According to Internet market research powerhouse eMarketer, the mobile search advertising market size is currently $13.5 million and growing - by a projected factor of 50 - within the next four years. Read More

According to Internet market research powerhouse eMarketer, the mobile search advertising market size is currently $13.5 million and growing - by a projected factor of 50 - within the next four years. With everyone buzzing about mobile these days, we wanted to tell you straight from the horse's mouth about some sophisticated new tools and features that we've recently rolled out to help you run a more successful mobile ads campaign.

AdWords Business Pages for mobile ads
Mobile ads can refer users to a business phone number, a mobile website, or both. Usually you need to be a web developer or contact your webmaster in order to create a mobile web page from scratch. However, AdWords Business Pages for mobile ads provides a friendly wizard that creates a page for you in minutes - which is available immediately after you create it. Google hosts the page for free.

Carrier Targeting
We've just expanded carrier targeting in more countries, which means you have more options to fine-tune who sees your mobile ads. Click "Advanced targeting and network options" to expand your options for carrier targeting from the "Create/Edit mobile ad" page. You can choose to show your ads to users on all mobile carriers, or check off the boxes next to the specific carriers you want to target.

If you don't already have a mobile ad running, learn how to create one.

Posted by Christina, Inside AdWords crew

Back in September and October, Fred Vallaeys, Product Evangelist for AdWords, joined us for a three part series on ROI (Return on Investment) and how to track it.

Now is your chance to ask Fred specific ROI questions, or questions about AdWords in general -- Fred will be speaking at ...Read More

Back in September and October, Fred Vallaeys, Product Evangelist for AdWords, joined us for a three part series on ROI (Return on Investment) and how to track it.

Now is your chance to ask Fred specific ROI questions, or questions about AdWords in general -- Fred will be speaking at PubCon by WebmasterWorld in Las Vegas, Tuesday, December 4th, as part of a panel discussing Major Search Engines. We hope you'll stop by and introduce yourself to Fred, if you're attending.

Fred is always interested in meeting advertisers and hearing feedback about all things AdWords -- check out Fred's bio for the event, complete with a photo, so you'll know who to look for.

If you do chat with Fred, let him know that the Inside AdWords crew sent you. ;)

Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew

In our first post in this series, we highlighted some of the most notable improvements we've made to the Google content network over this past year. Today, we wanted to focus on the range of options that the content network provides to make campaign management simple.Read More

In our first post in this series, we highlighted some of the most notable improvements we've made to the Google content network over this past year. Today, we wanted to focus on the range of options that the content network provides to make campaign management simple.

To ensure that our advertisers have increased flexibility and control across all aspects of their campaign, we offer multiple targeting options, a variety of ad formats, and hundreds of thousands of sites on which your ads can show.

Targeting Options
Ever wonder how we match ads to relevant pages? By scanning the millions of pages on the web, Google's contextual targeting technology analyzes the content of different web pages to determine the theme of a page. Then, by looking at all the keywords and ad text in your ad groups, our system matches the most relevant ads to the theme of that page. For example, if you have an ad for a digital camera, our system may place your ad next to a news article that reviews the latest digital photographic technology.

To ensure that you are targeting your ads to the right users, you can create tightly-themed ad groups. You can also try using negative keywords but remember that they work by exact match on the content network. The more theme-specific negative keywords you include, the less likely your ad is to appear on sites that match that theme. Following the example above, to decrease the chances of your digital camera ad showing up on pages related to video equipment, be sure to enter keywords like video, video camera, and video cameras as negative keywords. But keep in mind that doing so will increase your chances of excluding pages that review both video and digital cameras.

For further control, you can use the site exclusion tool to prevent your ads from appearing on specific pages, subpages, or types of pages that you don't think are a good match for your message.

If you want even greater control, you can use placement targeting to hand-pick specific sites or sections of sites you want your ads to appear on. If your goal is conversion-oriented metrics likes sales or leads, you can select CPC pricing and pay when users click on your ads. To increase brand awareness and maximize impressions among your target users, you may choose CPM pricing.

Environments
The Google content network has partnered with a variety of different websites, from news sites like Reuters and CNN, to social networking sites like MySpace and Friendster, to smaller niche sites like Ask the Builder and WhateverLife. This wide selection helps you match your message with the right audience. To find out more about how one advertiser found success through advertising on niche sites, you can read this case study.

Ad Formats
Text ads are a great way to reach your audience with a brief, pointed message. When you want to communicate a simple, visual message, try image ads, which are accepted on over 95% of content network sites. And if you're looking to engage your audience with sight, sound, and motion, or if your product requires a demonstration, Google click-to-play video ads offer an effective way to connect your message to the right users. You can read this case study on how one advertiser engaged with customers and increased revenue by using click-to-play video ads to demonstrate his robotic guitar tuners.

You can also check out demos of video ads and learn more about the Ad Creation Marketplace, where you can find a professional to help create your video ad.

Altogether, Google's targeting options give you full control over the parts of the content network where your ads appear, and AdWords reporting gives you insight into how your ads perform in different environments. By matching the right ad formats with the right environments, you can reach the audience that matters to you most when they're engaged with content that's relevant to your business.

As always, you can read more about the content network here. And if you have specific questions that you would like answered in upcoming blog posts, we invite you to email us. In the meantime, stay tuned more information on optimizing your content network campaign in the coming weeks.

Posted by Feng, Inside AdWords crew

It's that time of year again. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the US, and we'd like to take a moment to thank you for your continuous support and readership. Before we take the next couple of days off, we'd like to share with you our latest blog doodle -- you may even notice a ...Read More

It's that time of year again. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the US, and we'd like to take a moment to thank you for your continuous support and readership. Before we take the next couple of days off, we'd like to share with you our latest blog doodle -- you may even notice a cameo appearance by a certain hand turkey from last year!

We hope you'll have a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!


Posted by Vivian, Inside AdWords crew

The holiday season is underway, and people are on the lookout for the perfect presents. If you're hoping to take advantage of this shopping season, you won't want to miss out on our AdWords holiday campaign tips in the latest ...Read More

The holiday season is underway, and people are on the lookout for the perfect presents. If you're hoping to take advantage of this shopping season, you won't want to miss out on our AdWords holiday campaign tips in the latest Retail, Entertainment & Media, and Automotive industry newsletters.

We also invite you to check out the brand new Tech B2C Industry Newsletter, designed for advertisers selling consumer electronics as well as telecommunications and technology products and services.

Remember, you can sign up to receive AdWords Industry Newsletters via email through your AdWords account.

Posted by Feng, Inside AdWords crew

We're excited to let you know that the AdWords Optimization Team is offering a new round of campaign optimizations. As we've mentioned in a recent post on the subject, requesting an optimization is easy. Simply fill out this ...Read More

We're excited to let you know that the AdWords Optimization Team is offering a new round of campaign optimizations. As we've mentioned in a recent post on the subject, requesting an optimization is easy. Simply fill out this request form and tell us about your specific business and advertising goals. Our optimization team will review your website, campaign structure, ad text, and keywords -- then, within 10 day or less, they'll send you customized recommendations to help you reach your goals. You'll have complete control over which of these recommendations you choose to implement.

If you've had us complete an optimization before, we encourage you to submit a different campaign now. Whether you are a first time or a repeat customer, please be sure to specify which campaign you'd like the team optimize. You can do this in the 'Your Advertising Goals' section of the request form. Also, please keep in mind that this service is currently available for advertisers in the U.S. and Canada, for campaigns in English.

Depending on your business, it may be a bit late in the game to request an optimization for a campaign focused on the winter holidays. If the timing makes sense for you, though, please be sure to let us know of the seasonal nature of your campaign.

The optimization team is looking forward to hearing from you.

Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew

We're pleased to announce a change that we've made to the incidence of clicks on text ads on the Google content network. Previously, users could click anywhere on text ads running on the content network, including the ad's background and any part of the ad text, for their click to be registered. Now only clicks on the title or URL of text ads will be counted.Read More

We're pleased to announce a change that we've made to the incidence of clicks on text ads on the Google content network. Previously, users could click anywhere on text ads running on the content network, including the ad's background and any part of the ad text, for their click to be registered. Now only clicks on the title or URL of text ads will be counted.

This change better aligns what is considered a click for ads on the Google content network with what is considered a click for ads shown on Google.com. By changing the clickable area on text ads, we hope to increase user satisfaction with both our advertisers and our publishers.

As a result of this change, some advertisers may notice a decrease in both the number of clicks and the clickthrough rate (CTR) in content network campaigns -- along with an increase in the average return on investment (ROI) of content network traffic. For insight into the ROI you receive from your AdWords ads, you can install conversion tracking or Google Analytics to measure whether the clicks your ads receive lead to valuable actions on your site. If you use a third-party tracking service, you can use ValueTrack tags to identify the traffic coming to your site from the Google search and content networks.

We hope that this change will result in better user experience with Google content network ads, along with potentially improved ROI for advertisers. If you have any comments on this change, please let us know and we will forward your thoughts to the content network team.

Posted by Vivian, Inside AdWords crew

Many of our readers have emailed us asking for more information about the Google content network. As you ramp up your advertising efforts for the holiday season, we wanted to provide you with an overview of the content network, including recent improvements, tips, and examples of how others have used the content network to grow their business. Today's post is the first of a three-part series on the content network that we'll be sharing with you over the next few weeks.Read More

Many of our readers have emailed us asking for more information about the Google content network. As you ramp up your advertising efforts for the holiday season, we wanted to provide you with an overview of the content network, including recent improvements, tips, and examples of how others have used the content network to grow their business. Today's post is the first of a three-part series on the content network that we'll be sharing with you over the next few weeks.

The Google content network is a wide network of AdSense partners, ranging from household names such as the New York Times, to sites that cater to niche audiences, such as blogs, forums, and social networks. Together, these sites reach more worldwide Internet users than any other online property or network.

As an advertiser, you can use the content network to achieve goals across the buying cycle, from raising awareness to driving conversions. However, the impact of your content network campaigns can extend beyond the content network -- these content network campaigns can raise awareness for your business and create demand among your potential customers that can be captured later by your search campaigns. Here is what we heard recently from an AdWords advertiser:

There is no doubt that if we were to take our clients' campaigns off of the content network today, we would see a decrease in their conversions on search tomorrow."

- Edward Llach, founder, SearchRev SEM agency.

You can read more about Search Rev’s experience with the content network in this case study.

Over the past year, we've made numerous changes to the ways you can manage, monitor, and optimize campaigns on the Google content network. Here are the most notable features we've added recently, based on your feedback.

Transparent reporting
The Placement Performance report provides site-by-site performance metrics for your contextually-targeted campaigns -- tracking clicks, impressions, cost, and conversion data at the URL level. When coupled with Google’s conversion tracking, the Placement Performance report becomes a powerful tool that can show you the placements where you’re meeting your objectives, and those where you aren't. You can read tips on how to use these reports effectively to boost campaign performance here.

Targeting and pricing improvements
We're constantly making changes to our contextual targeting system to ensure that we place your ads next to the content most relevant to your message, and as a result, measured more than a 25% increase in well-targeted ads over the last year. We've also made improvements to our smart pricing technology, which discounts the price of clicks on specific sites based on their likelihood to result in strong advertiser ROI. All together, these changes have led to more relevant ads for users and better results for advertisers.

More bidding choices
As we mentioned last week, we also released cost-per-click bidding for placement targeting. You can now hand-pick the parts of the content network where you’d like your ads to appear and choose the bidding option (CPM or CPC) that fits your needs.

Let us know if there are specific topics on the content network that you would like to hear about. In the meantime, keep your eye out for posts in this series in the coming weeks.

Posted by Feng, Inside AdWords crew

Recently we posted about a common misconception regarding Minimum CPC (cost-per-click) and how it is determined. Today we'd like to expand on the theme of CPC, and define the other CPC types that you'll see in your AdWords account.Read More

Recently we posted about a common misconception regarding Minimum CPC (cost-per-click) and how it is determined. Today we'd like to expand on the theme of CPC, and define the other CPC types that you'll see in your AdWords account.

Minimum CPC - also referred to as Min CPC or Minimum CPC bid:
As discussed in our previous post, a minimum cost-per-click (CPC) bid is assigned to each keyword in your account based on its quality (as measured by its Quality Score). The minimum bid is typically the least amount you can pay per click in order for your keyword to show ads. It is important to note that minimum CPC is set by the AdWords system, and not by the advertiser.

Maximum CPC - also referred to as Max CPC:
Maximum cost-per-click (CPC) is set by you, the advertiser, and is the highest amount that you are willing to pay for a click on your ad. You can set a maximum CPC at the keyword or ad group level. If you're interested in a deeper look at Max CPC, you'll find more information here.

Average CPC - also referred to as Avg. CPC:
This is literally the average amount you pay each time someone clicks your ad. The Avg. CPC you see in your account is determined by totalling the cost of all clicks and dividing that total by the number of clicks.

For example: if your ad receives three clicks, one costing $0.33, one costing $0.38, and the third costing $0.49, then your average CPC for those clicks is $1.20 divided by 3 clicks, or $0.40.

We hope this information will shed a little light on a topic that is sometimes unclear to advertisers, particularly those who have just started with us and are new to the somewhat specialized vocabulary of AdWords advertising.

Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew

On Saturday, November 10th, the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PST due to our regularly scheduled maintenance. While you won't be able to sign in to your accounts during this time, your campaigns will continue to run as usual.Read More

On Saturday, November 10th, the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PST due to our regularly scheduled maintenance. While you won't be able to sign in to your accounts during this time, your campaigns will continue to run as usual.

AdWords system maintenance typically occurs on the second Saturday of each month during the above times. We'll continue to update you via the blog as we always have, but you may want to take note of our intended dates and times to help you plan for any scheduled downtimes further down the road.

Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew

We'd like to announce two changes to site targeting in Google's content network. First, because site targeting now offers more precise targeting options, we've given it a more appropriate name ...Read More

We'd like to announce two changes to site targeting in Google's content network. First, because site targeting now offers more precise targeting options, we've given it a more appropriate name: placement targeting. Second, we're introducing a new cost-per-click bidding option so you can now pay per click or per impression.

Introducing placement targeting

When site targeting was first introduced two years ago, advertisers could search for specific URLs or topics to find individual sites in the Google content network and run their image and text ads on these sites. Over time, we've introduced other features like targeting by demographics and richer ad formats such as click-to-play video ads. Now, advertisers can target not only websites but also precise subsections of sites, such as the football pages of a news site, the show times section of a movie site, and even a specific ad unit (a block of Google ads) on a particular webpage.

Because of these new changes, we've changed the name from site targeting to placement targeting. The term "placement" can be used to refer to any site or subsection of a site that you choose to target. As the number of placements available for targeting continues to grow, you'll have even greater control over the parts of the Google content network on which your ads appear.

Cost-per-click bidding for placement targeting

With the launch of cost-per-click (CPC) bidding, advertisers can now choose the bidding option that best matches their needs. If the purpose of your placement-targeted campaign is to increase sales, leads, sign-ups, or other conversion-oriented metrics, you can select CPC bidding and pay when users click on your ads. If you want to maximize impressions and increase brand awareness among your target audience, you can select cost-per-impression (CPM) bidding. And you can specify either the maximum price or the average price (with preferred bidding), that you'd like to pay for each click or 1000 impressions.

Along with Placement Performance reports, CPC bidding for placement targeting was one of the most common advertiser requests we received for Google content network campaigns. We're excited to make this feature available as part of our ongoing efforts to increase the flexibility and control advertisers have when advertising on the content network.

If you'd like to get started on placement targeting, you can read more about it here.

Posted by Feng, Inside AdWords crew

Earlier this year, Google announced an important agreement with Clear Channel Radio, the largest radio station group owner in the U.S., to bring access to guaranteed inventory on top-rated AM and FM stations to AdWords advertisers. We're excited to report back that Clear Channel's inventory is now available through ...Read More

Earlier this year, Google announced an important agreement with Clear Channel Radio, the largest radio station group owner in the U.S., to bring access to guaranteed inventory on top-rated AM and FM stations to AdWords advertisers. We're excited to report back that Clear Channel's inventory is now available through Audio Ads in AdWords. AdWords advertisers can reach their target customers on over 1,700 AM and FM radio stations, including almost 700 Clear Channel AM/FM stations. Our entire network averages 12 stations per market in each of the top 50 markets and covers every major station format. Advertisers will also have access to a guaranteed amount of premium inventory across these stations in all prime dayparts and in "Top 10" stations in all of the top 25 U.S. markets.

With access to this premium inventory, advertisers can broadcast their messages to millions of potential customers in markets like San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles, as well as markets like Boise, ID, Madison, WI, and Spokane, WA. Audio Ads allows advertisers to continue to increase the impact of their AdWords campaigns, even when potential customers aren't online.

Here's a recent comment from an advertiser who's been successful with Google Audio Ads:

Google Audio Ads has allowed us to expand our advertising into new markets we otherwise may not have reached. For our business, small, rural markets are extremely important: Audio Ads makes it easy and efficient to get our message out to these customers.

- Karl Kelman, Marketing Manager, US Airport Parking, www.USAirportparking.com

If you're interested in Audio Ads and you'd like to learn more, you can visit the Audio Ads Beginner's Guide or check out the Audio Ads website to listen to sample ads and read success stories.

Posted by Heather, Inside AdWords crew

If you follow our series on Optimization Tips, you know that we frequently encourage using negative keywords to improve your ROI. Specifically, adding negative keywords to your account can help better target your ads, increase ...Read More

If you follow our series on Optimization Tips, you know that we frequently encourage using negative keywords to improve your ROI. Specifically, adding negative keywords to your account can help better target your ads, increase clickthrough rates, and lower your minimum cost-per-click. You can read more on how to brainstorm negative keywords as well as how you can use them to improve your account performance in an earlier post. Today, we wanted to bring attention to an important feature of negative keywords that many advertisers frequently overlook when composing their negative keyword list: keyword match types.

You may know about the different keyword match types (broad, phrase, and exact) for the keywords you want to show your ads on. But did you know that negative keywords also run on these different keyword match types? Many advertisers use broad match for their negative keywords, and accidentally filter out too many search queries, including ones that they would have wanted their ad to show on. Let's check out an example below.

Say you own a men's clothing store and you would like to increase traffic to your site by running a special winter holiday campaign for your men's accessories line. In the Search Query Report you recently ran, you noticed that the ads in your holiday campaign for men's accessories are also showing up when users are searching for women's silk scarves. You have the broad match keywords silk ties, wool scarves, and men's gifts in your keyword list, and now you want to add the negative keyword of silk scarves. But which negative keyword match type should you choose? Below is a graph illustrating what would happen if you chose negative broad (-silk scarves), negative phrase (-"silk scarves"), and negative exact (-[silk scarves]) match types.

(Click on image for full-size version.)

As illustrated above, different match types for negative keywords can seriously impact when your ads show. In the first column for negative broad match, you would be losing out on relevant search queries such as silk ties wool scarves, simply because the broad match type filters out queries that contain words both silk and scarves. In the last column for negative exact match, search queries containing items that you do not sell like silk scarves gifts and women's silk scarves still cause your ad to show because you are only filtering out the exact match silk scarves.

Using negative keywords effectively requires carefully thinking about how negative keywords will impact your campaign. In addition, you should always monitor your traffic, clickthrough rate, cost per conversion, and search queries to make sure that you are seeing the desired result.

We hope that you've found this tip on negative keywords to be helpful. As always, please let us know which optimization tips you would like to read about in this series.

Posted by Feng, Inside AdWords crew

Online advertisers have noticed that CPCs tend to increase during the holiday season and have asked us why. We turned to Hal Varian, Google’s Chief Economist, for an explanation:

Many advertisers track their average cost-per-click (CPC), but what really matters for the bottom line is the average cost-per-acquisition (CPA): how much you have to spend on advertising to make a sale. The third factor to watch is the conversion rate, which is defined as conversions (sales) per click.

Note that these numbers are neatly tied together by the convenient formula:

CPA = CPC/Conversion rate = (cost/click)/(conversions/click).

Clicks, cost, and conversions all go up during the holidays. As it happens, conversions increase more than clicks, so conversion rates tend to rise. This makes the clicks more valuable, so advertisers raise their bids to reach more consumers. As a result CPCs get pushed up.

(Click image for full-size version)

The plot above shows the median CPC, the median conversion rate, and the median CPA during the 2006 holiday season for those Google AdWords advertisers who use conversion tracking. The series have been normalized so they all start at the same point on November 1.

Last year, Thanksgiving fell on November 23. Note how the conversion rate (green) and the CPC (blue) both dropped on that day which means CPA (red) went up. Perhaps watching football and eating turkey trumped online shopping on Thanksgiving?

Right after Turkey Day, people started on their Christmas shopping so conversion rates started to rise. During this period, advertisers raised their bids in order to get more prominent positions in the ad auctions so they could attract those shoppers. That increased the median CPC (blue). But the conversion rate rose more than the CPC, which pushed CPA (red) down. Even though the clicks cost more, the conversions -- what really matter -- cost less.

The conversion rate peaked on December 11, somewhat before the peak of overall retail sales, since it takes time to process and ship the online orders. By December 23, things were pretty much back to normal. Once Christmas Day arrived, conversion rates dropped to their lowest point of the year -- people were just too busy opening presents to think about buying more things… at least for the next few days.

The bottom line is that is that the cost of clicks does tend to rise during the holidays. But since those clicks are more likely to turn into sales, the CPA goes down, making those seemingly expensive clicks quite a bargain. If you are interested in tracking how your own conversion rates and CPAs change during the holiday season, you can set up AdWords Conversion Tracking on your ads and see how these metrics work for you.

Read More

Online advertisers have noticed that CPCs tend to increase during the holiday season and have asked us why. We turned to Hal Varian, Google’s Chief Economist, for an explanation:

Many advertisers track their average cost-per-click (CPC), but what really matters for the bottom line is the average cost-per-acquisition (CPA): how much you have to spend on advertising to make a sale. The third factor to watch is the conversion rate, which is defined as conversions (sales) per click.

Note that these numbers are neatly tied together by the convenient formula:

CPA = CPC/Conversion rate = (cost/click)/(conversions/click).

Clicks, cost, and conversions all go up during the holidays. As it happens, conversions increase more than clicks, so conversion rates tend to rise. This makes the clicks more valuable, so advertisers raise their bids to reach more consumers. As a result CPCs get pushed up.

(Click image for full-size version)

The plot above shows the median CPC, the median conversion rate, and the median CPA during the 2006 holiday season for those Google AdWords advertisers who use conversion tracking. The series have been normalized so they all start at the same point on November 1.

Last year, Thanksgiving fell on November 23. Note how the conversion rate (green) and the CPC (blue) both dropped on that day which means CPA (red) went up. Perhaps watching football and eating turkey trumped online shopping on Thanksgiving?

Right after Turkey Day, people started on their Christmas shopping so conversion rates started to rise. During this period, advertisers raised their bids in order to get more prominent positions in the ad auctions so they could attract those shoppers. That increased the median CPC (blue). But the conversion rate rose more than the CPC, which pushed CPA (red) down. Even though the clicks cost more, the conversions -- what really matter -- cost less.

The conversion rate peaked on December 11, somewhat before the peak of overall retail sales, since it takes time to process and ship the online orders. By December 23, things were pretty much back to normal. Once Christmas Day arrived, conversion rates dropped to their lowest point of the year -- people were just too busy opening presents to think about buying more things… at least for the next few days.

The bottom line is that is that the cost of clicks does tend to rise during the holidays. But since those clicks are more likely to turn into sales, the CPA goes down, making those seemingly expensive clicks quite a bargain. If you are interested in tracking how your own conversion rates and CPAs change during the holiday season, you can set up AdWords Conversion Tracking on your ads and see how these metrics work for you.

Thanks to Hal for his explanation on how the holiday season can affect the ROI for an AdWords campaign. And remember, you can always visit the AdWords Help Center year-round to read up on tips on how to improve your ad performance.

Posted by Christina, Inside AdWords crew