Car insurance Channel

If you are looking for more site information to help plan your display advertising campaigns and understand audiences on the web, Google Ad Planner can help. Our goal is to provide you with the most accurate site information for better planning and decision-making, and we're excited to kick off the new year with an improved traffic estimation model as well as several other features.
Posted by Trevor Claiborne, Inside AdWords crew

Last week, we gave you a sneak preview of our seasonal display ad templates for Valentine's Day and President's Day. We're excited to let you know that these new templates are now available for you to use in your campaigns -- just visit the "Seasonal" section of the Display Ad Builder gallery in AdWords to get started.

We're always interested in your feedback and ideas for more template themes, so let us know if you're looking for something special. One of our advertisers, Jason Barnes of Superb Internet Corporation, helped us come up with the idea for easier, more timely display ad promotions. Jason and his team wanted a way to bring more relevancy to display ads, without the cost or lead time it would otherwise require, so he got in touch with us. Here's what Jason had to say:

Using Google's display ad builder is just a smoother process. Say we wanted to do a one-day holiday sale of 50% off, and the rest of the week, 30% off. That can be a hassle with standard image ad directories, but with the Display Ad Builder, we can easily swap in text if we have an image. It's a great time saver, and we'll definitely continue to use it that way.

You can adopt Jason's strategy of making quick text changes to your image ads in the Display Ad Builder, whether or not you decide to use one of our new seasonal templates.

If you're new to Display Ads, you can get started by clicking "Display Ad Builder" on the "Create an ad page" within a new or existing campaign. To learn more about creating and running display ads, visit our Display Ads 101 tutorial site.

Posted by Heather Lane, Inside AdWords crew

Last week we talked about how Website Optimizer can help you convert a higher percentage of your website visitors (getting you more conversions with the same amount of clicks). This week we'll see how you can get more conversions from your existing AdWords campaigns and keywords with the Conversion Optimizer. We're also happy to announce that the Conversion Optimizer is now available to all campaigns using AdWords' free Conversion Tracking tool that also have at least 30 conversions in the last 30 days. So, if you were previously unable to use the Conversion Optimizer in AdWords, you may now be eligible to use it.

Whether you want visitors to fill out a form, sign up for an account, or buy a product, you want the people who click on your AdWords ad to complete some action on your site. The Conversion Optimizer, a free AdWords feature, helps you get the most conversions for your ad spend by using your conversion tracking data to improve your advertising efficiency. It does this by optimizing the placement of your ads in each auction based on the likelihood of a conversion. This process helps to avoid unprofitable clicks and to get you conversions without requiring you to spend as much time managing your bids - thus saving you money and time (which is particularly useful during a down economy).

For example, say you advertise on the keywords 'shoes' and 'brown leather shoes'. If the Conversion Optimizer determines that people who search for 'brown leather shoes' buy more shoes on your website than people who search for 'shoes', it will adjust your bids so you can appear higher on the page for the more profitable term and lower for the less profitable term.

You might already adjust your keyword bids with the goal of increasing your conversions or decreasing your costs, but the Conversion Optimizer is able to adjust bids using additional factors that are otherwise unavailable. This includes varying bids by broad match query, user location, and the particular search or content partner sites where the ad is appearing. These extra adjustments enable many advertisers to achieve double-digit percentage increases in conversions while paying the same price or less for each conversion.

To learn more or to get started, check out the Conversion Optimizer page. And remember to visit www.google.com/domorewithless to find a list of other Google resources that can help you achieve your advertising goals -- even in a downturn.

Posted by Amanda Kelly, Inside AdWords crew

We'd like to share with you seven new help videos on popular AdWords topics. In each video you'll find the exact steps you can follow to use different features within your account. The videos cover the following topics:

• Entering billing information
• Adjusting your budget
• Using the Ad Preview tool
• Applying a Promotional Credit to an existing account
• Viewing Cost and Payment history
• Using the Ads Diagnostic tool
  

The seventh video, shown below, demonstrates how to use the Campaign Optimizer, a free AdWords tool designed to help you fine-tune your advertising campaigns. The Campaign Optimizer analyzes your budget, keywords, ad text, and landing page to create a customized proposal for your campaign. You can then review the proposed changes and accept the ones you want to apply to your campaign.



You can find all seven videos, and more, on the AdWords Help Center YouTube Channel.

Posted by Christian Yee, Inside AdWords crew

Posted by Cynthia Benin, Inside AdWords crew

As you're starting your advertising for a new year, we'd like to share some strategies that can help you refocus your campaigns for the current economy. Over the next couple of weeks, we'll show you some different AdWords tools and features that can help you make the most of your marketing dollars. You can also visit www.google.com/domorewithless to find a list of Google resources that can help you achieve your advertising goals -- even in a downturn. This week we'll focus on how you can get more conversions (sales, form fills, account sign-ups, etc.) from your website.

When the economy's down, it's more important than ever to make the most of your paid search traffic. One way to increase your sales without increasing your budget is to convert a higher percentage of visitors to your website. That way you can pay for the same number of clicks, but have a higher percentage of them turn into customers. So, how can you do this?

This is where Website Optimizer can help. Website Optimizer is a free tool from Google that allows you to compare multiple versions of a webpage and statistically determine which version performs the best. For example: you can create two different landing pages, one with four small pictures versus a page with one large picture, and scientifically determine which design has the highest conversion rate. Sometimes small changes, like changing the size of an image or the wording of a special promotion, can improve conversion rates by 10, 20, or even 50%. And, since Website Optimizer uses actual visitor data, it can take the guesswork out of site improvement and give you confidence that you're improving your conversion rate.

Website Optimizer is very easy to implement and only involves inserting a small bit of Javascript code into your webpage and variations. If you are not sure what to test, start with these guidelines:

1. Simplify your page: try creating a variation that has less text, fewer input boxes, or a shorter header.


2. Move your call-to-action to a more prominent location: try creating a variation where the button you want your visitors to click is in a different location (at the top of the screen? more centered?).


3. Change the color of your call-to-action button: try creating a variation where your Submit/Buy button is a higher contrast color (like a bright red or green).
   


4. Change your promotional text: try creating a variation that emphasizes a different promotion to see if it affects sales (10% off versus free shipping).


5. Change the number of options the visitors see: try creating a variation with fewer product categories or fewer links to see if visitors have an easier time navigating the page.

For more ideas on what to test, check out Website Workout videos and learn how four companies improved their conversion rates using Website Optimizer. Also, if you're a testing and optimization pro, you'll be happy to hear Website Optimizer allows you to perform both A/B tests and multivariate tests on your webpage for free.

Check out the Website Optimizer page to learn more about the tool and how you can set it up for your website. Next week we'll talk about how you can get more conversions from your current campaigns.

Posted by Amanda Kelly, Inside AdWords crew

Celebrate Valentine's Day and President's Day with ad templates dressed up specially for the occasions. In a few days, we'll offer seven new templates in the display ad builder -- each with elements and animations designed for the upcoming holidays. Seasonal templates are a fun, effective way to make your message more relevant to customers, no matter what you're advertising.

As a sneak preview, we've included some screenshots of a few upcoming templates. Keep in mind that customization options for each template will vary, so we encourage you to check out all the options once you're ready to create your ads.


The new holiday templates will be offered in all of the display ad builder's 13 languages. We'll update the blog once the holiday templates are available to you.

Posted by Heather Lane, Inside AdWords crew

Posted by Emel Mutlu, Inside AdWords crew

Many businesses invest a lot of time into perfecting their AdWords campaigns, but rarely give their landing pages the same level of attention. Well, we have four savvy companies who put their sites to the test and saw results.

Back in June, we announced the Google Website Workout contest, where we selected four businesses to work with our consultants and improve their conversion rates using Website Optimizer, Google's free testing and optimization tool for websites. We're now happy to announce the winners and share their experiences with you.

Visit the contest site to watch the videos and learn what problems plagued the winners, what they decided to test, and what the results were. For example, check out how one of our winners, Extra Space Storage, increased conversions by nearly 10% by making a few simple tweaks.



Be sure to check out the other videos as well. You'll can find out how Colonial Candle improved sales, Outrigger Hotels & Resorts increased reservations, and Team In Training gained valuable insights into their visitors' preferences. Hopefully you'll even learn a few pointers that you can apply to your own website.

Posted by Amanda Kelly, Inside AdWords crew

Since 2006, AdWords local business ads have been connecting your business with local customers. Today, we're excited to announce some upcoming new features for local business ads, making it faster and easier for potential customers to find your business.

Before we give you the details, we want to point out that while local business ads can appear in several countries and on a number of web properties, the changes described here will only affect local business ads that appear on Google Maps.

Info Window Features

Beginning today, your ad’s information window in Google Maps will feature new interactive links that are designed to connect users to your business quickly. The info window is the window that opens when a user clicks on an organic search listing or a sponsored result on Google Maps.


Previously, a click on your ad's info window could only take the user to your website. Now, users will be able to interact with the info window to get the information they’re looking for about your business, right away. The new links include "Get Directions," "Street View" (where available), and "Save to My Maps." Shortly after we implement these links, we’ll also add a "Send" link, allowing the user to send your business info to their email. Users will still be able to click through to your site if they wish -- the info window simply offers additional free functionality.

Reporting Capabilities

We've also heard your requests for a local business ad report so, starting in a few weeks, a new interaction report for local business ads will be available through your account’s Report Center. The report will help you accurately assess your return on investment with local business ads by detailing how many users opened your info window and clicked on each of the new interactive links.

Often, Maps users are looking for different information than Search users. The new interactive links and the interaction reports should not only help customers connect with you faster but should also help you understand how to better target Maps users versus Search users. We’ll post again on this blog when the new changes to the reporting capabilities take effect.

With these changes, we're excited about providing users with more information about your business and providing you, our advertisers, with more features for your ads. If you're not already advertising with local business ads, this might be a good time to experiment. If you're interested in learning more about this format, check out the AdWords Help Center's section on local business ads.

Posted by Amanda Kelly, Inside AdWords crew

Seminars for Success, our in-person trainings for AdWords, Analytics, and Website Optimizer, are continuing in 2009 with a few enhancements.

First, each AdWords seminar will now devote a portion of time to address online advertising in a down economy. We hope this new section will be especially relevant and helpful to your current business. Second, we've created a two-day format for the Advanced seminar so we can cover more topics and provide more time for questions and examples. Our new, advanced seminars are AdWords 301: Advanced Account Optimization and AdWords 302: Advanced Conversion Optimization. Check out the course descriptions for more information on both seminars.

In the coming months we'll be offering Seminars for Success in the following cities:

AdWords
January 19-20: San Francisco Bay Area, CA - AdWords 101: Beginner and AdWords 201: Intermediate
January 22-23: Phoenix, AZ - AdWords 301: Advanced Account Optimization and AdWords 302: Advanced Conversion Optimization
January 28-29: Austin, TX - AdWords 301: Advanced Account Optimization and AdWords 302: Advanced Conversion Optimization
February 11-12: Vancouver, BC - AdWords 301: Advanced Account Optimization and AdWords 302: Advanced Conversion Optimization
February 12-13: Fort Lauderdale, FL - AdWords 101: Beginner and AdWords 201: Intermediate
February 19-20: San Diego, CA - AdWords 301: Advanced Account Optimization and AdWords 302: Advanced Conversion Optimization

Analytics
January 21-22: Las Vegas, NV - Analytics: Introduction and Analytics: Advanced
February 12-13: San Jose, CA - Analytics: Introduction and Analytics: Advanced
February 17-18: Atlanta, GA - Analytics: Introduction and Analytics: Advanced

Website Optimizer
January 23: Las Vegas, NV - Website Optimizer Seminar
February 11: San Jose, CA - Website Optimizer Seminar

If you sign up for seminars at least seven days in advance we'll even throw in a $50 AdWords credit (view the terms and conditions of advertising credits).

For more information about Seminars for Success, including registration details, course outlines, and past attendees' comments, please visit http://www.google.com/awseminars.

Posted by Amanda Kelly, Inside AdWords crew

Welcome back! We hope you enjoyed the holidays. To start 2009 off right, we'd like to offer you two webinars: Shaping the Heart of Your Marketing Strategy: Valentine's Day 2009 from the AdWords Retail team and Travel Shopping in Today's Economy from the AdWords Travel team. You can read more about each webinar and sign up below.