Just as with search, when we talk about PPC advertising, we almost naturally shift the majority of our attention to Google and their AdWords advertising platform. It makes sense on the surface, Google receives a significantly higher volume of search than other engines and even higher CTRs. But, some marketing analysts are beginning to believe it may be more effective to put an emphasis on Bing ads, especially if you are advertising for a small business.
Pricing Engine, a small business marketing platform, has found that Bing ads are “more efficient” than AdWords, as they become a lower cost source of leads for small businesses.
As Search Engine Land reported, Pricing Engine examined their own data from hundreds of accounts, and they found that CTRs were indeed marginally higher on Google, but CPCs were significantly higher. As such, it seems that you actually get more for your dollar with Bing ads.
Big brands will still favor the higher volume of searches on Google, but smaller businesses don’t require the same kind of scale. Investing in marketing with a better return per cost may pay off in the long run.
00Maxhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngMax2013-10-28 15:58:322020-08-08 22:23:16Could Bing Ads Be Better For Small Businesses?
You might not have noticed, but AdWords is working a little different since an algorithm update was quietly introduced on Tuesday. For the most part, not much is different, but there is a notable change in the ad extensions are now working as a factor in determining as positioning.
The update was announced in a blog which details all of the parts of the update. But, the big takeaway is that AdWords was updated mainly to take into account the new features that have rolled out over the past year.
Ad extensions now have an affect of how ads are positioned in Google’s search results. To show how this is working, Google gave the example of two identical ads with the same bid and quality score. With the update, the ad with extensions is more likely to appear in the higher ad position.
You may also see that a higher quality score, bid, or a combination of both also increases the likelihood of extensions appearing. Ad Rank also plays a similar role in deciding whether extensions appear.
As for what this means to marketers, Chris Roat, Staff Software Engineer for Google, says that Google expects ads with extensions to perform better and possibly see a lower cost per click with a higher click-through rate:
“You may see lower or higher average CPCs in your account. You may see lower CPCs if your extensions and formats are highly relevant, and we expect a large positive performance impact relative to other competitors in the auction. In other cases, you may see higher CPCs because of an improvement in ad position or increased competition from other ads with a high expected impact from formats.”
It seems like everything looks different over at Google these days. Not only has their logo subtly flattened out, but the way we see a significant number of searches has been greatly altered with the introduction of the Google Carousel. Now, AdWords seems to be following suit as reports have started to come in of a new logo and web UI design.
As Search Engine Land reported, Rick Galan tweeted out a screenshot of the new appearance. The logo is now integrated directly into the navigation bar and the green coloring of the bar has been replaced by Google’s widely used desaturated blue-grey.
The new AdWords logo might by signaling a redesign of all Google product logos towards a more flat design, such as what they have done with their flagship logo. Their old logo is below for comparison.
It could also simply just be a test as Google has not released any public statement or announcement for the logo, so much is unclear, especially how long a roll out might take. No one knows when we will see the change, but don’t be surprised if your AdWords experience looks different in the near future.
00TMOhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTMO2013-10-10 14:15:042013-10-10 14:15:04New Google AdWords Logo and Web UI Begins to Appear
AdWords Editor is one of the best tools available for editing and building out campaigns and ad groups, but it has its limits. For example, it would be convenient to be able to break up an ad group, clone a campaign, or copy keywords right into the Web UI. Thankfully, now you can, as Ginny Marvin reports. This week, Google added copy and paste functionality for the Web UI, making AdWords Editor even better than before.
Users are now able to copy keywords, ads, ad groups, or entire campaigns directly into the Web UI with the simple keyword shortcuts you are already used to. Simply press Ctrl-C/Cmnd-C and Ctrl-V/Cmnd-V. Though if you want, you can also use the Edit drop down menu.
Martin suggests the final version of the update might not be exactly as Google’s screenshot shows. Apparently you may see “Copy to” instead of “Copy” in the drop down, and you might not see the option to “copy keywords as paused”. Other than that, the tool is expected to roll out as planned.
You will be prompted when copying keywords to select both the campaign and ad group where you would like them to be copied.
Google AdWords announced yesterday a major reporting update to conversion tracking called Estimated Total Conversions will be rolling out over the next few weeks. The new feature provides estimates of conversions which take place over multiple devices and adds this to the conversion reporting we are already accustomed to.
Once enhanced campaigns launched earlier this year, search advertisers have had more control to combine mobile and desktops with the ability to further modify bids by mobile as well as other targeting considerations. There was a missing piece limiting the effectiveness of campaigns. We had limited data on how consumers actually navigate and convert across multiple device options.
What is a Cross-Device Conversion?
The widespread use of mobile and tablet devices to browse and shop online has greatly influenced how we actually interact with businesses. From our couch, we can have three options for achieving our online goals within reach, and it has been shown that we choose different devices for different tasks.
A study from Google last month found that more than 90 percent of multi-device consumers move sequentially through several screen like mobile to desktop, or mobile to tablet in order to complete transactions. There are even those who move from desktop screen to desktop screen, likely going from work to home computers. Anytime a person begins the actions that initiate a conversion on one screen, only to complete the conversion later on another screen, that is a cross-device conversion.
How Estimated Total Conversion is Calculated
Google calculates these types of conversions for advertisers based on how their customers convert when they are logged in. Then, they use this data to extrapolate out data to estimate what the total conversions from cross devices may be. The data is only used in aggregate and is not personally identifiable according to Search Engine Watch.
00TMOhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTMO2013-10-02 13:20:352013-10-02 13:20:35New AdWords Update Includes Estimated Total Conversions
Google made some changes to how you can design display ads to help ease the challenges advertisers and SEM agencies have been complaining about for what seems like forever. Today they rolled-out Ready Image Ads within AdWords, which aims to make it easier to create ads for multiple sizes that look good across all devices. The tool is currently Google’s best attempt to solve this issue and they hope to get more AdWords advertisers to run display campaigns, according to Ginny Marvin.
The tool works by simply entering a URL from your website. From there, the Ready Image Ads tool automatically pulls images from your site to create various ads in various IAB standard sizes. These ads are also HTML5, making them compatible for viewing on mobile and desktop devices alike.
Ready Ads can also be used to create dynamic ads, engagement ads (including hover-to-play and lightbox ads), video ads, and general purpose ads from a variety of templates. View Google’s introduction video for Ready Ads below:
An online marketer’s day is often very hectic. There are so many things you have to take care of for your campaigns and sites, but then you also have to manage clients. Thankfully, if you work at a larger company, you may have the benefit of keeping interns around.
Internships are a common and popular way for college students or recent graduates to get experience in their field of choice. In some cases, these internships directly lead to full-time employment, while in others it simply gives the interns the skills and experience needed to break into their field. Many places offer paid internships, which pay less than full-time employment, but it is not uncommon for interns to work for free.
One of the best areas online marketers can utilize interns in is PPC. There are many tasks for well-rounded PPC management that are not overly difficult, but simply extraordinarily time consuming. These interns are generally highly tech-savvy and come well-experienced at creating nice Excel and Word documents, which make them perfectly suited for many of the tasks, and a good intern will be ready to learn the skills they need to manage PPC work.
Melissa Mackey pinpointed six specific PPC tasks that are a perfect fit for interns. They offer specific but varying skills which will benefit the interns in their career, while also saving you some tedious work.
1) Keyword Research
PPC absolutely relies on keywords, and every PPC professional has spent more hours than they can count undertaking keyword research. It is a critical part of the process, but it can take more time than many other tasks. Interns can help cut down a long list of keyword suggestions for the PPC manager, or you can train them to do more in depth research. Of course, you probably don’t want to let them make the final call on keywords, but you will save yourself time by getting them involved.
2) Search Query Reports
Search query reports are part and parcel of PPC and keyword research. It must be done, but it is an utter time-drain that could easily be done by an intern. Your intern should be able to identify potential positive and negative keywords, while they learn some of the basics of PPC.
3) Competitor Research
When you are researching your competitors, they are usually putting effort into their campaigns. Of course, they do research into you too, but any time you are pulled away from active efforts is potentially time spent falling behind competitors. Tools can help cut down the time you put into research, but you can also have your intern pull data from competitive tools for you. They can also run AdWords auction insights reports regularly. This means you can keep an eye on the competition without having to be pulled away from your own efforts.
4) Ad Copy Test Ideas
If you’ve been running an account for a while, you should be updating ad copy tests every month. But, after a while you can begin to run out of new ideas to test. Enter your intern with their own new ideas. Interns can come up with many ideas for ad copy that you’ve never thought of, and as Mackey says, “there are very few bad ideas when it comes to ad copy.”
5) Audits
An HTML-smart intern can be a great benefit for auditing a website. You can have them place a test order or fill out a test form, as well as checking conversion tracking codes along the way. Interns might not be able to run complete PPC account audits, however they can help with those efforts too. They can find ad groups with too many keywords, or keywords with poor quality scores.
6) Reporting
Reporting is often a PPC manager’s absolute least favorite task. Reporting can take up entire days at the beginning of the month, and that is you have good automation tools. Praise the lord interns can be taught to pull reporting data and help organize it so it flows well. PPC managers will just have to add analysis and insight.
00TMOhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTMO2013-09-17 12:00:502020-08-08 21:56:046 Ways an Intern Can Help PPC Managers
Over the next few days you might notice some changes to the way Google displays their mobile AdWords ads. Search Engine Land reports Google is currently testing out a new look which simultaneously makes the entire result page look more cohesive while keeping ads clearly labeled.
The first change you will likely notice is the way Google is using color. Google have been using lightly colored backgrounds to signify ads, but with this test they may be moving towards placing both ads and organic listings in white boxes in front of a gray background. Similarly, the gray background that has been behind the Google logo and search box is gone.
Instead of identifying ads with colored background, there is a new eye-catching yellow ad icon directly next to the display URL. The icon is significantly more attention grabbing than the old small “ad” that was previously to the right of the headline.
You can see the new style being tested above, while the current version is below.
00TMOhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTMO2013-09-12 11:39:112013-09-12 11:39:11Google Tests Out New Style For Mobile AdWords Ads
AdWords violations can throw a massive wrench into your advertising plans and completely derail a campaign. Any good marketer tries to avoid making the mistakes that can get your text ads disapproved or suspended, but many will still encounter the fearsome email from the AdWords team warning you about violations.
The 10 minute video was posted by Google’s Courtney Pannell, with the majority of the presentation coming from Ly and Joshua. They discuss the most important AdWords violation topics including:
How Sites are Reviewed by Google
Why Sites Are Disabled
How to resubmit Sites
If you encounter a warning from Google about AdWords violations, you will definitely want to watch this video.
AdWords has become so synonymous with PPC marketing that it wouldn’t be hard for the outside observer to believe that is the only PPC platform available. Of course, they would be wrong, as all of the major search engines also offer advertising options, but you just don’t see Bing Ads in the headlines as often.
However, any PPC marketer would be a fool to completely write-off Bing Ads without giving them proper consideration first. Experienced PPC marketers are extremely aware that AdWords basically offers zero insight into Google search partner performance, aside from aggregated metrics. Bing Ads, on the other hand, has features that offer visibility into the Bing and Yahoo search partner network, as Marta Turek recently highlighted on the Bing Ads blog.
Bing Ads offers reporting for individual search partner performance within the Bing Ads UI. You can find the capability under Reports > Standard Performance > Performance > Website URL (publisher).
You are also able to exclude search partners from ads groups and campaign levels. You just have to check the box next to the campaign or ad groups you want to add exclusions for, and click “Make Bulk Changes” from within the sub-navigation. Then, select “Website exclusions” from the drop down menu. You will be able to add up to 500 sites for exclusions, and it is as simple as copy and pasting from a list.
The ads offer targeting for just search partners at the ad group level. Start out by clicking on an ad group and opening the settings. Ad distribution is listed under the advanced settings section.
Bing Ads has more than three unique features that Ad Words is lacking. The three above are simply those Search Engine Land pulled out of Turek’s more comprehensive examination of the platform. You may spend the majority of your time focusing on AdWords, but you should be making sure to include time to take advantage of the tools Bing Ads offers.
00TMOhttps://www.tulsamarketingonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/TMO-Logo.pngTMO2013-09-03 13:45:102020-08-08 21:56:22The PPC Features Bing Ads has That AdWords Does Not
You might not have noticed, but AdWords is working a little different since an algorithm update was quietly introduced on Tuesday. For the most part, not much is different, but there is a notable change in the ad extensions are now working as a factor in determining as positioning.
It seems like everything looks different over at Google these days. Not only has their logo subtly 
Google AdWords announced yesterday a major reporting update to conversion tracking called Estimated Total Conversions will be rolling out over the next few weeks. The new feature provides estimates of conversions which take place over multiple devices and adds this to the conversion reporting we are already accustomed to.
