AdWords MENA Blog: September 2011

What are Ad Sitelinks?

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Ad Sitelinks is a feature for search-based ads that allow advertisers to include additional page links on qualifying text ads that appear on Google.com and Google Search Network partners. This extension is available globally on ads that meet our quality requirements. The most common campaigns to qualify for the Sitelinks feature are high-quality campaigns that contain keywords and ads specific to your brands.

How Sitelinks make your ads more useful
Sitelinks make your AdWords ads more useful for users who find your ads by showcasing extra targeted and relevant links. Sitelinks also make it easy for you to update and refresh seasonal and limited promotions. You can change the extra links on your ads as often as you like. Changing the links often keeps each ad up-to-date for your current sales and marketing efforts. You don't have to change your current ads to use Sitelinks. The extra links show within or below your ads.

Posted by Omar Selman - Google AdWords MENA

Riad Laaroussa: Using Google AdWords to Place this Unique Boutique Hotel on the Map.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Fez, Morocco. Fez is known for many things: the oldest university in the world, University of Al-Karaouine, is located there, the famous Fez hat is named after the city, and renowned leather tanneries are located in parts of the old city. Perhaps the most impressive thing in Fez, though, is that it is the largest pedestrian-only-area in the world. "It has a lot of narrow streets, one thing which makes Fez unique, it is the largest urban environment, free of cars, in the world... it is disconnected from the modern world" states Frederic Sola.

Frederic Sola and Cathy Bellafronto began restoring a 17th Century Riad (traditional Moroccan house) in Fez, previously owned by a ministry, in 2005. The restoration period took 18 months, with 40 to 50 builders, artisans and craftsmen working on a daily basis. The final result - Riad Laaroussa, a beautiful boutique hotel that provides its guests with a hospitable and unique stay.

Integrating Google AdWords
After building their website, Fred and Cathy's webmaster approached them with an interesting solution to their marketing/advertising problems: Google AdWords. At first they were hesitant but decided to give it a shot. They first began experiencing an increase in the number of clicks on their ads, and thus an increase in the number of users that were viewing their website. These clicks and visits soon materialized into actual conversions, with clients from all over the world; France, Spain, Italy, Australia and the USA to name but a few. Fred and Cathy quickly discovered that Google AdWords is all they need to realize their advertising objectives and soon abandoned all other offline activities. Fred states "We operate under the very simple principle that a higher ranking on Google Search will result in higher visibility which will provide us with a great number of visitors to our site, in turn increasing our number of reservations."

Moving Forward
For the 3 years that Riad Laaroussa has been using Google AdWords, they have increased their advertising by 25%, that's just how effective Google AdWords was for this business. It has supported the growth of the business in both revenue and client base. As Cathy puts it: "We plan to continue to refine our marketing strategy by selecting the keywords that are mostly likely to reach our potential clients, we are also expanding into other languages. We regularly advertise in French and English, now we are adding Spanish, Italian and German."

By using Google AdWords, the owners of Riad Laaroussa not only realized their advertising goals, but they also made a profit. Their whole business relies on being found, and Google AdWords helped them do that. Users from all over the planet can now find the boutique hotel, be it their website or their location on Google Maps. The fact that the owners are planning on expanding their advertising budget on Google AdWords is more evidence that this truly is a powerful advertising medium.

Written and Posted by Omar Selman - Google AdWords MENA

+1 Coming to Display Ads, Bringing 1-Click Recommendations

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

A few months ago, we introduced the +1 button to make it easy for people to get recommendations from those they trust right when they’re searching. A recommendation from a trusted contact is one of the most useful sources of information available. Since then, the +1 button has been installed on millions of websites across the web with over 4 billion impressions daily. Beginning in early October we’re expanding that to include display ads across the web.

If you’re running display ads through the Google Display Network you may begin seeing the +1 button and recommendation with your ads. With a single click, people can recommend the ad’s landing page to their friends and contacts.

Incorporating personal recommendations into display ads has the potential to change the way people perceive advertising. A display ad becomes much more powerful when people can see which of their friends and contacts have chosen to actively endorse a page.

For example, take Elaine, who sees an ad for discount flights. She +1’s the ad, thinking her friends might value similar deals. Now when Elaine’s friends and contacts are logged into Google and see the discount flight ads, they’ll see Elaine’s picture across the bottom of the ad with a note saying she +1’d it.

The +1 button and recommendations will appear at the bottom of display ads, then fade out until the viewer hovers over the ad. The viewer can also close the overlays by clicking the ‘x’.

Susan’s friends and contacts will also be more likely to see the ad. Because a recommendation from a friend is such a strong signal of relevance, the Google Display Network gives ads that have been recommended an extra boost by including them in the auction for any page a friend visits. Of course, if you’re targeting specific placements or audience segments (including interest categories and remarketing lists), your ads will only show on pages that match those restrictions. Additionally, your ads will never show on any placement or category on an exclusions list.

Note that a +1 on an ad corresponds to the ad’s landing page. So it doesn’t matter whether the +1 happens on a search result page, on a website, or on a display ad. A single +1 applies to the same content across the web, no matter where it appears.

On the Google Display Network (GDN), the +1 button will be added to image, animated GIF, flash, Display Ad Builder ads and select mobile inventory. You can also choose to include the +1 button on your DoubleClick Rich Media ads, which can run on or off the GDN.

If you’re not sure that you want the +1 button and recommendations associated with your ads, starting today you can opt-out at the campaign level in AdWords under campaign settings.

To learn more about the +1 button and how it affects your ads and search results, visit our +1 button site.

Written by Eider Oliveira - Senior Software Engineer
Published by Omar Selman - Google AdWords MENA

How does Remarketing Work?

Monday, September 19, 2011

Remarketing allows you to communicate with people who’ve previously visited key pages on your website, giving you a powerful new way to match the right people with the right message.

Example of Remarketing
Online shoppers looking for new running shoes visit a popular online store, FastSneakers.com, to browse the different styles. Some shoppers leave without buying anything. FastSneakers.com could add these shoppers to a "Site Visitor" list. This will enable FastSneakers.com to reach out to these potential buyers while they browse other websites, with a compelling call-to-action or offer that will encourage them to return to FastSneakers.com to complete a purchase.

How Remarketing works
To create remarketing lists, you need to enable the Audiences tab and set up a campaign that includes the Google Display Network, which is typically opted-in by default.

Next, a small piece of code called a remarketing tag is embedded on your homepage, for example. This code tells AdWords to save visitors to your "Homepage List." When people visit your homepage, their cookie ID is added to the remarketing list. Once the remarketing tag is in place you can create an AdWords campaign that targets messages only to people on your "Homepage List" while they browse the Web. Your remarketing messages won't be shown to people who aren't on the list.

The remarketing tag can be embedded on any page within your website, not just the homepage, so you can develop more detailed audiences. For each remarketing list that you want to create, embed a different tag. If you want to create a "Homepage Visitor" list and a "Completed Conversion" list, you need two separate tags -- one to go on the homepage, and one to go on the conversion page. Learn more about remarketing and users' cookies.

There's a balance between creating very detailed and broader remarketing lists. While detailed lists allow you to further target your message, you'll get the most scale and volume with broader lists. Read more on strategies for your remarketing lists, and learn how to tailor your creatives to these lists.

This video will give you more insights into remarketing.

Posted by Omar Selman - Google AdWords MENA

Writing Targeted Ad Text

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Writing effective ads is a key factor in ensuring that you achieve your advertising objectives with Google AdWords. Writing these ads isn't always easy, so we've complied some specific tips to help you create compelling ad text.

Create simple, enticing ads - What makes your product or service stand out from your competitors? Highlight these key differentiating points in your ad. Be sure to describe any unique features or promotions you offer.

Include prices and promotions - The more information about your product that a user can gain from your ad text, the better. For example, if a user sees the price of a product and still clicks the ad, you know they're interested in a potential purchase at that price. If they don't like the price, they won't click your ad, and you save yourself the cost of that click.

Use a strong call-to-action - Your ad should convey a call-to-action along with the benefits of your product or service. A call-to-action encourages users to click on your ad and ensures they understand exactly what you expect them to do when they reach your landing page. Some call-to-action phrases are Buy, Purchase, Call today, Order, Browse, Sign up, and Get a quote; while "find" and "search" may be accurate verbs, they imply that the user is still in the research mode, and may not encourage the user to perform the action you'd most like them to take.

Include one of your keywords in your ad text - Find the best performing keyword in your ad group and include it in your ad text, especially in the title. Whenever a user types that keyword and sees your ad, the keyword phrase will appear in bold font within your ad on Google. This helps draw the user's attention to your ad and shows users that your ad relates to their search.

Posted by Omar Selman - Google AdWords MENA

What's the ad approval process? - Part 2

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

How long does the approval process take?
We work to review all ads in our program as quickly as possible, usually within 1 to 3 business days or sooner.

While your ad is being reviewed, it'll have an "under review" status in the status column on your Ads tab. Until your ad is reviewed and approved, it won't be eligible to run on Google, our search partners, or on Display Network placements.

What gets reviewed?
Our approval process looks at your ads, keywords, website, and account structure. We look at both formatting (how you advertise) and the actual content of your ads and websites (what you advertise).

Formatting requirements: These requirements depend on the format of your ad. There are specific requirements for text ads, image ads, video ads, and all other advertising formats.
Content requirements: These requirements apply to the purpose of your advertising. Some types of products or services (like illegal products) just aren't allowed in the AdWords program regardless of how they're advertised.

What are the approval statuses?During the approval process, your keywords and ads will be given a status. You can see the status of your ad or keyword by logging into your account and looking at the "Status" column of your Ads tab or Keywords tab. Below is a list of statuses you might see. Click each status to learn more.

Status What it means
Under review Your ad is still being reviewed.
Eligible Your ad's still being reviewed, but it can show on certain pages.
Disapproved There's an issue with your ad and it can't show right now.
Approved (adult) Your ad's approved, but it can only show in certain countries and

sites where adult content is allowed.
Approved (non-family) Your ad's approved, but it can only show in certain countries and

sites where this type of content is allowed.
Approved (limited) Your ad's approved, but it can only show in certain countries and

devices where this type of content is allowed.

Posted by Omar Selman - Google AdWords MENA

What's the ad approval process? - Part 1

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

All AdWords ads go through an approval process to ensure the ads are safe and appropriate for users. Before any ad can be shown, each ad is reviewed based on our advertising policies. If any issues are found, we'll notify you with information about the policy and what you can do to get approved.

Why does Google have advertising policies?
We created our AdWords advertising policies for the following reasons:

We want to create a good user experience for people viewing our ads.
We believe these guidelines can help you get a better return on investment.
We want advertisements to follow all applicable laws in the countries where they appear.

If we see that your account, website, ad, or keyword doesn't follow these policies, we unfortunately can't show your ads until you make them compliant. Repeated violations of these policies might result in your AdWords account, and any related accounts, being permanently suspended.

How do I submit my ads for approval?
Every time you create a new ad or make changes to an existing ad, it'll automatically be submitted for review to ensure that it follows our advertising policies.

Posted by Omar Selman - Google AdWords MENA

What is Topic Targeting?

Monday, September 12, 2011

Topic targeting is an easy way of placing your AdWords ads on multiple pages about a specific topic at once. Targeting by topics is an alternative to selecting individual placements where your ad can appear, or individual keywords that will trigger your ad.

"Topics" is the AdWords term for specific industries or interests, such as agriculture or music. If you'd like to target pages with specific content, you can select one or more topics so your ads appear on pages about those topics.

By targeting the "Autos & Vehicles" topic, for instance, you enable your ad to appear on any Google Display Network website or other placement that includes content about cars or other automotive themes. You can also select more precise subtopics, such as "Trucks & SUVs," "Commercial Vehicles," or "Motorcycles."

Pricing for targeting by topics works the same way as pricing for other placement-targeted ads. You select the maximum price you're willing to pay each time your ad appears, and the AdWords system will show your ad on pages on the Google Network with content about that topic where your bid can win a position. A popular topic may have thousands or even tens of thousands of pages where your ad can appear.

Posted by Omar Selman - Google AdWords MENA

Now Reviewing Paused Ads

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

To improve our user experience with Google AdWords, today we’ll begin reviewing paused ads in the same way that we review active ads. We’re proactively reviewing paused ads to eliminate unnecessary delays in getting your ads approved and ultimately enhance your ability to plan and manage campaigns.

New and existing unreviewed paused ads will be sent through the standard ad approval process. This means that paused ads will be subject to our AdWords advertising policies, and ads that violate one or more of our policies will be disapproved. If your paused ads were originally disapproved, it's easy to resubmit them to be reviewed again. Learn how by referring to the instructions in the AdWords Help Centre.

For more details and answers to frequently asked questions, please refer to the AdWords Help Centre.

Posted by Omar Selman - Google AdWords MENA

About the Traffic Estimator

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

The Traffic Estimator provides traffic and cost estimates for new keywords before you add them to your campaign. You can also review estimates for current keywords already running in an ad group.

When you enter a keyword into the Traffic Estimator, you get estimates for your keyword's status, search volume, average cost-per-click (CPC), cost/day, and average position. By using this tool, you can better forecast your ad's placement and performance based on your CPC bid, targeting options, and other criteria.

You can access the Traffic Estimator from the Reporting and Tools drop-down menu or the Tools page on your Opportunities tab. The estimates you receive are based in part on the values you enter (or on your current ad group and campaign settings), including your CPC bid and targeting options. If you're flexible on your costs and targeting, it's a good idea to play around with these fields to see different results.

To use the Traffic Estimator tool, follow these steps:

Sign in to your AdWords account at https://adwords.google.com.
Click the Reporting and Tools tab and select Traffic Estimator from the drop-down menu.
Enter keywords: In the field provided, enter your keywords so that each word or phrase appears on its own line.
Choose a currency: If you're not signed in to your AdWords account, you'll need to select your currency. If you're signed in, we'll use the currency specified in your account.
Enter a specific CPC bid for your estimates
In the "Location and languages" section, click Edit next to Locations, select countries, regions, and cities, and click Save.
Choose your target languages: Select which languages you'd like to target.
Click Estimate to see your estimates.

Important note:
If you select multiple countries or a location that isn't a country (like a city, state, or region), we won't show local search volume statistics.

The Traffic Estimator works for ads with keyword targeting only; it does not work for ads with placement targeting using either CPC or CPM bidding.

Posted by Omar Selman - Google AdWords MENA