Inside AdWords

Introducing Enhanced Ad Sitelinks

2012-02-14T11:30:00.000-08:00

We've talked before about how useful ad sitelinks can be. They give users more options, and deliver advertisers more clicks. On average, the clickthrough rate is 30% higher for ads with sitelinks than those without. And we've continued experimenting with new ways to make sitelinks even better. Today, we're taking the covers off one of our strongest performing experiments. It works by incorporating text from ads in your account that are related to your sitelinks. The easiest way to understand things is with an example:

Say you've created sitelinks for your pizza restaurant campaign, and your ad displays sitelinks as shown here:

Now, let's say your account also includes the following text ads:

With this enhancement, your ad could now look like this:

To be eligible, your ad with sitelinks must show above Google search results and your account must contain active ads closely related to the sitelinks in your campaign.

In testing, people reported that ads with enhanced sitelinks were more useful and relevant. And clickthrough rates were significantly higher than the same ad with traditional 2- and 3-line sitelinks.

If you’re not already using ad sitelinks and would like to get started, please visit the AdWords Help Center.

Posted by David Ganzhorn, Senior Software Engineer and Ramakrishnan Kandhan, Software Engineer

AdWords campaign management – Even better when you share

2012-02-09T12:00:00.000-08:00

Last January, we introduced a new way to manage changes across multiple campaigns with lists, starting with negative keyword lists. These lists give advertisers the ability to create and manage groups of negative keywords in your account and to associate them with multiple campaigns. We’re now pleased to announce two new developments to our lists feature which will sit in a new place in the AdWords left navigation panel called the “Shared library.”

#1. Placement exclusion lists

Exclusion lists, which are similar to negative keyword lists, allow you to create lists of placements to exclude, and associate these lists with multiple campaigns in your account.

For example, let’s say you have a set of particular placements on our Display Network that you don’t want your ads to appear on. Previously, you’d need to add these as placement exclusions to every campaign targeted to the Display Network within your account. With placement exclusion lists, you can create a single list containing these placement exclusions and associate them with any or all the campaigns in your account running on the display network. Additionally, if you wanted to add another exclusion, you’d just have to add it to the list once, and it would automatically apply to all the associated campaigns.

#2. List suggestions

The new list suggestions feature will tell you where you are using the same negative keywords or placement exclusions across multiple campaigns and therefore where it would be useful to create lists for these keywords/placements instead.

We hope these features will help you manage your negative keywords and placement exclusions more easily and efficiently by removing the need for duplication of entities across your account.

Please visit our Help Center to find out more about placement exclusion lists and the list suggestion feature.

Posted by Luisa Lu, Software Engineer

Search Funnels refresh: new and improved interface

2012-02-09T10:00:00.000-08:00

In March 2010, we launched Search Funnels, a tool that helps advertisers understand the series of search impressions and search clicks that result in conversions.

Since then, we've been tweaking the user interface to make it more useful and usable. We're launching our interface refresh today and want to familiarize you with the new interface so you can migrate smoothly. For the next few weeks you'll also be able to access the previous version (see the left navigation bar under the report list), but we hope you'll take advantage of the improvements in the new version.

Here's a sampling of some of the improved features:

Compare date ranges and see if your funnel has changed year-over-year. Just click on the date range drop down and this menu will appear:

Access drill-down dimensions quickly via tabs. You'll see these tabs at the top left of the Search Funnels tables:

View total conversions and conversion value side-by-side in our histogram reports, now available in all Search Funnels reports:

We've also made it easier to create persistent drill-down filters so you can view multiple reports focusing on the same analysis. For example, if you'd like to do an analysis based on "all the Top Paths where the first click was Campaign XYZ," you can now Save this drill-down and then click through multiple reports. If you no longer want to have this view, just click the "Clear" button above the report title and you'll return to the unfiltered version of the report:

Click "Save" to keep a first-clicked view across reports

Click "Clear" to return to an unfiltered view

We hope you enjoy these new usability tweaks, and happy path analyzing!

Posted by Laura Holmes, Product Manager

Writing ads that attract customers

2012-02-06T11:11:00.000-08:00

With the theme of Valentine's Day on our mind, we're sharing tips on how to spice up your AdWords text ads, courtesy of the AdWords Help Center.

Start by taking a moment to consider what you want to do with your ad. Then use the six guidelines below to create an ad that's accurate, to-the-point, and engaging.

Highlight what makes your business, product, or offer unique
Include prices, promotions, and exclusives
Tell your customers what they can do
Include at least one of your keywords in your ad text
Match your ad to your landing page
Experiment

Here are some examples:

Couples Cooking Class
www.example.com/cook
Sauté your way to her heart!
Register as a couple and save 20%

Hot Air Balloon Ride
www.example.com/balloonride
Love is in the air. Save 30% today.
Soar in the world's largest balloon.

Lovers Laser Tag
www.example.com/lasertag
Like Cupid's Bow, only faster
15% off for couples on Feb 14th.

Read the full article and watch a video on Tips for creating successful text ads in the AdWords Help Center to get additional examples on how to improve your ad.

Now that you've optimized your text ads, consider creating a video ad. Follow the steps mentioned in the Tips for creating effective video ads article.

Posted by the AdWords Help Center Team

Impression Share Updates Rolling out Globally

2012-01-30T10:00:00.000-08:00

Starting today, we will begin rolling out updates to your Impression Share metrics, which include new ad group-level impression share metrics as well as revised campaign-level impression share metrics. We've also changed the frequency with which we update this data to once a day. These updates will be in effect in all accounts globally over the next few days.

For more information on Impression Share, please visit the AdWords Help Center.

Posted by Andrew Truong, Inside AdWords Crew

Perspective on Dynamic Search Ads - Guest Q & A with RKG

2012-01-30T08:52:00.000-08:00

Since introducing Dynamic Search Ads in beta in October, we’ve seen questions from around the web asking about real-world performance and recommendations for implementation. Today we’re grateful to share the perspectives of Matt Mierzewski and Jen Syverud at RKG, an online marketing services firm with B2B and B2C clients ranging from startups to the Fortune 500 (details about RKG below).

Here’s a short video followed by Q&A. RKG has further offered to answer any other questions you might have about their experience with Dynamic Search Ads over on their blog.

Q. What’s your strategy for using Dynamic Search Ads with your clients today?

We think of Dynamic Search Ads as an advertiser-specific broad match type. Here, instead of allowing Google to match searches related to your keywords, you're allowing them to match searches related to your website.

For advertisers without automated pay-per-click inventory-based management solutions, Dynamic Search Ads can help identify products that are new or re-emerging. The system is tremendous in keeping up with changes to inventory in real time. For example, a product line may have been suspended for years, but quietly (without the search marketing team's knowledge) appears back on the website. In this case, keywords for the product line would still be paused until the marketing team is made aware, but Dynamic Search Ads are able to catch the change immediately, create ads, and generate orders. As another example, for advertisers frequently offering clearance products, Dynamic Search Ads are similarly able to offer ads while these limited quantity items are in-stock. In both examples, Dynamic Search Ads act as a safety net for advertisers wishing to advertise on dynamic products and/or inventories.

Q. What were your main concerns with Dynamic Search Ads and how have you addressed them?

One initial concern was that Dynamic Search Ads would cannibalize existing traffic, siphoning it away from active keyword campaigns. What we found was that the vast majority of Dynamic Search Ads traffic was complementary to our campaigns. Another concern was that we would have little to no control over what keywords Google was able to match on. However, Google has provided a great deal of controls within the Dynamic Search Ads product to ensure that the matching queries are relevant to the advertiser.

Q. What does your typical implementation of Dynamic Search Ads look like?

Implementation strategies will vary. In general, however, it is wise to consider pages that the advertiser wishes to exclude, as well as any known keyword negatives within the accounts, and add those from day one. From there, segmenting pages into campaigns or ad groups based on product margin, conversion rates, and so forth will allow for custom max CPC bids and maximum ROI.

Q. What best practices would you suggest for using Dynamic Search Ads?

Through restrictive targeting, exclusions and negatives, tight budgets and close monitoring, Dynamic Search Ads can be made very low risk and the results you see should be encouraging. For conservative advertisers, start by targeting only product level pages in your best converting categories.

A higher-level strategy is to add a site-wide target at a conservative bid with appropriate exclusions, and then layer on additional, more finely targeted ad groups and copy with bids corresponding to their expected performance. This approach is similar to the best practices for running Product Listing Ads and ensures wide coverage, but with a preference towards better quality traffic.

Use the power-tools that Google has made available in both targeting specific pages, while excluding other pages and search queries.

Q. How is Dynamic Search Ads doing with respect to matching relevant queries and landing pages?

With Dynamic Search Ads we can see every search that triggers a dynamic ad, the headline generated, the landing page selected, and, of course, performance stats. The searches that we’ve seen targeted are absolutely relevant to the website content -- it’s the only place Google is able to generate its targeting information from. If the system is matching to any query that the advertiser does not care to be matched on to meet their performance goals, it is very easy to restrict that traffic by URL or Keyword level negatives.

Q. What kind of results are you seeing with Dynamic Search Ads across your clients? Which is it working best for?

We’ve seen Dynamic Search Ads incremental sales impact range from 0.5% to 12%, so it’s important to note that individual account results may vary. The product is compatible with our tracking and reporting systems which makes it easy to measure performance and do head-to-head comparisons with our existing keyword-based campaigns.

Dynamic Search Ads work best for advertisers that have an extensive product offering and well developed web pages for Google to index and match relevant content to.

Q. What do you focus on when optimizing Dynamic Search Ads?

Like other AdWords campaigns, proper campaign management and optimizations are a necessity. Just like broad match, the Dynamic Search Ads product is most successful with carefully selected negative keywords, pages and categories of the website that do not perform optimally, and/or are not goal-oriented. Also similar to broad match, advertisers should monitor queries that produce conversions, and add them back as keywords to other AdWords campaigns.

Q. To what degree do you think Dynamic Search Ads are cannibalizing organic search traffic?

We haven’t seen evidence of cannibalization. But we’ll continue to evaluate performance and, if needed, make adjustments.

Q. Would you recommend Dynamic Search Ads for novice-to-intermediate or intermediate-to-advanced advertisers?

RKG would recommend Dynamic Search Ads for intermediate-to-advanced advertisers. Because it necessitates ongoing management, and is best utilized as a complement to robust keyword campaigns, it’s not likely to be a good fit for novice advertisers. Additionally, as previously mentioned, the richer the site content, number of pages, and breadth of product offering, the more fruitful Dynamic Search Ads will be. Naturally, these characteristics lend themselves to more established and sophisticated campaigns and advertisers.

About RKG

Founded in 2003, RKG is a data-driven digital agency that combines savvy marketers with sophisticated technology to deliver unrivaled results for over 180 clients in paid search marketing, search engine optimization, multichannel attribution management, display advertising and comparison shopping management. Long recognized as the thought leader in search marketing, RKG clients range from start-ups to the Fortune-500, and include both B2C and B2B direct marketers in retail, travel, finance and education. RKG is an independent, privately held agency with offices in Charlottesville, VA, Bend, OR and Boston, MA.

Posted by Katie Miller, Inside AdWords crew

Love at first Search

2012-01-26T09:00:00.000-08:00

More and more people are falling in love with Valentine’s Day. According to a recent survey by ORC International, Valentine’s Day is now the number two gift giving holiday, right behind Christmas, with 88% of Americans saying they plan on giving a present to their loved ones. This should be great news for businesses, but marketers still have trouble making a love connection with consumers based on charts that look more like dated EKG readings than real-time insights into the heart of the consumer.

Since getting the affections of one person is hard enough, below are some timely insights from Google’s “database of intentions” to keep you ahead of the game as you create your Valentine’s Day campaigns.

Search is where the heart is

Already we’re seeing Google searches related to Valentine’s Day increase 35% compared to last year. Not only are more people searching, they’re searching earlier - last year people began looking for Valentine’s Day ideas on January 9th. This year the upward trend began two days earlier, on January 7th.

Across categories, jewelry is seeing a 42% increase in mobile and desktop queries compared to January of last year; gifts jumped 27%, and flowers saw an 18% spike.

Girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice

The results from this graph show women look for gift ideas earlier and more often than their male significant others. Maybe men are more last minute about buying gifts than women, but it doesn’t mean they’re cheap about it! In 2011 the average man spent $158 for Valentine’s Day, about $80 more than women.

Looking for a change of heart?

Valentine’s Day is less than three weeks away, which means that this is the great opportunity for marketers to influence people with their products since consumers are still searching for ideas. If you look at the word cloud below (spoiler alert!), a good chunk of people are searching for “diy valentines gifts” and “valentines day baskets,” which means there will be quite a few people unwrapping homemade gifts or pre-made gift baskets this year. The biggest cluster of phrases, “valentines day border,” “valentines day drinks,” and “valentines day meals,” signal that people are also planning on celebrating in style. Now would be a good time to promote recipes and decoration ideas in your campaigns.

For more useful trends and tips for your campaign, download and review the 2012 Valentine’s Day Consumer Intentions Deck on Think Insights. Hopefully it helps you steal away some hearts!

By Christina Park, Product Marketing Manager, Think with Google

Create more Automated Rules and undo changes

2012-01-17T15:00:00.000-08:00

We heard your feedback that you want Automated Rules to be even more flexible and useful, so we rolled out two improvements - increased rule limit to 100 and the ability to undo changes made by a rule.

1. Increased rule limit to 100

We increased the number of rules you can create from 10 rules per user to 100. This should allow you to easily try out new rules -- have a look at common examples to see how advertisers are using Automated Rules.

2. Ability to undo changes made by a rule

In the event that a rule doesn’t make the changes that you expect, you can easily undo them by clicking the “Undo” button in the Logs table. We hope that undo can help you feel more comfortable experimenting with Automated Rules. You can try out new strategies for a few days and quickly return to the state in which you started if you’re not happy with the performance. Please see this AdWords Help Center article for more information about the undo feature.

Not currently using Automated Rules?

Automated Rules is a feature that lets you save time by scheduling automatic changes to your account based on criteria that you specify. Please see this AdWords Help Center article to see popular types of rules created by advertisers. To learn more about Automated Rules, please visit Ad Innovations.

Posted by Andrew Truong, Product Marketing Manager

Coming Soon: Ad Group Impression Share Metrics

2012-01-17T09:32:00.000-08:00

Based on advertiser requests, we will soon offer ad group level impression share metrics for the Search and Display Networks. Once released, you can use ad group impression share data to, for example, better identify high performing ad groups that aren't capturing the majority of available impressions.

In the next few weeks, you will see three new columns that can be added to your ad groups tab:

Impr. Share: the percentage of impressions you received divided by the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive.
Lost IS (Rank): the share of impressions lost due to your Ad Rank. Note that Lost IS (rank) will not be shown if you were at or near your budget for part or all of a given day (a.k.a. were “budget constrained”) during the date range being examined.
Exact Match IS: (Search Network only) the percentage of impressions you received for searches that exactly matched your keyword divided by the estimated number of exact match impressions you were eligible to receive.

In addition to providing more detailed metrics, we are also planning to update our algorithms to provide more accurate campaign impression share metrics. As a result, there are some important changes you should be aware of:

Refined campaign-level statistics: Since we are improving our algorithms, we will update all campaign-level impression share metrics back to May 2011. As a result, you will no longer be able to see campaign-level historical impression share metrics before May 2011. If you wish to preserve a record of the pre-May 2011 campaign impression share data, you will need to download a report before January 30, 2012.
Once-a-day updates: In order to calculate your impression share metrics with a greater degree of accuracy, we will update all impression share metrics once per day (approximately noon Pacific Time [GTM-8]). As a result, the impression share data that you see will not reflect impression share for the current day, and may not include the previous day's impression share as well (depending on what time of the day you run your report).

These changes will begin to roll out to all advertisers globally on January 30, 2012, so look out for them in your account soon. Once these changes are live, you’ll be able to find more detailed information in the AdWords Help Center.

Posted by Katie Miller, Inside AdWords crew

Visit the re-designed AdWords Help Center today

2012-01-10T10:34:00.000-08:00

Brits, Aussies, and Kiwis: see what Americans have been buzzing about for weeks!

We launched a new look for the AdWords Help Center and it's now available in your countries! Since we introduced it in the U.S. just a few weeks ago, thousands of AdWords users in America have already opted-in. And the feedback is overwhelmingly positive! You asked for a better Help Center -- you got it!

Here are the changes we're rolling out today:

1. Simpler navigation: More easily navigate to the right content using the new menu at the top of each page.

(click for full-size image)

2. Visible contact options: Find options to reach Google with a click on the "Contact us" button in the top right of any page.

3. More screenshots and videos: Use the screenshots and videos in many of the articles to quickly learn how to make the most of Google AdWords.

Ready to try the new Help Center? Opt-in today. Just click the "try the new look" window. Not ready for the new look just yet? You can opt-in later using the yellow bar at the top of any page.

Of course, you can opt-out at any time by selecting “Go back to the old look” in the bottom right corner (but we hope you'll like it too much to leave!).

We’re rolling out the changes gradually, so stay tuned for updates and more helpful articles over the next few months.

Do you like the new Help Center? We’d like to hear what you think. Once you've opted in to the new Help Center, just click the "Send Feedback" link in the lower right corner of any Help Center page.

You can also follow a thread in the Forum if you have something to share with the users in the AdWords Community.

Posted by the AdWords Help Center Team

On your marks, get set, GOMC!

2011-12-27T10:00:00.000-08:00

We’re pleased to announce that professor registration for the 2012 Google Online Marketing Challenge (GOMC 2012), our global student competition, is now open!

Student registration, however, will open January 31, 2012. In order for student teams to participate in the competition, their professors must first register.

But what is this challenge, you ask?

The Google Online Marketing Challenge is a global online marketing competition for students from any higher education institution in the world. Students must develop and run a successful online advertising campaigns through Google AdWords for a real business or non-profit organization, exercising advertising and consulting skills and summarizing them in the campaign reports.

Once the campaigns finish running, Google and a panel of independent academics from all over the world will select the winning teams. Their selections will be based on the success of the campaigns and the quality of the competition reports.

There are exciting prizes awaiting the winners:

Trip to Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California for the Global Winners
Trips to local Google offices for Regional Winners
Opportunity to win donations worth $30,000 for the non-profit organizations the students partner with
A brand new award category for GOMC 2012 - The Best Social Media Page Award - more details to follow!

Last year’s challenge featured 50,000 participants representing 100 countries, and this year’s challenge is expected to boast even more. Students, here’s your chance to make a global impact!

To learn more about the Google Online Marketing Challenge, please visit our website: www.google.com/onlinechallenge.

Posted by AJ Pascua and Anndrea Moore, GOMC Team

Think With Google’s December Adventure: That’s a wrap!

2011-12-22T11:10:00.000-08:00

Think With Google's December Adventure finishes this week with tips on measurement and analytics. We hoped you enjoyed our insights and daily tips this month on the Think with Google Plus Page. If you missed them or wanted to review, here are the previous weeks' recaps for:

Here are the three tips and insights covered this week (and a bonus treat):

#1. Monday - According to the Google ebook Zero Moment of Truth, consumers now consult an average 10.7 sources before making a purchasing decision.
Use Multi-Channel Funnels reporting in Google Analytics to see a user's interactions beyond the last click prior to conversion.

#2. Tuesday - 44% of searches for last-minute gifts and store locations are predicted to be from mobile devices
See how well your mobile site is facilitating conversions with mobile reporting in Google Analytics.

#3. Wednesday - Use Real-Time reporting to see the impact of your holiday promotions within seconds
Use Real-Time reporting in Google Analytics to monitor the immediate impact of email offers and other campaigns that drive customer purchases.

And as a bonus holiday treat...
Holiday measurement tips - straight from the source!
As our final posting for Think with Google's December Adventure, we've wrapped up a handy video from Google's Digital Marketing Evangelist (and best-selling author) Avinash Kaushik on how to measure your holiday campaigns.

To see future insights and tips, please follow Think with Google on Google+.

Happy holidays from Google!

Posted by Andrew Truong, Inside AdWords Crew

New Tools and Controls to Manage Your Google+ Pages

2011-12-19T09:01:00.000-08:00

Last month we introduced Google+ Pages to provide a new way for you to build a public identity on Google+. We’ve been listening closely to your feedback and today we’re introducing several new tools and controls to help you better manage your pages. These new features will start appearing in Google+ accounts over the next couple days; so if you don’t see them today make sure to come back and look for them later this week.

Multiple Administrators and Ownership Transfer
Starting today, you’ll be able to add up to 50 managers who can login and manage your page with their own accounts. Managers can publish posts, respond to comments, add photos, change profile information, and even add/remove other managers.

We've also added the ability for you to transfer page ownership. Ownership of a page can only be transferred to an existing manager. To do so, click the ‘Transfer Ownership’ link in the new Page Settings panel and then choose one of the managers you’d like to transfer ownership to.

Notification Settings
Another feature we’ve added is a way for you as a page owner to get notifications about actions on your page. With this change, you’ll be able to customize the notifications for your business page separately from your personal profile, allowing you to choose the level of detail that’s most appropriate for you. These new settings allow you to change the email address where page notifications are sent, customize what you’d like to be notified about, and adjust how you’d like to be notified.

To adjust these settings click on the Page Settings link and look for the “Set delivery preferences” section. There, you can set what actions you'd like to be notified about and optionally specify a different email address (than your personal email address) for your page notifications. If you have multiple managers on your account, you might want to change the address to a team address that everyone will have access to.

Unified +1 & Circle Count
We’re also making a change to the +1 count shown on your Google+ Page. Starting today, the bold count on your page will include both your +1’s on Google+ and across the web, as well as the number of people who have added you to a circle. This change will not affect the way +1’s are counted or displayed on ads or search results.

We believe that this simple change will better highlight the number of ways people have chosen to recommend and follow your business with Google.

You can learn more about these new features in the Google+ Help Center. We’re working on even more ways to improve the Google+ experience for your business, so please keep sending us your feedback and stay tuned in 2012!

Michael Nestler, Google+ Pages Engineer

Think With Google’s December Adventure: Display and 2011 Trends Recap

2011-12-16T12:30:00.000-08:00

Think With Google's December Adventure finished its third week with a focus on display and trends from 2011.

Here are the five insights and tips we covered this week:
Click on the titles to view the original posts and comments.

#1. Monday: Rich media ads are 2.7x as effective in driving purchase intent vs. basic Flash

Be sure to make video a core component of your display advertising mix to maximize holiday sales.

#2. Tuesday: 96% of people visiting a website leave without completing a transaction

Use remarketing to follow-up with targeted shoppers who browsed your products and left, or abandoned their shopping carts part-way through the purchase process.

#3. Wednesday: Rich media ads grew 66% last year and are predicted to be over 50% of all display ads by 2015

Browse our Rich Media Gallery or our new ad formats for mobile to check out some of our "best of" examples to get your creative juices flowing.

#4. Thursday: Use Google Zeitgeist 2011 to see the hottest gifts and trends for holiday shopping lists

Our year-end Google Zeitgeist launches today, and it's chock full of fascinating tidbits about what's been burning up the search queries this past year

#5. Friday: The search for holiday gifts is on!

Find out what's burning up the search charts as we approach the holidays with this week's top shopping queries.

To learn more, follow Think with Google on Google+ or add this helpful holiday calendar to automatically see these tips on your Google Calendar.

Posted by Andrew Truong, Inside AdWords Crew

Learn with Google Webinar: Driving Conversions Using Google Products

2011-12-13T09:00:00.000-08:00

Is your online campaign performing as well as it could be? Do you want to get more out of your digital marketing campaigns and increase your ROI?

We’ve heard from many of our users that with so much data, it can be hard to know where to begin. If you’d like to get a deep dive on how to increase your conversions, then please join us on Thursday for a Learn with Google webinar:

Webinar: Driving Conversions Using Google Products
Date: Thursday, December 15
Time: 11am - 12pm PST / 2pm - 3pm EST
Sign up here!

This webinar will teach you how to optimize your AdWords account for conversions on Search, Display, and Mobile. Learn to navigate Conversion Tracking, Search Funnels, and the many product features that can help you get your ad in front of the most relevant audience to drive more conversions.

The webinar will be presented by Tiffany Bristol, a Google account manager, and will include Q&A.

Posted by Dora Nagy, Product Marketing Manager

Think With Google’s December Adventure: Mobile Tips Recap

2011-12-09T15:30:00.001-08:00

Think With Google’s December Adventure continued this week with a focus on mobile.

Here are the four mobile-related insights and tips we covered this week (and a fun factoid):
Click on the titles to view the original posts and comments.

#1 Monday: Search from mobile devices up 5x in the past two years!

Capture the mobile opportunity with separate campaigns targeting mobile devices only. Advertisers with mobile-optimized sites and mobile-targeted campaigns have seen an average 11.5% increase in mobile CTR.

#2 Tuesday: 59% of users visit a business and 40%+ make a purchase after using their smartphones to find local information

Use AdWords location extensions to showcase key business information, including your address, phone number and driving directions.

#3 Wednesday: 65% of tablet owners use their tablets at least one hour per day

Target tablet devices as part of your AdWords campaigns and, if you have tablet specific products or services, create tablet-only campaigns.

#4 Thursday: 51% of consumers are more likely to purchase from mobile-optimized websites

Get best practices and personalized tips on how to make your website more mobile-friendly at www.HowToGoMo.com.

#5. Friday Fun Factoid: One, Two, Dial my Smartphone

Sign of the times: We agree with this article and predict that more kids will know how to use a smartphone than know how to tie their shoes. Watch endearing video on the post to see just how important it will be to market your content to the four screens: mobile, tablet, laptop and TV.

To learn more, follow Think with Google on Google+ or add this helpful holiday calendar to automatically see these tips on your Google Calendar.

Posted by Andrew Truong, Inside AdWords Crew

Migrating Conversion Optimizer and Enhanced CPC campaigns to “Optimize for conversions”

2011-12-07T10:30:00.000-08:00

If you’re focused on conversions and CPA (cost-per-acquisition), you may already be using Conversion Optimizer or Enhanced CPC to optimize your campaigns to get you more conversions at a lower cost. To ensure that your campaign settings are also in line with your conversion goals, we plan to migrate existing campaigns using Conversion Optimizer or Enhanced CPC with “Optimize for clicks” ad rotation to “Optimize for conversions” ad rotation. Our studies have shown that campaigns moving from “Optimize for clicks” to “Optimize for conversions” see a 5% increase in conversions on average. This migration is scheduled for February 2012.

If you would prefer not to have your campaigns migrated to “Optimize for conversions” ad rotation, please fill out this form by January 31, 2012.

Update: The new deadline to opt out your campaigns from this migration is February 14th, 2012.

Not currently using Conversion Optimizer or Enhanced CPC?

Please watch the videos below to learn more about the Conversion Optimizer and Enhanced CPC. You also can visit the AdWords Help Center to learn more about ad rotation options.

Conversion Optimizer

Enhanced CPC

Posted by Andrew Truong, Product Marketing Manager

YouTube and TV: better together

2011-12-05T10:37:00.000-08:00

Each day, people watch more than 3 billion videos on YouTube - the equivalent of every American watching about 9 videos a day. U.S. online consumers now spend as much time online as they spend watching TV. With the consumer shift to online media consumption, many of our advertisers wonder how online video ads measure against traditional TV ads. Do traditional and new media ads complement each other? Which format drives recall most effectively?

To get answers, we partnered with Ipsos to measure the relative and combined effects of YouTube in-stream ads and TV ads on ad recall and brand metrics across six advertiser campaigns.

After conducting tests of 15- and 30-second spots on YouTube pre-roll instream ads and TV ads, the results revealed that YouTube and TV ads work better together. People who watched both YouTube and TV ads showed a 2X increase in brand recall than people who only saw TV ads. Those that only watched a YouTube ad had a brand recall rate 1.5X those who only watched a TV ad.

Hotels.com, one of the advertisers that participated in the study, uses YouTube video ads to drive incremental reach for TV campaigns. "Our customers are online today, so it only makes sense for e-commerce brands like Hotels.com to find entertaining and engaging online formats to interact with our audience," says Vic Walia, senior director of brand marketing for Hotels.com. "YouTube video ads is a great distribution vehicle for us to efficiently maximize our reach, but the fact that is has the added impact of improving our overall ad recall metrics is a tremendous win."

This study comes on the heels of our multi-screen research, which found that brand recall jumps dramatically for consumers shown ads across all screens - TV, PC, smartphone and tablet devices. As more people consume media across multiple devices, having a multi-channel campaign strategy helps reach consumers at different points throughout the day.

To learn more about our study, download the infographic and slides from Think Insights or check out our video. And, when planning your media buys, consider using a combination of YouTube ads and TV ads to help you achieve higher ad recall than TV ads alone. You can find out more information about YouTube video ads here.

Posted by Lizzy Van Alstine & Christina Park, Google Research and Marketing

+1 button in DFP for direct sold ads

2011-12-05T10:34:00.000-08:00

In March, we introduced the +1 button on search results to make it easier for people to get recommendations from the people they trust right when they’re searching. Then in early October we expanded that to include Google Display Network ads across the web on both desktop and mobile.

Today, we’re excited to expand this capability to publishers who sell their ad space directly to advertisers using a new creative template available in DART for Publishers and the new DFP. Using the Image or Flash with Google +1 custom creative template, publishers can now add the Google +1 button to their ads so that people can share your offers with others across the web.

If you’d like to learn more about how publishers can integrate the +1 button on your direct-sold ads, please visit the DART or new DFP help centers.

Posted by David Flinner, Product Manager.

Think With Google’s December Adventure: Search Tips Recap

2011-12-02T13:00:00.000-08:00

As we announced earlier this week, we'll be sharing insights and daily tips this month on Think with Google's Plus Page, to help you make the most of your holiday marketing.

Here are the four search ad related insights we covered this week (and a fun factoid):
Click on the titles to view the original Google+ posts and comments.

Monday: 57% of shoppers still plan to do most of their holiday buying after Cyber Monday – Prepare for the big shopping days ahead by scheduling budgets to meet demand. Learn how in the "budget scheduling" section of this helpful article to learn how.
Tuesday: Online ads are surprisingly under-served during the holidays – Take a look at the seasonal spike in shopping queries versus the level supply of ads. Grab people's attention with ads at the top of the page by taking advantage of our newly launched options for Automated Rules.
Wednesday: Searches for "layaway" are heating up – Layaways are catching fire again with budget-conscious consumers at retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target and Kmart - especially in the Southern US. Geo-target your campaigns to areas where holiday shoppers are looking through the Location Targeting Tool.
Thursday: December has arrived, bringing eight projected $1 billion+ online shopping days – Target those last-minute, undecided buyers with keyword terms such as "quick and easy gift ideas." The rush to purchase gift cards has also started, so make sure you have relevant keywords and ads.
Friday Fun Factoid: The Cold Truth – Did you know people in the US catch an average of three colds a year, per person? At about 1 billion colds annually, that's nothing to sneeze at. And this year's cold season could be worse than usual: Cold- and flu-related searches on Google are up by 61% so far over the same period last year. That means we'll see 14.1 million more cold- and flu-related searches this December than last December. So wash your hands before hitting the keyboard and bundle up, folks!

To learn more, follow Think with Google on Google+ or add this helpful holiday calendar to automatically see these tips on your Google Calendar.

Posted by Andrew Truong, Inside AdWords Crew

Find what you need fast in the new AdWords Help Center

2011-12-02T09:48:00.000-08:00

Today we are happy to announce the launch of our new AdWords Help Center for opted in U.S. users. Based on your feedback we redesigned the Help Center to make it much easier for you to find the information for which you're searching.

Here are some of the changes we've made:

1. Simplified navigation: More easily navigate to the right content using the new menu at the top of each page.

(click for larger image)

2. Visible contact options: Find options to reach Google with a click on the "Contact us" button in the top right of any page.

3. More screenshots and videos: Use the screenshots and videos in many of the articles to quickly learn how to make the most of Google AdWords.

To opt into the new Help Center, select “Try the new look” from the yellow bar at the top of the page.

(click for larger image)

You can also opt out at any time by selecting “Go back to the old look” in the bottom right corner.

We're rolling the changes out gradually, starting with about 60 of the most important topics. Stay tuned for more updates, as well as the global roll out, over the new few quarters.

Do you like the new Help Center? We'd like to hear what you think. Once you've opted-in to the new Help Center, just click the "Send Feedback" link in the lower right corner of any Help Center page.

You can also follow a thread in the Forum if you have something to share with the users in the AdWords Community.

Posted by The AdWords Help Center Team

Webinar: Reaching Your Goals with Analytics

2011-11-29T09:00:00.000-08:00

(Cross-posted from the Google Analytics Blog)

Is your website performing as well as it could be? Do you want to get more out of your digital marketing campaigns, including AdWords and other digital media? Do you feel like you have gaps in your current Google Analytics setup?

We’ve heard from many of our users who want to go deeper into their Analytics -- with so much data, it can be hard to know where to look first. If you’d like to move beyond standard “pageview” metrics and visitor statistics, then please join us next Thursday:

Webinar: Reaching Your Goals with Analytics
Date: Thursday, December 1
Time: 11am PST / 2pm EST
Sign up here!

During the webinar, we’ll cover:

Key questions to ask for richer insights from your data
How to define “success” (for websites, visitors, or campaigns)
How to set up and use Goals
How to set up and use Ecommerce (for websites with a shopping cart)
How to link AdWords to your Google Analytics account

Whatever your online business model -- shopping, lead-generation, or pure content -- these tools will deliver actionable insights into your buying cycle.

This webinar will be led by Joe Larkin, a technical specialist on the Google Analytics team, and it’s designed for intermediate users of Google Analytics. If you’re comfortable with the basics, but you’d like to do more with your data, then we hope you’ll join us on Thursday!

Posted by Sara Jablon Moked, Google Analytics team

New ways to take action on top of page bid estimates

2011-11-28T12:00:00.000-08:00

A few months ago, we launched top of page bid estimates to provide additional assistance in optimizing your ads to show above the search results. Today, we wanted to let you know about ways to more easily and scalably take action on these bid estimates, now that they’re supported by Automated Rules and AdWords Editor 9.7.1.

Setting up top of page bid rules with Automated Rules

You can use automated rules with top of page bid estimates to raise the bids of your keywords to the recommended top of page bid, and run this rule on a daily basis.

To create this rule:

Click All online campaigns in the left panel of your AdWords account.
Click the Keywords tab.
Click the Automate button, and select “Raise bids to top of page CPC when..." from the drop-down.
Fill out the form as desired.

Note: Be sure to specify a maximum bid, In addition, you might want to only raise bids for keywords that have a good quality score (for example, Quality score >= 6), so as not to bid up keywords that need to be optimized.

What you can do in AdWords Editor 9.7.1

AdWords Editor 9.7.1 launched last week with support for managing bids based on top of page bid estimates. New functionality was added to allow:

Viewing “Top of page bid estimates” on the Keywords tab
Raising bids to “Top of page bid estimates” using Advanced bid changes
Filtering keywords based on “Top of page bid estimates” within Advanced Search and “Find duplicates”

For more details on AdWords Editor 9.7.1, please see the release notes and the download center.

Posted by Andrew Truong, Product Marketing Manager

Holiday insights and tips from Think with Google!

2011-11-28T09:00:00.000-08:00

Think it’s too late for holiday marketing initiatives? Think again!

Today the Think with Google team launches December Adventure, where every weekday between now and December 23, they’ll share useful, surprising and delightful insights and opportunities for sparking your online holiday sales via search ads, mobile and more. It’s prime time for online shopping, so follow Think with Google on Google+ for daily tips! You can also add this helpful holiday calendar to automatically see these tips on your Google Calendar.

Our December Adventure is just beginning - so bundle up, log on, and get ready to grow your holiday business day by day. Click here to visit Think with Google on Google+. To share the glow of these holiday insights, use #decemberadventure.

Posted by Andrew Truong, Inside AdWords Crew

More ways to reach your audience with YouTube mobile ads

2011-11-16T12:00:00.000-08:00

Editor's Note: As of December 1st, 2011, you will start to see Promoted Videos referred to as TrueView in-search and TrueView in-display.

There’s no debate that the world is going mobile. Mobile web searches have grown five times over the past two years. YouTube mobile now gets more than 400 million views a day, representing 13 percent of our total daily views.

For advertisers, this opens up more opportunities to reach customers. And in some cases, it can amplify existing campaigns. In a recent study conducted with Nielsen research, we found that promotions perform better together when displayed across multiple screens. In fact, brand recall jumps dramatically to 74 percent for people who saw ads across TV, PC, smartphone and tablets, up from 50 percent for those who saw ads only on TV.

Here are a few ways you can extend your mobile reach with YouTube:

YouTube’s Promoted Video ads on mobile

Do you use Promoted Video ads to reach viewers searching for relevant products and potential customers browsing videos on YouTube.com? You can also use Promoted Videos to reach viewers on the go. Promoted Videos are featured at the top of the video search results on m.youtube.com, YouTube’s mobile platform.

Advertisers pay only when the viewer chooses to watch the video, and all mobile and desktop view counts are summarized into one complete view count on your channel page. Mobile Promoted Video ads are auction-based campaigns that can be managed in your Google AdWords account. All Google AdWords campaigns are opted into “all devices” by default, but creating separate mobile campaigns helps optimize your mobile advertising efforts and the performance of your brand channel.

A Promoted Video ad on m.youtube.com includes an ad thumbnail, title and channel name; similar to the organic video results.

Promoted Video ads have recently joined YouTube’s family of TrueView ad formats. Soon, your Promoted Video ads will become TrueView in-search ads and TrueView in-display ads. TrueView in-search ads show up in display ad units against search results on YouTube, whereas TrueView in-display ads show up in display ad units against suggested videos on YouTube and across website content on the Google Display Network. These TrueView video ads can be set up and managed in any Google AdWords for video account and purchased on a cost-per-view basis.

YouTube mobile in-stream ads

YouTube mobile in-stream ads are 15-second pre-roll ads that appear before the video begins to play. Similar to your desktop experience, mobile in-stream ads may show before videos produced by YouTube partners. In addition to the Android YouTube app, in-stream ads are also available to viewers accessing m.youtube.com from their iPhone.

You can optimize your mobile in-stream ads to reach specific audiences, locations and content. In-stream ads are priced on a CPM basis and can be arranged via ad reservation through your Google sales representative.

Animal Planet used mobile in-stream ads to promote the new season of River Monsters.

YouTube mobile roadblocks

YouTube Mobile roadblocks give brands 100% share of voice on the YouTube home, browse and search pages on m.youtube.com. According to recent Nielsen data, these roadblocks add 17 percent incremental impressions for advertisers.

adidas used mobile roadblocks to complement their homepage masthead ad. Using multiple mobile tactics in addition to roadblocks, channel views jumped 26x over the span of their “adidas is all in” brand campaign.

Mobile brand channels extend your online presence

Many advertisers use banners, background images and gadgets to customize their YouTube brand channels. Extend your brand presence to mobile users by creating a customized mobile brand channel. Accessed through m.youtube.com, mobile channels offer the same high level of customization, including the use of gadgets. You can drive traffic to your YouTube mobile brand channel by running ads on the AdMob network or on m.youtube.com.

YouTube’s AdBlitz brand channel features custom-designed elements which engage our growing mobile audience.

For more information about YouTube mobile ads, connect with your Google sales representative or visit www.youtube.com/advertise/mobile.html.

Posted by Nicky Crane, Product Manager