Generation Why

I start every morning the same way. I get to the office around 7, boot up the computer and check email to see what pressing matters have come up in other timezones that start their days before I do. I then proceed to my Google Homepage where I have set up RSS feeds for my favorite marketing-specific blogs (Seth Godin, Customer Experience Matters, Church of the Customer, etc). I take a quick read then hit the ground running.

Today, more than any other day, I have Gen Y issues on the brain. It started with an email-based newsletter article from The Emmerich Group (Roxanne Emmerich is a guru of bank marketing and the author of several books). Roxanne writes,

"In the last week alone, five CEOs told me they won't hire (Millenniums/GenY) anymore. I hadn't even brought it up! One said he can't figure out why they are so self-consumed. Despite all the best efforst to engage them, he said, they are only looking out for themselves."

And it's true. All of the research from all of the sources we have come across confirm that getting rich is the most important life goal for this group. Emmerich quotes one CEO as saying,

"They are used to getting positive reinforcement every few seconds with video games, they had a graduation party for graduating kindergarten and received stars for EVERY little accomplishment. If someone isn't telling them how great they are every three minutes on the job, they start looking for a different employer who will."

That that's not the end of it. Bruce Temkin with Forrester Research writes in his blog, Customer Experience Matters, that Generation Y is a different breed altogether. He expresses concern for thier skills to do basic math (with a paper and pencil and no cellphone calculator) and their ability to spell. Microsoft's spell checker and Google's "did you mean" have encouraged a phenomenon called "close enough spelling."

So what is the point in all of this? The point is that Generation Y demands to be treated differently, more special. Because we know this generation is full of webies (that's my term for people who spend more time on line than in face to face interaction) we will need to communicate with them differently. They still have banking needs, and if they really put their minds to it and reach for that goal of being rich, you will want them on your team (or in your portfolio at least!).

Social media is not going away, and if anything, is growing at warp speed. That's not saying that all banks need to go out and create a MySpace page, but I am saying that your website needs to be intuitive, comprehensive, and Google-able. That's a great place to start!

As you create your list of needs and wants for this year, I would recommend that you put a generational marketing plan in the need column. As Generation Y approaches their mid-20s you will want to be prepared to communicate with them in their language and through their preferred communication mechanisms. Even if that means using AIM, poking in Facebook, or tracking in Twitter. (Google those. To be an expert you need to know what you are up against!)

Happy Thursday!
Jenna

Webinar: Website Optimizer, What Should I Test?

Those of you familiar with Google's free A/B and multivariate testing tool, Website Optimizer, may have seen our previous webinars Introduction to Website Optimizer and Creating and Launching Experiments. Recently, however, you've asked us for more insight on what you should be testing on your webpages. With that in mind, we'd like to invite you to join Website Optimizer's Product Manager, Tom Leung, and guest presenter Bryan Eisenberg (FutureNow, Inc.) for a new, free online seminar:

Website Optimizer: What Should I Test?

DATE: Tuesday, March 11th, 2008
TIME: 9:00 - 10:00 am PST (Pacific Standard Time)
Register to attend.

During this online seminar, Tom and Bryan will:

• provide a brief introduction to Website Optimizer for newer users
• talk about testing best practices
• discuss some of the top elements to test on any webpage, and
• review top mistakes people make when developing new content to test.
  

Upon registration, we also invite you to submit specific topics you'd like Tom and Bryan to cover.

We look forward to seeing you there! If you can't make it (or even if you can), here are some guides to help you as you use Website Optimizer: Quick Start Guide and advanced testing strategies.

Posted by Jon Stona, Website Optimizer Team

Webinar: Website Optimizer, What Should I Test?

We continue to receive a lot of questions about Google Website Optimizer, our website testing and optimization tool. Those of you who are familiar with Website Optimizer may have seen the Quick Start Guide and read our advanced testing strategies. Recently, however, you've asked us for more insight on what you should be testing on your webpages. "Should I test my headlines, images, or buttons? Google, what do I test?"

To answer these questions and more, we'd like to invite you to join Website Optimizer's Product Manager, Tom Leung, and guest presenter Bryan Eisenberg (Chief Persuasion Officer, FutureNow, Inc.) for a free online seminar.

TITLE: Website Optimizer: What Should I Test?
DATE: Tuesday, March 11th, 2008
TIME: 9:00 - 10:00 am PST (Pacific Standard Time)
JOIN US: Register to attend

During this online seminar, Tom and Bryan will:

• Provide a brief introduction to Website Optimizer for newer users
• Delve into testing best practice
• Discuss some of the top elements to test on any webpage
  
• Review top mistakes people make when developing new content to test
  

Upon registration, we also invite you to submit specific topics you'd like Tom and Bryan to cover.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Posted by Trevor, Inside AdWords crew

Introducing Analytics Seminars for Success

Following on the success of our AdWords Seminars for Success program, we'll be introducing a new series of Analytics Seminars for Success starting in March. Led by Google Analytics Authorized Consultants, these full day seminars will cover the in's and out's of using Google Analytics to track and optimize your website's performance.

We'll be offering two different levels of Analytics Seminars:

Introduction & User Training - designed for those who want an introduction to Google Analytics, setting up Analytics, exploring the user interface, and analyzing reports. (Detailed course description)

Advanced Technical Implementation - designed for more technical users who want to do advanced testing, tracking, and code customization. (Detailed course description)

AdWords and Analytics Seminars will be coming to following cities in the next few months:

AdWords
March 10 - Denver - AdWords: Beginner & Intermediate
March 24 - San Francisco Bay Area - AdWords: Beginner & Intermediate
April 7 - San Diego - AdWords: Beginner & Intermediate
April 28 - Dallas - AdWords: Beginner & Intermediate

Analytics
March 25 - San Francisco Bay Area - Analytics: Introduction & User Training
March 25 - Raleigh - Analytics: Introduction & User Training
March 26 - San Francisco Bay Area - Analytics: Advanced Technical Implmentation
March 26 - Raleigh - Analytics: Advanced Technical Implmentation

Sign up 7 days before the seminar date and we'll even throw in a $50 AdWords advertising credit. (View the terms and conditions of advertising credits.) You'll find more information about these seminars, including course outlines and registration instructions at http://www.google.com/awseminars. And of course, if you'd like to be informed when AdWords and Analytics Seminars become available in your area, simply fill out this form.

Posted by Vivian, Inside AdWords crew

Voting and a Forum

Well, tis the season for voting blogs!

According to the voting poll on the left, it is clear that there is at least some demand for a marketing forum by which you have small group interaction with an industry leader and expert.

The good news is that such an event now exists. The bad news is two fold...first, I wasn't creative enough to design the poll to gather your contact information and second, I didn't include a way for you to get the additional information you are looking for.

So, even marketing experts aren't perfect!

MarketMatch is launching the first of its kind marketing forum called M3F (MarketMatch Marketing Forum) whereby in a day-and-a-half format you will hear presentations from national experts on selected hot topics and spend the next day in small, non-competing groups where you will have the opportunity to work with the experts, rolling up your sleeves and not only discussing the same topics on a more local scale, but also creating an implementation plan to take back and put to work on Monday.

And to step it up a notch, M3F will be touring the country with five planned forums throughout the US. This will help minimize the time out of the office and travel expenses for many of you.

Sound interesting? Click here for more information.

If you have questions about how the M3F works, the chosen topics and when you can expect the M3F to be in your area, shoot me an email: jrowland@marketmatch.com

Have a great marketing week and back later this week for a blog you won't want to miss!!

Jenna

Meet our AdWords Evangelist in San Jose

You may remember Fred Vallaeys, Product Evangelist for AdWords, who joined us towards the end of last year for our popular multi-part series on ROI (Return on Investment) and how to track it. Well, we're pleased to let you know that you can chat with Fred in person at the SMX West conference in San Jose, CA next week.

On Wednesday February 27th, at 4:45pm, Fred is participating in a Paid Search Roundtable in which representatives from the major search ad networks, along with search marketers, will take questions from the audience. If you're attending the conference, we hope you'll stop by, and don't forget to bring your best questions for Fred.

If you can't make the roundtable, you can catch up with Fred at the expo hall reception for conference attendees, from 6:00pm-7:00pm. Fred truly enjoys the chance to meet AdWords advertisers, so keep an eye out for him. You can see Fred in this three and a half minute video about ROI, so you'll know who you're looking for:



As always, if you do chat with Fred please let him know that the Inside AdWords crew sent you. ;)

Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew

Where Did My Paid Search Traffic Go?

The Search Engines report in Google Analytics is very useful for seeing which search engines drove traffic to your site. In the report below, you can see that most of this sample website’s traffic is coming from Google, but Yahoo is driving a respectable number of visits (14,495 to be precise).


Now let’s say we want to further drill down to see what portion of our traffic was driven through paid search traffic. To see this portion of search traffic, we can simply click on the “paid” link at the top left corner of the report.

Which search engines do you see listed now? In this example, when we filter to view only paid traffic, all of the search engines except Google disappear from the list.


Of course, this all would make perfect sense if you were only running paid search campaigns with Google. But if you also have active paid search campaigns with other engines, then you’re probably starting to wonder what happened to all those visitors you spent good money to attain!

The key is understanding how Google Analytics interprets paid and non-paid keyword traffic. In short, all search engine traffic is classified as non-paid (aka, organic or natural search) traffic unless campaigns are specifically tagged to show up as paid.

Auto-Tagging Google AdWords PPC Traffic
We make it easy for you to parse out your Google AdWords traffic by offering an auto-tagging option (visit this article in our Help Center for details if you aren’t doing this yet).

But you need to make a little more effort if you want to see your other search engines’ paid traffic reported properly, through a process we refer to as “manual tagging”.

Manual Tagging for non-AdWords PPC Traffic
To get started with the manual tagging process, our URL Builder tool comes in handy. You can actually use this tool to generate URLs to track any online marketing campaign, but that’s a topic for another post. For paid search campaigns, the main thing to remember is that the campaign medium must be set to “cpc” or “ppc”.

Imagine you are driving people to a landing page, www.example.com/landingpage and have a campaign to promote your delicious chocolate product line.


Campaign source, medium and name are required parameters. The other two are optional, but to see the keywords, we’d recommend using the term parameter (in this case, “caramel filled chocolates”).

You can be creative on most of these values, but you must use “cpc” or “ppc” in the campaign medium parameter for search traffic to be separated properly.

Now hit “generate URL” and voilà, you have your new destination URL:

http://www.example.com/landingpage?utm_source=MSN
&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=caramel%2Bfilled%2Bchocolates
&utm_campaign=MSN_ChocolateProducts

(Note: If you have lots of destination URLs to tag, you won’t want to use the URL builder to construct all of them. Just use it a few times to get the hang of the syntax, then build yourself a nifty little spreadsheet to put together all your URLs.)

Once you’ve successfully tagged all your search campaigns, you can feel confident that you have an accurate view of your search engine traffic – non-paid and paid. (And now feel free to go tell your SEO specialist to stop taking all the credit ;)

Posted by Kristen Nomura, Sr. Account Manager, Google Analytics

Healthcare and Real Estate Industry Knowledge Centers

The brand new Healthcare and Real Estate Industry Knowledge Centers are now available to help you get the most out of AdWords.

Advertisers offering health related products, healthcare services, or a website with health information will find customized optimization tips, success stories, and additional Google products that can help their business.

Real estate agents, brokers, and advertisers offering real estate services will find industry information, AdWords tips, and Google product recommendations.

You can find a full list of Industry Knowledge Centers here.

Posted by Feng, Inside AdWords crew

An update to display URL policy

We'd like to give you advance notice of an update to our display URL policy, which will take effect on April 1st. While the majority of advertisers will not be affected at all, action will be required from those who are. Please take a few minutes to read this post thoroughly, as the information below should help you determine whether you will be affected by this change.

In response to advertiser and user feedback, and in an effort to provide more relevant advertising results and a higher quality experience for our users, we have made the decision to no longer allow certain exceptions with regards to our display URL policy. This includes, but is not limited to redirects and vanity URLs. This policy will be strictly enforced regardless of past approvals and will apply to all advertisers, beginning on April 1st.

In line with our existing policy, we will continue to require that your ad's display URL match its destination URL (the URL of your landing page).

For example, if your destination URL is www.google.com, your display URL must also be www.google.com. The following would not be acceptable display URLs for an ad for www.google.com:

• www.google.co.uk - because this URL leads to a different site
• www.gogle.com - even though this URL simply redirects to www.google.com it is still not acceptable
• www.gooogle.com - because this URL leads to a page showing content identical to www.google.com

What about tracking URLs?
We do understand that many advertisers utilize tracking URLs within the destination field of their ads. Therefore, if the URL of your landing page matches that of your display URL, your ads will be approved.

For example:

Display URL: www.google.com/adwords
Destination URL: www.trackingurl.com/google123
--> Landing page URL: www.google.com would be acceptable

Display URL: www.google.com/adwords
Destination URL: www.trackingurl.com/google123
--> Landing page URL: www.trackingurl.com would not be acceptable

Are sub-domains still acceptable?
Yes, the use of sub-domains and additional text within the display will continue to be acceptable provided the top-level domain matches the URL of your landing page.

For example, display URLs such as the following:

sub.google.com
google.com/extratext

www.google.com/extratext

would all be acceptable for the landing page URL below, as the top-level domain of google.com is matched:

http://sub.google.com/miscellaneous

In light of this update to display URL policy, we'd encourage you to make any necessary changes to your ads in advance of the April 1st date to ensure that they'll run without disruption by future disapprovals related to this policy.

Thanks for reading this far, and please note that more information will be provided before April 1st via alerts in all AdWords accounts.

Posted by Blake, Inside AdWords crew

We get IT!

Greetings:

Today, I am in the airport on my way to Norfolk, Virginia to speak at a bank that is conducting an organization-wide training day on the President's Day bank holiday. It should be a great day and I am energized to be the Keynote speaker for the day and adding a break-out session, too.

As I have prepared for the day over the past several weeks, something has continued to jump out at me....it's their tagline and brand position. "We Get It." Interesting, pretty deep, very telling, full of energy, and a broad promise.

The IT part is the most interesting to me. Over the past two years, I have been creating a very focused Life Stage marketing process that, in my estimation, will completely change our industry's approach to our potential customer, our staff training, and how we interact with our current customers. It's actually brilliantly simple and engages everyone....because it is built around real-life....our staff's real life and our customer's real life. And THAT is something that everyone has....no matter how much training they have been through, what job function they have or level of customer interaction. There are 12 distinct Life Stages (and onyl 12!) that everyone goes through...

And that brings me to IT. The IT connection to my Life Stage process is remarkably clear and concise. Life Stage marketing is all about connecting to a customer in whatever life stage they are in...and in whatever timing that stage occurs. For example, some people buy a house at age 23, others at 45 and still others in their 60's. Same stage...completely unique needs and approach. There in lies the IT! IT is universal but completely different for each customer. The IT they have, and the needs IT will bring, will vary. It is ONLY after we ask clarifying questions, demonstrate clear interest, and bring value to the conversation, will the IT rise to the top and position us to act to resolve IT, support IT, or make IT happen.

We Get IT.... simple, yet very deep.

I am excited to bring my IT to the bank...and help their staff see their IT and how to bring the IT out in their customers...

Stay tuned!

Cheers!

Bruce

Top Conversion Optimizer tips

The Conversion Optimizer is a bidding feature that allows you to set a maximum cost-per-acquisition (CPA) instead of a maximum cost-per-click (CPC), helping you save time and maximize profits. We recently held a series of Conversion Optimizer webinars, which you can watch on YouTube. To help you get more out of your Conversion Optimizer campaigns, we've compiled a list of top tips based on the most common questions we received from our webinar attendees.

1. A campaign must have 200 or more conversions per month as tracked by AdWords conversion tracking to be eligible for the Conversion Optimizer. If none of your campaigns reach this level, check out these tips to increase your conversion numbers.
   
   
2. Conversion Optimizer works on a campaign level, not at the account level. You can enable Conversion Optimizer for eligible campaigns by following these steps. Keep in mind that you can't use Conversion Optimizer with a brand new campaign -- it needs the conversion history to work correctly.
   
   
3. Once you activate the Conversion Optimizer, you should check its performance periodically to ensure that it's delivering what you expect. Keep in mind that normal variations in campaign performance can make it difficult to interpret short-term changes. You can change your bids as often as you like.
   
   
4. The Conversion Optimizer works on a maximum CPA, not an average CPA. While we aim to avoid any conversion that costs more than your maximum CPA bid, changes in your conversion rate may cause your average CPA to exceed your maximum CPA.
   
   
5. Keep in mind that if you choose a CPA lower than the recommended maximum CPA bid, you are likely to get less traffic than you did with your old CPC bids. It's a good idea to start with this recommendation and adjust based on the results you observe.
   
   
6. If you choose to opt out of the Conversion Optimizer, your campaign will revert to the previous CPC bids you were using. (So, there's nothing to stop you from giving it a try!)
   
   
7. Conversion Optimizer campaigns cannot yet be modified with the AdWords Editor, but we're aware that this is a common request from our advertisers.
   
   
8. The Conversion Optimizer does not work with Google Analytics conversion data, but it's fine to use AdWords conversion tracking and Analytics at the same time.
   
   
9. The tool does not impact your keywords' Quality Score, which is calculated in the usual way regardless of the bidding option you are using.
   
   
10. It's best not to turn on the Conversion Optimizer for the first time right after you've made major changes to a campaign, as your conversion rate may not have yet stabilized to reflect the updates. Similarly, while you are running the Conversion Optimizer, it's best to avoid major campaign changes that are likely to impact conversion rate (or to pay careful attention after making them to evaluate their impact).
    

We hope this information has piqued your interest about the Conversion Optimizer. Please visit the Conversion Optimizer website for more information, including FAQs and details for upcoming webinars.

Posted by Feng, Inside AdWords crew

Marketing in small bites

I can take this title in a million different directions. We all know that large projects are completed more easily when broken into small bite-sized chunks. We also know that small everything is popular right now...small plates (or Tapas for us foodies), small cars, small dogs, small shirts (will someone please cover up that gen-y belly button!) and 100-calorie packs (ok, those are smart...but still small!).

So, why as marketers do we always think bigger is better? Is it? Apparently not. And in today's market we are being forced to do more with less, so maybe smaller is better? Still not so much. But smarter is better.

Find new and creative ways to get your message out that are cost effective while reaching your target market. Did you know that there are 1.4 blogs created each second and that 40% of all Americans read blogs*? Blogs are free. You can blog about the donation you just made to the Chamber of Commerce Golf outing, blog about employee promotions, product promotions, anything you PAY to advertise can be blogged...blog press releases, keep a community updated on the new branch construction project. Blog about the new coin machine in your lobby. Be creative, and be consistent!

What about email marketing? Think about it. It's cost effective and can be VERY targeted to your existing customer base.

Today I will keep it short and simple. Take 10 minutes to brainstorm 5 new ways to get your message out that won't hit hard on your budget. I have given you a head start on 2!

Happy thinking!
Jenna





*According to Synovate/MarketingDaily Study, 2007

Avinash Wins Award For Great Content

Congratulations to my friend and resident Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik on his 2008 SEMMY award. Avinash won in the Analytics category for his post entitled Web Analytics Demystified. Avinash's goal with this post and its complement Web Metrics Demystified is to help new users learn to think like seasoned analysts, but even experienced practitioners will learn something new.

For more witty and inspiring posts, with commentary from many of the brightest minds in web analytics, check out Avinash's blog Occam's Razor. Also, be sure to go hear Avinash speak if you get the chance. I've always found it to be an entertaining and highly informative experience.

Posted by Brett Crosby, Group Manager, Google Analytics

Learn about Landing Page Optimization

In case you're interested, VKI Studios, a Google Analytics and Website Optimizer Authorized Consultant in Vancouver, is running a webinar called "Landing Page Optimization: a process using Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer" on February 5 (tomorrow!) with Tom Leung, Product Manager for Google Website Optimizer.

You can register here to listen in.

Landing page optimization is especially practical as marketing budgets tighten up: if your company is talking about decreasing online advertising, traffic to your site can also decrease, which makes increasing conversions more crucial than usual. The beginning of the year is a great time to take a look at your site with the user experience and your message in mind.

Posted by Tamara Micner, Google Analytics Team

A blog NOT about the Super Bowl Ads!

While I do have a lot to say about the Super Bowl Ads, I am fairly certain you have read plenty about them already today. Instead, let's talk about asking questions!

We all do it, and we all reply to it. As a society we have been trained that a simple "Hello" will not suffice. We must ask, "How are you today," and wait for the reply of, "Great, how are you?" From time to time we we will hear an honest answer such as, "UGH, I hate this weather," or "My daughter just won the spelling bee." It's refreshing. And it's an invitation to ask another question in follow up!

It is only when people provide honest answers that the conversation begins, and relationships begin with the conversation, and we all know that customer loyalty begins with building relationships. It's the circle of life for customer loyalty.

Many companies have standard jargon they use. Employees at Marquis Software Solutions answer the phones with, "...how can I exceed your expectations today?" or sometimes "how can I make your day better?" And occasionally they will get an honest answer that begins to develop a relationship with the caller.

Safeway grocery stores coach their check-out employees to ask, "Did you find everything today?" or some variation of the question.

It's refreshing to not just hear an honest, open-ended question. However, I am learning that while you can coach employees to ask a more inviting question, they are not always coached on how to handle the answer. Which leads to customer non-loyalty. Let me explain.

I shop faithfully at Safeway because I accrue United Airline miles for each purchase, it is the closest grocery store to my house, and I know where everything is and what to expect when I am there. At the end of each experience I am asked the same question, "did you find everything today" to which I usually reply with "I found everything on my list plus an additional $50 worth!" That's the way shopping works, right?

The last four times I have been to Safeway they have been out of fresh basil. I asked the employee in the produce section if they had any in the back and was informed that if there isn't any on the shelf, they must be out. Not the response I was looking for, but accepted it and continued fulfilling my list.

At check out, I was asked if I found everything today. I was excited to have a real answer!!! "Actually, I have been looking for fresh basil the last few times I have been here and you haven't had any. I asked the guy in produce if you had any in back and he said you stock everything on the shelves so you must be out. Do you know when I can expect to find basil again?"

The checkout clerk looked at me like a deer in headlights and replied, "Ummmm...I don't know. Do you need help out with your cart today?"

Seriously? I learned that the employees are told to ask the question but don't expect an answer so when they get one, they just ignore it.

I think it is great to be proactive, start a conversation, ask open-ended questions, and develop a relationship. However, when you ask your open-ended questions, BE SURE YOU ARE PREPARED TO HANDLE THE ANSWERS!!!

I think Seth Godin sums it up the best in his blog The Last Interaction.

Are your employees prepared for the responses they may receive? Are they empowered to fix the problem if the problem is with the bank? I hope so.

So, how are you today?
Jenna

Urchin Software Beta Now Public

Today we're happy to announce that the Urchin Software from Google beta is now available for download at urchin.com. Urchin Software from Google is a web analytics product similar in scope to Google Analytics, except you install and manage the software on your own servers.

Urchin 5 remains the current supported production release until Urchin Software from Google comes out of beta. This beta software should only be used for evaluation purposes, and is not recommended for production environments.

Here's what the new version looks like:

Why use Urchin Software?

Urchin is suitable for organizations that have content behind a security firewall or have other restrictions that prevent them from using the Google Analytics service. Urchin is also useful for those who want to perform ad-hoc historical log processing, who want to store their web analytics on local servers, and those requiring third-party data audits. Urchin Software from Google features the following upgrades from Urchin 5, among many others:

• More accurate geo-identification of visitors
• Cross-segmentation options similar to Google Analytics
• E-commerce and campaign tracking included (no longer requiring additional modules)
• Vastly improved embedded scheduler to more easily manage processing and re-processing jobs
• Improved user interface
• More robust log processing engine

You can download a 90-day version of the beta here. Once Urchin Software from Google comes out of beta, you'll be able to purchase it for $2995 through the Urchin Software Authorized Consultants. Please visit the FAQ page on the Urchin site to see details on pricing, previous version upgrading/importing instructions, system requirements, and differences between Urchin and Google Analytics.

Posted by Scott Crosby, Google Analytics Team