Get design tips to boost the impact of your display ad

While the right text and placement of your display ad are always crucial, you should also make sure that your ad is well designed. But how exactly can you ensure that your ad stands out on a web page, looks professional and is consistent with your overall brand message?

On Thursday, September 2nd, we�ll be holding a short one-off live course on effective display ad design. The session will give you a set of practical design tips including key insights on using color, font and images. The focus will be on the Display Ad Builder tool, although the tips are applicable to display design in general. The course is suitable for anyone interested in display advertising.

The course will be held on Thursday, September 2nd at:�3pm - 4pm BST / GMT+1 (London), 10am-11am EDT (New York), 7am-8am PDT (San Francisco).

Sign up here�to attend.

Posted by Miles Johnson,�Inside AdWords�crew

Upcoming Free Webinar: Increase ROI with Enhanced CPC

A couple weeks ago, we announced the launch of Enhanced CPC, a new automatic bidding feature designed to increase your conversions and return on investment in your Max CPC campaigns.

We�d like to invite you to a free webinar hosted by members of the product development team to learn more about Enhanced CPC. Specifically, we�ll discuss:

• How Enhanced CPC works and benefits your campaign performance
• How Enhanced CPC complements your current bidding strategy, including 3rd party bid management solutions
• Key differences between Enhanced CPC and Conversion Optimizer and how to select the best bidding option for your campaign

Register here for the webinar to be held on September 8 at 9:30am PST / 11:30am CST / 12:30pm EST.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

More advertiser control on YouTube

Today's post comes from the Official YouTube Blog:

We�re constantly working to give advertisers control and flexibility over their YouTube campaigns. We place great value on this because ads are an extension of what a company represents as a business, and we want YouTube to be a place where that reputation and image can flourish.

To that end, we�ve been rolling out features to keep advertisers in control of their campaigns. We announced one such example last week, when we launched a feature that gives select advertisers the ability to voluntarily age-restrict their videos. But there�s more work to do.

To date, we�ve given advertisers the ability to pick and choose individual videos on YouTube to target using our Video Targeting Tool. But one of the most frequently requested features we�ve heard from advertisers is the ability to exclude individual videos and channels from the campaigns they run on our site. Today, we�re excited to announce video and channel exclusions, a way for advertisers to pick specific YouTube videos and channel URLs that they don�t want their ads to appear on.

Here�s an example: let�s say you run a vegan bakery. You want to strike a balance between good exposure for your baked goods online, while staying true to your company values in offering items free of animal or dairy-products. Now you can indicate which videos are not the best fit for your audience. Since your customers are probably not watching "Homewrecker Hot Dog," you can provide this video exclusion under the "Networks" tab.

(click for full size image)

Similarly, you might run a keyword-targeted campaign on bakery-related keywords and exclude whole channels that you don�t feel suit your audience. So if FoodNetworkTV has videos centered mostly around cooking meat dishes, you have the controls to prevent ads from showing on that channel and specific videos.

Alternatively, if your ads are appearing on a video that has content you deem inappropriate for your audience, or perhaps isn�t performing in terms of click-through rate or conversions, you can optimize your campaign by using this new feature to exclude it.

Google has also been investing significantly in ensuring brand safety, transparency and control for advertisers across the Google Display Network. We�re hoping that these added layers of control will make your campaign targeting even more precise. Keep sending us your feedback so we can make future product improvements.

Baljeet Singh, Senior Product Manager recently watched �AH NOM NOM: Wholesome Bakery Best Vegan Bakery Food Cart In San Francisco�

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

Analyze Competition live in all English language accounts

In June we announced the Analyze Competition feature in the Opportunities tab. At first, this feature was only available to a small number of advertisers using the English language AdWords interface, but now this feature is available to all English language accounts.

Analyze Competition helps you understand how your AdWords performance compares to that of other advertisers competing on similar keyword categories. Using the data in Analyze Competition, we hope you can make more informed decisions about which types of optimization changes are right for your account.

In addition to the feature�s core functionality, you can now also see the Google search terms that triggered your ad for each of the most specific sub-categories in your account. Click a category name to see more specific sub-categories. When the category name is no longer a link, you�ll know you�re at the most specific sub-category -- this is where you�ll see a "See search terms" link. Seeing the search terms that triggered your ad can serve as inspiration for new keyword ideas or help you understand if your keywords have been miscategorized by our system. If you see that the search terms listed for a given category are not related to the keywords in your ad groups, you may consider making keywords more specific or adding new negative keywords.

We hope to bring even more features to Analyze Competition in the future. To learn more about Analyze Competition, visit the Help Center, or watch this short video. You can also visit our page on the Ad Innovations site, which is the destination site for the newest, most innovative developments in AdWords.

Posted by Jason Shafton, Inside AdWords crew

Update your Google Advertising Professionals Qualification to the Google Certification Program by October 31

We recently launched the Google Certification Program and we�re glad that thousands of you all over the world have taken the new exams and joined the program. This certification program replaces the Google Advertising Professionals program. To provide you with time to make the transition, we�ve run both programs side by side during a six month grace period which ends in October. To retain certified status and continue using the badge within your marketing collateral, you�ll need to meet the requirements of the new program.

What�s the difference between the two programs? With the Google Certification Program, we�re offering updated learning materials written by Google experts. We�ve developed four in-depth exams on AdWords management called Fundamentals, Advanced Search, Advanced Display and Advanced Reporting & Analysis. The exams are designed to prove proficiency in these areas and are being widely adopted by employees of search marketing agencies. In addition to this, we launched Google Partner Search, a directory to help advertisers find agencies to manage their campaigns. Currently, all Google Advertising Professionals who have opted in are part of Google Partner Search, but this will not be the case by the end of October.

We�re informing all of you who have qualified under the old Google Advertising Professionals program to update to the Google Certification Program. In order to do so, a company must meet a minimum AdWords spend level, and have at least one employee become individually qualified under the Google Certification Program.

If you have an employee that already qualified under the old program, this is a great time for them to update their skills through the Google Certification Program. Upon completion, just update your company profile so that advertisers can find you using Google Partner Search.

To learn more about the Google Certification Program visit our Help Center.

Posted by Jason Shafton, Inside AdWords crew

AdWords myths: understanding the AdWords auction

Over the past few weeks, we�ve covered a few common areas of confusion related to AdWords, including�billing and spending, and�keywords. This week, we�d like to wrap up this blog series by offering some helpful info on the AdWords auction.

If you have questions about how the AdWords auction works, a great place to start is with this introductory video from Hal Varian, Google�s Chief Economist.

(click to watch on YouTube)

One of the most important factors in deciding your ad�s position within the auction is its Quality Score. To learn more about�how Quality Score is defined, and�how to improve it, you can visit the�Search Ads Quality Getting Started Guide.

Finally, remember that if you�d like to understand how bidding can affect your ad's performance in the auction, you can use the�bid simulator. It will provide you with click, cost, and impression data estimating how your ad could have performed over the last seven days had you used a different bid.

These resources should give you more insight into how the AdWords auction works.

This concludes our AdWords Myths series. We hope it�s helped clarify a few things you may have been wondering about AdWords.

Posted by Miles Johnson,�Inside AdWords�crew

New course to help you improve your bids

We recently added a new course to the AdWords Online Classroom designed to help you set and improve your AdWords bids so you get the most for your money.

In this course, we'll show you how to calculate your value per click (the most you can pay for a click in order to still make a profit) and how to experiment with different cost-per-click (CPC) bids to find the most profitable bids for your business.

While this course is most suited to AdWords advertisers who're already measuring their ROI, we encourage anyone interested in learning more about AdWords bidding strategy to view it.

Click on the country flag most appropriate to you to watch this course now:

(US) (UK) (AU)

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

AdWords system maintenance on August 21st

On Saturday, August 21st, the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PDT due to our regularly scheduled system maintenance. While you won't be able to log into your account during this time, your campaigns will continue to run as usual.

AdWords system maintenance typically occurs on the second Saturday of each month during the above times. We'll continue to update you here as we always have, but you may want to take note of our intended dates and times to help you plan for any scheduled downtimes further down the road.

Posted by Miles Johnson, Inside AdWords crew

Introducing the AdWords Small Business Corner, a new forum discussion category for SMBs

We�ve heard from many of you that you�d like to be able to easily share tips for developing a successful AdWords strategy with others like you. To help you do that, we�ve created a new category in the AdWords Help Forum: the�Small Business Corner. The Small Business Corner is designed to give those of you who are running your own AdWords accounts the opportunity to share best practices in discussions with your peers so that you can make sure your AdWords account is doing all it can to support your business goals.

This new category is not about troubleshooting specific account issues, but rather about sharing and learning from the experiences of others. To give you a preview of the kinds of topics that we hope to discuss, here are a few conversation starters that we had in mind:

• Choosing the right tools to measure results
• How to write great ads
• Finding the right frequency to sign in to AdWords

Of course, this category is about your interests and needs, so we hope you�ll suggest the small business-related topics that you�d like to cover. For any other topics, please consider the other existing forum categories available to you.

Getting started

To join the conversation now, just�visit the Small Business Corner. If you�re new to the AdWords Help Forum, you may want to�create a Google Profile�(while signed in to your AdWords account), introducing yourself and your business before jumping in. In the meantime, you can�check out the introductory discussion thread here.

Posted by Miles Johnson, Inside AdWords crew

New Tutorial: Exporting Google Display Network Placements from Ad Planner into AdWords

DoubleClick Ad Planner�helps you research and identify the web sites most likely to attract your audience. With Ad Planner, you can select sites,�add them to your media plan�and easily export them directly into your AdWords account as a new campaign, or add them to an existing campaign or ad group.

Many of you requested this feature because you wanted an easy way to plan and buy Google Display Network (GDN) campaigns using Ad Planner.

Exporting to AdWords is easy and this online tutorial will show you how to take advantage of it. In this video, you�ll learn more about:

• Creating a media plan and finding GDN placements
• Exporting your plan to AdWords
• Setting up a new campaign or adding to existing campaign in AdWords

Click here to watch the video

Posted by Miles Johnson,�Inside AdWords�crew

New My Client Center features: search across accounts and labels

If you use My Client Center (MCC), over the last few weeks you might have noticed that we've added some new features to your MCC interface. We've introduced search across accounts, labels, and simplified dashboard buttons.

Search across accounts

With this feature, you can search across all of the accounts linked to your MCC. When you search, your results will include accounts, campaigns, ad groups, ads, keywords, and placements that match your search term. Let's say you want to find all keywords related to Canada. Just enter the search term "canada" and we'll show you results that match that term. Learn more

(view full size image)

Labels

Labels help you organize your accounts into groups or flag clients that require attention. You can identify important clients with the label "High Priority," mark active vs. inactive accounts, or identify accounts belonging to the same client. Then, you can filter your dashboard to quickly view all accounts with a specific label. Learn more

(watch on YouTube)

Simplified dashboard buttons

We noticed that as we added features to the new MCC interface, the buttons on the dashboard were getting a bit crowded. We�ve made some changes to clean things up and make it easier for you to quickly manage your client accounts.

(view full size image)

To let us know what you think of these features and the new interface, click "Send Feedback" in your account.

Posted by Jason Shafton, Inside AdWords crew

Increase ROI & Conversions with Enhanced CPC

We're excited to announce the launch of Enhanced CPC, a new automated bidding feature that can help you improve your ROI on your campaigns with manual bidding. Enhanced CPC uses your campaign's historical conversion tracking data to automatically adjust your Max CPC bid based on the likelihood that your ad will convert. As a result, you should receive more conversions while maintaining or reducing your overall CPA and hopefully spend less time managing your Max CPC bids.

How does it work?

Let's walk through an example. Jeff sells model airplane kits and has enabled Enhanced CPC for a campaign that contains the following keywords, each with a Max CPC bid set to $0.30: model airplane, model airplane kits, and build model airplanes. When a user searches for 'model airplane kits,' the AdWords system recognizes that this term has converted well for Jeff in the past, and therefore increases the Max CPC bid to $0.32 for this specific auction. If the likelihood of a conversion is very high, Enhanced CPC can bid up to 30% above the Max CPC. This means that the most that Jeff will be charged for a click is $0.39.

On the other hand, when a user searches on a term that has not converted well in the past, e.g. 'model airplane,' the AdWords system will lower the Max CPC bid for this specific auction to $0.20. By adjusting bids based on Jeff's conversion data, the AdWords system ultimately helps him increase sales while maintaining or decreasing his average cost per conversion.

(click to watch on YouTube)

Enhanced CPC has the unique ability to consider a number of factors when predicting the likelihood of a conversion. A few examples of what Enhanced CPC is able to do include:

• Adjust your bid depending on how well a particular search or display network partner site in the Google network has converted for you in the past
• Recognize when specific words within a keyword (e.g. 'kits') convert well and adjust your bid when users search on variations of these terms (e.g. 'model airplane kits for children')
• Detect attributes such as the user's location, language settings, browser, and operating system and analyze how these attributes may impact the likelihood of your ad converting

How to get started

To use Enhanced CPC, you'll need to first enable Conversion Tracking for your campaigns. Conversion Tracking not only allows you to take advantage of ROI-boosting features like Enhanced CPC but also provides you with valuable insight into how frequently your ads convert into sales and how much you're paying for these conversions.

If you're already using Conversion Tracking, getting started is easy. Simply navigate to the 'Bidding and Budgeting' section of the settings tab for your campaign, and select the checkbox under 'Enhanced CPC.'

(click to view full size image)

If you're choosing between Enhanced CPC and Conversion Optimizer as your method for boosting ROI, please read this FAQ for more information on how these tools differ.

Visit the Google Ad Innovations site to learn more about Enhanced CPC.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

Get started with mobile advertising with a new online course

We�ve just added a new course to the AdWords Online Classroom all about mobile advertising and how you can start using it to reach more customers.

Did you know that there are now 4 billion mobile phone owners globally? Half of all new internet connections come from mobile devices, and by 2014 it's reported that there will be more mobile internet users than desktop internet users.* We offer a number of innovative ad formats to help you reach mobile users looking for products and services.

This course is suitable for anyone who�d like to learn more about mobile advertising and how to easily set up your AdWords account to target more users on mobile devices.

Click on the country flag most appropriate to you to watch this course now!

Click for U.S. course

Click for U.K. course

Click for Australia course

Posted by Miles Johnson, Inside AdWords crew

*Morgan Stanley report, 'Internet Trends' published on April 12, 2010.

Google Display Network series: Measure everything. Optimize relentlessly.

In the last three weeks, we showed you tools to�effectively plan�your display advertising campaigns,�develop compelling ads, and�target your ads�to reach precisely the right audience across millions of both popular and niche sites in the�Google Display Network�(GDN). In today�s final post, we�ll dive into measuring and improving your online display campaigns with powerful, free tools that bring accountability to your display advertising investment.

Campaign reporting and optimization

On the GDN, you have real-time reporting for every site and URL where your ads ran. You can view basic metrics like impressions, clicks, clickthrough rate (CTR) and cost, or, by implementing our free�AdWords Conversion Tracking, you can measure conversion metrics to determine your campaign�s return on investment (ROI). We also recently introduced�viewthrough conversion reporting�to provide a more complete picture of your display campaign performance.

With rich site- and URL-level data like this, you can see exactly what�s working and respond on the fly. This means you can increase bids for sites generating lots of sales or decrease bids for, or�exclude, poorer-performing sites.

With Conversion Tracking enabled, you can also unleash our bid management tool,�Conversion Optimizer, to help increase your conversions while decreasing your cost-per-acquisition (CPA). One of the most powerful bid management tools available, the average campaign using Conversion Optimizer sees a 21% lift in conversions with a 14% lower CPA*.

Web analytics and optimization

Your campaign�s performance is heavily influenced by the experience visitors have on your site.Google Analytics�is a free tool that helps you measure user behavior on your site, providing metrics like time spent on your site, page views, traffic sources, bounce rate, and more. Using this information, you can identify areas on your site you need to improve to increase conversion rates and ultimately, your ROI. Although Google Analytics works independently of Conversion Tracking, it�s possible to�automatically import�your Analytics data into Conversion Tracking, enabling you to consolidate reporting and optimization across these measurement tools.

While Google Analytics tells you what�s happening on your site,�Website Optimizer�empowers you to change it. You can show your visitors multiple versions of a page or elements on a page to test which are most effective, thereby getting more of your visitors to convert into customers.

Measurement beyond the click

Finally, research shows that the impact of display ads extends beyond immediate clicks and conversions. After seeing display ads, many users search for the advertised product or brand, or visit the advertiser�s web site days or weeks after having seen a display ad, even if they didn�t click on it.�

Recently, we launched�Campaign Insights�to help you measure the impact of your display campaigns beyond immediate clicks and conversions. Campaign Insights calculates the incremental lift in both online search activity and website visits that result from a display ad campaign. By comparing a data set of thousands of advertisers who saw a particular display ad with an equivalent group that did not see the ad, we can determine the incremental change directly attributable to the display campaign. With this insight, you can establish your display campaign performance, beyond just immediate clicks.

This post ends our series on the Google Display Network. Over the past four weeks, we hope you�ve discovered new ways Google can help you run successful display campaigns. For more on the GDN, please visit our�microsite.

Posted by Miles Johnson,�Inside AdWords�crew

* Analysis compares performance of Conversion Optimizer campaigns over the course of a year with a control set of campaigns and represents the average impact of Conversion Optimizer. Actual impact may vary form campaign to campaign.

DIRECTV partners with Google TV Ads

Cross-posted from the Google TV Ads Blog

Today, we�re announcing a strategic partnership with DIRECTV through which Google TV Ads will offer inventory on a broad selection of television networks available on DIRECTV.

DIRECTV�s national satellite inventory on Bloomberg Television, Centric, Chiller, Current TV, Fit TV, Fox Business, Fuel, G4, Ovation, Sleuth and TV Guide will be available through the Google TV Ads platform across all dayparts, including primetime. DIRECTV is the largest satellite provider in the U.S. and the second largest television distributor by household reach. This partnership, combined with our existing relationship with DISH Network, means that you�ll be able to reach up to 30 million satellite households with Google TV Ads.

We�re partnering with DIRECTV because of our shared commitment to innovation in the television advertising space. You�ll have the ability to target this new inventory along with over 98 other cable networks already offered through our platform. To learn more about advertising with Google TV Ads, visit www.google.com/tvads.

Posted By Mike Steib, Director of Emerging Platforms

Introducing the Google Small Business Blog

Cross Posted from the Google Small Business Blog:

Most every business, including ours, starts small. These days, technology is giving businesses even more ways to grow bigger... faster.

In our recent Small Business series on the Official Google Blog, a handful of real-life entrepreneurs have shared their experiences building companies from scratch and embracing Internet tools that have taken their businesses to the next level. We�ve received fantastic feedback about these posts, and realized that there�s a healthy appetite among small- and medium-sized business owners who want to know all about the latest web tools and tricks. Fortunately, we have lots more to share with you, too!

That�s why we�re introducing the Google Small Business Blog, a central hub that brings together all the information about our products, features and projects of specific interest to the small business community. Rather than having to sleuth around in many different locations for details about templates for creating video ads on YouTube, tips for your employees using Gmail or how to respond to the business reviews on your Place Page, you can find all of this helpful information right here in one place.

Of course, we�ll continue to post relevant news about individual services such as AdWords, Apps, Google Places and YouTube on their respective �home� blogs, but feel free to visit or subscribe to this Google Small Business Blog to get everything relating to your small business needs. We�re starting small today, but who knows what tomorrow will have in store!

Posted by Deanna Yick, Small Business Blog Team

Updated Keyword Tool - Coming out of Beta

Late last year, we announced a beta version of the updated Keyword Tool, which brought you increased functionality and a streamlined way to identify new keywords for your account. Since then, we�ve been working hard to meet our long-term goal to combine all the features you love from both the Keyword Tool and the Search-based Keyword Tool into one comprehensive tool.

We think it�s the right time to begin this final transition since you can now find many of your favorite features from tools in the updated Keyword Tool.

Both of these tools will be available in their current forms through the end of August, after which time their addresses will redirect to the updated Keyword Tool. We�ll post again when the transition is complete and the updated Keyword Tool exits beta (and drops the �updated� from its name).

The updated Keyword Tool has a number of benefits over the older tools:

• Flexible search options: Search by any combination of keyword, website/URL, and category (where available) and receive a single set of results
• Easy keyword refinement: Filter results by word or keyword match type
• Advanced options: View statistics for mobile search and use data filters based on local searches, search and ad share, and more

We also listened to your feedback and added some completely new features:

• Removing Duplicate Keywords: When you access the Keyword Tool from within an ad group, keywords that are already in that ad group will appear with an �Already in ad group� message next to them

(view full size image)

• Adding Negative keywords: Now, you can easily add keyword ideas as negatives right from your keyword idea list. Just click on a keyword and use the drop down menu to select and save your negative keyword

(view full size image)

We�ll continue to improve upon the updated Keyword Tool to make it more useful for you. Give it a try if you haven�t yet to take advantage of its new look and features. If you need to, you can always access the tool without signing in to AdWords. However, for the best results, you should access the tool from within your account. Just click the �Keyword Tool� link from the Opportunities tab. For a full set of directions on accessing and using the tool, visit the AdWords Help Center.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

Update to Canadian, UK and Ireland ad text trademark policy

Last year, in an effort to provide better ads and a higher quality experience for our users, we adjusted our trademark policy in the U.S. to allow some advertisers to use third party trademarks in their ad text even if they don�t own that trademark or have explicit approval from the trademark owner to use it.

These advertisers include resellers, sellers of component, replacement or compatible parts corresponding to the trademark and informational sites.

We believe that this change has helped both our users and advertisers by improving the usefulness of text ads on Google.com and across partner sites in the U.S. For example, resellers of jeans have been able to highlight the actual brands they sell in their ad text making their ads even more specific and relevant for users.

Today, we're announcing that starting September 14 we'll be extending this policy to Canada, the UK and Ireland.

Separately, today we've also announced an update to our policy to enable advertisers across Europe to select trademarks as keywords. This update will also occur on September 14 and brings Europe in line with the trademark policy that already exists in the U.S. and most of the world today.

Our aim is to provide as much useful information to users as possible so that they can make better informed decisions. We believe that these changes to the ad text policy in Canada, UK and Ireland and our keyword policy change across Europe fits perfectly with this aim.

For more detail on our updated trademark policy in Canada, the UK and Ireland, please visit the FAQ in our Help Center.

Posted by Dan Stokeley, Product Manager

AdWords Campaign Experiments full US rollout and new tracking tag

We�re excited to announce that AdWords Campaign Experiments (ACE) is rolling out to all U.S. advertisers. ACE is a free tool that makes it easier to test and precisely measure the impact of changes to your keywords, bids, ad groups and placements. Over the last two months, advertisers in our beta have reported that ACE has helped them feel more confident in the impact of their campaign changes, making it easier and less risky to try different strategies and optimize more frequently.

Without ACE, you might evaluate optimizations by comparing key metrics before and 2-4 weeks after making campaign changes. Differences in those key metrics are assumed to be the result of the changes. But fluctuations in demand, shifts in competitor tactics, and even changes in the weather can complicate things.

With ACE, experimental campaigns run side-by-side with the original campaign in a simultaneous split test. This approach lets you run shorter tests that start and stop whenever you like, with less concern about your results being affected by seasonality or other factors. You get more precise impact estimates and more chances throughout the year to test and improve performance.

Over the next few weeks, most U.S. advertisers will automatically see ACE under Campaign Settings when they sign in to AdWords. If you�re in the U.S., you can also choose to sign up for priority access. If you�re outside the U.S., please stay tuned. We look forward to announcing availability in more countries and languages soon.

To learn more about using ACE, check out these videos and the Help Center FAQ.

To make tracking your experiments easier, we've added the ValueTrack parameter {aceid} that enables your tracking system to identify if a click came from the control split or the experiment split of a campaign. You can then segment and compare to understand the impact of an experiment on metrics available in your analytics system.

If your website is www.example.com, you can assign the following destination URL tag for AdWords keywords or creatives: www.example.com?type={aceid}

The new tag will be active later this week. For more details on using ValueTrack tags and ACE, please visit our Help Center.

PostPosted by Helen Schindler, Inside AdWords crew

AdWords Myths - common misperceptions about keywords

We�re back to dispel a few more of the myths you may have heard about AdWords. If you missed the first AdWords myths post last week, check it out to learn about common misconceptions around AdWords billing and spending.

Today we�ll cover three myths related to keywords and click-through-rate:

Myth # 3: Your conversion rate can impact your quality score

Fact: The conversion rate of your ads does not affect your quality score. Some advertisers using AdWords conversion tracking mistakenly believe that they should set an easy conversion event on their landing pages to artificially boost their conversion rates. In reality, this won't have any effect on their quality score and will simply make it harder to measure the true value of their AdWords investment.

Myth # 4: The AdWords keyword tool suggests keywords to use

Fact: The keyword tool doesn�t make any kind of recommendations about which keywords you should be using. The keyword tool just analyzes related queries that might be of benefit to you and displays them. It's up to you to decide which keywords you want to include in your account.

You should always assess the tool�s results in the context of your advertising goals. When you do so, the keyword tool can be a helpful way of finding new, meaningful keywords, including potentially profitable ones you aren�t currently using and those that you might have excluded as negative keywords in order to protect your click-through-rate.

Myth # 5: Upper and lower case letters in AdWords keywords matter

Fact: The AdWords system doesn't distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters.

• �NYC� is the same as �nyc�
• �Android Phone� is the same as �android phone�

For the sake of simplicity, we recommend that you enter all of your keywords as lowercase letters.

Check back in with us next week for the truth behind myths related to the AdWords auction!

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew