DoubleClick Search

DoubleClick Search industry perspectives video series: Search marketing is now smarter

2013-06-11T07:25:00.000-07:00

Last week, we heard leaders from top agencies talk about the need for their search teams to streamline workflows using fast, responsive tools that allow more time for strategy in a constantly evolving search landscape. But as digital marketing increasingly becomes multi-channel, multi-screen, and multi-faceted, marketers today have more opportunities to connect with their audiences across a variety of digital touchpoints, beyond search.

In addition to fast tools, we heard that marketers also need integrated technologies to help make smarter decisions across the breadth of their digital marketing. Our next video, Search marketing is now smarter, explores how unified platforms can help surface deeper insights through a holistic view of online marketing activity -- within search and beyond -- and how DoubleClick fits in.

As Jeremy Hull, Associate Director of Paid Search at iProspect notes: “Paid search doesn’t live in a vacuum. It interacts with every other channel that you work with, online and offline...understanding those interactions is going to allow you to optimize it, and see how it fits in with your overall marketing efforts.” With this in mind, we built DoubleClick Search to natively integrate with our display ad server, demand-side platform, and our rich media and analytics platforms -- all a part of DoubleClick Digital Marketing -- to help marketers drive deeper insights from one, unified view of their customer:

Holistic view: DoubleClick’s proprietary conversion tracking pixel, Floodlight, lets marketers measure and report on deduplicated conversions across search and display for more accurate reporting.
Powerful attribution: DFA attribution tools allow marketers to create and apply custom attribution models to better understand how their marketing efforts are working together to drive conversions.
Offline conversions: Because online advertising often fuels offline conversions, marketers can also connect the dots with the DoubleClick Search Conversions API, factoring in conversions that occurred offline (through in-store transactions and other offline activities) for transactions that started from interactions with online search ads.

Having a single view of the consumer allows marketers to better understand the interplay between channels, without the mashing up and reconciling of different data sources -- but beyond just having access to data, what seamless opportunities do marketers have to take action on those insights and drive results for their business? Join us next week in the final post of our series, where we’ll discuss how top agencies use platforms to improve performance from untapped cross-channel opportunities in our video: Search marketing is now better.

To learn more about DoubleClick Search, visit our YouTube channel and stay tuned to the DoubleClick Search blog.

DS features in May

2013-06-05T09:50:00.000-07:00

In May, we added the following features in DoubleClick Search (DS):

Report on Google Analytics data: You can now report on Google Analytics data directly in DS. After linking your DS and Google Analytics accounts, you’ll be able to apply the available Google Analytics columns to campaigns, ad groups, ads, or keywords in DS. Also, similar to the way you create Floodlight columns, you can create custom column sets out of Google Analytics goals. Learn how to set up Google Analytics reporting in DS.
AdWords enhanced campaigns migration tool: AdWords requires all existing legacy campaigns to be migrated to the new enhanced campaigns. To help you with this process, the new DoubleClick Search (DS) migration tool suggests matching legacy campaigns that can be merged into one enhanced campaign. It also allows you to easily set mobile bid adjustments for each campaign. Read the Enhanced campaigns migration guide to get started with upgrading your AdWords campaigns.

Unique landing pages by keyword match type in Bing Ads: Within an ad group, you can now create separate Bing Ads keywords for each match type. This allows you to assign a separate landing page URL for each keyword/match type combination. It’s also now easier to report on multiple match types for a Bing Ads keyword. Learn more.
Email report as an attachment: When you schedule a report, or download an agency- or advertiser-level report and have it emailed, you can now choose to include the file as an attachment in the email. This makes it easier to share the report with non-DS users. Learn more.
Inventory management: View reporting data by ad template: DS Inventory management creates ads based on a combination of the ad templates you build and feed attributes. With this feature, DS now groups the reporting stats by ad template instead of by ad. To see reports grouped by ad template, navigate to a page that lists campaigns or ad groups, and then click the Ad templates tab. Learn more.

We also made the following feature update:

Improvements when applying a label to objects: When you select objects (campaigns, ad groups, ads, or keywords) and then click the Labels button to add them to a label, you can now search for existing labels in the pop-up. You can also now click Create New to add a new label directly from this pop-up. You no longer need to create the label elsewhere first before selecting the objects.

Be sure to attend the New Feature Review monthly webinar to see these features in action. There are sessions on June 6, so register today!

Posted by the DoubleClick Search team

Tips & Tricks: Using Formula Columns to Streamline Your Workflow

2013-05-30T15:52:00.001-07:00

Spend less time in spreadsheets: use Formula columns to streamline your workflow by moving your offline calculations into the DoubleClick Search UI.

Using metrics from DoubleClick Search, combined with familiar formulas, you can customize your DoubleClick Search reporting to tailor to your needs and report on what really matters. Create your own custom columns and KPI calculations in terms that you and your team will understand. These columns are calculated in real-time and will update as new data comes in, so you know you’re always making changes based off of the freshest data.

To set one up, click on the “Formula columns” tab in your DS columns picker. Then combine standard DS columns with simple, spreadsheet-like language:

Evaluate any DS metric with arithmetic operations

Make comparisons between any and all DS metrics using boolean logic

Evaluate your keywords, ads, campaigns and ad groups using if statements, then display a value if that condition is true or false

Convert formulas to percentage, money, or number values

Compare and compute metrics irrespective of the selected reporting date range

… and more! See all valid operations and examples here.

These options give you creative license to think up all sorts of calculations!

Need more ideas? Talk to your Account Manager or email ds-support@google.com for more tips and tricks on how to make the best use of Formula columns.

DoubleClick Search industry perspectives video series: Search marketing is now faster

2013-05-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

What are some of the big questions about search that keep you up at night?

That’s what we asked search marketing leaders from top agencies in a series of interviews, to understand what excites them -- and challenges them -- about the state of search today.

We caught up with Eric Papczun, US President of Performics, Erica Barth, VP of Products and Partnerships at Resolution Media, Jeremy Hull, Associate Director of Paid Search at iProspect, and Sean McDonald, VP and Group Director at Digitas to learn about their perspectives on those “big questions” and how DoubleClick Search fits in. And overwhelmingly, we heard three key themes: the need for search marketers to streamline workflows and act faster, to make smarter decisions with all of their data in one place, and to drive performance for better results. We’re highlighting their perspectives on these themes of faster, smarter, and better with a series of videos -- starting today with Search Marketing is Now Faster.

This video explores how search marketers must keep pace in a digital marketing landscape that's moving faster than ever before, and highlights how the right tools can help search teams work more efficiently to maximize their marketing campaign results.

As Eric Papczun notes, “The ability to change a campaign -- modify a strategy, in the moment -- is what speed is all about.” At DoubleClick Search, we’re investing in features that give search teams a simple, intuitive way to manage their accounts at scale across engines. Many of our newest features, including bulk editing enhancements and new scheduling options help eliminate tactical or repetitive tasks across as many as 150 million keywords in a single day(1), while instant conversions offer up-to-the-minute feedback on campaign performance to let marketers quickly act on real-time feedback.

Agile, responsive tools are just one piece of the puzzle. Marketers also need the right tools to help make smarter decisions within search, as well as across other online channels. Next week, we’ll hear from our thought leaders on how platforms are critical in enabling smarter decisions in digital, with our second video: Search Marketing is Now Smarter.

To learn more about DoubleClick Search, visit our YouTube channel and stay tuned to the DoubleClick Search blog.

1. Google internal data, 2013

DoubleClick Search June Trainings

2013-05-23T15:03:00.000-07:00

Learn the ins and outs of DoubleClick Search through our various training offerings.

DoubleClick Search Fundamentals Certification is available anytime, anywhere! This multimedia, self-paced training is great for new and current DS users who want to understand the basics of campaign management, reporting and bid optimization. Review the material and test your knowledge with the DS Fundamentals Certification Exam.

Advanced Webinars:

Once you’re comfortable with the fundamentals, join us for one of our monthly webinars:

Advanced Reporting Webinar: Reviews key advanced reporting features such as formula columns, budget pacing reports, and web query.

June 13th 4:00 pm GMT

June 13th 10:00 am PST

New Feature Review: Keep up to date on all the latest features in DoubleClick Search. This monthly webinar will review new features and updates launched over the previous month.

June 6th 4:00 pm GMT

June 6th 10:00 am PST

You can register for all trainings through the training registration page in our Help Center. Be sure to check the time zone to make sure you’re registering for the most convenient class.

If you can’t join us for a live webinar, recordings are also available.

We hope to see you at a training soon!

Enhanced campaign upgrade tools now generally available

2013-05-20T09:46:00.000-07:00

Last month, we introduced the beta release of dedicated tools to help you seamlessly upgrade to enhanced campaigns. Today, we’re excited to announce that these tools are available to all DoubleClick Search customers globally. Read on for details around the newly available features, what's coming, and how customers are seeing success in upgrading to enhanced campaigns with DoubleClick Search.

Easily upgrade to enhanced campaigns
With this release, advertisers can save time when upgrading to enhanced campaigns with custom solutions that will:

Identify similar campaigns that target different devices within your DoubleClick Search account

Create reports to quickly merge and upload these similar campaigns into one enhanced campaign

Provide the AdWords-suggested mobile bid adjustment in DoubleClick Search for more control and precision over bids in an enhanced campaign

Learn about these features and more in our enhanced campaigns upgrade guide.

Upcoming features

This is the second of several feature rollouts we have planned for enhanced campaigns. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be introducing advanced features to prepare advertisers for a constantly connected world, including support for ad group mobile bid adjustments and granular device-segmented reports.

What we’re hearing so far

With the goal of simplifying search management, we’re continuing to invest in solutions that will help marketers run effective search campaigns across devices, as well as across channels -- and our clients are seeing the benefits.

Keith Wilson, VP of of Agency Products at The Search Agency, notes: "Recent enhancements in DoubleClick Search support for enhanced campaigns has been a wind on our backs for transitioning clients to enhanced campaigns. The overall functionality within DoubleClick Search is evolving rapidly, and that enables our teams to keep pace with the changes in the paid search space with the right tools.”

After performing initial upgrades using DoubleClick Search tools, Samridhi Chawla,

Senior Account Manager at Performics, said: "Our accounts look cleaner after upgrading to enhanced campaigns. The DoubleClick Search team has done a great job in making the transition smooth, and we're already seeing positive results."

Hear more about our enhanced campaigns vision from our clients and product experts.

To learn more about how clients have been using our enhanced campaigns upgrade tools, we’ll be at SMX Advanced in June, where Eric Papczun, US President of Performics, will share his company's plans, successes, and best practices on upgrades through using search platforms like DoubleClick Search. Register here, and stay tuned to the DoubleClick Search blog to learn more about our support of enhanced campaigns features.

Explore the future of digital marketing at thinkDoubleClick, June 4th

2013-05-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

What’s the future of digital media and marketing? How are CMOs thinking about leveraging digital to reach and engage audiences? What marketing channels are proving most effective in building brands digitally - paid, owned or earned?

These are some of the questions executives from across the digital marketing ecosystem will address at thinkDoubleClick, Google’s annual discussion on the state of digital.

Register now to join the event livestream on June 4th, 9:00 AM - Noon Pacific. Registration enables you to participate in the conversation, and ask speakers and panelists your questions with #thinkDCLK

thinkDoubleClick 2013 speakers include:

Wendy Clark, Senior Vice President, The Coca-Cola Company

Jim Lanzone, President, CBS Interactive

Peter Horan, President & COO, Answers

Meredith Kopit Levien, Group Publisher & Chief, Forbes

Randall Rothenberg, CEO, IAB

Lorraine Twohill, Chief Marketing Officer, Google

Michael Learmonth, Chief Editor, AdAge

We look forward to seeing you on June 4th!

Missed last year’s event? It’s not too late to catch up with the videos below.

Posted by Scott Brown, Product Marketing Manager, DoubleClick

DoubleClick Search offline conversions go instant, too!

2013-05-09T08:30:00.000-07:00

With DoubleClick Search, you already get instant Floodlight conversion data in all your reports to bring you the freshest, most reliable data. This is just one of the ways we’re focusing on our our reporting investments to help you make better decisions in search, and beyond.

To make your digital marketing even smarter, we’ve recently increased how quickly you can see your offline conversions in DoubleClick Search, so that they’re just as fast as the online conversions you get today:

Updates made to conversions through the DS Conversion API Service or via bulksheet are ready to download from DoubleClick Search reporting within the hour (instead of 24 hours previously). This allows you to test and support your integration with the API much faster.

Conversion statistics such as Actions, Transactions, and Revenue are updated in the DoubleClick Search UI in near-real time for today and yesterday, so you’ll be able to make smarter decisions with up-to-the-minute feedback.

In addition, we’ve made some improvements to the Click ID-based Conversion API:

A newly generated Click ID now becomes usable in the DS Conversion API in near-real time

The API documentation was updated to include guidelines on how to distinguish between DS and non-DS click IDs using the gclsrc parameter. We also added details on error handling for batched conversion uploads.

We’re excited about these recent real-time reporting developments, and look forward to bringing you more tools to power your business with all the insights you need.

For more information on instant conversions or our Conversions API service, reach out to your DoubleClick Search representative or our support team at ds-support@google.com.

DS features in April

2013-05-01T12:27:00.000-07:00

In April, we added the following features in DoubleClick Search (DS):

DS API Interface - Conversion Service: This feature allows advertisers to factor in conversions that occurred offline for transactions that started online from users interacting with their online search ads. When a consumer initiates research online for a purchase and clicks on an ad, but completes his/her purchase offline (or via phone), this provides an easy way for advertisers to connect the dots and attribute those offline conversions to their online advertising campaigns. Learn about the improvements we added with the full launch of this feature.

Apply a bid strategy at the campaign or ad group level: You can now apply a bid strategy at the campaign or ad group level, instead of always having to add one keyword at a time. This makes it easier to get started on optimizing bids using all the keywords in an ad group or campaign. Learn more.

We also made the following feature updates:

Return of automated rules: After a few weeks of fine tuning, automated rules are back! As a reminder, automated rules let you schedule changes to specific ads and keywords based on criteria you specify. You set up the conditions, specify the action if the conditions are met, and set up a schedule for when you want the rule to run. Then let DS do all of the work. Learn more about automated rules in this blog post.

Bing Ads version 8 updates: Now that we’ve upgraded all Bing Ads accounts to version 8, you’ll see updates to campaign budget type, device targeting, language, and more. Read this blog post for more information.

Added mobile preferred option for inventory ad templates: When you create an ad template as part of the DS inventory management feature, you can select the new Mobile preferred option for AdWords enhanced campaigns. As this blog post describes, for AdWords enhanced campaigns, the ads that are generated from this template will be mobile-preferred creatives, which allow you to target mobile users with different ad text.

Be sure to attend the New Feature Review monthly webinar to see these features in action. There are sessions on May 2, so register today! After May 2, you can watch the recorded webinar.

Posted by the DoubleClick Search team

Automated rules: more tools for around-the-clock management in DoubleClick Search

2013-04-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

To help you go faster across your large search campaigns, we’re introducing Automated rules in DoubleClick Search, allowing you to schedule changes to specific ads and keywords, based on criteria that you determine.

With the release of Automated rules, spend less time on repetitive tasks and manage your accounts more efficiently with custom rules. Set the conditions directly in the UI, specify the desired action if the conditions are met, and determine the schedule for when you want the rule to run. For example, you can set up rules to run:

Daily at 1 A.M., to increase all bids where the ad’s average position was worse than 3 the previous day.

Every Friday, to pause all keywords that had at least 1000 clicks but zero conversions during the previous week.

This release of Automated rules also allows you to define and customize rules with more control and transparency:

Preview ads or keywords that will match your conditions. Before you save a rule, DoubleClick Search will show you which ads or keywords will be affected. This helps to ensure that your rule will cover the intended ads or keywords.

Combine rules with the power of formula columns. Use formula columns as a condition to create even more advanced rules. For example, you can set the following rule: if your keywords (Cost + Fees) exceeds $200, then pause the keyword.

Refine your rules with date range segmentation. When creating the conditions for a rule, you’ll see the time frame (e.g., Last 30 days) for the data in the creation wizard. DoubleClick Search will evaluate the condition based on the data in this date range to assess whether it will apply your rule.

In the coming weeks, we’ll introduce the ability to set rules for your campaigns and ad groups, and offer even more actions to perform, including applying labels and adjusting your budget.

We’ve made setting up rules in the UI easy:

In the DS UI, navigate to the page with a table of ads or keywords.

In the upper righthand corner of the UI, select a date range for the rule. Note that custom date ranges are not supported for rules, as they are absolute date ranges and stats, and will not change over time.

Above the reporting table, click Rules, and follow the in-UI steps to create a new rule.

After you save the rule, you’ll receive email notifications when it runs, to alert you if the criteria was met to apply the rule. You can view your rules on the rule details page, pause or delete rules as needed, and changes applied from Automated rules are logged in change history.

For more information on Automated rules, visit our Help Center, or reach out to your DoubleClick Search representative or our support team at ds-support@google.com

DoubleClick Search May Trainings

2013-04-25T13:11:00.000-07:00

Learn the ins and outs of DoubleClick Search through our various training offerings.

DoubleClick Search Fundamentals Certification is available anytime, anywhere! This multimedia, self-paced training is great for new and current DS users who want to understand the basics of campaign management, reporting and bid optimization. Review the material and test your knowledge with the DS Fundamentals Certification Exam.

Advanced Webinars:

Once you’re comfortable with the fundamentals, join us for one of our monthly webinars:

Advanced Reporting Webinar: Reviews key advanced reporting features such as formula columns, budget pacing reports, and web query.

May 9th 4:00 pm GMT

May 9th 10:00 am PST

Automating Key Tasks: Reviews key features to help you automate and streamline key workflow elements including scheduled reports, scheduled edits, landing page testing, and DS labels.

May 16th 4:00 pm GMT

May 16th 10:00 am PST

New Feature Review: Keep up to date on all the latest features in DoubleClick Search. This monthly webinar will review new features and updates launched over the previous month.

May 2nd 4:00 pm GMT

May 2nd 10:00 am PST

May 8th 1:30 pm AEST

You can register for all trainings through the training registration page in our Help Center. Be sure to check the time zone to make sure you’re registering for the most convenient class.

If you can’t join us for a live webinar, recordings are also available.

We hope to see you at a training soon!

Display remarketing from search ads out of beta

2013-04-22T07:30:00.000-07:00

Back in October, we announced the beta release of display remarketing from search ads, which allows advertisers to use insights from paid search clicks to remarket to audiences across ad exchanges via DoubleClick Bid Manager, or the Google Display Network (GDN) -- all with a seamless, tagless workflow.

We’re excited to announce that display remarketing from search ads is now out of beta, and is available to all DoubleClick Search customers globally.

Already, customers have shown some impressive results. Anton Kanis, Head of Business Solutions, Netherlands for OmnicomMediaGroup, has been using the feature to remarket via DoubleClick Bid Manager. Kanis notes “Display remarketing from search ads is proving itself to be a very valuable feature, often outperforming regular funnel remarketing and sometimes even search in terms of CPA.”

If you’re interested in trying display remarketing from search ads to take advantage of more cross-channel opportunities, reach out to your DoubleClick representative, or contact the DoubleClick Search support team at ds-support@google.com.

Join DoubleClick Digital Marketing on Google+

2013-04-17T13:30:00.000-07:00

Are you interested in what’s going on in the world of DoubleClick and digital marketing in general? If so, come follow us on our brand new Google+ page: google.com/+doubleclickdigitalmarketing. We post regularly about new happenings and events within the DoubleClick family, as well as industry news.

In addition to highlighting interesting content, we hope that the page will be a place where you can have a conversation with our team of content contributors. The functional specialties of our team include search, display, rich media and ad serving - so we’ll have someone who understands your tough questions and find you the right solutions.

We’ll also be premiering a number of Hangouts on Air on the page to give you access to different parts of the DoubleClick organization, including product management, engineering, and services. You can check out a recording of our first Rich Media Hangout here. We’ll have a bunch more coming - including a DoubleClick Search Hangout highlighting our support for the big enhanced campaigns transition - so follow the page to stay tuned!

Easily upgrade to enhanced campaigns using custom tools from DoubleClick Search

2013-04-15T10:09:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, we announced our first wave of features that will support AdWords enhanced campaigns, including the ability to create, manage, and sync enhanced campaigns in DoubleClick Search.

Since then, we’ve rolled out our second set of features -- dedicated upgrade tools (currently in beta) -- that will allow you to seamlessly upgrade to enhanced campaigns. The new tools include workflow improvements that will result in significant time savings when upgrading your accounts to enhanced campaigns.

With these tools, we’ll help you identify similar campaigns that target different devices within your DoubleClick Search account. We’ll then create reports to quickly merge these campaigns into a single enhanced campaign, and let you upload those changes using the familiar upload workflow in the DoubleClick Search UI. We’ve cut out the manual work you’d typically need to merge and upgrade large-scale campaigns, simplifying it into 5 easy steps:

Identify campaigns for merging. We’ll analyze your current AdWords campaigns and automatically generate a list of campaigns you should consider merging together into an enhanced campaign. For example, if you have similar keywords in a campaign named “SUV - Desktop” and “SUV - Mobile”, DoubleClick Search may suggest merging the two campaigns.

Download and verify merge suggestions. Within your DoubleClick Search account, download the suggestions in the UI, and review them to ensure you’re comfortable with our suggestions. If needed, you can edit the merge suggestion file to match your exact needs.

Upload the merge suggestion file. Once you’ve reviewed and are comfortable with the merge suggestions, upload the file within the enhanced campaigns upgrade tool, using a workflow similar to uploading bulksheets in DoubleClick Search. DoubleClick Search will then generate a final upgrade bulksheet for your enhanced campaigns.

Download the upgrade bulksheet and set adjustments. The upgrade bulksheet will be a standard DoubleClick Search bulksheet, with the addition of columns specific to enhanced campaigns.

Upload the upgrade bulksheet. Once you upload your final upgrade bulksheet, it will merge your campaigns and upgrade them to enhanced campaigns.

In addition to helping you seamlessly upgrade to enhanced campaigns, you can see the AdWords suggested mobile bid adjustment in DoubleClick Search, to provide more control and precision over bids in an enhanced campaign.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll continue to work to give you more flexibility and control around your mobile keyword bidding. Aside from making use of your conversion information from our conversion-tracking pixel, Floodlight, to help suggest a custom mobile bid adjustment specific to each enhanced campaign, we also plan to support the recently-announced ad group mobile bid adjustments in the following ways:

Efficient and flexible workflow. We’ll allow you to manage your bids inside the UI, as well as through bulksheets.

Ad group bid adjustment suggestion tool for merged campaigns. When you merge campaigns, we’ll perform an analysis of each individual ad group, and suggest a custom bid adjustment for you.

To learn more about our enhanced campaigns migration tools, reach out to your DoubleClick Search representative or our support team at ds-support@google.com, or visit our Help Center.

Stay tuned to the DoubleClick Search blog to learn more about our support of AdWords enhanced campaigns features.

Latest DS release: Bing Ads version 8 updates and more

2013-04-10T13:08:00.000-07:00

The latest DoubleClick Search (DS) release includes the following feature updates:

Bing Ads version 8 updates: Now that we’ve upgraded all Bing Ads accounts to version 8, you’ll see the following updates in DS:

Campaign budget type: The Daily option now includes two options: Standard and Accelerated

Device targeting: Added a Tablets option.

Language: In the UI, you’ll see the new languages in the dropdown. In uploads, DS will only accept the new language codes (en, fr, etc).

Location targeting: In uploads, DS will now only accept DMA codes in the Metro target and City target columns.

Learn more about how these updates affect the management of Bing Ads campaigns in the UI and via upload.

Added mobile preferred option for inventory ad templates: When you create an ad template as part of the DS inventory management feature, you can select the new Mobile preferred option.

For AdWords enhanced campaigns, the ads that are generated from this template will be mobile-preferred creatives, which allow you to target mobile users with different ad text.

Mobile preferred creatives are new with AdWords enhanced campaigns. Therefore, if you select this option for a legacy campaign, DS won't generate any ads from the template until you upgrade the campaign.

Read the Help Center release notes for more information about these updates.

Posted by the DoubleClick Search team

Introducing DoubleClick Search Tips & tricks series: using budget pacing reports in conjunction with web query and scheduled reporting

2013-04-03T09:30:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our new “tips and tricks” series for DoubleClick Search. We’re going to be bringing you a series of posts written by our awesome services team that will help you get the most out of the tool, save time and create more successful search campaigns. We start off the series with budget pacing reports + web query & scheduling.

Budget pacing reports provide a convenient way to track budgets for your campaigns, as well as key performance metrics like revenue or conversion targets. If you use Excel to track reports for your campaigns, it's easy to integrate budget pacing report data by using the web query feature of DoubleClick Search.
Budget pacing reports, like most other aspects of the DoubleClick Search interface, can be turned into a web query link or a scheduled report. This way, if you have an existing Excel solution, you can pull trending campaign data straight into Excel without having to write any of your own formulas.

Create the budget pacing report in DS, selecting a campaign or ad group of campaigns and assigning them to a budget.

In the Budget Pacing section, click Download and then click Web Query to create a web query report with each of your budgetary groupings.

If you'd rather turn this into a scheduled report, simply click Scheduled Report and follow the instructions, and the data will be emailed to you on a regular basis.

You can also click into the report to view its progress, and then click the Download button and click Web Query or Scheduled Report to create these based on more granular data.

Stay tuned to the DoubleClick Search blog for more tips & tricks over the next few weeks!

Introducing DoubleClick Search v4: DoubleCat Search!

2013-04-01T00:19:00.000-07:00

As digital marketing continues to evolve, we’re seeing a host of new questions crop up around search -- the channel that used to be “all figured out.” How can search win the moments that matter and quickly capture the attention of consumers? What is the new definition of an “effective” search campaign? And how do you measure it all?

We travelled the globe and spoke directly with clients to understand what best resonates with them in the constantly-evolving online space, and heard the answer loud and clear: cats.

“Over the past year, we’ve seen tremendous growth in cat-related online activity,” said Amit Varia, Paw-duct Manager for DoubleCat Search. “Cats populate just about every corner of the internet. With DoubleCat Search, we wanted to design a UI that aligns with a tech-savvy user’s natural affinity toward cats, to deliver the most intuitive, LOL-worthy search management experience.”

With the introduction of DoubleCat Search, ailurophiles everywhere can now take advantage of a new and improved UI with some serious cattitude.

Log in to DoubleCat Search today to check out the new UI enhancements!

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be rolling out additional features that will help save you time while making smarter decisions -- so you don’t feel like you’re constantly chasing your tail:

Laser pointer alerts. Red dots move across the screen and guide you to campaign errors you may have missed. With better error management, be ready to pounce on any needed fixes to ensure your search campaigns always land on their feet.

New bid strategy: maximize cheeseburgers. Now you can haz cheeseburger – and then some! With our new maximize cheeseburgers goal, gain greater visibility, increase CTR, and never go hungry again.

Upload paw prints via API. In addition to the ability to upload and reinstate conversions using our Event API, you’ll soon be able to upload paw prints onto your reports – making it authentically look like a cat has walked all over them.

We’re feline excited about these new developments, and look forward to hearing your feedback. Personally, we think these new enhancements are the cat's meow!

Happy April 1st from DoubleCat Search! =^..^=

DoubleClick Search at SMX West: Search marketing is now faster, smarter, better

2013-03-21T11:15:00.002-07:00

Last week on March 11 and 12, our DoubleClick Search team spent two demo-packed days on the floor at the Search Marketing Expo - West, to connect with those of you who manage some of the largest search campaigns.

We set up an interactive lounge featuring demos, videos, games and product experts -- allowing us to show you how we help you go faster, make smarter decisions, and get better results to solve the most complex and demanding digital marketing challenges. Today, we wanted to share some of the topics we covered and the insights we heard from attendees. To kick off the discussion, we’re sharing a DoubleClick Search overview video, which we debuted at SMX West -- with more details that follow.

Go faster with tools for automation

Many of you told us you’re looking for ways to go faster with tools that streamline and automate your workflow across large search campaigns. Especially for marketers with large product inventory, staying on top of changing products, promotions, and seasonal trends can be cumbersome. At SMX West, we demoed inventory-aware campaigns, which integrates with your Google Merchant Center Feeds to automatically update search campaigns, based on your physical inventory. We got great feedback on the seamless workflow that cuts out repetition.

Make smarter decisions with all your data in one place
We also heard your growing need to measure digital marketing holistically -- within search, as well as across channels. So, on the SMX floor, we highlighted the different ways DoubleClick Search powers your business with the insights you need:

Integration of Google Analytics metrics (beta), which incorporates statistics including bounce rate, page views, transactions, and revenue from Google Analytics, to get a clear picture of how search influences customer interaction on your website.

Fast and accurate cross-channel reporting thanks to native integration with the DoubleClick Digital Marketing platform, to enable faster decision making, without reconciling reports or worrying about potential data drop-off from reporting on disparate tools.

Enhanced campaigns support, which makes it easier for you to promote marketing messages across varying user contexts like location, time of day and device type, within a single campaign. In addition to basic support, we’ll soon help you take advantage of enhanced campaigns in unique and powerful ways, through bulk tools, custom-tailored mobile bid adjustments, and consultative services offered only by DoubleClick Search.

Get better results with tools that drive performance
As a performance marketer, you know it’s ultimately all about results. Over the past few months, we’ve focused on enhancing our Performance Bidding Suite for automated bidding -- understanding that smart bidding technology is the engine that drives campaign performance. At SMX West, we demoed our intuitive bidding UI, which lets you easily express flexible goals that align with your business objectives, and highlighted how fresh data, smart algorithms, fast operations, regular software updates, and the right transparency and controls help you achieve those goals.

To extend the conversation, DoubleClick Search will be at SES New York next week, and we look forward to another great opportunity to show you how we can help make search marketing faster, smarter, and better. We hope to see you there!

SES New York: Google solutions for a constantly connected world

2013-03-20T15:05:00.000-07:00

SES New York is coming up next week, and we hope you’ll join us in the Big Apple!

During day 1 of SES New York, we'll be on the expo floor with a custom-built Google classroom. Join us for a full day of learning about the latest solutions from AdWords, Mobile, Google Display Network, and DoubleClick Search to help you win in a constantly connected world.

Where: SES NY Expo Hall, 5th Floor Marriott Marquee

When: Day 1 - Tuesday, March 26th

Sessions:

10:30-11:30am Reaching customers whenever, wherever, across any device. Surojit Chatterjee, Lead Product Manager for Enhanced Campaigns

11:45-12:45pm Understanding the Full Value of Mobile. Brendon Kraham, Director, Global Mobile Solutions

2:00-3:00pm Engaging with your audience in a multi-screen world. Speaker TBD

3:30-4:30pm Using DoubleClick Search to manage campaigns across channels and devices. Anthony Chavez, Product Manager for DoubleClick Search

Don’t have a pass yet? Don’t worry! Expo Only passes are free and get you access to our Google classroom. You can also use the code NYGOOGLE which is redeemable for up to $700.00 off a full conference pass!

Announcing the March 14 DS release

2013-03-18T10:32:00.002-07:00

The latest DoubleClick Search (DS) release includes the following feature updates:

Full launch of AdWords enhanced campaigns support: In an earlier blog post, we announced our support for AdWords enhanced campaigns in a beta release. That support is now fully launched and available to all users.

Bulk editing improvements: We streamlined the process of updating the settings of multiple ads or keywords at once, and also expanded the options when changing the state of any object.

For all bulk edits, we added the Applies to option in the settings, which makes it easier to select all campaigns, ad groups, or ads, or keywords across all pages.

For ads and keywords, we consolidated the Edit and Edit All buttons into a single button and added dropdown options for individual operations. So you can now do all your bulk editing under the Edit button.

For campaigns, ad groups, ads, and keywords, when you select Pause, Resume, or Delete from the dropdown, you’ll now have the option to set up a schedule for the change and revert it at a specified time if needed.

Landing page testing improvements:

You can now create landing page tests at the engine account and campaign levels. Just navigate to an engine account or campaign and click the Keywords tab, and the Start landing page test button will appear. Previously, you had to start a landing page test through an ad group.

You can now add Landing page test name as a selectable column. On a Keywords page, this column will list the landing page tests that the keywords are in. Previously, you had to create a label and apply it to the keywords in a test.

Read the Help Center release notes for more information about these updates.

Posted by the DoubleClick Search team

Bid optimization series wrap-up: remembering the seven factors for better bids

2013-03-05T09:30:00.000-08:00

As we’ve explored over the weeks, search marketing has expanded dramatically in scale and complexity over the years, and today, large search campaigns are practically impossible to manage using manual methods alone. As such, marketers are relying more and more on automated bid optimization platforms to run larger campaigns -- enabling them to scale up and streamline their operations at the same time.

Within this blog series, we’ve delved into the key factors to consider when evaluating a search bid optimization platform, including flexible expression of goals, fresh data, smart algorithms, fast operations, regular software updates, sufficient controls, and dedicated, consultative services. As a wrap up to our bid optimization series, we want to recap the importance of these factors with an infographic:

Click here to view the full infographic

Using the 7 factors as a guideline, you can choose the platform that’s best for your business, to help you save time, get the best results, and make better decisions in your digital marketing efforts.

Stay tuned to the DoubleClick Search blog to learn more about enhancements, updates, and launches around the Performance Bidding Suite. To learn more about the 7 factors to consider when choosing a bid optimization tool, download our white paper here.

Join DoubleClick Search and AdWords at SMX West in San Jose

2013-03-04T09:30:00.000-08:00

SMX West is coming up in just one week, and the DoubleClick Search and AdWords teams hope to see you there!

During the first two days of SMX West, Google will be on the floor to help you learn how to engage your audiences in a constantly connected world. Below are some of the activities that we’ll be hosting across the 3-day conference:

March 11, 2012, 5-6pm - Enhancing AdWords for a Constantly Connected World
Join Google AdWords’ special enhanced campaigns presentation on Monday, March 11 at 5pm, where Lead Product Manager Surojit Chatterjee will discuss key features and changes with enhanced campaigns, give tips on getting started, and answer your questions.

March 11 -12, all day - Learn and win with DoubleClick Search
Visit the DoubleClick Search lounge at Booth 401 to learn about how we’re making search marketing faster, smarter, and better. Watch our videos, get a glimpse of some of our newest features through demos, play games, and engage with our team to see how we’re helping you run effective search campaigns across devices, as well as across channels. Tweet what you learned using hashtag #dsSMX!

The full SMX West agenda can be found here. Be sure to check out our other Google speakers at the following panels:

March 11: Brendon Kraham, Director of Global Mobile Sales & Strategy - Converting The Mobile Customer, 3:30pm-4:45pm
March 12: Jon Venverloh, Head of Platforms for Google Shopping - Google Shopping Goes Pay-For-Play, 5:00pm – 6:15pm
March 13: Surojit Chatterjee, Lead Product Manager - Google Enhanced Campaigns - What You Really Need to Know, 2:30 - 3:30pm

Still haven’t registered? Enter discount code SMXW13google (case sensitive) and save 10%. Expo passes are free and get you into the AdWords and DoubleClick Search events.

We hope to see you in San Jose!

AdWords enhanced campaigns in DoubleClick Search: solutions for a better connected world

2013-02-26T12:34:00.000-08:00

Earlier this month, the AdWords team announced the launch of enhanced campaigns, which makes it easier for advertisers to promote their marketing messages across varying user contexts like location, time of day and device type, within a single campaign. Here at DoubleClick Search, we’re excited to begin supporting AdWords enhanced campaigns over the next few weeks to help you better reach your customers in unique and powerful ways.

Making search marketing faster, smarter and better has always been at the core of the DoubleClick Search mission, and supporting enhanced campaigns will make it possible for us to extend this to advertisers in a constantly connected, multi-device world. We’re excited to announce that the first wave of features has launched this week and is now available for customers who have enabled enhanced campaigns on AdWords. This is the first of several feature rollouts we have planned over the next quarter. With this release, you can:

Create and manage enhanced campaigns in the DoubleClick Search UI, or through bulk upload sheets
Sync AdWords campaigns that have already been upgraded to enhanced campaigns
Specify a mobile-specific bid adjustment for your enhanced campaigns
Create and manage mobile-preferred creatives.

Furthermore, advertisers will see several key benefits through the DoubleClick Search platform, including:

Bid adjustment decisions using more data. Make use of your conversion information from our conversion-tracking pixel, Floodlight, to help suggest a custom mobile bid adjustment specific to each enhanced campaign. This means that, in addition to the suggested bid adjustment offered by AdWords based on bids from similar advertisers, DoubleClick Search will incorporate your specific conversion data to suggest the most optimal mobile bid adjustment for your campaign.
More granular measurement. Surface deeper insights with advanced reports to measure new conversion types and cross-channel data. In addition to performance stats for mobile and desktop ad variations from DoubleClick Search reporting, you can measure your search marketing alongside other digital marketing channels and website analytics, thanks to native integration with the DoubleClick Digital Marketing platform.
A seamless transition. Save time with a streamlined transition process using our custom-built bulk solutions, including bulksheets to identify duplicate campaigns across devices, and “merge” tools to consolidate those campaigns into an enhanced campaign for a simpler setup. Our dedicated services team will partner with you to guide you along the way -- keeping you up-to-date on new features, offering enhanced campaign testing options, and delivering best practices, specific to the needs of your business.

For more information, see our Help Center article here, or reach out to your Technical Account Manager or our support team at ds-support@google.com to learn how you can start taking advantage of the benefits of enhanced campaigns today.

Stay tuned to the DoubleClick Search blog for new announcements on our support of AdWords enhanced campaigns.

Bid optimization series: services, just as important as technology

2013-02-21T21:18:00.001-08:00

In this blog post series, we’ve taken you through the key factors to consider when choosing a bid optimization platform, from setting a bid goal, to the importance of fresh data, smarts, speed, algorithms, and control when making bid decisions. But managing bids effectively, even with an automated tool, can be one of the larger challenges of search campaign management. With multiple goals, controls, and settings to manage, you’ll want to make sure you fully understand how to use a tool before adopting one -- and to do that, you’ll need a world-class services team to help you along the way. Today, we’ll dive into our seventh and final question:

“How does your team help me get better results?”

When adopting a tool that can make or break your campaign performance, the people you work with can be just as important as the technology. Marketers need access to a strategic partner to enable their success with bid optimization. Beyond being available for more reactive assistance, an effective professional services team should:

Clarify the goals offered by the bidding platform and align them to your unique business needs
Help identify initial keywords to assign to bid goals
Advise on initial strategies and settings
Explain best practices in implementation, testing, analysis, and adjustments

In sum, the right services team will promote a low-risk, experimental framework for bid testing—starting with a few keywords, assessing the results, and launching more broadly only when initial tests prove successful.

At DoubleClick Search, we know it’s important for you to have a dedicated team to help you meet your unique goals. That’s why we continually work to improve both our services and technology; in fact, we’ve seen customer satisfaction more than double over the two years since the DoubleClick Search relaunch, jumping to 88%(1).

When you’re ready to start with the DoubleClick Search Performance Bidding Suite, a professional services team is there to provide assistance. Technical Account Managers (TAMs)—dedicated DoubleClick Search experts—can help you navigate training, overcome technical hurdles, and get answers to general questions about the Performance Bidding Suite. A TAM works directly with you to understand their business objectives and offer strategic, consultative guidance.

With our services team, you can expect:

Regularly scheduled calls or visits to review bid strategy implementation and best practices
Help running small tests before applying bid goals to broader campaigns
Follow-up meetings to assess and review bid strategy performance

The TAM is a business partner, invested in the goals of DoubleClick Search customers, and working to help you meet all your search marketing goals using the Performance Bidding Suite.

Stay tuned to the DoubleClick Search blog to follow along with enhancements, updates, and launches around the Performance Bidding Suite. To learn more about the 7 factors to consider when choosing a bid optimization tool, download our white paper here.

1. Internal Google data, 2012

DoubleClick Search tools to help you remember those three little words this Valentine’s Day: return on investment

2013-02-14T10:07:00.000-08:00

Let’s face it: managing your search campaigns can seem a lot like being in a relationship. Both can be fickle, require lots of work and time, and need the right amount of attention to get the best results -- especially during Valentine’s Day. When everything is going smoothly, you’re feeling confident and on top of your game; but, without commitment and focus, your search management romance can quickly fizzle.

Here at DoubleClick Search, we know it's important for you and your campaigns to be getting along well as more consumers turn to search to find the best deals. This is especially true during high-traffic retail holidays; in fact, online sales are up 28% over last 2 years(1), with $210 billion in web-influenced sales expected for this year(2). This means huge opportunities for search marketers to reach shoppers looking for deals -- but it can also mean a lot of extra work.

So with that, we want to make sure your search management relationship doesn’t fall flat this year. Below are a few DoubleClick Search solutions to put the kick back in your step and help you keep focus on those other three little words this Valentine’s Day: return on investment.

Communication is key
Good communication is a fundamental part of a healthy relationship; after all, being left in the dark can quickly compound problems and stifle new opportunities to grow. Stay connected with a few tools from DoubleClick Search that’ll help you better understand and capture new opportunities:

	Chart bid history. Take the guesswork out of the relationship. With the ability to chart your bid history, DoubleClick Search gives you full transparency into bidding decisions to visually represent your keyword bids over time, and help you better manage to your unique goals.
	Bi-directional sync. Communication is a two-way street. With bi-directional sync, the changes you make in AdWords or adCenter show up in DoubleClick Search with the click of a button. You can even schedule syncs to automatically occur or repeat. (Now, if only it were this easy in a relationship!)
	Display remarketing from search ads. Don’t leave the conversation hanging. Leverage cross-channel opportunities from the DoubleClick integrated platform with display remarketing from search ads, which lets you “follow up” on search ad clicks and remarket to speciﬁc audiences across ad exchanges, via DoubleClick Bid Manager or the Google Display Network, based on their interaction with your paid search ads.

Explore together
Being routine with your campaigns can quickly have you falling into a rut. Exciting launches filled with new keyword additions and optimization can turn into the comfortable complacency of ordering in pizza, watching reruns on TV, and running your campaigns on autopilot. Don’t settle for the ho-hum; stay committed to the next chapter of your search campaigns with DoubleClick Search tools, to make sure they pay off:

	Landing page testing. Show your search campaign some love by pairing your keywords with the best landing page. With landing page testing in DoubleClick Search, split traﬃc between several landing pages and then compare the results to help choose the landing page that delivers the best results.
	Formula columns. Be creative -- ditch the spreadsheets and explore new surroundings with Formula columns that allow you to create your own customized columns directly in the DoubleClick Search interface. Access a wide variety of diﬀerent metrics computed from DoubleClick Search data, or rename columns.

Don’t wait until the last minute
...Not with dinner reservations, and certainly not with your search campaigns. Relationships require regular maintenance; read the signs early and understand your campaign needs to make the most informed decisions for the best results. Here are a few DoubleClick Search tools that can help you analyze your campaigns up to the minute, so you can plan accordingly:

Instant conversions. Stop the procrastination blame-game and act on every signal, as it happens. DoubleClick Search now loads instant conversion data from Floodlight in all its reports -- in addition to the engine performance data we already update in near-real time -- to bring you the freshest, most reliable campaign data. Conversion data in DoubleClick Search is updated automatically throughout the day, minutes after a conversion happens.

Happy Valentine’s Day from DoubleClick Search!

(1) Source: ComScore Inc. Press Release, 2011
(2) GroupM research: From intent to in-store: Search’s role in the new retail shopper profile, 2011