Google is Changing Google Advertising Professionals (GAP) program

I got an email from Google’s representative saying that Google is planning to change the Google Advertising Professionals program.

This is part of the email:

“We’re launching a more advanced training curriculum and have partnered with industry experts to build a more rigorous set of exams with an increased focus on best practices techniques and application of knowledge.

The changes begin with replacement of the existing exam in Q1 with a new Advertising Fundamentals Exam. This will be followed with a set of Advanced Exams allowing professionals to showcase additional skills and expertise.

Passing the new Advertising Fundamentals Exam along with one of the advanced exams will be a requirement of retaining certification under the new program.”

Basically, this means that the GAP exams, that are required in order to get a Google Adwords Certified Professional, are going to be changed. I’m not sure if it’s going to be harder & more complicated, or perhaps we’re just going to see less questions about billing options and questions like “where I can see who has access to the account” and more questions about best practices and bidding management.

Another big change is that from 2010 onwards, there are going to be more than 1 exam. Is Google planning on creating exams for specific topics? like one exam for “bidding management” and one exam for “understanding AdWords algorithm and quality score”?

If some of you know, please share it with me. Anyway, we will all find out soon since no matter when your certification is suppose to be terminated, you will need to take these exams on Q1 in order to renew it. Good luck everyone!

The client is always right? Not in PPC

If you are running PPC campaigns for other people, you probably got the chance to meet this “I know everything” kind of client.

This client will tend to tell you right from the beginning of the activity why your text ads suck and that he’s idea is much better. Of course I’m not talikng about a client with long history of online marketing, but on a “newbie” client that thinks he knows everything his customers want. Do you know what I mean?

Well, lucky us that there is no “the client is always right” in PPC management.

I suggest this:

First of all, don’t get mad. Try asking him where did he get this information on his clients from?, did he ever do a PPC campaign that you’re not aware of ?. If not, than try to explain that online customers might act differently from offline customers.

If that doesn’t help, it’s time to pull out your secret weapon. Ask him if he believes in the saying “the client is always right”. As a business owner, he must agree with this saying, so tell him “let’s leave it to your customers to decide”. Explain to him that the PPC campaign is the best way to finally understand what is the client’s best USP by trying different text ads. Ask him to imagine how knowing his best USP can improve his business understanding and comprehension and eventually his ROI.

Most clients will give up here. But if yours doesn’t – than I’m afraid you have to. Unfortunately, although I believe that in PPC there is no “the client is always right”, there’s just “the users are always right”, you sometimes just have to give up. Just make sure your opinion is heard before, so the client wouldn’t go and blame you for his bad performance.

If you also have an example of this “I know everything” client – please share.

Google Ad Planner – Part 2

This is going to be a short post since most of the things I wanted to share with you on Google’s ad planner were mentioned last week in the previous post.

As you recall, Google’s ad planner is a tool Google has craeted for planning media buying. In this tool you can see user data s(uch as demographic ) which is based on Google’s estimations. Google than lets you filter all the websites based on themes, users and relevance to a certain topic. Go to my last post to learn more.

Today I wanted to discuss with you how you can use this tool to plan your content campaigns.

I started using this tool when I was trying to plan a branding campaign for one of our clients. The client wanted to start a banner ads campaign is sites related to online marketing, new and business. There is no better way of planning such a thing than the Ad Planner. It was so easy. All I had to do is filter by websites in Google’s content network and choose certain catagories and certain demographics.

If you are not dealing with a branding campaign, you can still  use this tool to search for relevant sites for your client based on certain type of user. I am 100% positive that you will find sites that you are currently not targeting, not even with the automatic placements, probably due to low bids or the lack of enough relevant keywords. The Ad Planner can help you to better understand how are you doing in terms of reach, meaning that if you are targeting all that you can, and can help you expand your curent content campaigns.

Michael Jackson and PPC

When Michael Jackson died, the entire web was instantly filled with news and information about his death and life.

What does that have to do with PPC? well, the web was not just filled with information, it was also filled with people searching for this information: Yahoo broke a record of 16 millions (I think) unique visitors, Google’s servers were slowed down, and CNN got more traffic than ever before. To make things clear, traffic was all around, and you just had to catch it and turn it into money.

Monetize search trends

Imagine you had a PPC ad selling Michael Jackson’s CDs on Amazon. Or maybe some posters, or books. Jackson’s fans searching for Michael Jackson will probably like to have some kind of souvenir. I don’t want to sound like I’m telling you how to benefit from someones death, because that’s just sound mean. But hey, Amazon sold out everything they had that has any kind of connections to Michael Jackson. Why Affiliates can’t joind the ride? Why can’t a PPC manager of some music company put a PPC ad, make his client a lot of money, and get his boss to praise him and give him a raise even for doing a great job?

It’s Not too late

Although it’s a few days late, you can still take advantage of this search trend. Affiliates – well it is pretty clear what you can do. PPC Managers – think of a way you can take this traffic and turn it into clients for your client. Not all industries can do that, but I’m sure everyone related to the entertainment industry can do it. And how about advising your client from the travel industry to make a Michael Jackson special?

It’s not just Michael Jackson

You should keep an eye on search trends and know how to take advantage of it as early as possible. Being there first can mean a lot of money.

I would like to hear what you have to say about that. Anyone can share a trend that he caught on time?