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.

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.

New Match Type for Google’s Canada and UK AdWords Interfaces

Google just unveiled a new broad match modifier for Adwords advertisers in the United Kingdom and Canada. Right now the new keyword match type is in Beta. This new modified broad match type opens up a sea of opportunity for advertisers ads appearing to searchers. The modified broad words have more control than a broad match keyword. The keywords are modified by simply adding a plus sign in front of the keyword that you would like to remain static.

This feature can be either dangerous to an advertiser or beneficial. Carefully choosing what keywords to place the plus sign on is extremely important. Each word that has the plus sign in front of it must appear in a users search query. If keywords do not have the plus sign in front of it, many variations of the keyword can appear.

By turning a broad keyword to the modified broad match, you will notice a slight decline in impressions and clicks. If you add the modifier to campaigns with mostly phrase and exact match types, you will theoretically notice an increase in clicks and impressions.

One rule of thumb is to not add the modifier to small words such as and, an, of, the, etc. By doing this you are significantly refining your search and will limit the amount of times your ads are appearing.

Negative keywords can not use the broad modifier match type. If you try to enter the + sign in front of a negative word, AdWords will ignore it.

The match type, no matter what kind, will not influence the quality score. Quality scores are based on the keyword, relevance of the search query to your keyword, landing page relevance, etc.

If you are an AdWords advertiser in Canada or the UK, be sure to take note of this new opportunity.  It may be only a matter of time before they will be rolling this out to the U.S. as well.

For more information check out Google Adwords Official Blog http://adwords.blogspot.com/2010/05/new-keyword-targeting-feature-for.html