Google just upped the ante when it comes to pay per click advertising. I was already convinced that Google AdWords was the most powerful advertising tool to come along in a very long time. That’s even more true today.
Google recently announced two significant changes to AdWords that will be a huge improvement for all AdWords advertisers.
1. An Improved Keyword Tool
Once upon a time Yahoo!’s Overture Keyword Tool was the tool of choice for internet marketers researching keywords online. For some reason, however, Yahoo!’s done away with it (want to know why Yahoo!’s struggled, it’s decisions like these). One of the key features of Overture is was that it would give you traffic estimates for your keywords, something Google’s Keyword Tool did not.
No more. Google’s improved Keyword Tool now lets you see estimated search volumes for keywords. It also displays a graph of each keyword’s search volume trends for the last 12 months and tells you which month over the past year had the highest search volume for each keyword.
It gets even better. Not only can you get search volume estimates for broad matches of your keywords, but for exact and phrase matches too. This shows you how including or excluding the various match types in your campaign will effect the amount of traffic you can expect.
But wait, there’s more! Google throws negative keywords into the equation as well. The improved Keyword Tool lets you view a list of potential negative keywords and the search volume you’d expect for each. In this case, though, the estimated search volume you see will indicate how much less traffic you can expect by adding that negative keyword. Strategically adding a lot of negative keywords can go a long way toward boosting your CTR and prevent you from wasting a lot of money on irrelevant impressions/clicks.
2. Advanced Content Network
This feature gives advertisers more control over ads in the content network. The Advanced Content Network allows advertisers to combine keyword and placement targeted campaigns in one campaign. What does that mean?
A placement targeted campaign allows advertisers to target specific websites on which to run their ads. However, up until now Google would take a look at your keywords, come up with a “theme” for the keywords in an AdGroup and run your ads on sites that it thought matched that theme. The problem for advertisers is that one of your keywords could be “industrial work positioners” and your ad would appear on a website detailing sex positions (I’ve actually seen this happen!). Needless to say, Google’s idea of an AdGroup’s theme does not always match what the advertisers theme actually is.
The new Advanced Content Network can help advertisers avoid those problems. Now you can bid on specific keywords (not a theme), select what websites you want your ads to run on, and have your ads appear only on the web pages on those sites that contain your keywords.
The really nice thing about this Advance Content Network is you can now adjust your bids based on specific keyword and placement combinations. So if you find your ads perform especially well on a few websites, you can increase your bids just for those sites to hopefully get more impressions, more clicks, and more sales. (By the same token you can lower your bids for sites that don’t perform as well.)
I’ve just started experimenting with this new feature this week and need more time to kick the tires on it. However, from the looks of things, advertising on Google’s content network just got a whole lot more enticing.
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