Archive for February, 2010

Visualize yourself with your AdWords account open on your computer screen, looking at the two ads you’ve just created for your next A/B split testing experiment. Will people click more often on the headline “Cheap Holidays” or “Fantastic Holidays”?

If you are confused and wondering why anyone should care, then you’re missing out on the most powerful tool for improving your AdWords advertising performance – split testing.

Anyway, you’ve started your latest headline test and the next day you discover that your first ad (“Cheap Holidays”) has 23 clicks and your second ad (“Fantastic Holidays”) has 31 clicks. Has your second ad won, or should you let the test run a little longer, just to make sure?

This question really matters!

The problem is, if you wait too long between tests, then your wasting time and money. On the other hand, decide to soon and you risk changing your ad based on a false assumption.

How can you make that important decision with the confidence that you are getting it right every single time?

There is only one answer to this question and it can be found in the mysterious world of statistics.

Your A/B split testing results are reliable when the following formula is true:)

( (W – L) / 2) ² > N

1. N is the number of trials.

For the previous example, this is 31+23=54.

2. W is the number of clicks for winning ad.

For the previous example, this is 31.

3. L is the number of clicks for loosing ad.

For the previous example, this is 23.

Applying the above formula to our example,

((31-23)/2)² =16

16 is smaller than 31 + 23 = 54 so the formula is not true, we therefore need to keep testing.

Okay, you’re probably thinking that you have lots of different ad groups in your AdWords account and you really can’t be bothered to spend hours every morning hammering keys on a calculator, checking each one against this formula to see if you’ve got a winning ad.

The truth is that you don’t have too:)

 http://www.loweryourbidprice.com/amember/go.php?r=5893&i=l2

Another way to evaluate your ads is to use Winner Alert. This software will scan your AdWords account every day, perform a statistical analysis on all your A/B split testing ads and send you an email every time it finds a winner.

You can now log into your AdWords account only when you get an alert. Your email alert will tell you exactly the ad group you need to look at and which was the winning  ad. Delete the loosing ad and write another – your done!

The neat thing is that not only do you get informed when you have a winning ad, but you’re also told when you have two ads that are performing just too close to call.

This information is important because you need to know when you’re wasting time with a test for which you will never get a positive result. You can then abandon the test, delete either one of your ads and start a new test.

This is A/B Split Testing done the easy way. All the hard work of working out if you have a winner is done for you, allowing you to concentrate on writing good ad copy.

http://www.loweryourbidprice.com/amember/go.php?r=5893&i=l2

There is no long and confusing setup process, it takes less than 10 minutes to get everything right and detailed, easy to follow instructions are provided for you to follow.

When you subscribe to Winner Alert, you will discover why so many people get really excited about how it helps them see results from their AdWords split testing much more quickly than without it.

P.S. I’m sure that by now you can see the benefits of Winner Alert and how it can improve your A/B Split Testing results. As you debate about buying, think about the 14 days risk free trial that you get when you sign up.

Try Winner Alert for 14 days and if you don’t see any improvement in your AdWords accounts performance, you can cancel your order immediately, and without cost.

 http://www.loweryourbidprice.com/amember/go.php?r=5893&i=l2

Dear AdWords Adviser!

Every week we answer one of the many questions you send us. If you would like the answer to your question then send it to:)

www.dearadwordsadviser.com

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This week we would like to thank Mahadev for this question:)

My father (no more now) and myself have developed this herbal product for kidney stones which is a boon to sufferers.  I want to popularise this medicine, but don’t know how.

You’re intelligent enough to know that advertising drugs (even herbal remedies) on the Internet is not going to be easy. Just think about it, you probably get a number of spam e-mail in your inbox everyday trying to sell you some magic pill or cure. And that’s just the one’s that slip through the spam filter!

The fact of the matter is that everyone is automatically suspicious of websites selling online medications and cures. And you can bet that Google will be the most sceptical of all. Without doubt, you are going to experience much frustration and long delays in getting any of your ads for AdWords approved.

So when marketing using AdWords, your first stop must be at Google’s Content Policy Overview web page. Undoubtedly, there is a lot of information here and you need to dedicate the time to get familiar with what conditions apply to you and the countries within which you are going to advertise.

But more importantly, you need to build credibility into your website and everything you do. Without credibility, you won’t get the sales and you will certainly get a ruff ride from Google.

Don’t even think that a few medical credentials and a degree to your name is going to do the trick. You need much more than that to convince people.

Doubtless, if your remedy is as good as you claim, you’ll have a number of written testimonials. Positioning these prominently on your website is a good start. But let’s face it, written testimonials can be faked and who is going to check back with the person that is supposed to have written it?

Certainly, video testimonials would be better, but like written testimonials, these can also be faked by asking friends and family to record something for you.

The trick to building credibility is to get others that already have credibility to review and write about the benefits of your product.

You need to approach newspapers and respected medical journals and tell them about your amazing cure. Let them evaluate it and if it’s as good as you claim, they’ll write about you.

You can then reference their articles on your website and if (like most newspapers and journals) they have an online version, even link directly to their review.

And you may also want to speak with Government departments regarding any registration or certification that can be obtained for your product. Many have a certificate or registration logo that you can add to your website giving you loads of credibility.

Okay, I know what you’re thinking, this sounds like a lot of hard work, and you’re right it is. But remember, you’re in a line of business where everybody’s first thought is that your product is a scam. It’s up to you to prove them wrong.

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Adrian Key is a profesional AdWords consultant and editor of the AdWords Adviser, a blog dedicated to making AdWords more profitable for you. After you read Your AdWords Review, you will feel the power that comes from knowing exactly what you need to do to make your AdWords advertising more profitable.

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Welcome to “Guest Author Tuesday”!

No online business owner should rely on just one method to promote their website. In this series of articles we invite guest authors to introduce us to alternative marketing methods that you can use to attract visitors.

To contribute an article, please email it to editor@adwords-adviser.co.uk .

Todays guest author is: Thomas Brant

Most successful online marketers are using social network marketing as a good way to prospect and market on the internet. In this article we will offer some ideas on how you can benefit from this.

Social networking started out years ago as a way for people to make friends and stay in touch with others of similar interests via the internet. Over time it has become an excellent way for businesses to make targeted and immediate contact with the masses.

Basically it is a very quick and effective form of viral marketing. This is great for those with a good reputation and not so great for the others.

The success in social network marketing comes from successfully targeting and offering the right product to the right market. It’s also about helping others.

You do not want to enter social networking for the sole purpose of selling. If you do you will quickly be discovered and will gain a negative reputation which you absolutely don’t want on the internet.

Your goal with social network is to develop a brand for yourself. You do this by attraction marketing. The more you share your wealth of knowledge the more you will become known as an expert in your field.

Once that is done you have branded yourself as a person to go to. It’s at that point that you will have the credibility you need in order to drive readers (potential customers) to your sites. So where do you start?

There are many social networking forums to help you launch your profile. MySpace and Facebook are well known. There is also LinkedIn which has a reputation for specifically connecting professionals. And of course Twitter is hugely popular.

There are many other social networking sites you can use. Most of these are free to join. There are a few that have a basic monthly fee, but with these you usually have other services and benefits within the site.

It’s interesting to note that many companies are devoting time and people to developing specific social marketing strategies as they now fully realize the potential of this vehicle.

The real key to effective social network marketing hasn’t changed from the key to regular effective social networking. You must approach it with the attitude of giving rather than receiving.

Those that are successful with this are those that provide information needed to overcome a challenge or to fill a need, etc. They are involved with the spirit giving and not just taking.

Once an audience of followers has been established it is then ethical to passively promote and market your business interests. You will more than likely be able to build a solid customer base from that strategy.

Thomas Brant is the owner of the first social networking business site to offer home business opportunities. Start your own social network home based business today with zero upfront costs. http://www.blazingvillage.org/

Everyone knows that information is power, but as you continue to scan over the various views and reports that AdWords provides, you can begin to find it all a bit overwhelming. To help, Google have recently introduced the new AdWords Analysis Toolbar.

Up until recently, we have all had to make do with the limitations of the “Customize” button. But now, advertisers can make use of a fully functional toolbar located in the “Campaigns” tab to dissect, analyze and digest their campaign performance data in almost any way they choose.

You can now apply filters to your data and customise the columns you display much quicker and easier than previously. And if you wish to obtain important insights into your campaigns performance across different networks or time periods that’s considerably easier too.

The new AdWords Analysis Toolbar represents a positive step forward in Google’s bid to keep advertisers better informed on the performance of their AdWords campaigns. You should definitely begin to make regular use of this feature in order to manage your campaigns more efficiently.

Inside AdWords: Streamlined analysis tools in your Campaigns tab

Streamlined analysis tools in your Campaigns tab. Over the last several months, we’ve been introducing new ways to analyze and segment your campaign data. As we continue to introduce more data types, we want to make sure that it’s easy …

Publish Date: 02/12/2010 20:19

http://adwords.blogspot.com/

New Analysis Toolbar in AdWords Campaigns Tab – Search Marketing …

New Analysis Toolbar in AdWords Campaigns Tab. Share. The new toolbar aids with viewing data. AdWords has been providing more and more data over the past few months, which lends itself to needing ways to view that data. …

Publish Date: 02/19/2010 18:46

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/

Google Adwords Rolled out New “Streamlined Analysis Tool” in …

Google Adwords team is hardly working on campaign structure for advertisers to access the account with ease. Few months before, they’ve been introducing new ways to analyze and segment your… [[ This is a content summary only. ...

Publish Date: 02/13/2010 14:52

http://www.seoservicesgroup.com/blog/

New AdWords Analysis Toolbar | Vertical Leap Blog

Google have just rolled out an analysis toolbar across the AdWords user interface to allow advertisers to easier analyse and segment AdWords data when.

Publish Date: 02/17/2010 12:30

http://www.vertical-leap.co.uk/

 

Dear AdWords Adviser!

Every week we answer one of the many questions you send us. If you would like the answer to your question then send it to:)

www.dearadwordsadviser.com

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This week we’d like to thank Carole for the question:)

How much should I bid when I am only just starting out and my two little children’s books sell at £5.99.

In the next 2 minutes, you are going to learn the most effective way to use AdWords to sell very low cost items.

Okay, you’re probably thinking that selling any product at a profit when your costs are very low is going to be difficult – and you’re absolutely right!

What I’m about to tell you will probably surprise you, but your best strategy is to forget about making a profit with AdWords (at least for the short term). If you’re serious about selling your low cost product then it is crucial that you first get your sales page right.

Just suppose your landing page has a conversion rate of 1.5%. This means that for every 200 visitors to your site, you’ll gain 3 sales.

What if you made a small change to your landing page and it started to convert at 2%. For every 200 visitors you’d now gain 4 sales. This represents a massive 33% increase.

Small changes in your landing page design can make a big difference in sales!

Obviously, to test the effect different landing pages have on your sales, you need targeted traffic to your website. And there is no better source of targeted traffic than AdWords.

Find a handful of low cost, targeted keywords for your AdWords account that also attract a reasonable volume of searches. Now, create two or three landing pages and split test them using a tool like Google Website Optimizer.

Select the page that converts best, and repeat the exercise again and again changing different elements on your landing page each time.

When you feel you’ve achieved the best landing page for your product you can then start to find low cost keywords for your AdWords account that will keep the traffic coming, but this time at a profit.

By following this strategy you could easily raise your landing pages conversion rate to anything between 5% and 10% or even more. The better you can get your landing page to convert, the more sales you will gain and the more you can afford to bid on individual keywords before you make a loss.

You also have the added advantage that any traffic from other sources like the organic search results, articles you write or ads you place on other websites, will also convert much better.

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Adrian Key is a profesional AdWords consultant and editor of the AdWords Adviser, a blog dedicated to making AdWords more profitable for you. Subscribe to this blog, get your free ebook, and be informed by email everytime we answer a readers question.

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Guest Author Tuesday!

In this series of articles we invite guest authors to introduce us to alternative marketing methods that you can use to attract visitors.

To contribute an article, please email:)

editor@adwords-adviser.co.uk

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When you have an internet business you will eventually hear that the money is in the list. This is true to an extent.

You certainly can make money building a large list, but there are other things you need to do as well. This article is going to explain why building your own list is so important to your online business.

One of the main reasons why it is so important is that it allows you to capture the contact information for people that are interested in the niche of your business. Because it takes a person numerous times to see something before they act on it, being able to contact your potential customers is critical.

This means you can send out information to your list on things you have for sale, and some will purchase from you.

Others will take longer, but that is okay because you have a way of contacting them that they signed up for. This gives you their permission to contact them, which is so vital to building a business with a good reputation.

A second reason having a list is vital is because it allows you to develop trust with your customers. You can use your list to give them free articles, eBooks, software, or anything else that they will find value in. The more free things you provide them, along with a few advertisements for products, the more they will start to trust you.

Just make sure that the free things outweigh the advertisements or people will start unsubscribing from your list. It is easy to build trust with customers if you are honest with them and always provide quality.

A third reason having a list is essential is because it lets you get to know people better. When you are online, it is impossible to get to know someone half way around the world without a tool to do that. Your list becomes that tool because you can get a little personal in this.

Do not over do it and start boring everyone with all of your life stories; just let your personality shine through what you write. Don’t be afraid to be funny, sad or whatever else you are feeling, just be yourself.

When people know that there is a real live person behind something online, they tend to want to spend their money with you instead of someone that they know nothing about.

These are just a handful of ways you can make money building a list. Trust, being a real person and providing value are all very important to building a successful list because this is the only way to make money with it effectively.

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As an Internet Marketing Success Coach, Steve Lauri shows people how to become profitable in the world of online business utilizing social media and personal branding. Whether you are just starting out or you want to take your current business to the next level, Steve is someone you’ll want to learn from. http://stevelauri.com

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As you read every word of this post, Google are making more improvements to the Opportunities tab in your AdWords account with the introduction of Bid Ideas.

Just picture this for a moment, you want to decrease your overall costs or increase traffic to your website. Bid Ideas gives you customized ideas that can help you determine exactly which bids to adjust in order to make the most of your advertising budget.

It’s a simple tool that will help you to determine where there are opportunities in your account for you to receive more clicks without a big increase in your budget, or where you can reduce costs without loosing to much traffic.

However, as Google points out, AdWords doesn’t know enough about your advertising goals to make actual recommendations. The right thing to do when using the Big Ideas tool therefore, is to treat the information provided as suggestions on how things could be improved.

You’re probably wondering how useful this tool is going to be?

The fact of the matter is that the tool is really to new to be sure.

But, if you think about it, the most probable outcome will be that many advertisers will take the suggestions that Google makes as instructions. They’ll make the changes without really thinking about what they are doing. And the end result will probably be people paying yet higher bid prices for their advertising then they need too.

Oh well, that’s life I guess …

What do you think about Google’s new Bid Ideas tool. Read the reference posts below to get the full picture then leave us a comment with your  point of view.

Inside AdWords: Bid ideas now in the Opportunities tab

Now we’re adding more functionality to the Opportunities tab with the introduction of bid ideas. Bid ideas, based on bid simulator data, will help you raise or lower your bids on specific keywords to improve your AdWords ROI. …

Publish Date: 02/11/2010 23:23

http://adwords.blogspot.com/

Google AdWords Now Offering “Bid Ideas”

The Google AdWords Blog announced a new feature was added to the Opportunities Tab in the AdWords console. The new feature is named Bid Ideas and it gives.

Publish Date: 02/12/2010 14:29

http://searchengineland.com/

Bid ideas now in the Opportunities tab

Over the past few months, you may have visited the Opportunities tab to get customized keyword and budget ideas for optimizing your account. Now we’re adding more functionality to the Opportunities tab with the introduction of bid ideas …

Publish Date: 02/11/2010 23:23

http://keywordsearchpros.com/

Dear AdWords Adviser!

Every week we answer one of the many questions you send us. If you would like the answer to your question then send it to:)

www.dearadwordsadviser.com

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This week we would like to thank Lara for the question:)

We’re trying to track what keywords in our Google AdWords account are converting for us.

You have no idea what an important question this is!

I am amazed and annoyed when people bring be their failing AdWords accounts to review and they haven’t even bothered to try and measure the simplest of performance statistics – the number of conversions each of their keywords is achieving.

It’s really simple to do and the information provided can actually save you tons of money and time in wasted effort.

The absolute minimum that every AdWords account holder should do is set-up conversion tracking for all their AdWords keywords.

This is how you do it:)

1. Login to your AdWords account.
2. Click on the “Reports” tab and select “conversions” from the drop menu.
3. Click the “new conversion” button.
4. Give your new conversion profile an “Action name“.
5. Select the most appropriate option from the “tracking purpose” drop list.
6. Provide AdWords with the “Page Security Level” of your websites thank you page. The URL for the page will either start with HTTP or HTTPS. Select the correct one from the drop list.
7. If every purchase has a fixed value, then you can enter that into the “Revenue for conversion” field, otherwise leave blank.
8. To protect your customers privacy, Google provide a small image for your website to indicate that information on that page is being tracked. You must show the image, but you can use the options provided to blend it to fit with your sites colour scheme.
9. Click on the “Save and get code” button.
10. Copy the code provided in the box below the button.
11. Paste the code into your website thank you page.

You probably know this, but your website thank you page is the last page in the sales process that a customer sees when they make a purchase from you. It’s usually used to confirm the order and tell your customer what will happen next.

If you don’t have a thank you page for your website, then place the code in a page as far down your sales funnel as you can.

When you start tracking AdWords conversions from your website, you’ll begin to receive daily statistics for all of your keywords and ads. You can now evaluate the performance of your keywords and ads based on how many sales they make rather than how much revenue they generate for Google.

But, if you’re like me, you’ll want to know exactly how people find your website regardless of where they come from. In fact, knowing what keywords people use to find your website in search engines etc. can be a very useful insight into the keywords you should be targeting for your AdWords campaign.

Setting up Google Analytics for your website is a little more complex than installing the AdWords Conversion Tracking Code, but the extra information it gives you into the performance of your AdWords campaigns makes it well worth the effort.

Google provides full instructions here:)

http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=66983

If you are going to run a successful AdWords campaign, you must install AdWords Conversion Tracking and Google Analytics before you start bidding on any keywords. Every minute that you don’t have these tools installed is costing you money in wasted bids and missed opportunities.

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Adrian Key is a profesional AdWords consultant and editor of the AdWords Adviser, a blog dedicated to making AdWords more profitable for you. After you read Your AdWords Review, you will feel the power that comes from knowing exactly what you need to do to make your AdWords advertising more profitable.

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Guest Author Tuesday!

In this series of articles we invite guest authors to introduce us to alternative marketing methods that you can use to attract visitors.

To contribute an article, please email:)

editor@adwords-adviser.co.uk

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If you want to attract online attention to a particular product, service or cause, consider running a Twitter contest.  Because of the 140-character limit and public tweets, Twitter is an ideal social media platform for this marketing strategy.

How to Run a Twitter Contest to Promote a Product

Let’s say you want to promote a new product – we’ll call it “Miracle Copy-writing” – that sells for $89.   You tweet about this new product, including the link to your site where the product is sold.

You’d like other people to tweet this link also.  What will motivate them to do so?

You launch a contest that everyone who tweets the link will be entered in a random drawing to get a free copy of “Miracle Copy-writing.”  (You can track who tweeted by using tweetbeep.com to let you know whenever the link appears on Twitter.)

You send out the information on the contest through your email opt-in list, you post the announcement on your website, and you create an announcement through twitwall.com to tell people on Twitter about the contest.

Now if you write a good headline for the twitwall announcement, you can get extra exposure for your product.  Perhaps the headline will be: You Only Need to Tweet Once for a Chance to Own “Miracle Copywriting”

How to Run a Twitter Contest to Increase Your Email Opt-in List

Let’s take another imaginary scenario:  You run announcements on Twitter about a contest for the top five essays by Internet marketing college students.  To enter, contestants go to your website, where they find an opt-in offer for a free report on top tips for Internet marketing.

Then, of course, you would post the winning essays on your website as well as tweeting about these essays.  More people would be motivated to come to your site to read these winning essays – and again be exposed to your opt-in offer.

How to Run a Twitter Contest for a Non-Profit Cause

Now let’s say you want to use Twitter for fundraising.  You can attach a contest component to the fundraising efforts.  For example, you can solicit gifts for the top five largest donors.  And to encourage people to give more, you can tweet about these gifts.

And the way to extend the reach of this type of contest is to solicit partners on Twitter – and preferably partners who have their own blogs.  Then each of you blog about the contest, tweet about the contest, upload videos to YouTube, and whatever other online methods you want to use to get out the word about the contest for who donates the most money to the cause.

Warning:  While the variations on running a Twitter contest are many, an effective Twitter contest does take work.  It requires:

- Planning – how long does the contest run for; when is the best start date

- Coordination – are your Twitter partners on board

- Consistency – a few tweets are not enough; you must continually find new ways of announcing the contest so Twitter doesn’t slam you for tweeting the same thing over and over again

- Transparency – everything you do in connection to the contest must be public with no hidden affiliate relationships
And, remember, the saying “you get what you put into it” is particularly true for running a Twitter contest.

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Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is an Internet business consultant whose power marketing website is http://www.MillerMosaicLLC.com .

If you liked this article, you’ll love her FREE report on “How to Become a Twitter Marketing Expert” ‘ grab your report now from http://www.millermosaicllc.com/free-twitter-report

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Just suppose you wanted to sell cases for iPhones and you’re targeting the UK, with mobile ads delivered by AdWords.

Anyone that knows anything about mobile phones will tell you that until recently, you could only buy an iPhone in the UK if you registered for the O2 network.  

But at the end of 2009, Orange and Vodaphone reached agreement with Apple to also sell  the iPhone. Handsets should be available on those two networks early in 2010.

Are you beginning to see your problem as an advertiser?

Your ad for iPhone cases is only going to be of value to users of those three networks. Any ads sent on the 3 or T-mobile networks would be wasted as they are very unlikely to be seen by an iPhone owner.

And what about all those mobile phone users that don’t have an iPhone? Your iPhone case is not going to be much good to them either.

Imagine what it would be like if you could target your mobile ads at a particular network. And wouldn’t it be amazing if you could even narrow your target audience to a particular type of phone. You now can with Google’s new targeting options for mobile ads.

In a few seconds you can add targeting options to any mobile ad that will restrict it to show only on phones connected to a particular network. All five UK network operators are included.

With just a few more clicks of the mouse you can also restrict the types of phone on which your ads will be seen. Currently, the Android, iPhone (& iPod) and Palm can be individually targeted.

Picture the power of these new ad options on your mobile advertising campaign.

Maybe you’re selling an app for the new Android phone. You can now target your ads at only those phones. Or maybe your website doesn’t display right on the Palm. You can now create specialised landing pages and direct Palm phone users to them instead.

The possibilities are endless!

Inside AdWords: New targeting options for mobile ads

New targeting options for mobile ads. If you’ve chosen to show ads on iPhones and other mobile devices with full Internet browsers, you can now target specific mobile devices or carriers. This feature makes it easier for you to reach …

Publish Date: 01/20/2010 18:41

http://adwords.blogspot.com/

New Mobile Ad Targeting Options and App Downloads With Google …

Google advertisers can now target ads based on devices and carriers of the users. This will enable better results if …

Publish Date: 01/22/2010 9:58

http://www.pagetrafficblog.com/

Google Narrows Down Mobile Ad Targeting | WebProNews

“If you’ve chosen to show ads on iPhones and other mobile devices with full internet browsers, you can now target specific mobile devices or carriers,” says Kurnit. “This feature makes it easier for you to reach the right users if you …

Publish Date: 01/20/2010 20:13

http://www.webpronews.com/taxonomy/term/21/0

http://www.revenews.com/adamviener/

• Google Now Targets Mobile Ads (and App Download Links) By Device (techcrunch.com)
• Google Now Targets Mobile Ads by Device (seekingalpha.com)
• Google AdWords Enables Mobile Device and Carrier Targeting, Plus Special Link for Mobile Apps (searchenginewatch.com)