Tag Archives: DoubleClick

DoubleClick Search Guide to the Holidays Series: Plan to get ready for next year

This is the fifth and final post of the DoubleClick Search Holiday Series. Today, we cover planning ahead, the last of five steps outlined in our new DoubleClick Search Guide to the Holidays. Your performance in 2015 should propel your performance next year. Here’s how to get ready for 2016.

  • Use executive reports: A DoubleClick Search executive report displays your metrics for revenue, costs, trends, and other high-level concepts, all presented in understandable charts and tables. Create your report once, or schedule a daily update throughout the holiday season.
  • Review your purchase details. For holiday planning, you want to be strategic about which items you highlight from your sales. So, look at your purchase detail reports to see which similar items were top sellers this year, and use that as a guide for where to put your effort in 2016.
  • Leave bid strategies running, but adjust for any changes to your goals: If your return on ad spend or cost-per-action requirements change, adjust your bid strategy goals and DoubleClick Search will bring your bids back into line.
  • Save your budget pacing reports: You can go back and see how you paced to get ready for 2016.

That’s it, the last of the five steps to holiday campaign success. We hope these posts will help you during the busy 2015 holiday period. To recap, here are all the steps again:

  1. Prepare: Unify your data for insights and action, add more data to maximize conversions, use labels to track your promotions, and integrate offline data.
  2. Automate: Use bulksheets, automated rules, and inventory-aware campaigns to make your life easier.
  3. Measure: Gain valuable insights by setting up scheduled reports, budget pacing reports, formula columns, and Floodlight activity columns, then analyze and monitor your performance.
  4. Optimize: Use real-time data to make adjustments with the DoubleClick Search Performance Bidding Suite, Adaptive Shopping campaigns, and remarketing.
  5. Plan ahead: Create executive reports, review purchase details to see how well you did this year, and save your budget pacing reports.

Be sure to read the entire DoubleClick Search Guide to the Holidays.

Don’t forget to register now for tomorrow’s webinar on October 29th at 12pm PDT / 3pm EDT to learn tips and tools to maximize performance and profits during the holiday period from Henry Tappen, Product Manager at DoubleClick Search.

Happy Holidays!

Nick Macrae
Product Marketing Manager, DoubleClick Search

Reporting changes in AdWords API v201509

AdWords API v201509 introduces some changes to reporting columns, particularly Clicks. Recently, AdWords introduced new columns called Engagements and Interactions. It also added reporting columns related to video campaigns such as VideoViews, which have previously been unavailable via API reporting. AdWords API version v201509 has updated its reporting to match these changes.

The new Interactions field, available in API performance reports, can be thought of as the main action a user takes with the ad format: clicks for text ads, engagements for Lightbox ads, and views for video ads. Previously, views for video ads were not returned in API reporting, so having access to this data is new.

Prior to v201509, the Clicks field always included both clicks and engagements. Starting in v201509, the Clicks field includes only click actions, like clickthroughs to a landing page or clicks to call. This means that clicks on video ads, which are unpaid, will be included in this field. However, engagements for Lightbox ads will not be counted.

If measuring performance across multiple ad formats, you might consider using Interactions to view the total number of primary user actions on ads, all in the same column. Clicks, Engagements, and VideoViews are available as well for more fine-grained reporting by ad format.

The table below summarizes the changes in each field for various ad formats.

Field
v201506
v201509
Clicks
Text ads: clickthrough to a landing page

Lightbox ads: hover to expanded ad format
Text ads: clickthrough to a landing page or clicks to call

Lightbox ads: clickthrough to a landing page

Video ads: clickthrough to a landing page
Engagements
N/A
Lightbox ads: hover to expanded ad format
VideoViews
N/A
Video ads: view
Interactions
N/A
Text ads: clickthrough to a landing page or clicks to call

Lightbox ads: hover to expanded ad format

Video ads: views

Please note that reporting in v201506 and previous versions is unaffected; they return the same data that they always have, represented the same way. This means that when comparing the data you receive from older versions of the API to user interface reports, or to v201509 reports, the numbers will not directly match up. Video-related stats will still be excluded from v201506. The Clicks column in v201506 will match the Interactions column from v201509 if you subtract out video interactions.

For ease of reporting, it’s recommended to migrate to v201509 as soon as possible.

Keep in mind these aren’t the only reporting changes in v201509 — for more details on conversion-related reporting changes, please see the release notes.

If you have any questions about this or other aspects of the AdWords API, please contact us via the forum or the Ads Developers Plus Page.

- Michael Cloonan, AdWords API Team

Important changes for gaming publishers using the IMA HTML5 SDK

In the coming weeks, we’ll be making changes to the way the IMA HTML5 SDK handles AdSense and Ad Exchange non-linear and full slot ads. To facilitate these changes, we’re adding a new API: AdsRequest.forceNonLinearFullSlot. Gaming publishers are required to set this parameter to true to ensure that all ads returned to your player are correctly rendered as full slot ads. This change is planned to go live the week of November 30th. Keep an eye on our release notes for the exact date as the change is released.

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact us via the support forum.

 - , IMA SDK Team

IMA HTML5 – changes to non-linear and full slot ads for AdSense and Ad Exchange

In the coming weeks, we’ll be making changes to the way the IMA HTML5 SDK handles AdSense and Ad Exchange non-linear and full slot ads. You should be aware of these changes to ensure that your video player behaves as expected once the changes have taken effect.

Definitions

A non-linear ad is a static or animated ad that displays over the video content during content playback. These are also sometimes referred to as “bottom-third” ads, because they typically take up the bottom third of the video player.

A non-linear ad.

A full slot ad is a static or animated ad that usually appears before or after the content, occupying the entire view area. It renders a close button that when clicked closes the ad and, if rendered before the content, triggers the content to start.

A full slot ad.

Current behavior

Currently, non-linear ads are rendered as expected, but full slot ads are also rendered as non-linear ads. So instead of pausing, the video continues to play underneath them while they take up a large portion of the video display.

New behavior

With the new behavior, any non-linear AdSense or Ad Exchange ad greater than 90 pixels in height will be rendered as a full slot ad. This means it will take up the entire video display. When the user clicks the close button, the content will start.

We will also be adding a new UI to these full slot ads which includes a countdown timer and a skip button. You should remove any custom UI elements you’ve added for full slot ads to ensure there are no conflicts with this new UI.

Lastly, to ensure that your ads are rendered properly, make sure your AdDisplayContainer is rendered on top of everything else and takes up the full size of your video player.

Full slot ad with the updated UI.

Testing the changes

If you’d like to test these changes, you can load the test version of our SDK by replacing your load of ima3.js with ima3_test.js. This is a watermarked test binary that changes frequently and without notice; it is not intended for use in production.

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact us via the support forum.

 - , IMA SDK Team

Cross-device conversion estimates in DoubleClick Search bid strategies

In today's multi-device world, consumers increasingly move across screens when researching and shopping for goods and services. In a recent study conducted by Google and Ipsos Media CT, it was found that nearly 40% of online shoppers start their research on a smartphone and make their final purchase on a computer or tablet1.

Earlier this year, we introduced cross-device measurement across DoubleClick Digital Marketing, including DoubleClick Search, to help you see the total number of conversions influenced by a specific keyword, regardless of the device where the conversion occurred. For example, if a user who clicks on a search ad on one device goes on to complete a purchase on another device, we can measure that, enabling you to more accurately report on the full value of your search ads.

Now, bid strategies in the DoubleClick Search Performance Bidding Suite can use cross-device conversion estimates to automatically calculate the mobile bid adjustment that will help you achieve your campaign goals and maximize the impact of your mobile ads.

Using cross-device conversion estimates in the Performance Bidding Suite

If you enable a bid strategy in the Performance Bidding Suite to use cross-device conversion estimates, it can consider these cross-device conversions to determine how much to bid for your mobile ads. The bid strategy can then recommend or automatically apply the optimal mobile bid adjustment based on your conversion or revenue goals.

You can use this feature with a one-step opt in: when configuring the target of a bid strategy, check the box to use cross-device conversion estimates when setting the mobile bid adjustment.

Note: Currently, bid strategies use cross-device estimates only for mobile bid adjustments. Other enhancements, such as adjusting bids based on membership in an AdWords remarketing target, will follow in future updates.

Learn how to use cross-device estimates in bid strategies today.

Tris Southey
Product Manager, DoubleClick Search
1 The Role of Mobile Search on Store Purchases, Google/Ipsos Media CT, August 2015. Purchases were made within the past 3 months.

New ad UI and click behavior for IMA HTML5 SDK

Starting this week, we’re going to incrementally roll out a change in the way the IMA HTML5 SDK handles an ad’s UI.

We will be adding a Learn More button to Ad Exchange and AdSense ads on both desktop and mobile. Clicking on the button will take the user to the advertiser’s site, while clicking elsewhere on the ad will pause or resume it. This is a change from the existing behavior, where clicking anywhere on the ad opens the advertiser’s site.

The new ad UI.

This change will also be rolling out to all mobile web ads that do not use custom click tracking. Note that ads that have no UI before the change will gain a UI with this change. This will allow our mobile web behavior to be consistent with native mobile behavior.

If you have any questions about these changes, feel free to contact us via the support forum.

 - , IMA SDK Team

DoubleClick Search Guide to the Holidays Series: Optimize to get the most from the holidays

Today, we cover optimization in post four of the DoubleClick Search Holiday Series. It’s one of the five steps outlined in our DoubleClick Search Guide to the Holidays.

DoubleClick Search Performance Bidding Suite

The DoubleClick Search Performance Bidding Suite can automatically optimize bids to help you reach your goals.

During the busy shopping season, DoubleClick Search’s real-time conversion data and intra-day bidding factor current trends into your bids—things like special holiday promotions, sudden spikes in demand due to winter weather, and more. Our machine-learning-powered bid strategies will respond quickly to adjust bids that deliver results. Plus, cross-device conversion tracking helps the bid optimization system make the most of your mobile traffic.

Adaptive Shopping campaigns

Adaptive Shopping campaigns optimize the structure of your shopping campaigns in order to improve their performance. Outlier products are automatically separated into their own product group, giving them a bid tuned specially to that product ad's performance.

We've also improved the algorithm just in time for holidays. Adaptive Shopping campaigns can now take into account your performance goals and your customers' unique behavior. Adaptive Shopping campaigns will also automatically cleanup product groups that stop receiving clicks. All in all, these features help you improve returns by bidding higher on high-performing products, and save money by bidding lower on poor performers.

Remarketing

If you aren't already doing so, use remarketing to turn your site visitors into buyers. Engage those people who’ve left your site or clicked your ads without buying anything by showing them relevant ads on search or display. Here are two ways to remarket:

  • Reach high-value customers with remarketing lists for search ads (RLSAs) — Modify your keyword bids, target search ads, or prevent ads from displaying based on inclusion in your AdWords remarketing list. You can track the performance of each remarketing list in any associated campaign.
  • Re-engage shoppers with display remarketing from search ads — remarket to users instantly with display ads on the Google Display Network or across exchanges via DoubleClick Bid Manager.

We want you to achieve the best possible results from your marketing efforts during this busy season. In our next post, we’ll talk about how to take your efforts this time round to plan ahead for your next peak period. Learn more about all five steps to success in the DoubleClick Search Guide to the Holidays.

Remember to register now for this weeks webinar on October 29th at 12pm PDT / 3pm EDT to learn tips and tools to maximize performance and profits during the holiday period from Henry Tappen, Product Manager at DoubleClick Search.

Nick Macrae
Product Marketing Manager, DoubleClick Search

DoubleClick Search Holiday Series: Measure your holiday success

In this third post in the DoubleClick Search Holiday Series, we cover measurement, the third step in the DoubleClick Search Guide to the Holidays to help you reach the right customers in the right moments this holiday season.

Automated reports

We’ve launched speed improvements to most reports in 2015. Have a last-minute shopping list? No problem—DoubleClick Search reports on Shopping campaigns activity much faster! But why wait—you can set up a scheduled report to receive your data whenever you want it. See how you’re trending year over year by adding “Compare to past” to the date range.

Budget pacing reports

These reports feature columns such as percentage of time elapsed, percentage of budget spent, days and budget remaining.

  • Easily visualize week-over-week, day-over-day, or month-over-month trends and changes.
  • See how each campaign contributes to your budget and KPIs.
  • Set up reports just for Black Friday through Cyber Monday, to make sure you’re hitting all your spend and efficiency targets.

Formula columns

Quickly create custom columns based on calculations you apply to metrics. Spend less time in spreadsheets, report only on what matters, and calculate using the freshest data. Calculate key statistics for the last 7, 14, and 30 days, or even special treatment for your Black Friday and Cyber Monday numbers. Create a countdown using rules+formula columns: "3 days left for free shipping!"

Floodlight segmentation and activity columns

You can use Floodlight columns to compare different conversions—phone calls versus online, or signups versus transactions, for example. DoubleClick Search Action groups contain Floodlight activities that count how many times users visit a webpage after seeing or clicking one of your ads. Transaction groups track the number of sales made or the number of items purchased. And, with cross-device conversion tracking, you can understand the true impact of your ads across multiple devices!

In our next post, we’ll talk about optimizing for success. Learn more about all five steps to holiday success in the DoubleClick Search Guide to the Holidays.

Register now for a webinar on October 29th at 12pm PDT / 3pm EDT to learn tips and tools to maximize performance and profits during the holiday period from Henry Tappen, Product Manager at DoubleClick Search.

Nick Macrae
Product Marketing Manager, DoubleClick Search

Upcoming changes to inactive ad group CPA bids in AdWords

In preparation for improvements to CPA bidding in AdWords, starting October 26, 2015, we'll perform a one-time removal of inactive ad group-level CPA bids.

What's an inactive ad group CPA bid, you ask? An ad group-level CPA bid is inactive if the ad group's effective bidding strategy is not a CONVERSION_OPTIMIZER strategy. This includes CPA bids on ad groups whose effective bidding strategy is TARGET_CPA, since the target for such ad groups is specified at the strategy level. The effective bidding strategy is the ad group-level strategy, if specified. Otherwise, it’s the bidding strategy set at the campaign-level.

How this change impacts the AdWords API

After the one-time removal of inactive CPA bids, there are two categories of ad groups you'll want to review:
  • Ad groups from which inactive CPA bids were removed: For these ad groups, the AdGroup object will no longer have a CpaBid in the bids attribute of its ad group-level BiddingStrategyConfiguration. Therefore, if you change the effective bidding strategy of these ad groups back to a CONVERSION_OPTIMIZER strategy, you will have to add a new CpaBid to the ad group’s BiddingStrategyConfiguration for your ads in the ad group to serve. You will only have to make this change once.
  • Ad groups you change from TARGET_CPA to CONVERSION_OPTIMIZER: AdWords will no longer copy the TargetCpaBiddingScheme.targetCpa value to a CpaBid on the ad group's bidding strategy configuration. Therefore, you will not automatically get the TARGET_CPA strategy bid if you transition to CONVERSION_OPTIMIZER. If the ad group's bidding strategy configuration already has a CpaBid, then CONVERSION_OPTIMIZER will use that bid. Otherwise, you will have to add a new CpaBid to the ad group BiddingStrategyConfiguration before ads in your ad group will serve.

How this change impacts bidding

Since the CPA bids being removed are inactive, this change will have no impact on bidding or ad serving.

What you should do

If you are interested in inactive CPA bids for CONVERSION_OPTIMIZER bidding strategies, download the current bids using AdGroupService before the removal date.

More bidding resources

Still have questions? Feel free to visit us on the AdWords API Forum or our Google+ page.

- Josh Radcliff, AdWords API Team

Forbes, Washington Post and DoubleClick partner to help publishers respond to requests for 100% viewable impressions

Earlier this year, research from Google showed that nearly half of all display and video ads were not viewable. This has helped move forward the ongoing industry discussions around shifting digital ad buys from served impressions to viewable impressions. Simultaneously, advertiser demand for 100% viewable impressions, where advertisers only pay publishers for impressions that are viewable based on the current industry standard as defined by the MRC, has continued to grow.

To help publishers tackle this complex issue, we partnered with experts from The Washington Post and Forbes along with the DoubleClick for Publishers and Active View teams at Google to create an educational case study that surfaces key issues publishers should consider as they respond to RFPs for 100% viewable impressions.

The illustrative scenario in the case study walks through how a sales director at the fictional publisher, The Hourly Report, responds to a RFP from the fictional advertiser, Eh-Okay, for a commitment to provide 100% viewable impressions. The case study references two fictional viewability measurement technologies, Ad Chemist and Bridge, along with Google’s Active View solution, to represent the fact that there’s more than one way for advertisers and publishers to measure viewability.

“At Forbes, we’ve been preparing to transact on viewable impressions for about three years. Done right, viewability will be good for the advertiser, consumer and the ecosystem. Partnering with Google on initiatives like this are a great way to analyze the best approach to deliver a viewable campaign. From technology choices and ad placements to client relationships and overall sell-through rates, each element of a viewable campaign carries significant weight, and the case study we put together demonstrates that.”
-Alyson M. Papalia, VP Digital Advertising Strategy & Operations, Forbes Media

"The potential for an ad to be seen is an extremely reasonable expectation for a marketer and their agency...especially from a premium publisher such as The Washington Post. As the concept is still relatively new, challenges exist with making it an absolute reality. It is key that we are on the forefront of helping to aggressively move the conversation and process forward, and partnering with Google and DoubleClick on efforts like this case study to help educate the industry is a key step in the right direction."
-Jed Hartman, Chief Revenue Officer, The Washington Post

We’re strong believers that the viewability discussion should be just a starting point for publishers and advertisers: understanding whether an ad had a chance to be seen is the first step on the path to ultimately being able to measure whether it had impact. Adopting a single industry standard for viewability - like the MRC defined standard that Google supports - is a critical first step along the path to transacting media exclusively based on viewable impressions.


Read the full case study on DoubleClick.com
Lauren Ashcraft
Strategic Account Manager, Revenue Solutions
Justin Pang
Strategic Partnerships Lead