After weeks of studying, and passing an extremely difficult exam, we are pleased to say that Genuine Interactive is a Google AdWords Certified Company! You may say “why would we need to be ‘officially’ qualified at something we were particularly good at already?” Luckily Chris Khoo has addressed this matter in a post on Search Engine News.

“Certifications add legitimacy and respectability to an occupation; they prove that you had to study, and help assure your clients that you know what you're doing…My positions is that this is just what the online advertising industry needs to establish a professional standard. After all, would you like Joe Bloggs off the street performing heart surgery on you, with no degree or qualifications? Or would you have your eyes checked by someone other than a qualified optometrist? Just like being a Microsoft, Novell, or Cisco professional, it’s good that there’s something now to certify the skills of a Google AdWords professional.”

 In a nutshell, we do not shy away from hard work, complicated tasks or difficult tests – we thrive on solving problems and are proud of all our accomplishments. And since we are very much a part of this relatively new (even though it has celebrated its 10th birthday), extremely dynamic and still evolving industry, we are now officially CERTIFIED!

For those of you running Google Adwords pay-per-click advertising programs, I’m sure at some point along the way you’ve read about Google’s mysterious “Quality Score,” which combines a variety of factors of your campaigns and measures how relevant your keyword and your ad text are to user's search queries.  This past Monday, Google announced changes to its Quality Score calculation which could affect your pay-per-click programs.

First, Quality Score is now calculated at the time of each search query.  No longer is it just historical click-through rates that apply. The more relevant your keywords and ads are to your landing pages, the more likely you'll be able to attract quality traffic. This change to real-time calculation leads to your all keywords being active because they are evaluated for every relevant query.

Second, the dreaded ‘inactive for search’ label for Google-appointed, non-relevant keywords no longer exists.  Now that Quality Score is evaluated on every search query, all keywords will remain active.  This change will increase the availability of your ads across the board. But keep in mind that your onetime ‘inactive for search’ keywords will now most likely just turn into low-performing keywords. But, hey at least they won’t be omitted.

Lastly, Google now provides 'first page bid estimates' for bidding.  This new feature replaces the ‘minimum bid’ requirement and allows for better insight into your programs’ expected results.  I don’t know any advertisers out there looking for minimum placements, so this is a welcome change.  This ‘first page bid estimates’ will likely drive total costs up, as more marketers fight for position and get on that first page.

Make no mistake; Google’s main focus is to make money. But along the way they are actively working to making their programs better for both searchers and advertisers.  Their recent improvements to their Quality Score are part of Google’s continuing effort to deliver the relevant ads to searchers.

If you want to be a true Google Adwords superstar, you have to start looking deeper into your campaigns. You need to get out of the clicks and take a ride in the AdWords conversion van.

All too often, agencies brag about how many clicks they have “created” for their customers. It’s the equivalent of a TV media buyer bragging – “Look at how much of your budget we were able to spend! It was hard finding stations who would accept your money but somehow we were able to spend it!” Its not about the clicks - its about the Conversions.

Whether you're tracking newsletter signups, form submissions, or even online purchases from specific campaigns, Google Adwords when implemented properly with Google Analytics can provide you with conversion tracking - down to each dollar spent. It's a level of reporting that provides true insight into the success of your campaigns.

  NOTE:  Genuine Interactive does not recommend accepting random rides in a conversion van, even if the driver says they represent Google.