Back in May, Google introduced AdWords Broad Match Modifier by launching the beta version in Canada and UK.  The broad match modifier is a targeting feature that lets advertisers create keyword phrases in their AdWords accounts which have greater reach than phrase match and more control than broad match.  Google has now rolled out the broad match modifier globally.

The earlier test I did, in some of the niche accounts, the new match type has proven successful.  The challenge I had earlier with these niche B2B accounts was that with the phrase or exact match types I was not getting enough traffic and with the broad match, I was getting a lot of not-so-relevant impressions and clicks.  So, on a daily basis I had to add negative keywords to my Google AdWords Ad Groups and Campaigns.

With the new modified broad match, I was able to create a balance between getting enough traffic and keeping the need to add so many negative keywords to minimum and improve the overall ROI.

Depending on the type of campaign, this new AdWords matching type might or might become handy. Nevertheless, it is definitely worth trying.

Google has been trying a new format of ad delivery for AdWords.  It seems that Google is testing showing ads under different headings.

The ads with the higher quality score, most likely triggered by exact match keywords, seems to rank high.  Then Google shows the other ads under different relevant headings most like triggered by broad match keywords.

Google Testing New Way to Serve AdWords Ads

Google just announced the addition of Target CPA Bidding to its conversion optimizer tool.  With this feature, you can set the Target Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) Bidding at the campaign level which lets Google AdWords know the average amount you are ready to pay for a conversion.

When Google first introduced Conversion Optimizer, the tool had some shortcomings and in few occasions that I tried it, it did not have the results I was expecting and I had to move back to the manual bidding to keep the Cost per Conversion (CPA) in check.   However, over time Google’s bid management tool improved.

The challenge with the tool was that it was looking at the Max CPA bids (the bid amount you were willing to pay for a conversion for each Ad Group) as opposed to the target CPA which was making the tool less flexible and as a result, in some situations, it was limiting the chance of maximizing the number of conversions.  Bidding with a target or average CPA allows for maximizing the number of conversions while keeping your target CPA in mind.

For the CPA bidding option to be available in the “Advance Options” under “Focus on Conversions” section of campaign settings, you need to have Google conversion tracking active, have received conversions at a similar rate for a while and have at least 15 conversions recorded in the 30 days.

Google AdWords takes into consideration various factors when trying to analyze, optimize and maximize the ROI of a campaign such as keyword matches, search partner sites, content site topics, user location, operating system, browser, language setting, and seasonality.

In order for Conversion Optimizer to work properly, Position Preference and Advanced Ad Scheduling needs to be turned off.

This tool will make the need for a third party bid management software for those who do not manage the bids for their PPC advertising manually less relevant.

As I mentioned earlier, Google introduced its new Remarketing feature. Google remarketing can be used to develop and implement different strategies such as:

• Retargeting all visitors to your site. For example, if you are an online publisher, you can choose to retarget those people who have visited your site and not subscribed to your publication with an attractive subscription offer they cannot refuse.
• Retargeting those visitors to your site who have visited a specific section of your site. For example, retargeting people who visited your DSLR camera section with a Nikon DSLR D90 ad while retargeting who visited your binocular category with a Bushnell H2O ad.
• Remarketing only to those visitors who did not convert and not those who have actually purchased from you.
• Remarketing those audiences who have abandoned the shopping cart with a lucrative offer.
• Retargeting your customers with an up-sell/cross-sell offer.
• Remarket your customers after a certain period of time. For example if you know your customers need to buy your product again after 2 months, you can create a custom audience to retarget your audience around the time they need to repurchase your product.

In most cases, you need to create and manage multiple remarketing lists to reach your audience. You can use any of these combinations to target your desired audience:

• AND operator (all these audiences)
• OR operator (one or more of these audiences)
• NOT operator (none of these audiences)

Membership of cookie Ids within custom combinations is updated by Google every few hours. Membership durations remain intact for each for each remarketing list in your created custom combination.

You can create various performance reports on Google AdWords such as Placement Performance report, Impression Share report and number of users in a list (number of unique users who viewed the pages tagged within the membership).

Being an innovator might not necessarily mean you will be successful. In order for an innovative product to catch on, the market should be ready for accepting the product and you need to have the marketing arm that can push the product.

Yahoo was the first major search engine who got into behavioural marketing by acquiring BlueLithium (an online advertising network) back in 2007. The idea was to join behavioral targeting with advanced data analytics to improve campaign optimization over an advertising network for performance-based display advertisers while enhancing the value to the publishers.

Some visitors convert the first time around; however, many will visit your site once and may never come back. The way Behavioral targeting (BT) works is that visitors to your site are tagged by a cookie, which contains no personally identifiable information. Ad retargeting allows you to continue to advertise to and remarket those visitors while they browse other relevant websites utilizing uniquely customized banners created to fit your retargeting campaign.

Not only does retargeting builds brand awareness, but also helps direct marketers by improving conversion rates. As visitors are presented with multiple advertisements from your business, they begin to recognize your brand. Brand recognition earns trust and leads to higher conversion rates.

Search retargeting adds a layer of relevancy to banner served to searchers after they leave your site. This advertising technology recognizes users’ intents based on their original search queries. This theoretically should increase the value of search marketing ( SEM ) by increasing the likelihood of a conversion.

Through this behavioural targeting technology, advertisers can reach a target audience with display ads that are highly relevant to the way users search. For example if Visitor X comes to your site and browses for DSLR cameras but leaves without buying, you can use search retargeting to track Visitor X and serve and remarket DSLR cameras to him/her after s/he leaves your site with targeted ads with a 20% off offer.

As with any other marketing campaign, to effectively utilize behavioral search retargeting, strong creative related to landing pages and search terms are crucial. Developing special offers and unique messages help entice and lure back visitors to your site. The challenge is for the search retargeting to work well you need to have enough traffic volume on your pages.

After almost a year of testing with, Google finally joined the list of companies who offer online ad retargeting by introducing their new Remarketing feature. Now, Google AdWords allows its advertisers use remarketing to reach their audience on sites within the Google Content Network based on their past interactions with their websites.

Now search marketers can then remarket to those visitors who reach their sites by showing them tailored ads on sites throughout the Google Content Network. You can set up your remarketing campaign through the new “Audiences” tab in Google AdWords interface.

Google Remarketing Feature - Audience Tab

The way it works is that you put a piece of code (pixel) on your landing pages, website, or YouTube channel, which will let you later show relevant promotional ads to those audience who have visited those pages, as they browse sites within the Google Content Network.

The beauty of this remarketing feature is that you can run multiple remarketing campaigns at the same time based on audiences’ behavior. Remarketing allows businesses to reach those users who are more likely to be receptive to their text/banner ads and achieve a higher ROI.