Archive for July, 2008

Google AdWords Keyword Macros

Published by johanjacobs July 21st, 2008 in Google AdWords campaign info. 0 Comments

The Keyword macros allows you to display the user’s exact search phrase in the ad text of your Google AdWords ads. It is best practice to include the keyword macro in the headline of your text ad. The reason for this is because the headline of your text ad is the clickable portion. Google AdWords also bold prints the relevant ad text to the users search query, thus making your heading bold printed as well. The user is mush more likely to click on your ad because it stands out from the rest and it is 100% relevant to his search query.

The format of the keyword macro is as follows:

{keyword:alternative headline}

Or

{KeyWord:alternative headline}

The first format will display the user exact phrase as typed in by the user. In the second format you will notice that the first and fourth character of keyword has been capitalized. This format will also display the user’s exact phrase but with every first letter of every single word capitalized. This makes your ad stand out even more. The reason for the alternative headline is because of the ad headline characters limit of 25. If the user search phrase is bigger that 25 characters the alternative headline will be displayed automatically by Google AdWords.

The main purpose of the keyword macro is to drive your CTR rating up. This is usually a shortcut way for a new user to obtain a high CTR. The CTR is an historical figure so the higher you’re CTR in the beginning the longer your CTR average stays high. This will give you the advantage of paying less for a higher ad ranking position on the Google search pages.

One of the downsides to using the keyword macro is that if the user misspells a word it will appear just like that in your headline. In other cases your ad may look relevant to irrelevant users, because of your dynamic headline. This may loose you some money in the beginning but will drive your CTR up. The keyword macros are usually only used for a sort term in the beginning of your ad campaign to get you CTR up.

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Preparing to Optimize a Google AdWords Campaign

Published by johanjacobs July 18th, 2008 in Google AdWords campaign info. 0 Comments

In order to make intelligent optimization changes it is first necessary to understand the business that is being advertised and the goals of their AdWords campaign. You can start by reviewing the advertiser’s home page even if it is not one of the landing pages. Navigate his home page and try to go through the same motions a user would, when visiting the site. The about us link is usually a good place to start learning the new business. There after you should also review the products and services.

In addition to browsing your advertiser’s web site it is also a good idea to browse competitor’s web sites and ads. This will help you to gain insight into the differences and similarities the advertiser has with the services and products of his competitors. You will also be able to identify factors that make the advertisers business more compelling that his competition. These factors can then be highlighted in his AdWords ads.

After reviewing the advertiser’s and competitors web sites you can start reviewing his existing AdWords campaigns and ad groups. Review the performance of individual keywords and text ads. Now make a list of what is working and what isn’t. Do not dismiss the poorly performing keywords jet. By optimize their ad text, campaign targeting and keyword match types you may still improve the performance of these keywords significantly. Inactive keywords can also be reactivated by increasing their minimum bid. You might even be able to improve the performance of existing well performing keywords.

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Google AdWords Ad diagnostic tool

Published by johanjacobs July 15th, 2008 in Google AdWords campaign info. 0 Comments

The ad diagnostic tool can help you to diagnose the reasons why your ad may not be appearing for a given keyword or on a specific search result page. This tool can also test if your ad appears on the first page of search results or why a particular ad group of ads may not be showing.

The ads diagnostic tool is available at several locations within you account. You can access information regarding your keywords by hovering over the magnifying glass for a specific keyword in your ad group. The Information presented by the magnifying glass will tell you if your keyword is triggering ads or not and the reasons way it may not trigger ads. If the keyword does not show any ads there will be a link “what can I do?”. This link will take you to more detailed instructions on how you can fix the problem so that your keyword will start triggering ads.

You can also access the tool under the tools link in your campaign management tap. The ads diagnostic tool is located in the right hand corner under the heading “Analyze Your Ad Performance”. Option one of the ad diagnostic tool allows you to search for specific keywords and terms to see if they trigger ads. On the results page the tool will show you if the keyword or term triggers ads and in witch ad group they can be found. The tool also allows you to preview the Google search result page to see where your ad will appears.

The second option for the ad diagnostic tool is to enter a search result page URL. This option is useful when you are concerned about your ad’s appearance on a particular search result page.

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Hilscher’s dual-port memory message interface

Published by johanjacobs July 13th, 2008 in PROFIBUS. 0 Comments

The message that needs to be transmitted is a data structure containing instructions from the transmitter to the receiver. The message structure can be divided into three parts, message header (8 bytes), telegram header (8 bytes) and user data (247 bytes). These messages are used to transmit data from one task to another. For all protocol tasks the structure stays the same, but some applications uses the messages for parameter passing and these messages don’t have a telegram header but begins immediately with the data.

The two type of messages used are request messages and confirmation messages. The request message causes an action in a task and the confirmation message confirms the performing of that action or task (answer).

For the transmitter to send the message it needs to write it into the receiver’s mailbox and notify the receiver by inverting one of its mailbox bits. The receiver then reads the mail and releases the mailbox in response to the corresponding mail. Only one mailbox is used in each direction. The receiver of the message is thus responsible to quickly read the message in order to release the mailbox again for the next available message.

The messages that cannot immediately be transferred to the Host application are placed in a queue mechanism with a standard configuration of 31 available segments. The actual available segments can be read from the SegmentCount location inside the dual-port memory. If the available number of segments fall bellow a protocol dependent value, the device won’t be able to access messages from its mailbox. The Host application is thus responsible to read out its mailbox messages to ensure that no Host messages are in the queue witch will reduces the available segment count.

Synchronization of message delivery:

The procedure chosen for message synchronization allows the Host to operate in interrupt mode as well as polling mode. The device can cause an interrupt to the Host application by writing into the interrupt capable handshake cell. The hardware has only one interrupt line for each handshake register, indicating different events. The event can be identified by reading the corresponding handshake register in the dual-port memory. The two reserved handshake registers in the duel-port memory are the DevFlags and HostFlags registers. The DevFlags register can only be written to by the Host application and read from by the device. The HostFlags register on the other hand can only be written to by the device and read from by the Host application.

Both these registers contain a command and acknowledgement bit. A command gets activated when the command and acknowledgement bit has opposite values and acknowledged when they have the same value. It is important to note that a new command can only be activated if the preceding command was acknowledged.

In polling mode the Host application monitors the difference between the command and acknowledgement flag bits. The Host application will then be able to send messages or received messages depending on the status of these bits.

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PROFIBUS The Field Bus Communication Standard

Published by johanjacobs July 11th, 2008 in PROFIBUS. 0 Comments

PROFIBUS is the abbreviation for Process Field Bus and is the standard for field bus communication in automation technology. The PROFIBUS communication protocol was created in 1989 by a consortium of companies and institutions and promoted by the BMBF (german department of education and research). PROFIBUS has since become the most popular fieldbus in discreet manufacturing and process control with over 20 million installed devices world wide.

PROFIBUS is divided into two variations, the more commonly used DP (Decentralized Peripheral) version that replaced the first complex communication protocol version FMS (Fieldbus Message Specification) in 1993 and the less commonly used PA (Process Automation) protocol version.

PROFIBUS DP is the high speed solution of PROFIBUS. It has been designed and optimized especially for communication between automation systems and decentralized devices. It can operate at data rates of up to 12Mbit/s over twisted pair cables or fiber optic links. The communication is via cyclic data traffic exclusively and each field device need to exchange its data with the control device (Master) within a given cycle time. Operation and monitoring tasks for a visualization device separate from the control device was not supported by this specification and appropriate function extensions were defined in 1997. The new extended version is referred to as PROVIBUS-DPV1 and is compatible with all earlier versions of the existing DP protocol. PROVIBUS-DPV1 also offers in addition to the cyclic DP communication services, an acyclic service for alarm messages, diagnostics and control of field devices.

PROFIBUS AP is used to monitor measuring equipment via a process control system. It also meets the two special requirements of process automation, an intrinsically safe transmission technique and field device power over bus cable. The disadvantage of this protocol is its slow data rate of only 31.25kbit/s. Weak current flow through the bus lines makes it intrinsically safe and ideal for use in explosion-hazardous areas.

The FROFIBUS protocol (OSI reference model)

OSI-Layer

PROFIBUS

User Interface

DPV0

DPV1

DPV2

7

Application

–

6

Presentation

5

Session

4

Transport

3

Network

2

Data Link

FDL

1

Physical

EIA-485

Optical

MBP

User Interface:

For the User Interface of PROFIBUS various service levels were defined for the DP protocol:

· DP-V0 provides the service for cyclic exchange of data and diagnosis.

· DP-V1 provides the service for acyclic and cyclic exchange and alarm handling.

· DP-V2 provides the service for isochronous mode data exchange broadcast (slave-to-slave communication).

Data Link layer:

The Field Bus Data Link Layer (FDL) work with a hybrid bus access protocol. It combines token passing with a master slave method. The token passing procedure guarantees that the bus access gets assigned to a specific master node for a defined time frame. In this time frame the master node can access the bus and request data from any master or slave device. After the time frame expires the current master node will pass the token to the next master node on the bus. This layer also includes the handling of data security and the transmission protocol of telegrams.

Physical layer or bit-transmission layer:

Three different methods are specified for the physical layer of FROFIBUS

· Electrical wire transmission EIA-485, twisted wire pair with impedance of 150 ohms. Specified for Bit rates 9.6 kbit/s to 12Mbit/s. This transmission method is usually used with PROFIBUS DP. The cable length between repeaters is limited from 100 to 1200 m, depending on the bit rate.

· Fiber optical transmission uses, star-, bus- and ring topologies and the distance between repeaters can be up to 15 km.

· With Manchester Bus Powered transmission technology the data and device power are fed through the same cable. The bit rate is a fixed 31.25 kbit/s. This technology was specifically developed for PROFIBUS PA.

Other transmission mediums products like radio waves, sliding contacts etc. can be obtained from various manufacturers but this does not mean they conform to any standards.

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Hilscher’s Dual Port Memory Interface Card

Published by johanjacobs July 11th, 2008 in Hilscher. 0 Comments

The main objective of the dual-port memory interface of the Hilscher data card is to be able to handle different devices with different protocols on a single hardware platform. Depending on the installed device and protocol there are two different data transfer possibilities between the Host (PC application) and device (communication interface or module) they are:

Message oriented: consists of two mailboxes for sending and receiving commands and telegrams of acyclic information.

Process image: consists of direct access to the input and output data coming from and going to the peripheral device.

The message oriented data transfer is available for all device types. This allows diagnostic programs and tools to communicate with the real time operating system to get status or firmware information.

The process image on the other hand is not available for all device implementations. If it’s available the dual port memory is enlarged to 2 or even 8 KByte. The process image memory area is placed below the message interface area’s bytes.

The control bits used for synchronization of data and message handling are contained in the last two bytes of the dual port memory.

Message orientated data Communication:

The unique data structure of a message consists of an 8 byte header, an optional 8 byte telegram header and a maximum of 247 bytes of user data. The message header structure is fixed and constant and is used by the devise operating system for transport and message addressing. The telegram header defines the actions that need to be taken by the protocol task if necessary. The user data contains the send and receive portion of data. This message structure gets defined within the RCS_USER.H file.

If the Host application wants to send a message it will load the message data into the sent mailbox portion of the dual-port memory and set one of the device flags. The device will then take the message and place it in an output message buffer queue for processing and set a host acknowledgment flag. The message will then get processed and sent out by the device on a first come first serve principle. If the device on the other hand will place a received message in the incoming message buffer queue for processing. If the message gets to the front of the queue the device paces it into the message mailbox portion of the dual-port memory and sets a host flag. The Host will then process the incoming message and set a device acknowledgment flag. This is the sequence of events for every sent and received message.

The process Image IO Communication:

For certain device implementations there are a process image available in the dual-port memory. The access of the process image is the same for master and slave devises. Several handshake modes can be selected by the host user application, the user also has the option to read and write without any synchronization or handshaking.

The available handshake modes:

  • Direct data transfer, Device controlled: Typically for slave system where data transfer must be guaranteed for every master cycle.
  • Buffered Data Transfer, Device controlled: Typically for slave system where the device gets an interrupt with every data exchange cycle.
  • Uncontrolled direct data transfer: Typically for testing some IO devices with a simple application that requires no handshaking.
  • Host controlled, Buffered data transfer: Typically for master and slave systems that need guaranteed consistence of the complete process image.
  • Host controlled, direct data transfer: Typically for master system with a synchronous IO device.
  • Extended Host controlled, Buffered data transfer
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Campaign Tracking With Google AdWords

Published by johanjacobs July 10th, 2008 in Google AdWords campaign info. 0 Comments

Campaign tracking enables you to determine how effective your marketing efforts are at leading visitors to your site. Campaign tracking variables can be used to keep track of all the different types of advertising you use. Tracking variables are identifiers witch you attach to the hyper links that lead to your web site. There are five campaign tracking variables and they are as follows: Campaign name, Source, Medium, Content and Terms. These variables allow you to see where the clicks to your web site came from in your Google Analytics report.

For example you can attach different variables to each link you place in your news letter. When a user clicks on one of them you will be able to tell witch one they clicked on, as well as the newsletter that contained that link. Here is an example of a tagged URL:

http://www.googlestone.com/?utm_source=Yahoo&utm_medium=CPC &utm_term=tshirt&utm_content=ad_version_1&utm_camppaign= Google_T-Shirts

If you’re Google analytic is connected to an active Google AdWords account you won’t need to tag the AdWords destination URL’s. You can just activate auto tagging. This setting can be activated under the My Account tab in the account preferences section of your AdWords account.

Properly tagging will ensure you of useful information in your Google Analytics reports. These reports will in turn help you to identify your most effective marketing efforts as well as where you can improve.

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The Benefits of Google AdWords

Published by johanjacobs July 8th, 2008 in Google AdWords campaign info. 0 Comments

Google AdWords allows a business to advertise only to people who show interest at the exact moment they indicate there interest. This is usually the magic moment for an advertiser. This form of advertising is effective and compelling. When you advertise with Google AdWords you get relevant real time ad distribution on a massive scale. With the Google network you will be able to reaches over 80% of the users on the internet through their content and partner sites.

Advertising on Google can help advertisers meet many objectives. If their objective is branding and building awareness Google AdWords can target that message to an audience that is likely to be receptive. If their objective is to generate leads and identify prospects AdWords will be able to track ads that lead to those results with Google’s conversion tracking tool. If their objective is to generate sales and acquire new customers Google AdWords will also be able to measure it for them through, sales conversions, site registrations, catalog requests etc. Google AdWords make it thus easy to measure your advertising success no matter your objectives.

The advertiser also has the option to pick a pricing structure that fit their specific business needs. With Google AdWords the advertiser sets the maximum amount they are wiling to pay for a click as well as their daily budget. AdWords also provide conversion tracking for real time return on investment data. These reports and data can also be mailed to you automatically on a regular basis. This give you the advertiser full control over your campaign spending as well as clear insight into its performance.

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Creating Google AdWords Reports

Published by johanjacobs July 7th, 2008 in Google AdWords campaign info. 0 Comments

Google AdWords reports are used by advertisers to analyze there account metrics. It allows you to monitor the performance of your campaigns, ad groups, keywords and ads. In addition it allows you to identify important trends over time. This makes it easy to find area’s of low performance that needs to be optimized.

You can view your reports online or generate spreadsheets that you can download and analyze on your PC. You also have the option to have the reports automatically generated and emailed to you on a regular basis.

The report tab can be located in your AdWords account between the campaign management and analytics tabs. You can create different type of reports like, keyword performance, Ad performance, URL performance etc. You can set a data range for the statistics you would like to view in your report as well as the campaign or ad group.

The advance option section allows you to customize your columns and filter your report results. After selecting your advanced settings you can name and save your report. If you plan to reuse these settings for other reports you can save it as a template to reuse later. You can also schedule the report to run on a regular basis and email the results to you in a format you prefer. This allows you to monitor and detect changes automatically.

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Making your Ad text bold with Google AdWords

Published by johanjacobs July 7th, 2008 in Google AdWords campaign info. Closed

Only simple text is allowed when creating your AdWords text ads. Formatting options like bold, italicization or underlined are not provided for your text ads. Google AdWords will however make part of your ad text appear in bold whenever it matches or nearly matches a user’s search query. This can be achieved by adding the relevant keywords for a specific Ad Group in your ad text. Whenever the keyword triggers your ad it will also become bold in your ad text. This will catch the user’s attention and increase the likelihood of a click. Your text ad heading is the clickable part of your ad and placing the relevant keyword there will make it even more likely for a click. This can really give your text ad’s a performance boost.

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