The long awaited, much discussed Yahoo and Bing merger is now upon all of us, and as such it’s time to start transitioning.  As part of the merger all Pay Per Click advertising, management and reporting previously accomplished through Bing or Yahoo will become centralized in the Microsoft AdCenter.  What this means is that anyone who currently advertises through Yahoo’s Sponsored Search Marketing must transition their accounts over to Microsoft AdCenter.  Along with the physical transition, which should have been prompted by your Yahoo representative, you’ll now be required to manage your accounts and campaign via AdCenter.

What Needs to Be Done Now

If you advertise on Yahoo, and mange your own accounts, by now you should have been contacted by your Yahoo account representative.  They should have supplied you with two documents, an Excel spreadsheet detailing your accounts and a PDF detailing the transition options.  Thankfully this transition step appears fairly straightforward, as all you’re required to do is inform Yahoo and Bing of your preferred method of transferring accounts.  This first step is accomplished by completing an Excel document and returning it to your representative.

For transferring accounts, or creating new ones, there are three options:

Option 1 – Keep your existing AdCenter account and augment Yahoo accounts if necessary

Option 2 – Create a new AdCenter account and import 3rd party structure

Option 3 – Create a new AdCenter account and import your Yahoo structure

What Needs to Be Done to Move Forward

Once you’ve received confirmation that your new accounts and campaigns have been created in Microsoft AdCenter you’ll need to log in and verify the changes have been made correctly.  At this point you should notice that all of the new campaigns have arrived paused, note that you’ll be required to un-pause them to finalize the transition process.  If you’re familiar with AdCenter this should be a straight forward process, however if you’re new to AdCenter I’d suggest you take time to learn the intricacies of the interface and how it differs from Yahoo’s Sponsored Search interface.  The Microsoft adExcellence site is a great resource center for learning how to work in AdCenter.

All of us at Page1Solutions are wishing you the best of luck with your transition, thankfully thought with how well Yahoo and Bing have set this up there should be little luck involved.

Now that Google’s ‘Broad Match Modifier’ keyword setting has been publicly, and for that matter unconditionally, released I figured it was time to cover one of the latest Google innovations.  After being originally released in Canada and the UK for testing purposes the ‘Broad Match Modifier’ was so well received that Google decided to make it universally available.  Unfortunately, since its release this handy tool has received little attention and as a result has fallen from the public spotlight.

Let’s  start by resolving what exactly the “Broad Match Modifier” is and why it was introduced.  Within Google AdWords there are a variety of settings that dictate how your campaign operates, of them the ‘broad’, ‘phrase’ and ‘exact’ keyword settings dictate how closely a search term must resemble your keyword for an ad to be displayed.  These keyword restrictions increase in degree of qualification, from ‘broad’ to ‘exact’, to ensure more selective ad display at the higher levels.

One of the more common complaints with AdWords, which ultimately led to the development of the “Broad Match Modifier”,  is that keywords matched at a ‘broad’ level display ads for a variety of unrelated keywords.  On the other end of the spectrum however is the concern that if you set the same or similar keywords to a ‘phrase’ or ‘exact’ level they may not generate enough traffic for a successful campaign.  The ‘Broad Match Modifier’ was designed to address this complaint by offering a new setting situated between the ‘broad’ and ‘phrase’ match levels.  Ideally this new setting will provide a dynamic blend of the benefits of the ‘broad’ and ‘phrase’ settings.

Now that we’ve established what the “Broad Match Modifier” is it’s time to move on to its application and benefits.  Employing the “Broad Match Modifier” is more challenging than the other keyword match types because it’s not a selectable option.  Instead you have to create a new ‘broad’ matched keyword set and add “+” signs to keyword phrases you desire modified.  Please note that I’d advise against changing existing keywords, instead duplicate your desired keyword list and save it as a test campaign prior to adding the “+” sign. Completing this step will ensure you have two separate campaigns to compare results from and you won’t lose any historical data.

So I’d imagine by now you’re probably wondering where exactly you add the “+” signs to utilize the “Broad Match Modifier”?  Guess what, you get to decide and there are a few varieties that let you control how the keyword phrases are modified.  For a demonstration let’s use an example of a shoe store trying to advertise for ‘men’s formal shoes’.

- At the broad level ‘men’s formal shoes’ could trigger anything from ‘men’s formal shoes flea market price’ to ‘how to clean men’s formal shoes’

- At the phrase level ‘men’s formal shoes’ could trigger ‘leather men’s formal shoes’ but not ‘men’s leather formal shoes’

With the ‘Broad Match Modifier’ you can not only  select exactly which words or phrases must be in the search query but in what order, if any.  For example, we could utilize’”+men’s’, ‘+formal’ and ‘+shoes’ to display ads on any search query that has all three of those word (or close variations).  If we wanted to further specify the search query we could use ‘+buy’, ‘+men’s’ and ‘+formal shoes’ to mandate both the first two keywords, and the last phrase, were present in the search query with nothing between ‘formal’ and shoes’.

To conclude, I’ve been impressed by not only Google’s introduction of the ‘Broad Match Modifier’ but the results I’ve obtained by using it.  If your campaigns currently target ‘broad’ keywords I’d suggest a trial campaign that utilizes the ‘Broad Match Modifier’ to analyze the effectiveness of your current campaign and keyword list.

As mobile devices with the ability to browse the internet become increasingly popular advertisers are beginning to catch up to this new marketing avenue.  While Pay Per Click (PPC) ads have long been delivered to mobile devices there is now a more prominent belief that mobile devices present a viable advertising opportunity, one that should be viewed and targeted separately from traditional PPC campaigns.  Google AdWords supports this notion by allowing users to target specific devices and carrier options through PPC campaigns and ads.

PPC users can create a mobile device specific campaign by simply altering their campaign’s settings to target iPhones and other mobile devices with Internet browsing capabilities.  This first step will effectively limit your campaign to mobile devices, but this is only the beginning of what needs to be done.

Campaign focus and ad copy are the key to a successful mobile device specific campaign.  To ensure an effective campaign you must first determine whether your services or product are more likely to entice someone browsing on their mobile device?  If the value of your service is greater to someone on a mobile device, than say a computer, you may have found a viable, cost effective campaign that can generate an impressive return on investment.  After establishing this vital component it’s time to create compelling ad copy that specifically targets individuals browsing via their mobile device.

Imagine you’ve just broken a tooth or been involved in a car accident.  In each of these events you’re in need of assistance, but maybe unsure of what to do next or who to turn to.  The next logical step for an ever growing population with mobile devices is to browse the internet for a prompt solution.  To effectively target mobile users in need of more immediate assistance a dentist or lawyer could deliver an ad that communicates their ability to assist you.  For example, you’ve been hit from behind in your car and aren’t sure who’s liable for the accident.  As the other driver tries to belittle the situation you consider your options, Google ‘car accident lawyer’ and see an ad displaying ‘Call for immediate road side assistance and legal advice if you’ve been hit’.

The aforementioned ad provides a compelling call to action, and promise of service and subsequent benefits that will help alleviate the situation at hand.  One of the more challenging components of advertisement is translating your ads into business; it’s simply not enough for them to be seen.  But with a sophisticated, well planned approach to mobile device advertising you can capitalize on a target market in need of immediate assistance.

First Violet, now Google?

For all of us who use Google on a regular basis it was intriguing to see some of the minor aesthetic changes that Google representatives have been hyping for months come to fruition in the past week.  The most dominant of those changes, to me at least, is the change in shading behind the top Sponsored links – obtained, managed and delivered through Google AdWords.  Following in the footsteps of Violet from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Google has altered their shading, and in my opinion drawn more attention to the ads while also potentially increasing users’ comfort with the advertisements.

What effect this will have on click through rates (CTR) and campaigns may be marginal, but you can rest assured that the decision was planned, calculated and very likely in Google’s best interest.  As such, I’ll speculate that Google is aware that the change in shade will increase CTR’s and ultimately lead to more use of ads, subsequently increasing Google’s revenue.

Their ‘official’ response to the matter:

Starting today and ramping up to 100% globally by the end of this week, we’ll be changing the background color for ads that appear above the search results on Google.com as well as our local domains. The ads, which currently have a pale yellow background, will change to have a pale purple background. This change is part of the ‘look and feel’ update to our color palette and logo that we made back in May of this year to keep the Google results page looking fresh and modern. This is purely an aesthetic change to our ads and won’t have any impact on the way we target or serve advertisements on Google.com.