Sharing Our Favorite Custom Segments

Analysts often consider an aggregated view of their visitors when assessing reports in Google Analytics. Every visitor is assumed to be of the same type. But, looking at the information in an aggregated form is not nearly as useful as assessing the data for individual audience segments. Different types of visitors - whether new, returning, organic, paid, and so on - behave very differently and have vastly different expectations. The ability to understand what each of them wants, and how to cater to them, is important towards building a successful online presence.

Google Analytics makes it easy to segment your audience with advanced segments. Google Analytics includes a number of predefined advanced segments (e.g. new visitors, paid search visitors, iphone users) that you can take advantage of immediately. More importantly, however, you can create custom advanced segments tailored to your own specific needs.

One of the new Google Analytics features announced in October is the ability to share custom advanced segments with other users across accounts. Using this feature, I'll share links to my favorite custom segments that you can use too. Head over to the Solutions for Southeast Asia blog to learn more and for links to the following segments.

* Bounced visits

* Visits that dropped out of the funnel

* Brand keyword visits

* Brand keyword (organic) visits

* Brand keyword (paid) visits

* Non-brand keyword visits

* Non-brand (organic) visits

* Non-brand (paid) visits

* Visits from Country X

* First-time buy visits

* Return visit buys

Read the full article here.

Posted by Vinoaj Vijeyakumaar, Customer Solutions Engineer

Friday...is it YOUR day?

Greetings!

Today is Friday... I have several sayings that I ALWAYS use on Friday--

• Happy Friday! and, 
• Hey its Friday, it cannot be all bad!

I share these because today is a special Friday...the last one of the month, and it signals also the start to the last month of the 1st quarter.

So...are you where you thought you would be with:

• New deposits? 
• New loans?  
• New customers/members?  
• Retention?
• Overall profitability?

If not...TODAY should be the start to a revisit to your strategic marketing plan and tactics.  Ask yourself:  What is working and why?  What is not working and why?  Who can we better engage to ensure increased success?  What can we do better/faster/stronger tomorrow?

These answers will help you chart a different course starting BEFORE the end of the 1st quarter.  I am sure you have heard of the term "running rate."  When I was at Bank One, that was one of the most important concepts that we tracked.  It has everything to do with where you are today in relation to where you want to be, where you expected to be and what the environment is allowing you to be.  Said succinctly, it means...are you ahead of the 8-ball?

Your running rate should be ramping up....yes, the economy is still shallow.  Yes, the industry has had some regulatory changes recently enacted.  Yes, competition is as hot as ever.  HOWEVER, there are story after story of banks and CUs bucking the trend and making the decision to NOT participate in the recession or downturn. They are simply willing their way through... National Bank and Trust, a community bank in Ohio (and in full disclosure a client) saw their lending increase 40% last year...yes, I said INCREASE.

You CAN make it happen...with the will, energy and perhaps assistance of others.  The 1st step...deciding that you CAN do it!!

Here's to a GREAT Friday...and a Friday that you will look back to and say, that is the day I changed!!

Cheers!

Bruce Clapp

Traffic improvements and new name for Google Ad Planner

Every day, thousands of AdWords advertisers use Google Ad Planner to research websites and select where to advertise online. We're continuing to improve this tool in order to provide the deepest, most accurate insight into online audiences possible.

To that end, we've improved how Ad Planner calculates site traffic by over 10%, and we've changed its name to DoubleClick Ad Planner. Visit the DoubleClick blog to read more about the traffic improvements and the new name.

You don't need to be a DoubleClick customer to use the newly renamed DoubleClick Ad Planner as the tool remains free and open for everyone. You can continue to access it at: www.google.com/adplanner.

If you haven't used Ad Planner, we invite you to give it a try. We think you'll find it to be a powerful research and media planning tool that makes it easy to find your audience and create well-informed media plans.

Posted by Emily Williams, Inside AdWords crew

Master Class In Singapore And Kuala Lumpur

Are you ready for a Google Analytics Master class, happening Tuesday, 9 March in Singapore and again on Thursday March 11 in Kuala Lumpur? We bet you are, and we bet, as seekers of data and truth, you ask, what makes it a Master class? And why so far away from Mountain View, CA?

Well, you know how proud we are of how global Google Analytics has become. But this is a special class because it's run by the Google Analytics and Website Optimizer team in Southeast Asia, spearheaded by the excellent Vinoaj Vijeyakumaar, Customer Solutions Engineer, Google Southeast Asia, who manages the Southeast Asia blog. He's an engineer's engineer, and has organized a great day of sessions, including a keynote by Beth Liebert, Google Analytics product manager here in Mountain View who has helped launch a bunch of great features, including Motion Charts.

There will be a session on Website Optimizer of course, and a full day of talks by both specialists on the Google team both from here in Mountain View and also from Southeast Asia, as well as local partners who have great case studies from the region and techniques anyone can, and should, use.

Take a look at the agenda and register if you're in the area. It will be worth the time.

• Singapore: https://sites.google.com/site/analyticsmasterclass/singapore
• Kuala Lumpur: https://sites.google.com/site/analyticsmasterclass/malaysia

Posted by Jeff Gillis, Google Analytics Team

Relevance in Hispanic Print: Implications for Marketers

I have been thinking about the growing importance of Hispanic youth in the United States and how these young people are being served by the media. It is puzzling to think about ways in which print publications can be truly Hispanic in character and at the same time relevant to the culture and the growing segment of young Hispanic people educated in the United States.
I have been receiving a complimentary subscription to "Café Latino Lifestyle Magazine." Reading it recently I was struck by a partial answer to my question above. The cover of the last issue I saw featured "BlackTino: Children of mixed marriages define their own identity." I am interested in the topic because cross-cultural marriages and couples are on the rise, but also because there are many Hispanics from Latin America that are of African background. That I thought was an item of interest to those of us who share a Latin background in the United States. It speaks of our diversity.
Another article in the magazine was about the controversy of whether or not the US Census 2010 should be boycotted by Hispanics. The balanced views reported in the story were very informative to me and definitely a topic of importance to all of us. Other articles were about Santeria, Latino online dating, coming of age among Latinas, and many others. All of them of interest to me and even though many of the articles are directed to a younger profile.
Café is published in Chicago and it is in English. So, I thought, perhaps the key issue about Hispanic oriented print in the US is relevance to our current lives, and the language could be Spanish or English depending on the preference and ability of the reader. But, again, relevance seems to be the key point, particularly cultural relevance.
Marketers should pay attention to the issue of relevance. Are the publications in which they are advertising relevant to the lives of the consumers they cater to? Being Hispanic/Latino in the United States is a unique EXPERIENCE. Serving the needs of that experience and identity creates relevance. Relevance sells publications. Advertising in those publications, if also relevant, can be successful in connecting with us.

Go Mobile! Series: Join us for a free mobile webinar

The Internet is going mobile. Every week, tens of millions of people search on Google from their mobile phones and generate hundreds of millions of searches. Using mobile ads, you can reach these consumers while they're on-the-go.

Please join us for an upcoming webinar about what we're seeing in the mobile ad space and how you can incorporate mobile advertising into your marketing strategy.

Specifically, we'll cover how you can:

* Understand mobile trends and what they mean for your business

* Drive consumer action online and in the store

* Optimize your strategy for the mobile platform

Register here for the webinar to be held on March 2, 2010 at 11:00am PST / 1:00pm CST / 2:00pm EST.

Posted by Katrina Kurnit, Inside AdWords crew

​Upcoming System Upgrade for Greater Scalability & Reliability

​Within the next two weeks, Google Analytics will be performing a system upgrade. This upgrade is to further increase the scalability and reliability of Google Analytics to meet the demand of an increasing number of enterprises using Google Analytics. Rest assured your website traffic data will be unaffected and there will be no interruption to data collection or processing. All reports will be available and accessible to users. However, for some limited hours, users will not be able to perform administrative account actions such as opening new accounts, creating or modifying profiles, setting up filters and goals, managing user access, etc. The specific system upgrade times will be posted in the Google Analytics administrative interface. If you anticipate a need to make account changes during the next two weeks we encourage you to make them as soon as possible to ensure smooth operations during the system upgrade.

We are proud to see the continued growth in Google Analytics and are committed to delivering the unparalled reliability and scalability that users have come to expect from products running on Google’s globally renowned infrastructure.

P.S. Google Website Optimizer will also be undergoing a system upgrade. All running experiments will continue to run and collect data. However users will be unable to create or modify experiments. Read more on the Website Optimizer blog.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Google Analytics Team

Now Implementing Updated U.S. and Canada Pharmacy Policy

We want to let you know that the changes to our pharmacy policy in the U.S. and Canada will start to go into effect today.

As we explained a couple weeks ago, this update means that Google AdWords will only accept advertisements from VIPPS and CIPA certified pharmacies, and that these pharmacies can only target ads within the countries where they are accredited.

To ensure that users see the most relevant and useful ads possible, pharmaceutical manufacturers and VIPPS and CIPA certified pharmacies will be allowed to run on prescription drug and pharmaceutical-related keywords.

For more information about this updated policy, please see this link: http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=7463

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

New York Times Attacks Chase Bank's First Reg E Communication

Chase Bank has already begun communication around Regulation E, and the New York Times (and more than 50 additional media outlets) are reacting quickly with a review of their direct marketing testing in an article titled, "Banks Apply Pressure to Keep Fees Rolling In". The article made special note of the part of the Chase mailing that stated, “Your debit card may not work the same way anymore, even if you just made a deposit. Unless we hear from you.” According to the NYT, the mailing continues to warn (in big red type), “If you don’t contact us, your everyday debit card transactions that overdraw your account will not be authorized after August 15, 2010 — even in an emergency,” with 'even in an emergency' underlined. Additional toned down versions of communication are also being tested by Chase, including a postcard that simply asks customers to be ready for future ways to say yes to debit card overdraft coverage.


As expected, the article positions the mail in a somewhat biased manner as the first in a series of heavy handed customer communications from banks across the country to maintain the high level of fee income currently generated. While the article references many industry marketing experts, most are quoted around how they are helping banks get customers to opt-in as opposed to referencing the experts who have done research around why consumers do not want OD coverage to cease.

From this initial outcry, it is apparent that banks will need to be careful as to the way they balance the communication of education around Regulation E with the desire for the most impacted households to continue to be covered. The New York Times article also illustrates the pressure our industry will feel in the coming months around the fees we charge for these services.

How to Avoid Death by Meetings

Have you ever fallen asleep during a meeting? You know the type of meeting I’m talking about. Someone talks for what seems like hours about a topic that has nothing to do with the project that needs discussing. Or, the meeting was progressing well and then somehow takes a detour and never gets back on track. Or, there is no agenda for the meeting. Did you know that these unpleasant meetings can be avoided? The solution can be simple: determine the meeting’s objective, assign a meeting organizer, create an agenda, and set start and end times for the meeting.

When someone has the task of organizing or coordinating a meeting, all of a sudden, there is meeting ownership. With ownership, the meeting assumes importance – it is not just a weekly meeting where people gather for coffee and conversation. With importance, there is an objective for the meeting. Something needs to be accomplished, and the management team or project team has determined that a gathering of a project’s contributors is the best way to accomplish the objective.

As a meeting organizer, know the purpose of your meeting. Have you assembled attendees to brainstorm and debate or just sit and listen? Is the meeting’s purpose to solve a tactical problem or a more significant strategic issue? Or share schedules or review weekly activities? Or discuss the competitive landscape or team development? Have you planned how to engage attendees in the first 5 or 10 minutes so that they understand the meeting’s objective and how they can best contribute? Don’t allow people to cause strife in the name of being a “devil’s advocate” – if challenging perspectives are discussed, make sure that there are reasons behind the perspectives. If time is not being spent wisely during the meeting, it is the organizer’s job to re-focus (e.g., someone talks and talks and talks – but not on point). While everyone may think a meeting is successful if it ends early, the true sign of a successful meeting is if it ends with clarity and commitment from attendees. Of course, if you want the meeting to end really quickly, you could remove all of the chairs from the room – just kidding. Lastly, keep track of commitments and next steps – don’t let people leave the meeting without stating the next steps.

As a meeting attendee, here are some ways to be more productive and engaged. Review the meeting agenda in advance and prepare questions at the beginning of the meeting. Make sure that administrative, tactical, and strategic aspects of a project are all discussed. Don’t assume any aspects of a project – this is when errors and miscommunication can occur. If time constraints end a meeting early, follow up with the meeting organizer or project leader with any unanswered questions.

While meetings are part of everyone’s business life, perhaps, we should think of them as adventures. Sometimes, we encounter something new and learn, but in the process, we are fully awake and engaged.

AdWords Comparison Ads - Credit Card Test in the UK

You may recall that towards the end of 2009, we began testing a new feature called AdWords Comparison Ads. This feature lets users compare multiple relevant offers with ease, and it provides advertisers with a new sophisticated and flexible cost per lead format. Speed is of the essence for many users, so we've made sure that Comparison Ads shows targeted offers in less than a second.

The initial test covered mortgage-related queries in the US. Today, we're delighted to announce that the test is being extended to cover credit card-related queries in the UK and that some major issuers have signed up to be part of the initial run.

(click for full size image)

Comparison Ads improves the ad experience on Google by letting users specify exactly what they're looking for and helping them quickly compare relevant offers side by side. There are no long forms for users to fill in, and Comparison Ads will not send advertisers any personally identifiable user information (in fact, we don't send any user information at all unless the user explicitly applies for an advertiser's offer).

It's part of our continuing effort to make ads more relevant and useful to our users and to help you, our advertisers, reach the people who are most interested in your products and services.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

Web Analytics TV Episode #6 with Avinash and Nick

This is the sixth edition of Web Analytics TV with with a dash of Nick and Nash! In this series you share your most burning questions via the Google Analytics Google Moderator site and we answer them! And, here is the list of last weeks questions.

We love hearing from you and thank all the folks who rated last weeks comments.

In this episode we discuss:

• What you can do if you get spammed pageviews in your Analytics Account.
• How to collect ecommerce tracking variables on 3rd party shopping carts.
• Issues with maintaining campaign information with 3rd party shopping carts.
• How do links from competitors show up in your referring sources site?
• How to find Singapore in the Google Analytics map overlay.
• How to see referring URLs in the campaign report.
• How Google Analytics treats conversions from multiple sources in the same visit.
• Why certain referrals like search can have a number of pageviews but 0 visits.
• Computing page influence to conversion and the Google Analytics $Index metric.
• How events effect and sometimes lower the bounce rate.

Here are links to resources we discussed in the video:

• Google Analytics Authorized Consultants (GAACs) whom you can hire to solve problems with Google Analytics implementations.
  
• Tracking transactions in Google Analytics with 3rd party shopping carts.
  
• Tracking across domains with Google Analytics.
  
• Sebastien describes how to see the full referral URL in Google Analytics.
  
• Patrick Altoft describes one way to track first click attribution in Google Analytics.
  
• Link to the Data Export API.

If you found this helpful, we'd love to hear your comments.

If you have a question you would like us to answer, please submit a question or vote for your favorite question in our public Google Moderator site. Avinash and I will answer them in a couple of weeks with yet another Nick and Nash video.

Thanks!

Posted by Nick Mihailovski, Google Analytics Team

Segment Your Customer Base For Reg E Communications

The recent changes to Reg. E, impacting how financial institutions can levy fees for overdrafts caused by one time debit card or ATM transaction, have created a period of both challenge and opportunity for financial institutions. Due to the almost certain negative impact on a bank’s fee revenue and potential customer confusion about this new regulation, it is important to be able to effectively and efficiently implement these new requirements, maximizing account holder opt-in responses while providing a positive customer experience.

In this month's ABA Bank Marketing Magazine, Robert Giltner from Velocity Solutions suggests that financial institutions should start their communications process with a mass mail and email campaign to all customers explaining the new regulation. While I agree that all customers should be provided a clear understanding of their options, I don't agree that an all encompassing direct mailing should be done from a cost perspective.

Every customer should not be treated the same. Research shows that while most customers do not like the fees associated with overdrafts, there is a percentage that rely on overdraft coverage to meet current expenses or avoid embarrassment caused by inadequate record-keeping. To achieve the highest possible opt-in response at the lowest possible cost, I believe a segmented and integrated communications process should be used, leveraging multiple communication and response channels and focusing resources where they will have the greatest impact.

Instead of treating all account holders the same, most financial institutions I have talked to will be communicating most aggressively to the 10-15% of the customers who have the highest incidence of overdrafts, connecting with those households that the FDIC found to be the highest users (and fee generators) in their 2008 Study of Bank Overdraft Programs.

Some firms are even trying to determine which owner on an account is responsible for the majority of the overdrafts. By using all available communication channels (direct mail, statement inserts, email, POS, phone, and branch level communication), banks are hoping to communicate the benefits of opting-in to the customer, thereby minimizing the fee income impact of the regulation while improving the customer experience. The majority of the customers who do not overdraft their accounts will be more efficiently reached using a series of statement inserts, statement messages, branch level POS, ATM messaging, email, etc as opposed to postal mail.

I believe the most difficult challenge may be after the regulation takes effect in August, when customers who were not frequent overdrafters experience their first rejected ATM transaction or debit card purchase.

Go Mobile! Series: Targeting options to make your mobile ads relevant

Last week, we showed you how to use Google Analytics to understand how mobile visitors interact with your website. We also showed you how to use that information to optimize your AdWords campaigns. This week, we'll show you how you can tailor your campaigns to reach the most relevant mobile audience.

What mobile device are they using?

Ensure that your ad is only displayed to the right mobile audience. For example, if you sell iPhone accessories, your ad is likely not relevant to Android device owners. With advanced mobile device targeting options, you can ensure that only users with an iPhone, as seen in this example, will see your ad.

(click for full size image)

Where are they located?

With Google Analytics, you can also see where your mobile traffic is coming from. If you notice that a lot of visits are coming from a place where you have a physical business location, you may want to display your business address or phone number alongside your ads. This makes your ads more relevant. It also provides mobile customers with the ability to click to call your business from within your text ad so they can take action right away.

(click for full size image)

We hope these tips help you mobile-ize your campaigns to help you reach the right audience while they're on-the-go.

Posted by Katrina Kurnit, Inside AdWords crew

Are you a trusted marketing director?

Banks are going through a trainload of change right now. The biggest fallout from the banking crisis is, of course, more regulation for all financial institutions. At the marketing level, new, stiffer ad disclosure requirements, opt-in overdraft rules, and many more changes are keeping us up at night just to keep up with it all.
The question is: Is your bank looking to you for help, for answers, for ideas? Have you studied the impact of these new regulations on your bank's bottom line? Have you looked for strategies that will help your bank close the gap on income in 2010-2011?
Many banks are projecting that NSF fee income will be down; I have seen projections anywhere from 25% to 60% from last year. For many community banks, this represents a significant source of fee income and impact to the bottom line. What is that number for your bank? Have you chatted with your CFO about it? Have you built in strategies in your marketing plan to replace lost fees or other revenue? Or are you waiting for senior management to tell you what to do?
The answer to that question determines how you will be percieved as a leader at your bank.... or not. Leaders step up, inquire, research, discuss, and then offer insights, strategies, and plans to help close the gaps. Followers wait to be told what to do next.
If you are looking to have more influence with the leaders at your bank, become a part of the team and a part of the solution to today's issues. It will pay off for you many times in the days to come.
If you are looking for assistance in creating your White Knight plan, we are always ready to help.
Are you stepping up?
Have a great weekend and stay warm.
Sharon

AdWords system maintenance on February 20th

On Saturday, February 20th, 2010 the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 10AM to 2PM PST, 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 10AM to 2PM.

We'll continue to update you via the blog as we always have, but please make note of the February 20th date and of our scheduled maintenance further down the road.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

Powerful, Flexible, Secure and now approved by the US Federal Government

This week, the US federal General Services Administration (GSA) has approved listing Google Analytics in its apps.gov web site, which is a place for government agencies and services to find approved cloud computing applications. It's goal is to drive innovation and adoption of cloud-based apps in the government, and Google and the GSA have worked together to ensure that Google Analytics is compatible with the needs of US Federal agencies (e.g., Department of Homeland Security, NASA, FCC, and others).

We are very proud of and humbled by this listing and excited by the potential opportunities to serve US federal agencies and help them monitor and improve their website experiences. We understand that working with US Federal agencies includes a responsibility to protect our users and we would like to take this opportunity to further explain how seriously Google Analytics takes data security and protecting data privacy for our users, as detailed in our Terms of Service.

As an enterprise-class web analytics solution, Google Analytics not only provides site owners with information on their website traffic and marketing effectiveness, it also does so with high regard for protecting user data privacy. Privacy and security are core elements of Google's design and development processes, and we're proud to pass that benefit on to users of Google Analytics. Google's security philosophy is outlined here, and Google's commitment to protecting the information stored on its computer systems is outlined in the Google Code of Conduct.

We're gratified that the US Federal GSA has approved the listing of Google Analytics in its apps.gov site. We will continue to work hard to ensure that we earn this approval in the years ahead.

Posted by Phil Mui, Sr. Product Manager, Google Analytics

Capital One Continues to Innovate

Historically an aggressive marketer and innovator in the credit card industry, Captital One has expanded its reach in recent years, using their growing banking franchise as the foundation for introducing innovative banking products. In addition to having a relatively rich debit rewards program and expanding into online and small business banking, they have recently introduced a new savings product called "InterestPlus Online Savings".

The saving program offers an above market interest rate on balances over $2,500 in addition to a 10% quarterly interest bonus payment paid if the customer uses their Capital One credit card once a month.
The bonus can also be earned if the customer maintains a minimum balance of $15,000 each month. The bonus for using the credit card is similar to other promotions done by Captial One in the past 12-18 months to cross-sell services and relationships off their credit card foundation.

The promotion of the new service began in December of last year through the bank's web site, statement inserts, direct mail and with email according to Comperemedia. Using strong visual elements such as comparative bar graphs and icon buttons similar to what I have seen with ING mailings, it is clear that Capital One plans to leverage their strong marketing talents from the credit card industry in building a strong bank brand.

NPR: "More Americans Considering Community Banks"

NPR, today aired a segment on the movement towards community banks.

Click here to listen to the 4 minute segment from WBEZ.

Have you prepared? This radio segment brings up the outstanding point that, although consumers may WANT to move their money ... the reality is that they still live busy lives and changing banks is perceived as a difficult process.

Set Up A Switch Process

At the minimum, have a Switch Kit online.

Better yet, take advantage of this opportunity to provide an EXPERIENCE. Have a process where your staff can manage the switch for the new customer.

• Help the customer identify ACH accounts and know where to send the forms
• Know the contact info for all of your competition to help the customer more quickly send the Close Account form
• Have a form ready for the customer to simply hand to their HR department for direct deposit transfer
• Train your staff on the importance of this new relationship. A happy checking customer is statistically significantly more likely to have loans and other accounts with you
• Help the new customer set up Online Banking at the branch

With the right process in place, you can overcome the primary purchase hurdle to opening a new checking account, provide a greater opportunity for your staff to cross sell, and provide a service to your new customers that they will tell their friends about!

If you don't have time to prepare the information for your staff, there are third party companies who can quickly pull together data on your specific marketplace.

Take care,

Eric

Births vs. Immigration: The New Hispanic Marketing Challenge

A review of the US Bureau of the Census data shows that the increase of the US Hispanic population is now highly driven by births rather than immigration contrary to past patterns. The following table contains data from the 2008 American Community Survey of the US Bureau of the Census. It documents the nativity of US Hispanics by sex and age:

             

	United States
	Estimate	Margin of Error
Total:	46,891,456	+/-9,624
Male:	24,212,122	+/-16,057
Under 18 years:	8,220,903	+/-13,936
Native	7,490,109	+/-19,984
Foreign born	730,794	+/-16,404
18 years and over:	15,991,219	+/-15,020
Native	7,176,917	+/-46,524
Foreign born	8,814,302	+/-45,693
Female:	22,679,334	+/-14,633
Under 18 years:	7,830,965	+/-13,884
Native	7,153,178	+/-17,166
Foreign born	677,787	+/-13,499
18 years and over:	14,848,369	+/-9,444
Native	7,260,473	+/-37,848
Foreign born	7,587,896	+/-39,217

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2008 American Community Survey

While the above figures are unlikely to include all undocumented individuals, it provides directional guidance as to the developments in US Hispanic growth. All Latinos in the US under 18, males and females were at the time of the study 34% of the population, an impressive proportion that further emphasizes the youth of this market. 

Within those under 18 years of age, a staggering 91% were native born, and that provides a good indication of what type of growth to expect in the near future. Sixty-six percent were those 18 years of age and older. Among that older segment 53% were foreign born. While foreign born are still the adult majority, the obvious likelihood is that they will suffer further declines in favor of their native born counterparts. 

Marketing implications include:

- Young people will become more influential in purchase decision for the household as these US born kids have more experience with US products and services and the overall consumer landscape.

- These young people will claim a new identity that marketers will need to understand if they are to touch their feelings and thoughts. This new identity will be the product of roots from Latin America, influences from the US, and the synergy of living a Latino life in the United States.

- These overwhelming changes in population trends should compel media content producers, advertisers, and marketers to better cater to a new emergent way of being.

Mobile Banking Popular Among Smart Phone Users

According to the "Mobile Money Study" published last month by Data Innovation Network almost 70% of US smartphone users had used at least one mobile banking and/or payment service on their phone in the previous three months.

As has been found in previous studies and reinforced by Doug Brown from Bank of America at last year's BAI Retail Delivery Conference in Boston, the Mobile Money Study found that checking account balances was the most popular banking application (82%) followed by looking for posted transactions (62%). Account alert features were also popular (46%), with roughly 40% of those surveyed transferring money between accounts.


Interestingly, an overwhelming majority of smartphone users accessed mobile banking using their mobile browser (66%) as opposed to a mobile app (20%), with a large number of respondents interested in a mobile wallet concept where they could swipe their phone like a credit or debit card. This possibility was also found to be popular with a Gen Y panel when I attended last year's BAI Transpay Conference in San Diego.

As the penetration of smartphones continues to increase, consumers will become more and more comfortable with and demanding of mobile banking services. I expect the availability and ease of use of mobile banking to become a significant competitive differentiator in the coming 12-18 months for financial institutions.

Streamlined analysis tools in your Campaigns tab

Over the last several months, we've been introducing new ways to analyze and segment your campaign data. As we continue to introduce more data types, we want to make sure that it's easy for you to access these reporting controls. That's why we've introduced a new analysis toolbar in the Campaigns tab of your account. This toolbar consolidates key functionality from the "Filter and views" and "More actions" menus, and appears at the top of each of your data tables:

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You can use the toolbar to quickly apply a filter to the data you're viewing or customize the columns on each tab. You can also gain important insights into performance across different networks or time periods by using the "Segment" option:

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Controls to show or hide paused or deleted campaigns and ad groups are also now available in this toolbar:

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Just like the integration of the popular Search Query and Placement Performance Reports in the Campaigns tab, our hope is that this new toolbar will further streamline reporting and help you to get the most out of your AdWords data and your advertising campaigns.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

Need Loans? Create a Need.

Remember Cash for Clunkers?

Beginning in March, the government will begin Cash for Appliances.

Many states will be offering rebates for energy efficient appliance upgrades. Like "Cash for Clunkers," this program will only last as long as the funds do.

Click here to learn about the rebate program in your state.

Sure, it's not a $300,000 mortgage, but in an environment where every loan dollar is precious, offering customer education on the program and an unsecured $5,000 loan for new, energy efficient appliances now may yield you some incremental loan dollars and a new loan customer in the future when they have additional needs.

Happy lending,

Eric

Bid ideas now in the Opportunities tab

Over the past few months, you may have visited the Opportunities tab to get customized keyword and budget ideas for optimizing your account. Now we're adding more functionality to the Opportunities tab with the introduction of bid ideas. Bid ideas, based on bid simulator data, will help you raise or lower your bids on specific keywords to improve your AdWords ROI. Whether you wish to decrease overall costs or increase traffic to your website, customized bid ideas can help you determine exactly which bids to adjust to make the most of your advertising budget.

You’ll see bid ideas in your account if we determine there's an opportunity for you to:

• receive significant additional clicks without a significant increase in cost
• save money without sacrificing a lot of clicks

Bid ideas will be visible in some accounts starting today, and available in all accounts in the coming weeks.

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Bid ideas are shown with their estimated cost, impression, and click impact. When you click on a bid idea, you'll see a graph showing clicks versus cost for a range of bid amounts. The graph will include your keyword's current bid (marked in gray) and the proposed bid (marked in yellow). If you're raising a bid, consider whether the extra clicks and impressions are worth the potential added cost. If you're decreasing a bid, consider whether the saved cost is worth the potential loss of clicks and impressions.

The estimates you see are variations on your past performance over the last 7 days and are not attempts to predict or estimate future performance. Also, traffic patterns are always subject to fluctuation, so keep in mind that your future performance may shift over time. If you have reason to believe that next week's traffic will be significantly different from the last week, due to seasonal reasons for example, then it's a good idea to incorporate that information when selecting your bids.

While this tool doesn't know enough about your advertising goals to make a recommendation of which specific bid is best for you, it does provide useful data and gives you bid ideas to consider. We suggest that you use the data we provide to gain insight into how different bids could affect your performance. If you'd like even more information on bid ideas, including information on how they're generated, you can read our detailed article in the AdWords Help Center.

You should think of the Opportunities tab as your homepage for account optimization. You can view all your customized optimization ideas in one place, allowing you to make informed decisions before adjusting your account. We suggest checking the Opportunities tab every few weeks to look for new ideas. Continue to look out for new features in the coming months as we work to make the Opportunities tab an even more robust resource.

Posted by Miles Johnson, Inside AdWords crew

Are you following the Toyota saga?

If you watch the news, read the paper or listen to radio, no doubt you are aware of the public relations nightmare that Toyota has faced the last several weeks. Once the hallmark of quality, recent problem after problem leading to 8.5 million cars being recalled has severely damaged a reputation for quality Toyota built up over the last 25 years.

Toyota stock has fallen approximately 22% during this time period. The company has provided fodder for several nights of Leno and Letterman and now owners are even contacting their insurance companies to make sure their Toyota is covered in an accident.

Hyundai, Ford, GM, etc. have all been the beneficiary of this horrible publicity. Sales spiked in January for most of Toyota's competitors.

Can Toyota recover from this mess? No doubt Toyota will solve all their qualtiy problems and return to building a quality product. But will Toyota ever regain the reputation that it once enjoyed? My guess is that Toyota will get it's stellar reputation back but it will take several years. In the interim, Toyota's problems represent a "significant opportunity" for the american automobile industry.

What is the point of my blog?

First, the big banks have all had their reputations damaged. Irresponsible investments, huge bonuses, irresponsible lending, etc. have given the big banks a real "black eye." There has never been a better opportunity for community banks and credit unions to take core deposits from the big banks.

How will your institution respond? Are you investing in the people, products, technology, marketing, etc. that will enable you to capitalize on this opportunity?

Second, just like Toyota, the reputation of the big banks will be restored over time. They will spend millions of dollars on advertising to restore their image, they will poor money into supporting community projects in the markets they serve and they will continue to invest in people, products, technology, marketing, etc..

Point being, the window of opportunity for community banks and credit unions will not be open forever. The time to respond in now!

Have a great week/weekend!

Mike Witsken

PS - I am slowly getting over my Colts Super Bowl loss and already looking forward to next season.

This Valentine's Day, Break Up With Your Big Bank

This is funny, click here.

Targeting New Movers for Enhanced Growth

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the national mover rate declined from 13.2% in 2007 to 11.9% in 2008 - the lowest rate of moves on record. Still, over 30 million people changed residences during this one year period, representing a powerful opportunity for new customer growth. In fact, even though the demographics of movers has skewed younger, with a higher percentage of renters moving, this segment continues to outperform all other prospect universes from a new customer acquisition perspective.

While many of my clients continue to focus on checking offers for the new mover segment, more banks are realizing the benefits of promoting products such as money market accounts and even equity credit and investment services.
This is because people tend to more thoroughly evaluate their financial position during the three months surrounding their move, with more than 50% changing and/or opening new financial relationships during this period. It is believed that the process of portfolio evaluation has even increased over the past 18-24 months as the mortgage process has become more stringent.

The keys to reaching this transitional segment include; 1) being first in the mailbox of the new mover after their move when there is less competing clutter, 2) building a system for efficient and ongoing processing of new names and delivery of offers, and 3) measuring the impact of your new movers program and testing offers and timing.

Historically, many retailers such as Bed, Bath and Beyond, Pottery Barn, and local welcome wagon programs filled mailboxes with postcard format offers immediately after a household's move. Recently, however, many of these same retailers are opting to send much larger catalogue style communications 1-3 weeks after a move is completed. I also have seen some financial firms improve their ROI by using Standard Class mail as opposed to First Class since the difference in delivery dates by the post office has narrowed significantly over the past few years while the difference in cost has skyrocketed.

If a new movers program is not part of your neighborhood marketing process, you are leaving money on the table and losing out on a great opportunity for account and relationship growth. As the mover rate begins to rebound over time, a strategy for reaching this transitional segment will pay off.

Go Mobile! Series: Optimize for mobile with Google Analytics

Understanding who visits your website is important when developing your AdWords campaigns. In this post, we'll show you how you can use Google Analytics to analyze your website traffic and optimize your AdWords campaigns.

Who's coming to your site?

More and more users are accessing regular websites through mobile phones with full internet browsers. These users may be looking for different information or want to take a specific action more quickly than those who visit from a desktop computer. Do you know how many are visiting your site from mobile devices?

You can easily find out with Google Analytics by looking at the Mobile Devices report in the Visitors reporting section. If most of your traffic is coming from the iPhone and Android operating systems, ensure your AdWords campaigns are reaching that same audience by checking that your AdWords campaign settings are enabled to show on iPhones and similar devices.

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What are they looking for?

Google Analytics helps you see which search keywords drove the most traffic to your website from mobile devices. Simply select "Keyword" as the secondary dimension on your Mobile Device report to see what they're looking for. You can then take advantage of these keywords by setting up a separate mobile campaign and including mobile-targeted ad copy.

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Where do they go?

Customers on-the-go may be looking for different information on your website than customers who are at a desktop computer. Within Google Analytics, you can see exactly what mobile customers are doing differently on your website. Simply create an Advanced Segment for mobile devices and apply it to the Content reports. You can then optimize your AdWords campaigns by setting up mobile-specific campaigns with a different landing page URL. For example, if the top visited page for mobile users is the Store Locator page of your website, you may want to choose that URL as your landing page.

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Get Started

We hope these tips are useful to help you Go Mobile! To get started with Google Analytics, visit www.google.com/analytics.

Posted by Emily Williams, Inside AdWords crew