Yahoo Ambassador
I passed my Yahoo Ambassador certification exam today.
That completes the current market suite of certifications. Hopefully soon Microsoft comes out with their certification.
If you still need to take the Yahoo test here is a good reference for the character limits on Yahoo.
http://ironvine.com/blog/index.php/archives/yahoo-search-marketing-20-panama-maximum-limits/
AdWords Editor 3.0 Now Available
AdWords Editor 3.0 is now available for free download for PC users.
If you already have AdWords Editor, it will automatically update next time you run the program.
Here are a few of the changes in version 3.0.
- Add or edit site-targeted campaigns
- Add or edit negative sites for keyword- and site-targeted campaigns
- Edit another account while posting or checking your changes
- Pause or resume individual ads, keywords, and sites
- See the number of rows you've selected in the data view
Technorati Tags: Google, Google AdWords, AdWords, PPC, Online Marketing, Paid Search, Search Marketing, Ironvine
Microsoft adCenter Issue Last Friday
Here is the word that Microsoft adCenter released regarding the bug they had in their system last Friday.
As a recap, they had a bug very similar to Google's where the CPC's got charged over the set maximum CPC. So advertisers ended up getting charges like $1500 for a keyword that would have only cost $100 (or more simply 1.05 instead of .05).
Hello,
A number of customers are seeing very high Average CPC and spend amounts in adCenter over the last 24 hours that are well above their bid amounts for keywords. This issue has been contained and remedied by our development team. You will not be responsible for the CPCs above your max bid amounts.
If you manually paused your campaign this morning due to questions surrounding your CPC you should reactivate these campaigns at this time. We are gathering more information regarding next steps for campaigns that have hit budget pause. I will keep you posted as I receive additional information regarding next steps for these campaigns.
We apologize for any inconvenience that this has caused and appreciate your continued business.
Thanks!
Technorati Tags: MSN, Microsoft, adCenter, PPC, Online Marketing, Paid Search, Search, Advertising, Ironvine
Ask.com and MSN adCenter Issues
Ask.com is a search provider we don't talk about very often. Honestly it's because there is little exciting news surrounding it. Most often I hear about service issues with them and don't bother to mention, but I will today since I don't think I have before.
Ask.com reporting cost for 2/21 and 2/22 is delayed. Since yesterday, Ask.com has been reporting problems with their API's (connectivity issues, reporting web service failures, etc.) The latest update from Ask.com is that they are still experiencing issues. Ask.com is treating this as an urgent priority is working to get them resolved.
So for any advertisers that use the API, be aware of the issues on Ask.com.
Stepping up from Ask.com is Microsoft adCenter.
It appears that many customers on adCenter are experiencing higher than set limit bids for their keywords. MSN has acknowledged these and will not be holding advertisers responsible for the bug in their system for the extra costs.
Make sure to review any MSN campaigns you have running to verify that things are not incurring a high per click cost.
No word on the adCenter Blog regarding this publicly.
Technorati Tags: Ask.com, Ask, Paid Search, Search API, Search Marketing, Marketing, Ironvine
Google Quality Score Rollout
Yesterday per the Inside Adwords blog, Quality Score updates began rolling out last evening and will last over the next 3 to 4 days before completion.
Quality Score updates are live
Last week, we released the Quality Score column and let you know that we would soon be making improvements to our Quality Score evaluation. Now, Avichal from the ads quality team is back with a quick update:
Today, we began rolling out improvements to the Quality Score algorithm, which will update the Quality Score for keywords in your account over the next 3 to 4 days. As I mentioned last week, the goal of this change is to improve the quality of ads that we serve to our users by making it easier for high quality ads to enter the auction while also discouraging low quality ads. In addition, this change improves our ability to set minimum bids for keywords where we have limited data. As a result, you may see the minimum bid for your keywords increase or decrease based on the updated algorithm.
To better understand the quality of your keywords after this change, we suggest that you enable the Quality Score column. This will allow you to quickly view the quality of the keywords in each of your ad groups so that you can make improvements. For example, if you notice that the minimum bid increases for a number of your keywords, you may want to consider optimizing your ad group to make it more relevant or deleting the keywords that have high minimum bids.
Please, for the sake of your accounts, enable the Quality Score column and review the changes to your accounts as soon as you can. After the latest bug I would keep a close eye on keyword increases and Inactive keyword listings.
You will want to look at the minimum bids for each keyword especially to make sure that they are not set to an abnormal amount (like 1.00-5.00-10.00 min bids).
Google AdWords Qualified Individual
Today I completed my Google Advertising Professional Exam!
I am a Google Qualified Individual. Cheers!
The test was fairly challenging and the time limit was rough with the slow loading pages, but I passed which was the goal.
What is the significance of being Qualified? (Personally I like the warm, fuzzy feeling...)
Qualified Individuals and Qualified Companies within the Google Advertising Professionals program have passed the Google Advertising Professionals Exam and have met other requirements in order to achieve this level of recognition. By attaining Individual or Company qualfication, you'll receive:
- Google's recognition as a tested and Qualified AdWords Individual or Company.
- The official AdWords Qualified Individual or Company Logo, which can be displayed on your website and in many other materials to showcase your skills and help attract clients.
- Distinction as a skilled professional.
- A Professional Status page which profiles your business name and displays Google's validation that you're an authentic Qualified Individual or Company within Google Advertising Professionals program.
- Promotional credits at a higher value, which can be applied to new client accounts to help bring in more business.
- A warm, fuzzy feeling for this grand accomplishment.
Next comes the Yahoo Ambassador exam and certification.
Technorati Tags: Google, Google AdWords, AdWords, Ironvine
Upcoming eBay Workshops
eBay has 4 workshops for eBay marketers and advertisers happening this week.
These workshops are free and offer good tips and strategies for selling online and with eBay.
10 Things No One's Ever Told You About Starting Your eBay Business
This workshop will be held on Tuesday, February 20th from 11:00 am PT to 12:00 pm PT.
Five steps to success in 2007!
This workshop will be held on Wednesday, February 21st from 12:00 pm PT to 1:00 pm PT.
Attract more buyers with Markdown Manager!
This workshop will be held on Thursday, February 22nd from 2:00 pm PT to 3:00 pm PT. Buyers love a good Sale . Give them what they want with Markdown Manager!
Taking it to the Next Level!
This workshop will be held on Friday, February 23rd from 2:00 pm PT to 3:00 pm PT.
If you would like more information, read the eBay workshop notification.
Technorati Tags: eBay, Marketing, Online Sales, Workshop, Marketing Training, Ironvine
Google AdWords Bug Response
Finally, word from Google about what happened.
There are still some high costs being incurred, so I don't know if this fix was supposed to take care of these, or if its just the new quality score generating Google revenue.
Any feedback on what you have experienced vs. what Google says below? Feel free to comment.
Unexpected Minimum Bid Increases
Last Friday, during a routine infrastructure update, we experienced a technical issue that significantly increased the minimum bids for some keywords. Because the maximum CPC for these keywords was not changed, a number of impacted keywords became inactive for search, resulting in fewer leads for some advertisers. This technical issue was completely unrelated to the Quality Score updates that we have planned for later this week. We sincerely apologize for any disruption that it may have caused to your traffic. Below, we've answered a number of questions that we've heard since Friday:
When was this issue resolved?
This issue was resolved by our engineers on Saturday morning (PST) for the vast majority of impacted keywords. The minimum bids for these keywords have since returned to normal.Will you be issuing credits?
Once we have completed our analysis of the impact, we'll automatically issue credits to advertisers who overpaid due to this issue. As soon as these credits have been applied, we'll email the affected advertisers to let them know.I paused some of my ad groups because the minimum bids increased and they are still unusually high. What should I do?
If you paused any of your ad groups on Friday due to this issue, we recommend that you unpause them, but do not raise your maximum CPC. Unpausing your ad group should allow the minimum bid to return to normal without taking any other action.Will this happen again?
Our engineers have been working tirelessly to understand why this issue occurred and to ensure that the proper measures are in place so that this is not repeated in the future.Does this issue reflect the upcoming Quality Score improvements?
No, this issue is not related to our upcoming Quality Score improvements, which remain scheduled for later this week.
We greatly apologize for this issue. Please let us know if you have additional questions that you'd like us to answer on the blog.
Technorati Tags: Google, AdWords, Google AdWords, Paid Search, Search, Marketing, Search Marketing, PPC, Ironvine
Google AdWords Update
There is still no official public word from Google about the AdWords Quality Score bug. Google reps have been admitting the bug and have been working with advertisers to grant reimbursements for the overcharging however.
Several accounts I know of or work with still have same overcharging issues.
There has been improvement with the number of keywords that were changed to have very high minimum bids however. Today vs Friday there are only a few of what there were.
At least that is one improvement.
Overall though it seems that the changes cause more cost to what things were running a week ago.
More money for Google, but with a few bandaids left hanging.
Technorati Tags: Google, AdWords, Google AdWords, Marketing, Online Marketing, PPC, Paid Search, Ironvine
AdWords Quality Score Bug Issues
Wow, when Google AdWords does a quality score min CPC update they do an update.
There are 2 main issues, first the $.50, $5.00, and $10.00 minimum bids, and then the actual change of bids to AdGroups (and keywords??)
There seems to be a common theme to the outrageous minimum bid increases that happened on Google AdWords today. There are lots of really high minimum bids for keywords in your account now.
For keywords that don't perform in your account (high traffic on Google, but no/low impressions or clicks on your account, landing page?)
Inactive for search
Increase quality or bid $10.00 to activate
For keywords that don't perform in your account (lower traffic on Google, and no/low impressions or clicks on your account, landing page?)
Inactive for search
Increase quality or bid $5.00 to activate
For keywords that perform so-so in your account (lower traffic on Google, and not too many impressions but decent clickthrough, landing page?)
Inactive for search
Increase quality or bid $0.50 to activate
Next Issue,
It also looks like Google has changed the bid for several AdGroup level bids. I have AdGroups with strange increased bids like $9.56. Now I'm pretty sure I would (or any human) change an AdGroup bid to $9.56. My assumption is that it was changed during the QS update today.
I don't know if there have been actual changes to bids at the keyword level, but keywords have been set to Inactive status if they do not meet the minimum bids now.
I have heard reports of people paying $5/click for things normally at $0.25. Another example is some branded adgroups costing $1000+/day when they are usually less than $100/day. This could prove costly for a lot of advertisers with "specific" "branded" or "variation" keywords that either perform or don't.
Technorati Tags: Google, AdWords, Google AdWords, PPC, Bug, Online Marketing, Paid Search, Ironvine
Pausing in AdWords
As of yesterday 2/25/07, you can now pause and resume keywords, sites, and ad creatives in Google AdWords. This function is basically the same feature we have had at the Campaign level, but now it has been extended for broad use.
I'm curious to know if this will help or hinder any AdGroup level quality scores. If a keyword isn't working or needs a "time out" the pause feature will be very handy. The same follows for ad creatives, especially if you have a promotion or something you need to have ads running only a certain time period, then resume the previous working creatives.
Technorati Tags: Google, AdWords, Google AdWords, PPC, Online Marketing, Marketing, Ironvine
DentistKids.com and TeenOrtho.com for sale
If anyone is interested in these two domains [DentistKids.com and TeenOrtho.com] you can find them for sale at www.afternic.com or contact me here.
Technorati Tags: Domain, Domain Names, Afternic, Ad, Ironvine