Mark this for future reference
Ever forget to return to a website you bookmarked? If you’re like me, the answer is "definitely." For those of us with more than a few neglected bookmarks, the enhanced search box in the newest Google Toolbar beta can help you rediscover them. Now when you start typing in the Toolbar's search box, relevant bookmarks that you’ve saved with the Toolbar will display in the list of suggestions.
And since bookmark negligence seems to be a worldwide phenomenon, the Google Toolbar beta for Internet Explorer is now available in 16 additional languages: UK English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch, Brazilian Portuguese, Finnish, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese, Korean, and Russian. So don't let your bookmarks fade away – install the Toolbar beta for IE today.
Update: Last sentence now specifies that Google Toolbar 4 is currently for Internet Explorer only.
New 'Retry card' billing feature
Thanks to your feedback, we are happy to introduce the latest feature of our billing system – the ‘Retry card’ button. Once you've resolved a decline issue with the credit card you're using for your AdWords account, this convenient button allows you to retry charging your existing primary or backup credit card without having to re-enter your credit card information.
If your credit card has been declined but is ready to be retried, just go to the Billing Preferences page of your 'My Account' tab and click 'Retry card' to get your ads back up and running in one easy step.
Remember, your feedback is invaluable so please keep the great ideas flowing!
If your credit card has been declined but is ready to be retried, just go to the Billing Preferences page of your 'My Account' tab and click 'Retry card' to get your ads back up and running in one easy step.
Remember, your feedback is invaluable so please keep the great ideas flowing!
Two more Gmail languages
We've just launched Arabic and Hebrew language interfaces for Gmail, as well as several new features that will improve the Gmail experience for the people using those interfaces. (You can change the Gmail language interface on the Settings page in your account.)
This was my first project at Google, and I ended up learning a lot about Arabic and Hebrew by talking to native speakers. I'm really pleased to have worked on a launch that will help some of these folks use Gmail and make it available to even more users (we now offer 40 different language interfaces).
Map your way to greener travel
Summer is almost here and the Googleplex is buzzing with travel plans. (Hey, even geeks have to play sometime.) We looked at all the great Maps mashup sites out there and thought, why shouldn't we have some fun too? So we started working on a Maps mashup that would highlight some fun summer activities that also respect the environment. The result is our Summer of Green travel mashup site. We've teamed with Earth Day Network to highlight some planet-friendly travel tips for top U.S. travel destinations as well as how to use Google Maps in your daily routine to find and support green activities.
Did you know you could go kayaking in Las Vegas? Or rent a hybrid limo service in LA? Or stay at a Disney hotel in Orlando that recycles its water? These are a just few of the stops documented in our video-enhanced Google Maps mashup.
Hope you enjoy these and maybe even find some fun -- and green -- destinations for your summer trips.
On the map Down Under
Google Australia has officially come out of beta--we've recently launched our new Australian operation. While Google has had a presence Down Under since late 2002, we have only recently moved into our new digs, which have water views that are the envy of Googlers worldwide.
This new Googleplex in Sydney gives us the opportunity to scale our operation to support a growing band of users, advertisers, and partners. We have also invested heavily in local engineering talent to conduct original R&D work, underscoring Google's commitment to Australia and willingness to set up shop wherever there's talent.
To coincide with the grand opening of the office, the team recently released street maps for Australia and New Zealand so web developers can get a jump start on integrating Down Under maps into their sites.
If you're interested in becoming an Aussie Googler, take a look here. Who wouldn't want to join this team?
A Learning Center for everyone
You may have heard us reference something called the AdWords Learning Center in our past posts, especially in the AdWords 101 series. Today, we wanted to spend a moment explaining what the Learning Center is, and how advertisers can benefit from using it.
The AdWords Learning Center was created to help educate advertisers and client managers on how to use AdWords. Unlike the AdWords Help Center, which addresses your frequently asked questions and presents information in a Q&A format, the Learning Center covers every topic and aspect of AdWords in a tutorial format, filled with lessons and even quizzes to test your AdWords knowledge. The Learning Center is useful for advertisers who may be new to AdWords and want to learn about the program in a comprehensive and systematic way, or for more experienced advertisers who may want to refresh or dive deeper into a particular topic. The Learning Center can also help those in the Google Advertising Professionals Program prepare and study for the qualification exam.
In the English version of the Learning Center, you'll find both multimedia and text-only lessons. (Hint: the text-only version makes it easy for you to print the lessons for reference if you find some of them particularly useful.) You can choose to go through the Learning Center in order by topic (it starts with "AdWords Basics" and "Setting Up an Account"), or jump around the various sections and lessons. In addition to English, you’ll now find the Learning Center in 11 other languages including our two latest additions, Chinese and Korean.
The AdWords Learning Center is a great place to learn how to use AdWords, or to boost your existing knowledge on specific topics. Check it out at http://www.google.com/adwords/learningcenter/.
The AdWords Learning Center was created to help educate advertisers and client managers on how to use AdWords. Unlike the AdWords Help Center, which addresses your frequently asked questions and presents information in a Q&A format, the Learning Center covers every topic and aspect of AdWords in a tutorial format, filled with lessons and even quizzes to test your AdWords knowledge. The Learning Center is useful for advertisers who may be new to AdWords and want to learn about the program in a comprehensive and systematic way, or for more experienced advertisers who may want to refresh or dive deeper into a particular topic. The Learning Center can also help those in the Google Advertising Professionals Program prepare and study for the qualification exam.
In the English version of the Learning Center, you'll find both multimedia and text-only lessons. (Hint: the text-only version makes it easy for you to print the lessons for reference if you find some of them particularly useful.) You can choose to go through the Learning Center in order by topic (it starts with "AdWords Basics" and "Setting Up an Account"), or jump around the various sections and lessons. In addition to English, you’ll now find the Learning Center in 11 other languages including our two latest additions, Chinese and Korean.
The AdWords Learning Center is a great place to learn how to use AdWords, or to boost your existing knowledge on specific topics. Check it out at http://www.google.com/adwords/learningcenter/.
Please plan ahead...
This just in, straight from our tech team:
On Saturday, May 27th, the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. PDT due to system maintenance. While you won't be able to log into your accounts during this downtime, your campaigns will continue to run as usual. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Picture this: Picasa for Linux
Let's say you happily use Linux, but you sometimes find yourself wishing you had access to interesting new apps that launch for Windows but not Linux. And maybe, like a lot of us, you have a lot of photos stored on your personal machine, and you've read about or even tried Google's photo organizer, Picasa. But using it means switching to Windows, even temporarily. (We know--thanks but no thanks.)
Well, we've got you covered, because today we're launching Picasa for Linux on Google Labs. It incorporates nearly all the features of the current Windows version of Picasa, providing you with the tools you need to easily find, edit, and share the photos on your computer. And because it runs on a carefully tested version of Wine, Picasa avoids the slowing effects of an OS emulation or a virtual machine.
Have fun with it--and tell us what you think.
Click-to-play video ads for AdWords
We're very excited to announce the release of click-to-play video ads on the content network. Here's Bismarck, from the Video Ads team, with the details on this new feature:
We hope you'll keep your eyes out for this new feature and let us know what you think.
In the coming days, we will be adding click-to-play video ads to the line-up of text, Flash and image ad formats currently supported by the Google content network. At launch, video ads will be available to AdWords advertisers in the US, Canada and Japan - but we plan to roll them out to other regions shortly.
Now, let's talk about the details.
First, as with all AdWords ad formats, video ads will compete for placement on sites in the Google content network with other text, Flash and image ads -- and, as with our other image ad placements, you can choose to bid on a CPC or CPM basis.
Second, these ads will be supported by both site- and keyword-targeted campaigns. You can choose to serve your video ad on a specific site or on pages in our content network that relate to your product or service. As always, you have the ability to geo-target your video ads internationally, nationally, or locally.
Finally, unlike some intrusive advertising, users will have complete control. When a page loads, only a static image will be visible; the video will not start playing until the user initiates it. He or she will be able to advance the video, pause it, adjust the volume or click through to the advertiser's site, as you can see in the example below:
But, you may say, video is only for big branding oriented advertisers. We beg to differ. This feature makes video ads much more accessible to all advertisers. Now, an owner of a small bed & breakfast in Lake Tahoe can put a video tour of his beautiful chalet right next to an article that talks about skiing the epic slopes of Squaw Valley.
We hope you'll keep your eyes out for this new feature and let us know what you think.
Lane's Gifts v. Google settlement
As you may have heard, Google has reached a settlement of a lawsuit regarding click fraud. Here's Nicole Wong, Associate General Counsel, to discuss the latest developments:
Now that the preliminary settlement has been approved by the Court, all members of the class are being notified about the settlement. On May 19 and 20, 2006 (PST), a settlement administration firm sent an email notification (from clicksettlement@xmr3.com and with the subject 'Important Legal Notice Regarding Your Google AdWords Account') to all advertisers who purchased online advertising from Google between January 1, 2002 and the present.
I recommend that you carefully review the information in the email and visit the site provided by the administration firm: www.clicksettlement.com. On the site, you will find links to the official settlement notice and settlement FAQs, both of which are in .PDF format. To view these documents, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader.
As we have said in the past, we work hard to manage the issue of invalid clicks, and continue to be very effective in detecting and filtering them in order to deliver outstanding ROI to our advertisers. The vast majority of invalid clicks are detected and filtered out before they reach our advertisers' bills; if advertisers detect additional invalid clicks, our click quality team investigates and provides refunds as appropriate. You can read more information about invalid clicks and how we manage them here and in the AdWords Help Center here."
Display vs. Destination URLs
When creating a new ad, be sure to make an informed decision about your Display and Destination URLs. Contrary to popular belief, the two do not need to be identical.
To begin, let’s clarify the difference between the two. The Display URL is the URL that appears below your ad text when your ad is shown. The Display URL should be no longer than 35 characters and is often the same URL as your site’s homepage (e.g. www.Example.com). I like to think of Display URLs as the online answer to the brick and mortar company name sign that hangs outside your actual location.
The Destination URL, on the other hand, is the specific location within your site where you’d like to take a user that has clicked on your ad. The Destination URL does not have to match the Display URL, but should be in the same domain (e.g. www.example.com/shoes). If a Display URL is equivalent to the company name sign, the Destination URL is the particular location within your store (e.g. the shoe section) that you want your users to visit.
Though your ad’s Display and Destination URL can be the same, why not take users to the precise location within your site where the service or product you’re advertising is located? Using the most relevant Destination URL for your ad is a best practice that will help reduce the number of steps it takes for a user to purchase, download, view, or sign-up for your product or service.
Lastly, as you decide upon the URLs for your new or edited ad, keep the Links section of the AdWords Editorial Guidelines in mind to ensure that your Display and Destination URLs get the thumbs up from our Editorial team.
Attention all Pearl Jam fans
Pearl Jam's new music video "Life Wasted" is now on Google Video for free! Be sure to check it out now, as free streaming and download is available only until June 1.
And in line with the band's experimental personality, Pearl Jam released the "Life Wasted" video under a Creative Commons "some rights reserved" copyright license. What does all that legal gibberish mean to you? It means that you can download the video for free, share it with your friends, and even post it on your own site--provided you give the band credit and don't use it for commercial purposes. It's yet another example of Pearl Jam putting its fans first.
[UPDATE 05/25: The free streaming-and-download period was originally scheduled to end on May 24; due to popular demand, we're extending it until June 1.]
Never browse outdated posts again
Today we launched a new feature on Google Blog Search that lets you narrow your search by date. Using this feature, you can track blog posts on your favorite topics according to when those items were posted. We've also incorporated some improvements in search quality that should make your blog-search experience even better.
Ever since Google Blog Search launched, we've noticed that the universe of blogs has truly exploded--our index is doubling every six months. Perhaps even more striking, though, is that there's no one region in the world that leads the growth of blogs. Self-publishing clearly has global appeal, and blogging makes it easy for everyone on the web to share their voices and connect. True, there continues to be blog spam (and we continue to fight it), but our blog search reveals the great range and quality of ideas and writing out there.
Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.
Google's "20 percent time" in action
I love what I do (I work for Google's Partner Solutions Organization, writing internal programs and tools to help better manage our partner relationships--check out our job listings), but Google's "20 percent time" recently came in handy. The 20 percent time is a well-known part of our philosophy here, enabling engineers to spend one day a week working on projects that aren't necessarily in our job descriptions. You can use the time to develop something new, or if you see something that's broken, you can use the time to fix it. And this is how I recently worked up a new feature for Google Reader.
I really like the keyboard shortcuts in Gmail, and they work in Reader too. But when using Reader, I found myself wanting to skip whole sections of stories, and I was wearing out my "N" key (which moves the browser down one item). There are buttons on the screen to scroll up and down a whole page at a time, but I thought it would be nice to have a keyboard shortcut too. I could have hacked something together with Greasemonkey or a Firefox extension, but that would've only helped me and the three other people who read my blog.
So I fired off an email to the Reader team, hoping that they'd be able to add a keyboard shortcut. The team got back to me right away, and they told me how easy it would be to add the shortcut myself. They were right--it was easy, because the internal documentation was good and the code was really easy to work with. Once my change had been reviewed, it went live.
And I have to admit--every time I use the new shortcut ("shift" and "N"), I get a little thrill at how easily I was able to get my idea implemented.
Hope you enjoy it too.
Ready, AIIM, Search
Innovation shouldn't come at the expense of simplicity. That's the message this week as search takes center stage at the AIIM Expo in Philadelphia, where Google VP and GM Dave Girouard will deliver a keynote on how consumer expectations drive innovation in technology, and Google partners will demonstrate how search is changing the face of enterprise applications.
Check out the new partner announcements and conference details and see why more than 4,000 customers rely on Google enterprise search technology.
Instant gratification, Google Video style
Let's say you've just captured some incredible footage of what appears to be a UFO, and you want to share it online with the world before anyone can claim that you're crazy. Lucky for you, Google Video just made sharing your videos a lot faster and a lot easier (and yes, even a crazy person can do it).
With the launch of our new web-based uploader, you're just two clicks away from posting your videos online. Best of all, you can watch and share your videos with friends and family, and embed them on blogs and community websites immediately.
If you prefer stories of love and loss over aliens and tractor beams, Google Video and Universal Pictures encourage you to try Google’s new web-based uploader by sharing your break-up stories in honor of National Break-Up Day (June 2) and the new movie "The Break-Up," starring Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn.
Inside AdWords celebrates our first year
A year ago today, our desire to provide you with more information on new features, spotlights on existing products, and tips to improve your AdWords performance became a reality - the Inside AdWords blog launched. Now, after numerous feature releases, a slew of gems o' the week, and a full year under our belts, we'd like to take a moment to look back at our favorite contributions from each Inside AdWords blogger:
- Andrew taught us that spiky sea creatures don't have a lot in common with our new analytics product - now known as Google Analytics.
- Arielle caught up with one of our longtime advertisers, Ray, to hear how he grew his business using AdWords.
- Blake provided countless insights on the AdWords system - clarifying such things as why we don't allow pop-ups, how the minimum bid applies to queries with no ads, and how to ensure that your ads don't get disapproved.
- Jon returned to the blog team to provide an overview of Google Video and let you know how it can benefit you.
- Judy, a new member to our team, reminded us that we shouldn't forget Mom, nor forget to set up seasonal campaigns to capture holiday traffic.
- Sarah shamelessly promoted her favorite NFL team, while also reminding you that offline and online media can work effectively together.
- Vivian became the voice of the new advertiser, enlightening our newbies on the ins and outs of the AdWords system with AdWords 101.
In my day, we thought calculators were neat
The Maine Learning Technology Initiative is an innovative program that equips every one of the state's public middle-school students with a laptop computer. This fall, more than 36,000 students will receive brand-new Apple iBooks pre-installed with great software.
We think the whole thing sounds terrific, so we're donating Google Earth and SketchUp Pro to Maine for installation on every public-school computer in the state. They accepted, and now it looks like Maine will be the first state in the US to have Google Earth, SketchUp Pro, and the 3D Warehouse available to every student, teacher, librarian, and administrator who wants it.
Information about the SketchUp for Education program can be found here. Government agencies that would like to follow Maine's lead are welcome to drop us a line at education@sketchup.com.
Making AJAX development easier
AJAX has the power to make your site more compelling and more dynamic, but AJAX development is often complicated, with much of the development time spent working around browser quirks and the fragility of AJAX components. Trust us, we know--the development of our own AJAX apps, like Google Maps and Google Calendar, caused us no small amount of AJAX-induced frustration.
That's why we're bringing you Google Web Toolkit. GWT is a new publicly available software development tool that makes creating AJAX applications much easier. With GWT, you can develop and debug your own AJAX applications in Java code using the Java development tools of your choice. When you deploy your application to production, the GWT compiler simply translates your Java application to browser-compliant JavaScript and HTML.
Check it out over on Google Code.
Talking in tongues
Thirteen more, to be exact. Google Talk has just added some new language interfaces: UK English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, and Turkish.
Check it out and talk amongst yourselves...
Note this
Search is all about finding the answers you need. Unfortunately, some kinds of questions--like where you should stay and what you should do on your Hawaiian vacation, or what kind of digital camera you should buy, or what the latest treatments for arthritis are--can't always be answered in one sitting, or by visiting one site.
That's why we built Google Notebook--to give you an online "notebook" where you can organize all your research, add personal notes to it, and share it with others. Google Notebook surfs along quietly with you as you browse, letting you clip and annotate whatever text, images, and links that help answer your question, all without ever leaving the webpage you're on.
If this sounds like something you'd like to try, you can find it here.
Five thousand and still growing...
Back in September of 2005, we posted about an emerging resource that we thought our readers would find valuable: a user-to-user support forum on Google groups, called AdWords Help. This online community was designed to be a place to which advertisers could go, 24/7, to search or browse for answers, ask questions and share their knowledge about AdWords with others. At the time of the post, the forum had just reached 125 members and was showing real promise as a useful source of information for AdWords advertisers.
Evidently, a lot of you had your eye on the blog.
A few months later, in November, we noted that the group's membership had quadrupled since our previous post. Then, in January of this year, we were pleased to announce that the group had once again quadrupled in size -- having grown to 2100 members.
Today, we're quite excited to report another milestone: AdWords Help has now grown to more than 5000 members. (Yes, membership has merely doubled this time -- but 5000 does seems like a nice round number.)
That's a lot of folks helping each other, making the group a great source of information and insight. If you're not a member yet, we hope you'll explore the possibility.
Evidently, a lot of you had your eye on the blog.
A few months later, in November, we noted that the group's membership had quadrupled since our previous post. Then, in January of this year, we were pleased to announce that the group had once again quadrupled in size -- having grown to 2100 members.
Today, we're quite excited to report another milestone: AdWords Help has now grown to more than 5000 members. (Yes, membership has merely doubled this time -- but 5000 does seems like a nice round number.)
That's a lot of folks helping each other, making the group a great source of information and insight. If you're not a member yet, we hope you'll explore the possibility.
Smile! Gmail now has pictures!
When Google Talk added pictures, you probably knew they were coming soon to Gmail. But we decided to add a little twist. You can now upload a picture for each of your contacts and display it instead of the one they chose, like I do for my friend with the ugly dog picture. Then, if your friends have Gmail addresses, you can send them picture suggestions so they can use them as their own (and everyone else can see the cool pics you found).
PS: Since Google Talk already has pictures, we decided to share them. So the picture you select in Gmail will appear in Google Talk and vice versa.
Spring cleaning for your AdWords account
Now that the flowers are blooming and allergies are raging, it's time to think about spring cleaning. No, we're not talking about organizing your CD collection or removing those pesky dust bunnies from under your bed - we're talking about cleaning up your AdWords account. Here are two quick tips to help your account get off to a fresh start this spring:
- Organize your ads: Take a few minutes to look over all of your ads in each of your Ad Groups. Are there any ads that don't relate to the main theme of the keywords in an Ad Group? For example, let's say that you have an Ad Group with keywords that are all related to flowers. When reviewing your ads in this Ad Group, you notice that you have one ad about flowers and another one about gardening tools. Since your keywords aren't related to gardening tools, you should move this ad text to the appropriate Ad Group. You can save yourself time by using our Copy/Move Keywords and Ad Text Tool. Or, if you don't have an existing Ad Group that's related to gardening tools, you can create a new Ad Group filled with gardening tool keywords.
- Label your Ad Groups: Now that you've organized your Ad Groups, you want to make sure that they're clearly labeled. After all, 'Flowers' and 'Gardening Tools' are much better names for Ad Groups than 'Ad Group #1' and 'Ad Group #2'. You can do this by checking the box next to the Ad Group that you'd like to edit, and then clicking on the 'Rename' button.
AdWords 101: What's in my account? (Part 3 of 3)
In the last two AdWords 101 posts, we covered the Campaign Management, Reports and Analytics tabs. Today, we’ll discuss the last tab: My Account. Under the My Account tab, you can check your bill, and manage your billing and other account preferences.
When you first click on the My Account tab, you will be taken to the Billing Summary page. This page shows you your latest billing information, and even allows you to download this information as a .csv file. This download feature may be useful for those who want to track their AdWords expenses in a different software program; you’ll find this link in the upper left corner above the main billing table. Or if you prefer, a handy printing function allows you to print out invoices and receipts for your account. You can also choose to view your monthly billing activity over different time ranges by using the date dropdown menus on the upper right corner of this page.
The next page available in the My Account tab is the Billing Preferences page (you can get here by clicking the links located under the main tab in the green bar). This page allows you to view and edit your payment info. For example, if you would like to use a different credit card, you can click on the Edit link on this page to update your credit card information.
The Access page gives you the option of inviting other people to access your account using distinct logins. For example, if both you and your co-worker jointly manage the same AdWords account for your company, you can invite her to create her own login email and password to access the account so that you do not have to share your login and passwords.
The last page in the My Account tab is Account Preferences. On this page, you can:
- Manage your login information: do you need to change your password?
- Edit language and email options: in what language would you like to view your nterface? Are you opted into receiving newsletters or special offers?
- Tell us more about your business type
- Change your client manager account access and tracking preferences: do you have a client manager who accesses your account? Would you like to set up auto-linking in your URLs to facilitate your Analytics tracking?
Homework: Learn more about what’s available in the My Account tab by reviewing the My Account tab lesson in the AdWords Learning Center.
That sums up the four tabs found in your account. Be sure to spend time perusing each one so that you can make the most out of all the account and campaign management features available to you within AdWords.
Stop, hey, what's that sound?
It might be Gmail. Starting today, Gmail chat will play a little ping sound whenever someone sends you a new chat message (just like Google Talk). Now you can work in other windows or even sit back and watch some TV without worrying about missing a message from your friend. Check out the details.
Gmail chats in more languages
We're pleased to now offer Gmail Chat in 17 more languages: UK English, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Japanese, Korean and simplified and traditional Chinese.
Here's what some people have had to say about Gmail Chat:
"My sister & I love Gmail because it's so cool! We're 3,000 miles apart, but are SO connected now with Gmail Chat. And we love the rotating smileys!"
"Pretty cool--I just got my 70+ year old aunt to use IM through Gmail."
"I heart Gmail. The new chat option is marvelous. You people bring joy to my life."Aww, shucks. Well, we heart you--and we hope lots more of you will now enjoy getting in touch instantly this way.
Standalone traffic estimator
Here's another quick and helpful tip from Ann-Lee of the account management team:
Now you can get traffic and cost estimates on search queries without logging into your account. Keep in mind that the estimates this standalone tool provides won't take your individual settings and history into account, while accessing the tool from within an Ad Group of your account will. Learn more or check it out directly! (Note: for easy access in the future, you may want to bookmark that page once you're there.)
Yes, we are still all about search
We are often asked at Google what we are doing to improve regular web search. There's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes, but today, at our press event, we announced four new products that will give you a better sense of how all this work becomes reality.
Our new products offer a pretty wide range of services and capabilities, but they have one thing in common: They all enhance and improve the search experience for our users.
- Google Co-op is a way for users to help us improve search. It lets people and organizations label web pages and create specialized links related to their unique expertise. Whether it's information about a hobby, a profession, or an unusual interest, everyone can contribute to making Google search more relevant and useful for the entire community.
- Google Desktop 4 gives you another way to improve search, by personalizing your desktop. New "Google Gadgets" deliver an array of information--ranging from games and media players to weather updates and news--straight to your desktop.
- Google Notebook (which we'll be launching next week) is a personal browser tool that lets you clip text, images, and links from the pages you're searching, save clippings to an online notebook, and then share notebooks with others.
- Google Trends builds on the idea behind the Google Zeitgeist, allowing you to sort through several years of Google search queries from around the world to get a general idea of everything from user preferences on ice-cream flavors to the relative popularity of politicians in their respective cities or countries.
If you're interested in hearing what was said on stage today, check out the webcast of our press event at www.google.com/pressday.
‘Dear Inside AdWords…’ – referrals, local business ads, and finding a Professional
It’s been a while since we’ve answered some of your questions, so today, we’re happy to share a few more of our readers’ emails.
Dear Anne: Good news! We introduced AdWords referrals in the US a few of weeks ago. You can find out more about the program in our past post, or at the AdSense Help Center.
Dear TMP: Once you’re in the Ad Group that you want to edit, you can create a local business ad by clicking the Create Local Business Ad link. Follow the instructions until you get to screen shown below, where you will be given the option to upload a graphic to your ad. (I’ve outlined it in red in the example below for your reference.) Note: the dimensions of the image must be no larger than 125 X 125 pixels, and 20K or under in file size. More guidelines for the images in local business ads can be found here. You can also read more about local business ads in one of our prior posts.
Dear Marianne: The easiest way to locate Google Advertising Professionals in your area would be to search for them on Google Maps. Simply go to Google Maps, and type in “google advertising professionals” (we recommend using the the plural form, with quotes around the entire search term) and your city or zip code, and press the Search button. You should then be given a list of local business listings of Google Advertising Professionals in your area. When interviewing service providers, be sure to ask them if they have Qualified Individuals in their firm, or if the company itself has attained Qualified Company status. You can also read more about the Google Advertising Professionals program in our blog post on this subject.
That’s all for this edition. We love getting your questions, so be sure to send them our way. You never know—yours may be answered here next time!
When will AdWords referrals be available in the US? – Anne R.
Dear Anne: Good news! We introduced AdWords referrals in the US a few of weeks ago. You can find out more about the program in our past post, or at the AdSense Help Center.
How do we add an image to a local business ad? – TMP
Dear TMP: Once you’re in the Ad Group that you want to edit, you can create a local business ad by clicking the Create Local Business Ad link. Follow the instructions until you get to screen shown below, where you will be given the option to upload a graphic to your ad. (I’ve outlined it in red in the example below for your reference.) Note: the dimensions of the image must be no larger than 125 X 125 pixels, and 20K or under in file size. More guidelines for the images in local business ads can be found here. You can also read more about local business ads in one of our prior posts.
How do I find Google Advertising Professionals in my area that I can interview to purchase services from them? – Marianne E.
Dear Marianne: The easiest way to locate Google Advertising Professionals in your area would be to search for them on Google Maps. Simply go to Google Maps, and type in “google advertising professionals” (we recommend using the the plural form, with quotes around the entire search term) and your city or zip code, and press the Search button. You should then be given a list of local business listings of Google Advertising Professionals in your area. When interviewing service providers, be sure to ask them if they have Qualified Individuals in their firm, or if the company itself has attained Qualified Company status. You can also read more about the Google Advertising Professionals program in our blog post on this subject.
That’s all for this edition. We love getting your questions, so be sure to send them our way. You never know—yours may be answered here next time!
AdWords 101: What’s in my account? (Part 2 of 3)
In the last AdWords 101, we started discussing how your AdWords account is organized using a series of tabs across the top of your screen which help you manage and work effectively within your campaigns. The first tab we covered was Campaign Management, and today, we’ll go over the next two tabs—Reports and Analytics.
Reports
The Report Center allows you to create, download and save reports for your account. We’ve always stressed how important it is to define goals for your campaigns based on your business needs (it's #1 on our list), and the Report Center allows you to track your progress towards these goals. On the main page of the Report Center, you’ll be able to see the last five reports that have been created, as well as any report templates you’ve saved.
Advanced options within the Create Report form allow you to choose the data that’s important to you—be it impressions, average CPC, CTR or a number of other criteria. Click the "Add or Remove Column" link under Advanced Options to change what data is displayed in your report. Filters help refine your reports even further by showing only the data that matches restrictions that you define. For example, let’s say you want a report that only shows keywords that have a CTR greater than 2%; under Filters, you could select CTR from the drop-down menu and type 2% in the text box next to "Is greater than". The variety of data selection and filtering options allows you to tailor the information in your reports to your needs, helping you make important decisions regarding your AdWords campaigns.
Finally, you can choose to name and save reports that you’ve created and schedule them to run automatically at regular intervals. (Saved reports will appear under the Saved Templates section of the Report Center main page.) After each report runs, you have the option of getting it emailed to you directly.
Analytics
[Please note that due to overwhelming response at launch, Analytics is now available by invitation only. If you do not have Analytics account, you’ll be able to submit your email address on this tab to receive an invitation code as more capacity becomes available.]
A while back, we introduced you to Google Analytics, a powerful web analytics program built right into AdWords. You’ll now find Analytics as the third tab in your AdWords account. Once you have an invitation code, all you need to do to get started with Analytics is to add a small snippet of tracking code on each of the pages you are planning to track—which may be quickly accomplished without any messy installations or massive code changes. While the ins and outs of working with Analytics are probably beyond the scope of AdWords 101, the Analytics team will be happy to assist you in learning how to get the most out Analytics at their own Help Center.
The two tabs we covered today will help you better understand the performance of your AdWords campaigns and make smarter decisions about your advertising investment. Stay tuned for the final installment of this lesson where we’ll review the My Account tab. In the meantime, we've included some additional reference materials that will help you better understand what's available in Reports and Analytics.
Homework: Create a new report and explore the Analytics tab. These materials should help you navigate these two tabs more easily.
Learning Center
The Report Center
Google Analytics
Help Center – FAQ
Report Center Overview
Managing Reports
Google Analytics Help Center
Previous Inside AdWords posts
New features in Report Center
Introduction to Google Analytics
Analytics Update
Analytics Help
Reports
The Report Center allows you to create, download and save reports for your account. We’ve always stressed how important it is to define goals for your campaigns based on your business needs (it's #1 on our list), and the Report Center allows you to track your progress towards these goals. On the main page of the Report Center, you’ll be able to see the last five reports that have been created, as well as any report templates you’ve saved.
Advanced options within the Create Report form allow you to choose the data that’s important to you—be it impressions, average CPC, CTR or a number of other criteria. Click the "Add or Remove Column" link under Advanced Options to change what data is displayed in your report. Filters help refine your reports even further by showing only the data that matches restrictions that you define. For example, let’s say you want a report that only shows keywords that have a CTR greater than 2%; under Filters, you could select CTR from the drop-down menu and type 2% in the text box next to "Is greater than". The variety of data selection and filtering options allows you to tailor the information in your reports to your needs, helping you make important decisions regarding your AdWords campaigns.
Finally, you can choose to name and save reports that you’ve created and schedule them to run automatically at regular intervals. (Saved reports will appear under the Saved Templates section of the Report Center main page.) After each report runs, you have the option of getting it emailed to you directly.
Analytics
[Please note that due to overwhelming response at launch, Analytics is now available by invitation only. If you do not have Analytics account, you’ll be able to submit your email address on this tab to receive an invitation code as more capacity becomes available.]
A while back, we introduced you to Google Analytics, a powerful web analytics program built right into AdWords. You’ll now find Analytics as the third tab in your AdWords account. Once you have an invitation code, all you need to do to get started with Analytics is to add a small snippet of tracking code on each of the pages you are planning to track—which may be quickly accomplished without any messy installations or massive code changes. While the ins and outs of working with Analytics are probably beyond the scope of AdWords 101, the Analytics team will be happy to assist you in learning how to get the most out Analytics at their own Help Center.
The two tabs we covered today will help you better understand the performance of your AdWords campaigns and make smarter decisions about your advertising investment. Stay tuned for the final installment of this lesson where we’ll review the My Account tab. In the meantime, we've included some additional reference materials that will help you better understand what's available in Reports and Analytics.
Homework: Create a new report and explore the Analytics tab. These materials should help you navigate these two tabs more easily.
Learning Center
The Report Center
Google Analytics
Help Center – FAQ
Report Center Overview
Managing Reports
Google Analytics Help Center
Previous Inside AdWords posts
New features in Report Center
Introduction to Google Analytics
Analytics Update
Analytics Help
Lots of Impressions and no clicks?
From time to time, our colleagues over on the AdWords Help group send us questions of wide-ranging interest from their group, along with the suggestion that we answer them for a larger audience here in our blog. One such question (slightly edited for clarity) is quoted below:
Just so we're all on the same page, let's first define our terms:
An impression occurs when a user searches on one of your keywords, causing your ad to appear. It is important to note that, at this point, the user has only seen your ad and not your site -- thus everything they know about your business is based solely on what your ad tells them.
A click occurs when a user sees your ad, finds that it meets their needs & expectations, and then clicks on the title of the ad. This, of course, sends them to the your website, where the site itself has a chance to do its stuff.
With this in mind, if an advertiser finds that they are getting lots of impressions but no clicks, it almost always points to one thing: users are simply not finding the ad relevant to their search.
The solution to this dilemma is rather straightforward in principle, but can be quite an art in practice. Essentially, it is very much to your advantage to ensure that your ads are carefully targeted to the keywords which cause those ads to appear -- so that when a user searches for 'robot cleaner' or 'robot polish' you show them an ad that clearly (and compellingly) says you have those exact products available.
Likewise, let the crisp and carefully crafted writing of your ad subtly tell the user that you are a quality business that can be trusted and relied upon to deliver.
Do these things, and the clicks should follow.
I have a lot of impressions but no one is clicking my ad. I think my site looks good and is easy to read. Can someone help me? I am new so I don't fully understand.
Just so we're all on the same page, let's first define our terms:
An impression occurs when a user searches on one of your keywords, causing your ad to appear. It is important to note that, at this point, the user has only seen your ad and not your site -- thus everything they know about your business is based solely on what your ad tells them.
A click occurs when a user sees your ad, finds that it meets their needs & expectations, and then clicks on the title of the ad. This, of course, sends them to the your website, where the site itself has a chance to do its stuff.
With this in mind, if an advertiser finds that they are getting lots of impressions but no clicks, it almost always points to one thing: users are simply not finding the ad relevant to their search.
The solution to this dilemma is rather straightforward in principle, but can be quite an art in practice. Essentially, it is very much to your advantage to ensure that your ads are carefully targeted to the keywords which cause those ads to appear -- so that when a user searches for 'robot cleaner' or 'robot polish' you show them an ad that clearly (and compellingly) says you have those exact products available.
Likewise, let the crisp and carefully crafted writing of your ad subtly tell the user that you are a quality business that can be trusted and relied upon to deliver.
Do these things, and the clicks should follow.
Conference on automated testing
Those who follow the world of automated testing may be interested in the call for papers for our upcoming conference on the subject. Deadline for papers: June 1.
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