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Becoming a digital advertising expert takes time, and it’s important to get off to a good start. Only 50 percent of marketers say they’re confident in their knowledge of digital advertising,1 despite the wide range of educational materials available – sometimes “more” isn’t the same as “better.” You’ve told us that you want quick, bite-sized training in more interactive formats. And we heard you.

We’re pleased to announce Academy for Ads, a new digital training platform designed to help you learn how to use Google’s ad products in a mobile-first world. We built Academy for Ads to promote learning on-the-go, whether you’re on a laptop, a desktop, or a mobile device.

Grow your Google product know-how
Guided by input from our team of product experts, Academy for Ads courses cover the topics that matter most to Google advertisers – from AdWords basics and the essentials of campaign management to bid strategies, reporting, optimization, and more ways to successfully advertise with Google.



Learning paths, Assessments, and Achievements
We’ve organized the courses into “Learning paths” that you can walk through at your own pace. At the end of each path, take an Assessment and earn an Achievement to show that you know your stuff. Earning an Achievement for AdWords helps prepare you to take the AdWords Certification exam in Google Partners, or try deeper education offerings such as AdWords Academy.


A few example Learning paths:
  • Digital concepts: Learn the essentials of online ads, including third-party ad-serving, programmatic buying, remarketing, and more.
  • Get started with AdWords: Learn the basics of AdWords and prepare for the AdWords Certification exam offered by Google Partners.
  • Get started with AdWords Display: Learn how you can show ads to your online audience via the Google Display Network.
  • Get started with Video for Brand: Get an overview of digital video landscape and the benefits of Google’s online video offerings, including Google Preferred. Learn how Google's advertising solutions map to awareness, consideration, and brand lift, along with more detailed steps on implementation and policy.
  • Get started with DoubleClick Bid Manager*: Learn your way around Bid Manager, what it offers and how you can use it to manage your online marketing campaigns.
*Only accessible to DoubleClick Bid Manager clients

Academy for Ads also offers training for DoubleClick clients, with Learning paths covering Bid Manager and Ad Exchange – and more to come.

Get started
If you already use Google Partners, you can sign in through the Partners portal at g.co/learnwithpartners — or, you can go directly to g.co/AcademyforAds to sign up and start sampling courses and Learning paths. We’re constantly adding more content, so if you like what you learn, keep coming back for more.

Posted by Tracy Bizelli, Head of Academy for Ads

1. 6 Fundamentals to Managing Digital Marketing in 2015, TFM Insights (January 2015)
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It’s here! The IAB Digital Media Buying & Planning Certification is live. We are excited to be launching this initiative in partnership with the IAB and 4A’s by offering scholarships to agency media buyers and planners to get certified.

The goal is to grow digital knowledge and capability across the industry for both veterans and newcomers. In support, we are sponsoring a number of agency media buyers and planners to take the exam, and the opportunity for continuing education provided by Google and the IAB.

“Google has long been committed to infusing the media industry with knowledge and skill sets to navigate today’s complex digital ecosystem,” said Tara Walpert Levy, Vice President of Agency Sales, Google. “We’re proud that our partnership with the IAB to develop this program and our ongoing support extends this pledge and enables digital media agency professionals to deliver superior service to their clients.”

We see this initiative being the perfect complement to the educational opportunities being offered in the industry to grow and develop agency talent. Google intends to to offer these scholarships on an annual basis in support of sustaining and growing digital capability in the Industry. We consider this a landmark certification initiative that will provide the ecosystem with a first-of-its-kind professional benchmark for media agency executives. For more information, email iabscholars@google.com. Scholarships are awarded at Google’s sole discretion.

Join me on Tuesday, July 19th at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET for a livestream broadcast of my keynote address from the DoubleClick Leadership Summit (DLS). I’ll be sharing updates on the latest innovations on the DoubleClick platform and how we’re helping advertisers and publishers adapt to today’s mobile world.

At Google, one of our enduring principles is to “focus on the user and all else will follow.” This has been an important guidepost throughout our history, and it has never been more relevant than it is today. People are more ‘mobile’ now than ever before. We spend every waking hour connected to our devices. We expect to find what we want, when we want it. But with only a split second to engage and capture attention, user experience matters more than ever.

In my keynote, I’ll share an update on the technologies we’re developing to help advertisers, agencies and publishers create better experiences for people on the go. You can expect to hear more about Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), Native Ads, as well as new, more immersive experiences like 360 video. I’ll also be unveiling new product features to help our clients and partners more effectively reach, engage, monetize, and measure audiences across screens.

I’m looking forward to the livestream on July 19th. Please register to watch here.


Posted by Paul Muret
Vice President of Analytics, Display, and Video Products, Google

Three years ago we launched Google Partners to help businesses connect with online professionals and agencies. Top Partners began earning their Google Partner badge by demonstrating their business was healthy, their clients were happy, and they were up to date with the latest product knowledge.
Since then, we received a number of requests from our Partners asking for a way to further differentiate themselves. Today, we’re excited to share the addition of Google Partner specializations.
 
The new feature is embedded into the Google Partner badge and designed to help businesses identify the right Partner for their specific business needs.


Partners can earn specializations in 5 areas of expertise:
  • Search
  • Mobile
  • Video
  • Display
  • Shopping
To earn a specialization, badged Partners will need at least one certified individual and a history of consistent product performance.
“The changes to the Google Partner program are exciting for potential advertisers and our company,” says Neal Gann, CEO of Showroom Logic. “These new specializations show Google’s commitment to better serve their Partners and help us highlight what makes our technology and team so unique. It should also help prospective clients make a clear choice because it's now easier for them to find top Partners that are aligned with their immediate goals.”
Additionally, we’re introducing a new Premier Google Partner badge.




The new badge is designed to recognize Partners who manage a substantial portfolio of Google advertising campaigns and deliver great results for their customers. Premier Partners will be required to maintain additional certification requirements and will receive increased support from Google.
"Google identifying and recognizing highly experienced agencies is a great step and a distinctive honor. We are thrilled to be a part of the new designation and look forward to displaying this badge," shares Joe Chura, CEO of Launch Digital Marketing.
We hope these updates will help businesses find the right Partner for their needs and allow our Partners to better differentiate themselves. Learn more at the new Google Partners homepage.
Posted by Allan Thygesen, VP Global Sales & Operations




As marketers kick off 2017 planning, consumer preference for online video is higher than ever. Today’s study from comScore, commissioned by Google, shows that adults are 30% more likely to prefer online video platforms over TV when given a choice where to watch video content. Does your media plan reflect that kind of preference?

If online video is your audience’s priority, it should be your media plan’s priority, too. We dug into the recent study and came up with six things to keep in mind about this changing audience as you develop your 2017 plan:

1. They Prefer Online Video Platforms to TV

The popularity of online video continues to grow. Today, when given a choice where to watch video, adults prefer online video platforms 30% more than watching on TV. Among millennials, that number jumps to 105%.
2. People Watching Long & Short-Form Video Prefer YouTube

Among viewers that watch both long and short-form content, 81% cite a preference for YouTube, making it the #1 choice. Compare that to the next-highest choice, TV, which earned just 56% of viewer votes.

3. They Choose YouTube Over Other Online Video Providers
YouTube also wins when compared to other online video providers. When asked to pick one online video platform, 48% of adults chose YouTube (vs. 29% for Netflix and 10% for Facebook):
4. Viewers Take Action on Video Ads, Especially on Short-Form Content
Online video has forever changed the media landscape, with more than half of all people regularly watching short-form videos (like branded content or viral videos), and two-thirds of millennials watching short-form weekly.
That’s good news for brands: comScore’s research shows viewers are more likely to take action after watching ads on short-form content compared to traditional content (like movies and tv shows). Taking action could include sharing on social media, looking for more information about the brand advertised, recommending the brand or product, etc.
5. They Prefer YouTube for Branded Content and Videos Uploaded by Users.
We already heard that adults who watch short and long-form content prefer YouTube, but it’s also preferred across multiple content types. For example, 74% of adults prefer YouTube for videos uploaded by users and—critically—69% prefer YouTube for videos uploaded by brands, companies, and institutions.
6. YouTube Super-users May Surprise You
The final part of comScore’s research examined YouTube’s most passionate fans—“die hards”—and they aren’t who you might expect. Many are parents, live in a city, and 49% are women:
Posted by:
Celie O'Neil-Hart, Product Marketing Manager, YouTube B2B
Howard Blumenstein, Product Marketing Manager, Strategy and Insights, YouTube B2B

We’re announcing the launch of the YouTube Brand Partner Program Certification (youtube.com/certified) live from two of the year’s biggest advertising industry events -- The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in France and VidCon in Anaheim, California.
Three years ago, we created the YouTube Brand Partner Program to provide inspiration, education, and support for marketers looking to build content strategies for YouTube. Since then, we’ve welcomed leading brands from all over the world around the globe into the initiative and watched their creative teams adapt our frameworks into innovative campaigns.
As watch time on YouTube continues to grow year over year, advertisers are taking note of trends and embracing originality when it comes to their content. The old saying about content being king continues to ring true whether you’re posting game reviews, comedy sketches, political discourse, or, you guessed it, promoting brands. The stats back it up, too. New research released by Pixability today shows the top 100 brands garnered 50 percent more views this year than last.
Now, we want to continue empowering the agency community to lead the charge by providing easy-to-follow lessons so anyone can construct impressive content campaigns no matter how experienced.
The YouTube Brand Partner Program Certification is an online curriculum designed to equip agencies with the knowledge and tools they need to design effective video content strategies. From publishing frameworks, to how to best partner with YouTube creators, to campaign optimization, the certification provides a guided learning path that will help agencies create successful YouTube content and distribution strategies for their clients. It will be available online for agencies across the globe in 22 languages.
We’ve tapped YouTube thought leaders, as well as popular YouTube creators, such as Hannah Hart, MysteryGuitarMan, Veritasium, My Cupcake Addiction, and Flavia Calina so you get insight straight from the best in the business. Instructors use personal anecdotes and real-life experiences to share best practices for a firsthand account of what works best.
Among the first agencies to sign up for the program as an early adopter was MEC’s Wavemaker who also made a commitment to certify all employees globally in the coming months.
“The launch of the YouTube Brand Partner Program Certification is incredibly timely and exciting for MEC," Global COO Alastair Aird said, "With MEC Wavemaker we have a different kind of content offer, one that helps our clients see exactly what role content and platforms play in their customers’ lives and how that will directly impact their brand’s performance.  
It’s different because we have the data to identify precisely what consumer behaviour needs to change along the purchase journey and create content that’s specifically designed to make that change happen.  Equipping our people with the necessary knowledge to design the most effective video content is key to our service to clients.”

Marketing is evolving. Agencies are leading that change. And YouTube is here to help. If your agency would like to request an invitation to the program, please reach out to your representative or submit your information here.
-Torrence Boone
VP, Global Agency Sales & Services




With more than a billion viewers each month, YouTube is the place the world chooses to watch. As a platform dedicated to sight, sound and motion, great video ads work well here.  Whether they’re 30 second spots built for TV, 4 minute short films, or 6 second bumper ads, we work to make every video ad have the greatest Watchtime, Audibility, Viewability and Engagement (WAVE), to help ensure you get the full impact of your work.
As thousands of creatives gather at Cannes Lions this week, many are thinking about what makes great video ad creative. Great storytelling in the digital age is both art and science. While we prefer to leave the art up to you, our science has shown that the ads that tend to work best on YouTube are the ones that tend to work best for today’s viewing experience. Whether you are building for our TrueView in-stream ads, which let viewers skip after 5 seconds, or for TV, today’s viewers are impatient. They have a trigger finger on their phone, tablet or remote.  So you better catch their attention right from the start.  
In multiple research studies we did last year, which analyzed hundreds of TrueView campaigns, we saw four key elements emerge:
  • Brand placement matters: Ads that showed the brand visually in the first 5 seconds had higher ad recall and brand awareness lift.
  • No sound? Less impact: We tested 280 campaigns and found that among users exposed to ads with both sight and sound, ad recall had a lift of 43%. Among users exposed to video ads that had no sound, ad recall was significantly lower at 31%.1
  • Calls to action drive impact: We saw higher brand awareness lift among ads with clear calls to action, such as an invitation to visit a YouTube channel or brand website.
  • Time counts: We found that there is a consistent relationship between how long an ad is viewable and increase in brand awareness and consideration. The longer a user views your ad, the higher the lift in these two metrics.
  
All of these factors help ensure engagement. On average, we’ve seen that viewers who completed TrueView ads are 23x more likely to visit or subscribe to a brand channel, watch more by that brand, or share the brand video than those not exposed to the ad. And you can amp up Brand Lift results by targeting great video ads on top channels through Google Preferred. When you combine these, you can ‘ride the WAVE to success.’  
For more insights on video creative, check out our latest Unskippable Labs Experiment with Mondelez International and Droga5. If you’re in Cannes this week, swing by our lightning talk,  Advertising in an Age of Infinite Choice, and come relax at #YouTubeBeach.


Posted by Kate Stanford, Head of Global Advertiser Marketing at YouTube