The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has hit Google and a local Australian Classified website, Trading Post, alleging that both parties have been engaged in "deceiptive and misleading practices" on a paid search campaign designed to take business from competitors websites.
The main argument used by the ACCC is that the Trading Post has used competitors trademarks in their paid search ads titles to advertise for its services. Google has been accused of misleading by letting this happen.
Google has annouced that they will vigorously defend these allegations. The ACCC also accused Google of misleading teh consumer by falling to properly distinguish the results from paid search and the results from organic search.
By doing so, the ACCC bring the first action of its type globally and will probably bring some change in the current almighty PPC advertsing model of Google.
The first step of the legal issues will take place in Sydney, Australia on the 21st August 2007.
To be continued
7/7/07
Google Adwords introduce Share of Impression
The Google team has released a new feature in Google Adwords. It is called Share of Impression.
What is Share of Impression
The Share of impression is the percentage of time your ads were shown out of the total number of impression in the market. The percentage is based on the settings of your campaign so if you are targeting a specific country or a specific area, the percentage will reflect the number of times your ads are shown out of the total number of impression in this particular market.
How to use it
This metric is particularly useful to evaluate how well a campaign performs. Indeed if you have a Share of impression of 30%, it means that you are missing out on 70% of the potential audience. Based on those results, you can adjust your campaign budget to make sure that your ads will be displayed at a higher level and therfore more times. Moreover, you can improve your revlevancy and quality score and therefore improve your average position. This metric could also be used to evaluate the size of a market and therefore provides valuable information on your market.
This feature is available in the Report section of your Adwords account, for campaign and ad groups level for search.
What is Share of Impression
The Share of impression is the percentage of time your ads were shown out of the total number of impression in the market. The percentage is based on the settings of your campaign so if you are targeting a specific country or a specific area, the percentage will reflect the number of times your ads are shown out of the total number of impression in this particular market.
How to use it
This metric is particularly useful to evaluate how well a campaign performs. Indeed if you have a Share of impression of 30%, it means that you are missing out on 70% of the potential audience. Based on those results, you can adjust your campaign budget to make sure that your ads will be displayed at a higher level and therfore more times. Moreover, you can improve your revlevancy and quality score and therefore improve your average position. This metric could also be used to evaluate the size of a market and therefore provides valuable information on your market.
This feature is available in the Report section of your Adwords account, for campaign and ad groups level for search.
6/7/07
Google Adwords vs. Yahoo's Panama
The Australian has release an article about the coming introduction of Yahoo's Panama new advertising platform.
According to the article Google Adwords represents around 80% of the Paid Search market estimated at $250 millions a year.
However,some survey reveals that media buyers will probably consider increasing their Yahoo budget by 20%...
This will be a great new and will probably help the market as Google is more and more competitive, which really drive the CPC up.
However it won't be the end of Google. Indeed Google is still technically superior to Yahoo. Even if Yahoo has improved its platform, it is still an inferior copy of Google. If Yahoo wants to win the battle, they will really have to bring value!
According to the article Google Adwords represents around 80% of the Paid Search market estimated at $250 millions a year.
However,some survey reveals that media buyers will probably consider increasing their Yahoo budget by 20%...
This will be a great new and will probably help the market as Google is more and more competitive, which really drive the CPC up.
However it won't be the end of Google. Indeed Google is still technically superior to Yahoo. Even if Yahoo has improved its platform, it is still an inferior copy of Google. If Yahoo wants to win the battle, they will really have to bring value!
1/7/07
Get a free Webpage with Adwords
Google Australia is caring about Australian and New Zealand businesses, which do not have website.
In an effort to promote Adwords to more and more Australian small businesses, Google offers a free web business page for the businesses signing up for a starter account.
It is pretty simple to create, use and will allow your business to benefits from the Adwords advantages without having to invest in a website.
In an effort to promote Adwords to more and more Australian small businesses, Google offers a free web business page for the businesses signing up for a starter account.
It is pretty simple to create, use and will allow your business to benefits from the Adwords advantages without having to invest in a website.
26/6/07
Keyword Insertion - Secrets Revealed
One of the best advantage of Google Adwords is the ability to insert the keywords searched in the Ad text title or description.This feature is great, but a little pratice will help you mastering its use.
Benefits of Keyword insertion
By inserting the searched keyword in the Ad text title or description, you can make your text ads more relevant to a particular search. Indeed if someone is searching for a particular, the first thing he will click on is an ad containing the terms he searched for.
When a search match the keyword in your ad, Google will highlight the keyword in bold blue. With keyword insertion you can guarantee to have maximum visibility.
You still need to be careful
Keyword insertion can also be armful or in a lesser extend make your ad a total no sense. As a result, you have to be careful on where you use keyword insertion especially if you use it between two words.
How to use keyword insertion properly
Keyword insertion is pretty simple to use. You just have to insert the following code in your ad: {keyword}.
You can either insert the function in the title or in the description of the ad.
Here are some more advanced fucntions:
- {keyword: dfsfhsldfhs} Will insert the text in between brackets if the keyword lenght is superior to the Google requirements.
- {Keyword:} Will capitalise the first letter of the keyword inserted.
- {KeyWord:} Will capitalise teh first letter of the first word and the first letter of each word if the search phrase has more than a word.
- {KEYWORD} Will capitalise all letters of the keyword (not recommended)
- {KEYword} Will capitalise each letter of the first word, but none of the second.
Benefits of Keyword insertion
By inserting the searched keyword in the Ad text title or description, you can make your text ads more relevant to a particular search. Indeed if someone is searching for a particular, the first thing he will click on is an ad containing the terms he searched for.
When a search match the keyword in your ad, Google will highlight the keyword in bold blue. With keyword insertion you can guarantee to have maximum visibility.
You still need to be careful
Keyword insertion can also be armful or in a lesser extend make your ad a total no sense. As a result, you have to be careful on where you use keyword insertion especially if you use it between two words.
How to use keyword insertion properly
Keyword insertion is pretty simple to use. You just have to insert the following code in your ad: {keyword}.
You can either insert the function in the title or in the description of the ad.
Here are some more advanced fucntions:
- {keyword: dfsfhsldfhs} Will insert the text in between brackets if the keyword lenght is superior to the Google requirements.
- {Keyword:} Will capitalise the first letter of the keyword inserted.
- {KeyWord:} Will capitalise teh first letter of the first word and the first letter of each word if the search phrase has more than a word.
- {KEYWORD} Will capitalise all letters of the keyword (not recommended)
- {KEYword} Will capitalise each letter of the first word, but none of the second.
24/6/07
Google introduces PPA campaigns
Google keeps on expanding its online advertising offer by introducing a Pay Per Action (PPA) model to adwords.
The PPA campaigns will be available for the content network and will provide advertiser to pay for an action instead of paying for a click.
Google therefore reinforces its offer, when Yahoo introduces their new search engine platform, which instantly looses its competitive advantage.
Google also demonstrates its interest in competing agains traditional affiliate network such as Commission Monster.
The PPA campaigns will be available for the content network and will provide advertiser to pay for an action instead of paying for a click.
Google therefore reinforces its offer, when Yahoo introduces their new search engine platform, which instantly looses its competitive advantage.
Google also demonstrates its interest in competing agains traditional affiliate network such as Commission Monster.
5/6/07
An Easy way to reduce keywords' CPC
Reducing keywords CPC can be a hard process. Indeed it is a tricky task because reducing the Maximum bid will most of time drop the average position of the text ads and therefore reduce the volume of click, even worth it could reduce the number of impressions drastically.
An easy way to reduce CPC without changing your maximum bids is to use Google Adwords Matching options. That is not a new thing for most of you.
However I have done some experiments by using all matching options on one keyword.
The Principle
The idea is simple and lies on the following principles:
- Maximizing the traffic and the reach by keeping broad match.
- Reducing the CPC for the most common search phrases by introducing phrase match
- Reducing the CPC for really expensive keywords by using exact match.
Example
If you are targeting the keyword 'roses':
- Use the broad match to make sure that any variations of the word will be targeted and that your ad will be displayed.
- Use phrase match for popular search phrases such a 'white roses', 'cheap roses'. When a person will type white rose and click on your ad, Google will charge you the CPC for the phrase match ( It will be lower than the broad match one. Therefore you will pay less for all the variations such as 'cheap white roses' or 'buy white roses'
- Use exact match for popular phrases which converted in the past. For example use exact match for 'buy white roses' or 'cheap white roses'. The CPC on those keywords will be low and will contribute to reduce your overall average CPC.
I have use this tactic on my last Google Adwords campaigns and it has really contributed to reduce the overall cost per click. Thanks to that, I managed to generate more traffic with the same average position...
An easy way to reduce CPC without changing your maximum bids is to use Google Adwords Matching options. That is not a new thing for most of you.
However I have done some experiments by using all matching options on one keyword.
The Principle
The idea is simple and lies on the following principles:
- Maximizing the traffic and the reach by keeping broad match.
- Reducing the CPC for the most common search phrases by introducing phrase match
- Reducing the CPC for really expensive keywords by using exact match.
Example
If you are targeting the keyword 'roses':
- Use the broad match to make sure that any variations of the word will be targeted and that your ad will be displayed.
- Use phrase match for popular search phrases such a 'white roses', 'cheap roses'. When a person will type white rose and click on your ad, Google will charge you the CPC for the phrase match ( It will be lower than the broad match one. Therefore you will pay less for all the variations such as 'cheap white roses' or 'buy white roses'
- Use exact match for popular phrases which converted in the past. For example use exact match for 'buy white roses' or 'cheap white roses'. The CPC on those keywords will be low and will contribute to reduce your overall average CPC.
I have use this tactic on my last Google Adwords campaigns and it has really contributed to reduce the overall cost per click. Thanks to that, I managed to generate more traffic with the same average position...
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