AdWords & Analytics Sessions at SES Chicago

Next week on December 7th and 8th, you can catch presentations by the Google AdWords team at SES Chicago. We'll be offering practical tips on how to quickly improve your search and display ads performance in the following sessions:

• What's New and Exciting with Google Analytics: the latest tools and reports from our Analytics platform.

• Getting the Most Out of AdWords Optimization Tools: improve your campaigns with recently added AdWords features like the Opportunities tab, new data segmentation options, and custom alerts.

• The Next Generation of AdWords Bidding: Conversion Optimizer: learn how the Conversion Optimizer tool can help you achieve double digit percentage increases in conversions without increasing the cost per conversion.

Finally, if you want to learn more about AdWords optimization tools, you can also watch a video walkthrough of the improvements we've made to AdWords this year. Ariel Bardin, the lead Product Manager for the AdWords web interface, will take you through the major new features and give you tips on managing your campaigns more efficiently.

Posted by Miles Johnson, Inside AdWords crew

Seth Godin's Top 10 Things Your Company Can Do to "Catch Up" if You've Been Without a Real Online Strategy

A must read...@sethgodins

Webinar: Google Analytics' Newest Features

As of this week, all the new Google Analytics features we recently announced should be available in all accounts! (And just yesterday, we announced one more - a new, asynchronous tracking code snippet.)

If you missed the announcements or are curious about the features you're now seeing, join us in this upcoming webinar, happening next week on Wednesday. We'll provide an overview and demonstration of the features and provide tips on some best practices and uses. You'll learn how the following features have added more power, flexibility and intelligence to Google Analytics' enterprise class capabilities:

• Engagement Goals
• Expanded Mobile Reporting
• Advanced Table Filtering
• Unique Visitor Metric
• Multiple Custom Variables
• Sharing Advanced Segments & Custom Reports
• Analytics Intelligence
• Custom Alerts

When: Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Time: 10 - 11 am, PST

Register here.

There will also be an opportunity for Q&A so please ask your questions beforehand through Google Moderator.

We hope you'll come learn more about the latest features .... and we may even have a few extra surprises to share then, too! Hope to see you there.

Posted by Dai Pham, Google Analytics Team

Groupons - A Cool Social Media Application

No clipping no searching - just saving.

Social media has taken the old school art of coupon clipping and turned it on it's ear with Groupons.

Groupons take advantage of the "customer collective" to drive dozens or even hundreds of new customers through your door. Essentially, you can offer a discount to Groupon.com members and if enough people sign up for your discount, it takes effect.

So let's say you offer a special CD "groupon" and want at least 50 people to take advantage. Groupon.com will send an email blast of your offer to their members in your city. Anyone interested in your CD offer, will forward the message onto their friends in the hopes that at least 50 people sign up and make the offer "valid." And their friends invite their friends and so on...

Groupon clients are seeing new customers come though their doors based on viral marketing and are guaranteed a minimum return or no discounts are given.

Groupons are now being offered in 45 cities.

Whether they are right for your strategic objectives or not - it's always cool to see new ways that social and viral marketing can impact our business. If you know of any cool new applications, please share it with the MarketMatch blog community by posting a reply to this blog.

Take care,

Eric

Think2010: Innovate to better connect

As you plan your marketing approach for 2010, think of 'innovation' in a broad sense. You don't need to be the first to venture into uncharted territory or the one to make the biggest splash. You just need to think openly and differently about your customer connections. Strive to be nimble, current, and ever-more relevant as you create them.

In today's marketing world, this often means making use of insights and Analytics tools to continually tweak your approach. It means finding the right mix of social media to engage your customers in a compelling and authentic way, and it means making use of new mediums and targeting methods so you can connect your message to a consumer at the right time.

Here are a few ways you can innovate in 2010:

1) Become a more nimble marketer by crafting your campaigns around current trends. You can stay abreast of the trends related to your brand and business by using Insights for Search.

2) Converse with consumers on 'their turf,' but don't force it. For example, promote your message on YouTube, and then monitor its appeal and virality. Make use of what you learn and keep revising the conversation accordingly.

3) Adapt your strategy to connect with consumers on-the-go. You can try out high-end mobile device targeting to show your text and image ads on mobile devices with full Internet browsers. This means you'll be able to connect with mobile consumers with the same richness as you would via a desktop computer.

Posted by Emily Williams, Inside AdWords crew

A Few Words on Branding

These days, the topic on many people’s minds is brands: product brands, service brands, and as a result of social media, personal brands. Everyone has joined the conversation that traditional brand marketers have been having for years. So, the question is, what is a brand and how can it affect business?

David A. Aaker, brand expert and UC-Berkeley professor, shared an excellent explanation in his 1991 book, Managing Brand Equity:

“A product is something that is made in a factory; a brand is something that is bought by a customer. A product can be copied by a competitor; a brand is unique. A product can be quickly outdated; a successful brand is timeless.”

To put it simply, a brand centers on an experience – something so incredibly unique and memorable that it cannot be duplicated by another product or service. A customer has a positive experience and wants to repeat it. Reasons for this positive experience may include customer service, product quality, or ease of purchase. Some examples may be as small as a particular brand of toothpaste or beer to something more substantial as a retail store or automobile.

So, how does this apply to a personal brand? The other half of the brand equation is a corporate identity, or for an individual, an individual identity. This includes differentiation, perceived quality and value, the creation of positive attitudes and feelings, and strong associations. So, when you set up a LinkedIn account and begin building a personal brand, apply the elements that yield memorable and long-lasting product and service brands – and you will be on your way to becoming a memorable brand yourself.

Google Analytics launches asynchronous tracking

Google Analytics now provides a new Asynchronous Tracking Code snippet as an alternate way to track your website!

Think of the asynchronous tracking code snippet as a script that uses a "separate lane" to handle part of the processing of your webpage. As the number of cars (or in this case, scripts on your webpage) increases, the asynchronous tracker uses this lane to reduce webpage load time. Websites that use many scripts or rely on rich media content will especially benefit from this new method, but even lightweight sites will see improvements.

The new tracking snippet offers the following benefits:

• Faster tracking code load times for your web pages due to improved browser execution
• Enhanced data collection and accuracy
• Elimination of tracking errors from dependencies when the JavaScript hasn't fully loaded

The asynchronous tracking code is now in Beta and available to all Google Analytics users. Using the new tracking code is optional: your existing Google Analytics code will continue to work as-is. But if you want to improve your webpage load times and fine-tune the accuracy of your Analytics data, then we think you'll love this new option.

Learn more about this new tracking code on our Analytics Help Center and get started on Google Code.

Posted by Jesse Savage, Google Analytics Team