Dear Google AdWords

At right: see an example of our clever use of Google Adwords to attract attention inside Google.

Lessons Learned While Using Google AdWords to promote Google Twin Ports

1. Even small, silly tactics can garner worthwhile attention to our campaign for Google Fiber and are worth doing. Our ads have generated over 24,000 impressions and over 400 unique clicks in just two weeks.
2. Bidding on trademarked keywords such as "Google" and using the word "Google" in the body of an Adwords Ad requires special approval from a Google employee.  This made it much easier to reach people inside Google. Duh!
3. AdWords reports that the majority of clicks are coming from "Google Search Partners" which you might initially guess to be other sites that Google provides search services to, but we have been unable to see the ad on any of those partner sites. Furthermore, the two ads we targeted specifically at Google do not appear when we search for "Google" on Google.com. Yet AdWords reports thousands of views and hundreds of clicks for those ads. Our speculation: Google has approved our ads--but limited viewing to within the Googleplex itself.
4. It's challenging to come up with several snappy campaign messages when you are limited to (roughly) 20 words and have to comply with other AdWords guidelines about what words are required and where. But it's a lot of fun if you can brainstorm with friends at 3 o'clock in the morning.

This Google AdWords campaign was our second mission to generate buzz among Google employees inside the Googleplex talking specifically about the Twin Ports and our desire for Google Fiber.

We now have an update on our first mission: We received a personal thank you from Jennifer at Google for identifying the omission of Lake Michigan from the map they released. Kate e-mailed her a corrected image file, so eventually they will update the map on their official fiber website. (Oddly enough, there was a spike in the number of ad impressions for our campaign on that day. Hmm...)

It's up to all of us to keep the Google Twin Ports Initiative going.

Think about what you can do today to get Google talking about us!