Keywords no longer marked ‘inactive for search’

The new per-query evaluation of Quality Score affects you in that keywords will no longer appear as ‘inactive for search‘ in your account. Instead, all keywords will have the chance to show ads on Google web search and the search network (unless you’ve paused or deleted them). Keep in mind, however, that keywords previously marked ‘inactive for search’ are not likely to accrue a great deal of traffic following this change. This is because their combined per-query Quality Score and bid probably isn’t high enough to gain competitive placement.

I think this part is best illustrated with an example (and this is a simplistic example for illustration purposes, you shouldn’t be relying on a single keyword to drive your keyword variations). For instance, if you bid on the keyword ‘dentist’, and your quality score is such that you have a $1 minimum bid, you might not show for other very related terms such as ‘downtown New York city dentist’ due to bidding below the minimum bid. However, if Google is looking more closely at the search query in relation to the keyword variations, your ad now might show for this more specific query.

‘First page bid’ will replace ‘minimum bid’

As a result of migrating to per-query Quality Score, we are no longer showing minimum bids in your account. Instead, we’re replacing minimum bids with a new, more meaningful metric: first page bids. First page bids are an estimate of the bid it would take for your ad to reach the first page of search results on Google web search. They’re based on the exact match version of the keyword, the ad’s Quality Score, and current advertiser competition on that keyword. Based on your feedback, we learned that knowing your minimum bid wasn’t always helpful in getting the ad placement you wanted, so we hope that first page bids will give you better guidance on how to achieve your advertising goals.

Minimum bid will be going away. This will do a couple things. First, it will be harder to tell what keywords might not be on search, but is influencing your content campaigns. However, overall - this is a useful change. Many companies still feel that the ‘minimum bid’ is bid guidance. In other words, its common to hear of someone bidding the minimum bid as that is what Google suggested. While many of us know that is not true; it’s a common item to hear.

Instead, Google is going to give bid guidance for appearing on page 1. If you bid below this bid; your ad can still show - however, it probably will appear on page 2. Again, this isn’t always true - if many companies have small budgets that keep them from showing in results at the end of the day or end of the month - you can show on page 1 while bidding below the page 1 bid guidance. In addition, with users coming into and out of the auction system - there is no guarantee you will show even though you have followed Google’s bid suggestion.

What Google Didn’t Say…

More visibility coming to Quality Score. The ‘OK, Great, and Poor’ will be replaced with a much more transparent system. At present, the easiest way to see many changes is to run a keyword report and sort by minimum bid high to low. With the new system, you will eventually be able to run a report and sort by Quality Score so that you can get a much better view of your keywords quality score.

Landing pages will matter for keyword quality score for search. At present, landing pages are used to determine minimum bids, but then are not used to determine your keyword’s ad rank. Since minimum bids are going away, it makes sense that the landing page factors will be rolled into other

Additional Information…

I will update the Quality Score Factors Chart and AdWords Quality Score Demystified Articles once the changes are finalized and rolled out in mass as well as show some screenshots of the new QS and how to run the reports.

With the new placements + keyword targeting from Google, one could place many of their traditional media buys via AdWords.

I walk through how to buy:

• Run of Network
• Run of Site
• Run of Category within a Site
• Run of Site when it Matches your Keywords
• Run of Category within a Site when it Matches your Keywords

within your AdWords account.

Enjoy the article.

When: Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Where: Just across the GW, 10 miles from from downtown Manhattan.

Doubletree Fort Lee/George Washington Bridge

2117 Route 4 Eastbound

Fort Lee, NJ 07024

Agenda Timeline:

• Registration: 8:30 am – 9:00 am
• Morning Session: 9am-12pm
• Lunch Break: 12:00pm – 1:00pm
• Afternoon Session: 1pm-5pm

Breakfast and refreshments will be served.

Agenda:

Other Upcoming Seminars:

Hope to see you there.

• New York Registration Page
• Google Information Page
• More about the seminars

The links discussed in the show will be on the PPC Rockstar blog.

When: Thursday, August 28, 2008
Where: Hilton Atlanta
255 Courtland Street NE
Atlanta, GA 30303

Agenda Timeline:

• Registration: 8:30 am – 9:00 am
• Morning Session: 9am-12pm
• Lunch Break: 12:00pm – 1:00pm
• Afternoon Session: 1pm-5pm

Breakfast and refreshments will be served.

Agenda:

Other Upcoming Seminars:

Hope to see you there.

• New York Registration Page
  
• Google Information Page
• More about the seminars

If you need to learn more about quality score, check out Quality Score Demystified.

First off, eWhisper.net blog subscriptions. You should be automatically subscribed to the new blog via some 301 and Feedburner magic; hence why you are able to read this post right now. If for some reason your feedreader does not follow 301s, then you might want to subscribe to the new blog feed here.

Secondly, I have officially resigned from RH Donnelley/LocalLaunch. I wish everyone the best at LocalLaunch. After almost four years of watching the company grow from a startup, go through acquisition, and become part of a public company; it’s been quite a ride. One that I’m glad I was a part of; yet there is always a new journey to be had in the crazy world of internet marketing.

Lastly - what’s next?

One of my passions has been to help other companies to succeed. I enjoy seeing (and sometimes helping) others to grow, thrive, and become experts in the world of marketing. Hence the new business model - providing internet marketing education to businesses.

We’re working to provide these services in a few ways right now; which will grow over time.

• In-house PPC & SEO training for staff
• In-house workshops where we will work with your company through setup or optimization of PPC campaigns
• AdWords Seminars where you can attend a full day session to become more familiar with how to effectively run a Google AdWords campaign

The other challenge many businesses is face is receiving buy-in from executives for your internet marketing efforts. I’ve designed a couple presentations where we will work with executive teams to show them the opportunity, train them on the basics of marketing so they are more informed in making decisions (and hopefully this will help empower the staff).

• Search Opportunity Overview for your executives
• Learn the Basics of Internet Marketing for executives

I’m also very interested in working with others who provide small conferences, workshops, and training for businesses. Due to conflicts, I’ve had to turn down a plethora of opportunities in the past. Being my own boss again, it’s much easier to quickly size up opportunities, make decisions, and try out new venues for informing businesses on not only the opportunities that exist, but how to take advantage of those opportunities.

Of course, I’m not doing all of this solo. Leslie Clark is joining me at bg Theory. She brings seven years of both traditional and internet marketing experience to the new endeavor; and is playing an integral part in our growth and services.

If you’d like to chat in person, I’ll be speaking at SMX Local this week, SES San Jose in a few weeks, and Pubcon in November.

Otherwise, feel free to send me an email, or use the site’s contact form to get in touch.

Enjoy,
Brad Geddes

Both advertisers and agencies can become confused with all of the pricing options available, so I tried to walk through some of the pros and benefits of each pricing type.

enjoy.