Have you ever wanted more information about the traffic that your clients' Local Business Listings receive? How many people are seeing their listings? What are people searching for to find them? Wonder no more: You can learn how to use the new Dashboard within the Local Business Center to answer those questions in the inaugural issue of the Local Business Center newsletter.
In the newsletter, you'll also find tips and tricks for optimizing your clients' listings, adding driving directions to a website, and more. To subscribe, log in to your Local Business Center account and check the box next to "Newsletters" on the Settings tab.

Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team

With Advertising Week less than a month away, we're excited to announce that voting for the YouTube Battle of the Ad Bands is now open. This competition puts the industry's finest -- musically speaking -- in the spotlight for a chance to be known as advertising's rock 'n' roll kingpins.

Last September, McCann Erickson brought down the house and took home the coveted trophy. Who will emerge as this year's champion? Wunderman with their rendition of AC/DC's "Live Wire"? Lowe NY's version of The Kinks's "You Really Got Me"? It's up to you!



RCKBAND, from Digitas, with their own take on a-ha's "Take on Me"

An independent committee from the Association of Music Producers (AMP) has narrowed the field down to 8-10 bands and singers (see official rules and regulations on Advertising Week's site), and your votes will decide which entrants make it to the finals.

So vote for your favorite act on the official Advertising Week YouTube channel until September 7. The bands with the most votes will live out their rock fantasies at YouTube Battle of the Ad Bands at the Highline Ballroom on September 22 in New York.

Posted by Kristin Kovner, Industry Marketing Manager

Last month, we hosted a webinar highlighting new strategies to help you get the most from Google Content Network. I am pleased to share that a recording of this session is now available for on-demand viewing.

The webinar provides insight into contextual targeting and reviews strategies and tools to help clients expand their reach while keeping their ROI constant. In addition, it walks you step-by-step through how to "cast a wide net" to enhance existing Content Network campaigns and streamline new campaign creation.

Interested in more webinars and on-demand trainings like this? Check out upcoming sessions on the National Agency Training site.

Posted by Melissa Porter, Agency Training

It's that time of the year again, when kids dust off their textbooks and head back to the classroom. In the spirit of learning, we wanted to help you make the grade on Quality Score knowledge with the Search Ads Quality Getting Started Guide. The guide covers a range of topics relating to Quality Score, including how it affects your rank, how it affects your cost-per-click, and how to improve it. You'll even hear from our Chief Economist, Hal Varian, on how the ad auction works.

Use it to learn, refresh, or review the foundations of Quality Score. You may even want to share it with clients to help them understand how their ads are shown on Google.com.

Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team

I am pleased to bring you post #4 of our semi-regular industry spotlight series. This month we're looking at the B2B space, focusing specifically on where small business decision makers go for information on services and suppliers, and how this insight can help inform marketing strategies for your B2B clients.

To better understand the role of the Internet to small businesses, Google and Slack Barshinger surveyed purchase decision makers from 444 companies, ranging in size from 1 employee to 499 employees. The survey, conducted online from March 11-13, 2009, focused on finding answers to four main questions:

1. What is the role of the Web overall?
The Web plays a central role in small business owners' activities, whether it be solving business problems, researching business purchases, or paying for the purchases. Overall, 94% of respondents shared that they use the Internet for work-related activities.

2. What is the role of Search in finding suppliers?
Over 3/4 of respondents turn to search engines to find business suppliers, with 52% sharing that this is the first tool to which they turn. In addition 99% find search engines to be the most effective tool for finding suppliers.

3. How is Local Search used?
About 1 in 5 respondents use maps online to find suppliers. Of those who do, 90% go directly to a map site for their search, while 52% click on a map from a search result.

The majority of respondents, though, do not place a high importance on suppliers being local. Through qualitative interviews, we discovered that competitive pricing and availability were the most important to SMBs. Services that respondents feel are more important to be local are Professional Services (42% say it is important to be local), Contractors (38%), and Printing Services (24%).

4. What is the value of Social Media?
Respondents find business value in social media, with around 1/2 sharing that they use online forums, blogs, social networking site and video sites for business purposes. Video site usage ranges from finding customer feedback (30%), to finding competitor research (35%), to watching how-to videos (46%).

In addition, blogging participation more than doubled to 40% in 2009 (compared to 18% in 2008) and 40% of respondents maintain a social network profile for business reasons.

Conclusion
With the Internet playing a key role in small business owners' day-to-day problem-solving and decision making, it is important for your B2B clients to have a multi-faceted online marketing strategy.

To maximize reach on search engines, turn to tools such as the Search-based Keyword Tool and Wonder wheel. These tools can help you identify search queries at different stages of the purchase funnel, whether they be long-tail keywords entered by users who start their decision-making process on a search engine, or branded keywords entered by users looking for specific products or services.

Next, having your clients upload their business listings through the Local Business Center can cost-effectively capture traffic from users specifically searching for local vendors.

Finally, make the most of YouTube and the Google Content Network. Create a YouTube channel, upload a client's videos then drive traffic with Promoted Videos. Use Ad Planner to identify social networking sites within the Google Content Network that reach your target demographic.

Posted by Leslie Hernandez, B2B Marketing

Last week at SES San Jose, Google and YouTube, in conjunction with ClickZ, hosted the first-ever Social Media & Video Strategies Forum.

Attendees got the inside scoop from Forrester's Nate Elliott, as well as from H&R Block and Digg marketers, and learned how Coldwell Banker is going social at a global level. For those of you who couldn't make the trip out to San Jose, here are some key messages from the sessions:

• Know your audience. Before you set out to engage users via social media, know where your users already are. As Nate Elliott reminded us, you only have permission to ask users to extend what they're already doing. If your audience isn't on Twitter, don't ask them to submit tweets; if your audience isn't active on social networks, don't develop a strategy around growing a Facebook friends list for your brand.

• Have an objective. Marketers and agencies echoed each other: the best social media campaigns have clear objectives at the outset. Whether it is awareness, consideration, or sales, having a clearly defined objective can help inform the social media campaign you choose to create.

• Make your videos discoverable. With 20 hours of content being uploaded to YouTube every minute, search becomes an important discovery tool for users. Tag and name your video smartly. Include detailed descriptions of your video's content -- including key text or time codes for important moments. Your description gives the algorithm more data to work with. According to marketers like Zagg, Promoted Videos is an efficient way to drive views, and lets you bring your search prowess to the video space.

• Think beyond the web. TV ads can drive search and increase your bottom line. Marketers like ooVoo are bringing their video creative offline with Google TV Ads to drive results. And what if you don't have video content? Services like Spot Mixer can help build it for you.

Behind-the-scenes interviews with many of the day's presenters have been added to the SES Channel on YouTube, so take a look, and we hope to see you next year!

Posted by Kristin Kovner, Industry Marketing Manager

With Google Website Optimizer, you can test different versions of your client's website in order to see which design converts best. But if you need help identifying which pages to test (and only have about a minute to learn how), check out this Website Optimizer in 60 seconds video.



You'll learn how to use Google Analytics to identify the right pages to test with Website Optimizer, such as places where potential customers are leaving your client's site. For more Website Optimizer videos, visit the Website Optimizer YouTube Channel.

Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team

You may already use Google Docs and Spreadsheets for easy and efficient editing, such as collaborating on a company memo or managing your wedding guest list. Did you know that you can now also use Google Spreadsheets to efficiently make mass changes to keywords directly in your clients' AdWords accounts? You can easily copy and paste changes from an external spreadsheet into your account, change bids, create keyword lists, and edit destination URLs. The short video below will show you how to access the tool within your account. Happy editing!



Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team

How do you get teenagers to take note of an important message? By engaging them with compelling creative "where they're already having conversations," explains Erin Noonan, account manager for worldwide interactive agency R/GA. For a recent public service campaign by the Ad Council, the Family Violence Prevention Fund, and R/GA, that meant creating an immersive 360 campaign, and using some key media to capture attention: a custom website, display ads, a YouTube Channel, and social networking sites.

The goal of the campaign was to encourage teens to "draw their digital line" when faced with online harassment and let others know "That's Not Cool." By integrating the various media elements, the message reached over 18 million users and generated over 135,000 video views, with traffic still increasing to date. To find out how the teams created their eye-catching campaign and got it in front of millions of teens, download the full case study.

Posted by Sara Bell and Janine Gianfredi, Agency Marketing

The summer before 6th grade, my friends and I made a pact not the say the word "school" until we were back in the classroom. You could say that "school" was our "he who must not be named" (even though it would still be another few years before Harry Potter was released).

Secretly, though, I looked forward to the return to school - books to read, paint to splatter, and of course, new clothes and supplies to buy. I longed for rainy days so I'd have an excuse to head to the mall, and couldn't wait to get my hands on new binders, notebooks and the all-important first-day-of-school outfit.

If your clients cater to teacher's pets like me, or to parents shopping on behalf of reluctant children, then you know August is peak time to market to this audience:


Source: Google Insights for Search, US Web Search Volume for "back to school" for 2008

With that in mind, here are some last-minute tips to maximize clients' reach during this busy retail season.

Be online
It may sound simple, but if you have skeptical clients, maintaining an online presence can be a tough sell. If so, reassure them with data. For example, the graph below shows that "back to school sale" searches are rising faster this year, compared to 2008:


Source: Google Insights for Search, US Web Search Volume for "back to school sales" for 2008 and 2009

If your clients still aren't convinced, remind them that retail shoppers consume more media online than through any other channel (41% compared to TV, which is second at 27%).[1] In sum, to maximize conversions from last minute shoppers, encourage your clients to be where their consumers are - online!

Capture traffic across the purchase cycle
Being a few weeks away from the start of school, extend clients' reach with campaigns designed to capture users at all stages of the purchase cycle. Let's take searches for backpacks as an example. If we examine top searches and rising searches related to "backpacks," we see that the list includes both branded and non-branded queries:


Source: Google Insights for Search, Search terms related to backpacks, US 2009

Both branded and non-branded clicks are important throughout the entire purchase funnel. For example, non-branded queries are almost as likely as branded queries to be the first click in the conversion cycle, while the final click before the conversion is more likely to be from a branded term.[2]

Because consumers tend to refine their searches as they approach a purchase, consider expanding and optimizing clients' keyword lists to capture the full range of search activity. For help identifying relevant keywords, check out the Search-based Keyword Tool and the Wonder wheel.

Target last-minute shoppers
Finally, data suggests that most consumers still have not completed their shopping. According to NRF's 2009 Back-to-School and Back-to-College Surveys, up to 82% of consumers complete their shopping between August 1st and after school starts.[3] For example, "back to school coupons" searches peak the week of August 10th, but have a resurgence the week of August 24th:


Source: Google Insights for Search, US Web Search Volume for "back to school coupons" April-September 2008

Hone in on these last-minute shoppers with call-outs such as product availability, fast shipping, convenient store locations, and extended sales (if applicable). Consider promoting discount codes in ad text to entice users to buy online. If you're promoting in-store sales, ensure that your clients have local business listings, and consider creating coupons that customers can use for in-store purchases.

To identify last-minute back to school search trends specific to your clients, visit Google Insights for Search. And even though you may not be heading back to the classroom, enjoy the rest of your summer.

Sources:
[1] Google Touchpoints Consumer Study, January 2009
[2] 360i and SearchIgnite, Giving Clicks Credit Where They're Due: What You Need to Know When Allocating Your Search Budget, May 2006
[3] NRF’s “2009 Back-to-School and Back-to-College Surveys,” released July 14, 2009. 1. Percentage total of those who begin shopping 1 month to after school starts, based on all Adults 18+ response from Back-to-School Survey. 2. Based on all Adults 18+ response from Back-to-School Survey

Posted by Katie Wasilenko, Agency Marketing

It's August - time for vacation, relaxation, and a summer webinar frenzy. As exciting as Shark Week, but safer!

Here's a few new courses on deck for this month. Additional details, including course descriptions, can be found here.

Strategic Budgeting with Impression Share Reports
Wednesday, August 12th at 12pmPST / 2pmCST / 3pmEST
Register here

Online Real Estate Marketing in the New Era of Search
Tuesday, August 25th at 10amPST / 12pmCST / 1pmEST
Register here

Online Education Marketing in the New Era of Search
Wednesday, August 26th at 10amPST / 12pmCST / 1pmEST
Register here

Financial Planners & Online Media Webinar
Thursday, August 27th at 11amPST / 1pmCST / 2pmEST
Register here

Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog team

Need to find out how users searching on specific terms interact with your client's site? Need to know right away? In no time at all, find out how to use Advanced Segmentation in Google Analytics to analyze specific portions of your client's traffic. The latest Analytics in 60 Seconds video is your step-by-step guide to creating and saving segments.



Best of all, you can apply the segment you create to reports and historical data, meaning you can retroactively analyze site traffic. For more video tips that only take a minute, check out the Google Analytics in 60 Seconds playlist on the Google Analytics YouTube Channel.

Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog team

When thinking about the past, the feeling of "what if?" can be irksome. What if you'd taken that job in Tuscaloosa? What if you'd actually gone on that blind date? We're aiming to ease that feeling a bit, at least when it comes to setting your maximum CPC bids. We've just launched a new feature in the AdWords interface: the bid simulator, which estimates the clicks, cost, and impressions your ads could have received in the last seven days had you set different maximum CPC bids.

By using this information, you can gain a better understanding of how changing your maximum CPC bids could have impacted your performance, helping you reduce trial and error and bid more optimally. The feature can be found in the maximum CPC column on the Keywords tab of your account, where you'll see a bid simulator icon for keywords with available data. Check out the video below to see the bid simulator in action.



For more details on the feature and how it can help you help your clients, see our post on the Inside AdWords blog and check out the Help Center information.

Posted by Courtney Lischke, Product Marketing Manager

This week, we bring you the final fact in our Quality Score series. We hope you've found the content helpful and informative. Last but not least, our fact this week is:

Quality is given extra consideration when determining which ads appear in the top positions. For ad placement in top positions above Google search results, we use the same Ad Rank formula as we do for all other search ads, based on your Quality Score and CPC bid. However, in order to ensure that the highest-quality ads show above search results, only ads that exceed a certain Quality Score and CPC bid threshold are eligible to appear in these positions. The CPC bid threshold for these positions is determined by the matched keyword's Quality Score; the higher Quality Score, the lower the CPC threshold.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Product Marketing Manager