Winter 2010 Seminars for Success schedule

This winter we will be offering Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer Seminars for Success in 11 cities in the US, UK, Ireland and Australia. If you're new to Seminars for Success, here's a little background.

Analytics Seminars (we offer introductory and advanced sessions) will help you better use the insights found in your Analytics report by covering topics such as setup tips, best practices, and analysis techniques. The Website Optimizer Seminar will show you how to turn more of your website's visitors into customers by teaching you how to use Google Website Optimizer to run landing page experiments.

Seminar leaders, who are independent search marketing professionals certified as Google Analytics Authorized Consultants, will use in-depth course materials, hands-on exercises and valuable tips from their years of managing Analytics accounts as well as managing landing pages to teach you how to achieve your goals.

The next sessions will be in the following cities:

• Los Angeles, CA - January 27-29, 2010
• London, UK - January 28-29, 2010 (Analytics only)
• Orlando, FL - February 10-11, 2010 (Analytics only)

A complete schedule, as well as registration information, is available here.

Posted by Eva Woo, Product Marketing Manager

Four things agencies should know about site testing

The beginning of the year is a great time to take a step back and to re-evaluate marketing plans for your clients. Of course, one key ingredient in a successful marketing plan is the website.

Over the next couple of months, the Google Agency Team will be blogging about how you can work with your clients to review their website and landing page performance for 2010. Today, we'll discuss how site testing can benefit both you and your clients.

1. Testing is good for PPC management agencies

Whether you specialize solely in pay-per-click management or you also help your clients with website design, the creation and optimization of landing pages for the best possible user experience will help you achieve your performance goals.

We've all seen this situation before: you've already worked exhaustively to ensure that your search marketing efforts are bringing in relevant traffic, but are still not seeing conversion results. The reason? The current format and messaging on the site does little to retain even the most qualified traffic. Remember that doubling your conversion rate is essentially the same as doubling your traffic at your current conversion rate.

(click here to view image)

If you're a design shop, establishing a strong culture of testing will also bring great benefits. As with PPC campaigns, it's best to consistently monitor current site performance and then optimize based on data. Even if you've designed the site yourself, there's no way to predict exactly how it will perform and as a result, there will always be an opportunity for incremental improvements. Build these expectations in with your design clients. Consider also that market and visitor expectations change frequently (e.g. holidays and the recession). The beauty of testing and re-optimization is that you can address the immediate site issues and help the client adapt to any changing conditions.

2. Testing is good for your clients

Often a major concern from clients is the production resources and money necessary to move forward with testing. But it's worth it! We all know we shouldn't judge a book by its cover; but let's face it, first impressions matter, especially on the internet. If users don't like what they see at first glance - even if it's for a superficial reason - they are likely to move on.

Explore the possibilities with your client. We have an extensive library of success stories with Google Website Optimizer that showcase some of the increases in conversion rates for businesses that have done landing page testing. Higher conversion rates mean more sales and/or leads at the same cost. If the client already is doing PPC and has an understanding of the opportunities in online marketing, the importance of providing visitors with the right on-site experience for their goals will be easy to demonstrate. Your client will appreciate your expertise in helping to develop this crucial piece of their marketing plan.

3. You likely have the data to identify site problems

If your client has web analytics data, you can begin to identify site and landing page weaknesses today. In Google Analytics, the "Content" section houses some of the most useful reports.

Start by looking at Top Landing Pages. If the bounce rate of these pages is higher than or close to the site average, you may want to examine possible issues with these pages that would cause a user to leave the client's site.

To see if visitors are proceeding down the expected path, set up a funnel if you haven't already to find out if there is kink in the trajectory to conversion (i.e. if visitor volume is dropping off at any point in the process). You can then open your Navigation Summary to see where those visitors are actually exiting out of the funnel.

4. You can test with Google Website Optimizer for free

Remember that while Analytics may help identify issues with the site or landing page, a website testing tool can help you find the solution. With Google Website Optimizer, you can quickly set up a A/B or multivariate test. Website Optimizer can work with almost any site infrastructure or type. It's free and easy to get started, and a great way to add value to your existing client services.

Be sure to check back soon when we explore more ways to use your Analytics data, industry-specific challenges, and testing strategies. Happy Testing!

Posted by Michael Giannotti, Agency Team

Google Website Optimizer API webinar

You may have read about the recent launch of the Google Website Optimizer Experiment Management API, which allows you to run Website Optimizer experiments without touching a website's code.

If you're interested in learning more about the API, please join the Website Optimizer engineers for a webinar on October 28th at 10AM PDT. You'll learn how the API works and CrownPeak and Blast Advanced Media's Motivity CMS will demonstrate how they've integrated Website Optimizer into their platforms.

Register for the webinar here, and we hope you can attend.

Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Website Optimizer Team

Tools, tours, and content strategies with Google at ad:tech

Coming to ad:tech New York? So are we! We're organizing a number of sessions at ad:tech and its partner conference, Content Revenue Strategies (CRS), to help agencies get more out of their search and display spend with Google. Here's the lowdown:

The Google Ads Factory Tour, 11/4/09-11/5/09

The Factory Tour consists of two days of live workshops at ad:tech NY designed to provide you with a comprehensive overview of Google's latest measurement and optimization tools. You'll hear directly from the Google ads team, and walk away with practical tips you can immediately use to improve search and display performance.

The first day will focus on optimizing search and display campaigns. We'll spend the morning highlighting recently released AdWords search optimization tools such as the Opportunities tab and Bid Simulator, and in the afternoon we'll take you through effective optimization techniques for text and display campaigns on the Google Content Network.

The second day we'll expand our scope to cover measurement tools such as Google Analytics and Website Optimizer, search ads quality, and advertising strategies for local and mobile campaigns.

The Factory Tour is open to all exhibit hall and conference passholders.

Content Revenue Strategies, 11/5/09

Formerly known as ADSPACE, CRS is the first and only expo dedicated to AdSense and contextual advertising. CRS will take place alongside ad:tech New York and offers sessions tailored to advertisers as well as small and medium sized publishers. Here you can attend sessions designed to help your clients maximize their performance on the Google Content Network and on emerging blog, video and social media networks.

Additionally, a team of AdWords and AdSense optimizers will be present at the conference to meet you and answer your questions. You can stop by our Optimization Lounge to receive customized performance tips for your clients' campaigns, as well as share your product feedback and suggestions.

Both CRS and the Google Ads Factory Tour will be held in the Javits Center along with the rest of ad:tech NY. We recommend you register ahead of time to save on admission fees. Enter the promotional code 20EXNY9 to receive 20% off an ad:tech full conference pass. If you're only attending CRS, enter the code CRSGoogle to receive $100 off the price of your CRS conference pass.

Hope to see you next month in NYC!

Posted by Devin Sandoz, Product Marketing Manager

Google Website Optimizer in 60 seconds

With Google Website Optimizer, you can test different versions of your client's website in order to see which design converts best. But if you need help identifying which pages to test (and only have about a minute to learn how), check out this Website Optimizer in 60 seconds video.



You'll learn how to use Google Analytics to identify the right pages to test with Website Optimizer, such as places where potential customers are leaving your client's site. For more Website Optimizer videos, visit the Website Optimizer YouTube Channel.

Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team

July Seminars for Success: off to the cities of angels and wind

We're pleased to share that we'll be offering Google Analytics Seminars for Success in Los Angeles, CA and Chicago, IL, as well as a Google Website Optimizer Seminar for Success in Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles seminars will be on July 29, 30 and 31, and the Chicago seminars will be on September 16 and 17. We've selected industry professionals from our Authorized Consultant network to teach these seminars, which cover both beginner and advanced topics.

Day one will provide an introduction to Google Analytics and day two will cover how to install and configure the advanced features and capabilities of Google Analytics. The Google Website Optimizer session will cover landing page testing.

For more information, and to register, click here or visit the Google Analytics blog.

Posted by Eva Woo, Product Marketing Manager

Update: New date for Landing Page webinar

The webinar "The Seven Deadly Sins of Landing Page Design," originally scheduled for June 24, 2009, has been rescheduled for Wednesday, July 1, 2009.

During this webinar, we'll help you ensure that your client's site makes a great impression by avoiding the major pitfalls of landing page design. Learn the "seven deadly sins" of landing page design through real-life testing scenarios. After the presentation, Tim Ash, CEO of renowned landing page optimization firm SiteTuners.com, will be available for Q&A as well.

Date: Wednesday, July 1st
Time: 10:00am PDT, 1:00pm EDT

Have your client's customer ID number handy when you register here, and for more examples of landing page improvements, see our Website Workout page.

Posted by Andrew Gomez, Marketing