I’ve been receiving a lot of emails about Google’s new Instant Search feature that’s been rolled out recently.  Most people have been concerned about how this will effect their internet marketing efforts on Google because instant search quickly refreshes the search results after each word (sometime each letter) people type into Google’s search bar.  Below are the details on the instant search and how it effects your account:

People’s Concerns

• Instant search will display their advertisement one or more times when some of the search query matches their keywords, but the searcher really isn’t looking for their product (example, you’re advertising a dog training product using the keyword “best dog training”, your ad would flash on the searcher’s screen if they typed in “best dog” even if they were planning on searching for “best dog food”).
• The increase in impressions will decrease your CTR which in turn will hurt your quality scores.
• People will stop using Google because they are not use to this feature.

Details About Instant Search

1. Google created instant on so your impressions will only be counted in the following circumstances:

• The user clicks off of the search bar
• The user hits “Enter” or “Return” on their keyboard
• The user stops typing for 3 seconds (on complex searches Google requires the user to hit enter or click on a result)

2. The increase in impressions will effect every advertiser on Google, not just you, so I’m sure Google will take these into effect seeing as how (if your CTR is negatively effected by the change) every advertiser’s CTR would be effected.

3. Google did this so people would continue using their search engine.  They always strive to find bizarre and unique ways to keep people coming back to Google (Google Books, Google Earth, etc.).  You can easily turn instant on Off by clicking on it next to your search bar, and i’m sure Google is tracking how many people disable it.  If enough people disable it, then it will be disabled by default and would require you to manually enable it.  So I guess what I’m saying about this point is, Google would be the first to notice if it was negatively effecting their popularity, and if that became the case you would know because instant on would be turned off by default.  So as long as it’s on, it’s helping to keep/increase their popularity.

As far as internet marketing goes.  I wouldn’t be concerned with how this effects your account.  Any negative effects you notice from this will be noticed across 99% of all the other AdWord accounts in which case Google wouldn’t penalize you for their changes.

Turns out there’s a lot more info I’m adding to the update than I originally planned, which isn’t a bad thing.  I’m hoping to get this update out there so everyone can read the new tips and strategies.

As always, feel free to post any recommendations for the new version.