Google’s New Keyword Tool: Surprise Inside!
|
Written By Reprise Media | October 26, 2005 | Share This
|
|
Earlier in the week our Director of Product Development wrote a brief post about Google’s new keyword tool, which can be found here.
This updated version of the Google keyword tool allows media planners a few creature comforts, including the ability to:
- Download extensive lists of keyword suggestions as CSV or XLS files
- Feed keyword suggestions directly into relevant and active campaign ad groups
- See graphical indicators of keyword popularity (competitiveness of the market and volume of traffic per keyword)
- Access a tool that crawls suggested web-pages to scrape, cross-reference and suggest relevant keywords
- Fetch new cost and ad position estimates with more up to date pricing estimates
While these changes won’t change the way advertisers work within the Google system, they do suggest a move to evolve their campaign creation tools into more refined campaign management and production tools. Such a development would also support efforts to cut out the middle man and work directly with clients direct (thus making Google one of the biggest advertising agencies in the world).
But it could be said that we all win out, as more refined and centralized production tools could allow Google to segment their evolving products into unique pricing markets. Imagine being able to buy separate listings across: search, contextual, site-targeting, local, travel, blogs, desktop, Gmail, Froogle and more… as an advertiser that’s the hope.
Of course I may be reading too much into this. Not because the tools don’t do what I’m suggesting, but more because the tools don’t do what Google is suggesting.
We’ve all learned that no Google product release would be complete without blatant contradictions, as well as a hearkening back to policies they’ve never openly recognized. This release of the new keyword tool brings both.
Upon some initial exploration, the new keyword popularity tool suggests that certain domains bought as keywords would generate traffic of substance, making them a must-use tactic for any brand marketing effort.
However, searching for those domains at Google.com confirmed that Google no longer runs ads for domain keywords (i.e. “Amazon.com”). Like, Bang, Zoom, Surprise! If you run that type of search, you’ll find a special type of search results page different from all others, listing a single listing for the domain owner and a few eager-to-please options that tie into other Google search features (cache of that address, web pages similar, pages that link there, pages that contain that domain within the content, etc.)
So for all advertisers still including .com extensions on their branded and trademark terms: Don’t bother. Those queries no longer serve ads. Additionally, you might find these new tools available within some of your account logins but not others. Not sure why.
Last but not least is Google’s claim that pricing quotes will be more current and more accurate than they’ve been in the past. Yet for the system to present a half-filled bar of the competitiveness of a particular keyword that doesn’t actually serve paid listings suggests that the inventory management detail is no more evolved than it’s been in the past. And in this particular scenario, it’s completely wrong!
God bless those irrepressible little scamps.
Randy Schwartz is Director of Strategic Development at Reprise Media.
Topics: Google |