The Official Google Blog has posted an overview of the Quality Score system used within the AdWords pay-per-click advertising system. It explains in simple terms how and why this system is used and what it means for advertisers, with the underlying issue of relevancy and value of a keyword or advert providing more benefit to the searcher and the advertiser.

As Google states in the post: "The quality score gives search engines a way of aligning the incentives of the buyers, the sellers, and the viewers of ads. The search engine wants to sell ad impressions, but advertisers want to pay for clicks. The solution is for advertisers to bid on a cost-per-click basis, while the search engine estimates the total value of the ad over time: bid per click times the expected number of clicks."

The post finishes by asking why quality scores are important - to which the answer is that "they lead to a better auction by allowing advertisers to buy clicks, publishers to sell impressions, and users to see relevant ads".

Labels: google adwords, ppc, quality score

Google have launched a new online tool in Australia called '10 Steps to Promote Your Business Online'. The new Flash website has subtle branding so that it doesn't appear to be a mainstream Google product and is mainly intended to be used as a promotional tool and guide for small businesses to introduce and encourage them to use Google AdWords to market their website.

It's a simple to use and cleverly designed site that helps to lead new online marketers through the process of setting up a marketing plan and an online marketing (PPC) campaign for their own specific business, all linked closely to Google's products and services. Users are led through the 10 steps with simple stages to read and input their own requirements, with the option to save their plans at any point (and therefore a good data collection tool for Google).

It can take some time to work through but can be a good starting point for small businesses who have little knowledge or experience of this sector and want the 'hand-holding' to develop a campaign for themselves.

Labels: google adwords, internet advertising, ppc

At the end of last week the Google AdWords blog announced some significant improvements to their Quality Score system. The changes are that, firstly, Quality Score will become more accurate because it will be calculated at the time of each search query. Secondly, keywords will no longer be marked 'inactive for search' and finally the notification of 'first page bid' will replace 'minimum bid' in an account.

The first change is particularly notable in that Google is now replacing the static Quality Score system for each keyword with one that will evaluate an advert's quality each time it matches a search query. This means that AdWords will use the most accurate, specific, and up-to-date performance information when determining whether an ad should be displayed, which Google says will mean that adverts will be more likely to show when they're relevant and less likely to show when they're not.

In Google's quest for relevancy, this change should also mean that searchers are likely to see better ads and advertisers should receive leads which are more highly qualified. This is clearly going to be a very 'fluid' system that adds further calculations to the position and cost of each advert and will require further focus from advertisers to improve their campaign metrics.

Google had previously identified under-performing terms within each campaign and marked them 'inactive for search' - this is now changing so that terms will be available for advertisers to use and bid against, although they are likely to still have a low quality score and not perform particularly well, even with higher bid levels.

The final change is also notable in that the 'minimum bid' notification for each search term is now changing to a 'first page bids' figure, which is an estimate of the bid level required to place an advert on the first page of Google's search results. These figures are based on the exact match version of each keyword, the ad's Quality Score and current advertiser competition on that keyword. This will be a more useful figure for advertisers and give some better insight into the competitive nature of each search term as well as guidance on the necessary bid levels to achieve first place position - which is also likely to help Google push up the average bid levels across the market.

These notified changes to the Quality Score system are gradually being introduced to advertisers but are likely to be widely available within the next few months ready for the pre-Christmas peak of advertising for many e-commerce companies.

Labels: google adwords, ppc

Google AdWords has pushed the Placement Targeting option to mainstream PPC advertisers by making this option a more prominent part of the AdGroup management panel. The development of placement targeting is also another way that advertisers can now gain more control of the content targeted network and target their adverts on other relevant third-party websites.

Placement targeting can either be included within existing AdGroups, or set up as a separate campaign. A new Placements tab in the AdGroup control panel provides advertisers with the option of including this feature and targeting specific domains, or even sections of large sites, through a number of selection tools.

The advertiser's advert will still appear within the content targeted network if this is selected, but with Placement Targeting there is now more control over bidding strategies on domains that are more relevant to their market. You can select sites by browsing subject categories, searching sites related to keywords, or by finding similar sites to known domains that are relevant.

The list of suggested sites that Google presents includes details on the ad formats available and the likely impressions per day. The focus of the tool does leave something to be desired in some markets, but by selecting specific websites and adjusting bid levels, advertisers can put more focus on this part of their AdWords campaign and combine targeted sites with specific keywords for greater focus.

Labels: google, ppc

Since the demise of the Overture Search Suggestion Tool into Yahoo!'s new 'Panama' PPC system, the best free keyword research tool has been Google's own tool which is provided as part of a PPC account as well as a free tool available to anyone to use. This tool is important because it reports search activity on Google over the previous month, but the main drawback has been that no volume data has been displayed - just a comparative bar chart for each term to indicate relative popularity.

However, Google's AdWords blog has announced the new change which has appeared this week, whereby Google is now displaying volume data for these terms, at least within a general range, so that more information can be gleaned on the popularity of each term and the likely search volumes that they attract. So although these are approximated figures, it helps to add an extra level of data onto this already useful tool and should benefit all online advertisers as one of the core research tools to use when looking for the best search terms to target, either through PPC or SEO.

Labels: google, keywords, ppc

A report by The New York Times claims that research undertaken over recent months by Piper Jaffray in the US has uncovered apparent ways that Google is now testing behavioural targeting for its PPC adverts. By using the huge amount of data that has been collected on search activity and patterns in the past, Google may be starting to display different adverts to people based on their previous search activity - so that the example given indicates that if a searcher looks for “scuba,” then something else, and then “vacations" could pull up ads for diving trips.

It's no secret that Google is using it's massive source of data to understand search activity and to target activity in different ways, such as through the personalised iGoogle tool and also the likely development with banner advertising that followed the acquisition of DoubleClick last year. Some of this data collection is using 'cookies', which are small files attached to web actions from individual users.

Google had changed its privacy policy several years ago and indicated to users that it might record personal information about them for reasons that included “the display of customized content and advertising.” In 2007 Google also started looking at the immediately previous search when considering the display of PPC ads although Google did not need to use cookies for this because web browsers report the address of the previous site visited to the current site being visited and in the case of a search, that address contains the search terms.

This type of development in search targeting or behavioural targeting is becoming one of the main areas where the search engines will be competing to gain market advantage over the next few years and to improve the targeting services being offered to advertisers. Google, Yahoo! and MSN are all looking at tackling this issue with different approaches, although all of which are likely to raise privacy concerns, including possible legal cases in the future depending on the methods being used. However, it also should mean better relevancy for both searcher and advertiser if the balance between targeting and privacy can be achieved.

Labels: google, ppc, search behaviour

After much speculation, Yahoo! has now agreed a deal with Google to carry their search advertising in return for a revenue share. As reported by many news agencies, including Reuters, the deal forms a non-exclusive partnership and Yahoo! say they have made this move after failing to agree a deal with Microsoft who had revised their earlier acquisition approach to now buy just Yahoo!'s search business.

Under the new arrangement with Google (which follows an earlier trial period), Yahoo! will run Google's AdSense PPC adverts alongside its own search results and on some of its websites, but only in the United States and Canada for the time being. Yahoo! will also retain control over where the Google ads will run and which search terms will be used - there is more information published by Google on their official blog. The deal has been agreed to initially cover four years, with options to renew it up to a period of 10 years.

Yahoo! must see this as part of a rescue plan for its ailing business since it expects the deal to create an additional $250 million to $450 million operating cash flow within the first year. However, within the brief press release there is no mention of what impact this arrangement will have with Yahoo!'s own PPC service and for the advertisers currently running accounts in these regions, but it seems to indicate that Yahoo! expect to make more from this model than developing their own service. More on this should become clearer over the next few weeks or months.

Labels: google, ppc, yahoo

Google has said that the company is witnessing a "significant inflow" of advertising spend from companies who are moving their budgets from mainstream 'above the line' media into more targeted and measurable forms of marketing like PPC advertising.

As reported by The Sydney Morning Herald, there are mixed reports about how the threat of a recession is affecting companies, but this trend does seem to indicate concerns from companies who want to make the most of their advertising spend when budgets are being tightened, either in response or anticipation of a market downturn. In light of this trend, the reported 30% growth in search advertising in Australia for the March quarter could be significantly underestimated.

At the same time as this continued growth in Internet advertising continues, another article in the SMH claims that, dollar for dollar, the Internet accounts for more carbon emissions than any other form of advertising. A study by consultancy P3 estimated the environmental cost of different forms of advertising and claimed that Internet advertising is the equivalent of junk mail, with high levels of water generated by large numbers of page impressions.

Perhaps this is good publicity for the green auditing division of the company publishing the research but it also raises many questions about the methodology of the research.

Labels: internet advertising, ppc, research

The New York Times reports that Google executives have expressed a desire to develop the advertising relationship with Yahoo! that was tested for several weeks recently with AdWords appearing alongside Yahoo!'s search results. This is partly a move to ward off any possible future attempts by Microsoft to make a bid for Yahoo! but could also be a lucrative development for both Google and Yahoo!

Any arrangement, should it go ahead, would face antitrust investigation in the US due to the dominance of the search advertising market by the two companies. It would also have serious implications for Yahoo!'s own PPC advertising system, which is still struggling to compete against Google, despite a facelift and relaunch in recent years. Such a move would also place even more power within Google's control and advertisers would have even fewer options to place search advertising so that bid rates would continue to rise.

Labels: google, ppc, yahoo

Google is facing another lawsuit in the US, according to a report by CNet. The claim aims to take a class action status for many affected advertisers and has been filed by the same firm that previously won significant cases against both Yahoo! and Google for click fraud issues. The new claim accuses Google of deceiving its customers into paying for ads they didn't expressly request.

This is based on the sign-up process for a new AdWords account whereby advertisers are automatically included in the 3rd-party content network of adverts (Google AdSense). There is not an obvious opt-out option for this part of the advertising network and advertisers need to enter the campaign settings after the account has been set up in order to deselect this option.

It is likely that Google will need to revise this system in the future to make it more obvious to advertisers what they are selecting and how they can easily opt-out if required. It also seems to be the nature of being a big corporation now that Google will continue to face these types of action whenever a potential failure in their system can be exploited for money.

Labels: google, legal issues, ppc