Car insurance Channel

Welcome to the AdWords livestream 2015! Today, Jerry Dischler, VP of Product Management, will announce the next generation of AdWords innovations. Tune in to the livestream below. We look forward to engaging in the conversation with you at #StepInsideAdWords.

Since 2008 we’ve been working to make sure all of our services use strong HTTPS encryption by default. That means people using products like Search, Gmail, YouTube, and Drive will automatically have an encrypted connection to Google. In addition to providing a secure connection on our own products, we’ve been big proponents of the idea of “HTTPS Everywhere,” encouraging webmasters to prevent and fix security breaches on their sites, and using HTTPS as a signal in our search ranking algorithm.

This year, we’re working to bring this “HTTPS Everywhere” mission to our ads products as well, to support all of our advertiser and publisher partners. Here are some of the specific initiatives we’re working on:

Of course we’re not alone in this goal. By encrypting ads, the advertising industry can help make the internet a little safer for all users. Recently, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) published a call to action to adopt HTTPS ads, and many industry players are also working to meet HTTPS requirements. We’re big supporters of these industry-wide efforts to make HTTPS everywhere a reality.

Our HTTPS Everywhere ads initiatives will join some of our other efforts to provide a great ads experience online for our users, like “Why this Ad?”, “Mute This Ad” and TrueView skippable ads. With these security changes to our ads systems, we’re one step closer to ensuring users everywhere are safe and secure every time they choose to watch a video, map out a trip in a new city, or open their favorite app.

Constant connectivity has forever changed the way people live and shop, giving rise to new consumer paths and blurring the lines between digital and physical experiences. With a quick search on any device, we can locate nearby businesses or find product availability in a local store in just a matter of seconds. In fact, 88% of US shoppers research online - on phones, tablets and computers - before making an offline purchase.¹

As consumers’ paths to purchase continue to get more complex, it is more important than ever to understand how various devices, channels and media influence decisions along the way. Only then can marketers give credit where it’s due – both between and within channels.

We’re working hard to measure these new paths to purchase in AdWords. Last year, we announced store visits as part of Estimated Total Conversions to help marketers measure these new conversion paths -- an important step in bridging the digital and physical worlds. Since then, businesses across many industries have been able to measure the full value of their AdWords marketing. When businesses include store visits data as part of their overall conversions, they see that their marketing is driving more impact.

For example, in the US, retailers are measuring, on average, 4x more conversions overall and 10x more conversions on mobile when including store visits data as part of their search ads performance.
In the US Auto and Travel verticals, where driving a consumer to a dealer lot or hotel is a high value event, advertisers are measuring 2x more conversions when including store visits data. This means an auto dealer can attribute twice as much impact for every click on their AdWords search ads because they are now able to include visits to their showrooms.

As marketers across many industries recognize that digital media drives people to stores and begin to use these insights, we wanted to share more perspectives from advertisers already using the data, information about how the product works and best practices for ad creative, targeting and attribution.

Customer Stories
With AdWords store visits data, Sephora is able to measure how digital advertising acts as a magnet to draw customers into its 803 US stores. Sephora learned that it receives an 18% higher store visits rate from mobile clicks compared to desktop. Based on that data, Sephora optimized its mobile bidding strategy to achieve a 25% higher return on ad spend than when measuring the impact of paid search on ecommerce sales alone. With insights from store visits, Sephora continues to use Local Inventory Ads to let customers looking for lipstick, eyeliner, or perfume know when those products are available at a nearby store.

Buffalo Wild Wings, a national restaurant and sports bar franchise with over 1,000 locations, used insights from store visits data to validate and adjust its bidding strategy and realized an 84% lift in conversions. Buffalo Wild Wings is also optimizing bids for local keywords and improving the online to offline guest experience. For example, its mobile search ads feature location extensions that show phone numbers and directions to nearby restaurants and to people searching for wings, beer and live sports.
As a reminder, store visits are estimates based on aggregated, anonymized data from a sample set of users that have turned on Location History. This data is then extrapolated to represent the broader population and only reported if it reaches a strict, highly conservative confidence level. To learn more about how the product works, visit our Help Center or watch this helpful video.
Best Practices Guide

Finally, to help advertisers succeed with their online to store campaigns in AdWords, we’ve created a new Best Practices Guide.

This guide will show you how to:

• Enhance your online ads to help potential customers looking to visit one of your business locations
• Improve the chances that the right person will see your ads through smarter targeting and bidding
• Measure the incremental offline value of your online efforts
• Fine-tune your campaigns for maximum return for your business, factoring both online and offline conversions

Throughout the year, we’ll continue to share best practices and stories from customers already using these insights to improve their businesses.  And we’ll be launching store visits conversions in 10 additional countries, starting today, in Australia and Canada.

We look forward to working with you to build better online to offline experiences for your customers.

Posted by Surojit Chatterjee, Director of Product Management, Mobile Search Ads

Our phones are filled with apps that have fast become lifestyle companions. We have apps for playing games, watching TV, working out, tracking our finances and more. Since the average smartphone user already has 36 apps on his or her phone, it’s more important than ever for developers to find effective ways to reach and keep users. That’s why Google is continuing to enhance our app promotion and re-engagement offerings to help developers reach the right users at the right time.

Starting today, we’re expanding where you can promote your Android apps on the Google Display Network. You can now reach people not only when they’re using other apps, but also when they’re engaging with the 2M publisher websites across the Google Display Network (GDN). With the simple click of a button, we'll automatically extend your app install ads from the AdMob in-app network (which reaches 650K active apps) to the mobile GDN network. For early testers, this increased install volume by 28% on average while keeping cost-per-installs steady.¹

Extend your app install ads to the mobile GDN

We’re also continuing to improve our in-app ad formats across Android and iOS to provide users with richer, more engaging content. You can now reach them with Video App Promo Ads - immersive, interstitial video ads that highlight how users will interact with your app.

Video App Promo Ad

GREE International, the global maker of popular free-to-play mobile games like Knights & Dragons and War of Nations, has utilized a variety of new app promotion features to grow performance.

Kenneth Mei, Associate Marketing Manager for user acquisition, says, “We chose Google because of the scale of their app network. By auto-extending our targeting to include the mobile Google Display Network, we increased app installs on our test campaign by 81%. From testing new ad formats, we also found that in-app video has a 10% higher install rate and 40% lower cost-per-install compared to our internal benchmark data on other ad formats. We’re excited to continue working with Google as we explore new targeting and ad formats for app promotion.”

While installs are the first step to securing engagement with your app, we recognize that not all installs are created equal. To help you reach these high-value users for Android, we are introducing Conversion Optimizer for in-app buyers. By using paid app install and in-app purchase insights from the Google Play app store, this new feature helps optimize bids for in-app buyers to maximize value from your installs.

How this differs from other bidding strategies for apps:
Fiksu, a leading mobile marketing and technology company, has generated greater value from gaming app installs by using this new bidding strategy.

"By leveraging Google's Conversion Optimizer for in-app buyers, we were able to triple one client's install-to-purchase conversion rate after users download the app and decrease cost per purchaser by 61%,” says Ken Kehoe, Performance Labs Analyst at Fiksu. “The ROI using this strategy has been incredible, maximizing the lifetime value of users, and it's something we're excited to extend to more of our clients."

The extension of app install campaigns to the mobile GDN, new engaging ad formats, and automated bidding for in-app buyers are just a few new features to help you promote your apps. To learn more about Google’s app promotion products, visit our Help Center and read our best practices for driving app installs.

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¹IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Retail 2015 Predictions. November 2014

When it comes to brick and mortar stores, misinformation runs rampant.

For instance, search results only send consumers to e-commerce sites, retailers lose the shopper who checks a phone in store, and buyers only visit stores to transact or showroom. Those are three common myths debunked in Digital’s Impact on In-Store Shopping¹, new research conducted by Ipsos MediaCT and Sterling Brands for Google, based upon purchasing behaviors of more than 6,000 smartphone shoppers.

Although 95% of all retail transactions still occur in-store², smartphones have quickly become consumer’s favorite and most trusted “shopping assistant.” These handy devices reduce buyers’ remorse, raise consumer expectations for getting more accurate and faster information from store associates, and present new challenges for hungry retailers.

For instance:

• 68% of shoppers surveyed said they were happier with store purchases when they did research online before buying, according to those surveyed
• 71% expect clerks to know or find product information more quickly now, due to smartphones
• 46% of smartphone shoppers browse the retailer’s own site or app in-store

But when paired with a consistent shopping experience — specifically mobile optimized, locally relevant, and personalized search results — these same “shopping assistants” can become as powerful to sellers as they are to buyers, the research found.

In fact, they’ve helped double the value of in store visit,³ increase customer satisfaction (69% of consumers are more satisfied with purchases when they get to touch or feel a product in-store), and they’ve given retailers more opportunities to build brand loyalty (51% said they used digital devices to look for additional information after buying).

For instance, Sears Hometown & Outlet Stores saw a 16% higher clickthrough rate and 122% increase in visits to its stores after adopting Local Inventory Ads, which lets retailers display nearby store inventory to online shoppers.⁴ “Local inventory ads fit perfectly into our strategy of using digital tools to drive store traffic,” says David Buckley, chief marketing officer at Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores. “If people are searching for a product on their phones, there is nothing more targeted than serving that item with a picture, description, and price while letting the customers know exactly how far they are located from the product.”

The technology also helps Sears extend the reach of its advertising budget, driving $8 of in store sales for each dollar invested online.⁵ “When we compared our most recent performance of local inventory ads to offline media typically used to drive store sales, such as a recent broadcast television campaign,” Buckley explains, “local inventory ads returned in-store sales at more than 5X the rate of tv advertising for each dollar spent.⁶”
Similarly, Staples saw their store visit and ad click thru rates increase by 33% and 29% respectively, after indicating nearby stock in their search listings.

“Local Inventory Ads are another way Staples helps customers shop whenever and however they want through our omnichannel,” said Ellen Comley, vice president, integrated media, Staples, Inc. “We know that more and more customers are doing research online before buying, and local inventory ads make it easier for us to reach small businesses and ensure we’re providing the most relevant offers.”

Of course, those are just a few examples. In addition to identifying other ways smartphones are changing modern shopping, Digital’s Impact on In-Store Shopping outlines several steps retailers can take to optimize their online presence for smartphones:

5 things brick and mortar stores should do now

1. Use Local Inventory Ads to promote nearby stock to interested buyers, including availability of complementary and recommended products
2. Be sure to list store locations, hours, and phone numbers in online search ads
3. Optimize online presence for mobile viewing and buying, including search results, website, app, and mobile ads to engage consumers while in store
4. Localize and integrate custom offers and product recommendations to smartphone shoppers that disclose their location
5. Take an omni-channel approach to marketing and measurement by combining your online and physical efforts into one (see also: Macy’s Inc)

There’s no denying that smartphone shoppers are looking at competing offers while in store, the research concludes. But a greater percentage of shoppers look to search engine results and a retailer’s own sites and apps first. To take advantage, retailers must acknowledge, react to, and consolidate their multi-channel approach into a “mobile first” omni-channel one.

Learn more about how top retailers are using digital to connect people with their stores here.

Posted by Emily Eberhard Pereira, Head of Shopping Solutions Marketing

Whether it’s buying the right car insurance or finding the best credit card, people want an easy way to understand and compare financial products online. In fact, when it comes to buying car insurance, 80% of drivers think they’d find a better policy if they could compare more than two providers.* That’s why today we’re introducing Google Compare for car insurance in California, with more states to follow. This represents the newest addition to a suite of Google Compare products designed to help people make confident, more informed financial decisions.
Google Compare for car insurance provides a seamless, intuitive experience for connecting with your customers online. Whether you’re a national insurance provider or one local to California, people searching for car insurance on their phone or computer can find you along with an apples-to-apples comparison of other providers -- all in as little as 5 minutes. You can highlight what makes your business unique, whether that’s an “A” rating in customer service or better discounts for safe drivers. And when users adjust their deductible or add additional cars to their quote, you can show updated pricing that matches their needs. They can then buy their policy online or over the phone through one of your agents.

Here’s what some of our partners are saying:

“We’re always looking for opportunities to use new technology to enhance the customer experience. Partnering with Google Compare allows us to bring our unique group pricing and benefits to a wider range of customers, while creating an easier shopping experience.” - Kishore Ponnavolu, Executive Vice President at MetLife Auto & Home ®


“The lifeblood of Mercury’s business has and always will be our partnership with independent agents. We also know many shoppers want to buy anytime, anywhere, and Google Compare gives them a fast, easy way to do so. Partnering with Google Compare provides us with a tremendous opportunity to connect with a segment of the market that would have been out of reach.” - Erik Thompson, Advertising Director at Mercury


As Google Compare for car insurance rolls out to more states, we’ll also be introducing ratings and reviews, as well as local agent support for providers with agent networks. Participation in Google Compare is based on a flexible cost-per-acquisition (CPA) model, but payment isn’t a factor in ranking or eligibility.

You can learn more about joining Google Compare here.

Posted by Jerry Dischler, Vice President of Product Management, AdWords