Google Docs allows me to create and upload documents, spreadsheets, drawings and forms from my desktop, then share them with others, who can also update them. (Go to www.docs.google.com to get started.)
I’ve used it with clients to collaborate on ideas, or to send keywords or ad text. But lately I’ve been using it with my PPC clients to stay current with stock levels. They can update the file when something goes out of stock or comes back into stock and I can make the corresponding changes to their accounts.

Here’s some of the top reasons I like Google Docs so much:

* I can protect it so only the people I invite to access the document can see it. And I can also make it read only.
* It’s real-time.  I can actual see changes being made if I’m in the document at the same time someone is changing something.  No syncing necessary!  No emailing.  No updating the file to make sure you have the most current information.
* I can change my notification settings, so that if someone makes a change, I’ll get an email. Even nicer is that I can be notified for any change, or just changes to a specific sheet, and I can have them emailed immediately or in a daily digest. (This is my favorite)
* It automatically saves. I love the fact that I don’t lose my changes.
* It’s free!

Google Docs is making my job faster and easier, saves my clients money because they are not advertising on something that’s out of stock, gets them more business by making sure I’m advertising something they want to sell, and doesn’t cost me or JumpFly a cent.

According to Google (via Nielsen), the average American spends five hours per day watching TV.  However, while doing their market research, Intel discovered that two BILLION hours of Internet video was downloaded worldwide in February, 2010 alone.  This on top of the fact that 10-15 MILLION U.S. households already stream video to their televisions makes Google TV sound like a fabulous idea.

But wait a minute…doesn’t this technology already exist?  I can already link my PC to my television using an HDMI cable and control it with a wireless keyboard and mouse.  I can use my Chrome browser to search for what I want to watch on Hulu or YouTube.  I can even pay between $27 and $100 to download software from countless providers that allows me access to all the satellite TV I could ever need or want.  So why is Google TV being heralded as such innovative technology?

The answer, in my opinion, will lie in the content and the user interface experience.  If Google TV allows a typical family easy-to-use access to both the internet AND television channels in one seamless experience – Hallelujah!  According to Google, Google TV will do just that.  Google TV “opens up your TV from a few hundred channels to millions of channels of entertainment across TV and the web.”  This allows our televisions to become more than just fancy high definition video players, it turns them into photo slideshow viewers, gaming consoles, music players, entertainment centers, social media hubs and so much more!  Next step is to develop a Google tablet device that has an app that would allow it to be used as a remote.

Google TV is also built on open platforms like Android and Google Chrome which means that developers will be able to create web and Android apps to make the Google TV experience even more robust.  This open-source development means that the sky is the limit and I cannot WAIT to see what Google TV has in store for us.  As Google says:  “This is an incredibly exciting time — for TV watchers, for developers and for the entire TV ecosystem. By giving people the power to experience what they love on TV and on the web on a single screen, Google TV turns the living room into a new platform for innovation. We’re excited about what’s coming. We hope you are too.”

I AM excited Google – THANK YOU!

Nielsen’s latest data indicates that of those who use mobile search, 86% used Google compared to 11% for Bing. However, with iPhone’s dominance and potential switch to Bing, this soon may change. Apple could certainly breathe some new life into Bing, or someone.

Dare I suggest that Apple instead partner with or buy Yahoo? There had been speculation about this potential reality about a year back, prior to Yahoo negotiating a unique partnership with Microsoft. However, that deal does not necessarily prevent Apple from swooping in and taking over Yahoo. Apple could take Yahoo mobile and turn it into the mobile leader. Yahoo also offers an array of additional potential value to Apple. Now seems to be an ideal opportunity for Apple to make a move.

While Google is distracted in China and losing their search focus, they may be providing Apple a window of opportunity to get into search. Apple could then put Yahoo, or iYahoo, in position to potentially dominate the mobile market, which could carry back over to the wired world.

This clash of the titans is likely to yield some interesting results. Change is in the air as Apple and Google determine the technological fate of mankind. As the mobile market evolves, will Google and Apple co-share the entire future mega-mobile market? Will one emerge as the clear leader or will new technologies emerge to topple these seemingly invincible goliaths? Many a great company once dominated an industry, only to become complacent and fall to its doom. Google and Apple are anything but complacent, but the pace of change is rampant in the rapidly evolving online and mobile marketplaces.

Here’s a few interesting tidbits:

According to data gathered by HitWise, the leading global online intelligence service, searches of one word comprise 24.13% of all search queries. People are lazy searchers! This may be valuable information to consider for PPC Advertising.

Google is testing personalized search results by adding information from users’ “public social graph” and integrating it into the individual’s search results pages. Google is using everything they know from users’ profiles, social networks and more to provide a customized search experience. Along with real-time search, these developments certainly change the search engine optimization (SEO) landscape.

That’s all for now. Stay tuned.

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.

Taking the tech-world by storm today was the recent flurry of excitement over the highly anticipated Google Phone – Nexus One.  No one knows when it will be released or the precise specifications, but techies are anxiously predicting that this will be THE phone to challenge Apple’s iPhone. 

Why would Google, who has been partnering with multiple wireless providers creating phones with their Android platform for quite some time, decide to develop and market a phone that would be in DIRECT competition with its partners?  This girl’s guess:  AD CONTROL.  Google recently acquired mobile advertising agent AdMob, a company that specializes in delivery of mobile ads to smartphones.  Obviously the next logical step in Google’s attempt for total information domination (kidding) would be to control how people search on their wireless devices as well.
 
The Nexus One is rumored to be unlocked and ready for use on any network, with a price tag reported to range anywhere between $99 and $600.  However, insisting that Nexus One users agree to be shown Google Mobile Ads could possibly subsidize an elevated sales price for this highly anticipated gadget.  If this phone turns out to be the iPhone killer that Google hopes it will be, Google will have that much more control over what we see when we search and how we see it. The mobile market is quickly evolving and how PPC advertising and PPC Management will play into this is still being determined.

Speaking purely from experience, since I purchased the Motorola DROID in November, I very rarely use my laptop or PC anymore.  I am able to do what I need to do, when I need to do it all from my handy dandy smart phone and it is liberating.  Nexus One, a phone that is made BY Google, FOR Google users sounds like Heaven.  Too bad I just bought the DROID.

Picture this:  You are not running a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaign, but relying only on SEO to bring business to your site.  A potential customer searches your business name on Google because they are interested in buying your product.  In the search results, they see a live feed containing information from a disgruntled customer who was unhappy with your product and/or customer service.  This dissuades your potential customer and they decide to buy the product you are selling somewhere else.  FAIL. Google real-time search certainly didn’t do this advertiser any favors.

Don’t fear – there are benefits to having a pay-per-click campaign in place during this time of SEO doubt.  First of all, your PPC ads will frequently show up higher than the Google real-time search feed so potential customers will see them before they have an opportunity to view the live feed.  Second, the sponsored search results are typically viewed as trustworthy. This means that your message as a PPC advertiser will be stronger and likely displayed higher on the page than a random post from an anonymous Twitter user. Furthermore, the Google real-time search information will be constantly changing, while your PPC exposure can be controlled. Contact a qualified PPC Management Company for a free consultation.

In light of this new uncertainty in the SEO industry, marketers will likely race to get the top natural positions in order to appear above the real-time search feed.  During this fierce competition for the top natural position using SEO; it appears that NOW might be the perfect opportunity to invest more of your marketing budget in your PPC advertising efforts in order to gain control of your online presence.

Android 2.0 operating system (OS). Cap this off with the pending acquisition of mobile application provider AdMob, and Google’s intentions become quite clear. With rapid expansion in so many directions, Google is quietly becoming the major player in the wireless arena.

The most recent data available indicates that Android already commands approximately 8% of the worldwide Operating Systems market share, but this is a number that is rapidly rising. Many new phones are slated to be released with Google’s Android Oprating System, which has been receiving very positive reviews. The new Android 2.0 even provides its users a fully audible real time turn-by-turn navigational system called AndNav2, which can be seen on the new DROID which was launched by Verizon. I-Phones still dominate this market, but Apple has their work cut out for them to stay on top. The Apple/ Google battle is intensifying, which is likely what led to Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s resignation from Apple’s Board of Directors back in August, when he cited a conflict of interest. Ya think?

The new DROID has arrived to what appears a rather sleep reception. Google’s operating system however is getting favorable reviews. The Droid is clearly powerful, but many are complaining of its excessive weight and short battery life – not too many complaints about the OS – over time Android will continue to further improve and likely gain traction as one of, if not the premiere mobile OS.

Google announced it will acquire mobile advertising network AdMob for $750 million and Google CEO Eric Schmidt said,”One of the key success points for the iPhone was this enormous development of apps, and particularly free apps, which are advertising supported. Now that we have our Android platform coming out, and really with some serious partners behind it, it will also be important to have that be true for Android as well as the others.” According to IDC analyst Karsten Weide, the combination of Google and AdMob will create a mobile advertising giant dominating between 30 and 40 percent of the wireless ad market.

According to Google, this acquisition will enable advertisers to better target their ads to mobile users, by marrying AdMob’s mobile publisher network with Google’s large network of advertisers. By combining the ad targeting technologies of AdMob and Google, this acquisition is likely to yield better ad performance on mobile applications and websites.

Google is clearly working on becoming the major player in the rapidly growing wireless world. As the battle plays out for world domination, keep your eyes on Google. To learn more about mobile advertising opportunities, contact a qualified PPC Management Company.

Now that there are so many more ways to interact with your local business ad, also referred to as “Google maps ads”, because they appear on the Google Maps site, wouldn’t it be nice if you had some insight into how visitors are interacting with your ad?

Now you do.  Google has given us the ability to see the analytics behind how users interact with your ad.  There is a new feature in the Google AdWords reporting feature – as a part of the Placement/Keyword Report – that allows you to view data on the following actions:

• Info window open from left hand side
• Info window open from map marker
• “Get Direction” clicks
• “Street View” clicks
• Clicks to website from the info window

They are missing my favorite – “Send” – but hopefully that is coming soon – no word from Google yet.

How can you best use this Google Maps ads data? Use it the same as you would when analyzing your site analytics – figure out where to focus your attention based on user activity.  For example, are visitors clicking Street View? Consider putting a picture of your actual location/building on the info window. 

The numbers behind opening from the left hand side vs. opening from the map marker signify to me whether your visitors are typically responding to your brilliant ad copy or if they are more concerned with the exact location of the business.  Google Maps ad data can give you insight into a visitor’s search intent and mind set.  Then let it help you to write even better ad copy for both your maps ad and your regular pay-per-click (PPC) advertising ads.

For more information on the new Google Maps ad reporting features, check out Google’s blog post on this announcement or contact a professional Google advertising agency.

We all know about Google’s Keyword Tool which provides traffic information for your terms but a limitation on the Keyword Tool data is that it is either global or country based (the column labeled “local” now, means U.S. or whatever country was selected at the top of the page). 

This traffic data is good if you are running a national campaign – but not as useful for geographically targeted campaigns.  It can be used to determine relative traffic between keywords (i.e., what gets more traffic? Car dealer or Auto dealer?), but it falls short if you are trying to figure out what to expect when you when you are running campaigns in just Dallas or Los Angeles.

So, what I use for local traffic data is the Google Traffic Estimator.  You enter your keywords (however many you want) and a specific region – anywhere from a country, to a state, to a city or even a zip code with a radius.  If you like, you may also enter your desired daily budget and your CPC. 

The results? The traffic you can expect in one day for each keyword in the region you selected!  Now, keep in mind, there are the same limitations to this data as there are with the Google Keyword Tool – I find the traffic data to be more accurate than the estimated CPC. But it’s a good starting point.

The Google AdWords Traffic Estimator provides extremely powerful data for your Google AdWords campaign efforts. You should use this data to decide where to spend the majority of your time.  Any reputable PPC management firm would always suggest the majority of your time should be spent on keywords that can drive the most targeted traffic to your site.  Don’t waste your valuable time on terms that don’t deliver direct benefit (because they just aren’t searched on very often). That doesn’t mean don’t have them in your account, just don’t spend the majority of your time on them. Focus your attention on the top terms.  Yes, you would have seen this data yourself once your campaign was running for awhile, but this gives you the boost to focus on the right terms from the very beginning. 

Perhaps in the short-term, according to Merriman Curhan Ford analyst Richard Fetyko. Yesterday, Fetyko issued a release via Barrons stating, “Based on our checks, the decline in consumer and business purchasing is having a dampening effect on search-engine marketing (SEM) — keyword prices are down 5%-30% from the third-quarter of 2008, traffic to ecommerce sites is also down year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter, and click-through-rates on ad listings are declining as well. SEM is expected to be among the last places to see cuts, and we are there now. Advertisers are adjusting their keyword buys to protect their margins and returns on investment, which are under pressure as sales-conversion rates and average order value dropped, based on our checks. Google’s paid-click volume is also under pressure. Since consumers and businesses have reined in their spending, they are searching for fewer commercial items and are clicking on fewer ads (click-through rates dropped), which translates into slower growth in paid-clicks volume (key revenue driver). Weakness has also spread overseas. Domestic growth has decelerated in 2008, and we expect international regions to slow in the fourth-quarter of 2008 and 2009 as well. U.K. ad revenue was flat for the last three quarters, and the rest of Europe and Asia are seeing cutbacks in ad budgets as well.”

Not surprisingly, various research agencies are reducing their projections for online advertising growth going forward. Just last week, marketing research firm eMarketer reduced estimates for U.S. Internet advertising to $25.7 billion for next year, about $2.7 billion less than a forecast from just three months ago, but still a 9% increase over this year. EMarketer predicts U.S. search ads will generate $12.3 billion next year and that “display ads” will rise nearly 7% next year to $4.9 billion (less than the 14% growth previously suggested). Considering we’re in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the 1930s, I would say that any growth at all is pretty good! The reason for continued growth in PPC advertising despite this crisis is because it works.

While “decelerating growth” may be a sobering reality for Google, it will not bring them to their knees. In the near term, Google may have to make some adjustments, but they appear incredibly well positioned to potentially dominate multiple marketplaces going forward, including organic search, sponsored search advertising, online video & the wireless market. Organic search, PPC advertising and online video (via YouTube) are already in the bag, at least for now, and Google’s wireless Android platform is new but already creating a lot of buzz. Actually, I personally think that what Google has already accomplished is amazing and I look forward to witnessing their future innovations. They always seem to be one step ahead of the competition.

Holiday Reminder- The busiest shopping day of the year, Black Friday (this Friday) is followed by the biggest online shopping day of the year, Cyber Monday (next Monday). Happy Thanksgiving.

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Yahoo search volume is dropping consistently, down from nearly 22% in October 2007 to below 18% for October 2008. MSN took a drop from last year as well in their search volume, but it seems to be holding in the mid 5% range from month to month now. So that does beg the question, is it even worth running PPC campaigns on Yahoo and MSN? Clearly, there is some volume to be had on both of those search networks, so they definitely have some value to some advertisers. If your budget is tight, though, and you are testing the PPC waters, I would suggest starting on Google only and then see where you can go from there.

Another strategy to consider for Yahoo and MSN, which we have implemented and seen success with, is to start out strong on Google for a month or two and then only move your best performers over to Yahoo and MSN. Since Google does bring in the most volume by a large margin, their search platform can really give you a good indicator as to whether a certain product, or a certain groups of keywords, or specific ad copy, will bring you the ROI you are looking for. It isn’t always an apples to apples comparison, and what works on Google does not necessarily always work on Yahoo or MSN, but you can certainly get some strong indicators as to what might work on the other engines by analyzing what is working on Google first.

Learn more about Jack

The Keyword Tool at Google AdWords

I use Google’s Keyword Tool for a large majority of keyword research now.  Yes, services like Keyword Discovery or Word Butler will give us a longer list of long-tail keywords, but according to Google, bigger is not always better in a new campaign.

Google’s Keyword Tool has been improved greatly over the last few months.  We now get very detailed search volume numbers – be sure to change the match type of your results to “Exact” before taking those numbers seriously.

They have also fixed a problem they were having a couple of months ago where they were randomly presenting terms that were not as relevant (called “Additional Keywords to Consider”) before the relevant terms.  That has been fixed and we now see the Related Keywords first on every search.  They have also fixed little annoyances like the scrolling and the ability to download all the terms at once.

So, how is the new Search-based Keyword Tool different?

It’s main difference is that instead of taking your suggested words, Google will now go look at your website and provide suggested keywords based on its content. 

There are  a few new features that make this tool an interesting addition to our arsenal of research tools here at JumpFly:

1. A magnifying glass icon takes you straight to Google Insights for that term.

2. Ad/Search Share tells you how your ad is showing up for that search term

3. We can filter the results by search volume, competition and suggested bid.

I am disappointed that the search volume numbers are apparently from the broad match search volume – not nearly as useful as the existing keyword tool that allows you to change that to exact match for more accuracy.  I also feel that I get a much larger and comprehensive list when I use the Google Keyword Tool.  However, if we are looking for a single term or set of terms, this tool lets us narrow things down quite a bit and may help uncover some valuable new keywords.

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In a word, the PPC industry continues to look healthy.

After the closing bell today, Google, Inc. reported their most recent quarter’s earnings, including an impressive profit increase of 26% compared to the same quarter last year. This is pretty impressive growth, especially considering just about every other company seems to be slowing down.

Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said that the company experienced “revenue growth across all of our major geographies thanks to the underlying strength of our core search and ads business.” 
Google officially started generating more than half of its revenue from international markets. 
 
In regards to their paid click revenue, Google said Thursday that the number of paid clicks rose 4% from the previous quarter, and 18% compared with the same period a year earlier. Though the economy is hurting, people continue to search the web and click sponsored results with increasing regularity.

Google continues to grow its workforce, adding another 519 people during the quarter, though this is down from an increase of 2,130 employees at the same time last year. The company now has 20,123 employees.
We’ll see what Yahoo! has to say when they announce their quarterly earnings early next week.

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View more Google News articles from JumpFly

So one question to ask yourself when looking at these “top spenders” is – Are they also your top sellers?  They should be. 

You should already have a solid understanding of your top selling products or services.  And these items may change seasonally for you.

But you should also pay attention to your top spenders in your PPC advertising campaigns and be sure you are

1. Spending your advertising dollars in the right place and
2. Responding to the market.  If you find that certain terms have escalated in search volume and interest, maybe something needs to change with your product or service offerings.

Another question to consider:  Are your top spending keywords broad match? 

Be careful here.  Remember that broad match at Google AdWords is actually expanded match – Google shows your ad on “relevant” keywords.   While expanded match can be a very productive method to make sure you are showing whenever possible, it can also be difficult to tell what you are spending your ad dollars on.  The search query report is extremely important when you are running on broad match terms.  This report gives you insight into terms that are working well for your campaign and terms that should be excluded.

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This is not too surprising based on the increasing opposition this deal continues to face on various fronts. I knew the anti-trust investigation was serious back in July when the Department of Justice contacted us here at JumpFly. Some big organizations in opposition include the World Association of Newspapers, which represents over 18,000 newspapers, and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), which represents over 400 companies and 9,000 brands (view previous article and video about this).

Looks to me like this deal is likely not going to ever happen. Google and Yahoo’s combined search market share would be a staggering 83%, a number that more and more parties are not comfortable with. The immediate loser that comes to mind here is Yahoo! as they stood to gain an additional $800 million per year in revenue from this deal. Ouch. However, this was a strange agreement anyway, where two arch- rivals were looking to work together. One winner here is Microsoft, who is hanging on to 8% share of the search market and trying to avoid elimination from the search engine marketing arena. They would love to see this deal permanently tabled. Time will tell, but for now, no deal.

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Recent Google News:
Google News Recap – New G1 Phone, Chrome Browser, Stock Madness and More