It seems that every time I go into my AdWords account there is always some notification of an improvement to the AdWords interface. For those AdWords clients, students and agencies I thought I'd point out a few of the latest ones.

Google Campaign Optimizer now lets you optimise your Google Display Network campaigns down to keyword level. Display Campaign Optimizer was launched in beta in 201o but is now open to everyone. Here is an overview:

Google has also introduced an improvement to its advanced location targeting. This is what your advanced targeting screen used to look like

and this is what it now looks like:

And in the words of Google, this is what it means to you:

Let’s say you are an airline using physical location targeting to reach customers in Atlanta, GA looking to fly to Hawaii. You have the keyword “flights to hawaii” in your ad group. Previously, your ad wouldn’t appear for any prospective customers in Atlanta that were searching for “flights to hawaii” because the search term indicated that they were interested in Hawaii. With the new setting “People in my targeted location,” the airline can now reach the customers in Atlanta searching for “flights to hawaii.”

We have also seen a change in the way that phrase and exact match works. Consider the following two rows of search terms:

1. waterproof sunblock         buy bollard cover          single serving coffee maker
2. waterpoof sunblock          buy bollard covers        single serve coffee maker

Previously, a search for words in the second row would have been possible for the keywords that you input into Google (indicated in row 1). From now on, that won't be possible. Again, according to Google:

Starting in mid-May, phrase and exact match keywords will match close variants, including misspellings, singular/plural forms, stemmings, accents and abbreviations.

Here's a change to ad rotation. For those who have set upp their ads to rotate evenly (and infinitely), this will change in mid-May. Any ads that have ad rotation set up will automatically move over to optimize for clicks after 30 days.

And finally, Google has announced changes to the keyword tool and traffic estimator. The keyword tool has been improved to group keyword ideas by themes. In terms of the traffic estimator, Google has done the following:

Graph your performance estimates: We’ve introduced a graph to the Traffic Estimator to make it easier to gauge traffic and bid estimates and develop an effective bidding strategy.
Structure your keywords into ad groups: You can now create draft ad groups within the Traffic Estimator and easily view traffic and bid estimates for each of your draft ad groups.
Add campaigns to your account: When you’re satisfied with your campaign structure, you can add the draft campaign directly to your account.

Related Articles
Display Campaign Optimizer Available to All
More clarity and control with location targeting improvements
New matching behavior for phrase and exact match keywords
New Changes to Ad Rotation
Making campaign planning and build-out faster and more accurate

From March 30th, 2012 your Facebook Page is going to look a litte different. Firstly, you will notice that the Facebook page is powered by the Timeline, which potentially lest users get a look at the history of your brand, company, product, etc. Secondly, you will be able to use the full width of the Facebook page to display images which will, hopefully, resonate with your target audience. May companies are already rolling out these covers and below we have come up with a selection of those which we hope will inspire your organisation to do the same.

Marks and Spencer
Marks and Spencer are currently using their cover to promote Mother's Day.

Magnolia Bakery
This company use Facebook to showcase their products. And don't they do a great job?

Manchester United
Man Utd use their Facebook cover to flag up the club's achievements.

Old Spice
Fabulous image to promote the Old Spice brand

Sky Movies HD
Sky use their cover photo to flag up new movies.

Starting this month and running for the next 12 months Google will be running a series of events across Wales with the express aim of getting Welsh businesses online. Primarily aimed at small businesses, Google will be offering 40-minute, one-to-one consultations through its Juice Bar; a series of free workshops that will cover AdWords, developing a website and broadly looking at Google; online training that costs £99 and some free online tools.

Let's hope that through this initiative Welsh businesses will take up the offer and Google is able to reach as many of these SME's across Wales as possible.

More Information
Google Getting Welsh Businesses Online
Google Juice Bar
Free Google Workshops

Related Articles
Google Launches Campaign To Get Welsh Businesses Online (Techweek)
Google UK boss bids to put Welsh business in the picture with their own websites (Wales Online)
Getting Welsh Business Online Google Launch in Cardiff (BBC)
Welsh Secretary welcomes Google’s online business drive (Wales Office)

It's a beautiful day here in Wales and a Happy St David's Day to you all!

Following on from the successful Google AdWords Masterclass that we delivered last year Marketing Tom Media, in conjunction with Liberty Marketing, will be delivering two, revised and updated Google AdWords workshops in March and April. The first one, which is focused on Beginner to Intermediate level students will run on March 19th, while the second, aimed at Intermediate to Advanced level students runs on April 18th. These workshops are very much hands-on and interactive and allow the tutors, who have over 15 years' AdWords experience between them, to give delegates a thorough foundation in AdWords and to share top tips on how to create effective strategies.

More Information

March 21st - Google AdWords Workshop for Beginner/Intermediate Level

April 18th - Google AdWords Workshop for Intermediate/Advanced Level

We are pleased to announce that Marketing Tom has been successful in winning a contract from Visit Wales. We were selected for the Digital Tourism Business Programme – Pilot Training Programme Delivery. The aim of the Digital Tourism Business Framework (DTBF) project is

to assist tourism businesses and supporting organisations to adopt new technologies. This will enable them to meet and exceed visitor expectations and become more competitive in the market place as a result.

This initial pilot programme will offer Tourism businesses in Wales the chance to receive training, in the form of workshops, over one day. Marketing Tom will deliver two workshops in March on the topic of Websites and Social Media. We are working in partnership with Capital Region Tourism, one of 4 Welsh Regional Tourism Partnerships, to offer these courses in South East Wales.

The one-day programme will cover:

Websites and traffic generation

• A basic understanding of the web and how visitors use it,
• Improving Website conversion rates – Converting more Website visitors into buyers
• Improving Website Design – Improving speed, adding features and making changes often
• Making your website smartphone friendly
• Simple steps to improve a Website so it is seen by more people more often –commonly referred to as Search Engine Optimisation
• Link Building – How to build more quality links to your Website
• Pay-per-click – Cost effective advertising on Google and Facebook, reducing costs and tracking performance.

Social Media

• Facebook - why is it an important social medium and how it has the potential to promote tourism businesses. Also look at other applications which interact with Facebook such as Trip Adviser, Flickr and YouTube.
• Facebook Pages for Businesses – Getting started and making them work for your business
• Getting more likes to your Facebook page
• Using Facebook to promote tourism businesses and monitoring the results.
• Twitter and strategies for business

Dates

• 7th March, 2012

Cost

Subsidised cost is £25 per delegate including lunch and refreshments.

Venue
ESIS Conference Centre

ESIS is a first-class conference centre and training environment that provides quality facilities and surroundings. It is a 14-room venue centrally placed in Nantgarw, just outside Cardiff, with a full range of modern equipment and ICT infrastructure. The venue is ideal as we can use their high-quality IT suites with the latest Dell Desktop Computers, hooked up to high-speed broadband.

The centre is located just 8 miles from Cardiff on the A470 and is a few minutes from the M4. It is ideal for people coming from Cardiff, the South East/West of Wales, Mid Wales and the South West of England.

Find out how to get to this location.

Booking

To book a place please complete the details on the Capital Region Tourism site.

You see the ads at the side and top of your Google searches, you find them in Gmail, Amazon and across hundreds of thousands of web pages. Many people admit to not viewing them and others to not clicking on them. However, advertising generated 96% of Google's $37.9 billion revenue last year. This infographic gives you a flavour of the industries, business and keywords that help power Google AdWords.

[Source: Wordstream]

Happy New Year everyone! And here's hoping that all your hopes and dreams will be achieved in 2012. Here's just a quick run-through of courses that we have fixed for the coming months. Our next Twitter and AdWords days have yet to be decided but we'll let you know when they've been scheduled

Social Media Marketing London - January 30th

Social Media Marketing Cardiff - February 1st

CAM Diploma Course

Digital Marketing Essentials - January 16th and 17th

Marketing & Consumer Behaviour - February 16th & 17th

Digital Marketing Planning - March 29th & 30th

And don't forget, we will be running our new Diploma in Mobile Marketing from the first week of March (dates to be released over the next week).

We would like to wish clients, colleagues, friends and readers of this website a very, Merry Christmas and a Happy 2012. Thank you so much for your support over 2011! And we wish you every success in 2012

If you didn't get a chance to go to LeWeb 2011, you may be interested to check out their YouTube channel which features over 130 sessions in HD format. Highlights include Eric Schmidt talking about the new Android features (love the facial recognition unlock feature), Karl Lagerfeld and the founders of Spotify and Evernote.