Somehow, I just recently re-discovered Google’s Adwords Ads Diagnostic Tool. Turns out it’s really powerful tool. One thing that I loved the most is that you don’t have to search for proxy server list in case you want to see ads from another country.

For example, you live in Florida, right. Now you advertise some intimate clothing for women in the United Kingdom. If you type in your search term into Google, your ad won’t show. It’s because your browser is set to .com. You could of course put .co.uk at the end and access your ad this way. However, if you need to search not only by location, but by language too (which is set in your browser), you’d be in trouble.

If you sell something to Indian residents, you obviously want to target Indian language and Indian location only. So in order to see the ads, you’d need to change the browser’s language (not sure how to do that and type: www.google.in. If you have more geo-targeted campaigns, that would be a daunting task.

Adwords Ads Diagnostic Tool has a “Preview” link, where you can see your keyword that’s targeted for one or another location.

So if you had a keyword “Sony Digital Camera”, you could preview it and see the other ads competing for the key term. If your location was UK, you could see your ads, just like a visitor from UK.

When you click that link, you’re taken to the page where you may type in various keywords and see if your ads are showing, compare them to competitor’s ads and see what you need to do in order to improve your ad.

I’m not sure, but I think that this preview search page doesn’t count impressions. If you keep searching for your ad in a normal way, impressions count. So the more you refresh the browser and the more keywords you search, the more imps you have and your CTR will go slightly down. So if you’re worried about your CTR, this tool is great.

Again, I’m not sure if it counts impressions or not, I believe not, because the page seems like a preview page and I don’t think that it actually counts any imps…

You can click on a magnifying glass next to any keyword and preview your ad by that particular keyword. If you have many adgroups, you’d just need to visit an adgroup and click a magnifying glass to preview your ads. It’s really powerful. So far, I’ve been using some proxy servers to check how my ads look in other languages or locations. From now on, I’m gonna use this one…

By the way, you can preview ads right now (without logging into account) by clicking a link below.

http://www.google.com/search?adtest=on&hl=en&lr=&q=Keyword

If you want to change the location, rename google.com into google.co.uk for example. But leave the whole search URL string intact, because it’s important.

You can use this option to view other ads so you wouldn’t have to generate unnecessary impressions and lower someone’s CTR…

Ok, you’ve probably noticed that too. Today, I logged in to my Adwords account and saw that next to every keyword in my adgroup, there’s a magnifier icon showing up. Turns out, it’s a diagnostic tool that tells if my ad is showing for a particular keyword or not.

See the edited screenshot below:

Yah, I didn’t want to disclose my keywords… Heck, I’m not even sure if I can make screenshots of this new diagnostic tool. So anyway…

When you press that little magnifier icon next to your keyword, you can see the following tab popping up:

It basically says that your ad is shown for that particular keyword. It also gives some info (as you can see above) about the location targeted and the language your campaign targets.

At first, it seemed like a great thing… But then, I started to think if this is really so useful. I mean, I know this info already when I set up my campaign. And about the ad showing… Couldn’t you just see if the keyword is active or inactive for search? Google could simply incorporate this diagnostic tool into the whole “active/inactive” for search thing.

Is It Really So Useful?

If my keyword is inactive, then I could look and see the reason why (not served enough, 4th or 5th page, CTR is below 0.5, etc.). I could see if my ad is showing for that keyword or not without even clicking on that icon…

So far, that’s what I think…

If you have your opinion about this, go ahead and submit a comment. Maybe I’m missing something here, I don’t know…

I think I wrote this in the email course some time ago…

How to get out of Adwords keyword sandbox (when they become inactive). One of the reasons I suggested, which worked for me and still works; was to put keywords into more targeted adgroups. Some people put a bunch of keywords (1000 or more) into one adgroup and expect to get tons of clicks for a low price. This won’t happen. Google simply makes most of those keywords inactive that’s all.

However, when you make very targeted groups and put only small groups of keywords into an adgroup, Adwords likes that. And they usually don’t force you to increase the CPC.

By the way, it’s more beneficial for you either.

Your campaigns and adgroups are much more targeted now. This means that you can get higher CTR and lower CPC, which should bring you a better ROI.

So I thought that if you’re complaining about inactive keywords, maybe this one tip can help you to get out of the “Adwords sandbox”.

The days when marketers could put few thousand keywords into Adwords group and wait for profit to come are over. Now you have to work until you create very targeted campaigns and adgroups. Besides, it’s much easier now, cause Google allows you to create more adgroups than before. Few years ago it was 25 max per adgroup. Now I have more than 100 adgroups in one campaigns and no problems. Maybe it’s unlimited now Haven’t checked…

So make Google and yourself happier. Create more targeted campaigns. It takes time, but eventually it’ll pay off.

Good luck.

Sometimes, when people do PPC marketing, they get confused about keywords. Broad, phrase, exact match – which one should you use? And the answer is – all of them.

The main reason to use all of the keywords variations, is that you’ll see, which keywords get more targeted clicks, higher CTR, and finally you’ll pay less per click in Adwords (this isn’t true in other search engines, like Overture at the moment).

Let’s say you bid on a keyword - microwave cart. Now if in your adgroup you have:

The broad match might get more clicks than the others, which are considered more targeted. If people search for microwave cart (exact match), they type in only 2 words. The results might not seem very targeted to them, as long as they do not exactly know what they’re particularly searching for.

However, if they search for chrome microwave cart, your ad will appear for a broad match keyword: microwave cart. So people might click on your ad, as long as they’re searching for a more specific keyphrase already. This means that the CTR can be higher for a broad match keyword, than for exact match. And that’s why it’s important to use all the variations. Because as you probably know, Google shows ads more frequently for those keywords, which receive a higher CTR.

So if you bid on:

And broad match keyword receives more clicks, then most of your clicks & impressions will show for a broad match keywords despite that you also have phrase and exact matches of the same keyword. Otherwise, you’d never know that. But when you put all the variations of keywords into an adgroup, you see what works for your situation.

Another reason, is to get more targeted clicks. If you bid on:

And let’s say a person is searching for “white microwave cart”, your exact match: [white microwave cart] with brackets will probably receive the most clicks as long as it’s very targeted. This also means that this keyword will finally get lower CPC, because it gives people exactly what they’re searching for.

So your broad and phrase match, might not be necessary, unlike in the first example. But you never know until you put all the variations and see what works. There are tools, which help you transform keywords into all the 3 types. One of such can be found here, in Adwords Wrapper page in Mikes Marketing Tools website.

You know, in PPC, it’s very important to gather as many keywords as possible. If you pick up just the most obvious keywords and bid on those, you’ll join a huge competition, which will eat you alive if you’re not careful.

Instead, come up with as many keywords as possible (I’m talking about related keywords only here).

And really brainstorm your head for keyword variations. Sometimes (quite often), keyword research tools won’t give you those keywords that people actually search for. And that’s where it actually shows the real power. Those “long-tail” keywords that are searched for few times a day have no competition in PPC engines. Why, because many PPC marketers are lazy. They grab a list from Wordtracker in the best case, and put it into an adgroup. So they all bid on the same keywords.

And those no-competition keywords reside there without any keyword tool knowing about it. So I’m tellin’ ya, your brain is the ultimate weapon, not a keyword tool. Just site down and think what would people type in search engines to get your product? That’s all.

And really, use this tip.

I remember when I heard this many times before, but didn’t actually listen carefully. When I applied it, some Adwords campaigns showed really great results. Traffic from those keywords wasn’t big, but it was very targeted and cheap. And it got me sales. So move your little grey cells as much as you can, and only then use keyword research tools.