Category: Google AdWords

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I have just completed and passed my testing to re certify my Google AdWords Qualified Individual credentials for another two years.

Google has changed the exam and I found it easier than the first, but they have not updated all of the information in the exam to reflect new account improvements. Plus I studied so hard on Google Analytics and AdWords Editor and there were no questions on the exam on that topic. For example the information on invoicing does not match the test. The training module states that an account with three months of activity of $1500 per month would qualify but the exam had two case studies that matched that and yet it appeared that they were looking for an answer for $5000 a month and that was the old figure. There were also questions on how to calculate quality score with case studies and no training modules on that specific topic. Hmm, Google you need to update to be fair.

The training modules need to more closely match the exam as I wondered how some of the questions could possibly be answered given the training information. Well so much for griping, I will not have to look at the training program unless something new is released for a while.

You’ve probably seen this new type of bidding in your account by now – preferred cost bidding versus maximum cost per click bidding. But should you use it?

I tried the settings on my own account for a week and this is what I found. I got:

25% less clicks
16% less impressions
8% less click throughs
a 4% higher overall average cost per click
I spent 5% more overall

For me preferred cost bidding increased my costs and decreased my performance.

When would I even consider using preferred cost bidding?
If you have a product that you are selling online that is a set price and you want to have a set advertising cost to hard code in for your ROI equation, then I feel preferred cost bidding would be right for you. Would I recommend other advertisers change to preferred cost bidding. You may want to try it like I did, but Google did not make a billion dollars in profit last quarter for nothing. I just don’t think that this new option will replace the maximum Cost per Click bidding that is used more frequently. I think that in the long run to have a set average bid will cost you more and not deliver the clicks and impressions that you want when tested over time.

If you use Google AdWords then you have probably run into this problem. A perceived trademark infringement keeps you from completing your ad. Sometimes you can ask for an exception and sometimes you will still not be able to use a term.

I can understand possibly this situation in some cases in the ad text, but having the word Hot or Home Equity being trademarked terms??? Come on! I ran into both just recently setting up an account. In the home equity situation we were promoting reverse mortgages for a client and so that ad text mentioned use your home equity for cash. No matter what I did, Google would not release those words and so they could not be used in ad text. Here is another situation, a store which stocks and sells Under Armour clothing could not use Under Armour in their ads or any possible misspellings of the words.

So far Google’s rule is restrained to the use of keywords in the ad text in the US but in other countries, you can not even have those words considered infringing in your keyword list. But really consider the word hot. How can this be trademarked?

If you’ve run into something ridiculous in the trademark infringement arena, click comments and let me know, maybe we can all get a chuckle for the day over what Google considers a trademarked term.