Under the radar, Google has quietly raised AdWords account limits. Accounts can now get boosted to include up to 500 campaigns and 3 million keywords. Previously accounts were limited to 100 campaigns and 1 million keywords.

If you wanted to expand beyond that, you had to open new accounts. This was a headache because you’d need to work out tracking, billing, and access requirements for the new accounts. That required putting new scripts on your website; handling credit cards or invoicing agreements; and getting together new Google users, possibly implementing a sub-MCC.

In the past it also meant that your additional accounts wouldn’t be linked to a Google Analytics account. Though, nowadays, you can also link multiple AdWords accounts to a single Analytics account.

Making Account Management Easier

While for very large marketing efforts, separation at the account level may make sense, in all likelihood, going through the effort of starting new accounts to accommodate AdWords limits is going to make maintenance, error-checking, and reporting more difficult.

If you’re implementing over 100 campaigns, some of them are probably close copies of one another with different targeting settings. For example, sites for local businesses might be targeting mobile separate from other devices. Or if your business targets multiple locations that perform differently and have different ad requirements, these would also be separated into different campaigns that are similar to each other.

Bulk changes using the AdWords Editor becomes a multi-step operation with multiple campaigns. Even with accounts consolidated under a single MCC, running reports across multiple accounts, implementing changes, or understanding how the targeting might overlap between different campaigns in different accounts becomes a more robust task.

A quick lookup or troubleshooting becomes not so quick anymore. So it’s good that AdWords is making efforts to accommodate larger accounts. (Although with so much duplication within larger accounts, it also is surprising that a better management option hasn’t surfaced that eliminates the need to increase account limits.)

Getting the Maximum Limits

To get the maximum limits for an account that has the default settings, you still have to consult with a Google AdWords Representative, requesting a boost. If you have an account that should be using limits that are this high, you most likely are already in contact Google Reps about other things.

You know that you need a boost if you get account limit errors from AdWords Editor when you try to post new additions. But what this doesn’t tell you is if you’re wasting your time filling your account with clutter or if you’re sincerely in need of more, more, more.

Which accounts should be using the new limits? Whenever you notice performance differences by network or device, it’s always a good idea to separate campaigns out to single out targeting. It’s also a good idea to keep a healthy keyword list, to be sure that all of the relevant queries trigger your ads.

In well-organized ad groups it’s fairly easy to maintain a large number of keywords. But unless you have a million products, or hundreds of business locations, you’re not going to need anywhere near the account limit of keywords and campaigns.

At Pure Visibility, one of our core competencies is Pay Per Click advertising (PPC). While some may think that navigating the interfaces at Google is where paid search management begins and ends, we know it is only the tip of the iceberg. One of our core values, “Driven to Improve,” plays out constantly in our interactions with our paid search clients.

In the paid search arena, landing page testing is one area where Pure Visibility gains extra leads and conversions for clients. It’s exciting, and we can see the results of quality landing page design, immediately.

I have been managing a very exciting project at PV since I joined the company. One of the sub-projects in that engagement, which I have really enjoyed, is a true team effort. Some of the stakeholders and team members include client representatives and their third-party website designers.

It has been an exciting project from a team building point-of-view, as the client manages both agencies. We all work closely to make sure the results meet our expectations and the client wins.

Good landing page design takes into account what the potential customer is looking for, website usability, and a compelling sell or call-to-action. Before the PPC part of the business can do its magic, the landing page has to be designed.

We design the blueprints (or wireframes) for the web design firm to create. After the page is designed, copy is written, and everything is perfect and approved, the new landing page is moved to a production environment where Pure Visibility’s PPC Pirates (a.k.a. Analysts) can use and test it.

Google has tools that make A/B testing very simple to understand. Using Google Website Optimizer, Pure Visibility’s PPC analysts can set up a test which sends users to the existing, control version of a landing page (A), 50% of the time, and then to a test version (B), the other 50% of the time. If there is a statistically significant improvement in conversion rate between A and B, the interface will let us know and the test will be over.

At that point, we can roll out that winning landing page to a production environment and use it 100% of the time. Since the client has several brands, this landing page design can be scaled and we see gains across all brands. Excellent!

In our last landing page test, the new version of the page was so compelling that it showed a 37% improvement over the older page with a 99.9% level of confidence.

The next time you search the web for something and you soon find yourself on a company’s landing page, stop and think, “How can they do better?” I always do.

With Google’s bid-per-call feature in AdWords, you can now set separate max bids for clicks and calls. Many businesses benefit from customers calling their office or shop, for example if you own a local pizza joint or flower shop. Some people prefer to book a cruise over the phone, getting advice from the company’s operator.

Some businesses may even be willing to pay more for a phone call than a click. This post will give you an explanation of Google’s call extensions and their features, how to measure your phone calls, and how to bid on calls.

Displaying a phone number within your ads is recommended for most businesses that can effectively turn calls into sales. Here are just a few advantages to adding call extensions to your ads.

• Distinguishes your ad. Anything you can do to help your ad stick out is a positive.
• Makes it easier to contact you. If someone is searching for your phone number they can find it easier if it’s listed within your ad.
• Advanced call metrics. More data! Call metrics within AdWords gives you insight into your calls, including area code and call duration.

What Are Call Extensions and the Related Various Features?

You can add different features to your AdWords ads, which Google calls “ad extensions.” These include adding things like a Google Places listing or sitelinks to your ad.

Again, remember that adding any feature to your ad can help set it apart from others. To access these features, click the “Ad extensions” tab within the AdWords online interface. From there you can add call extensions.

There are several things to take note of when using call extensions. The following list of terms can become confusing if you don’t know what each means:

• Call extensions – Adds any phone number you choose to your ad.
• Google forwarding number – Select “Show a Google forwarding phone number on all eligible ads and devices” when setting up call extensions, to place a dynamic 800 number within your ad that Google uses to report data on your phone calls. If you do not select this option a phone number will only appear on “high end” mobile phones.
• Call metrics – The data which Google reports to you on your calls. Includes duration of call, area code, and other information.
• Click-to-call - This mobile-only feature allows users to call your phone number directly by clicking on your ad.

How to Measure the Effectiveness of Call Extensions

From within the Dimensions tab, pull down the View menu and select “Call details”. This report shows the data collected on each of your calls. The duration of the call and area code can give you great insight. Try downloading this report by clicking on the downward pointing arrow. Open the spreadsheet to analyze the data further.

You can also add phone details from the Column menu in the Campaigns tab. Data like number of phone calls and the average price-per-call can be viewed, down to the adgroup level.

Bid-per-calls

When call extensions were first introduced, all phone calls were charged $1. Google now allows you to bid separately on phone calls and clicks. Say Susie at your office has a very warm personality and does a great job of making sales over the phone.

A phone call may be worth more to you than a visit to your e-commerce site. Simply increase the bid on your phone calls. This can improve the position of your ad while still keeping the price-per-click the same.

As with any new feature within AdWords, it is important to test. So give call extensions a try but pay attention to the results. If sales increase, make sure to take Susie out for a nice cup of coffee!

Phone numbers within Google AdWords are getting an upgrade. Google will now automatically update all phone numbers within ad text to a Click-to-call number. This will have the largest impact on mobile phones.

While searching on your mobile device, if you come across an ad similar to the one shown, you will now be able to immediately dial the number by clicking on it. Google Voice users signed in on their desktop will also be able to call by clicking.

This feature is separate from Call Extensions which once applied to your AdWords campaign, creates a unique phone number that is trackable by Google. This is done by dynamically creating a phone number that once it is dialed, routs through Google’s system for tracking, and is then immediately forwarded to the company’s call center or office. Google uses a “pay-per-call” model (similar to pay-per-click) to charge for this feature.

Google does not charge for including phone numbers within the ad text. There are many benefits for both Call Extensions and Click-to-call numbers. It is best to use whichever one provides the largest return. Happy calling!

Note: Some graphs were captured from Google’s June Inside Search event video stream which can be viewed here.

Google recently held their Inside Search event in San Francisco. They introduced new technologies and applications for voice search, image search, and Google Goggles. The other main focus of the event was explaining Google’s continued development of mobile search.

So why is Google focusing on mobile search? It has the potential to be another very profitable revenue stream. It can also offset slower periods of desktop search volume.

Below are some rough search volumes for Google by day of the week. Notice that search volume on desktops is highest on Monday. It then gradually trends downward until the weekend. Saturday has the lowest volume of desktop search.

Now compare it to the volume of mobile search. It stays much more consistent from Monday to Thursday. What’s important for Google is that it peaks on Saturday. Mobile search’s busiest time is desktop’s slowest.

Let’s compare search volume throughout the day. Here we see the volume of desktop searches by two hour increments. People obviously search less late at night on desktops. Search volume then grows rapidly until lunch time. People leave their desktop computers and go out into the world. When they return, they have more things they need to search for, hence the peak around 3pm. Volume then steadily declines until a sharp drop off around 11pm when people are heading to bed.

Just as with search volume throughout the week, mobile search volume compliments desktop search over the course of the day.

Notice the peaks at lunchtime and the steady increase. It even peaks at 11pm. People search on their mobile devices until about midnight. At which point volume declines quickly.

Its not just mobile search that people are using. Business Insider’s article on mobile apps vs. web consumption shows that more minutes per day are spent in mobile applications than the web.

businessinsider.com

Why is Google so interested in these mobile search trends? Google’s revenue from AdWords declines with drops in search volumes. Obviously mobile search is not on the same scale as desktop. If Google can make searching on mobile devices easy to use, more effective, and ultimately more widely used, they can offset some of the dip in their AdWords revenue.

So what does this mean for your business? Mobile devices have much smaller screens compared to the large monitors of desktops and laptops. When viewing mobile versions of the search engine results page, there is often only room for one or two sponsored ads.

If your business can achieve the top placement your ad will take up the majority of a users screen. If your campaign is well targeted the ad may have a higher chance of getting clicked. Less competition and a larger share of the visible screen could increase click through ratios.

Mobile may provide lower volumes of traffic but depending on what type of conversion you’re seeking, it may prove to be profitable. Users often search for something on their phone during the day, then visit the site directly when they get home to their desktop. Mobile search could be another effective branding or lead generating strategy.

It is now up to Google to continue to improve mobile search. Additional features like voice search can grow the use of mobile search. Google is focused on this to improve their business, you may be able to as well.

Google To Begin Charging For Directions Location Extensions.

Google just announced another way they will charge you when searchers click on the directions found on some AdWords ads. Advertisers do have an opt out option of having their driving directions appear to avoid these charges.

So why is Google doing this? I suspect that they have been watching the patterns of searchers and there has been a rise in people clicking on driving directions and phone numbers via mobile search (a signal of the increase in mobile search). Another revenue model for Google and another way for advertisers to increase traffic to their businesses. So this could be a good thing, but see for yourself! Check your metrics in Google Analytics of course first before making any changes.

Google says “You can see the number of clicks on directions in the same place as your other click metrics (select Segment, then Click type from your summary tables). You can review the performance of these clicks to determine if they’re helping you meet your marketing goals.”

Best advice ever….try it!

adCenter had an interesting post in their community blog recently, titled “The High Cost of Low Bids: One of the Biggest Logical Errors PPC Managers Make.” It sort of verifies an old strategy of bid high to start in order to establish a higher quality score. Although the author seems to imply that maintaining a high position will continue to benefit you by raising your quality score.

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I’ve recently been having problems with ad status in AdWords. Typically when you put in a new ad, it goes into “Pending review” status, then shortly after becomes approved. When an ad is pending review, it is displayed on Google, but it is not yet eligible to show up on search partners or the content network. For a regular campaign that is not opted into the Content Network, or is only in the Google Network, I don’t consider it a big deal when an ad is “pending review.” Usually ads move out of this status fairly quickly. But occasionally an ad goes into “under review” status (notice the difference here “under review,” not “pending review”).   I’m not sure what triggers an ad to go into “under review,” but it is much worse than “pending review” and of course “approved.”   When an ad is “under review” it is not eligible to show anywhere.   And an ad can stay “under review” for quite awhile . . . maybe a week. The best way to avoid any of these intermediate ad statuses is to keep already approved ads running and then put in additional ads.   Deleting or pausing the old ads after the new ads have gotten into “approved” status.   Of course this isn’t always possible; you might not have any already existing ads, or you might notice that the old ads are no longer accurate and have to be deleted.

When I was editing my ads in the AdWords Editor, I deleted the old ones because they were for an older product. I wasn’t thinking that the new ads might go into review, and it was actually pretty important that they get approved quickly because they were advertising a new deal that was available only for a limited time. When I posted the ads and noticed they went “under review,” I tried a couple of things to get around it that didn’t work:
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It is getting more difficult to control ad display in Google AdWords because they’re giving the system more liberties. There are a few variations of this – I’m calling them “Ultra Broad Match” because it’s funny:

Automatic geo-targeting parsing of queries.

If a visitor searches a general term and Google pinpoints him/her to a location that is in the target-area of one of your campaigns, the query is sometimes treated just as if it had geographic modifiers attached to it. Likewise, if you are bidding on a term that has geographic modifiers, Google might decide to broad match it to a more general query that does not have modifiers attached. For example, if someone is searching for “plumbers” from an IP address that is located in Detroit by Google’s system, then it might be treated just as if he/she searched “plumbers in detroit.” Likewise, if a person searches for “plumbers in detroit,” he/she might be treated just as if he/she searched for “plumbers” from an IP address located in Detroit. In your account, you can be explicitly bidding on the term “plumbers in detroit” in a nationally targeted campaign, but Google may decide instead to show an ad for the term “plumbers” that is in a campaign targeted to the Detroit area. For an advertiser, this means it is very difficult (if not practically impossible) to keep terms that have geographic modifiers separate from terms that do not have geographic modifiers when setting bids.   This is a problem because you might expect a broad matched keyword phrase like “plumbers in detroit” to have better conversion rates than a broad matched keyword like “plumbers” – even if the more general term is in a locally targeted campaign. I can think of at least four reasons why the geo-modified term should deserve a higher bid for a local business:

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When I’m managing an AdWords account, I can sometimes forget where these ads are going.   A whole lot of AdWords isn’t visible from the user interface.   It’s easy to look at cost per clicks, conversion rates, bids, and ad positions – without really doing a check on the actual substance behind it.   Especially because I’m comfortable with submitting ads and keywords, without having to worry that my ad will actually show on Google and that things will run the way I expect.   But this whole user-interface vacuum, strips away some important performance predictors/indicators:

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