A recent AdWords announcement says click-to-call is available to advertisers nationwide via phone extensions:

“Recently, we announced  new click-to-call phone numbers for local ads that appear on mobile devices with full internet browsers, like iPhone, Android or Palm Pre. This week, we’re bringing the same click-to-call benefits to national advertisers through phone extensions. Phone extensions allow you to add a phone number that will be displayed whenever your ad is triggered, regardless of the user’s location. Your number will appear as the last line of any ad text within existing or new campaigns. This enables customers to connect with your business by phone directly from the ad and can be especially useful if you have a call center to handle customer inquiries.”

Per AdWords help section about phone extensions:

To enable phone extensions on your text ads, follow these steps:

1) Sign in to your AdWords account at https://adwords.google.com

2) Go to the Campaign Settings Tab for the campaign with the ads for which you want to show a click-to-call phone number on high-end mobile devices with full Internet browsers

3) In the Networks, Devices, and Extensions section, under Devices, look make sure that your selection includes ‘iPhones and other mobile devices with full Internet browsers’ (if it says ‘All’ these devices will be included).

4) Under Ad extensions, click ‘Edit’ beside ‘Display click-to-call phone number on iPhones and other mobile devices with full Internet browsers.’ Then click the Save button.
5) Enter a phone number by selecting the option under Extensions to add a click-to-call phone number to your ads on mobile devices, entering a phone number, and clicking the Save button.

NOTE: I would suggest acquiring a unique number for phone extension display, so you can track close ratio on your end as well.

Saw an announcement about new “target” CPA bidding in AdWords console today:

With the Bid Type advanced option, you can select the method that suits you best when setting your Conversion Optimizer bids.

Max CPA
With this option, which was previously the only option offered with Conversion Optimizer, you set bids using a Max CPA. This amount represents the most you would want to pay for any individual conversion. The way a Max CPA bid works is similar to the way a maximum CPC bid works. If you set a maximum CPA bid of $5, for example, the actual average CPA is likely to be somewhat less, such as $3. Likewise, a maximum CPC bid of $0.50 may result in an average CPC of $0.30.

Target CPA
This new option allows you to bid based on the average amount you would like to pay for a conversion. For example, if you want to achieve an average CPA of $25, you could use this option and set your bid to be $25. Advertisers with CPA targets they would like to reach may prefer to use Target CPA so they can specify those goals directly.

To change your bid type to Target CPA, please follow these instructions:

1. Select the Settings tab from within your Campaigns tab.
2. Under the “Bidding and budget” section, click “Edit” to change your bidding option.
3. Select the “Target CPA” option and click “Save” to finish.

Microsoft & Yahoo were granted regulatory clearance to form “Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance“, as per this email I just received:

Microsoft® and Yahoo! have now received regulatory clearance to form the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance

in the United States and European Union. This milestone is an exciting step in our effort to give your business a time-saving and cost-efficient way to connect with a larger combined audience of potential customers.

How the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance benefits you
After the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance is implemented, you will:

* Reach more potential customers: Search ad inventory from both the Yahoo! and Microsoft networks will be joined in a new, unified search marketplace powered by Bing™ , with a combined audience of over 150 million searchers in the U.S and nearly 577 million searchers worldwide.
* Save valuable time and effort: You’ll use a single platform—Microsoft adCenter—to manage your campaigns easier and faster. With just one buy, your search ads will reach users on Bing, Yahoo!, and other premium partner sites and networks, such as The Wall Street Journal Digital Network, msnbc.com, FoxSports.com, Facebook, and Buy.com.

What’s ahead
For now, it’s business as usual; there is no change to your account or service. Your ads will continue to serve on Bing search results pages, and you will continue to receive the same great service from Microsoft.

Both companies are committed to making this transition a seamless experience. Our goal is to bring the Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance to the U.S. by the end of 2010, prior to the crucial holiday season, with additional countries following on a staggered schedule beginning in 2011.

As our transition dates approach, we will contact you with information about what to do next. In order to ensure you continue to receive important service updates, please verify your contact information is current in Microsoft adCenter.

This statement from Haiti’s President Rene Preval:

“It will take 1,000 trucks moving rubble for 1,000 days, so that’s three years. And until we move out rubble, we cannot really build”

Reminded me of Seth Godin’s blog about only needing to coordinate 1000 people to change your world – AND the world around you:

“I think the ability to find and organize 1,000 people is a breakthrough opportunity. One thousand people coordinating their actions is enough to change your world (and make a living.)”

I just attended a LinkedOC event Godin presented at in Dana Point last week where there were reportedly almost 500 attendees.  Skip1.org was there as well, with seven 5-gallon water containers for donations strategically placed by the bars and tables. I just saw a Skip1 tweet that they collected $130.03 – from 500 people in attendance?!? If even HALF of the attendees had put just $1 in those containers (…and I know they had cash, because they were drinkin and tippin!) that would’ve been at least $250. I’m a little disappointed by that, especially after the educational and thoroughly entertaining  intro by Skip1 Founder, Shelene Bryan.

So, how many Twitter followers or Facebook friends and/or fans or LinkedIn Contacts do you have? Imagine if each person donated just $1-10 to Haiti Relief, and then they asked their friends to do the same, and so and so on. It doesn’t take much to make an impact.

Ways to help:

Join me in becoming a  “Skipper” at Skip1.org

Red Cross

Habitat for Humanity

Care

Doctors Without Borders

UNICEF

Salvation Army

Well, at least while they’re still kinda sorta doing this “search” thing ;)

1) Yahoo’s keyword suggestions can equal disaster. Who knows your business and customers best? You do, so why bid on the broad, irrelevant and often pricey keywords Yahoo recommends? Take ownership and find the time and resources to develop highly relevant keyword lists that will drive more qualified traffic to your site.

2) Start with Standard match for all keywords. Yahoo’s Advanced match is equivalent to Google’s Broad match, and it can bleed your budget faster than a teenager with your gold card. You can expand to Advanced for more traffic opportunities after your campaign is profitable, and when you have a comprehensive list of negative/excluded keywords.

3) No Content Match, unless you really know what you’re doing! Seriously…don’t go there :)

4) Everyone has noticed an increase in poor performing Yahoo Partner traffic over the last few years. Yahoo FINALLY added some advanced features to help curb advertisers spending on some of this non-converting traffic.

a) Network Distribution Performance Reports: Allows you to see impressions, clicks, CTRs, CPCs, costs and conversion data for Yahoo Search and Yahoo Partners. Use this report to understand whether or not you should even advertise on the entire Yahoo Partner network. If you determine Partner traffic is unprofitable, simply opt out by adjusting your Network settings. Follow these steps to change your Network settings.

b) Dig even further by running an Ad Delivery Report, which can be found under the “Traffic Quality Reports” section of your Reports tab. This report shows impressions, clicks, CTRs, CPCs, costs and conversion data for domains and specific URLs where your ads are being displayed on Yahoo’s Partner network. If you find domains that are driving clicks but no conversions, the next step is to block your ad from appearing on those domains. Follow these steps to block domains:

Good luck and happy optimizing!

My my, how corporate crisis management has changed in the the last 10 years. The Prius recall is a great example of how quickly you really need to react in today’s Google, Twitter and Facebook world.

I queried “toyota recall” and “toyota prius recall” at Google.com to see how Toyota is handling their public-relations disaster via search.  Toyota.com has “Toyota Recall News” ad in first position to address what is being called the worst handled auto recall in history.

I didn’t see ad when I Googled “toyota sucks”, “toyota gas pedal”, “toyota investigation” etc, — which I think they should definitely be optimizing for as well.

Thought I’d pass along some simple tips for creating and optimizing content campaigns in Google AdWords:

1) Manage Content separately from Search:

While AdWords allows you to run Content and Search in the same campaign, it’s generally not advised. CTRs, CPCs and conversion rates vary between the networks, so segmenting Content and Search will allow you to manage each more effectively. You can find network settings under the Campaign Settings.

2) Small, Tightly Themed Ad Groups:

Unlike Google’s Search network, targeting on the Content network occurs at the ad group, not keyword level. This means Google evaluates all keywords within a specific ad group, in addition to the ads, in order to determine the websites on which to display your ads. Because of this, it’s important to have smaller ad groups (10-20 keywords) with keywords targeting a common theme.

3) Creative Ad Copy:

Due to the nature of the Content network, people engage differently with your ads and may have different intent than people searching directly at Google.com. People who see your ads in the Content Network were not actively searching for your product or service, so it’s important to understand how your ad text relates to the content on the webpage. Ads with clear, attention-grabbing headlines and strong call-to-actions will maximize your success.

4) Track Performance:

Use the AdWords Conversion Tracking pixel to track conversions at the ad and ad group level. By having several smaller, highly targeted ad groups you will see which themes are more relevant for your offer and also be able to pause or further optimize ad group themes that aren’t converting.

5) Run Placement Performance Reports:

The Placement report allows you to monitor performance for your ads by specific domains and URLs, including conversion rates. Use it to learn which sites to exclude.

Other things to keep in mind:

* It’s okay to use duplicate keywords in Content campaigns.
* Content doesn’t recognize phrase or exact. It considers everything as broad match (remember, it’s about ad groups “themes”, not specific keywords).
* Negative keywords are still important!
* Keyword level URLs are not trackable.
* Bids are managed at ad group level, not keyword level.
* Experiment with image ads.
* Consider testing different landing pages for Content vs Search.

Just got this email from Google AdWords today:

“We’re making a change to AdWords access levels that will affect your account. In the coming weeks, we’ll replace reports-only access with a new read-only access level. As a result, all reports-only users in your account will automatically become read-only users.
This change will give your reports-only users a clearer view of your account performance. As read-only users, they’ll have access to advanced reporting tools that are only available in the Campaigns tab, such as filters and data segmentation, which make it easier to spot performance trends and identify areas for improvement.

As with reports-only access, read-only access will be limited to browsing and viewing reports. Your read-only users will not be able to make edits to your campaigns. However, read-only users won’t be restricted to using the Reports tab only. Instead, they’ll be able to view performance statistics anywhere in an account, including the Campaigns tab.

We plan to make these changes within the next few weeks. If you’re comfortable with the changes, no action is required on your part. However, if you don’t want your reports-only users to see the Campaigns tab of your account, you can update your account access preferences by following these instructions.

We hope that these changes will help your business get more out of reports-only access to AdWords. Thank you for taking the time to read this email, and have a great start to 2010!”

TwitJobSearch.com is a real-time Twitter-based job search engine. Just type the job title and TwitJobSearch then scans Twitter for job postings. According to their blog:

“Twitter has tens of thousands of jobs being ‘tweeted’ every day from major companies and jobboards, as well as individuals, but without a way to properly sort and filter these tweets, they amount to nothing but noise.  TwitJobSearch   scours twitter; indexing tweets that are jobs, and filtering out the rest. Thus providing jobseekers with the tools necessary to find meaningful, relevant job opportunities amongst the noise.

TwitJobSearch is more than a simple search engine; it pulls and displays data found ‘Beyond the Tweet’, lets you follow and retweet twitter accounts and, via the TwitJobSearch QuickPitch function, allows jobseekers to attached their online identities (ex. linkedIn, twitter, video, etc.) to jobs they are qualified for.”

You can refine by job searches Salary level, Job Title, Job Type, etc. You could also just search by city or use their JobMap to search by location.

As per their official blog post, YSM has announced two important new tools for Sponsored Search advertisers:

1) Network Distribution: This new feature enables you to set up campaigns or ad groups targeting Yahoo! Search, Yahoo! Partners, or both. While your campaign objectives will determine the best use of network distribution, we recommend that advertisers target the Entire Network to maximize traffic volume, while retaining the ability to bid up or down on Yahoo! Partners. For more control and optimization capability, you may wish to duplicate key campaigns, with one targeting Yahoo! Search and the other targeting Yahoo! Partners.”

2) Import Campaigns: This new tool is designed to help you easily and efficiently convert your campaign data from Google AdWords into Yahoo! Search Marketing formats. Simply download your third-party file, then import it from your computer into the Sponsored Search interface. Once the import is complete, you’ll be able to view any errors and pause the campaigns for review. Learn more about converting and importing your third-party campaign data.

They will also have a webinar reviewing these features Thursday, February 4 at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time.

I’ll be going in today to review them myself!