Digital Marketing and Web Strategy by Bob Hazlett | One Half Amazing!

Google pushed an enhancement to their search results earlier today.  Google Instant shows you instant results as you type in hopes that you get better, faster and smarter search results.  No more having to write big, long search queries because Google can now finish your sentences! Certainty this will free up more of your brain power to focus on more important things like tending to your virtual farm.  To try out Google Instant go to Google.com or here to try it out.

I’m still trying to get a grasp on the impact that these instant results will have on both the consumer and advertisers, but I do think 2 big things will happen because of it.

• There will be greater emphasis on the very first result.  Since users will narrow down their searches within the search box, they’ll rely more heavily on the first result.  This could suck if your business isn’t #1.
• Google predicts the ads it shows based on what it anticipates your search to be, but doesn’t officially serve the impression until you actually land on that particular query.  For advertisers, you’ll get a more qualified user even though your number of impressions may decrease.  This is good.  Less waste for the advertiser.

What impacts do you think will come of Google Instant?  Tell me in the comments below.

Infographic by PPC Blog

In November, Google launched a small beta of Ad Sitelinks.  Essentially, Ad Sitelinks is a feature for search-based ads that lets you include up to four additional links to deeper content on your site beyond the main landing page or link.  To give you a better idea, here’s what they look like.

Well, I guess the test was successful, because Google is now releasing the feature to all Adwords users.  In fact, they’re even reporting the advertisers are boosting their click-thru rates upwards of 30%!

Ad Sitelinks is available on the campaign level, so  before you turn it on you’ll want to make sure that the additional sitelinks you create are releavant to any ad in that particular campaign.  When a user’s search matches a keyword in your Ad Sitelinks campaign, Google will decide if your ad is up to snuff (ads with the highest quality score are most likely to contain sitelinks) to show Ad Sitelinks and whether to show the two-line or the one-line format.

To turn on Ad Sitelinks, shimmy on down to the Campaign Settings tab in your Adwords account.  Once you’re there, go to the “Show additional links to my site” section under “Ad extensions.”  All clicks are charged the same rate, regardless of which of the Sitelinks are clicked, but you may want to make sure you increase your budget a little in case you experience the same success as the beta testers.

Got questions or want to find out more? Check out the FAQ on Ad Sitelinks.

If Google or Apple went out of business tomorrow, which one would you be more disappointed about? Discuss.

You may have heard that Google Analytics opened their app store a couple weeks ago. No, you didn’t? Well, go there now and I’ll wait.

Campaignsync is one of the early entrants into the store and taking on a common frustration for new search advertisers.   Put simply, it enables search engine marketers to quickly import their Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter campaigns (PPC) and track their performance together through Google Analytics. Yes, there are alternatives and other ways to achieve the same thing, but the beauty of this app is its simplicity.  Just import your campaign in the form of a CSV file and Campaignsync will take the liberty to tag everything for you.  Post the file back to your pay-per-click account and you’re done.  Campaignsync is free. See the video below for their 4-step process.

In addition to the live stream below, you can also follow #io2010 on twitter.

Google I/O, which starts tomorrow, is our annual conference to help developers learn about the latest ways their applications can work with Google services.  If you develop applications or just are enthusiastic about using applications that interact with your Google account, you can learn the highlights of this year’s announcements by watching the live keynote streams.  See the Google Code blog for more details.

via Official Google Mac Blog: Google I/O: live keynote streams.