Seminars for Success in 2009

Seminars for Success, our in-person trainings for AdWords, Analytics, and Website Optimizer, are continuing in 2009 with a few enhancements.

First, each AdWords seminar will now devote a portion of time to address online advertising in a down economy. We hope this new section will be especially relevant and helpful to your current business. Second, we've created a two-day format for the Advanced seminar so we can cover more topics and provide more time for questions and examples. Our new, advanced seminars are AdWords 301: Advanced Account Optimization and AdWords 302: Advanced Conversion Optimization. Check out the course descriptions for more information on both seminars.

In the coming months we'll be offering Seminars for Success in the following cities:

AdWords
January 19-20: San Francisco Bay Area, CA - AdWords 101: Beginner and AdWords 201: Intermediate
January 22-23: Phoenix, AZ - AdWords 301: Advanced Account Optimization and AdWords 302: Advanced Conversion Optimization
January 28-29: Austin, TX - AdWords 301: Advanced Account Optimization and AdWords 302: Advanced Conversion Optimization
February 11-12: Vancouver, BC - AdWords 301: Advanced Account Optimization and AdWords 302: Advanced Conversion Optimization
February 12-13: Fort Lauderdale, FL - AdWords 101: Beginner and AdWords 201: Intermediate
February 19-20: San Diego, CA - AdWords 301: Advanced Account Optimization and AdWords 302: Advanced Conversion Optimization

Analytics
January 21-22: Las Vegas, NV - Analytics: Introduction and Analytics: Advanced
February 12-13: San Jose, CA - Analytics: Introduction and Analytics: Advanced
February 17-18: Atlanta, GA - Analytics: Introduction and Analytics: Advanced

Website Optimizer
January 23: Las Vegas, NV - Website Optimizer Seminar
February 11: San Jose, CA - Website Optimizer Seminar

If you sign up for seminars at least seven days in advance we'll even throw in a $50 AdWords credit (view the terms and conditions of advertising credits).

For more information about Seminars for Success, including registration details, course outlines, and past attendees' comments, please visit http://www.google.com/awseminars.

Posted by Amanda Kelly, Inside AdWords crew

Eyes on the Prize with Custom Reports

We've been taking an in-depth look at some of the new enterprise-class features that were recently launched in Google Analytics, and we're proud to present the next installment. This one relates to Custom Reports.

Custom Reports are like super reports. You can spend literally five minutes building one and feel like you've just built your own metrics dashboard. Building a tailored report is easy and it feels great! It means quicker access to the information you care about, less data overload, and easy sharing with colleagues. Let's dig into some of the details.

A few quick definitions

So, you're going to be building your report by columns and rows, just like a regular report. What do you want to put in the columns and rows? We've classified everything in Google Analytics in two ways: Metrics or Dimensions. In truth, you don't need to really understand the difference, because every data point is easy to find on the left of the custom report building screen. But a rich understanding always helps, so here's an explanation:

Metric (columns)

A metric is a quantitative measure of how visitors interact with your site. Metrics include things like pageviews (the number of times visitors viewed a page), time on page (the amount of time they spent looking at a page), and bounce rate (the percent of visitors that leave your site after only 1 page). The important thing to remember here is that metrics are always numerical. Metrics will be your column headings, horizontally across the top of your report.

Dimension (rows)

A dimension is a characteristic of a visitor or a page on your website that you can use to organize your metrics. Dimensions are almost always text, such as "new" vs "returning" (visitor type) or "North America" vs "Europe" (region). Dimensions will make up the rows in your report and will let you drill-down to multiple levels of detail (e.g. you can click on "Google" to learn more about that referring site).

How to create a custom report

1) Navigate to the custom report page.



2) Build your report

We put together this video to give you step by step instructions on how to create your first custom report.



For more detailed instructions on how to build a report, visit the help center.

When to use custom reports

Custom reports are most useful when you have to combine metrics and dimensions that are not combined in other standard reports, or when you want to simplify an existing report by removing data that's not relevant. Here are some of the things that custom reports let you do.

• COMBINE METRICS FROM MULTIPLE REPORTS - Custom Reports let you group together whichever metrics and dimensions you find most relevant. This lets you go beyond standard reports to compare data from multiple areas of GA all in one place. This means less switching from one report to another and more flexibility in how you analyze your data.
  
  Example: An outdoor sporting goods store places a heavy emphasis on paid search to drive e-commerce transactions, and uses the AdWords Campaigns report often. When it comes time to share reports among their internal teams, they currently do multiple exports in order to incorporate metrics from the Site Usage, E-Commerce and Clicks tabs all in one view. With custom reports, however, they can drag and drop the metrics they'd like to see from each tab and perform a single export into Excel in order to share their data with team members.

• CREATE RELEVANT DRILLDOWNS - By making use of multiple sub-dimensions in custom reports, you can create a report that drills down up to five levels deep, in whatever order you choose. This lets you easily break visitor behavior into workable segments, with more precision than ever.
  
  Example: Cross Country Inc., a major transportation and logistics company, uses Google Analytics to track advertising campaigns spanning many channels including print ads, banners and pay-per-click ads. For the sake of consistency, Cross Country has chosen to use one universal campaign name, "TruckerRecruitment," that includes six unique acquisition channels (PPC, Print Ads, Banner Ads etc.)
  
  The agency managing the placement and measurement of these recruitment ads needs to report back to Cross Country's management team on their performance, but when they navigate to the "Campaigns" report, they can only drill down one level (done by choosing a value in the "dimension" dropdown).
  
  
  
  But wait! By using custom reports, the agency can now arrange drilldowns up to five levels deep, in whatever order they choose. This now makes it easy to show Cross Country how their Spanish-language print ads in Los Angeles did vs their Spanish-language banner ads in Chicago and optimize their spend accordingly.
  

• SIMPLIFY REPORTS TO SHARE WITH COLLEAGUES - If you need to share data with teammates that may not work closely with Google Analytics, you can use the tab feature in custom reports to create specific tabs for individual people or job functions. This lets your colleagues see only the data relevant to their activities and helps cut down on confusion and data-overload.
  
  
  Example: National Pizza has a wide range of online marketing campaigns that it uses Google Analytics to track and monitor. Several people within the organization regularly log in to Google Analytics in order to check on the performance of different campaigns. Now the webmaster can create a custom report with one tab for each of her colleagues. Each colleague gets a custom view with only the data relevant to his or her activities.
  

Which metrics can I put in my report?

You can choose any metric to build your custom report with. You also don't have to pair them with dimensions, which means there are no restrictions to which metrics you can use. However, when they are paired with dimensions, metrics are subject to certain restrictions. Please see this chart to understand which metric and dimension pairings are possible when designing a custom report.

Share your reports with the world

What do you use custom reports for? Send us an email and let us know! Be sure to send some screenshots. Happy reporting!

Posted by Sebastian Tonkin, Google Analytics Team

A Stronger Sense of Hispanic Pride and Unity

I think that we, Hispanics, Latinos, or whatever label we are assigned, those of us with roots in Latin America, are strengthening our sense of common identity in the United States.  A sense of identity based on pride.  What we have in common appears to be overshadowing what makes us different.  Our heritage from Latin America has a common cultural influence from Spain, the native peoples of the American continent and Africa, a common language, and beliefs in the supernatural that shape how we look at the world.  Now, in the United States our heritage is being further shaped by the "American" experience.  Being of Latin American origin in the United States promotes a unique way of looking at the world.  

We have found commonality in the being different, immigrant backgrounds, pride in art, music, literature, food, architecture, and, perhaps more importantly, a subjective perception of the world that runs as a common theme in our sense of identity.  The largest immigration of Hispanics to the United States was in the past 30 years.  We grew from 10 million in 1980 to about 50 million in 2009.  Most likely, this growth will continue but now fueled by children born in the United States, and not so much by immigration.  Many contend that eventually we will just melt like everyone else has done in the past.  I believe that our numbers, our culture, and our sense of difference will keep us distinct to a larger extent now than ever before. 

Discrimination has always been a force unifying people.  We have experienced that.  Being seen as foreigners and immigrants has been a common experience even if many of "us" have been here longer than those who look at us as newcomers. But this pressure makes us strong. This stress is unifying us.  Most Hispanics in the US have not had a strong avocation for activism or a need to organize.  In my opinion, the time has come.  Hispanics are now a strong force recognized by marketers, first and foremost, and by politicians who want our vote.  Now we can leave behind anomie and fatalism and see that we have real power.  We have money and many of us have a vote to cast.  We have become increasingly aware that if we do not unite we will have no power. Look at the unprecedented immigration protests of the recent past.

The time has come for us to gather around what is important.  Our sense of cultural identity unifies us in a very special way.  We look at personal relationships in very different ways.  We look at time and space as continua that transcend our existence.  We have a sense of the supernatural that makes us feel awe in a different way.  We have gender relationships that work differently.  We have dual identities.  We are different and also similar.

Samuel Huntington, rest in peace, was wrong.  The work ethic of Hispanics is as good as or stronger than a "Protestant Work Ethic."  We have demonstrated that since we have been in this great country.  We do not want handouts.  We want work.  We want to achieve.

It looks to me like Hispanic identity is strengthening and becoming a great force in making the United States a greater country.  We are here and we are ready to achieve, to be online, to buy products, to serve this great country, and to continue being essentially family people, proud of whom we are and now united by a common experience.  We are now ready to organize and be a stronger social and cultural force.  This has to be our future.

So, what does this have to do with marketing?  Everything!

 

AdWords system maintenance on January 10th

On Saturday, January 10th, 2009 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 PST.

We'll continue to update you via the blog as we always have, but please make note of the January 10th date and our scheduled maintenance further down the road.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Inside AdWords crew

Reflecting on Reflections

I had a personal epiphany over the weekend and then turned it into a professional one.

There's no greater reflection of ourselves than observing the actions of those we lead.

It all started when I wished my 5-year-old son would stop yelling first and asking questions later. 

Then I realized that he was a “mini-me.”  A 3-foot tall version of my impatient, hotheaded self.  He wasn’t born with a short fuse, he learned it through watching me.

The same is true for our institutions.  As managers or those responsible for the service delivery of our banks or credit unions, if you are unsatisfied with the actions of your staff – first look at the culture that created the behaviors.

Walt Disney understood this:

“People look at you and me to see what they are supposed to be.  And, if we don't disappoint them, maybe, just maybe, they won't disappoint us."

- Walt Disney

I don’t believe that Orlando, Florida is the hotbed of outstanding, service-oriented people.  If that were true, your experiences outside of Disney would be the same as those inside the park.  What Disney has, however, is a clear definition of service excellence and a consistent and unwavering expectation from the CEO to the janitor that this definition is to be lived everyday – with absolutely no exceptions.

Rather than punish my son for his actions, I will make a conscience effort to not disappoint him in MY actions ... then maybe, just maybe, I won't be disappointed in his.

How will you and your management team effect the service culture of your institution?

Take Care,                                                                                                                  

Eric

OTHER MEANINGFUL WALT DISNEY QUOTES:

“You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.”

“Of all the things I've done, the most vital is coordinating those who work with me and aiming their efforts at a certain goal.”

GAAC Attack: Year-End Fun for Google Analytics Pros

2008 was an amazing year for the Google Analytics Authorized Consultants (GAACs). These guys are experts with Google Analytics, providing excellent service in areas such as installation, consultation and training. They're located all across the US, which means you can probably find one near you.

We really like hearing from GAACs because they eat, live and breathe GA every day. Once a year, we invite them to Google for an event called the Google Analytics and Website Optimizer Authorized Consultant Summit (GAAWOACS for short... just kidding). This past December over 200 participants from more than 30 countries attended. Vint Cerf keynoted and we had four days full of product information on Google Analytics, Website Optimizer and Urchin delivered by our Product Management team, plus case studies, networking and oh yeah.. lots of food and drinks.



We're not sure who looks forward to it more, the Authorized Consultants or us, but it's clear something's going right when a participant produces a rap about the event! Cheers to Paul Chastain from Just1 a Google Analytics Authorized Consulting company out of Idaho.

Here is the rap. I promised him glory since we're all out of T-shirts. Hope to see more like this next year!



Posted by Eva Woo, Google Analytics Team

Start the year with learning: Two upcoming webinars

Welcome back! We hope you enjoyed the holidays. To start 2009 off right, we'd like to offer you two webinars: Shaping the Heart of Your Marketing Strategy: Valentine's Day 2009 from the AdWords Retail team and Travel Shopping in Today's Economy from the AdWords Travel team. You can read more about each webinar and sign up below.

Shaping the Heart of Your Marketing Strategy: Valentine's Day 2009 Webinar

Wednesday, January 7th at 10 AM PST - Register to attend

As we wrap up the holidays, it's time to plan ahead for the new year and adapt your business strategy for upcoming opportunities and challenges. In this webinar, we will discuss strategies retailers can take to get the most out of this Valentine's Day. Join the Google Retail team and the Google Tech team on Wednesday, January 7th at 10 AM PST to learn about these topics:

• Understanding retail trends to reach consumers in today's landscape
  
• Building effective Valentine's Day ads using new Google tools
  
• Planning ahead based on online campaign performance trends
  
• Tips and tricks for optimizing your search campaigns
  

This webinar will run approximately 30 minutes, followed by a 30-minute Q&A session. Register here.

Travel Shopping in Today's Economy, presented by Compete and Google

Wednesday, January 14th at 11:00 am PST - Register to attend

As the economy has slowed, having an up-to-date perspective on consumer travel demand and preferences is more important than ever. Using an in-depth survey of traveler perspectives and a detailed online behavioral analysis, Google and Compete have partnered to create a new study exploring how consumers are shopping for travel in today's economy.

Join us on Wednesday, January 14th at 11:00 AM PST to learn:

• How the volume of travel research and booking activity changed as the economy has weakened
  
• How consumers are shopping for travel differently now than they have in the past, and what implications this has for travel marketers
  
• Consumer outlook on their plans for travel in the future and how travel sellers can take advantage of this
  

This webinar will run approximately 45 minutes, followed by a 15-minute Q&A session. Register here.

We hope these webinars help you get the most out of your 2009 campaigns.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Inside AdWords crew