Category Archives: AdWords Agency Blog

Tips and tools for agencies

One year in: An updated Google Web Designer

Almost one year ago, we launched Google Web Designer, a free, easy-to-use, professional-grade HTML5 authoring tool. Over that year, we’ve seen increased adoption of HTML5 and Google Web Designer across the industry.

Fast facts, one year in: 
  • In the first half of 2014, DoubleClick Rich Media ad impressions from HTML5 grew 140% compared to the second half of 2013. 
  • Ads built with Google Web Designer have garnered 2.5B impressions since the launch of the product.
  • Over 20% of Google Web Designer’s user base are returning users and 72% are located outside the United States. 
  • Advertisers are seeing performance improvements as a result of adopting HTML5. For example, TalkTalk decreased their eCPA by 12% and reduced their backup image rate by 13% by adding HTML5 to their campaign. 
So what’s launching in Google Web Designer? 
The launch provides more granular control and creative flexibility to creative developers and designers, and allows them to easily build more interactive and animated HTML5 content and get it published quickly. 
  • Revamped Events and Components allow designers to make any element interactive. 
  • The updated timeline provides more granular control for designers to easily build animated content. 
  • Tighter integrations with Google Drive, DoubleClick Studio, DoubleClick Campaign Manager and AdWords let users collaborate on their works-in-progress and publish finished units more quickly. (This integration marks the first time that AdWords will support HTML5 upoads.) 
For this launch, we wanted to push the boundaries of what HTML5 ads could be. So we asked one creative designer to come up with a "Google Web Designer Thought Experiment."

Check out the awesome HTML5 ad unit that he came up with, read through his process developing the unit, and get a peek into his creative design process:



Simplifying cross-screen advertising
In addition to Google Web Designer, we are continuing to develop tools to make it easier for advertisers and agencies to build successful cross-screen advertising campaigns. 

We recently launched several features in DoubleClick to help you execute and measure your campaigns across screens, including in-app remarketing and conversion tracking in DoubleClick Campaign Manager. We also launched MRAID 2.0 support in DoubleClick Studio and we have certified 69 large publishers and networks for in-app formats, meaning developers can build mobile in-app ads with the confidence that they’ll be accepted across more publishers and networks.

Want to learn more?
  • Creative Agencies:
    • Visit our revamped website and download the product for free. 
    • Register for our Google Web Designer overview webinar on Wednesday Aug. 13th. Our lead Product Manager and Creative Technical Consultant will walk through the new Google Web Designer features and demo some cool creative executions. 
  • Media Agencies:
    • Register for our third webinar in the Make Mobile Work Series, focused on best practices for mobile targeting, on Tuesday, Aug. 12th. Google will be presenting alongside speakers from Millennial and Facebook.
Posted by Sean Kranzberg, Engineering Manager, and Tony Mowatt, Lead Product Manager, Google Web Designer

New YouTube Insights Report and Hangout on Air



The YouTube Insights Report is a quarterly report of insights from research and case studies for Brand Advertisers. In the fifth issue of YouTube Insights we share insights on how passions drive purchases. For example:

  • "66% of beauty product purchasers indicate that YouTube influenced their purchases by helping them visualize how products fit into their lifestyle"

  • "72% of auto-vehicle purchasers indicate that YouTube influenced their purchases by providing ‘in-action’ videos of vehicles they were considering"

  • "As a bonus see the preview of a new study that shows how smartphones are now the #1 screen for 18-34 year-olds"

In addition to the report, we will host a Hangout on Air, August 7th at 4pm ET, to dive deeper into the “so what” of the reports’ findings. RSVP now!

Reaching the Digitally Savvy U.S. Hispanic Market

It’s projected that U.S. Hispanics will make up 30% of the country’s population by 2050.  It’s an audience that’s growing yet remains largely underserved, and now marketers have a huge opportunity to connect with this population through digital. Research shows that U.S. Hispanics lead in the adoption of new devices, and they are power users of mobile and video.

On Think with Google, our head of global ad marketing, Lisa Gevelber, discusses three important lessons for marketers to keep in mind when looking to connect with these digital trendsetters.



Real-time in retail: Why acting quickly matters in search

Cross-posted from the DoubleClick Search blog

When consumers act, they act fast. Retailers can get a leg up in the marketplace by responding to consumers’ needs as they surface. While some events, such as holidays and championship games, can be anticipated, others, such as weather-related issues, cannot. Using real-time technologies in search, brands can dynamically adjust their reach, competitiveness and relevancy with their target audiences at the most critical times.

In a new Think Insights article, Casandra Jones, Account Director at iProspect, tells us the benefits of adopting SEM tools that act in real time to achieve search success as these important events and conversations occur.

Screen Shot 2014-07-20 at 8.40.04 PM.png

Check out Casandra’s article on the Think Insights page here, and let us know what you think on Twitter or our Google+ page.

Scale your Shopping campaigns with bulk uploads and AdWords Editor

Cross-posted from the Inside Adwords blog

With less than eight weeks left until regular Product Listing Ad (PLA) campaigns retire, we're excited that the majority of PLA advertisers have already started taking advantage of Shopping campaigns, and 85% of these have already fully upgraded. Advertisers who’ve upgraded like Farfetch, US Mattress, LiBoutique and ValuePetSupplies are seeing great success thanks to the retail-centric interface, item-level reporting and competitive benchmark data.

For those of you who’ve upgraded, we’re excited to introduce two new tools to make campaign management, specifically bid optimization, easier.



  • Bulk Uploads: You now have the ability to download a product group report, edit your bids and destination URLs, and import your changes using bulk uploads.
  • AdWords Editor: We’ve heard your feedback, and with the latest version of AdWords Editor, you can edit your bids and destination URLs for individual product groups at scale. At this time, AdWords Editor doesn’t support the creation of Shopping campaigns or product groups, so please plan time to create your campaigns and subdivide your product groups directly in AdWords.

If you haven’t upgraded to Shopping campaigns, we strongly encourage you to start as all regular Product Listing Ad campaigns will retire at the end of August.

Many third-party agencies and platforms are upgrading advertisers to Shopping campaigns, so if you work with one, reach out and see how they can help. Here are a few resources to answer questions and get you started:

Posted by Eric Tholomé, Director of Product Management, Google Shopping

Introducing Active View reporting in DoubleClick: A foundation for brand measurement

Cross-posted from the DoubleClick Advertiser blog

In an important step toward making brand measurement as actionable as the click, customers of our DoubleClick platform globally now have access to Active View reporting. Advertisers, agencies and publishers now have access to a common, integrated metric to evaluate and compare the viewability of impressions across the web.

Digital advertising can provide brand marketers better measurement for their campaigns, but to do so, we must transition to a market where viewable impressions are a standard currency. On March 31, the Media Rating Council took the first step toward making viewable impressions a standard by lifting its advisory to refrain from transacting on viewable impressions as a digital advertising currency. We’ve always been a strong supporter of the viewability standard and we’re excited to roll out our MRC-certified viewability solution Active View to our DoubleClick partners.

DoubleClick clients globally now have access to Active View viewability reporting by default in:
  • DoubleClick for Publishers, for publishers using Google Publisher Tags 
  • DoubleClick Ad Exchange, in the new Query Tool
  • DoubleClick Digital Marketing
    • DoubleClick Campaign Manager, including reach and frequency
    • DoubleClick Bid Manager

From measurement to currency, the future of Viewability
Moving from served impressions to viewable impressions as the standard unit of measurement in the advertising ecosystem will be a huge shift but, leaders in the industry see opportunity ahead.
“The shift toward viewability will bring more brand spend to digital, ultimately benefiting premium publishers,” says David Payne, Chief Digital Officer at Gannett. “Viewability provides us another proof point that shows how our premium content creates highly engaged audiences perfect for branding campaigns.”
"At VivaKi, we’re passionate about viewability because an ad served that is not viewable is an inefficient use of our clients’ resources,” says VP Audience Media Strategy Phil Shih. “In the future, viewable premium inventory will demand a higher CPM than unviewed impressions; but it’s worth it for the sake of growing your brand.”

Providing a common measurement metric is the foundation for a world where we can transact on viewable impressions. But measurement alone does not make viewable impressions a currency. For this, we need to develop technology that allows advertisers and publishers to not only measure, but also transact viewable impressions. We already enable this on the Google Display Network and, we’re also investing in tools on the DoubleClick platform to allow advertisers and publishers to value, buy, sell, serve and optimize to viewable impressions. 

The transition to viewable impressions will not happen overnight, but as more brands, agencies and publishers adopt the viewable standard, we can create a more transparent and actionable display ecosystem for brand advertisers. We look forward to working with our clients and industry bodies to turn viewability into a new currency for the web.

Posted by Sanaz Ahari, Group Product Manager, Brand Metrics


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Kicking Off the Latest Art, Copy & Code Campaign: Nike’s “Phenomenal Shot”

Last year, we launched our Art, Copy & Code project to partner with iconic brands, such as Volkswagen and Burberry, to reimagine how technology and creativity come together in advertising. In our latest collaboration, we’ve teamed up with Nike, Wieden + Kennedy, Mindshare and Grow for a new take on watching live sports.

Today, watching live TV is a much more active experience because our devices are always within reach—on the coffee table, in our pockets or on our laps. Nearly 80% of consumers watch TV with a laptop, tablet or mobile phone nearby. After major events, these screens come to life -- searches spike, and the “Did you see that?” moments become the must-have, real-time currency of the web.

This behavior creates a massive opportunity for brands to be hyper-relevant, in an instant.

Together with Nike, we developed a real-time campaign that lets global fans participate, remix and share in pivotal moments, just seconds after they happen on live TV.

"Nike is always looking for new ways to innovate, not just through our athletes, products and stories but also in the way we connect with our consumers,” said Davide Grasso, Chief Marketing Officer, Nike. “We're focused on interesting and innovative ways to inspire and enable athletes, and the innovation that Google is able to deliver is something that excites us. The technology is an exciting way for us to scale our interaction with athletes in real time and deliver to them content that will help fuel their conversations. It's a very powerful way to engage with Nike during some amazing moments in sport.”

The campaign is built on two key technologies:

Real-time, reimagined: Through a specially designed, real-time ad delivery tool, display ads were shown across the web on sites and apps in the Google Display Network, within seconds of a Nike athlete's phenomenal play happening on TV.

For example, when Brazil’s Neymar Jr. scored two goals in the first half of the Cameroon match and when USA’s Tim Howard had a series of incredible saves versus Portugal, Google technology allowed Nike to deliver ads celebrating the moment within 10 seconds of those events happening live.

The cross-screen experience...now in 3D: Using modern browser technologies like HTML5 and WebGL, Nike’s athletes came to life in 3D across screens. On mobile phones and tablets, the campaign made particular use of the unique capabilities of mobile devices. Fans could span 360-degrees around the character by tilting and panning their phone, capturing their own perfect shot.

 

Over the last few weeks, we’ve run eight ads celebrating real-time moments. And consumers are engaging. Over two million fans from 200 different countries have engaged with the Phenomenal Shot experience, creating over 500 thousand remixed moments to share with their friends.

To see the ads and learn more about the campaign, visit ArtCopyCode.com.

This project is the first in a series of projects to reimagine real-time marketing. While Nike is the first to use the new capability, there’s potential in all kinds of live events - from sporting events to award shows to reality TV. It’s an exciting step for brands looking to meaningfully connect with people, in real time, across the entire web. Watch this space for more updates later this year.

-- posted by Mike Glaser, Marketing Manager, Creative Partnerships

Driving Brand Campaigns with Search Advertising

Search ads typically aren’t part of the brand marketer’s toolkit, but thanks to a few leading advertisers, they may be soon. A recent Google/Ipsos MediaCT meta-study showed that search ads drove an average increase of 6.6 percentage points in top-of-mind awareness, from 8.2% to 14.8%—a lift of 80%. Marketers are starting to turn to search advertising as a way to learn more about their brands and connect with consumers.


For example, in 2012 L'Oréal Paris used search to reach a broad audience looking for information about the popular “ombre” hairstyle. This hair treatment was only done in salons at the time, but L'Oréal Paris saw the trend’s potential and developed a home market product in just a few months. In addition to the home product, L’Oreal Paris created YouTube content devoted to the topic, got widespread press coverage, and owned the search for the term—all of which established brand awareness. In the end, the very people who had alerted L'Oréal Paris to the trend were shown search ads that linked to helpful marketing, right at the moment of interest.

Think with Google took a look at how brand marketers are understanding, reaching and influencing audiences using search, and how they’re measuring the impact. Check out the full collection for more details on the research, case studies and a guide for marketers on how to use search for brand marketing.

Introducing Video Advertising advanced certification on Google Partners

We’re excited to announce that the new Video Advertising advanced certification is now available to all members of Google Partners globally.  

In October 2013 we launched Google Partners – a program that provides agencies with the resources, training and support to help businesses succeed online. Over the last few months, we’ve been looking for more ways to recognize agencies’ specialized knowledge in certain areas of digital advertising.

This new certification is designed to recognize users with expertise in video advertising on YouTube and the Google Display Network and help them share that knowledge with their clients.

Starting today, AdWords certified members of Google Partners can take the Video Advertising exam to earn advanced certification.

To learn more about this advanced certification, please visit the Partners Help Center.

Posted by the Google Partners team


Win the Digital Shelf with Our New Guide to Shopping Campaigns

Cross-posted from the Inside Adwords blog

We introduced Shopping campaigns in February to make it easier for you to manage your Product Listing Ads (PLAs). In late August, Shopping campaigns will be the default
campaign type for all PLA advertisers.

To help retailers make the most of their Shopping campaigns, we’re excited to introduce a new best practices guide, “Shape Up Your Shopping Campaigns.” It addresses important questions like:
  • How should you structure your campaigns: by product line, performance, or both? 
  • Which feed attributes have the best chance of improving CTR?
  • Are you adjusting bids quickly enough during peak seasons?
Download the “Shape Up Your Shopping Campaigns” guide now to ensure you’re making the most of your PLAs and data feeds.

 For additional help, here are a few resources:
Posted by Matt Lawson, Director, Performance Ads Marketing