What are your Top 5 AdWords feature or tool requests?

[AdWordsRep]

Hmmmm. I haven't had too many questions to answer so far today, so I thought maybe I'd ask one of my own. :)

One of my favorite things to do is pass feedback from advertisers along to the right folks at Google, with an eye towards making sure that 'decision makers' are aware of what features you all need to make your advertising more effective, simpler to manage, and so forth.

So here is my question:

What are the top five features and/or tools that you'd like to see included in future refinements of the AdWords program?

Post away, and I'll pass your feedback along later in the week. I usually forward feedback late on Fridays. but I'll be out of the office this coming Friday. So I'll pass on whatever comes in on Thursday evening - say about 7:30 pm California time.

Thanks in advance!

AWR

[NFFC]

>What are the top five features

Number one I'd really like the keyword tool to work much better, it seems way off when compared to the real world. I'm a bid on exact kinda guy, if you could could point me better to the exactness I'd be much happier.

[doppelganger]

Seamless integrations with 3rd party bidding tools such as Atlas GoToast...

Better integration with 3rd party tracking tools - Maybe some type of relationship with DoubleClick or Atlas... Generate tracking tags through the AdWords interface?

I'm really big on the 3rd party tools, because once Microsoft creates their own PPC product (which they will, eventually)... I don't want to have to manage my campaigns in three different locations. I want one place to do it all.

[andrewgoodman]

AWR,

1. Here's one juicy piece of data we need to have as marketers.

We need the clickthrough referral string to contain a parameter (FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL CLICK) that tells us "what ad position that click came from" (or "came outta" as I like to say).

Secondarily, of course, some kind of encoded information on what that discrete click cost would be much better for future, more sophisticated data analysis. I suppose that might be a longer-term thing.

Currently we can attempt to cross-reference average ad positions with conversions and play around with our numbers and bids to try to get a feel for how well different positions convert, but hard-coding the ad position into every click would make this effort more precise.

Sorry to get all advanced on you.

2. I also reiterate the breakdown of spend/clicks/impressions by country would be peachy. Some marketers just want to eyeball things so they can say "whoa, there sure are a lot of clicks I didn't bargain for from Montserrat."

3. Ability to opt out of non-performing content partners using a much more sophisticated console than currently. Ability to bid differentially on content.

4. Simple rules-based bid management for FREE. Not fancy stuff, but "lower all bids in campaign by 20%" or "raise all bids in campaign by 20%." That would be a time-saver. For those who have a lot of very different bids, it would keep the relative values of the bids the same while allowing one to be more and less aggressive with an account depending on circumstances. This would reduce the need for third party bid management services without completely obliterating the need for good third party data analysis.

5. Googleplex-cam.

[AdWordsRep]

Thanks for the suggestions so far - much appreciated.

I'll be passing these on later tonight, so if anyone else has anything to add, please do! :)

(And it would be great to keep this thread active beyond tonight, of course. I'll pass feedback along as it comes in, over time.)

AWR

[strategicrankings]

It would be nice to know from the Billing Summary when the last time Adwords tried to charge my CC.

I had two cases for two clients where their campaign were suspended for lack of funds and it was impossible for us to track at what point in time adwords tried to bill the CC.

What we only see actually are succesful billings.


Thanks
Riley

[bradbyrd]

i second two of andrewgoodman's requests:

1. pass-through data on position & cost would be extremely helpful, and makes a lot of sense for a variety of reasons. (

i undestand the fear that this could create more questions than it resolves, and i understand it can be confusing because we wont have insight into which of those click you folks are actually filtering out as spam.... but let us figure out how to set up our own click filters to remove dupes, etc. if you give us the data, we'll figure out how to use it :) try it out with some selected advertisers and see how valuable they think it is...

2. transparency into where ads are being distributed, and an opt-out option for specific distribution partners.

this obviously reintroduces the ongoing debate about "transparency" into the network. but my feeling is that if google honestly believes that they have the best technology in the market then they shouldnt be afraid to offer this transparency. advertisers and publishers will both stick with the network that delivers the best value, period.

the more interesting issue here is re: how an opt-out approach would affect bid rates... ie. could someone opt out of all but one partner, and then crank up bids for that one partner? what would this do to the market? how would the rest of the bidders compete/adapt? this would obviously force the network to calculate rankings uniquely for each distribution partner, which might create an incredible resource challenge... i could see how it could cause havoc at overture, but it might just work at google where there's already a lack of transparency into the actual market price of a keyword...

i'd guess google can devise an elegant, egalitarian way to handle the problem, and come out with higher average CPCs, an audience-driven feedback model for reviewing and policing their distribution partners, and a "user friendly" competitive edge vs. other ad networks...

[aviener]

I have been using Adwords for a long time, and welcome the opprtunity to pass suggestions to their product group. Here are 4 suggestions.

1. Separate URL for Content Links so we can track ROI in Search & Content
2. More than 25 Campaigns
3. Ability to set time and date parameters for campaigns and adgroups. Examples: only run between 8pm and 8am. Only run on Monday & Tuesday. Only run Nov-Dec.
4. Negative Geotargeting. Run campaign in the US except for a specific location / MSA.

Thanks,

Adam Viener

[AussieWebmaster]

I have been using Adwords for a long time, and welcome the opprtunity to pass suggestions to their product group. Here are 4 suggestions.

1. Separate URL for Content Links so we can track ROI in Search & Content
2. More than 25 Campaigns
3. Ability to set time and date parameters for campaigns and adgroups. Examples: only run between 8pm and 8am. Only run on Monday & Tuesday. Only run Nov-Dec.
4. Negative Geotargeting. Run campaign in the US except for a specific location / MSA.

Thanks,

Adam Viener

You can add a differentiating code where Google sends if it came from content or search. Don't have the code handy but it can be done.

[aviener]

You can add a differentiating code where Google sends if it came from content or search. Don't have the code handy but it can be done.

Anybody know how this is accomplished?

[shorebreak]

I think what everyone's asking for boils down to "More transparency" in AdWords. If we all believe in the power of free markets, then publishers, advertisers, third party agencies/tools and Google will all profit by increased transparency into AdWords.

Historically, markets that are either regulated or less than 100% transparent are less liquid and therefore get less investment, and paid search is no different.

[andrewgoodman]

i second two of andrewgoodman's requests:

the more interesting issue here is re: how an opt-out approach would affect bid rates... ie. could someone opt out of all but one partner, and then crank up bids for that one partner? what would this do to the market? how would the rest of the bidders compete/adapt?
IMHO this would be awesome for the advertiser (more choice, control), and doubly awesome for the publisher. No one's going to crank up bids like this unless they really want to be somewhere. Quality sites would therefore get the ad revenues they deserve thus helping to fund great content.

Google could refer to this as "(Even) Smart(er) Pricing (TM)". :cool:

[andrewgoodman]

4. Negative Geotargeting. Run campaign in the US except for a specific location / MSA.
This reminds me of the client who wanted to put

-trailer park

in his campaign. That always made me laugh, but unfortunately I don't think this had the desired effect. :D

[cristianoq]

Hello,
This is my first post in this forum ;)

Here my Top Three List

1) An Adwords API that let me manage every setting of a campaing as a Web Service from my custom application.
2) A Clickthrough referral string to contain a parameter (FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL CLICK) that tells us: Ad Position and Click Cost
3) Ability to opt out of non-performing content partners using a much more sophisticated console than currently.


Ciao from Italy,
Cristiano

[eragon]

I like everything that has been suggested here especially the one about allowing more than 25 campaigns. Surely, there's some way of getting around that.

I'd also like to add:

the ability to switch match type with the click of a button. If I have a list of a hundred keywords that I need to convert to exact, I have to go through a few hoops to add the brackets and paste them back into my adgroup
it would be nice to go to another campaign from within an adgroup rather than having to click "Campaign Summary" to start from the top again
related to the one above: while viewing an adgroup I know I can click "next" or "previous" to get to the other adgroups within the campaign I'm currently in. But it would be great if I could select *which* adgroup I'd like to go to within that campaign. Perhaps a pull-down list could be offered for this and for selecting a campaign?

[AdWordsRep]

Thanks for the excellent ideas posted here, which I'll continue to pass on as they're received. I hope all y'all will keep this thread alive. :)



...the ability to switch match type with the click of a button. If I have a list of a hundred keywords that I need to convert to exact, I have to go through a few hoops to add the brackets and paste them back into my adgroup
Although this is not precisely what you were asking about, eragon, are you aware that you can change all keywords within a campaign from one match type to another with just a few clicks? You start by clicking on the 'Tools' link under the tabs, then click 'Change Keyword Matching Options'.

I hope that this'll prove to be of some use to you. ;)

AWR

[eragon]

You start by clicking on the 'Tools' link under the tabs, then click 'Change Keyword Matching Options'.

Well that's just too cool! Looks like I've been keeping my nose too close to the screen to notice that nifty feature. :p Thanks!

[AdWordsRep]

Well that's just too cool!

Awesome! Glad this tool will help speed things up for you eragon. :)

AWR

[KellySEM]

I'll throw my top 5 in:

1. Separate bidding for Content & Search. I have ROI tracking and I know they don't convert the same, so I shouldn't be bidding them the same.

2. Much better reporting on what expanded matches my keywords are matching to. Are any of my keywords infringing on trademarks? Am I ok with all the expanded matches? With just broad match one could reasonably assume all the matches that would occur, but that's not true with expanded. What I am matching to needs to be easily pulled in a report at any time - its not practical to look up each keyword in the sandbox.

3. Opting/in out of distribution partners. From my internal reports I know that some distribution partners are great for my ROI and others aren't, and if I could only have the good distribution I'd be bidding much higher and happier, the bad ones hold me back.

4. Faster reports. Right now any large account has trouble getting a report about the whole account run - reporting needs to be fast enough to not time out for any reports that an advertiser would routinely request.

Instead of a fifth request, I'll say something nice - the rotating ads are terrific. I do lots of creative testing and I can always feel confident that the ad I am running performs the best from an ROI and CTR perspective, unlike on other search engines.

[AdWordsRep]

Hi all,

Thanks for posting your feature requests - much appreciated.

I'll be passing your suggestions on later this afternoon, so now is the time to post your 'wish list' - for this week anyway!

Cheers,

:) AWR

[Swede]

Started off with a disclaimer incase I make a fool of myself, since I've never posted anything on a forum before!

After reading a few of the threads, this one in particular, I just had to sign up!

I've been using AdWords for about six months and one thing that has been bugging me is that there is no way to move keywords from one campaign to another or from one ad-group (is that what they're called, I use the swedish version!?) to another! This would be very usefull to me as I set up a lot of time limited ad-groups within a campaign. "TV cheap for christmas" wich means I want all the "TV-words" moved to that ad-group for a limited time and then move them back to their original group.
A lot of rambling, did it make any sense!? :o

[AdWordsRep]

Welcome to the forum Swede!

And yes, your suggestion makes perfect sense. It arrived a little late for inclusion in last week's report - but I'll certainly include it this week.

Thanks for taking the time to join and post. I hope enjoy your time here!

AWR

[AussieWebmaster]

Started off with a disclaimer incase I make a fool of myself, since I've never posted anything on a forum before!

After reading a few of the threads, this one in particular, I just had to sign up!

I've been using AdWords for about six months and one thing that has been bugging me is that there is no way to move keywords from one campaign to another or from one ad-group (is that what they're called, I use the swedish version!?) to another! This would be very usefull to me as I set up a lot of time limited ad-groups within a campaign. "TV cheap for christmas" wich means I want all the "TV-words" moved to that ad-group for a limited time and then move them back to their original group.
A lot of rambling, did it make any sense!? :o
Okay if you are going to use the same creatives (ads) as the group you are dropping the terms into it is simply a matter of going to edit keywords in the first group and copying the terms and pasting them in the other group.
Delete them from the first account (but make a copy offline so you can paste them back in later).
Once you have copied them into the new account save changes and they are in that one and ready to run.
The delete and save in the first group removes them... and the copy on your hard drive will be easy to paste back later.

[Swede]

Okay if you are going to use the same creatives (ads) as the group you are dropping the terms into it is simply a matter of going to edit keywords in the first group and copying the terms and pasting them in the other group.
Delete them from the first account (but make a copy offline so you can paste them back in later).
Once you have copied them into the new account save changes and they are in that one and ready to run.
The delete and save in the first group removes them... and the copy on your hard drive will be easy to paste back later.

Absolutely, but that only works well if you need to move all, or most of, the keywords. If you want to move say fifty out of a thousand words, there is a lot of copy/paste. The best solution (in my mind) would be if you could just check (like when deleting) the words you wanted to move and point them to your desired campaign or group!

[AussieWebmaster]

Absolutely, but that only works well if you need to move all, or most of, the keywords. If you want to move say fifty out of a thousand words, there is a lot of copy/paste. The best solution (in my mind) would be if you could just check (like when deleting) the words you wanted to move and point them to your desired campaign or group!
Yes that would be a handy widget!

[cline]

When doing a sort by cost per conversion, in the case of zero conversion I wish the second-level sort was by cost.

[AdWordsRep]

Thanks for the suggestions!

For the next couple of weeks, I'm experimenting with sending my 'Advertiser Feedback Summary' (to the many interested folks here at Google) on Thursday evening, rather than Friday.

So, if anyone has a suggestion/feature request they'd like to have included, please post before, say, 7:30 pm Pacific Time.

Many thanks! :)

AWR

[AussieWebmaster]

The ability to pull results for set parameters across Campaigns would be handy... the more robust the reporting tools the better able we are to tweak spends...

If there was a way of pulling by creative for example...

[aviener]

1. Separate URL for Content Links so we can track ROI in Search & Content

I just talked to my rep, this is available now. Here are two updates from Goyami:

- Trick for adding unique content or search tracking code to your URLs (http://www.corante.com/goyami/archives/015790.html)
- You can now have more than 2,000 keywords! (http://www.corante.com/goyami/archives/015785.html)

Enjoy!

Adam

[dsm1217]

This is perhaps a forum newbie bonehead request. But the only thing i can think of that would truly make adwords better in my eyes is more space for text.

It is truly difficult to write ads that are able to filter click throughs and include the little things that help drive click throughs like free shipping in the very limited space we have.

That is without ending up with an ad the just says widget $1 free shipping, not very compelling.

It would also be really cool, if the ads that offered free shipping could be a different color or something so they were easy for the browser to identify. that would be one less thng to try and work into the ads.

But then what do I know. :)

[AdWordsRep]

It would also be really cool, if the ads that offered free shipping could be a different color or something so they were easy for the browser to identify. that would be one less thng to try and work into the ads.
In a previous lifetime, I used to be a product designer - and loved to brainstorm ideas with a team - where the ground rules were that there is no such thing as a 'stupid idea'.

Likewise, I think there is no such thing as a 'newbie bonehead request', dsm1217. ;)

I think the color coding idea has real merit, and I could see it being useful for identifying affiliate ads etc. And while, of course, I can't guarantee that the idea will be incorporated, I can certainly pass it on to the right folks.

Consider it done! :)

AWR

[KeywordMonkey]

Ability to view what the "search string" i.e. what the user actually searched for before clicking; so I can spot negative keywords to add....

Easier than dragging it out of logs/tracking whatever...

[AdWordsRep]

Good timing there, KeywordMonkey. I was just reading all the threads for the past week, trolling for ideas to include. Just pasted yours in.

Anyone else? The report goes out in about (checks watch) 4 hours.

;) AWR

[Papadoc]

The "-trailer park" got me rolling but have to admit that it brought the same target market issue up as it is otherwise looked at by ad server software.

Ability to opt out of user profile elements. I work with many who would not consider users of 95, 98, or ME, certain browser types, monitor settings, or even certain connection speeds as within their target market. The same thing could be said for other merchants would not include typical Sun users in their profile.

Ability to knock out abusive IP addresses. In some sectors, that might also have the effect of killing some fraud clicks.

Ability to filter our domains that you don't want your ads listed on. AdSense users have that ability in reverse. Every once in awhile, I see a post from someone who doesn't want their ad showing up on a shabby domain, yet they want the network traffic.

Not sure how this would work and it would also mean an identification of the business domain (real estate, healthcare, technology) of AdSense channel members as well, and then letting AdWord users identify (or at least opt out of) targets they don't wish to be seen in. I sometimes see something completely stupid show up and AdSense has not evolved that far yet. Example: A page on file extensions had ads for hair extensions and tax extensions. An ability to define both the target and the ad industry type would have eliminated this error.

I would recommend letting AdSense users make certain identification by channel rather than site however since many content publishers have various site segments that can differ greatly. The above example site also has a section on money, tax, and finance in which case the tax extension ads might not have been a bad fit.

I know that some of the above suggestions might not be seen as adding to the profit. However, when ads are more effective, the value and the willingness to pay higher rates soon follows.

[KeywordMonkey]

I'd like the ability to set my reporting start and end dates monthly or weekly. Let me explain...

For client X I would like to have reports for Monday-Sunday for each week emailed to me. I need a way to set this reporting range in the reports interface and to specify the day of the week (not date) and frequency to email me this - not just "weekly" but "weekly on Tuesdays". Be nice to pick a time too as I'm in GMT not EST.

Equally for client Z I need the report every 3rd Friday of the month...

Thanks

[AussieWebmaster]

The ability to choose the publications you appear in content would be nice... why not let us use the information we parse to better improve our ROI and thus stay longer as a user of AdSense advertising.
By giving the right to deny advertisers but not the other way around the attraction of content will never really take off.
This way there develops a relevancy relationship between advertiser and publisher similar to the AdWords program and even the stated goals of Larry and Brin for organic.

[Papadoc]

The ability to choose the publications you appear in content would be nice... why not let us use the information we parse to better improve our ROI and thus stay longer as a user of AdSense advertising.
By giving the right to deny advertisers but not the other way around the attraction of content will never really take off.
This way there develops a relevancy relationship between advertiser and publisher similar to the AdWords program and even the stated goals of Larry and Brin for organic.
AW, if you think about it, an opt-in list would be impossible. This isn't like an ad-server account where you can tell in advance where your ads will end up. Google doesn't even know what pages or domains your ads will be served up on until the page is loaded since it is context based.

I could launch a page tomorrow that would be perfect for your ads and by the time you get to it to see it, I might have changed the page enough where you look at it and say "what th...... was G thinking here?" Plus, depending on your cat, your ads could show up on thousands of sites or more. You got time to check them all out?

[AussieWebmaster]

AW, if you think about it, an opt-in list would be impossible. This isn't like an ad-server account where you can tell in advance where your ads will end up. Google doesn't even know what pages or domains your ads will be served up on until the page is loaded since it is context based.

I could launch a page tomorrow that would be perfect for your ads and by the time you get to it to see it, I might have changed the page enough where you look at it and say "what th...... was G thinking here?" Plus, depending on your cat, your ads could show up on thousands of sites or more. You got time to check them all out?
The technology is in place for the publisher to eliminate any advertisers... you get a list of the publications and then an opt-in list on a daily or weekly basis of new potential advertisers... if you put the right tracking in place you can then monitor them for ROI and base decisions (as you should) on them.

[KeywordMonkey]

Opting out, in some circumstances, is something I'd like to be able to do. I wonder though if it couldn't, with tracking etc in the mix per site, become a management nightmare and a waste of time with no concrete return.

Maybe a compromise is allowing advertisers, when there is a real, arguable case to opt out, to conact AdWords CS and discuss with them, knowing that if they agree they will opt your account out of that site.

Another approach would be to categorise content partners by sector (IT, recruitment & jobs, property, shopping, personal finance, business finance, etc.) and allow advertisers to literally tick which sectors they don't want to show their ads in. (I know cateogrising sites is hard, never 100% accurate etc.)

This would allow advertsers to avoid the sectors they know their keywords may trigger adverts for that are not relevant to their ads.

In reverse, this is what the (embryonic) vertical PPC advertising networks are trying to offer - advertising only in specific verticals on a PPC basis.

[AdWordsRep]

Thanks for the many ideas posted here since last Thursday. I'd love to see this thread remain active.

Just a reminder that I'll be passing on your feedback in my regular weekly report, tomorrow eveing. IMO, this is a really good chance to get your Wish List in front of the right people.

Keep those cards and letters coming in folks! (Hmmmm. I wonder if I've just dated myself?) ;)

AWR

[Papadoc]

The technology is in place for the publisher to eliminate any advertisers... you get a list of the publications and then an opt-in list on a daily or weekly basis of new potential advertisers... if you put the right tracking in place you can then monitor them for ROI and base decisions (as you should) on them. Yes... eliminate! That's an opt-out, not an opt-in and it generally only amounts to a few competitors. Imagine telling publishers that they had to opt in to potential advertisers. If you had a complex site like About.com, it could take months. The whole idea of Adsense/AdWords is that it is supposed to be simple.

We aren't talking about 50 potential publishers here. Considering the diversity and number of their publishers, you might get a list of thousands of websites that as an advertiser you would have to go through in order to set up. SEO would probably be small, but for many of us, the list would be enormous. And then maybe you get another couple hundred per week. It would never happen. Most advertisers would say the hell with the network, and consequently the publishers would be all but out of business.

Then of course there would be the completely stupid risk of Google publishing every one of their publishers according to category. They may as well publish a list of their publishers in USA Today. What a lead machine that would be, huh?

[AussieWebmaster]

true.... but you can track a click and see who is not converting... and drop them.

[tonerman]

Boy would I like to be able to just easily move and rearrange ad campaigns - move one ad to another group of ads, and I would really like the ability to automatically shut some campaigns off on weekends and back on during business hours because some items we sell are more "business" than "consumer" market. I also wish I could target just 48 continental states.

[AdWordsRep]

Boy would I like to be able to just easily move and rearrange ad campaigns - move one ad to another group of ads, and I would really like the ability to automatically shut some campaigns off on weekends and back on during business hours because some items we sell are more "business" than "consumer" market. I also wish I could target just 48 continental states.I'm working on the Advertiser Feedback Report now, tonerman, and have just included this comment to go along with your 'biggest beef' from the other thread. ;)

Thanks for bringing this thread back to the top of the page! Anyone else? The report goes out in about four hours.

AWR

[tonerman]

This is one area where Overture has you beat hands down. The timer thing I don't think is not available anywhere except with third party tools. Maybe the new API for Adwords will bring on all sorts of inhancements from within and outside Google. Is that the expectation?

[AdWordsRep]

Maybe the new API for Adwords will bring on all sorts of inhancements from within and outside Google. Is that the expectation? Well, tonerman, since I wasn't a part of the development team, I can't say for sure if it was the expectation. But keeping my ear to the ground, on Forums such as this, tells me that it seems to be happening that way!

OK, gotta get back to preparing that report now. :) I actually stopped by for just a few minutes to fish for meaningful 'quotes'. And here it is 45 minutes later!

How does that happen?!

AWR

[Mel66]

I'm probably too late for AWR's report for this week, but I'd love to see an improved search function within Adwords. Instead of returning only exact matches for whole words, I'd like to be able to type in part of a word and have it show me what keywords I have that match that part. For example, if I type "newsw", I want the search returns to show "newsweek, newsweek magazine, subscribe to newsweek" etc. I would also like to be able to search my destination URLs like you can in Overture.

For being such a great search engine, the search function within Adwords leaves a lot to be desired. Kind of an oxymoron. But I remember when there was no search at all, so it's better than it used to be.

Melissa

[tonerman]

Not being able to seach destination URLs is a real pain in the google. :eek:

[Anthony Parsons]

Adwordsrep. Is there an answer for this one, or has it been beaten to death with your previously?

http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=4167

[andrewgoodman]

Right out of the blue, I'd like to pop in with a couple of possible features:

- pause a keyword or phrase
- pause an ad

The latter is a bit more important. Sometimes two or three stakeholders are working on an account. One person is responsible for brainstorming ad creative but does not have approval to turn the ads on. So they need to email the text over instead of what would be easier, just entering it all and leaving it paused for the other parties to review.

Cheers,

Andrew

[AussieWebmaster]

Right out of the blue, I'd like to pop in with a couple of possible features:

- pause a keyword or phrase
- pause an ad

The latter is a bit more important. Sometimes two or three stakeholders are working on an account. One person is responsible for brainstorming ad creative but does not have approval to turn the ads on. So they need to email the text over instead of what would be easier, just entering it all and leaving it paused for the other parties to review.

Cheers,

Andrew
This I think may be a tool best set up off-Google and adapted to interact through the new API.
Actually would work well in a corporate setting and you could have a very sellable commodity.

[Heidi9771]

- I often get very confused as to why my words are put on hold- specificaly at the rate that they do...I would like to have a warning of how many in trial keywords that are allowed and what can speed things up to get keywords off hold.

- At the moment, we have the option of running on Google AND Search OR Conent partners. It would be nice to have the option to have just search and content partners do avoid that silly CTR penalty.

[andrewgoodman]

This I think may be a tool best set up off-Google and adapted to interact through the new API.
Actually would work well in a corporate setting and you could have a very sellable commodity.

No doubt. There are other features, like a notepad / activity log, that I suspect Google will never implement either, so they may need to be built as a third party campaign management app.

[tonerman]

What I am waiting for is a piece of application software that hooks the google api to a log analyzer for near real-time keyword campaign monitoring. It can't be that difficult to create, but alas I have no time to do it. :cool:

[AussieWebmaster]

I want the interface to get my lunch...

[Discovery]

All of us have many campaigns and perhaps 20 or more ad groups under each campaign. We like to routinely find and either change related ads or delete keywords that are not performing (Disabled/On Trial/On Hold). Unfortunately it is difficult to quickly find keywords with this status without drilling down into each ad group and clicking into each creative. I love the simplicity of Google's interface, so I fully understand that you would not want to clutter it up with additional icons, or columns of data. So I would suggest to simply color code the text for the "Current Status" indicator, and display it in the top tier, ad campaign and ad group levels.

Green = All is ok
Yellow = some on trial keywords
Orange = some on hold keywords
Red = Some disabled keywords

This way we could quickly identify and correct poorly performing keywords.

Request #2
I'll chime in with the masses to call for complete stats for the Content network activity.

Kudos to your group for listening to your customers and offering centralized account management for marketing agencies like ours. We can now handle multiple clients with ease - love it!

[tonerman]

Gave me a good laugh! Tonerman.

[AussieWebmaster]

Gave me a good laugh! Tonerman.
I'm just here for comic relief!

[AdWordsRep]

First, an apology for my recent non-attendance here on Search Engine Watch! I've ended up being particularly busy of late, between one thing and another. ;)

Thanks for the suggestions/comments posted recently - which I'm just now compiling for the Advertiser Feedback Report that goes out each week - to many interestd folks here at Google.

I really hope this thread will remain active, and I am delighted to pass your feedback on to the right teams. :)

AWR

[AussieWebmaster]

AWR is this accurate?
http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=4368

[tonerman]

We are all after the same thing - results! Very glad for your participation and interest. I was just thinking about would would happen to Google if someone built my near real-time log analyzer hooked to the Google Adwords API and lots of people were running it - messing with their bids, pause and and resume settings, keyword bids, etc. The server drain might require another Googleplex! :eek:

[AdWordsRep]

AWR is this accurate? Quoting from the linked-to thread:
Google has reported that its Adwords' interface will be unavailable on Friday February 25, 2005 from 9 pm - 12 am pst.
Apparently they are coming out with a new one and need a little time to change the system.
AussieWebmaster, I've understood the 'unavailability' to be for the purpose, literally, of system maintenance - as the UI message says - as opposed to for adding new features.

I've certainly been wrong before, though!

The Estimator is supposed to be improved and will show the status of keywords given the spend etc. So some words will be In Trial, others Normal etc. based on Max CPC and other factors. This sounds a lot like an incremental change that was already made active in the past few days - in which, when adding or editing keywords in an existing Ad Group, you'll see the 'Status' under which those keyword would enter the Ad Group - should you choose to 'Save Changes', and use them.

All that said, I'll certainly be logging into my own account on Saturday with real interest - as it sounds as if you have pretty good sources! ;)

AWR

[AussieWebmaster]

All that said, I'll certainly be logging into my own account on Saturday with real interest - as it sounds as if you have pretty good sources! ;)

AWR
Yeah but every time I get someone into the company they either lose their job for excessive blogging or they simply disappear.....

[eschulma]

1. Ability to separate content and search bids. Obviously, a search ad is worth much more than a content ad.
2. Ability to turn contents ads off at the ad level, rather than campaign. This would go a long way to solving the problems some of us have experienced with click fraud.
3. Allow ads to run for United States only, rather than North America. We don't take Canadian credit cards.
4. Show conversions by number, rather than % only.
5. Those of us who spend in the $10K range should get a customer service phone number, not just e-mail addresses.

AdWordsRep, I am very glad you are passing these along. However, I am rather skeptical that any of the first 3 will get done, because in the short term it would cost Google money. I know people in the company who have been pushing #2 for quite a while, unsuccessfully. We pulled all our content ads -- it just isn't worth it. In theory I could set up two ad groups for each existing one and do #1 myself, and do campaigns for every ad group to take care of #2 but that is all very painful.

Since Overture does all of this *and* provides great customer service, we are currently spending twice as much with them as with Google. I mention this because maybe it will give you extra ammunition in talking to the rest of your team.

[tonerman]

Interesting. I used to spend twice as much with Overture, but now I spend five or six times as much as I spend on Overture on Google. Overture has some great online management features I wish Google had (such as catagories, etc.) but it has it's share of clunky features also.

Have you ever compared results for essentially the same keywords and ad on Overture versus Google in terms of total conversions or sales? I am not suggesting you would do better on Google or trying to be critical. I am asking you if you have any analysis that validates spending more on Overture versus Google for the same keywords/ads?

[OptimizeOnline]

I'd like to see a facility that will allow (perhaps a limited number of) variables that can be used in ad creatives that can easily be changed globally.

For example, including prices in some ads help improve CTR - but prices change, and being able to change them in one easy step would be a great help - rather than go the export/modify/import route. Also, for holiday ads, mentioning a month sometimes helps to increase CTR but offers sometimes roll over from month to month.

[eschulma]

Have you ever compared results for essentially the same keywords and ad on Overture versus Google in terms of total conversions or sales?

Absolutely. And we do far, far better with Overture. The first reason is that Google determines position by bid price x clickthrough rate, thus penalizing you if you write your copy to attract qualified traffic only. The second reason is that we have had excellent results with the Overture content match, where we have full control over the bids, and the traffic in general is much higher quality.

We don't have budget caps on either campaign, but we did turn off Content Match on Google for the reasons stated earlier.

We get 20% of our PPC sales from Google, but it consumes 40% of our PPC ad budget. Hardly a bargain.

We advertise on popular keywords. I suspect that if one were dealing with a highly specialized area where clickthrough rate was less of an issue, Google would have a much better payoff.

[AussieWebmaster]

Interesting. I used to spend twice as much with Overture, but now I spend five or six times as much as I spend on Overture on Google. Overture has some great online management features I wish Google had (such as catagories, etc.) but it has it's share of clunky features also.

Have you ever compared results for essentially the same keywords and ad on Overture versus Google in terms of total conversions or sales? I am not suggesting you would do better on Google or trying to be critical. I am asking you if you have any analysis that validates spending more on Overture versus Google for the same keywords/ads?
Overture's categories are similiar to Google's Campaigns or even AdGroups... you can label then and do reports by them.

We do measure keywords across engines to see which are the most sucessful and Google leads say 60/40... really if you factored in the small engines there are others that are cheaper but without the volume.

[tonerman]

Overture's categories are similiar to Google's Campaigns or even AdGroups... you can label then and do reports by them.

The beauty of Overture is that you can rearrange campaigns into catagories anytime you want and anyway you want. That is great for product oriented companies like mine that want to pause several campaigns when we are out of stock on an item or for any other reason. If I could easily rearrange my Google campaigns into catagories I would have one catagory for business days and another catagory for weekends. That way I could easily pause a bunch of campaigns on the weekend that are really business oriented products.

My site is 4-5 years old and as our product lines have grown, and our business and website has changed, many of our campaigns could stand reorganizing for a variety of reasons. However, I am not going to give up CTR's on established campaigns to better arrange them for management reasons. On Overture I can just move ad campaigns around via catagories and it is no big deal. On Google - unless you want to give up your history - you are stuck with where ever they are when you started them.

[AussieWebmaster]

That's a plus...

[ekinikli]

1) more than 25 campaign
2) larger api quota
3) true api results

[tonerman]

I have shut off all content advertising because many of our max CPC bids are over $5.00. I'm not going to spend that kind of monery on a fishing trip - I want to compete for the clicks of serious shoppers as much as possible. Since creating and managing campaigns takes time (and money) I am not going to go create new ad campaigns just for content ads. However - if the same campaign would let me bid a Max CPC for search, and a separate max CPC for content if desired I'd prpbably do some content advertising. Something Google could consider designing into the campaign manager sometime. Since I think the default now is both search and content for ad campaigns Google will probably not try this idea during the current PPC salad days we are in right now.

[AdWordsRep]

Thanks for all the suggestions and comments posted here recently. I'll keep passing them on, every Thursday.

I'm delighted that this tread is staying active. Thanks! :)

AWR

[Mel66]

You're welcome! AWR, you rule! :D

[AdWordsRep]

Mel66, you've just made my day!

I'm not kidding either. Thanks!

:) AWR

[tonerman]

Please see my post:

http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?p=37262#post37262

Appreciate any comments you would have to make. Look, I like Google and I do well thanks to Google. I contacted Google tech support in the beginning because it appeared the ad server was not operaring properly - I wasn't worried about money.

In the end I learned that when I made a keyword "broad phrased" it meant Google could display an ad that was loosely related to other keywords "within my account" even if the user query didn't match any of my active keywords, the search term suggestion tool said there were no broad phrase matches for the user's query, and with ad text that did not match the query.

Tell me where I am not understanding something correctly. Thanks. Tom

Later Post 3/3/05: I received an unexpected but welcome call from Google today to discuss this issue triggered by several emails back and forth between me and adwords support yesterday. In a nutshell, broad keywords can sometimes trigger ads from keywords within your account that do not match the query.

In my case the query contained the word "3200" and somehow the server displayed an ad from a campaign with the similar keyword phrase structure, but with "3100" in the phrase. The only way to stop this behavior, if detected, is to put a negative keyword (in my case "-3200") in the keyword list for whatever ad campaign is being triggered in error.

The downside of this behaviour is that impressions are going to be served with ad text that will generally not match the search term. This will drive your CTR down. If this is occurring with a very active keyword phrases it will cost you position and money.

The only way to detect this is with a log analyzer.

[projectphp]

* BUMP *

I figure this thread gets a bit more attention ;)

I have a request to change the way the Google conversion stuff is reported.

Currently, all AdWords screens show two extra columns: Conv. Rate Cost/Conv.

Can these be changed to something else, like total conversions and Total Value (aka revenue)? While Conv. Rate and Cost/Conv. are useful metrics, its just that they aren't nearly as useful as just plain old conversions and revenue.

Which is easier:
Total conversions = 469 * 17.70%
Or
Conversion rate = 469 / 83?

Or
Cost/Conv = $208.19 / 83
or
Conversions = $208.19 / $2.51?

Is it possible for me to change these screens myself (I have looked to no avail)? If not, I would like to see these screens changed.

Due to the way the converion data is updated (every day versus every few hours for the clikcs and costs), the two figures reported are usually way off, making them next to useless.

For those sites with variable sales values (almost all of them), revenue - cost maths time consuming to work out. In such cases evena guestimate is nigh on impossible.

IMHO, having conversions and total revenue on those screens would be much more useful than what is currently there, and if I can get this info, that would be greatly appreciated :)

[AussieWebmaster]

I agree a bump is warranted.

[AdWordsRep]

I figure this thread gets a bit more attention. Agreed! And I've been waiting anxiously to see those ides and suggestions come pouring in. :)

I agree a bump is warranted. Well, I'm about to send it to the top of the page again, AussieWebmaster. Let's see what happens.


IMHO, having conversions and total revenue on those screens would be much more useful than what is currently there, and if I can get this info, that would be greatly appreciated :) Projectphp, as was mentioned by jbgilbert in the other thread on this subject, there is not a way to re-define the columns - but the report center may get you the information you need.

I'll happily pass your feedback on, however, and I also thank you for bumping this thread back up where it belongs.

(And I don't just say that becuase I started it either! It's actually a pretty good way to make sure your voice is heard over here at AdWords. ;) )

AWR

[AussieWebmaster]

A little customizing there could be good... leave a column that you get to pick from a drop down list of values that are essentially built in Excell calculations for that column.

Not too hard to implement for Google... much like the drop down that refers to a report... in this case it refers to a column equation!

[projectphp]

Ta, that is what I figured!! Would b nice to have the raw figures, and taking what Aussiewebmaster said a step further, maybe some javascript that spat out other figures. With just total conversions and revenue, one could work out all manner of wacky metrics.

Just a suggestion :)

[hassleback]

I have only one request:

The ability to choose which search affiliates my ads will show on.

Because while some of the search affiliates are great (e.g. AOL, Ask), many are really horrible.

[SearchEnginePPC]

I'd like the ability to copy all (or some) of my campaign negative keywords from one campaign to another. I've got over a hundred negative keywords, and when I create a new campaign, I either have to type them all in, or (if I'm smart) copy them from a spreadsheet where I've stored them. It would be excellent to simplify this step.

[AdWordsRep]

Many thanks for the recent feedback here. I love when this thread finds it's way back at the top of the page!

I'll be passing these items on to the right folks on Thursday evening, on the late side. Any other feature requests? Let's say you have, oh, maybe 28 1/2 hours to make it into this week's Advertiser Feedback Report with your ideas/suggestions.

By the way, moving forward, any time new features are announced, you'll see a notice on the Inside AdWords blog - on the same day as the release, time permitting.

Like yesterday, for example.

Anyway, thanks again for the feedback. :)

AWR

[nicncher]

Great question!

I am relating to most of the other suggestions. One I would like to ad is for Google to come up with a solution to getting kicked out when more than one person is submitting into an account at the same time. I have numerous accounts and a few people working on them throughout the day, some in the same logins. Not only that, my rep has told me that the errors could also be happening because editorial may also be in any account. It is very frustrating to spend time on making an ad only to get kicked out and lose all your work. Google would be a lot more user friendly with this problem resolved.

Thanks

[splinters]

This may have been requested in the past, but I would love to have the option to include/exclude ads from rotation where I have multiple ads in a single ad group. This would be useful when the ad content is seasonal, or I want to test the effectiveness of some new ad content at certain times of the week/month. Currently, having to delete an ad to take it out of rotation is a pain if I want to include it again in the future.
Another benefit of this feature is that it should be a piece of cake for the developers to implement ;)

[projectphp]

* bump *

Currently, all AdWords screens show two extra columns: Conv. Rate Cost/Conv.

Can these be changed to something else, like total conversions and Total Value (aka revenue)?
Any news on this?

I would take just one extra column that showed conversions. That would be a huge improvement, as I tell ya, the mental equations are doing my head in!

537 clicks * 1.85% conversion rate = ??? conversions?? Anyone? Anyone? Quick! (don't use a calculator, its cheating!!!)

[AdWordsRep]

Any news on this?

Sorry about the tired brain there, projectphp. ;)

I don't really have an update on this, though, beyond that I did pass your suggestion on to the right folks. I do know that they received it, and that it'll be seriously considered.

AWR

[tonerman]

Adwords Rep: Please see my thread regarding Expanded Match

http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?threadid=9817

Appreciate any visibility you could generate at Google to our complaints about Expanded Match and our suggestions for improving this feature.

Not mentioned in my post is my having invested years in building my advertising program around Broad Match going back to Day 1 at Adwords following Google's advice about putting the search terms in my ad and creating many highly targeted ads and keyword lists.

When Expanded Match came into being I didn't have the opportunity to opt out, I was more or less taken captive. Now that Expanded match is creating problems for me I have to take whatever financial hit occurs if I have to start over with Phrase Match and Exact Match.



Thanks, Tonerman

[splinters]

This may have been requested in the past, but I would love to have the option to include/exclude ads from rotation where I have multiple ads in a single ad group. This would be useful when the ad content is seasonal, or I want to test the effectiveness of some new ad content at certain times of the week/month. Currently, having to delete an ad to take it out of rotation is a pain if I want to include it again in the future.
Another benefit of this feature is that it should be a piece of cake for the developers to implement ;)
Does anyone else think this would be useful? If not, I won't bother asking again ;)

[tonerman]

Sounds like a good comparison tool and useful for special sales, seasonal sales, free shipping periods, etc.

[AdWordsRep]

Glad to see a little activity in this thread this week. I love passing on feedback and ideas to the appropriate teams here at Google, and do so each Thursday evening.

Tonerman, I actually forwarded your feedback (and a link to the other thread) earlier this week - and will mention it in tonight's advertiser feedback report as well. So your comments have been heard.

I do want to add, though, that expanded broad match has been around for quite some time now - more than two years. It was announced back in October 2003 (the announcement is archived here: https://adwords.google.com/select/news/oct03.html), along with instructions on how to use negative keywords and phrase/exact match to prevent expansions. Excerpting from that page:How do I limit some or all expanded matches?

You can add negative matches to your keyword list to prevent your ads from
showing on particular expanded terms. If you'd prefer not to expand any of
your keywords, you can use a new account tool to easily change your keywords
from broad matches to either phrase or exact matches; these match types will
not be expanded... Does anyone else think this would be useful? If not, I won't bother asking again ;)Splinters, I did pass your feedback on last June when you initially posted it - but will slip it into tonight's report as well. :)

AWR

[AdWordsRep]

Hey! Just noticed that I finally hit 300 posts!

;) AWR

[tonerman]

Thanks for responding to my post and the thread regarding Expanded Match. I am not going to just bash Google because my livelihood revolves around being successful with the Adwords program. I want Google to do well - the best it can.

At the same time let me comment on the words from the release about Expanded Match. First, adding negative keywords to ad groups in an effort to stop broad match impressions and clicks does not always stop impressions or clicks from occurring. I saw that with my own eyes and couldn't believe it.

Secondly, Expanded Match is completely unpredictable for the advertiser. Unless you monitor all query terms on your site you would not know from your campaign stats that the clicks did not match the ad's keywords or creative.

Third, While you always have the option of changing from Broad Match to Phrase or exact match the costs can be significant. I did change all my campaigns from Broad Match to Phrase Match and my daily clicks immediately dropped 50%. (incidentally, so did Google's revenues on my campaigns.) My website logs also showed 50% less traffic from Google. For a small ecommerce business a 50% drop in Google traffic is extremely significant. So while you always have the option, there are serious consequences of making a wholesale change in keyword matching.

I was not monitoring "query terms" in my logs because I thought my ad campaign keywords were doing that for me. This allowed Expanded Match to expend huindreds of dollars in an ad campaign within a month without any means of recognizing with my campaign stats that the clicks were occurring on query terms that did not match the ad displaying or my campaign keywords, and the clicks had utterly no conversions.

When adding negative keywords would not stop ads and clicks for a specific query, when it would continue displaying ads on queries that matched keywords contained in my paused campaigns, and when the only way I could try to manage my campaigns was to monitor all query terms, that was it for me. I took drastic action that has literally placed my business and 10 employee jobs at risk, but it was better to take a risk than let Expanded MAtch bleed my time and money away forever.

The thread points out the many addiitional complaints we have with Expanded Match. By and large, Broad Match does a good job. However, the unpredictable behavior of Expanded Match, plus that expense of to many non-relevant clicks, have caused it to become a poor matching option for anyone who values their time and money. I also think users clicking on Google ads should find products or services available on the landing page that match their search query.

I think Google desparately needs to "fix" expanded match in some way that gives the advertiser control over how their money is being spent. If you just want clicks somewhere in the ball park there is a Google content program designed for that. However, all search clicks should be for queries that match the ad campaign's keywords - otherwise why bother with creating keyword lists in the first place?

I hope Google takes meaningful action to restore Broad Match's original functionality and that it offers expanded match as an option, perhaps with a list of key words that would trigger expanded match impressions.

I appreciate your time and effort in making this feedback known at the Googleplex. It is intended to be an effort to improve the value of Adwords for everybody - advertisers, people searching on Google, and Google itself.

Thank you, Tonerman

[AdWordsRep]

Thank you for your very well-stated comments, tonerman. While it's way too long for me to include in tonight's Advertiser Feedback Report*, I'll make certain the right folks see your post - quoted verbatim and in full.

AWR

*It's nine pages long already, and I'm not even done yet...

[cline]

To keep this thread on focus about features and tool suggestions, I have responded to AdWordsRep's reply to tonerman, above, in the thread on the problems with expanded broadmatch (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?p=72872#post72872) .

[Discovery]

It seems we always run into problems with managing our client's credit cards.

When a card gets declined it always seems to occur around 2 AM PT.
Although this problem is certainly the clients fault, it still means we go about 5 hours without generating business. Are west coast advertisers just at a disadvantage due to our time zone?

What makes this problem even more difficult is that we have to enter the complete details of the credit card again to re-start the account. We don't keep the clients credit cards on file. Additionally, the Google account does not even display the cardholders name nor the last 5 digits of the card, so we cant go to the client and tell them hey your Visa card in the name of john smith ending in 12345 was declined. So the client ends up running around looking for the card holder and proper card to re-start the account with. This results in more downtime.

Again, this all stems from a client mistake, but by Google providing us with a little more information about the card on the account, notifying us during business hours and or allowing us to simply re-submit the card that is already on the account without entering it again would significantly reduce our downtime.

Discovery

[Mel66]

Hear hear Discovery. We're on Eastern time and this has been a huge problem for us. Not only did our last decline happen long after business hours (something like 10 p.m.), it happened on 12/26 when no one was in the office. It took another 24 hours after that to get everything restored, for the reasons you mention - having to completely re-enter the credit card from scratch every time. I was out of the office on vacation trying to do it remotely, and spent a bunch of time on the phone with my Finance Director relaying credit card data. We lost a LOT of sales during that time.

Being able to re-submit the card would be way better. Also if G would try the card more than once before pausing your account - sometimes it's just been timing for us, yet we go offline for hours and then have to start all over again, entering the card data....

Also, our card recently expired so I had to enter a new expiration date. There's no way to do that either, nor did I get a notification from G saying my card was about to expire. Luckily I was on top of it and did it anyway, but again, I had to re-enter everything from scratch.

I realize there are security concerns with credit cards and such, but there's gotta be a better way.

Incidentally Discovery, G does have the option to enter a "backup card." At least it keeps your account from going offline.

Melissa

[AdWordsRep]

Thanks Discovery and Mel66 for your additions to this 'wish list'. :)

Interestingly, I have a meeting scheduled next week specifically to talk over the broad subject of billing and payment for AdWords. In advance of that meeting I invite you both (and everyone else, for that matter) to provide lots of billing and payment related feedback & ideas for me to walk into the meeting with.

Please, have at it!

AWR

[AussieWebmaster]

Mailing all your bills at the same time would be good.... we have them arrive staggered and that gets annoying. Also stop that occasional split month billing.

[projectphp]

*B-B-B-B-Bumping it up*

OK, I never did actually get an answer, and I would like (and I must stress, don't expect) one:
Originally Posted by me (arogant SOB)
Currently, all AdWords screens show two extra columns: Conv. Rate and Cost/Conv.

Can these be changed to total conversions and Total Value (aka revenue)?
I can't for the life of me think of a justification for keeping the reporting the way it is, and I would really like to see this change made. After all, it is reporting intrinsic values not, derived values, is easier to work out and much, much better and easier to use effectively.

I have made my case, and the prosection now rests to wait for a response (breath held, which could be a worry!).

[AussieWebmaster]

Give us back the list of expanded terms our keywords may attract.... would be solving a major headache for you and us at the same time!

[tonerman]

Check this out: http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showpost.php?p=75174

[GuyFromChicago]

What are the top five features and/or tools that you'd like to see included in future refinements of the AdWords program?


The ability to use some conditionals during ad creation would be awesome. I blogged about it at one point and rather than retype:

Wouldn't it be cool to set up a set of conditions during ad group creation that could accomplish your goals automatically? For example, you could create a new group with the following rules:

Trigger: 10,000 impressions
Variable: Conversion
If less than x% conversion pause/delete campaign
If conversion is between x% and x% continue campaign "as is".
If conversion is greater than or equal to x% raise minimum bid by x% and up campaign budget by x%.

Of course you would be able to break everything down to various levels of detail - i.e. setup different rules for content vs search network.

[AdWordsRep]

Thanks! I've just included all the latest ideas and feedback into this week's Advertiser Feedback Report.

I hope you keep them coming. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it or not, but about a month ago I set up a short weekly meeting with the right folks to talk-over ideas posted here and on other forums. So posting in this 'Wish List' thread is a good way to be heard, IMO.

AWR

[Katja]

Hi,

Sorry, I haven't trawled through the whole thread so some of these may have been covered before but I would like to see these features:

Time zones: it's REALLY annoying that everything is set to California time. Why can't we pick our own time zone?

Disable ad: Would it be possible to disable ads rather than having to delete them? This way I would have a record within my account of what I have tested within a campaign which would help avoid possible duplication of tests in future. It would also allow me to try out different ads at different times of the day without having to recreate them. Furthermore, it would mean I could keep seasonal ads set up in the account without having to recreate them each time.

Choose columns in campaign summary: Be able to include the sales count and sales value within in the campaign summary as that would be a lot more useful and interesting to me than, for instance, conversion rate %.

Thanks!

[AussieWebmaster]

Hi,

Sorry, I haven't trawled through the whole thread so some of these may have been covered before but I would like to see these features:

Time zones: it's REALLY annoying that everything is set to California time. Why can't we pick our own time zone?

Disable ad: Would it be possible to disable ads rather than having to delete them? This way I would have a record within my account of what I have tested within a campaign which would help avoid possible duplication of tests in future. It would also allow me to try out different ads at different times of the day without having to recreate them. Furthermore, it would mean I could keep seasonal ads set up in the account without having to recreate them each time.

Choose columns in campaign summary: Be able to include the sales count and sales value within in the campaign summary as that would be a lot more useful and interesting to me than, for instance, conversion rate %.

Thanks!

you can back up the information yourself by having reports downloaded and then drop them into a spreadsheet and using macros pull the information together into various specific reports - this way you can see all the engines - get overall numbers of all engines combined and broken out in many formats....

[Nivik23]

1.When using the keyword tool and adding keywords generated from a term as negative neywords, I'd really like for the tool to identify negative keywords already included in the AdGroup and in the Campaign.

2.Expandable list of impressions, clicks and conversions showing exact terms that resulted in a impression / click / conversion.

3.More consistant billing. Numerous times I've had my credit card charged for charges from the month before and the current month so I'll end up with statements like October: $1500, November $3000 where I actually spent $2250 each month. Major problem being is when charges are stacked up like that it maxes out my credit card.

NiV23

[AussieWebmaster]

1.When using the keyword tool and adding keywords generated from a term as negative neywords, I'd really like for the tool to identify negative keywords already included in the AdGroup and in the Campaign.

2.Expandable list of impressions, clicks and conversions showing exact terms that resulted in a impression / click / conversion.

3.More consistant billing. Numerous times I've had my credit card charged for charges from the month before and the current month so I'll end up with statements like October: $1500, November $3000 where I actually spent $2250 each month. Major problem being is when charges are stacked up like that it maxes out my credit card.

NiV23

So the CC thing could be fixes if you could opt for an amount when they have to charge the card or better yet a specific date range

[AdWordsRep]

Dang! It's good to see this thread active again!

AWR

[AdWordsRep]

Dang! It's good to see this thread active again!I guess I spoke too soon. ;)

I'll be passing the new feedback from this thread along to the right teams shortly - any late-breaking additions?

AWR

[Nivik23]

This is a bit outlandish, controls to specific bids based upon temperature, time of day, day of the week, day of the month, month of the quarter, holidays, etc.

Would be great for a company to be able to analyze their perspective market trends and then just dump all that data into AdWords and have the campaign run itself off of the findings.

ie when the local temperature of the searcher is above 80 degrees I want my bathing suit ads to run. When there's a heavy snowfall I want my Ad's targeted towards ages 5-18 to run during the times of 8am-3pm which they normally wouldn't be running during the weekday.

When a planet killer asteriod is quickly approaching earth I want my vodka Ads to run.

Also would be great to be able to target relevant markets based upon IP pool trends. The traffic coming out of residential areas is probably very different than the traffic coming out of commerical and industrial areas.

If my company could specifically target general industrial areas, my conversion rate would be on steroids.

But then you have all those smart growth people proclaiming mixed use as their messiah and that pretty much screws up the whole idea of a 'residential' area :p

I may have just stumbled onto a new SEO idea! We need not only to optimize our sites for search engines, we need to optimize society! Have everyone's street address followed by a list of keywords! Perfect.

Yeah, so if you could include that in AdWords that would be great.

Thanks,

NiV23

[AdWordsRep]

I like it Nivik23. ;)

Now copy/pasted into the Advertiser Feedback Report that'll go out to lots of folks here at Google, tomorrow evening.

Anyone else?

AWR

[GAustralia]

Hello AdwordsRep,

Nice direction of your thread.

My requests: to improve the relevancy of Adword ads presented:

1) Present phrase match first and then broad match for Adword Ads. My Example "ABC Cleaning Springfield." If I am the only one who has "ABC Cleaning Springfield" as an adword and someone types this in then my results should show first and then all the others who exact, phrase, and broad match "ABC", "Cleaning", "Springfield", etc. There is some press and attention about the potential for local advertisers of Adwords - but as the way the system is setup these locals are forced to bid against nonlocals when they should not have to.

2) Make Adwords results obey "Advanced Search" restrictions. I note that they do not - and this can only mean a programmed lack of relevance to the surfer.

Regards,

GAustralia

[AdWordsRep]

...Make Adwords results obey "Advanced Search" restrictions. I note that they do not - and this can only mean a programmed lack of relevance to the surfer. Gaustralia, just to confirm that I've understood you correctly - do you mean that in those cases in which a user is using "Advanced Search", that ad delivery should follow whatever parameters that particular user has set?

AWR

[Discovery]

Nivik23 - very funny post, and the points you present are very good ones. This is certainly the level of demo targeting and campaign control we all hope to see in the very near future.

Along those lines I have a number of clients where simply being able to target time zones would be very helpful.

The ads could be toggled on and off according to the times set for the time zones.

Along Niviks lines
My Coffee ads run at 6 AM ET
Then my Java Power Jolt Drink ads run at noon ET
Then my Pop top Vodka and Latte ads run at 8PM ET
Then my hang over antidote ads run between 2 AM and 6 AM.

Controlling the timing.. and residential/commercial targeting of these ads would have a significant impact on performance.

When you think about it, we've been pretty damn successful when only controlling so very little...the best is yet to come.

Discovery

[GAustralia]

Hello Adword Rep.

Gaustralia, just to confirm that I've understood you correctly - do you mean that in those cases in which a user is using "Advanced Search", that ad delivery should follow whatever parameters that particular user has set?

AWR

Yes. It is a "nobrainer" to increase RELEVANCY to the surfer. For Instance if the surfer selects "ABC Cleaning Springfield" and via Advanced Search says that the results must contain the word "Springfield" then the advertisements should obey just like the organic search.

In this case the surfer goes out of his or her way to refine a request that is relevant to them. And, the way Google advertising is set up, Google thinks that by ignoring the "Advanced Search" request that they will provide more relevant advertisements to that surfer. NOT!

GAustralia

[GAustralia]

Hello AWR-

Are you agreeing with my point #1 above or dismissing it. As an advertiser I see it as a majorly key point.

Regards,

GAustralia

[AussieWebmaster]

Hello Adword Rep.



Yes. It is a "nobrainer" to increase RELEVANCY to the surfer. For Instance if the surfer selects "ABC Cleaning Springfield" and via Advanced Search says that the results must contain the word "Springfield" then the advertisements should obey just like the organic search.

In this case the surfer goes out of his or her way to refine a request that is relevant to them. And, the way Google advertising is set up, Google thinks that by ignoring the "Advanced Search" request that they will provide more relevant advertisements to that surfer. NOT!

GAustralia
GA you are mixing engine terminology... Yahoo calls it Advanced at Google it is Broad match... read the thread about expanded broad match - there have been complaints - but I don't think you are going to be dictating what should and should not be set as the standard for either engine.... they are what they are and we work under those guidelines - true we can offer ideas to help - but that is all they are.

[GAustralia]

Aussie WebMaster

"Advanced Search" is a surfer option of Google. The point is from the perspective of the surfer but also to the benefit of the advertiser.

Yes there are guidelines. But I believe the guidelines can be changed. Google is all about providing relvancy isn't it. So we point out some signficant inconsistencies in the Google mission to provide relevant searches and then we have an angle on them.

Regards,
GA

[AussieWebmaster]

then we have an angle on them.


and what do we then????

[GAustralia]

Hello Aussie Web Master

Quote:
Originally Posted by GAustralia
then we have an angle on them.


and what do we then????

We could then take the case outside of the forum. We could write to David Vise who wrote The Google Story and hope to get his interest and hope that he writes more. There are other avenues as well.

Before such things the arguments need bullet proofing. That is one purpose of the form. "Bullet proofing" is one reason why I have been asking you for a very specific example of Arbitrage.. To bring one's arguments outside of this form and to have "egg on one's face" because one is wrong or has major flaws in their argument is "poor form."

Of course there is no guarantee that any changes will occur no matter how much effort is placed against it. The effort could be viewed as a hobby with no need for the profit or loss equation for the effort.

GAustralia

[Katja]

Hi,

it's great that we can set campaigns in our local time now, that's really helpful! Thank you.

I've another idea that would help me massively, and I think maybe lots of others in Europe.

I set up my account and selected UK only for the ads about 6 months ago and now I'm ready to start shipping to new areas, in my case other EU countries. However, as the shipping costs will be much more expensive (both to me and customers which affects my costs and the conversion of my customers) I need to monitor the ROI separately from my UK campaigns.

I've done this by setting up the campaign and then a process of copy and pasting the ads and keywords from another window, but it would be so much easier if there was a "duplicate keywords and ads from existing campaign" option. As it is I've lumped a bunch of countries in together when ideally I would have them set them up separately so I could see what is happening with each country. It would just take too long at the moment!

Maybe there is a way to do this but so far I haven't been able to find it!

[integramed]

AdWords features/improvements? I only have 1 at the moment:

1. Better geo-targeting.
The current method of using IP address to geo-locate a user can be defeated in several ways. Just one way: I'm currently running local ads for our offices around the country. But, our offices log into the net through our corporate network and therefore get New York registered IP addresses. So, Google sees them all as in New York, and serves New York ads. For example, our San Francisco office gets New York ads.

[Discovery]

I just love the new ad creative testing/reporting.

I would really like to see more information about the content network.
It's just a big black hole right now. Sometimes it produces great returns, other times it tanks. Currently I cant answer the question why.

Discovery

[integramed]

Another nice feature..

1. Show Quality Score in the AdWords control panel.

That way I could see if my improvements were actually helping.

(If Quality Score is not computed until SRP build time as part of the ad rank process, then consider showing it on the ads themselves.)

[Marketing Man]

A list of words your ad has appeared for (Much like the Google Webmaster Tools feature) would help tremendously.

[AdWordsRep]

Thanks to everyone for the recent crop of product ideas/feature requests, which I'll pass on later this evening in this week's Advertiser Feedback Report. I love it when this thead is active. ;)

The report will be sent in about 6 or 7 hours from now, so there's still time to have your suggestions included. Have at it!

AWR

[joewills]

The BIGGEST thing that is missing is the ability to discover exactly what keywords visiters are entering when you bid on a broad search.

e.g. if u bid on broadly: google adwords
and a user enters: google adwords keyword discovery is poo

The only feedback you would get is google adwords and not the other words that you have not defined in ur campaign

Adwords acts like a shield......


I would love to be proven wrong, but I am afraid it is unlikely!

[gan]

I would like to see my conversion values (i.e. the sales amount for my conversions) on the Campaign Management/Campaign Summary pages.

I know that these are available in the reports, but it would save time if they were on the pages where I adjust bids. Even though not everyone returns these values back to AdWords in their conversion tracking, they should show up for those of us who do.

Some of your competitors (whom I will not name) show on my main campaign page: you spent this much, you made this much, advertising was this percent of your revenue. What could be simpler?

Gan

[AdWordsRep]

I'll be sending out this week's Advertiser Feedback Report out in about 10 hours - and it'll include feedback from this thread. Still plenty of time for additions to the short list of new suggestions/requests added here since last week!

AWR

[Nivik23]

I'd like the ability to temporarily pause an AdGroup/Campaign based upon cost per conversion.

So AdGroup A has a target cost/conversion of $25 and a budget of $100/Day
The AdGroup starts running on Day 1
The cost reaches $25 with no conversions
The AdGroup is paused until a specified time - in this case tommorow

The AdGroup starts running on Day 2
2 conversions occur in the first $5
The cost reaches $50 without another conversion
The AdGroup is paused until the next day

NiV23

[AussieWebmaster]

I'd like the ability to temporarily pause an AdGroup/Campaign based upon cost per conversion.

So AdGroup A has a target cost/conversion of $25 and a budget of $100/Day
The AdGroup starts running on Day 1
The cost reaches $25 with no conversions
The AdGroup is paused until a specified time - in this case tommorow

The AdGroup starts running on Day 2
2 conversions occur in the first $5
The cost reaches $50 without another conversion
The AdGroup is paused until the next day

NiV23
That one I think you may have to create using the API yourself... if you do
you should be able to sell it!!!

[integramed]

AWR - I would like a real "industrial strength" global API that allows an application to get full access to the Google infrastructure and request SERPs (Organics and AdWords ads) as a data stream for use by the application in anyway it sees fit. More like RSS.

Right now the interface into the Google infrastructure is basically just through a browser. That's incredibly restrictive as we move to a whole new generation of internet apps. These apps will need raw SERP data as a resource. I wonder who will be the first to deliver that?

Think of the implications for AdWords. These apps would represent a whole new distribution channel!

[Katja]

Hi,

it's great that we can set campaigns in our local time now, that's really helpful! Thank you.

I've another idea that would help me massively, and I think maybe lots of others in Europe.

I set up my account and selected UK only for the ads about 6 months ago and now I'm ready to start shipping to new areas, in my case other EU countries. However, as the shipping costs will be much more expensive (both to me and customers which affects my costs and the conversion of my customers) I need to monitor the ROI separately from my UK campaigns.

I've done this by setting up the campaign and then a process of copy and pasting the ads and keywords from another window, but it would be so much easier if there was a "duplicate keywords and ads from existing campaign" option. As it is I've lumped a bunch of countries in together when ideally I would have them set them up separately so I could see what is happening with each country. It would just take too long at the moment!

Maybe there is a way to do this but so far I haven't been able to find it!

I've just been playing around in Adwords and noticed for the first time the "Copy or Move Keywords and Ad Text" in the Tools section which I can use to do exactly what I requested above. Have I been really dim and missed that all this time or is it fairly recent?

Help cos I'm feeling pretty stupid right now! :)

[AussieWebmaster]

I've just been playing around in Adwords and noticed for the first time the "Copy or Move Keywords and Ad Text" in the Tools section which I can use to do exactly what I requested above. Have I been really dim and missed that all this time or is it fairly recent?

Help cos I'm feeling pretty stupid right now! :)

That upgrade is only a few months old so so.

[Katja]

That upgrade is only a few months old so so.

Ok, thanks. Don't feel so bad now!

I've had a play with it and actually it's a little clunky. You have to create the campaign and all the ad groups first before you can copy in the keywords and ads. I wonder if there is any chance it could be upgraded so you could "Copy to New Campaign"? That would be perfect for me :D