Google Ads Automator

[robcharlebois]

Does anybody know what the "Ads Automator" tool is or if it is available anywhere? It is referred to here in the following job description.

[edited by: eWhisper at 3:33 am (utc) on Oct. 6, 2004]
[edit reason] Link now dead, so removed it. [/edit]

[SEOMike]

Interesting. I wonder what it does.

[your_store]

Wasn't they're thread a few months ago about a similar feature? If I remember correctly, G adds keywords to your account automatically by spidering your site. I can't remember if the ad copy was automated too, but I believe it was supposed to be.

It would have to be a truely amazing product to replace manually created ads.

[robcharlebois]

A tool that would spider my site and then generate ads would be fantastic, reduce a lot of work with spreadsheets. I may become a beta user. Will keep posting as more information is available.

A little concerned about the quality of the ads and keywords though.

[skibum]

Yea, the challenge with anything like that is the resulting lisitings just don't seem quite right without some human intervention.

[robcharlebois]

Maybe I can create some dynamic Google tags...
<g></g> or something

[sun818]

I was invited to the Beta AdWords Automator. The upload file is the simple version of a Froogle upload feed with some additional fields like offer_id, max_cpc, and upc. The offer_id is a unique identifier for your AdWords, max_cpc is the maximum cost per click you are willing to pay, and upc is the 12-digit code (if available) for a tangible product you may be selling.

There's some other information about dynamic serving of ads based on keywords, but I will have to dig up old e-mail on the specifics on that...

[robcharlebois]

I am a beta as well and still working on the formatting, how has the tool been so far with your implementation?

[sun818]

I submitted the feed last night so I have no opinion at this time. I think its a great automated tool because new products are added every day. Often times, by the time the search engines index the page, the product is out of stock. This I think will increase visibility for specific products and reduce the time product is held in inventory before being sold. I've also been wanting wean myself off eBay and think this is a big step towards that.

[sun818]

Here's a good article about Adwords Automator:
[clickz.com...]

[edited by: eWhisper at 2:44 am (utc) on Oct. 6, 2004]
[edit reason] Fixed URL [/edit]

[shorebreak]

Anyone who's been using Ads Automator have feedback on it terms of the relative ROI compared to straight Adwords? The big question would seem to be: does it bring more/less volume of transactions, more/less margin than does a well-run Adwords effort?

[sun818]

I've been testing it out and the conversion rates are not as good. The "creatives" don't make much sense since they are automatically generated by Google. I still receive conversions but the conversion rate is not as strong as my customized AdWords. I found out last week we can include our own "creatives" now as part of the data feed:

creative_line1 Creative Title. Must be 25 characters or less
creative_line2 Creative description line, must be 35 characters or less.
creative_line3 Creative description line 2, must be 35 characters or less.

My feeling is that if you want better conversion, you have to hire someone to write it or do it yourself. The data feed is quick and dirty, but you will need to write your own "creatives" if you want better results.

[shorebreak]

Sun818, do you think the lower conversion rate is 100% because of creative issues, or is it also tied to Google's choice of keywords? If it's the former, then that bodes well for the program because we can all do a good job of writing our own creative; but if it's the latter then I'm not so sure I'd want to move away from having the best, most-targeted exact match keyword set possible and controlling my own destiny.

[sun818]

I'm not the AdWords expert, but I think it has to more to do with creatives and less about the keywords Google selects. The AdWords Creatives has not call to action, or any other enticing phrases to make a buyer want to click.

[your_store]

I just recieved the Froogle newsletter, and it is offering the Ad Automator beta to merchants with more than 1000 products in their feed.

From the email:

The ad automator uses sophisticated technology to automatically create and target AdWords ads based on structured data feeds, which are nearly identical to the data feeds you submit to Froogle.

[farside847]

Very interesting. I have not received this email (yet). Would it be possible to post more
of this notice? I would like to know who to contact at google for more information.

Thanks!

[stevenmusumeche]

I used it for a few weeks - conversions suck. The tool is not ready for primetime.

[farside847]

I used it for a few weeks - conversions suck. The tool is not ready for primetime.

Mind if I ask how long ago you used it? I wonder if they could have
improved it since... The last I heard from my rep was that they were
still tweaking the AA for certain types of product. At the time my
product type was not supported.