the PPC Book|Pay Per Click Blog | Long Tail Thoughts in a Short Tail World

Yesterday the Google Adwords team posted a mea culpa to advertisers regarding the latest quality score adjustment.

You say, “Jeff I don’t have time to read that stuff, tell me what they said”. And I say, Grasshopper, the whole thing boils down to one sentance:

“the Quality Score doesn’t incorporate any conversion information”

Hmmmm…….

I’m thinking maybe conversion is a good indicator of quality, no? Other folks have shown hard data that clearly illustrates there is a problem with their algorithm.

The tone of this post kind of reminds me of George Bush talking about Iraq. He can say whatever he wants but intelligent people all over the world know it’s seriously fubar. My message to Adwords? Your intentions may be good (maybe), but you are driving people away in droves. And not neccessarily the kind of people you want to drive away. I’ve seen far too many real campaigns from real advertisers get smoked with the new LPQS changes.

Anyhow, I won’t complain, I’ve always said we need at least 3 major, competitive, PPC platforms. Right now we have approximately 1.5. The more Adwords tries to make sweeping overhauls with poor execution, the more opportunity for someone else to step in and take that business. Anyone? Buhler? Anyone?

Attention: This is a sponsored post. Any money I am paid for this post donated to chucho.org

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ReviewMe is the latest in a short line of pay for review, or pay for blog marketplaces (payperpost.com is another). This is very controversial practice that is starting to attract as much attention as it is scorn. Admittedly, the part of me who believed in the utopian “do no evil” internet (that guy died when my options vested underwater in 2000) cringes when I see this sort of commercialization. However, when you take a step back and look at the big picture, you see that this is really just an evolutionary process in making the internet a more mature and commercially viable playing field. If there’s anyone still around who is harping on how the internet should be a purely benevolent all-knowing resource that is free for everyone, I say, go to your local library, if it’s still open. We had a company who tried that benevolent angle, they were called Google. They just scanned the entire library system into their database and slapped Adsense on it.

Anyway, enough with the dennis miller rant. Here, with reviewme, we have an example of an innovative idea combined with good execution and timing. The previous attempts at this market were executed with mediocre skill and an “i need to wash my hands now” dirty feeling when I logged in. Their failure is an opportunity for Reviewme.com.

Here is why this site will work and thrive in the long run:

1. Transparency - For this type of service transparency is a must in order for it to survive the inevitable scrutiny. The bottom line is I am being paid for a review, but it’s just a review, I don’t have to advocate the service. My strength is in my readership, not my advertising. I am economically incentivized to write for my readership, not the advertiser. Therefore, in theory, I am a neutral and honest reviewer, which benefits everyone in the long run.

2. Execution - Clean 2.0 design, fast site, great navigation. The registration process took me 30 seconds and everything is laid out intuitively. I have absolutely zero questions about how this process works.

3. Leadership team - The guys running this site are experienced and have demonstrated the capability to execute successfully in this marketplace on multiple occaisions.

I like this site and I think it will work in the long run. I am going to place an order in the next week and will report back with the details.

Would you use this service? Do you think it’s ethical?

In another move to shake the pesky affiliates from their saddle, the Adwords team announced this week that they will require you to take a lie detector test as part of the account sign up process.

Wait, that’s the news form 2009. In the present day, Adwords did announce some changes coming soon regarding their calculation of landing page quality. Most conspicuously, these changes will effect the content network ads:

In the next few days, we will be making two changes to how AdWords evaluates landing page quality. First, we’ll begin incorporating landing page quality into the Quality Score for your contextually-targeted ads, using the same evaluation process as we do for ads showing on Google.com and the search network.

This makes sense to me and really is no big suprise, but what is more vague and won’t be measured to any extent for weeks and months to come is this comment:

Second, we’re improving our algorithm for evaluating landing page quality and incorporating landing page content retrieved by the AdWords system.

Obviously, this will make things more difficult, and not easier, for both middlemen affiliates and everyday advertisers. Google is currently in a position in which they can afford to approach the market from a position of strength, exerting their utopian advertising dreams upon everyone at will. In Larry and Sergey’s perfect world, every advertiser will be like wikipedia.com and there will be nary a call to action anywhere on your site. If you think I’m joking you don’t know Google very well.

You won’t find me complaining, though, as moves like this make professional grade PPC management a necessity, not an option. Even better if your PPC analyst has figured out the adwords algorithm;)

Wow. I’m excited and speechless with disbelief at the same time. I think my old pal Don Ho said it best, so I’ll let you be the judge:

(to the tune of, well…tiny bubbles:)

Tiny bubbles (tiny bubbles)
In the wine (in the wine)
Make me happy (make me happy)
Make me feel fine (make me feel fine)

Tiny bubbles (tiny bubbles)
Make me warm all over
With a feeling that I’m gonna
Love you till the end of time

So here’s to the golden moon
And here’s to the silver sea
And mostly here’s a toast
To you and me

So here’s to the ginger lei
I give to you today
And here’s a kiss
That will not fade away

words & music by Leon Pober

hype & over valuation by the stock market in general

inability to execute on anything but core competency by google

This was actually announced some time ago in a meeting with agencies, however, you might not have seen them. This is an excerpt from the Yahoo newsletter detailing the new account structures, a la Adwords. So, if you’re frustrated with the current Yahoo interface, just sit tight, a new and improved version is on the way.

“Current Account Structure vs. New Sponsored Search
When your account is upgraded (these transitions will begin in fourth quarter 2006), some of the account structure terminology that is currently in use will change, and we will add some new terminology. Here is a summary of those changes and additions to the way your ads are organized:

Current: Listings
“Listings” have been the combination of keyword, bid, title, description and URL.

New: Ads
The marketing messages that your potential customers see will be “uncoupled” from keywords, and be known as “ads,” but they are similarly comprised of a title, description and URL.

New: Ad Groups
“Ad Groups” are the combination of multiple ads (your creative) and keywords. You may set one bid for your entire ad group, or use individual keyword bids.

Current: Categories
Categories have served as the organizational structure you assigned to groups of keywords that are similar in a particular way, for purposes of bid management or reporting.

New: Campaigns
“Campaigns” replace categories, and will consist of a combination of one or more ad groups that share the same budget, schedule and geo-targeting criteria, usually created to achieve a particular marketing goal.

After your account is upgraded, you won’t need to manage your account at the listing level anymore. Instead, you can manage and optimize your account performance at the account, campaign ad group or keyword/ad level. We recommend starting out by managing at the ad group level, in which you can use multiple versions of your creative (titles and descriptions). The benefit of using ad groups is that you will be able to test different versions of your creative, and have more impressions shifted to those ads that provide you with the highest click-through rate.

Preparing for the Account Upgrade
When we upgrade your account, we will move your account categories into campaigns with the same names. So if you haven’t already done so, it’s very important that you start to group your current listings that are related to each other into categories.

By completing this organization before your upgrade occurs, your ads should be much better organized after we move your account to the new structure. Then you’ll be able to “hit the ground running” as you take advantage of our new interface and tools.

Example: If you sold “SeeClearly” televisions, under the new Sponsored Search you would probably want to have a “SeeClearly” campaign that included ad groups for the models “SeeClearly X100″, “SeeClearly X200″, “SeeClearly HDX1000″, etc. Using this example, we recommend that you set up a “SeeClearly” category now that would contain all of your SeeClearly listings.

Summary
1. Keywords still serve as your foundation.
The keywords that describe your business can remain the same. These are still the connecting point between you and customers who are searching online.

2. Individual titles and descriptions will apply to multiple keywords.
Titles, descriptions and URLs-known as “ads” in the new Sponsored Search-may apply to more than one keyword. This should cut down on the time you have to spend generating advertising messages.

3. Keywords and ads will be organized into ad groups.
Ad groups can contain multiple keywords, along with up to 20 ads (titles, descriptions and URLs) that apply to those keywords. This will allow you to test multiple ads to find the message that works best with prospective customers.

4. One or more ad groups will make up a campaign.
Campaigns may contain multiple ad groups. Some new features will enable you to set up geo-targeting, scheduling and budgeting at the campaign level. This should give you more control, and help ensure that your campaigns are working as efficiently as possible.

5. Your account will be comprised of all your campaigns.
Your campaigns will make up your new Sponsored Search account, which will still apply to one market only, i.e., the United States (which includes English-speaking Canada). To advertise in more than one market, you will need to have multiple accounts.”