Unlike Analytics, Google AdWords has previously only ever allowed advertisers to select a set group of possible dates (this month, last month, last 7 days etc) with only one customisable option. Today, we noticed that Google has finally added a “Compare Dates” feature to the date range options in AdWords. Now allowing advertisers to choose/compare two custom date ranges and data is also displayed in your AdWords performance graphs. Now you can see at a glance the stats between two date ranges, instead of switching back and forth or exporting and arranging the data. Custom date ranges seem to remain saved when switching between accounts in your MCC.

Well done Google AdWords, we take our hats off to you on this one. Been waiting ages for it.

The post Compare Dates Comes to Google AdWords appeared first on Trafficbrand.

“Google Tag Manager took one big chunk of time out of the tagging process. What took 2 weeks now takes less than a day—sometimes just hours. We, the campaign managers, now make the call on which tags to use, and we can implement the tags ourselves.”

“Google Tag Manager just makes business sense. Why would we want to manually add hundreds of tags for our pages?” 

– source

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Google recently announced that TrueView ads are now available on mobile devices, but why is this significant? Lets take a quick look at some mobile YouTube stats from last year: more than 20% of global YouTube views came from mobile devices, YouTube is available on over 350 million mobile devices and roughly 3 hours of video was uploaded to YouTube per minute from a mobile device. The basic notion is that mobile traffic on YouTube was never monetised before and now allows advertisers to further expand campaigns across multiple screens; increasing reach, recall and conversions. AdWords for Video means that advertising campaigns across Google networks can all be managed in one interface, bringing YouTube and Google AdWords advertising together.

Study: How do people respond to TrueView Ads?

Some of you may know that there are four types of TrueView ads, but if I mention the pre roll ad that plays before your video, you probably know exactly what I am referring to and I’d probably be correct in assuming you hate those ads, yes? Interestingly, a study done by Google in the US with a sample size of 1600+ people shows different:

• Only 10% of people will always skip these ads.
• 8/10 viewers prefer TrueView ads to standard in-stream YouTube ads.
• 8/10 thought the “Skip” button was clear, which means people don’t have to think too hard, they know they can skip.
• 9/10 viewers thought TrueView ads create a better video viewing environment.
• Curiosity is the main reason users choose to watch an ad, therefore sparking interest in the first 5 seconds (before they skip) is key to driving viewership.
• Viewers are likely to skip ads they have seen before, which is good for not wasting ad budget.

Find the above study, here.

The post YouTube TrueView Ads [Study] appeared first on Trafficbrand.

The first big change is that most of these video ads will no longer be charged for per click, but per view. A view counts as either a full watch of the video, or, in the case that it is longer than thirty seconds, a view of the first thirty seconds of the video. This will clearly make the video ad formats more lucrative for advertisers, as they will only be charged for potentially interested viewers. Users who skip their ads won’t leave a dent in the advertisers’ marketing budgets. Video ads will now also receive a sort of “quality score” similar to search ads that can, for instance, determine their position on the YouTube search results page along with the bid. This also adds a dimension of ‘engagement’ to the video ad model. Google thinks advertisers will aim for shorter, high quality clips more than ever to assure good scores, which would also be a definite win for the users.

The second big change is that you can manage all this from within AdWords now. You will also get additional metrics (such as view rate, thumb impressions and video impressions) and will be able to search for your YouTube videos from the AdWords interface to easily upload them. First and foremost, however, you will have access to AdWords’ highly sophisticated targeting methods. You can now target users by audiences consisting of interest categories, topics, content keywords or YouTube search keywords, for instance. This should make video advertising much more efficient.

The four ad formats promoted as “TrueView” video ads are as follows:

• In-search (previously known as promoted videos, showing on the YouTube SERP and targeting YouTube search keywords)
• In-stream (videos that show within a video – mostly up front, but can also be shown in the middle or at the end – and that can be skipped after five seconds)
• In-slate (this is a new format where users will be shown a selection of three videos, and can choose the one they want to watch before proceeding to the actual video they came for – this will be more “opt-in” than in-stream ads, as the user is given a choice, however note that with this format the advertiser will already be charged for the click of the video)
• In-display (these ads can show on YouTube or the GDN – for instance as a promotion on the right hand side of a YouTube video that is currently being watched)

Thinking about getting your advertising YouTube-ready? Remember that rich-media ads are becoming more important and effective than static banners in many cases and that YouTube is in fact the second largest search engine in the world. Two good reasons to give these new formats a try! Visit http://www.youtube.com/advertise/trueview.html for more!

The post TrueView Video Ads Bring AdWords and YouTube Together appeared first on Trafficbrand.

With online marketing campaigns, such as Google AdWords campaigns, we can track just about everything to do with each “click” and each “keyword” therefore being able to make daily, weekly and monthly changes that ensure that your budget is being spent in the places that actually deliver direct results.

If you you are selling a service and the actual transaction takes place via a differnet channel (i.e.therefore not trackable online) you would be wise to make sure that you develop a system that can also match the online leads/enquiries to actual sales.  Most online specialists will have some experience in this process and if asked should be able to offer valuable insight into how to set-up this process.

No more needs to be said about the value of tracking the advertising cost for each sale! A marketers dream!

This article by Paul Vecchiatto on ITWeb offers insight into the e-marketing boom despite the economic downturn:

http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/internet/2009/0903101038.asp?S=e-Business&A=EBU&O=FRGN

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