Author Archives: Darren Carlton

DoubleClick Search features in May


In May, we added the following features to DoubleClick Search (DS):
  • Support for AdWords "Mobile app installs" campaigns: Use DS to create, target, measure, and optimize on “Mobile app installs” campaigns, a new, simple type of AdWords campaign that focuses on getting people to download your app. Ads from these campaigns appear only on phones or tablets, and they land directly on your app page in the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. Learn more.
  • Manage and report on local inventory ads: Local inventory ads advertise products that are available in nearby stores when a customer searches for items on Google. You can now use DS to manage and report on your local inventory ads along with online ads in AdWords Shopping campaigns. Learn more.
  • New reporting column for AdWords campaigns: The Invalid clicks column displays the number of clicks on ads that Google considers to be illegitimate, such as unintentional clicks or clicks resulting from malicious software, as reported by AdWords.
  • Ad rotation settings for Bing Ads: If you create more than one ad in a Bing Ads ad group, Bing Ads can either rotate through the ads evenly or predominantly show ads that have the highest click-through rate (CTR). You can use the DS UI or DS bulksheets to specify how Bing Ads should rotate ads in an ad group.

We also updated the following features:
  • DS URL templates are now hierarchical: Use DS URL templates to apply a redirect URL or a set of URL parameters to landing page URLs for keywords and sitelinks. You can create DS URL templates at multiple levels within an engine account. For example, you can create separate URL templates for each campaign or ad group. Learn more.
  • Improved support for Merchant Center multi-client accounts: If you use DS to manage AdWords Shopping campaigns or inventory keyword campaigns and you have a parent Merchant Center accounts, known as a multi-client account, you only need to link the parent account to DS and AdWords. Learn more.

Posted by the DoubleClick Search team

DoubleClick Advertiser 2015-04-22 00:04:00

DS features in March

In March, we added the following features to DoubleClick Search (DS):
  • Support for AdWords features:
    • Call extensions: Call extensions encourage calls to your business by showing a phone number with your ad. You can create call extensions in DS or create call extensions in AdWords and sync them into DS. You can also use DS to report on performance metrics such as clicks on ads that show a phone number, the number of calls made to a specific number, and call conversions. Learn more.

    • Ad customizers: Ad customizers are parameters in your ad copy that will be replaced by dynamic text when an ad is served. For example, you can include the {=Mixers.Brand} custom parameter in your ad copy. If you've uploaded a spreadsheet that defines a value for Mixers.Brand, AdWords will substitute the value when it serves the ad. When you create ads in DS, you can include ad customizers in your ad copy. You can also sync in ads with customizers. Learn more.

    • Adjust bids by location: A single AdWords campaign can specify different max CPC adjustments for different countries, regions, cities, or zip codes. This enables you to maximize conversions by location without having to maintain separate campaigns. Learn more.

    • Upgraded URLs: AdWords is in the process of introducing Upgraded URLs to make it easier to manage tracking parameters and third-party redirection URLs. DS will be introducing updates to support upgraded URLs.

      Important: Don't upgrade keywords and sitelinks yet. For now, it's important that you do not upgrade your keyword and sitelink URLs. We'll provide complete migration instructions for DS users soon.

      DS already supports upgraded URLs for product groups and will use the new AdWords URL fields after you edit a product group in DS. As a result, you'll be able to use new ValueTrack parameters for product groups. Other than the additional ValueTrack parameters, you won't see any difference with upgraded URLs when working with product groups.

  • Unified Device Targeting in Bing Ads accounts: Bing Ads has completed its final migration of campaigns to Unified Device Targeting. Now, all campaigns and ad groups target all device types. Similar to AdWords, the default bid you enter applies to desktop computers, and you can enter bid adjustments for mobile and tablet devices.

    As a first step in supporting this change, DS has removed the old campaign and ad group settings for specifying device targets. If you want to adjust bids for mobile or tablet devices, you need to sign in to Bing Ads and make changes there. It's important to run a sync in DS after you make your changes. This will ensure DS will not change or erase any bid adjustments you make in Bing Ads.

    Now that Bing Ads has finished its migration, we highly recommend that you sign in to Bing Ads and review the results. If you previously had multiple campaigns targeting the same keywords on different devices, you may now be competing against yourself for ad placement. Review the Unified Device Targeting FAQs for more information and recommended actions.

  • Create a geographic location of presence report: If you want to know more about how your advertising performs in, for example, cities in the United States compared to prefectures in Japan, you can now use DS to create a geographic location of presence report. Learn more.

  • Attribution modeling for Google Analytics conversions: An attribution model determines how to distribute credit for a conversion across all of the activity in a conversion funnel. By default, Google Analytics conversions give all credit to the last click. You can create attribution models in Google Analytics that give some amount of credit to clicks on interactions higher up in the funnel. Then you can import the attribution models into DS and apply them to custom Google Analytics activities columns in DS. Learn more.
We also updated the following features:
  • New URL for DS: The URL that you use to access DoubleClick Search has changed from https://www.google.com/doubleclick/search to https://ddm.google.com/ds. You still have access to the same great features, but now they're available at a new URL. DS user credentials will continue to work as expected and existing bookmarks/saved links will redirect to the new URL.

  • Exclude data from bid strategy optimization: DS bid strategies calculate bids based on the performance history of keywords and conversions. Sometimes, an event may occur that causes a skew in the bid strategy calculations (for example, a web page outage). In DS, you can identify the event and instruct a bid strategy to ignore the performance history during the event. Learn more.

  • Updates to Executive Reporting:
    • Segment charts and tables by sitelinks: Charts and tables in an executive report can now be segmented by AdWords sitelinks. For example, you can create a pie chart that shows how much revenue each sitelink has generated or line chart that shows how each sitelink has contributed to conversions over time. Learn more.

    • Download executive reports in PDF: You now have the option to download your reports in the Portable Document Format (PDF) in addition to the Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) format. Learn more.

    • Use formula columns in reports that span advertisers: You can now include formula columns in reports that display data from multiple advertisers. Learn more.

    • Use ad group or campaign labels for faster report generation: By default, when you use a label to segment or filter a chart in an executive report, DS collects and summarizes data from each keyword that you've applied the label to. Because working with such a large amount of data can take a long time, the DS UI displays only a quick preview. Now, you can set up a report to only collect data from labeled ad groups or campaigns instead of each keyword. This makes it faster to generate a report, and makes it possible for the DS UI to display the full data instead of the data preview.

  • Updated search terms report: The search terms report (previously called the search query report) shows the search terms that trigger your ads to appear, and enables you to quickly add keywords or set negative keywords to optimize performance.

    You can now view the search terms report at the engine-account level (for AdWords, Bing Ads, and Yahoo! JAPAN accounts). That is, you can see all search terms across all campaigns in an account from a single report.

    In addition, the search terms report for AdWords accounts in DS now shows search terms retrieved via the AdWords API. Learn more.

  • Broad-match negative keywords are now copied to Bing Ads: Previously when copying campaigns to a Bing Ads engine account, DS would ignore any broad-match negative keywords in the source campaign and copy only the exact-match and phrase-match negative keywords into the Bing Ads account. (Bing Ads does not support the broad match type for negative keywords.) However, now DS copies broad-match negative keywords and changes the match type to phrase in Bing Ads accounts.

  • URL templates are always applied to existing keywords: When DS first released the URL templates feature, you could select the Rewrite keyword landing page URLs not currently using template option to prevent DS from applying the template to existing keywords. This option has been removed. Now, DS always applies the URL template to all existing keywords and any new keywords that you create. Learn more about URL templates.
See these updates in action in the new features training video for March.

Posted by the DoubleClick Search team

DS features in December and January


In December and January, we added the following features to DoubleClick Search (DS):
  • Forecast the performance of a bid strategy: Using historical data from an existing bid strategy, DS can estimate how the bid strategy may perform with a different target or spend amount. 
    You can use the forecast to gain such insights as:
    • The CPA, ERS, or ROAS target you need to achieve a specific range of conversions. If you know how many conversions you want to achieve per week, you can see which target you're likely to need.
    • How the bid strategy is likely to perform with a specific amount of weekly spend.
    • The trade-offs between cost and conversion volume as you adjust your CPA, ERS, or ROAS targets.
    Learn more.
  • Copy campaigns to AdWords, Bing Ads, and Yahoo! JAPAN engine accounts: If you need to manage the same campaigns on multiple engine accounts, instead of manually creating the campaigns in each account you can copy an existing AdWords account. If you make additions or changes to one of the campaigns, you can copy the additions and some of the changes into the other accounts. Learn more.

We also updated the following features:
  • Create and apply sitelinks by uploading a bulksheet: You can now use the same bulksheet to create and edit sitelinks and add them to campaigns and ad groups. Before this update, you needed to create sitelinks in one bulksheet and apply them to campaigns and ad groups in a second bulksheet. Learn more.
  • URL templates no longer encode URL parameters: If you use a redirect URL to pass tracking data to an additional tracking system, the additional system may require you to HTML-encode your landing page URLs. Instead of adding this redirect URL to each keyword's landing page, you can use a URL template to automatically apply the redirect URL and encode the landing page URLs. Previously, if you set up a URL template to encode landing page URLs, DS also encoded any URL parameters you specified in the template. DS has been updated so that it no longer encodes the URL parameters in a template. Learn more.
  • Bid strategy health column: The bid strategy health column now lets you know if any bid strategies are constrained because it's been too long since offline conversions have been uploaded into DS. Learn more.
  • Pause engine accounts: Agency managers can now change the status of an engine account from Active to Paused, temporarily stopping such activities as trafficking, bid optimization, and inventory management. Learn more.
See these updates in action in the new features training video.

Posted by the DoubleClick Search team

DS features in October

In October, we added the following features to DoubleClick Search (DS):
  • Include data from IBM Digital Analytics in DS reports: You can now report on IBM Digital Analytics data directly in DoubleClick Search (DS). After your DS advertiser and Digital Analytics accounts are linked, you’ll be able to see conversion events—including revenue and item counts—from Digital Analytics in the DoubleClick Search UI. You can also download and schedule reports with this data, retrieve the data from the DoubleClick Search API’s Reporting Service, as well as use the data in formula columns. To get started, email your DS support contact and let them know that you want to link DS with Digital Analytics. See Link a DS advertiser with Digital Analytics for the information to include in your email.
  • Manage AdWords location extensions in DS: Location extensions show your local business address, phone number, and a map marker in text ads served by AdWords. Now you can use DS to manage the location extensions that you've set up in AdWords.
  • Report on the quantity of items in transactions: Now you can use DS to report the number of items in transactions recorded by Google Analytics and Floodlight activities. Just add the GA quantity, Action quantity, and Transaction quantity columns to a report, or to a formula column.
We also updated the following features:
  • Bid strategies:
    • Choose an attribution model for distributing credit: By default, bid strategies attribute full credit for a conversion to the last paid click. In effect, bid strategies optimize bids to maximize the number of last click conversions in the funnel. If instead you prefer to optimize for paid search clicks throughout the funnel, you can select an alternate attribution model such as time-decay.
    • Set a maximum CPA: Bid strategies optimize bids across the whole portfolio to increase efficiency by bidding more for some keywords and less for others. This can mean that the average bid for some individual keywords drives a CPA that's over the target CPA, even though the overall strategy is profitable. To attempt to keep the average bid of each keyword in the profitable CPA range, you can now set a max CPA constraint.
  • Executive Reporting: Customize the axes for bar and line charts
    • Start axis at zero: Now, if you want to show the scale of change between data points in your bar and line charts, you have the option to start the axis at zero. For close data ranges, starting at zero expands the scale of the range.
    • Combine the range for measurement on one axis: When comparing different metrics in bar and line charts, you can also combine metrics that use the same unit of measurement on one axis. For example, you can combine clicks and impressions on the same axis because they are measured the same way.
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  • Updated editor for text ads: To make it easier to create text ads, the ad editor now provides separate fields for each line along with a preview of the ad. As you enter text, you'll see the number of characters that you can type in each line. And for a shortcut, you can paste an entire ad into the Headline field. DS will automatically fill in the fields with text you pasted.
  • DS API's Reporting Service:

See these updates in action in the training video for October features:

Posted by the DoubleClick Search team

DS features in August

In August, we added the following features to DoubleClick Search (DS):

  • Add and manage users in DS: DS agency managers can now add users, remove users, and change user permissions right in DoubleClick Search. Learn more.
  • Optimize bid strategies that target offline conversions: If you include offline conversions in your bid strategies, you can now improve performance by indicating which Floodlight activities primarily track offline conversions. If no conversions have occurred for a period of time, you can send an availability timestamp to clarify whether the lack of data means that no conversions have occurred or that you haven’t uploaded the data yet. Learn more.
  • Use the DS reporting API to download sitelink reports: You can use the reporting API to download reports containing metrics for AdWords sitelinks. For example, you can download a report that shows the number of clicks, impressions, and other data for each sitelink in an ad group or campaign. Learn more.
  • Quantity columns from Google Analytics and Floodlight activities: To report on the number of items in transactions recorded by Google Analytics and Floodlight activities, you can now add the GA quantity, Action quantity, and Transaction quantity columns to DS reporting tables. You can also use these columns in formula columns.

      Watch the recorded webinar for August features to see these updates in action.

      Posted by the DoubleClick Search team

      DS features in June

      In June, we added the following features to DoubleClick Search (DS):
      • Public launch of Yahoo! JAPAN accounts in DS
        We’re excited to announce the full launch of support for Yahoo! JAPAN campaigns in DS. You can create, manage, report on, and optimize Yahoo! JAPAN search campaigns in DS. To get started, you’ll first need to create a DS engine account for a Yahoo! JAPAN Listing Ads account. Once that’s set up, you can create and manage your campaigns under the account.
      • Report on AdWords estimated conversions
        Estimated conversions is an AdWords feature that provides a holistic view of all conversions driven by your Google search advertising. This includes conversions starting on one device or browser and completing on another, or that start online and finish with a phone call. (The feature requires you to enable AdWords conversion tracking in your AdWords account.) You can now include the number of estimated total conversions and cross-device conversions in your DS reports. Learn more.
      • Executive Reporting: new web-view mode
        You can now view executive reports online via a web-view mode without needing to download them. Learn more.

      We also made the following feature updates:
      • New options for segmenting reports
        DS now supports several new report segmentation options, such as segmenting reports on labels and applying date segments to the reports that you view in DS and that you download. In addition, in most reports you can now specify multiple segments, such as Floodlight activity and device. Learn more.
      • Updated time-range options for reporting tables
        DS now supports new time-range options in reports, such as including data from the current day, selecting the start day for weekly ranges, and selecting your own custom range, such as the last 15 days or the 37 days. Learn more.
      • Shopping campaigns: Use the Dimensions tab instead of the Products tab
        To analyze Shopping campaign performance based on product attributes, such as Category and Brand, you now use the Dimensions tab instead of the Products tab. Learn more.
      • New authorization process for Bing Ads accounts
        Bing Ads is changing its sign-in process from username-password authentication to Microsoft Account authentication and authorization. If you’re changing the settings of an existing Bing Ads engine account in DS, you'll need to follow the new authorization process before you can save your changes. You do not need to update engine accounts yet if you aren’t making other changes. Learn more.
      • "Campaign target network" is now required when creating AdWords campaigns via bulksheet The "Campaign target network" column in a bulksheet specifies the advertising network (search, display, partner, and so on) that an AdWords campaign targets. Previously this column was optional, but as part of supporting the new AdWords “Search Network with Display Select” campaigns, DS now requires you to specify a value for AdWords campaigns. For details, download the "Campaign" or "All" upload template (XLSX format) and rest the mouse pointer on the "Campaign target network" column heading.

      Watch the recorded webinar for June features to see these updates in action.

      Posted by the DoubleClick Search team