Pay Per Click (PPC)

If you have a location-based business, or a business with multiple area branches, you'll know how crucial location targeting is for the success of your Pay Per Click campaigns. Ready for some good news? Location targeting became easier today, with Google's update to the Location Targeting Settings in AdWords: the location targeting feature is now connected to Google Maps! Discover Location Easily So let's look around inside the spruced-up AdWords interface. As...

26 Oct

Introducing AdWords Dynamic Search

Google's latest exciting AdWords feature to reach the beta testing stage is Dynamic Search Ads, which allows you to target relevant searches with dynamic ads generated directly from your site. How Does It Work? Google will index your website frequently for your products and/or services to maintain a fresh index using its organic web crawling technology When someone makes a search on Google matching one of your landing pages, Google will dynamically generate an ad headline...

05 Oct

Tips on Passing the Google AdWords Fundamentals Exam

Thinking about taking the Google Adwords Fundamentals Exam? After passing the first stage to becoming Google AdWords Qualified, I have compiled some tips about the exam which will help you to be better prepared when you take it, and increase your chance of passing. About the exam: 120 multiple choice questions 2 hour time limit (one you start you can not pause the exam and come back later like the Google...

30 Sep

Google Has Introduced 'Top of the Page Bid Estimates'

To compliment the recently released feature 'Top vs. Side' reporting, 'Top of the Page Bid' is now available to all AdWords advertisers. The new feature aims to provide additional assistance in making educated decisions for optimising your PPC campaign. Google states: The top of page bid estimate is intended to give you greater insight with which to plan your bidding strategy. Meeting your top of page bid estimate is not...

22 Sep

How can PPC help SEO?

One of the most challenging aspects of SEO is keyword research, a task that needs to be done on an ongoing and regular basis. Keywords which are working to drive conversions in one season, may not in another. See below a snapshot from Google Trends (Australia). It shows the average searches made in Google for the keyword 'heaters': As you can observe here, in January 2011, the search volume is relatively...

14 Sep

Google Can Now Review Paused AdWords Ads

Google announced last week they will now be reviewing paused ads in Google AdWords in the same way they currently review active ads to "improve users experience; eliminate unnecessary delays in getting your ads approved and ultimately enhance ability to plan and manage campaigns". What does this mean for you? According to Google, the change will shorten any delays in getting your ads approved. You can write ads you would potentially be interested...

01 Sep

AdWords Editor Version 9.5 Now Released

Google AdWords has finally launched AdWords Editor Version 9.5 for both Windows and Mac computers. Read on to find out more about the most relevant updates. 1. Campaign Experiments This feature was only available through Google AdWords before. Now, it has been incorporated into AdWords Editor. The feature allows you to apply and edit an experiment status at the ad group level, ad or keyword level. 2. Location...

23 Aug

Are Your Paid Ads Cannibalising Your Organic Traffic?

Ever wondered if having a paid search ad campaign running detracts from the traffic that might have otherwise clicked on your free organic results? Google statisticians have recently run studies on over 400 paused Google AdWords campaigns to try to answer this question. The quick answer is no. After observing organic click-through volume in the absence of paid search ads, Google theoreticians built a statistical model to predict click-through volume for given levels of...

15 Aug

Call Metrics Released to US and Canadian Advertisers