New Facebook Business Page Design to Share for the Napkin Wizard

I have a new Facebook business page design to share on this “Facebook Friday”.  It’s one I recently created for the Napkin Wizard (@NapkinWizard) Jimmy Ng.  

I love how creative Jimmy is! He has created more than 200 napkin folding designs, and wanted to start a website and blog to share the designs with others who share his love for entertaining.  Jimmy has seen first-hand the ice-breaker / conversation-starter that a beautifully set table with a one-of-a-kind napkin fold can be. After we created his website and blog, Jimmy was ready to enter the Twitterverse and Facebook community.  I was able to use many of the same design elements, but with a new spin, over on Facebook.  You’ll notice his website background became the background for his Facebook welcome screen.  

If you’re looking for creative ways to “wow” your party guests, be sure to “like” Jimmy’s Facebook page.  He’s new to Twitter, too, and is lovin’ it! 

Laura Catherine Otero is a marketing professional and blogger in Charleston and Columbia, SC who has been active in social media since 2005.  If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to this blog via Email or  RSS. Laura can also be found on Twitter (@LauraCatherineO), Facebook, and LinkedIn. 

Think with Google: Search Ads Affect Offline Sales Too

Do online search campaigns lead to in-store sales? Controlled studies we call ‘Online-to-Store’ experiments prove time and again that they do! Check out this video for results from large advertisers that tested the effects of using keywords targeted to products and categories, generic keywords and online coupons. Highlights include in-store sales lift, return on ad spend (15:1 in some cases) and halo effects on overall sales. Understanding the effect of search ads on offline sales is a large part of accurately defining the full value of search campaigns, beyond direct conversion.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew

The New Google Analytics: Events Goals

This is part of our series of posts highlighting the new Google Analytics. The new version of Google Analytics is currently available in beta to a number of Analytics users. We’ll be giving access to even more users soon. Sign up for early access. And follow Google Analytics on Twitter for the latest updates.

Real Analytics ninjas use goals. Google Analytics has always had URL Goals (when a visitor reaches a specific page). In 2009, we added Engagement Goals to track success metrics around visit depth and time on site. With the new version of Google Analytics, we’ve added one more: Event Goals. This was one of our most requested features, and it gives you even more reason to use event tracking.

A brief intro to Event Tracking

You can use Event Tracking in Google Analytics to track visitor actions that don't correspond directly to pageviews. It's a great fit for tracking things like:

• Downloads of a PDF or other file
• Interaction with dynamic or AJAX sites
• Interaction with Adobe Flash objects, embedded videos, and other media
• Number of errors users get when attempting to checkout
• How long a video was watched on your site

Events are defined using a set of Categories, Actions, Labels, and Values. Here’s how you might set up event tracking for tracking downloads of whitepapers and presentations.

These interactions all have potential business impact, but until now you couldn’t track them as goals in Google Analytics. Let’s look at three ways you might use Event Goals on your site.

Tracking Downloads

Suppose you run a business to business (B2B) website and offer whitepapers (as a PDF download) in order to attract leads. You drive traffic to this page through advertising. You can track the number of downloads using event tracking. For example, we can use the category to designate the click was of type “download”. We can use the action to designate the download was a “whitepaper” and we can use the label to identify the actual whitepaper that was downloaded.

With the new Google Analytics, configuring this as a goal is easy. We simply match any event with the category of “download” and the action of “whitepaper”. Finally we set the goal value as 20.

Tracking Time Spent

Event tracking is powerful because you can track values, along with the category, action, and label. Going back to our B2B website, suppose you have a embedded product demo video on your page. With a little JavaScript, you can track the time a user spends watching the video and send that number back to Google Analytics as an event value.

With Event Goals, you can now set up a goal based on this value. In this example, we’ve configured a goal when a user spends over 180 seconds watching the product demo.

Using The Event Value As The Conversion Value

Traditionally, the only way to set goal values was when creating the goal in Google Analytics, or from the tracking code using ecommerce tracking. With Event Goals, you have another option: using the event value as the goal value.

Again putting yourself in the shoes of a B2B website owner, you realize not all your whitepapers bring in the same quality of lead. The lead value associated with downloading a certain whitepaper is $20, but the lead value from a different whitepaper is $35. Rather than creating a separate goal for each, you can pass the values 20 and 35 as the Event Value, and then set up the goal to use the actual Event Value:

Now when a goal is matched, the value passed in the event will be used as the goal value.

These are just a few examples of how you can take advantage of Event Goals in the new Google Analytics. You can read more on how to implement Event Tracking on Google Code and how to set up goals in the new Analytics. We’re constantly giving more of you access to the new version. If you don’t have the new version yet, you can sign up for earlier access.

Update: 4/10/2011: 2:15pm PST - Screenshots updated to match recent updates to event goal configuration.

Posted by Nick Mihailovski, Google Analytics Team

Does drama impact your workplace?

Some words can cause drama just by thinking about them or by speaking them out loud in a crowded conference room: change agent, transformation, workplace dynamics, boundaries, power struggles, and attitude. Motivational speaker and communications expert Marlene Chism turns these words inside out in her book, Stop Workplace Drama – Train Your Team to Have No Complaints, No Excuses, and No Regrets. Chism explains why drama is so pervasive in the workplace but also offers insights how to eliminate it.

After informing readers about the difference between two simple statements: “the drama is the situation” versus “your drama is how you react to it,” Chism empowers readers with an appropriate quote: “The one with clarity navigates the ship.” While you may not be able to change a fellow employee’s behavior or put an end to someone’s annoying complaints, you possess the power to change your reaction, your behavior, and how you move forward with your projects and, let’s face it, your life.

According to Chism, “all drama has one thing in common: a lack of clarity.” This lack of clarity can be found in the following situations:

• Constantly changing directions
• Conflicting desires that hamper productivity
• Confusion
• Not knowing who the boss is
• Failing to enforce the rules
• Instability
• Insubordination
• Incongruent behavior
• Constant misunderstandings
• Lack of boundaries
• Resentment
• People pleasing and manipulation
• Analysis paralysis
• Waiting for everyone to understand and agree

On the other hand, clarity can result in improved productivity, project completion, and motivated employees. So the question is, why waste so much time hiding the clarity and allowing workplace drama to fester?

To learn more, visit: www.MarleneChism.com & www.StopWorkplaceDrama.com

Read Marlene’s Blog: http://stopworkplacedrama.com/blog

Connect with Marlene on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stopyourdrama

Connect with Marlene on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/marlenechism

Connect with Marlene on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/user/MarleneChism

AdWords Position Preference feature is being retired

In early May, we’ll be retiring the position preference bidding feature in AdWords. If you’re using position preference, we recommend that you disable the feature in your campaigns prior to that date to ensure a smooth transition for your bids. For instructions on how to disable position preference, please see our Help Center.

More specifically, you can expect to see the following changes in your account:

• As of today, April 5th, position preference can no longer be enabled for campaigns through either the AdWords web interface or the API. Campaigns already using position preference will still have it enabled, but if you turn position preference off in one of your campaigns, you won't be able to turn it back on.
• Starting in early May, we'll begin disabling position preference for any campaigns still using it.
• After you disable position preference (either manually or when the feature is retired starting in early May), the manual maximum CPC bids for those campaigns will be the bids position preference used most recently. Position preference tries to raise or lower your bids to target the positions you specify. So using the most recent position preference bid as your manual maximum CPC should minimize disruption to your traffic.

Before you disable position preference, we recommend that you export your manual bids by downloading a keyword report to back up any bids you set before you turned on position preference. This report will include keyword-level maximum CPC bids.

What are my alternatives to position preference?

If you’d like to target specific ad positions, we recommend that you first read this blog post from our Chief Economist, Hal Varian, on some of the pitfalls around targeting average position.

After reading the blog post, if you’d still like to target specific ad positions, we recommend that you try using automated rules. Using this feature, you can set an automated rule for your campaign that will change your bid if your average position differs from your target. For more information on how to use this feature, please see this article.

We appreciate your understanding and your continued support of AdWords.

Posted by Lisa Shieh, Inside AdWords crew

The use of Spanish and/or English in advertising to Latinos

Click here for the video

Introducing free phone support for AdWords advertisers

We’ve worked hard to keep in touch with our AdWords customers and we’re always looking for new ways to support you. Currently we offer email and online support, and today we’re launching free phone support for all of our U.S. and Canada-based AdWords customers. When you have a question about your account or advertising campaigns, you can now call an AdWords specialist if you prefer.

We’re adding phone support for a simple reason: you asked for it! You told us that while you appreciate online resources like our AdWords Help Center, you also want the option to get live, expert support when you need it. We heard you, and got to work assembling a team of AdWords experts to answer your calls.

The new phone option is one of many tools that can help you succeed with AdWords—and (most importantly!) find even more customers. You can also email us, or learn from other advertisers in the AdWords Help Forum. Our AdWords Online Classroom offers free online courses on a wide variety of AdWords topics, from the basics to great tips to take your account to the next level.

To speak to one of our specialists, give us a call at 1-866-2-Google between Monday-Friday, 9am-8pm Eastern Time. This number is for current AdWords advertisers only, so please make sure you have your customer ID ready. We look forward to speaking to you and learning more about your business.

We will roll phone support out to international advertisers in the coming months.


Posted by Francoise Brougher, VP, Global Advertising and Product Operations