Now that AdWordsAdvisor hangs out in this forum, I haven't been prowling here as much--but I'll be reading the "what would you like to see" thread and the other threads on this forum before tomorrow. So if you have something different to mention, lemme know. It's only a half-hour meeting, but I'd prefer to go into it with feedback from folks here. :)
I have submitted several times a person that has 2 accounts set up for the same set of keywords. I have shown them easily that by a simpe whis search you can determine that it is the same owner of both web sites. It is a blatant disregard for their rules. One character has done this so many times it makes my head spin and it really po's me.
I play by the rules and do not play these cheating games. It offends me that I can spend $50o a day with Adwords and all they do to people like this is slap their wrists be deleting one of their accounts. All that does is allow them to repeat the whole scenario all over agin until they get caught and one of their accounts gets deleted.
I thin they need to prove to loyal honest customers that they have our interests at heart. These cheaters should have all of their accounts cancelled and be thrown out on their butts!
I'll make sure that GG is aware of these most recent additions - and forward them to the right folks myself, as I typically do each Friday.
Thanks again!
AWA
Collect more conversion data to deal with fraud. Use the conversion data to ensure that people are not running clickbots.
Get rid of the conversion image so people will be happier using it. Add more features so people are encouraged to use your conversion code.
[edited by: blaze at 7:59 pm (utc) on Mar. 26, 2004]
The ability to choose individual search syndication options.
A way to bulk upload a campaign w/o having to use the AdWords interface to paste everything in there one line at a time. A one-to-one relationship between ads and keywords is often desirable but very time consuming to setup.
Get rid of DomainPark.
Quick preface: Despite the numerous suggestions, there's no doubt in my mind that AdWords is 10x faster/easier/intuitive than Overt... the competition.
*Some notification of when budget limits are hit
An email or a note on the "Campaign Summary" screen indicating approximately when the limit was hit would help advertisers get their budgets to the right level faster.
*Lower Keyword Tool threshold
Would help identify pesky off-topic searches inadvertantly trigger ads.
*Keyword Tool negative match sensitivity
Keyword Tool is already smart enough to make suggestions based on language, it be nice to see it excluded suggestions based on negative matches already in an ad group.
*More powerful bulk upload capability with ad box creation
This would be a tricky thing to get right, but it would make it easier to create ad text that is custom to a given search without having to use the madlib-style (What's the syntax again? {searchterm}?).
*More control over keyword matching
Allow quoted and unqoted terms on one line, like the regular Google search. Especially useful when Google is too liberal with broad matching, but the advertiser can't anticipate all the possible search variations.
*Speed improvements
Global style sheets and client-side javascript sorting of tables would reduce load on the server. AdWords already does browser-sniffing to server rounded tabs to Mozilla so I'm sure any browser-compatibility issues could be worked out.
*Easier to resucitate disabled keywords
Would be nice to have a "Second Chance" option for disabled keywords. Often failure to exclude some unknown phrases will disable a keyword. Once that keyword is excluded, the disabled phrases will be "strong".
In my research this seems to be a growing issue where websites are temporally stolen, the identical content is indexed in google (actually got a higher PR then the real site in our case), they display AdSense until caught then just do it again to a different website… etc.
We need to address the copying but the motivation seems to be temporary AdSense revenue from an industry (even multiple industries) where they have no presence. Even though this is not a direct suggestion on improving the features of AdWords I think it’s important.
I have to agree with this. Some of your competitors have a template you can use which makes uploading keywords so much easier. I would really love to see this feature added.
With regards to the Ad Sense, I'd like to be able to choose the sites that my ads appear on to ensure that high quality traffic views my ads.
2. If my ads aren't running, a courtesy email would be nice. Sometimes Adwords put your account on hold while they look at something, but the only way to find that out is to ask and wait a day or two for the support staff to get back to you.
3. Multiple accounts or more campaigns. I target individual countries and cannot run all the ads I would like with the current system
4. A way of knowing which copyrighted keywords aren't allowed - the only way at present is to write an ad an be told after the fact.
5. 24/7 customer service. Adwords must have a lot of staff if they approve ads manually. Why do all of them work Mon-Fri? That's a really archaic way of running an Internet business.
I set my daily amounts and cost per clicks to get decent exposure with my ads, but I only turn them on for certain portions of the month (weekends) so I can have reasonable control over how much I spend each month.
When the month is over, I don't get billed until the 6th or 7th of the next month, which is fine - no problem. The problem is, that I know I spent $60 for the month because that is my value at the end of the month. When they bill me on the 6th or 7th they don't just bill me for last month, they bill me right up to the damn billing date. So now when I want to know how much I spent this month I have to sit there with a calculator and subtract off the portion of the running total that I was already billed to see how much I spent so far. That is REALLY annoying.
Not to be one to complain and not offer a solution, I suggest that they either bill in calendar months - collect your money anytime you want, but collect it for "last month", or, on the list of choices where you have "This month", "Last month", "This year", etc, add one for "This PERIOD", which is the amount you have racked up since the last billing date.
They lose money on me because once the month is over I will not turn my ads back on until I have been billed for the previous month, so that my running total is accurate. That means if there is a weekend before the 6th or 7th that I lose out an all that advertising because I am waiting to be billed.
Thank you!
how about some form of support control panel per account, very similar to systmes used by most hosting companies ...
shak
- AdWords to AdSense switch: I would like to be able to swich between AdWords and AdSense through a simple link.
- Negative words: I wish i could include additional negatives to block advanced search parameters like site:www.yahoo.com + keyword.
- Block AdSense domains: I wish to be able to block AdSense publisher sites by domain (what eWhisper said in #5 of this post). Or even better: what about letting us choose which sites to advertize on?
- Reporting: what about reporting per content partner and per search partner?
- Quality controll / Germany: I wish you would do a better quality controll for german ads. Also, reacting a bit quicker to quality complaints (both AW + AS) would be nice. My last feedback took 1 week to get answered.
If not already, why not? As a publisher i want to extend the reach of my website by utilizing Adwords and paying for it through utilizing Adsense should be a no-brainer.
With your strict policies on not being able to use competing technologies that look alike beeing restricted from generating other sources of revenue is prohibiting me from getting the best value from your services.
It would be helpful to me if I could easily move ads from one campaign to another. Overture offers this feature and it is a godsend if the need arises.
Ditto. Since January I've been planning on making a campaign for a new site with hundreds of keywords and spending perhaps $500 a month but I can't stand the thought of the 1 or 2 mind-numbing days it will take to set up.
Most helpful as one who displays the ads (I guess that;s really Adsense, not Adwords, but it would help me as an advertiser as well):
1.) Ability of adsense buyer to require certain keywords. For example, I have a page dealing with youth baseball. I keep getting ads for glass pitchers (the kind with water in them). I know I can watch them constantly and drop those URLs, but if I could require that "baseball" be a keyword along with pitcher, it would be very helpful to me AND to the advertiser, who is getting wasted views but has no way to know where they are coming from.
OR - at least as an advertiser, be able to tell me what keyword combinations are seeing my ads, so that if I could block "baseball" if I'm selling glass pitchers. Again, I know I can block those terms but only if I know they are occurring.
2.) Ability of buyer to choose the PRIMARY keyword for his page. For example, I have a page that is about "CASS Certification", which is a process required in order to put barcodes on USPS mail. Adsense was showing vendors who perform this CASS process, which was great! But then, all of a sudden, I started getting barcode vendors instead. Most of those have nothing to do with mailing (inventory control, etc.) but even if they did, the viewer is far more likely to want a CASS vendor than a barcode vendor. Wish I had someway to tell the robot that CASS and direct mail are the MOST important keywords.
SOrry for all the words. Hope this helps.
Scott Hochberg
[edited by: Shak at 10:23 pm (utc) on Mar. 28, 2004]
[edit reason] no specifics or self promotion or company names please. [/edit]
...but just a couple of example suggestions that really stand out for me:
1. Workflow stuff. Ability to annotate a campaign or leave stickies for other stakeholders indicating changes, ideas, etc. The reality today is one where several folks may be responsible for an account over time. The ability to leave permanent notes within this environment may be useful given the clutter of email and the inconvenience of phone meetings, etc.
2. Much has been made of more control of and better reporting on partner traffic and I certainly agree that we need the ability to bid differentially on content targeting. But why not, at the very least, a simple analogy with Adsense? In Adsense publishers can enter "URL's they don't like" in a simple box, and these are blocked from advertising. Likewise, why not be able to enter a list of rotten partner URL's (ones you don't like based on suspicions, prior knowledge, tracking, whatever you like) and not show up on those sites? A high number of such blockages amongst advertisers would also be a convenient way for Google to red-flag problem publishers.
3. I must add my voice to those calling for a reporting breakdown of CTR's between Google only and network partners, since it's the former that count for ranking & disabling purposes!
4. On a more general note, I think it's important to understand that many of the ideas expressed in a forum like this are the "ferrari" type ideas in a medium where most of the folks with the money (handfuls of big clients, truckloads of medium-sized clients, and boatloads of small clients, which ads up to a lot of interest) don't even know how to drive the proverbial "honda." On one hand, the pros need to be able to drive that ferrari better for the benefit of their ferrari-challenged clients, but on the other hand, there does come a point where a service becomes "good enough," and too many additional features can actually unbalance and skew the feel of the whole enterprise such that it feels too unfriendly to the generalist. Another thing to consider, Google, is your own staff need to be able to understand how AdWords works? The pace of change in the interface needs to be matched by sufficient attention to nurturing the customer service side, or indeed actually designing the product so that a person of normal intelligence who works for you can explain it to the average advertiser.
On the whole, then, this biz is going to have to evolve towards a model that is relationship-oriented and not purely product-driven. When it gets to a point when AdWords has more cool features than even the biggest addicts really know what to do with (and that day is coming), those of us who are "addicts" probably need to lighten up a bit and realize that this business is going to be getting more similar to the traditional advertising business, which at the end of the day could not thrive without agencies, accounts, and clients who are willing to cut some slack and feed out some budget. And at a certain point that requires a leap of faith and a degree of salesmanship.
As bottom-line-oriented as this wonderful medium is, going forward it can't be solely about expertise and "maximization," but also about process, consistency, relationships, and added value, which add up to satisfaction.
So anyway, while this is slightly off topic, I think a lot of what Google will have to do will be to consider what webdiversity said about some sort of accreditation program for SEM's and agencies etc., and a way of packaging this type of advertising that creates value for clients without always having them sweat every last detail. Many of the best & most successful CLIENTS out there are the ones who are happy that their cost per acquisition stayed constant at $48 this month (which is lower than their CPA in some other medium), as opposed to wanting to know each and every detail about how this was achieved. Some interest in detail is normal, but I suppose everyone here who does work for clients is familiar with the phenomenon of the one-dimensional analysis: client keeps emailing you giant keyword lists; client calls frequently because ads not showing up or not showing up high enough; etc.
We love all clients but one side effect of the amazing power of AdWords, and Google's freakish willingness to listen and improve the interface, is that it becomes a team sport whereby a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.
So feature sets aside, I think we and Google all need to redouble efforts to preach ROI, ROI, ROI, and bottom-line, bottom-line, bottom-line... and to get the word out that successful campaigns cannot be boiled down to single factors like:
* The size of your keyword list
* The fact that you track conversions down to 1,000's of keywords (you can if you want, but...)
* Your bids
* Your ad position
* The fact that you adjust your bids more often than anyone else
* Your CTR
* Your CPC
* Or any other single factor.
A campaign can work or not work based on numerous factors, but sometimes a simple thing like poor use of matching options or uninspired ad copy will overshadow the seemingly all-important dump of another 1,000 keywords or frenetic bid management.
Basically, I suspect that in keeping with how the media has salivated over this stuff in the past year, too many people are all of a sudden finding it really "cool" and wanting to "push the envelope" in some feature areas... without really even understanding how a basic, simple campaign can work very powerfully.
Hmm, maybe this is just a rant that the increasing fascination advertisers have with the interface doesn't always translate into better results. Some seem to descend into a spiral of overwork and overemphasis on the wrong stuff. How to encourage advertisers to step back, retool, simplify, and above all be bullish about the tangible and less-tangible impacts of this kind of advertising? Or am I being too Yahooey here?
Yep, I guess that's pretty much off topic, but I suspect that too many discussions of high-falutin feature sets are just what we DON'T want to be having...
Idea #5. Back to something specific. Relating to the ad testing capability. Typically one ad will prove itself dominant & successful, and the only rational thing to do is to turn the others off. But (as suggested by one of my clients) once in awhile you may wish to introduce a "challenger ad" to test a new theory. As things stand, assuming you uncheck the automated optimizer, the two ads will now be rotated 50-50. This should be more like 80-20 so that the challenger is only tested lightly in the background rather than dominating the scene. In short then, there needs to be the ability to set proportions on the ad rotation. We have tried a workaround here by having 5 identical ads and 1 different ad in a group, with little success, and would rather not do it that way anyway. Apparently the idea of a "challenger" is an old notion from direct mail. This would seem to be a pretty big hole in Adwords which is supposed to be allowing us to truly test competing ads; it would be good to do so without having really weak contenders ruin our campaign performance... while still allowing the possibility that from time to time, a challenger ad might prove successful.
I'll leave out ideas 6 through 200 for now. Keep up the good work, Google.
Bullishly,
Andrew "Not for Dummies" Goodman
* pause/stop campain/ad group at X Clicks
* pause/stop campain/ad group at Y total costs
Thx!
I do now ;)
There is a very insidious way to use this to manipulate competitors CTR.
I've received some emails asking me what this technique is.
Its not used by very many people, but it's used by enough to cause a problem.
I didn't reveal it in a public forum, and I'm not going to give anyone the details but G (if they want to know) in an email either.
I didn't reveal it in a public forum, and I'm not going to give anyone the details but G (if they want to know) in an email either.
eWhisper, as you are someone whose opinion I have certainly come to value over my time on WebmasterWorld, I'd of course be interested in what you have to say.
If you would write to adwords-support@google.com with ATTN ADWORDS ADVISOR in the headline, I'll keep an eye out for it - then send it on to the appropriate folks.
Because of the volume of email that comes in, all answered in the order in which it was received, it may take a day or so for your email to find me. For example your email from earlier in the day has not yet found me.
I'll let you when your email is received.
Many thanks in advance,
AWA
