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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

Research into consumer shopping habits has shown that consumers are shopping locally and are researching purchases online before heading to the store. A popular industry study reports that 80% of consumer spending occurs within 50 miles of home. A joint Nielsen and Webvisible study shows that 50% of consumers head to search engines first when researching local businesses 1 . Another study, carried out by TMP Directional Marketing and comScore, finds that nearly 4 in 10 consumers visit a store in person after researching it online 2 . Based on this data, it's easy to think that local advertising is just for local businesses. Local ads can also serve, though, as a powerful vehicle for national businesses to establish a local presence and to reach consumers where they're shopping. For clients who are interested in tapping into the local opportunity, we offer a feature in AdWords called location extensions . Location extensions work by allowing you to dynamically return relevant business addresses with your clients' text ads based on a user's location and search terms. There are a number of benefits to location extensions. With location extensions, you can offer more information about your business to customers who are close enough to visit your business, or who are already searching or browsing for information related to your business. Location extensions attract user attention by displaying an address as another line of text on Google.com and with a custom icon on Google Maps. Perhaps the most important benefit of location extensions for larger accounts and agencies is the ability to create and edit ads at scale. For each text ad you create, AdWords can automatically generate muliple ad variations by dynamically matching your ad with relevant business addresses you've uploaded to the Local Business Center. When you edit an ad, your addresses will be displayed with the new ad text immediately. There are three steps for getting started with location extensions and they all take place on the Settings tab in your account. 1. Use local targeting to select the locations you'd like to target 2. Select the option to "show relevant addresses with my ads" to enable location extensions 3. Sync your Local Business Center account with your AdWords account: If you update or add an address in your Local Business Center account, it will automatically update in AdWords If you don't have a Local Business Center account, you can sign up here . You can also manually enter addresses into AdWords, but with this option, there is a nine address limit per campaign. ( click to view image ) While the Local Business Center was designed for primary business owners, non-business owners, such as agencies, can still sync AdWords with Local Business Center as long as they are a representative for a given business. (Note: The Local Business Center is still not intended for aggregator use). If you are representing a business with more than ten locations, you can submit a bulk upload to the Local Business Center. While bulk uploaded data is not verified and may not show up on Google Maps, the addresses can be used for location extensions. Bulk uploading will not require verification by a phone call or postcard with a PIN. [1] 'Great Divide' separates small biz, online consumers, www.marketingcharts.com [2] Wave 3: Local Search Usage Study, TMP Directional Marketing and comScore, 10.8.2009 Posted by Alexandra Kenin, Product Marketing Manager

Continued here:
Location Extensions - Understanding the Local Opportunity

Last week Susan Wojcicki, VP, Product Management, shared an update on some of the new search ad formats we've been testing. Knowing that you're knee deep in holiday campaigns and 2010 planning, we wanted to share an overview of these formats with you so that you may consider them for your strategies. As you'll see, each of the new formats aims to provide additional information, delivered in the most useful format (whether it be images, videos, or maps) to help users make better informed decisions.

Ad Sitelinks: In early November we launched Ad Sitelinks, a new AdWords feature that allows you to extend the value of your existing AdWords ads by providing additional links to content deep within your sites.

Product Extensions: Similar to Ad Sitelinks, product extensions enrich existing AdWords ads with additional relevant information - in this case, information on products included in an advertiser's Google Merchant Center account.

Location Extensions: For advertisers with a brick-and-mortar presence, Location Extensions enable them to dynamically attach business addresses to ads.

Comparison Ads: Comparison Ads, which are currently being tested by a limited number of advertisers in the mortgage/refinance space, will enable users to specify what they're looking for and compare prices in a single space.

For more information on the new search ad formats, visit the Official Google Blog or the Inside AdWords Blog.

Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team