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Earlier this year, we announced a number of AdWords enhancements to our app promotion offering as part of a broader effort to connect consumers to relevant content, both on websites and apps.  Starting today, advertisers will be able to access many of the offerings on the  AdMob network that we announced with more to come for search ads (beta info for app engagement) and YouTube in the coming months. We’ll share more details with you on this blog at that time.

Reach people most likely to install your app
A top priority for app developers is driving installs from people most likely to use their apps.  Starting today, you can use installed app category targeting on the AdMob network to find new  customers who have already installed apps  from related categories on Google Play or the  iTunes Store (e.g., Travel, Shopping or Games).  For example, an action-oriented game developer may wish to reach users who have previously installed apps from the category Action & Adventure Games.

Another way to promote your app is through videos. Starting today, advertisers can entice new users to their app using interstitial video ads on the AdMob network. By just entering in your video’s YouTube URL or Google Play Store listing, you can have a brand new video ad for your app!

Click here to get started with these new app promotion ads using our new, simplified campaign setup flow!

Help people rediscover and engage with your app  
According to a study by Compuware, 80%-90% of all downloaded apps are used only once.  Driving app users back to your app to play another game, book another vacation or watch another video are important actions in the app development lifecycle.  Starting today, you can deep link to specific parts of your app directly from your ads.  For example, a travel app developer may wish to  reach its existing users with relevant hotel deals. When the user clicks on the ad, they will be taken directly into the app to book the hotel deal. Similarly, if you have a shopping app, you could show an ad to existing customers encouraging them to check out an upcoming sale by taking them directly to the promotion page.  You can try out these app deep-linking features for the AdMob network by signing up for the beta here.  Learn more.

Simplify the way you measure and optimize
In AdWords, you are already seeing Android app installs show up as conversions.  Starting today,  you can use Conversion Optimizer as soon as you create your campaign to automatically find the optimal bid for your ad each time it’s eligible to appear without waiting for conversion history  to accumulate.  This lets you immediately maximize the total number of  installs at  your target CPA.  Learn more.

Over the coming weeks we’ll dive into these new features with tips and best practices on the Inside AdWords blog and on our Google+ page. We’re looking forward to your feedback and hearing how you are using these features to promote and drive engagement to your apps.

Posted by Sissie Hsiao, Director of Product Management, Mobile Display Ads

People are happier with their search results, including the ads, when those results are relevant.  Advertisers are more successful when they show relevant ads, as they’re more likely to see engagement.  It’s with this in mind that we factor the quality of your ads into our AdWords auction.

Ad Rank and ad quality are important because they can impact position, price and extensions.

Your Ad Rank is used in the auction to determine where your ads will show.  We have a new video that covers the AdWords auction and its many moving parts.  In it, you’ll learn:

• The key factors behind Ad Rank
• How Ad Rank is calculated
• Things to consider for maximizing Ad Rank.

The quality of your ads is an important factor of Ad Rank.  To help you better understand the usefulness of Quality Score and how it reflects (but isn’t a direct measure of) your ad quality, we’ve put together a resource, Settling the (Quality) Score.  In it, you’ll learn:

• How to use Quality Score as a diagnostic tool
• Tips for optimizing the components of Quality Score
• Key insights about what does and doesn’t matter in terms of the quality of your ads

Relevant and useful ads are good for you and your customers.  We hope the video and the guide are useful resources to help you better understand the ads auction.

For more information, please see the articles in our Help Center about Quality Score and Ad Rank.

Posted by Hal Varian, Chief Economist, Google

We introduced Shopping campaigns in February to make it easier for you to manage your Product Listing Ads (PLAs). In late August, Shopping campaigns will be the default campaign type for all PLA advertisers.

To help retailers make the most of their Shopping campaigns, we’re excited to introduce a new best practices guide, “Shape Up Your Shopping Campaigns.” It addresses important questions like:

• How should you structure your campaigns: by product line, performance, or both? 
• Which feed attributes have the best chance of improving CTR?
• Are you adjusting bids quickly enough during peak seasons?

Download the “Shape Up Your Shopping Campaigns” guide now to ensure you’re making the most of your PLAs and data feeds.

 For additional help, here are a few resources:

• Tutorial Videos to help you get started
• AdWords Help Center for more detailed information on Shopping campaigns
• Learn With Google Webinar (April 15) for upgrade tips
• Learn With Google Webinar (May 22) for more advanced upgrade best practices

Posted by Matt Lawson, Director, Performance Ads Marketing

Over the past year the Google Shopping team has made improvements to help merchants sell their products with new ad formats and a new campaign type. These improvements would not have been possible without great product data from merchants to help build better experiences for shoppers. Today, to provide merchants with more flexibility when organizing product data and reach more shoppers, we’re announcing an update to the Google Shopping Feed Specification:

• Mobile landing page links should be submitted separately to direct mobile shoppers to the right experience
• Merchant-defined custom bundles, such as a camera with additional case and lens, must now be identified as such in order to be displayed appropriately on Shopping
• Apparel attributes are added to allow more detailed descriptions of your apparel products
• Item availability now simplified to allow a clearer distinction between different availability states
• Mandatory character limits clearly stated for each attribute to help the right product information being displayed

Along with attribute updates, we are also revising image quality recommendations and creating a new landing page policy as part of the feed specification update.

Beginning September 30, we will start enforcing the updated feed specification globally, but merchants can submit the new attributes immediately. We encourage all merchants to review the new feed specification as some of the updates will require changes to your current product data. To find a list of all changes, view the updated feed specification in the Merchant Center Help Center.

Merchants should always make sure to comply with our Google Shopping policies and legal requirements while participating in Google Shopping to avoid any product or feed disapprovals. For more help with data requirements, please visit the Merchant Center Help Center.

Posted by Angelika Rohrer and Patrik Reali, Google Shopping Team

Everyone knows that search ads are for direct response, right?  But what if it turns out that search advertising also has a powerful effect on branding?

That's exactly what we learned from a new meta-study run by Google and Ipsos MediaCT in 2013. We partnered with Ipsos to run 61 studies across 12 verticals, from auto to retail. Here's what the study found: search ads lift top-of-mind awareness by an average 6.6 percentage points.

In each of the studies, 800 qualified consumers ran simulated searches for certain category keywords, like “hiking boots” or “small cars” on their desktop or laptop. They were then shown either a Control search engine results page (SERP) or a Test SERP created for the study, which put the test brand in the top search ad position.

Consumers were then asked to name which brand first came to mind for the category keyword. An average of 14.8% in the Test group named the test brand, while just 8.2% of the Control group named the same brand. That’s a 6.6 percentage point increase or an average 80% lift in top-of-mind awareness.
6.6 percentage points was the average lift, but some vertical-level results were impressively higher. In CPG, top-of-mind awareness was 11.1%, and search ads lifted top-of-mind awareness by an average of 8 percentage points to 19.1%. In auto, there was an average lift of 9 percentage points. Those are numbers any brand manager would be glad to see in the morning report.

What's behind these big increases? In part, simply this: search ads reach people who are already in a highly receptive mindset. After all, they are actively searching for topics related to your business, product or service.  If your brand appears front and center in that moment, as they search, there's a strong likelihood they'll remember you.

Or to say it more simply: search ads can help build brand awareness.

There's a lot more on this study - read it now on the Think with Google site.

There’s one thing that lies at the heart of every business: customers. Customers are the reason why businesses flourish, and their shared passion for your craft is what makes running a business so rewarding. For many business owners, customers are more than just patrons - they’re your regulars, your advocates and your friends. In other words, they’re your people.

The Internet is connecting more businesses with their people every day. However, our users tell us that finding these loyal customers can be complex and time-consuming. We believe it shouldn’t be. That’s why we are happy to introduce Google My Business - a free and easy way to find and connect with your people, wherever you are.


Google My Business brings together all the ways Google can help your business shine in one place:

• Update your business info on Search, Maps and Google+ from one place to make it easy for customers to get in touch
• Add beautiful photos of your business and a virtual tour of your business interior to help customers see what makes your business unique
• Connect directly with your fans and customers by sharing news, events and other important updates from your Google+ page
• Stay on top of reviews from across the web, and respond to Google reviews
• Understand how people find and interact with your business using custom insights and integration with AdWords Express
• Manage your information on-the-go with the Google My Business Android app and the iOS app (launching soon)

In addition to new businesses getting started with Google My Business, we’re also upgrading current users of Places for Business and the Google+ Dashboard to this new experience.
Businesses with a passion for everything from beautiful hand-made hats and fresh crab cakes, to the best local pale ale, are finding their people with Google.

To learn more about how you can find your people, visit google.com/mybusiness.

Posted by Dan Pritchett & Dennis Troper

A few years ago, we introduced the Google Content API for Shopping to help you manage and update your Google Merchant Center product information programmatically and at scale. Today, we’re excited to announce a new version of this API, giving you more insight into your data quality and new options to help you keep your data fresh.

With this new version, you can, for example:

• Get item-level data quality information and see if an item was disapproved because your landing page URL isn’t working on a mobile device or if your unique product identifiers are inaccurate.
• Update price and availability for one or more items much more quickly so your customers have the latest price-point and know what’s in-stock before they click through to your site.
• Integrate more easily with Google Shopping thanks to a broader choice of programming languages and data formats supported.

While the current API will continue to be available until the end of February 2015, we encourage you to adopt the latest version of this API and take advantage of these new features as early as possible.

To learn more, visit the Content API for Shopping hub. If you have any questions, check out our Content API for Shopping support forum.

Posted by Eric Tholomé, Director of Product Management, Google Shopping