AdWords Agency Blog

Local Markets Spotlight: Hungry for online diners research

2009-07-02T15:00:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year, Google published research highlighting how the economic conditions had changed online buying behavior. Users are researching more online and looking for deals when it comes to purchasing products. Does the same hold true when it comes to dining?

To find out, we worked with Online Testing Exchange to survey patrons of both quick serve and casual dining restaurants. The results are in, and similar to online consumers, online diners are increasingly relying on the Internet for information and deals. Here's an overview of what we learned, and some tips on how to use this data to more effectively market your restaurant clients:

Diners are online, are you?: 90% of users go online for restaurant information (a 32% increase from 2008!), 80% use search as part of the decision process (with 1/2 of searches coming from mobile devices), and 70% use the Internet to choose a restaurant.
Tip: Ensure your restaurant clients have a strong online presence, whether it is in the organic search results, sponsored results, local business listings, or mobile ads. Check out Webmaster Central, the Local Business Center and Google Mobile Ads for helpful resources.

Later in the day = more planning: As the day progresses, diners spend more time deciding where to eat. While only 20% of diners spend an hour or more planning where to have breakfast, 46% spend an hour or more planning where to have dinner.
Tip: Optimize clients' accounts accordingly. For example, for breakfast goers, consider placing locations and promotions in the ads to help users make quick decisions. For dinner goers, experiment with ads directing to reviews and reservation pages.

Lost or indecisive? Try your phone: Of the 37% of Internet users who go online via mobile devices, 63% research restaurant related activities, 46% research locations and 29% research menus/food items.
Tip: Ensure sure your clients are easy to find through mobile search so diners can find them on the fly. In addition, local business listings, and in some cases local business ads, will also appear on Google Maps for mobile.

Online diners aren't just eating out: 35% of online diners look for food for take-out or delivery, 22% join loyalty programs, 19% buy gift cards and 19% participate in contests.
Tip: Do your clients offer take-out, delivery, gifts or promotions? Be sure to emphasize these unique offerings in ad text.

For additional solutions for local businesses, visit the Google Mobile blog and the Google LatLong blog.

Posted by Kate Keene, Classifieds & Local Marketing

Ad Planner milestone - new look on its 1st birthday

2009-07-01T12:49:00.000-07:00

Ad Planner celebrated its first birthday on June 24th, and what a busy year it's been. Based on your feedback, as well as publishers sharing site data and Google Analytics traffic numbers, we've been able to continually innovate to provide you the most accurate data measurements for your media planning.

To celebrate in style, we gave Ad Planner a facelift. You'll find all the same features that you know and love, but the new interface streamlines your research and media planning by making all of our features easy to find and use.

Screenshots of old vs. new Ad Planner interface

For more details, check out the complete post on the Inside AdWords blog. In addition, visit www.google.com/adplanner to check out our new look.

Posted by Wayne Lin, Product Manager

AdWords API v2009

2009-06-30T08:58:00.000-07:00

The AdWords API team has been working on the launch of the latest version, v2009, which we're happy to announce is now in production. This version offers more speed, scale, and flexibility to developers, at a lower cost. Since this version is a production beta, developers can sign up for access and will be whitelisted on a rolling basis. For full details on what you'll find in v2009 and how to get started, visit the AdWords API blog.

Posted by Adam Wooley, Product Marketing Manager

Seminars for Success: Next stop, Edmonton

2009-06-30T07:53:00.000-07:00

Calling all Canadian agencies (and those close to the border)! We're pleased to share that we'll be offering Google Analytics Seminars for Success in Edmonton, Canada on July 17-18, 2009.

The seminars will be led by Benjamin Mangold, an Authorized Analytics Consultant from Mangold Sengers in Australia. Day one will provide an introduction to Google Analytics, and day two will cover how to install and configure the advanced features and capabilities of Google Analytics.

For more information, and to register for one or both sessions, click here or visit the Google Analytics blog.

Posted by Eva Woo, Product Marketing Manager

Quality Score fact of the week

2009-06-29T13:40:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, we ran a series of posts on a hot topic among our agency clients: Quality Score. Due to the popularity of the series, we'll be bringing you more facts about this important metric on a weekly basis. We hope you find these useful, and here's our first installment:

A higher bid will not improve your Quality Score. Your Quality Score is determined by a number of factors, clickthrough rate (CTR) foremost amongst them, and is normalized to compensate for the higher CTR that ads in higher positions accrue. By simply increasing your bid for a keyword, you will likely increase the position of your ad on the page, but you won't be impacting the Quality Score for that keyword.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Product Marketing Manager

Update: New date for Landing Page webinar

2009-06-26T18:11:00.000-07:00

The webinar "The Seven Deadly Sins of Landing Page Design," originally scheduled for June 24, 2009, has been rescheduled for Wednesday, July 1, 2009.

During this webinar, we'll help you ensure that your client's site makes a great impression by avoiding the major pitfalls of landing page design. Learn the "seven deadly sins" of landing page design through real-life testing scenarios. After the presentation, Tim Ash, CEO of renowned landing page optimization firm SiteTuners.com, will be available for Q&A as well.

Date: Wednesday, July 1st
Time: 10:00am PDT, 1:00pm EDT

Have your client's customer ID number handy when you register here, and for more examples of landing page improvements, see our Website Workout page.

Posted by Andrew Gomez, Marketing

Case study: Building success with display ads

2009-06-25T11:35:00.000-07:00

ROI Revolution recently decreased their client's cost per conversion by 58% while increasing clickthrough rate by 392% through the use of display ads created free through AdWords Display Ad Builder. I spoke with Matt Seising, an Account Manager at the North Carolina-based search marketing and website optimization firm, to uncover how he was able to achieve these results.

Ryan Hayward: Why did you decide to start using the Display Ad Builder?

Matt Seising: We first thought of it for our client who has been successfully targeting Google Finance. We knew that taking up the entire ad space would likely boost click-through rate and in fact, we saw a 392% improvement in CTR with the new display ad. Because of this boost, clicks were 46% cheaper for the display ad, and our cost per conversion decreased by 58% as compared to text ads. Additionally, the ability to use a free tool was incredibly efficient and helped us to get a display ad up in a day for free. If the client had been paying traditional rates to start running banners, they probably wouldn't have had any interest.

RH: How does the Display Ad Builder fit with your overall client strategy?

MS: The Google Content Network has been a focus for our agency for the last year because there's a ton of available traffic, and the Placement Performance Report has helped us to make it very profitable for our clients. In addition to driving more volume at lower costs in many cases, display ads also help clients to see the unique value of content as compared to search.

RH: How have you optimized performance with the tool?

MS: After seeing the initial performance, we decided to split the display ads into new ad groups; the click-through rates were so much higher and costs per conversion were so much lower we were probably going to want to bid those up to get as much profitable traffic as possible.

To start building your ads right away, click the Display Ad Builder option when creating a new ad in your account. You can also learn more about the tool on the Display Ad Builder site. Happy building!

Posted by Ryan Hayward, Product Marketing Manager

Analytics tips from the "streets" of Google

2009-06-24T11:24:00.000-07:00

You work hard to track, analyze and optimize ad campaigns to keep your clients ahead of the curve. To help you efficiently and effectively collect and analyze these metrics, we headed out to the street (ok, it was a quick trip through the office) to hear what the Agency Team's Analytics experts had to say. Here are some recommended reports and best practices straight from the experts' mouths:

I love creating keyword clusters in Advanced Segmentation. I choose "Keyword" as the segment and then type in a keyword fragment that captures the essence of a cluster. For example, if I wanted branded keywords for a Google property, I would do "Keyword" "contains" "goog" (just in case there are misspellings), and for non-branded it would be "Keyword" "does not contain" "goog". Here's a video to learn more. Pretty powerful stuff. - Jesse N.

My advice is to set up Site Search. It's simple to do, gives you a finger on the pulse of your audience, and can guide optimization and testing strategies. Learn what users are looking for and identify good keywords for your accounts. See what users have or have not found, and use the information for ad text optimizations, A/B inventory tests, or internal site search improvements. - Eddie H.

I often create an Advanced Segment that only shows Google AdWords data. You can then look into any report and see what's working well and what can be improved with campaigns, specific landing pages, or geographic targeting. - Cassie P.

Check the Referring Sites report for your own domain name. If it looks like you're your own top referrer, you're doing something wrong. Check for badly tagged/untagged pages. Make sure redirects aren't causing your PPC traffic to get miscategorized. Ensure you're set up for subdomain tracking if applicable. - Brian K.

My vote would be for Custom Reporting. You create your own report and see data the way you want to. You can also save custom reports, add them to your dashboard or schedule them to be emailed to you. - Kelley C.

For additional resources and answers to your frequently asked questions, visit the Google Analytics Help Center or check out the Google Analytics learning resources on YouTube. For more posts on how to get the most from Google Analytics, check out the Google Analytics Blog.

Posted by Agency Ad Solutions blog team

New report: Brand Value of Rich Media and Video Ads

2009-06-24T08:46:00.000-07:00

Are your clients looking to push forward with their branding goals? Can you help guide their decisions about effective branding formats?

If branding is creating a buzz with your clients, download the new report from DoubleClick and Dynamic Logic. The jointly authored "Brand Value of Rich Media and Video Ads" report provides detailed information on the impact of ad formats on branding results. Learn the branding strengths of image, rich media with video, rich media without video, and simple Flash ad formats, all within the report. Readers will also find tips and tricks on how to match ad format choice to branding goals.

Download the PDF report here for free, no registration required. For more details about the report, visit the DoubleClick blog.

Posted by Sally Cole, Business Marketing

Case studies: Search-based Keyword Tool

2009-06-23T16:10:00.000-07:00

Identifying effective keywords is one of the best ways to ensure that customers can locate your client's site. And the Search-based Keyword Tool (SbKT) is an efficient way to find and add highly relevant keywords to your client's account. Using actual Google search queries and the content of your client's site, the SbKT generates organized, themed suggestions for keywords that are new to your client's account.

To let the results speak for themselves, we've recently highlighted the success of two clients who expanded their keyword lists with the SbKT. U.K.-based shoe retailer Cloggs was able to quickly create new campaigns for their ever-changing product lines and drive increased traffic to their site. And Accomodation Direct, a South African travel company, lowered their cost per conversion by 34% using the keyword suggestions from the SbKT.

For more details, read the full case studies. Then try out the SbKT, and find the right keywords to be found by the right customers.

Posted by Adam Wooley, Product Marketing Manager

DoubleClick Spotlight: Display Benchmarks

2009-06-19T07:50:00.000-07:00

If you're ever left scratching your head wondering how your campaign performed against the rest of the industry, then this development from DoubleClick may interest you.

Introducing the DoubleClick Benchmarks Report, a comprehensive set of benchmarks derived from data across DART for Advertisers based on rigorous methodology with input from the Advertising Research Foundation.

The latest report, available for download on DoubleClick.com, covers 2008 benchmarks across ad format, ad size and industry vertical. Normalized across hundreds of advertisers, thousands of campaigns, and tens of billions of ad impressions, the DoubleClick Benchmarks Report gives you information on:

Static image ads, Flash, and DoubleClick rich media formats
Average click-through, interaction, expansion, and video complete rates
Benchmarks across various creative sizes and industry verticals
Worldwide overall performance norms

To catch an overview of DoubleClick's display advertising benchmarks, register for the IAB-hosted webinar on June 24, 2009, Benchmarking Ahead: IAB reveals the DoubleClick Benchmarks Report. The webinar will be led by Ari Paparo, Group Product Manager for Google, who oversees the product vision for rich media, video and display advertising technology.

Date: June 24, 2009

Time: 9am PST / 11am CST/ 12pm EST

Posted by Pamela Eng, DoubleClick Marketing Manager

Agency Tweeting - Where Technology and Creativity Intersect

2009-06-17T14:41:00.000-07:00

We are very excited to announce the official launch of the Google Agency Team's Twitter account, Creative Sandbox.

We'll be tweeting about the coolest things happening across the Google platform. Follow us at http://twitter.com/CreativeSandbox and share your own creative applications of Google tools. Just remember, keep it short and tweet - 140 characters or less!

Posted by Sara Bell and Janine Gianfredi, Agency Team

Webinar: Landing page design

2009-06-15T10:08:00.000-07:00

A landing page can be like a job interview: Present yourself in a clear, effective manner and you may be on your way to a great offer. Appear confusing, sloppy, or unappealing and you risk losing a good opportunity.

In our upcoming webinar, we'll help you ensure that your client's site makes a great impression by avoiding the major pitfalls of landing page design. Learn the "seven deadly sins" of landing page design through real-life testing scenarios. After the presentation, Tim Ash, CEO of renowned landing page optimization firm SiteTuners.com, will be available for Q&A as well.

Date: Wednesday, June 24th
Time: 10:00am PDT, 1:00pm EDT

Have your client's customer ID number ready handy when you register here, and for more examples of landing page improvements, see our Website Workout page.

Posted by Andrew Gomez, Marketing

Launch of the YouTube Biz Blog

2009-06-10T13:56:00.000-07:00

In today's digital landscape, YouTube has quickly emerged as a must-have piece of online marketing strategy. Whether using the medium for its social and viral opportunities or for its massive reach, marketers and agencies continue to reach out to us with opportunities and ideas.

Every day YouTube is innovating, building out new features and products that may spark an idea of your own. That's why we just launched the YouTube Biz Blog. Created specifically for YouTube partners and advertisers, this newest member of the Google blog family is the best place to turn for tips, tricks, and feature launches that can help you stay in the know about the world's most popular entertainment destination online.

Posted by Michael Rucker, Product Marketing Manager

CPG Industry Spotlight: What's cookin' good lookin'?

2009-06-09T11:29:00.000-07:00

Google's Consumer Packaged Goods sales and marketing teams have spent last few months cooking up research and resources to help agencies and clients effectively and efficiently meet their goals. Here's a peek at two of these resources, and how you can use them to support your CPG clients.

Research - "The Search for Beauty Buyers"

Google partnered with Compete to learn more about beauty searching, researching and purchasing behavior through survey and click-stream analysis. What we found is that online beauty searchers are more influential, engaged, and likely to purchase than beauty shoppers who do not use search. In addition, beauty searchers showed little preference between branded and non-branded keywords, and used online resources throughout the purchase process.

What can this mean for you? Consider an "always on" approach for search campaigns to reach these buyers, include both branded and non-branded terms to catch beauty searchers at all stages of the purchase funnel, and consider increasing bids on branded keywords to capture all of the traffic for these searches. Check out the recorded webinar for more data and take-aways.

Case Study - Flora's "Cooking with Schools"

Google UK partnered with Unilever, Mindshare and research partner MetrixLab to assess the impact of search on brand awareness. Unilever's brand Flora sought to extend its reach with families, children, nutrition and cooking through its "Cooking with Schools" campaign. Could paid search help Flora increase brand awareness with its target audience? We administered surveys to mothers and to children under age 15 who were exposed to different media combinations while performing search tasks, and found that search was more efficient than both TV and radio at raising Top of Mind Awareness for the Flora brand. In addition, we found that searching and seeing a sponsored link increased all brand awareness metrics.

What can this mean for you? Consider including search in future brand awareness campaigns. Pair it with other forms of media such as TV, radio or print to increase brand exposure and improve brand recall. For more details, read the post on the Official Google CPG blog.

To keep up-to-date on future CPG research and trainings, visit www.google-cpg.blogspot.com or subscribe to the blog.

Posted by Jenny Liu, CPG Marketing

Upcoming industry webinars: Travel, B2B, and Auto Insurance

2009-06-08T16:17:00.000-07:00

If you manage clients that are in the Travel, B2B or Auto Insurance business, please feel free to join us for the upcoming webinars we're hosting with third party research companies.

Travel: A Look Into Destination Shopping Behavior

Using a detailed online behavioral analysis and in-depth survey of traveler perspectives, Google and Compete partner to present a new study exploring how consumers shop for and book destination-based travel.

Date: Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Time: 10:00-11:00am PDT, 1:00-2:00pm EDT

Read more details and register here

B2B: The Digital Life of the C-Suite

We asked hundreds of CEOs, CIOs, CFOs and other top-tier executives at $1 billion-plus organizations what makes them tick. In partnership with Forbes Insights, we'll share insights on how C-level executives use the Internet for information gathering.

Date: Thursday, June 18, 2009
Time: 10:00-11:00am PDT, 1:00-2:00pm EDT

Read more details and register here

Auto: The Role of Search in the Auto Insurance Shopping Experience

Google and Compete will present findings of a recent study that analyzed consumers’ auto insurance-related shopping and purchase behavior, with an emphasis on the role of search.

Date: Thursday, June 18, 2009
Time: 11:00-12:00pm PDT, 2:00-3:00pm EDT

Read more details and register here

Posted by the Agency Ad Solutions blog team

AdWords Editor 7.5.1 for Windows and Mac

2009-06-01T12:32:00.000-07:00

We just released a new version of AdWords Editor with a few exciting updates.

Increase efficiency with CSV import
Many agencies have requested the ability to import CSV files in AdWords Editor, so we're happy to announce this new feature. If you make changes to your client's account in a spreadsheet or a custom application, you can now import your spreadsheet directly into AdWords Editor, then post your new or edited items. Learn more

Save time by downloading or updating selected campaigns
Have you ever waited a long time for your client's account to download, when all you want to do is work with one or two campaigns? Now you can just download the campaign (or campaigns) that you want to edit, leaving the rest of the account alone. You may also choose to download or update only active campaigns (or only paused campaigns). Learn more

Make the most of Keyword Opportunities
We've made a few changes to the Keyword Opportunities tool that should make it easier to manage your client's keyword data. On the "Search-based keywords" tab (the AdWords Editor version of the Search-based Keyword Tool) you can now view and organize new keywords by topical category, letting you zero in quickly on the keywords that are most relevant to the account. Also, when you export or copy keywords, the Keyword Opportunities columns (such as Volume and Competition) are now included. As another response to agencies' requests, you can now add terms to your account as either keywords, negative keywords, or campaign negative keywords. Learn more

To learn more about what's in version 7.5.1, such as multiple column sorting and new conversion columns, please visit the release notes.

If you're already using AdWords Editor, you'll be prompted to upgrade automatically. This update won't require you to re-download your accounts, and it won't affect your comments and unposted changes. In the auto-update prompt, choose the 'Update without Backup' option; after you upgrade, your accounts will already be in the new version.

If you're not already using AdWords Editor, you can visit our website and click 'Download AdWords Editor.'

To learn more about the benefits of using AdWords Editor to manage clients' ad campaigns offline, please refer to these frequently asked questions, or visit the Help Center for comprehensive instructions and tips.

In addition, there will be a webinar for our agency partners on Friday, June 5, 2009 at 11 am PST / 1pm CST / 2pm EST:

Event number: 576 383 259
Event password: awe
Registration password: agency1
Call-in toll-free number (US/Canada) 866-469-3239
Click here to register.

Posted by Adam Wooley, Product Marketing

Google Content Network targeting tools - Introducing the Wonder wheel

2009-05-29T11:35:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month we launched Google Search Options, a new collection of tools that lets you slice and dice your Google.com results. Within Search Options you'll find the Wonder wheel, which visually presents connections between related searches and your search term as an interactive diagram. We've discovered that the Wonder wheel can be a powerful tool for building contextually targeted content campaigns.

One particularly useful application of the tool is to identify new ad group themes for content campaigns. Since your ads are matched to publisher pages at the ad group level, creating different ad group themes helps you target your ads more precisely on the Google content network.

In the example below we use the Wonder wheel to help us create a content campaign selling yoga mats. A number of themes are suggested which could become new campaigns, including yoga mats, exercise mats, and pilates.

Although the Wonder wheel suggestions are a great guide, you know your clients' products and services best. If a logical ad group theme is missing from tool suggestions, add it. If the tool suggests themes that don't make sense, don't add them.

The next step in the content campaign creation process is to add your keywords. Use the Keyword Tool to help generate keywords. Input your new ad group theme into the Keyword Tool, click 'Get Ideas' and then sort by "Approx Avg Search Volume" to refine the list to those with the most search traffic. There isn't a recommended length for your keyword list - it should be long enough to convey the theme but short enough to avoid unnecessary keywords.

The next step is to add bids and location settings. While we're not guaranteeing that ad groups generated through the Wonder wheel tool will improve your campaign performance, we do think that it is a great starting point. We hope that you find the Wonder wheel as exciting as we do in helping create your contextually targeted campaigns!

For more details on Wonder wheel, see it in action on the Official Google Channel.

Posted by Lindsey Wall and Jonathan Yahalom, Agency Team

Update - Analytics webinar now posted to YouTube

2009-05-29T11:33:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month we posted on an upcoming webinar "5 Things Marketers Can Do Now," with Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik. We realize some of you may have missed the opportunity to hear Avinash speak, but may still be interested in the tips he provided. As such, we've posted a recording of his talk onto the Google Brand Channel on YouTube.

Posted by Jaime Mayer, Business Marketing

Inter-face lift

2009-05-27T18:35:00.000-07:00

If you've been working with AdWords accounts recently, you've probably heard that we're releasing a new AdWords interface. To help you become familiar with the changes, we have two resources that you may find helpful:

The new AdWords interface website, which comes complete with short overview videos, a downloadable PDF, and a quiz to test your knowledge.
New Interface Thursdays on the Inside AdWords blog, a weekly series that covers a new aspect of the interface and how to make the most of the new features.

You can also switch between the current and new interfaces, so you can try out new features without having to worry about adapting to all of the changes at once.

Posted by Devin Sandoz, Product Marketing

Where's my data? Find out in 60 seconds

2009-05-22T16:14:00.000-07:00

You've recently set up a new Google Analytics account and when you check to see if any data has come in, nothing shows up. Does this scenario sound familiar? If so, it's time to confirm that you've installed your tracking code correctly.

Check out this short video on the Google Analytics YouTube channel, which helps you find your Analytics tracking code. It takes you step-by-step through where to find the code within your account and on your website, and how to confirm that the code snippets are identical. Sixty seconds can end the waiting game and give you back valuable time - which then can be used to analyze your site's data!

Posted by Jesse Nichols, Agency Team

Insight, now downloadable

2009-05-20T15:32:00.000-07:00

While it may be a while before eternal enlightenment is available via download, Insight from YouTube is now downloadable. With the new functionality, you can export your YouTube Insight video stats into .CSV files for easy sharing and saving, with just one click. You can find the download option under select reports in YouTube Insight, within your YouTube account.

And to learn more about using YouTube Insight to reach your target audience, visit the Official Google blog.

Posted by Aaron Tell, YouTube Product Marketing

Three questions from DoubleClick

2009-05-20T14:36:00.000-07:00

If Carla Hendra, co-CEO of Ogilvy North America, could wave a magic wand to solve their clients' biggest problem, what would it be? And how does eMarketer CEO Geoff Ramsey think marketers can best reach influencers? You can tap into these answers and more on DoubleClick's Three Questions site, where innovators and thought leaders in digital marketing share their perspectives on the space. We invite you to explore the video interviews, spanning issues from viral marketing to ad exchanges to the future of digital marketing, and even ponder some of the questions for yourself.

Posted by Min Li Chan, Product Marketing

New Success Story - JustAnswer finds answers with Google Content Network

2009-05-18T15:58:00.000-07:00

We recently published a new Google Content Network success story, which highlights both products and tactics you may wish to consider when creating and expanding content campaigns for your clients. Here's a sneak peek at the story:

"JustAnswer, the San Francisco-based pay-as-you-go question and answer website, was born from a need CEO Andy Kurtzig's wife had during her first pregnancy. Calling her doctor numerous times with questions drove him to cut her off, so she offered to pay him for each question. Although it may not have worked for his wife, the notion inspired Andy to create an online communication channel for people to get answers from doctors, lawyers, mechanics and other experts, at all hours of the day or night.

Today, JustAnswer has more than 15 million registered users, and some 20,000 experts in 90 categories ranging from health to law to automobiles. It’s also a worldwide enterprise, with customers in 145 countries. Andy was able to grow his company from a one-man operation into a successful global company using Google AdWords and the Google Content Network."

Highlights of the story include:

Successful acquisition of customers as well as subject experts using Google AdWords Search and Content Network campaigns
Quick response to trends, such as the economic downturn, thanks to flexibility, control and transparency of placement targeting
Effective use of the Placement Performance report to identify high-converting sites, which included smaller, highly focused sites

Check out the full story here, and share it with clients who are interested in advertising on the Google Content Network. For additional stories like this, visit the Google Success Stories site.

Posted by Cathy Bishop, Writer

Case Study: Impact of YouTube campaign on holiday video game sales

2009-05-12T18:03:00.000-07:00

The digital landscape may be increasingly complex and competitive, yet your clients' sales objectives and ROI goals are no less challenging. However, are you and your clients ready to experiment with cutting-edge marketing platforms such as YouTube when budgets are tight?

To demonstrate the effectiveness of innovative marketing solutions on purchase behavior, we conducted a study with a major video game client who ran a YouTube campaign during the 2008 holiday season. The client had released a popular franchise game in fall 2008, and had four primary goals: sell games during the holidays, drive traffic to branded sites, drive engagement with branded content online, and drive online buzz and consumer interest in the game.

In order to achieve these goals, the client executed seven YouTube homepage takeovers, a branded channel, and supporting media. We measured the impact by analyzing Compete, Inc. click stream data and Dynamic Logic survey data for test users (those exposed to the campaign) and control users (those not exposed to the campaign).

We found some encouraging results:

Ad exposure increased game purchases. There was a 29% lift in game sales over 6-week 2008 holiday period.
Campaign boosted searches on branded terms. We found a 3.6x increase in searches, with 5.4x jump on Google, and 5.3x on YouTube.
Ad exposure increased online engagement. The test results also showed an 11.8x increase in video views, 4.6x jump in channel visits, and 3.9x more official site views.
Clear brand lift associated with campaign. Test users showed a 14% lift in aided brand awareness, with a 19% lift among active gamers, and an 18% lift among game purchasers
High frequency of ad exposure led to strong brand lift. We found a 27% lift in brand awareness resulting from ten or more exposures.

How can you apply this strategy to your clients' advertising? Think beyond search to develop and execute campaigns using search as well as display tactics. A well-developed display strategy, including YouTube promoted videos, a YouTube channel, and campaigns targeting the Google Content Network can engage your audience, generate buzz, and have a positive lift on search traffic.

For more details on the Google tools that can help you build a compelling display campaign, visit the Agency Toolkit, a one-stop-shop for relevant products, and Google for Advertisers, your hub for Google's marketing solutions, including all your options for advertising on YouTube.

Posted by Angela Reynar and Leah Spalding, Advertising Research Managers