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Google AdWords – Your AdWords Are Now Running

On 5/31, I got a bunch of emails from Google with the subject line, “Google AdWords – Your AdWords Are Now Running”. I have a lot of accounts with Google, many of which have been paused for years. Honestly, I didn’t have much time to look at it on 5/31, but just assumed it was a mistake and that Google would fix it. And, I knew I had already taken precautions to protect myself – I always set my daily budget to $1/day for all paused campaigns that I don’t anticipate reactivating right away. Following is the email I got from Google on 5/31 (I got this for several paused campaigns/accounts):

Dear AdWords Advertiser,
Your ads are now running.
Thank you for advertising with Google AdWords.
Sincerely,
The Google AdWords Team
————————
Your AdWords account number: xyz123

Today (6/3), I got some more emails from Google. This time, they said there had been a technical issue on 5/31 that is now fixed. They explained that they will be crediting back all money that may have been spent by the accidental reactivation. Here’s the email I received today:

Dear AdWords advertiser,

Because of a technical issue, some of your campaigns might have mistakenly resumed running on May 31, 2012. You might also have received an email titled, "Google AdWords – Your ads are now running."

We’ve fixed this issue and are crediting your account for the amount you accrued. Once it’s been applied, the credit will appear on the Transaction history page, located on the "Billing" tab of your AdWords account.

If you’d like your ads to run in the future, follow these steps to re-enable your form of payment:

1. Sign in to your AdWords account at https://adwords.google.com.
2. Click the "Billing" tab, then the "Billing settings" link on the left.
3. Find your disabled form of payment on the page.
4. Check that the payment details are correct, then contact your bank or credit card provider to see if the form of payment can be used.
5. Click the "Re-enable form of payment" link to make it usable again.

After you re-enable your form of payment, your ads will start to run again. Keep in mind that once you re-enable your form of payment, you may be billed for unpaid advertising costs that you accrued before this error.

We apologize for the technical issue, and thank you for understanding.

Sincerely,
The AdWords Team

© 2012 Google Inc. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043
You’ve received this email to update you about important changes to your AdWords account.

There are three main reasons I wanted to share this post with you. When you manage many Google AdWords accounts, you always want to take proper precautions with paused accounts/campaigns. If you have paused a campaign and don’t anticipate reactivating it in the near future, make sure to set a really low budget (I recommend $1/day). That way, you have a safety measure in place in case something ever happens. Sure, it’s likely you will get a refund if Google (or adCenter) ever makes a mistake, but why worry when you can mitigate risk. Also, you never know when that refund may come and you don’t want to have any cash flow issues should it take a while to process the refund.

Second, I wanted to share this post because it’s probably a good time to look through all of your old accounts and campaigns on Google AdWords. Do a thorough audit on Monday. Make sure to check if anything got reactivated accidentally. If yes, make sure you get the proper refund you are entitled to.

Third, always make sure to have an up-to-date email address in your search engine accounts. If your email is not up-to-date, you may be missing such messages. Hope you are having a super weekend!

Image of Activate Campaign © iStockPhoto – pagadesign
Emails in this post © Google AdWords

Check Out My Weekend Checks Guest Post

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment May 24 3

One of the really popular posts here on PPC Ian is my post about Six Essential PPC Campaign Checks. These checks are great and make sense any day of the week. However, let’s say it’s the weekend and you’re super busy. Let’s say you don’t have a lot of time for paid search. That’s ok, but there are still some essential checks you just need to do, even if you are on a tight schedule. As such, when I got the opportunity to guest post today on the PPC Associates Blog, I wrote a post about Four Essential Weekend Campaign Checks. I highly recommend checking it out. I’m passionate about the checks, especially the part about Protecting Your Brand Keywords (link hijacking tends to ramp up on weekends). I want to take this opportunity to sincerely thank David, Hillary, and the entire PPC Associates team for the opportunity to guest post on their awesome blog. If you’re looking for a PPC Agency, I highly recommend contacting PPC Associates. They are awesome!

Update: Hillary from PPC Associates just informed me that my guest post made it to Marketing Day for May, 24 on Marketing Land. You can check it out here – just scroll down to the “Search Marketing” section. Sweet!

Image of PPC Associates © PPCAssociates.com

My Mid-Week Musings

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment May 22 5

I really enjoy writing my Weekend Musings posts. It’s been a while since my last weekend musings so I thought I’d go ahead and do a mid-week musings post. Here are a few exciting updates in my life / thoughts going through my mind right now…

I’m now advertising on Twitter! Thanks to the American Express / Twitter partnership, I was able to secure $100 free Twitter advertising credit and get my Twitter account (@ianlopuch) set up for promoted accounts and promoted tweets. My campaign is already off to a great start and I know that the insights I learn will make me a better online marketer (and will be directly transferable to my corporate role). I’m especially excited because this will help me achieve goal three of my Twitter Advertising Challenge. (You can read about my results so far here.) I’ll definitely do a follow-up post when I have more insights from my Twitter advertising.
I have a major speaking event scheduled for next week. I can’t wait. Public speaking is really thrilling and rewarding for me. In both 2010 and 2011, I spoke at Stanford Graduate School of Business. So far in 2012, I spoke at SVForum’s CXO Forum. I will definitely do a recap of my speaking event in a future PPC Ian post. I’m truly thankful that people are thinking of my when it comes to these speaking opportunities.
My blog, PPC Ian, may have had its most major success ever. PPC Ian is really about you, my readers. I blog here due to my passion for helping others and giving back to our industry. Thanks to PPC Ian, I have formed some amazing friendships and business partnerships. Just last week, I was able to connect a PPC Ian reader who has become a personal friend to a really stellar job opportunity. That PPC Ian reader ended up landing the job! Of course, all credit goes to this person for landing the job, but I like to think that I helped out in a small way by connecting two parties that I respect incredibly. Without PPC Ian, it’s unlikely I would have formed such a great relationship with either party. This news really made my day/week. Helping others always puts a smile on my face and is the goal of PPC Ian.
Surround yourself with positive people who have a “can do” mentality. Remember and document the positive feedback you receive. Winners work with other winners. Ignore the haters, but also embrace them because they are a direct reflection of your success (more haters = more success). Here are some of my Sources of Inspiration.
I was over at Google’s Mountain View campus today. My team and I met with several members of Google’s product management team to give client feedback. Earlier this week, Microsoft met with my team to collect product feedback. There is a clear trend in our industry of soliciting feedback directly from the end user, via in-person meetings. I’m a huge fan and can’t thank the search engines enough!
I have been building great friendships with SEM Agencies such as Rocket Clicks and PPC Associates. I’m a huge fan of SEM agencies and recommend working with agencies even if you have an in-house team. They provide such a valuable perspective and value-add. If you’re looking for a great SEM agency, these are two awesome ones to contact.

I hope you’re having a super week. Thanks so much for supporting PPC Ian!

Image of Twitter Ads © Twitter

Exact and Phrase Match Changing On AdWords

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment May 18 3

Google recently announced that they are Improving Exact and Phrase Match on Google AdWords. This is a really important change that’s happening right now (mid May). If you’re advertising on Google AdWords, today’s post is going to be super important for you.

So what’s Google doing? Basically, they are expanding the reach of exact and phrase. In addition to their classical definitions, both exact and phrase will now match to close variations (such as plurals and misspellings). An example: Let’s say you’re buying [mortgage]. It could now match to [mortgages] or even [mmortgage].

For advertisers who are smaller and have fewer overall keywords in their accounts, this could actually help. You’ll automatically match to more keywords (which should perform more-or-less similar since the variations are really close). You’re going to get more traffic (and hopefully conversions)! However, if you have a larger account with all the variations, this change could create some mapping and bidding issues. Why? When you’re large, it’s all about control. While a small advertiser may just have the word [mortgage] in their account, the large advertiser may already have [mortgage], [mortgages], and [mmortgage]. Moreover, the really savvy advertiser will have these split into separate adgroups with custom ads (and will have all three variations bid at different levels depending on their performance). With Google’s change, you don’t know which one will get triggered and you may therefore potentially deliver the wrong ad to the user. Moreover, you may overpay on some variations if you have lower bids set for them.

However, don’t worry! Right now, you can go into your advanced campaign settings and opt out if you’d like. My advice: Whether you are a smaller advertiser or larger, I recommend testing selectively. You’ll want to opt out for most campaigns, but opt in a few test campaigns. Then, you’ll want to test and see how the new exact and phrase matching do in your test campaigns as compared to the controls.

Also, keep in mind that the new matching will not affect quality score. Quality score is only calculated on Google.com for the exact query you are buying. That is good news! The net effect: I think this is a good change Google is making and I’m thrilled they give the advertiser the control to opt out if they’d like.

Image of Match Box © iStockPhoto – janka3147

Poor Organic Results Taking Over Insurance

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment May 14 2

Check out the screenshot below. It’s the Google organic search results for the keyword cheap auto insurance. As you can see, three out of the top six results are low quality affiliate sites. The savvy online marketer can tell right away. For me, it was the excessive use of caps and the fact that the sites are non-brand names. These days, especially for competitive insurance terms, it’s typically the brands that rank (with maybe one or two really high quality affiliate sites mixed in).

While the screenshot below highlights the Google organic results, I am experiencing the exact same phenomenon on Yahoo!/Bing as well. Someone is definitely going aggressively after the insurance industry. And, it’s been going on for a while. I have seen such results for at least 3 to 6 months.

A few key takeaways from this situation:

If you’re in the insurance industry, keep a very close eye on your organic program. It may be suffering due to these low quality results pushing down your organic program.
The search engines need to figure out how to stop this stuff, it’s just embarrassing from a user standpoint.
I dislike seeing this stuff because makes a bad name for affiliate marketers and affiliate programs.

So, what do you think? Have you been noticing similar low quality results in your vertical?

Image of Google search results © Google

Best Practices For Bid Management Whitepaper

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment May 11 3

Just a few days ago I wrote a post about Adobe’s new whitepaper called Going Global In A Social World. (If you have not read it yet, make sure to, it will totally help shape your global social media strategy.) Today, I read another amazing whitepaper, all about paid search bid management from my friends at Kenshoo. The whitepaper, Best Practices for Paid Search Bid Management and Optimization, is incredibly thorough and helpful. Here are some of my favorite highlights:

Kenshoo’s whitepaper is 25-pages. It’s incredibly thorough and a must-have reference when it comes to paid search bid management.
The whitepaper goes into detail about all different types of modern pay per click bidding models. If you enjoyed my post about Portfolio Theory Versus Margin Maximization, you’re going to really enjoy Kenshoo’s whitepaper. It provides all of the details to truly understand your bidding options.
Kenshoo’s whitepaper is unbiased. It shows the pros and cons of all bidding models. It leaves it up to the reader to choose the best one for their particular situation.
The whitepaper provides specific examples, with math to back up and help explain the bid management models.
Kenshoo’s whitepaper will make you look really good at work. It’s a great reference that will help you answer any question about enterprise level bidding technology.

I hope you have an amazing weekend! If you have a few extra minutes this weekend, make sure to read Kenshoo’s free Bid Management Whitepaper. You’ll definitely enjoy it and head into the office on Monday empowered as a bidding expert!

Image of Kenshoo © Kenshoo

Where I’m Finding My Inspiration Online

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment May 7 12

The Internet is an amazing thing. It’s because of the Internet that I’ve experienced rapid career growth. Before the Internet (and search engines), there was no search engine marketing after all. It’s also because of the Internet that I stay inspired. Just like the rest of you, I have super easy days and I also face more challenging ones. Whether its smooth sailing or rough waters, following are some of the online leaders who are inspiring me most these days. Following these leaders continues to shape my own career and life. (Friendly note: I could not possibly cover all of my mentors and sources of inspiration in this single post. If you didn’t make the list, it doesn’t mean you are not inspiring me!)

Diddy

Want to follow the one and only Diddy? Look no further than Twitter. Tweeting under the @iamdiddy handle, Diddy offers pure inspiration. Some of my favorite quotes include:

“Nobody said it would be easy-they just promised it would be worth it!!”
“Dream it Believe it Pursue it… DONT STOP!!!”

If you’ve been reading PPC Ian for a while, you probably know that Rap Music Drives My Online Marketing so I’m a huge fan of following my favorite rappers on Twitter. Diddy inspires me to keep going with the can’t stop, won’t stop mentality!

Rev Run

Historically, I have not been a super religious person. However, as I look for inspiration, I see a consistent theme… It’s coming from religious sources such as Rev Run and Joel Osteen. Rev Run always has a really positive message and I cannot thank him enough for his inspiration. You can follow Rev Run on Twitter at @RevRunWisdom. One of my 2012 Goals is to give back as much as possible. Rev Run has inspired me to do just that.

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton is a personal friend and business leader. He blogs about Domain Names and, in my opinion, has the best blog on the topic. What amazes me about Morgan is he gets so much done. He’s literally running 100s of websites, buying/selling 1000s of domains, and building businesses such as Appraiso. When I’m looking for motivation to get stuff done, I head on over to Morgan’s blog.

Dividend Mantra

Another one of my huge goals this year is cash flow. I’m doing everything I can to save money and invest wisely in dividend-paying stocks and other instruments such as Lending Club. I found a neat blog called Dividend Mantra that echos a lot of my own beliefs when it comes to finances. While I’m not trying to leave the workforce too young like the author (I love my job in online marketing too much), I totally want to build up portfolio of passive income. Dividend Mantra inspires me to save money and invest wisely.

Mr. Cash At Hand

Do you have haters? I hope you do! It seems like the better you do, the more haters you have. When the haters are hating, I often turn to my friend Mr. Cash At Hand. He offers a positive outlook on life and has one of the best channels on YouTube. Mr. Cash At Hand provides practical advice on having the right perception and getting the most out of life. He fuels success!

The Free COO

My good friend Donald Landwirth, also known as The Free COO, is a career leader and COO. In fact, he was either the founder or first c-level executive in four incredibly successful startups. His achievements in business are too many to count. If you’re looking for inspiration to be an amazing business leader and offer your organization everything you have, look no further than Don and his radio show on Spreaker. A few months ago, I Was Live On The Free COO.

PPC Ian Readers

I continue to receive amazing emails, questions, comments, and praise every single day. There would be no PPC Ian without all of you! All of my readers here at PPC Ian inspire me to be a better blogger and writer, every single day. Thank you!

My Wife

I like to think that I have all the good ideas, but honestly I’m often just in execution mode. My amazing wife, Nicole, is the true brains behind this guy and she inspires me in every way imaginable.

I hope you enjoyed reading about some of my favorite leaders and mentors. They key takeaway from today’s post: Find your own sources of inspiration. Those who excel have mentors. They always aspire to more. They stay inspired by following the right leaders!

Ad Rotation Is Changing On Google AdWords

By PPC Ian Leave a Comment May 3 1

I’m a huge fan of Google’s ad rotation. There are three settings right now: rotate evenly, optimize for clicks, and optimize for conversions. All three have their time and place. In the case of rotate evenly, some major changes are happening. You can read all about the New Changes To Ad Rotation on the Google AdWords blog.

Rotate Evenly

So what’s happening? Basically, rotate evenly will only work for 30 days. Then, after 30 days, Google will start optimizing for clicks. I can totally see why Google is doing this. I’m sure plenty of advertisers set rotate evenly during ad copy testing and then forget all about it. Due to a less than optimized CTR (they forgot to conclude the test and pick a winner), the advertiser is getting fewer clicks and Google is earning less revenue that way. And, honestly, from an advertiser’s perspective it is nice to have something like this in place because we all forget about ad copy tests from time to time.

That said, there are some downsides here. First, when I test ads, I like to look at both CTR and conversion rate. It’s easy to conclude a winner based on CTR since it’s top of funnel and statistical significance comes fast. However, if you’re in a lower conversion rate vertical, getting statistical significance on conversion rate can take some time. Frequently, it will take more than 30 days. In my opinion, 30 days is just not enough. Therefore, the 30 day limit will lessen the ability to perform a proper ad copy test for certain advertisers.

The second downside I see here is you cannot use rotate evenly to allocate ads anymore. Let’s say you have a specific allocation in mind. Let’s say you have two ads, one of which should show up 90% of the time with the other showing up 10% of the time. The historical trick was to set the campaign to rotate evenly and then to deploy the first ad 9 times and the second ad 1 time. That quick hack gets you exactly the ad allocation you want. However, with rotate evenly only lasting 30 days, this ability will become too cumbersome. Sure, you could re-deploy all the ads every 30 days, but that’s certainly going to create more work.

So, where does this leave us? Really, I see two action items. First, it will be critical to perform an account audit. Where are you utilizing rotate evenly? Find ways to conclude those tests and get away from rotate evenly. To the extent you can figure it out ahead of time, there will be no unwanted surprises. Second, it’s time to really think through ad copy testing strategy. Some of the strategies that were used in the past may no longer be viable (especially if your tests took more than 30 days). This applies not only to ad copy testing, but landing page testing too (if you happen to test landing pages by splitting ads via rotate evenly). Best of luck! Personally, I’m not the largest fan of this particular change, but it also probably won’t be that big of a deal for the majority of advertisers.