Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: With New GDN Ad Format, Text Ads Will Compete In Display Auctions Today, Google unveiled a new ad format on the Google Display Network (GDN) called magazine ads in which text […]
Today, Google unveiled a new ad format on the Google Display Network (GDN) called magazine ads in which text ads are converted to show as “display-like” ads on publisher sites that have opted only to show display ads in their AdSense accounts. The implication for AdWords advertisers is that text ads on the Google Display […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: BrightEdge Uses SEO Patents As “Sword,” Sues Searchmetrics Oh no they didn’t: BrightEdge has sued rival Searchmetrics using multiple SEO patents, which were granted last year. The concern being expressed by […]
Welcome to Part 2 of my PPC Health Check series! In part 1, I covered account structure, settings, conversion tracking and budgets. Today’s piece will help you understand the areas you need to be checking with regard to keywords, ads and performance. Reviewing a campaign properly isn’t something that is done in 20 minutes — […]
Paid search has long been a staple of Internet marketing, yet the SEM landscape continues to evolve at what seems a lightning-fast pace year after year. This past year was no exception, as 2013 brought with it a host of changes for paid search marketers. The most notable of these changes was arguably Google’s announcement […]
Google has introduced its first monetization effort for its social networking platform, Google+. Rather than running ads directly within the platform, Google has announced a new ad unit called +Post ads, which allow brands to turn their Google+ content into expandable display ads. Those ads can then run across the Google Display Network. Brands can […]
In a significant move, Google rolled out CPM bidding by viewable impression in AdWords this week. Advertisers will only be charged for ad impressions that can actually be viewed in-screen by users, rather than on the traditional served impression basis. New reporting metrics are also available, all powered by Google’s viewability measurement solution, Active View, […]
Though it hasn’t been officially announced, Google has started rolling out a new targeting feature on the Google Display Network in AdWords called In-Market Buyers. Listed under Interest Categories, the new In-Market Buyers segments are designed to target visitors whose site visitation habits suggest they are in active-consideration mode and want to make a purchase. […]
Google says the new option can better predict when and where Display ads will best perform.
In the past couple of weeks, the question of how Google calculates cost per conversion in AdWords has been percolating in the PPC community. Robert Brady wrote a post illustrating that the cost per conversion reported in AdWords does not always match the manual calculation of dividing reported spend by reported conversions. Mark Jensen at Get Found First followed […]
On the heels of releasing dynamic retargeting for retailers in AdWords, Google has announced it will be rolling out remarketing lists for search ads (RLSA) to all enhanced campaigns advertisers over the next few days. RLSA, which launched in beta last July, allows marketers to modify and tailor their search ads, bids, and keywords based on visitors’ past activity […]
Google has been rolling out updates to its Ads Preferences Manager, where users can adjust their account settings for personalized ad delivery, or Interest Based Advertising. The page is now succinctly called Ads Settings. The new Ad Settings page features a cleaner interface, but the main theme is consolidation. Now, instead of separate Ads Preferences […]
The bane of most search marketers’ existence is search query ambiguity. Is a user searching for [one night stand] interested in an illicit affair or a piece of antique oak furniture for his bedroom? Does the query [internet security] reflect the needs of a consumer fed up with viruses or a CIO looking for a […]
In a nod to consistency across platforms and the growth in mobile usage, Google has overhauled its AdSense text ads to be more mobile-friendly, adding a large arrow button to each ad that should make it easier for “fat fingers” to click effectively on tablets and mobile phones. The buttons will also appear on desktop […]
Though investors seemed disappointed by Google’s third-quarter numbers, its core AdWords business is going like gangbusters, according to a new study by WordStream. The software company found Google earning $100 million a day through AdWords in Q3, serving 5.5 billion impressions per day on search pages and 25.6 billion impressions per day on the Google […]
Spending on Search Marketing continues to be the biggest contributor to online advertising revenues in the U.S., according to the latest report on the first half of 2012 released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Pricewaterhouse Coopers. Search ads represented 48% of the overall interactive advertising market in the first six months of 2012, bringing […]
Google has long made it possible for users of YouTube to skip ads. Now, it’s adding that capability to the Display Network, letting people hit an “X” to dismiss, or mute, the currently-displaying ad. Google says it will use the signal as a way to deliver more relevant ads to consumers. Once a person mutes […]
AdWords advertisers on Google’s Display Network can now use multiple targeting methods at the ad group level, rather than the campaign level, via a new feature called “Flexible Reach.” The option was first reported by Philly Marketing Labs on its blog, but it is already appearing in accounts and in AdWords Help. With Flexible Reach, […]
Google has introduced several new reporting improvements for AdSense publishers, and it has released new research that shows publishers make more money with “smart pricing” — even though their revenue-per-click is discounted as compared with search ads — than they would without it. One reporting improvement is that AdSense publishers can now view “all time” […]
Google this week introduced the ability to target more than 30,000 ZIP codes in AdWords, giving advertisers the ability to find potential customers in a familiar, granular way. Another new feature, Location Insertion, is aimed at letting advertisers with multiple locations create one ad, and have information dynamically inserted depending on the user’s query or […]
Google’s introduction yesterday of Google+ Pages for businesses will likely have a dramatic impact on +1s in AdWords. When businesses create a Page on Google+, they can link the page to their web site URLs and also to their AdWords account. When that’s done, +1s for any of the linked URLs — on web sites […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Pitches Google+ Hangout With Full Page New York Times Ad How do you spread the word about your awesome new social media network? If you’re Google, apparently you turn to […]
One of print newspapers’ only advantages these days may be the ability to deliver circulars and coupons. Not anymore. According to a report from Bloomberg News, Google is working with advertisers such as Best Buy and Macy’s to create Web-based circulars, which will be available starting today. The piece quotes Nick Fox, vice president of […]
In a bid to unify its advertising interfaces and improve reporting for YouTube video ads, Google is launching a limited public beta of “AdWords for Video” — which includes four “TrueView” video ad formats, for which advertisers pay when the video is viewed or started by a user. The release integrates video advertising, previously housed […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Bing “Action Buttons” Lets You Book Flights, Rent Cars & More Bing announced a new feature in the search results named “Action Buttons.” Action buttons give you quick links to perform […]
Search AdWords have had +1 buttons since late May, and now the +1 functionality is coming to the Google Display Network (GDN). Additionally, +1 data will, for the first time, serve as a signal of relevance in the AdWords auction — for display only, for now. As with the +1s that accompany text ads, people […]
Google is testing search and display versions of a cost-per-lead ad format that would allow users to request an advertiser contact them. The company confirmed a display test after a political controversy arose surrounding the AdWords feature, and declined to comment on a search test. Other than acknowledging that the display ad test was happening, […]
Google has announced additional targeting capabilities for ads appearing on its Display Network, allowing advertisers to choose categories, rather than keywords, to trigger their ad’s appearance. Given AdWords’ genesis as a search-oriented advertising system, keywords have always been the main mechanism for targeting ads, though additional refinements and options have long been available. Now, Google […]
Those “Ads by Google” and “i” labels on AdSense ads will soon be replaced by an “AdChoices” triangle icon and label, as Google moves to comply with an industry initiative from the Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising. It will be the single largest roll-out of the “AdChoices” label to date, giving significant momentum to […]
Google is eliminating managed placement default bids in an effort to simplify bidding on its Display Network. Now Display Network advertisers who use managed placements will only have to deal with a regular default bid and a Display Network default bid. The change will go into effect March 15. They effect managed placements only, which […]
Google appears to be testing display ads in Gmail. I discovered the following image ad in my own Gmail account this morning, and Google has since confirmed a test. Image ads have made their way into paid search on Google.com and various other properties on Google. But this was really jarring for me to encounter. […]
Google and MySpace just have announced they have renewed their search and advertising deal. The multi-year agreement will expand on their current relationship and give MySpace access tot Google’s web search and search ads, as well as access to Google’s Display Network and DoubleClick Ad Exchange. Google will continue to power the search results on […]
Continuing from last week’s introduction to placement targeting post, today we’ll discuss how you can set up one of these campaigns for your own account. Campaign Set Up Follow my Step-By-Step: Create An AdWords Content Campaign post from a few weeks ago to create campaigns, ad groups and ads. The big difference here is that […]
Speaking today at the IFA consumer electronics event in Berlin, Google CEO Eric Schmidt painted a vision of the future in which search is fast, personal, and all-knowing — even to the degree of providing search results when searches haven’t been conducted. “A new definition of Google would be, we’re trying very hard to get […]
Google’s internal debates over privacy and how to monetize the mountains of data it has about its users — including whether to monetize it at all — are detailed today by the Wall Street Journal. The lengthy article examines a confidential, seven-page “vision statement” that made the rounds at Google as far back as 2008. […]
Google is already a major player in display advertising and is poised to become even more formidable in the next few years. Not so quietly the company has amassed or built a huge array of assets that could see it best many if not most other display competitors and networks, including market leader Yahoo. Google […]
At the SMX Advanced 2010 conference in Seattle, we invited four leading paid search experts to share some of their recent experiments in paid search in a new session entitled The Mad Scientists of Paid Search. The panelists were encouraged to add a bit of academic rigor to their presentations by including their hypotheses, design […]
Google’s mobile click-to-call ads program in search is apparently a big success. Although reluctant to share specific numbers, Google previously said that response rates were “5 to 30 percent better” than other AdWords CTRs in mobile. Even the URLs in these ads get more clicks, Surojit Chatterjee, Senior Product Manager, Mobile Ads, previously told me. […]
Last March Google initiated a trial of what it calls “remarketing” for display and text ads throughout its content network. Today it’s opening up the option for all AdWords advertisers. To be clear this is not “search retargeting” and doesn’t involve any Google.com query data. The benefit of this is being able to reach consumers, […]
Google, as expected, has added a new report type to give AdWords advertisers the ability to see the exact sites their ads are displaying on within Google’s content network. These Placement Performance reports will detail the domain, URL, impression, click, conversion and cost data for each site an ad appears on. Unfortunately, the site-by-site detail […]