This morning Google is announcing that its Call Metrics call-tracking capability is going to be generally available to all US and Canadian AdWords advertisers. Call Metrics is not to be confused with mobile Click to Call ads, though Call Metrics is available to Click to Call mobile advertisers as well. Below is an example ad (ADT) using Call Metrics call tracking on the PC. Powered by Google Voice, AdWords advertisers simply check a box to assign either a toll-free or local tracking number to their campaigns. The inclusion of the phone number doesn’t impinge on the AdWords character count. This has been cited to me by a couple of SEMs as one of the benefits of using Call Metrics vs. third party call tracking. However other call tracking firms offer features not yet available in Google Call Metrics (e.g., Marchex, Telmetrics with call recording and transcription). In addition SEM platform Kenshoo already offers what it calls “call conversion optimization,” which tracks … [Read more...] about Google Opens Up Call Metrics, Plans Bid-For-Calls Marketplace
Google opens
Google+ Opens To Everyone, Adds Search, Expands Hangouts
Beta Opens To Everyone Buried at the end of Google’s blog post is the news that the service, which until this point has been a invite-only “field trial” is now an open beta available to anyone: For the past 12 weeks we’ve been in field trial, and during that time we’ve listened and learned a great deal. We’re nowhere near done, but with the improvements we’ve made so far we’re ready to move from field trial to beta, and introduce our 100th feature: open signups. This way anyone can visit google.com/+, join the project and connect with the people they care about. Google+ Search Also out today (though I don’t yet see it) is a much requested ability to search through Google+ content: Just type what you’re looking for into the Google+ search box, and we’ll return relevant people and posts, as well as popular content from around the web. If you have it, you’ll see “Search Google+” in the search box like … [Read more...] about Google+ Opens To Everyone, Adds Search, Expands Hangouts
Google Opens Kimono (Slightly) On AdWords Screening Measures
Followers of news about Google AdWords know that problematic errors — instances in which ads that violate the company’s own advertising standards slip by — come up quite regularly. Most recently, Google, along with advertiser ProFlowers, was roundly and publicly criticized for AdWords that seemed to indicate that local florists were sold out in advance of Valentine’s Day — when they actually were not. Back in January, a BBC report indicated that Google had admitted to running, and collecting money from, illegal Olympics ticket sellers in the United Kingdom. The company also recently paid a $500 million fine to the U.S. Justice Department, after admitting to taking illegal pharmaceutical ads over several years. And the list of potentially problematic issues goes on and on: mortgage scams, illegal gambling ads, trademark issues (which differ from geography to geography), and even consumer advisory policies (from the Federal Trade Commission and similar … [Read more...] about Google Opens Kimono (Slightly) On AdWords Screening Measures
Google “Opens The Kimono” On How It Builds Maps
The Atlantic published an article about what Google calls “Ground Truth,” its allegedly top-secret map-development process. As the name implies, the idea is to create digital maps that more accurately reflect the ground truth of the real world vs competitors’ offerings. The trigger for the article is undoubtedly Google’s desire to expose the complexity, layers and (by implication) cost of the process of generating maps in the wake of its ouster from iOS 6 and increasing competition from Nokia/Navteq and OpenStreetMap. There are several things about the article and the revealed Google map-development process that are interesting. The first is that Google’s Street View process is likened to a webcrawler for the real world, along with the notion that it’s “indexing” the physical world just as Google indexes documents and pages online. The article quotes Google Maps’ Brian McClendon on the use of Street View and the … [Read more...] about Google “Opens The Kimono” On How It Builds Maps
Google opens the AMP fire hose
Google’s expansion of Accelerated Mobile Pages across mobile search results is underway, gradually turning the trickle of AMP traffic to a steady flow. The September start of the “blue links” rollout, along with announcements from some high-profile participants in the AMP Project, are advancing the open-source initiative on multiple fronts. Google’s AMP expansion Since Accelerated Mobile Pages first appeared in Google search results in February 2016, AMPs have been mostly concentrated in the Top Stories area of mobile search results: The current expansion, which was announced in August and started in mid-September, will surface AMPs throughout standard mobile search results, aka “blue links.” When the phased blue links rollout is complete, Google will always present the validated AMP version of a page to mobile users instead of the standard web link. At this stage, Google is only surfacing a portion of available AMPs; a September 25 query returned a … [Read more...] about Google opens the AMP fire hose