Posts Tagged ‘Google Adwords’

Can I Get Zip Code 20 Mile Radius Bulk Upload Targeting In Google Adwords?

January 21, 2011

Huh, can I?

Not presently.

Instead, I have to hand code in the Zip Codes I want to target one at a time because the Adwords bulk upload feature automagically converts a Zip Code list into the nearest city’s coordinates.

Bulk Upload 20 Miles Radius In Google AdWords

Bulk Upload 20 Miles Radius In Google AdWords

While on the surface this may appear helpful even intuitive, its not.

If I wanted to target the respective cities, I would enter their specific names not interior Zip Codes!

To this day, I still don’t understand why Google Adwords doesn’t provide pre-loaded Google Maps based Zip Code targeting.

Its not like the smart folks at Google couldn’t figure out how to integrate Zip Code targeting into Google Adwords.

AdWords Zip Code Targeting

AdWords Zip Code Targeting

Alternative Methods For Verifying Google Places Bulk Upload Requests

January 18, 2011

If you are a third party agent attempting to verify a Google Places bulk upload request you may find your initial request rejected.

Google Places Bulk Upload Verification Part II

Google Places Bulk Upload Verification Part II

If so, Google Places offers two alternative methods for submitting and verifying a bulk upload request.

The two methods are:

1. Create a new Google Places account using an email address from your company’s website domain. For example, if we created an account for Google, we’d use an @google.com email address as the account’s email address. From there, upload the data file and request verification again using this new account. These requests will be resolved quickly.

2. Respond to this email and carbon copy (CC) a person who has an email address with a business domain. So again, if we were uploading listings for Google, we’d CC someone with an @google.com email address. Then, this person should reply all and give written permission for Google to verify the account. The response can be as simple as “Please verify the listings in the Google Places account, exampleplacesaccount@gmail.com.” We’d like to emphasize that, while we’ll accept this form of verification, using generic email addresses isn’t recommended, and we recommend the usage of a corporate domain email for account management.

While Google’s need for an email from an account holder’s corporate domain address to verify a Google Places bulk upload request sounds logical, it doesn’t take into consideration the fact that this particular request came from the corporate Google account of the company associated with their Google AdWords, Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools accounts!

Additionally, the corporate contact name and phone number was listed on the original upload request.

No matter…

Here is the conclusion of their email response:

Once you’ve done this, we’ll process your request and follow up with a confirmation email. If you don’t follow either of the two actions above, we’ll assume you aren’t authorized to upload the listings and won’t verify the account.

Thanks for your understanding.

Regards,
The Google Team

Based on this email, it appears to me Google assumes that any bulk Places upload request that comes from any email address  other than that of the corporate domain – even an otherwise authenticated Gmail account – is illegitimate.

Google Contest: Ads Worth Spreading

January 4, 2011

From Chris Anderson, Curator of TED via The Google Adwords Agency Blog

Video is a powerful medium for spreading ideas. Over the past four years, TED has posted over 800 TEDTalks on Ted.com and YouTube. We’ve been thrilled to see the world respond — watching the videos more than 375 million times.

Our mission — of spreading ideas around the world — is supported in part by advertising. And we believe that advertising should evoke the same emotions a TEDTalk does — it should make you think, make you respond, make you want to share — a great idea, a product that makes the world better, an initiative that might change the world. Like YouTube, we want to see the same level of passion in online ads as we do in our TEDTalks. So, we’ve created a challenge called ‘Ads Worth Spreading‘ to solicit the best ads that raise the bar, elevate the craft and invent new forms of online engagement.

We invite you to enter the competition. Entries can be hysterically funny, stunningly beautiful, or just intriguing, fascinating, ingenious and persuasive. For inspiration, check out examples of great creative on YouTube Show and Tell. It is free to enter, the submission deadline is February 7, 2011, and full contest rules are right here.

Converting purely commercial messages into contagious media sounds like the quest for the Holy Grail to me.

Google AdWords Class Action Settlement Notice

November 26, 2010

I received the following Class Action Settlement notice from Google yesterday – Thanksgiving Day.

Google is sending you this notice of a proposed class action settlement that may affect your legal rights as a creator of an AdWords campaign between October 2007 and July 2009. This notice is being sent to you by Court Order so that you may understand your rights and remedies before the Court considers final approval of the proposed settlement on March 11, 2011.

This is not an advertisement or attorney solicitation.

A settlement agreement has been reached by the parties and is pending approval by the Court. Under the proposed settlement, Google will pay a total of $3,500,000 to the settlement class, including attorneys’ fees and costs, for charges accrued by AdWords users who left the “CPC Content bid” input blank upon creating an AdWords campaign, and were charged for content ads appearing on Google’s Content Network.

IMPORTANT. If the settlement is approved, your legal rights may be affected whether or not you act. You should therefore carefully read the documents filed with the Court concerning the settlement, the reimbursement of attorneys’ fees and litigation expenses, and the litigation generally.

Please go to http://www.largocargosettlement.com for full details on the settlement and further instructions on what to do to submit a claim, opt out of, object to, or otherwise comment upon the proposed settlement.

Please do not reply to this email.

Please note that Google will never ask you for password information or other personal credentials when sending you notices.  If you suspect someone is improperly using Google’s name or products to obtain your personal information, please report the message as phishing.  See http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=184963.

This mandatory announcement was sent to certain AdWords users in the U.S. as part of a legal settlement and was authorized by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

Google Inc. | 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway | Mountain View, CA 94043

LargoCargoSettlement.com provides the following details regarding the proposed settlement.

Largo Cargo v Google Settlement

Largo Cargo v Google Settlement

To qualify for inclusion in the proposed Largo Cargo v Google Class Action Settlement, Google AdWords advertisers must first answer and submit their responses to the following three questions.

AdWords Class Action Settlement Questions

AdWords Class Action Settlement Questions

Whether the time and energy required for answering three simple questions to qualify for any potential reimbursement from Google is worth it or not will be left up to the individual advertiser to determine.

Technical Issues With The Google Certification Program

November 9, 2010

The Google Advertising Program’s transition to the Google Certification Program  has not been made without technical difficulties.

I received the following email from the GCP team today.

Hi,

As you may know the Google Advertising Professionals Program ended on October
31st, and was replaced with the new Google Certification Program, which introduces a broader curriculum and tougher exams that demonstrate expertise in search, display and reporting & analysis.

Unfortunately we experienced some technical issues on migrating over to the new program. During this migration some of our previously qualified ‘Google Advertising Professionals’ partners may have received an email in error stating they have just become a ‘Certified Google Advertising Professional’.

This was a legacy issue with our system and as the ‘Google Advertising Professionals’ program no longer exists, this is unfortunately not the case.

To become certified under the new program, and take advantage of a more in-depth knowledge of AdWords, partners will need to become certified under the new program criteria as your Google Advertising Professionals status will no longer count as an official certification with Google.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and look forward to partnering with you in the future.

The Google Certification Team

1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA

Email preferences: You have received this mandatory email service announcement to update you about important changes to your AdWords product or account.

I for one am glad to have received this email.

As I wrote here previously, its unclear to me what term if any the Qualified Individual designation will be replaced with let alone whether it still exists.

Presently in my Google Pro Center, my Google Certification Program designation is referenced in three ways –

1. “Google AdWords Qualified Individual”

2. “Individually Qualified”

3. “AdWords Individual Qualification”

Google AdWords Qualiified Individual

Google AdWords Qualiified Individual

It would be helpful for those of us in the program if the Google Certified Partners team would publish a centrally located overview of the program’s qualifications and terminology.

Ideally the Google Certified Partners team would also create a “Google Certified Partners Community” tab on their home page to establish a dialogue between both AdWords Partners and those Googlers charged with overseeing them.

Google Certification Program Community

Google Certification Program Community

 

Google AdWords Location Extensions

October 29, 2010

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

Ad Extensions Campaign Settings

However, Ad Extensions have since been moved to the Tabs level in Campaigns.

Ad Extension Options

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

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

Google AdWords Location Extensions

Google Adwords As An Issue Awareness Channel

September 18, 2010

The following video has an interesting and unique use case for Google Adwords: Service Employees International Union organizes their members and drives issue awareness with Google AdWords.

In what other ways can Google Advertising whether search or display be used to reach and connect with an organization’s members?

AdWords Editor 8.0.1 Now Supports Location Extensions

September 3, 2010

From the Adwords Editor Advisory Staff:

In order to make it easier for you to manage your account and take advantage of location extensions, we’re releasing a new version of AdWords Editor, 8.0.1, for Windows and Mac.

AdWords Editor 8.0.1 now supports location extensions, our new and improved way to run local ads. To support this change, we’ve transitioned the local business ads in your AdWords account to ads that are compatible with location extensions, added the Extensions tab in the AdWords Editor interface, and removed the Local Business Ads tab. This new Extensions tab should help make it easy for you to create and manage your location extensions.

To manage your Adwords location extensions in AdWords Editor start by linking your campaign to a Google Places account. You can then use AdWords Editor to download and manage the business locations associated with that Google Places account.

Follow the steps below to sync one or more Google Adwords campaigns with Google Places:

Sync Campaigns With Google Places

Sync Campaigns With Google Places

To learn more about all of the new features in Adwords Editor version 8.0.1, such as support for campaigns using target CPA and enhanced CPC bidding options, read the release notes at Adwords Editor 8.0.1.

Google Adwords Innovations: Enhanced CPC

August 21, 2010

In this video, learn more about Enhanced CPC, an automatic Google AdWords bid management feature designed to increase your conversions while lowering your costs.

Purple Adwords

August 2, 2010

After considerable testing, Google has changed the background color of it Adwords advertising product to purple.

Purple Adwords

Purple Adwords

As luck would have it, my upcoming book For Sale by Google uses the color purple to illustrate Google’s Adwords product.

Coincidence?

I don’t think so.