *The last alerts were for a special campaign which is setup correctly, but still triggered the new alerts. Hopefully this rolls out in the very near future. It was great while it lasted. I think this makes sense for Google, because of course they don’t want you blocking traffic/clicks (REVENUE). And it is a Big help to advertisers. Keep your eyes open and...
Read MoreUpgraded AdWords Sitelinks – Analytics & AdGroup Control
TweetIn a small release Alpha product, Google has upgraded their AdWords sitelinks in an amazing way! We FINALLY get to see individual sitelink data and analytics. Something many search marketing professionals have asked for over the past few years. We can finally stop finding workarounds to fix the tracking issue. Yes, it was an issue. Rather than your Google rep continuously telling you that Sitelinks increase overall CTR, you can actually see the impact! Now…this is an Alpha product, so not everyone will get it. And I would normally get in trouble for telling you about an AdWords Alpha release, but there is...
Read MoreGoogle Calculator Upgrade in Search
Again with the knowledge graph…I keep being blown away by the fun and functional instant answers that Google gives us. The Google Bacon Number calculator was an amazing time waster last week – but very cool. A more useful update to the standard calculator feature in Google. Previously, if you typed an equation into Google such as: 2+6 or 18/6, you would simply get the answer in bold black text under the search box. It was great. But it was missing functionality. NOW – you get the same back-end mathematics function, but a much nicer front-end experience. In addition to getting the answer to your question, you get a fully functional calculator to use – right in Google. You can now expand upon your equation, or go into anther calculation right on the page. *Bonus tip: Once the initial equation is done, you can keep adding onto it with your number pad! Just keep typing from your number tab and the page will seamlessly refresh with the updated equation and...
Read MoreI Just Reduced Head Term CPCs by 93%
TweetI work in one of the most competitive PPC markets. (period) While Education paid search may get less attention than Insurance or Banking for cutthroat tactics and out of this world CPCs, it truly is one of the most expensive and competitive markets out there. Moving from B2B, then to Retail Electronics, and now to Education has truly been an eye opener in the world of cost per click. CPCs range from the mid teens up into the $50 range on a normal day. Certain head terms can easily reach the $60 mark with bids to even get an impression at over $100. So how did I reduce a HEAD TERM CPC by over 90%?! Easy. I found a corner of the Internet that no one was standing in; Google Image Search! That’s right, Image Search for head terms. Until recently, your standard AdWords campaign would display within most properties in Google; Search, News, Images, etc. Google introduced a new Image Search layout a short time ago, and with that came a new image search ad format. This left and extreme amount of companies and agencies in the AdWords marketplace NOT bidding on terms in Image Search! Thanks for the private auction, Google. In a space where very few people are playing, until this article is read, competition is almost nonexistent. I managed to create a few campaigns to cover brand and some very expensive head terms. WAIT…now before you say, “C’mon man, image search ads were tested in 2008!”, realize that this rolled out somewhat recently. Tests are always happening, but this is now out there for everyone. And I do realize some retailers are already doing this, but No One in the edu space has touched it…until now. Have you checked the competition in your vertical? WAIT AGAIN…what does this do for leads or conversions? Not a lot, but the incremental leads gained are just that. It’s a space where we were not present and now we are. It’s also very good visibility (think display) to our brand. For the price, you can’t beat it. (until it gets more competitive) OK Proceed… The head terms in which I am getting traffic for from Image Search is extremely valuable from a branding and upper-funnel standpoint. After a few days of trafficking, I realized a 93% reduction in CPCs for head terms. It was truly an amazing outcome. Google...
Read MoreGoogle Knowledge Graph in Action
TweetGoogle Knowledge Graph in Action I LOVE the Google Knowledge Graph, and you should too. It is becoming more and more woven into our everyday searches. You may have noticed it when searching for proper names or places. When you search a proper name, place or well-known fact, you get info on the right side of the search that saves the user at least one click. Google Knowledge Graph information I recently came across Slogans being indexed as a knowledge graph, which was exactly what I needed to find last week. I was trying to think of a joke about “Have it Your Way”, after the photo of a Burger King employee standing in lettuce leaked. Brand Slogan Example: • Adidas • TNT • Burger King People Example: • Ashton Kutcher • Brett Favre • Michelangelo Place Example: • The Louvre • Mall of America • Willis Tower...
Read MoreNew Flexible Reach AdWords GDN Setting
I stumbled across an unannounced new AdWords GDN setting in one my my client accounts; it’s called Flexible Reach. It’s all a bit complicated when it comes to the Google Display Network, so below are the options you have within AdWords. Specific reach: Show ads only on pages that match all my targeting methods With this setting, your ad appears only when all your selected targeting methods match. The bid of the most specific targeting method is used. For example, if you have keywords and placements, your ad appears on those sites only when the pages also contain keywords you’ve selected. The placement bid (most specific bid) is used. Broad reach: Show ads on pages that match my primary targeting methodWith this setting, your ad appears when your primary targeting method matches. If you have more than one targeting method, the bid of the most specific targeting method is used.For example, if you have keywords and placements, the ad appears wherever the keywords (primary targeting method) match. When the keywords and placements match, the placement bid (most specific bid) is used. Flexible reach (NEW) Fine-tune where your ads show by choosing your settings at the ad group level instead of the campaign level. This will give you more control over where your ads appear and who sees them.Once you’ve selected this option, you can choose to use your targeting methods (such as placements or topics) for targeting your ads or for bidding only. For new campaigns: This change will apply to all your ad groups. For existing campaigns: Your existing ad groups will keep your existing campaign setting (“Broad reach” or “Specific reach”), as long as you don’t add or delete targeting methods. If you make any changes to your targeting methods, the ad group will start using the new flexible reach setting. All your new ad groups will have the flexible reach setting by default. Refer to the Google help file if you need more info on the new Flexible Reach GDN option *Let me know if you have tested this new option and have any findings to share. I would be interested to hear about creative implementations of the new targeting option. It appears to really open up the possibilities to customize targeting on a more granular level than before. This leads me to believe that AdGroup budgets are just around the corner. Happy...
Read More
