If you were in New York City last week, it was hard not to feel the buzz around Ad Week, including Google’s innovative use of video within ad units to broadcast the keynote address, “Display 2015: Smart and Sexy,” for the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s MIXX Conference. In case you missed it, we’ve shared a recording below, along with other sexy new updates, such as Google New, updates to Google Instant, and the winners of Project 10^100.
Tip of the week:
- Something new...Google New. The one place to find everything new from Google.
- Goodbye Google Adverting Professional program. Hello Google Certification Program: As previously announced, the grace period for agencies to meet the new Google Certification Partner (GCP) criteria will end on Oct. 31st. Come Nov. 1st, any Google Advertising Professional agency not GCP-certified will lose its certification and thus cannot use the badge within marketing collateral and will no longer show up in Partner Search. To attain certified partner status, companies must meet eligibility criteria, including one team member passing a minimum of two certification exams, illustrating practical expertise in managing accounts, and agreement to the terms and conditions of representing AdWords. Learn more about membership criteria and refer to our blog post for all of the details.
- New Keyword Tool Tip: If you’ve used both the previous and updated versions of the Keyword Tool to search for keywords, you may notice differences between the tools for statistics on Global Monthly Searches and Local Monthly Searches. This is because the previous version of the Keyword Tool provided search statistics based on Google.com search traffic and traffic from search partners, while the updated version of the Keyword Tool provides search statistics based on Google.com traffic only. We've updated these statistics based on user feedback, and hope you find them helpful for keyword selection.
- Updates to Google Instant - new domains, keyboard nav, new modes: This week Google Instant rolled out to additional domains. In addition, we've introduced keyboard navigation to help you explore your Instant search results using just your keyboard, with no need for a mouse or touchpad. We’re also making Instant available within many of the search features in the left panel of the results page including Videos, News, Books, Blogs, Updates and Discussions. Check out the Official Google Blog post to learn more about these new features.
- Another reason to WATCH THIS SPACE: As you know, Google is investing significantly to make display advertising better for users, advertisers and publishers, and we have a number of resources to help you learn more about our predictions for the future of display advertising. Visit the Official Google Blog for a recap of the keynote address delivered at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s MIXX Conference in New York, entitled “Display 2015: Smart and Sexy," and watch a recording of the address (which was originally broadcast through ad units).
- Event recap: How to run a successful social campaign: Last month, YouTube and SEMPO hosted a social marketing panel, "How to run a successful social campaign," for SEMPO's San Francisco and Los Angeles working groups. The panel featured speakers from YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Athena East, and highlighted the unique products available to marketers, and best practices for executing measurable, impactful social advertising strategies. Derek Gordon of Yield Software shared what he learned for MediaPost Search Insider. Click here for his complete update.
- Fall line-up for Google TV Ads. Episode 2: Driving Response: For the next 4 weeks, the TV ads team will be sharing tips and resources on AgencyLand and in the Agency Weekly Update. In this week's episode -- with the ability to target only the programs, networks, and dayparts you want, Google TV Ads is the ideal platform to run direct response campaigns. Call Reports and Google Analytics gives you the opportunity to identify sweet spots within your programming so that you can more aggressively go after what’s performing well and eliminate what’s not working. See how Oregon Mint Company went from $1,000 to $5,000 in daily sales.
- This Week in Report Center Migration: As we embark on the final major phase of Report Center migration, the ad, search query, placement performance, geographic, and demographic performance reports can now all be found directly within the UI. In addition, we've rolled out several enhancements based on your feedback, including the ability for My Client Center users to drill down to the Control Panel & Library to see all available report templates for the account (regardless of who created them). Over the next few months, we’ll continue to add more metrics so stay tuned for future updates. In the meantime, check out the detailed PDF and refer to the Help Center for progress updates.
- Project 10^100 winners announced: Two years ago we began Project 10^100 by asking you to share your ideas for changing the world by helping as many people as possible. People from more than 170 countries submitted more than 150,000 ideas, which were narrowed down to 16 big ideas. The five ideas that received the most votes are the winners of Project 10^100. We're giving a total of $10 million across them to solve global challenges ranging from free education content to government transparency to innovative public transportation. See the Official Google Blog for the complete announcement.
- Fresh Fonts Come to Google Docs: Feeling limited by the same old stale font? Spice up your Google Docs with one of our 6 new fonts. And the best part is, there’s no need to install the new typefaces since Google Docs uses web fonts - just load your document and the latest set of fonts will be there, ready to use. How easy is that?!
