If you have clients in the education space or are looking to bring on new ones, you may be interested in reading our latest Success Story for Allied Business Schools. Here's a sample of what you'll find:

• Founded in 1992
• Specializes in distance learning alternatives
• 365 employees, based in Laguna Hills, CA
• Started using AdWords in 2002

What they needed:

• To generate qualified leads and increase student enrollment
• To target individual states with different messages
• To improve website functionality and performance

What they accomplished:

• Used AdWords to generate 30% of total leads, with a lower cost-per-conversion than other marketing programs
• Implemented Website Optimizer and tested variations of their landing page, resulting in an increase in visitor conversion rates
  
  

"When we realized how well we could geographically target online, that made all the difference. It allows us to separate out costs, traffic, leads and cost-per-conversion from state to state."

-Ali Haris, search marketing specialist for Allied Business School


To read the full Allied story, download the PDF, and visit the AdWords Success Stories Site if you'd like to read more. We've recently added new videos and an updated form so you can tell us your story.

Posted by Maris Gersh, Creative Team

For some, the first day of summer marks a time for vacation and relaxation, but if you have clients in the travel industry things may just be getting busy. With more people searching for summer getaways, there’s no better time to check out the new Travel Industry Knowledge Center.

Designed for advertisers in the travel space, you can get a list of recommended Google products, read stories about travel companies who have found success with AdWords, and get tips on making the most of your clients' AdWords campaigns.

Here's an excerpt from the "Get more bang for your buck"section:

We hope you find these tips helpful so you can spend more time doing some traveling of your own.

Posted by Laura Hood, Creative Team

Unlock the mystery behind a campaign’s low search traffic. Knowing how your ad stacks up against others in your market can help you make more effective changes to your campaigns. So, before you start restructuring the whole account, get clued in by running an Impression Share report (IS).

The IS report will tell you the percentage of impressions where your client’s ads were shown out of the total available impressions in the market you were targeting. With insight into potential traffic, you can make more informed decisions by getting answers to these questions:

• Do I have room to expand in my targeted market?
  
  
• Am I losing impressions due to rank?
  
  
• Am I losing impressions due to budget?
  
  
• What's my impression share for specific keywords I'm using? (Hint: use the IS Exact Match report)

The next step is to learn how to improve your client's impression share, and the mystery is solved.

Posted by Josephine Tsay, Agency Team

If you use a My Client Center (MCC) account on a regular basis, we'd like to hear from you. Our product team has created a survey to collect your input on how you use the current MCC features and functionality, and what you'd like to see in the future. Please take a moment to complete the survey, and thanks in advance for your feedback.

And if you don't currently use an MCC account to organize and manage your client accounts, you can find more information on how to create and use one here.

Posted by Gina Blohowiak, Product Specialist

[Note: This post has been reprinted from the Inside AdWords blog.]

If you're a media planner at an ad agency, you know that planning an online display buy can be challenging, particularly in scaling your campaign's reach while keeping it relevant for your target audience. Plus, how do you keep track of the millions of sites out there that might be just right for your campaign?

To make your life easier, we're introducing Google Ad Planner, a research and media planning tool that connects advertisers and publishers. When using Google Ad Planner, simply enter demographics and sites associated with your target audience, and the tool will return information about sites (both on and off the Google content network) that your audience is likely to visit. You can drill down further to get more detail like demographics and related searches for a particular site, or you can get aggregate statistics for the sites you've added to your media plan.

While Google Trends for Websites, announced last week, is designed for all users, Google Ad Planner is designed with media planners in mind. Using Google Ad Planner, you can quickly create media plans and export to a .csv file, which can be opened in most spreadsheet applications. Or, you can export to DoubleClick's MediaVisor, which helps you manage all your other media planning, buying and campaign management activities.



We hope you'll find this tool useful and discover many relevant sites--small and large--that would otherwise be hard to find. As Ad Planner is a new product, it's currently available by invitation only. If you're interested in trying it out, you can apply here.

Posted by Cathy Bishop, Creative Team

Seasonal dips happen in nearly every industry, and a slow quarter can be a great time to shift gears and take more time to fine-tune your clients' accounts. Read on for some of my top suggestions for making the most of a lull in traffic.

1. Test, test, test: Slow quarters are a great time to test and iterate.
   
   
   • Prepare for periods of peak traffic, like the Q4 retail season, by optimizing now. Test new ad groups, clean up keyword lists, and get in front of new audiences with content network campaigns.
   • Try products like Google's Website Optimizer to find the most optimal website design or Google Analytics to gain insight into how users interact with your site.
     
     
2. Be prepared: By staying on top of industry news and trends, you'll know when slow periods are ahead and you can plan accordingly.
   
   
   • Forecast quarterly budgets and make sure you've allocated your resources correctly.
   • When creating the industry calendar that I described last time, highlight periods of potential slow growth. Develop a plan for those weeks or months to make sure that you're using the time to improve campaign performance.
     
     
3. Room to grow: Review your client's account and focus on areas that may have growth prospects.
   
   
   • For example, if your client offers a variety of loan types, you may find that consumers are currently expressing more interest in student loans than they are in home loans.
   • Use Google Trends to help you identify markets that are expanding based on search volume.
     
     
4. Interest now can mean sales later: Examine the buying cycle.
   
   
   • In some industries, like business-to-business tech purchasing, the buying cycle is long, and has a predictable yearly cycle. Even if customers aren't converting on their clicks immediately, they may be doing research in order to plan for future purchases. Target these prospective consumers with non-branded search keywords and content network campaigns so they know where to turn when they're ready to buy.

Posted by Vivek Tata, Google Industry Analyst

Whether you have clients selling Tech B2B products and services or you're just interested in gaining traffic in new markets, in the latest edition of the Tech B2B Industry Newsletter, you'll find information that can help. We provide tips on reaching more customers, product solutions to anticipate and track who your customers are, and detailed information to help you run successful campaigns. For example, how can the information contained in Google Trends help you optimize your account?


Take a look to find out, and if you'd like to receive this newsletter in the future, let us know at techbtob-newsletter@google.com.

Posted by Cathy Bishop, Creative Team

In our last blog post, we recommended using negative keywords for your content network campaigns to help improve your targeting. We got a number of questions asking for more details, so we're taking a deeper look into that topic here, using the example of a client selling gourmet chocolate gift boxes.

• Use negative keywords at the ad group and campaign level, as appropriate. If you have negative keywords that apply to all your ad groups within a content campaign, save time by adding them at the campaign level.
  
  
• Get ideas for negative keywords from the Keyword Tool. For example, if you enter chocolates in the Keyword Tool, you'll see a number of related concepts. Select your negative keywords based on the traffic you're interested in excluding. In this case, you may not want to appear on pages related to the LG chocolate phone, chocolate Labrador dogs, or the books and movies Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Like Water for Chocolate. Add these terms as negative keywords to help target your ads.
  
  
• Keep in mind that users are browsing content network websites rather than searching for specific terms, so you can still receive relevant traffic from sites that aren't directly related to your product or service. You may want your gourmet chocolate ads to show on sites for other gourmet foods, desserts, or gifts, so choose your negative keywords accordingly.

Posted by Danh Ly, Thu Nguyen, and Alice Lin, Optimization Specialists

Posted by Vivek Tata, Industry Analyst

For an online advertising campaign, major industry news events can be great sources of targeted traffic - if you've planned ahead. For example, when Microsoft released its new Vista OS last year, it affected hardware and software manufacturers, retail stores, and of course, web traffic. Products with the global impact of Vista aren't released every day, but every industry has its major news events such as mergers, conferences, and launches.

Even if your clients aren't at the center of these big events, it's still likely their business will be impacted. Here are some free Google products and tips that can help you stay up-to-date on industry happenings and take advantage of the buzz:

• Subscribe to Google News Alerts. You can define a set of queries that will trigger an alert if a related news story appears, so you can keep track of a wide variety of topics without spending your whole day reading the paper.
  
  
• Set up a Google Reader feed. Read up on industry news frequently to make sure you're on top of potential traffic surges. Blogs that track industry rumors can be a good place to start: for weeks before the official announcement of the Apple iPhone, technology blogs like Engadget were posting the latest buzz about Apple's secret new phone.
  
  
• Create a Google Calendar listing major conferences and expos in your industry. For technology-oriented retailers, for example, that would include major events like MacWorld and the Consumer Electronics show. With Google Calendar, you can customize and share your calendar with your co-workers.
  
  
• Plan your budget allocation around upcoming events. When a big event comes, you don't want your campaigns to miss out on all the targeted traffic.
  
  
• Use your ad creatives to respond to market trends. Another advantage of being in the know is using advertising to proactively address industry announcements. For example, if your client's competitor is releasing a new version of a product, you can have ad text ready that highlights the advantages of your client's offerings.

Posted by Cathy Bishop, Creative Team

Problem: Skincare company Murad had used AdWords to advertise on Google's search network for years with strong results. However, after finding that sales growth for one of their product lines had hit a ceiling, Murad was challenged with reaching new customers while keeping acquisition costs low.

Solution: Murad partnered with Internet marketing agency WebMetro, who recommended using Google's content network to increase their ads' visibility and boost product sales. Using Placement Performance Reports (PPR), WebMetro was able to identify which sites were performing well and adjust their bids accordingly.

Results: WebMetro increased Murad's sales by 15% and lowered their overall cost per acquisition by 13% through advertising on the content network.

If you're looking for additional traffic for your clients or are interested in learning more about Murad and WebMetro's success, read the full story for details.

Posted by Kerrie Lenhart, Product Specialist Team

Version 6.0 of AdWords Editor launched today and we wanted to make sure you're up to date on the changes. Check the release notes for the full details, but here's a quick summary and some important reminders:

New bulk editing tools: Spell check, append text, and drag and drop ad groups within the tree view.


Account statistics features: Export performance statistics to CSV, update minimum CPC bids, and experience improved downloading of account performance data.


Compatibility with AdWords features: Version 6.0 now supports CPC placement targeting and certain functions with Conversion Optimizer campaigns.

Remember to export an archive of your account before you upgrade in order to preserve comments and unposted changes. After you've installed version 6.0, download your account and then import the archive file.

If you'd like more information on the changes, be sure to attend our advanced AdWords Editor webinar on June 10 for full details on version 6.0, and join the AdWords Editor forum to stay up to date on future announcements.

Posted by Ashley Kibler, Creative Team

Do your clients sell software, consumer electronics, digital content, or telecommunications products or services? If so, the latest issue of the AdWords Tech B2C Industry Newsletter is for you.

You'll find tips on selling gifts for Dads and Grads, and an overview of how Google Audio Ads can work for your Tech B2C clients. Mischa, one of our optimization specialists, shares his advice on maintaining a tidy keyword list using AdWords Editor. We also feature a joint study from Google and comScore, which focuses on people who purchased TVs, computers, and digital cameras to reveal how online resources and search affect purchase decisions (see sample below).


If you'd like to receive this newsletter in the future, let us know by sending an email to techb2c-newsletter@google.com.