Dissecting AdWords Quality Score Changes
August 22, 2008
Inside AdWords recently posted that there were several changes coming to AdWords. Some of these changes look drastic, while others seem a bit ambiguous. Let’s break down the changes and what they really mean.
Keywords no longer marked ‘inactive for search’
The new per-query evaluation of Quality Score affects you in that keywords will no longer appear as ‘inactive for search‘ in your account. Instead, all keywords will have the chance to show ads on Google web search and the search network (unless you’ve paused or deleted them). Keep in mind, however, that keywords previously marked ‘inactive for search’ are not likely to accrue a great deal of traffic following this change. This is because their combined per-query Quality Score and bid probably isn’t high enough to gain competitive placement.
I think this part is best illustrated with an example (and this is a simplistic example for illustration purposes, you shouldn’t be relying on a single keyword to drive your keyword variations). For instance, if you bid on the keyword ‘dentist’, and your quality score is such that you have a $1 minimum bid, you might not show for other very related terms such as ‘downtown New York city dentist’ due to bidding below the minimum bid. However, if Google is looking more closely at the search query in relation to the keyword variations, your ad now might show for this more specific query.
‘First page bid’ will replace ‘minimum bid’
As a result of migrating to per-query Quality Score, we are no longer showing minimum bids in your account. Instead, we’re replacing minimum bids with a new, more meaningful metric: first page bids. First page bids are an estimate of the bid it would take for your ad to reach the first page of search results on Google web search. They’re based on the exact match version of the keyword, the ad’s Quality Score, and current advertiser competition on that keyword. Based on your feedback, we learned that knowing your minimum bid wasn’t always helpful in getting the ad placement you wanted, so we hope that first page bids will give you better guidance on how to achieve your advertising goals.
Minimum bid will be going away. This will do a couple things. First, it will be harder to tell what keywords might not be on search, but is influencing your content campaigns. However, overall - this is a useful change. Many companies still feel that the ‘minimum bid’ is bid guidance. In other words, its common to hear of someone bidding the minimum bid as that is what Google suggested. While many of us know that is not true; it’s a common item to hear.
Instead, Google is going to give bid guidance for appearing on page 1. If you bid below this bid; your ad can still show - however, it probably will appear on page 2. Again, this isn’t always true - if many companies have small budgets that keep them from showing in results at the end of the day or end of the month - you can show on page 1 while bidding below the page 1 bid guidance. In addition, with users coming into and out of the auction system - there is no guarantee you will show even though you have followed Google’s bid suggestion.
What Google Didn’t Say…
More visibility coming to Quality Score. The ‘OK, Great, and Poor’ will be replaced with a much more transparent system. At present, the easiest way to see many changes is to run a keyword report and sort by minimum bid high to low. With the new system, you will eventually be able to run a report and sort by Quality Score so that you can get a much better view of your keywords quality score.
Landing pages will matter for keyword quality score for search. At present, landing pages are used to determine minimum bids, but then are not used to determine your keyword’s ad rank. Since minimum bids are going away, it makes sense that the landing page factors will be rolled into other
Additional Information…
I will update the Quality Score Factors Chart and AdWords Quality Score Demystified Articles once the changes are finalized and rolled out in mass as well as show some screenshots of the new QS and how to run the reports.
How to Buy Targeted CPM from Google
August 20, 2008
My latest Search Engine Land column was published today entitled “How to buy targeted CPM from Google“.
With the new placements + keyword targeting from Google, one could place many of their traditional media buys via AdWords.
I walk through how to buy:
- Run of Network
- Run of Site
- Run of Category within a Site
- Run of Site when it Matches your Keywords
- Run of Category within a Site when it Matches your Keywords
within your AdWords account.
Enjoy the article.
Google AdWords Quality Score Factors Chart
August 19, 2008
This is a quick reference chart that shows which of the major quality score factors affect the different quality score types.
| Minimum Bid |
Search Quality Score |
Content Quality Score (and placement CPC) | Placement
(CPM) |
|
| CTR on Google.com | Yes | Yes | ||
| CTR on content site (specific or related sites to your ad display) | Yes | |||
| Display URL CTR | Yes | Yes | ||
| Account History | Yes | Yes | ||
| Relevance of keyword to ads in ad group | Yes | |||
| Relevance of keyword and ad to search query (or site) | Yes | |||
| Landing Page | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Other Relevancy Factors | Yes | Yes | Yes |
The AdWords™ Seminars for Success are coming to New York City
August 18, 2008
The AdWords Seminar for Success series is coming to New York City, NY.
When: Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Where: Just across the GW, 10 miles from from downtown Manhattan.
Doubletree Fort Lee/George Washington Bridge
2117 Route 4 Eastbound
Fort Lee, NJ 07024
Agenda Timeline:
- Registration: 8:30 am – 9:00 am
- Morning Session: 9am-12pm
- Lunch Break: 12:00pm – 1:00pm
- Afternoon Session: 1pm-5pm
Breakfast and refreshments will be served.
Agenda:
The Morning Session, from 9:00 am to noon covers the following topics:
|
The Advanced Session, from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm covers the following topics:
|
Other Upcoming Seminars:
| Find a Seminar Near You: | |
| New York City area, Tuesday, August 26th | Click here to register |
| Atlanta, Thursday, August 28th | Click here to register |
| Denver | Dates coming soon |
| Toronto | Dates coming soon |
| San Francisco | Dates coming soon |
| Las Vegas | Dates coming soon |
Hope to see you there.
I’ll be on PPC Rockstars Monday Afternoon
August 17, 2008
David and I will be talking all about Google’s Quality Score formula Monday afternoon on PPC Rockstars (a WebmasterRadio.fm podcast).
The links discussed in the show will be on the PPC Rockstar blog.
What Should You do When Quality Score Kills Your Keywords?
July 28, 2008
My latest article at Search Engine Land is out entitled “ What Should You do When Quality Score Kills Your Keywords?“.
If you need to learn more about quality score, check out Quality Score Demystified.
eWhisper.net becomes bg Theory.com - And the Big News - Brad Launches a new company to provide Marketing Education to Businesses
July 23, 2008
There have been many changes over the past few months, hence why eWhisper.net has not been updated. However, it’s time to come out of the closet and announce everything.
First off, eWhisper.net blog subscriptions. You should be automatically subscribed to the new blog via some 301 and Feedburner magic; hence why you are able to read this post right now. If for some reason your feedreader does not follow 301s, then you might want to subscribe to the new blog feed here.
Secondly, I have officially resigned from RH Donnelley/LocalLaunch. I wish everyone the best at LocalLaunch. After almost four years of watching the company grow from a startup, go through acquisition, and become part of a public company; it’s been quite a ride. One that I’m glad I was a part of; yet there is always a new journey to be had in the crazy world of internet marketing.
Lastly - what’s next?
One of my passions has been to help other companies to succeed. I enjoy seeing (and sometimes helping) others to grow, thrive, and become experts in the world of marketing. Hence the new business model - providing internet marketing education to businesses.
We’re working to provide these services in a few ways right now; which will grow over time.
- In-house PPC & SEO training for staff
- In-house workshops where we will work with your company through setup or optimization of PPC campaigns
- AdWords Seminars where you can attend a full day session to become more familiar with how to effectively run a Google AdWords campaign
The other challenge many businesses is face is receiving buy-in from executives for your internet marketing efforts. I’ve designed a couple presentations where we will work with executive teams to show them the opportunity, train them on the basics of marketing so they are more informed in making decisions (and hopefully this will help empower the staff).
- Search Opportunity Overview for your executives
- Learn the Basics of Internet Marketing for executives
I’m also very interested in working with others who provide small conferences, workshops, and training for businesses. Due to conflicts, I’ve had to turn down a plethora of opportunities in the past. Being my own boss again, it’s much easier to quickly size up opportunities, make decisions, and try out new venues for informing businesses on not only the opportunities that exist, but how to take advantage of those opportunities.
Of course, I’m not doing all of this solo. Leslie Clark is joining me at bg Theory. She brings seven years of both traditional and internet marketing experience to the new endeavor; and is playing an integral part in our growth and services.
If you’d like to chat in person, I’ll be speaking at SMX Local this week, SES San Jose in a few weeks, and Pubcon in November.
Otherwise, feel free to send me an email, or use the site’s contact form to get in touch.
Enjoy,
Brad Geddes
PPC Management Pricing Options
May 29, 2008
I’m a little slow in posting this, but my latest column is out at Search Engine Land entitled PPC Management Options “ Are Your Fees Inline With The Advertisers Goals”?
Both advertisers and agencies can become confused with all of the pricing options available, so I tried to walk through some of the pros and benefits of each pricing type.
enjoy.
Primer: How to host your own online applications for non-techies
May 13, 2008
Do you like the functionality of Google Docs, Flickr, Zoho, and Basecamp but don’t like paying subscription fees? Or, are you worried about the applications losing or deleting your accounts?
There’s a simple solution - host it yourself.
While hosting your own applications seems it’s only within the realm of techies, even non-techies can achieve application hosting prowess with some simple steps.
Find a VPS Host
The first step to hosting your own applications is to find a host provider that meets your needs.
What your are looking for is a host that:
- Has virtual server plans
- Uses Linux
- Has Fantistico installed
- Have an FTP program
The reasons for the above list are quite simple and let’s look at each in detail.
Has virtual server plans
A virtual server allows you the functionality of having your own dedicated server without some of the programming and maintenance requirements. Personally, I like cPanel WHM as the control panel for the virtual server. You don’t need to know the technical specs of cPanel WHM; you just need to see what VPS control panel your host is using. With a virtual server, you can set up and control multiple domains. This is important as once you learn how easy it is to host your own applications, you might have might have sites such as:
- Personal blog
- Personal applications (that’s not on your blog domain so it has a bit more security)
- A friends and family forum
- Company applications
- etc…
- It becomes simple to quickly expand how many sites you want to run, and the possibilities of each
Please note that you should use a different host than domain registrar.
Uses Linux
While many arguments can be made about windows vs linux hosting, for free hosting applications for non-techies there are two main reasons to use linux:
- Many freeware apps are easier for non-techies to install on linux
- .htaccess will be your best friend
Sites such as Source Forge are open communities of developers and create applications that are easy to install yourself.
.htaccess can be used to set up redirects, password protect files, use includes, and handle some CGI. This is the only ‘programming’ that you will have to learn. However, it’s really not programming, it’s simply writing some instructions for your server. Most of what you’ll want to learn is already on the net and you are just a couple copies and pastes away from having a complete .htaccess file.
Has Fantistico Installed
This is the key to installing your own apps for non-techies. Fantastico is a preinstalled program that sits on your VPS and allows one click installs of many of the top free applications on the web. In fact, applications are so easy to install, you may find yourself installing several types of similar applications just to see which one will become your favorite. Have you always wanted to try Drupal, Joomla, or Mambo but didn’t know where to start? Now it’s easy; a few clicks and your applications will be installed and ready for testing.
Have an FTP program
While you can use a stand alone FTP program, if you are truly a non-techie, you might want something even simpler. FireFTP is a plug-in for Firefox that let’s you run your FTP program within your browser.
Choose Your Applications for Instillation
Once you have your domains setup, it’s time to install some applications. For Fantastico installs, the setup is this easy:
- Choose where the application will live (subdomain, folder, etc)
- If it’s a subdomain, then create the subdomain in your control panel (which is generally a couple clicks, one open form, and a submit button)
- Navigate to Fantastico
- Choose the application you want to install
- List the install location (dotproject.example.com)
- Hit the install button
- Follow any additional instructions (username, passwords, email notification, etc)
I would suggest starting with dotProject. This is a fantastic project management software with additional plug-ins and an active community. Once its installed, then you can start to create projects around all of the other software you want to install and test.
Here are my favorite Fantastico installs:
- Wordpress for blogging
- SMF for bulletin boards
- TikiWiki for groupware (Wiki, Blogs, Images, etc, in a single application)
- Coppermine for photo sharing
- phpAdsNew for ad serving
- Moodle for learning environments
Here’s the full list of Fantastico application installs.
That’s It - Your New Apps are Installed!
Did that sound way too simple? If you already have a hosting account, a website, and Fantastico on your servers - it really is that simple.
If you don’t, then you do need to buy a domain name, choose a host provider, become familiar with your host’s control panel, and if you go the VPS route, learn a bit about that control panel as well. However, learning these interfaces is no more difficult than learning any other desktop application. There’s no programming required, just a familiarity with the settings and what they control.
Additional Considerations
When deciding on which applications you wish to run on your servers, there are some additional considerations that should factor into your final decisions.
How active is the open source community?
Some products are complete and do not need new development. Other products have large communities releasing new features, plug-ins, and security patches. In addition, if your company is relying on some of these applications, you might wish to pay a developer to add some custom functionality to these applications.
Security
As a general rule, if you are non-techie installing and running these applications do not store sensitive information within these applications.
You may wish to pay a security expert to check on your server security and make sure that your applications are as protected as possible. For less sensitive information, many control panels also have some method of password protecting files.
Upgrading
Some applications are free for you to install yourself; however, there are commercial versions that you can upgrade to if your business requires even more from the application. It’s worth investigating if the program is supported by a community or an actual business behind the scenes. An example is Open Office. The application might be similar to a free version of Microsoft Office; however, Sun does have a business model around giving away a free product. (Related article: Wired’s Freemium by Chris Anderson)
Total Needed Space
It’s hard to beat Picass’a 400GB of image hosting for a measly $500 per year. However, most people aren’t hosting hundreds of gigs of files on the web. If you’d like to get a quick snapshot of how many files and file sizes each of your folders contain on your PC to form a webhost comparison, download Windows Directory Statistics.
Advantages of Using Hosted Online Apps
It should also be said that there are definite advantages to using 3rd party hosted apps, such as:
- You automatically have access to new features when they are developed
- Tech Support
- Cross product integration (ZoHo is getting good at this, Google has a ways to go)
- Usually receive more total space
- Predication: soon open source software will have options to utilize Amazon’s S3 storage
- Generally low cost or free options
- Generally good security
- Generally good backup of your data
Advantages of Hosting Your Own Apps
Conversely, there are advantages to hosting it yourself, such as:
- Your account shouldn’t be deleted
- You don’t have to pay for multiple licenses, installs, etc
- You can backup your data whenever you want
- You can try out many types of software to see what you really like
- If you need more space, just buy a larger hosting plan
- Experimentation. When hosting your own apps, it’s easier to just play with some apps to see which one really fits your needs
- Easy to brand as your own business
Personally, I use a mix of 3rd party hosted and self-hosted. dotProject fulfills my project management needs; and since I always have 25+ projects running, I don’t want to pay a 3rd party by the project list. However, I also like GMail; but want to maintain some branding control, so I use Google Apps for some of my email.
Final Notes on Open Source Applications
I’m a fan of open source software, especially for non-programmers who do rely on others for improvement. For small businesses and personal information usage; nothing can beat free. However, always know when the software or information is so critical that you should be either paying for the software support or paying an individual to monitor your servers and open source software. That’s just good business.
Free is nice. Having all your business records hacked is not.
However, if you want to create a forum for your friends, run a blog, keep the big ‘to-do’ list semi-updated, put the house projects in a project management environment, or even put up a shared calendar for your employees to use, nothing beats some free open source software.
You Host Provider can Paralyze your Website. Your Registrar can put you Out of Business.
May 6, 2008
Hosts and registrar’s have different responsibilities. They both have supreme control your visibility online, and one should not use the same company for both - ever.
A host’s duties are to make sure your website is up, running, responsive, and give you support when something goes wrong.
A registrar’s duties are to keep your domain name safe, alert you when there are problems, and keep you in the loop on anything strange going on with your domain names. We’ve all heard stories about hosts who suddenly turn off a site and put the domain name on hold. If you host with the same company as is your registrar, you can lose both in a single moment.
If you keep your host and registrar separate, then if the website goes away, you can easily setup your site somewhere else (assuming you make regular backups) and change the DNS at your registrar. If you have many websites, use multiple hosts and keeping your website backed up at another host (behind a login so it can’t be spidered). If the site goes down at one host, change your DNS at your registrar and your site should be back up in a matter of hours (these days it takes a max of 24 hours for a DNS to re-propagate, and sometimes you can see it in a matter of a couple hours).
If your registrar freezes your domain, you’re in big trouble. Always keep another TLD or two of your site (and it’s good practice to own the .net, .com, etc of your websites) so that you can use another version why you work out the problems.
Use more than one registrar for those alternate TLDs. If you keep the .com name with your favorite registrar, the .net with a second registrar, and the .org with yet a third - you can usually recover while the resolution process is ongoing.
Own the alternate versions of your domain (at a different registrar) name pointing to your website. Make sure that those domain names 301 to your site and do not get indexed (you don’t want example.com and example.net both indexed with the same content as that will cause many SEO issues).
If your main domain is going to be down for a while (such as weeks or months during a lawsuit or a shady registrar); remove the 301 and let your site be re-indexed at the new domain. Unfortunately, you will lose most of your traffic as this will be considered a new domain and you can’t setup a 301 from a domain you don’t control (i.e. you can’t 301 your old domain to your new one as you no longer control that domain). When (or if) you regain control of your domain name, put the 301s back in place and return to your original DNS configuration.
If you have PPC or other media campaigns, change them to the new domain immediately. Don’t pay for traffic going to nowhere.
For information about 301 vs 302 see Matt’s post, you should be familiar with the difference depending on the circumstances of your site or domain being unavailable.
I’d also recommend trying to own the .com of your domain (which isn’t always possible).
My favorite registrar is Moniker.com. Register.com has one of the best APIs for bulk managing domain names and DNS entries. Both Google and Yahoo use MarkMonitor.com these days, which is good for large domains where you want to monitor a variety of domain uses (if this is your goal, also check out CSC Corporate Domains, INC which manages live.com). Google has a close relationship with enom.com, which has been a fairly reliable system. (Note: I have relationships with some of the above companies, but as with all my posts, this info is solely my opinions and I don’t receive funds from the above companies).
Worthwhile read (warning PDF file), http://www.cscprotectsbrands.com/pdf/029-031-TW-March_08-Searche.pdf, about domain tasting and searching for domain names.
Hosts can be cheap, and some cheap hosts are just fine depending on your goals and traffic. As with most things, you get a level of support based upon how much you’re paying. Pay for a cheap registrar, and you usually get zero support. When comparing hosts vs registrars, some people can get away with a cheap host. If you site goes down, it’s not that bid of a deal to move websites. Losing or having a domain name suspended can be devastating. Pay for a good registrar. Know your registrar’s policies. It’s easy to recover from a bad host, a bad registrar can ruin a business.
Google AdWords
Seminars for Success
Learn about Google AdWords from experts hand selected by Google.
These seminars will educate advertisers on the creation and management of successful AdWords campaigns.
Learn More about the Seminars:
Seminar Information
New York Seminar
Atlanta Seminar
Information provided by Google.com
Brad Geddes
Leslie Clark
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