AdWords Manager – Page 23 – McCord Web Services The Web Authority

November 22, 2017November 17, 2017

The New AdWords Interface – I Hate It!

We Are a Google Partner Specializing in Search Marketing, Mobile, and Display. — We Are a Google Partner Specializing in Search Marketing,, Mobile, and Display.

The new AdWords interface – I have used it long enough to hate it. Hate is a pretty strong word, so maybe really, really dislike it is better.

AdWords flagged my account with a note that early next year it is forcing all clients and account managers into the new interface. Bummer!

Couched as faster and better, the new interface requires you to have a computer screen now wider than 23″ diagonally measured computer screen. My screen is 23 inches across and I still have to scroll to the right to see all my columns even with the left navigation panel shrunk.

Faster, smashter – it is not, I am spending way more time finding things even though I have had training in two seminars and routinely use the interface for accounts.

Have you tried to set up your custom columns yet for Call Rail tracking or other things you thing you want to know about as a conversion, well first you have to dig to find out what Google has categorized that as, is it source, conversion or other? Find that first, and then try to add the column – not intuitive at all. Want to see graphs your way, noooo, you have to now have red and dotted lines with no key as to what is what. Tried to look and compare the last 14 days fast – well you have to set up that date range each time, then you’ll really have to scroll right to see your info.

Clearly I am not happy. I do not see this as a good change. There is one thing I do like, I do feel that the account recommendations are helpful, and I have yet to figure out how to see the bid adjustments yet. I personally find the interface so incredible complex that it will drive more customers to me as they will simply no longer be able to do anything in AdWords themselves.

AdWords, please get more training out for managers and fix this issue of the screen not sizing properly. I do not feel I should have to go with a double monitor spread to use AdWords or use a magnifying glass to read text on the page.

November 6, 2017November 4, 2017

AdWords Manager Tips: Attribution

Today starts my series on AdWords manager tips. With over 10 years of experience in professional management of AdWords account, I wanted to share tips on an often overlooked yet important item in conversion tracking – attribution.

First to see what I am talking,(in the old interface) about go to Tools > Conversions. Click one of the names of the conversions you have set up. Look to the bottom to Attribution Model. If you’ve done nothing it has defaulted to Last Click. Click Edit and change your conversion model to Position Based.

Position Based is my preferred attribution model. Over time you will be able to see keywords in your account that you might have pause that are actually a part of the conversion path.

The first click and last click will be weighted to 40% each and the middle clicks will split the remaining 20%. What happens is important for your keyword monitoring. You will start to see keywords that previously in the last click model may not be driving as many conversions as you had thought.

Your data drives your decisions in AdWords, put your data to work for you by changing your Attribution Model to the right one for you.

To get to the prior interface if AdWords defaults to the new interface, click the three vertical dots next to the gear in the top right and click go to prior version.

There are just some things that are easier to see and faster to do in the old interface.

Need an AdWords manager? Please take a moment to find out more about what we do.

October 30, 2017October 27, 2017

Tips to Being an Effective AdWords Manager

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I’ve been an AdWords manager for over 10 years and love what I do. I have developed a deep background knowledge of how Google serves AdWords from my years of hands on client experience.

It was not until I was training a client’s staff member that I realized, just how much I knew and how complicated AdWords has become.

Here are a few of my top tips to being an effective AdWords manager:

Focus on click through rate, conversion numbers and cost per conversion in all you do. The click through rate as it is Google’s measure of health, conversions as that what the client wants, but cost per conversion as that will keep the client with you.
Encourage the client to spend only what makes sense for them. I make recommendations, but always couch the final budget selection as something they must decide. Whatever the monthly budget is I divide by 30.4 to get the correct daily budget to prevent billing questions at the end of the month.
Test, test, test – AdWords work is about boosting performance constantly. I keep a log book to quickly see what I am testing and have changed for each and every client account. Yes, I can see that in change history, but in my log, I write notes as to why I did something or a time period I am testing.
Don’t be afraid to do experiments or rollback an unsuccessful test. AdWords has a very nice experiment interface. It is well worth the time to learn how to use and understand the data. Not everything can be rolled back with the undo button in change history. Make sure you know what you did to be able to roll back.

If you need staff training, mentoring, or full AdWords set up, I invite you to visit my website to see if I may be the AdWords manager you’ve been looking for.

October 16, 2017September 30, 2017

Are You Ready for More Demanding Customers?

Expect the unexpected. — Expect the Unexpected.

Google has recently revealed research based on micro moments and customer buying patterns to Google Partners. Of particular interest are several trends

Customers are more demanding.
“Near Me” searches have decreased by 150% over the last 2 years.
Use of a zip code in a search query has declined 30%.

Google data shows that consumers want more useful information, more personalization, and more immediacy.

The reason for the decrease in activity on “near me” and zip code specific searches are that consumers expect the results to be location and self-specific. This change has been driven by the mobile micro-moment, as Google calls it, – the I want to know, I want to buy, I want to go mentality.

One important trend that you can leverage on your website and in Google AdWords due to dynamic keyword insertion is the use of “best” in a search query. Consumers want the “best” toothbrush, “best” web designer, “best” lawyer and so on.

In fact in the research Google states that “best” related keyword search activity has grown by 80% in the past two years.

In addition, consumers are demanding personalized localization – meaning the delivery of results that are uniquely personal and based on their own location. Mobile apps leverage results by GPS location and websites can enhance results by providing location cues and data sortable by location.

In addition to more localization, Google has identified that 50% of all mobile users will typically make an immediate purchase after a successful mobile search.

Google is identifying other important trends and sharing them with Google Partners as we work to leverage this information to help our client’s better market their products and services on Google AdWords.