Google Ads
Google Ads’ campaigns are a primary traffic and sales channel for many ecommerce businesses. Our vast library of Google Ads’ articles addresses setup, tag management, Google Shopping, structured data, automated bidding, and more.
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Google Ads
Using Audiences in Google Search Campaigns
October 25, 2019 • Matthew Umbro
Google Ads announced this month two new enhancements for search campaigns: affinity audiences and in-market audiences for seasonal events. The release follows Google’s push for advertisers to layer audiences on their search campaigns.
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Google Ads
Learning from Google’s Responsive Ad Units
October 8, 2019 • Robert Brady
Google's responsive ads are among the easiest ways to leverage machine learning to improve performance. So let’s look at what we can learn from the machines.
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Google Ads
Do Responsive Search Ads Improve Performance?
October 1, 2019 • Matthew Umbro
The principal benefit of responsive search ads is efficiency. Advertisers can input many messages, and the platform (Google or Bing) will find the winning combinations. The drawbacks are a loss of control and transparency.
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Google Ads
Google Ads Expands Keyword Variant Matching, Again
September 9, 2019 • Robert Brady
Over the past couple of years, Google Ads has expanded the use of close keyword variants from misspellings and plurals to implied words and paraphrases. Now, Google has again expanded the use of close variants.
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Google Ads
Understanding Google Ads’ New Conversion Action Sets
September 2, 2019 • Matthew Umbro
Google Ads' advertisers use conversion tracking for keywords and ad copy. A "conversion" could be a sale or a visitor filling out the contact-us form. Conversion action sets allow advertisers to establish conversion priorities and optimize accordingly.
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Google Ads
How Google Collects Data to Personalize Ads
May 23, 2019 • Robert Brady
Google does most of its tracking through a user's account. If you’re logged in on your phone or browser, Google is accumulating a lot of data. And it's willing to show you. To see what Google believes you’re interested in, navigate to Ad Settings.
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Google Ads
Comparing SEO to PPC
May 3, 2019 • Jill Kocher Brown
Search engine optimization is different than pay-per-click advertising. While they share the goal of driving searchers to a website, you can’t expect the immediate results in SEO that paid search often produces. Likewise, approaching PPC with an SEO orientation misses opportunities.
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Google Ads
Google Ads Keyword Planner Gets an Upgrade
April 11, 2019 • Robert Brady
The other day I went to the Keyword Planner in Google Ads. I was greeted by a lightbox message that stated, “A Better Keyword Planner.” The box said six "key features" were improved. Here's my take on the changes.
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Google Ads
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Merchant Voice
How Google Shopping has affected my ecommerce site
April 1, 2019 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth
It’s been more than six months since I started advertising on Google Shopping. It has greatly improved my revenue, as well as traffic to my site. In this post, I'll recap the metrics.
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Google Ads
Boost Google Ads’ Quality Score for PPC Success
March 14, 2019 • Armando Roggio
Google Ads' quality score is a bid multiplier that can make purchasing ads on the popular pay-per-click advertising platform less expensive. A high quality score is also a strong indicator of PPC success, so boosting an ad's quality score could lead to more interactions and sales.
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Google Ads
Google Shopping Campaigns Could See 10 Percent More Impressions
March 12, 2019 • Robert Brady
A recent change by Google Ads could increase impressions by 3 to 10 percent for advertisers that use Shopping campaigns but opt out of the Search Partners network. Here’s what you need to know.
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Google Ads
How to Structure Google Ads Text Campaigns for Ecommerce
March 11, 2019 • Armando Roggio
Text-based, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a fundamental part of promoting an ecommerce business. These seemingly simple ads can appear higher on a search results page than organic listings and they can target potential customers actively seeking the products your business sells.
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Google Ads
Say Goodbye to ‘Average Position’ Metric in Google Ads
February 27, 2019 • Robert Brady
Last year Google Ads finally transitioned all advertisers to its new interface. There were many changes. One was that "Average Position" no longer appeared in a column by default. And now Google has made it official.
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Google Ads
Setting Up ‘Promotions’ in Google Shopping
January 2, 2019 • Robert Brady
The new promotion feature in Google Shopping can help an ad stand out with a blue “Special offer” link. Once clicked, the offer appears as a popup. It's a good way to move past the typical components of a Shopping ad: product name, price, brand, and image.
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Google Ads
Google Ads: ‘Exact Match’ Keeps Getting Less Exact
December 6, 2018 • Robert Brady
Google recently announced another change in “exact match” keywords to include close variations with the same meaning as the keyword. I was not a fan when Google first altered the “exact match” policy in 2017. And I’m not a fan of the latest change because keywords are no longer an “exact match.”
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Google Ads
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Merchant Voice
I should have used Google Shopping ads sooner
November 25, 2018 • Elizabeth Hollingsworth
If you’re a nationwide retailer — or even statewide — you may advertise on Google Shopping, if not Google Ads, or both. As a small online-only retailer, I wish I had ...
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Google Ads
Google Ads Expands Headlines, Descriptions, Characters
September 5, 2018 • Robert Brady
For many years Google AdWords allowed 25 characters for a single headline and 35 characters per line for two lines of description text. But Google Ads (formerly AdWords) has made a couple of changes that advertisers should know about. You can now add more text to your existing text ads and utilize a new type of text ad.
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Google Ads
3 Mistakes to Avoid on the Google Display Network
August 7, 2018 • Robert Brady
The Google Display Network has the potential to generate massive traffic. It’s a powerful opportunity for any advertiser. But it can cause powerful harm when mistakes occur. Here are three dangers of advertising on the GDN and how you can avoid them.
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Google Ads
Report: Internet Trends Favor Amazon, Mobile, Social
June 5, 2018 • Robert Brady
On May 30, Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the venture capital firm, delivered her “Internet Trends 2018” report at the Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.
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Google Ads
AdWords Smart Bidding: Dos and Don’ts
May 1, 2018 • Robert Brady
"Smart Bidding" is the umbrella term in AdWords for automated bid strategies. Smart bids can vary — from targeting page placement to outranking a competitor. There are seven Smart Bidding options. In this post, I'll address each one.
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Google Ads
Step-by-step PPC Testing Strategy for Any Advertiser
February 28, 2018 • Robert Brady
Ad copy is often the first interaction a consumer has with a business. For AdWords and Bing Ads, advertisers have 30 characters in Headline 1, 30 characters in Headline 2,
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Google Ads
Creating Dynamic Ads on Facebook
February 7, 2018 • Robert Brady
In "Using AdWords’ New ‘Responsive Ads’ Format," my article from February 2017, I explained how AdWords allows advertisers to insert ad content on the fly, such as a logo, images, text, and the business name. It's a cool feature for advertisers short on time and design resources. In keeping with the theme, in this post I'll address Facebook, the other player in the online advertising duopoly
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Google Ads
Testing Pay-per-click Ad Copy Requires Human Intuition
January 12, 2018 • Robert Brady
My first step in setting up a new AdWords campaign is to test the ad copy. AdWords has long recommended running three or more ads in each ad group. It’s an industry practice to test new messaging. The most common protocol for testing ad copy in a single ad group uses the following pattern.
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Google Ads
AdWords: 3 Ways to Find Negative Keywords
December 12, 2017 • Robert Brady
Inside every AdWords account there is a report that shows the exact words (a “query”) that searchers typed into Google before clicking on a specific ad. It’s called the Search ...
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Google Ads
AdWords: Navigating the New ‘Opportunities’ Tab
November 21, 2017 • Robert Brady
If you’re an AdWords advertiser, you likely know about the new AdWords’ experience. Google sent emails to all users and has posted reminders throughout the legacy interface. Google will discontinue ...
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Google Ads
Don’t Forget Bing for 2017 Holiday Advertising
October 3, 2017 • Robert Brady
New pay-per-click advertisers invariably start with AdWords. Google holds a dominant share of search volume in the U.S. and even the name Google is synonymous with online searching. However, savvy advertisers ...
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Google Ads
AdWords Changes Coming Fall 2017
September 13, 2017 • Robert Brady
There has been a flurry of activity from AdWords during the past couple of weeks. If you’re an advertiser, you’ve likely noticed the emails from AdWords, coming fast. In this ...
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Google Ads
4 New Features for AdWords Ecommerce Advertisers
June 2, 2017 • Robert Brady
Google recently held its Marketing Next event and announced several changes to its suite of advertising-related products. In this article, I’ll address four of the changes that are important to ...
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Google Ads
AdWords Promotion Extension Coming Soon
May 10, 2017 • Robert Brady
Google continuously tinkers with the appearance of ads on its search result pages. In the past couple of years, Google removed the right-side ads and added a new fourth ad ...
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Google Ads
AdWords: Exact Match Not So Exact Anymore
April 3, 2017 • Robert Brady
You may have missed the blog post from AdWords on March 17 about the expansion of close variants. The second paragraph of that post reads, in part: … over the coming months ...
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