For the sixth installment of the Holiday Campaign Countdown series, I am happy to share some tips on the Opportunities tab to ensure you're maximizing coverage for your clients this holiday season.

Opportunities tab serves as a central location for easy access to budget and keyword suggestions, as well as other AdWords tools you've used before.


The 'Budget Ideas' area will suggest you adjust your budget if your campaigns are missing out on valuable traffic due to budget constraints or increased click volume on keywords popular around the holidays. To help you decide, this section will demonstrate potential increased click and impression volume that would result from an increased investment.

The 'Keyword Ideas' area will provide automatically customized keyword suggestions based on your client's website, account information, and actual searches on Google.com. Like the budget suggestions, you will be able to see the traffic increase that would result from including additional keywords. Since some suggestions are based on actual searches performed on Google.com, you may find some cost-effective long tail keywords to add to your client's list. The tool will even suggest specific campaigns and ad groups in which to add these keywords. The best part is - you can add them right from the tab into the campaigns!

You'll also notice that other familiar AdWords tools are available on the Opportunities tab on the lower left hand side of the page.

You know your clients' businesses best - so please assess our suggestions with your clients' goals in mind.

Finally, visit this tab often - we'll be refreshing suggestions every few weeks and adding new features soon!

For additional information on the Opportunities tab, visit the AdWords Help Center.

Posted by Erin McMahon, Agency Team

The snow showers which dusted the Northeast last week were a great (albeit chilly) reminder that the holidays will be here before we know it. To help keep your spirits warm, the fifth installment in our Holiday Campaign Countdown series brings you a gift that keeps on giving - daily holiday posts on the Google Retail blog, which will run through the end of 2009.

These posts will provide you with useful data to better understand consumer intentions and purchase trends so that you may refine your clients' marketing plans accordingly.

For a little taste of what's to come, check out the posts on holiday purchase trends to date and early bird vs. last minute shoppers data.

Interested in having these posts delivered right to your inbox? Subscribe to the Retail blog here.

Posted by Katie Wasilenko, Agency Marketing

You may have read about the recent launch of the Google Website Optimizer Experiment Management API, which allows you to run Website Optimizer experiments without touching a website's code.

If you're interested in learning more about the API, please join the Website Optimizer engineers for a webinar on October 28th at 10AM PDT. You'll learn how the API works and CrownPeak and Blast Advanced Media's Motivity CMS will demonstrate how they've integrated Website Optimizer into their platforms.

Register for the webinar here, and we hope you can attend.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Website Optimizer Team

In the coming weeks Google's marketing teams will be hosting webinars on the DoubleClick Ad Exchange, how to reach physicians online, and planning for 2010.

In reading this and other posts, you're probably thinking, "There's a lot of 'Think' resources out there." You're right! We've got Think with Google webinars, focusing on cross-industry research and best practices; Think{Industry} webinars and events, highlighting research and trends to help inform vertical-specific marketing strategies; and Think2010, resources to help you get ahead during the recovery. Lots to think about!

Additional details and registration information can be found below.

DoubleClick Ad Exchange Overview
In September, we launched DoubleClick Ad Exchange, an open and transparent marketplace that aggregates buyers and sellers of online display advertising. Join us for a one hour webinar which covers what the Ad Exchange is, how it impacts pricing, inventory and the Google Content Network, and what solution to choose.

Date: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 11:30amPST / 1:30pmCST / 2:30pmEST
Event password: ad
Registration password: agency1
Register here

ThinkHealth with Google - Connecting with Physicians Online
Google recently conducted a study on how physicians use the Internet, and specifically search, as a part of their clinical practice. Join us for a webinar to review how physicians use the web for health, medical and prescription drug information, which they use to make health decisions. The insights will help you best utilize the Internet and search to adapt marketing programs to target physicians.

Date: Thursday, November 5, 2009 11amPST / 1pmCST / 2pmEST
Register here

Think2010: Four Winning Moves for 2010
In our ever-changing marketplace, marketers need to thoughtfully plan the moves that will differentiate their offerings, increase competitive advantage, and seize opportunities as the economy recovers. Join us as Bonita Stewart, Managing Director, US Sales, leads a discussion on four winning marketing strategies you can utilize to prepare your business for success in 2010 and beyond.

Date: Tuesday, November 10, 2009 10amPST / 12pmCST / 1pmEST
Register here

Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team

There are a lot of metrics that matter to your clients when evaluating performance, but one of the most important figures for your clients' success is conversions. Our Google teammates in the UK have started a blog called the Conversion Room that focuses on how to use Google tools to measure and increase the number of conversions your clients receive.

Occasionally, some of the information may be UK-focused, but you'll find the overwhelming majority of tips and tools to be applicable no matter where you're located, such as how to use the Search Based Keyword Tool to find high-converting keywords. We hope you find the Conversion Room blog useful. Bookmark it, follow it with Friend Connect, or subscribe via RSS, and get hands-on with your conversion knowledge.

Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team

We're happy to announce the newest version of AdWords API v2009 beta -- v200909. If you're a current API user, check out the updates below. If you're not yet using the API, please visit the Google AdWords API homepage for information on getting started.

New Features

• Asynchronous calls - Asynchronous calls allow you to work with large sets of data faster and more easily. Instead of having to wait for our system to fully complete your request before you can make another one, you’re now able to make another call as soon as the API service confirms that it has received your previous call. No more waiting for the server to complete large requests. v2000909 will also continue to support synchronous methods.
• Keyword and placement ideas - With the new TargetingIdeaService, you'll be able to get keyword and placement ideas through the API, using the functionality of the Search-based Keyword Tool.
• Location Extensions preview - Limited location extensions functionality is now available as a preview of the full functionality in development.
  

For a complete list of the changes in v200909, please see our release notes.

Coming Soon
Over the next few months, we'll continue to introduce new features and additional AdWords functionality. Feature updates include ReportService and the ability to pre-check for errors.

Deprecated Services
With the release of equivalent functionality in v200909, the following v13 services are now deprecated: CampaignService, AdGroupService, CriterionService, AdService, InfoService, KeywordToolService, SiteSuggestionService.

As v2009 introduces some new concepts and features, we have extended the sunset period for deprecated services to 6 months. Accordingly, the deprecated v13 services will be turned off on April 22, 2010. If you haven't already begun migrating your systems to the v2009 API, we strongly encourage you to start right away. The deprecation of remaining v13 services (AccountService, TrafficEstimatorService, and ReportService) and accompanying sunset dates will be announced in the future.

As with every new version of the AdWords API, we strongly encourage you to review the resources in the Developer's Guide to learn more. Additionally, if you aren't using the AdWords API client libraries yet, this is a good time to check them out as they are designed to work with both v2009 and v13.

Posted by Shreyas Doshi, Product Manager and Adam Wooley, Product Marketing Manager

Google Analytics just stepped out with a host of new features today, enhancing the product to further meet the needs of a range of businesses. There are eight new features, and we've selected two of our favorites as a sneak peek:

• New engagement goals: You can now set goals for Time On Site and Pages Per Visit to help measure user engagement and branding success on your client's site. In addition, you can now define up to 20 goals per profile.
  
  
• Analytics Intelligence: Everyone wants more data, but evaluating it all can be a battle. Analytics Intelligence aims to help ease the process, with automatic alerts to significant changes in the data patterns of your site metrics. You'll be able to identify sudden, uncharacteristic changes in traffic patterns so that you can diagnose the issue and react more quickly.

Read all about the new features in the Google Analytics Blog post, and check out the associated videos on the Google Analytics YouTube Channel.

Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team

As we've previously said, one of our aims is to improve display advertising on the web and, as a result, grow the display advertising pie for everyone. Three simple principles guide our approach: simplify the system for buying and selling display ads; deliver better performance that advertisers and agencies can measure; open up the ecosystem by making it accessible to more participants.

One question on the mind of every advertiser and agency is: how can I better measure the impact of my display ad campaign?

We hear you. A growing number of advertisers and agencies are running display ad campaigns across the Google Content Network, so we're investing substantially in creating better measurement tools for our clients. At the moment, an advertiser can measure how many clicks its display ads achieve, measure conversions that result from those clicks, compare results with industry benchmark data, and use View-through conversion reporting to measure visits to its website from users who saw its display ad in the past.

Today, we're pleased to announce the launch of a brand new tool to measure the impact of your display ads - Google Campaign Insights. As of today, Google Campaign Insights is available for larger display ad campaigns across the Google Content Network in the US and UK. Over time, we hope to roll it out more widely to assist even more advertisers and agencies in different parts of the world.

Google Campaign Insights is a unique measurement tool that can give reliable data about how a campaign has raised brand awareness, or active user interest, in a particular product or service. It looks beyond the traditional measures of clicks and conversions to calculate the incremental lift in both online search activity and website visits that result from a display ad campaign.

How does this all work? In short, we use the same expertise we use to improve our own services -- our ability to analyze large quantities of data. Google Campaign Insights compares two anonymized and aggregated data sets: a large group of users (many thousands, minimum) who saw a particular ad, with an equivalent, large group that did not see the ad. It then measures whether there is any significant difference in searches and visits to the advertiser's website between the two groups. Doing this, Google Campaign Insights can determine the incremental change that is directly attributable to the display ad campaign. With this insight, advertisers can establish how well their display ad campaign is working.
Google Campaign Insights provides highly reliable results to marketers because of the statistical methodology our computer algorithms use to combine and analyze large volumes of data from several sources -- the advertiser's own campaign information, ad serving logs and sampled data from Google Toolbar installs that have opted in to enhanced features. All of the results reported to advertisers are anonymized and aggregated over thousands of users.

Advertisers or agencies who run wide-scale display ad campaigns on the Google Content Network and who want to take Google Campaign Insights for a spin should check with their Google representative.

We're excited about the contribution that Google Campaign Insights can make to our clients' campaigns on the Google Content Network and to display advertising generally.

Posted by Paul Todd, Product Management Director

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

For the fourth installment in our Holiday Campaign Countdown series, we reached out to our friends on the Google Product Search team for some quick, cost-effective tips for expanding clients' online presence during the holiday season. Here's what Vivek Tata, Product Marketing Manager, has to share:

Over the past few months, Google Product Search has released some great new features for both shoppers and merchants. Heading into the holiday season, we want to make sure our merchants have all the information needed to maximize the impact of data feeds. Here's a checklist to make sure you're set for the holidays.

• Submit all recommended and optional attributes, wherever they're relevant: Help shoppers make the best decisions by providing them with as much information as possible. For example, make sure you're submitting the UPC, Brand, and Product Type attributes.
• Use the Google Local Business Center to provide local store locations: Google Product Search is now showing local store locations in our search results, so make sure your clients are sending us this data. Also, if they do have local stores, make sure to include the "online only" attribute in the Product Search feed for any items they don't stock in stores.
• Send your clients' largest and highest-quality images: We're planning on experimenting with displays that use large images; products that have big, high-quality images will stand out. Please send us images that are at least 300x300 pixels, without resizing them.
• Track your traffic: Use Google Analytics or your favorite web analytics program to track your traffic.

For additional information, visit our site for merchants. You may also follow us on the Google Merchant Blog.

Thanks Vivek, and happy planning!

Posted by Katie Wasilenko, Agency Marketing

With smartphone shipments set to outpace PCs shipments in 2009¹, a staggering number of people are accessing the Internet on mobile web browsers. With audiences increasingly going mobile, reaching consumers on their mobile phones is a growing and important media channel for many marketers. This unique platform offers many opportunities for your clients to engage with their audience because mobile devices are nearly always within their reach.

AdWords helps you go mobile with ease by extending your clients' search and display campaigns to mobile platforms. Whether you're new to mobile or have been using it since day one, we want to share with you a new resource that will help you incorporate mobile into your marketing campaigns: Go Mobile!

Designed to help you and your clients reach audiences, the Go Mobile! site has tips that help you think about how to incorporate mobile into your clients' marketing campaigns - from ensuring that their site is mobile-friendly to how you can leverage location-based technologies to interact with your audience. We hope you'll find it useful in helping to connect your clients to their ever-growing base of mobile consumers.

[1] Source: Gartner and IDC

Posted by the Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team

The beat goes on with the fifth installment of our industry spotlight series. Since we're featuring the Media and Entertainment space in this post, you'll uncover the findings from research Nielsen and Google recently completed to measure the impact of TV and YouTube buys on TV tune-in and online behavior. We'll also give you some glamour to accompany those numbers, so read on to find out how Sports Illustrated used a YouTube campaign to successfully promote its 2009 swimsuit issue.

In a recent study, Google and Nielsen set out to answer the following questions:
1. Will a large-scale buy by a TV network on Google & YouTube increase TV tune-in? If so, by how much?
2. Will a large-scale buy by a TV network on Google & YouTube drive online behavior related to a TV show? If so, by how much?

The study: Consisted of two phases, with Nielsen first conducting research to measure the impact of large-scale campaign for a major network TV show season premiere. Nielsen then compared the exposed audience to a control group to determine ad effectiveness on both online and offline behaviors.

The campaign: A 2-week flight of a YouTube homepage masthead plus Google Content Network campaigns targeted to TV fans, entertainment buffs, and genre fans.

The results: The impact of the campaign on TV tune-in was strong, with the exposed audiences showing a tune-in increase of 134% lift for those that had seen the overall campaign, a 115% lift for those that had seen the YouTube homepage, and a 146% lift for those that had seen the Content Network campaign.

The impact on online behavior was even stronger, with greatly increased website and video visitation among the exposed audience. The results showed a 239% lift in visits to the network site, a 438% lift in visits for the show site, and a 456% lift in visits to the show video. Exposure to the campaign also increased the length of online viewership, measured in average minutes spent watching show videos: a 347% lift for those exposed to the overall campaign, a 968% lift for those exposed to the YouTube homepage, and a 172% lift for those exposed to the Content Network campaign.

In sum, the effect of exposure to the YouTube and Content Network campaigns drove a significant increase in TV tune-in and online behavior related to the TV show.

Exposure and engagement on YouTube can extend beyond the homepage, as Sports Illustrated discovered with their promotion of the 2009 swimsuit issue. Partnering with drink manufacturer SoBe, Sports Illustrated created a custom YouTube advertising program comprised of a number of elements, all centered on a co-branded YouTube Channel where users could watch over 40 videos highlighting the famous swimsuit models.

The Brand Channel videos generated over 8.5 million video views, 400,000 channel visits and 4,300 channel subscribers. The homepage roadblock received over 33 million impressions with a click-to-play rate of 3.4%, making the featured Sports Illustrated video the most viewed video on YouTube that day. For the full story of how the campaign became a swimming success and ideas on how to use YouTube for your next client campaign, download the case study.

Posted by Julia Burg, Industry Marketing Manager

A few weeks ago, Josh Dreller, Vice President of Media Technology for Fuor Digital, sat down with one of our own Content Optimization Specialists, Jasper Seldin. Josh had some questions about the Google Content Network, and in this interview on the Search Engine Land blog, Jasper shares his thoughts on some hot topics, including:

• Best practices for using negative keywords on the Content Network
• How costs-per-click are calculated on the Content Network
• How content targeting identifies themes in ads and web pages
• Tips for setting up direct response campaigns on the Content Network

Read the full article to uncover all the details that Jasper shared with Josh, and for more information about the Content Network, check out our Content Network site.

Posted by the Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team

Helping your clients attract the right consumers this holiday season will be more important than ever, which is why for the third installment of the Holiday Campaign Countdown series, we'd like to invite you to the webinar "Think with Google: Consumer Intentions for Holiday 2009."

Join us as we share findings from new research on consumer plans for the 2009 holiday season and strategies agencies and marketers can take to better target and reach their customers.

During the webinar, we will discuss:

• How consumer behavior has changed and how shopping habits look headed into the holiday season
• What changing consumer behavior means for your search and online marketing strategies
• Recommendations for how to effectively target your audience

Details:
Tuesday, October 20th 2009
11amPST / 1pmCST / 2pmEST
Register here

Posted by Eric Lopez, Retail Marketing

Did you miss last week's Think2010 webinar "Using Data to Better Connect with your Customers," or are you interested in reviewing Avinash Kaushik's key takeaways? If so, read on for a recap of the presentation:

1. Mine Website Trends: Utilize Trends for Websites and other tools to index clients' performances, identify competitors' strengths, and find untapped opportunities.

2. Analyze the "Database of Intentions": Use Insights for Search to segment your clients' share of voice, obtain competitive gains, understand how to most effectively target their campaigns, and find out where they should focus their search efforts.

3. Monetize the Long Tail: Leverage the powerful Search-based Keyword Tool to identify your clients' long tail keywords based on their sites' content, and to find additional cost-effective targeted keywords.

4. Identify Relevant Audiences: Utilize Ad Planner to understand the demographic profile and search behavior of site visitors, and that of competitors, to effectively target clients' messages on the Google Content Network to the most relevant audiences.

Most importantly, Avinash's #1 Rule: Make sure that your clients' websites don't stink. What does he mean? Use data to identify fixes (e.g. pay attention to bounce rates) so that customers don't say, in Avinash's own words, "I came, I puked, I left." To learn more about how to improve your clients' web pages, check out this post by Avinash: Six Tips For Improving High Bounce / Low Conversion Web Pages.

Visit our Google Business Channel on YouTube to see the recorded version.

Interested in more information on the Think2010 series? Visit our site to learn more and sign up for the November 10th webinar "Four Winning Moves for 2010."

Posted by Jaime Mayer, Industry Marketing

We've heard from you (our agency and third-party partners) that you want learning materials and marketing resources to stay on the cutting edge of digital media and to help you manage your clients' accounts. You also told us that you'd like a range of resources for different roles and skill levels, and to have everything live in one place. We agree, and thanks for the feedback!

We took this input to the drawing board, and developed Google AgencyLand, a learning and resource platform to help you stay current on digital media, and plan, execute, and manage advertising campaigns using Google solutions.

We could tell you all about the features of AgencyLand, but we thought you might want to hear about them from other agencies who are using it every day. Check out this video to learn how Starcom MediaVest Group, RocketClicks and Ai Media Group are using AgencyLand and its selection of on-demand courses, live webinars, and downloadable resources.


Google AgencyLand originally launched in March 2009 to a limited number of agencies. Using feedback from our beta testers, we've spent the last few months improving the content and layout of the platform. We are pleased to now offer this resource to agencies and third parties in the United States and Canada. To request an invitation, visit www.google.com/agencyland/.

Note: Google AgencyLand is only available to agencies and third parties in the United States and Canada that manage Google media spend for clients. If you manage your advertising in-house, please visit the Google AdWords Help Center for additional product information and learning resources.

Posted by Jason Shafton, Google AgencyLand Marketing

Coming to ad:tech New York? So are we! We're organizing a number of sessions at ad:tech and its partner conference, Content Revenue Strategies (CRS), to help agencies get more out of their search and display spend with Google. Here's the lowdown:

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

The Factory Tour consists of two days of live workshops at ad:tech NY designed to provide you with a comprehensive overview of Google's latest measurement and optimization tools. You'll hear directly from the Google ads team, and walk away with practical tips you can immediately use to improve search and display performance.

The first day will focus on optimizing search and display campaigns. We'll spend the morning highlighting recently released AdWords search optimization tools such as the Opportunities tab and Bid Simulator, and in the afternoon we'll take you through effective optimization techniques for text and display campaigns on the Google Content Network.

The second day we'll expand our scope to cover measurement tools such as Google Analytics and Website Optimizer, search ads quality, and advertising strategies for local and mobile campaigns.

The Factory Tour is open to all exhibit hall and conference passholders.

Content Revenue Strategies, 11/5/09

Formerly known as ADSPACE, CRS is the first and only expo dedicated to AdSense and contextual advertising. CRS will take place alongside ad:tech New York and offers sessions tailored to advertisers as well as small and medium sized publishers. Here you can attend sessions designed to help your clients maximize their performance on the Google Content Network and on emerging blog, video and social media networks.

Additionally, a team of AdWords and AdSense optimizers will be present at the conference to meet you and answer your questions. You can stop by our Optimization Lounge to receive customized performance tips for your clients' campaigns, as well as share your product feedback and suggestions.

Both CRS and the Google Ads Factory Tour will be held in the Javits Center along with the rest of ad:tech NY. We recommend you register ahead of time to save on admission fees. Enter the promotional code 20EXNY9 to receive 20% off an ad:tech full conference pass. If you're only attending CRS, enter the code CRSGoogle to receive $100 off the price of your CRS conference pass.

Hope to see you next month in NYC!

Posted by Devin Sandoz, Product Marketing Manager

We're pleased to share our fall 2009 schedule for Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer Seminars for Success.

Seminars for Success cater to a range of skill levels, and can help you meet your goals through in-person instruction and live examples. They are led by Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer Authorized Consultants who are responsible for some of the most sophisticated Google Analytics implementations to date and have experience working with customers of every skill level.

In the United States, we'll be hosting both Analytics and Website Optimizer sessions in Chicago, IL (October 28-30); Berkeley, CA (November 4-6); Seattle, WA (November 18-20); and Phoenix, AZ (December 9-11). We'll have an additional Analytics session in Charlotte, NC (December 9-10).

We'll also be hosting sessions abroad in Melbourne, Australia (October 22-23) and Glasgow, Scotland (November 16-17).

For additional information and a complete calendar, click on the city names above or visit the Google Analytics Blog.

Posted by Eva Woo, Product Marketing Manager

If you read the Official Google Blog, you may have seen the announcement of Place Pages in Google Maps. If you missed the post, Place Pages are pages with information for every place in the world, from landmarks to cities and everything in between, including, of course, businesses. On the tails of the Place Pages launch, we wanted to remind you that your clients can ensure their Place Page information is accurate by updating their Local Business Center listings. If your clients still need some encouragement to add their businesses to the Local Business Center, the video below offers a quick overview of the process and advantages of adding or claiming one's business listing.


And you won't want to miss the overview of all the information about your clients' listings now available in the Local Business center, such as impressions, top search queries, and where driving directions requests are coming from.

Posted by the Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team

Last week was Advertising Week, New York City's annual gathering of Mad Men and media mavens from across the globe. Here are some highlights from Google and YouTube's participation during the week:

87 cool things... to do with YouTube & Google. As we highlighted in last week's blog post, Andy Berndt, Managing Director of the Google Creative Lab, and Tom Uglow, a Creative Lead in the Lab, took the stage on Monday to present 87 cool applications of Google and YouTube tools. While Google and YouTube create tools and platforms, marketers and agencies are the actual architects of their visions. Andy highlighted mashups and annotations, as well as experiments with data usage. Flip through Andy's list and see which examples spark an idea for your client or brand.

Rock on. On Tuesday evening, we hosted 700 agency guests at the YouTube Battle of the Ad Bands. After 20,000 votes and video views from the advertising community on the first-ever YouTube Advertising Week channel, six finalists took to the stage. For the second year in a row, McCann Erickson took home the trophy.

Social Media for Social Change. Later in the week, we co-sponsored a social media panel with the Ad Council. Suzie Reider, YouTube's head of advertising sales and marketing, led a discussion around how innovative thinkers are using social media for the benefit of the global community. The panelists covered everything from Charity Water's use of user-generated videos to R/GA's national public service advertising campaign with The Ad Council, "That's Not Cool." In a week filled with talk about ad spend and metrics, this panel showed the larger, global potential for these new media. (You can view the panel in its entirety on Fast.Forward.'s YouTube channel.)




The End of Digital Media? At the IAB's MIXX conference Google's President of Global Sales and Business Development, Nikesh Aurora, took the floor to speak about the future. During his keynote, he made some predictions: (1) Everything will be localized down to you. Personalization will be the norm, as in this augmented reality application. (2) We'll contribute to the creation of new generations of information. We're now creating new types of information that simply couldn't exist in an analog world -- and they'll all live online. (3) Marketing is the new finance. Data will drive intelligent marketing decisions across media. (4) All advertising will be engaging. "Digital Marketing" will be a redundant, dead term. In the future, all marketing will be digital, personal, engaging, and measurable.

Check out more highlights from the week on the "More" section of the official Advertising Week YouTube Channel. Hope to see you next year!

Posted by Kristin Kovner, Industry Marketing