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