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Showing posts with label New features. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New features. Show all posts

Dig deeper into call metrics with new detailed call reports

Back in November, we announced call metrics, a new AdWords feature that lets you generate and measure phone calls directly from your ads.

Since then, we've heard from many of you that while it's useful to see the number of calls generated by each campaign, you'd also like to view details about individual calls.

Today we’re happy to announce new detailed call reports that show you specific metrics about each individual call that your campaign has received since call metrics was enabled, including:
  • Call start time
  • Call end time
  • Call duration
  • Call status (missed or received)
  • Caller area code

To view detailed reports about each call, you’ll need to first enable the Dimensions tab in your account. Click here for instructions. Once you’ve enabled the Dimensions tab, click View and select Call metrics calls to open the detailed call report.


While detailed call reports let you dive deeper into the individual calls you’ve received, you’ll still be able to view aggregated call reports for each campaign on the Campaigns tab. These metrics include total number of calls, received calls, missed calls, total call duration, and average call duration.

Note that call metrics is only available to a limited number of US advertisers. To learn more about call metrics or request the feature in your account, visit Google Ad Innovations.

Posted by Lisa Shieh, Inside AdWords crew
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Ad Preview and Diagnosis: Together at Last

We recently introduced a new version of the Ad Preview Tool that integrates ad diagnosis: instead of simply showing you a preview of the search results for a given keyword, the tool now also tells you if your ad is showing for that search. If not, you can see the reason why.

Now that you can preview and diagnose your ads in a single location, we’re retiring the separate Ads Diagnostic Tool and directing you to the Preview Tool instead. We’ll consolidate names too; you’ll see a single Ad Preview & Diagnosis tool under your account’s Reporting and Tools tab in the future.

Over the last several months, we’ve also worked to integrate diagnosis options directly into your Campaigns tab. If you’ve been using the Ads Diagnostic Tool option to diagnose many keywords at once, don’t worry -- you can find it without leaving your Keywords tab! Just click “Diagnose keywords...” under the “More actions” menu to get integrated diagnosis results directly on the page:


To interpret the distribution of results more quickly, click the “Filter results” link, then “Show diagnostic status” in the filter panel that opens. This will open additional filter options that are specific to the results returned by a diagnosis. Here, we’ve used filters to focus only on keywords that aren’t triggering ads due to budget, bid, or Quality Score issues:

With filters, it’s easy to focus on a specific set of issues and then make the necessary changes to get ads back up and running!

You can find more information on the integrated keyword diagnosis feature in our announcement from last summer, or visit our Help Center for additional details.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew
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Show ads that are most likely to receive conversions more often

Today we're announcing the launch of a new ad rotation setting in AdWords that allows you to optimize for conversions. Previously, you had two options:
  • Optimize for clicks: Ads that are expected to provide more clicks are shown more often
  • Rotate: Ads are shown more evenly
Now, with a third option, you can choose to show ads that are expected to provide more conversions more often. We'll look at a combination of clickthrough rate and conversion rate to determine which ads to show.

We’ve always encouraged you to test multiple ads in each ad group, and we’ve offered our help by showing ads with the highest clickthrough rates more often. However, some of you have told us that the ad with the highest clickthrough rate isn’t always the ad with the highest conversion rate and that you’d like to be able to optimize for conversions rather than clicks. Starting today, we’re allowing you to do just that.

To use the new setting, you’ll need to have Conversion Tracking in your account, as we use the data from that tool to determine which ad is the most likely to receive conversions. When we don’t have enough data to make a decision, we’ll show the ad that is the most likely to receive clicks. If you have Conversion Tracking, the Optimize for conversions option will be available in the Ad delivery: Ad rotation, frequency capping section under Advanced settings on the Settings tab of any campaign. Once enabled, it will apply to all ads that appear on Google and our search and display partners’ sites.


By providing another way to define the “best-performing” ad, we hope to make it easier for you to experiment with your ads and learn which ones are the most successful in helping you reach your advertising goals. For more information on ad rotation settings, please visit our Help Center.

Posted by Lisa Shieh, Inside AdWords crew
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More control and flexibility with the new Billing tab (UK only)

We're announcing the launch of our new Billing tab in the UK. Based on your feedback, we upgraded the tab to give you more control over when and how much you're charged with the new 'Make a payment' functionality. Those of you on automatic payments get charged whenever you reach your billing threshold on or after 30 days, but in addition to that, you can now make manual payments to delay the automatic charge. Although some of you already have the new Billing tab in your accounts, we'll be rolling it out to all advertisers in the coming months. The upgrade doesn't require any action from you - your billing method and form of payment will stay the same.

Now, on to the improvements. What can you expect from your updated Billing tab?

  • Get more control. Choose to initiate a payment to your account at any time and use any form of payment available with your country and currency settings.
  • Make payments directly from your billing summary page. You can do this by clicking the "Make a payment" button.
  • Switch between automatic and manual payments. You now have the option to use either one.
  • Add multiple forms of payments and switch between them. Add as many forms of payment as you want to your account and switch between using them at any time.
  • Use different business and billing addresses. Your business address doesn't have to match your billing address. Plus, each form of payment can have a different billing address.
  • Access improved help content. There will be improved help content in the new Billing tab and Help Centre.

In addition, the below changes in terminology will be reflected in your upgraded Billing tab. But keep in mind that despite the name changes, these billing methods will function the same as they did previously.

  • Postpay is now called "automatic payments." We'll automatically charge you only after your ads accrue costs.
  • Prepay is now called "manual payments." You can make payments to your account whenever and in whatever amount you like. Your ad costs draw from those funds.
  • Direct debit is now called "bank account." Your funds will be debited from your bank account.
  • Bank transfer is now called "funds transfer." You can make payments by transferring funds to Google's bank account.

For more information on the new Billing tab, please visit the FAQ in the AdWords Help Centre.


Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew
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Location extensions: putting your business on the map

When location extensions launched in AdWords in 2009, they allowed you to dynamically attach relevant business addresses to your ads. We’ve since experimented with different ways to integrate this information with a map.

Today, we’re introducing a way for your location extension-enabled ads to show directly on the map. We’ll be integrating information from ads with location extensions into the Place Search map on Google.com. On the map, your location will be marked with a distinctive blue pin.


With the new format, we expect potential customers to be able to find local businesses more easily. Rather than seeing multiple addresses and maps on the page, your customers can see all relevant, nearby locations in one place with quick links to get directions on Google Maps.

Your promoted business will appear in this new integrated format whenever we infer that a potential customer is looking for local information and your ad qualifies to appear above the search results.

For more information about location extensions, please visit the AdWords Help Center.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew
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New features to help you manage your Google AdWords Certification Program account

In 2010, we introduced a new Google AdWords Certification Program to equip you and your companies with more up-to-date, comprehensive, strategy-focused training and certification on the latest tools and best practices for managing AdWords accounts. Along with the revised certification program, we launched Google Partner Search, an opt-in, online, searchable directory that helps advertisers identify Certified Partners to help them manage their AdWords accounts.

Over the last few months, you’ve shared feedback with us that you’d like features that make it easier to associate your individual certification with a company and more intuitive to add users to your company profile. We’re pleased to share that we’ve now released features to address each of these points of feedback.

Request to link your individual qualification to a company
Historically, to join a company in the Google Certification Program, you would need to be invited by an Administrator on your company’s account, making it difficult to join if you didn't know the Administrator. To fix this challenge, we now offer a feature enabling you to search for your company and request to join yourself. If you would like to contribute your individual qualification to a company account, you may now do so by clicking on the “My Company” link and searching for the company you wish to join. Be sure to type in at least one complete word that matches the company’s name.


Companies -- easily manage Professionals and Administrators
We’ve made it more intuitive for your company to manage the Professionals and Administrators within the Company account, as well as to review requests from users requesting to join the company, with the updated Account Access page.

On the “Users” tab, account administrators can change a user’s status to either Administrator or Professional, as well as revoke access:


The “Incoming requests” tab allows account administrators to see all requests to join from individuals and either accept or reject them. Finally, the “Invitations sent” tab can be used to directly send invitations to qualified individuals.

Add or update Google Accounts associated with your profile
We know that qualified individuals may change companies or use multiple email addresses throughout the day. We’ve therefore made it possible for you to add multiple Google Accounts to your account, as well as to change the primary email address at which you receive communication for the Google Certification Program.



For more information on the new Google Certification Program feature changes, visit the Help Center.


Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew
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Contextual targeting just got easier for your display campaigns

This week, we’re launching the Contextual Targeting Tool to help you more easily reach customers as they spend time on millions of sites in the Google Display Network.

As you may already know, contextual targeting helps you reach potential customers as they read webpages related to your products or services. Now, with this tool, you can create contextually-targeted campaigns more easily and quickly, while generating more clicks and conversions for your campaigns.

What does the Contextual Targeting Tool do?
This tool automatically builds keyword lists that can be used to show your ads on relevant webpages in the Google Display Network. Tightly-themed keyword lists are the basis of effective contextual targeting, and with the Contextual Targeting Tool, you no longer have to build them manually. In minutes, you can build dozens, even hundreds, of keyword lists, scaling your campaign performance while ensuring accurate targeting for your ads. This means you can get more clicks and conversions for your campaigns and you can do it more quickly.

How do I use it?
Let’s say you sell soccer equipment and gear. Normally, you'd have to build out separate ad groups for each of your product lines, like soccer gear, soccer balls, soccer cleats, etc. With the Contextual Targeting Tool, simply type each product category into the search box, and the tool will automatically generate tightly-themed keyword lists for you. For example, when you enter soccer gear into the tool, you get more specific ad groups, such as youth soccer gear, discount soccer gear, soccer uniforms, soccer bags, etc.

These new ad groups can help you get additional traffic and sales, as you may not think of creating them when manually building out your campaigns. Along with the new ad groups, the tool provides suggested bids and predicted placements to give you an idea of the types of sites in the Display Network where your ads can appear.

The Contextual Targeting Tool has been available to advertisers using AdWords Editor. This week, all advertisers will be able to access it from the Opportunities tab in their AdWords account. You'll still need AdWords Editor to implement the ad groups in your account for now (download AdWords Editor). However, this requirement will be lifted and you’ll be able to implement new ad groups directly from your AdWords account in the coming months.

You can learn more about using the Contextual Targeting Tool by watching this video. We hope this tool will help you more easily and efficiently reach your goals with your Display Network campaigns.


Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew
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Significant advances for Display Ad Builder

On the Google Display Network, we've been working hard to make display advertising accessible to everyone, no matter what your size or budget. In 2008, we launched Display Ad Builder to help you design display ads in minutes for free. Now, 100 new advertisers try Display Ad Builder every day.

Today we are announcing a number of improvements to Display Ad Builder to help you achieve all your marketing goals, from driving conversions to building your brand.

Quickly manage hundreds of ads with bulk copying and editing
With the newest version of AdWords Editor, you can now copy your Display Ad Builder ads across campaigns and make basic bulk edits, including ad names, destination and display URLs, and ad statuses. AdWords Editor makes it easier to customize your display creatives. For example, you could create an ad for marathon training tips, make multiple copies of the ad, then go into Display Ad Builder to customize the creative to mention the Chicago marathon for users in Chicago and the Philly marathon for Philadelphia.

Sample Display Ad Builder ad copied using AdWords Editor and then customized based on user location.
click for full size image

If you're already using AdWords Editor, you'll be prompted to upgrade automatically. Just follow the instructions to keep your unposted changes. If you’re not using AdWords Editor, visit our website to learn more and download it.

Drive engagement with social and expandable templates
Display Ad Builder also can help build your brand and engage users with our new social and expandable templates. We are testing social templates, which include the latest tweets from your Twitter account in the creative. Social templates are really useful if you want to run timely promotions that change daily. You can run a new tweet, instead of creating an entirely new creative. Social templates can also help you build your Twitter follower base.


An ad created using one of Display Ad Builder's social templates.
click for full size image

We've also released expandable templates, which encourage more interaction from interested users by increasing your ad’s real estate on the page. When a user clicks on your expandable ad, it expands to twice its width or height, depending on the format.

Create the perfect ad by customizing your templates
We're also launching template customization to give you greater flexibility to create the ad you want. You can now move text boxes and images where you want within the template. Also, text boxes can be resized, so you can include more content. Combine these new features, with 180 templates, nearly 100 fonts, and unlimited color options to chose from.


Now you can move around text boxes and pictures and re-size text boxes to customize templates to fit your needs.
click for full size image

Never tried Display Ad Builder? Try our free demo to see how it works. To start creating your ads, go to your ‘Ads’ tab in a new or existing campaign in your AdWords account. Then, click ‘New Ad’ and select ‘Display Ad Builder.’


Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew
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The Keyword Tool - when you talk, we listen

We want to thank you for all the feedback you’ve given us on the Keyword Tool. The first thing you told us is that you want more keywords that are better targeted to your account and searches, and we’ve made improvements in this area. We’ve also added features such as better filters, the ability to star keywords, and copy them as text. And we’re not done yet! You can help us understand what’s important to you by continuing to provide us with feedback. Below is a more detailed look at some of our new features.

There are three new ways to filter and refine your keyword list. With our new updates, you can:
  1. Choose specific terms to include or exclude from your keyword list.
  2. Use the ‘More like these’ button to search for terms that are similar to the specific keyword ideas you've selected from the table.
  3. Get only results that include the exact words or phrases (and their close synonyms) you’ve typed in the search box.


Adding stars to keywords
Add stars to keywords that you'd like to save while you're still searching for new keyword ideas. You can review your starred keywords in the "Stars" panel on the left side of the tool.

‘View as text’ button
View your selected keywords in text form, so that you can easily edit them and paste them in a spreadsheet or AdWords Editor.


Your continued feedback is important, so please keep sending us your comments and we'll post about more improvements here.


Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew
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‘Tis the season for Product Ads

Earlier this month we announced the U.S. launch of Product Listing Ads, which lets you easily promote products from your Merchant Center account on Google.com. In the past few weeks we’ve seen advertisers promote over 150 million unique products using Product Listing Ads.

Given all that inventory, we were curious to see what people were clicking on during one of the busiest online shopping weekends of the year.

We thought that this was a fairly interesting sneak peak into what you might expect to see under the tree this season. So, with that, here are the most clicked searches for Product Listing Ads over the holiday weekend:
To learn more about Product Ads, check out the video below or visit the AdWords help center.



Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew
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Measure how customers interact with your ads

New AdWords features such as Product ads, Sitelinks and Click-to-call allow you to create more interactive ads. Product ads and Sitelinks help customers find the most relevant pages on your website and Click-to-call allows customers to call your business directly from the search results.

As ads become more interactive, you might want to know how they'll impact your business's key metrics like clicks, click-through-rates and, most importantly, conversions.

To help answer this question, we’ve added a new report to your AdWords account that allows you to measure the performance of each click type you’re using. You can think of a click type as how your customers interact with your ads. Did they click on the headline, a sitelink, or some other aspect of your ad?

You can access the new click type report in the Campaign, Ad groups or Keywords tabs. Select “Segment” then “Click type.”




With this added data, you’ll now have the ability to compare performance of each click type side by side. If certain click types perform well for your business, you may want to consider expanding them to other campaigns. Comparing click types by campaign, ad group or keyword will also highlight areas that need work.

Given the success we’ve seen searchers and businesses have with more interactive features in ads, you can expect to see more of these types of features in the future. With the new click type report in AdWords you can measure the impact of these new features and continue to get the most out of your ads.

Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew
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Measure the phone calls you get from AdWords

What if you found out that your AdWords campaigns were bringing you more customers than you realized?

Zac Stafford, Senior Search Strategist at Nina Hale Search Marketing in Minneapolis, MN, recently discovered that this was true for his client, modern furniture retailer Room & Board. Stafford saw some encouraging results as an early beta tester of AdWords call metrics, a new feature that automatically includes a unique phone number in your ads to measure the calls that you receive from AdWords.

“By cross-checking our call metrics reports with our sales records, we saw that half the people who called the toll free number in our ad purchased online but the other half purchased in a store. Before using call metrics, we determined our ROI just by looking at the online sales numbers. Now we have proof that online search ad campaigns drive in-store purchases.”

Today we're announcing that AdWords call metrics is available for more advertisers, making it easier than ever to measure the phone calls that AdWords generates for your business. Using the technology behind Google Voice, call metrics assigns your campaign a unique phone number which is automatically inserted into your ad on both desktop and high-end mobile devices, where the number is clickable.

Call metrics ad at the top of the search results:
click for full size image

Call metrics at the right of the search results:
When a user calls the number in your ad, the call is automatically routed to your business, and AdWords notes that this call took place. Then, when you look at your AdWords reports, you’ll see the number of calls generated by each campaign, call duration, and in the near future, caller area code. You'll still only pay for clicks on your ads, but we intend to charge for call metrics in the future.

Once you know where your calls are coming from, you can refine your marketing strategy to make sure you’re getting the most out of your ads. For example, you could test different ad text variations to see which results in the most calls or reallocate budget to campaigns that truly bring you the highest ROI.

Currently, call metrics is only available to a limited number of US advertisers. We plan to make the feature available to more advertisers in the coming months. To find out if call metrics is available in your account and to learn more about the feature, visit Google Ad Innovations.



Additionally, if you want to see call metrics in action, watch the video above.


Posted by Surojit Chatterjee, Senior Product Manager, AdWords
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Query Paths in Search Funnels

Hot on the heels of the new Search Funnels features that were recently launched, here’s another new feature: The Top Paths (Query Paths) report.

Broad match keywords in your AdWords account may be matched to a variety of keywords your users are searching for. You bid on certain keywords, but what about the actual queries that these keywords were matched to? You can see Keyword Paths within Search Funnels - and now, you can see Query Paths as well.

Within the existing Top Paths reports:



Select the Top Paths (Query Paths) option in the Dimension drop down menu to show you the actual queries that were matched to your ads and clicked prior to a conversion.



Note: this option will only show queries for search ads that were clicked, and not for impressions.

This data gives even more insight into the searches users make before finding and then purchasing on your site. With this information, you should be able to better target these users by seeing how they find you, and gain confidence in bidding on keywords that convert or assist in the conversion path.

Posted by Gordon Zhu, Inside AdWords crew
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See potential placements for Google Display Network campaigns

Since the inception of the Google Display Network, contextual targeting has helped you to reach users effectively. This type of targeting allows you to show your ads next to related web content that users visit across millions of sites on the Display Network.

Today, we’re announcing an AdWords feature that provides you with example sites in the Display Network where your ads may appear when using contextual targeting. The example sites are based on the keyword list you provide when creating your campaign, and are available for campaigns that are solely running on the Display Network. Starting this week, the feature will be available to a limited set of advertisers, and will become more broadly available in the coming weeks.

Since contextual targeting happens in real-time across millions of sites in the Google Display Network, with this feature, you get insight into the types of sites where your ads can appear. Seeing example sites before your campaign runs can help you to refine your keyword lists to ensure optimal targeting. Along with example sites where your ads can appear, you can also see a suggested bid for your ad group. The example placements we provide are meant as a guide to help you get a sense of where your ads can appear. They’re not an accurate representation of actual placements, which can vary with the dynamics of the ad auction once your ads are showing.

While this feature provides a deeper level of transparency before your ads run, as always, once your campaigns begins to run, you can access site- and URL-level reporting that shows the specific places in the GDN where your ads actually appeared.

To see potential placements when creating your campaign, your can click the "See potential placements" button when selecting keywords for display-only ad groups in the new ad group creation interface. Please visit our Help Center to learn more.

Posted by Gordon Zhu, Inside AdWords crew
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The Bid Simulator reaches a new level

A few weeks ago, we announced the launch of Estimated Top Impressions in the bid simulator. Today we’re announcing another improvement: the ability to view bid simulations across keywords in an ad group at once. With this launch, we hope to give you a faster and more scalable way of making bidding decisions across keywords in aggregate.

The ad group level bid simulator provides simulations for two types of changes:
  1. Applying a single bid to all the keywords in the ad group.
  2. Updating the ad group default bid (this only impacts those keywords that do not have their own keyword-level CPC bid and use the ad group default bid).
If you’re like many advertisers and manage your bids at the keyword-level, it may be worth taking a look at ad group level bid simulations: You could be surprised to find out that, in some cases, you could have achieved similar or better results had you managed your bids by using a single ad group default Max CPC bid.

Let’s take a closer look at an ad group where this is the case:


The highlighted row shows that, for the past seven days, the ad group received 339 clicks, costing a total of $182.37. Beneath this row, you can see simulations for the potential clicks, cost, and impressions that the ad group could have received had the keywords all used a single Max CPC bid.

In this case, if all keywords in the ad group had used a Max. CPC bid of $0.53, the ad group could have received an additional 49 clicks (for a total of 398) for about the same cost ($182). Thus, if clicks from all keywords in the ad group are equally valuable to the advertiser, it would make sense to set a single bid of $0.53 to all the keywords.

Note: For this type of bid simulation, look to see if the yellow dot is above the green line in the chart to the right of the table. If it is, this indicates that you may be able to get more clicks for the same cost.

If a few keywords in an ad group are especially profitable to your business (i.e. they convert at higher conversion rates or at higher values) you may choose to manage them separately by assigning keyword-level Max CPC bids. If this is the case, the bid simulator will display simulations for the remaining keywords in the ad group that use the ad group default bid. If you select a new ad group default bid, this bid will apply to all keywords in the ad group for which you haven’t specified a keyword-level Max CPC.




Here are two tips to help you get the most out of the bid simulator:
  1. Check out ad group level simulations to find out if using a single bid for all the keywords in the ad group could save you time and money.
  2. If you view a bid simulation for a specific keyword and do not see click cost estimates, this is likely because the keyword doesn’t receive enough traffic. Consider managing low traffic keywords in aggregate by using the ad group default bid for them by deleting their keyword level bids.

To see ad group level bid simulations, go to the “Ad groups” tab and look at the “Default Max. CPC” column in our chart icon.

Post Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew
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New Features in Search Funnels

We’ve received very positive feedback from advertisers using Search Funnels—the new set of reports launched in Conversions. Advertisers are beginning to understand the path to conversion beyond just the last click and are now able to give credit to assisting keywords and ads that customers saw and/or clicked before converting. Each buying cycle is different and Search Funnels is eliminating the guesswork over the roles your keywords are playing in the path to conversion.

And here’s the first round of improvements, as requested by you.



Longer, customizable Conversion History Windows
A buyer may take longer to research and buy a vacation package rather than purchase movie tickets, for example. The funnel for various conversion types can differ greatly in regards to time to purchase and number of clicks to purchase. Now, you can adjust the time span, or Conversion History Window, to 30 days (default), 60 days or 90 days prior to a conversion to see the Search Funnel data leading to that conversion. With this feature, you can look further back into the history of your conversion paths.

Only show complete conversion paths
A percentage of surfers clear cookies from time to time, which can influence search funnels data by causing conversion paths to appear shorter by eliminating some upper funnel assists - impressions or clicks on your keywords - that may have occurred prior to cookie deletion. For instance, if a buyer clicks on one of your ads, then clears cookies, then goes on to click another one or your ads before making a purchase, the click prior to cookie deletion will not show up in your Search Funnels reports.

Now, you can sanitize the search funnel data you’re looking at by checking a box in your reports called “Only show complete conversion paths.” This option will filter out conversions that are from paths that are potentially biased by cookie deletion. As such, while you will end up analyzing fewer conversions overall, you will be seeing truer, more complete conversion paths. Use this option to strengthen your overall funnel analysis and understand how buyers are finding your products.

These new features were created based on feedback we received from Search Funnels users and we hope you find them useful as you experiment with, analyze, and optimize your portfolio of keywords.

Posted by Gordon Zhu, Inside AdWords crew
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Reaching for the top spot? "Estimated Top Impressions" now available in the Bid Simulator

A year ago, we launched the Bid Simulator, a feature that allows you to see how different keyword-level bids may have impacted your advertising results. Using data from the past seven days, the bid simulator re-calculates the number of clicks and impressions your ad could have received with different maximum CPC bids.

Today we’re announcing a new metric in Bid Simulator, “Estimated Top Impressions,” which shows you how many times your ad appeared above the search results in the past seven days and how this metric could have changed had you used different keyword level maximum CPC bids.

Access the Bid Simulator by clicking the icon next to your maximum CPC bid.


Whether you carefully manage a handful of valuable keywords or simply want users to see your ad as often as possible, Estimated Top Impressions can be a useful metric. Ads that appear above the search results are more visible to users and tend to receive more clicks than ads that appear along the right side of the search results page.

Let's look at an example of how to use the Estimated Top Impressions column:



In this table, the current maximum CPC bid of $1.07 captures most of the impressions that a higher bid of $1.93 could have captured (7,520 vs. 7,930). However, when we look at the ‘Estimated Top Impressions’ column, we see that the current bid of $1.07 only captures a fraction of the top impressions (4,780 vs. 6,380). Increasing the bid to $1.93 would have placed the ad at the top of the search results page for many more queries, resulting in more users seeing the ad and clicking through to the site (591 vs 662).

If one of your goals is to appear in the top position and you’ve been focusing on the ‘average position’ of your ad to gauge how prominently it’s displayed to users, Estimated Top Impressions may be a better metric for you to focus on. While average position indicates where your ad is appearing in relation to other ads on the page, it doesn’t indicate whether your ad is appearing above the search results or on the right side of the page.

Note that past performance does not guarantee future results, and simulations will only be provided if there is enough traffic on a given keyword to conduct a meaningful analysis. Additionally, top of page impressions are counted only for impressions on Google, since other sites within the Search Network may display ads differently. Estimated Top Impressions data is currently only available in the Bid Simulator, and we’re working to incorporate this metric into more AdWords reports.

For an in-depth look at bidding, check out this tutorial from Hal Varian, the Google Chief Economist: Bidding Strategy Overview.

Posted by Nathania Lozada, Inside AdWords crew
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Location extensions with multiple addresses available on mobile devices

Cross-posted from the Google Mobile Ads Blog

Do you have several business locations in one city? For example, are you a national retailer of consumer electronics who wants to increase foot traffic to your Los Angeles area stores?

Every day, consumers are using their high-end mobile devices to find directions to local businesses, making mobile an ideal way to reach this audience. We’re excited to streamline this experience by announcing a new enhancement to the location extensions ad format: location extensions with multiple addresses. This new feature will ensure that your customers connect with the right location of your business at the right time.

Now available on Google Maps for Mobile (GMM) versions 4.4 and above on Android devices, location extensions with multiple addresses allow consumers to find the most relevant location of your business on a Google mobile map.

Featuring your business location alongside your mobile ad is a powerful method to drive foot traffic and in-store sales. For instance, if a potential customer is looking for a wireless communications store like Sprint, an ad within GMM can display all Sprint locations near them. This not only delivers a relevant search experience, but also enables customers to visit the closest and most convenient Sprint store location.


Here’s how location extensions with multiple addresses work:
  1. Based on a user’s search and location signals, AdWords can display a clickable banner with the option to show all locations for a particular business in Google Maps for Mobile.

  2. When the “Show all” banner is clicked, the map displays just the locations of your business as indicated by your business icon. Using your business logo as the icon is a great opportunity to build awareness and loyalty for your brand.

  3. Clicking on a specific business location leads the user to a page with more details about the business -- including ad text, business address with directions and the ability to call or visit the website.

  4. After the search is completed, the business icon and location are automatically saved as a GMM Layer and will continue to appear on the map in subsequent search results until turned off by the user.
To take advantage of this enhancement, you must be a primary business owner and have enabled location extensions within your Google Places account. Additionally, your campaigns must target the iPhone and other high-end mobile devices with full mobile browsers. You will only be charged when users click on the website URL or the phone icon displayed on the details page of a particular business location.

Location extensions with multiple addresses launched for desktop earlier this summer and we’ve worked hard to bring it to mobile. For now, this feature is only available on Android devices, but we hope to expand to other platforms in the near future.

Location extensions ad formats can show in the United States as well as a number of other countries. To learn more about location extensions with multiple addresses, please visit our Help Center.

Posted by Surojit Chatterjee, Google Mobile Ads Product Manager
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Analyze Competition live in all English language accounts

In June we announced the Analyze Competition feature in the Opportunities tab. At first, this feature was only available to a small number of advertisers using the English language AdWords interface, but now this feature is available to all English language accounts.

Analyze Competition helps you understand how your AdWords performance compares to that of other advertisers competing on similar keyword categories. Using the data in Analyze Competition, we hope you can make more informed decisions about which types of optimization changes are right for your account.

In addition to the feature’s core functionality, you can now also see the Google search terms that triggered your ad for each of the most specific sub-categories in your account. Click a category name to see more specific sub-categories. When the category name is no longer a link, you’ll know you’re at the most specific sub-category -- this is where you’ll see a "See search terms" link. Seeing the search terms that triggered your ad can serve as inspiration for new keyword ideas or help you understand if your keywords have been miscategorized by our system. If you see that the search terms listed for a given category are not related to the keywords in your ad groups, you may consider making keywords more specific or adding new negative keywords.

We hope to bring even more features to Analyze Competition in the future. To learn more about Analyze Competition, visit the Help Center, or watch this short video. You can also visit our page on the Ad Innovations site, which is the destination site for the newest, most innovative developments in AdWords.

Posted by Jason Shafton, Inside AdWords crew
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Tracking clicks from mobile devices

The ValueTrack parameter has long allowed you to track the clicks that you get via search and the Google Display Network separately. We know that many of you would like to be able to see the clicks you get from mobile ads separately as well. That’s why we’re pleased to introduce Mobile ValueTrack, a new way for you to do just that.

Mobile ValueTrack works the same way it does for search and content: by automatically adding a tag to your website URL. To use this feature, you just need to add the Mobile ValueTrack parameter: {ifmobile:NewTagName} to the “Destination URL” field when you create a text ad.

There are two ways to take advantage of this feature:

Automatic re-directs to mobile optimized sites
By adding the MobileTrack parameter to your landing page URL, you can automatically redirect people using mobile devices to a mobile-optimized version of your site. In the example below, you can create a mobile site at www.travelingdog.net/mobile and ensure that mobile clicks get re-directed to this site by adding the Mobile ValueTrack parameter, {ifmobile:mobile}. Note that non-Google-ads traffic to your site won’t have the ValueTrack parameter, so it’s still a good idea to send all users to your mobile-optimized site.

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Third party tracking tags
Additionally, If you use third party tracking to identify how many of your visitors clicked through to your site from your AdWords ads, you can use Mobile ValueTrack to track clicks coming from mobile devices. Just insert a tag into your destination URL. Let’s say that you’re Travel Dog Company and want to distinguish clicks coming from mobile devices. By adding the Mobile ValueTrack parameter to your landing page URL, www.travelingdog.net?type={ifmobile:hello}, the tag “hello” will be inserted into the destination URL allowing you to see which clicks are coming from mobile devices.

Mobile ValueTrack works for both WAP mobile ads and regular text and image ads on iPhones and other mobile devices with full Internet browsers. Keep in mind that any change that you make to your URLs will need to be reviewed and approved before they go live.  You can also get more stats for mobile devices with full browsers by selecting “Segment By: Device” within Campaign Management.

We hope that this feature will allow you to better track your mobile performance and ensure that users get the best experience on mobile.

Posted by Miles Johnson, Inside AdWords crew
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