DoubleClick Advertiser Blog

Answering to Our Users - Delivering on Commitments

2012-05-18T14:00:00.000-04:00

Last year at IAB’s Innovation Days, I made a number of predictions, all focused on answering one central question: how can we put the user at the center of all that we do? One year later, I think it’s time for a progress report - to hold ourselves accountable and see how far we’ve come. I presented an update on some of my predictions earlier today at Digital Media Summit, hosted by Luma Partners:

Prediction: People will have a direct say in 25% of the ads they see
Update: We’ve seen choice friendly formats take off across the industry. In our own network, engaged views of TrueView skippable ads grew 4x last year. Going beyond ads, we rolled out paywall alternative Google Consumer Surveys, which has already shown more than 300 million surveys, with an average publisher RPM of $12. Given all the innovation, I actually think we aimed too low and that consumers will have a say in well over half of the ads they see.

Prediction: Engagement rates across all display ads will increase 50%
Update: This increase in engagement will be driven by two factors: relevance and creativity. While technological innovations continue to improve relevance, we believe rich media will be the key to unlocking the creative potential of digital advertising. According to Nielsen AdRelevance, rich media impressions almost doubled in 2011. We’re committed to helping creative agencies scale and optimize rich media ads with templatized ad units in the latest version of DoubleClick Studio.

Prediction: 35% of campaigns will use metrics beyond clicks and conversions
Update: As we move to a model that seeks to drive engagement versus just clicks, we need new measures of success. We’re working with the industry-wide “Making Measurement Make Sense” (3MS) initiative to establish new standards for brand advertisers to measure reach and engagement. And just last month, we launched the Brand Activate Initiative with several pilots for new metrics--Active View, which shows brands whether their ad has been seen; and Active GRP, the digital counterpart to the gross rating point. We’ve already received interest from dozens of major brands.

As an industry, we’ve made plenty of progress over the last year. With all the innovations to do right by our user, I actually have two new predictions I’d like to add to the list.

New Prediction: 25% of brands will favor digital ads over all other media
This is a pretty bold prediction, considering today this number is probably close to none. So why are we so bullish? First, audiences continue to move online: in 2011, households with broadband but with no cable TV, increased 23% (Nielsen Cross-Platform Report Q3’11). Second, so is content: the newly launched YouTube Original Channels alone will introduce 25 new hours of original programming a day. Third, technology is offering new levels of control and measurement: technologies like real-time bidding will allow for improved targeting while initiatives like 3MS and Brand Activate will demonstrate effectiveness. With reach, control, quality content and measurement, I think the real question will become, why wouldn’t a brand name digital their favorite medium?

New Prediction: 100% of campaigns will be integrated everywhere
All signs indicate that campaigns that reach across screens - TV, desktops, smartphones and tablets -- are more effective. For example, in a study conducted by Google and Nielsen Multi-Media Labs in September 2011, users who saw a multi-screen Volvo campaign had a 24% higher brand recall than those that viewed their ads on TV alone. We’re increasingly seeing increased interest in buying across screens on our own platforms, like DoubleClick for Publishers Mobile, where we’ve seen the number of impressions delivered double every quarter.

The online advertising ecosystem is complex, and in order for digital advertising to be a medium that provides a great experience for consumers, marketers and publishers alike, we all need to work together. For our part, we’ve invested in hundreds of partnerships to better support publishers, and advertisers, ultimately serve our users. Happier consumers will drive better performing ads, more money for publishers and increased ad spend (including marketing budget) for agencies. I look forward to seeing the continued innovation that this “user revolution” inspires and working with all of you to move towards the bright future I hope we all envision for this industry.

Posted by Neal Mohan, Vice President, Display Advertising

A look back at a year of innovation in search management

2012-05-17T14:37:00.001-04:00

[Cross-posted from the DoubleClick Search blog]

About a year ago, we made a promise to make managing the world’s largest search campaigns more efficient and effective with the launch of DoubleClick Search V3 (DS3). Our goal was to give search marketers a simpler and faster way to manage campaigns, provide streamlined reporting and powerful campaign optimization tools - and do it through a completely rebuilt platform that runs on Google systems and infrastructure.

Today, we’d like to shine a light on how clients are using DoubleClick Search to run high-impact campaigns, and take a look at what’s yet to come. Looking back at the past year, a few things struck us:

6 of the 10 largest agencies now use DoubleClick Search(1)
Agencies using DoubleClick Search see significant increases in efficiency, ranging from 25 to 60%.(2) That’s like suddenly finding another few hours in your workday.

We heard a lot from marketers and agencies about what they wanted most from their search management tools. This feedback has informed many of the key areas we’ve invested in over the last year:

Easy, intuitive campaign management
Managing large search campaigns can be complex. With DoubleClick Search, we wanted to give search teams a single point of access to their accounts across AdWords, adCenter, and Yahoo! Search Marketing. Gone are days of accessing multiple interfaces, and flipping to and from a variety of spreadsheets and one-off tools.

Better reporting, deeper insights
Today, you have access to more than 90 key metrics, which can be custom arranged and saved for a customized view of your campaigns. Reports that may have previously taken hours to run and consolidate now take minutes. Event-level reporting gives you granular data for every click and conversion your campaigns receives, such as keyword, query, time, and referral data, enabling you to better optimize your search campaigns.

Bid optimization, powered by Google
A search advertising campaign is only as good as the technology powering it. For example, a key driver of campaign performance is automating the keyword bidding process based on business goals. With the DoubleClick Search Performance Bidding Suite, this is an area where we’ve made significant and continuous investments. Whether you want to maximize clicks, conversions, return on ad spend, or a combination, you can achieve those goals at scale. Our Performance Bidding Suite is powered by algorithms with a unique ability to optimize based on same-day conversion data from Floodlight tags and are built to ensure that the clicks you pay for always maximize your campaign performance. In fact, after recent improvements to our system, 88% of DS3 clients saw a significant boost in campaign performance.(3)

Better Results
Since launching DS3, we’ve upgraded all our customers to the new version. And we’re thrilled with the feedback so far.

Dyson, with the help of their agency partner, SMG, was able to significantly increase search conversion rates using the new bid optimization tools available through DoubleClick Search's Performance Bidding Suite. Read more.

Universal McCann, recently implemented cost-per-action bid strategies for one of their automotive clients and saw conversion rates increase by 32%. Read more.

2012 has more in store
The past year of work has set the foundation for exciting changes to come. Over the next few months, we’ll continue momentum by investing in:

New search funnel tools to better understand a consumer’s path to conversion

Allowing clients to integrate their own data sources to inform search decisions, and

Tighter integration between DoubleClick Search and other ad properties for enhanced cross-channel optimization

We’re also further investing in improving our key areas of campaign management, reporting, and bidding efficiencies -- improvements we think will continue to drive great results for our partners in 2012 and beyond.

Stay tuned to the latest in DoubleClick Search by subscribing to our blog.

Posted by Ariel Bardin, Director of Product Management

1. Google internal data
2. Forrester Research, Inc.
3. Google internal data, March 2012

Mark your calendars for DoubleClick Insights on June 5th

2012-05-15T17:42:00.003-04:00

From our vantage point, we see unprecedented opportunity as the digital media world continues to grow and diversify. What does this mean for the future of buying and selling ads online?

Tune in and watch Google's Neal Mohan, VP of Display Advertising, sit down with industry leaders to explore the digital ecosystem's swift evolution, and how advertisers and publishers can work better together to chart a path to capitalize on every opportunity, while simultaneously addressing the challenges we face.

The live stream will start on June 5th, 2012, at 9:00am PST, and you’ll be able to watch from your computer, tablet, or mobile device.

Please register for this virtual event by visiting the DoubleClick Insights Live Stream page.

DoubleClick Insights
Tuesday, June 5th 2012
9:00am - 1:00pm PST
Set event reminder today

Following us on Twitter? Use the #dclkinsights as you're watching the event.

Posted by Stephen Kliff and Scott Brown, DoubleClick Marketing

Attend a DFA Training in May

2012-05-09T11:01:00.000-04:00

Update: Please note that we have added a MediaVisor classroom training in Los Angeles. See below for details.

There are several opportunities to learn more about DFA in the month of May. Visit the DFA Help Center to register for any webinars as well as our classroom offerings.

Classroom Training

DFA Fundamentals: This full-day course (10am-5pm) is for new DFA users looking to understand the fundamentals of third-party ad serving including best practices for campaign trafficking, serving ads and pulling reports.

Chicago - May 16
San Francisco - May 24

DFA Trafficking Lab: Get more practice trafficking campaigns. These sessions cover the basics such as assigning landing pages to creatives, updating campaigns, setting up geo-targeting and using creative rotation.

Class Prerequisite: Attendees should have taken the DFA Fundamentals class in the previous two months or have less than two months trafficking experience.

Chicago - May 17
San Francisco - May 25

MediaVisor: Learn more about planning and creating campaigns, advertisers, site placements and IOs as well as how to send RFPs.

New York - May 10
Chicago - May 17
Los Angeles - May 30

Webinar Training

DFA for New Users - May 23
An introduction to the fundamentals of DFA.

MediaVisor Fundamentals - May 15
Learn the basics of MediaVisor, including sending RFPs and creating IOs.

Be sure to check back with us on this blog for next month's training schedule. We look forward to seeing you in class.

Posted by Amanda Gangl, DFA Product Trainer

Mobile click-to-call in DFA

2012-04-26T11:47:00.008-04:00

The mobile features in DoubleClick for Advertisers (DFA) make it easy to traffic mobile ads alongside the rest of your online ads. Our mobile tags help you track mobile metrics and reach a wide range of phones. To make DFA even more useful to mobile advertising, we’ve added click-to-call support. You can now use the click-to-call option for:

Standard ads
Mobile display ads
Click tracker ads (static and dynamic) on standard placements
Click tracker ads (static and dynamic) on mobile placements

What are click-to-call ads?
Click-to-call ads redirect users to a telephone number instead of a landing page. When users click the ad, their mobile devices load the number.

Calling your number should be as easy visiting your landing page. That’s why click-to-call takes dialing out of the equation: it means one less step between seeing your ad and making the call.

To learn more about using the click-to-call option, see Serve mobile ads and creatives to mobile inventory in the DFA mobile guide (sign-in required).

Jeremy Axelrod, DFA Tech Writer

Making the Web Work for Brand Marketers

2012-04-18T07:30:00.003-04:00

Learning from the past

In the 1950s, brands slowly moved to TV, just as they have started to move online today. In both instances, buying and selling systems improved; audiences and new content quickly moved to the new medium; and the creative possibilities inspired great ad campaigns.

However, a key moment for TV came in the 1950 with dramatic improvements in measurement—like ratings and quantitative market research. Once major brands could see who they were reaching and what impact their campaigns were having, they fully embraced the medium, creating a multi-billion dollar industry...and TV’s golden age began.

Making better decisions with actionable brand metrics

Unlike the early days of TV, digital advertising is already incredibly measurable. The only problem is a very old and well-known one: the standardized metrics today are largely clicks, user interaction rates and conversions.

But as brand advertisers - such as movie studios or consumer goods companies - know, it’s a challenge to measure changes in brand favorability of a movie or whether an online campaign is driving more consumers to the store. And it’s even harder to take quick action on any such insights.

That's why today, at the Ad Age Digital Conference I'll be introducing the Brand Activate Initiative, an ongoing Google effort to address these challenges and re-imagine online measurement for brand marketers. With this effort, we're partnering with the cross-industry Making Measurement Make Sense (3MS) initiative. We believe that the industry’s significant investment in brand measurement efforts can substantially grow the online advertising pie, for all.

Is a particular ad in your campaign especially useful at improving brand recall in Illinois? You should be able to immediately increase your coverage throughout the Midwest. Is one ad slightly less effective at driving purchase intent and in-store sales? Tweak the creative, straight away.

The first Brand Activate solutions

We’re working to build truly useful brand metrics into the tools that advertisers already use to manage their campaigns, so they’ll be actionable within seconds, not months.

Here’s a video describing the Brand Activate Initiative:

The first two Brand Activate solutions are rolling out today:

Active View: Advertisers have long looked for insight into whether consumers saw an ad on page 145 of a magazine, or switched the channel during a TV commercial break. It’s similar online, so we’re rolling out a technology, which will be submitted for Media Rating Council (MRC) accreditation, that can count “viewed” impressions (as defined by the 3MS’s proposed standard, this is a display ad that is at least 50% viewable on the screen for at least one second).

Called Active View, this will first be available in coming weeks within Google Display Network Reserve. We’ll also be making this metric a universal currency, ultimately offering it within DoubleClick for Advertisers, as well as to our publisher partners. Active View data will be immediately actionable—advertisers will be able to pay only for viewed impressions. Going forward, we’re working on viewed impression standards with the 3MS, and our agency and publisher partners.

Active GRP: GRP, or a gross rating point, is at the heart of offline media measurement. For example, when a fashion brand wants their TV campaign to reach 2 million women with two ads each, they use GRP to measure that. We’re introducing a new version of this for the web: Active GRP. Active GRP has two key features:

Built-in: Active GRP is built right into the ad serving tools that our publishers and marketers already use every day. Active GRP will enable real-time decision making, allowing advertisers to make adjustments to their campaigns at the speed of the web. We’ve kicked off a pilot program for DoubleClick for Advertisers clients as a first step, and will roll it out to other products, with brands able to specify a range of audience GRP segments.
Robust methodology: Active GRP is calculated by a statistical model that combines aggregated panel data and anonymous user data (either inferred or user-provided), and will work in conjunction with Active View to measure viewed impressions. This approach overcomes problems of potential panel skewing and reliance on a single data source. This approach also has the advantage of never using personally identifiable information, not sharing user data with third parties, and enabling users, through Google’s Ads Preferences Manager, to opt-out. We will be submitting our methodology for MRC accreditation.

More to come

We look forward to bringing other measurement initiatives into our suite for brand marketers, including a brand impact survey pilot with Vizu, our brand lift measurement product (Campaign Insights) and various cross-media measurement research projects globally.

This is just the beginning of the Brand Activate Initiative, with much more to come for brands and publishers. We think that with brand new metrics comes a new brand moment - one that will encourage brands to invest in the web, help publishers show the value of their digital content, and stimulate digital media’s own golden age.

Posted by Neal Mohan, Vice President, Display Advertising

A Universal Language for Video Ads

2012-04-10T17:25:00.007-04:00

[Cross-posted from the DoubleClick Publisher blog]

Like many New Yorkers, I can’t imagine life in this city without the subway - it’s essential to how the city operates, creates millions in economic value, and even features great mariachi bands. But the subway wasn’t always this efficient. In the early 1900s, there were multiple subway systems, with different size train cars, running on different track configurations - even one propelled by air! Today, after the unification of these subway systems, everything works seamlessly together.

So what does the subway system have to do with video advertising? Well, the two dominant video advertising guidelines -- VAST and VPAID -- are like the unified transportation system for video advertising. VAST and VPAID define a common language that unifies the diversity of the video advertising industry: Flash and HTML video players, ad networks and exchanges, mobile devices and connected TVs, 30 second spots and interactive overlays.

At Google, we’ve been longtime supporters of video advertising standards. We’re happy to announce our support for the latest set of guidelines announced at the IAB’s Digital Video Marketplace Event today. This means that we’ll be implementing VAST 3.0, VPAID 2.0 and VMAP 1.0 across our video advertising products. Together, these three guidelines strengthen the video advertising infrastructure already adopted by most participants in the video ecosystem. The Video Suite also adds support for skippable ads, podding, in-ads privacy notices and ad sequencing, while offering greater clarity around compliance and mobile scenarios.

What benefits can you expect from VAST 3.0, VPAID 2.0 and VMAP 1.0?

If you’re a publisher, interoperability will improve and you’ll be able to accept a wider set of video ad formats with less technical work. The new error codes will also help with troubleshooting of third party served ads.
If you’re an advertiser, the Video Suite allows you to create more engaging brand stories that reach a wider audience across all devices. You’ll be able to take greater advantage of skippable ads, which offer new pricing models focused on performance.
If you’re a vendor, the technical details of these specs really matter, and we’ve provided much more clarity around the compliance requirements for video players and ad servers.

So much has changed in the online video space in just ten years, that we thought we’d take a trip down memory line with this infographic:

Click through for the full infographic

As an industry, we’ve started to take VAST and VPAID for granted, much like New Yorkers and their subway system. That’s a good thing, because it means they’ve become an essential part of powering our economy.

Posted by Payam Shodjai, Product Manager, Video Monetization

Attend a DFA Training in April

2012-04-04T17:17:00.005-04:00

Join us for a webinar series beginning this month that will focus on offering tips and tools for everything from Creatives to Floodlight. Visit the DFA Help Center to register for any webinars as well as our classroom offerings.

Classroom Training

Minneapolis - April 12
San Francisco - April 19
Los Angeles - April 24

Class Prerequisite:Attendees should have taken the DFA Fundamentals class in the previous two months or have less than two months trafficking experience.

New York - April 12
Minneapolis - April 13
Chicago - April 19
San Francisco - April 20
Los Angeles - April 25

MediaVisor: Learn more about planning and creating campaigns, advertisers, site placements and IOs as well as how to send RFPs.

Minneapolis - April 13
San Francisco - April 20

Webinar Training

Shortcuts, solutions, and tricks of the trade will all save you time and energy. This webinar series will serve as a media planning and trafficking toolbox.

Tips and Tools: Placements and Media Cost - April 10
Tips and Tools: Flash and Standard Creatives - April 17
Tips and Tools: Ad Tags and Live Implementation - April 24
Tips and Tools: Floodlight Tags and Implementation - May 1
Tips and Tools: Reporting Questions and Discrepancies - May 8

DFA for New Users - April 11 and April 25
An introduction to the fundamentals of DFA.

MediaVisor Fundamentals - April 17
Learn the Fundamentals of MediaVisor.

Be sure to check back with us on this blog for next month's training schedule. We look forward to seeing you in class.

Posted by Amanda Gangl, DFA Product Trainer

Introducing a new look for the DFA Help Center

2012-04-03T16:54:00.000-04:00

DoubleClick for Advertisers users rely on the Help Center to help answer questions, address issues and learn more about new features.

Because it’s such a valuable useful resource, we’ve recently made some improvements to the layout and design of the Help Center to better organize the content and make it more searchable. It is now easier than ever to get answers to your questions. New sections in the Help Center are useful for discovering content around a specific topic:

Get Started for useful information if you’re new to DFA.
How-To for figuring out how to perform a specific task.
Fix a Problem for addressing issues.

If you have a specific topic in mind, you can use the search window to navigate to relevant articles. For example, let’s say you need to figure out how to add a third-party pixel to your ad; simply search for “Add Pixel” to find your answer.

During the next few months we’ll continue adding and improving content to make the DFA Help Center even more easy, reliable, and useful for you.

Posted by Natasha Matusova, Technical Services Associate

Brand measurement research using the DoubleClick for Advertisers platform

2012-03-28T14:14:00.000-04:00

We think that better online brand measurement is a hugely important area where technology can play a significant role. We’ll have much more to announce in the coming months; but we wanted to highlight one early experiment. Our research team is working with our clients and Vizu to conduct online brand measurement research for about 70 DFA campaigns.

The IAB’s publication on online ad effectiveness measurement noted that true experimental design (creating consistent, randomly assigned control groups) would be a major step forward in online ad effectiveness research. Our approach does just that. We use DoubleClick ad serving technology to create two randomly selected groups of users - one that sees the campaign’s ads, and another that sees public service ads instead. We maintain this control group for the duration of the campaign, across all sites where DFA serves ads. Vizu’s sampling technology is then used to deliver a brand lift survey to all users so that we may individually measure variables like brand awareness, purchase intent and favorability.

The brand results, presented through DFA, will show how ads performed across the campaign, as well as different sites and ad frequencies. This data can be used with the other campaign metrics in DFA to help marketers to see the impact of the campaign using any metric they want - from impressions to clicks to brand impact to conversions.

Sherrill Mane, Senior Vice President of Research, Analytics and Measurement at the IAB commented, “This is very promising and innovative research. After years of settling for less than optimal designs, the industry will finally see if a true experimental design is possible through the use of technology. The results of this research, if successful, could have far reaching implications for the future of brand impact measurement of online advertising campaigns.”

DoubleClick is sponsoring the survey research for all participating clients. We hope this pilot will show that the use of experimental design principles is a great way to address the brand measurement challenge, and to provide real and actionable insights to brand marketers. It’s one of our early stage efforts to re-imagine measurement for online marketers.

To participate in the Brand Lift experiments pilot with DoubleClick and Vizu, you can contact either your DoubleClick or Vizu sales representative for more information and eligibility requirements.

Posted by Jim Dravillas, Google Research team

Mobile search campaigns: Get the most out of them with DoubleClick Search

2012-03-27T19:54:00.000-04:00

(cross posted from the DoubleClick Search blog)

It’s become a cliche for good reason: the future is mobile.

A few relevant statistics:
Smartphone users now account for 9% of all online traffic
Mobile searches have grown by 400% since 2010
By 2013, more people will use mobile devices than PCs to get online

All of these figures are growing rapidly, with many analysts predicting mobile web activity to increase by several times in 2012.

Most advertisers will benefit from targeting mobile searchers, but not everything you’ve learned from your experiences optimizing for desktop search applies to mobile.

Here are some best practices for managing mobile campaigns, and specific instructions for doing so within DoubleClick Search.

1. Create separate campaigns for each platform you’re targeting.
Because everything from your budget to your landing pages to your keyword list will differ for your desktop, smartphone, and tablet campaigns, it’s highly recommended to create separate campaigns for each of these. Some advertisers find it easier to manage their mobile and tablet campaigns in completely separate engine accounts.

DS3 note: Tablet-specific targeting will have to be set directly in the search engine user interfaces.

2. Write specific ad texts for different device operating systems
Especially useful if you’re selling smartphone-related products such as apps or content, you can use AdWords’ additional settings to target only Android or iOS devices, and write ad copy that highlights your user’s device preference to increase engagement.

DS3 note: Create separate campaigns for each device platform in DS3 as above, setting the Advanced mobile and tablet options in the AdWords interface.

3. Bid differently
Smartphones and tablets will have fewer ad slots available per page of search results, and as a result, you may need to target a higher position in your mobile campaigns to receive traffic.

DS3 note: Employ position-only bid strategies or CPA strategies with a position target to bid for higher ad slots for your mobile campaigns.

4. Direct users to a mobile-optimized landing page
While the resolution of smartphone screens keeps increasing, they still don’t approach that of desktops and laptops, so all advertisers serious about getting mobile traffic should create a mobile-specific site to use as a destination for your mobile search campaigns. Howtogomo.com provides great tools to help advertisers and agencies optimize their sites for the small screen.

DS3 note: When copying keyword lists from a desktop campaign, test your landing pages on a mobile device or using a device emulator to make sure they go to the mobile version of the site, either directly or via a redirect.

5. Tailor your keyword list to the mobile searcher
It’s still a good idea to copy the keywords from your desktop campaigns as a starting point. However, mobile searches still tend to contain fewer terms than desktop, so it’s likely long-tail keywords that receive traffic on the desktop will be less effective in smartphone campaigns and may even bring down your quality score. Also, many mobile searches (over 20%) contain geomodifiers; be sure you’re including those city and region names in your keywords for stronger matches.

DS3 note: If you have longer-tail terms in a desktop campaign you don’t want to appear in your mobile campaign for QS or other reasons, it’s faster and cleaner to delete them from your keyword create bulksheet before uploading into DS3 rather than creating and deleting later.

6. Bridging online and offline
Mobile click-to-call campaigns can be powerful lead generators. When setting up a click-to-call campaign, consult with your DoubleClick Search Technical Account Manager to learn how DS3 can import data from your advertisers’ call tracking solution to allow optimization on both online and offline conversions.

With a lightning-fast UI, efficient workflow, and best-in-class infrastructure, DoubleClick Search allows you to quickly and intelligently manage and optimize your mobile search campaigns at scale.

- Posted by the DoubleClick Search team

New Campaign Summary Report Available in DFA’s ReportCentral

2012-03-09T09:23:00.000-05:00

We’re bringing the convenience of downloading campaign reports straight into a Microsoft PowerPoint® presentation to users of ReportCentral in DoubleClick for Advertisers. Now you can easily extract campaign performance data at the site, ad or creative level with the PowerPoint Campaign Summary reports query in ReportCentral. The easy-to-digest charts and graphs will make it that much easier for you to share the results of your online advertising campaigns with your clients, team or manager.

To read more about how to access this new feature, check out this Help Center article (DFA sign-in required).

You should also check out Report Builder as we have recently added a couple of new options to make it even more efficient in running and managing campaign reports. For instance, now you can re-run any previously saved reports and run multiple ones at the same time from the report list page. You can also aggregate data for several activity groups at a time, search for and re-run saved reports as well as run multiple reports at a time in the “Reports” tab in Report Builder. Detailed information on these latest enhancements is available in the Help Center.

Expect more exciting news from the DFA reporting team in the coming months as we’re looking to introduce a host of new features to make campaign reporting that much more robust, insightful and efficient.

Posted by Aaron Nelson, Product Manager

New ROI algorithms lead to improved performance

2012-03-06T11:33:00.001-05:00

[cross-posted from the DoubleClick Search blog]

In DoubleClick Search, we’ve recently launched new algorithms for CPA, ERS, and Floodlight tag bid strategies, but have they made a difference? Now that some time has elapsed, we’ve been able to analyze the long-term impact of the new ROI algorithms.

NOTE: The following analysis was performed on CPA bid strategies, but CPA, ERS, and Floodlight bid strategies all use the same model.

87.5% of bid strategies saw statistically significant improved performance (the remaining 12.5% saw no significant statistical change or fell within the +/- 10% variance interval). Improved performance is defined as meeting one of the following conditions:

Conversions increased and actual CPA decreased: 46% of the improved bid strategies achieved this. Of these bid strategies:

The median increase in conversions was 150%.
The median decrease in CPA was 55%. Note that the conversion increase and CPA reduction happened at the same time to the same bid strategies. In other words, these bid strategies enjoyed both of these improvements.

CPA and conversions moved in the same direction, but moved closer to the target: The remaining 54% of improved bid strategies met this goal.

Excited about these improvements? Ready to see if an ROI bid strategy can improve the performance of your important keywords? It’s easy!

In the left nav, under the engine account box, click Bid strategies.
Click +New. The panel of properties for the new bid strategy appears.
Name your bid strategy, select the engine account, and select the desired type of bid strategy (Target CPA is selected in the above image).
Enter the desired settings for the bid strategy. Learn more about CPA, ERS, and Floodlight tag bidding settings.
Include a position range if you want to ensure the keyword never drops below a particular position.
Click Save, and then navigate to a page with a list of keywords.
Select the keywords you want to add to the bid strategy, click Bid strategy, and select the bid strategy in the panel that appears.
Enter a min bid and max bid for the keywords. We recommend entering a wide range (low min and high max) to allow DS to fully optimize your keyword performance.
Click Save.
After a week or two, check DS reporting to see how your bid strategy is performing.

Check out the Help Center for more information on setting up any type of bid strategy. If you have any questions, contact your Technical Account Manager or email ds-support@google.com.

Posted by the DoubleClick Search team

Attend a DFA Training in March

2012-03-05T12:27:00.006-05:00

Learn all about ad capabilities this month in the DFA Webinar series. We'll be covering click trackers, 1x1s, priority, frequency capping, and much more. Visit the DFA Help Center to register for any or all webinars as well as our classroom offerings.

Classroom Training

Chicago - March 14
Atlanta - March 15
Toronto - March 19
San Francisco - March 20
Los Angeles - March 27

Class Prerequisite:Attendees should have taken the DFA Fundamentals class in the previous two months or have less than two months trafficking experience.

Chicago - March 15
Atlanta - March 16
Toronto - March 20
San Francisco - March 21
Los Angeles - March 28

MediaVisor: Learn more about planning and creating campaigns, advertisers, site placements and IOs as well as how to send RFPs.

New York - March 8
Chicago - March 15
Atlanta - March 16
Toronto - March 20

Webinar Training

DFA Ads: Making Them Work For You - March 13
Learn the basics of setting up ads in DFA while thinking strategically about campaigns. Things like setting ads up as efficiently as possible, managing start and end dates, and avoiding serving too many defaults.

Priority, Frequency Capping, Targeting and Other Ad Level Capabilities - March 20
DFA offers a lot of flexibility with your ads, and in this session you’ll learn how to leverage the options available to you such as priority, frequency capping and targeting.

Click Trackers and 1x1s: Getting it Right - March 27
Did you know that you can track site-served creatives using DFA? Are you familiar with how to best work with sites to ensure that click trackers get implemented correctly? Trafficking these types of ads can get tricky and we're here to show you how to get it right.

DFA for New Users - March 7 and March 21
An introduction to the fundamentals of DFA.

MediaVisor Fundamentals - March 13
Learn the Fundamentals of MediaVisor.

Be sure to check back with us on this blog for regular updates to our training schedule. We look forward to seeing you in class.

Posted by Amanda Gangl, DFA Product Trainer

Attend an Upcoming DFA Training

2012-02-08T09:21:00.007-05:00

Whether you’re new to DFA or you’re a seasoned trafficker, the training team has several training options to help expand your knowledge of DFA. We offer classroom and webinar training, so choose the option that best fits your needs. Visit the DFA Help Center to register (sign-in required).

Classroom Training

Chicago - February 15
San Francisco - February 23
Los Angeles - February 28
Cambridge - March 1

Class Prerequisite:Attendees should have taken the DFA Fundamentals class in the previous two months or have less than two months trafficking experience.

Chicago - February 16
San Francisco - February 24
Los Angeles - February 29
Cambridge - March 2

MediaVisor: Learn more about planning and creating campaigns, advertisers, site placements and IOs as well as how to send RFPs.

Los Angeles - February 29
Cambridge - March 2

Webinar Training

Managing Creatives in DFA: The Fundamentals - February 14
Learn about the different types of creatives and the basic creative trafficking process.

Making Use of Creative Templates and Optimization - February 21
Learn more about optimizing performance on your creative assets by setting up criteria for rotating your ads based on campaign goals.

Making Sure Your Creatives Work and Troubleshooting - February 28
Learn how to troubleshoot common creative questions.

DFA for New Users - February 22
An introduction to the fundamentals of DFA.

Be sure to check back with us on this blog for regular updates to our training schedule. We look forward to seeing you in class.

Posted by Amanda Gangl, DFA Product Trainer

New features coming to DFA Report Builder in January

2012-01-25T18:04:00.000-05:00

When we introduced the new DFA Reporting system back in the fall, we received great feedback from users saying things like, “I love Report Builder. You have no idea how much time you have saved me!” This month we’re adding some new features to Report Builder, some of which will spell even greater time savings in pulling reports.

Reach by frequency
As an advertiser it’s important to have insight into your campaigns reach as well as the number of times you are actually hitting your audience with your message. Now in Report Builder you can get the Reach by Frequency report which shows the number of users you reached by the number of times you've reached them.

Incremental reach
We’ve introduced three new metrics that measure the number of additional users reached by time period (day, week or month). Reach and incremental metrics are broken down by click, impression or total reach.

These new metrics are useful for analyzing the incremental number of people you are reaching for each day of spend. So you can tell within a given time frame whether your spend is going towards reaching new people or if you’re just hitting the same people again and again.

Reordering Floodlight activities and custom rich media events
The drag and drop interface of Report Builder is now also handy when you want to change the order of Floodlight activities and custom rich media events in your reports.

Copy and delete saved reports
Building reports can be time consuming process especially when you have to run them on a frequent basis. So now you can save additional time by being able to copy or delete saved reports in the ‘Reports’ tab.

Export Summary reports
The Summary Reports tab in DFA Reporting gives you at-a-glance details on your campaign performance. We’ve heard from clients that it would be helpful to be able to see the same data in the Report Builder query tool. So this new option lets you export summary reports to Report Builder. Upon export, you’ll see a pre-built page in Report Builder based on your current view of the Summary Reports tab and the great thing is this view is not limited to the number of rows on screen.

To learn more about these latest features available in Report Builder reference this article in the Help Center (DFA sign-in required).

Posted by Aaron Nelson, Product Manager

Attend the First DFA Trainings of 2012

2012-01-17T14:52:00.005-05:00

Hit the ground running in 2012 and attend DFA training! We offer classroom and webinar training, so choose the option that best fits your needs. Visit the DFA Help Center to register (sign-in required).

Classroom Training

San Francisco - January 19
Los Angeles - January 26

Class Prerequisite:Attendees should have taken the DFA Fundamentals class in the previous two months or have less than two months trafficking experience.

San Francisco - January 20
Los Angeles - January 27

MediaVisor: Learn more about planning and creating campaigns, advertisers, site placements and IOs as well as how to send RFPs.

San Francisco - January 20

Webinar Training

Flawless Floodlight: How to Set up and Test Your Floodlight Tags - January 24
Learn how to set up, test, and provide Floodlight tags to sites. Also learn strategies for dealing with Floodlight issues when they arise.

Floodlight Features Demystified: Tags, Macros, and Custom Variables - January 31
Learn how to manage publisher and default pixels, leverage macros, and implement custom variables.

DFA for New Users - January 25
An introduction to the fundamentals of DFA.

Be sure to check back with us on this blog for regular updates to our training schedule. We look forward to seeing you in class!

Posted by Amanda Gangl, DFA Product Trainer

5 New Year’s Resolutions for Display Advertisers

2011-12-19T11:23:00.000-05:00

(Cross posted from the AdWords Agency Blog)

Google’s Dan Taylor presents at Digiday Agency event Dec. 12, 2011

It’s that time of year again, the time to reflect on 2011 and think about resolutions for the new year. We may not be able to help you lose those extra 5 lbs., but we can inform some New Year’s resolutions for your business.

Last week, Google’s Dan Taylor presented at the Digiday Agency event on the 5 New Year’s Resolutions for Display Advertisers. See video and summary below.

Resolution # 1: I will be strategic in how I use remarketing

Remarketing is like plugging a leaky bucket, where the leak is website visitors leaving your site, and the plug is display ads that bring past visitors back to your site.

There are many ways to ‘plug’ the leak, but we offer up the follow strategies to be the most effective in doing so.

Target based on audience: Layering demographic targeting on top of remarketing campaigns can help you tailor the message even more. For example, have one message for men, and a different one for women.
Target based on intent: You can send a general message to homepage visitors and product-oriented reminders to visitors that browsed product pages but didn’t make a purchase. Using a creative with dynamically related products is a great way to do this.
Expand your list sources: Some of our most effective remarketing customers use several sources to get their lists, such as YouTube mastheads and channels, their main website and campaign landing pages. Expanding the lists enables you to reach more potential customers.

Resolution # 2: I will use video to its full potential

Video is a great way to reach customers, yet it is often underutilized. Here are the best ways to use video to its fullest potential.

With the latest changes to the YouTube homepage, we’ve pivoted the YouTube site experience to focus on channels and a socially-driven feed, the contents of which are controlled by the left hand sidebar. This gives marketers a powerful opportunity to enhance their brand exposure.
Through the new AdWords for video front end, we’ve drastically reduced the time it takes to create a video. Easily run click-to-play or TrueView in-display formats across Google Display Network.
We’ve also found that rich media, in tandem with video, is more effective than simple Flash. When you’re running rich media campaigns, think about including video to increase purchase intent.

Resolution # 3: I will fuse social media with display

Making display ads social increases the conversation with your customers. Here are some ways that this can be accomplished:

Make social media a primary destination: Try linking Trueview ads back to a similarly branded channel for a great social experience.
Social interactions within the banner: Actually having users interact with the banner (by playing a game, watching videos, etc.) and then having them share their experiences through social media continues the conversation.
Bring social media endorsements in the banner: This is becoming more popular, and is a great way for friends to share recommendations.

Resolution # 4: I will go mobile with my display campaigns

Just as users are now moving more and more to a multi-screen experience via desktop, mobile, and display, so must marketers think about a display strategy that isn’t siloed.

Tablet targeting: Users expect more from tablet ads and are increasingly using these for online shopping. We support tablet targeting including zeroing in on tablet audiences by device, location, time of day and contextually.
Get smarter with smartphone targeting: Finding what’s right for your business is key here. With so many format options to choose from that are specific to mobile devices (click to video, click to map, click to call) it’s worth it to think what could be the most effective for your business.

Resolution #5: There’s a perfect ad for everyone.

It’s really the biggest resolution we’re focused on at Google that encompasses all the other ones and it’s adopting the philosophy that 'There’s a perfect ad for everyone.'

Our recipe for the perfect ad for everyone is driven by simplicity and also by the technology that’s enabling us to customize the advertising experience for everyone at scale.

There’s a simple recipe to the perfect ad: The right person + the right message + the right time + the right context = the perfect ad.

What are your new year’s resolutions for your business? Let us know by tweeting @GoogleDisplay.

Mary Shirley, Product Marketing

Putting Faces to Names in a Google +1 Custom Creative in DFA

2011-12-16T16:21:00.000-05:00

Last month we introduced the ability to add a +1 button to ads trafficked in DFA. Now we’ve added a couple of features to the +1 creative template in DFA to make it even more effective as a recommendation engine for your brand.

Viewers of your ad can now see the faces of friends who have +1’d the ad. Putting a face to the name makes for more powerful impact as it makes the ad more personal and relevant. The result, we believe, are that people who see your ad will be more likely to click and respond to your call to action. In fact, 71% of shoppers say that recommendations from friends and family impact their purchasing decisions (Harris Interactive, June 2010).

Also, you now have full control over the placement of a +1 button in your display ad. For instance, you can set the size and annotation style of the button so aligns well with your creative concept.

Please note that if your account had previously been enabled for the +1 creative template functionality, you will now have access to the updated version. For more information on the +1 button and on the incorporating the +1 button in DFA reference this article in the Help Center (DFA sign-in required).

Posted by Gabe Stein, DFA Technical Specialist

End the year on a bright note: Attend a DFA Webinar in December

2011-12-07T16:35:00.003-05:00

As the year is winding down and another is just about to begin, why not get a head start on one of your new resolutions and do something to help you become an expert at your job? We know the holiday season is a very busy time but that’s why we’re offering you an array of webinars for you to attend at your convenience.

This month we have a webinar dedicated to all of the exciting DFA product enhancements that took place during Q4 2011. Visit the DFA Help Center (sign-in required) to register for these or either of our Fundamentals webinars.

Q4 2011 DFA Product Releases - December 13
This webinar will focus on the recent DFA product releases and will cover DFA Trafficking enhancements and the new DFA Reporting suite, including Report Builder and Multi-Channel Funnels. Two identical sessions will be held to accommodate both Eastern and Western time zones.

DFA for New Users - December 14
This webinar is intended for new users to DFA. It will provide an introduction to the fundamentals of DFA Trafficking and demonstrate best practices for beginners.

MediaVisor Fundamentals - December 20
An introduction to the fundamentals of MediaVisor.

To sign up for any upcoming webinars and view recordings of past webinars, please visit the DFA Help Center (sign-in required). And be sure to check back with us here on the DFA blog for regular updates to our training schedule.

The training team would like to thank you for the last year’s worth of feedback and attendance - we really do value your feedback and develop our curriculum with you in mind. We wish you a happy holiday season and look forward to seeing and hearing from you in the new year!

Posted by Amanda Gangl, DFA Product Trainer

Bringing more mobile inventory to the DoubleClick Ad Exchange

2011-12-05T15:50:00.000-05:00

(Originally posted on 11/29/11, updated 12/5/11)

It’s no secret that the mobile web is exploding. According to IDC, more people in the US are projected to access the web via a mobile device than on a computer by 2015. This makes mobile a very attractive opportunity for advertisers, and is creating a wave of new revenue opportunities for publishers.

In order to bring more mobile inventory to buyers on the DoubleClick Ad Exchange, we’ve launched two important initiatives for the mobile-specific 320x50 ad size.

First, buyers will be able to access AdMob in-app mobile inventory from AdMob publishers and application developers. Last week, we opened access to this inventory to a preselected set of Ad Exchange buyers. Second, as of today, we are beginning to test the ability for Ad Exchange publishers to opt in their 320x50 size mobile web inventory into the Ad Exchange. This will open up new mobile web inventory for Ad Exchange buyers. As publisher participation in these initiatives grows, we expect the inventory pool for in-app and mobile web inventory that’s specific to the 320x50 ad size to expand as well.

With the DoubleClick Ad Exchange, this new mobile inventory can be purchased via RTB or the UI. Ad Exchange buyers who are interested in the new 320x50 ad size should be sure to share their interest with their account manager.

Posted by Atul Bhandari, Product Manager, DoubleClick Ad Exchange

Bringing Reach and Media Cost Data into Report Builder

2011-12-01T10:36:00.000-05:00

As a follow up to the September launch of Report Builder in DoubleClick for Advertisers, we’re pleased to announce several new features that will make the tool even more useful.

Incorporating Reach and Media Cost
New reach reports in Report Builder show an estimate of how many unique users have interacted with your ads. With the flexibility of Report Builder, you can choose specific advertisers, campaigns, ads, and placements, and gain insight into how many people they reached during a selected timeframe.

Media cost is now an available metric in Report Builder and you can add it to your reports as you would any metric. Media cost represents the cost of all impressions, clicks and activities during the specified date range, based on the schedule and pricing information you input into DFA for each placement.

Saved and Deferred Reports
A major benefit of Report Builder is the ability to create detailed reports with exactly the dimensions and metrics you need. Now you can save report reports, which act as templates so you can quickly re-run or reconfigure frequently-run reports.

You also now have the option to defer report generation, which saves the file so you can come back and download it later. This is especially helpful when running a big report, because you can keep working without having to wait for the report to finish generating.

To learn more about these latest features available in Report Builder reference this article in the Help Center (DFA sign-in required).

Posted by Pamela Eng, Product Marketing Manager

New Classroom and Webinar Training Registration System

2011-11-29T16:51:00.005-05:00

Now you can register for DFA and MediaVisor training directly in the DFA Help Center. Going forward it will be your one-stop shop for training and support needs. This new, easy to use interface includes exciting features like:

Ability to enroll someone regardless if they have a DFA log-in.
Integration of Google Maps within the registration confirmation email.
Session notifications. If a class is full we can send you a notification when another one opens up.
And much more.

DFA Fundamentals: This all day course (10am-5pm) is for new DFA users looking to understand the fundamentals of third-party ad serving including best practices for campaign trafficking, serving your ads and pulling reports.

Los Angeles - December 13
Chicago - December 14
San Francisco - December 15

DFA Trafficking Lab: Get more practice running campaigns. These sessions cover the basics such as assigning landing pages to creatives, updating campaigns, setting up geo-targeting and using creative rotation.

Class Prerequisite:Attendees should have taken the DFA Fundamentals class in the previous two months or have less than two months trafficking experience.

Los Angeles - December 14
Chicago - December 15
San Francisco - December 16

MediaVisor Fundamentals: Learn more about planning and creating campaigns, advertisers, site placements and IOs as well as how to send RFPs.

Los Angeles - December 14

We look forward to seeing you in class!

Posted by Amanda Gangl, DFA Product Trainer

DoubleClick Ad Exchange: First Truly Cross-Format Exchange

2011-11-23T10:30:00.000-05:00

Our product teams have been rapidly innovating to bring more format support to DoubleClick Ad Exchange. Recent format innovations include:

Mobile web inventory. According to internal data from October, mobile web inventory on DoubleClick Ad Exchange from high-end phones and tablets already makes up around 9% of global inventory and 15% of U.S. inventory.
Mobile in-app inventory. In the coming weeks, AdMob publishers and application developers will be able to make their in-app mobile inventory available on DoubleClick Ad Exchange. Read the full announcement here.
In-stream video. Q3 was our first full quarter of making in-stream video inventory available to buyers. Between the beginning of Q3 to now, we’ve tripled the number of buyers accessing this inventory.
Rollover to expand. We’ve added the rollover to expand rich media format to our existing click-to-expand and in-page formats.

Recently at OMMA Display, Chip Hall, Director, DoubleClick Ad Exchange, spoke about these innovations in a presentation titled, “Unlocking Opportunities With the First Truly Cross-format Exchange.” In case you missed it live, you can watch it here:

Posted by Sally Cole, Product Marketing Manager

DS3: Announcing Several Upload Improvements

2011-11-22T17:37:00.003-05:00

(cross posted from the DoubleClick Search blog. To learn more about DoubleClick Search, contact your Account Manager or request a call from a DoubleClick Search specialist.)

We heard from several of you about the importance of improving the process of downloading reports and uploading files in DoubleClick Search V3 (DS3). You offered comments and suggestions for making the functionality better. As a result, the DoubleClick Search team spent the past few weeks prioritizing and focusing on the changes that would provide the biggest impact. We hope that the improvements described below will make a major difference in your use of DS3.

Faster upload processing of large accounts

Our Engineering team made several changes behind the scenes to improve the upload processing times of large engine accounts (engine accounts with over 100,000 keywords). In the past, uploads of large accounts took a much longer time to process. Now, these previously delayed uploads will process at least 20 times faster per row.

Uploaded keywords now include dashes (-) and periods (.)

Before this release, DS3 would remove all dashes (-) and periods (.) from uploaded keywords. You can now upload keywords with the confidence that they will remain intact.

Downloaded reports now include AdWords broad match modifier (+)

Before this release, DS3 would remove the Google AdWords broad match modifier (+) from downloaded reports. The downloads now include the modifier, and it will also remain if you need to make changes to the report and upload it back into DS3.

We’ll continue to look for new ways to make the download and upload processes better in the future. Please contact your Technical Account Manager or email ds-support@google.com with any suggestions.

For more information about other new features in this DS3 release, including new bid strategy reporting columns, check out the release notes. And keep an eye on the blog for more exciting features in upcoming releases.

Posted by the DoubleClick Search team