.

.

There are some extremely cool features under this button!

Advertisers can create Rules for the following:

1. Pause Keywords when…
2. Change max. CPC bids when…
3. Raise bids to first page CPC when…
4. 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.

.

.

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.

……….

Article by:  +Kim Clinkunbroomer Clinks Web Service  a  Google AdWords Partner Company Subscribe: RSS Feeds  |  Follow me on Twitter

Problem is, the newest version of the Keyword Tool – the now only version of the keyword tool in all my clients accounts, does not include the option to identify and add negative keywords. I can only assume this was some kind of oversight on Googles part.

I have reviewed the page over and over looking for the negative keywords option and there is nothing.  Luckily there is a link to the ‘previous interface’ which will take you to the old tool.  I am afraid many people will not notice this – see screenshot below marked in Green.  This new Keyword Tool (beta) is active as the default internal tool so using the previous interface is your best bet as an internal keyword tool to allow you to review suggestions based on your actual adwords account.

Can we use this latest keyword tool to identify and add negative keywords?

I have posed the question to Google and will update this post if I receive any official comment.

2/23/10 Update – No official comment yet but AWP Stephen aka @adwordshelper on twitter kindly responded letting me know he was forwarding a copy of this article to the appropriate product team at Google – Thanks Stephen!

……….

Article by:  +Kim Clinkunbroomer Clinks Web Service  a  Google AdWords Partner Company Subscribe: RSS Feeds  |  Follow me on Twitter

I am really pleased to see this change in the user interface.  I find that many AdWords users (mostly the DIY groups) do not even know of many of the features available to them.  This change will bring them additional transparency when managing allowing them to make better decisions when optimizing their accounts.

Example from the AdGroups tab

- new submenu makes it easy for advertisers to manage their accounts.

New Sub Menu

……….

Posted by: Kim Clinkunbroomer, GAP

Owner of Clinks Web Service & AdWordsPI in Chicago, Illinois

Twitter: Kim Clink on Twitter – AWHE on Twitter

Subscribe: RSS Feeds

Negative = Positive

If your keyword list contains broad or phrase match keywords then negative keywords are most often a must. Negative keywords prevent your ads from appearing and potentially receiving clicks from search queries that are not relevant to your product or service. Suppressing impressions (and clicks) from irrelevant search queries will improve your CTR and quality score and allow your keyword list to work harder to bring qualified prospects to your website.

AdWords Offers the Following Negative Match types:

Negative Broad Matched – To create a standard negative keyword, insert a minus sign before a keyword and add it to your ad group or campaign.

Example: -free download

Adding this negative keyword to your account would prevent your ads from showing on any search queries containing the terms free and download Your ads still have the potential to appear for variations of these terms. Your ads will also still show on search queries that only contain one of the terms.

For example, the search queries software download and free software could trigger your ads, while free software download will not.

Negative “Phrase” Matched - To create a negative phrase matched keyword surround the term with quotation marks.

Example: -”free download“

Adding this keyword the system wouldn’t let any search query containing the phrase free download trigger your ads. The search query free download accounting software would not trigger your ads. However, your ads could possibly show on the search query download accounting software or free accounting software.

Negative [Exact] Matched – To create a negative exact matched keyword surround the term with brackets

Example: -[free download]

This negative keyword would only prevent your ads from showing on the search query free download. Search queries such as free accounting software download and free software could still trigger your ads.

It is suggested to add relevant variations of your negative keywords, including both the singular and plural forms. Learn to add effective negative keywords to your ad group or campaign.

Now that we have some familiarity with negative keyword match types the next question is how do we identify negatives to add to the account? AdWords offers two tools to identify negative keywords.

1. search query report.

The search query report is a very helpful report to identifying negative keywords. This report will show advertisers what the actual query was that resulted in their ads being served. You can use this report to identify negative keyword to add to your account.

2. Keyword Tool.

The keyword tool can be used to identify negative keywords.

Select and include your negative keyword.

Adding Negative keywords is easy. They can be added at the campaign level to cover all adgroups or at the ad group level if the negative keywords are specific to one category.   Google has even recently added the ability to create negative keyword lists so that advertisers can easily create master keyword lists that can be attached to adgroups or campaigns.

Research your Search Query Reports regularly to identify negative keywords. Negative keywords will improve your CTR and preserve your budget by showing your ads to only the best prospects for business.

……….

Article by:  +Kim Clinkunbroomer Clinks Web Service  a  Google AdWords Partner Company Subscribe: RSS Feeds  |  Follow me on Twitter