DoubleClick Ad Planner is our free, online measurement product that helps advertisers and agencies to create media plans by providing reliable traffic and audience information for websites on which they may wish to advertise. It measures millions of sites in over 40 countries and is used by thousands of advertisers and agencies to build media plans. In recent months, we've been investing significantly in new features for DoubleClick Ad Planner. ( Better site data in DoubleClick Ad Planner , Ad Planner updates provide more data, more ways ) To further our commitment to provide reliable data in DoubleClick Ad Planner, we have submitted it for accreditation by the Media Rating Council (MRC). The MRC is an advertising industry group that works to accredit audience measurement services that are valid, reliable, and effective. MRC accreditation is voluntary and some third-party measurement products have submitted for accreditation, as we have; some have not. Once complete, the MRC accreditation will provide independent confirmation that Ad Planner's methodologies, and the processes supporting this technology, adhere to industry standards. As part of the MRC audit, we're sharing more details about our data sources and methodology. For our traffic measurement, Ad Planner uses a hybrid measurement methodology that combines direct-measured site traffic, through Google Analytics data that publishers have chosen to opt in to provide us, and sample aggregated data from Google products and services. We currently have over 10,000 sites that are contributing direct measured opt-in data to Ad Planner. Our sample data comes from a variety of sources including anonymized, aggregated Google Toolbar data from users who have opted in to enhanced features , opt-in anonymous Google Analytics data, opt-in external consumer panel data, and other third-party market research. All of this data is aggregated over millions of users and is powered by computer algorithms. The breadth and reliability of this aggregated data means that our traffic measurements are among the most accurate in the industry. To learn more about Ad Planner's data, we invite you to read our recently updated methodology document . To start using Ad Planner, visit us at www.google.com/adplanner . Posted by Wayne Lin, Product Manager, DoubleClick Ad Planner
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DoubleClick Ad Planner's Audience Measurement Methodologies Submitted for MRC Audit
If you're a regular reader of the blog, in the last year you've seen Google's advertising tools move in some exciting directions. We've introduced more data-driven and efficient campaign management with the new AdWords interface , easier account optimization with the Opportunities tab , and new ad formats like Ad Sitelinks and Product Extensions , to name a few. But where is advertising with Google headed next? Which new tools, formats and features will make it possible for you to communicate with your customers in more meaningful, creative ways? We've started a new project, Google Ad Innovations , to answer that very question. Google Ad Innovations is a website where you can explore Google's latest advertising technologies, watch short video demos to learn more, and try out select new tools. The technologies we'll highlight on Google Ad Innovations are at various stages of development, from early tests to fully released features. Here are a few of the new releases you'll find on Ad Innovations right now: Remarketing -- a way to show your ads to users who have previously visited your website as they browse sites across the Google Content Network AdWords Search Funnels -- a set of reports that help you understand the Google.com search ad click and impression behavior leading up to a conversion Location Extensions with multiple addresses -- an ad format which displays a list of nearby store locations when your customers are performing local searches Click-to-Call Extensions -- an ad format that let mobile phone users call you directly from your ads Analytics Intelligence -- a Google Analytics feature that automatically identifies significant changes in your site traffic Although there's a lot to look at on Ad Innovations, we want it to be more than a show and tell site. Every Ad Innovations page will have a feedback link: if you see a feature that can be improved, or if you think we've hit on a valuable new idea, let us know! The comments and suggestions you leave while using Google Ad Innovations will go directly to the Google team working on the feature. So, if you want to stay on the cutting edge of advertising products, visit Google Ad Innovations — we’ll regularly add new tools and features to the site, and we can't wait to hear what you think! Posted by Devin Sandoz, Product Marketing Manager
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Google Ad Innovations: Where ads are going next
The mission of DoubleClick Ad Planner, Google's free research and media planning tool formerly named Google Ad Planner , is to provide the deepest, most accurate insight into online audiences possible. This insight helps display advertisers select the best sites for their media plans and drive results for their campaigns. One of the many data points that DoubleClick Ad Planner provides is site traffic data. In line with Ad Planner's mission, we've improved how we estimate and share this data in order to provide media planners, buyers and researchers with improved data quality and more data visualization options. This builds upon the traffic improvements we made in January of 2009 and is part of our continuous effort to provide trusted insights into online audiences. This release includes the following two significant improvements: Traffic estimates across a number of metrics are now more accurate (Unique user and reach estimates remain the same) Direct measured traffic is now included for publishers who opt-ed in their Google Analytics data Upgrading Site Traffic Estimates To improve the quality of our site traffic estimates, we have upgraded our traffic estimation model. Our model uses a hybrid methodology that combines sample user data, from various Google products and services, with direct measured site-centric data. The model's direct measured signal is pulled from Google Analytics customer accounts that have chosen to opt-in to sharing their data with Ad Planner. This hybrid approach allows us to use direct measured data to train our traffic estimation models and produce the best estimate for any given site. For more information about how we use opt-in Google Analytics data check out our past blog posts on how Google Analytics data is used in Ad Planner and on replacing traffic estimates with direct measured Google Analytics data . This latest upgrade improves the accuracy of our estimates by over 10%. We look at a large amount of data and metrics to evaluate our estimates and are continuously working on improving them. We believe our model to be among the more accurate sources of traffic estimation in the industry. Publishers who would like to complement their site listing with direct measured data are welcome to do so by opt-ing in their Google Analytics data in DoubleClick Ad Planner Publisher Center . We invite publishers who are new to Ad Planner to learn more about using Publisher Center to manage their site profile . Providing Direct Measured Site Traffic Data In May 2009, we announced Ad Planner Publisher Center, which made it possible for publishers to opt-in their Google Analytics data to Ad Planner. We've now upgraded site profiles in Ad Planner to display this data in the worldwide charts for Daily Unique Visitors on site profile pages. For publishers who opted-in, their direct measured data is displayed as a solid line in their chart. For example, Gamezhero, a website offering free online games, opted-in their Google Analytics data in June. Here's what their worldwide chart for Daily Unique Visitors looks like now: (click here to view image) In the coming months, we plan to bring direct measured site traffic data to country-level profile views in addition to the worldwide profile views that are currently supported. Understanding the Data in Ad Planner To offer additional transparency into how Ad Planner generates its data, we've published a new help document about our methodology . The document provides more details behind how Ad Planner generates site traffic data, in addition to other data, such as demographics, ad information, categories and descriptions. Getting Started Give DoubleClick Ad Planner a try at www.google.com/adplanner . We think you'll find it to be a powerful research and media planning tool that makes it easy to find audiences and create well-informed media plans. Posted by Wayne Lin, Product Manager, DoubleClick Ad Planner [note: this post has been reprinted from the DoubleClick Blog ]
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Better Site Traffic Data in DoubleClick Ad Planner
After a brief break, the Industry Spotlight series has returned, and we're pleased to feature new automotive research as its first topic of 2010. As the US Hispanic population continues to grow, it's important to understand how to reach Hispanic consumers online. From an industry perspective, we were curious to see how this consumer group used the online channel to shop for a new vehicle. To find out, we partnered with Compete, Inc. to develop the Hispanic Auto Buy Flow Study. Compete looked at vehicle registration data for new-vehicle purchases between 2008-2009 and matched this information to clickstream data, providing insight into engagement and internet visitation patterns prior to a vehicle purchase. Additionally, Compete surveyed panelists to understand the reasoning behind the Internet visitation patterns of Hispanic automotive consumers. Here's what we found: 1. Most visit auto sites: 92% of Hispanic new-vehicle buyers visited an automaker site or a 3rd Party site (such as Edmunds.com or Cars.com) prior to their vehicle purchase, compared to 84% of the general Internet population, representing a major opportunity for automakers, 3rd Party sites, and Dealers. (click to view image) 2. They're more engaged : A greater proportion of Hispanic purchasers used key purchase indicators such as Build Your Own, Offers, and Locate a Dealer, than the General Internet Population. Utilize keyword specific URLs in your search campaigns to guide these consumers directly where they're looking to go. 3. Paid Search is important: One-third of all Hispanic traffic to automaker sites and 3rd Party sites comes from Paid Search. (click to view image) 4. They're using Search for a variety of reasons: Hispanic auto consumers are heading to a search engine with a purpose. Create campaigns around each of the purposes outlined here: (click to view image) In addition to search insights, we learned how the Hispanic population is using sources such as online video. We found that two-thirds of online Hispanic auto shoppers are watching online videos. When it comes to automotive video content, they're looking to actually see the vehicles they're interested in and to get a feel for how the vehicle drives. This is a great opportunity for dealers to showcase the vehicles they have on their lots through a video vehicle walk-around. With this information on online visitation patters of Hispanic vehicle buyers, we hope you'll be able to reach these consumers with more targeted messages via your online campaigns. Posted by Lauren Dale, Automotive Marketing Manager
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Automotive Industry Spotlight - reaching Hispanic auto consumers
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
