Car insurance Channel: February 2009

Your feedback on the blog

Fun 11:36 AM

A big thank you to everyone who sent us feedback about the blog, and if you haven't had chance to speak your mind, please take a minute to send us your thoughts on the blog. Here's a quick update on what you've said so far:

67% of you read the blog at least once a week, so thanks for the loyal readership!
The top reason for reading the blog is to learn about new features and releases (voted for by 89% of readers), followed by keeping track of online advertising trends (voted for by 53% of readers).
The top product, outside of AdWords, that you want to read more about is Google Analytics (voted for by 74% of readers).

We're also taking the time to read through every response you sent in about how we can improve the blog. Next week we'll share some of your ideas for improving the blog and also our plans for implementing them.

Posted by Amanda Kelly, Inside AdWords crew

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A display ad builder contest - enter today!

Announcements 1:22 PM

Many of you have heard of AdWords' display ad builder tool, which allows you to create display ads quickly and easily using professional quality templates. Advertisers have used it to make creative ads that get their brand and product messages to their audiences on the Google content network. Inspired by your creativity, we're holding a contest to see what you've been able to create with the display ad builder.

To enter the contest, please fill out the entry form with your basic account and contact information. We'll evaluate entries and choose winners based on creativity and innovative uses of the tool.

The top five winners get AdWords credits in the following amounts:

1st Place - $1,000
2nd Place - $750
3rd Place - $500
4th and 5th Places - $250

The contest ends on March 24th, so get your creative juices flowing!

Update 2-24-2009:

After receiving questions from our readers, we wanted to clarify that the display ad builder contest is available to only advertisers in the U.S.

Posted by Emel Mutlu, Inside AdWords crew

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A change to our display URL policy

Announcements 10:40 AM

Beginning the week of February 24, we'll implement a change to our AdWords policy regarding multiple display URL domains per ad group. Please read on to determine whether your AdWords account will be affected by this change.

In an effort to provide more relevant results and a high quality experience for our users, we've made the decision to disallow multiple display URL domains within a single ad group. Going forward, all display URLs within an ad group must have the same top-level domain. Please note that this amendment to our policy applies to all advertisers, regardless of previous exceptions or acceptability of any ad groups.

For example, an ad group containing the following group of display URLs would comply with this policy because all URLs contain the same top-level domain, “example.com”:

www.example.com
www.widgets.example.com
www.example.com/widgets/redwidgets/
www.example.com/index.html

On the other hand, and ad group containing the following group of display URLs would not comply with our policy because their top-level domains don’t match:

www.example.com
www.example.widgets.com

As a result of this update to our display URL policy, we encourage you to make any necessary adjustments to your ads in advance of the change. This will ensure that they'll run without disruption as a result of future disapprovals related to this policy. Also, remember that your ad's display URL must match its destination URL (the URL of your landing page). All other requirements regarding our existing display URL policy and its enforcement will remain the same.

While we understand there are legitimate use-cases for multiple display URL domains within one ad group, we ask that you use separate ad groups for each domain. This will not only provide a better user experience for your potential customers, but will also allow you to better organize and track the various domains within your AdWords account.

Posted by Emel Mutlu, Inside AdWords crew

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New how-to videos for the AdWords display ad builder

Display Ads 8:28 AM

We've created four new videos to help you complete the most important and useful tasks with the display ad builder. Combined with the two videos we already had, the new videos help us cover a broader range of topics. Our library now addresses all of hte following issues, arranged by the order in which they'll arise:

How to access the feature in AdWords

How to search for the display ad templates that are right for you

How to create an ad

How to create an ad with no images required

How to copy ads across ad groups

Full product tutorial

If you're looking to get started with the display ad builder for the first time, you may find the first video on this playlist to be particularly useful:

Check out the individual videos above or go here to bookmark the playlist of all these videos.

To get started now, log into your AdWords account.

Posted by Austin Rachlin, Inside AdWords crew

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AdWords system maintenance on February 21st

12:18 PM

On Saturday, February 21, 2009 the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 10AM to 2PM PST, 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 10AM to 2PM PST.

We'll continue to update you via the blog as we always have, but please make note of the February 21st date and our scheduled maintenance further down the road.

Posted by Heather Lane, Inside AdWords crew

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We'd love to hear your feedback

Fun 3:44 PM

Because your opinion matters to us, we've put together a short survey so you can tell us how we're doing and what you'd like to see more of on the Inside AdWords blog. We hope you'll take the time to let us know what's on your mind -- click to give us your feedback.

Posted by Christian Yee, Inside AdWords crew

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How do we love thee?

10:05 AM

Christian, Cynthia, Heather, Amanda, Emel, and Austin

How do we love thee?
Let us count the ways...

You always read us faithfully,
And send us feedback gracefully.
We really think you're pretty fine --
So will you be our Valentine?

Posted by Heather Lane, Inside AdWords crew

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Meet our Product Management Director and Product Evangelist at SMX West Santa Clara

Events 12:46 PM

Have you ever wondered who actually works on innovations for Google AdWords? Have you wanted to talk to them, give them your feedback, and ask them questions directly?

This week, you can chat with us in person at the SMX West conference in Santa Clara, CA. Two leading members of our AdWords team will be at the conference to share some insights about our recent releases and to answer your questions.

On February 12th at 10:00am, Nick Fox, Business Product Management Director on the Google's AdWords team, will be participating in the Up Close With Google AdWords Quality Score Panel, in which he'll share his thoughts about Google ads quality and how Google thinks about online search marketing. Nick will also be taking questions from the audience at the event, so if you're attending the conference, please stop by.

Later in the afternoon, you'll also be able to meet Fred Vallaeys, AdWords Product Evangelist. Fred will be on the Ask The Paid Search Reps Panel on February 12th at 1:30pm. This will be a moderated Q&A panel with representatives from the major search ad networks. Fred will be there to answer any questions you have about Google AdWords. Make sure to stop by and bring your best questions with you, or ask them ahead of time using Google Moderator. He'll also be at the Google booth right after his session.

We truly enjoy the opportunity to meet our AdWords advertisers in person and hope to see you in Santa Clara this week.

Posted by Emel Mutlu, Inside AdWords crew

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Do more with less -- Part 3 of 3

Series 7:03 AM

In last week's post we discussed how to use Conversion Optimizer to get more conversions from your existing AdWords campaigns and keywords. This week, in the final installment of this series on doing more with less, we'll show you how you can tightly focus your AdWords campaigns on the areas that are converting the best, uncover the hidden traffic gems you're missing out on, and expand on what you already know is working.

If you want to refocus your existing budget on your highest performing product areas, or reach potential customers that you are missing, the secret is in the keywords. The Search-based Keyword Tool, a new, free tool from Google, looks at the content of your website and matches it against Google search queries (entered by Google users) providing you with a list of extremely relevant, actively searched keywords. The list of suggestions is then filtered to remove any keywords that you're already advertising on, so every single keyword you see is a new one.

Helping your bottom line
Other than giving you new relevant keywords, how does this help your bottom line? Say you sell two product lines - widgets and gizmos - and you know that your widgets product line is selling much better than your gizmos product line. You can use the tool to identify high-potential widget search terms that you're missing and expand that campaign, applying more of your budget on the campaigns that are most effective.

Focusing your campaigns
The Search-based Keyword Tool is equipped with a number of powerful filters and features to make it easy to find keywords for the parts of your website and business that provide you with the greatest ROI.

Looking for bargain terms? In the 'more filters' section, sort by 'low-competition' or pick a bid you're willing to pay and sort by 'suggested bid'.
Only looking for keywords in a particular product area? The tool automatically groups keywords by categories, so simply select the category you want on the left-hand side of the results.
Can't find the category you're looking for, or want to find terms for a specific page on your website? Click on 'more filters' and enter a term into the 'url contains' field.

The tool also offers additional information on each keyword so that you can choose the best ones for your campaigns. Each suggestion shows the average monthly searches for that term, how competitive placement on that term is, the estimated bid to place your ad in the top three positions, your Ad/Search share for the term, and the page on your site the term is most related to, which you might chose to select as the landing page (destination url) for that keyword.

Getting started
Get started with the Search-based Keyword tool in 4 easy steps:

Go to http://www.google.com/sktool
Sign-in to your AdWords account
Enter the url of your website
Click 'Find Keywords'

For more information on the tool, please visit our support site. And remember, you can find other helpful Google tools at www.google.com/domorewithless.

Posted by Amanda Kelly, Inside AdWords crew

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Google TV Ads Summit Recap

TV Ads 12:56 PM

Last week, we hosted the 2nd annual Google TV Ads Summit in Google's New York offices. This event brought together over 200 industry professionals, thought leaders and executives from the world of TV advertising and media. We've posted a highlight reel and photos to give you an inside look at the event. Exciting conversations and themes that emerged from the event focused on doing more with less, using data to make decisions and utilizing new media to connect with audiences beyond television. Read more about this event on our Traditional Media Blog.

Posted by Amanda Kelly, Inside AdWords crew

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Car insurance Channel

Your feedback on the blog

A display ad builder contest - enter today!

A change to our display URL policy

New how-to videos for the AdWords display ad builder

AdWords system maintenance on February 21st

We'd love to hear your feedback

How do we love thee?

Meet our Product Management Director and Product Evangelist at SMX West Santa Clara

Do more with less -- Part 3 of 3

Google TV Ads Summit Recap

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