AdWords Adviser

Archive for October 22nd, 2009

Google are now inviting AdWords advertisers to trial their new keyword selection tool. But, is the new tool any good?

Where To Find The New Keyword Selection Tool

For once, everybody can trial Google’s new keyword tool rather than just a select few. To take part in the trial, log into your AdWords account and click on the “Opportunities” tab.

Now, look down the left side of your screen for the “Tools” box and click on the “keyword tool” link to display the current keyword tool. At the top of the page will be a link inviting you to “take a look at the new keyword tool”. Click on this link to start your trial.

What’s New In The New Google AdWords Keyword Selection Tool?

The first and most noticeable addition is the “categories” tree.

This tree lists major niches like “finance”, “home & kitchenware” and “food”. Clicking on the “+” symbol to the left of a category shows sub-niches within the main niche.

Select the niche that describes your business and Google will reveal a long list of keywords to choose from and use in your AdWords campaign.

With your keyword suggestions, you get the familiar information we’re all used to like competition levels, estimated costs, local & global search volumes.

New features include a trend graph that shows a keywords popularity over time. You can now tell if your keywords popularity is long term, seasonal or just a flash in the pan.

If you feel the need for more information about your keywords, additional columns can be added to the standard layout to reveal even more statistics. These include estimates on a keywords click-through-rate, ad position, impressions and cost. These should all be very familiar stats to regular users of Google’s Traffic Estimator tool.

Advanced Options

Not quite as obvious, but definitely as useful as the “categories” feature is the “Advanced Options” link. Clicking on this link reveals constraints you can place on your keyword statistics to get an even more realistic view of the performance you can expect from them.

One excellent change is that you can now filter your results by geographical location and language. You can also investigate the effect that different ‘max cpc’ and ‘daily budget’ limits will have on your keywords performance.

Another very interesting new feature is the ability to filter your results based on criteria that you define. For example, you could have the tool show you only those keywords that provide more than 1000 impressions in a month or for which you could obtain a top 3 position for your particular budget constraints.

Is This Tool More Complicated Than It Needs To Be?

The new AdWords Keyword Selection Tool certainly provides AdWords advertisers with a very comprehensive view of how your keywords might perform. And I’m sure the seasoned AdWords expert will get hours of enjoyment looking at potential keywords for their campaign from every angle imaginable.

However, for those that are very new to AdWords, this tool is going to seem very complicated and the results it provides will be hard to fully understand. Many new advertisers are going to be tempted to select an even bigger list of keyword suggestions and add them to their campaign without really doing any proper research on their value.

This is of course great news for Google who’ll make lots of extra revenue from the extra keywords these types of advertisers will select for their AdWords campaigns. But, maybe not so good for the advertiser who may not see a corresponding rise in sales.

What do you think, is the new AdWords keyword tool a valuable addition to your account or does it over complicate your keyword research?