AdWords Report Center: Summer cleaning

We'd like to give you a heads-up that on September 2nd, all reports in your AdWords Report Center created over six months ago (before March 2nd, 2008) will be deleted. We're clearing out old reports to make room for new ones. But, don't worry! All of your account data will be retained and unaffected by any report deletions.

Please plan accordingly before September 1st if you have reports in your AdWords Report Center that are more than six months old. If you'd like to save older reports, you can export them into Google Spreadsheets, .CSV files, Excel, HTML or another format with the click of a button.

And remember, you can always run a report again for any date range. As we mentioned, no account data is being removed. Moving forward, we will periodically delete reports older than six months.

Posted by Heather Lane, Inside AdWords crew

Fall is webinar season

In the spirit of the back-to-school season, we have a very large curriculum of free upcoming advertising webinars to help you prepare, optimize, and expand your campaigns. Here's a breakdown of the material:

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Subject: Website Optimizer - Test and enhance your site - Register here

Date: Tuesday, August 26, 10:00 AM PDT
Instructor: Tom Leung, Google Business Product Manager
Class Description: Thinking of redesigning your site? With Google's free Website Optimizer, you can test different layouts for key pages of your website, and measure exactly which one generates most sales or leads. The webinar will provide you with an introduction to Website Optimizer and website testing.

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Subject: Holiday webinars - Register here

Date: Wednesdays, August 27, September 3, September 10, 10:00 AM PDT
Instructors: Members of the AdWords Retail and Tech B2C Teams
Class Description: The holidays may seem far off, but it's never too early to start planning. To help you get a jump start on the season, we've designed Unwrapped: Retail Holiday Guide, a series of three free webinars featuring tips and strategies for running and tracking successful holiday campaigns. All advertisers are welcome to register, though the sessions are tailored to retailers and those marketing to consumers. To get the most impact out of this series, we recommend attending all three webinars:

     Setting the Stage: Make the Most of the Holiday Season
     Wednesday, August 27, 2008, 10:00 AM PDT

     Expanding Reach: Find Your Target Audience
     Wednesday, September 3, 2008, 10:00 AM PDT

     Analyze & Simplify: Measure Success & Streamline the Buying Process
     Wednesday, September 10, 2008, 10:00 AM PDT

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Subject: How to effectively reach your audience on social media sites in the content network - Register here

Date: Wednesday, September 3, 10:00 AM PDT
Instructor: Anastasia Leng, Social Media Specialist
Class Description: What is social media? Learn what kind of users visit social media sites and what they're doing once there. Obtain an overview of the social media sites in the Google content network.You will also learn what tools Google offers you to effectively reach the users you need, including Demographic Bidding and Reports, User Interest Placements, and Enhanced Online Campaigns.

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Subject: Optimizing in AdWords Editor - Register here

Date: Thursday, September 11, 10:00 AM PDT
Instructor: Taylor Marcus, AdWords Editor Specialist
Class Description: If you're an AdWords Editor power user, we have excellent news. We'll be hosting an 'Optimizing in AdWords Editor' webinar to help you learn to how to more efficiently optimize your campaigns. Taylor Marcus, an AdWords Editor specialist, will demonstrate how to use AdWords Editor to achieve ROI best practices, improve and maintain account health, and utilize different ad formats.

To stay on top of these and more of our free webinars for advertisers, check this calendar for updates.

Posted by Christian Yee, Inside AdWords crew

Quality Score improvements

In July 2005, AdWords introduced minimum bids for keywords based on Quality Score. This system allows us to show very high quality ads to Google users, while also giving advertisers control over their keywords. Since 2005, we've improved Quality Score in many ways, such as the inclusion of landing page quality and landing page load time as factors. Along the way, we've also received much helpful feedback from both users and advertisers.

Today, we'd like to let you know of further improvements we'll introduce in the coming weeks -- based, in part, on this feedback. First we'll outline the key points, and then dive into the details:

• Quality Score will now be more accurate because it will be calculated at the time of each search query
  
• Keywords will no longer be marked 'inactive for search'
  
• 'First page bid' will replace 'minimum bid' in your account

A more accurate Quality Score

Most importantly, we are replacing our static per-keyword Quality Scores with a system that will evaluate an ad's quality each time it matches a search query. This way, AdWords will use the most accurate, specific, and up-to-date performance information when determining whether an ad should be displayed. Your ads will be more likely to show when they're relevant and less likely to show when they're not. This means that Google users are apt to see better ads while you, as an advertiser, should receive leads which are more highly qualified.

Keywords no longer marked 'inactive for search'

The new per-query evaluation of Quality Score affects you in that keywords will no longer appear as 'inactive for search' in your account. Instead, all keywords will have the chance to show ads on Google web search and the search network (unless you've paused or deleted them). Keep in mind, however, that keywords previously marked 'inactive for search' are not likely to accrue a great deal of traffic following this change. This is because their combined per-query Quality Score and bid probably isn't high enough to gain competitive placement.

'First page bid' will replace 'minimum bid'

As a result of migrating to per-query Quality Score, we are no longer showing minimum bids in your account. Instead, we're replacing minimum bids with a new, more meaningful metric: first page bids. First page bids are an estimate of the bid it would take for your ad to reach the first page of search results on Google web search. They're based on the exact match version of the keyword, the ad's Quality Score, and current advertiser competition on that keyword. Based on your feedback, we learned that knowing your minimum bid wasn't always helpful in getting the ad placement you wanted, so we hope that first page bids will give you better guidance on how to achieve your advertising goals.

It's worth mentioning that the impact of these changes will vary from advertiser to advertiser; some might see no changes to their ad serving, while others may see a noticeable difference. As always, we recommend optimizing ads to prevent them from receiving a low Quality Score.

Putting it all together

Here's an example to illustrate how per-query Quality Score works:

Nancy's Dairy advertises on the keyword 'milk.' Nancy's ads perform better on the keyword 'milk' in the U.S. than in Canada. Her ads also perform better on the query 'milk delivery' than on 'milk,' and better on certain search network sites than on others. Instead of one static Quality Score and minimum bid that determines whether the keyword 'milk' is eligible to trigger an ad for all search queries, we will now determine eligibility dynamically, based on factors such as location, the specific query, and other relevance factors. For that reason, Nancy's keyword 'milk' will be able to trigger an ad for search queries where it's likely to perform better, i.e., in the U.S., on 'milk delivery' and on certain search network sites.

We're working to update the AdWords API and AdWords Editor so that, in the future, they will support first page bids. Until then, both the AdWords API and AdWords Editor will continue to show the minimum bid field. However, the information shown in this field will be based on the new per-query Quality Score. You may keep current with upcoming API releases on the API Blog and learn about upcoming AdWords Editor releases via the AdWords Editor Forum.

Finally, please note that we'll release these Quality Score changes to a very small segment of advertisers within the next day or two, so that we can gather feedback before launching to all our advertisers. We will, of course, post again in advance of the time that these changes go live for everyone.

In the meantime, please see this comprehensive list of frequently asked questions for more information.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Inside AdWords crew

AdWords system maintenance on August 23rd

On Saturday, August 23rd, 2008, the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. PDT, for maintenance. While you won't be able to sign in to your accounts during this time, your campaigns will continue to run as usual.

AdWords system maintenance typically occurs on the second Saturday of each month from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PDT, with this Saturday being an exception.

We'll continue to update you via the blog as we always have, but please make note of the August 23rd date and our scheduled maintenance further down the road.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Inside AdWords crew

New features in Website Optimizer

Today, at the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose, CA, the Website Optimizer team announced the launch of several highly requested product updates. For those unfamiliar with Website Optimizer, it's Google's free content testing and optimization tool. It allows you to test different variations of your site content to determine what will be most effective at getting you the results you want from your site. Website Optimizer's offering has now expanded to include:

• Experiment Pruning: This new feature allows you to disable one or more combinations from taking part in your Website Optimizer experiments. Pruning can help you achieve faster, more meaningful results by allowing you to remove poorly performing or illogical combinations. This is especially helpful in cases where your experiment may have too many combinations relative to the amount of traffic it receives.
  
  
• A/B Offline Validation: If your test or goal pages aren't accessible to Website Optimizer then no worries. You'll now be able to just upload a copy of your tagged page and Website Optimizer will make sure that everything is tagged properly.
  
  
• More Intuitive Reporting: We've enhanced our reports to more clearly show how your combinations are performing, and to better indicate when we've found one or more high-confidence winning combinations. This will help prevent you from drawing false conclusions from results or from ending experiments prematurely.

(Click the image for a full-size version)

If you're unfamiliar with Website Optimizer, we've developed some great new videos for you. These include a new product tour, A/B experiment demo, and multivariate experiment demo. You'll see how quick and easy it is to create Website Optimizer tests in just minutes. You can always find these and all of our other tutorials on the videos page of the Website Optimizer microsite.

We hope you'll enjoy these updates. Remember, you can always find out the latest product news and industry insights straight from the Website Optimizer team by visiting the Website Optimizer blog.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Inside AdWords crew

Introducing the AdWords 101, 201, and 301 Seminar series

Due to the success of the AdWords Seminars program, we’ve recently added a third level which builds upon the two existing AdWords Seminar levels. To help our attendees find the right session(s) that will best meet their need, we’ve renamed the sessions as AdWords 101, 201, and 301. These new sessions will be held in various cities over the rest of 2008, including Houston, New York City area, Atlanta and Charlotte, NC in the upcoming months.

Currently there are three different levels of AdWords Seminars:

AdWords 101: Beginner - This introductory session is designed for those new to managing an AdWords account. Topics covered include navigating your account, creating a campaign, measuring results, and an introduction to optimization.

AdWords 201: Intermediate - AdWords 201 builds upon the material learned in 101, and dives deeper into tools such as the AdWords Editor, My Client Center, and Website Optimizer. Additionally, bidding options, ad copy best practices, and Google Analytics are discussed in greater detail.

AdWords 301: Advanced - The 301 session is recommended for advertisers who already understand the basic fundamentals of advertising on AdWords. Topics include campaign best practices, advanced optimization techniques, and split testing. There is also a deep dive into the Content Network and advanced bidding strategies.

You'll find more information about these seminars, including dates, course outlines, and registration instructions at http://www.google.com/awseminars. And of course, if you'd like to be informed when AdWords Seminars become available in your area, simply fill out this form.

Posted by Vivian Leung, Inside AdWords crew

Use of Social Networking Sites Among Diverse Cultural Groups in the US

Social Media Marketing depends on the popularity of social networking sites. In the study referred to in my prior Blog we also asked our large multicultural sample of respondents to "please indicate the social networking sites you visit regularly." We listed MySpace, HI5, QuePasa, Habbo, Orkut, FaceBook, Friendster, Bebo, Classmates, WindowsLSpaces, Xanga, Flixter, Tagged, Netlog, Reunion, Broadcaster, Cyworld, MyHeritage, Friends, Reunited, Linkedin, BlackPlanet, and SecondLife. We also provided the option "none."

The chart below illustrates the preponderance of use of MySpace and FaceBook among these emerging minorities:

The first observation is that Non-Hispanic Whites, as in the prior blog, show a lower incidence in visiting these sites regularly when compared with the other cultural groups. Interestingly both popular sites fare best among Hispanics who prefere English and Asians than among anyone else. Hispanics who prefer Spanish and African Americans, however, are still more likely to visit these sites than Non-Hispanic Whites. Again, it is emerging minorities that are leading the future of the digital era in the United States.

The following Chart illustrates that culturally targeted sites do better among specific cultural groups:

Sites that have a preponderance of particular cultural groups, or who target specific cultural groups appear to do well with them. The International Site HI5 and QuePasa do realtively well with Hispanics who prefer Spanish. Friendster, populated by a larger number of Asian Americans does relatively well with Asians as compared with other cultural groups. African Americans are more frequently regular visitors of Black Planet. Thus, cultural targeting seems to have great potential among those who strongly identify with their culture. Interestingly, none of these sites seemed to do particularly well with Hispanics who prefer English or with Non-Hispanic Whites. In the case of Hispanics who prefer English this may be because there are few sites specifically catering to them.

Perhaps even more surprising is that members of all of these online cultural groups visit social networking sites with regularity as the following chart shows:

This last chart illustrates that very few individuals in any of these groups use none of the social networking sites we listed in the questionnaire. This emphasizes the importance that this new social medium has for most online consumers.

Social networking is growing fast and becoming very popular among most Americans. Emerging minorities, however, are leading the trend. Social Media Marketing efforts can capitalize on this knowledge to establish their brands and territories in these social circles.

The moral of the story is: Go market where people are associating with others, and become part of their socio-cultural identity. As culture is rooted in social interaction, brands can become part of these complex patterns of interaction.

Transition to a Marketing Philosophy: Step 1

Be engaging. That's it. It doesn't sound challenging, does it...especially for a marketing person. Generally speaking, we are the most engaging of human kind! So what's the news here you ask? Great question, let's dig in!

As a marketer, you need to understand all areas of the institution, its issues, challenges and successes. Once you understand these elements, you can better articulate your marketing strategy and put yourself in the drivers seat of change.

Engage your CFO. The CFO has an endless supply of knowledge that can help you in your efforts. Become best friends if necessary, but leverage their knowledge and be recognized as an agent of change and a catalyst to get things done in the bank.

Engage the staff. If you don't take the time to communicate with them (and get their endorsement) why should they take the time to embrace your strategies. While you may be the leader, leaders alone don't win battles...you need all of the troops. Seek their involvement, detail how their position and input impacts the overall bank and the marketing efforts. Everyone loves to feel as though they are a part of something bigger.

That's it. It's not rocket science, but sometimes we all need a little reminder that we are not in this alone and that engaging the key players around us can set us up for great success!

Check back on Monday for step 2!

Be extraordinary today, and have a great weekend!

Jenna

SES San Jose is here!

And boy do we love it. The Search Engine Strategies conference is right up our alley. Google will be there in force, sponsoring the show, with a giant booth for AdWords and Google Analytics. Googlers will be headlining or participating in numerous sessions, and we're all looking forward to meeting interested users and hearing what you think about our products. Google Analytics has been given a 20% discount code: 2OG00 (two-oh-gee-zero-zero). Feel free to use it when you register here.

Here are a few highlights:

- Monday: Author and analytics/testing thought leader Bryan Eisenberg will be at the networking lunch on Monday signing copies of his new book, Always Be Testing. At 11:15am, Bryan and Brett Crosby will be speaking at the Pay Per Conversation session.

- Tuesday: Tom Leung and Avinash Kaushik will host the "What's new with Google Analytics and Website Optimizer" session at 2:45pm. Brett will be on the Measuring Success panel at 4pm. Also, come try some TCHO chocolate at the booth, compliments of Google Analytics. And, don't forget to register for Google Dance!

- Thursday: Tom Leung will speak at the Post-Click Marketing session at 1:30pm.

Be sure to drop by the booth. We'll be there to answer your questions and hand out a few t-shirts. We're looking forward to seeing you there!

Posted by Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team

Department vs. Culture

As a passionate bank marketer, I believe that one of our primary career goals should be to shift the mindset of the bank from having a "marketing department" to having a "marketing philosophy."

Departments are great for WalMart, Target and even JC Penney. But is a department good enough for Nordstrom? When you ask for help in many department stores, you receive directions to the "department" that can help you. At Nordstrom, if you are in the shoe department and ask for help with a neck tie, not only do they walk you over to the tie department, they stay with you until a neck tie specialist is available to help you.

So how on earth does this relate to banking and marketing? You know your institution has embraced the marketing philosophy when you hear your teammates using works like "we," "us," and "our" as opposed to "they," "them" and "their." When staff members begin to think of the bank as one cohesive team and realize that the only objective is to serve the customer, great things will happen. There will be no more "that's not my department." And rarely will you hear "you have to see someone in that department to do what you are asking of me." Sales will be less of a job requirement and more of a natural instinct.

Your role as a marketer is to be an agent of change. With a constantly shifting economy and customer base, a marketer has to set the tone and lead the charge. So how do you do this? For some of you it will be a challenge, but for others, it will be second nature.

According to Nick Vaglio and Bruce Clapp, in their book, "Shift Happens: The New Age of Bank Marketing" there are four elements to becoming an agent of change:
1. Engaging
2. Listening
3. Empowering
4. Communicating

Our next several blogs will help you embrace these elements, be an agent of change, and witness your staff shift their mindset from the perception of having a marketing department to the reality of having a marketing philosophy.

And don't worry...several blogs does not necessarily translate into several weeks. Today is Wednesday, look for more on Friday!

Do something extraordinary today!
Jenna

Streamlined Login to Google Analytics

Starting yesterday, logging into your Google Analytics account just got a little easier. We're talking button-click streamlining here, folks! :-)

You know how with Gmail, you can log in to your account and then navigate to another website - but you remain logged in to Gmail? Then when you return to gmail.com, your account opens instead of the log in screen. It's convenient, right? Well, now, that's how it works in Google Analytics, too.

Previously, if you were logged into Google Analytics, and then you navigated away from Google Analytics or closed the window, you had to re-log in whenever you returned to get to your Analytics account page - even if you were already logged into your Google Account. It created a lot of logging in.

As of yesterday, if you're already logged in to your Google Account and come to the Google Analytics homepage, you can simply click "Access Analytics" and arrive at the admin page for your account. Here's what the button looks like:

If you're not logged in, clicking the button will take you to a login screen.

For users who keep Google Analytics open or re-visit it often during their browser sessions, it's a small convenience that saves some keystrokes. And it's the way most Google applications act, such as Gmail and AdWords. Just remember to log out when you leave your computer - just as you would with Gmail - especially if you're using Google Analytics at a public computer, because you'll remain logged in until the session expires.

Now that you don't have to keep logging in every time you close and open your Analytics window, you can just keep one hand on the mouse and use the fingers on your other hand for other things, like waving to the crowds of fans that follow you, flashing the peace sign to other celebrities, testing current wind conditions, flipping coins to settle arguments, critiquing films with an upwards or downwards-pointing thumb, or speed-dialing Avinash Kaushik. It's the little things that count....

Posted by Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team

Upcoming Seminars For Success: San Diego, NYC and Phoenix

San Diego, New York City and Phoenix: here's your opportunity to master Google Analytics! Below are some upcoming dates and cities where you can find a Google Analytics Seminar For Success.

As a refresher: these day-long seminars are designed to help you improve your online marketing and get the most out of Google Analytics. They are offered in an introductory class and an advanced class.

The introduction and user training course is designed to provide high level overview of the products and will cover key features and reports. It's perfect for a marketer or account manager who is interested in learning more about how Google Analytics works and who wants to understand how to use the information in reports to make decisions.

The advanced and technical implementation course is for those who need hands on implementation training. This is a great class for those of you who need to install and set up Google Analytics on sites. You'll learn about and and discuss different ways to set up Google Analytics to get the types of information that you need.

Here are the dates. Capacity is limited so be sure to register soon. We will let you know when future dates have been added.

San Diego next week!
Introduction and User Training Seminar, August 11
Advanced Technical Implementation Seminar, August 12

And in October:

New York City

• Introduction and User Training Seminar, October 9
• Advanced Technical Implementation Seminar, October 10

Phoenix

• Introduction and User Training Seminar, October 13
• Advanced Technical Implementation Seminar, October 14

You can take an introductory seminar or an advanced seminar or both. They are being offered consecutive days for your convenience.


Posted by Eva Woo, Google Analytics Team

Relevancy Failure: The Shift is Happening

Once upon a time, every town had a bank. And the bank served its customers who made deposits, wrote a couple of checks and maybe had a mortgage. The End.

When I was a kid, I called those days, "The Olden Days." As an adult and passionate marketer, I call those days, "The Irrelevant Days." Relevancy is subjective in that what is relevant to my grandmother is not relevant to my parents and what is relevant to my parents is not relevant to me.

I don't want to get on my Generational Marketing Soapbox again...you all have heard about it and it is in your hands whether or not your bank chooses to embrace the knowledge and take action. So let's talk about relevancy and how the shift has happened.

Nick Vaglio and Bruce Clapp, in their book, "Shift Happens: The New Age of Bank Marketing," talk about customer advocacy and how banks are losing their advocates at alarming rates because of their failure to remain relevant to those customers. Advocacy doesn't come from one demographic...it encompasses ALL generations, races, religions, and any other qualifier you care to throw in the mix. Baby boomers cannot be viewed as one homogeneous group. People aged between 44 and 62 have VERY different needs.

I have a good friend (Jen) who is 45 with a 16 year old son who sports a mohawk. My dad is 62 and has a countdown to retirement calendar on his desktop. Technically, they are both baby boomers. Do you really think you can market effectively to the "boomer group" if you lump them into one category?

EVERYONE is looking for the institution that is in tune with their lifestyle. My dad wants an institution that will help him manage his money and provide income direction post-retirement...a "banker" that understands his lifestyle and can help him maintain his standard of living. Jen, on the other hand, wants convenience. A bank that is quick, fast and efficient, allows unlimited debit card usage and maybe an easy way to save for not just her future, but her son's as well.

Can you do both? If you can't, you're in trouble. And don't forget the youth segment (those kiddos between 18 and 25) who are 30% of the US population, spend about $200 billion per year and have a say in household decisions. Oh, and in the next 10 years they will reach an income of $3.48 TRILLION putting them light years ahead of the Baby Boomers.

Can your bank afford to NOT be relevant? Read the book...it will help, I promise. And if you can't afford the book, email me (jrowland@marketmatch.com) because in my opinion, you can't afford to NOT not be relevant.

Make today an extraordinary RELEVANT day!

Jenna

New features coming to the Google content network

We’re happy to announce that we'll soon be enabling a number of new features made possible by a new DoubleClick ad serving cookie on our content network. All advertisers will soon be able to take advantage of features like frequency capping, better reach and frequency reporting, and view-through conversions.

Many of these features will be launching over the next few months. You can read more about these on the Official Google Blog.

We also have an updated program policy that covers data usage related to the launch of these new features.

We hope these features will help you meet your ROI goals by concentrating your ad impressions on the best inventory at the most relevant time and by helping you more effectively manage your campaigns on the Google content network. We're excited about delivering these enhancements while preserving user privacy, and we'll be sure to provide you more info on all of these features as we begin to roll them out in the next few months.

Update 8/7/2008: Link to program policy updated

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Inside AdWords crew

AdWords system maintenance on August 9th

On Saturday, August 9th, 2008 the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PDT, for maintenance. While you won't be able to sign in to your accounts during this time, your campaigns will continue to run as usual.

AdWords system maintenance typically occurs on the second Saturday of each month from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PDT.

We'll continue to update you via the blog as we always have, but please make note of the August 9th date and our scheduled maintenance further down the road.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Inside AdWords crew

Announcing Google Insights for Search

In June, we updated Google Trends with numbers and the ability to download results to a spreadsheet. We received a lot of great feedback from agencies and advertisers on how they're using the new version; from identifying new growth markets to optimizing their Google AdWords campaigns.

We have Elan Dekel and Niv Efron to tell us about a new tool for fans of Google Trends:

Today, we're launching Google Insights for Search, a new product designed with the advertiser in mind. It provides more flexibility and functionality for advertisers and marketers to understand search behavior, and adds some cool new features like a world heat map to graphically display search volume and regional interest.

Like Google Trends, you can just type in a search term to see search volume patterns over time, as well as the top related and rising searches. You’ll also have the ability to compare search volume trends across multiple search terms, categories (commonly referred to as verticals), geographic regions, or specific time ranges.

Let's take the example of entering the term apple. You'll notice that the majority of top related and rising searches are associated with the brand Apple.

(Click the image for a full-size version)

Google Insights for Search allows you to filter this query by the Food & Drink category, resulting in a dramatically different view of search volume trends and related searches of apple, the fruit. You can also use this filter to compare search terms with the category (for example, apple compared to the Food & Drink category).

(Click the image for a full-size version)

This is just an example to get your ideas flowing. If you love Trends, we hope you’ll fall in love all over again with Google Insights for Search.

You can get started at the Google Insights for Search homepage, and, just a note, you'll need to sign into your Google account to see numbers or download results to a spreadsheet. You can also take a look at more examples of how you can use Google Insights for Search. As always, we love to hear your feedback about the tool and the insights you discover.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Inside AdWords crew

Catching Up With Our Former Colleagues

A new book from Brian Clifton launched (and sold out!) a few months ago at Search Engine Strategies in New York. The book, Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics, is a clear and comprehensive how-to manual and best-practice user guide with vivid screenshots and diagrams. Brian was our former Google Analytics lead for Europe and is now back to his CEO role at Omega Digital Media Ltd, a Google Analytics Authorized Consultant. He knows the intimate ins and outs of both Google Analytics and Urchin, and his book has been very well received.


In Brian's own words:

"Although there are plenty of online resources available that can help you answer a specific question, most new users don’t know what they don’t know. That is, they often get stuck at where to start, what to prioritize and how much effort they should put into a particular process. The book puts this into context and provides a step by step approach to gaining knowledge in a linear way. I chose the title Advanced to indicate that the content goes beyond just reporting of numbers and figures. The focus is on learning and knowledge transfer so that anyone with an interest in making their web site successful can learn how to interpret their web visitor data and act on it."

To preview chapters from the book and read Brian's analytics blog, visit his book's companion site. We hope the guide helps you make the most of your analytics data, and we wish Brian the best of luck.

Additionally, Jeff Veen is a former Googler who has had a huge influence on the current design of Google Analytics. He joined our team after we acquired Measure Map, which Jeff started after helping found Adaptive Path. Jeff recently decided to do something new. His latest endeavor is The Start Conference, a one-day conference for entrepreneurs and those who would like to be entrepreneurs. It is happening this Thursday, August 7, at San Francisco's Fort Mason Center.


We like the "what you'll learn" section of the site. It gives a taste of what looks to be an inspiring, fun and informative day:

• "Where to start. Hear how founders got started, where they screwed up, and why they kept going."
• "What you need. Hiring? Firing?!? Who’s watching the books? Do you really need a lawyer?"
• "How to pitch. Hear some of the web’s most formidable entrepreneurs giving their best five-minute pitches. Then learn to hone yours."

We're not officially sponsoring this event, but Google Analytics is used by many exciting startups so a couple of us plan to attend, hear what Jeff is up to, and support his latest endeavor. We hope you'll join us.

Posted by Brett Crosby, Group Manager, Google Analytics

Social Media and Emerging Minorities

The new multicultural landscape of the United States is showing some interesting trends, at least with our recently collected data. The Florida State University Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication with the support of DMS Research (an AOL LLC Company), collected data in March of 2008 from a national online sample with over 500 cases in each of the following cultural groups: Hispanics who prefer English (HE), Hispanics who prefer Spanish (HS), Non-Hispanic Whites (NHW), African Americans (AA), and Asians (A) in the United States.


The results are quite interesting. When asked about how often individuals in these groups visit Social Networking sites like FaceBook and MySpace, the following distribution was obtained for TWO OR THREE TIMES A MONTH OR MORE OFTEN:

Hispanics who responded in English and Asians are the most avid users of Social Media with about 35% of them using these outlets 2 or 3 times per month or more often, while Non-Hispanic Whites are least likely to use these media with only 17% of them using them with similar frequency. Hispanics who responded in Spanish and African Americans are in between at about 25%.

What this new and original data seems to say is that emerging minorities are quite a bit more likely than the traditional mainstream of American society to be reachable with Social Media Marketing. It is fascinating that many traditional marketers still talk about "the General Market" when refering to Non-Hispanic Whites and seem to still orient most of their campaigns to this segment. It is revealing that it is precisely those who are not considered the mainstream are at the forefront of the use of Social Media, and apparently eager to participate in what it has to offer.

The lesson of the story is: Those who are forgotten may be your biggest opportunity.

Related links with additional resources:

http://hmc.comm.fsu.edu/

http://www.capturagroup.com/

Why Social Media Marketing to Reach Hispanics?

There is a lot of talk about social media, user generated content, and Web 2.0. Marketing and outreach via social media to Hispanics is a very promising touchpoint. First let me clarify that we are not talking about the traditional field of social marketing in which the product is usually a social service, or a product that will improve the life of users with relatively little or no benefit to the one generating the message, like a health promotion campaign. Well, that is not what I am talking about here. I am talking about Social Media Marketing, like using LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Blogger, Plaxo Pulse, or any other social media now visited online, to create brand awareness, product/service purchases, and perhaps brand loyalty and a continued brand relationship.

Social Media Marketing is particularly interesting in the case of Hispanics. After conducting several studies with different cultural groups online ( http://hmc.comm.fsu.edu/ ) we have discovered that Hispanics are particularly interested in new technology, having their own personal blogs and websites. This is likely due to the social nature of Hispanics who see Social Media as a way to keep in touch and maintain relationships. As these new technologies are important to Hispanics, Marketers and other entities who want to reach out to Hispanics online can set up their interactive sites in the multiple Social Media outlets available, and create buzz about something. Clearly, this has to be an attractive and useful site, but once a take-off point of interactivity has been reached, the site feeds itself and creates further enthusiasm about the brand, topic, product, etc.

Social Media Marketing is not expected to be solely attractive to Hispanics. Hispanics, nevertheless, have a strong propensity to affiliate and create networks. Now that interpersonal communication is moving from face-to-fact to virtual, Social Media marketing has great potential for creating legitimate emotional links, particularly among Hispanics.

A strategy for Social Media Marketing has to be carefully formulated, managed, and orchestrated to be effective. Companies like Captura Group ( http://www.capturagroup.com/ ) are examining the conceptual underpinning on the use of Social Media Marketing to create loyal following among Hispanic consumers.

On the Web everything is transparent. A company or entity cannot succeed with a Social Media Strategy by misleading consumers. Legitimacy and truthfulness are crucial for establishing long term relationships. That is the virtue of this new medium, that it is a legitimate way of creating long term, honest, relationships.

Interactivity on the Web is now making Social Media Marketing more power than television, radio, newspapers, and magazines ( http://hmc.comm.fsu.edu/ ). The future in marketing to Hispanics is here.