These video extensions are currently in beta in the USA, and although Google haven’t made any concrete statement about when they’ll see general release / UK functionality, it can’t be too far off (depending, of course, on them going down well in the USA). This new feature follows on recent extensions of the amount of information displayed in paid search listings, as Google brings together more and more features. AdWords listings are becoming increasingly diverse and increasingly information-rich, as are organic SERPs.

Now, down to brass tacks: how much will it cost? Apparently, Google will be charging the maximum CPC of the ads’ keywords per 10 seconds of video. So that’s not an insignificant amount, especially on campaigns that are getting a lot of impressions.

Apparently, the videos will play in expandable plusboxes underneath the classic text ads we all know and love. So, like Google’s current “hover-over” page shots for organic results, it’s a chance for Google users to get more content before clicking through. We’ll be interested to see what effect a little added rich media has to CTRs. What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

What are the potential repercussions of Louis Vuitton’s campaign to have exclusive rights to “Louis Vuitton” as keywords? Google said this back in March:

“We believe that user interest is best served by maximizing the choice of keywords, ensuring relevant and informative advertising for a wide variety of different contexts,”

They’re clearly of the opinion that limiting certain keywords to the use of those who’ve trademarked them could compromise AdWords as a whole:

“Some companies want to limit choice for users by extending trademark law to encompass the use of keywords in online advertising. Ultimately they want to be able to exercise greater control over the information available to users by preventing other companies from advertising”

And they’re confident that their AdWords anti-counterfeit-goods policies are enough to deal with the problem of knock-off goods being advertised as genuine on Google. At the moment, trademark owners can report individual sites for infringing trademarks, and it seems that as far as Google are concerned, that’s enough. This is bolstered by a mid-July update to AdWords policy, extending the prohibition of implying affiliation through deceptive business names.

Since the French Supreme Court’s decision, however, it seems that the argument is going to continue for a while yet.

Louis Vuitton claims the judgement will “ensure greater legal certainty to the benefit of both businesses and consumers operating online”.

People who’ve already viewed your website are more likely to be amenable to further advertising; Google is helping Google users see relevant ads, and is helping adwords users advertise more effectively. Google have this to say about it:

“Remarketing is a tool that can drive ROI for all types of advertisers, regardless of the focus of your campaigns (brand-orientated, performance-driven, etc.) or your ad formats.”

We can definitely see how content network remarketing could offer a greater degree of focus – and creativity – within ad creation. Users who visit pages on your websites will be added to a Google generated adwords list related to that page; ads will go only to the people on these lists. So you can focus on ads related to the content they’ve viewed – perhaps with small-scale special offers aimed only at people on that list.

All of this occurs within the traditional Google ad-auction set up, with CPM and CPC values optimisable through other targeting techniques – geographical, for example. So, Google is presenting adwords user with the opportunity to target people who’re further on in the buying cycle than other search users, and to further finesse the selection of users who see their ads. It’s the latest step in Google’s journey towards increasingly user-defined marketing platform functions; other functions are currently in beta, and we’ll be discussing them further as they appear.

Broad Match Modified keywords fit snugly between Broad and Phrase searches, and should offer a combination of Broad search volume with Phrase search control and manageability. Google are pushing it at PPC users who normally focus on exact and phrase match keywords, as it offers greater possible exposure. The reverse is also true, with Google advising that PPC users who tend to concentrate on broad search results may see a preliminary reduction in click-through and conversion rates. Ideally, of course, the increased relevance of ads with the broad match modifier should help to bring these back up.

Google have, as usual, published some excellent supporting literature for this new feature. Two very  important practical points for those of you who want to implement the Broad match modifier:

• Don’t put a space between the “+” and the keyword.
• Do put a space between the keywords.

In actual fact any landing page should have been relevant to the key phrase already if a SEO strategy was in place, but for those obscure phrases and new landing pages it was emphases even more.

The new Dynamic Quality score works on a number of the same principles as before but it can utilise your landing page much more, with the ultimate goal of helping shoppers find the correct information, which in the long run should hopefully dynamically lower the over CPC and bounce rate for a PPC Campaign.

The Quality score now takes every phrase searched for and looks to the landing page to ensure that it is relevant to the searched phrase. It t hen will dynamically change the quality score, which in turn will adjust the position of the ad to ensure the end user is seeing the most relevant ads for their search. Because exact searches do not differ this will be most widely used on the broad match phrases.

Therefore to ensure that your quality score is at its best take advantage of the dynamic quality score by ensuring that all your landing pages are targeted to a not only your exact match phrase but to those phrase which might come along side your broad match phrases.

In general managing a Pay Per Click Campaign is to better ROI and on a manual basis it is also possible to reduce the cost per click based on performance although it requires many more man hours but in many cases this way is much more accurate and allows for a better long term understanding on the campaign and the direction for better ROI.

Here are some advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages

• Decrease the time required to manage a campaign on as it does not require as much intense monitor to a key phrase level

• Make better use of budgets for certain key phrases

• Advanced positioning for improved Click Through rates

• Reduced management time for large campaigns

• Possible increase in ROI

Disadvantages

• No way to manage landing pages correctly

• Use of brand building key phrases will have reduced Costs and lower Click throughs as the conversion rates are no usually as high

• No way to deal with first visitors

• No way to deal with seasonal changes

• Still requires intense management

How could they be improved?

Using a Automated Bid Management tool in many ways can benefit a Pay Per click campaign but still requires intense monitoring. As the tools further advance to allow for times of day tracking and landing page analysis with the process become even more advanced. Google’s huge collection of tools such as the conversion Optimizer and Web Optimizer working together may be able to help with this and both are free, but it is almost impossible to deal with important human edited areas such as first time visitors key phrases, branding key phrases and the intelligent behind landing pages and website usability at a key phrase level.

Overall the use of automated bid management tools can help on large low cost per click campaigns but campaigns which require intense monitoring to improve conversions it well always be better to use automated systems as a backup to intense human management.

The benefits of Pay Per Click / Paid Search are crucial to the ongoing growth of many businesses be those online retailers or service providers are well known and reported. With the number of mobile network providers who offer mobile internet packages increasing and with the arrival of phones such as the iPhone mobile paid for search should be a part of your company’s long term marketing strategy.

As a PPC management company, we feel there are many companies either unaware or unsure of the benefits of mobile paid search; these companies are missing out on potential leads and sales, are you?

Unless your website is already well established within the search engines and you are able to rapidly alter content to achieve listings in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for phrases relating to your products / Christmas season what can you do?

By far the easiest way for companies operating on the web to achieve their goal of higher visitor numbers at Christmas is through utilising Pay Per Click networks, such as Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing and Live / msn adCenter. However this does have drawbacks, as a Pay Per Click Management company we are continually monitoring campaign budgets and spend efficiency, during the months leading up to Christmas and the new year sales you can expect your average Cost Per Click and if you want to maintain / increase visitor levels your daily budgets to increase.

During these periods of intense ad fluctuation where your competitors will be frequently modifying ads it is important that you also utilise Pay Per Click management to ensure your business is not adversely affected as others ‘cash in’ on the Christmas rush. View more information on Pay Per Click Management.

Website analytics is the process monitoring and interpreting the interaction with users with a website. Analytics can track every movement a user makes on page and where they come from. This is crucial in PPC Management as knowing what people clicked on and what they did on the site will allow you to make informative decisions on how to bid on particular key phrases.

Analytics is the beginning of a PPC Management, taking the information from the analytics it is possible to make usability decisions on the website. This may include removing bottle necks in the purchase funnel or reducing the bounce rate on landing pages.

Monitoring analytics with your PPC campaign can make the difference to those clicks that not provide a return. Taking the data and turning it into information that can be used to make decision about your website to increase conversion rates and ROI is how you can manage your PPC campaign the best.

When it comes to managing a PPC campaign there are a number of important tasks which are crucial to ensure that your campaign is earning the best ROI possible. Monitoring a PPC campaign using basic analytics will provide you with details for your campaign but collecting the right data and feeding back into the campaign is the most important role.

Website analytics is the process monitoring and interpreting the interaction with users with a website. Analytics can track every movement a user makes on page and where they come from. This is crucial in PPC Management as knowing what people clicked on and what they did on the site will allow you to make informative decisions on how to bid on particular key phrases.

Analytics is the beginning of a PPC Management, taking the information from the analytics it is possible to make usability decisions on the website. This may include removing bottle necks in the purchase funnel or reducing the bounce rate on landing pages.

Monitoring analytics with your PPC campaign can make the difference to those clicks that not provide a return. Taking the data and turning it into information that can be used to make decision about your website to increase conversion rates and ROI is how you can manage your PPC campaign the best.

Previously you only had the option to alter colours of the logo, however Google have now decided to give you the option of not displaying it at all. This is due to an increasing number of companies who use their online privacy policies to make people aware that they do utilise tracking technologies within their sites.

If you do currently use the Google conversion tracking the logo will continue to display, you will need to login to your Google account and re-generate the conversion tracking code. Google do ask that if you do remove the logo to make sure your privacy policy does alert your website users that tracking is being performed.