Google Adwords Template Center

Google Adwords blog has announced that they have launched Adwords Template Center.

This is free tool and it is available via My Client Center (MCC). This will allow My Client Center account managers to create templates for pre-defined Adwords campaigns and share them with their directly linked Adwords accounts. Advertisers with these linked accounts can quickly and easily view and customize the templates to run their own Adwords campaigns. The MCC account managers can create policies to restrict use of certain keywords.

More information available at: https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=13065

Updates to Google Adwords Site targeting

Google Adwords blog has announced two changes to site targeting in Google's content network.

First, because site targeting now offers more precise targeting options, we've given it a more appropriate name: placement targeting. Second, they are introducing a new cost-per-click bidding option so advertisers can now pay per click or per impression.

Introducing placement targeting

With features like targeting by demographics and richer ad formats such as click-to-play video ads. Now, advertisers can target not only websites but also precise subsections of sites, such as the football pages of a news site, the show times section of a movie site, and even a specific ad unit (a block of Google ads) on a particular webpage. Because of these features, Google has changed the name from site targeting to placement targeting. The term "placement" can be used to refer to any site or subsection of a site that advertisers choose to target.

Cost-per-click bidding for placement targeting

With the launch of cost-per-click (CPC) bidding, advertisers can now choose the bidding option that best matches their needs. If the purpose of your placement-targeted campaign is to increase sales, leads, sign-ups, or other conversion-oriented metrics, you can select CPC bidding and pay when users click on your ads. If you want to maximize impressions and increase brand awareness among your target audience, you can select cost-per-impression (CPM) bidding. And you can specify either the maximum price or the average price (with preferred bidding), that you'd like to pay for each click or 1000 impressions.

More information available at: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2007/11/two-updates-to-site-targeting.html

Increase in CPC

Google’s Chief Economist, Hal Varian has explained why CPCs tend to increase during the holiday season. He has explained this on Google Adwords blog as:

"Many advertisers track their average cost-per-click (CPC), but what really matters for the bottom line is the average cost-per-acquisition (CPA): how much you have to spend on advertising to make a sale. The third factor to watch is the conversion rate, which is defined as conversions (sales) per click.

Note that these numbers are neatly tied together by the convenient formula:

CPA = CPC/Conversion rate = (cost/click)/(conversions/click).

Clicks, cost, and conversions all go up during the holidays. As it happens, conversions increase more than clicks, so conversion rates tend to rise. This makes the clicks more valuable, so advertisers raise their bids to reach more consumers. As a result CPCs get pushed up."

More information available at:

http://adwords.blogspot.com/2007/11/clicks-conversions-and-christmas.html

Location in Google Adword ads

Google Adwords blog has explained as when they display location in Adword ads and how they determine what to display.

When an advertiser uses regional targeting in a campaign, Google users searching from targeted areas will see the city or region name (whichever is more specific) displayed directly beneath the ad. This helps local users in determining that particular ad is relevant to them. Google displays the name of the region or city based on the actual search query or the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the user, if available.

More info available at: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2007/10/adwords-ads-whats-your-location.html

New Adwords feature

Google Adwords blog has announced that they have launched a new Adwords feature: the Conversion Optimizer beta. This feature will automatically manage bids according to a maximum CPA goal. Maximum cost-per-acquisition (CPA) bid is the amount advertiser is willing to pay for a conversion. With this feature the process of monitoring and adjusting cost-per-click (CPC) bids in order to get more conversions for a lower cost is automated. You simply specify a maximum cost-per-acquisition (CPA) bid for each ad group. The Conversion Optimizer manages your CPC bids for you, making adjustments and showing your ads only when you're likely to get conversions.

More information is available on Adwords Blog

Google Gadget Ads

Google has introduced Google Gadget Ads. This enable individual advertisers and agencies to create ads using maps, images, audio, video, Flash, HTML or JavaScript. The ads can reach Internet users in more than 20 languages and over 100 countries. Advertisers will be able to choose between cost-per-click and cost-per-impression pricing models as well as target their ads based on site context, domain, geography and demographics.

http://www.google.com/adwords/gadgetads/