July 20, 2007 11:36 amPersonalized Google ads
A colleague who’s really into Google AdWords showed me a great example of personalized Google ads. In some cases, Google shows ads that are related to your previous search queries. It even works when all cookies are deleted and you aren’t signed in to your Google account or whatever. The searches must be executed in the same window, however.
Let’s say I’m looking for the weather forecast. When I search for “weather forecast“, I’ll get these results (click to enlarge):
What if the next thing I’m looking for is a “Holiday to Spain“?
Now let’s see what happens to the ads if I enter “weather forecast” in the search box again?
Hmm, the first ad looks really targeted to me. Let’s see if we can get personalized ads on other queries as well.
My girlfriend’s birthday is in a two weeks, and because I’m a really cheap bastard, I’m looking for a “sale” somewhere.
Oh wait, I almost forgot, I need a new “LCD monitor“:
Hmm, back to the search for a birthday present again. Enter “sale“, hit GO:
That’s 3 really targeted ads. Looks like Google’s getting smarter by the minute…
Update 1: Ben Murphy also noticed it and it seems to happen with AdSense ads as well.
Update 2: Google sent SEL a reaction with some more info about this:
“What you’re seeing is that we look at the user’s previous query and see how well it intersects with the current query. If it’s significant, we’ll use it to help targeting on the current query. We simply look at what’s in the referring URL (every time you load a web page, the HTTP header includes your previous URL as the “referrer”).”
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I’ve noticed this too. Ran the same kind of tests over at http://www.benmurphydesign.com/2007/07/13/is-google-adwords-showing-ads-for-previous-searches/
Good to see the word is getting out.
Comment by Ben Murphy — July 20, 2007 @ 3:26 pm
Looks like other people are seeing the session oriented personalized ads…
Just found this on sphinn : http://wiep.net/talk/ads/personalized-google-ads/ - another example with the same kind of writeup I did last week - pretty obvious they’re rolling this out as a new feature now. Anybody else get a chance to try this ye…
Trackback by Ben Murphy Design — July 20, 2007 @ 3:37 pm
[…] In my opinion the sponsored results are getting better with features like this. We’re still discussing what we can do with this kind of personalized search. I don’t think there’s a way we can influence it. You can read the complete post at Wiep his blog. […]
Pingback by Personalized Google Ads » pietervangils.com — July 20, 2007 @ 4:19 pm
Interesting stuff, thanks. It’s crazy to think about the levels of “personalization” Google could achieve if/when they add Doubleclick’s data to theirs.
Comment by Adam Sharp — July 21, 2007 @ 7:27 am
[…] Google AdWords blijft daarbij niet buiten beschouwing. Zo kwam ik op via het engelstalige weblog van Wiep Knol een testje tegen wat laat zien dat voorgaande zoekopdrachten de toekomstige advertenties […]
Pingback by Gepersonaliseerde Google Adwords advertenties? | EdWords.nl Zoekmachine Marketing Weblog — July 23, 2007 @ 5:36 pm
This was a good post! I am totally sure Google has a lot to roll out this Fall.
Keep watching!
Comment by Erika — July 23, 2007 @ 7:32 pm
@Ben: I’ve added your examples to the post as well
@Adam: Google + Doubleclick + Feedburner + … = …
@Erika: Thx, I’ll keep watching
Comment by Wiep — July 23, 2007 @ 8:49 pm
[…] post muy interesante acerca de Google Personalized Ads, muestra cómo Google está comenzando a cruzar información a la […]
Pingback by Anuncios de Google Search más personalizados que nunca. | NengLog — July 24, 2007 @ 5:54 am
Personalised Google Adwords Ads…
Google have started to put personalised search into practice on the paid search listings. This means Google will also take a users previous search query into account when displaying ads….
Trackback by Sayu SEM Blog — July 24, 2007 @ 12:58 pm
Personalised search is a great feature - It’s sure to benefit users, google and adwords advertisers alike.
Comment by Tracey — July 24, 2007 @ 1:04 pm
[…] es findet sich dort eine “Spain”-AdWords-Anzeige. Details und Screenshots finden sich hier. Barry Schwartz hat bei Google nachgefragt und diese Antwort erhalten: What you’re seeing is […]
Pingback by This and That — July 24, 2007 @ 3:43 pm
Damn they are indeed getter smarter and smarter.. how long will this take to be fully active ? Btw I see the benefit of it and ofcourse they saw that too
Comment by Rodjer — July 24, 2007 @ 9:08 pm
[…] Personalized Google ads seems to be based on http referer, not on search history identified via cookies (intra-session search history : this example is a non-authenticated user) - so not really personalised (tags: google adwords personalisation keywords adsense http-referer) […]
Pingback by links for 2007-07-24 — July 25, 2007 @ 1:30 am
[…] het van de geruchten rond het gepersonaliseerde zoeken van Google. Op de persoonlijke weblog van Wiep Knol is een leuk experimentje uitgewerkt. Aan de hand van je zoekopdrachten worden gepersonaliseerde […]
Pingback by » Personalized Google Ads » Zoekmachine Marketing Blog — July 25, 2007 @ 12:09 pm
[…] Personalized Google ads […]
Pingback by This Week In SEO - 7/27/07 - TheVanBlog — July 28, 2007 @ 3:42 am
[…] Personalized Google ads from Wiep illustrates how Google is personalizing ads for people based on their previous search query. […]
Pingback by Personalized AdWords: Google Ads You See Influenced By Previous Searches | Seo Alchemist — July 28, 2007 @ 8:30 am
[…] Hilton” it is a safe guess that I’m looking for a hotel, and the celebrity (similar tracking of immediately-previous search strings by way of the referer field is already happening). Wales […]
Pingback by michaelzimmer.org » Archives » Open Questions on Wikia Search, Advertising, and User Privacy — July 30, 2007 @ 8:30 pm
[…] ClickZ reports of two "highly observant search bloggers" who've noticed what appears to be behavioral targeting from Google.] Technorati Tags: […]
Pingback by Google Feeling "Double-Lucky" on Mobile — August 1, 2007 @ 7:44 pm
WOW - thats crazy. No wonder my ads always seem kind of targetted… Think that means that the adsense ads I see on my site are different than the ones that ohers see?
Comment by Matt Ellsworth — August 2, 2007 @ 3:28 am
[…] Google has started doing a smart thing, personalizing ads based on your recent behavior. That means that when you run a search, Google will see how it relates to your immediate recent searches, and if it finds a connection, it will present ads based on that. That means Google is usingsome intelligence and providing a unique set of ads on Google search based on your activity, different ads than anyone else would see. Pretty cool. […]
Pingback by » Google Reader Audio/Video Popouts, Google Earth Night Layer, Personalized Google Ads, Click-To-Call Dead, Beat The Googol Conglomerate » InsideGoogle » part of the Blog News Channel — August 7, 2007 @ 4:58 pm
[…] targeted ads. Google claims they are against the idea of behavioral targeting, but already use it, displaying ads based on past searches. Both Microsoft and Google have bought in game advertising targeting companies as […]
Pingback by Conversational Marketing & The Online Branded Advertising Experience at adsense 无聊的赚钱 — August 7, 2007 @ 5:36 pm
[…] bit of digging and I came across a similar observation in wiep.net. The story was picked up by Search Engine Land who received this explanation from Google. What […]
Pingback by Personalisation of Adwords Ads — September 25, 2007 @ 7:39 am
I have already seen this is action. They tryed it for some time, but now i have the feeling it is permanent ? Anyone agrees with me ?
Comment by aflossingsvrije — January 4, 2008 @ 3:28 pm
Well well… this is not only in searching if you ask me. When I visit i.e. a site about loans the next adds on other pages (Google AdSense) are still about that. Strange but true.
Anyone else recognizes this?
Comment by geld lenen — February 10, 2008 @ 12:25 pm
STUMBLED!
Very cool.
VOTED for you at:
http://www.newsdots.com/industrynews/personalized-google-ads-wiep-net/
Comment by Geoserv — April 19, 2008 @ 1:52 am