Well holy shit. Today at work I logged onto Google’s external keyword tool and low and behold…I got approximate NUMBERS for search volume instead of a crappy green bar graph that gives me no idea what the actual NUMBER of searches done are, just whether there’s little search or a lot of search.

I mean, c’mon - a bar graph? How many searches does it mean when the bar’s half way green? All the way green? Does all green = a million searches per month?  100,000 searches per month?

Or maybe somewhere there was a key or legend explaining that and in all my years of using this tool, I never realized.

Boy would I feel stupid.

Either way, nice job with the numerical data Google - it’s about time!

I should probably go to Google’s blog and read some updates, cuz they HAVE to be messing with their spam filter. Either that, or spammers just had a big old evolution in their spamming techniques, b/c all of a sudden in the past week I’m getting more and more spam emails in my gmail inbox.

What’s up with that? Hopefully Google’s already on their next generation of spam filter to combat this latest strain of spammers that are getting emails on through.

It’s kinda weird that SEO and Spam can kind of be compared to viruses. You come up with a way to get links or two spam (that method is your “strain” of SEO or spam) and then the Doctor or Scientists (Google, or a webmaster, or whoever is on the receiving end of that strain) has to come up with a vaccine, or an antibiotic or medication of some sort to fight the strain - be it rank penalties, a twist in the algorithm, etc.  But then the strain mutates, gets stronger or more crafty and the “docs” have to tweak their medication to fight the new strain.

I love metaphors. They help you get a grasp on concepts that you might not easily grasp otherwise. Though the concept above isn’t exactly a groundbreaking, earth shadowing idea. Just an observation.

So c’mon Google, c’mon! Get that spamfilter tweaked, b/c ya’ll had me spoiled! Now I actually have to check the email off and hit that Spam button…TOO MUCH WORK! Ok, that’s a joke, I’m not THAT lazy…

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…

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!