Sharing recent innovations at Search Engine Strategies conference in San Francisco

Two weeks ago, we headed up to San Francisco to participate in the Search Engine Strategies conference. Over two days, our AdWords and DoubleClick representatives were able to share, listen, and learn with several hundred of you. For those unable to attend, here's a summary of some of the recent innovations we highlighted at the show, and a few photos from our booth on the expo floor.

The AdWords team took the stage to share some of our latest Ad Innovations with the SES audience. During our presentation, we covered three areas of innovation designed to:

• Make AdWords easier to manage with automation features like Automated Rules and the Opportunties tab
• Make ads more relevant and useful with new ad formats such as Ad Sitelinks, Product Listing Ads, and mobile ad formats like Click to Call Phone Extensions
• Help you make smarter decisions with AdWords Campaign Experiments and just-launched Multi-Channel Funnels in Google Analytics

The DoubleClick Search team showed attendees how the new DoubleClick Search V3 makes it faster and easier to manage large search campaigns across Google AdWords, Microsoft adCenter, and Yahoo Search Marketing. Large advertisers and agencies are already taking advantage of the improved workflow and reporting features in V3, while revamped bid optimization features have helped improve the return on investment from their campaigns.

We hope to see you at a future event. In the meantime, visit the Ad Innovations pages and the DoubleClick Search blog to stay on top of new features and share your feedback.

David, a Googler, takes questions from SES attendees

Devin, a Googler, demos the +1 button

The DoubleClick booth is set up to welcome visitors.

Kit follows up his talk about new features in V3

Posted by Lauren Barbato, Inside AdWords crew

Boost sales through affiliate marketing

Are you looking to infuse new life into your marketing strategy? If so, we�d like to tell you more about Google Affiliate Network, a powerful platform that gives you access to trusted affiliate publishers who actively promote your products and drive high-quality traffic to your site. Best of all, you only pay for valid conversions.

What is affiliate marketing?



Over one third of global marketers use affiliate marketing as a key component of their online marketing strategy. Affiliate marketing allows you to leverage the reach, influence, and promotional methods of trusted publisher affiliates. These publishers place your ads or links on their site with the goal of driving a sale, lead, or other high-value online goal that you define. You pay only when a user clicks through one of your affiliates and performs a desired action.

How is affiliate marketing different from my AdWords campaigns?



Unlike the campaigns you run through AdWords, affiliate marketing is an ongoing performance-based program that you actively run with a group of affiliates whom you have selected to promote your product or service. Your affiliates choose which of your ads to run on their website, and they earn a performance fee for valid conversions. Google Affiliate Network�s online interface allows you to set up your affiliate program, track conversions, manage your affiliates, and promote your site to our thousands of publishers. A well-executed affiliate marketing program can be a great complement to your search, display, and offline campaigns.



What types of publishers are in Google Affiliate Network?



Google Affiliate Network has a rapidly-growing global network of publishers in all verticals. All publishers in the network abide by both AdSense and Google Affiliate Network policies, ensuring that you pay only for valid conversions. Below are just a few examples of the publishers in our network:

• Loyalty/Rewards: Cartera Commerce, DBG Loyalty, Ebates, FatWallet, Upromise



• Shopping/Promotions: CouponCabin, DesignerApparel, Offers.com, Savings.com, Whaleshark Media



• Community/Content: Blogpire Productions, Olioboard, Polyvore, ShopStyle, StyleFind



• Comparison Shopping: Milo, Shopping.com, ShopWiki, Smarter.com, TheFind Inc.

Ready to apply?



If you�re an online business interested in starting an affiliate program, Google Affiliate Network may be a good fit for you. Please note that advertising with Google Affiliate Network is currently only available to advertisers based in the United States, and a select group of advertisers based in Canada and the UK. We will be sure to let you know when other locales are supported. Click the �Sign up now� button below to receive more information about Google Affiliate Network and speak with a sales representative.

If you are an online publisher and would like to monetize your website with affiliate ads, please visit our publisher sign-up form.



Posted by Erica Sievert, Product Marketing Manager, Google Affiliate Network

AdWords Editor Version 9.5 for Windows and Mac now available

Today, we�re excited to announce Adwords Editor 9.5! This version supports Campaign Experiments, Location Extensions, and plenty of other features to boost your productivity while managing your AdWords campaigns. We've highlighted the key changes below, and you can see the complete list of feature updates in the AdWords Editor Version 9.5 release notes.



AdWords Editor Version 9.5 highlights:

Campaign Experiments

You can now do the following to maintain your campaign experiments:

• Apply and edit an experiment status (e.g. �control only�, �experiment only�, �control and experiment�) at the ad group, ad, or keyword level.
• Apply and edit a Default Max. CPC, Display Network Max. CPC, or Max. CPM bid multiplier at the ad group level.
• Apply and edit a Max. CPC bid multiplier at the keyword level.
• Import and export experiment status and bid multipliers in both CSV and XML formats.

Location Extensions

Version 9.5 supports new and existing location extensions. You can create new manual location extensions for any address, modify existing locations, and download/upload location extensions in CSV and XML formats.

Background Download

If you�re working on several large accounts, you can now download them in the background while you�re working on another open account. This can be a great timesaver by allowing you to continue working rather than waiting for the download to finish.

We also listened to your feedback and made several usability improvements, including improved revert functionality and streamlined Add Multiple Items workflow.

The next time you log into your AdWords Editor account, you will be prompted to upgrade. You may also download Version 9.5 from the AdWords Editor website. After you install the new version of AdWords Editor, you will need to download your accounts again. To preserve your comments and unposted changes, select the Backup then Upgrade option in the automatic upgrade prompt and save the backup file to your computer. Then, re-download your account and import the backup file to AdWords Editor. A small portion of users may need to manually uninstall the previous version of AdWords Editor.

For more information, check out the release notes and visit the AdWords Editor Help Center.

Posted by Lauren Barbato, Inside AdWords crew

Doing more with the +1 button, more than 4 billion times a day

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)

In June we launched the +1 button for websites, making it easier to recommend content across the web. In July, the +1 button crossed 2 billion daily views, and we also made it a lot faster. Today the +1 button appears on more than a million sites, with over 4 billion daily views, and we're extremely excited about this momentum.



It's just the beginning, however, and today we're launching two more features that make +1 buttons more useful for users and publishers alike.



Sharing with your circles on Google+

Clicking the +1 button is a great way to highlight content for others when they search on Google. But sometimes you want to start a conversation right away�at least with certain groups of friends. So beginning today, we're making it easy for Google+ users to share webpages with their circles, directly from the +1 button. Just +1 a page as usual and look for the new "Share on Google+" option. From there you can comment, choose a circle and share.

The new +1 button on Rotten Tomatoes

+Snippets

When you share content from the +1 button, you�ll notice that we automatically include a link, an image and a description in the sharebox. We call these "+snippets," and they're a great way to jumpstart conversations with the people you care about.



Of course: publishers can benefit from +snippets as well. With just a few changes to their webpages, publishers can actually customize their +snippets and encourage more sharing of their content on Google+. More details are available on the Google Webmaster blog.









We're rolling out sharing and +snippets globally over the next week, but if you'd like to try the new +1 button now, you can join our Google+ Platform Preview. Once you're part of the Preview, just visit a site with the +1 button (like Rotten Tomatoes) and +1 the page. Thanks for all of your feedback so far, and stay tuned for more features in the weeks and months ahead!

Posted by Vic Gundotra, Senior Vice President of Engineering

Introducing Learn with Google

(Cross posted on the Google Small Business Blog)

School is back in session and here at Google, we�ve been looking for ways to help you learn how to grow your business online. Many of you have been looking for one central place to go to get smart about online tools and strategies, and we hear you. That�s why we�re pleased to introduce Learn with Google, a new educational site designed to be a one-stop shop for businesses to learn about Google products and services like AdWords, Google Apps, Places, Analytics, and more. Whether you�re looking to grow your business or just be more productive, we hope that this collection of short videos, handouts, and resources will arm you with best practices and tips that you can use right away.

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On the site, you�ll learn about:

• Starting Your Business Online: Learn why having an online presence is critical for growing your business and how to create an online marketing plan. Discover how local marketing tactics can help you reach customers near you.

• Marketing Your Business Online: Master the basics of online marketing and AdWords to get more for your money. Learn how to choose the right keywords, write compelling ads, and optimize your advertising spend.

• Running Your Business Online: Learn how the Google Apps suite of online communications and productivity tools, like Gmail and Google Docs, can make your team more collaborative and your business more efficient.

To get started, check out the videos, worksheets, and checklists at Learn with Google. From there, we�ll recommend other tips and how-to�s that will help you grow your business online. We�ll be adding more content and improving the site over time, so be sure to check back often.

Posted by Barbara Yang, Product Marketing Manager, Small Business Team

Tracking your ad position with ValueTrack

Today, we're announcing a small update to ValueTrack, a feature for those of you who use third-party tracking software or have access to your web logs. With the new additional ValueTrack parameter we�ve recently added, {adposition}, you can now see the position on the page that your ad appeared in.



Starting now, your destination URL can include the {adposition} parameter. The {adposition} parameter works for search campaigns and google.com. Here's a quick example of how you might use this parameter:



Let's say you have a search campaign. If your website is www.example.com, you can use the new and existing ValueTrack parameters in your AdWords campaign to set the destination URL to: http://www.example.com/?adpos={adposition}.



When you receive a click, your display URL will show in your logs with the ad position replaced with values such as:

• �1t2� = page 1, top, position 2
• �1s3� = page 1, side, position 3

In cases where we cannot return this info (e.g. Display Network), we will show �none�.



Here are examples of what you may see in your logs:

• http://www.example.com/?adpos=1t2
• http://www.example.com/?adpos=1s3
• http://www.example.com/?adpos=none

To learn more about all of the ValueTrack parameters and see additional examples, visit the AdWords Help Center.



Posted by Andrew Truong, Inside AdWords crew

Latest Display benchmarks now available

Evaluating the success of display campaigns can be an exercise in relativity. You gauge current campaigns against past performance or compare across multiple campaigns and advertisers within your roster of brands or clients.



But in seeking more comprehensive benchmarks that reflect trends going on in the display industry, you might find yourself falling short. Advertisers and agencies alike are looking for more data to answer the basic questions of "How do I know if my display ad campaigns are doing well?" and "Are there credible benchmarks can I use to compare the results on my current campaign?"



It�s no surprise then that our display benchmarks have met with much enthusiasm since we first started publishing the data in 2009. We�re pleased to introduce a dedicated space for display benchmarks data on the Watch This Space website. The first set of metrics you�ll see available are the latest display benchmarks, which cover a breadth of data: from CTR metrics to engagement metrics for rich media ads such as interaction and expansion rate, video complete rates and average interaction times -- all across a broad range of ad sizes, creative types and industry verticals.



Some interesting observations from these latest benchmarks are below:

• Use of rich media ad formats have doubled. We saw a two-fold increase in the proportion of impressions going to Rich Media ads. In 2010, simple flash ads accounted for 54% of all global formats served via the DoubleClick for Advertisers platform, down from 74% in 2009. Image ads, in comparison, experienced an uptick with 28% of formats served in 2010 up from 17% in 2009. That leaves rich media ad formats growing to 18% of all the impressions served in 2010 up from 9% globally in 2009.

• Response and engagement rates have been holding steady since 2009. In the past two years, the overall click-through rate has remained steady at around 0.09%.

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• Interaction rates trended slightly lower when comparing Q4 2010 to Q4 2009, but in general this measure of engagement has remained relatively steady over the course of 2010 after coming down from its peak in early 2009. (Note: Due to a change in the DFA methodology for interaction rates back in April 2008, we only reflect benchmarking data for interaction rates from then onward.)

• Expansion rates have fallen considerably since early 2009 but now we are seeing rates leveling off with a slight uptick towards the end of 2010.

• Video completion rates on rich media ads have generally remained consistent except for a several month peak towards the later half of 2008.

(click for full-size image)

• Larger ad sizes tend to generate greater response. Size does matter apparently. As we have seen in years past, bigger ads perform better. We observed this with the latest set of metrics in which the half-page ad unit (300x600) which had the highest CTR, interaction rate (for both in-page and expandable formats) and expansion rates of all the available creative sizes we tracked for the benchmarks.

• Although the U.S. had one of the lowest expansion rates, this market showed the highest expansion time. So Americans seem to expand ads less but when they do spend more time engaging with the ads themselves.

• In terms of industry verticals, auto advertisers performed the best in terms of CTR (0.13% for flash ads) but conversely had the lowest interaction (1.9%) and expansion rates (0.2%). For interaction rate, telecom (9.4%) and B2B (9.2%) advertisers were the highest while B2B stood out in terms of expansion rate (7.5%) benchmarks.

A couple of notes about this latest set of online advertising benchmarks. The data for these benchmarks are derived from a robust data set across DoubleClick for Advertisers, based on rigorous methodology with input from the Advertising Research Foundation. The charts cover global benchmark figures for the entirety of 2010 by ad format, ad size and industry vertical. The benchmarks are normalized across hundreds of advertisers, thousands of campaigns, and tens of billions of ad impressions.



For additional insights and access to the full set of available benchmarks, visit the benchmarks section on the Watch This Space website. More in-depth benchmarks by industry are available exclusively to DoubleClick clients so contact your account manager to discuss further.



Posted by Pamela Eng, Product Marketing Manager

Studies show search ads drive 89% incremental traffic

Advertisers often wonder whether search ads cannibalize their organic traffic. If search ads were paused, would clicks on organic results increase and make up for the loss in paid traffic? Google statisticians recently ran over 400 studies on paused accounts to answer this question.



In what we call "Search Ads Pause Studies," our group of researchers observed organic click volume in the absence of search ads. Then they built a statistical model to predict click volume for given levels of ad spend. This model generates estimates for the incremental clicks attributable to search ads or, in other words, the percentage of paid clicks that are not made up for by organic clicks when search ads are paused.



On average, the incremental ad clicks (IAC) percentage across verticals is 89%. This means that a full 89% of the traffic generated by search ads is not replaced by organic clicks when ads are paused. This number was consistently high across verticals. You can find a video on the study here. The full study can be found on research.google.com.

Posted by Lauren Barbato, Inside AdWords crew

Editor's note (Tuesday, August 9, 2011, 11:17 am): The analysis is based on studies conducted on 446 advertiser accounts between October 2010 and March 2011.

Webinar: Display targeting strategies for direct response

On Thursday, August 4, we held a webinar about how to use today�s powerful targeting technologies to run effective display advertising campaigns for direct response goals. Specifically, we covered:

• The "targeting toolbox" for direct response campaigns on the Google Display Network
• Strategies for prioritizing and applying the available targeting options to maximize campaign performance and efficiency
• Tools, tips and best practices for maximizing ROI

For those of you who missed the webinar, a recording is now available, which you can watch below. You can also download the materials we covered here.

After watching the webinar, share your thoughts and engage with us by following us at @GoogleDisplay. We�d love to hear from you!

Posted by Lauren Barbato, Inside AdWords crew

YouTube�s Promoted Videos hits one billion video views

Editor's Note: As of December 1st, 2011, you will start to see Promoted Videos referred to as TrueView in-search and TrueView in-display.

YouTube�s Promoted Videos recently passed the one billion mark in the number of video views delivered to advertisers. Promoted Videos allow you to promote your video against search results on YouTube, against related videos on YouTube, or across the Google Display Network. Promoted Videos help you bring your business to life�letting your customers see you, hear you, and connect with you online.

You can set up Promoted Video campaigns using your Google AdWords account. Similar to pay-per-click search ads, with Promoted Videos you can specify how much you would be willing to pay for a video view and set a maximum budget. Thousands of advertisers have promoted their videos against branded keywords and against videos that their customers are watching to increase brand awareness and drive sales.

We would like to highlight a few changes to Promoted Videos:

Placement on Google Video search results. We're expanding Promoted Video ads to show up on the Google.com Video search results page in the US only. This change gives you more opportunity to connect with potential viewers when they're actively seeking out video content. If you also have search ads set up in your account, we'll serve either your Promoted Video ad or your Google AdWords search ad, not both, based on a range of factors including your bid and Quality Score. To make sure you can take advantage of this increase in your potential audience, please opt into "Search partners" in your campaign.

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When users enter your search terms (A) on video.google.com (B), they could see your Promoted Video ad above or to the right (C) of the organic search results (D).

Introduction on YouTube Mobile. Soon, your Promoted Video ads will be able to show up on our mobile destination, m.youtube.com, which can be easily viewed on web browsers across any mobile and tablet devices. New Google AdWords campaigns are opted into "All devices" by default, but you can opt your ads out of showing on mobile devices by navigating to "Settings" on the Campaigns tab. For existing campaigns, you may wish to verify that your device settings include or exclude mobile.

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The mobile Promoted Video ad on m.youtube.com will include your ad thumbnail, title, and channel name, similar to organic video results.

Inclusion in TrueView video ads. We recently moved Promoted Videos from a cost-per-click to cost-per-view pricing model, focusing on the value of video views. In the coming months, Promoted Videos will join our TrueView family of ad formats, which provide viewers with choice and advertisers with engaged, opted-in views. Stay tuned for more updates!

We hope these changes give you more and better resources to grow your business with online video ads.

Posted by Jonathan Goldman, YouTube Software Engineer