TV advertising -- take another look, you might like what you see

It’s no secret that video consumption is growing. Fast. As more devices find their places in people’s homes and pockets, more video consumption is happening across live and time-shifted TV, computers, tablets, and mobile phones. What is most interesting, is while online video consumption has exploded, time spent watching TV has in fact also continued to grow, with the average US adult clocking in 158 hours of TV time per month.*

People are simply consuming more content than ever before and TV is still the center of that experience, remaining an effective way to broadcast your message to a national audience of engaged viewers. What's more is the link between TV and online behavior continues to emerge and strengthen, especially considering that nearly 60% of people now watch TV and surf the internet simultaneously.* If you're rolling your eyes at the prospect of spending media dollars on a mass medium like TV, hear us out because we believe that television advertising is still relevant and has become better targeted. Whether you’re a seasoned TV buyer or just beginning to think about offline media, a strategic approach to integrating TV into your larger media plan is absolutely critical. When planning, consider the following: marketing objectives, target audience, and seasonality.

Identifying marketing objectives is the first, most crucial step. What are the outcomes you’re anticipating from TV advertising? Is the goal of your campaign general branding or to increase sales of a specific product? As you can tell, different objectives lead to a very different budget allocation, core message (approach to creative), and campaign success metrics. For example, if your TV campaign goal is to sell 1,000,000 units of product X, your creative should contain specific production information, direct calls-to-action and at least one sales outlet (i.e. 1-800 number , a specific website URL, in-store coupon code, or all of the above). Using trackable mechanisms brings a new dimension to ROI measurement in TV, especially with innovations like Google's call reporting feature.

What about targeting? Increased viewership fragmentation within the TV universe (more program/network choices in any given time slot) has actually make it easier to pinpoint your target audience on TV since programming has become so interest specific. For instance, to reach females 25-54 who enjoy cooking and gardening, networks including Food Network and HGTV immediately come to mind. What’s great about Google’s TV Ads platform is that we’ve taken targeting even further by introducing technology and search-based targeting tools to the TV buying process. Google TV Ads allows you to choose specific networks, programs and even defined audiences based on demographics and interests. These features allow you to find and target your audience across 100+ networks reaching nearly 35M homes in the US, or almost 1/3 of the US population through one single platform.*

Lastly, timing and seasonality are of key importance. If your product or service is impacted by seasonality, it’s important to plan well in advance. For example, New Year resolutions bring finances, weight loss and fitness to people’s minds – a perfect opportunity for advertisers in these spaces to increase marketing efforts and reach consumers at this critical time. Planning in advance will allow you to have the required budgets and a sense of which media targets to hit as we ring in the New Year. To learn more about Google TV Ads and how to launch a targeted TV campaign in minutes, please visit www.google.com/tvads.

*Source: The Nielsen Company., Three Screen Report Q1’2010
*Google TV Ads will offer nearly 35M homes in 2011 with the integration of new cable partners DIRECTV and Verizon FiOs.

Posted by Chris Henrotin and Neha Mandel, TV Ads Team

Your Creativity Wins with TrueView Video Ads

Today we announce a new family of ad formats called TrueView Video Ads. TrueView Video Ads give viewers choice and control over which advertiser’s message they want to see and when. And we charge advertisers only when a viewer has chosen to watch your ad, not when an impression is served.

Why are we offering cost-per-view video ads? We believe this model creates wins for everyone: consumers choose ads that are more relevant to them; advertisers more precisely find the audiences they want; and content creators continue to fund great content with an ad experience that is less intrusive.

In the end, it will also be the creativity of agencies and advertisers who will win. It’s not about being funny or clever – it’s about delivering the right message to the right person at the right time. And TrueView Video Ads can help get you and your client there, combining the brand engagement and reach of YouTube with the conversion tracking and optimization of online advertising.

Our first available cost-per-view format is TrueView Video Ads - InStream format. Viewers can choose to skip a video ad after 5 seconds or watch the ad. An advertiser only gets charged when the viewer has watched the full ad or 30 seconds, whichever is shorter.

If you’re interested in trying out TrueView Video Ads, contact your account manager today. This ad format is available for customers in the US and Canada and in limited testing for advertisers in the UK. We are working to add availability in additional countries.

For the complete announcement, please visit the Inside AdWords Blog.

Posted by Phil Farhi, Senior Product Manager, The YouTube Team

Getting ready for the holidays: Black Friday tips

Hi Agency Blog readers! I am back for year 2 of my Black Friday tips. Enjoy!
~ Ben

It may be hard to believe (and a little scary), but Thanksgiving is next week and Black Friday is only 8 days away! (Momentary pause while the shock settles in) With this daunting thought in mind, there are two things to consider that should make the holiday shopping weekend go as smoothly (and hopefully as profitably for clients) as possible -- holiday promotion ads and a Black Friday placement pack.

1. When it comes to the holiday season, one of the clearest trends we have picked up on is that ads with promotions perform better than ads that don’t (seems that consumers like deals. Strange, I know). If clients have any upcoming promotions (free shipping, a percent off, sales, etc.), all ads should be promoting these. This is especially true if they have Black Friday specific sales. If this is the case, make a point of saying “Black Friday Sale” or indicate that this is a limited time only (“Fri – Sun”, “This Weekend Only”, etc.).
   
   If you plan on creating and implementing ads specifically for Black Friday and the shopping weekend after Thanksgiving, be sure to implement them in the account by the end of day Tuesday (11/23) to give them enough time to make it through the ad approval process.
   
   
2. Some of your clients may want to do a bit more than just create new ads for next week. If you have a client that would like to target users actively looking for Black Friday deals, then you may want to create a display campaign targeting sites that aggregate such deals. Using the Placement Tool in your AdWords account, search for words such as ‘black friday’ and ‘black friday sales’ to identify sites that would be good to target. With this list, there are two possible ways to use it:

• Create a campaign to target only managed placements and have a single ad group that contains all of these placements.
• Create a campaign with the same settings, but have multiple ad groups with keyword themes and set them to target these placements, creating an Enhanced Online Campaign. For example, if you have a cosmetics client, you might want to have a few ad groups with themes like “makeup”, “hair products”, “ cosmetics”, etc. Then, targeting these Black Friday placements, you will be in a better position to place ads in front of consumers looking for deals around products your client sells.

For either of these, set it to run starting this Friday (11/19) through EOD Sunday (11/28). If clients have deals carrying through cyber Monday, then extend it another day.

As always, with all of your clients, make sure that your budgets and bids are adjusted for this busy weekend. With the increase in traffic, budgets can get depleted more quickly (resulting in campaigns stopping ads from being shown) and competitors bid more aggressively. Make sure that budgets are set to keep campaigns running throughout the day and increase bids to maintain positions.

These can be stressful times in the online advertising world, but if you plan ahead by implementing things early and position your clients in front of customers looking for deals around their products, you can help to make this a great season!

Posted by Ben Sheldon, Agency Team

Display ads on Google Images trial

[This has been cross-posted from the Inside AdWords Blog]

As part of our Google Images redesign this July, we introduced Image Search Ads, which include a thumbnail alongside your ad text. We learned that on Google Images, image-based ads provided great results for our advertisers. They are also a highly useful format for users because they show commercial content directly related to the user's query.

Today we're expanding the image ad formats available on Google Images by testing rich media leaderboard units that appear above Google Images search results and invite you to try new products and services. With the introduction of this display ad format on Google Images, you now have a great opportunity to reach users with engaging ads, whether your goal is to build brand awareness, or to drive clicks and conversions.

Ad by Converse on Google Images, designed to gain awareness about their new shoe model.
Ad placed by Range Online, an iProspect Company.

click for full size image

Advertising on Google Images allows you to reach hundreds of millions of users around the world who use the site to find relevant photos and images every week. Today display ads on Google Images are available on a small fraction of queries in the US and UK only. Over time, we hope to make display ads on Google Images available on more queries globally.

Display ads on Google Images work the same as they would on other sites in the Google Display Network. They're triggered by the content on the page - in this case, that’s defined by the category of the search term that the user enters. If, for example, you target your ad to appear on Google Images on travel-related content, your ad may appear on Google Images if a user searches for related terms like [travel], [vacation], [beach] or [summer holiday].

It’s easy to start running display ads on Google Images. Just use the AdWords placement targeting tool to target Google Images like any other site on the Google Display Network, and choose the type of content you want to advertise alongside. You can upload your own leaderboard format ad or create one using Display Ad Builder. Pricing can be either CPM or CPC, depending on your goals. If you want more information about the advertising options on Google Images, visit the Help Center.

We’re invested in making display advertising work better for both users and advertisers. We look forward to introducing new, innovative placements and formats on the Google Display Network to help you reach your advertising goals.

Posted by Nathan Beach, Product Manager

A half billion video views and counting for YouTube’s Promoted Videos

YouTube reports that it has served its 500,000,000th Promoted Video view this week. This ad product combines the branding capabilities of video with the direct response action of search advertising, allowing advertisers to promote their videos against search results or related videos on YouTube. Additionally, with the Promoted Videos API, agencies can now more easily manage complex campaigns across multiple clients. For additional information, please see the full story on the YouTube blog.

Posted by Jay Akkad, Product Manager, YouTube

Google Media Solutions Series, Part 4: Google TV Ads - Tune into success

Congratulations, you have made it to the final installment of the Google Media Solutions series! We get frequent questions about Google TV Ads, whether it's the right platform, how much it costs, how it works. Here’s your crash course.

Google TV Ads is an online marketing place that allows anyone to launch national TV campaigns and measure their success with timely reporting. Google TV Ads allows you to buy the programs that you want without bundling, pay only for impressions delivered and access viewership data from a sample of millions.

Ready to jump in? Let’s dispel a few myths that your clients might have heard:

• Does TV advertising fit into my marketing mix?: Television advertising allows you to reach a wider audience than any other advertising medium. Generate brand awareness and demand through sight, sound and motion. It’s also a great supplement to any online strategy - read how ooVoo used TV to drive a 500% increase in site traffic!
• We want to get started, but we don’t have a commercial. Can you help?: Of course! You can use the Google Ad Creation Market Place to connect with professional ad production houses for as little as $200. Creating compelling, effective TV ads at relatively low costs has never been easier.
• But is TV Measurable?: If you have a website, we recommend tracking and comparing website visits with your TV campaign metrics using Google Analytics. Google Analytics can track TV campaign metrics like TV impressions alongside daily web traffic volume.

What does it take to get started? Create a video ad, log into AdWords, choose targets and shows and see your ad on TV within 48 hours! Visit the Getting Started Guide for more tips.

This post concludes our Google Media Solutions series. Over the past four weeks, we have reviewed Google AdWords, the Google Display Network, Remarketing, YouTube and Google TV Ads. Hopefully you have learned some tips and tricks along the way.

Posted by Laura Salzberg, Agency Team

Getting Ready for the Holidays with YouTube

Are you getting ready for the holidays? With the holidays less than 2 months away, we wanted to share some seasonally-focused resources and tips with you from our friends at YouTube. They've prepared some marketing strategies to help you and your clients take advantage of this time of the year on the top online video destination.

Tip #1: Customize a YouTube Brand Channel
Just as a retail store would dress up its window during the holidays, take advantage of enhanced features to customize clients' channels. For example, you can showcase their products with the 300x250 display ad; integrate all of their social media efforts with the channel banner that appears at the top of your channel page; and help them stay connected with customers with a remarketing campain that targets users who have visited their YouTube channel.

Tip #2: Show off products through video this holiday season
YouTube is the second-largest search engine after Google. Your clients probably have a search engine strategy for the top search engines—is YouTube included in that plan? Videos are a compelling way to feature products, services, and brands. When clients' target audiences are searching on YouTube make sure their videos are surfaced with promoted videos.

Tip #3: Place holiday creatives against relative videos
Help clients reach their audience in a ‘lean forward’ media platform where people are seeking video engagement and information. Find videos or video categories that resonate with their brand or target audience and pair holiday display ads against them.

Tip #4: Bring holiday TV ads online
In 2009, people spent more time watching online video than checking their email! Use TV creatives or online videos to run as preroll before videos on YouTube and get in front of this tremendous audience. Engagement rates are also compelling with an average CTR of 1.9%. An ad format that answers your holiday wish.

Tip #5: YouTube Video Gift Guide
Now consumers have a place to watch and shop on YouTube! This holiday shopping video hub is open to all advertising partners with video assets. Our guide provides consumers with the opportunity to watch and shop and provide advertisers with one destination to showcase their holiday video ads. Contact a sales representative to get started.

We’ve made your list, now check it twice and have a great holiday season!

Posted by Jen Wasson, YouTube Team

Google Media Solutions Series, Part 3: Re-engage your customers while they browse with remarketing and the Google Display Network

Welcome to the third installment of the Google Media Solutions series. In this post, we will review the Google Display Network. The Google Display Network is a large group of websites and blogs that display AdWords ads and allows advertisers to scalably reach their customers at moments of relevance. Clients are using it for direct response, web engagement as well as driving offline conversions.

We have rolled out many new features for the Google Display Network. One that we would like to highlight is remarketing. Google remarketing uses custom technology to reach potential customers who have previously visited your clients’ websites. Implementing the remarketing tag is very easy; you simply add a pixel to the clients’ sites. After adding the pixel, you can use remarketing to help capture additional sales or leads by re-targeting users who have already visited the site, and generally convert better and at a lower CPA. To learn more about remarketing and other innovative targeting options on the Google Display Network, you can check out this post from the Google Display Network blog series.

We frequently hear some common misconceptions from advertisers about the GDN that we’d like to clarify:

• I’ve tried the GDN before - what has changed?: The Google Display Network has changed a lot in the past few years. Today, the median advertiser gets approximately 20% of their conversions from the GDN at a CPA that is comparable to search.* To drive results like these, we are investing heavily in many new features that make the GDN an effective platform for advertisers with any marketing objective. Examples of features we've introduced over the years include site exclusions, above the fold targeting, frequency capping, and consolidated view-through conversion reporting.
• The Google Display Network only works for branding: Contextual targeting and remarketing are just a few examples of great tools that direct response marketers can use to reach potential customers in the later stages of the buying cycle, like consideration and decision. The Conversion Optimizer can also help you generate additional conversions at an attractive cost-per-acquisition (CPA). With powerful tools like these, you can make sure you are capturing all your potential customers as they spend time across the web.

Thanks for reading the third part of the Google Media Solutions blog series. Next week, we will discuss how you can use Google TV to drive results for your clients.

Posted by Laura Salzberg, Agency Team

*Internal analysis of North America advertisers advertising on both search and content, with conversion tracking enabled, from Dec. 2007 – Nov. 2008

Google Media Solutions Series: Part 2, YouTube - Bring Creative Solutions to Your Clients

Thanks for joining us for the second installment of the Google Media Solutions series. We switched things up and will be sharing a YouTube update this week, with the Google Display Network and Remarketing post coming next week.

Online video represents a huge opportunity to reach potential customers with new, compelling formats. YouTube is the perfect platform to reach these customers, drive sales and enhance branding initiatives.

There are many benefits to advertising on YouTube. It is a unique platform which allows your clients to reach potential customers who are engaging online. You can set up YouTube campaigns through the AdWords interface. With our new YouTube Video Targeting Tool, you can target specific audiences based on interest, demographic or specific video content. Your clients can create their message and share it with consumers with their videos or display ads. Additionally, after running a campaign, you can use YouTube Insight to learn how potential customers are interacting with your clients' videos.

There might be some confusion around YouTube ad formats, so here’s some clarification:

• I am not sure if my clients' audiences are on YouTube?: Your clients' audiences are watching YouTube videos. YouTube has users of all ages and 32% of users are between the ages of 35 and 54*. In fact, if the YouTube audience were a country, it would be the 3rd largest country in the world with over 420 million unique visitors every month.
• Our clients don’t have video content. How can we use YouTube?: You don’t need to have video content to advertise on YouTube. You can target your clients' audiences on YouTube with display, text or video ads. Our recommendation, since YouTube is a visual medium, is to test out display ads.
• Is there professional content on YouTube?: YouTube has over 3,500 content partners, including CBS, TV Guide, Fred and JuicyStar07. Our partners are actively uploading content and the video landscape is constantly changing. As this is the case, your clients' target audiences are returning to see new, updated content on YouTube!

Check in next week for the third post, which will be on the Google Display Network, Remarketing and great tips for reaching your customers while they browse the web!

Posted by Laura Salzberg, Agency Team

* comScore MediaMetrix, September 2009

Google Media Solutions Series: Part 1, Back-to-Basics with Google AdWords and Search Marketing

Over the next four weeks, we will be sharing tips and tricks for positioning Google products to your clients in the Google Media Solutions Series. We are excited to share the benefits of our solutions, debunk common myths and pass on easy implementation tips to help your accounts reach their full potential.

So, let's get started with Google’s search marketing product, Google AdWords. Using Google AdWords, you can target Google.com and the Google Search Network. This is a great solution to connect with potential customers who are searching for your clients’ products and services. It is flexible, measurable, and accountable. With AdWords, you can easily manage the spend of the account and control costs by setting a daily budget and maximum cost-per-click (CPC). Another benefit is that it’s easy to make changes to your clients’ ad text, as changes to ads take affect almost instantaneously. Lastly, as an added benefit, you can track the return on investment (ROI) of your account by using Conversion Tracking or Google Analytics.

There are some common myths that your clients may have heard regarding search and we want to make sure that we clarify these misconceptions:

• My website shows organically, so I don’t need to advertise: It is great to have a highly ranked organic listing; however you can’t control the message to your potential customers with organic listings in the same way that you can control it with search marketing campaigns. By advertising on Google.com and the search network, you can control the message that you share with all potential customers and determine the landing page to which you direct your potential customers after they click on the ad. These features can lead to increased sales.
  
  In addition, organic results are likely only capturing a very small portion of the relevant traffic on Google. For example, a consumer electronics advertiser might appear high in the search results for their brand terms, or specific trademarks relevant to their company, but AdWords can expose their message on a wide variety of related terms like 'digital cameras' 'netbooks' and 'HD TVs'.
  

• Competitors can click on my ads maliciously: We take the security of AdWords accounts very seriously and have many resources in place to prevent your account from accruing invalid clicks. While invalid clicks occur less often than commonly perceived, we have three filters in place to protect your account: detection and filtering techniques, advanced monitoring techniques and manual reviews from our team.

Stay tuned for next week’s post on the Google Display Network, remarketing and great tips for reaching your customers while they browse the web!

Posted by Laura Salzberg, Agency Team

Updated Keyword Tool: Out of Beta

In early August, we announced that the updated Keyword Tool was nearing the end of its beta phase. Today, we wanted to let you know that we’ve fully launched the updated Keyword Tool.

What does that mean for you? It means we’ve combined the best features from two previous keyword tools into one. The previous Keyword Tool and Search-based Keyword Tool are no longer available in AdWords. The updated Keyword Tool is now the only Keyword Tool available in AdWords, so you can now simply call it “The Keyword Tool.”

The Keyword Tool’s benefits include:

• Flexible search options: Search by any combination of keyword, website/URL, and category (where available) and receive a single set of results.
• Easy Keyword Refinement: Filter results by word or keyword match type.
• Negative keywords: Easily add keyword ideas as negatives right from your keyword list. Just click on a keyword and use the drop-down menu to select and save your negative keyword.
• Advanced options: View statistics for mobile search and use data filters based on local searches, search and ad share, and more.

In addition to these improvements, we’ve also changed how we calculate Global Monthly Searches and Local Monthly Searches. Statistics in these columns are now based on Google.com search traffic only. Previously, they also included traffic from search partners. We've updated these statistics based on advertiser feedback, and hope you find them more helpful for keyword selection.

While we recommend using the Keyword Tool while signed in to AdWords, you can also access the tool without signing in. We hope you like the new streamlined version of the tool and we look forward to bringing you more features soon.

Posted by Alexandra Kenin, Product Marketing Manager

New Tutorial! Ad Planner Export to AdWords Feature

DoubleClick Ad Planner helps you research and identify the web sites most likely to attract your client's audience. With Ad Planner, you can select sites, add them to a client's media plan and easily export them directly into an AdWords account as a new campaign, or add them to an existing campaign or ad group.

Many of you requested this feature because you wanted an easy way to plan and buy Google Display Network (GDN) campaigns for clients using Ad Planner.

Exporting to AdWords is easy and this online tutorial will show you how to take advantage of it. In this video, you’ll learn more about:

• Creating a media plan and finding GDN placements
• Exporting your plan to AdWords
• Setting up a new campaign or adding to existing campaign in AdWords
  

click here to watch the video

Posted by Pamela Eng, Product Marketing Manager

Coffee break with clients: Swanson® Chicken dips into click-to-play video

In part 4 of our "Coffee break" series, we caught up with Kaylyn Miller, Associate Search Director at MEC, who shared with us how her team incorporated click-to-play video ads into a recipe campaign for Swanson® Chicken, a division of Campbell Soup Company. The video campaign was established to distribute a new cooking video during two key dipping occasions - New Year's and Super Bowl. The campaign ran for six weeks, starting in mid-December and concluding at the end of January. During our interview, Kaylyn shared the following:

What were the goals of using click-to-play video ads?
We were tasked with distributing the Frank's® Red Hot® Buffalo Chicken Dip recipe, made with Swanson® Premium Chunk Chicken. We were already successfully directing users to print the recipe using paid search. However, we knew that keyword targeting could be a powerful tool for video distribution as well. Our goal was to use contextual targeting on the Google Content Network for cost efficient video views. Knowing that this strategy worked well for clients in the entertainment industry, we were striving to keep playback rate and cost per view in line with Google’s entertainment benchmarks.

How did you set up and execute the campaign?
We began by looking at the most relevant ad groups from our paid search campaign, including buffalo chicken dip, appetizer and dip, chicken recipes, New Year's recipes and Super Bowl recipes. The ad groups were then modified to include broader keywords to effectively target the Google Content Network. From there, additional ad groups were created, such as hot wings, cooking videos, easy recipes and general recipe words to obtain greater reach.

Three distinct starter images were created for the video - Everyday, New Year’s and Super Bowl (images below) - based on the events of a given week. We used the best practice of making the starter image a YouTube-like still, instead of a display ad, to increase consumer engagement.

Click to view images - Everyday, New Year's, Super Bowl

How did the click-to-play video campaigns perform?

The campaign's performance exceeded our expectations. In the 6 weeks it ran, the click-to-play video campaign received more than 34,000 video views with 42% of the videos viewed to completion. In addition, this was a good test for us to see how CPG would perform since there aren’t many benchmarks for this category to-date. We saw a lower cost per view and higher play rate than Entertainment industry benchmarks, a space where we assumed users would be more engaged.

In addition to success found through video viewing, we also found success in on-site engagement. While recipe prints are the main goal of the paid search campaign, they were secondary for the video campaign. We were pleased to find that the consumers who were engaged in the video carried that engagement over to the site. The download rate associated with video plays was 203% higher than the stand-alone paid search campaign, keeping the cost per recipe print in line with the search averages, despite the more premium CPCs found in the video campaign.

What did you learn from this campaign?
This campaign validates that click-to-play videos can supplement paid search to expand reach while maintaining consumer engagement for a client.

If you did not use this Google solution, how would things have been different?
We may have used a portion of the search budget to drive traffic to sites where the video was being distributed by our Social Media and Display teams, but most likely the video wouldn’t have been promoted through keyword targeting.

For more information on click-to-play video ads, visit the AdWords Help Center. For more information on how to prepare this recipe for your next dipping occasion, visit buffalochickendip.com.

Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team

Announcing the Ad Planner 1,000 and Greater Integration with AdWords

Today, we are introducing several new features that integrate DoubleClick Ad Planner data with other Google advertising solutions. These features help streamline the process of planning and building online ad campaigns while offering advertisers access to better data for more informed media planning decisions.


Ad Planner Top 1,000 Most Visited Sites
The Ad Planner 1,000 list is a list of the top 1,000 global sites on the web by unique users as measured by Ad Planner. Published monthly, this list details the number of unique visitors, page views and reach for each site for the top 1,000 sites globally. It’s a great way to quickly reference the most popular sites on the web.

This latest resource represents yet another step in the evolution of Ad Planner in providing reliable traffic and audience information for websites. In conjunction with our Ad Planner 1,000 list, the Google Content just released an Ad Planner 1,000 targeting feature. These two features combined provide an example of how Google is working to provide more actionable data for online display advertisers.


Exporting Google Content Network Placements to AdWords
Many Ad Planner users are also AdWords users, and one of the top requested features is to provide a simple and easy way to buy Google Content Network placements advertisers find through Ad Planner. The newly launched Export to AdWords feature enables advertisers to simply export Google Content Network placements from Ad Planner into AdWords. These exported placements will be set up as a new campaign or ad group within AdWords.

For advertisers running text ads or display ads on the Google Content Network, this provides an easy way to build media plans of managed placements. Now translating the great audience research data in Ad Planner into your AdWords campaigns is easier than ever.


Creating Lists in Ad Planner
To help you create your own list of favorite sites to save and add your media plans, we also recently launched “Lists” in Ad Planner. With “Lists”, you can store sites and placements in lists for future use in media plans. To get you started, we’ve made the Ad Planner 1,000 list available to all Ad Planner user accounts for use as a handy reference or for download.

Our goal with the Top 1000 Sites and other recent updates is to deliver new tools for greater planning efficiency and data to make more informed advertising decisions.

Visit www.google.com/adplanner to check out our new features.

Posted by Rohit Kundaji, Software Engineer and Wayne Lin, Product Manager

Jordan's Get Your Basketball On campaign on the Google Content Network

Jordan Brand, a division of Nike, has one of the most recognizable logos in the sporting goods industry. A silhouette of Michael Jordan mid-jump graces the footwear, apparel, and equipment that make Jordan one of the most coveted basketball brands in the US.

Building energy

Although his likeness still appears on merchandise, Michael Jordan retired from his legendary role in the game in 1999, posing a challenge for Jordan Brand-- keeping Michael Jordan top of mind for younger consumers.

Looking for new ways to excite and engage youth within basketball culture, Jordan Brand turned to its agency partner, Wieden+Kennedy, New York (W+K, NY). Together, they hatched an idea for a campaign that veered from the TV campaigns they traditionally ran. As expected, they built an inventive, unique campaign around a basketball player. But the player was neither Michael Jordan nor another NBA star. It was Leroy Smith.

The man, the campaign

“Sophomore year of high school, Leroy Smith took Michael’s spot on the junior varsity team,” explains Jason Clement, Director of Findability and Search for W+K NY, of the true story that inspired the campaign. “Michael points to that as the moment when he realized he needed to work and train harder to become really good.”

With the campaign’s central character chosen (and the real Leroy Smith on board), the Jordan and Wieden+Kennedy teams crafted a narrative that would pull in their audience. Played by actor Charlie Murphy, the campaign’s Leroy sells motivational DVDs, promising to teach viewers the same skills he used to dominate Michael Jordan. The DVDs, along with posters, an iPhone app, and music videos can be found on his site, www.getyourbasketballon.com. And of course the campaign’s Leroy also has a YouTube Channel, a Facebook profile, and a Twitter feed to communicate with his fans. But to create buzz and hype, Wieden and Kennedy and Jordan chose not to brand the campaign.

Leroy Smith Banner ad that ran on the Google Content Network

The ultimate forum

And it was the discovery of this content that was key to the campaign’s success. The campaign’s six-week run opened with “Leroy” himself pitching his motivational DVDs in infomercial-style television ads during the NBA playoffs. Google AdWords search ads sent interested users to Leroy’s site. To reach additional basketball fans where they were actively spending their time, the Jordan and W+K NY teams used the Google Content Network to place a wide array of display and text ads on blogs and fan sites. By using keyword targeting to automatically place their ads on relevant sites on the Google Content Network, the team was able to find the right locations for their creative more efficiently.

The strategy proved effective. They found a lot of niche basketball blogs where he could reach their target with very, very little waste and get them excited about the campaign.

Once their ads were running, the reporting and optimization controls within the Content Network enabled the W+K NY team to see which sites were working best and adjust their targeting appropriately. As excitement over the Leroy Smith campaign grew, it was clear that it was striking a chord with its audience. A number of blogs had double-digit click through rates. People were taking screenshots of the ad on their blogs and then writing posts about how much they liked having the ad on their site.

When all that enthusiasm was translated into numbers, the Leroy Smith campaign had generated 188 million impressions and 296,000 clicks over the six weeks it ran. And users were highly engaged with the content, showing very low abandonment rates once on site. Video proved compelling as well, with 27,000 YouTube channel views and 229,000 views for Leroy Smith’s “Get Your Basketball On” infomercial video.

Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team

Upcoming webinar: Uncovering opportunities with display advertising

Display advertising is changing rapidly with the emergence of audience data, engaging new ad formats, dynamic creatives, and new technologies. We'd like to invite you to a webinar about our recent innovations in display advertising and how marketers are incorporating it into their strategy.

Specifically, we’ll discuss:

• Google's vision and recent innovations in display advertising
• How to best take advantage of our offerings, from planning to optimizing your campaigns
• How advertisers are incorporating the Google Content Network into their marketing strategy

Date: Thursday, May 20, 2010 at 11:00am PST / 1:00pm CST / 2:00pm EST

Register here

Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team

Google Ad Innovations: Where ads are going next

If you're a regular reader of the blog, in the last year you've seen Google's advertising tools move in some exciting directions. We've introduced more data-driven and efficient campaign management with the new AdWords interface, easier account optimization with the Opportunities tab, and new ad formats like Ad Sitelinks and Product Extensions, to name a few.

But where is advertising with Google headed next? Which new tools, formats and features will make it possible for you to communicate with your customers in more meaningful, creative ways?

We've started a new project, Google Ad Innovations, to answer that very question. Google Ad Innovations is a website where you can explore Google's latest advertising technologies, watch short video demos to learn more, and try out select new tools.

The technologies we'll highlight on Google Ad Innovations are at various stages of development, from early tests to fully released features. Here are a few of the new releases you'll find on Ad Innovations right now:

• Remarketing -- a way to show your ads to users who have previously visited your website as they browse sites across the Google Content Network
• AdWords Search Funnels -- a set of reports that help you understand the Google.com search ad click and impression behavior leading up to a conversion
• Location Extensions with multiple addresses -- an ad format which displays a list of nearby store locations when your customers are performing local searches
• Click-to-Call Extensions -- an ad format that let mobile phone users call you directly from your ads
• Analytics Intelligence -- a Google Analytics feature that automatically identifies significant changes in your site traffic

Although there's a lot to look at on Ad Innovations, we want it to be more than a show and tell site. Every Ad Innovations page will have a feedback link: if you see a feature that can be improved, or if you think we've hit on a valuable new idea, let us know! The comments and suggestions you leave while using Google Ad Innovations will go directly to the Google team working on the feature.

So, if you want to stay on the cutting edge of advertising products, visit Google Ad Innovations — we’ll regularly add new tools and features to the site, and we can't wait to hear what you think!

Posted by Devin Sandoz, Product Marketing Manager

Upcoming webinar - Exploring the recession's impact on marketing spend

Many firms decide to cut their advertising and marketing spend during recessions; the most recent recession was no different.

Please join us for an upcoming webinar from Google and The Wharton School, partners on the Fast.Forward. initiative. Prof. David Reibstein, Marketing at The Wharton School, will discuss lessons learned from this difficult economic period and how those lessons impact and influence current and future marketing decisions.

Topics:

• Should marketers spend more or less as we move out of the recession?
• Should marketers change their budget allocations? If so, how?
• How are CMO’s dealing with the new budget parameters and what do CFO’s think of this change?
• How is the bottom line being impacted?

What: Exploring the Recession's Impact on Advertising & Marketing Spending: CMO / CFO Perspectives

When: March 26, 2010, 10amPST / 12pmCST / 1pmEST

Register at: www.tinyurl.com/march26webinar2010

For more perspectives on the changing face of marketing, visit the Fast.Forward. channel on YouTube.

Posted by Sofia Buschmann, Marketing Manager

Go for the Gold with YouTube

The winter games are in full swing with more than 80 countries vying to take home a medal. From February 12 through the 28th, milions from around the world will be tuning in to see the fierce competition. Viewers are already turning to YouTube for event highlights, interviews, and other great games-related content and will continue to do so over the remaining week of competition. The scale of these events is tremendous with an enormous opportunity for businesses to get in front of a global audience.

It’s not too late to take advantage of these engaged viewers on YouTube! Leverage these quick and easy tactics to get your campaigns running and take home a gold medal for your client:

1. Enhanced Online Campaigns: Target YouTube.com and create keyword themes around the events that are relevant to your client. Use 300x250 display ads (Tip: use Display ad builder to create high quality ads at no cost).

2. Placement Targeted Campaigns: Use the Video targeting tool to find relevant content on YouTube. With this new tool, you can target video content by video, demographic or interest. Within these campaigns, use text ads, 480x70 and 300x250 ads to capture the attention of users.

Leverage these tactics to place your ads in front of a global audience as they seek out games content and a taste of Vancouver. You too can be in the spotlight during the games without training six hours a day!

Posted by Jennifer Wasson, YouTube Ads Strategist

Help clients spread a little love this Valentine's Day

You may have seen Google's Superbowl ad this past Sunday and have gotten a taste of what a love story might look like when told as a series of search results. Of course, that was just one example; it's certainly possible to find romance outside of Paris.

With total 2010 Valentine's Day spending expected to reach $14.1B¹, there are ample opportunities for you to inject a little romance into your own clients' campaigns to ensure they have the biggest impact in the next few days.

Here are some quick tips:

1. Ad Copy: Activate and create new text ads that specifically mention Valentine's Day. This serves as a reminder for users that the date is almost here. In addition, create a sense of urgency in your ad text. Shipping deadlines, or a Valentine's Day countdown (i.e., Only 5 Days Until Valentine's!) may make your advertisement that much more compelling and drive panicked, last minute shoppers to your clients.

2. Budget: Search traffic for "Valentine's Day" and "Valentines Day" is trending upward year over year. Ignoring this increased traffic is a missed opportunity for conversions. Increasing budgets where possible will ensure you capture relevant traffic and capitalize on all conversion opportunities. Consider using the Bid Simulator to simulate various scenarios based on your bidding strategy and improve profitability of campaigns.

3. Keyword expansions: Capture additional traffic for your clients with expanded keyword lists. Try the Search-based Keyword Tool and take a look at the organic search queries reported in Google Analytics for new keyword ideas. Use Google Insights for Search to understand where your clients' products or services intersect with increased search activity. In addition to category specific opportunities, remember to target consumers looking for gift ideas. Women may be particularly interested in such suggestions - searches for "gifts for boyfriend" were up +250% y/y.

4. Expand reach: Use Ad Planner to reach your clients' target demographic on the Google Content Network and compliment search campaigns for maximum impact. Combine relevancy and targeting with eye catching visuals using Google's Display Ad Builder.

For additional resources, be sure to visit the AdWords Help Center. Happy Valentine's Day!

[1] the NRF 2010 Valentine's Day Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted for NRF by BIGresearch

Posted by Yael Davidowitz-neu, Retail Team and Evan Ortiz, Agency Team