Google Fights France To Prevent Globalization Of The Right-to-Be-Forgotten

Google has formally appealed France’s data protection authority’s order that Google to apply Right-to-Be-Forgotten (RTBF) removals to its global index. The Commission Nationale de l’informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) had protested Google’s Europe-only removal policy and threatened to fine the company €150,000 ($169,000) for failing to apply the rule on a worldwide basis.

Previously Google said that it would limit RTBF to European users:

We’ve been working hard to strike the right balance in implementing the European Court’s ruling, co-operating closely with data protection authorities. The ruling focused on services directed to European users, and that’s the approach we are taking in complying with it.

The company simultaneously made it more difficult for Europeans to get to Google.com.

French and other European privacy regulators have taken the position that RTBF is undermined by the retention of content in the Google.com index. And the CNIL issued an order and ultimatum to Google accordingly.

Google is now appealing that order in French court. On different legal grounds (trademark), Canada is also attempting to get Google to surpress results on a global basis.

About the French case, Google’s Global Privacy Council Peter Fleischer said in a blog post:

We’ve worked hard to implement the right to be forgotten ruling thoughtfully and comprehensively in Europe, and we’ll continue to do so. But as a matter of principle, we respectfully disagree with the idea that a national data protection authority can assert global authority to control the content that people can access around the world . . .

We believe that no one country should have the authority to control what content someone in a second country can access. We also believe this order is disproportionate and unnecessary, given that the overwhelming majority of French internet users—currently around 97%—access a European version of Google’s search engine like google.fr, rather than Google.com or any other version of Google.

Google is correct to appeal the CNIL order and to fight the ability of one country to impose its worldview on others globally. To comply would be to open the door to other countries’ efforts to attempt to remake the internet according to their own biases and cultural standards. For example, the Chinese might seek to compel any critical information be censored globally (e.g., Tienanmen Square). India might try to block content it saw as “offensive” or “objectionable” in accordance with its own legal standards.

Fleischer offers several worrisome examples from other countries:

Moreover, there are innumerable examples around the world where content that is declared illegal under the laws of one country, would be deemed legal in others: Thailand criminalizes some speech that is critical of its King, Turkey criminalizes some speech that is critical of Ataturk, and Russia outlaws some speech that is deemed to be “gay propaganda.”

Whose perspective is right? What values should prevail? While the French argue (partly correctly) that RTBF can be circumvented by determined individuals, the larger principle at stake dictates that Google not comply with the country’s global takedown demand.

The post Google Fights France To Prevent Globalization Of The Right-to-Be-Forgotten appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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SPONSOR MESSAGE: Retargeting On Facebook By The Numbers

For advertisers new to retargeting on Facebook, AdRoll analyzed performance results across advertisers to offer insights on retargeting and to educate marketers on the best way to drive results for their business. Download this report and get key performance metrics for Facebook on desktop and mobile and benchmarks for CTR and CPC.

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Report: Spain’s Google Tax A Disaster For Newspapers, Internet Innovation

Call it one of the most eggregious examples of unintended consequences. The effort of the Spanish newspaper association and Spanish government to get Google to subsidize Spanish news publishers with a mandatory link tax (under the the guise of copyright fees) is a massive disaster — for publishers, for the Spanish internet and for innovation in the country.

Here’s the history: the Spanish Newspaper Publishers Association successfully convinced Spanish lawmakers in late 2014 to pass a strict “anti-piracy” law, which mandated compensation for the appearance of newspaper publishers’ content on news aggregation sites as of January 1, 2015. It was effectively directed at Google but applied broadly to all news/content aggregators.

In response, Google shuttered Google News in Spain, though it has continued to present Spanish news sites on its main search engine results page (SERP) and in other ways. The Spanish publishers then tried unsuccessfully to get the government to force Google to keep Google News alive in Spain (to collect the tax).

Google wasn’t the only news aggregator to shut down. A range of European and Spanish internet companies changed their models, shut down or quit the market rather than face uncertainty and potential liability for the fees. For example, according to TechDirt, “Planeta Ludico, NiagaRank, InfoAliment and Multifriki shut down entirely.”

The site quotes at length from a Spanish-publisher-commissioned report (en Español) that assesses the economic fallout of the copyright law. According to the Spanish report’s analysis (translated in TechDirt), the impact has been extremely negative across the board:

The negative impact on the online press sector is also very clear, since a very important channel to attract readers disappears, resulting in lower revenues from advertising. In addition, the new fee is also a barrier to the expansion of small publications with little-known brands, and an entry barrier for new competitors, since they will be unable to count on these platforms to increase their readers’ base.

The report goes on to say that companies such as Zite and Flipboard won’t enter the country, thus depriving Spanish users of these and similar services. Traffic is also down to newspaper sites, especially smaller newspaper sites:

A simple traffic analysis of Spanish digital newspapers in the first three months of 2015 based on data from ComScore also suggests results in line with the aforementioned. The impact of the closing down of Google News and some other aggregators has generated a decline of visitors to the 84 major Spanish online newspapers…

Given the decline in exposure, smaller Spanish publishers may be less able to compete against larger ones with more established brands. However, in the wake of these findings, the question becomes: What is the Spanish government going to do? Is it going to reverse course and rescind the law? Or will it refuse to admit this massive mistake and allow the disastrous fallout to continue?

The post Report: Spain’s Google Tax A Disaster For Newspapers, Internet Innovation appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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Are You Ready for the Future of Adaptive Content?

A startling 94% of companies claim that personalization is a key component of their success. Meanwhile, 56% of consumers would happily purchase from a company that provides a good – not even great – personalized experience.

Those kinds of statistics aren’t just impressive, they’re actually driving a new form of content development: adaptive content.

This idea is the new kid on the block. For the purpose of this post, we’ll look at it from a twofold perspective. Adaptive content is a combination of:

• Using personalization to enhance the customer experience, and
• Preparing content for delivery across multiple platforms.

These two facets of the term work together to create a complete, well-rounded experience. By implementing it in your content strategy, you’ll turbo-charge your ability to build awareness, trust and engagement with prospects and existing customers.

Adaptive Content Provides a Personalized Experience

Every channel, device and scenario serve as puzzle pieces that make up the consumer journey. If you look at the hundreds of pieces individually, they don’t make much sense. But if you join them together, you can see the whole image clearly.

In content marketing, it’s time that we start looking at the big picture.

This happens through the development and implementation of a comprehensive content strategy. Your strategy should provide enough insight into the mind of the customer that you’re able to determine a clear direction for personalization.

The 5 Elements of Adaptive Content

Before we get any further into the nitty-gritty of adaptive content strategy, I want to talk about the elements you’ll want to look for during the initiative.

Karen McGrane is a superhero on this topic. If you haven’t read her book or heard her speak, you’re missing out on some really great information.

She outlines five elements of adaptive content that are critical to your success. Let’s talk about each of them briefly.

1. Reusable Content – Develop content that you can use on multiple platforms. You also want the ability to create similar content in different formats to reach a wider variety of prospective customers.
2. Structured Content – Create small chunks of content that can easily be consumed on multiple devices, regardless of their size.
3. Presentation-Independent Content – This is the bare bones of your piece. It’s the raw content without ornate or ostentatious formatting.
4. Meaningful Metadata – This hidden data quickly describes the purpose and intent of the content. This helps for easy interpretation by your viewers, as well as enhanced parsing by the search engines.
5. Usable CMS Interfaces – Ultimately, you want a simple, functioning system that makes the delivery of all of the above elements possible.

Although I love the elements Karen uses, I think we can simplify it even more. I like to think of it in terms of the common phrase Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

1. Reduce the amount of work by systemizing your workflows and processes.
2. Reuse content on multiple platforms and broadcast your message on every channel.
3. Recycle (or, repurpose) the published work into different formats to get the most out of it.

Source

Once you understand what adaptive content looks like, it’s time to create a stellar strategy…

Build a Strategy for Personalization

To begin, we need to first understand the five Ws. You probably remember them from grade school: who, what, when, where and why. By defining the project’s purpose this way, we’ll be better prepared to understand personalization from a strategic perspective.

1. Create Personas for Your Ideal Audience

Who is your audience?

It’s one of the first questions any content developer should ask themselves. Building a strong persona helps you properly cater to them. And that kind of attention can transform the casual visitor into a brand ambassador.

Before you can create effective adaptive content, you must understand your audience.

Step 1: Delve into an analysis of their goals, challenges and pain points. This will help you determine how to best distribute your content. Check out this overview of the 5 Rings of Buying Insight.

Step 2: Create complex, situational overviews of their needs. Get started by answering these questions about each type of audience member.

• Who does the audience currently go to to consume a similar product or service?
• Who would refer them to you?
• Who do they speak to that may also express interest in your brand?
• What kind of mood are they in when they find your company?
• What devices are they using?
• What interests do they have?
• Why should they use your brand at all?

Step 3: Conduct primary research that brings even deeper insight. You can gather deeper information through things like:

• Interviewing members of your target audience.
• Teaching clients through interactive workshops.
• Surveying a broad group of audience members.

Ultimately, the research you’ll conduct depends on your specific situation. Focus your efforts on creating a unique approach based on your audience, their needs and the type of business you run.

But one thing is the same, regardless: You must understand the who before you take any further steps.

2. Determine the Best Type of Content

What content best supports the audience?

Too many people have a narrow mindset when it comes to content. They only think of it in terms of written messages or multimedia assets. And while both of those are important components, adaptive content comes from a much higher level of thinking.

Source

To understand what type of content works best, you’ll develop a distinct four-step workflow. These steps take you through research, architecture, development, testing, optimization and a high-powered launch. Once you’ve accomplished it, you’ll know what kind of content works:

• Create in-depth personas and use cases.
• Model functions and features to support user goals.
• Nurture the relationship with the consumer.
• Strategically launch, debug and refine the content.

Sound complex? Welcome to the future.

3. Establish Your Adaptive Characteristics

When should you actually adapt content?

By its very nature, adaptive content must adapt. That means, it needs to change based on certain characteristics of the individual audience member.

Step 1: Select the characteristics you’ll use to trigger adaptive content. A few options include:

• Their current physical location.
• The date or time of day.
• What channel brought them to your content.
• Recent purchase history from your company.
• Where they’re at in the buying cycle.
• Micro-conversions they’ve taken through the website.

Step 2: Create adaptive rules that trigger adaptive content based on what you’ve defined.

For example, let’s say you run a digital marketing agency. You could create the following piece of personalized, adaptive content:

• When the home page is loaded by a user in a specific city, display: “We want to help a business in [city] grow through digital marketing. Will it be yours?”

Here’s an example of what that type of rule might look like in practice:

This kind of execution is intrinsic to adaptive content. Personalization happens through small pieces of content delivered in the appropriate context. When done well, it creates the kind of unique experience that users want.

4. Consider the Challenges of Different Devices

Where will you display the content?

Determine how you will visually represent your content, and what effect this will have on your content across different devices.
What looks good on a desktop can cause an unfavorable experience in mobile. With the rise of responsive web design, marketers are seeing the harsh reality of poor strategic presentation.

Source

You need to consider the big picture. Truly adaptive content can serve the audience through quality publishing, regardless of the device used. To make this a reality, you’ll need to look at your publishing strategy from a few different angles.

1. Consider current devices that will consume your content.
2. Prepare for display challenges for each major device.
3. Create intelligent content that can handle the quirks of each medium.
4. Keep new & developing technology in mind for future adaptations (e.g. Google Glass)

Ultimately, you deliver a great experience to every user. That can’t happen with static content that only serves one device. Using these steps helps you focus on the dynamic possibilities.

5. Define Your Reason for Investment

Why are you investing in adaptive content.

You need to build a strong business case for adaptive content. It requires a vast investment of time and resources, so it’s important to understand and apply customer research data.

Build a business case for the executives involved in the decision-making process. You have to justify its benefit for your organization’s specific needs and goals, as well as show how adaptive content truly connects all the pieces of the marketing puzzle together.

Source

Take small steps to start implementing personalized adaptive content if you’re not ready to give it a 100% investment. Even small changes can yield long-term rewards. Start with the training wheels on and make small adaptations that will lead to larger ones down the road.

This is the future of content, and you need to jump on board now before it’s too late.

We’ve talked a lot about high-level complexities today. I’d love to hear your thoughts on adaptive content and how it will shape the future of our content marketing efforts. Share your ideas by leaving a comment below.

About the Author: Aaron Agius is an experienced search, content and social marketer. He has worked with some of the world’s largest and most recognized brands to build their online presence. See more from Aaron at Louder Online, their Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.

Automate Alpha Beta Campaign Structure Using AdWords Scripts

I’ve read a lot of blogs and articles about the Alpha Beta Campaign Structure and how it can improve the overall performance of your account. In fact, in a recent AMA with Optmyzr founder and ex-Googler Fredrick Vallaeys on Reddit, he had nothing but good things to say about this approach for campaign management.

I’ve also read that many people believe that maintaining a structure like this is labor-intensive and prone to errors if you aren’t careful. That sounds like a perfect recipe for AdWords Scripts. When I did a few searches on the topic, I saw a few articles mention AdWords Scripts for solving those issues, but I couldn’t find any actual code to use. Maybe it’s out there somewhere, but in the meantime, I figured I’d write my own.

Alpha Beta Campaign Structure

This idea for Alpha Beta campaigns was originally proposed by David Rodnitzky of 3Q Digital. The basic idea is that you to have a set of “beta” campaigns leveraging broad match to find new keywords, and a set of corresponding “alpha” campaigns containing exact match keywords with a proven performance record. I’m not going to describe the technique in full here, but you can read all about it in their guide.

There are a few things that scripts can help with if you decide to maintain this type of campaign structure. First, you can automate pulling the winners and losers from your beta campaigns based on a set of criteria. There are a few scripts out there that do something similar to this already, so it shouldn’t be too difficult.

From that list, you can easily automate adding the losers as negatives to our beta campaigns. You can also create a script to automatically apply the winners in the alpha campaigns as negatives to the beta campaigns.

As for the winners, it is a little harder to automate, so we won’t be covering that here. With proper naming conventions, moving those keywords into their own ad group and adding a set of default ads shouldn’t be too hard. But with all the collection and negative adding taken care of, you should be able to spend more of your time optimizing the winners.

Sounds like we have a lot of work ahead of us, so let’s get started.

Finding Winners, Losers and Not Enough Data

Let’s start with a script to pull the search query report and slice the results into three categories: Winners, Losers, and Not Enough Data. At the top of the script, we will need to define a few settings which should be pretty self-explanatory.

The critical part is determining the winning and losing criteria. As you can see, these consist of a list of clauses that will filter the results of the search query report so that only the keywords that match those criteria are left. You can use almost any column from the search query report and any operator from the AWQL. The other important thing is to make sure that the columns you use in your criteria are in the columns for the search query report.

/*******************************
 * Find the Winners and Losers from the 
 * Search Query Performance report for 
 * Alpha Beta Campaign Strategy.
 *******************************/
// The list of email addresses to send the report to.
// We will also give editor access to the Google Spreadsheet.
var NOTIFY = ['your_email@example.com'];
// The name of the report in your Google drive
var SPREADSHEET_PREFIX = 'AlphaBetaResults - ';
// This string is used to identify your Beta campaigns.
// Make sure this string is found in all your Beta campaign names
var BETA_SUFFIX = '| Beta';
// This is the timeframe used to calculate the statistics.
var REPORT_TIMEFRAME = 'YESTERDAY';
// This is the list of columns that will be displayed in the 
// Winners and Losers report. Make sure that any columns used in
// the Criteria below are listed here as well.
var REPORT_COLUMNS = [
  'CampaignName','AdGroupName',
  'KeywordTextMatchingQuery','MatchType','Query',
  'Impressions','Clicks','Cost','ConvertedClicks'];
// This is the set of criteria that will be used to
// determine the winners. Any of the numerical columns
// should work here. These are just samples, find what
// works for you.
var WINNING_CRITERIA = [
  'Clicks > 100',
  // If using money columns, be sure to represent them in micros
  // http://ift.tt/1tKzUhx
  'Cost < 1000000',   'ConvertedClicks >= 5'
];
var LOSING_CRITERIA = [
  'Impressions > 100',
  'Clicks < 5',   
  'ConvertedClicks = 0' ]; 

function main() {
   generateWinnersLosersReport();
}

function generateWinnersLosersReport() {
  // This string will be appended to the report to create a unique   
  // name each day. If you run this intra-day, you can add hours (HH) to   
  // to the format string. 
  var dateString = Utilities.formatDate(new Date(), 
                                        AdWordsApp.currentAccount().getTimeZone(), 
                                        'yyyy-MM-dd HH');
  var crits = [WINNING_CRITERIA,LOSING_CRITERIA];
  var sheets = [
    getSheet(SPREADSHEET_PREFIX+dateString,'Winners'),
    getSheet(SPREADSHEET_PREFIX+dateString,'Losers')
  ];
  // Grab all the results first. That way we can remove the winners and losers   
  // to keep the ones with "not enough data".
  var allResults = pullSearchQueryPerfReport(REPORT_TIMEFRAME,REPORT_COLUMNS,[]);
  for(var i in crits) {
    var results = pullSearchQueryPerfReport(
      REPORT_TIMEFRAME,
      REPORT_COLUMNS,
      crits[i]
    );
    writeResultsToSheet(results,sheets[i]);
    removeFromAllResults(allResults,results);
  }
  //Handle the 'Not Enough Data' case
  var notEnoughDataSheet = getSheet(SPREADSHEET_PREFIX+dateString,'Not Enough Data');
  writeResultsToSheet(allResults,notEnoughDataSheet);
  sendEmail(sheets,dateString);
}

// This function pulls the search query report and 
// formats it to be easy to insert into a Google Sheet.
function pullSearchQueryPerfReport(timeframe,columns,crit) {
  var reportName = 'SEARCH_QUERY_PERFORMANCE_REPORT';
  var reportQueryTemplate = 'SELECT %s FROM %s WHERE %s DURING %s';
  // Add a criteria so that we only look at data from Beta campaigns.
  crit.push("CampaignName CONTAINS '"+BETA_SUFFIX+"'");
  var reportQuery = Utilities.formatString(reportQueryTemplate, 
                                           columns.join(','), 
                                           reportName,
                                           crit.join(' AND '), 
                                           timeframe);
  var reportIter = AdWordsApp.report(reportQuery,{
      includeZeroImpressions: true
    }).rows();
  var results = [];
  while(reportIter.hasNext()) {
    var row = reportIter.next();
    var rowArray = [];
    for(var i in columns) {
      rowArray.push(row[columns[i]]);
    }
    results.push(rowArray); 
  }
  return results;
}

// This function writes the results to a given spreadsheet
function writeResultsToSheet(results,sheet) {
  if(results.length > 0) {
    var keywordIndex = REPORT_COLUMNS.indexOf('KeywordTextMatchingQuery');
    sheet.appendRow(REPORT_COLUMNS)
    for(var i in results) {
      // if the keyword starts with a plus sign,
      // we need to add an apostrophe so google sheets
      // doesn't get annoyed.
      if(results[i][keywordIndex].indexOf('+') === 0) {
        results[i][keywordIndex] = "'"+results[i][keywordIndex];
      }
      sheet.appendRow(results[i]);
    }
  }
}

// This function removes the results in toRemove from the results
// in the allResults array. Used to remove winners and losers so 
// that all we have left are the "not enough data" queries.
function removeFromAllResults(allResults,toRemove) {
  var allResultsRowHash = {};
  for(var i in allResults) {
    var rowHash = Utilities.base64Encode(JSON.stringify(allResults[i]));
    allResultsRowHash[rowHash] = 1;
  }
  for(var i in toRemove) {
    var rowHash = Utilities.base64Encode(JSON.stringify(toRemove[i]));
    if(allResultsRowHash[rowHash]) {
      allResults.splice(i,1);
    }
  }
}

// Sends the spreadsheet in an email to the people in the
// NOTIFY list. 
function sendEmail(sheets,dateString) {
  var subjectLineTemplate = 'Alpha Beta Results - %s - %s';
  var subjectLine = Utilities.formatString(subjectLineTemplate,
                                           AdWordsApp.currentAccount().getName(),
                                           dateString);
  var bodyTemplate = 'Here is a spreadsheet with the ' +
                     'winners and losers for account: %s: \n\n %s';
  var body = Utilities.formatString(bodyTemplate,
                                    AdWordsApp.currentAccount().getName(),
                                    sheets[0].getParent().getUrl());
  for(var i in NOTIFY) {
    MailApp.sendEmail(NOTIFY[i], subjectLine, body);
  }
}

// Helper function to get or create a given sheet in 
// a spreadsheet. When creating a new spreadsheet, it also
// adds the emails in the NOTIFY list as editors.
function getSheet(spreadsheetName,sheetName) {
  var fileIter = DriveApp.getFilesByName(spreadsheetName);
  if(fileIter.hasNext()) {
    var ss = SpreadsheetApp.openByUrl(fileIter.next().getUrl());
    var sheets = ss.getSheets();
    for(var i in sheets) {
      if(sheets[i].getName() == sheetName) { 
        sheets[i].clear();
        return sheets[i]; 
      }
    }
    return ss.insertSheet(sheetName);
  } else {
    var ss = SpreadsheetApp.create(spreadsheetName);
    ss.addEditors(NOTIFY);
    var sheet = ss.insertSheet(sheetName);
    ss.deleteSheet(ss.getSheetByName('Sheet1'));
    return sheet;
  }
}

Eliminating The Poor Performers

I recommend running the script above for a little while to make sure you have your criteria set up correctly. Once you’re satisfied with the results, you can easily automate the task of eliminating poor performers from the Beta campaigns.

The following code builds upon what you have already and will automatically add the poor performers as exact match negatives to the corresponding Beta campaign. Just replace the main() function in the previous script and add this additional code.

// Replace the main from above with this one.
// We create the report from before but then
// also add the losers to the beta group.
function main() {
  generateWinnersLosersReport();
  addLosersToBetaGroup();
}

// This code pulls the losers from from the 
// Beta campaign using the same criteria as before.
function addLosersToBetaGroup() {
  var loserResults = pullSearchQueryPerfReport(
    REPORT_TIMEFRAME,
    REPORT_COLUMNS,
    LOSING_CRITERIA
  );
  if(loserResults.length > 0) {
    var campKwHash = transformSearchQueryResults(loserResults);
    var campaignNames = Object.keys(campKwHash);
    // Find all the Beta campaigns
    var campIter = AdWordsApp.campaigns().withCondition("Name CONTAINS '"+BETA_SUFFIX+"'").get();
    while(campIter.hasNext()) {
      var camp = campIter.next();
      var campName = camp.getName();
      // If the campaign is in the list of Beta campaigns we need
      // to add negative to
      if(campaignNames.indexOf(camp.getName()) >= 0) {
        var negativesList = campKwHash[campName];
        for(var i in negativesList) {
          // Add the negatives.
          camp.createNegativeKeyword(negativesList[i]);
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

// This function transforms the data from the Search Query report
// into a map of { campaignName : [ "[query1]","[query2]", ... ] }
function transformSearchQueryResults(results) {
  var campKwHash = {};
  var campColumn = REPORT_COLUMNS.indexOf('CampaignName');
  var queryColumn = REPORT_COLUMNS.indexOf('Query');
  for(var i in loserResults) {
    var row = loserResults[i];
    var campName = row[campColumn];
    var query = row[queryColumn];
    if(!campKwHash[campName]) {
      campKwHash[campName] = [];
    }
    campKwHash[campName].push('['+query+']');
  }
  return campKwHash;
}

 

Protecting Your Alpha Queries

The last aspect of the Alpha Beta Campaign structure we can automate is making sure your Alpha campaigns are protected. We don’t want those exact match Alpha keywords you worked so hard on optimizing showing up in any of our Beta campaigns.

This script can run independently of our previous script. It will go through all of your Alpha Campaigns and automatically add any new keywords it finds as exact match negatives to the corresponding Beta campaign. You can schedule this script to run hourly on your account, so that your Alpha and Beta campaigns will never be out of sync.

/*******************************
 * Automatically add any new keywords in your
 * Alpha campaigns as exact match negatives in
 * the corresponding Beta campaign.
 *******************************/
// Just as before, these strings will be
// used to identify your Alpha and Beta campaigns.
// This script assumes that your Alpha campaigns are
// named "Campaign Name | Alpha" with the corresponding
// Beta campaign named "Campaign Name | Beta"
var ALPHA_SUFFIX = '| Alpha';
var BETA_SUFFIX = '| Beta';

function main() {
  var results = getKeywordReport();
  var toUpdate = {};
  for(var key in results) {
    var campData = results[key];
    for(var i in campData.alpha.keywords) {
      var kw = campData.alpha.keywords[i];
      if(campData.beta.negatives.indexOf(kw) == -1) {
        if(!toUpdate[campData.beta.campName]) {
          toUpdate[campData.beta.campName] = [];
        }
        toUpdate[campData.beta.campName].push(kw);
      }
    }
  }
  var campIter = AdWordsApp.campaigns().withCondition("Name CONTAINS '"+BETA_SUFFIX+"'").get();
  while(campIter.hasNext()) {
    var betaCamp = campIter.next();
    var betaCampName = betaCamp.getName();
    if(toUpdate[betaCampName]) {
      var negativesToAdd = toUpdate[betaCampName];
      for(var i in negativesToAdd) {
        betaCamp.createNegativeKeyword('['+negativesToAdd[i]+']');
      }
    }
  }
}

// This function uses the Keywords report and
// the campaign negatives report to build a list
// of the keywords and negatives in each campaign.
function getKeywordReport() {
  var columns = ['CampaignName','Criteria','IsNegative'];
  var reportQueryTemplate = "SELECT %s FROM %s "+
                            "WHERE IsNegative IN [true,false] "+
                            "AND CampaignName CONTAINS '%s' ";
  var alphaReportQuery = Utilities.formatString(reportQueryTemplate, 
                                                columns.join(','), 
                                                'KEYWORDS_PERFORMANCE_REPORT',
                                                ALPHA_SUFFIX);
  var betaReportQuery = Utilities.formatString(reportQueryTemplate, 
                                               columns.join(','), 
                                               'CAMPAIGN_NEGATIVE_KEYWORDS_PERFORMANCE_REPORT',
                                               BETA_SUFFIX);
  var queries = [alphaReportQuery,betaReportQuery];
  var results = {};
  for(var i in queries) {
    var reportIter = AdWordsApp.report(queries[i],{
      includeZeroImpressions: true
    }).rows();
    while(reportIter.hasNext()) {
      var row = reportIter.next();
      if(row.CampaignName.indexOf(ALPHA_SUFFIX) == -1 &&
         row.CampaignName.indexOf(BETA_SUFFIX) == -1) {
        continue;
      }
      var campType = (row.CampaignName.indexOf(ALPHA_SUFFIX) >= 0) ? 'alpha' : 'beta';
      
      var cleanCampName = row.CampaignName.split(ALPHA_SUFFIX)[0];
      cleanCampName = cleanCampName.split(BETA_SUFFIX)[0];
      
      if(!results[cleanCampName]) {
        results[cleanCampName] = {
          alpha: { keywords: [], negatives: [], campName: '' },
          beta:  { keywords: [], negatives: [], campName: '' }
        };
      }
      results[cleanCampName][campType].campName = row.CampaignName;
      if(row.IsNegative == 'true') {
        results[cleanCampName][campType].negatives.push(row.Criteria);
      } else {
        results[cleanCampName][campType].keywords.push(row.Criteria);
      }
    }
  }
  return results;
}

 

Wrapping Things Up

So once you have these scripts up and running in your Alpha Beta accounts, all that’s left for you to do is focus on making sure your Alpha campaigns are the best they can be. The reporting and negatives should be taken care of.

Of course, you should always pay careful attention to what your scripts are doing and audit them on a regular basis to make sure things are still working correctly. Anything that makes changes to your account should be previewed many times before you run it on a regular basis. It might even be a good idea to separate these into three scripts, so you can run and test them as needed.

The post Automate Alpha Beta Campaign Structure Using AdWords Scripts appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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Transform Your Thinking To Address Mounting Challenges In Your Online Business

A supposedly Chinese ancient curse goes: “May you live in interesting times!”

Well, these certainly are “interesting times” in the business and search marketing world. A lot is in flux, changing at dizzying speeds that leave many entrepreneurs, marketers, and even SEO experts confused and frustrated. And the dangers are particularly stark, as mistakes compound rapidly and can lead a company far astray pretty quickly.

The Challenge Is Multi-Pronged — And Growing Worse

If only one (or few) things were evolving rapidly, it wouldn’t be so bad. But today, many things are changing simultaneously.

As consumers continue to embrace new technologies, the way they interact with businesses has evolved. The lines between the “online” and “offline” worlds have blurred as mobile devices have made 24/7 internet access possible. And the path to purchase is no longer linear, as consumers increasingly utilize multiple devices to research (and purchase) products or services.

What does all of this mean?

People who first hear about your business via one medium — TV ad, billboard, newspaper/magazine article, etc. — could be influenced to follow through and buy from you (or steer clear of you completely), based on what they find out about you via search.

A bad review on a business directory, an unfavorable mention of your business on social media, or a negative story about your business on a blog or forum could mean that potential customers are being turned away from you before they even give you a chance.

In a connected digital world where every consumer has a virtual megaphone, the service you provide, the way you communicate with your customers, and the experiences they have with your product or service will all have an impact on your online presence.

Knowing this, you cannot afford to ignore it. Yet that’s exactly what many business owners are doing.

Get Used To The New Reality

These changes are here to stay. New technology, systems and media, as well as the manner in which customers have embraced them, place the burden squarely on your shoulders.

Nowadays, job disciplines overlap. This demands teamwork. It is vital that information is communicated and shared effectively, both within your organization and with your external resources (consultants, agencies and more). Even those who didn’t need to do this just a few years ago are now forced to rely upon others for their own success.

Traditionally, programmers didn’t talk with the PR department, or vice versa. But today, living in silos like this can be dangerous for any business’ future.

Furthermore, new roles and disciplines are needed in order to effectively tackle today’s digital challenges. Here are a few examples:

Technical Marketers

Online marketing demands technical insight and understanding. Unfortunately, your existing marketers may not have a tech background or understand the digital space. Superb marketing skills can’t compensate for this weakness.

In areas like SEO and paid search, there was once a time when you could manage without systems, or with a passing knowledge of the underlying technology. All that has changed now. If you’re a large Web store, then to maximize your results and stop leaving money on the table, you’ll have to hire technical marketers.

Some veteran marketers of the old school stick with their tried-and-tested approach, accepting that they can’t learn everything or stay current in all areas. However, as a business owner, you can’t afford to trust their claims — you’ll be losing sales and revenue, risking your brand and jeopardizing your future.

Digital Analysts

Technical installation of scripts and code on a website or app is not “plug-and-play” simple. Neither is tracking buyers along their journey from research to purchase. These activities require sophisticated tools, as well as deep knowledge and intimate familiarity with the process.

An old-school analyst, who is accustomed to calling and interviewing people for market research and who relies on general statistics, will fall behind if he doesn’t use modern technologies to track and measure client behavior, then put the pieces together based on new data gathered from online and offline sources across multiple devices.

In addition to being a great analyst, he must also be familiar with the complexities of attribution in the digital environment.

Where did the buyer travel on the way to your site? Was exposure to a display ad the first contact, or did she click on a link from a news website? Or did she find your business listed on a search engine? Or was your business the subject of a social media conversation? Furthermore, what device is she using? And did she move over to another device before ordering?

All these things matter.

Businesses are losing customers and sales because of the widening gap between them and their customers. This is the result of poor understanding and insight about their market — their prospects and their individual needs. Digital analysts can help close this gap by collecting and analyzing audience data and piecing it together to get a sense of the larger picture.

By using data to assess trends, businesses can measure, monitor and act in a way that allows them to scale rapidly. They will be more efficient because the well-oiled machinery of their business is lubricated with reliable data.

Making The Switch From Tactical To Strategic

To stand out and be noticed, you must understand the individual needs of the people you’re speaking to. Just hearing a buzzword — like “content marketing” or “SEO” — and rushing to include it in your marketing arsenal is suboptimal.

What businesses need is a comprehensive digital marketing strategy. Without one, all the time and effort invested into SEO, content marketing, etc., will be ineffective.

It’s easy and inexpensive to create a new website today. WordPress and other systems make that possible. You don’t need a degree in literature or PR to communicate with the masses on social media. You can get more done with less resources and knowledge.

But here’s the paradox…

When things get easier, it’s easy to fool yourself into believing that you’re in control. You throw yourself energetically upon waves of new opportunity (and threats), unprepared and unarmed to take advantage of them. And so you miss out.

You pick a few easy things to change and implement them. Your actions are fragmented, unconnected, not integrated into a comprehensive strategy. And that’s a problem. You must shift from “ad hoc” to “strategic” in the way you think and work.

It’s not unusual to see business owners rushing to implement tactical decisions without research, analysis, goal setting and strategizing. This is usually driven by the urgency of seeing competitors making progress. All of a sudden, money is diverted from other activities to spend on, say, content marketing — without understanding the impact it will have, or what can be expected from the investment.

Final Thoughts: Transform Your Thinking

The people who decide on a broad business strategy should know how things work and be competent to make the right choices. Picking up an idea here and a tactic there, mixing them together and hoping it will work for your business, is not going to work.

Stop doing things sporadically and in a haphazard fashion. Take your approach to change management seriously. Make the extra effort to plan and coordinate your strategy. Maybe it’s not fun or easy… but if you don’t do it, your business will die.

So… go, get ’em.

The post Transform Your Thinking To Address Mounting Challenges In Your Online Business appeared first on Search Engine Land.

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Bing Wants You To Search In Emoji With New Emoji Keyboard

Bing is testing a new virtual keyboard added on to the Bing search bar to enable searchers to search by emoji.

As you know, Bing is one of the few search engines that actually lets you search by Emoji characters. But to enable more searchers to use the emoji search, Bing seems to be testing a virtual emoji keyboard.

Rubén Gómez discovered it and documented how to force your browser to trigger the virtual keyboard. He also shared a video of it in action.

Here is a screen shot of the emoji keyboard in Bing:

Here is the video:

One wonders if Bing will launch this to everyone or just make it a setting somewhere.

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