Category: Google AdWords
March 13th, 2008
Google releases Ad Manager after DoubleClick approval
After winning approval for the DoubleClick acquisition from regulators, Google wasted no time introducing a new free service called “Ad Manager” that gives companies a powerful way to manage their ad inventory.
Google Ad Manager is a free, hosted ad and inventory management tool that can help publishers sell, schedule, deliver and measure their directly-sold and network-based ad inventory. It offers an intuitive and simple user experience with Google speed and a tagging process so publishers can spend more time working with their advertisers and less time on their ad management solution. And by providing detailed inventory forecasts and tracking at a very granular level, Ad Manager helps publishers maximize their inventory sell-through rates.
This is different from simply putting AdSense on a website — it lets companies with a real ad sales team sell and maintain their own ad inventory on their website. Google says they look forward to integrating DART (the platform behind DoubleClick) into this new service.
We’re excited to add DART for Publishers to our suite of products, and we’re committed to the continued development and enhancement of DoubleClick’s offerings.
The service is still only available as an invitation-only beta — though if you are interested, you can sign up for an invitation here.
March 10th, 2008
Beta AdWords feature spends your budget automatically
Google has launched a very limited beta for some AdWords advertisers that aims to do “automatic matching”. What does that mean? Well, theoretically, this feature will make advertising on AdWords as easy as 1-2-3.
- Sign up for Google AdWords
- Enter your credit card information
- Specify your budget
Advertisers could leave keyword matching and ad serving completely in the hands of Google — of course, this could also be used to supplement your existing campaigns, in which case, Google will deplete your daily ad budget on keywords it thinks is appropriate.
Here is the full text of the beta invitation as posted by Dan Thies:
I’m excited to tell you that you have been selected to participate in a beta for our new Automatic Matching feature which will be starting on February 28th.
Automatic Matching automatically extends your campaign’s reach by using surplus budget to serve your ads on relevant search queries that are not already triggered by your keyword lists. By analyzing the structure and content of your website and AdWords campaigns, we deliver more impressions and clicks while maintaining your current CTRs and CPCs.
For example, If you sold Adidas shoes on your website, Automatic Matching would automatically crawl your landing page and target your campaigns to queries such as: “shoes” “adidas” “athletic”, etc., and less obvious ones such as “slippers” that our system has determined will benefit you and likely lead to a conversion on your site.
Be assured that automatic matching will try to never exceed your budget. If you’re already meeting your daily budgets, automatic matching will have a minimal effect on your account.
Like Dan, I’m wonder why anyone would want to pay for clicks coming in from searches for “slippers” when you sell shoes. This could possibly be the worst attempt at getting advertisers excited about a product that I have ever seen. Anyway, if it works, it would be a great supplemental tool that could significantly increase the number of visitors to your site — that is, if you trust Google.
February 26th, 2008
ComScore results demolish Google’s share price
After ComScore made an announcement that clicks on Google ads have leveled off from January 2007 to January 2008, Google’s stock plummeted about $38 to below $450/share — but have since gone up slightly and are currently sitting around $456.
This is interesting timing as Google and ComScore are holding a conference call starting around 15 minutes from now. I will post live updates from the call if it’s interesting, so keep your eyes peeled on this blog starting soon. I’m definitely looking forward to the Q&A session to follow!
February 15th, 2008
Video ads now on Google result pages
It sounds like Google’s starting to get into the display ad game with the news that videos will start showing up alongside natural search results on Google. The question some people are asking is if these new ad units will be accepted by users.
[image from Search Engine Land]
As long as the change is subtle, showing videos only where it makes sense, I don’t see why it wouldn’t. The reason people don’t mind Google ads is because they are relevant — not necessarily because they aren’t intrusive. Average users (the same people who actually do click on normal Google ads) don’t care what type of ad they are seeing as long as it’s what they searched for — heck, most of the time they don’t even know they are ads.
The big question is whether folks will stand for these little experiments. Unless Google goes super garish I doubt people–beyond a few outspoken bloggers–will really care much after the initial shock. — Larry Dignan
It’s not uncommon to hear normal people ask “There are ads?” when you try and explain how AdWords works — that is why I think Google’s advertising business has been so successful.
This new ad format is apparently already live — but nobody yet has caught a glimpse them in the wild yet. If you happen to run across any, let me know!
December 24th, 2007
Google sends out presents to loyal advertisers
Advertisers who spend big bucks on AdWords got a surprise in the mail recently — a 1GB Flip Video Camera which retails for about $149US. The camera is a huge step up over the conciliation USB drive though. Those advertisers who didn’t quite meet the “big gift” quota only got a slap in the face, or I mean, a modern floppy disk. Personally I would rather receive nothing than a flash drive fror spending $500,000 on ads. This video says it all.
June 30th, 2007
AdSense designed for invalid clicks?
Philipp made an interesting observation this morning about the difference between Google AdWords and AdSense units — the clickable zones on them are noticeably different enough to raise some concern. It appears AdSense units are designed for accidental clicks — or at least not designed for no accidental clicks.
A long time ago, Google made the ad units on their result pages only respond to clicks on the title link — before that, you could click anywhere on the advertisement. Why did they stop doing this? Here’s what they said:
“these changes help decrease the likelihood that a user will unintentionally click on an ad”
Now the question is, even after updates to AdSense, do they still allow “accidental” clicks? It seems to me this is being done in their best interest and at the same time ripping off a lot of advertisers who choose to show their ads in the AdSense network.
June 7th, 2007
Google launches YouTube’s money machine
YouTube has updated their embedded video player to include new features that I think make a lot of sense for Google. The one I find most interesting gives users quick, uninterrupted access to related videos — this feature could be YouTube’s much needed money maker.
Why does a feature that doesn’t make YouTube any money right now grab my attention? Well, it’s all about trying to set up a convention — if they are successful, they are in a great position to make a lot of money.
For the next several months, people will get very used to using the related video tool that was just introduced. As soon as it becomes second nature for users to use the tool, we should start to see sponsored results mixed with these related videos. These advertisements stay out of the way and are only seen when users are actually looking for something — the reason Google’s other ads are so effective.
What do you think? Do you like the new player? Will sponsored videos start showing up once people start using the related videos feature often?
May 15th, 2007
Google Audio Ads given to more users
The “Audio Ads” program was launched a while ago to a limited set of beta testers, but according to Barry Schwartz of Search Engine Roundtable, it’s beginning to show up in most AdWords accounts. Check out Barry’s blog for a step by step screenshot gallery.
The service looks very easy to use, and if used right, it could be an invaluable tool to help increase brand awareness. You can find professional talent in your area through the service, or upload your own audio advertisements to be played. According to at least one poster in the Webmaster Word forums, if you set a low CPM rate for your ads, you best optimize it for sleeping Alaskans.
Just like with anything else, the less you spend the worse the ads are. When I lower the cpm I end up with a lot of ads in Alaska between 1am and 3am. but I’m ok with that for testing purposes.
May 7th, 2007
Gadget Ads coming soon
Google is preparing to launch Gadget Ads as part of AdWords very soon according to several sources. It is still unclear how they will be distributed, but they will likely appear on the Google Personalized Homepage and possibly throughout the AdSense network. The ads will supposedly be sold through a CPM or CPC model.
Nathan Weinberg has a good point — he is worried that if these are automatically placed by Google, it would potentially give too much power to the advertiser and could very well detract from the main content. As Nathan puts it, "I don’t want advertisers sticking pointless stuff on my site to distract and piss off you guys".
First it was text ads, then images, then flash, now gadgets — each step has been more "rich", which isn't necessarily a good thing for publishers. We will see how it's implemented, but I'm sure if these gadgets make it to the AdSense network, it will either be on a per-advertiser basis, or there will be some way to disable gadgets completely.
April 16th, 2007
Google partners with Clear Channel Radio
In a multi-year agreement, Google has been given access to a "a portion" of Clear Channel Radio's (the largest radio station group owner in the United States) ad inventory.
The deal reaches more than 675 of the network's stations, but it is not clear exactly now much inventory has been supplied. Regardless, it is important Google seizes this opportunity if they want to stay and thrive in the radio advertisement business.
This new relationship with the leading U.S. radio group gives our advertisers access to guaranteed inventory on top-rated AM and FM stations all over the U.S., making it much easier for them to reach their target customers with radio ads.
According to the official press release, Clear Channel Radio will, for the most part, continue to operate as they have. Their core advertising business will likely not be affected by this partnership.
Clear Channel Radio's national and local sales forces will continue to focus on the company's most lucrative advertiser relationships, and on the many advertisers who seek specialized advertising packages and concepts.
Garett Rogers is employed as a programmer for iQmetrix, which specializes in retail management software for the cellular and electronics industry. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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