Get the Most out of Adwords Editor v9

Over the last year or so, Google has been steady in adding features to the AdWords interface. It seems like just keeping up is a 40+ hour a week endeavor.

In early May, Google released version 9 of AdWords Editor, with some new changes for in-house search marketers engaged in hands-on management of campaigns. Let’s see how to get the most out of these new features!

Manage Negative Keywords

In prior versions of AdWords Editor, negative keywords and placements were managed on separate tabs. Largely in a move to save space within the editor, the negatives are now moved to the same window as the newly dubbed “positive” keywords, placements and audiences.

Besides saving space, this move also allows marketers to easily toggle between positives and negatives by clicking on the positives or negatives buttons. Confusion is avoided by some artful red shading on the negatives viewing pane.

Spell check

If you use the AdWords Editor, beware of a new issue with the spell checking functionality. Spell checking was first introduced to the AdWords Editor back in version 6.0. Since then, you have been able to see if you misspelled words in ads or keywords.

By default it was turned on, and within the recent version it has now been turned off by default.

To re-enable this feature you need to right-click on each field that supports spell checking, and choose "Spell check this field". The fields are as follows:

Headline
Description Line 1
Description Line 2
Keyword etc.

Just remember that when you close AdWords Editor and restart it, you'll need to re-enable spell checking on each of the fields.

The Extensions

With the new space freed up by tidying up negatives off a separate tab in AdWords Editor, there’s now an expanded tab for Ad Extensions. Currently, editor supports two extension types, Sitelinks and Business Locations. Product Extensions are not configurable by marketers (can only switch on/off), so it makes sense that no management area in the editor is required. Sitelink text, URLs and display order are all available for editing in the improved interface.

If you’ve enabled the Ad Sitelinks extension on your AdWords campaigns, you may soon see your actual text ad copy hyperlinked, rather than seeing an additional line of text. Google announced the new format, which it says it will use when ad copy matches exactly the Sitelinks text set up by the advertiser

Manage Multiple AdWords Accounts

Managing multiple accounts is now easily accessed via a drop down menu of accounts under the Get Recent Changes button. Though mainly for agencies and other power MCC users, in-house marketers with multiple accounts will still appreciate this feature which does load account data much more quickly to literally toggle between accounts.

My Client Center (MCC) for agencies allow up to five different MCCs to be linked to a single AdWords account. The new feature, called multiple links, is meant to allow a variety of entities — agencies, SEMs, API developers and others — working for a single client to all manage the account.

More Mobile Targeting Options

Within the Campaigns tab targeting, new support for mobile targeting has been added. By clicking on “edit” next to “All mobile devices”, marketers can select specific platforms (Android/Palm/iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad) and carriers (delineated by country, then carrier) to target.

Slim Down With Downloading Preferences

Particularly handy for marketers on the go who might not have the time or a fast, reliable internet connection, downloading preferences helps manage downloading key account elements and skipping the fatter, slower graphic ads. Access downloading preferences from the Tools > Settings menu.

Approve or Cancel?

When downloading changes to Editor or importing new information, an additional step to approve or cancel the changes is required. And in these instances, that makes sense, the need to review changes you or another marketer made online or in a file and are now adding to the editor seems sensible.

There’s several more changes outlined in the AdWords Editor Version 9 release notes for those with an interest in further reading.

Adwords Quality Score & its Impacts

The AdWords system calculates a Quality Score for each of your keywords. It looks at a variety of factors to measure how relevant your keyword is to your ad text and to a user's search query. A keyword's Quality Score updates frequently and is closely related to its performance. In general, a high Quality Score means that your keyword will trigger ads in a higher position and at a lower cost-per-click (CPC).

According to Google video on Youtube,  your CPC depends on this formula:

CPC = QS(b) x Bid(b) / QS(a)

where QS(b) is the QS of the ad below you, Bid(b) his bid and QS(a) your own QS.

This is the basic formula and there may be other variables but is good enough for demonstration purposes. There may be a +1 cent tacked at the end too.

The difference in CPC between the positions doesn't vary that much in most cases. So if you bid $1 and paying $0.75 in say 3rd position, you might pay only $0.80 in first position by increasing your bid to $2. It's not a linear correlation. Some people are afraid to increase their bids by a large percentage but it doesn't mean you'll be paying that much more to gain position.

The first position gets special treatment. In the vast majority of cases, the average CPC in first position is lower than the second. I guess the cost formula gives you a discount for being in first.

 

The main culprits for a low Quality Score are:

• Ads, keywords and landing pages don’t match very well in terms of Search Engine Optimization.

• Too many different kinds of keywords in one ad group and too many different kinds of ad groups pointing to the same landing page are both symptoms of the problem.

• Your site doesn’t have much content, or Google’s bot can’t easily find it. Again, SEO will help this problem as well.

• You’re bidding on keywords that most advertisers have difficulty achieving relevance on.

Google needs to keep the relevancy of advertisements high so you need to take extra steps to provide more value to readers when you send traffic to your sites via AdWords.

How To Determine Your Quality Score

Google actually tells you the quality score of each keyword you bid on in AdWords. You get a rating from Poor to OK to Great, with each value impacting how much you pay per click. If you can get the relevancy up to Great you pay well below all of the top advertisers for that keyword. If you’re stuck at Poor you may just end up not showing at all!

To display the Quality Score you need to make some changes in AdWords.

• Go into your AdWords campaign to the area where you review each individual keyword.

• Find the link that says customize columns and click it.

• A drop down list will appear. Choose “Show Quality Score”.

• You should then see a column that lists the quality score for each keyword you bid on.        

The Ever Changing Google Adwords

According to Forrester Research & Gartner, Internet advertising will grow about 17% a year over the next three years, accounting for 21% of all ad spending. Meanwhile, e-commerce is expected to jump to $248.7 billion in 2014 from $172.9 billion in 2010. Paid search now represents 47% of the Web ad market, followed by display ads which include banners and digital videos at 36% & classified ads at 11% according to the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB).

Marketers spent $7.3 billion on U.S. Web ads during the first three months of 2011. That’s a record for Q1, says the IAB. That number represents a 23 percent year-over-year increase.

Google Adwords is notoriously known for changing its system very frequently to optimize better performance. Recently the system changed quite a bit to accommodate better quality. Lets look at some of these changes, announcements & other interesting facts:

• AdWords can now target Tablet devices specifically. This is in addition to mobile devices and traditional computers. Theses advanced computing devices not only open the door to different ways to access and interact with the internet, they are also being used by a very specific market and can serve as a means to demographically target your audience.
• Google has released a new version of their AdWords Editor (Version 9.0).
• Google was testing domain names in the title of the AdWords ads and now a lot of people are seeing the test. Google is placing the ads' domain name at the end of the title portion of the ad.
• Google announced that professional Google AdWords advertisers with My Client Center (MCC) accounts can now create new AdWords accounts without having to create an email address and password associated with that account.
• Google AdWords has introduced a feature called Topic Targeting. This feature allows advertisers to target topics rather than placements or keywords across the Google Display Network. If you just use topic targeting, you will usually receive a lot of impressions; but not necessarily a lot of conversions. It is fantastic for reaching a large number of people; but targeting on topics alone is fairly broad.
• A growing number of advertisers are using promoted videos as a means of driving traffic to video content on YouTube. So far, this feature was charged on a Cost-Per-Click (CPC) basis, but soon these ads will be charged on a Cost-Per-View (CPV) basis. As of May 25th, promoted video ads on YouTube will be charged on a CPV basis. Advertisers can continue to set up the campaigns in AdWords or at ads.youtube.com as before.  The billing terms for all the video campaigns officially converted from the CPC model to the CPV model. The Google AdWords team will soon trial a new ad extension in the UK called "Communication Ad Extensions". This will allow users to communicate with the advertiser directly through the ad, without having to visit their websites.
• Google has changed the column name for the "average CPC" to "approximate CPC" in the Google AdWords Keyword tool. You will only see the CPC prices if you are signed into your AdWords account. However some people thought it went missing.
• Google has changed its AdWords policy in a bid to tighten security around the use and storage of consumers’ credit card details. The amendments include three new requirements covering disclosure and use of personal information, and apply everywhere that AdWords is available.  Advertisers, which were given ten days to implement the changes, were told their ads would be suspended unless they complied.
• If you use the AdWords Editor, beware of a new issue with the spell checking functionality. Spell checking was first introduced to the AdWords Editor back in version 6.0. Since then, you can see if you've misspelled words in ads or keywords.

By default it was turned on, and within the recent version it has now been turned off by default.

To re-enable this feature you need to right-click on each field that supports spell checking, and choose "Spell check this field". The fields are as follows:

• Headline
• Description Line 1
• Description Line 2
• Keyword etc.

Just remember that when you close AdWords Editor and restart it, you'll need to re-enable spell checking on each of the fields.