VIDEO - AdWords Glitch in Action

In two posts earlier this week, I talked about the glitch some AdWords advertisers are currently experiencing with the Keyword Analysis Tool. Below is a short screen recording I made of the glitch so you can see what I'm talking about:




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AdWords Keywords Analysis Glitch Appears to be Global

Judging by the comments I received on my post Broken: AdWords Keyword Analysis Tool, it looks like the AdWords technical glitch is not limited to Australia.

An AdWords advertiser in Ireland and another in China reported that they are having the same issues as we are. The Keywords Analysis tool still shows the same results for all keywords. I'm really surprised this hasn't been reported on the official AdWords blog yet. Maybe they're waiting for more complaints.

I was not happy with the initial reply I got from AdWords support, so I wrote them another email:

Hi [name removed]

Thanks for responding to my enquiry. However this technical glitch is costing me money as I can't accurately tweak my keyword bids if I can't check the keyword quality information and I can't check if my ads are showing for my current bids.

I'm not very happy about this. Is there an ETA on getting this fixed?

Regards
Kalena

Google responded with this:

Hello Kalena,

Thank you for your reply. I'm sorry you're having difficulty. Please
know that the Quality Score column displays your keyword's Quality Score to help you monitor your keyword relevance. This column is a customizable column visible via the 'Keywords' tab of your Ad Group Details page. It's disabled by default for new accounts and can be enabled at any time.

Keywords can have one of the following three Quality Score states:

-Great: The keyword is very relevant and may have a high clickthrough rate (CTR), relevant ad text, and a unique, relevant landing page. The minimum cost-per-click (CPC) bid for this keyword may be low. If you'd like to lower your costs further, you can optimize this keyword's ad group by using more targeted ad text or improving your landing page content. Otherwise, this keyword is very relevant and effective for your ad campaign.

-OK: The keyword may not be as relevant as it could be. It may have a mid-range minimum CPC bid, and while the keyword may not be very costly or extremely general, we still recommend optimization for the ad group. Optimization can lower your overall costs, draw more clicks to your ads, and result in a better return on your investment (ROI). To optimize, try using more targeted ad text and keywords or improving your landing page content.

-Poor: The keyword isn't very relevant to users, and as a result may have a very high minimum CPC bid. We recommend that you remove this keyword and replace it with a more specific keyword. If you'd like to keep advertising with this keyword, you can optimize instead. To do this, try lowering the minimum CPC bid, writing a more targeted, relevant ad, or improving your landing page content.

To see your keywords' Quality Scores within your account statistics:

-Sign in to your AdWords account at https://adwords.google.com.
-Select the campaign, then select the ad group for which you'd like to see keyword Quality Scores.
-Click Customize columns at the top of Keywords tab in the ad group table.

-Select Show Quality Score from the drop-down menu.
-Click Done when you're finished.

Additionally, you can create a report for minimum bids through your Reports tab. To learn how to run a report, please visit our Help Center at https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=66213&topic=11441

Also, please know that our engineers are currently working to solve the problem and hope to reach a resolution shortly.

If you have additional questions, please visit AdWords Support at https://adwords.google.com.au/support, where you'll find the answers to many of our frequently asked questions.

We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising available.

Sincerely,

[name removed]
The Google Australia & NZ AdWords Team

Er, thanks but I didn't really need a lesson on how to use the Keyword Analysis tool. Telling me how it works or how to implement it doesn't help me if it's broken. Duh. And creating a minimum bids report doesn't help one iota if I'm trying to determine my keyword status so I can tweak my bids.

The only sentence in that whole email that helps me is the one I've highlighted in bold. Engineers are working on the problem. Great. That makes me feel so much better. NOT! Think I'll go spend some more money at Yahoo and Microsoft AdCenter.


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Broken: AdWords Keyword Analysis Tool

Not sure if this is a regional issue or not, but Google have confirmed a technical bug with the Keyword Analysis tool for some AdWords accounts, including mine.

For the past 24 hours or so, whenever I try to view the Keyword Analysis tool for any of my keywords, I get the following message:

----------
Ad Showing? No
The keyword phrase doesn't currently trigger any of your ads. There are several possible reasons your ad isn't showing for this keyword, such as:

* You just added the keyword to your campaign. You may experience a short wait as your keyword goes through the review process.
* Our server is experiencing a delay.
* Your ad delivery is being spaced throughout the day.
------------

I get the same message for every keyword in my account, but the keywords are not new, I'm getting click-throughs and my daily budget is large enough to prevent ad delivery spacing. In response to my email, Google wrote:

Dear Kalena

Thank you for your email. I understand that you are concerned about the Keyword Analysis reasons. I'm sorry to hear that you've had trouble with your AdWords account. We've identified a known technical issue affecting a limited number of accounts. Our engineers are currently working to solve the problem and hope to reach a resolution shortly.

We look forward to providing you with the most effective advertising available.

Sincerely,

The Google Australia & NZ AdWords Team

Let's hope they get this fixed pronto! Anyone outside Australia having this issue?


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How to Turn Around an Unprofitable PPC Campaign

SiteProNews published my latest article on their site today: How to Turn Around an Unprofitable PPC Campaign.

In the article, I dissect a client's Google AdWords campaign to find out why it has been unprofitable to date and uncover 14 major problems. Once these problems were addressed, the campaign turned a corner and started making a profit again.

If you're an AdWords advertiser, you should read this article and make sure you're not making the same blunders.

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Q and A: How do I create landing pages without creating duplicate content?

Dear Kalena...

I have a question about Google AdWords landing pages. I have done a campaign, sending people to pages on my site. I read everywhere that landing pages should reflect the ads & keywords and my web pages are too general. If I want to set up a unique landing page just for AdWords, how & where do I set it up without it being part of the main site? Because I don't want duplicate content.

As always, Thanks for your help.

Regards
Ros

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Ros

Easy peasy. Simply include NoIndex, NoFollow robots meta tags in the HTML code of your landing pages, or put them in a sub-folder like www.site.com/PPC/ and prevent search robots from indexing that folder by excluding it in your robots.txt file.


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Q and A: How much should I charge to manage an AdWords campaign?

Dear Kalena...

I operate an ad agency in Seattle, mostly working with small business and specializing in media planning for print, outdoor, TV, and radio campaigns. I've recently decided to become certified in Google Adwords and offer an additional service to my clients, managing a SEM campaign. I'm wondering a competitive rate to charge my clients on a monthly basis for a SEM campaign. Can you tell me what rates you have commonly seen charged to small busineeses for this service?

Thanks,
J

Kalena's Answer:

Dear J

Unfortunately, this is another of those "how long is a piece of string?" issues. SEM fees vary widely between agencies and there really is no recommended range I can give you. It depends on so many factors, including:

• whether keyword research is required
  
• number of keywords targeted
• number of AdGroups created
  
• number of ads created
• size of client
• size of client's budget (these are two different things!)
  
• what type of ad creatives are used (text, image, video)
  
• whether landing pages are included
  
• how competitive the industry is for the client's product/service
• how often the campaign will require tweaking and who will do it
  
• whether new keywords will be added regularly
• whether the click charges will be billed to you or your client (think credit card interest)
  
• whether detailed reports and analysis are required
• what the client's daily and monthly budgets are
• what geographic targets the client wants to reach
  
• how long the campaign will run
  

See what I mean? You'll need to have many of these factors sorted out before you can quote, so no two PPC campaigns are generally costed at the same amount. My best advice is to quote an hourly rate and estimate the number of hours the campaign will take to create and manage for each client well in advance.

Whatever you do, don't underquote. PPC campaigns require a much larger time commitment than you may realize.

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Q and A: How do you ensure your AdWords ads appear above organic results?

Dear Kalena...

On Google's SERPs, sponsored listings appear above organic results, as well as on the right of organic results. How does one achieve sponsored listings above organic results, as opposed to on the right of organic results?

Nick

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Nick

The sponsored listings above the organic results are generally AdWords advertiser's ads that have the highest ad quality score based on Google's ad-ranking algorithm. Advertisers that bid higher than other advertisers and/or have a higher quality score for their ads appear in the highest two or three positions. These positions usually appear above the organic results, but not always.

Sometimes you'll see a SERP with ads only down the right hand side. This positioning is entirely determined by Google's ad display algorithm and cannot be influenced. You can make sure your ads have the best opportunity to be displayed above organic results by ensuring they have a higher quality score than other advertisers and a higher bid amount.

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RUMOR: Google to allow AdSense publishers to specify own ad formats?

I don't usually like to take part in surveys. My time is pretty valuable and I find them tedious. But when Google asks, I ALWAYS take their surveys. Why? Because I get an insight into what features they're planning to roll out by the questions they ask.

Take the latest AdSense Publisher Feedback Survey for example. Under the question "Which of the following AdSense features would you like to see Google implement in future?", they listed:

1. Selecting ad categories to appear on your site
2. Selecting the types of advertisers that appear on your site
3. Managing other publishers' AdSense accounts for them
4. Specifying your own ad formats and sizes
5. Paying for phone support
6. Applying AdSense earnings towards AdWords marketing
7. Gathering information about your visitors

Wow! Some of those made me sit up and pay attention, especially # 3, # 4 and # 6. I manage AdWords accounts for clients now so it makes sense to offer a similar service for their AdSense accounts. The ability to choose your own ad formats would be awesome, as would the ability to transfer AdSense earnings to an AdWords account.

Now this is all speculation on my part. But if enough publishers request these features, I wouldn't be surprised to see Google roll them out quite quickly. Watch this space!

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Q and A: Can you offer any recommendations about bid management software?

Dear Kalena...

I am currently assessing whether it's worth investing in some sophisticated bid management software but am unsure a) which ones to trial and b) how much real advantage this type of software gives - once convenience vs. cost is taken into consideration.

The tools offered by the individual engines have sufficed to date but the scope of some (client) campaigns (2000+ keywords) can make regular bid management a time consuming process.

Have you any experience with bid management software? Can you offer any recommendations or advice?

Best Regards
Giles


Kalena's Answer:

Dear Giles

It just so happens that I reviewed a number of PPC bid management software programs a few years ago.

As a result of my original review article, we ended up choosing BidRank as the best of the lot and I still use it. I really like the gap surfing feature of BidRank and they update their software very regularly so it always works with new releases of PPC programs. If I recall correctly, Google recommends them as a 3rd party product to work with AdWords and they also have a product that works with Yahoo Search Marketing. Read my full review of BidRank for more information.

I became an affiliate for BidRank as I was so impressed and so all the links to the program within this post are my affiliate links. If you decide to purchase BidRank and you are happy to use our affiliate link, make sure you reference Coupon Code WR007 for 5% off of your purchase. If you'd rather not use my affiliate link, the direct link is here.

I must admit that I haven't reviewed any of the programs that have become available in the last two years, so you might want to check those out and compare them to BidRank before purchasing.

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Q and A: Should I pause my AdWords campaign on weekends?

Dear Kalena...

I have another question. I get quite lot of clicks on my Adwords campaign during the weekend but I've never made a sale during this time or even Mondays. Do you think it would be a good idea to time adwords by pausing the campaign during the weekends?

I am looking for the best way to save, my cost is sky rocketing ;-)

many thanks
Damien

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Damien

Yes, if you've tracked your sales for a long period and your campaign never converts on a weekend, it seems logical to pause it during that time. Many of my clients pause their campaigns over the weekend.

Regarding your low conversion rate, if you are using the Google Content Network, often the quality of clicks and conversion rate is much lower than the search network. Try switching the content network off and see if that improves things. Also, make sure you use targeted landing pages for your destination URLs. These pages should be super-targeted to the keyword/phrase that triggered the ad. This usually boosts conversions.

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Q and A: Should I use an affiliate program instead of PPC to generate sales?

Dear Kalena...

I am fed up spending hundreds ($350!!!) per week in Google/Yahoo PPC for only 2 sales per week, week after week. My Adwords are getting more expensive, it is ridiculous.

My task for this week is to develop an affiliate program. I have installed software to manage the affiliates and I will contact as many relevant blogs and websites I can to offer them $100 per sales. Which strategy do you reckon? Using an affiliate network? Which one? is $100 (25%) ok? Do I have to give a bonus at the registration ($10 ok?). Do you have some advice to attract affiliates? What can I write in the letter I will email to them that will motivate them to register? If you already have received some interesting letters asking you to be affiliate, would it be possible to forward them to me?

Damien

Kalena's Answer:

Hi Damien

That's a lot of questions for a single cup of coffee! Here are my suggestions:

a) Try bidding on less-competitive keywords/phrases in your PPC campaigns. Research and focus on the laser-targeted 2, 3 and even 4 word phrases. These are cheaper and generally convert better.

b) Review all your ads and your keyword matching options to see if you can improve their quality score and performance. Your ad headings and copy should be laser-focused on the keywords you are bidding on.

c) Are you sending all PPC visitors to a single destination URL? Try developing targeted landing pages for each keyword theme or product and send ad clickers to these instead. Landing pages should include your keyword phrase in the heading and copy of the page and lead visitors directly to your conversion goal without any competing navigation or distractions.

Regarding your affiliate program:

a) I don't use an affiliate network as such, so I can't recommend any in particular. We have just upgraded to JROX Affiliate Manager software for our Search Engine College affiliate program and it seems to be extremely powerful and effective so far. It does involve a lot of setting up and customization, but it pretty much runs itself after that.

b) Regarding your affiliate commission - you could either have a percentage of sales (somewhere between 5 and 25% is common) or a flat fee per sale. Depending on the affiliate program you use, you could even set it up as a pay per click commission where affiliates receive a small fee for every visitor they send your way. Whatever makes the most sense for your product and market.

c) It's up to you whether you you offer a sign-up bonus. It's not that common. We offer a $2 bonus just to get people started, but again, it depends on your market.

d) Regarding attracting new affiliates, you really need to convince them they will make money by promoting your product/service. Ideally, you should have a product that sells well online and is of high quality. Make sure you have a lot of marketing tools for affiliates to choose from (banners, links, buttons etc.) and a very detailed list of features and benefits they can refer to in their own marketing efforts.

In your pitch email, you should give potential affiliates a dollar figure they will make from selling just one of your products so they can get an idea of the potential income they could expect. I personally wouldn't cold-call to find affiliates, unless the product is unbelievably tailored to their site content. Instead you should create banners and promotional pages about your affiliate program and try to attract people to them. A PPC campaign to attract affiliates or leads generally converts better than one to attract sales.

Once you've got some affiliates in place, make sure you give them a very easy way of tracking referrals and commissions and keep in regular contact with them with ideas for how to promote your product/service.

Good luck!

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Q and A: Why have my minimum bids on AdWords jumped to $10 per click?

Dear Kalena...

First - I have been a constant visitor to your blog and thanks for all the useful insights you share. Coming to my issue - we do PPC advertisements on Google. Our campaigns have been running fine for 2-3 years. Suddenly last week Google dropped 2 of our important keywords saying the 'quality' is not good and we have to increase our minimum bids to $10 per click to get it back.

I do not understand this - nothing much has changed - our CTR is almost the same as in past - we bid enough to be in top 2-3, our daily budget is not expiring. And our ads compare well with our competitiors (atleast thats what we think) and we have good conversion rate from people who come. Although CTR (~1%) is low - but that is expected from such a generic keyword. Can you shed some light on this issue and help us? By the way - I created a new campaign by deleting the old one, with same keywords and ad text - and that is working fine.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Martin

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Martin

Thanks for the blog backslap! Re your AdWords issue - relax, it's a bug. As reported by Search Engine Land, the Google AdWords Quality Score had a major bug last week that saw ad prices spike for ads that were previously performing well.

Apparently it was an unexpected side-effect of Google's improvements to their Quality Score Algorithm. Improvements have been completed this week and so I'm assuming the bug has been resolved. Advertisers can now switch on their Quality Score Column to see which ads are performing better than others as rated by Google. More info on the changes at Inside AdWords.

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Click Fraud on Google Less Than 1%

While interviewing Shuman Ghosemajumder of Google today, Andy Beal was able to expose the fact that the undetected click fraud rate on Google AdWords is less then 2%.

Ghosemajumder showed proof to backup his numbers and then later clarified that those figures included "invalid clicks" so he claims the true undetected click fraud percentage was more than likely a fraction of 1%.

I wonder. I see a lot of "click quality adjusment" credits in my account on a monthly basis. If they are catching this much click fraud, I doubt the stuff they miss is such a small fraction.

Google Makes Mistakes Too

I don't know about you, but pay per click campaigns have dominated my time this month. In a single day, Google made 4 unique (large!) debits to the credit card associated with our AdWords account, practically draining our entire business credit flow for September.

Due to an internal technical error with Google's billing system, (revealed to me by a Google staffer), our AdWords campaign had not been auto-charged for 3 full months, meaning we were racking up huge amounts of click-debt, which they attempted to clear in a single hour via multiple debits.

They would've charged even more on our card, but it was eventually tapped of funds and declined. THEN, Google had the hide to switch off all our ads and send me an email telling me that our credit card had been declined and we should arrange payment via alternative methods.

As you can imagine, I was confused and very pissed off. I sent a long, detailed complaint to Google and first I received a standard reply defending their decision to switch off our ads and explaining how I could add a backup credit card to our account so it didn't happen again. I replied that my complaint had nothing to do with our ads being switched off, but their inadequate billing cycle and their failure to follow their own published billing protocols and that perhaps they should re-read my complaint.

That seemed to do the trick. Next thing I knew, my complaint was escalated and I had received an apology and a substantial offer of click credit to be applied to my account immediately.

It just goes to show that Google can get it wrong. Their staff are only human and they make mistakes. They also program the software, so it can make mistakes too. If you run pay per click campaigns, don't trust the search engines to always have your best interests at heart. Mistakes can be made and click fraud is apparently rampant. Keep a close eye on your campaigns for errors and don't be afraid to complain if you notice something suspicious!

Q and A: What is the best way to promote a new SEO product?

Dear Kalena...

We have created an amazing SEO toolkit. What do you think is the best way to promote it? Channels?

Mike

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Mike

Using AdWords to promote your new product is a good start, especially if you opt-in to the Google Content Network so your ads are shown on search-related sites via AdSense. You should also consider advertising via Yahoo! Search Marketing to reach a larger chunk of the search market, including MSN searchers.

Here are some other excellent ways to jumpstart buzz about your product:

- Create a professional press release and circulate it via distribution channels such as PR Web.
- Send the press release to key bloggers in the SEO industry and ask them to blog it.
- Send the press release to editors or widely-read SEO newsletters, ezines and publications.
- Send a free evaluation copy of your product to journalists in the search industry and/or influential names in the industry and ask them to review it. If they like it, they will most likely blog and/or write about it.
- Start an affiliate program for your product and begin recruiting affiliates and sub-affiliates.
- Write an article/review about the product yourself and syndicate it via search-related article announcement groups such as those described here and in our articles about article marketing.

Best of luck!

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Q and A: How do I get the right types of Google ads to come up on my site?

Dear Kalena...

How do I get the right types of Google ads to come up on my site? I am getting a lot of weather ads on my home page that have nothing to do with the content on my site.

Thanks,

Bruce

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Bruce

You need to optimize the content of your pages so they contain more keywords and phrases related to the type of ads you want triggered. For example, if you had a page about blue suede shoes but had more text on the page talking about athlete's foot, then ads about the latter topic would be triggered.

Your home page has an article talking about warmer temperatures and then you have links to Colorado weather, so the AdWords bot has assumed your page is mostly about weather and ads have been triggered accordingly. Try to theme your articles so they are about topics you want to see reflected in your ads. Also, try to use keywords within your articles, especially in the first paragraph that is usually featured on your home page.

---------------------------

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Q and A: Why is the Google AdWords Traffic Estimator so far off?

Dear Kalena...

I put a Google AdWords campaign together a few days ago and I admit, I have not used AdWords in a while. Not much at all this year in fact and I know they made some major changes to the program this past Summer.

I am using mostly 3 and 4 word keywords which are not that competitive. I use 3 versions of each keyword, the regular version (my keyword), the version with quotes ("my keyword") and the version with brackets ( [my keyword] ).

But my ads are not showing up anywhere near in position compared to what the traffic estimator shows. For example, the traffic estimator shows the average position to be 1.2 for a certain 4 word keyword, but when I go to test it, that keyword actually comes up number 71. I mean I don't expect the estimator to show me exactly where the ad will show up, but it should at least be closer than that! Either the estimator is completely useless or I am not understanding something about it.

Thanks
Frank

Kalena's Answer:

Dear Frank

A couple of things:

1) Why on earth are you using all 3 keyword matching types for a single keyword phrase? You should only be using a single match-type for each keyword.

For example, if your keyword phrase was shiny red widgets then you can use exact phrase matching by using brackets e.g. [shiny red widgets] , in which case ONLY persons who type in those 3 words alone will see your ad; or you can target the phrase match by using quotes "shiny red widgets", in which case persons whose search queries INCLUDE those 3 words in the exact order will see your ad; or you can target with broad match, by not using any brackets or quotes - shiny red widgets - in which case persons whose search queries INCLUDE those 3 words IN ANY ORDER and possibly combined with other words will see your ad.

These three keyword matching types cancel each other out so if you are using all three, you are essentially competing with yourself and lowering your Click Through Rate (CTR). More information on Keyword Matching options can be found here.

2) The AdWords Traffic Estimator is just that - an estimate. The actual position of your keyword phrase is dependent upon a large range of factors and the estimator gives you an idea of where your ad may be positioned assuming a high CTR and your current bid. Estimator values may contain decimals because the Traffic Estimator displays estimates as averages-not whole numbers-based on dynamic keyword activity among advertisers. Also, average ad positions are not fixed; they may vary depending on bidding activity, your keyword's quality and CTR.

Also, if your AdGroups contain instances of double or triple keyword serving (as yours do), the traffic estimator does not exclude these duplicate instances, but instead presents traffic estimates based on all potential traffic. More information on the Traffic Estimator can be found here.

AdWords editorial guidelines going too far?

I'm having a whine today about AdWords' editorial policy. I was editing some ads in our AdWords PPC campaign for Search Engine College courses this morning and the content of my ads tripped a "potential trademark violation" warning in the AdWords control panel twice!

Here are the words that tripped the warning:

1) Starter - we have two proficiency levels for our courses - Starter and Advanced. But apparently Google believes that "Starter" actually legally belongs to someone else and has no business being in my ad.

2) Out - yep, apparently the use of the word "out" is reserved for a single entity that has somehow convinced Google they have trademark rights over it. I was simply using it in a sentence starting with "Check out our courses" and I triggered a trademark warning. Unbelievable!

I requested exceptions for both these words in my ads and I haven't heard back from editorial staff, so I suppose that's a good sign but geez, can you believe what constitutes an advertising trademark these days?

A: Is Google AdWords the least expensive way to advertise affiliate programs?

I'm not sure if "Sandi" (who used a Yahoo email address to send her? question) was sending me a legitimate question or was just trying to get free publicity for the five web site links that she? posted in the email. The sites all had a similar... ahem... adult party theme and I'm not going to list them here (nice try though!).

But because I'm bored, I'm going to give Sandi the benefit of the doubt and answer her question.

Sandi, advertising costs are relative to ROI. The only way for me to know if AdWords is your least expensive advertising option is to know your affiliate price point and AdWords conversion rate. As you are in a highly competitive market, you may find bidding for keywords is expensive and tightly held by companies with deeper pockets.

I also know that Google places specific restrictions on affiliate sites - only one ad per search query is allowed for advertisers sharing the same top-level domain in the display URL. In other words, if you're an affiliate advertiser, your ad may not show for a query because another affiliate or the website that runs the affiliate program also has ads using the same (or similar) domain. More information is available here. Give AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing (Overture) a good 3 month try with well-written landing pages and they may work out to be cost-effective for you. But I would also try lesser known Pay Per Click search engines as listed on this page, where the competition isn't as steep and the click costs are lower.

Q: Is Google AdWords the least expensive way to advertise affiliate programs?

Dear Kalena...

I market affiliate programs. Therefore, I want to know is Google AdWords the LEAST EXPENSIVE way to advertise affiliate programs, such as the ones at the bottom of this email?

thanks
Sandi