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!

There are 2 basic types of export files from Google’s AdWords Editor that can be imported back into the tool:
1) AEA – AdWords Editor Archive – generally used as a backup file
2) AES – AdWords Editor Share – generally used to share proposed changes with colleagues

You can export your entire account or selected campaigns from the File menu.

Editor gives you the option to export the whole account, selected campaigns, or the current view.

Once exported, you will have either an AES or an AEA file type that can then be stored for archiving or shared with co-workers.  Both file types can be imported back into the AdWords Editor tool as well.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when importing the files:

Importing of either file type is done through the FILE/IMPORT ACCOUNT SNAPSHOT menu.

AES – import a file someone has shared with you to propose changes:

• You have to have the most recent version of the account already in Editor.  If you are starting with a new, blank editor account or an account other than the one the AES came from you cannot import an AES file.
• If the version of the account you are importing into is older or newer than the one in the AES file you will likely get an error.
• You have to be logged into the account that the file was created for. (Again not a new account)

AEA – importing a backup/archive file

• This file type can be imported into an account other than the one it was created from.  However, if you do so, the AEA file will overwrite all information in the account you are importing it into.  Before doing this make sure you not going to lose important data.
• You can also import this file into a new account through editor.

You can spend hours seeking out keywords for your Pay Per Click campaigns or site optimization. With millions of users searching Google everyday there are undoubtedly countless keywords being used to search out products like yours that never occurred to you. Up until recently, Google keyword tools were limited to the AdWords Keyword Tool. But now Google has introduced the Search Based Keyword Tool to help track down those keywords that never crossed your mind but that searchers are using in Google search.

The basic premise of the tool is to tell you the most popular keywords being searched on in Google that match the content of your site but you are not currently using in your campaigns. Then, if you are logged in to the AdWords account for the site you are inquiring on, the Search-based Keyword Tool will make suggestions on landing pages that might be appropriate to use in ad campaigns. But don’t blindly take their word for it on the suggestions; make sure the page is appropriate for your goals.

The tool can be accessed directly from the site, http://www.google.com/sktool/, through your AdWords account under the Campaign Management/Tools tab, or direct from AdWords Editor under the Tools/Keyword Opportunities tab (more on this option later in this post).

The main screen from the site or through AdWords will look like this:

If you are logged in the “Website” box will have a drop down menu of sites associated with your account. If you are not logged in this box will just have example.com listed and this is where you would enter the site you want to inquire on. You can use the with words or phrases box to narrow your results down to only keywords and/or landing pages containing specific words or phrases. Once you have a site in the box click Find Keywords and your results will look like this:

The results brought back are
• keywords (that are not currently being bid on)
• monthly searches (same as the Keyword Tool)
• competition (same as the Keyword Tool)
• suggested bid (same as the Keyword Tool)
• ad/search share (This shows only if you are logged in and tells you the percent of time show in organic and search ads)
• landing page suggestions (remember to review the suggestions carefully)

(Note: if you do not own or have access to the site you are inquiring on, the results you see will be limited to up to 100 and keywords already being bid on will be mixed in with those that are not.)

Further details can be obtained on each suggested keyword by clicking on the magnifying glass . This will take you to Google Insights for Search.

The tool also gives you a few options for narrowing down the results on the left side of the results page.

If available, it will show you various categories for your search results. Click on the category headings to expand them and sort your keyword results into the various categories.

Or if you need to focus on specific brands or want to eliminate brands from your campaigns you are given options to sort the results list by brands (if applicable). This is very helpful to see if there are high ranking brands that you sell but are not focusing on or maybe to present areas you could expand into.

Once you have the list you need the tool gives you the option to save a draft which you can review later in the “My Draft Keywords” tab at the top. Or you can export selected keywords or the whole list to a csv file for later review or to bring into AdWords Editor.

If you are using this tool to beef up your existing campaigns with keywords you may be missing, the version of the Search-based Keyword Tool that can be used through AdWords Editor will save you the steps involved in exporting.
You can find the Editor version of the tool (currently in Beta) in the Tools/Keyword Opportunities menu. Once there select the “Search-based Keywords” tab.

The tool works similarly to the other version with one great convenience. You can drag the keywords directly into your campaigns. You can even select the match type to use and use the landing page and bid price the tools suggested for you.  Just make sure you are reviewing that information carefully before accepting it at face value.

If you prefer, there is an export option here as well.

If you do your own pay per click (PPC) management account, you most likely use the performance reports provided by Google Adwords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, MSN adCenter, or the other advertising service. These reports can be extremely powerful in giving you a very quick overview on the progress of your campaigns for a particular time period. However, there is an important thing that you should understand about where the numbers in these reports come from to truly understand the data. The number of conversions could change over time based on the expiration of the advertisements cookie on a user’s browser.

Google AdWords’ cookie expires after 30 days. This means that if a user clicks on an ad during a Google search a cookie is set on their browser. Even if they leave the website that the ad led them to by going to another website or shutting off their computer/browser, the cookie will track them should they come back to that website and complete a conversion at any time during the next 30 days. So if they come back 15 days later by typing in the website’s URL directly and complete a conversion, in these reports that conversion would be attributed to the PPC ad. However, if they come back 31 days later from a source other than Adwords and complete a conversion, it would not be tracked in Google’s AdWords reports as a conversion. Yahoo! Search Marketing’s cookie lasts for 45 days. You also want to keep in mind that if the user specifically deletes or removes cookies from their browser these expirations do not apply.

Besides the lifespan of their cookies, Google and Yahoo! also differ in how a conversion is attributed in their reports. Google AdWords attributes a conversion to the day the click occurs. Meaning if a visitor clicks on an ad on March 1st but doesn’t complete a conversion until March 7th, the report in Google will show the conversion occurred on March 1st as this is when my initial click happened. Of course, if the visitor returns to the website via another PPC ad, the cookie is reset. Yahoo! Search Marketing attributes the conversion in their report to the actual day the conversion happens. Using the previous example, a Yahoo! report will show the conversion on March 7th, which is the day of the conversion, not the initial ad click. Therefore the number of conversions reported via the Google reports can change for up to 30 days. A report created on March 1st for the February 15-29 date range will likely have fewer conversions than a report created on March 15th for the same February 15-29 date range because these conversions can show up in the past for up to 30 days. In Yahoo! Search Marketing reports, you may see new conversions appear for up to 45 days after the click.

Next time you’re reviewing your pay per click marketing performance reports, be sure to take into account the cookie lifespan of the advertising provider and make sure to understand how conversions are attributed in these reports. These subtle differences may have an effect on how you manage where your PPC marketing dollars go tomorrow!

WebShare is a Yahoo! Search Marketing Ambassador and Google AdWords Qualified Company, and can help you with your Google AdWords Management as well as your Yahoo! Search Marketing, Microsoft adCenter, and Ask.com paid search accounts. We help clients maximize their advertising budgets with solutions that range from training to active daily management. We look forward to helping bring you to the next level.

First time Adwords advertisers often don’t understand that the position of your ad is not determined soley by bid price—that is just one of several factors. Google instead tells us that ad rank is a combination of bid price and something called a “Quality Score”. On top of that, a poor Quality Score could cause your minimum bid price to jump by 19,000%!
So the next logical question would be “What’s my quality score?” Until recently, this has been a guarded secret, much to the frustration of advertisers worldwide. Google will reveal that it is determined by your keyword’s click through rate (CTR), relevance of ad text, historical keyword performance, and other relevancy factor. Google still isn’t going to tell us the formula or even the exact score, but they are now giving advertisers a general idea of the quality score for each keyword. If you want to make the most of your search marketing campaigns, you need to check out your quality score today.
First, I want to clarify that there are actually two quality scores for your keywords, each computed in a slightly different way. One is for determining the minimum bid price the other is for determining ad position. The two are similar in the fact that they both look at CTR, your accounts historical performance and other relevance factors. Where they differ is that the bid price quality score considers landing page quality and the relevance of the keyword to its ad group. Whereas, the ad position quality score considers the relevance of the keyword and ad to the search term. For more on the definition of quality score, see the Google help file.
You can view your quality score through your AdWords account. Choose the Campaign then AdGroup of interest. Click the “Keyword” tab. Look for the “Show/Hide Columns” drop down menu. Choose “Show Quality Score”.

Your quality score is listed next to every Keyword along with the minimum bid for that keyword. If you click on the question mark next to the quality score title, Google provides you with a list of possible quality score, information about each one, and links to FAQs.

Remember, if you have a high quality score, your bid price will be lower which means you can pay less for a higher ad position. However, you shouldn’t just be looking at quality score as a way to get a lower bid price. Ultimately you want a successful ad. This score is an indication of how relevant your ad is in Google’s eyes. A relevant ad will be a more successful ad.
If you have a “poor” or “ok” quality score, there are several reasons why this could be happening. Here are some questions to ask yourself: Are you sending people to the correct landing page (more than likely not your home page)? Does the ad text contain the keyword? Is the list of keywords for this Ad group too broad? Is the keyword itself too broad? If you have a poor quality score, you should have answered no to at least one of the above questions. This is where you should start making improvements. The best pay per click campaigns are the ones that are constantly monitored and improved. Now that Google provides us with the quality score the job of improving our campaigns just got easier. So check yours out today!
If you’re interested in learning more, we go further in depth about how to improve and use Quality Score to your advantage in our Adwords/Paid Search Bootcamp—contact us today for more details.

WebShare is an AdWords Qualified Company. We are recognized as a premier pay-per-click management company in the search marketing industry, and offer a wide range of PPC services that can help you increase the performance of your PPC campaigns.