Knowledge is the Foundation To Success  

A big thank you to whoever at Google came up with the idea for the Broad Match Modifier. You made my day.

The broad match modifier is a new keyword targeting option. (The existing match types are broad, exact and phrase.) I’m a firm believer in using exact and phrase match terms in an account, but am very leery of using broad match. Broad match allows Google to show on searches that they think are related to your keywords. I use this example when I’m explaining broad match to clients: you are a fruit seller and all you sell is apples, so you advertise on the keyword apples. Google decides that an apple is a fruit, therefore they could show you on searches for oranges or bananas. Not a good use of your advertising dollars.

A couple other examples from my clients at JumpFly: how about finding out one of your clients ads is showing on the term “nudist camp?” (My client runs a kids summer camp.) Or how about a moving company spending thousands of dollars on what turned out to be the term “movie” because Google was mapping to the word “moving.”

So broad match has not been my favorite match type, unless a client has a large budget and wants huge amounts of traffic.

But with the new broad match modifier, I can try more broad match terms for my clients because it gives me more control. Basically, when I put a plus sign in front of a keyword, Google will know that that particular term has to be in the search or will match on close variants. (Close variants include misspellings, singular/plural forms, abbreviations and acronyms, and rood words, like “floor” and “flooring”.) Here’s an example: if the term is +golf +shoes, your ad will show for “gulf shoes” or “golf sport shoes”.

Broad match modifier just came out of beta testing in the UK and Canada. I’m looking forward to seeing how it works for my clients, as I’m doing my own beta testing for a few clients. If it works, I’ll start adding it to more of my clients accounts. If you are interested in seeing how the broad match modifier might be able to work for your business, contact a professional PPC Management Company.

Google AdWords Remarketing was recently launched to all AdWords advertisers after successful beta testing since last March. This powerful new technology enables advertisers to place ads in front of visitors who have already been to their website and are now surfing websites that are part of the Google Content Network.

For example, let’s assume that you own Randall To Go, a local restaurant delivery service. Let’s also assume that through various forms of advertising, you attract hundreds of visitors per day to learn about your service. If you have setup Google Remarketing, you can now re-reach these visitors when they are searching websites that are part of Google’s Content Network, which is an incredibly large number of websites. In fact, according to Google, the Google Content Network reaches 80% of global Internet users. So after potential new clients visit Randall To Go, they can now be re-targeted with a new set of ads if desired when they are visiting any number of websites, including Gmail. So a potential visitor can visit Randall To Go, and then be targeted in their Gmail account for a remarketing ad. This remarketing ad can then offer coupons of incentives if desired. The potential for this technology seems rather staggering as it benefits both advertisers and website publishers as well.

You can also run a number of remarketing campaigns at the same time. This can be especially powerful. For example, back to the Randall To Go example, this business can use Google AdWords Remarketing to effectively place unique ads in front of visitors that were potential customers, and can place a totally different set of remarketing ads to appear to visitors who visit the “Become a Partner” page. Previous visitors looking to dine may see a remarketing ad with a coupon while visitors who had previously looked to partner can be exposed to ads explaining the benefits of partnering.

Google states that, “Remarketing is a great way for businesses to reach users who are likely to be highly receptive to their ads and special offers… It helps advertisers and websites get higher returns. It also means more relevant and useful ads for users, and more opportunities for your customers to receive special offers and discounts that may be of interest to them.” I tend to agree. Here at JumpFly, we recently implemented Google Remarketing for various clients, but it is still too early to determine the direct impact from these efforts. Time will tell how powerful this new feature really is, but if used properly, it sure seems to make a lot of sense for everyone involved: advertisers, publishers & users. Thanks Google for providing yet another great tool for your advertisers. Contact a qualified PPC Management Expert to learn more.

Google AdWords recently notified advertisers that, beginning this week, all ads that lead to sites on hosted domains must have display URLs that match their destination URLs exactly.  This change only affects advertisers who use websites on hosted domains and does not impact those who have display URLs that go directly to a regular site.

For Example:  JumpFly would like to advertise their blog to bring in new readers.  Before this display URL policy change, JumpFly would have been able to use the display URL www.JumpFly.com/Blog (or something similar if desired).  However, after this policy change is implemented, the example display URL would need to be www.Blog.Jumpfly.com.

Going forward, ads that do not include the additional information in the display URLs will be disapproved during the AdWords ad review process.  Google AdWords advertisers will be notified via e-mail that their ads require editing before they can go live and a suggested display URL will be provided.  Google is also encouraging AdWords advertisers to proactively adjust all ads that might be affected by this change.

This Google AdWords display URL policy change is understandable and conducive to the smooth user experience that Google prides itself on providing.  Advertisers not currently utilizing the services of a PPC Account Management company will need to go through the campaigns in their AdWords accounts to make sure their ads are compliant with this new display URL policy change. 

The Google AdWords display URL is a potentially valuable tool that is unused or underused by many pay-per-click (PPC) advertisers. Don’t make the mistake of neglecting this valuable piece of online advertising real estate. It can partially act as an additional advertising line if used wisely.