Over the next few days, we're attending three conferences, Online Market World and Startonomics, both this week in San Francisco, and SMX East, next week in New York City.
We would highly recommend all three - more details about the shows are below and you can register at the websites. Maybe we'll see you there! We've always found that we learn more in one day at these conferences then we do in weeks of sitting in front of our computer screens. Nothing helps us stay up-to-date more than having conversations with other smart people and learning new skills in seminars.
Also, some authors who are near and dear to our heart are doing book signings at two of the shows, where they will be giving away copies of their informative and cutting edge books.
Online Market World (San Francisco)
This conference starts Wednesday and runs through Thursday in San Francisco. If you're doing any marketing or selling on the web, this is going to be a smart show for you. Take a look at this agenda. You might want to check out Web Analytics Glory in Just 30 Minutes: Measure More Than Clicks which will be presented by our own Avinash Kaushik on Thursday at 11:45am. Afterwards, he'll be doing a book signing and giveaway of Web Analytics: An Hour A Day in the lunch area at 12:30pm for the first 500 people who show up!
Google will also have a booth that you can stop by in the expo hall, and there will be a book signing there as well. Tim Ash with SiteTuners, a Website Optimizer Authorized Consultant, is the author of Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions. He will be singing books at the booth from 4:15pm to 5pm on both Wednesday and Thursday. Tim will be speaking on Wednesday at 3:00pm in the panel Advanced PPC: What It Is, How to Avoid the Pitfalls. Then on Thursday, Tom Leung from the Google Website Optimizer team will be part of a panel on Landing Page Testing Best Practices. Tim's book signings will happen directly after these talks.
Startonomics (San Francisco)
This new show is also taking place this week on Thursday in San Francisco. It's a comprehensive one day show for entrepreneurs - and those thinking of becoming entrepreneurs - to connect with each other and be inspired by those who've already walked the start-up path. Our friends Dave McClure and Jeff Veen will be speaking, among others. Take a look at the day's sessions where you can learn about very facet of making an idea a reality, from product design, marketing and monetization to scalability and strategy.
SMX East (New York City)
Then next week, SMX (Search Marketing Expo) East starts in New York City from October 6th to the 8th. Search marketing is of course right up Google's alley and Google Vice President of Search Sales and Sales Operations Tim Armstrong will be making a keynote during the show on Tuesday morning, after which, Avinash will be doing another book signing and giveaway at the Google booth.
Then, at 3:15pm on Tuesday, Jon Diorio on the Website Optimizer product team will participate in a panel on "Landing Pages & Multivariate Testing", after which Bryan Eisenberg from FutureNow, another Website Optimizer Authorized Consultant, will be at the Google booth doing a free book signing of his book, Always Be Testing: The Complete Guide To Google Website Optimizer.
At 4:45pm on Tuesday, Avinash will be speaking on a panel called "Paid Search Analytics." I will also be presenting on behalf of Google Analytics and Website Optimizer on Tuesday in a theater presentation.
Members of our team will be at all the shows, and again, we hope we run into some of you!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
Now it's easier to delete accounts
In the past, you couldn't delete your account from, well, within your account. Getting rid of a duplicate or test account required you to send in a formal request, and you were limited to deleting only profiles in your account. Now, you can delete an account with a click of a button in the "Edit Account and Data Sharing Settings" page. If you're the administrator of the account, and the account is not linked to any other Analytics or AdWords accounts, deleting your account is easy. (If you want to delete a linked Analytics account, please either unlink your accounts first or contact us.) Also, if you have many account administrators on your account, don't worry - they will receive an email notifying them of the account deletion. But they should let the other non-admin account users know that the account is deleted to avoid any confusion.
We hope this feature makes it easier for you to manage your accounts! (Click the image below for a larger view.)
One last thing - please remove the tracking code from your site after you delete your account. Remember, there's no "undo" once you delete your account, so before you delete your account forever, we'll ask you to confirm that this is really what you want to do before you delete it.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Google TV Ads partnering with Bloomberg TV
Today, we announced that we're partnering with Bloomberg TV to offer their national inventory to advertisers through the Google TV Ads platform. Bloomberg TV is a 24-hour business and financial news channel, reaching over 54 million households in the US.
This builds on our partnership with NBCU, announced earlier this month, and will provide advertisers with broader audience reach and access to desirable viewer demographics. Starting later this year, Google TV Ads advertisers will have access to premium inventory on Bloomberg TV, so stay tuned for further announcements. Currently, advertisers can target Bloomberg TV through our DISH Network inventory available on the Google TV Ads platform. Our partnership with Bloomberg TV means that advertisers will be able to reach all Bloomberg TV viewers in the US.
For more details on our partnership with Bloomberg TV, please see the announcement on on our Traditional Media blog.
This builds on our partnership with NBCU, announced earlier this month, and will provide advertisers with broader audience reach and access to desirable viewer demographics. Starting later this year, Google TV Ads advertisers will have access to premium inventory on Bloomberg TV, so stay tuned for further announcements. Currently, advertisers can target Bloomberg TV through our DISH Network inventory available on the Google TV Ads platform. Our partnership with Bloomberg TV means that advertisers will be able to reach all Bloomberg TV viewers in the US.
For more details on our partnership with Bloomberg TV, please see the announcement on on our Traditional Media blog.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
You Cut Quite a Profile
Editor's Note: This post is the first of a regular series of guest-authored posts with our Google Analytics Authorized Consultants, who are certified by Google to offer support and consultation to Google Analytics customers.
This first post is written by LunaMetrics in Pittsburgh. Learn how to use Google Analytics from set-up to analysis at their one-day training, "Getting ahead with Google Analytics," on October 3 in Washington, D.C. Sign up here, and read on to learn a useful technique for seeing segments of traffic.
In Google Analytics, it's easy to isolate segments of your traffic such as paid traffic, or organic traffic, new visitors or returning, Firefox users or Safari users using a specific report (such as New vs. Returning) or the Dimension drop down menu within reports. Obviously, you want to see how different visitors behave and how your online campaigns and search engine optimization efforts are paying off. But sometimes, you may want to really be able to inspect this data easily within all Google Analytics reports for a website. You may have a question that Google Analytics answers for the whole site, but you want to know it for only a specific segment. In that case, set up a few profiles which filter down to these segments for your site.
For starters, what does setting up duplicate profiles mean? After you set up your Google Analytics, you can go into the Analytic Settings and choose Add Website Profile. You get the choice of adding a profile for a new domain, or for an existing domain. If you choose "existing," you don't have to do any additional work to your site, but you now have a second place to look at the exact same data, and you can play with it any way you want.
A previous post on this blog, Experiment using different profiles, detailed how to create duplicate profiles for your data manipulation enjoyment. Go crazy with filters! :-) Since you can create 50 profiles in a Google Analytics account, multiple profiles are a good way to view your data through different lenses and isolate certain segments.
Once you've learned to use multiple profiles and see data this way, you have the ability to learn more from your analytics. For example, you can create a profile that only shows paid traffic and you know that the Map Overlay report is only showing that visitor segment. In another example, you might need to know how visitors from a certain campaign reacted to the steps you set up in one of your funnels. Create another profile, filtering in only the campaign you care about, and looking at the Defined Funnel Navigation report.
This is semi-advanced stuff, but just remember to leave at least one "real" profile where you don't filter at all. That way, you can work on the others without making mistakes on the data that you are relying on to guide your website decisions. Not sure if that Regular Expression or filter are going to capture exactly the right data? Set them up on your sandbox profile and see if they work. Some of the other Google Analytics Authorized Consultants told us they set up a sandbox profile for every "real" profile whenever they configure a new customer's account, so that both profiles have the same data history.
Profiles enable you to test theories. Maybe you don't understand why your visitors are behaving in a certain way that shows up in your "real" profile -- but have five potential answers. Set up a profile that includes only yourself, using filters. Then try all the strange things your customers may have done and see if your sandbox profile will duplicate the real profile.
Here at LunaMetrics, there are 10 profiles that we set up for almost every client website right off the bat. You can see them below in an example which uses www.googlestore.com (you'll need to customize and troubleshoot the filters mentioned at the bottom to your own campaigns and site):
And here they are in detail. Most of the filters are custom include filters:
Many of you are probably only managing one website, and can quickly set these profiles up manually. We were doing this manually at first but as we added more and more clients, we created an iMacros script to actually set up these profiles and filters automatically. If you're interested in learning about it, feel free to contact us or attend the training in Washington, D.C. on October 3.
This first post is written by LunaMetrics in Pittsburgh. Learn how to use Google Analytics from set-up to analysis at their one-day training, "Getting ahead with Google Analytics," on October 3 in Washington, D.C. Sign up here, and read on to learn a useful technique for seeing segments of traffic.
In Google Analytics, it's easy to isolate segments of your traffic such as paid traffic, or organic traffic, new visitors or returning, Firefox users or Safari users using a specific report (such as New vs. Returning) or the Dimension drop down menu within reports. Obviously, you want to see how different visitors behave and how your online campaigns and search engine optimization efforts are paying off. But sometimes, you may want to really be able to inspect this data easily within all Google Analytics reports for a website. You may have a question that Google Analytics answers for the whole site, but you want to know it for only a specific segment. In that case, set up a few profiles which filter down to these segments for your site.
For starters, what does setting up duplicate profiles mean? After you set up your Google Analytics, you can go into the Analytic Settings and choose Add Website Profile. You get the choice of adding a profile for a new domain, or for an existing domain. If you choose "existing," you don't have to do any additional work to your site, but you now have a second place to look at the exact same data, and you can play with it any way you want.
A previous post on this blog, Experiment using different profiles, detailed how to create duplicate profiles for your data manipulation enjoyment. Go crazy with filters! :-) Since you can create 50 profiles in a Google Analytics account, multiple profiles are a good way to view your data through different lenses and isolate certain segments.
Once you've learned to use multiple profiles and see data this way, you have the ability to learn more from your analytics. For example, you can create a profile that only shows paid traffic and you know that the Map Overlay report is only showing that visitor segment. In another example, you might need to know how visitors from a certain campaign reacted to the steps you set up in one of your funnels. Create another profile, filtering in only the campaign you care about, and looking at the Defined Funnel Navigation report.
This is semi-advanced stuff, but just remember to leave at least one "real" profile where you don't filter at all. That way, you can work on the others without making mistakes on the data that you are relying on to guide your website decisions. Not sure if that Regular Expression or filter are going to capture exactly the right data? Set them up on your sandbox profile and see if they work. Some of the other Google Analytics Authorized Consultants told us they set up a sandbox profile for every "real" profile whenever they configure a new customer's account, so that both profiles have the same data history.
Profiles enable you to test theories. Maybe you don't understand why your visitors are behaving in a certain way that shows up in your "real" profile -- but have five potential answers. Set up a profile that includes only yourself, using filters. Then try all the strange things your customers may have done and see if your sandbox profile will duplicate the real profile.
Here at LunaMetrics, there are 10 profiles that we set up for almost every client website right off the bat. You can see them below in an example which uses www.googlestore.com (you'll need to customize and troubleshoot the filters mentioned at the bottom to your own campaigns and site):
And here they are in detail. Most of the filters are custom include filters:
- No Filters: Profile with zero filters. Use this for troubleshooting.
- Only Direct: Include filter for the field "Campaign Source" only equaling the pattern "direct" visitors
- Only Internal: Use an include filter which will include only traffic from internal IP ranges on IP address.
- Only New Visitors: Include filter on the field "Visitor Type" equal to "new"
- Only Organic: Include filter where the filter field is on "Campaign Medium" and the pattern is "organic"
- Only Paid Search: Include filter on "Campaign Medium" equaling the pattern "ppc|cpc"
- Only Referral: Include filter on "Campaign Medium" equaling "referral"
- Only Returning Visitors: Include filter on "Visitor Type" equaling "returning"
- Organic And Paid: Include filter combining the above two filters for "Only Organic" and "Only Paid Search" to include all search engine traffic
- Overall: All traffic except filter out internal IP ranges using the "Exclude all traffic from an IP address filter."
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Conversion tracking Site Stats logo is now optional
If you currently use or have considered using AdWords conversion tracking, we have news that may be of interest to you. Conversion tracking users are no longer required to display the "Google Site Stats" logo on the conversion pages of their web sites.
Previously, a small but visible text block that read "Google Site Stats" automatically appeared on the page where the conversion tracking code was placed on your web site. The logo would appear only after a conversion occurred via your AdWords ad, and it provided converting visitors links to information about AdWords conversion tracking and instructions on how to block the tracking.
However, many advertisers have told us that the logo was redundant with their own privacy policy, where they already notify users about the tracking technologies in use on their sites. As a result, we're now giving you the option of not showing the Site Stats logo on the conversion page(s) of your site.
If you currently have conversion tracking tags installed on your web site, the Site Stats logo will continue to display unless you take further action. If you choose to remove the logo, please inform users about the tracking methods you employ on your site by modifying your site's privacy policy.
For those of you who are new to conversion tracking, it's a powerful tool that allows you to measure conversion metrics for your AdWords campaigns. An added benefit of using conversion tracking is that it allows you to use the Conversion Optimizer, a bidding feature that uses your conversion tracking data to optimize the performance of your campaigns, helping you make the most of your advertising dollars.
For more information about conversion tracking, please visit our Help Center.
Previously, a small but visible text block that read "Google Site Stats" automatically appeared on the page where the conversion tracking code was placed on your web site. The logo would appear only after a conversion occurred via your AdWords ad, and it provided converting visitors links to information about AdWords conversion tracking and instructions on how to block the tracking.
However, many advertisers have told us that the logo was redundant with their own privacy policy, where they already notify users about the tracking technologies in use on their sites. As a result, we're now giving you the option of not showing the Site Stats logo on the conversion page(s) of your site.
If you currently have conversion tracking tags installed on your web site, the Site Stats logo will continue to display unless you take further action. If you choose to remove the logo, please inform users about the tracking methods you employ on your site by modifying your site's privacy policy.
For those of you who are new to conversion tracking, it's a powerful tool that allows you to measure conversion metrics for your AdWords campaigns. An added benefit of using conversion tracking is that it allows you to use the Conversion Optimizer, a bidding feature that uses your conversion tracking data to optimize the performance of your campaigns, helping you make the most of your advertising dollars.
For more information about conversion tracking, please visit our Help Center.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Quality Score improvements to go live in coming days
Last month, we posted about upcoming Quality Score improvements -- and today, we're following up to notify you that these changes will take effect in all advertisers' accounts over the next few days. In addition, we'd like to answer a number of the more common questions we've recently heard from our advertisers.
To briefly summarize our earlier post, we have incorporated three main improvements to Quality Score:
Quality Score
Many advertisers wanted to know specifically how this launch affects the way we calculate Quality Score.
We will still consider your account's history, which consists of the clickthrough rate (CTR) of all the ads and keywords in your account. We will also consider your landing page quality. Although your overall Quality Score is evaluated at the time of each query, landing page quality is evaluated less frequently.
Inactive for Search Status
We received three main types of questions about Inactive for Search Status. You've asked why we were doing this, how this would affect your traffic levels, and how this would affect the number of ads shown.
Through all our Ads Quality changes, our goal is to improve the search experience by showing only the highest quality, most relevant ads -- and this change further enables us to meet this goal. By making all keywords active we will be able to evaluate keywords for any query where they may be relevant. Previously, keywords that were marked 'inactive for search' would never show ads on Google.com, even if they would have been a high quality match for certain queries.
Most keywords that are 'inactive for search' today will continue to accrue very few (or no) impressions due to their low Quality Score. For some currently inactive keywords, however, we may find that they perform very well for certain queries or in certain circumstances -- in which case, these keywords may begin to receive impressions.
Stated another way, this change does not mean that that every ad will be shown or that every query will show ads.
First Page Bid Estimates
Finally, for first page bid estimates, many of you were interested in learning how these would compare to your old minimum bids.
For queries without many advertisers competing for placement, the first page bid estimate should be relatively close to your existing minimum bid. However, queries with a high level of advertiser competition may have significantly higher first page bid estimates, because you'll likely need to bid above the old minimum bid to rank higher than your competition and show on the first page. Remember that you can bid less than your first page bid estimate and still show on subsequent pages -- as long as your keyword is relevant to our users.
Advertisers familiar with the competitive landscape for their keywords may indeed notice that the first page bid estimates provided are in line with the CPCs that they had been bidding to appear on the first page prior to the release of these Quality Score improvements, although this is not a given.
We hope this information helps answer your questions. And, as you become acclimated to these changes, we hope you will keep in mind their underlying purpose. These improvements are part of a continuing effort to deliver relevant ads to our users, and also to provide you with more control over your bidding and more insight into the quality of your ads and keywords.
For further information, please see these frequently asked questions.
To briefly summarize our earlier post, we have incorporated three main improvements to Quality Score:
- Quality Score is now more accurate -- because it is calculated at the time of each search query
- Keywords are no longer marked 'inactive for search' -- all keywords are active because they are evaluated for every relevant query
- 'First page bid estimates' replace 'minimum bids' in your account -- providing a more actionable and useful metric to advertisers
Quality Score
Many advertisers wanted to know specifically how this launch affects the way we calculate Quality Score.
We will still consider your account's history, which consists of the clickthrough rate (CTR) of all the ads and keywords in your account. We will also consider your landing page quality. Although your overall Quality Score is evaluated at the time of each query, landing page quality is evaluated less frequently.
Inactive for Search Status
We received three main types of questions about Inactive for Search Status. You've asked why we were doing this, how this would affect your traffic levels, and how this would affect the number of ads shown.
Through all our Ads Quality changes, our goal is to improve the search experience by showing only the highest quality, most relevant ads -- and this change further enables us to meet this goal. By making all keywords active we will be able to evaluate keywords for any query where they may be relevant. Previously, keywords that were marked 'inactive for search' would never show ads on Google.com, even if they would have been a high quality match for certain queries.
Most keywords that are 'inactive for search' today will continue to accrue very few (or no) impressions due to their low Quality Score. For some currently inactive keywords, however, we may find that they perform very well for certain queries or in certain circumstances -- in which case, these keywords may begin to receive impressions.
Stated another way, this change does not mean that that every ad will be shown or that every query will show ads.
First Page Bid Estimates
Finally, for first page bid estimates, many of you were interested in learning how these would compare to your old minimum bids.
For queries without many advertisers competing for placement, the first page bid estimate should be relatively close to your existing minimum bid. However, queries with a high level of advertiser competition may have significantly higher first page bid estimates, because you'll likely need to bid above the old minimum bid to rank higher than your competition and show on the first page. Remember that you can bid less than your first page bid estimate and still show on subsequent pages -- as long as your keyword is relevant to our users.
Advertisers familiar with the competitive landscape for their keywords may indeed notice that the first page bid estimates provided are in line with the CPCs that they had been bidding to appear on the first page prior to the release of these Quality Score improvements, although this is not a given.
We hope this information helps answer your questions. And, as you become acclimated to these changes, we hope you will keep in mind their underlying purpose. These improvements are part of a continuing effort to deliver relevant ads to our users, and also to provide you with more control over your bidding and more insight into the quality of your ads and keywords.
For further information, please see these frequently asked questions.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Google Analytics 101 (Part 4)
In this installment of Google Analytics 101, we'll take a brief look at another important statistic visible from the Dashboard: Traffic Sources. When you first set up your account and sign in, Analytics shows a Dashboard module containing a pie chart of all of your Traffic Sources. These sources include any that are unrelated to your AdWords advertising, as will be explained in this post. The pie chart is a breakdown of the different kinds of ways that traffic reaches your site. (If you don't see it right away in your Dashboard, just click on Traffic Sources in the left-hand navigation. It'll appear at the top of the report.)
(click the image to see a full-size version)
"Referring Sites" shows visits from people who clicked to your site from another site. Having a strong network of relevant referring links can be a great source of traffic, as well as useful information for your visitors. If you run the most popular fan discussion site for your local baseball team, having reciprocating referral links with your area's top football fan site could boost your Referring Sites traffic greatly. You might see jumps in this statistic if you do something with your site that gets picked up by the blogosphere. As news spreads and more blogs link back to the original source (your site), you'll notice more visits from this category.
"Direct Traffic" shows visits from people who clicked a bookmark to come to your site or who typed your site URL directly into their browser. Improvements in Direct Traffic numbers may mean that you are generating a lot of loyal visitors who are adding you to their favorite pages.
"Search Engines" shows visits from people who clicked to your site from a search engine result page regardless of whether it is Google.com or another search engine. If you're doing search campaigns, you'd look to these numbers for signs of improvement. This counts visits from nearly all major search engines including international ones, and more are frequently added to Analytics' index as they gain popularity.
"Other" is a catch-all category that represents any source not falling into the above categories. If you're new to Analytics, this is usually insignificant.
To explore your Traffic Sources reports in more detail, you can click "View reports" in the Dashboard module, or click on Traffic Sources in the left-hand navigation. In the next installment, we'll look at the Content section of reports. If you can't wait to dig deeper, please check out our Help Center.
AdWords system maintenance on September 13th
On Saturday, September 13th, 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 September 13th date and our scheduled maintenance further down the road.
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 September 13th date and our scheduled maintenance further down the road.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Decoding Google Analytics
For many kinds of analysis, simply copying and pasting the Google Analytics tracking code into your site is more than enough. But there's a growing population of Analytics power users who want fine-grained control over their site tracking and who have a burning desire to understand and manipulate the behavior of Analytics. For those of you, we now offer Google Analytics on Google Code.
Google Code has information on everything you need to know to create a custom Analytics installation on your site. Do you want to change the longevity of your marketing campaigns? Or add a new search engine to the list of those Analytics recognizes? How about configuring tracking to use both Google Analytics and Urchin Software from Google?
If you're beta-testing Event Tracking, Google Code has an entire section to help you implement it on your site. There's an E-commerce overview and E-commerce API reference. And if you just want to learn more about how Analytics works, you can read about tracking code execution and how Analytics uses cookies.
Google Code addresses your most technical questions; it's not intended to replace the Help Center. And our Authorized Consultants are always around if you have custom tracking requirements but don't have a Google Code level of expertise in-house.
Google & NBC Universal partnering up
Today, Google announced a strategic partnership with NBC Universal in which NBCU will offer a limited amount of advertising inventory across all days and times on several of its cable networks. Advertisers using Google TV Ads will be able to place their ads on CNBC, Sci-Fi Network, MSNBC, Oxygen, Sleuth and Chiller starting in early 2009.
Read the full details of the partnership in the blog post on our Traditional Media blog. You can also read about how other advertisers are finding success with Google TV Ads, and check out our product demo to learn how to launch your own TV campaign.
We'll also be holding a free webinar that will cover tips on how Google TV Ads can help drive more web traffic and increase your sales volume, turning TV viewers into your customers. The webinar will be held October 1st at 10AM PST, and you can sign up here to reserve your spot.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
"Chrome" now showing as browser type
Google Analytics is now showing "Chrome" as a browser type in your reports! All current and future visits will be labeled as such.
Over the next few days, the visits from Google Chrome since its beta launch on Tuesday will be identified and updated to correctly show "Chrome" as the browser type for that period.
Over the next few days, the visits from Google Chrome since its beta launch on Tuesday will be identified and updated to correctly show "Chrome" as the browser type for that period.
New ways to look at Search & Content Network statistics
*Please note updated information at the bottom of this post as of 5/17/2013
In our past content network posts, we've discussed how search and content network performance can differ. In particular, clickthrough and conversion rates aren't always comparable between the content network and the search network, since users browsing content commonly approach ads differently than users searching actively for a particular topic. As a result, we use smart pricing to protect advertiser ROI by automatically adjusting the cost of a contextually-targeted content network click based on its effectiveness compared to a search click.
Because search and content network statistics can differ greatly, viewing aggregate statistics for a campaign running on both networks may not give you granular insight into your performance. For example, a high number of impressions and a low clickthrough rate on the search network may be signals that you should optimize, but similar statistics on the content network are unlikely to indicate poor performance.
To provide better insight, we've made a small change to the campaign and ad group summary pages that allows you to easily evaluate search and content network statistics separately. The new "Statistics" drop-down menu lets you change your view to see search and content network statistics in individual rows for each of your campaigns and/or ad groups. You can also filter to see only the statistics for the network you choose. By separating the statistics by network on your summary pages, you can not only see which campaigns or ad groups need your attention, but you can also identify which network you need to optimize for. Optimization strategies for the search network are often different from strategies for the content network.
When comparing your performance on search and content networks, look at your cost/conversion (measurable through AdWords conversion tracking). This metric is very useful since your target cost/conversion is likely to be the same for both networks and can be used as an accurate measurement of your overall ROI.
To learn more about the new display options for your statistics, please visit our Help Center.
As a result, we may use smart pricing to protect advertiser ROI by adjusting the cost of certain contextually-targeted content network clicks based on their effectiveness compared to a search click.
In our past content network posts, we've discussed how search and content network performance can differ. In particular, clickthrough and conversion rates aren't always comparable between the content network and the search network, since users browsing content commonly approach ads differently than users searching actively for a particular topic. As a result, we use smart pricing to protect advertiser ROI by automatically adjusting the cost of a contextually-targeted content network click based on its effectiveness compared to a search click.
Because search and content network statistics can differ greatly, viewing aggregate statistics for a campaign running on both networks may not give you granular insight into your performance. For example, a high number of impressions and a low clickthrough rate on the search network may be signals that you should optimize, but similar statistics on the content network are unlikely to indicate poor performance.
To provide better insight, we've made a small change to the campaign and ad group summary pages that allows you to easily evaluate search and content network statistics separately. The new "Statistics" drop-down menu lets you change your view to see search and content network statistics in individual rows for each of your campaigns and/or ad groups. You can also filter to see only the statistics for the network you choose. By separating the statistics by network on your summary pages, you can not only see which campaigns or ad groups need your attention, but you can also identify which network you need to optimize for. Optimization strategies for the search network are often different from strategies for the content network.
When comparing your performance on search and content networks, look at your cost/conversion (measurable through AdWords conversion tracking). This metric is very useful since your target cost/conversion is likely to be the same for both networks and can be used as an accurate measurement of your overall ROI.
To learn more about the new display options for your statistics, please visit our Help Center.
As a result, we may use smart pricing to protect advertiser ROI by adjusting the cost of certain contextually-targeted content network clicks based on their effectiveness compared to a search click.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Where are your clicks coming from? (Geographically speaking)
A new report is now available in the AdWords Report Center: the Geographic Performance report. This report provides you with an understanding of the geographic distribution of your impressions, clicks, and conversions down to the ad group level. Do you know if you're getting more clicks from snowy Juneau, Alaska, or sunny Miami, Florida? Now you can find out.
How can this help? Well, if you're using AdWords, you already know about targeting. You can use location targeting with any campaign to only show ads to users in certain geographic locations.
Say, for example, you sell and ship gourmet ice cream to anywhere in the U.S. After running the report, you find that your ads are doing great in Miami, Florida and Phoenix, Arizona, but you're also finding a surprising amount of customers from Juneau, Alaska. Next step: refine your campaigns. By specifically targeting those locations where your ads perform best you can maximize your campaign's performance.
You can create a Geographic Performance report from the Report Center in your AdWords account.
Marketing is a funnel....
Greetings...
By the calendar and the start of school, fall has arrived. By a quick look at the thermometer (93 degrees this morning) summer is still going strong!
But the truest test of fall's arrival is the start of College football! To those of you that know me, you know that I am a die-hard Ohio State Buckeye fan (O-H...I-O) and follow the team diligently. In doing so, I also follow other major teams and track our progress, chances of another national title game, and upcoming competition.
Here is the connection to financial marketing...being prepared for what we know...and what we do not know! This past weekend, our Heisman-hopeful running back Chris "Beanie" Wells went down with an injury. I saw the season flash in front of me! To our bankers, their bank's "season" is flashing in front of them as the sub-prime loan crisis continues to wiggle through the industry and the economy. Factor in the oil prices and the hurricane-prone weather and we have lots of "stuff" that is outside our radar that impacts our bank.
The key is being prepared and ready for anything that comes our way. As Nick Vaglio and I were delivering the latest eCollege series on our book "Shift Happens", he shared a story about a friend of ours (Steve Stevenson) and his preparations for ALCO. At his bank, Steve was not on ALCO and he was making every effort to be allowed to join the committee. To little success. So instead of concentrating on what he knew (not being on the committee) he concentrated on what he did not know (the meeting outcomes). He went to work on campaigns, messaging, communications, etc. all built around the two primary realities of ALCO (1. we need money or we have money and 2. rates are rising or falling). He created ready-to-go support programs for each scenario and when ALCO met and then came to him after the meetings with the current reality, he was able to quickly deliver support for the need of the bank. Within a short period of time, with his support being so thorough, timely, and actionable, Steve was asked to join ALCO. A win for everyone!
Think about your institution...are there things that you do not know...that can severely impact you or your ability to create success? I am sure there are at least a few. Prepare for them! You may never know when they will arrive...the only thing sure is that they WILL arrive. If you are prepared, thoroughly ready, and have though through contingencies...you will deliver for your bank and perhaps equally as importantly, you will deliver for yourself and your career. With this simple but demanding step...you are Making Marketing Matter, positioning marketing as a philosophy and not simply a department...and moving your bank forward!
So, your homework? Identify 2-3 outside variables that you do not know when they may occur...but you know WILL occur. Prepare a plan and support for each. They may be a "merger", "loss of a large community employer", or some other potential obstacle. Get planning...and get yourself ahead!
Cheers!
Bruce
By the calendar and the start of school, fall has arrived. By a quick look at the thermometer (93 degrees this morning) summer is still going strong!
But the truest test of fall's arrival is the start of College football! To those of you that know me, you know that I am a die-hard Ohio State Buckeye fan (O-H...I-O) and follow the team diligently. In doing so, I also follow other major teams and track our progress, chances of another national title game, and upcoming competition.
Here is the connection to financial marketing...being prepared for what we know...and what we do not know! This past weekend, our Heisman-hopeful running back Chris "Beanie" Wells went down with an injury. I saw the season flash in front of me! To our bankers, their bank's "season" is flashing in front of them as the sub-prime loan crisis continues to wiggle through the industry and the economy. Factor in the oil prices and the hurricane-prone weather and we have lots of "stuff" that is outside our radar that impacts our bank.
The key is being prepared and ready for anything that comes our way. As Nick Vaglio and I were delivering the latest eCollege series on our book "Shift Happens", he shared a story about a friend of ours (Steve Stevenson) and his preparations for ALCO. At his bank, Steve was not on ALCO and he was making every effort to be allowed to join the committee. To little success. So instead of concentrating on what he knew (not being on the committee) he concentrated on what he did not know (the meeting outcomes). He went to work on campaigns, messaging, communications, etc. all built around the two primary realities of ALCO (1. we need money or we have money and 2. rates are rising or falling). He created ready-to-go support programs for each scenario and when ALCO met and then came to him after the meetings with the current reality, he was able to quickly deliver support for the need of the bank. Within a short period of time, with his support being so thorough, timely, and actionable, Steve was asked to join ALCO. A win for everyone!
Think about your institution...are there things that you do not know...that can severely impact you or your ability to create success? I am sure there are at least a few. Prepare for them! You may never know when they will arrive...the only thing sure is that they WILL arrive. If you are prepared, thoroughly ready, and have though through contingencies...you will deliver for your bank and perhaps equally as importantly, you will deliver for yourself and your career. With this simple but demanding step...you are Making Marketing Matter, positioning marketing as a philosophy and not simply a department...and moving your bank forward!
So, your homework? Identify 2-3 outside variables that you do not know when they may occur...but you know WILL occur. Prepare a plan and support for each. They may be a "merger", "loss of a large community employer", or some other potential obstacle. Get planning...and get yourself ahead!
Cheers!
Bruce
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Announcing Google's New Browser
Today, we announced the release of the beta version of a new open-source browser: Google Chrome. We encourage you to download it and give it a try.
Google Chrome features a simple and intuitive user interface as well as an entirely new architecture designed for speed, security, and stability. You can find out more about other Google Chrome features here.
We built Google Chrome so that most webmasters and site owners shouldn't have to make changes to their sites. If your site is compatible with Safari, it will also be compatible with Google Chrome as they are both built using WebKit. If you have questions regarding compatibility with your site, feel free to refer to the Google Chrome information for web developers site.
Here are some answers to questions that Google Analytics users might have:
Q. Can I track Google Chrome visitors to my website properly?
A. Yes - visitors who use Google Chrome and visit your site will be tracked by Google Analytics just like other visitors. The only exception is when Google Chrome users activate incognito mode within Google Chrome. When a user goes to your website, turns on incognito mode and returns to your website, they will not be counted as a return visitor, but rather a new visitor. This is similar to what would happen if a user actively clears his or her cookies.
Q. Can I look at my Google Analytics reports in Google Chrome?
A. Yes, definitely. Google Analytics reports look beautiful and load nice and fast in Google Chrome!
Q. Will I see Google Chrome listed as a browser in my Google Analytics reports?
A. Yes, very soon. We'll let you know immediately once the change happens.
For more information about why we built Google Chrome, see our Google blog post.
Google Chrome features a simple and intuitive user interface as well as an entirely new architecture designed for speed, security, and stability. You can find out more about other Google Chrome features here.
We built Google Chrome so that most webmasters and site owners shouldn't have to make changes to their sites. If your site is compatible with Safari, it will also be compatible with Google Chrome as they are both built using WebKit. If you have questions regarding compatibility with your site, feel free to refer to the Google Chrome information for web developers site.
Here are some answers to questions that Google Analytics users might have:
Q. Can I track Google Chrome visitors to my website properly?
A. Yes - visitors who use Google Chrome and visit your site will be tracked by Google Analytics just like other visitors. The only exception is when Google Chrome users activate incognito mode within Google Chrome. When a user goes to your website, turns on incognito mode and returns to your website, they will not be counted as a return visitor, but rather a new visitor. This is similar to what would happen if a user actively clears his or her cookies.
Q. Can I look at my Google Analytics reports in Google Chrome?
A. Yes, definitely. Google Analytics reports look beautiful and load nice and fast in Google Chrome!
Q. Will I see Google Chrome listed as a browser in my Google Analytics reports?
A. Yes, very soon. We'll let you know immediately once the change happens.
For more information about why we built Google Chrome, see our Google blog post.
Google Chrome and AdWords
Today, we announced the beta version of a new open source web browser: Google Chrome. Google Chrome features a simple and intuitive user interface and an entirely new architecture designed for speed, security, and stability while browsing the Internet. For more information on why we built Google Chrome, please take a look at the Official Google Blog.
We want you to know that Google Chrome should not have an impact on your AdWords campaigns.
Google Chrome uses the same open source rendering engine as Apple's Safari browser (WebKit), so your landing pages and sites should appear in Google Chrome as they do in Apple Safari. The way users interact with ads and sites should be similar as well.
You can learn more about Google Chrome on the features page; or try it yourself at the download page.
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