AdWords MENA Blog

Google Analytics is now available in 9 new languages

2012-02-08T14:55:00.000Z

Recently we introduced new and improved Google Analytics, so that you can quickly find even more powerful and useful data to improve your internet marketing efforts.

Now, we are proud to say Google Analytics is available in 9 new languages including Arabic. This makes Google Analytics quite a Polyglot, and it is in total available in 40 languages now.

To change the language of Analytics account to any of these new languages, you have to activate the new interface, if you haven’t already, by clicking on the “new version” button at the top of the account. Then, navigate to the settings page where you can select the new language.

You can also now enjoy reading the newly revamped Analytics help center in Arabic.

We are confident this will improve the usage of Google Analytics across the world, and help website owners and AdWords advertisers get even more out of their internet marketing efforts.

Happy data mining!

Posted by Georgios Fanis - Google AdWords MENA

The tools that will make all the difference – Part 9

2012-01-17T15:14:00.000Z

This is the final post in our series 'The tools that will make all the difference’. The aim of the series was to introduce you to additional tools that might be new to you, and to help you use Google AdWords in order to achieve your online advertising goals more successfully. The final post in the series will introduce Google Analytics.

Google Analytics

About the tool:

A free Google tool that displays statistics for your website and allows you to find out where your website visitors came from and what kind of interaction they had with your website.

How does it help?

By installing this tool on your web pages, you can view richer information, such as:

Identify how many visitors were led to your site by specific keywords
Identify the entry source to your website (Google AdWords ads, Google's organic search engine, by clicking a link that was attached to an email, etc.)
Identify the browsers that your visitors use (and hence improve their user experience on your site).
Identify the geographic source of your site's traffic.
Learn which are the most and least viewed pages on your site, and make improvements accordingly.
Identify pages on your site that visitors tend to leave.
View the values of time on site per page.
Compare the data across different time ranges.

How to use it?

First you need to set up a Google Analytics account at:

http://www.google.com/analytics

Then, just like with the Conversion Tracking tool, you should copy a code snippet and paste it into the HTML code of your site. See detailed instructions at:

http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55522

Finally, you should link your Google AdWords account with your Google AdWords account, as specified on the following page.

Posted by Georgios Fanis - Google AdWords MENA

The tools that will make all the difference – Part 8

2011-12-14T12:08:00.000Z

The next two posts in our series 'The tools that will make all the difference', cover tools that will help you measure your online advertising ROI.

Conversion Tracking

About the tool:

This tool will help you check whether you achieved your advertising goals, and at what cost, in order to meet your business goals.

How does it help?

This free Google AdWords tool allows you to statistically check how many of the clicks on your Google AdWords ads led to the completion of a valuable action on your website, such as filling out an online form, purchasing a product, viewing a video, etc.

How to use it?

In order to use this tool, you first need to copy the conversion code from your Google AdWords account (Reporting & Tools tab > Conversions), and then paste the code snippet into the HTML of the website that you want to test. Once you've installed the code, AdWords Conversion Tracking will place a cookie on the computer or mobile phone of the website visitor, if they clicked one of your ads. If the user lands on one of your conversion pages, AdWords records a successful conversion for you.

Learn more about the tool in this Help Centre article.

Posted by Georgios Fanis - Google AdWords MENA

The tools that will make all the difference – Part 7

2011-12-07T11:29:00.001Z

At Google, we believe that decisions should be made based on the most comprehensive and accurate information possible, and therefore our engineers aim to create tools that will help our advertisers make informed decisions after an in-depth review of their campaigns.

Our seventh post in the series 'The tools that will make all the difference' covers a tool that will allow you to review the efficiency of the landing page that you publish through Google AdWords.

The Website Optimiser:

About the tool:

The Website Optimiser helps you improve your site's efficiency and your ROI, by checking whether changes in the site content are more effective in generating conversions (i.e. in leading visitors to your site in order to complete a valuable action, such as filling out a form, making a purchase, viewing a video, etc.)

How does it help?

This tool allows you to select a web page or parts of a web page that you want to test – page title, image or text, and run an experiment on different parts of your website traffic in order to determine the combination or change that will generate the most desired results. Upon completion of the experiment, our system will provide you with reliable reports and future recommendations.

How to use it?

In order to use this tool, you need to design an experiment using the Website Optimiser. To do this, please refer to our online guide.

Learn more about the tool in this Help Centre article.

Posted by Georgios Fanis - Google AdWords MENA

The tools that will make all the difference – Part 6

2011-11-28T15:18:00.001Z

Our previous post in the series 'The tools that will make all the difference' covered a tool that helps advertisers on Google's Display Network to upgrade their campaign through the Placement Tool, which is ideal for advertisers who use managed placement targeting. Today we will learn about another, complimentary tool that is aimed at advertisers who want to use the contextual targeting technique on the Display Network.

Contextual Targeting Tool

About the tool:

Once you've decided to build a managed placement-targeted campaign for the Display Network (contextual targeting), we recommend that you review the suggestions from this tool, as it will save you many work hours and help you find additional keywords for your campaign.

How does it help?

This tool helps by providing more ideas and new keywords for your Display Network campaign, based on your current keyword list.

How to use it?

Learn more about the tool in this Help Centre article.

Posted by Georgios Fanis - Google AdWords MENA

How do I build the best keyword list?

2011-11-24T15:02:00.001Z

Selecting the right keyword list for your campaign can help you show your ads to the customers you want, when you want. Remember that the keywords you come up with ultimately have to match those that will come from your potential customers, so below are some tips that can help you build an effective keyword list.

Basic Tips

1. Think like a customer when you create your initial list.

Write down the main categories of your business and the terms or phrases that might fall under each of those categories. Include terms or phrases your customers would use to describe your products or services.

For example, if you're selling athletic footwear, you might start off with some basic categories that customers would use, like "men's sports shoes." You can also add "men's sneakers," or “men’s tennis shoes,” if you find out these are commonly used terms for your product. Expand your list further by including your brand and product names.

2. Group similar keywords.

Try grouping your keywords into themes. These themes can be based on your products, services, or other categories. For example, if you sell electronics, you can have a group of keywords for "cameras" and another group of keywords for "televisions." Then you can create separate ad groups for these groups of keywords and have specific ads for "cameras" and specific ads for "televisions."

3. Pick the right number of keywords.

Most advertisers find it useful to have somewhere between 5 and 20 keywords per ad group. If you use broad match type, as opposed to phrase match or exact match, you don't need to include other variations of your keywords, like possible misspellings, plural versions, uppercase or lowercase, etc.

4. Select more general or specific keywords depending on your goal.

Choose general keywords if you'd like your ad to be eligible to appear for a large number of search terms. A large shoe retail store would choose a general keyword like "shoes." However, in most cases, adding very general keywords might make it difficult to reach potential customers because your ad might appear for searches that aren't always related to your business. Also, more general keywords can be more competitive and may require higher bid amounts.

To reach users more effectively, select more specific keywords that directly relate to your ad's theme. But keep in mind that if the keywords are too specific, you might not be able to reach as many users as you'd like. If you sell specialized shoes, for example, using a specific keyword would mean your ad only appears for keywords that apply to your business.

Keep in mind, though, that if the keywords are too specific, you might not be able to reach as many users as you'd like. You can try testing out more and less specific keywords and then decide which ones give you better results.

No matter how general or specific your keywords are, they should always be as relevant to your ads and website as possible.

Posted by Georgios Fanis - Google AdWords MENA

The tools that will make all the difference – Part 5

2011-11-15T11:25:00.001Z

The fourth part of our series 'The tools that will make all the difference' covered the Display Network, and how the Display Ad Builder can promote successful advertising on this network. Today's post, the fifth in our series, covers another tool that will help you when advertising on the Display Network – the Placement Tool.

Note that our next post will cover a complimentary tool, the Contextual Targeting Tool, which is ideal for advertisers who wish to contextually target the Display Network.

Placement Tool

About the tool:

We recommend using this tool when deciding to build a managed placement-targeted campaign for the Display Network, as this tool can save you many hours of work and will find the most relevant websites for your campaign.

How does it help?

Click one of your valuable keywords and view a list of websites that our system found as relevant for it. You can understand which types of ads are advertised in each of these placements, as well as their daily impressions and estimated costs.

How to use it?

You can access this tool from within your Google AdWords account, on the Network tab. On the right side of the screen, you'll see an option to try this tool by adding placements (by clicking the Add Placements button) in your campaign. See detailed steps of how to use this tool in this article.

Learn more about the tool in this Help Centre article.

Posted by Omar Selman - Google AdWords MENA

The tools that will make all the difference – Part 4

2011-11-10T11:57:00.000Z

Today we are publishing our fourth post in the series 'The tools that will make all the difference', which covers a tool that was recently launched in Arabic – the Display Ad Builder tool.

Display Ad Builder tool

About the tool: Alongside the development of Google's Display Network, more and more advertisers allocate significant portions of their advertising budgets to other types of ads apart from Text Ads. The aim of this tool is to enable the average advertiser to get the most out of the Display Network.

How does it help? This tool allows you to build ads with very little time and effort. You can select the background colours, fonts, pictures and text of the ad template, and save the ad in any size and shape available for the Google Display Network.

How to use it? First you should verify that you've opted your campaign into Google's Display Network. Then you can access the tool by selecting the option Display Ad Builder, from the New Ad drop-down menu. Learn more here.

Learn more about the tool in this Help Centre Article.

Posted by Omar Abou Selman - Google AdWords MENA

The tools that will make all the difference – Part 3

2011-11-07T12:34:00.001Z

The third post in the series 'The tools that will make all the difference' covers the My Change History tool.

My Change History Tool

About the tool:
This tool allows you to track changes that you've made in your account (as of 1/1/2006), to gain a better understanding of how these changes affect your campaign's performance.

How does it help? The tool will allow you to view changes that you've made in the following areas:

Changes in the daily budget.
Additions and deletions of keywords from the account.
Changes in your ads' distribution preferences.
Changes made through Google AdWords API interface.

How to use it?
You can access the tool from within your Google AdWords account, or by clicking here.

Learn more about the tool in this Help Centre article.

Posted by Omar Selman - Google AdWords MENA

New Ad Placements on Search

2011-11-03T09:46:00.000Z

Over the past few months, we’ve been updating the design and experience of Google Search and all of our other products to give users a more seamless and consistent online experience. As part of these look and feel changes, we are now introducing new ad placements on Google Search.

Starting today, ads that have previously shown to the side of the results may in some cases appear below them. We dynamically optimise each search page, including its ads, to provide the best experience for our users.

In many cases, we have found that displaying ads below search results fits better into the user’s flow as they scan the page from top to bottom. On average, this placement performed better than side ads in terms of click-through rate in our tests.

If you’re interested in comparing the performance of your ads in the Top positions versus all other positions, you may use the “Top v Side” segment. With this launch, all side, bottom and experiment impressions will now be classified as "Other" so you can more easily see how your top ad placements perform against placements on the rest of the page. In the coming weeks, “Top v Side” will be renamed to “Top vs. Other”.

Visit the AdWords Help Centre to learn more about ad positions.

Posted by Omar Selman - Google AdWords MENA

The tools that will make all the difference – Part 2

2011-11-01T08:51:00.003Z

This is another (second) post in the series 'The tools that will make all the difference', and this time we are introducing the Traffic Estimator tool.

Traffic Estimator
About the tool: Another option within the Keyword Tool that estimates traffic on your selected keywords in your account, based on the max. CPC and your daily budget.

How does it help?
It will allow you to predict the following parameters for keywords in your account:

Estimates of searches on your keywords per month, globally and nationally.
Estimates the average CPC.
Estimates the average ad position for the keyword in the search query.
Estimates of daily clicks.
Estimates of daily cost of the tested keyword.

How to use it?
You can find this tool under the Reporting and Tools tab in your Google AdWords account. Alternatively, you can use the standalone version available by clicking here.

Learn more about the tool in this Help Centre article

Posted by Omar Selman - Google AdWords MENA

Location Targeting gets a Makeover

2011-10-31T14:19:00.000Z

Today, many businesses are using location targeting in their online ad campaigns to reach the right customers and improve campaign performance. Online agency iProspect, for example, uses location targeting to focus on top performing geographic areas for their client Talbots. As a result, they were able to lower their cost-per-click (CPC) by 36 percent, driving higher quality leads at a lower cost.

To provide an even better experience for our advertisers, we’ve connected the location targeting feature within AdWords to Google Maps. This will allow us to provide more information about locations, make relevant location suggestions, and improve the level of accuracy of our location targeting. We think these changes will make location targeting an even more useful tool for improving your campaign results.

Today we're announcing the first of these changes--a makeover to the location targeting interface within AdWords. The new Location Targeting Tool will make it easier to discover and obtain more detail on potential target locations.

Easily Discover Locations

Let’s say that you want to target your latest AdWords campaign to New York City. On your Campaign Settings tab, as you type “New York” into the search box in the location targeting section, you’ll instantly see helpful search suggestions. The suggestions include (1) matches like the city of New York, (2) locations that enclose New York (such as the state of New York), and (3) related locations that may be near the location that you've entered, have a similar name, or enclose a location that has a similar name. You can then pick the options that make the most sense for your business and quickly make the appropriate selection.

You can also view your locations via a map, which shows more detailed location outlines. The new tool also allows you to view the boundaries of multiple locations that you’ve selected simultaneously, so you can see how much area the city of New York (smaller area shaded in blue) covers in relation to the entire New York metro area (larger area shaded in gray). Once you choose a location, you can easily add, exclude, or view nearby locations by clicking the appropriate links.

More Detail on Locations

We now offer reach numbers to help you estimate the audience within your selected target. These reach numbers are based on the number of users seen on Google properties and may differ significantly from census numbers. Reach should be used only as general guidance to help you determine the relative number of users in a location target compared to other locations. For example, you can see from the screenshot below that targeting the Dallas metro area could result in three times the reach of the city of Dallas.

Additionally, we will use the ‘Limited reach’ label to indicate locations where we may not be able to associate users with a selected location based on their devices' Internet Protocol (IP) address. In these instances, we will primarily be using user intent data rather than device location data to target these locations.

When you target a radius (also known as proximity targeting), we’ll show ‘Locations within this target’ so you know exactly which areas are covered by your radius. You can also choose to ‘Add all’ of the individual locations within your radius.

Additional ChangesBeyond the new features mentioned above, here are a few more changes to be aware of when planning your campaign.

Increased location targeting limits: We’ve increased the location target limits from 300 to 10,000 locations (plus 500 additional proximity targets) per campaign.

Polygon targeting migration: For existing polygon targets, you will see a ‘feature removal planned’ badge which will signify that we will continue to support this feature through the end of the year. We recommend using the Target a radius feature which now allows you to selectively add locations within your radius target. You can also run a geographic performance report to get an idea of which locations received traffic within your custom shapes and target those individual locations.

We hope you enjoy the new Location Targeting Tool and explore ways to use geographic reports and location targeting to optimize your campaigns. As always, we welcome your feedback through the Contact Us link in AdWords and we encourage you to review our FAQs through the AdWords Help Center for more details.

Posted by Omar Selman - Google AdWords MENA

The tools that will make all the difference – Part 1

2011-10-27T11:10:00.001+01:00

Today we are launching a series of brief posts about free Google AdWords tools.

Each post will introduce a different tool that will allow you to improve your campaign's performance and increase your ROI. Enjoy using these tools!

Ad Preview Tool
About the tool: Once you've finished building your campaign, this tool will help you, check whether your ads are shown in Google's search engine, and how they appear in it.

How does it help?
It allows you to view your ads without accruing any additional impressions for your ads

How to use it? You can access the tool by clicking on here

Note: We recommend accessing the tool while you're logged in to your Google AdWords account, so that our system can help you diagnose the reason for not seeing your ads, if you can't see them with the tool.

Learn more about the tool in this Help Centre article

Posted by Omar Selman - Google AdWords MENA

When Several Keywords Match a Search Query, Which One is Used? - Part 3

2011-10-24T11:09:00.000+01:00

However, the AdWords system has some exceptions that may apply to all of the preferences listed above. The exceptions to the preference rules shown above may occur when:

A campaign is limited by budget

Campaign daily budget can affect each of the scenarios above. If a keyword is in a budget-restricted campaign -- meaning that the campaign's budget isn't high enough to accrue all possible traffic -- the keyword won't always be able to trigger an ad even if it otherwise could. This helps prevent the campaign from exceeding its budget.

For example, let's look at how a budget-restricted campaign would affect keyword use when multiple keywords are the same but have different match types:

Suppose you have the exact-match keyword "plumber" in Campaign 1 and the broad-match keyword "plumber" in Campaign 2. All else being equal, the exact-matched keyword would trigger an ad for the search query "plumber".

If Campaign 1 were budget-restricted, however, then the exact-matched keyword would sometimes be unable to trigger an ad. This would allow the broad-matched keyword in Campaign 2 to trigger an ad instead.

Learn how to figure out the daily budget needed for a campaign to capture all possible traffic.

There is a cheaper keyword with a higher Quality Score and Ad Rank

On rare occasions, the system will prefer to use a keyword that is cheaper (i.e., it has a lower bid), has a higher Quality Score, and has a higher Ad Rank. Here's an example:

Query: plumber tool
Keyword from ad group 1: plumber tools (maximum CPC bid = $0.10, Quality Score = 30, Ad Rank = 3.0)
Keyword from ad group 2: plumber tool (maximum CPC bid = $0.15, Quality Score = 4, Ad Rank = 0.6)

Ordinarily, the keyword from ad group 2 would be preferred because it matches the query more closely than the keyword from ad group 1. However, the keyword from ad group 1 is cheaper, has a higher a Quality Score, and has a higher Ad Rank. Therefore, the system will prefer showing the keyword from ad group 1 in this instance.

In rare cases, the keyword with the highest Ad Rank might seem to be less relevant to a particular search query than other eligible keywords. Because higher relevance is generally correlated with a higher Ad Rank, this will happen infrequently. To check for it, run a Search Query Performance report. If you see an instance in which the less relevant keyword triggers an ad, add that search query as a negative keyword to that keyword's ad group.

An ad group contains a YouTube Promoted Video

YouTube Promoted Videos are preferred over text ads on YouTube. Here's an example:

Query conducted on YouTube: plumber tool
Keyword from ad group 1: plumber tool (and is associated with a text ad)
Keyword from ad group 2: plumber tools (and is associated with a YouTube Promoted Video)

Ordinarily, the keyword from ad group 1 would be preferred because it matches the query more closely than the keyword from ad group 2. However, the keyword from ad group 2 is associated with a YouTube Promoted Video, and the query was conducted on YouTube. Therefore, the system will prefer showing the keyword from ad group 2 in this instance.

Posted by Omar Selman - Google AdWords MENA

Introducing Dynamic Search Ads (beta)

2011-10-20T12:06:00.000+01:00

For many online businesses, each day you might have hundreds of new listings, items that temporarily change availability, or are permanently removed from stock. And at the same time, user search behavior can be a moving target. Each day, Google has never seen 16% of searches before. So even well-managed AdWords campaigns containing thousands of well-chosen keywords can miss relevant searches, experience delays getting ads written for new products, and get out of sync with what’s actually available on your web site.

That’s obviously not ideal for advertisers. It’s also not ideal for end users who appreciate relevant ads linked to in-stock landing pages that perfectly match what they’re searching for.

To help with these challenges, we’re launching Dynamic Search Ads, a new way to target relevant searches with dynamic ads generated right from your website. Dynamic Search Ads have been designed to complement your traditional keyword-targeted ads to deliver more clicks and conversions with less effort.

Dynamic Targeting, Ads and Landing Pages
DSA use Google’s organic web crawling and search relevance technologies to maintain a fresh index of what you’re selling on your website and trigger your ad when a relevant search occurs. Other systems then dynamically generate an ad text headline based on the search query and the text on your most relevant landing page. The rest of the ad is based on a template you create when you set up DSA.

Dynamic Search Ads compete normally in the AdWords auction, but only when you don’t have an eligible keyword-targeted ad for that search. As a result, Dynamic Search Ads only appear for searches where you’d otherwise not show an ad, giving you increased coverage and additive results.

User Experience & Performance
When users see ads and landing pages that deliver exactly what they’re searching for, they’re more likely to click and convert. So it’s not surprising that we’ve seen solid performance in limited testing so far. While results vary, the majority of advertisers in our pilot have seen 5-10% increase in clicks and conversions with satisfactory ROI.

Some advertisers have the potential for better results. Apartment Home Living, a leading U.S. apartment lifestyle and matching website, is one example. Lawrence Cotter, General Manager, manages their huge online inventory of apartment listings that’s constantly changing and growing. Over the past 5 years, his AdWords campaigns have topped 15 million keywords. Several weeks after implementing DSA, he reported:

“Using Dynamic Search Ads increased conversions by almost 50% with an average cost-per-conversion that’s 73% less than our traditional search ads.

Dynamic Search Ads are doing a really good job finding the right searches to tap into, creating good ads, and getting visitors to the most relevant page on our site.”

Controls, Reporting and Optimization
You specify whether you want to target your whole site, specific categories of products on your site, pages containing certain words, or pages containing certain strings in your URL. The same controls can be used as negatives, along with traditional keyword negatives, to refine your targeting and avoid promoting pages with items that are unavailable. You still control your CPC bid for each target.

As your Dynamic Search campaigns run, you get full reporting on the queries that generated clicks, the matched destination pages and ad headlines generated, average CPC, clicks, and conversions. Many popular third party tracking systems are also supported.

With these reports and targeting controls, you can optimize Dynamic Search Ads using familiar approaches. To maximize conversions, break out higher performing categories and increase bids, while reducing bids for lower performing categories. Use negatives to stop appearing for certain searches or to stop promoting certain pages on your web site. Dynamic Search Ads can also be used for keyword discovery. Identify higher performing searches and add them into the most appropriate ad group as traditional keywords.

Availability & More Details
At this time, Dynamic Search Ads are available as a limited beta in all countries and languages. You can join the interest list by contacting your Google account representative or signing up here.

To learn more, please visit our Ads Innovations page and FAQs over at the AdWords Help Center.

Posted by Omar Selman - Google AdWords MENA

When Several Keywords Match a Search Query, Which One is Used? - Part 2

2011-10-19T11:40:00.000+01:00

Keywords within multiple ad groups are similar to the search query

When multiple ad groups have keywords that match a search query, the AdWords system must make a more complex decision. This is because different ad groups might have different creatives, landing pages, and campaign settings. All of these differences can result in different experiences for users, and can result in different Quality Scores for similar keywords in different ad groups.

In this situation, the AdWords system uses a set of preferences to determine which of your keywords to use. The preferences rank approximately in the following order:

Use a keyword that matches the search query exactly, rather than using one that doesn't
If one keyword is identical to the search query, the system will prefer to use that keyword to trigger an ad, regardless of the ad group the keyword is in. This is true even if there are other ad groups with keywords similar to the search query.

For example, suppose the query is "plumber course". If one ad group contains the broad-match keyword "plumber course", while another ad group contains the phrase-match keyword "plumber", the system will prefer to use the broad-match keyword that matches the query exactly.

When keywords are the same but have different match types, use the keyword with the most restrictive match type

If you have multiple ad groups with keywords that are the same, the system will prefer to use the keyword with the more restrictive keyword match type.

For example, suppose the query is "local plumber". If one ad group contains the broad-match keyword "plumber", while a phrase-match keyword "plumber" is contained in another ad group, the system will prefer to use the phrase-match keyword.

Use a keyword from a campaign with the most specific geographical location targeting
If you have multiple campaigns with keywords that similarly match the query, the system will prefer to use the keyword from a campaign that uses more specific location targeting.

For example, suppose that the search query is "plumber" and that the search is conducted within New York City. If the keyword "plumber" is within a campaign that targets the New York City metropolitan area, while another keyword "plumber" is within a different campaign that targets the entire United States, the system will prefer to use the keyword from the campaign that targets just New York City.

Use the keyword that has the highest Ad Rank
When several ad groups contain keywords that match a search query, the system will prefer to use the keyword with the highest combined Quality Score and cost-per-click (CPC) bid. We call this combination "Ad Rank." Here's an example:

Query: plumber training course
Keyword from ad group 1: plumber course, Ad Rank = 1.5
Keyword from ad group 2: electrician training course, Ad Rank = 1.0

Keyword 1 will be preferred because it has a higher Ad Rank.

In rare cases, the keyword with the highest Ad Rank might seem to be less relevant to a particular search query than other eligible keywords. Because higher relevance is generally correlated with a higher Ad Rank, this will happen infrequently. To check for it, run a search term report. If you see an instance in which the less relevant keyword triggers an ad, add that search query as a negative keyword to that keyword's ad group.

Posted by Omar Selman - Google AdWords MENA

When Several Keywords Match a Search Query, Which One is Used? - Part 1

2011-10-17T17:00:00.000+01:00

Only one keyword from your account is allowed to trigger an ad per search query. The examples below describe what happens when multiple keywords in your account match a single search query at the same time.

Please note that you can use the Find Duplicate Keywords tool in AdWords Editor to check whether you have multiple identical keywords in your account. (AdWords Editor is a free, downloadable application for managing your AdWords account. Learn how to download it, if you haven't already.)

Within the Same Ad Group, Multiple Keywords are Similar to the Search Query

Within an ad group, you might have several similar keywords that match a query. For example, the broad-matched keywords "plumber course" and "plumber training course" could both match the search query "training course for plumber".In this situation, the AdWords system uses a set of preferences to determine which of your keywords to use. The preferences rank approximately in the following order:

Use a keyword that matches the query exactly, rather than using one that doesn'tIf you have a keyword that is identical to the search query, the system will prefer to use this keyword to trigger an ad. This is true even if there are other keywords in your ad group that are similar to the search query.

For example, if the query is "plumber course", and both a broad-match keyword "plumber course" and phrase-match keyword "plumber" exist in your ad group, the system will prefer to use the broad-match keyword that matches the query exactly.

When keywords are the same but have different match types, use the keyword with the most restrictive match type
If you have multiple keywords that are the same, the system will prefer to use the keyword with the more restrictive keyword match type.

For example, if the query is "plumber", and both a broad-match keyword "plumber" and exact-match keyword "plumber" exist in your ad group, the system will prefer to use the exact-match keyword.

Use the keyword that has the highest Ad RankWhen several broad-match keywords in your ad group broadly match a search query, the system will prefer to use the keyword with the highest combined Quality Score and cost-per-click (CPC) bid. We call this combination "Ad Rank." Here's an example:

Query: plumber training course
Keyword 1: plumber course, Ad Rank = 1.5
Keyword 2: electrician training course, Ad Rank = 1

Keyword 1 will be preferred because it has a higher Ad Rank.
However, the AdWords system has some exceptions that may apply to all of the preferences listed above. The exceptions to the preference rules shown above may occur when:

One keyword is contained within anotherWhen one keyword contains the entirety of another keyword, the system prefers to use the longer keyword. This is an exception to the Ad Rank rule above. Here's an example:

Query: training course for plumber
Keyword 1: plumber course
Keyword 2: plumber training course

Keyword 2 will be preferred because it contains all the words in Keyword 1
There is a cheaper keyword with a higher Quality Score and Ad RankOn rare occasions, the system will prefer to use a keyword that is cheaper (i.e., it has a lower bid), has a higher Quality Score and a higher Ad Rank. Here's an example:

Query: plumber tool
Keyword 1: plumber tools (maximum CPC bid = $0.10, Quality Score = 7, Ad Rank = 0.7)
Keyword 2: plumber tool (maximum CPC bid = $0.15, Quality Score = 4, Ad Rank = 0.6)

Ordinarily, Keyword 2 would be preferred because it matches the query more closely than Keyword 1. However, Keyword 1 is cheaper, has a higher Quality Score, and has a higher Ad Rank. Therefore, the system will prefer showing Keyword 1 in this instance.

Keep in mind that Quality Score is calculated every time your keyword matches a search query -- that is, every time your keyword has the potential to trigger an ad.

Posted by Omar Selman - Google AdWords MENA

Ads Quality Improvements Rolling Out Globally

2011-10-14T10:00:00.000+01:00

When searching on Google, users appreciate results that are relevant and deliver a great experience after they click. In August, we announced trials in Brazil, Spanish-speaking Latin America, Spain, and Portugal1 that increased the weight given to relevance and landing page quality in determining Quality Score and how ads are ranked on Google. The goal was to improve the user experience with search ads. Based on the results we’ve been seeing, we’re now rolling these changes out globally over the coming weeks.

As the changes roll out, some campaigns will see variation in keyword Quality Scores and typical ad position. Within a couple weeks, things should stabilize and we expect most campaigns will not see a significant change in overall performance.

Just like today, campaigns with better-performing ads for user queries will continue to see higher Quality Scores, lower average cost per click and higher position on results pages. The 1-10 Quality Score in the AdWords interface will continue to represent the general quality of your keyword when exactly matching a search on Google. Increases in bid and Quality Score will continue to increase Ad Rank. And the same basic approach to improving your results with AdWords applies.

Posted by Omar Selman - Google AdWords MENA

Where Will My Ads Appear? - Part 2

2011-10-10T13:46:00.000+01:00

Ads with placementsPlacements are an optional addition to, or an alternative to, keyword targeting. A placement can be an entire website, a subset of a website such as a selection of pages from that site, or even an individual ad unit positioned on a single page. You can select specific placements in the Google Display Network where you'd like your ads to appear.

Ads with mobile device targetingYou can set up your campaign to target full-browser mobile devices, which are those that can show standard HTML web pages and can support a user making a purchase from start to finish. Your ads will be eligible to show when users perform a Google web search or access our Display Network from high-end mobile devices, such as iPhones or Android devices. This includes tablet devices.

Here's an example of how an ad might appear on a mobile device:

You'll also be eligible to show your ads on mobile apps, which are considered part of our Display Network.

Tablet devices: For tablet devices with full browsers, a maximum of 2 or 3 ads will be displayed on top of the search results page, based on the orientation (landscape or portrait) of the tablet device. Ads will be displayed on tablets in one of the following ways:

A maximum of 3 bottom ads (regardless of the tablet's orientation).
A maximum of 2 top ads when the tablet is in landscape mode.
A maximum of 3 top ads when the tablet is in portrait mode.

Posted by Omar Selman - Google AdWords MENA

Where Will My Ads Appear? - Part 1

2011-10-07T12:09:00.000+01:00

Where your ads will appear depends on what types of ads you have. Any type you choose can reach millions of potential customers around the globe.

Types of ads available in AdWords

Ads with keywords: These can appear on Google search results pages and the Google Network, which includes the Search Network and Display Network.

Ads with placements: You can select where in the Google Display Network you'd like your ads to appear.

Ads with mobile device targeting: Ads will be eligible to show on high-end mobile devices, such as iPhones or Android devices, and on mobile apps. This includes tablet devices.

Now let's look at the types of ads in more detail.

1. Ads with keywords

When you use keyword advertising, you select a set of keywords related to the product or service you wish to advertise. Your ads from ad groups with keywords can appear on Google search results pages and the Google Network. The Google Network is the largest advertising network available online, reaching over 86% of Internet users worldwide.

Google: When someone searches online and enters words including your keywords, your ads can appear alongside or above the search results.
The Google Network: This network includes the Search Network and the Display Network websites. Your ads can appear in many places on these two networks.

The Search Network: Your ads may appear alongside or above search results, as part of a results page as a user navigates through a site's directory, or on other relevant search pages. Our global Search Network includes Google Maps, Google Product Search, and Google Groups along with entities such as Virgin Media and Amazon.com.

The Display Network: Your text, image, rich media, and video ads can appear across YouTube, Google properties such as Google Finance, Gmail, Google Maps, Blogger, as well as over one million Web, video, gaming, Display Network partners, and mobile display partners. AdWords ads on the Display Network are targeted to the content and URL of each page.

Here's an example of ads on a Display Network site. You can see how the ads are targeted to the content of the page:

Gmail

Google's Gmail service, which is part of the Display Network, also displays AdWords ads. Gmail ads are placed by Google computers using the same automated process that matches relevant AdWords ads to webpages and newsletters. If our automatic filters detect that the topic of the email is sensitive, no ads are shown.

Here you can see how the ads relate to the discussion in the email:

Posted by Omar Selman - Google AdWords MENA

Ads quality improvements rolling out globally

2011-10-04T11:44:00.001+01:00

What are Ad Sitelinks?

2011-09-29T14:22:00.000+01:00

Ad Sitelinks is a feature for search-based ads that allow advertisers to include additional page links on qualifying text ads that appear on Google.com and Google Search Network partners. This extension is available globally on ads that meet our quality requirements. The most common campaigns to qualify for the Sitelinks feature are high-quality campaigns that contain keywords and ads specific to your brands.

How Sitelinks make your ads more useful
Sitelinks make your AdWords ads more useful for users who find your ads by showcasing extra targeted and relevant links. Sitelinks also make it easy for you to update and refresh seasonal and limited promotions. You can change the extra links on your ads as often as you like. Changing the links often keeps each ad up-to-date for your current sales and marketing efforts. You don't have to change your current ads to use Sitelinks. The extra links show within or below your ads.

Posted by Omar Selman - Google AdWords MENA

Riad Laaroussa: Using Google AdWords to Place this Unique Boutique Hotel on the Map.

2011-09-27T10:08:00.000+01:00

Fez, Morocco. Fez is known for many things: the oldest university in the world, University of Al-Karaouine, is located there, the famous Fez hat is named after the city, and renowned leather tanneries are located in parts of the old city. Perhaps the most impressive thing in Fez, though, is that it is the largest pedestrian-only-area in the world. "It has a lot of narrow streets, one thing which makes Fez unique, it is the largest urban environment, free of cars, in the world... it is disconnected from the modern world" states Frederic Sola.

Frederic Sola and Cathy Bellafronto began restoring a 17th Century Riad (traditional Moroccan house) in Fez, previously owned by a ministry, in 2005. The restoration period took 18 months, with 40 to 50 builders, artisans and craftsmen working on a daily basis. The final result - Riad Laaroussa, a beautiful boutique hotel that provides its guests with a hospitable and unique stay.

Integrating Google AdWords
After building their website, Fred and Cathy's webmaster approached them with an interesting solution to their marketing/advertising problems: Google AdWords. At first they were hesitant but decided to give it a shot. They first began experiencing an increase in the number of clicks on their ads, and thus an increase in the number of users that were viewing their website. These clicks and visits soon materialized into actual conversions, with clients from all over the world; France, Spain, Italy, Australia and the USA to name but a few. Fred and Cathy quickly discovered that Google AdWords is all they need to realize their advertising objectives and soon abandoned all other offline activities. Fred states "We operate under the very simple principle that a higher ranking on Google Search will result in higher visibility which will provide us with a great number of visitors to our site, in turn increasing our number of reservations."

Moving Forward
For the 3 years that Riad Laaroussa has been using Google AdWords, they have increased their advertising by 25%, that's just how effective Google AdWords was for this business. It has supported the growth of the business in both revenue and client base. As Cathy puts it: "We plan to continue to refine our marketing strategy by selecting the keywords that are mostly likely to reach our potential clients, we are also expanding into other languages. We regularly advertise in French and English, now we are adding Spanish, Italian and German."

By using Google AdWords, the owners of Riad Laaroussa not only realized their advertising goals, but they also made a profit. Their whole business relies on being found, and Google AdWords helped them do that. Users from all over the planet can now find the boutique hotel, be it their website or their location on Google Maps. The fact that the owners are planning on expanding their advertising budget on Google AdWords is more evidence that this truly is a powerful advertising medium.

Written and Posted by Omar Selman - Google AdWords MENA

+1 Coming to Display Ads, Bringing 1-Click Recommendations

2011-09-21T10:20:00.000+01:00

A few months ago, we introduced the +1 button to make it easy for people to get recommendations from those they trust right when they’re searching. A recommendation from a trusted contact is one of the most useful sources of information available. Since then, the +1 button has been installed on millions of websites across the web with over 4 billion impressions daily. Beginning in early October we’re expanding that to include display ads across the web.

If you’re running display ads through the Google Display Network you may begin seeing the +1 button and recommendation with your ads. With a single click, people can recommend the ad’s landing page to their friends and contacts.

Incorporating personal recommendations into display ads has the potential to change the way people perceive advertising. A display ad becomes much more powerful when people can see which of their friends and contacts have chosen to actively endorse a page.

For example, take Elaine, who sees an ad for discount flights. She +1’s the ad, thinking her friends might value similar deals. Now when Elaine’s friends and contacts are logged into Google and see the discount flight ads, they’ll see Elaine’s picture across the bottom of the ad with a note saying she +1’d it.

The +1 button and recommendations will appear at the bottom of display ads, then fade out until the viewer hovers over the ad. The viewer can also close the overlays by clicking the ‘x’.

Susan’s friends and contacts will also be more likely to see the ad. Because a recommendation from a friend is such a strong signal of relevance, the Google Display Network gives ads that have been recommended an extra boost by including them in the auction for any page a friend visits. Of course, if you’re targeting specific placements or audience segments (including interest categories and remarketing lists), your ads will only show on pages that match those restrictions. Additionally, your ads will never show on any placement or category on an exclusions list.

Note that a +1 on an ad corresponds to the ad’s landing page. So it doesn’t matter whether the +1 happens on a search result page, on a website, or on a display ad. A single +1 applies to the same content across the web, no matter where it appears.

On the Google Display Network (GDN), the +1 button will be added to image, animated GIF, flash, Display Ad Builder ads and select mobile inventory. You can also choose to include the +1 button on your DoubleClick Rich Media ads, which can run on or off the GDN.

If you’re not sure that you want the +1 button and recommendations associated with your ads, starting today you can opt-out at the campaign level in AdWords under campaign settings.

To learn more about the +1 button and how it affects your ads and search results, visit our +1 button site.

Written by Eider Oliveira - Senior Software Engineer
Published by Omar Selman - Google AdWords MENA

How does Remarketing Work?

2011-09-19T11:17:00.000+01:00

Remarketing allows you to communicate with people who’ve previously visited key pages on your website, giving you a powerful new way to match the right people with the right message.

Example of Remarketing
Online shoppers looking for new running shoes visit a popular online store, FastSneakers.com, to browse the different styles. Some shoppers leave without buying anything. FastSneakers.com could add these shoppers to a "Site Visitor" list. This will enable FastSneakers.com to reach out to these potential buyers while they browse other websites, with a compelling call-to-action or offer that will encourage them to return to FastSneakers.com to complete a purchase.

How Remarketing works
To create remarketing lists, you need to enable the Audiences tab and set up a campaign that includes the Google Display Network, which is typically opted-in by default.

Next, a small piece of code called a remarketing tag is embedded on your homepage, for example. This code tells AdWords to save visitors to your "Homepage List." When people visit your homepage, their cookie ID is added to the remarketing list. Once the remarketing tag is in place you can create an AdWords campaign that targets messages only to people on your "Homepage List" while they browse the Web. Your remarketing messages won't be shown to people who aren't on the list.

The remarketing tag can be embedded on any page within your website, not just the homepage, so you can develop more detailed audiences. For each remarketing list that you want to create, embed a different tag. If you want to create a "Homepage Visitor" list and a "Completed Conversion" list, you need two separate tags -- one to go on the homepage, and one to go on the conversion page. Learn more about remarketing and users' cookies.

There's a balance between creating very detailed and broader remarketing lists. While detailed lists allow you to further target your message, you'll get the most scale and volume with broader lists. Read more on strategies for your remarketing lists, and learn how to tailor your creatives to these lists.

This video will give you more insights into remarketing.

Posted by Omar Selman - Google AdWords MENA