Google AdWords has released an infographic answering the question- how do the travel advertisers prepare for the vacation season. The infographic shows five decision making stages of anyone’s travel plans.

If advertisers can reach their target at any of these stages, then they are most likely to make a sale. What do you think of these stages? Do share your views.

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How Can Advertisers Prepare for the Travel Season – Infographic!

Google has limited the ad rotation in Adwords to 30 days. Google announced that this change will come in effect next week. Once the 30 days are over, the ads will be optimized by AdWords to provide a list of ads doing well (top in converting and getting clicks).

As Google has been quoted, “Instead of rotating creatives for an indefinite period of time, this setting will only rotate for a period of 30 days;  After that, the setting will then optimize to show the ads expected to generate the most clicks.  Every time a creative is enabled or edited, the ads in that ad group will rotate more evenly for a new period of 30 days. This change will be rolling out next week. At that time, ad groups with creatives that haven’t been added or modified in the past thirty days will see this new ad rotation behavior. Otherwise, this change will begin 30 days after your last creative was enabled or edited.”

What has changed?

Earlier AdWords offered three choices for ad rotation: optimize for clicks, optimize for conversions, and rotate evenly. This allowed PPC experts to test extensively new creative and also judge the high performing ads. But now, in its pursuance of quality user experience, Google has pulled the plug on the ‘indefinite’ ad rotation feature, and has limited it to 30 days. This change has been met with disappointment by PPC experts and webmasters.

No more Testing of Ads?

In 2008, Google AdWords had the default setting for ad rotation for AdWords as:

• Optimize for Clicks
• Rotate: Show Ads More Evenly

The Optimize for Clicks option allowed PPC managers to study their metrics and compare easily which version of their Ad performed better, got more clicks, was displayed frequently and why. Then in 2011, Google announced a new AdWords feature ‘Optimize for Conversions’ which showed the ads that were expected to convert more.

Testing is absolutely essential for PPC account managers to know which copy of their ad is doing well. Ads are shown at different times and this allows PPC managers to test ads and know which ad copy is getting the best CTR. But with the new change, the ad managers have not indefinite time, but only 30 days to test each ad.

30 Days too less to run tests and make changes

30 days is too short a time to observe and arrive at accurate conclusions. This time limit has PPC service providers in a fix as they will have to streamline all the campaigns with thousands of ads running to work in a 30 day schedule.

What Road to Take Now?

While we all wait for some solutions to come forward, you can take these steps:

• Work on a less than 30 days ad testing schedule. Set up reminders with your campaigns and get down to rigorous Ad testing.
• AdWords Campaign Experiments can be a help too. These let you run tests on a number of things for up to 3 months per experiment. Use this setting to split test two versions of a campaign at the same time. Benefit from the real-time testing aspect of AdWords Campaign Experiments as it can help lessen the effect of external factors on your tests, such as other sales/marketing initiatives, changes in the competitive landscape, and seasonality fluctuations (by day, week, or month).

Here are some resources from Google to help you understand AdWords Campaign Experiments better:

• Google Official: Set up experiments in ACE
• Google Official: Defining your experimental changes (video)
• Google Official: Monitoring your experiment (video)

Do you have any other suggestions to deal with this limit? Do share them here.

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Google AdWords Restricts New Ad Rotation Limited to 30 Days – What Options Do Marketers Have Now?

Google AdWords has made some tweaks in the Keyword Tool and Traffic Estimator. The standalone Traffic Estimator has been retired and with the Keyword Tool changes, advertisers can now see keyword ideas with themes related to their keyword.

The tool will help you with keyword ideas and you can choose to add ad groups directly to your accounts.  For example, people searching for ‘shoes’ might see an idea for a ‘sports shoe’ group which will have keywords such as- ‘sports shoes for men’. AdWords has also integrated the Keyword Tool with the Traffic Estimator. This allows the advertisers to easily see traffic estimates for the chosen keywords.

The changes made in the Traffic Estimator now require that it will be made available only to advertisers logged into their AdWords accounts. This way, the estimator will use every account’s performance history to show its traffic estimates. Google has also added the ability to graph performance estimates to Traffic Estimators. This allows advertisers to determine the best suited bidding strategy. As per Google, the additional changes made include, “You can now create draft ad groups within the Traffic Estimator and easily view traffic and bid estimates for each of your draft ad groups. When you’re satisfied with your campaign structure, you can add the draft campaign directly to your account.”

This is the next change introduced in AdWords, after the recent updates in the AdWords Quality Score features.

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Google AdWords Updates Keyword Tool And Traffic Estimator!

Google has made two improvements to the AdWords interface so that advertisers can manage their accounts better. The Quality Score for AdWords has had three components added; and account labels have been launched to streamline accounts by easier grouping of keywords, ads, ad groups and campaigns.

Quality Score will now be segregated into three components:

• Expected click-through rate
• Ad relevance
• Landing page experience

For each of these components, the ads will be marked as “average”, “above average”, or “below average”.

Experts believe that these three components will allow advertisers to analyze the areas they need to optimize more. These three components will ensure that advertisers will know where the problem is and what they can do to get Quality Score up.

As Google said, “Using the status hover for a keyword in the Keywords tab, you’ll see the traditional 1-10 numeric score and new ratings for each main factor in Quality Score.”

This change will be put in action all across the globe over the rest of the week in AdWords online. API and AdWords Editor Users will have to hold their horses till the next release.

Account Labels have been introduced in Google AdWords. These have been designed to aid advertisers in manage and explore their campaign better. The Labels help the marketer to bring all the elements of a campaign together and analyze. As Google has said, “Starting this week, you can organize your account’s keywords, ads, ad groups and campaigns into custom groupings so you can quickly and easily filter and report on the data that is of most interest to you.”

For example retailers can now add a label of “shoes” to all shoes-related keywords, and can filter these labels on the keyword tab to only see the “shoes” keywords. So now, you can organize your campaign elements in any way you choose. The account labels will be available to advertisers in the next few days.

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New Changes Allow Advertisers to Sort Google AdWords Quality Score Problems and Organize Their Accounts Better!

Google Adwords for Video program is out of the group testing phase and has been ‘officially’ launched. As the blog post on the YouTube blog said, now the paid search advertising model has been integrated with video content. Advertisers can now promote their businesses with new ad formats and bidding models. Advertising is expected to go to the next level by being targeted, affordable as well as measurable for businesses. 

The Google AdWords for Video program was launched with a test group in September 2011 and now the platform has been open for all. Now, advertisers’ video ads based on keywords will appear during relevant video searches and the entire view/payment procedure works pretty much the same way as text ads. 

Now businesses can get the visual exposure at lesser costs than the huge budgets of TV ad campaigns. Google has integrated the in-depth approach of paid search advertising with the appeal of video content and video advertising as an option is available, cost effective and measurable for businesses. 

Improved Targeting on YouTube

The good news for advertisers is the sharper targeting option that is available for them on YouTube. Campaigns running on YouTube can now demographically target 10 times more users on the platform. 

Similar to text ads (pay per click), advertisers will only pay per-view of their video ad (irrespective of how many times the ad is flashed). There is also the TrueView pricing policy, which is in favor of the advertisers, as they only pay when a user watches their entire video ad. Now, advertisers can choose from the four types of TrueView ad formats to decide where on YouTube and the Google Display Network (GDN), they want their ads to be displayed:

• In-stream
• In-search
• In-slate 
• In-display

As is clear from the names, these formats decide if your ad will appear in the pre-roll, in search results, as post roll or in the related videos section.

To get started, advertisers will need a YouTube account and they can link it to AdWords.Google.com/Video. As a launching push, Google is also giving away a total of $50 million in free advertising credits worth $75 per account.

Advanced Features in AdWords for Video

Google has officially launched AdWords for video with a number of new features that will allow advertisers to target and study the impact of their video ads. 

TrueView Format Selector – You can choose the right type with the four TrueView ad formats. This means that if you opt out of in-search ads, then it means you will have somewhat opted in to the Google Display Network

Demographic Targeting – Thanks to Google’s new all-in-one privacy policy across all Google accounts, you can now target video ads by age and gender in every Google product. 

Interest/Topic Targeting – On YouTube the interest/topic targeting will have wider impact. You have no need for the separate YouTube Video Targeting Tool now as it has been merged with the AdWords for Video interface.

Downstream Video Analytics – There is a reporting feature that shows you what the users watched when they arrived on your channel through an ad. Now you can place and ad, get traffic and built viewership on your YouTube channel. 

Advanced Bidding –  This works around user engagement features like video shares and +1 button clicks.

YouTube has also plans of launching a playbook for advertisers, that will bring forth the strategies adopted by their most successful video advertisers. What do you think of the these new improved targeting features? Do share your views.

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Google AdWords for Video 'Officially' Rolls Out on YouTube!

Google has announced that it will match misspellings, plurals, and other variations on a keyword or phrase for AdWords, just like it does for organic search. This means that advertisers can now let go of their lists of keyword misspellings and plurals.

The new behavior will match five types of variations from the keyword. As Google said, “Starting in mid-May, phrase and exact match keywords will match close variants, including misspellings, singular/plural forms, stemmings, accents and abbreviations. Based on our research and testing, we believe these changes will be broadly beneficial for users and advertisers.”

This means that ‘Canvaas Awning’ and ‘Canvas Awning’; ‘birthday cap’ and ‘birthday caps’; ‘single serving coffee maker’ and ‘single serve coffee maker’; ‘décor’ and ‘decor’; and USA vs United States of America; will be matched exactly by Google.

Google revealed that up to 7% of search queries include misspellings, and the testing of new functionality has revealed that an average of a 3% rise in search clicks with comparable CPCs. This new interface will be launched in May to all advertisers and will also appear in the next version of the API released later in April. This new function is optional and if you want you can opt out if you want to have a tighter grip on your keywords

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Misspellings and Other Variants To be Automatically Matched by Google AdWords!

Google has added new features to AdWords to help businesses create ads that are more relevant to local customers. Google has introduced the advanced feature to target more than 30,000 ZIP codes – so that advertisers can now find customers easily.

As Google says, "You will be able to add up to 1,000 postal codes at a time to your search ad campaigns with AdWords Location Targeting. Plus, you can get feedback on the performance of your local campaigns by viewing campaign performance statistics at the postal code level."

The second new feature is Location Insertion. This one allows advertisers with multiple locations to create one ad and the information will be automatically added based on the user’s query or location. As Google said, “To help you easily create a custom ad title, text, display URL, and/or destination URL for all of your locations at scale, we’ve developed location insertion for location extensions. You’ll no longer need to create multiple ads for multiple locations–this new feature automatically inserts the city, phone number, or zip code of your local business into your ad text.”

This means that if your ad text says: “Find a {lb.city:Local} Store or Shop Online,” a user seeing the ad in New York will see: “Find a New York Store or Shop Online.” So now you don’t have to build out ad text featuring local information for all your locations.

The wording surrounding advance location targeting has also been changed by Google. These new enhancements have been designed to make location targeting options clearer and more powerful. So, this means that you can now show ads to people in a physical location, without exception. As Google says, “Previously, if you had selected “Target using physical location,” your ad would show to people in your targeted location as long as they were not searching for something related to a different location. Now, when you select “People in my targeted location,” your ad shows to people in your targeted location, without exception.”

So, a person in Seattle was searching for “Flights to Los Angeles,” ads targeted to Seattle would not appear, as the query location is Los Angeles. As an advertiser, you simply have to select “People in my targeted location,” and the ads will show up in that location.

Also, the Google Display Network will now see the content on the page (if tied to a certain location) and will target ads accordingly. These changes have been welcomed by the travel vertical advertisers.

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New Location Features, ZIP Code Targeting Added to Google AdWords!

Improving on AdWords sitelinks which was introduced in 2009, Google is now introducing what they call, "Enhanced Ad sitelinks".

Sitelinks are known to increase click through rate of an advertisement by 30% on an average, when compared to those without them. After continuously experimenting in an attempt to make them even better, Google now will be incorporating text ads in the AdWords sitelinks. In other words, if ads in your account are related to your sitelinks, then they will now be shown in AdWords listing too. Here's an example to show you how things will change:

Suppose you've have already created a sitelink for a pizza restaurant, which looks like this:

Now suppose the account also includes following text ads:

Once current enhancement takes place, your ad could now look like this:

Google have further said that “To be eligible, your ad with sitelinks must show above Google search results and your account must contain active ads closely related to the sitelinks in your campaign”.

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Google Upgrades Adwords with Enhanced Ad Sitelinks!

Remarketing refers to the advertising/marketing strategy, where you try to convert a potential customer who visited your site from an Ad, but didn’t complete your goal. In other words, you entice users those users to come back and convert, who visited your website but didn’t make a purchase earlier. With Google AdWords you can segment, define and target these audiences. AdWords professionals also use remarketing for product upsells, branding and social engagement. Basically, you can now reach consumers who:

• Abandoned their shopping cart
• Did not convert
• Signed up for an email newsletter
• Signed up for upcoming products information
• Made the sale, as in converted

Beginning with AdWords Remarketing

Identifying Target Groups:

The target groups when it comes to remarketing are created on simple basis- audience who you need to retarget, and the section of audience you don’t want to retarget. This means you need to set the pages that will be triggers to retarget users and on which pages the retargeting will be hidden. With Google AdWords, you can achieve this with custom combinations. Let us segregate audiences on their behavior pattern and custom combinations.

Target Group A-

This may include visitors who landed on a key page following an ad and then viewed product details. They added the item to their carts but did not make the purchase. Now using custom combination, your target audience is the one which stopped one step part of the purchase, as in “add to cart” users. The visitors who made the purchase, as in “bought the products” are excluded from your remarketing efforts. So your aim is to get the “add to cart” users back to your site with a further discount offer.

Target Group B-

This group includes visitors who signed up to information letters about upcoming products. So your ads need to target this group. Custom combination works here too. You can include the people who stopped at “add to cart” in this audience group too. However, those who “made a purchase” are excluded from here.

Target Group C-

This group includes people who submitted your contact form. This means they landed on your ‘Thank You’ page too. When you create a target group for this audience, its custom combination includes “viewed contact form” audience and the visitors who landed on your ‘Thank You’ page are excluded from the group.

Once you are clear with audience identification and combinations, you must use your analytics sales funnel to find key points to retarget users. Keep URLs finalized for tagging visitors and retargeting them, as well as pages that deactivate the targeting. It is advised to have a spreadsheet showing your audience and custom combination you have created and also the unique names you have given to the pages.

Creating Remarketing Lists

Remarketing lists refer to way you define your audience. To create remarketing lists, you need to get to the Audience tab within AdWords. Then select your retargeting campaign and the first ad group to begin with. Another way of doing it on the AdWords Interface is to go to Campaign View and then click on Shared Library and Audiences from the fly out on the left side. Choose ‘New Audience’ button and click on ‘Remarketing List.’ For every audience group defined by you, create a remarketing list and add a descriptive title to each list.

While filling in the details in ‘Membership duration’ you must enter a time duration based on how long you want the cookie to be active once the user is tagged. Decide the duration on the buying cycle length of your products as well as refraining from becoming an irritant for your audience.

The next concern are- Tags, the codes that have to be placed on your site. Choose ‘Create new remarketing tag” each time for a list (barring on the case of delayed remarketing). You must create a tag for each audience. To access the code, you need to click the list name under the “Tags/Rules” column.

Then you must place the codes on the particular pages as chosen by you for each tag. While doing this, be careful so that it is placed between the body tags. Also ensure that the code does not replace ant other AdWords/Analytics code on your site. Always remember to verify that the correct code was placed on each page. Doing this is important is you do not want to fall into the pitfalls of poor ad targeting.

Create Custom Combinations

Custom Combinations tool uses Boolean logic to filter out those who are not remarketing targets or filter the layers that you want to create. This is a great tool to retarget smartly and save your advertising money. Once you have the remarketing lists ready, you need to create these custom combinations.

Go to Remarekting Tabà Click on the first ad groupà Audiences tab (again)à Click “custom combinations”àClick on the link “new custom combination.”à Choose the link to create your combination of audiences. Enter the name and description of the custom combination and leave “all of these audiences” selected in the first drop down menu.

Then click on “Select audiences”à“Interest category”à“Remarketing lists.” Here you must add the remarketing list tagging the users. àClick on “add another” link and when you do this, remember to change the first drop down to “none of these audiences.” This step is to remove the cookie that was placed by the tag from the previously included remarketing list.

Creating Remarketing Ads

Now is the time to upload text ads and banner ads based on the goal of every target group. While writing these keep in mind that these are people who have ‘already’ seen your site. So you have to compose a different message this time, that was not used in your ad campaigns. Here are some ideas about writing them:

• For those who "abandoned cart"- offer free shipping or further discounts.
• For those who “made a purchase”- offer buyer benefits and a complementary product. Or to subscribe for new product information.
• For those who “visited your page”- tell them why you are ahead of your competition.
• For those who “viewed your product”- use images of the product in the ad.

Writing remarketing ads need to be really special and different from regular writing as you are retargeting a group who visited your site and did not perform the desired operation. You need to make sure they come back and do it. If they did make a purchase, your ad has to be in a way that it makes sure that the buyer keeps coming back.

Remarketing Landing Pages

Landing pages need to be changed too, if you are offering:

• Additional discounts
• Free Shipping

Also if you have changed the content of the ad drastically, then too, the landing page needs to change and become customized. With custom landing pages, you will have to give details on free shipping or a list of similar products for those who made the purchase.

If the above special cases are not there, you can direct users back to regular landing pages too.

Capping the Frequency of Ads

You need to then determine the number of times your ads are displayed to individual user in a 24-hour period. The standard accepted rate is between 7 to 12 impressions every day. However, you must experiment and determine which capping works better for you. Make frequency changes and compare data till you know what’s best for your remarketing campaign. Do not choose ‘no cap on frequency’ as too many impressions can irritate your users.

Optimizing the Remarketing Campaign

Test! Test! And Test again. To optimize your campaign best, you must test various ads and landing pages as well as different custom combinations. Keep trying till you reach the combination best for you to achieve your ROI goals. To accelerate the performance of certain combinations, you can increase the bid for that ad group so that you can generate additional sales at a profitable level. Keep an eye on the sites too that work for you and take decisions accordingly.

Advanced Tagging Techniques

Advanced targeting techniques can be really beneficial for a large website, and you can take it up once you have pioneered ‘creating remarketing lists’. For more advanced situations, you can choose delayed targeting by manipulating the duration settings of tags. You can opt for delayed targeting if :

• You sell time bound/seasonal products- Target users who bought Christmas Cards from you last year!
• You sell products that need regular replacement- Target users who bought a car from you and now need servicing.
• You sell related products- Target users that bought maternity clothes, with baby stuff a few months later.

Delayed targeting requires to remarketing lists with the same tag. But for the later stage tag, choose the option “Select from existing tags” while creating the remarketing page.

On A Closing Note

You can remarket better with defining custom audiences; only after you have mastered the basics and tested remarketing ads. Remember that remarketing is powerful strategy as you are enticing someone with an ad who has already taken the bait once. So the chances of conversion are far greater. 

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Google AdWords Remarketing Tutorial!

Automated Rules is a time saving feature that allows auto-scheduling of changes to your account, based on user-defined criteria. Based on feedbacks from previous users, Google Adwords, through their official blog, announced that they have made automated rules even more user-friendly and flexible. To support their cause Google has rung two major improvements, these being:

Increasing the rule limit to 100

Previously, users were only allowed to set a maximum of 10 automated rules. Now Google, have increased this limit to 100 to ensure that the user is given enough freedom when it comes to trying out new rules.

Undo changes made by automated rules

Due to flexibility provided, it will be very exciting for users to try out new rules and see how they it works for them. For situations like creation of wrong automated rules or rules not reflecting the change you seek, AdWords have now added an option to undo the change by providing “Undo” button.

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Google AdWords Expands Automated Rules, Includes Undo Option!

Over last few weeks, AdWords  has been allowing PPC advertisers to directly collect user's their email addresses. Google have now confirmed that they will be running an expanded trial of lead generation through email collection. This format co exists for daily deal providers such as Snap deal, which asks for the user current city, presumably to target the user with deals specific to his city.

A Google spokesperson stated,“This ad form is still in testing phase, but our team is getting a lot of interest from advertisers and we've been slowly expanding the trial over recent months. These ads help business gather new leads and enables users to easily get relevant information and ask for quotes.”

This facility is a pay per lead collection and this is how it works. All PPC ads will be accompanied by an input box, asking users for their email id along with name. There is also a “Privacy” link next to email submission box that informs user that their information will be passed onto the advertisers. When user enters a valid email id, it is then passed on to the advertiser. Once the advertisers receive the email id of prospective clients, they are free to contact them over emails, pitching their product or service at the more personalized level.

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Google Rolls Out AdWords Loaded With Email Address Collection Form Test!

Moving on with its renovating, refreshing and redesigning mission, Google has given a facelift to the Google AdWords Help Center. This was announced in the Google AdWords Help forum, where Google described that they are testing a new design for the Help Center.

According to Google, the three major modifications include:

• “Reorganized information: At the top of each page you'll see a menu that will help you easily find what you want.
  
• Visible contact options: Just click the "Contact us" button in the top right of any page to find the options to reach Google.
  
• More screenshots and videos: To make it faster and easier for you to navigate your account, you'll see screenshots and videos in many articles. Isn’t that cool? Initially you'll find about 60 articles with the new graphics and more are being written every day.”
  

These are new improvements, highlighted on the Help home page:

The contact option is more visible, and allows for quick communication. Redesigning AdWords Help Center is next in line after the Google toolbar renovation done earlier this week. What do you think of this new interface? Do share your views.

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Google AdWords Help Center Gets Redesigned!

New estimated top page bid metric was introduced by Google AdWords in September this year, and now the latest Editor Update Version 9.7.1 has been released by the company. The update includes top-of-page estimates via Automated Rules, you can also manage bids based on these estimates and can also filter keywords within advanced search.

According to Google, Automated Rules have been designed to let advertisers to plan and set automatic adjustments to an AdWords account. These adjustments can be based on specified criteria like modifying the daily budget for heavy shopping days.

As Google is quoted, “Campaign experiments: Experiment serving status, name, start and end dates, % and other fields now appear in the campaigns tab. All fields are read-only. Top of page bid estimates: Top of page bid estimates appear on the keywords tab, in the "Select duplicates" menu and in advanced bid changes.”

You can create this rule, by following these steps:

1. Go to All Online Campaigns click on Keywords
2. Select Automate
3. Choose to “Raise bids to top of page CPC when…”

Once you are through with these categories, you need to fill out the campaign form and submit it.

The updated version has improved targeting options too. You can target user interest categories as well as user lists. Using the the Language option, one can create international campaigns.

Wifi targeting is also possible, as Google is quoted, “Wi-Fi traffic: The option to target Wi-Fi traffic is available in your campaign device targeting. Advanced location options: On the campaigns tab, edit settings for targeting method and exclusion method.”

The TakeAway:

Going back to the Bid Estimates update, make sure that you set bidding at maximum. Use good quality keywords to achieve the best results.

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Top Of Page Bid Estimate Support Added By AdWords Editor!

The Google Adwords Keyword Tool seemed to have a bug of sorts, as was noted by SEO Consult’s blog and other SEOs too, leading to discussions starting a week earlier on AdWords help forums too.

The problem was that the tool was reporting ZERO volume for a large number of keywords, when using the Exact Match match type.

Google also acknowledged the issue, as has been quoted, “We’re aware of a potential issue that is affecting the keyword tool in AdWords, and are working hard to fix it.” A random selection of keywords were reporting zero for volume and mostly head and middle tail were affected at both global and local volumes.

But it seems Google has got rid of the bug in the keyword tool, and a search for 'wine' in exact phrase is showing the numbers as earlier.

Did you notice the bug, and is the problem rectified now? Do share your views.

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AdWords Keyword Tool Error Acknowledged By Google!

Google AdWords has released a new feature called Social Extensions, that integrates your AdWords campaign to Goolge+ page. They have given a detailed step-by-step guide to adding social extensions to your ads.

Why Is Google Doing This?

This move by Google is another step in its plan to integrate its various services with Google+. Larry Page had reaffirmed the same in September this year. Now, this new feature called Social Extensions integrates Google+ pages and AdWords campaign, and is aimed at helping the advertisers better. According to Google, the thought behind this tool is, “integrating your social marketing effort by letting you share +1’s between your AdWords campaigns and your Google+ Page.”

How Will You Benefit?

Google believes that this move will help the advertisers to “build a larger collection of social recommendations”. This will be possible because all +1s between the ads and the Google+ Page will have a huge social impact on people as they will reflect social annotations. This will act as an encouragement for the users to click the ad or explore your Google+ page.

What You Need To Benefit From The New Feature?

This Ad integration feature will be available to you only if you create and verify your Google+ page. You can connect your AdWords campaign and your Google+ page quite simply via the AdWords account. See the guide for more. To know how to create a Google+ page, see this.

Since the launch of Google+ Pages they have received mixed reviews, some have declared them with significant potential while others do not seem very enthusiastic about the same.

What do you think of Google+ for business potential? Do share your views.

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How To Link Google+ Business Page With AdWords Campaign!

The location targeting interface for AdWords just got a makeover. Google announced that the changes include an easier way to find locations, and a new column that tells the “reach” (number of users) of Google properties. The location target limits have also been increased from 300 to 10,000, and a new Polygon targeting migration tool has been added.

As Google says, “We've connected the location targeting feature within AdWords to Google Maps. This will allow us to provide more information about locations, make relevant location suggestions, and improve the level of accuracy of our location targeting. Today we're announcing the first of these changes: a makeover to the location targeting interface within AdWords. The new Location Targeting Tool will make it easier to discover and obtain more detail on potential target locations.”

Discovering Locations Made Easy:

The advertisers can now get helpful search suggestions, when they go to the Campaign Settings tab and key in the broad area they are thinking of targeting. The suggestions will include the city, state and nearby or similar locations of the area you have keyed.

For a more detailed look, you can now view locations via a map and also lets you view the boundaries of multiple locations that you've selected. See the image for a better understanding.

Know Your Audience Reach:

The new interface has reach numbers to help advertisers know the number of audience within your selected target. These numbers are calculated on the basis of users seen on Google properties. Google further elaborates, “Additionally, we will use the 'Limited reach' label to indicate locations where we may not be able to associate users with a selected location based on their devices' Internet Protocol (IP) address. In these instances, we will primarily be using user intent data rather than device location data to target these locations.”

Advertisers opting for proximity targeting will get to see 'Locations within this target', and this will let them know the areas covered by their radius.

Other features include the increased location target limits from 300 to 10,000 locations (plus 500 additional proximity targets) per campaign.

Polygon targeting migration:

Google has added as 'feature removal planned' badge for existing polygon targets, and the search engine recommends the 'Target a radius' feature to advertisers. This will allow them to choose and add locations within the radius target.

The new Location Targeting Tool aims at helping advertisers take up location targeting for their campaigns. What are your views on the same? Share your opinion with us!

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Google's AdWords Introduces New Location Targeting!

The green bar indicator in the Google Keyword Tool is gone now. In a fresh update, the bar has given way to text label of either "High," "Medium," or "Low”, in the competition column of the results.

Earlier, the webmasters judged the competitiveness of a keyword with the “Greenness” of the bar, the more green in the bar, the more competitive the term. Here is the how the table looks now:

The level of competitiveness is now depicted with text, and visually it does look different, but the granularity as to how this ranking was assigned has been left unchanged by Google. Webmasters still have to download a report to know the exact number that lead up to the competitiveness being high low or medium. The downloaded report shows the metric of competition based on a 0.0 scale to 1.0 scale in digits. This allows for very specific reporting.

A rough estimate if made with the scales, then the metrics corresponding to them would be-

• Low: Competitiveness number under .33
• Medium: Between .33 and .66
• High: Over .67

What do you think of this update? Do leave your comments behind.

Post from: PageTraffic SEO Blog Now updated thrice a day!

The Green Bar Of The Google Keyword Tool Replaced With High, Medium And Low Indicators!

Google is launching its new 'AdWords Premier SMB Partner Program'. This vendor referral program has been designed for the small business advertisers who want to invest in AdWords. The small businesses will be referred to a list of companies that have been a part of Google's 'authorized reseller' program.

The Benefits Of Becoming A Partner:

The idea behind becoming a SMB partner is that it will allow the company’s customer base to expand and deliver better, more direct and reportable results to the advertisers. Since only a chosen few highly qualified companies become Premier SMB Partners, that is why becoming a partner will help companies stand apart from the crowd. When a business will partner with Google, they will be able to deliver the solutions the customers are looking for. Apart from the boost one can expect from the Google support, the Premier SMB Partners benefit from executive, technical, sales, marketing, account and partner management aid from the search engine.

In other words, the signed up vendors get huge benefits as compared to other Google reseller partners.

The Criteria Of Becoming A Partner:

So, if this has got you interested, then these are the minimum criteria that you need to fulfill to be able to sign up for the program:

• Large existing customer base of small / medium sized businesses
• Tele / field sales force with the ability to sell Google’s advertising products
• Commitment to provide phone and/or email customer support to their advertiser base
• Existing operational infrastructure (billing, reporting, etc) to service thousands of customers

Google says that to become Premier Partner, the companies will have to undergo scrutiny (that includes training and testing) by Google. Also Google will instruct and supervise their product and sales positioning. The commitment to the best user experience has led Google to add these further conditions- the company needs to undertake customer satisfaction surveys. And in case the SMB customers are unhappy, Google will receive and investigate the complaints associated with the program and these partners.

In return Google will support in promotion, marketing activities. As Google says, “Because of the close nature of the way we work with our premier partners, we typically only work with companies that are committed to build their businesses around Google AdWords products and have the ability to build a base of several hundred, and in many cases, several thousand advertisers.”

The Google Objective:

Google is looking for a long term success in the small businesses market. The search engine giant understands that its networks of channel partners is essential in achieving their objective. The simplified version of AdWords – AdWords Express is to ensure a better AdWords experience for the small businesses and the bring down the sales cost for the Premier partners. The number of resellers in this category will be limited by Google. Limited to what number is not clear yet.

What do you think of this program? Do share your views.

Post from: PageTraffic SEO Blog Now updated thrice a day!

Presenting The Google AdWords Premier SMB Partner Program!

Google is launching a new AdWords feature titled bid for calls. It is a PPC as in Pay Per Call add on for the PC. It is not like Click to Call at all, but is different. The new program will launch in the US and UK in the beginning, before reaching other countries.

How Does Bid For Calls Work?
To begin with, it is based on the Call Metrics that is Google Voice infrastructure. While using this feature, the AdWords advertisers need Call Metrics and a Google Voice-generated call tracking number. The catch is that, now instead of paying $1 per completed call for call tracking, the advertisers have the option of bidding for each call.

As Google says, “To take advantage of bid-per-call, select the option to use a Google forwarding number when you set up Call Extensions so that our systems can measure when a call to your business occurs. With bid-per-call, you'll also get the benefit of detailed call reporting right in AdWords.”

This detail report that advertisers stand to get in AdWords comprises:

• Complete report and summaries of completed calls, phone-through rate (PTR), and the phone call cost on the Ad Group and Campaign tabs.
• Call details like call time, caller area code, and the ad group that was instrumental in driving the call on the Dimensions tab.

Google has stated the following eligibility requirements for the feature, “At this time, bid-per-call is available only in the US and UK. Max CPP bids are set at the ad group level. And each ad group must meet certain minimum click and call thresholds. If you're already using Call Metrics, you must enter a Max CPP bid in order to activate bid-per-call. ”

The Call Through Rate Now A Ranking Factor:
Google has planned that depending on the number of bids and how many calls are received, calls will be included in its ads quality score. However, if as an advertiser, you choose not to participate in bid for calls, you will not be at any disadvantage. But the AdWords rankings of advertisers whose paid-search ads are generating lots of calls will get quite a boost.
Earlier this year Google announced its click to call enhancements, and pay per call feature has been expected by the industry since then. This new feature is being seen as an important development for AdWords advertisers.

Who Will Benefit The Most?
This new feature will be a huge benefit for national and local level advertisers, that have call centers or real stores (not just an online presence.) The facility of bidding on calls separately as well as getting ranking “credit” for calls generated from Google ads will be hugely beneficial for these advertisers.

What do you plan to do? Will you bid when the feature is rolled out in your country? Do leave a comment.

Post from: PageTraffic SEO Blog Now updated thrice a day!

Google Introduces Bid-For-Calls In AdWords!

Google has introduced new mobile search ad formats, that will be beneficial for businesses in the present smartphone driven market. The basic thought behind this is the integration of search ads with mobile apps. Google announced these new opportunities, as well as mobile-friendly ad related information along with the choice before the advertisers to send users to deep links inside an installed app. More importantly, physical proximity or closeness/ nearness to the searcher will affect the ranking of the site.

The New Google App Extensions:

Custom Search Ads for apps. When people will search within a mobile aap, then these ads will provide useful and relevant answers. With custom search ads the app developers get a chance to generate more funds.

As Google says, “Many people use Google to search for information about mobile apps. This ad format helps consumers right when they're searching for information about an app, linking them directly to the App Store or Android Marketplace to download. We’ve recently enabled app developers to include app icons and information about the app in their ad unit so that people can make more informed decisions about whether they want to download the app.”

So, there is now the facility to directly send mobile searchers to deep link in your app, and then there are the ad 'circulars' where you can send the information about any ad from the desktop to your mobile phone. Here is a video to understand better:

How this helps the advertisers?

Now there will be deeper app interaction through the Google App Extensions for AdWords. In other words, advertisers have the opportunity to direct users to a deep link within the app. And then this particular link can divert the visitors to any location as predefined in the app. This procedure will ensure a personalized approach and the app's stored data will be used for a faster conversion.

The deep linking feature will help advertisers create a customized user experience. As Google says, “This new, beta ad unit enables businesses to use mobile search ads to direct someone to a page within a mobile app already installed on their phone. For example, if someone searches for sneakers on a mobile device, they might see an ad that takes them directly into a cool shopping app they’ve installed on their phone. ”

Now Ad “Circulars” For Advertisers"

This is one of the new features, where ad circulars will show the users a set of deals and products that has been optimized for a phone. Though this ad will be seen by users whether they're on mobile or desktop, the added benefit is that the users seeing these circulars on their desktops, and liking an offer, can send the ad/promotion to their smartphones. This was tested with Macy's and see how their ad shows up:

Now Proximity Is a Ranking Factor:

Physical proximity or closeness to the user is the new ranking factor in mobile search ads. When ever a mobile searchers will share his location, the ads from the nearest stores will be displayed. So, an advertiser, that is closest to the searcher has a chance of ranking higher. For this proximity feature to work, the advertisers will need to use Location Extensions to inform Google about their location.

So, if you are an advertiser, get on the mobile bandwagon as mobile platform has just been made smarter, richer, and more exciting. There are plenty of business opportunities here, make the most of them!

Post from: PageTraffic SEO Blog Now updated thrice a day!

Proximity Now A Ranking Factor In Search Ads, As Google Unveils New Mobile Search Ad Formats!