At the rate that people are using the internet nowadays, it probably does not occur to most what kind of PPC ads are turning up on their pages anymore. Ads and various other forms of online marketing, such as search engine optimisation, have become part and parcel of every webpage’s landscape, and not until people accidentally or purposefully click on an ad do they realise how deceptive or totally off-base from searches some of these ads can be. Fortunately, primary PPC ad operators Google and Microsoft have been paying real close attention and decided to make some major modifications to make these ads better for both users and advertisers. Last week, in their official blog Google announced the introduction of certain improvements to their online ads system Google AdWords which were aimed at detecting and removing questionable ads, landing pages and even advertiser accounts, promoting better AdWords management. Following in Google’s footsteps, Microsoft revealed to Search Engine Land Contributing Editor Pamela Parker this week some changes that it would be applying to their very own adCenter.

Google AdWords: Serious Safeguarding

According to Google’s official blog, aside from continuing to adhere to their ad policies which guard against ads with illegal or harmful products, misleading claims, fraudulent scams and unclear billing practices, it would be implementing a new automated system designed to “detect and remove ads for malicious download sites that contain malware or a virus before these ads could appear on Google.” These automated systems would also scan and review landing pages and advertiser accounts, and once flagged, will be reviewed in detail by Google’s policy specialists to determine a proper course of action.

Additional improvements to Google’s systems as stated on their official blog include:

• Improved “query watch” for counterfeit ads – involves wider proactive monitoring of sensitive keywords and queries related to counterfeit goods, stopping them before they even appear on Google.
• New “risk model” to detect violations – upgraded engineering system is made even more precise in detecting advertisers who violate ad policies.
• Faster manual review process – for ads requiring manual review, the internal processes and systems have been sped up, enabling specialists to be faster and more precise.
• Twenty-four hour response time – along with a faster manual review process, a maximum 24-hour response time will be followed from the moment a reliable complaint is received about an ad to make sure responses and reviews are given in a timely fashion.
• Update on policy ads related to short-term loans – for short-term loans, advertisers are required to disclose fine-print details such as overall fees, annual percentage rate and implications for late and non-payment to protect people from misleading claims.

Take from Search Engine Optimisation News Website

Google’s changes appear to primarily benefit users, but Google has made some changes to AdWords as well that most, if not all advertisers will benefit from. An article on search engine optimisation news site Search Engine Watch states that Google has recently widened its AdWords account limits, giving advertisers the freedom to have up to 10,000 campaigns (including active and paused) per account with 20,000 ad groups per campaign. The limit for keywords has remained the same at 5,000 per ad group, but given that the limit for campaigns used to be 500, the change is still quite significant.

Microsoft adCenter: Some Google-like Changes

Also making some changes is one of Google AdWords’ biggest rivals, Microsoft adCenter. Most of adCenter’s changes are still in the development process with some very closely resembling features already present in Google AdWords. Pamela Parker of Search Engine Land lists down Microsoft adCenter’s changes follows:

• Broad Match Modifier –this targeting feature is similar to Google’s Broad Match Modifier and will allow advertisers to create keywords with greater reach than phrase match and more control than broad match.
• AdCenter Express – Parker notes that this feature is very similar to Google’s AdWords Express, and automates the process somewhat to make it easier for small businesses to manage their ad campaigns. This feature is said to officially launch sometime by the end of the year.
• More integrations in Bing – this allows users to complete tasks and engage with advertisers more simply, and can enable users to shop, make reservations, etc. directly on the Bing page instead of going to an advertiser’s site.
• Dynamic Location Extensions and Sitelink Extensions – this allows advertisers that have multiple locations to set up ads that serve the most relevant or closest (in terms of location) result to consumers.
• More detailed quality score data – advertisers will soon be able to get data on their quality scores for various match types and for mobile-only targeted ads.
• Desktop Tool for Mac – this software will enable advertisers to manage adCenter from the Macintosh.

There’s certainly a lot of changes to look forward to in the PPC world, and whether you’re simply an everyday user or advertiser you can be sure to benefit in more than one way to these changes, even if only to make you more aware of PPC ads the next time they turn up on your page.