Premium Services

Chapter 15 Premium Services In This Chapter ᮣ Signing on to Premium AdWords for larger advertisers ᮣ Understanding Premium AdSense for content sites ᮣ Knowing about Premium AdSense for searth sites ᮣ Becoming a search destination with Custom WebSearch ᮣ Taking advantage of Silver and Gold Search for medium-sized search sites G oogle provides premium versions of its three major programs for high-traffic and high-budget sites. Those three programs are AdWords (see Part II), AdSense (see Part III), and on-site Google searching (see Chapter 5). This chapter describes the high-end versions of these programs, premium AdWords, premium AdSense, Custom WebSearch, and Silver and Gold Search. Premium AdWords Google AdWords is not just for small businesses and entrepreneurs anymore. Small accounts put the program on the marketing map, but now corporations of all types are represented in the advertising column on Google search results pages. When Google eliminated its Sponsored Link program, which sold place- ment on a pay-by-impression basis, the corporate segment of its advertising clientele was rolled into AdWords — probably with little complaint. The effi- ciency and control afforded by AdWords applies just as happily to large com- panies as to small ones. 22_571435 ch15.qxd 5/21/04 11:41 PM Page 271 Large advertisers are eligible for a special program called premium-level AdWords. (No one, even the largest, most budgetarily advantaged advertisers, is forced to use the program.) Similar to regular AdWords, the premium pro- gram offers a more involved customer service experience throughout the cam- paign. Many a small-business owner wishes he or she could enjoy the service perks built into premium-level AdWords. To qualify for premium-level service, AdWords advertisers must commit to spending a minimum of $30,000 over a three-month period and at least $10,000 per month. (There is no charge beyond the spending minimum.) Because AdWords is a pay-per-click system, a natural question arises: What if the company’s ads don’t generate $10,000 worth of clickthroughs in a month? After all, it can be difficult for little businesses to keep their click- through rates high enough to spend money seriously. This is where Google steps in. Each premium AdWords account is assigned a customer service team that assists the client at every step, from soup to nuts. This level of assistance includes industry-specific marketing advice, creative help writing ads, hands- on account maintenance if desired, campaign structuring, keyword genera- tion, account planning and optimization, performance analysis — basically, everything an excellent third-party agency would do when implementing an AdWords campaign for a client. Conceiving of Google as a specialized ad agency brings up an interesting issue: Should a high-spending company operate in non-premium AdWords with the help of a hired ad agency? Or is it better to enter premium AdWords and let Google be your de facto agency? Going with Google saves money — that’s one consideration right off the bat. However, if AdWords is part of a large, multifaceted marketing campaign, the ideal situation might be to manage the entire effort under one roof, which would not be Google’s roof. Then again, just as Google doesn’t manage non-AdWords aspects of the campaign, most traditional ad agencies do not specialize in AdWords. So getting it all under one roof — either Google’s or a hired agency — is difficult. A few miscellaneous notes about premium AdWords: ߜ Despite the special service provided to premium AdWords clients, Google doesn’t bend basic AdWords rules. The ads are the same — small boxes of text. The competitive environment for placement on the page is identical to the competition faced by regular AdWords cus- tomers, and premium-level advertisers bid on keywords in the same fashion as non-premium-level users. 272 Part IV: Google Business for the Larger Company 22_571435 ch15.qxd 5/21/04 11:41 PM Page 272 ߜ The pay-for-placement Sponsored Links, which were once placed atop search results pages, no longer exist as pay-for-impression ads. AdWords ads receiving the top two spots on pages populated by ten ads go in those top-of-page slots, but they’re paid for by the click just like any AdWords ad. Premium-level AdWords doesn’t offer pay-for-placement service. ߜ Just as with regular AdWords, participation in premium AdWords doesn’t affect a site’s listing or PageRank in Google’s Web index. ߜ Although account management is offered to premium-level accounts, those clients are free to use the standard AdWords reporting and admin- istrative tools available to everyone. If your company is interested in the premium level of AdWords and meets the spending commitment requirement, you notify Google of your interest by fill- ing in an on-screen form. The form, shown in Figure 15-1, requests basic con- tact, industry, and URL information and serves as an introductory letter to Google. Find that form here: services.google.com/ads_inquiry/en Figure 15-1: This form serves as an introductory letter to Google for prospective premium- level AdWords customers. 273 Chapter 15: Premium Services 22_571435 ch15.qxd 5/21/04 11:41 PM Page 273 Premium AdSense for Content Sites As it does with AdWords, Google offers a premium-level version of AdSense. Because AdSense publishers at any level do not pay Google, the requirement for breathing the thin air of premium membership is not a financial commit- ment, but a traffic threshold. Sites serving at least 20 million page views per month (not unique visitors, but total page views) are eligible to apply. Whereas premium-level AdWords provides essentially the same AdWords features but with enhanced customer service, premium-level AdSense for content sites differs a bit from standard AdSense. These variations include the following: ߜ Custom ad layouts and formats diverge from the presets in regular AdSense. However, many premium publishers use the standard ad layouts. (See Figures 15-2 and 15-3.) ߜ Dedicated account management is available, offering site optimization and technical support as needed. ߜ Standard AdSense allows publishers to block ads from competitive domains (see Chapter 13). In premium AdSense, competitive filtering of unwanted ads is a more serious and robust tool. ߜ The AdSense for content program pays selected publishers to sell their ad space to Google on a cost-per-impression basis for running AdWords ads. Prospective publishers must qualify for this program independently from the normal premium-level AdSense program. ߜ Although regular AdSense publishers enter, start, pause, and exit the program at will (given basic eligibility), at least some premium clients contract with Google for a certain term (for example, six months). These term contracts are sometimes terminated by Google for poor CTR performance. Even though the publisher is not aware of the click- through statistics associated with ads appearing on the publisher’s site, Google definitely keeps track of everything. Note that page traffic of 20 million views per month doesn’t necessarily qualify a site for premium-level AdSense. Google employs unpublicized criteria when deciding who is admitted and who is not. I have spoken with owners of sites who claim that they have been declined although their traffic exceeds the threshold. Other AdSense publishers with high traffic claim to have received unsolicited invitations to shift to premium AdSense. Interested companies may start the application process by filling in an intro- ductory on-screen form here: services.google.com/ads_inquiry/ct?hl=en 274 Part IV: Google Business for the Larger Company 22_571435 ch15.qxd 5/21/04 11:41 PM Page 274 Figure 15-3: Another premium AdSense site uses a wider ad layout with thicker borders than normal. Figure 15-2: Premium AdSense publishers may use slightly modified ad layouts not available in standard AdSense. 275 Chapter 15: Premium Services 22_571435 ch15.qxd 5/21/04 11:41 PM Page 275 Premium AdSense for Search Sites Premium-level AdSense is available to search portals in formats that don’t resemble normal AdSense publishing. Just as Google sometimes displays AdWords ads at the top of its own pages (and that format is not available to AdSense publishers), so too does Google provide layout alternatives to other search engines who want to share Google’s advertising engine and revenue. AOL Web Search is a good example; this major portal licenses both editorial search results and related advertising from Google. AOL’s entire search results page is driven by Google engines, yet it’s displayed in AOL’s proprietary for- mats and page templates. (See Figure 15-4.) Amazon.com is an example of a destination portal that functions as a search site thanks to its massive traffic, and uses Google engines to deliver both objective and pay-per-click search results. (See Figure 15-5.) Google supplies this specialized version of premium AdSense to Netscape, Excite, AskJeeves.com, Go.com, About.com, Teoma, iWon.com, Disney, and many others. Figure 15-4: AOL Web Search is a high-profile client of premium AdSense, displaying pay-per- click ads on its result pages. 276 Part IV: Google Business for the Larger Company 22_571435 ch15.qxd 5/21/04 11:41 PM Page 276 Custom WebSearch In the preceding section I discuss the premium AdSense program for search sites, which delivers Google AdWords on search results pages presented at large sites with search engines. Google’s Custom WebSearch is similar, except it provides editorial search results, not ads. Custom WebSearch enables a site with sufficient traffic to become a search destination, with results provided by Google. This program is a premium version of Google’s free search, which is described in Chapter 5. Custom WebSearch is acquired through a licensing arrangement with Google. A company gets started by sending Google an online form located here: services.google.com/licensing/request Custom WebSearch works similarly to Google’s free search service: The client site puts a search box on its pages. When users enter a search, the keywords are sent to Google, which returns results to the host site. The host site then presents the results on its site, formatted to look like that site. The results don’t necessarily look much like Google (see Figure 15-6), but it is Google. Figure 15-5: Amazon. com is not a search engine, but it provides Web search results and related ads through Google. 277 Chapter 15: Premium Services 22_571435 ch15.qxd 5/21/04 11:41 PM Page 277 Most of the familiar features of Google, including Advanced Search, Similar Pages, and site descriptions, are available to Custom WebSearch clients. Note: Custom WebSearch sites may sell advertising on search results pages. An easy way to monetize those pages is through Google’s AdSense for con- tent program. But if a site is already in the advertising business, delivering search results pages is a swift method of dramatically increasing the site’s advertising inventory to its existing advertisers and agencies. Silver and Gold Search Two on-site Google search programs are available to sites with solid search traffic but less traffic than Custom WebSearch clients: Silver Search and Gold Search. These two services are similar to Google’s Free Search described in Chapter 5. As with Free Search, Silver and Gold customers place a Google search box on their pages, and their users are taken to Google for semicus- tomized search results. Three major differences distinguish Silver and Gold Search from Free Search: Figure 15-6: Custom WebSearch results are formatted with the host site’s look- and-feel. 278 Part IV: Google Business for the Larger Company 22_571435 ch15.qxd 5/21/04 11:41 PM Page 278 ߜ The Silver and Gold results are more customizable than in Free Search. Free Search users may place a logo atop the search results and modify colors. Silver and Gold customers may create an elaborate header and footer for their pages, extending those elements into full-blown HTML tables that include sidebars. ߜ Silver and Gold customers may serve advertisements on the search results pages. ߜ The Silver and Gold services are not free. The monthly fee distinguishes Silver from Gold. At the time of this writing, Silver Search costs $599 per month, plus $10 per thousand search queries over one million per year. Gold Search, which is designed for sites that nor- mally experience more than four million queries per year, costs $1999 each month plus $8 per thousand queries over four million per year. Google doesn’t allow Silver and Gold Search pages to display AdWords ads or any other advertising on results pages. Sites that have implemented Custom WebSearch, however, may sell their own keywords advertising against search results. 279 Chapter 15: Premium Services 22_571435 ch15.qxd 5/21/04 11:41 PM Page 279 280 Part IV: Google Business for the Larger Company 22_571435 ch15.qxd 5/21/04 11:41 PM Page 280 . Chapter 15 Premium Services In This Chapter ᮣ Signing on to Premium AdWords for larger advertisers ᮣ Understanding Premium AdSense for content. Chapter 15: Premium Services 22_571435 ch15.qxd 5/21/04 11:41 PM Page 273 Premium AdSense for Content Sites As it does with AdWords, Google offers a premium- level