Knowledge is the Foundation To Success  

Google continues to ramp up their Mobile Advertising initiatives with improved Mobile Ads Reporting. The improved AdWords Mobile Ads Reporting enables advertisers to better determine how their ads are performing in the mobile marketplace. If advertisers see that they are generating a decent amount of mobile device generated traffic, it then makes sense to take the time to cater to these potential customers with new targeted Google AdWords Campaigns, Ad Groups & Ads that cater to these mobile users. Also keep in mind that mobile phones do not currently support flash, and landing pages catering to mobile users should be as simple as possible. For more information, contact a qualified PPC Management Company for a complimentary consultation.

This functionality certainly has value, but may still be a bit ahead of its time as currently only a small percentage of overall ads are displayed on mobile devices compared to the PC. However, this trend is changing, and fast. The graph provided in this article is provided by Google and indicates US Mobile Search growth over the past 1 1/2 years. The growth is fairly staggering and likely just getting started.

It may be this growth pattern that encouraged Google to officially launch their own Google Nexus One Phone. Google is aware that the future of their PC generated pay-per-click (PPC) advertising revenue may be jeopardized by the rapidly emerging mobile market and therefore appear to be staking a claim to the mobile industry, and in a major way.

Google already developed what is emerging as the dominant mobile operating system with Android, and recently acquired AdMob, the largest provider of mobile ads. Mobile is the future, no doubt, and Google is doing everything it can to position itself to be the dominant mobile player in every area possible. While Google AdWords still represents 95% of Google’s revenues, that figure is certain to change as mobile ads, devices and software begin to generate more serious revenue streams.

Google’s updated search query report provides even more insight into Google AdWords PPC advertising campaigns. Here at JumpFly, we have been asking for this for a LONG time and are excited it is finally here!

In May, Google announced an enhancement to their search query report.

The search query report is a great PPC management tool that we use to fine tune an account.  It allows us to see, for phrase and broad match search terms, what the actual term was that the visitor typed in.  It shows only those terms that resulted in a click-through so you can focus your efforts on your cost areas.

Since inception, this report had a flaw.  For all the low volume terms, Google would lump them into “Other Unique Queries”.  Sometimes the majority of the traffic seemed to fall into this field which could be very frustrating.

Now, Google removed this field all together and we can see all terms that were actually searched for going forward.

Here is how I use the Search Query Report.  You can do this on a weekly or monthly basis. I choose weekly to be sure to catch all the terms possible.

Keep in mind that this information is also now available in the new interface.  However, I am finding that for large campaigns with many ad groups, I can still save some time with using the report itself.  The actionable report within the interface is good for quick spot checks and focusing on the highest spending ad groups, though.

1. Generate a Search Query Report – in fact, create a report that is generated automatically on a weekly basis so it is already there when you are ready to work on it.
2. Download the report into a CSV file and Open it in excel
3. Sort largest to smallest on the cost column (this keeps you focused on the keywords of most importance if you are short on time).  Don’t feel compelled to go through every single one.  Stick to the top 20 every week.
4. Create a list of negative keywords to add and a list of new keywords to add.
5. Import the list into Adwords Editor and Post.

Quick.  easy. and it really tunes up the account and can save big $ for your business.

For more information on the enhancement, See Google’s Search Query Enhancement Announcement.

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I have just a few things I’d like to see happen with the Google Adwords platform, so I think I’ll just mention them here. Consider it my Google holiday wish list.

Actionable Reports:

Every report should be an actionable report. By this I mean if I run a Placement Performance Report that shows me numerous content sites that are clearly spending too much, or not converting well at all, then I want to be able to just click a checkbox next to that site and have it automatically be excluded from further searches. I don’t want to have to run a report, analyze it, then manually create a list of sites to exclude. I want the system to provide me with the data then allow me to take action upon that data right then and there on the spot. This really doesn’t just apply to Google. It applies to all the PPC search platforms, including Yahoo and MSN. We should be able to immediately take some kind of action from every report we run without having to look at the data in place then make adjustments somewhere else entirely.

AdWords Editor Content Isolation: 

AdWords Editor should have a separate tab for Content traffic and spend that highlights and isolates Content traffic spending. Keeping on the Content theme, because the volume of Content sites is so huge, Google should allow us to put in a threshold conversion cost barrier that will automatically exclude a site if the spend reaches a certain unacceptable level. It would be nice if we could put in a parameter that tells Google to automatically exclude a certain Content site if its spend reaches a certain level without producing a conversion. It’s something we do anway, so why not set up an automated function to do the same thing we are going to do manually. It would also be nice if such a parameter could be extended to some of the Search Partners as well. If a site doesn’t work, I don’t want it.

Even though these things don’t exist (yet), the great thing about software-driven advertising platforms is that the possibility exists that they might happen at any time. That’s just another feather in the PPC advertising cap. This is an advertising medium that has the potential to always get just a little better.

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