AdWords Help Experts » AdWords 3

AdWords Removes In-Line Keyword Bidding (Max CPC column) from User Interface Default Settings?

Kim Clinkunbroomer — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:46:46 +0000

Missing Your Keyword Max CPC column?

A member in the AdWords Help Forum brought to my attention today that the in-line bidding keyword bidding a.k.a. Max CPC column is missing from the keywords section on Adwords. I went straight into several client accounts and sure enough, it’s gone.

Where is the MAX CPC Column?

After some looking around I found that if you visit the Filter and Views button the option to have the MAX CPC show is located there.

Customizing Columns with Filters & Views

Now I am able to see and most importantly EDIT the Max CPC for individual keywords.

I am pondering why Google would do this. Seems like a great way to cause some confusion.

Additionally, while looking into this issue I noticed another new item, at least new to me. In investigating the issue I selected several keywords and then went to the edit button and Table Edit.

There I found must be a fairly new feature, but it is not active in my accounts.

New Feature to Prefill all Bids to First Page Bid Estimates?

Is this to alleviate the dreaded “below first page bid estimate” issue?

Update: Google’s AdWordsPro Stephen posted in the forum with the following statement: “[...] there was a technical issue with the AdWords UI this morning. We introduced a change that accidentally pushed some of the stats columns out of the right place and caused another issue with column customization. We reverted that change for now, so it shouldn’t be a problem anymore.”

Good to know and thanks Stephen for the update!

Posted by: Kim Clinkunbroomer, GAP, AdWords TC

Why Won’t Google Show Quality Score by Default?

Kim Clinkunbroomer — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:53:02 +0000

I’m flabbergasted. I was hoping that the new AdWords User Interface with all its bells and whistles would show quality score by default. I, as well as my fellow writers here at AdWords Help Experts, often answer questions in the AdWords Help Forum, diagnosing problems such as ‘my ads are not showing’, ‘my bids are below first page estimates’, ‘I am paying too much for clicks’, etc. I am always asking the original poster “what is your quality score?”. The reply is too often “I don’t know, how do I find out?”. I also regularly review AdWords accounts through my AdWords PI service and am amazed to see how many advertisers don’t know their quality score.

Why does Google not show quality score by default? If quality score is the basis for the adwords system why do so many advertisers not know their quality score? Experts know that accruing a poor quality score is detrimental to an account. Knowing your quality score is important on many levels, perhaps vital to the success of many advertisers.

For those of you that do not know how to find your quality score…

How to see your AdWords Quality Score

I think that showing quality score by default would be one way Google could help advertisers help themselves. It is hard for advertisers to know what to fix when they don’t know what is wrong, it is like me going to the doctor but not telling him where it hurts.

Google demands transparency from their advertisers to provide a good “user experience” however their own program user interface lacks transparency in one of its own most fundamental components.

I’ll keep preaching about it. Care to join me?

New Feature to AdWords: “Opportunities” Tab

Kim Clinkunbroomer — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:27:52 +0000

Google must be testing something new again. I noticed today that just one of my clients accounts has a new “Opportunities” tab. This feature is suggesting keywords to be added to my campaigns. I do not know if it is a replacement for the campaign optimizer because there were only keywords suggestions, no ad text or display URL changes suggested.

I am a little concerned though that the account does not have a TOOLS tab any longer. I will have to contact Google about that.

New Opportunities Tab in AdWords

POSTSCRIPT: A Google rep confirmed for me today that the “opportunities” feature is very much like the same old campaign optimizer just with a different label. This feature is to suggest performance improvements. This opportunities tab is only currently available to a small number of U.S. advertisers.

The TOOLS menu has been moved to the left side navigation menu in these accounts but ONLY appears under the opportunities tab. This is going to confuse advertisers. The TOOLS menu is too important to hide under the “opportunities” tab IMO.

TOOLS menu moved to left side Navigation

Contact Us – Where Is The Contact Form

JezC — Tue, 05 May 2009 13:32:28 +0000

If you have a Ads Diagnostic Tool message to contact Google, how do you do so? A lot of users find their way to the AdWords Help Forum, which is a user to user help forum, not part of Google Customer Service. Posting account details and problem descriptions is a security risk. So just where do you find the form that lets you email Google Customer Service?

Up in the upper right of the old AdWords 2 User Interface is a “Contact Us” link:

You can also find it at the bottom of each page of the AdWords User Interface, in both the new and old interfaces:

We recommend using the New AdWords User Interface (AdWords3 User Interface) – there are useful pieces of information in that interface that are not in the older interface.

Click On “Contact Us” – What Next?

On the next form – “Can’t See My Adverts”:

On the next form, look for “What Should I Do…” and click it:

Then find a link to contact Google:

You now get the start of a form process:

In the ‘Can’t See My Ad’ form, select the type – usually the first row, “Google Search And Search partners” is right:

At last – the form:

You’d think that since Google is asking you to contact them, it’d be easier… There are a few other variations to reach this form, but if you see something substantially different – that’s probably not what you should be looking for!