i don’t blog much about work-related stuff for a couple of reasons. few people really know or care to know about the intricacies of what i do. its a niche. i like it. that’s all that really matters. sometimes i do blog about work topics because its hard to find up-to-date info on some of the stuff i do. other times, i write about goofy stuff because i’m a dork and i like to see if i can make things i blog about show up in search engines. (*cough*best running playlist ever*cough*)

however, today you will not be spared, i’m sorry. i have a few tips for those placing ads using any online keyword-based advertising platforms that may stumble upon this blog:

dynamic keyword insertion:
so, when you write ads, you can set the ad to automatically insert the term you are targeting. for example, all those ads you see when you google something that have a headline that reads exactly the same as what you just typed in - no, target.com doesn’t read your mind. they use this feature.

exhibit a:

note: no, i didn’t do a search for this particular term. its a contextual ad, so if a certain keyword appears in an article, you can hover over it and an ad shows up. just so happened this article mentioned it. ew.

wow, bizrate.com, i bet you do have the best deal on menstrual cycles.

anyway, this is a typical example of a horribly managed campaign. i guarantee what happened here was that someone set up a gigantic campaign, with hundreds and thousands of keywords that they used a keyword research tool to generate. then they created ad groups for every keyword generated and used the same format for every single ad group. unfortunately, the ad format for something like “cookware” which would have worked in this case, doesn’t work so well for “menstrual cycle”.

so, the point is, automating and working fast are good. but maybe double check on what you’re actually doing?

typos/consistency
seriously, read your ads before you make your campaign live

exhibit b (click to make it bigger):

here’s a secret: why are you tring to sell me adwords tips if you can’t proofread your ads? why..?

here’s a tip: buy www.27adwordssecrets.com and put a bunch of adsense ads on it - guarantee some people see this ad, try to remember it later, and end up at www.27adwordssecrets.com

that is all, enough work talk.