Inside Adwords

As many of you know, we started the Go Mobile! series of posts on the Inside AdWords blog to give you an easy way to keep up with the world of mobile advertising.

The mobile industry has really evolved since the start of the series: mobile is becoming a core part of many marketing campaigns and publishers are developing mobile-specific content across the web and in applications across mobile operating systems. We’re even more excited about the prospects for driving further innovation in mobile now that AdMob has joined the Google Mobile Ads team.

With this in mind, we created a dedicated blog for those of you specifically interested in mobile advertising and mobile monetization. The Google Mobile Ads Blog is a place where advertisers and publishers can find the latest news, product updates, tips, and account management resources from the Google Mobile Ads team.

Of course we'll continue to post major Google Mobile Ads announcements on the Inside AdWords blog, but be sure to visit the official Google Mobile Ads Blog for all of your mobile-specific updates.

Mobile has come a long way in a short period of time and we can’t wait to see what’s next.

Posted by Anna Khesed, Product Marketing Manager, Google AdMob

There's lots of misinformation floating around the web about the way AdWords works, and our AdWords support teams get to hear most of it. Since many of the same issues seem to keep popping up again and again, we thought we’d run a blog series to help you separate the myths from the facts. We’ve tried to capture the most persistent of them here, but remember, if you ever have any AdWords questions, you can always pop over to the AdWords Help Center or AdWords Help Forum for an answer.

Myth # 1: Spending money on Google AdWords will influence my website’s ranking in Google's free search results.

Fact: Google AdWords and Google’s free search results are entirely independent of one another. Spending money on AdWords won’t impact your ranking in Google's free search results. Similarly, cancelling your AdWords account won’t lead to your website being banned from Google’s search results. If you’d like to learn more about what does go into ranking your website in Google search results, check out Google Webmaster Central.

Myth # 2: Google AdWords has declined my credit card.

Fact: Google itself doesn’t actually decline credit cards. The decline usually takes place at your bank, your card-issuing institution, or its payment processor.

If your credit card gets declined, your first step should be to check and make sure you’ve filled out the Billing Preferences page correctly. Some common mistakes include:

• Missing or invalid credit card number or security code
• Missing or invalid expiration date
• Missing or invalid billing address and/or telephone number

Once you’ve gotten that squared away, make sure that there aren’t any problems with your card itself. Be on the lookout for issues with your:

• Credit limit
• Maximum amount per debit
• Number of possible debits within a certain period

If any of these are too low for your AdWords account, contact your bank or card-issuing institution. You should also be sure that your card allows for online debits and automatic debits.

Next week we’ll be discussing AdWords clicks and keywords myths, so stay tuned!

Posted by Miles Johnson, Inside AdWords crew

This Wednesday, July 21st, we'll be hosting a live online course on remarketing. This interactive presentation will be delivered by a Display Network specialist and will take place from 15:00 to 16:00 GMT, including time for Q&A.

During this session we'll take you through the benefits of using remarketing, who it's best for and how to set it up in your account. If you advertise with AdWords and get a large number of visitors to your website, then we encourage you to attend.

If you're interested, be sure to sign up now.

Posted by Miles Johnson, Inside AdWords crew

After a successful open beta test in the UK and Canada, we're pleased to announce that the broad match modifier is now rolling out globally in most languages*. To recap the original broad match modifier beta launch announcement:

The broad match modifier is a new AdWords targeting feature that lets you create keywords which have greater reach than phrase match and more control than broad match. Adding modified broad match keywords to your campaign can help you get more clicks and conversions at an attractive ROI, especially if you mainly use exact and phrase match keywords today.

To implement the modifier, just put a plus symbol (+) directly in front of one or more words** in a broad match keyword. Each word preceded by a + has to appear in your potential customer's search exactly or as a close variant. Close variants include misspellings, singular/plural forms, abbreviations and acronyms, and stemmings (like “floor” and “flooring”). Synonyms (like “quick” and “fast”) and related searches (like “flowers” and “tulips”) aren't considered close variants.

The graphic below illustrates the relative reach of different keyword match type strategies.

(click for full size image)

Be sure there are no spaces between the + and modified words, but do leave spaces between words. Correct usage: +formal +shoes. Incorrect usage: +formal+shoes.

Here’s what one major UK retail company said about their experience using the feature:

We're always interested in ways to increase our volumes while keeping our CPA down. As a result, we've added broad match modified keywords to several campaigns where previously we only had phrase and exact match keywords. After a few weeks of testing, we're pleased to see these campaigns showed significant increases in conversion and volume, whilst keeping the CPA down. Therefore, we will be looking to scale our use of modified broad match keywords in all our campaigns to take full advantage of these great results.

If you mainly use broad match keywords in your account, you should know that switching your existing broad match keywords to modified broad match will likely lead to a significant decline in your click and conversion volumes and will not directly improve Quality Score. To maintain volume, keep existing broad match keywords active, add new modified broad match keywords, and adjust bids to achieve your target ROI based on the results you see.

You can begin using the feature by logging into your AdWords account, through the AdWords Editor and through the AdWords API. For more details, guidelines on usage, and answers to common questions, check out the original blog post and the AdWords help center.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

*Except Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Arabic and Hebrew languages, which are coming soon. We’ll update this post when the feature becomes available in those languages.

On June 3rd, we invited you to participate in the launch of our new Billing tab– giving you more control over when and how much you're charged. Today, we're excited to announce the new Billing tab's wider launch. Although some of you already have the new tab in your account, we'll be rolling it out to all advertisers in the coming months. The upgrade doesn't require any action from you -- your billing method and form of payment will stay the same.

The new Billing tab comes with a number of benefits and a few terminology changes. For example, you now have the option to switch between automatic and manual payments.

For more information on the new Billing tab, please check out the FAQ in the AdWords Help Center.

Posted by Miles Johnson, Inside AdWords crew

In 2009, we launched location extensions, which allows you to "extend" your AdWords campaigns by dynamically attaching your relevant business address to your ads. Today we're introducing a new enhancement to location extensions that lets you show multiple business addresses in a particular area.

For example, if a potential customer is looking for a Toys"R"Us store in their area, the ad can now show them all the nearby locations so they can find the one closest to them.

Including multiple addresses within location extensions helps you by:

• Showing multiple addresses that are relevant to a potential customer's location (up to four at a time);
• Updating results dynamically whenever someone moves the map; and
• Enhancing ads with relevant information about your business to drive in-store traffic.

This feature is available now to primary business owners who have enabled location extensions with Google Places listings. Currently, location extensions with multiple addresses are available in the United States and many other countries/regions - please visit this link to see if this feature is available in your country.

To learn more about location extensions with multiple addresses, including additional information about reporting and filtering, please see the information we’ve put together on the Help Center.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

"Are my ads showing? If they aren't, why not?"

Whether you have ten keywords or ten thousand, making sure your ads are showing is a top priority. Now you can get detailed diagnostic information for multiple keywords at once by using a new keyword diagnosis option on the Keywords tab.

To get started, open the "More actions" menu on your Keywords tab (at the account, campaign, or ad group level) and select "Diagnose keywords."


On the keyword diagnosis menu, you have all the options available in the standalone Ads Diagnostic Tool. For example, if you're interested in seeing whether or not your ad is showing in a particular location, you can use the Location drop-down to narrow the scope of your diagnosis.


After clicking "Run test," you'll see the real-time results appear in the Status column next to each keyword. If all is well, you see "Ad showing." If not, you'll see a brief summary of the problem (for example, "Low bid or quality score"):



To get more details on a keyword's status, hover over any speech bubble icon. In the above example, viewing details for the keyword "meeting icebreakers" displays more information on the Quality Score issues that are preventing the ad from showing. To focus on one issue at a time, try creating filters for Keyword Status.

The next time your keywords need a check-up, try using keyword diagnosis -- it even makes house calls!

Posted by Miles Johnson, Inside AdWords crew

Over the last year, we’ve introduced a number of new advertising features to help merchants provide potential customers with the most relevant information when they’re searching on Google.com. For example, last year we introduced product extensions, which allows you to include the pictures and prices of the products you sell, right below your ads.

Starting today we’re introducing a new feature, called seller rating extensions, that makes it easier for people to identify highly-rated merchants when they’re searching on Google.com. Seller rating extensions does this by attaching your merchant star rating from Google Product Search to your AdWords ads. These star ratings, aggregated from review sites all around the web, allow people to find merchants that are highly recommended by online shoppers like them.


If your online store is rated in Google Product Search, you have 4 or more stars, and you have at least 30 reviews, you’ll automatically get seller ratings with your ads. What’s more, you’ll only be charged if someone clicks on the headline of your ad - clicks on the review link are free.

At this time, seller rating extensions will show to English-language users searching on Google.com. Please note that because we’ll be rolling out seller rating extensions over the next 24 hours, you may not see it immediately, even if your ads meet the qualifications above.

To learn more about seller rating extensions, including how to manage when they appear with your ads, you can read the FAQ in the AdWords help center.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

A couple of weeks ago, we announced the Conversion Champion Challenge, a contest to help you get your ROI in shape for the summer using free AdWords conversion products. It’s not too late to enter and compete to win the grand prize – an AdWords voucher and a trip to Google!

Whether you’re just getting started or actively working to get your conversion rate in shape, here are some best practices for getting the most out of two key conversion products: Conversion Optimizer and Search Funnel reports.


Tips for using Conversion Optimizer

• Save time by letting Conversion Optimizer manage your bids to reach your ROI goals (On average, campaigns that use Conversion Optimizer experience a 21% increase in conversions and a 14% decrease in cost-per-conversion )*.
• Choose to bid using the metric that you’re most comfortable with: Target Cost per Acquisition (CPA) or Max CPA.
• Set different CPA bids for each ad group if conversions in one are more valuable to you than they are in another.
• Let Conversion Optimizer run for a couple weeks to give it a chance to acclimate to your campaign’s performance.
• Test Conversion Optimizer on a single campaign if you’re not ready to make large scale changes to your account. If you ever choose to turn it off, you’ll be able to return to the Max CPC bids that you’d previously set.
• Learn more and check out success stories from advertisers who’ve used Conversion Optimizer.

Tips for using Search Funnel Reports

• Run Search Funnel Reports within your AdWords account to figure out which ads and keywords potential customers clicked on leading up to a conversion.
• Identify keywords that are driving conversions and ensure that you’re bidding competitively on them.
• Identify the keywords you're paying for but aren't leading to conversions and decrease your bids on them accordingly.
• Use the Time Lag and Path Length reports to understand how long (time and number of searches) it takes before conversions typically happen on your site. This can help you determine how long to run your campaigns.
• Learn more about Search Funnel Reports.

We can’t wait to hear about your experiences, so let us know how it goes by entering the Conversion Champion Challenge.

Posted by Miles Johnson, Inside AdWords crew

*This analysis compares the performance of Conversion Optimizer campaigns over the course of a year with a control set of campaigns and represents the average impact of Conversion Optimizer. The actual impact will vary from campaign to campaign.

When you optimize your AdWords account, you probably start with a primary goal in mind. Some advertisers focus on increasing traffic, while others care more about keeping costs down or monitoring return on investment.

The keyword, bid, and budget ideas you currently see in the Opportunities tab aim to provide you with a balance between increasing traffic and managing costs. Starting today, however, and rolling out globally over the next few weeks, you’ll be able to choose from three common advertiser goals to match your overall optimization objectives. The three new options are as follows:

• Maintain or Decrease Cost - Identify ideas that might help you maintain or decrease your current spend.
• Increase Traffic - Identify ideas that can help you get more traffic at varying cost levels.
• Balance Cost and Traffic - Review a mix of ideas that are aimed at either increasing traffic or decreasing costs.

After you choose a goal for your account, the ideas you see in the Opportunities tab will be customized to match your selection. The Opportunities tab remembers your choice of goal unless you change it, which you can do at any time.

We hope this will help provide you with even better ideas to optimize your account and we look forward to offering even more advertising goals in the future.

To learn more about the Opportunities tab, visit the AdWords Help Center or view our video playlist on YouTube.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

Back in November we launched Ad Sitelinks to help you get even better results from your top performing ads. Since then, we’ve seen advertisers experience huge gains with Ad Sitelinks, boosting their clickthrough rates on average by more than 30%. Today, we’re introducing a new one-line format that allows you to get the benefits of Ad Sitelinks for even more of your campaigns, including your more generic, unbranded campaigns.

What’s more, we’re also enabling the option to set up Ad Sitelinks for any campaign. This means that you don’t have to wait for your campaigns to pre-qualify before you can set up Ad Sitelinks.


When a user’s query matches a keyword in your Ad Sitelinks-enabled campaign, Google will automatically determine if your ad qualifies to show Ad Sitelinks and whether to show the two-line or the one-line format based on the quality of that ad. Ads that currently qualify for the two-line format will not be affected by the addition of the new one-line format.

You should keep in mind that Ad Sitelinks is a campaign-level extension, so the links you create should be relevant to any ad in that campaign.

You’ll find the option to set up Ad Sitelinks in your Campaign Settings tab. It will appear as "Show additional links to my site" under the "Ad extensions" section.

To learn more about Ad Sitelinks, read our FAQ in the Help Center.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

The rapid pace of change in the advertising space can be dizzying. From new ad formats to new ad systems, from startups to mergers, the marketing industry is running at a million miles an hour, and it’s often daunting to keep up with it all. We know that staying informed takes a lot of effort, and it’s critical to make good decisions about how you spend your time and resources.

That’s why we put together Google Ad News. Powered by Google News, Ad News is a simple but powerful way for anyone in the advertising industry to track current news coverage on relevant subjects such as display, search, mobile and even traditional media - all in one place. Subscribe to news feeds in the categories you care about most, or search to find coverage on topics related to your business, such as your niche industry or brand.

We invite you to check it out and share it with your colleagues. Hopefully, you’ll find lots of relevant news that’ll help you spend less time scouring the web and more time building your business.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

Over the past year, we’ve been focused on investing in display advertising, and we’ve seen great momentum from the increasing number of you running display campaigns with Google. We’ve rolled out new features and targeting options and more precise measurement tools. To provide more places for you to run display ads, we’ve added more publisher sites (through Google AdSense and DoubleClick Ad Exchange) to our ad network of over one million sites. Meanwhile, many of you have continued to run ads on YouTube and our own properties. In an effort to make our display media offerings clearer to advertisers like you and agencies, we’re creating a new umbrella name for all these properties, the Google Display Network.

The Google Display Network will comprise all of the sites (apart from search sites), where you can buy ads through Google, including YouTube, Google properties such as Google Finance, Gmail, Google Maps, Blogger as well as over one million Web, video, gaming, and mobile display partners (our display partners include all of our AdSense and DoubleClick Ad Exchange partner sites that allow text and/or display ads). The Google Display Network offers all ad formats - text, image, rich media, and video ads - enabling you to unleash your creativity and engage potential customers across the Web.

You can run ads on the Google Display Network the same way you always have. Either place bids through AdWords or make reservations on YouTube and Google Finance with the help of a Google account team.

In the upcoming weeks, you’ll see a change in the AdWords interface reflecting this new term, and you’ll see Google Display Network where you might have seen Google Content Network mentioned. We’ve also launched a new website showcasing the sites and benefits available to you on the Google Display Network.

We’re working hard to offer the best display advertising solutions and we look forward to introducing new features on the Google Display Network that help you reach your advertising goals.

Posted by Neal Mohan, Vice President of Product Management

Last month at Google I/O, we previewed a new mobile advertising format, click-to-call for apps and mobile website content. We wanted to follow-up and let you know that this feature is now fully live and available to everyone who advertises with AdWords. Expanding our popular click-to-call functionality on mobile search ads to now include mobile content and apps helps increase the reach of your ads across the mobile web and provides mobile publishers and app developers with even more ways to make money and grow their businesses.


With click-to-call, potential customers can connect with your business via a phone call when they use their favorite mobile apps or when they browse the web from their mobile devices. Ads will appear as animated banner or text ads with a call button on mobile devices with full Internet browsers. To use this new format, you need to enable phone extensions and run your ads on both the Google Content Network and mobile devices with full Internet browsers.







Click-to-call for mobile content and apps is one of many ad formats that you can use to help achieve your mobile marketing goals. It’s a great option for you and also helps drive great results for mobile publishers and app developers.


Posted by Surojit Chatterjee, Senior Product Manager, Google Mobile Ads

Posted by Emily Williams, Inside AdWords crew