10 of our favorite AdWords innovations from 2010

As 2010 comes to a close, we�ve been reflecting on the ways that AdWords and online advertising as a whole have evolved over the past year. From the launch of new search ad formats on Google.com to Search Funnel reports that illustrate search behavior leading up to a sale, 2010 saw a number of new developments that we hope have made AdWords an even more powerful and effective way to reach your customers.

Here are 10 of our favorite new ad innovations from 2010:

1. AdWords Campaign Experiments: Experiment with bid, keyword, ad group and placement changes, then measure how they impact your campaign performance.
2. Search Funnels: Understand the Google.com search ad click and impression behavior leading up to a conversion.
3. Product Ads: Highlight your most relevant products with pictures and prices directly on the search results page with Product Listing Ads and Product Extensions.

Product Listing Ads


Product Extensions

4. AdWords Call Metrics: Include a Google Voice phone number in ads that appear on Google.com, and measure the number of phone calls generated by your AdWords campaigns.

Call Metrics
5. Click-to-call Phone Extensions: Make it easier for potential customers to reach you by including a clickable phone number in ads that appear on mobile phones with full Internet browsers.

Click-to-call phone extensions
6. Display Campaign Optimizer: Save time and increase conversions on the Google Display Network with this new automatic bidding and targeting tool.
7. Enhanced CPC: A bidding option that automatically adjusts the Max CPC bids that you�ve set based on the likelihood that your ad will convert, leading to more conversions and higher profit.
8. Broad Match Modifier: A keyword match type giving you more potential traffic than phrase match with comparable ROI.
9. AdWords Automated Rules: Save time by scheduling automatic changes to your AdWords account based on criteria that you specify.
10. Remarketing: Show your ads to users who�ve previously visited your website as they browse sites across the Google Display Network.

You�ll always find the latest features at Google Ad Innovations, a place to explore new Google advertising technologies, watch short video demos, and try out select new tools. We have even more in store for 2011 and look forward to sharing these innovations with you soon!

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

There's still time to meet your 2010 resolution to become Google AdWords certified

Long lines at the shops got you down? Dreading yet another ugly sweater party or family cookie exchange? Kicking yourself for not becoming Google AdWords certified in 2010?

No need to fret, there�s still plenty of time left in the year. To become Google AdWords certified, you'll need to pass the Google Advertising Fundamentals Exam and one of the three advanced exams (Search Advertising, Reporting and Analysis, or Display). You can register for exams here, and take them from the comfort of your own office or home -- the perfect activity to do while sitting in front of a cozy fire waiting for mysterious, magical home invaders to bring you gifts. As a bonus, you�ll be able to give your company the holiday gift of another certified individual to add to its profile page!

We�ve made it easy for you to prepare for the exams. The AdWords Learning Center offers text lessons (some with interactive modules) for each topic on the exam, which you can review at your own pace. In addition, if you can�t quite squeeze in training this year, we have numerous AdWords Seminars for Success in early 2011 in a number of major cities throughout the US.

For more information, please visit the Google AdWords Certification Program homepage.


Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew

Significant advances for Display Ad Builder

On the Google Display Network, we've been working hard to make display advertising accessible to everyone, no matter what your size or budget. In 2008, we launched Display Ad Builder to help you design display ads in minutes for free. Now, 100 new advertisers try Display Ad Builder every day.

Today we are announcing a number of improvements to Display Ad Builder to help you achieve all your marketing goals, from driving conversions to building your brand.

Quickly manage hundreds of ads with bulk copying and editing
With the newest version of AdWords Editor, you can now copy your Display Ad Builder ads across campaigns and make basic bulk edits, including ad names, destination and display URLs, and ad statuses. AdWords Editor makes it easier to customize your display creatives. For example, you could create an ad for marathon training tips, make multiple copies of the ad, then go into Display Ad Builder to customize the creative to mention the Chicago marathon for users in Chicago and the Philly marathon for Philadelphia.

Sample Display Ad Builder ad copied using AdWords Editor and then customized based on user location.
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If you're already using AdWords Editor, you'll be prompted to upgrade automatically. Just follow the instructions to keep your unposted changes. If you�re not using AdWords Editor, visit our website to learn more and download it.

Drive engagement with social and expandable templates
Display Ad Builder also can help build your brand and engage users with our new social and expandable templates. We are testing social templates, which include the latest tweets from your Twitter account in the creative. Social templates are really useful if you want to run timely promotions that change daily. You can run a new tweet, instead of creating an entirely new creative. Social templates can also help you build your Twitter follower base.

An ad created using one of Display Ad Builder's social templates.
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We've also released expandable templates, which encourage more interaction from interested users by increasing your ad�s real estate on the page. When a user clicks on your expandable ad, it expands to twice its width or height, depending on the format.

Create the perfect ad by customizing your templates
We're also launching template customization to give you greater flexibility to create the ad you want. You can now move text boxes and images where you want within the template. Also, text boxes can be resized, so you can include more content. Combine these new features, with 180 templates, nearly 100 fonts, and unlimited color options to chose from.

Now you can move around text boxes and pictures and re-size text boxes to customize templates to fit your needs.
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Never tried Display Ad Builder? Try our free demo to see how it works. To start creating your ads, go to your �Ads� tab in a new or existing campaign in your AdWords account. Then, click �New Ad� and select �Display Ad Builder.�


Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew

Introducing the Big Small Business Plan

A few weeks ago we asked you about wishes for your business in 2011, and yesterday we shared what you said. Near the top of your list: growing your small business. Some of you even said you're ready to leave the word "small" behind. At Google, we�re all for dreaming big. So today we�re introducing something we�re calling the Big Small Business Plan. If you already use AdWords, here�s how it works: just install free AdWords Conversion Tracking and spend $100 on AdWords between now and February 15, 2011. When you do, we�ll match your $100 investment with a $100 advertising credit. But don�t wait until the new year to get started, as you must register for this offer by December 31. Call it an early New Year�s resolution!

Why AdWords Conversion Tracking? This free tool shows you which of your keywords and ads lead to sales (or whatever action you want customers to take on your site). Armed with this information, you can make the smart advertising decisions that will really grow your business in 2011. Plus, an extra $100 won�t hurt, will it?

By the way, if you know of other businesses not yet using AdWords, the Big Small Business Plan will go to work for them, too. If they sign up for AdWords by December 31 and spend $100 by February 15, we�ll give them the $100 credit.

Thanks, as always, for advertising with Google. We wish you truly big success in 2011!

Posted by Gordon Zhu, Inside AdWords crew

We Asked. You Told Us Your Wishes for 2011

Cross-posted from the Google Small Business Blog:

Two weeks ago, the Small Business Marketing team asked about your aspirations for the coming year. You told us the biggest wish for your business, and the wish for expanding your business� online presence. Today, we�d like to share what we heard.

We combined your responses from our blog, Facebook and Twitter and organized them into three main themes and then sub-themes. Of course, not all wishes fell neatly into these themes, so we did create a Miscellaneous category.

Before the drum roll, thanks to everyone that took time to share and participate. Some wishes were big and audacious and others more practical, but all with an underlying tone of passion for what you do and a focus on delighting your customers. On with the results�

Theme 1: Move my business online
Not surprisingly, you�re passionate about the business products you�re using and made very specific feature requests. Rest assured if they were Google product related, we�ve shared your wishes with our product teams. Additionally, you said you want more online resources to help your business grow. Your comments acknowledged that referrals are now happening online through social media channels and, as such, you want to understand how to use these online tools. You also want more out of your websites. Ultimately, you said you want to do more online to run your business more efficiently and spend more time concentrating on your customers.

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Theme 2: Grow my business
We heard that you want to continue to grow your business with increased profits, more customers, or more people. Lots of wishes for more marketing tools to increase your business� visibility � the range included the entire marketing mix. You want simple tools made specifically for you. There were wishes for funds to buy equipment, spend more on advertising, build e-commerce into your offering, and lease real estate � to name a few.

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Theme 3: Love my business
Many resounding wishes to continue fueling your passion because you love what you do. You�d love to learn more � from social media, AdWords and Places to creating marketing plans. You prefer support face-to-face with people and training at a relatively low cost. Many of you want more opportunities to network and support your fellow business owners. Whether it�s help getting the most out of applications and tools, or navigating a healthcare plan, you�d like some expertise to assist.

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We thank you again for telling us your wishes for the coming year. Stay tuned as we will use these wishes to build upon our plans to to help small businesses succeed in 2011.

Posted by Leslie Hernandez, Product Marketing Manager, Google Small Business Team

Expand your business - Chrome fast

Editors note: This is a guest blog post from the Chrome Web Store team, presenting you a new opportunity to grow your business on the web.

Growing revenue and traffic are important goals for most online businesses. The Chrome Web Store that we made available a few days ago can help you with both.

By distributing your web content and applications through the store, you can connect with more than 120 million people who use Chrome regularly. You can also earn revenue both by selling your apps to Chrome users and by showing ads within them. And the best part? Creating an app is quick and easy.

To learn more about how to take advantage of this opportunity and how you can build your app, check out our new website at www.google.com/chrome/CreateAnApp or watch the video below.



Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew

Learn more about Quality Score from our live online course

To help you understand more about Quality Score, we�ll be hosting a free, live course in the AdWords Online Classroom (UK) on Wednesday, December 15. The key to a successful AdWords account is the relevancy of your ads, keywords, and website. Having a better understanding of Quality Score can help you improve your AdWords performance.

The interactive course will be delivered by two AdWords Specialists and will take approximately one hour including some time for Q&A. It will take place on Wednesday, December 15 from 3pm - 4pm BST / GMT+1 (London), 10am-11am EST (New York), 7am-8am PST (San Francisco).

If you�re interested, make sure to sign up now!

To learn more about Quality Score you can also visit our Help Center.

Posted by Jason Shafton, Inside AdWords crew

More information about how our partners work with advertisers

In July, we shared some upcoming changes to the way our third party partners should provide reports and information about AdWords to their clients. Starting in February 2011, all advertisers should be able to find out how much of their advertising budget (cost) was spent on AdWords, how many times their ads appeared (impressions) and how many times users clicked on their ads (clicks). While most of our third party partners already provide this basic reporting, for those that are still preparing to meet these new requirements, we�ve included some simple guidelines and answers to frequently asked questions in our Help Center.

We�ve heard from our third party partners and advertisers that it�s important for advertisers to know what to expect when working with a third party partner and how to notify us at Google about violations of our policies. So we�ve created a document for all advertisers that includes this information.

We believe it�s especially important for advertisers with small to medium advertising budgets -- who may not have the resources and expertise of large advertisers -- to know what they can expect when working with our third party partners. If you�re a third party partner and 80% or more of your customers spend less than $1,000 USD (or local currency equivalent) per month on AdWords, you�ll be required to share this document with your customers. To learn how you can meet this requirement, visit our Help Center.

We think that these new requirements ensure that every advertiser that works with a third party partner understands the value that they receive from their partner and AdWords.

Posted by Jason Shafton, Inside AdWords crew

International tourists find the Polish seaside through Google AdWords

Sebastian Hejnowski�s parents built the Villa Zdroj Bed and Breakfast in 2002 to share Poland�s beauty with weary travelers. Located in Miedzyzdroje, a city on the coast of Polish island Wolin, Villa Zdroj is one of the island�s first modern bed and breakfasts.

Sebastian�s parents handle reservations, property development and sometimes breakfast. Sebastian runs the advertising efforts for his parents� Villa, including Google AdWords. �When we first started our AdWords campaigns, we focused on Poland but we soon realized that there was increasing interest from our neighboring countries,� says Sebastian. When he noticed an upward trend in drop-in visitors from other countries, he decided to launch campaigns across Poland�s borders as well.

Villa Zdroj

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According to Sebastian, the variety of outdoor activities combined with the relatively inexpensive cost of Polish tourism make Wolin a vacation paradise for Germans and Scandinavians. �Germans and Scandinavians were coming to Miedzyzdroje, but mostly staying in expensive five-star hotels,� says Sebastian. �B&B�s were never an option since they didn�t know where to find them.� So Sebastian made Denmark, Germany, Norway and Sweden his first international targets. The strategy proved correct: �We were one of the first Polish B&B�s to create a website in English. When we targeted an AdWords campaign to these people, they started calling and booking reservations.�

As time went on, Sebastian noticed that Poland had become more and more accessible to Europeans due to an increase in flights to the area. To capitalize on this trend, Sebastian expanded his AdWords campaigns even beyond bordering countries. �With time we extended the campaign to the Great Britain and the Netherlands.� says Sebastian. �Europeans tend to explore new places and travel extensively.�

Sebastian with his family
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Today, foreigners account for more than half of Villa Zdroj�s guests. And Sebastian estimates that up to 60% of those international guests book Villa Zdroj because they found his AdWords ads.

Thanks to his effective targeting, Sebastian now sells out all of the villa�s rooms during peak summer travel season. He adjusts his ad campaigns to reflect availability: �In summer, we track vacancies and adjust our campaigns accordingly. We pause the campaigns if we�re booked a few weeks out.�

In 2012, Poland will host the Euro Cup and Sebastian�s dad is already getting ready for an influx of visitors. �My father is considering buying a big projector so everyone can watch the games together in the communal room,� says Sebastian. �We�re already excited to share the Polish seaside with more out of town visitors!�

Learn more about Villa Zdroj Bed and Breakfast and Sebastian�s successes online in this short video (it's in Polish, but you can view captions).

Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew

Test your text and display ads with AdWords Campaign Experiments

A few months ago, we launched AdWords Campaign Experiments (ACE), a free tool that makes it easier to test and precisely measure the impact of changes to your keywords, bids, ad groups, placements - and now ads themselves! ACE allows you to run experimental changes on a percentage of your AdWords traffic. You can compare statistics for experiment versus control traffic and receive statistically significant results, which tell you with confidence whether your experimental changes improved your performance.

What can I test?

You can run ad experiments on both text and display ads. Here are some of the components you can test with each:

�� � � �Text Ads	�� � � �Display Ads
Ad text Headlines Display URLs Calls to action	Images Display URLs Calls to action�

You can test text ads against other text ads and display ads against other display ads, but ACE allows you to do more. If your ads are opted into the Google Display Network, you can also compare the performance of your text ads to that of your display ads on Display Network sites. If you don�t already have display ads in your account, they�re easy to create with the display ad builder located within AdWords.

What about ad rotation?

In the past, you may have used ad rotation to test ad variations within an ad group. The main difference between ACE and ad rotation is that ACE allows you to decide the percentage of traffic on which you want your experiment to run - giving you more control over which ads show when. Within each split, ACE will respect the �optimize� or �rotate� ad rotation settings you�ve set in your campaign settings tab.

To learn how to set up ad experiments, watch the video below. You can also view our other how-to-videos and additional FAQs to learn more.

Happy experimenting!



Posted by Gordon Zhu, Inside AdWords crew

Discover new features in the Opportunities tab

Today we�re announcing four new features in the Opportunities tab that we hope will improve the way that you optimize your AdWords account.

First page CPC ideas

First page CPC ideas help you adjust your bids so that your ads have a better chance of appearing on the first page of search results. If you have first page CPC ideas in your account, these will appear in your Opportunities tab above your keyword, bid, and budget ideas.

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More robust statistics for your keyword ideas

Until now, we�ve provided �estimated monthly searches� as the primary statistic upon which to evaluate the potential impact of your keyword ideas. Now, in addition to search estimates for each keyword, you�ll also see estimates for impressions, cost, and clicks whenever these statistics are available. These new statistics can help you make more informed decisions about which keywords you apply to your account.

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Bid ideas for ad groups

Bid ideas can now be found at the ad group level in addition to the keyword level.

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Export your ideas

If you have a lot of ideas in your account, exporting these to a .csv file can be a good way for you to review optimizations before you apply them. Exporting your ideas is as easy as clicking the �Export all ideas to .csv� link. While you can see all the other features in the Opportunities tab now, this last feature is rolling out to all advertiser accounts over the next few weeks.

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We hope you find these updates in the Opportunities tab useful. To learn more about the Opportunities tab, watch our webinar in the AdWords Online Classroom or visit the AdWords Help Center.

Posted by Jason Shafton, Inside AdWords crew

The Keyword Tool - when you talk, we listen

We want to thank you for all the feedback you�ve given us on the Keyword Tool. The first thing you told us is that you want more keywords that are better targeted to your account and searches, and we�ve made improvements in this area. We�ve also added features such as better filters, the ability to star keywords, and copy them as text. And we�re not done yet! You can help us understand what�s important to you by continuing to provide us with feedback. Below is a more detailed look at some of our new features.

There are three new ways to filter and refine your keyword list. With our new updates, you can:

1. Choose specific terms to include or exclude from your keyword list.
2. Use the �More like these� button to search for terms that are similar to the specific keyword ideas you've selected from the table.
3. Get only results that include the exact words or phrases (and their close synonyms) you�ve typed in the search box.

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Adding stars to keywords
Add stars to keywords that you'd like to save while you're still searching for new keyword ideas. You can review your starred keywords in the "Stars" panel on the left side of the tool.

�View as text� button
View your selected keywords in text form, so that you can easily edit them and paste them in a spreadsheet or AdWords Editor.

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Your continued feedback is important, so please keep sending us your comments and we'll post about more improvements here.

Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew

Thank you for ten great years

In early November, we invited you to help us celebrate AdWords� 10th birthday by telling the story of your own business. Today we�re sharing your stories with the world on a global map we�re featuring on the AdWords 10th Birthday website.

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We hope you enjoy this collection of voices from your fellow entrepreneurs. And if you didn�t submit your own story but feel inspired to do so now, it isn�t too late to add your voice. Just visit our website and send us your video or written story.

Thank you for ten great years. We can�t wait to see what�s to come in the next ten.

Posted by Jason Shafton, Inside AdWords crew

AdWords rules, and so can you!

Do you stay awake at night wondering where your bids are? Do you plan your vacations around fluctuations in click volume? Have you taken AdWords for Mobile as your +1 to a family wedding?

Managing an AdWords account to its full potential takes time - time that you could spend managing other important parts of your business. That�s why we�ve developed automated rules, a new feature available to US advertisers that lets you get the benefit of 24-hour account management while leaving you free to focus on other important things.

With automated rules, you�re able to create rules to automate bid, budget, and status changes on a specific part of your account (selected keywords, ad groups, campaigns, and ads) that are triggered at a particular time. For example, automated rules could be created to perform the following tasks:

• Enable ads promoting a special offer late on a Sunday night when the offer goes live
• Automatically raise your bid to the first page CPC for all keywords in a campaign that contain the word �sale�
• Generate more traffic on your peak shopping days by automatically increasing your daily budget on Mondays and decreasing it on Wednesdays
  
  

Let�s walk through an example of creating a rule within a campaign to increase keyword bids for all keywords with a position worse than 4 so far today. First, we�ll navigate to the Keyword tab of the campaign, click the �Automate� dropdown, and choose �Change Max. CPC bids when...�

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In the window that appears, we�ll create our rule to raise bids for all but deleted keywords in the campaign by 10%. We�ll set specific parameters to make sure the rule is only applied when certain criteria are met. In this case, we�ll add a requirement that the average position must be worse than 4 so far today for any bid changes to be made.

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Then, we�ll specify that the rule should be performed every day at 12pm using data from the same day. We�ll name our rule and choose to keep track of changes by receiving an email each time the rule runs.

As an important last step, we�ll click �Preview results,� to see a list of changes that would be made if the rule were to run at that moment. When we�re satisfied that everything is in order, we�ll click �Save.�

To manage the rules you�ve created and keep track of changes automatically made to the account each day, visit the �Control panel and library� section of your account and click �Rules.�

Automated rules will be gradually launched to US advertisers over the coming weeks. If you regularly perform manual tasks in your account, we encourage you to give automated rules a try. Once you�ve done so, we�d love to hear your feedback for how we can make automated rules even better. So let us know how it goes!

For more information on AdWords automated rules, visit Google Ad Innovations.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

Going Global with Google

AdWords started with the idea of connecting you with customers searching for your goods and services - wherever those customers may be. Today, we're announcing the launch of Google Global Market Finder, a free online tool that helps you find new markets overseas, and Google Ads for Global Advertisers, a new website that brings together Global Market Finder, AdWords, Google Translate, and other tools that can help you find, engage with, and support your customers worldwide - whether those customers are consumers or businesses searching for suppliers online.

Global Market Finder helps you answer the question: who are my potential customers overseas?

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To use the tool, enter keywords that describe your product or service and select a market or region you'd like to explore. You can choose from regions such as the European Union, the �G20� economies, or the Americas.

Global Market Finder automatically translates your keyword into languages used in each of your selected markets. It then ranks each location by market opportunity by combining search volume, suggested bid price, and competition for each translated keyword. With this tool, businesses can answer questions like �how competitive is this market?�, �how does demand in one location compare to demand elsewhere in the world?�, and �how much would it cost to start advertising in this new market?� Since automatic translation is not perfect, be sure to confirm that the translated terms are appropriate for your business.

The second resource we're launching today is Google Ads for Global Advertisers, a website where you can learn more about Google tools that can help expand your business overseas. Google Ads for Global Advertisers contains step-by-step guides and tools that take you from local to global: from finding the right markets to expand your business, to localizing your website and campaigns into another language, to running ads in a foreign market, and finally, to monitoring your global ad spend.

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This website pulls together resources for you to:

• Find the right market for your products and services, by using tools such as the Global Market Finder
• Translate your websites and ad text using Google Translate Web Element and Google Translator Toolkit
• Reach new customers with relevant online ads
• Understand options for international payment, shipping, and customer service

On the website, you will also find examples of businesses like yours that have gone global using AdWords - examples such as a mosaic company in Lebanon, a bespoke shoe retailer in Sydney, a tech support company in India, and a bed and breakfast in Poland. We hope our new website and tools will help you reach overseas markets, whether you�re a small business testing exports for the first time, or a mid-sized company looking to grow your multinational business.

Both Global Market Finder and Google Ads for Global Advertisers will be available in 43 languages. There are more than 1.9 billion people online. Wouldn�t you like to add some of them as customers?

Posted by Michael Galvez and Srinidhi Viswanatha, Global Advertisers team

AdWords Train & Gain - And the winner is...

You may remember back in September we announced the launch of the first AdWords Train & Gain challenge. Today we�re announcing our 15 finalists from around the world and the overall grand prize winner.

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Train & Gain was a four week program full of tips and advice to help you get the most from AdWords. Thousands of you took up the challenge and impressed us with the fantastic results you achieved in such a short time.

We've just finished judging all of your entries and are delighted to share our overall winner with you...

Dan Hulse and Elliot Trotter from Terra Organics in Washington, USA, have won a trip to Sydney, Australia to meet with AdWords experts in our Sydney office and attend the YouTube Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House in March 2011. Congratulations Dan and Elliot. We can�t wait to see you in Sydney!

In addition to taking the required steps each week during the competition, Terra Organics demonstrated through their case study submission (and video!) how the Train & Gain challenge impacted their AdWords account and overall business:

�We started using Google AdWords for our small Organic Produce Home Delivery Service about a year ago. While we saw some great gains, we knew we weren't using it to its full potential and weren't sure how best to budget our ads for the most efficiency. Google's Train & Gain helped us to refine our AdWords knowledge and get more out of our dollar. We learned how to maximize our Cost Per Click, use better (and negative) keywords and track our progress using Google Analytics.

Since starting the Train & Gain program, we've already seen dramatic improvements in the consistency of performance with our advertisements. We're able to work within our budget to get better results and turn more people on to our local farm CSA (community supported agriculture) and produce boxes.
In order to track just how much Google's Train & Gain impacted us, we videotaped our progress week by week and put together a YouTube video so you could gain a better understanding of who we are and how Train and Gain helped us.�

Check out the video Dan and Elliot created as part of their submission:



Congratulations also go to the other 14 finalists from around the world who each win an Android phone. You can see the breakdown of winners by region below:

Winners from Americas:
Adrian Rodriguez, Fright Night Scream Park, California, USA
Elliot Trotter, Terra Organics, Washington, USA (overall winner)
Ivan Hsieh, EMlab P&K, California, USA
Judy Weiss, Valstar Printers, Minnesota, USA
Shane Dorney, Dorney Security, Texas, USA

Winners from Europe, Middle East & Africa:
David Morgan, Easy Read, Oxford, UK
Debby Appleby, SCL Water, Devon, UK
Emily Allan, Peppermint Pix, KZN, South Africa
Pierre Hun, Utility Exchange Online, Derby, UK
Ross Berntsen, Fire Personnel, Kent, UK

Winners from Japan and Asia-Pacific:
Biplab Kumar, NK Realtors, Kolkata, India
Jason Xa, Benjamin�s Crafts, Inglewood, Australia
Rattana Areerob, Phuket Villa Rentals, Phuket, Thailand
Raymond Mellick, Temporary Tattoos Guru, Collingwood, Australia
Tapas Ranjan Behera, The Navadoya Club, Orissa, India

If you didn�t take part in Train & Gain this time around and would like to find out more about improving your AdWords account check out the AdWords Small Business Center today.

Congratulations again to all of our winners and thanks to everyone who took part in Train & Gain.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords team

The True Value of Search advertising

We know that understanding search advertising and trying to measure its return on investment is not always easy. Marketers and business owners often find it difficult to quantify the indirect effect that online search is having on offline sales.

The AdWords Online Classroom has recently launched a free, on-demand market insights presentation, The True Value of Search, to help you understand the value of search marketing beyond direct response.

During this short video tutorial, we�ll introduce you to the ROPO effect (Research Online, Purchase Offline), latent conversion and how search is involved in the buyer's research and purchase journey. We�ll discuss search as part of the broader media and marketing mix as well as search for branding and how to integrate it with offline marketing. You�ll even see some real life examples of how search campaigns have driven offline sales.

So, if you�re interested in learning about how valuable search is for you, check out this course now!


Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew

Change to the AdWords advertising policy on alcohol

We�ve changed our AdWords advertising policy on alcohol to allow ads that promote the sale of hard alcohol and liquor. This is an extension of a policy change that we made in December 2008, which permitted ads that promote the branding of hard alcohol and liquor.

Since then, hard alcohol advertisers have been able to promote websites that offer information about their brand, their products, or drinks that can be made with their products. Now, they can also promote websites that sell hard alcohol online, direct users to retailers where their products are sold, or feature sales promotions.

To comply with the policy, the ad and website must abide by certain advertising restrictions, including (but not limited to) not targeting minors, not implying that drinking alcohol provides certain advantages, and not showing inappropriate content. They are also subject to any further restrictions in the countries that they target. For full details on the policy, please see the alcohol content guidelines.

We�re constantly evaluating our advertising policies to ensure that they continue to be effective, and we made the decision to change our policy on alcohol to help more advertisers use AdWords for the promotion of their products.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

�Tis the season for Product Ads

Earlier this month we announced the U.S. launch of Product Listing Ads, which lets you easily promote products from your Merchant Center account on Google.com. In the past few weeks we�ve seen advertisers promote over 150 million unique products using Product Listing Ads.

Given all that inventory, we were curious to see what people were clicking on during one of the busiest online shopping weekends of the year.

We thought that this was a fairly interesting sneak peak into what you might expect to see under the tree this season. So, with that, here are the most clicked searches for Product Listing Ads over the holiday weekend:

• Xbox 360
• Dance Star Mickey
• Barbie Dream Townhouse
• Monster Beats
• Nintendo DSi
• Monster High Fashion Dolls
• Samsung Galaxy Tablet
• Xbox 360 Kinect Bundle
• Nintendo Wii
• Canon EOS Rebel T2i

To learn more about Product Ads, check out the video below or visit the AdWords help center.



Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

TrueView Video Ads give viewers choice and control over ads

Today we're announcing a new family of ad formats called TrueView Video Ads. TrueView Video Ads give viewers choice and control over which advertiser�s message they want to see and when. And we charge advertisers only when a viewer has chosen to watch your ad, not when an impression is served.

We believe offering a cost-per-view video ad model is good for everyone: consumers choose ads that are more relevant to them; you more precisely find the audiences you want; and content creators continue to fund great content with an ad experience that is less intrusive. Our experience with Promoted Videos, which you buy on a cost-per-click basis, shows that viewers will choose to watch ads that are relevant and engaging.

Our first available cost-per-view format is TrueView Video Ads - InStream. Viewers can choose to skip a video ad after 5 seconds, and you only pay when the viewer has watched the full ad or 30 seconds, whichever is shorter.

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We�ve tested this ad format across thousands of viewer hours, serving millions of video views for a wide range of advertisers. If you counted up all the video views watched, they would stretch out for nearly five years. Early results are encouraging with view-through rates of 20-70%. A view-through rate measures how many viewers have opted-in to watch your ad - a valuable signal which you can use in connecting the right message with the right audience at the right time.

Check out the experience of some of our early advertisers. GoPro makes and sells the HD HERO line of wearable, gear-mountable HD cameras. Lee Topar, Director of Online Marketing for GoPro, says, �We like how TrueView Video Ads give us the ability to target our audience, and gives viewers the choice to opt-in to watch our ads. Thus far, we�ve seen about a 40% view-through rate -- and since we only pay when potential customers actually watch a video, we have more control over our budget.�



In the run-up to the recent US midterm elections, many political campaigns tested TrueView with positive results. Peter Pasi heads up Emotive LLC, an online marketing firm which recently helped to elect Senator-elect Rob Portman and Governor-elect John Kasich in Ohio. He says, "TrueView allows us to deliver our message in a scalable way specifically to the voters we want to reach. For example, we used its geo-targeting capabilities to execute a county-by-county media strategy. TrueView also provides a rich experience for the voter and allows the viewer choice and freedom. It�s easy to deploy, and it's a fraction of the cost of television."



Robert Wray served as the director of technology in Governor Martin O�Malley�s re-election campaign in Maryland. He says, �The Governor had used YouTube prior to the re-election so it was a no-brainer to use it in the campaign. We achieved a 45% view-through rate with TrueView ads and found them to be effective when you look at the raw numbers of total video views and the amount we paid for them.�



This ad format is available for customers in the US and Canada and in limited testing for advertisers in the UK. We are working to add availability in additional countries.

Several other developments are also in the works. Soon, you'll be able to use TrueView Video Ads to increase a video�s view count. We are working to make TrueView Video Ads available for our self-service customers and to simplify the buying experience and reporting for everyone.

If you�re interested in trying out TrueView Video Ads, contact your account manager today.

Posted by Gordon Zhu, Inside AdWords crew

Measure how customers interact with your ads

New AdWords features such as Product ads, Sitelinks and Click-to-call allow you to create more interactive ads. Product ads and Sitelinks help customers find the most relevant pages on your website and Click-to-call allows customers to call your business directly from the search results.

As ads become more interactive, you might want to know how they'll impact your business's key metrics like clicks, click-through-rates and, most importantly, conversions.

To help answer this question, we�ve added a new report to your AdWords account that allows you to measure the performance of each click type you�re using. You can think of a click type as how your customers interact with your ads. Did they click on the headline, a sitelink, or some other aspect of your ad?

You can access the new click type report in the Campaign, Ad groups or Keywords tabs. Select �Segment� then �Click type.�

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With this added data, you�ll now have the ability to compare performance of each click type side by side. If certain click types perform well for your business, you may want to consider expanding them to other campaigns. Comparing click types by campaign, ad group or keyword will also highlight areas that need work.

Given the success we�ve seen searchers and businesses have with more interactive features in ads, you can expect to see more of these types of features in the future. With the new click type report in AdWords you can measure the impact of these new features and continue to get the most out of your ads.

Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew

Welcome, Google Apps users!

Google Apps recently launched an improvement that made dozens of Google services available to Google Apps users for the first time. As part of this launch, Google AdWords is now available to our Google Apps users with their Apps accounts.

Google Apps is Google�s suite of cloud-based messaging and collaboration apps used by over 30 million users in small businesses, large enterprises, educational institutions, government agencies, and non-profit organizations around the world. If your organization hasn�t gone Google yet you can learn more about how to lower IT costs and improve productivity and collaboration with Google Apps.

For those current AdWords users who have a Google Apps account, we're currently in the process of wrapping up some necessary infrastructure work to ensure that the transition for those users will be a seamless process. For new users without data to transition, if your administrator has enabled this service you can begin using AdWords with your existing Apps account at adwords.google.com today.

For more details, read the complete post on the Google Enterprise blog and follow all the updates on other newly available services for Google Apps users.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

Learn about media planning in a live course in the AdWords Online Classroom

This Wednesday December 1st, we�ll be hosting a live course on media planning in the AdWords Online Classroom. The course will highlight the best practices of media planning and break down the planning process into 5 simple stages. We'll also give an overview of a number of Google tools that you can use to achieve high ROI, relevance and reach for your Google Display Network campaigns.

The course will be delivered by an Online Media Specialist and will last for approximately 1 hour, including time for Q&A. It will take place on Wednesday December 1st, 2010 3pm - 4pm BST / GMT+1 (London), 10am-11am EDT (New York), 7am-8am PDT (San Francisco).

Make sure to sign up now if you're interested!

Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew

Save time with Shared Campaign Extensions

Earlier this year we introduced the Ad extensions tab to help you manage and track your campaign extensions in AdWords. Now, in addition to showing statistics for your campaign extensions, the Ad extensions tab lets you share extensions between campaigns.

Shared extensions allow you to use the same extensions information across multiple campaigns, saving you the time and effort of manually recreating extensions one at a time per campaign. For example, if you�ve set up Ad Sitelinks in one of your campaigns, you may want to use the same settings for a new campaign. Rather than copying each link and pasting it over one at a time to the new campaign, now you can share your Ad Sitelinks settings from your existing campaign to the new one.

What�s more, if you need to change part of your extension later (for example, to change the URL for one of the Ad Sitelinks), you only need to change the extension once and all campaigns sharing that extension will be automatically updated.

Any extension you add is automatically available for sharing between campaigns. To add a shared extension to a campaign, visit the Ad extensions tab for the destination campaign. Then, select the extension type from the drop down box, and click 'New extension.'

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You�ll see the option to choose one of your existing extensions from another campaign, or to create a new extension. Choose the extensions you�d like to use, click save, and you�re done.

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To learn more about shared extensions, please visit the AdWords help center.

Posted by Gordon Zhu, Inside AdWords crew

Spreading holiday cheer and regional cuisine through AdWords

Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog:

When we here in the U.S. think of Thanksgiving, many of us think of our favorite foods: perhaps a fresh-from-the-oven pumpkin pie, a sweet glazed ham or a succulent turkey. But thanks to Charlie Hohorst III of Lafayette, La., tens of thousands of Americans dream instead of a turkey... stuffed with a duck... stuffed with a chicken.

For the past 15 years, Hohorst has run food shopping site Cajun Grocer, which specializes in more than 1,000 different authentic Louisianan foodstuffs and delicacies. The �turducken��a Cajun dish consisting of a de-boned turkey filled with duck, chicken and stuffing�is �the bread and butter� of his business, says Hohorst. He can attest to their growing popularity as he ships an ever-increasing number of turduckens to cities all over the country, from Los Angeles to Boston.

Cajun Grocer�s business has grown hand-in-hand with the use of Google AdWords. Before starting AdWords campaigns in 2002, sales were fueled primarily by word of mouth, and reaching the right audience at an affordable price was a challenge. �With a specialty product like a turducken,� says Hohorst, �who do you target and how do you target them?� Using AdWords, Cajun Grocer can show off their products alongside relevant searches on Google and measure every penny spent on advertising.

Cajun Grocer's ad for "turducken" searches, using AdWords Product Extensions.

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The process of hand-crafting all eight types of turducken for the Thanksgiving rush starts in April and continues through packing and last-minute shipping as late as November 23.

Aside from their role in spreading the culinary influence of his native Louisiana, what Hohorst really loves about turduckens is that, much like the Thanksgiving holiday itself, they give people a reason to come together. �They�re a gathering item. Many people have heard of them, and when someone they know has one, it can bring in 10 or even 20 people.�

Posted by Jim Prosser, Communications Manager

Great tech support and good karma found with Google AdWords online

Cross-posted from the Google Small Business Blog:

When Uday Challu noticed a growing dissatisfaction with avenues for technical support, he was inspired to create a better way for people to get help with their tech troubles. So in 2007 he founded iYogi.com, India�s first direct-to-consumer remote technical support company. Founded on a belief in good karma, iYogi aims to mitigate frustrations with technical products and services by delivering a high-quality customer service experience.

iYogi Founder Uday Challu

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iYogi provides round-the-clock, 24-hour service on a wide variety of technical products and issues, in Australia, Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. Uday uses Google AdWords to reach these international customers.

Uday says he saw search and, in particular, AdWords as a way to reach customers in need of technical support. He says, �iYogi services are currently available in multiple geographies and advertising with AdWords seemed like the most obvious way to reach customers who were turning to the Internet to find and fix their problems.�

With the intent of starting small and building to scale, Uday targeted his first campaigns to the U.S. only. Using location and language targeting, iYogi launched a U.S.-only campaign with general keywords related to customer support, and honed his campaign over time. �We gathered lots of intelligence from the Search Query Report, which helped us identify other keywords people in the U.S. were searching for,� says iYogi Vice President of Online Marketing K.R. Sreejith. �We also tested new ad texts and customized these ad texts to highlight popular keywords.�

Then, using lessons from his experiences in targeting the U.S., Uday expanded into the Canadian market. He found his experience in the U.S. helpful for the Canadian campaign, but didn�t see similarly high volume. After examining the global competitive landscape, he decided to expand to Australia and the U.K.

�We quickly learned that ads in the U.K., for example, had to be different than ads in the U.S.,� says Sreejith. �Using the Search Query Report, we noticed that the popularity of certain keywords was different in the U.K. and that there are differences in the spelling of these terms. We also learned from our sales teams that U.K. customers spend more time on the phone than do U.S. customers. So, we edited our ad texts and landing pages to reflect these different keywords and values.�

Today, iYogi is one of the fastest growing remote tech support providers in the world. As Uday continues to expand his business internationally, he�ll continue to use insights gained from his ad campaigns and to provide the rest of the world with similarly karmic technical support experiences!

Posted by Anand Devsharma, Team Manager, India

Live online course on how to define and analyze conversions on your site using Analytics Goals

On Wednesday November 24th we�re hosting a free, live, online course about Goals in Google Analytics. Goals help you measure conversions or successful actions on your website, such as visits to a 'thank you' page after a customer makes a purchase on your site.

In this live course you�ll learn how to set up Goals and how they can benefit you. We'll clarify the difference between conversions in AdWords and Goals in Analytics, as well as discuss the reports the Goals section offers. After completing the course you'll know how to use Analytics Goals to measure the effectiveness of your AdWords traffic, then make more informed business decisions as a result.

This interactive course will be delivered by two Analytics Specialists and will last approximately 1 hour, including time for Q&A. It will take place on Wednesday, November 24 from 3-4PM GMT (7-8AM PST) and is suitable for anyone who�d like to learn more about Analytics Goals.

If you're interested make sure you sign up now!

Posted by Gordon Zhu, Inside AdWords crew

The Connected Kingdom

Cross-posted from the Google Small Business Blog:

At Google we�ve always believed that the Internet is an engine of economic growth, but until now no one has ever quantified who, how, why, where and what was behind this growth. So we asked The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a well-respected adviser on business strategy, to conduct an analysis of the impact of the Internet on the UK economy.

And we were surprised by the results:

• In 2009, the Internet contributed �100 billion to the UK economy. That represents 7.2% of GDP.
• The UK is the number one country in the world for e-commerce and is a net exporter of e-commerce goods and services, exporting �2.80 for every �1 imported.
• The Internet economy is expected to grow by 10% per year.

[The Connected Kingdom video]

BCG researched the impact that being online has had on overall businesses sales, and the results were again startling. In recent years, businesses that embraced the Internet have seen four times the growth in sales than businesses that haven�t.

[UK tights small business success story]

Understanding the importance of the Internet on the UK economy was useful, but BCG wanted to dig deeper and compare how the UK ranks against other countries. So they devised what they�ve called an �e-intensity index� which looks at three main factors: the ease of access to the Internet, the amount spent on the Internet, and the level of engagement people have with the Internet. Whilst the UK led on the amount of money spent online, the overall leader was Denmark, with the UK in 6th, and Germany, USA, and France in 9th, 11th and14th place, respectively.

To view a full version of the report, get involved in the debate and have your say in what the UK government should do to help grow the UK Internet economy, we encourage you to visit www.connectedkingdom.co.uk.

Posted by Richard Keelty, Product Marketing Manager, Google UK

Display ads on Google Images trial

As part of our Google Images redesign this July, we introduced Image Search Ads, which include a thumbnail alongside your ad text. We learned that on Google Images, image-based ads provided great results for our advertisers. They are also a highly useful format for users because they show commercial content directly related to the user's query.

Today we're expanding the image ad formats available on Google Images by testing rich media leaderboard units that appear above Google Images search results and invite you to try new products and services. With the introduction of this display ad format on Google Images, you now have a great opportunity to reach users with engaging ads, whether your goal is to build brand awareness, or to drive clicks and conversions.

Ad by Converse on Google Images, designed to gain awareness about their new shoe model.
Ad placed by Range Online, an iProspect Company.

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Advertising on Google Images allows you to reach hundreds of millions of users around the world who use the site to find relevant photos and images every week. Today display ads on Google Images are available on a small fraction of queries in the US and UK only. Over time, we hope to make display ads on Google Images available on more queries globally.

Display ads on Google Images work the same as they would on other sites in the Google Display Network. They're triggered by the content on the page - in this case, that�s defined by the category of the search term that the user enters. If, for example, you target your ad to appear on Google Images on travel-related content, your ad may appear on Google Images if a user searches for related terms like [travel], [vacation], [beach] or [summer holiday].

It�s easy to start running display ads on Google Images. Just use the AdWords placement targeting tool to target Google Images like any other site on the Google Display Network, and choose the type of content you want to advertise alongside. You can upload your own leaderboard format ad or create one using Display Ad Builder. Pricing can be either CPM or CPC, depending on your goals. If you want more information about the advertising options on Google Images, visit the Help Center.

We�re invested in making display advertising work better for both users and advertisers. We look forward to introducing new, innovative placements and formats on the Google Display Network to help you reach your advertising goals.


Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew