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 Subscribe: RSS Feeds  |  Follow me on Twitter

Dear AdWords Advertiser,

In early May, we’ll be retiring Position Preference, an AdWords bidding feature that you may be using in one or more of your campaigns in account number XXX-XXX-XXXX. This decision was made due to low adoption and the existence of alternatives for this feature (see below). To prepare for this change, we recommend that you disable Position preference in your campaigns to give you more control over your keyword bids. For instructions on how to disable Position preference, please see our Help Center at http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1204374.

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More specifically, you can expect to see the following changes in your account:

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* As of April 5th, Position Preference can no longer be enabled for campaigns in either the AdWords web interface or the API. Campaigns already using Position preference will still have it enabled. However, if you turn Position preference off in one of your campaigns, you will not be able to turn it back on.

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* Starting in early May, we will begin disabling Position preference within all campaigns.

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* When Position preference is disabled (either when you do so manually or when the feature is retired automatically in early May), the maximum CPC bids for those campaigns will be set to the bids that Position preference used most recently.  Position preference tries to raise or lower your bids to target the positions you specify. So, using the most recent Position preference bid as your manual maximum CPC should minimize disruption to your traffic.

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Before you disable Position Preference, we recommend that you export your manual bids by downloading a keyword report to back up any bids you set before you turned on Position preference.  This report will include keyword level maximum CPC bids.

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What are my alternatives to Position preference?

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If youíd like to target specific ad positions, we recommend that you first read this blog post (http://adwords.blogspot.com/2011/04/understanding-average-position-metric.html) from our chief economist, Hal Varian, on some of the pitfalls around targeting average position.

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After reading the blog post, if youíd still like to target specific ad positions, we recommend using automated rules.  With this feature, you can create an automated rule for your campaign that will change your bid if your average position differs from your target. For more information on how to use this feature, please see http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1204376.

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If you have questions about the retirement of Position preference, please contact us. We appreciate your understanding and your continued support of AdWords.

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Sincerely,

The Google AdWordsTeam

So,  if you want to continue to use position preference until May when Google completely disables the feature do not disable it or it will not be available again in the user interface.  And come May it will be gone for good.

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

Here is what AdWordsPro Mini had to say in the AdWords Help Forum:

This week is “Share your AdWords Best Practices week - March 28 to April 1″. (And today is Day 2).

What is this?

To show our appreciation of your dedication to the forum and to give you a special opportunity to demonstrate what you know we are launching this “Share your Best Practices week – March 28 to April 1″.  Over the course of this week, we encourage you to share your AdWords Best Practices on important, difficult, or confusing topics.

How does it work?

Everyday, we will choose a topic and post it as question and let you share your own Best Practices! You are encouraged to share tips, tricks, useful resources that you may have developed, and your experiences on what has worked for you on this topic.

The best of the Best Practices shared for each topic during the course of this week will be highlighted on the Google AdWords Blog (http://adwords.blogspot.com) and could receive some cool Google schwag!

Are you waiting for something? Just start sharing!

Thank you for your enthusiasm.

AdWords Pro Mini

Topics covered so far:

Monday March 28, 2011 – “Tips and Best Practices on Optimizing Ad Text” (closed)

Tuesday March 29 – “Building Effective Keyword Lists”

Wednesday March 30 – What to do when you see “Rarely Shown due to low Quality Score”

Thursday March 31  - TBA

Friday April 1  - TBA

A neat way to encourage participation and the exchange of great ideas.

If you care to share your ideas visit the thread.

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Posted by: Kim Clinkunbroomer, GAP

Owner of Clinks Web Service / Pay Per Click Lab in Chicago, Illinois

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They read:

“Dear AdWords Advertiser,

As part of our effort to continuously improve our products, we’re writing to let you know about an upcoming system update which will improve the overall quality of location targeting in AdWords. While this change will help make location targeting more accurate, certain location targets used in your campaigns could experience a drop in impressions. The potential drop is due to improvements to our data which make targeting more precise. Please click here to see the full list of affected locations.

What can I do if I’m seeing a reduction in ad impressions?
If you’d like to ensure your campaign continues to receive adequate ad impressions, you may wish to make an adjustment to your settings by following the instructions below: “………[snip]

There is an exhaustive list of locations that have been effected sorted only by country.  I have not counted but the list is massive - 4227 effected locations in the USA alone.  It is not clear if there will be any actual messaging in the AdWords User Interface.

Google states in their help center:

What can I do if I’m seeing a reduction in ad impressions?

…[snip]

“Click the settings tab – click edit next to Locations – Delete the effected locations and replace with another comparable location using the Search or Browse tab…..”

…[snip]

I am not sure how many advertisers are going to be effected.  Not sure if the ‘effected locations’ are messaged as ‘effected’ in the AdWords user interface or if we are just to look for drops in impressions and consider this a situation where we are targeting an ‘effected location’.

Looking at the list is not cut and dry for instance in USA there are three references to ‘Springfield’ (what state?).  Good idea for advertisers that use location targeting for to target small locations to check their Location Settings to see if they have any messaging described above regarding affected locations.

More from Google can be found at this AdWords Help Center link.

As always comments welcome – do you see messaging in your account describing an ‘effected location’?  I would love to see a screenshot of this messaging.

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