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The end of the year is typically a time to reflect on the past 12 months and plan for the next adventure. Taking inspiration from our favorite pre-holiday work distraction, we are pleased to bring you the Agency blog's own "best of 2009." Your visits and time spent on site helped us identify the information, ideas and resources that can best help you move your clients' businesses forward.

1. Google Content Network tips and tools - Knowing that the Content Network offers the opportunity to scalably expand your clients' reach, we posted on a number of Content Network topics, ranging from tools to optimization tips to training resources. We hope that they enabled you to plan, execute and measure your Content Network campaigns in the most impactful, efficient and cost-effective ways possible.

2. Quality Score - A key element of successful campaigns is ensuring that they have the strongest Quality Score possible. Whether you're brand new to search marketing, or were one of the first search advertisers on the scene, there's always something new to learn about Quality Score. To help you get the strongest Quality Score, we ran our Quality Score series and will continue to post new tips as they become available.

3. Case studies - One piece of feedback we heard is that agencies and advertisers value case studies, as they inspire and instruct with "best in class" examples and useful data points. We also heard that sometimes they're not easy to find. As a result, we added case studies to the 2009 blog list, with topics ranging from online-to-stores successes to effective integrated media campaigns.

4. Training resources - With the frequency of additions and updates to Google's media solutions, you could spend as much time keeping up to speed as you do managing your clients' campaigns. Knowing your time is precious, we focused on webinars and on-demand videos that work with your schedules and deliver just the right amount of information. In addition, we introduced you to Google AgencyLand, our new learning and resources platform for agencies.

5. Analytics - Whether you love data, or love to hate data, data is central to successful campaigns. We want you all to love it, so we posted our favorite Analytics 60-second videos, product updates, as well as useful tips delivered from in-house experts, including Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik.

6. Local marketing resources - Sometimes your clients' customer is half way across the globe; other times the customer is half a block away. Regardless, it is important to market to consumers where they are, and Google has made it easier to do that with new and improved local marketing features, such as Location Extensions and Place Pages in Placement Performance reports.

It's been a pleasure blogging for you in 2009, and we look forward to bringing you fresh new tips, tactics, resources and updates in 2010.

Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team
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The mobile internet has exploded over the past year. If you're new to mobile advertising, it can be an easy first step to extend your existing online campaigns to the mobile platform. As a next step, it's important to analyze what performs best on mobile and to identify ways to optimize your campaigns.

Recently, in this case study, Razorfish shared how they tested different approaches to the mobile campaigns for a Fortune 100 retailer. Here's a recap of what they learned:

To start, Razorfish simply replicated the client's desktop campaigns, focusing on branded keywords, but selected to target mobile devices with full Internet browsers. They then experimented with a few changes to the original campaigns. First, they tried different landing pages to identify which actions their customers were looking to complete on their mobile device. Next, they developed multiple versions of ad text, including a mention of the specific mobile device, and compared performance to the original text.

Overall, the optimized campaign yielded higher conversion rates. According to Razorfish search manager Brian Bartek, "the three new [ad] versions provided over 9.3% lift in conversion rate over the strongest performing copy in their desktop campaigns."

The complete case study is available here. For more information on mobile advertising opportunities, visit http://www.google.com/advertisers/mobile/.

Posted by Meredith Papp, Mobile Ads Team
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We are often asked about how to maximize the ROI from Content Network campaigns. What type of targeting should I use? How many keywords and ad groups should I have? How can I develop effective creatives?

Behind the scenes of many new product introductions this year, we have developed a set of best practices to answer some of these questions for you. Recently introduced as part of a new initiative called Optimization University, these are now available to everyone through a series of 6 videos and the Getting Started guide. The guide and videos provide a conceptual walk-through and product demos of major steps in executing a Content Network campaign.
Along with simple tips and tricks to improve ROI, we also go over several tools, such as Wonder Wheel, Keyword Tool and Conversion Tracking, that help you be more efficient with the process. The recommendations are based on our analysis of thousands of campaigns, successful and unsuccessful ones, to understand what works and what doesn't. They are easy enough for you to start applying them to your campaigns today.

If you're starting a new Content Network campaign, watch the first video below; you may find it to be particularly valuable.




And you can always bookmark the playlist or find all the latest videos on our YouTube channel.

Posted by Aman Govil, Product Marketing Manager, Google Content Network
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The beginning of the year is a great time to take a step back and to re-evaluate marketing plans for your clients. Of course, one key ingredient in a successful marketing plan is the website.

Over the next couple of months, the Google Agency Team will be blogging about how you can work with your clients to review their website and landing page performance for 2010. Today, we'll discuss how site testing can benefit both you and your clients.

1. Testing is good for PPC management agencies
Whether you specialize solely in pay-per-click management or you also help your clients with website design, the creation and optimization of landing pages for the best possible user experience will help you achieve your performance goals.

We've all seen this situation before: you've already worked exhaustively to ensure that your search marketing efforts are bringing in relevant traffic, but are still not seeing conversion results. The reason? The current format and messaging on the site does little to retain even the most qualified traffic. Remember that doubling your conversion rate is essentially the same as doubling your traffic at your current conversion rate.


If you're a design shop, establishing a strong culture of testing will also bring great benefits. As with PPC campaigns, it's best to consistently monitor current site performance and then optimize based on data. Even if you've designed the site yourself, there's no way to predict exactly how it will perform and as a result, there will always be an opportunity for incremental improvements. Build these expectations in with your design clients. Consider also that market and visitor expectations change frequently (e.g. holidays and the recession). The beauty of testing and re-optimization is that you can address the immediate site issues and help the client adapt to any changing conditions.

2. Testing is good for your clients
Often a major concern from clients is the production resources and money necessary to move forward with testing. But it's worth it! We all know we shouldn't judge a book by its cover; but let's face it, first impressions matter, especially on the internet. If users don't like what they see at first glance - even if it's for a superficial reason - they are likely to move on.

Explore the possibilities with your client. We have an extensive library of success stories with Google Website Optimizer that showcase some of the increases in conversion rates for businesses that have done landing page testing. Higher conversion rates mean more sales and/or leads at the same cost. If the client already is doing PPC and has an understanding of the opportunities in online marketing, the importance of providing visitors with the right on-site experience for their goals will be easy to demonstrate. Your client will appreciate your expertise in helping to develop this crucial piece of their marketing plan.

3. You likely have the data to identify site problems
If your client has web analytics data, you can begin to identify site and landing page weaknesses today. In Google Analytics, the "Content" section houses some of the most useful reports.

Start by looking at Top Landing Pages. If the bounce rate of these pages is higher than or close to the site average, you may want to examine possible issues with these pages that would cause a user to leave the client's site.

To see if visitors are proceeding down the expected path, set up a funnel if you haven't already to find out if there is kink in the trajectory to conversion (i.e. if visitor volume is dropping off at any point in the process). You can then open your Navigation Summary to see where those visitors are actually exiting out of the funnel.

4. You can test with Google Website Optimizer for free
Remember that while Analytics may help identify issues with the site or landing page, a website testing tool can help you find the solution. With Google Website Optimizer, you can quickly set up a A/B or multivariate test. Website Optimizer can work with almost any site infrastructure or type. It's free and easy to get started, and a great way to add value to your existing client services.

Be sure to check back soon when we explore more ways to use your Analytics data, industry-specific challenges, and testing strategies. Happy Testing!

Posted by Michael Giannotti, Agency Team
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In the last 18 months or so we have made significant changes to the Google Content Network to deliver better performance for advertisers and agencies and to simplify the process of serving ads across a range of websites. As we roll out more features, we want to make it easy for you to keep up and understand what best fits your needs. To this effect, we've just launched a new Content Network brand channel on YouTube.

The site is stockpiled with videos, links and downloads about the full suite of features and solutions on the Content Network. Structured into four key sections, you can learn about various products across the campaign execution cycle and how they help you achieve your various advertising goals. Case studies and research papers from various industries show what the most successful advertisers on the Content Network are doing. And if you need help getting started, please contact us (response times will vary).

And last but not the least, we've also introduced a new creative direction for our videos, to add some color and fun. Enjoy the first 5 videos below, and let us know what you think by sharing your comments on YouTube.



And you can always bookmark the playlist.

Posted by Aman Govil, Product Marketing Manager, Google Content Network
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Research into consumer shopping habits has shown that consumers are shopping locally and are researching purchases online before heading to the store. A popular industry study reports that 80% of consumer spending occurs within 50 miles of home. A joint Nielsen and Webvisible study shows that 50% of consumers head to search engines first when researching local businesses1. Another study, carried out by TMP Directional Marketing and comScore, finds that nearly 4 in 10 consumers visit a store in person after researching it online2.

Based on this data, it's easy to think that local advertising is just for local businesses. Local ads can also serve, though, as a powerful vehicle for national businesses to establish a local presence and to reach consumers where they're shopping. For clients who are interested in tapping into the local opportunity, we offer a feature in AdWords called location extensions. Location extensions work by allowing you to dynamically return relevant business addresses with your clients' text ads based on a user's location and search terms.

There are a number of benefits to location extensions. With location extensions, you can offer more information about your business to customers who are close enough to visit your business, or who are already searching or browsing for information related to your business. Location extensions attract user attention by displaying an address as another line of text on Google.com and with a custom icon on Google Maps.

Perhaps the most important benefit of location extensions for larger accounts and agencies is the ability to create and edit ads at scale. For each text ad you create, AdWords can automatically generate muliple ad variations by dynamically matching your ad with relevant business addresses you've uploaded to the Local Business Center. When you edit an ad, your addresses will be displayed with the new ad text immediately.

There are three steps for getting started with location extensions and they all take place on the Settings tab in your account.

1. Use local targeting to select the locations you'd like to target
2. Select the option to "show relevant addresses with my ads" to enable location extensions
3. Sync your Local Business Center account with your AdWords account:
  • If you update or add an address in your Local Business Center account, it will automatically update in AdWords
  • If you don't have a Local Business Center account, you can sign up here. You can also manually enter addresses into AdWords, but with this option, there is a nine address limit per campaign.



While the Local Business Center was designed for primary business owners, non-business owners, such as agencies, can still sync AdWords with Local Business Center as long as they are a representative for a given business. (Note: The Local Business Center is still not intended for aggregator use). If you are representing a business with more than ten locations, you can submit a bulk upload to the Local Business Center. While bulk uploaded data is not verified and may not show up on Google Maps, the addresses can be used for location extensions. Bulk uploading will not require verification by a phone call or postcard with a PIN.

[1] 'Great Divide' separates small biz, online consumers, www.marketingcharts.com
[2] Wave 3: Local Search Usage Study, TMP Directional Marketing and comScore, 10.8.2009

Posted by Alexandra Kenin, Product Marketing Manager
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Last month we shared an update with you on Google Site Search, a hosted search solution that brings on-demand indexing, customizable, ad-free search results, and multiple refinement options to any website's search engine.

If you'd like to learn more about Google Site Search, register for an upcoming webinar on Wednesday, December 9 at 10:00 am PST. Visit google.com/sitesearch for more information.

Hope to see you there!

Posted by Anna Bishop, Enterprise Search Team
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Last week Susan Wojcicki, VP, Product Management, shared an update on some of the new search ad formats we've been testing. Knowing that you're knee deep in holiday campaigns and 2010 planning, we wanted to share an overview of these formats with you so that you may consider them for your strategies. As you'll see, each of the new formats aims to provide additional information, delivered in the most useful format (whether it be images, videos, or maps) to help users make better informed decisions.

Ad Sitelinks: In early November we launched Ad Sitelinks, a new AdWords feature that allows you to extend the value of your existing AdWords ads by providing additional links to content deep within your sites.

Product Extensions: Similar to Ad Sitelinks, product extensions enrich existing AdWords ads with additional relevant information - in this case, information on products included in an advertiser's Google Merchant Center account.

Location Extensions: For advertisers with a brick-and-mortar presence, Location Extensions enable them to dynamically attach business addresses to ads.

Comparison Ads: Comparison Ads, which are currently being tested by a limited number of advertisers in the mortgage/refinance space, will enable users to specify what they're looking for and compare prices in a single space.

For more information on the new search ad formats, visit the Official Google Blog or the Inside AdWords Blog.

Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team
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Next week on December 7th and 8th, you can catch presentations by the Google AdWords team at SES Chicago. We'll be offering practical tips on how to quickly improve your search and display ads performance in the following sessions:
Finally, if you want to learn more about AdWords optimization tools, you can also watch a video walkthrough of the improvements we've made to AdWords this year. Ariel Bardin, the lead Product Manager for the AdWords web interface, will take you through the major new features and give you tips on managing your campaigns more efficiently.

Posted by Miles Johnson, Inside AdWords Crew

[Note: this post has been reprinted from the Inside AdWords Blog]
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Last year, Google and WPP launched the Marketing Research Awards Program to improve industry and academic understanding of online marketing strategies and the relationship between online and offline media. University professors received unrestricted gifts to conduct their projects, as well as access to relevant marketing data to aid the creation of new and creative theories and methods of empirical analysis.

Last month, the award recipients from 13 universities across the U.S. and China came to the Google offices in NYC to discuss their findings. We learned how marketing on a map affects consumers' decisions as well as how online advertising affects in store sales. We even spent some time digging into a neuroscientific study designed to determine what consumers find most relevant. Many of the award recipients are still analyzing their data, but the preliminary results made it crystal clear that we all have a lot to learn.

Listen to some of the researchers and program chairs talk about the program and discuss their preliminary findings.

Posted by Janine Gianfredi, Agency Marketing Manager
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We're pleased to share the current webinar schedule for December 2009, ranging from account security tips to industry research and strategies. The schedule is listed below, and class descriptions can be found on the Google Training site.

ThinkHealth - Online Video for Health Marketers
Tuesday, December 8th at 10amPST / 12pmCST / 1pmEST
Register here

Driving Brand Engagement among Social Media Users
Tuesday, December 8th at 11amPST / 1pmCST / 2pmEST
Register here

Google Account Security: Tips & Best Practices
Thursday, December 10th at 11amPST / 1pmCST / 2pmEST
Registration password: agency1
Register here

Google and Compete Present: Refining the Travel Search Process
Tuesday, December 15th at 10amPST / 12pmCST / 1pmEST
Register here

Also, if you missed out on past sessions such as Display Week or the Holiday Webmaster Webinar, be sure to check out on-demand recordings of them here.

Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team
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