The document provides tips and strategies for pay-per-click (PPC) advertising on Google AdWords and Microsoft AdCenter/Bing Ads. It discusses tools like sitelinks, product listing ads, remarketing, custom audiences, and modified broad match keywords. It also touches on testing ad formats, dynamic insertion, and transitioning accounts between Yahoo and Microsoft following their merger.

1. Search & Social Revelations: PPC

2. Google AdWords New Tools

3. Sitelinks on Ads Add up to 4 sitelinks on an ad of 35 characters. Shows anywhere from 20-30% of impressions. Each site link can go to a different URL. Great for taking up additional SERP space and promoting sales or special offers. A must try for branded or general campaigns.

4. Product Extension Ads Also called “Plus Box” ads. Works with your Google Shopping Product Feed Can’t control which products exactly it pulls for each query. Can put in an attribute for “adwords_prefer_for” and enter in the keyword you would like associated with it. Have to link your Merchant (Google Base) account with your AdWords account. Enabled at the campaign level.

5. Product Extension Ads

6. Remarketing on the Content Network Remarketing is available in the content network only and applied at the ad group level. The content network setting needs to be for placements, not keywords for maximum reach. The best set up is a new campaign for placements and an ad group with no active placements in it. If you want to get the most out of it, have AdWords Conversion Tracking enabled and running, it will import and use some of the same tags. KNOW what/who you want to remarket to BEFORE you start setting up. Strategy first, then implementation.

7. Create a shell campaign targeted to the content network, automatic placements- relevant pages across the network. Target to all devices or whatever your preference and set the maximum CPC to $2 at minimum, $4 for CPM. (If you’re after view through conversions, go with the CPM setting.) Add a site address in the managed placements list as a placeholder and pause that site. Leave the ad group active. In settings, set the frequency cap for the amount of times you want to remarket to users, this is particularly useful for CPM campaigns, CPC can forgo this. If you typically utilize demographic targeting on the content network or have a very specific audience that you use it for, you can layer it into the remarketing settings. However, it will only apply to sites that Google has access to demographic info for- like MySpace, YouTube, etc; It won’t do anything or have minimal impact on any other sites. If you plan on remarketing to a specific demographic of users in MySpace than go ahead and implement those settings. Populate the ad group with your favorite text and/or display ads. Add in your usual list of negative sites or placements if you’ve got any. Later on, you’ll be able to add in negative audiences as well. (See the very end of the post for more on this.) For ad display settings- optimize or rotate, works the same as on the regular content network. Save and then click on that audiences tab, cause it’s time to start creating some remarketing lists and custom combinations!

8. Create Remarketing Lists

9. Remarketing Remarketing Lists

10. Apply Remarketing Lists If you generated new tags, those will need to be placed on the page(s) that you want visitors that hit to be re-marketed to before the program can start working. They should be implemented just like AdWords Conversion tracking, insert the code snippet between the body tags. Bids can be set at different levels for different lists, so be sure to assign the right value to each list by the users you’re targeting. A visitor that abandoned a full cart is more valuable than one that doesn’t add to the cart at all and should be treated as a higher value visitor.

11. Remarketing- Custom Combinations Create layers

12. Custom Combinations If a user frequents a specific site and is also a customer of yours, you can opt to have your ads not to show to them while they are using that site. Instead you can save your advertising dollars to capture those that engaged your site but did not convert. In this option, you can layer audiences using the values of AND, OR and NOT to pull in and exclude from specific interest categories and other remarketing lists.

13. Everything About Remarketing http://www.portentinteractive.com/blog/google-adwords-remarketing.htm

14. Modified Broad Match The broad match modifier is an AdWords targeting feature that lets you create keywords which have greater reach than phrase match, and more control than broad match.

15. Modified Broad Match Broad Match: Matching search query only needs to loosely match 1 word of any of the terms contained within your bidded keyword to display your ad. Targeting & Control: Keyword matching is very loose with a low level of control. Bidding Strategy: Initial bids should be set at a minimum. Anchor Modified Broad Match Matching search query must match the designated “anchor” word contained in the bidded keyword to display ad. Targeting & Control: Limited keyword targeting with minimum level of control. Bidding Strategy: Initial bids should be low for testing and new keyword discovery. Dual Anchor Modified Broad Match: Matching search query needs to match the 2 designated “anchor” words contained in your bidded keyword. Targeting & Control: Selective keyword targeting with a moderate level of control. Bidding Strategy: Initial bids should be moderate. Fully Modified Broad Match: Matching search query needs to match all of the designated “anchor” words contained within the bidded keyword. Targeting & Control: Very good keyword targeting with higher level of control. Bidding Strategy: Initial bids can be set at a competitive level. Source: www.webranking.com/blog

16. Modified Broad Match http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=175280

17. Yahoo + Microsoft = ?

18. Yahoo + Microsoft Merger There are 3 options for the transition: Option 1: Keep your existing adCenter account and augment. Option 2: Create a new adCenter account and import your 3rd party structure. Option 3: Create a new adCenter account and import your Yahoo! structure. Choose your poison wisely! The rule of thumb on all 3 of these is start SOONER rather than later, even if you just pause it until it’s closer to the release date. Don’t forget Canada. Yahoo defines the US and Canada as a single marketplace. Bing does not. If you are catering to Canada in your paid search efforts, be sure to add that market or create a new campaign that does. Don’t forget to tag! Or update your tags! Add that UTM tracking code to the back end of your ads, particularly if you’re a Google Analytics user. If you end up uploading from Yahoo into MSN, make sure you change over any tagging. It’s all one big mess. I asked. Repeatedly. There will NOT be a way to determine in GA what clicks came from Yahoo search and which came from Bing. If ads are tagged the way they have to be to show up in GA as CPC, they will all show as Bing. Until someone figures out how to get around it...

19. Yahoo + Microsoft Merger There will NOT be a report in the adCenter interface that allows you to see which one of the search engines had X number of impressions or clicks. It’s all part of the “unified marketplace.” There WILL be reporting for partner networks still. While you will not be able to tell which is a Yahoo partner and which is a Bing, you will be able to see the URL and exclude it if need be. Each of the engines is keeping their partner networks to themselves as their own property, but serving ads on all of them through the unified marketplace. Watch the budget settings! It’s sometimes prudent in an adCenter campaign to set “spend until depleted” on a campaign for a setting. But if that setting is still in place for the transition and then a mass of traffic comes rushing through the door from Yahoo and you didn’t set a daily budget also...you might be out of money a lot faster than you anticipated. No idea yet if the budget options will see a make over as well. (Let’s hope so.)

20. Testing Ads

21. MSN AdCenter Use capitalization in headlines- while the entire headline can’t all be done in caps, words sure can.

22. More MSN AdCenter Want to use “FREE FREE FREE”? No problem.

23. Look Mom! FREE!

24. Facebook & AdCenter Facebook is a publisher partner of AdCenter – which means that AdCenter ads are showing on Facebook pages. Which also means that whatever format or messaging you’re using in AdCenter, it shows up the same on Facebook.

25. Hey look! SHOP!

26. Just for Men

27. Exploit Popular Movie Lines

28. Using Sounds as Words It’s time we invoke senses in ads! Not just emotions like guilt, anger and shame. Smell-o-vision is on the horizon. If they can hear it, they will come. Snap, Crackle and Pop proved that it works.

29. Mmmm…Cookies Crispy, Crumbly Butter Cookies. Free Shipping on Orders of $25+ Drinking Glass Sets Crack! Smash. Tinkle. Replace Your Broken Glasses. Slurp Your Soup Gourmet Canned Soups to be Slurped in the Comfort of Home. Brake Shoes & Pads Avoid that Fingernail on Chalkboard Squeak, Eeek! Free Estimates. Basketball Equipment Swish! Bounce & Slam Dunk With Officially Licensed Gear.

30. Exploit Popular Movie Lines

31. Dynamic Insertion in Display URLs Insert a dynamic keyword at the end: www.examplesite.com/{keyword:woo-hoo} Use all caps to really make it pop {KEYWORD} The shorter the URL the better, drop the “www” for example. Separate words with a “+”

32. Be Dynamic!

33. Write Ads that Sound Dirty, but Aren’t. Buying toner is extremely boring. Spice it up! Get that sale by making them laugh. Appeal to the gutter minded. Editorial Guidelines can shove it. Finally, an outlet at work that enables you to showcase your poet-like abilities.

34. Empty Toner Cartridges? Don’t Dip Into the Company Ink! Buy Toner Online. Ships Free. Year End Surplus? Blow Your Budget in 3 Clicks. Avoid Budget Cuts & Restructure. Weight Loss Drink Less Cushion for the Pushing with Ultra-Slimmer Drinks! Stimulating Exercise Tone & Strengthen Any Muscle. Money Back Guarantee. Get Completely Screwed Screw Often, Hard & Accurately! Shop Phillips Screwdriver Kits.

35. What is Quality Score and Why Should You Care?

36. What Google Says Quality Score is a dynamic variable calculated for each of your keywords. It combines a variety of factors and measures how relevant your keyword is to your ad text and to a user's search query. What does that mean? It’s how they figure out which ad shows and which one doesn’t on a search results page. It’s also how they figure out who shows in what position and how much everybody pays if their ad gets clicked on.

37. How do they figure that out? It’s an algorithm that Google developed to weigh all the factors that they want to base the score on. The actual algorithm of the Google Quality Score is guarded like KFC’s 11 herbs and spices. No one actually knows outside of Google. The reason is that if people knew exactly how to manipulate the system, they would. Thus making it an unfair playing field for all advertisers. And it makes for a less relevant user experience. If Google gets to pick who shows up where, the advertiser with the biggest budget doesn’t always win. It’s the advertiser who matches what the user was searching for most. Google does tell us some factors that they use, so that advertisers have some idea what is going on. We’re able to guess a few of the rest.

38. What are the factors? #1 RELEVANCY Bids (how much are you bidding?) Budget (how much do you have to spend?) Click through rate (do people like your ad?) Click through rate history (how long have they liked your ad?) Account history (who was here first?) Landing page (does the page the ad goes to make sense?) Landing page load time (how long does it take?) Keywords as they relate to the ad and ad group (are you trying to run some sort of scam?) Geography (is your ad for a store in WA trying to sell to CA customers over a CA store for the same thing?)

39. What is the Quality Score Applied to? Account Campaign Ad Groups Ads Keywords What are the levels of the Quality Score? Poor OK Great

40. What are the Quality Score detail numbers? 1-4: Poor, 5-7: OK, and 8-10: Great The Quality Score detail scale is brand new and is based an a per keyword level. It gives the advertiser an idea of where their keyword stands and recommendations on how to improve their number.

41. Quality Score Facts Every search the QS is recalculated. You can’t see this happening or in your account, but each time, Google is compiling whether or not your visible score should be changed. The QS is constantly undergoing tweaks by Google. Sometimes they screw it up royally, sometimes you don’t even notice that anything was really changed. You can be super relevant, but if they keyword is really popular (or not at all) and the historic CTR of the keywords (in overall search) is low, you can still get hit with a “poor” QS.

42. Quality Score Facts Cont; Quality Score for landing pages are not calculated on each search, but throughout the day. Quality Score used to really only apply to keywords and ads, it’s only recently that we’ve figured out the application to entire accounts. If you ever see this, next to a PPC ad, take a screenshot. It means Google is leaking.