In the online advertising world, updates, small tweaks, etc. are made to the search engines on a pretty regular basis without tremendous controversy. However, the past few weeks have tested advertisers’ patience, as both Google and Yahoo! have announced some hefty upcoming changes that have caused a bit of a stir in the PPC world, as they may cause a significant negative impact across advertisers accounts.

First, take a step back and ask yourself a few questions:

1. Do you use redirects on your landing pages that slow down the user’s experience? 2. Are you operating off of a slow server?

If you answered yes to either of the above, the new addition to the Google Quality Score may have a negative impact on your account. Google has announced that within the next 2 weeks landing page load time will become a factor in determining the Quality Score. Google suggests that one of their motives behind this change comes from (1) data showing that users have the best experience when there is not a long time in between clicking an ad and getting to the landing page. Google plans to add this to the Keyword Analysis page shortly, giving advertisers with a bad review a month to improve page load time before slapping them with a lower quality score.

I, for one, am actually in favor of this change, especially from a consumer point of view. If I have to wait for a page to load, there’s a large chance I will abandon my search and try someone else (and probably one of your competitors). If you can’t serve me your landing page with the information I am seeking in a timely fashion, I cannot imagine what other obstacles I may face using your product/service. This is exactly Google’s second (2) motive for adding the page load time to the QS. While I am sure Google will make an extra dollar off of this change by lowering QS and raising minimum bids for advertisers, advertisers on the other hand will get a bit of a wake up call and a slight insight as to why their conversion rates may be lower than expected. Should advertisers take Google’s expertise to heart and work to improve page load times, it may be a god-send in decreasing bounce rates, in turn improving conversion rates.

Now ask yourself the following:
1. Are you bidding on terms that are not relevant to your business?
2. Do you have well-structured ad groups around tightly themed keyword groups?
3. Are you bidding on a keyword level to take advantage of lower bids for certain keywords (to offset higher bids on other keywords)?
4. Are you utilizing keyword match type (broad, phase, exact and negative)?

Depending on your answers above, the next big announcement from Yahoo! (who is not only hanging on through the talks of being bought by Microsoft, but is taking even more steps to tailor their engine to mirror Google) may cause your minimum bids to increase OR decrease. Yahoo! has announced the change of their minimum bid function, which previously had been set at $0.10. Now, they are moving more towards the “Google auction method”, taking into account factors such as quality of the keyword and value and are creating a bit of chaos in the PPC world as well.

As an advertiser, it’s important to closely monitor your minimum bids over the next few weeks as this update rolls out. While some keywords may drop below the $0.10 bid, others may jump well above the $0.10, causing you to bid more for terms that previously you were able to get away with low bids on.

To best prepare yourself for the update, I suggest putting yourself into the user’s mindset – Are you offering the best user experience you can? Chances are, if you see flaws in the experience, they will too.

At SEER, we believe in giving back to the community, in whatever way you can. Earlier in the year, I knew I might be a little busy with work and business school so I started on an endeavor to grow out my hair to donate it to charity (e.g., Locks of Love). I’m excited to say my ponytail is just about there – I’m getting ready to chop it off! Yesterday, an article happened to catch my eye – Hilary Swank let Oprah Winfrey cut off about nine inches of her hair to donate to Pantene Beautiful Lengths, which provides wigs to women suffering hair loss from cancer treatments.

I thought the Pantene Beautiful Lengths program sounded really interesting, and I wanted to learn more about it. I was just about to type “Pantene Beautiful Lengths” into my Google toolbar search box when I noticed something. Off to the side of the article were the Google content network ads; one of the ads said “Donate Your Hair” and was for the Beautiful Lengths website. Easy enough! I did not have to go searching – the link was right there. Click! (Here’s a screenshot:)

Now, I’m not full-fledged member of our pay per click team — I just help out every now and then (which really just means I stick my nose in when I see something that sparks my interest or when I see something in the analytics that needs addressing). I’m really the analytics head and a member of the SEO team. However, this is an instance where I’ll stick my nose into PPC. I think this article and this example of a content network ad bring up an interesting point. Many companies struggle with the content network –- paying money for ads that are not as relevant as ads that appear on the search network. Yet, it seems that Pantene has found an extremely appropriate and cost-effective use of the content network.

I’m putting forth the notion that the content network might be tremendously successful for a company when you’re doing a large PR push. Articles about Hilary Swank’s appearance on Oprah are popping up everywhere. The content network ads are appropriate because in every article, Pantene knows that the odds are that they will get a mention and that it will be positive. Additionally, it is also likely that readers might also want more information, so advertising along side that article is a good brand move and is one way for Pantene to measure return on their efforts/involvement with the entire cause.

It’s something to think about. Even if your company isn’t appearing on Oprah, but you’re involved in a large public relations effort, particularly one that has articles that are being syndicated across the web, it might make sense to be on the content network (or at least run a test that you monitor closely). The articles are scanned by Google, and when they pick up your company name (or whatever is mentioned in the article), your content network ad might show.

We’ve all seen the ads adorning the top of the Google SERPs: “Adwords Secrets Exposed,” “Killing the Adwords System,” “Money Saving PPC Strategies,” and several other claims that would grab anyone’s attention who is thinking about or currently spending money on pay-per-click. The landing pages all look like they were created by the same direct response nightmare designer: red and blue 20pt type, and no images except for a small picture of the “book” the so-called expert has written, which can be yours for a one time fee of $95.00. And as an added value, you’ll receive emails containing more of these insider trading techniques.

To a novice, these techniques and tips may seem legitimate, and maybe a few years ago they were. The truth is that the landscape has changed and will continue to change. A client said to me the other day, “The party is over,” and he was correct. So what these “Adwords Killers” should be selling us on is what to do now. I know how to write ad copy, how to set up campaigns, and optimize bids - So do the majority of the advertisers bidding for position on the same terms that I am. We all know the same best practices and it’s becoming more and more difficult to compete in the space.

The truth is that there are so many varying opinions and experts giving advice on this topic that has become difficult to weed out the truly helpful information. I read articles on subjects that are too basic, too old, or from these so-called gurus who can save me millions a year by buying their eBook. There are a few honest and thought-provoking sites out there that I read on a daily basis to stay on top of the industry, but as far as the day-to-day management of my campaigns, there is not a lot of help out there. So where can someone like me, who has mastered the basics and even knows some “advanced tactics,” go for advice?

Paid Search Marketers guard their “intellectual property” very closely and I am guilty of this possessiveness, too – I don’t want to show someone my strategy for developing, managing and growing my campaigns. Perhaps the real secret is that there isn’t a secret. It’s Marketing 101, only with more Math involved. What if there aren’t any true Paid Search experts out there anymore or individuals who hold the key like there were five years ago and it’s now about learning how to survive in this over-saturated rapidly growing competitive market? I would hate to think that there is nothing more to learn.

I have decided to post questions to the experts out there on a frequent basis. I am hoping that I will see new tips and ideas as a result. Hopefully we can collectively save another soul from buying “Adwords Secrets Revealed” for $19.95.

After the rollout of the Placement Platform, Google Adwords is again proving that they are extremely focused on being innovative in the ever-changing online advertising space. The latest addition to Adwords advertising is the IP Exclusion Feature. Adwords has taken things a step further with allowing advertisers to have control over their advertisements, which is always a welcomed feature by the advertisers. Advertisers have always had the ability to control placements of their ads in terms of choosing language settings, geo-targeting settings, site exclusion settings, etcetera however now with the addition of the new IP Exclusion feature advertisers also have the ability to specify IP addresses where they do not want their ads to show. This is an amazing breakthrough in the online advertising world that will help to prevent click fraud. Advertisers however, should not get overly aggressive with implementing this new feature, as it may result in blocking a ton of relevant traffic.

As BizReport suggested, this feature may contribute in battling the click-fraud that advertisers face but usually do not have much control over. Click-fraud can be identified when an ad is receiving an excessive amount of clicks from the same IP address on a continual basis.

2 Ways to effectively use the IP Exclusion Feature:

Blocking Competitor IP addresses
Blocking IP addresses from competitors could potentially aid in less click-fraud, which in turn may enhance the validity of reporting from Adwords by registering more of the quality clicks versus reports containing the fraud clicks and the quality clicks.

Fortune 1000 companies … Exclude yourselves
Blocking internal IP addresses could also aid in preventing the accidental clicks caused by employees and agencies constantly checking the status of their PPC ads. We saw this happening firsthand with a client of ours. They found that 75% of their clicks on their branded keywords were from their own employees! Another feature Adwords provides for checking Pay Per Click (PPC) ads for employees and agencies to carefully avoid the accidental clicking can be found here.

The downside of IP exclusion is that if you block an IP address that uses a proxy, you may have succeeded in blocking the 1 or 2 people suspected of click fraud, but you may also be blocking hundreds and thousands of legitimate, quality clicks at the same time.

The IP Exclusion Features allows an advertiser to block up to 20 IP addresses per campaign. The IP Exclusion Feature can definitely serve as a benefit to Adwords campaign, but before you decide to enable the feature, be sure you have done your homework on the IP addresses you are about to block and the feature doesn’t backfire on you!