Google recently launched some new templates for the AdWords Display Ad Builder. These templates cater to rich media and video ad content. The templates allow advertisers to highlight several different products in one ad, and send them each to different landing pages with unique URLs. If you're not familiar with the templates, watch the following clip: The templates offer a way to potentially get consumers more engaged with ads, but from an analytics standpoint, they can also curb bounce rate. "Using Google Analytics, you can add tracking parameters to the end of each destination URL, telling you exactly which items users found to be most interesting in the ad," explains Ryan Hayward at the Google Analytics Blog. "This will give you insights on your creative, such as which items to focus on and how prominently they should be featured in the ads." He gives an example of running ads selling different kinds of shoes with unique landing pages. You can take the analytical data and figure out which shoe is getting clicked on the most, then tailor your campaign to focus more on that particular shoe. I'd go a bit further and say you could look at the ones that aren't getting clicked on as much and perhaps make adjustments in how they are being presented. So in other words, the templates are not only giving you a way to sell various items through a single clickable ad, but they can ultimately help you decide which products need more focus, for better or for worse.

templates quot focus items analytics nthe pages unique landing products getting adwords analytical google shoe click decide display launch adjustments

Update: I contacted Facebook asking for more details on the testing, and I was given only the following official statement from the company: Facebook recently began testing a module that appears periodically in the right-side ad space that show relevant content in addition to the ads that would normally appear there.  This content includes Facebook Pages of which a user's friends have become a fan, Events that a user's friends are attending, and people who are friends of a user's friends. While the advertisements are paid placements, the content is not, and is part of Facebook's ongoing efforts to surface relevant content and friend information in more places on the site. As with all tests, Facebook will evaluate user responses and make ongoing modifications to the features of the module. Original Article: AllFacebook's Nick O'Neill received a screenshot of what is supposedly a new advertising layout Facebook is testing that shows 5 ads instead of 3 and has a wider layout. When I browse Facebook, I see combinations of ads ranging from one at at time to five at a time, but they don't look quite like what AllFacebook received. Here are the two side by side. Allfacebook's screenshot is on the left, and what I see is on the right. Perhaps more interesting from what O'Neill has to say is that advertisers are telling him they "are seeing much higher conversion rates despite lower click through rates" compared to Google ads. "The result is that advertisers keep coming back and continue increasing their ad expenditure," he says. I said before that perhaps Facebook should be considered Google's greatest threat as far as where advertisers spend their money. The gap continues to narrow between the two in terms of unique visitors: It is not my opinion that Facebook ads will kill AdWords. I think they can put a dent in Google's ad revenue, but the two are too different for them not to co-exist. Google ads target what searchers are looking for. Facebook ads target users who don't know they're looking for anything until they realize they see something cool being served to them. That has a lot of potential given that they're tailored to users' specific interests.

facebook content google friends user testing allfacebook advertisers quot side module layout ongoing neill relevant target users screenshot receiv looking

All the way back in 2005, Minnesota Printing company CLRB Hanson Industries and New Jersey native Howard Stern (no, not the radio host) filed a suit against Google on the grounds that the company was overcharging them and serving more ads than they were supposed to. Google said that these claims were unfounded. The lawsuit stemmed from a dispute about the meaning of "daily budget" in Google's AdWords contract with search marketers. According to Google, they only charged up to 120% of marketers' budgets to make up for days when ads were under-delivered. Either way, the company decided to settle and put the whole thing to bed. Google agreed to pay up to $20 million in the class-action suit. MediaPost quotes a Google spokesperson who says, "Google believes the claims are without merit, but we are pleased to have the litigation behind us and to move forward with our business objectives." They're not exactly shelling it all out in cash though. Stern and CLRB Hanson Industries will get $20,000 a piece, but everyone else in the suit will receive AdWords ad credits. The plaintiffs' lawyers are making out better than anyone with $5 million. I don't think the settlement is going to break Google's bank. Of couse they did recently lay off 200 employees.

google suit company adwords quot marketers clrb stern industry claims hanson million making native without litigation unfound cash lawyers shelling

A study from McPheters & Company in co-operation with Condé Nast and CBS Vision found that magazines and TV ads are more effective than online ads. The study looked at 30-second TV ads, full-page 4-color magazine ads, and Internet banner ads in standard sizes. They used eye-tracking software to determine the circumstances for when online ads were actually seen by participants. Highlights of the study include: - Within a half hour, magazines effectively delivered more than twice the number of ad impressions as TV and more than 6 times those delivered online - Though TV doesn't deliver as many ads per half hour as do magazines, net recall of TV ads was almost twice that of magazine ads; magazines in turn had ad recall almost three times that of Internet banner ads - 85% of Internet ads served appeared on-screen and could be identified by brand - Among web users, 63% of banner ads were not seen. Respondents' eyes passed over 37% of the Internet ads and stopped on slightly less than a third - For Internet ads, almost all net recall could be attributed to ads that were seen - Internet video ads appeared much less frequently than banner ads, and their exposure skewed heavily towards young men. When they did appear they were twice as likely to be seen as banner ads. "Our findings indicate that we need to learn more about how to engage Internet users with advertising content," said Rebecca McPheters, CEO of McPheters & Company. This week Google launched some new templates for rich media and video display ads. Advertisers using paid search might want to consider looking into something like that. In fact those Google ads even have some analytical advantage. They let you place various products with unique landing pages within one ad. You can then examine which ones are performing the best and make necessary adjustments to your campaign.

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Google announced today that in the coming months, they will be updating the AdWords conversion tracking metrics in the new AdWords interface, and other account management platforms like AdWords Editor and the AdWords API. The updating has already begun. Now "conversions" columns are labled Conversions (1-per-click), while "transactions" columns are called Conversions (many-per-click). 1-per-click means if one click leads to multiple conversions, it's counted only once, but many-per-click means each conversion counts each conversion that occurs after a click. Emel Mutlu of the Inside AdWords Crew explains: Here's an example to explain the difference: Let's say you're selling gardening supplies online and you've set up conversion tracking on your "Thank You For Your Purchase" and your "Newsletter Subscription Confirmed" pages. If a customer clicks on your ad, buys a bag of peat moss, then subscribes to your newsletter, you'll see two many-per-click conversions, but just a single 1-per-click conversion in your account. If the same customer returns to your site a few days later and buys a trowel (but doesn't click on one of your AdWords ads to get there), you'll now see three many-per-click conversions, but your 1-per-click conversions will still remain at one. More information can be obtained at the Help Center. The metrics will be introduced into AdWords Editor, the AdWords API, and the new AdWords interface over time. Google says they'll also improve conversion tracking for display advertisers through the release of view-through conversion tracking. In other AdWords news, TechCrunch is reporting that Jeremy "Shoemoney" Schoemaker is suing a Google employee for AdWords ToS violations.

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Google is of course testing a new interface for AdWords, and to prepare users for an easy transition, Google is putting out the resources to ensure they're up to speed. For one, the company's Inside AdWords Blog has announced "New Interface Thursdays." Each Thursday, they will provide an in-depth look at new features, tips and tricks, product updates, announcements, etc. Yesterday, they kicked it off by highlighting the new site and what users will find there. This includes a section for videos on the new interface that look at features and how they can help you better manage your account. There is also a section for beta resources, which includes a how-to guide, a known-issues page, etc. Users who find bugs can use the known-issues page to see if it is known and report it if it's not listed. This week, The Inside AdWords Crew also discussed some new metrics for conversion tracking that come with the new AdWords Interface. The metrics will be introduced into AdWords Editor, the AdWords API, and the new AdWords interface over time. Google says they'll also improve conversion tracking for display advertisers through the release of view-through conversion tracking. You can learn more about the new metrics here. Google's Help Center will also provide you with more useful information.

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Jeremy Schoemaker of ShoeMoney has sued a Google employee, who owns a website that uses the patented keyword “ShoeMoney” of the company. The keyword is used by the employee on his AdWords ad campaign for directing the traffic on a site - myincentivewebsite.com The issue came to notice of Shoemoney four months ago when an ad for ShoeMoney was directing to myincentivewebsite.com. After trying a lot, Schoemaker was unable to derive the contact information of the site owner as it was set in “private”. He headed to court for a subpoena addressed to the webhost of the claimed site and demanded that the company should disclose the details of its site's owner. The defendant said that he was unaware of his site violating Google TOS and Schoemaker's trademark, he was dragged to court. He also sent the screenshot of his AdWords account and the keywords he is targeting for the campaign. This created a doubt in Schoemaker's mind and after investigation it was found that the site owner was a Google employer working as AdWords Account Strategist in Google Even after getting sued, the defendant is saying that he did not violate the rules of Google TOS. There are chances of him either fooling everyone or he really don't know anything about Google TOS violation. Comments

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Late last year, Google announced that it would be experimenting with ads in more places. Since then, we've seen Google Image Search, Picasa, and Google News ad additions. Google Finance now caters to display advertising via the Google Display Ad Builder feature of AdWords. Google has also designed a few financial templates for this. The templates can be used anywhere throughout the Google Content Network, and are not limited to only use on Google Finance. And likewise, advertisers can use any other display ads on Google Finance. Here are couple sample templates Google provides: (click to view image) (click to view image) "Google Finance is a great opportunity to reach a relevant audience while they engage with financial content," says Austin Rachlin of Google's Inside AdWords Crew. "You can use the AdWords placement targeting tool to target Google Finance like any other site on the content network, with the exception of third party ads." More information can be found at this Help Center, and advertisers new to Google's Display Ad Builder will find a great resource in this collection of video tutorials Google has put together on YouTube. To use Display Ad Builder, just go to the "Display Ad Builder" format option from any group, and the new templates will be available in the section labeled "Financial Services."

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A few weeks ago, it was reported that Google was testing an online version of its Google TV Ads. They're now launching Google TV Ads Online in beta by invitation only. It's pretty cool because advertisers can target specific shows, and ads will show up whether they're being broadcast on television or on the web. "These programs may appear in various places, including the websites of the networks which originally broadcast them and on other sites that specialize in video content," explains Google TV Ads Product Manager Geoff Smith. "What if an advertiser wants to reach the audience of a particular program, no matter whether they're watching on a television or online?" Advertisers can target specific shows and select their cost-per-thousand (CPM) bid. Then, based on targets, budgets and bids, ads are shown in the regular ad slot that would take place during a show's originally airing. Ads can also be shown pre-roll or post-roll (below is a short video on Google TV Ads). This news comes along with a another major announcement from Google. YouTube is now offering feature films and television shows. Naturally, this would seem like the logical time to introduce this online version of Google TV Ads.  While Google TV Ads Online is only by invitation only, interested parties are encouraged to contact Erin Bouchier at erinb@google.com if they wish to be considered for the program.

google online quot television shows video invitation broadcast show originally target program specific roll version whether shown select report these

Back in November Google introduced a new keyword tool called simply Search-based Keyword Tool that enables paid search advertisers to see what keywords they may be missing out on based on searches that are leading to your site. Today Google has announced wider availability and some improvements to the tool. The tool is now available in Australia, Canada, China, Japan, and New Zealand in addition to the US and the UK, which were available upon launch. Users can also select the currency they'd like to see suggested bids in on the settings page. In addition to wider availability, Google has added some new customization features that could lead to more targeted results. Dan Friedman of Google's Inside AdWords Crew explains these: - Language/Country-specific results: Narrow your results by adjusting your country/territory and language settings. For example, you can use this if you only want to have the tool match your website against searches from Canada or Australia. - Ad/Search Share filters: Filter by Ad Share and Search Share, in addition to the other advanced filtering options. These filters help you customize your results to focus on queries where you're not showing up in the natural search-results. At the Search-based Keyword Tool Help Center, users can find further information about how the tool works, the basics, data privacy, common troubleshooting issues as well as customizing settings, filtering and saving keywords, and incorporating the tool into AdWords.

tool search google base keyword addition share settings keywords wider searches australia canada filters language adwords filtering country availability users

Google Australia is giving away a free AdWords campaign worth $75 to small and medium-sized businesses that don't already use AdWords. This would seem like a good way to get new users on board. ITNews is calling the situation a "self-stimulus scheme" meant to stimulate Google's declining AdWords revenues. A spokesperson for Google told them that was not the case. "Advertiser numbers and revenues in Australia are growing strongly and this initiative has been driven entirely out of the Australian office as a way to help small businesses participate in the digital economy and grow their sales," the spokesperson said. ZDNet Australia quotes Google's Julian Persaud as saying, "At Google, we want to help propel the Australian digital economy. The internet drives efficiencies and opens new markets. Encouraging more Australian businesses to connect with customers online is a major part of that vision." Google's offer is good until June 30th. Interested parties simply need to fill out a form and an authorized Google representative will be in touch. Do you think Google is looking to help businesses or themselves? Perhaps both can be accomplished. What are your thoughts?  

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Google announced today that it has expanded the beta testing for the new AdWords interface. It is now available in ten languages to most active AdWords accounts. While Google promises that more languages will be added in the future, the ones that are currently available include: - English - Spanish - French - German - Italian - Dutch - Hebrew - Simplified Chinese - Japanese - Brazilian Portuguese Users who have been added to the beta test can get to the new interface simply by logging in, though the old interface is still able to be viewed by using the "new interface (beta)" and "previous interface" links at the top of the page. To get familiarized with the new interface Google has provided a microsite full of videos and a how-to guide that should serve as helpful resources. Videos cover topics like faster account navigation, tracking performance efficiently, finding new optimization opportunities, and spending less time making changes.

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 There has been a bit of discussion of late about the length of AdWords ad titles with some advertisers reporting more than 25 characters being displayed in their title. Search Engine Roundtable first discussed the issue back in March when Google confirmed there was a bug in their system which was allowing some advertisers to display more than the 25 character limit. The latest news is that an AdWords representative has actually told an advertiser how they can make their ad title longer. The news broke in a WebmasterWorld thread. Here is the main discussion: Nancy99: This just in from a chat conversation with a Googler at AdWords! Was told by a specific Googler with the initials P.A. that “If you use keyword insertion in you ad text, the ad title may show more than 25 characters.” So it seems the answer is dynamic keyword insertion. What is dynamic keyword insertion? It’s an advanced feature in AdWords which allows the advertisers to insert code into the ad text. Then when the searcher sees your ad, the keyword they used in that search replaces the code in you ad text. This technique should be used with caution as Barry Schwartz from Search Engine Roundtable explains: There are many issues with using dynamic keyword insertion. Specifically the ad simply might not work all the time, plus the title might not always match the ad description, amongst other issues. So Google… is it a bug or not? If we hear anything more about this we will be sure to keep you informed. Comments

keyword title adwords insertion dynamic text advertisers issues length google code search display roundtable told characters googler news nthe discussion

Last October Google launched its Display Ad Builder. WebProNews has covered various features of this product since its launch. "In short, DAB brings some key attributes of search -- simplicity and cost-efficiency --  to display, a form of advertising that many agencies find to be more resource intensive and complex," a spokesperson for Google tells WebProNews. "Since the fall, it's become much more relevant to the industry as the economy has made executing campaigns efficiently more crucial." "A number of agencies and clients have used the specific coupon display template to test and iterate with new ad formats, allowing them to bring their customers' offline circulars, to the online world, at scale on Google's content network," she added. She also put me in contact with Product Management Director Brad Bender, with whom I conducted a small Q&A. Chris Crum: Are advertisers finding that rich media ads are working better than other formats? Brad Bender: For advertisers that have multiple tangible products to sell, several of our rich media formats are definitely very fitting, especially with the high interaction rates that we are seeing. Several of them allow users to scroll between product images and click through to a unique destination URL associated with that product. We are seeing particularly strong uptake with the retail vertical. Also, the video ad format in particular lends itself to branding, and we have several brand name advertisers using those formats. For advertisers who are selling services or items that are less well visually represented, one of our all-purpose templates or ones pre-designed for certain industries may be just as appropriate, or even more so than a rich media template. Chris Crum: Can you give me a percentage/estimate on how many of Google's advertisers are actually taking advantage of the Display Ad Builder? Brad Bender: Advertisers using Display Ad Builder have grown significantly in the past quarter. We have thousands of users in over 40 languages in 100+ countries. Chris Crum: Are there any new features for DAB in the works that you can tell me a little about? Brad Bender: Global availability: Our engineers have now made it possible for our templates to support text for nearly all major languages which AdWords supports, which has allowed us to now launch in over 40 languages and over 100 countries worldwide. Templates for everyone:  We now have more than 90 customizable templates (in the last launch we had 40), with designs for local holidays & seasons around the world, specific industries such as retail and finance, rich media and video, and fully customizable "all-purpose" templates to maximize the clients' and agencies' creativity. We've also launched several more templates, which require only text and no images, a popular option as we know many advertisers don't have images to use in an ad. Other facts Bender shared include: - Average CTRs, which significantly exceed industry averages - Templates, which require no images are by far the most popular (users don't have to upload any images) - We are finding that many advertisers are seeing their cost/conversions go down in content by using DAB, as compared to text campaigns. - Advertisers in every vertical are using the tool - Much usage and spend actually comes from users who have other display ads that they had designed in-house or by an agency. The DAB allows them to use the images they've already had designed, to upload them to a template, and then to quickly edit messaging for timely promotions, discounts, etc. for free. Google's Display Ad Builder can be accessed here under your AdWords account. It accepts image, Flash, video and other supported ad formats.

advertisers display images templates formats quot product google launch bender builder agency rich industry users media seeing languages crum text

AdWords users who use the English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Hebrew, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, or Brazilian Portuguese versions of AdWords will see the new AdWords interface next time they login to their accounts if they have not already. There are a number of changes within the new interface, and Google has taken the opportunity to highlight a few of them. "The first thing you'll notice when switching to the new AdWords interface is a clear difference in the look and feel of the campaign management pages," says Ruth Brennan on Google's Conversion Room blog. "In addition to this makeover, we have added a number of features to provide faster insight into performance and control over campaigns." Some of those features include: - Performance Summary Graphs - You can see customizable graphs at the account, campaign, and ad group levels, and choose up to two metrics to chart on each graph. - In-line editing - Edit ads, keywords, placements and bids directly within the tabs. Users don't have to visit a new page to make changes. - Actionable search query report - See the search queries that delivered clicks from individual keywords within your keywords tab, then add new keywords or negatives to your ad group right from the report. - Automatic placements report - View "Automatic placements" details on the Networks tab to see the sites on the Google Content Network where your ads have appeared. Users can easily add sites that are performing well to their managed placements, or exclude sites where they don't want to appear, right from within the report. - Filters - Users can set filters to restrict the data they're viewing to business rules they specify. "For example, see only the keywords that have a CTR below 1%, or those keywords which receive at least 10 clicks," says Brennan. Users who still need to adjust to the new interface can find help at the new AdWords interface microsite, as well as the new help center.

keywords quot adwords interface report google users sites placements changes graphs query brennan group clicks features campaign appear search filters

Google has launched the Google Ad Planner Publisher Center. This is a new feature of the Google Ad Planner that is designed to improve the quality and accuracy of site data. "The Publisher Center enables publishers to contribute directly to the site data provided in Google Ad Planner," explains Emel Mutlu at Google's Inside AdWords Blog. "Website owners can specify their site descriptions, content categories, supported ad formats and sizes, and share their Google Analytics traffic data in Google Ad Planner. With shared Google Analytics data, we can supplement our traffic estimates with actual, site-measured data from the publishers themselves. In turn, you'll have access to more robust and accurate information in Google Ad Planner to make better-informed decisions about which sites to include in your media plans." For AdSense publishers, the tool means that they can increase the visibility of their sites to potential advertisers. "As more advertisers become aware of your sites and bid to show ads on them, the competition among your ads will increase and so should your earnings potential," says Google Ad Planner Product Manager Wayne Lin. Google Analytics users who wish to manage their site profile in Google Ad Planner and opt in their traffic metrics need to enable "Share my Google Analytics data with Google products only" from the Google Analytics data sharing settings page. After that, they should go to their Google Ad Planner account, log in, and select the Google Analytics metrics they would like to share publicly. These metrics will then replace Ad Planner's estimates. For info is available at this help center. You can also watch the videos above.  

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Yahoo is testing the use of favicons in sponsored ads. When a user searches for your domain name, your favicon will appear in your sponsored result. Yahoo looks at the example of Expedia. You can see how it looks in the following screenshot: "What good does that do anyone?" asks Yahoo's Jeff Sweat. "Well, it’s just one more way for users to know they’re really looking at your site, which will improve the search experience. And if they know you’re really what they searched for, they may click on you more frequently, helping your click-through rate and improving your quality score." A couple months ago Google began testing Favicons in AdWords ads as well. We have not heard much more about this, but at the time, they were only testing them in Europe.  Favicons add just a little bit of branding to an otherwise bland text ads, and I see no reason why advertisers would not want their logo to appear next to their sponsored search results.

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Google is offering a look into its process for measuring and analyzing data from television ads. It's interesting to see the metrics they use and how they are trying to make television ads more relevant to viewers. "Television is becoming more like the web. Just as users click with their mouse to choose what's most relevant to them on the web, viewers send signals about what they want to see on television with clicks of the remote control," says Dan Zigmond, Technical Lead for Google TV Ads. Google analyzes data from set-top boxes, and looks at what channels they are tuned to on a second-by-second basis. Google uses tuning metrics like % Initial Audience Retained (%IAR) to see what percentage of the audience stays tuned through an entire ad. "Many factors affect audience behavior, including the nature of the programming, the time of day, the day of week, and, of course, the personality of each viewer. But ads themselves also have an impact," says Zigmond. "By identifying which factors affect tune-away, we can focus in on how the audience reacted to the ad itself." It's kind of like bounce rate for a web site. Zigmond says Google is getting closer to matching the right ads to the right TV audience, and that they are able to offer advertisers better measurement and more accountability for their TV campaigns. On another Google TV-related note, they are now providing a feature that makes it easier to produce your own ads through Adobe Premiere or Apple Final Cut Pro. "For each of these software packages, we've prepared a settings preset file which, once imported, makes exporting a video in the correct format a snap," explains Marek Jeziorek, Video Operations Manager for Google TV Ads. "These files are pre-programmed with the right settings to generate a video that complies with the Google TV Ads technical requirements." Settings and preset files can be downloaded at this help center. There is of course more information on how to use them as well.

google quot audience tune says television video relevant nquot preset technical factors data makes settings metrics zigmond affect viewers files

Google held its annual stockholders' meeting yesterday evening and to accompany that Co-founder Sergey Brin decided to re-share the 2008 Founders' Letter, which was originally published on Google's Investor Relations site. Brin says they wanted to make this more widely available so they posted it on the Official Google Blog. "Since 2004, when Google began to have annual reports, Larry and I have taken turns writing an annual letter," the letter begins. "I never imagined I would be writing one in the midst of an economic crisis unlike any we have seen in decades. As I write this, search queries are reflecting economic hardship, the major market indexes are one half of what they were less than 18 months ago, and unemployment is at record levels." The letter discusses the company's past as well as the future. It specifically discusses search, YouTube, Books, Geo, Ads, Apps, Chrome, Android, and AI. Here are just a few interesting nuggets to pull away from it: - In the past year alone we have made 359 changes to our web search — nearly one per day. - Integrating images into search remains a challenge, primarily because we are so reliant on the surrounding text to gauge a picture's relevance. In the future, using enhanced computer vision technology, we hope to be able to understand what's depicted in the image itself. - Every minute, 15 hours worth of video are uploaded to YouTube — the equivalent of 86,000 new full-length movies every week. Today, we are able to search the full text of almost 10 million books. - After the launch of Google Map Maker in Pakistan, users mapped 25,000 kilometers of uncharted road in just two months. - Last year, AdSense (our publisher-facing program) generated more than $5 billion dollars of revenue for our many publishing partners. - Today some Googlers have more than 25 gigabytes of email going back nearly 10 years that they can search through in seconds. - Today, almost a third of all Google searches in Japan are coming from mobile devices — a leading indicator of where the rest of the world will soon be. Within each category, the letter talks about ways that Google aims to improve, and that is perhaps the most intriguing part. The letter is a lengthy document, but if you've got some time to kill, it's very interesting and worth reading. It's pretty much a look at the state of Google on its many technological fronts.  

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As you are probably aware, Google offers local business ads, which are essentially AdWords ads associated with specific business locations. They appear on Google Maps, Google, and across Google's ad network. Earlier this year, Google announced the addition of four new links for these ads - "Get Directions," "Street View" where available, "Save to My Maps," and "Send." The links were introduced as an effort to help people better locate the business that was being advertised. Today, Google has launched a local business ads Interaction Report, which allows you to actually track how consumers are engaging with these links. The report includes such info as the number of times the info window was opened from the map and the left side of the screen, the number of clicks to your site that originated from the info window, and the number of clicks each from each of the aforementioned links (except for "send"). "The data in the report is intended to provide you with greater and more useful insight about your ads' ROI and ability to capture user interest," says Amanda Kelly of the Inside AdWords Crew. "Click-throughs to your website will be listed as usual in your AdWords account on the campaign, ad group, keyword, and ad variations pages." There is a step-by-step guide to how to use these reports available at the AdWords Help Center here. It will show you how to create an ad performance report with local business ads interaction columns like in the above image.

quot google business links adwords report local interaction info window maps reports step clicks throughs ntoday across greater launch screen

This June, Google will expand advertiser’s ability to bid on trademarked keywords worldwide in over 200 countries despite a class action lawsuit filed in Texas. The plan to do so illustrates Google’s confidence that trademark bidding is not a violation of trademark laws—apparently anywhere. Despite search rivals Yahoo and MSN banning the practice, Google continued to allow advertisers to bid on rival trademark keywords in the US and Canada so long as the rival trademark didn’t appear in the search ad itself. Google extended the policy to the United Kingdom and Ireland last year. The most famous example when this first issue popped up involved Mazda and Pontiac. When General Motors instructed TV viewers to google the Pontiac brand name, Mazda launched a keyword counterattack, targeting Pontiac keywords to promote its chief Pontiac Solstice rival, the MX-5 Miata. And so the debate began at large: Is a tactic like this a violation of trademark law? Does it constitute use in commerce? Google has been pretty successful defending itself in court against some rather small time players in the US, and has won similar cases in Germany. Moet, Hennessey, and Louis Vuitton, however, took it to Google in France, a ruling Google is appealing. Back in the US, lawyers out of Marshall, Texas, a district better known for a deluge of bogus class-action patent infringement lawsuits, have filed for class action status regarding the trademark keyword issue. While that sounds like a bad thing, Eric Goldman, Associate Professor of Law at Santa Clara University School of Law, suggests Google may actually benefit from a class-action suit so the issue can be settled once and for all, at least in the US. “If the class forms,” writes Goldman, “then Google can either (a) make its stand in a single case, fight to the death and try to win the lawsuit outright, effectively eliminating further challenges, or (b) more likely, settle up by paying an amount that represents a pinprick to its financial well-being but makes a few lawyers in Marshall, Texas rich enough to buy more cow pasture than they can shake a rattlesnake at. The settlement would then bind all trademark owners governed by the class, eliminating their right to sue. This could be cheap one-stop shopping for Google.” Goldman doubts, though, the judge in the case will actually grant class action status to the case, though. While Google clearly believes the company is on firm legal footing in the US, the legal team there apparently also believes they are on firm legal footing on the issue in about 200 countries worldwide.     

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Update: Google has addressed the issue on the Official Blog. The company says: An error in one of our systems caused us to direct some of our web traffic through Asia, which created a traffic jam. As a result, about 14% of our users experienced slow services or even interruptions. We've been working hard to make our services ultrafast and "always on," so it's especially embarrassing when a glitch like this one happens. We're very sorry that it happened, and you can be sure that we'll be working even harder to make sure that a similar problem won't happen again. All planes are back on schedule now. Original Article: In case you didn’t notice, Google had a bad hair day on Thursday. Users noticed a remarkable slowdown in nearly every facet of Google’s vast empire—from Gmail, to Google Search, Google Maps, Google Apps, Google Reader, Google News, Google Docs, Google Analytics, Blogger, AdSense, Images, etc. Twitter and Facebook, which both seemed to be doing fine, turned up a popular stream of complaint, distress, and panic over the Google outage. Frantic people who were addicted to Google Reader, trying to check their e-mail, or just wanting to get a piece of the news were first fidgety, and later enraged, when all things Google went kaput. The outages seemed to be localized in the U.S. European and Asian users were plugging along just fine. In some places, the outage lasted just one hour. In other places, workers were struggling all morning. At approximately noon on Thursday, the panic had subsided, and somewhere in the depths of Google, some technician was wiping the sweat off his brow. The outage, while a temporary inconvenience, points to a gargantuan issue: the world is dependent on Google. Just how integral is Google in our daily lives? More, perhaps, than we realize. The vast Google horizons have extended to affect how we check the weather, keep up to date with the news, communicate with the ones we love, and find what we’re looking for. The Thursday scare was a wake up call to the level of dependence, or independence, we may enjoy (or not enjoy) from Google’s ubiquitous presence. A phrase comes to mind:  “when Atlas shrugged…” Perhaps this was the day that Google shrugged. Soon, Google should have a report on what happened.

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 The online world is noisy enough as it is. Everyone is trying to get everyone’s attention to sell whatever it is they have. They fight and  scratch and claw to get above the din of the marketing noise. They fight to protect their brand and on and on and on. They also complain a lot. Seems like a lot of the news these days is about how some of the biggest enablers of online business like Facebook and Twitter are screw-ups and aren’t doing the right thing. Well, for the foreseeable future these two may be able to enjoy some relative peace and quiet as Google pops open its newest can of worms around its AdWords offering to allow trademarks of others to be used in certain ad copy of any advertiser. The fur is already starting to fly on this policy that will take effect on June 15. So what’s all the fuss? To hear Google say it they are opening up the market in a way that will benefit the advertisers and search users themselves. They use a nifty little example at the start of their blog post to put the reader in the desired frame of mind. Imagine opening your Sunday paper and seeing ads from a large supermarket chain that didn’t list actual products for sale; instead, they simply listed the categories of products available - offers like “Buy discount cola” and “Snacks on sale.” The ads wouldn’t be useful since you wouldn’t know what products are actually being offered. For many categories of advertisers, this is the problem they have faced on Google for some time. That is why, in an effort to improve ad quality and user experience, we are adjusting our trademark policy in the U.S. to allow some ads to use trademarks in the ad text. This change will bring Google’s policy on trademark use in ad text more in line with the industry standard. In Google’s humble opinion, they are simply finally playing along with what is considered common practice in the paid search space anyway. Heck, Yahoo and Microsoft are doing so don’t yell at us. They even haverules to keep this under control. Well, many advertisers, despite the real threat of higher per click costs due to increased competition (oh, Google’s post didn’t go there of course  ) are happy to hear this and they should be. They can now broaden their approach to selling through AdWords. It’s the trademark holders themselves that are up in arms. The New York Times tells of a class action suit being filed in Texas due to this already happening and raising the ire of some including a company called Firepond who is at the center of the suit. On Monday, FPX filed a class-action suit against Google in federal court in Texas, saying that Google had infringed on its trademark and challenging Google’s policies on behalf of all trademark owners in the state. Legal experts said it was the first class-action suit against Google over the issue. Where this all will go is anybody’s guess. Here’s one take. Legal experts said FPX faces long odds in convincing a court that it has the right to represent all trademark owners in Texas. Trademark cases do not lend themselves to class action because they tend to hinge on whether the use of someone’s trademark confuses people. This is not the only case of course that has Google in the cross hairs. Another company, Rescuecom, filed suit back in 2005 and a district court has recently resurrected that case which some feels poses more of a threat to Google. Whatever happens the door is now being thrown wide open for copycat cases and in this day and age of “revenue is revenue” it may be a company’s best shot to survive by shooting for a big court ordered payday from Google. This issue is going to be hotly contested regardless of opinions because they will be so varied depending on industries and individual companies etc, etc. Maybe Google should create some program for trademark holders to be registered with the company and be given some form of consideration. It’s anybody’s guess and, of course, the opinions will be many. One that has been already been stated “They are pouring fuel on the fire,” said Eric Goldman, an associate professor at the Santa Clara University School of Law and director of its High Tech Law Institute. “Trademark owners are not going to like this change in policy. They already felt that Google was not treating them as well as they liked. Here Google is making it harder to control the use of their trademarks online.” Google fires back “I think that there will be trademark owners that do not like this policy,” said Terri Chen, senior trademark counsel at Google. “But trademark law allows for that. It is a pretty well-established principle in the offline world and in the online world.” Be sure that between now and June 15th, and likely well beyond that, there will be a lot of yelling, screaming, kicking and clawing as Google just goes about its business. How do you feel about this? Give us your best Friday parting shot before you start the weekend. It’ll be good for you. Please don’t cross any trademark lines though because, you know, we have rules here. Comments

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Google has announced that AdWords advertisers can now import Google Analytics Goals and Transactions into their AdWords accounts to use as conversion actions. This allows users to track campaign return-on-investment (ROI), and optimize their accounts for conversions within the AdWords interface (the new one will soon be widespread). Previously, users would have had to install AdWords Conversion Tracking separately to use the feature, now they can just follow these steps: 1. Sign in to your Google Analytics account. 2. Click "Edit Account and Data Sharing Settings." 3. Make sure you've selected at least the "With other Google products only" options under "Share my Google Analytics data." 4. Click "Save Changes" to finish. 5. Go to your AdWords account 6. Navigate to the "Conversion Tracking" page from within your AdWords account. 7. Click "Link your Analytics goals and transactions" from the Conversion Tracking table. 8. Select the Goals or Transactions you want from the list. 9. Edit the action name so you can identify the goals in your AdWords reports. 10.  Select "Link" from the bottom of the table to finish. "One of the benefits of importing your Google Analytics Goals and Transactions into AdWords is that you can use them with the Conversion Optimizer, an AdWords CPA bidding tool that has been shown to help advertisers get more conversions from AdWords," says Emel Mutlu of Google's Inside AdWordsCrew. "Conversion Optimizer makes it a lot easier to manage your AdWords bidding and maximize results." If you want more tips on using conversion optimizer itself, Google has ten of them up here. Also check out the FAQ page.

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Google is expanding the Search Query Performance Report for AdWords. The goal is to provide users with more visibility into the performance of ads and to aid in the decision process. The report helps users optimize campaigns and manage phrase and broadmatch keywords by tracking performance of keyward variations that trigger ads. The tool should be especially helpful considering recent data from comScore showing that people are searching with longer queries, and PPC click growth is actually suffering. The report will now show all queries that resulted in a click, where the user hasn't specifically blocked their referrer URL. " In other words, this includes all queries that you would see in your server logs or if you use a tool like Google Analytics," explains Dan Friedman on Google's Inside AdWords Blog. "In requiring that the referrer URL be present, we are upholding our commitment to user privacy." With the update, users will likely see longer lists of queries in the reports, and many of them will have low traffic. "We encourage you to focus your decisions about the performance of your keyword variations on those variations that occur most frequently and have a significant amount of performance data," says Friedman. To run a search query performance report, sign into your AdWords account, click the "reports" tab, click "Create report," select "search query performance" as your report type. If you need help from there, this page at the help center should be of assistance.

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Google says AdWords' real-time targeting and reporting are ideal for finding an efficient way to reach customers in the economic downturn. The company has detailed six tactics for maximizing your AdWords investment. 1. Focus your ads on low prices and savings. "Consumers care about prices more than ever, especially on day-to-day purchases," says Google. "When someone searches on a particular product, you know they're interested; by using your ad to tell them that you've got the highest quality and the best price, you're more likely to earn their click." 2. Use value-related keywords. People are constantly looking for bargains. Google suggests using keywords that cater to this mentality. The company recommends using the AdWords Search-based keyword tool and Search Query Performance report to find higher-performing keywords that people are actually searching. 3. Make sure your ad groups are targeted and relevant. "Ads perform best when their ad text reflects the ad group's keywords; this makes ads more relevant to their intended audience," says Google. "Make sure that both the text and the keywords in each ad group focus on a specific topic or product." 4. Don't waste money on irrelevant clicks. Google suggests using negative keywords to filter out traffic from people looking for things that you don't offer. They use an example that if you sell peanut butter, you might want to use "allergy" as a negative keyword. 5. Make it easy for customers to buy. This tactic is all bout the landing page. Put some thought into your landing page, because people don't want to hunt around trying to find where they need to go to buy the item they clicked on the ad to buy in the first place. Why make it hard? It should be as easy a process as possible. 6. Focus your money on your high-performers. Google has a free conversion tracking tool that will let you see what keywords and ads are performing best. It is wise to focus your time and resources on the ones you are getting the most value out of. That's the six tactics Google provides for maximizing you AdWords investment. Performance is more important than ever when there is not as much money to play around with. If you're using PPC as an advertising method, focus on eliminating the waste of money by getting the most you can out of your campaigns. Google provides more resources for each of these tactics here.

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Google has released a new version of AdWords Editor. That of course means that there are some updates that come with it. For one, advertisers can now import CSV files. Users who make changes to their accounts in a spreadsheet or custom application can import their spreadsheet directly into AdWords Editor, then post new or edited items. To import a CSV file: 1. Prepare the CSV file 2. Import the CSV file 3. Resolve errors or warnings 4. Review imported changes I realize this is a little vague, but Google gives you a much more detailed outline around these steps here. Another update to AdWords Editor lets you download a campaign (or campaigns) you want to edit, and leave the rest of the account alone. You can choose to download or update only active campaigns. This prevents you from having to wait a long time for your account to download, when you only want to work with one or two campaigns. Go here for steps for adding a new account, downloading updates, changing campaigns you've downloaded, or downloading everything (full account). Google has also made changes to the Keyword Opportunities tool. The changes are designed to make it easier to manage your keyword data. Austin Rachlin of Google's Inside AdWords Crew explains: On the "Search-based keywords" tab (the AdWords Editor version of the Search-based Keyword Tool) you can now view and organize new keywords by topical category, letting you zero in quickly on the keywords that are most relevant to your account. Also, when you export or copy keywords, the Keyword Opportunities columns (such as Volume and Competition) are now included. As another response to advertisers' requests, you can now add terms to your account as either keywords, negative keywords, or campaign negative keywords. More info on Keyword Opportunities can be found here at this help center. You may also be interested in taking a look at the release notes for AdWords Editor version 7.5.1. Users of AdWords editor will be prompted to upgrade automatically when you go to use it. You will not have to re-download you account, and it won't affect comments and unposted changes.

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On Friday, the Interactive Advertising Bureau announced that the US had reached $5.5 billion in online ad revenue for the first quarter. This was down a bit from last year, but that's not too bad considering the state of the economy. In fact, you'd be hard pressed to find other ways to advertise your business that are as cost-effective. Do you think paid search is a good way for a local business to advertise? Tell WebProNews readers what you think. Online advertising helps you spread your message across the globe when that is your goal. Fortunately for small businesses, it can be quite effective on a local scale as well. In fact, new research from Borrell and Clickable, indicates that locally placed search advertising in the US alone is expected to grow 30% over the next 5 years, taking it from 4.1 billion in 2008 to $5.3 billion in 2013. That would be an average annual increase of $242 million. Still, only about half of businesses that buy search ads do so again the following year. Some think search engine advertising has been "overhyped" to small businesses, but those who aren't finding success with it should probably consider whether or not they're using all of the tools available to them before dismissing this advertising strategy as a failure. Google for one is very generous with the amount of tools, resources, and advice it gives its users. For example, just a week or two ago, they shared six ways to maximize AdWords investments like: 1. Focusing ads on low prices and savings 2. Using value-related keywords 3. Making sure ad groups are targeted and relevant 4. Not wasting money on irrelevant clicks 5. Making it easy for customers to buy 6. and focusing money on high performers Google offers tools like: - The Keyword Tool - The Search-based Keyword Tool - Google AdWords Traffic Estimator - The Google Adwords Learning Center - Google Trends - Google Insights for Search - Google Hot Trends ...not to mention Google Analytics (just to name a few). Last month, Google expanded its Search Query Performance Report for AdWords so users can see all queries that resulted in a click (in cases where users haven't specifically blocked referrer URLs). In terms of other resources, advertisers should be reading Google's blogs, watching Google's videos, and frequenting help centers and forums to stay abreast of the most current trends, features, and advice that Google shares. Trust me, there is a lot of it. And that's just Google. If you advertise with Yahoo, Microsoft, or whoever, there are resources out there for you as well. When it comes to keyword research, Christine Churchill of KeyRelevance has some good advice and more ideas for tools. In fact, you should watch the following three (relatively brief) clips from her and a couple others from last week's SMX Advanced conference: More WebProNews Videos More WebProNews Videos More WebProNews Videos The point of all of this is to raise the question: are the businesses who are finding little success with local search ads doing everything in their power to achieve success? I have a hunch that many of them are not. As the Wall Street Journal points out while reporting on the Borrell research, many of the advertisers don't even have websites to direct the ads to. As shocking as that may see this day and age, it's simply the truth, and I have to tell you - landing pages are a big part of the equation too. So the moral of the story is this: If you're going to use paid search to market your local business, do your homework, and use the tools that are available to you (many of which are free) to get the job done right. It's too powerful of a channel to simply ignore, particularly in a technologically evolving world where people want to get their info quickly (in the palm of their hand in increasingly many cases). And even if you're not ignoring it, you might as well be if you're doing it half-heartedly. How much success have you had with paid search as a local business? Do you utilize all of the resources available to you? Share your thoughts.

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People who may be affected by a class action lawsuit against Google have been receiving some interesting notices in their inboxes lately.  It looks like certain AdWords advertisers are on track to split a $20 million settlement starting September 14th.  The lawsuit stemmed from accusations that Google would sometimes exceed advertisers' daily budgets.  Google, while denying any wrongdoing, agreed to compensate them with $20 million in a mixture of cash and AdWords credits, and now it's down to the settlement hearing in September to determine exactly what will happen next. As explained in a settlement notice obtained by Barry Schwartz, "The purpose of the Settlement Hearing will be, among other things: (1) to determine whether the proposed Settlement Agreement is fair, reasonable and adequate to the Class and should be approved by the Court . . . and (2) to consider the reasonableness of an application by Representative Plaintiffs' Counsel for payment of attorney's fees and reimbursement of costs and expenses incurred in connection with the Action and for incentive compensation award to the Representative Plaintiffs." A preliminary arrangement would, as noted in April by Chris Crum, see lawyers getting $5,000,000, the two representative plaintiffs receiving $20,000 each, and everybody else dividing the $14,960,000 in leftovers. Affected advertisers may want to either plan for a little free credit, then, or get their paperwork in order if they for some reason want to be excluded from the legal class.

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Google announced today that it has two updates regarding the release of the New Adwords Interface. For one, they've made the interface available to everyone who uses AdWords Standard Edition. Secondly, Google has begun the migration process already with a small number of accounts. Google recently sent emails to users letting them know their accounts would be converted to the new interface in the coming weeks. The email said users had at least 30 days before their account would be updated, but Austin Rachlin of the Inside AdWords notes that most advertisers will actually have more than that, because 30 days is simply the minimum amount of time. Previous Interface   New Interface "We're taking a gradual and deliberate approach to ensure a smooth transition, and we won't upgrade your account until we're confident that the new interface meets your advertising needs," says Rachlin. Nevertheless, Google reminds us that the time to prepare is now if you have not already done so. There are plenty of resources at your disposal, the most significant one being the New Interface microsite, which offers videos, a list of new features, a list of things that have changed, and a quiz so that you can test your knowledge regarding the new interface. The moral of the story is, you may have some time left before you have to switch, but that it is not unlimited. You'd be doing yourself a huge favor by getting familiar with the new interface before the time comes.

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