• Idearc Launches Mobile App for BlackBerry | Local Mobile Search
  regardless what you think of YPs; Idearc keeps innovating and trying new things.
  (tags: iyp)
• Borrell: Direct Mail Next to Go « Screenwerk
  (tags: advertising)
• 12 Tips For Designing an Excellent Checkout Process | How-To | Smashing Magazine
  Good, quick read.
  (tags: ecommerce)

I’m expecting to sell out the Chicago event next week (June 4th & 5th), but there are still a handful of seats left.

Usually to receive the $50 AdWords credit you have to register a week in advanced; however, we have decided to waive that clause. In this case, we’re letting education trump marketing. The economy is tough, so we’re trying to due our part to help other businesses succeed.

If you’d like to attend, here’s the information for our Chicago event:

The AdWords Seminar for Success series is stopping in Chicago, IL.

When: June 4th & 5th
Where: Hilton Chicago
720 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60605

The AdWords Seminar Curriculum has been completely revamped based upon feedback from previous attendees. We’re now offering a two day seminar. Each day is optional; however, we’re offering a discount to those attending both days.

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

Before you read the new curriculum, don’t forget the fun goodies you also get for attending:

• $100 AdWords Credit ($50 if you register for a single day) **Must Register 7 Days in Advance
• 2 USB Thumb Drives with Presentation Materials (1 for each day)
• Other Google Goodies

Curriculum Day 1

Brad – GREAT JOB! you managed multiple experience levels beautifully. I learned a lot. Already seeing better results from my Adwords campaigns. I’m sure I’ll attend another session.
Steve Hodgdon

The Google Adwords seminar by Brad Geddes was the most informative and enlightening one I have ever attended. The day flew by and the information gleaned was more than most two-day sessions I have attended.

Jeff Cunningham
Cunninghamn Gas Products

Curriculum Day 2

I attended your “Google Adwords Seminar for Success” sessions in Austin earlier this week.  I just wanted to say I really appreciated the content you offered.  Your material was well balanced.  I was fearful that because my company is not a product-selling company that we would not benefit from your information.  That couldn’t have been further from the truth.  Your seminar validated to me that the direction we have taken so far is appropriate.  It is good to see and hear from an expert that we have made good decisions about our Adwords strategy.   Your information and tips have given me new things to think about and to use when looking for new keywords to use, and as well to examine our existing keyword performance.

Stu Roberts
Director of Information Technology
Nelson Architectural Engineers, Inc.
Investigative Engineering & Forensic Technology

Brad, great job with the seminar.  It was taught well and at a good learning pace.  You handled the array of questions from simple to hard with great explanations and analogies.  I will probably be calling you for some personal phone consultations for my larger ppc clients.
All the best!
Tony Mandarich

I’m an affiliate and this type of training is essential and you guys delivered the best quality in content I’ve even seen about the subject of adwords. I left the seminar feeling more confident about this interface, but I sure would have been glad to pay extra for access to recorded video sessions.

Maybe that’s something you guys could
offer soon?

Thanks very much.
Charlie Perez.

Brad is a genius–and I don’t say that about a lot of people.  He knows Google adwords inside and out.  I was thoroughly impressed by his presentation.

-Anon

I attended this conference in order to learn the latest Adwords developments, and in this respect, I found it to be most useful. We are using Adwords tools daily, so know more about them than the average user. Still, it is useful from time to time to take a step back and listen to an expert who is obviously plugged into the latest, as well as upcoming, developments.

Brad is an exceptional speaker, offers insightful views about marketing theory, and is a technical master. Aside from that he demonstrates during his presentations a willingness to roll up his sleeves and delve into the nuts and bolts of how to manage Adwords to improve ROAS for clients.
Chris Lude
Denver-PPC.com

My latest Search Engine Land column, titled How Will Google’s Recent Trademark Changes Affect You? is now published.

Google has made a few big changes to how they handle trademarks in ad copy as well as expanding the countries where it is allowable to use trademarks as keywords.

In addition, Lori Weiman wrote a nice column this week  titled Brand Aid How To Protect Your Brand Under Google’s New Trademark Policies which is more focused around helping brands protect their marks.

• Local Search Ranking Factors | Google & Yahoo Local SEO Best Practices
  If you do local SEO – it's a must read – in fact, if you only read one local SEO article this year – read this one.
  (tags: local+search)
• Inside AdSense: Image ads join link units
  Another place your image ad could be shown…
  (tags: adwords)
• Mihmorandum | A Framework for Thinking About Local Search Campaigns | Local SEO
  (tags: local+marketing)

The AdWords Seminar for Success series is stopping in Boston, MA.

When: June 24th & 45th
Where: Embassy Suites Boston at Logan Airport
207 Porter St
Boston, MA 02128

The AdWords Seminar Curriculum has been completely revamped based upon feedback from previous attendees. We’re now offering a two day seminar. Each day is optional; however, we’re offering a discount to those attending both days.

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

Before you read the new curriculum, don’t forget the fun goodies you also get for attending:

• $100 AdWords Credit ($50 if you register for a single day) **Must Register 7 Days in Advance
• 2 USB Thumb Drives with Presentation Materials (1 for each day)
• Other Google Goodies

Curriculum Day 1

Brad – GREAT JOB! you managed multiple experience levels beautifully. I learned a lot. Already seeing better results from my Adwords campaigns. I’m sure I’ll attend another session.
Steve Hodgdon

The Google Adwords seminar by Brad Geddes was the most informative and enlightening one I have ever attended. The day flew by and the information gleaned was more than most two-day sessions I have attended.

Jeff Cunningham
Cunninghamn Gas Products

Curriculum Day 2

I attended your “Google Adwords Seminar for Success” sessions in Austin earlier this week.  I just wanted to say I really appreciated the content you offered.  Your material was well balanced.  I was fearful that because my company is not a product-selling company that we would not benefit from your information.  That couldn’t have been further from the truth.  Your seminar validated to me that the direction we have taken so far is appropriate.  It is good to see and hear from an expert that we have made good decisions about our Adwords strategy.   Your information and tips have given me new things to think about and to use when looking for new keywords to use, and as well to examine our existing keyword performance.

Stu Roberts
Director of Information Technology
Nelson Architectural Engineers, Inc.
Investigative Engineering & Forensic Technology

Brad, great job with the seminar.  It was taught well and at a good learning pace.  You handled the array of questions from simple to hard with great explanations and analogies.  I will probably be calling you for some personal phone consultations for my larger ppc clients.
All the best!
Tony Mandarich

I’m an affiliate and this type of training is essential and you guys delivered the best quality in content I’ve even seen about the subject of adwords. I left the seminar feeling more confident about this interface, but I sure would have been glad to pay extra for access to recorded video sessions.

Maybe that’s something you guys could
offer soon?

Thanks very much.
Charlie Perez.

Brad is a genius–and I don’t say that about a lot of people.  He knows Google adwords inside and out.  I was thoroughly impressed by his presentation.

-Anon

I attended this conference in order to learn the latest Adwords developments, and in this respect, I found it to be most useful. We are using Adwords tools daily, so know more about them than the average user. Still, it is useful from time to time to take a step back and listen to an expert who is obviously plugged into the latest, as well as upcoming, developments.

Brad is an exceptional speaker, offers insightful views about marketing theory, and is a technical master. Aside from that he demonstrates during his presentations a willingness to roll up his sleeves and delve into the nuts and bolts of how to manage Adwords to improve ROAS for clients.
Chris Lude
Denver-PPC.com

• Google PlusBox Performance Results
  1) Google has gradually increased their PlusBox “show rate” among eligible AdWords campaigns. Over the 6 month time frame, we’ve seen this rate increase from 38% to a more recent mark of around 70-75%.
  2) PlusBox “expansion rate”, users who actually expanded (clicked) on the PlusBox component of the ad once shown, is 0.5% or about 1/10th the standard ad’s CTR, (sans PlusBox).
  3) The overall CTR of ads containing PlusBox, click-through on headline or PlusBox offer component, had a slightly better rate as compared to the standard ad.
  4) Of users that expanded the PlusBox, 1 in 15 actually clicked on an offer (product) to follow through to the site. Furthermore, of those clicking the PlusBox only 1 in 7 actually made it to the advertiser’s site. (by virtue of headline or product listing)
  5) The CR of users who did follow through to the site once expanding the PlusBox was on par with the standard ad.
  (tags: adwords)
• The Forrester Blog For Interactive Marketing Professionals
  Interactive Budgets Are Growing At The Expense Of Offline
• Technology & Marketing Law Blog: Google Liberalizes US Trademark Policy: "What, Me Worry?" Part 2
  Monday's Search Engine Land Paid Search column is on Google's new trademark policies. Here's a more legal based post about those policies.
  (tags: trademarks)
• Checkout Inspiration From Top Converting Sites | Get Elastic
  Personally – If you make me register before I can checkout – I'll buy the product elsewhere…

  How do you motivate customers to register? Forrester’s survey found 51% of respondents were somewhat or very willing to part with personal information in exchange for discounts, 40% to save time and 27% for a more personalized experience. Make sure you mention at least one key benefit for registration when asking for it.

  (tags: ecommerce conversion+rates)
• Does Ad Size Matter? It Depends What You Do With It
  (tags: display)
• Search Plus Display Still Hottest Online Ad Combo in Q1 2009 – Search Marketing News Blog – Search Engine Watch (SEW)
  (tags: display search)

I received the below email from Google today for one of my accounts which is not currenlty using the new interface. It seems they now have only 30 days before they are forced to use the new one. I sure hope that Google finishes fixing the bugs as I have to go back to the old interface quite a bit these days as there are so many things that are either faster, easier-to-read, or just only in the old interface.

Hello,

 

In the coming weeks, we’ll upgrade your AdWords account (Customer ID: xxx-xx-xxxx) to a new web interface designed to make campaign management faster and easier. You can try it now; log into your account to use the new interface immediately.

 

You’ll have at least 30 days from the date of this email before you’ll be required to use the new interface to manage your campaigns. During this time we’ll continue to release additional features and make adjustments to the new interface based on advertiser feedback.

 

We’re working to ensure that the new interface contains all of the reports and controls you need to manage your campaigns effectively. We won’t upgrade your AdWords account to the new interface until we’re confident that it will meet your advertising needs.

 

Before we upgrade your account, you can switch between the new and previous interfaces at any time. Click the "Previous Interface" and "New Interface (Beta)" links in the top corner of your account (next to your email address) to switch back and forth.

 

To make sure that you’re prepared for the upgrade, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with the new interface as soon as possible. We’ve prepared a set of online materials to help you get ready for the changes:
 

   * Review the new interface microsite to get a quick overview of the changes and watch videos demonstrating the improvements: http://www.google.com/adwords/newinterface/

 

   * Our "Getting Started Guide" will give you an overview of major new features and their benefits. You can download a PDF at: http://www.google.com/adwords/newinterface/new_interface_guide.pdf

 

   * Wondering how to complete common AdWords tasks in the new interface? Visit our "How to" guide at: http://www.google.com/adwords/newinterface/standard/ads-and-keywords.html  

 
   * Search a full set of frequently asked questions in the Help Center for the new interface: https://adwords.google.com/support/aw/

The help materials above will still be available after your account has been upgraded.

 

We hope you find that the new interface increases your advertising efficiency and makes it easier for you to improve your results. If you have any thoughts about the new interface, please let us know by clicking on the Feedback link in the top corner of your account. And as always, thank you for advertising with AdWords!

 

Sincerely,
The Google AdWords Team

Google just launched a few new site refinement enhancements such as viewing results based upon time, reviews, forums, etc (informative video below). However, there are two enhancements that should be used for keyword research.

Introducing the Wonder Wheel

The Wonder Wheel lets you see related information to your initial query in a pretty diagram. Each link of the diagram is clickable, and let’s you resort the information. While it looks similar to visual thesaurus (which is paid). The data is relatively similar (but better) to KwMap.net (please note the .net extension – do not visit the .com extension).

While you might not use the suggestions as keywords, they are fantastic for understanding ad group organization and choosing negative keywords. In addition, you can click on a link and pull up related information to that link.

For instance, if you view the results for canon printer (below), the top six terms are:

• canon printer manual
• canon printer portable
• canon printer support
• canon large format printer
• canon printer driver
• canon printer review

If you are selling Canon printers, you probably do not want to pay for clicks from people looking for support, drivers, and manuals. Instantly, you have three keywords (and you should add some variations on those as well).

In addition, your canon printer ad groups should be broken out to include different landing pages for large format printer and portable printers as they are different products.

While this tool will not give you the answers to your keywords and organization, it can help you with ideas.

You can also combine this data with Microsoft adLabs Search Funnel to receive a nice picture of not only related queries, but how the search queries change over time.

Related Searches

Google has shown related search information for some time, but it’s a good review – related search information can help you find keywords, and structure your ad groups.

New Search Option Video

If you’d like to see how to find these new search options, here’s a short 2 minute video:

Remember, none of these items aren’t magic bullets. They should just be added to your keyword research and organization ideas and tool sets, such as spidering search results for ideas.

Google very quietly rolled out a new feature – use your Google analytics goals as conversions in your AdWords accounts.

It’s been live for at least a week; and very straightforward to use.

Navigate to the conversion tracking screen (in either UI); and there’s a link for ‘Link your Analytics goals and transaction’.

However, when you go to link your AdWords and Analytics goals together, you can only use Goal 1 from your Google Analytics account:

Hopefully, this will be fixed sometime in the future.

Goal Confusion

I looked for a while; but as much as I could have – so if you know the answer or the link please post it in the comments.

Google Analytics treats a goal as the last site entrance, and is attributed to the day of the click.

Google AdWords treats as goal as the last AdWords ad clicked, and the goal as the date of the click (not the date of the conversion).

Therefore, is linking these two together just going to create more goal confusion – or will some nice pattern work itself out?

Google has a help file on connecting AdWords and Analytics; however, on that page the link to the help file “Read about how AdWords Conversion Tracking works with Google Analytics once the two are linked.” goes to a 404, not found page; hence the unanswered questions above.

Future?

I might have to set up another couple profiles and just set up single goals to see how well this works.

Since Analytics is a 1st party cookie, and AdWords is a 3rd party cookie – the analytics would be a better tracking mechanism once the details for how a conversion is actually counted are determined. The business rules laid out by Google will determine if this is actually useful for all.

I’d love to hear comments, links to other articles where this is discussed.

• Technology Review: But Who's Counting?
  No one really knows how many people visit websites. No established third-party supplier of audience measurement data is trusted. Internal Web logs exaggerate audiences. This matters to more people than investors, like McNamee, who worry that they have no way to evaluate new-media businesses. The issues involved are technical, and occluded by ugly jargon, but they concern anyone anxious about the future of media as print and broadcast television and radio shrink in importance.
  (tags: analytics)
• Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable « Clay Shirky
  I remember Thompson saying something to the effect of “When a 14 year old kid can blow up your business in his spare time, not because he hates you but because he loves you, then you got a problem.” I think about that conversation a lot these days.
  (tags: media)
• Technology Review: Blogs: Jason Pontin's blog: How to Save Media
  Excellent read if you are in the media space.
  (tags: media)