Google recently announced a new keyword targeting feature on the Inside AdWords blog.  Broad match modifier is a middle ground between broad and phrase match.  The intent is to take phrase match and make it a little broader and broad match a little more controlled.

Implementing this feature works similarly to the standard broad, phrase and exact match keywords used today.   Instead of the brackets or quotation marks you use a plus (+) sign.  The plus sign modifies the word it is attached to so that it must appear in the searcher’s query exactly as is or a close variation.  Close variations include misspellings, singular/plural forms, abbreviations and acronyms, and ings (like “floor” and “flooring”).

Today you may have the broad match keyword of black hat.   As a standard broad match keyword this can match multiple variations such as black caps, gray hats or black baseball hat.  If you had that same word as a phrase match it may match on things like midnight black hat or black hat for baseball. With the new broad match modifier feature you can narrow down those broad matches and expand the phrase matches.

Enter your keyword as +black hat (Be sure there are no spaces between the + and modified words, but do leave spaces between words).  The resulting matches in this case could be black cap, fancy black dress hat, blck hat or black ski caps. The plus sign in front of black forces black to be in the searcher’s query.  If you were to enter your keyword like this, +black +hat, your matching results could be things like black hatt or black baseball hat or any variation as long as both black and hat are queried.

Note that broad match modifiers are designed for adgroups that contain mostly phrase and exact match words.  If you are mostly bidding on broad match adding the modifiers could result in a significant decline in clicks and conversions.

Google recently announced the creation of the Google Display Network as part of its continued focus on rapidly expanding display advertising opportunities.  The newly create Google Display Network, which now has its own website, will act as an “umbrella” for all the properties on which display ads can be run.  This means everything but search are part of the Display Network; YouTube, Google properties such as Google Finance, Gmail, Google Maps, Blogger as well as the million plus display partners.   All display ad types now fall under this umbrella including text, image, rich media, and video ads.

The process for running display ads is not changing, just the name.   Expect to see references to the Google Content Network changing over to Google Display Network in the coming weeks.

If you check out the recent post on the Google Lat Long Blog, you will see that Google Maps is rolling out their Google Tags feature across the United States shortly. What the heck are “Google Tags”? Of course if it is something from Google, you can assume it’s another way for you to advertise with them. This specific way is targeted at local businesses.  Google’s goal with Google Tags is to make it simple for the “mom and pop” shop to advertise with them; even more simple than using Google AdWords.  With the trouble that Google Places (formerly Google Local Business Listings) has had in the past in getting business owners correctly listed on the map, I’m not sure it will be that easy out of the gate but it’s good to see the opportunity offered.

Details:

• Cost = $25/month/listing (need a credit card)
• You must have claimed your Google Places listing
• What can you advertise via a Tag? Coupon, video, website, photos, custom message (via the Post feature), or your menu/reservation listing (if applicable to your business)
• At the time of this writing, Google Tag advertising is only available in California, Atlanta, Austin, Boulder, Chicago, Houston, Seattle, and Washington DC
  • The first states after these will be Texas, Illinois, Georgia, Washington, and Colorado
  • All other states are expected to come online shortly
  • Where do I find out if I can use Tags? Go into your business listings dashboards and look for the feature.

Also announced with Google Tags is the ability to advertise locally with its Post feature within your Google Places listing. Your message can be changed whenever you want and are a good way to tell your community about new products, specials, or other recent news about your business. The post will show up only on your Google Places page but as mentioned above, you can advertise your posts via Google Tags. If you elect to do so, your post will also show up in Google search results when your listing appears there.

We would love to hear your feedback on your use of Google Tags for your business.

It wasn’t too long ago that we were writing about Google’s launch of new ad extension options on the search network.  Recent additions that allow you to enhance your search ads have included location, product, phone, and sitelink.  Utilizing these features can make your ads stand out among your competitors, such as the search ad for desktop computers below, and give your customers a more direct path to the best landing page for optimizing conversions.

Now Google is expanding further on Ad Extensions by launching detailed reporting in your AdWords Account with a new tab titled “Ad Extensions.”  The tab is available from the account level or the campaign level.  But keep in mind you will only see this new tab if you are using one or more of the ad extensions in your AdWords campaigns.

Select the Ad Extensions tab and then use the “view” drop down box to select which extension (location, phone, product or sitelink) you would want to view.  The data available includes, clicks, impressions, CTR, average CPC, cost and average position.

You can also download, schedule or email the report right from within the tab. If you have been using Ad Extensions already or have been thinking about using them let us know your experiences by commenting here.

As most everyone knows by now, Yahoo! and Microsoft announced a Search Alliance last year and it was recently approved by the US government in February .  Essentially, the two companies will continue with two separate search engines, however Microsoft will run the technology for the organic search algorithms for both engines and the paid search for both will be powered by Microsoft’s current adCenter system.

A recent announcement from the new partners laid out a more defined time line for the upcoming transition as well as a bit on what advertisers can expect as the transition moves along.

The goal, as of now, is to get the transition process for US and Canada advertisers started in late summer 2010 and have it complete before the 2010 holiday season rolls around.  If things are not looking good for that holiday target, the transition team has promised to hold off until 2011 so as to not interrupt the critical holiday sales season.

To keep things running as smoothly as possible regular communication and updates, as well as tools to guide advertisers through the process have been promised.

Stay tuned for more as we get closer to the Yahoo! and Microsoft search alliance becoming a reality and tips and tricks we pick up as the transition begins to take place.

The Yahoo Search Marketing desktop tool had been a long time coming when it was released last fall, yet is lacked a few key features we had become accustomed to in the other PPC desktop tools. If you have not used it much since the release, you may not know that Yahoo has been adding features with each upgrade.  These new features are  designed to make the management process of your Yahoo! Search Marketing accounts more efficient. The most recent release includes some very useful features that can cut the time spent managing and optimizing your accounts significantly.

1. Cut / Copy / Paste
You can now cut, copy and paste keywords, ads and adgroups by right clicking and selecting the option you want from the menu or by using short- cut keys.

2. Revert Changes
A new “Revert All” function lets you undo everything you did or undo just a few selected changes.

3. File Import
Importing a campaign or an entire account from Google AdWords is an easy 1 – 2 – 3 process now. 1 – Download from AdWords editor 2- Upload into Yahoo Search Marketing desktop 3 – Post changes.

As the Yahoo Search Marketing desktop tool gets more robust through the addition of features such as these, it can save considerable time in your PPC management.

Not too long ago if you wanted to show a search ad on Google with something other than basic text you were limited to the Google Content Network.  But Google has been expanding the options on the Search Network and there are several search ad formats now available for you to chose.  Here are some of the formats and why you should be using them.

Ad Sitelinks

Allows for 4 links in addition to the ad header to pages on your site.

Use Ad Sitelinks to present the searcher with more options and potentially get them to the exact page on your site that they need thereby increasing the chances of a conversion.  Perfect for highlighting promotions, seasonal items, or new features.

Product Plusbox Enhancement

Links to your Google Merchant Account to show product images, pricing and descriptions.

If you are running an e-commerce store there is no reason you should not be running Product Plusbox ads.  By allowing the customer to see a selection of your products along with pricing that are relevant to their search you are increasing your chances of getting the conversion.

Location Extensions

Attach your business address along with a map and driving directions.

If you are a local business you can use the Location Extension ad to make your business stand out above the competition.  Let the searchers know they have the right location before they ever click on your ad.  This will help ensure you are getting the most relevant traffic from your ads.

Local Ads with Multiple Locations

For businesses with multiple locations attach your business address along with a map pinpointing each location in the searchers area.

Use these ads to promote chain businesses where there may be several locations to chose from in a customer’s local area.  Let the customer know they have options and you are nearby wherever they may be before they ever get to your site.

Using Google’s varied search ad formats can improve your conversion rate by getting more information in front of searchers so that they click on your ad and convert on your site.  Test different formats to find what works best for your business.

Google has added yet another feature to AdWords that is sure to draw searchers attention to your ads and steer them to the most appropriate page on your site to drive conversions.  Ad Sitelinks is currently in beta and enhances your search network text ads by adding up to four additional landing pages, that you set up, below your text ads.

The addition of four more landing page options to an ad, for a total of 5 including the headline, allows the advertiser to make specific website information more readily available to searchers.  Think of the possibilities when it comes to seasonal and promotional offers.  When users can select a landing page that most closely matches their interests and needs the opportunity for a conversion increases as does your click through rate.

It is not just any ad that will qualify for Ad Sitelinks however.  Your ad must be in the first position of the top paid results and the CTR must be substantially higher than any other ad on the page.  Branded search terms are most likely to meet these requirements.

Without much extra work or changing your ads or keywords you can set up to 10 pages to show, of which the AdWords system will select four when they are relevant to the user’s search.

By differentiating your ad from all the others and giving searchers more options that more closely match their exact needs (not to mention a set up that takes only minutes) Ad Sitelinks should not be overlooked in your AdWords strategy.

Google recently announced the availability of an additional metric to determine the success of your content network display ads in driving conversions.  In simple terms, view-through conversion metrics are going to show you the number of online conversions that happened within 30 days after a user saw your content display ad but did not click on it.   (Note this new feature is for content display ads only, no search ads or text ads.)

So how does this work?  Say I am reading my favorite website and I see a display ad for a 50% off sale on running shoes. My son needs new shoes but I can’t remember his shoe size.  So I make a mental note to confirm his size and come back later to order.  Three days later I type in the URL of the site I saw in the ad and order a new pair of shoes.   The original view was tracked through the AdSense cookie so Google knows a particular ad was displayed.  When I return later (within 30 days) and go to the website that cookie determines that an ad was displayed previously and attributes my purchase to the display of the ad.

This gives one more level of data to determine the effectiveness of your ads.  Previously you never knew if an ad displayed, but not clicked on, got the user to remember your name and come to your site later.  It also provides another tool to determine if a particular site on the content network is beneficial to your goals.  Maybe it does not convert on the first display but users come back later and convert.  Those sites might have been blocked in the past as non-converting.

You will find the view-through conversion data in your campaign, adgroup, ad and keyword reports as long as you have conversion tracking implemented.

Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI) is an advanced feature of AdWords that can potentially improve the relevance of your ad by dynamically inserting keywords directly into your ad copy. More relevance in your ad can lead to better CTR (click through rate), which means better quality scores, lower costs per click, and paves the way for more conversions. So how can this be set up in AdWords? What keyword will be inserted? And what will the ad look like in the search results?

How can this be set up in AdWords?

DKI is considered an advanced feature of AdWords because it requires a small amount of “code” be added into the ad text. But the word “code” should not scare anyone off. The ad set up using dynamic keyword insertion would simply look something like this:

Buy {Keyword:Purple Shoes}
Free Shipping On All Styles.
Satisfaction Guaranteed!
www.ExampleShoeStore.com

As the above example shows, the “coding” is very simple. It basically involves preceding the keyword with “Keyword:” and placing a text string between brackets { } that will be used as the default (more on that in the “What”). That’s all there is to it. Note that an upper or lower case K in keyword will determine the capitalization of the actual word in the ad that is displayed. For example, type it as Keyword and the word in the ad displays as Word; type it as keyword and the as shows as word. In addition, this code can be placed in the header, description lines or display URL (but make sure you follow display URL guidelines!).

What keyword will be inserted?

Now that the ad is set up, what keyword is actually dynamically inserted when the ad is shown? The keyword that appears in the ad replacing the code is the one you’re bidding on that’s closest to what the user typed in to trigger the ad, at the adgroup level. If that keyword exceeds the character limit of the line that the code is placed on, then the default (in this case “Purple Shoes”) will be used instead. Note it is not the exact keyword the user searched on that populates the ad unless you happen to be bidding on it within the adgroup that triggered the ad.

What will the ad look like in the search results?

Let’s take a simple example. A user types in “purple tennis shoes” into Google. You’ve got an adgroup dedicated to sneakers, and in it you’re bidding on the term “purple sneakers.” In this, case, here’s what the example ad above would look like to the user:

Searched Term: “purple tennis shoes”

Matched Bid Term: “purple sneakers”

Resulting Ad: Buy Purple sneakers
Free Shipping On All Styles.
Satisfaction Guaranteed!
www.ExampleShoeStore.com

Here’s another example:

Searched Term: “where to buy purple high heel shoes”

Matched Bid Term: “purple high heel shoes”

Resulting Ad: Buy Purple shoes
Free Shipping On All Styles.
Satisfaction Guaranteed!
www.ExampleShoeStore.com

In this case, the closest matched keyword you’re bidding on is over 25 characters, so the default that you defined (“Purple Shoes”) is used instead.

Remember, generally speaking, the more relevant you can make your ads to the searcher, the higher the likelihood that they’ll attract the click, and DKI can be a powerful tool to accomplish just that – there’s not much that’s more relevant than what you just typed in!