All Yahoo Search Marketing advertisers are now greeted with the following message from Yahoo:
Yahoo Search Marketing Accounts Read Only
What will Yahoo do with all of their Search Marketing account management intellectual property and code?
Will it soon be permanently mothballed?
AdWords has introduced call metrics, a new feature that lets advertisers measure the number of phone calls generated by their AdWords campaigns.
This new AdWords Ad Extension is in BETA and will gradually become available to more advertisers over time.
Adwords Call Metrics
What Call Metrics Is:
AdWords call metrics is a new feature that lets advertisers measure the number of phone calls generated by their AdWords campaigns. Using the technology behind Google Voice, call metrics creates a unique phone number for each AdWords campaign which is automatically inserted into an ad when it appears on Google.com, on both desktop computers & high-end mobile devices.
When a potential customer calls the number in an ad, AdWords notes that the call took place. Then, when an advertiser views their AdWords reports, they’ll see the number of calls they received and other metrics, including call duration.
Why should AdWords Advertisers Use Call Metrics?
With insight into how many calls their ads are generating, they’ll get a better understanding of the value that AdWords is bringing to their business. At the same time, featuring a phone number in an ad will give potential customers another way to reach advertisers.
More about Google AdWords New Phone Ad Extension – Call Metrics.
As promised as of October 31, 2010, Google has officially retired the Google Advertising Professionals program.
While I am not sure what the previous “Qualified Individual” designation will be replaced by, the previous company level certification – the “Qualified Company’ has been replaced with the Google AdWords Certified Partner status.
Google AdWords Certified Partner
Google Advertising Professionals who had not yet renewed their qualifications under the new Google Certification program’s terms and guidelines may find their old Google Adwords Partner status has taken early retirement.
Indeed…
More from Google’s ThinkTech 2010 event in NYC on October 6, 2010 – Boost Your Signal!
What are Google AdWords Location Extensions?
Location extensions allow you to extend your Google AdWords campaigns by dynamically attaching your business address to your ads.
In addition to the description lines and URL that appear in your ad text, your AdWords ad can also display your business name, address, and telephone number.
This helps promote your business, brand, products, and services, and associates your business with a specific location of interest to the user.
Location extensions were originally activated from within the Settings section of AdWords campaigns.
Ad Extensions Campaign Settings
However, Ad Extensions have since been moved to the Tabs level in Campaigns.
Ad Extension Options
AdWords location extensions can be linked to a Google Places account or use a manually entered address.
Google AdWords Location Extension Statistics
Any advertising activity generated by location extensions also produces statistics in the AdWords advertisers account.
Location extensions when used properly can provide an additional level of differentiation and visibility at a time when and a place where searchers are searching for a local solution.
Google AdWords Location Extensions
With the advent of Google Place Search, won’t the practice of Place SEO soon follow?
Pounding away at national and local online marketing for longer than I care to remember, it now appears my work hasn’t been in vain.
In the sample Google Places page below (reached from an incognito browser), both my Google Adwords paid search ad and my Google Places listing sit atop Google’s new Places results page.
Place SEO
A quick check of several other keywords relevant to my business produced similar results.
As an added bonus, my expanded paid and organic place results occupy roughly 50% of the available screen real estate above the fold.
From a marketer’s perspective, it looks like everything has fallen into place – the right place.
After several years of uneven and inconsistent communications from the Google Local Business Center now Google Places – I finally got clarification to the Places dashboard message – “this listing does not comply with our policy of allowed terms.”
Google Places Policy of Allowed Terms
Although I had suspected for some time using the terms Google Adwords Qualified Individual and Google Adwords Professional in my business listing description field might have been problematic, Google never pointed me or anyone else for that matter to a list of terms they automatically reject.
Yet in today’s message Google revealed at least one word they don’t approve of in Google Places listings…
The word?
Google.
I have removed Google from my business description and resubmitted my listing.
It now appears my listing has been automatically approved after resubmitting.
However, the “Your Business Info” section of my Google Places listing still shows my listing is only 90% complete.
Google Places: Your Business Info
I guess my Google Places listing will always be a work in progress.
Heard about “remarketing” but don’t quite yet know what it is?
Watch this video from Google to learn what remarketing is and how to enable remarketing within your Google AdWords account.
To maintain my company’s new Google Certified Partner status, I had to take and pass the Search Advertising Fundamentals Exam.
Qualified Individual
I am pleased to have passed the exam and have my Google Certification Program account updated accordingly.
Search Marketing Communications 
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