November 27th, 2006 by Penny Hagerman
Remember that new ads diagnostic tool I told you about in last weeks post that lets you know whether or not an ad is running for a particular keyword youre bidding on in Google? Well, Ive discovered thats not all that little tool will do. Check this out….
Improving our ads is something we can all stand to do from time to time. But before now, you had to click on your ad (and pay for that click) to get a birds eye view of what it actually looked like on the search results page. But now, Googles making this part of PPC a bit easier (and cheaper) by letting you view your ad surrounded by those of your competitors—without creating an impression.
Being able to see your ad amongst others shown for a particular term lets you know where you are in relation to your competitors on that keyword (which helps in your bidding strategies). It also allows you to put yourself in consumers shoes and see exactly what they see when conducting a search based on your term—without costing you a cent.
As far as Im concerned, this is a huge development for paid search.
So how do your ads stack up? To take a look:
- hover your cursor over the magnifying glass next to a keyword on your ad group details page
- click on “What Do I Do?” in the pop-up box displayed
- choose the “Preview Search Results…” link for that term
What do you think? Are your ads distinctive enough to stand out? Are your competitors ads better than yours? If you were Joe Consumer, which link would you pursue—and why? Use this free preview screen to find out—and make your ads the best they can be!
December 1st, 2006 at 10:21 am
I do like the idea of clicking our own ads to ensure it works without getting charged.
It would be really helpful if Google would create a tool that showed our ad relative to others for different states. Googles geo-targeting feature is really blinding us to what is happening with our ads across the country (i.e. position by state). Does anyone know if there is a way to get this type of visibility?
It seems Geo-targeting is becoming more and more prevalent. This is why InsureMe will soon be launching an alternate payout system where the payout is determined by state. By doing this, we will enable affiliates to be more competitive in states where advertising is more expensive. Dont stress - the current payout methodology will stay in tact - you will be paid on the alternate system only if the overall payout would have been higher. It is our goal to have this new functionality released by January 1, 2007.
Good times!