Knowledge is the Foundation To Success  

It is important, when managing your PPC advertising accounts that you analyze your top spending keywords.  Here at JumpFly, when I am just checking in on an account, the first thing I do is sort by cost.  The higher the cost of a keyword, an ad group or a campaign, the more attention is warranted.

So one question to ask yourself when looking at these “top spenders” is – Are they also your top sellers?  They should be. 

You should already have a solid understanding of your top selling products or services.  And these items may change seasonally for you.

But you should also pay attention to your top spenders in your PPC advertising campaigns and be sure you are

1. Spending your advertising dollars in the right place and
2. Responding to the market.  If you find that certain terms have escalated in search volume and interest, maybe something needs to change with your product or service offerings.

Another question to consider:  Are your top spending keywords broad match? 

Be careful here.  Remember that broad match at Google AdWords is actually expanded match – Google shows your ad on “relevant” keywords.   While expanded match can be a very productive method to make sure you are showing whenever possible, it can also be difficult to tell what you are spending your ad dollars on.  The search query report is extremely important when you are running on broad match terms.  This report gives you insight into terms that are working well for your campaign and terms that should be excluded.

More about Kristie

Amid growing concern, Google and Yahoo! both announced the planned Google – Yahoo! alliance will be delayed. Both companies released similar statements, with Google saying, “When we announced our advertising agreement with Yahoo in June we agreed to delay its implementation until October to give regulators time to look at the details. As we are still in conversation with the Department of Justice we have agreed to a brief delay in implementing the agreement while those discussions continue.”

This is not too surprising based on the increasing opposition this deal continues to face on various fronts. I knew the anti-trust investigation was serious back in July when the Department of Justice contacted us here at JumpFly. Some big organizations in opposition include the World Association of Newspapers, which represents over 18,000 newspapers, and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), which represents over 400 companies and 9,000 brands (view previous article and video about this).

Looks to me like this deal is likely not going to ever happen. Google and Yahoo’s combined search market share would be a staggering 83%, a number that more and more parties are not comfortable with. The immediate loser that comes to mind here is Yahoo! as they stood to gain an additional $800 million per year in revenue from this deal. Ouch. However, this was a strange agreement anyway, where two arch- rivals were looking to work together. One winner here is Microsoft, who is hanging on to 8% share of the search market and trying to avoid elimination from the search engine marketing arena. They would love to see this deal permanently tabled. Time will tell, but for now, no deal.

More about Brad

Recent Google News:
Google News Recap – New G1 Phone, Chrome Browser, Stock Madness and More

Google News:

New G1 Phone/ Android Operating System News
Early last week, the first cell phone with Google’s Android software was released, called the G1. The new G1 Google phone will be available in stores October 22nd. It comes pre-packed with various Google services, encouraging use of the Internet on phones. Learn More.

Chrome Browser News
So far, Google’s new Chrome Web Browser is slow to be embraced. Various sources indicate that Chrome’s market share is about 1% and not increasing. However, it is just 1 month old. Here at JumpFly, analytics data informs me that 3% of our users access our website via Chrome.

Crazy GOOG Stock Price Swing
Apparently, a huge quantity of erroneous trades sent to the Nasdaq Stock Market, caused Google’s share price to swing wildly Tuesday afternoon, soaring as high as $485 per share and falling as low as $25! The errors were corrected the next day, but for those involved, this must have seemed like total insanity at the time.

Google AdWords News:

New Quality Score Improvements
Per Google, new Quality Score improvements are getting rolled out this week. The three main improvements are:

1. Quality Score calculations will be more accurate
2. Keywords are no longer marked ‘inactive for search’
3. ‘First page bid estimates’ replace ‘minimum bids’ 

View Nikki’s recent article about Google’s quality score update to learn more.

Google Site Statistics Logo News
Attention everyone using Google AdWords conversion tracking - As of this week, conversion tracking users are no longer required to display the “Google Site Stats” logo on the conversion pages of their web sites. Learn more.

Google AdWords Launched Smart Positioning Beta
The goal of Google AdWords Smart Positioning is to place an ad in the most cost-effective position each time it is displayed on Google and the search network, with the end goal of achieving more clicks for the same total cost.

And to cap it off, Google just announced an ambitious $4 trillion plan to “transform our economy from one running on fossil fuels to one largely based on clean energy”. Well if anyone can pull it off, it’s these guys. So what’s next? Maybe Google for President? The way things are going right now, they just might get my vote!

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Recent Google News Video