Google Adwords Mastery » Optimization http://googleadwordsmastery.com Gaining competitive advantage through Google Adwords Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:33:02 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Writing ads that attract customers http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/E1CcAidcKwY/writing-ads-that-attract-customers.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/E1CcAidcKwY/writing-ads-that-attract-customers.html#comments Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:11:00 +0000 Geoff Alexander With the theme of Valentine's Day on our mind, we're sharing tips on how to spice up your AdWords text ads, courtesy of the AdWords Help Center.

Start by taking a moment to consider what you want to do with your ad. Then use the six guidelines below to create an ad that's accurate, to-the-point, and engaging.
  • Highlight what makes your business, product, or offer unique
  • Include prices, promotions, and exclusives
  • Tell your customers what they can do
  • Include at least one of your keywords in your ad text
  • Match your ad to your landing page
  • Experiment
Here are some examples:
Couples Cooking Class
www.example.com/cook
Sauté your way to her heart!
Register as a couple and save 20%

Hot Air Balloon Ride
www.example.com/balloonride
Love is in the air. Save 30% today.
Soar in the world's largest balloon.
Lovers Laser Tag
www.example.com/lasertag
Like Cupid's Bow, only faster
15% off for couples on Feb 14th.
Read the full article and watch a video on Tips for creating successful text ads in the AdWords Help Center to get additional examples on how to improve your ad.

Now that you've optimized your text ads, consider creating a video ad. Follow the steps mentioned in the Tips for creating effective video ads article.

Posted by the AdWords Help Center Team
]]> http://googleadwordsmastery.com/index.php/2012/02/writing-ads-that-attract-customers/feed/ 0 Getting Started with Automated Rules http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/WedFOMq-8Ks/getting-started-with-automated-rules.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/WedFOMq-8Ks/getting-started-with-automated-rules.html#comments Thu, 23 Jun 2011 21:42:00 +0000 Geoff Alexander Automated Rules, a feature that lets you save time by scheduling automatic changes to your account based on criteria that you specify. Since then, tens of thousands of advertisers have created rules to manage their accounts more effectively and even deploy more advanced strategies.

Whether you're new to Automated Rules or already an expert, we wanted to share with you some of the most popular examples of rules that AdWords users have created. We hope that these examples can help you take better advantage of the feature.

Click here for details on how to set up these types of rules. You'll need to adjust them to meet your business needs and goals. Let us know what you think of these examples, and send us your favorite rules.

Scheduling ads
  • Turning on/off special ads for a promotional event
  • Turning on/off certain ads on a repeating basis (e.g., every weekend)
  • Turning on/off a special ad campaign for a promotional event
Pausing low-performing ads or keywords
  • Pausing low-performing keywords based on success metrics (e.g., high cost per conversion)
  • Pausing low-performing ads based on success metrics (e.g., low CTR)
Bids and bid scheduling
  • Adjusting bids for keywords based on cost per conversion
  • Changing bids to reach a desired average position
  • Raising bids to ensure ads show on the first page
  • Bid scheduling (e.g., a higher bid during certain hours of the day)
Controlling budgets and cost
  • Increasing budget for campaigns that convert well (using cost per conversion)
  • Budget scheduling (e.g., higher budget on certain days of the week)
  • Pausing campaigns that have spent a certain amount partway through the month
  • Pausing campaigns that have received a certain number of clicks partway through the day
General examples
  • Understanding how to make a rule work on one, several or all campaigns
  • Excluding keywords from a rule
To learn more about Automated Rules, please visit Ad Innovations. Happy automating!

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew
]]> http://googleadwordsmastery.com/index.php/2011/06/getting-started-with-automated-rules/feed/ 0 5 New AdWords Campaign Experiments Demo Videos http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/3U9VhOet8UI/5-new-adwords-campaign-experiments-demo.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/3U9VhOet8UI/5-new-adwords-campaign-experiments-demo.html#comments Thu, 02 Jun 2011 21:34:00 +0000 Geoff Alexander AdWords Campaign Experiments (ACE), but they’re not sure what to test. If you’re one of these advertisers, we’ve just created five demo videos that walk you through some example experiments you might want to try.

With our new videos, you can learn how to divide your experiment into control and experiment groups as well as how to run these four experiment types:
  • Keyword match types (e.g., How does adding a modified broad match keyword affect my account?)
  • Bids (e.g., What happens if I increase my bids by 10%?)
  • Ad creatives (e.g., How does new ad text and a new display URL affect my performance?)
  • Ad groups (e.g., Does a broader or more tightly themed ad group structure work better for me?)
We hope these videos help inspire you to run experiments in ACE! In case you need a refresher on how to set up your first experiment, watch our step-by-step video guides here.



Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew
]]> http://googleadwordsmastery.com/index.php/2011/06/5-new-adwords-campaign-experiments-demo-videos/feed/ 0 Add +1 to help your ads stand out http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/gTP49HhFsOM/add-1-to-help-your-ads-stand-out_01.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/gTP49HhFsOM/add-1-to-help-your-ads-stand-out_01.html#comments Wed, 01 Jun 2011 17:11:00 +0000 Geoff Alexander
That’s why we introduced the +1 button on Google search in March. +1 annotations show your customers which pages people they trust have found and enjoyed first, making it easier to find content they’re likely to care about.

Since we announced +1, we’ve gotten requests from Google search users and advertisers alike for +1 buttons in more places than just search results. That’s why today we’re making the +1 button available to sites across the web. Sometimes you want to recommend a web page after you’ve visited it. After all, how do you know you want to suggest that great hotel deal in Madrid if you haven’t checked it out yet?

We’ve partnered with a few sites where you'll see +1 buttons over the coming days:
Partner LogosAddThisMashableHuffington PostRotten TomatoesNordstromO'ReillyReutersWashington PostBest BuyTechCrunchBloomberg
You'll also start to see +1 buttons on other Google properties such as Android Market, Blogger, Product Search and YouTube.

Adding +1 buttons to your pages is a great way to help your ads stand out on Google. By giving your visitors more chances to +1 your pages, your search ads and organic results might appear with +1 annotations more often. This could lead to more--and better qualified--traffic to your site.


To get started, visit the +1 button tool on Google Webmaster Central, where you’ll configure small snippets of JavaScript to add to the pages where you want +1 buttons to appear. You can pick from a few different button sizes and styles, so choose the +1 button that best matches your site’s layout.

When a user clicks +1, that +1 applies to the URL of the page they’re on. There are some easy ways to ensure your +1s apply as often as possible to the pages appearing in Google search results.

To stay current on updates to the +1 button large and small, please subscribe to the Google Publisher Button Announce Group. For advanced tips and tricks, check our Google Code site. For information about how the +1 button affects your search ads, check out the AdWords Help Center.

If your site primarily caters to users outside of the US and Canada, you can install the +1 button code now; the +1 button is already supported in 44 languages. However, keep in mind that +1 annotations currently only appear for English search results on Google.com. We’re working on releasing +1 to other domains in the future.

If you have customers who love your content (and we bet you do), encourage them to spread the word! Add the +1 button to help your ads stand out with a personal recommendation right at the moment of decision, on Google search.


Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew
]]> http://googleadwordsmastery.com/index.php/2011/06/add-1-to-help-your-ads-stand-out/feed/ 0 Live online webinar on ‘Advanced Optimisation for the Google Display Network’ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/P3IiFritB-o/live-online-webinar-on-advanced.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/P3IiFritB-o/live-online-webinar-on-advanced.html#comments Mon, 09 May 2011 22:37:00 +0000 Geoff Alexander webinar about optimising AdWords for the Google Display Network.

The Google Display Network, which reaches over 70% of unique Internet users around the world, allows you to reach potential clients beyond search. It also has the advantage of reaching potential customers at different points of the buying cycle.

This live webinar will make recommendations for the optimal structure for your Google Display Network campaigns and provide various optimisation tips and tools—such as advanced bidding options, interest category marketing, AdWords Campaign Experiments, and reporting—that will help you in the optimisation process. We’ll also discuss using Google Analytics and Website Optimiser to improve campaign performance.

The webinar will be presented by AdWords Specialists as part of the AdWords Online Classroom (UK) and will take place on Wednesday, May 11th, 2011,from 3 pm to 4 pm BST, so make sure to sign up now!


Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew
]]> http://googleadwordsmastery.com/index.php/2011/05/live-online-webinar-on-%e2%80%98advanced-optimisation-for-the-google-display-network%e2%80%99-2/feed/ 0 Free online webinar: Finding Your Audience – Targeting Ads By Topic http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/embs3HYW_TI/free-online-webinar-finding-your.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/embs3HYW_TI/free-online-webinar-finding-your.html#comments Mon, 11 Apr 2011 23:09:00 +0000 Geoff Alexander webinar to teach you how to target your audience using Topic Targeting in AdWords.

Topic Targeting works by contextually targeting all pages about a specific category on the Google Display Network, so you can reach your target audience while they surf relevant pages.

During this live webinar, we’ll give an overview of the new Topic Targeting tab, explain how Topic Targeting works and show you how to set up your campaign.

This webinar will be presented by AdWords Specialists as part of the AdWords Online Classroom (UK) and will take place on Wednesday, April 13th from 3 pm to 4 pm (BST/GMT+1)*, so make sure to sign up now!

* Due to Daylight Savings (clocks changing) in UK, please check your local time zone for correct equivalent time.


Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew
]]> http://googleadwordsmastery.com/index.php/2011/04/free-online-webinar-finding-your-audience-targeting-ads-by-topic/feed/ 0 Put optimization ideas to the test—run AdWords Campaign Experiments in your Opportunities tab http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/p55e5NSEOOU/put-optimization-ideas-to-testrun.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/p55e5NSEOOU/put-optimization-ideas-to-testrun.html#comments Thu, 31 Mar 2011 22:50:00 +0000 Geoff Alexander
Many of you have used the Opportunities tab to find keyword, bid, and budget ideas for your account. With each optimization idea, we provide estimates for how these ideas may affect your impressions, clicks, and cost. Now you can test these optimization ideas on your own campaigns when you run experiments in the Opportunities tab.

This new feature uses AdWords Campaign Experiments to run experiments on the keyword and bid ideas in your Opportunities tab. Experiments run on 50% of your AdWords traffic for thirty days, during which time you’ll have the chance to compare your original campaign setup with your test setup. You can decide at any time whether you want to apply your experiment settings to 100% of your traffic. If you take no action after thirty days, your experimental changes will be applied to your campaign automatically.

The ability to run experiments in the Opportunities tab has already launched in some English-language accounts and will be available to all English-language accounts over the next few days.

Start an experiment in just a few clicks:
  1. Select keyword or bid ideas you want to test.
  2. Select the checkbox for "Evaluate this idea for up to 30 days."
  3. Click "Apply now."

Keyword experiment setup in the Opportunities tab

Monitor your experiment performance:
When your experiment is running, you’ll be able to monitor your experiment performance from the Ideas page of the Opportunities tab.

Monitoring experiment performance in the Opportunities tab

You’ll also be able to view performance statistics for individual keywords and bids on the Keywords tab when you segment by "Experiment."

For those of you who have wanted to try ACE but didn’t know what to test, this should help get you started. This is also a great feature for those of you who want to see a positive performance improvement before making changes to all of your traffic.

No matter how your new keywords and bids perform relative to your original setup, you’ll leave your experiment with more knowledge than you had previously, which means every experiment is a good experiment.

Posted by Lisa Shieh, Inside AdWords crew
]]> http://googleadwordsmastery.com/index.php/2011/03/put-optimization-ideas-to-the-test%e2%80%94run-adwords-campaign-experiments-in-your-opportunities-tab/feed/ 0 AdWords Campaign Experiments (ACE) now available in AdWords reports http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/DMhku33_95E/adwords-campaign-experiments-ace-now.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/DMhku33_95E/adwords-campaign-experiments-ace-now.html#comments Wed, 23 Mar 2011 21:30:00 +0000 Geoff Alexander ad groups, ad creatives, and more, you’ll be happy to know that you can now run an AdWords report to evaluate your experiment performance. You can evaluate data in your report or easily export to a spreadsheet (no more cutting and pasting)!

ACE reports are now one of the many reports you can run from the Campaigns tab (or through the API!). When you run a report segmented by “Experiment,” you’ll see a side-by-side comparison of the performance of your experimental campaign changes (“experiment”) versus your original setup (“control”). You’ll also be able to see the level of statistical significance for your experiment performance, which should help you judge if experiment performance was due to chance or an actual difference in performance. You can learn more about evaluating your results and statistical significance here.

Understanding your experiment's performance can help you determine whether you’re ready to accept your changes fully, remove changes or keep running your experiment. Reports also serve as an important record of experiment outcomes as you won’t see your past experiment data after you’ve accepted or removed your changes.




ACE can provide you with invaluable real-time data on how campaign changes affect your account. Whether you find that you have significant improvements to make or your account is running just fine, every experiment is a good experiment! To learn more about ACE, watch our video series on YouTube or visit the AdWords Help Center.

What are you waiting for? Ready, set, test!


Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew
]]> http://googleadwordsmastery.com/index.php/2011/03/adwords-campaign-experiments-ace-now-available-in-adwords-reports/feed/ 0 Live online webinar on ‘Advanced Optimisation for the Google Display Network’ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/w8YggbSidM8/live-online-webinar-on-advanced.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/w8YggbSidM8/live-online-webinar-on-advanced.html#comments Tue, 22 Mar 2011 00:29:00 +0000 Geoff Alexander webinar about optimising AdWords for the Display Network.

The Google Display Network, which reaches over 70% of unique Internet users around the world, allows you to reach potential clients beyond search. It also has the advantage of reaching potential customers at different points of the buying cycle.

This live webinar will give recommendations on how you can structure your Google Display Network campaigns, as well as provide various optimisation tips and tools such as advanced bidding options, interest category marketing, and reporting that will help you in the optimisation process.

This webinar will be presented by AdWords Specialists as part of the AdWords Online Classroom (UK) and will take place on Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011, from 3 pm to 4 pm GMT, 7 am to 8 am PST, so make sure to sign up now!



Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew
]]> http://googleadwordsmastery.com/index.php/2011/03/live-online-webinar-on-%e2%80%98advanced-optimisation-for-the-google-display-network%e2%80%99/feed/ 0 Live tutorial on basic AdWords reporting & analysing your performance http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/g_V3KTqKjsw/live-tutorial-on-basic-adwords.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/ATHs/~3/g_V3KTqKjsw/live-tutorial-on-basic-adwords.html#comments Thu, 10 Mar 2011 23:09:00 +0000 Geoff Alexander live tutorial as part of the AdWords Online Classroom (UK) that will highlight best practices for generating AdWords reports and analysing the results.

We’ll focus on four key reports including; Keyword Report, See Search Terms Report, Ad Performance and Campaign Performance Reports, which will allow you not only analyse your performance but also highlight opportunities to optimise your account. In addition we’ll also show you how to download, save, schedule and e-mail these reports.

This tutorial will be presented by AdWords Specialists and is appropriate for all advertisers wanting to make their ads as informative as possible. It will take place on Wednesday, March 16th, 2011 3-4pm GMT, 7-8am PST so make sure to sign up now!


Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew
]]> http://googleadwordsmastery.com/index.php/2011/03/live-tutorial-on-basic-adwords-reporting-analysing-your-performance/feed/ 0