A key component of developing a search ads strategy is understanding what other advertisers are doing, and using this intelligence to optimize campaigns for top performance. To empower advertisers to make better informed optimization decisions, Google are launching the Auction insights report.

Google already provide Impression share columns within campaign and ad group reports that show the percentage of impressions received, compared to the estimated number of impressions for which they were eligible. While this report gives valuable insight into missed opportunities in aggregate, it also raises additional questions -- who competes in the same auctions, and can performance data be made available at a more detailed level?

When Google first created custom alerts, they wanted to provide advertisers with a way to be notified when certain behaviours or changes occurred in their AdWords account. Over time, they observed that most advertisers wanted to take action when such triggers occurred within their accounts. Many of these actions can now be done by creating automated rules - a tool within AdWords that enables you to schedule automatic changes to specific parts of your account based on the criteria that you specify.

Based on automated rules adoption, Google have decided to sunset custom alerts. Starting June 15, they will disable creation of new alerts and by the end of June, they will stop triggering existing alerts. This means that on June 30, you will not see custom alerts in your AdWords account. If you selected email as your notification method, this means you will no longer receive alert emails.

Google are actively working to bring an email-only option in automated rules so you can be notified when a rule requirements are met without taking any action. In the meantime, contact your Red Wasp account manager for some of the common ways you can use automated rules to save you time in managing your account.

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When Google launched bid simulator in 2009, they wanted to make it easy for us to understand the impact of bids on our advertising results. Until now, we’ve been able to access bid simulator at the keyword and ad group level.

To allow us to more easily simulate and apply bid changes at scale, Google have announced the launch of campaign bid simulator.

Google have been listening closely to the suggestions put forward by adwords users on how to reduce the guesswork involved with building new campaigns. To help improve the campaign building process, they’re rolling out improvements to the Keyword Tool and Traffic Estimator.

Improvements to the Keyword Tool

• See keyword ideas grouped by themes: With the updated Keyword Tool, you can easily view suggestions for new ad group themes and quickly choose to add ad groups directly to your account.

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The Google Research team has a new study out today that examines how organic search results and ranking impact ad impressions and ad clicks. The team analyzed 390 Search Ads Pause studies and found, on average:

• 81% of ad impressions and 66% of ad clicks occur in the absence of an associated organic result on the first page of search results. All ad clicks in these situations are incremental.

• On average, for advertisers who appear in the top rank organic slot, 50% of ad clicks are incremental. This means that half of all ad clicks are not replaced by organic clicks when search ads are paused.

• For advertisers whose organic search results are in the 2nd to 4th position, 81% of ad clicks are incremental. For advertisers appearing in organic position of 5 or lower, 96% of ad clicks are incremental.

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5 mistakes to avoid when using...

Google Adwords remains one of the most powerful web marketing tools out there and PPC is at the forefront of many companies' digital marketing campaigns. However, with more advertisers than ever before using Adwords, it can be tough to to ensure your campaign is as successful as it should be, especially when you are competing against so many others for keywords. By avoiding the mistakes below, you should be on the right track for a successful PPC campaign.

Online shopping surges this Christmas, but so do empty carts

Did you know that upto 96% of people visiting your website will leave without completing any kind of transaction? According to a recent report by Comscore, the figure really is that high. As the holiday period well and truly gets underway, almost $25 billion has already been spent in the US alone. After what can only be described as a tough year, its important businesses are maximising the online profit-making potential of the Christmas build up.

7 Superb Suggestions to Boost Conversion Rates on your Landing Page

An effective landing page is essential for a high conversion rate. Even with a bulletproof PPC strategy, if you fail compose a landing page that is simple, effective and sells to your customers, you will find your ability to convert seriously damaged. By following the 7 superb suggestions below, you'll certainly be pointing in the right direction. So make sure you have the basics covered!

1. KEEP IT SIMPLE

Last week Google officially launched Adwords Express (formerly known as Google Boost) in the UK and Germany. Adwords express is a simple version of Adwords aimed at small business owners that want to advertise on-line but don't have the budget to employ a pay-per-click manager.

We've put Adwords Express through its paces and here it what we found....

So what is 'Modified Broad Match'?

Modified broad match is an AdWords, pay per click, targeting feature that lets you create keywords which have greater reach than phrase match, and more control than broad match.

To use this match type put a +(plus) sign in front of the words in your keyword to ensure they feature in the search. For example