Seo for you

AdWords’ new look rolling out globally

noreply@blogger.com (srikanth) — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 06:01:00 +0000

AdWords’ new look rolling out globally: Since we showed you a preview of AdWords’ new look, we’ve been reviewing feedback and working to make even more improvements. Over the next several days, we’ll begin rolling out the new design to all AdWords accounts.

The new look simplifies the interface with newly designed menus, tabs, navigation, and buttons so that the important things -- such as your data -- stand out. The latest web technologies have been used to make the interface more visually appealing and zippy, while keeping the features where you are accustomed to finding them.

If you’re curious about specific design choices, or how we think about UX (user experience) at Google more generally, please join me for a live discussion and Q&A on Thursday, June 21st at 9:30am PST/12:30pm EST. To tune into this Hangout On Air:

Visit the Google Ads +Page at 9:30am PST/12:30pm EST Thursday June 21st.
Look for the stream post (see image below for what it will look like), and click to tune in. Be sure you’re signed into Google+!

We aim to deliver a simpler, more beautiful experience across all Google products. I hope you’ll find the experience using AdWords easier and more enjoyable, too. I’m looking forward to hearing your comments and questions soon!

Posted by Greg Rosenberg and the AdWords User Experience Team

Webinar: Bringing the power and control of search to display

noreply@blogger.com (srikanth) — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 06:01:00 +0000

Webinar: Bringing the power and control of search to display: Join us tomorrow, June 19, 2012 for the Learn with Google webinar, "Bringing the Power and Control of Search to Display,” to learn from the experts about Google’s major update to contextual targeting. The webinar starts at 10amPST / 1pmEST.

It’s now possible to target, bid and report on keywords on the Google Display Network, which means that you can fine-tune the performance of your contextual campaigns with the same level of control you’re used to in Search. It’s now easier for you to extend search campaigns to display and more efficient to run the two types of campaigns together.

Key areas that will be covered include:

The benefits of combining display with your search campaigns
Step-by-step campaign set-up guide
Campaign optimization tips and best practices

This webinar will be presented by Charlie Vestner, Global Director of Display Solutions and will include Q&A. The session is suitable for advertisers who are already running campaigns on the Google Display Network, as well as those who have not yet tried it.

Register now!

Posted by Katie Hamilton, Product Marketing Manager, Google Display Network

AdWords Examples - Right ads to the right user

noreply@blogger.com (srikanth) — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 06:01:00 +0000

AdWords Examples - Right ads to the right user:

In our third part of the series “AdWords Examples” we’ll look into the ads and how to make them more relevant to the customers you’re targeting. Today's post will review the importance of selecting the right destination URL, as users are generally more likely to convert if they arrive at a website page strongly related to their search query. Let’s continue where we left off with Lisa and her campaign for the Google Store.

A user searching for "Google lava lamps" is interested in the part of the store that is dedicated to Lava Lamps, so Lisa wants anyone clicking on her ads to arrive at a page about lava lamps. Here is the page she would like visitors who searched for “Google lava lamps” to see:

To best target these users, Lisa has created ads in a "Google Lava Lamp" ad group (see below image) with ad texts related to the particular product, not the Google Store in general. She has also set these ads to direct to the Google Lava Lamp part of the Google Store site by using a specific destination and display URL.

The destination URL Lisa would use:
www.google-store.com/Accessories/20+oz+Motion+Lamp.axd

The display URL the user would see in the ad text could be:www.google-store.com/LavaLamp

The two URLs can be different as long as the domain (google-store.com) is the same.

Lastly, Lisa has created three separate ads, allowing AdWords to automatically determine which one receives the most clicks.

Remember to always include a strong call to action to tell the user exactly what to expect from the site and what to do there. For example, Lisa used the call to action "Buy one today!,” likely to attract users who want to buy a lava lamp, versus, perhaps learn how to build one.

In our Help Center you can read more about what ad groups are, how to create ad groups and of course also how to create new text ads.

In our next and last part of this series we’ll see how to select and optimize your keywords.

Posted by Alan Zabihi - The Help Center Team

New In-Ads Notice Label and Icon for the Google Display Network in Europe

noreply@blogger.com (srikanth) — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 06:01:00 +0000

New In-Ads Notice Label and Icon for the Google Display Network in Europe: Last year in the U.S., we launched the AdChoices Icon on the Google Display Network. AdChoices is an industry standard "i" icon that expands to “AdChoices” when users move their cursor over the icon. Giving users clear notice about the ads they see is a high priority for Google and for many in the online advertising industry at large. Users who click this label are taken to a page where they can learn more about online advertising and the ads they see.

We’re now rolling out the AdChoices feature across Europe, supporting industry-wide efforts to provide more information to consumers. We'll soon start to change our “Ads By Google” in-ads notice icon to a new icon that expands to an "AdChoices" label. These notifications were developed by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB Europe)-led Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising to proactively give users notice and choice about the ads they see. With the adoption of a common icon users will see on ads across the web, we hope to show our support for the industry-wide initiative and to increase users' understanding about their choices.

Over the next few weeks, we'll start showing the new icon and label on most ad formats across the majority of European-language sites. Over time, we’ll expand the notice to ensure that all European-language publisher sites in the Google Display Network come within the Self-Regulatory Framework. This will be the single largest rollout of the "AdChoices" label to date, and we're encouraged that others in the industry are also adopting the label.

Users who click on the "AdChoices" label will be taken to a page where they can learn more about online advertising and the ads they are shown. This page will also link to the Ads Preferences Manager, where users can control the types of interest-based ads they see on the Google Display Network. We think this rollout will help users better understand the ads they're seeing, and we look forward to seeing widespread adoption of this label throughout the industry.

Posted by Jason Bigler, Product Management Director

Customize account management with AdWords scripts

noreply@blogger.com (srikanth) — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 06:00:00 +0000

Customize account management with AdWords scripts: We know that you're always looking for more efficient ways to manage your AdWords accounts. We also hear that many of you would love to use your own external data to make decisions in your accounts. Today, we're excited to announce the limited release of scripts in AdWords. With scripts, you can make changes to an AdWords account by writing simple JavaScript programs.

With scripts, you can:

Use external inventory data to either change bids or pause/unpause keywords.
Output account statistics to a spreadsheet from which you can create reports and visualizations.
Use stats trends over several weeks to change keyword or ad group bids.

Scripts run in the Google Apps Script infrastructure, and we're enabling Apps Script integration with three services: you can use Google Spreadsheets and Url Fetcher to integrate with external data, as well as email results of a script execution from the script itself.

To get started with scripts, visit the Campaigns tab, and select “Automation” then “Scripts” from the left toolbar:

To make the most of scripts, we recommend that whoever is writing them has a basic understanding of JavaScript.

In the coming weeks we plan to enable this feature for everyone. In the interim, we are accepting applications for access. Applicants will be whitelisted in batches as we ramp up usage in the system. In order to apply, you will need an AdWords customer ID (not a My Client Center ID). Please refer to our developers site for more instructions and best practices for using scripts.

Posted By: Prashant Baheti, AdWords Product Manager

Take advantage of mobile education opportunities

noreply@blogger.com (srikanth) — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 06:00:00 +0000

Take advantage of mobile education opportunities: Last week, in partnership with the Learn With Google program, we held our first “Mobile Education Week” webinar series for your agency or business to learn more about the tools and resources to help you succeed on mobile.

Below are video recordings of these webinars - check them out, and share with your colleagues.

Our Mobile Planet: Understanding U.S. Smartphone Consumers

Our first webinar provided an overview of the 2012 Our Mobile Planet smartphone research. Watch this video if you’d like to learn:

How smartphones are transforming core consumer behavior around the world, and the way we connect with others, stay informed, keep ourselves entertained, shop and navigate the world around us.
Implications for advertisers and strategies businesses can use to win the moments that matter with mobile.

Ideal for: global agencies and marketers

GoMo: Mobilize your Site with Quickly and Easily New Tools from Google & DudaMobile

The second webinar was a joint effort between Google’s GoMo initiative and DudaMobile on how it is now even easier for small businesses to create a free mobile-friendly website.

View this video if you’d like to learn:

Why mobile sites matter
Review Google's HowToGoMo.com resource
New: How to create free mobile sites for your small business directly from HowToGoMo.com, using a tool powered by DudaMobile
Examples and best practices for mobilizing your site using the free DudaMobile tool

Ideal for: small businesses and agencies interested in free tools to create a mobile site

Introducing Mobile Apps Inventory in AdWords

The final webinar shared the new opportunity available with the availability of AdMob inventory to AdWords users.

This video is great if you’d like to learn:

How AdWords now makes it easy for you to extend your campaigns to reach users inside mobile apps.
Review mobile-specific targeting, ad units, and reporting than enable you to optimize your ROI.

Ideal for: marketers and agencies looking to promote and target mobile apps

Want to learn more about how to help your business or agency succeed on mobile? Stay tuned to all new Mobile Ads news at the Google Mobile Ads blog and YouTube channel.

Posted by Sonja Lee, Product Marketing, Mobile Ads

AdWords Examples: Structuring your first ad groups

noreply@blogger.com (srikanth) — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 06:00:00 +0000

AdWords Examples: Structuring your first ad groups: This post is part of a four-part series called AdWords Examples. We'll show you an example of an account with a structure of campaigns, ad groups, keywords and ads that can be used by an online retailer. We hope you’ll find this helpful in creating your first campaign, and if you need help with the individual steps you can always find them in our AdWords Help Center.

In this second part of our series of AdWords Examples, we’ll go a little deeper and examine how to use ad groups effectively. If you didn’t catch the first post of the series, you can find it here: AdWords Examples: Structuring your campaigns.

When building an account for the Google Store, Lisa created different ad groups for each and every product in the store, as you can see below.

Using this structure in the AdWords account, Lisa is able to create relevant sets of keywords for each product on the webshop, create relevant ads for each product, and link these ads to the relevant landing pages.

In this case, each ad group will contain ads and keywords that are only related to one product, to increase the relevance of the ads. So when someone is searching for a Google lava lamp, an ad for Google lava lamps will be shown, and a click on that ad will take the user directly to the page for lava lamps.

Without this structure, the ads would not be able to accurately match the keywords. Matching the users’ search queries with targeted ads greatly increases the number of relevant clicks and purchases, as the customer is sent straight to the page for lava lamps.

You can find step-by-step instructions for how to create new ad groups here. In the next part of this series, we’ll look into some examples of ads. Stay tuned!

Written by Jens Larsson, The Help Center Team

The key to success on the Google Display Network

noreply@blogger.com (srikanth) — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 06:00:00 +0000

The key to success on the Google Display Network: Small businesses are realizing that they can go beyond search ads with the Google Display Network, reaching new customers and leads with engaging and relevant messages. In the past year alone, the number of small businesses running ads on the Google Display Network has almost doubled, and this growth trend is just beginning!

To help propel other small businesses to win the moments that matter with display, we decided to learn more from our customers, highlight their success, and share the strategies they’ve employed to achieve successful display campaigns.

Making display work for you

The key to being successful on the Google Display Network is understanding the mix of targeting types you should use to achieve your marketing objective. While there is no one-size-fits-all strategy, we know there are recurring themes among businesses who have set up successful display campaigns.

We found three small businesses that are great illustrations of these different approaches to display: Julian Bakery, Legacy Learning Systems, and Bedder Way.

Let’s take a closer look at their successful display network strategies:

Drive sales online and in stores – Since ramping up their GDN campaign to drive online and offline sales, Julian Bakery has grown from 40 distributors and 100 customers to 1000 distributors and 300,000 customers nationwide.
Control and understand every dollar you spend – Legacy Learning System achieves, on average, 1M impressions per day on the Google Display Network and 150 online sales per month by maximizing their ad performance using conversion tracking data.
Harness the power of an image – Bedder Way has increased their display network conversions by 50% and decreased their cost per conversion by 25%, by using image ads on the display network to visually showcase their murphy beds.

To help inspire you, we’ve compiled these companies’ strategies into three short videos and downloadable guides on our revamped Google Display Network website. The videos provide an overview of each company’s strategy and the PDFs act as a guide to help you follow their lead, developing your own successful campaigns on the GDN.

Take a look, browse the site, and try out the Google Display Network for yourself!

Posted by Brad Bender, Director, Product Management - Google Display Network

Understanding Mobile Ads Across Marketing Objectives

noreply@blogger.com (srikanth) — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 06:00:00 +0000

Understanding Mobile Ads Across Marketing Objectives:

Wednesday 13th June @ 3pm (UK)

In this live webinar, our in-house specialist will walk through a range of marketing objectives that can be served by mobile, covering everything from product launches to driving conversions online or in the physical world.

This session will also feature case studies of how companies have incorporated mobile in their marketing campaigns. This webinar will give you a sense of the power and flexibility of mobile and is great for digital marketers and agencies who work across a breadth of campaign types. We hope you can join us!

Register Now

You can view all upcoming webinars, as well as previous recordings, on our new Learn with Google webinar page.

Posted by Allison Sommer, Inside AdWords crew

Resources for driving your business forward with Google+

noreply@blogger.com (srikanth) — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 06:00:00 +0000

Resources for driving your business forward with Google+:

When we launched Google+ your Business, we wanted to give you a collection of tools and products to help you make lasting connections with your customers online. Since then, we’ve been asked to share best practices and case studies for successfully using this suite of offerings to build brands, engage with users on a personal level, and increase the relevance of ad campaigns. We’re excited to bring you two resources to learn how to drive your business forward with Google+.

A case study
We recently spoke with travel business LaterRoms.com, which shared its Google+ success story with us.

Since it was founded in 1999, UK-based hotel booking specialist LateRooms.com has built its brand around innovation and personal service, striving to match travelers with the right hotel rooms around the world. To ensure that it’s “front of mind whenever anyone is thinking about hotels,” LateRooms.com began using Google+ Hangouts and Ripples, as well as social extensions in Google AdWords, as a way to engage with customers on a personal level and increase brand awareness.

In particular, by enabling social extensions in its search brand campaign, it was able to obtain a higher number of brand recommendations, +1’s and direct traffic to their Google+ page. It saw a 9% CTR uplift on its search brand campaign so far and as a result, has now enabled social extensions on all their Adwords campaigns.

For the complete story, read the full case study here.

A webinar
Have you been dabbling in Google+ but aren’t sure where to get started? Do you want to know how Google+ can enhance other marketing that you’re doing? Then join us on Tuesday, June 26, as our Learn With Google team teaches you how to set your business up for success on Google+. Register today and secure your spot in our webinar that will be covering a variety of topics including:

Best practices for creating a page for your business
How to grow your audience on Google+
Tips for engaging with your audience
Measuring the value of social channels

Please register for the webinar at this link and share it with others that would be interested. We’re looking forward to the event.

To stay up to date on the latest information on Google+ for businesses, follow our Google+ for business page.

Posted by Allison Sommer, Inside AdWords Crew

AdWords < 3 Mobile Apps

noreply@blogger.com (srikanth) — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 06:00:00 +0000

AdWords < 3 Mobile Apps: Cross posted from the Google Mobile Ads blog

When we acquired AdMob two years ago, we made a big bet on mobile - and on mobile display advertising. As smartphone adoption has continued to grow around the world, we’ve seen that bet pay off with the increasingly strong appetite to engage customers on mobile devices. Starting today, over one million AdWords advertisers will now be able to reach engaged consumers on more than 350 million mobile devices in the AdMob network and in some of the world’s most popular mobile applications.

By bringing our products and tools together, advertisers can work with Google to more effectively accomplish their marketing goals. Earlier this week, we unveiled a newly unified digital ad platform that makes online marketing easier and more effective for large marketers and agencies using Doubleclick’s ad serving tools. Similarly, with today’s announcement, AdMob mobile advertising becomes a seamless part of AdWords.

AdWords advertisers’ will now have access to mobile app inventory from directly within the AdWords interface, giving them the ability to create and manage ad campaigns that run across more than 300,000 mobile apps in the AdMob network. Advertisers will be able to easily build, launch, and optimize their mobile campaigns across multiple platforms, and have full transparency about where their mobile ads run. AdMob’s network of apps gives advertisers true global reach with 23 countries each generating over one billion ad-requests last month, up from 11 countries in April 2011.

Starting today, a new campaign type is available in AdWords that makes it easy to launch an ad campaign to run on mobile apps on the AdMob network. To start this new campaign type, advertisers can select “new campaign” from the Campaigns tab, and then “Display Network only (mobile apps)”.

In addition to the ability to launch a mobile app campaign from within AdWords, advertisers can now reach individuals by targeting specific smartphone or tablet device models (e.g. Samsung Galaxy) or by targeting a particular manufacturer brand. AdWords already enables targeting by operator, wifi, or operating system version.

Advertisers can also reach their desired audience by selecting from the categories available in the Google Play Store (e.g. ‘Games’) or App Store and search for individual apps (e.g. ‘Flood it’). In the next several weeks, we’ll also provide an estimate on the number of devices reached and impressions targeted given your selections.

For more information on these new features, please join our webinar on mobile apps inventory in AdWords today at 10:00 AM PT / 1:00 PM ET (register here).

This is the latest chapter in our ongoing efforts not only to bring AdMob’s and Google’s tools together, but to mobilize all of our ads products and services. Over the last year, we’ve brought mobile app inventory to the Doubleclick Ad Exchange, transitioned AdMob CPC campaigns to an AdWords-style auction, and launched the ability for advertisers to serve ads from DFA into the AdMob network.

As mobile continues to grow, we’ll continue to develop integrated advertising solutions designed to harness the specific features of mobile devices, usage, and context.

Posted by: Jonathan Alferness, Director Product Management, Mobile Ads

Building Blocks of Digital Attribution: How to get started with Google’s attribution tools

noreply@blogger.com (srikanth) — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 05:59:00 +0000

Building Blocks of Digital Attribution: How to get started with Google’s attribution tools: (Cross-posted from the Analytics Blog)

What are the key steps to getting started with marketing attribution? Are you ready to move beyond the “last click” attribution model? How can you use Google’s tools to better understand your customer’s journey and calculate the impact of your digital marketing channels?

To help answer these questions, we’ve put together a series of webinars on attribution:

Attribution Insights from Google and Econsultancy (4/26/2012) – watch recording here
Building Blocks of Digital Attribution (5/24/2012) – watch recording here
Search Attribution: AdWords Search Funnels (6/20/2012) – register here
Cross-Channel Attribution: Multi-Channel Funnels – registration details coming soon
Next Steps with Attribution – registration details coming soon

If you didn’t have a chance to catch last week’s webinar on Building Blocks of Digital Attribution, it’s a great place to start your attribution journey -- you can watch the recording above. During the webinar, Bill Kee, Product Manager for Attribution and Multi-Channel Measurement, discussed how to lay the foundation for digital attribution. First and foremost, it’s important to get your organization ready. In our work with customers and our recent attribution research, we’ve discovered that many companies try to pursue attribution before their culture or their data is ready. In the webinar, Bill describes the steps and the potential pitfalls to make sure your company is heading in the right direction.

Second, even if the organization has taken the necessary steps culturally, it’s challenging to find the right technology, and to ensure that technology is properly implemented.

We know that finding the right technology is a challenge, which is why Google offers several great attribution tools – including AdWords Search Funnels, Multi-Channel Funnels in Google Analytics, and Attribution Modeling in Google Analytics Premium. In order to get the most out of these tools, it’s important to ensure that the basics are set up correctly. So, during the webinar, Bill also did a live demo of how to get started with AdWords Conversion Tracking and Google Analytics Goals. The setup is quick and easy – and once it’s in place, users can start accessing rich attribution data.

Naturally, we also received a lot of great questions from the webinar participants. We weren’t able to get to all of them during the webinar, so here are some responses and more pointers on getting started with attribution.

How do you define “digital attribution”?

Digital attribution is the process of assigning credit to the various online interactions your customer has before a “conversion” (conversion = making a purchase or performing some other valuable action on your site). These interactions could include display ads, paid or organic search results, email campaigns, affiliate coupon programs, social network posts, and other digital interactions. Today, many marketers by default use “last click” attribution, assigning all of the credit to the last interaction before a conversion. By understanding the full path to conversion – including early “upper funnel” touch points – and giving credit to all of those interactions, you’ll be able to budget more effectively and design better marketing campaigns.

What about attribution beyond digital channels?

Attribution is about improving the measurement of how ad spend drives conversions. To address this challenging topic, it’s important to consider all the factors that might affect conversions. These factors include the digital channels mentioned above, as well as how users interact with your brand across multiple devices, and the influence of online advertising on offline sales. This webinar series is focused on how to get the most out of digital attribution.

How do I know which interaction is the trigger for the actual conversion, out of the entire funnel?

The goal of attribution is to more accurately measure the impact of all your digital channels on sales, including how these channels interact in the path to conversion. This means acknowledging that, in most cases, there is no single “trigger” for the conversion, but rather a group of campaigns or touch points working together to help drive a conversion. So, a user might see a display ad which makes her start thinking about your product, then a few days later view an organic search result, then receive a targeted email, and finally buy your product. In this example the email was the last pre-conversion interaction, but all three interactions probably had an impact on your customer’s decision. Attribution is the process of deciding how much credit you want to give to each of those interactions.

How do I set up those tools you discussed during the webinar? Can you provide more detail for advanced setup needs?

Our help center provides very detailed information about how to get your AdWords and Analytics set up correctly, and responses to frequently asked questions. Check out our pages on:

In addition, if you'd like more help, we recommend contacting one of our certified partners – they can assist you with all aspects of implementation, as well as with interpreting your results. You can also check out our AdWords user forum and our Google Analytics user forum to get answers to your questions.

Does adding all this code to my website affect the site speed at all?

If the code is installed correctly by following the directions outlined on our help center pages (see above for links), it should not impact your site speed, or have only a very tiny impact. Setting up goals and conversion tracking will provide much richer data on how users arrive at your site and whether they’re doing what you want them to do once they get there. With that knowledge, you’ll be able to improve your marketing programs and your website.

What are some sample use cases for “event” goals?

A goal or a conversion can be more than just a purchase. Indeed, you can define multiple “micro-conversions” that represent various actions that are important to your business. So, you might use event goals to keep track of when a PDF was downloaded, or when a user watched a video or played an audio clip. Each of these “events” could be tied to goals that are of value to you. You can find more detail about event tracking in this article on the Google Developers site.

Why do I need to set up conversion tracking and goals? Can’t Google Analytics track without conversions?

It is possible to see some useful information without conversions, but defining conversions helps you measure what's important, rather than just general behavior. Plus, after you have these conversion tools set up in Analytics and AdWords, you’ll be able to access Multi-Channel Funnels, Flow Visualization, and Conversion Reporting in Google Analytics, as well as Search Funnels and Conversion Optimizer in AdWords. It’s quick and easy to get started, and it’s much more useful to look at a user’s path if you know that they’ve reached your desired end point and performed an action that’s valuable to your business.

Marketing attribution is a complex but very rewarding process – we hope that these tools and webinars will help you to get started.

Happy analyzing, and hope you'll join us for the next webinar in the series!

Posted by Sara Jablon Moked, Product Marketing Manager for Conversion and Attribution

Connecting shoppers and great stores online

noreply@blogger.com (srikanth) — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 05:59:00 +0000

Connecting shoppers and great stores online: Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog

Online shopping is great for many reasons, but most of all it’s a convenient and fast way to turn your intent to buy that new pair of running shoes, for example, into an actual purchase. But shoppers tell us they’re often nervous about buying from online stores they don’t know. We created the free Google Trusted Stores program to help solve this problem. When shoppers see the Google Trusted Store badge, they know in a snap they’re shopping with a reputable retailer and they can feel confident making an informed purchase.

We’ve been testing the program since last fall with about 50 online merchants and more than 10 million orders. It’s working even better than we hoped, generating positive feedback from shoppers and increasing sales for merchants. Starting today, Google Trusted Stores is open to all U.S. merchants who want to apply.

Helping shoppers choose stores they can trust

When shopping online, you may come across the Google Trusted Store badge. Hover over it and you’ll see a “report card” which shows “grades” for that merchant’s shipping and service, including more precise metrics about what the grades mean.

The Google Trusted Store badge and report card

This badge is only awarded to online stores that deliver a great overall experience, so even if you haven’t shopped with this merchant before, you can easily tell if they are trustworthy, ship quickly and reliably, and offer exceptional customer service. If there’s a problem with your purchase, we’re here to help. When you buy from a Google Trusted Store, you can opt in to get up to $1,000 lifetime purchase protection per shopper. And our dedicated customer service team is there to work with you and the merchant to assist in resolving the issue.

Helping merchants demonstrate their excellence and earn new business

Google Trusted Stores helps online stores attract new customers, increase sales and differentiate themselves by showing off their excellent service via the badge on their websites. Soon the badge will also appear on Google.com ads and in Google Shopping results.

Google Trusted Store badge on AdWords

Over the last nine months of the pilot, our tests show that participating in this program can help merchants big and small. For example, Wayfair, the largest online-only retailer of home goods and one of the top 50 largest online retailers as ranked by Internet Retailer, increased sales* on its site by 2.3 percent with Google Trusted Stores. And Beau-coup, a specialty online favors and gifts retailer, saw an 8.6 percent increase*. Take a look at our merchant success stories to learn more about how Google Trusted Stores has had a positive impact on website conversion rates and average order sizes for online retailers.

Google Trusted Stores is entirely free, both for shoppers and for online stores. We’re still testing the most helpful ways to display Trusted Stores information to shoppers, so you may see different versions, or none at all, while we conduct experiments. If you’re a merchant and would like to participate in the Google Trusted Stores program, please apply.

Posted by Tom Fallows, Group Product Manager, Google Shopping

*Increased sales percentages are based on a combination of uplift in conversion and average order size.

Get Local with ZIP Code targeting

noreply@blogger.com (srikanth) — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 05:59:00 +0000

Get Local with ZIP Code targeting:

As previously announced, you can now target 5-digit U.S. ZIP codes in AdWords campaigns on Google Search and Display networks. ZIP code targeting can help you reach the same audiences as your direct mail campaigns, target specific service areas, reach more profitable customers, or optimize national campaigns at a more local level.

To help you make the most of ZIP code targeting, here are a few best practices covering ZIP code campaign setup, selection, bulk uploads, and reporting. You can also sign up now for our June 12th webinar on how to increase online and offline sales with ZIP code targeting.

Campaign Setup

Based on feedback from early adopters, we recommend that you get started by supplementing your national or regional campaigns with a separate local campaign, so you can optimize bids, budgets and creatives at a ZIP code level while maintaining your reach and volume with the more broadly targeted campaign. This supplemental campaign can be implemented by targeting specific ZIP codes of interest to you.

Jef Hall, Paid Search Manager at Sterling Commerce Group, a telecommunications reseller company, shares his strategy for using ZIP code targeting. “We use ZIP codes to better target our service areas. Our first approach is to create supplemental campaigns that target ZIP codes in areas that we sell to,” said Jef. “We also are testing a different method by targeting broadly at the state level and excluding the ZIP codes for areas we don’t sell to. After testing, we’ll go with the method that performs best according to the lead volume of the area, and the cost per lead metrics that we track.”

Selecting ZIP Codes

To implement your strategy, go to your campaign Settings tab in AdWords. Then simply begin typing a ZIP code to view its estimated reach and to add or exclude it as one of your targeted locations.

Alternatively, when selecting your locations, click the Nearby link to view a map and nearby locations which can be filtered by metro, city, or postal code.

If we are not able to associate people with a selected geographic location by their Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, we’ll show a Limited reach badge next to the location name. This location will still receive traffic from searches with a specific location mentioned in the query and from users with high-end mobile devices that have enabled the "My location" feature.

If many of the ZIP codes you target have limited reach, consider setting up ZIP code targeting via a supplemental campaign that complements existing campaign targeting more broadly at a city, metro, or state level. That way you maintain your desired reach while bidding more aggressively and customizing campaigns for specific ZIP codes.

Bulk Uploads

With over 30,000 US ZIP codes available for you to target, we want to make the location targeting selection process fast and easy when you’re targeting a lot of ZIP codes.

In the AdWords location targeting tool, you’ll see a new tab called, “Bulk locations.” You’ll be able to enter up to 1,000 locations in a single country at a time. After copying and pasting your list of ZIP codes, click the Search button and review the matched results below before adding them to your campaign. If you’ve ever had to split up campaigns because of location target limits, you’ll be happy to know that we recently raised the location target limits from 300 to 10,000 locations per campaign.

Reporting

To see how your campaigns are performing at a granular level, ZIP codes now appear in the “Most specific location” column in your AdWords geographic performance reports. This is an excellent way to identify your top and your low performing ZIP codes and make campaign optimization adjustments accordingly.

We’re eager to hear about your experience getting local with ZIP code targeting, so share your story here. In addition to our June 12th webinar, you you can also find out more about postal code targeting, the bulk locations feature, and geographic reports in our help center. ZIP Codes are already available in the AdWords API as a beta feature and will be included in the next release of AdWords Editor.

Posted by Aileen Tang, Senior Product Manager

A Preview of AdWords’ New Look

noreply@blogger.com (srikanth) — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 05:59:00 +0000

A Preview of AdWords’ New Look:

Over the years, we’ve listened to your feedback and added lots of innovations across search, display, mobile, video, social, local, and measurement to help you get great results with AdWords. We also want your experience setting up and managing campaigns to be easier and more enjoyable. So, over the last several months, as part of our aim to deliver a simpler, more beautiful experience across all Google products, we’ve been working on a redesign for the AdWords interface. We are looking for feedback as we put the final touches on this visual refresh. Have a look at the preview and let us know what you think. You’ll find a feedback button on each page.

A more beautiful AdWords

This refresh aims to get the interface out of the way, so that the important things – such as your data – stand out. We integrated the latest client side technologies to make the AdWords interface more visually appealing and scalable.

Click the image above for a preview of AdWords’ new look

A simpler AdWords

The design changes are also aimed at making campaign creation simpler. One example is the introduction of campaign types, which will determine the campaign settings that you see.

For example, if you're creating a Search Network campaign to place ads on Google search and search partners, you'll have the option of selecting a campaign type: either Standard, All features, or Product Listing Ads. If you select the Standard campaign type, you'd see only the most relevant settings to Search Network only campaigns, making you experience simpler and more efficient.

New Campaign Types

Whether you spend an hour a month or a few hours a day in AdWords, we hope you’ll find these changes intuitive and pleasant. Stay tuned for more details as we launch this new design soon. We welcome your feedback.

Posted by Greg Rosenberg and the AdWords User Experience Team

Sally Hansen Salon Effects

noreply@blogger.com (srikanth) — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 05:59:00 +0000

Sally Hansen Salon Effects: Post

Posted by SoAndSo, Inside AdWords crew

I received a Sally Hansen Salon Effects real nail polish strips as part of my Influenster Spring Beauty Vox Box and here are my true and most honest opinions.

I LOVE it! Once you know what to do, it works better than a professional manicure. Don't be afraid of filing those nails and they'll reward you, last much longer than plain ol' boring nail polish!

Peel, apply, file. Learn more at www.sallyhansen.com

The Pros:
No dry time
Lasts up to 10 days
Removes easily with nail polish remover
40 must-have styles

Where to Buy:
Available at chain drug stores, food stores and mass merchandisers nationally.
Suggested Retail Price: $9.99

Hangout recap - Making search ads work for businesses with mobile apps

noreply@blogger.com (srikanth) — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 05:58:00 +0000

Hangout recap - Making search ads work for businesses with mobile apps: Want to learn how to use new AdWords search ads to promote and track your mobile app, and hear from early adopters who have done so?

Last Thursday, we hosted Google Product Manager Anurag Agrawal in conversation with Brian Wright, Senior Marketing Manager at Lookout Mobile Security and Troy Morris, Mobile Marketing Manager at WhitePages.com in a Google+ Hangout. They discussed the value of using search ads to promote their respective mobile apps. Anurag then showed us in a live demo how to set up features that can help app developers promote and track downloads of their mobile app.

To see the full conversation, watch the Hangout here:

Below, Brian Wright (BW) and Troy Morris (TM) discuss role of search advertising in growing their mobile app business.

Google: Why has your business chosen to promote your mobile apps?

Brian Wright: We provide a mobile app that helps smartphone users protect their phones against data loss, theft and malware. The more users we have, the more data we have about the threats out there in the mobile ecosystem - so in order to make our technology effective, it’s important for us to acquire users.

Google: Why use AdWords search ads to promote your mobile app?

BW: We promote our apps on the major mobile ad networks and via carrier partnerships. However, search encourages a different type of user behavior that’s different from iTunes or Google Play Store browsing. Our search users are looking for more information, but they might not know an app is a solution to what they’re looking for. It’s great to get in front of those people with search ads.

WhitePages.com and Lookout Mobile Security promote their apps using AdWords mobile search ads

Google: What’s the value of running search ads to promote your mobile app?

Troy Morris: There is an intent users have on search, in our case - to find someone. Conversion rates easily eclipse that of other ad networks so we’re able to get downloads at responsible costs, which helps the overall lifetime value of these users.

What’s also great is that even before Android download tracking was launched, Google was ahead of the curve to give us insights we couldn’t get through other channels. We could track performance from the campaign, down to the ad group and keyword level. It gives us a massive amount of control we don’t see on other ad networks. It gives me the ability to go in at any point in the day to adjust bids or ads, and optimize to where every single penny counts.

To learn more about how to set up these new features in your AdWords account, check out the recording of the Hangout, or view these instructions in the AdWords Help Center.

Posted by Sonja Lee, Associate Product Marketing Manager, Google Mobile Ads

AdWords Examples: Structuring your campaigns

noreply@blogger.com (srikanth) — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 05:53:00 +0000

AdWords Examples: Structuring your campaigns: This post is part of a four-part series called AdWords Examples. We'll show you an example of an account with a structure of campaigns, ad groups, keywords and ads that can be used by an online retailer. We hope you’ll find this helpful in creating your first campaign, and if you need help with the individual steps you can always find them in our AdWords Help Center.

In this example, we’ll see how Lisa is using Google AdWords to market the Google Store online. In the Google Store, you can find all kinds of Google gear, ranging from clothing to toys, and buy gear directly online.

As you can see, this webshop is structured into product categories such as accessories and wearables with subcategories for each specific product. Lisa uses the same structure in her AdWords account as in her store: she uses the product categories from the webshop to create different campaigns. Each product within these categories will then get its own ad group with its own specific set of keywords and ads.

Using the structure of your website as a model for the structure of your account not only makes it easy to find the individual ads in your account, but it's also an excellent way of making your ads relevant to users.

Lisa has noticed that the advertising costs for t-shirts and bowling bags are different. By having different product categories in different campaigns, Lisa can define different budgets and bidding options for each product category. This separation also makes reporting and analysis of these different product categories easier. Here’s how to set a budget for your campaign.

If Lisa wanted to reach people who speak different languages or live in different geographic areas, she could create campaigns in different languages, and target the appropriate language and geographic region in her campaign settings.

You can find step-by-step instructions for creating new campaigns here. In the next part of this series, we’ll examine how to use ad groups to your advantage. Stay tuned!

Posted by the AdWords Help Center team

Update to the recent ad rotation change

noreply@blogger.com (srikanth) — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 05:53:00 +0000

Update to the recent ad rotation change: Last month we announced that we would be changing how creative rotation works in AdWords. Specifically, we changed the even rotation setting to rotate evenly for a period of 30 days, after which AdWords would optimize to show your higher performing creatives more frequently.

In the past month, we've heard a number of concerns from you about this change. Thank you for all of the feedback -- we've been listening carefully to determine the right course of action. The concerns have focused on (1) the lack of an opt-out for this change and (2) the potential that the 30 day even rotation window might be shorter than your testing window for new ads. You also inquired about why we made the change.

First, we’d like to share a little more about why we updated how creative rotation works. With the modified Rotate evenly setting, our tests indicate that we will provide you with more valuable traffic in an automated, efficient manner. We've found that, on average, optimized creative rotation results in an increase in click-through rate and an increase in total conversion volume for advertisers. Here’s an example describing the benefit (note: data is intended for illustrative purposes only):

Advertisement A has a 3% CTR, while Advertisement B has a 1% CTR. Under the original Rotate evenly setting, the ads would show roughly evenly, resulting in an average CTR of around 2%. Under the new setting, Advertisement A will show more frequently after the even rotation window has passed, bringing the average CTR closer to 3%, or a 50% increase in clicks. Our systems will also continue to run Advertisement B for a low fraction of traffic to continue to test how well it performs.

Also, in response to your feedback, we're planning to make two changes to the setting. First, we'll expand the even rotation period from 30 days to 90 days to give you a longer window for testing new ads. Second, if you still wish to have your ads rotate evenly indefinitely, we're going to offer an opt-out of this change. You can opt-out by filling in your information on this form or by contacting your account representative. Both of these changes will go into effect on June 11, 2012.

If we see a large amount of demand for the opt-out over the next few weeks, we'll also offer the opt-out in the AdWords interface directly.

We're confident that the changes we've made to ad rotation enable us to show higher quality ads to our users and better performing ads for our advertisers. However, we also realize that it is important to provide you with the freedom and time to decide what works best for you and that's why we're announcing these changes today. Please continue to share your feedback so that we can build solutions to meet your advertising needs.

Posted by: Nick Fox, VP, Product Management

Building a better shopping experience

noreply@blogger.com (srikanth) — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 05:53:00 +0000

Building a better shopping experience: (Cross-posted from the Google Commerce blog)

Truly great search is all about turning intentions into actions, lightning fast. In the early days of Google, users would type in a query, we’d return ten blue links, and they’d move on happy. Today people want more. When searching for great local restaurants, people want places to eat right there on the results page, not another click or two away. It’s the same with hotels, flight options, directions and shopping.

Organizing these types of data can be very different from indexing the Web, because the information is often not publicly available. It requires deep partnerships with different industries—from financial services and travel to merchants who sell physical goods.

Today we’re announcing a new initiative to improve our shopping experience over time--so that shoppers (your customers) can easily research purchases, compare different products, their features and prices, and then connect directly with merchants to make their purchase.

Google Shopping

First, we are starting to transition Google Product Search in the U.S. to a purely commercial model built on Product Listing Ads. This new product discovery experience will be called Google Shopping and the transition will be complete this fall. We believe that having a commercial relationship with merchants will encourage them to keep their product information fresh and up to date. Higher quality data—whether it’s accurate prices, the latest offers or product availability—should mean better shopping results for users, which in turn should create higher quality traffic for merchants.

We’re giving merchants a few months to transition to this new model, and we’re also offering some incentives:

All merchants who create Product Listing Ads by August 15, 2012 will automatically receive a monthly credit for 10% of their total Product Listing Ad spend through the end of 2012; and
Existing Google Product Search merchants can receive $100 AdWords credit toward Product Listing Ads if they fill out a form before August 15, 2012.

To learn more and get started merchants can visit: www.google.com/ads/shopping

Ranking in Google Shopping, when the full transition is complete this fall, will be based on a combination of relevance and bid price--just like Product Listing Ads today. This will give merchants greater control over where their products appear on Google Shopping. Over time they will also have the opportunity to market special offers such as “30% off all refracting telescopes.”

In addition, merchants who want to stand out from the crowd can choose to participate in our new Google Trusted Stores program. Google Trusted Stores is a badge for e-commerce sites which gives users background on merchants—whatever their size—including ratings for on-time shipping and customer service. Google stands behind merchants that have earned the Google Trusted Stores badge with a $1,000 lifetime purchase protection guarantee per shopper.

Google.com

Second, starting today we’ve also begun to experiment with some new commercial formats on Google.com that will make it easier for users to find and compare different products. These include larger product images that give shoppers a better sense of what is available and also the ability to refine a search by brand or product type. For example, here’s what stargazers could see on Google.com when searching for [telescopes].

Search results for [telescopes] in the new Google Shopping experience

These new formats are clearly labeled “sponsored,” and take space currently occupied by AdWords.

If people are looking for a specific product, such as [Celestron CPC 800], they might also see a new design that summarizes information about that particular item neatly in one place. They can then easily decide whether it is what they want, and buy it from their merchant of choice.

Results for specific product queries like [Celestron CPC 800] may include reviews and product attributes

We’re excited about building delightful shopping experiences for consumers in close partnership with merchants. Google Shopping will empower businesses of all sizes to compete effectively--and it will help shoppers turn their intentions into actions lightning fast. Today’s changes are a first step toward providing technology, tools and traffic to help power the retail ecosystem.

Posted by Sameer Samat, Vice President of Product Management, Google Shopping

Want to learn new ways to promote your mobile app? Join us tomorrow for a Hangout On Air.

noreply@blogger.com (srikanth) — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 05:52:00 +0000

Want to learn new ways to promote your mobile app? Join us tomorrow for a Hangout On Air.: Earlier this month, we announced new features in AdWords that provide a simple solution for developers and businesses with a mobile app to acquire users and track downloads. Tomorrow (May 31st) at 10am PST, 1pm EST, we’re hosting a live Hangout On Air with Product Manager Anurag Agrawal in a conversation with businesses who have been early to test this out - Brian Wright, Sr. Marketing Manager at Lookout Mobile Security, and Troy Morris, Mobile Marketing Manager at WhitePages. We’ll also be demonstrating how to use the new Mobile App Extension, and set up Android Download Tracking inside AdWords.

How to tune into this Hangout On Air:

Visit the Google Ads +Page at 10am PST/1pm EST.
Look for the stream post, and click to tune in. Don’t forget to be signed into Google+!

Look for the Hangout on Air post like the image above on the Google Ads +Page and click to tune-in!

Leave us comments and questions! We’ll be sure to answer these during or in a follow up to the Hangout On Air.

Posted by Sonja Lee, Google Mobile Ads

AdWords for video: Use video to capture a new advertising audience

noreply@blogger.com (srikanth) — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 05:52:00 +0000

AdWords for video: Use video to capture a new advertising audience: Join us every Wednesday at 11am PST on the Google+ Your Business page to learn about the tools that Google offers your business. This week, we’re excited to bring you a Hangout On Air about AdWords for video.

Who doesn’t love watching videos? They can teach, elicit emotion, and influence our daily lives. Naturally then, video is also an effective way to build awareness of your business. On average, video advertising on YouTube can lead to a 20% increase in website traffic. Watch Wednesday’s Hangout on Air to hear more about AdWords for video from two specialists who will address who should use video advertising, how to up set video campaigns, what performance metrics are available, and a few more helpful tricks.

Just sign into Google+ and add the Google+ Your Business page to your circles. Post questions ahead of time - simply look for the post that we put up every Monday morning soliciting your questions. Then, on Wednesday, navigate to your Stream where you’ll be able to view our Hangout live with just one click!

Posted by Katie Miller, Inside AdWords crew

Model bid changes at scale with campaign bid simulator

noreply@blogger.com (srikanth) — Mon, 21 May 2012 10:18:00 +0000

Model bid changes at scale with campaign bid simulator:

When we launched bid simulator in 2009, we wanted to make it easy for you to understand the impact of bids on your advertising results. Until now, you’ve been able to access bid simulator at the keyword and ad group level.

To allow you to more easily simulate and apply bid changes at scale, we’re pleased to announce the launch of campaign bid simulator.

To access campaign bid simulator, go to the Opportunities tab and select “campaign bid simulator” from the left navigation tree.

With campaign bid simulator, you can:

View bid changes in aggregate and model changes even when keywords or ad groups might not have enough data for this on their own.

See what might happen if you increased or decreased all your bids by a specific percentage (10%, for example).

See whether you may need to increase your campaign budget to ensure it doesn’t become limited by budget at the new bid value.

Model what happens if you changed all your bids in the campaign to a single value.

Download the bid-simulation data at the account or campaign level.

Download an AdWords Editor-compatible file with bid amounts at the simulated level and the ad groups and keywords to which they should be applied.

Note: this is mock data only and should not be seen as a real or accurate simulation

For more information, visit the AdWords Help Center.

Posted by Sheridan Kates, Product Manager, AdWords

Announcement: Custom alerts will sunset on June 30, 2012

noreply@blogger.com (srikanth) — Mon, 21 May 2012 10:18:00 +0000

Announcement: Custom alerts will sunset on June 30, 2012: When we first created custom alerts, we wanted to provide advertisers with a way to be notified when certain behaviors or changes occurred in their AdWords account. Over time, we observed that most advertisers wanted to take action when such triggers occurred within their accounts. Many of these actions can now be done by creating automated rules - a tool within AdWords that enables you to schedule automatic changes to specific parts of your account based on the criteria that you specify.

Based on automated rules adoption, we have decided to sunset custom alerts. Starting June 15, we will disable creation of new alerts and by the end of June, we will stop triggering existing alerts. This means that on June 30, you will not see custom alerts in your AdWords account. If you selected email as your notification method, this means you will no longer receive alert emails.

We are actively working to bring you an email-only option in automated rules so you can be notified when a rule requirements are met without taking any action. In the meantime, check out some of the common ways you can use automated rules to save you time in managing your account.

Posted by Prashant Baheti, AdWords Product Manager

Announcing the next series of Learn with Google webinars!

noreply@blogger.com (srikanth) — Mon, 21 May 2012 10:18:00 +0000

Announcing the next series of Learn with Google webinars!: Earlier this year, we introduced the Learn with Google webinar program, and we were delighted to see thousands of you show up to learn about a variety of Google advertising products and solutions. Today, we’re happy to announce the continuation of our series with 10 new webinars over the next few months. During each webinar we’ll share tips and how-to’s to help make the web work for your business.

Check out our upcoming live webinars below:

May 23 at 10am PDT: Getting Started with Google Analytics
May 24 at 9am PDT: Building Blocks of Digital Attribution
May 31 at 10am PDT: Introduction to TrueView for YouTube
June 5 at 10am PDT: GoMo: Mobilize your Site with Quick and Easy New Tools
June 6 at 10am PDT: Our Mobile Planet: Understanding U.S. Smartphone Consumers
June 7 at 10am PDT: Introducing Mobile Apps Inventory in AdWords
June 12 at 10am PDT: Get Local with ZIP Code Targeting to Increase Sales/Leads
June 14 at 10am PDT: Search Optimization: Tips, Tricks, and Tools
June 19 at 10am PDT: Bringing the Power and Control of Search to Display
July 10 at 10am PDT: Account Management Tools for Large Advertisers and Agencies

Visit our webinar page to register for any of the sessions and to access past webinars on-demand. We’ll be adding new webinars as they’re scheduled, so check back regularly for updates. You can also stay up-to-date on the schedule by downloading our Learn with Google Webinar calendar to automatically see upcoming webinars in your Google Calendar.

Whether your goal is to engage the right customers in the moments that matter, make better decisions, or go bigger, faster, we hope that you’ll use these best practices and how-to’s to maximize the impact of digital and grow your business. We’re looking forward to having you at an upcoming Learn with Google webinar!

Posted by Erin Green, Marketing Coordinator