So, in case I haven’t mentioned, I work for ProspectMX in Lancaster PA. We’re an Internet Marketing firm with a specialty in SEO (search engine optimization) and PPC (pay per click) advertising. We do all kinds of other stuff of course, and we do them WELL, but I tend to be focused mostly on SEO and PPC.

For a while I was setting up Google adwords campaigns for lead gen pages we made, and let me tell you - I was doing it ALLLLL wrong. From keyword research to how I grouped my keywords together, I laugh about how little I knew about adwords even back in Jan of 08.

Now…well, now, I definitely know what’s going on, thanks in part to my boss Dave, our programmer Alex, our girl Ashley over at Google and of course…thanks to SpeedPPC.

SpeedPPC is a program you can purchase for $400 to $500 for 2 licenses. It is basically a program that allows you to build indepth and LARGE ppc campaigns for Google, Yahoo, and MSN in minutes (once you get the hang of it that is).

It’s especially useful for national campaigns that may have locations attached to them and campaigns in which you want to hit the long tail keywords so that your cpc is cheaper. For example, if I had a national real estate company, I COULD market the keyword “real estate agent” in the whole United States on Google, but that terms is COMPETITIVE. Highly competitive terms = HIGH cost per click minimums.

However, the phrase “real estate agent in lancaster pa” is not going to have nearly the same amount of competition as plain old real estate agent, therefore you’ll keep a lower cpc when bidding on THAT keyword.

SpeedPPC not only allows you to combine your seed keywords with expansion lists (like U.S. cities), it also allows you to dynamically generate the ad text based on the particular keyword a person searches for (which is always good for the quality score of your Google adwords at least.
Well, this was supposed to be a short post just letting everyone know about what a good product SpeedPPC is for those working on HUGE PPC campaigns, or campaigns in which you wish to incoporate cities and states into the keywords. For the above mentioned reasons and many more, SPeedPPC is great tool for anyone who’s going to be spending weeks and MONTHS on a ppc campiagn.

As I sit here at work making and posting MAJOR changes to HUGE HUGE HUGE adwords campaigns for one of our new projects, I keep thinking about the things I wish adwords COULD do.

Our programmer tells me I need to add it to their “New Feature” suggestions, but I’m a cynic and therefore think there’s no chance in hell they’ll even look at my suggestions, let alone consider them.

So instead, I’ll bitch about what I wish adwords could do. I’m sure I’ll be having a part 2, 3, 4 and so on as time passes, but here’s the 3 things I WISH adwords would do RIGHT NOW!

1. No limits. I’m tired of trying to upload my big ass campaigns, only to find there’s too many adgroups or too many keywords. Yes, I know I can contact our rep and get it raised, but that’s pain. Give me big ass limits up front - or, dare I ask, NO LIMITS AT ALL? Ok, I might not be handle to the responsibility…
2. I want to see a line graph of the average position of my ads for a given keyword over time. That way I can see pictorially just how my price tweaks are helping me. So for the week of June 1-7, show me where my ads have placed for the keyword “company picnic” on the 1st, on the 2nd, on the 3rd and so on…
3. Last, but not least - Please let me view my campaigns by time AND day. If I make changes on June 15th at 3P, and then go back on June 16th to view how my campaign did the day before, I want to be able to choose to see how it did from 3P on AFTER I made the changes. Talk about transparent advertising…would that make things too easy for us Google?

That’s about it - as always, I love Google, but it’s more of a love-hate relationship…

So yesterday (6/15) was my birthday. Possibly one of the most uneventful birthdays ever, but that is exactly what I wanted. I woke up, went to church with my significant other (I’m 25 - boyfriend sounds way too high school for me) and then got to spend the day just chilling with him. My parents made us a great dinner and the feral cat that hangs around our house even brought her kitten out to play with us!

All in all that was EXACTLY the kind of birthday I was looking for. I know most people would have been out partying, at least Saturday nite, but I’m just not as into that as I used to be. One, because I’m trying to be a good little Christian (I still have far to go, but I’m getting there); 2, b/c I’m broke and lazy and don’t usually FEEL like going out and 3) I always feel like shit the day after drinking - its just not worth it.

So here’s to being a bum on your 25th birthday…cheers!

On a random note, my AWESOME coworkers and I started a new site on Friday. It’s our way of getting to test out a bunch of affiliate marketing, SEO ideas, etc without using company time or money. It’s all about finding the best free, bargain or discount offers online - check us out at OfferGeeks.com.

See, this is where I suck at blogging - I get all distracted and don’t update for a week! Shame on me!

I just had to take a few minutes to vent my frustration with Google right now. PLEASE GOOGLE, GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER!

I’ve been having issues with gmail, issues with chat, even issues with adwords!

Gmail has been loading incredibly slow for me on Firefox - I figured, computers hate me, so it’s probably my fault. BUT, considering I had issues yesterday at home on my lap top and now today on my office computer PLUS some coworkers are having problems too - I can only conclude that Google’s doing something in the back end of gmail.

Then of course, there’s adwords. I’m in charge of a HUGE adwords campaign for a ProspectMX client - I built it from the ground up, it’s kinda my baby and it’s going really well so far. For me, it’s a first - I’ve never had to run a campaign this big by myself, so I’m more than a little proud.

It consists of 4 campaigns, each with over 1000 adgroups - and over 300,000 keywords all together. Which means, for bulk updating, it is a BITCH. Thank God for Adwords Editor and Speed PPC!

Well unfortunately, today my IT guy forwards me an email from Adwords support - basically saying that over 4000 ads have been disapproved b/c the URL destination is incorrect/broken/whatever the hell they think the issue is.

My thing is - this campaign has been running for over 30 days - why am I just now hearing that my ad URLs are messed up? I haven’t TOUCHED them since the campaign started and they surely did work when I first started the campaign.

Here’s the kicker - in order to fix them I have to go edit each ad (remember, it’s over 4000) and they will “automatically be resubmitted for the approval process.” Somehow, I dont think this client would take kindly to me spending hundreds to thousands of his dollars to fix what is Google’s mistake.

Oh, did I forget to mention that when I logged into adwords to test random ads, ALL the ones they disapproved take me to our landing page just fine? So I may be missing something…but I’m pretty sure this is Google’s mess up, not mind. I won’t swear on it, but I have been unable to figure out why they think the URL destination ain’t workin. It is. Get it together Google!

Luckily we have awesome Google reps who I am sure will take care of this ASAP (so they should- this company has a CRAPLOAD of money in adwords since 2005.

So that’s my Google rant.

Oh, 2 more things that are bugging me:

(1) the change of favicon’s - a lowercase g, really? Why? That’s like how AT&T switched to at&t. Gotta say, it’s frickin’ gay - you go from a solid strong logo to …well, kind of a chintzy one.

(2) the influx of ‘commemorative google logos’ lately - y’know Google, everyday is the anniversary of SOMETHING. So you should prolly either do it everyday (which would be annoying) or just go back to doing it like 10 times a year - at least then it’s more of a surprise. I was all about it at first, but then it wasn’t a special treat anymore…

Ok, now that I’ve been Debbie Downer and criticized the crap outta Google, lemme just say: I still love you Google. Always innovative, always coming up with free web apps and what not - I can’t complain.
Just keep your shit together, that’s all!