AdWords Is Testing A New Match Type

One of my clients’ account got an invitation to take part in a beta test of a new feature in AdWords called ‘modified broad match’.

If you ever got upset over the extremely wide range of search queries that trigger your broad match keywords (and my guess that 99% of PPC managers and affiliates did), this new feature is made for you.

Modified broad match gives you better control over which search queries trigger your broad match keywords. Adding a plus modifier (+) immediately before a word indicates that word must very closely match a word in the user’s search in order to trigger the keyword.

This is the example AdWords provided in their email:

If you have leather shoes in a campaign as a broad match keyword, your ad could show when someone searches for “leather shoes,” “leather sandals,” “blue suede shoes,” “athletic footwear” and other related searches because broad match attempts to match your keyword to a wide range of relevant variations.

However, if you have +leather shoes as your keyword instead, the range of searches that trigger your ad is much narrower. Only the exact word, very close variations (e.g. plurals), or a common spelling mistake of the modified word (+leather) can trigger a match. Synonyms do not trigger a match.

Based on this example, when using +leather shoes, these queries will trigger your ad:

• dress shoes men’s leather – “leather” and “shoes” appear in the search.
• leather sandals – “leather” appears in the search, and “sandals” are closely related to “shoes”.
• leathr sandals – “leathr” is a common misspelling of “leather”, and “sandals” are closely related to “shoes”.

These queries will not trigger your ad:

• blue suede shoes – “leather” does not appear in the search.
• athletic footwear – same reason.
• leather belt – “leather” appears in the search, but “belt” is not closely related to “shoes”.

The really great thing about it is that now, unlike the time before this new feature, I don’t need to be worried that if I raise the bids on my broad match keywords more irrelevant queries will trigger my ads and I will pay too much for irrelevant traffic. Now I can enjoy the great power of the broad match without the negative sides of it.

Learning to use this feature properly will, without a doubt, push your PPC campaign to the next level.

The Rules To Help You Rule The Google Content Network

I don’t  about you, but I like Google’s content network. I get some really nice results there during the last 2 years or so. Before that I didn’t come near it since all the gurus told everyone to shut it off and I was part of the herd. (I’m assuming that who ever reads this blog already knows what is Google content network, but if you don’t then I suggest you go ahead and search some information on it.)

Since many are still trying to find their way through the content network I decided to share the rules of thumb I use when I create a content network campaign:

• Use up to 10 keywords in each ad group – I suggest using between 5 to 10 keywords. Unlike search, in the content network you are building your ad groups in a way that each ad group will represent a certain theme. For example: if you are promoting a clothing retailer, you should create an ad group about shirts and another about skirts. If you mix themes you might “confuse” the machine and thus get less impressions.
• Create the “themes” as specific as you can – This is in order to get the most impressions you can. If you are running a content network campaign that you are trying to expand, go and check if you could split your ad groups into more ad groups. For example: the ad group “shirts” you could probably split into many other ad groups like “men shirt”, “women shirts”, “polo shirts”, “sports shirts” etc..
• Don’t use exact or phrase match keywords – It just doesn’t matter.
• For each theme create 2 ad groups. 1 with text ads, and the other with image ads - The logic behind this rule is very simple: When you are running an image ad you are taking the spot of 3 text ads, meaning that you will basically need to pay per click 3 times the cost of a text ad. For this reason you will have to set a different bid to it and therefore you will need a different ad group. Plus, it will help you to better analyze and control which ad is shown where.
• You should always test dynamic image ads – Who said banners are dead? Even if you theoretically need to pay more for an image ad than for a text ad, the CTR that you will get on your dynamic image ads may help you cut your costs per click to be even lower than text ads.
• Test as many ads as you can – In the content network you have a lot of impressions on your ads. That gives you the opportunity to test more than 2-3 ads, like you usually do in the search network campaigns, and improve your results faster. Later you can take the winning ad and copy it into your search campaigns.
• Create your image ads in every available size – If you won’t than you are missing on out on what could have been great traffic. Google allows 8 ads sizes:
  • Leaderboard – 728×90
  • Banner – 468×60
  • Small Square – 200×200
  • Square – 250×250
  • Medium Rectangle – 300×250
  • Large Rectangle – 336×280
  • Skyscraper – 120×600
  • Wide Skyscraper – 160×600
• Make use of more “emotional” ads than informational ads – Remember that this is different from search. Search is more “pull” marketing while the content network is more “push” marketing. This rule does not apply on B2B products.
• Follow AdWords guidelines about image ads - Following these guidelines will save you time and trouble figuring out the errors.

What I described so far are the things I keep in mind when I’m building a new campaign that is targeting the Content Network. The thing that is missing here is how to optimize these campaigns and I plan on write another post to explain just that.

The Google Content Network (GCN) is a big opportunity and if you learn how to take advantage of it you will find yourself ahead of your competitors.

7 Reasons Why AdWords Won’t Let You Upload Banners

When trying to upload image ads (I prefer banner ads) to AdWords, either through the AdWords Editor or the AdWords interface, you might find that Google is not able to upload your banner.

Here are 7 reasons why:

1. Wrong usage of click tag in you SWF file – AdWords guidelines specify the exact click tag they want you use in your SWF files. Find it here.
2. Usage of random numbers in your SWF file – Sometimes flash designers use random numbers to create certain effects on the banners. For example: Making the text on the ad glitter every few random seconds.
3. Your banner is trying to ‘pull’ data from your site – For example: SWF files have the option to include a video on them. In order to make the banner ad file size smaller, the designers use a function that tell the SWF file to pull a video from a different location (website). This is against the guidelines.
4. The animation length is longer than 30 seconds – After 30 seconds your banner ad should be still.
5. The file size in bigger than 50K – Kinda explains itself.
6. Your banner is blinking, flashing or “strobing” – The AdWords Editor is more sensitive to this matter in GIF images. I had a situation when a GIF banner which was a bit flashy was rejected by the AdWords Editor while the exact same banner  as SWF file was uploaded without a problem.
7. You have more than 50 ads in your ad group – Yes, AdWords has a limit of 50 ads per ad group. If you are asking yourself who the hell have 50 ads in their ad groups, than well, try to calculate how many banners you may need in order to test simultaneously 2 types of banners and 4 landing pages (remember there are 8 banner sizes available for use). Hint: 56 .

Now that you know what are the reasons for the errors you are getting from AdWords try to avoid them in the first place. The best way to avoid the errors is to go and read all the guidelines about image ads in AdWords.

Enjoy your reading and tell me if I missed anything. Thanks.

The Power of Giving – A “New” Way To Make a Fortune

I just finished reading a book called ‘The power of giving’. At least this is how it is called in Hebrew.
The book has a really great massage and part of it is “give more value then you charge for”.
Unfortunately this is not something product owners and marketers are concerned about when they try to sell their product. They are mostly concerned about how to make money, and fast.

I am guilty of the same sin. When I used to create landing pages and sites promoting a product, giving value was not my main issue. When looking back on the things I’ve done and the sites I created, I now realize that a big part of those projects is useless since it didn’t give any value to the clients (or users) and this is probably why I only got a few sales from each and never made a killing.

The funny thing is that this is not the case when I’m dealing with my PPC clients. In that area I feel that I always gave more value than what I charge for. So I need to ask myself why didn’t I do it when I created my own sites?

I think that I was so eager to follow those “super affiliates”, and make a 5 figures income each month, that I forgot that I really need to care about the clients and give value.

It’s weird, but I now understand why Google ban one of my accounts. I really didn’t give any value to the users. So after 2 months I can now say “Thank you Google for doing the right thing”. Lucky me that I still have active accounts so after I will spend some time creating a site that actually gives value I will still be able to advertise it on Google.

Do you understand the power of giving more value than what you charge for? This is how you can create a great deal for your clients, this is how you can sell your product easier, and this is how you can crush the competition.

I think that the best way to give value is the show your clients that you actually care. People all around the world are eager for someone the show them affection and that will care about them. If you manage to give that to your clients I have no doubt in my mind you will make a fortune, no matter what you sell.

I am definitely going to follow this motto and I wish more will do the same.

Hitler gets Google slapped

Funny video I found on Peter Dunbar’s site, http://www.vtmarketer.com/