I was recently invited to
participate on a Google AdWords advisory
panel. The microevent was held at the
Googleplex in Mountain View, CA, at the
end of last month.
It was an interesting experience, to say
the least.
At first, I was just curious when I got
the call from Google. Why me? Why now? I'd heard from an
AdWords representative the week before, an oddity of its
own.
It wasn't an email blast, a post in the
Google AdWords blog, or a new feature highlighted in
Google Friends. An AdWords rep actually called me to
tout new travel and accommodation advertising
opportunities for a client whose campaign I'd terminated
six months prior.
I remember hanging up the phone and
thinking, "Hmmm... Google calling?"
Usually, communicating with Google is
quite the opposite. It's an email conversation begging
for a prompt response to a trademark ownership issue.
It's a real-time chat about a billing question. It's an
online drill-down about how best to use new demographic
tools. It's almost never an unsolicited phone call.
When Google called again to extend an
invitation to join an AdWords advisory panel, I had to
accept.
I cleared my schedule and filled out a
PowerPoint questionnaire that would eventually serve as
the crux of a presentation to about 100 Googlelites.
What was this AdWords advisory panel all
about? Much like it sounds, Google was soliciting
feedback on a core product line. The AdWords team wanted
to know what advertisers liked and disliked about the
product, and how the team could better serve
advertisers.
I was one of four past advertisers on the
afternoon advisory panel. The morning group consisted of
current advertisers; mostly agency people, from what I
was told. This was the first time Google brought in
advertisers who had terminated AdWords campaigns.
We gathered for lunch at the Googleplex.
It was free, of course, which is nothing special,
considering meals are free for everyone, but it was fun
all the same. After dessert, we headed across campus to
make our presentations. We were a bit to learn the
presentations were telecast to the New York office, but
we rolled with it as the room filled and introductions
were made.
The group of former AdWords advertisers
was well-balanced. It included a small business, a
midsize business, a marketer for an educational
institution, and me, an in-house SEM (define)
wonk.
The audience consisted of product
managers, programmers, and AdWords team members,
including bloggers and customer service personnel. What
impressed me most about the group was their eagerness to
listen, learn, and actively question us about our
experiences with AdWords.
If eagerness is a hallmark of innovation,
Google will to continue to set the standards for PPC (define)
advertising for years to come.
Although Google played catch-up recently
around the demographic functions offered by MSN
adCenter, most PPC advertisers simply can't afford to
ignore AdWords' depth and reach. So long as an for ROI (define)
argument can be made, advertisers will continue to flock
to AdWords.
What challenges did we discuss with the
group? Here’s a brief, but not all-inclusive,
amalgamation of our wants:
-
Clean up the AdSense network;
eliminate the splogs (define)
and other spam sites.
-
Create a transparent environment for
handling click fraud.
-
Consider offering agency discounts,
not necessarily in a coupon format.
-
Create better industry-specific
vertical opportunities.
-
Create a better way to select or
deselect AdSense partners.
-
Offer the ability to upload and store
trademark documentation to streamline the ad
approval process.
-
Provide easier import and export of
reports into customized templates for clients.
-
Furnish an ROI calculator in AdWords
Tools and Reports.
At the end of the day, most AdWords
advertisers just want a little love and attention from
Google. They want faster and better answers to
campaign-specific questions, and they want the
information to come from Google. Currently, that's an
essential role played by agencies and in-house
marketers.
Consequently, the average small to
midsize business is routinely left out of the PPC
equation due to budget and time restraints. That's
probably going to change soon. The intense level of
competition between Google AdWords, Yahoo, and MSN
adCenter will force the change.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
P.J. Fusco has
been working in the Internet industry since 1996 when
she developed her first SEM service while acting as
general manager for a regional ISP. She was the SEO
manager for
Jupitermedia and has performed as the SEM manager
for an international health and beauty dot-com
corporation generating more than $1 billion a year in
e-commerce sales. Today, she is the lead search
strategist for
Netconcepts, a cutting-edge SEO firm with offices in
Madison, WI, and Auckland, New Zealand.
