Knowledge is the Foundation To Success  

In their constant effort to update and improve tools available to advertisers, Google recently announced their new and improved Ad Preview Tool.  If you are an AdWords advertiser and you do not know what the Ad Preview Tool is, you definitely should.  This is an important tool that allows advertisers and PPC management companies to check the position of their Google AdWords ads without having a negative impact on the click-through-rate (CTR) of their campaigns.  Here at JumpFly, we use this tool daily to ensure that our clients’ ads are showing where we want them to be, so we are excited to see more new features available.

The first thing I noticed when using the new Ad Preview Tool is the updated, sleek user interface (UI).  The new UI boasts new fields and a new look that makes it feel more simple to understand and user friendly.

Aside from the tool’s face-lift, the first big change I found was that when you are using the tool while signed into your AdWords account, the new Ad Preview will tell you whether or not your ad is showing and which ad group the keyword is being mapped to.  This is a fantastic update because it allows you to see if your keywords are being mapped to the most highly targeted and specific ad groups.  This will be especially helpful for adding negative keywords to ad groups to ensure that the proper ads are being shown for each keyword search.  If your ad is not showing for some reason, the new Ad Preview Tool will tell you why and help you understand whether you need to raise your bids, update your location targeting, increase your daily budget or optimize your account.

The next big Google Ad Preview Tool change worth noting is the new Device setting option.  This feature allows AdWords advertisers to view and diagnose their ads for high-end mobile devices and provides previews of ads based on the type of device and cell phone carrier.  This is a much needed update that seems to go hand in hand with the new keyword tool that helps create mobile targeted campaigns.  With more and more advertisers dedicating a portion of their budget to target Smartphone users, the ability to see what the ads look like on Android, iPhone/iPod/iPad and Palm OS devices is growing exponentially.

These updates to the Ad Preview are certainly appreciated and much needed.  Thanks Google!

If you are one of the estimated 61.5 million people in the US who own a smartphone, you probably do at least a small percentage of your online searches from your device.    With Verizon announcing both their partnership with iPhone and the release of brand new Verizon 4G smartphones, the number of people who search from their mobile devices is going to keep rising.  Google says that their mobile searches have grown by more than five times over the last 2 years!  This increase in mobile searches is going to encourage smart advertisers to allocate a portion of their online advertising budget to people searching from mobile devices.

But how will advertisers and professional PPC management companies like JumpFly know what keywords mobile searchers are looking for?  As usual, Google is two steps ahead with their new Keyword Tool.  In September, Google announced that it was officially launching the latest version of their Keyword Tool within AdWords.  Since then, there have been several notable improvements to the tool including the addition of new ways to filter and refine the keyword list, starring keywords and the ‘view as text’ button.

The latest improvement to the Google AdWords Keyword Tool is the ability to create keyword lists targeted to mobile users.  Underneath the box where you type in the keywords you wish to research, there is a ‘+’ button next to ‘Advanced options.’  Click on this ‘+’ and you will see a dropdown menu to show ideas for all mobile devices, mobile WAP devices and mobile devices with full internet browsers (like iPhone and Andriod phones).  This enhancement to the already great Keyword Tool will allow AdWords advertisers to create better, more highly targeted campaigns for mobile users.

As an avid smartphone user, I can honestly say that I browse the internet more from my phone that I do from any desktop or laptop computer.  I am excited to see what new, more highly targeted advertisements are shown to me in the next few months.  It should be interesting to see how this new feature can help mobile search evolve.  Stay tuned!

If you’ve never heard of Twitter, you might have been hiding under a rock the last few years as the media has been inundating us with it left and right.  You don’t have to work in the technology industry to have seen and heard that Twitter has been growing in leaps and bounds recently.  Twitter has evolved from a small, underground community of social media gurus to one of the best places to go for real-time information provided by millions of people all over the world.  The twinfluence of Twitter has become so great that, earlier this year, Google began including the tweets from Twitter users into its search results.

In my humble opinion, one of Twitters best features is the fact that it helps businesses connect with their customers on a personal level.  Customers can use Twitter as a platform to inform a company about their experiences with that company’s products or services, whether good or bad.  This one-on-one customer interaction should ultimately help businesses provide a better customer experience to the people who have to power to make their companies successful.  Twitter also allows businesses to keep people informed on industry happenings, tips, tricks and so much more.

So, JumpFly has bitten the bullet and has joined the Twitterverse!  We may not have gathered as many followers as Kanye West (@KanyeWest), but we hope to be able to provide interesting and relevant content to our Twitter followers.  JumpFly has been ranked as TopSEO’s #1 PPC Management Company for the last two years and now it is time to share our wealth of information with our tweeps.  We hope to build our twibe of followers by providing useful, inspirational, interesting and compelling information about Pay-Per-Click Advertising on Google, Yahoo and MSN’s Bing.

If you are on Twitter, please take a moment to follow @JumpFly – we are confident that you will find our content relevant and informational.  Hopefully we will become Twitter’s PPC Management Authority.  Stay tuned to see what we have to offer!