Car insurance Channel

2008 is coming to a close, and we want to leave you with our favorite posts for 2008. The posts were chosen based on FrankRank, and represent the team's favorites over the last year.

This week, we released version 7.0 of AdWords Editor for Windows and Mac. The new version includes the long-awaited first page bid estimates and keyword Quality Score, along with several updates to the Keyword Opportunities tool. Version 7.0 also provides the option to enable usage tracking, which lets Google collect anonymous statistics to help us improve AdWords Editor. Learn more about these and other new features in the release notes.

Today, we'd like to highlight a campaign management tip from the AdWords Help Forum: Using keyword matching options with your negative keywords.

You may already know that keyword matching options allow you to specify how the keyword should interact with users' search queries to help you target your ads more effectively to potential customers. But did you know that in addition to your regular keywords, you can use keyword matching options with negative keywords as well? Since negative keywords filter out unwanted ad impressions and clicks, using matching options gives you more precise control over which queries to filter out. To learn more and see examples, please read the full post in the AdWords Help Forum.

Posted by Emel Mutlu, Inside AdWords crew

Seasoned AdWords users know that to have successful campaigns you need to do more than simply set them up and let them run. To get the most out of your campaigns, you should consider optimization, today's (Ad)Word of the Day. 
Posted by Christian Yee, Inside AdWords crew

As many of you know, we're constantly evaluating our AdWords program policies to keep them current and effective. This means making changes from time to time by either adding new policies, such as the endangered species policy, or updating existing policies, such as the Display URL policy.

This fall, we changed our policy around beer, for the first time allowing advertisements of its sale in the U.S. via AdWords. And starting today, in response to advertiser feedback we've received over the years, we'll permit the advertisement of hard alcohol and liqueurs that target the U.S.

To comply with the updated hard alcohol and liqueurs policy, advertisers must promote the information about hard alcohol and liqueurs that their websites contain, such as recipes and brand messages. Ads that directly promote the sale of hard alcohol and liqueurs are still not permissible through our program. In contrast, advertisements for beer may directly promote its sale.

For example, under the hard alcohol and liqueurs policy, you might market to individuals searching for helpful and relevant alcohol-related information by promoting holiday cocktail ideas or the caloric content of popular spiked beverages. Under the beer policy, you might state a specific sales promotion for a great winter ale.

Hard alcohol and beer manufacturers can now take advantage of online holiday traffic and initiate campaigns that appeal to their target audiences.

Plans to expand this updated alcohol policy to other countries in accordance with local regulations are expected in the coming weeks. For more information about the alcohol policy and other AdWords content policies, please visit our Advertising Policies page.

Posted by Amanda Kelly, Inside AdWords crew

Today, we're announcing a new campaign-level option that allows you to extend the reach of your text and image ads to show your AdWords ads on the T-Mobile G1, the iPhone, and other mobile devices that have full (HTML) Internet browsers. This new option will now allow you to display your ads specifically on these devices, create exclusive campaigns for them, and get separate performance reporting. We hope this option will help you more effectively reach your audience with the right message at the right time.

G1 and iPhone ads have many of the same benefits as our standard mobile-format ads, such as allowing you to deliver mobile-specific calls-to-action and reaching your audience when they're on the go. Showing ads on the G1 and iPhone also has additional advantages for your advertising. Users are performing a lot of searches on these devices, and searches are likely to go up during the holiday season. Last Christmas, the iPhone drove more traffic to Google.com worldwide than any other mobile platform.

Unlike standard mobile ads, you don't need to format your ads for mobile phones to show your ads on the G1 and iPhone. Because the G1 and iPhone have full Internet browsers, you'll be able to display your standard AdWords ads and landing pages on these devices without having to modify them.

With this new option, you're opted-in to show ads on the G1 and iPhone, and you're also eligible to show on additional devices that use full Internet browsers as these devices enter the market. If you want to change your settings to only show ads on G1s and iPhones or to not show ads on these devices, follow these steps.

If you're running standard mobile ad formats, they won't be affected, and they'll continue to run on mobile phones with mobile (WAP) browsers. If you're interested in learning more about mobile advertising in general, you can see past mobile advertising posts on the Google Mobile Blog.

Posted by Amanda Kelly, Inside AdWords crew

Ads Quality is important for you, our advertisers, as it directly affects your ads' position on the page and how much you pay for your ads.

Last week, we posted about recent improvements we've made to the display ad builder. Now we'd like to share some best practices for using the tool. Hopefully these tips will help you get off to a running start with your new display campaigns:

Posted by Emel Mutlu, Inside AdWords crew

We recently announced the launch of AdWords display ad builder, and now we've made it more widely available and easier to use. Display ad builder is a tool that lets you create and customize display ads, allowing you to easily expand your AdWords campaigns beyond text advertising. We've had an overwhelmingly positive response from our advertisers so far, so we're happy to announce that the tool is now available to advertisers in the UK, Ireland, and a number of other countries.

In addition, based on your feedback, we made improvements to the display ad builder to enable greater customization and make building display ads even easier:

Image picker: You can now choose from previously uploaded images when creating your ads.

Real-time editing: See what your text and other customization edits look like, automatically -- without having to click the 'update preview' button.

Quicker way of seeing available ad sizes: You can see which sizes your ad can run in for each ad template without having to complete the ad creation process. You can also preview how your customization choices affect each size.

Additional templates: Choose from even more templates for customizing your ads.

We think these improvements will help you more easily and efficiently create engaging display ads. As always, we welcome your suggestions on how we can improve the display ad builder.

Next week, we'll post best practices to help you build effective ads with the display ad builder. In the meantime, you can view our tutorial video or visit the display ad builder site to learn more.

Posted by Emel Mutlu, Inside AdWords crew

We've just asked a small group of US advertisers to start testing an updated web interface for AdWords. (If you're in the test pool, you'll see an alert when you sign in to your account.)

We're testing changes to the ways that AdWords advertisers see and manage the data in their accounts. These changes should make it easier to tackle common tasks, like navigating between campaigns and editing keywords across several ad groups. We hope the updates will give advertisers clearer insights into their ad campaigns and simpler ways to act on those insights.

To answer a common question: The updates we're testing won't affect how ads run. Bidding, ranking, Quality Score, and the other key AdWords performance fundamentals are not changing with these updates.

We've started advertiser testing very early, while we're still working on changes to the updated interface, so that we can make adjustments based on comments from our testers. That's one reason why this test group is pretty small. We'll gradually increase the number of advertisers testing the updated interface (and make it available to international testers) in the coming months. We'll be sharing more details about key features along the way.

In the meantime, if you'd like to be considered for the test, please submit your AdWords account information on our beta sign-up page and we'll contact you when we're ready to add you as a tester.

Posted by Amanda Kelly, Inside AdWords crew

The Seminars for Success program continues to grow and we're happy to announce a new addition to the program: Website Optimizer Seminars for Success.

For those not familiar with Seminars for Success, they are full day, in-person seminars providing hands-on training on Google products. Seminars are currently offered for AdWords, Analytics, and now Website Optimizer. Seminars for Success are led by industry experts using a curriculum designed in conjunction with Google.

The first Website Optimizer Seminars will be held in the following cities:
December 4 - Alexandria, VA
December 10 - Seattle, WA
January 23 - Las Vegas, NV
February 11 - San Jose, CA

Sign up for Seminars at least 7 days in advance and we'll even throw in a $50 AdWords credit (View the terms and conditions of advertising credits). We'll be adding more Website Optimizer Seminars in the near future, so if you want to hear when seminars are happening near you, you can fill out this contact form.

For more information about Seminars for Success, including registration details, course outlines, and past attendees' comments, please visit www.google.com/awseminars.

Posted by Vivian Leung, Inside AdWords crew

Did you know that 20% of the queries Google receives each day are ones we haven’t seen in at least 90 days, if at all? With that kind of unpredictable search behavior, it's extremely difficult to create a keyword list that covers all relevant queries using only exact match.

Broad match is a great way to capitalize on those unexpected, but relevant queries. When you include a keyword as a broad match, your corresponding ad is not only eligible to appear alongside queries with that exact spelling, but it can also capture keyword expansions that include synonyms, singular/plural forms, relevant variants of your keywords, and phrases containing your keywords.

Matching your ads against all these relevant query variations can have a big impact on the success of your online search campaigns. In fact, broad match currently accounts for over 1/3 of all clicks and conversions for advertisers, worldwide.

To make the most of broad match, you can run search query reports to monitor your expansions. If you discover a query that's performing exceptionally well, consider adding it to your ad group as a broad match keyword and setting an appropriate bid. Conversely, if you see that one of your keywords has been matched to a search query that doesn't fit with your campaign, include that search query as a negative keyword in the appropriate campaign or ad group.

We recently improved the search query report to provide more granular detail on which queries are triggering ads for your broad match keywords. This means less of your traffic may be reported under the "other unique queries" heading.

We also recommend trying the Conversion Optimizer, a bidding feature that uses your conversion tracking data to get you more conversions at a lower cost. Conversion Optimizer helps you by automatically finding the clicks from broad match terms that convert the best.

With so much traffic on Google each day, finding the queries that are most relevant for your business can be a challenge. With broad matches accounting for 1/3 of all clicks and conversions, using broad match keywords can help you capture relevant clicks and conversions that you never knew existed.

For more information, check out our frequently asked questions on broad match in the AdWords Help Center.

Posted by Amanda Kelly, Inside AdWords crew

Since we launched Google Ad Planner a few months ago, you've suggested more ways we could help improve your media planning process. First, we're excited to announce that Ad Planner is now accessible to anyone with a Google account. Second, we've released a number of new features that we built based on your direct input.

Today, we have been experiencing delays in the reporting of your AdWords account statistics. This delay is temporary and does not affect the serving of your ads as per your campaign settings. 

We have been working hard to get this fixed, and at this time, click and cost statistics have been updated and show the correct numbers. Correct impression counts will follow soon. As a result of these reporting delays, your clickthrough rate (CTR) may show a higher than actual number until the impression counts are also updated. This delay in reporting is unrelated to the ads quality improvements that we wrote about on Monday. We regret any inconvenience that this may cause you and appreciate your patience as we work toward a resolution.

Posted by Emel Mutlu, Inside AdWords crew

We're pleased to let you know that the improvements to Ads Quality that we announced last week have recently launched. As we explained last week, these improvements better evaluate the precise quality of your ads and improve the way we determine which ads show in the yellow region above the search results.

We also wanted to emphasize that AdWords has always accounted for the influence of ad position on CTR and removed it from the Quality Score. This specific improvement updates this system to make it fresher and more accurate.

Again, while we don't believe that any immediate changes are needed on your part, we encourage you as always to watch your key metrics and to make adjustments as appropriate.

Posted by Amanda Kelly, Inside AdWords crew

We know that many advertisers set up seasonal campaigns for specific holidays and occasions. Well, if you didn't set an end date for your Halloween campaign yet, here's a quick reminder to log in to your account and pause it. (You can always use it again next year.)

And of course, Happy Halloween from the Inside AdWords crew!


Posted by Vivian Leung, Inside AdWords crew

We're always working on improvements that will help us show the most relevant ads to our searchers, and we're excited to tell you that we'll soon introduce two changes designed to enhance how we calculate Quality Score and rank ads. The first change helps better evaluate the precise quality of your ad - regardless of its position on the page. The second change improves how we promote ads to positions above the search results. Let's take a look at both of these changes in more detail.

More precise Quality Score calculation
Clickthrough rate (CTR) is the most significant component of Quality Score because it directly indicates which ads are most relevant to our searchers. As you probably have observed, ads in high positions typically earn better CTR than those in low positions, because ads in high positions are more visible to searchers. To calculate the most accurate Quality Scores, it's important that the influence of ad position on CTR be taken into account and removed from the Quality Score.

In the coming days, we'll update the portion of the Quality Score algorithm that accounts for ad position. This will result in more accurate Quality Scores, ensure that ads compete fairly for position based on their quality and bid, and enable Google to show the most relevant ads to searchers by rewarding high-quality advertisers with better ad positions.

Higher quality ads above the search results
We're also improving the way we determine which ads show in the yellow region above the search results. These positions are particularly valuable to advertisers because they are prominently positioned on the page. Given their prominence, it's especially important that these ads be high quality; we therefore place extra emphasis on quality when determining which ads to show in this location.

To appear above the search results, ads must meet a certain quality threshold. In the past, if the ad with the highest Ad Rank did not meet the quality threshold, we may not have shown any ads above the search results. With this update, we'll allow an ad that meets the quality threshold to appear above the search results even if it has to jump over other ads to do so. For instance, suppose the ad in position 1 on the right side of the page doesn't have a high enough Quality Score to appear above the search results, but the ad in position 2 does. It's now possible for the number 2 ad to jump over the number 1 ad and appear above the search results. This change ensures that quality plays an even more important role in determining the ads that show in those prominent positions.

Keep in mind that these enhancements may cause changes to your ad position, spend, and performance. We're launching these updates soon so that you'll have enough time to review your accounts and prepare for your holiday season advertising. While we don't believe that any immediate changes are needed on your part, we encourage you, as always, to watch your key metrics and to make adjustments as appropriate.

We'll post again once these changes are live.

Posted by Amanda Kelly, Inside AdWords crew

Want to attend an in-person training for AdWords or Analytics? Seminars for Success offers day-long trainings on AdWords and Analytics for all skill levels from Beginner to Advanced. If you want to get started next week, you can check out an AdWords seminar in Seattle and Adwords and Analytics seminars in Los Angeles.

And if you won't be in Seattle or Los Angeles next week, don't worry. In the coming months we'll also be offering Seminars for Success in the following cities:

AdWords
November 3: Los Angeles, CA - AdWords 301: Advanced
November 5: Seattle, WA - AdWords 301: Advanced
November 13-14: Philadelphia, PA - AdWords 101: Beginner, AdWords 201: Intermediate
November 17: Las Vegas, NV - AdWords 301: Advanced
December 1-2: Honolulu, HI - AdWords 101: Beginner, AdWords 201: Intermediate
December 2: Washington DC - AdWords 301: Advanced
December 4: Houston, TX - AdWords 301: Advanced

Analytics
November 5-6: Los Angeles, CA - Analytics: Introduction, Analytics: Advanced
December 8-9: Seattle, WA - Analytics: Introduction, Analytics: Advanced
December 8-9: Montreal, QC - Analytics: Introduction, Analytics: Advanced

Sign up for Seminars at least 7 days in advance and we'll even throw in a $50 AdWords credit (View the terms and conditions of advertising credits).

For more information about Seminars for Success, including registration details, course outlines, and past attendees' comments, please visit http://www.google.com/awseminars.

Posted by Amanda Kelly, Inside AdWords crew

One of our favorite and most useful posts from last year was an in-depth look at cost-per-click behavior during the 2006 holiday season by none other than Google's Chief Economist, Hal Varian. In the post Hal explained how CPC's and CPA's (cost-per-actions) vary over time to affect advertisers' ROI.
Posted by Christian Yee, Inside AdWords crew

The Google Marketer's Playbook is a series of educational talks where our experts discuss strategies for making the most of AdWords and other Google products such as Google Analytics and YouTube. You can attend the Google Marketer's Playbook and hear advice on topics such as optimization strategy, measurement and tracking, and increasing reach during the upcoming ad:tech digital marketing conferences.

The next session will be held at the 2008 ad:tech New York show November 3rd and 4th, and the talks are open to all exhibit hall pass holders. To obtain a free exhibit hall pass, visit www.ad-tech.com and click on the 'register' link next to the show you will be attending. Following the talks, attendees will be able to participate in live Q&A sessions with the experts.

The Google Marketer's Playbook at ad:tech San Francisco, Miami and Chicago have already passed, but you can watch recordings of the sessions in this YouTube playlist. These videos are also live on the Google Business Channel which also contains more presentations and webinars about Google's business products and advertising solutions.

Posted by Amanda Kelly, Inside AdWords crew

Posted by Emel Mutlu, Inside AdWords crew

We're happy to let you know that we've changed the way your Campaign Summary and Ad Group Summary pages present statistics in order to give you additional level of detail into your campaign performance. Previously, these pages divided statistics into two categories: search, which included Google and search partners, and the content network.

Posted by Emel Mutlu, Inside AdWords crew

Today, we announced two strategic partnerships that will make it easier for advertisers to manage their Google TV Ads media buys within their existing systems.

For advertisers who use CoreDirect, our partnership with COREMedia Systems will allow you to view your Google TV Ads sales and response data next to your other media buys and results within CoreDirect.

In addition, our partnership with Harris Corporation will help make more inventory available to Google TV Ads advertisers, helping them expand their reach to more potential customers.

For the latest news from Google TV Ads, please see the announcements on our Traditional Media blog.

Posted by Amanda Kelly, Inside AdWords crew

We're excited to announce that the Conversion Optimizer is now available to many more campaigns. Any campaign using AdWords Conversion Tracking with at least 50 conversions in the last 30 days is now eligible to use the Conversion Optimizer. Additionally, thanks to improved technology, the Conversion Optimizer now delivers better performance overall.

The Conversion Optimizer uses your conversion tracking data to get you more conversions at a lower cost. It achieves this by optimizing your placement in each ad auction to avoid unprofitable clicks and get you as many profitable clicks as possible.

You might already follow a similar strategy by bidding higher for keywords that convert more often and lower for keywords that convert less often. But the Conversion Optimizer can adjust your ad's placement based on many other factors, including the keyword's broad match query, the user's location, and the conversion rates of Google's search and content partner sites.

These extra adjustments enable many advertisers to achieve double-digit percentage increases in conversions, while paying the same price or less for each conversion.

Check out the AdWords Conversion Optimizer page to get started or to learn more about the Conversion Optimizer.

Posted by Amanda Kelly, Inside AdWords crew

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Inside AdWords crew

Many of our retail advertisers are busy preparing their stores for the busiest shopping season of the year, so we've compiled some tips and tools that can help you optimize your ad campaigns, marketing channels, and website.

Here's an example tip you'll find: specifically mentioning any special holiday promotions you are running in your ad text drives additional interest from consumers. Clear and compelling ads with season-specific text is a good way to generate more clicks.

As for tools, Google has several offerings that retailers can use to help drive additional traffic and sales this holiday season such as Google Product Search, which allows shoppers to search for and find things they want to buy online. You can use Product Search to promote your goods and drive holiday traffic to your store for free.

With the holidays just around the corner, now is a good time to make sure that your site is in the best shape for maximizing your traffic and revenue. Please visit the Holiday tips page for more information, and remember - it's never too early to start preparing for the season.

Update: Corrected tips page link. As a reminder, Google Checkout is currently available only to merchants in the US and UK, and Google Product Search is currently available only to merchants in the US, UK, and Germany.

Posted by Christian Yee, Inside AdWords crew

Posted by Emel Mutlu, Inside AdWords crew

Today, we announced that we're partnering with Bloomberg TV to offer their national inventory to advertisers through the Google TV Ads platform. Bloomberg TV is a 24-hour business and financial news channel, reaching over 54 million households in the US.

This builds on our partnership with NBCU, announced earlier this month, and will provide advertisers with broader audience reach and access to desirable viewer demographics. Starting later this year, Google TV Ads advertisers will have access to premium inventory on Bloomberg TV, so stay tuned for further announcements. Currently, advertisers can target Bloomberg TV through our DISH Network inventory available on the Google TV Ads platform. Our partnership with Bloomberg TV means that advertisers will be able to reach all Bloomberg TV viewers in the US.

For more details on our partnership with Bloomberg TV, please see the announcement on on our Traditional Media blog.

Posted by Amanda Kelly, Inside AdWords crew

If you currently use or have considered using AdWords conversion tracking, we have news that may be of interest to you. Conversion tracking users are no longer required to display the "Google Site Stats" logo on the conversion pages of their web sites.

Previously, a small but visible text block that read "Google Site Stats" automatically appeared on the page where the conversion tracking code was placed on your web site. The logo would appear only after a conversion occurred via your AdWords ad, and it provided converting visitors links to information about AdWords conversion tracking and instructions on how to block the tracking.

However, many advertisers have told us that the logo was redundant with their own privacy policy, where they already notify users about the tracking technologies in use on their sites. As a result, we're now giving you the option of not showing the Site Stats logo on the conversion page(s) of your site.

If you currently have conversion tracking tags installed on your web site, the Site Stats logo will continue to display unless you take further action. If you choose to remove the logo, please inform users about the tracking methods you employ on your site by modifying your site's privacy policy.

For those of you who are new to conversion tracking, it's a powerful tool that allows you to measure conversion metrics for your AdWords campaigns. An added benefit of using conversion tracking is that it allows you to use the Conversion Optimizer, a bidding feature that uses your conversion tracking data to optimize the performance of your campaigns, helping you make the most of your advertising dollars.

For more information about conversion tracking, please visit our Help Center.

Posted by Emel Mutlu, Inside AdWords crew

Last month, we posted about upcoming Quality Score improvements -- and today, we're following up to notify you that these changes will take effect in all advertisers' accounts over the next few days. In addition, we'd like to answer a number of the more common questions we've recently heard from our advertisers.

To briefly summarize our earlier post, we have incorporated three main improvements to Quality Score:

• Quality Score is now more accurate -- because it is calculated at the time of each search query
  
  
• Keywords are no longer marked 'inactive for search' -- all keywords are active because they are evaluated for every relevant query
  
  
• 'First page bid estimates' replace 'minimum bids' in your account -- providing a more actionable and useful metric to advertisers

Below are answers to the most common questions we've heard, in each of these three areas:

Quality Score

Many advertisers wanted to know specifically how this launch affects the way we calculate Quality Score.

We will still consider your account's history, which consists of the clickthrough rate (CTR) of all the ads and keywords in your account. We will also consider your landing page quality. Although your overall Quality Score is evaluated at the time of each query, landing page quality is evaluated less frequently.

Inactive for Search Status

We received three main types of questions about Inactive for Search Status. You've asked why we were doing this, how this would affect your traffic levels, and how this would affect the number of ads shown.

Through all our Ads Quality changes, our goal is to improve the search experience by showing only the highest quality, most relevant ads -- and this change further enables us to meet this goal. By making all keywords active we will be able to evaluate keywords for any query where they may be relevant. Previously, keywords that were marked 'inactive for search' would never show ads on Google.com, even if they would have been a high quality match for certain queries.

Most keywords that are 'inactive for search' today will continue to accrue very few (or no) impressions due to their low Quality Score. For some currently inactive keywords, however, we may find that they perform very well for certain queries or in certain circumstances -- in which case, these keywords may begin to receive impressions.

Stated another way, this change does not mean that that every ad will be shown or that every query will show ads.

First Page Bid Estimates

Finally, for first page bid estimates, many of you were interested in learning how these would compare to your old minimum bids.

For queries without many advertisers competing for placement, the first page bid estimate should be relatively close to your existing minimum bid. However, queries with a high level of advertiser competition may have significantly higher first page bid estimates, because you'll likely need to bid above the old minimum bid to rank higher than your competition and show on the first page. Remember that you can bid less than your first page bid estimate and still show on subsequent pages -- as long as your keyword is relevant to our users.

Advertisers familiar with the competitive landscape for their keywords may indeed notice that the first page bid estimates provided are in line with the CPCs that they had been bidding to appear on the first page prior to the release of these Quality Score improvements, although this is not a given.

We hope this information helps answer your questions. And, as you become acclimated to these changes, we hope you will keep in mind their underlying purpose. These improvements are part of a continuing effort to deliver relevant ads to our users, and also to provide you with more control over your bidding and more insight into the quality of your ads and keywords.

For further information, please see these frequently asked questions.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Inside AdWords crew

In this installment of Google Analytics 101, we'll take a brief look at another important statistic visible from the Dashboard: Traffic Sources. When you first set up your account and sign in, Analytics shows a Dashboard module containing a pie chart of all of your Traffic Sources. These sources include any that are unrelated to your AdWords advertising, as will be explained in this post. The pie chart is a breakdown of the different kinds of ways that traffic reaches your site. (If you don't see it right away in your Dashboard, just click on Traffic Sources in the left-hand navigation. It'll appear at the top of the report.)
Posted by Christian Yee, Inside AdWords crew

On Saturday, September 13th, 2008 the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PDT, for maintenance. While you won't be able to sign in to your accounts during this time, your campaigns will continue to run as usual.

AdWords system maintenance typically occurs on the second Saturday of each month from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PDT.

We'll continue to update you via the blog as we always have, but please make note of the September 13th date and our scheduled maintenance further down the road.

Posted by Heather Lane, Inside AdWords crew

Today, we announced the beta version of a new open source web browser: Google Chrome. Google Chrome features a simple and intuitive user interface and an entirely new architecture designed for speed, security, and stability while browsing the Internet. For more information on why we built Google Chrome, please take a look at the Official Google Blog.

We'd like to give you a heads-up that on September 2nd, all reports in your AdWords Report Center created over six months ago (before March 2nd, 2008) will be deleted. We're clearing out old reports to make room for new ones. But, don't worry! All of your account data will be retained and unaffected by any report deletions.

Please plan accordingly before September 1st if you have reports in your AdWords Report Center that are more than six months old. If you'd like to save older reports, you can export them into Google Spreadsheets, .CSV files, Excel, HTML or another format with the click of a button.

And remember, you can always run a report again for any date range. As we mentioned, no account data is being removed. Moving forward, we will periodically delete reports older than six months.

Posted by Heather Lane, Inside AdWords crew

In the spirit of the back-to-school season, we have a very large curriculum of free upcoming advertising webinars to help you prepare, optimize, and expand your campaigns. Here's a breakdown of the material:

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Subject: Website Optimizer - Test and enhance your site - Register here

Date: Tuesday, August 26, 10:00 AM PDT
Instructor: Tom Leung, Google Business Product Manager
Class Description: Thinking of redesigning your site? With Google's free Website Optimizer, you can test different layouts for key pages of your website, and measure exactly which one generates most sales or leads. The webinar will provide you with an introduction to Website Optimizer and website testing.

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Subject: Holiday webinars - Register here

Date: Wednesdays, August 27, September 3, September 10, 10:00 AM PDT
Instructors: Members of the AdWords Retail and Tech B2C Teams
Class Description: The holidays may seem far off, but it's never too early to start planning. To help you get a jump start on the season, we've designed Unwrapped: Retail Holiday Guide, a series of three free webinars featuring tips and strategies for running and tracking successful holiday campaigns. All advertisers are welcome to register, though the sessions are tailored to retailers and those marketing to consumers. To get the most impact out of this series, we recommend attending all three webinars:

     Setting the Stage: Make the Most of the Holiday Season
     Wednesday, August 27, 2008, 10:00 AM PDT

     Expanding Reach: Find Your Target Audience
     Wednesday, September 3, 2008, 10:00 AM PDT

     Analyze & Simplify: Measure Success & Streamline the Buying Process
     Wednesday, September 10, 2008, 10:00 AM PDT

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Subject: How to effectively reach your audience on social media sites in the content network - Register here

Date: Wednesday, September 3, 10:00 AM PDT
Instructor: Anastasia Leng, Social Media Specialist
Class Description: What is social media? Learn what kind of users visit social media sites and what they're doing once there. Obtain an overview of the social media sites in the Google content network.You will also learn what tools Google offers you to effectively reach the users you need, including Demographic Bidding and Reports, User Interest Placements, and Enhanced Online Campaigns.

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Subject: Optimizing in AdWords Editor - Register here

Date: Thursday, September 11, 10:00 AM PDT
Instructor: Taylor Marcus, AdWords Editor Specialist
Class Description: If you're an AdWords Editor power user, we have excellent news. We'll be hosting an 'Optimizing in AdWords Editor' webinar to help you learn to how to more efficiently optimize your campaigns. Taylor Marcus, an AdWords Editor specialist, will demonstrate how to use AdWords Editor to achieve ROI best practices, improve and maintain account health, and utilize different ad formats.

To stay on top of these and more of our free webinars for advertisers, check this calendar for updates.

Posted by Christian Yee, Inside AdWords crew

In July 2005, AdWords introduced minimum bids for keywords based on Quality Score. This system allows us to show very high quality ads to Google users, while also giving advertisers control over their keywords. Since 2005, we've improved Quality Score in many ways, such as the inclusion of landing page quality and landing page load time as factors. Along the way, we've also received much helpful feedback from both users and advertisers.

Today, we'd like to let you know of further improvements we'll introduce in the coming weeks -- based, in part, on this feedback. First we'll outline the key points, and then dive into the details:

• Quality Score will now be more accurate because it will be calculated at the time of each search query
  
• Keywords will no longer be marked 'inactive for search'
  
• 'First page bid' will replace 'minimum bid' in your account

A more accurate Quality Score

Most importantly, we are replacing our static per-keyword Quality Scores with a system that will evaluate an ad's quality each time it matches a search query. This way, AdWords will use the most accurate, specific, and up-to-date performance information when determining whether an ad should be displayed. Your ads will be more likely to show when they're relevant and less likely to show when they're not. This means that Google users are apt to see better ads while you, as an advertiser, should receive leads which are more highly qualified.

Keywords no longer marked 'inactive for search'

The new per-query evaluation of Quality Score affects you in that keywords will no longer appear as 'inactive for search' in your account. Instead, all keywords will have the chance to show ads on Google web search and the search network (unless you've paused or deleted them). Keep in mind, however, that keywords previously marked 'inactive for search' are not likely to accrue a great deal of traffic following this change. This is because their combined per-query Quality Score and bid probably isn't high enough to gain competitive placement.

'First page bid' will replace 'minimum bid'

As a result of migrating to per-query Quality Score, we are no longer showing minimum bids in your account. Instead, we're replacing minimum bids with a new, more meaningful metric: first page bids. First page bids are an estimate of the bid it would take for your ad to reach the first page of search results on Google web search. They're based on the exact match version of the keyword, the ad's Quality Score, and current advertiser competition on that keyword. Based on your feedback, we learned that knowing your minimum bid wasn't always helpful in getting the ad placement you wanted, so we hope that first page bids will give you better guidance on how to achieve your advertising goals.

It's worth mentioning that the impact of these changes will vary from advertiser to advertiser; some might see no changes to their ad serving, while others may see a noticeable difference. As always, we recommend optimizing ads to prevent them from receiving a low Quality Score.

Putting it all together

Here's an example to illustrate how per-query Quality Score works:

Nancy's Dairy advertises on the keyword 'milk.' Nancy's ads perform better on the keyword 'milk' in the U.S. than in Canada. Her ads also perform better on the query 'milk delivery' than on 'milk,' and better on certain search network sites than on others. Instead of one static Quality Score and minimum bid that determines whether the keyword 'milk' is eligible to trigger an ad for all search queries, we will now determine eligibility dynamically, based on factors such as location, the specific query, and other relevance factors. For that reason, Nancy's keyword 'milk' will be able to trigger an ad for search queries where it's likely to perform better, i.e., in the U.S., on 'milk delivery' and on certain search network sites.

We're working to update the AdWords API and AdWords Editor so that, in the future, they will support first page bids. Until then, both the AdWords API and AdWords Editor will continue to show the minimum bid field. However, the information shown in this field will be based on the new per-query Quality Score. You may keep current with upcoming API releases on the API Blog and learn about upcoming AdWords Editor releases via the AdWords Editor Forum.

Finally, please note that we'll release these Quality Score changes to a very small segment of advertisers within the next day or two, so that we can gather feedback before launching to all our advertisers. We will, of course, post again in advance of the time that these changes go live for everyone.

In the meantime, please see this comprehensive list of frequently asked questions for more information.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Inside AdWords crew