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This is our last post of the year, and before we enter hibernation we would like to wish all our readers a wonderful holiday and a happy new year. We'll be back in 2007, full of information, turkey, and candy canes. We'd like to share two festivities. First up, a song that's sure to become a holiday classic, The 12 Days of AdWords Christmas.

The 12 Days of AdWords Christmas (download the mp3)

On the twelfth day of Christmas, Inside AdWords gave to me:
12 Help Center Helpings
11 Seminar Updates
10 Beta Test Invites
9 Impressions Tippings
8 Checkout Reportings
7 Tips for Searching
6 System Updates
5 Haaaaaaaaaaand Turkeys
4 Tools for SMBs (Part 1 and Part 2)
3 Reporting Tips
2 Trademark Policies (Part 1 and Part 2)
And Advice to Improve Ads Quality!

Next, we continue our holiday tradition with our latest holiday doodle:


Posted by Trevor and Vivian, Inside AdWords crew

Search advertising is very effective, but how are you reaching the millions of internet users who are online but not searching? To help you reach these folks, you might consider advertising on the Google content network. To help explain the benefits and features of the content network, we've created a brand new multimedia guide available here: https://trainingcenter.google.com/gcn.

The short but informative online guide will walk you through what advertising on the content network is all about. It’ll explain what makes advertising on the content network different from search advertising, how contextual advertising works and how you can use it to connect to customers through mass media sites, like major news sites, as well as smaller niche sites devoted to a specific topic, such as electronic gadgets. The guide will also tell you about the features and options available on the content network, such as site targeting, different ad formats, bidding features and performance tracking tools.

The Google content network guide is “hot off the presses” and doesn’t have a permanent home just yet; however, we wanted Inside AdWords readers to be amongst the first to see it. As always, we're happy to hear from you, so email us with any comments, questions, or suggestions!

Posted by Judy, Inside AdWords crew

Last month, the Google Checkout team announced that all Checkout sales will be processed for free until the end of 2006. What could be better than free processing? More free processing! Gavin C. from the Checkout team updates us with the latest details:

We have received such a positive response from merchants about free processing with Google Checkout that we decided to extend the offer through the end of 2007. Yep, from now through December 31, 2007, we'll process all your Google Checkout sales for free.

For those of you unfamiliar with the product, Google Checkout is a new checkout option that makes online shopping faster, more convenient and more secure. If you have an online store, customers who visit your site can use Checkout to buy from you using a single username and password. And once they do, you can use Google Checkout to charge their credit cards, process their orders, and deposit funds in your bank account. Google Checkout has many benefits, you can check out all the details here. ;-)

Posted by Feng, Inside AdWords crew

In part one of the AdWords Trademark Policy series, we reviewed the trademark complaint procedure and also answered some of the common questions asked by trademark owners. Today, we will answer the two most common questions asked by advertisers who would like to use trademarked terms in their ad text or keywords lists. Here they are:

My ad was disapproved per your trademark policy, but I should be able to use the trademarked term "Blue Widgets" in my ad because I actually sell the product Blue Widgets on my website. What gives?

We monitor the use of a trademark because the trademark owner has filed a complaint. For ads targeting the US and Canada, we will review ad text but not keywords. For ads targeting regions outside the US and Canada, we may review both your keyword list and ad text for trademarked terms per the trademark owner's complaint.

If you believe that you are authorized to use the trademark term in question, please contact the trademark owner directly to resolve your dispute. If the trademark owner approves your use of the trademark term, we will need to receive written confirmation directly from the trademark owner in order to authorize your use of the trademark.

I am an official dealer of Blue Widgets and the company said I could use the trademark in my ad text. Are you sure this isn’t a mistake?

As mentioned above, we will not allow the use of a trademark term according to the parameters of the trademark complaint filed by the trademark owner. Therefore, unless the trademark owner specifically grants you permission to use their trademarked term by contacting our Trademark team, we are not able to approve the use of the trademark in your AdWords ads. (Instructions on how a trademark owner can contact our Trademark team can be found in part one of this series.)

We hope this series has helped clarify our trademark policy as it applies to AdWords ads. Please keep in mind that this policy only applies to AdWords ads and not Google search results.

Posted by Judy, Inside AdWords crew

Call it human nature. Lots of advertisers explore the Help Center extensively when they first start with AdWords, just to get a handle on the basics, but rarely make a return visit after that. But what about the helpful information that has added since that last visit, say, oh, six months ago?

Here's a good example: in the past few months a lot of new content concerning the key concept of Quality Score has been added to the Help Center.

In fact, if you were to visit today, you'd see a whole new section called Ad Quality and Performance. Within that section, there are four major subject areas, as noted below. Within each of those broad areas there are many detailed supporting topics. Here's an overview of what you'll find:

• The Quality and Performance Overview section includes 11 topics meant to define quality and performance, and to help understand AdWords system behaviors.
  
  
• Within the Quality and Performance Factors section, you'll find links to more than 25 topics on Quality Score, quality-based minimum bids, landing page quality, ad position, and clickthrough rate (CTR).
  
  
• The Troubleshooting section offers more than 15 helpful links that can assist you in troubleshooting your keywords, ads, landing pages and minimum bids.
  
  
• Lastly, the Improving Ad Performance section offers 20 or so topics on choosing successful keywords, creating targeted ads, and optimizing your account.

Yep, that's a lot of information. We hope you'll spend some quality time (pun intended!) in the Help Center one day soon -- and just explore. You'll almost certainly find some information you haven't seen before, which just might help you improve your advertising effectiveness.

Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew

A quick update: we've recently updated the AdWords Learning Center with new multimedia lessons on the AdWords Editor. The detailed lessons will show you step-by-step how to use AdWords Editor's tools and features. Of course, if you prefer to print out these lessons on paper or view them without animation, they're also available in a text-only format.

Posted by Vivian, Inside AdWords crew

Recently, we've noticed a few posts on other blogs commenting on the fact that Google advertises its own products or services using AdWords. We wanted to say a few words on the subject of why and how we do this, with an eye towards laying a few concerns to rest. Here's Walter H., from Google Marketing, to fill us in on the details:

Being rather proud of AdWords as a means to effectively advertise one's products or services, it seems natural to use it ourselves. Since it's a common practice across the industry for companies to promote their own products and services through their own web presence, there is much precedent to do this.

It's important to note, however, that our ads are created and managed under the exact same guidelines, principles, practices and algorithms as the ads of any other advertiser. Likewise, we use the very same tools and account interface.

As does any advertiser, we aim to give our campaigns a budget which is in line with their value to us in terms of the increased traffic we might see. We actively monitor and manage the success of our ads by adjusting ad copy, keywords, bids, and so forth in the same way any advertiser who is concerned with their account performance would.

That said, there are no special buttons to push or levers to pull that give our internal account managers special treatment or leverage. Quality Score is automatically evaluated in the same way for our keywords as it is for any advertiser's keywords. Likewise, the potential to show up in the top spots above the search results is the same for Google's ads as it is for any other. We rely on the AdWords system to let relevancy and usefulness to our users be the driving force behind our ad placement. As such, we do not intentionally try to secure a top position. In fact, we generally aim for a more 'conservative' position.

As was already mentioned, there are no algorithm changes to 'smooth the way' for Google's ads -- and the accounts of 'competing' advertisers (should there be any for particular keywords or Ad Groups) are never referenced in any way.

We're quite proud of the advertising platform we've built and it simply makes sense for us to use it. At the same time, the trust of both our users and our advertisers is of paramount importance. We honor that responsibility, and work hard to earn and keep that trust.

Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew

There's been a lot of speculation about what we're doing in radio advertising so we thought we'd give you a quick update regarding what we've been working on since the acquisition of dMarc Broadcasting earlier this year. Here's a note from Josh M., a member of the Google Audio Ads team:

Over the last year, we've been working hard to integrate the dMarc advertising platform into Google AdWords. We're happy to announce that the integration is now complete and we've recently begun a U.S. beta test of Google Audio Ads with a small group of AdWords advertisers.



Google Audio Ads brings efficiency, accountability, and enhanced ROI to radio advertising by providing advertisers with an online interface for creating and launching radio campaigns. You'll be able to target your customers by location, station type, day of the week, and time of day. After the radio ads are run, you will be able to view online reports that tell you exactly when your ad played.

Over the last year, we've been partnering with both terrestrial and satellite radio stations across the U.S. so that our advertisers have many options for broadcasting their ads -- whether it's a Country station in Tyler, Texas or an Adult Contemporary station in New York City. Currently, there are hundreds of stations to choose from and we hope to grow the list over the coming year. Our broadcast partners are looking forward to making their ad inventories available to thousands of new advertisers, especially since they aren't easily accessible today.

As mentioned, the first beta test campaigns recently launched, and you may have already heard these advertisers' ads while driving to work or listening to the radio at home. The beta launch may leave you wondering when you will be able to use Google Audio Ads for your own radio campaigns? Well, while we haven't set a date yet for when the product will be more widely released, one thing is certain: Inside AdWords blog readers will be among the first to know.

Want more info? Check out some common questions about Google Audio Ads.

Posted by Sarah, Inside AdWords crew

AdWords advertisers know that online advertising is an effective way to promote their businesses. What do you do, however, if you want to advertise online, but you don't have a website? Does this sound familiar? Now we can help.

Hosted business pages, a new feature for AdWords Starter Edition, will let you do just that. A hosted business page is an informational webpage that new advertisers can create when they sign up for AdWords Starter Edition. You can use a hosted business page to tell people more about your business when they click on your ad. For example, if you own a restaurant, you might write about your award-winning cannoli; if you are a tailor, potential customers would be thrilled to read about your 48 hour turnaround on alterations.

Here's a sample of a hosted business page for a ficticious restaurant, Mario Loves Pasta, Inc.:



Hosted business pages are now available for new US advertisers using AdWords Starter Edition. It's important to note that a hosted business page is not a full-featured website with its own domain name, but rather a single landing page for your AdWords ads. Hosted business pages are free with a new AdWords account, and can be set up with no knowledge of HTML. You can learn more about hosted business pages in the AdWords Help Center.

If you're already an AdWords advertiser, perhaps you'd like to tell your favorite local restaurant owner that they can now advertise online, even if they don't have a website. Just watch out for the crowds of new customers.

Posted by Trevor, Inside AdWords crew