Google announced today that it will lift the protection it previously provided for brand owners on its PPC network (Adwords). This was an unanticipated yet not very surprising move on the part of the search giant.
Adwords is Google’s advertising program that allows companies and individuals to bid on keywords in an auction-based system. In the past Google protected advertisers from others bidding on their brand name but as of next month this will no longer be the case.
What does this mean?
For Google: More money… MUCH MORE
For the Advertisers: Higher budgets because now they have to compete against others for their own brand name.
For Agencies: Also more money as advertisers would need to shed a whole lot more dough for their ppc budgets
For Affiliates & Affiliate Networks: Also more money, as now Google allow for brand bidding on broad match thereby the affiliates will get more targeted traffic, more conversion and therfore more commissions (Affiliate Networks get a cut from that).
So all in all everybody wins but the advertisers! well done Google thats how to win friends and influence people!
Its worth a note that Google never protected advertisers in the US and that MSN and Yahoo never protected advertisers in the US or UK.
Google has upgraded its AdWords programme to allow advertisers to target specific content on websites.
This feature is not entirely new, as Google -in the past- had allowed advertisers to target niche content within websites, it now simply made it more targeted.
So, for instance, instead of targeting the entertainment section of a certain content portal, advertisers can now bid to show up on the movies subsection, or even more specific, the section where movies are showing in a certain location of the country.
“We’d like to announce two changes to site targeting in Google’s content network. First, because site targeting now offers more precise targeting options, we’ve given it a more appropriate name: placement targeting. Second, we’re introducing a new cost-per-click bidding option so you can now pay per click or per impression.”
This is a fantastic new development and a huge opportunity for advertisers to target specif niches and minimise their ad spend by minimising wastage of their ad budget on un-targeted clicks.
Well done Google, another great step in the development of online advertising!
Ever wanted to see what adwords ads people are seeing in other countries? Well you can do so by adding the “gl” operator at the end of your url query string along with the country code of the country of interest like so:
This could come in handy if you’re interested in viewing ads you’ve purchased for other countries or even if you’re simply looking for some creative inspiration for your own adwords ads. If you’re doing it for the latter, make sure you do not outright copy the ad as this will cause your adwords quality score to decrease thereby increasing your bid price. Worst still, if you’re caught stealing copyrighted material, Google may ban your account.
August 27, 2007 at 8:17 pm
· Filed under PPC, Videos
Want to see how adwords can help your business succeed? Watch this viedo about how Happy Hound, a dog daycare and boarding business gets 90% of its business through Google AdWords…
On the 21st of August, Google changed the formula it uses to decide which sponsored ads show up above the natural search results.
The basic formula for judging which ads show up was as follows:
Ad position = Quality Score X Actual Price advertiser is paying per click
The new changes will replace the actual price an advertiser is paying with the maximum price an advertiser is willing to pay peer click.
The changes have been controversial to say the least. Some have even accused Google of trying to milk advertisers for all they’ve got (this is the name of the game after-all isn’t it?)
Actual CPC is determined, in part, by the bidding behavior of the advertisers below you. This means that your ad’s chance of being promoted to a top spot could be constrained by a factor you cannot influence. By considering your ad’s maximum CPC, a value you set, you will have more control over achieving top ad placement.
In addition to increasing control for advertisers, the improved formula increases the quality of our top ads for users. This is due to more high quality ads becoming eligible for top placement, thereby allowing our system to choose from a larger pool of high quality ads to show our users.
The bottom line is this, if Google’s changes mean decreased ROI for advertisers, eventually these advertisers will move to a more profitable advertising model and Google will lose business…
I’m pretty sure the big G is a bit smarter than that!
