The Big Wave Blog

This is an URGENT blog post to all paid search advertisers.
Phishing emails are being sent by phony companies posing to be Google AdWords. Currently, Google will send an email alert to advertisers if their credit card is declined. However, just recently, one of our clients recived an email from “Google” regarding their credit card being declined for insignificant funds. This email was sent out by a phishing company whose goal is to gain you login username and password by clicking a replicated link. However, I have not submitted my clients email to Google in any application (adwords, analytics, etc.) Here is a copy of one of the phishing e-mails that I have seen:

FAKE GOOGLE EMAIL:

From: Google-AdWords-Noreply [mailto:support@google.com] (FAKE! Google Email Address)
Subject reads: “Please Update Your Billing Information.”
Email body reads:
Dear Google AdWords Customer,

We were unable to process your payment.
Your ads will be suspended soon unless we can process your payment.
To prevent your ads from being suspended, please update your payment information.

Please sign in
to your account at http://adwords.google.com/select/login <http://www.adwords.google.com.sessiocj.cn/select/Login> ,
and update your payment information.

————————————————————————————–
This message was sent from a notification-only email address that does
not accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message.
———————————————————————————————–

2008 Google Adwords

REAL GOOGLE EMAIL:

Here is the Official Google AdWords email address that is sent out to advertisers when reports are scheduled or alerts come up:
From: adwords-noreply@google.com (REAL Google Email Address!)
Body reads:
This message was sent from a notification-only email address that does
not accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message. If you
have any questions, please visit the Google AdWords Help Center at
https://adwords.google.com/support/?hl=en_US to find answers to
frequently asked questions and a ‘contact us’ link near the bottom of
the page.
————————
————————

Your AdWords account number: xxxx-xxx-xxxxx

Please be careful out there! Dont open or click on any links unless you confirm the email is real….Keep it real!

Newsflash for our readers! The Big Wave Blog’s parent company is going on a “internet marketing tour” and the following cities have been confirmed:

Jacksonville, Florida
Thursday, May 29
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Chicago, Illinois
June 2008

Indianapolis, Indiana
June 2008

Honolulu, Hawaii
July 2008

San Diego, California
August 2008

Denver, Colorado
September 2008

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I wanted to take a moment to thank Lee Odden and the Top Rank Blog team for adding us to their BIGLIST of search marketing Blogs (we are filed under T).

As a result, we now get to carry a neat badge on our main page. Click here if you are reading this via a RSS reader and check out our shiny new badge!

We’ll keep on blogging as we always have. But it feels good to be noticed!

The Big Wave Team

Yahoo Search Marketing Rant

OR

Where Has the Keyword Tool Gone?

Has anyone noticed that the Yahoo Keyword Tool is missing? It used to be available to any internet user, but has now disappeared from both its public webpage and within the Yahoo Search Marketing platform. I used to love using this tool, because it would produce different keyword combinations than the Google tool due to different user demographics.

I have performed numerous Google searches looking for it (no coincidence I’m not searching on Yahoo). The results show up in the SERPs, but the page that is linked doesn’t even load.

The Nail in the Coffin
Well, for me, it all started with Panama, Yahoo’s big, much anticipated update to their paid search marketing platform. We all know now that the Panama update never materialized into what search marketers were hoping for. Their biggest mistake: It no longer offers the main advantage that Yahoo once had over Google, which was being able to see the top 5 bids for each keyword phrase. Instead, they opted to implement a similar keyword phrase bidding structure, but the engine has failed to deliver the same results in terms of traffic and paid search effectiveness.