Adwords Dominator Launches

Adwords Dominator launched at 10:00 am EST today, Monday
21st November 2005. Mark the date well, because today
history was made.

It's the world's first fully loaded desktop AdWords management
tool using the AdWords API to access your account data.

And it's just the beginning.

Website: http://www.adwords-dominator.com

AdWords Efficiency Indicator (AEI) explained – Making sense of AdWords performance.

When we were busy developing the charting components for our new
AdWords API management program, I was playing with some chart
overlays of the various AdWords Metrics: Cost per Click, Position
and Click Through Rate. These three metrics form the basis of the
so-called AdWords formula of
Relative Position = Cost Per Click * Click through rate.

I experimented with trying to understand the effect that changing
an ad would have in the overlays, and while changing the ad would
alter each of the variables, looking at them combined actually did
not tell me whether the net result of the change was positive or
negative.

The reason for this is that one element of the formula may be
adversely affected, while an other could be positively affected.
For example, the position and CTR may improve, but the price may
increase. So you have two curves going one way and one curve the other.

These contradictory messages when plotted on a chart over one
another lead to a certain amount of confusion as to whether the
net effect was desirable or not.

What I was looking for was an easy way to assess whether a change
in an ad could result in just one curve that would tell me whether
the overall net result was positive or negative.

So I set about combining these three elements into a formula that
would give a graphical representation in one curve that would tell
me whether changing my ad was overall positive or negative.

Using the logic that:

A higher Ave Pos is positive.
A higher Click-through rate is positive.
A lower Cost per Click is Positive

I combined these elements into: Ave Pos * CPC * (1/CTR)

This value represents now, just one curve, which when plotted
over ad changes in time, will give you an overall impression as
to the effect of changing an ad. This curve I have called the

AdWords Efficiency Indicator (AEI)

Now, the point of this is not the absolute value – but the
trend up or down.

The more efficient the ad, the more it will trend down towards
zero on an overlay chart, the less efficient and it will increase
in value.

But it gives you an immediate visual fix on whether something needs
closer attention and when plotted over Ad change history reveals
instantly whether you should consider having another look at your
Ad performance.

About the author:

Chris Lee is Joint Owner of AdWords-Dominator (www.adwords-dominator.com) , the world’s first AdWords API Desktop Manager for managing AdWords accounts.

(c) Chris Lee 2005 – You may distribute this article only with this acknowledgement attached.

Adwords Dominator Website is up

If you want to be one of the first people in the world to have a
sneek preview of the world's first true desktop AdWords
management tool using the API, designed for all AdWords
users - not just multi-national corporations, then take a
look at Adwords Dominator - we're releasing any day now
and you could be the first to know.

Adwords API and what it now means for advertisers

Earlier this year, and not before time, Google opened up Adwords to developers
through its API (Advanced Programming Interface).

What this means for users is that now, all the raw data associated with an
account, is available to each account user, as long as they have registered
with Google for a unique API key. This key costs you nothing and registration
takes a couple of minutes - you can do that at: http://www.google.com/apis/adwords/

The connection to API is secure and identifies you as the true owner of that account and allows you access to your account data through the API to use as you wish...(within the parameters of the TOS that is)

Now, what good does this do you?

Well, not much - unless you have some format in which to work with this
data and make sense of it. So its value has been largely meaningless save
for the developer community to play around with.

Until now that is.

When we saw that Google were opening the API, we immediately swung
into action. As an Adwords user myself, noone was more aware than me
as to how cumbersome working in the Adwords interface online could
be - and also, I was on dialup at that time so it was really slow and cut
into my time.

Anyway, we put our heads together and realised just how powerful it
would be to manage all your campaigns, keywords, adgroups, stats
and reporting straight off your desktop - all the data is stored in a
database on your PC and you have infinitely more control as a result.

So - we went for it and have developed a unique desktop based Adwords
Management tool - we're climbing the walls with excitement at the prospect
of launching it - which we will be very soon - so watch this space.

This blog will serve as our discussion point - our beta testers can post their
thoughts here on how it works and what they think and we will keep
people up to date with our progress.

But it's an exciting ride ahead.