We're pleased to announce that AdWords Campaign Experiments (ACE) has begun rolling out globally. Whether you're looking to assess the impact of new keywords, different bids, or a new landing page, ACE lets you run split test experiments that deliver valid impact measurements regardless of changes in demand, competitor movements, or other sales and marketing activity that can complicate traditional before-and-after measurement approaches. In addition, ACE is now supported in the AdWords API so developers can begin integrating this valuable feature into their AdWords applications. Visit the AdWords API blog for a quick snapshot of what’s available and stay tuned for a deeper dive on ACE for developers coming soon. For additional information on ACE, check out the complete post on the Inside AdWords Blog and visit the Help Center FAQ . Not seeing it yet in your Campaign tab under settings? Hold tight - users outside the US should see it in a week or so. Posted by Mark Martel, Product Marketing Manager
View post:
AdWords Campaign Experiments - global roll-out and API support
(cross-posted from the DoubleClick Advertiser Blog ) We published the DoubleClick Benchmarks Report in 2009 to give advertisers and agencies a resource to measure their display campaigns’ performance against industry norms. As a result of feedback and interest from our clients and others in the industry, we’re pleased to offer this year’s edition with a couple of updates: Data on impressions served through DoubleClick for Advertisers (DFA) by creative type. Simple flash is the dominant ad format accounting for close to 70% in the U.S. and 85% in the EMEA region. Static image ads was the next most common format representing 20% of the volume through DFA in the U.S. and 10% in the EMEA region. The availability of a benchmarks report with detailed EMEA region metrics. Last year we included worldwide overall click-through rates and rich media metrics in the report. Now we are pleased to introduce a separate EMEA Benchmarks Report which covers in-depth display benchmarks across a subset of countries in the EMEA region. Comparison between overall 2008 and 2009 benchmarks. You will also find in this latest report, a month-by-month comparison of benchmark data for click-through rates, interaction rates, expansion rates and interaction time for the years 2008 and 2009. When reviewing the data we noticed some interesting trends: In 2009, the overall click-through rate for the U.S. did not change from 2008 (0.10%) and what’s more is in a month by month comparison of click-through rates (CTRs) from 2008 to 2009 we saw that CTRs were very consistent throughout the year with a minor spike in January -- possibly a result of the post-holiday sale season. When it comes to CTR, interaction rate, average interaction time and average display time, we did not observe a great difference between U.S. (see page 2) and EMEA (see page 2) benchmarks. Consistent with last year’s report, we continued to find a correlation between ad size and clicks and interaction rates -- that is, the larger the ad size, the higher the rate. This finding holds true for both U.S. and the EMEA region. As with last year’s report, the data for these benchmarks are derived from a robust data set across DoubleClick for Advertisers , based on rigorous methodology with input from the Advertising Research Foundation . The report covers benchmarks for the entirety of 2009 by ad format, ad size and industry vertical. The benchmarks are normalized across hundreds of advertisers, thousands of campaigns, and tens of billions of ad impressions. For greater detail on the benchmark data, download the U.S. report here and the EMEA region report here . Posted by Pamela Eng, Product Marketing Manager
Read this article:
DoubleClick Benchmarks Report 2009 Year-in-Review
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
View post:
Sharing is caring: new ways to segment, schedule, and email reports
Yesterday, we announced a new tool called AdWords Campaign Experiments, or ACE, that will help you optimize your account by letting you accurately test and measure changes to your keywords, bids, ad groups and placements. We're testing this new tool and inviting U.S. advertisers to participate in the beta. For more information and to sign up for the ACE beta, please visit the AdWords Campaign Experiments page on Google Ad Innovations . Posted by Courtney Lischke, Product Marketing Manager
Excerpt from:
AdWords Campaign Experiments Beta: Split testing tool for your campaigns
Here on the Google Agency Team, we commonly get requests to share case studies, both as a way for you, our agency partners, to feel confident in the effectiveness of a product or strategy, but also for you to learn best practices and be inspired by best in class examples. To provide you with more case studies more often, we're pleased to bring you a new blog series, "Coffee break with clients." Each post will highlight a brief chat we've had with a client on how he or she has used a Google solution to solve a marketing challenge or meet an advertising goal, focusing on specific steps that you can replicate for your own clients. For our first post, Google Account Manager Kali Steinman had the opportunity to sit down with Quinn Veysey, Direct Sales Manager of Vineyard Vines , a clothing company known for its fun, comfortable attire. Vineyard Vines worked with Google to execute an experiment to determine the value of branded keywords to its paid search efforts. The company asked itself "are we bidding against ourselves and incurring costs that could be better spent growing the brand?" Here's what Quinn shared: Q: What were the goals of your experiment? A: Our goal was to get quantitative data showing whether there was value to bidding on our branded keywords. On one hand, we felt that by bidding on our brand terms, we were paying for keywords that may have been at the top of the organic search result. On the flip side, if we were missing out on conversions/sales, it may be valuable to pay for those terms. Basically, we wanted to take the visceral piece out of the conversation and replace it with facts. Q: How did you set up and execute the experiment? A: We worked closely with Google to conduct the experiment in a statistically meaningful manner, from concept, execution, and analysis. We set up an A/B test in Google AdWords by creating two campaigns, each targeting half of our focus demographic marketing areas (DMAs), distributed so each campaign targeted a similar audience size. The first campaign included brand terms while the second campaign did not. The test ran for 30 days. Q: How did the Google solution perform? A: The results were impressive. We realized that by paying for our brand terms, there was only a 33% cannibalization rate - in other words, by not running on branded keywords in paid search, we only made up one third of the clicks with organic traffic, losing out on thousands of incremental visitors to our site. We also found that the conversion rate on branded keywords was 5.12% Q: What actions, if any, did you take as a result of this campaign? A: We immediately tripled our ad spend with Google and are still making impressive double digit ROAS. Q: If you did not use this Google solution, how would things have been different? A: We would have continued spending precious time debating personal theories on the value of branded keywords to paid search that had no data behind them. We are now taking search much more seriously and are incorporating it as a significant factor in our growth strategy. For more information on geographic targeting options, visit the AdWords Help Center . Posted by Agency Ad Solutions Blog Team
More:
Coffee break with clients: the value of branded keywords with Vineyard Vines