google adwords faq

How exactly does AdScientist work with Google AdWords?

Google Adwords works differently with AdScientist than many other PPC search engines (such as Overture, MIVA, etc.). Typically, you cannot 100% control the position and timing of the showing of your AdWords listing, because your ad's position as far as Google is concerned, is determined by many factors. The most important factors are: your daily cap, your maximum cost-per-click (MaxCPC), your ad's actual click-through rate (CTR) and the quality of the ad copy.

Since you cannot directly control your ad's actual click-through rate and position, it is very time-consuming and a big challenge to correctly manage your keywords in Google AdWords. If your bids are not managed correctly, you can easily waste a lot of advertising spend on Google AdWords.

AdScientist allows you to change your "MaxCPC" dynamically, based on your Position setting. It works on a "Preserved Bid Value" basis. AdScientist will attempt to control your position by increasing and decreasing the bid amount according to the bidding formula below:

MaxCPC = (Current position - Desired position) x Preserved Bid Value

For example, if your desired position is "1", but your current position is "5" and the Preserved Bid Value is 2 cents, according to the above formula, AdScientist will increase your bid by 8 cents (position 5 - position 1 = 4; 4 times 2 cents equals 8 cents) to obtain the desired position in this situation. After the bid increase, the program will check your current position to see if you have reached your Target Position. The program will repeat these steps until either you have reached the desired ad position or the upper limit of your bid. However, during certain times, your current position may be above your desired position. In this case, AdScientist will try to lower your MaxCPC amount to save you money while maintaining your current position.

AdScientist Bidding Process for Google AdWords - A Step-By-Step Approach

Step 1. Check your current ad position in relationship to your desired position. If your current position is equal to the desired position, do nothing. Otherwise, go to step 2.

Step 2. If your site is currently not displaying, this means your ad is not in the search results that currently are shown by Google for this particular keyword. In this situation, AdScientist will increase your bid by the "Preserved Bid Value" until either your ad is shown or you have reached your upper limit in your bidding strategy.

Step 3. If your desired position is lower than the positions that are showing, then the program will attempt to bid you to the last position showing for that particular keyword by utilizing the actions described in step 2, providing that the bid does not exceed the upper limit.

Step 4. If your ad is already showing, but is in a location different from the desired one, the bidding formula set out in step 2 will be applied to calculate bid changes.

Step 5. Because your position is also dependent on your CTR, at certain times, even if you have not increased your MaxCPC, Google AdWords may raise your position automatically based on your CTR, so that your current position may be higher than what you wish. In this situation, AdScientist will decrease your MaxCPC to save money while maintaining your desired position.

To summarize Google's bidding algorithm, AdScientist will attempt to make your ad appear first under any circumstances, provided it does not exceed your upper limit setting, at which point AdScientist will apply the bidding formula described above. The key point to remember is that with Google's AdWords, your position is determined by more than just your keyword price bid. You may be paying more than an ad that ranks above you does. Conversely, you could also be shown at a higher position even though your bidding price is lower that those whose ads appear beneath yours.

>top<

How can AdScientist save money for me with Google Adwords?

As you know, you cannot 100% completely control your position for Google Adwords. The two major factors affecting your ad's position are MaxCPC and CTR.

If you were not using AdScientist, you would typically set up a FIXED MaxCPC amount for all your keywords. Unless you sit at the computer all day and night, you will likely either lose your desired ad position by not being there when a competitor raises his bid or you may spend more money than you wished to in over guessing a competitor's bid.

If you use AdScientist, the program DYNAMICALLY adjusts your MaxCPC. By using AdScientist, the program will adjust your MaxCPC DYNAMICALLY according to your position setting. This will allow you to choose the RIGHT MaxCPC value to maintain your Desired Position. You are not paying too much for a position, nor do you fall off the lower end of the bid "map", as the program adjusts your bid automatically with our Smart Bidding Algorithm.

Advantages include:

- bid to target position
- can bid above a particular URL at all times
- has scheduler to bid hourly, twice hourly, etc.
- can create AdGroups easily just in one window
- can set UpperLimit (the maximum of your MaxCPC)
- can add and delete keywords with one click
- can set account to be offline for proscribed times daily
- can automatically send an email report based on scheduled AutoBids
- can choose which campaigns to manage actively
- has option of not updating bids for keywords with no impressions

>top<

I changed my tracking URL in Google Adwords; however, AdScientist wipes out all the changes and re-sets them to the default URL when I run AutoBid. Is there a way to not have it alter the URL?

First, do you know that there is a setting called "Retrieve listings from the server before updating bids in AutoBid Mode" under the "Account/Options" set-up window? This option affect the way that AdScientist changes your URL.
There are two possible situations:

1. If above option is UN-CHECKED, and you change the URL on Google: you must run the "Load KW" (or "GetListing") function immediately before the "AutoBid" is running in DBM. If you don't "Load KW" immediately after you change the URL, when the AutoBid runs, the program will override your URL on Google with the existing URL in DBM.

2. If above option is CHECKED, and you change the URL in DBM: you must run the "Manual Bid/Update Bids" function immediately after you changed the URL in DBM. Otherwise, the program will get the new URL from the server. If you have this option checked and you do not follow through with the "Manual Bid/Update Bids" function, then your changes will be lost.

>top<

Why is my position not showing up on Google AdWords or why is the Current Position blank when I look up my words in AdScientist?

Google Adwords works differently from other PPC engines. With other PPC search engines, you can control your ad's position with your bid amount alone, and your listing will show up all the time as long as you have not run out of money in your ad budget.

However, Google Adwords works in an unique way (as always with things Google LOL). There are two issues that need to be considered:

  1. How many times your ads are to be shown - This is also called Impression Rate.
  2. What position your ads will be listed - Current Position and Average Position.
In Google Adwords, the position of your ads is determined by many factors including : Daily Budget, MaxCPC, and CTR (click-thru-rate). In most cases, Daily Budget controls your Impression Rate (how many times the ad is to be shown) and MaxCPC controls your position. That means your ads are NOT showing all of the time.

There is a system in Google Adwords that constantly monitors for a wide range of factors to estimate your "suggested budget", which is the amount required to allow your ads to be shown every time people do a search on any keywords (found within the campaign) without going beyond the budget.

This "Suggested Budget" is calculated using the following factors: If your actual Daily Budget is lower than Google's "Suggested Budget", your ads will not appear every time the keyword is searched. The more of your Daily Budget you can give to your Google campaign, the more often (or chance) your ads will appear.

For example, a search term such as "flower" may be searched 50,000 times ("Impressions") each day. If there are 20 advertisers bidding on "flower", they are eligible to share the "pool" of 50,000 impressions. Depending upon your Daily Budget and MaxCPC, your ads may only show up 1,000 times (your Impression Rate is 2%) during a specific 24 hours. That means your ads will not show up during the other 49,000 searches. This is the reason why your ads aren't showing up when searching on Google for "flower". If you want to increase your Impression Rate, you need to increase your Daily Budget or MaxCPC.

>top<

How does AdScientist control my position on Google AdWords?

AdScientist can dynamically improve your position on Google AdWords by adjusting your MaxCPC. To accommodate this and save your money, AdScientist will calculate your MaxCPC based on your Current Position or Average Position. There are three possible situations:

1. If your ad is showing up (Impression is not 0) during the bidding time, the program will use the Current Position value to calculate your MaxCPC.

2. If your ad is NOT showing up (but Impression is not 0) during the bidding time, the program will use the Average Position value to calculate your MaxCPC.

3. If your ad is not showing up and your Impression is 0, you have an option to change your MaxCPC by selecting the option under the "Keyword Property/Options" setting.

>top<

How do I make my ads appear more often?

Here are a few tips to make your Google AdWords ads appear more often.

>top<

What happens if my Destination URL is different from my Display URL?

Google Adwords allows you to specify an individual landing URL for search keywords. In such a case, your Display URL (on the AdGroup level) is different than your Destination URL (on the keyword level).

Here, there are two situations open for consideration:

1. If your Destination URLs are different from your Display URL(s), but they reside on the same domain, there should not be any problems.

For example:

Your Display URL is : http://www.my-advertising-url.com/index.html , and your Destination URL is http://www.my-advertising-url.com/index.html?id=182872&term=flower&campaign=DMCN.

2. However, if the Destination URL domain is DIFFERENT to the Display URL domain, there are a few steps that need to be taken in order for AdScientist to work properly.

In this case, you need to add following string to your Destination URL:
?URL=www.displayurldomainname.com or &URL=www.displayurl domainname.com

For example:

Destination URL:
http://www.adscientist.com/mailcomm.html
Display URL:
http://www.mailcommunicator.com
You need to change your Destination URL to something like this:
http://www.adscientist.com/mailcomm.html?URL=www.mailcommunicator.com

or

if you have a tracking code or any other query string in your URL already

Destination URL:
http://www.adscientist.com/mailcomm.html?Campaign=DMC
Display URL:
http://www.mailcommunicator.com
Corrected Destination URL:
http://www.adscientist.com/mailcomm.html?Campaign=DMC&URL=www.mailcommunicator.com

>top<

Why can't I see the "Competitor Listing" information on the bottom section of the AdScientist screen?

Google has updated their system to limit the number of searches you can perform during a period of time. If you happen to perform what Google considers to be too many searches within a short period, a page will be returned suggesting that your computer may have spyware or a virus installed on it, and thus a code is needed to be entered on the page before search results are released. The limit is usually only imposed for a few hours, and the page's status will be reset after a short period of time.

Because AdScientist needs to perform the "Keyword Lookup" process during the AutoBidding process, if you have a great number of keywords, it may trigger this Google "protection mode" for your computer (which it has identified by the IP address).

To prevent this from occurring, the "Keyword LookUp" function has been disabled during the AutoBid process. However, the program will still work as intended and this will not affect your normal bidding. The only difference is that you will not see the competitor listing information on the bottom section of the screen. You can still perform the "Keyword LookUp" function manually at any time for any or all keywords, but be prepared in the event you receive the Google blocking error message.

>top<

When I search on Google, my ad shows up, but when I perform a Keyword Look Up in AdScientist, my ad doesn't show up in the "Competitor Panel" - what's going on?

This is due to a discrepancy in the Google Sponsored Links function. The Sponsored Links function (http://www.google.com/sponsoredlinks) returns different Sponsored links results from normal web search function (http://www.google.com/search).

AdScientist uses Google Sponsored Links function http://www.google.com/sponsoredlinks to perform Keyword Look Up. However, the normal web search interface of Google does not always return the same sponsored links results.

However, this will not affect your bidding. If your current position was not found (your ad is not showing up), the program will use the "Avg. Position" value to calculate the MaxCPC. Since your "Current Position" does not show up 100% all the time (number of impressions depends on your daily budget), using the "Avg. Position" for bidding is more accurate than the "Current Position" value.

>top<

How quickly can AdScientist achieve my Target Position?

How quickly you can achieve your target position will be controlled by the "Preserve Value" setting under "Keyword Property/Options". In order to increase or decrease your bids quickly, set a high value for the "Preserve Value".

AdScientist's am is to get you to your target position incrementally, rather than immediately. This is a cost-saving measure that will save money in the long run.

For example, if you're currently at Position #5 with a MaxCPC of $0.30 and you want to move to the #1 ranking position, your MaxCPC will have to rise to $0.50. Here's the details:

1. If your "Preserve Value" is $0.01 (by default), the program will use this formula to calculate your new MaxCPC:

New MaxCPC = (5 - 1) x 0.01 + $0.30 = $0.34

In this case, the program will increase your bid amount $0.04 each time until you reach your Target Position #1 at $0.50. To achieve this, the program needs to perform 5 updates. If you have set your Scheduler interval to update bids every hour, it may take 5 hours to achieve your target position.

2. However, if you set your "Preserve Value" to $0.05, the program will increase your bid by $0.20 each time:

New MaxCPC = (5 - 1) x 0.05 = $0.20

or

New MaxCPC = (5 - 1) x 0.05 + $0.30 = $0.50

as you can see above, the program only takes one update to achieve your Target Position #1 at $0.50.

Please NOTE: the program will use the same logic when dropping your position.

For example, if your Current Position is #1 and you want to drop your position to #5 (for example, when using the Set Back Position option).

In the first case, the program will drop your bid by $0.04 each time. It will take 5 updates to drop your position to $0.30 (the #5 position bid). However, the second example will only take 1 update by $0.20 to drop your position to $0.30 (the #5 position bid).

>top<

My Target Position is #1. I ran AdScientist once, but it did not change my position to #1. What is wrong?

Please NOTE that Google works differently than other PPC engines, and you can not control your position 100%, nor can you bid to your Target Position immediately. AdScientist works on the so-called "Try-Its-Best" basis, and it may take several updates in order to achieve your Target Position.

How quickly you can achieve your Target Position is controlled somewhat by the "Preserve Value" setting entered under the "Keyword Property/Options" window.

>top<

Most of my keywords have a #1 position before using AdScientist. After using AdScientist, some positions have dropped - why is this so?

This is because AdScientist tries to reduce your MaxCPC to save your money once you have reached your Target Position.

This is how AdScientist works:

- If your ads are below your Target Position, AdScientist will try to increase your MaxCPC to achieve your Target Position.

- If your ads have reached your Target position, the program will try to decrease your MaxCPC to see if you still can stay on your target position. If your position has dropped below your Target position after reducing the MaxCPC, the program will raise your CPC again in the next update, so that you can retain your Target position again.

AdScientist will perform the above process automatically and adjust your MaxCPC dynamically. You may notice that your position may drop below your Target position on some rare occasions, but your Average Position should reflect your target position.

>top<

Is AdScientist able to import Adgroups into my Google Adwords account? (Or can I create new AdGroups with AdScientist?)

Yes, AdScientist enables you to add a single AdGroup OR import multiple AdGroups from a CSV file.

NOTE: This feature requests the Google API token. See the FAQ on the Google API for more information.

>top<

How do you get the latest "current position" information?

Click on the downward arrow next to the "Look Up" button, and select "Look up all Keywords".

>top<

Why is the "Current Position" blank?

When the "CurPos" position went blank, did you go to Google and do a manual search to see if you have a position there?

Please note: your position does not show up all the time (100%). Your listing will display only at certain times of the day (impression) based on your daily budget.

If the above is not the reason behind a blank "CurPos", also note:

Google may have tied to block what it thought was an "auto search request" recently. If you have many keywords in your campaign and perform a large number of keyword lookups, Google may be assuming a piece of spyware is the culprit, and will try to block your search requests for a few hours to limit the attack on your ad spend. If you feel strongly that this is the case, click on "Help -> Google Authentication" menu and follow the instructions

>top<

When bidding, can I update bids based on anything other than "position" (average/current) or "URL" (URL bidding)?

Yes, you can update bids based on your Cost Per Action (CPA) or ROAS (Return on Ad Spending).

Steps to take to bid based on ROI:

i) You need to be able to track your site so, start off by creating a "Project" and "Campaign" in "DynamicSiteStats".
ii) Select keywords, choose the "Project" and "Campaign", and then modify the URL into the tracking URL.
iii) Click on "Account", and go to the "AutoBid Setting" tab. Check the boxes "Enable ROI bidding" and "Use Dynamic SiteStats".
iv) Now you will be able to choose the keywords to update bids based on CPA and ROAS. Select the keyword, go to "Set Keyword Property", and then choose the "ROI Bidding" tab, for example.

>top<


Sign Up Now & Test Drive AdScientist Risk-Free For 30 Days!


SPECIAL BONUS : Sign Up Today and Get a Free 1-Year Subscription to Search Marketing Standard Magazine
- First and Only Print Publication Covering Search Marketing Industry ($15 Value) -

You will get 4 issues of articles and advice from leading experts in the field, interviews with the who’s-who of the industry, reviews of the most popular tools and services, latest news and trends, and much more. Each issue offers latest information and strategies on pay per click advertising, search engine optimization, web analytics, click fraud, local and contextual search, and other search-related topics.

* Offer Expires At Midnight on