Back From Vacation
Hello Everyone!
I am now back from my extended vacation. Thank you for your patience during my time off. You should start getting daily updates once again during the week starting today.
As a special treat for my return here is a special deal you can get to save 20% on a .COM domain name at GoDaddy!
gdm0312: Get a 6.95$ .COM registration at GoDaddy -- Expires 4/9/07
You can find more working 2007 GoDaddy Promo Codes at our special page.
Technorati Tags: GoDaddy, Promo Codes, Coupon, Coupons, Domain Name, Sale, Ironvine
Daylight Savings Time
Just a reminder to everyone that daylight savings time began yesterday, March 11th at 2:00am.
Remember to set your clocks forward 1 hour if you live in the proper time zones.
Hope you are not late to work today!
Cheers~
Weekly Google AdWords Update
Here is the Google AdWords weekly update all rolled up. Looks like there has been some exciting things happening while I was away.
REACH & FREQUENCY VIA REPORT CENTER
------------------------
This week, we launched Reach and Frequency metrics within Report Center that show how many people saw an advertiser's ads and how many times they saw them over a certain period of time.
• Reach and frequency data will be available at the site, Ad Group, and campaign levels for CPM site targeted campaigns starting after January 1, 2007.
• Reports are available for daily, weekly, and monthly time periods, as well as the cumulative daily stats (summary). At the site level, only weekly reports are available.
• Reach and frequency statistics are calculated using an IP-based estimation method as opposed to a cookie-based approach favored by some other companies.
PERSONALIZED HOMEPAGE – NEW FEATURES
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The Personalized Homepage team recently launched a few nice features to help users set up their pages and discover new content:
(1) "Magic" Tabs -- If you click "Add a tab" on your Personalized Homepage, you'll be prompted to enter a tab name. You'll also be given the option to have default content selected for you based on the name you've typed. A few particularly good examples: "Astronomy" "Travel" "Japan." This feature is implemented algorithmically based on community data.
(2) Item-to-item recommendations -- If you click the drop down arrow on one of your module headers, there will be a link "You might also like..." Clicking this gives item-to-item recommendations. This is also generated based on community data and is similar to Amazon's "Users you liked this also liked ..." feature.
(3) Ratings and Reviews -- The Personalized Homepage content directory now includes ratings and reviews. You can read reviews and comment on gadgets by clicking the gadget thumbnail in the directory. A gadget will receive a rating after more than two people have rated it
PLUS BOX: GOOGLE FINANCE LAUNCH
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We will soon launch Plus Box results for Google Finance content, which allows users to click and see additional finance-related information provided within web search results. For example, type [general electric] and click on the Plus Box to expand for more information.
ADWORDS EDITOR 3.0 NOW AVAILABLE FOR MAC
------------------------
AdWords Editor 3.0 is now available for Mac. Like the Windows version, AdWords Editor 3.0 for Mac now includes the ability to add/edit site-targeted campaigns, add/edit negative sites for keyword and site targeted campaigns, edit another account while posting in the background, and pause/resume ads, keywords, and sites.
INVALID CLICK ANNOUNCEMENT
------------------------
Last week, we announced Google's overall invalid clicks numbers on the Inside blog to provide you and your advertisers with more transparency into this subject. As you may receive questions from clients regarding this post, we want to make you aware of it.
With this update, we're letting you know that although the percentage of invalid clicks fluctuates, on average, it has remained less than 10% of all clicks. However, please note that this rate is an average across our entire system and is not indicative of the percentage of invalid clicks that have been detected and filtered out of an individual advertiser's account. To find this number, you should run an invalid clicks report.
In addition, we're announcing the percentage of clicks that are not pro-actively detected by our systems, but are instead credited for reactively. These undetected cases of invalid clicks constitute less than 0.02% of all clicks. In other words, for every ten thousand clicks on Google AdWords ads, fewer than two are reactively detected cases of possible click fraud. This proportion has stayed within this range every quarter since we launched AdWords, even as the issue of click fraud achieved more widespread media attention. In the cases of reactively detected invalid clicks, a refund or credit is provided to the advertiser, and we utilize the discovery as a feedback mechanism to improve our proactive detection systems.
Please take some time to read through the post at http://adwords.blogspot.com/2007/02/invalid-clicks-googles-overall-numbers.html
My Absense!
I'm sure you have noticed there has been nothing happening here for the last week or so, which is highly unusual due to the fact that I got married March 3rd and have been on part 1 of my honeymoon.
I will be here today and tomorrow then leaving for part 2. I will be back officially on the 26th with the regular routine.
Hopefully I will have internet access during the next week and will be able to post a few things.
Thanks for your understanding!
Technorati Tags: 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
Quick Google AdWords Posts & Updates
A few new posts over at Inside AdWords, covering a new beta CPC Site Targeting program and a review of Google Checkout.
Here is a quick summary of the 2 posts. (Removing the mundane parts and leaving the actual news worthy bits, for full info read the official post at Inside AdWords.)
Last June, Product Manager Eric Lange answered a number of our questions about Google Checkout. Today, we caught up with him again. Here's what we learned:
Can you give us a quick overview of Google Checkout?
[...]
You mentioned the shopping cart badge on AdWords ads - why are you using that?
[...]
You've been testing different badges. Any updates to report?
Yes, we're constantly testing different badge images to see what provides the best experience for shoppers. Recently we updated the image of the badge from a shopping cart to a Checkout button because we find the new design helps people find convenient and secure places to shop more easily.
Where should advertisers go to learn more about Checkout?
Advertisers can take a closer look on the Google Checkout homepage.
--
Posted By Inside AdWords crew to Inside AdWords
And the new beta program for CPC Site Targeted Ads.
Emel M., from the content network team, has information about a new beta for advertisers interested in cost-per-click site-targeted campaigns:
Site targeting is a feature that allows advertisers to choose individual sites in the content network where they want their ads to appear. Currently, advertisers using site targeting place bids on a cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM) basis. In March, we plan to begin testing a new site targeting feature to increase the flexibility and control advertisers have with site-targeted campaigns: cost-per-click (CPC) bidding.
CPC bidding has often been requested by advertisers who would like to utilize site targeting, but are not comfortable bidding on a CPM basis. Here are two examples of how CPC bidding can enhance your site targeting experience:
- Increased flexibility. Select the content network sites you want your ads to appear on and choose the bidding option that fits your needs. If clicks are your goal, try CPC bidding so you pay only when you get the result you want.
- Full control. Create new CPC site-targeted campaigns, or switch your existing campaigns between CPC and CPM at any time. As always, you retain full control over your budgets and bids.
If you're an AdWords advertiser located in the US and are interested in participating in the CPC site targeting beta, please fill out this short web form: http://services.google.com/ads_inquiry/cpc_sitetargeting. Please note that we are only able to select a limited number of advertisers from all that apply. If you're selected as a beta participant, we will contact you within the next couple of weeks.
To learn more about site targeting, click here.
--
Posted By Inside AdWords crew to Inside AdWords
Technorati Tags: Google, Google Adwords, AdWords, PPC, Paid Search, Search, Marketing, Search Marketing, Ironvine
Google Rumors and Yahoo Woes
Google AdWords Rumor
I hear that Google AdWords has an upcoming release with changes to the way the bid estimator functions. The new bid estimator will include data about how many clicks you will receive or how many you will miss based on your bid and position??
This could be a very helpful tool if it is accurate (right not the bid estimator generally isn't even close, which is why they are working on it). It could help you find high volume keywords that perform well, or be able to filter out high cost/high traffic keywords from your campaigns to minimize spend.
+++++++++--------------+++++++++
Yahoo Panama Woes
Still being frustrated with the current interface, tools, editorial and performance of the new Yahoo Panama.
The traffic seems to be there but it just seems to not convert on the same increase as the traffic. The new ranking model seems to have higher bid costs as well from what I have seen overall.
Yahoo's interface is certainly "Flashy" (excuse the pun) but it is lacking in very many tools to actually manage the account. Basically if you want to change anything you have to change it one at a time, with multiple clicks involved. If you have huge campaigns, say 100,000+ keywords, it makes the management task difficult to say the least.
Hopefully they will release a tool like AdWords Editor soon...
The editorial process has been the topic of several posts already in the past couple weeks, so I wont go into to much detail. There hasn't been a lot of change, the errors and messages it kicks back from the large number of keywords that get rejected are pretty vague. There are some bugs in it as well, including no "Edit" button to be able to correct the keyword on several that I have gone in to try and correct manually.
Work around that seems to help: cut and paste the list from the editorial rejections, then submit another bulk upload with those keywords. Apparently the second time it goes through it seems to process more of them. Very labor intensive way of doing it I admit, but when you compare it to going in one at a time, you do save a few minutes if you have more than 25 to do.
Sharpen up those Excel skills, =VLOOKUP is your friend.
Technorati Tags: Google, Yahoo, YSM, AdWords, PPC, Blog, Search Marketing, Paid Search, Online Marketing, Ironvine
3 New GoDaddy Promo Codes
Here are 3 great promo codes to help get your new domain name!
Check out our main GoDaddy Promo Codes page for more non-expiring sales!
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LIFE3: Get 5$ off any order of 30$ or more at GoDaddy.
LIFE1: Get 6.95$ .COM registration at GoDaddy Includes Renewals & Transfers!
If you have more codes please share them as well. Feel free to comment about GoDaddy.com Hosting Plans or codes below.
Technorati Tags: GoDaddy, Domain, URL, Domain Name, Promo, Promotion Code, Promo Codes, Coupons, Domain Sale, Ironvine
Google AdWords Downtime
Google AdWords has some scheduled downtime this Saturday, Feb 10, 2007.
Here's a quick heads up from our tech team:
On Saturday, February 10th, the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PST due to system maintenance. While you won't be able to log into your accounts during this time, your campaigns will continue to run as usual. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Technorati Tags: Google, AdWords, PPC, Paid Search, SEM, AdWords Blog, Ironvine
ChannelAdvisor’s New SearchAdvisor Solution
Big news for all those online retailers who want a solution to manage their online marketing in a broad way with one single service. If that is what you are looking for, take a look at ChannelAdvisor's new SearchAdvisor.
Big news from ChannelAdvisor today for eTailers that want to cost-effectively manage and scale their paid search campaigns without adding costly resources or sacrificing ROI targets. Today we are launching our new SearchAdvisor product after a lot of kick-*** work from our engineers over the last few weeks.
They have essentially taken our cool in-house search platform, sprinkled some pixie dust on it and turned it into the single solution to manage keywords on a product or sales margin basis for Google, Yahoo!, MSN and Ask.com (yes, all of them), allowing you to know which keywords drive the most profit…and which keywords fail to drive a profit.
What does SearchAdvisor do for online retailers? Lots of great things:
- Integrated Campaign Management
Use a single interface to create, manage and analyze paid search campaigns.- Search Marketing Analytics
Robust reporting that allows you to optimize campaigns based on the profitability of individual keywords enabling you to view campaign performance by order, products sold or revenue generated.- Bulk Campaign Upload
Define your search marketing campaigns and keywords, then launch your paid search marketing efforts to all supported engines with a single click.- Automated Bid Management
Create and manage bidding rules that automatically adjust your bid strategies based on performance, eliminating the daily workload which allows you to focus on your overall success.- Multi-Channel Reporting
Integrate and track all of your multi-channel performance including paid search, natural search and comparison shopping engines from a single application allowing you to maximize your time and profitability.- Landing Page Optimization
View the performance and compare landing pages based on combined revenue, expense, conversion rates and profitability across all channels.If creating, analyzing and optimizing multiple campaigns on multiple search engines or evaluating and acting on per-term profitability is giving you headaches, SearchAdvisor may just be that silver bullet you’re looking for.
Technorati Tags: ChannelAdvisor, SearchAdvisor, Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, Search Marketing, CSE, Comparison Shopping, eBay, Paid Search, Ironvine
On Internet there are many web development services providers, which also provide you web design tips. You can also find several cheap domain registration websites. Most of the servers on Internet are providing online backup to secure your data. You can also buy backup software from market. The new ways of marketing like search engine marketing are very efficient to promote website.
New Yahoo Ranking Model Launches Today 2-5-07
Today the expected new ranking model was launched by Yahoo! Search Marketing (Feb. 5, 2007). As I have talked about in previous posts (Yahoo Search Marketing Upgrade News, Upcoming Changes to Paid Search) the effects of this still have some mystery. Will ad costs go up, down, improve or worsen rankings.
I think my biggest concern right now with Yahoo is their editorial process and requirements. I actually have an email into them right now asking about exactly how strict they are and how to deal with certain issues, like not having the exact keyword or majority of the keyword phrase displayed on the landing page, why they require that you have brand terms in the ad title and description(??), how they expect us to manage, move and change keywords, ads, and adgroups without using the spreadsheet (which is very difficult to set up or manipulate existing keywords).
My guess is that they drew the line on their editorial process to be able to use the ranking model and make it look like an immediate success with strictly functioning ads, not the best performing ones. The usability right now for Yahoo, and the performance vs Google(usability and performance) and even MSN (performance) is pretty low with the new Panama release.
**They need to give advertisers some tools to be able to manage an account before they start mass killing or restricting or modifying keywords, ads, or adgroups.
The advertiser mail notification is posted below.
New Ranking Model Launches Today, February 5, 2007
We're excited to announce that the new ranking model has launched
today, February 5, 2007, in our U.S. market. The new ranking model is
designed to improve user results through higher quality search ads.
When users engage with these higher quality search ads, advertisers
will receive more interested, valuable potential customers, helping
to drive better results for your business.As we previously announced, both bid amount and ad quality
now
determine an ad's rank in search results.
Your bid is the maximum amount that you're willing to pay when your
ad is clicked. You will never be charged more than this amount.Your ad's quality is determined by:
- The ad's historical performance—determined by its click-through
rate relative to its position on the page.- The ad's expected performance, relative to competing ads displayed
at the same time—determined by various relevance factors considered
by Yahoo!'s ranking algorithms.You can gain an understanding of an ad's quality by looking at its
quality index.Example of How Ads may be Ranked
The graphic below helps illustrate a scenario that may result from
this change:
Learn more about the new ranking model. Learn more about the quality index.
Five Things to do to Take Advantage of the New Ranking Model
To take advantage of the new ranking model, you should:
- Include keywords in your ads (use our Insert Keyword feature).
- Choose keywords for each ad group carefully.
- Use ad testing.
- Use Excluded Words to optimize your Advanced match type ads.
- Review your current bids and set a campaign budget to meet your
business goals.For more details, please click here.
Important Note on Forecasting
Starting today, February 5, with the roll-out of the new ranking
model, we will offer several tools to use in making bidding
decisions. However, there will be a seven- to ten-day transition
period during which the "Estimated Clicks per Bid" forecasting tool
will begin to accumulate data from the new ranking model in order to
provide more recent historical traffic estimates. After these seven
to ten days, you can have greater confidence in using this tool. In
the meantime, we recommend that you use the "Bid Range for Top
Positions" information to help guide your bidding decisions.
~Steve
Technorati Tags: Yahoo, Yahoo Panama, Yahoo Search Marketing, Search Marketing, Paid Search, Online Advertising, SEM, Panama, Ironvine
Google’s Going Personal
Today brings us some Google news. They have enabled or rolled out a new procedure on personalized searches. If you have a Google account, (Gmail, etc.) then now, by default you will see personalized Google results.
In general this is probably a safe move for Google to do, most people want or will use a more focused search result. As a search marketer that could actually hurt you and confuse your clients. They could end up seeing their results as a far different ranking than what the natural really is. It will just depend on their computer/Google settings.
You should make sure that you have the personalized search turned off if you want to get true ranking results.
Here is the official word from the Google Blog:
Google's goal has always been to give you exactly the information you want right when you want it. With the growth of the Internet and all the new information coming online every day, this might sound hard.
We're constantly trying to improve the quality of your search results. One of the ways we're tackling this is by personalizing your search experience. After all, you're the only one who actually knows what you're really looking for.
We have two main ways of personalizing your Google experience. First, you can customize products and services like the Google Personalized Homepage. Personalizing your homepage gives you the at-a-glance information that you care about—such as your latest Gmail messages, news headlines, or to-do list—right at your fingertips, just the way you want it.
Second, we offer automatic personalization through things like personalized search and recommendations. Our goal with these types of technologies is to make your Google search experience better based on what we know about your preferences, without you having to do any extra work.
Today, we're taking another step toward making personalization more available to you by combining these two into a single signed-in experience. Now, when you're signed in, you'll have access to a personalized Google—one that combines personalized search results and a personalized homepage.
Keep in mind that personalization is subtle—at first you may not notice any difference. But over time, as the search engine learns your preferences, you'll see it. For example, I (Sep) am an avid Miami Dolphins fan (no joke). Searching for [dolphins] gives me info about my favorite football team, while a marine biologist colleague gets more information about her salt-water friends.
If you don't want to see personalized results, just sign out of your Google Account. After all, the goal is to give you what you want when you want it. So give it a whirl and let us know what you think.
Labels: personalization, Personalized Homepage
Technorati Tags: Google, Search, Search Marketing, SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Blog, Ironvine, Personalized Search