Inside AdWords

Think2010: Innovate to better connect

2009-12-01T14:02:00.000-08:00

As you plan your marketing approach for 2010, think of 'innovation' in a broad sense. You don't need to be the first to venture into uncharted territory or the one to make the biggest splash. You just need to think openly and differently about your customer connections. Strive to be nimble, current, and ever-more relevant as you create them.

In today's marketing world, this often means making use of insights and Analytics tools to continually tweak your approach. It means finding the right mix of social media to engage your customers in a compelling and authentic way, and it means making use of new mediums and targeting methods so you can connect your message to a consumer at the right time.

Here are a few ways you can innovate in 2010:

1) Become a more nimble marketer by crafting your campaigns around current trends. You can stay abreast of the trends related to your brand and business by using Insights for Search.

2) Converse with consumers on 'their turf,' but don't force it. For example, promote your message on YouTube, and then monitor its appeal and virality. Make use of what you learn and keep revising the conversation accordingly.

3) Adapt your strategy to connect with consumers on-the-go. You can try out high-end mobile device targeting to show your text and image ads on mobile devices with full Internet browsers. This means you'll be able to connect with mobile consumers with the same richness as you would via a desktop computer.

Posted by Emily Williams, Inside AdWords crew

The AdWords New Ad Formats Initiative

2009-11-30T08:18:00.000-08:00

Black Friday may be behind us, but Cyber Monday, one of the busiest days of the year for online retailers, has just begun. And just as users' searches for Cyber Monday deals and information have increased over time, so have their expectations about the types of information they want from the ads.

Last week, the Official Google Blog provided an overview of some of the new search ad formats we've introduced over the last few months. These new formats are part of our AdWords New Ad Formats Initiative and showcase the ways we've worked to include richer types of information in our ads. This initiative is Google's next chapter in search advertising and over the next year it'll be a major focus for AdWords, so we'd like to give you an idea of what to expect.

The AdWords New Ad Formats Initiative has two themes: ad extensions and new ad models.

Ad extensions offer you the ability to enhance your existing text ads with additional relevant information. Some examples of ad extensions include Ad Sitelinks which allow you to provide additional links pointing to specific information on your site and Product Extensions which allow you to show images and prices of relevant products from your Google Merchant Center account. By putting the most salient information directly wiithin the ad, ad extensions are designed to help users more quickly and easily find the products and services they seek on Google.
New ad models are formats that offer better solutions to more complicated queries. For example, Comparison Ads enable users to specify the exact product or service they're looking for and compare multiple offers in a single location. New ad models also offer advertisers new pricing models, like cost per action for Product Listing Ads. Our new ad models are designed to make it easier for users to find exactly what they want and for you to reach more users with better information.

The AdWords New Ad Formats Initiative is part of our core mission to deliver the right information to the right user at the right time. As more and more users come online searching for products and services, we'll continue to test new ad extensions and new ad models that make it easier for them to find the information they're searching for.

We hope you have a successful Cyber Monday and look forward to working with you to make AdWords even better in the new year.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

Product extensions available to all U.S. advertisers

2009-11-24T10:27:00.000-08:00

Beginning today, all U.S. advertisers can get started with a new feature of AdWords called product extensions. Like Ad Sitelinks, which we introduced earlier this month, product extensions are a way for you to enrich your existing AdWords ads with more relevant and specific information. Product extensions allow you to use your existing Google Merchant Center account to highlight your products directly in your search ads. When your AdWords text ad appears, and your Google Merchant Center account contains products that are relevant to the searcher’s query, product extensions show the images, titles, and prices of your products in a plusbox under your ad.

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With product extensions you can show users the products from your site that are most relevant to their current query. You're charged the same cost-per-click (CPC) whether a user clicks on your main text ad or any of the offers within the product extensions plusbox; however, you won't be charged if a user simply expands the plusbox without clicking through to your site. Advertisers who implemented product extensions during our beta found that the additional product information helped improve the performance of their search campaigns. For example, Zeta interactive, who manages advertising for SonyStyle.com, reported seeing over a 10% increase in clickthrough rate (CTR) for their ads with product extensions.

Like Product Listing Ads, which we announced as a limited beta earlier this month, product extensions are part of our effort to make ads more useful and relevant for shopping-related queries by allowing advertisers to include relevant product information directly within the ad. However, unlike Product Listing Ads, which are automatically targeted and priced on a cost-per-action (CPA) basis, product extensions are priced on a cost per click (CPC) basis and will only display when your ad is triggered by one of the keywords in your product extensions enabled campaigns. What's more, product extensions give you the option to prefer which products are displayed when a user’s query triggers your ads. For example, you may sell dozens of laptop computers but you want to promote the newest or best selling inventory using product extensions when a user searches for 'laptop computer' on Google.com. By making a simple addition to your Merchant Center account, you can easily control the products that display for certain queries. Of course, you can always use automatic targeting, and let AdWords determine the most relevant products in your account to a user’s query.

It's easy to get started with product extensions. First, log in to Google Merchant Center and add your Adwords customer ID to your account. Then, simply visit the campaign settings tab in your AdWords account, find the 'Ad extensions' heading and select the option to "Use product images and information from my Google Merchant Center account." No need to create new campaigns or ad groups, update your keywords or change your ad text. Product extensions are available now to all U.S. advertisers, but remain in a limited beta outside the U.S. Over time, we hope to offer product extensions to all advertisers globally.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

Think2010: Experimentation is worth the risk

2009-11-23T16:37:00.000-08:00

When it comes to testing and experimentation, there's always a risk-reward scenario to play out. You could go with what you know and what feels comfortable -- or you could try something new and see how it fares. It could really pay off, but it could also flop. If you're responsible for cooking a big Thanksgiving feast this week, you may feel that lots of experimentation is clearly not worth the risk. When you think about your approach to marketing in 2010 however, testing and experimentation should be key elements.

With digital marketing, testing is a low-cost, fast way to learn. The ability to start, stop, or change your approach is easy and actually applying what you learn -- so you can capture the greatest opportunity -- can happen very quickly.

When you market online, the cycle of launching, measuring, and optimizing happens quickly and continuously. The more nimbly you manage this cycle, the stronger your results will be. Don't be afraid to try and possibly fail -- whether you're testing a new creative message, a new communication platform, a new promotion, or another strategy. The long term benefits of successful testing can quickly and easily outweigh the short term costs.

Brett Keller, CMO of Priceline.com, echoes these thoughts on the value of experimentation.

Here are a few testing ideas to apply in 2010:

Use Website Optimizer to test content (e.g. headline, copy, images) or design alternatives for your landing page. This tool will help you quickly identify and implement the combinations that drive most conversions.
Use YouTube as a focus group. Beyond monitoring views, ratings, and comments, use YouTube Insight to learn what's resonating, and where. Based on what you learn, invest in your 'winning' content by driving traffic via sponsored videos, altering your associated messaging in search campaigns, and ramping up geo-targeting in the areas where your video over-indexes in popularity. You may even consider testing that video as a TV spot (e.g. via Google TV Ads).
If you're not yet using display ads, commit to testing them. Use Display Ad Builder to build display, rich media, and video ads in minutes by incorporating your own text, images, and logo into one of our professionally designed templates. This allows you to test a creative message and learn what is working before investing in a deeper level of creative support.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

Take advantage of advanced reports

2009-11-18T16:34:00.000-08:00

For a long time, the Report Center has been the place to go to find detailed data about your campaign performance. Reports with dimensions like geographic performance and time of day can give you new insights through metrics that aren't available on the campaigns tab.

But there can be drawbacks to using the Report Center: customized reports take time to set up and run, and you have to navigate back to the Campaigns tab to take action on any insights you discover.

We're addressing these issues by better integrating advanced performance data into campaign management. Now, instead of running a placement performance report, you can manage your automatic placements on the Networks tab. Rather than run a search query report, you can use the "See search terms" option on the Keywords tab to see which searches are bringing up your ads. And if you prefer to look at your reports in a spreadsheet program, you now have the option to download nearly every table in your account (look under the "More actions..." menu above each table).

You can also use new segmentation functions to slice and dice your data directly within campaign management. Click on the "Filter and views" menu above your statistics, then choose the "Segment by" option to see different the levels of detail available for display.

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The segmentation options available to you differ depending on whether you're looking at keywords, ad groups or campaigns. If you're looking at keywords, you can segment by match type. If you're looking at campaigns or ad groups, you can segment by network to quickly compare your performance on Google and search partner sites to your performance on the Content Network.

In addition to these segmentation options, we've recently introduced time-based segmentation for your campaigns, ad groups and keywords. Now you can break out statistics by day, week, month, quarter or year to isolate changes in your performance. For example, if your performance summary graphs show a sharp decrease in clicks, segmenting by day can show you changes in other statistics that might explain why your drop in traffic occurred.

You can also segment by day of the week. This option is helpful if you're looking for help with ad scheduling. Try segmenting your performance for the past few months: if your performance is dramatically different on a given day of the week, you can modify your bids to account for the change in user behavior.

We'll be bringing even more data from the Report Center into the Campaigns tab over the coming months. So next time you're searching for insights you can use to improve your performance, you won't have to look very far.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

Think2010: Recap of the Four Winning Moves webinar

2009-11-17T15:13:00.000-08:00

Last week, Google’s US Managing Director Bonita Stewart hosted the 2nd webinar in the Think2010 series, entitled “Think2010: Four Winning Moves for 2010.” She discussed tools and strategies that you can use to differentiate your offerings, increase competitive advantage, and ultimately seize opportunities as the economy recovers. Below are the four key takeaways from the webinar:

1) Use precision - Flexibility yields stealing share: Utilizing precision through search can serve as the world’s largest focus group and allow you to understand how consumers want to engage with brands. Tools like Google Analytics and Insights for Search can help you increase this precision.

2) Develop deeper connections - Consumers want to connect: Understand your audience and how they are communicating, then develop marketing campaigns to target your ideal consumers. Utilizing new communication technologies within ad creatives can make your advertising more interactive. Advertising on community centric mediums like YouTube can help to increase brand engagement and ultimately help you develop deeper connections with consumers.

3) Innovate - Marry the art and the science: News and optimism about the economic recovery have increased over the past few months. Business leaders across the globe are thinking forward and seizing the opportunity to throw out old marketing rules and embrace innovation as they gear up for 2010. Large brands like GM and JetBlue, for example, are coming up with new digital strategies to act nimbly and ensure they're prepared for the opportunities the recovery will offer.

4) Be relevant - Consumers don’t stop searching: It’s important for you to stay engaged and in touch with consumer demands. Keeping a pulse on search trends is a live, real-time way for you to stay up to date on consumer interest and sentiment.

If you missed this webinar and would like to learn more, please visit the Google Business Channel on YouTube to see the recorded version. Also, be sure to stay engaged with the Think2010 series at www.google.com/think2010 where you can view videos, blog posts and future webinars.

Posted by Katrina Kurnit, Inside AdWords crew

Upgrade to AdWords Editor 7.6.1

2009-11-13T07:57:00.000-08:00

AdWords Editor version 7.6.1 is now available for Windows and Mac. This new version includes support for ad scheduling, advanced location targeting, YouTube Promoted Video ads, and other features. For a complete list of changes and instructions, visit our release notes.

If you're already using AdWords Editor, you'll be prompted to upgrade automatically. If you're not already using it, you can visit our website to download AdWords Editor. To learn more, take a look at our AdWords Editor Help Center.

Posted by Emily Williams, Inside AdWords crew

AdWords system maintenance on November 14th

2009-11-11T18:15:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, November 14th, 2009 the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 10AM to 2PM PST, for maintenance. While you won't be able to sign in to your accounts during this time, your campaigns will continue to run as usual.

AdWords system maintenance typically occurs on the second Saturday of each month from 10AM to 2PM.

We'll continue to update you via the blog as we always have, but please make note of the November 14th date and of our scheduled maintenance further down the road.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

Announcing Product Listing Ads

2009-11-11T13:47:00.000-08:00

Each day we see many users come to Google.com to research products and find where to buy them. To better serve these users, we've been testing a new feature of AdWords called Product Listing Ads. Product Listing Ads works with an advertiser's Google Merchant Center account to serve highly targeted ads that include richer product information directly in the ad itself - including product image, price, and merchant name. Starting today, U.S. users searching on Google.com may begin to see Product Listing Ads more frequently on their shopping related queries.

Two examples of Product Listing Ads (click for full size image)

Product Listing Ads is part of our effort to simplify the advertising process for merchants with large product inventories. Some of the key features of Product Listing Ads include:

Pay only for results: Product Listing Ads are charged on a cost-per-action (CPA) basis, which means that you only pay when a user clicks on your ad and completes a purchase on your site. Because Product Listing Ads is charged on a CPA basis, it offers a risk-free way for you to reach a larger audience on Google.com.
List your entire inventory: Product Listing Ads requires no keywords or additional ad text. Whenever a user enters a search query relevant to an item in your Google Merchant Center account, Google will automatically show the most relevant products along with the associated image, price and product name. Product Listing Ads makes it easy for you to promote your entire product inventory on Google.com.

At this time, Product Listing Ads is still a beta feature and is only available to a limited number of retail advertisers. Over time, we'll increase the number of users who see Product Listing Ads as well as the number of advertisers able to participate.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

Google Ad Planner: Now even easier to find the right audience for your campaigns

2009-11-11T12:59:00.000-08:00

In our ongoing effort to give you in-depth data for your media plan, we've released a number of Google Ad Planner enhancements that provide a more granular view of where your audience can be found.

Subdomain data
We've added subdomain data to Google Ad Planner to give you a more detailed view of sites. This information can help you refine your media plan by providing more information about specific pages.

With subdomain data, you can search for subdomains; view the top subdomains based on total domain traffic for a site; view traffic, demographics and other data for the subdomain itself; and add subdomains to your media plan. Learn how to search for subdomains.

Ad placements
Ad placements are specific sections on a website where advertising can be purchased, such as the middle right section of a page.

Google Ad Planner now offers ad placement data so that you can make better informed decisions about where to target your ads. You can review placement data for sites in the Google Content Network, and beta test publishers using Google Ad Manager. Additional placement data is coming soon. Learn how to search for ad placements in Google Ad Planner.

Reach and relevance at a glance
With our new interactive graph, you can easily see which sites in your plan provide the best reach and relevance. In its default setting, the graph will compare sites in your search results by audience reach and composition index. Sites with the most reach will appear in the top-left quadrant. Sites with the most relevance will appear in the bottom-right quadrant. Sites near the top-right quadrant will have the best combination of both reach and relevance. You can customize the graph to visualize and compare sites in a variety of ways.

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In the example above, a graph of sites reaching seniors age 65 or older shows that newsmax.com has the best relevance, facebook.com has the best reach, and nytimes.com has a mix of both.

More detailed publisher data
Publishers and site owners can now use Google Ad Planner to share additional Google Analytics data points such as page views, unique visitors, total visits, average visits per visitor, and average time on site. As a result, you can feel even more confident in the accuracy of Ad Planner data, and make better informed decisions about the sites you include in your media plan.

We hope you will try out these new features, and please send us your feedback so we can continue to improve Google Ad Planner.

Posted by Katrina Kurnit, Inside AdWords crew

Think2010: Stay focused on the fundamentals

2009-11-10T11:15:00.000-08:00

As you look to get ahead of the recovery and set yourself up for success in 2010, let's revisit some of the lessons learned during the recession that you can apply going forward. We've been compiling both forward-looking perspectives and retrospective wisdom on our Fast.Forward. channel on YouTube. In this week's post, we want to call out some advice from Rick Carpenter of the agency DDB in Chicago.

From Rick's perspective, the recession underscored the fundamental truth in marketing: you need to continually, and earnestly, focus on the customer. This means understanding what's going on in their lives and what their mindset is, and it's critical to be relevant to the people that the message will reach.

The recession also taught us that marketers must retrench and commit to their own fundamental core values. Your brand and company shouldn't continually have to reinvent itself to adapt to the macro-economic climate. As you prepare for 2010, is your positioning clear?

Listen to what Rick has to say here:

(click to watch video on YouTube)

To stay engaged with our Think2010 series more broadly, visit www.google.com/think2010.

Posted by Amanda Kelly, Inside AdWords crew

New alerts for your campaigns

2009-11-09T11:19:00.000-08:00

Alerts are a great way to stay on top of changes in your account. In addition to the account alerts already available for billing and campaign maintenance, you can also use custom alerts to monitor shifts in key metrics like clicks and cost. We'd like to tell you about two additional alert options that we're introducing today.

First, we've added alerts for new keyword and budget ideas in the Opportunities tab. Ideas are personalized tips to help you potentially improve your campaigns' effectiveness. New ideas are usually generated for campaigns and ad groups every few weeks, but you may miss ideas that can expand your coverage and boost your traffic if you don't check the Opportunities tab regularly. Now, when there are new ideas available for your review, you'll see them highlighted along with the rest of your campaign alerts.

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Second, if you're using AdWords conversion tracking, you can now create custom alerts for changes in conversion volume, conversion rate, and cost per conversion. By setting alerts for your conversion data, you can make sure that you're quickly notified about fluctuations in your key metrics.

Please note that we're still working to bring custom alerts to all linked accounts for My Client Center (MCC) users. In the meantime, you can still set custom alerts for your individual accounts if you're able to log into them directly.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

AdWords Conversion Tracking is now even easier

2009-11-05T14:52:00.000-08:00

If you use AdWords Conversion Tracking, you may have noticed that the interface for this tool has been redesigned so that it's easier to implement, monitor, and troubleshoot.

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There are now 3 easy-to-use tabs - Conversions, Webpages, and Code - that help you manage your conversion data. Let's take a closer look at each of them:

Conversions: This is where you see information about the conversion actions you're tracking.

The "Tracking Status" column lets you know whether a conversion action is tracking properly. It shows you if a conversion has ever been recorded, if it has recently stopped recording, or if it's working just fine.
The "Value" column shows the accumulated value of the conversions you've received based on the value you've assigned to each action.
The "New Conversion" button allows you to easily create new conversion actions or import them from a linked Google Analytics account. (Note: In order to import Google Analytics goals, you'll first need to follow a few steps.)

(Click to see full size image)

Webpages: Here, you'll see which pages on your site are getting conversions. You can also see a breakdown of the number of conversions per page on your site. This is useful for troubleshooting, as you can make sure conversions are coming from the pages you expect and identify pages that are not reporting conversion activity.

Code: This is where you get the tracking code for each conversion action. You can also change the value of an action, which helps you calculate ROI.

If you're not currently using AdWords Conversion Tracking, now is a great time to start. Conversion Tracking gives you an accurate way to measure the success of your AdWords campaigns. You can learn more about the benefits and how to implement it here.

We hope you enjoy the new interface and happy optimizing!

Posted by Emily Williams, Inside AdWords crew

Think2010: Four Winning Moves webinar

2009-11-04T10:46:00.000-08:00

In last week's Think2010 post, we highlighted the value of search marketing to prompt direct conversions and advance branding goals. In this post, US Managing Director Bonita Stewart briefly discussed the role search played during the economic downturn.

On Tuesday, November 10th, Bonita Stewart will be hosting our second Think2010 webinar titled "Think2010: Four Winning Moves for 2010." Bonita will elaborate on fundamental search advertising strategies that marketers should employ to get ahead of the recovery moving into 2010. She'll also dive deeper into the relevance and importance of search as a core behavior, the significance of innovation in marketing, the value of developing the deeper connections that consumers are seeking, and the precision needed to target the right audience and speak to their interests.

In our ever-changing marketplace, it's important to thoughtfully plan the decisions that will differentiate your offerings, increase your competitive advantage, and create opportunities as the economy recovers. If you're interested in attending the Think2010: Four Winning Moves for 2010 webinar, please register here.

Posted by Katrina Kurnit, Inside AdWords crew

Increasing choice and relevancy in search ads

2009-11-03T10:08:00.000-08:00

As part of our ongoing commitment to helping users find the information they're seeking online, we’re happy to announce the launch of Ad Sitelinks.

Ad Sitelinks is a new AdWords feature that allows you to extend the value of your existing AdWords ads by providing additional links to content deep within your sites. Rather than sending all users to the same landing page, Ad Sitelinks will display up to 4 additional Destination URLs on your search-based text ad for users to choose from. By providing users with more options, you can create richer, more relevant ads that improve the value of your brand terms and other targeted keywords.

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With Ad Sitelinks, you can point to specific information on your site such as gift registries, special deals, holiday or event-related promotions, and store locators. Early participants in Ad Sitelinks, like Priceline.com, found that presenting multiple link options made it easier to direct users to relevant information on their sites, driving them deeper into the conversion funnel.

Currently, the option to set up Ad Sitelinks will only appear for advertisers whose ads meet a certain high quality threshold.

If your account qualifies to run this feature, you'll find the option to set up Ad Sitelinks in your Campaign Settings tab -- it will appear as "Show additional links to my site" under the "Ad extensions" section.

To learn more about Ad Sitelinks, read our FAQ in the Help Center.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

New holiday ad templates available in Display Ad Builder

2009-11-02T13:57:00.000-08:00

This winter season take advantage of holiday-themed Display Ad Builder templates to advertise your products and services.

You can find these new templates in the "Seasonal" category of the Display Ad Builder gallery. Here are some examples of the templates:

(click here to view larger image)

These templates use new high quality buttons and backgrounds to provide you with just the right holiday feel for your upcoming advertising campaigns. By changing the text and adding your own images, you can build customized ads in minutes.

We also recently launched 20 high quality templates in the "General" category, and 20 "People" ads featuring professional images of people.

To start creating your ads, visit the “Ads” tab in any campaign, click “New Ad,” and select “Display Ad Builder’ from the drop down.

Posted by Austin Rachlin, Inside AdWords crew

Reminder: Google sessions @ ad:tech NY next week

2009-10-30T11:37:00.000-07:00

If you're planning on attending ad:tech or Content Revenue Strategies (CRS) at the Javits Center in New York City next week, we hope you'll come and meet the Google ads team while you're there. Over November 4 and 5, we'll offer a series of sessions designed to give you practical tips for improving your search and display campaigns.

The Google Ads Factory Tour, 11/4-11/5/09

The Factory Tour will span 10 hours of live workshops designed to give you an overview of Google's latest measurement and optimization tools. Here's the full two-day agenda:

Wednesday, November 4 - Optimizing Search & Display

11:00am-12:00pm AdWords Optimization Tools: Smarter Search Management

12:00pm-1:00pm Conversion Optimizer: The Next Generation of AdWords Bidding

2:00-2:30pm Google Content Network: Matching Solutions to Advertisers

2:30-3:30pm Google Content Network: Creating Effective Campaigns

3:30-4:30pm Google Content Network: Optimizing for Results

4:30-5:00pm Automating Content Network Campaigns Through the AdWords API

Thursday, November 5 - Measurement, Ads Quality, Mobile & Local

11:00am-12:00pm Google Campaign Insights: What to Measure and When

12:00-1:00pm Google Campaign Insights: A Behind the Scenes Look at the Technology

2:00-3:00pm Google Analytics & Website Optimizer: Making the Most of Your Traffic

3:00-4:00pm Google Search Ads Quality: What It Is and How to Improve It

4:00-5:00pm Local and Mobile Ads: How to Use Location to Drive Results

You can stop by for a single session, or stay for the whole event. The Factory Tour is open to all exhibit hall and conference passholders. For more information, check the ad:tech events page.

Content Revenue Strategies, 11/5/09

Formerly known as ADSPACE, CRS is the only expo dedicated to AdSense and contextual advertising. Sessions will focus on maximizing performance on Google’s Content Network as well as emerging blog, video and social media networks.

We'll also have AdWords and AdSense optimizers available to answer any questions you have about improving your contextually-targeted campaigns. Stop by the Optimization Lounge to get customized tips and share any feedback you have for the Google ads team.

If you haven't yet signed up for ad:tech or CRS, registration is still open. You can enter the promotional code 20EXNY9 to receive 20% off an ad:tech full conference pass. If you're only attending CRS, enter the code CRSGoogle to receive $100 off the price of your CRS conference pass.

Hope to see you next week.

Posted by Austin Rachlin, Inside AdWords crew

Introducing AdWords Comparison Ads

2009-10-29T12:08:00.000-07:00

Today we're excited to begin testing a new feature of AdWords called AdWords Comparison Ads, which lets users compare multiple, relevant offers more easily. Comparison Ads is part of our continuing effort to make ads more relevant and useful to our users and to help you, our advertisers, reach the people who are most interested in your products and services.

AdWords uses a host of targeting and relevancy signals to determine the best ads for each query. However, sometimes a user's query doesn't provide enough information for us to confidently predict what they want. Take, for example, users who search for "mortgage." Do they want a new home loan or a refinance? Do they want a fixed rate or an adjustable rate loan? Comparison Ads improves the ad experience on Google.com by letting users specify exactly what they are looking for and helping them quickly compare relevant offers side by side.

With Comparison Ads, you can also target your offers at a more granular level, leading to more valuable, qualified leads. To see how it works, let's use our mortgage example. Users searching for "mortgage" on Google.com may see a promotion from Comparison Ads prompting them to select the type of loan they are looking for and to compare various rates.

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If they click the promotion, users are taken to a page with more detailed sponsored results. They can choose directly from the offers listed on that page, or they can further refine their search by providing additional information like income and home value. By giving users the ability to refine their search on a number of relevant attributes, we are able to show more targeted ads and provide you with more valuable leads.

Once users find an offer that matches their specific needs, they can either call you directly or request a quote. If a user requests a quote, Google automatically anonymizes the user's phone number and sends you a unique code that you can use to contact the user. You only pay if a user calls the phone number on your offer or fills out a form to request a quote.

(click to view full size image)

While Comparison Ads is still an early-stage feature, we've focused on a number of ways to enhance the user experience:

Speed -- Comparison Ads shows targeted offers in less than a second. There are no long forms for users to fill out - Users see specific offers immediately and only need to fill in additional information if they wish to further refine their results.
Transparency -- Comparison Ads only shows real products. There are no teaser rates, or bait and switch offers. Comparison Ads also standardizes the information presented to users, making it easy for them to sort and compare offers on a side by side basis.
Privacy -- Comparison Ads won't send advertisers any user information, including anonymized phone numbers, unless the user explicitly requests more information about an advertiser's offer.

At this time, Comparison Ads will only show to a small number of users in select U.S. states and is only available to a limited number of advertisers in the mortgage/refinance space. Over time, we'll increase the number of users who see Comparison Ads offers as well as the number of advertisers able to participate.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

Getting started guide for the Google Content Network

2009-10-28T16:07:00.000-07:00

Google Content Network campaigns differ from Search campaigns in how they're set up, optimized, and tracked. If you've been interested in advertising on the Content Network but aren't sure how to get started, we now have a step-by-step Getting Started Guide to help you hit the ground running. You can think of it as a do-it-yourself instruction manual for how to best structure, optimize, and track your Content Network campaigns.

Not sure how to create an effective content campaign? You can refer to the campaign, ad group, and ad sections to find tips for optimal account structure.

Not sure what's working well? You can use the optimization section to determine which of your ads are performing well and which you should edit or delete. You can also take further control of your campaigns by learning how to select where your ads are shown and how to exclude certain sites and keywords.

Not sure how much to bid? Use the guide to learn more about how bidding works on the Content Network. You can also get tips to refine your bids and improve your performance.

Don't forget to check out our Content Network microsite for even more information on Content Network campaigns, including details on available ad formats and a list of some of the websites we partner with to show your ads.

Posted by Katrina Kurnit, Inside AdWords crew

Translate your AdWords campaigns with Translator Toolkit

2009-10-27T12:33:00.000-07:00

If you advertise to customers in multiple languages or countries, you've probably spent time translating your advertising campaigns. To help make translating faster and easier, today we’ve added AdWords campaign support to Google Translator Toolkit, which includes tools like translation search, bilingual dictionaries, and custom terminology databases.

To translate your keywords and ad text, upload an AdWords Editor Archive (AEA) file into Translator Toolkit, and Translator Toolkit will automatically translate them. You can then share your translations with your multilingual optimizers or professional translators, who can optimize and localize your campaign through Translator Toolkit’s campaign editor.

(click for full size image)

When you're finished, download your campaign and upload back into AdWords Editor. You can also optimize your keywords and ad text further through AdWords Editor and other tools like AdWords Traffic Estimator.

Of course, reaching foreign-language customers requires more than campaign localization. To attract international customers, your landing pages should also be translated and, if applicable, your payment and other support systems should be ready for international customers. Check out our help pages for details on how to localize and optimize your campaigns. When you’re ready, give Google Translator Toolkit a try and let us know what you think.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

Think2010: The multiple roles of search

2009-10-26T15:48:00.000-07:00

Last week's Think2010 post discussed the need for advertising to be relevant, welcome information that adds value to a customer as he is performing a task or pursuing an interest. But as you think about your 2010 search strategy, make sure to think about the value of search advertising beyond conversions. Be sure to recognize the brand value of search.

As consumer confidence returns, this means you can use search advertising to ensure your brand is top of mind, appropriately positioned, and in a customer's consideration set. Some customers may not be ready to convert at this moment, but search advertising can increase their affinity and consideration for your brand.

Hear about the brand value of search and additional advice for getting ahead of the recovery from Bonita Stewart, Managing Director, US Sales:

(click to watch video on YouTube)

Stay engaged with additional perspectives and resources for our Think2010 series at www.google.com/think2010.

Posted by Amanda Kelly, Inside AdWords crew

A new My Client Center interface

2009-10-23T13:55:00.000-07:00

Starting this week, you'll see a link on your My Client Center Dashboard that will take you to a new MCC interface that we're testing. In the new interface, you'll notice an updated look and feel, as well as some enhancements to help you manage your clients more efficiently. These include:

In-line editing of account descriptions: In-line editing cuts the time it takes for you to make changes to your account names. Instead of waiting for a new page to load, just click an account description to edit it right on the Dashboard.
Remove/unlink accounts: Previously, you needed to drill down into a client account to unlink it from your MCC. Now, if you're no longer managing a client, you can remove it directly from your MCC Dashboard.

In addition to these new features, the new interface provides the same core MCC functionality and workflow you're already familiar with. Over time, we're looking forward to introducing additional enhancements to help you manage your clients even more effectively.

While the interface is still in development, you'll notice a feature or two we're still working on integrating, including the "find client" search box. Feel free to switch back and forth between the new and previous interfaces as needed during this testing period.

To send us your thoughts on the new MCC interface, you can click on the "Send Feedback" link directly in your account.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

Get free keyboard shortcuts stickers

2009-10-22T15:29:00.000-07:00

Back in April, we introduced keyboard shortcuts you can use to zip around AdWords. As fans of Gmail shortcuts already know, if you want to save time navigating your account, ditching your mouse can give you a major boost.

To help you learn shortcuts faster (not to mention show off your AdWords skills), we're giving away free sets of keyboard stickers. Take a look:

(click to view larger image)

If you live in the U.S., Canada, or other select countries, send us your name and mailing address, and we'll mail you a set of stickers within a few weeks. Enjoy.

Posted by Austin Rachlin, Inside AdWords crew

New version of the AdWords API v2009

2009-10-22T13:35:00.000-07:00

For those of you who use the AdWords API, we're happy to announce the launch of the latest version, v200909. This version offers a number of exciting new features, including asynchronous calls, keyword and placement ideas, and location extensions. AdWords API v200909 is available to all advertisers, and for more information you can visit the AdWords API blog.

Posted by Amanda Kelly, Inside AdWords crew

Providing your customers useful and relevant information

2009-10-20T14:25:00.000-07:00

Many ads are aimed at interrupting a consumer to get them to pay attention to the ad, but this approach has proven less effective on the Web, as consumers often come online to pursue an interest or perform a task, such as finding a local restaurant or booking an airline ticket. To address this, many advertisers are moving away from interruption toward helping consumers accomplish their tasks by offering commercial messages that are useful, helpful and relevant.

Hear more on this strategy from Jim Lecinski, Managing Director, U.S. Sales, and think about incorporating this idea into your 2010 planning:

(watch video on YouTube)

Posted by Amanda Kelly, Inside AdWords crew