Google Add Read-Only Access to Adwords Accounts

Google have finally given advertisers the ability to assign different levels of access to users of their Adwords accounts. The new Roles and Permissions Beta being introduced across all countries and languages, allows advertisers to offer three levels of access to users - Administrative, Standard, and Reports. Google explain the Beta in the below email, which I received this morning.......

Roles and Permissions Beta

We are excited to test a new Beta Feature for the Google AdWords
Program that helps you manage your AdWords account security and
privacy.

With this test, advertisers and agencies will have the ability to
assign three different user access levels for each AdWords account -
Administrative, standard, and reports. These new access levels increase
security by allowing you to assign or remove the level of access from
anyone you want. Also, these new access levels maintain privacy by
ensuring recipients get email appropriate to the user's access level.

This is a positive move by Google, although it's not before time. Yahoo, who have traditionally been the slower of the two engines to offer innovative features to advertisers, included this feature in their new Panama interface. Google have been quite slow in offering a feature that many advertisers, particularly agencies whose clients often request access to their accounts, feel is vital to the smooth running of a campaign (and harmony between clients / account managers!!). Still, Adwords now has read-only account access, and this can only be a good thing.

Innovations in PPC Advert Copy

Something caught my eye today on Google. It was a PPC ad with what looked like weird symbols in the advert's title. After a quick double-take, I realised that is pretty much what it was! Check out the ad below:


It seems what they've done is add ASCII characters into their Adwords ads, and somehow got it through editorial. I saw another add for this same company with a ">" in the title.

So is Adwords now allowing people to add symbols and weird characters to their ads? Probably not. You can get some through editorial (especially easy if you upload using Adwords Editor), but eventually they'll get pulled. It would be interesting to see what effect these symbols have on CTR. I would imagine it might have a positive impact on CTR, but not conversion rates.........some say it would serve these cheeky advertisers right, too ;-)

Yahoo SmartAds - A Privacy Concern?

This week, Yahoo announced the release of its SmartAds system - ads that will tailor their delivery, both timing and appearance, to users depending on certain demographic and behavioural factors. The ads will be tailored to each unique web surfer depending on age, sex, occupation, geography, search history and other factors.

Already there have been complaints about SmartAds potential impact on our privacy. They say Yahoo will know too much about us, and that they'll somehow take advantage of this by, I don't know, "selling us stuff we don't need". I personally find this a little insulting, as I feel we as adults can make up our own minds about what we buy - a persuasive ad isn't going to force us to do anything.

Besides, aren't SmartAds just an extension of what MSN are already doing with their demographic targeting in AdCenter? Well, yes. MSN uses information such as age, sex and location to profile its searchers, and allows advertisers on AdCenter to tap into this info and better target their ads (e.g. only target searchers of a certain sex or age). SmartAds are a slight enhancement on this - particularly their "on the fly" ad creation - but it's certainly not a quantum leap. Yet there wasn't half as much dissention about MSN's targeting revelation - in fact, it was largely welcomed as a great potential aid to advertisers.

So why isn't SmartAds being received in the same way? Perhaps because image ads are involved? Perhaps because Yahoo drives greater volume? Perhaps because everyone's scared of Bill Gates? No - I think it's because certain people don't care for Yahoo. Particularly Google people. Catch my drift? Perhaps I've been reading too many conspiracy theories...!

I personally welcome any innovation in advertising. If it gives the consumer more relevant messages, more likely to meet their needs and desires, then it's fine by me.

For more PPC News and Views, visit the PPC Outpost homepage.

YSM Adds New Features to Panama

Hot on the heels of the Europe rollout, Yahoo have announced some new tools to aid advertisers using their New Sponsored Search platform (aka Panama). They've announced the following tools, which can be seen in your migrated Panama accounts as of today:

• Move Keywords Tool - this feature has been around in Adwords for donks, but Yahoo are finally adding it to their own setup. It enables advertisers to quickly and easily move keywords from one ad group to another.
• Ad Copy Assistance - this little tool might come in handy; when writing ad copy, you can request Yahoo's system show you copy currently being used by advertisers using similar keywords. Checking competitor ad copy should be something you're already doing (in order to best differentiate/leverage your own) but this tool makes checking that copy easier and quicker. The tool also gives best practice tips on writing copy.
• New Keyword Selector Tool - this new tool will suggest new keywords for your ad groups, and will also give you monthly traffic estimates surrounding these keywords. If this tool is more accurate and reliable than Google's, this could be a major plus point for Yahoo's system (Google's traffic estimator is often very inaccurate).

Whilst these tools are hardly groundbreaking, they do look useful and fairly user-friendly. I must confess though, I'm looking for some innovating moves by Yahoo at this stage, not just clones of features already existant in Adwords. The only truly unique feature offered so far by the new platform is the Account Access Controls. This tool allows advertisers to offer different users of their accounts various levels of access and permissions - from administrator (full access) to analyst (read only access).

Still, every little helps, and these releases today will bring Yahoo's new platform closer to Google in terms of functionality and overall efficiency for its advertisers.