Optimized Ad Serving? I Don’t Think So
Below is a screenshot from a display network campaign that was running for about 16 hours. All the default setting were in place, meaning that ads were set to optimize instead of rotate.
So unless Google is omniscient (and the algorithm may be approaching that level) I’m pretty sure they should have showed the other ad at least a little bit before making that determination. Has anyone else seen this?
AdWords Ads Now in Purple!
If you haven’t seen it yet, just run a Google search. Most likely you’ll see the new light purple background on the ads directly above organic results. It looks like this:
Subtle, isn’t it? On my monitor it’s so subtle that I didn’t see it at first glance. However, after sliding Firefox over onto my laptop screen I saw it more clearly. Rimm-Kaufman actually got the following quote direct from Google:
“Starting today and ramping up to 100% globally by the end of this week, we’ll be changing the background color for ads that appear above the search results on Google.com as well as our local domains. The ads, which currently have a pale yellow background, will change to have a pale purple background. This change is part of the ‘look and feel’ update to our color palette and logo that we made back in May of this year to keep the Google results page looking fresh and modern. This is purely an aesthetic change to our ads and won’t have any impact on the way we target or serve advertisements on Google.com.”
Look and feel? Here’s why I think they did it?
Google Is All About The Money
Don’t forget that Google makes billions of dollars in advertising revenue EVERY MONTH! Even the smallest change can have a huge impact on their bottom line and they test a lot. Based on what I see, this helps the top ads blend into the organic results. That means more people, even ad-averse people, will click on search ads, thus padding Google’s pockets.
As a PPC advertiser I like it a lot. Accounts with high QS will get rewarded even further by showing above organic results and getting an even higher CTR. For companies in competitive spaces (where high bids are also needed to hit the top 3) it sucks. They’ll have to work that much harder to make their PPC work.
But make no mistake, even though Google says this is “purely an aesthetic change”, I’m sure that dollars and cents made a difference.
Free AdWords Checklist: The 13 Deadly Sins
Google reported $6.82 BILLION in revenue for Q2 2010 and most of it comes through AdWords. Awhile back I wrote a series of posts detailing some of the most serious mistakes I’ve seen in AdWords accounts. I call them the 13 Deadly Sins of AdWords.
These mistakes can kill your AdWords performance, so I made a convenient checklist to quickly diagnose any issues. Consider me your priest and this checklist is your confession.
AdWords Certified Partner
On a point of personal privilege, I wanted to take the opportunity to announce that Righteous Marketing is now an AdWords Certified Partner. According to Google, “This qualification demonstrates that the company employs individuals with deep AdWords knowledge, and has experience in assisting clients with their AdWords campaigns.” The small print says that I’ve managed over $10,000 in spend over the last 90 days and have passed the new, more rigorous certification exams.
(Imaginary award speech)I’d like to thank Paul Allen for getting me started in PPC during my college internet marketing class. I’d also like to thank Robert Stevens of WriteExpress for taking me on as an intern and then giving me great experience managing a large PPC account, Vizad for letting me manage multiple accounts, and all my current and former clients for trusting me to spend their money (and lots of it) wisely. Oh, and my mom and dad, and my friends, and God for giving me this talent. (Queue music that kicks me off the stage)
Yahoo/Bing PPC Merger Delayed Until 2011?
The merger of Yahoo and Bing into a single interface is the most anticipated PPC event of 2010. We talked all about it in 2009 and I’ve been quite excited because I’m not a fan of Yahoo’s interface. Information has been a bit lacking, but last week we got a video on the Microsoft Advertising blog about the topic.
Say what?
Okay, lot’s of fun pencil drawings and clever animation…blah, blah, blah…”WE ALSO MAY CONSIDER POSTPONING THE TRANSITION TO EARLY 2011″. What? Go back to the 1:30 mark and listen to it again. What you hear is Microsoft giving themselves an escape hatch to push this implementation to next year.
Dang! Six more months of Yahoo’s crappy interface.
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Below is a screenshot from a display network campaign that was running for about 16 hours. All the default… [more]
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