One of the more common complaints that people have with the Google AdWords system is that there is nowhere detailing new features. New options, preferences and functionality are added on an ongoing basis, but finding them often proves to be a case of hit and miss. Until now.
This page will detail all the Google AdWords changes that we happen upon, along with our own commentary, based on our experiences.
An RSS feed of this information is also available. 
If your account has not yet been updated, you will only see the old "Reporting" tab and not the new and improved "Reporting and Tools" tab.
The new and improved "Reporting and Tools" tab now includes links to the following areas of your AdWords account:
Reports
Change history
Conversions
Google Analytics
Website Optimizer
Keyword Tool
Traffic Estimator
Placement Tool
Ads diagnostic tool
Ad preview tool
More tools
This is a very welcome improvement to the account navigation. It makes it much easier to navigate over to these areas of the account.
Permanent linkNew AdWords columns you might want to view - October 13, 2010By default, Google only display a small number of columns within an AdWords account. In order to see more data, you need to click on the columns when viewing the stats for your campaigns. Recently Google introduce some new columns for conversion stats that you might want to pay closer attention too.
The columns are:
Total conv. value
Value / conv. (1-per-click)
Value / conv. (many-per-click)
These columns are useful if you are dynamically populating the google_conversion_value variable within your AdWords conversion tracking code.
For example, if you are tracking the download and the purchase of your software through AdWords conversion tracking, you can insert the value for each conversion action. Then when you are evaluating the performance of a particular ad, keyword, ad group or campaign, you will be able to see a more accurate representation of the conversions true value.
In the past, you would only be able to see the conversion rate, cost per conversion and the total number of conversions when looking at the campaigns, ad groups, ads and keywords. If you wanted to see their actual conversion values, you would need to run a report which included those columns.
Now this data is visible right next to the rest of your stats that you are regularly viewing.
Permanent linkMissing any AdWords reports? - September 29, 2010In order to make AdWords even more confusing, Google seemed to have moved some reports from the Report Center into the campaigns tab section of the AdWords interface.
Now when you try to create a new report, you will notice that many of the reports you may have grown to love are no longer available from within the Report Center.
The following reports are now grayed out from within the create report interface:
- Placement / Keyword Performance
- Ad Performance
- URL Performance
- Ad Group Performance
- Campaign Performance
- Account Performance
- Demographic Performance
- Geographic Performance
More information on the move can be found here.
Additionally, it would appear that many of the field names within the various reports have also been changed. If you have software which imports and processes AdWords reporting data you may have noticed that they might not work anymore.
The question for Google is simple: Why not leave access to the reports from within the reporting center? Why fix what worked perfectly?
Permanent linkAdWords Editor version 8.0.1 - September 21, 2010Google recently updated AdWords Editor to version 8.0.1. There is nothing overly dramatic in this new version.
Some of the main changes are as follows:
- The ability to modify the devices your campaigns are targeting. This saves you from having to exclude mobile devices from within the AdWords web interface after you have published a new campaign.
- A new Extensions tab, but it does not include all campaign extensions, such as site links.
- Surprisingly, they have yet to include a means of managing display ads from within the AdWords Editor.
Be aware that when you update to the new version, you will lose any comments or unpublished changes.
http://www.google.com/intl/en/adwordseditor/
Have you ever wanted to compare last week's AdWords performance with this week's performance?
This was possible previously by way of the account snapshot page, however that was for the entire account. Looking at just one ad group or campaign was more difficult.
Google have now made slight modifications to the Graph options to provide a way to compare date ranges.
In order to see this new feature, click on the graph icon above the graph within your AdWords account in order to toggle open the graph options.
You then need to select a primary metric, for example clicks.
Then you need to choose what to compare that to.
You can either choose another metric such as conversions, or you can compare a date range. If you choose date range, it will compare the primary metric for the current date range with the previous date range.
Permanent linkNew AdWords feature (long overdue) - May 14, 2010As you probably know, broad match can produce some rather broad terms. Sometimes they can be downright irrelevant. Some call it the wild west of keywords.
Google are launching a new match type for advertisers in the UK and Canada, called "broad match modifier".
Here is how it works based on some examples from Google:
Broad: formal shoes - also matches: formal footwear, evening footwear, men's dress wingtips and so on.
Modified Broad: formal +shoes - also matches: evening shoes, black dress shoes and so on.
Modified Broad: +formal +shoes - also matches: frmal shoes, formal evening shoes and so on.
It would seem as if this is exactly what most people would have wanted broad match to do in the first place.
More information on this new feature can be found here or here.
Permanent linkEnhanced CPC beta - March 17, 2010There's a new AdWords feature that we're starting to see in some accounts: Enhanced CPC beta.
Google's description:
"Enhanced CPC beta is a bidding feature that you can use with manual or automatic bidding to attempt to get more conversions. With Enhanced CPC you can continue to manage and optimize your bids as much as you like.
This feature will also adjust your bids so that they are higher in auctions where it predicts you are more likely to receive a conversion and lower in auctions where it predicts you are less likely to see a conversion. It's possible your average CPC could exceed your CPC bid."
What is Enhanced CPC beta?
Google, why not give us a tool that will lower our bids when you predict we are less likely to receive a conversion?
Or for that matter why not share your predictions with us?
Permanent linkWork faster in Google AdWords - March 10, 2010Google are beginning to ask if you want to "Work faster in AdWords".
What they mean is that Google Gears will soon be available for Google AdWords users.
If you find AdWords to sometimes be painfully slow (and who doesn't?), this could be an interesting development.
My initial thought was how well they will handle synchronization of new data. Based on their help article, they claim that this isn't a problem: Browser Local Storage
My advice? It's probably worth holding off on this new feature until it is more widely available. So far, we are only seeing it in a few client accounts.
Permanent linkLost your filters? - March 10, 2010If you were wondering where AdWords filters, links to show only enabled campaigns and column modifications went, Google have recently moved those items and others into a new toolbar right above the graph within the AdWords web interface.
There is a nice new way to segment data based on day, week, month and so on. Not really a new feature just a more convenient way of accessing this data.
More information on this change can be found here:
Streamlined analysis tools in your Campaigns tab
Permanent linkTargeting mobile devices gets focused - January 28, 2010If you wish to target mobile devices such as iPhones through AdWords, you're in luck. Google are now allowing you to specifically target device type and carrier.
To access this new feature, you need to visit your campaign settings. There you will find it under the "Networks, devices, and extensions" section. Select "Let me choose" next to devices which will then expand a very long list of options.
This feature is important to all users of AdWords for the following reasons:
1) If you know your target audience will not be arriving from an iPhone, exclude this traffic.
2) If you are targeting this audience, for example if you sell software that only works on Palm devices, you can now specifically target them and not iPhones. By the way, where is Blackberry in the list?
Also, why have Google not done this for desktop computers? It would be remarkably useful to have the ability to target specific users on specific types of computers.
Permanent linkBid Simulator - August 7, 2009Google recently launched their AdWords bid simulator:
"Have you ever wondered how many impressions or clicks you could have received if you had used a different maximum CPC bid? Until now, finding the right bid has typically involved a lot of trial and error.
The bid simulator, launched today, is a feature of the new AdWords interface that shows you the potential impact of your bid on your advertising results. While it can't predict the future, the bid simulator allows you to explore what could have happened if you had set different keyword-level bids.
Using data from the past seven days, the bid simulator re-calculates the number of impressions for which your ad could have shown had you chosen a different maximum CPC, how many clicks your ad could have gotten for those impressions and how much those clicks could have cost. The feature provides increased transparency into the AdWords auction and gives you the insight to make more informed bidding decisions to meet your advertising objectives."
The tool is an interesting idea, and it appears that a number of advertisers are getting quite excited about it.
However it's worth remembering that there are two ways to rank higher and get more clicks: Spend more money. Or work the system.
The problem with the new tool is that it will push some advertisers to simply spend more on their bids.
As an AdWords Qualified Company, we know that you really don't need to spend more money to get more targeted traffic from Google.
Bid like a pro with the bid simulator (Google's title - not mine!)
Permanent linkThe New AdWords Interface is live - bad news for most advertisers - May 14, 2009The new interface appears to be out of beta.
But it's not all good news.
Details on our Software Marketing Blog.
New AdWords interface - bad news for most advertisers
Permanent linkNew Conversion Metrics - April 14, 2009Our very own Aaron Weiner has written about some recent changes to Google's conversion tracking in the SoftwarePromotions Software Marketing News blog:
"If you are using AdWords conversion tracking on your website, you might not have been aware that only one conversion will be counted for a particular visitor. For example, if you have the same conversion tracking code set up on each of your software downloads, you will only see one conversion for a particular visitor, even though they may have downloaded multiple products from your website. This is because a conversion can only be counted once per user.
So how do you tell if your AdWords traffic is performing a particular action multiple times? In the past, you would need to dig deeper within the AdWords reporting center.
However Google have now moved this value right into the conversion tracking section of your AdWords account. The new name is called "Conversions (many-per-click)"."
New AdWords conversion metrics - Conversions (many-per-click)
Permanent linkWarning: New AdWords phishing - March 17, 2009Be careful how you log into your Google AdWords account.
Warning: New AdWords phishing and the MySQL saga
Permanent linkMore display URL policy changes - February 23, 2009Inside AdWords have announced a change to their AdWords policy on display URLs:
"In an effort to provide more relevant results and a high quality experience for our users, we've made the decision to disallow multiple display URL domains within a single ad group. Going forward, all display URLs within an ad group must have the same top-level domain. Please note that this amendment to our policy applies to all advertisers, regardless of previous exceptions or acceptability of any ad groups."
The main point is that the display URLs need to have the same top-level domain.
Note that sub-domains are allowed, so all of the following would comply with the new policy:
- www.yoursite.com
- blog.yoursite.com
- www.blog.yoursite.com
Different display URLs are still allowed, but these have to be placed in their own ad groups.
Why? I have no idea.
Google claim that this is "in an effort to provide more relevant results and a high quality experience for our users", but this is clearly nonsense. The user is entirely unaffected by the new policy.
A change to our display URL policy
Permanent linkNew AdWords interface - February 2, 2009From our Software Marketing News blog:
"Google appear to be working on a fresh new AdWords interface. In short it is very impressive. For now, not everyone is able to see the new look, as it appears that Google are rolling it out in stages. In fact out of all the clients whose accounts we manage, only one had access to the new interface."
More details here:
New AdWords interface - very cool!
Permanent linkUsing Trademarked Names in Display URLs - January 15, 2009PPC Hero have a very interesting article on why trademarked names are allowed in Google's Display URL.
Yes, I did say that they are allowed.
According to the article, Google had the following to say:
"Our trademark policy only applies to the use of the term in the ad text. We don't monitor the display URL and thus we will not disapprove an ad if the trademark term only appears in the URL line."
Enjoy it while it lasts.
Why Trademarked Names Are Allowed in Google Display URL
Permanent linkYour Google AdWords Approval Status - January 5, 2009"Thank you for advertising with Google AdWords. After reviewing your account, we've found that one or more of your ads or keywords does not meet our guidelines. You can see your disapproved ad(s), the reason for disapproval, and editorial suggestions, from the Disapproved Ads page within your account."
You've probably seen this sort of email before, but this one isn't from Google.
A new flavour of AdWords phishing?
Your "Google AdWords" Approval Status
Permanent linkAdWords Editor 7.0 released - December 18, 2008Version 7.0 of Google's AdWords Editor has just been released.
This is technically a major release, but in fact there's nothing particularly major or exciting.
What's new?
First page bid estimates: I'm no fan of this misleading information, so am less than pleased to see it in AdWords Editor.
Keyword Quality Score: In the Keywords tab. As I don't display this by default, there's nothing to get my heart racing here either.
Keyword Opportunities locale: This is a nice addition to the AdWords Editor built-in keyword research tool.
Send feedback to Google: "Help us improve AdWords Editor by enabling usage tracking in your AdWords Editor settings (Tools menu> Settings). Seriously, you have to admire the genius of Google!
And other minor updates.
The bottom line, not much to be excited about here. But it appears to be stable - more so than version 6.5 earlier this year.
Google AdWords Editor version 7.0
Google recently added a new option under campaign settings.
Under Networks and bidding, there's a section entitled Device Platform that has two options:
Desktop and laptop computers.
iPhones and other mobile devices with full Internet browsers.
Google define full browsers as "those that can show standard HTML web pages and can support a user making a purchase from start to finish, including supporting any tracking or Analytics functionality on e-commerce pages".
Note that this doesn't include WAP browsers.
My issue with this new functionality is that it is enabled by default.
Realistically, how many of your customers are likely to search for your goods via their iPhone?
Most companies should be able to safely disable this setting.
Permanent linkTop Tactics for Tough Times - December 4, 2008"Armed with the right advertising strategies, online advertisers can find opportunities in today's economic downturn. And AdWords' real-time targeting and reporting provide advertisers with the most nimble and efficient way to reach customers during these tight times.
We know you're probably keeping a close eye on your bottom line, and in this challenging economic climate, we're committed to helping you maximize your AdWords investment. To that end, we asked experts on the AdWords team to share their top recommendations for getting the most out of AdWords during an economic downturn. "
Top Tactics for Tough Times
Permanent linkMore Quality Score Changes - November 5, 2008Google are soon to introduce two new changes to how Quality Score is calculated and ads are displayed.
The end of the snowball effect:
CTR has obviously been a major part of Quality Score, as the greater the click rate, the more relevant the ads - according to Google.
The catch has been that higher positions usually generate higher CTRs, due to their prominence and visibility.
Google are now removing the "influence of ad position on CTR" from the calculation.
Rather them than me.
Three can be more than one and more than four:
How many times did you have to read that sentence?
Google are changing the rules for the ads that appear above the natural search results.
In the past if the ad with the highest position did not meet the "quality threshold", then no ads were displayed above the search results.
Now Google will allow ads that meet the "quality threshold" to appear above the search results, even if this means that it has to effectively jump over other ads to do so.
The bottom line here is that while these changes are logical, they're going to make tracking and understanding your data more complicated than ever.
From Google's Inside AdWords:
"Keep in mind that these enhancements may cause changes to your ad position, spend, and performance. We're launching these updates soon so that you'll have enough time to review your accounts and prepare for your holiday season advertising. While we don't believe that any immediate changes are needed on your part, we encourage you, as always, to watch your key metrics and to make adjustments as appropriate."
Wise words indeed.
Improvements to Ads Quality
Permanent linkHow will the recession affect Google AdWords? - October 29, 2008The recession is upon us. The credit-crunch has been stinging, the deteriorating exchange rates are good for no-one, and as depressing as it sounds, it's going to get a whole lot worse before it starts to get better.
Perversely, however, the recession is probably going to be quite good for businesses with a Google AdWords account, assuming they know what they're doing.
In the struggle between brain and brawn, the past few years have seen Google lean increasingly towards brute strength; companies who achieve high volumes of traffic by paying dearly for it. And those of us who prefer to use more cost-effective methods of skill, experience and technique have often had quite a fight on our hands.
The recession is set to change this. I predict that as the less-skilled businesses have to start tightening their belts, they won't be anywhere near as eager to recklessly hurl money at their Google AdWords accounts, and may slash their budgets or even stop spending altogether.
This will result in less competition, more clicks, and should even lower the costs.
We've already started seeing the beginning of this trend in some of our client's accounts, and I predict that as the economy gets dragged deeper down the toilet, we'll see a lot more.
There's never been a better time to make sure that your account is in good hands.
Permanent linkGoogle and Search Partners - the separation begins - October 21, 2008Google AdWords have taken the surprising step of providing separate stats for Google, Search partners and the content network.
You can see the breakdown of this information at the account, campaign and ad group level, so they're clearly eager to make sure you see this data. The question is why?
A few thoughts:
Cynical: The more data Google provide, the more likely the advertiser is to drown. Death through data is the norm.
Practical: There's greater transparency, but no more control. You still can't (yet) set up a Search partners only campaign.
Optimistic: I can't provide hard/meaningless figures, but am confident that advertising on the Search partners network isn't anywhere near as effective as on Google itself. If budgets are being depleted, then some companies may choose to disable the Search partners. Nothing new here - but now you have the data to hand.
Impressed (by Google and/or myself): It appears that you can go back and look at old data. Meaning that Google knew this information before but only shared part of the picture. Who would have guessed?
Puzzled: Why are Google doing this? Are they providing greater transparency? If so then why? I have a hunch that many advertisers will simply switch-off the Search partners. Could this be the first step towards the end of the Search partners?
Frustrated: When will we be able to block specific domains for the Search partners? Why can we do this for the content network, but not the Search partners?
Why do I have separate account statistics for Google, search partners, and the content network?
Permanent linkNew version of AdWords Editor - version 6.5 - October 8, 2008Version 6.5 of AdWords Editor is now available, and includes a number of new features:
Keyword Opportunities - apparently a tool for generating new keywords. I get an error when I try to use it so can't comment.
Data View Improvements - column auto-sizing, column selection and an oddly basic date selection tool.
Importing and exporting - no significant changes aside from the names of each option!
New editing options - copy campaign or ad group "shells", in other words the campaign or ad group without the items. How odd.
In short, a few minor cosmetic fixes, a few low-key tools, and one potentially interesting feature that won't work.
AdWords Editor release notes
Permanent linkStatistics drop-down menu - September 5, 2008Some of the accounts I'm handling have a new mini-feature on the Campaign Summary page.
Towards the top right of the data is a drop down menu next to Statistics, with four options:
All (Search + Content)
Search
Content
Summary
It's not exactly useless, but we're not exactly breaking out the champagne either.
Why do I have separate 'Campaign Summary' page statistics for the search and for the content network?
Permanent linkQuality Score "Improvements" - August 27, 2008More changes afoot for Quality Score.
From Inside AdWords (edited for relevance):
"We'd like to let you know of further improvements [to quality score] that we'll introduce in the coming weeks:
* Quality Score will now be more accurate because it will be calculated at the time of each search query
* Keywords will no longer be marked 'inactive for search'
* 'First page bid' will replace 'minimum bid' in your account"
Interesting. Let's take a look at these three improvements individually.
Quality Score will be calculated at the time of each search query:
According to Google, "we are replacing our static per-keyword Quality Scores with a system that will evaluate an ad's quality each time it matches a search query". This sounds more like refining the existing system, as opposed to actively expanding or enhancing it.
Keywords will no longer be marked 'inactive for search':
Not good news for advertisers. Firstly this takes yet another piece of information away from the advertiser. And as we know, information is money.
Secondly, instead of knowing that there's a problem to be fixed, advertisers will just see their traffic dry up.
'First page bid' will replace 'minimum bid' in your account:
At first glance, this actually sounded quite good. Again, however, there are a number of problems.
Firstly this takes yet another piece of information away from the advertiser. And as we know, information is money. Anyone seeing a pattern here?
Secondly, all this can really do is raise the minimum bids. So what will most inexperienced, gullible or clueless advertisers do? They'll simply raise their bids to be on the first page. And what will that do to the minimum bid? Hint; It'll go up.
You have to tip your hat to Google. If "dressing-up bad news as great news" was an Olympic event, they'd take Bronze, Silver and Gold every time.
Quality Score Improvements
Permanent linkGoogle AdWords Cheat Sheet - August 19, 2008Hi all,
At last month's Software Industry Conference we gave all attendees a printed Google AdWords Cheat-Sheet in their goodies bag, that apparently went down very well.
We're now making it available for download (as a PDF) from our website.
I hope you find it useful.
Enjoy:
Google AdWords Cheat Sheet
Permanent linkGoogle + DoubleClick = better content network - August 8, 2008From Inside AdWords:
"We're happy to announce that we'll soon be enabling a number of new features made possible by a new DoubleClick ad serving cookie on our content network. All advertisers will soon be able to take advantage of features like frequency capping, better reach and frequency reporting, and view-through conversions."
On Google's official blog, the hype goes further:
"When we purchased DoubleClick, we talked about how we would empower agencies, advertisers and publishers to collaborate more efficiently and effectively, and provide a better experience for our users. We are happy that we have been able to deliver on this promise already..."
So what's it all about?
The four main enhancements are:
Frequency capping - allows advertisers to limit how many times a user sees an ad. Good for advertisers, good for users.
Frequency reporting - gives advertisers "an insight" (aka some information but not all) into how many people have seen an ad campaign and an ad. Good for advertisers, but there are potential privacy issues for users.
Improved ads quality - not sure what this means yet.
View-through conversions - allows advertisers to see how many users visit their sites after seeing an ad. Not sure how this will work.
The whole thing is being applied through use of a DoubleClick cookie. And users will be able to opt-out of this with a single click.
The bottom line is that there will probably be greater transparency. My guess is that this is in response to a decline in confidence in the content network. Time will tell.
New features coming to the Google content network
Permanent linkMore Sponsored Links - August 1, 2008When I search a term in Google, then click More Sponsored Links at the bottom of the ads, I'm now seeing a new layout for the "other" ads.
What's odd is that I can't work out a correlation between the ads shown in a regular search, and the ads shown in the More Sponsored Links?
On the other hand it's Friday and I haven't had a coffee yet.
Permanent link(Ad)Word of the Day: Keyword Insertion - July 31, 2008There's an interesting post on the Inside AdWords blog on the issue of keyword insertion, often referred to as dynamic keyword insertion:
"Keyword insertion is a powerful feature that can save you time and also help make your ad text more relevant. This feature will automatically customize your ad to a user's query, which means your ad is more likely to attract a user's attention."
It's interesting that they're drawing attention to what used to be an unofficial technique. And it's even more interesting that they don't mention the main drawback of using keyword insertion.
Namely that it can take away control of your ads, and can even result in some odd looking ads.
A simple example:
You're bidding on the keywords raw conversion software and raw files.
Your ad is setup as follows:
Convert RAW Files
Download {KeyWord:RAW File Converter}
for your PC. Free trial.
www.domain.com
This may result in the following:
Convert RAW Files
Download raw files
for your PC. Free trial.
www.domain.com
And that's before getting into the issues of expanded matching.
Dynamic insertions can be very useful, but use with caution!
(Ad)Word of the Day: Keyword Insertion
Permanent linkNew Format for Main Ad Group Page - July 24, 2008Some slight changes have been made to the look and format of the AdWords Web interface.
The main ad group page now breaks down ad group performance into Search (sub-divided into "Google" and "Search partners") and Content (sub-divided into "Placements you've targeted" and "Other placements on the content network").
There is also now a "Placements" tab in the interface which allows advertisers to select placements to go along with their keyword targeted content campaigns.
Permanent linkNew AdWords Editor Release - 6.0.1 - July 24, 2008The new version of AdWords Editor makes it possible to download performance statistics for selected campaigns and ad groups, instead of having to download statistics for the entire account.
A very sensible change that should save advertisers a lot of wasted time waiting for statistics to download.
Now if only I could still work on AdWords Editor in the background while it downloads data. One can always dream!
Permanent linkUse Keywords and Placements together on the Content Network - July 23, 2008Google now allows advertisers to combine the use of keywords and site placements in contextually targeted campaigns.
This is a nice feature because instead of creating two separate campaigns, one for keywords and another for placements, you can now add both to any campaign running on the content network.
I'm hopeful this new addition will improve the targeting for content network campaigns.
Permanent linkKeyword research with figures - July 10, 2008Google's Keyword Tool is now displaying actual figures for the approximate search volume, instead of the old-style "little green frustration bars".
This is long overdue, and makes their free tool a serious contender to the likes of WordTracker and KeywordDiscovery.
A very welcome move.
Permanent linkSlow Speed Costs! - June 19, 2008It's now official. As of today, landing page load time will be factored into your keywords' quality scores.
Meaning? Slower-loading landing pages may get lower quality scores, possibly resulting in higher minimum bids.
One more factor to keep an eye on.
Landing page load time now affects keywords' Quality Scores
Permanent linkAdWords Editor Bugs - June 6, 2008Eesh. I'm running into some bugs with the latest version.
Mainly:
- The cursor keys sometimes stop working when editing text. Oops.
- Very slow performance when uploading alterations.
- Some ad modifications wouldn't upload for me. I had to copy and paste the problem ads.
Based on what I've seen so far, I'd recommending waiting for version 6.0.1.
Permanent linkNew version of AdWords Editor - June 6, 2008Version 6.0.0 of AdWords Editor has just been released.
A lot of minor changes, but nothing revolutionary.
Useful:
Spell checking - basic but effective.
Drag and drop for ad groups.
Formula words in the Replace Text tool.
A better duplicate keyword finder.
Better advanced searching.
Backups automatically created when re-downloading an account.
Not so useful:
A new tab structure. Mainly resulting in less space. Great.
Appending text before or after existing text. For the life of me I can't work out why this would be useful.
Notably absent:
Full access to campaign settings. You still need to log in via your browser to change (for example) ad display settings.
AdWords Editor 6.0.0 Release Notes
Permanent linkNew feature - monthly budget - May 26, 2008"New! You can now use both daily and monthly budget options for your campaigns.
We are currently testing a monthly budget option with a limited number of advertisers. When you edit an existing campaign or create a new campaign, both 'daily' and 'monthly' will appear as budget options for your campaign settings."
This one struck me as a little odd. Why would time and effort be spent on this?
Do Google think that advertisers are incapable of converting a monthly budget to a daily one?
One possible cynical interpretation:
Google are dipping their toes in. If enough people use it and like it, I suspect this would become the standard option, and Google might even replace the existing daily option.
Why is this a bad thing? Because it would be one more example of Google taking away control from their advertisers.
Bear in mind that Google already make it quite clear that a daily budget doesn't actually mean a daily budget:
"On any single day, the AdWords system may deliver up to 20% more ads than your daily budget calls for. This helps make up for other days in which your daily budget is not reached."
What is a monthly budget and how does it work?
Permanent linkMy Change History REALLY changes - May 22, 2008The My Change History is often overlooked, but is an extremely useful tool. The problem is that many users feel a little overwhelmed by the sheer amount of data presented.
Google have now added graphical data to the top of the details.
You can choose to display a graph of impressions, clicks, clickthrough rate, cost and conversions, and different points of the chart are graphically linked to the changes that took place.
It's actually quite a nice idea, although I'm concerned that this much information may still overwhelm many users.
At the very least though, it's a good reminder that making too many changes at the same time can result in drowning in data.
Ultimately, however, I still prefer AdwordsReporter to get to grips with what's going on in an account.
Note: You may sometimes see an error when trying to generate the charts. I assume that this is an early glitch in the system.
Permanent link