'adwords' Category

• Apples, not Turtles

  This article was triggered by unreliable internet connections, especially after upgrading to Apple’s latest Mac OS X release, Leopard. It’s a reflection on Brand, the Pareto Principle, and Perception, which is why it ties, strangely, to Internet Marketing.
  There’s an almost certainly apocryphal story that someone was presenting cosmology to a non-scientific audience. At the […]

  January 30th, 2008

• Google - Doing Less Evil

  I frequently hold forth here that Google abuses the real source of its’ wealth - advertisers. The “Do No Evil” mantra is applied to users, but Google does horrible things to advertisers, remorselessly. After years of criticism from Richard Ball and me on the AdWords Help Forum, and joined more recently by other voices, Google […]

  January 28th, 2008

• AdWords Search Query Reports

  Quite a few people have written about using the fairly new Search Query Reports, and the sometimes surprising ways in which Google can extend Broad Match. Here’s another insight into AdWords. Look at the first two clips of screenshots, and notice that the impression volume reported is radically differently on keyword search.
  This first screen […]

  January 14th, 2008

• AdWords, Geotargeting Myths

  Note: A shorter updated article about Google’s Geotargeting in 2008 is now available.
  Changing the geotarget can change your paid search performance quite markedly. However, commentators, and even Google, publish some wildly inaccurate information. I’ve read a few strange myths about geotargeting, in various forums. I’ve got some clients for whom geotargeting at country, and smaller […]

  October 19th, 2007

• Google Bowling And Identity

  Reducing the search engine ranking of competitors, known as “Google Bowling”, is getting some air time. A brief summary article “8 Ways a Competitor Can Sabotage Your Site” describes some techniques that can damage rank and steal or reduce traffic to a site. Of the eight techniques described, seven depend on weak identity online, and […]

  September 17th, 2007

• Definitions: CPA

  Various of our clients have different performance targets for paid search, evolved because of the different ways in which they can or want to measure performance. For paid search, the most common performance measurements that we see are CPA, ROAS and ROI. This article addresses CPA, the Cost Per Action.
  CPA - Cost Per Action
  CPA, […]

  September 3rd, 2007

• Affiliates and Top Position

  I was uncertain what effect the new algorithm changes would have on affiliates. I think I’ve now uncovered what is happening. If you aren’t an affiliate, or don’t run affiliates, this may appear to be of little interest. Bear with me, as I think this article illuminates some important principles with AdWords.
  Ignoring affiliates, for the […]

  August 28th, 2007

• Top Position - Bidders Beware

  Whew! My accounts are mostly set to UK time (inherited from previous account administration). So I have US spend that is now two hours after my midnight, and can clearly see the effects of the new Top Position pricing model. It means that *Phrase* match costs are going through the roof. Now that is not […]

  August 23rd, 2007

• Google, Trust, Content Match, Placement Reports

  A respected peer, Richard Ball, often writes about distribution fraud, and the waste of advertising funds on Google’s domain parking. I have some evidence to back up his claim that advertising on domain parks simply wastes advertiser funds.

  This is a portion of a screenshot from an account with a content match targeted campaign. It […]

  August 17th, 2007

• Top Position: Higher CTR, Higher MinCPC.

  An article on Search Engine Land adds more information to the flimsy FAQ. So the top position is supposed to have a higher (unpublished and incomparable) CTR as a criterion, and a different (unpublished and incomparable) MinCPC as the qualification to appear.
  The auction still seems to be built on the generalised second price model. […]

  August 10th, 2007