Posts Tagged ‘Google Adwords’

Google Adwords Retiring Business Pages for Mobile Ads

February 16, 2009

Today while logged into my Adwords account, I received the following message stating Google will be shutting down their Adwords Business Pages for Mobile Ads.

Adwords Business Pages For Mobile

Adwords Business Pages For Mobile

From Google Adwords:

AdWords Business Pages for mobile ads are being retired. As the first stage, you will no longer be able to edit your mobile Business Page after March 23. Please make any necessary changes before that time.

For posterity’s sake, below is a redacted Adwords Business Pages for Mobile Ad:

Adwords Business Pages for Mobile Ads

Adwords Business Pages for Mobile Ads

While in my Adwords account, I clicked through to the Adwords Help Center to learn more about Google’s decision to retire this particular program but couldn’t find one.

Adwords Business Pages for Mobile Help

Adwords Business Pages for Mobile Help

My guess?

Adwords Business Pages for Mobile Ads is being retired due to low enrollment and use.

New to Google Adwords: Low Share of Voice

February 8, 2009

Google Adwords will soon be rolling out a new status within Adwords accounts worldwide called “Low Share of Voice”.

Google Adwords Low Share of Voice

Google Adwords Low Share of Voice

Adwords advertisers who aren’t familiar with the advertising concept of  “Share of Voice” will be able to click on the question mark next to their alert to learn more about Google’s definition of Low Share of Voice.

However, my Updated Adwords Beta doesn’t yet include Google’s definition of Share of Voice or Low Share of Voice.

Share of Voice

Share of Voice

YouTube Sponsored Video Ad Text Missing in Google Adwords Beta

February 2, 2009

Last week I received an invitation to participate in the Google Adwords Updated Interface Beta.

I hope to be able to provide Google constructive feedback on any usability issues I may find within their latest version of the Adwords account management system through blog posts like this one.

In December I launched a YouTube sponsored video ad campaign.

I ultimately found managing my sponsored video ads from My Client Center more convenient and efficient than managing them through my YouTube account.

After receiving the Beta invite, I started using the Updated Interface and immediately found the data within my account loaded much more quickly.

I am planning to test more of the new Interface features this week.

The first issue I have found doesn’t seem too significant.

Previously in my Adwords account, Sponsored Videos ads text was displayed at the ad group level.

Sponsored Video Ads

Sponsored Video Ads

However, my Sponsored Video Ad text doesn’t appear in the Google Adwords Updated Interface Beta .

YouTube Sponsored Video Campaign Adwords Beta Dashboard

YouTube Sponsored Video Campaign Adwords Beta Dashboard

The data field is there, yet the data isn’t.

When the page loads a quick “loading” message appears followed by the no ads text seen above.

Its a minor issue but an issue I suspect will eventually need attention.

Google Adwords Updated Interface Beta

January 29, 2009

Today while logged into My Client Center in Google Adwords, I received an invite to Beta Test the Updated Adwords Interface.

Google Adwords Updated Interface Beta

Google Adwords Updated Interface Beta

I am glad they asked.

Over time, I have noticed many functionality issues throughout my Google Adwords dashboard.

I would have reported my findings some place other than here on this blog had I known who to contact or where to report my discoveries.

For example, one Adwords usability issue I discovered was the inability of My Client Center account users to dismiss Alerts from their Alert center after they were read.

Adwords has finally added a check box to dismiss some My Client Center Alerts but not all of them.

From the Adwords Updated Interface Beta:

Updated Interface Beta

Updated Interface Beta

I am looking forward to participating in the Google Adwords Updated Interface Beta.

I am switching to the Updated Interface now and will share any suggestions I have for increasing Google Adwords account management usability both here on this blog and directly with the Adwords Updated Interface Beta team.

How To Switch

How To Switch

First Screen Shot of the Google Adwords Updated Interface Beta:

New Adwords Interface

New Adwords Interface

Update: More about Low Share of Voice and other discoveries in the the Google Adwords Updated Interface Beta.

Google Adwords YouTube Sponsored Video Ads Diagnostic Tool?

January 24, 2009

I have been testing YouTube sponsored video advertising since December 6th and have started to notice both differences and  similarities between the YouTube advertising program and its cousin Google Adwords.

Back in December I established my Sponsored Video campaign in the Tim Cohn YouTube account.

However to write and launch a sponsored video ad on YouTube, advertisers must have a Google Adwords account. Once my ads were up and running the sponsored video campaign data became available in both my YouTube and my Google Adwords account.

In the beginning I would login to my YouTube account to check my ads performance. However, after several days I realized it was taking twice the effort necessary.

For years I have logged in and viewed advertising account performance data for my self and clients several times a day from within “My Client Center” in Google Adwords.

I now also prefer viewing my YouTube sponsored video performance data from within My Client Center as well.

Its just a lot easier to do.

However, viewing YouTube sponsored video data with an Adwords account causes an entire list of new compatibility issues to arise.

For instance: Checking a Sponsored video ads distribution with the Adwords Ads Diagnostic Tool – doesn’t work.

The Google Adwords Ads Diagnostic Tool doesn’t even recognize YouTube as a Google property.

YouTube Adwords

YouTube Adwords

If YouTube ad data is made available within an Adwords account shouldn’t the corresponding Adwords tools work for sponsored video ads data as well?

If they were intended to -they don’t.

I think if the tools were intended to work – no one  has checked on their functionality but me.

If they weren’t intended to work – why then is YouTube Sponsored Video Ads data made available within Google Adwords advertisers accounts?

I realize the Sponsored Video Ad program is less than two months old.

Surely other YouTube advertisers are encountering some of the same post launch issues and have questions like I do.

Where is the YouTube Sponsored Video Ad forum?

Has it been created yet?

Will it be created?

Until then or informed otherwise, consider this blog post the inaugural YouTube sponsored video ad users group forum.

Feel free to leave any questions you have about YouTube Sponsored Video ads in the comments section below and between us we can work to establish the YouTube Sponsored Video ad knowledge base.

YouTube Now Considered A Google Adwords Search Partner?

January 19, 2009

Over the weekend I noticed some of my clients Google Adwords ads – not YouTube Sponsored Video ads – began displaying in YouTube search results.

I don’t recall seeing or selecting YouTube search as a distribution option in my Adwords dashboard.

However, I think distributing brand related keyword ads to YouTube search results is a logical evolution in both the Google Adwords text ad distribution platform and YouTube search.

According to comScore, if YouTube were to stand alone it would be the second largest searched site after Google itself.

Where will Adwords advertisers soon find YouTube as an ad distribution option in their Adwords account?

Will they find it under the Networks and Bidding options?

Google Networks Bidding

Google Networks Bidding

Or will we see it after learning about the Google Search Network?

Google Search Network

Google Search Network

Its not yet in the list of Google Search partners today but I it soon could be…

Google Search Network Partners

Google Search Network Partners

Unless of course, Google’s ownership of YouTube doesn’t technically require them to identify and disclose YouTube as a search partner.

I guess Google’s considering YouTube an extended part of Google search would still be technically correct.

Won’t we soon learn which path Google has chosen?

Google Adwords Device Platform Targeting

December 12, 2008

Last weekend I was experimenting with one of my Google Adwords accounts and noticed a new category of targeting called Device Platform.

Device Platform Bidding

Device Platform Bidding

I intended at the time to write a post about it but didn’t get around to it.

By Monday, the new Adwords device platform targeting option had been officially announced and reported on by the usual cadre of Google bloggers.

After thinking about it further – I realized several months ago while fly fishing in Utah I discovered Adwords ads didn’t display on iPhones and wrote about it here.

From my previous post:

Will Google Adwords advertisers soon be able to select “iPhone” as a search distribution option along with “Google Search” and “Search Partners” within their campaigns Networks and bidding settings?

With 10 million iPhones in use and Apple’s iPhone supplying Google with its largest source of mobile search traffic, adding iPhone distribution to Google advertising campaigns will give Google Adwords advertisers another way to target and reach an increasingly mobile search audience.

Was my blog post and the Adwords creation of their new device platform targeting option pure coincidence or the result of an innocent “tacit interaction” with my blog?

After implementing the device platform targeting option within one of my Adwords campaigns I have since discovered a limitation which otherwise probably hasn’t yet been discovered let alone written about.

I will write more about the Google Adwords Device Platform targeting limitation I have discovered when time permits.

YouTube Sponsored Videos

December 8, 2008

My first YouTube Sponsored Video advertising campaign is up and running.

YouTube Sponsored Videos

YouTube Sponsored Videos

YouTube sponsored video ads work similar to Google Adwords campaigns.

Conversion tracking isn’t available and most likely won’t be for some time.

The highest bids appear to get the sponsored video ads position in yellow atop the search results much like they do in Adwords although I don’t believe relevance or Quality Score are factors used to rank ad placements within YouTube at this time.

As YouTube gains more advertisers, I would imagine ad quality and keyword relevance will be taken into consideration when calculating a sponsored video’s position within YouTube video search results.

I will continue testing this new form of video advertising – YouTube.com Sponsored Videos.

The following are promotion statistics from my video advertising campaign’s first day of activity:

YouTube Promotion Statistics

YouTube Promotion Statistics

YouTube Advertising Programs and the Sponsored Videos Dashboard

December 6, 2008

YouTube recently launched and rolled out their advertising product called Sponsored Videos.

Promote Your Video

Promote Your Video

I set up my first YouTube Sponsored Video ad this afternoon.

I will outline the steps I went through to get my first YouTube advertising campaign set up as well as the results I experience as they become available.

Below is a screen shot of the YouTube Sponsored Videos Dashboard.

YouTube Sponsored Videos Dashboard

YouTube Sponsored Videos Dashboard

Here is a screen shot of my first YouTube.com Sponsored Videos campaign.

You Tube Sponsored Videos Dashboard Promotion Detail

You Tube Sponsored Videos Dashboard Promotion Detail

I have yet to see my Sponsored Video ad displayed anywhere…