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The New Year festivities have come and gone, and it's now time to return to the daily grind. To add a little color to the January doldroms, we're pleased to share the newly redesigned Google for Advertisers - the central destination for advertisers and their agency partners to understand what it is Google does for advertising. So what has changed? One big change is the homepage where we now illustrate how Google's tools work together to support the entire value chain of marketing, from insights to creative to media to measurement and optimization . We've been calling these areas of focus the "marketing cycle" and we hope it's a clear and lasting way to help advertisers and agencies make sense of how everything they're working on fits with everything we're working on. Beyond the new homepage, we added fresh content like our video overview of the Google Content Network and ways to stay up-to-date through twitter, trainings and quick videos. Because we work with partners from around the globe, we're working hard to translate the site into additional languages and create locally-relevant content in other parts of the world. To kick off this effort, we're pleased to introduce our first localized site - Google for Advertisers UK . To check out the new sites, please visit Google.com/advertisers or Google.co.uk/advertisers . Happy New Year! Posted by Oliver Deighton, Business Marketing

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New Year, New Look for Google for Advertisers

To kick off the New Year, we're pleased to bring you the next installment in the Think[Industry] webinar series; this webinar will highlight new Google and Compete research on the role the online channel plays in cruise bookers' shopping processes. On Tuesday, January 19, 2010, Google and Compete will present results from their study into how shoppers research and book cruises, as well as when and how cruisers use search as part of their online travel research, using in-depth online behavioral analysis and data from a recent survey of online cruise shoppers. The webinar will cover: Which offline and online resources shoppers use in their cruise research process How much online content cruise shoppers consume before booking How search impacts likelihood to book How queries evolve as shoppers move closer to booking How search engine usage intensifies when shoppers are ready to book Date: Tuesday, January 19th at 10amPST / 12pmCST / 1pmEST Register here Posted by Veronica San Luis, Travel Marketing Manager

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Kick off 2010 training with ThinkTravel webinar

The end of the year is typically a time to reflect on the past 12 months and plan for the next adventure. Taking inspiration from our favorite pre-holiday work distraction, we are pleased to bring you the Agency blog's own "best of 2009." Your visits and time spent on site helped us identify the information, ideas and resources that can best help you move your clients' businesses forward. 1. Google Content Network tips and tools - Knowing that the Content Network offers the opportunity to scalably expand your clients' reach, we posted on a number of Content Network topics , ranging from tools to optimization tips to training resources . We hope that they enabled you to plan, execute and measure your Content Network campaigns in the most impactful, efficient and cost-effective ways possible. 2. Quality Score - A key element of successful campaigns is ensuring that they have the strongest Quality Score possible. Whether you're brand new to search marketing, or were one of the first search advertisers on the scene, there's always something new to learn about Quality Score. To help you get the strongest Quality Score, we ran our Quality Score series and will continue to post new tips as they become available. 3. Case studies - One piece of feedback we heard is that agencies and advertisers value case studies, as they inspire and instruct with "best in class" examples and useful data points. We also heard that sometimes they're not easy to find. As a result, we added case studies to the 2009 blog list, with topics ranging from online-to-stores successes to effective integrated media campaigns . 4. Training resources - With the frequency of additions and updates to Google's media solutions, you could spend as much time keeping up to speed as you do managing your clients' campaigns. Knowing your time is precious, we focused on webinars and on-demand videos that work with your schedules and deliver just the right amount of information. In addition, we introduced you to Google AgencyLand , our new learning and resources platform for agencies. 5. Analytics - Whether you love data, or love to hate data, data is central to successful campaigns. We want you all to love it, so we posted our favorite Analytics 60-second videos, product updates, as well as useful tips delivered from in-house experts, including Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik. 6. Local marketing resources - Sometimes your clients' customer is half way across the globe; other times the customer is half a block away. Regardless, it is important to market to consumers where they are, and Google has made it easier to do that with new and improved local marketing features , such as Location Extensions and Place Pages in Placement Performance reports . It's been a pleasure blogging for you in 2009, and we look forward to bringing you fresh new tips, tactics, resources and updates in 2010. Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team

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Top topics of 2009, an Agency Blog retrospective

The mobile internet has exploded over the past year. If you're new to mobile advertising, it can be an easy first step to extend your existing online campaigns to the mobile platform. As a next step, it's important to analyze what performs best on mobile and to identify ways to optimize your campaigns. Recently, in this case study , Razorfish shared how they tested different approaches to the mobile campaigns for a Fortune 100 retailer. Here's a recap of what they learned: To start, Razorfish simply replicated the client's desktop campaigns, focusing on branded keywords, but selected to target mobile devices with full Internet browsers. They then experimented with a few changes to the original campaigns. First, they tried different landing pages to identify which actions their customers were looking to complete on their mobile device. Next, they developed multiple versions of ad text, including a mention of the specific mobile device, and compared performance to the original text. Overall, the optimized campaign yielded higher conversion rates. According to Razorfish search manager Brian Bartek, "the three new [ad] versions provided over 9.3% lift in conversion rate over the strongest performing copy in their desktop campaigns." The complete case study is available here . For more information on mobile advertising opportunities, visit http://www.google.com/advertisers/mobile/ . Posted by Meredith Papp, Mobile Ads Team

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Driving efficient conversions with mobile ads

Last year, Google and WPP launched the Marketing Research Awards Program to improve industry and academic understanding of online marketing strategies and the relationship between online and offline media. University professors received unrestricted gifts to conduct their projects, as well as access to relevant marketing data to aid the creation of new and creative theories and methods of empirical analysis. Last month, the award recipients from 13 universities across the U.S. and China came to the Google offices in NYC to discuss their findings. We learned how marketing on a map affects consumers' decisions as well as how online advertising affects in store sales. We even spent some time digging into a neuroscientific study designed to determine what consumers find most relevant. Many of the award recipients are still analyzing their data, but the preliminary results made it crystal clear that we all have a lot to learn. Listen to some of the researchers and program chairs talk about the program and discuss their preliminary findings. Posted by Janine Gianfredi, Agency Marketing Manager

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WPP-Google Marketing Awards Celebrate Academic Research

We're pleased to share the current webinar schedule for December 2009, ranging from account security tips to industry research and strategies. The schedule is listed below, and class descriptions can be found on the Google Training site. ThinkHealth - Online Video for Health Marketers Tuesday, December 8th at 10amPST / 12pmCST / 1pmEST Register here Driving Brand Engagement among Social Media Users Tuesday, December 8th at 11amPST / 1pmCST / 2pmEST Register here Google Account Security: Tips & Best Practices Thursday, December 10th at 11amPST / 1pmCST / 2pmEST Registration password: agency1 Register here Google and Compete Present: Refining the Travel Search Process Tuesday, December 15th at 10amPST / 12pmCST / 1pmEST Register here Also, if you missed out on past sessions such as Display Week or the Holiday Webmaster Webinar, be sure to check out on-demand recordings of them here . Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team

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December webinar schedule

If you live in the New York area, you may have heard or seen the so-called "Google surge," or Google Content Network blast that NY Mayor Bloomberg used to impact voters' decisions in the final hours of the mayor's reelection race. An increasing number of advertisers across industries, including auto, retail, and entertainment, have also used Google Content Network blasts to drive awareness of a new vehicle launch, viewer tune-in for a show, or traffic to an online contest with great success. The Google Content Network blast entails serving up an advertiser's ads on multiple Google Content Network sites over a specific period of time, blanketing a particular geographic region, audience segment, or high traffic sites, depending on the advertiser's goal. On average, blasts can deliver 100 million ad impressions in 24-48 hours. But you're probably wondering what is special about Google Content Network blasts versus your typical portal homepage buy? Google Content Network blasts deliver your message on a larger universe of sites than a single portal homepage, thereby reaching more of your customers. In a recent Google and TNS Compete study for a large automaker 1 , we found that Google Content Network blasts reach 58% of online auto buyers, which is 20% more than a top portal homepage 2 , and 23% of buyers were reached exclusively on sites available only on the Google Content Network 2 . In addition, 30% of auto buyers never went to one of the major portal homepages 6 to 9 months prior to purchasing their vehicle 3 . And the best part of all is Google Content Network blasts require no advance booking and deliver relevant ads at a much lower CPM than portal takeovers. So, as we enter the peak holiday shopping season, consider how you're getting the word out on your merchandise and holiday offerings. Want to make a last minute big impression? Visit The Google Content Network site to learn more, and try out a Google Content Network blast for yourself. 1 Google, Inc. and TNS Compete study for large automaker, May 2009 2 Reach is based on a custom GCN site pack using a parameter of 2% buyer composition mix per site 3 Based on observed clickstream behavior of buyers Posted by Keiko Tokuda, Google Content Network Marketing Team

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Google Content Network Blast delivers a big bang for your buck