Ask and you shall receive (at least that how it seems from some recent Google and adCenter developments this week)! If you’ve ever felt like your usually legitimate gripes about how pay-per-click works and how changes are made go unheard and unanswered, take heart. Google has done an almost about-face on ad rotation and adCenter has made it’s user interface way more user friendly as of late.

You may (ok, you will) remember that Google changed ad rotation settings several weeks back and that advertisers were not pleased. In response to a petition with hundreds of signatures, Google posted this:

“in response to your feedback, we’re planning to make two changes to the setting. First, we’ll expand the even rotation period from 30 days to 90 days to give you a longer window for testing new ads. Second, if you still wish to have your ads rotate evenly indefinitely, we’re going to offer an opt-out of this change. You can opt-out by filling in your information on this form or by contacting your account representative. Both of these changes will go into effect on June 11, 2012.”

Hooray!

The PPC world is admittedly Google-centric, but have you been in Microsoft adCenter lately? An article at Search Engine Watch argues that It’s Time to Give Microsoft adCenter a Try.  The author highlights some significant improvements to the platform which came about – like the above ad rotation story –  thanks to user feedback. Recent updates include: adding the ability to use adCenter on any browser and on Macs; making the UI more similar to AdWords and improving the desktop editor; adding the ability for customers to upload their AdWords campaigns into adCenter; and, improved ROI for the story’s author.

AdWords <3s Mobile Apps from the Google Mobile Ads Blog announced yesterday an expanded audience for Google advertisers. The Google Ads network has grown to include apps!  Straight from Google:  “AdWords advertisers will now be able to reach engaged consumers on more than 350 million mobile devices in the AdMob network and in some of the world’s most popular mobile applications”. Now you can run campaigns on this network right from the AdWords interface. The new feature can be found under Campaign Type in the settings tab. Like other display networks, the mobile network allows advertisers to target users by interest. Cool!

If there was any doubt about Google’s quest for online ad market domination, on June 5, at the DoubleClick Insights conference, Google confirmed it by announcing DoubleClick Digital Marketing which they tout as “the first modern ad platform built for the modern digital world”. This is a major overhaul to the Double Click ad platform that will “weave together the technologies that buyers currently use to plan, manage, schedule, deliver and measure their online buys”. It will bring together DoubleClick with Admeld, which Google acquired last year.

Also, on the heels of the news last week that Google is transitioning Google Product Search to a commercial model built on Product Listing Ads, this week Google announces a new “Trusted Stores” seal program. Articles at PCMag and Search Engine Land highlight benefits of the program that is now out of beta. So, why is this in a PPC article?  These badges which will appear beside AdWords ads, could increase your CTR.  The Search Engine Land article also indicates that the badges increased conversions on sites testing out the product in beta.

It’s always a good idea to periodically refresh your keyword list targets.  To help, here’s a  nice article on keyword research from Search Engine Journal.

Happy weekend, everyone!