From today, Google has started testing a new AdWords feature that is currently available to a selective few in the US called AdWords Comparison Ads. It allows users to compare multiple, relevant offers within your sponsored link on Google.
Even though AdWords uses a number of things to show relevant ads to users when they send through a search query, sometimes the ads aren’t targeted enough to provide the right information for the visitor. This is where comparison ads comes into play.
With Comparison Ads, you can also target your offers at a more granular level, leading to more valuable, qualified leads…If they click the promotion, users are taken to a page with more detailed sponsored results. They can choose directly from the offers listed on that page, or they can further refine their search by providing additional information like income and home value. By giving users the ability to refine their search on a number of relevant attributes, we are able to show more targeted ads and provide you with more valuable leads.
Here’s what a sponsored results page could look like:
It’s hard to say when this feature will be available to Australian advertisers as it is still in its early-stages. But if Ad extensions was any indicator, it could take up to 2 years before we get our hands on it. Stay tuned! If you’re a US advertiser and would like to know more, click here.
In the coming weeks, Australian advertisers will be able to conveniently drive more viewers to their YouTube videos with the use of their AdWords account. Known as Promoted Videos, it was launched as a search advertising program on YouTube so that you could promote your video to users. But in the past year it has expanded to a level where Google will now make it easier for you to set up and manage your campaigns through AdWords
This integration will allow you to create campaigns and buy ad space from the one place, with the assistance of familiar campaign tools. From today, this will be available in Canada, the U.K., France, Italy, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands. You can learn more about this here.
To get a better understanding of Promoted Videos, watch this!
This time last Friday I was at the Hilton Hotel in Sydney; getting ready to see what Yahoo! Search Marketing and ninemsn had for us in their “Get better Bing for your buck” event. I didn’t have any big expectations because we all know the uphill battle for Yahoo & MSN to compete against the search engine giant Google.
We heard from presenters:
* Alex Parsons, Director of MSN products, ninemsn
* Willie Pang, Managing Director, Yahoo! Search Marketing Australia & New Zealand
* Claire Seldon, Sales Director, Yahoo! Search Marketing Australia & New Zealand
They presented their goals for the next 2 to 3 years along with what made Bing different from anything else we’ve seen. Some of the interesting things noted were:
* Bing aims to be more than just a search engine, where it actually helps you make decisions
* 2-3 years goal is to have 20% market share, where they are currently at 14%
* 90% of users engaged with Bing ads
* Bing receives more attention to its PPC ads than Google does (42% vs 28% respectively)
* They expect in the next 12 months, that there will be an increase of 1% in searches, which equates to 20% more queries for your existing PPC campaigns
The latest stats from the US this week shows that Bing is growing, but not enough. “Bing lost market share in June even as it handled more search queries, according to Hitwise, showing the size of the hill Microsoft has to climb.
Google remained the overwhelming favorite among search engines with 74.04 percent of the market in June — that’s up about four-tenths percent since May and nearly 5 percent from a year ago. Still, the number of search queries handled by Bing grew steadily in June, nearly doubling by the end of the month to 6.63 percent. Bing’s average weekly growth rate was 25 percent, according to Hitwise — faster than the growth rate of Microsoft search services (Bing, Live.com and MSN Search) combined.”
Only time will tell if Bing can maintain this performance for the months to come. For more info, click here.
If you haven’t already checked your email, last night you would have received an email from Google AdWords, telling you that you have at least 30 days before they permanently switch over the current interface to a new version that has been designed to make life easier for you.
If you are like many out there that have been working with the current AdWords interface and have become comfortable with it, in particular those who have tried doing PPC themselves instead of through an agency, this new change can be daunting to say the least. It sort of looks familiar, yet it’s completely different and you wonder why they changed it in the first place when the current interface was working fine. Welcome to the ever changing world of AdWords!
Some of the changes include:
- The way you add/edit ads and keywords
- The way you edit budgets
- The way you create/edit campaign settings
- The layout in reviewing your campaign
Previous Interface
New Interface
If you have started using the new interface, you’ll notice that there are still a number of things missing in it, along with it taking significantly longer to load than the current interface. It will take some time getting use to the new interface (even with it’s similarities to Google Analytics). With this transition, it’s a good opportunity for those who have been thinking of outsourcing their PPC management to do it now rather than later once this change becomes permanent, and you are forced to invest in time that you may not have to learn a new system.
For more information about the new interface, click here.
E-Web Marketing is a Google AdWords Qualified Company and a Yahoo Certified Local Ambassador. If you are interested, please contact us on 1300 785 122 to discuss maximising your campaign to meet your objectives!
This does sound odd at first, but through Google, flu trends in America are now trackable. How is this done? It has been found that a new common symptom of the flu includes Americans entering phrases like “flu symptoms” into Google and other search engines before seeing a doctor.
That simple act, multiplied across millions of keyboards in homes around the country, has given rise to a new early warning system for fast-spreading flu outbreaks, called Google Flu Trends.
In early February, for example, the C.D.C. reported that the flu cases had recently spiked in the mid-Atlantic states. But Google says its search data show a spike in queries about flu symptoms two weeks before that report was released. Its new service at google.org/flutrends analyzes those searches as they come in, creating graphs and maps of the country that, ideally, will show where the flu is spreading.
The incidence of click fraud has reduced to 16 percent of all clicks industrywide in the second quarter; this is down from 16.2 percent. Even though it has dropped, the figure is still a significantly high number and remains a concern for search advertising businesses along with Google, which owes much of its success to pay-per-click (PPC).
… the use of botnets to perpetrate click fraud continues to rise, reaching almost 28 percent of all fraudulent or invalid clicks, up from 25.2 percent in the second quarter. This is a very concerning trend, according to Cuthbert.
A botnet is a network of computers that have been secretly compromised by malicious hackers who use them for a variety of tasks, such as sending spam and, in this case, perpetrating click fraud.
More stats on the status of click fraud can be found here.
When someone says ”geo-targeting”, we think of targeting a region and having your product/service being advertised for the searches in that area only. In turn, limiting your focus area to fewer clicks to more qualified users. But Yahoo! Search Marketing has implemented a new feature that will bring more traffic to your site.
Previously when you wanted to target United States, you had to either select the entire market - both the U.S. and Canada - or individually select each of the 50 states. Now you have the ability to pinpoint your market!
… some advertisers need even more focus, especially in more populous regions. Yahoo! now lets you zoom in on targeted cities and, in a beta feature, ZIP codes as well.
In August we heard rumblings that maybe Google AdSense & Analytics were going to work together. Well we don’t have to wait much longer because AdSense publishers will be happy to hear that Google has finally integrated Google AdSense into Google Analytics. Therefore allowing you to see which pages, referrers are the most profitable and more. This new feature will really open publishers to knowledge they have been asking for from Google for years.
Check out the video below to get a taste of what you can expect.
If you don’t already, you’ll soon have access to these new features as they are rolled out.
Microsoft has released an experiment where users are given the option to move around organic search results, as well as share them with friends and add comments to listings. You will have to register using Windows Live ID to take advantage of U Rank, from which you’ll be able to move, copy, add a note and delete results.
Below is an image of the options.
With the ability to share your modified results, will this start a trend of social search? No one really knows but it’s definitely interesting. Click here for more details on this new development.
On Tuesday, Google announced the beta launch of AdSense for games which is expected to give the in-game advertising industry a huge boost, and will be Google’s first foray into the video games market.
Below is a screencap of what we can expect with this move.
According to Christian Oestlien, the senior product manager for AdSense for Games, the program’s beta launch will focus on the placement of a variety of forms of ads in Flash-based casual games and some larger titles.
In the beginning at least, Oestlien said, Google will work with partners like PlayFish, Mochi Media, Demand Media and Konami.
The latter, Oestlien said, would use AdSense for Games to place ads in well-known titles like Frogger and Dance Dance Revolution.
More information about this launch can be read here.
