Knowledge is the Foundation To Success  

Last week Google AdWords announced improvements to Ads Quality, and today that update went live. Two new changes have been introduced that enhance how Google calculates Quality Score and Ranks Ads.

As you might know, click through rate (CTR) is arguably the most significant component of Quality Score, and ads in higher positions tend to earn better CTR than ads that display in lower positions. Google decided that to accurately calculate the Quality Scores, the “influence of ad position on CTR be taken into account and removed from the Quality Score.”

As a result, Google has now updated the portion of the Quality Score algorithm that accounted for ad position. It is their belief that this new adjustment will result in a more accurate Quality Score and ensure that ads compete fairly for position based on their quality and bid, while rewarding high-quality advertisers with better ad positions.

In the past, here at JumpFly, we have certainly seen the advantage of placing some clients’ new keywords in prominent positions to start, and then pull them down later based on performance. The advantage of the increased CTR from the higher initial positioning would work to their advantage down the road. From the sound of this latest update, this particular strategy may no longer be necessary. It will be interesting to see.

The second update going live today is an “improvement” in the way Google determines which ads show in the prominent yellow region directly above the search results. Google believes that given the prominence of these positions that it is especially important for ads to be high quality. Therefore, to appear above the search results, ads must meet a certain quality threshold.

You may have noticed that sometimes Google chooses not to display any ads in this position. Previously, if the ad with the highest Ad Rank did not meet the necessary quality threshold, they would not show any ads in these positions. With the new update, Google will now allow an ad that meets the quality threshold to actually jump over an ad in a higher position and be displayed in this prominent position. Again, quality plays a very important roll in being able to show in higher positions.

There is no doubt that these new algorithm changes by Google will cause some ads to experience a change in position, spend, and/or performance. Changes in Google’s ranking algorithms can affect even the most stable Google AdWords PPC account. Talk to a professional PPC Management Company today about how this recent update might affect your Google AdWords account.

There are various scenarios that may require pay-per-click (PPC) advertisers to update their ads’ destination URLs at Google AdWords. For example, URLs may need to be modified when implementing call tracking, testing new landing pages or adding new tracking URLs. While advertisers could simply change the destination URL in each AdWords ad, this is likely not the best solution. By changing the destination URL, or any variable associated with an AdWords ad, the ad then loses the valuable performance history it has established in the account (ad performance history is one of the many variabels used to determine Quality Score). This action causes the ad to be treated just like a brand new ad, even though just the destination URL changed.

Here at JumpFly, we frequently hear from advertisers who share examples of successfully running Google AdWords ads that were modified for one reason or another, and could then never recapture the results previously achieved. I am sure this can be incredibly frustrating, but fortunately it can be easily avoided!

Secret #1: Never initially delete successful ads in Google AdWords accounts!
If ad changes are needed, initially pausing successful ads and creating new ones, rather than deleting ads, is a really good idea so you can just turn them back on later if desired. Unused ads can always be permanently deleted later.

Secret #2: Change destination URLs at the keyword level to prevent disrupting ad performance
This is a critical concept to be familiar with and understand. Ads can be redirected to a different destination URL at the keyword level without changing the destination URL in the ad itself. This feature enables advertisers to change destination URLs without losing the ad’s performance history. This is a valuable tool, but depending on the size of the AdWords account, might seem like an overwhelming task. Fortunatley, AdWords Editor is here to the rescue.

Secret #3: Use AdWords Editor to update destination URLs
Once again, Google AdWords Editor enables advertisers to manage accounts much more efficiently. In AdWords Editor, users can easily upload a new destination URL to all the terms in an account in an instant. Amazing. Time saving. Powerful. Using AdWords Editor for managing Google AdWords accounts is a must.

Now go download AdWords Editor today! You won’t regret it.

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There is a debate among PPC management experts about whether it is better to set your ads to rotate evenly or whether you should let Google show the “winning” ad more often.

The Case for Rotating Evenly
If you are going to truly Split Test your ads, you must show them evenly and randomly to a wide range of visitors.  The ability to rotate two ads with only one small difference allows you to run a true Split Test.

Additionally, Google’s optimize feature works on CTR and not your conversion rate.  So you could have an ad that is “winning” the split test on CTR but not converting nearly as well as the other ad.  Since Google’s optimization doesn’t consider the conversion rate, the true winner starts showing less and less.

The Case for Optimizing to Performance
When you rotate your ads evenly, you could be adversely affecting your business.  Showing an ad that does not pull Visitors to Your Site – even for a little while – is causing missed traffic and missed opportunity.

Google’s Optimize feature allows you to automatically show a winning ad more often to your visitor.  This increases overall CTR which we know increases the performance while decreasing the cost of a campaign.

So what is one to do?  You need to look at your business goals and decide between the two based on both your goals and your time available to monitor ad group progress.

One option we use quite often is to start out a new campaign using rotate while we closely monitor the performance over a short period of time.  Once we are sure we have strong, pulling ads, we turn it over to optimize to be sure those ads are doing their job.  Most of our customers want to focus on the most targeted traffic at the lowest cost which is achieved through the optimize feature.