Looking in my MCC today I can see that Google have renamed the Reporting tab to “Reporting and Tools”.

This change hasn’t been announced on the AdWords blog and I can’t see any reports on the web just yet, so I can only presume that this hasn’t been rolled out fully yet (either that or I am the only one who cares).
They have now merged the current Reports tab with the old Tools tab (which I missed having at the top, sadly), a screenshot is below.

We all know that AdWords are slowly removing the report centre so this is obviously a change towards that. Maybe some new functionality is about to appear, although obviously maybe not.

Recently Google launched their new preview function which allows you to over over a magnifying glass and view a thumbnail of a website. Ok, this is a good idea (even if it has been done before), but aren’t Google forgetting something? Have you spotted it yet? Yes, the new function covers the Pay Per Click ads.

For those who don’t notice the Paid ads on the right handside of Google, this is where advertisers can place an ad attributed to the keyword which you type in and as the name suggest, they pay to do it. This service is the largest source of Google’s income, around $13.77 billion so far in 2010. Yes, that is a very big number, so it maybe a surprise to you that Google have decided the best thing to do is to cover them up.

To put this into context, can you image watching the television, the adverts come on, and the television company covers all of them up with a preview of which programme is on next. It wouldn’t happen, would it?

I hope Google have a plan with this, it has the potential to lose them, us and our clients a lot of money.

Massive Google Fail I think.

A while ago we reported that one of the disadvantages of the Google Instant feature is that it was covering the sponsored ads on the right handside of Google. Well, not content with that, but Google seem to be at it again, but this time with maps.

Now when looking for anything local, a map appears on the right handside where the ads are placed with the normal ads below it. OK, so this pushes the right handside ads down a bit. That’s workable. But its when you start scrolling down the page that you see the map starts moving with you, therefore covering the ad.

Whilst Google does leave the three ads in place at the top of the page, they have pushed the rest down and made sure that the visitor sees them less when scrolling down the page.

I have never claimed to understand Google (who could) but what I do know is that Sponsored Links makes up the majority of their revenue and now they seem quite content with removing it from their users eyes.

Obviously it has always been better to be at the top of the page, but now Google are making it quite clear it is essential. This is a shame as when creating and account, you will not reach the top three before your quality score increases and this move will make it a lot harder for people to do.

I really don’t understand what Google are playing at this time.

Google have recently announced that all display URLs will now appear as lower-case instead of having the options to appear as both and this week they started to roll it out.

Many decisions that Google makes in regards to their AdWords systems I can understand, many I don’t have an opinion on and just think it doesn’t matter, but this one has has really got me confused. Google has said that “by standardizing the look of the URLs on the page, we were able to improve many of our user metrics, including ad click through rates.” Any AdWords specialists worth their salt understand that testing different variants of Ad Text is one of the most important things they can do, and testing the capitalisation of the display URL is part of that.

Looking at some of my best campaigns the ads which converts most are the ones which uses capitalisation Obviously Google have said that they have tested this and it doesn’t matter, completely contradicting the (recently) changed overview of their guide to optimising Ad Text. In that same section they say “It’s difficult to predict what will perform best for you before you actually try it. Test out several versions of ad text to evaluate which one performs the best for your business.” The appropriate phrase their is “for your business”.

Google are not thinking about “Your Business” when making this changes, but they are thinking about their results page. My theory is that Google is trying to blur the line between the organic search results and the sponsored links. Brilliant for us as our ads get clicked, but even better for them as they receive more money.

Obviously Google are a search engine, that is their primary purpose, but when it comes to Google AdWords, they need to realise that they are an advertising agency and making decisions like this without consulting their users or allowing us to make the decisions will only drive people away. Come on Bing, hurry up and grow faster, I look forward to the day when you are the main source of spend for my Pay Per Click clients.

Microsoft announced on Sunday that it’s AdCenter will be renamed Bing Ads, but also implies “an improved experience” across the network. Recent improvements include a new web based interface, tweaked ad rotation controls and a tool set that allows better management of multiple accounts by agencies.

The Yahoo! Bing Network is the combined advertising arena of Yahoo! and Bing search, for placing keyword based ads in SERPs (search engine results page) and partner sites. Some of these partners include Amazon, Viacom and The Wall Street Journal.

Bing and Yahoo! occupy second and third place after Google in the who’s who of search engines. While Google seems set to dominate for the foreseeable future, the combined clout of the two underdogs effectively reaches about 30% of the search market worldwide.

This means big money, with Yahoo! alone expected to receive more than $250 million annually from advertising revenue.

All signs point to Microsoft trying to usher in a new dawn – the latest ‘Bing It On’ advertising campaign is aiming to prove that users prefer Bing to Google, with a study of a thousand people who say just that (commissioned by Bing themselves, mind you). The campaign includes a challenge with a head on comparison to user generated queries, neither of which are branded, so that people can decide for themselves which is the best.

Google Analytics has seen an new tool over the past month called Cost Analysis, it enables you to see how each digital marketing channel is performing when compared with each other. It allows you, as a business owner to make smarter decisions about which channel to invest in.

To make use of the the Cost Analysis tool you must first upload the costs data. This can be done in two ways, the first is through a self service API, the second is by using independent applications from external providers such as Next Analytics and Analytics Canvas.

Cost data import is currently being rolled out to all accounts and is contained within the Traffic Sources section of Google Analytics. Google hope that this tool will “provide a clearer view of your media performance across all your channels and help you make more informed budgeting decisions”.

About the Clicks/Cost Report

The Clicks/Cost report shows visit, cost, and revenue performance data for your paid marketing channels. The report compares the cost of each campaign with its associated revenue, from eCommerce and/or goal value, to calculate Return On Investment (ROI), Revenue Per Click (RPC), and Margin. These metrics let you quickly see how each initiative performs.

The report shows metrics for you pay per click campaign and any other channel for which you upload cost data. For example, the report will display cost and performance metrics for non-Google search engine campaigns and keywords if you upload the associated cost data. AdWords data appears as long as your AdWords and Google Analytics accounts are linked and the AdWords cost data has been imported to the profile you’re viewing.

Google has released a new feature from within its Engage for Agencies account, the account actions beta. It is a tool that is designed to identify opportunities within an agencies MCC account for each Adwords account and its not too bad.

In the image below you can see that it provides the information in a nice layout listed by Adwords account.

Once you click on a link it takes you through the process of implementing that action with a simple to understand set of instructions and video.

All in all I think the tool is pretty cool, although it is aimed at those less knowledgeable about PPC it still has its uses for picking up the latest trend or just getting confirming your own suspicions. The videos are also very cool.

What Google Says about Account Actions Beta

• The Account Actions tool is designed to help you manage your clients’ AdWords campaigns with account-focused reports and actionable ideas all in one place.
• Get statistics on impressions, clicks and conversions to reach the right audience.
• See actions tailored to improve your clients’ campaigns.
• Easy-to-follow visual guides help you quickly implement our ideas.

Do you think that this will help agencies with their PPC campaign?