Tag Archives: reporting

DS features in March


In March, we added the following feature to DoubleClick Search (DS):

  • Support for the new AdWords “Search Network with Display Select” campaigns
    AdWords has launched a new campaign type, “Search Network with Display Select”, which is helping advertisers     gain up to 15% more customers than search campaigns alone. Any new campaigns that you create in DS will automatically be “Search Network with Display Select” campaigns. DS will continue to support legacy “Search & Display Networks” campaigns for a few months. Learn more.

We also made the following feature updates:

  • Include impression share in executive reports
    You can now     add a chart to an executive report that displays the impression share metric for your Google AdWords keywords. With impression share metrics, you can easily report how many of the overall potential impressions you’re capturing.

  • Improved targeting settings for Bing Ads ad groups
    We made some improvements to clarify that a Bing Ads ad group can override the campaign’s location and device settings     independently. In other words, you can override one or both of these settings when you create or edit a Bing Ads ad group.

  • Segment Google Analytics goals by device
    When a reporting table includes columns for Google Analytics goals, you can now     segment the table by device as well as by ads.

  • Bid strategies for PLA campaigns
    To optimize bidding on Product Listing Ads, you can now apply an ROI bid strategy to product targets, an ad group with product targets, or an entire campaign. You can even use the same bid strategy to let DS optimize your bids across both product targets and keywords to reach your ROI goals.     Learn more.

  • Formula columns: new functions, new columns, and new aggregation options
    • New functions
      We have added 18 functions that you can use in formula columns: 14 for manipulating strings, 2 for specifying relative dates, and 2 for error handling. In addition,       to_number(), to_percent(), and to_money() can now convert localized strings into numbers. See a list of all functions in the new function list for DS formula columns.
    • New columns You can now use the Status and Keyword_match_type columns in a formula column. These columns are considered to be enumerated columns because they always contain one of a few values pre-defined by DS. Make sure that any functions you create refer to one of the pre-defined values that the column can contain.
      Here’s an example function that outputs "Brand-Broad" for keywords that are labeled with the “Brand” label and have been defined with a broad match type:       If(and(Has_label("Brand"),keyword_match_type="Broad"),
      "Brand-Broad","Brand")
    • New aggregation options When you create a formula column, you can specify how the summary row in a reporting table aggregates data from a formula column. Previously, a summary row always summed the raw data in the individual rows and then applied the formula to the sum. Now you can specify that a summary row applies the formula to each row and then sums the formula results.

Posted by the DoubleClick Search team

Support for v201402 Reports in AdWords Scripts

We are announcing support for AdWords API v201402 reports in AdWords scripts. The following new reports are available for use:
  • BID_GOAL_PERFORMANCE_REPORT
  • PAID_ORGANIC_QUERY_REPORT
  • PRODUCT_PARTITION_REPORT
  • SHOPPING_PERFORMANCE_REPORT
You can refer to https://developers.google.com/adwords/api/docs/appendix/reports for the list of supported columns and other details for these new reports.

If you use API versioning in your reports, then you need to modify your code to use v201402 as shown below. If you don’t use API versioning, no code changes are required.


var report = AdWordsApp.report(query, {
   apiVersion: 'v201402'
});
If you have any questions about this feature or AdWords Scripts in general, you can post them on our developer forum.

Anash P. Oommen, AdWords Scripts Team

DS features in February

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

  • Report on impression share You can now report on impression share for keywords in your AdWords engine accounts in DS. Impression share is the number of impressions you’ve received divided by the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive. With impression share metrics, you can easily track how many of the overall potential impressions you’re capturing. Learn more.

  • Easy access to agency and advertiser data, and faster account navigation We’ve completed the rollout of two DS UI changes that are designed to enhance usability and workflow efficiency.

    • The new agency view: Enables viewing and reporting across multiple advertisers. This view shows key data from multiple advertisers in one integrated, consistent view to help advertisers more easily act on big opportunities.

    • The new navigation bar: Provides a more usable way to quickly find and access information across your advertisers. It includes a new horizontal layout, a search-as-you-type function, favorites labels, and keyboard shortcuts.

To learn more, read this blog post and this Help Center section.

We also made the following feature updates:

  • Improvements to automated rules and bulk edits We made the following improvements to automated rules and bulk edits (including scheduled edits) in DoubleClick Search:

    • Bulk edits and automated rules at the advertiser level
      When you navigate to an advertiser with all engine accounts, or navigate to an advertiser with an engine type (e.g.,       All AdWords accounts), you’ll now see the Edit and Rules buttons above the table.

    • Bulk edits and automated rules for objects within labels
      When you click       Labels in the left nav and then click a specific label, you’ll now be able to apply bulk edits and automated rules after navigating to the campaigns, ad groups, keywords, or ads in the label.

    • Change min/max bid in bulk for keywords
      Change min/max bid for bid strategies is a new option when setting up a bulk edit or automated rule for keywords.

    • Change budgets across engine accounts
      For rules and bulk edits on Bing Ads campaigns, we combined the       Change daily budget and Change monthly budget options into one Change budget option. This allows you to change budgets in bulk across Google AdWords and Bing Ads engine accounts.

    • Change labels in bulk for ads
      Change label is a new option when setting up a bulk edit or automated rule for ads.

    • See the source of your bulk edit or automated rule
      When you click       Bulk operations in the left nav, the new Changed by column on the Bulk operations page shows the source of the edit or rule.
      • For one-time bulk edits, the column displays the user’s email address.
      • For scheduled edits, the column displays Scheduled edit: {scheduled edit name}.
      • For automated rules, the column displays Rule: {rule name} with a link to the Rule details page.

  • Sitelink descriptions in DS DS now supports syncing and managing multi-line descriptive text for AdWords sitelinks.

  • New LENGTH() function for inventory templates Inventory templates for ads and keywords now support the LENGTH() function, which returns the length of a string or other value. With this function, you can create templates that respond to the length of a field, as in the following example that outputs “generic” if the BRAND field is blank: [IF(LENGTH(BRAND) > 0, BRAND, "generic")]. Learn more.

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

Posted by the DoubleClick Search team

Learn DoubleClick Search fundamentals: join an upcoming webinar

If you're interested in developing your DoubleClick Search expertise, try our online eLearning and certification, then join our upcoming webinars to learn more. Register through the Training page in the DoubleClick Search Help Center (sign-in required). While you’re there, you can also learn more about our latest product releases.

DoubleClick Search Fundamentals eLearning and Certification 
Get an overview of how to manage large search campaigns in DoubleClick Search. This online, self-paced training course is designed for new and current DoubleClick Search users who want to understand the basics of campaign management, reporting and bid optimization.




Review the material, test your knowledge, and print out your certification when you pass. The course and exam are now available in select languages, including Spanish, Japanese, German, and Portuguese-Brazilian – try it today. Register



Upcoming webinar: Using Analytics Data Successfully in DoubleClick Search – 3/11 
Join this webinar to learn more about Analytics best practices, analyzing Analytics data in DoubleClick Search and how Analytics integrates with specific features, such as formula columns, bid strategies and rules. Co-led with our Analytics trainer. Register

Pre-recorded webinars available 
In case you missed a previous webinar, check out the recorded webinars page in our Help Center – you might be able to find a pre-recorded session ready to watch. We offer numerous videos, including previous New Feature Trainings, as well as videos on the Performance Bidding Suite, Reporting, Campaign Management, and more.

For more DoubleClick Search training updates, stay tuned on the DoubleClick Search blog, or follow us on Google+.

Posted by the DoubleClick Search Team

Important updates for flexible conversion counting options in v201402 of AdWords API

We recently announced a new flexible conversion counting option feature in AdWords that may affect AdWords API v201309 users. There are a couple of additional changes in the AdWords API v201402 that we want to bring to your attention so you can take full advantage of this offering:
  • Record conversion values in conversion report columns based on the flexible conversion counting option
  • Retrieve and set flexible conversion counting options in the ConversionTracker
  • Adopt new conversion-related column names in the reports

Flexible conversion counting option

Since February 25th, 2014, AdWords users have been able to change the conversion counting option between All Conversions and Unique Conversions. The conversion counting option is defaulted to All Conversions - when left as the default option, your conversion related values in the reports will not change.

If the conversion counting option is changed from All Conversions to Unique Conversions, then the following conversion-related report columns will reflect the counting option selected across all reports:
  • ConversionsManyPerClick
  • ConversionRateManyPerClick
  • CostPerConversionManyPerClick
  • ValuePerConvManyPerClick
  • ValuePerConversionManyPerClick
  • ConversionManyPerClickSignificance
  • ConversionRateManyPerClickSignificance
  • CostPerConversionManyPerClickSignificance
Please see the help center article for specific examples of how counting Unique Conversions differs from counting All Conversions.

Retrieve and set flexible conversion counting options

In the AdWords API v201402, you will be able to retrieve and set the flexible conversion counting option. Please review the ConversionTracker API documentation to see the new flexible conversion counting options field named countingType.

New conversion-related column names

Conversion-related columns will have new names in reports. In AdWords API v201402:
  • The selector field names will remain the same
  • The display names and XML attribute names will be renamed
If you are downloading XML reports, you will need to update your client application to read the new column names.

Please see the migration guide for a mapping between old and new display names and XML attribute names.

If you have any questions about this upcoming change or anything else related to the AdWords API, please contact us on the AdWords API forum or via the Google Ads Developers Google+ page.

- , AdWords API Team

Flexible conversion counting option in AdWords may affect AdWords API users

AdWords API users take note - an upcoming AdWords feature may affect your conversion-related AdWords API reports.

Starting February 25th, 2014, AdWords users will be able to change the conversion counting option between All Conversions and Unique Conversions. The conversion counting option is defaulted to All Conversions - when left as the default option, your conversion related values in the reports will not change.

How will this affect your reports?

If an AdWords user manually changes the conversion counting option in the AdWords UI from All Conversions to Unique Conversions, then the following conversion-related report columns will reflect the counting option selected by the user across all reports:

  • ConversionManyPerClick
  • ConversionRateManyPerClick
  • CostPerConversionManyPerClick
  • ValuePerConvManyPerClick
  • ValuePerConversionManyPerClick
  • ConversionManyPerClickSignificance
  • ConversionRateManyPerClickSignificance
  • CostPerConversionManyPerClickSignificance

When the conversion counting option is changed, the values in these columns will no longer be many-per-click, but it will reflect the counting option selected by the user. Please see the help center article for specific examples of how counting Unique Conversions differs from counting All Conversions.

AdWords API currently doesn't allow you to retrieve counting option associated with the conversion tracker. It will be available in the next release of the API.

- Ray Tsang, AdWords API Team

DS features in January

In January, we added the following features to DoubleClick Search:

  • Inventory Product Listing Ads campaigns
    This release introduces a new type of campaign: an inventory Product Listing Ads (PLA) campaign, which makes it easy to scale up your PLA advertising with detailed reports and bidding on each of your individual products. Inventory PLA campaigns automatically generate ad groups and granular product targets for Product Listing Ads from data in your Merchant Center account.     Learn more.

  • Reporting API
    You can now use the DoubleClick Search API to programmatically download reports. You can combine the API data with data you already have about your products, customers, and business goals (from a CRM system, for example) to complete the picture of your search advertising impact.     Learn more.

  • Assess your bid strategy’s health
    The new     Bid strategy health column displays messages about issues that prevent a bid strategy from performing optimally. If you click the message, DS navigates to the location in the UI in which you can address the issue. Learn more.

We also made the following feature updates:

  • Google Analytics metrics and goals in Executive Reporting
    If you use Google Analytics to track your conversions, you can now enhance your     executive reports with GA metrics and goals for multiple advertisers. For example, you can create a single chart that compares GA new visits with overall revenue for all of your advertisers.

  • More actions and notification options in automated rules and bulk edits
    We made the following improvements to     automated rules and bulk edits (including scheduled edits):
    • You can now perform bulk edits and automated rules on a list of product targets.
    • Change bid strategy and Change mobile bid adjustment % are new options when setting up a bulk edit or automated rule for campaigns or ad groups.
    • When setting up your actions and alerts for a rule, you have more options for when to receive an email. For example, you can choose to receive emails only when a problem occurs.

  • Improved support of targeting settings for Bing Ads ad groups
    When you     create or edit an ad group in a Bing Ads engine account, you'll notice that the Languages, Locations, and Devices settings have been changed to more accurately reflect the way Bing Ads organizes these settings.

Be sure to attend the New Feature Review monthly webinar to see these features in action. There are sessions on February 6, so register today!

Posted by the DoubleClick Search team

DS features in November/December


In November and December, we added the following features to DoubleClick Search:

  • Executive Reporting
    When it’s time to present performance data to your clients or executives, instead of manually downloading detailed data and distilling it into useful summaries, you can now create an executive report in DoubleClick Search (DS). DS executive reports     are a powerful new way to create custom visual reports to analyze data and share with your end clients, teammates, and managers. Learn more.

  • Analyze performance for all keywords or ads at the advertiser level
    You can now see the performance data for all of an advertiser’s keywords or ads across all engines. Most DS customers have multiple engine accounts, so this feature makes it easier to understand aggregate/overall performance. In the DS UI, simply navigate to an advertiser and click the Keywords tab or Ads tab.     Learn more.

We also made the following feature updates:

  • Better summary data for your bid strategies
    The bid strategy summary page now focuses on conversions, revenue, and bid strategy status by displaying the Bid strategy performance view by default. In addition to displaying goal type, target metric, and constraints, the Bid strategy performance view has been updated with new columns that show the conversion and revenue statistics relevant to that bid strategy.     Learn more.

  • Apply bid strategies to campaigns/ad groups via bulksheets: You can now use the Bid strategy column in a bulksheet to apply existing bid strategies to campaigns or ad groups. This makes it much easier to apply bid strategies to multiple campaigns and ad groups. Learn more.

  • Use bulksheets to create, change, and delete labels
    There’s a new bulksheet that makes it easier to create multiple labels at once, and it also allows you to change and delete labels.     Learn more.

  • Segment sitelink performance data by campaign
    You can now view sitelink performance by campaign in a single view. For example, if you applied a sitelink to 3 campaigns in a single AdWords engine account, you can see a list of the campaigns with the number of sitelink clicks in each campaign.     Learn more.


Posted by the DoubleClick Search team

A deep dive into the new audience features in DoubleClick Campaign Manager


Understanding your audience is key to delivering them relevant and compelling messages. In DoubleClick Campaign Manager - the upgraded version of DFA - there are a number of new capabilities to help you define, reach, and more deeply understand your audience, so you can engage them in even more powerful ways. We announced some of these audience features when DoubleClick Campaign Manager launched globally, and today we are going to deep dive into the capabilities.

Define your audience with powerful segmentation tools

With DoubleClick Campaign Manager, you can build segments to define your target audience based on specific actions your customers took, like viewing a certain product on your website, or adding items to their shopping cart. You can also build segments based on combinations of data available in Floodlight custom variables. For example, you can segment users with cart values over a certain amount but who did not check out. Best of all, we’ve enabled existing Floodlight tags to be compatible with building segments, so there’s no need to re-tag in order to take advantage of these features.

Reach your audience with powerful targeting tools

Once you’ve built your audience segments, you can leverage them in real time across the DoubleClick Digital Marketing platform. Segments are shared and synced automatically with DoubleClick Bid Manager, allowing you to apply audience insights to engage your audience across your reserved and programmatic buys. For example, you can combine your first-party segments with powerful keyword-contextual and audience targeting capabilities available in DoubleClick Bid Manager.

And with Dynamic Creative pushed from DoubleClick Studio, a single ad template can support millions of iterations, rotating creative elements like background color, headlines, product images, product descriptions, calls-to-action, and pricing. We optimize to the best combination of variables for each audience segment over time, providing the “perfect ad” for each impression.

Understand your audience with deeper insights

Surfacing strategic insights is crucial for optimizing your campaigns. So we introduced new audience performance reporting that brings audience dimensions to all standard reports. This means all campaign metrics, such as clicks or impressions, can be aggregated or filtered by audience characteristics or specific first-party lists. These reports help you answer questions like, “Did my publisher deliver to the audience that we wanted to target?” and “How many impressions did I deliver to my first-party remarketing list versus everywhere else?” As a result, you can better understand the audience segments with which your message resonated most, and use that information to optimize your campaigns.

DoubleClick Bid Manager customers can also report on audience segments created as part of their reservations buy (and see how they overlap with their third-party lists) with the Audience Composition Report available in DoubleClick Bid Manager.

We are continuing to build powerful audience capabilities into DoubleClick Campaign Manager that enable marketers and agencies to deliver the right message to the right user, on any device.

Next week, join us for a deep dive on the tagging capabilities in DoubleClick Campaign Manager.

If you’re an existing DFA customer, reach out to your account manager about upgrading to DoubleClick Campaign Manager today. You can stay on top of new updates by subscribing to our newsletter and following us on our Google+ page.

Posted by Adam Champy, Product Manager

Success with DS series: Advanced features in executive reporting

This is the third post in our "Success with DS" series, highlighting tips and tricks around key DoubleClick Search features. Today’s submission is from Stephanie Bean -- DoubleClick Search Technical Product Specialist, and highlights some of the advanced capabilities of our newest launch -- executive reporting. 

We recently launched executive reporting -- a powerful new way to create custom visual reports to analyze data and share with your end clients, teammates and managers. As you sit down for a slice of pumpkin pie for the holidays, consider whipping together some useful pie, line and bar charts!

Executive reporting offers a number of advanced features that make holistic campaign reporting and analysis even more powerful. Today we’ll talk about two of them: downloading data and merging objects.

Download and share reports easily: 
Let’s say your management team is requesting a monthly report to understand how campaigns are performing, but they want something they can decipher at a glance, not a spreadsheet full of numbers. What should you do? This is a great use case for executive reporting. You can segment and visualize the data as needed in the DoubleClick Search UI, download the report, and quickly share it with management.

Tip: Reports can be downloaded as Microsoft Excel, but don’t forget about the option of saving or printing as PDF!



Merge objects to see trends across campaigns: 
While executive reporting includes all your search-based metrics, including engine stats, Google Analytics metrics, Floodlight columns, formula columns, and labels, we understand that you may want to analyze them across different lines of business within a single chart. Perhaps management wants to see how brand vs. non-brand terms are performing across your retail business. When multiple advertisers are included in one report, executive reporting identifies objects with the exact same name, such as Floodlight columns and labels, and merges them.

Tip: To take advantage of opportunities with merging, consider implementing a consistent naming convention for your labels across advertiser accounts.

Happy reporting!