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Adwords Support feature REQUEST

what would we as advertisers like?

         

Shak

11:34 am on Jul 7, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Been thinking about this for a few weeks, and thought it may be a good idea to list what we as "advertisers" would like in terms of support from Google Adwords!

I'll start the ball rolling with a few thoughts:

1, Online account support control panel, this would allow me to communicate with the support team on a per account basis, keeping track of previous issues, keyword disabling, payment problems etc etc, rather than firing random emails to planet support with NO response.

basically very similar to what most hosting companies offer all their clients, surely NOT that big a request to ask of, but would make life a lot easier.

Shak

AdWordsAdvisor

10:12 pm on Aug 19, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Thanks for keeping this thread alive, and for the ongoing suggestions.

As mentioned, I've been forwarding your ideas, verbatim, to the product development team. I've heard several appreciative comments from Googlers who find the direct advertiser feedback instructive. So please keep these product enhancement ideas coming!

I should have mentioned this before: you can also email suggestions and/or comments to the AdWords team at adwords-feedback@google.com. Please note that while you *won't* receive a response to emails sent to this address, your comments *will* be read by those in a position to make a difference.

Your thoughts regarding AdWords are both welcome and valued - and they need not focus on the 'positive' either. Feel free to tell us what isn't working, about features that would make advertising with AdWords easier or more effective.

Thanks again.

brycen

2:34 pm on Aug 20, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I'd like the ability to use the OR operator in Adwords, i.e.:

"widget repair¦repairing"
"Newton MA¦Mass¦Massachusetts"
"blue¦green¦red widget repair"

anthony

4:54 pm on Aug 20, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I have a suggestion that I feel would clean up the campaign summary page.

In an ad campaign, I would like to be able to set daily budget limits for each individual ad group within a campaign. Yes, you can set up new campaigns for each keyword to set daily budgets, but that makes for a messy "Campaign Summary" page and splits up the 'campaign'.

This additional field in each ad group would allow users to set daily limits for $5 kw's, so a $50 daily budget isn't used up just for one kw while the other 19 kw's with lower costs get no clicks because the daily budget is used up.

Being able to keep keywords in a relevant campaign together with this simple feature added would be a very welcome sight. Chances are, this is already in the works. Is it?

Quoting AdWordsAdvisor,

"However, all Ad Groups within a campaign will be supported by the budget of that Campaign. If this turns out to be an issue for any reason, you can certainly create a second Campaign with the appropriate budget.

One advantage of using a single Campaign with multiple ad groups is that all your stats will be on one page, and you just scroll down to see it all. With multiple Campaigns you need to click from one page to the other."

What I'm trying to achieve is not sacrificing other keywords in the campaign, keeping avg position the same, and not splitting up the campaign keywords because it is a campaign, just being able to set a limit for specific kw's within the campaign etc...

Most of the kw's in this particular campaign are around 50cents CPC. There are 4 or 5 kw's with CPC of $4 to $5 dollars with high CTR. So these 5 kw's eat up the budget quickly.

I have seperated those 5 kw's into their own campaigns but when viewing the campaign summary page, now its getting to be a mile long and with so many campaigns its getting harder to organize them all.

If those 5 kw's could be left in the relevant 'campaign' but be able to limit/set daily budgets for individual groups, that would make setting budgets and viewing campaigns more pleasing to the eye and easier on the brain.

Hope I made sense... Thanks for this thread and AWA for passing along the info here.

also, ditto on these other posts in this thread:

werty 3:45 pm on July 24, 2003 ... some other features, move merge campaigns/groups ...
Ally_Cat 4:56 pm on Aug 11, 2003 ... comments, notes section in each ad group...

JollyK

3:54 am on Aug 21, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



For what it's worth, I would love, love, LOVE a "Copy this ad group" where it would copy the creative and the keywords. Not so much for the regular keywords, but I have a ton of negative ones (-service,-support,-repair,-parts, yadda yadda) and it would be nice to have a copy feature to copy from an existing ad group. Plus, I have ad groups where maybe only the model number changes in the creative, so it would be cool to just have a copy of the whole thing where I could put in "R409" where it was "R507" or whatever.

Yes, that's right, folks! I am too lazy to highlight and hit Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V! That's like -- gee whiz! -- 4 keystrokes! Far too difficult.

And complicated.

Yes, complicated.

I want to be spoon fed! Yes! Yes! And have my hand held!

hehehe! :-)

Anyway, I'd like a feature like that.

JK

werty

4:42 am on Aug 21, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



Another cool thing you could add would be like what Overture just added to their features. The main feature I am talking about is the tracking url with one click on/off.

You could probably generate these pretty easily:
?source=adwords&phrase=widget_supply_shop&adgroup=2&etc=Etc

Like most people I too am lazy and would enjoy this.

aravindgp

10:15 am on Aug 21, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Hi
I was just testing out few things but I realised that there is no "Undo" function.

I really feel it is one small implementation which would be very useful, like we accidently delete something it would be great if we have undo function, we simply can undo what action we did previously.

If this is already there please make it navigation friendly.

With Regards
Aravind

werty

3:08 pm on Aug 21, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



I will add to Aravinds post.

Maybe just a simple undelete button. You keep track of all the deleted items, maybe just include an undelete next to the deleted item?

JollyK

3:41 pm on Aug 21, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I'll chime in with a hearty "yes" on the "undelete" option as well.

Hrm. I don't see it now, but somewhere, someone mentioned that the "copy/paste" responses can be a bit confusing, and often don't answer the question that was asked. Not sure what can be done about that, but it would be nice if that worked a little better sometimes.

Also, someone mentioned that the editors sometimes work at cross-purposes. I've had one editor say that "512MB RAM" is okay, another say that it needs to be "512 MB RAM" and still another say that it needs to be "512 MB Ram." ("Ram?" Hehe! "Sheep for Cheap!") Plus, the word "New" as in "Buy a new laptop" or "Buy this printer new" keeps getting kicked out as "promotional language." It would be nice if the word "new" (as opposed to "used" or "refurbished") could be recognized as okay.

Overall, though, I have to say that I am really, really happy with Adwords, and especially the new interface. Yowza!

JK

justageek

11:27 pm on Aug 21, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I'd just like to say that since this is a new venture for Google it will take some time before they get it right. They may in fact only get it right by buying other folks who do this type of advertising much better. You have to remember that Google, Overture and Sprinks are all trying to fit a square peg into a round hole meaning they are trying to make traditional keyword buying fit into a different type of advertising method. This just doesn't work very well right now. They have failed to realize that they are no longer dealing with trying to determine a complete thought from a person typing in keywords but rather the complete thought(the content) already exists therefore the mechanism to effectively deliver a targeted ad is much different than what they are used to doing. Since they are still trying to figure this all out it takes away from other features that are obvious to folks who are used to doing more than one type of ad campaign.

Fortunately for them they are 500 pound gorillas and will stomp on the peg until they get it to fit. Kinda like Microsoft does :-)

For example, I've noticed quite a bit of features implemented poorly or not at all as it seems a lot of you all have noticed as well. The following examples are compared to at least one other group I know of that can do all the following. Rules prohibit me from saying who that group is (I only know of them because I work for a marketing company that has tested their stuff) so you'll have to go to Google and search for them.

Some examples are:

Canned colors and sizes. Why the limitation? The other group automatically mimics the content sites look and feel.

Why can we only have a canned number of matches? Other group allows the web site to specify how many matches are returned.

Why can't an advertiser and web site have some degree of control over what ads show. Other group does.

Why not allow a web site to provide an alternate piece of code to be shown when a match cannot be made? Other group does.

How about a tool that shows how well a particular advertisement will match possible web sites before the campaign goes live. Other group does.

Why not allow an advertiser to say something like 'I'd like this ad to show but only if it's a 100 percent contextual match, but, on this other campaign I'm trying to reach a much more broad audience so go ahead and show it on a 50 percent or more contextual match'. Other group does.

See my point. Google just does not have the expertise needed to make this into what it can be. But if we as advertisers all cross our fingers they'll realize it and buy the people and tools needed for us to have a successful campaign.

Last but not least....advertisers have to think about why they are being charged the maximum amount on a keyword when their advertisement can sometimes be matched using less expensive keywords? The other group can ;-)

Again, remember that this is all new to these folks and probably is new to most of you. Traditional advertisers have been doing this type of advertising for years and know all this already.

Eric

JollyK

5:44 pm on Aug 22, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Another suggestion: It would be really helpful (I don't know if this is possible) if we could see for a given set of keywords, what the *actual* searches were that brought up the impressions and/or clicks. I think this would help us refine our campaigns even more.

By the way, thanks, AWA for your help and advice here! :-)

gramski

2:25 am on Aug 23, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I'd like to see the adwords campaign settings have a negative match feature - so for example I could set ads to run in all countries except the ones I specify.

The main thing I'd like would be some way to keep ads running on partner sites when I make a change to the copy. Currently they go off for up to three days when a change is made - I'd much rather the system that overture uses where your old copy stays up until the new one is approved.

David_M

3:58 am on Aug 23, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Another suggestion: It would be really helpful (I don't know if this is possible) if we could see for a given set of keywords, what the *actual* searches were that brought up the impressions and/or clicks.

I strongly agree- It would help me figure out what negative keywords to use to help increase CTR.

JollyK

4:49 am on Aug 23, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Oh, and I would love it if we could look at things by date added. I'm keeping track of the dates that I add/take out keywords, creatives, and campaigns in a separate spreadsheet, but it would be nice to be able to see the dates when things were added.

Being able to see clicks/imps for deleted keywords would be cool also.

Grr. There was something else that just came up today and I totally can't think of it. :-)

aravindgp

1:33 pm on Aug 25, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I will chime with JollyK
The last seven days breakup would be great, it gives lot of new users a chance to modify with figures and cut down their looses.It will always help us analysize on the fly.

KW CTR CPM CPC
Monday
Tuesday
.
.
.
.
Sunday

Aravind

brycen

2:44 am on Aug 27, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



When AdWords flags a violation, such as:

* "MBTA" may constitute excessive capitalization.

I'd like a little box where I can write an explanation. (In this case MBTA is Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, it is not excessive - that's what everyone calls it).

TheDave

4:21 am on Aug 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I want to be able to exclude things the same way I can search them with the ~ operator, so when there's a word with 2 meanings, I can elimate the second meaning a lot easier. Right now I have to do a few negative matches to get it not to show up for non-relevant searches while still retaining the broad matching.

For example, the word plaque has 2 meanings, one is something that rots your teeth, the other you hang on a wall. So an adwords advertiser selling plaques can exclude anything like teeth and dental with, -~teeth and -~dental

I hope this makes sense, thanks! :)

sorry for getting specific but I felt it was nescessary to get the point across. if a mod wants to put a better example please do, thanks

anthony

4:43 pm on Aug 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Hi AdWordsAdvisor,

One product request I would like is to see some format other than the Google web based bid management tool. For example, you can go to third parties to get software which will give you the ability to check and manage bids across different engines.

I would like to have the ability to be able to monitor and modify my bids on this type of system but as it is now, I have to go to 2 places - first to my bid management tool to manage other PPC accounts then to Google to manage Adwords. Is there any way we can get these products combined?

I understand other services such as Overture utilize an XML feed for this purpose. *Would Google be developing a similar XML feed based system for bid management?

Thanks

AdWordsAdvisor

11:48 pm on Aug 29, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Within a few hours I'll forward the latest batch of suggestions/comments to the product development team, as well as AdWords management.

As always, thanks so much for taking the time to provide your thoughts. As I am sure I've mentioned, many of the features of the new interface come directly from Advertiser feedback. So please keep the comments coming!

steverose

1:25 am on Sep 4, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Good to have a suggestion box! Comment on a post above. I am a minnow in terms of spending and bidding but I generally respond politely to any signed mail from the eds, and if I respond quickly to their generally apt suggestions (misspellings, punctuation and so forth) I will get a personal back. Which I can then file and presumably use when things are in extremis.

Best, S

spud01

12:04 pm on Sep 8, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Scheduling the Ad campaign to appear in certain times of the day would be a good feature.

We are only interested in our ad appearing during office working hours i.e. 9am-5pm UTC.

steverose

12:18 pm on Sep 8, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I would like to be able to move ad groups from campaign to campaign with a click or two instead of deleting and reentering.

werty

2:44 pm on Sep 12, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Administrator 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



This is a pretty simple one, but it made me want to throw my computer out of the window this morning...

In the main summary window when you choose the dates to display the results, and you want to do a specified period of time...lets say all of June.

Well because I do not have a calendar in front of me I do not know how many days are in the month, is it 30 or 31?

Anyhow I do june 1, 2003 to june 31, 2003 and it defaults back to feb 10th until september 12th (all time).

Can you make it so that you can choose june 1st-31st and it will bring it to the correct time frame of june 1st-30th. Or whatever the maximum length of the month is. (feb 28/august 31 etc).

Maybe even include the script that show the calender pop up so you can select the begining as well as the end.

AdWordsAdvisor

1:59 am on Sep 13, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



Nice idea werty, and thanks to the rest of you as well.

I'll be passing the new suggestions along to the product development team this evening.

ThatAdamGuy

4:09 am on Sep 13, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



AWA... could you please have Google be less hardline about acronym capitalization? I have a site that's about the RIAA, and so it's understandable that I'd want to include this text in my AdWords. But my ad got disapproved :(

And on a related note... I did not receive any e-mail notification about this disapproval. Was this somehow 'lost in the mail' or is it not typical for such notices to be sent?

AdWordsAdvisor

4:51 am on Sep 13, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I'll forward that comment, ThatAdamGuy.

Please contact AdWords customer service and explain the situation. I am sure you will find that they will make it right, and apologize if an error was made.

When an ad is disapproved, an email is always sent, ususally within a matter of moments - so it is in fact odd that you didn't recieve one.

I wonder if some of our emails may have been filtered by your spam protection, due to the word 'AdWords' in the subject line? This would not be the first time such a thing has happened.

Worth checking at any rate.

ThatAdamGuy

10:24 am on Sep 13, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Regarding the e-mail notification... this is indeed strange.

I changed hosting providers because my last evil host filtered all mail through an aggressive "SpamAssassin" filter, and we users could not opt out.

My current web host does not do any server-side filtering. I do, however, forward my mail through Earthlink's spaminator, but I recently checked in my 'spam' (held) mail there, and though I didn't thoroughly check through ALL 600 messages from the last three days (ack!), I didn't see any Google mails trapped. And Earthlink's system works via a 'decoy' type method, not by keyword; they seed the Internet with decoy accounts, and when those get spammed, those particular spams are blocked from all participating Earthlink accounts. I can't imagine Google's mails falling under this policy.

Perhaps I'm the only one not getting Google mails in this context, but it may be a good idea to check into this to see if the problem is possibly more widespread. In the meantime, I may add some new AdWords to my account that I know will fall below the minimum CTR to see if I do receive a warning e-mail.

Oh, and yes, I did drop a brief note to your AdWords colleagues via the Contact form to respectfully ask to have my ad with the acronyms put back :)

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