Don’t search for your pay-per-click (PPC) ads on Google and Bing – you may be hurting your keyword click-through-rate (CTR), or even worse, your entire campaign’s performance. While it is understandable to want to see what your PPC ads look like on the search engine results page (SERP), what your ad position is, and even what your competition is doing, many do not know that doing so may weaken their campaign performance.

Every time your ad is shown, both your keyword and ad receive an impression, and although you may not be clicking on your ad – to save yourself that cost-per-click (CPC) – you are hurting your CTR because the ad is shown, but not clicked on. The search engines will think that your ad is not relevant to the search query if its CTR is lower than other ads, and your ad may not be shown as often as it should. In addition, a low CTR can lead to a low quality score, which in turn will lead to a higher average CPC.

What is the solution? Both Google and Bing provide Ad Preview Tools for advertisers to utilize in order to see their PPC ads. The Google Ad Preview Tool works even without having an AdWords account; however, the Microsoft adCenter Preview Tool requires the advertiser to access the tool through the Tools tab within their interface. On the Tools page, select Ad Preview Tool. Next, type a keyword in the keyword box and click the Preview Ads button to see your result on a Bing search results page.

Using an Ad Preview Tool will not affect your PPC campaign performance and will enable you to get a better picture of how your ads will appear on a SERP. The Google Ad Preview Tool allows you to select your location and language as well as device and Google domain. Happy ad searching!

The social network, Facebook, will be updating their advertising capabilities to increase user engagement and purchase intent. Facebook is set to announce the new ads at a February 29 media event in New York.

The new ads on Facebook will be social by default, meaning they will automatically show users when their friends have already Liked the advertiser. In addition, the new ad formats will draw their content exclusively from posts to brands’ Facebook pages, instead of written advertising copy from the advertiser.

Other changes to Facebook ads include:

• Larger ad formats

• More interaction with the ads; users will be able to comment under ads

• Six new premium ad types: Photo, Video, Question, Status, Event and Link

• Advertisers will have the ability to change ad content on a daily basis by creating a new post on the brand’s Facebook page

The social network believes that the future of online advertising lies within content, rather than the messaging, and ads that are endorsed by the people you know have a better chance of capturing your attention. The company says that the new ads will produce more engagement, better recall, and a significant increase in purchase intent.

Facebook says that Marketplace and self-service ads will not be affected and that reporting and metrics will not be upgraded.

Obama refers to this as the “blue print for privacy in the information age”, as of Febuary 23rd, 2012 the United States Government has released a Consumer Privacy Bill of Right’s called, “Framework for Protecting Privacy and Promoting Innovation in the Global Digital Economy”.   The addendum being presented is a guideline for the future of an individual’s privacy on the internet.  It clearly outlines the expectations for companies who use personal data and he specifically asks for voluntary corporation – since it is not a law yet – for corporations to “begin immediately working with privacy advocates, consumer protection enforcement agencies, and others to implement these principles in enforceable codes of conduct”  Daniel Weitzner, the deputy chief technology officer at the White House, told reporters Wednesday that “principle No. 1 in our Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights is the principle of individual control.”

The Privacy Bill of Rights’ main points:

• “Individual Control: Consumers have a right to exercise control over what personal data companies collect from them and how they use it.

• “Transparency: Consumers have a right to easily understandable and accessible information about privacy and security practices.

• “Respect for Context: Consumers have a right to expect that companies will collect, use, and disclose personal data in ways that are consistent with the context in which consumers provide the data.

• “Security: Consumers have a right to secure and responsible handling of personal data.

• “Access and Accuracy: Consumers have a right to access and correct personal data in usable formats, in a manner that is appropriate to the sensitivity of the data and the risk of adverse consequences to consumers if the data is inaccurate.

• “Focused Collection: Consumers have a right to reasonable limits on the personal data that companies collect and retain.

• “Accountability: Consumers have a right to have personal data handled by companies with appropriate measures in place to assure they adhere to the Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights.”

You can read the entire report here.

Starting to infer how this will affect Search Engine Marketing?  What companies do you speculate will be changed the most by this Bill, or will wait to see if it becomes a Law?