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During this lecture about Search Engine Advertsing, I have been surprised by the fact that google is not ranking sponsored results by CPC but by adrank (Quality scores multiplied by CPC). Also, I would link to learn more about the quality score. Even if we do have informations about how the algorithm attribute them, it is still not very clear. Understanding well the mechanism is important in order to be competitive with the other advertisers.
Before the lecture I had no idea that there is an organised structure like this in a google adwords account. This seems a good thing in order to organise different campaigns.

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I'd like to learn more about how small companies penetrate the search advertising world, for a local business targeting a local area, how can they compete with the larger companies? Eg, I open a men's clothing company in Kildare, having a keyword of 'Kildare' is not likely to yield results, which leaves me competing with multinationals under more general search terms, where their budget and history vaastly beat mine. Are there any laws or rulings that limit Google's power in determining which criteria are more heavily weighted? Are there programmes from Google that help small companies in this regard?

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Something that I would be interested to learn more about is organizations that use search advertising whose end goal is not sales or revenue. For example Non-Profit organizations how do you measure the success of a campaign apart from using metrics such as clicks? How can they measure awareness built? Therefore in such campaigns are clicks really an accurate way to measure success?

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Something cool to look at with SEA might be the future of it, if governments are going after Big Tech for certain things, then are they trying to regulate SEA as well?

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I would like to know more about how smaller companies with less capital/ resources and budget can have an equal and fair contribute to SEA in comparison to bigger companies who can invest much more. when they are competing with larger companies is it safer for them to use SEO so they reduce the risk?

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I’m interested in seeing how quality score calculation changes as companies learn how to exploit the algorithm or as different features become more important to users. There’s currently a huge emphasis on shopping local and I would like to see if quality scores improve for smaller companies advertising their location as a selling point, or if googles algorithm will still favour the larger brands despite consumer sentiment changing.   

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Something that surprised me, because I didn’t know it, was the Adrank.

I thought that SEA worked like SEO but with the difference that company had just to pay to appear on the add results and that the company who had paid the most is just appearing in first. I didn’t know that position was determined by a « Quality Score » for each keywords.

I would have liked to know more about the different steps companies have to go through from the moment they decide to pay to appear on google Ads. (e.g. I’m a new online business and want to promote my website on Google in paying, what I have to do?  Do I just need to go on Google Ads, choose my budget, my keywords, create my campaign? Does Google warn me if the results are not good and that I have to make improvements?)

I would also like to know how new small businesses can differentiate themselves from big companies that have specialized poles for SEA ?

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Going through the topic this week after doing the Google Ads Search Certificate was very interesting. Something that surprised me was that the Adrank isn’t just about the amount you are willing to pay per click (CPC). It plays an important part, but the quality score calculated by Google is another important aspect that we can´t directly influence. The quality score multiplied with the bided CPC and a few other factors that Google keep a secret will influence and calculate your individual Adrank. What is definitely a challenge for marketing managers is that you can´t directly influence most of these quality factors, mostly because we just don’t know exactly how Google calculates it. I automatically assumed Google would put the highest CPC bid on top. But after explaining that Google tries to put those on top which have the highest potential of generating clicks (Google wants the most clicks as possible which isn’t necessary the one with the highest CPC), made a lot of sense because ultimately, they get more money in total if the Ad gets a lot of clicks. I had no idea there are so many factors to keep in mind when thinking about SEA. Obviously, it would be really interesting to know what factors Google base their calculation for the quality score on but that is almost impossible. I´m surprised information hasn’t leaked yet.

Something that would be very interesting to know is how does Google make sure the algorithm/calculation can´t be manipulated by bigger companies or the government? Is Google aware of that, do they care? Do they change factors regularly in order to assure accuracy? Are there special organizations that monitor Google, or are there specific regulations on this, internationally or nationally (e.g. from the government)?

Otherwise, there would be a danger of power monopoly by Google and therefore an indirect influence on company’s success/power and the purchase behavior of consumers.

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19335261                                        I would like to know more about how search is affected on different devices. Are the same search strategies unanimous across devices such as mobile, iPad, desktop and gaming consoles? Also, from working in a small company, I would like to know how smaller companies with less resources can have an equal and fair contribute to SEA in comparison to bigger companies who can have seemingly unlimited budgets.. Can they compete? Something that surprised me was how Google is not ranking sponsored results by CPC but by means of Quality scores X by CPC. Last question is do you think that in the future  Google will disclose more information about their SEA? Could they be forced to? 

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19335261                                        I would like to know more about how search is affected on different devices. Are the same search strategies unanimous across devices such as mobile, iPad, desktop and gaming consoles? Also, from working in a small company, I would like to know how smaller companies with less resources can have an equal and fair contribute to SEA in comparison to bigger companies who can have seemingly unlimited budgets.. Can they compete? Something that surprised me was how Google is not ranking sponsored results by CPC but by means of Quality scores X by CPC. Last question is do you think that in the future  Google will disclose more information about their SEA? Could they be forced to? 

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I was surprised that google changes the position of ads so that the ads most likely to generate the most clicks, is put in the top position to maximise googles profit. I assumed that the ad that pays the most is always top ranked. I was surprised that this was not the case, and that google does care about the quality of their ads.
I would like to hear more case studies of companies, and how they use SEA to their advantage, for example I'd like to see how larger companies use it in comparison to smaller companies, and how smaller companies are able to gain a competitive advantage in SEA. I would like to hear examples of companies who use SEA to achieve their goals, especially goals like subscriptions and promotion which I feel like would be harder to measure, rather than sales.

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I was not surprised when we saw in courses all the numerous facilities that Google could offer to companies in terme of advertising. By having done my google certification, I learned a lot about how Google Ads Search is working, for who and to what extend it could help companies to develop themselves. However, it would be interesting to know how nowadays, (in a world that if you are not digitalized as a company, you have missed the boat) small companies like SME achieve their advertising goals with a lower budget. How smaller companies use concretely SEA? I presumed there is no specialized role within the company for that part, thus, how do they proceed? (and without Google Ads facilities?)

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This week was interesting learning about how google ranks and calculates quality scores and it reinforced a lot of my learnings from the google ads search and measurement certificates.  I’d like to learn more about what not to do regarding your website and bidding, what are the things to be aware of that may damage your quality score and in turn result in a low ranking?
What I found particularly surprising in this week’s lecture were the categories that received the highest and lowest CTRs with dating related industries having the highest CTR which in my opinion shows the emotionally driven side to how consumers act online, it is not always rational thinking that can be predicted.
I’m also interested in learning more about the increasing use of voice assisted search and the impact this will have on ranking and quality ratings; will it alter the criteria or simply emphasise the importance of ranking highly?

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I found the topic of visual and voice searches very interesting. Learning about that made me wonder if we will see an increase in these types of searches in the future as I think they would definitely be more popular with younger generations. I’m terms of visual search, I know google goggles were released but are there any other products or services that are looking at this as a potential market? I’d like to learn more about what type of things are most commonly searched for using voice search or a visual search. I would then be interested to know how search engines would rank websites for these types of searches and how SEO algorithms might even be able to learn from your voice and establish certain things about your demographic depending on your voice.

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One aspect of SEA that I found interesting was that Google does not publish their algorithm for determining a websites quality score. We know that some factors such as landing page, the relevance of the ad to the search, previous performances etc are taken into consideration but we don’t know fully how these factors are weighted. I assume one of the reasons Google do not publish this information is to prevent black hat strategies similar to those in SEO.

If people know the ins and outs of the algorithm used by Google to evaluate QS, this may lead users to try manipulating their score. This would allow them to improve their QS which would lower their actual CPC, thus reducing their advertising costs.  This would be a tempting reason for companies to engage in some black-hat strategies. In my opinion, Google made the right decision by not publishing their algorithms to prevent this kind of activity, although having the algorithm would make life a lot easier for marketers.

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Within the area of Search Engine Advertising, I found it incredibly interesting that CPC bidding is highly dependent on an advertiser’s given quality score. While it is known that there are 6 broad factors that influence quality score, the derivation of the calculations of quality scores are not public knowledge. Given that the quality score is significant to advertisers as it is used to decide which ads are eligible to enter an ad auction, how the eligible ads are ranked, and what the actual CPC is to be paid, I wondered why quality score metrics aren’t publicized as it inhibits advertisers in improving upon their quality score. However, I can now see the advantage of Google positioning ‘quality score’ as a metric that everybody wants to achieve but nobody knows the direct answers to; it resists improvement but allows advertisers to expend large amounts of money trying to ‘crack the code’ and increase their value. Therefore, as a follow-up question, is the notion that ‘if an advertiser’s quality score is higher, they pay less for clicks’ fueling the non-disclosure of Google’s quality score metrics? Or, does Google fear mass-replication of their unique ‘quality score’ metric from other publishers?

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SEA can be reduced to buying space on search engines and keywords as allowed by the interface of Google Ads Keywords tool. - (I actually really liked discovering how this tool works and seeing what it looks like in the course slide because I didn't know it at all before. I'm surprised to see how google puts useful tools for business.) -

But SEA is not just about paying for good visibility. It is also necessary to choose keywords and to know the market well to position yourself correctly and I was quite surprised to learn that money isn’t the key for everything in this area

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In this week lecture about SEA I learned some interesting things about this part of Digital Marketing.

First, I found really engaging the CTR, especially that CTR is different in every industry. It really surprised me that dating sector is currently the top one in terms of CTR.

Also, it was really interesting for me to know the importance of a high quality score for positioning with Google Ads. I didn´t know that with a high QS you will get a higher position, and also a lower CPC. I understood that Quality Score is one of the keys of SEA.

For me, the most difficult part of this topic was the copy, and I think is also one of the most difficult parts of SEA and SEO. It really surprised me the amount of things that you need to take into consideration in order to make a good copy for your ad.

By last, it was very captivating the Google Ads extension sitelinks, just because I find them really helpful when I am googling something. Now I know their importance because they can give you a bigger presence on the page, and the CPR remains the same.

In summary, for me SEA was the most interesting topic that we have learned so far. But, I have the feeling that it is a very difficult field, and that if you want to be a professional on this, you will need to study and work a lot every day, because it seems to be something that change frequently.

In addition, if I have to make any recommendation, I would like to know more about SEA tools like Google Analytics or TagCrowd, which I think are of great importance for every student or expert in this matter.

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I was surprised by Dating and Personals' CTR to be the highest in searching. I will try to acquire more knowledge regarding CPC as I find this topic to be really interesting and important to a brand's digital marketing strategy. Also, it is fascinating how Google can evaluate the quality of the score through 6 factors, which can be helpful for both consumer and seller. It might be interesting to know how corporations with less financial strength can build an SEA strategy in order to keep competitive in the market.

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It was interesting to learn that CTR is about the percentage of people that click on an ad and follow through to the target site, unlike display advertisements which is based solely around impressions. I was surprised to learn that ad positions depend on a company’s ‘quality score’. Is this not very unfair on SME’s who may not have as strong of a historical or geographical performance compared to their competitors? I would be interested to learn more about how smaller company’s distinguish themselves from larger multinationals.

The lack of control and transparency that advertisers behold over the locations and on screen positions of their ads also surprised me. The area of advertising is more ambiguous than I thought. In such a capitalistic world I was fascinated to learn that money can only get you so far in advertising. It all comes down to the quality and experience of your landing page. Although google do not publish their algorithm for how to achieve a high quality score, I would be interested to have an in-depth look at what steps different company’s follow to boost their own individual QS.

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The Google Ads Auction Model is an element of SEA that caught my attention. It was very interesting to learn that it is not simply who ever bids the highest will win the auction. Google takes other factors into account, the main one being ‘Quality Score’. I was under the impression that whoever bid the highest, got the ad. However, I was surprised to find out that websites can actually bid lower than others and still get the ad position due to having a higher quality score. A website’s quality score is based on metrics such as expected CTR, historical performance, and landing page.

I like the idea of sitelinks that websites can have at Ad position one to three. I would like to know more about how Google chooses which sitelinks from a website’s selection show up for a user’s search. I also found the process of how to find your optimal keywords quite interesting. It is good to see that Google offer services such as Google Analytics and their keywords tool for websites to improve their performance. I would like to find out more regarding how websites will optimise their keywords for voice search. Voice is an emerging method of search and people may use different keywords seeing as it is a more conversational process compared to mobile or desktop.

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I was very surprised to see that the average CTR for Health care was low compared to the CTR for dating apps being the highest.

I was interested in learning about quality score and how Google determines the relevance of a keyword and the six main factors infuelcnbng quality score.

I would like to know more about voice search and how these type of searches would be ranked.

I would also like to know how google determines a companies quality score.

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I found this topic particularly interesting and this aspect of digital marketing taught me a lot.
First of all, I didn't know at all how to google rank sponsored ads and I was surprised to learn about the factors that influence this ranking (quality score, CPC) and also the fact that this ranking is different for different sectors and companies. Another thing that surprised me was that Google doesn't reveal the factors that influence this ranking.

Secondly, I found it very interesting to learn more about copying and everything that goes with it. Companies really have to take a lot of things into consideration in order to be able to make an effective ad copy.

Finally, I was shocked at how little control companies have over their ads. Indeed, the factors taken into account for the visibility of their ads are sometimes beyond their control.

This course was really interesting especially after the SEO course, it really complemented it and brought new dilemmas and a new approach to the subject. Search Engine Advertising represents a very important cost for companies and therefore, I would like to know how small companies with small budgets can make their ads relevant and visible to as many viewers as possible.
Competition being very present and threatening, I would also like to learn how to make really interesting ads to stand out and how to do in the long term to be as relevant as possible.

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Learning about the benefits derived from search engine advertising was really eye opening. However, I would love to learn more about the specific resources necessary for the implementation of an effective SEA strategy, including human resources and capital requirements. How achievable is an effective SEA strategy for smaller firms or is it a case that SEA is a space dominated by the bigger players.

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From our discussion this week on SEA something that I found interesting interesting was the fact that it is not just the amount you are willing to pay that contributes to your Adrank but also your quality score. I would be interested in learning more about the factors that can improve your quality score in more detail and which factors hold the most importance.

What surprised me most about the SEA topic was that google will take less than companies are willing to pay in order to have better performing ads in higher ranking positions.

Another thing that interested me that I had not previously considered was the fact that adding an 's' to keywords you are looking at like 'hotel' and 'hotels' could lead to an ad performing better or worse. This is something I feel could of easily slipped my mind and shows why attention to detail is so important.

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Personally, I found this topic very interesting! I found it surprising that Google wont rank an ad 1st or 2nd based on the winning bid, but rather where they feel it will get the most clicks. Not only this but the fact that Google wont take the highest bid, but one cent over the second highest bid.

I would definitely like to learn more about how smaller companies are able to level the playing field and still be competitive with larger companies in the area of SEA. Voice and Visual search is also an area that would be very interesting to dove deeper into. How will google rank pages in the future based on voice and visual search?

I also did not realize that dating sites would have such a large click through rate. I would have imagined that industries such as employment or education would have had more significant CTR's than dating!

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During this week, the MG329 module has allowed us to know how companies are adapting their strategies to digital channels, specifically, using the complex Search Engine Marketing (Search Engine Optimisation and paid search) to attract Internet users to their web pages, to give visibility to their products, services and brand and, thus, generate actions, whether leads or sales.

Regarding paid search, I find it very interesting to know the complex mechanisms that allow companies to show their ads in search engines and on third-party sites [e.g., Google display network (GDN)]. Specifically, I was surprised by the auction model and the great importance that Google and other companies such as Amazon or Bing give to relevance since, despite the large amount of money that advertisers can pay, they will always place in the first positions those ads that have better quality, that is, valued keywords, appropriate extensions (location, telephone ...), creativity, etc. In addition, and due to this competitive bidding system, I was surprised by the exorbitant cost that a click on an ad that contains the most valued keywords implies for a company, such as the top CPC of $1090 in the legal industry.

Finally, and despite the great influence of Google in the digital age, I would like to know more about the mechanisms and tools necessary to develop advertising campaigns on Bing, YouTube, Amazon, Yahoo or other regional search engines such as Baidu or Yandex. Moreover, I would like to know how companies can adapt their campaigns to different devices and to the revolutionary AI systems of visual search (Google Lens) or voice search (Google Assistant).

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This topic in the digital marketing module was very interesting. Learning about googles ad auction section of this surprised me, as I believed that the highest bid on an ad would win the auction, however elements such as quality score of the websites can impact the winning bid even if this website bids at a lower cost. We learned the bases of a websites quality score is on metrics such as their expected CTR, their performance history and their destination page. I would like if we could progress further into this topic of how to improve quality score for your website even though google doesn’t publish their algorithm for defining their quality score.

When seeing the result listings for advertisements performance can change with a slight bit of wording alteration, was surprising to me and I only would have considered once taking this module. This shows the importance of detail when creating your website.

I think it is important to note that this topic is forever changing and the importance of constant research and keeping up to date would be important in this topic in a working company.

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During this week`s discussion about Search Engine Advertising I was very surprised about how important the quality score is when it comes to whether your keyword bid will get a top ad position. And more remarkably I was surprised to find out that just like Google doesn`t publish all the information about the Google Search algorithm, they also keep the variables used in the calculation of the quality score metric a secret. While there is no exact knowledge as to what weighs it to this metric, it makes a lot of sense that factors like the expected CTR or the historical performance are being looked at by Google when determining your Ad rank. This way Google can find the ads with the highest potential of generating clicks in the future.
I would love to know more about how companies determine the right keywords. We learned a lot about things like “AnswerThePublic” or “TagCrowd” but I would like to follow the whole process of determining the best keywords of a huge campaign. It would be very interesting to witness every step, from the initial brainstorming to the fine tuning in the end.

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It is possible to use natural referencing (SEO) to make our site appear in the search results on Google, but you have to be more patient. Using this method works well in the long run, but if we want immediate results, paid advertising is a better option. In distinguishing between SEO and SEA, what fascinated me the most during this chapter of this week is that at first glance, setting up paid search engine advertising seemed relatively simple, much simpler than SEO. In fact, if you want to run the most optimal advertising campaign possible, there are many things to consider. I think the most important thing is to know the criteria of the Quality Score. While the full list of variables used in calculating the Quality Score metric is not published, for example AdRank is known to estimate the impact of our extensions and other ad formats, it looks at various factors such as their relevance, click-through rate and prominence on the search results page. The use of the Quality Score and its calculation are things I would like to know more about. What I find very interesting about the Quality Score and that every good advertiser should know how to master is that, therefore, even if our competitors set higher bids than ours, our ad can benefit from a better position, at a lower cost, thanks to the relevance of our keywords and ads. It's up to us to find the best strategy.

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SEA is really close to SEO and SEM.
SEO consists of optimizing a website by putting the right key words, right content delivered. It is a method for optimizing organic referencing.
Also called Pay-Per-Click, SEA only concerns paid advertisements. I was quite surprised to learn that this method was not based only on bidding, but also on a 'quality score'. If a brand pays lower fees than another, but its click-through rate is superior than the other brand,  its ad will appear before the other one, which had a higher cost. This is because Google aims to satisfy its visitors by offering them quality responses.
I would love to learn more about this, with a real life example, a real search, with real statistics and analytics behind. Moreover, I am not sure how one can decide how much money to bid.

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I would like to know more about how small companies with less resources can succeed in SEA compared to bigger companies who can invest much more. Is it necessary to invest a lot to achieve a successful SEA? Can you create an eye-catching campaign on a low budget? I had not heard before about “Quality Score” and how this affect to ads position, I thought that the one who paid the most was the first in the ads results. How can companies compete?

I also found interesting how landing pages work and how important it is to connect the links well to get your visitors/customers “land” correctly.

Finally, we saw that CPC is increasing, why has this happened? Is it possible that it will decrease again?

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During this week lecture what surprised me the most regarding Search  Engine Advertisement was that it is the quality score for each of the keywords what will give you a top ad positioning. I always thought it was only the keyword bid.
I was also surprised by the fact that the quality score calculated by google is an essential aspect that influences Adrank. You can control the CPC but not the quality score measured by google. There are some aspects that google take into account to calculate your individual Adrank that we don't know about.
I enjoyed this topic because it strengthens my knowledge acquired with the google ads search/ measurement certificates.

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I found it very interesting to learn about how google ranks based on the quality score and not just keywords. Prior to this module I had though that to be in the first or second page of google results you either had to have paid (SEA) or have great organic reach (SEO). However google's quality score is hugely important to the ranking system. This gives leverage to smaller creators/ companies in the sense that by having a great quality score, they can rank higher than a website with a higher CTR, because their quality score is higher. This week also reinforced what I learnt from my google ads search course I did earlier on in the month.
I would love to see experiments done with certain budgets to see who can rank the highest on specific search terms; to truly put googles ranking system to the test and also see how feasible is it for small companies with limited resources to rank high.

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Initially, before taking this course, I thought that there were 2 ways to increase the visibility of a site on a search engine, through organic traffic (SEO) and paid traffic (SEA). Thus, I really took the word "paid traffic" at its first meaning and thought that SEA was just about bidding at the right time and at the highest amount to be in the top ranked sites. But in reality it's all about quality score, whether it's the expected CTR, the landing page, or even the geographical performance. It's a nice surprise because it makes me say that Google Ads takes into account the quality of an advertisement and that investing more money in an advertisement does not necessarily mean success. Thus, this leaves place for small companies, which do not necessarily have the same means as larger companies to be well ranked, if their quality score is good, then they will be better ranked than a larger company that certainly bid for a higher amount but where their advertising had a lower quality score than the small company.

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I found how the bidding process works very interesting. Previously, I thought it cost just 1 cent more than the second-highest bid. The integration of the quality scores made a lot of sense to me. If the top three spots are only based on the bid's price, fewer clicks will happen. When a good quality relevant website is there, it is more likely to be clicked, which is what Google wants.
I also found it fascinating how a high click-through rate is not necessarily a measure for success, as even with this, there can be low conversion.
I want to learn more about how quality scores can vary across different devices and how companies can adapt their keywords to work better with voice search, as these are often phrased differently than typed would have been.

Overall, I found the topic interesting and engaging. I enjoyed the Google courses, which we also handed up this week, and the two linked together quite nicely.

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Surprisingly, the basics of paid search caught my attention as what I previously thought were that the sponsored adverts on Google were placed based on how much they pay for that position, so usually i would ignore the  sponsored ads. However, I learned that paid search is bought through an auction bid and the higher the bid, the higher the chance that the ad will be displayed in the top positions and that the advertiser is only pays when the ad is clicked. this is called PPC, pay per click.
As well as that, I was surprised that Google has their own metric called quality score and measures the quality of the ad and therefore the position potential.

This is extremely smart because it is beneficial for Google to have relevant ads that consumers want to click on.

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During this week’s topic ‘Search Engine Advertising’, I was surprised that CPC bidding is dependent on the quality score of the advertiser, as I would have assumed that Google would put the highest CPC bid on top. With six extensive factors influencing the quality score for individual Adrank, the breakdown of the rankings of the quality scores metrics are not open to the general public. I found it hard to understand why, given the fact that this knowledge would be a significant help to marketing managers as it is used to decide what ads are eligible to enter the ad auction, how eligible ads are ranked, and what the confirmed CPC is to be paid. This knowledge would help advertisers improve their quality scores. However further into the lecture, I understood the advantage google has by keeping their quality score as a metric advertisers want to achieve without giving them the answers on how to do so. It caps the level of improvement advertisers can reach but it permits advertisers to spend large amounts of money trying to solve the metric and increase their value. I’m surprised that google has been able to keep the basis of the calculations under wraps and safe from being manipulated by bigger companies.

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The theme of this week is very attractive, related to digital advertising. First of all, I am very surprised that digital advertising is divided into so many types, whether it is CPC or CPA, etc., they all play a vital role. And Google’s algorithm for the effectiveness of its advertising surprised me: it is not yet understood by people. This is very interesting because we are sure that it does not rely solely on unilateral calculations to analyze advertising revenue.
As a large company, Google seems to be very strong in guaranteeing the security of algorithms. It is possible that tens of thousands of hackers are staring at their database every day, but what we imagined did not happen. But in my opinion, Google seems to have its own set of weighting standards for the degree of confidentiality of information. For example, every month after the release of a new generation of Google pixel phones, various information about the next generation of pixel phones will be leaked, and the real phone will even appear at Best Buy a few months before the conference. And like this kind of information related to core competitiveness, it is absolutely protected.

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This week, the subject about Search Engine Advertsing surprised me a lot.
First of all, I have always believed that the ad that pays the most was always top ranked. I learn that is was not the case. Google rank sponsored results by Adrank (Quality scores multiplied by CPC) and not by CPC. Indeed, Google changes the positions of ads to place ads  that are likely to attract a maximum number of clicks at the top of the billboard. It make a lot of sense because this allows expand his profits.

I was surprised that Google can keep the secret about factors that influence this ranking ; it would be really interesting to know what factors Google base their calculation for the quality score. On the one hand for my personal culture and on the other hand for companies in order to create ads always most interesting to catch more visitors.

I think it could be interesting ti know how smaller companies with their less ressources can make their ads relevant and visible to as many viewers as possible and how larger companies use SEA to their advantage with their unlimited budget. Smaller companies can they compete lager companies ?

A final question arises in my mind : can we be sure that the algorithm is not manipulated by companies or by the government ? Is there any regulation about this system ?

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During this lecture on Search Engine Advertising, I was surprised to learn that high click through rate on an advertisement does not necessarily mean success. I would have previously just presumed the more CTR’s an advertisement gets, the greater success it gains. I learnt that an ad could get a high CTR but a low conversion rate in the end, while some Ads may have a low CTR and a high conversion rate in the end. I was also very surprised to learn that Search Engine Advertising operates on an auction-based system, where advertisers bid on certain keywords in relation to their product/service.

An area of Search Engine Advertising I would like to learn more about is how voice search may alter SEA in the future. This is intriguing to me as voice search may change search behaviours meaning that ads may have to create paid ad campaigns around voice search.

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Thanks to this lecture on Search Engine Advertising, I was surprised to learn that a high CTR does not obviously mean for a website that it will have a success at the end. I knew that with SEO you have to be wary of a high CTR but I didn't think that with SEA you also have to be wary of a high CTR.

Furthermore, I am very intrigued by the quality score that Google is setting up. Indeed, we have seen that Google puts a number between 1 and 10 for each keyword to determine its relevance. So I would like to know how Google judges that one keyword is more important than another? Are there any criteria?

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This week’s lecture on Search Engine Advertising (SEA) was very fascinating, especially when reflecting on the similarities and differences with Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

What stood out to me in particular was the variation in cost per click (CPC), cost per action (CPA), and click-through rate (CTR) for different industries.

Fixating on click-through rates for a moment, the dating industry had a significantly higher click through rate for search advertisements than other industries, and real estate had a significantly higher click through rate for display advertisements than other industries. This is an interesting finding, especially when considering the specific industry for the type of advertisement (Ex. dating for search or real estate of display). While it may seem surprising, and almost random, at first glance, it actually appears to be quite logical after some thought.

In relation to dating, search advertising is oriented to intrigue human emotions and desires, likely through simple words (Ex. “meet singles in your area”). Contrarily, if the same dating advertisements were done through display, it would come across as crude or skeptical. This explains why the dating industry has a significantly higher click-through rate for search ads, rather than display ads.

Similarly, In terms of real estate, words cannot accurately describe the desired aesthetic that the advertiser is trying to convey. This is far better done through an eye-catching display ad, which explains why the real estate industry has a significantly higher click-through rate for display ads, rather than search ads.

This ties back in to the fundamental questions that any advertiser will need to ask themselves regarding questions concerning their objectives, audience, brand, and industry, in order to determine the optimal form of advertising to reach their goals.

# data[].attributes.body
This week’s lectures provided unique insights into the application of Search Engine Advertising for digital marketers. For me, what particularly piqued my interest was the approach that organisations can take to ranking in the ad results.

Prior to the lecture, I was aware that highest bid would not be the only factor considered in ranking ads. My rationale behind this was that in my experience using Google Search, the ads displayed were always relevant. Therefore, my theory was confirmed in lecture, with the mention of Maximum Bid and Quality Score, among other factors. Now that we have an indication as digital marketers of what we should do, I’d be curious to learn more about what we shouldn’t do? Are there any practices that, although legal, would be considered unethical or disadvantageous from Google’s perspective or as practitioners of digital marketing altogether? 

For example, in the previous month when searching “KPMG Summer Internship 2021,” the 1st ranked ad result was for “Deloitte Summer Internship.” This is interesting because it is evident that Deloitte bid to attract students from KPMG’s program. Because they are direct competitors offering a similar internship program, I’d argue that the ad result is still relevant, but it’s surprising that it ranked higher than KPMG’s own ad, which was ranked second. Would it be considered unethical to bid on competitor’s brand names to deter customers and how does Google consider this practice in regard to ranking? Although a sneaky practice, it seemed to work well in the case of Deloitte. 

# data[].attributes.body
Something that surprised me, because I didn’t know it, was the Adrank.
I thought that SEA worked like SEO but with the difference that company had just to pay to appear on the add results and that the company who had paid the most is just appearing in first. I didn’t know that position was determined by a « Quality Score » for each keywords. 
I would have liked to know more about the different steps companies have to go through from the moment they decide to pay to appear on google Ads. (e.g. I’m a new online business and want to promote my website on Google in paying, what I have to do?  Do I just need to go on Google Ads, choose my budget, my keywords, create my campaign? Does Google warn me if the results are not good and that I have to make improvements?) 
I would also like to know how new small businesses can differentiate themselves from big companies that have specialized poles for SEA ? 
20106840
20106840
Going through the topic this week after doing the Google Ads Search Certificate was very interesting. Something that surprised me was that the Adrank isn’t just about the amount you are willing to pay per click (CPC). It plays an important part, but the quality score calculated by Google is another important aspect that we can´t directly influence. The quality score multiplied with the bided CPC and a few other factors that Google keep a secret will influence and calculate your individual Adrank. What is definitely a challenge for marketing managers is that you can´t directly influence most of these quality factors, mostly because we just don’t know exactly how Google calculates it. I automatically assumed Google would put the highest CPC bid on top. But after explaining that Google tries to put those on top which have the highest potential of generating clicks (Google wants the most clicks as possible which isn’t necessary the one with the highest CPC), made a lot of sense because ultimately, they get more money in total if the Ad gets a lot of clicks. I had no idea there are so many factors to keep in mind when thinking about SEA. Obviously, it would be really interesting to know what factors Google base their calculation for the quality score on but that is almost impossible. I´m surprised information hasn’t leaked yet.
Something that would be very interesting to know is how does Google make sure the algorithm/calculation can´t be manipulated by bigger companies or the government? Is Google aware of that, do they care? Do they change factors regularly in order to assure accuracy? Are there special organizations that monitor Google, or are there specific regulations on this, internationally or nationally (e.g. from the government)? 
Otherwise, there would be a danger of power monopoly by Google and therefore an indirect influence on company’s success/power and the purchase behavior of consumers.
19335261 I would like to know more about how search is affected on different devices. Are the same search strategies unanimous across devices such as mobile, iPad, desktop and gaming consoles? Also, from working in a small company, I would like to know how smaller companies with less resources can have an equal and fair contribute to SEA in comparison to bigger companies who can have seemingly unlimited budgets.. Can they compete? Something that surprised me was how Google is not ranking sponsored results by CPC but by means of Quality scores X by CPC. Last question is do you think that in the future Google will disclose more information about their SEA? Could they be forced to?
19335261                                        I would like to know more about how search is affected on different devices. Are the same search strategies unanimous across devices such as mobile, iPad, desktop and gaming consoles? Also, from working in a small company, I would like to know how smaller companies with less resources can have an equal and fair contribute to SEA in comparison to bigger companies who can have seemingly unlimited budgets.. Can they compete? Something that surprised me was how Google is not ranking sponsored results by CPC but by means of Quality scores X by CPC. Last question is do you think that in the future  Google will disclose more information about their SEA? Could they be forced to? 
19311981
19311981
I was surprised that google changes the position of ads so that the ads most likely to generate the most clicks, is put in the top position to maximise googles profit. I assumed that the ad that pays the most is always top ranked. I was surprised that this was not the case, and that google does care about the quality of their ads. 
I would like to hear more case studies of companies, and how they use SEA to their advantage, for example I'd like to see how larger companies use it in comparison to smaller companies, and how smaller companies are able to gain a competitive advantage in SEA. I would like to hear examples of companies who use SEA to achieve their goals, especially goals like subscriptions and promotion which I feel like would be harder to measure, rather than sales. 
19104715
19104715
I was not surprised when we saw in courses all the numerous facilities that Google could offer to companies in terme of advertising. By having done my google certification, I learned a lot about how Google Ads Search is working, for who and to what extend it could help companies to develop themselves. However, it would be interesting to know how nowadays, (in a world that if you are not digitalized as a company, you have missed the boat) small companies like SME achieve their advertising goals with a lower budget. How smaller companies use concretely SEA? I presumed there is no specialized role within the company for that part, thus, how do they proceed? (and without Google Ads facilities?)
19417282
19417282
This week was interesting learning about how google ranks and calculates quality scores and it reinforced a lot of my learnings from the google ads search and measurement certificates.  I’d like to learn more about what not to do regarding your website and bidding, what are the things to be aware of that may damage your quality score and in turn result in a low ranking?
What I found particularly surprising in this week’s lecture were the categories that received the highest and lowest CTRs with dating related industries having the highest CTR which in my opinion shows the emotionally driven side to how consumers act online, it is not always rational thinking that can be predicted.
I’m also interested in learning more about the increasing use of voice assisted search and the impact this will have on ranking and quality ratings; will it alter the criteria or simply emphasise the importance of ranking highly?
19428592
19428592
I found the topic of visual and voice searches very interesting. Learning about that made me wonder if we will see an increase in these types of searches in the future as I think they would definitely be more popular with younger generations. I’m terms of visual search, I know google goggles were released but are there any other products or services that are looking at this as a potential market? I’d like to learn more about what type of things are most commonly searched for using voice search or a visual search. I would then be interested to know how search engines would rank websites for these types of searches and how SEO algorithms might even be able to learn from your voice and establish certain things about your demographic depending on your voice.
19393086
19393086

One aspect of SEA that I found interesting was that Google does not publish their algorithm for determining a websites quality score. We know that some factors such as landing page, the relevance of the ad to the search, previous performances etc are taken into consideration but we don’t know fully how these factors are weighted. I assume one of the reasons Google do not publish this information is to prevent black hat strategies similar to those in SEO.

If people know the ins and outs of the algorithm used by Google to evaluate QS, this may lead users to try manipulating their score. This would allow them to improve their QS which would lower their actual CPC, thus reducing their advertising costs.  This would be a tempting reason for companies to engage in some black-hat strategies. In my opinion, Google made the right decision by not publishing their algorithms to prevent this kind of activity, although having the algorithm would make life a lot easier for marketers. 
Student Number: 19103701
Student Number: 19103701
Within the area of Search Engine Advertising, I found it incredibly interesting that CPC bidding is highly dependent on an advertiser’s given quality score. While it is known that there are 6 broad factors that influence quality score, the derivation of the calculations of quality scores are not public knowledge. Given that the quality score is significant to advertisers as it is used to decide which ads are eligible to enter an ad auction, how the eligible ads are ranked, and what the actual CPC is to be paid, I wondered why quality score metrics aren’t publicized as it inhibits advertisers in improving upon their quality score. However, I can now see the advantage of Google positioning ‘quality score’ as a metric that everybody wants to achieve but nobody knows the direct answers to; it resists improvement but allows advertisers to expend large amounts of money trying to ‘crack the code’ and increase their value. Therefore, as a follow-up question, is the notion that ‘if an advertiser’s quality score is higher, they pay less for clicks’ fueling the non-disclosure of Google’s quality score metrics? Or, does Google fear mass-replication of their unique ‘quality score’ metric from other publishers? 
19104731
19104731
SEA can be reduced to buying space on search engines and keywords as allowed by the interface of Google Ads Keywords tool. - (I actually really liked discovering how this tool works and seeing what it looks like in the course slide because I didn't know it at all before. I'm surprised to see how google puts useful tools for business.) -
But SEA is not just about paying for good visibility. It is also necessary to choose keywords and to know the market well to position yourself correctly and I was quite surprised to learn that money isn’t the key for everything in this area
Student No: 20108681
Student No: 20108681
In this week lecture about SEA I learned some interesting things about this part of Digital Marketing.

First, I found really engaging the CTR, especially that CTR is different in every industry. It really surprised me that dating sector is currently the top one in terms of CTR.

Also, it was really interesting for me to know the importance of a high quality score for positioning with Google Ads. I didn´t know that with a high QS you will get a higher position, and also a lower CPC. I understood that Quality Score is one of the keys of SEA.

For me, the most difficult part of this topic was the copy, and I think is also one of the most difficult parts of SEA and SEO. It really surprised me the amount of things that you need to take into consideration in order to make a good copy for your ad.

By last, it was very captivating the Google Ads extension sitelinks, just because I find them really helpful when I am googling something. Now I know their importance because they can give you a bigger presence on the page, and the CPR remains the same.

In summary, for me SEA was the most interesting topic that we have learned so far. But, I have the feeling that it is a very difficult field, and that if you want to be a professional on this, you will need to study and work a lot every day, because it seems to be something that change frequently.

In addition, if I have to make any recommendation, I would like to know more about SEA tools like Google Analytics or TagCrowd, which I think are of great importance for every student or expert in this matter.

Martim Abecasis
Martim Abecasis
I was surprised by Dating and Personals' CTR to be the highest in searching. I will try to acquire more knowledge regarding CPC as I find this topic to be really interesting and important to a brand's digital marketing strategy. Also, it is fascinating how Google can evaluate the quality of the score through 6 factors, which can be helpful for both consumer and seller. It might be interesting to know how corporations with less financial strength can build an SEA strategy in order to keep competitive in the market. 
19468026
19468026
It was interesting to learn that CTR is about the percentage of people that click on an ad and follow through to the target site, unlike display advertisements which is based solely around impressions. I was surprised to learn that ad positions depend on a company’s ‘quality score’. Is this not very unfair on SME’s who may not have as strong of a historical or geographical performance compared to their competitors? I would be interested to learn more about how smaller company’s distinguish themselves from larger multinationals. 
The lack of control and transparency that advertisers behold over the locations and on screen positions of their ads also surprised me. The area of advertising is more ambiguous than I thought. In such a capitalistic world I was fascinated to learn that money can only get you so far in advertising. It all comes down to the quality and experience of your landing page. Although google do not publish their algorithm for how to achieve a high quality score, I would be interested to have an in-depth look at what steps different company’s follow to boost their own individual QS. 
19359493
19359493
The Google Ads Auction Model is an element of SEA that caught my attention. It was very interesting to learn that it is not simply who ever bids the highest will win the auction. Google takes other factors into account, the main one being ‘Quality Score’. I was under the impression that whoever bid the highest, got the ad. However, I was surprised to find out that websites can actually bid lower than others and still get the ad position due to having a higher quality score. A website’s quality score is based on metrics such as expected CTR, historical performance, and landing page.

I like the idea of sitelinks that websites can have at Ad position one to three. I would like to know more about how Google chooses which sitelinks from a website’s selection show up for a user’s search. I also found the process of how to find your optimal keywords quite interesting. It is good to see that Google offer services such as Google Analytics and their keywords tool for websites to improve their performance. I would like to find out more regarding how websites will optimise their keywords for voice search. Voice is an emerging method of search and people ma
y use different keywords seeing as it is a more conversational process compared to mobile or desktop.

19441172
19441172
I was very surprised to see that the average CTR for Health care was low compared to the CTR for dating apps being the highest. 

I was interested in learning about quality score and how Google determines the relevance of a keyword and the six main factors infuelcnbng quality score. 

I would like to know more about voice search and how these type of searches would be ranked.

I would also like to know how google determines a companies quality score.
 
ID: 20108265
ID: 20108265
I found this topic particularly interesting and this aspect of digital marketing taught me a lot. 
First of all, I didn't know at all how to google rank sponsored ads and I was surprised to learn about the factors that influence this ranking (quality score, CPC) and also the fact that this ranking is different for different sectors and companies. Another thing that surprised me was that Google doesn't reveal the factors that influence this ranking.

Secondly, I found it very interesting to learn more about copying and everything that goes with it. Companies really have to take a lot of things into consideration in order to be able to make an effective ad copy. 

Finally, I was shocked at how little control companies have over their ads. Indeed, the factors taken into account for the visibility of their ads are sometimes beyond their control. 

This course was really interesting especially after the SEO course, it really complemented it and brought new dilemmas and a new approach to the subject. Search Engine Advertising represents a very important cost for companies and therefore, I would like to know how small companies with small budgets can make their ads relevant and visible to as many viewers as possible. 
Competition being very present and threatening, I would also like to learn how to make really interesting ads to stand out and how to do in the long term to be as relevant as possible. 


19408542
19408542
Learning about the benefits derived from search engine advertising was really eye opening. However, I would love to learn more about the specific resources necessary for the implementation of an effective SEA strategy, including human resources and capital requirements. How achievable is an effective SEA strategy for smaller firms or is it a case that SEA is a space dominated by the bigger players.
19407786
19407786
From our discussion this week on SEA something that I found interesting interesting was the fact that it is not just the amount you are willing to pay that contributes to your Adrank but also your quality score. I would be interested in learning more about the factors that can improve your quality score in more detail and which factors hold the most importance. 

What surprised me most about the SEA topic was that google will take less than companies are willing to pay in order to have better performing ads in higher ranking positions.

Another thing that interested me that I had not previously considered was the fact that adding an 's' to keywords you are looking at like 'hotel' and 'hotels' could lead to an ad performing better or worse. This is something I feel could of easily slipped my mind and shows why attention to detail is so important.

19370871
19370871
Personally, I found this topic very interesting! I found it surprising that Google wont rank an ad 1st or 2nd based on the winning bid, but rather where they feel it will get the most clicks. Not only this but the fact that Google wont take the highest bid, but one cent over the second highest bid. 

I would definitely like to learn more about how smaller companies are able to level the playing field and still be competitive with larger companies in the area of SEA. Voice and Visual search is also an area that would be very interesting to dove deeper into. How will google rank pages in the future based on voice and visual search?

I also did not realize that dating sites would have such a large click through rate. I would have imagined that industries such as employment or education would have had more significant CTR's than dating!

Jaume Hernández Ramón. ID: 20102071.
Jaume Hernández Ramón. ID: 20102071.
During this week, the MG329 module has allowed us to know how companies are adapting their strategies to digital channels, specifically, using the complex Search Engine Marketing (Search Engine Optimisation and paid search) to attract Internet users to their web pages, to give visibility to their products, services and brand and, thus, generate actions, whether leads or sales.

Regarding paid search, I find it very interesting to know the complex mechanisms that allow companies to show their ads in search engines and on third-party sites [e.g., Google display network (GDN)]. Specifically, I was surprised by the auction model and the great importance that Google and other companies such as Amazon or Bing give to relevance since, despite the large amount of money that advertisers can pay, they will always place in the first positions those ads that have better quality, that is, valued keywords, appropriate extensions (location, telephone ...), creativity, etc. In addition, and due to this competitive bidding system, I was surprised by the exorbitant cost that a click on an ad that contains the most valued keywords implies for a company, such as the top CPC of $1090 in the legal industry.

Finally, and despite the great influence of Google in the digital age, I would like to know more about the mechanisms and tools necessary to develop advertising campaigns on Bing, YouTube, Amazon, Yahoo or other regional search engines such as Baidu or Yandex. Moreover, I would like to know how companies can adapt their campaigns to different devices and to the revolutionary AI systems of visual search (Google Lens) or voice search (Google Assistant).
Student Number: 19316993
Student Number: 19316993
This topic in the digital marketing module was very interesting. Learning about googles ad auction section of this surprised me, as I believed that the highest bid on an ad would win the auction, however elements such as quality score of the websites can impact the winning bid even if this website bids at a lower cost. We learned the bases of a websites quality score is on metrics such as their expected CTR, their performance history and their destination page. I would like if we could progress further into this topic of how to improve quality score for your website even though google doesn’t publish their algorithm for defining their quality score. 

When seeing the result listings for advertisements performance can change with a slight bit of wording alteration, was surprising to me and I only would have considered once taking this module. This shows the importance of detail when creating your website. 

I think it is important to note that this topic is forever changing and the importance of constant research and keeping up to date would be important in this topic in a working company. 
20101490
20101490
During this week`s discussion about Search Engine Advertising I was very surprised about how important the quality score is when it comes to whether your keyword bid will get a top ad position. And more remarkably I was surprised to find out that just like Google doesn`t publish all the information about the Google Search algorithm, they also keep the variables used in the calculation of the quality score metric a secret. While there is no exact knowledge as to what weighs it to this metric, it makes a lot of sense that factors like the expected CTR or the historical performance are being looked at by Google when determining your Ad rank. This way Google can find the ads with the highest potential of generating clicks in the future. 
I would love to know more about how companies determine the right keywords. We learned a lot about things like “AnswerThePublic” or “TagCrowd” but I would like to follow the whole process of determining the best keywords of a huge campaign. It would be very interesting to witness every step, from the initial brainstorming to the fine tuning in the end.
Student Number : 20108435
Student Number : 20108435
It is possible to use natural referencing (SEO) to make our site appear in the search results on Google, but you have to be more patient. Using this method works well in the long run, but if we want immediate results, paid advertising is a better option. In distinguishing between SEO and SEA, what fascinated me the most during this chapter of this week is that at first glance, setting up paid search engine advertising seemed relatively simple, much simpler than SEO. In fact, if you want to run the most optimal advertising campaign possible, there are many things to consider. I think the most important thing is to know the criteria of the Quality Score. While the full list of variables used in calculating the Quality Score metric is not published, for example AdRank is known to estimate the impact of our extensions and other ad formats, it looks at various factors such as their relevance, click-through rate and prominence on the search results page. The use of the Quality Score and its calculation are things I would like to know more about. What I find very interesting about the Quality Score and that every good advertiser should know how to master is that, therefore, even if our competitors set higher bids than ours, our ad can benefit from a better position, at a lower cost, thanks to the relevance of our keywords and ads. It's up to us to find the best strategy.
19104511
19104511
SEA is really close to SEO and SEM. 
SEO consists of optimizing a website by putting the right key words, right content delivered. It is a method for optimizing organic referencing.
Also called Pay-Per-Click, SEA only concerns paid advertisements. I was quite surprised to learn that this method was not based only on bidding, but also on a 'quality score'. If a brand pays lower fees than another, but its click-through rate is superior than the other brand,  its ad will appear before the other one, which had a higher cost. This is because Google aims to satisfy its visitors by offering them quality responses.
I would love to learn more about this, with a real life example, a real search, with real statistics and analytics behind. Moreover, I am not sure how one can decide how much money to bid.
20102577
20102577
I would like to know more about how small companies with less resources can succeed in SEA compared to bigger companies who can invest much more. Is it necessary to invest a lot to achieve a successful SEA? Can you create an eye-catching campaign on a low budget? I had not heard before about “Quality Score” and how this affect to ads position, I thought that the one who paid the most was the first in the ads results. How can companies compete? 

I also found interesting how landing pages work and how important it is to connect the links well to get your visitors/customers “land” correctly. 

Finally, we saw that CPC is increasing, why has this happened? Is it possible that it will decrease again? 

Marta Nicolazzi 20108206
Marta Nicolazzi              20108206
During this week lecture what surprised me the most regarding Search  Engine Advertisement was that it is the quality score for each of the keywords what will give you a top ad positioning. I always thought it was only the keyword bid.
I was also surprised by the fact that the quality score calculated by google is an essential aspect that influences Adrank. You can control the CPC but not the quality score measured by google. There are some aspects that google take into account to calculate your individual Adrank that we don't know about. 
I enjoyed this topic because it strengthens my knowledge acquired with the google ads search/ measurement certificates.

19303256
19303256
I found it very interesting to learn about how google ranks based on the quality score and not just keywords. Prior to this module I had though that to be in the first or second page of google results you either had to have paid (SEA) or have great organic reach (SEO). However google's quality score is hugely important to the ranking system. This gives leverage to smaller creators/ companies in the sense that by having a great quality score, they can rank higher than a website with a higher CTR, because their quality score is higher. This week also reinforced what I learnt from my google ads search course I did earlier on in the month. 
I would love to see experiments done with certain budgets to see who can rank the highest on specific search terms; to truly put googles ranking system to the test and also see how feasible is it for small companies with limited resources to rank high. 
20103492
20103492 
Initially, before taking this course, I thought that there were 2 ways to increase the visibility of a site on a search engine, through organic traffic (SEO) and paid traffic (SEA). Thus, I really took the word "paid traffic" at its first meaning and thought that SEA was just about bidding at the right time and at the highest amount to be in the top ranked sites. But in reality it's all about quality score, whether it's the expected CTR, the landing page, or even the geographical performance. It's a nice surprise because it makes me say that Google Ads takes into account the quality of an advertisement and that investing more money in an advertisement does not necessarily mean success. Thus, this leaves place for small companies, which do not necessarily have the same means as larger companies to be well ranked, if their quality score is good, then they will be better ranked than a larger company that certainly bid for a higher amount but where their advertising had a lower quality score than the small company.
Student Number:19303391
Student Number:19303391 
19301691
19301691
Surprisingly, the basics of paid search caught my attention as what I previously thought were that the sponsored adverts on Google were placed based on how much they pay for that position, so usually i would ignore the  sponsored ads. However, I learned that paid search is bought through an auction bid and the higher the bid, the higher the chance that the ad will be displayed in the top positions and that the advertiser is only pays when the ad is clicked. this is called PPC, pay per click. 
As well as that, I was surprised that Google has their own metric called quality score and measures the quality of the ad and therefore the position potential. 

This is extremely smart because it is beneficial for Google to have relevant ads that consumers want to click on. 
Student number: 19421542
Student number: 19421542
During this week’s topic ‘Search Engine Advertising’, I was surprised that CPC bidding is dependent on the quality score of the advertiser, as I would have assumed that Google would put the highest CPC bid on top. With six extensive factors influencing the quality score for individual Adrank, the breakdown of the rankings of the quality scores metrics are not open to the general public. I found it hard to understand why, given the fact that this knowledge would be a significant help to marketing managers as it is used to decide what ads are eligible to enter the ad auction, how eligible ads are ranked, and what the confirmed CPC is to be paid. This knowledge would help advertisers improve their quality scores. However further into the lecture, I understood the advantage google has by keeping their quality score as a metric advertisers want to achieve without giving them the answers on how to do so. It caps the level of improvement advertisers can reach but it permits advertisers to spend large amounts of money trying to solve the metric and increase their value. I’m surprised that google has been able to keep the basis of the calculations under wraps and safe from being manipulated by bigger companies.
19107374
19107374
The theme of this week is very attractive, related to digital advertising. First of all, I am very surprised that digital advertising is divided into so many types, whether it is CPC or CPA, etc., they all play a vital role. And Google’s algorithm for the effectiveness of its advertising surprised me: it is not yet understood by people. This is very interesting because we are sure that it does not rely solely on unilateral calculations to analyze advertising revenue.
As a large company, Google seems to be very strong in guaranteeing the security of algorithms. It is possible that tens of thousands of hackers are staring at their database every day, but what we imagined did not happen. But in my opinion, Google seems to have its own set of weighting standards for the degree of confidentiality of information. For example, every month after the release of a new generation of Google pixel phones, various information about the next generation of pixel phones will be leaked, and the real phone will even appear at Best Buy a few months before the conference. And like this kind of information related to core competitiveness, it is absolutely protected.
ID : 20108303
ID : 20108303
This week, the subject about Search Engine Advertsing surprised me a lot. 
First of all, I have always believed that the ad that pays the most was always top ranked. I learn that is was not the case. Google rank sponsored results by Adrank (Quality scores multiplied by CPC) and not by CPC. Indeed, Google changes the positions of ads to place ads  that are likely to attract a maximum number of clicks at the top of the billboard. It make a lot of sense because this allows expand his profits.

I was surprised that Google can keep the secret about factors that influence this ranking ; it would be really interesting to know what factors Google base their calculation for the quality score. On the one hand for my personal culture and on the other hand for companies in order to create ads always most interesting to catch more visitors. 

I think it could be interesting ti know how smaller companies with their less ressources can make their ads relevant and visible to as many viewers as possible and how larger companies use SEA to their advantage with their unlimited budget. Smaller companies can they compete lager companies ? 


A final question arises in my mind : can we be sure that the algorithm is not manipulated by companies or by the government ? Is there any regulation about this system ?
Student number: 19355793
Student number: 19355793
During this lecture on Search Engine Advertising, I was surprised to learn that high click through rate on an advertisement does not necessarily mean success. I would have previously just presumed the more CTR’s an advertisement gets, the greater success it gains. I learnt that an ad could get a high CTR but a low conversion rate in the end, while some Ads may have a low CTR and a high conversion rate in the end. I was also very surprised to learn that Search Engine Advertising operates on an auction-based system, where advertisers bid on certain keywords in relation to their product/service.  

An area of Search Engine Advertising I would like to learn more about is how voice search may alter SEA in the future. This is intriguing to me as voice search may change search behaviours meaning that ads may have to create paid ad campaigns around voice search.  

20102747
20102747
Thanks to this lecture on Search Engine Advertising, I was surprised to learn that a high CTR does not obviously mean for a website that it will have a success at the end. I knew that with SEO you have to be wary of a high CTR but I didn't think that with SEA you also have to be wary of a high CTR. 

Furthermore, I am very intrigued by the quality score that Google is setting up. Indeed, we have seen that Google puts a number between 1 and 10 for each keyword to determine its relevance. So I would like to know how Google judges that one keyword is more important than another? Are there any criteria?
Muhammad Ahmad Pasha (19103611)
Muhammad Ahmad Pasha (19103611)
This week’s lecture on Search Engine Advertising (SEA) was very fascinating, especially when reflecting on the similarities and differences with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). 

What stood out to me in particular was the variation in cost per click (CPC), cost per action (CPA), and click-through rate (CTR) for different industries. 

Fixating on click-through rates for a moment, the dating industry had a significantly higher click through rate for search advertisements than other industries, and real estate had a significantly higher click through rate for display advertisements than other industries. This is an interesting finding, especially when considering the specific industry for the type of advertisement (Ex. dating for search or real estate of display). While it may seem surprising, and almost random, at first glance, it actually appears to be quite logical after some thought.
In relation to dating, search advertising is oriented to intrigue human emotions and desires, likely through simple words (Ex. “meet singles in your area”). Contrarily, if the same dating advertisements were done through display, it would come across as crude or skeptical. This explains why the dating industry has a significantly higher click-through rate for search ads, rather than display ads. 
Similarly, In terms of real estate, words cannot accurately describe the desired aesthetic that the advertiser is trying to convey. This is far better done through an eye-catching display ad, which explains why the real estate industry has a significantly higher click-through rate for display ads, rather than search ads.  

This ties back in to the fundamental questions that any advertiser will need to ask themselves regarding questions concerning their objectives, audience, brand, and industry, in order to determine the optimal form of advertising to reach their goals. 
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This week’s lectures provided unique insights into the application of Search Engine Advertising for digital marketers. For me, what particularly piqued my interest was the approach that organisations can take to ranking in the ad results.

Prior to the lecture, I was aware that highest bid would not be the only factor considered in ranking ads. My rationale behind this was that in my experience using Google Search, the ads displayed were always relevant. Therefore, my theory was confirmed in lecture, with the mention of Maximum Bid and Quality Score, among other factors. Now that we have an indication as digital marketers of what we should do, I’d be curious to learn more about what we shouldn’t do? Are there any practices that, although legal, would be considered unethical or disadvantageous from Google’s perspective or as practitioners of digital marketing altogether? 

For example, in the previous month when searching “KPMG Summer Internship 2021,” the 1st ranked ad result was for “Deloitte Summer Internship.” This is interesting because it is evident that Deloitte bid to attract students from KPMG’s program. Because they are direct competitors offering a similar internship program, I’d argue that the ad result is still relevant, but it’s surprising that it ranked higher than KPMG’s own ad, which was ranked second. Would it be considered unethical to bid on competitor’s brand names to deter customers and how does Google consider this practice in regard to ranking? Although a sneaky practice, it seemed to work well in the case of Deloitte. 
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I personally believe that one of the most important aspects of the topic "search engine advertising" is the fact that companies can enhance their success if they stop perceiving that the most important thing is to have a high click rate, focusing their efforts on obtaining a high quality score what really influences success.
Some factors such as the device, through which the search is carried out, influence in achieving a "high quality score", resulting in a lower cost per click.
Small businesses can take advantage of all the tools that google offers to try to penetrate the current technology market, achieving a better adaptation and allowing their survival in a changing world
I would like more concrete examples of companies that used search engine advrertising tools to achieve business success, in order to identify real cases and see their effectiveness.

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There was a few features of the Search Engine Advertisement slides that surprised me. The fact that Google doesn't always give the add placement to the highest paying bidder was one. Knowing now that it isn't all about bid price but your sites optimisation often determines its location.
Google giving websites a 'Quality Score' in relation to the relevance of their keywords. After seeing all the factors that influence the quality score, I wonder how certain companies can manipulate the system in order for their add to show at lower bidding cost.
I thought the idea of Split Testing was very interesting. The idea of making two advertisements and whichever performed better is then put up against a new optimised advertisement. I would love to learn how this happens in a real company, if they would split the marketers up into teams and have them compete against each other. It seems like a smart way to create the best performing add but, is it profitable?

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After this weeks discussion and my own research in aid of the assignment, I am really interested in the relationship between branded keywords and the value obtained from them. On a surface level, it seems that it wouldn’t be particularly worth paying for the name of your brand as a keyword, as when consumers are searching for your brand, surely they will only click on what they are looking for. I think this relationship is definitely more complex when brands have multiple distributors, as companies will have to compete with their distributors in attempt to nab the profit margin that would be given to that distributor. Booking.com is commonly found at the top of branded keyword ads over hotel’s own sites and I would love to know how hotels navigate this relationship or if it is intended this way.

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The first thing that surprised me during the class was the average click through rate for online dating, I didn’t think that it would be the highest. I directly thought about the health and medical category but it is not even in the top 5. And also, the fact that the highest keyword bid would not get the top ad position surprised me, we also need a high-quality score that will reduce the cost-per-click.

It would be interesting to know how the quality score is calculated. Are all the companies equal or can big companies influence this score with their power?

I would like to know more about how to use certain tools like the google ads keyword tool or see how the google analytics account work but at the same time the google ads certification can help us.

Finally, one of the emerging trends to watch is : unlocking the power of Artificial intelligence and I would really like to know more about what it involves.

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This reading was very enlightening, I discovered different aspects of the SEA, which will clearly allow me to be more efficient.

I was surprised that the CTR is not this important, I clearly thought that it was the key to the success of a website, and I appreciated the explanations on this point, allowing me to see more clearly in a part that had become blurred at the beginning of the reading.

The thing that follows from this is that companies have every interest to focus on quality and not number, it is useless to have many clicks, it will be more interesting to look at the time spent consulting the site or the number of redundant visits.

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One thing which surprised me in this topic was the volume and capability of ad testing which can be performed. In traditional media, one advertisement was made and presented to the entire audience. Nowadays, due to digital marketing and SEA, companies have the ability to test multiple ads simultaneously in real time (AB Testing/Split Advertising). This ensures ads are relevant, attractive and effective.  An ad can be immediately dropped if the CTR is too low, or ad campaigns developed upon if they prove to be extremely effective.

Furthermore, the ability to advertise differently to different demographics improves the quality of advertising. Different audiences have differing interests, and so the ability to advertise to various audience types in contrasting ways, will likely improve the conversion rates of ads.

However, it is possible that this will lead to extremely complex advertising strategies in the future, as companies target all demographics separately.

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During the progress of this lesson, I have expanded my vision of how SEM works globally, as in the last topic we covered the organic part of SEM works with SEO, and now the inorganic part with SEA.

I have been particularly captivated by the functioning of how ads’ positions are determined, which works on the basis of an auction system determined by what the advertiser is willing to pay. But what really surprised me was how Quality Score decisively influences in the final position of the ad, here Google, in my opinion, does very well by giving priority to quality and user experience, and that not everything works based on money "You pay me more and therefore I put you in the first place".

In this way, both the advertiser and the user get a win-win situation, where the advertiser saves money and the user saves time, as it is useless to place irrelevant advertisements in the highest positions if the user is not tempted to make the conversion.

On the other hand, with increasingly personalized ads, I would like to know to what extent we are exposing our privacy and to what level of intrusion would be acceptable, in order to get more relevant and quality ads. I think it is important to discuss the issue of privacy and technology, because I personally find it shocking how much data big corporations such as Facebook or Google have about us, not only about our contact details but also about our tastes, the places we visit and what we do in our daily lives.

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I found the discussion around SEA particularly relevant to understand how companies can promote and expand their businesses through their online presence. I was wondering if non profit organisation should considerate SEA as there are not necessarily aiming to increase their sales. How could they measure brand awareness when they do not have the budget to pay for advertising?  Another point I would like to be adressed would be for local non-profit organisations that serves a specific region without the ambition of reach a national audience, what could SEA bring out, is there any techniques from SEA they should put their attention in order to connect with their focus area?

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I found this topic extremely interesting. I was surprised that the quality score calculated by google is an important factor in determining Adranks. This coupled with pay per click. Each Adrank is is calculates by multiplying your quality score by the CPC. There is also a few other factors that influence the Adranks. However, Google keeps these a secret.
I was shocked that the CTR for dating apps was the highest. I would like to learn more about the quality score.

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I found the topic of Search Advertising really interesting for the main reason being that what I had previously thought was actually quite the opposite. Search Advertising is far more than paying for an ‘AD’ and many factors are needed in order for companies to achieve their goal of a high positioning Ad Rank.

I was unaware of the various factors that influence a companies ‘AD Rank’. For example, a combination of the expected click through rate, the landing page experience, ad formats and ad relevance are some of the factors that influence where your AD appears. I was surprised by how money is not the dominant factor. There is much more to the formula of a successful digital marketing strategy.

Search Advertising is a powerful tool however I would be really interested to know more about small business’ in regards to this. Is it logical for a small company to engage in this competition when they are competing against larger companies. How can they differentiate themselves amongst the large and growing market.

I was also both surprised and would love to learn more about search engines and how they vary on different devices. Google will show results based on how well they display on mobile devices and this would be something I would like to learn some more about.

Voice assisted search and the impact this will have on quality ratings and rankings is another factor that I think will change the game in regards to search advertising and I think learning some more about this will be really exciting.

Search Advertising is such a powerful tool. It offers excellent results when the combination of factors are implemented. However the world is constantly innovating and these factors will inevitably change so we must continuously learn what we can do to optimise our results.

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One thing I learned in the last session is the complexity of ad positioning. Factors like the relevance of the ad in comparison to the search were obvious, but I didn't know that i.e. the expected CTR or the device used would play such big role.
I also realized what a poor performance the company I am part-time working for has compared to our competitors (sports retailer).

Since a lot of social media marketing agencies pop up recently, I am wondering if or how much value these agencies can add to a company'a performance
Are there industries which you would consider Search Advertising especially favorable or beneficial?

Is there some kind of recommended size or benchmark where SME should outsource their SEO / Search AD to agencies as mentioned above?

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I found this topic very interesting from both a consumer’s perspective and a marketer’s perspective and feel like SEA and Google’s algorithm can impact these groups in many different ways.

I was surprised by the fact that we don’t entirely know how Google’s quality score is determined but only have an idea of what it involves. I learned that historical performance is one of the 6 key factors which influence it but can be a negative and limiting factor to newer businesses who are trying to get their SEA campaign started. This can positively influence them to improve all other aspects of their quality score but gives them an immediate disadvantage in the ranking process. Should Google make an exception to new businesses who have no record of historical performance instead of constantly favouring the more well-known, traditional companies?

In addition to this, has this factor of historical performance discouraged businesses to try something new, original and potentially risky as part of their campaigns in order to not damage their quality score if it’s not as successful as other campaigns? This could actually reduce creativity and originality among marketing campaigns, negatively impacting both businesses and consumers. This is definitely a topic which caught my attention and I would certainly be interested in learning more about it.

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Finally publish your algorithms, we need transparency!
Reflecting on the topic of Search Engine Advertising I cannot help but sense some hypocrisy in the statements by google: On the one hand they never get tired of publishing how transparent they are (offering certified courses on how their products work, allowing marketeers to get real time feedback on add-campaigns…).

On the other hand they do not make public what really is at the center of their valuation and algorithms: Factors influencing the quality score and determination of CPC…

But they do not just keep low on these areas, but when confronted they argue that they keep these formulas secret to ensure that pages and internet traffic stays as natural/organic as possible.

As the biggest player in online marketing they seem to not only understand how to make their platform an attractive marketing tool, but also excel at selling their lacks of transparency as an act of protectionism.

And authorities, who have widespread control over traditional media, fail to make google take responsibility and force them to finally publish what has great effects on our life as consumers and business owners.

Until then our best guess is what practioners publish in their research papers. The kind of qualitative/quantitative approaches that they use to tackle would sure interest me.
All of this also applies to Search Engine Optimisation, but as the quality factor seems to favour bigger advertisers/companies it might cause smaller, local suppliers to go unnoticed among their customers and become bankrupt in the long-run. Maybe leaving only a handful of monopolist suppliers.

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I really enjoyed this week’s lecture on Search Engine Advertising because as a consumer it’s something I have become so conditioned to seeing without really understanding how the system operates.

It was fascinating to learn that CTR wasn’t the key driver or provider of success and understanding how websites are scored on certain characteristics such as CTR, performance, landing page. Learning about the SEA auction-based system was really interesting and was almost hard to believe bidding for keywords etc fascinating.

In conclusion, this is an interesting subject. It was fascinating to be able to link the Google Advertising test to some additional theory. I'd like to hear more about how Google can evolve AI and voice control for SEA, as well as where SEA's future lies.

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At first I thought google ads were ranked solely by the investment of the advertiser. However it was really interesting to learn that quality score played a big part in the ranking process of the ad. I wasn't surprised by the fact that google have a system in place to change the position of ads, based on the maximum amount of profit they can generate. I was also really surprised by the amount of factors that influence the AD rank. Some of these including landing pages and titles. As google don't highlight how these quality scores are formulated, id like to know more about the exact factors that google use.

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Google Add Auction Model is one element of Search Engine Advertising which I found interesting. It’s good to see Google determines Ads position based on a number of factors like their quality score and key words. It’s also interesting to learn that highest bidders aren’t necessarily the receivers of the top ad position. This means smaller company’s have the ability to advertise in the prime spots and prevents large companies with the heaviest advertising budget from completely occupying the ad spaces.
I would like to learn more about geographic and demographic targeting and the different ways to reduce the risks involved.

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The discussion this week has made me want to know more about the quality score that Google use. I was surprised by the fact that the highest paying ads don't always make it to the top. Google clearly don't publish these scores but it is intriguing as to know what factors go into this. I would imagine it is skewed heavily towards your landing page and keywords, however, nobody truly knows. In a way, search engine advertising optimization is basically putting together the best ad in order to fit these parameters that you don't fully know the nature of. It is also interesting to know how google defines what a good ad is and what isn't. I would like to know how a "good" keyword is defined and how one word can be ranked above another.

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One aspect of Search Engine Advertising that I found intriguing and wanted to further explore was the topic of market trend forecasting, i.e. the rise of voice search. I would be interested to see the research undertaken and algorithms prepared by large SEOs to help them predict any future trends based on current market directions. I would also love to investigate the failures in these SEA investigations, I.e. what was predicted to explode onto the scene but didn't live up to expectations - how can Google differentiate between a success or failure before predictions are fully developed?

Another area I wish to inspect is the process of ranking. What criteria does the SE use to determine the value of one website over another, paid advertising and bidding aside. How did one organic result specifically place higher than another? We have discussed this before on a more broad scale yet I feel it would be a good topic to look deeper into in an attempt to better understand the SEA algorithms and inner workings that favour one website over another.

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One of the areas I found most surprising about SEA was that every time someone typed keywords into the Google search bar; a live auction was taking place in order to get your website or advertisement to the top of the search results page. I had previously assumed it was all predetermined and not simply calculated at the exact same time that the user hit search. I found it interesting that they also take into account the quality score and CPC into consideration when ranking. I also hadn’t realised that when working out if your CTR is a good percentage can strongly vary depending on what industry you’re in. I hadn’t realised that the dating sector has the highest search click through rate in AdWords.

I would like to learn more about how companies determine the right keywords. I know understand how important it is for the website to choose their keywords wisely but to also use them sparingly in order to avoid overcrowded or abusive ‘stuffing’. How can you determine the right keywords for your website and how might they differ if you decide to branch out and geo target a separate location that may be less well known to you.

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I found the topic of SEA very interesting, especially after studying SEO and seeing how they are different to each other.
I would love to know more about the factors that influence a companies quality score on their ads, as it is probably the most important thing when it comes to your ads being displayed. Having a good quality score has so many advantages. It gives your ad a higher position and also lowers your cost per click (CPC) expenses.
During the pandemic there is more of an emphasis on supporting local businesses, which tend to be smaller companies. I'd like to find out how they can still get ads displayed when larger companies with much higher budgets are competing with them for certain keywords.
I was also intrigued by Ad rank and how it works. Ad rank is the position that your ad will show up on SERPs, and is calculated by using your maximum CPC and your quality score. The company who is willing to pay the highest for CPC along with their quality score will be given the top spot on the result pages.
Overall I found the topic fairly interesting, but there were some aspects, such as Ad copy, that I struggled to understand and found quite difficult.

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I personally found the lectures and the related reading associated with search engine advertising interesting. I was practically interested in learning about the unique biding system google have in place with SEA. Google don’t rank their sponsored ads by the highest bid (CPC), but instead factor in the advertisers “quality score”. Google don’t publish the factors which determine a business quality score. The overall Adrank that a business has on Google is calculated by CPC x Quality score.

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This part of the module was very interesting to see how companies can use Search Engine Advertising in order to appear on search engines results pages which I would’ve had an idea of before hand but the concept of bidding and quality scores was very eye opening and intriguing. I had no idea how important the quality score was in order to determine where the ad ranks for its position. I would have previously presumed that whoever paid the most received the top position. It’s also interesting how google does not release the exact algorithm as to how the quality score is calculated, perhaps to allow for more natural competition as if every ad was optimised to the algorithm it would nullify the effectiveness of the algorithm. Nevertheless this was a very enjoyable and interesting topic, I’d be interested in learning how smaller businesses  with smaller capital and staff resources can compete with the larger companies in similar fields, is this where quality scores attempts to level the playing field as the higher quality ad with a greater quality score will be cheaper to run but still larger firms have more resources to spend on an ad which scores higher.

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The digital adverting area sems to have a lot going on all at once. The interesting bit in the lecture was to find out about the strategy of running to adverts at the same time. Then each advert is analysis to see which preforms better. Good to see that Google analytics has a keyword helper to assist you in relevant keywords you should be using. But was surprised to find out in the bidding process for space, you don’t know were you are going to land. But going back to the person or company itself, the must pose the question about what they want the advert to achieve. Note to self. Need to look over the Quality score more to understand all effecting factors. But the visual side of the landing page is crucial to the customer and how you want them to navigate around your page.

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This week's topic was fascinating to learn, as initially before and before the certificates I assumed all the positioning and promotion was based on budget and how much companies can afford to put into SEA.

Therefore, I was surprised to know the little influence companies have over their ads through budget, which even though it is a set back when investing in SEA, it prevents a fully oligopoly from forming.

However, CPC is still a major factor in the positioning, so it is an interesting aspect to dive in on how difficult is for a new service/product or company to enter the online market when the competition is so fierce and big companies with more know-how have a greater competitive advantage, and since  google does not disclouse how much each factor weights in the overall score, should there be some changes made on how google evaluates and promotes, in order to equal the playing field?

After this week I wonder how the online market will develop, as due to the pandemic a lot of businesses had to turn to online platforms to stay afloat, and the tendency is to have everything one click away. How will small companies and start-ups compete?

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I have thoroughly enjoyed the topics of search, SEO and SEA. I have been surprised and greatly interested by many of the elements to these sections and in particular that of search engine advertising.

One element of SEA which I was most shocked by was the lack of significance of the number of clicks as a metric for success. When considering the success of ads previous to this module, I personally would have considered the number of clicks onto an ad as a great win for the marketer. Although, the number of clicks is nevertheless a metric of success, I can now clearly see the gravity of using your beginning outlined goals and how they have matured within the campaign to measure the impact of your campaign. That and the CTR will provide thorough analysis.

Secondly, I was very surprised to find out that Google do not take the highest bid offered and in fact it often works out cheaper for the bidder in the live auction. This surprised me as it is a general consensus that companies will strive to achieve the most capital possible and often times surpassing quality in their product/service to do so. By Google using the methods of a QS along with a bid, this allows quality ads run by deserving companies to reach a higher position on the search page even if that is at a lower price than what they were offering.

I recently listened to a podcast on SEO trends in 2021 by ‘SEO 101” which mentioned the recent news of the Australian government asking Google and Facebook to essentially pay them for news. This came after similar incidences with the French and UK government. What I am interested in finding out is if or how will this effect Google’s live auction format or even their ad campaigns in general. Will we see a complete reform in the way ad campaigns and live bidding is conducted to meet growing concerns by each country? Is it possible that governments are beginning to take back control that they afforded to MNC or will the impact MNCs have on the economy of a country pervade?

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What surprised me about Search Engine Advertising is that even though it is very similar to the Search Engine Optimization, it is worked on separately, but they still rely on each other to make an online presence work.

Also, I find very interesting how the differences that consumers have when using different devices are being studied. I am surprised that even though it is something very coherent, there has only been a few studies on it, that actually explain the importance of not only SEA, but how to make the most out of it depending on our brand and our goods/services, since if we not take all the important factors into account, SEO and SEA might not be enough on their own.

Therefore, I would like to know more about little differences that might make a difference, such as the importance of devices, taking into account that the basic metrics and theory has already been explained. In addition, it might be very general, but it would be very interesting to find the exact formula to which google gives the different qualification scores, since it makes a direct impact on how SEA works and how the companies invest their resources such as time and money

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I found this area of the module really interesting as it gave an insight into what is actually happening behind the scenes when you search something on any search engine. The thing that I found most interesting was high websites didnt pay more for their ad to be higher ranked on the search engine, there was an auction that decided which ad was higher ranked. I would love to find out more about split testing and what type of companies actually make use of this technique in order to create the most successful ad. I am curious to know how it is undertaken by a company and if there are different people competing against each other. Is this method effective or does it consume a lot of time for the marketing team? Overall, I find it fascinating how many factors are taken into consideration and how much background work it takes for a website to appear at the top of your screen in two seconds.

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While studying Search Engine Advertising there were a couple of things that surprised me, mainly how a high budget won’t get the ad to the top of the list nor would ctr. Previously I was under the impression that a high ctr would be preferred by Google and a high-budget would also be preferred. I like how Google bases their Ad ranking on many different factors- giving small businesses a chance against the big corporations… However, the main thing that surprised me was that as we discussed the topic, it was stated that the Google Ads algorithm is hidden from the public. I’d like to see how Google can deem this fair to the smaller businesses who wouldn’t have the same capital behind them to do trial and error through split testing to perfect the ads they create or to use it to its optimum capacity. But then perhaps if the algorithm was open to the public then that would defeat the bidding strategy Google has in place for its ads and decrease its profits? Personally I found this area very intriguing as arguments can be made for both sides of the debate.

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The main point that really surprised me about Search engine advertising was that the highest paid ad does not automatically rank at the top. And that advertisements with the highest click through rates does not mean that they are the most popular.

From learning about this topic, i would like to further research more about Keywords. As this is clearly one of the main factors that influence Search engine advertising I would like to learn more about how these keywords are chosen and if companies change and update  them over time if they are not working successfully.

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I found Search engine advertising to be a very interesting topic, especially after just learning about SEO to then see how to use these techniques through advertising really tied it all together. One thing I would like to learn more about in terms of search engine advertising is the use of microsites in search engine advertising to generate more traffic to a main site. I'd be interested to see how they work and do they actually work in all cases?

One aspect I also found interesting during this weeks lectures is how a high click-through rate is not necessarily a measure for success, as even with a high click-through rate, there can be low conversion. This was extremely clear when trying to measure the success of our upcoming case study. We found a high click-through rate didn't necessarily correlate with the success of our given campaign.

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I was really interested in how CPC is calculated with Google and the fact that even though a company is willing to pay more, they will only charge 1cent more than the company with a lesser quality score. It really drives competition on Google and encourages companies to do their best to increase their QS, even though nobody knows how Google measures QS's.
Although ad rankings are based on the above measurement, I am interested as to how small-scale businesss earn their seating in SEA comapared to the giants, e.g. Amazon. Should they focus on a more local demographic or is there opportunity for more international opportunity no matter the size of the business?