Adwords includes click count

Google has included yet another innovative feature in its Adwords offering – a click count feature that shows the number of clicks the advertiser has garnered. The experiment was officially confirmed by a Google spokesperson.

What is still unclear though, is the method of calculation of these clicks. Is the count shown a sum of clicks for the entire campaign, ad, or over the advertiser’s account history?

The impact of this experiment could be far reaching – higher click counts could end up boosting click-through rates (CTR), since viewers would definitely be inclined to click on ‘established’ ads. In this case, the advantages of long term advertising come back to the fore. Advertisers and agencies will have to rethink their strategies. Further, this measure could end up increasing the importance of click-through rates (CTR) over cost-per acquisition (CPA).

Pam of Search Engine Land rightly said "it's not clear whether advertisers are aware that they’ve agreed to allow public display of what most likely consider proprietary information." Advertisers would definitely not want competitors to know important statistics such as this one.

At Pipon Solutions, we try to keep a track of changes in the search landscape. What do you make of this particular feature? Should Google make it a standard feature?

Resources that will help you learn the art of paid search

In the dynamic world of paid search, you either keep up-to-date with the latest happenings in the arena or get left behind. This blog outlines some of the resources and help available to equip yourself with the necessary knowledge required.

PPC blogs: You may look at Google’s official blog on adwords and the Google Analytics blog. Another useful resource is the Inside Search blog. The Agency Blog and the Merchant Blog are two more informative blogs that you might find handy. You may also subscribe to updates on Twitter and Facebook to stay up-to-date.

PPC videos: Google runs a number of official Youtube channels to help you gain an understanding of Adwords and Analytics. The Business Channel covers Google analytics, adwords and other related topics. Two other official channels on Youtube are the Google analytics channel and Think with Google.

Learning Centre: The Learning Centre is a fantastic resource for you to study adwords. The analytics education page helps you to get familiar with Google analytics.

Other online resources: In its press section, Google runs a directory of its official presence on Twitter, Facebook, blog and Youtube. Google also offers online webinars in its classroom and a number of support pages -  AdWords Help including a beginner’s guide, known issues with adwords and help pages for Merchant Centre.

Of course, you can always keep referring to our blog or look at our pages on paid search management. If you need further professional help, get in touch with us. At Pipon Solutions, we always endeavour to provide the best professional help to our clients.

Google launches Instant Pages

Digital marketers last week waited in anticipation of recent innovations to Google at the Inside Search event in Mountain View, California.  What we received was yet another innovative feature to the Google repertoire – Google Instant Pages. 


Executives at Google claim that this new Chrome-only feature will possibly reduce search times by 2 to 5 seconds. This will work by pre-loading the top two search results. Engineers at Google are becoming more confident of Google’s ability to answer queries exactly. With the launch of this feature, the company in fact is actually betting on its ability to predict what you are looking for.

Analysts point out to the fact that in an attempt to speed up search by pre-loading the top results, the other results in the page could take longer to load. Pre-rendering pages will also waste precious bandwidth if the user goes on to click links at the bottom of the page.

So how will this news affect web site owners who want to know how many times their webpage has actually been viewed? This new feature will definitely affect web analytics data. Google is actually advising web developers to look into the page visibility API, a draft specification that provides developers with a way to determine the visibility of a specific web page.

At Pipon Solutions, we have always made it a point to stay on top of the latest happenings in the world of Search. We’ve made it a point to incorporate necessary changes to our SEO strategy in order to accommodate this structural change in search.

Google introduces Instant Previews on paid search

Last year Google took instant search to a new level by introducing ‘Instant Previews’. Instant Previews provide end users a graphic overview of a website (search result) and highlight the most relevant sections. The end user simply clicks on a magnifying glass icon next to the listing they wish to see. A small preview of the website pops up into a frame, highlighting the most relevant sections, allowing the end user to preview the website without leaving the Search Engine Results Page (SERP), thus making finding the right web page easier and the whole process more efficient.

Last week, Google brought in the ‘Instant Preview’ feature on paid search as well. So how will this feature affect the way buyers search on Google?

The end user will definitely save a lot of his/her time by clicking on the magnifying glass icon. He/she will be able to quickly glance through the sponsored search results to gain a better understanding of those featured links. The advertiser, on the other hand, will benefit from more qualified traffic and decreased costs. How is that possible? Well, since the preview allows the end user to research a bit more about the page he/she is about to view, they are more likely to click on those links that are relevant and present exactly what is being searched for. On the downside, the clunky preview frame could take up a lot of screen space. Laptops/desktops with smaller screens may present difficulties to the end user trying to see the Instant Previews. Advertisers also need to be a lot more careful about their landing pages, since landing pages determine what the end user sees when he/she clicks on the magnifying glass icon. Both CPA (cost per acquisition) and CTR (Click through rates) should see a dip. Conversions will probably see a boost. Hence, Advertisers should examine their preview pages, investigating whether their preview pages are being shown correctly. Eye catching images could be used on landing pages to entice end users to click on the link. The performance metrics might not change by much for branded keywords as for competitive generic keywords. This is because end users searching for specific brands are more likely to be sure of what they want and less likely to engage in research.

Join Pipon Solutions in debating how instant previews are going to change paid search management.

PPC - AOL's Project Devil, Could It Be Apocalyptic To the Existing Display Advertising?

Presentable, extremely interactive, more relevant but most of all bigger and better is what AOL had in mind when they created 'Project Devil'. So what is it and why could it end the contemporary form of display advertising?

It is a new method of advertising products using online-magazine style content on the display advertising network. A user’s advert appears on the whole right side bar of a webpage and their ad solely occupies the ad space without any competition. The ad formats and features available range from Interactivity, video and social media integration and all in one package.

AOL launched this project last month; starting with a couple of their websites; ‘moviefone.com’ and ‘StyleList.com’. Plans are undergoing to include eight additional websites in their network by November 2010; potential brand currently campaigning on the network includes Cheerios, Macy’s, Sprint, Suave Professionals and Pillsbury Crescents. Websites not owned by AOL will also be part of the network to expand their segment.

This form of display advertising is AOL’s solutions to minimise noise within the communicative process of internet advertising. Devil reduces page clutter, keeping the acutely targeted audience focused on the client’s advert. The additional benefits, which Pipon believes is Devil’s unique selling point, is its ability to blend the adverts on a webpage they’re placed on, & interact with the visitors without their knowledge of its commercial purposes.

Granting it is too early to advise and forecast its performance and expectation, Pipon believes this could be a new web innovation, inspired from magazine advertising to give great exposure to clients, however it raises a couple of issues which if not tackled can halt its potential accomplishments.

For instance, currently cost of running a campaign on Devil is high, which in return limits their clientele to big brands. In addition to that, their display advertising structure restricts the ad placement to one advert per page, which unfortunately affects their click rates to decrease.

Dirk Freytag, SVP at AOL and CEO of AdTech claims not to be concerned in a statement by ClickZ News, where he explains that “although the inventory volume (AOL’s) has decreased, ad revenue has remained the same. The company expects its ad revenue to grow as the Devil promos are disseminated across its sites”

PPC: Google Resurrected 'Simple Ad' To Lead Businesses

Simple Ads, a notion created to help small businesses to advertise easier on Google’s AdWords. The approach, which was conceived quite a few years ago, was never officially launched because Google was supposedly never satisfied with the end results of the product. The product was intended to help small businesses use AdWords faster and more efficient by automatically creating and managing their campaign for them without the need of a third party agency.

Although the project was put on hold, Google didn’t stop their attempts to support and assist small businesses. They created various ad products which focus heavily in supporting small businesses; such as Local Listing Ads and Tags.  

Those SMBs ad product won’t the only one targeted at small businesses anymore, as early this week Google resurrected their Simple Ads project and manage to complete, and launching under the enthusiastic name ‘Boost’.

It is presumably at a testing stage within certain markets, however its functions has been posted as automatically creating campaign for business focusing on a business’s sector and information in the listing. No bidding, No keyword research, all a business need to do is set a monthly budget and Google will take care of the rest, like decide on the keyword triggers.

The only requirement SMBs are expected to ensure is a Places page set up, which is essential for setting up ‘Boost’. Working to Google’s advantage this will forces businesses create a Places page.

Pipon believes 'Boost' could be a significant breakthrough for small businesses that cannot afford services provided by internet advertising agencies. However, Pipon also believe, in comparison to'Boost', internet marketing services take a more personalized approach to help establish a successful campaign. In addition, using an internet marketing agency like Pipon provides small businesses with the flexibility of targeting a wider audience using other internet advertising programs such as AdCentre, Twitter and Facebook.

It would also be interesting to observe Boost's performance in comparison to using AdWords manually and  how Google would market this ad product to SMBs. It is too early to determine if ‘Boost’ would affect the internet marketing industry, however by simplifying AdWords, renders the program more attractive to a wider audience.