AdWords MENA Blog: February 2011

AdWords for Beginners - Part 1

Monday, February 28, 2011

Have you just started advertising with AdWords or just need repetition in the basics of the program? If so, this is the blog series for you. In this series we will go through different parts of what’s important to think about when you’re new to advertising with AdWords, and today we’re starting to talk about keywords and how you should manage them in your account.

A keyword is the term you’re using (word or phrase) in order for your ad to be triggered among the sponsored links. It’s important to think about what search terms the customer are using when they’re browsing the web, and use this as inspiration for the keywords you will add in the account. Once you have added new keywords in your account, there are some rules of thumb that are important to bear in mind.

When the keywords start receiving traffic pause keywords that have more than 100 impressions but at the same time a CTR lower than 1%. Otherwise this may impact the quality score of the keyword negatively.

Use 2-3 words per keyword, since one word is often too general and won’t be specific enough. E.g. if you’re selling used cars it’s good to have the phrase “used car” as a keyword, instead of just “car”. If you simply have “car” as a keyword, you can trigger anything from “toy car” to “new car” or “car painting”.

Use keywords that is used in the ad text and that strongly relates to the ad, the product and the landing page you will advertise for.

With a higher Quality Score, you can also advertise more with the same budget.

Write the keywords in both singular and plural in order to cover all the search terms.

What are the benefits from doing this? Initially, more specific keywords with higher relevance create more clicks which lead to more customers visiting your site. This also means that your marketing is more targeted, and that you’re paying for clicks made by customers that are relevant to your business. Furthermore, this gives you a greater control over the message delivered.

We hope that these tips will be useful for you when advertising with AdWords. You can find more information regarding how you can build an effective keyword list here. Also, you can find more inspiration regarding how to improve your keyword list through looking at this free video tutorial from AdWords Online Classroom. Last but not least, you can find more helpful information about this in the AdWords Beginner’s Guide in the AdWords Help center.

Keep your eyes open for the next post in this blog series for beginners.

Posted by Omar Abou Selman - Google AdWords MENA
Written by Kristin Sarstedt – the Inside AdWords Team

The Google Online Marketing Challenge: Real Money, Real Results, Real Experience!

Monday, February 21, 2011

The Google Online Marketing Challenge is a global online marketing student competition open to any higher education institution from anywhere in the world. Student teams receive US$200 of free online advertising with Google AdWords and then work with local businesses or NGOs to create effective online marketing campaigns.
The 2010 Challenge had over 12,000 students in 60 countries competing. Those familiar with the Challenge will know that there are great prizes to win, such as a trip to the Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California for the global winners to meet with the Challenge team. But we also select regional winners and this year we are adding MEA (Middle East and Africa) as a brand new region along with Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific!
This year, the Challenge will allow student teams to work with NGOs as their business. The students selecting an NGO as their business partner will also compete for the NGO Impact award to win $15,000, $10,000 and $5,000 respectively to their nonprofit partner. How can you help to get the word out? Professors or lecturers need to register on our website by mid-April in order for their student teams to participate, so contact any former or current professors you know to alert them to this great opportunity. The Academic Guide will provide professors with all the details they need to help them decide if the Challenge is right for their class.
The Challenge is open to any university and any discipline around the globe, at graduate or undergraduate level. Registration is now open to professors till mid-April and students can compete from January 31st until the June 10th, 2011. Winners will be announced in July 2011. Together, student teams, businesses and nonprofits can make a lasting impact and learn about online advertising in the process.
Thank you for your support!
Posted by Omar Abou Selman - Google AdWords MENA
Written by Anne-Christine Polet - Google AdWords Team

What is My Client Center (MCC)?

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

My Client Center (MCC) is a powerful tool for handling multiple AdWords accounts. MCC is ideal for large advertisers with more than one account and for third-party agencies, such as search engine marketers (SEMs), search engine optimizers (SEOs), and automated bid managers (ABMs). You can think of MCC as an "umbrella" account with multiple AdWords accounts (a.k.a. "managed accounts") linked to it.

MCC users can:

Easily view multiple managed accounts, including other MCC accounts, via the My Client Center view.
See relevant information for all managed accounts in one place.
Run reports across multiple managed accounts at once or download the My Client Center view into a .csv file.
Use a single login to access all managed accounts.
Create and link AdWords accounts from within your MCC account.

Owners of individual managed accounts can, as always, sign in to their AdWords accounts and maintain access to their login information.

It's easier than ever to sign up for a My Client Center account. Just visit www.google.com/adwords/MyClientCenter, click "Sign up now," and follow the step-by-step instructions.

Posted by Omar Abou Selman - Google AdWords MENA

New features to help you manage your Google AdWords Certification Program account

Monday, February 7, 2011

In 2010 we introduced a new Google AdWords Certification program to equip you and your companies with more up-to-date, comprehensive, strategy-focused training and certification on the latest tools and best practices for managing AdWords accounts. Along with the revised certification program, we launched Google Partner Search, an opt-in online, searchable directory that helps advertisers identify Certified Partners to help them manage their AdWords accounts.

Over the last few months, you’ve shared feedback with us that you’d like features which make it easier to associate your individual certification with a company and more intuitive to add users to your company profile. We’re pleased to share that we’ve now released features to address each of these points of feedback.

Request to link your individual qualificationto a company
Historically, to join a company in the Google Certification Program, you would need to be invited by an Administrator on your company’s account, making it difficult to join if you do not know the Administrator. To fix this challenge, we now offer a feature enabling you to search for your company and request to join yourself. If you would like to contribute your individual qualification to a company account, you may now do so by clicking on the “My Company” link and searching for the company you wish to join. Be sure to type in at least one complete word that matches the company’s name.

Companies - easily manage Professionals and Administrators

We’ve made it more intuitive for your company to manage the Professionals and Administrators within the Company account, as well as to review requests from users requesting to join the company, with the updated Account Access page.

On the “Users” tab, account administrators can change a user’s status to either Administrator or Professional, as well as revoke access:

The “Incoming requests” tab allows account administrators to see all requests to join from individuals, and either accept or reject them. Finally, the “Invitations sent” tab can be used to directly send invitations to qualified individuals.

Add or update Google Accounts associated with your profile
We know that qualified individuals may change companies, or use multiple email addresses throughout the day. We’ve therefore made it possible for you to add multiple Google Accounts to your account, as well as to change the primary email to which you receive communication for the Google Certification Program.

For more information on the new Google Certification Program feature changes, visit the Help Center.

Posted by Omar Abou Selman - Google AdWords MENA
Written by Katie Wasilenko, Agency Team