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As we've previously said , one of our aims is to improve display advertising on the web and, as a result, grow the display advertising pie for everyone. Three simple principles guide our approach: simplify the system for buying and selling display ads; deliver better performance that advertisers and agencies can measure; open up the ecosystem by making it accessible to more participants. One question on the mind of every advertiser and agency is: how can I better measure the impact of my display ad campaign? We hear you. A growing number of advertisers and agencies are running display ad campaigns across the Google Content Network, so we're investing substantially in creating better measurement tools for our clients. At the moment, an advertiser can measure how many clicks its display ads achieve, measure conversions that result from those clicks, compare results with industry benchmark data , and use View-through conversion reporting to measure visits to its website from users who saw its display ad in the past. Today, we're pleased to announce the launch of a brand new tool to measure the impact of your display ads - Google Campaign Insights. As of today, Google Campaign Insights is available for larger display ad campaigns across the Google Content Network in the US and UK. Over time, we hope to roll it out more widely to assist even more advertisers and agencies in different parts of the world. Google Campaign Insights is a unique measurement tool that can give reliable data about how a campaign has raised brand awareness, or active user interest, in a particular product or service. It looks beyond the traditional measures of clicks and conversions to calculate the incremental lift in both online search activity and website visits that result from a display ad campaign. How does this all work? In short, we use the same expertise we use to improve our own services -- our ability to analyze large quantities of data. Google Campaign Insights compares two anonymized and aggregated data sets: a large group of users (many thousands, minimum) who saw a particular ad, with an equivalent, large group that did not see the ad. It then measures whether there is any significant difference in searches and visits to the advertiser's website between the two groups. Doing this, Google Campaign Insights can determine the incremental change that is directly attributable to the display ad campaign. With this insight, advertisers can establish how well their display ad campaign is working. ( Click for full size image ) ( Click for full size image ) Google Campaign Insights provides highly reliable results to marketers because of the statistical methodology our computer algorithms use to combine and analyze large volumes of data from several sources -- the advertiser's own campaign information, ad serving logs and sampled data from Google Toolbar installs that have opted in to enhanced features. All of the results reported to advertisers are anonymized and aggregated over thousands of users. Advertisers or agencies who run wide-scale display ad campaigns on the Google Content Network and who want to take Google Campaign Insights for a spin should check with their Google representative. We're excited about the contribution that Google Campaign Insights can make to our clients' campaigns on the Google Content Network and to display advertising generally. Posted by Paul Todd, Product Management Director [Note: This post has been reprinted from the Inside AdWords Blog ]

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Google Campaign Insights: Better measurement for display advertising

The beat goes on with the fifth installment of our industry spotlight series . Since we're featuring the Media and Entertainment space in this post, you'll uncover the findings from research Nielsen and Google recently completed to measure the impact of TV and YouTube buys on TV tune-in and online behavior. We'll also give you some glamour to accompany those numbers, so read on to find out how Sports Illustrated used a YouTube campaign to successfully promote its 2009 swimsuit issue. In a recent study, Google and Nielsen set out to answer the following questions: 1. Will a large-scale buy by a TV network on Google & YouTube increase TV tune-in? If so, by how much? 2. Will a large-scale buy by a TV network on Google & YouTube drive online behavior related to a TV show? If so, by how much? The study : Consisted of two phases, with Nielsen first conducting research to measure the impact of large-scale campaign for a major network TV show season premiere. Nielsen then compared the exposed audience to a control group to determine ad effectiveness on both online and offline behaviors. The campaign : A 2-week flight of a YouTube homepage masthead plus Google Content Network campaigns targeted to TV fans, entertainment buffs, and genre fans. The results : The impact of the campaign on TV tune-in was strong, with the exposed audiences showing a tune-in increase of 134% lift for those that had seen the overall campaign, a 115% lift for those that had seen the YouTube homepage, and a 146% lift for those that had seen the Content Network campaign. The impact on online behavior was even stronger, with greatly increased website and video visitation among the exposed audience. The results showed a 239% lift in visits to the network site, a 438% lift in visits for the show site, and a 456% lift in visits to the show video. Exposure to the campaign also increased the length of online viewership, measured in average minutes spent watching show videos: a 347% lift for those exposed to the overall campaign, a 968% lift for those exposed to the YouTube homepage, and a 172% lift for those exposed to the Content Network campaign. In sum, the effect of exposure to the YouTube and Content Network campaigns drove a significant increase in TV tune-in and online behavior related to the TV show. Exposure and engagement on YouTube can extend beyond the homepage, as Sports Illustrated discovered with their promotion of the 2009 swimsuit issue. Partnering with drink manufacturer SoBe, Sports Illustrated created a custom YouTube advertising program comprised of a number of elements, all centered on a co-branded YouTube Channel where users could watch over 40 videos highlighting the famous swimsuit models. The Brand Channel videos generated over 8.5 million video views, 400,000 channel visits and 4,300 channel subscribers. The homepage roadblock received over 33 million impressions with a click-to-play rate of 3.4%, making the featured Sports Illustrated video the most viewed video on YouTube that day. For the full story of how the campaign became a swimming success and ideas on how to use YouTube for your next client campaign, download the case study . Posted by Julia Burg, Industry Marketing Manager

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Media and Entertainment spotlight: Tuning in and reading up