Archive for the ‘Keywords’ category

AdWords Search Query Report becomes More Transparent?

April 13th, 2011

I may be dreaming…someone pinch me.

We reported here at AdWords Help Experts reported back in May 2010 that Google was had begun to show limited data for queries that did not result in a click but the data was very limited.

This week I have noticed a dramatic change to my search query reports and lots more zero click data.

This week I am seeing more data than ever in client accounts! This is a huge help in identifying negative keywords. I have not confirmed that Google has changed their reporting so if you see increases in your account reporting please comment!

Article by: +Kim Clinkunbroomer

Clinks Web Service a Google AdWords Partner Company

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19 comments »

Posted in Keywords, Negative Keywords, New Features, News, Quality Score, Reporting, Uncategorized

New: AdWords Keyword “Automate” Button – Set Automated Rules for your account.

December 9th, 2010

There is new interesting feature in the AdWords User Interface, the Automate button, located under the Keywords Tab.

Keyword Automate Button

There are some extremely cool features under this button!

Advertisers can create Rules for the following:

Pause Keywords when…
Change max. CPC bids when…
Raise bids to first page CPC when…
Create Rules for Ads

Then all these rules can be managed under the final feature on the drop-down.

Let’s look at each feature!

Pause Keywords when…

Pause Keywords when…

This feature allows you to set a rules to have your account pause keywords that are not following certain requirements.

For instance I may want to pause keywords that are not meeting a certain conversion requirement. The feature would also be handy for large scale changes like pausing all keywords that are under a specific CTR, or if you wanted to find and pause all broad match keywords use the Match Type metric.

Change max. CPC bids when…

Change max. CPC bids when…

Set rules to change your max. CPC bids when certain requirements are met. For instance set a rule on Keyword A to increase the bid 5% when a keyword reaches a position worse than 3. This feature has lots of possibilities.

Raise bids to first page CPC when…

Raise bids to First Page CPC when….

Another helpful feature under the Automate button is the ability to set rules for first page bid estimate bids. If you were to find that an exact match type keyword performed better on the first page than it’s broad match version you can set the increase for exact match only.

Create Rules for ads….

Apparently we can also set rules to pause or enable ad text under the Automate button.

.Pause ads when…

Pause ads when…

and

Enable ads when…

These features allow you to automatically pause or enable ads that meet certain requirements. For instance say an ad was not reaching a certain conversion rate it can be automatically paused.

Manage Rules >>

Manage Rules >>

Manage your rules and view log files for all the rules you create.

In each section the rules can all have multiple requirements to get create a very specific set of criteria for your rules.

Set multiple requirements for your rules

One thing that I was a little disappointed to see was this messaging.

“Rules aren’t guaranteed to run in some cases, so we recommend regularly monitoring the reules you set up.”

"Rules aren't guaranteed to run in some cases, so we recommend regularly monitoring the reules you set up."

Google’s “Learn More” help documentation reads:

In rare cases, a rule may not run or may contain errors. You can view the errors in the Logs table by clicking on Automate > Manage rules. Some reasons for errors are:

Downtime: In some cases, you might have a rule scheduled to run when the system is down. In these cases, your changes can’t be made.
Timeouts: Timeouts might happen if too many things are being evaluated in a rule (for example, all keywords in a large account). To avoid timeouts, we recommend that you use filters in the rule to narrow the elements affected by a given rule.
Rule expiration: Once you create a rule, it will expire after one year. We’ll remind you when a rule is about to expire.

These errors will be recorded in the logs.

So there you have it. This seems like an extremely helpful feature to help advertisers automate some of their work and likely a good place for discovery when reviewing log files to see the actions taken in the account.

Time will tell if this feature is reliable and useful for advertisers.

APPEND: Search Engine Land posted this article with some very relevant points in opposition of the ‘automate’ feature which I think all advertisers should read. http://searchengineland.com/googles-new-automated-rules-lets-you-shoot-your-eye-out-58297
Full documentation can be found in the AdWords Help Center.

Comments welcome.

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Article by: +Kim Clinkunbroomer

Clinks Web Service a Google AdWords Partner Company

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9 comments »

Posted in Campaigns, Clicks, Keywords, New Features, News, Tools

AdWords UI Improvements – “Add as Keyword” & “Add as a Negative” Functions Get a Face Lift.

November 17th, 2010

It appears that Google has made an improvement to the See Search Terms Report, specifically the “Add as Keyword” and “Add as a Negative” functions.

Once the report loads you have the option to ‘add new keywords’ or ‘add as a negative’.

The screenshot below shows the improvement to the “Add as a Negative” feature. We now have the ability to add at the campaign level which is super convenient.

On the flip side Google seems to have done some minor improvements to the Add as a Keyword” function also. I cant wait for the day see the ability to select a specific adgroup that we would like to add a keyword to. It would be helpful when we catch queries that don’t belong in the group we are reviewing but instead would perform better in another.

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Article by: +Kim Clinkunbroomer

Clinks Web Service a Google AdWords Partner Company

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4 comments »

Posted in Keywords, Negative Keywords, New Features, News

AdWords Shares Search Query Data for Keywords that did NOT Result in a Click

May 3rd, 2010

I have run into a few accounts recently that displayed search query data for keywords that had no clicks.

This is not the ‘norm’ as far a search query reports are concerned. Until recently the only data that has ever been shared on a search query report is data that resulted in a click. Sadly advertisers who use broad or phrase match keywords were left guessing as to what actual keywords caused the impressions that did not result in a click-through to their website. This lack of information hinders account optimizations because we are left guessing at what negative keywords need to be included or what new keywords we could be adding to improve CTR.

In reviewing a new account today I see strong evidence that Google is making some changes or perhaps testing something in a limited number of accounts.

As you can see below, there are a good number of keywords that did not result in clicks but Google has provided the keyword data anyway. This report was a quick search query report from within the User Interface vs. the Reporting Section. However the formal search query report includes tons of data on keywords with Zero (yes, I said Zero) clicks!

Search Query Data Provided for Keywords that did not result in a click

What is extra interesting is the additional bit of data highlighted in yellow above {more:}. I am not sure if this is additional data from expanded or session based search queries.

What does this mean to people who manage adwords accounts? This much needed transparency allows us better control over the account which ultimately increases quality score and reduces costs.

I hope this is something we can expect to see in all AdWords accounts soon.

I have requested a comment from Google and will report back when/if I get a reply.

Perhaps you have seen this in an account already?

Comments Welcome!

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Article by: +Kim Clinkunbroomer

Clinks Web Service a Google AdWords Partner Company

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27 comments »

Posted in Keywords, New Features, News, Reporting

When Google Should Stop ‘Helping’ AdWords Advertisers

April 27th, 2010

Yet another interesting AdWords Issue that I have run into…

I have been re-working an account recently brought to me and encountered an issue which has me deeply concerned.

I have come to notice that many keywords, really great, relevant, exact match keywords are not being served with the following message.

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“This particular search term is already associated with an ad from one of your other campaigns or ad groups. Only one ad per advertiser may appear on a given page per search term. When two or more of your ads are eligible for a single search term, we show the one with the highest ranking at the moment.”

o–

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As you can see the keywords shown in the screenshot above are “phrase” and [exact match]. The keywords DO NOT appear anywhere else in this account – no other campaigns or ad groups.

I started the troubleshooting process by adding negative keywords to ad groups. For example in the DUI defense Attorney ad group I added negatives for -lawyer – dwi, etc. It had no effect. I then added many exact match negative keywords i.e. -[dui defense lawyer], etc. still no effect. I next went with only [exact match] keywords in the two adgroups that gave me the most trouble, the problem persisted.

I contacted Google and bounced it off a couple of people and received a reply referencing this page in the help center.http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66292

This page explains how keywords will be treated when they fall into three different types of criteria:

1. the same keywords in multiple adgroups

2. Similar keywords to the search query within the same adgroup

3. Similar keywords to the search query within multiple adgroups.

I am fine with the details on #1. I am concerned about details on #2 and #3.

Here is a screenshot of details on #2

Within the same ad group, multiple keywords are similar to the search query.

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So now an [exact match] keyword can be trumped by another ‘similar, better performing or cheaper’ keyword? According to Google, Yes.

Then it keeps gets better…..

Here is a screenshot of details on #2

Keywords within multiple ad groups are similar to the search query

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I am concerned about what I am reading. If Google feels that the keyword is close enough, cheaper, or has a higher ad rank they will trump an exact match keyword to serve a different keyword from a different adgrop they deem better? That takes my control away.

How can I accrue CTR data to improve the account performance if Google will not serve keywords that exactly match a query because they like a price or adrank of another keyword? This also allows for the potential of the wrong ad text being served. What if I have specific landing pages set per keyword? How does that effect CTR? Ultimately, what if Iwas OK with spending more on the keyword because it converted better? Quality Score and CTR are not everything when it comes to PPC advertising. Sometimes keywords that are not your best ‘quality score’ performers are your best converting keywords what provide the best ROI.

Even with adding negatives and going with exact match only in specific groups I ultimately was never able to identify the ‘other keyword’ that was trumping my exact match keyword. I had to pause the campaign and slowly add back adgroups and keywords, watching all the time for the dreaded message. The account is a smaller version of its previous self which is fine because I am in the process of recovering the account CTR but I do get a little nervous anytime I add a new keyword.

Is there a ‘fix’ for this? Not that I am aware of…

Is this something that is being tested on limited accounts or is there the potential for this to happen on any account? I am currently seeking a comment from Google and will post here if/when I get a reply.

For the record I have only seen this happen in one client account. However I am starting to hear some talk in other places such as the AdWords Help Forum on the topic so I feel the blog post is warranted.

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Article by: +Kim Clinkunbroomer