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For many, data can be daunting, involving endless number crunching and analysis. As confusing or overwhelming as data may be, it can also be powerful.

At Google, we get pretty excited about data and are always thinking of new ways to present it. Data can read simply, like the year-end roll-up presented in our Zeitgeist 2009 report or it can be geographical, such as the information presented via Google Flu Trends.

Recently, we developed a series of videos to illustrate several Google products, including search, DoubleClick for Advertisers and the Google Content Network. The dynamic visuals in the videos use light, colors, and movement to present data as experience.
  • To create the search video, a bunch of Googlers sifted through Google Trends on a Friday afternoon to aggregate the top queries over a year-long period. Try it one day. We promise you'll be amused and surprised.
  • To measure the success of a display campaign, a marketer needs benchmarks to compare campaign results against. Using data from our ad serving tool, DoubleClick for Advertisers, the DoubleClick video illustrates the relationship between click-through-rate (CTR) and creative size. The colorful blocks help bring the comparisons to life, illustrating the click-through-rate (CTR) by height and depth.
  • For the Google Content Network visualization, we highlight the always-on nature of U.S. impressions. As the sun rises and sets over the country, the mesmerizing imagery conveys performance at scale.
You can view all of the videos here:



Sit back, relax and experience the data.

Posted by Janine Gianfredi, Agency Marketing Manager
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If you're planning to attend next week's SMX West conference in Santa Clara, CA, be sure to catch Google presenters throughout the 3-day event.

First, we're pleased to have two keynote presenters. Peter Norvig, Director of Research, will be providing an inside look at Google Research, while Avinash Kaushik, Analytics Evangelist, will be delivering the State of the Search Union. In addition, we'll be presenting on topics ranging from social and local search to YouTube best practices.

You can also visit us in the Expo Hall on Tuesday and Wednesday, March 2nd and 3rd. Stop by our booth where you can speak to experts and see live demos of Analytics, AdWords, Website Optimizer and more. Or check out our two theater presentations on the Expo Hall floor where we'll cover Analytics and the Opportunities Tab in AdWords. These sessions are open to anyone with an Expo Hall Pass.

Visit the event site for a complete schedule. If you have not yet registered, be sure to use code smx10google for a 10% discount on an all-access event pass.

We look forward to seeing you in Santa Clara next week!

Posted by Christina Hill, Events Team
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The mission of DoubleClick Ad Planner, Google's free research and media planning tool formerly named Google Ad Planner, is to provide the deepest, most accurate insight into online audiences possible. This insight helps display advertisers select the best sites for their media plans and drive results for their campaigns.

One of the many data points that DoubleClick Ad Planner provides is site traffic data. In line with Ad Planner's mission, we've improved how we estimate and share this data in order to provide media planners, buyers and researchers with improved data quality and more data visualization options. This builds upon the traffic improvements we made in January of 2009 and is part of our continuous effort to provide trusted insights into online audiences.

This release includes the following two significant improvements:
  • Traffic estimates across a number of metrics are now more accurate (Unique user and reach estimates remain the same)
  • Direct measured traffic is now included for publishers who opt-ed in their Google Analytics data
Upgrading Site Traffic Estimates

To improve the quality of our site traffic estimates, we have upgraded our traffic estimation model. Our model uses a hybrid methodology that combines sample user data, from various Google products and services, with direct measured site-centric data. The model's direct measured signal is pulled from Google Analytics customer accounts that have chosen to opt-in to sharing their data with Ad Planner. This hybrid approach allows us to use direct measured data to train our traffic estimation models and produce the best estimate for any given site. For more information about how we use opt-in Google Analytics data check out our past blog posts on how Google Analytics data is used in Ad Planner and on replacing traffic estimates with direct measured Google Analytics data.

This latest upgrade improves the accuracy of our estimates by over 10%. We look at a large amount of data and metrics to evaluate our estimates and are continuously working on improving them. We believe our model to be among the more accurate sources of traffic estimation in the industry.

Publishers who would like to complement their site listing with direct measured data are welcome to do so by opt-ing in their Google Analytics data in DoubleClick Ad Planner Publisher Center. We invite publishers who are new to Ad Planner to learn more about using Publisher Center to manage their site profile.

Providing Direct Measured Site Traffic Data

In May 2009, we announced Ad Planner Publisher Center, which made it possible for publishers to opt-in their Google Analytics data to Ad Planner. We've now upgraded site profiles in Ad Planner to display this data in the worldwide charts for Daily Unique Visitors on site profile pages. For publishers who opted-in, their direct measured data is displayed as a solid line in their chart. For example, Gamezhero, a website offering free online games, opted-in their Google Analytics data in June. Here's what their worldwide chart for Daily Unique Visitors looks like now:


In the coming months, we plan to bring direct measured site traffic data to country-level profile views in addition to the worldwide profile views that are currently supported.

Understanding the Data in Ad Planner

To offer additional transparency into how Ad Planner generates its data, we've published a new help document about our methodology. The document provides more details behind how Ad Planner generates site traffic data, in addition to other data, such as demographics, ad information, categories and descriptions.

Getting Started

Give DoubleClick Ad Planner a try at www.google.com/adplanner. We think you'll find it to be a powerful research and media planning tool that makes it easy to find audiences and create well-informed media plans.

Posted by Wayne Lin, Product Manager, DoubleClick Ad Planner

[note: this post has been reprinted from the DoubleClick Blog]
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The Internet is going mobile. Every week, tens of millions of people search on Google from their mobile phones and generate hundreds of millions of searches. They're looking for the best local sushi restaurant or a coupon for the store they're standing in front of. Mobile devices allow consumers to have a more personalized online experience, and with mobile ads, you can reach consumers while they're on-the-go.

Please join Google for an upcoming webinar about what we're seeing in the mobile ads space and how to think about incorporating mobile into your marketing strategy.

Specifically, we'll cover how you can:
  • Understand mobile trends and what they mean for your business
  • Drive consumer action online and in the store
  • Optimize your strategies for the mobile platform
Date and Time: March 2, 2010 at 11:00am PST / 1:00pm CST / 2:00pm EST
Register here

Posted by Leslie Hernandez, B2B Marketing
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The winter games are in full swing with more than 80 countries vying to take home a medal. From February 12 through the 28th, milions from around the world will be tuning in to see the fierce competition. Viewers are already turning to YouTube for event highlights, interviews, and other great games-related content and will continue to do so over the remaining week of competition. The scale of these events is tremendous with an enormous opportunity for businesses to get in front of a global audience.

It’s not too late to take advantage of these engaged viewers on YouTube! Leverage these quick and easy tactics to get your campaigns running and take home a gold medal for your client:

1. Enhanced Online Campaigns: Target YouTube.com and create keyword themes around the events that are relevant to your client. Use 300x250 display ads (Tip: use Display ad builder to create high quality ads at no cost).

2. Placement Targeted Campaigns: Use the Video targeting tool to find relevant content on YouTube. With this new tool, you can target video content by video, demographic or interest. Within these campaigns, use text ads, 480x70 and 300x250 ads to capture the attention of users.

Leverage these tactics to place your ads in front of a global audience as they seek out games content and a taste of Vancouver. You too can be in the spotlight during the games without training six hours a day!

Posted by Jennifer Wasson, YouTube Ads Strategist
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After a brief break, the Industry Spotlight series has returned, and we're pleased to feature new automotive research as its first topic of 2010.

As the US Hispanic population continues to grow, it's important to understand how to reach Hispanic consumers online. From an industry perspective, we were curious to see how this consumer group used the online channel to shop for a new vehicle. To find out, we partnered with Compete, Inc. to develop the Hispanic Auto Buy Flow Study.

Compete looked at vehicle registration data for new-vehicle purchases between 2008-2009 and matched this information to clickstream data, providing insight into engagement and internet visitation patterns prior to a vehicle purchase. Additionally, Compete surveyed panelists to understand the reasoning behind the Internet visitation patterns of Hispanic automotive consumers. Here's what we found:

1. Most visit auto sites: 92% of Hispanic new-vehicle buyers visited an automaker site or a 3rd Party site (such as Edmunds.com or Cars.com) prior to their vehicle purchase, compared to 84% of the general Internet population, representing a major opportunity for automakers, 3rd Party sites, and Dealers.


2. They're more engaged: A greater proportion of Hispanic purchasers used key purchase indicators such as Build Your Own, Offers, and Locate a Dealer, than the General Internet Population. Utilize keyword specific URLs in your search campaigns to guide these consumers directly where they're looking to go.

3. Paid Search is important: One-third of all Hispanic traffic to automaker sites and 3rd Party sites comes from Paid Search.

4. They're using Search for a variety of reasons: Hispanic auto consumers are heading to a search engine with a purpose. Create campaigns around each of the purposes outlined here:


In addition to search insights, we learned how the Hispanic population is using sources such as online video. We found that two-thirds of online Hispanic auto shoppers are watching online videos. When it comes to automotive video content, they're looking to actually see the vehicles they're interested in and to get a feel for how the vehicle drives. This is a great opportunity for dealers to showcase the vehicles they have on their lots through a video vehicle walk-around.

With this information on online visitation patters of Hispanic vehicle buyers, we hope you'll be able to reach these consumers with more targeted messages via your online campaigns.

Posted by Lauren Dale, Automotive Marketing Manager
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Last week we began to roll out bid ideas in the Opportunities Tab. Along with customized keyword and budget ideas, you'll now be given bid suggestions for specific keywords, based on bid simulator data, to improve your AdWords ROI. Depending on whether you want to increase traffic or decrease cost, you'll see ideas on how to raise or lower your bids to meet your business goals.

You’ll see bid ideas in your account if we determine there's an opportunity for you to:
  • Receive significant additional clicks without a significant increase in cost
  • Save money without sacrificing a lot of clicks
Bid ideas became visible in some accounts last week, and will be available in all accounts in the coming weeks.



For additional information on bid ideas, please visit the full post on the Inside AdWords Blog.

Posted by Alexandra Kenin, Product Marketing Manager
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I recently presented on "The Future of Search" at a SEMPO Boston meet-up event. Here's a recap of the presentation's key themes:
  • Access: The proliferation of new, more sophisticated devices has played a significant role in when, where and how quickly we conduct searches today, while the evolution of the mobile phone, along with the advent of the netbook and Google's own ChromeOS will contribute to what's expected from search in the future. Read more about ChromeOS and new developments in mobile.
  • Localization and personalization: Localization has in particular been influenced by devices we use to access search. Local-based search on mobile devices are increasing. For example, iPhone users conduct 30% more daily queries from Google Maps than do computer users. The social graph will be an important part of ensuring relevant, personalized results. Last quarter, Google released Social Search which allows users to augment their search results with content from friends who they're connected with through their Google profiles. In addition to Social Search, Google just released Google Buzz to allow users to easily share within their Gmail accounts.
  • Modes: Search continues to advance due to the way people are searching. Voice search is still in its infancy, but one day voice search technology will be able to process any language and accent. The vision of the omnivorous search box is that anything a user has seen or been exposed to becomes the query. More on Google Voice Search here.
  • Media: As people change the way they search, Google has to think beyond text, to images and videos. The first step in this is image recognition where you can search by size, color or type. Check out Google Image Swirl to see the latest in image recognition technology.
  • Language: Language ties all of this together. Google's translation services should make it so that the most relevant results are included regardless of language. So, if a user is looking for information about wine in France, they should be able to see the French results translated into the user's native language. Our latest automatic translations in Google Translate allow users to translate between 51 languages (2550 language pairs, including just added Swahili and Afrikaans). Read more about Google's translation services.
For more information on Google product innovations, visit the Official Google Blog.

Posted by Lisa Green, Agency Team
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You may have seen Google's Superbowl ad this past Sunday and have gotten a taste of what a love story might look like when told as a series of search results. Of course, that was just one example; it's certainly possible to find romance outside of Paris.

With total 2010 Valentine's Day spending expected to reach $14.1B1, there are ample opportunities for you to inject a little romance into your own clients' campaigns to ensure they have the biggest impact in the next few days.

Here are some quick tips:

1. Ad Copy: Activate and create new text ads that specifically mention Valentine's Day. This serves as a reminder for users that the date is almost here. In addition, create a sense of urgency in your ad text. Shipping deadlines, or a Valentine's Day countdown (i.e., Only 5 Days Until Valentine's!) may make your advertisement that much more compelling and drive panicked, last minute shoppers to your clients.

2. Budget: Search traffic for "Valentine's Day" and "Valentines Day" is trending upward year over year. Ignoring this increased traffic is a missed opportunity for conversions. Increasing budgets where possible will ensure you capture relevant traffic and capitalize on all conversion opportunities. Consider using the Bid Simulator to simulate various scenarios based on your bidding strategy and improve profitability of campaigns.

3. Keyword expansions: Capture additional traffic for your clients with expanded keyword lists. Try the Search-based Keyword Tool and take a look at the organic search queries reported in Google Analytics for new keyword ideas. Use Google Insights for Search to understand where your clients' products or services intersect with increased search activity. In addition to category specific opportunities, remember to target consumers looking for gift ideas. Women may be particularly interested in such suggestions - searches for "gifts for boyfriend" were up +250% y/y.

4. Expand reach: Use Ad Planner to reach your clients' target demographic on the Google Content Network and compliment search campaigns for maximum impact. Combine relevancy and targeting with eye catching visuals using Google's Display Ad Builder.

For additional resources, be sure to visit the AdWords Help Center. Happy Valentine's Day!

[1] the NRF 2010 Valentine's Day Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted for NRF by BIGresearch

Posted by Yael Davidowitz-neu, Retail Team and Evan Ortiz, Agency Team
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At YouTube, we love to see videos that engage and often inspire viewers. Some of the best content on our site comes from advertising agencies, who flex their creative muscles to build inventive campaigns that help clients make a human connection with consumers.

While agencies combine their understanding of client brands with a healthy dose of imagination to conceive these campaigns, YouTube works to connect science and art by building open technology platforms on which these campaigns can be executed in a scalable, measurable way. Doing this well involves a lot of collaboration with -- luckily for us -- some of the smartest, most creative agency minds out there, to make sure our platforms are addressing the most critical agency and client issues.

For the latest installment in the YouTube Biz Blog's Five Questions series, we talked to Rob Davis, Leader of Ogilvy's Interactive Video Practice, to get his take on the role of online video in client campaigns, the myth of "viral videos," and the tools that make his job easier.

1. Ogilvy has worked with several clients to launch brand channels on YouTube. How do you work with clients, Google, and YouTube to come up with an idea, and ultimately build and run the channel/campaign itself?

Ogilvy's philosophy is to integrate interactive video work into the core creative and strategic elements of the agency. Therefore, when we are working on a YouTube brand channel or campaign, we take a team approach that includes the client, YouTube, and Google as part of the working unit. Initial ideas may come from anyone on the team, but it's when we start ideating with YouTube that the big ideas gel. We look across all the YouTube offerings, from paid media and takeovers to annotations and widgets, to make sure we are crafting an experience that meets the expectations of the audience and makes full use of the latest toolsets.

2. What have you learned about video advertising from YouTube, and how has this affected how you build campaigns for your clients?

YouTube is an integral part of paid and earned media strategies. Integrated VSEO (video search engine optimization), VSEM (video search engine marketing), and display planning allow us to take advantage of YouTube in a mix that is right for the client. Not everything warrants a YouTube homepage ad, and not everything can live on VSEO alone. The trick is to find the balance that builds the audience -- the right audience -- that the client is looking for. How we achieve that balance is part of our secret sauce, but I can say that it stems from a "one Ogilvy" approach where our different disciplines unite to do what is right for the project.

3. Google and YouTube provide lots of tools that help agencies build creative campaigns. Which tools do you find most useful or valuable?

YouTube Insight and the Keyword Suggestion Tool are obvious answers for marketers, but for creative campaigns we look to the value that annotations, captioning and widgets like YouTube Direct can bring to a campaign. Our multi-discipline approach gives us a fresh perspective on all of YouTube's offerings. Ironically, one of the most valuable tools is the simplest, but in our opinion, the most overlooked: the playlist.

4. How important is it to have an engagement component in an online advertising campaign? Is that more or less important than the content itself?

Nothing is more important than content. That said, our multi-discipline, integrated approach allows us to consider engagement on the same level as content. Both need to be equally well-planned and executed. Engagement can be big, like a contest or a vote, or it can be as simple as content so compelling, so noteworthy, that is gives people a reason to share it. In that sense, content itself can equal engagement.

Defining the kind of engagement appropriate is a key element in success. I don't believe in "viral videos." The "post 'n' pray" fantasy of putting a video on YouTube and having it magically spread to a zillion users ignores the importance of engagement and placement. I guarantee you that the million-views-a-day video has good content and at least one of three other elements: a channel with an existing audience, a strategic placement (paid or earned), and the appropriate level of engagement.

5. What's your favorite YouTube video?

I have a life-long passion for railroading, especially when it involves steam locomotives. This has led to many adventures, not the least of which was joining 49 folks of similar interest in Michigan last summer to rent two vintage locomotives for a dawn-to-midnight weekend of private photo runs designed to recreate railroading from the 1950s.

I am primarily a still photographer, but I did shoot some movies that weekend. However, YouTube user JoMiFu, an under-20 artist with a tremendous eye for the moving image, captured the weekend with one of the most stunning railroad videos I have ever seen. Don't miss the sunset scene at 7:20. I can't stop watching it.

Posted by Lisa Green, Senior Agency Relations Manager

[Note: this post has been reprinted from the YouTube Biz Blog]

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According to BabyCenter's® 21st Century Mom™ Report, a new mom is born every 7 seconds!

It's no wonder, then, that in the past year, we've seen a flurry of research reports including The Rise of the Real Mom published by Ad Age, Power Moms by Nielsen, and eMarketer's Moms Online: More Influential Than Ever. These reports speak to the powerful influence of Moms and the growing importance of the Internet and social media on their lives.

Google was curious to learn more specifically about Moms and Search. Therefore, in late 2009, we partnered with BabyCenter, the leading global online parenting resource, to complete a joint research study exploring the motivations and mindset behind decision-making moms, and how marketers can empower mothers through online channels. In addition, we joined forces with OTX Research and Sterling Brands, to complete the study, "The Four Truths About Moms and Search."

Next week, please join us for a webinar with BabyCenter, where we'll review both the" 21st Century Mom™ Report," as well as "The Four Truths About Mom and Search."

Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 12pmPST / 2pmCST / 3pmEST
Register here

Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team
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