Google Changes The Traffic Estimator

Published on Thursday, November 30th, 2006 9:12 am GMT
Category: General

We all know that the traffic estimator at Google is great for helping us decide what we should bid on keywords, how much we may have to spend, what ad positions we can get, and how many clicks can be expected. Now Google has made some changes to the way that this tool works. The changes are only a few days old so I’m not sure how the changes will help.

Estimates

With the previous version of the TE (traffic estimator), you could type in your keywords and check the stats for that keyword. You would be provided a number for each of the headings. Estimated Avg CPC, Ad Position, Clicks / Day, and Cost / Day. Now we have a new field called “Search Volume” which is supposed to help people know which terms are searched more. Does this help?? Well, at first glance you may not think so, but it does make bidding a bit easier.

Hers’s an example. Lets say you bid 20cents on the keyword “Make Money Online”. The Traffic estimator will say that you can expect between 0 and 4 cents a day, but based on the “Search Volume” meter it is easy to see that the keyword should expect much more traffic than 4 clicks a day. Search volume can help you determine if you should spend more money on a click. 20 cents is obviously too low, so we can increase it to 50 cents for comparison. 50 Cents gets us between 7 and 17 clicks a day. Interesting… More clicks, but the estimated position has stayed the same at 11-15. The volume meter, along with the estimated position tell us to raise the bid yet again, to get more traffic. 80 cents will get us on the first page.. and between 18 and 38 clicks a day..

All in all, does the search volume meter really help? NOt really, you could get the same data from the estimated positions before, but it does make choosing a bid slightly easier. Why would they add this?? Perhaps foreshadowing for something to come in the near future?

Estimate Ranges

This brings us to the Estimates. Previously you would be provided with an estimation, say 40 clicks / day, but now, Google is covering their asses by giving you ranges for their estimates.. Between 59 cents and 80 cents, between position 7 and 10, between 18 and 38 clicks / day and cost between $20 and $40. Providing ranges helps as you get a better idea of what to expect out of your keywords, so I like this change.

Also, now you can view traffic estimates within an ad group based on that ad groups history and performance. The traffic estimator tool bases it’s estimates on an account that will have a certain QS and CTR.. The estimates within the ad group are displayed based on your real data. If you have an ad group that performs with a very poor CTR, chances are that your estimates will be different than if you were using the traffic estimator when creating a new ad group. This is a nice change as your estimates become more accurate because they are based on your ad group history.

Another change that they added is that you can choose whether or not to see the “Potential Clicks” in the same table. To view estimated clicks, you need to click on the “Show total potential clicks in the table below” button.

Not Enough Data To Give Estimates

I’ve had this question about 10 times already today via PM so I am going to paste the Google Definition

The Traffic Estimator includes samples of historical ad performance (for your ads and other ads using similar keywords) in its calculations.

If you see ‘Not enough data to give estimates’ next to any of your keywords, the Traffic Estimator has determined, based on this sampling, that your ad will likely not receive impressions or clicks on any search results page or other ad space. This occurs when your maximum cost-per-click (CPC) and Quality Score aren’t sufficient to earn an ad position, or when we don’t have enough data to make an accurate prediction.

If this happens, you may wish to increase your maximum CPC or optimize your campaign, ad text, and keywords.

Keyword Tool

The keyword tool is now a lot more streamlined as you can search for keywords, and add them to specific ad groups. This makes adding new keywords much easier and time efficient. Lets supposed you have an existing campaign that has an ad group “Making Money Online”. You may want to do some keyword research and add more keywords to the group. This is easily done now that the keyword tool has been updated. You may find a keyword such as “How to make money online”. Adding the KW to the ad group is as easy as one click.

Other Changes

Google has also made some minor changes such as having a “Settings” link beside each keyword in an ad group. This is most likely done mostly for cosmetics, and to dave space in an already crowded table.

Bid Options

This change was made previously, but now you can allow google to optimize your ads and bids to maximize the amount of clicks that you can achieve based on a 30 day budget. This doesn’t work if you have an inflated budget, and it doesn’t give you control over which keywords are displayed more than others, but if you have a very tightly grouped campaign with few ad groups of similar nature. It may be something you want to try.

Definitely NOT something that I recommend because it gives you much less control.

Summary

Overall Google has been very busy, and according to our sources at google there are some MAJOR changes coming as well. The most recent changes have provided an even more elaborate system that we can work with and master! I say, “Bring on the Changes Google” The Wealthy Affiliates are ready for anything!

Google Changes The Traffic Estimator

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