How do you optimize your campaigns? Do you pause or remove keywords that have the most spend with no conversions? If so you might want to take a step back and look at the bigger picture.

A couple of months ago Google launched a new “Search Funnel” feature in the AdWords interface. The data that you are able to view includes keywords that assisted in impressions and clicks, but did not receive credit for the final conversion. Previously you were only able to see the final keyword that drove the conversion.

To find the “search funnel” report in your Adwords interface, click on the Reports tab, conversions and to the left you will see the area of Adwords to view search funnels.

One strategy I have personally found helpful is to create a campaign with the assisting keywords in respective adgroups. This way you are able to control the amount of daily budget you would like to use on these types of words and you are not cannibalizing from your “core” group of performing keywords daily spend.

For example, you have a product where people do not know the particular name of your product, but they are able to explain it in a few words in a search query in Google. “I want to buy the machine that records TV shows. This might not be a direct keyword such as TiVo, DVR or another brand, but you are giving your product and company name visibility to the user at their beginning stages of the buying or research process.

According to Nielsen survey, Google remains atop the leader board for U.S. search at 65% of all June searches.  The folks at MicroSoft are gaining market share at the expense of Yahoo and AOL, and have basically pulled even with Yahoo at 13.4% versus Yahoo’s 13.7%.  The Microsoft/Yahoo Search Alliance roll out is certainly going to keep things interesting over the remainder of this year, as Bing becomes the source for organic results for both portals.  I am looking forward to the completion of the Search Alliance roll out over the next few months, and will be following the Nielsen statistics to see what affect it has on these top three engines, which account for close to 92% of the U.S. search market.  Will the Search Alliance duo be able to gain market share at the expense of Google?

The folks at Google are reported to be pushing their development team toward a new interactive video ad format.  These new ads are going to be like mini-web pages and provide web users with a video, that will allow them to leave comments and see real time updates based on their needs. On-line marketers know that the key to clicks and return on ad spend is via targeting and the precise measurement tools uniquely available to digital ads.  If, due to an engine’s innovation such as interactive video ads, marketers can better target and get their audience to click and engage an ad, they will begin to allocate ad budget to this format.  Right now the budget is heavily geared to the search and display formats, as evident in the breakout below.

This is a great time to be in our industry, with such innovation leading the way for marketers to better position and engage their existing and future clients.

If you are running a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign with Google AdWords and you sell products through your website, incorporating Google Base in your marketing mix is a wise decision.  For one thing, Google does not charge a fee to submit your products and the visitors you attract from your Google Base listings within the organic search results are not based on a PPC model, in other words, free traffic!  When doing a search on Google, you can easily see the Google Base listings, also known as “Shopping Results”, within the organic search results in the middle of the page.

However, when you have active AdWords and Google Base accounts, the advantage of synching your accounts is that within the Sponsored Links section, you have the opportunity to have an image associated with your PPC ad (see screenshot below).  This can provide an excellent competitive advantage by “pushing down” all other ads on the right hand side of the search results page to accommodate your product image.  Unlike the Google Base “shopping results” within the natural listings, you do pay for clicks since it is technically your PPC ad, but your cost-per-click (CPC) rates are not any higher than a regular text ad.  You get the benefit of added real estate on the page for your sponsored ad, providing more information about your product and showing an image, all without having to pay additional CPC rates.

It is important to set up an optimized feed within the Google Base account and provide as much detail as possible about your products.  Simply supplying the minimum information needed to participate in the Google Base program will not ensure your PPC ads are accompanied by information from your Google Base feed.  Google has a list of required “attributes” for the minimum information required for a data feed to be approved.  In addition, there are “recommended” and “optional” attributes that can enhance and optimize your feed.  To give your PPC ads the best chance to display your Google Base product information (specifically an image and price) you should create a data feed that incorporates all of the required and recommended attributes.  Do not stop there, however, and also include as many of the optional product attributes as you can so your Google Base data feed is fully optimized.