They have a clever knack of being able to “kill two birds with one stone”- that is, both solve a problem, and at the same time, increase their own earning potential.

(Which, I guess, is not that unreasonable).

Their latest Google[x] project makes fascinating  reading, and on first sight almost seems like an April Fool at the wrong time of year.

But apparently they worked very hard for several months to find any excuse at all to kill it off – and couldn’t.

No matter what possibility they tried, short of actually running the trial, they couldn’t come up with a showstopper.

Even if you fail at your ambitious thing, it’s hard to fail completely”

~Larry Page, Google

So now, starting in Canterbury, New Zealand, giant solar powered balloons which can navigate by adjusting their own height and drifting in the wind currents of the uppermost reaches of the atmosphere, are being trialled to connect remote parts of the planet with what we lucky citizens take for granted – instant and uninterrupted Internet access no matter where we are, or what we’re doing.

Serious computational power, which Google is not short of, is required behind the scenes to tap into and extrapolate weather data to help constantly reposition the balloons.

If they succeed in making it work for the long term, then potentially millions, or even billions, of people will be able to join our connected society.

With even more advertising potential for Google.

This is a big bet, but the potential payoff is in many ways, and not just merely economic, truly staggering.

Who else is involved with such projects? I personally, would prefer to live in a world with Google in it, than without.

Introducing Project Loon: Balloon-powered Internet … – Google Blog

http://googleblog.blogspot.comSat, 15 Jun 2013 03:16:00 GMT

The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are …

Google’s Project Loon proposes internet distributed by hot air …

http://www.engadget.comSat, 15 Jun 2013 03:36:00 GMT

No, we’re not joking. Google is seriously proposing hot air ballon-powered internet access, and has already launched a pilot project in New Zealand with.

Google Announces Project Loon: Balloon-Powered Internet For …

http://techcrunch.comSat, 15 Jun 2013 04:58:28 GMT

Google X, the secretive lab behind projects like Google Glass and Google’s self-driving cars, announced its latest project today: balloon-powered Interne..

Meet Google’s ‘Project Loon‘: Balloon-powered Net access | Crave …

http://news.cnet.comSat, 15 Jun 2013 03:39:52 GMT

The search giant wants to give everyone on earth Internet access, and it has a high-flying idea for how to accomplish it. Read this article by Eric Mack on CNET.

Google extends balloon-internet trials with Project Loon (Wired UK)

http://www.wired.co.ukSat, 15 Jun 2013 10:09:19 GMT

Google has announced Project Loon, collating together its existing ballon-based network trials under a single project housed in the company’s famous X labs.

Google unveils ‘Project Loon,’ an experiment to bring balloon …

http://www.theverge.comSat, 15 Jun 2013 03:34:53 GMT

Google has unveil what it’s calling its “latest moonshot” out of the Google X labs. It’s called “Project Loon,” and as reported last month, it involved sending up a huge number of giant balloons to…

Offers, Wallet and Mobiles are the key to closing the feedback loop between online AdWords advertising and offline profitability.

Smart local retail stores seeking to drive buyers from their Google search to the checkout will be able to track that they earn more than they spend on AdWords. So, they will want to spend more.

Now, more people are beginning to realise this threat, including

• Business Week (http://www.businessinsider.com/google-adwords-groupon-2013-2)
• Memeburn (http://memeburn.com/2013/02/adwords-offer-exentensions-googles-plan-to-kill-groupon/)
• The Drum (http://www.thedrum.com/news/2013/02/22/google-targets-groupon-daily-deals-offer)
• SFGate (http://www.sfgate.com/technology/businessinsider/article/Google-Is-Making-Moves-To-Seriously-Disrupt-4300946.php).

And this is further reinforced by the recent decision by Google to “bundle” all devices together in their new Enhanced Campaigns (http://adwords.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/introducing-enhanced- campaigns.html)

Read more posts about The Death of Groupon at http://www.davidnrothwell.com/tag/groupon/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericgoldman/2012/10/22/google-defeats-trademark-challenge-to-its-adwords-service/

Much has been written about the vexed question of Trademarks on Google AdWords, and the end does not yet appear in sight – if it ever will be.

As a consumer, I want to know what my choices are.

So I am entitled to see all the search results for a given keyword – if they are relevant to me.

Brands frightened to see competitors showing up in searches are in insecure territory if their customers aren’t married to them any more and can be lured away. Consider it an excellent opportunity for competitor research to refine or re-invent your USP.

Google allows TM terms to be banned from ad copy by the TM owner – even by legitimate distributors of the product.

But anyone can bid on them. But is it worth it?

Most brand searches are just shortcuts anyway with no commercial intent whatever – except for the brand owner.

So any business pursuing this strategy (quite legitimate to test, and possibly successful if brand consumers are dissatisfied and ready to jump ship) must be clear on its measurable financial goals to be confident of continuing to “earn more than you spend” on AdWords.

Not earning more than you spend?

Then you’re doing it wrong.

I have written several times over the years about my concern with Groupon offers.

Here is a new and amazing example of Google systems integration at work:

• AdWords accounts
• Merchant Center
• Mobiles
• Maps
• Offers
• Wallet?

This is stuff only Google can do – they have “the whole widget” here.

Check out “redemption codes” mentioned on this page, which makes the whole system totally accountable in terms of spend and earnings. The marketer’s dream come true…

http://www.google.com/offers/business/promotions/

The blogosphere is full of recent commentary and speculation on upcoming new Google Nexus phones from Samsung, LG and others.

http://www.informationweek.com/mobility/smart-phones/google-looks-to-steal-microsofts-windows/240009233

More about my opinions on Groupon:

http://www.davidnrothwell.com/?s=groupon

The eCommerce world has changed forever, and it’s official: since yesterday, October 17,  Google Shopping results in the US come only from Merchants who are buying Product Listing Ads campaigns in AdWords accounts.

Read more: http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/google-shopping-pay-to-play.html

Google‘s June announcement about no more free clicks in Shopping Results seems to be taking effect already.

I recently noticed a sudden lack of the Shopping Results sections in organic results searches – but only confined to USA results pages.

To research this further, I used the ad preview tool in an AdWords account to show previews for some typical commercial searches in both UK and USA, like

• tents
• gas bbq
• digital cameras

In all cases, the Shopping Results sections were still showing in UK results, but completely absent for USA.

See the screenshots below (click to enlarge).

In USA digital camera results, the only extra section is one for images with no links or other info.

Why should Shopping Results be withdrawn from the regular search results pages?

Well, I think the answer is simple and consistent.

In the USA this Fall, Google is about to make all Shopping Results links payable (driven from Merchant Center, which has no billing platform – so why build one?) by clicks out of your AdWords account.

The actual mechanics of this, and how you will be able to segment the two sources of these clicks, (that is the new Product Listing Ads which already show in search results, versus the Google Shopping clicks which will run in an entirely different ad auction) has yet to be announced.

So as of now, why show (the upcoming payable) links from Shopping Results in organic listings which are free, any more?

And, have Merchants already noticed a decline in traffic from their Merchant Centre accounts?

This change does not take place in UK until 2013, which is why Shopping Results are still showing normally in our results pages.

Until the October deadline in USA, clicks are still free if you are listing in the Google Shopping results, rather than the Google Web results which now excludes Shopping links.

However, after that, all these clicks will become payable, and Merchants who relied on free traffic for their sales from this source will either see these clicks disappear, or be charged out of their AdWords account.

Where they don’t have an AdWords account, I would expect Google to post a message in their Merchant Center account along the lines of “your Merchant Center listings are no longer showing. Please create an AdWords account here which will be linked to your MC account. Complete the account setup with your billing information, and your MC listings will then continue to run.”

They are already urging all Merchant Center owners to create the new Product Listing Campaigns, and offering financial incentives to do so.

This is likely to create a stampede for new AdWords accounts as Merchants suddenly have to transition their now defunct free clicks to paid clicks.

And it opens up a whole new area of Data Feed Management and optimization, which like AdWords, has a lot of complexities.

How much will these new paid clicks cost?

We won’t really know for sure until they’re in place, and there’s bound to be some shakeout while everyone gets more used to it and starts figuring out the conversion tracking and economics to see if it’s profitable or not.

Every category is different, with varying competition, so the AdWords auctions that Google knows so well will initially be new territory for everyone in Google Shopping.

How easy is it for Google to start charging for these new, payable clicks?

Firstly, you have to have an AdWords account which becomes the new billing platform, because, as stated earlier, Merchant Center has no billing mechanism and likely will never need one anyway.

Then, I would expect that Google can just flick a switch and instantly charge everyone a minimum amount, say $0.01c.

And all of a sudden, millions of free clicks become found money for Google.

After that, market forces and economics will take over.

What happens to the (now absent in USA) Shopping Results in organic links after this?

Both Google and Merchants want clicks – right? Otherwise no one gets paid, and nothing gets sold.

So maybe there will be syndication from Merchant Center back into organic results, in the form of a new network arrangement analogous the the existing Google AdWords Search Partners we all know and love

And you may be opted into that by default, just like any new AdWords campaign you set up.

This Fall is going to be very interesting for all of us in the AdWords and ecommerce space …

Both ZDNet and the BBC publish interesting articles on Facebook today.

FB’s origins are teen gossip.

Now they’re being forced to to leave the playground and grow up. But they’d prefer not to. If there were no money involved, they wouldn’t have to.

(There’s a curious parallel here with Unix, the Operating System: grew up in academia, was touted as the “next big thing” and dragged kicking and screaming all the way into the commercial marketplace, then took years to come good but finally realised its promise but in very different form to its original version. How do I know? Because I was there in the 1980′s and 90′s when it all happened, working for Unix-based computer systems manufacturers including Plexus Computers).

The show stopper for Facebook is the ability to be someone other than your true self.

So, intrinsically, you don’t have to take yourself seriously – and neither does anyone else. And everyone knows that.

Google‘s origns are authority content (go read about project “Backrub”). Just gimme the facts, Ma’am.

Why do you think that Google insist that you have to be a “real” person with a real name to use their social platform? Why is this so important for Businesses? And why the recent move from Local to Places? Think attribution and real physical location. Undeniable identity…

Because then the conversation is serious. Think real sellers and real buyers.

Google actually do “get it” in spite of the nay-sayers.

And Google Plus will prevail as the premier Social Advertising Platform.

Original articles here:

http://www.zdnet.com/big-data-facebooks-next-big-idea-7000001983/

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19093078

Join a growing number of successful AdWords advertisers who pay Google as much as they will take.

Or learn our System for your own business or Clients.

We work with you exclusively for mutual profit.

Apply for your place now – before it’s gone…

An interview with Ken McCarthy and David Rothwell on Commission-Only AdWords Management

© The System Seminar

 Download the mp3 file here (analogue phone line, not studio quality)

If you’re using or even thinking of using AdWords, you MUST talk with David Rothwell.

David’s one of the sharpest AdWords minds on the planet and he proves it by the deal he offers his lucky clients: You pay for sale and nothing else. Hard to beat that!”

-Ken McCarthy, Founder, The System Seminar

“In spite of all the aggravation it causes, Google, specifically Google AdWords, has probably done more than any other force to transform Internet marketing from a “hit or miss” medium to something that can be measured and improved scientifically.

System folks got the first comprehensive look at how to take a systematic approach to AdWords back in 2003 courtesy of Perry Marshall. Perry’s student Howie Jacobson, another early System grad like Perry, wrote the definitive book “AdWords for Dummies” on melding AdWords with classic direct marketing principles.

In this month’s masterclass, we spend time with a third AdWords giant, David Rothwell, who got his start on the subject through Perry and through the System.

David is a former IT exec who discovered AdWords in 2005. In 2008, he was one of the first to play with and make sense of Google’s AdWords Conversion Optimiser (not to be confused with Website Optimiser.) System folks were among the first on the planet to get an inside view of this new AdWords platform.

How well has it worked for David?

Well, unlike most AdWords experts who charge by the hour or by the volume of advertising, David partners with his clients and earns a commission on each sale.

You’ve really got to know what you’re doing to make that work – and David is making it work for himself very, very well.

In this masterclass, David brings us up to date on AdWords and shares some of the insight he’s developed over the last seven very intense years mastering the medium.”

- Ken McCarthy, Founder, The System Seminar

“Interesting People with Interesting Lives”. Tune in!

© RadioMarlowFM

 Download the mp3 file here (recorded on iphone, so not studio quality)

My friend Mary Flavelle who used to lead the Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce, has a position with a local radio station, Radio Marlow 97.5.

She will be interviewing my about my “interesting life” since I was made redundant from my IT management position back in 2001.

I don’t know whether we’ll cover it all in an hour, but here’s my story:

Redundant to Permanently Employable: from IT Manager to Work from Home Dad and Google Advertising Manager. A House Husband’s Story, by David Rothwell

Daily life:

- Lynne out at school
- take care of school runs, kids clubs, evening meals, domestic chores
- work from pc in study, car or hotel room running online advertising campaigns for any company with a website, anywhere

How I got there:

- 1997: European IT Manager, 12 sites, 350 internal employees, 4 support staff
- 2001: Laid off – dotcom crash, 9/11, hundreds of people chasing every IT job, projects cancelled, air travel collapses, no IT job is safe from redundancy including management and even basic tech support
- 2002: too experienced, too expensive, unemployable – now what?
- 2002/2003: the job centre (!), give up on job hunting, do anything to survive, IT and telecom consultancy, house cleaning, gardening, ironing
- 2004: web publishing, the Internet, Google, online advertising
- 2005: the fascination grows, I get hooked, my first client – a lady in Real Estate in Houston, how much to ask for, how to get paid
- 2006: more clients everywhere – USA, Australia, NZ, Europe, location doesn’t matter. Attended first overseas industry conference (Perry Marshall, Chicago)
- 2007: Google calling – I get a dedicated team. First System Seminar (Ken McCarthy, Chicago). Attended every year following until 2011 (New York)
- 2008: Personal invitation to Google’s “Above and Beyond” Conference in Dublin Europlex
- 2009: Digging deeply into the Google advertising machine
- 2010/2011: dragged to London, Maui, Chicago and New York to speak at seminars, trusted by Industry Authors Perry Marshall, Ken McCarthy, Howie Jacobson, Glenn Livingston
- 2012: short of global thermonuclear war or alien invasion, permanently employable – every online business owner in the world needs more sales and leads from internet advertising

If you want to learn this – you too can become “permanently employable”. Just contact me for AdWords Training!

http://www.davidnrothwell.com/contact/

Google is giving users control back over what ads they see.

Over the next few weeks, starting with remarketing and interest-based ads on the Display network, users will be able to disable ads they don’t want to see again.

So if you’re pestering your remarketing audience too much by showing ads without an impression cap, you may risk losing them.

Although it potentially loses Google the click revenue, it’s a good step into increasing trust and as Tron might say – “now for some real user power”.

It’s not clear from Google’s post whether we’ll be able to see when ads are being muted and take appropriate steps, or how far they intend to take this level of control.

But this is an important piece of extra feedback (think “crowdsourcing” again) being built in to the advertising ecosystem.

Original post here

http://adwords.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/more-control-with-mute-this-ad-x-icon.html

This is another nail in the coffin of “Offers” providers outside the Google ecosystem.

Why?

I’ve been writing since 2011 about Google Offers and The Death of Groupon.

This development brings it one step closer.

Imagine you’re using your mobile and you see an ad on your phone and click on it, thus cookieing your device. (Or you click on an Offers Extension on the ad).

You just cost the advertiser an ad click.

The page you arrive at is for an Offer you’d like take advantage of, so you save it to your Wallet.

Then you go out to the store running the promotion, and redeem the Offer by submitting payment from your mobile. Your phone displays a thank you screen.

The loop just closed – ad impression, to ad click, to payment, to thank you page and Sales Conversion.

And the advertiser knows three critical things (amongst others):

1. What his advertising cost him
2. What he earned from the sale
3. How profitable his paid advertising for this promotion is

If he knows his numbers correctly and is making profit, then he’s going to keep giving Google all the money he can for this promotion – because there’s no risk whatever, it’s simply an investment.

No other organisation can do this – only Google has all the parts of the infrastructure needed.

Although this is not yet fully developed, you’ve just seen the future of eCommerce advertising in a mobile world.

And the Death of Groupon.

Original article here:

http://www.androidauthority.com/save-wallet-feature-google-wallet-google-io-98735/

I’m just getting started with AdWords – do I need a Website, or will just a landing page do?

It used to be possible to advertise with Google AdWords with nothing more than an affiliate link, or a single “squeeze page” for lead capture.

That isn’t possible any more.

You have to be – or appear to be – a real business.

Google checks everything, even down to the age of your domain name.

So you absolutely must have a website, with strictly scrutinised parameters all in place.

Study the two screenshots below for all the required elements of a successful and Google-friendly website (click for full size).

We are an import company offering wholesale products including sunglasses, reading glasses, displays, hats, lighters and more. We have twenty plus years of experience in sunglasses. We have developed some amazing brands DE, Diamond, Xsportz and Gster.

We used AdWords years ago and had some success with it but in the last year we wanted to try it again. We don’t have the time to focus on this so we wanted to hire a professional and this is where David has come in, and in he does a great job for us.

I think it is very difficult to have a successful campaign unless you hire an expert. I think it is too hard for somebody just signing up for an account to take on the responsibility of it, and if we did not get the success of conversions and extra orders we would have given up on it.

We really like the dedication you guys put into our campaign and the fact we can trust you to do a good job.

We were not sure of the results we would get so we wanted to try it. We figured on allowing a little time for David to dial in the ads and get them converting the way we wanted. It seems like after a month he got the cost down and conversions way up.

We get more traffic, more orders, extra revenue, and a person to help take extra work load off my plate.

We don’t see a reason to go elsewhere with the response we have received, and anyone looking to increase traffic and sales should try it and give it a month or two to see the results in my opinion.

Keep up the great work, and I look forward to working with David for many years to come.

CTS Wholesale

I’ve been waiting for a while to install a chat box on my website even though I always counsel my clients to have one.

Now I’ve found Zopim I’ve finally got around to it.

Why use Chat on your website?

First, a little backstory – I have setup and run IT support helpdesks servicing multiple sites and hundreds of internal staff in my previous Corporate career, and I am extremely opinionated about how they work.

A properly run support function does all these:

[custom_list style="list-11"]

• Provides a first-line fix according to a Service Level Agreement (SLA)
• Logs the problem into a Knowledge-base for other Support Personnel and end-users (ahem, clients) to refer to
• Provides an escalation path, priority and response time
• Becomes an ever-improving self-help environment for all but critical issues

[/custom_list]

Ideally, if you’re running a helpdesk, your strategy should also include how to make the phone ring less (you read that right).

Why? Because you’ve got more important things to do (or should have) than answering the phone repetitively for information which should be easily available without your presence.

I remain aghast at how many businesses I speak to who operate call centers of some kind, when they answer all these simple questions in the negative:

[custom_list style="list-7"]

• Do you record calls?
• Do you compile the content of calls into a knowledge base?
• Do you increase your FAQ’s according to questions you are asked?
• Do you improve your products and services based on what callers ask you for?
• Do you know how many you get, how many you miss, where they come from, what they’re worth?
• Do you direct callers to appropriate pages on your site answering their questions so you and your team don’t have to (and – CRUCIALLY – improve online conversions)?

[/custom_list]

A Chat box can help you do all the above and is an invaluable source of new content for you to increase your value to new and returning visitors, and earn more in return.

It can also give you new services, pages, ad copy and keywords to expand your existing advertising. 

On to Zopim

A client asked me about them this morning, and I hadn’t heard about them before, although I’ve known about LiveChat for years.

So I went and checked them out, and installed it right away.

I use WordPress exclusively for which they have a plugin.

You create an account, install the plugin and it’s fully working in literally minutes.

It’s a fully functional (although limited in scale) free trial, with no payment info needed to try out or continue using.

If you don’t have Chat on your website, I just gave you enough reasons to change that right now.

The recent update to ad rotation has caused a storm of reaction from outraged marketers accusing Google of further profiteering and removing essential controls from the platform.

In a rare climbdown Google has today announced a new opt-out procedure for those concerned by the change, and may introduce it as a new setting directly in the interface if they get enough pushback from users.

This is the first time I’ve observed Google to listen to a clear and vocal rejection of one of their policies, and rapidly react intelligently to it.

“User power” as Tron would say …

Full article here:

http://adwords.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/update-to-recent-ad-rotation-change.html

It’s all over the Internet, and official – Google just killed free clicks on Shopping Results.

Actually, this has always been on the cards, always, and anyone who couldn’t see it coming has been blind.

This is all about value.

Clicks have value. Google know the value of a click better than any organisation on the planet.

And the role and Value of the AdWords PPC Consultant just became more significant than ever before.

If you don’t want clicks, don’t bother having a website, or an AdWords account.

If you don’t want to sell stuff online, forget about Google.

You too, absolutely have to know the value of your clicks. And their relationship with your conversions.

Because you are about to be hit where it hurts – in the wallet.

They are absolutely right that a commercial relationship is critical to this – too long has there been so much junk around that people can’t be bothered clearing it up because “it’s free” (well, actually, that’s misguided anyway, nothing on the Internet is “free”).

Why do you think Google gave us Conversion Optimizer?? So you could call the financial shots, not them.

What did they get in return? Commercial DATA. The value of clicks and Sales.

When you read Google’s announcement below, notice the timing of their impementation – Fall 2012.

That wouldn’t be just in time for Christmas, would it?

I predict Google is going to have a bonanza this next gift-giving season – for them, Xmas just came early.

I call it “Follow the Money” – when you do it right, you earn more than you spend, so spend it all.

In Jerry Maguire, it was “Show Me The Money!”

Full article by Google here:

http://adwords.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/building-better-shopping-experience.html

I learned about David from Perry Marshall, our company does event design & management for corporate events, parties and weddings.

Our biggest challenge is time, and knowing what to do profitably, with mixed experience based on doing it myself and working with another company.

I learnt more about what is possible with AdWords Management during 1 hour than I’ve learnt in the previous 5 years, and the Consulting session was over too soon!

The result I got was confirmation that the account is underperforming and can be improved dramatically as is. We will get even better results when I invest more money in a better calibrated account.

I now have a greater understanding of what is possible, that some of what was being done was actually semi-decent, and an uplifting feeling that I could potentially dominate some competitors.

This is the 1st and only time I’ve ever spoken to someone who seems to understand AdWords from top to bottom.

I really enjoyed the consultation and can’t wait to start working with you!

- Marc Samuels
88 Events
www.88eventscompany.com

Only Pay for Profit. Try us Free for 30 Days!

Our AdWords Management is Free, so you only pay for what you want – Profit.

And I only get paid after you do.

So I have to be able to make AdWords work better and cost you less.

Strict Terms Apply – to Qualify, you need to track at least 5 Sales or Lead Conversions per Day.

If you're not ready to Apply yet, get Consulting to help you move forward.

If you are accepted for the Trial, I will setup a new AdWords account and copy yours – leaving it unchanged and intact if you want to go back to it.

I will then restructure and optimize the new account for increased performance.

You will still pay click costs to Google to buy your Conversions.

And, because you only pay Commission for Conversions, all my Management Services are Free.

See How to Qualify.

For as long as I’ve been an AdWords practitioner (since 2004) the conventional way to deliver ads was always to have two, run them evenly against each other (“rotate ads equally”) choose a “winner” based on accruing sufficient clicks and create another to replace the “loser”.

Almost an entire industry has been created around calculating and flagging “winners and losers” and creating new permutations.

There’s a lot of engineering know-how in the marketing community using AdWords, and engineers know that you should only change one variable at a time to conduct a meaningful test.

Yet with AdWords ads this approach is fundamentally flawed. Why?

Google recently announced upgraded account limits lifting allowable ads per ad group from 50 to 300.

There’s usually method to Google’s madness, even though it isn’t always apparent to us lesser mortals.

(And allowing 5,000 keywords per ad group is still something that the logic of escapes me.)

But back in late 2009 and 2010 I was running a highly trafficed account creating almost a million ad impressions a day just in Google search in the UK alone.

And getting around 1,000 conversions a week.

I did lots of ad testing and at one point (using CPA bidding) I had one ad group with 36 converting (“winning”) unique ads. Many of these ads broke all the rules of conventional AdWords marketing yet became top performing ads.

In fact the limit of 50 was often a problem.

This was an extreme case with a very wide audience, allowing rapid ad testing with a multitude of potential ad messages. Not everyone has the luxury of that.

So what’s wrong with split testing evenly and playing “beat the control”?

Imagine you put 100 people in a room, showed them two ads, and asked them to vote once on a winner. Some abstain and then eventually vote. When you’ve got your 100 votes, that’s your split test done.

Now replace the losing ad and let them vote again. Maybe the original still wins, maybe not.

But that’s the way split testing with two ads and a single variable works.

In the AdWords ad auction though, things aren’t that simple.

Ad auctions are where your keyword triggers an ad, and people vote by clicking.

So now, in your imaginary split test with 100 people, what really happens after your first vote is that everyone leaves the room.

Another 100 people come back – some are from the first group, others aren’t. And the original members have changed their minds and may vote differently this time. Each time the audience changes, a random amount of the original members return. Sometimes none and they are all different.

Imagine that changing the audience happens 10 times a second. Further imagine the voting is happening across every town in your target country with a different audience which is also being changed 10 times a second.

And that competitor ads have to be voted on at the same time as your own.

The audience disposition also changes by the hour of the day depending on travel, commuting, office hours, getting back from school runs, shift work etc. And if seeing syndicated ads on the Partner or Display networks, again the responsiveness can be very different.

And people’s mood changes by hour of the day, day of the week, weekends, public holidays and so on.

There are many other variables too, this is just a simplification.

So the point of all this, is that there is no such thing as an “equal split test”.

And you should start using as many of your newly raised allowance of 300 ads as you can …