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February 5, 2018 By Emily Patterson

Tips to Fix Your AdWords Grant for Google’s New Rules

So you’ve heard the news!  Nonprofit Google Ad Grants new rules rolled out in December, and organizations have two months to get into compliance. The February deadline is looming, and a lot of organizations are scrambling to rethink how they run their accounts.

No one’s quite sure what’s Google’s purpose with restructuring the program. Some say this is beginning of the end for the program (and the free $10K/month in ad dollars). Others claim that Google is simply cracking down on nonprofits who don’t properly manage their accounts and reflect badly on the advertiser.

But let’s not ponder what logic drives the Silicon Valley giant. All we know is we want to get the most out of our free ads. And no one wants to get their account shutdown! Here’s a quick rundown of the rules and my suggestions for how to fix your account.

Nonprofit Google Ad Grants New Rules:

  • The good! No more $2 bid cap (but you will need to set up goals in Google Analytics and use them to run maximize conversions bidding.)
  • The bad! Your account must have a 5% average click through rate (and if it fails to meet this two months in a row, it will be shut down. Yikes!)
  • And the easy: 
    • You must make use of geo-targeting (I once talked to a nonproft that only operated in one state. However, it accidentally ran its free AdWords nationwide. Preventing that sort of bad user experience is probably exactly what Google had in mind).
    • You must have at least two active ad groups. These must contain related keywords and two active text ads.
    • You must have two sitelink extensions
    • You cannot advertise against other brand names

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Digital advertising Tagged With: ad tech, AdWords, Google, marketing

May 26, 2017 By Emily Patterson

Local SEO Tips, More Creepy Ads & Google’s New Analysis Product

What’s New This Week?

Google’s Big Announcement

Google’s launching a new product, but coverage has been a mess of marketing gobbledygook. Here’s my nonprofit-friendly translation. If you track what traffic sources (Facebook ads, Google searches etc.) are leading to donations and other actions on your website, you probably do so with “last click attribution.” That means, you attribute credit for the donation to the most recent way the user entered your site. Google Analytics currently has tools to address this, but they are confusing and not too useful. But more is coming! It’s called Google Attribution. (But for now, it really only works with Google AdWords and DoubleClick campaigns. So get ready to better understand your Google AdWords grant use.)

Creepy Advertising Story of the Week

I’m starting to think that this can be a weekly feature in Bee Update. We’ve covered the perils of overly-personal ads before, but I have to share any piece entitled “Hey Instagram, Don’t Tell Me When to Freeze My Eggs.” Go ahead and bemoan the state of targeted advertising with Wired.

Topping Your Local Search Results

Trying to improve your search ranking in your local area? Here’s a read for you. SEO experts weigh in on what’s most important. The top three factors are quality and quantity of inbound links, on-page content (got your keywords?) and the rate of click-throughs on your search listing. Read some more in Search Engine Land.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: newsletter Tagged With: ad tech, advertising, AI, data, data visualization, digital advertising, Google, remarketing, SEO, targeted advertising

May 12, 2017 By Emily Patterson

Measuring Video, Ads That Spy on Your Photos & Why Facebook Data Doesn’t Match Google Analytics

What’s New This Week?

A Top Client Question Answered
Does your Google Analytics and Facebook data not match? It never does!Thank you Business 2 Community for this clear, in depth explanation of all the reasons why that happens.

Got Website Redesign Drama?
If you are working on a website redesign, chances are you also find yourself immersed in arguments about what content to cut, what to overhaul and where to focus funds. Here’s Bee Measure’s new webinar on how data can inform those decisions and win stakeholders’ support.

And You Thought They Weren’t Watching
If you read this newsletter, you know that advertisers can target based your social media clicks, likes, profile information etc. But even I was surprised to hear that a new technology is making it possible to target users by the content of their Instagram and Facebook photos. A new campaign by Under Armor targets people who post shots of themselves in running gear. Details in Fast Company. [Read more…]

Filed Under: newsletter Tagged With: ad tech, census, data visualization, digital strategy, Facebook ads, Google, google analytics, redesign, social media, video

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