Google Partners Blog: Reporting

A look back at a year of innovation in search management

Thursday, May 17, 2012

About a year ago, we made a promise to make managing the world’s largest search campaigns more efficient and effective with the launch of DoubleClick Search V3 (DS3). Our goal was to give search marketers a simpler and faster way to manage campaigns, provide streamlined reporting and powerful campaign optimization tools - and do it through a completely rebuilt platform that runs on Google systems and infrastructure.

Today, we’d like to shine a light on how clients are using DoubleClick Search to run high-impact campaigns, and take a look at what’s yet to come. Looking back at the past year, a few things struck us:

6 of the 10 largest agencies now use DoubleClick Search (1)
Agencies using DoubleClick Search see significant increases in efficiency, ranging from 25 to 60% (2). That’s like suddenly finding another few hours in your workday.

We heard a lot from marketers and agencies about what they wanted most from their search management tools. This feedback has informed many of the key areas we’ve invested in over the last year:

Easy, intuitive campaign management
Managing large search campaigns can be complex. With DoubleClick Search we wanted to give search teams a single point of access to their accounts across AdWords, adCenter, and Yahoo! Search Marketing. Gone are days of accessing multiple interfaces, and flipping to and from a variety of spreadsheets and one-off tools.

Better reporting, deeper insights
Today, you have access to more than 90 key metrics, which can be rearranged and saved for a customized view of your campaigns. Reports that may have previously taken hours to run and consolidate now take minutes. Event-level reporting gives you granular data for every click and conversion your campaigns receives, such as keyword, query, time, and referral data, enabling you to better optimize your search campaigns.

Bid optimization, powered by Google
A search advertising campaign is only as good as the technology powering it. For example, a key driver of campaign performance is automating the keyword bidding process based on business goals. With the DoubleClick Search Performance Bidding Suite, this is an area where we’ve made significant and continuous investments. Whether you want to maximize clicks, conversions, return on ad spend, or a combination, you can achieve those goals at scale. Our Performance Bidding Suite is powered by algorithms with a unique ability to optimize based on same-day conversion data from Floodlight tags and are built to ensure that the clicks you pay for always maximize your campaign performance. In fact, after recent improvements to our system, 88% of DS3 clients saw a significant boost in campaign performance (3).

2012 has more in store
The past year of work has set the foundation for exciting changes to come. Over the next few months, we’ll continue momentum by investing in:

New search funnel tools to better understand a consumer’s path to conversion
Allowing clients to integrate their own data sources to inform search decisions, and
Tighter integration between DoubleClick Search and other ad properties for enhanced cross-channel optimization

We’re also further investing in improving our key areas of campaign management, reporting, and bidding efficiencies -- improvements we think will continue to drive great results for our partners in 2012 and beyond.

Stay tuned to the latest in DoubleClick Search by subscribing to our blog.

Posted by Ariel Bardin, Director of Product Management

____________________
(1) Google internal data
(2) Forrester Research, Inc.
(3) Google internal data, March 2012

AdWords Policy updates and auditing plans for third parties

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

JulyDecemberdisclosure documentthird-party policy sectionoverview of Google third-party programsinformation and links to applicable third party policieshere

Posted by Katie Wasilenko, Agency Team

More information about how partners work with advertisers

Friday, December 10, 2010

posteddocumentInside AdWords blog

Upcoming webinars - Reporting in My Client Center and Remarketing

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

My Client Center (MCC) Reporting
Friday, October 22nd, 8amPST / 10amCST / 11amEST
Learn more about updates to the MCC Client Reporting interface. Topics to be covered include: Why this change to MCC Reporting? What exactly is changing? How do I create a report in the new interface? Where did my templates go? What are email-only users?
Register here

Remarketing optimization and advanced strategies
Wednesday, October 27th, 11amPST / 1pmCST / 2pmEST
Features of the webinar will include:

List Strategies: Does your current remarketing campaign consist of just a list of all site visitors? Or all site visitors excluding purchasers? By segmenting your lists and tailoring your messages, you can get much better results. We’ll discuss some creative list strategies that will help you think outside the box to expand and improve your remarketing campaigns.
Case Studies: Green Mountain Coffee, InterContinental Hotels Group, and BidCactus used smart remarketing strategies and saw big success. Hear about these case studies to gain insights for your own campaigns.
Implementation: We’ll review how to set up remarketing in your account by placing pixels on relevant pages and using simple commands to create custom audience segments.

Tracking your ad clicks with dynamic destination URLs

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Today, we're announcing an update to ValueTrack, a feature for those of you who use third-party tracking software or have access to your web logs. Using the features previously announced, we made it easy to track your search and content campaigns separately by adding special parameters to your destination URLs. With the additional ValueTrack enhancements available today, you can track even more detail including the keyword matching option for your ad clicks.

Starting now, your destination URL can include the {matchtype} and {network} parameters. Here's a quick example of how you might use these parameters:

Let's say you have a keyword-targeted campaign running on Google search, search partners, and the Google Display Network. If your website is www.yoursite.com, you can use the new and existing ValueTrack parameters in your AdWords campaign to set the destination URL to: http://www.yoursite.com/?keyword={keyword}&matchtype={matchtype}&source={network}.

If an ad click comes from a search partner, and the keyword that triggered the ad, used cars, is a broad match keyword, in your web logs you will find that the ValueTrack parameters in the URL have been replaced with the following:

{keyword} = used cars
{matchtype} = b
{network} = s

In your web logs you will see: http://www.yoursite.com/?keyword=used%20cars&matchtype=b&source=s

To learn more about all of the ValueTrack parameters and see additional examples, visit the AdWords Help Center.

Posted by Jason Shafton, Product Marketing Manager

Changes to reporting in My Client Center

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

AdWords Help CenterInside AdWords Blogsee our earlier post

Posted by Jason Shafton, Product Marketing Manager

Updates to how our partners work with advertisers

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Visit the Inside AdWords blogPosted by Jason Shafton, Product Marketing Manager

Sharing is caring: new ways to segment, schedule, and email reports

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

When we discover something great, our first impulse is to share it. How else do you explain the 66 million times people have watched a baby panda sneeze? Sharing the insights you find in your AdWords reports should be as easy as forwarding a YouTube link, so we’ve recently released new options for segmenting, scheduling, and emailing the data on your Campaigns tab.
By clicking the Download button in the toolbar above your data tables, you’ll open a menu that shows you a number of options for sharing reports with others.

click to view larger image

First, you’ll name your report, just as you would in the Report Center. Next, you can add segments to reveal different dimensions of your performance. Add multiple segments at once to get a even deeper breakdown of your statistics. For example, you can segment your campaigns by device and day of the week to understand the days when your customers are more likely to see your ad on their mobile devices. Each new segment you add will appear as a separate column in your downloaded report.

From here, you have a few options. You can simply download your report in formats ranging from .CSV to .PDF and personally deliver it to your favorite teammate. Or, you can choose to email your data to one or all of the users with reporting access in your account.

Finally, you’ll set the frequency at which you want this report to run. So if you’ve set up a filter for your keyword list to show, for example, only those keywords containing the term “free” that have cost you over $50 with a conversion rate under 5%, you can now get a weekly email with a report showing you their performance. All the reports you download from the Campaigns tab will appear in your Control Panel and Library, a new area used to manage the reports and custom alerts that you’ve created for your account.

These changes are just the latest in our ongoing efforts to simplify the ways you access your reports. We hope that with more data in the Campaigns tab and easier access to advanced statistics, looking at the different dimensions of your campaign performance becomes common practice. After all, you never know how many baby pandas could be hiding in your campaigns...

Posted by Devin Sandoz, Product Marketing Manager

Coffee break with clients: Proving the value of display with View-through conversion tracking

Monday, May 10, 2010

LeadQualView-through conversion trackingCheggWhat was the client's goal?
What Google solutions did you use to meet the goals?
We ran display campaigns on the Google Content Network, and used view-through-conversion tracking to demonstrate the additive value of display to growing Chegg's user base.
Can you describe the implementation process?
Chegg provided the display creative, with variations by season. We then developed contextually-targeted campaigns around themes such as "textbook," "used textbook" as well as target student groups like "fraternity." From there, we used the placement performance report to see which sites performed well, and moved them into management placements campaigns.

To receive view-through conversion statistics, we made sure that conversion tracking was set up.The campaigns began running in fall 2009 and remain active.
How did the Google solution perform?
By using view-through conversion tracking, we were able to show the client that the sales driven from the display campaign were within its cost/order metrics. We found that a quarter of the conversions came from people who had viewed, but not clicked, on one of Chegg's banner ads. If we simply looked at conversions directly from clicks, the cost-per-conversion would have been well above Chegg's goals.

If you did not use this Google solution, how would things have been different?
Without view-through conversion data, we would have had a difficult time convincing the client to invest in display.

For more information on view-through conversion tracking, please visit the Help Center.

Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team

New Analytics reports - AdWords Search Funnels

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Over the next few weeks, a new set of reports called AdWords Search Funnels (beta) will be made available in your clients' AdWords accounts.
This set of reports describes the Google.com search ad click and impression behavior leading up to a conversion. They provide data on how "upper-funnel" keywords behave on the conversion path prior to the last ad click. In addition to a Top Conversions report, Search Funnels consists of 7 reports including Assisted Conversions, First and Last Click Analysis, Time Lag, and Path Length. The information in these reports will give you even more insight into the ads customers interact with before converting on clients' sites so you can make even more informed decisions about the keywords, ad groups and campaigns in their AdWords accounts.
Take a look at this video giving an overview of the new reports:

(click here to view video)
Note: Over the next few weeks, the Search Funnels beta will be rolled out gradually to all accounts. They are available only in your AdWords account and not in Google Analytics. They are activated when you have AdWords Conversion Tracking running or if you've imported goals or transactions from Analytics into AdWords, and will only show data for keywords that show up in at least one conversion path. Search Funnel data is currently limited to search ads showing on Google.com, and for ad impressions and clicks within 30 days of the conversion.
For additional information, please visit the Inside AdWords Blog.Posted by Jeff Gillis, Product Marketing Manager

Going Mobile in 2010 - Part One, Optimizing Mobile Campaigns

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

With more mobile devices with full Internet browsers hitting the market and marketers wondering how to best connect with consumers on their phones, we wanted to give you a few targeting best practices for targeting high end mobile devices.. Today we'll be giving you a few tips for optimizing mobile campaigns.
While both mobile and desktop search campaigns use similar best practices, the way we search and browse the web on our mobile phones is slightly different than on our computers. Separating mobile and desktop campaigns and optimizing for performance on each platform will drive greater success for your clients intigrated marketing strategies.
1. Reporting & TrackingUse Device and Click Type reporting to figure out exactly what is and is not working in your mobile search campaigns. Just like with desktop search, you can (and should) bid according to what is sending traffic to your site and what converts best. Pulling out high performing keywords and placing them into a separate mobile campaign can help drive additional traffic in a growing market.

(Example data. Click here to view image)

This holds true for placements and the mobile content network as well. When running a Placement Performance Report for mobile phones, take special note of the Ad Sense for Mobile Apps category of placements (they will show up as adsenseformobileapps.com in the report). You can drill down to the specific URL and gain insight into what apps you should continue to target and which ones you should exclude.

2. Keywords & Ad Text

Searches on Internet-capable mobile devices average around 2.9 words (and only 2.4 on WAP phones). When expanding desktop search campaigns to mobile and/or adding new keywords to your mobile campaigns, keep in mind how people search on their phones. While desktop campaigns may benefit from "long tail", 4- to 5- word keyword phrases, you may want to consider shorter, more general, and location specific searches for mobile phones.

For example, a college student in Boston may search for "Pizza near Union Square in Boston" from their dorm room, but would only search "Boston Pizza" from their mobile phones.

3. Take advantage of what's mobile

In the past few months we've launched several mobile specific ad formats like click-to-download, click-to-call, and mobile coupons in the Local Business Center. Think about what unique advantages and messaging a mobile campaign allows and reach your customers at every point of their day.

For more mobile tips and resources, visit the Google Mobile Ads site, as well as the Go Mobile! Series on the Inside AdWords Blog.

In addition, check back next week for the next installment of 'Going Mobile in 2010.'

Posted by Stevie Degroff, Agency Team

Display Ad Builder & Creative Generation

Monday, January 25, 2010

What makes up the ideal creative for your client?
We'll walk you through how you can answer this question using AdWords reporting and the Display Ad Builder, a tool that allows you to quickly and easily customize display ads and to run measurable experiments. Experimentation is not new to advertising, although the theories and ideas that inspired campaigns have evolved over time.
For example, in the early 20th century, the prevailing sentiment in the ad industry was that information made a creative effective. The car ad below sums up the thinking of the time:

National Motor Vehicle, Inc. advertisement (1907) retrieved on 21.1.2010 from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:National-advertisement_1907.jpg
Theories eventually emerged suggesting that consumers weren't always need-oriented, but advertisers were baffled by how to measure seemingly subjective behavior. Mid century a study was released that put data to consumer responses. It showed that three factors - the size of the ad, the size of the illustration and the numbers of colors - together could help explain some of the readership difference between a magazine's ads.
Today, you can find out the the factors that trigger the strongest response by using the data in Ad Performance Reports in AdWords, which provide relevant statistics for ad variations, such as text ads, image ads, video ads, and local business ads, and run experiments with Display Ad Builder. Here are two creatives developed with Display Ad Builder for a hypothetical online travel company:

Ad creatives developed internally using Display Ad Builder: Image 1 & Image 2
When creating the ads, populate the "Ad Name" field in Display Ad Builder with the ad's elements. We'll call the first "day_scene_cta" and the second "night_people_question." Launch the ads on even rotation to ensure a good sample. Then you can construct a chart like the one below from your Ad Performance Report by adding up the clicks and impressions for each ad component:

Sample data set from internal account independent of example creatives.
In this example, the effectiveness measure is clickthrough rate (CTR), but this can be substituted for conversion rate or cost-per-acquisition (CPA). The chart shows the elements of the ad that had the greatest impact on CTR, benchmarked against the performance of the whole ad group.
You can tweak the reporting to show the impact of relationships as well. Do people prefer images of scenery or people at night? With a well-designed ad experiment, you can use basic data-mining principles to find these results. However you choose to experiment, continue to measure your results so you can find the best creative.Posted by Eddie Higgins, Agency Team

Google Ad Planner and DFA updates provide more data, more ways

Thursday, November 12, 2009

DoubleClickAd Planner

Gain insights quickly. Interactive reports mean easier navigation through your accounts and data. You can model data in charts and graphs, as well as drill up and down through criteria such as advertiser, campaign, or targeting settings.

Get your reports faster. Reports update frequently - every few hours - and the new user interface enables you to access your data quickly.

Use new types of reports. Pull geographic delivery data. Additional reports show delivery data by bandwidth, browser, and operating system.

View subdomain data. See data including traffic estimates and demographics for the largest ten subdomains of any top-level domain. Once you identify subdomains to add, you can do so easily in Ad Planner.

See available ad placements while researching sites. You'll also be able to search for ad placements alongside domains on the "Search by audience" tab and see traffic and demographic estimates for each placement

Visualize audience data easily. Quickly compare reach and relevancy of sites you select with a new interactive graph.

Access more granular publisher data. With publishers now able to opt-in their Analytics data, you'll receive more accurate and specific information about their sites.

Use Ad Planner within DoubleClick DFA. Log in to your DoubleClick DFA account to access Ad Planner and have one tool for campaign planning, trafficking, and measurement. (Note: This feature is rolling out to all users over the next couple weeks)

www.google.com/adplannerinquiry formPosted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team

Place Pages now in Placement Performance reports

Monday, November 9, 2009

Place PagesPlacement Performance reportsPosted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team

It's all about the conversions

Friday, October 23, 2009

Conversion RoomSearch Based Keyword Tool to find high-converting keywordsPosted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team

Google Website Optimizer in 60 seconds

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Website Optimizer YouTube ChannelPosted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team

Segmenting AdWords traffic: Google Analytics in 60 seconds

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Advanced Segmentation

Google Analytics in 60 Seconds playlistGoogle Analytics YouTube ChannelPosted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog team

Analytics tips from the "streets" of Google

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

I love creating keyword clusters in Advanced Segmentation. I choose "Keyword" as the segment and then type in a keyword fragment that captures the essence of a cluster. For example, if I wanted branded keywords for a Google property, I would do "Keyword" "contains" "goog" (just in case there are misspellings), and for non-branded it would be "Keyword" "does not contain" "goog". Here's a video to learn more. Pretty powerful stuff. - Jesse N.

My advice is to set up Site Search. It's simple to do, gives you a finger on the pulse of your audience, and can guide optimization and testing strategies. Learn what users are looking for and identify good keywords for your accounts. See what users have or have not found, and use the information for ad text optimizations, A/B inventory tests, or internal site search improvements. - Eddie H.

I often create an Advanced Segment that only shows Google AdWords data. You can then look into any report and see what's working well and what can be improved with campaigns, specific landing pages, or geographic targeting. - Cassie P.

Check the Referring Sites report for your own domain name. If it looks like you're your own top referrer, you're doing something wrong. Check for badly tagged/untagged pages. Make sure redirects aren't causing your PPC traffic to get miscategorized. Ensure you're set up for subdomain tracking if applicable. - Brian K.

My vote would be for Custom Reporting. You create your own report and see data the way you want to. You can also save custom reports, add them to your dashboard or schedule them to be emailed to you. - Kelley C.

Google Analytics Help CenterYouTubeGoogle Analytics BlogPosted by Agency Ad Solutions blog team

Insight, now downloadable

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

While it may be a while before eternal enlightenment is available via download, Insight from YouTube is now downloadable. With the new functionality, you can export your YouTube Insight video stats into .CSV files for easy sharing and saving, with just one click. You can find the download option under select reports in YouTube Insight, within your YouTube account.

And to learn more about using YouTube Insight to reach your target audience, visit the Official Google blog.

Posted by Aaron Tell, YouTube Product Marketing

If you build it, they will come. But will they stay?

Friday, April 17, 2009

You want users to find your client's site and be engaged with the content, but some users will leave the site without finding what they're looking for. Paying for clicks that don't materialize into meaningful visits is wasteful, so how do you identify the keywords that are attracting disinterested viewers?

Bounce rate can tell you a lot about whether people are engaged with site content, as it measures the frequency that people leave a site after viewing just one page. Our Analytics Evangelist, Avinash Kaushik, calls this the "I came; I puked; I left" phenomenon. We'll stick with "bounce rate" for simplicity's sake, and in this video, part of our Google Analytics in 60 Seconds series, you can uncover how to use bounce rate to help locate the campaigns, ad groups, and keywords that are resulting in site abandonment. By identifying and eliminating keywords that aren't performing well, you can focus your efforts on more engaged users and help your client's budget go further.

Posted by Jesse Nichols, Agency Team

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